The East Wing of the Khanns palace where Nara spent the large majority of her time in, resembled a school more than a home.
The Great Khann had over a thousand children. The large majority, including Nara, were from his warbrides. Those children never knew their mothers, taken at birth, they were raised in the hell that was the East Wing.
The Khann also had eight wives. But the children of the wives lived apart from the warbride children.
Nara lived in an environment of untold wealth, but had almost no power to affect it. She sat in the hall and ate truly excellent food. But would never be allowed to choose what she ate.
She wore the palace customized printed tactical gear that all of the Khanns children wore. Luckily for her the clothing was reasonably practical. The printed tactical gear that taccy soldiers would wear had a knock on effect on fashion trends across the galaxy. Trousers were what most people wore. And it was extremely common for a shirt or tunic to have a number of pockets on the front, resembling a chest rig. Nothing was as good as the printer made clothing though. The materials and comfort were impossible to replicate.
Nara wolfed down her food, while scanning through a book on ancient Warlords. The book was a new find, and engrossed she was oblivious to the fact three of her siblings that she didn't know had approached behind her.
One of them reached over her shoulder and snatched away a chunk of her bread - snapping Nara back to reality. Nara let out a little sigh and spun herself around on the bench, facing the trio.
She eyed them up, younger, weak, they had put her in an awkward position. Fighting in the food hall would get them all on the punishment rota. But not fighting would be declaring to all her siblings that she was weak. There was no mercy for weakness amongst the children of the Khan.
The oldest one smirked at her while gnawing on the bread he stole. She exploded up at him, her fist buried itself in his gut as she wrapped her other arm around his shoulders, keeping him steady.
It happened so quickly that the other two were stunned. She flashed them a wide grin.
"Disappear." She said in a quiet tone.
The commotion drew attention from one of the nuns tasked with looking after the children. "Children." She said, "What's the noise about?"
Nara grinned at her as her brother struggled to breath. "Oh, no problems here sister. My brother here was just helping me pick up some food I dropped. Isn't that right brother?" Giving him a firm pat on the back.
Her brother nodded at the nun still winded from the gutshot.
The nun, understanding the situation, turned to him. "While it is excellent behavior that you are helping your sister, I must ask you to return to your own meal young master. The Khanns children need to eat well to be strong." And with that she hurried the brother away.
Idiot, Nara thought to herself. You got to learn how to pick your targets better to survive in the East Wing.
A number of more familiar siblings joined her at the table. Some were her sisters that she shared a room with. there were also some brothers that had been drawn to her through their shared interest in everything Warlord. A couple of them looking excitedly though her book.
Esme, the sister she was closest to, smirked at her. "Everything handled?"
"Yeah. Didn't need much, just a quick put down."
Esme laughed and dug into her food. "Are you coming for a ride later?"
Nara still hated horses after almost being killed by the family ride. "I'll pass."
"You're gonna have to ride again, you know."
Nara sighed, "Yeah I know, but I'm going to put it off as long as I can."
"But you gotta get out more. You never leave the East Wing. Come out with us tonight. There are some boys from the merchant district that are going to meet us. You gotta get someone who's at least cute to petition for you, or who knows what the nuns will marry you off too."
Nara, sat back and quietly sighed again. The weight of her impending future bearing down on her. She had made no progress with claiming the black beast. The watchdog had remained chatty, asking her all sorts of questions about herself and her life. But never gave her any hints or clues about how to commune with the black beast directly.
She finished off what was left of her food and leaned back satisfied.
The black dog was standing directly in front of her, on the table she was sitting at.
Nara stopped breathing.
Something was wrong. The East Wing was nowhere close to the pit of the black beast. The dog shouldn't be here, it was too far. She looked around at her siblings, none of them acted like they could see anything, happily chatting away amongst themselves. They should be able to see it as well as she could, every one of the Khanns children had the Warlords gift, it was part of the reason he had so many.
She turned back to face the dog, who grinned at her. "Go out tonight." It said, "It'll be fun."
"Esme." Nara said quietly.
"Yeah?"
"You're right, it might be time to get back on a horse."
"You're coming out!" Esme squealed and pulled her into a hug, excitedly rabbiting on about all the things they were going to do tonight.
Nara's eyes never left the black dog standing there, on the table.
It stared back at her as it slowly faded away, its grinning teeth the last part to disappear.