“Good work today, Jac.”

“Good work!” the young woman called back as she walked out of the store with a smile. At first, she’d hated the nickname, thinking it was too masculine for an aspiring woman of the court. Amongst nobility, appearances accounted for everything. Men could supplement a ghastly demeanor with enough merits, but that option didn’t exist for women.

Oh, they could certainly achieve as much as any man, but tradition meant their achievements meant less. A noblewoman’s value was strictly tied to her beauty, her poise, her eloquence, and the talent of the heirs she birthed.

However, her aspirations had changed. She no longer cared to marry a powerful man who would recognize her talents and support her in her pursuit of political power. She wanted a land, and a crown, of her own. To get it, she’d have to travel across the sea with rakish adventurers and brawny sailors. A Jac fit in well amongst them. Before that, she was a simple employee, where Jac fit in even better. Though she was loathe to admit it, her full name was a mouthful, as her cousin had told her many times.

Jacquellin Tome stopped on the street and stretched, sighing as her spine popped. Today had been busier than usual and she’d made a few extra trips to the stock room to line the empty shelves. She loved the Guiness Company’s business model of carrying a little bit of everything, but it meant replenishing their stock twice or more a day rather than once every couple days like most stores.

As the rookie, the grunt work fell to her, including sweeping floors and wiping windows. Not to mention helping customers. If she was lucky, or very unlucky depending on the day, she also organized receipts. It was grueling work but infinitely preferable to sitting in her father’s house, handling her family’s finances and getting nowhere.

Normally, she enjoyed a little company after her shift. She went out with her fellow employees, the women that she lived with in the house owned by the Company, her manager, or the men she felt free to associate with now that she didn’t have to protect her reputation. Attending banquets since childhood had made her a social animal and she liked to keep her calendar full. For practical reasons as well as pleasurable ones.

If she wanted to organize an expedition to the ancestral lands of her family, she would need connections as well as exorbitant amounts of money. Seeds sown today could sprout in unpredictable ways ten years down the line.

That night she planned a rare bout of solitude. With the recent trouble surrounding summoners, things had been tense in the capital. Especially at home. Her father had spoken to her briefly about the summoners organizing and concocting some scheme, but she hadn’t stayed long enough to hear the details.

Solving one’s problems with elementals never worked. They had dozens of records written by those who had tried and failed in both expected and spectacular ways. Somehow, whenever a summoner got in a tough spot, they forgot history and their good sense.

Jac wanted no part of it. Thankfully, neither did Matty. She was surprised her uncle had gotten roped in. If he wanted to make moves, either political or financial, he had his daughter to rely on. She had no doubt that Lou had far more power than a bunch of amateurs and if anyone could get her to act on their behalf, besides any sufficiently beautiful woman, it was her father. Seeing as she had control of the Masons, she could throw the capital into disarray with a few words. Yet they felt the need to be reckless.

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She knew why. They wanted power for themselves. That was her father’s greatest wish, having his own power. To ride down the street and have those on the road make way for him. To walk into any party without an invitation and be thanked for the intrusion. To have women of status forget themselves in his presence and fawn over him like whores spotting a man covered in gold.

Lou might, might, have helped but she’d never share the glory. Rather, she’d rub their faces in it, laugh at their helplessness, and then leave them to run the show after making sure they knew who owned it. Her father would never accept such an insult. He’d truly rather commit treason. Reckless treason, at that.

It was embarrassing. Especially considering they had time to plan a proper response. The Masons were the only significant party harmed by the bans and the crown’s enmity toward summoners ended with them. The Tomes weren’t in the line of fire until her father threw them into it.

Jac tried not to waste much time thinking about the ridiculous situation. Instead, she turned her attention to where she would eat dinner. The restaurants in the poorer districts of the city had more in the way of choice, peasants forced to get creative with a deficit of decent ingredients, but more expensive places had better atmosphere. A cheap place meant cheap people she could be a little slovenly around while upper-class places meant upper-class manners along with more stimulating conversationalists.

Or she could go for something in-between. A quick dinner at a street stall before grabbing a bottle of wine and taking it with her for a late-night show. Winter was the season for finer things. With the harvests in and the weather cold enough to make people loathe to leave the comfort of a warm building, there were plenty of shows happening throughout the week. Plays, dances, and musical performances aplenty. She’d have no trouble finding entertainment for the night.

“Miss Jacquelline Tome?”

A deep voice interrupted her pleasant thoughts. Jac pulled her coat tighter about her as she turned around. Her suspicions eased as she took in the two guards approaching her. “Yes? Is there something I can help you with?”

“We need you to come with us,” the guard in the lead said solemnly. She didn’t like the look on his face. It was far too serious. The guards of the capital didn’t take their jobs seriously. Nothing had threatened Summer Spire in generations. They were decorations and errand boys, at best.

The man in front of her didn’t look like he had approached her on an errand. He looked like a man with purpose. So did the younger man beside him. Anything that could give a group composed of lazy third sons and peasants that couldn’t measure up to the low standards of the royal army purpose was a serious matter indeed.

“And what is this about?”

“That will be explained later. Please come with us.”

Jac sneered. “Are you attempting to detain me, sir? Because that is far beyond the powers of a mere guard.”

The guard sighed. “By order of the king, we are to escort you to the castle. Please comply.”

The king? Jac immediately cursed her father, assuming something had gone wrong with his scheme. If his family was being brought in, then things had gone very wrong.

The last thing she should do was go along quietly. She wasn’t much in the eyes of the Company yet, but she was their employee. The marquis would at least be interested if a traitor was connected to his company. Normally, that would mean identifying the person and cutting them loose, but she was counting on his interest in Lou and her wife. She hoped that would motivate him to at least keep her from disappearing into a dungeon, never to be heard from again without a trial.

“Allow me to—"

Jac froze. She had taken one step toward the store and the guards had reached for their blades.

“I need you to come with us now.”

“…very well.” She held up her palms. After a few moments to be sure it wasn’t a trick, the older guard nodded for his partner to go forward. Jac had to grit her teeth to hold back a curse and a wince as the younger man roughly wrenched her arms behind her back and marched her down the street.

It was embarrassing and the first time Jac was glad for the light sheet of snow on the ground. It meant there were no eyes to witness her shameful handling. If they weren’t the cause for her predicament, she would have thanked them for shoving her into a plain carriage. As it was, she was committing their faces to memory.

Like her cousin, Jac could be a petty woman and she always paid back a grudge.