The ship was a marvel of an artefact enchantment and ship design. The whole ship from the outside looked like a sleek metal body and carried the crest of Sterling's house. Its length would not exceed more than one hundred and fifty metres but was only to help with cargo loading and unloading. Inside was much more spacious the halls, though not large, weren't cramped either and even the crew quarters were big enough, around that of a normal house in a land. Made possible by the use of spatial enlargement formations as well as those to stabilise the constant shaking of the boat. Among them, in the specially built luxury quarters, Isabella sat on her desk. On the other side, were the old-looking women with maid attire. She had wrinkles all over her exposed face but the eyes didn’t have the cloudiness that matched her old body. She was Isabella’s maid, Fay.

“So, had the alliance decided to pass the bill this time?” Isabella asked. The thing was, the assembly of stars had been called for a vote, but that call was not made for her. No, it was made for the maid sitting in front of her, the executive head of the territory under a house. Fay’s vote was what counts and Isabella was bound to follow her advice in all matters.

“ Yes, that is the case,” Fay said to her. “It’s long overdue.”

“Five decades to be exact.” Isabella looked at the draft on her desk. It was the bill that once passed would become a law. It couldn’t be helped. The actual bill and conditions were long discussed by a separate meeting between the Head Maids and Butlers of each house. Even what they were supposed to vote for or against was also decided. For this very reason, the assembly was sometimes referred to as the rubber stamp assembly.“ Life of Equality… I still cannot believe it was the bill that came from that land.”

“ Mistress, I suggest you not,” Fay said. The bill does more than what its names suggest. Five decades ago, slavery was the common norm in the alliance and much of the world. Of course, no one dared to put chains on a human's neck, not the one who planned to live. But that didn’t mean the market was not saturated with other races, beastmens, elves, dwarfs, mermaids, the list goes on. If the price was high enough, then in some dark underbelly of Alliance, humans too could be bought for. Humans, after all, are greedy beyond life and death. The bill was supposed to ban all kinds of slavery and put quite a lot of houses in tense situations. Their economies and much of their workforce after all were built on free, unpaid labour. But it was not the reason why people avoided discussion of that bill. It was the person who introduced it.

“ Why not? Are you so afraid to say her name to those who did such good things? Or did you just not like this bill enough for that?” Isabella said as she grabbed a cherry from her plate beside the documents.

“ I just don’t want to remember the tragedy that it brought,” Fay said to her. She understood why Isabella was very interested in the bill. For without it, Isabella was once too sold on one such market.

“ Right.” Isabella had nothing else to say. Their destination was already set in place in any case. It wouldn’t change even if she wished for it. She just wanted to see what show Celestia brought this time. Fay meanwhile, sorted the papers across the table. The nitty-gritty of events are already discussed by them to death, but more could be done after reaching Celestia. It was then she remembered some words from the secret letter she received from there, and a small thought appeared in her mind. ‘A lot of people might lose their cool this time.’

***

“ Nah sis, do something,” Eliana said to Eloise in their room. She lay on the bed, upside down with her head falling off the bed. Her legs kept on moving up and down on the bed.

“ About what?” Eloise asked, without looking up from the book in her hand.

“ It’s so boring here.”

“ I see. How about you go for a walk?” Eloise already knew why her sister said this. For she was not used to staying in a place without moving her body.

“ But I already tried that. I went up the deck to run but Mother told me not to until she was there too.” Eliana said with a sigh. “ She said I would fall into the water otherwise.”

“Run?” Eloise caught the word from her sister but still refused to look up. “ Anyways, what about the hallway?”

“ It’s crowded. If I hit somebody while running, Mother would be angry.”

“How about the lowest level? I heard there was some big storage space there?”

“Sis, you think I am a fool, aren’t you?” Eliana sat up on the bed and eyed her sister with a raised chest. “ I already went there once but it was too dusty and I had to leave. It was the first place that I visited.”

