The quest collapsed into the edge of my vision, but the Level Four icon remained stubbornly bright beside it, apparently convinced that becoming more powerful should matter more to me than five prisoners, a blocked royal road, and one man whose leg was beginning to swell around what looked increasingly like a very unpleasant break. I managed to ignore it while Adrian finished checking the prisoners for hidden weapons and Renee improvised a temporary splint, although every quiet gold pulse made some deeply conditioned part of me want to stop everything and open the menu.
The fallen tree made that impossible. It blocked too much of the roadway for Rocky and the cart to pass, and leaving five captured bandits sitting beside it while we rode away seemed like an excellent way to turn the next traveler into part of our problem.
“We need them off the road,” I said, looking from the prisoners to the trunk. “Preferably somewhere they cannot immediately decide surrender was temporary.”
Adrian tightened the final knot around the leader’s wrists and rose before glancing toward the wounded man beside Renee. “Agreed. He cannot walk, and I would rather not put him on a horse unless we have to.”
“He is not getting Skydancer.”
“I had not intended to suggest it.”
“Good.”
Renee looked up from the splint she was securing with strips cut from one of the bandits’ outer shirts. “Rocky’s cart is the sensible option if we clear enough space, although Her Highness may need to accept that a prisoner temporarily outranks several dresses.”
“My dresses have committed no crimes.”
“The prisoner has a broken leg.”
“That is not an argument against the dresses.”
Adrian looked toward the cart and then back at me with the expression of a man deciding which problem required intervention first. “You have approximately thirty seconds before Renee begins unloading things without permission.”
I turned toward her and found enough determination in her face to believe him. “Fine. One trunk can ride somewhere else temporarily, but I am choosing which one.”
Renee smiled with the satisfaction of a woman who had just won something she intended to pretend had never been a contest. “Naturally, Your Highness.”
We rearranged enough of Rocky’s load to create a padded space near the rear of the cart, and I selected one of the smaller clothing trunks for temporary exile rather than trusting Renee’s interpretation of expendable luggage. Two of the less injured prisoners helped lift their companion under Adrian’s supervision while Renee directed every movement, and the scream that tore out of the man despite their care stripped away whatever lingering adventure-story glamour the morning had possessed.
I looked away once he was safely settled, then found myself irritated for having done it. He had attacked us, threatened to take Skydancer, and helped turn an ordinary road into a trap. He was also a human being with a badly broken leg, and neither truth made the other one disappear.
The tree took longer. Adrian inspected the trunk and the ground around it before deciding that Goliath could help shift one end enough to open a narrow route, while the able-bodied prisoners were given the deeply unfortunate privilege of removing smaller branches under his supervision. I contributed by keeping Skydancer clear, watching the prisoners, and maintaining enough visible royal displeasure that none of them mistook the work assignment for optional.
Goliath threw himself into the task with unsettling enthusiasm. Adrian secured a line around the thicker end of the trunk, checked the arrangement twice, and then guided the warhorse forward until the rope drew taut. Wood scraped against packed earth with a grinding crack while the prisoners hauled branches aside, and after several attempts the trunk shifted far enough that Rocky’s cart could squeeze around it if Renee drove carefully. By the time Adrian released Goliath from the line, sweat had darkened the collar beneath his armor despite the cool morning air, while the warhorse stood breathing harder than before and looking entirely too pleased with himself.
Skydancer watched from beside me with the serene expression of a horse who considered manual labor beneath her breeding. I rubbed one hand along her neck and glanced toward the displaced trunk.
“You could have helped.” She turned her head toward me and blinked.
“You kicked a man hard enough to break his leg. Do not pretend moving branches is beyond you.”
Her ears flicked toward Goliath, who tossed his head as Adrian praised him, and I chose to interpret the gesture as aristocratic contempt for his enthusiasm. The temptation to open the Party interface and find out whether hauling a tree had somehow earned Goliath additional experience was considerable, but I knew exactly where my attention would go once I opened anything System-related, and we still had armed criminals tied together on a public road.
We moved several hundred yards beyond the ambush before stopping again in a wider clearing where the road left enough space for horses, cart, and prisoners without obstructing anyone else. Adrian positioned the captives beneath a large tree well away from their confiscated weapons, while Renee checked the injured man again and distributed water with the stern impartiality of someone who had apparently decided that attempted robbery did not exempt anyone from basic care.
