The beautiful large white church looked peaceful from the outside. People had hurried out as someone had started to yell and scream and seemed to be making some sort of ruckus around the church. As the knight that had been in there had been rude and yelling at one of the women that had been praying there, others followed to avoid the possible rage of the blonde knight. All but one, another blonde Knight from the same faction had stayed inside with her kids to just wave it away. Instead, it was Adelaide who had acted in a matter of rage.

She did not know why, she only knew that lately a lot of things had ticked off and she had been so angry about everything that in this moment of anger, she had stabbed her fellow Knight with the sword that she had strapped on her hip. Now she sat on the ground, staring at the problem she had created on the horrendous setting she made. There was the sound of crying and there was a lot of blood. Next to the knight on the ground, who turned awfully pale in the puddle of blood lay the sword of Adelaide and she stood directly next to the body, or more hunched down staring at her hands tainted by the blood of Augusta and one of her children crying loudly behind her. She should get up, she should take them away from here and find an excuse. Someone outside must have gone to fetch another knight or a Rune Knight and what if that was Konstantin? How would she explain herself, how would she ever make up for what needed to be fixed, what if... she had been entirely in the wrong but she could not afford that problem. She stared at the wand, she should tell everyone what Augusta had wanted to do, to force her to kill her kids but instead, she had swung back.

Aleksandr was on duty today. However, he had sneaked off into the alleys to grab a cigarette. Or two. Or three. To him, his work was not much more than a burden. He didn't take it incredibly seriously, while he should've. He took it rather lightly, but just serious enough to not attract Illumin's wrath - in case he existed. He still wasn't completely sure about God's existence, but somewhere in his heart, he did consider him gaining Frost Magic had to be a miracle. A miracle of God himself. After smoking two cigarettes and being half-way through the third, he heard heavy footsteps, as if it was a riot. He quickly crushed his cigarette, walked out and looked as civilians walked away hurriedly from something, seemingly rather out of fear. He was able to locate the source of their fear as the church. But why?

It was his duty to check on these things, and maintain law and order. While sneaking off to take a drag was fine in his book, ignoring a cause for mass dismay was not. As he began approaching the church, he felt consternation. What if it was a band of thieves? Or demons?

When he would, however, reach the gates of the church, and see what had happened it surprised him more than any of those things could have. Adelaide - his sister in law, along with his brother's children were present, and some woman lay impaled at the ground. Did Adelaide kill her? If so, what was he supposed to do? His duty would be to arrest her, but would he? Could he?

He approached her with slow and heavy steps. He didn't know if she had noticed his presence. He had no clue what had happened and did not want to take a rash decision. He only hoped that it would not end up being the wrong decision. The children were there too, and he hoped he wouldn't have to arrest their mother in front of them. Other knights will be here soon. When he reached her and stood in front of her, and just some feet away from the dead he spoke "What the f-" and realizing he was in a church and there were children present, he reworded "What exactly happened here?"

Hunched down and pale she sat on the ground, staring at Augusta in front of her. She heard the sobbing and the cries of her children but she was shaken and could not move or do anything about it at this point. She did not know what to do, she was going to get into prison, she would have to run, flee, do anything. She had left the darkness behind and yet look at her here, she had killed another Holy Knight. What should she do? Her mind kept repeating, staring at the blood red hands that she held in front of her to know what she did, her sword still on the ground, she did not hear, she did not listen, she only heard Tanya as her motherly instinct told her to keep an eye out or an ear out for her children to hear where they were and that they were in no harm. Finally, she noticed the heavy steps and she looked up at the face that she recognized.