“Oh…” Eloise turned her page of the book. In a sense, she was almost baffled at her sister. She wondered if she had already visited everywhere on the ship while she had not even left the room yet.

“Sis, look what I found there.” Eliana on the other hand pulled a board from below the bedsheet. It was a game of ludo with dice. “ Sis, Sis, let's play. One match, pretty please. Come on, just one match till you win.” She jumped over to her sister's bed and kept pestering her till Eloise became so annoyed that she dropped the book and grabbed the cheeks of Eliana and stretched them wide.

“iiiiit huuuuurts!"

“No? How many times have I told you not to jump on my bed while I am reading?”

“Suuryy…”

“Also, where did you find this game in the first place?”

“ ouch..it was the first thing in front of me when I opened the storage room,” Eliana said as she rubbed her cheeks with a teary eye. “ So which colour do you want?”

Elaina didn’t wait for her answer and started to set her the game. Eloise on the other hand noticed the board being brand new with shiny wax coating on the wood. She remembered her mother ordering some servants to buy some board in the morning and wondered if that was it. But she didn’t say much about it as Eliana finished setting the game up. “ Only one round, ok.”

“Of course, you can win that round.”

“You will see.” It was needless to say, Eloise’s luck turned out way worse than her little sister and thus the rounds kept on increasing. Because of that, she didn’t notice that in the book that she had just read, the word next to Alliance’s history quietly changed from Three thousand years to One thousand and Five hundred.

***

The next day, Eliana was sitting near the window of her room and held a fishing rod while Eloise busied herself with snacks. Eliana doesn’t want to go fishing, but this morning Isabella caught her trying to run on the deck and told her to go back to her room. Then she tried to do her sword training but almost damaged the walls of the room. At last, Isabella came and took her wooden sword away and handed her a fishing rod instead. She was too bored at this point as the scenery outside only consisted mostly of lines of trees on the river's shores. Sometimes, they would pass by some cities, but due to their haste and speed, they didn't stop at all.

At this time, someone knocked on the door and a maid’s voice came from outside.“Young Misses, the Mistress told me to inform you both that the ship will reach Celestia in half an hour.”

“Really? Finally, we can be done with this,” she said in a cheerful voice, replacing her earlier bored look.

“At least you can stop jumping at my bed,” Eloise said from the side.

The initial excitement Eliana had felt had dried up after just one day on the ship. She couldn't practise her swordsmanship for fear of damaging the vessel, which she had almost done. “Sis, what do you want to buy from there? I heard there are many big shops,” Eliana asked with anticipation, handing the fishing rod to the maid.

“I have not decided yet but I plan to visit some libraries around there.” Eloise stood up and walked inside with Eliana. “But I heard you can also find dwarf-made artefacts in Celestia.”

“Ah, I see. Do you think I could order custom-built magic armour at a shop?” Eliana's eyes gleamed. “I want it to have storage in the form of a pendant or earring when not in use.”

“You sure wish a lot,”

As time passed, the ship drew closer to Celestia. The river banks shed their green and brown hue, and were replaced by rows of wooden buildings on the outskirts and stone buildings nearer the city. The rows of houses dotted the whole riverside and expanded much into the distance.

“Wow, look at all those ships,” Eliana said as she exclaimed. She was on the deck and was observing the variety of ships and boats of different sizes and flags coming and going. Most were smaller than theirs, but some were quite large, about five hundred metres long with a large open deck.

“Celestia acts as a hub and a capital for Humans, as well as a transit point for ships crossing Terralea,” Eloise who was beside her said as she explained. “Most of these are cargo ships, like those larger ones.”

Eliana looked at them again and saw that her sister was right. These larger ships were loaded with various wooden boxes visible on their decks. Unlike their own ship’s ornate design, these ships had a more minimalist appearance.

“Mother, are we going to dock there?” Even Eloise seemed interested as she pointed towards the bustling harbour, a large structure made of metals and stone with ships queueing up, indicating a waiting list.

