Author's note: To avoid confusion, the full name of the character is Victoria Lynn Sinclair. Her middle name is known only to her immediate family and maybe some officials who have the documents on hand. Outside of those people, nobody knows of Victoria Sinclair's middle name. So, the twelve-year-old figured it was as good a pseudonym as any.


Finally, for the first time in her life, things were looking up.

Since she ran from the convent, she had nowhere to go. Home was still there, but the mother would just send her back to this horrible place with a slap on the face and a word to the head nun to make things even more hellish.

No way she was going to face punishment for running away, even if it meant being homeless during winter. Religious people were just a bunch of wretched conmen, getting a kick out of abusing children, inventing countless reasons to hit them with a stick. They used pretentious words like discipline and virtue, but all of it was lies. Wretched, sadistic and pretentious lies.

After escaping from that dreadful prison of a convent, she found herself in a place where girls wore a uniform. That was perfect for blending in. Evidently, she stole herself a dress that was put out to dry in the sun. Any girl dressed as a novice would have been sent straight back to where she came from and that was out of the question.

Despite the theft and the dress being a little too long, nobody paid her any mind. In fact, everyone seemed constantly busy to the point of overwork. Fearing her laid back attitude would get her spotted, she did her best to look busy in the library, picking whatever book, written in Elvish to look fancy, and keeping to herself at a table in a corner. As long as she made no noise, which she was good at, nobody bothered her.

During the few days she spent there, she got her bearings on the treasure trove of knowledge around her. Smithing and Alchemy was mostly written in Dwarvish, as expected. To her, dwarves were all burly bearded bigots, but she always found their language to be a compelling mix of practicality and elegance. They used short words that sounded nice. Unfortunately, their specialty was a little too mundane for her tastes.

Magic was what she was after. She spent a few days browsing the library in search of essays and treaties about magic to get herself started. But unfortunately, Arcana wasn't mostly written in Elvish, as she had hoped. Magic, it seemed, was fragmented into all sorts of obscure languages that would be of no use outside of research. Ever the optimist, she convinced herself she could master a handful of these in no time. For the moment, the librarian was helpful to point her which books contained practical knowledge and which ones were just poetry and literature.

At regular hours, the library emptied. Only the librarian remained behind his desk and a fat boy at a table reading a book. He was there from the morning right up until everyone left for the common area, where meals were served. He was always gone when she came back.

She felt he was just like her, hitching a ride on the opulence of the upper class. Over a few days, she noticed that he was always very concentrated in his readings. Tense, even. Like he was preparing himself for something big. One day, he forgot to put his book back in the shelf. Out of curiosity, she inspected it and it was revealed to her that it was sword fighting instruction manuals that he read so intently.

Today, she opted to stay in the library to see where he headed off to when he was done reading. Having lived rich up until that point, she never ever once skipped a meal in her entire life. But she had to endure hardship in order to find out more about this martial arts enthusiast. Magic was her main focus, but she didn't want to be helpless in a fight, like those frail wizards in the tales. She always played rough with her brother Benjamin, to the dismay of her mother. She didn't want to lose that.

The bell rang the first hour past noon and he finally got up. She thought of the common area where they served stew to whoever showed up. It was probably empty by now. As she trailed him, she regretted her decision. After all, she could have just combed the place, looking for him after getting herself a nice bowl of warm, delicious, nutritious cuisine that always had the perfect seasonings.

Oh well. At least, it would be easy to follow him as he went down to… the common area. For food. Turned out a double portion was reserved for him because he was part of the maintenance crew. As if the frustration of having had her hopes up for nothing was not enough, she was denied a bowl for being late.

As the boy sat at an empty table to enjoy his meal, she approached him and slapped him behind the head before going to the girls' dorms in a huff.

"Stupid plebian!" she grumbled as she came face to face with a peace keeper.

"Hail!" he exclaimed in a jovial tone. "I'm constable Stone. If I may, I would like a moment of your time, young woman."

"I'm busy!" she snapped. "Go bother someone else!"

"Have you seen any suspicious characters prowling about?" he asked, unfazed by the girl's rudeness.

"Are the peace keepers hiring?" she asked without hiding her frustration and disdain.

"No, we are not…" the peace keeper stammered.

"The price is ten gold to tatter on someone." she continued with a fierce expression.

"Your prices are outrageous, my lady." responded Stone jokingly.

"Do you think so? For ten miserable coins, I am ready to ruin someone's life. What do you say?"

"How can one be so viciously cynical at such a young age?" genuinely marveled Stone. "I assure you, young lady, that I am not the executioner in disguise, prowling about in search of extracurricular victims. Pray tell, what is your name?"

"Lynn." she answered without a trace of hesitation. "And if you got the coin, I can resolve any crime that's bothering you."

"I prefer to catch actual criminals, if you catch my drift." Stone winked.

"You work too hard." Lynn said with a smile that was all teeth. "Just find someone you hate and have him axed in the square for the week's holy day entertainment. That's what everyone does. Relieves stress and keeps the masses loyal."

"I would like to reassure you, young lady, that reality is not that grim… but I assume that it would insult your intelligence, for you seem to know too well how the lawmaster goes about his business." said Stone with a bitter expression.

"You assumed right, constable." she said with a satisfied smile. "With your permission, I would also like to make an assumption about you."

"You got me curious. You may."

"You are…" she mused for a moment "…finished with me and are on your way to bother someone else."

"Wow!" whistled Stone. "Not many know how tell someone to shove off as you do."

"I got that from mother. Mother is very proud of me. Now shoo!"

The practiced eye of Stone couldn't help but notice an air of genuine sadness behind the veneer of cynicism as the young girl stormed off to the dorms. He'd bet his career that this was indeed Victoria Sinclair, the runaway novice.

This was the part he hated about his job. That little girl, full of character and energy, could very well end up broken in a mere few years, should her mother learn of this. Many noble children like her try and avoid the cruel fate set ahead of them by their parents, only to fall prey to men like him. Because, as peace keeper, it was his job to bring any of them who strayed back into the fold.

He was not there to do his will, but the will of the crown.