Someone from a pleasure house maybe?

He had no idea. The woman wasn’t remotely familiar and because his shift had started well after the Blood Challenge ended, he hadn’t heard anything about Lola and had no clue the new king had a human woman with him. He knew of the challenge, of course, and its results. That bit of news had circulated throughout the whole kingdom. What he hadn’t been aware of, to his detriment, was the fact that their new king had a human woman with him. A woman that he had fought to save the life of on numerous occasions, and had even fought and won a Blood Challenge against his father for, all so he could make sure she wasn’t killed. If he had known all of those things, he might’ve demanded she stay with the king instead of leaving.

But he didn’t know and so he let Lola leave.

“Would you like an escort, Miss?” he asked, trying to be polite. Even though he didn’t know who she was and thought she was a prostitute, he still didn’t think it wise for her to be roaming around in the middle of the night.

Lola paused and looked at him for a moment, contemplating.

“Uh, no. That’s all right. I’ll be fine,” she told him. She pointed down the hall on either side of her. “I would, however, like to know which way would be best to get some fresh air?”

The guard nodded and smiled at her. For a whore, she was really quite stunning, he thought to himself. He made a mental note to check the pleasure houses for her at a later date. She looked like she would make for one hell of a good time.

“You’ll want to head toward the left, all the way to the end of the hall. Turn right at the end and head across the open area to the staircase. Take that down to the next level, then take another right and you’ll eventually come to the castle’s grand staircase. Take that down to the door and you’ll be able to make your way outside. You know your way from there?” He gave her a longing look, hoping in the back of his mind she might reconsider and ask for an escort. He shouldn't leave his post, true, but if the damsel needed the help of a strong protector, he thought the potential rewards would more than makeup for any rebuke the new king might hit him with.

“No, but thank you,” she said.

She eventually left the guard behind and followed the directions he gave her. In just a few minutes, she traversed her way through the castle and to its front door. There were more guards present but they clearly didn’t know who she was either and let her walk out unmolested. When she was finally outside, she took a deep, satisfying breath of crisp, wintry air. It made her feel much better and the nightmares that woke her up retreated to the back of her mind.

She wasn’t sure where she was going to go but decided to just walk around for a bit until she found a nice spot to just sit and reflect. Ten minutes later, she found herself in a quaint little park still within eyesight of Russel’s family castle.

She was alone. It was so late at night, the only people around were soldiers or guards. All of them paid no attention to her. After getting to the small park, she found a stone bench to sit on near a placid, gleaming pond. The waters were so still, she could see the moon and stars reflected on its surface.