'We have Ursah. She turned herself in. I just thought you should know...'

Tessalyn's words echoed in her mind with a churning resonance she felt deep in the pits of her belly. Mesastina was at the Shalonesti Gates soon after. Her charger trotted down Emerald Lane, carrying her boldly atop. She was unarmed.

'Matron! '. She bellowed into the air openly. A barrage of howls from the natives went up like a pack of giggling hyenas. , 'Your time has come! ' 'No mercy for the damned! ', then she heard her Matron's voice...

'Mesastina, go! I know what I'm doing! '

At that exact moment a druid arrived on the bridge where she had halted. Without warning, he uttered a curse before flinging a barrage of vines toward her to ensnare. She evaluted the situation, flashed on a thought of her daughters and on that flash suddenly envisioned herself locked away, and her daughters mourning and alone. The vision wrenched her heart and without a thought she then kicked her charger's ribs, and yanked the reigns. With a quick about-face, she fled the parade of vines...

As soon as she reached the outside of the gates, she thought a long moment, and better. She thought of her Matron being beaten and question, rotting alone in a filthy cell... She was too good to suffer alone. Her thoughts of her beautiful angels beat on her mind... The flare of Kalyxi's white hair, and her smile. The cuteness of her barbaric knee-trick... Then the stunning beauty of Celystina's eyes, and the way her lips trembled as she slept in a little ball with Mr. Bears. She couldn't go back... Then she remembered a night of brilliant silence, fear, and tears in the Crimson Suite... It was not possible for her to not go back then... She owed her Matron too much, and without Ursah, the conception of Celystina would not have been possible. With that, her heart surged with urgency, and she plunged back through the city gates...

Mesastina spurred her charger to a slow trot down Emerald Lane. She was still unarmed and saw Jesce on the rode ahead, still on the bridge. She checked her charger when she came face-to-face him once again. He was leaning on his staff casually as if he knew she would return, then she met his eyes and they simply watched each other for a long moment. The druid tried a better approach this time... 'Please, I don't wish to fight. Dismount and come with me.' Mesastina always responded politely to civility. She offered her empty palms outward in a gesture of surrender, then said softly 'I didn't come to fight, I just want my Matron.'.

Jesce nodded. She dismounted slowly, and sent her charger away. Jesce's wolf, Koba, padded behind Mesastina, preventing escape as Jesce siezed her elbow and escorted her to the jail.

'Remove your weapons.'

She pulled the mace off her belt, and handed it to a guard. She then dug for the scalpel she keeps in her pouch, and handed it over. After several moments of glares and muttered curses she was admitted.

She strode into the room, ignoring the wretched people that crowded about, growled, and glared like rabid dogs around a chained rabbit. 'Mesastina...' her matron groaned.

The one referred to as 'the crusader' shoved her way through the throng and stood near her beloved Matron. She knew fully what she had gotten herself into, and she was not afraid. All those that gave her a glare, Mesastina raised her lavender eyes to meet, and hold with her iron-wrought confidence. She noticed little of what was said while playing the Shalons little domination games, until Ursah spoke to Rhiadora of last requests, and handed a staff to Mesastina which she was ordered to deliver to Nactonees on his wedding day...

'What?!' was all she could voice from the pits of her burning heart.

The throngs all became giddy with the rise that was invoked from 'the crusader'. They drew their weapons and assumed positions ready to defend themselves, and each other.

Mesastina voiced herself once more, 'Matron! What are you doing!'.

Ursah turned in her desk and said, 'I'm sorry, Mesastina...'

Rhiadora ordered the crusader to be gagged and bound, and upon that order, Da'shal moved.

Da'shal readied a cloth and approached Mesastina with it, and then she exploded. She thrusted her strong arms towards Da'shal, shoving him away, then barreled towards Ursah when she was caught by Kiyda in a bear hug. Kiyda squeezed, and Mesastina was stopped, but little else... She felt the strain building in her lower back, and she wriggled her arms free enough to struggle. Her feet gained purchase on the stone floor of the cell, and she kicked at it. Kiyda drove back, and with the meeting of power, they toppled. They hit the floor, and Mesastina's hands were freed enough to begin punching him hard in the ribs as he held tight to her back... Before she could do much, Da'shal had drawn his sword, and belted her hard with the blunt end.

Her head jerked as it struck her in the temple, and limbs limped. She growled as it merely stunned and angered her... She was dizzy ad disoriented, her vision blurred, and was promptly dealt another before she could raise her fists again.

She was strong, and she held onto her consciousness tightly, almost slipping. But she was hoisted to a seated position and in the middle of their bindings, Ursah stood and shouted for them to stop.

She went for Mesastina, kneeled next to her, and cupped her bleeding face in her palms. Mesastina looked into Ursah's eyes with her lavender gaze, and remained silent... words would have been too clumsy for such a meaningful moment frozen in time amid chaos and blood-thirst. In that hanging instant where only the two of them existed, Ursah traced her fingers down Mesastina's cheeks, and whispered, 'I'm sorry...'... She founds no words to respond with and smiled a bit as she held Ursah's eyes with her own, when the cords bit her wrists, and she was jerked to her feet.

The beautiful moment was gone as she was forced in her staggering dizzyness out the door, and thrown into another jail cell down the hall.

That first night dragged on, and on. From one Shalon's shift, to the next. The horrible waiting, and pensive feeling that forced her body to writhe with frustration... fearing for her Matron, and mourning at the thought of her agony, when she herself could suffer no agony aside from that.