Training with Michael turned out to be a much more painful exercise then Angela had expected, for two hours a day she would dress up in uncomfortable padded clothes and swing a stick at Michael, who then proceeded in telling her what she had failed to do and asked her to do it again.

At first she had tried to make the workout fun but soon, there was no mistaking that Michael had no intention of letting her have fun with the training, the point of her defending herself had been to well made and now it was too late for her to back out of the agreement.

Luckily for Angela he had agreed not to let anyone watch as she failed at doing even the most mundane tasks like landing a hit on his shield.

Warily she approached Michael again, her sword was stretched out in front of her, both hands at the hilt tip pointed slightly over his head.

Angela set one foot forward and pulled the back foot close, in the split second before she had a solid footing again Michael struck, his stick smacked against hers form the side, opening up for a follow up strike, that luckily never came.

His stick stayed a couple of hand spans away from her throat but she could imagine what would have happened to her if it had been a real sword. With a not very ladylike grunt she raised her blade again and dropped the shield.

Michael stepped away and awaited her attack, Angela got into a low crouch, blade to her side the tip pointing behind her. Her opponent frowned, then before he had managed to raise his blade Angela shot forward swinging her stick in a wide ark aimed at his hip, holding the sword with only one hand it lacked any strength behind it but due to the wide motion Michael still needed both hands to properly block her attack.

When their sticks met Angela let go of hers and pulled at his arm, getting him off balance. A smile appeared on her lips as he stumbled forward. Sadly for her he was too fast for her to press her advantage as he sidestepped ad regained his balance, in hi face was surprise as he raised his stick and Angela capitulated again.

“That was… unexpected, where did you learn that?” Michael asked as they got the practice weapons back into the box they had gotten them from.

Angela tried to remember, the picture of a boy with black hair appeared before her, he was smiling and saying.

“If you can’t beat an enemy get up close and personal and have him lose his footing. Once off balance you can decide if you follow up or run away as fast as you can… If the opponent is stronger you should run… if you are heavier you can always try to smother him to death. Wait that was not what I meant… drop the knife Cara! Al help me!”

A smile appeared on her lips, she didn’t know why but the memory seemed precious, even if she couldn’t remember who it was about.

Had she been friends with the boy?

“Angela? Are you okay?” Michael seemed worried about her, then she felt tears running down her cheeks, hastily she got rid of them.

“Yes, I just remembered someone from my past…” Michael reached out and touched her shoulder, a warm feeling spread from the point where his skin touched her until she felt warm all over.

So many things made no more sense, she remembered borderline nothing of her past before she had come here with her father.

“Shall we go outside? I hear the snow has stopped.” The worried expression on Michael's face faded and he nodded.

“Of course. Maybe you can tell me about that person you remembered?” Angela smiled at him, her thoughts racing, what person?

Then it slowly came back to her, back in the village she was born her parents had been friends with the local hunters, the boy had been their child and the two had been friends before the winter came and they starved to death.

More and more about her past now appeared in her mind, there had been a carpenter who married the miller's daughter to end a feud. Her mother had died when a ribbed dog tore her throat out, Erik had shot the beast but it had been too late.

After that her father had buried himself in work and Angela had spent a lot of time with the hunter family, after their death Saulus decided it was time to move.

He accepted the generous offer of Goldhill, packed his things and his daughter and traveled to Goldhill.

She told Michael the just of the story as they sat down on one of the balconies drinking tea, it was easier then she had thought at first and Michael held her hand during the entire tale.

When she had finished he assured her nobody else close to her would die.

She smiled at him but something deep within her knew that this was only the beginning, something was coming something would tear apart this world.

Cara shot up, she could feel something approaching, the darkness she had felt before, Michael was sitting across from her holding her hand, she smiled at him and excused herself. She could not risk him being close to her when the thing appeared.

She barely made it into the restroom when the colour faded from the world, the scaled thing stood in front of her, grey eyes focused on her.

“Impressive” it snarled as the scaled eyes looked her over, “There is more than one in you? How do you do that, I could have sworn there was someone else there just now.

