Today, I was given yet another unique outfit. This one, shockingly, wasn’t a dress but had pants. However, they were somewhat hidden by a short skirt that reached just below my knee. I also had quite a bit of extra padding on my butt. The top had a much smaller corset and an overcoat, and they didn’t pull it nearly as tight. I even had a belt with many straps.

  Apparently, these were riding clothes. I was concerned at first because none of the maids were coming with us, but these were designed differently and could be put on with just one person's help. So Lady Evelyn was taking the role of the maid and attendant for the duration of our trip to the capital.

  Lady Evelyn had spoken to my parents before they left; she had alleviated some of their worries and said that our letters would easily continue, but it would take more time since we were traveling. Though I was shocked to learn not as much time as I thought. Apparently, certain places, like the royal capital, had birds tamed to carry letters.

  She also had said they shouldn’t learn magic right now. Nor should they discuss what they knew about magic. They thought it was strange, but she told me that it was dangerous for a small place like Haluta to change too quickly. The pain of quickly changing was one I could sympathize with, so they promised to keep what they had learned a secret for now.

  It seemed odd that Alexandra and Elise weren’t coming with us. They had planned to attend the debut either way, but apparently, they were going to take a different route and leave a few days after us. Plus, it wasn’t as if they were going to cram us and all our luggage into one wagon. So it made no real difference.

  Lady Evelyn had said we were going to travel north west first to reach a town called Stechen. At which point we would head more directly north. It was a faster route than the one the Malatise ladies intended to take, but Lady Evelyn seemed set on arriving at the capital as soon as she could. Not that such things made much of a difference to me.

  I gave a curtsy to the Malastise family in total before climbing into the carriage. I was anxious, but excited. I may have hated leaving home, but apparently, a town was bigger than a village. And a city was even bigger. And this royal capital was the biggest in all of Anlage. People said Hatula was small, and I wanted to see for myself how it stacked up.

  Evelyn wasted no time diving into a little pocket book she had. It was no bigger than my hand. She had often begun writing or reading from it, but I would rather us taking the time to get to know each other better.

  “We are finally alone. So we can speak more plainly?” I asked.

  “And waste our time on practicing?” she asked. She shut her book with a bit of a clicking noise before looking up at me. “If you have a concern, voice it. Now is a great time. But please do try to avoid acting like the village girl, if that is what you meant.”

  That much I figured. “I was just wondering if I was going to be punished?”

  Her eyebrow raised. “What for?”

  “I’m sure you know. I dropped my mask of nobility when I was alone with my parents. I assumed you were in the next room listening?”

  “Half correct. I was in the next room, but the walls were too thick. I heard very little. So I didn’t know,” she said.

  I tried to smile, but realized instantly I'd overdone it. This was my concern- tell that I was trying to stop doing. She giggled seeing it.

  “It is okay,” Evelyn added. “Your teacher is one you should be able to share such failures with. As long as you are not so honest to others, I don’t see this as an issue.”

  I fiddled with the hem of the skirt on my riding outfit. “Do you really think I am ready for the capital?”

  She tapped the corner of her book against the wood next to her. “Hopefully. The thing is, your debut shouldn’t be as difficult. Think of it this way. You just need to avoid any major mistakes during it. No one is expecting you to woo them. And we will be keeping the event to the bare minimum. The King will use the excuse that you need to find your husband.”

  “And how exactly am I to find this Wind Hero?” I asked. As nervous as I was about marrying someone I hadn’t met. I was equally anxious about not even knowing how I was supposed to meet him.

  “I don’t know. The King is likely discussing the issue currently with his staff,” she said. “How long that takes will be very critical to our next step, actually.”

  “How so?” I asked.

  “Once you are married, I would be willing to bet everything that the king is going to enroll you both in the royal academy. So, the longer finding him takes, the more time you have to study,” she said as she began looking at hr book again.

