Thanks to Gwidlet, for suggesting such a great idea!

Valek, Yelena and any other Poison Study characters belong to Maria V. Snyder and do not belong to me...unfortunately...

Chapter Two

Valek yawned. He really should be getting to bed now, but his curiousity would not be satisfied until he had seen her with his own two eyes. Ever since the Commander had mentioned the secretary, Valek had done some sleuthing to find out who she was. He definitely would not ask the Commander;the Commander would gloat, even if noone else realised it. Luckily, he had an informant in the kitchen and he hd ordered the man to find out her name and where her room was.

Yelena. It didn't sound like a northern name, but like a name Sitians would call their children. Well, that was no surprise. After all, the border between Ixia and Sitia had basically been non existant until the takeover occured. The woman's parents must have fled to Sitia in the panic that had ensued, leaving her behind. Valek shook his head. Why would they think that massive bloodshed and violence would fall upon Ixia? As far as he thought, people were better off with the Commander than under the King.

Padding down the hall to the north servant's quarters, he made sure nobody was around. The northern servant's quarters were reserved for those that were not actually servants, but were not considered as high ranking as Advisors. He reached the fourth door down the hall and hesitated. A tinge of nervousness flared inside him, even though he never got nervous anymore. Not for the last 10 years, at least. What if she somehow found out he had been there?

No. He wouldn't stop now. Anyways, it would be next to impossible for her to find out he had been in her room. He checked the door thoroughly for traps and then slowly turned the knob. The door eased open silently, thanks to the drop of oil he had applied to the hinges. Closing the door behind him, he searched his pockets for a match and a candle. Striking the match, he lit the candle and lifted it to scan the room. The first thing he noticed as the bed situated underneath the window and the silhouette of the woman sleeping with her back to him. He cursed silently to himself. It would be very challenging to get a look at her face, as her bed was pushed against the wall. She slept on the far side of the bed, curled against the wall. He stepped closer and leaned over her, holding the candle high.

Chestnut curls were tumbled all over the pillow. The face that it framed was astonishingly lovely with high arches of dark brows and long, thick eyelashes. Her soft, pink lips moved as she mumbled something in her sleep. Betraying him, Valek felt his heart skip a beat. Immediately, he jerked back and nearly caused the candle to blow out. What was he thinking? He was an assassin, not a hopeless romantic. So she had a pretty face. So she was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. So what?

Good. His curiousity was satisfied. Now he had an advantage over her by knowing her name and what she looked like. He would have to start a new file for her in his office tomorrow and find out more information as he got to know her. She would be arriving at dawn so now he should now get back to his suite and get some rest. But first, he couldn't resist the urge to look at her again, just one more time. He leaned over the bed again slowly. Suddenly, a drop of hot wax from the candle slowly dripped down the side of the candle. He hurriedly tried to catch it with a sleeve, but he was too late. With a sizzle, the scalding wax made contact with the blankets. Her eyes immediately shot open, revealing luminous emerald irises.

Yelena POV:

In my dream, a fire raged around me. I was trapped within the walls of Brazell's orphanage, in a small, windowless room. The flames were spreading towards me and I had nowhere to run. One of the sparks flew towards me and I felt a brief sensation of burning. Gasping, I woke, only to find that the thing that had burned me was a drop of hot wax. Then, the horrible sense that a stranger was in my room flooded me.

"What are you doing!" I jumped out of bed and reached for the brass candleholder on my bedside table. Brandishing it in front of me as a weapon, I turned to face my intruder. He was holding a candle and appeared to be unarmed. "Why are you in my room?" I demanded furiously."I suppose you're going to say that your intentions were completely harmless!" I took a wild swing at him with the candleholder but he dodged me with ease. Then it occured to me that though I had the candleholder for a bat, he was probably one of the soldiers and could beat me any day of week. So I opened my mouth wide to call loudly for help.

A hand clapped over my mouth. The other hand stopped me from smashing him in the face. He had dropped the candle, but the light from the moon was enough for me to see that he had black ringlets and piercing blue eyes. "I am not here to hurt you, or force you in any way," he told me in a low voice. "I am your new boss." My new boss? I shook my head and he let his hands drop from my mouth and arm. I stared at him incredulously. "What kind of boss sneaks into their secretary's rooms?" He remained silent, but he fidgeted slightly, giving me the idea that he was embarrassed. When he eventually spoke, his voice and expression turned hard and cold. "As the Commander's chief of security, it is part of my job to ensure that the people working in the castle are of no threat to him."

