Cecilia POV:

Okay, so, the sweep of the palace lasted throughout the night. The spymaster is interrogating a few of the captured would-be-assassins. However, a few of the guardsmen expect them to be islanders, the people of the Kannis islands, a war torn region that hates Erians like the plague. Why? You may ask. Simple, remember that nation that I mentioned was rivalling us in trade, about five hundred years ago? The one that we sent a bunch of wargs towards to utterly fuck up their nation? Yeah…

Suffice it to say that they aren’t doing too hot these days, and hate us with a passion. They couldn’t actually declare war on us because of the other nations making sure that we don’t get too screwed up. They’ve resorted to pirating any and all vessels bound for Eria as an attempt to discourage trade with us, which backfired spectacularly. They went from a somewhat stable government to a fucked over nation that’s slowly and painfully dying, still not giving up on its attempts to destroy Eria. Mostly the royal family.

This time, they were targeting large groups of people that were being brought into the palace as candidates for the new servant positions. They were felled by the dozens, the original two hundred being whittled down to forty six. A few of the knights and rangers discovered that several guardsmen were also involved in the plot, smuggling assassins in under the pretense of being servants and handing over the rotation schedules for the current cycle. Everyone on the council was understandably miffed, and the still living guardsmen were brought in for questioning. Y’mar has already sent for another contingent of Rangers and Cyrus is having every section of the rings inspected to make certain it isn’t compromised.

Me, on the other hand, I’m stuck doing something far less enjoyable.

Except when I actually manage to hit Y’mar.

Which I can count on my little finger.

I don’t hit him much, in case you were wondering.

*PHWACK* *Grrr*

He doesn’t even have the damn decency to put me on my ass when he hits me! He keeps it to light taps, which you might think is a good thing, but when you throw in some predatory ancestors, IT STARTS PISSING YOU OFF! Unfortunately, however, I can’t act on said-- *PHWACK* *GRRR*

Calm down Cecil, you won’t be able to tell where he is if you don’t calm down, then comes hitting him. I’m blindfolded, and Y’mar is having me stand in position while he comes at me from different angles. This is the first step to learning Blindness, one of the martial paths, you have to start getting used to finding out just where your opponent is so that you can strike at him. Next comes defending against sword strikes, and repeating these two steps, in order, while moving being the final two.

I hear the shifting of the sands come from my right, I swing. I feel a rush of excitement when I feel the sword come into contact with his own blade, and feel the urge to rush at him, to swing away like a madwoman with a death wish! Unfortunately, I can’t, I’m confined to a figurative circle whilst he continues to circle me.

Still satisfying as all hell.

*PHWACK*

But I question whether it’s worth it or not. Okay, focus, you have some of the best hearing in the capital, don’t tune out the sounds, I’m not tuning it out anymore, I need to tune in. The air to left takes a slight whistling noise, and I act out of a desire to not feel pain. First, I pull up my wooden blade so that it’s vertical, the hilt upwards.

*Punk*

The blade hits an instant later, but my training in regards to repentance kicks in just as quickly. In a swift motion, I twist the fuller of the blade so that it moves around that of my opponents, moving in a way as to cancel any momentum and allowing me to get past his defense. Immediately, I thrust forwards, hoping to God that I managed to both keep his blade occupied and my opponent slow enough to manage a successful hit, without getting smacked again. I feel the point of the blade hit something and feel a great amount of resistance, and I pull out to help with my next movement. I start twirling a little, shifting my stance continuously while bring my blade the long way around, back at my opponent. I think of something on the fly, dipping my blade a bit to change the sideways attack into an upward strike, bringing a good amount of sand and dirt with it. I know for a fact that the distraction is mediocre at best, but a chance at getting him on his toes is enough for me.

*punk*

My blade comes to a halt, meaning that my opponent has reacted. I draw the blade back, and out of an unknown instinct bring my blade to my left, tilting it quickly as I duck beneath arc of the swing. I then, sliding the blade under my attacker’s, swing at where his arm should be. The blade meets its mark, and I tilt the sword diagonally to suit my next attack. Judging that I’ve tilted the blade to an appropriate margin, I thrust forwards, a knocking sound greeting me. I’ve completely disregarded the ring now, I know for a fact that I’ve gone beyond its boundary, but I could care less.

I didn’t come here so that he could hit me repeatedly, I didn’t come here to learn some divine “one with the world” bullcrap, and I most certainly want to beat the shit out of Y’mar, so, in essence: let’s actually fight for once. I hear Y’mar grunt in pain, I know I didn’t hit his eye, I was… aiming for the temple? How the hell was I aiming for his temple, I can’t-

I hear a crack of wind and feel pain explode through the side of my jaw before everything went dark.

