In the evenings I would often travel to the sparring ring to watch Prince Alum. I was not the only one: he had a sort of fan club. The evenings were his time for training, and we watched him repeatedly defeat the lesser counts and dukes with the wooden training swords.

Sometimes, I saw Timoth and Wilbern participate in the fights, and I'm sure they found the standard of combat to be higher than they had enjoyed in their hometowns. Wilbern, in particular, seemed to benefit from the increased competition. I do not think that he’d viewed the martial arts as important or interesting during his time in the peaceful, landlocked Duchy of Trent.

Timoth did the Reach proud, though I was not surprised that one of Halivaaran regions that saw the most fighting was also represented by one of the more capable warriors. I doubted if many of the Mountain Duchy counts had ever seen an angry Frostlander or Western Islander.

Though many saw myself and Timoth as something like quaint rubes, there were times when the benefits of our frontier upbringing were made plain. I beamed whenever he won a duel with the practise swords, though I never saw him defeat Prince Alum. The Prince was a skilled fighter, though that was not unusual. In noble families with multiple sons, it was quite common for second sons to be dedicated to soldierhood. Timoth was only so skilled in the martial arts due to the fact that the County of Ebonreach saw more than its share of warfare.

I began to realise that the fights were more for show than real training. Just as the observing women painted their faces and competed to wear the raciest dresses that still fell – barely – within the bounds of appropriateness, the men competed to defeat one another in physical combat.

Sure, there were benefits to sword training, yet I did not think that such things were at the forefront of the men's minds. Prince Alum seemed to have his eye on a girl from the Borderlands.

Once I realised that he fought his best when she was in attendance, I had Master Robarin teach me about her background. Her name was Countess Ayaar Djiron, and as the non-inheriting Countess of the only other free county in Halivaara she was the only other person in the city of equal station to me. She was Khad's sister, and shared his dark skin tones and brown eyes. I did not like her from the outset, though perhaps that was mere jealousy. Ayaar was two years my senior, and thus had a head start in the race to court Prince Alum.

For his part, though he took more notice of her than myself or the other noblewomen, he was wise enough to keep it discreet. He was only twenty, according to Master Robarin, and he had some years yet in which to seek a wife. Furthermore, as he was not expected to inherit, it was not seen as important for him to produce an heir.

I overheard much while watching the evening sparring matches. I got to know several of the women, though I doubt if any ever considered me true friends.

I was able to learn much from them. This was part of the reason Father had sent me here, after all, and I lapped up the knowledge hungrily. It was much more interesting drawing it from the noblewomen with surgical questions and fake compliments than reading one of Master Robarin's dusty tomes.

I heard talk that Princess Alissia was barren, for her and Prince Milos were into their thirties now and had failed to produce an heir.

Even more interesting was the gossip surrounding King Degron himself. Once considered a fair ruler, in recent years he had retreated from the rulership and spent most of his time in his extensive chambers with his wife, the Queen Taera.

The rumours differed greatly beyond this, yet all agreed that a generous portion of the royal treasury was being spent on drugs and herbs for one or both of them. Many of the herbs had curative properties, but most of the women believed that either King Degron or Queen Taera were addicted, and that was the reason for the King's absence from court life. Most of the affairs of the realm were already handled by Prince Milos, though no baron could be taken without consultation with the King.

I wondered if she needed the herbs as medicine – after all, Master Robarin had mentioned speculation that she’d suffered a number of miscarriages prior to Prince Alum's birth which could have left her in poor health.

Regarding my purposes, the countesses and duchesses I conversed with considered it highly likely that one of them – one of us – would be chosen to wed Prince Alum, as Prince Milos' wife had been Vizonian.

Countess Ayaar was a clear frontrunner due to the perceived need to shore up relations with Halivaara's most distant and war-ravaged provinces in the Borderlands, but the debate was far from settled. I knew that at my age, and with myself so far down the line of inheritance, he was unlikely to choose me.

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Except for love.

Love was the only thing that could lead a Prince of the realm to marry below his station.

Prince Milos had done it: though the Vizonian Order sat outside the hierarchy of the nobility, marrying an adherent had created somewhat of a scandal in its day. I needed, and intended, to woo Prince Alum, such that he would have little choice but to marry me.