“No,” Isabella, sitting behind them, shook her head. “We are a recognized family, so we have the right to develop our private port here.”

“Really? What does it look like? Is it similar to back home?” Eliana asked eagerly, but Isabella just smiled mysteriously.

“You'll find out soon.”

“Uh…”

“But I can tell you its port number in case you ever need to find it in the future—Port Thirty-two.”

Eliana looked ahead with anticipation, searching for the number Thirty-two somewhere. Eloise, however, asked a question that made Isabella’s smile wide.

“Mother, what about those unrecognised noble houses? Do they have a common port too?” Though not very well-informed, Eloise knew there were Fifty-two recognized houses, but that didn’t account for the total number of families, which exceeded hundreds of thousands. The alliance system worked on a territory under the rule of a single house whose position was hereditary. Meaning, the lord of a house was usually from the same house There were a total of Fifty-two territories ruled by Fifty-two recognised houses. It was the same for all steps below. Small towns and villages too had a family which ruled them as their lord but they were not recognised by the alliance. Given the number of ships coming and going, Eloise felt there had to be a separate port somewhere for them to dock in too as they too were invited to this session as observers.

“Look over there,” Isabella pointed to the smaller ships lined up behind a cargo ship, waiting their turn. Eloise tried to examine them closely. Although shabby and small, they were not cargo ships.

“If you look closely, the captain of that ship looks anxious. A while ago, he was shouting at his crew. Why do you think he did that?” The ship in question was three hundred metres away from them, and winds flowed right next to their ear on the deck. But all these were non-existent for someone of Isabella’s strength.

“Because they smell bad?” Eliana jumped in her excitement, but fell silent under Isabella's disapproving gaze. Eloise frowned and said, “Frustration? Maybe because by the time it's their turn to dock, the meeting will likely have already started.”

“That’s correct,” Isabella nodded approvingly. “So, there's your answer. Unrecognised nobles share a port with traders and follow a strict first-come, first-served policy.”

“Huh?” Both sisters were surprised. They hurried along the way since the invitation had come on short notice. Judging by the line, it could take anywhere from one day to several, but the meeting was scheduled for tomorrow evening. If they had to wait too long, they might miss it. As they looked around, they counted more than fifty such ships.

“Why? And what will they do if they can’t get their turn?” Isabella said the question that was on her daughters' minds. “For the second question, missing the meeting could incur a penalty of anywhere from Three hundred to a Thousand gold coins, and repeated absences could lead to loss of membership.”

“Look, we are at our port. There’s Port Thirty-two,” Isabella didn’t answer the first question but pointed towards the port in the distance. Eloise and Eliana followed her gaze and were amazed at the sight. Unbeknownst to them, the wooden houses had completely disappeared from view, replaced by stone buildings that seemed to gleam in the sunlight. The paths and ports were similarly constructed with the same stones. Every port they could see, though larger in scale, surpassed anything they had seen before in terms of style and artistry, even back home.

The Port Thirty-two Isabella had pointed out was adorned with art resembling some kind of floral pattern surrounding a knight statue, visible to ships docking there. The water itself looked pristine and crystal clear, allowing them to see white broken stones at the riverbed as they approached the area around the knight statue into Port Thirty-two.

"Wow, so many fishes, but I think I have seen them somewhere," Eliana remarked, peering into the water.

"They are the same fishes that are in our fountain…" Eloise said, equally surprised. Both were so taken aback by the contrast in scenery just a few metres apart that they forgot their previous questions and began to observe the distant city.

