'I was under the impression that Spellkeepers were a bit more lax.' She immediately felt bad for dragging him here, essentially without his consent, and making him wait in that manner.

And he had indeed waited, but he wasn't upset about it. He himself found the young lady of the house interesting, especially after her funny question earlier.

A short and polite greeting was given by the lady, as he bowed and paid his respects, only then did they both sit down – of course, the knight had to wait for the lady to sit down first.

He couldn't sit with her in the same room unless circumstances allowed it. In this case, the noble lady had demanded it, while in the forest, the situation demanded it.

For a second, she glanced at a slice of cake in front of her, with ripe berries on top of a layer of cream. It wasn't easy to get berries in the cold north, so they probably had to pay a lot, even with a good merchant group at their disposal.

The cookies looked really good to her too, though. "What did you want to talk to me about?" Yaakov asked, despite the fact that he was sure he knew already.

Confused, she took her eyes off the delicious sweets and stared at the man in front of her before realizing what she was here for.

"Oh, right," she stammered, "I mean, yes, as I requested in the lobby. What is your type of Manifestation? I would also like to see it, if you would allow it." It was something personal, after all.

"I'm afraid I can't answer that."

For a moment, silence filled the salon. "Oh," she let out her disappointment, "all right, if that is your decision, I will respect it."

He laughed. "No, you misunderstood, my lady," the southerner said with a gleam of amusement in his eyes, "I don't know how you got the idea, but I'm not a High Priest. I'm barely a Holy Knight. I can't do something as grand as Manifestation."

Dumbfounded, Rowena, who was about to take a sip of her tea, blinked. "You're not?"

Right, where had she gotten that idea? Something must have made her believe he was one, but she couldn't recall anything in particular.

"No, I really am a knight, even as a knight capable of using Mana, that is not the same, I'm afraid to admit." Since most people knew close to nothing about Mana, he thought it to be a cute blunder.

Rowena, on the other hand, felt her cheeks flush hotly at the realization of what hoops she must have jumped through in order to reach her conclusion. Her social skills were awkward at best, but this was embarrassing.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to disappoint you." He was still laughing inside, and even Norina was annoyed as she looked at the "funny" that was clearly written on his face.

"I'm not disappointed, really," she said, taking a deep breath, "but you must be disappointed in me. I haven't even asked your name yet."

He stopped grinning at her unexpected words. "I hope you will overlook my discourtesy by being so frank, as your words are correct. But realistically, you, as the daughter of our esteemed Lord, don't need to know every name in His Grace's knight brigade." He wasn't bitter at all, after all, she hadn't asked for anyone's name except Sir Sean's, which also made the most sense.

'And I got the feeling she did it back then to get out of the situation.' If he had wanted her to know his name so badly, he would have told her. 'Logan just introduced himself as well.'

He stood and put a hand on his chest. "Well, I am Sir Yaakov Mizrahi, a Knight of the first division of the Silver Lion Knights' Brigade." A knight inducted by the Grand Duchy, not the Church of Aurora.

Rowena nodded and motioned for him to sit down. "It is an honor to meet you, Sir Yaakov. You are from the Southern Continent, I presume?"

As he sat down, he smiled again, thinking of his homeland. "Yes. I don't know if my lady has heard of it, but I hail from the Kingdom of Mustafa."

She felt like she did see it on the map, but wasn't too sure. It was far to the east of the continent. "That's quite a long journey."

"Indeed. I came the long way to the North-Western Continent to be ordained at the Church of Aurora and to train as a Holy Knight." For someone from a Kingdom of pagans, he had barely been accepted.

'Since he has a family name, he is either a noble or from a wealthy family.' Another sip of her tea and suddenly something popped into her head. "Now I remember. Sir Sean mentioned 'High Priests' in our group. So I assumed you must be one too."

The sudden change of topic threw her conversational partner off, but he caught himself in time.

"Ah, I mean, it's good that you made it. But I wouldn't have expected you to fail after all the trouble you went through to get here. Someone who knows any kind of hardship wouldn't blindly risk so much for nothing," she said with a furrowed brow and reached for a cookie, thinking of all the times she had gotten into situations where she was sure she would come out on top, "in the end, conviction must always be paid with a price – either by the world, or by the convinced." Her eyes were still on the tray with baked goods, unsure on what she would have first.

Stunned by the opinion that seemed to come to her so easily, Yaakov said nothing for a second before deciding he shouldn't pry and returned to her earlier comment. He had a feeling that there had been a slight misunderstanding between Her Ladyship and his second-in-command.

"My lady, the one Sir Sean was referring to was not me, but he was talking about-"

At that moment, the door suddenly burst open, leading Rowena to look up with a half eaten cookie sticking out of her mouth. In walked a young man who couldn't care less about the servants who were still trying to keep him from entering.

His lavender hair and red eyes burned themselves into her memory.

The intruder just stood there, staring at her, making her feel like she was unwelcome in her own drawing room. Well, technically it wasn't her own drawing room, but this was the one Rowena would use as her own for now as far as she was concerned.

Sir Yaakov stood up and tried to ease the prickly atmosphere. "Good evening, Young Master Colin." With that said, Rowena realized who had just ruined her evening tea.

'Oh boy.' It was Colin Arden van Varnhagen, her nineteen-year-old brother. "What do you need?" she asked after swallowing her food, feeling exhausted just looking at his frown.

Colin continued to stare daggers at her, as if all the questions in the universe would be answered if he did. This was his sister, two years younger than him, but acting like an imbecile in contrast to her age.

He hadn't seen her for three years, but when he heard what had happened, he came to scold her because he knew his father was incapable of doing so. And he was right.

She was supposed to be under house arrest, but as soon as he reached the mansion in the capital, he heard that she was going back to the family residence. How could traveling across the kingdom be considered punishment? Obviously, he didn't know how much she hated sitting in a carriage.

