"Rena,"

His voice cut through my focus . I was curled up on the couch, my head buried in my book of theory.

Like always, I hadn't heard heard him come in, his movements as silent as his shadows.

"Take your shoes off the couch," he said, glancing at my muddied boots then back at me. Silently I obeyed, rubbing off the dust I had left.

"Come," he ordered, "Just because you're out of the palace doesn't mean you can skip training." I groaned softly, causing the ghost of a smirk to play over his delicate features.

I followed him to a meadow just outside the camp, the grass was tall, reaching up to my hips, I let my hands glide over the top of the spiky grass as we walked.

When he seemed happy with where we were he looked around, "You," he called over to a group of otkazat'sya first army soldiers that were on patrol.

The poor men looked frightened out of their minds, probably wondering if they had broken some sort of military protocol. They looked young with a military style haircuts, the stubble of a beard plagued a few of their jaws.

I raised a questioning brow at my father who just looked back to the men as they approached.

"Sir?" One of them asked, a slight waver of fear in his voice.

"Attack her," the Darkling ordered, "And don't hold back," I almost scoffed.

"But, she's just a kid, sir," he said in disbelief.

"She, is Grisha, are you defying a direct order soldier?" The Darkling pressed.

The soldier flattered, "Uh no sir, I mean yes, I mean-" he huffed taking his rifle of of his back, handing it to one of his friends.

"No," the Darkling sighed, obviously irritated, "All three of you."

"All three?!" I exclaimed.

"Three, and you can use some of your tricks," he addressed me. My mouth quirked up into a light smirk. "Try not to hurt them too much," he added, stalking back to let the men circle me.

Their lack of hand to hand combat training was made up for by their sheer strength.

Their hesitation was clear as one of them punched me, but calling it a punch was an overstatement, it felt as if someone had weakly thrown a stuffed bear at me.

"You can hit me harder than that, you know," I commented before kicking him in the chest, sending him stumbling backwards, winded.

I was yet to use my powers around six minutes in and they already had bruises and where trying to catch their breath.

A small crowd of people who were passing gathered and stopped to watch.

One of the men managed to hit me in the back of my knee, causing me to stumble to the ground, they were closing in on me from all sides, fast. I flicked my hands, stopping the light from bouncing off of me, invisible.

I rolled out of the way as they looked in confusion at the spot where I had just been, my father smirked slightly, amused by their confusion.

I whistled letting the light bounce back onto me, they started forward and I brought my hands together, letting shadows envelope us.

I heard one of them whimper as the darkness rolled over his tall build, I ran through them, letting the shadows slowly fall away as I knocked them to the ground one by one.

"That's enough," the Darklings voice rang through the meadow towards us in an authoritative manner as I knocked the last one to the ground, he didn't need to raise his voice to be heard, "Thank you, you're dismissed," he said to the soldiers that were still in shock on the ground.

He glared at the crowd that had gathered, sending them all scurrying away.

"I'm impressed," he told me as the soldiers slowly got to their feet, "It's no easy task to take on three men at once, even if they are just otkazat'sya."

"You underestimate me," I replied, helping up one of the men that was yet to stand. I handed him to one of his friends and the three of them limped away.

"Or mabey I just wanted to see some first army members put in their place."

I rolled my eyes as I made my way back to him.

We started back to the tent, "If everything goes smoothly we'll be leaving for the little palace tomorrow evening," he told me.

I looked up at him, "All those days on the road only to stay for a day."

"Welcome to military life," he said mockingly, "Don't think I've forgotten my promise, I'll take you to the village in the morning."

I nodded, unsure if I was able to confront my demons yet.

"Why'd you lie?" I asked him out of the blue.

"Excuse me?" He looked genuinely shocked.

"You lied, about 'an inferni coming down with a cold' I know Grisha don't get sick."

He pondered this, seemingly he had forgotten he told me that. Eventually he just shrugged, "I figured if I had asked you outright you would have refused, figured you'd have been a burden, but that wasn't the case. If I had said we had an extra place, it would have been an easier to say yes."

I looked at him, trying to figure him out, "How do you do that?"

"Do what?"

"Read me like an open book."

He chuckled softly, "If anything your the one person I can't read like an open book, if I did it would be like reading something that was written in a language that I didn't know."

"Then how do you know me so well, how you always know what I'm thinking."

"Similarities."

"Similarities? To who? You?"

"Yes to me, but also to your mother, you may not have known her, but you are more like her than you realise."

I took this as an opportunity, "Please," I begged, "Just tell me something about her, just one thing."

He stopped and sighed, "She was... a sun summoner."

"Wow," I narrowed my eyes and summoned a small ball of light in my hand, "I never would have guessed."

He rolled his eyes at my sarcastic comment and continued walking, "What am I supposed to tell you, she was a deserter, a traitor and I loved her."

"How about.... her name," I pressed, catching up to his long strides.

"No." He said sternly, "The last thing I need is for you to try and go looking for her."

"Okay... how about her favourite flower or-"

"Irises," he cut across me, "Irises, blue ones not the white," he smiled to himself, "That's enough, I don't want to hear anymore about this," he ordered as he snapped back to reality.

I sighed as we entered the tent, "Well we both know that I'll never let this topic rest. Goodnight father," I turned my back to him and went over to where my cot was, pulling the thin curtain across for privacy.

I noted down the small bit of information I had gathered onto a scrap piece of paper, so that in the unlikely event that I did forget it, I could remind myself again.

hey guys, extra update today because not only did I promise one of you that I would upload an extra chapter but also as I'm currently writing this we just hit 10K reads!!

Thank you so much, I never imagined that an idea I had in class would turn into this, so again, thank you so much.

All your comments and votes mean the world to me, so until next time.