Rose's Arc

Chapter 3 of 3

The signed testimony sat useless in Rose's hand. Words alone would not reach the council. She needed one of them to carry her case forward, to stand up and sponsor her seat. So she spent a morning calling on the ones she thought were friends. Each door opened, then closed. One after another, they gave the same excuse. The lord had painted her as violent, a woman who cut men down over slights. No member would risk backing her. By afternoon Rose stood before a pearl-toned townhouse she had not planned to visit. Dara had named the man inside. "He owes no one," she'd said. "That's why he can speak for you." The door swung open before Rose knocked. Aldric Rowe wore a stiff grey coat buttoned to the throat. He looked at her silk gown, then at the paper in her hand, and sighed. "You've come for a signature. Everyone does, eventually." He was the court enchanter, once the council's advisor. He had shut himself away for years and answered to no lord. "I settled a feud without steel," Rose said. "I have witnesses. I need a voice inside the hall." "Witnesses," Aldric repeated, as if correcting a student. "You have a bucket and a rope and two grateful families. The lord will call that a chore, not governance." He stepped back to let her in. "But you already knew that. That's why you're here and not begging the others." Rose followed him into a room lined with dusty books. A pale flowering vine climbed the window frame, its blossoms shaped like small moons. "You don't fear him," she said. "I fear boredom," Aldric said. "He's been dull for a decade." He took the testimony, read it twice, and set it down. "Your peace holds because you tied it to the council, not to yourself. That's the only clever thing in this document." "Then sponsor me." He studied her a long moment. "I haven't spoken in that hall in years. If I do, he'll turn every eye on me. On my past. On yours." He pulled a pen from his coat. "You understand this makes me your target too?" "I understand." Aldric signed. The ink was black and plain. "There. You have your sponsor." He handed the paper back. "Now the lord can't ignore your case. He must answer it in open session. That's the danger you wanted." Rose folded the letter. She had a voice inside the hall at last. "He'll demand a real test," Aldric added. "Not a well. Something he chooses. Something he expects you to fail." He opened the door for her. "Come back when he names it. You'll need more than a rope then." Rose stepped out with the signed letter warm in her hand. The council would hear her now. But the lord would set the terms, and she did not yet know them.