Even though it was midnight Ewan could faintly make out someone playing a lute in a tower room above him. Since it would be unusual for a musician to stay in the tower, he wondered if perhaps it was a nobleman practicing a performance intended for the King. Ewan had heard the melancholy before but only could remember a few of the lyrics.<br/><br/><span style="font-style: italic">Hark! You shadows that in darkness dwell,<br/>Learn to contemn light.<br/>Happy, happy they that in hell<br/>Feel not the world's despite.</span><br/><br/>The song made a fitting backdrop for the human drama that was unfolding below him. While Victoria and the objects of her despite were not raising their voices Ewan could still make out their words by listening intently. Victoria had accused the young girl of being pregnant and attempting to trap her son in a marriage where he would potentially raise another man’s child. This was perhaps the worst possible thing a woman could do to a man in that day, and Ewan knew it.<br/><br/>“Well played, my dear,” he said to himself as he chuckled darkly to himself.<br/><br/>Down below Ewan could see the young woman fall to pieces. She dropped to her knees and sobbed into her hands, her whole body shaking. He couldn’t make out exactly what she was saying but her body language suggested ‘no’ over and over. Next she reached out for Alexander’s hand for some semblance of kindness from the boy she apparently loved, and whom she hoped loved her; the boy whose mother was intent on utterly destroying her.<br/><br/>“I am… a maiden…” she whispered through her tears, turning to face Alexander with her arm extended in his direction. “Your mother is lying. Please… Alexander…," she whimpered. "Help me…”