Marcus had trained his apprentice well. It didn't take long for her to catch on to how things were done or how his friends' game of power was played. He didn't want her to participate just yet, afraid she'd be played for a naive fool despite having his full support and help whenever need be, so he gave her books to read. Books on finance, science, politics... Most of all he urged her to read history books and learn what strategies had worked and failed in the matters of men as it would likely be the same in their matters.

Arya was first brought to his friends and left on her own after a century or so. He was satisfied by then that she knew enough and that she couldn't be captured or tortured to reveal secrets she didn't even known. If it hadn't been for her books keeping her grounded, Marcus didn't think she'd really worry much about herself anymore since she wasn't afraid of pain.

Her reading material had made her curious to learn more and was shaping her to be quite the cunning young lady. Even after moving the first time she still surprised him. He hadn't needed to teach her how to be cruel, she'd learned that all on her own and was showing him exactly how all his training was affecting her, even if it wasn't intentional on either of their part. She probably hadn't meant to show him and he hadn't been aware of how it changed her. He knew she'd never been innocent, but he'd never thought her cruel either. Towards him she was still as sweet as ever though and it was kind of refreshing not to have to hide his true nature from his lover for a change.

Before he knew what had happened, Marcus had grown dependent on having Arya around for one reason or another, but he never ventured after her when she wandered away for a few days. Sure, one time when she was gone for a week without warning, he did go look, and when he found her he hadn't quite expected to find what he found. Arya had been covered in cuts, blood and fading bruises, a dead vampire at her feet and a smirk on her face. The guy had tried to get information out of her and had quickly ended up paying for it with his life. So Marcus had brought her home and told the lad's maker what had happened before they'd buried the matter.

That night she proved to him just how well he'd taught her and they ended up making a real mess.

Arya knew the rules of their little game perfectly well. You won or your died, there was no middle ground. Well, you didn't exactly die, but you were expelled from their circle if you lost the game. It took a lot to get back in once you were out, she'd seen first hand what had happened to an inquirer that had lost at the game. Then again, his schemes had gotten so far out of hand that his loss earned him ten years of imprisonment. So it was probably for the best that Marcus gave her books to read to educate her before she participated on her own.

All of Marcus training had rendered her fearless. She didn't care if she were captured or hurt, didn't care if humans got hurt. Somewhere along the way her humanity had been lost and Marcus was right to keep her confined in the library for the most part or she'd be off wandering on her own and quite possibly getting herself into trouble. The only care she had in the world really was her gratitude towards Marcus and how she didn't want to disappoint the man that had given her her freedom.

It seemed Marcus didn't mind much that she'd changed from the girl he'd bought free. She was smarter than she had been then, better educated, and she knew who she should thank for it. Whatever he asked of her, she did without questioning him. He was older, he knew best. That said, she was eventually allowed to leave their household alone for hours at a time, then days. She didn't mind being cooped up learning, not really, but some times she just had to see the world. She was curious to see how times were changing and how the people changed with them.

The blonde had never been more grateful towards Marcus's training than when someone snatched her off the street and dragged her with them to be questioned. Sure, she had believed Marcus before when he'd told her that his intentions were to make her immune to torture so she wouldn't reveal his secrets, but she'd never actually believed until then. She was a few bruises richer and a few cuts as well before she'd gotten loose and ripped the vampire's heart right out of his chest, right before Marcus came to her rescue.

He taught her some basic tricks to fighting that night, they ended up more or less destroyed their small courtyard in the process. Her capture and their training made sharing Marcus's bed all the sweeter that night and she promised herself to learn to protect herself no matter the cost.

And learn she did. Wasn't too longer after the incident before she started trying to figure out a way to acquire a special gift that would help her with her defense.

Marcus knew he had to be careful with Arya. No matter what happened, she was still his fledgeling and would always be his responsibility, one way or another. So she'd needed to learn how to fight properly, even if it destroyed their courtyard in the process. After all, he was teaching her how to take advantage of her speed and strength, which mean she needed to be aware of how much faster and stronger she was now than what she had once been.

After her capture, Marcus watched Arya go at her studies with a renewed vigor. She would spend days in libraries just reading and had to be reminded to feed on more than one occasion. It seemed nothing would stop her though and a decade passed where he delved into his own things while waiting for her to find the answers she was looking for. Finally one day she dropped everything and left. He watched her go, it was the first time he was aware that he could feel her presence even when she wasn't near him and he knew exactly where she was at all times. When she came back, he couldn't help but praise her. She'd brought home new pets for them.