Only after everyone was restrained, watered, and unlikely to die in the next ten minutes did I finally give in to the gold icon that had been pulsing at the edge of my vision since the fight. The interface opened immediately, almost as though it had been waiting for me to stop pretending I was not interested.
LEVEL ADVANCEMENT AVAILABLE
Radiance Ember Soulflame
Total Level: 3 → 4
Court Performer: 3 → 4
Class Attribute Growth:
Agility +1
General Attribute Points: 3
New Skill: None
New Spell: None
New Active Ability: None
Major Development Choice: Not available at this level
Multiclass Advancement: Currently Unavailable
Prestige Class Advancement: Currently Unavailable
Next Major Character Milestone: Level 5
My attention went directly to the final line, because apparently telling me something interesting existed one level away and refusing to show it was the most efficient possible method of capturing my attention. “What happens at five?” The System answered quickly enough that I suspected it had expected the question.
MAJOR CHARACTER MILESTONE
Level 5 grants access to a Major Development Choice in addition to applicable Class advancement.
Available choices depend upon current Attributes, Classes, Backgrounds, Heritages, Skills, Achievements, relationships, and other qualifying conditions.
“What choices?”
CURRENTLY UNAVAILABLE
“Why?”
YOU ARE LEVEL 4
I stared at the response until irritation overcame curiosity. “That is technically an answer and spiritually useless.”
Adrian glanced over from where he was checking Goliath’s foreleg after the tree-moving effort. “Are you arguing with it already?”
“It started it.”
“I find that believable.”
I dismissed the explanation and returned to the advancement screen, where Court Performer had already assigned the point of Agility without asking me anything. Twenty had become twenty-one, and the accompanying explanation confirmed that this portion of advancement belonged to the class rather than to my discretion.
CLASS ATTRIBUTE GROWTH
Court Performer 4
Agility +1
Current Class-Level Growth Band: Levels 1–5
Direct Class Attribute Growth per Level: 1
Next Growth Band: Levels 6–10
Direct Class Attribute Growth per Level: 2
The structure made intuitive sense once I saw it laid out. Choosing and advancing a class did not merely unlock techniques. It continuously shaped the person developing through it, reinforcing the Attributes that made that class function, and Court Performer had apparently decided that becoming even more agile was important whether or not I thought twenty was already excessive.
The three discretionary points were considerably more dangerous because those belonged entirely to me. I opened my Attribute panel and studied numbers that had seemed much more abstract when Luke originally chose them for an elegant princess designed around avoiding damage instead of enduring it. Presence twenty-eight remained ridiculous, Coordination twenty-four and Composure twenty-five hardly needed emergency attention, and Agility had just climbed to twenty-one without my involvement. Attunement twenty was comfortable enough for now. Then I reached Endurance twelve and stared at it long enough for Adrian to notice.
“You look offended.”
“I am.”
“By what?”
“My own statistical decisions.”
“You are blaming yourself for your Attributes?”
“Past me deserves criticism.”
Twelve had looked perfectly respectable when the assumption behind the build was that Radiance would evade attacks, control encounters, and avoid standing around while someone hit her. It looked considerably less charming after watching an arrow pass through the space my shoulder had occupied because Skydancer happened to move quickly enough.
Reserve thirteen was not much better. Soulflame Spark had been brief, and Resonant Strike had not exactly emptied me, but both had carried a recognizable expenditure beneath the adrenaline. I had no interest in discovering during a longer fight that I had designed my magical resources around the assumption that combat ended when everyone around a table stopped rolling dice, so two points went into Endurance and the third went into Reserve.
ATTRIBUTE ALLOCATION
Endurance: 12 → 14
Reserve: 13 → 14
General Attribute Points Remaining: 0
Confirm Allocation?
I checked the numbers one more time. Might eight remained embarrassingly low, but becoming marginally less weak did not seem nearly as valuable as becoming harder to exhaust or kill.
“Confirm.”
Warmth spread through my body with surprising gentleness, moving through my chest and limbs before touching something deeper where Reserve existed without possessing any obvious anatomical location. It faded before I could decide whether anything had actually changed, leaving only the interface to confirm that the advancement had taken.
LEVEL ADVANCEMENT COMPLETE
Radiance Ember Soulflame
Level 4
Court Performer 4
Agility: 21
Endurance: 14
Reserve: 14
Advancement Record Updated.
