Patty returned to the barn for the rest of the night. She met the farmer as he came out and informed him she had to leave before mid day.

"Things will get very complicated for you if I stay any longer than that," said Patty.

"It'll be a shame to see ya go girl. You do good work. If things don't work out for ya, feel free to come back and I'll make a place for you. Even if you have to stay 'out of sight'. Ya earned it."

"Many thanks. Knowing my luck lately, I may need to take you up on that. It won't be right away though."

The farmer nodded. "Take care. There are those out there who are still makin mischief. Remember miss Patty, you may not be safe anywhere."

"Thank you. I'll be.. how did you know my name?"

The chuckled. "Saint Ringel brought miss Anna and a frozen girl past this place some time back. Yer miss Anna's girl."

"I.. never considered myself her girl before, but you are right."

"When I first saw you, you looked nearly the same 'cept for the lack of coats. Your manner was to close to that day. Gave you away."

"Um.."

"Relax girl. There's no luv between the church 'an me. No hate either. Nobody knows you're here, nobody even asked."

"Thank you."

"Go girl. We'll get by," chuckled the farmer.

Patty smiled at the tough old man. She hoped they would survive long enough to repay their kindness. People seen to help her out of kindness seemed to wind up dead. An image of the people in her winter home in Arendelle's capital came to mind. She now wondered if that was really an accident during a break-in.

She had originally intended to help out at the farm for at least a few hours before going to Sanctuary, but the farmer insisted she had already done more than her share. By midmorning, she had retrieved her stashed gear and only needed to walk through the gates. She had to wait though or she'd interrupt Anna's biblical teachings.

She decided to wear her second outfit as it was in better shape and the assassin's outfit fit underneath it better. She settled across the street from the entrance, but it was still a few hours before she could go in. She yawned as she sat. Normally she had work to do that helped keep her awake. Since it was fairly quiet in the small town, she decided to imagine how hard it would be inside.

A foot tapping her on the shin woke her from an unintended sleep just as the sun reached its peak. She had tipped to her side and had to sit up again to see the disgusted look on Dixx's face through slightly unfocused eyes.

"Let's go."

Dixx didn't wait as she stood to follow him. As he walked away, she looked around in growing alarm.

"Hey! My bags been stolen!"

Dixx didn't even turn as he answered. "It's in Anna's room, waiting for you. When I realized it was you here, I got it, completed the necessary search and put it there. I didn't want to listen to whining during the search. Nothing was removed."

"But.. how?"

"You've been running around day and night for weeks. Maybe you should have tried sleeping more at night or using your bag as a pillow. LET'S GO!"

Patty was led to a building just inside the walls, sent to a room and told to strip to underclothes for her search. She did so without complaint and Dixx took her clothes and Anna's outfit just outside the room to search them. The only furniture in the room was a simple table. There was nowhere to hide anything, so having nothing to hide was a good thing.

It wasn't long before she heard Dixx through the door. "Where's Lana? She's supposed to search Anna's pet."

"She twisted an ankle. I'm here instead," answered a deep voice. Patty imagined it would be a husky hulk of a man and was surprised when a man looking more like a weasel came through the door.

"Stand up, arms out."

Patty stood as requested. Her remaining clothes consisted of a tighter sleeveless shirt and fairly tight shorts that barely hid more private areas. This man's hands slowly roamed every inch of exposed skin before going to covered areas. He paid particular attention to the shorts and the underside of her breasts. Eventually he sighed and said "top off".

Slowly Patty complied and he made sure nothing was hiding under her breasts. Rather than having her push them up or gently lift what little there was, he pinched the nipples and pulled up. She gasped in surprise and embarrassment. He smiled as her nipples went hard from the firm treatment in the chilly room.

"Bottoms off."

"Uhh, no. You've already prodded me enough."

"Listen, you have two choices if you want to get in. You strip so I can make sure nothing comes in shoved up your ass to hide it, or I reach down those tight pants to put a finger in to check. Otherwise you can leave now."

Patty stared at the man to determine if he was serious before removing her shorts. Not an inch of skin was hidden from his roaming eyes. He seemed slightly disappointed he didn't get to reach in. "This will be easier if you lean over the table."

Cheeks burning with embarrassment, she laid her upper body face down on the table. He walked up behind her and put a hand on each cheek near the crack and pulled them apart. She felt a firm finger from one hand prod the crack and hole, but nothing was pushed in. He then knelt behind her so his head could see easier as the other side got the same treatment.

"Please stop," begged Patty quietly.

"Why? Are you hiding something here?"

A hard knock at the door interrupted them at that point and Dixx could be heard complaining. "What in Handellin's name is taking so long? It's just a little girl!"

