The voice that came from the doorway was one unfamiliar to her. Deidra’s brow furrowed deeply as she moved to the end of her bed to grab a hold of the woolen shawl placed there. She wound it about her shoulders to make herself at least a bit more decent as she made her way towards the door. Her father was at the gates, hm? She had no reason to distrust the words of what she believed to be one of the guards that frequently walked the halls of her family home. There were a vast number of men in her father’s army, and they were constantly cycling in and out as guards of the castle’s halls so it wasn’t as though it was uncommon for her to not recognize the voice of one of them. Her father confided in her often, so although it was very unlike him to retreat from a battle alone if he was to do so she wouldn’t put it past him to speak to her about whatever was going on. Her mother’s mind was fading with age and she couldn’t be trusted with secrets, her twin sister was weak of body and will, and her eldest sibling had already been married away into another kingdom. Of course, he brother’s knew the goings on of the battlefield, they were there, so she’d be the sole family member left to offer advice.<br/><br/>“Give me a moment, good man, allow me to slip on some shoes,” she called through the door, hurrying to her armoire to fetch herself a pair of thin sandals she often wore during the idle time she had in her chambers. She stepped towards the door, clutching the shawl about her shoulders firmly with one hand as the other carefully undid the locks and chains that held her door shut. Immediately when she pulled the door open enough to see the man who stood outside of it she was given pause. Her brow furrowed and her shapely lips parted ever so slightly as she looked him up and down. Her gaze fluttered over towards the chair where her guard should have been seated. He was there, only he was slumped at an unnatural angle. Dead. Her watery blue eyes slid back over to the intruder and she took a slight step back from him but she didn’t run, nor shriek, nor call for help.<br/><br/>“If you’re here to kill me, just know that you’ll not get away with it … You’ll be found and slaughtered in the most brutal manner imaginable,” she whispered as she maintained a steady pace of breathing and stance. She didn’t look frightened, nor particularly intimidated despite the drastic difference in size between the pair of them. It was clear that she’d gone through similar situations before, it didn’t frighten her anymore. Despite her love of her position death didn’t frighten her anymore. If she was slated to die it was in Gods hands and she took comfort in the fact that whoever struck her down would suffer what she did in death tenfold before being devoured into the depths of Hell.