I take a few steps closer to my Lady, still sitting on the rock as she scrutinizes the Rykz Queen in the middle of the lake. The expression on her face is hard but determined, not the look of someone who thinks themselves doomed. After a few moments of silence, I decide to speak.

“Would you?” I ask, wondering if my Lady will catch on.

“Maybe in a moment of anger.” Lady Lance answers with a calm voice, head still turned towards the lake. “You carry some responsibility for what happened, don’t think that I missed the casual taunt you threw at him, Jessica.”

“My Lady, if I knew he would …” I start but she interrupts me.

“I warned you both about it, this very afternoon.”

“I apologize, my Lady.” I mutter.

“You really don’t have to call me my Lady all the time.” She tells me once more, finally turning and looking at me.

“Would you like me to stop, my Lady?” I ask, once more.

Lady Lance stays quiet for long tens of seconds. Long enough that I startle just a little when she shakes her head negatively sideways to answer my question.

“Do be more careful, Jessica my friend. I only have two of you and I really don’t want to lose the least annoying one.” She says with a smile, her head turning back towards the lake. But I can hear the concealed tension in her tone, how she is forcing her voice to sound casual.

“Ah, I am falling.” I utter calmly without an iota of panic as I move to stand right next to her and place my hand on her shoulders. The fact that I am standing while she is sitting places us at similar enough heights that I can make the gesture.

“Jessica …” She starts in a cautionary tone, no doubt remembering what I did the last time I said something in that tone.

“I would be less clumsy if my Lady didn’t make me feel weak in the knees.” I let a small laugh escape me, the point of it being to leave her with the option to treat my words as a mere jest.

“Jessica.” My Lady utters with a renewed, final, warning in her voice. Deciding to draw the line rather than to take the easy way out that I left open on purpose, the one I wish she would have chosen.

“Yes, my Lady.” I mumble with dissatisfaction, taking back my hand that I left resting on her shoulder and moving a step away from her.

“Tell me, what are your plans?” She asks.

I tear my eyes away from the back of her head to look up at the sky. Despite the darkening shadow of night that is covering the valley, the sun is still shining outside. The firmament remains empty of stars, a gray-blue empty sky. It fits with the future that I see for myself.

“I’m sure I’ll be fine if we manage to escape, my Lady.” I lie, drawing my own line around what I’m ready to use to get her. “I can still pull a plow whether I have one or two arms.”

“You think you’ll be able to keep living in your lands when the Rykz invade?” She asks.

“Yes, we would have to give most of our harvests up but I don’t think the Queen plans to push the peasants out of the lands they occupy if they agree to work for her. It would make no strategic sense for them to disperse their workers over the lands they occupy if there is already a workforce, a couple dozen scouts in every village would be all they need to maintain control.” And now the conversation is deflected away from my future.

“Evacuation might be possible but … No, it wouldn’t.” She shakes her head. “Keep this to yourself.” My Lady orders me.

“Yes, my Lady, but why?” I ask.

“Because we can’t evacuate the Izla’s whole population, the increased burden in food and the issues inherent to gathering that many people in Meria would be unmanageable. If the rest of Nobility realizes that the peasants they leave behind will be used against them … I am afraid of what they may choose to do. I wouldn’t have thought such a thing of other Nobles before seeing Patrick act like this, but … It is clear to me now that I was somewhat naive in my evaluation of our society.” My Lady’s shoulders shudder a few times as she speaks.

“You’re young, you shouldn’t be so hard on yourself, my Lady.” I try to reassure her.

“You’re a year younger than I am.” She waves her hand to dismiss my comment. “Talking to me like a wise old sage trying to spare my ego.” Lady Lance scoffs with humor. “Give me your hand.” She orders me.

I hold out my hand without hesitating, she takes hold of it with her cool slender fingers and places it over her right shoulder.

“Now, knead. Your antics keep making me tense up and my shoulders are suffering from it.” She explains her command in a lower tone of voice.

The words seem to be aimed at herself more than at me, but I’m not going to voice that thought out loud because it is likely to be an illusory perception born of my hopes.

“Yes, my Lady.” I whisper, sultrily. I catch the small touch of red that colors her cheeks in reaction to my words.

I begin to hesitatingly grasp and release the soft but firm flesh of her shoulders, focused more on enjoying the feeling of touching her through her shirt than on massaging her.

“Put some spirit into it, Jessica.” She chastises me in a light tone of voice.

“As you wish, my Lady.” I softly reply.

I put more strength into my grip as I begin enthusiastically kneading the flesh, applying even more pressure on the flesh with my fingers when they pass over muscles.

