The school teacher with the outrageous hat handed the blue knight her pass.

    The blue knight saluted.  "Welcome to Matilda, Miss Teresa Smartas."

    Lucia sighed.  If she didn't know any better, she could swear that Veeshara made up that fake alias for her just to piss her off.  She would have to change it someday.  Having the name of the very one she despises the most was getting on her nerves.  Something was wrong with the last name too, but whatever it was, it paled in comparison to always being called Teresa.  Maybe she'd just make up a nickname like... Tereace.  Yes, that name sounded fine.

    "Please leave any weapons you might have here, m'lady."  The blue knight requested, pointing to the stand.  Standing behind him was a red knight.

    "And why, pray tell, must I leave my weapons here?"  Lucia pushed the red knight away before he could search her.

    "Security reasons."  The blue knight replied.  "There have been many bandits, assassins, and other outsiders that seeked to cause grief upon the region of Matilda and we've had to tighten up our cautions."

    "I'm   a   teacher.  A simple substitute teacher and a messenger of Greenhill.  How on earth could I be any threat to Matilda?"  Instead of 'Matilda,' Lucia had wanted to say 'your stupid little piece of shit knightdom' but decided against it due to her better judgement.

    "There are no exceptions.  I repeat.  Please leave any weapons you might have here."  The dumbass coldly replied.

    "And if I don't give you my weapons?"  Lucia prodded.

    "Then we shall not let you pass by our honour as Matilda Knights."  The large knight rebutted.

    Honour as Matilda Knights.  That was an oxymoron if Lucia ever saw one.  Matilda Knights had no honour.  It was all an illusion to glorify them and justify all of the atrocities and murder they committed.  Many Matilda Knights were forced into service by drafting them from small Highway trading villages.  Many more were hired traitors who didn't give a damn about loyalty, patriotism, life, or integrity like that bastardly turd, Camus.

    The other knight hadn't spoken yet, but the first persisted in confiscating the weapons.  Lucia walked up to the blue knight as he was trying to yank Paineal's sword away, then held him up by the neck and looked him in the eye.  "You really should reconsider your orders."

    The shocked knight looked at Lucia, then pushed himself away.  "M'lady!  How dare you!  I am a married blue knight of Matilda!  I would never stoop so low and betray my wife just to hang out with you, you lecherous whore..."

    "What the hell?!?  I wasn't talking about THAT!"  Lucia punched the knight in the face, smacked him on top of the head with the hilt of Paineal's sword, grabbed him, spun him around, slammed him to the ground, then kicked him really hard.  "Very well then!  If you want my weapons so badly you'll have to fight me for them!  Enjoy your death!"

    The knight groaned.  "N... never!  I shall follow my prose as a knight and fight to the death."

    Lucia kicked him hard again, sending him flying over a few feet.  "Do you want me to let you get up first or shall I just save us both some time and slit your throat right here?  Hello?"  Lucia kicked the knight again but he didn't respond.  "Unconscious?  Dammit!  What the hell..."

    The other knight and Paineal stared at Lucia, then at the beat-up knight, then at Lucia again.  By that time, Lucia was at the other knight's side holding a knife to his throat.  But before she could even say anything, the knight screamed.

    "OH GOD!  Please don't kill me!!!"

    Lucia let go and stared puzzled at the knight.  The blue knight that was knocked momentarily unconscious slowly opened his eyes and glared at the red knight.  "This is not knightly prose!"

    "I don't care about knightly prose now!  I don't want to die!"  The scared knight exclaimed.  "I knew this would happen!  Just like what happened to my best friends that were here before!  They all died when they tried to confiscate the weapons from those ninjas!  One of them left behind a wife and child!!  I want to live!!!  I don't want my mother to hear at the Highway village that I died in vain just to keep someone from passing through here with a few measly weapons!"

    This.... this was pathetic.

    And yet, the coward had a point.  To sacrifice his pathetic life for something as trivial as this was worse than those Tinto soldiers who died protecting that girl.  It was even worse than those kobolds who might have died guarding a prisoner who wasn't even in maximum security.  Still, Lucia didn't have any more resources to take prisoners.  Moreso, this act of cowardice wasn't forgiveable.  It was fortunate that Lucia didn't have to put up with cowards like these back in Karaya, because all Karayans knew from birth what was expected of them, instead of being drafted into the knightdom from wayward villages like this wimp here was.  Even the ones that were suspected of extreme cowardice and dodging service in the end came through and volunteered to go on one of the most dangerous military missions of all.

