I Trust You...

-Border Forest, near Jocelynn's Brothel. 0 DSTR, Noon-

Katya did her best to help Simon pack and clean up the camp site, although he was much more experienced handling his stuff than she was.

She was relieved that Simon was willing to look past the magic-is-evil propaganda that had been instilled in them both. Katya had experienced first hand the destructive capabilities of magic, but even she knew that for now, they were going to need to rely on it. Hopefully they wouldn't get charged and executed for illegal magic use once they returned home.

"Katya, before we continue, we need to be able to trust each other. I trust you with my life, you have defended my back against an onslaught and I would choose you again to stand by my side in battle. I was foolish and I allowed my guard to slip, but please trust that I would not have let her cause any harm to the success of our mission."

Katya couldn't help but smile as he said this. "Simon, you may be way out of your element and not have much experience with dealing with mages outside the battlefield, but you are the most honest, principled, and by far the most trustworthy person I have ever met. There is no one I'd rather have covering my back than you."

Once they were all packed up and ready to go, Katya got up onto Striker and said, "Well, if Celestia is to be believed, I guess we just go east from here, and we'll bump into this witch's house eventually, so, uh, I guess I'll lead the way."

With that, they were off, quickly meandering off the road as they blindly followed the instruction of some woman they barely knew. Seconds turned into minutes, which turned into hours, and soon, Katya began to doubt this merit of their new plan. Celestia hadn't exactly parted on great terms. Perhaps she'd manipulated Katya and Simon to wander out into the middle of the forest where they'd get lost and die, although it seemed strange that she would give away a nice piece of jewelry in the process.

Katya unconsciously fingered the ruby necklace, which she had pocketed, then took it out and examined it. Supposedly, this necklace would indicate to Celestia's mother that Celestia had sent them, but then the golden eyed woman had promptly threatened to murder Katya if she mentioned her name.

Just then, as the sun began setting in the sky, a clearing appeared ahead, and as Simon, Katya, and the horses emerged from the forest, a small cottage came into sight. "Simon, did I mention that Celestia threatened to kill me if we said her name in this place? I don't quite know how she intended to carry out that threat, but, whatever the case is, don't say her name."

As they got closer to the strange cottage in the middle of the woods, Katya habitually began to plan her route of attack before forcing herself to calm down. She had taken part in many raids against secluded settlements like this, but today, she was hopefully not going to have to hurt anybody.

Eventually they were fairly close. Katya could see smoke coming from a chimney and smell something cooking within, which caused her stomach to growl. As anxious as she was, Katya hadn't realized she was hungry till now. She was about to dismount Striker, but then had a thought. "Simon, do you want to stay outside with your horses and let me take care of this, or do you think they will be safe on their own?"

<Tag - Simon, Cecile>