Forte could tell that it was going to be one of those days when she left her house only to find Frey leaning against the outer wall. The way she was examining her hands would have been the picture of casual disinterest if her gloves weren't so obviously designed for battle. Forte felt a frown flicker across her face. She always preferred it when Frey chose long range magical weapons and left the melee work to the length of her sword. Gloves would bring any enemy encounters into truly close quarters. Still, she couldn't say that she didn't appreciate and admire Frey's dedication to attaining proficiency in as many forms of combat as possible.
"What kind of monster did you get a request to take care of this time?" Forte asked without preamble, proud of herself for only blushing slightly when Frey leaned forward to kiss her cheek in greeting.
"Oh, nothing like that today," Frey said, smiling brilliantly. "One of the travelers who came by the shop yesterday mentioned seeing a cave not too far from the plains that might have good soil for farming and I wanted to check it out." Forte felt her heart warm. Frey probably didn't really need more farming land for her crops, but it was hard to deny that Selphia owed much of its current prosperity to their princess's diligent work. If she wanted to go exploring, Forte would hardly deny her.
"Who's our third?" Forte asked, beginning to check over her gauntlets. A proper knight was always prepared for any eventuality and she knew that her armor was in fine shape, but there was no such thing as too much precaution when carelessness came at such a steep price.
"Meg." Forte nodded even as she moved on to her breast plate. All of the town's people were reliable and would certainly have their backs, but Margaret she would trust with her life. And, most importantly, she would trust her with Frey's life. "I don't mean that you have to come," Frey continued, ducking down to meet Forte's eyes where she had knelt to inspect her boots. "I know that this is really short notice and you have responsibilities. We could spend time together later - I'll take you to dinner."
"I'd come even if we weren't, um, together." She was pretty sure that Frey knew that too. After all, she'd followed her into that creepy mansion and they'd barely been getting to know each other then. (Not that there had been anything to be afraid of! It would be silly to think that anything had been strange about what happened and it wouldn't do to dwell on such nonsense.)
"I know," Frey said and her smile was small and sweet and it would take so little for Forte to close the distance between them and kiss her even though that wasn't proper quest protocol at all. "I'm still taking you to dinner." And then Frey unceremoniously shoved a sword into Forte's hands before setting off in the direction of Margaret's house, ignoring both the the perfectly good sword already in Forte's scabbard and her attempts to hide how flustered she'd become over her own train of thought.
The latter only got worse when she realized that Frey had probably made the new sword herself.
It wasn't long into their exploration that Forte's bad feeling came to fruition, Frey having found their long-searched-for way to the level below by falling through a fresh hole in cave's apparently unstable floor. She only felt half as calm about the situation as she did because Frey had shouted up to them that she was alright before setting off to see if she could find a proper pathway so that they could reunite. Still, even knowing that Frey could take care of herself, Forte felt anxiety squirm in her gut more and more the longer they were apart.
She was so caught up in her thoughts that she almost jumped when Margaret laid a comforting hand on her shoulder. "Looks like we have a princess to rescue," she said, smiling with deliberate cheerfulness even if her eyes betrayed her own worry. "Come on, let's look for the way down ourselves. We can't make Frey do all the work."
Forte felt gratitude wash over her and set her face in grim determination. She and Margaret would look out for each other as they had always done and Frey would be fine because there simply was no other alternative. The dirt beneath her feet would not stop her from being her princess's sword and shield; as long as she drew breath, Frey would not come to harm.
They had a dinner date to keep.