"Galleon?" Arshtat asked the Knight the next morning before breakfast. The pitch in her voice and her inquisitive eyes begged the question that she dare not ask aloud. The maturing knight nodded his head to her before taking his post outside the family's apartment. Arshtat felt a wide grin spreading across her face. She was quick to dress and eat before the morning contests. When the updated list of combatants arrived, she quickly looked through the matchups searching for the time of Ferid's fight.

Dashing out of the apartment, Arshtat hit something solid, and with a small yelp of surprise, narrowly missed hitting the hard stone floor. She felt strong arms holding her up. Looking up she saw the dark eyes of the young man who had been occupying her thoughts. Locking gazes the pair stood there silently for a moment before a deep cough broke the spell. Arshtat stood up, taking her weight off of him and looked away blushing.

"Thank you." She said in barely more than a whisper, fighting her desire to lose herself in the deep pools of his eyes.

"You are most welcome, Your Highness." He responded, his voice rich, deep and warm as he bowed slightly to her. "Though perhaps Your Highness could be more careful when exiting a room?" Despite the reprimand held within his words, his voice was filled with humor and a smile danced on his lips.

Oh god his lips…

Masking her desire to fall once more into his strong arms, she matched his smile with a small rueful smile of her own.

"We will take your advice under consideration." She gave him a small nod of her silvery head before continuing down the hall to the royal box.

Ferid watched her retreating back until Galleon coughed to get his attention again.

"Sorry." He apologized.

"The Consort is expecting you." The older knight reminded him before escorting Ferid into the makeshift study.


"Ah. So you are Ferid of Obel. You fight very well." Kauss Barrows, consort to Princess Falzrahm and father of Arshtat and Sialeeds, would-be Captain of the Queen's Knights, said in greeting to the young warrior.

"Thank you, Sir." The younger man stood at attention, as his military training dictated he do in front of a superior.

"You would be an excellent addition to the Queen's Knights."

"I don't plan to be just an addition, Sir."

"Do you realize what I'm offering you?"

"Yes Sir. However, I plan to win the Games. And if I remember correctly, that would put me as the eventual captain of the knights and personal bodyguard of the future Queen." Ferid was honest and direct, a trait the nobleman Kauss, who had little-to-no military training, found disturbing.

"What makes you so sure you can win? You have some nefarious plan to best all of the champions?"

"No Sir. I am simply better than them."

"Really." He said skeptically

"Yes Sir. And I have a vested interest in doing well. Those champions are only interested in their paycheck or their next meal."

"Well, what if you lose? Won't you feel humiliated if you are defeated? Especially since you have, as you say, a vested interest?"

"Perhaps."

"Well wouldn't it be better to quit now and take a position in the Queen's Knights, to avoid that possibility?"

"With all respect Sir, I owe no allegiance to Falena. So If I lose, which I doubt is possible, I will simply move on. Either I will continue my travels or perhaps return home."

Kauss was beginning to grow angry. Why was this foreign twerp so damn impervious to my manipulations?

"What makes you think that a foreigner like you could be good enough for my daughter?" the veins on the side of Kauss's head were beginning to throb as he got down to the heart of what was bothering him.

"Honestly Sir, I do not believe you will ever think anyone is good enough for your daughter. However, I, like all young people in my country, have had extensive military training, am well versed in both land and marine-based offensive and defensive tactics. I come from a family with a long military history and strong ties to the royal family, am a master of several fighting styles and the eldest of eight children so I am use to putting down petty squabbles. I think I have a good shot of winning your daughter and of handling the politically and military needs of your country."

Kauss just stared at him for a moment, dumbfounded.

"If there is nothing else, Sir, I have a match to prepare for." Ferid cut the interview short and left the office to ready himself for his fight.


Galleon caught up with the young man as he headed back to the barracks.

"Bravo and well-played, young sir." Ferid turned to the voice and smiled when he recognized the knight who brought him the princess's note. "You will need such confidence to handle the nobles when you win the right to be the future Queen's consort."

"Thank you again."

"For what?" the older man asked as Ferid pulled a corner of the note from the inside of his shirt.

"Oh you're welcome. And just so you know, even though we are not supposed to pick favorites, the Queen's Knights are rooting for you, well most of us."

"Thanks."

"After your performance for Kauss back there, probably not him, but he's just the noble whose champion happened to win the last Games." Ferid smiled and nodded his understanding.

"She took a great risk, didn't she?" he asked, fingering the edge of the note sticking out of his shirt.

"Yes, she did. She of all people is not supposed to show favoritism. But… well, she is young woman. And people often do things they aren't supposed to when they are young."

"Tell her that … that I appreciate her support. Can you tell her for me?" For a brief moment, Ferid looked far more like a young man desperately in love than a skilled warrior about to enter the battlefield. His eyes searched for understanding in the older man.

"Of course." Galleon gave him a small bow and a smile before turning back toward the royal wing of the arena.


