My head hurt. Groaning, I opened my eyes and immediately closed them again with a wince. As a compromise, I took the pillow and covered my face.

  I didn’t even really remember laying down in my bed last night. After my talk with Grandpa Toren, I had gone back to my room and started to read through some of the the books. And sometime during things started to blur.

  “Did I even get dinner last night?” I mumbled through the pillow, immediately regretting the noise I made. Unfortunately, I couldn’t stay in bed all day, even if I wanted to. With an enormous amount of willpower, I pulled the pillow away and opened my eyes.

  The room was a bit of a mess with dresses tossed into different piles. They were clearly taken from the closet, with a few other skirts and such leading into it like a trail of fabric blood. Pink and pastel blood.

  Groaning, I swung my legs over the side of the bed and got up, stumbling a little. Holding onto the headboard for balance, I took some time to steady myself. When I was sure I wouldn’t fall over, I started to take in the damage.

  The closet that had been full of frilly and lacey clothes was almost empty. It turns out, Danielle had owned things besides dresses, since there were a few blouses and skirts still on their hangers. There was even a single set of clothing that was some tan leather pants and a pink shirt. Shrugging, that was the outfit I put on.

  It was better than a skirt, even if it felt like they were a little tight. I did notice that when I looked in the mirror the shirt actually made me my outline look more feminine than I’d expected once it was buttoned all the way up. I wonder if I can get some more like this. I didn't hate the look, and I needed to make an attempt at looking the part I was forced to play.

  I put on boots that seemed to cling to my calves and headed out of my room to go find a maid and try to explain the situation. The endeavor was made difficult because my head was still pounding and the windows let in a lot of light.

  I made it to the kitchen though, and despite some nervous looks, I convinced the maids to get me some water and then brew me some coffee. I didn't know if Danielle was a coffee drinker, but apparently I was. And it turned out, so were Porter and Grimoire.

  Breakfast happened, though I noticed Calmar was missing. I didn't ask and no one volunteered information on where he was. I then hunted down Grimoire.

  “I want to get some new clothes.” I told him directly.

  He looked at me with a calculating gaze. After some thought, he nodded. “I shall see if a tailor is available to make a…”

  “No.” I said bluntly.

  He blinked. “Excuse me?”

  “I want to see more of the city, and I can't exactly do that from here.” I stated.

  For once, I'd dealt a blow to his composure, though he recovered quickly enough. “Lady Danielle, until we can find a suitable attendant for you, it will be rather difficult to maintain your safety. The carriage is also being used by young Samuel to earn a few extra crystals for his studies.”

  “And you have duties here, I assume.” Another statement I used to direct him.

  He nodded relieved, “Yes, it is unfortunate, but until we either get word from Miss Elayne or find a suitable replacement we must wait for Lord Calmar and Sir Porter to be available as an escort.”

  “Is there a mercenary guild or somewhere to hire people for odd jobs?” My hands moved to rest on my hips as I stared up at him.

  “...yes” He said, hesitantly drawing out the word.

  “Hire someone for the day.” Finally getting to my point.

  “My lady…” He said, trying to stand firm.

  I interrupted him, “If not, I will leave on my own to explore and I am not familiar enough with the city to find my way back easily.”

  He gulped, eyes looking away. I'd pinned him down. “My lady…” He sighed and hung his head. “Fine. I'll send a message to the Adventurer Guild for an escort.”

  Smiling up at him I opened my mouth to thank him, but he interrupted me. “However, you will tell Lord Calmar personally and, the adevnturer will have full permission to physically drag you home, even if they have to knock you out to do it.”

  Those weren't unreasonable terms. I nodded, “Very well. Where's he at?”

  He looked at me with suspicion, likely having suspected an argument. “He should be in your father's study. I’ll have Percival escort you.”

  I was shown into the rather dark study, dimly lit by some sort of magic stones, despite the crack of light I could see on a curtain behind the desk. Calmar wasn't even sitting there, though. He was lying face up on the couch in the room, arm over his eyes. I'd have thought he was asleep, if not for the groan that came out of him when I closed the door. “Porter… not so loud…”

  I stood there, staring at him for a moment. I could empathize with his state. “If you can't handle the hangover, maybe you should drink a little less.”

  He sat upright almost immediately. The action caused instant regret in him, as he held his head and let out a pained groan. “Damn it, Dani…”

  I walked over and sat on a chair opposite the couch and looked around. “Is Porter getting something for you?”

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  Calmar looked around blearily and sighed. “He'll probably be back after I've had ‘enough of moping around’.”

  Shrugging, I looked over at the desk. There was an open bottle and a glass next to it. “Want to talk about it?”

  “No.” He said firmly.

  “Alright.” I sat there, waiting for him to pull himself together a bit.

  It wasn't that long before he ran his hand over his face and back through his hair. He sat straighter and looked around before looking at me. “So… what's this about?” He motioned to my clothes.

  “Only thing I had to wear after I, apparently, tore through my closet and tossed most of the clothes out of it.” I leaned back and looked up, “I think Grandpa Toren has a high alcohol resistance if only a few shots gets me that drunk.”

  The gears tried to turn in his head and i saw recognition when they finally clicked into place. “Priest Toren… gave you booze?”

  I nodded, “To be fair, I did ask for it.”

  He shook his head in disapproval… and immediately put his head in his hands with a groan. “Ow.” After a moment, he looked up again. “How are you functioning so well?”

