Sixteen Feet of Steel Chapter 22

*Before….

Nicole takes us past to the bursars office and I have some pay there.

Which was actually unexpected and it was really nice and I actually leave some of the “found” coin with her and I get myself a decent brace of the local coin mostly in coppers and a silver pennies at Nicole’s suggestion and I leave a respectable amount in my holdings there.

I’m far from rich really but I have some monies, some.

It’s a weight off my mind that I didn’t know was there.

We leave together heading out with some others who are on liberty tonight too and we share a wagon ride from the gates into the city and one of the places where people are getting dropped off and I can’t help but to be excited and to smile with all of the folk around and shops and things are lit with electric illuminations and it’s busy and exciting.

Nicole tugs on my sleeve and we’re heading first thing for some confection shop.

*And Now…

It has me laughing right off unexpectedly as she hauls me with her and inside with her and Jessa and there’s…there are what looks like tilted shelves behind the counter and they all sorts of treats and things that I have no idea…never seen before at all.

And I’m excited, really excited because even with my old life something like this was a rare treat, it was something that was either ordered through merchants or came with them or something we would try when we’d travel.

And travelling very far was quite very rare even for us.

There’s a lot of hard and clear candies that look like figurines and then there’s others that are marzipan or something called mallowcloud? And then there’s my favorite thing…or one of my favorite things and that’s golden-sponge.

Now it’s not a cake sponge or an actual sea sponge but it’s boiled sugars of some sort that get a slightly burned or darkened golden tint to then and something else and something else but whatever they use it makes the boiling sugar foam and then it cools and it’s full of all these tiny little bubbles and it’s sweet and caramel like but not and it’s buttery and not and it just slightly salty and it’s crunchy but at the same time if you leave it in your mouth it will melt.

I buy a large portion of it and am in heaven as I eat some and share it with the girls and Jessa has bought a lot of things.

Hard candies of different kinds and several small wooden boxes of candied nuts as well.

Nicole bought some of the mallowcloud things and they’re shaped like chess knights and they have a sugary dust on them and they’re like clouds of sugary softness. They’re very good.

We stow our things and then we head off together still eating some of the treats and headed to look at some of the other shops.

There is so much that’s here and I have never seen so much wondrous variety in things here that it is truly overwhelming but in an exciting and good way.

And things are all so bright and clean and well lit up here and I really mean clean. I’ve been to other town and there’s the noble’s quarter that is usually paved but nothing like this. There’s good flat stones like I have never seen before at all and then there’s drains in the streets and even a curved stone ditch in places.

But there’s people in the streets with carts and other things that are actually cleaning the streets and they will clean up the droppings with shovels and throw sawdust down and then sweep up the rest of the stuff.

Clean like I said and while I’m not raised to be fussy this adds to the whole air of the place. Buildings being two or three stories on average and sometimes even four or five. Stone everywhere and I’m going to suppose the dwarves had very strong influences with that.

And oh…

The shops.

I’ve seen some of these things in passing when we arrived here but walking with Nicole and Jessa I’m seeing things I’ve literally only read or heard about through traveling folks home.

There’s all sorts of food shops that make pretty specific sorts of things and then there’s ones for certain farms? There’s butchers and bakers and makers of baked sweets and everything here is so specialized and the goods are so very fine.

And they sell books.

I’m torn between my own love of them and memories of home and the fact my parents loved books and then Elizabetha.

If there was a natural born scholar it was her.

She’s be beside herself here.

Nicole looks at me. “Do you want to go in?”

“Can I afford to?” Books are expensive.

She grins at me. “I think so, they’re not so dear.”

Jessa looks at me and she shrugs and opens the door for us. “Matter not t’me I’m jus a middling reader anyhows.”

Nicole laughs. “Aye yes well Hawk they might have maps or an atlas or two.”

Even I laugh as she goes. “Oh!”

It’s wondrous as I head inside with the place lit with electric and then there’s that smell.

Books and not just the books but it’s vellum and parchment and other writables and inks that all have their own smells as well to from pigments to sepia’s to iron and gall and floral oil bases and paints and then there’s the scents of fine woods here and leathers and cloth for binding them all.

I see sides of the shops that are past the counters where books are being made by steady handed apprentices and then there’s the actual shops displayed goods as well. They’re written works and copies and they have been sectioned like in a library and this place is as good as a small library and then there’s even the blank section for writing on.

I’ve always been in the books.

And while I’m not obsessed like my little sister.

I do love them.

