Khalenhad's eyes drifted open, after he'd surrendered his attacker had pressed the string against his throat until he'd fallen unconscious. He was currently sat at a table, his hands tied behind his back. Across the other side, was a man. His armour was made of small silvery scales with gilded leafs inscribed into the shoulder plates and a large fur cloak draped over them. His hair was a deep red that reminded him of the elf he had escorted to the capital, his eyes however where a deep green compared to her grey.

"What is your purpose here?" Khalenhad half growled.

"Calm down, we do not intend on harming you." His voice was impassive with no hint of warmth.

"Then why am I tied down?"

"I apologize, we thought that if you woke up you may be hostile towards us."

"And you thought that removing my ability to fight would make me trust you?"

"Yet again I am sorry, Mirah, remove his bonds please." Khalenhad felt the rope on his arms drop to the floor and looked at the woman that he had fought earlier, her mask was at her throat and she was smiling.

"Why did you attack us?"

"We were unsure of your purpose. Why did you come here?"

"The order sensed a large magical presence, we were sent to investigate. Now, why did you come here?"

"We seek to join the kingdom."

"Why?"

"That is not how this game works, a question for a question, an answer for an answer."

"Then ask."

"Is the court sorceress truly an elf?"

Khalenhad gave a nod. "Why are you interested in her?"

The man brushed the hair back from his ear, showing a prominent point. "My name is Oberon. We need to know if your people accepted our kind or are still trying to hunt us down. Why are you answering my questions so freely?"

Khalenhad paused for a moment, he wasn't sure himself. "I am unsure. Why are you answering mine?"

"It is customary, among our kind."

"Our kind?"

Oberon started to scratch his chin."Do you not know of your parents?"

"I was raised by the priesthood, so no."

"You are a halfbreed."

"Of what?"

"Our kind, and the humans." Khalenhad noticed the man smiled slightly. It was disconcerting the away he was trying to hide it.

"Your people have been hidden from humanity for more than eighty years, it makes no sense."

The elf let out a sigh. "The recent times have not been the brightest for our kind, the death of Fay started a long chain of our sanctuaries being burnt by the overlord, it sped up when the humans fully submitted. It is likely that during the sacking of one, some of the overlords men became, there's no polite way of saying this but the chances are she was a victim of rape."

Khalenhad froze. He'd never been one to deny obvious, it was part of the reason he chose to become a paladin instead of a priest, that and he'd never really had faith in the gods. And he liked having evidence to prove things, so far there was none. "Prove it."

Oberon was tired, human lives were short enough and they seemed to turn everything into a constant struggle. It was pointless. "It will be difficult, your blood favours humanity, we had thought of you as one of us before we saw you. The only way to prove to a human is through magic, but our magic users are are coming in a later contingency, but when we reach the capital we can share the spell with the sorceress and she can prove it, but until then there is nothing we can do."

Khalenhad finally remembered why he had been sent here. "What is radiating so much magic that we can sense it from over ten miles away."

"That is none of your concern."

"What happened to it being customary to share information?"

"You may be of our blood, but you do not know our customs, history, I doubt you can even speak a single syllable of our language. You are of our kind, but you are not one of my people and will be treated as such. A messenger has been sent to the city to inform them of our arrival and we will leave tomorrow, until then you should get some rest, Mirah wills escort you to where the space your men have been designated."

A small ball of fire started to appear in Lo's hand as John was thrown from his horse. What angered here the most though, was the way Tristen had rode up to the royal stand, a cocky smile on his face, and beckoned her to sit on his horse in front of him. She had declined, attempting to keep her distance while walking back to the castle.

"I don't why you didn't join him on the steed, your acting as if he was the overlord himself." Emily commented."

If I'm not acting like that I suppose someone should."It's a matter of principle."

"Look Lo, as much as you try and hold onto your little ideals and principles, your a noble. At some point your going to have to get your hands dirty, sleep with another noble to get them to provide you with resources, bribe a guard to keep a dirty secret quiet, you may have to send your child to marry someone they don't love to create an alliance. The only difference between us and the commoners is our fall from grace has silk cushions to make it softer, or a pit of spikes at the bottom to finish us of once and for all."

"You speak as if it is a certainty."

"There are many causes, scandal, treason, death. These come to everybody at one time or another, it all depends on whose willing to kick you and take your place when your down."

"And how many people have you done this to?"

Emily cocked her head and gave an innocent smile. "Why, I would not dream of hurting another living thing, least of all in its time of need. Speaking of getting dirty." She tilted her head towards Tristen, a smile on his face before wrapping his arm around Lo's waist.

"Hello beautiful."

"Hello Tristen, how's the groin? Still sore I assume."

"A bit tender, maybe you could kiss it better tonight.'

Lo bit her lip to stop herself from maiming him with a blast of lightning. If she was still in Nordberg or no one was around, she probably would have hit him again, but this was not the case and doing anything against him would result in her being punished.

"Perhaps the reason the reason it's sore is because there's a cut on it, I could cauterize it for you, if not it may get an infection and have to be cut off."

"If you think that will happen then maybe you can help me enjoy its, final days."

Suddenly a cruel idea began to form in her head. "That's not a bad idea, in fact I have a very special evening and morning planned, maybe even extending into next night depending on how well it goes."

Tristen was about to let out a gulp but stopped himself.She's bluffing. When I turn up there'll be nothing she's just trying to scare me away and get out of this. "I can't wait." Without warning he pulled her into a kiss, he was surprises that instead of fighting, she actually embraced it, moving her tongue with as much vigour as his.

When he pulled away her mouth moved to his ear. "Neither can I." She whispered, this time he actually gulped before walking away.

