The bath water is simply divine after the… Everything that had happened today. It was genuinely hard to know just how much pain I was in until I was immersed in comfort, finally aware of all the little scrapes and immense soreness from my charge, and my fall. I rush in, and to my slight shame Pasche is a little more reserved, slipping in quietly after me. She seems amused by my enthusiasm, even as the clear embarrassment at joining me in the bath returned to her. Knowing the context now it is a little less frustrating, and honestly a little more adorable, so I gesture for her to move in closer. My magic can’t help whatever this is, but apparently I can... And that feels nice. Almost like having my very own Serena.

"Pasche, would you like some help with your hair?" Hers, much like mine, is utterly caked in blood and dirt courtesy of that trench we had shared.

She takes a moment to pause, but eventually she makes her way over to me. It's not a large bath. There isn't much space to hide from me in this bath, but it is a comfort to have her come to me rather than the other way around.

"I haven't had a proper bath since I was back home in Etrun... I did miss it dearly." She allows herself to finally relax, seated next to me, seemingly about to rest her head on my shoulder.

It probably isn't the best idea for me to be mischievous, but I find that simply must be! I slip an arm around Pasche's shoulders, and before she can react I gently pull her down, laying across my lap, her head half submerged in the water. The look on her face is honestly priceless, but I am allowed to appreciate it because it is also entirely necessary.

"May as well enjoy it to the fullest then! Just relax, I'll get the mud off you."

I run a hand over her hair. It's tangled and knotted and utterly saturated with mud, but the warm water is already working its magic. I make sure to be slow and gentle, I hardly want to cause the poor girl any discomfort after all. Going by the look on Pasche's face however, it seems she's found a discomfort all her own.

"Pasche, is everything okay?" I stop my hand, just in case I've been hurting her in my attempt to wash her hair.

She hurriedly looks away, trying to stare anywhere other than up at me. "I just... I uhhh..."

"... Oh! You've just never met someone from Kerska, huh?" At this point I’m just spitballing, but whatever's troubling her, she can just pretend it's that if she doesn't care to tell me. "You said you were from Etrun, right? That's up north in Belgica if I remember right, I can imagine you've never met someone who looks so Carthaginian."

"That's... Not quite it." She is still staring away from me nervously, though she switches gears as one of her eyebrows rises. "Come to think of it, you are right. I've never met a fellow Avernian with your particular skin tone. Kerska was part of the Carthaginian Empire till only a few decades ago, how DID a Carthaginian trade outpost end up in the Avernian High Kingdom anyway?"

"... That sounds like a really weird story to relay in the bath, Pasche." Now it’s my turn to be a little nervous, no-one who hears about the Pollineux family's 'illustrious history with Avernia' comes away from it thinking any higher of us.

"Oh... Sorry." She is withdrawing again…

And I can’t have that... "Haaaah, fine. Okay, so it started around forty years ago with a man named Caoilis, the governor of the island, who saw the Carthaginian Empire falling apart and decided he wanted out before he and his island fell right along with it."

This tends to be the part of the story where people get bored and tune out entirely... But Pasche listens on with interest, like she cares about the history of my tiny little island home. "This would be around the time that New Carthage was finally retaken by the natives of the Leather Continent, right?"

"I... Yes, it was only a few years after that." I almost feel the need to clap, not many people know about the New Carthage colony, that utterly horrifying failure… Even I only know about it well enough to know its relevance to my family’s history. "So, this man, Caoilis, gets the support of all the rich and powerful people of Kerska, and declares it independent from the Carthaginian Empire, names it 'The Grand Duchy of Kerska', and himself as its grand duke."

"... How big is Kerska exactly?"

"About the size of your average barony, maybe smaller. And it mostly just produces fish and feral cats, it's hardly an economic powerhouse."

"Calling it a grand duchy is-"

"A bit presumptuous?"

"Really fucking stupid."

My eyes go wide, I didn't expect such language from someone I am sharing a bath with! Is this just normal for people from Northern Avernia? Or... Or is Pasche just the kind of person who would say such things? ... Has she simply been a soldier longer than me? Am I going to use language like that before too long?