I rolled one shoulder and drew a deeper breath experimentally. Nothing suddenly felt miraculous, which was probably reasonable considering I had moved from one part of the capable range to another rather than transformed myself into a siege engine.
“That was less dramatic than expected.”
Adrian approached from Goliath while wiping his hands on a cloth. “Finished?”
“Yes. Court Performer gave me Agility automatically. I put two into Endurance and one into Reserve.”
His eyebrows lifted slightly, and for a moment I thought he was questioning the allocation rather than the disclosure. “You are telling me your allocation?”
The question caught me off guard. Player privacy had become easy to forget when most of my System information felt like ordinary facts about myself, but the interface did not automatically belong to anyone else.
“I suppose I am.”
Adrian nodded once, without turning the moment into anything larger. “For what it is worth, improving Endurance after someone shot at you seems sensible.”
“The arrow missed.”
“Because Skydancer moved.”
“I was going to move.”
Several feet away, Skydancer turned one ear toward us while continuing to graze. Adrian looked toward her and then back at me with enough amusement to make the accidental timing feel like betrayal.
“She seems skeptical.”
“She is dramatic.”
“She belongs to you.”
“That is unrelated.”
His smile returned, but before he could use it against me another notification appeared. This one lacked the bright gold of my own advancement and carried the muted administrative formatting I had begun associating with Party management.
ATTACHED PERSONNEL ADVANCEMENT AVAILABLE
Renee Merrowyn
Relationship to Party Leader: Familial / Professional
Assignment: Lady-in-Waiting to Crown Princess Radiance
Shared experience and Party Leader advancement have generated an Attached Personnel progression event.
Advancement Authority: Party Leader
Review available development options.
I stopped reading at the line about authority and looked toward Renee. She was kneeling beside the injured prisoner again, making him drink slowly instead of gulping the water she had given him. She had raised me, dressed me, scolded me, defended Rocky with a riding crop less than an hour ago, and was currently caring for a man who had helped attack us. The System had apparently looked at all of that and concluded that her future belonged in my menu.
“No.”
Renee glanced toward me while lowering the flask. “No what?”
“The System has done something I dislike.”
Adrian laughed quietly beside me. “You will need to be considerably more specific.”
I ignored him and reopened the notice, hoping the wording would somehow become less disturbing on a second reading. It did not.
ADVANCEMENT AUTHORITY: PARTY LEADER
As recognized leader and responsible authority for Attached Personnel, you may approve available advancement decisions.
Current advancement does not require immediate selection.
Choices may influence future Skills, Abilities, professional development, Role eligibility, and progression opportunities.
The last sentence made it worse because this was not asking me whether Renee should become slightly faster or gain a little more stamina. The System was giving me authority over choices that could affect what she learned, what she became capable of doing, and which paths might eventually open or close to her.
Nothing in the interface asked whether Renee agreed. Nothing required me to tell her. I could apparently optimize the woman who had helped raise me as casually as I had just optimized myself, and the System would consider that ordinary administration. Renee noticed that I was still staring and rose from beside the prisoner, brushing dirt from her knees before studying my expression with growing concern.
“Radiance, what happened?”
I looked at her, then at the waiting menu. “Apparently,” I said slowly, “you leveled too.”
Renee blinked and glanced reflexively around herself as though something visible might have changed. “I did?”
“Sort of.”
“That does not sound reassuring.”
“It is not.”
I turned the interface toward her on instinct before remembering that there was nothing for her to see. The useless gesture made the problem feel worse, because every consequential choice remained perfectly visible to me and completely inaccessible to the woman whose future they could alter.
“The System says you are Attached Personnel,” I said. “Because you are attached to my party and I am the recognized leader, your advancement belongs to me.”
Renee’s eyebrows drew together. “Belongs to you?”
“The decisions do.” I looked back at the text to make certain I was not accidentally making it sound worse than it was. I was not. “It says I have advancement authority. I can choose how you develop.”
She considered that with considerably less horror than I thought the situation deserved. “You are responsible for me.”
“That is not the same thing.”
“In Calder it often is.”
“Well, Calder is wrong about this particular thing.”
Her expression softened, but I raised one hand before she could reassure me into accepting something simply because the hierarchy felt normal to her. The System had apparently taken a lifetime of service, affection, employment, family, and royal authority, flattened it into Attached Personnel, and decided that was sufficient justification to hand me control.
