Sixteen Feet of Steel Chapter 18

*Before…

I look around and it’s just her and Nicole, Jessa and Taylor.
I take a stuffy nosed breath. “Prince Christian Lyonnes and heir and…and daughter of Aurora Blackhand….”
I was not very sure of that… of this and her.
Nicole coughs. “We’ve been using Christiana or Chrissy.”
The woman breaks into an easy smile. “I like that I’d wager your mothers would have too.”
“You knew my mother?”
“Deidre? Nay just what Aurora had said, fine person by all account though.”
(Sniffle-sob.) “She was…” I gesture hopelessly at my face. “I’m sorry; I don’t know why I’m….” (Sniffle-whine.)
She nods and pulls me close. “It’s a ‘cause yer here Chrissy, yer journey’s done, yer safe.”
…..
I…
(Sniffle-sob.) “Safe?”
She nods and squeezes me hard enough to make me squeak. “Aye…safe.” She lets me go and slips off the wagon and I was right she’s nearly seven foot tall and built with muscles and yet she’s still beautiful.
“Now you and Coley look dun in, let’s get ye both to the healers.” She stands with us until we’re down and she walks with us as we’re heading inside keeping pace and a couple of pages open the doors for us and we head into warm lights of the keep.

*And Now…

It’s warm and it’s very bright inside as we walk inside and I would have to call this a palace really…It’s built like a fortress but the insides are well made with paneling and tiles and the squarest flags I’ve ever seen.

And it’s extremely well lit with all the electric tickling at my brain and my magic and then there’s the whole place is well cleaned and polished really well.

This would in itself made mother happy, I’ve seen our books, we spent a good deal of money on cleaning things and the like. It makes me happy too sort of because it smells good in here with a lot of citrus scents.

And with all of that there are these wooden floors raised six inches over the stone flags because there are Squire’sknights inside here at least here on the ground floor. I count ten in the first few minutes we’re heading inside.

This place is rich…and this place might be impossible to take.

We get to a set of sweeping stairs and there’s another thing built in the center like a pillar but not it’s a device. It’s with flat chains for cogworks and there’s rails and I think it’s a lift.

There’s movement in the chains that are moving I think the lift thing is starting to come down.

I look at Nicole. “Coley? I’ve never heard that as a short name before.”

She does a tired head nod to the lady.

“She gave it to me.”

I look to The Lady. Honestly she’s beautiful in a way that I don’t know if I’ve ever seen.

Tall, so tall with all these muscles and with all of these there’s all these curves and I am sort of catching myself staring at her one part Christian and another part Chrissy who’s been with a woman.

And there is this awe too with just her in general.

Then we head inside and up and she’s looking at me, The Lady that is. “I gave Coley her name because it stands out; we’ve only one squire and several Nicole’s, that an Coley’s cute sounding.”

I look at Nicole who even as she looks so hurt she’s blushing.

Going up is fast, we’re up three floors then the doors open and there’s these people waiting for us and there’s these pages with the same order as Alaan, The Order of The Dove. And they have these chairs with padding with wheels with rails and Lady Tatiana helps Nicole into one as she looks at me.

“You too, you’re walking wounded.”

“I’m okay.”

“No, you’re not, you’re still wounded and you’re a lot more exhausted than you think.”

“Lady…”

“Christiana T’was not a request.”

“Oh…”

I sit in the chair and it does feel nice and it’s different to be pushed and there’s a bit of wonder that such a kind of chair exists. In a place where the wheels could work this could so help those crippled. I look a little at the page who is pushing me and he’s sort of staring and I caught him staring and he looks up fast and he’s blushing.

What a strange thing that is since he’s really my age or maybe a little younger or older.

Is it because I’m a woman now or is it because I’m the new sorceress?

We’re wheeled to a set of doors with the seal of The Order of The Dove.

I look to Lady Tatiana as we’re let inside by another page there at the door and we’re being wheeled in and it reminds me instantly of the details I’ve heard of from stories that Old Tedric used to tell of a few of the hospitals that he had worked before coming to work for my parents.

“Are you of the order Lady?”

“Nay though I fund them and give them space there’s a dire need for those who can bring medicines and make then and save lives.”

I nod. “I know one of the Order quite fondly. A Sir Alaan.”

She looks at me. “Fondly?”

And yes it’s that kind of look, the kind that’s shared between women and I’m…well I’ve had a lot of immersion in this side of life now and I made that choice as a woman and I look back at her in that same sort of way with a bit of a shy and fond remembering. “Yes Fondly.”

She raises one of her eyebrows in a fine arch and smiles a little but the expression is one that I can barely guess at…amusement perhaps?

“We’ll have to have a talk over a drink.”

I nod. “I would like that.”

She changes her expression. “We’ll have to get you the draught.”

The what now?

She looks at the page pushing me and he does a slap to his left arm before leaving and I have no idea what that was about and I look at Nicole who’s getting helped to a bed and there’s a female page helping her. Nicole’s saying. “It’s our salute, a tap to the shield arm.”

“Oh well that’s different, what if it’s the other hand?”

Lady Tatiana… “We went with what was most common.”

“Oh…well that makes sense. No bowing?”

The Lady shakes her head. “I’m Lady but my rank is Lady Marshal so my rank is a military one more than a noble one though I hold titles here and there.”

There’s this robed woman that comes in with another two pages and she snorts. “Titles here and there is like saying there’s just a few flies at the dung heap.”

They look at each other and there’s a shared smile of friendship there.

“Christiana of Lyonnes I present you to Knight Captain Diana Lunari head of the Order of The Dove and head instructor, knight mistress and surgeon apothecary.”

I move to rise and she waves me off. “Stay down Wisdom that’s an order from one healer to another.”

“I’m not a real Wisdom.”

“That’s not what Sir Alaan sent in with his messages to us; he spoke very highly of you.”

I blush.

Lady Tatiana chuckles and does Nicole who winces right after she did it.

“Thank you I just did as I had learned and I had a lot of help from Sir Alaan.”

“That was his job but it’s good to hear that his years here haven’t gone to waste.”

I nod. “It’s a very noble thing that he and others are doing.”

She shrugs. “Needed more than noble not every hamlet or steading or village has those that are skilled in healing and the like. Healthy realms tend to be more peaceful ones.”

I nod again. “I’ve learned a great deal of things since coming to The Free Kingdoms.”

Lady Diana smiles. “Well learning is of the good.”

Lady Tatiana says. “Well I’ll be off both of you listen to the healers and Diana; Christiana need to have her Moonsilver as well.”

She nods and she points to another bed while looking at me. “Get over there and pull the curtain and disrobe I’ll be in presently there’s a folded robe at the foot of the bed.”

I swallow a little, getting undressed in company even behind a curtain with those I don’t know is daunting but one thing I have learned and that is not to fight the orders of a healer.

I’m stiffer than I thought getting out of my things and my leg still looks bad, it’s healing but it is a mass of the angry healing tissue and then there’s all of the blues and purples and yellows of the flesh recovering from all of it’s rough treatment from the bruising and the like.

I am wishing too that I had a chance to really bathe as well. I smell like the road as much as other things even if I had had some chance to clean and that’s making me nervous too and I sort of carefully sit on the bed and wait until Lady Diana comes in to see me.

I hear Nicole wincing over and over as they’re doing whatever and I heard Lady Diana tell the pages. “Get her a pain draught and then into one of the salt baths and then to the needle room.”