"Fine!" the man called back. "Put your clothes on and I'll let him in." Patty didn't need to be told twice. Shortly, Dixx walked in with her other clothes and she hastily got dressed. He did stare at her blazing face for a moment before appraising the other man. When Dixx turned his back but he knew Patty was watching, the wiry man started licking his fingers suggestively. Patty could only shudder and turn away in shame.

"Bumbling idiot took forever," grumbled Dixx as they left the building.

"Thank you for coming in when you did. He was being very.. thorough."

"WHAT?"

"He didn't dig in, but I'd swear he was looking for a reason. Several spots received thorough checking, repeatedly." Patty's right hand reached up to cover her sore left nipple out of reflex. It had gotten the hardest pinch. "Over and over."

"He and I are going to have WORDS over this." His fist closed tight and the intensity of his words made her nervous. He was starting to turn when she put a hand on his arm.

"Please no. That was embarrassing enough and I'm going to have enough trouble as is. Please, nobody else needs to know."

He stared hard at Patty's face for a bit before answering in a troubled voice. "This needs to be addressed or it will happen again. I'll be discrete."

"Do you have to? I suffered through so people don't think I'm spying for the queen. I don't want anybody coming back at me or Anna because of.. a little embarrassment."

"Harm to you or Anna could mean war with the crown. You can't be harmed while inside the walls, ya daft girl."

"Nobody knows I'm here."

"Those bloody ice statues do. Use your head."

"Oh."

"Worry more for yourself than Anna. It's obvious she'd do much to keep you safe. Things she wouldn't normally do. You can't safely leave here now. If somebody wants to stir up trouble using Anna, nabbing you from the city as a hostage would be an easy way to control the princess."

"She's not a princess anymore," Patty whispered ruefully.

"She is to me until she proves herself loyal to the order. You're her biggest weakness, and you should have just waited for all this to fall apart. It shouldn't be much longer."

"If you think that, then you don't really know her. If the benefits were greater than my life, she would give me up. She'd wind up broken again, but when she has something worth fighting for she draws strength from the gods know where. She only breaks when she can do no more and her own feelings come crashing in. That's her biggest weakness, not me. I'm just lucky she considers me something worth fighting for.

"If somebody took me to use as.. lavaridge?, she'd still confide in somebody she thinks she can trust to help her without making things worse. Likely you, if you can believe it. She knows how you feel about her and she still told you her secret. You'd at least do what was needed to stop her if she was making a big mistake, or she wouldn't have risked telling you about her magic."

"And how would you know that girl? How old are you?"

"Old enough to survive on the streets for a few years alone, and find safe places to bunk in winter without giving over my body. I spent weeks with her guessing what she needed to keep us alive in a madman's dungeon. I spent months after that helping her recover enough to not want to kill herself because she failed to protect everybody, and that madman successfully tricked her into trying to kill her sister. We're all lucky she failed, especially the queen. You can believe me when I say I think I know her better than her own sister right now. The only place I underestimated her was how far she'd go to try and protect me."

"That's my point girl."

"Then you still don't understand. Know this. If she could save the lives of just five more people but it meant letting me die, I'd die. I know what to expect. I know what can happen. I also know she can't do this stuff alone and it is more important than my life. It could have been any of us that kept Anna going in the dungeon. I was the only lucky one. The second the last one of us died, Anna wouldn't have lived more than another hour. As long as she could protect somebody, anybody, she'd be stronger than a diamond. If we all died, she'd have fallen like a bridge held up by twigs. Now she has the order AND EVERYBODY IN IT. While she still feels she needs me, you'd have to kill everybody in the order to break her now. Loyalty to the order? You got it. You'd know that if you used your head. That's what you said to me, right?

"Look, she needs support. The heavier the load, the more she needs. When your 'order' attacked the queen, that was Kai. It ended up being me in the dungeon and then after as she started recovering. That devotion won me over. She didn't care if I came from a gutter. She actively refused to be called princess in that dungeon, and broke her own spirit if it meant she could protect us. Falling apart waited until the end of every trial she faced.

"The pampered princess learned to kill to save us all if she could. That included the princess, the street rat, the farm girl, and another girl she didn't even have time to learn the history of. Lord's daughters had been taken and tricked by the same madman so they would try to kill Anna. She CRIED when she figured that out, cried for people forced to try and kill her. Tricked, just as Anna eventually was. Don't you DARE to presume knowing her better than me! DON'T YOU DARE judge her until you put aside what you think you know and take a fresh look!"

Patty stared at the silent man, breathing heavily with the intensity of her words. With every sentence, she had got louder until she was almost shouting at the end. Dixx stared back with a shocked look on his face, before smiling an actually warm smile.

"Well now, a girl with teeth! Relax girl, you made your point. Been a long time since anybody was able to dress me down like that, and be right to do so. Anna had me confused when she defended my expressing my opinion of her in private. With what you say, her reaction makes more sense now. Come along girl, your mistress awaits."

"I prefer to think of her like a sister," replied Patty as she fell in behind the big man.