Arya seemed eager to show him what she'd learned in her studies and he was highly amused when she showed him her newly acquire powers. It was time for them to move again and this time they were heading for colder climates. Talbot had sent them a letter from England, asking if they could please come visit. Their journey wasn't an easy one. They got separated on the road due to bandits. When his lover finally found her way back to him, he cherished just watching her ride her horse, simply because she was a beautiful and graceful creature. He couldn't help but feel proud to own her, body and soul.

Things were a bit awkward at first when they met up with Talbot, mainly because Arya remembered him from when she was human, but they quickly moved past it. In fact, it was the first time the two of them shared a lover. They'd take turns, or have him together all depending on what everyone felt like on that particular day. It wasn't like they hadn't had other lovers before, they'd just agreed to strictly keep human company if they weren't going to share.

They had both been a bit surprised by Talbot's summons, but after they had settled in at Talbot's place it was all explained. When they weren't busy getting reacquainted, the first few days were spend learning the language to an acceptable degree for foreign emissaries and Arya was asked to pretend Talbot was her husband for the time being since he was the one who'd made contacts in the right places after all. Her goal was to seduce a royal prince, make sure they had an emotional affair as well so he would not only get caught being unfaithful to his betrothed but also a thief. If their affair was emotional as well as physical, it would be more plausible to think he had been the one to steal from the Princess to give to his mistress rather than put the blame on Arya.

Arya and Talbot attended a ball, where Arya was introduced to the prince and allowed to flirt innocently enough to catch his interest. Talbot had been tasked by the council to end the betrothal without using compulsion, so after flirting discreetly with the target for a few hours, she suggested he befriend her husband so she would see him again. To be believable, she couldn't just go straight for her goal of getting him to bed. After all, she was pretending to be married and not a prostitute.

Thankfully Talbot had the good graces to invite his male acquaintances to a get together at his place and the good prince showed. Arya wasn't supposed to be at the party at all, but she was dressed in a simple southern dress as she ventured through the room where the guests where and poured herself a glass of wine before she brushed lightly against her target on her way out, whispering that he could come find her in the library if the party got boring. Find her he did.

It was an intricate matter of being swift about the affair and at the same time not give the human the feeling of it all being very rushed. The last thing they needed after all was for him to get suspicious about the whole thing. With a little help from Marcus, who was surprisingly good at being discreet and forgettable, they were able to avoid getting caught until Talbot had managed to secure the jewelry and was ready to catch them in the act. Marcus had walked in on them in various states of undress on purpose to tell them Talbot was coming or someone else just to play the part. Sure, Arya was having fun deceiving the human like that, but she couldn't wait to just crawl up in Marcus's bed for the night. As it was, they didn't dare in case someone walked in unannounced and word got around to the wrong people. So Arya was sharing Talbot's bed most nights or sleeping in her own room, it just wasn't the same as being free to go wherever she wanted.

Talbot finally caught them in the act, Arya being quick to push her lover not only off her bed and cover up, but look absolutely horrified. As Talbot made his was over to them, he struck Arya hard across the face, making her grab his shirt, pleading with him not to hurt the prince. She was clinging to his shirt and deftly picked the bracelet out of his pocket and slipped it on before someone else came to see what all the noise was (they had agreed to make sure there were people over to be witnesses when exposing the prince) and saw Talbot struggling to get free of his supposed wife's grasp while the prince was now scrambling to find his clothes.

"I hope he was worth being tossed out on the streets," he sneered at her when he finally grabbed her arm to pry the bracelet off of her. "Is this what he paid you to besmirch our marriage?" Turning to see whomever had come to check on them, he looked back at the prince for a second before asking the man to seize the prince so he wouldn't hurt him while he dealt with his wife. Needless to say, Arya was dressed in the simplest of clothes before Talbot had the pleasure of dragging a wailing woman through his house and push her out the back door and lock the door behind him. All the guests could hear her banging on the door, begging for Talbot's forgiveness, when they were asked to leave.

Once they had the house to themselves, Talbot even dismissed his staff, Marcus made sure no one saw him as he let Arya back inside. "Don't forget my payment," she said as she placed a kiss on Talbot's cheek before she went to wash away all lingering scents of the human.

Marcus didn't mind that Arya was working with Talbot, or that she had a human lover for this assignment. What he didn't like was that he could barely get a moment alone with her. Whenever she wasn't busy with this nobleman of hers, she was busy pretending to be Talbot's wife for the staff. He only had her together with Talbot, which meant that they had to be gentler, but it was still fun and pleasurable.

