He nodded and signaled and the ma took it as a signal and he left the dining room, once again he sat alone with his thoughts, even though he was in a room filled with people, he felt entirely alone.

His mind was quickly filled with fear and worry, too much had happened in too short a time for him to properly process it.

Truth be told he should hate the king, but he knew that the man hated himself when he gave his verdict and sentenced both him and his family to this accursed place.

For years his family's estate as well as their lads and positions were envied by lords and ladies who only cared about their positions amongst the nobility.

For generations his family had fought off one assassination attempt after another, if someone wasn't trying to destroy their reputation, someone else was simply trying to kill them.

On one hand, his family had exchanged this kind of life for one similar t it, now instead of having to watch out for humans and other civilized creatures that attempted to destroy them, now they just had to watch out for the save orc or whatever horrors live in these lands.

He took another spoon full of the stew his servants had cooked and looked toward his wife and daughter, both were so close yet they seemed as if they were words apart from him and each other.

His wife and daughter shared their appearance meaning that if someone looked at his daughter they would see a younger version of his wife and if they looked at his wife they would see the woman his daughter would eventually become.

Both his wife and daughter have light pink skin and long blond hair, his daughter unlike his wife had inherited his mother's slightly plump nature, but it was combined with her mother's side of the family that always kept her thin.

This meant that his daughter would always have a rather enticing figure, of course, she lacked her mother's natural grace but that is something she could and would eventually learn.

A lot of good that something like that would do for her now.

His stomach twisted inside him, he had just barely managed to keep his family safe, and it had cost him everything else.

Right now as he and his family, not to mention his servants and the men swore to him ate or cursed their circumstances the people responsible for doing this to them are celebrating.

Generation after generation lost because he couldn't bear the thought of his daughter being given to a lord whose cruelty was only hidden behind a thin veil that he used to hide whatever atrocity he committed.

His daughter was to web the man, this was what several members of the kings' court had decreed and he pleaded to the king to reconsider.

The king wasn't present when the decision was made because he had more important things to do, but when he heard about the decision the king flew into a rage that for a moment he believed that the man would have stormed out of the room and killed every member of the court.

The problem was that the decision had already been made, and if the king changed it without a good reason then, who would trust the king ever again.

Who could trust a man who didn't stand by his words, granted that the king hadn't said it, but anything the court said was as if the king had said it himself?

That was when the king banished him and his family to the frontier, he allowed him to take every single thing that had any worth, from both his families lands and home.

He didn't doubt that the people responsible for doing this to him had their days numbered and truth be told he was relieved to not have to always watch behind his back for would-be assassins.

If only it hadn't cost him his daughter's smile.

He watched his daughter and listened to the silence that lingered around her.

She used to smile so brightly that it drew people to her, and despite the fact people often told her she talked too much, she spoke anyway.

Now her smile was gone and she didn't even say a single word.

His wife despite doing her best to remain strong brushed away a tear every once in a while.

She use to be someone both men and women desired to stand next to and if they had any luck, something that he had once perhaps they could share her bed.

"Finish eating, we're going to pay a visit to the knights," he said to his family, his words were loud enough, so the men listening could hear them and prepare the horses.