How did things end up this way, Tae wondered to herself, not for the first time that morning.

When she and her father reached home the evening before, they had found her mother horribly ill, barely able to get out of bed. She needed someone to take care of her, and since they had no family in the surrounding area, the guards that had arrived to Tae and her father to the king’s entourage decided he could stay behind.

As a result, Tae found herself joining the king’s entourage perfectly alone. Well, maybe not perfectly alone. Luhan was around somewhere. Maybe she could stick to him during this journey so she wouldn’t feel so much like a confused outcast. She wasn’t able to find him before they departed, though, and she wasn’t supposed to leave her spot in line while they were moving.

She was placed in the back amongst all the serving girls, people who came from stations of a similar level to a daughter of a miller. This wouldn’t have been so bad but for a few reasons. One was that most of the girls were clearly too wary to speak to her directly. If Tae actually could spin straw into gold that would make her a witch, and most everyone was scared of witches. Another reason was that they were all walking. Walking the whole way to the king’s castle would be bad enough on it’s own, but since they were stuck at the end of the line and most everyone at the front was on horses, well, the smell was bad and they had to watch where they walked.

Tae counted herself lucky, though, as she overheard some of the other girls discussing how the entourage was substantially smaller than normal for this trip. Aware of the limited quartering space in Alrin, only a select few were allowed to accompany the king on his journey there.

By the time they took a break, Tae’s legs were on fire. She had never had to walk that much or that fast for such a long period of time. She also felt like she was going slightly crazy from being stuck in her head the entire time, left to her worries with nothing else to distract her mind from them.

She sat down for a moment, letting her legs rest, but forced herself to get back up to seek out Luhan. She was worried that he hadn’t bothered trying to find her; afraid he wouldn’t want to talk to her because he was afraid of witches and wizards as well. She hadn’t initially thought a royal guard would be afraid of them, she hadn’t thought they’d be much afraid of anything. A stupid, childish idea, she realized. Royal guards are people, they have their own fears, they’re just good at being brave.

“Hey there, princess,” said a man in uniform as she passed him.

Well, any fool can have courage, they say.

“Can I help you find what you’re looking for?” Something in the man’s tone told Tae that he wasn’t really all that interested in helping her, not in that way, at any rate.

She was about to turn around and make some snide comment, like ask him how his long-standing relationship with his right hand was going, but before she could say anything, someone else was already talking.

“I didn’t realize taking a break from marching meant you were off duty, soldier.”

Tae whipped her head around and was glad to see Luhan was the one who had spoken. He was standing tall with his hands folded behind his back, just like he had done when he was at Min’s last night. He was also glowering down at the soldier who had accosted Tae, and it was then that she noticed their uniforms were styled differently. Luhan was, of course, wearing the uniform of a royal guard, while this man was wearing one of a regular soldier. It made more sense, she realized, as the royal guard were known for being too well behaved to act like pigs. Only the best soldiers with the best behavior were promoted to royal guard. If any of the royal guard actually were pigs, they knew better than to act as such where anyone could see them.

“Sorry, sir, just trying to help the lady out.” The soldier straightened up from his relaxed stance, his arms at his side perfectly perpendicular to the ground.

“I don’t think the word help means you seem to think it does.” Tae couldn’t help but smile at that. “I’ll let you off this time, but remember to not ‘help’ any of the women on this trip.”

The soldier nodded before heading off to a group of soldiers, apparently his friends. They remained serious until Luhan turned his back on them, at which point they all started laughing and messing with the guy.

“It’s really not safe for you to be walking around alone, ma’am.”

Ma’am? Why was he calling her ma’am? Was it because he was on duty? If it was, he was taking his job very seriously. He wasn’t glowering at her as he had the soldier, but he wasn’t smiling at her, either. His face was stony, giving away nothing.

“I was looking for you,” she said, though the look he gave her was making her feel silly about it now.

They had only shared one night together with their friends. They didn’t really know each other, they weren’t even friends. The fact that it had been set up with the hopes of something romantic sparking between them also meant nothing at the moment. They were strangers, but he was still the closest thing to an acquaintance she had.

“And how can I assist you?”

There was no one else around them, so there wasn’t a reason for him to be so stiff about the whole thing. It was discouraging, and Tae almost gave up and just walked away. The thought of spending the rest of the five day trek to the capitol with those girls who wouldn’t talk to her spurred her on, though.

“I just didn’t want to be alone.” She regretted the words as soon as she said them, hating how pathetic and clingy they sounded. Luhan didn’t seem affected by them, though, aside from how he hesitated before responding.

“Look, Nichk is a good friend of mine, and you’re a good friend of his wife, so I want to trust you. However,” here his face hardened even more, “the claim that you can spin straw into gold is highly unlikely. If you were a witch, more people would probably know about it. At least Min would, having been your friend for so long, but she seemed more shocked than anybody by it. Besides, and I don’t mean this harshly, but I am aware of your family’s financial situation. If you could spin straw into gold, I assume your family would be rich, if not at least out of debt.”

