Stowecroft came alive at harvest time. The men busied themselves in the fields, pushing heavy plows pulled by gentle, wise eyed draft horses, the women worked hard preserving the vegetables and fruits that the teenagers brought in as quickly as it was picked and cleaned. Young boys slaughtered pigs and chickens and turkeys. Young girls were SUPPOSED to be hiding away in barns or the caves concealed in the hillsides, to keep them safe from the Mordsith that came at harvest, to find their new crop of trainees for the upcoming year. Mama and Papa insisted upon it.

Mama's mood was always sorrowful at the harvest. She'd told Ella about her sister, Cara, who had been taken when she was nine, and Mama was eleven. "You must always stay in the caves, at the harvest. Wait until your father comes to get you." Mama repeated each and every year, as soon as Ella turned four.

Today however, the sky was bright, and the air was crisp and the clouds were pale white and fluffy. Jacob, one of the older boys in Stowecroft, Papa's little brother, was leading the cows to water at the river. Surely she'd be safe enough with a seventeen year old! Uncle Jacob ALWAYS kept her safe! And at seven years old, she was brave, and crafty. Papa said so. She'd climb up one of the trees if the Mordsith came riding up.

Ella snuck behind Jacob's cowherd, making sure he couldn't see her. All morning she played with the calves, climbed up on the cows' backs, and ate apples from the trees. She drank her fill of the cool water, and waded barefoot in the slow current.

The hoofbeats shattered the peace at sunhigh. Ella scrambled up the tallest tree, watching the women in red, all astride matching horses of blood bay, gallop towards the river. The leader, a formidable, severe looking blond woman, rode out in front at a swift gallop, her own horse a pure black stallion that made Papa's horse look ugly.

Too late, Ella realized the danger she was in. The branch she was clinging too was too far out, and the riders would see her if they looked up. Jacob and Papa were herding the cows away from the riders. Please dont see me. Ella thought, but her father, as if he heard her thoughts, turned her way. His face constricted in absolute horror as she fell, splashing into the water, sending the closest Mordsith's mount rearing high in terror.

"GRACE! LEAVE HER! THEY'LL KILL YOU!" Ella didn't hear her mother's shout, didnt know she'd even been there, hadnt even known Papa was there until moments ago. The current was fast. Too fast. She couldnt swim. She fought for a foothold on the river bed, her toes slicing on the sharp rocks.

"Ive got this one! GO! FIND THE OTHERS!" Ella had no idea which of the Mordsith gave the order, but she didn't care. She was too busy trying to breathe. To keep her head out of the water.

Grace? Yes. The Woman was her sister, most definitely. That meant the little gar-hearted child was her niece. Her niece that was currently fighting a raging current. She shouted a command to her sisters, sending them off in the opposite direction, and sent her stallion galloping along the bank.

"Keep your head up Girl! Let the current take you! Hold on! Don't fight it!" Time. Time. There was no Time! Damn it! She leapt off the galloping animal, the cold water catching her off guard, her leather the furthest thing from her mind as she reached out and caught hold of the barely conscious child. She's not breathing! Spirits! Shore. Shore. Must get to shore! She was under too long. We still have time. Still have time. Alright. We still have time.

"Grace! Grab her!" Cara shouted, the panicked woman overcoming her fear, and taking her sopping wet, lifeless daughter from the Mordsith's arms and laying her on the bank. Mother promptly lay her head on the child's body and wept brokenly.

"She's gone. My daughter's dead! Haven't you done enough? DON'T YOU TOUCH HER!"

Cara caught the slap, but instead of bending the woman's arm back and snapping it like she normally would have, she simply deflected it. "I'm not going to hurt her. I can bring her back. But you need to move. NOW." Cara tried to keep her voice gentle, tried to sound comforting, but such a concept was foreign to her. She had no idea how to be kind anymore. She pushed Grace away from Ella as gently as she could, before brushing the soft blond hair out of the child's face, clearing her airway of debris and propping her head up against a rock. A blue wisp of air left her and went into the child.

In only a few breaths, the child was coughing, and Cara turned her onto her side, holding up a gloved hand to warn the parents back. It wouldnt do for them to overwhelm her with their sobbing and hugging.

