Lupita huddles inside her worn cloak for what little warmth it provides as she travels down the road in the pouring rain on top of the horse she took from her uncle’s stalls. It’s been a week since she ran away from her uncle’s house hold. The man had been raping her since she was eight years old. She’s already had one miscarriage when she was just ten years old from him punching her in the belly and causing her to lose the baby. She didn’t want the child in the first place, but she didn’t like it when he punched her and called her all the mean names he had.

Shadowsblade a Whateley Tale: Written by Shadowsblade

Created for war and forged in pain, dealing with demons within and without.

What happens after a transformation? Esme lives in New York and works as a journalist. She has a secret, one she thought she'd left behind in England. Then she comes across a strange case. A child who suffers from a condition that effects the way their body reacts to hormones. Slowly he is transforming from male to female. A condition so rare it has only one other confirmed case. Esme.

[somewhere in the US Midwest]

With a sad heart, I stood up in front of my employees. I was not looking forward to what I was about to say.

“It is with deep regret that as of 5pm today, I will no longer be the founder and CEO of this fine Company. I have been ousted by a combination of greedy Bankers, Venture Capitalists and Chinese money. Many of you know how much I have fought against this eventuality for the last six months. Ultimately, I lost and sadly so will you all. It is pretty certain that in a few months this facility will be closed down, the building stripped and production transferred to Chengdu in China.”

One young man with a long sandy hair, a medium build, and fine facial features stood apart from the other security personnel, and it wasn’t because he was nearest to Erina.

Nor was it the easy manner in which he conversed with her, standing casually as though he was chatting to an old friend…an old friend that looked less than pleased to see him.

It certainly wasn’t his slightly unkempt appearance, the tad bedraggled way he wore his suit, or his tie hanging loosely from his neck.

No.

While Mercy is looking forward to fighting new foes, old issues become relevant again.
She thought she had Mitch handled, but maybe she had been too quick to think so.
To top it off you can always count on Victoria to snoop around the secrets Mercy hadn't told her yet.

I apologize for the extremely lengthy time between postings for this story. Life, as I mentioned in the prologue, can be an utter PITA. Some of that was due to the muse striking at various times with stories or chapters of stories, some due to the muse apparently being on strike or lost.

We arrived at the site for the Lake County Fair perhaps an hour after we left the Williston area that Monday morning.