Titania woke up that morning with a strange feeling and uncommonly awake; she normally hated standing up in the mornings. She rose up and looked outside, there was not a smidge of sunlight yet and a quick glance at the clock told her it was the ungodly time of four o'clock in the morning. 

Why the heavens did I wake up at four in the morning. 

She fell back into her bed, her eyes wide open, and she frowned. She was not even the slightest bit tired. "Lights on." She muttered and nothing happened. why again was everyone in their household equipped with paranoia? She crawled a bit sideways and turned on the lights manually. A nice dim light that allowed her to see everything but did not hurt her eyes filled the room. She looked around and then saw a small figure curled up on her couch sleeping peacefully. 

"Urgh.'' She muttered and felt like crap not wanting to face reality. Dex didn't get a room for himself yet and with her rise the others had probably forgotten him, or thought he was too unimportant to care for now that he couldn't harm them in any way. 

Rolling out of her covers she tiptoed over the cold floor towards Dex, taking a blanket with her, and carefully covered him underneath it before sneaking out of the room and closing the door behind her. Out in the hallway she shivered a moment from the chilling air before she made her way down the stairs. Wandering into the Kitchen to get herself something hot to drink, it was so early that not even their kitchen staff was awake. Everything lay completely unmoving and silent, but at least the kitchen was always warmer than the rest of the house. 

She took out a cup and filled it with milk before hunting for some honey or chocolate to add. Finding some honey, she added it to the milk before putting the whole thing in the microwave. Settling down on the counter with her feet dangling above the floor, she waited for her beverage to heat.

"Can I get one too?'' a voice asked behind her and she flinched, turning around startled she saw Cedric standing unmoving. Her brother was clad in a dark robe that was covered in small embroidery, black on black, almost invisible. Each symbol she knew to be carefully crafted and charmed. His face was lit by a bright smile, his hair and his hands swayed freely and played with the Shadows that seemed to have come alive around him. 

"Sure, you can have that one, I’ll make myself another one." She said as the microwave made a sound. She took out the cup, putting a bit of extra honey into it before handing it over to Cedric. His gloved hands took the cup thankfully before he blew on it and sipped a bit while she made herself another cup. 

"Someone is hunting us." he suddenly said, "And they are good." He seemed to be distant for a moment, "Very good."

Titania blinked and looked at him; none of her siblings ever breached what work they were doing for the family to her. Never, not even Cedric despite him being younger then her. Their mother would have loved to pamper and protect him when he was still a little similar to her but it was hard to keep secrets from someone who could walk in and listen from the shadows. As a result, he grew up knowing their darkside and matured far faster then her carrying inside of himself that which had made the others a bit mad. 

He settled down on the counter and she noticed now that he had a massive injury running down his leg that was kept together by his shadows, and faintly glowing green. Chry’s healing potion at full work slowly knit it together, but far slower then usual for an injury like this. 

"I see, you escaped them alive. That is all that counts for me." She walked to him and ruffled his hair feeling his shadows surrounding her hand. Not afraid of them she stroked them with a faint smile, she even suspected some of those shadows had lives of their own sometimes. One of them handed her the second cup from the microwave fully prepared, stirring it carefully so as to not spill something. "Thanks" she muttered and got a small caress on her hand as if it wanted to say, you are welcome.  

"I always do, but that one knew where they had to shoot almost as if they could sense me.". he muttered and leaned towards her, his head resting on her shoulder, he closed his eyes and let the tension leave, "I even got hurt."

"Don't worry, it is already healing, but Raon is still out tonight Sis." He muttered, "I worry a bit, it's no good, he said he will be hunting the one that hurt me." 

Titania put down her cup and hugged Cedric while he hummed and leaned into the touch, "I worry for big bro." he muttered again before closing his eyes, "Lately things have been strange...something is off but I don't know what."

 "Whatever it is Raon will dea....", she said with absolute confidence but before she could finish Cedric suddenly flinched and shot a shadow towards the left corner of the room that hovered right in front of a familiar face. 

"I mean no harm young master." she heard Emery’s voice and he stepped forward, not bothered by the shadows coiling around him, a lot more hostile than with her, with a faint and polite smile on his face, "I just wanted to give you your report but since you were speaking with the young mistress I thought it best if I waited." He said. "It was not my intention to startle you." 

"You should know that startling someone is a bad habit to have here. It can kill you and I do not wish to deal with my sister on that matter." Cedirc muttered, "And you can speak openly, no need for subtly asking me if my sister may know. I don't agree with mother trying to keep Titania out of everything; it is not right, unlike us others she is not a fighter, but she is strong. In her way maybe even stronger than the rest of us."

"As you wish, young master." Emery, dressed in Jeans and a T-Shirt that covered his  carefully crafted beast armor underneath, went to his knees, his head hanging low. His usual reddish hair that tended to do whatever it wanted was kept out of his face, "We took care of six of the attackers, the ones your shadow did not manage to devour in time we found as well. They will no longer bother us but the Sniper, he escaped us..."

Cedric growled and a Shadow lashed out; he was about to pierce Emery’s shoulder. He had braced himself and was waiting pale faced to be punished for his failure, "No...don't." Titania stopped her brother and saw how Emery loosened up a bit, "He has done what he could, there is no reason to physically hurt him." She said, "If you want to punish him, find another way."

"But..." Cedric wanted to say something, but before he could finish Titania shook her head. 

"Cedric… loyalty is not kept by hurting your subordinates, if you want to punish him then simply forbid him from his nightly services to Chry for a while." Emery made a strangled sound and looked at her pleadingly, she shook her head.

"Please young Miss I’d rather have the young master tear me apart, don't forbid me from serving my Madame." He almost begged, and Cedric who saw his actions let out a breath of air before shrugging his shoulders as if he didn’t care anymore, "Alright Sis then we do it your way and not moms, or the other way. No being with older sis during nights for the rest of the week Emery." he ordered and retreated his shadows back to himself before continuing to sip on his milk that was held up by yet another shadow. 

"Emery go on." Titania said, and Emery who was still kneeling nodded.

"Yes, the one that escaped us, he must have been a combat specialist ... not even our best tracker was capable of finding them." Emery said, “He is a pro for sure, we only found his hiding spot by calculating the angle from where young master Cedric stood and found utterly nothing.”

“Nothing?” Titania was a bit startled. 

“Nothing. But that was not all. Young master, you said there should be some bodies taken care of by your shadows we needed to dispose of and while we found a few we did not find them all.” Emery continued, “We only found the blood but no bodies in two cases.” 

Silence. There was utter silence in the kitchen as Cedric sat there unmoving. 

“I killed them, there have to be bodies.” he said, “They cannot just vanish.” 

“I know young master, we will continue to search for them.” Emery said and bowed even lower. 

Titania nodded at him "Go, report to mother as well, or fix it before you have to tell her, the vanishing of bodies is something that may get us into trouble if they reappear. Then, go and find yourself another place to sleep than my sister's quarters for the rest of the week. I am not asking you to stop serving her just to stop spending your nights with her. Inform her about it and also if she has something against it, she can come and find us and we will explain." Titania said and Emery nodded before standing up while keeping his head low. He walked out backwards not turning his back towards them even though one was dressed in a blood stained beast armor and the other one wore a lavender Pajama with her bare feet dangling down.  

“Sis I am tired.” Cedric muttered, “And I worry”

“Raon is strong, he won’t be brought down easily, just you wait he will be there tomorrow for breakfast playing with his knife until mother threatens him to eat.” 

Titania tried to comfort Cedric who rested against her and he let out a deep breath before relaxing. She felt how he soon fell asleep leaned against her.