"I suggest you listen to me, Antarlas. You may be royalty, but you must remember, as status goes up, familiarity with the people and they’re opinions goes down."

They just stood there looking at me blankly. Then Antarlas managed to say, "And what makes you so special? Why would you have all this knowledge on a plot to kill us? What makes you the bearer of such great information?" I could tell that now he was just talking to hear his own voice. He has seemed to change much from his early days, from what I know of his reputation anyway.

"I don’t call myself special and I have this information because I was the first one to be offered the job. I’m the best single person fro the job they have in this city. There is a one million gold prize on your two heads and for the kidnapping of Azzen."

Antarlas glared at me, "You are an assassin? You kill others for mere money? How dare you come here. I’ll let you leave before I call th-"

Lily put a hand on his shoulder. And said to me, "I am touched that you would warn me about such a plot, and I do not doubt a singe word. But as long as you are still… in your profession, I can’t let you in here. I’m sorry Nork. I guess we’ve changed more than the other thought."

I felt a little hurt to say the least, but I was used to this by now. "But Lily, please, just let me protect you. I don’t want you to be hurt. You gave me life; you protected me when I needed you. Now you need me and my knowledge. Let me help you as you helped me."

She took the Azzen from Antarlas looked down at him for a minutes and said, "Here," She was handing me the child, "hold him."

A bit confused I held out my arms and took the child. "Now what?" I asked.

"Look at him." And I did. His skin was dark and dusky but not black like Antarlas’ skin. His hair was a stark white. His eyes were sky-blue like Lily’s. When I looked in to Azzen’s eyes I saw Lily, but something in the back of my mind told me something else. It told me that Azzen will not be what he is expected to be. The child didn’t weigh all that much, he must have a lot of the dark elf physical attributes. As I looked in to him, I realized how much this child must mean to Lily, and she would give anything to keep him safe.

"He has your eyes, Lily." I said, smiling out of happiness for the first time in ages. I handed Azzen back to Lily.

She took him and cradled him in her arms. She looked back up to me and said, "Do you see how special he is? Can you protect him? Can you keep him safe?"

"We knew this day would come." Antarlas said, seeming to surrender to Lily’s trust in me. "Can we trust you, even with your… ways?" Will do all in you power to keep our son alive?"

I looked at them, they’re eyes locked on me. I thought long and hard, I looked back to the child, "Of course you can trust me. You just keep him close."

Lily held out the child to me again, "No, Nork, you don’t get it. We want you to take Azzen far away."