The night. For most, a time to sleep, but for me, it was the time to begin my day. Yawning loudly, I rolled on my bed, strangely happy to have escaped the tense situation with Aska. Baking cookies was fine and all, but there was always the thought he could change his mind in the back of my head. Surprisingly, he didn´t which was quite unexpected. I mean, I would have punished myself if I were in his position, meaning, we were either not as similar as I assumed, or he simply had information I didn´t. There must have been a reason for letting me off the hook, but I seriously couldn’t think of any.

Still, groggy, but feeling way better than previously, I rolled off the bed and fell down onto the floor.

“Whoohooo! Time to start the night!” I shouted out, incredibly motivated to do something. I hadn´t decided on what exactly yet, but I was certainly a lot more energetic than usual. Thus, I stood up, flung my old clothes away from me and chose to wear something special that day. A white dress … with black stripes at the bottom. Thrilled, I stormed out of the room and dashed into the sleeping room right next to mine.

“Mum! Look at this!” I said loudly, trying to convince her that I should be allowed to wear this on any given day.

“Uhh …” What I didn´t expect though was a sleepy Mary who looked at me with barely opened eyes. Somehow, all this energy I was radiating didn´t hit her yet.

“Can I wear this more often?” I asked, very hopeful about her answer.

“No … ” Flabbergasted, I stared at her, only to realize she closed her eyes again as if this was some kind of bad dream she could escape. A bit bummed out, I walked closer to her and grabbed ger blanket. She already tensed up before I pulled on it, but couldn’t quite keep a hold of it with my superior strength.

“Mum?” I asked once more, hoping she would finally wake up fully.

“Why … why … you hated this a few hours ago … so why?” She muttered, grabbing into the air as I held the blanket further and further away from her.

“Hmm …” Going on her nerves was really interesting in its own way while being the one nerved was seriously damaging for my health.

“Statistically speaking, there is a higher chance for me to wake you up.” If I weighted the pros and cons of going on her nerves, the decision I had to take was obvious.

“… have mercy.” She said while turning around and pressing her face into the pillow.

“Okay?” Since when did I show mercy to anyone?

“Go talk to Hannah or so.” She grumbled into the white fluffy pillow.

“Hannah? Why should I?” I seriously couldn’t understand her demand at all as I saw no reason whatsoever in talking to Hannah at that time.

“You promised to train her.” I opened my eyes wide and furrowed my brows. Slowly, I started to realize that I indeed said something along these lines.

“Oh …” Looking around, I sadly couldn’t find the contract I signed with my own blood and sighed unhappily. There was just a bit too much for me to do in my opinion. “Where is she?” I asked out of curiosity, hoping to use my clear mind to convince Hannah that protecting me was a bad decision.

“In the garden, I guess.” A bit bummed out by the necessity to search for Hannah now, I sighed and approached the window.

“Okay, see you later.” I said after I opened it and jumped onto the windowsill. Slowly, Mary was beginning to realize what I had planned and turned towards me with still drowsy eyes.

“Later … later? What do you mean by that … hey, at least close the window behind you!” Chuckling, I jumped out after confirming no guard was around and landed safely on the stones below.

“Perfect landing.” I gave myself a pat on the shoulder and began to stroll through the luxurious garden. Lush flowers painted a beautiful szenery, despite the season. Wind blew through the flower beds, carrying pedals and leaves with them. Despite being cleaned daily, there were still quite a few sticks and leaves on the walkways. Winter was approaching faster than expected, at least for me.

It took me a few minutes to find Hannah, mostly because the wind carried all the noises she made away from me. She trained on a circular patch of grass, surrounded by four magical lamps. I didn´t approach her as soon as I spotted her, but rather observed her under the cover of the night. She swung her dagger downwards repeatedly, probably trying to imitate a knight she had seen somewhere. Her stance was horrible and it was obvious she was already at her limit, yet still pushed onwards.

Stealthily, I sneaked behind her through the flower beds and continued to observe her for several minutes. She was repeating the same downwards move over and over again, sometimes even seemingly a bit angry.

