Three mornings a week, George and Alanna got up early to train together in Eleni's courtyard. Soon Jonathan began joining them whenever he could. Jonathan and Alanna grew much more adept with knives and helped George with his sword work in turn.

Alanna sought out Rispah to help with her armaments issue. Rispah was George's cousin and one of the few people to whom Alanna had revealed her true identity, and the older woman was more than happy to assist. They began to make a game of seeing how many weapons they could conceal in standard women's wear, and soon both had quite the collection. They started with arm and leg sheaths that could be adjusted based on sleeve and hemline lengths. Their next additions were razor-sharp hairpins, although these had to be tinkered with and handled with great care to avoid highly unfortunate haircuts. Cloaks with hidden pockets turned out to be the most versatile.

The crowning piece was a decorative corset that used knives instead of boning. The center blade wasn't quite large enough to be called a sword, but it was a full foot long, and the hilt looked convincingly like a decorative bauble that rested between the wearer's breasts. The seamstress they enlisted was quite taken aback, but she wouldn't turn down good coin, even for such a strange request.

George's appreciative whistle when he first saw Alanna wearing it told her she had done well. His admiration only grew when she showed him the blades it concealed within.

George continued to insist on escorting her home when she left the Dove late at night, but now that she was both better armed and better trained, she felt much more confident in her ability to defend herself against any such further attacks.


A little over a month after her own return to the city, the rest of the army came back from the Drell River Valley after signing the peace treaty. Not three days after their return, she found Myles at Eleni's door asking for Ella.

"Can I help you, sir?" Alanna asked feebly, unsure of what to expect.

He smiled broadly at her. "Please don't be nervous. Jon told me you'd be here. I'm not sure I would have recognized you otherwise!"

Seeing Alanna smile in response, Eleni invited him in for tea.

His visits for tea became a weekly ritual. He always brought news of what was happening in both the court and the wider world. He also asked her about the goings-on she observed in the city and helped her make sense of how it all fit into the bigger picture of the kingdom. Alanna later confided to Jon that she was genuinely unsure if this was just what he liked talking about or if he was surreptitiously continuing her noble's education. Either way, she immensely enjoyed their time together and looked forward to it every week.


One morning in early fall, Alanna examined a patient who complained of severe pain in his foot. Nothing looked out of place, either to the naked eye or when she probed it with her gift. The ember stone she wore around her neck, a gift from the goddess two years back, had fallen out from under her dress as she bent to do the examination, and now she tapped it in frustration.

As she tapped, she noticed some odd green flickers. Confused, she grabbed the ember stone and saw that the foot glowed with consistent green light.

Alanna turned to Eleni, still gripping the ember stone, and was instantly enthralled by the smooth flow of warm reddish light that flowed from Eleni's fingers to the little girl she was presently treating. She let go of the ember stone, and the light vanished.

She used her gift to probe the man's foot again, this time looking for something other than the common ailments. There it was, or at least, there was something. This was beyond her ability.

She got Eleni's attention and explained that the ailment seemed magical. Eleni then did some complex magic and concluded that Alanna was right.

"Someone is working an evil sort of sorcery on you," Eleni explained to the man. "To really solve this problem, you need to go to the source, and that's something I cannot help you with. I can give a charm that helps ward against such things. It should dull the pain for a time, but that's not enough. I assume you know who holds you such ill will?"

The man nodded resignedly.

"I suggest you take care of that."

Alanna rubbed the ember stone in wonder as the man thanked them and left.

She saw Jon and George at the Dancing Dove two nights later and explained what had happened. They immediately began experimenting. It didn't work for either of the men, only Alanna. But when she held the stone, she could clearly see whatever magic Jonathan used, no matter how covert he tried to keep it. She asked George to use his sight, but he explained that it didn't work that way, and she couldn't see a thing from him.

Alanna asked Jonathan if he would help her study up on harmful magic like what she had seen in her patient, and he began sneaking her books from the palace library that she poured over regularly. Thom would be proud, she thought as she read through the sixth such volume.

One morning, Jonathan showed up to train with her while George was delayed. When Jon and Alanna sparred, the prince hit with excessive ferocity as if trying to channel his frustration through the sword.

"What's bothering you, Jon?" Alanna asked when they paused for water.

"Is it that obvious?"

Alanna nodded emphatically.

"Delia," Jonathan explained. "Everything was great, amazing even. And then last night, we were at a party, and she completely ignored me. She does this sometimes, and I don't understand it. I swear I will never understand women."

"Women aren't your problem. Delia is."

Jonathan shook his head. "This is just how women behave. When I asked Roger, he told me the same."

"No. It isn't," Alanna said heatedly. "And you should stop putting so much faith in Roger."

"Oh, don't act so affronted. Don't think I don't see the way you are with George, flirting with him, kissing him - I saw you sitting on his lap the other day - but I know you aren't serious about him."

"I'm sure I frustrate George in all sorts of ways," Alanna snapped, "but I've always been honest with him."

Jonathan raised his eyebrows.

"You know what I mean," she said with a smile that eased some of the mounting tension.

