to treasure a thousand words, a thousand years

Weiss arrived at her campsite and looked around. People milled about, dialing with their various jobs. She did sense some people saying unkind things about her in hushed tones, but she opted to ignore them. There was no point in going after it even if she was there on queen’s orders. If even the queen was racist, the people would be too. A leader set precedent for their people. If the leader was a certain way, then people were likely to follow. Regrettable but unfortunately true. She took her stuff over to her tent, then got settled. “Lilias, Avram. I’ll be back in a bit. I need to go see the vault. I shouldn’t be more than an hour. Youdon’tneed to flock call for me, okay?” She hoped that Avram would take her words to heart. She set up a clock from her bag and let them see it. They knew how to read it. She didn’t need to tell them how to do that. With that done, she headed out with the dig overseer and got her rundown of what was going on. She couldreallysense the immense amount of magic beneath her feet. “We found a badly corroded shaft made of steel. Too damage to use, though, so we had to make another one.” The woman led her to a steel hatch and opened it. It was a rudimentary shaft, but it would work. A single plate of enchanted steel acted as their elevator. “Show me the vault, please.” They got on the steel plate and descended deep into the earth. Down, down they went until they abruptly stopped. The walkway was stone and they stood in a massive cavern. The magic hummed around them to the point she felt uneasy. There were similar vaults in the world, one found in the eastern nations and one found in the remnants of a floating city in the northern continent. It was strange. They approached the massive a massive vault that was simply transcendent. Trees with pink blossoms made of light wreathed a massive, smooth door. Other plants made of light climbed up the artificial facade in front of them. The temperature around them was warm and pleasant, unlike the hint of chill in the air above ground. It was crazy to think of how much magic would have been poured into this. She returned to the surface with her guide where they went over other observations from prior dig overseers. “We think there was a massive tower here in the distant past. What its purpose was, we can only guess. But ground scans with magic have proven to find disturbances in the soil where massive pylons once were.” “Interesting.” A massive tower, huh? Was it some sort of defensive structure? Maybe it was meant to protect the strange vault. All she had were ground scans. She didn’t have any way to see how tall the tower might have been. Well, maybe she could connect with some foreign skyscraper architects. That technology was in its infancy, but it was about the only lead she had. After more briefing, she was allowed to return to her tent and settled down. Thankfully, Avram and Lilias were content. She hadn’t heard any screaming from Avram which was good. He had actually listened to her for once… There had been more than once he’d screamed his head off and driven everyone in camp insane. She cared about him dearly, but he was so incredibly high maintenance. Lilias, by comparison, was entirely relaxed which she was glad for. She looked at her teibas and blinked when she saw the crystal flashing. She had a message? She hadn’t sensed it go off.Then again, she often wasn’t aware of much when so focused on work. Who would it be from? Elior? Her family? Somebody else? Checking it revealed it to be Blake. A simple ‘hey I’m here’ message. It was good to know she’d arrived at her destination safely. She chose Blake’s contact info and was met by her answering message. It was pretty generic though painfully formal. Pretty much expected of a royal. No need to pay too much attention to it. “Hey, Blake, it’s Weiss. Sorry I missed your call. I was getting briefed on my dig site. It’s something else, let me tell you. I’ve never seen anything like it before!” She paused Blake probably didn’t want to hear about that. “Anyway, feel free to leave another message and let me know when you want to meet up. Bye.” She hung up and then turned to her paperwork. Boy, did she have a lot to dig through…

✧

Blake’s ears twitched when she sensed her teibas go off, but she let it go to message. It was hard to not answer right then when she could tell it was Weiss. She felt the tug on her soul. She wanted to answer so badly, but she had to wait until she was alone. Then again… She slipped out to the area near the mews and lowered the volume on her teibas considerably. Even she struggled to hear what Weiss said. She wanted to meet up? Well, she shouldn’t be so surprised by that. It was the reason why Blake had taken her Peregrination in the first place. She strained to listen and could hear nobody around. Hopefully nobody would overhear her. The mews were set off from the house on both sides so this was a pretty isolated part of the property. Then again, even the neighbors wouldn’t know she was a Donati. They wouldn’t be able to report her to the queen for consorting with a human. She couldn’t be prosecuted for marrying a human, but she could be exiled from the family and not allowed to see the ones she loved again. Human blood had never sullied the Donati line. She didn’t want to be the first one to do that… The line rang a couple of times and she saw Weiss’ image pop up. “Oh, hello, Blake. I wasn’t expecting you to respond so quickly. Do you want to discuss when we can meet up together?” Weiss tilted her head, blue eyes calm and collected. This was really so strange to be doing. She could get exiled from her family if she went too far with it. She should probably break this off before it even started, but she really couldn’t shake the desire to get to know Weiss. “I’m not sure what my hours will be but I should hopefully get an understanding of