Battle of conscience.

"You belong here now."

Stelon smiled as she replayed the man's words over and over. She /belonged/. She finally had a home, a place she did not have to worry about being kicked out of by underpaid guardians.

And that home was here with the Shrike.

She had retired to her room of her own will after the disturbing incident in the gardens. The horrified screams sounded so very wrong in a place as beautiful as the gardens, in a castle as protected as that of Galesing. She had panicked and become confused as she always did in moments of terror. Larkin's words had calmed her significantly and eased her heart's rapid pounding, but still she wondered what possibly could have happened.

The girl forced herself to stop thinking about such unhappy things and sat down in the chair she had pushed over to the window the day before. The view was amazing, as was everything about this place and how she had come to be here. Miraye had been wrong...so horribly wrong. Larkin the Shrike was quite the noble gentlemen, and she found herself almost wishing Miraye could have lived long enough to realize that.

Matthias and Farrago's imprisonment in the dungeons surely had been an error of some sort, she knew. Just as her time had been. She shuddered as the image of cold, damp stone fluttered across her mind. Never again. She would not have to go down there again, and she was thankful for it.

As for the man who had freed her...She frowned. Stelon had successfully pushed the man from her thoughts, yet now she remembered and felt a cold chill creep along her skin. The man was no ordinary man, she knew that. He was powerful. And though he had appeared to help her, she could not understand why he did, or if he indeed really /wanted/ to. She tried to sort out her thoughts and failed miserably. There was definitely an aura in his prescense, and she still was not sure if she liked it.

Stelon sighed and eased herself into a more comfortable position in the chair. Her body was tense, and she slowly tried to relax. Yet something told her she had not seen the last of the man from the dungeons. She would tell Larkin about it. She nodded, as if affirming this fact to herself. The Shrike would take care of it, an intruder in the castle would not be allowed, and either the Guardians or the strange new protectors in black would find him, and cast him out or imprison him.

She stopped a moment. Imprison him...yet he had freed her! How could she tell the Shrike and hope for such things when she would likely still be down there herself if he had not come?

Stelon groaned. The inward conflict continued to gnaw at her conscience until she finally came to a resolution.

Tell Larkin. Explain to him /everything/. /Including/ the inward battle she faced as to imprisoning the man. She smiled.

"Sometimes," she thought, "I need to give myself for credit."