We both rise early to get some breakfast and meet in front of the tavern were the other riders gather. There are twelve members from the Riders Guild including us. After we are all together everyone walks out the city gate to the Taraven pens. We will be taking twenty Taraven mounts with. Outside the gate another group with wagons pulled by horses is gathering. There are supposed to be ten wagons with twenty guards riding horses. In addition, two riders will be in each of the covered wagons. After getting our mounts settled Hank breaks us into pairs with three pairs in front and back of the caravan. It doesn’t take long before we are moving and within an hour everything is running smoothly. To pass the time I ask Nora, something I have wanted to for a while.

George: What is life like as the daughter of the Empress?

Nora: What is it like? That would be a long story.

George: We have four days until we make it to the Capital, so we have plenty of time. Maybe just tell me what a typical day is like.

Nora: Hmmm very well I will tell you what a typical day is like. Let’s start with the day before I departed for the Starter Area. It all started when I woke up.

✽✽✽

I opened my eyes for the last day of my life. At least that is what I tell myself at the start of every morning. Before I open my eyes, I try to keep breathing steady and slowly slide a hand under the pillow for the dagger I keep there when my wrist is seized by a vice like grip. I open my eyes to see my Guardian Julia smiling down at me.

Julia says. “That was very good Sandra, but your breathing is still changing rhythm when you wake up.”

“I still think it would be better for me to pull my dagger from my inventory.”

“You know there are skills to block your access to your inventory.”

“True, but I could try my inventory first and then reach for my dagger.”

“You could do that, but some of the skills that block your inventory would allow their users to be able to sense that you tried to access your inventory.”

I sigh. “Very well, I will continue to practice.”

“Good.” She says releasing my wrist and takes a step back.

Having a Guardian assigned to be your bodyguard is a sign of favor with the Empress. Only ten Guardians are assigned to the Empress and her family per the agreement with the Harrow. It is also extremely annoying since they take their duty very seriously. Since Julia has already stopped one assassin, I am definitely glad to have her.

She opens the door, while I get out of bed, to let the servants in to get me ready for breakfast with my mother. After a quick bath I am dressed and made presentable. Julia looks me over for weapon placement and easy of movement, always making sure I can defend myself if things turn to the worst. We start down to breakfast in the East Atrium with Julia trailing behind me until we get the room. I stop to allow her to enter first and check the room before she signals for me to enter. My mother has not yet arrived, but my younger sibling is already seated with her Guardian standing to the right of her chair. We nod to one another when I take a seat with Julia assuming a position behind me. It is not long until my older sister joins us but does not even acknowledge us when she takes her seat shortly before my mother arrives.

“You should all eat.” Our mother said when she becomes visible. After having her do this so many times none of us show any outward signs of surprise. She is so good at invisibility spells you can never tell if she is already there watching us or not in the morning. After the servers put food on our plates, I use my poison and magic detection bracelets to make sure the food is safe. My mother is in a sky-blue dress today that offsets her golden hair and brings out the blue of her eyes. My magic detection bracelet shows ribbons of magic entwining the rings, bracelets, and her very body before I turn it off. Looking at her with it on is enough to give me a headache.

My mother starts the morning routing with Silvia, my oldest sister. “How are the negotiations with the Yola going?”

Silvia finishes her current bit of food before saying. “They want more tariffs for the passage to the Whispering Isles. We have agreement on everything else. There ambassador is claiming that the chaos winds around the islands have steadily gotten worst over the last month, which is requiring more mages to maintain a passage to the islands. We have several members of the Mages Guild confirming that.”

“The winds are still blocking any portal or teleport to the islands?”

“Yes, so we will have to take a ship through the passage the Yola are creating to reach the dungeons on the islands.”

“Hmmm, are you thinking of increasing the taxes on the adventures to cover the costs?”

“That is the thought. They will complain of course, but the seven dungeons on the islands are the some of the highest-level dungeons in the known world and with our agreement with Yola only adventures register with the Empire have access. Based on our estimates a five percent increase would be acceptable without an impact to revenue.”

“Very well. “

“Tina how is the planning for the festival?” Tina is the closest to me in age. She is also my closest rival. She has been put in charge of the Moon Day Festival in one month. I was surprised when I hear she volunteered. There must be something she will be using the Festival for to increase her influence and power, but I don’t see what it is. I am sure my mother allowed her to have it to find out as well.

