The ice in her eyes stilled him momentarily. He often forgot that she was the matriarch of the family, and had kept their family intact and had raised him and guided the royal family by herself after his father had been lost to illness. She may play the role of the sweet little granny in front of the children now, but he knew she had a darker and more ruthless side. She had often dirtied her hands to protect the family and the crown and her older age would not stop her from continuing that now. He backed down, knowing that she still held the majority of support within the family, even if he was technically in charge of it now. He needed to plan this out if he was going to finally take control from her. 

“We will discuss this another time Mother, it is getting late and I am weary from my work as I am sure you can understand.”

She stared him down for a moment, the shadows around her seeming to grow even darker, wrapping around her hunched frame and casting her emotionless further into the growing darkness, her piercing blue eyes seeming to stare right through him into his soul. He hated when she did this, and he knew that she knew that. He did not know how she did this, she often had said when he was young that their family possessed magical powers that were linked to their devotion to the royal family but he personally had dismissed it as hogwash. He had certainly never developed such powers and if any in the family had them they had not told him. Instinctively though, he lightly inclined his head towards his mother, bid her good night and swifly fled the dark corridor. 

“As always, he continues to be a disappointment to the bloodline. Where did I go wrong raising him? Perhaps its the influence from his father’s bloodline. They were all quite greedy leeches unlike my dear Edgar. I guess I will never know. Regardless, I must teach the children about their gifts quickly, before he corrupts them and ruins our bloodline for good.”

With that in mind, she recalled her shadows that had been slowly creeping around the hallway, searching for potential threats to the children. Finding their hall and chamber to be safe, she began making her way to her own chamber, her frame bending over even more in exhaustion. Upon reaching her rooms, she made her way to her desk and grabbed a pice of parchment, the ink on her quill staining it as she wrote down an outline for the children’s lessons tomorrow. Starting with the Ancient Saga she had been telling them as a bed time story would be a good start. Especially with the signs that the young princess was showing. They needed to understand the gifts they had received along with the dangers that would come with it. 

The next day the older woman was setting up the classroom and preparing the tools that they would need for their lessons when she heard the rapid thudding of feet accompanied by the muffled laughter of the children followed. The first girl entered, her beautiful silver hair and violet eyes unique to the royal bloodline gleaming with joy at having won the race to the classroom. The second child entered, a blonde boy with sun colored hair and eyes as deep and green as the summer forest. Next came her four grandchildren, all four having black hair and red eyes, the hair matching that of the ravens that symbolized their house, and red eyes inherited from their mother’s side, deep like the blood she knew too well.