And right now I swear I can feel them loving me back or the promise of love more potent than any Madonna of the night streets.

Fiction and fantasy and there’s ones that are studies and some of certain subjects ranging from herbs and plants to geography to politics and other realms and journals of all sorts.

And they’re cheaper than I’ve ever seen.

Bookmakers are in the biggest cities so everything to us was brought in by merchants or picked up by my parents and other then temple copyists there was very few bookmakers outside of Valhalla the city of The High King and the other major cities it was a market right up there with Spices and other rarities.

I end up asking. “Is this the right price?”

The shopkeeper looks at me. “This is we use dwarven paper miss.”

“Dwarven paper?”

“Moss paper miss.”

I blink and he smiles. “Ah new to you then?”

I nod.

He goes and gets a sheets and it’s very pale but a sort of cream brown/yellow it’s very lightly colored and perfectly suitable for writing on but it’s not white paper which is the choice of color of paper home.

“This is dwarven moss paper and it comes from a moss that is very common on their lands and it regrows very fast when it’s harvested and they use it for everything from paper to making firewood pressed logs from it and even have it for animal grazing. They soak it for paper in a soda combination and then mash it until it’s a puree and it ages a time then it’s heat pressed into sheets somehow. But it’s cheaper than our paper because everyone and his goat up there grows it miss.”

I nod and that’s actually sort of fascinating as much as it’s irritating that we’re so far behind home.

I do give him a smile and get a lovely blue bound blank set of books to write in and I get a box of note-papers as well as a book called Wild Foodlore’s of the Titan Northwest.

Jessa looks at me and I shrug.

“If I can learn to properly forage that leaves you time to hunt if we’re in the field together.”

She’s grinning.

“Hope for you yet then.”

“Realism actually. I think I might be here a long time learning and I’ve seen Lady Tatiana not shy at putting you or Nicole or Taylor in the field. I should know this. And there’s a good chance that when I settle things back home that some of these things should be growing there. I should know these things. I should know how my people use these things if at all.”

She nods. “Then I wholeheartedly approve of this realism o’ yours Chrissy.”

Jessa gets her things too and we all bought something here and then we’re off again walking and sight-seeing or rather I am as there’s a lot of things to see here that I have never seen before from some of the market goods to foods that are either in the raw that I’ve never seen or things that are from here that are made things I’ve never seen.

And there’s feminine things.

Things that the girls are looking at as it’s all part of a woman’s kit but at the same time there’s such nice things too.

And I suppose that I’m getting used enough to being this way, being Christiana that I’m comparing things and actually looking at them as things that are for me. All that time with the dinners and things here plus all the time with the village women I suppose.

Plus there is the actual reality of my situation.

Given how the potion has had its effect and all that very real reality it’s pretty much unavoidable and set in stone that I’m a woman.

And well there’s the fact that I’m not even a virgin anymore.

And that well…that was far better a thing than I had ever thought.

But that could have been the man I was with.

I’m sort of lost in those thoughts as I’m looking at things, picturing how they’d feel or fit and how they would look on me and there’s so much here that I like.

It’s not fancy dress and court wear but its everyday things and most of its city everyday things really. I still like them all the same and there’s stores literally devoted sometimes to certain things like hats and ladies hats at that or like dresses or night things or “foundation” garments.

Heh….foundation so is this why so many men see us as conquests? Like laying siege to get through all of the foundation garments.

And Nicole and Jessa take me into these shops and we look but we also try things on and it is a lot more engaging than I thought it would be and there’s a lot of talk between the women in the shops of what’s available and what’s in fashion and I’m aware of things like that because my sisters and mother sort of talked about that between themselves at length.

I do buy some things, some more underthings as well there seems to be more of a need with my anatomy especially below and then above…well as little up top as I have they do sweat. Especially when I’m working hard so I need changes of those. But I do get some skirts and tops that aren’t too dear in price and I get some slipper like soft leather shoes and a shoulder bad that’s not so beaten up as mine.

And that leaves me with little funds left but that’s fine.

I had just small ideas though of the amount that this is the stock and trade of many women that seek to find good matches and good suitors.

And the suitor’s thing is interesting here.

There seems to be a lot more freedom here with that as in the ladies of the city seem to have suitors well and long before they get engaged to a marriage prospect.

And that’s evident in the boys here too and the men.