"I mean about my feelings for him and my level of openness to a relationship. If he keeps pursuing me anyway, that's his choice. I still don't know what I want on that front, but I won't choose lightly whatever I choose. That's where you and I are alike. We don't do anything halfway. If we decide someone is worthy of our friendship or something more, it means something. That's not how Delia operates."

"You're an expert on courting rituals now then?"

"Jon, she's toying with you," Alanna said bluntly. "She was toying with you when I was still your squire. She gave me the attention that she did because she enjoyed how it irked you. And she was hot and cold to you back then too. I don't understand court games, but I recognize cruelty when I see it. I was afraid to say anything back then because she's such a volatile subject with you, but goddess curse me if I don't tell it to you straight now: she doesn't love you, she loves having the power to mess with you. Any other girl in that palace would be happy to have your attentions. Don't waste another moment on that...wench who doesn't deserve you!"

"Any girl? Present company included?"

"Don't start that. You're the heir. Find a girl to pursue who would be good for the realm. That certainly isn't Delia, but it would be hard to find a worse choice than a disgraced-former-squire-turned-pretend-commoner."

Jonathan started to respond, but Alanna changed the subject. "I am serious about not trusting Roger."

Jonathan sighed. "I haven't quite forgiven him for the way he turned on you, and he still won't teach me any real magic. I'm far better served by books than by the most powerful sorcerer in the land," Jonathan complained. "But why do you say that?"

Alanna relayed her strangely blunt conversation with the Duke just before she was kidnapped in which they agreed that they were not friends and didn't have the same goals for Alanna's friends.

Jonathan took the news quietly.

As he was processing, a bell chimed in the hour, and they turned to go their separate ways.

Alanna stepped inside to find George leaning on a door frame just inside. "How much did you hear?" Alanna asked.

"Enough to know that any damage to my poor crooked heart is my own fault, but I'm not going to lose you to tall, dark, and royal."

Alanna smiled up at him. "You're tall, dark, and royal too."

George laughed. "I suppose I am."

"Well, if you're not going to make yourself useful on the practice field, you can at least help me get the supplies ready for patients."

George gave her the mocking bow he seemed very fond of giving her and followed her in.

He stayed with her all morning as she worked on cleaning and restocking supplies. It was midweek, meaning she had her weekly tea with Myles that day. She saw the knight ride in as she looked through the window in the second-floor supply room but was suddenly distracted when she knocked over a precariously placed bowl full of herbs.

George teased her as he helped her clean it up. A full fifteen minutes went by before Alanna remembered that Myles was there.

"That's strange," she told George. "I thought Mistress Eleni would have come to fetch me right after he arrived."

She and George crept quietly out of the room and over to the stairs to investigate. Myles was indeed standing in the entryway, talking animatedly with a giggling Eleni.

George raised an eyebrow at Alanna, and she just shrugged and tried to make out what they were saying.

This suddenly proved easier than expected when Eleni called out, "Stop lurking, you two!"

They both went downstairs, and Eleni performed a quick introduction, "This is my son, George. He was helping us out today."

Myles started to offer his hand in greeting, then paused, looking from George to Alanna, "George...Cooper then."

"At your service," George responded with forced casualness.

This time Myles did offer his hand for a handshake, which George accepted. "Am I right in assuming that you're the man responsible for giving us that vital intel about the Tusaine plans at the Drell?"

George froze, and Alanna jumped in quickly, "It's alright, George, he's the only one I told, besides Jon. He helped me conceal my source."

"And you gave my full name?" He couldn't help asking while still studying Myles.

"No, I figured that part out on my own. I'm afraid I have a perhaps overbearing level of curiosity about the forces that shape our world, of which you are one, if I don't miss my guess. Forgive my forthrightness. Will you both join us for tea?"

Once they were all settled and had engaged in some far less personal conversation, Myles asked George, "How well networked are you with the rogues of other countries? Do you regularly receive news?"

Again George paused and gave Myles a searching look.

"You must forgive me again. I wouldn't use any such information against you, but your hesitance is, of course, understandable. Perhaps I should give you something incriminating about myself first."

He smiled at Alanna. "I've known you were a girl since you were eleven."

"What!?" Alanna asked, choking slightly on your tea.

"I meant to tell you before this, but the timing was never right. When you healed Prince Jonathan from the sweating sickness, there was a moment when you were into some deep magic that you spoke to Jonathan in a distinctly female voice. After that, I made some subtle inquiries about Lord Alan's children."

"And you didn't tell anyone?" Alanna asked.

"And get my favorite page kicked out? Of course not! Especially when you had just saved our otherwise doomed prince."

He gave Alanna a fond smile, and seeing her blush, he turned to George. "That would make me highly unpopular with the king if it were ever to get out. I know it's not quite the same thing, but I would love to hear anything that you are comfortable sharing. And so long as you have no plans to harm their majesties, I hold nothing but gratitude for you for your information about the Drell and for your mother's care for one of my favorite people."

"The Lass speaks very highly of you, My Lord, and knowing that you've kept her secret, how could I refuse?"

Alanna realized how little she knew about George's world as the two men talked, and their time together was over far too quickly for any of their likings. George and Myles clearly already liked and respected each other, and the invitation was extended for George to attend their tea any time he wanted.