Ezmeralda looked across her desk. It was covered in papers. There were letters, decrees, complaints, and more. She picked one up and absentmindedly looked it over. She scoffed at the document, as if it knew she despised it, and then crumpled it up and threw it across the room.

She heard a knock at the door.

"Come in," she replied. Her voice was cool and had the air of high society about it. There was a sort of arrogance that coursed through her very words.

A servant entered and bowed. He spoke in Aerician but had a heavy Ursulan accent. "My Lady, a man is here to see you, he claims to be an agent of yours. Guild matters, he says."

"Let him in," Ezmeralda said. She had been expecting this visitor.

Entering the room was a man dressed much like any farming peasant. He was old, with a white beard, and was dirty. He had a strong tan from standing in the intense sun for a very long time. He tracked mud with his shoes across the floor and the papers that were scattered about all over it. This caused Ezmeralda to wince a little, the carpet would have to be cleaned, she thought.

"Hello Stantan," she said. The woman interlocked her fingers in front of her face and stared across them into the man's eyes. She wanted nothing but to have her business with this man be over as fast as possible.

"Hello, Lady Elefthera. May I say, you look lovely today?" He replied, trying to avoid the gaze of her emerald-colored eyes. He knew that many on the receiving end of those eye’s glare had suffered terrible fates in the past.

"Wonderful, now if you will, what do you have to report - so you and your muddy boots can get out of here?"

He looked down at his boots, surprised that she had mentioned it. "Well, Verum is as you would expect, quite a mess still. The Silver Order is still trying to keep things together after the Paladin's death. His wife, the Lady Fallenstar, has still not returned. Unfortunate really, that the world should lose our goddess of peace at this time. So on the overall, nothing out of the ordinary. However, I wouldn't be here if nothing were happening. Before I left, a small contingent of the knights was leaving the city. The Starchild was with them."

Ezmeralda stood up from her chair, this was not good.

'The Paladin', had been a near-invincible warrior of Light. He had appeared many years ago alongside a beautiful, winged, and woman-like being of light, who he claimed was a star fallen from heaven. In particular, he had claimed she was the star Mira - called Eir in Ursulam. He had declared that he had been a man to whom she had given her blessing. Then he had declared recent acts of the Church of Lumira and the Magi to be evil, and condemned them as against the will of Light. Around him had swarmed the Starlit, and though the Magi and their church at first called him a heretic, they eventually caved to political pressure and force of arms, settled upon not confirming or denying his claims. Thus, the Paladin founded himself an order of knights within Verum, from the followers who had come to him, and had begun a crusade of dealing justice upon wrongdoers of the world. Entire wars had been waged by him and his order against North Sukarram, and there had even been a few small battles on Aerician soil. Between Aruslan and Aethera, Verum had become a third party that balanced the power.

He and his goddess companion had married, and then ruled as Lord and Lady of the Silver Order from then on. Undying and unaging, kind and merciful in their rule, just in their laws, and divine in their teachings. Some had said that a new era was dawning in all Caelerra.

That was up until a few years ago, when he failed to live up to rumors about his immortality and died. Ezmeralda had even had a hand in it, indirectly. It had been necessary if her plans for the future were going to be moved forward. The Magi had then demanded that the weakened Silver Knights hand over their matriarch, the Lady Fallenstar, to them. They claimed that they could accommodate a star much better within their great monastery in Aethera, and shelter her from the world within their Empyrean Vault. This was where the first star, who had spoken prophecy and blessing to Aericia, was said to still dwell in private. It was from this star that the Magi claimed to have the gift of divine prophecy after all. The truth was quite different though, Ezmeralda knew that much. The Magi had wanted her gone, imprisoned, and away. Not wanting war, she had ceded to their claims, and the silver-haired and silver winged woman had disappeared into the massive complex. She had not been seen since.

There was just one problem that now held back the total dissolving of the Order of Silver. That was the son of the Paladin and his wife. When he had first been born there had been confusion among all the theologians of Aericia. They wondered what it meant, what strange powers he would have, or if this birth put into question the divinity of the Paladin and his wife. Whatever the case, after some years the talk died down. The child had been mostly normal. He did not seem to possess any divine powers, and other than being a skilled knight at his father's side, he became someone of no consequence in the world. He had once caused a stir in Aethera, challenging some high ranking Magi to a duel, but besides that had done little else of importance.

"So what if he has left the city? Has the boy become bored with trying to keep his knights together? I heard their numbers had dropped drastically in recent days."

Stantan shook his head. "Well, I looked into it. It was being kept pretty secret and I was nearly discovered, but I found out what their mission was."

"And?"

"They were headed to Ursulam, they were going to be hunting something that has been spotted up there terrorizing villagers. Some say a dragon."

