The Damsel and her Knight

6th ☾ Of Will and Determination

Wilson forced me to carve my height every month on a tree here in the main camp. I grew a good four inches since I was twelve. It must be all the meat and milk Wilson sneaked out for me. I was taller than Caspar now, although nowhere near Wilson's or Anthony's height, apparently.

I couldn't even recognize myself, so how could the king and his guards? Unless they had some astonishing magic up their sleeves, which I highly doubted.

The day I was officially taken in the group two years ago, Anthony requested a meeting with me and Bryce. Ordinary sorcerers wouldn't notice that I had a hidden seal, but Bryce told me that Anthony was an exception. He came from a powerful bloodline of sorcerers. That if the sorcerers would have a royalty ranked by the amount of power they possessed, Anthony would be easily crowned as king.

Of course, that was a Bryce exaggeration again. But Janshai didn't even notice anything particular, other than I smelled like a threat, so I had to consider Bryce's reasoning to some degree.

Initially, Anthony was, of course, rigid about the fact that Bryce kept on insisting that he would train me. But eventually, he learned how to accept that I was here to stay, and he couldn't make me leave, unless he'd undo my existence. Forbidden magic spell, though. As a consolation, I let him study my seal. Anthony couldn't stand the sight of me, but he was eager for knowledge.

Anthony was the one who told me that my identity couldn't be revealed through magic, even black magic. The guarding spell came along with the seal, and it was growing stronger each year. Anthony recognized the patterns the creator of my spell had used. It was the one used by those who trained under the Head Sorcerer of the former king, King Oliver of Forthwind.

Well, that was how powerful the seal I had. At least there were some good points to it. And if my seal had something to do with King Oliver, then it was probably why the new king wanted me.

I'd heard stories. The black market was the place for trading goods and secrets. Wilson, head of the traders in our group, was more than willing to tell me everything he'd learned. Over the years, I came to know how King Henry gained his position—by leading a mutiny and overthrowing King Oliver, who used to be his old friend. They all said that he was also the one who took his friend's life. King Henry's hands were merciless, and he would kill everyone who would dare cross his path. And with each story, I grew to hate him even more.

But as the years went by, there was one secret that I badly wanted to find out. Hidden in my inquisitions was the unspoken wonder of why a duke's daughter had a seal on her twelfth year and for what purpose it served. I wanted to find out the reason why King Henry had killed my parents in order to capture me and be brought to the royal court.

I couldn't tell Wilson yet, and I knew it was only Bryce and Anthony I could discuss this with. And since Anthony was very blatant about his personal preference of keeping me at a certain distance, that made Bryce the only choice, albeit it wasn't like he wanted to talk to me more than he wanted to sleep.

"Promise me that you will wear this today?" Wilson said to me, holding the fake moustache.

"Can it easily be taken off?" I sighed. I knew that he was overreacting, but just for the sake of his good intentions.

"Oh, yes. I've recently made this adhesive from plant sap. And you see, it sticks perfectly and you can easily pull it off," Wilson said eagerly, as he demonstrated how the sap worked.

"Alright, let me see it." I held my hand in the air, waiting for him to put the fake moustache on it. Wilson hurriedly placed it on my hand, and I carefully examined it.

"Want me to put it on for you?" Wilson excitedly offered.

I nodded and handed it back to him. Wilson applied some sap extract above my mouth and carefully placed the moustache on, beaming with excitement.