“Will this room have enough space for all of us?” I ask her a little anxiously. There are a lot of us, after all, and some – Kalanthia – are particularly big. But I don’t want to sleep separately from my Bound, not in a new place like this. Linde appears a little relieved at the question.

  “Yes, sir,” she replies brightly. “Lord Nicholas ordered the staff to make sure of it. We’ve even picked one of the downstairs suites which opens out onto the gardens so that your Bound can enter and leave without needing to travel through the house.” Her face twists, though I’m not sure it’s with horror or distaste at the thought. I can’t help raising an eyebrow. If she’s concerned about my companions walking through a house, she wouldn’t last a day in the forest.

  Then I chide myself for my thoughts – I probably wouldn’t have reacted all that much better if someone had wanted to bring their cat, dog, monkey, and horse through my apartment building on Earth. I’ve had a year to get used to it. Though it does make me wonder about Nicholas’ Bound – he’s indicated that he’s a Tamer too so where are his companions?

  I make a mental note to ask – the way he treats his Bound is probably an important thing for me to know as it will be a good indication of his character.

  Instead of making for the front entrance as before, we come out of the gardens near a large window. It’s about my height in width and twice that in height. Impressively, it’s made of two single pieces of glass – clearly they have some advanced glass-making techniques that rival those of my original home.

  The window is closed with white curtains in front of them so I can’t see inside.

  “My lord, this is the entrance for your Bonded,” Linde tells me cheerfully. “If it pleases you, I will take you through the house so you can find your way in there. Your Bonded can remain here until we can open the windows from the inside.”

  I raise an eyebrow at her.

  “Wouldn’t it have been a good idea to open the windows before we arrived?” I ask her a little sardonically. She blushes slightly and looks down.

  “My apologies, my lord. We were not sure of your preferences, so decided it was better to keep it closed until you decided you wanted it open.”

  “I see,” I respond neutrally. I turn to my Bound. Looks like you’ll need to wait here for a little bit. Sorry about that.

  We could probably use Shaping to get inside, Happy suggests, eyeing the windows. They appear to have some metal components to them.

  She has a point. I cast a gaze over the window frames myself. Though they appear to be made out of wood, the hinges and latch are most likely metal. It would be easy enough to gain entry by reshaping the lock. But then I shake my head. I should probably talk to Nicholas before I go around reshaping his house on him. Besides, there could easily be magic involved in the latch as well as a physical locking system – in a world where magic is at least known, if not common, it seems likely that the house of a ‘Great Lord’ would have protections against such means of breaking and entering.

  We’ll play their game for now, I decide in the end, making Happy click in dissatisfaction. You can check the windows out as much as you like though, as long as you don’t do anything to them, I promise her, having a feeling I know exactly why she’s annoyed. Sure enough, she brightens again and sends me a flick of gratitude across the Bond. Is anyone hungry? I ask – if so, I’d better get some food organised for them.

  I receive back a number of negative responses and a couple of non-commital ‘I could eat’ replies. It’s not urgent, then, but I should probably make sure I know how to get food in this house.

  “Alright Linde, let’s go,” I say to her. She’s been waiting patiently, only a slightly twitching finger any indication that she is keen to move.

  We head back to the main entrance. I’m not completely alone – Sirocco comes to land on my shoulder and Aingeal has tucked himself into my collar again. Linde gives the bird a cautious look but doesn’t seem to have noticed the fire elemental. Still, she doesn’t complain – maybe the main complaint she had against the rest of my Bound coming inside was the concern about muddy paws walking across marble floors.

  There are still two men on guard at the entrance. This time, they both salute by clashing their spears against their chest armour and the one on the right greets me.

  “My lord!”

  “Uh, hi?” I respond completely awkwardly, but feeling terribly off-balance. The two armour-clad guards don’t respond to my clumsy greeting – probably just as well. Linde barely even pauses so I open up my stride to draw abreast of her again. I feel like I’ve ignored the guards and I don’t like it, but at the same time, I doubt I’m supposed to be getting into a conversation with them every time I go in or out of the doors. Maybe I can just avoid the front door as much as possible.

  Stolen story; please report.

  How does Nicholas deal with this, or is he just used to it? Probably the latter. And how does everyone seem to know that I’ll most likely be his heir – pending my agreement on allowing the goddess of Binding to preside over us?

  I decide to ask Linde about it.

  “Lord Nicholas informed the steward, head butler, guard captain, and housekeeper. They told the rest of us.” Linde responded matter-of-factly.

  “And what, exactly, did he say?” I ask cautiously. She sends me a questioning glance, but then returns her gaze to the route ahead again. Once more, we’re walking through dark-panelled hallways with stone-tiled floors – this place must be cold in winter time. Periodically using Inspect, I notice the same colours as before, though there are far fewer gold-haloed items down this hallway.

