When we arrived in the dining hall, Lord Renae was already in the room, sitting at the head of a long table. He leaned back against his seat, his eyes closed. I initially thought that he had somehow fallen asleep, though that idea fell apart as the man spoke.

“I see that you are still here. Please take a seat.”

The table was large enough to comfortably seat four on the long sides with a single person sitting on each end. So far, the three of us were the only ones in the room. Charlotte took a seat beside her father, and I sat beside her in a center seat.

“Your mother will be joining us shortly, so be on your best behavior.” Lord Renae spoke, maintaining his appearance.

Charlotte flinched at his words and started rubbing up and down her arms.

“Will Alastair be joining us?” Charlotte spoke, her voice low and weak.

“Alastair?” Lord Renae questioned, opening an eye. “I didn’t know he was here?”

“He came to the party, but didn’t stay very long.” She explained, avoiding eye contact with her father. “He- he said that you had called for him.”

Closing his eyes again, Lord Renae tipped his head slightly and spoke. “I did not call for him. How strange.”

Just then, one of the doors opened and in came a tall, regal woman. The woman bore a striking resemblance to Charlotte, though only in her face. Charlotte had Lord Renae’s golden hair and pink eyes, and this woman had long, chocolate brown hair and dull, blue eyes. Something else she had was a large baby bump bulging from her gut.

“Good afternoon, Aria.” Lord Renae spoke.

The woman grumbled and stepped towards the seat opposite Lord Renae and dropped down into it.

“I thought you said she barely showed signs of being pregnant.” I whispered to Charlotte who shrunk back and turned to look at the empty glasses resting on the table.

‘Barely showing signs’ would be something like morning sickness. This woman looked ready to pop any day.

“It’s rude to whisper in front of others.” Aria spoke loudly, glowering at the two of us. “Who is this boy, Haver? Why is he here?”

“This is Hamil Wark. He is one of Charlotte’s friends.” Lord Renae explained with a straight face. “He stayed after the debacle this morning to make sure that she was okay.”

“Well wasn’t that nice of him.” She spoke in a honeyed tone, though her face was still sour. “Have they caught whoever was responsible?”

“The investigation is ongoing.”

Lady Renae scoffed again and looked as if she was about to say something when a bell chimed and a pair of doors opened. A group of masked servants came in, carrying large, silver platters with expensive looking meals atop them.

Not two seconds after the food was laid in front of her, Lady Renae started eating. Though her mood was crude, her table manners were refined. Despite that, I watched in horror as the woman ate twice as much as the average man in my father’s band of thugs. It was quite possibly the strangest thing I’d ever seen. The woman probably ate her weight or more, but did so slowly and regally. And what’s more, her body hadn’t changed in the slightest despite how much she ate.

“It’s rude to stare.” Lady Renae spoke in a threatening tone as she dabbed her face with a cloth. “I will be returning to my room to rest. Charlotte, could you come and help me?”

Quickly, Charlotte stood from her seat and rushed to her mother, helping her up from her seat and out of the room, leaving Lord Renae and I alone together again.

Compared to his wife, who had eaten enough to feed a common family for a week, Lord Renae had eaten like a bird. Sensing my gaze, the marquis turned to meet my gaze.

“I could probably guess what you’re thinking.” The man spoke with a smile, surprising me.

“I- I don’t know what you mean.” I stuttered, not expecting the small talk.

“Aria’s, my wife’s family. My father arranged for us to be married in order to mix our bloodlines.” The man explained. “My family’s power comes from the Basilisk, while hers comes from the Vensua, a lion with control over flames. The powers mixed quite well. Alastair has worked hard to become a Major in the army. Charlotte, however, only seems to have inherited my power.”

“Why are you telling me all of this?” I asked, on the edge of my seat.

“Information is a precious commodity. And in your position, there are some things that you should know.” He explained. “I do, however, expect some in return.”

“What do you want to know?”

