The mornings passed quickly and the afternoons at a snail's pace in those first weeks at Hollowhold.

I had a morsel of free time after Daegwin prepared breakfast in which I sometimes visited the markets. Mostly, however, I stayed at home relaxing; enjoying the slowness of the morning.

Sometimes I would visit Timoth, and sometimes I would attempt to keep myself in shape by jogging up and down the stairs until my calves burned. It was embarrassing, but no more embarrassing than being seen running in the skyless streets of the Royal Quarter would have been. At least Daegwin was but a servant; the last thing I wanted was the women of Hollowhold spreading gossip about my peculiar country ways.

For their part, most of the other noblewomen managed to straddle the line between grotesque peasant slimness and unforgivable merchant obesity with what seemed to be a bare minimum of effort. That was part of their charm, I guess: to be able to maintain their perfect complexion and body size without ever being seen sunbathing on the surface, or jogging back and forth through the Royal Quarter.

I began to suspect that there existed secret passageways from the women's houses to the mountainside, but no matter how much I searched I could find no hidden trapdoor, no false wall. They were pale, it was true, but not as pale as I'd expect for a people who seldom saw the light of the sun.

My own carefully maintained suntan had begun to fade already, and so I focused my efforts on my fitness. Even that was difficult, what with the wealth and diversity of food at the capital, and the lack of space to exercise in private. Though the last had always been an issue, even in Haelling Cove, I'd felt more comfortable in the castle there. I'd known the guard's patrol routes, the bedtimes of the various servants, Gentlemen and Ladies, the lesser known passageways and unoccupied guest rooms. Here, the only thing I knew was the inside of my own little stone house.

I always hoped that Master Orjeik would come early. He was charming and charismatic, and mysterious and enigmatic. He had an answer for every question, but never lost focus of the fact that our lessons were intended to be practical, rather than merely theoretical. In those early weeks, under Orjeik's guidance, I began to sustain my portal for more than a few seconds at a time, and there came the day that he bade me enter it for the first time.

'You have been able to summon portals with some reliability of late,' he said. 'I am confident you will be able to sustain it long enough to enter, and then to summon a new portal once inside for you to return to Hollowhold.'

My eyes widened.

Master Orjeik thought I was ready.

I had paid heed to his earlier words, and eventually came to the conclusion that he’d been right: I did not want him to join me in my portal realm. Once he’d entered it, I could never take it back.

I was beginning to understand what the other portalmancers I'd know meant when they said that their portals were personal to them. Having a portal was like having a pet. It was comforting just to know that it was there, and I often found myself daydreaming about how I was going to customise my portal realm, much as I would have thought about grooming for a hound.

'What will I see?' I asked him.

'Your realm will be much the same as mine,' Orjeik said. 'Grass and sky, mostly. It will be a lot smaller, however, and will grow as you learn to master your mind.'

I nodded. I’d known that, but Orjeik was trying to relax me with his answer.

I appreciated his empathy, it was what made him a good tutor. Masters Kane and Robarin were knowledgeable enough, but they brought no life to their teachings. Orjeik knew what it took to truly get through to me, and I was thriving under his tutelage as a result.

I’d known this day was coming, the day when I was to enter my portal realm, and I had been looking forward to it. I was afraid, of course, but before me stood someone who believed in my ability, which was not a familiar experience.

It felt good.

I concentrated and considered the simplicity of the tangible world, the stone grains which, together comprised my entire house, this entire city. I thought about fate, about Cha's guidance and Yoru's aid, about the nameless but soulful entity that some called destiny which drove people and events.

My portal appeared before me in only a few seconds. It was becoming easier, and I wondered if I might soon be able to summon it in an instant.

I dragged my mind back to the portal that lay before me as I realised that I was supposed to be entering it.

I gulped and took a deep breath. Orjeik said nothing, letting me take my first steps on my own. I had to resist the urge not to jump, after all, the portal was shaped like an oval, not like a person.

I controlled myself and stepped through the portal, landing on a grassy patch. Almost as soon as I had passed through the portal it closed behind me, my concentration broken by what I was seeing.

My portal realm was indeed smaller than Orjeik's. Quite a bit smaller, in fact. I immediately sat down to prevent myself from falling off of the edge of my little world, as it was only nine or ten feet in diameter.

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There was no sense of vertigo, as there were none of the frightening signs of being atop a tall building or tree. When I looked over the edge of the land I saw nothing except blackness, like the night sky on a cloudy and moonless night. There was a gentle breeze, but nothing like the voracious winds that often claimed the hats and scarves of unwary visitors on a windy summer's days atop the Haelling Cove keep.

As the sun beat down upon me, I realised that this was how the noblewomen kept their skin from becoming unseemly pale. I would have to remember to come back here regularly, even if it was only to achieve a suntan.

I wondered if all my considerations for the use of my portal realm were moot due to its small size, but I bid myself to have some patience. As Orjeik had said only minutes earlier, my portal realm would grow as I learned to master my mind. To see the unseen. That which lay beyond the edge of the grassland now did exist, but I needed to understand the nature of its existence before I could bring it into being.

I realised that Orjeik was probably waiting for me in my living room and resolved to return.

