I was twice stopped during my departure from Haelling Cove. The first time we were detained by Timoth, who caught me outside the stables. In his hand, he grasped the portrait that had been painted during my coming of age ceremony. It had a functional wooden frame, bereft of gold-leaf coating or decorative ornamentation, but no different than what I had expected given the difficulties I’d encountered trying to organise the portrait in the first place.

I managed a smile and held it before me, scanning it carefully. As far as I could tell from my use of the mirror I had taken from Hollowhold, the artist had rendered a fairly good likeness of me. I thanked Timoth for bringing it to me and quickly stowed it in my portal - I had no room in my saddlebag for such a fragile object. It sat beside my family portrait, as well as the mirror I’d packed the previous night.

The second delay occurred almost immediately afterwards, when I insisted that we take a detour through the lakeside beach. This beach had once been a common stop for me, when the sixteen-year-old girl I’d been liked to spend hours each day fretting about whether my skin tan was the tiniest bit too peasant dark or unhealthily pale. I felt a pang of loss when I considered that the innocent girl no longer existed, replaced by a mournful judge. Possibly even an executioner.

Once at the beach, I unclasped a large pouch from Lilac's saddlebag and began to fill it with sand. When it was full, I summoned a portal and stepped through it, pouring the sand in a pile over the grass in my portal realm. I stepped back through the portal and refilled the pouch with more sand from the beach. I retrieved the two portraits and mirror and passed them to one of the housecarls for safekeeping before continuing the shovelling. It took the better part of an hour, but my escort was glad of the idle time spent on the beach and I was happy with the result: my entire portal realm was now covered with genuine Haelling Cove beach sand. I lay the portraits and mirror on a small cloth to protect them from the sand.

Now, no matter where my travels landed me, I would have something familiar of home to return to. Sunbathing would be as natural as it had once been, upon a bed of sand. I made a few piles of extraneous sand in case I managed to expand the borders of my portal realm in the future. The soldiers and beachgoers nearby must have thought me crazy, but the repetitive motion was cathartic and put me in a good mindset for our journey.

The road was becoming familiar. It seemed so odd that the first time I had travelled upon it I'd been so eager to look around and see the livestock in their paddocks and the bloodberries in the fields. This time I kept my nose pointed forwards in line with Lilac's, targeting our destination like an arrow. I did not eagerly anticipate the task ahead of me upon my arrival at Trackford, and the chilling touch of the winter air kept me from enjoying the journey too much.

Around noon I encountered a messenger from Trackford. He was travelling to Haelling Cove carrying word that the Tokuans had, as my brother suspected, left Trackford unmolested, most likely on account of the large garrison there. I felt a surge of pride at my brother's success and bade the messenger continue on to the County capital to spread the good news. We continued along the road wearing faces adorned with glad smiles.

At night we stopped at a monastery. It was already occupied by a number of commoner seeking shelter from the elements following the destruction of their homes by the Tokuans, and though we could have found room to bed among them I preferred to sleep in the monastery grounds. Sleeping among common folk was not something I ever wanted to endure, and the monk offered us free reign over his land “by the grace of Yoru.” The soldiers, duty-bound to stay at my side, grumbled under their breath at my decision. Nonetheless they strung up their tents and we made camp there for the night.

We set out early the next morning to stir the embers of warmth within our bodies. I was clad in a fur coat but the soldiers were not so lucky. What fur Timoth had been able to distribute among his men had gone to Trackford with the reinforcements several days earlier. That said, their white and blue tunics were hemmed with wool which would provide at least some protection against the cold. In any case, a desire to spend the night in a warm bed imbued our party and our steeds with much haste, and in the afternoon of the second day Lilac's hoofs traversed cobblestone rather than dirt.

It was my first visit to the city which did not begin with a greeting from Baron Steib. If my errand had been any other I would have been grateful for the reprieve, but as it was I felt certain that he was in hiding. He had not seemed a man who would take well to the rigours of a criminal trial.

I hoped that the Baron might have fled only today due to the fact that, by my estimation, the messenger had only left Trackford to carry news of the Tokuan evasion three days previously. Steib would have expected to have four days: two for the messenger to reach Haelling Cove, and two for the Count's men to reach Trackford after hearing the news. Timoth's boldness in sending me prior to receiving Trackford's messenger might have paid off.

