PeaceMaker

Mr. Crowly chuckled, "Nothing of that sorts, simply as worried as every father in the room of their daughters being in the crowds alone." He turned to look at Mrs. Roman, "it seems, contrary to my beliefs that a mother like you, one that would be the most worried is not in the bit bothered about her daughter's location."

Cryst smiled. "What for? Litian is her own person, she doesn't need me to be on her tail at every moment, does she?"

Mr. Crowly flinched, his eyebrows furrowing for a moment. "A fair lady such as her surly needs to be kept under watch, who knows what boy would try to lay their greedy, dirty hands on her?"

Cryst burst into laughter, as if finding his very much probable concern to be laughable. 

"Did I say something along the lines of a joke, your grace?" Mr. Crowly asked. 

"Oh, nono, haha… it just seems like you're mistaken about something," she smiled. 

Mr. Crowly cocked his head in confusion. "That is?"

"The fact that my daughter is not a fair maiden," Cryst shrugged, "I'm not sure about your daughters or any other family's daughters rather but I'd hate to see my daughter in that kind of weak light."

Mr. Crowly followed her silently as she continued to talk. 

"My daughter," Cryst smiled, turning to face Mr. Crowly, her eyes locked with his, "is a woman. She is not a damsel in distress waiting to be whisked away by her prince. In fact, I dare to say that she is her own prince. No woman needs to rely on a prince to go about her duties."

Mr. Crowly nodded his head slightly. "I do understand that point of view, but under the circumstance that-"

"There is no circumstance and thee quite frankly will never be with my daughter," Cryst brushed off. " I refuse to believe a woman is weak and can easily be overtaken by a man. We are more than dresses and jewelry you know?"

"But-"

"I do understand where you are coming from, but I refuse to adhere to your train of thought," she pressed, "A woman is not weak or meant to be carried like a doll like most men would like to believe. If a woman, or my daughter is swept along like that, then I believe it is by her choice to go down that path."

"But-"

"If by the chance that she loses sight of the woman that she is and is carried away against her will, then do you think I'm going to throw her aside like society will? I carried her in my womb for 9 months sir, and raised her for the many years that she has lived. Do you think I'm going to throw that all away due to some accident?" Cryst chuckled, "There is no stained woman, and I will certainly never call my daughter that. There is however a disheartened woman which I am sad to admit that most girls in this room are being forced to believe they are."

Mr. Crowly followed quietly, letting her words seep into his mind. His eyes looked up into the crowd to find Litian, Cryst's daughter standing by a food stand by herself. That was not for long before a group of men covered her small figure.

His eyes flew open with concern and he turned to Cryst, his eyes widening in concern. "Is that not your daughter-"

"Would you like to go check yourself? What I meant, that is," Mrs. Crowly asked, "Would you like to go see if my words were true?"

Mr. Crowly's eyes followed Litian as she's led out of the room by the group of men. His legs moved against his will and followed them. Cryst stood in the crowd where she would wait for him until he came back. 

Mr. Crowly followed the group and watched them disappear behind doors in the side of the room, into the hallway. He was pushed against the crowd but continued to follow Litian, his eyes never losing sight of the big sword that dangled at her side. 

He was farther from the crowd now and nearer to the door. Before long, his body was pressed against the door, his ears listening to the conversation going on behind it. 

"How kind of you to step out of the room," said a boy, his hands patting Litian's head, "what a true lady you are."

"Agreed, you're so aware of your position that you allow this to happen, I must commend you for your bravery but at least I expected some kind of rebuttal," another boy sighed, his eyes running up and down her figure greedily, "but then again, maybe you wanted this?"

"Watch the words, how could a little girl want this," another boy joked, "but then again, you never know what's going on in these noble pretty heads of theirs. Maybe they all secretly want some fun."

M. Crowly shuddered, throw-up rising to his throat. How disgusting it was to hear those worse come out of a man's mouth.

"Well don't fret girl, we'll give you what you want," said the first boy, grabbing her arm. His hand could completely wrap around her small arm, "your small body would fit amazingly against mine."

That was about it. That was about all he could stomach. His hand wrapped around the handle and he slowly pulled open the door. Somehow he couldn't make himself pull it open immediately. Something about those hazel eyes, the certainty in them made him pause for a second, made him wait for a moment to see if she was indeed right. 

He peeked through the gap he had opened to look at the scene. It was sickening, just like he had predicted it to be, but worse. It was just a sigh that made him feel like throwing up. 

The way they towered over her, tall boys, just about twice her height stood over her little figure, peering down at her with greedy eyes. It was disgusting, revolting, and simply saddening that people could look down at women that weren't even close to their age with those type of predator-like eyes. 

He looked down at the girl and in all truth, he dared to say that she wasn't bothered. Not in the least. 

She looked up at the boys, a glare of annoyance and complete disgust on her face. Disgust but not fear, anger but not anxiety. If one was to judge purely on her face alone, it would seem like they came to pick a fight with her rather than rid her of her purity. 

The way she looked at them, like they were beings below her prowess, like people she could step over with ease and look down at them from her tower. She wasn't fazed but seemed to pity them. Like she was looking down at a pack of dogs in heat. 

That was especially funny as she needed to look up at them to meet their eyes but her gaze was anything but below them. 

"How disgraceful," she muttered. 

"What was that?" a boy leaned in closer to her face, blushing a little. "Wow.. you really are pretty."

Litian rolled her eyes. "I said, how disgraceful."

The boy flinched, a bit taken aback by her comment. "What?" he stared at her for a moment before bursting into laughter. "Disgraceful?" he looked up at his people and they exchanged glances before bursting into laughter. 

"Disgraceful?" said the second boy, "a pretty girl like you who let us take her out of the room dares to call us disgraceful?"

Litian didn't even reply. It was bothersome, replying to people that looked at her like she was some delicacy. 

The boys looked at her blankly for a moment before chuckled. The third boy sighed and stepped forward, "Enough of this, let's get started before someone walks past."

The first boy nodded, taking a step towards Litian. "It's time to play little girl, do you know the game we're going to play?'

Litian looked up into his eyes and then turned away, her hands lowering to her sword at such speed that they were unable to stop her hands. With speed, she pulled out her sword and drew a line in the ground. She looked up at them and dropped her sword on the ground. "I have another suggestion."

The first boy stopped in his steps and cocked his head. He peered down at her for a moment before chuckling, "Wow.. how headstrong she is…" he muttered. His eyes ran her up and down before he grinned, "I just might make you my concubine after this… just might."

Litian didn't even bother to reply to his comment. She nodded towards the line on the floor. "See that right there?"

The boys looked at her sideways before nodding their heads. 

"Let's play, Go and Stop," Litian smiled. 

A flash of confusion passed their faces. 

"I'm sure you're well aware of Go and Stop in which the tagger turns around and the others try to reach the tagger, right?" Litian grinned.