Isabella watched them silently, choosing not to interrupt. She hadn't answered Eliana's earlier question because she knew it might dampen their spirits upon seeing such a beautiful sight. Alliance had been staunchly indifferent towards other houses, especially to unrecognised houses. Some even call it an unkempt disdain towards others. But Alliance doesn’t care, it never did. Late due to short notice? Why not hurry up? No place to dock your ship because of heavy traffic? Well, try swimming to the shore; it's what others do. Flying, jumping, or using small boats near the riverbanks is prohibited; the dockworkers handle the ships themselves. With a clear message, You're not the first to swim across, and would not be the last either. For the Alliance, your attendance is all that matters. That’s truly all that mattered.

This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

***

"Mistress Isabella, it was an honour to meet you again," A somewhat Fifty-year-old man in a butler's dress greeted Isabella as soon as she stepped onto the port. He looked old, but his voice was still full of vigour. "I hope you had no difficulties during the journey."

"Thank you, Jenkins," Isabella replied with a polite smile. "The journey was uneventful."

Jenkins noticed the two sisters behind Isabella and also gave a respectful bow. "I see that the two young ladies are also here this time."

"They are mostly here for a trip; I may need to trouble you later if I am unavailable."

"It’s my pleasure," Jenkins nodded and gestured towards the carriage already waiting at the gate. "Mistress."

"Let's go," Isabella said to her daughters and walked towards it. Jenkins walked behind with the two sisters, and gave a greeting to Fay.

"Are there no knights in Celestia?" Elaina asked, noticing the absence of knights who usually acted as escorts during their travels. Instead, all she found was normal butlers standing behind Jenkins.

"Lady Elaina, it’s your first time here, so you might not know this, but these people are, in a sense, knights," Jenkins said, gesturing towards others similarly dressed in butler attire. "Just, the laws of Celestia prohibit private knights from acting as escorts, so they don’t wear their armour or carry weapons like swords."

"Isn’t that illegal?" Elaina lowered her voice, which earned a small smile from Jenkins.

"Young ladies need not fear, after all, the higher-ups in Celestia are too aware of this," Jenkins said full of confidence. “ We have quite an understanding between us.”

"Do the Celestia higher-ups not care if we do such things?" Eloise also asked, observing the presence of these 'knights' in such a clandestine manner. "Aren’t they breaking their laws by doing this?"

Jenkins hesitated, but Isabella stepped in to answer. "Not every law needed to be enforced with full force. The laws are just tools, ones that can always exist but require discretion from the men in question."

Their carriage left as soon as they boarded, heading south of the city. But just ten minutes after they left, the carriage stopped. Isabella looked outside and found a small checkpost of knights and mages blocking the way. She turned to Jenkins who hastily bowed to her.

“ I will check.” He said and stepped out. After a few minutes, he came back with a knight with armour behind him who also performed a salute as he saw her.

“Mam, sorry for this inconvenience. But it was a higher-up order, all carriages needed to be checked. Please understand.” He said with an apologetic tone.

“ Do we have to disembark?”

“ No, not at all.” The knight said the moment he heard Isabella’s question. “ Just tell us what you have in the carriage and space artefacts. No need to be specific, just say clothes, food, etc. Anything related to weapons might need to be checked separately.” The reason for not being specific was the spell used by mages. It was a simple-sounding name, The Search Spell, but it was not to be underestimated. It could find out what and how much something was inside a space artefact. The only drawback was that it was not very specific. The mages thus had to ask about the things inside and then they could match that with their finding. Only in case of suspicion or specific intel did they search for more but needless to say, there was no need to suspect the person in front of him.

Isabella nodded. She turned her head inside and looked at her daughter. “ Tell me if you got something in your space artefacts.”

“ I have some books and clothes. “ Eloise said.

“ I-I..” Eliana started to stutter when her space artefact was mentioned. Especially more as Isabella’s eyes raised at her. “ S-some chocolates.”

“ How much?” Isabella asked right away. She got a feeling something was not right.

“ Um..a couple of hundred.” There were some tears in her eyes when she said so. She just got them from her father when she was leaving who told her not to tell Isabella. But now the deed was done. Her hands shook as brought her red-earning shaped space artefact and placed them in Isabella’s extended hand, who took it away without saying anything.

