"Duani?" Victorcine asked from the doorway into Aly's office. Aly was asleep at her desk…again.
"Yes?" Aly answered without lifting her head from her desk. She was tired. She hadn't been able to do much work for the last few months, and had placed Victorcine in charge since Aly was busy dealing with Marjorie.
Aly's daughter was proving to be as 'fun oriented' as Aly had been herself. The problem was that Marja didn't seem to want to follow, her Mother, her father, or any other trade they could think of. Marja was interesting, she could be a crow at will, or human, but she was usually human. She had the reflexes and abilities of her father, and she'd had the training of her mother. She also had the Gift and the Sight in great abundance. She was a simple conundrum. And because of this, both Aly and Nawat were both having to shirk duties, to a certain degree, to try and figure out their daughter. The twins weren't nearly as hard to figure out. Both wanted to fight and be knights like Aly's mother.
"We have some very disturbing news from the outer Isles," Victorcine said quietly.
"What is it?" Aly asked calmly sitting up and checking knives as a habit.
"We've lost contact with seven spies," Victorcine wasn't nearly as skittish as she'd been during the days of the Raka Rebellion.
"What?" Aly stopped what she was doing. The room was dim, but with the sight Aly could see that Victorcine looked scared, "What news did we get before we lost contact?"
When Victorcine said what it was, even Aly blanched.
Aly immediately sent out orders to all agents to watch for a man Aly had once trusted.
"Mama? Why must you bother me again today?" Marja asked as someone rapped on her door. It was a light tap, only noticeable to anyone who had trained as a spy, like Aly, or Marja herself.
"I'm not here to bother you this time. Instead I'm going to tell you to pack," Aly said opening the door and stepping inside. She made her routine of blocking any whole and cracks. Marja tapped the wall with her finger, and blue-black magical sparks flew from that point till the room was surrounded by them.
"Why must I?" Marja asked petulantly as she stood up to comply with her mother's orders.
"Because you're going to go and visit family," Aly said picking through the shrunk on one wall and pulling out all of Marja's dresses. It looked like Marja was visiting someone some ways away, and she was going to be gone for some time.
"Who? The only family I have is you, Papa, Thom, George, and Jonathan. Well except or Papa's old flock, but if I was visiting them I'd have no need of clothes, or packing," Marja asked as she pulled out breeches and shirts from a drawer.
"You're going to visit my side of the family,' Aly said sounding tense. Marja's mother never spoke of her family. Something about someone overhearing and rumors flying faster than crows.
"Where are they? On one of the outer isles right?" Marja stopped and turned around, "Right?"
"No, you're going to Tortall," Aly said acing her daughter.