“You will never hit anyone like this.” I commented drily. She twirled around like a startled cat, surprised and scared by the fact that anyone was this close to her. Only after she noticed me standing on the boder of the illuminated area, did she calm down a bit.

“Could you not scare me?” Hannah said and hurried to point the dagger somewhere else.

“I´m already giving my best at that.” I said and sat down near the lamp, always keeping a eye on her. “What are you trying to achieve?” I asked swiftly afterwards, not entirely sure why she was training to protect me. On the first glance, her reasoning seemed simple as I could provide her with shelter, but she would be forever dependent on the goodwill of me and Mary. She must have known that and if not, I was sure Mary would have told her something similar.

“Do you know how it is to live in the slums?” She asked bitterly, balling her hands into fists.

“No not at all.” In truth, I could guess pretty accurately what she lived through, going by Tom´s reports about her alone. But I also wanted her to talk and open up to me, which was much more important that showing her how brilliant I was.

“I always asked myself if I was going to survive the day. Hunger was my only friend I ever had … my neighbours liked to terrorize me because of race. They liked to hurt me so much that I couldn’t sleep during the night. And when I resisted? It only got worse. Being a slave would have been a better fate, but even they didn´t want me.” She said, tears slowly crawling down her face.

“How come?” I asked, remembering the few elves I had seen in the slave market.

“My grandma was a human … I may not look like it, but there is a bit of human blood running in my veins. And it is apparently enough for everyone to see me as a traitor to their race, both humans and elves.” Her revalation was quite new for me and although she made it out to be common knowledge about her, Tom didn´t say anything about it.

“That´s …” I said, thinking rapidly about the implications.

“Problematic for you? Will you try to throw me away now?” She was kind of right. If nobody liked my elf, then my plan was kind of hard to pull off. Well, there shouldn’t be too much of a difference between a hated elf and a hated ¾ elf.

“That´s nothing we won´t be able to manage. In fact, your heritage is maybe even better this way … and no, I don’t plan on discarding you now. As long as you don’t give me any reason, I never had planned such a thing in the first place.” I said and tilted my head, curious about her reaction.

“Even when I turn out to be useless?” She said, showing once more that she was insecure about herself.

“It would be my failure for not using you correctly then.” I answered and smiled gently. “… or that I didn´t train you enough.” I added and stood up.

“What am I doing wrong? Whatever I try, it doesn’t feel right swinging this dagger.” Hannah blurted our, hoping to get some pointers.

“It´s a dagger. Holding it in two hands like a brute would carry his broadsword is wrong in the first place.” I presented her the palm of my hand and waited for her to hand me her weapon. She did so, albeit heasitatingly. Very slowly, she grabbed the blade with two fingers and lifted it over to me, until the handle touched my skin.

Instantly, my skin started to sizzle and I janked my hand away as I felt my skin on fire. I hissed threateningly, but one look into Hannah´s eyes revealed she was as surprised as I was. Blisters started to form wherever the dagger touched my skin and around it, my skin turned incredibly reddish as well.

The pain recceeded after several seconds already and slowly, my skin started to heal as well while I stared at the dull dagger. Runes were inscribed in the handle, similarly to the sword in the possession of the White´s family. Apparently, I found another magical toy outside the trash tier.

“May the darkness be banished from this world …” I said quietly as I rubbed my already healed palm. Once again, I could read these runes perfectly fine, even though I didn´t know where I learnt that. “where did you get this dagger from?”

“it is … are you alright?” She asked, still in shock about what happened. I rolled my eyes and stared into her eyes, waiting for her to answer my question. “… it is a family heirloom. My mum left it with me …”

“I´m sorry to hear that … what happened to her?” I asked because she looked extremely saddened. I … didn´t expect such a strong reaction though.

“They were … my mum and dad were … charged with theft and they were banished …” She had tears in her eyes as she let the dagger fall down, turned around and ran away from me into the darkness.