Meyda was sitting in her bathtub, the warm water was easing her worn out muscles. She knew that she was the one who asked Ginat for sword fighting lessons, a couple of weeks ago. And she knew that this wasn’t going to be easy, but she never thought that it was going to be this brutal. Besides that she was glad that Ginat was not holding back, he had trained her with the other members of the wolf pack. A select group inside the Eldar’s army that were handpicked by Ginat himself. They were the same group of men that had PURGED her family, but none of them ever talked about it. At least not when she was there. Ginat also a pointed one of them, Shir, to be her bodyguard. He was currently standing outside her bedroom door, scaring her personal maids. A knock landed on the door.

“Lady Medya, Lord Sayar hes requested your presence.” the voice of Shir came through the door. So he was not standing in front of her bedroom door, he was standing on the other side of her bathroom door. Which made her a bit uneasy.

“I will be right there,” she replied. Aleen and Shefi helped her out of the bath and into a nice dress. She was so grateful to them, they were her trusted advisors and closest friends. Shir had left the room, after he told her that Sayar wanted to see her. So she was not surprised to see him on the other side of the door.

“You look well, my Lady,” he said, and she had to agree with him on that. Aleen and Shefi had put her into a dark turquoise dress, but let her hair hang loos on her back. So that it covered her scars, which made her feel more comfortable. And that showed.

“Do you know why he wanted to see me?” she asked him, but he shock his head.

“All I know is that the heads of house Moriel, Tzviel and the Inaam brothers are present in the study. And I believe Lord Ginat would be there as well.” he replied. Which made her stop, the heads of two major houses were here. She then glanced again towards what she was wearing. Was this not to simple? She didn’t wear any jewelry, besides the one pendant Ginat had given her. “Do not worry, Shefi and Aleen were in the know.” Which made her feel a bit better, her two maids never let her down before, and they wouldn’t stop now. Walking in heels was still not easy, it became easier, but she still was not sure to take the stairs on her own. Which Shir knew and he offered his arm to help her down, a true gentleman. She was able to see why Ginat had chosen him to be in his wolf pack, and as her bodyguard. Ginat just entered the hall, when they arrived at the bottom of the stairs.

“Thank you, Shir. I will take it form here.” Ginat said, while reaching out his hand towards her. He was so handsome when he did stuff like this. Shir bowed slightly his head and let go of her arm.

“My Lord, My Lady.” he said. Ginat pulled her in for a short huge. He was still covered with sweat and dirt from all that training.

“You look amazing,” he whispered into her ear. She chuckled and petted him softly on arm. “I mean it.” And she knew that he did. In the last couple of weeks he had taken her to the bedroom, so often, that she had lost count. Probably her personal maids would be able to tell her, not that she is going to ask them. The door of the study opened up and Sayar stepped out.

“There you are, I was beginning to wonder if I had to drag the two of you out of bed.” Sayar said, this made Meyda blush. With lowered heads they entered, it was not the first time she had seen the heads of house Moriel and Tzviel. Both of them were grayed haired men. The head of house Moriel had green eyes, and the head of house Tzviel dark blue. All bright and clear, meaning that their minds were sharp as knives. Mizmor, stood up from his seat and approached her to give a hug.

“My beautiful sister-in-law, you look more radiant then when I saw you last.” he said. That was during the ball, and she highly doubted that she looked better then when she wore those two beautiful dresses. “Katelin and Isabel, are still in Sodora to keep them out of harms way. But the emperor is getting suspicious.” Why was he telling her this? Sayar sighed.

“Mizmor, give her some time to breath. She didn’t have time to greet the other guests or to take a sip of her tea.” Sayar said. Meyda sat down, and Ginat followed her. “I am not willing to keep you in the dark, not this time that is. Now that you know what is at stack here.” She nodded, and took up her cup.

“And you also want to know what I am thinking,” she added. She knew for a fact that this was part of some kind of test. Just like the ball, he wanted to know if she got what it took. Sayar nodded, and she sighed. “Do the rest of the gentlemen know what is going on?” She didn’t ask her father-in-law, but the other two heads.

“We do, Lady Eldar. You have imperial blood inside your veins and that makes you a threat. Our families are dragged into the mess, which you didn’t know that excited.” The head of house Moriel said. He didn’t blame her for it, at least not out loud. “We all know that you already went through a Purge, and the Silver fox thought that you might have some ideas how to avoid it.” Which she did.

“To be frank, we all saw the Purge of my family coming. Their bad reputation was hard to deny, and even harder to miss. But the situation with your respective families is different, yes, there might be some rotten apples inside the basket, but you all try to correct them in a timely manner. Now here are some ideas, to make your houses image sparking clean. Add more money to the imperial covens, not only the taxes that are owned. Send all the woman in your family out to do charity work, send them to food kitchens, hospitals, orphanages, send the younger men as well to build houses, help out farmers in your estate. I believe that some of them were hit pretty hard during Nytena season. Show up at the temple, more then only once a month. Give money to the beggars, donate some to the temple as well. In other words let your image shine like a penny.” She said, the two men looked shocked at first. But then their gazes soften.

