Once the other knights had left, Lady Evelyn stretched. “Oh my, just watching your CRCs made me tired and hungry. Lady Julia, one tip I cannot advise more is this. Ask locals about the food. I hear Stechen Tower is famous for its food. What say you?”

  Alyssa and William looked at each other.

  “I wouldn’t say it is bad…” Alyssa began.

  “But the food court is three times better,” William added, and Alyssa nodded.

  “There you have it. Lead the way,” Lady Evelyn said.

  Oh no. Frick! The stairs back down. I was so hungry! Now that the stress of picking was over. I just wanted to eat something. Oh well. Of all the things I had faced. Walking down stairs hungry was the least of my worries.

  I noticed quickly that we were now walking in a more precise order. William in the front, Alyssa in the back, and Lady Evelyn would move around to be anyone except in front of William or behind Alyssa. She used her movements to hide the moments when she whispered to me. Like how she told me that I would be paying for food. Not normal, but how would I ever learn the value of these coins otherwise?

  Wait! Does that mean food is taking away from my letter budget! That isn’t fair! Ouch! I realized Lady Evelyn pinched my wrist. Why!

  “Face,” she whispered.

  I took a deep breath and tried to put on my fake smile mask again. My face started hurting if I focused on this too long. Ugh! We are just walking for breakfast! Can I never get a break!

  The wind on the street was much weaker than it was up on the roof. Gosh, my legs were practically jelly now. It only took another twenty minutes to reach a square. Or… well, it was a circle? Why did they call it a square? Weird. Basically, the center was all grassy, and a circular brick area around it for wagons, leading to six different roads. Then, past where the carriages were, there were like thirty different carts with people with various food on them.

  The smells were amazing. I couldn’t decide which direction to go. I thought William might lead us to one, but he was just looking at me. Oh, right. I guess I have to pick, don’t I?

  I began walking towards a cart that had a bit of a short, heavy lady. She said she was selling fruit crapes. I had no idea what it was, but the smell of fruit was intoxicating.

  I looked around. “Would you like something else? Or is this fine?”

  “Grape crapes are my favorite,” Alyssa said.

  “As long as I get some meat in the day, I don’t mind,” William added.

  “A crape would be lovely, oh yes, before you get confused. Lady Julia here has informed me she wishes to use her personal funds occasionally on our trip, so pay it no mind.”

  Alyss and William both nodded.

  I grabbed my coin bag. So, how many letters was this gonna cost me? “Oh, uhm. I’d like that one,” I said, pointing to the red fruit. “How much for four crapes?”

  “Twenty-four small coppers,” she said.

  “So, ten coppers equalled one silver. Wait, small coppers? Crap. Uhm…” I set one silver coin on the table and looked into my bag more. I was waiting to see if she seemed upset that I didn’t put enough.

  Instead, she took it and set thirteen copper coins on the table. I guess that was enough. Why thirteen? I can ask later. I just put them into my bag. Uhm. So I guess just one letter for now. Not too bad!

  She got to work immediately, and the smell reminded me of pancakes. Except they looked super thin. She was like an artist with how quickly she shifted from smashing fruit to flipping the thin pancake, then pouring the fruit into it, layering it with a fluffy white topping, more fruit, and then wrapping it up. With a dot of white on the top, it looked like a bundle of flowers, almost.

  William had one that was a bluish purple. Lady Evelyn had one with a brown stick in it, as well as red and blue. Alyssa got one that was a light green, and mine was red. I took a bite, and my mouth nearly exploded in happiness. It was so good! Maybe even better than stuff at Malatise Manor. No, that probably wasn’t true. I was just so hungry, and it was so sweet.

  I quickly realized I was probably showing emotion and tried to put on my normal smile before Lady Evelyn pinched me. I also realized that eating with my hands might have been wrong. Crap. Except, when I glanced, I realized even she was taking a bite of it with her hands. Oh, thank goodness!

  “We are leaving for the capital tomorrow. So, let us enjoy today. The only request I have is to stop by the orphanage if my Lady would grant such a request,” Lady Evelyn said.

