“... And that's how we wound up with a twenty-three year old Master Alchemist. She says we still need to wait another year for all of the unstable alchemical reagents at the old alchemy lab to subside before we rebuild.” Mira finished her story.

Elaina giggled while Ezra smirked at the story. It seemed that her future husband was many things, but boring was not one of them.

The three of them had spent most of the last hour chatting and catching up, Mira and regaled them with her stories of her and her little brother getting up to all kinds of antics in their palace, including but not limited to, blowing up the alchemy lab experimenting with what was supposed to be an alchemy for beginners set, detonating the library after trying spatial magic for the first time, and the most outrageous tea party that, also, ended in an explosion. Mira always made it out to be her little brother Vincent's fault, but Elaina was starting to wonder...

“Looks like we're almost home!” Mira said, looking out the window in the carriage door.

Elaina looked out the opposite side, watching as the thick forests through which they had been traveling gave way first to fields, and then quickly to cobbled streets and clustered houses, the outskirts of the city.

The carriage slowed as they approached the gatehouse, and Mira opened the side of the carriage. “I just need to clear us through, then next stop, the castle!” Mira hopped out lightly, despite her armor, and walked confidently up to the guards at the door, who were currently conversing with her other knights.

“I have to admit, after hearing her gush about my fiance for the last hour, I am much less nervous and way more excited for this whole thing. It sounds like everything about this family is an adventure.” Elaina said to Ezra, grinning.

Ezra smiled back “Yeah, their family has a bit of the wild still in them. I think it's to do with all the magic forests around. Full of magical beasts and mystical plantlife.”

Elaina considered. “Magical beasts? Are they aggressive?” Ezra looked over to her from where he had been looking through the window at Mira. “Elaina... Of course they are aggressive. Why do you think Mira brought her entire unit of Crystal Guards to accompany us through the woods. “

“Wait that is the entire Crystal Guard? I thought it would have been bigger.” Elaina replided. Ezra looked a little crossly at her. “You skipped reading up on the details of their military, didn't you?” Elaina fidgeted and looked away.

“I.. skimmed it.” She could feel Ezra's gaze boring into her.

Ezra eventually gave up his death stare and swapped to an equally devastating weapon when wielded against his twin, lecturing!

“The kingdom of Ustral relies mainly upon the personal guard of each of it's noble families. Each and every noble is expected to maintain their own personal guard, which is to say an 'elite' fighting force that they are expected to use to defend their lands, and to lead into battle.”

“I heard those air quotes. That sounds... hard to maintain. They don't raise levies or militia?” Elaina replied.

Ezra shook his head. “There have been no accounts of them raising what we would deem to be a levy or militia in nearly a century, though there is a caveat, in that any who retire from a noble's retinue are expected to fight to defend their homes while the rest of the villagers evacuate, but that's not a legal mandate, just more of a cultural thing. In general they have a strong cultural hatred for those who 'force the people they are meant to protect to die for them'.”

Elaina pursed her lips. Her own country mainly used a citizen militia, they didn't have a standing army, instead offering regular pay to those who regularly trained in the training fields they established in each town mostly to train crossbowmen and infantry. Backed up by their knightly orders, which were a dumping ground of noble children who had nothing to inherit and no prospects for marriage, they had done alright in her mind.

“So what do they think of us?” Elaina asked, drawing some unfortunate conclusions from the comparison she as drawing in her head from Ezra's description.

“Oh they HATED us, until about twenty, twenty-five years ago. You see, the old king of Ustral had died, leaving the crown to his then 16 year old daughter, Queen Lillian. When he died, a large faction of the nobles in their kingdom, who had been... let's say corrupted by outsiders, several large merchant houses.” Elaina's expression soured. “You can say bribed Ezra. So a bunch of her own nobles revolted against her, right after her father died, jeez.”

Ezra nodded. “It was because her father died. He died to a curse, and many of the noble houses who revolted believed that she had killed him. The merchant houses had been laying the groundwork for this coup for years.” Elaina smiled. When Ezra got going on a story it was hard to get him to stop.