The Commander's security chief. Valek. The most feared man in Ixia, and probably Sitia too. Instinctively, I backed away from him and bumped into the bed. I sat down on the matress with a loud thump. A shock of fear shot through me. What had I done? Was he here to kill me? Quickly, I grabbed the candleholder from the ground and held it in front of me once again. A fast glance back up showed me that he seemed to be amused. "What? I wouldn't care if you were the Commander himself. You had no right to come into my room and when you do, then I have a right to protect myself and my privacy." My fear dissapated as anger took its place. How dare he?

He said nothing, but continued to stand there and just stare at me. After a few moments, I began to get nervous again. His stare seemed to penetrate me and unearth all the secrets of my past. But I wasn't going to let him win this round, so I stayed just as silent and stared back at him. Finally, when I was just about to admit defeat, he spoke. "It seems that we are at an impasse." I blinked. It took him that long to think of something to say? I cleared my throat. "Yes, but we can solve that if you would just step out of my room."

He seemed surprised, as if he hadn't thought of that and left quickly, easing the door shut silently. I remained sitting at the edge of my bed for a long time. That was probably the strangest thing that had ever happened to me in my life. I began to laugh at the memory of our ridiculous staring contest a few moments. Well, tomorrow morning was going to very awkward. Or was it today? I should probably go back to sleep. Even though I now knew that Valek wasn't as scary as people made him sound, I'm pretty sure he's a hard taskmaster.

Laying back down, my thoughts drifted to Mirela once again. I wondered what she was doing with herself while I was gone. I just hoped that she would be able to manage to get around without me. Worry spiked my heart but I buried it deep and forced myself into a deep and dreamless sleep.

The Next Morning

I yawned and sat up, looking out the window as I did so. Then, I leapt hurriedly out of bed and got dressed. It was probably only fifteen minutes until dawn, leaving me just enough time to scarf down come breakfast. I ran to the kitchen, exchanging pleasantries with Rand and insults with Maarg and ate my food as I walked to Valek's office, on the other end of the castle. When I got there, I knocked firmly on the door but nobody answered. When I tried the doorknobs, they refused to turn, so I sat with my back against the wall and let myself enjoy breakfast. As the bread's sweet jam coated my tongue, I tried to guess some reasons of why Valek was late. Was it because he always slept in? No. I could not imagine an assassin snoring as the sun rose outside. Maybe something happened to delay him, like finally deciding to fire Maarg. No. I'm sure Maarg was wise enough not to sass Valek. The most probably reason was probably because he felt awkward of what happened last night.

Well, that wasn't my fault. 'He just had to go sneak into my room' I thought huffily. Mirela had taught me not to judge someone else until I knew them well. But then, nobody could hardly expect Valek to do that. He probably survived this long by being so wary. But no matter what I told myself, I was still mad at him.

A flurry of voices came from around the corner. They were loud and angry, and it sounded like two men arguing. As the two men turned into the corridor, I saw that it was the Commander and Valek. "Valek, at least consider it. You haven't tried working with these two yet, so you wouldn't know if they would be suited to the position," the Commander said persuasively. "If you want to assign them as my seconds, you have the authority," Valek replied tonelessly. "You know that I wouldn't do that because I want you to choose who your seconds are," the Commander retorted.

Both stopped talking as soon as they realised that I was just a few feet away. The Commander turned and left abruptly, leaving Valek and I alone. Valek stepped up to the door and began the tedious job of unlocking the three complicated looking and clunky locks. When the door opened, he allowed me to enter the office before entering himself. He crossed the large room to sit at his desk, which was located beneath a row of tall, thin windows resembling tiger's stripes.

The first thing that I noticed when I entered the room was the lack of space. Even though the room was huge (larger than my bedroom, anyways), it was stuff with a variety of items. Books were scattered on the large conference table, on his desk and on the floor. The bookshelf in the corner didn't seem to be in use, as it was almost empty. There were also a ton of silvery-black rocks dotting the floor, some big and some the size of a nail. My eyes were immediately attracted to the set of panther statues on his desk. They were so realistic that I half expected them to leap down to the floor. Upon closer inspection, I realised that they were made from the silvery rocks in the room. Who made them? I almost considered Valek, but the idea of an assassin carving sculptures just boggled my mind.

"Are you going to sit down anytime soon?" Valek asked. I looked at him, startled, before seating myself on the chair facing him. He leaned forward on the desk and passed me paper, quills and a bottle of ink. "My first assignment for you is to copy this book." He held up a thick volume, which seemed to be a book about poisons. "Until I decide I can trust you, copying books will be all you'll do. If I think you're ready, you'll be copying files for me, as well as decoding messages and various other tasks. Until then, if "then" ever happens, I will be watching your every move." His eyes bored into mine accusingly, as if to him, I had already failed his test.

Is this long enough for one chapter or should I go even longer?

Review and tell me what you think!

-YelenaZ