“Far too few I imagine. I’ve taught a couple of the noble types, worked with them too and lets just say they were rather lacking in even basic knowledge.” The admittance came with an additional pipe of curiosity for her. She knew he had offered to be a guide for her to find a new place through the wilds and navigate, but if he also knew how to fight, she wondered just what line of work he belonged to. He had already informed her that he had not answered the call to arms, and if he was knowledgeable in such affairs, she also pondered what it was that had halted him from doing so. Maybe he simply didn't wish to go to whatever war the king had planned. Yet if it was up to her, she'd have done so. No matter the crown's motivation, there was no denying that the poor would suffer. That those her parents labeled 'miserable commoners' would bear the weight of action all the same as if they would the inaction. Already, the markets were beginning to dwindle with goods. The land outside of Dunmeath being poor and inhospitable to a great many crops. If she had the chance, she would take up arms if it meant feeding the starving and wretches without the plethora of coin those in her family loftily waved. “Well if you want a refresher,” he began and she would smile. “There’s plenty of time to learn. Not tonight but… another time perhaps?” "Then you can teach me too, if you'll b-be my guide." Was the garnered proposition. After all, once she was on her own, she would need to be able to protect herself, and this would be a viable life skill.

His next words, however, had her heart falling slightly. “Anderstel? Guessing nobody’s told you the rumors about that place,” she would shake her head in negative, though she supposed by his tone the rumors were anything but good. “Pretty on the outside but a hunting ground for the beasts of Crue Efros.” The edge of her lips fell, turning into a frown at the inclination. She wasn't sure what beasts he meant, but she could only connect the happenings of Dunmeath to the statement. That was all she truly knew of the place she wished to make way to, and yet she knew of no other places where the reach of her family would fall short. They were at war with Crue Efros, so surely it wouldn't be quite so easy for them to retrieve her from there. “It would take a day or so for preparations and at the very least a week to get there on foot, longer if there are unexpected delays.” The more he said of it, the more unrealistic it was becoming - and yet all the more promising. She wasn't particularly fearful of monsters, if she was to be honest. She already lived with them, and at least those that would strike at her were only doing what was in their nature as predators. It would be straight forward, not simply manipulation and deceit. However, he did offer an alternative. 

“Personally I’d suggest Sanctuary, a lot closer to here. Still a few days trip but there’s far less chance of some blood sucker swooping in to devour you there.” Her sight remained fixated upon the table's top, tracing idly the path of the wood grains. "Would I easily be found there?" The inquiry would come quietly, her stare lifting his to search it for honesty. "Would I be given up for coin?"That's what had pointed them to her to begin with, she had been told, and that was ultimately why they had come. Her ransom obviously less than what they would get for marrying her off. "And what is the price for your services? What would you recommend I b-bring?"

If she began saving now, she would certainly have enough gold to pay for at least a trip to the continental line that divided Vufrein from Crue Efros. From there, she supposed it was only a matter of finding some place for her to settle. She had not heard of Sanctuary before, and while the name sounded familiar, until he gave her better description, she was not so sure it would suit her needs. However, their conversation took a slight turn. She felt her heart fall through the floor at the look the usurped his face. One that he sought to hide, but it had already unraveled at least part of her ideals. He knew. He knew who it was she spoke of - perhaps not specifically, but certainly at least the family. Her own features darkened slightly. “Lyon? Name rings a bell, happen to catch anything else about him? One part of a name alone can’t confirm our man.” "Augustus." The name was spoken with thinly veiled disdain. Though it had been his father to come to their home, she could not help the bitterness that had long been stewing within her chest.

His agreeance gave her the slight boost of confidence. She had hoped in her brief time of planning that she would depart Vufrien all together, put the blessing of distance and higher politics than her family held sway over here into the mix that would gift her her freedom. If she could merely slip from a place they had jurisdiction over, it would at least make it harder for them to reel her back in. She wouldn't be a simple minded girl waking up in the desert with no account of how she got there, who she was, or what she was doing. She would have a purpose, a goal. Any skills she could pick up and develop would only be to her benefit. “Polearms and swords are what I know best, learned enough about bows in my time to give the basics on them but don’t expect me to be a sharpshooter.” She would give a nod, her fingers tapping thoughtfully against the curve of her cheek. “If you’re looking to learn or relearn something else, well... I promise I can at least try depending on what it is.” "A sword would probably be my best option." It would probably be the most comfortable, not too overly lengthy and easily manageable with her size. If it didn't feel right, at least he seemed to have a plethora of options, and it sounded like they would have quite a bit of time.

