"That's all right," he returned, "one of these days you'll be at some court and can do me a favour in return."

"With pleasure," Natalia said, "though I'd do it regardless."

He looked down at the letter, deep in thought. "There's something else I need to tell you."

"What is it?" she asked.

"Do you remember when I warned you about Nikolai?" Stanislav asked.

"Yes, what of it?"

"There's more to the story, much more if I'm being truthful. You'd better sit."

Natalia took a seat, a look of worry creasing her brow. "What is it?"

"Where do I start?" he pondered.

"How about at the beginning? Has this got something to do with my coming here?"

"Yes," he finally admitted. "You see, when we found you, your mother was living in squalor. She was happy to know you'd be properly cared for, and also I gave her funds to release her out of servitude."

“I have a vague memory of it,” said Natalia, “but what of it? It has little bearing on my current situation.”

"I'm not done," continued Stanislav. "When we retrieved you, as I said, I gave your mother some coins. Nikolai later returned to steal them. He also murdered your mother."

Natalia was shocked. She had always wondered why her mother had never visited her, but to hear first-hand of her death shook her to her core. “Why would Nikolai do that?”

“He was under orders, orders I knew nothing about.”

“Who ordered it?” she asked. “Do you know?”

“A man named Dagor Sartellian,” he replied.

“And who is this Dagor person, to so callously order the death of my mother?”

“In those days he worked for the Volstrum, and reported directly to Illiana Stormwind.”

“The matriarch?” asked Natalia.

“The very same,” replied Stanislav, “but she wasn’t the matriarch in those days, she was the head of the Volstrum.”

“And so the matriarch ordered my mother killed?” she asked.

“No,” said the mage hunter, “I don’t think she did.”

“What do you mean?”

“I think there was some sort of power play going on, though I can’t, for the life of me, figure out what it was. Illiana took an interest in you, insisting I bring you directly to the Volstrum. That was rare in those days.”

“Then how is this Dagor Sartellian involved?” asked Natalia.

“He’s the one that sent me to investigate you. I was tasked with evaluating the rumours surrounding your powers.”

“But why kill my mother?” she asked. “It makes no sense.”

“We discovered that the man that lived with your mother was not your father,” Stanislav said. “I rather suspect they wanted to hide your true father's identity. Your mother was likely the only person that knew.”

“That can’t be true,” she said.

“How so?” he asked.

“Someone else must have known, or how would they know to kill her?”

“A valid point,” he confessed, “and one which hadn’t occurred to me.”