Khalenhad meditated on the events of last week. Several other members of the order had also reported the newcomers, all their corpses found with a note stating a location of the cults location, and all of them being true. Someone wanted rid of the cult. Too many suspects to find out who, only the initial V. That left people who names began with the letter, or anyone with the code name V. So far he'd removed the male population so that left roughly fifty percent of the population left. "Talk about a needle in a haystack."

There there was also the encroaching presence, moving towards the city at a frighteningly quick pace. The other paladins had sensed it too. They didn't want to scare anyone so they'd kept quiet. That and when asked they actually had no idea what it was and it would be seen as embarrassing if they weren't seen as the source of magical knowledge in the city, apart from Lo of course. The girl was outshining them in that aspect. It was acceptable, she was meant to be the leading magical authority, but the fact she was so young. Her intellect could grow easily but the paladins had little time to research and were facing difficulties.

Between the two cults, hunting down the abominations, and removing the corruption from the wasteland, the order was stretched thinly. The king resurrected the order in response to the abominations, but it seemed with an problem even slightly related to magic was given to them.

Then finally there was the man preaching that the abominations weren't monsters. Normally this wouldn't be a problem, but this time people were listening. The man was said to be blessed by the gods, healing people and curing disease that the healers couldn't, a feat only possible with magic but when the paladins checked to see if he had it in any form , there was nothing, not even the trace amount that everyone had picked up from the explosion of the tower heart. They called him the Prophet.

Lo had stopped listening to Emily a few minutes ago. Somehow the girl managed to change the conversation back to fashion or the huge amount of suitors she had that Lo was sure were imaginary at first, but then the princess had pointed out the people that were staring at them, then when she'd left Lo had another glance and noticed they were still staring in her direction. That was another thing she found annoying. In Nordberg the men had preferred girls to be practical, and actually wanted to find out what they were like. Here though, life was easy enough that practicality wasn't important, and men continued to glance at her when they thought she wasn't looking. It was incredibly annoying.

She finished drinking the water she had in her small cup, before snapping her fingers and a tendril of clean water came out of the muddy earth to the side of the platform and went into her cup. There was a sudden round of applause and Lo glanced around, noticing the people were aiming it at her and what she had done with water. It was one of the simplest spells created, separating one substance from the other. Creating water though was impossible. The first rule of magic was creation of anything cannot be done, only altering the way the world flowed was possible.

"Anyone ask to spend some private time with you yet?" Emily asked nonchalantly before taking her seat.

"You know I wouldn't be able to." Lo said sadly, she did like John, but she also liked choice.

"It's not like they know that."

"A few days before I came to the capital a lord came asking me if he'd like to sell my children, he knew well enough."

"Sorry, that was one of my father's tests, he wanted to know if you were greedy enough to sell them for personal gain."

Lo let out a sigh. "What was the point of the test if I'm going to marry your brother anyway?"

"He wanted to know how much power he should give you."

"I didn't know I had any power."

"As the court sorceress you have one vote on the kings council, he has two votes and his family members have one each. Your votes will combine to give you the same power as him."

"So politically I have the same power as the king?"

"You will do yes." There was a burst of noise from a group of trumpeters. "The games are about to begin." Lo let out another sigh, she hated trumpets, they played them constantly at any event that involved the royals. When she was queen she was going to have a better instrument to announce her arrival, like the previous trumpeters' skulls. Lo shook her head, where had that thought come from.

Khalenhad crouched behind a small boulder, four other paladins copying his action but in their own hiding places. He looked at the small valley formed in the earth, analysing the area. There was a set of tents, he counted six, each large enough for twelve men. The tents were set out in a defensive formation, a pyramid with the single tent closest to the natural wall formed by the dish shape of a set of rocks. He gave a small series of hand gestures and his group moved forward.

From his new position he had a better view of the area, despite the positioning of the tents there were no visible patrols. They could still feel the presence so the camp wasn't abandoned, that set him on edge, the owners were either cocky, or watching his men approach. He paused for a second before giving another hand gesture. No movement. He gave it again. Still no movement. He glanced to where one of his squad should have been.

"Shit." He whispered under his breath, they had gone. He heard the crunch of a leaf and raised his sword in time to stop a pommel strike to his head before sweeping his staff along the ground, causing his attacker to jump. The figure was clad in leather armour, coloured grass green with grey patches dotted over it, a hood drawn over its head and a mask covering the bottom half of its face. It was holding an elegant steel blade, thin and curved and dotted with ruins along the flat and the holder gave it a few twirls as if to display that it knew where he was looking.

"Who are you?" He demanded.

