Stiers headin to the north

 As Stiers heads north, Cail spots him on the road. He does not attempt to speak with him, but Cail can tell that he is off to do something painful or something of the like.
 
Cail bows his head and says to himself, "May the blessings of the Heavens be upon you brave warrior."
 
He then continues to watch as Stiers dissapears into the distance.

 Cail looks to Doran as he finishes speaking with an inquisitive look on his face.
 
"What do you mean for 'her' sake? Who do you speak of?" (OOG: Cail doesnt know about Katri)

"Aye lad.  There be only few reasons a man marches off to certain doom like that.  Either he be a fool and lookin' fer glory, made a mistake and is lookin' fer a way to fix it, or it be fer a bonnie little lass."  Doran strokes his beard pondering his own words before continuing.
 
"Now, Stiers may be a fool, but a fool lookin' fer glory has more pride in his step.  And if'n he made some sort of mistake, I'm sure I would have gotten wind of it by now.  So reason has it that he's doing this for some little filly that he's got his eye on.  Or had his eye on, could be either.  Either way, I just train the lot, I don't ask 'em how their day was or if they're trimmin' their beards fer the barmaids."

The clanking of steel on steel announces the arrival of Doran Ironheart to the scene, stopping just short of Cail.  "Aye lad," Doran says solemly as he looks up to Cail.  "He be needin' the Blessin's o' the Heavens, the guidance of Lemesin, and the heart of Istensia if'n he be marchin off alone that way.  Rumor 'as it that he's about to be carryin' a heavy load soon - I hope for her sake the damn dolt comes back in one piece...."

 Katri approaches from the direction of the tavern, just in time to catch the second half of Doran's reply. She growled low, "A damned fhool, indeed!"
 
It was clear her temper had swung towards the seething side. "Eef he comes back half dead, eet vill be hees own blasted fault for not sticking around and listening to me!" 
 
It seemed she was mostly speaking to herself as she stood, hands on hips, glaring at the back of the paladin as he walked away. Her hood and mask were down and a moment later she finally seemed to really notice the presence of Cail and Doran. She nodded in greeting to both. A small gold ring on a small string could be seen around her neck beside her Black Hand pendant.

Doran tuns to Cail, gently hitting his arm and laughs, "Told you it had to be something to do with a woman."

 Cail looks from the visage of Doran to Katri and then to the small golden band around her neck. His right eye twitched and he looked away again towards the growing ever smaller figure of Stiers.
 
"Ah," he says quietly. "So it seems you are right, Sir Doran."
 
Putting on a small smile, Cail turns to Katri and says, "Well I guess if he does come back alive, I bet he'll wish he were dead, eh?"

 Katri smiled slowly, a relatively icy thing, "You haff no idea, Cail. He vill far more than vish for death."
 
 

 Cail chuckled at this and said, "Well well. I guess he does have something to return to. Very feisty indeed!" He then turned fully to face her. "It may be none of my business and if you wish not to say anything, but when did He and yourself start seeing each other?"
 
Cail felt like it was an uneasy question, but none the less he asked.

 "Eet isn't that simple. There ees a reason thees ring ees not and vill never be on my finger, Cail." Her dark eyes glittered with an unreadable emotion between anger, fear and sadness.
 
"Thees-" she gestured to the nearly unnoticeable bump of her stomach- "vas never supposed to happen. Ever. Eet has complicated this to far more than the comfort I had sought. And eet has caused the scene you see now."  Her hand gestured to the retreating paladin.

 Cail blinked twice as he looked down to her stomach and then back up to her face. "I see," he said somberly. He turned to look again at the almost vanished man. "Do you think he will regret it?"

 "I do not know. Eet vill be hees decision." Katri answers, not moving her gaze from the man that was nearly out of sight.

 Cail pauses a moment before speaking as if thinking hard. He turns to Katri again and says with a smile, "He wont. And even if he does in the end by some act of fate, you still have a family here that will help you."

 Katri shrugs. "Eet vill be vhat eet must. Regardless of what anyone decides to regret or not regret."
 
She looks back to the Empyrean and the paladin, "I vill have to live regardless of my anger or what he decides."  Her mood seemed to make a total turn around. (OOG moodswing xD)

 "That it must," Cail says, "but for now i think i will retire to my quarters. Studying all day has left me... rather drained."
 
Cail pulls his cloak around him and raises his hand in farewell.
 
"I bid you both a good evening." And with that he steps off into the woods towards his own cabin.

 "Good evenink," Katri dipped her head to cail, then looked at Doran. "Vhat ees to the north?"

 Katri shrugs, deciding she was apparently not going to get an answer from the Dwarf a short time later. With a final glace at Stier's shrinking form, she let out a low hiss and headed back into town.