Cara was awake when her new teacher entered the room, shadows seemed to merge until the tall man stood in the middle of the room.

"Have you ever heard of knocking? Or doors for that matter?" she was sitting at the window looking outside where Erik just left the Inn he had stayed the night in. He was bruised, wearing a tattered shirt and looking for his friends.

Alaric was nowhere to be seen and the frantic search of her friend told her he would be leaving soon as well.

Cara's master had told her not to go see him, it would make things only harder, but seeing him looking for her and Al made her heart ache. A hand touched her shoulder and she managed to tear her eyes away from him.

"We are leaving tonight, get yourself something to eat. We will have to prepare for a long journey." he winked at her, Cara felt like punching him in the face. His cheerfulness seemed like an insult.

"And luckily for you we will need to pick you a new wardrobe collection to accompany us to Goldhill, after all you are the daughter of the countries finest tailor." Another wink and Cara pulled her scissors out of the scabbard fitted to her leg. A slight opening in the cloth made it easy to quickly grab without being to obvious.

With a delighted shriek Bartholomew vanished into thin air, shadows seemed to east him up as he disappeared before her eyes within seconds. She focused on the sound surrounding her, hearing light footsteps rushing to the door.

So the man was not vanishing but rather becoming invisible, good thing to know he was incapable of teleportation.

A tailor, she hoped this role would not involve weaving or the entire adventure had backfired in the worst of ways.

Silence settled back in her room after she closed the door, with the lack of noise or a distracting master the feeling of being left alone returned as she looked one more time through the window. Outside Erik was gone, the masses walking through the streets like he had never been there. She slapped herself, 'now get dressed and become useful' she told herself.

A couple of minutes later she was fully dressed for whatever her new master required her to do, three scissors were hidden in various pockets of her skirt and sleeves, her hair was tied to a knot and would not be easy to grab.

In full battle gear, which was her grey skirt and a padded vest she had sewn herself, she exited and walked down the stairs to find Bartholomew sitting at a table eating breakfast.

As Cara entered the room he looked at her and nearly choked on a piece of ham, after he had managed to rid his throat of the attacker he looked at her again with watery eyes.

"What in the dragons names are you wearing?" His tone stung a bit and she looked down on her self the skirt had very few stains, only a handful was blood from brawls with the other recruits.

"What? It's nearly clean, isn't it? I made the vest myself." she felt blood creeping into her cheeks.

"I can see that! So will any guard once he looks at you. We are not soldiers dear, we are tailors looking to get hired... not being chased from the royal court due to disturbance of the eye." he sighed, "Okay, I guess we will need to get you better clothes first. There is no point in training you if you don't look the part."

He took another bite off a delicious looking piece of bread spiked with olives and spices.

"Now sit down and eat before we all drown due to your drooling..." the last words had Cara reach for the corners of her mouth, but there was no drool, she glared at him before pulling a chair and slumping into it.

Bartholomew clearly wanted to say something about her behaviour but though better of it when he saw her expression. Cara scanned the table in front of her, the food could not have been from this tavern, the quality was too high. Meat in various shapes and forms, and bread smelling of spices she had never heard, seen or smelled.

Walking away now would only brand her as childish and stubborn, so she did the mature thing and started stuffing as much food into her mouth as was possible without choking on it.

Her adult and charming behaviour must have surprised Bartholomew since he just sat across from her watching Cara with wide eyes.

The slaughter of cheese, ham and bread took for half an hour before she felt a calming pull in her gut, she had overeaten, for the first time in a month.

When she settled back and blissfully patted her stomach Bartholomew looked like her wanted to say something but wasn't sure how to phrase it. She enjoyed her new master being at a loss for words for once.

"Dear, I don't mean to sound mean, but were you raised in a barn?" His worry sounded absolutely honest and the shock on his face showed a deep disturbance in the man.

"Only half my life why? Does it show?" Cara managed to stay composed for a moment in which Bartholomew's eyes widened even more before she burst into laughter.

He joined in after a short while and for one moment she was just happy, forgetting the things ahead that lie ahead and all the things she left behind.

They laughed until the barmaid asked them if everything was okay and when they left the inn they were staying in, Cara felt reborn.

No matter what was lying ahead, she would take it on, one step at a time.