Young Writers Society

Gaius nodded. "That doesn't mean you have to stay in the Realm. You're perfectly free to travel and explore. And you might end up traveling with your parents anyway. As Magistrates it's the Lord's and Ladies' duties to make trips to the East and South as ambassadors."

Ky looked at him curiously, actively trying to suppress the spark of excitement that lit at that idea. She could have the South and her new family? It seemed too good to be true. Either way she definitely wouldn’t be going back to her township, so she needed to get that thought out of her brain. Forever. They wouldn’t even want to see her. And she didn’t want to see them, either. It was hard to be old-Ky for Zander’s benefit. She didn’t want to see the pain in Mr. Myrond’s eyes again when he saw that Aleth had done worse to her than the simple flogging he’d witnessed. Didn’t want to figure out the dynamics of her old life with her new. It was too difficult.

Besides. If they even went to Austraka in the first place, it’d be to some place important. Not somewhere as inconsequential as Juudri. Like… her mind came to a screeching halt at the idea of them visiting Makata. She’d die. If not from the utter terror of walking the grounds of his mansion again, then if Borrond recognized her and told Makata who she was, and one of them trying to execute her for her transgressions. Or from her making poor choices going in search of her friends.

Gods. Hopefully they wouldn’t go there.

“Doing what?” Ky asked after a moment.

(The name or her “sector” back home — Makata divided the country into sectors and made it illegal to call them by anything but the sector but everyone in the town still called it by the historic name of Juudri instead of Sector Twelve like they were supposed to)

(Good on them for fighting the man!)

"Meeting with other nobles on behalf of the King and for trade purposes," Gaius replied. "Generally that means talking to Wardens or Governors, or the Tarali himself. In the East it would be any high courtly official and the Grand Reputations, and occasionally the Orator, though she doesn't take many outside visitors."

(Haha yeah! Altho it’s a mixed bag — it’s what led to eventual downfall ;-; he also outlawed the traditional Lytiasian language in hopes of forcing the entire country to learn the Trade language used across countries. And her township rebelled. She’s bilingual because her father grew up in the city and was more comfortable in Trade than Traditional and spoke it at home but the entire rest of her township stuck to Traditional. Aleth knew that the sectors from the mountains resisted the change, and he wanted an assistant who could speak it since it was a dying language so it was becoming increasingly more valuable as a way to encode messages especially since they were illiterate for the most part. Ky could speak Traditional and read and write Trade and Aleth was like aha yes this is my next assistant I shall ask to buy him and things rapidly went downs hill haha)

“Oh.” Was she going to have to do that? Or was that her parents’ problem and the kids just got dragged along for the road trip? She hoped for the latter. Because that sounded exactly like the sort of thing she’d have to do for Aleth. She shook that thought off. Gods. How selfish she was. Not even wanting to help her parents. Of course she would help them, if appropriate. It was exactly the sort of thing she was equipped to do. “And that happens frequently?”

"Once in awhile. It takes up a lot of resources to travel so far, so there's a rotation of who goes where on what year. Your duties would mostly be socializing with the children of the hosts, I expect."

“I can do that.” Ky nodded, glad to hear it. She’d still attempt to be as charming as possible. But she wouldn’t be sweating under the critical gaze of the officials. Probably. Unless there were meals and such. But she’d probably get ignored then. Hopefully. “Do you know when Tomhas and Anneke are up next?”

Gaius shook his head. "Everything has been thrown to the wind with the war. The rotation fell out of balance, so anyone could be going anywhere at this point. I'm sure things will ease up once Tarr is taken care of, but for now I don't think Tomhas and I are going anywhere anytime soon."

Ky nodded. Funny how he was blaming the war with Tarr, rather than the one he’d started. “Makes sense… I probably wouldn’t be allowed to go anyhow, until, well, y’know.” Until all the people trying to kill her were dealt with. That is why she was here, after all.

(He was likely implying both since the current one is just an extension of the last one)

"Certainly. So you have very little to worry about. Though I suppose you'll get some practice, since D'Ara Wai is coming up here." He really wished she wasn't; she seemed insistent on making his and Tomhas's lives her business, and it was endlessly vexing.

(Yeah that’s fair haha)

Ky winced a little. “Yeah… Sara mentioned that. Do you know when she’s coming?”

"In the next month or so, I believe."

Ky nodded. Perhaps if she could make a habit of disappearing before then, they wouldn’t notice she wasn’t there when D’Ara came. Just turn into the rat eating food from their pantry that otherwise stayed in the shadows. “Before it gets dark?”

"Certainly. And she'll depart before the sun sinks as well; getting caught mid-journey in the dark months is a terrible idea. There are creatures out there worse than the Marrow Man."

Ky looked at him uneasily. “Like what?”

"Well, if he's real, I don't see any reason why the Stone Mother isn't real. Trolls, too, could potentially exist." He glanced at her. "Are you not very familiar with the Northern folktales?"