    If only Camus hadn't condemned them all to their deaths...

    Lucia handed the soldier the knife.  It would be better to leave these cowards in Gorudo's forces until he found out too late.  Besides, it wasn't a very big deal.  And the look on that knight's face was priceless.  Buggy eyed Matilda soldiers wasn't something you got to see everyday.

    A while after passing the entry post, Paineal finally opened his damn mouth.  "Er... Why didn't you just kill them?  What if they tell on you or something like that?  Biochis always said you should stomp out threats to security as soon as possible and..."

    "Do I look like Commander Biochis?"  Lucia glared at Paineal, then continued on.  "You should learn when to not question your leader, like Veeshara does."

    "Ah, Veeshara.  She was really quiet at first but for some reason at Greenhill while disguised as a student, she talked a lot.  I kinda liked her better that way."  Paineal snickered.  "She doesn't exactly agree with everything you do, either."

    "Wait, what did you say?"  Lucia paused, then looked at Paineal.  "What did Veeshara say about me?  You're joking, right?  I did too much for her."

    Paineal suddenly got a bit nervous.  "Er... well, it's not that bad!  She just feels that sometimes you expect too much of her."

    "Oh.  Bah!"  Lucia smacked Paineal.  "Quit talking about irrelevent things!"

    Paineal grumbled to himself.  "You would have called me lazy if I said something like that..."

    "You have yet to prove yourself like Veeshara has." Lucia replied.

    Lucia took off her ochre head piece, held it upside down, then shook it.  Out of the hat fell an assortment of her deadliest weapons.  A set of handcrafted Karayan throwing knives, her father's sword, her favorite whip, and her deadliest weapon of all which is meant to be used in only extreme circumstances, For Love of an Empire by Milich Openheimer.

    Matilda.  The stupid little piece of shit knightdom.  The Free Knights of Camaro could probably have handed them all their asses on a platter.

    The capital of Matilda, Rockaxe, was.... rocky, for lack of a better term.  It was a city built on a mountain, where it could take advantage of the terrain for maximum defense to make it impenetrable.  Of course, mountains weren't exactly very good for sustaining cities and it was below the snotty knights to use the mountain for mining, so the parasites of Rockaxe leeched off of the neighboring city state of Greenhill as well as the local highway villages below for necessary resources.  And if those areas failed to deliver those resources, the "honourable loyal knights" of Matilda would be betrayed and would thus relinquish their military aid.  Or at least Lucia hoped so.

    "So... now what?"  Paineal asked.

    "All I have to do is get a good glimpse of him."  Lucia muttered under her breath.  "If I see that he's the same asshole that he was years ago, then I'll know he won't send any aid to Greenhill."

    "How will we get past the guards?  All we have for credentials is your Greenhill identification."  Paineal stared at the gates to Rockaxe's castle.  "Unless you plan on delivering the message about Greenhill's food supplies personally or something like that."

    "Hmm... that's actually an excellent idea."  She showed the gate guards of Rockaxe her pass.  "I bring a message for Gorudo from the city state of Greenhill."

    "That's LORD Gorudo, madame."  One of the knights replied.

    Wow, Lucia was already getting extremely irritated at those morons.  "Very well, I bring a message for Lard Gorudo from the city state of Greenhill."

    The men bowed and Lucia entered with Paineal.  Rinka charged in after her as the guards were trying to figure out what was wrong with what Lucia just said.

    "See?  I managed to get past the entry guards with my weapon!"  Rinka happily spun her spear around.  "All I had to do was fly past them while you were beating them up.  I bet Chako wouldn't have thought of that!"

    "Right.  Er, talk to the boy."  Lucia let Rinka banter and rant to Paineal for a while as she looked around Rockaxe.  There were knights, knights, some gimp whores to entertain said knights when their lords weren't looking and they decided to wave their knightly code for a short time, and more knights.  So far she hadn't spotted Camus, but that was okay.  Lucia wasn't sure if she'd be able to keep from strangling him to death on the spot if she saw him.

    Lucia stepped up to the castle gates and showed the white Matildan knights there her Greenhill pass, too.  How many stupid guarded gates did Matilda have?!  They bowed to her then opened the gates.

    "Ahem!"  Lucia glared at one of the knights.