I stare at the base of her neck, revealed when her shirt slides along with my hand’s movements. The sight of it is too tempting to resist, I immediately move and place the palm of my hand over the naked flesh, right where her neck and shoulder muscles join.

Lady Lance makes her shoulder roll under my fingers, making the collar of her shirt open even wider to allow me free rein to rub the tense muscles there. I do my best to apply a shifting pressure, I only have a vague idea of how what a massage is supposed to be.

“Hmm.” She hums with contentment when I find a hard knot of flesh and start to gently apply pressure to it.

Her voiced pleasure provokes a shiver and a tingling sensation in the area of my lower abdomen. The event breaks the tenuous hold I have over my impulses in her presence.

Self-restraint abandoned, I move my hand aside and pull on her collar to reveal more of her shoulder. But more specifically, I expose the knot of tension, I slide her shirt away to make space so that I can directly bite down on her flesh.

I press my mouth around that area of her skin, tasting its zesty and somewhat salty flavor with the tip of my lips. I close my teeth around the tense knotted muscles to begin gnawing at it with ardor.

My Lady Lance’s body reacts to my sudden actions, her spine arching backward while her lungs take a sharp and short inspiration of air in. Her spine curves so fully that her head comes to rest in the pit of my neck, our cheeks almost touching.

She makes a small sound that I only hear because her mouth is so close to my ear, but it pushes me to retake a modicum of control over my actions. I keep working on the knotted flesh until it melts under my passionate nibbling of her firm flesh and compact muscles.

Once it vanishes, I unclasp my jaw and release the flesh of her shoulder from between my teeth. Pushing away the impulse urging me to keep devouring her back to the depths of my mind, I slide her shirt back into its place over her shoulder.

“I found a knot.” I tell her, explaining nothing in a whisper. A shallow justification of my actions. My heart is beating so loudly that I am quite certain that my Lady can hear it. Please take the easy way out this time, please don’t reject me.

“Okay.” My Leomi replies between two short breaths with full red cheeks and looser traits in her expression than usual. She then straightens her back, recomposing herself, her lovable face leaving my sight.

The fear dug a pit inside my stomach while I nervously waited for her reaction recedes, but the oppressive shadow of it remains looming over my heart. It allows me to turn a deaf ear to my instincts when they push me to reach for more of her.

“What do you really think you’ll do if we manage to get out of this valley?” My Lady asks me, her voice tentative, hesitant. Her tone glaringly different from how she usually addresses me.

“I don’t think I’ll make it.” The truth escapes my lips before I even think to stop myself. My Lady reached out to me with a glimpse of her emotions, how could I give her a lie or half-truth in response?

Lady Lance remains silent, eyes fixed on the lake’s waters. After a while, she makes a short nod and stands up. I tense, unsure of what she intends to do, hoping for more than I should hope for when she turns around and faces me.

She raises a hand to place it on my cheek, her face inexpressive, blank. My Lady then takes her hand back, making a somewhat saddened smile as she turns away and walks past me.

I stand there for a long while, thinking about what it all meant. Long enough that I no longer hear the sound of her leaving steps. The same answer surfaces again and again despite my fierce rejection of the obvious conclusion.

She just rejected me. In actions, if not in words.

I fight the tears that I feel rise to my eyes along with the sadness mounting in my heart. What else could I have said? Truth is all I can give her, I have nothing else to offer. I’m just a worthless peasant with nothing to her name.

Even if I made it out with her, she’ll just go her own way. What does it matter what the future holds since it can’t end with us together? Is that why she doesn’t want me? I’m just not good enough. Useless wench. I laugh with mirth at the thought.

Enough. I can still keep trying, what else is there, anyway? As long as she doesn’t give me a straight no, I can keep failing. I tightly gather my fingers in my palm, making a hard fist. I turn around and start making my way back to our building.

I walk swiftly. I immediately enter once I arrive at my destination, barely having to look around to find my Lady sitting on the frame of the bed we shared for a couple of nights now.

I don’t give myself enough time to think it through, to hesitate. I keep going towards the bed, passing by her to hop over the frame and lay on the sheet mattress. My Lady joins me soon after, settling next to me. I listen to her calm regular breathing for a while, until I lose some of my tension.

“Will you hold me through the cold night, my Lady?” I finally ask softly, having gathered enough courage to put myself out there again, so soon after she … walked past me.

“It didn’t bother you to sleep last night?” She asks in a quiet but normal tone of voice.

“I slept like a charm safely inside your arms, my Lady. Didn’t feel the cold at all.” I reply, I keep using the cold as an excuse despite no one being fooled.

