Chateau Toussaint was a few hours away from the site of their battle with the chimera, and by the time the party came to see it, the sun was hanging lower and lower in the west. It was late afternoon for certain.

The 'chateau' – which was the Milisevran word for 'castle' - consisted of a keep that had pale blue tiled steeples on each of the four towers at its corners, along with a bailey that was ringed by a stone wall studded with battlements. All of it was cut from white stone, and while there were signs of age in the chipped walls and faded tiles, the banner of Sir Romain's family flapped proudly from the battlements – a silver knight on a rearing white charger against a scarlet field, just as resplendent as Romain himself before he charged down the chimera.

Logan and the others had been unable to refuse the young knight's offer of a place to stay, and while the castle was nothing special, it stood proud and stalwart beside one of the verdant forests that dotted the rolling countryside. And there was honour in that, to be sure.

Besides, Logan had no land to call his own. So he hardly had any right to disparage such an achievement.

The Galehaut knight walked down the sandy countryside trail with Romain at his side and the rest of the party following behind them. All the while they walked, the creaking and rattling of cart wheels filled their ears as the wagon, pulled by Romain's charger, hauled the chimera's corpse back with them. Aside from Stalk, who jumped in at one point to extract some of the dragon head's poison, and Finnan, who Arabella kept having to pull out of the wagon as he tried to climb in and play with the corpse, everyone kept their distance, for the dying monster was already starting to reek.

Romain had borrowed a wagon from a nearby farmer's hut, paying for the use of it out of his own pocket, and as they passed under the gatehouse and into the bailey with its thatched-roofed homes and businesses encircling an open field of bare, hard-trodden earth, the craftsmen and their families all hurried to see the dead creature.

Almost immediately upon his arrival, Romain received cheers, whistles, rounds of applause and shouts of praise for slaying the beast. However, much to his surprise, Logan watched as Romain raised his hands, calling for silence and calm.

"Forgive me, countrymen, but I cannot claim the credit for slaying the beast that has long plagued our lands and destroyed our livestock..." he said to the crowd of onlookers in their woollen clothing, dyed in red, green and brown. "The true heroes of today where these fine guests I bring here with me – Sir Logan of House Galehaut, Lady Arabella of House Moonflower, Ren Revanorin, Stalk, Technus and Finnan Greatsurge!" he declared proudly as he turned to the others and held out a hand in their direction. "They not only helped lay low the monster, but they also saved my life, and for that they are forever welcome here!"

Logan then saw the entire crowd turn his way, and his heartbeat sped up in his chest as the cheers and applause was directed at him and the others. Smiling, he punched his fist into the air, and as the crowd's cheers grew louder, his smile widened and he felt relief shoot through him from head to heel.

The fist pump was the only thing he could think of to do, and he was internally overjoyed that he hadn't made a complete fool of himself at a time when he was representing his family...

Meanwhile, behind him, Arabella and Ren both blushed and gave small, shy waves, Stalk and Finnan stood proudly with their hands on their hips, and Technus didn't even bat an eye, continuing to repair his ripped-open torso.

After they were done cheering, the people of Chateau Toussaint then began to cluster around the dead chimera, their children especially eager to get up close by weaving between the adults and avoiding the grasping hands of their parents trying to stop them. Even as flies buzzed around it, they gawked at its motionless form, especially at its multiple monstrous heads. Logan found himself smiling at their exuberance, and just next to him, Romain was doing much the same.

"So, what now, Sir Romain?" Logan asked.

The blonde knight turned to him. "Well, I'll probably be sending this to Gilles, my Master of the Hunt. He'll make some trophies from this monster in no time!" he said with a grin. "Meanwhile, you all have the freedom of my table and my house for as long as you require..."

Ren then took a few paces forward, grasping his staff in both hands and softly said "Isn't this a bit much, sir? I don't mean to be rude, but you don't need to bend over backwards for our sake..."

Romain responded by giving Ren a warm smile. "I know, Master Ren, but I want to do this for you all because it's the right thing to do. Not only did you save my hide, but you helped slay the chimera – a feat that was deeply important to me..." he explained as he gave the corpse a wistful glance.

Logan nodded firmly, remembering what Romain had mentioned about the beast ravaging the land when he was addressing the crowd.

"Well, we're glad to help," Logan told his fellow paladin. "And glad for the respite as well..."

Meanwhile, another voice then cut into the conversation as Stalk asked "How long was this beastie giving you trouble?" as he sidled up to the rest of them with his arms folded across his chest.

"A long time indeed..." Romain replied. He then let out a small, soft sigh and said "My apologies, sirs, but I'm quite tired. If you like, I can explain the whole story to you later? Perhaps over dinner?"

Ren's cheeks darkened again, while Logan met Romain's gaze and nodded – he had to admit, he was feeling weary too, the warm sensation of sweat clinging to his brow after the battle.

"That sounds fine to me." Logan replied.

That made a grin immediately spring back onto Romain's face. "Magnifique!" he declared proudly, and he kept his easy smile as he then began to make his way indoors, meeting a chamberlain on the way who rushed out to meet him – a portly fellow in a striped red-and-white doublet and a feathered cap. "Make sure our guests are given the best rooms we have!" he told the man, who nodded obediently.