“Many, many things. Though I doubt you can answer any of the important ones.” He spoke, then leaned forward, the chair creaking under him. “For now, I wish to know about your father. Tell me everything that you know about him, every little detail.”

Nodding, I thought back, drawing on as many memories as I could and shared everything I could with the marquis. Some of the details were hard to share, but thinking of the fate that awaited the man who had tormented me for so long helped me push through it.

One detail in specific seemed to knock the marquis sideways.

On my back, in the center of my spine, was a mark: a circle with a vertical line cutting through it. Both my father and I shared this symbol. He had always told me that it was the sign of a bastard and that we only had it because that’s what we were.

Stolen story; please report.

Lord Renae’s eyes went wide at this revelation, making him choke on his water. He then demanded that I show it to him.

Weirded out, I lifted up the back of my shirt and turned to show it to him. He stood from his chair and stepped over, pressing his cold hand against my back.

“It’s real. There’s no doubt about that. But how?” He mumbled to himself.

“What’s wrong?” I asked, pulling my shirt back down.

“That symbol is not the mark of a bastard. That’s the mark of nobility.” He explained, stepping back over to his chair. “Why would your father have the mark and become a criminal? Bearing this mark gives you special privilege. Even if he’s been disgraced, the mark can be removed without a person’s presence.”

“So we really are bastards.” I muttered.

“That is certainly an explanation, though he would have to be from a powerful family to fear coming forward.”

“Is there a way to find out which family it is?”

“Not to my knowledge. I’m sure time will tell if you have a special bloodline, but other than that, there isn’t a way to tell.”

With that revelation, our discussion ended as Charlotte came back in the room.

Excusing ourselves, Charlotte and I explored a good deal of the upper floor, though most of it was spare rooms.

After a short time, I recognized that it was time for me to return home for the day.

Charlotte was sad to see me go, and I could sense no small amount of dread as well. However, before I could leave, Lord Renae, who just happened to pass by, called me over.

I hurried over to the marquis who bent down to speak to me. “Why don’t you come back in a couple of days? One of my knights has expressed interest in your abilities, and I think that Charlotte would enjoy a surprise visit.”

I figured that the knight in question was Dame Austen and agreed.

Nodding, the marquis stood straight and called out to his daughter. “Why don’t you go with him?”

Charlotte beamed and excitedly ran over to the carriage that had been called over to take me home. I followed after her and met eyes with Dame Austen who sat in the drivers seat. The lady knight nodded and grinned wide.

The ride was short, but it made me happy to feel just how happy Charlotte was the entire ride. The end of the ride, however, was more harsh than I thought it could be. Nothing bad happened, but the dread and sadness inside of Charlotte as she watched me get out of the carriage was suffocating. Something was definitely wrong.

Before I could ask, however, Charlotte smiled wide and spoke. “I’ll see you again soon.” And then she shut the door and the carriage pulled away.

Sighing, I turned and walked towards the manor.

“Please save her!” An unfamiliar voice cried out from inside the house. It was a womans.

“My wife is doing everything she can. Please be patient.” Pert replied.

I pushed open the door to see Pert standing in the entry foyer with a woman. Jaime and Veria stood a short distance away, watching everything.

“Please, she’s all I have left!” The woman cried hysterically.

“I promise you that everything is going to be alright. My wife is the best healer around, so I’m sure that your daughter will be fine.”

The woman nearly collapsed, tears flowing freely down her face as she wailed in pain. The sheer amount of pain and despair that this woman was in caused my stomach to churn. It was like someone had just torn off a limb. Like a piece of myself had been taken away.

I hadn’t seen the extent of the damage and had just assumed that the girl had been hit somehow, but this reaction didn’t fit that. Something worse had to have happened.

Turning away from the group, I searched for Licilia and the injured girl.

I eventually found my pseudo mother standing just outside of a door. She was dry heaving and struggling to breathe. She had never told any of us, but she was terrified of blood. It didn’t matter where it came from or how much there was, Licilia always had a strong reaction when she saw it. Despite this, she always tries her hardest to help, especially when it’s a child.