After the affair was discovered and Arya was thrown out, he couldn't help but think he'd raised quite the little liar with how she was acting like such an emotional woman, despairing over her actions. So he let her back in once they were all alone and while she was washing of the scents of her lover, he laid out clothes for her. Since she wasn't supposed to be seen in company of Talbot or Marcus, they'd had male clothing tailored to fit her, which suited her just fine as she didn't fancy the dresses anyway. It also meant she could move about more freely if she was properly disguised in case Talbot had guests over or anything of the sort. She would need to make one more appearance as the wife in a few days, but that was a few days from now.

Right now, Marcus couldn't help but enjoy hurting his fledgeling to show her who she belonged to. A small reminder that while Talbot could be gentler with her, she belonged to him. It seemed she had no objections with how she was curled up next to him that whole night.

When the time came, Marcus helped Arya get back into the dress she'd been 'allowed' to put on before she'd been thrown out of the house and helped make sure they dirtied it up and made her look dirty as well, having been supposed to be homeless and workless for the past few days and have nowhere to go but dry places to seek shelter. He also made sure to give her a good smack across the face to make her lip swell slightly and then he wrapped a big cloak around her and 'smuggled' her out to the poorer districts of town before he left her to pretend to be cold and shiver. She knew what she had to do. Barefoot and dirty, Arya made her way through town as people started waking up again, begging for scraps as she went before she found a man long suspected of criminal activity and compelled him to kill her. Well, not literally kill her, but he instructed how he should cut her in order for people to think she was dead so Talbot could officially be free of their supposed marriage in the eyes of the noblemen.

If there was another thing Marcus hadn't enjoyed about this whole summons, it was that he didn't like seeing Arya weakened by other people like she was letting this criminal do by bleeding her like that. He watched from afar as the events unfolded and watched how people reacted. Soon enough, Arya was carried away and he followed, to ensure that Talbot was notified. Before they could even try to examine Arya, Marcus approached the men. "I witnessed the whole event, may I look upon her face? She looks so familiar..." Upon being allowed to look at his fledgeling he sighed softly. "Before you dispose of the body, you ought to notify Talbot. I do believe it is the lord's wife you have here."

Talbot came, confirmed it was his wife and left again, leaving Marcus to compel the two men to think that they had buried the disgraced lady properly before he left with Arya once again wrapped up in his cloak, hood covering her hair and half her face.

This wasn't the first time they had faked one of their deaths or set someone up for "murdering" them, but it was far from the most pleasant or fun. Arya preferred the times they'd been pushed from great heights or had either of their necks broken by a "tumble" down the stairs was much easier to recover from. Even drowning was better than being stabbed like this. It was all fun and well when Marcus was using knives to punish her, as he usually never cut too deep, but another thing entirely to be bled like this to make it look realistic.

It was a great relief to be back under Marcus's cloak and be hurried away to the manor again to get dressed and ready to leave the wretched country. Arya was aching for warmer climates and more familiar customs, these more northern climates were a bit too damp and filled with rain for her liking. It was also great to be done with the whole charade so she could go back to wearing more comfortable clothes and ride horses again. How she loved those animals. Sure, she'd been terrified the first time Marcus took her out for a ride, but she'd quickly grown to love the animals and took good care of them whenever they had any to care for.

Once they were back at Talbot's home, it didn't take too long for them to make sure Arya had fed and was ready to journey back across the canal to the continent and get them home. Packing their things didn't take long and before anyone truly noticed, they had gotten on a boat heading home.

In order to make sure they would be fully equipped for any tasks they might be sent out to perform by the council, Marcus taught Arya how to use swords. Another reason was that dueling had become a common place activity among the council when they had nothing better to do to entertain themselves. These duels were naturally not to the true death, only until one of the duelists were unconscious or yielded. It wasn't a practice Arya particularly enjoyed when they first started training, but eventually she got the hang of it.

Unlike most of the other council members at the time, Marcus seemed to keep up with current events the best he could and thought it was crucial that she too adapt to the times. When they were out traveling, she was once more forced to disguise herself as a boy in Marcus's service as to not draw unwanted attention to their comings and goings amongst the humans. After all, even a boy's opinion (and that was really all she could pretend to be without constantly focusing on deepening her voice) was worth more than that of a woman albeit not much more. At least she was free to travel without suspicious looks that way.