At ten years old, Jolene is still being trained as a proper princess with tutors and etiquette and dresses and all that but unlike her younger sister she uses every moment she can to train with the guards, the army, her brother, or her father. I was even used during some of those times myself. Jolene was only ever allowed to use me once because the king could still barely believe that she could hold onto me so well but when she proved that she wasn't hindered by the sight that I gave her and that she could wield me as if it were natural he finally accepted it. I still got taken away but she was granted permission to become a real warrior princess.

Her brother wasn't, and still isn't, too happy about that decision but his complaints began falling on deaf ears as he continued to lose to her during more than half of their spars. Of course I can't really say it's entirely his fault since he has to take the time to learn so many other things as the heir to the throne and all but I'm starting to think he's growing up to be a little too selfish. I kind of blame the queen for that part. She's not too keen on dealing with her daughters too much aside from making sure that they're learning all the princess-like things they should be.

The queen seems to spend most of her time with her son when she can and they really do spend a lot of time together in private. I sometimes worry that they might be planning a coup. I also can't say I'm a huge fan of the prince's fiancée. The few times she's been in the throne room did not impress me in any way and I could only think of her as an entitled child of some noble who likely raised her while acting entitled themselves. The youngest princess, however, is quite something. If this world and kingdom allowed for matriarchy as well as patriarchy then I would bet that she would have made the best king of the three. She shows wisdom, intelligence, and, from what I've seen the few times I could see her through the king's eyes, future potential of beauty far beyond what a child her age should have.

I just think it's a shame that she seems to like her brother more than her sister. I hope she doesn't end up with a twisted personality by the time she grows up. After all, intelligence and wisdom do not always equate to good-natured and in fact can often lead to the opposite. Not that I will or even can do much about it, myself.

I'm watching Jolene doing practice with a spear right now, actually. She seems to be doing pretty well since she's fighting two on one with the guards in rotation. She hasn't won in that way yet but she keeps trying and getting better so I think she'll be doing fairly well in the next couple of years or so. The prince is supposed to be going off to school for a couple years pretty soon and when he comes back then it'll be her turn so I'm looking forward to her getting some good training in before she leaves. That school had better not knock the combativeness out of her when she goes because I'm quite happy with the direction she's growing in right now.

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So this is goodbye to the prince for a couple years and I'll be able to focus even more on Jolene without having to worry about him but I do have one big question about his departure to the school. Why is the queen going with him? I don't really believe he needs his mother to chaperone him while he's out learning whatever he needs to go to school to learn. I've gathered that the school is within the city so it's not like he's going to be all that far away, either. I don't really want to think about this, actually, since it'll probably just seem more and more suspicious if I do.

The sudden declaration form the queen about her departure does seem to have surprised the king even more than it did me, it seems. Well, whatever. Like I thought, it'll only seem more suspicious the more I think about it so I'll just put my efforts in watching over Jolene. I've also been considering names and think I might have started coming to a good idea for one. I kind of want a title attached, too, like the one the king has but that might take me being used in a few more battles before I can consider it appropriately. As a kind of homage to my past world I thought about trying to take something from there to use as my name and I went through a lot of possibilities.

I thought about a lot of famous weapons and unfortunately most of what I could think of were swords. Then I tried to think of some things from various languages in my past world to see if I could remember anything there and I came up with a few things there to play around with. Eventually I thought that maybe I should just combine some of it together in various ways until I came up with something that seemed to fit. So far I'm thinking of Sanguinal but it still feels just a little off to me. I'm going to work on it a little more but I want to make sure I have it figured out before too much longer so I can start calling myself with it to get used to it and be ready for my first true wielder.

So with the queen and prince finally leaving the throne room and all I can now pay more attention to what's going on in here and actually care. Unfortunately it doesn't seem like there's a lot happening. Everyone is going off to do whatever it is that they do when they're not here while the king is getting ready to do his daily thing on the throne. This is part of why I just couldn't accept him. This is such a boring way to live and is no place for a weapon of my caliber to just sit like a decoration. No, I'm not complaining so much as I'm just pointing it out. The king has done what he can to treat me as the weapon I am and his job is kind of necessary but it's just not something I feel like I could happily accept being a part of for who knows how many generations.

Well, since it looks like Jolene is off to train herself some more I'll just watch her and kind of vaguely listen to whatever's going on in here. Hm? It seems her sister has pulled her aside to talk to her for a bit. I wonder what it's about. It's times like this that I wish I could hear as well as see in the places that I focus on. With the discipline that they've been trained with and my type of vision it makes it really difficult to read the mood in their faces or body language to try and get any clues so all I can do is watch and wait to see if there's some larger sign or something.

Jolene seems to think little on the subject of their conversation it seems since she's turning away and shrugging her shoulders. The younger princess is shaking her head at the reaction, too. At least it doesn't seem to be a major disagreement. Now for the more important question of the moment: which weapon is Jolene going to practice with today? I choose the sword. I don't really think she needs to learn it as much as pole weapons but it seems she has some sort of deal with the king that if she gets good enough that she can start using me. I guess that's kind of fair since the king still thinks I'm just a sword. Oh, looks like today's a miss on my part. She's grabbing the new weapon the king recently got for her to play with. I think it's a gisarme. I'm not really an expert in what weapons are called, so I can't be sure. It's a polearm that's the closest thing to a scythe anyone around here has seen, though.

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She's doing pretty good with it and I've already decided that she fulfills that condition of potential perfectly. She's also got the respect thing mostly down and the only reason she doesn't sneak in here to play with me like she used to is because the king made her agree not to in return for letting her learn combat and have the freedom she does. Which also points at the freedom condition being mostly taken care of. That one can use a little work but I think she's close enough that I can bend on it slightly by saying that once we're together she'll have more freedom, anyways. That just leaves her with some great objective. I kind of want to bend on this one as well but if there's no objective for her then there's also no real reason that she would need me so I'll just have to wait and let her grow from this point on. It's probably a good thing if she ends up never needing me for some objective like that but at least if something does happen she'll be ready now.