It pained her to see her brother in law and she heard how he had to correct himself to ask her what happened and he said exactly and her lip trembled and she went to stand up straight, she was glad that at the moment of surprise, she had first looked before she had grabbed her sword, she did not want to come over as someone who would attack Aleksandr. She felt her stomach make a hurl and she felt the bile in her mouth again, but like the previous time, she would not vomit. "Alek." Was the first and only word that she could pronounce. She felt the urge to cry and just give up but she could not, not with her children so close. What did it all matter if she could not protect them. She took a deep breath to try and explain what happened even if it were all question marks to her. "She threatened the children. She threatened with that thing." She pointed at the golden wand that had rolled a bit away from Augusta, "To make me kill the kids." she said in a hushed whisper and whipping off her hands on the armour to grab her sword and clean it too as well as the wand that Augusta had. "She said something about Kon leaving me because of the kids because that's not what the Illumin wanted and I don't know, something... snapped?" Would she be able to say goodbye to the kids, would she be able to bring them to someone who could take care of them, Judina's mom for example? What would Alek do, she was at least very happy to see it was him here, not someone else that she did not trust at all. Which was currently a long list of the Knight of her faction.

As Aleksandr stood close to her, Adelaide had finally looked up. He was only hoping she would show any hostility and wouldn't panic. While it was understandable for someone to panic in such a 'situation' it would never bear fruit, or help the situation in any way. He could feel inside that his sister in law was on the verge of breaking down. He listened to her carefully and had figured that she had acted on impulse. The impulse to kill someone. " "Well, she was wrong. Illumin will never wrong his followers." he tried to reassure her, to calm her down but what he also had realized was that he couldn't turn her in. It happened in the heat of the moment. The other woman had provoked her and threatened her. Could he blame her for thinking about her kids' lives?

"Calm down. It was an accident, I understand and don't worry, I'm not going to turn you in." Something stung him inside that he was doing the wrong thing but he buried that feeling. "But." he paused and then said again "We have to do something quickly, other knights will be here soon. They might not have the same level of understanding for your situation. Maybe we can say she attacked you. Maybe we can say that she tried to harm your children and you acted out in self-defense. But we're going to have to decide fast." He said and took a quick glance at the children and pointing at them "They might even question them." said in hushed tones. Then he took a few steps back and looked at the dead woman. "And what are we gonna do about her?"

That was when he noticed that she had picked up the sword, maybe to clean it. "Don't destroy evidence. I don't think we have enough time to bury her and her sword."

She was trying to show that she was the woman that she always had been. Steady, stubborn and not in a state of panic. Which was very difficult as she was shaking, her mind could not fantom what she just had done and thus she did stupid things or that's how it felt. He told her that Augusta was wrong, Illumin would never and yet she felt her lip tremble, "But what did I do? I don't know what happened, I didn't see anything, next thing I know." She stared at her sword, not yet cleaned as she first picked up the wand and stared at the two items in her hand.

She noticed the panic that overwhelmed her but with just the right words and short and direct, she nodded at Aleksandr and took a deep breath to calm down. No panic, they had nothing with panic but she stared at him with big eyes. "You won't?" But that means she brought him in danger too! She followed everything Alek said and turned to look at the crying Tanya and the shaking Anton who still had not lowered his hands. She did not know what to do and looked up from her hands when Alek said she should not be destroying evidence.

Evidence?

She dropped the sword again and opened the breastplate of her armour to hide the wand. "If I have to believe Augusta, they can read my mind with this thing. We better keep it away from other curious minds." She tucked it in under the shirt she was wearing underneath the breastplates before securing them again. Now, what, they had the ability to see things with magic but that would only see her fingerprints on the sword and that would not explain a lot of things. "No one will believe me, I was all alone." She turned to look at Aleksandr, panic was rising again as she knew time was ticking. She looked at the body again, of course, her fingerprints would be on her sword and Augusta wore... gloves. She looked over her shoulder, "We need to come up with a story that we both can tell separately. And fast." In detail she told Alek as quick as she could what happened and what they should answer with questions. Augusta had threatened to kill her children and spoke that Adelaide was defiled by them and thus not worthy of the Illumin. When Adelaide had answered that she was blessed with not one child as she had always assumed during her pregnancy but with two, in a blind rage and panic Augusta had taken her own life as the god she so loved had failed her.

She went to quickly go to Tanya and sit next to Anton and took her daughter on her lap to shush her as well as she could. How to convince two two-year-olds what to say. She should have found a good nanny.

