Three more years had passed. With each passing winter, Heidi felt her bones ache more and her joints crack. It was only a matter of maybe a decade or two before her life would also come to an end. She looked at her husband, a tall man, with broad shoulders that could block most doors, and thick arms that kept the peace in the inn and everywhere he went. Yet the inn was no more. Heinz had retired just a winter ago. He still had friends who stayed here before they went to Aschen, but they were few and far between.

“Darling,” she said and eyed the newspaper he was reading, the front page was about the recent accomplishments of one of the many princes of Breissen, “I got a letter from Lucius.”

Heinz slowly lowered the newspaper before taking a deep breath, “Really? I thought that our dear son was too busy with his very important work that happened to be more important than family.”

He sounded rather grumpy, considering that her son had not visited them in the last twenty years, his mood seemed appropriate.

"Yes ... but he has been promoted and was ordered to accompany an officer to Aschen," she said. "Apparently he finally passed his third attempt of the exam with flying colours."

“Well, three times the charm, as I used to say. What a pleasant outcome,” Heinz mumbled and grabbed his cup of tea, one of the many habits he still had from his homeland, “But how long will he be here?”

“I don’t know. He was never good with words, and his letter was quite short,” Heidi said and took a sip from her cup of tea. It tasted surprisingly good, she needed to ask Heinz if he could buy more.

Her husband smiled before asking, “He seems to not have changed in all these years. When was the last time he had visited us? Twenty years ago?”

“That was when he graduated… and we visited the capital to congratulate him.”

Heinz furrowed his brows and said, “It seems that my memories are slightly foggy… I could have sworn that our son had come to visit us, not the other way around.”

“Age doesn’t seem to stop, even for you,” Heidi said and laughed.

Her husband would probably live at least a decade longer than her. He had been a well-known mercenary in the past and his node allowed him to use a special kind of magic. He also had managed to branch out his node several times. She sadly only had managed to branch out her own node six times in sixty years. Yet even with talent that could rival that of a knight, Heinz was merely a mercenary, not a knight. There wasn’t that much he could do with his talent as long as people looked down on him. Furthermore, he was not someone born in the Empire but a former citizen of the Greater Anglian Commonwealth, one of the Empire's archenemies.

“Maybe,” he said and smiled, “But life without you wouldn’t be worth living.”

“Don’t say that, honey,” she took a brief glance at the newspaper, “But why would they send a another noble to Aschen? The Margrave is an eccentric man, but he is not a bad ruler.”

“I don’t know,” Heinz shrugged, “I was never a fan of the theatrics of the nobles and this seems to be a… I don’t know… one of their many weird hobbies.”

Heinz grinned and grabbed the lone piece of bread on his plate before taking a big bite, “Sow, how is it going...”

He quickly swallowed his food after noticing Heidi’s unpleased frown, “With Elise?”

“I think that she is smart, almost too smart for a kid,” she sighed, “But she is a monia and I can’t really say much about them.”

“They are a scary bunch. Make great mercenaries… as long as they are on your side,” he mumbled, “Their magic is potent… it would be a good idea to teach her to control her node's powers before she burns down half of the countryside. I don’t really want to add more fuel to the rumours.”

Heidi simply nodded. That wasn't why she wanted to be Elise's teacher, but she didn't want the girl to explode in a bloody mess or worse either. Besides, most people, her and her husband excluded, maybe the abbot too, assumed that Monia's were beings with demon flesh and a mortal spirit. But that was quite far from the truth, they were just as mortal as a human.

"That reminds me of the time you forgot to read her a book and she decided to go downstairs and ask one of our guests to read it to her. I will never forget the man's face when he was desperately looking for her before he realised that she was just hidden by the table," Heinz said suddenly, perhaps to change the subject or maybe just to say something.

“It was Fritz,” Heidi added, “The captain of the local garrison of guards. One of your few students.”

“He is a meathead,” Heinz mumbled and Heidi laughed.

“That is stark coming from you,” she replied with a smile.

Heinz scratched his head in embarrassment before saying, “Maaaybeeee? But where is that little devil when you speak of her?”

“She is upstairs. Elise has told me that she will only come to eat with us when Fiona comes back or when she has finished reading the book.”

"What is she reading?" Heinz asked, "There shouldn't be that much left. When I read her a book two months ago, she told me that she had read almost all of them. An unimaginable feat. There are about ... a hundred books that we got as gifts from the association or from friends of her father."

“I don’t know,” Heidi replied, “She should be done with all the books for children and there are only books about history and other heavier topics left. Nothing too exciting…and I doubt that she understands half of it.”

She wanted to add more but the scream of a young girl stopped here.

“I volunteer,” Heinz said and stood up, almost hitting the ceiling with his head, “Doesn’t sound that serious.”

He also wanted to say more but both of them stopped speaking when they heard someone running down the wooden stairs.

“Granpa, granny,” the young girl said with a beaming smile. She almost tripped over but managed to regain balance seconds later, “I read all the books… the thick ones were soooooo boring and some were really complicated to read. Why did I even need to read them? No fun.”

Heidi wanted to reply that they simply had run out of books but, in the end, decided to not do so.

“Because knowing history is important,” Heinz replied with a smile, “Why else would we give them to you otherwise? But… you need to work on your balance. Our little mage surely doesn’t want to be bedridden once again.”

Giving her the book obviously was not because of them not knowing what to do. Surely not.

But…

Heinz stared at the girl. She really had done something besides reading. No matter how much she knowledge she had, a mage would remain a mage. And in the war ... they would be the first to die. He frowned. Why was he thinking about war? There was no war ... at least not here.

The young girl said nothing, but sat down on her little chair and immediately grabbed a small block of cheese and the last piece of bread.

“We still got more bread if you want,” Heinz stated, somewhat proudly, “Do you want some?”

His talent for killing things was of no use ... at least not in his house. So after many years he had tried cooking, and although he was not as good as Heidi, he could still cook well enough that any normal mercenary would not hesitate and eat everything he put on the table.

“Yef, it is tasti,” the girl replied, her mouth full of bread. But after noticing Heidi’s frown, Elise stopped speaking. She was a well-behaved girl and granny Heidi always had told her that speaking with a full mouth was impolite.

“So,” she started after quickly chewing, “Granny you promised to teach me magic if I read all the books by myself. When do we start?”

Heidi laughed. She had done that when? Years ago? Months ago? She could not remember. Elise was so energetic, almost as if she wanted to learn magic right now while eating her food.

“We will do that… later,” Heidi replied and handed Elise the water jug. The girl filled her cup with water and quickly gulped everything down.

“Perfect, thank you, granny,” Elise said before grabbing the new piece of bread Heinz had brought her.

“So, lass,” Heinz asked, “I could also teach you a bit about the sword. Interested?”