"Y..Y...Y...ou saved me…." Ella coughed, and it took all the self control that Cara had NOT to jerk away when she felt two tiny arms wrap around her neck. She's a child. YOU were a child once too. You can't hurt the poor thing. She's Grace's little girl.

"That I did. What were you DOING, climbing out on such a weak limb? Were you TRYING to get yourself killed?" She felt Grace disengage Ella's arms from around her neck, though Ella still clung to her for dear life. "It isn't smart to hug your enemy, Kid. Let me go. Now." Cara's voice was stern, but Ella seemed only to hug her closer, her hold increasingly tighter. What in the underworld is she DOING?

"You need to let me go. NOW. Before the others come back, or they will have you and your mother killed. Both of you. For no other reason than they CAN." Cara found the pressure points on Ella's wrists, and used them to make her hands limp, removing her hold without causing pain or harm. Grace gave her a shocked, thankful look. Cara saw that her belly was swollen, likely three to four moons until she would deliver another child. She felt a stir of protectiveness within her, a grief for her own son who had been ripped from her arms barely a month ago. She reached down and placed her hand around her agiel. Focus, Cara. You can come back. Stowecroft is only a few leagues from the south temple.

She stood, feeling Grace's eyes on her as she mounted the horse once more, her Mord Sith first Mistress mask back in place. She turned her mount back towards the hill, where her sisters were waiting for her. Stowecroft had gathered. She knew what she had to do.

"Let it be known that for the next decade of time, we shall not take from this village. For they have saved the life of the First Mistress. Let all who hear know that your debt has been paid."

The cheers and gasps erupted all around them. Denna and Constance stared at her in disbelief, and Dahlia reached out and placed the softest of hands on her leg, so subtly that no one but they would see it. Berdine nodded, and Cara, not wanting to chance anyone asking follow up questions, turned her horse roughly in the direction of the Temple. She would send the others out hunting tomorrow. Likely Fife, or Brenadan, but never Stowecroft again. Ten years would be sufficient time to allow the new child to grow up, if it was a girl. She owed her sister that much, at least.

"Mama? Who was that?" Ella asked, as Mama was tucking her into bed that night. "You said the Mordsith are scary. She wasn't scary at all! She picked me up and the nice man said not to be too scared. She would let me come back to you." Mama's face was white and pale, and she sat down on the bed.

"What nice man, Eleanor?" Mama asked. She only used Ella's full name when she was worried, scared or Ella was in trouble.

"The nice man. He said he loves you. And he can't wait for you to meet Marcus!"

"You were….well, you went to the afterlife. Ella, that must have been Grandpa." Mama sighed, and held her daughter close. "That woman today...is your Aunt Cara. She's the one who saved you."

Over the next couple of days, Ella was obsessed with all things Mordsith. She rode her pony at a canter, sitting high in the saddle, wearing her hair in a clumsy braid that she'd done herself. She mashed up berries and made a paste with them and mud, and slathered it on a sturdy looking stick she had found in the forest, and she proudly brandished it at any careless cat or dog, who had the nerve to cross the battle lines she drew in the sand with a pointy stick. Mama and Papa put up with her new behavior, recognizing that Ella saw Cara as some kind of hero that she wanted to be just like.

"Im not worried Sirian. Remember when the peddler came to town, and Ella walked around for a solid week selling corn cob dolls to the neighbors? Or she heard a story about the confessors, and got sent home from school for grabbing other students by the throat? It's just a phase...albeit a dangerous one."

Mama had no idea just how dangerous it was. Ella snuck out one night, and went back to the creek, poking at the water with a stick, slapping it angrily with her home made agiel.

"It's not fair!" She complained to the night air.

"What's not fair?" The husky voice made Ella jump. She turned her head, pointing the agiel at the woman who had snuck up on her silently. "WHAT in the name of the Keeper is this? Little Mouse, you dont even know how to USE one of these! Now do you?"

"Auntie Cara!" Her fear forgotten, Ella jumped into the surprised woman's arms. Cara surprised herself by holding on and sighing softly.

