Years have passed since the crudely named “Away Team” project was left by the wayside, the journey to Rathess seemingly their only assignment. While it was eventful, it wasn’t enough for a group that had been promised more, but the Lair’s leadership seemed loathe to send them out again.

Opportunity finally came knocking in the formation of Drums of War’s industrial estates, and Albine had been one of the first to sign up. There was risk in this, as the Hare seemed perhaps even more of a homebody than her Lords, but had proven that he would venture afield for nothing more than the rumor of technology to be uncovered. Tenya had given his approval on her application, convincing the Hare that Albine would be a capable bodyguard for any travels – while an Exalt might not much need one, the Hare seemed to suffer from a particular lack of self-confidence.

She began as something of a personal attache, treated with a certain wariness both for her professional demeanor and the concerns of her parentage – however, it would overtime become more familiar to Lookshyan sensibilities, and for her part, she began to grow closer to Drums in earnest.

Albine has largely set down the guards’ halberd and begun to learn the technology of the Shogunate. She has not proved a full novice at this, being accustomed to the wonders of her home, and her training habits have made her a worthy smith. Shaping metal has also proven to be an acceptable outlet to work out any lingering frustrations at her sudden dismissals from both the Away Team and the House Guard, but these are now both distant wounds and the work far more interesting than the contemplation of years-old slights.

Drums of War has also proven to be more interesting than she’d have been willing to credit when he’d been the Wolflord’s courier, and so she’s seen fit to lock down her position and become his fiancee. She would at first have worried that the shrinking Hare was no match for a child of the Nameless Lair, but it seems that he is not so shy when removed from his mentors’ scrutiny. Albine must admit her approval…even if she does give in to the temptation to tease.

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Albine’s family was honored when her older sister was appointed head of the master’s guard – for many generations, the keeping of his house’s safety had been their job, and so the eventually elevation of Roselle was accepted as their due.

Albine, however, scoffed. Roselle’s head had ever been more in the art of theater than the art of war, and she thought this promotion a great oversight. When Roselle was later declared ‘creative director’ of the Théâtre de Chanson, it was all Albine could do to resist the urge to tell her what a disappointment she had become.

In the following days, however, Albine began to feel that she had gone crazy – the master’s awakening had somehow changed the house such that her family – her own family! – now looked at Roselle’s station as yet another honor!

In a fury, she filed for reassignment to a border fort, any but the south. Her rank afforded her her first choice, and she easily chose the west – she had heard the rumors that the westerners had had trouble with some of their ranks following in the hoofprints of Tenya and seeking the horizon. The Lair had been home, but it was no longer the same Lair that she had grown up serving.

She arrived to a west fort bound on expansion, so for the first time in her life she was permitted to set foot off of the familiar, charted lands. She wondered if, in this new era, she might even one day seek the wolf abroad and perform the work her sister ought to have done.