His words stung, both for the truth in them and that he had picked up on the biggest evidence against the claim (other than the fact that she actually cannot perform magic of any sort). She wasn’t sure what to say back, having not anticipated needing to defend herself to him. Again, a very stupid assumption on her part. He was a member of the royal guard for a reason; of course he was sharp.

Her silence only seemed to confirm what he had been saying.

“I serve the king, and even though I like you, I cannot tolerate anyone tricking his majesty. If you mean him harm,” here he paused for emphasis, his eyes narrowing, “I will not hesitate to protect him.”

Tae didn’t miss his implication that if protecting the king meant hurting her, he wouldn’t hesitate to do it. Chilled by the knowledge that she was in very real danger with him, she smothered all her fear and made sure her face remained calm, a skill thanks to years of putting up with unwanted suitors.

“I don’t mean the king any harm, as I can see that is your primary concern here. And I’m sorry there is distrust between us, but I can understand now why it must be there. I’m sorry to have bothered you, I will not do it again.”

She turned to walk away, but only made it a few steps before Luhan started speaking again.

“Are you not even going to defend yourself?”

Tae stopped and turned to him.

“Would you believe me without a spindle to use to prove myself?”

He didn’t say anything.

“I didn’t think so.”

Tae turned and made her way back to her position in line. There was still time left during the break, but there was no one else for her to talk to.

~

The rest of the day continued on in much the same vein as it had earlier. So did the next day after that. By the third day, they girls didn’t seem as scared of Tae anymore, probably because she had done nothing to prove she was magical. None of them were very friendly, though. If she wasn’t a witch, then she was a liar, and they didn’t want to fraternize with someone who would openly lie to their king.

So Tae remained alone over the course of those days. On the third, though, Tae was surprised when a girl actually approached her while they were on break. From the way she was dressed, Tae assumed she was another one of the serving girls who had been ignoring her. She couldn’t fathom why one of them would actually approach her at this point, especially alone.

“Hey, I was playing catch with my younger brother but we lost the ball in the woods. Could you help me look for it?”

Tae stared at the girl, completely taken aback. Why would she come to Tae, of all people, for help?

“Is your brother not helping you?”

“He had to go take care of the advisor not too long after.”

“But… so you’re asking me?”

“Aren’t witches supposed to be good finders?”

Tae wasn’t sure she had ever heard this before, but didn’t want to deny it, just in case.

“This ball is precious to my brother. It was our father’s when he was kid, and he died about a year ago…”

Still baffled, she stood up and followed the girl to the edge of the road. They were currently on a road that cut through a wooded area, so either side of the road was densely packed with trees. Tae was surprised the girl and her brother had found room to play catch since the road isn’t terribly wide and it was crowded with people and carts and horses. She wasn’t surprised, though, that the ball had gotten lost in the foliage.

That being said, she still had trouble comprehending why a serving girl would ask her for help instead of going to one of the others, or anyone else for that matter. This ball must really be important for her to actually approach a witch for help so readily.

Not being able to find the ball along the road, Tae moved farther into the trees to continue looking, and then had to move farther back again. By the time she stopped to look back at the road, she had moved far enough out that it was hard to see between the trees.

“Are you sure this is the area where you threw your ball?”

“Yeah, it has to be around here somewhere.”

The girl was even deeper in the trees than Tae was, and moving deeper in still. Tae was beginning to get a bad feeling about the whole thing. Something was very off, and she was willing to risk any rumors about her inability to find things, proving her lack of magicalness, to keep from wandering any deeper into the woods.

“Maybe someone else grabbed it while you came looking for me,” Tae said as she turned and started moving back towards the road. “I don’t think it’s out here, anyways. I’m sorry, I should get back to my spot.” This wasn’t entirely true, as there was still plenty of time left of the break. Besides, those girls would probably be happy if she never returned.

“I don’t think so.”

Tae was so surprised to hear the deep rumble of a male’s voice that she stopped in her tracks and looked around for whomever had spoken. In the next second a hand had clamped over while another had gripped her arm. The hands pulled her hard, flush up against someone behind her. Her body was wrenched around so she was no longer facing the road, hidden from it, from the people on it who would have seen her, who could have helped.

“Now, keep your mouth closed or I’ll be forced to break something.” The man breathed in her ear, though she barely heard him over the pounding of her own heart. “Are you going to behave?”

Tae was too scared and startled to respond, and the man seemed to realize this. After a few seconds, he pulled his hand back from a few centimeters, far enough that she could yell if she wanted, but close enough that he could cut it off if she did.

“Good girl.”