“Depends on how hard your hunters tend to look. Sanctuary is over the mountains, surrounded by them and nestled within a thick forest. Each helping keep it from view and away from those who don’t know where to look.” She would offer a nod, but uncertainty chewed at her thoughts. Of course they seemed to be quite intent on holding her under their thumb. They even crossed a sea to take her back under their wings, a few mountains wouldn't be an insurmountable feat for them. All they would truly have to do would be to travel mauka. However, it was a bit promising to think that it was a hard place to find judging by his description. Perhaps it would be the best place for her to seek refuge after all. If her inclinations stood a chance of being correct and she had run away before rather than being kidnapped, perhaps they would expect her to flee towards Crue Efros or further. “Tends to be a bit colder up there. Isolated but free.” Perhaps it wasn't perfect after all. If this weather was enough to chill her to the bone, she didn't want to fathom an even colder one high within the arms of the mountains. Isolation also told her that she would need to be self sufficient. Provide solely for herself.

“Others are hiding out there as well. I doubt they would risk turning on you for coin,” another small source of assurance, and yet with it came it's own inquiries and suspicions. "Others such as criminals?" She would question, a slight frown tracing her mouth in contemplation. At either end of the quickly burning wick were downsides.

“As for the price… I’ve got a soft spot for runaways,” at his tease, she would relax slightly, a soft simper spreading across her lips. “What’s your price range?” Her eyes fell and her fingertips would tap lightly upon the cusp of her empty glass. "Name your price, and I will meet it." After all, her family was extremely wealthy and whatever her father wasn't explicitly willing to part with to her - through allowance or otherwise - she could certainly get from the estate in.... less savory means. “No matter what; all you really need to bring is yourself, your weapons of choice, and whatever you believe cannot be lived without. Anything more would only delay travel without the use of a carriage and that would make our movements more obvious to anyone we wish to avoid.” She would nod again. There were not many possessions that she could not bear to be away from. The only one she was truly attached to was the ring that did not leave her person. Other than that, she was rather flexible. Spring was on the edge of spilling over across the land, but she would still bring quite warm clothes giving his description fair consideration.

However, her features would darken as he once again muttered under his breath. Her earlier suspicions were confirmed to be true - that he had certainly known the one she spoke of. “Unfortunately I am well informed over the family you speak of, know this Augustus better than most,” she would shift in her seat, losing some of the comfort that she had gained as her posture stiffened and her fingers folded under her chin. “But… personally I prefer August.” She almost flinched. She almost felt as if she had been struck. While she wasn't wholly surprised by the revelation given his prior reaction, she still wasn't.... prepared. Her gaze washed over him anew, a fresh perspective laced and envenomed with all the futile emotion she had temporarily been able to lose.

It was him.
He was the one.

His ears fell, drooping downwards with dejection. His whole presence slumped with his own accordance. If he knew of the made arrangements, he made a passable argument against it. Perhaps it was the very same accusation her brother had affixed to her. Or perhaps he was simply disappointed with the candidate he had been given in betrothal. Either way, it mattered little to her. “Know this does not change my offer. I will still take you wherever you may wish to go.” The words were met with her gaining her feet. "That w-won't be necessary." Her vocals shook, her volume low as she sought to keep from causing the numerous eyes upon her. The last thing she wanted was for any other to behold her at the moment. “I’ve gotten out of arrangements my father has thought to make in the past though I admit I don’t know how much time there is to foil this one.” "I have no intentions of waiting to find out how much time there is. Good bye, August." The words were cold, bittered by frost as she dug into her pocket and allowed a few of the token coins used for currency here to fall from her fingers to pay for the drink which she simply left to mark her now empty seat. Without another word, she would seek to move past him - the bells above the door announcing her departure.

"Wait!"

The plea would fall upon deaf ears as she departed the tavern. Her eyes stung upon the brash burst of cold air as it encircled her and robbed her of her breath without mercy. Her chest felt tight, burning viciously as her lungs pulled deeply of the malicious air that surrounded her. She suppressed the cough that tickled the back of her throat, a struggle shortly given in vain as it overwhelmed her. The sensation, along with her prior alcohol consumption upon an empty stomach and the influx of emotion resulted in a retching gag.  Her hands shook, trembling as she wiped the corner of her mouth with her sleeve.