****

I woke up about an hour later, Y’mar told me to trust my instincts more, which I suppose is true enough given what happened. The pain in my jaw was gone, so they must've used a potion on me in my sleep. I then went on to my second activity of the day, lying!

Yeah, I’m conflicted about this at times. I really dislike lying. Subversion, I’m a fan of, it makes things easier. You’d be a complete idiot to not ruin your enemy’s chances at killing you. Still, getting better at lying both helps when making negotiations and hurts when getting someone to trust you. Who in their right mind would trust a woman who could be lying through their teeth at any time. I ran quickly towards the meeting room, since royals don’t need guards in the bounds of the first ring. It's much faster these days, since I figured out that I can move super fast now, the only problem being my not-so-limitless stamina. Plus slowing down, you would be surprised how easy it is to trip if you slow down too fast. I’ll have to pay attention to how Siga-- Lugus does it, if I don’t manage to figure out calmly stopping by the time I take her out during the hunt that is.

I start slowing down and nearly trip multiple times as I get to one of the doors that leads into the main building surrounding the Spire. As I said before, the palace is mostly gardens, so it's more walls surrounding gardens surrounding buildings, which are connected through stone pathways(think of the large bridge in Harry Potter from Hogwarts to Hagrid’s home, just shorter).

I, thankfully, managed to make it to the door without face planting into any surface. I open it up and then sprint inside. We don’t have time to waste, and I don’t know how long I was unconscious. It wasn’t long, probably thirty minutes, but that’s thirty minutes wasted. I wasn’t running at the speed of a horse, but I was still going at the pace of a sprint. After twisting through the hallways, I came across the door to the same room Gabriel and I met in previously. We’ve made this room our designated meeting place. I open the door and see Gabriel start detaching his legs, which means he just got here too. Perfect.

Vanar just turns his head lazily to me before just going into a sleeping position. He’s either not afraid of me, trusts me, or just doesn’t give a damn. The more time I spend with him, the more inclined I am to believe it’s the third option. Gabriel hears me, and looks up at me with his usual tired and annoyed face.

“Ah good, you’re on time. Now then, you're decent enough at the facade already, now we just have to train you to lie.” Gabriel

He paused while I took a seat in front of him. Once I was properly seated, he picked up his cane and started twisting the head of it. I looked at him questioningly as he brought it sideways and placed his mouth over a hole I hadn’t noticed before. The instant he started breathing, I heard a high pitched squeak invade my senses, making me wince slightly. When he looked back up, he nodded in confirmation of something.

“Okay then, every time your expression breaks, I’ll blow a note. Now then, let’s begin…” Gabriel

We then wasted a few hours away in which he had me say things and hear things that were rather humorous, irritating, insulting, disgusting, and embarrassing. We wouldn’t move on from any of those topics until my expression didn’t break. He had me maintain demeanors from happiness to sadness to even pride. As long as I could fake it, we could move on. The exercises kept up for absolute hours, but I didn’t grow bored for an instant. At the end, he actually looked impressed.

“You know, you are not taking anywhere near as much time as I was expecting you to. I may be good at teaching people this stuff, the whole pain incentive and all, but at this rate we’ll have some spare time to train you further. Wonderful.” Gabriel

I could see a bit more life in his eyes while he was saying that.

My ears, on the other hand, were not quite so lively at that news.

******

We have a week before the choosing ceremony, and both Saran and Y’mar are satisfied with my ability to fight. I still have no clue about this battle state some warriors are capable of, they had said that’s a lesson I need to learn on my own. I think I went up a single rank in swiftness, and Y’mar says that I need to have better confidence in my abilities and not question my own capabilities mid fight.

At some point, some applicants were brought over from Tor’s holdings in Uria. No one in the capital was willing to become a member of the servants after that bloodbath that occurred just after my arrival. There were a few who remained, however, like this one trio who Cyrus avoids like the plague, and vice versa. They consisted of a Fox-Kin woman, a hybrid Erian, and a Low-Beast Hare-Rabbit. I didn’t spend much time with them, with Y’mar trying to be the death of me and all, but I find the rabbit shifty, the fox annoyingly bubbly, and the Erian protective of the rabbit and jumpy as hell.