  “That he has found a worthy heir, and that we must treat his new heir with all the respect due to his – that is, your – position, my lord.” Well, that might account for her flat refusal to call me by ‘Markus’ and the nervousness that she’s been trying to hide with cheer. She hasn’t mentioned anything about the agreement being pending, though – is Nicholas that confident that I’ll agree? Perhaps he has reason to be.

  Ultimately, it’s not so important, I guess, except in that he’s clearly being serious about this heirship. I just add it to the list of what I know about Nicholas and then put the thought to one side.

  “I see. Linde, what can you tell me about deities here?”

  “Deities, my lord? Oh, you mean the gods and goddesses?” She looks startled at the question and I abruptly wonder whether I should be proclaiming my lack of knowledge so blatantly. Well, too late now.

  “Yes. How many of them are there, how do you know that they exist?”

  She gives a sharp, incredulous laugh and then puts her hand to her mouth as if she didn’t intend to let it out.

  “Excuse me, my lord. It’s just…I’ve never heard anyone wonder how we know they exist. They just are. There are lots, though not all of them are officially recognised or given celebration days – only twenty-eight actually. And some of them…” She shivers as if not wanting to think about them. “Well, suffice it to say following certain deities is punishable by law – you’ll want to be careful not to accidentally get sucked into one of their cults.” Then she seems to realise that she’s offering the heir of a noble House advice and, while I’m perfectly happy to hear it, she clears her throat and looks nervous again. “They communicate mostly with their followers, from what I understand. I’ve been lucky enough to have received a response to an offering I made at Healer’s temple, even though I’m not one of her followers. I’ve even seen one – Warriors – when he came to bless a champion who had won the Games.” As she speaks, I hear a hint of awe creep into her voice.

  “Right…. And is it easy to…offend a god or goddess?”

  “Well, it depends on the god or goddess. Some are very sensitive. Others are more tolerant. Though they all have certain things that make them angry. Like Healer – she hates it if people use her gifts to harm others.”

  I’d better make sure she never finds out what I did to Lay-on-Hands, then, I note to myself. Maybe this is why I had to make the choice about whether to keep or evolve Lay-on-Hands when I used it to cause an aneurysm in the fire salamander.

  “And what happens if a god or goddess is offended?” Linde turns a fearful look on me.

  “My lord, you do not want to offend a god. Or goddess. Didn’t your parents tell you about how Hunter reacted to one who had dared to suggest that not all weapons could be used in hunting? He turned him into a beast and then set a hunt on him! The stories vary about which beast the person was turned into, but they all agree that he died horribly – torn apart by the beasts of the hunters. Or the story of the lord who said that servants didn’t deserve a patron god? He ended up begging his own servants to put him out of his misery.” She sounds rather satisfied at the last – I suppose that story hits closer to home than the other since she’s a servant herself. But my suspicions are confirmed – these sound far too similar to the tales of the pagan gods on Earth for my liking.

  “And the Goddess of Binding, is she known to be impartial? When adjudicating agreements, at least.” Linde gives me an odd look.

  “That’s something that her priests are very firm about, to my understanding. I cannot profess personal knowledge of her, my lord, not like Lord Nicholas,” she says his name with a small hint of awe, “but I believe that she cares nothing for the contents of the agreement, only that it is adhered to by both parties and that the binding is made willingly. But Lord Nicholas would be a far better person to ask than me – I think he even has the Goddess’s favour,” She whispers the last as if it's something amazing. And maybe it is – what do I know?

  “Alright, thanks Linde.” I don’t know how trustworthy Linde’s words are, but she doesn’t seem to be faking her reactions so I don’t think Nicholas has coached her to answer in a particular way. Since she’s saying much the same as Nicholas did about the Goddess of Binding, it’s more evidence that he wasn’t lying.

  We continue walking through the halls of the manor. The route isn’t hard to memorise – just a few turns and some walking and then we’re stopping in front of a door. I’ve had enough time to find out what I should do if I or one of my Bound is hungry, and to learn that Nicholas will apparently be expecting me for dinner so I suppose the walk was good for something.

  “These are your rooms, my lord,” Linde says, twisting her fingers in her tunic nervously. “If they are not to your satisfaction, please don’t hesitate to make your wishes clear.” With that, she opens the door.

  It’s very gloomy inside due to the closed curtains and I automatically use Inspect just to check for any danger.

  The colours that appear are what I expected – blue that suffuses the walls, floor, and ceiling, and a couple of purple or gold-coloured items. What I wasn’t expecting was the figure obviously waiting for me in the centre of the room. A kneeling figure.

  here!

  here!

  here!

  here