“I would start the search then.” The knight who happened to watch had stopped his upcoming laughter and hastily walked away. With his words, a group of three mages formed a triangle around the carriage and chanted with a singular tone. In less than a minute, the whole carriage was surrounded by a magic circle from above which then came down on the carriage and passed through it into the ground.

“ Alright, things seemed to match the descriptions. You are good to go. Have a nice trip in Celestia.” With that being said, the carriage started to move once again. It then moved without a stop when Eloise suddenly asked Isabella.

“ Mother, aren’t we a recognised family?”

“Name means nothing in Celestia. Don’t bother mentioning it.” Isabella didn’t say much and started to look outside. With not much chatter inside the carriage entered a big mansion with red walls.

"Uncle Marcus!" Elaina exclaimed energetically upon seeing a middle-aged man waiting as they stepped down from the carriage. He resembled Edward but older, with unkempt haggard hairs and wrinkles on his face and a deep scar running around his neck with deep dark circles under his reddened eyes. He also used a heavy amount of perfume to hide the smell of alcohol from his body.

"Look who’s here," He said while giving Elaina a hearty hug. "How come you're not tired after such a long journey?"

"Because there was nothing to do on the boat, how could I be tired? I’m not that old like you."

"Ah, look, even the princess is calling me old these days," Marcus sighed, though those who knew him would say otherwise—a High knight like him would hardly, if ever feel tired, even after running for thirty days.

"It is a pleasure to see you, Uncle Marcus," Eloise said as she performed a respectful bow towards him from behind Elaina.

"Eloise, as I always say, put some strength into your greetings," Marcus said with a deep frown. His words were quite the opposite of his response towards Elaina.

"Sir Marcus, it's a pleasure to see you again," Isabella stepped forward and said, "Eloise didn’t go through knight training and is tired thus she couldn’t perform her salute. She needs some rest."

"Well, the rooms are already prepared," Marcus said curtly and without care. "Have the servants deliver your luggage to your rooms."

"Eloise, Elaina, go to your rooms, I will join you after attending to some matters." The sisters didn’t protest, and even energetic Elaina calmed down and hurried off with Fay.

Marcus turned and walked towards his office, with Isabella following silently. Their relationship could be considered frosty and limited to business. One of the main reasons was Isabella's background. For many reasons, Marcus had opposed it and wanted Edward to limit their relationship to that of a concubine. But Edward eventually took her as his first wife, though he later married a lady from the Riverside family, an unrecognised house. The very first moment they entered the office, Isabella’s noise twitched as the heavy smell of smoke burned her lungs as well as the smell of alcohol that seemed to emanate from every furnisher in the room. Marcus walked towards his rather small table and started to make himself a drink from the bottle on the table. It was not until he drank a full glass did he speak again. "I suppose you already know the gist of the situation," Marcus got straight to the point "The meeting is scheduled for tomorrow evening."

"I read the letter from the Alliance," Isabella said as she adjusted her breathing, "But since you called me, it must not be a simple briefing on the passing of the bill, is it? Was something bugging Alliance these days? They look tense from the knights on the streets. They even checked our carriage."

Marcus paused at her words, and she noticed from his back that his shoulders trembled slightly. It took a while when he replied to her. “ Do you know about the barbarians of the South?" He sounded like he was asking her but not planning to wait for a response. "There are rumours that someone from that place is in Celestia. That’s why the security has been tightened.”

“And why would they be here?” Isabella frowned at the words. Since Thar had pulled back from Alliance, they had not stepped a foot in the whole of Terralea. Their sudden presence raised many doubts in her.

“ The guardian of the Ashenmoon Family. It is believed he will not last much longer."

