Twyla was suiting up for the three days ride to her new school and home. The town's midwife sensed that Twyla had the gift of magic. Twyla herself never really was able to sense it or even use it, all she knew was that her birth father had the gift, but he passed away when she was born.

Her father Wilhelm of Birchgrove was a strong powerful man, with black hair and cold blue eyes, in his six feet he was the tallest to lead an army yet, and he was loyal to the crown of Nepta. Two weeks before Twyla, his first child, was to be born he got sent off to war with the neighboring kingdom, Viola. Viola just went through a hard harvest and was having trouble coping when a servant of the King's house told them the king sent the queen and her unborn child away so he could eat more and have parties.

The nobles and priests of the kingdom were outraged and went to see the king. Their king Slote blamed it on the growing Nepta, and so the war started. Wilhelm went to fight for the king but never came home. Twyla's step father Frazer brought the story of how her father died on the day of Twyla's birth. Frazer stayed and consoled the new mother, widowed because of an arrogant foreign king.

Twyla was done thinking about the father she never knew and went out to saddle her pony Cherry Blossom, a light bay with white socks, mane, and tail. And then she saw her servant Elvi loading her own horse talking to Twyla's twin half-sisters Eilis and Elina. They were built unlike Twyla, who was tall for her ten years of age, Twyla supported long curly black hair, with piercing blue eyes, Twyla also dressed for travel in breeches and silk shirt, with a fur lined coat for the northern weather of their family's fiefdom. Eilis and Elina had silvery blonde hair and were short for their five years, and under their silvery blonde hair, their delicate features held the black eyes of their father.

'Man,' Twyla thought, 'they just keep looking like that man who made mother sick with all his filthy ways.' That's when Twyla thought to see her mother for the first time since her new brother was born.