*~*Talia's POV*~*
I refocused on the people around me. Some of them were looking at me suspiciously after my long pause. Or maybe it wasn't as long as it seemed. Most of the inner turmoil had passed in the blink of an eye, after all. Perhaps they were waiting for something else. Some instruction or something.
"If you are all willing to swear fealty to me in exchange for protection, I will take you back to the castle right now." I called out to them. It seemed like this was what they had been waiting for, and several of them weren't happy.
"And there it is. We have to pledge our undying devotion to you. Swear to lick your feet and all that." A man at the back of the group sounded angrier than anyone else I'd met here. Even the prisoners in the new dungeon I made.
