Aisha contained herself long enough to be escorted back to the palace by Thornby and Sera. His presence ultimately did nothing for her safety, as Miss Lynnfield could cut down any rogue the city had to offer, but he wouldn’t hear otherwise and accompanied them across the dark city. He refused to be anything less than a gentleman, for as he said, “I was just your interlocutor and now I will be one of the fifty captains. How could I, Captain Thornby, be anything less than a gentleman?”

Aisha returned the decorum with all that she could muster. She smiled and curtseyed and wished him the best. She even agreed to meet with him once more, once matters were settled. She nearly overdid it, under the eyes of the maid staff of Raymi’s palace, for her heart was racing and her mind bounded with the overflowing success she had stumbled into.

When the door shut between her and the romantic, the facade shattered. She grabbed onto Sera and Sera grabbed onto her. “Wine,” she declared, all the tension spilling through her.

“Wine?” Sera responded, nodding a few times.

“Wine!” And like school girls they raced to the cellar. They even took the maid with them, barely explaining themselves as they charged through halls and into the cellars. They snatched up candles and laughed, gliding over the steps and into the cool recesses of storage. The serving girl had to guide them the last way, much at their pushing and urging, but they rewarded the maid with scant explanations and a cup of her own.

“We did it!” Aisha declared as the bottle of red sloshed about in her hand, half empty for their tankards.

“To backdoor politics!” Sera declared, thrusting her mug to the ceiling as she cackled.

“Hooray?” the maid offered and she sipped her glass hesitantly as the two other girls slammed most of their drink.

Aisha spun about as the wine warmed her belly and then she grabbed hold of Sera once more. “Even Lucius couldn’t have pulled that off better.”

“It was outrageous, really,” the lady knight said.

“I think you should pick one of the drawing rooms to drink in,” the maid said, but she was clueing in quickly to the act of listening and learning.

Thus, they burst into an unused study in the guest wing. Up in the third floor of the palace, they could almost hear the marching of the rooftop guards. It was so high that the palace was able to have an open window from which they could look at the city. It was barred of course, but could be opened for a breeze as they giggled and poured more wine for each other.

It didn’t take long for Sera to clear her throat and get to the hard topic at hand. “So, that captain is smitten with you.”(1)

Aisha flinched like she had been caught in the night. “I have no control over that. I wasn’t even putting on my charm.”

“Just because you weren’t trying to woo him like one of your barfly saps, one of these sun-crazed Giordanans, doesn’t mean you weren’t pushing his buttons. You know?”

“Well, if I was, how can you say, I mean how can you imply that I had any hand in it? I had no such intention.”

“Oh?” Sera responded, cracking a new grin. “You’re just the innocent girl who first seduced a nobleman and then, when that noblemen needs help, you didn’t use your womanly prowess to secure him his help?”

Aisha scowled. “I did no such thing! Besides, he’s too old. All my life I’ve been in danger of my father marrying me off for money. You think I’d be interested in an older man now?”

“Hmm, so a younger man is more your speed? It’s a good thing Lucius doesn’t have any younger brothers I guess.”

Aisha retaliated, leaning in towards Sera, the two of them upon a lounging sofa. “I think,” she said, precariously holding up her wine still. “That you’re just projecting your own tastes onto me. I think you find him mysterious and tall and competent. I think you’re the one looking at him as something to be wooed away from the sea, for him to give up his passion for the world for only a passion for you. You want those flinty eyes to only have room for you. Don’t think I don’t know how cloistered girls think, I was practically raised in a temple and I have to imagine your knight order has similarities to say the least.”

Sera had recoiled, sliding away from Aisha as she went on, which only invited the drunk girl further on. “Oh? You think you know what the White Gold Order was like?”

“People are the same all over,” Aisha said, and she had to slap a hand onto the couch to balance herself.

The scene made an immense impression upon the serving girl with them. The tangle of legs at one end. How Aisha’s hair drifted down across Sera’s chest. How both of them were flushed in the face, perhaps not just from alcohol. Their breathless accusations nearly left them panting for air. It awoke a fire in that girl, and before the year was even out, she had stopped working as a serving girl and become a novelist. Her first patron was Felicia vi Raymi, and her career exploded from there in the hushed whispers.

Of course, nothing happened between Aisha and Sera, no matter what rumors spread. The actual truth was Lord Raymi caught up with them after his duties ended for the night. A man such as him, far from his own family and much distressed by the tensions of politic and war, could hardly be blamed for seeking the company of women, though not of the intimate variety of course. As such, he intruded upon their discussion at just such a time as Aisha was brushing her hair behind her ear. Shock became fluster and both women scrambled back to their seats as if cold water had been thrown upon them to drive out the alcohol.

“There are bedrooms, you know,” he said, not moving from the entry of the room.

