"After we win you'll get your title back." Lek said, smiling back.

"Let's pray we do win, even if I don't care so much about the title."

"But the title is yours." Lek objected. "That usurper has no right to take it from you."

Xyla lowered his head. "He does as he wishes. I ran like a frightened little girl while his men dragged my parents to the dungeon. I don't even know if they still live."

"There wasn't anything you could do, you were outnumbered. I had to flee my own home when the raiders came." Lek said. "Hopefully he has the sense to keep them alive as hostages." Though there had been no ransom demands.

"I don't think he will. He had already put several people loyal to the king to death," Xyla replied, her eyes welling with tears.

Lek knew that there was little chance that Xyla's parents were still alive after so much time. No word had been sent, not even from spies, about their status. He fished a handkerchief from his pocket, mercifully it was still clean, and offered it to Xyla. He was remembering his own losses from the raid, his younger siblings, and his own eyes were growing misty.

Xyla accepted the piece of cloth and dabbed at her eyes. "Thank you, Sir Lek. Your training is going well, I noticed," she said in an effort to distract both of them.

"It has." Lek said. "I just wish I started training years earlier. Things might be different..."

"Life is too short to think about the what ifs. It's not like we can go back to do anything differently."

"I know." Lek said. "That's why I have been training. If it happens again I can do something."

"It seems there is always some sort of violence at hand," Xyla sighed. "I often wonder...what it would be like to live during a time where everyone simply got along."

"I wish it could be that way." Lek admitted, retrieving the iron bars from the grass.

"If onlys are useless." Xyla leapt to her feet. "I want Wulfsen to train me as well!"

"I don't see why he wouldn't." Lek said.

Xyla sighed. "Alas. because I am but a girl who needs protecting and coddling."

"Girls need to know how to protect themselves." Lek frowned. "Sileas is still practicing defense and she's very... A girl."

Xyla grinned slightly. "Well, yes, but if Wulfsen had met her before she learned, he would not have allowed it," she added, her smile fading.

"I don't believe that." Lek said. "He wouldn't keep you from learning how to defend yourself!"

"He thinks women are delicate and should be protected. He sees no reason to teach me to defend myself when it would be much easier to just assign a guard."

"But the guard might fail, or there might not be a guard available to assign." Lek fretted.

"It's just the way most men think," Xyla replied. "Obviously you don't fall in with the same type of thought."

"No, I don't." Lek said. "I have an idea, if Wulfsen doesn't let you train ask Sileas after she has the baby."

"I will ask her if she has the time," Xyla agreed.

Lek nodded, absently shifting his hold on the iron bars.