"Sir," Fiona said loudly, knocking on the dark wooden door, "I've brought your food. Shall I leave it outside the door as usual?"

There was, as usual, no reply. In the last two months that she had been working here, she had learned that her new employer's guest was quite eccentric. She had never seen him before. What was even stranger was that she was not the only one. Almost all the servants who worked for the Margrave had never seen him either. It was as if he did not exist.

But he did exist, apparently in the flesh. They brought him food, three times a day, enough to satisfy the hunger of at least a handful of people. When they returned to see if he had touched the food, it was gone. She sighed and put the tray of food down outside the old door.

Fiona paced down the red corridor. There were a few pictures of the Margrave's family hanging there. One of them was particularly striking, showing the Margrave and his wife, who was at least four heads taller than him. Perhaps Miss Selena's explanation for her height made sense. According to her new teacher, her mother was a Titaness.

The wind carried two voices down the corridor. After turning the corner, Fiona saw one of the maids standing in front of the marble spiral staircase talking to an old man. He was a Dragen, but this one looked more human than most of his kind. He had the obvious scales on his face and arms, but the rest of him looked more human.

They both noticed her. The maid, an elf who was probably older than the manor but didn't look a day over thirty, stopped talking and looked at Fiona.

"Fiona," said the green-haired maid, "this probably sounds rather unexpected, but could you do me a favour? The margrave's daughter is ... a bundle of uncontrollable energy."

Fiona knew that the Margrave had a few daughters. But they were most likely talking about his youngest, Jacobina had been her name. Fiona had seen her once, she was a lovely little girl who could probably become one of Elise's friends.

"I told you days ago to ask Elise to be her friend. But I doubt that my little daughter is still here. She told me she wanted to take a tour of the city and then test her powers in the Association," Fiona replied with a sigh.

The other servants had been asking her for the past two months if her daughter could become Jacobina's friend. Somehow, all the servants seemed to like Jacobina a lot. Fiona had replied that friendship should be genuine and not something that happened because Elise happened to be the daughter of someone employed by the Margrave. Fortunately, most had understood that. They had tacitly agreed to let time do its thing. Yet the elven maid in front of her seemed either completely ignorant, or she really wanted the two children to be friends.

"Is your little girl still so impressed with the city?" the old man asked, "Aschen isn't even that big... a small dragen settlement is larger."

"I suppose Aschen is much better than ... Wolfsteyn, isn't it?" the maid interrupted. "No one wants to hear your story, old man. We understand that you Dragen are amazing. But you should have seen our cities before those damned demons destroyed them."

The man eyed her doubtfully, but said nothing.

Fiona just continued to listen, feeling rather uncomfortable that she was being treated like an old friend rather than a new and unfamiliar co-worker. The working atmosphere here in the Margrave's mansion was very different from that in the Mayor's mansion. Fiona wondered why. Perhaps the fact that most of the servants seemed to have at least some level of decency and respect? So far they had not actively avoided talking to her and had not spread rumours behind her back.

"So, Gustav," the maid asked, smiling, "I understand the margrave has told you to look after Jacobina. That's what I would do if I were you. Although we could switch, I'll look for Jacobina, you go and find Elise."

“Fine, long-ear,” the old man grumbled before looking at Fiona, "Fiona, Miss Selena has been asking for you. It's about the training, I suppose."

Fiona nodded slowly. She dreaded training with this woman. A more appropriate title, however, would be monster. That word was much more descriptive. But as much as she dreaded the training, she also feared losing her job. Miss Selena and the Margrave seemed to deeply respect the man she had brought the food to, and therefore her job seemed to hang by a thin thread.

Besides, from the looks of it, even her little beloved daughter was more experienced than she was when it came to handling weapons. Heinz's supposedly little teachings had been surprisingly effective, considering that her kind rarely used anything but magic to fight. Fiona still wondered why his gift had been a simple black sword. His letter had been rather short, unfortunately, and hadn't revealed much. But Elise loved the sword, dangerous as it was, Elise was smart enough not to get hurt. Perhaps she should join the Association too? Her daughter had told her that joining had been quite easy and that the tasks she did were not dangerous.

Dangerous was a term that Elise unfortunately had to relearn. Training with Heinz seemed to have warped her understanding of what was dangerous and what was not.

Three days ago, Elise had nonchalantly declared that she had killed spiders. Fiona had at first assumed that Elise had meant normal spiders.... but that was not the case. According to Miss Selena, the spiders Elise had meant were not normal spiders, but demonic beasts. These beasts were animals that had been corrupted by the demonic energy that was in the air, often a result of having a demon around.