I hear them say. “Yes Captain.” And I hear them leave in the wheeled chair again and then she slips in to my little sort of curtained off space and she has a note board and a mechanical quill and then she’s looking at me.

“You can take the robe off.”

I slip it off my shoulders blushing and she starts with some sort of thing that has tubes going to her ears and a metal disc and she’s listening to my breathing and my heart and then looking at my eyes with a glass from her pocket and she checks my tongue and my scalp and then she looks at my leg.

“Decent field work but that needs to come out as you’re healing so fast.”

I nod. “It’s been itchy and I’m very not sure of what to think of this fast healing lady…uhm Captain.”

She goes and gets a tray full of things that look like Alaan’s sort of things and she starts to clip and remove my sutures. “Well I tend your mother a time or twelve and from my studies afar I have made guesses that your magic tells your body that it’s damage in a better way that ours and that instead of it just simply repairing itself on automatic like we all do. The magic tells your body in a much more focused way in how to heal, much like the elves.”

I blink and I wince as some of the sutures sting as she’s tugging them out and wiping away the little bits of blood that starts to seep out. She’s using slips of paper to do that and she’s looking at them.

“Elves Captain?”

“I studied and lived with them in The Solari isles for a time and I have seen their magic and it’s been explained to me that way.”

“Elves have magic?”

“Oh yes most of them do actually, they’re an entirely different kind of being than us and they can use their powers to heal by speaking to a body and telling it to heal and so much more.”

“Oh I had no idea; I’m very new to all of this.”

“So was I, and so was your mother.”

“Could mother do that?”

“No, though I believe she was still trying to learn it. But it takes time, time that she wasn’t willing to take to learn or master such a thing.”

“It’s that complicated?”

She nods and she’s washing my wound out with some scented chemical water of some kind and she smiles. “It is and the elves have little use for those not willing to take the time to sit and stay and learn. And well this is good you have no infection and that leg will be on the mend even faster now with those stitches out I think and I’ll salve it up and bandage it after you’ve had a shower.”

“A shower?”

“Like a field wash rig only with plumbing.”

“Oh…well yes I do stink.”

She laughs. “You smell, there’s a difference between smell and stink.”

I nod. “I’ve been exposed to some of that.”

She looks at me smiling. “You’ll do well here. I’ll call in a page to help you and then I’ll call the seamstress for your measures and the like and you can get whatever kit Lady Tatiana has ordered up for you….and… I’ll go and measure your Moonsilver out.”

“Will I need it? Alaan said something about my magic?”

“You’ll need it, your power works on your will and wants sometimes and if you find yourself in love with some fellow then his seed might pass the gates of your power and you’d be a young mother.”

I swallow hard. “I’ll take the draught.”

She laughs. “Good woman, a child or more is fine but only when a woman is ready.”

I nod.

I’m woman enough now to get that there’s that old men’s view of if she’s old enough to bear then she’s ready.

I’m old enough physically but I am nowhere near ready and it’s come to my mind more than once that if I’m not even with my changes then there’s a lot of young women not ready either.

And that and Jessa’s thoughts about pregnancy as a weapon towards women rings true too.

The girl page that she sends to me takes me to where I can get showered and cleaned up and they give me some privacy and it’s definitely a healer’s sort of thing with the tiles and the uniformity but there’s soap there and it’s…oh it is sort of sandy and there’s some kind of crystals in it and it fizzes once it’s wet on my skin.

And there’s brushes and sponges and washcloths and a back scrubber and I actually go to work and I scrub very well and get rid all of that road and every ounce of Goblin and Warg.

I’m gentle with my wound but I feel better and that soap felt wonderful lathered into my scalp.

It doesn’t have a smell that I know but it is pleasant and it’s mild too.

I feel better, a lot better despite my leg.

And it was still very much a different thing than I knew being a woman and feeling the way that the water moved and ran down my body and the soap suds slipped off of me and the like.

The shower was though wonderful, it’s such a luxury to have hot cascading water rinsing me off but also working its own powers on my sore and aching body.

Then it’s out and into a fresh robe and underpants of stretchy cotton that clings and they get my leg bandaged lightly with some salve to help it and then there’s a woman that is there to take my measures.

And then there’s a vial I’m passed.

I look at the page. “This is?”

“You’re Moonsilver.”

“Oh, do I drink it?”

She nods.

I unstopper it and I don’t smell it but drink it with the mindset of this is a medicine so it will likely taste foul.

I was right.

It tastes like soap and oil but not just oil it tastes very like oil that had come off of a sharpening wheel. There’s a very dirt like mineral taste that has metallic notes to it and it is really bad, bad enough I shivered three times and fought my gag reflex a little as I get that feeling like when something bad is trying to come up and it settles sort of in the back of your throat and the hinge of your jaw.

After that the page walks me out and to the lift and then two floors up and through the halls until I’m at a large room where Lady Tatiana is seated behind a large horseshoe desk that had a lot of things on it and some of them I’m unsure of what they are but this is definitely an office.

There’s bookcases and maps and a round map…oh that, that looks exquisite and expensive made of stone but carves or rather engraved with the world and there’s so much more world there than I knew really existed.

Father would have loved all of this…and now I have a lump in my throat.

She looks up and the page closes the doors after I pass through them and I come closer as she beckons and she offers me a seat.

I sit and try to arrange myself and the robes to be lady like and semi presentable even though I’m just in the robes and underpants and bare the rest of the way.

“Would you like a drink?”

“Yes Lady.”

She gets up and she goes to a bar and she pours a drink of golden liquor for herself and I and I take it when offered and I can smell whisky.

It smells like very good quality and I am grateful that she only poured me about a quarter of what she’s having.

I take a sip and try to be like father was with it and the men and I nearly can’t because I am unprepared for the burn of it but I do and I try to taste the things I heard the older men father used to drink with said.

I really don’t know whisky though that much.

And I cough a little. “Sorry Lady I’m not used to this.”

She drinks and she nods. “It’s fine, I just figured you could use something with some strength to it.”

I nod and have another sip. “Yes actually this is rather bracing…in a good way.”

She looks me over. “So, we have decisions to make.”

I nod, it’s quite fast to be getting into this but it seems like it’s the way of things in these realms.

“I need to find out what happened Lady, I need to get my sisters with me and I need to take back Lyonnes.”

She looks at me. “For your sisters, you’ll never be heir.”

I look at her. “There’s no changing back?”

She shakes her head. “I’ve no idea but you have magic and no one will allow you to rule in The Middle Kingdoms with magic. You might have to forswear that and forswear that for your children too.”

I nod. “The others and I talked about that some. But my sisters could rule.”

She nods. “But we still have to find out who and why and how.”

I nod and take another sip. “I’ve no proof but there had to be magic done, it’s the only way to have moved in an army with battleknights without us having heard it coming from a long way off.”

She nods. “This is what I was thinking too.”

“But lady who could have done such, magic is so rare; mother was literally the only sorceress that I knew of.”

She smiles but it’s a bit rueful. “Your realms don’t let magic grow, humans have little power in their bloodlines but there is magic in this world and in other races and even in other nations Chrissy.”

I nod. “The Captain spoke of The Elves but I can see others.”

She nods. “And there’s different kinds of magic not just the adept powers that you have.”

“Adept?”

