In the morning of the next day, I found myself standing in the throne room, two monarchs staring down at me from their thrones. I was out of my armour for once, instead wearing the blue riding outfit I had commissioned prior to my assignment in Marnadal.

  “So this is Pavetta’s tutor,” the King, Roegnar of Ebbing, spoke, sounding bored. He was a shorter man, with brown hair and eyes, very unlike his daughter.

  Unlike our private meetings, Calanthé sat with the poise of a monarch, contrasting wildly with Roegnar’s lackadaisical attitude. It was hard to say, looking upon him, whether he even noticed that his homeland had recently been conquered by Nilfgaard.

  “I don’t see what the fuss is about, my love,” he proclaimed, barely glancing in my direction.

  I hadn’t quite known what to expect from the King, but I wasn’t particularly impressed.

  Calanthé shot him a look, before turning towards me, “Gera has informed me of what has transpired,” her eyes narrowed, “I have forbidden her from speaking of the matter further with anyone, and the same is true for you, understand, sorceress?”

  I inclined my head. It was something I had largely already agreed to, after all.

  The Queen stared at me, something unreadable in her eyes, while the King looked bored. I wasn’t sure if he even understood what we were talking about.

  “While your actions in Attre were within the bounds of the law,” Calanthé spoke, muttering something I could not hear, before resuming her speech, “They have caused much consternation amongst the aristocracy.”

  “A regrettable and unavoidable outcome,” I spoke, my tone suitably demure.

  “Yes. Unavoidable.” The Queen answered, “Unfortunately, this puts the Crown into a precarious position. Your actions were certainly in the… interest of the realm, yet obvious rewards would only agitate the aristocracy further, while returning the attention to the Attre… matter.”

  “Obvious?” I asked, glancing towards the silent King. He seemed to be bored out of his mind and vaguely confused. Certainly living up to his reputation.

  Calanthé nodded, “Yes. I have considered this matter extensively with the help of my advisors and have found a satisfactory way of achieving both ends,” she paused, examining my face, before continuing, “You will be rewarded with the position of a Royal Provost, one residing over Marnadal and some parts of Erlenwald, while those lands will be formally ceded to the Crown by Attre. You will still answer directly to me.”

  Roegnar side-eyed her when she said ‘me’, but didn’t speak up.

  I frowned, “Provost? I was not aware this position existed in Cintra.”

  Calanthé shrugged, “It was never officially removed, though there have been no Provosts since the reign of King Corbett.”

  Corbett, the fifth king of Cintra. Calanthé was his granddaughter, though Corbett had died long before her birth. In other words, the Queen’s advisors had searched long and hard to find some historical precedent for the position.

  “What would my duties be? And how will they be reconciled with my position as a Court Sorceress?” I asked, mind churning.

  “You will administer and protect the assigned lands, which shall include both judicial and military matters. As the lands are undeveloped, you will be exempt from taxation for the next fifteen years. After that, ensuring the collection of taxes will be one of your foremost duties,” she paused, eyeing me, “In short, you will be responsible for governing the area. A noble in spirit, if not in essence,” the Queen explained, and I was moved.

  It seemed that the Queen had wanted to reward me with a noble title for my service, an honour I wouldn’t have been able to accept without endangering my ties to the Brotherhood. The position of a Provost was a workaround, one that’d probably work, as it did not violate any rules I was aware of, even if it was skirting them.

  “As for your duties as a Court Sorceress,” she continued, “You would keep the title, but alas, the travel time would make it impractical for you to continue acting as one in truth. The Crown would still call upon you when necessary, especially in matters concerning the princess, but it would not be often.”

  I smiled. While presiding over Marnadal wasn’t exactly a safe position in the rear, the place would become a fortress to rival any other. On one hand, I would be directly in the path of an invasion if Nilfgaard stayed course. On the other, as a Court Sorceress, it would have been my duty to help defend the realm in any case. Now, I’d find myself in a leadership position, safely behind the walls of what would one day be one of Cintra's greatest fortresses.

  Not a bad deal, all things considered.

  However, I understood the sacrifice on Calanthé’s part. I was being rewarded, but she would lose out on a potent defence against magical threats, a tutor and watcher for Pavetta, and an advisor for all things magical. My possible role in the Cintran Intelligence would also become tangled.

  Luckily, I had a solution. It would require some more work from my side, but I would not be a good employee if I was not willing to reciprocate my employer’s goodwill.

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  “Do not worry, your Majesty,” I smiled even wider, “I am very close to mastering the portal spell. Though I will not be able to dedicate as much time to them, I will endeavour to continue fulfilling my current duties to the best of my ability.”

  I couldn’t answer the Queen’s reward with ingratitude. Worse, the ability to create portals wasn’t a secret, which meant that the Queen might have made her decision with it in mind. If that was the case, I couldn’t let her down.

  Calanthé’s eye twitched, though her expression remained the same. She must have been suppressing a smile of her own. Having to hide your emotions was the burden of a monarch, but I saw through her this time.

  “How dedicated!” The King spoke up, “The matter with Erlenwald reminds me of one thing,” he looked towards me.