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With that in mind, I stabled Lilac and strode directly to the market hall, stopping only to ask directions. I knew from something Timoth had said during our first visit to Trackford that the town had a market hall instead of a city hall. It was a lot smaller than the Haelling Cove city hall, constructed of wood with a sloping thatch roof. It looked to be little more than a harbourside warehouse, and the number of traders and merchants coming and going from the building seemed to confirm that thought.

I ordered my escort to wait outside and entered the building, revealing a crowd including every class of common and trading folk, from farmers and fishermen to jewellers and merchants. Mostly I saw people bartering goods for services and merchandise for coin. Many eyes turned to me upon my entrance, but I traversed the building without delay. There was a wide entranceway at each end of the building, and near each entrance was a wooden staircase that led to the upper floor. With so many people watching me I knew I could not leave the building until I hadachieved something or else people would think me daft and confused, so, with some trepidation I ascended the staircase.

Thankfully, my fear of embarrassment directed me truly. The upper floor appeared to be the home of the civic administration of Trackford, and my eyes fell upon perhaps twenty bureaucrats and burghers. Some of them returned my gaze fleetingly, their conversations dwindling and their business slowing. I sensed anxiety in the room, but rather than targeting one man – potentially the wrong man – and demanding Steib's location from him, I addressed the entire room.

'I seek Baron Steib. I will give a silver coin to whomever can give me information as to his current whereabouts,' I announced. I had been about to offer a gold coin, but my recent experiences with the County ledger in Haelling Cove had taught me a bit more about just how much a gold coin was worth.

Despite the death of all conversation that had occurred as a result of my address, most pretended to not have heard it. I waited until the silence became awkward, and then added, 'If you think well of the Baron, be it known that he will be granted a fair trial. The circumstances of his offence will be taken into account during sentencing.'

Silence was once more my response and my mind began to wander to my next port of call, but someone eventually approached me. He was tall and thin, and his lanky gait was exaggerated by the eerie stillness of the room. Upon his arrival at my side he spoke quietly so that the others in the room would not hear his words.

'The folk of Trackford do not think well of the Baron, Countess. He passed laws that benefited his own guildsmen, and secured his continued re-election with the wealth and power granted by the same laws. The men in this room want you to arrest Steib. They simply wait for a better offer.'

It took me a moment to understand what he meant. Then I realised that I had made a mistake by only offering a silver coin, which to these wealthy city officials would not have constituted a very large sum. To save face, I made a new offer entirely: 'If the information is useful in the arrest of Baron Steib, I will repay the informant with a gold coin.'

Suddenly I was met by barrage of vociferous respondents, all bellowing that he had fled through the Dreadwood Forest only hours previously.

'You might catch him if you leave now!' one called. I had no idea who deserved the coin I had offered, nor did I wish to reward their prior impediment of justice, so I flicked a silver coin into the centre of the room. The noble poise and decorum of the burghers was revealed as a farce when they all descended upon the coin like vultures. I knew that I would not have to pay the gold coin once I had recovered Baron Steib even if he was in the Dreadwood Forest, for there was no obvious rightful claimant of my offer.

I turned to the man who had whispered his advice to me 'Thank you, Gentleman,' I fumbled for his title but found that I did not know it. Gentleman was the safest option. 'I know little of the ways of merchants and guildmasters.'

'It is my pleasure, Countess. I confess that I have a stake in Steib's arrest for I am a rival guildmaster. Guildmaster Urzo. Though I own land, I prefer the title Guildmaster to Gentleman,' he explained.

Despite the coldness of the day he wore blue silk and linen, tied under a leather belt at his waist. Just looking at him made me pull my fur coat more tightly around my shoulders.

''Well, thank you, Guildmaster Urzo,' I said. He had barely-kempt black hair which flicked outwardly at the sides of his face. 'I fear I must cut our conversation short if I am to prevent Steib from amassing an unassailable lead.'

'Of course, Countess, though I would be remiss if I let you leave without warning you of the dangers of the Dreadwood Forest,' Urzo began, but I interrupted him.

'Nymphs and faeries. I have encountered them previously, and know how to deal with them,' I replied to him. I still recalled the day when I 'd had to strike down the blue-haired nymph with Timoth's sword so vividly that it could have been yesterday. Even now I did not know where I'd found the courage to do so.