Before a reply was given he was surrounded, more identically armed attackers closing in on him till the only area they weren't blocking off had the boulder in place.

"Drop your weapons." He couldn't tell which one was speaking, the masks made sure of that.

"If I am to die I will do so fighting."

"The halfbreed has guts."

One of them stepped forward and the rest backed away, leaving a large gap. The one that had moved closer threw its sword to the ground and pulled the bow of its back, using it as an impromptu staff. Khalenhad threw his own sword to the ground, if he was going to fight he would do so honourably.

The pair fought for the best part of fifteen minuets, whereas he has been trained to hold his position when fighting his attacker seemed to be dancing around him, flowing like a gentle breeze yet still delivering harsh strikes. Neither managed to land a blow until Khalenhad delivered a feint then struck in a different direction.

He paused as his attacker gave a moan. He paused, the voice was female. There was nothing in the paladin code about this. It said you should avoid combat with the fairer sex, but what if you had no choice. His chain of thought was interrupted when his attacker gave a low sweeping strike, knocking his legs out from under him before kneeling down and pressing the string of the bow against his throat.

"You will surrender, now." It was not a question.

Lo watched as John dismounted yet another knight with the wooden lance. It had taken a while, but she was starting to enjoy herself, although it may have been that she had drunk a few cups of wine. She may have been tipsy but Emily was worse, struggling to walk in a straight line without help, which she was receiving from one of the men that had lost to Tristen. That boy made her skin crawl. It was time for the final fight, John against Tristen.

Before the fight commenced, there was another barrage of noise from the trumpets making Lo sigh. She supposed since it was in his honour that Baleon would give a speech.

"Congratulations, you represent the finest knights in the realm, before the final joust you must both state your desired reward, and if it is in my power you shall receive it.

John was the first to speak. "Nothing my lord."

"I assume you choose the same." Although the kingdom was relatively young, denying the king's gift was a tradition.

"Actually I would like to choose my prize."

The crowd fell into a hush as the king spoke. "What is it you want then?"

"To share a night in the court sorceress's bed."

Lo started coughing and choking on her wine. She looked around, every eye was either on her, the king or Tristen. "He can't do that can he?"

Baleon sent the pair back to their tents before Emily leaned over slightly. "He can actually. What's the problem though, he's not that bad, good looks, good at fighting, fathers a major lord."

"But what about your brother?"

"Tristen doesn't know about it."

"No, I mean why isn't this bothering you when I'm going to marry him?"

"Should it?"

"Yes."

"Everybody should have their fun, even if for one night."

"But he's an arrogant, smug and he's in love with himself."

"So he's self-confident."

"There's self-confidence, then there's him. I don't have time to talk, I need to go talk to your brother and tell him that if he doesn't win I'll kill him."

"Maybe offering a reward would work better, if you know what I mean."

Lo decided she was sighing too much and frowned instead. She walked over the muddy ground, half falling over as her heels got caught in the mud. That was another thing she hated down here, everything was either good looking or comfortable, but rarely both, and whoever had bought these shoes thought she prefers the first. They had heels. Apparently she was a natural and she looked elegant, but she couldn't run in them and were only good on stone floors. She hated whoever had the brilliant idea of sticking miniature stilts on shoes and then forcing women to wear them.

When she finally reached the tent, the black leather was half covered in mud, and she'd almost fallen over three times. She brushed the cloth door to the side and stepped in. The room was simple, a layer of cloth had been placed over the ground to keep objects and people's shoes mud free while they were in there. An empty armour stand stood at the back of the tent while a set of clothes rested on a table next to it. John was stood in the centre of the room, pulling splinters out of his leather tunic.

"Hello Lo, are you enjoying yourself?"

"I was, up until that pervert announced he wants to sleep with me."

"Tristen's not that bad."

"You need to tell him that we're going to be married."

"We, won't need to when I win."

"If you win. You have to tell him, I am not going to sleep with him."

John gave a gulp. "He already knows."

"What?"

"When I first found out, I was a bit depressed and he helped me through it."

"Anyone else know, perhaps the lord of the desert? Maybe the boy who empties the chamber pots? Oh, next you'll tell me Drez knows, he's a friend of yours isn't he?"

"No and no."

"That was only two. Are you saying Drez knows?"

"Maybe."

"Drez knows!"

John had never felt more fear in his life. The dwarf's earlier comment about having his head ripped off seemed to be real. He took a single deep breath. "Don't worry, no one else knows a thing, no one else will be told until it's official."

He moved his hand to stroke her cheek but she caught his wrist in her own. "You will win or the gods know I may actually sleep with him."