  I schooled my expression to its previous neutrality. By now, my rapport with the Queen was quite good, so I felt comfortable showing more emotion. With the King, I was not quite sure how I stood, which made professionalism a safe bet.

  “Please ask away, Your Majesty,” I said.

  “Hm. When you passed through the forest, had you, by any chance, spotted any… Urcheons?” The King asked, his face intent, the previous boredom gone.

  “Urcheons?” I said, mulling the non sequitur over, before remembering, “Ah, there was a knight, whom the locals referred to as the ‘Urcheon of Erlenwald’, is that who you are speaking of?”

  Roegnar tensed, before his body language returned to normal, “No. A shame.”

  Though Calanthé was eying him, the man said nothing more.

  “Ah, there is still the issue of the other traitors,” I spoke up in the silence.

  Calanthé raised an eyebrow, “Other traitors?”

  “After sifting through Duke Baldemar’s correspondence, I discovered connections to seven more suspicious nobles, with Count Borivoj the highest ranked amongst their number,” I explained.

  Calanthé pinched the bridge of her nose, while Roegnar perked up, “Let’s chop some heads!”

  The Queen gave him another look, “We will examine whatever evidence you have gathered before deciding on a further course of action.”

  Roegnar… pouted? Then looked away.

  “Of course,” I pretended to see nothing.

  “Then the matter is settled,” Calanthé spoke, “You will move to Marnadal along with the gathering reinforcements as soon as possible.”

  I bowed gratefully. More manpower made the posting much more appealing.

  With no more topics to cover, I was dismissed. I made my way back to my tower, under the protection of my guards, though they were left at the entrance.

  Inside, I ruminated on my new position. A Royal Provost. A noble in all but name.

  I was both relieved and grateful that the Queen stood behind me, even though my actions must have ruffled quite a few feathers, but I had not expected to rise in rank, so to speak. The position of a Court Sorceress wasn’t one with upward mobility, after all. Unsurprisingly, as it was already at the top of society. A position I only acquired through nepotism, really.

  The extra freedom and resources were welcome, though my days would likely get a lot busier. Then again, my days weren’t that packed before, if I ignored my personal projects. I suppose I wouldn't be able to keep attending when Calanthé held court, but frankly, I was pretty much an ornament there. Not a big loss.

  On account of my personal projects, I entered the laboratory that had housed the rats I had experimented on before the expedition. It was empty now, but I was still faced with a decision.

  Moving the War Hound project to Marnadal was largely sensible. There’d be more space, less risk should a subject escape containment and more resources available to me. However, Marnadal was likely to be attacked at some point in the future. While I would prefer for the fortress to repel every invader, the possibility of it falling existed. In which case, I’d lose my laboratory and progress as well.

  I tapped one of the cages, thinking.

  The equipment I was using wasn’t exactly difficult to produce, but Marnadal lacked industry of, well, any sort. Cages and glassware constituted the majority of it.

  “Pack this and order replacements…” I murmured.

  It was a decent compromise. I’d have all the equipment necessary for the continuation of the project in Marnadal, and when I returned, replacements would have been made here.

  The wolfhounds were a bigger issue as I doubted the kennel master was too keen on moving, even if the King allowed it. He liked his hunting, so I doubted he’d be happy about such a request. The Princess probably wouldn’t be terribly happy either.

  While dog training wasn’t such a rare skill, a kennel master was a professional who had dedicated their entire life to the care and training of dogs. I could find a bunch of hunters with experience in the matter easily enough, but their skills would be inferior.

  However, leaving the dogs out of my sight for extensive periods of time would go against the core hypothesis of the project, as their bond with me would weaken.

  I sighed. It was what it was. That an abrupt and somewhat permanent relocation would play havoc on my work was to be expected, though hardly ideal.

  There was still more to do and consider, however.

  The Brotherhood response, for one. The irony of receiving Calanthé’s reward shortly after being accused of breaking the Law and following in the footsteps of Raffard the White, a sorcerer who had ruled Temeria in all but name before being killed by the Brotherhood for refusing to bow down to their order, was not lost on me.

  Just in case, I borrowed a few dusty books that detailed the duties and powers of Provosts from the royal library and spent the rest of the day going through them.

  In the evening, I closed the last one, satisfied.

  As far as my knowledge of the Law went, this wasn’t breaking any rules. A Provost’s authority wasn’t that much higher compared to the nebulous powers of a Court Sorceress. Sure, I’d be administering lands, but in some ways, that made my political position in Cintra weaker, instead of stronger.

  While both a Court Sorceress and a Royal Provost worked directly for a monarch, a Court Sorceress very often spoke with the Monarch’s authority and spent large amounts of time in their vicinity, making their authority much higher in practice.

  A Royal Provost was essentially just a lesser noble, though the web of fealty tying them made them closer to a Duke than a Baron, as they answered directly to the ruler, instead of fitting in the usual pyramid structure of feudal society. Practically speaking, ruling over Marnadal would make me the equivalent of a baron, and a Court Sorceress easily held more influence than that.

  In other words, my new position followed the Brotherhood’s Law well enough, even if the spirit was bent slightly.