That evening, the third since leaving Queen of the Night City, or just Night City as those not native to it called it, Martin presented Adam to the duke once more. They had camped at yet another way station, the last in the Blue Sea Forest. The next day would see them leave the forest for the Fields of Summer, the territory of Sun King City. They would still need a few days to get through the Fields, but there were inns instead of way stations, a much more comfortable option.

“So,” the duke said, addressing Martin, “you’ve taught the lad enough to enter the mindscape. How well is he doing with it so far?”

“Yes, milord. He only got in for the first time this morning, but I have high hopes he can be more consistent in the future.” Martin seemed both calm and casual about his response, yet he was anything but.

“Hmm, yes. It’s necessary for gaining new skills, and he’ll need those if he’s to provide the best care for my children.” The duke paused to drink from a jeweled goblet. He’d kept up a fairly steady stream of wine drinking since they’d left his home weeks ago, not enjoying travel. Nearing the end now, he was quite looking forward to staying home for as long as possible.

“Well then. Come, boy. Tell us of this class of yours.”

There were a number of different reactions to his statement. Martin, and a few other guardsmen, despite being loyal to the duke, had all spent time in service of their city. Hearing someone other than the king use the Royal “we” was grating to their senses, not that it was the first time the duke had done so, causing them to twitch slightly as they suppressed their collective wince. Other members of the guard didn’t hear it that way, assuming the child was to speak to them all. As for the closest of the duke's men, they were aware of and encouraged his aspirations.

The strongest reaction, however, came from Adam. He had no idea of the political ramifications of the duke’s comment, knew nothing of what it implied, and wouldn’t have cared anyways. His reaction came from feeling the Order dig into his flesh. He could feel it pressing through the brand on his chest, twisting and grasping at something intangible within him, forcing him to obey. It was one of the most disturbing things he had ever felt, triggering an inborn revulsion and a state of nausea. He could have resisted, but there was an eagerness to the force acting against him, as though it wanted him to resist.

Choking it all down, he approached the duke. As he walked he reflected on Martin’s plan. As he had said, the duke enforced his command with an Order, but didn’t bother to clearly state his intentions. He didn’t know if it was laziness, contempt, or a simple casualness of speech, but it left him an opening. It made it impossible to ignore the words, but interpretation was somewhat left to him. The duke had said to tell of the class of his, not specifically the one he had been Gifted, just a class that he could lay claim to. Had he not created one before that moment he would have been stuck.

The hardest thing about making up a class to talk about was that it had to play off of his actual class and its expected advancement to continue being believable in the future. He couldn’t actually see any of the advancements, or locked skills, so he had to guess. Mother came with so many different things that he hoped he could cover most of the unhideable functions by explaining them away as part of his imaginary class.

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Adam had gone over his creation multiple times with Martin, but he’d had no chance to practice the presentation. The old man had insisted that he not do so even in his head, so as to appear the appropriate mix of nervous and eager. Apprentices always liked talking about their classes and skills, but an orphan was expected to be nervous in the presence of nobility.

“Yes, milord. Um, so I don’t remember the exact description, but I’ll tell you what I remember. The class specializes in the protection and raising of children. It has a fair bit about being as protective as a mama bear, and teaching kids stuff, and regulating their behavior.” He looked up at the duke bright eyed and smiling. He was enjoying the game of lying to the man who now controlled his life, while also talking about only a portion of his valuable class.

“See, the ability that came with the class lets me shapeshift into a bear! I mean, I can’t really control it, but it’s really strong. I can only transform if me or a child under my care is in danger. It’s how I killed that man attacking the kids I was with.” He ignored the gasps from those who were aware of the incident. “There looks like a lot of skills to make my bear form even stronger, which is pretty neat. Plus, I think the bear form exists to make up for not being able to use weapons or armor”

“That covers the protection, what about the care?” the duke interrupted. It made sense that he was pushing, he needed the combination of the two to be assured of having made a good purchase. The lack of weapons and armor was a bit of a dissapointment, but with a transformative skill as good as his bear form sounded, he would make an excellent stealth bodyguard.

“Oh, sure! That stuff's just not as much fun, but there’s lots of it. There’s three more sections of skills other than the bear. One has a bunch of knowledge skills, I think, that all seem to be about teaching, raising, and regulating the behavior of kids. Another has some trade and crafting skills that seem related to raising kids, like cooking and such. It mentions increased growth rates for those skills, as well as some special skills that aren’t available through the normal skills.”

Adam saw the pleased look on the duke’s face, and decided to go for the final push. He screwed his own face up a bit, somewhere between thinking hard and mild distaste. “The last one I’m not so sure of. I don’t have any of those unlocked, but the description says they offer a lot of utility designed to help maintain a happy household. I have no idea what that means, but it’s helpful, right?”

For a man in politics, the duke was slightly terrible at hiding his emotions. Or he was so amazing he could fake them all without anyone being the wiser. There was also the option that he just didn’t think anyone around at the moment was worth the effort to hide anything. He was quite pleased with the revelation of Adam’s skills. He said so after a moment, “Very good. My wife will be quite pleased. Keep working on getting back into your mindspace. For the foreseeable future, focus more on the knowledge skills for raising children. I think we’ll get the most use out of those for some time. We’ll reevaluate later if necessary.”

He nodded rapidly, “Of course, milord. Whatever you need.”

“Excellent. Keep up the good work then.”

Hearing the dismissal, Adam withdrew towards the cookfires, but was stopped as the duke spoke again.

“Adam, what’s the name of this class of yours?”

“Oh, apologies, milord. The name is Care Bear.”