A/N: Again, it's been a while since I've uploaded this. I'm sorry, I'm a pretty busy person. Anyway, I hope you'll enjoy the new chapter.

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"I... I didn't call myself a knight!" Maréin stammered. "You must have misheard!" 

Arwund chuckled. "You really are a bad liar, Maréin." He sat down on the edge of a table and crossed his arms. "So, what are you? You say you're a knight, and yet you don't have a sword. You're immune to dragon's fever. You're capable of turning sword hilts stone cold and controlling people's actions with your mind." 

The woman on the bed sat up and looked a bit afraid now. 

"It's not control," Maréin said. "It's... more mental persuasion than control." 

"Yes, that's a very nice way to put it, but in practice, it's mind control," Arwund said. 

Maréin sighed. "Alright. I'll tell you. But you mustn't let Enorwin know. He'd be... shocked." 

"Why would he be?" Arwund asked. "The guy's obsessed with knights and chivalry, almost to an unhealthy level." 

"That's precisely the reason," Maréin said. "What I'm going to tell you will change the way you view history. Radically." 

"So what?" Arwund said nonchalantly. "History's over. It doesn't matter anymore." 

"It matters more than you think," Maréin said, and the woman looked away. The wanderer leaned back in his chair. "You believe knights to be humans, don't you?" he asked Arwund. 

"I do," Arwund said, unsure where this was going. 

"Well, they - we - aren't," Maréin said. "That is, we original knights aren't. We're a separate race, humanoid in appearance, but inwardly as different from humans as the dragons. As you have seen before, we have certain powers. The dragons' powers are mostly physical; our powers are mostly mental." 

"But knights are warriors," Arwund stated. "You don't exactly fit that bill." 

Maréin smiled. His expression radiated a kind of sadness. "Warriors, yes. That's how we've come to be seen. But most of us favour peace: we're more diplomats than soldiers, more peacemakers than people of conflict." 

"How is that possible?" Arwund asked, surprised. "I mean, that violent, dragon-slaying reputation probably didn't come out of nowhere." 

"It didn't," Maréin said. "You know what the thing was with us knights? We disliked combat, but that didn't make us weak or cowardly. On the contrary, quite often it was us who dared to stand up to defend the weak, albeit through nonviolent means. We gained a reputation of bravery, you see. But in general, it was the humans who turned our kind of bravery into courage in battle. And many of the dragons went along with this new concept of courage. All of a sudden, the idea of looking at both sides of the story instead of fighting was seen as weak, instead of brave. And the perfect example of this kind of behaviour was a strongly distorted version of the original knight." 

"Wow," Arwund said. "I have to say I didn't see that one coming." 

"Me neither," the woman on the bed admitted. 

"So what about Lannhil?" Arwund asked, curious. "What was he like?" 

"Only the people who knew him could tell you that," Maréin said. 

"And you, Maréin, are some famous Southlands knight?" Arwund asked. 

"Well, I don't want to brag, but I'm fairly famous in the Middle Lands as well, though it's quite possible you've never heard the name," Maréin said, smiling. 

"I'll make sure to look you up when I get the chance," Arwund said. 

"By all means," Maréin said. 

They fell silent. 

"You had a point," Arwund said finally. "Enorwin wouldn't like to hear this. This knowledge goes against all of his ideas. Maybe he wouldn't even believe it." 

"So you're not going to tell him?" Maréin asked. 

Arwund shrugged. "I don't see the point. You should tell him yourself when the need arises." 

Maréin smiled. "You're not that bad a person, Arwund." 

Arwund chuckled. "I disagree," he said, before leaving the building. The blizzard had passed.

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Carlard woke up feeling somewhat sick. 

Vaciana still hadn't contacted him. That could only mean that the prince and his gang were still alive. Darfith would be extremely displeased, and usually it was dangerous to be around the dragon when that happened. He shivered at the thought that he would be the one to report his failure to Darfith if nothing happened quickly. 

Someone knocked on his door. He looked up, hopefully. Could it be...? 

It was Joandrey. 

He closed his eyes and turned away from her, disappointed. If only, if only Vaciana came back in time. 

"Is something wrong?" Joandrey asked. 

"Everything is wrong," Carlard said. "Vaciana has to come back quickly, or else who knows what Darfith will do?" 

"You're afraid," Joandrey stated, sounding surprised. "I didn't think it was possible, but you're afraid." 

"Unfortunately, in draconic human, it still says human after draconic," Carlard said. 

"I know," Joandrey said, "and I'd like to tell you that everything will be alright, but I can't promise you it will be." She hesitated, but then she said, "However, no matter how mad Darfith is going to get, no matter how long it will take Vaciana to track them down and no matter how many nobles want to imprison us, I'll stand by you, Carlard. That I can promise." 

Carlard's smile was barely visible. "Thank you, Joandrey. I'm glad."

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Vaciana felt torn inside. 

On the one hand, she knew she still had an assignment to complete. Carlard had ordered her to kill the members of the group and, if possible, bring the breather to Carlard alive. However, there were two problems. 

The first problem was that at this time, she was not physically capable of killing anyone and that Maréin was watching her all the time. The second problem was that in all honesty, she really didn't want to kill the four men. Maréin had saved her life. Come to think of it, she had actually never killed anyone before. Usually, she was asked to locate people or to steal things, but killing, that was something she'd never done before. 

