<br/>This man was a giant - no wonder he commanded such a legion. Once on her feet she shook her head in an attempt to remove errant platinum locks from in her eyes. She blew some of it away, but her attention snapped to the scream coming from the medical tent. When she felt his breath against her ear and neck she stiffened. He was threatening her, that much was obvious. She turned her head slowly, looking over his features carefully. He was handsome in a brutish sort of way, she supposed. No doubt he had dozens of women throwing themselves at his feet to be stepped on like garbage.<br/><br/><br/>"I'm sorry..." She said after a few moments, taking another breath. "I don't believe I was clear before. There is no soul among us who is not willing to die for this city and what it represents. Something you can not possibly fathom, being that you must either have everything given to you, or you take it by force like bullies in the garden of a nanny who turns her eye away because you're... of rank and proper breeding." She  took another breath, her tongue darting over the split in her lip briefly. "We may die, but we will take the secrets of Valtegaard with us. No doubt that's why you've chosen this place for your latest conquest. A vantage point for invading the south. A direct port on trading routes, right? A perfectly defensible position. Glorious victory!" She offered him a smile. The smile of a viper. "Did it not occur to you that we were always ready for this? That there are those among us who have lived other lives outside the protection these walls provide? No, I suppose not..." Her chin tilted up somewhat before she moved.<br/><br/><br/>It was quick - too fast for a normal fighter, let alone some simple villiage guard. This woman was trained, and not by fishmongers or basket weavers. Her pale hair flashed in the light as she dropped to the ground, she let out a hiss of pain as her arms were tugged on roughly. Her foot swept out the feet of one of her guards, and then the next. Each of them then received a blow to the face with her elbow. She immediately had a sword in hand, and was on her feet. But she did not go after Endymion, no. Nor did she kill the guard who had held her. Instead, she knocked the hilt of her sword into the gut of another officer and used his hunched position to vault herself up atop the thatched roof of a nearby building. She sat there at the edge of the roof before she threw the sword down into the cobble, where it lodged itself into the stones causing no harm except to perhaps the blade. This woman was no simple captain or border guard. She moved like an assassin. A professionally trained one.<br/><br/><br/>"But, that doesn't mean I'll just sit back and let them die." She called down with a laugh, brushing her hair away from her face as she stood. She was pushing her luck, but he didn't seem like the sort of man who would torture or kill innocents. She could be wrong, it's not like she hadn't been wrong before... "My name is Lyra. I was once called the Pale Blade." She said, hoisting herself to her feet and taking a quick and short bow, never taking her eyes off of him. "I was playing nice, you know. I didn't kill any of your men, I didn't even try to break your nose! I will go with you freely and answer what questions I can, but only if you tend the wounded - all of the wounded - and leave these people to their live their lives in peace. I'm not asking you to leave, I know that won't happen. But these are good, honest people who do not deserve to become some... slave to a warmonger. I, on the other hand, am not a good person. As you might have already guessed. What I can tell you is that if your friends there shoot me down you will get none of the answers that you seek, and you and your men will most likely die here with the rest of these fine people here. So, I'm sure that you are not a betting man but a strategist. I do my own fair share of planning, but I also follow another set of rules. Now do we have an accord or shall I break my vow of not killing anyone? It has been a very long while, but I'm sure that it can't be too hard to get back into the saddle, right?"