Alaera did her own work. She started blaming her maids for making her feel sick. She would frequently throw tantrums and purposefully stopped her beauty regiment to make herself look ill. She was clever, finding new ways to blame her maids. A few simply vanished. Lex had never seen any bodies though, even though more than likely they were dead. But they had no family so no one would come looking. She was doing very well for herself. She was bringing in her own women now, women she could trust. She was even bringing her own doppelgänger in. But she wasn't here yet and that was becoming a problem.

She sat that night at the dinner table next to the king. She was forcing herself out for the funeral of the captain. She had done herself up with the aid of her new ladies. Of course now that she had replaced most of them she couldn't be as sick. An unfortunate matter. She could feel the king undressing her with his eyes and she cringed inside. She was running out of time. The hall had been open to everyone, servants and nobles. Nobles sat up on the upper level of the dinning hall and the servants and peasants down in the dirt bellow. Alaera's eyes drifted over the men bellow them, she sat only second to the king. She was in black today, but the red pendant around her neck sat between the curves of her chest. She let her eyes fall on Lex, careful not to smile as she made a sort of knowing look at him, catching his eyes before moving on to look at all of the men and women. 

Before dinner was finished she was pulled away from the table by the king. The men laughed and raised their glasses to the king, knowing what would happen behind closed doors. Alaera looked over her shoulder as she was pulled away to Lex. But she looked confident before she vanished into the kings chambers. A sweet little maid approached Lex once Alaera had vanished. "M'lady asks for your presence in her chambers. She requests you bring her fresh blood." She whispered in his ear as if she was flirting with him. This maid was one of Alaera's, she was a very good actress.

In the kings chamber Alaera watched the king making out with a large pillow and tried not to laugh. Her focus had to remain as she weaved her spell. She made sure this ended quickly, spells like this were difficult and took too much concentration. When she was finished she left his chambers, slipping through the back tunnels. When she was but a few feet from her door she dropped to her knees. She gasped and held her chest. That spell had taken too much, she couldn't even reach her room. She felt her head spinning and her vision blurred. "Lex.." she whimpered and struggled for air, grabbing her pendants, she couldn't use magic to call for him.