Watching, Logan chuckled and smiled. Romain seemed rather flamboyant, but that was tempered by his clear dedication to honour, compassion and justice. And those were values Logan could only ever respect, for he held them in his heart as well.

Ren and Stalk seemed more uncertain than he was, but Finnan was all for it, hopping about excitedly on his bare feet! As Romain's chamberlain approached them and politely requested they make their way indoors, all four men strode up to the keep's entrance together, a spring making its way into their exhausted steps as thoughts of warm beds, hot food and a cold drink filled their minds at the end of this long day...

~~~

Still in the courtyard, Arabella was also hoping to make her way inside, her long ears overhearing Romain's mention of an invitation to dinner. As the cart containing the dead chimera was hauled away, she eased up the front of her dress and began to climb the steps after the others when a small voice caught her attention.

"Are you a princess?"

When she heard that, Arabella turned around to see a young girl, maybe seven or eight years old, standing at the foot of the steps. Her hair was a light chestnut brown, her eyes pale blue and wide as could be as she looked up to Arabella in awe.

"You look like a princess. The ones from the stories..." she said.

Arabella's heart immediately melted as she heard this... but said heart also missed a beat as she felt a bit put on the spot.

The thought of having to lie to such a sweet girl was enough to make a jolt of pain run through her... but at the same time, the dread of having her true status be revealed gave pause to her instinctual honesty.

She had seen it before – the moment people learned she was royalty, they either dropped to their knees or tried to worm in close to her. Neither of which she wanted.

But still, the way the girl looked at her, the hope gleaming in her eyes... Arabella couldn't refuse it. Smiling warmly, she moved to the bottom of the steps at the front of the chateau, stone clicking under her heels and dipped down till she was knelt upon the floor at the girl's side.

"I'll tell you... if you can promise to keep a secret."

Beaming, the girl nodded eagerly. However, as Arabella parted her lips to speak, more children were already gathering around her. Most of them were girls who were staring in amazement at the fabric of her dress, with some of them even reaching out to touch her hanging sleeves and marvelling as the emerald fabric ran through their fingers like nothing they had ever seen before.

Arabella didn't mind this at all, nor did she mind the gaggle of children who were surrounding her. The more the merrier, as they said...

Smiling warmly, she scanned the crowd of innocent faces that were looking her way and said "Keep this just between us... but I am a princess."

A chorus of gasps was the reply she got, followed swiftly by a young boy with a shock of red hair and freckles asking "Did you help kill the chimera?"

Arabella turned his way and nodded gently. "I did," she said. When the boy looked her over, noticing her slender frame, elegant dress and high heels, he seemed be unsure how she had done so.

All the high elf did was give a gentle laugh and ask him "Does that surprise you, young man?"

The boy's freckles seemed to enflame as he blushed nervously, looking as if he was worried he might offend her. But Arabella gave him a gracious look, hoping to show him that there was nothing to fear, and decided to demonstrate how she had done so for them all to see...

And soon, as she lifted her hands and channelled magic through her palms and long, elegant fingers, the gasps of amazement rang out again as she created an illusion of a plume of luminescent violet smoke that rose into the sky and then burst into a swarm of butterflies, their shimmering wings reflecting the light of the sun and leaving trails of sparkling glitter as they flapped around before vanishing.

A wave of 'wows' from the boys and rounds of applause from the girls soon followed, and Arabella grinned before she whispered to them again.
"I may be a lady, but I have my own ways of defending those in need..." she said before winking and pressing a finger to her lips. "You can tell your parents about my magic, but remember our secret, okay?"

All the children nodded eagerly at her, the looks of wonderment and earnestness in their wide eyes convincing her that they would keep her secret, which relieved her and made her better able to enjoy her time with them a lot more as they began to ask her questions about the battle, where she was from, how she got her magic and everything inbetween. She answered their every query, relishing the joy that her words gave them.

However, just then, she heard the sound of metal clunking, and rose gracefully from her knelt position and dusted off her skirt before turning her head.

What she beheld was Technus stood by the gatehouse, both hands at work with his tools as he began, of all things, repairing himself. With surprisingly dextrous movements for a man of his size, his enormous metal hands plugged wires back into position within himself, before he then raised his pointer finger, whispered words of prayer behind his mask, and said finger immediately began to glow before it burned red-hot!

However, the Tech-Cleric looked at the incandescent finger as if it were the most normal thing in the world, and then, after his other hand pulled a fresh panel of slab metal from a compartment within the cyborg's shoulder, he used his fiery touch to weld the new metal back into place to cover his electronic innards.

Watching the process was both clinical and strangely beautiful, with Arabella feeling herself becoming mesmerised by what she saw.

And she wasn't the only one. A couple of other children, boys and girls both, crept close to Technus, watching with eyes that were nearly popping out of their sockets as the Tech-Cleric set about repairing his own body.

However, as they looked on in awe, Technus didn't even give them a glance, focusing entirely upon his work.