“Miss please just wait.” The call was accompanied by the announcement of the door opening the short distance behind her. She spared him a glance over the curve of her shoulder, her gaze narrowed in voiceless warning. She willed him to simply leave, to disappear and give her space. A man she did not know, one encountered by chance that she had been fated in expectation to spend the remainder of her life with. They would only have years for him to spew whatever it was he wished to say.

If their parents had their way.

He did not take the silent request, however, as she caught the muffled thudding of his foot steps catching up to her. The tips of his shoes coming into sight as he rounded in front of her, cutting off her enraged march. She would stop, an amicable distance from him, and he did not reach for her physically. Only did his vocals call to her, “Running from me now isn’t going to solve either of our problems. I don’t want this any more than you do. Of that I’m certain.” At this, she bristled, all of the buried bitterness and anger that she had tried to swallow since dinner. Since she had been forced to conform to the lofty ideals that her parents had pressed upon her. "Should I have just swooned into your arms then?" she nearly snarled, snapped, but there was still the thin veneer of control that lilted upon her tongue.  "Forgive me, but our arrangements are moot. I want nothing from you. Not now. Not ever." She would seek then to step around him, pulling the edges of her cloak back around her to ward off the cold, one she was growing increasingly numb towards. “I swear to you I did not know.” She did not halt, shaking her head. "No, but you knew as soon as I said Lyon." her cheeks seared, and she felt as though she would once again succumb to the sickness that twisted her stomach into knots. A mixture of nerves and alcohol. "I have no plans of letting their plans come to be, but I will find my own way."

“No, that’s not…” There was a small part of her that harbored resentment towards herself for such a harsh behavior. It went against everything she had been taught in recent days. To speak quietly, and only when she was addressed. To heed and obey and shrink and give into whatever demand another had of her. After all, in every sense of etiquette, she was poised beneath him, simply because of the fact that she was donned in dresses and bonnets. How she quietly wished she had been born to wield a sword and twirl a hat instead of a skirt tail. To be viewed as an equal, to have her words bear weight in a conversation that she did not need an invitation to join. Such sentiments were often times ignored, and yet it was no less constantly being ingrained within her psyche.

The blame didn't reside upon his shoulders, and yet she couldn't help the way that her teeth dripped venom. It was not just him. It was her mother. Her father. Her brother. While he had offered her an option to freedom, a ticket out, it was just as much for his own benefit as it was her own. Perhaps even more so. It would be tainted within her eyes. Just like everything else she owned. Just like the money that had clattered upon the table to pay for her drink. She did not want to accept his aid anymore than she wanted to marry him, in the end.

He turned in an effort to face her, and she would give pause, her eyes remaining locked upon his shoes, rising up his legs. His waist, his chest before settling upon his mouth. His eyes. Those earnest soft rosen quartz gems that she had laughed with mere moments before. She'd have thought them pretty, enchanting even as exotic as he himself. He had seemed so outlandish to her upon first glimpse, long accustomed to the appearance of those deemed family. She stood there for a long pause, one accompanied only by the breath that fogged betwixt the two of them. “Am I not allowed to hope you meant another?” Keen stare searched his features, dissecting the furrow of his brow, the honest dejection that crowned him. The way his ears pinned and twisted. "I wasn't given that luxury." She breathed, the words low, lacking her prior hiss. They were almost mute, matter of fact. No, he hadn't been told, but she had. She had been informed that she was being sold.

Why should the counterpart be given that reprieve?

Finally, her eyes would move past him, back towards the direction she had come at first. Back towards the frigid prison that awaited her without mercy. She had options. Her mother had told her she was planning on sending her to Shanton, a city that she knew bordered Anderstel. Being hunted by beasts still seeming preferable in comparison to being wed. She also had the option to visit a young lady who she hoped would become a friend - if not an unknowing piece vital to her escape. “Well then, forgive me for being a fool.” She would shake her head, the wounded remnants of her pride. Of the quiet hope she had harbored when he had offered to play the role of guide. “I pray that you do,” her foot steps would once again resume, though they were much slower, measured. "The same goes for you." Came the low admittance, a sad smile lingering upon the curve of her mouth, though he would not see it as her back was already towards him. She trembled, and she was uncertain if it was from the threat of tears that once again tore at her, or if it was the returning sensation of the cold. “Should our paths cross again I do hope it is on better terms.” She relinquished a shaken exhalation. "Good bye, August," was the murmur that accompanied it.