The sound of tableware clinking together echoed across the dining room as the young couple continued to eat their late evening dinner. With well-practiced and precise motions, Iskra savored the taste of the piece of venison that she had just taken a bite from. Various assortment of greens lay accompanied the large slab of meat, haphazardly strewn across her plate by the gorgeous elven prince that sat across from her with a pleading, yet wholeheartedly embarrassed expression upon his face.

Iskra's patience with her husband was starting to crack as she slipped her feet from the worn-out boots that served as her everyday footwear. She gave the elven prince a playful smile as her exposed toes brushed along the length of his legs. Despite how eager he was at times, the raven-haired girl was sure that her husband would be far too embarrassed to continue the conversation that he desperately wished to delve further into.

Sometimes her aggressive towards catching her husband's eyes were of some benefit to her own selfish desires.

'Just a few moments ago, he had the appearance of someone who had just lost their most cherished family member.' Iskra's lips curled into a menacing smile as she took in the elven teenagers' chaotic display of emotions. 'But now all that he can think about is how to tell me to strip.'

Her toes continued to play with her husband's legs as she took another bite of the venison. Iskra closed her eyes as the teenager's expression changed from that of destitution to being lost in the desires of lust. She couldn't help but savor the vast array of emotions that were being displayed before her.

The sensation of having her husband's hands wrap themselves around her foot forced the young girl to open her eyes.

She watched as the gorgeous elven prince placed his fork beside the nearly finished plate of food, readying himself as he steeled his nerves.

"You're still going," Iskra stated as she cut off her husband before he even had the chance to open his mouth. She tapped her foot against her husband's leg as she silently asked for him to let go of her feet. He kept ahold of her playful appendage as she continued to say what she needed to say. "Nothing you do or say will change that. So your incessant pleading isn't going to help you as well as you think it should."

Aurelius opened and closed his mouth as he thought of ways to help change his wife's mind. He was desperate to not go on the journey south. Not because he was afraid to, but because he wanted to stay at her side more than anything.

"But why me?" Finally, after a moment of silence, Aurelius spoke as a look of self-pity grew upon his gorgeous features.

He left the rest of what he wanted to say unspoken, fearing that if he were to say anything else, then his wife would only become further upset.

Iskra couldn't quite understand why, but seeing the turmoil upon her husband's face as he struggled to come to terms with the self-doubt and various other heavy emotions that came with such misery had always pushed the right buttons for her. She had first noticed this strange sensation that was now rising from within when the young prince had returned from his failed troll hunt. Alone and in desperate need of comforting. Something that she had been eager to partake in and oblige in full.

She had always wondered how she would next be able to feel that invigorating rush once again, but she never quite expected it to be at a time such as now.

'Shall I morph him into my Questing Knight?' Iskra wondered lustfully to herself as she envisioned the elven prince accomplishing the various tasks that had been given onto him by his most cherished person. 'A reward before he goes and then a reward upon his return.'

"It's because you're the only one that I trust." Iskra stared into her husband's eyes as she lifted the cup of Orlash's Tea as seductively as she could manage. Before taking a sip of the reportedly famous elven tea, she let out an amused giggle as she watched her husband turn away in muted embarrassment.

It only took a split second for the young girl to regret taking her first sip.

"Disgusting." Iskra gagged as she spat back out the horrible tasting liquid. A burning sensation that tasted like the mix of a rotting corpse and a sour piece of fruit coursed through her mouth as she slammed the cup down onto the table, letting its contents splash across her fingers as she wanted nothing to do with what was held within.

"You don't like it?" Aurelius asked as he took hold of his own batch of tea and downed it in the blink of an eye. A satisfied breath of air escaped from his lips as he sat the now empty cup back onto the table below. "I've always loved having this tea whenever I'm alone with my mother."

"She loves drinking this stuff," The prince began to explain as he reached across the table to refill his cup. "Her mother raised her on this stuff, and so did her mother before that. So on and so forth."

Aurelius gave a pleasant smile as he reminisced about all of the moments that he had with his blood-mother whenever the two of them were along together.

Iskra looked on in horror as she watched the elven teenager take another deep swig of the heinous tasting tea.