From what she had heard demonic beasts were quite rare. More common was that a corpse had been improperly buried and that the corpse as a result had become host to a demon. The humans called those demons skinwalkers. The fresher the body, the longer the demon remained unnoticed. Rarely these skinwalkers were so dangerous that humans called them revenants.

The misunderstanding with Elise had been a good icebreaker and although Miss Selena was not exactly a lenient teacher, she had become something of a good friend. Perhaps the training was also a good way to bond with her daughter, who was slowly becoming something like Fiona's own sister. They had a similar character, except that her little daughter was more innocent and naive. But Elise would hopefully grow out of that. Still, she hoped that Elise would not become as tomboyish and combative as her sister.

"Well," the elf said, clapping her hands loudly, "Fiona, I guess you're busy. So, have a good day."

With those words, she left, leaving the Dragen behind.

He murmured a handful of words before asking, "You wouldn't happen to know where Elise might be?"

Fiona shrugged, "Anywhere within walking distance. She's probably off killing spiders again. But she told me she made some friends, an old woman and her niece, both members of the Mercenary Association. Maybe she's still with them?"

"I guess I'll check there first," the old man laughed before adding, "She sounds like my granddaughter. But my granddaughter is older than you."

Fiona didn't know if this was some kind of compliment or insult, Dragen were an odd bunch. Most just wanted to find challenges, others thirsted for knowledge, and still others were like the man before her, none of the aforementioned, but still just as strange as the rest of their kind.

He paused and asked, "Spiders? The smaller kind or those huge things that roam the forest?"

Fiona frowned, he seemed unaware of Elise's rather exotic hobby, "The latter.... But I must be going. I doubt Miss Van Aschen would like it if I kept her waiting for me. And I still have to go to the armoury to get my sword and shield."

The man nodded, "The armsmaster should still be there. And if not, you can ask Miss Selena to give you the key."

He added with a grin, "I hope Miss Selena manages to polish you. You are like a diamond in the rough."

Fiona didn't know what that meant but she simply nodded. Dragen had a strange way of expressing compliments and this felt like one. She left the corridor to go to the armoury and then meet Miss Selena.

Silence fell in the hallway, but Gustav was still standing there. He stared at the end of the hall at the only door, which looked as if it was made of dying wood. It was probably dying too, which was pretty bad considering that ironwood was quite expensive and rare. But the Major General probably had the money for even rarer and more luxurious materials.

"Tobias," he muttered and walked towards the door. He knocked and said, "She's gone, so please come out."

Gustav couldn't help but feel annoyed.

The man behind that door was not only his friend. No, he was also the Crow, a name that struck fear into the hearts of enemies and allies alike. Tobias von Lebensblut was a hero of many wars and also an experienced officer with quite a few successes under his name. He was also the former heir of a family that had founded the "Circle of the Whites". An order of healers and priests who did not allign themselves with the Church.

Unfortunately, white magic and Necromancy were not really compatible, at least when it came to the Lebensblut family. Necromancy was certainly not something most people liked. It didn't matter if they were family or friends of a necromancer. Yet everyone knew that a few people were needed to protect people from the dark spirits that roamed the lands. And what better way than to have an expert deal with them.

He felt his skin prickle. Fortunately, no demons had come to Aschen, a rarity considering that Revenants and Skinwalkers had been sighted. It was extremely uncomfortable to kill something that possessed the body of someone who had already died.

He sighed, Tobias, the hero of many battles, was acting like a shy teenager who had just met his crush. Why was that? Most of the women who worked for the Margrave were beauties by the standards of most races. Yet he had expected the man behind that door to have even a hint of bravery. Two months had passed, and so far Tobias had not dared to ask Fiona to go on a date with him. He was no longer a nobleman, therefore a difference in status, in theory, did not exist.

"Sir," he said, "I hope you have an absolutely wonderful day ahead of you."

Gustav shook his head and left. He had work to do, finding a child wasn't as easy as it sounded. He had learned that the hard way with the margrave's youngest daughter. She had always disappeared to "pet cute animals", something he still didn't understand. Animals were animals and not something so important that you had to run away just to pet them.

Why weren't the effus like their cousins, the dwarves? Finding them was easy. They loathed everything that was above the earth, and also everything that dared to touch the sky. Rather, they loved the earth and everything below it. They always hid in caves, which were quite common below the surface, or in houses, which, as everyone knew, were quite common on the surface.

"Why do they fear the sky anyway?" he thought aloud, "It's not like it's going to fall down and crush everything underneath it. And why would a cave or a house protect them when that happens? Like all of this world is air and water."