"Look, whatever happened is past now. Just don't keep it on your mind. It doesn't matter now. What matters is that we need to get ourselves out of this situation." Aleksandr spoke as calm as possible. He could have never imagined that one day he'll be taking a drag and then walk into a church to see that his sister-in-law has seemingly murdered someone, even if she held no account of it. But who would have imagined that anyways? He trusted Adelaide though. He didn't believe she'd murder someone unless extremely threatened or provoked but how could he tell for sure anyway? He hadn't witnessed it. But for now, he had to cast aside his morals and his doubts and help her. She was family. He believed her enough.

"No, I won't tell them, I don't really even like any of them to be honest," he said to her, as reassurance. He really couldn't think of anything else to say. Time was running low, they had to be clear and concise. He decided to go check the church door to see if anybody was coming while she tucked the wand under her breastplates. "I don't see anyone right now," he said to her as he walked back. "Yeah, you don't wanna give them anything they can get an advantage over us from. I don't really trust people that are too religious, so to say. Never know what they're gonna do, how far they can go."

He carefully listened to Adelaide explain the story she would tell and now he had to decide what he was going to do. "Well, I'll say that I heard noises from the church and people were hurrying out, they looked very scared it looked like somebody was causing a nuisance and heard somebody shout about killing people." he said pointing to the dead body, "I decided to check on it because it's part of my duty and also to arrest her, and I walked into her killing herself. What are they gonna do, try and find all the people that attended the church or question the dead body why she killed herself? I think not." and then continued "We might be questioned, but I'm sure we can handle it."

Aleksandr speaking so calmly made her calm down a bit. She needed to calm down else it would only become a bigger problem. She would not be able to lie to the other Holy Knights if she would not be able to keep her mind, it would only become a bigger problem. She nodded, "Yes, you are right." She hushed her child by moving her softly on her lap and up and down and up and down and petting her back. She needed them to listen, so she was sure that Tanya would calm down soon. She pulled on Anton's hand to make him look at her. She wished she could bring them to Odin or let the Lich pick them up, they would be safe with him but she did not have that luxury. "I want you to repeat after me." She said and learned her children to lie, which broke her heart even worse. She put Tanya back on the bench and turned back to Alexandr. She had heard his words, that he did not like any of them but she decided not to answer that for now. They did not have much time and the most important part was taken care off. "Which is exactly why I have to protect the children right now. I can't leave them out of this yet but I wish that was a possibility." She fussed over the two of them now that the wand was protected and the way the story would be told to whoever was filled in. "Sticking to the most honest and yet better answers would be the best, I bet you agree." Because she agreed with that story. She lifted up Tanya when someone came running in. She did not remember his name but he was a lower rank than Aleksandr and her and she did not know on which side he belonged. Tanya still sobbed a bit and she told her to keep her mouth, she told it politely to her daughter and Anton seemed to hide behind his mother. "What happened here?" The man asked her and she turned to Aleksandr, he would come in, he would have to speak, she would have to be in shock, "I, she." she gave a nod to Augusta, her sword again placed next to her with the blood pool around it. "She threatened everybody here." She did not know how best to perform but pretending to be upset was the best she could do, which made Tanya sob again, which was a good start.

Aleksandr watched as Adelaide attempted to calm her children down. Oh well, maybe children aren't that bad after all. But not every kid in this world was his brothers'. Not every kid in the world was the same. Most kids he knew were extremely annoying. But was now really the time to think of this? To figure out an answer he can give himself? Not really. He really should just focus on the task at hand right now which was to get themselves out of this situation. "You do need to protect them. Just keep them calm, please. That's the most important."

"I do agree with you," he said to her before he heard footsteps behind him. He turned back to find another Holy Knight, and it seemed judgment day was upon them. He hoped none of them will crumble under the pressure. The man asked him what happened here, and he said calmly "I was on patrol when I heard some shouting coming from the church. I saw that a lot of people exited the church, and they all looked scared. So I decided to check on it." he then continued "I ran here as fast as I could and heard noises about killing 'lower lives'. I got ready to arrest whoever was there and walked into this woman," he pointed at the dead body "killing herself." he then looked at the Knight, waiting for either doubt or belief from him. The best case scenario would obviously be him believing them, but he didn't feel he would. Ah well. Who knows?