Ezmeralda's eyes widened, she grabbed the desk beneath her to steady herself a moment. Azara, Azara was going to be in danger- she stopped her train of thought, realizing it was ridiculous. A dragon had been spotted, and the knights were hunting a dragon that had been terrorizing villages. They weren't out for her daughter. This wasn't revenged for his father's death. This was just what the Silver Knights had always done.

The mention of a dragon did peak Ezmeralda's interest though. She knew that few dragons still lived in the north and had even warned Azara about encountering them, but this probably wasn’t a danger to Azara. Her daughter was more than well equipped to defend herself.

"And what of these reports of a dragon, can you substantiate them?"

Again he shook his head. "No my lady, all my sources tell me they were just rumors, nothing more."

Ezmeralda nodded. It would have been strange for an expedition to be launched over something that was only a rumor, much less an expedition by the Silver Knights into Ursulan territory. They would have a hard time of it in those lands. Thus, she would have to assume that Konrad had some information that Stantan did not. That meant she would have to take the reports of a dragon terrorizing villages in the north as credible.

"Alright, thank you, anything more to report?" she asked.

"No."

"Then you may leave. Thank you. Tell Arand at the Guild that you are to have more pay from my coffers, however, the first part of that will be deducted to buy me new carpets, which you've ruined with your dirty boots. You've made it filthy in here."

He looked about at the cluttered room in confusion. Papers lay everywhere, half attend food in various plates was also laying about.

"Well, uh, thank you, my lady. The Guild is happy to serve," he replied, and then carefully walked out.

The Guild. It was such a silly name in Ezmeralda's mind, even though she had created it. Her spies were all over Aericia, keeping track of her enemies and friends. Due to Ezmeralda and other members of the Ignis Evigan holding such high positions in various guilds throughout Aericia, she had decided to name her spy organization simply "The Guild". All of them were loyal to herself and the city and province of Aruslan rather than Aericia as a whole.

She walked over to a window in her office and looked out over her city. It had grown substantially in her twenty years of rule. Her reflection in the glass reminded her that it had indeed been twenty years since she had first inherited the title. She still looked young at thirty-nine, but the very first signs of age were starting to show. Due to her peculiar magic, she knew that she would live much, much longer than most, but she pondered for a moment how long that would stave off the effects of aging.

Her eyes still held the same vibrance they always had. Emerald irises that could pierce the soul with a hard look or a soft gaze. If there was anything about herself that she liked, it was those. It was why her father had chosen her name in the first place, though her Veyorn mother had called her Dawn.

The sun setting outside the window brought her thoughts back to her daughter in the north. The chances of whether or not Azara would come into contact with the Silver Knight’s expedition or not, or whether the rumors of a dragon were true, did not matter. Azara had to know.

Thus Ezmeralda left her office. Moving throughout the manor, she came to the living side of the great building. There, she went into her bedroom, a somewhat sparse and empty place considering it was the living quarters of a governess and an arch-mage. There was a large bed with draping surrounding it, a desk on one side of the room, and a couple of chairs. Dust was settled onto many things. Many books were strewn open across the floor, thanks to a habit Ezmeralda had kept from childhood - reading books while lying on the floor, rather than at a desk, in a chair, or in bed.

She let her hair down out the bun she kept it in, deciding that after she was done she would be heading to bed. The brownish blonde locks of her hair fell past her shoulders. Almost out of instinct she examined the hair for a moment, looking for gray. She couldn't find any. Thinking of hair and her daughter caused her to smile a little. The hair of her adopted daughters was not like hers at all. Its golden blonde was gorgeous and pure, as if gold had been spun into threads. The thought of the two of them when they were little came into her mind, Azara and Astra's hair bouncing up and down as they ran to her when she returned home or called their names. She wished she had spent even more time with them when they were children, rather than running around the globe while servants attended to them. Now she was doing nothing but sending them off and away on journeys around the world.

Getting back to the task at hand, she took off the necklace around her neck and began focusing on it. The red gem lit up with a bright yellow light. Several runes upon the walls of the room and door, which had been invisible, lit up. These runes were a sort that sensed the presence of magic being used, and were wards against mages and assassins. As she concentrated harder upon the gem, she poured immense magical energies into it, and an orange glow lit up from within it.

A fire spouted out from the gem and into the air, like a blazing smoke ring. It hung in the air a moment, shaping itself into a letter, before vanishing into thin air. This continued to occur, and Ezmeralda began saying the message she wished to send, over and over again to herself, till at last the message was spelled out by the little puffs of fire, and the gem dimmed. The runes on the walls and door faded as well.

Ezmeralda, exhausted and sweating from the exertion this magic caused, walked over to her bed and laid down across it - quite ready to get a night's rest.