In the evening, when Morrigan was finally freed from the dinner table, she turned into a shadow and sneaked through the busy castle hallways. They were brimming with demons, drow and duergar as well as other races. Not wanting to be escorted by Azrael and her two guards through the whole castle, she excused herself and went for the easy approach – sliding through the shadows.

Morrigan wasted no time and headed straight to Lady Lily's room, materializing out of the shadow as soon as she reached the door. The two guards by the door appeared startled at first, but they recognized Morrigan and greeted her with a bow.

"Good day, Your Highness. Have you come to meet Lady Lily or Princess Deziara?" one of the guards asked.

"I've come to see Lady Lily. Is she back yet?"

"Yes, she and Princess Deziara came back a while ago. I shall announce that you wish to meet them," the guard said and knocked on the door.

"What is it? I do not wish to meet anyone today," resounded the elegant yet tired voice of Lady Lily.

"It is Princess Morrigan, my lady," the guard said. Before Lady Lily had the chance to respond the door swung open and Deziara pulled Morrigan in, shutting the door behind herself.

"Morri! How did it go?" Deziara chirped, hopping around her in excitement.

"Deziara, give your sister some room to breathe," Lady Lily called out, an ice pack pressed against her head.

"I see it was rough on your end," Morrigan noted, and the demoness sighed in response.

"It wouldn't be so bad if this little one wouldn't be so excited about every new thing she saw."

"But mom! There were so many new people. The duergar were a little bit similar to Gunna, but much gruffer and they looked annoyed at every little thing."

"That's because you kept pestering them about every little thing. I swear, all the training you went through was completely useless," Lady Lily sighed again, then looked at Morrigan hopefully. "Tell me it went better on your end, child."

"Yes, tell us everything! I saw the fallen from afar but I couldn't believe my eyes. Do they really have wings?" Deziara pulled Morrigan to the sofa across from her mother and sat right next to her.

"Yes, they do! They are so large and big and fluffy," Morrigan gushed, completely infected by Deziara's enthusiasm.

"Did they let you touch them?"

"What? I never asked. That would be inappropriate."

Deziara puffed out her cheeks, while Lady Lily nodded in approval.

"At least one of you girls has a good head on her shoulders. Tell me how the dinner went."

"It was really tense at first, but Viana and I managed to get some light conversation going."

"What? Viana? Really? Are you sure you're talking about the same Viana," Deziara scowled in disbelief.

"Viana has her priorities set straight. She knows we cannot show any discord in front of our enemies," Lady Lily noted.

Enemies. I never thought of them as such. The fallen seemed like normal people just like demons. It was rather heartwarming to see the Prime Minister and his wife gush over their daughter.

"Yeah, I was also surprised. She even showed me how to properly cut up the birds they served at dinner. Anyway, once the tension was broken the conversation got really light and even cheerful, I would say. But…"

"But?" Deziara leaned closer, and Lady Lily narrowed her eyes.

"They brought this Burmese Ruby gem as a gift and asked for it to become the prize of the competition that will happen during the festival."

"So it is no gift at all," Deziara scowled, and both Morrigan and Lady Lily nodded at her conclusion.

"It's a rather rude thing that they did, but I understand why they did it. No doubt they wish one of their own to win the competition and improve their reputation in the Underworld," the demoness said, then put a finger to her lips in contemplation. "But a Burmese Ruby of all things. That is a really valuable prize."

"How does it work exactly? Viana said it adapts to its user," Morrigan asked.

"That means that the gem gives the user the ability that is most suited for them. For example, if a lesser demon who works in the mines were to absorb a Burmese Ruby it might grant the ability to locate ores more easily."

"That doesn't sound very impressive," Deziara scoffed.

"Indeed. But if for example one of you girls were to absorb it, it might give you the ability to control the shadows themselves."

"Control the shadows?" Both girls leaned forward, their eyes shining with interest. Moving as a shadow like Morrigan did was already considered a superior and rare ability. But controlling shadows in the Underworld where there was no sun, meant that you were nearly invincible. Only Alphegor possessed this ability.

"Yes. Of course, that is not a given. Nobody knows what ability a Burmese Ruby grants to the user, only that it will be beneficial to them."

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"We must get that Ruby, Morri!" Deziara jumped up to her feet, brimming with excitement.

"Wouldn't it be a bit difficult? The competition includes many tasks and you have to be good at them all to be victorious," Morrigan said. The Nachtstern Festival Competition happened over the course of five days and was the main attraction that garnered the attention of the whole Underworld. Apparently, it was a great way for demons and other races to search for employment as those who managed to excel even during one of the tasks would be sought out afterwards.

"It is worth a shot. And everyone is allowed to enter – even us princesses," Deziara hummed, and Morrigan saw how the cogs in her head were turning.

There's no stopping her now, but isn't the competition too dangerous? I'm pretty sure the tasks include monster subjugation or something similar.

"It wouldn't hurt to try. Why don't both of you girls enter?" Lady Lily smiled, the tiniest hint of mischief in her eyes.

"Wait? Me too? Am I not too small?" Morrigan protested. The thought that she could enter the competition never even crossed her mind. "Shouldn't someone like Azrael be competing and representing the Demon Kingdom?"

"He can't compete. He's the host of the Competition. Everyone thought it would be unfair if he competed," Lady Lily objected. "And everyone is allowed to compete, even children."