The Holy Knight, whose name she did not remember, looked at Aleksandr with a frown on his face but because she added in her fair state of panic that she, Augusta on the ground, threatened everyone and that her child sobbed, made the tense shoulders of the knight drop a little and ask Adelaide if she was fine. Perhaps it had something to do with being a higher up, with being one of the only females higher up, so people did not tend to forget her often.

She looked shortly at Aleksandr, maybe the good thing was at this point with Konstantin forgetting her that they also did not know that Alek was her brother-in-law. She held up Tanya to let her nuzzle her little face against her amour and hide it and not show the big bad man that she was crying. She herself tried to compromise and held Anton's hand while looking shortly at the knight, he asked her what happened. She talked about what Aleksandr just said, threatening, that they all had to die because they did not do well in the name of Illumin, which was what Augusta had meant. "I do admit sir." She decided to stay polite. "That I have no idea how she got my sword, I think I drew it to prevent her from harming my children. But she managed to snatch it away and when I told her that she was wrong, she..." She let go of Anton's hand and waved at the mess over near the door. He went to inspect and indeed noticed her sword which he handed back to her. She had no idea what he thought.

It remained silent for a while before he would take Aleksandr outside, ask him a few more things and went back inside to ask Alice apart the questions too. As they were both aware of the story, giving it in detail enough, they both answered the same, not with the exact words but the setting. He let them go, asking them to keep it hushed because no one should know about this. Augusta was one of their best recruits and it would be a shame. He would figure it out and asked Adelaide to come back later but for her sake, her nerves and the children, she could go. Once reunited with Aleksandr, she asked him softly if he would walk with her to the apartment that she was renting now. The kids needed a nap, she was sure of that with this level of stress and fear and she needed a coffee or something and they needed to talk.

'Man, I hope I didn't drop the ball here.' he thought to himself when he noticed the frown on the Knight's face. But it was soon gone so he thought they she must've done something right, even if he did something wrong. After that, he kept quiet as Adelaide handled it and watched as the Knight went to inspect the sword and held a sigh inside as he handed the sword back to her. The knight then took Aleksandr outside and asked him some questions which he was able to answer relatively appropriately to the story they had framed. The knight then went inside and asked Adelaide some things too, which he could only imagine were the same as what he asked him.

Adelaide would then ask him to walk her back to her apartment, and what could he answer other than a simple "Yes, sure." and would go with her. "I think we're gonna be just fine." he said to her. It didn't seem viable to him that they had somehow fucked it up, considering the Knight's reaction. Well going to jail is never a promising prospect. Especially since there will be no one to take care of Anton and Tanya. Konstantin didn't remember them supposedly, and Adelaide would be in jail. He supposed he would be in jail too for helping her try and hide the evidence and dodge jail time. Maybe they would have been sent to an orphanage and the conditions there are never optimal. By now he had a slight migraine and needed to relax a little. Something to drink and eat would be very nice.

She asked Aleksandr to walk her home, with the kids. Considering they could walk towards their apartment meant that the knight must have believed them that Augusta killed herself and that he would clean up the mess or something with the higher-ups, maybe it had to do with being the ace, she wasn't sure and she did not want to know but at this point she just let it be. She would walk in silence for a while, nodding when Alek said they would be fine. She would be fine, she had not wanted to drag him into this but by the Divine was she glad it was him that showed up first. She still held Tanya who hid her face now in her mother's hair and sobbed from time to time. Anton held her hand and followed, not saying a thing but that was normal.

Once arriving at the place, she had to let go of Anton and open the door but let her boy in first. "Give me a second, I will bring them to bed first." The place wasn't too big, the living room and kitchen were connected and there were two bedrooms directly next to each other. She brought Tanya to bed first, helping her little girl to put her pj's on before turning to her son who was trying by himself, which was a cute sight if she had the heart for it. Once in bed, she offered Alek a drink and asked if he would stay for supper. It wouldn't take long but she could make something easy after all that was the least she could do. She removed the rod from her armour and took off the plate herself, showing the black turtleneck she was wearing. "One day, I get him back." She muttered, thinking about Konstantin.