Before his last Fight

Alenx wasn't in his room for various reasons, so Lasinda got Howard a basic black tunic to wear.

She couldn't help but wonder where he'd gone, and if he'd ever return. Ever since she was a little girl, she had seen him almost every night somewhere in the castle doing some type of activity for her father. He was a hard worker, but she always got the feeling his only mission in life was to marry her and take over the throne.

Several of her sisters liked him, but she knew that Alenx was only interested in her because she was going to inherit the throne someday. 

Her father, for various reasons hadn't been able to have male children, and matter how many plants Alenx found for him his luck with fertility didn't change. Instead, he'd had 5 more daughters with three other women before he gave up and decided to make Lasinda the heir to the Great Slavensen Nation.