“It’s your lightning; you’re what was referred to in the olden days as a Stormbringer or a Stormsinger. You have a mystical affinity for lightning.”

“I’ve never heard of such a thing.”

“You wouldn’t you’re not even an apprentice.”

“I need to fix that since I’m not going to be a knight…not that running a rig was ever in my future.”

“You can do both.”

“Both? I’m too small to use a rig like this.”

“No you’re not and your powers will let you move metal.”

“I cannot move a battleknight.”

“But you can move the rigging and you can learn to use your magic to make yourself stronger.”

“Stronger?”

“Magic runs through you, lightning runs through you and it runs through everyone controlling nerves and muscles. I can teach you how to do those things at least and a few other things.”

“You know magic?”

“I have some magic but mine is innate but I’ve been around and seen things and I’ve known your mother for a long time, we should be able to put something together.”

I look at her. “What kind of magic do you have Lady?”

“Just magic Chrissy, it’s born to my blood.”

“Oh…so I…I don’t understand am I to learn this other magic too?”

She nods. “I can show you the basics, and then hopefully we can get you some teachers for the actual magic.”

“I thought that I was doing actual magic.”

She looks at me and she says. “Feel this out with your powers.” She holds out her hand and a ball of light forms in her hand and it’s like a bulb from the electric lights without form but with form since it’s a ball and it’s light but I feel no electric power doing it.

“Oh…oh what?” I’ll admit I’m awed.

“It’s a light spell, and you can do it too once you learn how. The same part of your brain that controls lightning will let you shape the same forces within you and around you.”

“Oh that’s amazing?”

She looks at me. “It’s a very basic spell, one that a lot of folks can do if they can do magic.”

“How?”

I want to learn this.

She looks at me and she pours us both another drink and she does the same measures and I have another bracing sip. I’m feeling it start to work too. It’s not a lot of whisky but I’m pretty slight for such things.

Tatiana looks at me. “Can you see in the electric yet?”

I blink before understanding. “Oh yes, I call it the magnet force.”

She twists her mouth up. “Okay that’ll do, now do that.”

I look into the magnet force and I see…oh wow the room is very alive with all of the electricity flowing through the walls and the devices and everything that she has.

And Lady Tatiana’s nerves are alight with lots of power, like there’s more electrical power inside of her than a human.

“Lady you’re…?”

“Brighter?”

“Yes…”

“Your mother said that too, I’m not human and with what I am I have more power flowing through me.”

“I see…”

“Do you?”

“I…?”

“Look at me, look outside of my lightning ignore that and look at the other light, the other tones inside of what you’re seeing.”

“I’m not sure how to.”

She moves and the light she made goes out and then she holds her hand up. “Okay power requires molding usually it’s how we interact with it so if you watch the nerves of my hand closely you will see other energy flowing along my nerves in my hand as I call the light forth again.”

“Okay…”

I watch really hard and it’s very difficult to see but it’s there…I see her nerves flare like there’s feeling involved in them and then as she’s making the ball of light I can see this light, it’s sort of white-like and it’s hidden against the electric blue until it is leaving her fingertips and then it’s definitely this sort of pearl color of white.

“Oh…I see it…”

I look at her hand closer and I look at my hands and run a lightning tendril between them. “So this, this is how I can work with lightning?”

“Yes, yes your actual magic is what does this. Now being an adept you have such a strong natural affinity that it’s like an innate ability.”

I nod but I concentrate on the flow between my hands and I concentrate and concentrate and I try to hold the feeling of that flow going and reduce the actual electrical power used until it’s barely there and not actually visible except for by magnet sight.

And there’s a brighter yellow tinted white flow going from one hand to another.

I hear Lady Tatiana say. “That’s it, that’s your mana, your magic.”

I nod… “This is hard it’s like this shadow that’s light and I’m trying to feel the heat of it.”

“That’s because lightning is powerful and it has such a strong flavor to it, that it’s overpowering the feeling of just your mana.”

“So what is next?”

She waves her hand in front of me and I stop. “Next is getting you roomed and settled and you need some sleep before we continue with any kinds of lessons Chrissy.”

I sigh…I was really sort of excited to learn how to make light but now that I’m stopped I’m feeling more tired.

“Yes Lady.”

“Good now come with me and I’ll see that you’re quartered.”

She leads me out after she downs her whiskey and I down what’s left of mine in a nearly too big coughing gulp and we leave her office and take a set of stairs rather than the lift down since we’re only dropping down two stories and we walk through various hallways and I’m doing my memory trick to learn the place and we come to a hallway that looks like a wing.

“This is the Squire’s hallway for the girls, I’m not putting you with the pages since you have powers that could be dangerous yet and you’ll still need help with things in the day to day way so they can help you and they’re squires so they can handle themselves with the danger if any comes.”

“Is Nicole quartered here?”

“No Nicole is a floor above being a senior squire to me but she’s going to be a few days at least in the infirmary.”

“Oh…good she really over did it.”

“Battleknighters, we very often bring about our own deaths.”

I nod and I notice a few looks as some of the Squires that are here in the wing are looking me over. It’s sort of a relief to go inside as she opens the door to my room and passes me one of the keys on a cord she has.

“Your key, and I see that your kit is here so I’ll leave you to it.”

I use my robe and try a curtsey and she smiles. “We’ll work on those things as well if you like.”

I blush. “Please if this was to not just empower me but to hide me it’d do well for me to learn more of the ins and outs of womanhood.”

She gives me this smile. “Aye that will come soon enough.”

The Lady Tatiana leaves and I’m left to my room and it’s actually very nice but it’s also Spartan right now. I’ve a bed and a closet and a small wardrobe cabinet and there’s a desk for writing and reading in one corner that has a bookshelf over it all are bare and everything is pale and very light grey from the tiled flooring to the walls and even the bedding.

I chew on my lip. “Oh I can see a certain level of clean just enforced by the colors here.”

I see my things from before there too and the clothes have been cleaned and laundered and the rest just left for me to deal with and I have been given under things and socks and breast bands with hooks in the back to be adjustable. I get into one and that sort of feels less naked and I start putting my things away.

I have under shirts of some sort of light linen with thing straps and I have tunics to go over those and pants as well as some leather shoes with laces. There’s no dresses or skirts which is just as well since it would likely be easier to do the work that I’ll likely be doing without them.

And they’re nicely made with a light sort of blue-grey color to them and sturdy too they don’t look freshly made for me but like uniforms from the fortress stores that had been taken in for my size.

I just get things settled in when the first cramps hit.

I go and I find the jakes and try to relieve myself but nothing comes of it really I don’t have to use the bathroom and I don’t have to vomit but they’re just getting worse.

Steadily and there’s a couple of squires there washing up when I come out of the stalls.

Yes, the jakes are that big they have stalls and porcelain duty bowls with water flushes and I look at them and they’re looking at me.

One of them says. “Are you alright sorceress?”

“No, and I’m not really a sorceress yet…I’m Christiana or Chrissy for short.”

Another one looks at me. “You look like new cheese.”

“That’s funny I feel like my insides are curdling and being cooked on a stove top.”

The first one looks at me. “Potion?”

Oh…

Really? That fast?

I nod “I just had it not too long ago.”

They both wince. Then the second one says. “Alright come with us we’ll help. I’m Anoelle and my friend here is Kari.”

“Well met even under the circumstances of the way that I’m feeling.”