“That are some very good suggestions, give the public, the temple and the emperor little to no changes to find fault. And we can do all of that without going bankrupt. And sending out the young-lings to do some hard work, gives them also a good life lesson.” The head of house Tzviel said, he shock his head. “I can’t believe that you are the old crows daughter.”

“Neither can I,” she admitted, and it was the truth. She took Ginat by the hand and looked in his eyes. “As for the Inaam situation, is the king and queen of Sodora aware?” Mizmor nodded.

“The king is not willing to get involved to much. Because of his second daughter, but the queen on the other hand has always being a bit over protective of Isabel.” Yoziel, Mizmor’s younger brother replied.

“So she is willing to bend the truth a little, to keep her daughter there?” Meyda asked, and she noticed that all the men looked at her with questionable glances. “Katelin is pregnant, we can say that she is not feeling well. And that she fears for the well being of her unborn child. That is why she is staying in Sodora, and Isabel as a dutiful sister-in-law is staying with her.” Like she said banding the truth. Ginat slapped himself on the leg, which undoubtedly hurt.

“Genius, it is not a secret that Katelin is pregnant, and her not feeling well enough to travel is not that far of a stretch. And as the queen back this up…” Ginat said and the other men nodded. “I knew that you were smart, but you surprised me how smart you actually are.” Sayar nodded in agreement, so did the rest of the group. Meyda started to blush and quickly grabbed the cup of tea that was waiting for her.

“All I want to know is if I passed the test?” she asked Sayar and he nodded.

“With flying colors.”

********

“Watch your feet, sweetheart.” Ginat shouted from across the training grounds, it has being a week since the meeting with the other houses. And reports of their latest efforts are flooding in. Reports about them helping the people in need, helping people that were effected by some floods to rebuild their houses. The women helping with knitting clothing for the children, there was even a report of them giving an orphaned baby boy a home in their own nursery. Even though the boy was a child of a maid in their household, but that didn’t matter. The child would have a chance to grow up, in a hopeful stable household. Meyda was pushed against the ground, she hissed from the pain, but what did she expect. Her mind was somewhere far from here, and if this happened to her in a real sword fight. Well she already knew the outcome.

“I am sorry, I am wasting your time today.” she said to her sparring partner, and bodyguard, Shir. He smiled at her while he helped her up.

“It is alright, my lady. I was a bit to rough on you.” he replied, but she shook her head. No he wasn’t rough, he was simply training and she was spacing out. And she was going to tell him this, but she knew that he was not going to listen to her.

“What do you think an assassin will do, when he sees me. Treat me with kitten gloves?” she asked him instead. He shook his head. “Then neither should you.” He nodded, a bit reluctant, but he nodded. Which meant that she had reached her goal. “So let’s start over.” Her muscles screamed in pain, after the practice was over. But she was glad that they did, meaning that she pushed herself to the limit. And her day was not over, she needed to get dressed and make her way to the orphanage. She had suggested the idea, to improve the images from those other houses. But that didn’t mean that she was able to stay behind. Aleen helped her out of her current clothing, and into a comfortable dress. One that was able to get dirty. She put her hair in a long braid and then rushed towards the stairs. Shir was already waiting for her by the carriage.

“Lady Eldar,” he said while helping her into the carriage.

“Come on, we do not have time for this. It is almost lunchtime and I promised I would be there to help out.” she replied. She knew that Ginat didn’t like her going off to places like this one. To many dangers are lurking, not enough for Shir to handle on his own. But it would be wrong of her, to not do anything to land a hand. Especially when it was her own idea, maybe they could chance a lot of lives with this. Or maybe not, but she was willing to believe that she was making some lives better. The carriage started to move and she was sunken away into her own thoughts once again. Sayar had praised her for taken action as well, believing that she would become a great lady. And he had promised to stop with these kind of tests. She had proven that she was able to do something is she put her mind to it. And even talk some sense into stubborn old men. She smiled and the smile didn’t leave when she stepped out of the carriage. The matriarch of the orphanage, greeted her.

“Welcome back, Lady Eldar. We have being expecting you.” the older woman said. If Meyda needed to guess then the woman would be in her late 60. She might be younger then that, a hard life is aging people a lot quicker then an easy one. “Please follow me.” the woman said, and Meyda followed her into the building. There were some sounds from babies crying, children screaming bloody murder.

“How many children are there currently in your care, Madam?” Meyda asked.

“In my opinion currently to many, the Nytena season has claimed many lives. And this is only in the capitol. I have heard that the amount of lives in some of the estates are double and even triple the amount.” The woman said. “Your father-in-law has done his best to prepare his, by enforcing the dams. Which has proven to be effective,” the Madam went on. “Still the other houses,” the woman showed her around and the children were already sitting, shoulder to shoulder, at very long tables. Young woman, barely old enough to work were presenting them with one spoon of thick porridge. Some children whined, and complained, others just put their wooden spoon into their meal and started to eat.

