[center][h2][color=92278f]Dot[/color][/h2][/center][hr]Dot watched their numbers dwindle and began to worry. Even when so many had gone that she no longer needed the post to see the stage, she found herself anchored there, afraid that moving might be perceived as some kind of slight against the gods, and they would strike her name from the list, and then maybe smite her for good measure. She trilled her fingers on the wood in time to a song she couldn’t even hear in her own head over the pounding of her heart. 

However, when she heard the prince’s name, Rossweine Lupus [i]Grayle[/i], it all seemed to quiet. Her eyes found him easily, he looked almost exactly like she’d expected royalty to look, right down to the demeanor. Down to the wire as they all were, yet he seemed so calm, picturesque, like the wind itself didn’t dare bother him. 

Anger sparked within her, so suddenly that it took her by surprise. It caught kindling she didn’t know was there, and began to burn voraciously. Her lips pursed until she was chewing at them. Her fingers had stopped trilling, she was gripping the post so tightly now her knuckles were whitening. If looks could be weapons, she would have been hanged for an attempt on the prince’s life. 

[i]“Zenshin Ferros!”[/i]

Dot jolted, having only really caught the last name and nearly mistaking it for her own. Just as she was about to climb down, a beanpole of a boy stepped forward, and she realized her mistake. Her burgeoning fury was snuffed, and in its ashes she wilted. Perhaps she would be sleeping soundly alone after all—

[i]“Dot Auferrum!”[/i]

Cruel, gods. Very cruel. This time Dot nearly fell off the post, only managing to catch herself an inch from even further humiliation. As she joined the rest of thirteenth squadron, a sort of fog descended upon her. That was it, she [i]had[/i] made it after all. She wasn’t some wandering vagrant anymore, or a listless exile. She was a knight of Grayle—in training, anyway. It was as the man said: the kingdom needed them, and they were called to defend it. 

Dot found it hard to draw any real sense of patriotism from that duty, but then again, this whole thing probably counted as treason. No going back to Alexandria now. She tried to let that feel like a good thing, and put Adean out of her thoughts, but that just made her feel guilty. So instead she directed her thoughts to their mentor’s parting question. As her squadmates began shuffling off for the eastern barracks, she followed, slowed less by her limp and more by her inability to find and answer. 

What [i]could[/i] she do for Grayle? All of the things that came to mind made her feel ill. 

[color=fb3a81][b]“Lady Auferrum.”[/b][/color]

Despite the fact that the blonde boy had walked right up to her, Dot felt like she’d been smacked on the back of her head with a pole. Reflex screamed at her to clap a hand over his mouth, but she was too dumbstruck to manage even a quiet [i]'ShhHHH!'[/i] She just stood there as Liese Victoire of House Brendorn introduced himself, petrified, eyes flicking around in case anyone had heard the boy casually out her to the world. Well, halfway, at least. In all fairness, she had banked perhaps too heavily on the people of Grayle being as oblivious to foreign nobility as she was.

But Liese was different, like Rossweine. Both reeked of nobility, but where the prince had breezy ethereality, Liese was practically oozing with proud ambition. That alone made Dot’s teeth itch. She stared at the outstretched hand, and a bitter part of her wanted to refuse it, refuse the whole introduction altogether. But that wasn’t nice—Dot wasn’t the most experienced socialite but even she knew that much—and more important than that, it wasn’t fair. Liese might have been a noble, but he was being nice, or trying. And he seemed genuine, or at least she thought so. Assuming the best of others’ intentions had never done her well before, but she found her convictions harder to stick to when faced with friendliness. 

She did want friends. 

Dot shook Liese’s hand and mustered up a smile, though she couldn’t quite wipe the panic from her face. [color=92278f]“Wow. I was kinda worried we’d be lacking enthusiasm, what with us being the last picks and all, but it sounds like you already know the road ahead of you. If your match is anything to go by, you seem pretty prepared for it at least. It's nice to meet you too.”[/color] Before they could continue on with the group, Dot stayed them a little longer, dropping her voice to a hush. [color=92278f]“Ah, but could you…uhm…I probably could have gone about disguising myself better, but as long as it lasts could you just call me Dot? I’d really rather people didn’t treat me any different, not over silly stuff. For now I’m just, ah, one of the boys, you know?”[/color]

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