Ah. [It happened again. This one, for some reason, she feels a little bit strange having had shared, even though it's nothing.] The muster call. A summons by the Emperor is quite an honour.

[But that little pit of shame she feels still lingers, so she'll add - ]

My behaviour was appalling. Of course as my cavalier Ortus owed his lady a duty, but that duty had never been and was never expected to be anything other than lifting heavy corpses around and ceremonial appearances. He knew he could not withstand a true test of his mettle, and he couldn't. And my family was already in blood debt to his.

I shouldn't have made him come, I think. But there was no one else.