Rita was at the campfire, she took some time for herself and looked at Benedict Bakers journal again. She flipped through some pages, trying to investigate if she missed some clues. She knew others were doing their best too when out of trial, but she felt the survivors hit a stalemate. She glanced towards the darkness beyond the campfire, the dark forest. Part of her hoped to see the glowing yellow eyes of the Trickster to ask him information about the killers, if they had searched for an exit as well. What if they had a stalemate as well. What if the survivors and the killers needed to help eachother and fill in the missing pieces. To her dismay, he was not there. She did not know if someone was watching her in the darkness, and she didnt want to fret about that now.
She focused on reading the journal.

23rd September
'I have spent two days in this derelict library. The archives are somewhat unorganised, but I have managed to learn more about the town of Weeks. I get this eerie feeling as I sit in that basement, but I feel a need to learn more. I have come too far now. I managed to piece some parts together and it seems like everything leads back to The MacMillan Estate, a huge industry with a mine and foundry and the former heart of Weeks. I found some police reports and complaints, but no sign of legal action. The archives here do not tell the whole story but my mind tells me that I need to find that place. As The MacMillan Estate might sit upon some answers about these unexplainable disappearances I simply must go further. I feel somewhat uneasy as my comfort zone most often is behind a desk. But I can not be shackled to words and must instead make use of action. All I have managed to find out is that some deaths occurred and it was just shortly after that, that this...rot took hold of Weeks. I have tried to find my way and I asked the librarian but she refused to even talk about it. Old maps in the archive show the way, but nobody is willing to take me. I will set forth tomorrow. On my own.'

She flipped to the next entry which revealed how he got to the realm, but the journal was worn and tattered. She could not see the exact date of the entry, only that it was still September
'I can not explain what happened today. I awoke to find myself in this strange place. I have no memory of how I came here. My last recollection was of leaving Wetherfield and beginning my journey towards The MacMillan Estate. The last part I had to travel by foot.. A seemingly never-ending fire burns next to me. I can not even tell how long I lay asleep. This area of the woods seems to have no day or night, just an intolerable gloom. I am unsure what awaits me, but I will keep filling this journal. Maybe with a hope to warn others.'

Indeed, he did warn others, he helped a lot. And what he said about the campfire was true, no day or night just gloom. You cant tell how much time has passed. Everything was in a stasis. You only had your biological clock to keep some track of time. You sleep when you feel tired and sleepy. And otherwise you're awake. Food is not an issue, there was no thirst or hunger. You just existed.
Rita sighed. Sure this was now her new normal, but what else can she do. Weirdly enough she understood what Trickster meant when he said that he was bored. You either run around in a trial or you just rest at the camp. Not much more to do. Things could be a little dull and mundane funnily enough. She decided to flip through more pages of the journal until she heard something.
She looked away and saw a pebble. Did someone throw it? She looked towards other survivors, but they were all doing their own thing. Now she actually colided with one. Well the journal did. Someone tossed a pebble at her. But it didnt come from the direction of the survivors. It was a killer. Because it came from the darkness of the forest. Now she watched towards the killers and saw one more pebble emerge from the darkness and land to her feet.
Well if this wasnt a sign to come over, she did not know what it was. She fully expected the Trickster, but she didnt saw the yellow eyes. So who was it? Ghostface? As she approached the edge of safety, she came face to face with a chest... plate... A chestplate. She looked up and saw the rest of that medieval armour looking down at her. It was the Knight.
She was at a loss of words. But before she could say anything, he reached over and took her hand and urged her to follow him in the killer area.
Rita was clearly not trusting a killer to lead her away from a safe area. Once he saw resistence, he sighed and let go of her hand to lift up his blade. He went to slash at her head directly. And as she yelped and ducked, she saw nothing happened. The blade collided with what was an invisible barrier.
The Knight then spoke something in his language and extended his hand again. What it looked like was that he tried to show her that if he meant her harm, he could not cross over to reach out to her. But if he had no ill intentions, he could fully go in the survivor area if he so wished.
Again he motioned to her impatiently to hold his hand. She didnt know what to do. But felt if she wanted answers, she needed to take a risk and go. He gave her a nod and led her away from the survivor area.