Kari looks at me. “It’ll get worse.”

I look at her and I sort of want to cry. “Worse?”

They both nod and they have looks of sympathy.

I’m nearly in tears by the time I get to my room.

Anoelle and Kari both stay and I don’t know them, I don’t know them at all but I so needed them and I cry as the cramps start getting worse and worse and I feel the cramps leading to this feeling like I’m sort of wetting myself and there’s blood.

And I panic, I cry.

I know what the blood is, I know it’s the women’s mark days’ thing and I knew that I’d have to face it.

But it hurts, and it smells and it’s sticky in a not just blood way and the there’s this whole thing of me learning how to use the catch pads and the linen roll and getting it inside sort of which feels so wrong and I’m not really able to talk about why it’s so upsetting except that it’s my first time.

And I just sort of cry curled around a skin filled with hot water and a strong mug of willow tea to try and dull it and the girls both explain that it’s worse because it’s Moonsilver and that it’s doing extra to me as it’s taking hold and making my menses come to a stop.

All night, they are with me all night and I go through changes of pads and vile cramps that feel like my guts are twisting and that I’ve been street rolled and had someone take a blackjack to my kidneys and it’s all like this massive…huge menstrual event that hits like a bout of sickness.

They had to leave at morning bells and they left me with changes of things to use and it just kept happening and kept going only this time I was by myself and that was a scary and horrible feeling that brought all sorts of panic and things to the surface.

And when I could sleep my dreams were vivid and vile.

Blood and the clothes and chunks of things…clots and then even this thing where something that might have been a small tiny, tiny child….I woke screaming at that and unleashed a flash that scorched either wall as I lightning arced from each hand.

Some other squires came at a run and I’m pulling in my powers and one of them looks at me and them at the walls and I see her swallow but she doesn’t leave. “Christiana are you alright?”

“I…I had a nightmare.”

“We heard, but are you alright?”

I nod. “I had a really, really bad dream about…” and I gesture turning red at my nethers and there’s blood, blood seeped through and on the bedding and I get even redder and can’t stop the tears starting to run down my cheeks.

One of the other squires whispers to her and she has this Oh… face.

“Bad dreams often come when you’re dosed, it keeps you safe but as it takes hold it really messes with you.”

I nod and sort of pull my legs up. Something squished and made fresher tears come hard. “I was so unprepared for this.”

The one that’s been talking so far nods. “It is never what any of us think it will be and not even having gone through you mark for years prepares you for how the Moonsilver will hit you.”

I cough. “Like an Iron Rhino.”

That got some chuckles from the girls that are there and I get up and try to take some of the not showing blood parts of the blankets and cover myself and get some of the cloths and the other things and new underwear.

“Where can I find the baths and then the laundry?”

The speaker smiles at me. “I’ll show you, I’m Kate by the way.”

“Christiana but you already know that though I usually go by Chrissy.”

She looks at the scorches on the walls. “That’s very unscary for a woman that can command lightning.”

I sort of grin and blush. “I’m not as harmful as I appear trust me I’m not I’m just really new to everything especially my powers.”

She nods and she leads me to the showers which thankfully are opposite the jakes and I get cleaned up.

I cry in the shower, it’s running out of me and down the grate and there are little clotted bits and it’s sort of washing in spots on my feet before getting washed away and that is not helping me mentally in any way.

And I keep repeating it to myself that… “At least it’s not a bath; at least I’m not sitting in this.”

When I come out Kate passes me a hot leather jack of willow tea and it’s acridly strong and I guzzle it as fast as I’m able and I get dressed and then drop my sheets down the stone tube/chute to the laundry.

“We don’t do that ourselves?”

She grins. “Well I don’t any longer, but you may if you’re going to be a page.”

I nod. “I’d like to get some training in, I’m not sure exactly what I’m going to be by the time I’m done but I’ll do the work, I’m not scared of the work.”

“Given the rumors I’d say you’re not scared of much.”

“Rumors?”

“Goblins, Wargs… I heard your ranger has dropped off a very hefty bounty collection, enough it made the rounds and then stories of some of these other things like you and that village and walking into a sickness with more duty than fear.”

Kate is looking at me and so are the other two squires and I’m suddenly blushing because I’m used to praise somewhat but I’m not used to this sort of praise.

Third sons get some notice and then there’s perfunctory praise but getting it from peers and getting it from pretty girls is a whole thing that I’m not used to….at all and I am still enough of my old self that womanly praise is still a very blushworthy thing.

And they are pretty too… Okay Kate is and she’s tall and leggy and lean but strong and fit looking with long blonde hair and brown eyes.

I don’t know her friends yet but one is really exotic looing with softly dark skin like a southerner but she had long straight black hair and green almond shaped eyes that I’ve never seen before and she’s slender and fine featured.

And the other is this doe- like beauty with chestnut hair and eyes with freckles in a tanned face and long lashes.

I am unaccustomed to being around such beautiful women.

Discounting my sisters and my mother of course.

I look at the three of them as I’m dressed and I’m hopefully not going to bleed through things again. “Thank you, all of you I’m sorry to keep you from your rest or your work and studies.”

Kate shrugs and she takes a bit of something from the doeish looking girl and passes it to me and it’s this hard candied ginger and I take it and pop it in my mouth hoping to ease the nausea.

I am chewing it and it’s hot and pungent and I suck down the juices and look to her and offer the road sign for thank you since it would not be good to speak with my mouth full.

She nods and says quietly. “You’re very welcome.”

Very polite, I should really try and keep to my manners as much as possible here.

Kate looks at me. “Take some spare changes and then come with us it’s time for your first duty shift.”

I swallow the ginger. “Ah you were sent for me?”

She nods. “But we came early when we heard you.”

The svelte exotic one. “We have all been there as well.” She has an accent I can’t place.

“Many thanks all of you I was Very not prepared for this.” Even though I emphasized Very it really pales to my feelings given my start before all of this.

My comment did earn nods and chuckles from all three and once I have extra pads and rolls for inside…of me and two pairs of underwear in one of my shoulder bags I follow Kate and Tana the doeish girl and Anika the exotic one and we go through the fortress complex until I arrive at what smells like the kitchens.

Actually kitchen work for pages is not uncommon.

Even if you have an unpracticed hand in the kitchens there is always peeling and sorting and washing to do.

Kate and the others shake my hand and that’s still a thing that I have yet to get used to with women doing that and I enter and it’s huge with lots of metal everywhere and tiles and there’s oven at the far sides and they are actually raised on a dais and there’s slides for the finished things to come down and there’s a wheel with hinges that I can see these trays of proofed dough that are carried up to the bakers and they take them off and put them in the ovens and that’s a marvel in itself and there’s so much more.

I hear a voice and there’s this very big man there looking at me and he’s clean shaven and he’s bald with a bandits head cloth on his head and he had a tunic with what looks like the rank of sergeant on his sleeves.

“You girl, who are you!?” He’s loud and so is this place.

“Uhm…Christiana Lyonnes sir.”

“I’m no knight don’t call me sir!”

“Sorry sergeant!” I say it loudly back.

He looks at me. “Good a fast learner, you’re late!”

“Sorry sir I’m in my potion time.”

He stares at me and he nods. “Fine you’ll make up the time later.”

I blink.

Home…well home there would have been much more consideration. Then again I’m not home. Home is ruins and ash until I get back there.

