Elizah was out in the field when one of the castle servants suddenly came to the gate of the field. 

“Miss Cohen,” she heard the man calling.

“That’s me,” Elizah said and rushed over to the man. 

“I have a note for you from the Prince,” He said and handed the note to Elizah after she brushed the dirt off her palms.

“Thank you,” she said and sent the man on his way. Elizah knew that Jayden would never take a risk to send a message unless something was very important. 

She slowly opened the parchment and read the scrawled note. It said that Jayden wouldn’t be able to train her for the next few days, but he’d make it when he could.

Worry began to take its place in Elizah’s mind, she feared what happened to him, but she had other problems to think about.

Micah jogged up to her side and grabbed the note out of her hand.”What do you think you’re doing?” she asked her brother and tried to yank the letter out of Micah’s hands.

Having the advantage of height, Micah lifted the note out of her grasp. “Who’s this from?” he asked with a small smirk growing on his face.

“None of your business,” she said and yanked it out of his grasp.

“A secret admirer?” he asked, his smirk widening into a grin.

Elizah’s cheeks grew red, and she gave him a glare. “Why do you care?” she said as she latched the field gate.

“I want to make sure everything’s alright and no one dares to touch my sister,” Micah said and plucked the note out of her hands.

“Who’s training you?” Micah asked after close scrutiny of the note. He handed it back to his fuming sister.

“Thank you. And no, I won’t tell you,” Elizah said and grabbed the piece of parchment before she walked into her room, and Micah was out of her sight.

Later that evening, Elizah carefully stepped into the open doorway of the house and looked surprised to see Micah waiting tensely on one of the old chairs. She had returned from a long day at the field, and it was surprising to see Micah here even though he should have been at the marketplace.

“I was waiting for you Liz,” his tense look didn’t change. He walked up to her and looked her in the eye. “Have you seen stepfather today?” he asked.

Elizah shook her head and noticed Micah was more tense than usual.

“What happened?” Elizah asked as she put a gentle hand on Micah’s shoulder.

“It’s stepfather, I’m making sure he leaves today,” Micah said, with utter determination in his voice.

His sword was at his side. His grey eyes were sharp with a similar fury that Elizah usually carried on her face.

“Why Micah?” Elizah asked. As much as she wanted that man out of her house, she was, more importantly, wondering how they’d have enough for their monthly taxes. 

“He’s broken this family. If we actually used the money only for the taxes, we’d actually have enough to have a mildly comfortable life. My pay from my services to the kingdom is good enough to fill our taxes according to the parchment that I found in mother’s room. There’s a part of the money that’s missing. That’s going to change when I get to the bottom of this,” Micah said, “He actually wasn’t at the marketplace all evening. He left after lunch and didn’t bother to return.”

“Wait, that is odd. Where’s mother, did you talk to her about this?” Elizah knew Roxanne wouldn’t have accepted Micah’s demands when he’d asked about it.

“She’s asleep inside, she was quite upset but I can’t keep letting that man hurt us,” Micah said, with a fury in his voice.

As if on queue, the door creaked open, and their stepfather entered. He was somewhat disoriented by what Elizah could see, and he looked as if he’d drank too much.

Micah saw it too, and he exchanged a glance with his sister.

“Where were you?” Micah asked and slowly removed his sword from its sheath.

The man had anger etched on his face. “Why are you blocking me from entering my house?” he asked in return. His words were heavily slurred.

Micah placed the tip of the blade at the man’s throat and continued to question, “Where did you get the money to even spend the whole evening out at a tavern?”

“This was only once. I’ve never done it before,” the man’s anger was now changed into fear.

He was lying, and Micah knew it for sure, “Oh really, do you want me to give you proof or will you admit to it.”

The man’s eyes narrowed, “You don’t have any proof.”

“Are you sure? Mother and your children aren’t blind. They know about what you’ve been doing,” Micah said and stretched the blade out even closer to his neck.

“You wouldn’t make it a day without me, you ungrateful bastard. Even if you do manage to make me leave, how will you get money?” Their stepfather said with utter disgust in his tone.

“I make enough money for this house,” Micah growled at him, “ I give you two options, either you leave and we’ll pardon you, or I’ll kill you.”

“I’ll take my chance to get out of here. You’ll regret what you did today,” The man said, and he stumbled into his own room while muttering a string of curses.

Micah lowered his sword, and Elizah stared at him open-mouthed. “He’ll leave by sundown,” Micah said, “ I’ll look after the three of us now.”

Elizah smiled at her brother and went up to him to embrace him.

“At least something good came out of my return home,” Micah said, and Elizah only nodded, hoping that the days ahead would be better than before.

“Where were you this morning?” a voice startled a servant outside the palace entry gates, late at night.

The servant nervously turned and stuttered, “ I-- was out delivering ---something.”

“What were you delivering?” the person asked. The person was heavily cloaked in a black cloak, so the servant could not identify the person. 

“ A-- note. F-from the Prince,” The servant was now shaking.

The person looked as if they were contemplating what they could do next. “I’ll offer you a job. I’ll pay handsomely if you manage to get information to my satisfaction.”

“Wh--what do you want me to do?” the servant asked.

“Watch every movement of the Prince and report it to me. You’ll find me here every evening,” The person said and strolled away while the servant was stuck in confusion and shock.

The next day the servant stood waiting at the gates for the figure to appear. He hadn’t done it. He couldn’t.

“You didn’t do it,” the person said as they came up behind him.

“I-- I can explain,” the servant stuttered.

“Follow me,” the person said sharply.

The person led him into the corridors into a deep corner illuminated only with candles.

“Now listen very closely,” the person said as they let the cloak’s hood fall to their shoulders.

 The servant let out a gasp. But before he could react. He felt hot tendrils touching his skin. 

“You will run, as far away from this empire as you can. If I dare to see you here again, that day will be your last,” They said and let the flames cut a scar on the man’s arm.

“Y--yes I --will,” the servant said with evident fear, and the cloaked figure left him in the darkness of the corridor after cloaking themselves once more.