“What happens if I do not ask you?”
Renee frowned. “Ask me what?”
I focused on the interface. “System, does advancement require Renee’s approval?” The answer appeared immediately.
NO
Attached Personnel advancement decisions may be exercised by the recognized Advancement Authority.
The coldness of it bothered me more than sarcasm would have. “Can Renee refuse a selection after I confirm it?”
NO
Confirmed advancement decisions are binding unless a later System feature, Role transition, qualifying event, or authorized respecialization permits modification.
Renee’s expression changed when I read that aloud. The calm acceptance of ordinary royal hierarchy gave way to something more cautious, and Adrian’s amusement disappeared completely beside me.
I kept going. “Does Renee need to know I made a selection?”
NO
That one landed hardest. There was no warning about consent, no suggestion that good leadership involved consultation, and no hidden morality check waiting to tell me I had crossed a line. The System did not care whether I asked Renee what she wanted because apparently, as far as its progression architecture was concerned, that was not what she was for.
I looked at her. “I could change the direction of your life without even telling you.”
Renee held my gaze for several seconds before answering. “Yes.”
“You are taking this much too calmly.”
“I spent most of my life serving royalty, Radiance. Other people having authority over my position, responsibilities, residence, wages, duties, and future prospects is not a new concept.”
“This is different.”
“Yes.” Her eyes shifted briefly toward the invisible menu between us. “It is.”
That agreement made me feel slightly better and considerably worse at the same time. Adrian folded his arms beside me. “Can you postpone it?”
“Yes. It explicitly says I do not have to choose now.”
“Then there is no emergency.”
“No, but I want to know what it is trying to let me do.”
Renee gave me the patient expression she generally reserved for problems she already knew I would investigate whether anyone encouraged me or not. “Then tell me what it offers.”
I selected Review Development Options. The menu unfolded beneath her name, but it looked nothing like my own advancement screen. There were no general Attribute Points, no class-directed growth, and no assumption that Renee possessed a personal adventuring build waiting to advance one level at a time. Instead, the System presented a collection of paths built around what she already did for me, what she had done during the fight, and what uses it apparently imagined for her next.
ATTACHED PERSONNEL ADVANCEMENT
Renee Merrowyn
Current Role: Lady-in-Waiting to Crown Princess Radiance
Primary Relationship: Familial / Professional
Advancement Source: Shared Party Experience
Development Selections Available: 2
Selections may strengthen existing competencies, establish new Skills or Abilities, or begin qualification toward expanded professional Roles.
Role changes are not automatic.
Future eligibility depends upon accumulated development, demonstrated experience, and qualifying achievements.
I read the explanation aloud, and Renee stepped closer even though there was still nothing she could physically inspect over my shoulder. “So it does not simply make me something else.”
“No. Apparently I get to start steering you toward becoming something else.”
“That is slightly less alarming.”
“Only slightly.” I expanded the first category.
EXISTING ROLE DEVELOPMENT
Court Attendance
Strengthen competencies associated with formal attendance upon nobility, etiquette, wardrobe, presentation, scheduling, correspondence, and household coordination.
Personal Stewardship
Strengthen management of a principal’s daily needs, possessions, travel requirements, accommodations, appointments, and private household concerns.
Court Observation
Develop greater awareness of social relationships, etiquette breaches, concealed tensions, competing obligations, and changes in court atmosphere.
Trusted Confidante
Strengthen the ability to provide counsel, emotional support, discreet intervention, and private assistance to an assigned principal.
Additional options may become available through demonstrated experience.
I made it to Trusted Confidante before looking at Renee instead of the menu. “Apparently I can spend one of your choices making you better at taking care of me.”
Her mouth twitched. “How terrible.”
“That is exactly the problem.”
“I suspected it might be.” I expanded the next section before she could enjoy herself too much.
NEW COMPETENCY DEVELOPMENT
Field Medicine
Begin formal development in injury assessment, wound care, stabilization, common illness management, and travel medicine.
Current Qualification: Eligible
Relevant Experience Recognized: Emergency splinting, battlefield aftermath care
Personal Defense
Begin formal development in defensive movement, threat recognition, escape, improvised weapons, and protection of self or dependent personnel.
Current Qualification: Eligible
Relevant Experience Recognized: Hostile encounter survived, improvised defensive action
Expedition Logistics
Begin formal development in provisioning, route preparation, supply management, camp organization, transportation coordination, and extended travel support.