Aisha cleared her throat. “That wasn’t what it looked like. She was teasing me.”

“That’s true,” Miss Lynnfield said, with a nod. “Miss Canta doesn’t seem to be used to having men fall for her.”

“I am too!” the redhead shot back. “The difference now is that I’m already spoken for. I’m not hiding behind my father’s reputation.”

Raymi strolled in and took a seat. “And this happened while at the taverns and bars? During one of your recruitment drives?”

With a sigh, Aisha composed herself and said, “Are you familiar with a Captain Thornby?”

After a moment of stroking his beard, which had grown out considerably since the attack on Rackvidd, Raymi said, “I believe I am. He was in the initial conquest fleet of Giordana. The eastern flotilla if I recall. His ship was destroyed in a storm.”

Sera snorted. “Maybe he’s not a very good captain then.”

“On the contrary, there was nothing he could do about it. He had taken refuge in a friendly harbor and the storm was simply so strong it overran the port. Dozens of ships were scuttled like that. Sometimes the goddesses throw luck so bad at aman there’s nothing that can be done about it.”

Aisha asked, “But, is he a good captain?”

“As good as could be expected, I think. Why? Will he be taking up your man’s war?”

She nodded. “And you aren’t mad that we’re doing this? Taking away assets?”

The old man snorted, a much more impressive noise of disgust than Sera had conjured up. “I can’t see that it matters much. We’ve been given contradictory orders and only my direct retainers will sail out with me. The problem is Jumeaux and Puerto Vida. They say they still wish to be our vassal states, and that will be all well and good if that’s true, but nobody trusts them while the bishop is away. The king wants to use the river as logistical support should there be a war in the central kingdoms, but forcing a fight at Puerto Vida might provoke an uprising too soon. We’re in pointless tension, if you ask me.”

“Well, if all goes well in the Misty Isles, we will at least clear up one frustration for you.”

Raymi nodded and whispered to the maid. She scurried off to fetch him a drink as he said, “Yes, getting rid of those pirates will be a relief from everyone’s mind. It’s a near impossible task however. The cannons are the real solution, in my mind. The Aillesterrans can’t get within eyesight of us now, and we’ve started equipping some of the war ships with the ley cannons. We’ll be able to sink them without fire or ramming. The naval advantages are unprecedented! It’s like we have catapults the size of a single man.”

“Sometimes, a single man makes all the difference.”

Raymi grinned and sat forward in his chair. With his elbows on his knees, he met Aisha’s gaze. “You know, the Lady Solhart has been making inquiries. She sends messenger birds every week trying to reach Lucius.”

Aisha stiffened in her seat, a change immediately noticed by the maid when she returned with distilled wine for her lord.(2) “Surely, she is aware that if she wishes to reach her son that she needs to send her messages to Aliston?”

Raymi sipped the strengthened liquor. “Yes, it’s not as though she has to go to the middle of the desert to find him… anymore. But, instead, she’ll be sending her daughter to meet with him.”

“Isn’t that unusual? She’s the heir, isn’t she?”

“It would be more unusual if the heir never saw the world at all. Are you implying it would somehow be dangerous to visit her own brother’s domain?”

“Actually, yes. Weren’t we just discussing the ongoing problem with pirates?”

“Surely her own brother can keep her safe.”

“He didn’t feel that he could keep me safe.”

“I suppose I should write back about the danger then, shouldn’t I? I might be able to forestall her arrive some more weeks,” Raymi said, his gaze on the amber drink.

Aisha’s gaze narrowed. Her mind was murky with drink, but keen enough. “That would be of great aid, my lord. You know, protecting one’s daughter is a very important thing. Her safety, and her dignity too. Lucius was the one who stood up for your daughter’s dignity not too long ago.”

Raymi froze. His gaze flicked back to her. No one made a noise for a moment. “I think it’s getting later than I realized. I’ll send the message in the morning. I imagine, however, that she will come down regardless. When the war does begin, travel will become that much more difficult. I think what you should hope for is that Lucius wraps up this business with the pirates before then. I wish you the best with the merchants, Miss Canta.” He rose from his seat, downed his liquor, and left with a short order to the maid.

The girl hung her head and turned back to Aisha and Sera. Meekly, she said, “I’ve been instructed to show you back to your rooms for the night.”

Both of them winced and grumbled, but retired rather than put up a fuss. Aisha went to sleep that night wondering whether her diplomacy had helped or hurt the matter, or if perhaps she was underestimating Raymi. The man seemed to know that Lucius was not who he said he was, but she didn’t know what kind of ambition the lord of Rackvidd held.

The last thing she would have expected arrived the next morning. With her barely dressed and her head pounding from wine, her lawyer arrived to handle the contracts.

A hard subject for them at least. This of course cemented the fantastical musings within her mind.