I set my jaw. “Yes sergeant!”

He looks at me up and down. “Show me what you can do get on the prep line!”

He points and I go over and it’s sorting and washing vegetables and peeling and chopping and dicing and I learned a lot from the women in the villages. How to angle the knife, how to spin the vegetable, how to chop onions by leaving the root tail on and it will hold it together to let you make all of the cuts to dice it.

I’m doing all of that for an hour and then he has me show two younger pages what I’ve been doing and then I’m on the cooking line.

I’m surprised that it’s morning still it feels later and we are actually doing large mass servings of things as people are coming in and it’s busy work and I’m not used to the environment and we are cooking lots of ham and there’s other meats and then there’s some other things being made like potato-scrap… that’s with chopped diced potatoes that are boiled for a few moments to get softer and then placed on this large flat cooking sheet with fire beneath it like a huge massive pan that is apparently called a flat-top grill or a flat-top and we add salt and pepper and diced onions and there’s all sorts of variations on it as it seems to be a staple.

There are some with peppers? I don’t know these things and some with a pickled beef that we shave and cook and then there’s a milk and flour and pepper gravy that we do with crumbled sausage.

I make more whipped eggs that I ever have only they call them scrambled here and then there’s griddle cakes…different kinds of griddle cakes and the staff and pages and students and not dozen of people but a whole village of people are here to break their fast and then we’re done.

I’m hot and sweaty from the heat and I’m…I’m actually hungry.

The sergeant looks at me. “Go we’ve others coming in for the rest and you’re wanted…” he’s looking through a sheaf of papers on a flat tally board with a clamp. “You’re off to meet with the new pages.”

“Yes sergeant…what about the dishes?”

“That for those on punishment details.”

“Oh…”

He passes me a split foot long loaf of bread and it’s stuffed with scramble eggs and some bits of ham and some of the scrap-potatoes and I take it.

“Thank you sergeant?”

“Sergeant Caldwell.”

“Thank you sergeant Caldwell. Uhm…which way do I go.”

He gives me directions and I memorize them and I eat as I’m going at first self-conscious but less so as I see a squire go past with gear in hand and he had a large slice of toasted bread in his teeth.

The food doesn’t last I hadn’t eaten anything since getting here really and the ginger seems to have helped and I’m really hoping that I’m passing through the eye of the storm with this Moonsilver thing.

I think I like these green pepper things very strong but kind of sweet in a cooked onion like way.

I end up going outside into a courtyard that’s not the one I arrived in and I add it to my mental memory trick map and I see that there’s several ranked people here and no knights and there’s a goodly number of pages here and most of them are my own age or close to it and there’s a large number of women…girls we make up at least a quarter of the group.

This is Corporal Crowe’s class and it’s Fitness and basic combat.

Corporal Crowe is black.

Well not black but he’s deep brown skinned like I’ve only read about if the deepest lands of the great southern jungles and he smiles a lot and he’s middle aged and has short stubble for hair and a trimmed beard and a bit of an accent that lends a strange cadence to his speaking that’s pleasant.

I’m trying hard not to stare too much and I am sort of relieved that I am not the only person here who had not seen a black person before.

There’s sprints back and forth across the courtyard touching the ground and then there’s calisthenics and push-ups and sit-ups…. (Ugh for those the way that I’m feeling.) and then there’s rope jumping and there’s stance-shifting…that’s when you assume sword and shield first stance and then switch it all it the other way and repeat and repeat and repeat and there’s all sorts of exercises and there’s even weights.

I’m fitter than most, I’m fitter than most with all except two of the boys and that is a shock. I’m close to being as strong as both of them as well and they each have a foot and fifty pounds on me.

There’s whispers of…. “Sorcery.”

The thing is they’re right, that since I have changed I get less tired and I am stronger than I used to be and I know it for true now as I have outdone myself in every single thing that I used to be able to do.

I’m still breathing hard and I’m still dripping in sweat and there’s one girl page that is better than some of the boys and came close to being as fit and strong as me.

But compared to Christian I’m fitter by quite a score.

Some of the lads have faces that say that this is not a happy thing; they’re not pleased at me even being here or equaling them.

The other girl either.

The other girls here aren’t close to them so there’s this sort of semi arrogant kind of contempt some of these lads have.

This is not the attitude of most of the people I’ve met since leaving home.

I’m getting that there’s political training of pages and squires and fostering people here since some of these people don’t seem like they’re like a lot of the others here.

And then comes the basic combat were we’re paired off against Corporal Crowe’s two minions.

Two dwarves.

Actual dwarves.

I’m surprised at the height I was expecting shorter and I was expecting dirtier or in heavy armor and weapons and the like from stories I suppose, but these two are young and they have clean clothes and tunics for the fortress and The Lady and they’re as well kept as any soldiers should be in a castle or a keep.

I was right about them being minions.

And Corporal Crowe is a bad, bad man.

We are set to spar with the dwarves in bare handed combat and we’re to do our best and that is honestly not good.

I am not well trained in hand to hand without a weapon and what I know pales with what I know and we’re all run through once and really fast.

It’s fast because not one of us has stood against these dwarves for more than a minute I think and we’re all tripped, thrown and even bounced off of the mats.

And then it’s all of us in groups of four and Corporal Crowe orders us to keep them from crossing the little courtyard and keep them from drinking from the rain barrels over there.

There’s four groups of us and we go at the two dwarves and it’s just a farce really we’re trying and the boys are all angry and fired up and the dwarves are doing things as before but with feints that work and jabs and I get this fist propping up a thumb in some soft spot under my arm that made me yowl like a cat.

And that has me clutching my side and that has me off balance and like he’s the cat and I’m a glass goblet he pushes me over to the cobbles.

Ow…

None of the others fared any better and we’re panting and groaning and Corporal Crowe is writing things down on another tally board and I’m in pain but I’m impressed because even if he’s literate in his own language he’s likely writing it in Kingdom common which means he at least knows two.

Then he grinned at us. “Alrigh...tee, we see now how you all can do the basic tings. Now I know jus what-choo can do an not do and we will do these more and more until you show me dat you’re all not a bunch of young goats.”

I think that he means kids but we were as silly as spring goat kids.

He waves us off. “Alrigh…tee be off now and shower and clean up with yourselves and ye have dinner then the lot of you are to go to the wing of scribes.”

I sort of blink and I look around and we’ve spent a good two glasses here doing things and by the time we get cleaned up it will be close to high-sun or noon or whatever they call it here.

I gather my things and I’m getting some looks and the other pages and I part ways when I get to where I have to go for the first years squires wing and I think I can hear mutters and cussing from the boys as soon as I’m out of their sight.

Sigh…

And I have no idea how to hand that.

I get back to my room and then gather my robe and things and head to the showers and get clean.

I leaked a little during the exercises past the pad and the plug cloth…well it made me gag some at what was on it and stuck to it and I washed really well.

Oh..?

Oh it’s done, it’s stopped?

I cup water splashing and use a cloth to make sure and other than cleaning out some bits and things left over from this I’m done.

Which is surprising but not that much since I was told of how I heal faster and this shower is definitely proving the case as my leg wound is closed…it’s still itchy and tender but it’s just an angry red line of scarring now.

I don’t re-bandage that either. I’ll just be careful because it’s still tender when I press at it gently.

And as odd as this all is it has improved my mood greatly and I head off to my room to change and to there’s a package there and a note.

