“Markus,” Sarran starts very seriously. “When you invited me to use your given name, was that also an invitation to be as frank with you as I am with Nicholas on occasion?”

  I eye him, a cowardly part of me briefly considering that it would make life so much easier if Sarran feels that he can’t give me a lecture because of our differences in status. Then I push that thought away – it’s unworthy of me.

  Criticism might be painful, but it’s the only way I can get better. And even without Sarran’s emphasis on ‘public’ and ‘confrontational’ I can agree that that escalated further than it should have, in front of far too many eyes. I sigh and nod my head.

  “Go ahead,” I invite with some dread.

  Sarran nods sharply and then crosses his arms over his chest.

  “Might I ask what you thought you would accomplish by accosting Fell in such a way?”

  “Isn’t that obvious?” I respond defensively, matching Sarran’s position. “I saw someone sexually assaulting a woman and wanted to make him stop it! Or are you going to tell me that I should have just walked past because she was a slave?” I glare at him hotly. Because if Sarran, one of Nicholas’ most important servants and friends says that….

  “Many would say that,” Sarran tells me neutrally. I shift in place, grinding my teeth. Sarran sees me becoming agitated and makes their gesture of peace – crossing closed fists at the wrists in front of him and holding it for a long moment before releasing it. “I am not one of them, but the truth is that you are very lucky to have avoided being on the wrong side of the law. Or would you have acted any differently were she to have been Heir Fell’s slave?” His tone rises at the end and his eyebrows lift questioningly.

  I think about it for a moment and realise he’s right. I know that legally it would have been wrong of me to intervene in that case, but were he to have said that she was his slave, I’m not sure I could have just walked away and left them. I didn’t care about the collar around her neck, only that she was a woman being forced to submit to acts that she had clearly not wanted.

  “No,” I admit.

  “No,” Sarran sighs. “Well, fortunately for us in this case, she is a palace slave, and therefore you have not actually broken any laws. Even better, she was not assigned to Heir Fell or House Fell directly, or a valid complaint could be brought against you for that. Although,” he continues thoughtfully, “you could then have counter-complained about him choosing to do it in a public corridor – that’s also rather frowned upon.” He seems to consider it for a moment and then looks back at me. “You might need to counter-complain anyway if Heir Fell decides to take it to court, and, frankly, unless we lean on the judge with House Titanbend’s influence, you’re still likely to be levelled with a fine.”

  “For what?” I demand a little indignantly. “If I’ve understood correctly, Fell didn’t technically have any right to do what he was doing?”

  “No, but you forcefully laid your hands on him. Markus, I don’t know what it was like in the place you came from, but you don’t do that here!” Sarran’s eyes are flashing again. “Physical contact is only at invitation, during a duel, or to provoke a duel! What, by Warrior, were you thinking?”

  “I was thinking that he wasn’t responding to my words, and that I wanted him off her!” I almost shout at him, but then deflate a little. “Honestly, I just reacted,” I admit. And the truth is that how quickly I reach for violence now would probably shock the person I used to be a year ago.

  And if I look at it through the eyes of the HR drone I used to be, I would have been given a warning at the least for physically manhandling one of my colleagues if I’d done that in the corridors at work. Then again, if my colleague had been treating a woman like that, he’d have been issued far more than just a warning. Unless he was high enough in the company to have it pushed under the carpet, that was. But my thoughts digress.

  The fact is that between fighting for my life on a regular basis, the way samurans use physical battle to help settle their differences, and the way I’ve had to physically restrain multiple of my Bound at various points, I’ve learned a new style of interacting. But now I’m in a ‘civilised’ world again, I need to use my words more.

  Sarran eyes me, then he sighs and his shoulders drop.

  “I thought it might be something like that,” he murmurs, his gaze diverting briefly to the wall before returning to meet mine. “And the fact is that ‘just reacting’ is not appropriate in this venomous murans’ nest. ‘Just reacting’ is the way to get yourself, and House Titanbend, in trouble that even Nicholas might not be able to rescue you from.”

  “I get that,” I say, trying not to let my frustration through. “But what could I have done there? He wasn’t listening!”

  “Then you needed to make him listen, but not by physically forcing him away,” Sarran tells me firmly, his eyes fixed steadily on mine. “The first move would have been to allow me to introduce you. As you have seen, the Titanbend name has a great deal of influence, due to both what Titanbends are capable of and what they have done in the past – good and bad. Chances are good that Heir Fell would have backed off then and there. If you had extended your protection by claiming her as your personal palace slave, the situation would have been solved with little rancour – at worst, Heir Fell would have felt angered by your high-handedness, but that is not unexpected from a Great House Heir when speaking to a Lesser House Heir. And you could have even avoided that by inviting Heir Fell to share a cup of tila – the appearance of being in the favour of Heir Titanbend would have far outweighed the annoyance of having his, ah, intentions interrupted. And if, for some reason, Heir Fell didn’t respond to any of those overtures – though I am certain that he would have – there would have been other options based on the influence that House Titanbend has and House Fell does not.”

  The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

  “But I don’t want to lean on the Titanbend name for everything!” I exclaim in frustration.

