I sipped at the tea which had been brewed from desert plant leaves. It was a delicious floral taste which was a bit exotic compared to most tea found in the Empire. I put the cup down gently on the saucer and looked across the table at Alise. Her white and red hair had fallen down and obscured half of her face, while her attention was entirely on the letter in her hand.

We were seated at her outdoor table. It was small and circular in design, with a hole in the middle that held a parasol. The hot sun was blocked by that, and so we could enjoy the breeze without complaint.

Alise looked up from the letters she’d been in the middle of reading, as though she’d felt my gaze on her. “Yes?”

I eyed the letters in her hands. “Good news?”

“Shorty sends his greetings,” Alise said as she looked back down, “apparently they’re making him the mayor of Mastille.”

It was a turn of events that I hadn’t expected, and I couldn’t help but start laughing. “I knew they were doing good rebuilding all those towns down there with his help, but the mayor?”

“It’s probably because he’s also been bossing the Legion around,” Alise said as she put the letter down, “oh that reminds me, did your parents decide on if Hawthorne is going to train with the Legion?”

“Mother’s already started to train him personally,” I replied with a shudder, as it brought back memories of my childhood, “I hope she’s a little gentler this time.”

“Emmy’s only gentle when it comes to Vandross.”

Our conversation was disrupted as the sound of wood crunching filled the air. We both looked over and saw that Skara had been embedded into a distant tree, his back stuck at least two inches into the wood.

The tall man let out a loud laugh as he tore himself free from the tree. “Not bad, not bad at all! But you can do better than that can’t you?” he asked as he started to run back at his sparring opponent.

“Are you sure he’s the right choice for this?” I asked Alise, perhaps for the fifth time that week.

Alise reached over the top of the table and put her hand on top of mine. “Trust me, Lily, out of everyone I’ve ever run across Skara is the best person suited for this.”

Though I trusted Alise as much as my own mother, I still had a hard time with how she’d chosen Skara to train my daughter. I looked back over and watched as he tried to punch the four year old girl, instinctively cringing at the sight.

Anne didn’t try to dodge the attack, but instead she used both of her hands to redirect the punch to the side. Much like how Skara had a big grin on his face so did she, fully entertained by their training session. A small gathering of people began to form near the two as they watched what had become a daily routine for my daughter, and it was probably the first day that I noticed nobody seemed interested in trying to stop the fight.

Everyone except for me, as even though my daughter had the strength to throw Skara around I still couldn’t calm my heart. Every punch and kick from him only brought an inward moment of panic, as I wondered if it would be the one time he hit her hard enough to cause an injury.

“Where’s Taryn?” Alise asked, her question drawing my attention back to her. I knew she’d done it on purpose to distract me, and I thanked her inside my head for that.

“Oh, last I knew of he was working with Kaina near the southern jungle.” Though it might seem rude I closed my eyes. I took a deep breath and let my mind seem to drift, and through that sliver of his soul I could feel the sensation of rain and heat. “Yes, he’s doing well, a little miserable but well.”

“She was a good choice for scouting the jungle,” Alise admitted, and as I reopened my eyes I saw she was also nodding, “I didn’t care much for the place the last time I went.”

A cheer came from the crowd off to our side and I looked back at the fight. At some point my daughter had managed to knock Skara over and she was in the process of spinning around in a circle while holding onto him. It was a tactic that only a child could think of, but also one that came with a somewhat bad result.

Skara’s foot slipped out of her hands and the man was sent flying. As he arced through the air he attempted to recover, but by the time he landed he still hadn’t gotten his feet under him. In the end Skara crunched shoulder first into one of the newer houses that had been built.

“Okay,” I almost muttered as I stood up and started to walk over to my daughter, “that’s enough for today! Anne, go get cleaned up at the house. Let Diana know I’ll be along shortly.”

My daughter saw me approaching and her happy face crumpled instantly. She started to nod, a little too enthusiastically, and ran off in the direction of our home. As I watched her run off, covered in dirt from the training, I could only hope that Diana didn’t panic when she saw her.

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The crowd that’d so enjoyed the fight dispersed quickly enough, as most of the people here knew me quite well. I looked up at Skara, who was still on the side of the building, and gave a shake of my head. “Skara, make sure you get that fixed before you eat dinner.”

“I’ll make it even better than how it was originally!” Skara declared as he leapt down, his impact with the ground causing a small tremor near him.

With the shenanigans dealt with I returned back to Alise’s table. She watched me sit back down with a smile on her face, but she chose not to talk to me about what’d just happened.

“Are you ever going to let her train with a wooden sword?” Alise asked, her question not even close to what I’d expected.

That was a question that only brought up the fact that eventually Anne would inherit her father’s sword, and we all knew she would need to know how to use it. I sat quietly at the table and stared into my cup of tea, my thoughts lingering on the inevitable fact that sooner or later she’d encounter her grandfather.

It was an encounter that I knew would be quite unique, but it also brought up another thought. I lingered instead on the warning I’d received in the past, and it was one that didn’t necessarily need to refer to me. “I think I’d feel better if she never touched a blade in her life,” I replied honestly.

Alise stared at me in silence. After a little bit she gave a small shake of her head, and started to open her mouth to talk. Before she could speak a shout came from near the entrance to our small community, and I looked over to see what had happened.

I saw Wumi running in our direction, while she was trailed by a few of the older kids. They were escorting a muscular man who wore a suit of light leather armor, and who had opted to also wear a wide-brimmed hat on his head. He had no visible weapons but instead had a satchel at his hip.

“Erikson, how have you been?” Alise asked in that soft voice of hers.