    The knight didn't budge.

    "I said, 'Ahem!'"  Lucia repeated.

    The knight saluted.  "Aye, that you did, madame!"

    Lucia sighed.  "Isn't anyone going to introduce me to your Lard, er, Lord?"

    The two knights looked at each other, then shrugged.  "Your visit is rather sudden.  We don't have an escort prepared for you.  It would be wise to announce an appointment next time."

    Lucia stomped her foot down, and, fuming, entered the castle with Rinka and Paineal following her.

    "An appointment?"  Paineal commented.  "Sounds like something those Greenhill wierdos would think up of."

    "Yea..."  Lucia sighed.  It wasn't her fault if Matilda wasn't adequately prepared for visitors but noooooo.  Where was Gorudo?  This damn castle was way too big.  Why the hell would anyone need a humongous building like a castle anyway?  Are the knights of Matilda that weak that they can't bear to live in barracks like every other soldier does?  Is Gorudo truly so FAT that he needs this much space just to move about?  Is it so that if their enemies somehow get past the mountain defense and enter the castle, they'll get lost for an eternity wandering its halls?  Three hours later, Lucia was still grumbling to herself on how the thing was a god damn maze.  She couldn't wait to get back to the nice open plains of the Grasslands where the Karayans didn't have to put up with this labyrinth bullshit.

    "Lady Lucia, we've been wandering for three hours now.  Even the man with the strongest will on the planet can only stave off nature for so long."  Paineal, somewhat distraught, mentioned.  "Why don't we just ask for directions?"

    "Oh yea, like any of these fools could give me decent directions."  Lucia stepped up to the nearest knight who was guarding, though exactly what the hell he was guarding she didn't know, and asked him where to go to see Lord Gorudo.  Hmm... How could these guys bear to stand in one place all the time for no reason at all, anyway?  Maybe they took to 'guarding' because they weren't willing to admit they were hopelessly lost and couldn't find their way out.

    "You take a left at the main hall, go down the stairs, then up the stairs on the fourth hall, a right to the sixth hall, through the eighth room, past the seventh tower, and..."

    Lucia left the knight before he could finish babbling his directions.  "That was pointless..."

    Paineal had the nerve to reply, "Well, you could have asked him to show you to Gorudo, himself."

    "Led around by a Matilda knight?  Bah!"  Lucia smacked Paineal, and continued to search for a way through the halls of the castle.  "Besides, he'd probably too busy with his 'important guard post' to help me out, anyway."

    Later, Lucia, arms crossed, kneeled on a hallway wall.  "What a pathetic way for me to die.  Not in a glorious battle, but by starving to death in a damn castle just because I CAN'T FIND THE WAY OUT OF THIS GOD DAMN PLACE!"

    Paineal came out from around the corner.  "Aaaaaah, I feel much better now.  So, do we have any idea as to what we're doing, now?"

    "Hmph."  Her arms still crossed, Lucia glanced at Paineal for a moment.  "We'll get out.  My father brought me to see Highland a long time ago.  I visited the castle of L'Renouille there and it was much bigger than this place.  I managed to find my way out of there, and I'll manage to find my way out of here, too."

    "Didn't it take you two days to get out of there, though?" Paineal asked, remembering the rumours.

    "Perhaps..." Lucia grumbled.  "However, L'Renouille is so big that it's hell to find the bathroom, even, and we managed to find the bathroom here so getting out of here certainly must be easier.  You did find the bathroom, right?"

    "Um... yea..."  Paineal anxiously replied.

    While finding the way to the exit, or at least what she thought was probably the way to the exit, Lucia decided that if she ever saw Gorudo, then she'd slit his throat.  No wait, that was probably too quick for him.  It'd probably be better to tie him up then just slowly and painfully beat and torture him before he finally died from all the pain.  Lucia revelled in the thought of Gorudo squeeling like the fat pig he was as she got revenge for what he did to Karaya so long ago.  The scream rang throughout her head.  "Mua ha ha!!! Die, Gorudo, die!!!  I will kill you, then I will kill you again!  Then you will die from all of my killing!"

    In her mind, she was about to commence with the whippings until her train of thought was rudely interupted by a fat idiot who wasn't watching where he was going.

    "Hey!  You can't shove an important officer of Greenhill, especially one as important as Teresa, like that!"  Rinka yelled.

    "Yea!"  Paineal yelled.  "You're just a normal knight!  Albeit a really large one.  Show some respect!"