  “Until you have a personal reputation, you have to lean on the Titanbend name,” Sarran emphasises, his eyes flashing. “And frankly, introducing physical violence has done nothing but make you look like an uncouth barbarian, if you will excuse me saying so. And that in turn has done far more damage to the Titanbend name than anything else you could have done. It would have been better if you’d demanded a duel then and there! Such would have been seen as a drastic overreaction, but at least it would have been within the code of conduct, if only barely. As it is, the only good thing about this situation – if we can even call it that – is that you did not use any Skills and Heir Fell did. You didn’t use any Skills, did you?” he checks abruptly, looking anxious.

  “No.”

  “Thank Luck for that!” he sighs then looks contemplative. “I will have to inform Nicholas about this,” he warns. I nod regretfully – I’d rather expected that but I appreciate the heads up. “This matter is likely to be all over the palace within the next few hours, so it’s possible he’ll have heard of it even before he returns to our wing. But at least if he hears the full story, he’ll be able to take measures to prevent it from negatively impacting his objectives.”

  “You think it could do that?” I ask, a little startled.

  “It depends on how House Fell decides to react. They are not a big or particularly important House, located in Ashbourne under Lady Flameform, but even relatively small influences are influences nonetheless. They have their own alliances and if they choose to marshal that alliance against one of Nicholas’ initiatives, it might cause problems for him.” I feel a sinking in my stomach, my hate of complex politics coming back with a vengeance. “Alternatively,” muses Sarran, “they might try to leverage this situation into gaining a small favour from Nicholas which might be better or worse depending on the favour.” He is silent for a moment and then his eyes focus back on me. “I take it you didn’t cover how to manage such situations last night?”

  “Not really,” I sigh. “It was mostly about bows and various forms of greetings to give and to expect in various contexts, and a little about the basic structure of the Houses.” For example, though I didn’t recognise the name of House Fell, I did recognise Lady Flameform’s name, and I know that she, and the Houses which are within her domain, are often swing votes on propositions that Nicholas puts forward. I can only hope that my actions today haven’t stymied things for him in the future. “Honestly Sarran, I feel more than a little at sea, still. I recognise that the actions I took today were not the best choices, but I wouldn’t have thought of the actions you suggested instead.”

  Sarran nods sympathetically.

  “The palace is a den of murans – there’s a reason Nicholas tries to avoid it as much as possible. But you do need to learn to navigate it without getting spiked. For now, let us accomplish the task we came here to do, and if any other situations occur which we can’t avoid, please give me a chance to head them off before they truly begin, or at least follow my lead a little better. At this point, it would be better for you to be seen as haughty than uncouth.” He sighs. “If it’s possible to achieve that considering the last few flames.”

  “I’ll do my best,” I promise. “And…I’m sorry.” Sarran nods in acknowledgement but doesn’t say anything. A moment later, I feel the Seal drop away. Sarran’s demeanor shifts slightly, his body language and expression changing to reflect the reserved and professional servant of before rather than the frank and chiding teacher he has just been.

  “Thanks everyone,” I mutter, doing my best to not feel too dejected as I pat my Bound. I was just trying to help someone being victimised, but Sarran’s words have made it all too clear that good intentions are not enough. I’ll need to ask Nicholas for some more instruction later so that if this sort of thing occurs again – which it most likely will – then I will have a better idea of how to deal with it without contravening the complex mores of this place.

  I try to remind myself that it’s not much different from what happened when I first encountered the samurans – I had to learn a lot about their culture too. I just need to think back to how many misunderstandings went on between River and me to see that the situation wasn’t all that different. The main difference is that the consequences of misstepping here are so much greater than in the other world.

  Fortunately, in the time that Sarran was lecturing me, the crowd which had gathered to watch the show earlier has mostly dispersed. However, there seems to be someone waiting to speak to me – a woman with golden hair, dusky brown skin, and piercing amber eyes is standing patiently, her hands folded inside her sleeves. I might think she was waiting for someone else except for the fact that her eyes fix themselves directly on me as soon as I emerge from beyond the shield of my Bound.

  I hear a quick and quiet intake of breath from Sarran who’s standing behind me.

  “Lady Goldmine,” he breathes quietly enough that I’m sure I’m the only one able to hear it. “A Great House on our borders with a lot of influence over the trade routes. Be very careful, my lord. You must speak with her or risk giving offence, but say as little as you can.” Seeing as the lady is looking straight at me, I don’t dare respond verbally to him, instead giving a quiet grunt to hopefully communicate that I’ve received his message.

  Then, butterflies fluttering in my stomach, I walk towards the golden-robed woman, Sarran’s lecture about the importance of acting in the right way for the sake of the House rattling around my brain. What little I know about the Houses tells me that offending Lady Goldmine will be significantly more impactful than offending House Fell, and that was bad enough.

  “Lady Goldmine,” I say as soon as we are within conversation distance. I drop into a bow and hope that I’ve remembered the depth correctly. Given that she is the lady of a Great House and I’m merely the heir of one, she outranks me, which is why I speak first. “It is an honour to meet you. May-” which god would work best for this? She’s a merchant or something, right? “-Prosperity be with you.”

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