"Denethor, mom is getting angry at you alreadyy!" As I was still busy with all that was happening on Dorian's side; With captain Dunn interrogating Rodney and trying to get as much information from him as possible about the manor and what he knew, I suddenly heard Sinaala shouting from the heart of the stairs, as if she found it too troublesome to go all the way up. Her voice reminded me that I had to go down and meet 'my' family, so I steadied my heart, took deep breaths and schooled my expression before opening the door and heading down.

The first person I saw when I got down was 'my' sister, Sinaala, she was standing there waiting to see if I was coming down or if she had to go all the way up and get me. As soon as she saw me she turned around and ran to the kitchen, where a big table was and where we had our meals when we didn't have any guests, as she shouted about me coming down to 'my' mother...

I frowned slightly as a weird sensation spread in my chest. It was the first time I was going to meet some of my bodies' family members. Dorian had no one that he could call family so I didn't need to worry about this on his part. Zagmuz was a horrible bastard who hated almost everyone in his family so that wasn't a problem too. Which only left Denethor, even though the elf wanted nothing more than to leave his village and forest and go on a journey, he didn't want to do that because of his family, as a mean to get away from them or something. He had nothing but good feelings for all of them, even his father who wanted him to stay home and take over his position.

All his love and affection towards his family was still there, now a part of me. A part of me that made my heart and thoughts a mess whenever I remembered that I was now a fraud who took their son's place and, for all I knew, might even have killed him to do so. I was extremely happy that Denethor was quite good at controlling his expression, and that he was generally a calm and reserved man who didn't speak much when he didn't want to, that made it so that I just had to act that way for a bit till I got a hold of my emotions.

I almost stopped dead in my tracks when I saw 'my' family in the kitchen, the sight was so normal and mundane that I lifted an eyebrow at it. It was the sight of a normal family getting ready to have breakfast, I dont know what I expected, nor why I was that surprised as I already had Denethor's memories, but I think I had some unreal expectations from both of my new bodies and even my original self as Alex for how elves should be.

At that moment, 'my' father, Chief Mirodar Bitterfir, was sitting there at the table with a light frown on his face and his hands crossed, he usually would have something on hand, whether it was some files he had to deal with or some book he was reading, but this time it seemed as if he had something occupying his mind. Once I entered, he lifted his head and looked at me before nodding his head slowly, I returned his nod with a smile and a 'good morning' before looking away as my heart skipped a beat.

The way he looked my way just as I entered as if he was waiting for just that, and how his eyes stayed on me more than usual, all made it clear to me, or more specifically Denethor who knew his father the best, that he had something to talk to him about. And with how stressed he seemed, it for sure wasn't going to be about something small, nor be easy for me, especially now while I was trying to minimize my time and interactions with 'my' family.

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

Even as my thoughts were churning I didn't let anything show up on my face as I turned my head around and look at 'my' mom, Indis, who was still getting some of the dishes ready and putting them on the table. When she looked at me I gave her an apologetic smile and a greeting before moving in to help her with the last few dishes. She rolled her eyes and just went back to finishing the last preparations.

Soon we got all the dishes ready and sat down for breakfast, which was all plant-based, and started going about our usual routine. The conversation went around for a while with me staying out of it for the most part, only saying a word or two here and there when I had no other choice. All in all, I think I did pretty well and no one was able to notice that anything was wrong.

"Denethor," just as I was thinking of that, I heard Chief Mirodar speak, looking at him I realized at a glance that he was going to mention what had been on his mind for the whole morning, "you will be going with me to my office, there's an important meeting today and I want you to be there."

"I was going to try and meditate some more today," I said in Denethor's usual tone, "would me being there even change or accomplish anything?"

If there was something both I and Denethor agreed on, then it was that none of us had any interest in taking the position of the chief. It seemed too much of a pain, and it would lock me to one place for a long long time. Also, spending a prolonged period of time with Chief Mirodar was going to be hard for me as I was.

"It is important," emphasised Chief Mirodar, "the world is changing and I need you to be there to see it for what it really is."

The words he said made my hand freeze in midair as many thoughts went through my mind. The first of which was of course, did the elves know about the demons' invasion? Were they going to do something about it? They usually kept to themselves, but they also didn't like big wars just happening for no reason, and they intervened whenever one began. As those thoughts filled my head, I knew that I had to be part of this coming meeting, if only to know the elves' stance on all of this.

Making my mind, I acted as if I was in deep thoughts before looking at Chief Mirodar and nodding slowly.

On Dorian's side, we got all we could from Rodney and we were sitting down and thinking about what to do. From what we got, Bruce, the master of the Dark Blades, had many of his followers act as servants in his manor while they guarded it, so it wasn't going to be that easy to get in unseen.

"I am quite familiar with the manor's layout," captain Dunn suddenly said, "it rarely happens, but there were times when Bruce took things too far and I had to go there and do a thorough search. From what I saw and from how Bruce normally operates, I think the place we should search is the basement, it's out of sight and only has one entrance, making it easy to guard, if it's really inside his manor, it's probably going to be there."

I nodded as I thought about what he said, it seemed logical and it was most probably our best bet in finding the kalla. Not that that was our problem, our problem was getting there in the first place. It seemed that I wasn't the only one who had that idea as Lambert soon said:

"But how are we getting in? Sneaking there normally would have been a pain, not to mention now that there are so many more guards and they are all on high alert."

"Well... That's where you come in," Captain Dunn looked at him with a raised eyebrow, "you are one of the best scouts our town has right now, with a bit of help from us, you will be able to get us in unnoticed."

Even though that was something I expected to hear as I also thought of using his special abilities for this, it seemed that Lambert didn't, as he looked at captain Dunn with his mouth opened and his eyes wide. It was clear that this development wasn't one he predicted.

"Don't worry sweety," Mrs Sam said as she saw him in this state, "it won't be that hard, and I'll be there to lead, I'm quite experienced~"

Lambert looked at her for a few seconds before turning his head towards me, I gave him a weak smile as I shook my head, sorry buddy, you were leading us to infiltrate the manor of the son of our town's leader.