"The man claims that he was part of a legion under the command of Krah Mordeth. They were on detachment in Hellvion when a Templar came upon them. The Templar was in pursuit of a renegade mage. The man thought it might have been related to," he coughed, "the recent events in Hellvion. At the Duchess's ball. But he didn't speak to the Templar directly. The legion was ordered by their commander to join the pursuit of the mage. They tracked her - he sounded quite chagrined that it was a her, so I don't think he thought the mage was anyone, ah, in particular - to the village of Valance, which according to him had been taken hostage by the mage. The legion tried to liberate the village from the mage's, er, 'clutches,' but when they had her cornered she conjured up great and terrible magics that destroyed the town and scattered Krah's forces."
The man frowned deeply. "It is in conflict with what the soldiers were told when they arrived in the village. By the villagers, I mean. He explains that by saying that the mage enchanted the village into believing that she was the dead Lady Carwick. I suppose it isn't outside of a mage's powers... We may be able to still get more information from him. He's spoken very freely so far. Harder to get him to shut up."
The guard cleared his throat and shifted uncomfortably again. He had, unfortunately, more bad news to deliver. Though of, perhaps, a lower caliber. "There have also been some, ah, troubles with the staff, m'lord. The stablehand Bairn, the one who was there when the prisoners arrived, has, ah... Word has circulated amongst the staff that the Lady Carwick is being held in the dungeon, if that's really who she is. The staff that served here under Duke Carwick are, ah, rather unhappy about it. Including, I'm embarrassed to say, some of the guards. They're threatening to strike if she's left there." He frowned again, shifted again. "We'll take care of it, of course, m'lord," he assured Erwin hastily, "but I wanted to make sure you knew. You can't blame them, m'lord. Loyalty to a family, it's not a bad trait. Misplaced, in this case, perhaps. We'll sort it out." He coughed again, shifted again, then said hurriedly, "Yes, well, I'll bring the girl up. You don't really think she's...? Well, no, I won't... I'll fetch her for you now."
________
The guard returned a few minutes later, leading Olive by her still-bound arms. He glanced nervously, doubtfully at her. Perhaps thinking of what it would mean, if she was Constance Carwick... but surely she couldn't be. The thought that his men had manhandled a young noble lady was too much for the old guard. So naturally she couldn't be a young noble lady.
Olive, for her part, also looked distracted once she was brought into the study. But not by the guard, or by Erwin; her eyes roamed across the room. She looked like someone seeing ghosts. She felt like a ghost. For a moment, she felt like she was going to be sick. Though she'd known about her father's death, it had been as though... If she couldn't really see it, it was some abstract fact. But this, looking through his study, now Erwin Therrien's study, made it very, very real.
But when the guard led her to a chair and forced her to sit across from Erwin, Olive returned to the present. She looked at Erwin with clear, composed eyes. But they were harder, wilder than they had once been. Lurking somewhere behind the calm, composed exterior, she looked as much like a trapped, wild creature as she did a noble lady.