I was not such a poor suitor, as I was at least of noble birth, and represented an important corner of the Kingdom. I just had to have him notice me. I deliberately tried to bring myself to his attention at least once every few days.

Sometimes I would try to beat the other noblewomen to the side of the fighting ring and offer him a cup of water when he looked hot and sweaty.

Sometimes I would arrive early or stay late in case an opportunity for mingling amongst his attendants presented itself.

And, sometimes, I just shouted from the sidelines.

'Powerful blow, my prince!' I'd exclaim, or, 'such strength, my prince.'

It was, perhaps, a bit on the nose. I was better suited to such a life than many of the noblewomen had been at my age, but most of them were no longer my age. I had to play the long game, but I intended to ensure that my face was etched in Prince Alum’s memory before I returned to Haelling Cove for my coming of age.

My hometown was far away, and whenever homesickness began to assail me I would pen letters to my parents. I withheld some of them, for I didn’t want to appear as if I wasn’tt integrating with life in Hollowhold, but in the first I detailed our journey. I told my parents about the nymphs and the faeries, about Trackford and Helmfirth. I left out some of the details that I didn’tt think Timoth would have shared with them, such as our dispute with Khad Djiron and my faux pas at the Crower's dining table.

Their response was as expected: concern, but gratitude for my safe arrival. My parents were so predictable.

Yet there was one piece of surprising news in the missive. The beach had reopened after the raiders threatening the Haelling had departed, and one of the beachgoers had discovered an artefact in the sand very close to where the man had emerged from his portal during the Tokuan raid the day before Khad's arrival.

The artefact was a bracelet, and though it was not enclosed in the letter, my parents' description left little to the imagination. They described the charm that dangled from the bracelet as depicting a sword embedded in a grassy mound.

The symbol of the Vizonian Order.

My eyes widened upon learning that a Vizonian symbol had been found at the beach, but Father had personally and specifically forbade me to discuss it with anyone except Timoth.

I knew little about the Vizonian Order and sought to learn more from Timoth. I visited him at his chambers and asked him directly what he thought the bracelet indicated.

'I don't know,' he answered honestly. 'Father was always wary of the Order, and made me promise that I would not surrender any of my children to their teachings.'

'We don't know that the bracelet belonged to the man in the portal, do we?' I asked, trying to reconcile two entities with competing loyalties acting in concert within my mind.

'We don't,' Timoth said. 'Yet it seems likely. Vizonians aren’t often seen sunbathing on the shores of the Haelling.'

'Why do you think Father told us of the bracelet?' I asked him. Perhaps Father would have chosen to illuminate Timoth due to my brother's status as heir to the County, but the very fact that I was now living in Hollowhold told me that Father still saw me as a child.

I wondered if he was hoping that we would investigate the matter on his behalf.

'The Vizonian outpost in the Reach is small, and though I have no doubt that their representative there keeps in touch with happenings at the capital through Vizonia – their joined portal system – Father probably thinks us in a better position to learn of the Order's intentions. I suggest that you try and learn as much about the Order and their desires as you can.'

I rolled my eyes. Thankfully he didn't catch the motion. I didn't want more work, in fact I strongly desired to lessen my existing workload. Master Robarin was intensely boring and if I needed to learn more about family histories, I could read my own books without his assistance. The extra time might help me to pursue Prince Alum, yet that was not my sole desire. Anything felt like it would have been better than tolerating Robarin's droll sermons on the histories of distant parts of the Kingdom.

Night was spent at home. It was easy to think that the capital was one big castle keep due to its stone walls and lack of open sky, but Timoth had warned me that the Mountain Duchy had become infamous for burglaries and rapes. The Royal Quarter felt very safe, with its females-only rule and guards stationed at each entrance, so I spent my evenings with Daegwin. Without ever intending it, we began to blur the line between master and servant, and friends. Occasionally I had to rebuke her harshly in order to remind her of her place – and as a reminder of mine – yet without her company I would likely have been lost during my stay at Hollowhold. Her dishes often bore foods particular to the Reach, and her conversation was familiar to my ears. If my attendants had been Hollowholders, my only link to the place of my birth would have been my irregular meetings with Timoth.