"..sh...Ash...shhh...Ashe?"

An annoying voice in her head and a light pressure pressing at her shoulder, causing her little body to rock from side-to-side, interrupted Ashe's sleep. Fighting the urge to wake up, she forced her eyes to remain closed, scrunched her face up, and swung a tingling arm out towards the source of the noise.

"Wow, calm down, sweetheart!" the voice chortled, amused. "Take pity on an old man in spectacles, won't you?"

The question kicked Ashe's mind into gear and she reluctantly opened her eyes to see a chuckling Mr. Kravos staring down at her, his bright blue eyes indeed shining out warmly from behind his reading spectacles.

"What are you doing sleeping in here, Sweetie?" he asked, glancing around the disheveled library. "And why are there books all over the place? Did you decide to do some 'light reading' during the night?"

A rush of panic and embarrassment at being caught rushed over her and Ashe found herself scrambling to get out the excuse she'd come up with the night before.

"Well, you see, the storm last night was so loud that it kept me up," she lied. "All the wind and rain and thunder and lightning were really frightening. I know I should have just come to you for help but I didn't want to disturb you so I decided to read some books to keep me from being too scared. I'm sorry for the mess, Mr. Kravos. I'll clean it up right away, I promise."

"It's not a big deal, they're just books; they can be put back without any hassle," Mr. Kravos reassured. Then he gave a gentle frown. "You really should have let me know you couldn't sleep though; I could have given you something to help you sleep."

"I'm sorry," she repeated. "I just didn't want to wake you up."

"I know, you're such a thoughtful girl," her guardian said, giving Ashe's hair a quick ruffle, "and I understand that you were on your own for a while. I can't imagine how much of an adjustment it must have been for you to start living here with me. So, Ashe, I promise that you never need to apologize for trying to be independent."

Heart swelling, Ashe fought against the urge to cry. To be shown so much kindness, so much understanding, in the face of her lie was painful. Part of Ashe wanted to throw herself into the man's arms for a big hug and part of her wanted to confess everything so she could be punished for her lie and let go of the guilt eating at her stomach.

'He probably can imagine,' Ashe realized suddenly. 'After so many kids, most of them coming off the streets like me, he's probably had to go through this adjustment period a bunch of times. They all probably had their own issues after being taken into a safe, loving home.'

Mr. Kravos slid his hand down from the top of Ashe's head to cup her cheek. "What is this? Charcoal?" he asked, rubbing a thumb against Ashe's cheek. "Decided to take some notes too, I see."

Ashe's eyes darted down to the list of terms she'd written up to research later.

Dwarven.

Aetherium.

Dwemer.

Magical.

Enchant.

Alchemically.

The words were badly smudged due to Ashe having slept on the paper, to the point of being unreadable, though she obviously still knew what she'd written.

"Oh... yeah," she laughed nervously, quickly folding up the sheet of paper and sticking it in her pocket. "Just some stuff I want to look up later."

Then she caught a glimpse of her reflection in the window. There was charcoal dust smeared all over the side of her face, down her neck, and up the side of her arm. "Ugh," she groaned, wrinkling her nose, "I need a bath."

That need doubled when the girl stood up and nearly fell flat on her face as just about every joint in her body let out a loud 'POP!' and every muscle screamed at her for sleeping in such an unnatural position.

"OOooooowwww!" she moaned pathetically.

Mr. Kravos gave Ashe a sympathetic -yet still amused, though he was trying hard to hide it- look, "That is what happens when you fall asleep at a table... believe me, I've done it plenty of times; I'd bet good money that it is part of the reason my back hates me. But you are still young so a long, hot bath should fix that right up, and it will give you the chance to wash off all that charcoal dust. Are you feeling particularly hungry?"

"Hmmm... No, I'll be good for a while," Ashe replied, shaking her head.

"Alright, how about you have a warm soak while I prepare breakfast? After eating you can get to work putting all of these books back; it looks like you've done enough studying to be excused from any lessons today," her guardian offered.

"Really? That sounds great!"

The man just gave a half-smile and shrugged. "It works out well for me too. That storm last night was pretty bad, I need to walk the property with Rena and check to see if any damage has been done."

Then his eyes strayed downwards to a very particular book and he scowled.

The Aetherium Wars by Taron Dreth

Ashe swallowed hard as she watched Mr. Kravos pick up the book and started through it aggressively, praying her investigation wasn't about to be discovered and halted in its tracks before it could even really begin.

"This book is a load of rubbish," he growled. "That bastard Dreth took all of Katria's work, chopped it to bits, and then claimed it for his own after she died."

'Katria, who is that? Wait a minute, I know that name!' Ashe realized, thinking back to what she'd read. 'Is he talking about that same Katria mentioned in the book?'

Deciding to risk it, she cautiously asked, "What do you mean? Is the book telling a bunch of lies?"

Mr. Kravos was slow to answer but eventually nodded. "The aetherium forge is an old tale... a little morality fable about the destructiveness of greed. It doesn't exist, obviously, but even the most outlandish of myths and legends typically have a kernel of truth to them; something has to start the story, after all. Katria, a... a very good friend of mine, was doing research into the different possible origins of the story when she died. Dreth was her assistance and rather than honor her properly, he stole all of her work and presented it as his own."

'Some of that is the truth,' Ashe realized as she carefully studied her guardian's somber face, 'but you are also lying. You are still lying to me.'

It did make sense for Mr. Kravos to mix half-truths and little white lies to create his explanations. In general, the best lies were mostly the truth. The real question was what was Mr. Kravos lying about and what was he being truthful about?

