The family waited for Zimowit to come back home. In the morning sounds of horses woke up Lady Panma. “It must be my husband!” She thought, quickly putting on daily clothes and going down the stairs to greet Lord Zimowit but instead of him, someone else came unexpectedly. Two knights from the capital. Lady Panma was the first, beside the guards, to welcome the knights.

“We have an important message.” Said one of the knights, calming his horse as it didn’t want to stand in place.

“My husband is not here yet. But I can relay the message to him if that’s possible.” Panma assured the knights.

“The message isn’t to Zimowit but to all members of his family.” The knight stated as he took out a letter from his bag. He unwrapped the scroll and began reading it “This is a message directed to the family of Alks. As of this day, the House Of Alks is no longer a part of the Royal Houses of Saradia Kingdom and will no longer rule over the Alahia Province.”

Lady Panma couldn’t believe the knight’s words, she went pale but she fought there must’ve been a misunderstanding. She wanted to say something but the knight didn’t let her as he read the rest of the letter. “For stealing the artifact-taking it without any permission- and using it against our nation, Zimowit Alk is sentenced to imprisonment for the rest of his life. The family will remain with the high status of noble house but as stated in the first part of the letter, will no longer be part of the Royal Houses and lose administrative power over the province of Alahia.”

Lady Panma collapsed to the ground as she listened to the letter. The guards quickly ran to her aid. Tomal went down on his knees and grabbed Lady Panma, lifting her head slightly.

“My Lady! Are you feeling okay?” Asked worried Tomal, trembling a bit as he held Lady Panma.

“What did you do!” Shouted Sifrid as he turned to face the knights, angered by the knights, his hand near a sword to answer with force.

“We only relayed the message. Here.” The knight handed the letter to Sifrid and rode away on their horses before any more words could be said to them.

“Tomal. Do you know how to read? I only know that there is something about our lord.” Asked Sifrid as he tried to read the letter.

“Something bad must have happened to him if Lady Panma fainted. Hand it over.” Tomal read the letter and his face paled. “This can’t be true…”

Sien came out from the corner of the mansion as he heard noises in the middle of his training. Once he saw his mother on the ground he dropped his sword to the ground and ran up to her. “Mom! Mom” He shouted as he ran.

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“What happened? Did she get hurt?” Asked panickly Sien, out of breath after running and being worried.

The guards looked at each other and silently agreed. “She simply fainted unexpectedly. Maybe she didn’t get enough rest at night.” Said Tomal, his eyes away from Sien because he didn’t want to lie in his face.

The guards then carried her to the mansion to put her in bed. Sien followed them, walking close beside his mother. Before they entered the building, Kloe also ran up to them as she saw them from the stable.

“What happened?!” She asked, her eyes quickly moving from one person to another as she was waiting for an answer, her eyes slowly watering as she feared the worst.

“Mom… Just needs some rest.” Resured Sien as he hugged his sister.

The guards explained everything to Lily but hid it from the children. They went back to their guarding post, leaving everything to Lily. The kids stayed by the mother’s bed the whole time. Waiting for her to wake up.

“It’s getting late. Please go to sleep. I’ll stay by your mother’s side for the night. She will probably wake up in the morning.” Lily reassured the worried kids so they would go to sleep.

They kindly obeyed and went to their rooms. Sien had a hard time going to sleep since he was worried about his mother, Tomal’s answer didn’t sit right with him. He walked out of bed when he overheard a conversation out of his window. The guards slowly walked around the mansion talking about the earlier incident.

“It’s impossible that Lord Zimowit did something like that. It is not in his character.” Said Tomal.

“Someone must have framed him. The worst part is that only a person of high status can do something about it. Like the eldest son, Lance. But he is out in the south. In a war against the Fadim Empire. I’d like to go and deliver the message for him but we need to protect the mansion and the Alks.” Said Sifrid clenching his spear so tightly that his glove was making a creaking noise.

Sien realized that the reason his mother fainted was because of that news. It crushed her in an instant. Sien looked at the saber lying by the side of his bed with only one action on his mind.

“If mom feels sick because father is in prison then I need to save him. I need to get Lance back here to help us.” He thought as he approached the weapon.

Sien grabbed his saber and packed some clothes into a bag. He sneaked into the kitchen to get food for the journey. It wasn’t a problem to take the food unnoticed since Lily was staying by Lady Panma’s side. Before taking the horse, he went to the workshop. From there he took a map of the country that he studied briefly.

“Times are hard…” A voice came out behind the door. The guards were coming. Sien quickly hid behind the barrel in the corner of the room. The guards didn’t enter but he stayed hidden in case they were about to look through the window. Once he left the shed he saw guards going toward the garden which was on the other side of the mansion.

He had a chance to take the horse and leave unnoticed. He was pulling the horse to the gate to not make much noise. Once he was outside the walls he rode away on the horse. Beginning his journey to the south of the Saradia Kingdom, to bring his brother back and help the family in a dire situation.