I know manners and yet there wasn’t a huge amount of social interaction between girls and lads in the castle or at least not for me. We had the keep meal when we weren’t having guests. And we had the odd holy day festival where I would talk to some of the girls and there would be some dancing and eating but otherwise it was distant in that they were subjects sort of way…employer and employee sort of way so I saw folks but it wasn’t this.

And this is this very city sort of manners where the boys and men give us the right of way with smiles and polite but definite looks and glances.

Those sort of glance between men and women folk.

The opening of doors and the even assist for the ladies in fuller dresses off and onto curbs and carriges and the like. Men giving up bench seats to ladies and all of it mannerly but there’s still that whole dance of men and women behind it all.

Jessa seems to put up with it…she’s a sapphire and she’s had bad experiences with men but she’s not angrily and strident instead she’s very quiet and she says short but polite thank you’s.

Nicole goes the extra mile by grabbing whoever’s attention in those times and says thank you with a nice winning smile that seems to make up for it.

And she’s The Lady’s Squire and a hometown girl so it’s like everyone seems to know her.

And myself.

Well it turns out that I’m flirtable and that I’m not as well-known as things turn out. Which is a relief honestly, well the not being well known thing.

I’m getting much more attention than I’m used to and it’s more than strange.

Because it’s everywhere.

And it’s not a vanity thing it’s that simple fact of being a woman thing…men look, stare, flirt and sometimes a lot of unwanted other things and it feels like there’s a lot of attention and scrutiny on me…well maybe not so much scrutiny that seems to be coming from the other women and all like they’re sizing up the competition.

They’re definitely sizing me up and the first thing does seem to be this breast comparison. I’m very light chested…I’m thin and I’m young but a well presented cleavage seems to have a certain amount of social power even amongst women.

Not that that’s stopping any of the men folks.

And the street lads, builders and the workadays are out and about a little too and tend to their little groups of familiar faces and such and they’re just as appreciative as the gentlemen are only much more boisterous.

There’s whistles and hoisted cups and jacks to up and cheers.

I get called Songbird, Pretty-penny and Cornsilk and Orchard maiden several times.

I’m not too sure of the first too since I’m not really a singer or a redhead but Cornsilk is definitely for my hair…and I’m not really sure what an Orchard maiden is.

I look at Jessa since she does seem to be the likeliest of us to know. “Orchard Maiden?”

She grins. “It’s cos you’re so skinny, it’s a scarecrow ina dress.”

“It’s not my fault, when I use my power I burn off actual physical energies as well as magical ones handling it.”

Nicole nods. “And it’s not exactly like you’re in a rig training all the time or in armor all of the time either so you’re not exactly going to be piling on the muscle either.”

I look at a shop with these very useful looking folding knives that could be a future purchase and sort of look at my reflection.

It’s still so really strange.

Alien even…thin, fair skinned and straight blonde hair that seems to be growing faster than the rest of me…in these clothes with small but very real breasts and a little odd flex of myself down below is just…it’s not the feeling that I’m even close to being used to.

I sigh. “I need to catch up with both of you in my studies because here in these lands I feel horribly undereducated and I need to lean so many other things that you both grew up learning and then there’s the magic.”

I feel Jessa rubbing my back. “It’s no easy bein a girl Chrissy, it’s hard and oft time it’s a dearly heart costing slice o’hell for a lot of us. An we’re borne to it, we got a lot just bred inta us as what to expect an all.”

“I feel like a faker…a whole lot of the time and I feel like I’m trespassing or something.”

Nicole leans on the brick corner of the building. “You ever have the other thought?”

I’m confused and look at her. “The other thought?”

“That you weren’t even a boy to begin with, that she hid you as you are with your family to protect you from her foes as a lad…and that she didn’t spell you she unspelled you.”

I…

I look at her.

“Well actually no. I mean I’m still trying to figure out how she even might have done what she did the way I thought that she did it the first way around…the thought that I was actually maybe always like this but disguised is well…”

Jessa looks me in the face really close up. “It’s no nevermind honestly not until yer as good as she was. You thought you were or you were and either way you was raised an such as a man.”

I manage a slight smile. “I don’t particularly feel like a man though…not after everything that I’ve been through and that I’ve done.”

Nicole does a fake cough. “You mean who’ve you’ve done.”

I look at her and she’s grinning and I’m blushing and even Jessa’s laughing. “An you’ve had yerself both and there’s that too.”

We actually start laughing and it does feel good to laugh through this and Jessa grins as we stop and she says. “C’mon there’s a few other places that y’haven’t see yet that speak whole other volumes of things here in Sanctuary.”

“Other volumes? Not books I take it.”

