Mom spent hours doting and having me tell her what all had happened, and then doting more. There were a few things I glossed over a bit, leaving out most of the details. The fact that I'd been present for so many attacks had been a particular sticking point with her where she'd pushed to get more information. I simply acted like I was a bit less involved. Saying that during the attack on the party I'd gone to hide before everything got sorted, or that during the attack in the copse our team had taken cover in a creek bed. I also left out how injured I'd been during a few of those outings, so as not to cause her any further stress. It all became, 'Yeah, and there was an attack, so we mostly tried to hide.' rather than the whole story.

She asked about friends and I told her all about Dras, and Kala, and Pinea, how I'd met each and what they were like. It occurred to me that I'd not heard about the last of those, and I made a note to ask dad about it. She insisted that she wanted to meet Dras as soon as possible, my guess was that she'd made the same assumption as dad had, which I'd have to correct whenever it came up.

Eventually I was shown to my new room, which had a huge window. Said window looked out towards Rooke's house. Dad had left mom and I to have our time but had returned now, and he watched me, smiling as I looked about.

"What do you think?" He asked, when I'd finished and looked out the window again.

"Um... do you know what happened to the man who lived across the road?"

"What? No, why?"

"He was one of my teachers and helped me a lot. I wondered if he was okay."

"Give me his name and I'll see what I can find," dad sighed, "About the room though?"

"Oh it's lovely! Kind of big though, not sure what I could put in it."

The room was in fact both massive and beautiful. It was easily as large as our house had been back in Orsken, and even more ridiculous than my room at the academy. I looked about to find the closets, multiple, and even a small washroom attached to the side. It was fairly empty except for furniture though. There was a bed and desk of course, along with a small table and a vanity over near the windows.

I assumed that the noble family that had previously owned this mansion had had daughters and the like at some point and that all the furniture was appropriated from their rooms. That was a bit odd. It felt like I was some kind of thief, moving into someone's home where I had no business being.

Dad ran off again, determined to get a lot of other things in order. Mom on the other hand stayed, and seeing me looking about joined me as I sat on the bed.

"It's a bit odd isn't it dear?" She asked as I ran my fingers over the carefully embroidered covers.

"Yeah, I feel like an intruder or something."

"I felt the same way when we first got to Lord Durin's estate. The rooms we were given there were lovely, more than anything I'd really ever expected to get in my life. Like someone else had let me into their home and I'd just taken over everything. I wasn't prepared for it at all, and I still don't really think I'm there."

"It's not just that it's opulent. It feels like we came in and killed these people, then took their stuff. I don't really know how to process that."

She wrapped her arms around me, holding me close. "That isn't completely different from what your father and John did. If it helps I'm told the man who owned this previously was rather cruel."

"It doesn't really."

"Hmm, well what would we do with it otherwise? The man who owned it died, and it doesn't seem that anyone else had a true claim to it. We could just let the place rot, but that seems silly."

"I guess. What is Lord Durin's home like?" I decided to change the subject, not really feeling comforted at all by her words.

"It's quite different. Not opulent in the same way that places in Lithere or his new capital are, but it is lovely. Perhaps he'll invite you to that estate for some function or other one day."

She eventually left me too acclimate, something I was very appreciative of. Unpacking didn't take all that long, as I still had little in the way of personal possessions and soon I was as settled in as I could be.

Our dinner that night was something else. The dining room was too big and we all wanted to be close and chat, so we ended up close together with huge amounts of table taking up space in the room. John joined us, since even though he was older he would be taking up several rooms here until he was either assigned somewhere else with the army or found his own place.

The food was also a bit odd. Because of dad's status, mom and uncle Barro, who was still living at Lord Durin's estate, were afforded some measure, and therefore mom had gained several servants to help out. These were hired from people of the former empire that had been willing to join up with Lord Durin, and the food the chef made was tilted slightly more towards more eastern flavors than we were used to. It wasn't too different, but some of the herbs that were used were weighted more strongly in one way or the other. A sage-like plant made far more appearances than I would have wanted while the rosemary that was endemic to most parts of the kingdom was almost totally absent.

As an aside most of the plants in this world were exactly the same as in my previous, barring magical plants and a few that might have been there, but I didn't know of them. Those we ate would be intimately familiar to most people of a western persuasion, with things like potatoes, beans, grain, and the like very common. Herbs were much beloved and used in most dishes, which was a bit odd coming from where I did, but they were refreshing. Those too were either exactly the same, or something very close which might have well been a different cultivar.