“Good, Lady Alise, quite good. My pa wanted me to ask if we could borrow a few workers for the farm,” Erikson told her as he reached for his satchel, “and I got a letter I was told to deliver.”

I already knew who it’d come from and what it most likely entailed, and so I was frowning when I accepted the letter. “Don’t tell me Donnerson needs help with another Plague outbreak,” I muttered as my eyes skimmed the letter.

“Dunno, I was told to wait until you gave me a reply though,” Erikson said as he pointed at one of the unused chairs, “mind if I sit? Been a bit of a long ride.”

Alise gave the smallest of waves at the chair. “Of course. Do you want me to have one of the kids bring you something?”

“Naw.” Erikson shook his head as he pulled out a canteen from his satchel. “I don’t forgets to bring this along, not when it’s this hot.”

While the two of them talked I read the letter. Normally Taryn would be sent out to deal with this, but Emperor Cantrium had personally requested his assistance investigating some odd sightings in the jungle. To that end I’d promised to fill in for him during his absence, but it was a promise that I’d hoped I wouldn’t need to follow through on.

When I stood up and put the letter down Alise turned her gaze to me. “Is everything alright, Lily?”

“They’ve heard reports of a small pack near Harnz,” I told her, “so Donnerson has asked for me to hunt it down if it’s real. It should only take a week or two at most.”

“I could come with you if you wanted me to,” Alise offered.

I smiled at her and resisted the urge to hug her, as it’d be a bit improper given the current company. “No, I can handle it,” I said, “after all I am the daughter-in-law of a god.”

It was probably that comment which made Erikson look between the two of us with a look of pure confusion on his face. I could only laugh as I walked away and headed over to my house, passing by the orphanage on the way.

It’d grown over the last few years as more children had been brought, though this time not by force. One of the few things Taryn had learned was to hold back in the presence of slavers, though I could only assume that they would never forget who he was. Instead we used what spare money we could gain from our work to buy any children we saw on sale.

What we hadn’t expected was that the oldest children who’d gone off on their own would instead return with more. When Saris brought along a couple slave girls she’d personally bought I’d been shocked, and yet it was also something worth celebrating.

I gave a wistful little smile at that thought. Perhaps some day in the future there wouldn’t be any child slaves. It was a future that I hoped to see before I died.

When I reached my house I made certain to give it a look over in case any damage had happened. While I loved Anne she had a bit of a hard time containing her excitement, and in the past she’d already broken a couple of the walls running into them.

The two-story building had been painted white, and the glass windows had dark blue shutters for when the weather turned sour. The slate roof and the wooden walls looked to be in good condition, while the brick chimney had no smoke coming out of it. All in all I was quite proud of the place, though it was a far cry from my parents’ mansion.

I opened up the door to the house and walked in, as I needed to change into a more adventure appropriate outfit, and I was immediately greeted by a naked little girl. Anne laughed as she hugged my leg, while behind her Diana hurriedly ran while carrying a towel. A clear line of water could be seen leading to the bathroom.

“Lady Anne you mustn’t!” Diana cried as she tried to peel my daughter off of me and put the towel around her.

“It’s alright, Diana,” I said in an attempt to sooth my maid.

I reached down and lightly patted my daughter on her head, in the process making a bit of a mess of her platinum hair. She giggled as she looked up at me with the same blue eyes that I had, except that she didn’t have any crimson in hers.

“Hi mommy!” she said, and to me it was the only words she needed to say.

I knelt down and wrapped my arms around my daughter. Though she was wet I didn’t care, and instead I merely enjoyed that moment. I wanted to share that moment with Taryn but I knew it’d be bad for him to be distracted.

“Lady Liliana, I didn’t expect you to come back so soon and I’m so sorry that she wasn’t ready yet,” Diana said.

“My time with Alise was cut short.” I released my daughter and stood back up. I took the towel from Diana and tried my best to dry Anne off, though given how squirmy she was it wasn’t easy. “A messenger came and I’ve been requested to help with a matter elsewhere.”

Those words brought all of the excitement of my daughter to an end. Instead she almost glared at me, and with one finger she poked at my cheek. “Leaving?”

“I’m sorry,” I told her, “but mommy needs to go deal with some monsters.”

Diana gave a bit of a bow to me at my words. “I will make certain to set up a proper attire for you then, along with packing your supplies. How long do you believe this will take?”

I handed the towel back to Diana after I’d finished wiping off my daughter. “I’m hoping at most a week, but it might take a little longer,” I told her as I scooped up Anne.

“No! Too long!” Anne declared as she wrapped her small arms around my neck.

“Don’t worry, I’ll have Alise play with you while I’m gone,” I promised her as I walked through my house to Anne’s room.

“Skara!” Anne shouted with a giggle.

I frowned at that, as I didn’t like the idea of my daughter fighting when I wasn’t around. Perhaps I could get Alise to have him tone it down a little until I came back. “I’m sure Skara would love to play with you too.”

“Yay!”

Diana moved on ahead of me and presented the clothing she’d chosen for my daughter, a yellow sun dress along with white socks and yellow shoes. While we struggled to get Anne into her clothes, as she giggled and squirmed during the entire process, I couldn’t stop worrying about leaving my four year old daughter behind. Even if it was temporary it still agitated my heart.

It was my daughter who cut through all of that worry as she stared straight into my eyes, and with a somewhat serious face said, “Can I help with monsters?”

I couldn’t resist leaning forward and kissing her lightly on the forehead. “Not yet,” I told her as I straightened up, “but don’t worry. Sometime soon you can.”