Noel! I'm relieved to hear from you. My injuries are recovering all right. [they would be recovering faster if she rested more but hey] What about you--how are you feeling after all of that?

[UH YES ABOUT THAT.]

When I can. There's a lot of work for healers right now. But I'm doing everything else I need to do. [That makes it okay.] I know you must feel terrible about what happened, but it isn't your fault... I got hurt because there was an enormous monster using people as puppets. You were able to snap out of it when it really mattered.

I'd hate to be on the receiving end of a lecture--I give too many myself.

[True to her word, she stays at home for the next hour, even if she can think of a dozen things that she could be doing right now. Even so, she ends up tidying the kitchen because only so long she can sit and read when there's one glass not put away.

When she hears the knock and opens the door, she's surprised to see Noel with a sizeable bag--but she smiles, happy to see him looking well in body if not in spirit.]

Noel! Welcome--I don't know what you brought, but it smells good.

[Ethlyn's eyes widen as Noel pulls more and more out of his bag. It's all--well it still all smells good, but there are so many now, mingling with each other.]

Oh--my goodness, this is definitely a step up from peanut butter sandwiches! A lot of steps. [She laughs and gestures to the table.] Why don't we share it?

[Although in partial answer to his question, she takes a seat as soon as she says that.]

I'm all right. I just lost a lot of blood out there. [Her smile gets a little more wan.] There's not much you can do to speed that up.

[Ethlyn finds herself unable to reply to this. To return home... alive. To be able to save Altena from Thracia. To become Leif's mother again, so that he will not have the eyes of an old man before he is even of age. Maybe even to save Quan and Sigurd and keep Arvis' son from the throne. It would be monstrous to kill a child, but Arvis had no child when she died. If they could stop him from meeting the boy's mother, then....

It is a great deal too much to think about in two hours, and it is all Ethlyn can think about in two hours. She manages to write instructions, make arrangements with Marianne, put together a traveling bag so she is prepared for whatever Sentencing entails.

She arrives at City Hall on foot, staff on her back, sword on her hip, bag on her shoulder, to meet the man in uniform.]

Are you Jerry?

[She gives him a polite smile--the practiced kind that doesn't reach her eyes.]

That's good to know, but I'd like to bring it anyway, just in case.

[After all, she woke up unarmed in a labyrinth a few weeks ago, and then over the summer a huge plant monster was summoned to wreak havoc on the town. After those experiences, she'd rather not put aside anything that could be helpful.]

What will this involve, exactly? Will I be called to argue for myself? Or will this be trial by ordeal?

[The former she would expect to take a very long time. The latter... unpleasant and swift.]

["In a way," he says. So maybe not retrieving stones from a boiling cauldron or walking over hot irons. She personally doubts the efficacy of such methods at all, so it would be a relief.]

I see. I will find out what it is in a moment, I suppose. Thank you for answering my questions.

[She holds herself upright and calm as she walks into City Hall. It is far more calm in appearance than truth... inside, she can feel all her nerves, the ones she now knows there are so many of, buzzing up and down like there are ants running along them.

No advocate, a scant two hours of preparation... and a heart that is far less certain than when she first awoke in the meadows outside of town. The only way out is through.]