Ezra continued.”So Queen Lillian was fighting this war all on her own, with just her retinue, the remnants of her fathers retinue, and whatever nobles had sided with her. And she was winning! At least in the beginning Before the merchant houses again intervened. This time with mercenaries. Queen Lillian was a savage fighter, and all of her troops were of the highest quality, but numbers wore them down. She sent requests for aid to all of her father's supposed allies, but once again, the merchant houses had pre-opted her, offering each of them generous bribes to stay out of it. Each ruler took the bribe and indeed stayed out of it. All but one.”

Elaina smiled. “Father.”

Ezra nodded. “Just so. He himself had just come into the crown, after Grandpa abdicated, and when the request for aid came he called up the militia and marched them right to the Capital of Ustral, here, Heartford. The stories say he marched them right into a battle the queen was losing on these very walls.” Ezra cleared his throat and gestured outside to the massive ramparts of stone and living wood. Here and there it looked liked trees grew in and out of the stone, forming braided looping patterns.

Elaina leaned her head onto her shoulder and sighed. “It sounds so romantic!” she said dreamily.

Ezra chuckled. “Apparently father made a bit of a fool of himself, like us he'd been trained more as a courtier than a warrior, but Queen Lillian appreciated it all the same. Between their two armies they managed to rout the enemy forces, and forced a truce. Father then helped Queen Lillian root out the mastermind's behind the plot, the Merchant Houses, in particular, the ones calling themselves 'The Unified Merchant's Guild.'”

Elaina nodded and thought for a second. “Is that why the only merchant''s allowed to import or export goods back home are our own and Ustral's?” Ezra nodded. “Yes, after discovering this both Queen Lillian and father put into place a law that forbade foreign merchants from stepping foot on our soil, aside from Ustral in our home, and our merchants in Ustral, on pain of death. Other merchant houses protested, but it's worked out alright for the last twenty-five years.”

“So the people of Ustral changed their opinions of us after that?” Elaina replied.

“More or less, it took some time, but we have a good thing going now. The, let's say, less affluent noble houses of Ustral send their younger members through our lands on occasion, they go and provide expert training to our militia, and the lesser noble houses of Ustral get a desperately needed income stream. I am not sure if you read the economic reports, but Ingveir has a significantly more robust economy than Ustral, so they are generally quite thankful for the opportunity. It's also a chance to 'prove themselves', which is important in Ustral, as if a younger member of a noble family proves himself enough, The queen may give him the authority to establish a new settlement and new noble line. I HOPE you have at least paid attention in cartography, but Ustral, in terms of raw land, is MASSIVE, but only five to ten percent of it is actively inhabited and worked, and many villages can just disappear entirely, lost to the beasts in the wood or the odd magics.”

If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

“Huh... there is a big focus on Martial prowess in Ustral it seems...” “And magical prowess.” Ezra interrupted. Elaina nodded. “Yes, and magic... does that have anything to do with all the duels in Mira's story?”

Elaina heard raised voices through the window, looking to see Mira looking increasingly distraught as she rapidly spoke with one of the guards.

Ezra, now in full lecture mode, continued unabated. “Oh yes, duels are a big deal in Ustral society, and the main reason nobles have to become great warriors. If one of a noble's vassals believe they are failing in their duties to protect their land or their people, they can challenge them to a duel, the winner of which can choose whether it is to the death or to the shame, which is more common. To death it's as you would expect, but to the shame means they are stripped of their nobility and cast out from their family. If the person shamed happens to be the head of the family, it gets complicated, but it is generally accepted that unless there are extenuating circumstances, the winner of the duel and his family will take the place of the noble. Combined with the fact that nominating a champion is strictly illegal in Ustral, and it forces all nobles who want to actually rule and own land to become very proficient warriors or mages, and in the case of the royal family, both.”

A quizzical look grew over Elaina's face. “So... what happens to the nobles who are shamed, and cast out?”

Ezra's face grew clouded. “That... gets complicated. They are no longer legally a member of the family, but that does not mean the noble's family has forgotten their children. So the ones who have a good rapport with their family will generally stay on as more of a support staff, administrators, diplomats, economists. They don't technically have power but many of the noble families defer such things to relatives that have fallen from grace, either through duel or willingly.”

“Wait, some of them choose to give up their family name and title willingly?” Elaina exclaimed, her attention switching between Ezra and Mira outside.