    The bearded man slowly turned around to glare at Lucia's companions.  His sheer size not included, there was an immense aura of authority and superiority around the man.  His stature was that of a man of extreme power, and his eyes radiated a fear-inducing evil which Lucia hadn't seen for a long time.  Even though she hadn't seen him for more than a decade, the first and only thing Lucia could say was, "G.... Gorudo?"

    Beady black eyes regarded her from beneath a heavy brow.  The intimidating enormous devourer of worlds, himself, cocked his head slightly and scrutinized Lucia.  Beside him, the young man in the red uniform of a Matildan knight pushed Lucia gently but firmly back. "Watch where you're going!" he snapped.

    "Liadon," Gorudo replied. "Peace. Who are you, girl? What are you doing in my castle?"

    "Ah..."  Lucia stuttered, with an extremely large amount of anxiety in her voice.  She was completely caught off guard.  And she only had a few seconds to access the situation and say something accordingly.  She quickly blurted out, "Greenhill can not make this year's rice shipment!"

    One large brow crawled its way up Gorudo's forehead. "I was not aware that Greenhill had been released from its obligations. I do not request the rice shipment... I demand it.  I expect it. You belong to that whelp, Teresa?"

    Lucia's mind raced frantically to think of a reply.  Why was she so tense all of a sudden?  As she stared back at the hefty man's eyes, she saw an image of a sea of fire on flaming grass for a split second.  Lucia stuttered.  "Y... yes, I am here to deliver Teresa's message.  As it is, Greenhill can not afford to deliver the rice shipment because... there isn't one to deliver at all due to factors beyond our control."

    "Factors beyond your control?" Gorudo snorted in disgust. "Perhaps Greenhill should concentrate more on meeting its obligations and less on maintaining its books.  Perhaps I should take those in lieu of the shipment, Liadon?"  The red knight coughed awkwardly, and Gorudo smiled thinly.  "Tell me about factors, girl. I burn with curiousity."

    Tell him the factors?  What was Lucia supposed to tell him?  That Karaya sabotaged Greenhill's rice supply in order to piss off Matilda?  And what about her cover?  Lucia despised the books too but she couldn't let Gorudo know about that!  And there was that nagging feeling in the back completely ruining her judgement.  Her reply was less than satisfactory.  "The education of the students exceeds Greenhill's obligations but we truly would have prefferred to fill the needs of both.  Unfortunately, Greenhill's entire food supply was sabotaged by..."  Rogues?  Bandits?  Rabid wolves?  "Rabid wolves!"  Damn.

    "Rabid wolves? Teresa is not nearly as good a liar as her father. You may take this message back to the girl, then: I will not suffer the people of Matilda to starve so that Teresa may grow fat on the tuition of her 'university'. Tell Teresa that I am not gentle when I am angry." He sniffed in derision and frowned. "Teresa is not the only one who loves her domain. And tell her as well, that I do not normally accept female envoys in my court. She would be wise not to tempt my anger further. And I will have the rice shipment, she had best believe that.  Can you understand all of that, girl?"

    Why was she like this?  Lucia wasn't supposed to be afraid of this man.  How dare she even think about being afraid of him!  Her father would never allow this!  The leader of Karaya couldn't just stand there and take this abuse!  "Girl?  Upsets you?!?"  Forgetting who she was supposed to be and overcomming that feeling of fear inside her, Lucia lashed out. "Show some respect, you arrogant b..."

    A quick look at the worry on her two cohort's faces reminded her of the fragility of the situation.  She quickly turned to look at Gorudo again, coming to the horrifying realization that what she had just said had just made the situation much worse.

    The Red Knight, Liadon, inhaled sharply, and Gorudo's piggish eyes widened momentarily before returning to their usual dark inscrutability. "You risk greatly, child. You presume to speak so to the Lord of all Matilda? You, a mere girl?" At Gorudo's sides, his fists clenched. "Liadon, summon the guard. I will not be treated this way by mere whelps such as these." He snorted again. "Do you see, Liadon? This is why I will do what I must for Matilda. She has lost all honour, all respect, when we must bow to the whims of girls and impudent children."

    Without warning, one ham fist raced towards her, the speed surprising from one who appeared so grossly out of condition. The hand seized her by the collar and lifted her upwards until her feet barely brushed the ground. She detected a faint sense of motion to her right, and there was a sudden flash of pain. The next thing she knew, she was lying on the ground at Gorudo's feet. "You will learn to mind yourself properly, girl."

