I stood there in disbelief at this mess. Young men in dark light armor had surrounded us from all sides, but they did not press further. Cressida was holding a devastating weapon and my hand was on my sword, though I doubted I posed half the threat she alone posed.
'For God's sake, how could she?!'
I replayed the scene of the bullet, whatever it was, flying past my face and burrowing into the man's head before dropping him flat on the floor. It had all happened in an instant. Everybody had been outsmarted by the sheer speed of Cressida's gunshot.
And now, her gun was facing the gold-teethed subordinate who had been so interested in taking her virginity.
The lounge fell into silence. Not the comfortable kind. The kind where every man in the room was quietly deciding whether he wanted to die today.
Then a footstep broke through it. Measured and unhurried. Someone walked between the circle of guards and finally reached us.
