Shortly after finding and taking the traitorous female soldier to the dungeon, Sheena walks into the throne room to meet with River. She has been updating River on the investigation with each development, and so wants to ensure that she stays in the know before the interrogation happens. River, who sits atop the throne with Stace standing to the side of it as she always does, is happy to see Sheena with potential progress in finding the traitor, as knowing there is one amongst her royal guard is stressful beyond belief. "C-Captain Sheena, have you discovered anything?" She asks, rather hopeful that Sheena has found this traitor and that she can rest a bit easier.

Bowing to her young queen, Sheena has good news for her. The very type of good news that she so seeks. "Yes, my liege. I have in fact discovered something. Or someone, rather." She responds with a smirk, "The traitor that I have told you of before has been found and imprisoned." Informing River of this, she is rather relieved to find this out. "The next step is to interrogate her. Hopefully this can lead us to our next step in catching the perpetrators who would dare attack our dearest queen." Sheena tells River with an earnest loyalty and kindness.

Stace looks over at River, to see River relieved. Stace knows how stressed this has made River, as the thoughts about one of the royal guards being a traitor is one of the most distressing concepts. "River, this is fantastic, is it not?" She asks River whilst smiling at her. She is just as relieved and happy about this good news as River herself is. The thought of her best friend being murdered is also a really upsetting thought to her as well.

"That's... A good thing." River says with a smile, happy beyond belief. She may be able to relax somewhat, aside from the stress of being in a war. She does know that it is her responsibility to at least monitor what is happening in the military when it comes to war and investigations such as this, in spite of the distress it might cause her, and she definitely tries to do so despite being so young to be a ruler. "Captain, why do you think... She would betray her station?" River asks with concern. It's got her somewhat paranoid as she can imagine others betraying her as well.

Captain Sheena is caring for River, because although she is queen and therefore her superior, Sheena is older by nearly ten years, so feels the need to care. "Your highness, I do not know. But believe me when I say that I will figure out. And afterwards, I will ensure he is punished to the fullest extent of the law." She responds, trying to reassure her as much as possible and calm her queen's nerves. "I am sorry to cut this conversation short, but I must go to interrogate her now. I just wanted to keep you updated on how it is going. And don't worry, as for as long as I am standing on this earth, you shall not perish." Sheena tells her, her support helping to ease her mind even more.

As Sheena turns away and starts to walk towards the throne room door, Stace and River look at one another and River speaks. "Stace, do you trust Sheena? Because I do. I trust her with my life every day, and I have faith that I'll never be killed while she is leader of the royal guard." She tells Stace, looking back to the door as it closes behind Sheena. The thoughts of having such a staunch guardian ease both of their minds and is a very warm and comforting feeling. Sheena is their most loyal soldier, and she would cut any enemy down that dare to raise arms against the queen.

Walking down into the dark and dimly lit dungeon in the thick of night, Sheena has her two accompanying royal guards following behind as she walks down the stairwell. Reaching the bottom, there is a bit of walking as it is in the far reaches of the dungeon where traitors to the crown are imprisoned. Both the man they had captured that night, and the traitorous soldier are held in captivity here. Reaching this section of the prison, they reach the heavily guarded cell with a whopping three guards standing outside of it, where the female guard is held. "Open the cell door." She tells the stationed guards.

Listening, two step aside while the one at the center turns to the door and uses a key to unlock it and opens the door, then stepping aside himself. Sheena steps inside of the cell, and sees the traitor standing by the back wall and looking towards her. She has been stripped of all weapons and her armor, as would be expected, and instead wears prison attire, raggedy shirt and pants with old shoes. Almost identical to the attire that the other prisoner wears, except a different size.

As Sheena enters, the two women lock eyes. "Ms. Sarah Esabelle McCafee is your name, correct?" Sheena asks her, not a big fan of traitors in the least. The ex-soldier, Sarah, nods in response without uttering even a singular word. She shows no shame for her actions and for her treason, but from her lack of fear, Sheena can tell that she may be a tough nut to crack, so to speak. "Not much for talking, are you?" She asks Sarah, "You made quite the stir in the inspection earlier. Did you really believe that you had a chance of escaping from our grasp after being discovered, traitor?" Sheena asks, very nonchalantly and not so happy.

After this, Sarah can tell that Sheena is not here to play. Although Sheena seems a bit confident that she can get the information needed, Sarah is determined not to spill a drop. "You think that you are so great, don't you?" Sarah asks Sheena, not intimidated by her, now former, captain. "Don't be so confident yet... I am not as easy to crack as that one guy you captured was." She posits this as a sort of challenge absolutely knowingly and not scared in the least.

What she says might seem to be a high order given her own cockiness and confidence, but Sheena is not intimidated either. She looks at the guards standing at the entrance of the cell, which are five in number, and back at Sarah. "You may think that, but we have our ways." Grabbing the hilt of her sword and ready to unsheathe it at a moment's notice, she makes her opinion on the matter noticed. Though to her surprise, the intimidation does not seem to work that well at all.

"Heh. Do you think I'm scared of you?" Sarah asks Sheena, not shaking or trembling whatsoever. "Do what you will. Tear me asunder, cut me down, you won't stop this movement." She says with a bit of a psychotic tinge on her speech. Not only is she not scared, but she is accepting of the prospect of death. She does not know what comes after, as no one really does, or even if there is an after. But she is content of the traitorous life that she has led and is happy to die for a cause she believes in. This is how martyrs are made, and she knows that.

