Fatih

The carriage stopped before the side gate of Loukas' manor. Instead of his predecessors, who loved to built their manors beside the Palace of Blachernae or the Palace of the Porphyrogenitus so that they can acquire information from the palace and their Basileus fast. Loukas built his manor in an interesting location. It is in the Deuteron district, close to the Gate of Charisius. This spot is interesting is because it is neither close to the two palaces nor close to the Grand hall or the senate; it is close to the gate and road leading outside the city to Edirne.

As Loukas entered his manor, three servants approached forward, removing his boots and cloak. "Where is my daughter Anna? "He asked while taking down his robe.

"The mistress is reading books in the Bibliotheca."

Upon hearing this reply, Loukas nodded in satisfaction, feeling a rock has landed in his heart. It just seems like another peaceful day in the city, his stress and burden got lightened after hearing that all his family members are fine. His daughter, although seems to be obedient, always does wild actions that seems extremely inappropriate to him, as she is the eldest daughter of the Mega Doux.

Loukas went up to the Bibliotheca, or the library, holding a candle. Through the rays of light by the oil lamp inside the room, a lady, around seventeen years old, is grinding a thick cow-skinned century-aged book with all of her attentions, that she did not even notice her father coming in.

"Anna, what are you reading?"

The lady, finally awake from the world of her books, looked back at her father.

She is a typical Greek girl with a flawless brunette long hair, so smooth and silky that it almost looks like it is a piece of Seres silk. A pair of hazel pupils in her eyes that are like morning dews reflecting dawning rays of lights. While her vanilla-coloured skin remains hidden under her garment and stola.

Upon seeing her father, she immediately stood up from the chair and greeted. "Father, you are back."

Loukas nodded, went forward and flipped the book. It is The Alexiad by Anna Komnenos, who has the same name as her daughter. The only difference is that Anna Komnenos has a father who is the emperor but Anna Notaras has a father who is the Mega Doux.

Loukas chuckled and asked. "You want a father who is an emperor too?"

"No of course not." Anna replied in a freezing tone.

"Haha, Haha, I see…" Loukas knows why he is getting this attitude from his daughter. It is because around two month ago, his dearest daughter was found sneaking out of the manor in hood and went to watch the parade by those Genoese sailors who just achieved a victory, his servant even reported to Loukas that Anna was found dancing with a Genoese man. This is definitely intolerable, and thus Loukas had her grounded in the house, forbidden to go anywhere.

"Good…great, remember to sleep early, Anna, set a good example for your sisters."

"Yes, father."

Loukas then left the room, shutting the doors behind. While Anna behind, quickly swept out a copy of Iliad and Odyssey by Homer, which is about various studies of ancient Greek kings, religions, history, gods of the classical antiquity period.

Her father would never allow her to read books like this, as a faithful believer of Roman Orthodox, he would prevent her from touching anything pagan.

Meanwhile, Loukas went back to his bed chamber where his wife Palaiolologina is already waiting for him.

"You are finally back, you seem to be coming home rather late recently, something bothering you back in court?"

Loukas nodded. "Yes, some diplomatic and domestic problems that needs me to be involved as the Mega Doux."

"I see… oh by the way, someone left you a letter not long ago."

Loukas picked up the letter, it is a strange letter that has no address, name of sender or receiver, just a plain envelope. While examining the letter, he asked. "Where is the messenger?"

"He left…without leaving a word behind, immediately after leaving the letter to the guards…"

Loukas lazily unsealed and opened the letter, however it turned out that it is just a piece of white paper on both the front side and the back side. Anger immediately started getting into the head of Loukas, as he feels like he has tricked, as the prestigious Mega Doux.

However, just as he is about to dump the letter away, his glimpse caught sight of a tiny word hidden on the bottom left corner of the paper which was covered by his hand palm just now.

Upon seeing the word, Loukas' hands started trembling vigorously. His pupils shrunk and he broke into cold sweat, as-if he has just read the words of the demon. In fact, Loukas almost lost his stability and nearly dropped the letter onto the floor.

"What is wrong?"

"Nothing, nothing." Loukas managed to stabilise himself by grabbing the chair as his support. He took a deep breathe, calmed himself down and asked his wife Palaiolologina. "Do the guards remember what the man looks like? Or do you have any impression?"

"No, I don't, of course." Palaiolologina replied. "That sneaky man is wearing a hood that is covering his face, he just left it over at the guards place telling the guards that it is for you, then he left by flipping over the walls… strange right? It just seems like everyone in the city is wearing hoods nowadays…"

Loukas Notaras did not reply to his wife's nagging. Instead he put on his fur coat, his belt, trousers and most importantly, a hood, and opened the door.

"Where are you going this late?"

"To meet someone of high urgency, you shall sleep first." Loukas turned back and replied gripping the door handle. He hesitated for a while and continued. "Tell the butler that we shall get ready to start transferring our properties to Venezia."

After that, he rushed downstairs for the stable. Not long after Loukas can be seen on horse-back, rushing out of the main gate in the direction for the Gate of Charisius. Ready to leave Constantinople.

Under the dim moon light, Loukas read the word on the paper again.

It reads 'Fatih'.