The forest was getting darker and darker and her eyes had to adjust to the darkness. It was eeriely quiet and all you could hear was crows and the sound of the clanking armour as he walked with her. Rita wasnt sure where he was leading her, but he followed her. It looked like as they were traversing realms. She was not sure where they were going or why they were going somewhere.
Eventually though they arrived to a temple looking area. Rita was never here. And as they reached the temple, the Knight finally let her go.

"What is this place?" she asked in a sort of awe as this was a realm completely new to her
"Temple of Purgation" he answered her
Rita was then surprised to hear the Knight actually answer her and speak in english
"Wait... how do you..."
"This is a neutral ground. The rules are different" he answered
"What do you mean?"
"This realm is undergoing changes. No trials are held here." he motioned her towards the foliage which is changing and so are some of the walls of the temple and such. He continued "So the rules of this realm are a bit blurred. Which means you may understand me, even though you are not supposed to."
"Why did you take me here?" she asked
"Why did you follow me like a lost child during the last trial?" he retorted and asked back
"Well... I wanted to ask you why did you let me live the first time we met and um.. I wanted to thank you?"
He tilted his head in confusion "Thank... me?" and so he asked again "Why?"
"Because you let me live, which by the way, you didnt answer my question" she answered the first part as if she was stating the obvious. The Knight though didnt understand but he let it be, instead he answered her question. "I let you live because you were weak. As weak as a newborn. And I am a warrior. I slay people who can put up a fight. Or in this case survivors who can lead a decent and annoying chase. You could not do either of the two"
She was silent for a moment, but then thought about what Vittorio told her. "Tarhos grew tired of torturing the townsfolk" thats what she remembered. Townsfolk, those werent seasoned warriors and she doubted the women and children would be expert runners and survivors. Townsfolk. That was the key word.

She looked at him with an authorative or defiant look, a determined look. "If that was true... you wouldnt have tortured townsfolk now wouldnt you?" she crossed her arms
He turned to her and asked "What did you say?" he approached her closer and said "So you've spoken to that italian, havent you?" there was clear anger and hatred and resentment in his voice when it came to Vittorio
"I dont understand. Why do you hate Vittorio so much? He is a peaceful man. A pacifist who doesnt want to hurt anyone"
"ITS BECAUSE HE'S A PACIFIST THAT I HATE HIM!" he lashed out at her and almost grabbed her in rage. But he managed to at least restrain himself not to harm her in anger. He managed to compose himself, ... somewhat. He did notice that he frightened the woman as she backed away and well, looked much more noticably scared. He was silent for a moment and looked away from her, thinking over what to say. Once he found the words, he continued
"Lapis Paradisius. That was the stone he wanted..." he started
"A-and why did he want it?" she asked, albeit more nervously because she didnt know if he would lash out at her again and harm her in his blind rage
"Because hope" he said in disguist "Hope that this stone can lead him to another world that holds knowledge that can save this one. He prays that this lost knowledge of some ancient guardians might bring peace, harmony, and order to a world plagued by cruelty, violence and imbalance."
Rita wanted to say how its a good and noble goal, but at this point she didnt want to say anything. She let him talk more if he wanted. Tarhos scoffed at the idea of a world without violence.
"Life is violence, from birth to death, and everything in between is a futile attempt by cowards to hide from the horror that is living. The only plague in this world are the lies, the unnatural codes and laws created by nobles and lords for their mutual benefit. Unnatural laws and codes and books that deny the truth of the world by trying to make it something it's not. Its either all good or all evil. There is no in between. It's all part of the same cosmic mud. Look at us. We led completely opposite lives. You went by your good morals and I lived my life my way. And we both ended up here"
She was still silent. She didnt like the idea that nothing they do matters and that they all end up in the same place.
"They're all hypocrites. But not me. I have no guilt. No shame and no need to hide from life" he spoke with raw and rather angry emotion. Still, the idea that he felt no remorse for his horrific deeds was frightening. So why did he let her live? If he can and could've killed her without second thought.
"So..." he looked back at her when she spoke up and waited for her to ask whatever she wanted to ask "So umm... what happened? Between you and... Vittorio?"
"We found the stone, it was guarded. But he told me to find another way. Another way?! The idea of him expecting me to get the stone in a non violent way. It made me dumbfounded! All I could do was stare at him in disbelief. Find another way?! Why?! So Lord Toscano can well sleep at night? So he can waste more of his time with his foolish notions of right and wrong, of good and evil, of noble and barbaric. Toscano's entire fortune was secured with nothing but violence and slaughter, which was justified by highly imaginative codes and laws. His fortune was secured with nothing but darkness"
Rita didnt interrupt him, but she didnt know what she would say. She does believe Tarhos. It was the middle ages, things tended to be more violent back then. Lords and nobles, feudalism, slaves, war, the class system. What have you. The inequality was much more clear back in the day. Injustices were more noticable and clean cut. If you were a noble, you didnt get the wealth through peace. It was through war aka violence.

