"Enough with that racket, Eva!" I hear Eldislav calling from the shed, trying to hide his laughter. While I am aware he is quite busy and does not have time to be hassled, I tend to find myself by his door, singing a song about cheese when I know he is in there trying to work. "You girls will be the death of me."

Despite the anger in his voice, I know Eldis appreciates the gesture. I imagine him in that little, windowless storeroom, wiping sweat from his brow as he works on skinning the deer he and Gisela killed earlier this morning. They drain the blood deep in the woods to make sure not to bring any hungry beasts near the cabin but he says he skins so hastily outside that he finishes up inside at home before Gisela brings the hide to the tanner in the afternoon. A big animal like that will take my perfectionist stepfather a while to finish. Gisela works on gathering firewood in the meantime, while I'll annoy Eldis with my singing and then prepare a list for Gisela to take to Adrimar, the nearest town.

A frown slips on to my face. I lightly pat the door to the shed, rise to my feet, wipe the dirt off my dress and head towards the cabin. It is time to check on Josie again.

Poor Eldislav has had his hands full with three girls for about five years now. When my mother and I ran into Eldis, she had twisted her ankle and he carried her to his cabin. We were fortunate when he found us as we had no place to go. A year later, he married my mother. A year after that, she died during pregnancy. Mother always had difficult pregnancies, and of all the children she bore, I was the only one to survive past infancy. I believe, however, that she died of a broken heart. She lost her baby before it was even born; and this loss, after so much before, was too much for her.

I was part of the family by then, even if I am not much for the hunting life. My younger step sister Gisela is the little warrior in the family, while my older step sister Josephine was more a housekeeper. I ended up learning to cook, and the life we carved in our little cabin in the woods was harmonious.

Last week changed that. Eldis insisted that Josie and I learn to use a bow and arrow; as he was growing older and Gisela, only sixteen, couldn't be the only one who knew how to hunt. Josie and I were decent trappers and could dress rabbits and such, but that was it. While the hunting itself went over as smoothly as one can expect during this time of year, Josie and Gisela began to fight, and Josie fell down a hill and cut her leg up quite fiercely. Eldis carried her home and we bound up her wound with some herbs for the pain, but it never healed. Now, poor Josie is in bed with fever.

As I make my way across the garden, the sound of soft weeping grows louder with each step. I hasten my walk and fling the door open, not bothering to take off my shoes as I fumble down the hallway to the source of the sound. I pause in the doorway and stare at the scene: Josephine lies in her bed, Gisela kneeling beside it, draped over her big sister's chest as she cries. Josie's dull gray face is beaded in sweat. She couldn't have been gone longer than an hour or two.

My vision blurs with tears, shaky steps taken in to the room to fall beside Gisela. There are no words I can say; I loved Josie as though she were my own flesh and blood, but Eldis and I made peace with her condition. We both knew God would take her soon. Gisela hadn't yet forgiven herself. I set my hand on the girl's head, gently petting her dark curls as she sobs against her sister's body.

"Gisela," I whisper. "Please, please do not cry. She has gone to God now. She is singing with the angels."

My little sister sniffles as she manages to sit up and look at me. Her eyes are red and puffy and her face is soaked.

"I should not have pushed her," She pouts, grabbing one of my hands tightly. "And if the King needs her, she will be ripped from Heaven and you know it."

I wince but continue holding Gisela's hand in return. "Just her body, Gisela. Her soul belongs to God and no one else."

She sniffles again before letting me go and leaning back down to cry. I let her mourn, turning and slowly walking out of the room.

Eldislav meets me halfway outside, wiping his hands and pausing as he sees me standing there, hands at my sides and tears in my eyes. He freezes in place as he processes what stands before him. I watch the tears form in the corners of his eyes as well.

"Josephine?" He whispers. I nod, and he visibly winces. "Oh, Josie. Sweet girl, may the angels take her."

"We... We will have to notify the church in Adrimar," I whisper. "I think they will be kind to us, and not have us pay for the embalming before the kingsguard takes her."

Eldis looks sharply at me and narrows his eyes. I know he is not upset with me thinking ahead like this; simply the act itself is mortifying. King Alekso I is a necromancer and diablarist. Those who die young are to be preserved and brought to special crypts where the bodies are further kept in proper condition for his undead army, the Legio Mortis. Josie died of fever, at twenty three. The kingsguard will still examine her but I know she will be found a fit soldier.

"I do not want my Josie a slave to that man," He growls.

"Eldis, you know we do not have a choice in the matter." All bodies are examined by the church before being sent to the kingsguard or buried. One cannot opt out of having a family member sent to the crypts if deemed fit. Eldis does not seem to care. He shakes his head furiously and storms past me. I make no effort to follow him; I know he is going to see his eldest daughter, to mourn her and come to terms with what will happen to her.