Nicole laughs. “Nope, drinks and music and dancing.”

I smile. “Okay I like dancing.”

Jessa nods smiling. “Well this ain’t the court dancing.”

We head off to where Jessa is leading us and that’s through some side streets and down a few flights of stairs to what feels like us getting close to where the Iron Rhino pulls in and the raw goods all seem to flow into the city.

It’s busy here still, there’s lots of folks that are still working with the goods that seem to be always coming in here. Butchers are butchering and selling off large cuts for the kitchens of other places, meat’s trimmed from bones and both are sold and things for all sorts of things are being made. The vegetables are being brought out and being sold off in larger lots for the same purposes and all of the possible and to me almost impossible spin offs.

And we end up going to what looks like it might have once been a long abattoir styled building and it’s of course been redone and fixed up but there’s still the ramp for cattle that we end up walking up to get inside.

I look for a sign and it reads. “The Fowler’s”

I’m not sure why it’s called that but it’s actually pretty large inside and there’s less tables than I’d assume and there’s a very large bar and a second bar that actually seems to be where they’re serving food and in the far end of the place there’s some minstrels and singers playing a raucous but cheery beat with a lot of foot stomping and people singing along with them.

There’s folks letting their hair down from a long day here of every strip and there’s some what look to be workers here as well on their break and the music and the mood of the place is happy and bouncy and I find myself smiling from remembering the dances at the villages and I’m moving a bit with the music.

The band are a bunch of folks that are pretty loud and animated in their playing with some of them dancing or stomping on the stage with the music. Their head singer a red haired bearded fellow starts yelling out a song in this sort of rhythmic chant with that local country sort of accent.

“I wen to a party on week-a-break night…!”
“Ah got Drunk an wasted an had been ina fight!”
“I got hit about tree times! An figgerd things wasn’t right…!”
“My nose was all broken and I los half my sight.”

Then there’s this sort of a chorus that all of the locals are picking up including Jessa.

“An Oi man I wuz wasted!”
“Ma head felt like it through a door!”
“Oi man I was wasted!”
“Listen I tell ye some more!”

They keep on playing and singing it out and Jessa grins at me. “It’s a good place yeah!?” she has to shout over the people.

“Yeah, so what do we do with our things!?”

They’s got a room!”

We get our things stowed and Nicole takes the key for the locker they gave us and Jessa’s moving and dancing towards the bar threading her way through people and she seems more at ease with all of these workaday types. I see a few harder looking folks here and there as well that might be Scouts or Rangers or fighting men and a few women here and there but it’s a just a few and they’re out of gear and weapons as we are…there’s just a certain look that I noticed some have from being on the road.

I’m following and Nicole’s beside me and we get to the bar and Jessa’s already having a shot and Nicole looks at me and she orders two sunshine ales which turn out to be a light in both strength and taste honey brewed ale and it tastes good and Jessa got herself a tankard of mead and we head to the further end where the dancing is and we’re drinking some and starting to move with the music.

It’s a good time and after my drink is nearly gone it starts.

Lads offering dances and offering to buy us drinks.

And we accept too.

These aren’t the courtiers and all their wiles these are lads and men looking maybe for what all men want to be looking for and yet here at the same time they’re still fairly respectful about it and they still want to have a good time and there’s some that are perfectly content to drink and dance and flirt.

Actually flirting seems to be a bit of the sport here with everyone.

From the men you hear a lot of lass, lady, darling, sweet, sweet girl and other terms of endearment.

From the women to the men there’s things like my lad, lads, sweet boy, sweet sir, laddy-buck and boyo.

The last two I hear Nicole use a lot and she gets into that Jessa like argot like common talk as she’s drinking and depending on who she’s talking to and their accent.

I’m getting a bit drunk but not overly drunk as I’m familiar with drinking and well dancing seems to definitely help to burn things off and out of one’s system.

I like dancing, actually I love dancing.

Once I get going it’s fun and it’s actually enough fun that it starts to carry me away from all of the things going on in my head.

And I like being danced with, I like in a pretty physical way moving with other people and with the lads and men that are asking me to dance and it’s a very male and female thing that I’m falling into.

I was still sort of quailing and worrying it over in my head about my end of my third round of drinks and my first trip to the jakes and there’s nothing that really has an effect of hey it’s okay, you’re a girl then having your underwear and bottom clothes down around your ankles and making water from parts you never had before.

It just very much pushed my feelings of dash it all from the drinks I had had so far and I went back out after washing up and headed out determined to have fun.

