Author's note: My character is not yet in the spotlight and already causes upheaval. At this point in the story, she's a child (12 years old) and as is fitting for one born into nobility, her parents are still the ones to decide her fate.


Uninvited, ringing the bell of the gate in the evening, peacekeeper Stone was nervous. Bothering the Sinclairs could go either way, depending on who answered.

A woman bearing a hooded lantern that barely lit her frame came greeting him.

"What do you want?!"

The voice was overly severe in tone. Stone didn't expect the servants of house Sinclair to be so arrogant. Right as he was about to reprimand her, he choked on his own words. The lamp post of the street had just shed enough light on her to reveal a dark green dress full of frills, a formal gown usually worn by nobles of high status.

"M-madam Sinclair?" stammered the peace keeper. "Please, pardon my rudeness. I expected that a servant of yours would answer the gate…"

"What do you want?!" repeated madam Sinclair, visibly impatient.

"Right. There is a matter I have to discuss with the commander."

"The commander is my lawfully wedded husband." said madam Sinclair with an authoritative tone very few military officers have. "What is mine is his and what is his is mine. So, what is the matter?"

With all that, she didn't invite him at all in the estate. But peace keeper Stone was not about to let himself be intimidated.

"Is it about that disappointment of a daughter of mine?" she snapped.

Right now, Stone was thankful for the poor lighting. Had the meeting been in broad daylight, his reaction bordering on shock would have given him away. He took a deep breath to recollect himself.

"Madam." he started with the official sounding tone he hoped he would muster. "I merely wish to inform the commander about some suspicious activity in the campus of the academy."

"Which one?" asked madam Sinclair in a tone split between worry and anger.

"The Dawn of…"

"Oh, it's just those posers…!" she interrupted with a sigh of relief. "Did you crack down on yet another seditious group? Are you finally commissioning the Order to oust them from Apple Springs?"

"I… am afraid I will not be making history tonight. It's… a much smaller matter."

"You would bother the commander's rest for such a trivial matter? At this hour, no less?"

Upon saying that, madam Sinclair approached with the lantern, right in the face of peace keeper Stone. The dancing shadows on the edges of her face made her look more fearsome than anyone he ever met, be it the commanding officer under which he served or the most violent criminal he ever arrested.

"Yes!" he exclaimed boldly. "These may be but small matters, yet if…"

"… neglect them, they become a nightmare." she completed in a sigh. "Responsibilities are responsibilities, alright. My husband is in the orchard. If you don't see him strolling about, it means he's inside the little cabin."

Madam Sinclair unceremoniously shoved the hooded lantern in the hands of peace keeper Stone and hurried off to the manor. By the sound of her footsteps, she never once strayed from the stone path, even in complete darkness. If there was elven blood in her, he didn't want to be the one to point that out.

The evening air was chilly and the wind from the north announced yet another harsh and cold winter. He found the commander right under the tallest apple tree of the orchard. A pity. He had hoped he would have been in the cabin, where he could warm his hands a little.

"Majestic, isn't it?" greeted the commander.

"I'm afraid I can't see much of it at this hour with but a little lantern."

"This tree in itself isn't much. There are taller. There are sturdier. And yet, it does something even magic can't do." said the commander with a smile.

"Magic can create apples. It can also change any swill into the finest cider. Hells, it can even materialize it out of nothing!"

The commander chuckled.

"Magic can indeed create cider out of the aether, but not the exact taste of a particular region, of a particular year. Magic fools the senses, you see. What you have before you, my friend, is the real deal. It has taste. It has history. And it is exactly what the emperor desires."

"Surely he would scoff at a bad year and give us less privileges should he receive a sub-par shipment." Stone said, eying the cabin.

"The emperor desires news, my friend. At the top of the civilized world, everything needs to be done with purpose. He sends us the finest blades to garnish the ranks of the Order because I always have the gall to send him the cider of my orchard, regardless of the favors of the years."

"You would dare to displease the emperor?" Stone worried.

"Being a hypocrite is what would displease him." sighed the commander. "I'm so glad to be the one in charge right now… So, what is your business?"

Looking at the peace keeper rubbing his hands, the commander invited him in the cabin, where a warming fire lit the place.

"Right, the matter of my visit."

"Is it about Vicky?" inquired the commander with genuine worry in his voice.

"Why is it that everyone assumes that right from the get go?" snapped Stone before confounding himself in apologies.

"It's okay." sighed the commander. "I had hoped to keep Felicia off the loop, but I'll manage."

"Oh, no worries." reassured Stone. "I didn't slip up in front of your wife. And besides, I even may not have the right person."

"So, what are you here for, officially?"

"My kind of language." said Stone with a wink. "A young girl has infiltrated the academy of the Dawn of Knowledge. Five feet tall, long jet-black hair, hazel eyes, human. She has taken residence in the girls' dorms."

"Is she an agent?"

"She's barely twelve. I highly doubt she would be that precocious. I would have been wary of that if she were a half-orc, but then again, if that was the case, she would have been ousted by now. Here, some of the artsy types gave me a portrait of her."

The commander eagerly took the paper and unfolded it. He then took a deep breath, eyes widened.

"I take it from your reaction that this is indeed your daughter. Was she not given up to the convent of the Sisters of Nature?"

"So that explains the invoice they sent me…" mumbled the commander.

The peace keeper's host started pacing around, thinking about the situation, hunched, as though a heavy burden was placed upon him. After a while, the guest started reminding him of the law.

"The only thing worth a life is another life. If you don't want me to apprehend your daughter and bring her back in…"

"No!" shouted the commander. "If she deserted, it's because she was miserable!"

"Well, the convent received a daughter of yours and a daughter of yours they must have."

"I refuse to send Katerina or Valeria in her place! I'll just… deal with the convent myself! It's none of your business!"

Peace keeper Stone shrugged and let the commander calm down. He knew better than to tell a noble what to do.

"There is the matter of your daughter residing on the campus." he continued. "For now, she naively thinks she escaped our notice."

The commander suddenly stopped pacing around and stood upright.

"Alright. First and foremost, Felicia must never learn any of this."

"Pardon me, commander, but your wife is very nosy and…"

"You think I wouldn't know?! I've been married to that shrew for over thirty years! I never said it would be easy! I know! I will pay for Vicky's tuition."

"What if she just slips away again?"

"Then I'll just stop paying." sighed the commander. "Anyway, it's not your business anymore."

"I understand." said Stone with a bow. "The girl is just a new student and there is nothing to report."

"Thank you for bothering me over nothing." the commander said with a smile. "It means so much to me."