Arshtat sat expectantly. She was waiting anxiously for her chosen champion to enter the field. Absently she chewed her fingernail as she replayed her brief conversations with Ferid and then with Galleon after the little run-in that morning.

So he did understand what I was trying to tell him. She thought excitedly. The announcer called his name as he entered the arena. Arshtat sat a little straighter so as to see him better. Ferid… her heart beat a bit more rapidly in her chest as she watched him stride confidently into the arena. She saw him look up at the royal box, directly at her and her breath quickened. The announcer called the name of the Barrows family champion and she heard her father grunt a sign of approval. The flags dropped, Arshtat leaned closer to the edge of the box and the fight began.

The Barrows champion landed the first blow, but Ferid quickly recovered and increased the flurry of his blows. Ducking and dodging left and right, the young Islander got under the taller man's guard and threw a barrage of punches to the Barrows champion's gut. Sliding his leg around his opponent's ankles, Ferid wrestled him to the ground. With a short flurry of swift strikes to his head and neck, his opponent was unconscious.

Arshtat resisted the urge to stand and applaud, but she could not keep the excitement from her face. Kauss sat back in his chair, grumbling with frustration. Ferid gazed up at the royal box at the flustered princess and gave her the biggest grin he could summon before he was escorted out of the arena for the day. Thunder rumbled overhead as the announcement was made of a postponement of that afternoon's matches due to inclement weather.

"Mother, may I be excused to my room?" Arshtat asked politely, trying to hide her excitement.

Her mother dismissed her with a wave as she tried to comfort her husband over the loss of his favored competitor.

Arshtat walked as quickly as she could without drawing too much attention to herself. Entering her room, she flopped onto the bed her sister was laying on reading.

"He won again, Sialeeds." Her pleasure was plainly evident in her voice now.

"That's great." Sialeeds said flatly, turning a page in her book.

"Oh, Sialeeds. I'm sorry you and Gizel got caught but you had to realize the punishment you would receive for sneaking out with him. You know how loyal Rubetha is to Mother. There is no way she could keep a secret like that."

Sialeeds sighed heavily.

"Yeah, but I still don't see what the big deal is. I mean, Mother made the arrangements for us to marry herself. So what's wrong with us getting to know each other."

"I'm sure there's nothing wrong with getting to know each other in a theoretical sense, but Sialeeds, he had his tongue down your throat." Sialeeds gave her sister an impish grin at the recollection. "And you know Mother. She's always keeping her options open."

Sialeeds rolled her eyes.

"Just like Mother to play political games with her children's lives." Sialeeds replied. Silence hung between them for a moment before Arshtat spoke suddenly.

"I need to see him again."

"Again? You've never met him." Sialeeds returned to her book.

"Well, I have… sort of. I ran into him in the hallway this morning when Father had summoned him."

"You ran into him?"

"Yes, like… literally. He caught me before I fell."

"Aww. How sickening…" Sialeeds deadpanned. Arshtat was quiet, remembering that seemingly endless moment when he had held her and she lost herself in his eyes.

"Anyway, I need to see him. I want to talk to him."

"Well then, go down to the barracks and talk to him." Sialeeds turned another page roughly.

"You know I can't do that." Arshtat hugged her knees to her chest and rested her chin on them. Rocking for a moment, she tried to think of a plan to see Ferid once more.
"Sialeeds. I know this is asking a lot, but can you help me?" Her planning had failed her and she knew her sister had a vast amount of experience slipping away from her parent's watchful eyes. Sialeeds looked up from the book she was trying to at least appear to be interested in. Meeting her sister's pleading eyes, she sighed and closed the tome.

"You're right. It is asking a lot. I've already gotten punished for sneaking out once this trip.

"You didn't get punished for sneaking out. You got punished for 'unladylike behavior'. And you're extremely lucky that Gizel didn't get any worse than he did." Arshtat reminded her before begging her for her help. "Please Sialeeds. You are so much better at this than I am."

"At what? Getting in trouble?"

"Well… yeah." Sialeeds chuckled at Arshtat's honesty.

"OK." Sialeeds sighed with mock reluctance. "We will need to make this as legitimate a reason as possible to get your away from Mother's watchfulness. That means Galleon will have to come with us, minimum. And now since they don't trust me to go out alone, since they think I'll probably try to see Gizel—and they're right— so Rubetha's presence is also a given." As Sialeeds thought for a moment, a simple but sly plan rolled through her mind.

"You said they canceled the Games due to bad weather today right?"

"Yes." Arshtat was skeptical, not quite understanding her sister's mischievous mind. "What are you thinking?"

"What about tomorrow?"

"Maybe. They said the storms were moving slowly and may linger the next couple of days."

Sialeeds chuckled as a wicked grin spread over her face.

"Well they don't call it Stormfist for nothing. I have a plan…" she leaned close to her sister and described her idea in detail.