I began to concentrate. The simplicity of the portal realm helped. My exit portal sprung up in a matter of seconds and I stepped through it, finding myself back in the living room. A glance at the clock on the wall told me that only a few minutes had passed, not that I had expected any differently.

Orjeik greeted me with a smile.

'Congratulations, my lady, you have reached competency in the art of portalmancy,' he said, with not a hint of condescencion.

I beamed in response, letting my portal close behind me as my concentration lapsed. He was right: I could stop today and still have enough skill to find a good husband. Just as one did not need to be able to pen complicated scholarly essays to prove one's literacy to a suitor, my portal realm did not need to be big enough to run laps for me to be seen as a worthy wife for a nobleman.

Nevertheless, I would continue my lessons, because they were the only thing I enjoyed in my day that came with any regularity.

Certainly Prince Alum had not been back, but I did not hold that against him. He was no doubt a busy man, and I had used the time to learn about him.

After Orjeik departed and a quick lunch, he was replaced by Master Robarin. My lessons with the history and politics tutor had been less successful, however my encounters with Count Djiron, Duke Crower, and the Goldmane Princes had taught me how important it was to understand the heritage of the various nobles of the capital.

I learnt that the first King of Halivaara, King Eblobeus, had been a Goldmane, and that it was an ancient noble house of the Mountain Duchy before the first King had inherited the Duchy of Trent. He had also led the first Halivaaran armies to the conquest of Ebonreach, and most of the other lands that now comprised the Kingdom. The only significant gain since the days of King Eblobeus Goldmane had been the acquisition of the Borderlands, and what with the desert that ringed the Borderlands and the mountains that ringed non-coastal Halivaara, it seemed unlikely that the Kingdom was likely to expand much further.

It was true that the border with the Frostlanders in the north was ill-defined and had shifted with the centuries, but their land was all but worthless. Their frostbitten livestock and winter-dried crops were the driving force behind their constant raids on Haelling Cove and the northern coast of the Kingdom.

On one occasion, Robarin and I were discussing the royal family themselves.

'As I'm sure you know, my lady, Prince Milos married a Lady of the Vizonian Order, but has yet to produce an heir.'

I stifled a yawn and nodded.

'I've met them.'

'Well then, his brother. Prince Alum.' Master Robarin began, and suddenly I was interested. Anything I could learn about the Prince would help me in my pursuit of him, and despite his doddering ways I suspected that my tutor knew of the Prince's eligibility. He would have been a fool not to. 'Born more than ten years after his elder brother. It has been speculated by some that the reason for this is due to a number of miscarriages that Queen Taera may have had in the intervening decade, though neither the King nor the Queen have confirmed this rumour.'

'It is?' I asked in surprise. I wondered that such gossip wasn't circulated to the far corners of Halivaara, to my hometown. 'What else lies in the Prince's past?'

'He is young, my lady, as you're no doubt aware,' the Master replied, with a knowing smirk. I scowled and his expression rapidly became more neutral. 'I meant only that he has had little chance to distinguish himself. Yet there is one thing…'

'Yes? Tell me, Master,' I pleaded.

'If only you applied yourself to the study of the lives of our ancestors as vigorously as you apply yourself to the life of Prince Alum,' he chided me. For an old codger, Master Robarin could be cheeky. I suspected that he tutored many young noblewomen and was used to such distractions. ‘Interestingly, my lady, the Prince received a royal pardon two years ago.'

'A royal pardon? For a crime? What did he do?' I asked.

'No one knows. Or, at least, those who do are sworn to secrecy, I imagine. The records were destroyed. All that is known is that he received a royal pardon for it.'

'Do you have any ideas?'

Master Robarin had the knowledge of centuries of past kings and princes in his head, surely he could make a better educated guess than most.

'I would not deign to do so, my lady. However, I will say that, in the past, pardons given to members of the royal family are usually for one thing.' Robarin paused, and I could have sworn he did so for dramatic effect. I tried to look patient, but it was the first thing he'd spoken of since that I cared to know since our lessons had first begun. Finally, he continued. 'Royal pardons have been issued to princess in the past for committing murder. Usually it was against someone now perceived as a traitor or pretender, but at the time matters were often less straightforward.'

'Do you think that likely? There has been no traitor or pretender in recent years,' I said, not adding that I might not have known of such occurrences due to my own lackluster devotion to my studies and Haelling Cove's isolation.

'I do not dare to say, my lady,' Robarin said cautiously. He refused to speculate further, and we continued my lesson in the shadow of that mystery.

Those were the regular instalments in my day, along with regular visits to the market. As the largest city in the Kingdom, and being relatively central in latitude if not longitude, Hollowhold's marketplace was packed with traders from almost the entire known world. I met craftsmen and artisans with Frostlander and Borderlands accents, and found that all accepted their place in the market square simply by virtue of its existing diversity. I saw goods there that defy description, and acts that appeared as magic to my eyes.

If I had not been given charge of my own money and entrusted to its care for the following two years, I would likely have spent it all on my first day. That didn't stop me from overspending in my first months, and having to budget the rest of my time more frugally. Still, as a result, I came to possess a quality of clothing and makeup that would have been the envy of all the Reach.