“What do you want?” Cara asked, one hand reaching for the hidden blade at her back.

The thing began a dry coughing, then Cara realise it was laughing.

“You humans are always so entertaining, lucky for us you seem to be the future of our race… the monkeys before you were so dull.” She pulled the knife and took a step towards the thing, fear would not help her in this situation.

The thing vanished into the dark leaving her alone.

“Oh, now don’t be that way, I am breaking all sorts of treaties talking with you in this form of mine… also have you forgotten the gift I awoke in you? So very disappointing to see you this riled up.”

“What do you want? I suppose you did not give me magic out of the kindness of your heart?” Another dry coughing sounded from all around her.

“I did not give you the gift, I simply awoke it. But you are right I did not, I want you to take my place when the black scaled usurper destroyed me.” Cara understood nothing, an usurper? What was this thing?

“What do I get in return?” She asked carefully, this made little sense, whatever was here was clearly more powerful than her.

“You get to survive what is to come, you get to protect your unborn children and secure a future for them even if you will not be around to share it.” Cara was getting annoyed.

“Start making sense, who are you? What do you know? And why should I trust in your word?”

“I am the dragon of light and darkness and the guide for what is to come. My name is Uriel, and so shall be yours when you take my place.”

Cara stopped, that thing was a dragon? Dragons were supposed to keep the balance, not talk to humans about usurpers and their own death.

“What do you say, will you do what I ask of you or will you die and leave nothing for your next generation?”

Prophecies were fickle things, even if the thing thought it knew what was going to happen Cara doubted one could predict the future like that, most prophecies that had appeared in this world never came to pass and when they did it was in a different manner than anyone had expected making any way of preparations null and void.

“I will take your place, in return you will help my gift to develope!” Cara said, while she might not believe in the future she did believe whatever was here with her could help her.

Another dry laughter and colour returned to the world, sweat was dripping from her brow and Cara began cleaning her face, Angela was getting harder to control, the girl was asking all the wrong questions and the fairytale she had constructed as a past would only hold so long.

If she was to succeed Cara needed more information.

She left the restroom behind and snuck towards the study, Michael would not ask too many questions about a girl spending time in the restroom but she couldn’t let him wait too much without Angela getting wind of the blackout again.

Luckily for her the study was closed, nobody was inside, the door wasn’t even locked. Careful not to make any noise Cara slipped into the room, the desk was covered in papers, without a moment's thought she began scanning anything that could be of interest, starting from a large order of food for somewhere in the southern villages to a command to send fifty odd horses to a village two days out of Goldhill as soon as the snow was melting.

She paused, fifty horses? A lot of animals for a small village that consisted mainly out of farms and simple carpenters and smiths… smiths, the village was known for a large family of blacksmiths that supplied horseshoes and tools to a large part of the land, a dark suspicion grew in her as she looked for more orders.

After a while she found eight more orders for horses into the village, just as a insane amount of metal split over multiple orders paired with food and clothes that could get nearly a thousand men through the winter.

Goldhil had raised an army.

As fast as she could she cleaned up anything she might have left behind and closed the door behind her, the corridor was empty and Cara was glad for it. Blackriver had two hundred soldiers at best, if the army was truly as big as she thought they would not last two days. Angela would need to take over, no need to panic just now, the winter would last for at least another three months and the pass would only be passable once spin was nearly over. There was still time for Blackriver to respond, to raise more troops or build defenses.

The message would need to be sent as soon as she got an opportunity to talk to Saulus, maybe she could use the Ball next week as an excuse to see him.

Angela got back onto the Balcony, Michael raised his head when he heard the door, a smile appeared on his face.

“A little longer and i would have asked a maid to look if everything was alright Angela.” He joked, Angela covered her mouth when she laughed.

“A woman needs her time! There is no use in trying to rush us my dear Michael.” She leaned forward and placed a kiss on his cheek, his smile froze and Angela sat down giggling over his reaction.

“If you can’t beat your opponent surprise him.”