“Oh, I am to late it seems.” Meyda said. “I am so sorry, about that.” She took a large pot from one of the younger girls, that was clearly struggling. “Let me take that from you, love.” The girl, quickly bowed her head. “Ohh, sweetheart. There is no need for that, what is your name?” Meyda aksed while she gave the children inside that row the same amount of porridge.

“My name, madam?” The young girl, who’s face was covered in dirt. Her brown hair covered under a bonnet.

“Yes, my dear. I am Meyda, and who are you?” Meyda smiled at her.

“Mirry, madam.” Mirry replied, her blue eyes stared to glimmer a bit. This girl lived up by just a small and simple conversation. Medya grinned, knowing that she made this girl feel that she was being seen.

“Nice meeting you Mirry,” Meyda replied. Mirry was so nice and kept by her side the inter time. Shir pulled the attention from all the boys and was met with a wave of questions. And he was clearly enjoying himself, but his eyes were drawn all the time towards Mirry. Meyda smiled, knowing full well what that meant. “Mirry, can you keep an eye on my friend here. I need to use the outhouse.” The orphanage, didn’t had the luxury of indoor pluming. Which didn’t shock her that much, her father had forbidden her to use any of the indoor bathrooms. So she was forced to use the out house at the Giora estate as well. She sighed when she closed the door of the simple wooden structure, that shielded their short time occupants some from Nytena’s tears and wind. All those memory of the suffering she had to endure from her own family came rushing back in, while she relieved herself. The one time that her brother had locked her up in there for en entire night, he had ordered the servants to do their business else were. She was glad to be able to walk out of one, without the fear of reciprocation.

“Hello, daughter of the Crow, granddaughter of the stars, and great granddaughter of the griffon. Your path was led over glass, and it will continue to do so.. Until the griffon shows its true colors and echoes in a new age for the realm. The only question is will be, were would you stand. With a diamond upon your head, or in a grave covered with bleeding black roses.” Meyda turned around, next to the outhouse stood a young boy. She swallowed loudly, his eyes were glowing red and he has night-sky black hair. Demon Blood, and those things he just told her. He was no ordinary child.

“Who are you?” She asked him.

“Harel,” the boy replied. The Madam rushed out of the main building, and grabbed the boy by the arm.

“Harel, you insolent little…” The Madam shouted, ready to raise her hand to slap the kid. Flashes of Meyda’s childhood rushed by.

“Stop,” Meyda said, and grabbed the Madam’s hand. The woman looked at her and then towards Harel. “Why are you so angry, this child has done nothing wrong.” The Madam looked shocked.

“He doesn’t offend you. He is a Demon…” The Madam started.

“So am I,” Meyda replied. The Madam looked at her and then lowered her gaze towards the ground.

“I see, most nobles do not like to see such a child. That is why I told him to stay away from you. Not only because of his appearance, but he is always saying such weird things. Things a child his age shouldn’t have known, or could not know, because some of the information is personal.” The Madam shared. Meyda nodded, she just heard a similar thing herself.

“He can’t stay locked up inside his room forever, this child needs to be inside the temple for his own protection. He is gifted, and this alone puts him and the ones around him in danger.” Meyda said. She didn’t know which kind of gift this child has, but she was sure that Dorian knew a whole lot more.

“Are you sure about this, my lady?” It was Shir, he had torn himself away from the children and was standing at the doorway. She nodded.

“Not many outside the inner core of the family knows the information this boy just shared with me.” Meyda said, hoping that this boy wouldn't share this information with anybody else. The boy now looked at Shir.

“You grew up inside this very orphanage, until a rich lady picked you up. You hoped for an easier life. But this was not the case, you needed to fight to stay alive inside this woman’s household. Now you are a member of the Black wolves pack, the smartest of them all. Besides your master and lord. And you hope that a brown haired maiden, will not refuse the offer that you are going to make.” The boy said, his voice was without any form of emotion when he just shared those private pieces of information. As if he was not able to stop himself for speaking them out loud. Shir looked shocked at the boy, his mouth slightly ajar.

“I was about to ask, my Lady if she permits the young Milly to work inside the manor as a maid. How did you know?” Shir said, and Harel just shrugged.

“I just do,” that was his only reply. Shir’s attention snapped back at her.

“You are right, my Lady we need to take him to the Temple. We need to take him right now, other nobles will pass through this orphanage. And some of them with less good intentions.” Shir said, and she knew that he was right. Even before she learned about his past.

“We will, and I think that Milly would be a wonderful edition to our staff. What do you think Madam? Can you part with two of your charges?” Meyda asked. And the woman nodded. “Good, come Harel.” She reached out her hand and he took it without a moment of hesitation. Shir went back inside and asked Milly if she wanted to come with them. They were inside the carriage in the matter of minutes not hours, driving towards the Temple of Volaris, with the two children.