The door opened and a dwarf woman entered the room. She looked directly to Rainn and then offered a hand to the child. Strict but gentle, Fiona took Rainn to the private part of the house.
"You need to take a bath young girl."
She said with her rough voice while filling a pot with water and placing it over the fireplace. Then she reached for some wooden logs and placed them making a circle under the pot. Soon the fire was growing and the water was getting warmer.
"Now I want you to take out your clothes and place them in the dirty clothes basket, I will clean then later. Then go to the bathtub and wait until I bring you the hot water. We have to choose a nice dress for you later, little girl. This is no simple person the one visiting your father, this man is perhaps the second most powerful man in the Empire. If he gets a bad impression of your father he may be in disfavor of the Crown. And we don't want it do we?"
She winked to Rainn as she prepared the fire and spoke. The child was young but she was smart, half of the words Fiona was saying were probably new to her but she would understand the meaning of the speech.
***
At the mention of a table where they could see the maps a playful grin appeared in the Cencoris face. He promptly stood up and walked to the large double door composed of wooden frames and glass that lead to the small library of his house. Opening both doors wide he invite the two guests to enter the room.
"I am sorry for the bookshelves but I didn't have the time to adquire the needed books to have a proper library, yet."
He casually waved to the bookshelves that covered the entire left and front wall of the library. There were some books already there but anyone would see that there were still missing entire colections.
"As for the table where to see maps, I have something much better."
The Vagaran approached a table that had been placed in the middle of the library, it was large and square and to the guests' surprise it had the map of the Aelyrian Empire engraved on it. It even had colors! The Provinces of the Empire were all represented on this map and so were the many cities and towns and ports and islands of the Medonian Continent. A closer look on the Sherian Province would show the visitors that there were small flags on certain locations, representing the positioning of troops and supply lines. Two flags rested in Draelmar Hold, to the north of Taralon, two were located in Everdark Keep immediatly west of the capital city and two others could be seen in Daittern. Between Everdark and Taralon almost a dozen flags represented the stationed armies.
"Here you can see what is going on in Sheria and what is yet to come."
Eyvind smiled proudly.