that in the next few days. Ninlil told me I’ll have to work about six hours a day.” That was still too long and she wasnotgoing to be paid enough. “But I’ll need to take my eagle out first and foremost. I doubt you’ll want to go out in the field with me—” “An eagle? Eagle falconry?” Blake blinked at that. “I’d love to go out in the field with you! It’s been years since I’ve flown an eagle!” “Wait… You’ve flown eagles before?” She definitely hadn’t been expecting that. She wasn’t aware eagle falconry was practiced elsewhere in the world. It was so odd to think that this random human had flown eagles before. Still, it seemed like something Weiss was legitimately excited and enthusiastic about. She was still wary of a human in general, but this seemed to real to be anything but that. It wasn’t like Weiss could’ve anticipated she’d brought her eagle with her. Weiss nodded. “There are nomads on the eastern continent that fly wild eagles. I lived with them for about a year and learned how to handle the eagles. Strong birds but beautiful and amazing to fly. I’ve never flown Sanctified eagles before, but it would be interesting to do so. I know the Sodocroan royal family flies Sanctified eagles. Have you ever flown a normal eagle before?” So she knew about falconry legitimately… This was a very strange coincidence. If Weiss really did know, it’d be interesting to be out in the field with her. But still… It’d be nice to be out in the field with another falconer that really knew what she was doing. “I see. No, I’ve only ever flown my Kalena. I’ve been bonding with her for years, so I know her pretty well. It’ll be my first time flying with her by myself, though.” She paused to consider what the really meant. The royal falconer always dispatched prey if it was needed. She’d never gotten viscera on her before. She really wasn’t sure how she’d handle that. Maybe having Weiss out with her wouldn’t be a bad thing. She was too delicate to actually kill anything. She really didn’t want to have to take the life of anything… “Do you know how to kill prey? I was never really allowed to…” She was royalty. Killing things was below her. Or at least so said everybody. She really had never killed anything before. The royal falconer had always made sure that she didn’t have to sully her own hands. She wouldn’t have to do that before but now… Weiss nodded. “Oh yeah; I kill things all the time, not to be gruesome or anything. It really is something most commoners have to deal with. I think the first thing I killed was around four or five.” Blake cringed internally at that. She really couldn’t imagine killing something at such a young, tender age. How Weiss dealt with it, she couldn’t understand. But she was basically on her own now. She doubted Weiss would be able to accompany her into the field each and every time she wanted to go out. “I see. Do you think you could teach me? I’ve at least tidbitted before, but I’ve never dispatched of prey myself before. And I’ve never broken anything down either…” She normally brought back the prey caught for the royal falconer to store. They would be stored for later on for when the birds were in molt in the refrigerator that existed for that single purpose. She didn’t really know the full logistics on that. But she was going to need to figure out what to do with the prey. They mostly hunted foxes and wolve,s but she’d probably stick to jackrabbits. “Yeah, I can help you with that no problem. It’s mostly getting used to the feeling of the life draining from them.” Oh… Blake hadn’t thought about that… She was a high user, so she could feel the Seraphic flowing out of organisms as they died. She felt it from a distance in the past, but never done it herself. She would have an extremely difficult time with that. “All right. Well, when do you think you’ll want to meet up? Will you be busy for the next few days?” Blake really wanted to get out and hunt, but if Weiss wasn’t with her, she wouldn’t be able to do it. She needed help with dispatching prey. She really didn’t knowhowto do it without having somebody else do it. She was now realising how much she relied on others to do things for her… She was so incredibly reliant on others. She should really lean more and broaden her skill range. “Yeah, I’ll be really busy the next few days. I’ll need to focus on my dig stuff. But I’ll let you know when I’m free. Give me maybe about…three days? That should be enough to let me settle in. But if you want me to drop by in town, I might be able to manage it.” Blake’s ears flattened at that. “What is it?” “We’ll have to meet out in town. I don’t want anybody seeing us together.” She really couldnotrisk it getting back to the queen. Again, she couldn’t be prosecuted legally for this, but she could lose her whole family if she wasn’t careful. She was reliant on them for her place in the world. “Do you know this town at all? If so, we might be able to do dinner.” The occupants of the town wouldn’t know who she and Weiss were, so there was no way it’d get back to the queen. “No; I’ve never been to the town. I only chose it because it was close by. Maybe you can scope it out tomorrow and find some places for us to meet?” Blake tapped her chin. That was probably a good idea. She would still have to work, but she ought to get time to herself if she finished. She really didn’t want to do that, but she had no other choice. Ninlil would make sure she worked. “All right. I can do that.” She wouldn’t have Kalena or Naliaka with her. Not having her raven with her would be…unnerving. But she needed to keep her presence quite low. If anybody was aware she was a princess, that could lead to a ton of repercussions. She couldn’t cause issues for her family and she could only imagine how furious Queen Maryam would be if she got kidnapped or something. She probably shouldn’t trust Weiss so much… SHe had no way to vet the fact that Weiss had no connections