As Rowena carefully sipped her hot tea, her gaze moved from one brother to the other. Nothing in the book had indicated that her first brother was someone who acted impulsively, but perhaps she should make a mental note.

"I thought it would be better to come here, just to make sure the envoy from the Territory arrives safely in Kadena."

'He could have joined us at a stop near the capital, though.' Rowena, still hiding her face behind her teacup, tilted her head. "Isn't Young Master Colin coming back with us?"

Alan blinked and looked at his sister, his eyebrows furrowed. "No... he will have to stay. In case something else happens."

'I guess he can't instantly take a hike, huh? Makes sense, though.' Outwardly, she gave an understanding nod, while her first brother stared at her for so long that she began to feel faint. "If there's nothing to talk about that concerns me, I'd like to return to my room."

"That seems appropriate. I apologize for delaying you."

After heading for the door, she turned once more to give them a polite send-off. "Good night, First Brother, Second Brother."

"Good night, Rowena." Alan still had that unsettling look on his face, but judging by his words, she didn't feel threatened by him at all.

She didn't bother with much, merely watched as Norina and Ava packed the few things she had brought with her to the estate. The blueprints had already found a new home; she felt a bit empty now.

With a sigh, her eyes scanned the room one last time, as she would be very busy when they came to wake her up in a couple of hours. It would be a lie to say that her room hadn't surprised her the first time she stepped into it, but now it almost felt like home.

Even the weeks she had spent in the annex hadn't felt as natural as these days in the Territory. It was almost sad, to some degree.

As she looked around, her attention landed on a certain object that she had always found interesting, but had never felt comfortable enough to touch. Now that she was going into an unpredictable future, she should at least... try?

"Norina," she said without thinking, "can you please hand me the violin?"

The blonde maid, who had just finished her work, looked at her mistress with a puzzled expression. For a second, she had to comprehend the order she had just received, while Ava tucked one of her long, dark brown strands behind her ear and watched the scene unfold.

Ava herself hadn't worked for the Duchy long enough to have ever seen her play, but she was aware of the fact that she had once played. She was told that her performance was great, that she had worked on her skills as if possessed, just to surprise her ailing mother.

It would have been a great story to tell, had it not ended with her laying down the instrument, along with her sanity, shortly after her mother's death. No, she couldn't think like that anymore.

Now that she had finally come out of her shell, Ava wanted to believe as well, just like the naive brat who was currently busy removing an old violin from its stand.

"I'm sure Humphrey had the servants take good care of it, but it's quite old," she warned, worrying what would happen if she tried to play and it didn't come out well.

But she didn't need to fear - because Celia had never played a tune in her entire life, at least not in the lifetime she remembered. There was no way it would come out right. Still, it was something she had to try at least once in this life.

Her hands shook as she tried to tuck the violin between her chin and chest, holding the bow unsteadily before inhaling and exhaling to calm herself. Her heart was beating wildly, though she wasn't sure why.

'Is this how it feels?' Once she put her hand on an old guitar. It was broken and frayed; burn marks adorned the exterior. She had found it on the wet ground, water dripping into the body, at the site of a Visitor disaster.

The sad remnant of someone's life, lying there for the taking. Of course, the cords were mostly broken as well, so holding it was all Celia had really done. But it already felt so different.

Norina held her hands behind her back, hiding her anxiously clenched fingers as she wished her mistress good luck. Then she heard it.

The bow touched the strings, she tried to stroke them gently, but it felt as if something was working against her. It wasn't that easy, there was no way to do it smoothly. The first note sounded jagged, her shoulders jerked, and Rowena was almost ready to put it back down that instant.

'No, I don't want that. I want to try for real this time.' Another long breath, she had to steel herself, because there was something inside her that told her, "You're not meant for this," "Who are you to sit there and play?"

The blonde maid smiled as she saw her mistress shake her head briefly and reposition herself with the instrument. It felt more natural than before. She also looked a little more relaxed now, as if she knew things couldn't get any worse.

Her arms seemed to be telling her how to move. She didn't fight the feeling, it was like punching in a pin she'd used a thousand times before and didn't even actively know the numbers anymore, but her fingers did.

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Her eyes trembled as her ears heard a melody. 'A real melody! Is it a song? Am I playing it?' She couldn't tell.

Her eyes were burning as her torso moved with her arms, providing enough power to move the bow, but not enough to tear the strings. 'So what? I can't fight properly, but I can play the violin instead now?'

It meant that her muscle memory really didn't come with her, but that didn't mean that this body never memorized anything at all. And not only her two maids smiled when they heard the piece.

Unbeknownst to them, since the violin wasn't exactly a quiet instrument, there were several ears listening as well. In the main salon, not far below Rowena's feet, two young men stopped their conversation and looked up at the ceiling for a few moments.

"I haven't heard that melody in a while," the man with the lavender hair muttered in surprise.

"It's out of tune."

"Well, it's not that bad."

The black-haired man snorted, "She'd better go to sleep." Despite his words, the corner of his lips twitched slightly as he listened to the piece his mother had loved so much.

For Rowena, the feeling after putting down the violin kept her from even closing her eyes. Instead, she looked at her hands as she lay there, holding them up in the pale moonlight and smiling an idiotic smile at her still shaking fingers.

