Draca, carrying clean towels and sheets for the room, knocked on the door.
"Come in." said the visitor who's name Draca did not yet know. "Oh. You're not Saetan."
"Indeed I am not.” replied Draca, waiting for the girl to avert her gaze when she noted her reptilian features. The girl did nothing of the sort instead she stood up gracefully from the bed and smiled cautiously.
"My name is Mirelle. What's yours?"
"I am Draca, the Ssenesschal of the Keep. I have brought you some towelss; the High Lord said you might like to bathe."
"Oh yes please!" Mirelle replied immediately and with great enthusiasm. "I can't remember the last time I had a proper bath."
She took the sheets and towels from Draca and looked at the older woman.
"You're not just the Seneschal of the Keep, are you Draca?"
Even for someone of Draca's age and experience Mirelle's sudden changes from childishness to mysterious were disconcerting. She could do nothing but answer honestly.
"I wass once more than I am now but thosse days are long passt."
"I have seen you before."
"No." Draca disagreed having regained her neutral demeanor. "I do not believe we have ever met."
"I did not say we had met, I said I had seen you. I saw you in the Jewels, Lady Draca, the Jewels remember you."
"What do you mean?"
"Pardon?" said Mirelle, looking confused. "I was daydreaming; can you tell me where the bath is?"
"Right there in the next room." said Draca, who was old enough and wise enough to know she would not receive an answer.
"Thank you, Lady." said Mirelle, as she cheerfully started stripping off her dirty clothes. Halfway through the process she stopped and spoke to Draca, who was just about to leave.
"I don't have anything clean to wear, Lady Draca, and I have to go see my father again and see my brother at SaDiablo Hall."
Mirelle flopped on the bed looking thoroughly distressed by the notion.
"Not to worry." said Draca, "I will find you ssomething. May I ask who your brother iss?"
"Daemon, Daemon Sadi. You would have met him, I think."
"Yess, I have.” replied Draca, barely managing to conceal her surprise. "Excusse me, I will be back soon."
True to her word Draca returned a short time later with a collection of dresses from various storage areas. She could hear Mirelle singing in the bath room and left the dresses on the bed for her.
Sometime earlier had Geoffrey knocked on the open door of Saetan's rooms; he was carrying a large book.
"You're going to regret that later." he remarked, upon noticing the glass in Saetan's hand.
"Probably." agreed Saetan, "Right now, I need something for the shock."
"Might I presume this has something to do with our guest?"
"Her name is Mirelle. She's Daemon's sister."
"Mother Night."
The normally calm and collected Librarian looked shocked.
"Are you sure?"
"Daemon confirmed it. She is my daughter." He repeated the phrase numbly; the facts hadn't really sunk in yet.
"We won't need this then,” said Geoffrey, indicating the book, "It's the Keep records from Terreille. I thought you might have more luck finding out her name."
"I would like to know how she is recorded. Her first name is Mirelle and she wears Birthright Sapphire, that's all you would find in there. Oh, and it will be somewhere around Daemon's birth date."
"Older or younger?"
"The same, but it would have been altered."
"The same?"
"Yes. They're twins."
"How?" exclaimed Geoffrey.
Saetan looked up and smiled wearily.
"Presumably, you mean how did I not know? I still don’t know the answer to that. I hope that she can tell me."
Geoffrey nodded and opened the book. Saetan finished his drink while Geoffrey was reading.
"Here she is. Hepsabah's daughter, born twelve months after Daemon Sadi, Birthright Sapphire, and no Descent rank listed."
"That tells me everything I already knew."
"Daemon never mentioned this before?"
"No. I suppose he hasn't had time, since coming to Kaeleer. Perhaps he thought I knew that Hepsabah had a daughter."
"Undoubtedly we will find out soon enough. That brings me to another question though; how did Mirelle get into Kaeleer without anyone taking notice?"
"Another question to ask her." replied Saetan. "I wonder if Draca has finished taking those things to her yet. Perhaps she was able to learn something. I should have warned Draca that Daemon said Mirelle was easily spooked and might try to leave suddenly if she were frightened."
"The two of us, and Draca, are the only ones in the Keep at the moment, other than the servants."
"The rooms we found for her were fairly deep inside the Keep," added Saetan.
"So, even if she tried to leave someone would see her."
"That's good. I have a lot of question I want to, carefully, ask that young woman."
"Why carefully?"
"Mirelle is in the Twisted Kingdom, for years now according to Daemon."
"Broken?" asked Geoffrey.
"No. They were trying to breed her." Saetan growled then drained the brandy glass.
"They could have shattered her mind without breaking her but it would be a great risk. Perhaps a risk they would be willing to take for even one child of your bloodline?"
"No," Saetan disagreed, thinking out loud, "They used a modified Ring of Obedience on her. There must be something we are missing."
The study door opened slowly and Draca entered the room.
"Draca, we were just discussing our guest."
"Yess. Mirelle, her name iss."
"That’s right.” Said Saetan, “She talked to you?"
"Yess. Sshe told me sshe iss also your daughter."
"I only found out myself when I met her today."
"Sshe told me sshe hass sseen me before. I told her I did not believe that we had ever met."
"Sshe looked at me and said "The Jewelss remember you”…then she changed the subject."
"She is in the Twisted Kingdom, perhaps she was confused," suggested Geoffrey.
"Sshe did not ssound confussed to me."
"We were just discussing Mirelle," interjected Saetan, "It seems we are missing something, perhaps we need a fresh point of view. We can’t work out why Dorothea would shatter Mirelle’s mind at the risk of breaking her... They already had a way to control her and they wanted to breed her."
"I think you are misssing the most obviouss answer. You are assuming that the damage to her mind wass deliberate."
"Yes," agreed Saetan.
"It sseemss to me that she has some illnesss of the mind. Obvioussly one that cannot be cured by a Black Widow."
"Thank you, Draca, for pointing out the obvious to us," said Saetan wryly.
"You are welcome. Now I believe Mirelle will be coming to ssee you ssoon sso I will leave you to it."
"I have to get back to the library," said Geoffrey, “I have to change that record and put the book back. Let me know how it goes."
"Thank you both for your help."