"Is it because of the Divine War?" Isabella was shocked at first, but then the reason became clear to her. The Thar Empire, which existed for thousands of years and claimed to be among the five ancient families, the pillars of Alliance, owed its status much of its existence to a single entity—the Ruler of Sands, Dusty Devil. The name sounded unimpressive, but it was the nightmare that had swallowed the Divine armies when they reached the foot of Oasis. The church has not dared to speak its name nowadays.

"That beast which swallowed tens of millions of lives was at its end," Marcus made another drink for himself as he said so. "The others believe this time, the civil war is a direct result of this."

"What does the Alliance intend to do?" Isabella said as she noticed Marcus’s arms shaking whenever he mentioned Thar. Being the one pillar of Thar five decades ago, it's stupid to say that Alliance doesn’t care about things that happen there. On the other hand, Marcus was trembling even more so often. Every time Thar was mentioned, his tremor would increase by one. He couldn’t stop himself from drinking more and more alcohol just to stay sane.

"I asked Sir Victor about this, but he just advised me to settle in," Marcus said, as he finished another glass and right next moment, he started to light his cigar but after his constant shaking of his hands, he decided against it. "It also appears we will be meeting a representative from the Illusory Alliance. For this regard."

"Why would they be here?" A deep frown appeared on Isabella’s face and her feelings didn't get settled as Marcus offered no clear answer.

"Who knows? They are tight-lipped about all this."

"Are they seriously considering involvement in Thar? Nothing good comes out when someone does so."

"I don’t think anyone dares, not anymore…" Marcus’ words had something Isabella never noticed before, even at the time when she slashed her knife at him which left a scar on his neck. Fear. He was behaving way too strangely for someone who wasn’t even afraid of death as he gulped a drink directly from the bottle this time, ignoring the person behind him.

“What happened to you?” She asked tentatively but Marcus stopped responding to her. She waited but he only drank as if there was no one else in the room. At last, she could only resign herself and leave him alone. "I think you need more rest. I will meet you tomorrow." Isabella said and started to leave. She felt he was too tense and drunk, but then again, he had been known to be a useless alcoholic for as much as she could remember. That’s why her husband, Marcus’ younger brother got to be the head of the Sterling house and not him.

"Everyone had lost their minds." Seeing her gone, Marcus started to furiously chug down a new bottle of alcohol like there was no end.

***

"Mistress, is there something you would need help with?" Just outside, Isabella found Jenkins waiting at the door. “ I hope Sir Marcus wasn’t rude to you today.”

“ What happened to him?” She asked while walking.

“Well, you see, he was a little involved in the Divine war. And so…” Jenkins left some words unsaid.

“ I never heard about it.”

“ It was not as a combatant, he just went to bring back his friend one time. And he never talks about it…”

“He said someone from Thar has come here. Who is he talking about? He seemed to be getting some kind of paranoid about it."

"If they have, I haven't heard about it, not for years at least," Jenkins said and lowered his voice. “ But some rumours say that the abundant house of Celestia was cleaned some time ago.” He stopped there and didn’t elaborate further.

***

Isabella left Jenkins at that, sometimes, it's better not to dig too deep into things. Thus she left Marcus’ paranoid to the back of her mind and followed another servant who swiftly led her to her daughters’ rooms. Their rooms were side by side and looked nearly identical, but Isabella decided to enter Eloise’s room, just to be sure. The first thing she was greeted with was Eloise sitting on the chair and Eliana, jumping high on her bed. Isabella’s eye then contracted and time slowed for her a little. Eliana was still up in mid-air when Isabella moved with breakneck speed, got just below her and caught her in her arms. She got a little amused as her daughter’s face started to change from joy to shock to panic in slow motion as she slowly rotated her body and before Eliana knew it, she was sitting in front of Isabella with her back facing towards her.

“ You would get hurt if you jumped like this.” Isabella's hand was holding a small comb from somewhere and she started to go fix Eliana’s hair with it.

“Eeehh…”

“Don’t make weird noises.”

"Mother, how did the meeting with Uncle Marcus go?" Eloise asked her at this time.

