The clicking sound of her heels was the only noise in the hallway, the metal taps set into the sole of the artfully inlaid shoes striking against the mosaic tiles that made up the floor. She passed by tapestries depicting old battles or scenes from myth, legend, and history, statues of people long since dead, and artwork from all over the Six Worlds that was selected more for their meanings than for wealth and appearance. She paid no attention to the whispers and rustles in the shadows of the high vaulted ceiling, ignored the shadowy movements in the banners that hung from thick timber rafters, and was aloof to the way the carving on the visible parts of the walls pulled at the eye and hurt the mind. She stared straight ahead, ignoring the smaller hallways that intersected the one she steadily marched down, her eyes a solid jade green with no whites, no pupils, and inhuman beneath the wealth of blood red hair that framed her face, swept back from her shoulders, and cascaded down her back, held back from her brow by a simple unadorned beaten copper circlet.

Two guards stood at the end of the hallway, flanking a massive door that was roughly hewn into a forest scene, each guard wearing heavy plate armor that had no decorations or spikes upon it, with a simple white enameling coating the heavy steel. Only a single black rose resting in a hand that was palm up on their left breast gave any hint to whom the massive armored forms owed their allegiance to, As the woman approached the two figures they each suddenly took notice of her, their masked faces suddenly turning toward her and a deep purple light burning in their eyes. The woman's slitted nostrils flared slightly as she was able to smell the faint scents of spice and decay from the duo.

"Who approaches the throne of the Eternal Elba?" One asked. The steel masks the two guards wore were molded into monstrous visages that concealed their actual appearance, making it nearly impossible for most people to know which one had spoken, but the woman's keen hearing caught the trick of the one of the left stating the first word and the one on the right finishing the question.

The woman stopped three paces from the armored figures, her hands hidden within the voluminous sleeves of the white smokesilk robe she wore, and stared at the two guards for a long moment. Her eyes were a flat jade green, with no whites and no pupil, almond shape, and seemed too large for her sharp planed narrow face.

"I do." She answered, her voice rich and soft.

"Then let us know who you are by your titles." The two ordered, and the woman barely restrained a sigh of frustration.

"In my Step-Mother's house, I am known as Aveliene, beloved daughter." The woman finished the formula.

"Pass, beloved one." The two figures stepped back to either side of the heavy wooden door. The woman waited, suppressing an urge to tap her foot, until finally the doors gave a deep groan and slowly swung open wide enough to admit her.

Beyond the doors a huge sunlit chamber waited. Columns were carved from granite or marble, shot through with veins of precious metals or threads of gems, their shape graceful and flowing, melding into the floor and the ceiling. From the unshuttered windows high above steams of sunlight fell through the air to illuminate the wide open spaces, to sparkled on the inlaid mosaic tiles of the floors. The pattern of the tiles drew the eye to the far end of the room, where a dais was slightly offset to the right. Atop the dais sat a plush overstuffed divan covered in brushed naka-fur.

Aveliene moved across the throne room, her heels breaking the silence that lay comfortably in the throne room, moving steadily toward the dais and the figure reclining on the divan with a book held in her tiny hands.

It never failed to amuse Aveliene, the contrast between the reality of her Step-Mother and the legends. The woman's skin was a rich alabaster, the natural chocolate coloring burned away by decades of wielding arcane power, her hair was a thick lustrous black so deep it nearly hurt the eyes, and her eyes were a rich brown that often sparkled with mischievousness or gleefully withheld knowledge. The woman curled up on the divan reading a book was not the titan the legends claimed, but was rather a petite woman who fell short of the five foot mark, with a lush body and nearly freakishly endowed. Her face was covered with a white ceramic mask, a crack down one side of the face that had brown edges and a deep red coloring in the depths of the crack, and the crimson lips of the mask moved as if they were alive, telling Aveliene that her Step-Mother was speaking.

As Aveliene came closer she could hear her Step-Mother's quiet voice speaking softly, gently, and the sight of over a dozen small lizards curled up with her, all of them staring at the book, forced a smile out of Aveliene.

The great and powerful Thorn Lord, reading to babies. she mused. She could recognize the tale now, a cautionary tale about being too greedy. She moved up the dais and nodded to the massive kobold, the raptor-like creature's scales a highly polished bronze. The kobold, her Step-Mother's eternal companion (and some believed: soul mate and lover), flicked his fan-like ears in response, opening his mouth slightly in the reptilian equivalent of a grin.

Without asking Aveliene went over and sat next to the divan, leaning against it and letting her head rest against he Step-Mother's head. Her Step-Mother reached out and gently ruffled Aveliene's hair, never taking her eyes from the book or the bright watercolors, her voice never faltering.

Aveliene waited patiently until the story was finished and all the tiny little black eyes had closed. She could hear the faint purring-like snores of the baby kobolds in the long moment of silence as Aveliene's Step-Mother passed the book to the great bronze kobold and then watched the sleeping babies with a faint smile.

"You summoned me, Step-Mother?" Aveliene finally broke the silence.

"Yes, beloved eldest daughter." Elba answered, turning her head to stare Aveliene in the face. Without warning the pale woman leaned forward and pecked a kiss on the rich mocha skin of Aveliene's forehead. "I'm always happy to see you, beloved one, but I have a chore that needs doing this time." she continued.

"I'm always happy to do your bidding." Aveliene said, flushing in pleasure at such an obvious sign of her Step-Mother's favor.

Elba made a pleased sound low in her throat, smiling gently, and pecked another kiss onto Aveliene's forehead. "I need you to go somewhere and kill something for me."

Aveliene chuckled and smiling, the parting of her full lips revealing rows of triangular teeth that were tightly interlocked. "I thought so, Step-Mother." Off to the side the great bronze kobold Xava made the quiet huffing sounds of kobold laughter.

"I've heard something disturbing from where the Kingdom of Shulafta once was." Elba began, and Aveliene nodded, fixing where the kingdom had been before it had been destroyed during the Lich King War. "Travellers have begun to spread tales of a black unicorn amid the wreckage of the kingdom." Despite herself Aveliene gasped, and Elba nodded.

"Go to the ruins of Shulafta, east of Alben in Balikimayn, find the black unicorn, and kill it." Elba ordered.

Aveliene bent her head in obedience.