  Seemed unfair for him. By definition, he would have no time to develop before reaching the academy. Well, I am sure Lady Evelyn or the king has considered that point. I was interested in something far more important to me. Hatula.

  “At which point do you think Hatula will be safe? You said I passed your test, but I feel a sense of worry about Hatula still,” I said.

  She flipped her book closed again. “I am reading about that matter at the moment, actually.”

  “Oh?” I asked. “I don’t think I will be able to relax while worrying so much.”

  “Don’t state the obvious. It just makes you seem desperate,” she added. “Look, you are the only one in the dark here. Maidens are not very common. Care to guess the last time we had one in Anlage?”

  Well, I knew they were for life. Everyone made that point perfectly clear. So, that meant the last one had probably died of old age. That would be about seventy. Maybe triple that? Seemed fair. “Two hundred years?”

  She shook her head. “I can’t find any record of Anlage ever having one, not in its fifteen-hundred-year history. But my people are still looking. The closest result I found is in the land of dwarves to the west. They got the Maiden of Metal six hundred years ago.”

  Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.

  “Dwarves?” I asked. What was that? No one said the term before.

  “Ignore it for now. It is just the name of another kind of people. Point being, no one alive today in the entire world has ever spoken to a Maiden before you. So, I have been gathering information in the capital. So far, there are two camps. Those who believe that, as the god’s chosen, a Maiden is automatically worthy. And those that wish to see a Maiden prove her worth.”

  That first one sounded a lot like Christopher. He had said that being a maiden meant that I was the best among women in the eyes of Luft, the God of Wind. However, I was more fascinated by how she knew this. She had been at the Malatise summer home with me for the past two and a half weeks.

  “How did you find all this out?” I asked. “Aren’t all the nobles spread out?”

  She pressed her book to her lips. “Allies. Do pay attention. Have we not been trying to drill into you the very simplistic idea that allies are something you need? Did you think only Maidens seek allies? Mine do work for me. Sometimes they just need to hear the right conversation and pass it along to me. Did you not learn the lesson about why you must always behave in a way you can be observed?”

  “Okay, I get it,” I said. I sighed. Did she have to be so grumpy about it? “So, doesn’t the king decide? Why do the nobles matter?”

  “Your thinking isn’t wrong. But the king isn’t unmovable. The nobles can influence his thinking, so while it is unlikely that you will win each and every noble onto your side. The more the better. That is when Hatula will be safe beyond any sense of worry,” Evelyn said.

  “So, then just the debut?” I asked. I just had to convince a lot of nobles to like me. I could do that.

  She pressed her left hand against her forehead. “No. You aren’t ready. So, for your debut, we plan to keep you far away from the nobles that we can. For Hatula's safety, I would picture it more like this. Your next test is the King. If you pass his test. We do your debut. At which point we seek your husband. Hatula will be safe during this time. Then you attend the Royal Academy. That is the time you will get to impress nobles. Succeed there, and Hatula will never be in danger again.”

  I clenched my hands. That sounded so far away. But, well, at the moment, I had just one obstacle before me. Convince the king. “Right! What can I do while we travel?”

  She smiled and pulled out a second hand-sized book and tossed it my way. “Practice your reading for now.”

  Right. I opened the book. The text was super small, and the bumping carriage did me no favors. It wasn’t actually written like a story. Just a list of words she wanted me to try and sound out. So I began trying to learn this new material. I would keep Hatula safe. That much I swore to myself.

  It was a little past noon when we decided to take a break. It was strange to see a place like this for the first time. It looked just like a forest back home, but different. I was somehow expecting it to look like something I had never seen before.

  Our break was just long enough to boil water and dump in some little white balls. Three in total, so one for each of us. When she put it into a bowl, it broke apart, and I saw meat and other stuff inside.

  “Never seen food like this before,” I said as I took a bite. It was salty, and it wasn’t nearly as flavorful as the food I had gotten used to at Malatise Manor.

  “These are military rations,” Evelyn said as she took a bite of her own. “We wouldn’t make it to Stechen before dark if we cooked a proper meal. Don’t like it?”