"You don't have to sleep with him you know, he didn't say who he wanted to share your bed with, just send a serving girl, she'll mostly likely be glad for a night off her feet." Emily said.

"If I was going to send anyone, it would be one of the male staff. I have no intention of sleeping with him though, I'm just going to teach him a lesson, and John."

"I have the feeling there's a very interesting story to this."

"Your brother told Tristen and another about a certain upcoming event. I like my privacy, it was one thing that was difficult to find at the college, that, and testing him instead of me will be interesting."

Khalenhad was escorted by Mirah to the area the other paladins were. To his surprise the camp above ground was merely a diversion, the tent at the back had led to a cave beneath the rocks, hiding the true, smaller encampment. The caves winded repeatedly, making any form of escape difficult and as he was led further in he began to question if the others were being held against their will.

"Your friends are round the next corner." The woman told him.

He gave a slight bow before progressing down the tunnel.

To his surprise the area was well furnished, and the orange light that made it's way through the cracks told him the sun would be setting soon. He took his place on one of the canvas stools that was spread around a small table made of a similar material. His men were sat there, a few elves around the table with them playing cards and from the looks of it drinking.

"Ah sir,"one of his men began "I take it you met with our host."

Khalenhad looked over the group of five and their guests, watchers, or wardens, he couldn't tell which. But from the looks of it, an elven woman sat on the lap of one his men, not quite nuzzling but certainly making more contact then was appropriate between friends, they were slightly too affectionate to be guards.

One of his men had noticed where he was looking. "They're in love."

Without looking away the elven woman's voice came up. "You say that as if it's a bad thing." The man that she was sat on looked as if he was about to speak but the elven woman pressed her lips to his, neither of them breaking it until they were desperate for breath.

"Told you."

Khalenhad made a quick observation. He had seen groups of men throughout the cave, mostly on patrol, but the group that was with them was entirely composed of women. He looked over the group again, hoping that someone else had noticed. Only one of them had a suspicious look, the others were grinning apart from one who was occupied by an elf.

Tristen's nose started twitching at the smells that came behind the oak door that led to Lo's room. Good gods she wasn't bluffing, she's going to poison me, that has to be it, there is no way a woman's attitude shifts that fast. Against his better judgement he knocked. The door swung open and Lo was stood there. His jaw dropped at the image. She was wearing a white dress that cut away just below her knee and would have shown the tops of her breasts' if she hadn't moved her hair so it covered the upper half but still left the dip between them visible. The rest of her hair was left to hang down to the small of her back. It felt like she was taunting him, only a thin layer of red blocking his view from what he decided was his new favourite part.

"I told you I planned something special." She walked backwards slowly, beckoning him with a single finger which he eagerly followed.

Inside smelled even better, the odour of spice mixed with scented candles filled the area and a meal was laid out on the table. He was ushered to his seat before he moved a fork-full to his mouth, but before he ate it he took a single whiff and frowned at her.

"Anything in here I should know about?"

She gave out a laugh. "You think I'd be willing to eat tainted food? Poison is below my abilities when I could snap my fingers and have you running for the bathroom. We can swap plates if you wish?"

"No." After another sniff he placed it in his mouth. It tasted nice, no where near as good as it smelled but he was fine with that. After fifteen minuets of the only sound being forks scraping against plates she moved back towards the area she had set up as a kitchen and returned with two bowls.

After being room-mates with Anise for five years, Lo had seen everything trick the girl had heard of or conceived, and that this was one of her favourites, mostly due to it being difficult to get fresh fruit that far north which made it seem all the more extravagant. She wasn't sure if it would have the same effect in the south, but she felt strawberries and cream would work.

Yet again here guest eyed it with suspicion.

"This was your idea Tristen, if you didn't want this you should have said you wanted nothing."

He picked a piece of the fruit up, rotating it in his hand before dipping it in the other bowl. Before he could eat it though she grabbed his wrist and guided it into her mouth instead, flicking her tongue over his fingers before taking a bite.

Lo had no idea why Anise's trick worked so well, but he couldn't look away from her, so she knew it had. She stood up and started pulling at his wrist as she walked to the bedroom.

Tristen knew something was wrong, this was too well planned. All of her moves seemed practiced, rehearsed until everything went perfectly. She was bluffing, she had to be. But a little voice in his head was hoping that this wasn't some elaborate trick. She gave a giggle as her legs hit the foot of the bed, causing her to fall backwards and pull him with her.

Lo could sense that the man was hesitating, so when she fell over she clicked her finger and the straps of the dress hidden by her hair snapped, letting her easily crawl out of it. While the action was a bit showy, the entire evening was just that, a play she had seen Anise use more than a dozen times, although, the ending to this night would be very different ,(she wasn't going to be pushed out of the room for a start,)but she wasn't going to let him know that till the time was right. After crawling out of her dress and up to the head of the bed, she pulled the covers over here and he quickly followed, ditching his own top. She gave a giggle before pulling the covers over her head, forcing Tristen to follow her.

She took a slight gasp when his hands wrapped around her hips and she felt something go into her lower back. "You seem, excited." Lo started to smile, it would make her victory all the sweeter. Without saying a word she pushed onto his back and gave a whistle.

"No no no, please." Was all he managed to say before Fengir leapt on his chest.

"What did I say about looking or touching?"

The only sound the trapped man made was a half splutter.

"That's about right." Step one, check. Step two will have to wait till morning.

A/N Try for reading. A longer chapter than usual and at this point the story can diverge into three branches, not sure which one I'm going down yet so I might start a poll after two chapters.