<span class="fixed-color" style="color:#bfbfbf">The half elf smiled, glad to see he’d caught it. Ardinya had chosen an excellent guardian for her children.</span><span class="fixed-color" style="color:#808080"> “Yes. the second warning.”</span><span class="fixed-color" style="color:#bfbfbf"> she said, walking slowly in a circle around him, the chalk dust seeming to swirl away beneath him and vanish, as though it had never been there at all. As much as she wanted to warn him about the specifics of the trials that were to come, she could not. They would have to face them, the three of them. Lucian and Ardinya’s daughters. </span><span class="fixed-color" style="color:#808080">“Be prepared for a fight.”</span><span class="fixed-color" style="color:#bfbfbf"> she finally said, slowly settling back on the window seat, resting her hands on her knees as she leaned forwards.</span><span class="fixed-color" style="color:#808080"> “There are a great many people who want them. For various reasons. Be prepared to fight to keep them. And know that you may have to take extreme steps to ensure their survival…” </span><span class="fixed-color" style="color:#bfbfbf">she straightened up, offering him a gentle smile, almost pityingly. </span><span class="fixed-color" style="color:#808080">“And one other favor, if I might ask it of you.”</span><span class="fixed-color" style="color:#bfbfbf"> she retrieved a letter from her desk drawer, setting it on top of the box.</span><span class="fixed-color" style="color:#808080"> “I know you can’t deliver this now. But someday, maybe soon. See that this makes it to Ordenel Luresk?”</span><span class="fixed-color" style="color:#bfbfbf">  she gestured dismissively at him</span><span class="fixed-color" style="color:#808080">. “Now go, I’m an old woman and i’m tired, and you have two lovely proteges to return to.”</span>