I join the others as the band’s playing another bawdy tune and the crowd is getting into it.

Hey! Hey!
Hey! Hey!
Hey! I rose up in the morning
And I felt a dire need!
To dream away the dreary day, and down a cup of mead!

I felt the sting of honey bees!
The worst times still with me.
And looking for the honey.
That I surely know to be!

 Hey! Hey!
Hey! Hey!
Hey! Hey!
Hey! Hey!

 Alas my boys, she's gone and Broke me by the heart
I left me own woman, To be with a bloody tart!
Oh woesome, Oh woesome! Oh woesome is me!
I need another drink, Just to clear my memory!
So together won't you roll another, Barrel to the bar!
And pour another cup or two So I can soak me Heart!

It’s a fun time and I’m dancing and twirling with all the others as we dance and instead of just clapping along or stomping along with the “Hey’s!” those that of that are dancing are hopping up off our feet to land with a thump and a thud onto the floor making a louder bang.

And that’s so much fun.

Highborn dances you might, might be allowed this light sort of a bounce jump but you’d have to be very light on your feet and you’d have to land very well too.

This, this is making noise because we’re supposed to make noise.

We’re supposed to jump.

And bounce and have fun.

That’s one of the great things about dancing is that it’s suggestive, it’s fiery and fun and it’s flirty and girls are allowed to do more as themselves and be more out there than we…they…we usually are.

It’s good if you have a bouncing cleavage and a shake to your hips.

They keep this up for a good while too with us all drinking and having fun and there’s a song that is very much the tam drums and pipes and it’s almost that wicked fey devilish kind of thing and I find myself dancing with a young man and it’s.

My bottom shimmying against him.
My hips swaying and rocking with the beat.
His hands on my hips guiding me through the motions.

I can feel the press of his body to me.

The drink making it all the more apparent that he’s male for him and that for me I’m a woman.

Aroused…yes, that was starting but why…he’s tall a decent six feet and he’s muscled with great arms and strong hands.

A hard chest too…I feel it like this living wall of him behind me from time to time as I lean back in the dancing.

All of me is so little, so dainty and small.

Strong hands on me that my hands run over and touch.

And I can feel his hardness too.

Scary and at the same time I’m warm enough with dance and drink that I can’t help but have imaginings of him inside of me and all that strength and power in his frame bent to sinking in over and over and over making me feel sooo very good inside.

I leaned back and kissed him at the same time as he leaned down to kiss me and it was really good timing.

Then he smelled me.

Those big strong hands sliding up my sides to cup my small breasts and a good…oh so good firm squeeze.

I gasped and moaned around his mouth as it felt wonderful…My breasts were aching in the most amazing way and I had no clue as to how good it felt to have someone touching them.

I don’t even know his name yet…and I’m not sure that I care.

I feel Nicole take my hand and she pulls me away from his grasp and I’m flushed and gasping for air and she’s laughing and I see a man come up next to the man that I was dancing with.

“Later then Coley!?”

Nicole laughs. “It was fun dancing with you again Robert!”

We’re getting further away into the crowd when the man I was dancing with calls out. “I’m Tannen, Tannen Gillan.”

He seemed sort of desperate for me to know that that I’m grinning. I mean it’s just sort of out there.

“I’m Chrissy! Chrissy Lyonnes!”

And then we’re off with the bartender holding up four fingers and Nicole says “And a bottle to go of Brocks.” She gives him six silvers and he passes her a bottle that’s a dark clay sort of affair and we head to get our things and we get Jessa’s and leave pretty fast.

I look at her as we’re going and looking back at the bar.

“Why’re we in such a hurry?”

Nicole grins. “Because sorceress I’m well lit and you have had your Moonsilver and you’re just about done your time under it.”

“Okay…I don’t get it?”

She grins at me. “When a girl comes off her dose she gets really pushed to the mood for a week or so after it.”

She has her dagger out and she’s cutting off the wax seal around the top of the bottle. I look at her and I giggle with the thought of it mixed with the drink.

“So I’m aroused under the influence?”

Nicole grins. “Yes, it bounces our lady humors about a bit when you first start it and worse when you come off of it. It’s sort of popular with a lot of women mercs for that reason.”

“What reason?”

“It makes signing back up and getting dosed a lot of fun because they for some part of things go with it and drink and shag hard at the start of their tours.”

I blush and giggle and look around. “Where’s Jessa?”