I open the note and it has what looks like The Lady’s signet on it actually burned lightly into the papers like a watermark or like my power writing burning trick and it says.

{I’ve heard you’ve faired middling well with the Moonsilvering, it’s a hard thing but it only lasts a week so take heart. Today you’ll start some of the classes I think that you need for all of your training and I’ve sent you some fresh books for taking notes and some other things to help you study. I will see you this evening at the sixth glass at my office.}

A week?

Well I shall have to tell her that I’m done.

I am so glad to be done.

I unwrap the paper and it’s this sort of black waxed paper that some merchants use to store their things and wares and I save it and the string that wraps it in a space in my desk.

I look at what she has sent me and it’s making me smile and get a little misty in a happy way. There’s a set of two books lightly bound with hard covers and cloth and there’s fresh virgin pages and a mechanical pen and a bottle of ink and an eyedropper to refill the pen and there’s a shoulder purse in the colors of The Lady to carry it all in. (Light blue with a with a circled cross as part of it in front of a sun and two flanking weapons one a claymore held by a mantled eagle and the other a hammer that has a crown hovering over the hammer head and the sword is on the left.)

It’s a fine, fine gift really and likely expensive.

I think the central sun and the circled cross in front of it is her personal standard and the rest of for the whole place? I think you read it that she’s allied to both The Dwarves and then actually The Middle Kingdoms because the flag of The High King is the eagle mantled over a claymore.

I fill the pen and place it carefully in the box it comes it and then I put the books it the bag and I make sure I look somewhat presentable and I head down to the mess hall.

It’s still informal here in the mess hall barracks sort of way and I head to the line and I see that it’s a lot of serve yourself for many things and I get the largest tray that I can find one that I see the men and boys using and I get my jack and my cutlery and then I step into line.

There’s so much here and I get myself some salad greens and raw vegetable bits then there’s ground meat patties in gravy and potatoes baked in milk with onions and chives and something called pasta? I get some of that and a baked chicken leg and thigh then there’s cooked vegetables. I have to ask since I have never seen nor eaten a cauliflower not a broccoli before and I even try these tiny baby turnips cooked with their tops and I’m getting looks as I take a bowl of the stewed greens that they have even here and I manage to find room for a small bread loaf and a few squares of butter and I balance a bowl of a baked pudding and get my leather jack full of broth and head to find myself a seat and I see Taylor and he waves me over.

I’m getting stares at all of the food I’m carrying.

Taylor laughs as I settle at the bench he’s sitting at with what looks like some young men from the fortress and most of them look like workers here in the fortress.

“You’re starving I take it?”

“I barely was able to eat all of yesterday and all I’ve had since coming here is some whisky and a sandwich this morning. I think between that and the way my magic is healing my body I’m half starved.”

Taylor nods and I’m getting looks.

One of them a nice looking very dark haired fellow with a beginning of an afternoon beard and a large frame and heavy thick muscles says. “So it’s true Taylor brought in a sorceress.”

I set my food out in a semblance of order and start to butter things. “I’m the daughter of Aurora Blackhand and I have magic but I’ll not claim to be a sorceress yet.”

That gets me a few looks and a couple of nods.

Taylor says… “I heard they have you doing some page training?”

I nod. “Given what happened and what we faced some proper training seemed like the best thing and I think the lady has other ideas for me with regards to my magical studies.”

Taylor introduces me around with some nods and the closest offer hands a little shyly but they seem to be open minded at least enough to not get up and leave the table.

The big dark haired one is Garret and he’s a smith and a battleknight armorer.

And he’s handsome.

I cannot help it.

I am me now, and he is a large man with a lot of muscles built so very thickly from his trade and his body and just the shape of it is giving me thoughts. Thoughts I’m not used to having still.

I feel a trickle… and I excuse myself and take my napkin with me to the jakes and then stuff it down and jog to my room and then get re-padded and get sniffly… “Not done yet apparently dammit.” and head back down with my bag of spares.

I steel myself on going back inside and make my way back to my table and I sit back down.

Taylor shoots me a look.

“I took the damned potion.”

There’s a lot of nods around the table and some winces of sympathy and very thankfully it doesn’t become a topic pf conversation.

Garret though.

Oh my light…that’s why…I can remember the women in the village speaking of their mark-time and that some of them get very easily aroused…and weepy and moody.

And I think that I’ve been hitting all of those points.

I am eating and he’s watching me and the others are too even though there’s small talk going on of who’s with who now and some of the trade that’s coming in or what’s due to come in and what some people are looking forward to seeing here or in the markets in the city.

I manage to piece together that shrimp are a sort of shellfish though I’ve never had them and that tuna is a large fish and that it’s very favored here apparently as recipes of how to have it is being spoken of with reverence.

It’s amusing that we’re talking about food while we’re eating.

The food I’m eating…I’m making mental notes at the potato and the meat patty dish because I think there’s more than meat in it and it’s filled out to be more and this could save money, it could feed people like some of the things that I seen this morning.

I melt a little at the bites of the vegetables in the melted butter, real butter and it’s strong but it’s butter strong and it’s heavy with salt in it and it’s absolutely heaven.

Especially with the bread to sop up the juices.

I’m not partial to this cauliflower thing and I like the turnip very much but I really like the broccoli.

The greens are almost like home to me now and I think I’ll have them on my table as much as I can in the future.

I am still getting looks but they’re head shakes and smiling looks as I clean my plates literally using my bread to polish off all of the bits and I even chewed the ends off of the chicken bones.

I do that anyways, I always have where the cooking has made them soft…chomp through the softness and then enjoy this sort of grind up marrowness and yes if able I suck out some of the marrow clear of the bones.

I’m getting looks.

I look at them.

“What you’ve never seen anyone do that?”

Garret says. “Not anyone highborn, and I’m going to assume you being the sorceresses daughter means that you’re a sort of highborn person at least.”

I take a drink of broth. “I am but I’m not highborn here I’m a guest and at the mercy of this land that The Lady and this is not some high table so…”

He holds his hands up. “No, no I didn’t mean offence by it, it’s just highborn and low live extremely different lives.”

I nod. “Oh I’ve learned that in spades and I’m still learning that I’ve seen things here that would never happen home including this, most noble folks wouldn’t eat with anyone save themselves unless on the battlefield…not even hunting.”

There’s some nods at that and Garret looks at me. “Well it’s here too, not here per-say but in some of the other lands in The Free Kingdoms. There’s a whole lot of nobles being nobles.”

“Well I will try to be a credit to my host and to my friends here and try to not be one of those lot. I had some of those types in class with me for basic fitness and combat.”

There’s a couple of chuckles. “Corporal Crowe…” several of them say.

I nod. “Apparently the few bits of things that I was trained in wasn’t all that much training.”

There’s some nods and I push my dishes away and I take my pudding and a spoon and tuck into it. It’s really good and it’s barley I think that’s been cooked in milk and eggs stirred in with dark sugar and butter? I savor it and It’s really well made and…or…well sometimes I had heard from the village women that we crave sweets at the time of our marks.

Garret looks at me some more. “So this training is going how far Lady?”

“Not Lady, Chrissy please.”

He raises an eyebrow at that and I sort of smile and blush.

Seriously I am feeling the attraction; side effect of this time for me or whatever the cause and he meets my eyes and he looks away to his food and there’s a blush too from him a little which makes this all the more…interesting.

