Feros peered around the dining table, gaze passing with a tinge of mirth between Mistra and myself, he seemed to be taking great delight in seeing us seated together. The creature, of which I am sure that he was, had kept his own company away from the rest of the castle when he had first come to be Mistra's tutor, but upon returning from the demon realm, he had begun to create a habit of turning up to meals and social gatherings. I was certain I have never actually seen him eat or drink anything, so his motive for making himself present and available was not clear. It would have made me very suspicious if not for Mistra's insistence that Feros' fealties lay in the right places, though I could not deny that his presence still sat in the pit of my stomach as a wriggling pocket of unease. It had to be the way he moved like his skin was uncomfortable and stiff and his expressions were weirdly exaggerated like he had to remember each time to emote in an appropriate way.

"What's your story?" the creature asked while smiling eerily at Tiffany.

The girl's fork tumbled from her hand and clattered on the table as she let out a little gasp, every word that the gentleman spoke seemed to frazzle the young girl's nerves. Though he hadn't been around for long, I was beginning to understand that there was something about Feros that made the girl almost blind to him. While he was quiet and still, her eyes glazed over him and focused on anything else in the room, it was as if he became blended in or invisible to her. When he did make his presence more noticeable, it seemed to jar her system into a fight or flight response. Unfortunately for the poor girl, it seemed that he had started to take delight in the effect he had on her.

"I-uh..." the girl took a deep breath in and made the effort to focus on where Feros was seated, "I'm not sure what you mean."

"You are seated at the royal table and not with the other little girls," he said with the same unwavering smile, "that tells me that you are different or special in some way. Not that all little girls aren't special in some way, but I think you get the gist of what I'm getting at."

She gave a nod, her eyes generally in the correct direction, but fluttering around the space where his face should be. I wondered if it was difficult or even painful for her to look directly at him, perhaps her refusal to notice his presence was more of a defense mechanism.

"I am a princess," she answered, "I belong at the royal table."

"Oh, is that so?" he asked with a click of his tongue. "I don't know a princess Tiffany, where is your kingdom located?"

I cast a surreptitious glance askance to Mistra to silently inquire if she had ever told her trainer the girl's name. Her answer was an amused smirk and a barely perceptible shake of her head.

"I'm not exactly sure in relation to here." The princess' face screwed up into even more of a look of unease. "I don't think I actually know where we are at all, but I know my father said I was to unite our northern kingdom with the southern."

Feros let out a long, trickling laugh that sent a shiver even up my spine.

"Northern, southern, human kingdoms are always so horribly vague. Someone's north is another's south and frankly, everywhere I've been in this realm looks the same, what is your family name?"

"Breakstone," she said barely above a whisper. The longer Feros focused on her, the paler and more gaunt her face became.

"Breakstone?" he chuckled. "Is that what the nickname for Theophania is for now: Tiffany? I must have been away for too long, how modern and fresh." The fiend leaned back in his chair and placed his hand on his chin in an almost comical expression of being deep in thought. I was certain he was doing it specifically because he had seen it before and thought he should, not that it came naturally to him. "If I remember correctly that would make your father Luca and mother... let's see... his first wife died in childbirth, the second was barren..."

He fell silent and still, immediately Tiffany looked away with an unconscious sigh and her hands, which had been clenched tightly around her napkin relaxed. She blinked slowly a few times and focused her eyes back on her plate, making a face as if her meal suddenly looked disgusting.

"Abigail," he said suddenly.

Tiffany groaned and snapped her attention back to him, swallowing hard as her hands returned to wringing her napkin.

"Yes, that's it. Luca and Abigail Breakstone." He nodded to himself, satisfied that he had finally remembered. "So they were sending you off to be married? But you are just a child."

Mari let out a short, snuffling laugh. "I have a feeling you will quite like the story."

A grin widened across his face to inhuman proportions, eliciting a soft squeak of fear from the princess.

"She was engaged to my father," I offered as a shortened version.

"How deliciously scandalous," he said with a low, salacious purr, "the man could be her great grandfather. That must have been a political deal of a lifetime, unless the king hated his darling daughter." Feros studied Tiffany's pale countenance a moment before chuckling to himself. "What could a child have done to be that reviled?" he mused. "No, there had to be some great pay off for that to have been agreed to."

"I have been looking into to," Mari said, "though being on the road it has been harder to coordinate my contacts. I haven't gotten much back yet other than it seems to have been a lengthy discussion before the deal was struck and there was a lot of movement to coordinate couriers for after the marriage. It looks as though the Breakstones were going to be sending massive amounts of something as well, though I don't think that makes much sense."