And the more time she spent here with Maréin, the less she felt like trying it. 

"Can you get me my bag?" she asked him absently. "I'm hungry."

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"Can you get me my bag?" she asked all of a sudden. "I'm hungry." 

"Sure," Maréin said. He got up and went to the leather bag lying on the table. He picked it up and wanted to turn around and take it to Vaciana, when suddenly, his eyes locked onto an item inside it. He put the bag back on the table and took out a small flask containing a strange, yellowish liquid.  

"What is this?" he murmured. 

He carefully pulled the cork out of the flask and inhaled the scent, making sure that his nose wasn't directly above the opening. He grimaced. "It's poison," he stated, more in surprise than in anger. 

He pushed the cork back into the flask, put it down and looked at Vaciana. "Why are you carrying poison with you?" 

The woman's eyes widened in fear. "I... I didn't..." 

"Are you a hired assassin?" Maréin asked carefully. 

"Well, not exactly," Vaciana said quietly. "It's my first assignment." 

"Who were you asked to kill?" Maréin asked. He called upon his knightly powers. 

"I... I don't..." she stammered, clearly unsure what to say. 

He repeated the question, allowing his powers to make her realise that he wasn't going to harm her. That was no lie: in his eyes, killing her was not an option. 

Her face contorted in what could only be shame and then it struck him. 

"Oh dear," he mumbled, "it's us, isn't it?" 

"It is," Vaciana whispered. "I wasn't going to do it, though! You must believe me!" 

"I believe you," Maréin said. "Who sent you?" 

"Carlard," she admitted. 

Of course. Who else? Maréin thought to himself. "What else is in that bag?" 

She appeared to be thinking. "One more flask of poison," she said finally. "Five darts, I believe. And a dagger." 

Maréin laughed. "And you were just letting me take a look at all that?" 

"The rest is inside a hidden compartment," she said. "I'd forgotten about the flask." She hesitated. "What will happen to me now?" she asked after a while. 

"Nothing," Maréin said, "but I am going to destroy all that poison as soon as I get the chance. I hope you agree." 

"I do," she said. 

He looked at her. Thanks to his powers, he knew she wasn't lying. She truly had not wanted to kill them. 

He sighed, thinking about Vaciana's question. "What will happen to me now?" The truth was that he was unsure what to do. He had no guarantee she wouldn't go back to working as a hired assassin after he left her behind. And so he rummaged through the bag in silence, deep in thoughts.

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Enorwin had probably once again thought himself too important to get the group together, for he had sent Arwund to notify Maréin of the fact that they were leaving. 

The rogue rapped his knuckles on the door of the second guards' house. "Maréin! Enorwin wants to leave!" 

"Er... how long do I have?" Maréin asked.  

Arwund raised an eyebrow. "As for me, take all the time you need. But I'm not sure if Sir Grumpy will be all too happy if you take too long." 

The woman inside the building laughed. "Sir Grumpy?" she repeated. "Honestly?" 

"Sir Grumpy," Maréin said, "will have to wait. I'm... busy." 

"Maréin," Arwund asked, "what in the world are you doing in there?" 

"Long story," Maréin said absently. Arwund heard the sound of someone thoroughly searching through a bag of sorts. That should be interesting, he thought to himself.

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If only he doesn't come in right now, Maréin thought, panicked. Think! 

He looked around the room, searching for a place to quickly hide the poison and the weapons he had found. And then he saw. 

As quickly as he could, he put the flasks, the darts and the dagger into his own bag. He was just closing it as Arwund opened the door. 

"Everything alright in here?" he asked carefully. 

Maréin had not felt quite so relieved in a very long time. "Yes, everything's alright. In fact, I believe I'm ready to go. And Arwund," he added, looking the draconic human in the eye, "might I ask what your problem is with knocking before entering a room?" 

"Sorry," Arwund said, grinning, "it may be that you are one, but I'm not a knight." 

"One does not have to be a knight to respect other people's privacy," Maréin said. 

Arwund shrugged nonchalantly. "If you say so. Enorwin ordered us to gather by the other guards' house. I'll see you there." 

As he proceeded to leave the building, Maréin took a decision. 

"Arwund!" he called after him. "Tell Enorwin my friend Vaciana is coming along, too." 

"I am?" Vaciana asked, taken aback. 

"Yes, you are," Maréin answered quietly, hoping Arwund wouldn't hear. 

Arwund raised his eyebrows in surprise. "Er... alright," he said. He chuckled. "I doubt our princely friend will let her, though." 

"We'll see about that," Maréin said, grabbing his bag and tossing Vaciana's now lighter bag on her bed. He looked at her. "Let's get going," he said.

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A/N: Thanks for reading! If you liked this, I would greatly appreciate it if you voted for it. On top of that, don't be afraid to give contructive criticism on this story. Also, if you see any grammatical errors or spelling mistakes, I'd be happy if you told me, so that I can correct them.

For the rest, I want to thank everyone who has read this story for helping me get to more than 1.5K reads. It makes me very happy that there has been so much support for this story lately. I'll say it once more: this story may not have been online if it weren't for all of you readers. Thank you all so very much!