After dinner we retired to a sitting room where dad and John chatted while mom began to work on some light embroidery. I joined with a bit of sewing, one of my dresses had a small rip from something or other and it was easier to repair it now than later. My mother was horrified at the current state of my sewing skills. She watched me for only a few moments before she came over to check on my work.

"Alana, what is all of this supposed to be?"

"It's a rip, I'm fixing it."

"Poorly. Goodness, look at these." She took the piece from me and began undoing what I'd put in, which was a little frustrating, but I knew for a fact that she could do it better.

"Admittedly, but it still needs fixing."

"Why are you being so sloppy? The work on your dress is quite good." She took a brief look to confirm that the stitching on it was, extremely good.

"Well I didn't make my dress mother. I don't think I've made any of my clothes since Orsken."

That seemed to make her freeze in her tracks. "Have you not been keeping up with your handiwork at all?"

"Er... I spin a bit sometimes, and do a little embroidery here and there..."

"What will you do when your children are born? What will this Dras boy your dating think when he learns you can't even make a basic thing like children's clothing." This seemed to her the highest form of possible failure.

"I'm not dating Dras mother, he's just a friend."

"What?" Both mom and dad said at once.

"Now hold on Alana, you told me you were dating him." Dad said as he looked over.

"No I didn't."

"Yes you did. You said you gave one of those items to your long time friend and the other to the person you'd been..." I could almost see the gears turning, then clicking into place. "Kala..." There it was.

"Mmmhmm."

"Wait a moment. Alana are you..."

"Yup."

"How do you..." My brother, always helpful in his foolish words began.

"We don't, at all. I'm not really into girls like that, but we're still going out."

"Alana," my mother began as she rubbed her head. "You know this can't last, don't you? With your father now in the position he's in, you will have to get married at some point, and regardless of what you think of it, you cannot marry another woman."

"We both know that mother. Kala knows she'll have to do much the same. The Lovers are apparently pretty heavy in their encouragement of experiencing every kind of love, so this is more... romantic, but not, physical."

She looked like she was having a headache right then. "We'll discuss this later Alana."

"I'd really rather not."

"Well," dad looked over, seeming a bit off-kilter, "I may have to have another conversation with young Dras. I believe I may have taken a few years off of his life in our last one." He shrugged, "Good news is at least, I don't have to worry about you coming home pregnant or something like that."

"Oh dad, you wouldn't have had to anyway." If I was going to go in, I might as well hit all the shock at once.

"Why?" He narrowed his eyes as he looked back to me.

"Lover's Mark."

While they froze John looked at me, smiled, and said, "And here I thought I was the problem child. Well, I'll leave you three to it, I'm going far from this." He then made a hasty exit.

You would think that my relationship with another girl would be the big deal, but it wasn't quite on the same level. Both of my parents were up in arms about my acquisition of a Lover's Mark. Both wanted to know who I'd been with at my age that made me make that decision. I considered telling them that I had it for years, but that seemed like a worse idea than any other. I did let my mom have her breakdown for a few moments so she could get it all out before I could get a word in.

"You know that most of the girls who were at the academy have one right?"

"IS THAT SORT OF BEHAVIOR THAT RAMPANT AMONG THE NOBILITY!?" Mom had started yelling a bit ago, and didn't seem inclined to stop.

"Stop screaming a listen. When Lord Durin's armies started taking out cities everyone who wanted one was offered it. They didn't know, and nor did we that he would take such a violently oppositional view to... mishandling captured women and girls. So pretty much everyone who didn't already have one got one at that time."

Mom deflated and sat back down, breathing a sigh of relief. "So that's when you got it."

"No mother, I got mine some time before, for basically the same reasons. I didn't know if I'd have to flee again and thought it was a good preparation to make, just in case, and before you ask, no, it has never actually been relevant that I have it."

"Oh, well then, that was very smart of you dear." Mom was now trying to catch her breath. "If you ever have anything like that you need to tell me again I'll try not to yell."

Dad looked a bit contemplative, and saddened. "It's horrid that you had to think about things like that. I'm glad you took precautions, but... none of Lord Durin's men would do something like that, none that wanted to live for long." He sighed, "I'll admit that there were a few incidents, but every man found to have done that was either executed, or handed over to The Lovers for whatever justice they would enact. I even saw him beat a man to death personally after it was proven that he'd abused several girls in the camp."

"He killed the man himself?" That was a bit stunning.

"Yes, publicly, and it sent a powerful message. Afterwards he gave a speech to the men about how we were to observe the forms of proper war. Lord Durin may be a conqueror, but he's a civilized one."

"That is good to hear. Now, if you'll excuse me, it is getting late." Neither of them spoke, so I followed in my brother's footsteps.