As Isabella worked on Elaina’s hair, she found her elder daughter sitting in front of her. She was relieved to see that the room was much like any guest room back at their manor in Redcliff.

"He didn't have exact details, but that was as expected," Isabella answered and then asked the girl in her arms. " What are you doing in your sister’s room?"

"She was bored in her room," Eloise said as Elaina still seemed to be too shocked to answer.

"Well, don’t take your uncle’s previous comments too seriously, he simply prefers the path of knights over that of mages," Isabella said a lie to hide the complicated reason behind his dislike. Then she put Elaina to the side and motioned for Eloise to sit in front of her instead. As she worked on her long hair, Isabella tried to find something positive to say about Marcus, despite his clear preferences.

Eloise seemed unperturbed and simply replied, "I understand."

"Sigh, if only your little sister were as understanding as you, many of my troubles would have ended…" Isabella glanced at her younger daughter. "And how long are you going to behave like a statue?"

"I will not jump again," Elaina said tentatively.

"Mother, are we still visiting the market tonight?" Eloise asked while Elaina sat on the bed, her ears tuned in to her mother’s words, swinging her legs happily just moments ago.

"Not tonight," Isabella replied. Elaina looked disappointed, but her spirits lifted when Isabella added, "We'll go tomorrow. Both of you need to rest today."

"Really? Where are we going? The dwarf armour shop?"

"No, first we'll visit the clothing stores; we need to get you some nice clothes," Eloise interjected, seizing the opportunity to refine Elaina’s fashion sense, since her mother wasn’t inclined to do so herself.

"But, sis, I already have clothes at home."

"Oh? Then tell me how many," Eloise challenged, causing Elaina to falter. "I have... about three outfits."

Eloise gave her a look and turned to Isabella. "Mother, doesn't this seem more serious?"

"It does. Looks like we'll need to visit the clothing stores first thing in the morning," Isabella agreed, feeling that Elaina could no longer be trusted to choose her clothes.

"Are you coming with us, too? Isn’t the meeting scheduled for the evening?" Eloise questioned Isabella, concerned that her mother’s absence might affect the meeting, which would take up the entire day.

"Fear not," Isabella reassured them both, affectionately rubbing their heads. "I’ll be with you most of the day until the meeting begins. After I leave, you two can continue on your own."

"Then let’s visit the weapon shops first!"

"No, we need to get you some clothes first."

"But you'll take hours choosing them!"

"Alright, don't argue. We’ll just have to be quick," Isabella said firmly, rising from the bed. "Now, rest a bit while I take care of a few things."

As Isabella closed the door behind her, she could still hear her daughters bickering inside. She shook her head and turned to Jenkins who once again happened to be outside, waiting in the hallway. "Bring me a summary of recent events in Celestia from the past month, including arrivals and those expected soon among the recognized families." She said to him.

"Mistress, those are already being delivered to your room."

"And also… provide me with a list of local parks around here."

"I'll have them brought to you promptly. But is there a specific need?"

“ I am hoping they have some cute animals in it. Like squirrels.” Jenkins gave her a look. She didn’t look like someone who would find them interesting. His concern seemed to have been taught by Isabella too.

“ Eliana will be alone when we go to the assembly. I suppose you can take her there in the meantime.” She then handed him a red earring, the one she took from Eliana. “ Here’s some sweets for her. Just don’t let her eat too many at the same time.

Jenkins noted Isabella’s requests carefully as he followed behind her. Once she had finished, he added in a respectful tone, "Mistress, please rest assured. Despite any differences between Sir Marcus and yourself, they won’t affect the well-being of the household’s children. In fact, despite his earlier words, Sir Marcus made sure personally that Miss Eloise and Miss Elaina’s rooms were equally comfortable."

"...I see," Isabella replied quietly after a moment of silence. Jenkins wisely refrained from saying more on the matter. They both continued down the hallway, disappearing from view.

***