Current Qualification: Eligible
Relevant Experience Recognized: Royal expedition service
Household Administration
Begin advanced development in staffing, budgets, schedules, procurement, household discipline, guest arrangements, and management of a noble or royal residence.
Current Qualification: Eligible
Political Secretary
Begin development in correspondence management, petition organization, briefing preparation, document handling, and administrative support for a political principal.
Current Qualification: Partial
Additional administrative experience recommended.
Field Medicine caught my attention immediately, and I disliked how quickly fear supplied the reason. One fight had been enough for someone to leave with a broken leg. The next person bleeding in the road might be Adrian, Renee, or me, and my own competent but limited biological first-aid knowledge did not magically transform into everything required to keep someone alive in a world with unfamiliar anatomy, magic, diseases, and injuries.
Renee was watching me too closely. “You found something.”
“Several things.”
“Read them.”
I did, giving her each option and as much of the System’s description as I could remember rather than telling her what I thought she should choose. Her expression barely changed through most of them, but Field Medicine produced a small shift I noticed immediately, and Personal Defense earned another when her gaze flicked toward the riding crop still tucked near Raven’s tack.
“And I have two choices?” she asked.
“Two.”
“I would take medicine.”
I closed my eyes briefly. “Of course you would.”
“Why does that sound like criticism?”
“Why do you want it?”
“So that if you are injured, I can help you.”
I opened my eyes again. “That is exactly why.”
“It is also useful if anyone else is injured.”
“That was a very fast attempt to make the answer less about me.”
Renee folded her hands in front of herself, adopting the maddeningly composed posture she used when Radiance was being difficult and she had decided patience would eventually win. “We are traveling through regions where we may not always have immediate access to a physician. This morning alone demonstrated the usefulness.”
Her reasoning was perfectly sound. That did absolutely nothing to address what bothered me.
“I am not saying Field Medicine is a bad choice. I am saying I asked what you want, and your first answer was what would make you more useful to me.”
“I am your lady-in-waiting.”
“You are Renee.”
“Yes. I have noticed.”
I gave her the look that deserved, but some of the tension in my chest loosened despite myself. “Those are not mutually exclusive.”
“No, they are not.”
“Then stop answering like your job is your entire personality.”
Renee studied me for long enough that the humor faded from her expression without turning into hurt. Behind us, one of the prisoners shifted beneath the tree and immediately stopped when Adrian looked his way, while Goliath lowered his head toward the grass as though armed robbery had already become someone else’s problem.
“You think choosing something because it helps me care for you means I have failed to choose for myself,” Renee said.
“I think I have a menu that can change your future, and the System does not care enough about what you want to even require me to tell you it exists. I am not going to make that worse by assuming whatever benefits your princess must automatically be best for you.”
“That is not quite the same thing.”
“No. It isn’t.”
Her eyes softened, and the affection there struck with the weight of something I did not need memories to understand. Elissa was my mother, unquestionably and completely, but Renee had fed me, dressed me, scolded me, comforted me, and occupied something very close to the shape of motherhood throughout Radiance’s life. The System reducing that relationship to Familial / Professional and then offering me administrative control over her development made its categories feel almost offensively inadequate.
Renee reached out and adjusted a strand of hair that had worked loose during the fight, doing it with such automatic familiarity that neither of us acknowledged the gesture. “Radiance, caring for you is not something that happened to me because I lacked other choices.”
I swallowed before answering. “I know.”
“Do you?”
“Yes. I also know people can love what they do and still want other things.”
“That is true.”
“So tell me the other things.”
Renee glanced toward the road instead of answering immediately, and for once I let the silence remain hers. The prisoners were secure, Adrian stood close enough to intervene if anything changed, and the System had explicitly said there was no deadline forcing us to turn her future into a roadside administrative decision.
“I would like to know medicine,” she said eventually. “Not only because of you. I have spent much of my life in rooms where illness, injury, pregnancy, exhaustion, panic, and grief are handled by sending for someone else, and I have never liked being useless during the wait.”
That answer felt different enough that I nodded. It was still about helping people because caring for people was part of Renee, but it belonged to her in a way that simply becoming more useful to me did not.
“All right. Field Medicine stays.”
“Stays?”
“I am not clicking it yet. You have another selection.”