Seeing her rather brash bravery and contemptuous courage, Sheena knows that more will be needed to break her if threats don't cut it. And outright killing her will not be useful whatsoever, as it'll just make whatever information she could divulge lost forever. To further this investigation, they need to get info from her, so the next logical step is something that Sheena would only resort to if usual tactics failed to the ethical questionability. Torture. Placing one hand on her hip and releasing the hilt of her sword, Sheena broaches this idea. "Fine. If you refuse to talk, I might just do that. Or..." Turning to look at the soldiers behind her, she motions them in. "Take her to the 'other' room." She looks back at Sarah. "Whether you think you will speak or not, we'll get it out of you in any way that we can." She says very intimidatingly as the others walk past her, chain Sarah's hands together, and Sheena and a few of the soldiers lead her to this 'other' room that she mentioned previously.

After having spent a bit of time out on the town to see how citizens are handling the war declaration, Elias returns back at his manor late at night. Walking in through the front door after a thin male servant opens it for him, he walks up the stairs and takes a right turn, walking into his office that is immediately to the right of the stairs. Looking at his father's accolades that dot the room's walls, his university master's degree in philosophy and lesser degree in mathematics, as well as a few awards from his younger years, Elias feels like it's going to be hard to live up to it all. He has little interest in something like a higher education, but maybe one day he will do it. He walks to the desk and sits at it, pulling Amelia's note of his pocket and looking at its envelope for a brief moment before pulling out a drawer and placing it inside.

Pulling out his journal, he opens it and starts using an ink pen to write in it. He of course has to periodically dip the pen's tip into an inkwell to refill it, but it's common for his time and cannot be avoided. Not long into writing the day's journal entry, the door opens, and he looks up from his book. "Oh, Amelia." He says as Amelia enters the room, she is wearing an upset expression. Not upset as in mad, but seemingly frightened. "Hm? What's wrong?" He asks as he soon notices this expression.

She steps towards the desk with closing the door behind herself like she usually would and leans over the front of it with her bottom lip seeming to quiver ever so slightly. "W-Why were you out so long...?! I was worried...! You never stay out so late, so why?" She is quite upset and raises her voice somewhat, usually uncharacteristic of her. She has helped raise him, being his late father's most trusted and longest lasting servant, a second in command of sorts, so it makes sense that she might have motherly instincts regarding him. She helped bathe him as a child, feed him as a baby, and has loved him dearly for as long as he can remember like a mother would. "Please, tell me why..." She says, worry resonating in her voice.

From the very beginning he has known her but seeing her worry herself to death never gets easier. Death defying venture after death defying venture cannot be easy on someone with so much care in their heart. He wishes his father could've shown such care when he was a child, but he is happy he has had her to fill that void. And it makes him realize something. He has had a mother all this time and just never known it. "I... I'm sorry. I shouldn't have stayed out so late. It is nearly midnight after all. Please forgive me." Elias says to the worried sick Amelia, the mother he had never thought of as such.

Hearing him apologize earnestly and have such a loving tone in his voice is new to Amelia, so it unleashes the flood gates. Tears start flowing down her cheeks quickly as she sobs, hands at the edge of the desk and looking down at it with tears falling to the desk below. Never before had she thought he'd address her with such a tone, but she is oh so happy to hear it. "I-I never thought...!" She tries to speak but it is broken up by her heaving sobs, stopping her from saying much. She is far too emotional now to muster too many words, and whereas Elias' father would get mad about his workspace being covered in something like tears, Elias himself is not like that and stands.

Walking around the desk to Amelia, he lifts her back up and pulls her in to hug her. He is caring thanks to her being the one to raise him more than anyone else, even his actual blood related father. Her caring and loving nature rubbed off, and he is very happy with that. He cannot even imagine being distant from others like his father was, and hugs her to console her, allowing her to cry into his shoulder. "I know that... I've not treated you as I should have. And for that, I am sorry." As their hug releases and Amelia cries into her hands, Elias pulls out a handkerchief.

Elias helps her wipe her face as she rubs her eyes and tries to contain these tears. She does not cry often, but when she does it can be hard to stop crying. She manages it despite that though and grabs the handkerchief from him to finish wiping her face, looking over to see how she made his desk wet. "I... I'm so sorry!" She looks up at Elias, "I'll-" Before she can even get her sentence past the first word, he holds an index finger up to signal her to be quiet while wearing a smile on his face.

Elias then looks at his desk and is not mad to see this mess whatsoever, unlike how is father would have been. He then looks back at her and speaks. "Don't worry about it. I'll clean it myself, okay? You can go lay down. I know you've been worried, so please go and rest." He says, holding her hands together between his own. "It's the least I could do after giving you so much trouble. I'm not like my father. And that is all thanks to you." He tells her, giving a smile that is so warm and loving that it feels like it could melt her heart.

She slowly realizes that her role in helping raise him has not been for naught. And technically she didn't 'help' raise him, she DID raise him. She is happy to have brought up such a good man, a man who could be envied for his good nature. She accepts his offer, leaving the room after thanking him and returning his handkerchief, which leaves him to wipe up the tears that she had spilled, which he has zero problem with. To him, she is much more than just a servant. She is family.

To Be Continued...