Andromeda was in complete shock and fury, seeing Rhax entering the castle with a look of a lost puppy on his face while clutching Jeyne’s lifeless body made her furious. Jeyne was an innocent woman, she was kind, pretty, smart and most importantly trouble free. So, her death was like a shock to her, the first idea that entered her mind was: ‘The Dark Eyed Demon, he is here. He is hunting my household!’

But then she noticed the injuries Jeyne sustained, they were stab wounds. And the stabs of a kitchen knife from what the master at arms says. It was not a dagger that was used to kill her, and that made the only explanation that she was robbed.

After giving Jeyne’s body away to her family, Andromeda summoned Rhax to her private chamber to get the full story out of him. She sat on her big bed waiting for him to come. She was aware of what she wore, it was almost night time and she was wearing her nightgown. She should feel embarrassed, because she is wearing something like that in front of a man who is not her husband. But she didn’t feel that in the slightest bit, that's because she trusted Rhax fully.

This was not the first time that he saw her in a nightgown, and every time he saw her in one, she noticed that his eyes never left her face and didn’t wander like any man would have done in his place.

That made her trust him, also, for some reason she felt like he was the older brother she never had. He was always caring, he always tells her to go to sleep when she is overworking herself, he treats her in private like a little sister. And she honestly liked their banter and jests.

She just knew in her heart that Rhax was not interested in her, it made her angry that someone like Rhax didn’t find her attractive. But she then thought about it and understood that he sees her like his little sister. And what kind of freak is attracted to their little sister? They were not Elves after all.

Elves fascinated her, they have a whole hierarchy system that has been in action for thousands and thousands of years. They were divided into three groups. The lowest were the Filthy Blooded Elves. Those were the elves that didn't have two elves as their parents. Basically, mixed race. This category also includes, the elves that mate with other races, slave elves and forest elves. Or as the elves call them, Mud Blooded Elves.

The middle ranking was called normal or common elves. To belong to this ranking, you got to have two elf parents, was not a slave, not have any tainted blood and not be forest elf.

Then came the royalty of Elves, the Pure-Blooded Elves. They were the royalty, the strongest, the purest blooded. And the most beautiful. They all have a common feature; all pure-blooded elves have white/silvery hair. But their problem was that they were so obsessed with keeping their blood pure that they made the brother take his sister as a bride to keep the blood pure.

That of course didn’t have the same effect for them as it has for humans, as their genes are different. So, there were no deformities, but some families started to have the madness gene. And because there was no new bloodline or gene passing to the child, they also inherited the madness gene.

And that resulted in families like the Moratti family who birthed several mad magi that brought destruction and death everywhere they went. But thankfully, a pact was made between human magus and elf magus, then the Moratti family was plucked from its roots. And every man, woman and child were killed.

Pure Blooded elves still till this day uses incest, but they have made a law that says: Ki se Elri stoa afe dortu er srrea ek maldaus, de ora vilda brate krelda intantvly virout afe misericordia. Do tarus vho debroy tild lex krasa brate exstinguitur fo tro laste pueri. Hailda tro Pura Ichor.

Which means: If an elf from any age showed a sign of madness, then they would be killed instantly without any mercy. And those who disobey this law shall be exterminated to the last child. Hail the Pure Blood.

It was a little over the top in Andromeda’s opinion, but it was effective. As for the last 300 years there wasn’t any incident of mad pure blooded elf attacking humans or dwarfs while shouting that their race was superior and should rule the world and not the filthy humans.

A knock on her door brought her out of her thoughts. She spoke in the tone she uses always while talking to Rhax while they are alone. “Rhax, come in.”

The door opened and Rhax entered, wearing normal off-duty knight clothing. But of course, his sword was still strapped to his hip.

He didn’t bow, because he knew that this was not a meeting between a lady and her knight, but a woman and her friend. “How are you?” He asked with concern. “I,” she smiled in a tired smile, “could be better.” She then patted the place beside her inviting him to sit. He came and sat, a silence dominated the room, but it was not an awkward one. But a comfortable silence.

“So,” she started, “tell me what happened.” She demanded.

And he did, he told how he saw a line of blood while walking back to the palace and he decided to follow it just to make sure everyone was okay. He then found Jeyne in an alleyway dead with horror written all over her features.

“I failed her,” she saw him start to cry, “I was not there to save her, I failed her like I failed Ursula.” That’s when he started to cry uncontrollably.

She didn’t know what to do, so she hugged him and brought him to her chest while saying comforting words: “Shush, it is not your fault, you didn’t know about her. The only person responsible was the person who killed her.” They sat like that, she hugging him and him resting his head on her chest for almost 15 minutes. And she was painfully aware of how intimate their position was.

‘It is nothing, I’m just comforting a broken man who is my dear friend’ She reasoned, but even to hear own mind the words sounded false.