Her mouth twitched. “Naturally.”
I looked back through the list. “Personal Defense.”
Renee’s mouth twitched. “You already have an opinion.”
“I admit bias. A man ran toward you this morning, you had a riding crop, and I discovered I profoundly dislike that combination of facts.”
“I hit him.”
“Yes.”
“He fell down.”
“Mostly because Raven crowded him into a ditch.”
“Details.”
Despite myself, I smiled. “Do you want to be better able to defend yourself?”
Renee’s expression sobered as she looked toward Raven. “Yes. I did not like how little I could do once he reached the cart.”
“You did enough.”
“This time.”
That was the answer I needed. I focused on the two choices and then stopped before confirming either of them.
Renee noticed immediately. “What now?”
“I need you to actually tell me yes.”
“I just did.”
“You told me what you wanted. I need you to tell me I am allowed to use the System’s authority to make those choices for you.”
Her eyes narrowed. “Radiance.”
“The distinction matters to me.”
Adrian made a suspicious noise several feet away and abruptly became interested in checking one of the prisoner’s restraints again. I ignored him because whether my phrasing sounded ridiculous was considerably less important than what the System was allowing me to do.
Renee stepped closer and took both of my hands. “Yes. I want Field Medicine, and I want Personal Defense. You may select them. If those choices later lead somewhere I do not want to go, you will ask me again before you decide anything else.”
“Every time I can.”
Her eyebrow rose. I sighed. “Every time circumstances allow me to.”
That changed something in her expression. “Better.”
“I do not like that qualification.”
“I know.”
“There may be situations where I have to make decisions for the expedition instead of for one person.”
“I know that too.”
“And if that happens, I am probably going to hate it.”
“Yes, Radiance.”
“You sound very calm about this.”
“I have known you since you were an infant. I have considerable practice being calm while you discover that responsibility is unpleasant.”
“You enjoyed saying that.”
“A little.”
I squeezed her hands once before letting go. The System did not care whether we had just had this conversation. No hidden condition completed. No achievement appeared for respecting the autonomy of someone it had categorized as mine to manage. Apparently the only thing requiring me to treat Renee like a person was my own decision to do so. That was enough. I selected Field Medicine first.
DEVELOPMENT SELECTED
Field Medicine
New Skill Established: Field Medicine — Mastery 1
Initial Competencies:
Basic Injury Assessment
Basic Wound Cleaning
Basic Stabilization
Basic Splinting
Future development available through practice, instruction, experience, and advancement.
Renee did not glow or stagger or suddenly acquire the expression of a physician who had spent twenty years studying medicine. She simply blinked once and looked toward the injured man in Rocky’s cart with a slight tightening around her eyes.
“Anything?” I asked.
“I think so.”
“What?”
“I am not sure yet.” I waited rather than turning the moment into an interrogation and selected the second choice.
DEVELOPMENT SELECTED
Personal Defense
New Skill Established: Personal Defense — Mastery 1
Initial Competencies:
Basic Threat Awareness
Basic Defensive Movement
Basic Escape Response
Improvised Defensive Tools
ATTACHED PERSONNEL ADVANCEMENT COMPLETE
Renee Merrowyn has advanced.
Future professional Role eligibility has been updated.
The menu disappeared, leaving Renee looking exactly as she had before the System quietly altered the paths available to her future. She flexed one hand experimentally, shifted her weight, and then gave me a profoundly unimpressed look.
“Well?”
“You now officially know how to hit people with things that are not intended for hitting people.”
“I believe I demonstrated that before the System became involved.”
“It has validated your technique.”
“Then I am sure I can die content.”
Her attention returned to the wounded prisoner before I could answer. She crossed to the cart and crouched beside the splint she had made earlier, and this time there was a subtle difference in the way she examined it. Nothing miraculous replaced experience with expertise, but her eyes followed the bindings with more structure than before, pausing over pressure points and swelling as though the System had given names and relationships to things she had previously understood only through common sense.
After several seconds, she touched one of the cloth strips. “This needs loosening slightly.”
The bandit looked alarmed. “You made it.”
Renee gave him the same patient expression she usually reserved for me. “And now I know a little more than I did when I made it.”
Renee loosened the binding by a small amount, checked the injured man’s foot for color and warmth, then sat back with an expression that suggested Mastery One had given her just enough knowledge to become dissatisfied with how little she knew. I understood the feeling far too well and decided not to point it out while she was holding medical supplies.
