Ratface wandered around for a little while trying to find everyone. It was interesting how casual everyone was with magic here. She stopped at one of the food stores that was cooking sausages in water on one of those stoves without a heat sources. A quick inspection with her eyes showed her it was pulling magic from the air. The people of the Lady’s lands really were blessed with their amount of mana.

  “New here huh?” asked the store owner. She was a short woman, though still taller than Ratface, with blond hair tied in a complicated braid. Her clothes were an apron over a blue dress. It wouldn’t have been mentioning except for how clean it was. Most people didn’t bother to this extent because cleaning was time consuming. They must’ve had a way to speed it up. She eyed Ratface with an expectant smile.

  “How can you tell?” Ratface asked.

  “You all stare at the stove-top when you get here, you’re the first to notice the clothes as well. Are you going to buy anything or just stare?”

  Ratface pulled out a few coins. A question had been niggling at her, and it occurred to her she didn’t have to sneak to get the answer.

  “I’d like to buy a hot dog and a question.”

  “Cast.”

  “You all have magic here, but I haven’t seen a lot of offensive spells, what’s that about?”

  “Been getting into fights huh?” asked the woman, “it’s partly knowledge.” She tapped something on her wrist and her hand became covered in a thin film before she stuck it into the boiling water to grab a hotdog. “Something that captures or covers like this is difficult with runes and most people only know the basics. A spell that just shoots fire or something is easy-” she began.

  “But also fatal,” said Ratface. She took the hotdog.

  “And fatal spell requires a license, same with weapons.” She looked at the weapons littering Ratface in concern, before her eyes fell on the necklace and she relaxed.

  “Ah, you’re after the Lady’s favour? I suppose that explains the questions.” The woman grabbed an extra hotdog for Ratface. “A questing squire needs to stay fed.”

  Ratface took the extra food and thanked the woman then walked away with a confused expression and two hotdogs. A little bit of a walk later and she ran into Tiffany who ran over to her.

  “You left us alone for food?” she asked a bewildered Ratface.

  “Do you want one?” asked Ratface. The druid gave her a look then grabbed one and dragged her toward their inn. On the way, Ratface explained what had happened.

  “You should’ve brought me, old wood like that is easy to grow mushrooms in.”

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  “You were busy.”

  “Not so busy that you needed to risk your life.” She nudged Ratface, the act made her wince a bit as she felt what all druids felt around goblins. A casual gesture that reminded Ratface that her friends would put up with pains for her. She’d promised Abigail to work on this and yet here she was, still only looking to goblins for help. A mistake when she was the only one around.

  The inn they were staying in was described as a ‘cheap’ inn, which was to say it was the fanciest inn Ratface had been to. That was admittedly a small list, but it was still extensive enough for her to say this was quite a robust one. While the outside was stone, the inside was covered in wood panelling which kept the heat in. The temperature was kept at a comfortable level and a glance into the magic around her told her it was being kept that way by careful applications of mana. She stopped before the innkeeper could turn around and lead them to their rooms. Upon seeing her pendant, he immediately refunded her the amount for her room. These sudden acts of charity did not fill Ratface with confidence.

  Neither did Abigail’s face when she saw the pendant. She looked concerned but also resigned, like she expected Ratface to be up to something. Ratface quickly explained her absence before the old knight could tell her off too much. The rest weren’t back yet but better to have Abigail on her side by then.

  “Well, that’s going to be a problem,” she said. She’d apparently decided to skip the lecture. “The penalty for failing the Lady’s failure is to be marked as failing.”

  “I’m guessing that is a bad thing?” Ratface asked.

  “The Lady’s favour is all that stops them from exiling me properly. Failing her will get you banishment at best.”

  Ratface could already feel a pit forming in her stomach. It looked like she’d managed to get herself into a predicament.

  “What do I have to do to earn her favour?”

  Abigail gestured for Ratface to sit and poured her a tea she’d been preparing.

  “You’ll need to do a series of trials to earn her favour. The entry trial is to perform a thing of great heroism on your own, like taking on a kidnapping group on your own for instance.” She gave Ratface a hard look and Ratface realised she had not in fact missed out on the lecture. “It’s the easiest of all of the trials.”

  “Okay well, I can do some trials,” said Ratface. She looked at the knight’s concerned expression. “What?” she asked.

  “The trials are to become a Rune Knight,” said Abigail.

  Ratface blinked.

  “I can’t do magic,” she pointed out. Abigail gave her a flat look and she realised the knight had already put this together. Ratface frowned.

  “How come you didn’t come help? I sent the girl to grab you anyway. We could have maybe avoided all of this.”

  “If anything, asking for me confirmed it. You need another knight to observe you. We’re both going to be in the public eye for this. Ignoring that, no girl told me about your galivanting anyway, you coming through the door is the first I knew about it.”

  Before Ratface could ask anymore questions the innkeeper interrupted them to let her know two people were waiting downstairs to express their gratitude. It was the little girl and the mother she’d saved; their relation was even more obvious when they were together.

  “How did you find me?” asked Ratface.

  “New of someone going for the favour travels fast,” said the mother, “when Rachel heard she insisted we come pay our respects.” The mother hesitated, then gave Ratface a quick hug. “Thank you for saving me, I don’t know what I would have done without you-” she paused as she realised, she didn’t even know Ratface’s name. He gratitude was such that when Ratface supplied it she didn’t even blink.

  Ratface said something that was apparently noble enough going by the woman’s beaming smile. Ratface took that moment to bend down and talk to Rachel.

  “What happened? I thought I asked you to grab my knight?” she asked. The girl looked back at her in confusion.

  “But I did grab her. She was the old lady, right?”

  Ah, well that wasn’t good. Either there were too old knights in this town, or Ratface was being followed by a certain glamour.