"Now tell me why on EARTH you made….an agiel...and why your hair looks like a nesting place for a family of pigeons?" The mock sternness made Ella laugh.

"I want to be a Mordsith. Like you!" Ella grinned up at her aunt.

"No. No Ella. You don't." Aunt Cara looked down at her before standing and taking a deep breath. "Ella. I'm going to tell you something. Something you are not going to like."

Cara stood and stared at the water. "You'd be ripped away from your mother. Your father. Your little sister or brother. Tortured so terribly you'd be a ruthless, thoughtless killing machine. That is what we are, we can be no more and no less. You, on the other hand-"

"But I'd be with you!" Ella's innocent face shone up at her in the moonlight. "I love you! You're really brave! And I want to be your friend! Plus, we both have really neat weapons!" Before Cara could stop her, Ella had reached for the agiel and grabbed it from its holster. She screamed in agony, the pain so intense it knocked her to the ground.

Instantly, Cara was beside her, scooping the child up in her arms and inspecting her hand. "Damn it! Ella! You're not supposed to TOUCH that! EVER!" Okay. Shouting does not help sobbing child. The only experience I have with this is training a child, and I cant exactly hit her with the agiel. No. That won't solve anything. I need to distract her.

"Shhh...Ella." Ella turned her tear stained face up to look at her Aunt.

"Can you kiss it better? Mama always does that when I get an owie." Kiss it better? What does she think I am? A school marm? She thinks you are her AUNT. And you are. So be an Aunt. There it was again. That voice she couldnt identify, the voice that had been in her head for several long years.

"Of course I can." Cara gently kissed the injured hand, which, thank the spirits, wasnt too bad. It would blister, but it was nothing compared to her own palms, which were scarred even with the gloves. "Here. sit down. Let me put your hair into a proper braid."

Ella fell asleep in Cara's arms that night, and Cara held her until dawn showed its face on the horizon, an odd sort of flutter in her chest when she felt the child burrow her head into the side of her neck for comfort and safety. Is this what it feels like, to be a mother? I felt something...like this, when my son was born, when Dahlia and I were allowed to hold him, for a moment before he was taken to the Dragon Corps. Dahlia. Her family is here as well. Her brother. No. I can't think of that.

Cara carried the sleeping girl through the village, tenderly, ignoring the shocked gasps from farmers who were already hard at work. She knocked on the door of her old home, smiling sheepishly when it was answered by a very exhausted, and confused, Grace.

"Cara? I thought you'd gone?! Ella's with you? What happened? Is she hurt?" Grace motioned for Cara to come inside, and she showed her to Ella's bed. Cara set the child down, growling slightly when Ella clung to her Aunt's hand.

"Dont go.." She mumbled sleepily. Cara surprised herself when she agreed, lying down beside her, leather creaking as she moved.

"I was patrolling. Making sure the others, who arent aware of my decree, dont come here. I found her by the river. We talked. She grabbed my agiel because she wanted to hold it, and had touched it before I could stop her. She's alright. It's a very minor burn. I 'kissed it better' at her insistence, and put a poultice of mint and mud on it. She should be alright within...a few days. No scarring." Cara let Ella snuggle up to her, though the physical contact was strange to her. Even she and Dahlia didnt cuddle. It wasnt the Mordsith way.

"You Kissed it better? You're a Mordisth." Grace was shocked, and she gave Cara a teasing grin. "She's attached to you. She'd going around pretending to BE you." Grace laughed, and Cara chucked.

"I braided her hair. Told her that I'd come around sometimes and teach her to fight. And to ride properly. But she is not to play with that agiel anymore." Cara smiled fondly as Ella tightened her grip around her. "Are you sure she's not part cat? Or...tree squirrel?"

"What about her fighting the other children at school?" Grace asked.

"I dont want her going to the town school." There was a hardness to Cara's voice, and Grace could have been imagining it, but she thought she saw Cara's arms tighten around Ella protectively. "She learned at home, or through a tutor. But she is never going back there. I wont have it."

"Theres something you're not telling me." Grace kept her voice low, but firm.

"Yes. there is. Im not at liberty to tell you. Just….keep her home."