"I'm sure that my mom would love to spend time with our kids and drink this tea together with them."

"I see," Iskra brought a hand over her mouth to hide her disgust towards the potential future. Nothing about what her husband had just said was at all pleasing to the expectant mother.

'I can't just destroy every ounce of this stuff that we get, can I?' Iskra asked herself as she thought of a way to prevent such a future.

Yet, when no ideas came to light, the young girl decided that it was best to return to the original topic that they were discussing only a few moments before.

"About your trip to Ranislava," Iskra started as she cleared her throat, bringing her husband's attention back to the present. "You are aware that you'll be helping my friend and my friend alone, right?"

Aurelius turned to look towards his wife as he nodded his head.

"Why just her and not the rest of her family?" He asked as anyone would when presented with such a strange task as the one that his wife had given him.

It was a question that he had asked before, but one that he had never gotten a concrete answer from his wife. She had done her best in giving non-answers that had left him wholeheartedly dissatisfied with the task that had thrust itself upon his person.

"Because," Iskra started as she moved to take another bite of venison. "Her father was a disgusting slob of a greasy pig. The man was barely able to stop himself from gorging upon the pathetic image that he had built up for himself."

"It was always funny seeing him grovel towards his betters whenever he was desperate enough to push back the inevitable future that awaited his family." Iskra stopped herself from giggling at the various images that popped up as she continued to think of such a desperate man.

Aurelius merely grunted out a response as he awkwardly looked at his surroundings, choosing to ignore the strange nuances of his wife.

"Anna is a desperate matter, however." Iskra continued as the topic finally returned to her friend. "She's always been a timid girl who could barely stand up for herself. I'm frightened at the thought that her father might try and marry her off to a man that would throw her out as soon as he's bored with her rotting corpse."

"Do you think that will happen?" Aurelius asked, curious as to why his wife had chosen to express her fears in such a manner.

"It's happened once before," Iskra began as she brought a fork to her lips, taking a bite of the various greens that populated the various portions of her meal. "That I'm aware of, to be fair. However, I've heard rumors that it happens fairly often. Though that's only when peasant women are involved and not a noble-born sow. A price that many such whores are willing to pay when offered the chance at a better life."

"But the victims eventually get the justice they deserve, right?" Shocked by what the raven-haired girl had said, awe grew upon Aurelius' face as the topic of casual murder began to take shape.

"Only when the nobles in question are too stupid to cover up the evidence of their misdeeds in a proper manner. Similar to how I was when I attempted to kill that hideous girl." Iskra's expression grew dark as she thought back to that fateful moment. Unable to comprehend how thoughtless her plan of action was when she had first confronted the now wretched monstrosity.

"But none of that matters now," Iskra's face brightened as her mind returned to the present, mesmerized by the excessive amount of fortune that had been granted upon her person. "After all, the nobility of this world are best left to do as they please. The divinity gifted blood that flows through our veins is evidence that we can do no wrong."

Unsure of how he should respond to his wife's viewpoint on what it means to be nobility and how the upper class should lead the less fortunate. Aurelius chose to remain quiet as he drunk from his third serving of Orlash's Tea.

He downed it as quickly as he had the first two.

The two remained in silence as Iskra watched her husband gently place his cup in front of him, looking down at his hands with remorse upon his beautiful form as he thought on the miserable lives that the misfortunate were destined to experience.

Ever since the two of them started to spend their time together, Iskra had slowly learned that her husband had an entirely different viewpoint regarding how the nobility should treat the slaves that had been born into their unfortunate social status.

She had thought of it as a cute mindset, but one that she was wholeheartedly against.

A sinister smile appeared over her lips as a predatory glimmer of light lit up her emerald-green eyes.

"My Knight," Iskra's voice purred with excitement as her eyes roamed over the growing muscle mass that made up her husband's handsome form. For a moment, there was a passing thought towards the relatively untouched meal that had been left before the gorgeous being before her, but her husband's faults could easily be corrected if she were to lead him towards the right direction that she wished for him to forge a path towards. "Why don't you eat up and finish your meal. We've got a long, exhausting night ahead of us."