Yehudit shook his arm. "Wake up!"

"Papa?" Aron said suddenly.

"Papa!" Yehudit squeezed his hands.

Aron smiled peacefully. "Grandmother. Ertzel."

Yehudit began to panic. "HELP!" She screamed.

As the remaining knights began to gather the remaining people to return to the keep, Sileas was standing next to Wulfsen, trying to ignore the burning looks her aunt was giving her. Suddenly she heard a cry for help. Sileas's head whipped around in the direction the sound came from.

"Sileas." Liadan's voice was crackling with anger. "We need to talk."

"Go see who needs help," Sileas said to Wulfsen. She took a deep breath, knowing this was not going to be pretty. She wished, not for the first time, that Yehudit wasn't so darned stubborn in her desire to be by her side.

Wulfsen reluctantly left Sileas and went back to see who yelled for help.

Sileas dropped her hands to her side. She took a deep breath. "I'm listening, Aunt Lia."

In reply to Sileas (msg # 796):

Liadan clenched and unclenched her fists. "You let Yehudit follow you into danger twice today." Liadan said in a dangerously quiet voice.

"I wanted her to go to the keep for help. I told her to go to the keep. Several times. I didn't want her out here," Sileas said.

"You know Yehudit has followed you everywhere you go ever since Brie adopted you." Liadan said. "You should have stayed in the keep and let someone else handle it."

"No one would have known Millie and Lek were in danger if we weren't outside. And we were on the keep ground." Sileas's eyes blazed. "No wonder Millie's never felt like she's fit in. Has anyone in this family besides me lifted a hand to help her? Hasn't Aunt Aislyn lost enough? And if you think for one minute i'm going to stay inside and be docile while people I care about are in danger, you don't know me at all. If I'd have gone for help with her, Questa would have been killed, Lek would have been killed, and Millie stolen away. But I guess that doesn't matter to you."

"What matters is that Yehudit stay safe- she can't even run now!" Liadan said angrily. "You could have gotten someone else for Millie and Questa."

"There wasn't time. She should have gone for help like I asked her to." Sileas shook her head. "Yes, I understand now why Millie has always felt that way. Everyone that I care about matters to me. Everyone." She thrust the two halves of the walking stick. "By the way, Yehudit caused Wulfsen grievous injury for no reason. You need to do something about her stubborness and her rages.

"He probably tried something." Liadan took the halves of walking stick. "I want you to stay away from Yehudit, I don't need you getting her into more trouble- we're having trouble enough as it is."
This message had punctuation tweaked by the player at 02:49, Fri 18 Dec 2015.

"He hadn't touched her at all." Sileas narrowed her eyes. "Fine but good luck keeping her away from me. And don't come to me if you or any one in your part of the family need help. Since I'm staying away and all."

Sileas turned to one of the knights. "Please tell Lord Thornblade I returned to the keep to check on my mother." Sileas squared her shoulders and started for the keep.

Liaan grumbled to herself as she stormed to the room she had claimed for her family. Yehudit was going to be grounded and kept away from that bad influence.

Sileas wiped at her eyes as she walked toward the keep. She needed to be with her parents right now, she needed to be in their arms. The only people she could count on not to turn on her.

Wulfsen came upon Aron Buckley and Yehudit, both on the ground, Aron looked unconscious and bleeding.

"What happened?" Wulfsen asked. He could not carry both so he took his horn and blew in it.

Two of the knights who following Xavier and the prisoner turned and fled back in the direction of the sound of Wulfsen's horn.

Tears ran down Yehudit's face. "I hit him and he fell over... now he won't get back up."

"Why..?" Wulfsen sighed and drew his sword, he began chopping down a sapling.

One of the knights cleared his throat. "I'll go find Mrs. Buckley." He turned and left the clearing area.