“Your form is looking much better than it did yesterday.” I jump and look over at the door, grateful that Nicholas waited until Laeman and I finished our most recent spar before he spoke – I might otherwise have ended up with a hole poked in me. Or perhaps not – it’s clear that Laeman’s Dexterity and speed are far above my own. He might have been able to react in time to avoid maiming me.

  “Thanks,” I say absently, scrutinising him for any indications of whether the hours since he left have gone well or not. By this point, it’s halfway through the afternoon – I got my nap in after lunch, interrupted after a couple of hours by Laeman coming to half-ask, half-demand that I join him in the training hall again.

  But now that Nicholas is back, I’m pretty sure that my training session is over. Though he’s not revealing much with his expression, he looks very slightly less tense than this morning. That’s got to be a good sign, right?

  “How did it go?” I ask him anxiously, sending a pulse of Flesh-Shaping through my body to once more remove the sweat from myself and my clothes. Absently, I note Laeman bowing to Nicholas, and hastily dip my head briefly in the way he indicated that I should greet him as the lord of my House. I still don’t like it, but I do understand his reasoning: that I should get used to using the correct forms of address in private so I won’t slip in public.

  Nicholas sends me an approving look at my deference, something that shouldn’t make me feel as satisfied as it does, and moves closer to me even as Laeman retreats to the wall of the room.

  “Well enough,” he tells me and I let out a sigh of relief. “I had to make a few concessions, but the possibility of it being a capital offence was ruled out fairly early on in the proceedings. The rest became merely jockeying for advantage as the other Lords and Ladies attempted to see just how many sanctions they could get away with imposing on our House.”

  “And how far was that?” I ask warily. While I might not exactly feel like a ‘Titanbend’ at this point, adoption into the family notwithstanding, the truth is that I’ve pinned our own success on the success of Nicholas’ House, so whatever affects him affects me and mine too.

  “Further than I’d like, but not as far as more than one of the others would have preferred,” Nicholas responds vaguely. “That is to say, business as usual for the council.”

  I eye Nicholas, letting my unamused expression speak volumes.

  “Come, let us adjourn to the parlour, and I’ll explain more over a cup of tila.”

  “Fine,” I agree. I have to hope that ‘tila’ is something like ‘tea’ or ‘coffee’, but the truth is it could be something completely different. Hopefully it’s something palatable – not everything I’ve tasted so far in this world has been.

  I’m going to another room with Nicholas, I say to Bastet and Ninja, the only two who decided to join me in another training session after our nap together. Fenrir, Sirocco, and Lathani remained in the bedroom though the bird is starting to get restless at not having seen the sun in almost a full day by this point. Do you want to come with me or would you rather stay here?

  There’s a beat of silence and the two raptorcats look at each other. I sense them communicating, partly through the Bond network, partly through the means that any raptorcat communicates with another of its species.

  We will come, Bastet announces a moment later and the two felines stalk towards me, their talons clicking quietly on the wooden flooring. Nicholas eyes them briefly, then turns away to the door, striding towards it. I follow closely on his heels.

  Since the parlour – or, as I’d call it, the sitting room – is close by, it’s only a minute or two later before we’re settled, the two raptorcats relaxing on one of the sofas and being careful with their claws. Sarran brings in a steaming pot of what looks like tea a few moments later and pours us each a cup.

  I take mine with a quick smile of thanks and sniff it with a hint of misgiving. I consider the scent for a moment and then sip the liquid cautiously. My hesitation is more about the taste than the temperature – though the tea is almost boiling, my fire affinity gives me enough resistance to heat that I don’t need to worry too much about burning my mouth. Anyway, I could just heal it if I do.

  To my relief, the taste isn’t that bad. It’s far more earthy than I’m used to in my tea – I tend to prefer the more fruity taste of Earl Grey – but it’s not too bad. I look up to see Nicholas eyeing me with a hint of amusement.

  “I suppose it’s a good thing that I’m introducing you to tila while we are alone. Your reaction would make it very obvious that you’re an outsider – or have grown up under a rock. There are few Moriaxar who haven’t tasted tila, though few have access to such high quality root as this.”

  “It’s a root, then?” I clarify. That would justify the earthy taste, for sure.

  “It is,” Nicholas agrees, “and one which tends to energise even in its poorest quality. A root like this, however, does more than just energise.” He grimaces slightly. “After the day I’ve had so far – and what is still to come – I needed something to perk me up a little.” Then he eyes me. “And if that training session is anything to go by, you probably do too.”

  I would ask what he’s talking about except that I can already feel it – a buzz going through my body and reverberating all the way to my fingertips. It feels like an odd mixture between alcohol and coffee – energising as much as it relaxes the different parts of my body. I feel the fog of ongoing tiredness in my mind clear, my thoughts becoming sharper and more coherent.

  “Does this give temporary points to Intelligence, or something?” I ask him curiously. Nicholas gives a short bark of laughter.

  The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  “Not quite, though there are potions which can do such. This is far less directly magical, and is therefore allowed where potions which affect the attributes are not. In competitions, for example. Or duels. However, a good cup of tila root is almost as good as one of those potions, yes.”

  “I’ll have to get a supply, then,” I remark, wondering idly what River might be able to discover from it – or use it for. That reminds me that she’s not here and I feel a brief pang at her absence – though we’re not attached at the hip, it’s been rare in the last few months for us to be far apart for long. I miss having her steady presence with me.

  Perhaps feeling my emotions make a turn for the morose, Bastet descends from the sofa and moves over to sit next to my legs, rubbing her head on my knee. I scratch behind her ear tufts and immediately feel a little better. River might not be here, but several of my closest companions are. Thankfully.

