As Sonja and the clanks departed, the dramatic scene within the Baron's stronghold was coming to a conclusion. No one within the stronghold had attended to Sonja's reconnaissance mission. "To summarize, dear little girl, I will have access to your uncle's work in one of the following ways: the preferred route is matrimony and you remain alive as my adoring wife; the less desirable and more time consuming route is through legal efforts for me to gain ownership as his former partner. Of course, to facilitate the legal route any pesky relatives must be removed." He feigned surprise, "Oh dear me! I just realized that you would be the only pesky relative!" "Your feeble effort at wit is wasted, sir!" Lilja snapped. "There is not much point in enduring matrimony to you; I doubt I would enjoy a long life unless I was compliant to your every indecent whim. It shall not be, sir! It shall not!" The Baron nodded to one of the revenant clanks and Lilja was seized iby the arm and forced unto the elevating platform. "I shall take this reply to mean you need time to ruminate on the advantages of life and ponder what it would be like to be drowned in the depths of Steelhead Bay." He nodded again to the revenant clank and the elevating platform began to descend with the grinding of distant gears. "I shall have your final answer tomorrow when we break fast. Until then, you can consider your fate at leisure in the quarters I have generously provided, girl!" Lilja glared at the Baron as the lift descended. "You are no gentleman! Your are a despicable cad!" "I do admire your spirit, girl!" Molly's art notes: Set up and rendered with Poser 13.0.339 using the Superfly Cycles X rendering engine; some post work was done within Superfly and some accomplished with Photoshop. Lilja Darkstar is based upon La Femme with modifications by Tempesta3d. Baron Meikel Von Reanimiester is based upon the venerable Freak from DAZ. The two revenant clanks are based upon Victoria 4. The setting is the steampunk hideaway from DAZ. The Steam Dirigible in the background is also from DAZ. There are elements by Cybertenko and Flink to fill in the background. If there are other details, bits and bobs you are interested in, let me know and I'll point you to the vendor. Support content creators as they make the stuff with which we build dreams!