"Monsieur Ethan!" an all too familiar voice reaches my ears and I know there is nobody besides the Frog who would address me like that. I see one of my guards helping Jacque to stand straight. His skin looks mostly untouched by the fire but by his bearing, he seems to have a broken leg.

"Jacque," I snort scornfully.

"You are not allowed to declare anything within this society. You are banned and lost all your rights," he reminds me.

I straighten out and when I walk over to him, he pales. Most probably he did not realize the death spirits around me at first hand and I know very well that the ripped-up sleeves and the bloodstains on my clothes adding to my dangerous appearance.

"You are the one to stop me?" I laugh out once, "what was the reason for so many council members to be in the headquarters? Can you tell me that?"

"The matters of the council are not—"

"I can tell you," I interrupt, "Lord Blackwood wanted to have an emergency meeting. Do you know why I know that?" I ask him further with a stare. He does not answer but it was more of a rhetorical question anyway. His confused face amuses me.

"I know about that because he was here the night before. I was the subject of this meeting and he presented to you the real circumstances of my banishment, didn't he?" The council members look at each other and I am not entirely sure that Tristan was able to have his meeting or even start it. This does not mean I give in while the silence starts to get uncomfortable.

"Very well, he presented some suspicions but there were no facts to it," he finally answers as he realizes my confidence, "You are still a criminal and have no right to interfere with any political decision. You don't belong to us!" he gathers the courage to try to show me my place.

"Mister Forks," I turn my head to the minister that has the judicial sovereignty of the council instead of letting my anger take over and crash that maggot's face. "Do I have the right to declare the law of war?"

The man gulps at the sudden attention. He is tall but sits on a fur like a little child at the moment. The fire caught his back and the left shoulder but Erwin already bandaged his wounds as best as possible.

"The requirements, in general, are fulfilled. There was an extraordinary big attack on a large group of the society and Lord Blackwood is indisposed," he makes a short pause to clear his throat. I am sure he also has the same thoughts as everybody else. Tristan would never leave us alone if he could make it.

"In addition, there is a rather secretive passage in our paragraph about the law of war. I discussed it often and long with our Lord as he let me add it without a lot of a comment. I never really understood it but I guess now there is no room for interpretation anymore. It states that the first royal guard, no matter if from the past or present, has the right to do so unless he is not explicitly excluded from the paragraph by name. When Mister Vinge got banned I figured he will apply to get named there, but when I asked how to proceed, our Lord told me that we need to keep it the way it is, hence my answer to this question is a clear yes, Sir."

Silence.

I have to smirk. "Would you also be so kind and tell those, who are not part of the council, what this means," I request while my eyes are still locked with Jacque's.

"The law of war states that the military sovereignty, which is Lord Blackwood himself or the leader of the royal guards, will become the highest of all sovereignty and does not need to rely on the judgment of the council members anymore until the declaration is suspended and the regular routine can be revived. In fact, this means, you can declare the law of war but you will not rule, as you are not on duty. Lady Blackwood will be our highest sovereignty."

The eyes wander to Eve and I need to confess that I am happy that she gets up from her seat with pride. The little time she had, she used to calm down and sweep away the tears. Even though I can see that Lester is still standing a little too close, she is raising her chin.

With the burnings in her face, the doll looks like a die-hard warrior and that is exactly what she will need to be right now. I would feel sorry, but I know that she is strong enough for this. We need to stand together now.

"She is just a little girl, you can't be serious," Jacque dares to say in disbelief. I growl out at him and take his chin in my grip. "Don't you dare to question your new First Lady or I will rip you apart." I am not talking loudly, but my gleaming eyes underline how serious I am.

"I won't hold him back," Eve says and I smirk. That is my Lass.

"I will," Étain speaks up and I release Jacque to look at her. Lyall is standing next to her and I can tell that he does not really know if he wants to back her up or not. The tensions are nearly visible as Etain and I are standing on the opposite side of the fire pit in the middle of the room. I guess she would gladly use the opportunity to punish me when I dare to break their rules.

"I know you want a piece of me, kitten. Why don't we just clarify that once and for all?" I then ask and see her nod.

"Count me in, Ferret," she answers before growling my way and I return the gesture with showing her my fangs.

Lyall also growls out loud this moment. "Enough! I will not allow you to lay a hand on my partner, Butcher. I also will not allow you doing anything to Ethan, Étain. I'm still his caretaker," his eyes wander from her to me and back again, "Wasn't there enough blood and pain the last few weeks for the two of you? It's enough, do you hear me?" he growls out angrily.

"It is only his blood I want to see," Étain reminds Lyall and I snort. As if, I have not bled enough in my life already. It will never be enough for her though. Only when I do my last breath she will still want to have more. I know that kind of heartburn and I am almost tempted to feel sorry for her.

I have to smirk at the two of them though.

"That does not mean I won't let her kill you if necessary," Lyall finally chooses his side at my reaction and I am fine with it. I nod to both of them.

"You are one lucky French Frog," I take one more step in Jacque's direction to invade his personal space and look him in the eye, "but as soon as we leave these woods, they won't care about you anymore. You should watch your back very carefully."

I turn around to speak to my guards once more. "In case you all didn't realize as of yet, we are guests here. Don't dare to disgrace our Lord while he is absent!"

"Ethan," Eve drags me out of the staring, "here is my first order for you: I want you to take what Tristan wanted to gift you for so long already. Please do me the honor and share our last name as you obviously gave up yours just to protect this kingdom."

She slowly makes her way to me. Lester wants to back her up, but she denies his help.

I look at her in surprise, very well aware of the pair of eyes that are on me, but I cannot hide my fully flashed up eyes. Stupid little girl. Her soft smile reminds me of the sly one from Tristan.