Pasche finally looks back up to me, regarding me curiously. "Umm... I don't think that's where the story ends, is it Serena?"

"Ah!" I snap myself out of my thoughts and shake my head, there certainly is more of the story to get to, and there will be time later to be shocked by my new friend's vocabulary. "So, Carthage sends a threat, saying they won't tolerate rebellion and that soon there will be Carthaginian boots on the ground in Kerska, and warships shelling the harbor and the towns. The Grand Duchy tried to raise a militia, but they couldn't actually find any muskets or ammunition to arm them, and they only had one cannon, an old one. They couldn't fight the Empire on their own."

"And that's where Avernia comes in?"

"Exactly. One of the rich and powerful men that Caoilis had allied with in the first place came up with a plan. No one wants to go back to Carthage, the Old Empire is falling apart at the seams and it wasn't all that great to us even at the height of its power... But we couldn't go it alone. So, this man came up with a plan to approach the Avernians, to offer submission to their High Kingdom in exchange for protection. Avernia was on board, they figured they could turn Kerska into a fortress to protect their interests in the Carthaginian Sea. The only one who wasn't on board was Caoilis himself."

"... It seemed like a fair deal, what was Caoilis' objection?"

"That Kerska would be downgraded from 'Grand Duchy' to 'County'... The way my father tells the story paints a slightly dire picture of Caoilis' vanity."

"It's... Not the most unbelievable thing I've heard of a leader doing."

"That frightens me." I nervously chuckle, the prospect that everything I've been told about my family's history might be true is a slightly harrowing one. "Anyway, that rich man decided that, simply put, Caoilis didn't need to be part of this deal. He chartered a ship in secret to ferry over a hundred Avernian soldiers. They took over the island without a fight, arrested Caoilis, and made that rich man the new Count of Avernia, promising the islanders protection from the Carthaginians."

"Sounds like a rather sneaky thing to do."

"Yeah... People do say that about my father a lot."

There is an awkward silence after that, with Pasche realizing that she may have accidentally poked a wound, and me having my wound poked... At least I manage to get the last of the mud out of Pasche's hair, now moving on to scrub the rest of her-

"It was probably a necessary one though. Carthage might've been willing to start a war with a tiny island with no army and defenses, but they probably couldn't fight an opponent with teeth. I think your father might have done the right-est thing his situation allowed."

"Hehe... That's because you haven't heard the punchline to this absurd story. The part only the Pollineux family knows." I wipe a small bit of the dirt off Pasche's face, I seem to have her enraptured attention now. "The threat was a complete fabrication. Carthage was in no state to send anyone to bring us back into the fold and honestly had no intention to try. Their soldiers were too busy fighting the war with the Malian Empire and trying to hold the fracturing empire apart, just in case anywhere more important decided to have a go at independence. The Grand Duchy was never in any danger... My father made it up, and used the threat as an excuse to legitimize his coup and sell the country to Avernia."

"... Oh." She seems utterly lost for a moment, there really isn’t a way to spin this in a way that reflects well on my family.

"After that father changed our family name to Pollineux, made Avernian the official language of the island, and changed everything to fit our new world... And that's how a Carthaginian girl ends up in the Avernian High Kingdom I guess. A grand betrayal."

"... You seem unhappy." Pasche, albeit slowly and reluctantly, reaches up to touch my face, wiping some dirt away herself. "Are you okay?"

"Oh it's just... Usually when people hear the whole story, they tend to condemn my family as opportunists and traitors. And it's hard to blame them seeing as our patriarch literally is both of those things. It's weird, having a privileged position 'earned' by bad things." Pasche's touch does honestly help a little bit, but airing out the family history is always a little hard.

"Thank you for sharing your story with me, Serena." Pasche's sheer sincerity is genuinely a little shocking, I almost jump in the face of it. "... History's good because it can tell us what absolutely will not work, so we don't end up trying it a second time. Learning it, knowing it, at least increases the chances that your fuck-ups will be completely original."

