Ever since the attack on the city, ever since Barry had shown up and vanished, Alice had felt something deep in her gut. The Lord had made claims that it was impossible there were some group of independent maiden rebels in the area, let alone one with a member as powerful as the one that had smashed through the gates.

His claims had continued on, telling that it was doubly impossible Barry would be with such a group. Only a coincidence that the two would show up within minutes of one another in the tiny city.

The knights had not been convinced. They made it clear, they suspected a potential attack, and would only take volunteers. The goal being to reach Balet and drop them off before heading back with reinforcements to get the rest. Over half of the group had been left behind in Seledo, and now, each of the carriages had two knights within.

The inside of the carriages were supposedly protected from detection.

A trap.

There were far less knights outside than what a simple glance might reveal.

Alice still wasn’t sure why she’d volunteered. Because Helga had given every indicator she wanted to help the knights? Because May had volunteered first? Now she was stuck in a carriage with two armored knights that were paying a lot of attention to the outside of the carriage and very little to Alice or May.

It was suicidal, risky, dangerous, dumb. The carriage wouldn’t protect them from a determined maiden. Much less from a powerful one. It would buy time at most in case something did happen.

But then again, Alice did have an idea of something she thought might be necessary to do by getting to Balet earlier than the rest. Earlier than Miss Dodson at the very least.

“I know that you wouldn’t consider speaking ill of the Earl.” She broke the silence, glancing at the two knights. “Though I am curious as to his public service policies.”

The knights shared a glance, a quiet moment of wordless conversation before one of them turned their focus to Alice. “I’m not sure what information you need, my Lady.”

“Public service policies, the… are there any projects meant to help those that don’t have the resources to help themselves?” Alice explained. “I’d heard of the relocation program from the king, about those who lost their villages to the ferals being brought to the larger cities.”

“The Earl guarantees any human woman is given a fair chance to join the Academy.” The knight nodded quickly. “A month of tutoring and the standard test. Those who pass can join without needing to pay for the entry fee.”

Alice hid the grimace, nodding along. “And what about maidens?”

“The elders are given a stipend to own maidens if they go over the usual two. It’s very rare for a maiden to not be able to find someone to bond to, though, since only a dumb girl wouldn’t have several emergency options at hand.” She shrugged. “Worst case scenario is a maiden that’s bonded to someone that doesn’t own her. Such circumstances tend to resolve themselves easily enough, however.”

“No drama?”

The knight smiled slightly, the gesture invisible under her helm, but clear in her voice. “Only in the romance stories.”

“There are some horror stories about destroyed villages and villagers unable to bond everyone that survived.” The second knight spoke, keeping her head looking out the window through the visor in her helm. “Those are always… horror stories, exaggerated beyond measure.”

“How?”

“Humans tend to only be able to bond ten or so maidens, unless they happen to share some noble blood. The Earl himself can bond seventy or so. And there are rumors that the king can bond up to two hundred.” The knight’s shoulders tensed. “When a village is overrun by ferals, if too many humans die, there might be too many maidens to be bonded.”

“Oh, so they…”

“No, of course not.” The knight shook her head. “In such situations what happens is that the maidens rotate, removing their collars and breaking the bond so that their sister may remain tame. Since it usually takes a week, they can sustain themselves this way… even if it is tense.” She sighed deeply. “The real horror is when the collar is broken or damaged. Unless someone has a spare…”

“So maidens carry spares?”

“If they or their owner can afford it.” The knight patted her belt. “I have my green and black collars right here. They’re old, but useful in an emergency.”

“So normally they sell them.”

“Or pass them on to their daughters.”

Alice’s back straightened a little, thinking back to the worn blue collar Helga had insisted to use for herself. It had clearly held emotional weight for the Valkyrie, and there was little doubt how much care she put on making sure it remained in as good condition as something so old could be kept.

“What about inheritance?” The question came from May, the young woman speaking up for the first time in the day.

The knights shared a look. “From mother to daughter?”

May nodded.

“Legally speaking everything we have is owned by our human, but only monsters would keep a maiden from being able to give their daughters something useful or important to take with them.”

“What if the human dies?”

“If there’s no next of kin, it becomes property of the immediate overseer of the land. If you owned a house in Seledo, it would have gone to the Lord, even if it’s under the Earl’s protection since he would be the immediate overseer. Nobles tend to ensure that whoever buys the maidens also has to take ownership of the property. But whoever buys the property often will only be allowed to if they also take ownership of the maidens.”

“And what if they can’t bond any more maidens?” Alice quickly brought up.

“Then they hire someone to do so in their stead.”

The answer felt easy enough, but Alice bit her lip in consideration. What if someone lost everything and only had their maidens and enough gold for a house, but the only ones came with maidens of their own? What happened if a city had too many maidens and too little humans?

She thought back to the time limit. They had to find a way to pay off the kingdom so they wouldn’t be forced into either military academy or standard conscription. There were some ideas, but… how viable were they? It seemed plausible enough in a large enough city, but would they be able to bond as many maidens as she suspected they’d be able to? Would the Earl…-?

Something gave her thoughts pause. A flicker of movement outside.

Alice turned her head to look at the forest and frowned.

“GET DOWN!”

The knights had moved so fast, so impossibly fast. Metal gloved hands shoved Alice and May down to the floor. Suddenly they weren’t just kneeling there but it was as if their whole bodies had been glued to the cloth covered wood. Power thrummed all around them.

The realization that it was a barrier of some sort came a fraction of a second before the whole carriage lurched.

The world became a blur of movement.

They were under attack.