The pain in my chest grows as I think about him and I really cannot let it take over. I need to overcome my anxiousness about the circumstances that prevent him from being here right now. My whole body is tense as I give her a simple nod. I need a little time to gather my thoughts.

I need a little time to prevent myself from giving in to the darkness within me, and the reality about what Tristan's absence could mean. I need to stay strong. For him, for Eve and for Nora who is still out there waiting for me to apologize.

Eve comes to stand in front of me and as we exchange looks, I smile at her. Tristan is such a bastard.

"Care to take a walk with me, my lass?" I ask and she nods, linking her arm in mine. With that, we are leaving the main cave and the irritated people behind. We walk slowly in silence until the next clearing comes at sight. I lead her to a corner where nobody will be working tonight and we sit down.

"Eve," I start to ask the question I am afraid of, "where is he?" At the mention of Tristan, she cannot hold back anymore and covers her face with her hands, but I can see that she is crying again. "Please, tell me what happened, lass. I need to know," I continue.

She lowers her arms just to tighten the woolen coat around her. "He went back in because I wasn't able to carry them out," she sobs, "I'm too weak." I wrap an arm around her shoulder.

"Where is he, Eve?" I try to get information that is more concrete even though I fear that I will not be able to deal any better with them than her. "The fire caught him right after he stepped in there and then everything was crashing," she silently moves on with shivers in her voice, "he said I need to make sure to make you a Blackwood, Ethan," another sob, "and I did, right?"

I cannot believe what I hear. This cannot be the truth. He would never risk his life that way, would he? When we have been to war, he was not fighting in the front rows either; at least not after getting a higher position. He promised to pick me up. He would never break his promise. I get up and look at the stars above us.

Even though the snow is softly falling down, I cannot feel the peace in my heart that this weather usually gives me. The world is playing around with me. The cold wind is just another evidence of the inclemency of this world we live in. Eve's silent sobs behind me trigger my own sadness but I cannot give in.

"Get yourself together, soldier!" I bark behind me. "The humans are all poisoned. We need to be careful our people follow Lyall's orders. If they keep on drinking from the servants they will never heal." I turn around once more and see her clinging to the coat. "How can you be so cold," she sobs, "I thought you loved Tristan as much as I did."

"He will come back," I assure her.

"I saw him burn, Ethan!" her desperation should break my heart but I cannot believe her words.

"Bullshit!" I growl. She flinches at my cursing and I know that I hurt her, but she is wrong. No matter what she thinks, she saw. He promised me. Without him, none of this makes sense anymore and I will never surrender.

I reach out to pull up her chin softly. She wants to shrug my hand off but I tighten my grip to force her to look me in the eye. "He will come back to us," I stare at her, "he will come back, but until then," I bite my wrist, "take this. I need you to heal faster. Do not mistake that for any kind of affection. It's a necessity."

Her stare is lost at my gesture. She does not move and I have to roll my eyes while taking something that is good enough as a vessel to gather the blood that floats out of my wrist. When I nearly forced her to drink it, I snort once more. "I cannot risk you drinking from Lester. Do you understand? The poison needs to leave both of your systems."

She looks at me in surprise and maybe a little embarrassed that I noticed but I really could not care less. "By the way, where is Lloyd?" After emptying the vessel, she looks back to the ground and the silent tears start to fall again. I sigh.

"That's how war is," I state before I leave her alone with her sorrow. I lick along my arm to clean it while making my way to the gates. He will come back. I climb up the now closed gates and can see the beasts start their work of the night behind me.

I am sure they will start by getting more dry wood and see what they can get to aid the wounded. This tribe maybe is raw in some ways, but I know that I can count on Lyall. I did not know about it when I worked out plan Zero but trusted Tristan's judgment. He was right as usual with this kind of things.

The eyes of the beasts that observe the gates are on me for sure, but all I want is a silent place to wait for Tristan to arrive. I take a seat on top of the gates and look in the darkness of the night. The small beaten track to the gates does not give a lot away about who could come along but it is better than behind the gates.

The moon brightens up the environment and brings an unnatural glow to the trees full of fresh, white snow. The cool air creeps in my muscles as I sit there still and just keep on watching the darkness. I do not mind as long as it makes my body numb enough. I need to find out what happened.

I need to find that bastard that is after me, but to be honest, I am not so sure anymore that my theory is right. I am not important enough to cause such a major attack on the headquarters. Am I?

Tristan where are you? Thinking further about him, I allow my body to start shivering. It is only partly the cold. Still lost in my own thoughts I nearly miss that Connor is climbing up the barricade and takes a seat next to me.

"Hey brother," he starts but I do not answer. If there is anything like a god, please just let him fall down that barricade and leave me alone. I sigh because I do not even know what he did to me that I am the asshole now. He silently offers me a cigarette and I take it. All right, he can sit there for a moment.

"You look like you are waiting for something," he starts pressing the matter.

I still do not answer but light my cigarette just to feel how numb my fingers became over the last hour or so. How long do I already sit here?

"So after all he made you a Blackwood with a bad trick," Connor says unexpectedly and I cannot hold back anymore. I close my eyes before hiding my face in my free hand. The silent tears run over my cheeks.

"This bastard," I say softly but need to take a deep breath to not giving in more than I already did.

"I won't tell anybody, promised," Connor whispers as I wipe over my face to get myself together again.

"There is nothing to talk about," I answer.

"So what's the plan? Sitting here and waiting for a dead man to come by?" he asks casually and I'm about to smash get some momentum to smash this asshole's face but I can see a movement of the corner of my eyes.

I stare into the woods with hope in my heart as I can hear hooves of a horse slowly making its way through the darkness. The silhouette tells long before I can see more, that this is definitely not the man I was waiting for.

"What a nice welcoming committee! Did you miss me, darlings?" a sweet voice reaches our ears.