  Orphanage? I knew better than to just ask. Especially when I knew I was expected to pick up on context. So, it is a place. A place she wants to visit, but it isn’t required. I mean, it wasn’t like I had any idea where to go.

  “Any reason not to head there now, then?” I asked.

  She shook her head, and with that, she told William that she wanted us to stop by our inn to pick up something. And we began walking through the city with our crapes. So good! Alyssa and William had eaten theirs pretty quickly, but Lady Evelyn ate at a much slower pace, so I tried to match hers.

  Lady Evelyn just grabbed a bag from the room; there was no need for any of us to even enter. She had been so quick about it. The sun was high in the sky now, and as we continued down the street, the atmosphere was much different than before. The streets were filled with more people than I had ever seen at one time before. Most of them glanced at us. Some stopped doing what they were doing until we passed.

  No one approached us, actually, more than that, they got out of our way as William kept walking. I had witnessed this reaction this morning, but it was more intense with so many eyes on me. We made our way to a building that looked like a church. It was much bigger than the one in Hatula, but not nearly big enough for even one tenth of the crowd I had seen. They really needed a bigger church, I imagined.

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  The stained-glass window in the front had seven lines, all facing down with different heights, in blue. That was the mark of Teich, the Goddess of Water. Hmm, I wonder what caused one to put other gods in their church windows.

  “We are here,” Wiliam said.

  I was confused, and Lady Evelyn took a step closer to me. “William, announce our arrival.”

  “Yes, my Lady,” he said, going inside.

  “This isn’t a church. Orphanages look like churches. They are places where kids without parents are raised.”

  I almost gasped. I mean, yes, even in Hatula, sometimes parents died with young children, but we would just rotate which house would raise such a child. Looking around, though, I suppose I understood. So many people, that meant more parents would die, and managing who raised them must have been harder.

  The door opened, and we came inside. There were four women on their knees, hands crossed over their chests. They were dark blue clothes that covered even much of their hair. I realized it was the same color as the sigil of water. Was water related to children in some way?

  “We are pleased to welcome you, our esteemed guests. Please forgive us, but sister Fredricka is unable to attend as she is doing her nursing duties at the moment.”

  “It isn’t an issue,” Lady Evelyn said. “Lady Julia here with me has never seen an Anlage orphanage. While we work, I imagine she would enjoy a tour.”

  “That would not be an issue in the least,” one woman said, standing up and walking over to us. “I shall be their guide. I am sister Mel.”

  Lady Evelyn had already left the room with the other women. Leaving me with just William and Alyssa. Mel gestured to a different door from the one the other women went through. On the other side, we entered what appeared to be a community bedroom. It was as large as my parents' entire house, but it had practically nothing but beds. And not just regular beds, but beds stacked on top of each other. It must have been thirty to forty of them.

  “This is the girl's bedroom. Fortunately, we are at thirty percent capacity at the moment. Which is lucky for the coming winter,” Mel said.

  “Thirty percent?” I asked.

  She smiled. “We have fifty beds for each gender, thirty for babies. So we can comfortably watch at most one hundred and thirty children. However, our current sisterhood is far too low for that. What I said means that we have fifteen girls. So we have plenty of extra blankets.”

  “I see,” I said. Fifteen girls under one roof. “Wait, what did you mean by sisterhood?” I asked.

  She smiled. “My heavens,” she added. “You must be from a faraway land to be unaware. Sisterhood is the term for us women who have dedicated our lives to saving children. We are considered sisters of water. After the beloved Goddess Teich, whose water sustains all life and gives us the power to help others.”

  I smiled a bit more instead of responding. I just suddenly felt sad. I knew the goddess of water, of course. I knew all nine of the primary deities and even a few of the others. But I had never heard of the sisterhood. Obviously, Lady Evelyn had set me up to explain my ignorance, but that made me feel so small. I wasn’t from a faraway land. Not in the way she was thinking, at least. I was from just two days by horse—practically a neighbor.

  Looking around the room, most of the beds were empty, but I saw one girl no older than ten, who was coughing and shaking. “Is she okay?” I asked.

  Mel sat down next to the child and wiped some sweat from her brow. “Zurein,” she said. Light radiated, but the girl coughed through it. “She is quite sick. But we have been doing our best.”