    "My lord," Liadon gasped, his face pale. "She's only a woman..."

    "Be silent," Gorudo snapped. "I will not suffer fools, woman or no. Matilda's honour shall not be spat upon, and nor shall mine."

    Paineal and Rinka stared at the scene in shock, then glanced over at Lucia to see what she would do.  Unfortunately, Lucia could barely noticed them.  The world seemed to dissappear as her eyes filled with fear and she remembered a scene exactly like this more than a decade ago, with her knocked to the ground like this and Gorudo standing over her.  Lucia completely lost touch with the present as she suddenly found out where that nagging feeling of fear came from.  Eleven years ago Gorudo had knocked her down exactly like this.  Eleven years ago, Gorudo had raised his sword in this situation and was about to kill her.  And unlike eleven years ago, no one was there to save her.

    In anticipation of the inevitable, Lucia closed her eyes and screamed.

    Lucia opened her eyes and looked around.  Where was she?  What happened?  She found that she was in a dusty cell behind bars.

    Paineal, who was sitting nearby, turned and looked at Lucia as she got up.  "I must say, that was one of the most unique plans I've ever seen.  When Gorudo decides to give you a good punch, I figured you'd either kill him, try to talk your way out of the situation, or at least run away.  Not once did fainting ever come to my mind.  Where'd you come up with that one?  I just wish you didn't leave me to pick up the pieces.  And I assume you have a plan to get us out of this prison, too?  Unless of course fainting WASN'T your plan which at this time I think is most likely true and..."  Paineal continued to babble incessantly until Lucia finally grabbed him by his collar and threw him to the ground.

    "Shut up Shut up SHUT UP!"  Lucia grabbed Paineal up from the floor and pinned him against the wall.  "How the HELL was I supposed to know that some god damn repressed memory from more than a decade ago would decide to surface just then?!  Now SHUT UP or I'll kill you with my own bare hands!"

    "What?  Repressed memory?"  Paineal struggled to breathe as Lucia held him against the wall.  "E..even *ACK!* with that... um... loosen up a little, can't breathe!  That's not *gack!* like you."

    Lucia glanced out of the cell and, realizing that she was now being stared at by several shocked Matilda Knights, let go of Paineal.  He dropped to the floor, coughing.  She forcefully picked him up again and whispered, "You don't think I know that?!"

    Paineal put his hand to his throat and, gasping, whispered back, "At least we know that Gorudo won't be sending aid to Greenhill anytime soon.  Either that or he'll invade Greenhill, himself, even, judging by how much of an asshole he is..."

    "Hmm... I almost actually pity Teresa knowing that she'll probably have to deal with that lard bucket now..." Lucia muttered under her breath.  She glanced at the guards guarding the prison cell, then glared at Paineal.  "Paineal, you moron, we'll talk about it later.  First we have to get out of here.  Where are my weapons?"

    "Er..."  Paineal muttered.  "Gorudo found them and confiscated them all.  Except for that dumb For Love of an Empire book.  What the hell is up with that thing, anyway?

    Lucia took the book out of her headpiece and a few pills out of her pocket.  "Good, that's all I need.  Now put these plugs in your ears and swallow this."

    "We're committing suicide via drug?  Aw drat."  Paineal swallowed the pill.  "Well, I hope you're happy.  Dying for my nation is fine and all but I would have preferred something more glorious."

    "I thought I told you to shut up!  Now, I could get out of here without using drastic measures if I were alone, but I'm not.  So I'll have to use this."  Lucia took a flower out of her book, held it up, and shook it a little, then began reading from the book.

    "The flowers were in bloom of the magnificent Scarlet Moon.  For truly tis most wonderful that the passionate fires of one's love for one's magnificent country be filled with the bounteous songs of a thousand poets singing a thousand verses with a thousand prose under the most magnificent wonderful moon of true light and wonderous beauty!  For if it were not truly magnificent and full of light, the moon would..."

    "AAAAH!!!!  MY EARS ARE BURNING!"  Paineal quickly plugged up his ears with the ear plugs.

