Kaldrek was kept pretty busy helping his king prepare them for their excursion. Despite this he still found plenty of time to spend with his wife. Zylvia had been learning her magic quickly and now knew several spells for attacking or defending. They also had spent time keeping watch to make sure the Grimshades had not moved base, which to Kaldrek's relief they had not.

Now he watched as Queen Dawn had come back to fetch the magic users. He was surprised to notice someone who came with her. A man with hair that looked remarkably like feathers, and who made little noise the entire time he waited on the queen to finish what she was doing.

Something about the man intrigued him. Perhaps it was the fact that he always kept his eyes closed. Or the fact that he seemed to regard Dawn with much more respect than was normal, even for a queen.

Dawn was pleased by the men who were to accompany her. She asked Jayesh if it was okay for her to take them to Lumna until they set off. Which Jayesh agreed to, provided that the three sorcerers were okay with it.

As they were discussing it Kaldrek walked over to the man who had accompanied Queen Dawn here and tried to figure him out. The man had a nose that resembled a hawk's beak almost uncannily. Coupled with the odd almost feathers that made up his hair it gave him a decidedly hawkish look.

It was a few minutes before Kaldrek realized something off. The man had not opened his eyes even when he had approached, though he had tilted his head slightly, as though listening.

Queen Dawn came back, preparing to leave. She paused, notiving the curious gaze Kaldrek had on his face, and cleared her throat slightly, "Sorcerer, this is Raven, a new advisor that I have taken into my service. Raven, this is the Court Sorcerer of Carendlus, Kaldrek."

A slight smile came to the man's face, "Charmed, I am sure." His voice had a slightly hoa.r.s.e quality to it.

"Likewise." Kaldrek raised an eyebrow noticing that even now, the man did not bother opening his eyes. He figured that he was probably blind or something. Which raised all sorts of questions in his mind over how Dawn had ended up taking him on as an advisor.

As he watched Dawn leave, he reflected that her taking charge of the extermination of those who had attacked the kingdoms was probably a good thing. Even those who did not like the reserved queen had to admit that she was a highly capable woman.

Turning away, Kaldrek looked over at his king, "Well, Jayesh, now we just need to wait on the news of their success."

"Unless they fail of course," Jayesh pointed out, slightly frowning.

Kaldrek shook his head at his friend, "They'll do just fine. There is no point just thinking about how they might fail. We did everything we could to help make it easier for them, so now we need to sit back and let them do their job."

Jayesh paused, and then nodded, conceding the point. It was true after all. They had provided as much a.s.sistance as they knew how.

Then Jayesh murmured softly, "Okay, that being the case, I am going to go spend time with my wife… you could take some time for yours as well, teach her some more of your tricks or something."

Kaldrek accompanied his best friend as he went in search of Fayre. Of course, he would not mind seeing his own pretty wife as he always would look forward to seeing her.

The women looked up at them as they stopped in their doorway. The princess was with them as they seemed to have been happily talking together. Fayre immediately smiled at her husband and stood up to meet him. Kaldrek ignored his king and queen as he gazed at his own lady, whose eyes had dropped back to what she had been working on.

Kaldrek may have always been a bit bad at reading people, but he could tell his lady was not in the best of moods at the moment. He felt a sudden urge to make sure she was okay and found himself scrutinizing her closer trying to figure out what was wrong. He could not really tell, she just seemed moody.

His king and queen left, to go spend time together as he decided that Zylvia might just need some rest. So he walked to her side and asked Hazel if she minded him borrowing his wife. After he placed a hand on Zylvia's arm and guided her gently out of the room.

She pulled her arm out of his grip with a slight frown on her face in the hallway, "What was it you wanted?"