“All of the decorations are planned and ordered. They will be hung one week before the Festival starts. Food orders are all placed, and we are checking their progress each week. Finally, the entertainment from the Deep Hill Gnome clan is booked. They will be supplying the fireworks and illusions. The Mage Guild is booked to supply security. The Elves, Dwarves, Gnomes, and Yola ambassadors have accepted their invites along with two dozen other major houses and guilds.”

“Very good.”

“Sandra how are your preparations going for your trial.” She asks me.

I am the youngest and have yet to take my trial in a Starter Area. “My group and I are ready. We will be leaving tomorrow morning taking a temporary portal to the outpost and then enter Starter Area.”

My mother nods and then continues eating thoughtfully. “Do any of you have any questions?”

No one says anything when my mother finishes eating and stands. We all follow suit and after she vanishes we all part ways to be about our day.

Julia and I enter the gardens for the last time before my trial. We walk to the small cottage in the center of the garden. This cottage is part of the secret of the Empresses family’s advancement. The cottage has a small basement that is wrapped in many spells that reduce the amount of XP earned for the first Tier of each skill to just one XP. This allows people to training in skills without gaining a level before they enter the Starter Area. Also, this allows the first level gained to grant a lot of attribute points, because of the amount of work it needs to gain the skill in the first place.

Julia is going to teach me one last skill before I leave for my trial. I am going to learn Piercing Sight, which is a passive skill that increases the effectiveness of Perception, primarily to pierce stealth. Since it is a passive skill it will increase continuously. This means that I needed to wait to learn it, so that the XP earned from leveling it would not push me to level two, preventing me from entering the Starter Area. Only people who have never reached level two can enter a Starter Area.

To learn the skill Julia will slowly stealth herself while I watch. It is easier when you have a teacher that has stealth at a high enough level to allow them to use it at a lower level, which allows me to perceive stealth affecting how I perceive her. We spend four mind numbing hours with Julia entering and leaving stealth before I get a notification I was expecting.

You have learned the skill Piercing Sight, 1 XP awarded. Basic 1.

This is a goodtime to grab some lunch, so we both head through the winding paths in the garden when Julia suddenly says in party chat.

Julia: I am picking up someone in stealth behind the statue on our right. I am summoning the guard. Get ready to retreat to the cottage.

I casually look at the statue, which was twenty feet ahead on the right. Opposite the statue was a small decorative fountain spewing water from the mouths of four stone frogs into a stone basin about three feet across. The statue was of the Goddess of Light and I wondered if she would take offense to an assassin using her for cover.

As we approach the statue Julia must have used her ability to manipulate time because one moment she was next to my side calmly strolling along and the next she had two daggers embedded up to the hilt in the assassin’s neck. He was dressed in form fitting black leather that snuggly hugged his body, while not restricting his body movements. An ebony and silver half mask covered the lower half of his face. It is rumored that the masks blocked the air borne poisons the assassins use.

Unfortunately, the assassins were smarter than we expected. The body of the dead assassin vanishes and three other assassins appear from the ground around the fountain. One of the assassins collapses to his knees in obvious pain. I am guessing he used a clone spell or skill, which transferred part of the damage back to his actual body. I focus on the two still standing. Both charge Julia, which causes alarm bells to go off in my head. At least one of them should have headed to me.

I turn quickly just catching another assassin appearing from the hedge behind us. He has two daggers drawn, but my daggers are in my hands in an instant. I jump to the side when he uses a skill to close the distance to me. His skill moves him to where I was instead of following me. Not a very high-level skill to be dodged so easily. While he was turning I plant one dagger in his left arm causing him to drop his dagger. I jumped back as he swipes at me with his other dagger.

This is to easy, the other two are keeping Julia busy, and a high-level assassin should be able to kill me quickly, but his movements are something I can handle. Oh, they want me to kill this assassin, which will get me enough XP to level up. Then I wouldn’t be able to enter the Starter Area, which would destroy my chance at being a successor to the throne. It is a brilliant move, letting me live, but no longer a rival for the throne. It has to be one of my sisters behind this. I continue to dodge and block the blows from the assassin. I have to make sure I don’t kill him.