"Isn't there a chance that I'll get hurt?" Morrigan asked.

"No, everything is carefully monitored. You'll be just fine. And in case something does go wrong, Azrael and your father will be right there – watching the whole thing."

"Morri, you should totally compete. I know for sure that you'd win the magic task and talent showcase in a heartbeat. Nothing can compete with your beautiful paintings," Deziara urged.

The thought of showing off my art is exciting, but, still, I'm not too fond of the idea of wrangling monsters. What if they bring out something like that hydra that lives in the dungeon? Just thinking about that thing makes me shiver.

"But I can't wrangle any monsters and I don't know that much magic yet," she objected.

"What do you mean? You got Haku soundly under your control and you mastered fire magic in just a few weeks. Not to mention all the other magic you've mastered over the years," Deziara praised.

Morrigan had learned levitation and how to create force fields by absorbing labradorite and quartz gems respectively, but those were just two abilities. Compared to adults who had hundreds of spells in their repertoire, her measly array of magic was nothing.

"Controlling Haku is one thing but controlling some random Underworld monster is completely different," she objected, but Deziara was not about to budge.

"Morri, please! You have a better chance of winning this than I do. You got to try," Deziara took hold of both Morrigan's hands and employed her best impression of puppy dog eyes. Morrigan tried her best to not look her sister in the eyes, but she could not resist for long.

"Alright, fine! But if anything happens, it is your fault," she grumbled as Deziara pulled her into a tight hug.

"I love you, Morri! You're the best sister a demon could ask for."

"Alright, Deziara, that's enough. I think it's best if we all rest for today. We need to gather our strength before the big day," Lady Lily said, although the smile on her lips didn't match her words.

"Aw, but I want to talk more about what we could do to win the competition," Deziara whined.

"Tomorrow, girls. Today we rest," she shook her head and stood up, gently placing one hand on Deziara's head and the other on Morrigan's. "Besides I'm sure both of you will do just fine."

Both girls nodded and smiled in response. Then Morrigan unlatched herself from her sister and waved both women goodnight. As she exited the room, she let out a sigh, worried about the daunting task ahead of her.

Participating in the competition will be tough. But I have to admit that the Burmese Ruby is a very tempting prize. I wonder what sort of ability would it grant to me. Would it be shadow manipulation?

Morrigan was about to turn into a shadow and speed off to her room when she saw a flicker of gold pass through the end of the hallway.

"Princess Morrigan, shall I escort you back to your room?" one of the guards asked and appeared to be ready to follow her.

"No, that won't be necessary. I'll get there myself," she assured, glancing at the hallway ahead.

"With all due respect Princess Morrigan, there are a lot of strangers in the castle. We cannot allow you to go by yourself," the guard insisted.

"I'll just turn into a shadow and go straight to my room. That wouldn't be an issue then, right?" She smiled at the guard, who thought for a moment and then nodded.

"Alright. If you go straight to your room as a shadow, then you should be safe."

"Thank you for thinking of me. Have a nice evening," Morrigan said and melted into the shadows. But instead of heading straight to her room, she zoomed into the hallway where she saw the golden flicker before. It was empty so she rushed to the next cross-section and to the left saw the same golden flicker heading upstairs.

Morrigan followed it and saw that it was the golden-haired elf boy sneaking his way upstairs. Well, he was trying to sneak, but it was rather too obvious to anyone watching. He pretended to be nonchalant when somebody was walking towards him, but it appeared rather stiff. Luckily for him, the guests weren't interested in a scrawny elven boy and the servants were just too busy to pay any attention to him.

Where is he going? This way leads upstairs to where the royal family lives. Is he lost? Doesn't seem so.

Curious, Morrigan continued tailing him as he went higher and higher up the castle. He was actually sneakier than she initially thought, using servants as a sort of shield to hide himself from the tired guards or sneaking past them when they were distracted by something else. The fact that guards usually weren't wary of slaves also contributed to his success.

He's actually getting pretty close to my room. What the hell is he plotting? I can't just let him do as he pleases.

Morrigan materialized out of the shadow, appearing right before the elven boy. He jumped back in surprise and glared at her.

"Where do you think you are going?" she asked, putting her hands on her hips and glaring at him. She had a suspicion that the fallen had sent him to do something nefarious, but at the same time Morrigan didn't feel threatened by a poor slave kid.

"None of your business," he snapped back and was about to brush past her, but Morrigan stood her ground.

"I'm afraid it is my business. This is a private place. You're not supposed to be here."

"What are you going to do? Call your daddy?" the boy mocked and stuck out his tongue at her.

What a little brat! Perhaps I need to put him in his place. To show how much stronger I am. Surely that will scare him away.

"I could but I don't need to call him to stop you from going further," she smirked and produced a fireball in her palm in an attempt to scare him off. Much to her dismay, the boy just scoffed.

"What? Are you going to light a candle with that? Good luck," he laughed and tried to walk past her again. This time she produced a force field across the hallway, its shimmering presence stopping the elf in his tracks.

"If you know what's good for you, you will leave. This is my last warning."

The elven boy examined the forcefield and extended his hands towards it. He touched the shimmering wall and pushed against it.

"Not a bad forcefield for a girl," he scoffed and then plunged his hand at it, shattering the forcefield into pieces. Morrigan watched in horror as it disappeared completely and the boy zoomed past her with a self-satisfied grin on his face.