"Weaponry," Feros said with absolute certainty, "that kingdom is probably the largest producer of swords and other iron goods in all of the human realms. If you needed to arm your forces in a hurry, that's exactly where I'd go first."

Mari and I exchanged a worried look and my stomach flopped over. My late father's kingdom trying to arm itself quickly was the exact opposite of what I wanted to hear.

"You're right that it doesn't make sense though," the creature continued, "it sounds like King Luca had to be poised to get an irresistible payoff to be willing to part with so much. I wonder what it could be."

The uncertainty hung in the air, our plates abandoned. After a long, silent moment, the fiend suddenly stood and inclined his head to me in his usual gesture of asking for dismissal to wherever it was he disappeared to in the castle between making himself known. I replied with a short nod and he left, the atmosphere of the room lightening slightly with his absence. As soon as he was gone, Tiffany stood up suddenly face still looking ill.

"I think I will go lay down," she said weakly.

"Before you go," Mari said, placing a hand gently on the girl's arm, "think hard for a moment, do you remember absolutely anything about what was said to you about your betrothal? Even any rumors you may have heard from the whispers of servants."

The girl took no time to shake her head, pulling her arm away and hurrying out of the room, by the sway in her steps, it appeared that she was having trouble with staying on her feet. I had never seen her quite so affected by the man before, but then, I didn't think he had ever kept her focus for so long before.

"Hrmph," Mari huffed, "she really needs to learn how to respect superiors."

"I doubt she knows anything," I offered, "I think she was very much in the dark. Why would anyone tell her anything, she is but a young babe. She also seems to keep much in her own head, I doubt she paid much attention to any idle gossip."

"I wish she would have, this idea of large amounts of weaponry being passed around is not a good omen," Mari grumbled. "I suppose the deal was likely struck before we made any real moves in our girl gathering scheme, but still, I don't like it. Why would your father have wanted armed?"

"That I'm afraid I don't have an answer for," I said with a shrug. "There was not much my kingdom was at want for, no big major grumblings come to mind and my father was not one to keep his lips sealed about any problems he was having. If there is some kind of trouble, it must have developed after I left. Granted, that was quite a while ago now, I suppose it could be anything."

"I think we're missing the biggest unknown here," Mistra interjected, "the Vivaldi's must have offered some sort of deal of a lifetime. Toria, what does your kingdom excel in?"

"Crops, mostly," I answered.

"Perhaps there was a severe famine or something then, one so terrible that the Breakstones had their hands tied in negotiations," Mistra suggested.

"I think I would have heard about that," Mari countered with a wave of her hand. "I have been, admittedly, a bit behind on my espionage, but something the severe could not be overlooked. No, it is something else, it has to be."

"Mari, this reminds me of something I have been meaning to broach subject with you about," I said. I didn't think this was exactly the perfect time to bring up the conversation, but it had to be done. "With you out on the road lately and unable to keep your contacts as closely watched as you once were, perhaps we should think about you training someone to maintain them for you."

My aunt stiffened in her chair and I could tell that her hackles were raised. I knew she would hate the idea and immediately want to rail against it, but we could only ignore the elephant in the room that was her eventual decline for so long. It felt like the political situation was only going to get more complicated and it was painful obvious that Mari was struggling to keep up.

"I can't believe you would even suggest," she said with an angry huff. "I have been dealing with all of the espionage since I was barely a woman, Evonia never had to worry one iota about it and I kept this House safe and informed."

"You certainly have, but everyone deserves a break sometimes. Besides, who better to train someone to take over eventually than you?" I reached across the table and placed my hand on top of hers. "I'm not going to order you to give up your position, I would never do that to you, but I do think you should consider it, if for no other reason than to give yourself a break sometimes. I felt her hand tense, but soften under mine, though her face never changed expression.

"Perhaps if I was not being ran around the kingdoms looking around for the faintest of magical abilities I would be able to keep up like I used to."

"I wish I could send someone else," I offered,"but we both know that I can't be running the mission and the kingdom at the same time and Mistra would stick out like a sore thumb."

Mari eyed my consort briefly, she still seemed to be a bit upset about her presence, but that was a different issue that could wait for later.

"Yes, yes, I know I'm the best for the job, I was not suggesting otherwise, merely explaining why I've been spread thin," she grumbled.

"Think on it," I said and stood. I offered my hand to Mistra who accepted it and stood with me. "If you come to a decision, let me know, I have some thinking of my own to do."