Eiery Nyghtwuine loved Saturdays. Her teachers, Rowan and Aelin Whitethorn, gave her the weekends off for her body to rest. It may also be because Rowan might have grown too agitated at Eiery for not showing any progress. Aelin was the only one to calm down her husband, but she wasn't around all the time. The two teachers worked very hard with the twenty-one year old, but Eiery just could not give her all, the past haunted her, and was too painful to bring up. She wasn't even sure if it was possible to train how they wanted her to anymore.

She also loved her free days because Aedion let her train with the troops. He had grown a soft spot for the girl ever since she was found by his cousin and her husband, but wasn't going to admit it. That's where she was this sunny morning: outside sparring with a particularly slow Fae male. The sun was blaring down on them, impairing Eiery's vision (Rowan liked to use this as a reason to shift, but it still hadn't worked.) Whirling, her foot connected with his face and he went down. His groans echoed around the courtyard, earning him a few pitying glances.

The Fae she fought always assumed that she was the frail girl they saw in the castle, but she was much braver on the battlefield. Eiery promised herself that she would never be the insecure girl on the field if only for her past to not be repeated. She turned to walk away, but Rowan's voice rang out across the courtyard. Eiery sighed and turned towards him.

Fenrys walked purposefully with Rowan through the halls of the castle. He hadn't seen Rowan or Aelin since they had killed Maeve and Erawan- a feat he had never seen coming. Not that he was complaining- he hadn't ever wanted to be part of Maeve's court, and now that she was dead…

He was finally free. And this freedom is what drove him to explore all that he could. Rowan pushed open a door and he held up a hand to block the sudden sunlight as they entered the courtyard, where Aedion was currently training the troops. Sounds of metal clashing and people yelling filled his ears as they walked. His onyx eyes shifted over the warriors, recognizing most, if not all of them. He was about to look away when his eyes glanced over a woman as her foot snapped onto the face of a male, sending him tumbling to the ground. From his quick sweep of the area, she was one of the only women on the field, and the only one he didn't recognize.

Fenrys frowned. "Who's that?" Rowan gave him an odd look before following his gaze.

"Oh. That's Eiery Nyghtwuine, Aelin's 'prodigy.' She took her in when she was twelve and we've been training her ever since. Not that we've gotten anywhere." Rowan scowled. "She's more stubborn than Aelin was."

"What do you mean?" Fenrys asked. A woman more stubborn than Aelin? In what way? Aelin was the most stubborn person that Fenrys knew, except maybe Rowan.

"Eiery!" Rowan called out, snatching her attention. Even from where the two stood, they could hear her irritated groan. She turned around, and the sun caught her eyes.

They were at the same time a deeper blue than any sapphire, and yet had no sparkle or any life about them. He had never seen eyes so dull and yet… so dazzling. It was as if the gods had sucked a bit of the sea into a syringe and used it to color her irises.

"What?" She asked, stalking over. She was actually quite short, but not nearly as short as Elide. "I'm busy, and it's Saturday."

"I just wanted to introduce you to Fenrys here," Rowan pointed to Fenrys with his thumb, "and I also wanted to see if any progress has come up?"

Eiery sighed. "You know I can't…" she replied meekly.

"Eiery.." Rowan growled, "You can, and you will."

"Rowan!"

Aelin came out of the castle pointing her finger at Rowan. The look in her eye was as deadly as the sword strapped to her side. She stormed up to her mate and wrapped a protective arm around Eiery. Eiery' shoulders slumped the slightest of a fraction, obviously relieved to be saved from the blonde males.

"I thought we agreed to drop the subject until further discussion." Aelin said defiantly.

"I was just asking if-"

"I don't care, you aren't to say another thing to Eiery about it. Understood?"

Rowan grumbled a response. Fenrys was sure a cuss word or two slipped out, directed towards the queen. Aelin rolled her eyes and pulled Eiery in the direction of the training field. Aedion seemed oblivious as to what had just happened and continued with the training.

"Let's go Fenrys, we have to talk."

Fenrys was lead away, glancing back at the young girl on the field who had so easily captured his attention.

"Aelin, I want to thank you for saving me from Rowan." Eiery stated simply. She wasn't one to beat around the bush. After what had happened… She knew as well as anyone else that things left unsaid in the moment could be left unsaid for the rest of her eternal life.

"It's nothing. I told him not to talk to you about your shifting troubles."

"But I'll have to shift eventually...won't I?"

Aelin sighed. So much pressure on such a young girl. Although less compared to what she herself had to endure; but still, it was a great deal for Eiery. She could tell the stress of it all weighed on the girl's shoulders.

"I know it's scary to shift. Wyrd, I was scared the first time I shifted again after I left the kingdom. It's not as bad as you think. Maybe one day, hopefully not, but you might need to shift to save yourself. Or someone else."