I dodge the assassins next attack and throw a handful of powder from my inventory into his eyes, blinding him. This would only be temporary, but it gave me enough time to sweep his legs to take his down. Then I drop all my weight behind my elbow into his stomach, which leaves him gasping like a fish on the ground. I pull a needle from my inventory and stab it into the side of his neck. He goes unnaturally still when the poison on the needle paralyzes him.

I then turn my focus back to Julia. One of the assassins is dead with a dagger through his left eye. The other two are both injured, but so is Julia. I can see several guards running toward us. They should be here in under a minute. I pull a stone from my inventory and sprint away from the pair engaging Julia back toward the cottage. I here Julia shout “Now!” and activate the stone. The world seems to stutter while I am frozen in time for a minute. When I turn there is a pile of guards manhandling an assassin who is spewing black blood from his mouth. The other assassin Julia was fighting is also motionless on the ground. That is why assassins are so expensive. They have numerous means of escape, but when they are unable to they commit suicide. In the case of the palace where their respawn point can be controlled they take a poison, which causes final death.

Julia and I spend some time talking to the guards before they take the bodies away. Julia decide to take lunch in my rooms where we can discuss things in private. While lunch is served and we eat we talk in party chat.

Sandra: I think they were trying to get me to kill the assassin that attacked me so that I would level.

Julia: I think you are right. They should have been able to make a much better attempt at killing you. It wasn’t until you subdued the assassin attacking you that the others pushed to attack you.

Sandra: It had to be one of my sisters.

Julia: It also could be one of the groups that wants to curry favor with them.

Sandra: True, I guess there is nothing we can prove and nothing we should change before tomorrow.

Julia: Yes, we should go about your normal routine and then after dinner retire to your room.

So, we did exactly that. I stopped by the library to read some more works of fiction. I could not look at the maps and other books on monsters because I would up my Lore and Cartography skills to the point where I would level up. It is frustrating waiting for the trial before being able to take advantage of all the things available to me as a princess. After reading in the library for several hours I went to the music hall were several individuals practiced and played at all hours in preparation for festivals and balls hosted in the palace. I find it relaxing listening to the music even though it is often interrupted when they start over again and again while they learn new pieces of music. It may not be as smooth, but it is genuine.

Julia then says it is time for dinner, which is a more private affair with Julia and several of my tutors. We review my proposed build and leveling plan while in the Starter Area. We discuss things over two hours and I listen again to the arguments of the two main camps, magic versus melee, damage versus defense. We don’t bother talking about support, since no Empress would ever consider such a build. I then make it back to my suite of rooms were my servants help prepare me for bed. I end up laying in bed for a long time before falling to sleep. I am well prepared for this but can’t help but worry.

✽✽✽

Nora: And that is a typical day in my life.

George: Holy Crap, that’s not normal, that’s crazy.

Nora: it is what it is.

George: I did have a question if you don’t mind?

Nora: Sure, go ahead.

George: You mentioned your personal guard is a Harrow and could affect time?

Nora seemed to pause before replying.

Nora: Yes, she is a Harrow and their racial ability allows them to affect time.

George: Do you know how they learn to do that?

Nora; Yes, someone very skilled must unlock their potential first and then they can start to learn how to control the ability.

George: Ok, thanks.

The group reached a stream with a large clearing where we could break for lunch and feed the Taraven. Lunch was uneventful and after the animals were feed and watered we got back on the road. I spent most of my time inspecting all of the plants and animals I could see, which increased my inspect several levels. I also practiced creating steps of air above my head. They were invisible and made no noise but allowed me to increase my air shaping while we moved. I still had dreams of running through the air leaping from one step to another.

I gained several levels in air shaping by the time we reached our camp site for the evening. It was another clearing with a nearby stream. This clearing has a large rock outcrop on the north side, which we use when posting a lookout. This gave a much more defensible position on the north side with a great vantage point. There is bard in the group of wagons and he plays several songs on his lute while we eat dinner. His name is Tom Evermore from the Southern City States. He is very good and tells several tales in between the songs. After we all clean up and settle in for the evening Nora and I unroll out bedrolls by the wagons. During the night we heard a pack of wolves howling, but nothing approached the camp before dawn.