Lady Hanath listened intently to what Cordelia had to say. Her blue eyes widened slightly when the Sovnscrinian claimed that the raiders hailed from Calderon, but she remained silent, taking all the information in.
Finally the northerner finished her speech in a more reassuring tone, “However, one thing I do appreciate is your efforts to befriend me. Servants or not, a friend is never unwelcome. Thank you for making the effort, and I hope we can help each other through these interesting times”.
Hanath smiled and arose to leave, her long green dress trailing behind her. She opened the door of the visitor's chamber and turned round once more to say, "I hope so too. I will leave you now to get accustomed to your room, and please inform me via the servants if you need anything," before closing the door behind her and making her way back to her own chambers.
On her way, she mulled over what Cordelia had said in her mind. Were the pillagers really Calderon traitors? And should she tell Aldradoc of this claim? On the one hand, she feared that retaining this secret would paint a picture of her as a secretive and untrusting wife, but on the other, she feared how Aldradoc would react to it a lot more. The kingdom of Calderon hadn't seen a civil war since Aldradoc's grandfather, Vaiorix, united the tribes of the region and drove out a malicious cult that had abused the common Calderon religion to keep the tribes warring amongst themselves. Aldradoc would never accept that his own people were acting against him, and would see it all as a Sovnscrinian lie to hide their own brutality, making the problem of repairing relations between the two kingdoms worse rather than better. In any case, he was planning to arrange for Cordelia to hand over the captured raiders - once those barbarians are handed over, then their identity will finally be revealed, she thought to herself, so she decided to keep the northerner's claims to herself for the time being.
Outside the great windows of Ravenscroft, she could see that night was falling over the kingdom, and, feeling tired when she reached their bedroom, she decided to go to bed early and await her husband's return (she had had a warm bath before the visitors had arrived). She slipped into her long, cosy nightdress and snuggled down beneath the covers. She tried to stay awake long enough to talk to Aldradoc when he returned, but drifted off into a deep sleep long before.
Meanwhile, Aldradoc had allocated each of the visitors to their room and was now on his way round the castle, giving it one last check over before he retired to bed. Now that all the guests and their attendants were safely accommodated in their rooms, the hallways were much quieter than before, very much as they had been before their arrival, with only the odd Calderon servant hurrying about their duties. He liked wandering around the castle late in the evening by himself when it was quiet, it gave him a feeling of satisfaction that his home could be so peaceful at times. He went down the great central staircase and into the Great Hall, where some of the kitchen staff were just finishing clearing up after the visitors. The servants stopped in their work and kneeled to their Lord.
"Please, don't let me stop you clearing up, " he reassured them, "I was just checking that this mess was being sorted out."
He closed the double doors again and ascended the staircase once more, turning to the right on his way to the family chambers, but before returning to bed, he went to check on his son. He knocked firmly upon the door of his room and his Life-Ward, Venatios, answered it. Seeing who it was, the formidable warrior went back into the room, saying "Young master, your father is here to see you, " in his booming voice.
Upon entering, Aldradoc was immediately ambushed by his little boy, Barrivendos, who ran to give his father the biggest hug he could muster. Aldradoc reciprocated the gesture, before releasing him again and asking his son what he and Venatios had done today since Hanath had restricted him to his room.
"We've been fighting one of Great-Grandfather's battles!" the young boy replied, and, pulling on his father's cloak, pointed to where he and his Life-Ward had set up his carved wooden soldiers on the floor to re-enact one of the battles the late Vaiorix had fought in.
"Oh yes, the Battle of Aldravia Forest - your Grandad and I often used to play that one," Aldradoc replied, bending down and eyeing the setup with great interest, "Where's Great-Grandad?"
"Here he is," Barrivendos got onto his knees carefully to avoid knocking his wooden figures over and pointed to a finely-carved Calderon commander riding a horse, surrounded by other cavalrymen, "He's about to attack that nasty Cultist leader that's leading Venatios' army."
Aldradoc turned round to where Venatios was standing with his arms folded - the Life-Ward rolled his eyes jokingly and smiled. Barrivendos always wanted to play as the Calderon army in whatever battle they were playing, and Venatios had got used to being the enemy that got trounced.
"Well, you'll have to leave Great-Grandfather and the Cultists until tomorrow now - have you seen how dark it's got? It's time for little warriors to go to sleep, or else they'll be too tired to fight the Cultists the next morning."
Barrivendos sighed and reluctantly clambered into his little bed at the end of his room, and Aldradoc kissed his son goodnight.
On leaving, he whispered to Venatios, "You know what to do," and Barrivendos' Life-Ward gave a reassuring nod before the Lord closed his son's bedroom door behind him - Barrivendos, like his father before him at the same age, often used to get out of bed again to continue playing once his father had left the room, so as well as guarding his young master's room, Venatios' tasks to perform at night also involved regularly opening his bedroom door to check he was in bed and asleep and tucking him in again if he wasn't. As he had been since he was first hired to protect his young charge, Venatios was in for a long night.
Aldradoc sighed as a wave of pleasure washed over him on his way to bed. One of the things that he loved most about spending time with his son was that he got to relive his own childhood all over again - indeed many of Barrivendos' toys had been kept for him from when Aldradoc had been a little boy himself, and a few of them even dated back to Aldradoc's own father, Carados - like many other products of Calderon, toys were made to last.
Finally, the Lord of Calderon reached his own bedroom, and when he got there, he saw Hanath sleeping peacefully in her side of the bed. Making sure to be as quiet as possible, Aldradoc changed into his own nightwear and slipped into bed next to his wife. As soon as he lay down beside her, she instinctively snuggled up a little closer to him - even when asleep, Hanath seemed to have the uncanny ability to detect the increase in pressure on the mattress when Aldradoc settled himself down. Smiling, Aldradoc thought about the day's events - he had been so worried this morning about what all the visitors would be like, but they didn't seem to be too bad a lot. Hoping that tomorrow will be a lot easier, Aldradoc gradually fell asleep alongside his lady.
Indeed the whole castle of Ravenscroft seemed to finally begin to settle down to sleep, as weary servants finished off their tasks and trudged up to their quarters as well, until all was silent except for the soft hooting of owls and the occasional bark of a fox outside.
