Koe flung the hammer to the ground neither gently nor firmly. It simply landed and he let it lie, staring for a long moment before twining his fingers together and withdrawing fromt he nightmarish wreck which had become his planned home. Aside from a single light flick of his ear, Red made no complaint. No comment. The dray horse simply stared from his resting place beneath a crooked plum tree and then went back to munching on the fruit falling from its branches. Koe wanted nothing more than to join his horse in eating fruit and pretending that nothing was wrong, and nothing could be wrong. Unfortunately his childhood home stood in ruins, and the copy he was working on with all of his heart grew no closer to completion. Seas of emerald green danced in the heavy mountain wind, bright and gay as the announcement of spring's arrival. They swayed and trembled under Bahamut's gentle touch.

( Unfortunately, so did the north wall. )

If it surprised her servants that she'd directed them to place Saedus in the set of rooms neighboring her own, they had done well not to show it. Those rooms had been empty since the building of the castle, and although no one - save the Chatelaine - knew what purpose they wound serve, there were many rumors. Some said that they belonged to the original Lord and Lady - Methos and Sirenna Kenyon. Some said they were reserved for the future Lord of Kenyon. Some said they were for human children who may one day grow up to be embraced and called the heirs of Kenyon itself. Some said those rooms were meant for the great protector of Kenyon, as Methos had first been. But Kenyon's Chatelaine had given no hint until tonight as to why she had them set aside. Even now, with that terrifyingly-cloaked stranger assigned to them, there was no certainty.

Not even for Rayne herself.

Having returned from the temple well-fed and much improved from the hour earlier, she waited at the bottom of the winding staircase. One hand rested on the balustrade beside her; the other stayed in an elegant line at her side. She had sent the summons from the temple, both to give herself and them the time to answer it. Time. The thought made her smile, if only faintly. What sort of creature could give that one time? It seemed to Rayne that he took whatever time he wanted, and the rest moved in accordance with Amasa's wishes. She was sure the thought was sacrilegious in some way. She didn't bother thinking about the how of the slight.

When the doors to the castle opened from the outside, she turned her attention toward it. The night air was warm and slightly humid when it hit her, but she yet remained motionless until, from that darkness past the reinforced wood planks, came the distinct blue light she had been expecting. There was the one, then. But the other? She resisted a speculative look over her shoudler to the corridor upstairs. She had left the door open, though a guard was posted with instructions... She wanted to believe that Saedus Allasan was still an ally to Kenyon. And it seemed to her that if he waited for them now, it was more likely that he was still loyal to the word he once gave her.

But if he made her wait past the appointed time - which was now - then that said something, too. She had been negotiating for far too long to miss the subtleties of action - or inaction - and the games of superiority. Saedus could play them, those games, for the power she'd seen him display made him superior to more than his fair share. But would he play them with her?

Time would tell. Time, always time. The swirl of air from the castle door closing caught the hem of her green silk and sent it ghosting around her ankles. Shade's boots sounded clean and uncompromising on the stone floor spanning between them. But she met him before he could bow and set her hand on his arm instead. They had been through too much together for her to bear him humbling himself before her.

And that was why she had sent for him. Of all the Contingent - only her brother, the Commander, excluded - Shade Everdark, Knight of the Eclipse Guard, was the one she most trusted. And she wanted him with her when she finally did sit down to speak with Saedus. It helped that Saedus already knew Shade as well. Helped.... But she was certain Saedus would still understand the reason for Shade's presence with them.

"Shall we go up?" she asked him quietly. And this time, she did look up those stairs to the corridor that led to her antechamber.