    "...be but a deathly shadow, only suited to the most vulgar of savages and the unkept vile dirt of the lowest most horrid pits of the earth!  T'would be such a tragedy that this most horrid of all vulgar and detestable acts truly were to occur, but that is why we have the most wonderous empire to keep the horrors of the vulgar earth from coming to fruition while the passionate roses of the most wonderful and truly the greatest of all magnificence and love rises above like a beautiful garden out in full bloom of the magnificent Scarlet Moon."

    Lucia glanced around at all of the unconscious guards, then put the flower back into her For Love of an Empire book and slammed the book shut.  "I'm getting sick and tired of this..."

    Paineal took out his ear plugs.  "So that pill was protection against the flower?  Um... which knocked them out?  The flower or the... ugh, verse?"

    Lucia put the book away.  "I don't know and I don't care.  Now stay quiet and follow me.  And where the hell is Rinka?"

    As if to answer her question, Rinka came crashing down from the ceiling, unconscious.  Lucia sighed as she picked the lock on the door.  "Paineal, carry the winger.  We're leaving."

    "Do I have to?  Can't we just leave her here?"  Paineal, with a little difficulty, picked Rinka up.  "Kinda hard for me to be stealthy along with you while carrying this girl.  She's not even from Karaya!  Hell, if she finds out who you really are, we could be in some big trouble, if we aren't in enough already.  Biochis would never allow..."

    Lucia put her hand over Paineal's mouth.  "Biochis is currently under investigation for treason.  So shut up about him!"

    After she took her hand away, Paineal muttered to himself as Lucia found her way through the dungeoun.  "Great.  Now security will be searching for us, we're weighed down by a winger girl that we don't even know very well and vice-versa, and we still don't know how to get out of this place..."

    "Quiet!"  Lucia put her back against the wall then grabbed a knight from around the corner and slammed him face first into the wall.

    Paineal picked up one of the knight's teeth on the floor.  "Whoa... remind me not to come around corners to see you when you're pissed off..."

    Luckily, she had just stumbled across the room which held her confiscated weapons.  As Paineal retrieved his sword, Lucia didn't bother to tell him that they stumbled upon the room by mere chance.

    Several severely beat knights later, many of whom weren't even in the way but Lucia beat up anyway just because she needed to let out some steam for that incident with Gorudo, Lucia and Paineal finally reached one of the outer walls.  As Lucia pondered a way to make her whip into a makeshift rope strong enough to support her, Rinka woke up.  Finding herself being carried but not sure by whom at the moment, Rinka entered a quick frenzy with her wings, fists, and nails, making Lucia glad that Paineal was carrying Rinka and she wasn't.

    Lucia ended up having to scale the wall without any rope whatsoever.  A difficult task, but she was able to get to the bottom albeit with aching hands and beat fingernails (a pain she completely ignored as she was trying to figure out how she let herself lose that staring contest to Gorudo).  Paineal, using Rinka to float him down as a favor for beating him up earlier, came crashing to the grounds moments afterwards.

    The boy, apparently an expert at saying the obvious, commented, "We should get as far away from Rockaxe as possible.  Though, considering that they think we're from Greenhill, I don't think passing through the Matilda Greenhill checkpoint is a good idea."

    Lucia didn't bother to reply.  She stared at Rockaxe Castle for a moment, her eyes narrowing and her fists clenched, and fumed for a few moments.  If she ever meets Gorudo again, then she'd be ready.  She would never allow that stupid repressed memory that her mind had decided to hide from for nearly a decade to catch her off guard again...

    "Grr... if that big elephant didn't have so many men with him, I would have roasted him with my microwave rune!  That would have showed him!"  Rinka exclaimed.

    "That's nice."  In her room at the Highway village inn, Lucia adjusted her ochre headpiece.  Unfortunately, she had to wear that cursed Greenhill schoolteacher outfit just a little longer because she didn't want any Matilda veteran knights to recognize her.  Not that it mattered, because Lucia realized that she had left her Karayan royalty clothes back at that abandoned log cabin in Greenhill.  It was probably better that way because that damn devourer of worlds, Gorudo, would have found it otherwise.

    Lucia lay down on the bed.  It was sad that she'd only be able to enjoy it for a short time before she had to move on to avoid any pursueing Matilda knights.  She wondered how Teresa would feel if any of her real envoys were thrown in prison by the leader of a "fellow city-state."  Stupid Jowston.  Every where she went she had to take the brunt of the city-state's faults.