"Heh... It's like you're trying to tell me that my family's… ‘Screw-ups’ are a positive, a point in my favor."

"It is, in a way. Because you are forced to know them, you have to be embarrassed and upset by them. Which means, you're a person who knows not to do what your father did. Which is a step closer to morality than most folks get, right?" Pasche sits up, pulling herself away from her place on my lap, now entirely clean and honestly quite beautiful for it, or possibly beautiful for the sentiment. "You don't really inherit your parents' guilt, just the lessons they should have learned. Hehe, so you'd best not do anything traitorous or sneaky, or else that's entirely on you I guess-"

I admittedly probably shouldn't have followed that up with something traitorous and sneaky, but I can't help myself. I lay myself on Pasche's lap like she had laid upon mine, looking up to her with a smile. I guess I'm the only one at fault for little treachery, not my family... Which is an oddly comforting thought. That my mistakes are all my own.

Pasche looks utterly mortified to have me down here, quickly adjusting her seating so I sit higher up her lap, her voice suddenly something of a squeak. "Y... You can't just- I mean- You shouldn't-"

"I washed your hair; I was hoping you might wash mine." I smile up at the utterly flustered girl above me, hoping my appreciation of her words is apparent.

She audibly gulps before getting to work on my hair, quickly and efficiently, keeping her attention squarely there. She is honestly very good at this, better than I'd expect from a cuirassier. I didn't know hairdressing was a skill so associated with heavy cavalry.

Maybe a nice compliment might distract her from whatever has her nervous. "... I can't remember the last time I had my hair attended to so skillfully. You could probably do this for a living."

This only serves to make her curl up a little in shame. "Please don't compliment me, I'm just doing what I usually do... Did, to Chestnut. She would get mud in her hair all the time."

So, she's treating me like a horse... I’d be vaguely insulted if I didn't have context for this. "You really like horses, don't you?"

"They're loyal animals, and not... Well, they can be judgmental. If you don't approach them with confidence then they will bully you. But they aren't vain, I guess is the best way to put it. They respect things that seem more 'real' than what most nobles respect. And they're a lot more amenable to hearing me talk about history facts than most humans are."

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

"Then I'll take you treating me like a horse as a compliment."

"Please don't... Ah, not that I mean you should treat it like an insult! More just... Y'know..." I've gone and flustered her again, what is it about me that keeps doing that today? "Treat it like me being an idiot, I guess?"

"I don't think I can do that, not after you pulled out that little speech about my family and everything." I give a chuckle, hoping it might put her at ease, but I cease when I remember something that might be a little more reliable. "You seem to know your stuff about history, and people and the like. I don't think you're an idiot at all."

"Heh, I only really know about people I've never met, that I'm far away from in distance and time. When it comes to the ones in front of me I can be a bit of a mess... You only learn so much about people from books, y'know, and no amount of reading about 'charismatic people' can make you charming."

"Well then you're doing that all on your own then, aren't you?"

The noise that left Pasche at that moment could best be described as utterly broken. It seems the more Pasche knows she is doing well the more horrified she becomes. And the more she feels the need to adjust her hips, as if trying to shrink away from me. It's strange, I thought people liked having nice things said about them... I'm hardly going to try doing the opposite to see if that works for her.

She eventually manages to recover the ability to form words, as opposed to violently squeaking, although her voice is still a bit high-pitched. "In any case... I'm sorry if I say or do anything silly. I'm not really used to people; I didn't even get along all that well with my betrothed-"

"Wait, you're married?!" That came as a rather sharp surprise... Sharper than I expected honestly.

"Narrowly avoided it actually... It's funny really, the moment I started warming to the concept of marrying her, The Convention arrested my dad and sent me to war. Sometimes you really can't win."

"... The Convention arrested your Father?" And I thought my family history was tangled, Pasche seems to be her own can of worms entirely. "... Pasche, I think I want to know your story now; it sounds more interesting than mine."