There are, however, problems regarding our method of attaining servants. One such being that the Spymaster reports a ridiculous increase in the movements of other spies and agents that have been trying to find out what's going on in the capital. Gabriel expects that increase with some and decrease with others once the messengers bring news of the choosing ceremony taking place; and that I should hold more fear for those who continued their inquiries.

I’ve also been in attendance to every council meeting that has been held since I got here. Apparently the war in the west is getting noticeably more bloody, the principalities allowing mercenary bands to get involved, which Saran believes to be a prelude for their own involvement. The war is between the Human Alliance and the Elven Council of The Star Wells, Plains-Kin and Wood-Kin kingdoms respectively. It’s been terrible on trade, simply because both kingdoms are situated on the points of the Sessavy Sea, a sea on the north end of the Western continent that is surrounded by a sickle like landmass. Because of this, sea battles are quite common and because of that, our trade with that whole landmass is being stagnated. And since neither side wants the other from profiting from our trade routes, we can't trade with the nations west of them, and the Sea-Kin are getting sick of it, meaning that they will either push for peace or join in with the other nations west of the Sessavy.

Gabriel and Tor seem to think that it would be beneficial to initiate these peace talks, since this war will put either a society of purist Wood-Kin of that landmass or their Plains-Kin counterparts. That would be bad for trade and none of us Erians are fans of slavery or mass genocide. I personally would rather conquer both nations, install rulers with a shred of sanity and plenty of humility. But that can wait until after I purify Eria of all the little shits I can.

I am actually sitting in on one of those meetings right now. I am sitting right next to dad while Saran and Gabriel take their seats. We’ve been waiting for them for the past few minutes, but that’s just because we got here early. My father was first to speak, waiting until after Gabriel had gotten into a comfortable position with his prosthetics.

“Now then, let's start with the status of our economics. Tor, have you completed your estimates on how the war in the west will affect trade?” Dad

The Stone-Kin nodded.

“We’ve mostly been selling them raw materials for healing poultices, and then shipments of weapons and parts for siege equipment that the Clans have been forging. Saran has already been preparing to place naval escorts for the merchants guild, but I doubt that will be as useful now with the Principalities getting involved. They have sizeable mercenary fleets so we won’t be able to rely on the fact that Alliance and Council fleets will be completely focused on one another. The chances that they will assault our convoys under the guise of raiders is quite high.” Tor

My dad sighs and pinches the bridge of his nose.

“So we’ll have to cut off trade with the entire area.” Kelleran

Huh.

“Is there a map I could take a look at?” Cecilia

Dad clacks his cane on the ground twice, and waits for a second. One of the new servants comes out a second later, and looks slightly nervous as he bows his head, waiting for orders.

“Go retrieve a map from the cartographers for lady Cecilia.” Dad

“Y-yes milord!” Servant

He then starts backing away before turning around to open the door and leave altogether.

“Am I going to have to deal with everyone being so scared of me?” Cecilia

Gabriel just chuckles.

“Just wait until the rumors start. Everyone is scared to hell of me, apparently I can control anyone who crosses me, and lost my legs by making a deal with demons.” Gabriel

Saran nods his head.

“Apparently I’m nothing more than a bloodthirsty animal who dueled all his bodyguards to the death, killing every one slowly whilst I delighted in their screams.” Saran

I look at both incredulously, earning a laugh out of my father. This is going to suck. The servant returned soon after, apparently they had a map stashed nearby. He comes before me and bows deeply while holding the map in front of me. I go to reach for it, but realize quite quickly that he overestimated my reach. He realizes quickly after and shuffles forwards, coming just close enough for me to snatch the map out of his hands.

“You may leave.” Cecilia

He then moves quickly towards the door and disappears through it. I take a look at the map in my hands, and a thought comes to me.

“And we aren’t trying to go through the city states because?” Cecilia

“They’re assholes.” Gabriel

Dad chooses to elaborate for him.

“They insist that every ship that goes through their lands has to be “escorted” which involves getting a new escort every time they enter a new territory, and since they don’t “coordinate” well with their brothers, this usually ends with the ship’s crew dying of starvation because the Sea-Kin drive off fish schools and the ship isn’t allowed to resupply without paying ridiculous prices for food, and the other ships commandeering the ship claiming scavengers rights.” Dad

“I thought they were supposed to be merchant states?” Cecilia

This doesn’t sound conducive to commerce.

“Outside nations trade with the city states on the rim, they trade with the cities in the center, and the central cities trade with the Toca.” Tor

So they just don’t trust outsiders, I guess I can understand that.

“Reason why their center states are supremacists.” Gabriel

Never mind.