It was a rainy day at the little palace, rain and hail batted against the windows while everyone stayed inside the palace in the safety of its warmth.

I was after finishing my last class of the day when a serf girl came up to me and handed me a note, she quickly bowed and then scurried away before I could even thank her.

It read;

'Training in my quarters in 10 minutes, bring the book I gave you, don't be late'

I said my goodbyes to my friends and then left for the palace while they all headed to their rooms and Zina, Luka and Koldan headed to ukryt'sya.

I went to my room to put back my books from the class and then grabbed the one my father had left the very first day I had arrived.

As I walked towards the doors that led to my father's quarters and private sitting room, the guards immediately stepped aside to allow me in, I opened the door and stepped inside.

The Darkling was standing by the open fireplace, his back to me, looking very ominous.

"You're a minute late," he said turning around.

"It's just 60 seconds," I responded.

"Ah yes, just 60 seconds, but if it was a mission outside the little palace, those 60 seconds could be the reason you fail or die."

"Well, then I suppose we should be thankful this wasn't a mission."

He smirked to himself at my response, "Come," he motioned to me, "let us start."

After having me study the book for about half an hour he finally settled on the new technique that I would do.

"I want you to try something," he said as I was basically falling asleep with boredom from reading the book.

"What is it?" I asked.

"I'm not sure if it will work, I never got the chance to try it with..." he trailed off, and shook his head, "Come. Stand over there and focus and the particles that make up the light, feel them, let them fill you up. Now direct them away so the light doesn't bounce off of you, in theory, it should make you-"

"Invisible?" I finished, barely containing my excitement.

"In theory," he repeated.

I did as he said, trying to focus on each and every particle and pushing it away from me, but to no avail, the most I did was make my feet look blurry.

His brows furrowed, "Maybe," he looked around the room and picked up an apple, "Try this, it's smaller, don't worry about the different angles yet, only the parts you can see."

I tried again and sure enough, I managed to get it to disappear for about 13 seconds.

We continued practicing eventually moving from the apple to a stool once I had been able to make it invisible from all angles for approximately two minutes.

We repeated this process moving from the apple to the stool, to a chair, and then to the Darkling himself, he had said it would be easier to make someone I could see invisible rather than myself.

It took me longer than the rest to make him invisible, especially when he moved, after a while, I moved onto myself and as he had said, it was much harder than him or anything else.

As I focused I could tell he was trying to distract me by moving things around or even just starting a conversation.

"You're far too close with that Egorvo boy" he mused "You seem to trust him a lot"

"Of course you would think that, you-"

"The light is starting to show, don't lose focus"

I strained a bit to regain control, "You don't trust anyone" I finished.

Her father considered this "We must trust no one except ourselves and blood, Rena. Eventually, everyone else will turn on us, eventually, they will all fade away"

There was a knock at the door and the light flattered, "Try to keep yourself hidden for whoever it is," he challenged me.

"Come in," he ordered, his voice returning to that of a general, sharp and commanding.

Speak of the devil, Rena thought to herself, she didn't question why Koldan was here, Zina had told her he had gotten an apprenticeship with Ivan so she supposed that meant doing some of the things he did.

I was proud of myself for holding the light for this long as he hadn't noticed me standing there yet.

"What is it?" The darkling asked. His face not portraying any signs of conversation seconds ago.

"Papers sir," Koldan said handing him some papers, "And uh, this week's report on Rena." The Darkling winced the slightest bit, unnoticeable to anyone but himself.

"I can't believe you" I gasped, letting the light bounce back onto me to make myself visible again.

"Ren, I-" Koldan started to say, she never heard him finish, her lesson with her father wasn't over but she stormed out, heading for the palace grounds, Koldan chased after her, but she had no interest in listening to his excuses.

It may have been raining but Rena didn't care, all she wanted at that moment was to get away from everyone, if Zina and Luka were still in ukryt'sya, they could no doubtfully see her storming off with Koldan chasing her.

"Rena would you just wait" he managed, rain plastered his fringe down on his forehead.

I stopped abruptly and rounded on him, he almost ran straight into me, "Look I-" he started.

"Save it, my father was right, everyone will eventually betray you, or go behind your back"

"Ren, no-"

"How long?"

"What?"

"How long have you been reporting my every move to him"

He looked down at his shining boots, kicking the dirt underneath them, "Since the beginning"

"So you were only friends with me so you could report on me?"

"What, no, that first day was real, we wanted to be your friend. When he realized we were hanging around a lot he came up to the three of us and said that we had to report to him, that it was for your safety-"

"All three of you?!?!" I exclaimed, "And I am more than capable of taking care of myself"

"Are you really though?" He questioned.

I looked at him, angry tears in my eyes, "You really want to question that, Egorvo?" I said, light danced in my left palm and shadow in my right, I caught myself before I did what I was about to, no, I wasn't going to be like my father, instead I settled on a nice firm punch across the jaw, he landed on his arse in the mud.

"Now if you don't mind" I spat "I need to get back to my father" and with that, I walked back to the palace to continue my training.