Slowly approaching her, I hugged her. From this distance, I could see a great deal of blood on her hands and skirt.

“I- I think I can help.” I spoke quietly.

“No, I can’t- I can’t let you. You’re still just a boy. I- I can do this myself.” She struggled to speak, swallowing hard.

“Please just let me try.” I pleaded.

I knew that she would never forgive herself if she let me see something like this, but she would also never forgive herself if she failed.

Clenching her fists, she turned and opened the door.

Inside the room, on the bed, a girl around my age lay unconscious. Her face was a mess, though it definitely looked like it had healed some, it wasn’t enough. Her jaw still hung on by threads, all of her teeth were gone, some of them embedded deep inside the roof of her mouth, her lips and cheeks were either completely gone or riddled with holes large and small. The amount of damage was crazy.

Shuddering, I reminded myself that this was nothing I hadn’t seen before and took a deep breath and summoned my aura and a Magic Ring. Pushing myself, I pleaded with the spirits to heal her, but despite my pleas, barely any appeared. Those spirits managed to patch up some of the damage to her cheeks, but it was not enough.

Suddenly, I had an idea, though I didn’t like it at first.

Jaime always had a much stronger affinity with the spirits than me. She would definitely be able to do much more than I had just done, but I didn’t want to expose her to this kind of image. It would probably scar her for life.

Weighing the decision in my mind, I was interrupted by the door opening. Jaime walked in and stopped, staring at the girl on the bed. Licilia acted much faster than me, rushing to block her view, but she was ultimately too late.

“It’s okay.” Jaime spoke in a soft voice. “I already saw it.”

Cringing, Licilia grit her teeth and stared at her feet.

Slowly, Jaime approached the bed and stared down at the girl, keeping a straight face the entire time. I could feel that she was sad, but more than that was something else. An emotion that I couldn’t find a word for. An emotion that creeped up my spine and made me shiver. Pushing this away, I stepped next to Jaime and spoke.

“Jaime, remember with Astrid?” I asked. “When you healed her. Could you do that again?”

Jaime met my eyes and then turned back to the girl. She then got closer and summoned her own aura as she placed her hands on her forehead. Licilia moved to try to stop her, but stopped herself when she saw what was happening.

When I had tried, little more than a dozen spirits appeared and did very little before disappearing. Just now, the moment that Jaime activated her aura, thousands of spirits appeared in the air with more appearing with every passing second until it became hard to see. Then, the spirits swarmed the girl’s body, covering it completely.

Just as quickly as they had appeared, the spirits faded away. What was left behind was beyond my own expectations. Not only had her mouth been restored to perfect condition, her whole body was now void of any sign of damage of any kind, even the tiny scar I had noticed on her shoulder.

Her aura fading, Jaime stumbled sideways and collapsed. Luckily, Licilia had been close enough to catch her before she hit the ground. Now unconscious, Jaime started snoring lightly.

Holding Jaime in her arms, Licilia looked up at the girl’s body and let out a sharp breath. She had been holding her breath the entire time.

Just then, the door opened again as Pert stepped in slowly, the girl’s mother behind him. The man’s eyes went wide at the sight of the girl as her mother rushed to her side, bawling as she embraced her daughter.

╚╩╩╩╝ Gareth Gelling ╚╩╩╩╝

“That stupid whore!” I shouted as I threw a vase across my room. “She thinks that she can stand up to me now!”

I stood alone in my room. I had just trashed it, but that didn’t matter. I could just replace things.

“You’re mine! You always have been, and you always will be.” I growled.

I had no idea where this newfound courage of hers came from, but after I snuff it out, then she’ll be mine once again. That’s a promise. I just need to get father to agree to it, but he hasn’t been responding to any of my letters. I hate traveling, but I’ll have to go to him in person if I want to bring her back to me before she gets any ideas.