With an agonizing groan, Iskra let out a bored breath of air as her emerald green eyes scanned over the provided pieces of information that lay hidden within the many pages of the leather-bound marriage ledger. Bit by bit, the absurdity held before her only served to remind the teenaged human of the minuscule amount of power that she possessed within her newfound adoptive society.

Ever since her father-in-law had first mentioned the marriage ledger, Iskra had brushed off his comments as nothing more than a crude joke meant to spurn his latest daughter-in-law to help appease the abundance of wives that were against their marriage. Yet as time continued to press forward, reality had proven itself to be a cruel mistress, and now Iskra was forced to look upon a vast array of elven brides that would one day serve as her husband's second and third wives.

As she turned over page after page, the list of potential candidates had irritated the raven-haired girl beyond belief.

The longer that she looked upon the multitude of pages before her, the more that the irritated girl realized that not only would she be powerless to stop the polygamist marriage that was fated to happen, but the mere fact that she knew nothing about the political and social allegiances to these women's families had proven itself to be even far more vile than Iskra had originally thought.

'They might as well have just asked me to pick a pair of assassins to kill me in my sleep,' Iskra thought to herself with an exhausted huff as she closed the ledger with a heavy thud.

Disgusted by what she held between her fingers, Iskra tossed the ledger to the side before slowly rising from behind her desk. Raising her arms above her head to clear out the exhaustion that had built up within her body, Iskra allowed for a content smile to pierce her frowning lips as she heard the latest source of her poisonous hatred for her mother-in-laws bounced against the hardwood floor with an audible thump.

"That heinous bitch," Hissed Iskra with poisonous hatred for her primary mother-in-law and blood-mother to her husband, Mori'Anna, the Arch-Mistress of the near-mythical Witch-King and Co-Ruler to all of Dark Elven society. "First you try to personally kill me and when that didn't work, you turned to politics to do it."

Frustrated by her lack of power against the whims of her newfound family, Iskra made her way towards a nearby couch. With an audible huff of air, the pregnant teenager planted her tired body upon its plush surface before slowly sprawling her limbs across the many silken pillows that served to further cushion the already plush fabric.

Even before their initial meeting with one another, Iskra had already been viewed as the foulest of enemies by the Dark Elven Arch-Mistress. When she had initially heard about how possessive her future mother-in-law acted towards the blonde-haired elven prince, Iskra never quite realized what sort of nightmare she was walking into once she had dug her claws into Aurelius’ body and soul.

Of course, once that initial meeting had come to fruition, Iskra had at first expected to receive another brutal beatdown that was similar to the one that she had received from Velicion after the two of them had gotten into an argument over the sorceress' initial confrontation over the raven-haired girl's relationship with the elven prince.

It was Aurelius who had saved her from being further bloodied by Velicion's fists, but the confidence that she held in her heart over being forced to endure a similar situation was quickly shattered once the Arch-Mistress shattered a distant mountaintop as she let out a sigh of disappointment over her son's life choices.

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Iskra wasn't quite sure what happened next since she had blacked out from the sheer amount of arcane pressure exerted upon her body, but from what she had been told by Aurelius himself, he had picked her up and warped across the wilderness in a futile attempt to escape from his murderous mother.

The chase had ended quicker than one could blink after the Arch-Mistress had forcibly dragged her wayward son out of the plane of existence that laid just outside of the material world as he was warped from one location to the next.

It was thanks to the Witch-King's timely arrival that Iskra had managed to survive the crisis that she had so brazenly stumbled upon, and after several days spent recuperating, a formal meeting was held between the human teenager and her father-in-law in order to help introduce her into her new family.

To say that the meeting was awkward was beyond insanity from the very moment that it had started as the scantily-dressed and bare chested Witch-King waltzed into the meeting with several of his wives around his arms. At first, Iskra chose to ignore the lustful pawing that the man’s many wives were committing upon his chiseled body, but things began to spiral out of control as soon as the man instructed the gathered wives to undress one another in front of his newfound daughter-in-law.

Frozen in place by the sheer audacity being committed in front of her, Iskra's eyes remained locked upon the floor as she was forced to converse with the man with flustered whispers passing through her lips. Their meeting had lasted for several hours, and it only managed to end once Aurelius arrived to thank his father for what he had done within the walls of Ruined Home.

Thinking that the exhibitionist nightmare was finally over, Iskra was ecstatic to watch her father-in-law leave the walls of Ruined Home, but reality had once again proven itself a harsh mistress for the flustered teenager once the young couple had been gifted a magical mirror to help close the social distance between the main branch of the Dreadblade family and it’s recently formed familial side branch that dared to keep such a legendary surname.

Now Iskra was so used to the near-nightly display of exhibitionism between father and son that she was actively taking part in their conversations while even going so far as to strike up personal conversations with whichever of her mother-in-laws were present at the time of the call.

Iskra’s face was a fierce shade of red as she planted her hands over her face and vigorously shook her head in order to help cast aside such perverse thoughts.

What she needed to focus on was the fact that without a reliable ally to act as a guide through the alien world of Dark Elven high society, she would be doomed to suffer a tragedy that would one day befall her and her children.

With how she viewed her situation, Iskra had already been dealt a losing hand the moment she married into a society that viewed polygamy as natural as one taking a deep breath during a crisp, snow-frosted winter morning. Any attempts made by her to prevent such a marriage would be met with a disaster that she didn't dare to fathom its outcome.

What she needed to do was to return to the ledger and sift through the provided list of candidates once more. Once she had done so, she would hopefully pick out a handful of women that looked weak enough for her to take on in any future confrontations, while also maintaining a strong enough atmosphere that she could hopefully convince her in-laws in choosing instead of their preferred candidates.

Yet the problem with such a plan was that she was practically illiterate when it came to such notions.

If she were back in Ranislava, Iskra would have plenty of confidence in choosing the very candidates that she was so desperate to seek out, yet the fact that she was dealing with a foreign society with an even greater alien culture, the raven-haired girl might as well gamble away her future in a vain hope that she was picking out the right pair of women.

Frustrated by the lack of avenues of escape from her predicament, Iskra allowed for a vicious growl to pass through her glistening lips as her thoughts slowly drifted out of existence as her tired body desperately called out for a midday slumber.

Letting out one last frustrated breath of air, Iskra began to close her eyes as she gladly answered the call for sleep.

That was until a familiar-sounding name exploded out of the back of her mind.

“Snowstalker.”

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