Oh Gracia, I think perhaps I might just get you a little more…this is fun in this sort of little thrilling not knowing dancing on the edge of something way.

He coughs and takes a drink of his drink.

Then he tries again. “Chrissy then, so how far will this training take you?”

“I don’t know but before my powers had been awoken I was learning these same things but more towards the stewardship lines of things and some arms training. I would like to be at least competent so I don’t have to rely on others or my magic.”

“Why not your magic?”

“My mother’s powers failed to save her or protect her in the end.”

Garrets face clouds and he says. “I’m sorry. The sorceress was a nice sort from the little I did know.”

I smile and eat. “This I keep hearing, I wasn’t very close to her really. I was sort of fostered out but she was still like family to me. And honestly I think the Free Kingdoms and The Middle Kingdoms suffered a loss when she died.”

There’s some nods at the table and I sigh after the last bite of pudding. “I have some very big shoes to fill and likely with the state of things not long enough to fill them in.”

There are a lot more nods and the topic shifts to them talking about people and things that might come to stir up trouble or are working at it even now that her very presence might have curbed.

I don’t know any of the names but there’s some opinions and they’re not favorable ones about some of these nobles and such because apparently there’s as always some that see the lands of their neighbors and covet them.

I’m committing all this to memory.

And apparently mother’s powers of flight were well known here at least and the thoughts of her being able to travel so far and so fast and stay well out of weapons ranges had curbed a lot of ill behavior.

Garret looks to me. “Well any help you might need from me as long as I can do it within the scope of my duties I will do it.”

I nod. “Do you weapon smith as well as work on the rigs?”

He nods and he sort of straightens with this sort of intensity. “I’m a rig smith; I forge blades sixteen feet at a time.”

My eyes widen at that.

“Forge?”

“Yes.”

“With a hammer and an anvil and not by casting and cutting?”

“Yes.”

“How?”

I’m asking how because forging a sword is an art and forging a battleknight sword is unheard of. Well not unheard of it’s just incredibly rare. The Rampant’s sword was forged and it was the envy of many, many nobles and battleknighters.

See most battleknights they have blades but they’re poured steel and cooled just right then they’re cut and ground down and sharpened and they are still exactly what they are but a forged battleknight blade it’s stronger by a good measure and much more importantly it’s lighter.

And in a battleknight that means hitting faster, hitting more often and fighting for longer.

And that, that can mean a whole battle.

He looks at me. “There’s a thousand little secrets to it Chrissy but in the rough scope of it it’s with a rig itself and with great care and difficulty.”

I look at him. “That’s as impressive as any sorcery I have ever seen or heard of.”

I’m serious too, if he’s doing this as his trade garret could literally go anywhere and be treated like a noble himself and likely have title for service too.

I look at him as we’re getting all of our trays like the others and heading to the wash stations for them. “How is it you’re here? Your skills are in demand everywhere?”

He smiled and nodded at Taylor. “I’m a keep brat just like he is. This is home and those knights going out there to keep the peace of the realms and to fight for contract for the peace of the realms are a real source of pride for me.”

I love not just his smile but that smile. You know that one where it’s love of land and of flag and of doing, being part of the right thing and feeling so happy about it? Garret’s wearing that sort of smile and it makes him seem…happy, and heartful.

Loyal.

Oh gods loyal is something that I am seeing as such a good thing because he could have left, he could have sold his skills to some terrible lord with deep chests.

He stayed for honor.

That’s very attractive.

I get my dishes in the right tubs and then see the other pages that I was with before and I walk to join them as they are heading to the wing of scribes.

I get a few dirty looks from the boys that seem still non-plussed that I am with them but the girls actually wait for me and that one girl that was close to me in the physical training extends her hand.

“Leslie Goldendale.”

“Christiana of Lyonnes.” Yes I use of in my name here, as in where I’m from instead of my last name just in case.

She furrows her brow thinking. “I’ve not heard of that house?”

“I’m from The Middle Kingdoms.”

Her eyes widen. “For true?”

“Aye for true, please don’t be offended though I’ve never heard of Goldendale or any of the houses in The Free Kingdoms really.”

She nods and we start to walk. She’s…she’s not what one expects from a noble girl really there’s a lot of certain breeding and Leslie isn’t fitting to type. She’s tall like a boy and she has strong shoulders too and her hair is short. She could pass for a lad in the right clothes but she’s not what you’d call ugly instead she’s a handsome girl.

“Oh I’m very local my father is a lording and we’re only a day’s ride from Sanctuary.”

A lording is either a lord by inherited title or bestowed and that’s a rare thing but usually it’s from being a knight who has been awarded lands or bought them and had the lands recognized by the ruler. Now this being Free Kingdoms that might not be even true or needed.

“That makes things easier I’d think?”

She nods. “It is, and I’m often father’s proxy here in the city for errands and such now.”

“So you’re here for that or to carry on the tradition of knighthood?”

“I’m here for both, I’m his only child and after a good long argument between him and mother I was allowed to go.”

“Argument?”

“Mother wanted me to marry, and father was fairly blunt that because of our small station and my looks that I’d be at someone’s mercy and that I deserved better.”

“What’s wrong with your looks?”

One of the jerks ahead of us laughs. “Nothin if yer looking for a giant cow for a bride.”

I glare at him. “Well I know why you’re here then it’s because a lance in your hand makes a good distraction from your tiny manhood.”

He stops and spins. “What did you say to me witch!?”

I step right up to him and look up and into his face. “I said you’re a bully and you’re here to make your manhood look bigger since your honor’s not doing the job Crandell.”

That’s his name, I remember it from training.

He hauls back to strike me and I stare at him still.

“Go ahead; I’ve waded through the blood of Goblins and Wargs to be here I’m not afraid of some cad that dishonors his pledge to the code.”

He lowers his arm and he glares at me and I can see one of the other boys tugging at him.

He leaves ahead of us storming off.

Leslie looks at me. “Thank you, I think he doesn’t like you but thank you. No one outside my family has ever really spoken up for me like that. It’s a…it’s a thing that I’ve had to live with…being…ug...”

“Being handsome, you’re a handsome woman Leslie and I’m glad to know you.”

“Handsome do you mean manly?”

“No I mean handsome in that dashing of ways.”

She blinks and smiles and we start walking and then we’re heading into what looks like an actual classroom and she lets out this happy little sigh. “Dashing.”

We get seats and there’s an old scholar there that looks like he’s seen a lot of time away from the books but he’s wearing the teaching robes that are so common with the type. My tutors wore them but nothing this nice. Rather his aren’t nice but they’re clean and neat like well-kept while my tutors were his only ones and while he only wore them while teaching they were getting threadbare.

This is the first time I’ve been in a classroom and I’m excited the scholar has a stage and even that has a raised alcove with what looks like a private area for their work there’s giant slates up on the walls and instead of tapestries there are maps here, all kinds of maps and there’s even a large cabinet with glass doors, one glass door for every seat here and in them I can see mapmakers tools.

Oh…oh well that’s sort of exciting.

Maps are wonderful creations, and good maps are almost treasure.

The scholar is sipping a drink in a jack and he’s smoking a pipe and waiting for us to take seats and once we’re settled he starts.

“I’m Sir Mallory and I am your instructor in the teaching of Heraldry, Realms and Geography. Here you’re going to learn the lands from map to tome and the who’s and the why’s of how the Free Kingdom’s work and the lands beyond them.”