“Well, yes, sometimes no matter how hard they try the scion of a noble house just isn't suited to such things, whether combat or magic. In that case something of a token duel can be set up, where the scion admits defeat immediately. There is a bit of a complicated history with it...” Ezra was interrupted by Mira climbing back into the carriage, her face twisted by a combination of anger and worry, even fear. “Get us to the castle NOW” Mira bellowed out the door, so loudly Elaina's hands covered her ears in reflex.

“Mira? What's going on?” Elaina exclaimed as Mira leaned back into her seat, the carriage jumping as the coachman urged the horses to maximum speed.

“A village was attacked, a group of survivors were transported to the castle. The village was not among those we had expected to be hit so...” Mira said trying to compose herself.

“That's not... I mean well yes I am angry about that, more concerned for the people and puzzled, what has me ANGRY is that Vincent, yes, that Vincent.” Mina said, looking to Elaina. “Is putting together a relief force RIGHT NOW despite STRICT instructions from me and Alex that he stay home and safe to meet you and recoup... To stay home unless there was an emergency.”

Elaina blinked at this new information. Relief that she wouldn't actually be meeting her fiance right away warred with guilt over that feeling, then fear as she realized her fiance was apparently rushing into battle and could be killed, then puzzlement at that fear seeing as she had not met him... She was saved from her confusing emotions as Ezra timidly raised his hand.

“Um, Mira...” Mira turned to look at him. “Don't take this the wrong way, but... wouldn't a village being attacked, presumably in an area not being actively defended, and thus potentially opening up a new front to the war... Wouldn't that be an emergency?” Ezra said, logic forcing him to come to the rescue of his future brother-in-law.

Mira skewered him with her stare and point her index finger at him. “You... You do not get to talk to him before I do when we get to him.” Mira said, with finality.

Ezra, pushing his luck, replied. “And, correct me if I am wrong, but isn't it Ustral law that requires a member of the royal family to respond when a subject requests aid against a foreign attacker?”

Mira's stare turned withering. Ezra threw up his hands in silent capitulation and leaned back in the carriage. “You... are very well read on our kingdom.” Mira said, her gaze turning from withering to curious. “Just how much reading did you two do before coming here?” Mira asked, bracing herself on the side of the carriage as the rounded a corner.

Elaina replied. “Me? Not much I'm afraid, but Ezra, once he starts digging into a subject, well... I generally have to come pull him out of whatever fortress of books he's encased himself in to remind him that he still needs to EAT and SLEEP!” Elaina said, a bit of the excitement of the situation making it's way into her voice.

Mira looked about to reply when the carriage came to a sudden stop, and a voice called to the carriage from outside. “Your highness! Quickly!”

Mira kicked open the carriage door and practically flew up the steps towards the doors of the castle, it's walls also a mix of stone and living wood, Elaina noted.

“Zoey, what's the situation?” Mira asked as she reached the top of the stairs, and started making her way in as the doors were opened by the guards on either side. A woman in a maid outfit, Elaina realized she was one of the maid's she had seen in the divination, fell into step with her.

“An apprentice mage teleported more than thirty seriously wounded civilians back here , Prince Vincent has called all the nobles in the castle to join him as a relief party to Seytan village. They should still be preparing“ Mira picked up her pace. “We need to hurry, I TOLD him to leave the defense of the kingdom to me and Alex.” Mira said, anger and concern warring in her voice.

Elaina and Ezra followed behind, Elaina lifting up her skirts and jogging to keep up, while Ezra fell a little behind. Elaina asked Ezra between breaths as they ran. “I don't really understand. Why is Mira so mad?” Ezra panted. “Neither do I. It sounds like she's Pant being overprotective.” Elaina slowed her pace so Ezra could keep up with her.

They rounded a corner just in time to see Mira burst open a set of double doors, only to have a wave of pressure billow out and past her, knocking both Elaina and Ezra to the ground.

Elaina sat up, rubbing the back of her head where it had smacked on the ground. Both Mira and the maid Zoey were still standing, the maid herself surrounded by by a geometric lattice of translucent energy, and Mira trembling in what Elaina could feel was frustration. Realizing she was feeling Mira's frustration herself she quickly reassembled her mental defenses before any more washed over her.

Mira stomped the ground in frustration, managing to convey her anger while also appearing adorable despite her armor, and muttered. “Darn it...”