  “Coffee.” I responded directly. “And I drank my liquor mixed with tea.”

  “I'll have to remember that.” He managed to regain his composure again and asked, “So, why are you here?”

  “I strong armed Grimoire into letting me go shopping with an escort. Since you're busy, he's hiring someone from the Adventurer's Guild.” I explained. “I need your permission as one of his stipulations.”

  Calmar nodded, slowly. “Okay. As much as I don't like it, you have my permission. I was going to force Porter to take you tomorrow if Elayne didn't respond by this afternoon anyway. Grimoire told me about your training session the other day.”

  “That's the main reason. I also want to shop around and see if anything catches my attention.” Which was the truth. I was mostly planning on weapons and potions than trinkets and jewelry, though.

  “I'll lend you some of my funds as well then.” He got up and headed over to the desk. Dropping into the seat like a puppet with it’s strings cut, he reached into a drawer and pulled out a small box. Opening up, he started pulling out crystals of various colors. I got up and walked over, taking one.

  It was long, thin, and boxy with both ends tapering into a point. It barely fit in my hand, going all the way from the base of my palm to the tip of my pinky. This one was green, and when I squeezed the sides the number 100 appeared as a hovering display over it. Calmar watched me handle it. “How’d you do that so easily? It takes me several tries.”

  I shrugged and looked closer at where I’d squeezed. The number had disappeared after I’d stopped applying pressure. There was a faint indent, and as I ran my fingers over it there was a very faint ridge. I showed him, “There’s a spot here you can barely feel, see?”

  He examined it closer, holding it in the beam of light from the window as he did. “So there is. How’d I never notice that?”

  “Hard to see, and I’m guessing the colors also show the value?” I pointed to the small stack of green, orange, and a single purple crystal.

  “Hm? Oh, yes.” He said, setting the crystal down and massaging his head. With a resigned sigh, I walked around and put a hand on his head before muttering “Heal.”

  A thin coating of light washed over him as I channeled it, and before I felt empty I stopped. I could feel the power coming back faster now that I was focusing on it and aware of what I was looking for. It was… weird. Wonder if I’ll ever get used to it.

  Calmar sighed with visible relief and slumped back in his seat. “You also did that, didn’t you?”

  I shook my head, “No, I only just thought to do it. I’ve still got a small headache, but the coffee and water helped. I’ll have to remember it for next time, though.” I muttered to myself.

  “I don’t suppose I can convince you to not have a next time?” Calmar said with a self depreciating tone.

  I flicked his forehead and he winced. “I don’t take hypocritical requests.”

  “Noted.” He rubbed at the spot I’d hit. He stared at me for several long moments. “You really are different now, aren’t you?”

  Shifting uncomfortably, I moved to lean against the desk. “You’d know better than I would.”

  After a brief look of thoughtful contemplation, he nodded his head to the side, “I suppose that’s fair. You’re certainly more eloquent than before.”

  I groaned, throwing my head back in a dramatic fashion as I moved back to my original seat, “Everything I hear about me from before just makes me seem worse and worse.”

  “It wasn’t that bad, really.” He said, putting the box back in it’s spot. “You… had a rough time since your mom died five years ago. Your father married my mother not long after and you got… worse.”

  I thought about that. “I suppose that makes a sort of sense.”

  “It’s unfortunate, because we were good friends before that, even if I was a little old to be hanging out with a 11 year old.” He chuckled with more self depreciation.

  I flung a pen I found on the table at him.

  “Ow! What was that for?!” He muttered, rubbing the spot where the pen had hit. I ignored the notification that started blinking.

  “I can tell when you’re being hard on yourself. I’m gonna do something about it if it kills you.” I smiled at him sweetly, with as much malice as I could put into it.

  He shivered, but smiled softly. “Is it weird I find that comforting?”

  I shrugged, “Maybe, but if I’m going to try and be your sister, shouldn’t I care about how my brother is doing?”

  His smile turned thoughtful, but he didn’t respond. Instead, he took out a little wallet looking thing. Or was it a purse. Either way, it had little slots for the crystals and they fit snuggly in them. Then it buttoned closed and he pushed it to the opposite side of the desk.

  “So, how much did you give me?” I asked, getting up to retrieve it before sitting back down.

  “The green are valued at 100 each. There’s five of them. The orange are 10 each and there’s twenty of them. The purple is from my allowance and it’s 1000. Total is..” He paused.

  “1700.” I said, going over the contents of the wallet purse.

  He blinked, “Yea. Sounds right. Did you go through the math books Grimoire left you?”

  I nodded, “I got to the part that started putting words into the equations and stopped. I felt like I could do them, but I’d need some tools to assist without taking up a few sheets of paper.”

  He reeled back, “You got all the way up to Trigonometry? I can’t even do that, and you think you could figure it out with some sheets of paper?”

  “And maybe some help. It looked familiar but complicated enough I’d need tools. I thought it was too hard, but after some time the concepts just kind of… came to me.” Which wasn’t a lie. It was complicated, but just plugging numbers into things in the end. The problem was finding the numbers.

  Calmar shook his head, “Next you’ll tell me your Mind stats went over 50.”

  “45. Though I suspect that’ll go higher if Grimoire does find some training aids.” I said after a bit of mental math. “He said up to 70 should be possible for physical stats as well with a bit of work.”

  “And as a Noble, it’ll keep going up steadily.” He snorted, “You’ll probably wind up smarter than me.”

  He did not manage to dodge the second pen I’d found to throw at him.