Straws grasped. Shut up me.

“What did Yvonne want?” My Lady asks, slipping an arm under and around my waist while her other arm passes over to join it, wrapping me in her arms.

“Gloat and tease? I think.” I answer with a short laugh.

“Hum.” My Lady makes the sound to acknowledge hearing my answer but doesn’t press for more detail.

I close my eyes, today was about as exhausting as yesterday was. I wiggle a little and lay on my side, my back turned towards my Lady. She pulls me in a bit closer to her chest. We settle in that position, just barely close enough to touch.

— — —

When my mind clears enough of the fog of sleep for me to awaken, I open my eyes. I feel the same pressure of a hand over my wrist that I felt yesterday morning, except this time I managed to gather myself quickly enough to see Lady Lance lifting my hand off from the top of her left breast and placing it down on the sheet mattress.

I feel some regret at not having woken up earlier, at not being conscious while my hand held onto one of the round pair forming her perfect chest. I look up to my Lady’s face to make sure that she isn’t mad at me.

I find clear and fully awakened eyes. How long has she been awake? Why is she just now removing my hand if she has been up for a while? A flight of butterflies filled with hope takes off in my stomach.

I try to push away the wild speculation that fills my mind, I can’t start the day with a delusion. She could have missed my hand as she woke up and just now realized. My Lady might also have awoken suddenly.

I won’t let my imagination run rampant and push me into making another foolish advance that will force her to clearly turn me down, that could ruin my chances if I have any. Depending on how I act, I might damage our relationship beyond repair if I don’t stick to the line she drew between us.

“Good morning, my Lady.” I greet her with a bright smile, having gotten myself under control.

“Good morning, Jessica.” She returns a small smile of her own.

Lady Lance slips out from under me and hops out of the bed. She turns around and holds out her hand. I grasp it with my own and gracefully accept her help to get out of the bed frame without being shy about it.

“Thank you, my Lady.” I nod.

“You going this morning too?” She asks me.

“Yes, you know my reasons, my Lady. But there is also the Queen’s word that I’ll be safe for as long as I work.” I admit.

“I remember. Go.” She closes her eyes.

“My Lady.” I bow my head slightly despite her inability to see.

I leave the building, heading towards the mushroom pit field by taking a specific street that I made a special note of yesterday. I pass by a structure that I think I recognize, throwing a quick glance inside confirms my suspicion.

I walk through the door, my heart beating wildly as I do my best to ignore the workers busily working at the small forges to make small hand shovels. As I thought, they don’t react to my presence. I don’t waste time and turn towards the barrel of raw iron bars right near the entrance.

I take two of them in my hand. I throw a quick glance over my shoulder to make sure that the workers don’t react, they remain focused on their work and I make a relieved sigh.

I walk out without hesitating and fast walk back towards the building where we sleep in that I just left. But instead of heading towards the front of it and its entrance, I take the street that passes behind it.

I carefully deposit the two iron bars on the ground near our building’s back wall. I keep the movements of my hand under control, not letting the adrenaline flowing through my veins affect me so much that the iron hits the pavement rock.

I make the raw iron bars roll on the ground, excruciatingly slowly to avoid making any sound, until both bars are stuck in the corner made by the wall and the pavement where they meet.

Princess Celyz didn’t make a single comment about the silver pommel that my Lady kept. Considering the fact that there is something about that piece of my Lady’s sword that the other three aren’t telling me about, I doubt that the Princess would have ignored it if she detected it there.

Even if Princess Celyz doesn’t know what it does, just the fact that Lady Lance kept it would have raised alarms in her mind. I can be relatively certain that the Princess doesn’t know that the silver lion pommel is on the ground under our bed. She might have missed it, but she might also never have detected it.

Metal is very cold, about as cold as stone at the touch. Their temperature might be too close to each other for the Rykz’ way of detecting heat to differentiate between them. That theory is reinforced by the fact that the Princess told me that she detects stone because of its lack of heat.

The two raw iron bars laying on the ground, head to head stuck along a corner, have a very good chance of remaining there, undetected until we need them.

And if the Rykz find them … Well, the others had nothing to do with this. That isn’t likely to work as an excuse but it’s all I have and we need weapons to escape. After yesterday’s events at diner, I wasn’t about to sit on this idea.

I turn away and walk as fast as I can through the streets, trying to regain the time I spent on this and get to the mushroom pit field without delay.

Once I am kneeling in front of a patch of sprouting weeds, not very far from a Rykz worker uprooting plants with a hand shovel, adrenaline finally stops flooding my system and slowly clears out, allowing the rate of my heartbeats to also calm down.