to anything clandestine… “Do you have anything else you wanted to say? I need to get my parrots to bed.” Blake shook her head. “Not really. I guess I’ll talk to you tomorrow then?” This was hard. So hard. A big part of her knew she shouldn’t trust Weiss, but at the same time… She couldn’t pass up the opportunity to get to know her. So many bad things could come from this. She was having such a hard time with all of this… “All right. Talk to you tomorrow.” Weiss smiled and nodded at Blake before the image cut off. For some reason, that left Blake feeling even colder and more isolated than before. She really didn’t like this. Everything in the world felt wrong. She was living with commoners and couldn’t do as she pleased. She had to work. Weiss felt like the end of sanity in her life. Nothing made sense anymore. She…was alone. She couldn’t turn to her mother or siblings for comfort. She picked herself up on the ground and headed back inside. She managed to track down Ninlil and the old woman looked at her. “What do you want?” Stingy old woman. She only wanted to ask question.She didn’t need to be so pointlessly rude. “I had a couple of questions. What should I do with the prey I dispatch and what will my work hours be?” She needed to know so she could tell Weiss when when they could meet up. She needed to know when she could start scoping out the town. It was a moderate size, it seemed, maybe a couple thousand people. It wouldn’t be a place where everyone was in everyone else’s business.That was good because it would keep her identity secret. The rumor mill still probably existed, but still. Not everyone would be all in her business and trying to figure out who she was. “Ah, your falconry. Bring it back and we can use it for meals. That sound okay?” Blake nodded. It did. She had no reason to not do that. Plus, she didn’t want it to go to waste. Something would eat the prey that was left in the open like that, but still. If the family could use it, she was more than willing to bring it back.She’d eaten fox, wolf, and jackrabbit before while in the field. She wasn’t so fond of fox and wolf, though. She would rather stick to jackrabbits. She normally didn’t eat of animals but letting prey go to waste would be horrible. “No why don’t we get you started on some sewing?” The sudden change in topic made Blake glower. “Don’t give me that look, young lady. Youknowyou’re going to have to learn your keep and it’s best to start now. Idle hands have no place around this house.” “Fine.”Her ears flattened against her head. Ninlil led her to the front area of the home that had what appeared to be false torsos and a lot of sewing supplies. She wanted to scream and yell about this but there was no point. Even Queen Maryam wouldn’t be able to do anything about it. SHe hated all of this so much. How did people live like this day in and day out? Ninlil sat on her stool and started teaching her how to do some back stitches. “While we do mostly use sewing machines, we still do a lot by hand. A lot of details can only be done by hand. Plus, some of our clients much prefer we do things like that.” Blake nodded and sighed. This was so demeaning. She wasroyalty.She shouldn’thaveto do this. Despite those thoughts, she found it pretty easy. Things snapped into place as if she’d done this thousands of times before. “Huh, your stitches are some of the neatest I’ve seen in all my years of seamstressing. You’re quite the natural. I guess I can pay you a bt more than a basic rate. Though you also need to know how ot use a sewing machine. Then again, if you want, you can keep by hand. Most of my girls only know how to work a machine and can’t do much by hand. Which would you prefer?” “Can I try the machine?” For some reason, she felt impending doom with that. By hand stitching was relatively easy for her somehow. SHe knew she was gifted in a lot of ways, but she hadn’t realised sewing was one of them. She had never touched needle and thread in her life before. Yet she could do the stitches cleanly, concisely, and competently. It was absolutely the strangest thing. Ninlil had her try the treadle machine and it ended in catastrophe. “We’ll keep you on hand stitching then. I don’t doubt you can learn in time, but I can’t afford to have you messing up pieces or teaching you. It’ll take too much time. And your hours will be seven to one. Does that sound reasonable?” Blake nodded. That would give her plenty of daylight to hunt with even in the height of winter. She hated having to start so early, but it at least wasn’t twelve to five or something. That would be absolutely terrible and minimise her daylight hours. “Okay.” She shifted a bit awkwardly. “What now?” She was so out of sorts. She had a routine she normally followed but she couldn’t do any of that now. She kind of wanted to curl up in bed even if it was only past sunset. But it was pretty close to dinner. She had already had lunch and wasn’t feeling particularly hungry right now. She was so stressed out. Nothing sounded good to eat. “Well, dinner’s almost done but you look pale. Do you want to go to bed?” Blake gave a small nod. “If it’s not too much to ask.” She hated all of this, but her day would begin early tomorrow. She wasn’t looking forward to the next year and a half. It was going to be torture. At least she’d get to go back to the castle for Alya’s first hunt. Oh, was she looking forward to that. But that still lay a year away so she had an extremely long time to wait. Ninlil patted her back. “Go and sleep, but don’t skip breakfast, ya hear? I can’t afford to have you passing out on me.” Blake nodded and headed up to the sleeping quarters. A few women talked in the corner, though Blake paid it no mind. She managed to struggle out of her corset and slipped into what was a thin mattress on the floor. It didn’t take too long for her to drift off into an uneasy slumber. She really didn’t like any of this…