All his knights including his brother looked everywhere but at him, they couldn’t look him in the eye. This made him worry more. How could nine fearless warriors be afraid to tell him something?

"In good time, but first change into something more comfortable," Baelon quickly said as he placed folded clothes into his hands. He looked at them all strangely before he stepped behind a changing screen that was placed in the corner of the hall.

"You know you can tell me anything, right?" he asked as he quickly shed of his traditional cape. He was quite mindful of the crown on his head as he changed. The crown was luckily light on his head so he had no reason to take it off.

"We know sire, but it is a long story," Lunan said.

This just piqued Jayk’s interest more and he hurried to get dressed. Something dreadful must have happened to get his well trained knights so worked up. When he was done he walked to his throne and took a seat. He looked at each and every knight before he turned his attention to Baelon.

"Now tell me what happened?" Jayk ordered.

"Last night a young girl was caught in one of our traps," Baelon started.

"It is not the first time that a human fell into our traps," Jayk said confused as to why it was such a horrible thing.

"Yes sire, but it is the first time that a human was badly injured because of it," Baelon finished.

"How bad is badly?" Jayk asked.

"She broke her hip," Baelon said.

"What? How could this happen?!" Jayk's voice boomed. The traps were there to lead the humans away not to harm them.

"One of the ropes snapped and she was slammed into a tree with great force," Baelon explained.

"And where is the girl now?" Jayk asked, hoping the girl got medical attention immediately.

"I brought her here, I recognized the injury and I couldn’t risk leaving her to be found by humans. I couldn’t risk her not getting medical attention immediately," Baelon explained.

"Where is she at this moment?"

"In the tower, the doctor thought it was the best place to put her. At least no one will happen upon her accidently. The doctor also performed an emergency surgery last night." Baelon said.

"I need to go check on her immediately," Jayk said as he stood up quickly.

"There is more," Lunan said. Jayk’s eyes connected with his and he sat back down.

"I sent scouts last night to trace back her steps to find out where she came from, it was horrifying," Baelon said.

"What did you find?" Jayk asked, almost too scared to hear about their findings.

"We traced her back to Jayel’s house."

"The old knight?"

"Yes sire, we found him and his mate murdered." Baelon said dejectedly.

"What? How? Who murdered them? When?" He asked in a rush he couldn’t believe his ears, who would murder an old retired knight?

"The scouts are still trying to figure it out, but it was humans. The scouts also reported that the girl, who we believe is Jayel’s daughter, was chased into the forest, they must’ve passed her when she was pulled into the tree." Baelon explained.

"So whoever is responsible for her parents’ death is after her to? She must have seen the whole thing happening," Jayk said as he stood up and paced. There were a lot of unanswered questions through his mind, and now there was an orphaned human in his kingdom.
Just as the king was pacing the knights that were stationed outside opened the door and announced the arrival of Duke Magnar.

"Sire," The duke said as he gave a quick bow before the doors were closed behind him. When he stood upright once more he looked around the room and noticed all the knights in the room.

"I hope I’m not disturbing," The duke said. Baelon wanted to say yes, but Jayk quickly shook his head.

"No Magnar, you aren’t disturbing at all. In fact I think you should know about this." Duke Magnar looked at the king and the knights with piqued interest.

"What is it?" Jayk nodded to Baelon who reluctantly told him about the human girl and her murdered parents.

"I want you to take you best knights and investigate this murder, if we know who killed them we can find out why," Jayk said.

"I am on it, sire." The duke said before he bowed and left the room. Jayk knew that his knights could also do the job, but he had something else in mind for them.

"Why did you give him the case?" Ryhan asked.

"Because, I need someone with good skills to do it," Jayk responded.

"Are we not skilled enough?" Hagan asked.

"No, I just need your help with something else and you are all to close to this case. Jayel was a great man, but for now I think I should visit our patient first," the king said before he nodded his greetings to his knights and left the room to go visit the human girl. The king felt sorry for his men, this man was like a father to them. Jayel was the knight that taught them everything they knew.

By the time he reached his private chambers he was already anxious to meet his guest. He wondered why her parents were murdered. He remembered all the visits the old knight made to the kingdom and how he would always talk about his beautiful daughter, he struggled to remember her name. Jayel was such a loyal knight and he always gave him the most advice.

He entered his chambers and saw that on the floor lay sheets that were covered in blood; he smelled the air and identified the blood as human. This was probably the sheets they used to perform the surgery.  He scrunched up his nose in disgust; he always hated the smell of blood. Looking at the amount of blood he just hoped that the girl was going to pull through.

He passed the bloodied sheets and headed for the door that led to the tower. He took the spiraled steps two at a time, for he was in a hurry to see whether the girl survived the surgery or not.

Darkness was all Haylee could see, and all she felt was excruciating pain in her side. Pain she couldn’t describe, but it was unbearable. She tried to open her eyes a few times, but at first they didn’t want to budge. But finally after a few tries they opened, after blinking a few times they were completely opened.

It took her eyes a few seconds to adjust and when they finally adjusted she saw a short, plump man standing beside her. He had balding hair with a pair of glasses resting on his nose. When the man noticed her open eyes a small smile formed on his face. The man opened his mouth to say something but before he could the door on the opposite side of the room was opened.

"Doctor I just came to see-" The man who entered the room cut of his sentence as soon as his eyes landed on her. Their eyes connected and for a split second she felt butterflies in her stomach, why she had no idea.

“Who are you?” Haylee asked as her eyes went from the stranger near her bed to the one who just barged into the small room. While she waited for a reply she looked around the small room. The room was made out of big grey stones. There was a pair of glass doors next to the bed with a balcony and across the massive bed was the red door the stranger just barged through.  There was a small table next to her bed where a jug with water stood next to a glass.

"Where am I?" She said as she looked at the stranger who entered the room, the one who gave her butterflies for some odd reason. He had black hair, but on closer inspection she noticed that it was actually a very dark blue color. He was tall and had a well built physique. A pair of electric blue eyes stared at her green ones. He wore a black T-shirt and a pair of jeans, his outfit which had a modern look, didn’t fit with the medieval crown that rested on his head. The crown was a black color and was covered in what looked like scales. There were five talons protruding from it and in the middle of the crown was a blood red jewel surrounded by a yellow border. Was this some kind of costume?

"We will answer your questions soon, Malady. But first have some water," The chubby man next to her said as he poured her a glass water. She wanted to drag herself into a sitting position, but a sharp pain went through her side and leg and she let out a small scream. In the corner of her eye she saw that the blue-haired man took a step closer, unsure of how to assist her.

"Easy there, malady. You should be gentle. You just had surgery," The doctor said as he helped her to sit upright. It was more bearable to move with the doctor’s help, but it was still very painful.

Where was she?

Why was she here?

And why did she have surgery? She was as fit as a fiddle.

"Can someone just tell me what is going on?!" She said in frustration. Her eyes darted from one man to the next. The two men shared a look before the blue-haired man finally started to speak.