Looks like Valek made an entrance even though I didn't really mean for it to happen! Oh well.

Yelena POV

"Who?" Cahil demanded. I rolled my eyes at his obtuse thinking.

The boy's eyes widened in incredulity as he gestured wildly at me. My heart began racing. Oh no. Was I going to create yet another enemy just because I was Ixian? Cahil took his time turning around, slowly pivoting on his left foot until he was facing me fully.

"You,"he said, his face turning slightly pink. With digust or anger, I couldn't tell.

I started walking away from him, towards the apprentice wing, where my room was assigned. I wasn't going to stand around and be either interrogated or worse, attacked because people kept on thinking I was a spy. Were all Sitians this closed minded when it came to Ixians?

Well, I couldn't really blame them. After the Commander had taken over Ixia and closed off the border, Sitia lost a valuable trading partner and many of the necessities needed to sustain life while Ixia just lost luxury items. But after finding some resources in the Emerald Mountains, which were a continuation of the Ixian Soul Mountains, Sitians were content with keeping the peace. Still, everyone here was wary because somehow they believed that one day the Commander would no longer be content with Ixia and would use his undefeatable army to take over Sitia as well. Brazell and Mogkan had almost done that and it was only because Valek killed Mogkan that that situation never came to be.

When I looked back to see what Cahil's reaction would be, all I could see was his expression, filled with a mix of anger, shock and fascination, while his lips formed what seemed to be an unrepeatable curse.

When I came out from my rooms to the dining area to eat my dinner, I was greeted by hundreds of unwelcoming stares, from students as well as some teachers. Leif and Irys weren't there, which meant that everyone there thought I was a spy and was content to treat me as such. Fine. If that was the case, I would actually act like an Ixian spy.

Taking my filled tray, I brought it to a relatively empty table in the crowded room. The two young girls there left as soon as I sat down, shooting my nervous looks as they did so. Great. More room for me.

Inhaling deeply, I forced myself to keep a calm exterior. After all, one of Valek's spies wouldn't let the enemy know that they were nervous or frightened, would they? Though they probably wouldn't look around the room arrogantly or sniff in the air either. Forcing my hands not to shake, I spread some syrup on my sweet cakes. My only consolation was that the Keep served sweet cakes, my favourite meal.

It seemed as if everyone was watching me eat the first bite of my sweet cakes. The silence was truly disturbing. Lowering the fork, I looked around at everyone emotionlessly and almost immediately, the dining area filled with noise again as the students gossiped among one another, most likely about me, from the various looks that they shot my way. Sighing, I took a gulp of the cold water and tried to tell myself that in a week, everything would be better once the students got used to having me around.

A tray scraped onto the table in the spot next to me. Looking up, I saw a trio of students around my age or a little younger.

The girl with the auburn hair smiled at me and extended her hand. "Hi, I'm Corinne, this is Dax." Here she gestured at the tall blond young man next to her. "And this is Rowena." The girl behind them both seemed exeedingly shy and she was hesitant in shaking my hand. The first thing I noticed about this bashful girl was that her eyes were exactly like Valek's. They were the same shade, color and even shape. For a moment, I had the feeling that the two were related somehow, but I just brushed it off. Valek couldn't have relatives down south, could he? That would be interesting. The anti-magician with a magician relative.

"I'm Yelena," I told them. "Now that the introductions have been made, would you mind telling me why you've decided to come meet an Ixian spy?" The last words were spoken bitterly and immediately I wished that I'd kept my mouth shut.

Dax shot me an incredulous smile. "Are you kidding? This way, we get to be the first to know what it takes. Plus when we want to gossip, people will actually want to hear about what we want to say."

Corinne jabbed her elbow in his ribs. "We noticed that you've been given the silent treatment all day and we wanted to come and make you feel more at home. We know exactly what you're going through."

"You do? What did you...I mean, why were people treating you like this?" I frowned in confusion.

They all sat down and arranged their trays in front of them, as if they didn't want to answer.

"It's fine if you don't want to tell me," I said hastily.

Dax spoke first. "No, it's alright. I have the gift for being able to read and understand dead, archaic languages, so Master Bloodgood personally selected me to become his pupil. That immediately sets you in an uncomfortable position because the other students dislike anyone that's singled out."

Corinne nodded knowingly as she buttered some bread. "They were all hostile towards me and Rowena because we're the last descendants of a clan that used to be very powerful in Sitia. They...we were called the Kala Clan but eventually our population dwindled until we were no longer considered a clan. Rowena and I are the last of our clan."

I refrained from asking about their parents. The answer would probably be painful to them. "So it seems that the students of the Keep dislike any outsiders or anyone not like themselves, regardless of the circumstances."

Dax laughed. "They are invariably sheeplike in their thinking."

Corinne snorted. "What does that make us? The wolves hiding in the herd of sheep?"

"Are we really as dangerous as wolves?" I said thoughtfully. "After all, it's not like we want to hurt the rest of the students or anything."

"That...depends." Corrine turned to look at me, her green eyes inquisitive. "Are you really a spy like everyone says you are?"