***

Gisela and I went to town that afternoon, her usual bubbly self completely gone and replaced by a trembling, crying girl. I had to speak to the clergy, but they all knew who I was and never betrayed us. We had to skip going to market, because I cannot look in anyone's eyes there and my little sister was in no condition to do the talking for us. I am unsure how I was able to get through the rest of the day, knowing my beloved Josephine was gone, and the dynamic in our home would once again change.

After we spoke to sister Anne, a compassionate but matter-of-fact sort, two city guardsmen and Father Pawel accompanied us in to the forests, back to the cabin. There we found that Eldislav had already wrapped Josie's body up in a shroud and set it on the back of the cart we would normally use to bring hides to the tanner or meats to the market.

Father Pawel offered us a few night's stay at the church, and I had expected a staunch 'No' from Eldis, but he readily agreed. I did not question it, nor did Gisela. I would simply have to stay inside the church and try not to be seen by the townsfolk. Adventures in the market with my head wrapped up like an old woman for the last seven years taught me how to hide among crowds, but it was always easier to just stay in the shadows.

I lie in the bed provided for Gisela and I, staring up at the ceiling. It has been two days here while the body is examined and the kingsguard is notified, and she has not stopped crying. She's exhausted; sleeping so soundly, curled up in a ball beside me. I am almost off of the bed to give her more room in such a position. I cannot bring myself to wake her up and ask she move. Perhaps it would be better to sleep on the floor. Even then, though, I know sleep will not come to me as easily as it had for Gisela and Eldis. I manage to doze off a few times but now I know I will be up the rest of the night.

Tiredly, I slide out of bed and glance over to where Eldis sleeps. He has himself completely covered in the blanket and is so still I dare say he is dead as well. Poor man. He lost his first wife, then his second, and now his eldest daughter. I know loss quite well myself, and vow in the morning to do what I can to help him truly grieve. For now, though, I decide I will go and sit beside Josie's coffin and say my goodbyes.

The interior of the church is silent. I walk the halls towards the room where the bodies are kept until they are given back to the families for funeral or taken by the kingsguard. Mother and her unborn child, a boy, were kept in one coffin as he was not big enough to earn one himself when she lost him. She was otherwise in a condition that might have made her suitable as an undead soldier; older than most women for a baby, yes, and that might have contributed to their deaths, but otherwise able to be a soulless corpse holding a sword and shield. The city guard deemed her unfit, though. Had the kingsguard been brought in and they recognized her, it would have lead them straight to me. My poor mother and little brother rest in an unmarked grave in the cemetery.

Approaching the room where Josie lays, I know it will not be the same for her. She will have a very shallow grave and her coffin will not be sealed. There will be a thin slate of a tombstone at the head of her plot with her name on it, and Eldislav will be given a modest compensation for the honor. He will not care, though; it is little in the face of--

Without any room for forethought, I let out a sudden, high pitched scream. Someone is standing over Josie's coffin, the lid cast to the ground, their upper half bent down. Someone is actually trying to get to my step sister's dead body in the middle of the night! Although I have no weapons on me and am no sort of woman capable of putting up a fight, I launch myself at the shadowy figure and struggle with all my might to pull them from the coffin. No one will be touching Josie on my watch.

"Edeva!" A familiar voice calls out. "Edeva, damn it! Stop! Stop screaming, it's me! Eldis! Papa Eldis!" I realize the voice is coming from the form I am practically climbing on to, squirming underneath me to push me off without hurting me. I slide off of him and take a few steps back as he rises up to his full height. He has always been a larger man with a belly from all the ale he drinks, so taking him down would not be an easy feat unless I genuinely surprised him, or he knew it was me and restrained himself.

"Eldis?" I squeak out. "What are you doing to Josie?"

He lowers his head, my gaze dropping from his downtrodden face to the knife in his hand. With widened eyes, I slip past him and look in to the casket to see what he had done. Josie's body is still wrapped up, all but her face and chest. His knife is not a small one. It is a meat cleaver he uses to separate bone; and he has used it to completely sever Josie's head from her neck. At first I do not understand what would possess him to do such a thing, but as I stare numbly at Josie, and then hear the sound of heavy, metal footsteps clinking behind me, the realization sinks in.

"What is going on?" Father Pawel asks. Beside him is a guardsman who must have been on night watch. Pawel looks quite tired and is in a nightgown rather than his priestly robes I am used to seeing on him. The guardsman moves past me and grabs Eldislav, who is frozen in shock and unable to stop him from grabbing the knife and looking in to the coffin.