    Paineal, now dressed in some normal generic highway village clothes (brown pants, red shirt, nothing special), entered the room.  Still lying down, Lucia slowly turned her eyes to look at him.  "I did not give you permission to change out of the clothes that our dear friend Milich so gracefully provided for you."

    Paineal sighed.  "I hate hate HATE that damn thing!  Can I pleeeeeeeeaaaase just wear some remotely normal clothes?  I miss my elite Karayan uniform."

    "Stupid boy!"  Lucia got up.  "How many times do I have to tell you when to not speak up to your superiors?"

    "Does Gorudo count?  You sure showed him when you called him an arrogant b..."

    A huge fire blast sent Paineal slamming into the wall.  Lucia glared at him; her eyes flaming with the same fire she just shot him with.  "Don't you EVER talk about me that way again."

    Paineal slowly got up with his arm against his aching chest.  "Okay, okay.  But it's obviously something that's been really bugging you."

    Lucia paused, then sighed and lay down on the bed again.  "Didn't Biochis tell you what happened?  In response to Karaya's violation of the peace treaty more than a decade ago for what Alec did to my father, Gorudo led the Matilda knights on what he hoped would be the final campaign to crush every single tribe in the Grasslands."

    The image of the Grasslands on fire entered her mind again, but this time Lucia was ready for them and that tingling feeling wasn't there anymore.

    "In the middle of battle, I happened to spot Gorudo fighting alongside his knights.  I decided to finally end his threat once and for all, and..."  Lucia got up from the bed again.  "Wait.  Tell me why the hell you need to know this."

    Rinka stuffed some popcorn into her mouth.  "I don't even know what Karaya is.  What are you talking about?"

    Lucia raised an eyebrow at Rinka while Paineal mumbled, "Well, he's probably old by now and out of shape.  I could probably take him, even, if he didn't have all those guards with him."

    "Bah.  Believe me, after finally seeing him again, I'm sure that even now he could probably beat you in a duel with only his pinky finger."

    "Is he that bad?"  Paineal grabbed some of Rinka's popcorn, much to her annoyance.  "You managed to get away from him back then, didn't you?  Otherwise you'd be dead right now."

    "....."  Lucia sulked for a second before shaking her head.  "Shaleem and Biochis arrived at the same time and together were able to hold off Gorudo long enough for reinforcements from the Knights of Camaro to arrive."  Paineal and Rinka were wrestling over the popcorn but Lucia didn't notice.  "Hmm... it's kind of funny.  Those two saved my life and now I've condemned Shaleem to death at the hands of the Silver Moon and I'm hunting Biochis down.  I wonder if I'm any better than that traitor, Camus."

    "What?!"  Paineal immediately let go of the popcorn just as Rinka pulled too hard on it, sending Rinka flying backwards into the wall with the popcorn falling all over her.  "Lady Lucia!  Don't ever say that!  That damn traitor Camus isn't even human!  Lord Biochis told me he purposefully sold out his fellow Karayans at Muse to be slaughtered by Gorudo just to spare his pathetic neck... and worse, to be promoted to commander and have power as a Matilda Knight, serving against his own country!"

    Lucia paused for a moment, then slowly smiled.  "For once in a long time, Lord Biochis is right.  Everyone in the Muse unit was killed by Matilda except for one person, and it was Camus.  Camus returned to the Grasslands but was trailed by a blue knight, as seen by some spies of the Keepers of the Flame.  It was fortunate that we turned him away, because only moments later those same spies spotted him conversing with the blue knight as an ally, before they left back to Matilda to appoint him as a Matilda knight.  Finally, to add insult to injury, to get rid of every last bit of doubt that we could have had, only a few years later he was promoted to leader of the red knights.  The highest position in Matilda one could hope to have, besides that of that fat chub, Gorudo, himself."

    "Wow, he almost makes Gorudo look good."  Paineal took the popcorn from the unconscious Rinka.

    "Yea.  And yet..."  Lucia held up her right hand and slowly gazed at her rage rune before shaking her head again.  "Nevermind.  We should leave now before any Matilda knights arrive looking for us.  If we fail to get to the Muse checkpoint before Gorudo's messengers do, I'll have to break out the For Love of An Empire book again."

    "Dear god no!"  Paineal quickly picked up Rinka without a second thought and dashed out the door with Lucia following him.  "Let's get going!  We can return and get revenge on Matilda like we're going to get on Greenhill, later." Paineal suggested, just they exitted the inn.