"It's pretty mean of that guy to lie to everyone," she offered, partly to see Mr. Kravos' reaction and partly because he did seem genuinely sad whenever he mentioned Katria. "Did he ever get in trouble for it?"

To her surprise, the question got a dark, legitimately creepy sounding chuckle out of Mr. Kravos.

"Oh yes," he said, a twisted kind of amusement dancing in his eyes, "he definitely came to regret his acts, in the end."

There was a story there and it was probably a bloody one, Ashe realized. Then, as a shiver ran down her spine, she came to another realization- Mr. Kravos wasn't just a strong, strange man, he was a dangerous one.

Maybe it was the look of concern on her face or maybe Mr. Kravos realized what he just said because he seemed to shake himself out of whatever he was reminiscing about.

"Anyway," he started, "why don't you go hop into the bath? I'll start whipping up breakfast. I don't particularly want to make some eggs, bacon, and toast with jam sound good?"

"Yeah, that sounds yummy."

"What were you lying about?" Ashe wondered out loud, her words mixing with the clouds of steam that rose from the hot water of her bath. "Why were you lying, Mr. Kravos? I want to trust you, I've come to trust you with so much, but you're still lying to me. Why?"

Questions turning through her mind, Ashe couldn't relax. Despite the warmth of the water and the sweet smell of the burning candles, doubts and worries nagged at her mind. With a frustrated huff, she flopped backward, fully submerging herself under the water and splashing it over the edge of the tub.

It was not that Ashe thought Mr. Kravos was trying to hurt or deceive her, exactly. It wasn't as if she thought that Mr. Kravos took her in was part of some sort of long, particularly cruel trick. But even if the lies were mundane little things or he told them because Mr. Kravos didn't want to scare or worry her, a lie was still a lie.

'And until I know what you're lying about, I can't fully trust you either,' Ashe thought, doing her best to let the warm water soothe her into a state of peace as the heat worked to relax the pains in her tiny body.

When the water had cooled enough that it was no longer comfortable to be in, Ashe reluctantly dragged herself from the soapy pool. Careful not to slip, Ashe dried herself with one of the many luxuriously plush towels Mr. Kravos had laid out for her. Taking care to work out all of the knots in her hair, Ashe was happy to see that her hair was now long enough to snip off the still-dead ends.

"I should ask Mr. Kravos for a trim," she thought aloud, tugging a lock of hair forward so she could see it. Her hair would be short, just under her ears, but Ashe really wanted all that dead hair -and everything it represented- gone. "It's long enough now."

Dressing in a clean dark purple and pearl gray dress, Ashe made her way to the main room of the cellar. It was a large, square room that seemed to be mostly used for storage; there were large barrels of water, grain, and salt, shelves full of glass jars filled with strange concoctions and metal locked boxes that surely head fun secrets.

Then there were the toys. These were playsets with built-in slides and ways to climb on or into it, mock treasure chests, and a trio of beautifully carved rocking horses, all far too big to fit in even the large bedrooms upstairs. From the ceiling hung two swings that been rolled up so they could be latched to the ceiling and kept out of the way. All of them were also covered by a thin layer of dust; no one had been played within a long time, which made Ashe a little sad, for some reason. They were truly beautiful and clearly made with love.

'Would Mr. Kravos mind if I played with them?' she wondered, easily imaging her guardian's half-a-dozen children and a dozen grandchildren playing on all these different toys. 'All of this seems like it would be more fun if there were other kids around though.'

Still considering this train of thought, Ashe started up the first rungs of the ladder before something caught her eye and captured her interest enough that she dropped back down to the floor to investigate it.

Tucked in the corner was something -or, upon closer inspection, two somethings, covered by a white canvas tarp. Curiously, and with more than a touch of caution, Ashe grabbed a hold of the tarp and pulled with all of her might. It was heavier than she thought it would be, so it took Ashe a while to pull it completely off, and that only made her curiosity grow.

What she found underneath was... well, Ashe couldn't entirely say it was worth it, but what she found was definitely interesting.

One of the objects was some sort of straw dummy made up to look like a standing person with a target painted on it's 'chest' and 'head.' Ashe went closer, running her fingers over the dusty, tightly spun straw surface of the dummy, and realized that this thing had been around for a while and it looked like the poor thing had been through hell.

Some chunks of straw were a different color. Some areas had straw that was lighter and just looked... newer. It was like these sections had been replaced recently. The wooden frame holding the dummy up was also cracked and patched up in places.

"Someone beat you up pretty bad, huh?" Ashe wondered aloud, cocking her head to the side as she imagined the dummy with two black eyes, a busted nose, and a fat lip.

Leaving that behind, she moved to the second object, which was a wooden chest. The chest was a solid thing, far too big or heavy for Ashe to move. It was nearly as wide as Ashe was tall and clearly old with faded blue and gray paint. Many painted names covered the surface, some so old that the red paint had worn and faded to a dull brown while other names still stood out proud with bright, poppy red coloring.

Alesan

Runa

Blaise

Sofie

Hroar

Lucia

Samuel

Francois

Sissel

Britte

Cyruson

Kelengar

Lalotta

Caicius

Lyon

Malia

Hedlar

Glatea

Kravia

Tarno

Volmer

Antosa

Aniskja

'His kids,' Ashe realized, tracing the name 'Kravia' with one finger. 'These are his kids and grandkids, whatever is in here was theirs.'

The chest wasn't locked, there was just a pair of brass twin latches. Biting her lip nervously and her heart pounding, Ashe grabbed a hold of the latches, undid them, and threw the chest's lid open.