Sunlight split the dawn of a brand new day. The Guardhall of the Shieldbearers came alive well before dawn.
Qheria had been awake already for hours, hard at work, as usual. She was a devoted Shieldbearer, a knight of the people. The Guardhall had been her home even as a young child, and even now, still so young, remained her home to this day. Each day she spent in earnest, in the shadows of her mother, a legendary hero of the ages. Xyithy may be her mother, but she was also her aspiration. Each day was another day of improvement, to reach higher and higher, to reach a level everyone expected of her, she included. The daughter of a great hero, it was inevitable, of course.
She wasn't alone. Everyone in the Guardhall looked up to her mother, reaching forward to their own measure of fame. Voices clattered behind her and she worked.
"Was there any news from last night's incident?" "Yeah, the target was found safely and returned home." It wasn't like the Shieldbearers were military. The Guardhall might look like some kind of foreboding cathedral, but the politics within were neither religious nor military. Their role was to look after their people. "I heard the little girl was rather adorable too!" The people.. including their kids. When it came to fighting, her opponents were naught more than bandits, thieves, and other criminals. Sometimes, wildlife from the woods would show up, cause problems, and she might be called to deal with that too. Some Shieldbearers, like the woman who just spoke, weren't even interested in the fighting aspects. Which worked out well then, because usually their jobs just involved thinks like searching for lost children, maybe a missing purse.
She flipped though the morning's paperwork, some minor cases still not resolved. The next page on the stack, a dispute between two farmers, as a horse was caught grazing upon the other's cornfield across it's fence. Both argued that the other was supposed to leave such goods farther from such a barrier, it was almost hopeless. It was much like the others in the selfsame stack.
"Qheria, you're on duty for patrol of the market square in almost an hour. You should be getting ready, shouldn't you?" Technically, she should be doing paperwork until that one hour mark begins, so its not like she was behind or anything. Still, it was pretty clear she was being told that she was getting in the way, and things here would be taken care of. Like clockwork, she got her stuff together and admonished her shield, the icon of her occupation. It was a small kiteshield, adorned with the blue and gold crest of the same occupation, and unassuming fortress wreathed in light. It was her mother that had came up with the selfsame crest, though she never did figure out the source of its inspiration. It looked cheesy, none the less. The fortress was probably supposed to show strength of fortitude, but considering the heroic event her mother had gotten her great reputation from originated from the structural failure of the castle of the crown and her heroic rescue of the royal family amidst the collapse, it seemed ill-fitting. Still, at least it was a thing, there could certainly have been worse.
Having started early, she was similarly prepared early. Her partner, not so much. She glanced up at the sky and its passage of time, getting worried about falling behind. Several minutes later, her partner finally arrived, passing her with hardly a care. She hurried to join step.
"Qheria, you're late. The Shieldbearers does not tolerate delinquency, and leaving your partner here waiting for you isn't doing them any justice either." The previous patrol had intercepted her partner and caught her stepping behind. Having been left on patrol late, they placed blame on the most obvious culprit. "I- I was just.. just over.." "I don't want to hear it. I'll be certain to report my complaints. Just don't screw up any worse, like you usually do."
Like usual, because this happens all the time. She works probably harder than anyone, and no one ever notices. Then, because she is so easy to walk all over, she gets blamed for everything. Worst, she wasn't exactly capable of standing up for herself either, fighting back, or defending herself. She looked after others way more than she looked after herself.
With that, her patrol begun. For a while, nothing of importance happened, just the people of the everyday doing what they do everyday. At one point, the two of them noticed a young boy being suspicious. With careful inspection, they noticed he was hiding a knife. The knife was a leatherweaver's blade, designed for shaping leather. It was also remarkable at un-shaping leather. Soon after, a young noblewoman entered the market, carrying a hefty leather purse. The young man started after her.
Her partner started forwards, so she brought him to pause. "Wait, he hasn't done anything with obvious intention yet, if we act too soon he would be free on denial." Her partner brushed her off and moved in, not willing to give the boy any opportunity to run away with ill gotten gains. Her partner arrived while the young lady was focused intently on a stall of pretty dresses, totally oblivious to her surroundings. The boy was on approach.