Adrian returned from the prisoners and glanced from Renee to me. “Are we finished reorganizing everyone’s future?”
“For the moment.”
Adrian studied me. “You intend to revisit this.”
“Absolutely.”
I dismissed the last traces of the Attached Personnel menu and found my own completed advancement sitting quietly beneath the active quest. Adrian’s Level Four icon had disappeared as well, which meant he had apparently finished whatever decisions Court Protector required while I was arguing with the ethics of divine personnel management.
“You finished yours?”
“Yes.”
“What did you choose?”
His mouth curved. “You showed me yours first.”
“That is an appalling way to phrase that.”
Renee looked up from the cart. “I am beginning to regret remaining within hearing distance of either of you.”
“I meant Attributes.”
“I know what you meant.”
Adrian’s smile widened before he finally answered. “Court Protector increased Endurance. I put the discretionary growth into Might, Endurance, and Will.”
I considered the allocation against what I had seen of him in the fight. More strength made sense for a man whose preferred solution to danger involved putting a polearm between it and everyone else, while Endurance and Will seemed depressingly appropriate for someone apparently committed to being the last person standing between his party and anything unpleasant.
“You became harder to move.”
“That was the intention.”
“You were already enormous.”
“That is not an Attribute.”
“It should be.”
He looked prepared to argue the mechanical distinction, but the leader shifted beneath the tree and reminded all of us that we still had a logistical problem attached to the morning. Whatever pleasure I might have taken in comparing level-up decisions could wait until nobody nearby was tied at the wrists.
Adrian retrieved his map from Goliath’s gear and spread it across the flat edge of Rocky’s cart while Renee remained beside her patient. I moved closer and immediately discovered that the route ahead was considerably more complicated on parchment than it had seemed from horseback.
“If we continue west,” Adrian said, tracing the main road with one finger, “the next proper town is several hours away. There is a village south of us here, perhaps half an hour if the road is decent. It has a magistrate, a watchhouse, and a Crown post.”
“A jail?”
“Yes.”
“A healer?”
“Almost certainly.”
“A way to send a message to Father?”
“Yes.”
I looked toward the five prisoners and found the decision refreshingly simple. One man needed more medical care than Renee had any business providing after acquiring Field Medicine less than ten minutes ago, four others needed somewhere more secure than ropes and Adrian’s patience, and the man who escaped could already be carrying news toward the bridge.
“We go there.”
Adrian nodded and began folding the map along its existing creases. “I thought you would say that.”
“Then why did you ask?”
“I enjoy giving you the illusion that I occasionally influence your decisions.”
“You taught me how to saddle my horse this morning. One victory does not make you my strategist.”
His mouth twitched, but he wisely turned toward the prisoners before responding. Renee was already reorganizing herself onto Rocky’s driver bench so she could remain close to the injured man, leaving Raven tied alongside the cart where the mare could follow without requiring another rider.
The prisoners reacted poorly when Adrian informed them they were walking to the village. The injured man obviously remained in the cart, but the other four were bound in pairs with enough separation between them that nobody could suddenly discover teamwork and make our morning worse. Their complaints lasted until Goliath stepped close enough for his shadow to fall across them. After that, the walk became considerably quieter.
I mounted Skydancer with less assistance than I had needed that morning, though Adrian still steadied the stirrup while I swung into place. The Sureseat Tonic continued doing wonderful things for the parts of my body that had begun objecting to horseback travel, and the difference between mounting now and the awkwardness of my first morning with her felt substantial enough that I briefly wondered whether Riding had progressed. The System did not volunteer anything, which I chose to interpret as restraint rather than disappointment.
We left the ambush site behind at a pace dictated by walking prisoners and a cart carrying a broken leg. Adrian rode close to the captives, keeping Goliath positioned where any attempt to run would immediately become a contest between bound men and a warhorse, while I ranged slightly ahead whenever Skydancer became impatient with the procession.
The countryside changed gradually as we left the denser woodland. Fields appeared through gaps in the trees, then low stone walls and narrow farm tracks, followed by cultivated stretches where late-season crops stood beneath the morning sun. After everything we had just learned about the road, I found myself watching the people working those fields differently.
A farmer driving a small wagon slowed when he saw us. His attention moved from the prisoners to Adrian’s armor, then finally to my face, and recognition produced a bow awkward enough that he nearly dropped the reins.