As was to be expected, since she had barely slept that night, Rowena was basically ready to be carried to her carriage, along with her luggage. It was a surprise even to herself that she had managed to retain some of her dignity by walking there herself.

She had eaten a hearty meal before leaving, but the drowsiness and the shaking of the carriage didn't help her to keep it where it belonged. This time they would be traveling for much longer, so she had to accept that this was how it was going to be.

Even after they had attached their Tevak horses, she still looked longingly in the direction of the drake her first brother had brought with him. It would be waiting there, or perhaps someone would take it back to its proper stables.

Whatever it would be, she couldn't take it to her destination, because riding one required a lot of Mana control. An amount of Mana she wasn't sure she had, but more importantly, no one else knew she could have had.

Even Colin, who was now aware of her Mana skills, didn't know the extent of them and wasn't supposed to. So she couldn't go around telling people that she was as proficient as her dear first brother, the future Duke of Varnhagen, and could keep herself alive on a drake.

'It pisses me off.'

Again, her face must have spoken for her, for Norina jumped into action. "My lady, is something wrong? Are you feeling sick?"

By now, Norina had figured out that her mistress didn't take kindly to carriages and knew she had eaten quite a bit for breakfast. Not that it felt odd to her, as she always ate for five, 'But maybe,' she thought, 'I should have told her to restrain herself before the ride.'

Of course, it didn't really matter how much she'd eaten, because the truth was, she simply hated carriage rides. 'Again, I wonder why they don't have teleportation.'

'I must say, I still don't understand your obsession with that. Celia's Earth did not have teleportation either. The magic was the same as here.'

'Shut up, Captain Obvious.' Hiding her annoyance behind a reassuring smile to her two maids, she thought, 'Don't always butt in out of nowhere, I don't need your comment on this.'

'I understand.'

The good thing about someone who wasn't very personable was also the fact that they didn't notice when someone wasn't very 'personable' to them.

It took two days again, until they were somewhere close to the capital. All the times they had to stop and rest were spent by them in mostly silence. Only Logan Randall kept making funny remarks and winking in the three women's direction.

Still, it became arduous quite soon, Rowena felt weary. They had already joined the rest of the delegation, with all the important people for this diplomatic mission in tow. They also closed in on the southern border.

They also had to cross a long bridge very soon. The Arlen Empire was almost parted in two by a long fissure that had turned into a gorge after centuries on its lower half, so the guards would be very strained, as almost everything could lead to one's death on a bridge that long and high.

"Now that we are part of a larger envoy, we travel more openly. Do you think we could visit an inn?" Ava's thoughts came out loud as she realized she shouldn't have spoken so freely. "I'm sorry, my lady, please don't mind me."

"No, speak. I am bored." It wasn't a lie.

"Um, well, we will be traveling through some larger areas. Before we enter the Lodden Empire, we will rest one last time at the Nerena Marquisate, right after crossing the gorge. I heard the knights mention it."

At this word, Norina seemed to react, but said nothing.

"Is something wrong?" This time, it was Rowena asking her.

"Oh, I," the blonde maid said, noticing the two piercing stares that met her in the otherwise empty carriage, "I originally lived in the Nerena territory. The Chief Overseer arranged for me to apply to the Duchy. Otherwise, someone like me wouldn't have... No, I mean, I'm just very grateful."

"Is that so? You traveled a long way for a mere job."

With an awkward laugh, the girl in question scratched the back of her frizzy head. "Well, I've been a maid since I was a child, so I'm pretty experienced for my age." She realized what her words must have sounded like, and her eyes grew wide and round. "That's not what I meant! I just..."

Loud laughter filled the carriage, even Ava had to hold back. "Why? You're great, Norina. I couldn't think of anyone better than you." Rowena didn't even feel like laughing that much, but something in her maid's eyes reminded her of an old cartoon. 'As a matter of fact, I've never met other maids in my life, so of course you're the best.'

"Thank you... for saying that, my lady." Norina had her hands on her knees, gripping the fabric of her dress skirt tightly. "If you hadn't chosen me back then, I wouldn't have gotten the job. There would have been no other chance for me to work in such a big house. I'm truly grateful."

'What? So Rowena chose you?'

When she didn't say anything, Norina, suddenly on the verge of tears, bit her lower lip. "I know you probably just felt sorry for me because I looked the least promising and you didn't even need me at first, but... you chose me anyway."

"Norina..." Ava started, deciding whether or not to put a hand on her shoulder, since they hadn't been very close.

It was a strange situation for her to be in, since she had come here on someone else's recommendation.

'Why did it even need to be a big house in the first place?' was what went through Rowena's mind instead.

It felt as if something was missing from her words, something that would explain why she had to travel across the Arlen Empire to find a job, when a competent young maid would surely be welcome in many smaller households.

She opened her pale, rosy lips to ask just that, when a sudden sensation of the carriage hitting an obstacle shook the three young women to their core. Something crashed, the vehicle felt as if it had stopped as it tilted forward, throwing the noble lady off her seat and into the arms of her maids.

"No way," she muttered, her hips aching from clashing with the bench, as she fumbled for something to hold onto, 'did someone actually throw themselves in front of a carriage drawn by a bunch of demonic warhorses?'