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"Halt! You boy, stand where you are and don't move. You'll be coming with me." "Uh, wha? Wha-eher did I do? I been good, s'truth." "Good boys don't brandish knives." "Oh, dat? I bought it meself, my own hard workin money and all." "It's clear what you were going to use it for." "Is? I mean, I been practin' really hard, I got this girl I like and all, so ya know, I wanted to impress 'er and make something for 'er. I didn't know it was such an obvious thing, wantn ta make stuff like that and all. I know it might not be fair and such trying, staring at the merchens with all their quality stuff and trying ta learn from em, but I didn think it was against laws and stuff..."
The market had turned to look upon this sudden street performance, the pity for the young boy painted painfully clear upon many of the onlookers who weren't otherwise upset that the Shieldbearers' scene was interrupting business. It was the exact act of denial she was worried about originally. This was going bad.
"I-I think it.." "Really ma'am, truly, was it so bad." Even the little boy spoke over her, and having thrown herself in to bring things to a halt, she found herself unable to impact much of anything. Her partner was also growing irrational, irritated by the boy's blatant lies. When he made a move to restrain the boy, the crowd erupted in the boy's defense. Still, with little they could legally do against a Shieldbearer, all this accomplished was slowing things down. All things considered, slowing things down worked admirably in the boy's favour.
"Okay you two, what's going on!" Having learned about a commotion in the market square, the chief himself showed up to deal with it. The boy turned to him, pleading his case as he had been, presenting himself fully a victim of rash circumstances. And so, things went from bad to worse, as the chief took rational action and brought a stop to the whole thing.
"On the behalf of the Shieldbearers, we are considerably sorry for the grievances brought against you. We shall make sure to deal with this issue internally, so that it does not happen again." The chief was mostly talking to the boy, but was also bringing this to the crowd. Merchants were still upset at the distraction, after all, and something needed to counter the horrible rumors this would cause. He then turned to the two on patrol, his eyes demanding that they follow. Meekly, Qheria and her partner left with the chief.
"Would either of you care to bother to explain that farce that happened back there?" "We- I- He.." "My partner had spotted the boy was brandishing a knife, so we moved in to secure the boy before any incident would occur." "Before there was any indemnifying proof? Certainly you two should by now understand that acting rashly like that would just provide deniability for the scene. Qheria, most of all, this is very disappointing. It was not this morning that I got word of a complaint that you were late for this selfsame patrol, and I've found this morning that you had left unfinished paperwork as you so thoughtlessly abandoned your work, just to leave early. You've had your head in the clouds all day. It's quite seriously inexcusable. With you in this state, I'm going to have to insist on a leave of duty from you, as you take time to recover your mind from whatever cloud you left it on."
The chief then promptly confiscated her shield, shaking his head in utter disappointment. There was nothing she could do to come to her own defense.
With that, it appears a form of.. vacation.. was extended to her. She decided the best course of action was to go on a trip of self-refinement. Clearly, she wasn't as good as she needed to be, she needed to get better. But no one here would even listen to her. She would then go on a journey and return a better person. She carefully calculated a rational destination. The crown of the Qicir had its castle out east, it was where her mother found her fame after all. However, the chances of a second incident wasn't likely, it was almost rude to consider. The Elniri was a thing, but... she knew the elves would be willing to listen to her even less than her own people. The warfront honestly was the same problem, people way above her with a situation many times worse. Further west was the Qiciri, and entering the territory of a war enemy would end even worse. Though, there was the arch-magus. His was a place completely neutral from the goings of society. This was possibly the most enriching opportunity she would be capable of finding. It was only a day's trip away, not a voyage she was ignorant of. Because of her station and her parentage, she wasn't exactly lacking financially either. She considered a moment the thought of letting her mother know, but decided that she had gotten in the way of enough people already. Involving her own mother, the great hero, that would be foolish. This was something she needed to resolve on her own.
She spent the rest of the day preparing properly for her voyage, packing all of the essentials. She had no idea how long she would be gone for, and attempted to compensate for that. She chose to leave her uniform behind, opting instead for a green traveling cloak and generic leather gear, brown and simple in it's almost professionalism. Her shield was already gone, so it was just a matter of course. After final nights rest at home, she set off early the next morning. As she traveled, she questioned how she might exactly accomplish her goals, how she might find a place to belong. She questioned herself, what she was doing, what she was thinking, but she had no further answers. This was all she had, she knew of only one possible answer at this point.
The citadel might be her answer. She arrived late that afternoon.