Endymion hadn't expected the woman to give a straightforward answer, not after a stunt like the one she had pulled with the guard.  Still, he found her tone irritating though he did not let it show in his face.  Wounded pride had caused many a captain of the guard to revert to childish taunts and petty attempts at verbal antagonizing. The strange cultish chant and the glowing symbols on both her head and the heads of a number of townsfolk, on the other hand, were significantly more unexpected.  He added that question to the rapidly growing list in the back of his mind.  Once the initial aftermath of the invasion settled down he would have his people obtain answers, but for the moment he brushed it aside.  He was about to order her to stand when she spoke again, a babbling stream of nonsense that hardly merited response which was a good thing as he had no response to her strange words.<br/><br/>Rather than speak he motioned for his officers to raise the woman to her feet.  Even still he found himself looking quite a ways down on her.  How someone of her diminutive size managed to become leader of the city he could not say, but he suspected it also had to do with how she had managed to survive when so many of her fellow guards had fallen.  Now that she was standing the light from the nearby torches illuminated her face and he was able to get a good look at her.  She had clearly taken her share of hits in the battle as evidenced by the split on her full lower lip.  Her eyes were equally large, a pair of honeyed globes reflecting the torch fires behind him.  She grinned madly up at him but something in the set of her delicate chin told him that this was methodical, and that she would need more incentive if he was ever going to get her to talk.<br/><br/>Just as he was attempting to devise a way to “incentivize” his captive an agonized scream erupted from the medical tent.  It didn’t sound like one of his soldiers which meant it was a perfect chance to remind the woman before him just how high her stakes were.  He narrowed his eyes and leaned in close.<br/><br/>“It seems to me your people have suffered enough this night,” he whispered, his mouth just inches from her ear.  “It would be a shame if my poor overtasked soldiers were too busy gathering intelligence to properly treat your wounded.  Now I ask you again and I encourage you to answer wisely:  who are you?”<br/>