Taalia Giovanni

Taalia's breathing was under control as she considered the scene before her, lips pursed and mind scrambling to dredge up what she had learned from her brief, but informative education in the mystical. To a degree, her memory also extended back to the villa within the Trantio hills and the mournful spectre that had long resided there, a spirit driven to the point of madness until insanity's grip was broken by the revelation of the fate that befell his family.

But what about here? Which of these two were telling the truth?

Was the wife possessed of a devil? A lingering spirit from a parallel world of bleak mysticism that had clawed its way through the barrier that separated two realities, only to find this womans body a dwelling to its liking, from which it seized control of her faculties before she was restrained by her husband?

Or was it Donallo? A former knight and 'good man' who had had become possessed by a dark spectre that had driven him to acts of imprisonment and apprehension on his own wife, to the detriment of his peoples security?

In a snap decision, Taalia decided: it was Donallo.

She held ajar the possibility that she was wrong, of course, but the signs pointed towards it. What prior 'good man', as Margot claimed, possessed the willpower to do and treat his wife in such a way, even under the belief that her consciousness was suppressed beneath that of a devil? Surely imprisonment within a well furnished room and three square meals a day rather than this...indignity, while awaiting the arrival of an enchantress would be what a 'good man' would do? Furthermore, would the man that Margot married neglect his lands to this degree? Had Donallo believed his wife possessed, why would he ignore the plight of his realm for weeks and months on end? The orcs and goblins were in the mountains, bandits threatened the highways, he surely knew all this yet did nothing. Indeed, he sent his most able security away from the castle and their stations of responsibility, leaving the peasantfolk open to the threats that would have once been deterred by organised defensive measures. Was multitasking so difficult? Place Margot within a well supplied room until the Enchantress could discern the truth, and busy himself with the operations of his lands with a heavy heart.

Or better yet, why not take Margot to the enchantress? Confine her to a carriage and escort her to the one who could determine the validity of her possession and expunge the daemon within were it so?

Instead he had done none of those things. He tied Margot up like some beast, allowing her to foul and defile herself before his very eyes while ignoring the plight of his realm.

And finally, there was Margot's insistence that, after all that she had suffered, Donallo not be harmed because she believed he was not himself.

Taalia could conceive of a scenario in which it was indeed the lady of the manor that had within her the dark spectre that utilized her like some type of marionette puppet - but it did not look like this.

Or maybe...they were both possessed? Like a disease, it started with Margot but spread rapidly to Donallo and remained confined within him due to his self-isolation from the rest of his entourage.

"I think it is Donallo..." Taalia whispered back, her gun still aimed towards the man.

"What noble lord would tether his wife like a beast in such an undignified station and allow her to foul and soil herself for weeks on end while neglecting his lands?"