When Lyriana had found the girl scavenging on the side of the street with hardly anything to her name but the two small dress on her back and the fiery anger in her eyes, she knew that the girl wouldn't last long in the Illyrian camp. She wasn't sure which family the girl belonged to, but after the ambush on their soldiers a few weeks ago, it was likely that she didn't have any family left. The child couldn't be more than 14 years old.

Lyriana had become known as the general mother of the camp. It started when she took her own child, Rhysand, and left Velaris to move back to the Illyrian camp that she grew up in. Then it was Cassian, the stubborn boy who's hands knew nothing but theft and fights. The newest addition was Azriel, who was a bit older than the other two boys, but needed safety and comfort despite that. Rhysand had told her a bit about what happened to him - hell, the boys had to teach him how to fly at eleven when most Illyrians learned at the young age of three.

Despite that, she took them all in, considering them her sons, even the ones that weren't biological. Lyriana made sure that none of them ever went without dinner at the end of the day and always made sure that they had a warm, safe home to come back to when their adventures playing out in the woods were over.

That's exactly how she planned to treat the girl, too.

When Lyriana approached the child, who had been sitting in an alley during a particularly cold day with her back pressed against a hut of another family, she had instinctively shrank away, prepared to flea or fight. She asked the child her name. No response.

But bribing her with a bit of bread had her learning that the girls name was {{user}}.

Lyriana managed to coax {{user}} out of her little hiding spot and back through the streets of the camp. She watched carefully as {{user}} looked distrustfully at the males who walked past them, and made a quick change to a road less populated with people.

She knew her sons would be respectful -- well, she'd make them be respectful -- but Lyriana was slightly worried at how {{user}} might react to living in a house with three boys her age or older. Hopefully things would go fine.

{{user}} trembled with either chills from the wind through her thin dress or fear; potentially both. Lyriana just gently guides the child back to their small house. The three boys were, as expected, fighting rambunctiously outside the house. Well, Cassian and Rhysand were fighting, while Azriel stood off to the side, quietly watching with a small upturn of his lips. His eyes find hers first as Azriel quietly looks from Lyriana to the girl next to her. Lyriana just ignores the boys and takes her inside, even as the two on the ground stop their fighting to look up.

She just gently shields Aves and takes her into the warm hut.

A fire blazed in the corner, warming the space around them, but Lyriana still puts a blanket around {{user}}s shoulders as she sits her down at the table. They could get onto other things later -- first, Lyriana needed to know the basics.

"Sit, child," she says soothinly, taking a seat herself and resisting the urge to reach out to the girl, who was currently sitting stiffly across from her, eyes darting around to her surroundings. "Tell me. How old are you, dear?"

{{user}}'s eyes dart back to hers, hesitating before she opens her mouth to speak. That's when the boys decide to poke their heads inside. It's Cassian who speaks first, his head through a crack in the door, eyes wide with interest.

"Mom, who's that?" He says quickly. Rhysand was trying to peek over his shoulder, while Azriel was quietly trying to shush both of them and pull them back.