"But I hurt people, people I cared about… I only hurt people in my Fae form. I can't, I won't, hurt someone I care about again."

Eiery walked away and Aelin made no move to stop her. She could understand how painful it could be to be forced to take on a form that ended the lives of people one cared about. She herself had had to take on a form that she was once afraid of.

Eiery washed up quickly after finishing with Aedion and the army, fishing out a clean, white button up from her closet. She quickly donned the shirt and a pair of black pants before tying back her short hair. Bits of it fell into her eyes, going unnoticed. Her stomach grumbled as she slipped her black boots back on and left her chambers, heading for the dining room.

Aelin liked to make diner a grand scheme most nights, and now with a new guest, this would be even more prominent. But food was food, and Eiery wasn't going to complain about good food- no matter the craziness of everything else.

She pushed open the large door and realized she was, unfortunately, the last one to arrive (except for Aedion and Lorcan, who were always last to arrive that Aelin had just started planning their meals to be brought out later than everyone else's.). Groaning internally, she headed towards the table, only to stop when she saw her usual seat already had somebody sitting in it. She gritted her teeth and stalked towards the new man- what had his name been?

She cleared her throat, cursing how soft and girly her voice was. Not very intimidating or strong. "Excuse me, you're in my seat." She said, pushing as much conviction into the words as she could and a little bit of sass. Oh Wyrd, did she have to be so stubborn about a chair? If she could set her pride aside, perhaps she wouldn't have ever had to talk to him again.

The Stranger- for that's what Eiery was going to refer to him as until she remembered his name- started and turned to look at her. As soon as his onyx eyes connected with hers, she looked away. Never one for eye contact, rarely one for confrontation. This was way out of her daily routine. And damn him for messing up her routine.

She looked quickly to Aelin and Rowan, hoping for their intervention (she was picturing this grand upheaval about etiquette and assigned seating), but they were deeply involved in their own conversation with Lysandra. She would be getting no help from there…

"I'm sorry." The Stranger said, breaking her concentration. His eyes were still focused on her and she tried not to fidget under his stare. "I didn't realize the chairs had name tags on them. Perhaps my vision is leaving me." There was teasing in his voice, and she shot him a glare as he stood and pulled the chair out for her.

"I can pull out my own chair, thank you very much." She said sternly, smacking his hand off the back of it and sitting in her chair. "You can sit over there- by Elide." At her name, the small girl looked up and smiled. Eiery longed for her confidence. But of course Elide had such braveness- she had to if she was ever going to survive being with Lorcan.

Eiery half suspected, along with most of the others in the palace, that Elide was Lorcan's mate, and he just didn't want to admit it yet. Eiery assumed it was because he was stubborn, yet everyone could see how much he really cared.

The Stranger walked over and indeed sat next to Elide, only to be kicked out of that chair, too, once Lorcan and Aedion arrived. Eiery smiled into her cup; she had told him to sit there for that very reason. As the Stranger walked past her, Eiery gave him an 'apologetic' smile. He rolled his eyes and kept on walking.

Fenrys watched Eiery out of the corner of his eye for most of the diner. The fire-lit torches and candles lighting the room did nothing except make her skin look more like the fragile porcelain of a doll. He debated with himself of whether or not he had ever beheld a woman as pale and sickly looking as she. And yet, she was the perfect picture of health from the strong way she held herself and the curves that showed through her clothes.

At one point, the doors had opened again to reveal a tall woman with long, sandy brown hair who had smiled brighter than the lights as she zoomed to the empty chair next to Eiery. The two girls had spent pretty much the rest of dinner talking and giggling- the giggling being done mostly by the blonde. Fenrys noticed that nothing more than a small upwards twitch of a smile crossed Eiery's face during their whole conversation.

After dinner, Fenrys had been about to make the trek through the halls back to his room when Rowan and Aelin stopped him.

"Fenrys." Rowan had said.

The man in question raised an eyebrow and waited for the blonde to continue.

"Would you be willing to help train Eiery on Monday?" Rowan said, straight and to the point. "Aelin and I have tried for almost eight years now, and are no closer to getting her to shift than we were that first day."

"Maybe… Maybe she just needs a different approach. And we've tried everything we could think of. Maybe there's something you could do to help." Aelin said, pleading with her eyes. Fenrys sighed and replied,

"I suppose it won't hurt anyone if I do."

And that was how Fenrys' Monday got twisted into a training session, with a stubborn woman he didn't even know. So the next morning at breakfast, he watched her again. Listened to her talk with her friend- whose name he found to be Isybielly- about that days upcoming workout with the other troops, and so on and so forth. He watched with Rowan and Aelin as she trained and fought with the other Fae. And by the time Sunday night came, he had his "new approach" to get her to shift.