Thread: True Calling (Atroxa x Effigy)

Lilura had returned to her room, enduring a rather boring lecture from Galathe on the way back about how dangerous it was to go into the forest at all, even more so at night and alone. She didn't listen, and he knew she didn't, she'd been going to the forest since before he'd been assigned to her personal guard and she would continue to do so. He had given up the heavy handed tactics of her previous head of security, they hadn't worked, and he'd met a rather unfortunate end so he didn't try to copy his predecessor. And the rumors that the very girl he was protecting had killed the former guard kept him a bit wary of pushing his luck with her. There was all the business with her mother after all, who was to say that she wasn't just as dangerous? The pay was worth it though, he had a small family to take care of after all. So he'd left her to retire to her room, going back to his own. In the morning, the girl woke early, as she usually did, got ready, and joined her father and younger brother for a quiet breakfast. Her family didn't talk, not anymore. Lilura had nothing to say to her father and he had nothing to say to her that she wanted to hear, Lennox Balfour had lost his daughter's respect many years ago. Poor Vailean was caught in the middle, but the boy didn't seem to notice. He was younger than Lilura by several years, with the same gray eyes, but his hair was fair, like their mother's had been. This was the only life he could really remember, so it was perfectly normal to him. He ate and then was carted off by his guards to start his tutoring lessons, and Lilura left without a word to go and see to her guest. She didn't say anything to her father about him, nor did she attempt to hide it though. He'd find out eventually. The servants though had learned that it was just easier on them all if they left the young woman to her own devices. Lilura went down to the infirmary, her long black hair pleated back into a braid that fell down her back, with a smaller braid looped around her head to form a band, beads and raven feathers worked into it. She no longer wore the long cloak from the night before but a dark blue gown, simple but elegant. She was beautiful, but even if they were welcome at the capital, young men would have been wary to approach her. She had a dark, cold look to her, eyes that calculated and seemed to know everything about you, even the things you didn't want anyone to know. Lilura unsettled most people, part of it was the legacy of her mother, the other part was just that she was abnormal for a girl her age, quiet and piercing, with the bearing of a woman many years her senior. When she reached the infirmary she was greeted by the nurse, who informed her in a rather irritated manner of how their guest had greeted her for the morning. Lilura sighed and apologized to the woman, a rare thing to expect of any one of noble birth. No doubt, the young woman was just as arrogant as most nobles, arrogant and haughty, but she wasn't stupid. Treating the people you depended on on a daily basis, that surrounded you at every moment of every day like they were beneath you was a foolish thing to do. That same courtesy did not extend to guests, no matter their station, unless she felt they deserved it. Walking into the infirmary proper, she spotted the recovering man awake and eating breakfast with the decorum of a savage. Lilura gave a fleeting look of disapproval before it changed into a friendly, sweet smile, Good morning, enjoying your breakfast? She asked him, her tone sickeningly sweet, obviously mocking him, before turning stern and sharp, the smile dropping into a glare, If you are, I suggest you refrain from barking orders at any of my staff or it'll be your last. I'll happily have my guards reinflict the damage that our nurse and physician undid and deposit you back in the forest for the wolves. If it weren't for the obvious youth of her features, the baby fat still clinging to her face and the small almost delicate build of her still growing body, Lilura would pass for a woman much older than herself. She'd been operating as the lady of the house since her mother died after all, being in charge came naturally to her by now. Now, who are you and what were you doing so deep in the forest? She demanded of him, her tone not so threatening now, but still stern.