"But... But yours was actual history! The kind of thing that will be written in books, that future people will study one day. My little personal drama isn't ever going to be written down anywhere, no one's going to learn anything from it-"

"I don't care about future people. I want to know more about the present person I'm sharing a bath with." I offer her my very finest smile from where I lay upon her, which only flusters her further.

"... Well, let's see if we can't change that I guess." She looks away from my head entirely, washing my hair by feeling alone, but at least she manages to keep talking. "I uhhh... So, I'm the only child of the Baron in Etrun. Mom ran off with some penniless bard soon after I was born to hear him tell it, so it was just us and the servants. Dad would have me train for the battlefield, grow strong and hardy and good on horseback, and the servants would sneak me the books I wanted... All kinds, but mostly history books."

"... I don't see where in that story I'd stop being interested in you." Although my eyes do take in Pasche's form a little more closely, vaguely muscular but horribly malnourished, more so than even Lazierte... And Lazierte isn't the daughter of a baron.

"Well, it's sort of the reason I was interested in books that might do it... I never much liked people; you see. It was awkward being around them, having them treat me as 'one of the boys' and the like. No matter how much I explained myself, they just wouldn't listen. Some would ignore me, others like my dad would get angry. I ended up just giving up on social events making friends entirely... And took instead to studying people in books, studying history... I wanted to see if anyone 'like me' had ever walked Lutice before."

"... And had there been?"

"If there were then they either weren't important enough to be written about, or actively chosen to be ignored... Maybe there's a whole treasure trove of people throughout history who were just like me. Who were also ignored, just like me."

"Sounds like that's an 'everyone else' problem, not a 'you' problem."

"... Maybe. But I never really learned how to be in the company of other people. And I certainly never learned how to... Uhh... Behave in the company of fellow women. I must confess to having something of a fondness for them, even being a woman myself."

"You too?" I see Pasche's gaze turn back to mine as I admit to my own 'bent'ness, as if she was learning something historic. "I... I must confess I've never much cared for men in that way. But women are just... Honestly irresistible at times."

"I... I completely agree! ... But I never really learned how to uhhh... Actually, speak to one, if that makes sense." And now she's looking again, and almost shaking with nerves. "So I never really tried, I just sort of shut down in their presence, the presence of anyone really but especially women I found appealing... I was considered something of an 'eligible bachelor' in the small pond of Northern Avernia and the Cimmerian Union, so a great many people were interested in knowing me and I just felt... Like I'd be a let-down if they ever actually realized that I was a woman like I kept saying. It felt bad, and I ended up retreating even further."

"Because most women aren't bent like us, you mean."

"Yeah... The world wanted me to be a certain way that I wasn't and... And it seemed to be disappointing a lot of beautiful people that I wasn't that way."

... She’s abnormal, same as me... I want to give the poor girl a hug.

Wait, I can give the poor girl a hug, she's right there!

I roll over on her lap and wrap my arms around the poor girl’s waist, which almost makes her jump with fright. "S... Serena?!"

"I uhh... I also know what it's like to not be the thing the world wishes you to be. And what it's like to disappoint people just by being yourself... And it sounds like you have it even worse than me. I'm sorry that you also know how it feels."

"Serena..." She calms herself for a moment... Before tensing again and readjusting herself. "It ummm... It stings. And I worry I may have hurt my betrothed because of it."

"... I don't think you'd be capable of that, Pasche."

"I have to know I am... When my father finally got sick of my avoidant behavior he took matters into his own hands and had me betrothed to the daughter of a Cimmerian Countess... Ah! It's not uncommon for Cimmerian nobility to marry both Icenians and Avernians as part of maintaining their neutrality amongst 'Celtic brothers' because-"

I smile, trying my absolute best to absorb the historical context, but it slides off my brain like warm, comforting water. It’s fascinating, but it doesn’t quite grip me.

And Pasche restrains herself, to my shame. "Ahem, moving on. She came to live with us, but we didn't really have much to talk about. She didn't have a mind for history, I didn't have a mind for plants and forests and the like. We both liked horses but that was less something we shared and more something we simply both did... And I felt a distance from her, even as we were right next to one another by father's insistence."