She looked at the Knight who broke her out of his thoughts as he continued
"Toscano did not deserve the spoils of his ancestors or his relics or this ancient stone that will somehow open a gateway to a world untainted by violence. He's a fool if he believes such a thing! No such place exists! And if such a place did exist, I would want nothing to do with it. Of all the lords I served, this is the one I hate the most. And you know what?"
"What?" she asked catiously
"I decided to take it. Take it all. Because I can. I took his stone and his relics and his town, and I showed the bloody coward the truth of the world."
Rita wondered what would she do. Despite him being merciful towards her and unwilling to harm her, she does see now that he is indeed a murderous threat. She did know that before, but facing that truth, its ... eye opening. She does hate to admit that the guy was right in a way. Violence is... somewhat necessary. But its more of a healthy middle. You cant go too extreme one way nor the other. As much as she wishes there could be peace, realistically, its just sadly not possible. Though, she wondered, what happened to the Knight that made him see the world so black and white. What happened that his hope and innocence was crushed and killed. He became a monster. Something made him think this way. But what.
Tarhos noticed her silence and curiously looked at her
"You have been awfully quiet. What is wrong?" his authorative voice called to her.
Rita again, snapped out of her thoughts to look at the Knight. But she didnt know what to say.
"I see that expression" he walked over to her and touched her cheek, "You know what I say is true."
As much as she wanted to verbally challenge him and debate him on that. She knew now was not the time. Especially now that he has his hands on her.
"Tarhos"
"Oh? So you know my name?"
Well she forgot that he didnt tell her. It was Vittorio who did.
"Do you recant your gratitude for my mercy?" he asked her
"No" she answered as she took his hand in her two hands and slowly moved it away from her cheek "I am still grateful even though I know its all the same, whether we live or die"
She really was. If one could choose between a painful deadly end or a peaceful one where you escape. Of course one would choose a path where they were not harmed. Still... since she was here, she figured she should stay on his good side. She was sort of afraid to be alone with this person now, or well only if she got on his bad side like Vittorio. She really wouldnt want to be in Vittorio's shoes. Tarhos is in a way in his own heaven, he gets to kill Vittorio over and over again, making him suffer forever.
She approached the Knight and he still followed her movement, being cautious "What are you doing?"
She slowly wrapped her hands around his chest... embracing him in a hug, he was rather tall. But this was all just to stay on his good side "Im just saying thank you. I couldnt really find another way to do it"
He felt awkward my her action. And confused. He personally didnt know what to do. Last he got this form of affection was... well... long ago. Too long ago. So much so he wasnt sure what to do. He lived a life of violence, by will and by force. His life was violence and survival. This here, it was a new concept for him. He placed his blade along the wall and then decided to slowly and awkwardly return the gesture. Still unsure and confused. Albeit he was barely touching her, treating her as if she was made from glass or fine china that was ready to shatter at any moment.
She noticed this and it in a way reaffirmed to her that he must've gone through something that made him this person he is today. No one is born a monster. A monster, a killer like him is only born in blood. Seeing that death in youth. Warping his mind. Changing him. She doubted she could change him. She didnt know if she wanted that. But if she could have a killer as an ally. Maybe she would have a way to escape this hell. And if he wanted, he could stay here.

She let go of him, which he took the sign to do the same. Taking his blade in his hand again
"Can you return me back to the camp" she asked and looked towards the way they came, going a few steps, believing she was going the right way.
The Knight touched her shoulder to halt her "Wait"
She stopped and looked at him
"I wish to train you"
"Train me?" she was confused in just what he could possibly train her
"I wish to train you how to survive"