It’s interesting right from the start because none of this is old to me and the way he’s explaining it that the lands change depending on who is ruling and what they do changes and has change the geography and then there’s the fact of the physical resources of the land determining wealth and status as well as defense in times of unrest.

I have my book out and I’m writing notes and the key points and the hour passes quickly.

Crandell and his two friends are complaining about it being boring when I’m seeing all this interconnection or the start of it.

Then it’s Mathematics in another room Dame Salana a southern woman with not just the robes of a scholar but she wore a matching veil over the lower part of her face and she has several sashes with daggers and she carried a Southlander blade.

She spoke loudly and with authority.

Kenneth Martel does several ignorant yawns as she is telling us to start to chart multiplication tables and then there’s a math legend that we have to copy with all of these short hand symbols that we are to know and to learn.

“Page Martel am I boring you? Are you a master of equations that you do not need to know what I will try to teach you?”

He gets this look on his face. “I know my numbers and I don’t need to be wasting time doing this I’m here to get my shield.”

She turns away and she goes to the slate and using chalk she starts to write. “You are under siege while on a mission you and the people under you have five containers of rice and beans measuring… (She draws dimensions.) not at a rate of the barest rations of two ounces or rice and two ounces of beans and those rations alone how long will it be before you and your men run out of food?”

He huffs. “That says little what ranks and titles are the men with me?”

She looks at him. “You failed you and your men are all dead.”

He scoffs… “That’s bullshit Lady….” He says lady like it’s a slur, like he’s offended by her for being a woman and over him.

Bennet who I think is his brother and Crandell are both snickering.

She tilts her head. “That earned you two punishment points and one for each of your jesters.”

She says loudly. “As soon as you put yourself and your rank or title and that of others ahead of others in a situation like this you have lost the battle you fostered an immediate type of morale that will have them defeated and you’d be lucky if they didn’t hang you and the people that you were holding in regard over them.”

Kenneth looks mad and he looks like he’s going to stand up. “Stay down page Martel because I would not be adverse to add to your punishment by taking you to task in the practice courts.”

I’m not sure if it’s just me but Dame Salana just gave off this air of danger.

He sits down red faced and jaw clenched and she looks to the rest of us.

“Mathematics is one of the most powerful weapons that you can wield as rulers or serving them it will let you build things rightly and true, forge your blades and armor, feed your people, ensure good commerce and trade there is nearly nothing in the world that a strong and secure knowledge of mathematics will not see you towards making better.”

She turns to the slate and back to us and asks. “Now do any of you have the answer?”

Several of us raise our hands.

It was actually an interesting class.

Leslie grins at me as we head to yet another classroom… “And here I thought that numbers would be boring, I’m actually sorry that it was just a half a glass long.”

I nod. “I could have listened to more; she made me want to listen to more. My sister Angeline was really good with numbers being our steward almost and quartermaster and she had a real knack for numbers. I think that she would have loved this.”

We enter yet another classroom and this one is decorated with all sorts of things that are from my first guess Dwarven and there’s a large dwarf there not tall and large but he’s wide and he’s blessed with a wealth of girth. He looks like the drawings I have seen for the most part.

“C’min Lairds and lady t’be and get yerself a quaff and a dram of the waters and some bread. I’ma Duran Quait ana I’ll b’teaching y’all about dwarves.”

Oh that was thick.

And we’re looking around and one of the quiet boys goes over and there’s a table with things and I see him take a tiny glass of what looks like whisky and he drinks it and he takes a slice of this rich and dark looking bread and butters it and sprinkles salt on the bread and he gets a mug and he pours himself a deep dark ale.

He walks to the seats but says around a mouthful. “Take a shot and get a bite to eat and have a stout.”

Oh… and he’s new, well he wasn’t in the physical training class from this morning but joined us at the start of the afternoon.

I look at Leslie and we head over and it’s shots of whisky one for each and there’s stout to drink and bread and butter and salt.

The whisky is good, the bread it so, so flavorful and strong and so is the butter and the salt just makes it and then this heady dark stout that is good too.

We all get seats and even the three trouble breeders are calming down and being not quite so bad.

Duran Quait takes out a box. “C’min get yerselfs a boo’k these be yers iffa ye want and they’re librams that show yet words in common and then the word in Dwarven.”

I look at them as we take them and it’s a legend for language and it tells you the written in dwarven and it tells you the sound it makes and for the letters in the front and then after that it does that for words and even further for phrases.

I’m going to learn Dwarven!

The rest of the class is him taking our names and writing them out and teaching us how to say each of the names. It goes fast but it goes easy with this literal taste of dwarven culture to go with it.

All of this is making me happy.

We’re heading off to writing and Literature and we’re all getting along much better and I look to the quiet boy that took the lead in our dwarven class.

“Thank you for the help there Duran Quait has a very thick accent.”

He nods. “I’m used to hearing it, I’m a Booter.”

Crandell huff’s slipping back to being ignorant as he passes us.

“That’s the underground part of the city?”

He nods.

“I’m Chrissy.”

“Stormer.”

“Interesting name.”

“It was my grandfathers he was a marine.”

“Oh…well I think it suits you.”

He shrugs and he gets the door and he holds it open for all of us women and that was mannerly and nice.

Again he’s good looking.

Dammit…these feelings are quite distracting.

Lean and yet very muscled under his tunic and blonde haired blue eyed and clean shaven in this almost a baby faced way and he has his hair which is long pulled back in a horsetail.

He’s very cute in this really good way; I can see the handsome man that he’s going to become in the years to follow.

And apparently my nipples can feel it as well.

Ow…

Writing and Literature is being taught be Sir Halloway and he sincerely looks like the scholar that his robes say that he is. Thin and with spectacles he tells us about handwriting and how important that it is and then how much that a good education in literature actually is especially when trying to hold conversations with those that are educated or to just know things and then we’re all brought up to the slate boards to write and practice our penmanship there first.

I am not as skilled as a scribe as I thought myself to be and neither are any of the others when we see how elegant Sir Halloway can write.

And he gives out books for us to read through thin and yet full of poetry. “Read well and pick one to read out loud to us all for the next class.”

Oh…oh speaking in public.

Not my strong suit.

The next class is Agriculture and it’s Sir Mallory again but in a different classroom and it’s sort of boring as he starts the introductions as to why we are learning about farming and crops and all the things to go with it

And then we’re done for the day…I have one glass to get to my rooms and get cleaned up and then head to Lady Tatiana’s office to meet up with her.

There’s more blood in the things and the pad and I need to wash some more but my underwear was fine and I use the jakes and get cleaned up and then get some more clothes and such and kit myself for this whole damned woman’s mark experience and I head off to go to Lady Tatiana’s office.

There’s a couple of squires outside and they ask me to wait and show me to a bench and one even offers me a cup of tea which I’m grateful to have and sip at it and wait as there’s obviously some business going on and there’s other’s showing up and they have what looks to be a rolling rack of dresses and gowns and other things and the women are looking at me and I’m blushing as I realize that the size of most of these things are sized for me.

Finery female finery and all the kit to go with it from the clothes to the shoes by the look of it to scents and cosmetics.

Oh… oh I was not, definitely not expecting this to be happening and so soon.

I’m not sure that I’m ready to be my sister Gracia just yet.