Oath of Steel

8 |To Bury a Heart|

When the histrionic outburst of lies finally came to an end, in the room there were only three left, gone were the private attendants serving the participants that had taken part to the Werewolf - just as the rest of the staff assigned to that room.

Finally alone, Madame Hellenia started applauding at the spectacle the other two were giving her, a ghost of a smile dancing on her lips until she got up from her seat.

Her movements did not achieve the desired result, as Rosalynde didn't lower an inch of her gun. Her arm was starting to burn, but that was still nothing compared to the training she had to endure when she was younger.

She could maintain that specific stance for hours if she wanted, nothing would have stopped her, not even her own body would have altered her actions - that by then would have started rebelling against her mind.

"I'm going to retire for the night, you'll be hearing from me soon." Madame Hellenia said to Grey as she went for the private exit, turning around briefly to look at the scene she was soon going to leave.

"It was a pleasure meeting you Miss, I sincerely hope you'll be joining us soon for another round of games very soon." She bowed her head,

"And I hope I will not have the pleasure of seeing you again," the games were over, this little chit-chat of theirs would have brought to life absolutely nothing useful for Rosalynde to use to exchange information.

Laughter was all Grey and Steel heard as Madame Hellenia left them to fend for themselves.

"So, now that I won the game, mask off," he ordered her.

"You cheated," she countered back.

"Not really, all I did was take advantage of the unexpected situation that came up," he made it sound all so simple, so obvious - as if explaining it to a young child to make sure the message got through.

Rosalynde had to admit he was good at twisting plain facts to his advantage, way better than she'd originally anticipated.

"A situation that would have never occurred if you and that woman hadn't drugged Loid here." She moved her finger till it was pointing at the floor, her index finger reminding him of the man that'd been shot to death just a few moments before.

Dead he was, but not by her hand.

"True that, but alas, he finally served his purpose in life. I wouldn't feel downhearted if I were you, " Rosalynde busted out laughing.

Sad? Remorseful? Who... her?

"Sounds like you've been preparing for this night for a while now." This time it was Grey that laughed at her face.

"I won't deny it, the only unforeseen pleasant surprise was a new player joining us tonight." He nodded towards Rosalynde, who didn't know if to release the bullet right there right now, or if to play his game and collect information.

Then it came to her that Lord Regulus wanted to talk to him, and talking needed both narrator and listener alive.

That's when Rosalynde decided which game to play, lowering her gun before making it slide on the floor.

"Unload, and put the safe on," he ordered her with kindness, and only after she did exactly what he'd asked of her, he lowered his gun in return.

"Now, let's talk about why you came here tonight to talk to me," he said.

"Why do you think I wanted to speak with you directly, and not with the other players in the room?" She genuinely asked, mostly because she wanted to know how he'd realized it without her openly stating it.