It had been three months since Elizabeth had arrived to the city of Blaidd, and by now, she felt she had finally begun properly integrating herself. The good thing about being sent to a territory so far away from the capital was that very few people actually knew what she had done to earn the condemnation of the rest of the nobility. There were rumours, of course, but after being whispered a few times, they faded into silence. The people here simply had too many problems to be concerned with the fact that a prince had denounced her.

She'd settled into a new routine. In the mornings, she trained with Kenric, and then for most of the rest of the day, she was assigned to work with Gerard on all kinds of paperwork. Just three months in, and she felt she knew far more about the Wulf territory than she had ever known about her father's lands. Having to constantly read reports on timber yields tended to do that.

It wasn't as though she hated this work though. On the contrary, being put to work made her feel useful, like she wasn't dead weight that Kenric was just tolerating because his superior had told him to. Besides, anything she didn't understand, Gerard was quick to explain and help with.

One fine afternoon, as Elizabeth walked the halls of the manor, tightening the rough cotton shawl around her shoulders to stave off the cold, she spotted Aida from the window. She was drinking wine straight from the bottle, leaning against the manor outside.

"Aida, what are you doing?" Elizabeth asked dryly.

Aida coughed in surprise, accidentally spitting out a bit of wine, "Crap." She hid the bottle behind her and smiled innocently, "Hey! Didn't expect to see you here, what are you up to?"

Elizabeth gave her a look.

"Okay, look, I'm just relaxing for a bit. I'll get to work, I swear," Aida said, "Please don't tell Lord Wulf?"

"You know I can't do that," Elizabeth said instantly.

Aida made a face, "I hate the devoted types…" She muttered.

"Shouldn't you be at the barracks?" Elizabeth asked, "What are you doing here?"

"Nah, I'm on duty as a manor maid right now," Aida said, and what a surprise learning that had been. Aida was both a maid in the manor and one of Kenric's highest ranking officers, though she seemed to take both jobs rather loosely. "You hungry?" She continued, "I could get Liam to whip something up for you. It'd be out of schedule though, so don't tell the boss man."

"No, I don't feel that hungry today," Elizabeth said. Aida shrugged, leaping through the window and into the manor. Her eyes caught the roll of parchment in her hands, "Headed to Lord Wulf?"

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"Yes," Elizabeth said. They began walking down the hall, "The news is… not good."

"Pretty standard, as far as news here goes," Aida said.

Elizabeth knocked on the door to Kenric's office, and entered once his voice allowing them to came through.

"Aida's here as well I see," Kenric said as she closed the door behind them.

"I caught her drinking outside," Elizabeth said.

"At least ease into it!" Aida whined.

Kenric did not seem surprised, he didn't even look up from his work, "I'll be docking your pay next time."

Aida winced, "Yes, boss…"

"Now, what have you come here for?" Kenric said.

"We finally completed the recount of our granaries," Elizabeth said, "And after Gerard and I made a few calculations, we realised we're too close to the line with our food."

"What, we don't have enough food?" Aida asked, "I take back that offer for a late lunch…"

"Not exactly," Elizabeth said, "We have food to feed everyone in the Wulf territory, but we have absolutely no surplus. Should an emergency occur, we'd have nothing to fall back on." She handed the report Gerard and her had written on the subject to Kenric. He glanced at it and sat in silence for a few moments, his quill pen pausing mid-writing.

Then, he began writing again, "I had an inkling that might be the case," he said finally. "Get back to work, worrying about this right now will do us no good."

"Yes, my lord," Elizabeth bowed alongside Aida, and they both left the room.

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Now that winter was here, the skies darkened very early in the day. By the time Elizabeth was done with her work and had gone out to the sparring ring, the sun had already touched the horizon, bathing the world in orange light.

Elizabeth joined Liam and Aida, who were watching Noodle and Edward spar.

"He's learned a new trick again?" Elizabeth asked.

"Yep," Aida said, "Some sort of disarming technique. Hasn't worked yet."

And indeed, it was plain to see, Edward was easily batting aside Noodle's attempts to clash their blades in a certain way. The spar couldn't even be called that, it was an adult indulging a child.

"I hear you haven't had breakfast or lunch yet, my lady," Liam said, "I know it was a little cheese-heavy, but I didn't know you were that against it."

"No, not at all, Liam," Elizabeth said, "I just wasn't very hungry today."

"Well, that's no good. You've got to eat to maintain your strength."

"I will," Elizabeth assured, "I look forward to dinner."

"Oho! I've got to bring my best tonight then!" Liam said, "How about that vegetable stew you like so much?"

"Oh, thank you, I'd enjoy that."

"Vegetable stew it is!"

Noodle suddenly looked their way, shouting, "Are you guys even watching?"

Aida smirked, "What? You getting your ass beat for the millionth time? Of course, how could we miss that?

"Perhaps we should stop here?" Edward said. Noodle looked him up and down, no doubt noting just how unruffled he was.

"Alright, sounds good," he said sullenly.

They exited the ring, and Elizabeth suggested to Noodle, "Maybe you should practice the fundamentals more?"

"And what would you know, Lady Filangris?" Noodle sniffed, "I know you've had some training, but there's no way someone taught by hoity-toity nobility pleasers could ever defeat someone with real-world experience."

Behind Noodle, Aida mouthed to Liam, 'Real world experience?' Liam shrugged in response.

"Perhaps not," Elizabeth said, "Shall we have ourselves a spar?"

Noodle grinned, "Alright, you're on!"