I raised one hand. “Careful.”
He straightened with visible embarrassment. “Your Highness.”
“Have you had trouble on the western road?”
The question came out before I had decided to ask it. Adrian glanced toward me but said nothing, leaving the farmer to look uneasily past us toward the prisoners.
“Some, Your Highness.”
“What kind?”
He shifted on the wagon bench. “People say there are tolls now.”
“Legal tolls?”
His expression answered before his mouth did. “No, Your Highness.”
“How long have people been saying that?”
“A few months. Maybe longer farther west.”
That matched the prisoner well enough to make my stomach tighten. “Have you reported it?”
“To the local post twice.”
“And?”
“Patrol came through. Didn’t find anyone.”
I looked toward Adrian, and he gave the smallest nod. Another piece of the same story.
“Thank you.”
The farmer hesitated. “Are you doing something about it?”
The question landed with more weight than the words deserved. He did not sound accusing. If anything, he sounded cautiously hopeful, as though simply seeing the Crown Princess on the road had turned a rumor into a possibility.
“Yes,” I said. “We are.”
His relief was subtle but unmistakable. “Thank you, Your Highness.”
He bowed again, more carefully this time, and continued past us. I watched the wagon disappear around the bend before urging Skydancer forward.
Adrian drew alongside me after a few moments. “You did not promise more than you can deliver.”
“I noticed.”
“You also did not tell him to wait for the proper authorities.”
“I noticed that too.”
His expression remained frustratingly neutral. “Good.”
I looked at him. “Was that praise?”
“Would you object if it was?”
“Yes.”
“Then no.”
“You are learning.”
The road widened again as we approached the village, and the first roofs appeared beyond a low rise. What Adrian had described as a village turned out to be large enough to possess a proper central square, several stone buildings, workshops, an inn, and a narrow watercourse channeled through the settlement in carefully fitted masonry.
People noticed us almost immediately. The procession admittedly did not lend itself to subtlety. I was a five-foot-one Crown Princess with enormous pearlescent horns riding a silver mare beside a six-foot-six foreign prince on a warhorse, followed by four bound criminals and a cart carrying luggage, an injured fifth criminal, a lady-in-waiting, and two additional horses. Even without the royal jewelry, we looked like the aftermath of a story someone would be repeating by dinner.
Recognition moved through the square in waves. One person bowed, then another, and within seconds shopkeepers, laborers, customers, and several children were all staring while whispers spread faster than Skydancer could walk.
The part of me shaped by Radiance’s life understood this attention perfectly. I straightened without consciously deciding to, let my expression settle into something composed and approachable, and acknowledged the bows as though arriving in villages with captured bandits was a perfectly normal royal duty. The rest of me wanted everyone to stop looking.
“You are doing the thing again,” Renee called from the cart.
I glanced back. “What thing?”
“The expression you make when you wish everyone would stop noticing you while wearing enough royal jewelry to fund a farm.”
“I am dressed modestly.”
One of the prisoners laughed before apparently remembering whose prisoner he was. I turned far enough in the saddle to look at him, and the sound died immediately.
“You have had a difficult morning,” I told him. “Do not make it worse.”
He lowered his eyes and kept walking. Adrian’s shoulders moved suspiciously beside me. I narrowed my eyes at him. “Laugh and I will include you in this warning.”
“I was exercising remarkable restraint.”
“I am Crown Princess. I can establish evidentiary standards later.”
“That seems dangerous.”
The Crown post stood along the far side of the square, marked by the royal insignia above a heavy wooden door. A uniformed watchman stationed outside saw the prisoners first, then Adrian, and finally me.
He straightened so quickly I became concerned for his spine. “Your Highness.”
I brought Skydancer to a halt in front of him and looked toward the building behind his shoulder. Somewhere inside were cells, officials, clerks, records, and presumably the beginning of figuring out how armed criminals had spent months turning my father’s roads into private property.
“I need your magistrate, secure cells for five prisoners, and someone capable of treating a broken leg,” I said. “I also need access to the Crown dispatch post. Immediately.”
The watchman stared for approximately one heartbeat before deciding that survival lay in obedience. “Yes, Your Highness.” The doors opened, people began moving, and I had the sudden uncomfortable realization that this was the first time since returning home that an entire piece of Calder’s government had begun rearranging itself because I had told it to.