Unable to ignore his wounds, Arabella wove through the crowd of children, her hands ever so gently easing them aside as she approached her compatriot.

"Would you like some help, Technus?" she asked.

The cyborg didn't lift his gaze, nor did he pause what he was doing.

"Technus?"

Still, no response.

Arabella felt herself exhale through her nose - sharp enough to reflect her frustration, but not so loud that anyone seemed to hear it save herself. Technus still seemed intent on either ignoring others or outright rebuffing them on a consistent basis.

Still, as Technus reached down to his torso, she noticed his massive hand struggling to fit into an area right at the back of his torso, leaving two large chunks of steel that had been split clean down the middle dangling dangerously close to some wires, the fracture down the two halves jagged and sharp as an axe blade. The follower of Erathis tried to shove his hand further and further in, but the unyielding rigidity of his body's inner workings meant his bronze fingers couldn't reach no matter how hard he pushed.

Arabella decided to take a risk rather than leave him to face difficulty. Raising a hand, her fingers tracing patterns in the air, she softly said the word "Guidance..."

In that moment, silver motes of light wafted outward from her palm like sparks from a fire being carried on the wind. At the same time, runes of magic suddenly sprung up on the floor around Technus, forming a ring on the ground surrounding him. The Tech-Cleric continued to try and reach the torn part of his body, and as he did so, the runes flared brighter, and his hand suddenly rotated to an angle where he could now reach, as if the magic had twisted his wrist of its own accord.

Technus' organic eye widened, and he finally decided to look Arabella's way. But the response she got from him was hardly becoming...

"I do not require your assistance," his monotone voice said sharply.

"Oh?" Arabella asked. "I meant no offense. You just seemed like you were struggling, so I thought I might lend a hand..." she said politely.

Still holding the split chunk of metal with his right hand, Technus heated up his free left hand as she said that - no doubt to weld the pieces he had been able to reach back together. His organic eye was still looking at her, but alarmingly, his other eye was still fixed on his work, the two moving completely separately from each other.

"The aid of Erathis is the only aid I need," he told her in response. "My goddess commands that, as the stone walls about a city must withstand all that comes against it, we must withstand all we face alone, else we are failures in our divine mission."

Arabella listened, trying her best to understand his point of view even as his dogmatic recital of what was clearly a paraphrases religious commandment seemed incredibly harsh to her. She hoped that she and Technus might find some common ground as clerics of their respective deities, no matter how different their faiths were.

"I understand..." she replied. "But my goddess, Hanali Celanil, commands that if you see someone in need, you should alleviate their burden however you can. And besides, even the strongest city wall requires hands to maintain and repair it..."

Technus' red left eye then finally looked at her – specifically, it locked on to her and seemed to bore straight into her soul as he snapped "My cybernetics are not a burden. They are the future, and all will soon see that – one way or another."

The way he seemed to metallically snarl at Arabella made a cold knife scrape up her spine, and she soon found herself backing away.

If she had hurt him or insulted his faith, it was hard to tell... but the way he got his back up and acted defensive made her fear than she had. And that made her own heart pang in sorrow.

Technus immediately returned to his work after speaking, pulling back his hood to reveal a bare, withered and spotted scalp before rotating his head 180 degrees and angling downwards in an inhuman manner, eyes running over his own back as if to check for damage.

Arabella had to confess that she found the sight disturbing, feeling something churn in her throat, and she wasn't alone in that – some of the nearby children recoiled and went loudly exclaimed "Ewww!" as they watched.

Technus' head almost immediately spun around again, biological eye drifting over to the children, and as his watery iris gave them an icy, unblinking stare, he said in a raised voice. "Begone, feeble things of flesh – I have augmentations to perform!"

The sound of his deep, boom voice, the audio crackling like a thunderstorm, sent the children running back to their homes. Arabella watched in despair, reaching out to try and calm them as they vanished, but it was too late.

In that moment, she felt her temper flare, and as she spun around to have a word with her companion.

"They were just children, Technus!" she said, her own voice raising to a polite scream. "They weren't doing you any harm!"

Technus' mannerisms were just as emotionless as ever as he continued to half-look at her while his work progressed. "They are future acolytes, should my task come to fruition. Otherwise, their worth is negative – to myself and to everyone."

Arabella felt herself glare in that moment, her store of goodwill running thin, though she didn't admit it out loud. "Children are the most wonderful thing in the world, Technus. They are the future, the nex-"

"I know what the future is, Princess." Technus cut her off, his words as chilling as the glance he gave her, both eyes rising from his work. "I work to build it every second of every day..."

Every drop of blood vanished from her face as Arabella felt the world go cold around her. Cold as the blank expression Technus gave her, save for a small glimmer in his organic eye that said "Did you think I didn't overhear? Or that I wouldn't figure it out?"

It was all the Princess of Evermeet could do to turn and walk away, saying nothing or giving no gesture of goodwill as she parted ways with her fellow cleric, her heart and mind sick with nerves as she climbed the steps of Chateau Toussaint and went inside to be alone...