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[Gaterhyme]

"But... how?"

As the moment of absolute shock passed, at least for her, Lijsbeth found her lance in her hand, at the ready despite the silence around them. Thoughts of what this meant for the others in the manor, for Gunther and the Gallian border came unbidden too but ensuring Cecilia's immediate safety pushed past everything else.

"I don't know what this means, but it stinks of treachery. Levi, you-" She faltered for an instant as her gaze returned from scanning the surroundings to the hanged princess. "Cut her down."

[GiglameshDespair]

"What the-"

His eye wide, Levi watched until Lijsbeth's calling his name snapped him out of it. Awkwardly perched on the mount, he called up his magic.

"R-right."

With a blade of sharp wind, the rope was cut and the corpse slumped down into Cecilia's arms.

"How? And why? And-"

"No. We can find that out later."

"We- we should leave. Now."

[Haspen]

When the body slumped to the ground, Cecilia only hugged it tighter, still wailing.

Her cries was about the only source of sounds nearby.

[Wolfhunter107]

"-What... I don't..."

For a moment Stefan stood in utter silence, jaw hanging open.
"-Damnnit!"

Lance in hand, the young rider spurred his mount into the air, trying to get over the wall of the manor.

[Haspen]

Stefan's mount easily scaled the wall.

Inside the walled compound, he found all the signs of a silent carnage. A maiden strangled in the doorway. A pair of soldiers with their throats cut, their bodies slumped behind the stairs leading to the corner tower. One of the servants pushed into the well and drowned. The elderly seamstress' body laying in a pool of blood and with a sack over her head.

And the dead silence reigned supreme in the courtyard.

[Wolfhunter107]

Stefan lands in the middle of of the courtyard, gazing around in horror. When he dismounts the thump of his boots is like an explosion in the silence.

"Why?"

Lance gripped in shaking hands, he walks to the entrance of the mansion.

[Gaterhyme]

Lijsbeth pressed her lips together into a thin line as Stefan went up and over the wall. Anyone who could have stopped this from happening hadn't been able to. The servants, the knights, Cecilia's parents... She didn't know what Stefan would find, but she could only prepare for the worst.

She turned to Levi.

"When he returns, we leave. Do you know how to ride?" Cecilia was inconsolable so she had to hold things together. She was no stranger to coldness, bluntness, or to death, but her voice seemed almost strange to her own ear.

"Take my horse, have Lady Cecilia ride with you. I can guide her pegasus until she recovers."

[GiglameshDespair]

"Poorly, but I can ride, yes. "

"Until we know exactly who did this we should be very careful. We should head back to the bandit fort for now; at least we know that's clear."

A little clumsily, Levi descended from the pegasus and clambered into the saddle for Lijsbeth's horse when offered. He offered a slender hand to their charge.

"Come on, Cecilia, with me. It's not safe to stay."

"Can you put... the body... over Cecilia's mount? I don't think she'd accept us leaving it here, and she deserved better, anyway."

[Gaterhyme]

"... I will." Once Cecilia could be separated from the princess's body.

"The fort if it's the only place we can spend the night, then to Westkust or the border garrison at Kraaien," Lijsbeth said, placing one hand on the neck of Cecilia's pegasus. "Whatever Stefan may find, this is already an attack on Gallia and a Tatalian noble house. We must deliver the message as soon as possible."

[Haspen]

@Stefan:

The further Stefan walked through the courtyard, the more bodies he found - those of servants and workers. Those of Wachttoren guards and sentries were very few in number.

There was no sight of Gallian soldiers (alive or dead), who arrived with Princess Marie, either.

@Lijsbeth and Levi:

Cecilia was still in midst of weeping fit, but once she heard Levi, she tried her hardest to stiffle her sobs and stop her tears.

Finally, she took hold of the magician's hand.

[GiglameshDespair]

The young man pulled Cecilia into the saddle, keeping hold of her hand.

"...I wish Stefan would hurry and return. I hope he's not encountered any danger."

"Though we'd hear combat if he had, right?"
The mage sounds more like he's trying to persuade himself  than anything else.

[Wolfhunter107]

Stefan eventually leads his pegasus back out of the courtyard, ashen-faced. When he speaks it's to to nobody in particular.

"We... We have to go."

He swallows hard.

"They're all dead. Everyone in the mansion, except maybe some of the soldiers. But... Princess Marie's guards are all gone. I can't find any trace of them.

[GiglameshDespair]

"Then let's be gone, already. I don't want to stay here a moment longer."

[Gaterhyme]

Stefan's report was not what Lijsbeth wanted to hear, but it was what she expected. She had finished securing the Gallian princess's body and mounted Cecilia's pegasus; any Tatalian rider worth their salt could at least ride a pegasus though to fight on one was an entirely different story.

"I'll lead for now, then."

With a nod to Levi and a squeeze of her legs, she set Cecilia's pegasus into motion. Once Cecilia had time to collect herself, once the others had weighed in they could change their destination, but for now she would aim at Kraaien, and be away from this place of death.

[Haspen]

|=| Chapter 1: Dark Clouds |=|

The night at the fallen fort was uneventful.

The ride to Kraaien was, too, calm, serene even. The somber silence followed the quartet, and the corpse they carried, thorough the roads until Kraaien, and the keep of the commander...

"Take Laudwen and forty soldiers. Secure the manor immediately. Tell Eik to visit the local Cloister and request Sisters to come preserve the body. I think we have a resident priest of the Light in town, get him here to commit the last rites. Immediately... and immediately send messengers to our four outposts, order them to be on lookout for Gallian troops. They are to search and interrogate every Gallian they find crossing the border, too."

"Sir!"
"Sir!"
"Sir!"

The three officers bowed and hurried out of the chamber, closing the heavy oaken door behind them. Gunther van de Wachttoren sat down at his desk again, then leaned into the chair, staring at the door with empty expression.

He took a deep breath, slowly rubbing his hands, his eyes looking around as if he was searching for something.

"I want to scream." He said after a brief moment, to nobody in particular, his voice heavy and tired out of the sudden. "But that, uh, that won't help us any right now. Cecilia?"

"..."

"Cecilia!"

_{"Don't yell at me..."} Cecilia murmured, turning her face away from her brother. Gunther shook his head, rubbed his palms against his face, took in a deep breath, and placed both hands on the desk.

Another period of silence followed as he stared at the furniture.

Another deep breath.

"Alright... Alright, you three." He looked at Levi, Lijsbeth and Stefan. "Once again. Calmly. Explain to me how... how all of this happened. Omit nothing. Not a smallest detail."