In a similar vein, having her constantly train like this is giving me plenty of knowledge on how to be used myself someday. It would obviously be even better if I were the one being used but I can still get some ideas on how to be wielded appropriately and so forth from watching all these sparring sessions. Like what she's doing right now where she's trying to hold off the guy flanking her with the pole end while she deals with the guy in front of her with the bladed end. I'm sure I could figure a lot of these things out myself but when I watch like this I can also see how some things that seem like they should work end up not working as well as could be hoped. Like how this guy is still getting some good hits in even though she's trying to hold him back. The pole end of the weapon just isn't as threatening and if someone is willing to risk a broken bone or a bruise then it's not as difficult to get past it with most of the attention elsewhere.

It's times like these that I'm glad I chose this young princess to strive to learn this stuff for me.

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Oh? What is the younger princess planning by coming here this late at night? She never showed any interest in touching me like the other two before but it's not like there's much else besides the throne in here. Hmm. She should be old enough so if she does then I'll just let her have the normal amount that I give the king. Oh. Well, I'll be prepared still, just in case, but it looks like she's here to find out what the throne feels like.

"*sigh* So this is what it feels like to sit here, huh? It's not nearly as comfortable as I thought. Maybe Jolene has a point in not caring about any of this..."

She's looking pretty intensely at me all of a sudden. Is there a smudge on my blade or something? I'm certain I have no nicks or dents so that can't be what she's looking at.

"Hmm. It's just a strange sword. I don't see what the big deal is."

Oh. I guess she is curious, after all. Yup, she's reaching out to try gripping me. Granted I also don't think my vision stuff is all that amazing but she hasn't experienced it yet so I'll see how it goes after this.

"What is this? It's like I can see everywhere...ugh...my head...hurts...so much..."

She let go pretty quickly there. I can tell that I gave her a headache because she's shriveled herself up on the throne while holding her head with both hands. I guess she's not ready to handle me yet. It's not like I really expected anything different but pleasant surprises are always nice and having more potential candidates for true wielders wouldn't be a bad thing.

"That's...just painful...how did Jolene manage to spend whole nights enjoying something like that? I'd say that she enjoys the pain and it would explain everything except that both her and Father claim that it doesn't hurt them. *sigh* That just makes Jared the strange one for wanting this thing even though it does hurt him."

That's actually news to me. I didn't know that the prince had any real interest in me. I can only hope it doesn't drive him to try anything strange or stupid in the future. I could see him fulfilling the condition of having an objective someday since he seems pretty hungry for war but there's no respect, freedom, or potential in him so he pretty much fails as a true wielder. This little princess doesn't seem to have the potential or freedom either but she seems wise enough to show me respect if she ever found out my true nature.

"I hope Mother doesn't put too many strange ideas in his head while he's gone. I think that as long as he's willing to give this stupid sword to Jolene then that would settle any discord between them but Mother may decide that he deserves to have everything he wants regardless of how little sense it makes. It seems this has been a rather fruitful night, after all. I've gained just a little more respect for my sister from this. Maybe I should actually start being a little nicer to her and supporting her wishes more? Hmm. Either way, I suppose I shouldn't tarry her too long."

The little princess hopped off the throne and started to walk away. She took one last look my way before leaving the room completely. I'm still watching her as she makes her way back to her room but I have to admit that there was some interesting information there. It seems there will be some turmoil in the royal family within the next few years if nothing changes. I might have to start working on something that I decided not to try a while ago.

I had this wild though some time back that maybe if I focused on someone while trying to use my empathy that I might be able to put some of it out at a distance. It was only a thought and I couldn't think of any use for the ability even if I had it unless I intended to reveal myself but now I'm thinking it might be a good way to warn Jolene if something happens. I think that if I'm really careful then I can practice on her in her sleep. If she shows any kind of reaction then I'll know that I succeeded and hopefully not wake her up. I'd probably be able to practice on anyone but I don't want to make things worse for me if I do accidentally wake them up.

There's no time like the present to start work on something, especially when there's not much else to be doing. Let's see. I should focus as much as I can, first. Hmm. No, this isn't enough. I want her entire being to be as clear as possible. This is pretty difficult even at this range. Okay, now let's let her feel how happy I am about her growth with the objective of holding me for real someday. Just a little at a time, though. It's getting hard to keep up this kind of focus while controlling how much empathy I'm sending. Okay, that's enough. I'll rest for a while and try again later. Whoever heard of a weapon getting tired? I'm a living thing, though.

I guess this means it's about time to start really working on improving myself again as well. If I had been diligently working on my vision like I should have been then it probably wouldn't have been nearly as difficult to keep up a clear focus on her like that. I think I've learned my lesson for now. I should keep up with my own self improvements when and where I can or it'll only make things harder in the future. I should try to remember all the other little ideas I've had over the years so I can try some of them out, too. I might need them someday after all, regardless of how silly some of them sounded at the time. Which leads me to question if I should try and find some way to check up on magic as well. It's utterly ridiculous if I think about it too much but there might actually be a way and that could end up being very useful indeed.

Unfortunately, I'm still fairly certain that almost anything I come up with would be massively easier and more productive to learn with a true wielder to help me out. The ability to actually communicate with words alone can make a huge difference. That and having someone know that I'm actually alive and taking me with them when they go to learn something instead of me just trying to learn it all in roundabout ways would put me in a proper learning environment. I guess there's not much I can do about that for now, though, so I'll just try to redouble my efforts and work with what I have for now.