Lucretia froze as she heard the footsteps, her grip on the Battleborn's hair tightening as she pulled him tighter to her, and pressed the daedric blade hard enough that blood began to trickle down his throat. The voice caused her to tilt her head, and clench her teeth, however.<em>Gaius?</em>She thought of the Blade that had been under her command in Valenwood with mixed feelings. On one hand he was excellent warrior, but he wasn't very good at improvising with orders.<br/><br/>She swallowed as more footsteps from behind her sounded on the oak floors, and the Battleborn continued to struggle against her hold. She reached her thumb down to his base of his skull and applied pressure enough to cause pain to shoot into his brain.<strong>"Little Battleborn, be still or I'll give you a crippling wound, and then heal it that way."</strong>Her voice was a whisper into his ear as she held Gaius's gaze, keeping her feet moving until she'd reached the center of the room, knowing if she fought her she'd need room to move.<br/><br/><strong>"I'm pretty confident my message has been received, or will be soon enough, but if you know what I was talking about, Cassiel might wish he didn't need sleep."</strong>Her voice calm as she spoke these words, but this situation was only changed by two factors from her capture in Valenwood. One she had a hostage, and two the people surrounding her were Baldes. Neither factor brought her too much comfort.<br/><br/><strong>"Baby Battleborn here is gonna be just fine, but I'm not dropping my collateral."</strong>Her voice adopted the Imperial accent as she switched to high Cyrodillic, the language of of choice in the third era imperial heartland. Lucretia found her ground in the center of the room and held her position. Trying to go farther with two Knight Brothers circling wasn't likely to happen, so they were forcing this dialogue with her.<br/><br/><strong>"You know Gaius, I'm getting tired of people forcing my hand, so if you force it this time beware that I've reached my limit for the day."</strong>With those words, still in her favored language she began to move to the entryway once more, forcing the heir to clan Battleborn along with her, practically daring them to attack. They'd have to take her down in one strike, otherwise she was willing to bring this entire house down, and them what HER war looked like.