  “Isn’t that a healing spell? Shouldn’t that help?” I asked. She didn’t look any better after the spell, to be honest.

  “Zurein can’t kill the bad things in her body. It only helps the good things recover,” Mel said. “All we can do is pray for her.”

  I wondered if that was true? Did Lady Evelyn know better magic? I could ask her. Magic could do so much, surely it could. Magic could do so very much. I was certain. Yet, I didn’t know any of it. I knelt down and decided to pray with all my heart.

  Praying was no new thing to me, but this felt different somehow. I loved Hatula, and in that sense, even if I was praying for something unrelated to me, it did in some way feel like I was asking for something for myself. Maybe that was true here as well. After all, who wants to see a child struggle? But in either way, it felt real to me, and I decided to embrace that.

  Please. Luft, ot Teich, or whoever may be listening. Please help this child.

  My hand suddenly felt a bit warm, as if I were being embraced. This is new. Opening my eyes, I noticed my ring was shining slightly.

  “What a lovely child. Luft picked a fitting maiden,” a voice rang out in my head. I should have screamed, but I realized I couldn’t move. It felt like every muscle in my body was bound in place. “Do not concern yourself, child. I am not here to harm you.”

  That isn’t the easiest thing to just believe you know. Yet, I did feel a sense of calm. Was she doing this? Who is this?

  I could hear a soft giggle. “I am Frauenleben. Goddess of life. Though I doubt many humans know of me. I seldom find this world interesting outside of the maidens. You could say I was moved by your pure heart. So I am granting you a miracle, even if just a small one. You want to save this girl, right? Her condition has no name yet in this world. In other worlds they call it endocarditis. The sisterhood cannot save her. Will you trust me to let you save her? Because we are going to have to break one of the rules your caretakers have given you.”

  Wait, how did she know what I was thinking? This is too freaky! I can’t talk and wait. Goddess! I… I… uhm. This is a lot to take in! What exactly are you asking me to do?

  “It is simple. In a moment, the prayer will end, and you will be able to move again. I am going to teach you a spell. It is a dangerous spell, even for experienced mages. So don’t dare consider it in the near future. But this time is fine. Cast it the same way as Zureinigen, but focus on her heart. The spell is Leben Verursacht. I should warn you, though, it won’t feel well for someone of your level to cast it.”

  This time is fine! But how! Can you explain?

  “So little faith. Trust me, or don’t. You have prayed, and I have answered. The rest-”

  My eyes opened, and I saw my ring glowing for a moment before it returned to normal. I stood back up and looked at Mel. “Mel, or sister Mel? Have you ever heard of a goddess called Frauenleben?”

  She shook her head. “I haven’t. Is she a god more well-known in your homeland? Also, Lady Julia. Either name is fine. I care not for such things.”

  The little girl coughed more in her sleep. She would die without this. She said she was watching me because I was a maiden. She was granting me a miracle. If I have faith. I was scared. Magic is said to be dangerous. Everyone told me not to even try. Even she told me to only use it this once.

  Whatever. I had to deal with a lot of crap because of this ring. If it would let me save her life. So be it. I brought mana to my hand. That part I had gotten good at. “Leben Verursacht!”

  My mind flooded with thoughts I couldn’t control. I saw what looked like a moss-covered cave being destroyed. Why was that what I was picturing? No, wait, the cave is restoring itself as well? In the same instant that it had happened, it vanished, and I was back in the bedroom. My mana was draining so fast. I nearly collapsed to my knees, but Alyssa caught me.

  First nothing and then. The room got bright, and brighter still, until I couldn’t see and had to close my eyes. For a few seconds, the blinding light remained, and then. Everything was back to normal. I was out of breath and was nearly sweating.

  “What did you do! Why wouldn’t you ask first?” Mel asked as she began examining the child.

  “Sorry. It was just a healing spell,” I said, leaning against Alyssa’s arm.

  Looking up, I saw the clanking and clicking of footsteps and noticed a bunch of girls. From six all the way to what looked like thirteen. They were all asking what was happening. Mel looked frazzled by the situation.

  But I smiled, because I noticed. The girl wasn’t coughing anymore. I’m glad I believed.