Ever since Katya spoke, the inquiring eyes of the Burgomaster's daughter could not be torn from her and Esperanza. Amber eyes watered for a second as anyone who spoke before Esperanza was drowned out. The got a letter to<i>come back</i>? Even the blind could see that these two girls were twins. Were he daughters separated from one another? The woman looked to Ismark with a look of absolute surprise, but the lush was knee-deep in what he loved the most. As Esperanza spoke of going to the castle it made Ireena's heart wench.<br/><br/>"Ismark... you know who they are?" Ireena wanted to get up and touch her daughters, but fear held her back. Fear that they would be taken away from her again. Fear that she would lose them, as she had their father. "You go to that castle and I will lose you just as I had your father and that is no doubt what he wants and I am so sorry." Ireena was on the brink of losing it emotionally. Her baby girls were here and in a danger the likes of which the world outside of Barovia has never seen. "You were not supposed to come back. Selfishly I wanted you, but you can see why I needed to let you go. I lost your father, who was a Holy Knight on a conquest to slay the vampire lord himself and free the lands of his accursed rule. Needless to say, he never returned, but he gifted me two beautiful girls. The gypsies took you away from Barovia. It was what was best." The woman was prepared to be hated for abandoning her daughter. For risking their lives outside of the walls with total strangers as opposed to keeping them at her side.<br/><br/>"Esperanza, you can not go. I would rather give myself up to him that have him take my daughters." The seriousness was undeniable. "Andrei is right, there is no going back to the manor and as far as leaving Barovia... if it were that easy then none of us would be here." A word of caution. They were in this for the long haul and it was a day by day battle to survive. "We must do something though, I just..." Giving herself up sounded so simple but the idea of how many lives were lost up until this day to save hers stopped that thought in its tracks.