  Military. Even that wasn’t a word I knew three months ago. I had learned so much new stuff during my time with the Malatise family that it made my head hurt trying to recall even half of it at once. They really knew how to make tasty food.

  “I wouldn’t go that far,” I said. “Just a little bland.”

  She pulled out an orange and squeezed it over mine. The juices flowed in, and with a second orange, she cut it up and placed the wedges in my bowl.

  I took a bite. “Much better.”

  She smiled. “I travel a lot. So I eat this a lot. I learned a few tricks.”

  “Is this going to be our main food?” I asked. Two weeks to get to the capital? I imagine I’d be sick of it, oranges or not, by then.

  Lady Evelyn shook her head. “I have plenty, but they are more for emergencies. They keep for months. The plan is to stay in towns along the way. Only one batch of our journey should see us actually camping outdoors. So we can cook a proper meal then. Depending on how much time we have, we may eat rations to reach a town before dark. But that is all.”

  The coachman yawned as he finished his bowl first. “I’m gonna tend to the horses.”

  I hadn’t even learned his name, but I nodded in his direction. It had become a habit at this point. Evelyn was eating faster than I was, but she slowed down when she cut up the crushed orange for her own bowl.

  “Are we going to have enough time to look around Stechen?” I asked. I have never seen a town before. The idea of passing through with barely a pause made me a bit sad.

  “We will look around. It is part of the plan, actually,” she said. “The intention is to stay in Stechen for two nights. We have some business, but beyond that, you can look around to your heart's content.”

  That sounded nice. “Wait! Two days, but I thought we were in a rush to the capital?”

  She chuckled. “Yes, but I did not think it wise to simply rush there. Think of these as lessons along the way. Tomorrow’s lesson, I am afraid, might be especially harsh for you.”

  My stomach twisted at the thought. “How come?” I asked.

  “We are going to meet twenty people, and you will need to select two of them. Being chosen, not being chosen. Like with your ring, in a flash their lives will change forever,” she said. “Given your own look of disdain at your ring, I can’t imagine you’d look favorably on changing the lives of others like that.”

  “Duh!” I shouted. “Why me! Surely you know the right answer.”

  She shook her head. “I may know better, but I don’t know for certain. And you need practice. One day, I won’t be there to help, and one day, you will face things beyond me. Tomorrow, only twenty people will have their lives changed. In the grand scheme of things. Practically nothing.”

  That was a fourth of Hatula. To call that practically nothing felt insulting. But what could I say? Everyone just kept saying I didn’t understand the scale of the world. Maybe I would have a better idea after seeing the town. So I didn’t ask anything; I just slowly finished the meal in front of me. Even after soaking it in water and orange, it was still kind of dry, so I drank plenty of water to wash it down.

  Back in the carriage, I began studying my book of words again to distract myself. We didn’t stop again until we arrived. Or reasonably close. Apparently, Lady Evelyn asked him to stop a mile outside of the town so I could see.

  Opening the door, I was left slack-jawed. It was so large. Buildings that went three stories high everywhere. We were on the same level as the town, so I couldn’t begin to see how far back it went. But just from side to side, I saw about fifteen buildings that were all three stories tall. The entire area was basking in the orange hues of the setting sun. Yet the sun itself was blocked by a building even larger than the Malatise manor.

  From here, I couldn’t tell much about it. It was a bit off-center and quite far back. The thing that stuck out to me was the flat sides. Malaise Manor was larger at the bottom and thinned near the top, serving more as storage. While this building was just as thick at the top, which was flat, as it was at the lowest point, I could see with the other buildings in the way.

  The baffling thing was what I didn’t see. No farmland or crops in sight. “How do they get enough food?”

  Lady Evelyn giggled. “This town in particular probably gets the crops from Hatula, actually.”

  Wait, really? I wanted to ask more, but Lady Evelyn wanted us to resume traveling before nightfall.