Nicole pulls out the cork and takes a drink and motions for me to follow her and we get close to the alley behind the bar and I can hear the sounds of two women in the throes of orgasm and they’re loud and they’re…gods tha sound’s getting to me and Nicole sits on a section of empty barrels lining the alley and has another drink and I join her but have to try twice to get myself up on them to sit as it’s not something that I’ve done before.

I grab my bag and shove it firmly between my legs and push against it and sort of squeeze.

I…well…I like women too as a woman and the sounds are…

Nicole passes me the bottle and it has a burn to it of a backed-up sherry it’s actually pretty pleasant with the backing tasting like maybe cherry brandy added to it.

Good and strong…and just so oddly good with sitting her all aroused and frustrated and lightly in my cups…while a friend is making free with a woman.

My face twists into a rueful smile and I take another swig and pass it back to Nicole who took the time to stuff herself a pipe and lights it with a match.

She raises an eyebrow.

I answer after an inhale of her smoke….light and fine cut smelling and it has a sweet scent to it like it’s been seasoned with a port wine or the like.

“I was just thinking I’d never be like my brothers. And now here I am in an alley after carousing drinking and sitting on ale casks while one of my friends in making a local girl sing.”

Nicole laughs. “Well some folks would be cross at all of that with us being women and all but here women are equal to the men, we’re allowed all the same goes and all the same faults.”

I take the bottle from her and take another drink and pass it back and swallow paying as much attention as I can to the flavor as I hear something said in what sounds like…Jessa over and over and Arda over and over and these really sexy grunty cries before there’s some quiet and then some mumbled or muffled talking.

I look at Nicole. “Are you…?”

She takes a draw off her pipe. “Oh nay, I like menfolk pretty much exclusively.”

“Oh…and this doesn’t bother you?”

She exhales and looks out towards where Jessa might be. “I might not mind having a woman down in my legs but honestly I just couldn’t return the favor or do anything like real kissing or any of the other stuff so it wouldn’t be right or fair.’

I take another drink and I nod.

Then Nicole calls out. “Seek!”

Jessa calls out. “Found!”

And just because they’re that close Nicole tosses the bottle down the alley over things and I see a hand make its way over some of the other barrels and casks back here to catch the bottle and I just shake my head smiling and clap my hands softly.

“That, that was a fine thing.”

“Practice.” Nicole grins and she offers me her pipe.

I don’t smoke often but it is something was one of those things that were just done as a noble man. Very few women smoked home and here it seems they do and do it enough that the pipe I’m holding is long and thin and delicate and carved from antler and fitted with good clay.

I inhale and close my eyes for a bit and it’s not too long before Jessa joins us with this very buxom brunette with her top getting laced closed again and they both have this look, this way of moving.

I know that look; I remember feeling that way after my own times.

It’s kind of a very solid moment for me…this.

I’d always assume I’d have that knowing look between men after such a thing but here and now like the whole end part of this night it’s the other way around and it’s something that I feel kind of deeply in this womanhood and sisterhood sort of way.

Jessa kisses the girl goodbye and it’s long and passionate and sensual and makes me ache a bit with just watching it even though Jessa’s my friend.

I tamp that down though and fill the space with another drink as Jessa absently passes us the bottle and then this Arda sways off back inside the tavern.

And then Nicole has her arms around each of our shoulders. “So we’re off now right?”

Jessa quips. “Well I did.”

We laugh and giggle and pass Jessa her things and we start walking.

Walking and drinking and we could have gotten a carriage or a cart but it’s this whole other thing where we don’t want that.

We’re out and we’re together and we even get another bottle as we wander and Nicole and Jessa show me things and tell stories of people I don’t know or don’t know yet and I don’t mind…it’s things about the two of them I don’t know…that I want to know and should know given how we’ve fought and bled together so hard.

We end up outside this huge building that looks like… “Is this an arena?”

Nicole nods and Jessa shakes her head no.

I’m confused and I look at them both then at the place itself.

There’s carvings of battleknights all around it and I can see huge doors in places.

“What is this place?”

Nicole says. “Riggers field.”

Jessa says. “This is the real church of Sanctuary. After temple and all the Godsday things the Battleknighters and Squires come here to fight for the lists. Everyone comes to see them fight.”

I stare at the place. “There are lists…for the battleknights?”

Jessa nods. “Aye and tomorrow y’n me will be watchin as Nicole does her thing.”

I look at her and then at Nicole.

And then at the arena called Riggers field.

I’m not sure that I’ve ever been that excited in my life.