He lowered his hand and released his hold on her arm, and Tae could see he was going to turn her around, for what reason she could only guess. Something in her realized in that moment, though, that this might be the only time he won’t be restraining her physically or covering .

Completely forgetting his threat, she started screaming the word “help” and tried to dart around him to get back to the campers. However, she barely got the word out and only made it two steps before someone grabbed her by her hair. She had thrown herself into her run, so when she was grabbed her feet went out from under her, causing her to fall down. The hand didn’t let go of her hair, though. After she fell, it yanked her to the side, ramming her head into a tree trunk next to her. She collapsed, dazed so bad that for a second she forgot to be scared and just laid there.

“You’re always too soft on them, Yeol,” the girl Tae had originally followed into the trees said. She was bent over Tae now, and when she saw she wasn’t in any fit state to even sit up, she let go of her hair.

“And you’re always too rough.” It was the man. He was crouched down over her now as well, sliding his arms under Tae to pick her up.

“She’s not even unconscious. Besides, you’re the one who let her scream for help.”

The man, Yeol, managed to pick her up with some help from the woman, flinging Tae over his shoulder, which only served to disorient her even more.

“No one cares, though. So long as it’s not one of their charges, the servants aren’t going to bother.”

Tae managed to turn her head to get one last look at the road, at the people. No one had moved since she screamed, no one had even looked in her direction. These people were going to take her God knows where, to do God knows what to her, and no one cared.

“I thought you were going to break something if she yelled.”

“I broke a twig trying to pick her up.”

The girl sighed, and Tae could practically hear the girl rolling her eyes from it.

“Not everything needs to be violent, Luna.”

“It’s not that, and you know it. You always treat women differently. If this girl was a man, you wouldn’t have hesitated to do exactly what I did.”

“But I didn’t because I’m a gentleman.”

“You’re ist.”

“You’re a sadist.” Pause. “Ow!”

“And you’re a masochist.”

Tae turned her head to look at the girl, Luna, who was walking along Yeol’s other side, frowning up at him. Luna noticed Tae’s look, and raised an eyebrow up at her.

“Are you going to try screaming again?”

Tae just stared back at Luna, figuring they were probably too far away from the camp for anyone to hear her anyways.

“Didn’t think so.”

“Come on, Luna, be nice. We need her to like us.”

“We don’t need her to like us, we just need her to work for us.”

“It’d be easier to get her to work for us if she liked us.”

Luna heaved another sigh.

“I don’t know why I work with you.”

“Because I’m one of the best thieves in all of Chilrion.”

“I swear it’s all luck.”

“And this luck has helped us snag a girl who can create gold. So no more complaining.”

Tae caught some movement among the trees from the corner of her eye. She whipped her head around to it, only becoming slightly dizzier from the action. Luna noticed Tae’s reaction, and put a hand on Yeol to stop him, both immediately on alert and scanning the area for any threats.

“Did you hear that?” Yeol asked.

“Yeah.”

Tae was whipping her head around, trying to see what she could as well. All she could see of anything important was Luna looking off somewhere to the right before a man shot out from behind a tree, meaning to tackle her, but Luna heard and turned to fight him. Tae lost sight of the pair as Yeol whipped around to face someone else, she assumed, as she couldn’t see anything.

“Release her,” came a masculine voice that was only slightly familiar.

“I would except for the fact that I don’t want to.”

Clearly, what Yeol said didn’t sit well with whoever he was talking to as he started jerking and moving around, fighting the other guy was off. Which, again, she could only assume from her position.

Frustrated with her predicament, and sick of being held like that since it was really uncomfortable, Tae started thrashing as violently as she could, hoping to at least catch Yeol off guard and surprise him into letting her go. It didn’t work, at first, as he just gripped onto her tighter, but whoever he was fighting against was able to distract him into loosening his grip just enough that Tae fell off his shoulder, hitting the ground hard.

She laid there dazed, having banged her head, again, on the ground when she fell, and having had the wind knocked out of her. It took her far too long to recover, never having been in a fight before and having no natural born instincts for it.

Before she could, Yeol was reaching for her again. When he grabbed her, she launched herself up and started clawing at his face so that he immediately let her go and backed off.

Maybe she did have a little instinct for it after all.

“Let’s get out of here!” He yelled, and disappeared from Tae’s line of sight.

Her head throbbed too much to bother watching him or finding out about his companion. She cradled it in her hands, lowering it between her knees in the hopes that it would calm down. A few moments later, she heard a pair of feet approaching her. She looked up slowly, barely managing that though she was scared it was Yeol and Luna returning for her.

Instead, it was a pair of men approaching her, one of which she recognized.

“Are you alright?” the other asked, kneeling down next to her. She didn’t have the strength to answer before she swayed, about to fall, before he caught her. Tae closed her eyes, not even embarrassed she was in the arms of the head of the royal guard.