  Feeling more centred, I decide to broach the topic we came in here to discuss.

  “So, what exactly happened in that meeting?” I ask Nicholas bluntly. He eyes me and then sighs and leans back into his own soft cushions.

  “Mostly a lot of back and forth that went nowhere fast,” Nicholas admits, “but that’s what always happens when the council is convened, unfortunately. There is just too much history between the six of us – and our Houses – for any discussion between us not to include sniping as a prominent part. Even Ionith, King though he is, can be guilty of getting involved.” Nicholas gives me a weary look. “Though he thinks of himself as an impartial observer, I warn you now that he most definitely isn’t. Still, we did manage to come to some conclusions – finally.” He probably catches a hint of the distaste that I’m sure is on my face. “I know you like speaking plainly, but, as I said last night several times, that’s not how the game is played,” he tells me, a little sharply. “Trying to play it like that will make you vulnerable, and by consequence, our House as well. It’s tiresome, I agree, but if I hadn’t played the game well during today’s session, House Titanbend would have suffered far more sanctions than it will in reality.”

  “Which are what?” I ask again, not arguing with Nicholas. I can’t. He’s right – I prefer speaking plainly. And he’s had enough experience to know what he’s talking about when it comes to dealing with other lords. But knowing and doing are two different things. Needless to say, I’m a little nervous about my debut into society here. Especially when so much rides on me being able to ‘play the game’. I wasn’t great at office politics when it was ‘only’ my job at stake; here, the stakes are so much higher. I can’t fail. Not with all my Companions depending on me.

  “To summarise our discussion, it was decided by majority vote that Gateways are not the same as rifts, but that their use should be regulated nonetheless – several of the other Lords or Ladies raised inconveniently logical points about access to other worlds being potentially dangerous in terms of knowledge, diseases, or beings brought over. I managed to avoid you being obliged to submit yourself for close examination of your physical and magical features,” that relieves me intensely, “but do not doubt that there will be many eyes on you for as long as we’re at the palace, and most likely elsewhere as well.”

  “That was going to happen anyway as your heir, right?” I point out. House Titanbend seems to be impactful enough that people would be watching them – much as people on Earth might watch the publicly known owner of a multi-billion dollar international business.

  “Of course, but your background has given them even more curiosity – and perhaps more justification in seeking your removal from the playing field,” Nicholas warns. I get it – those who want to be rid of me because I’m Nicholas’ heir will be looking for any justification to blame their desire on the fact that I’m from another world.

  “What’s with that, anyway?” I ask with a hint of confusion. “I thought we were supposed to pretend that I was from some backwater or something? Why did you outright tell them that I’m from a different world?”

  “Within my original plans, you would have had more than two weeks to become settled in this world before you’d have been forced to interact with other nobles in this setting,” Nicholas explains. “In that time, you would have been able to learn enough of this world to plausibly carry it off. Any oddities with your manner or speech would have been blamed on you being originally of common stock and thereby not up to noble standards.” I feel like I should be offended, but Nicholas just says it all calmly and matter-of-factly, as if of course that’s the way the world works. “However, with you having had such little time to adapt to the world and with the fact that the Gateway had already been detected…I decided that it was better to be upfront. There are other consequences to admitting the truth, of course, one of which is that you may never be fully accepted, though hopefully that won’t be an issue if you do well enough in the competition, but the consequences of the truth being discovered later would be far worse.”

  “I see,” I murmur when it seems like Nicholas is done. I don’t know how to feel about this – although in some ways it’s a relief that I won’t have to pretend to be something I’m not, on the other hand, if I never fit in here either…. I push the thought aside. I never fit in properly in the samuran village either, but I managed to build relationships there and was accepted as someone influential and important. Why should this world be any different? “So what were the actual sanctions, then? Having more eyes on me can’t be the only one.”

  “No,” Nicholas agrees. “The biggest demand was financial. Though the council recognised that there was no law directly governing my actions, they decided that my actions were irresponsible enough to have potentially caused significant consequences for my region and country, so have fined my House a not insignificant amount.” I frown.

  “Wait, they’re punishing you…for something that didn’t happen?”

  “Essentially, yes,” Nicholas sighs. “But I accepted it because it gave me more leverage to avoid other possible sanctions, such as poking and prodding you within an inch of your life.”

  “Thank you?” I tell him uncertainly.

  “It is not only for you,” Nicholas tells me bluntly. “Too much information being known about my heir would weaken us both in the competition and in general. Knowledge on one’s strengths and weaknesses is best kept to those one trusts with one’s life – as often that’s exactly what it comes down to.”

  I nod – much as I dislike it, his words make sense. They also dovetail perfectly with Kalanthia’s reticence to share knowledge about her Energy channels for exactly the same reason.

  “Other than that sanction, I have been obliged to make a few concessions which some of the other Lords and Ladies have been attempting to gain for a while – nothing that you need to worry about at this time. And, most frustratingly for me, I must hand over all of my research on Gateways to the palace Grand Sorcerer without recompense,” he grumbles. “All that time spent will now not earn my House a copper…. But I suppose that I wouldn’t have been able to publish it if the truth had not come out. The last which truly affects you is that, before we go, I must present you as my heir to all the Houses currently in the palace.”

  “What, individually?” I ask, wondering how many cups of tila I’ll be drinking in the near future.

  “No. There’s a ball planned for the festival day of Hunter in four days’ time – I’ll present you then. And, of course, once we have entered you as a competitor, the King will want to meet with you, as he has with all other competitors so far.”

  Did I suddenly become a Disney princess or something? I ask myself, slightly hysterically.

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