"And you worry that hurt her?"

"Yeah... It was rather neglectful of me... And even these feelings are selfish. I only really came to care about how my neglect might have been impacting her after... Well, after I borrowed one of her dresses... Having a woman around meant having her wardrobe around, and we had similar builds and it was just too much of a temptation... She caught me wearing it, looking in a mirror and smiling. And do you know what she said?"

I brace myself, preparing for something horrifying. "What did she say, Pasche?"

"... She said I might look nicer in something red... She had one for me to try, and it really did look better and I just... I think I finally felt close to her. Things may have followed from there..."

"Things?"

"Kissing things... Stripping things... Other things..."

"Ah-" Now it’s my turn to look away, face utterly flustered as Velvet thoughts try to find a place in my head. "I... I see your meaning."

Pasche audibly swallows, trying to regain at least some of our mutual composure. "... Soon after that, Dad was arrested by The Convention. The local peasants held a vote and unanimously ruled that he'd overtaxed them, and The Convention saw an opportunity to win loyalty in the North... It wasn't much of a secret that he wasn't a good baron to live under, but I never knew just how bad it was until The Convention came around with its troops. Marie ended up having to go home after that, just as I had started to appreciate her company. I would have been alone in our family house, if The Convention hadn't decided to forcibly recruit me to the army. After all, Dad had trained me well how to ride a horse and swing a sword, and good cavalry is always in demand. It was a sensible decision in that sense."

"... The Convention forced you to go to war?"

"It was that or be sacrificed to Steel to earn my freedom... And I didn't want to be separated from Chestnut." She gives a little chuckle, remembering the tragedy of a few hours ago, but it carries more sorrow than any cry. "You want to know something? ... Chestnut was a gift from Marie. Part of the dowry technically but, I took her to be a gift. Hehe, and now she's gone like everyone else is."

"Pasche... You are allowed to cry." I slowly slip myself off of her lap, back to a sitting position, and put a hand upon her shoulder. "You don't have to pretend to be someone else around me, a stoic who isn't bent and doesn't cry. It's okay."

Pasche simply stares at me a moment, as if trying to gauge whether or not I was real. And much like with Lazierte, I remain profoundly real. And remarkably hold-able, which became very clear as Pasche takes me into her embrace and begins to weep for her lost horse, and presumably her lost life in Etrun. A life I can give back, which she can never get back while being in my service... But I can at least give her something new, right?

So I wrap my arms around her in turn, held her close to me... And cast my spell on her again. I'm not sure she needs the bravery, I'm not quite sure what she needs... But it felt nice, having my heart beat with hers for a while. For once my spell was not compelling someone to act, forcing bravery and virtue upon them. It was just... Sharing space. Being together. Being one.

I move in closer, held her tighter… And felt something odd poking my ribs as Pasche continued to weep… And I realize in a hurry why she was so often moving her legs while I was on her lap. Oh dear, I’ve been cruel to the poor girl… Pasche quickly notices, holding back her tears and staring at me with guilt-ridden horror. She even tries to withdraw from me… But I don’t let her.

I smile to counter her horrified look. “You’re okay, Pasche. You’re home.”

Like with Lazierte, this has to be normal, so long as I’m okay with it… And I am perfectly okay with Pasche right now. With her being added to my sense of normal. And I suppose she agrees as she holds me tighter now, even as the tears start to dry up.

“… Serena, I never wanted to be a cuirassier. I never wanted to go to war. But now that you’re here I think I want to stay… I may not be the best officer or the best soldier but… If you’d let me, I think I would like to be your knight…” There’s an awkward pause, as if Pasche learned in a single instant how ridiculous that is. “… If that makes sense. Which it probably doesn’t and I-“

“If you want to be a knight for me then I will happily accept a knight into my service. You history dork.” I can’t help but give the giggling little barb, and thankfully it seems to amuse Pasche as much as it does me. “Hehe, my very own brave and noble knight.”