Herald of Steel

"Wha… wha… fath… wh.. Ho.."

Towards Alexander's sudden and brutal show of violence, Lord Cassius found himself only able to just stand there, mouth gaping wide and mumbling incoherently, too shocked to even go help up his lying father.

While Alexander in the meantleft his seat and sprinted forward, placing himself before the two men with a domineering aura and an enraged look to once again shout,

"Why did you do it? Tell me! Why did you betray us? What did Parker Heeat promise you?"

Alexander's repeating of the words really went to show how ruffled up he was.

And this loud bang right next to his ears worked to stun Lord Cassius even more, as he turned to look at Alexander with a ghastly pale face, his red lips quivering, "I… we… it was… so that…umm the water… ah.."

The sudden and brutal malice shown by Alexander was enough to quickly overwhelm this faint hearted, timid nature of a man and he could not even bring up the courage to confess, forget about defending himself.

He thus only foolishly continued to keep staring at Alexander, scared out of his wits.

"We… we never betrayed you…. my lord." As such it was once again left up to the kneeling, in absolute agony, Lord Nolan to cand rescue the day, as he squeezed out these words of denial once again.

And then fearing Alexander was going to break his other leg for arguing with him, quickly turned his head towards Lady Miranda, and supplicated, "My daughter in law! Please! Stop this! Letexplain. This is all a misunderstanding."

Given how bellicose Alexander had become, Lord Nolan tried to find an intervention through Lady Miranda's hand, even going as far as to call her 'daughter', something that perhaps he had never done.

But unfortunately for him, this was for naught as there cno answer.

"........" Only a wall of silence.

In fact, Lady Miranda did not even turn to respond to this call, as during this whole time, this lady was only sitting by the bed with only a vacant look on her face, barely even registering their existence.

She was that shocked.

And Lord Nolan's heart fell seeing this, understanding there was no help coming from that side.

While Alexander with gritted teeth blared out, "Misunderstanding? We have a hundred servants testifying what you and your son did. Yet you say this is a misunderstanding? You dare mocklike this! Men…"

"No, no, no!"

Just as Alexander was about to order another round of bashing, Lord Nolan screamed out at the top of his lungs, before viciously turning to his son to shout,

"You imbecile… speak up. Tell them about the water! Why are you standing there like a mute donkey!"

This loud cry for help from his father finally made the man sputter into life like an old, broken engine, "Ri… Right! The water! …The water! Yes!" as he stammered the words out like a broken record and then with a terrified look, started to recount,

"My lord, we were just trying to help. Linda… I mean Lady Miranda… she showed us the letter she got from Lord Achillas, where he threatened to block our water supply if we did not surrender. And we…"

"We were just trying to head there to negotiate." At this point, the clever Lord Nolan suddenly snatched the words from his son's mouth, fearing what the novice man might leak.

It would not be good for Lord Cassius to say, 'And we were trying to escape.'

Thus taking away the narrative from him, Lord Nolan then began to dress up all the events quite nicely, starting all the way back from when Miss Linda had approached them with the letter, what she threatened to do, her demands, how Lord Nolan had confided in his son about it, what they decided to do about it and at last, how everything cto this current endpoint.

Finally, at the conclusion of it all, the still in pain lying lord finished by claiming,

"My lord, we had to do this. We had to release Linda and Quentin. The letter demanded it of us. It was the only way to stop Lord Parker. If we had not, he would have killed all of us of thirst. *Sob*, kill us all of thirst!"

For the finishing touches, like a bow on the top, Lord Nolan then began to break off in half real, half fake tears.

The fake part was of course only for show for Alexander, to make him believe this hurriedly meshed together but the real part cfrom his deadly fear of death.

It was perhaps only now that it was dawning on the man just how vulnerable he was in front of Alexander. This was no longer his mansion, it was Alexander's and he was only a guest.

Thus he tried to placate the lord as best as could, stitching up a semi-reliable story on the go.

And credit where credit is due, hearing the details, Alexander did begin to soften up. That bit about the water did sound plausible as well as very concerning to him.

Thus his sharp gaze turned quizzical, as he scanned the old crone for any sighs of deception, scrutinizing the wizened man's wrinkled face, which was ruddy and wet with tears, the eyes looking back at him, bright like the starts yet lidded, as if the pain of the broken leg was too much to bear.

Alexander was unable to find anything overt to give the man away, and so moved this glance over to the large man next to the father, Lord Cassius.

This whole tLord Nolan was retelling the story, Lord Cassius was seen only incessantly nodding his head like a chicken, like he was a mute, agreeing to everything his father had to say and having nothing to contribute on his own.

Even with a broken leg and in utter pain, this aged, old man was able to react better than this hale, hearty son, showing just how much of an incompetent imbecile Lord Cassius was.

Hence Alexander did not linger on this waste for long, but instead turned his head to the fourth member of the conversation, Lady Miranda, asking her own opinion on the whole matter.

He particularly asked her, "Is it true? Can Lord Parker really stop the water to the wells? I had always assumed the water cfrom underground."

To him, this was the most pressing matter.

And it seemed that after hearing all the reasons Lord Nolan had provided, this stunned lady was able to at last somewhat pull herself back.

Thus woodily turning to look at Alexander, she basically confirmed the whole threat, detailing the underground water system and how and why there were mechanisms to turn sections of it on and off.

And at last hearing all this, Alexander's lips pursed into themselves with such strength that he felt like they might fuse together.

Food was one thing, but water too.

Alexander's heartbeat fastened to a rate it had not in years. What was he going to do now? How could he possibly supply fresh drinking water to 6,500 men for a few months?

It was clearly impossible and to him, it seemed his defeat was already sealed.

Thus in his utter shock, Alexander began to even regret acting hastily and breaking Lord Nolan's legs, saying to himself,

'Should I apologize? Maybe then he can go back? Helpnegotiate sgood terms on my behalf? Shit!"

The shock of knowing that his water supply was about to be cut off was enough to make Alexander erroneously seriously consider surrendering right then and there.

After all, how was he going to fight without this vital nectar for time?

As Alexander got distracted by this imminent incoming disaster, Lady Miranda's concerns seemed to be elsewhere.

Hearing the 'full story', this lady finally got up from her bed, and seeing Alexander enter his own world, decided to conduct the 'cross examination' herself.

Thus she approached the two men with a regal march, and then standing before the two with bubbling fury posed,

"Where is your proof of saying all this? Where is the letter you speak of? Why did you not show it to us? Why did you not discuss such an important thing with either of us? How could you decide to let Linda escape on your own? Do… you have any idea what you have done!"

Lady Miranda gritted out the last few words with clenched teeth, barely able to hold her tone together, as she wanted nothing more than to burst out into a violent tirade at the two men over what they had done.

"We… I…" Once again Lord Cassius proved useless, offering sincomprehensible words.

So it was Lord Nolan's turn again to step in, squeezing, "We were told this all in confidence. Made to swear not to reveal a word. And…"

"I asked my husband." Before the old man however could continue, Lady Miranda imperiously flashed her palms to cut him off, before turning to glare at Lord Cassius and the man swallowed a dry gulp.

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