Finally! Someone was giving me a chance to deny anything that might be said about me. "No, I am not," I said firmly. "But I am Ixian."

"It's alright." Rowena laid her hand on my arm. This was the first time during the conversation that she had said anything. I noticed that when she spoke, she did so very quietly as if she didn't want to disturb the world with anything that she had to say."Once they get used to you, they stop doing this. Corinne and I had to endure it for around a month."

I was filled with a cautious hope. Maybe this wouldn't be as bad as I thought it would be. On the other hand...a month? "Thank you, Rowena."

Valek POV

I cursed under my breath. It was quickly turning dark and there were storm clouds in the distance. I briefly contemplated staying in an inn at Fulgor. If barely anybody knew what I looked like in Ixia, it would be almost impossible for anyone to identify me by looks alone here. I had also taken the precaution of donning a disguise and darkening my skin tone. Still, would I take the risk?

Eventually the idea of having a warm bed and a fire won me over and I gave in reluctantly. After all, I would need to conserve all the strength I had if I was going to track down Moira's sister. As I came to an agreement with the innkeeper, I wondered if this Neri could possibly be as good a fighter, or even worse, better than Moira. If so, it would indeed take the combined efforts of Yelena and I in order to bring her down.

Yelena...I missed her more than ever, especially now that I was once again in a room that strongly resembled a broom closet. I would give anything to be reunited with her once again. I sat up as I realised that I would be seeing her again. Not anytime soon, but I would see her. After all, if I was going to have to go to every clan in Sitia to hunt down Neri, I would reach the Citadel sometime during my search and I could perhaps just drop in to see her.

Smiling ruefully, I acknowledged the fact that it wouldn't just be dropping in, I would actually stay for a long, long time. And so I couldn't risk having that temptation. So therefore, I was going to search the Citadel last and hopefully by the time I get there, Yelena will be done with her training and I can take her away with me.

Hearing a noise coming from behind the door, I grasped some darts and a dagger from my belt and climbed up the wall ledges to the ceiling. I held onto the ceiling beams to stop myself from falling and dangled from above, not unlike a spider. A timid knock caught my attention again.

"Come in," I called. I used some ventriloquy to make it sound like I was lying down in the bed. Hopefully if the person wanted to attack me, they wouldn't look up until it was too late.

A moment later, the knob turned and a servant girl in her young teens peered in. She stepped inside and seemed geniunely distressed to see nobody inside. She left a sheet of folded paper on the bed and looked around with a terrified look on her face. I bit my cheek to stop from laughing. This was proof that meeting Yelena had truly changed me. Before this, I would have only observed this situation in a calculating way.

After checking in the closet for dead bodies, the girl ran out of the room, presumably rushing to everyone about ghosts and spirits. In her hurry to get out, she had left the door open and once I was sure she was gone from the hall, I dropped down from the ceiling and closed it before going to the bed and unfolding the small scrap of parchment.

My heart warmed as soon as I realised it was a letter from Moira. Instead of letters, there were rows upon rows of Ixian battle symbols inscribed on the thin parchment. I scoffed at Moira's carelessness. Any Sitian who opened this beforehand and saw the symbols would immediately view it as a suspicious item. Still, I suppose that it was alright, since I was the one of two people that had the book to translate the symbols and it must have been an important issue for Moira to have taken such a risk. Whipping out my copy, I got to work.

Decoded, it read:

Dear V.

Forgot to tell you one little detail before you set off. N. also goes by another name: Desta. Also was last seen in Booruby. Burn this as soon as you finish reading. Good luck.

Love, M.

PS. Remember to keep your knives sharp and your guard up. N. is more skilled than you would ever believe.

Throwing the letter in the fire, I thought about what Moira had said. If it meant keeping the peace, I would sacrifice everything. Even my life.

Watching the letter slowly burn to small ashes, I thought about my ulterior motive for coming to Sitia. It had something to do with my past. After the King's guards had killed my brothers, my mother had died soon after of grief and the loss of will to live. My father, on the other hand, had becomed a hard, cold man that seemed to have been transformed into an ice replica of the warm, caring man he once was. My mother's death had only made him worse.

When I left to train to be the assassin that I was today, my father hadn't remained at our home on the ice pack. Instead, he had packed a small bag and left the place that harboured so many painful memories. After all these years, I still couldn't blame him for that. How could I, when I did the same? I still haven't encountered him after all these years and I had doubts that he was even alive. I only got one letter from him, and that was when I was just starting my training.

He had told me to fight to live, since that was the only way that I could survive, and that he wasn't coming back. I was then truly alone. The only thing that I could tell from the letter was that it came from Sitia, because the letter was written on a special type of papyrus that was only made in the Emerald Mountains. But if he was alive, I would find him. This way, I would be able to search for Neri while also keeping an eye out for him.

And if I ever saw him again, there were many things that would have to be said, not all of them what you'd expect a son to say to a father he hadn't seen for over a decade.

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters protrayed in any of Maria V. Snyder's books. Including Valek. *sob*

This applies until the end of this story. :)