"You rendered her useless as a soldier." the guardsman says quietly, ominously. "The kingsguard will be here in the morning. They are expecting someone suitable."

"I will not have my Josie a slave to that man," Eldislav hisses, repeating his words from the other day. "She will not be a walking corpse for the diablarist king."

"The act of desecrating an undead soldier is treason," the guardsman restrains Eldis with thin iron cuffs. My eyes go wide as I reach for him, but Father Pawel quickly holds me back. There are several more guardsmen entering the room who surround us.

"Wait! He is just upset, he did not understand what he was doing! That is his daughter!"

"I am sorry, miss, but this is the law. You both must come with us."

"She has nothing to do with this," Eldis says quietly. "I acted on my own. Please let her go, she will have to care for my youngest daughter."

The guardsman pauses, lost in thought, until another chimes in "Then she must come with us also. Father, go get the other daughter."

They haul Eldis away as one of the guardsmen comes to my side and gently takes me by the arm. I do not fight him, as he seems intent to lead me without hurting me. I can only hope the rude awakening poor Gisela is about to receive will be forgiven.

We are led outside and brought to the jail house, none of us struggling, poor Gisela grumbling about how tired she is. The guardsmen pay her no mind, and we sit in jail all night while we await the kingsguard in the morning. None of us get a wink of sleep.

That morning, I practice my mannerisms. I keep my head low, eyes downcast, and speak as softly as possible. Most people disregard my actions, believing me to be shy and meek like a Godly woman, and while I am naturally not as outspoken as Gisela and Josie, this is also to hide my face. My eyes are a very rare color, and I do not know if the crown is still after me. Best to be safe.

Adrimar's jails are not particularly large, and we do not get our own rooms. Eldis, Gisela and I all remain locked up together but we are separated one by one as we are brought in for questioning. Eldis is first. By now, Gisela is no longer grumpy but frightened, and I hug her to myself until I am pulled away. She whimpers, and I assure her it will be all right. I might be named an accomplice, but Gisela was in bed the whole time.

I am lead by the city guard out of my cell, past the main entry room of the jail, and up another flight of stairs. They sit me down in a pleasant looking room while I wait, still keeping my head low and fiddling with my nightgown. In their haste to put us in jail I was never given so much as an overdress to put on, and while it is quite unseemly for me to be seen this way, I expect the kingsguard of all people to be decent, even knowing who their king is.

In stroll two very tall knights, wearing black armor with red lined capes. Despite the dark metal, their armor shines in the light cast from the windows behind me. One sits down in front of me while the other stands beside him, and they regard me calmly as though this is not a real issue to them. As members of an army during peacetime, I am sure they would prefer something more interesting than harassing lowly commoners.

"Name?" The one standing asks.

"Ellie Hunter, Sers." I reply quietly, giving them the name I adopted when I became a member of Eldis' family. He and my step sisters still called me Edeva, but in town I was known as Ellie.

"Ellie, your father committed a very serious crime last evening," The second one says. "It is, however, quite common. A lot of men and women tend to desecrate a body before it is brought in to the Legio Mortis; the idea of losing them to such an "ungodly" act too much to bear."

I immediately tense up as I hear that man. It has been years, and I was a child last I heard it, but I recognize that voice.

"Do you find it ungodly?" Knight one says, peering at me.

"It is the king's decree and it is the law."

"That is not what I asked, girl. I am asking if you find it ungodly."

"I do not, Ser. God does not care what happens to a body after it has separated from the soul. What matters is what you did with your life while inside of it."

"Yet your step father disagrees to the point where he would decapitate a corpse rather than allow it in the Legios. You saw him in the act yet you did not stop him."

"I saw him and tried to stop him, but by then, the deed was done. Please, Sers, you must understand how distraught he was. He has lost much in his life and Josie was his eldest daughter. He is a good man and provides for the town and the church. He is not a traitor to the crown, I assure you."

"A law has been broken, Ellie." The standing knight steps forward and takes hold of my chin, tilting it up. "If we let every distraught father off for breaking a law, order would never be preserved. Would you...be..."

I was unable to stop myself from looking directly at him as he turns my gaze. I now stare wide-eyed at the knight; the member of the kingsguard, and former member of Henry I's honor guard. I recognize him when I search his face. He is older now with a few more wrinkles on his face, but alive, unlike the man he was sworn to protect. He is one of the men who ran and fell to their knees when Alekso and his walking dead stormed the castle. I know who he is.

And he knows who I am.

His thumb reaches up and brushes along my cheek, under my eye where I have one freckle on my whole face. Even if my eyes were not a giveaway to my real identity, that freckle is, for someone who'd known me since I was a babe.

"It can't be..." He whispers.