Though Colin had to admit that something had changed about her poise. Was she finally ready to stop playing damsel in distress for them?

"How can you be so disrespectful to your older brother?" he finally retorted, "I came here to see how you were doing, be thankful for that."

With a raised eyebrow, Rowena sipped her tea again and looked at the man who had just barged in like an ill-mannered fool. "Is that so?"

That was unexpected. "Yes? I mean, of course!" In a moment of confusion, he let his guard down, but he wasn't going to let her get the better of him again.

It wasn't that it was such a big hit, it was just that he expected her to either look angry and intimidated or to pucker up and scream at him like a banshee. That was how she always reacted.

Her coming at him in this collected fashion was an unexpected event, but there was nothing more to it.

Angrily, he gritted his teeth and scowled, but she wasn't having it. "You don't get to barge into my drawing room and talk to me about respect, 'dear brother'." What did he want anyway?

Since he couldn't refute her, he scoffed and calmed down. "What did you come here for?"

'Why is everyone and their mothers so interested in that? Can't a girl go on vacation?' What could she even say? "Nothing."

She had a specific reason, which was why she had to make sure to study the map they would bring her tomorrow.

"Don't lie! Humphrey mentioned that you asked for a regional map. Why would you need one?"

'Damn it, Humphrey,' she thought, 'Wait, who's Humphrey?' After a second of going through the possibilities, it was probably the head butler she had met tonight. 'Damn you, Humphrey!' She felt betrayed.

But he looked so smug, as if he had won the argument simply by throwing something random at the wall, hoping it would stick.

Slightly annoyed, she opted for the answer everyone else would get: "I must have missed the part where that was your business."

"It is my business as you are not allowed to leave Vandenberg."

"Who says I would?" she threw back in his face, "Besides, did you follow me just to reprimand me, young lord?"

The way she called him made him scrunch up his nose for a second. "I did not."

'Such a short response?' He looked as if he was hiding something, avoiding her gaze. "That being said, have you been here this whole time?" Unlike their father, Colin didn't appear to be outright afraid to meet her eyes, even if he didn't seem to be comfortable with it either.

How had he come up north? She had been led to believe that he had been at the Academy or the Church's training facility for priests to become High Priests, as he always was.

Yaakov cleared his throat as the silence grew stale. "I don't think you met during the ride, but here is the second High Priest the Vice Captain must have been referring to." Wide-eyed, Rowena and Colin both looked at him in shock, prompting Yaakov to feign a cough and bow curtly. "Anyway, I believe I am no longer needed. If I may, I would like to rejoin the other knights."

Sweating, he waited for one of them to say the word so he could jump out of this cold war zone. But it felt like an eternity had passed.

"You may go," Rowena said, after all she was the one who forced him here.

"Wait," Colin interrupted, but his younger sister held out her arm and put her foot down as she silenced him with the gesture.

"I said you may go, Sir Yaakov." It was good she knew his name now. "He was sent as my knight, Young Master Colin, even if he happened to be escorting you too, as it seems."

Colin wanted to say something but couldn't, so he let it go. On the journey, he had told them not to say anything, but he could only guess where the knight's loyalty lay.

The truth was that he had followed her on the spur of the moment. On the way, he hadn't wanted to confront her, because it would have been a mess to stay in that atmosphere for two days in a small carriage, so he sat in the back instead.

As Yaakov had left the lounge to flee the scene, Rowena let out a long sigh. "Master Colin, I think it is getting late and we should all go to bed. If you have anything of substance to say, you can tell me at lunch tomorrow."

This time it was he who raised an eyebrow. Sure, she looked a lot healthier, and he had walked in on her having tea with snacks, but he hadn't seen her eat anything but a cookie. Hearing her say she was going to have lunch seemed out of place to him altogether, but she said it as if she expected him to be there as well.

"How would we talk if you are hiding in your room?"

"But I'm not?" She said it as if he was stupid. "I will be sleeping in, so lunch it is."

Of course she would eat in some sort of dining room, as she usually did at the annex. Yes, she ate in her room a few times in the beginning, but the sheer amount of food she ate war hard to pile on her small coffee table.

"Fine. If you say so, I'll meet you there tomorrow."

As if he had the right to be annoyed, he slammed the door in his wake, leaving her to her own devices. As she had planned, two sandwiches on the tray and a two slices of cake she had to inhale in a hurry were finished so she could finally go to bed.

"Don't forget to wake me at the right time for lunch and please instruct the maids on my meal preferences."

Norina nodded respectfully, having understood the order she had received very well. "I will see to it."

Rowena took that as a positive answer and looked at the bed she was going to lie down on after she had glanced out of the window. It was strange how different it felt. Not only the few things she could make out in the darkness outside, but also the inside of the room.

The pictures were still like an uncanny valley nightmare to her, and the rest of the room was so childlike and cute, she had never seen anything like it.

Her focus landed on an object next to her desk. "I always wanted to play a classical instrument," she said, "well, I never got the chance."

'Why don't you try?'

Surprised, more by what he had said than the fact that he had said it, the young woman stood there, eyeing the violin with envy. Did Rowena play? It was something that was said to be best started at the tender age of three.

Just the violin standing there carried an elegance that Celia could never maintain in her line of work. She couldn't even let her hair grow out, because a long ponytail would have been like an invitation to grab it in a fight, and open hair was impractical.

When she reached out to touch the smooth-looking wood with her fingertips, she stopped and fidgeted with the ends of her sleeves instead, on her way to the bed full of stuffed animals.

Even though she had turned off the lamps, the dolls were still visible in the dim moonlight. Lying with them felt strangely comforting, a bit like sitting on a sponge that took away her worries as she drifted off into sleep.