The season had changed to winter. A white blanket of snow covered the roofs, streets, places, and gardens of the town of Avallach. The margravial castle was no different, of course. It had been well about a month since Violant had returned from her mission in Wuldington. Her family and the retainers had been quite surprised when the girl came back with some unknown companions but the change soon was accepted. Night-raven Hraban was regarded as some kind of new pet but generally he was seldom seen for his activity period was the night. Among the servants only the equally nocturnal Malford had more intimate contact with the witty bird but he also was the young lady’s butler after all.

Regarding old Alarun, the schrat healer, she had been assigned a room in the relatively wind-protected east wing of the castle, not too far from the sickbay. She also had had a chance to prove her medical prowess just a few days later. Doctor Wace, the castle healer himself, had managed to slip on a frozen puddle in a careless moment one early morning, thus fracturing his dominant hand. Left untreated it would have meant the end of his career. The doctor’s assistant found himself incapable to treat such a complex fracture even when following his masters instructions in every detail. But luckily Alarun was present, setting Wace’s bones patiently with her skills, leading to a complete recovery in no more than two weeks. During that time the hoary woman also took the reins in the sickbay, caring for all sick and injured in Avallach Castle. Both doctor and assistant ended up begging her to take them as apprentices but the schrat refused. She said that Doctor Wace’s skills were already top-notch – for a human though – and if the assistant would keep on learning from him he would likely also reach the same level with time.

Violant had used her time to build a stable foundation she one day could use to hinder Gervase’s rise to the throne. Well, at least she had a good start. What a fifteen years old girl who yet had to have her social debut in the capital could do was limited of course, but considering those limitation she nonetheless was off to a good start. Especially so as she quickly got a good grasp on advanced magic, a fact she couldn’t even dream about in her previous life. Her magic tutor was changed from her brother Mortimer to Eibhlin, an elven beauty with an incredibly high aptitude and talent for magic but no sense for business as shown by the bankrupt magic shop she once had run in one of the side streets of Avallach town.

A matter still to be decided was the young lady’s future royal backer, the more at odds with Gervase the better. It would be perfect if Violant would be able to have the royal family indebted to her but that was nothing more than a pipe dream. When she asked herself how she felt about the traitorous husband of her former life, the returnee’s answer was that she had lost all love for him in her heart long ago. She also had a clear dislike for him, now that she knew his true character, but it couldn’t be said that she outright hated him. It wasn’t that Violant still had any mite of sympathy remaining for Gervase. On the contrary, she didn’t allow herself any bone-gnawing, blood-boiling hatred blindly seeking revenge because such an obsession – though clearly destructive – would mean that she still was concerned with the bastard who had discarded her like a worn-out tool. Violant found him simply unworthy of her attention, no different than a pebble on the wayside. Preferably she would have cut all ties with him forever but as he still was as a potential danger to her peaceful future she had to adopt means to prevent this. Well, honestly the redhead really wanted to witness Gervase’s fall to have a little revenge on him but it wasn’t her priority. Her priority was to keep save everyone and everything she cared about this time around.

All of Avallach was busy with the preparations for the rapidly approaching Midwinter festival celebrated to pray for the early return of springtime, and the new year wasn’t too far off as well. The margravial residence in the castle towering above the town was no exception. Everybody did their best and busied themselves with various tasks. Violant was busy helping her father and bother with organizational documents regarding the festival in the margraviate.

“Here are the next documents, Milady.” Malford informed professionally “One topic is the annual Midwinter soup kitchen for the poor organized by the local temple in Birchham village. Since the village clergy isn’t wealthy itself they ask for subsidies to keep up the tradition. Additionally numerous orphanages all over the fief applied for the margravial one-year fund traditionally given to one of them in the spirit of Midwinter.”

“Thank you, Malford.” the young lady replied and accepted the document “You may now help wherever you are needed.” December really was a busy month for the margravial house. Owed to that, Violant’s nowadays less extensive curriculum was paused temporarily.

The approbation of the subsidies for the soup kitchen was a matter of seconds. The spirit of Midwinter emphasized especially charity and benevolence, for during the starving and freezing period of winter people at least wanted to light a bright and warm light in other’s hearts if not in the fireplaces too. The margraviate was also one of the by far wealthiest fiefs in the whole kingdom, even after subtracting the expenditures it took to keep the other march guarded and to deal with incidents related to the otherworldly realm.

Deciding which orphanage was the worthiest to receive the one-year fund was far more difficult. It was an ungrateful though charitable task that fell to Violant this year. Even after a short preceding investigation for filtering out all orphanages under a corrupt management, it was still hard enough to make a choice. How could she just choose one orphanage when there were at least ten others as worthy as the chosen one? The decision had to be made though, and so the young lady did although it left her with a feeling of guilt for all the equally worthy orphanages that had lost out.

Just a moment later the silky Millicent entered the study. Bowing in front of her mistress, she reported: “Milady, the margrave urgently requests your presence in the entrance hall.”

Violant wondered what might have happened to warrant her immediate attention while listening to her maid. Luckily she already had finished her current task, thus leaving her a little bit of leeway.

“Understood.” the young lady replied “You may return to whatever task you had been entrusted with before.”

The silky bowed again to signal that she had understood and then she left. Her mistress too set off for where her presence was needed.

The entrance hall was a large open room with a Gothic rib vault as ceiling. It was located exactly opposite the castle gate and could be reached after crossing the castle courtyard. Violant was the last member of the Avallach family turning up there. Her uncle Orderic and the two brothers Parcie and Mortimer were already present and greeted her with a nod as she joined them.

Shortly afterwards a carriage and four drove through the open gates on the courtyard covered with snow and made a circle before stopping with the carriage door exactly in line with the castle doors. The coachman jumped from the box and opened the coach door. This allowed a maid to get off who then took the coachman’s place to offer whoever was still inside her hand to facilitate exiting.

A foot wearing an expensive but ugly leather crakow stepped out of the carriage, soon followed by a body so lavishly cloaked in a fur coat that the person within could hardly be seen, especially as the head was covered with a fur cap too. The only conclusion the clothing allowed was that the unexpected visitor was a woman but looking at the crest on the carriage the visitor’s identity soon became well known. Too well known for the Avallach siblings though, for they all grimaced when witnessing the arrival of their guest.

The visitor, however, didn’t notice this fact – or at least she had skin thick enough to outright ignore it. Assisted by her maid traversed the icy cobblestone courtyard and finally arrived in the entrance hall, spreading her arms wide and exclaiming: “Dearest uncle, dear cousins, your favorite relative Euphemia has arrived to celebrate Midwinter with you!”