Mom brought me a plate of food. I didn’t want to talk with anyone, so she left it near my door and knocked before leaving. It had been three days since my failed marriage. When I glanced outside, I could see wandering eyes looking at my window. Obviously, they were curious. I was too.

  The star on this ring, which I couldn’t remove, was a symbol of the God of Wind, Luft. So it made me wonder if this was some sort of punishment. I don’t know what I did, but I was sorry if I offended him.

  As I glanced out the window for the fiftieth time today, I saw something strange. A wagon or kind of. It was completely covered with a door. It didn’t look beneficial for carrying lots of crops. It had stopped in front of our house. The village chief and priest came out. Feeling I might finally get some answers, I ran downstairs.

  The priest and chief nodded as they said good day to my parents. I didn’t care about the small talk.

  “Did you find something out?” I asked.

  The chief nodded. “We need to see our lord about this.”

  “Lord?” I asked.

  “Yes, the person I report to,” the chief said.

  I was confused. “You report to someone? But you're the chief; we all report to you?”

  “I’ll explain on the way,” he said.

  I looked at the priest. He nodded. “What he says is true. You will learn more than I can say by going with him.”

  I looked to mom and dad, and they both stood next to me. The chief wasn’t surprised and just waved for all three of us to come into the wagon through a door.

  Inside, there were two benches for three people each. I sat between Mom and Dad, while the chief sat alone on the opposite side.

  “So, we are in the kingdom of Anlage,” he began. “It’s quite big. It is divided into sections. With each area being ruled by a noble. We are going to meet such a noble.”

  “Chief, does that mean you are a noble?” I asked. He did rule a section after all.

  He laughed. I glanced at my Mom and Dad, but neither of them reacted.

  “No, I am no noble. Hmm, how to explain. You know how we send crops away at the end of every harvest? Those are taxes we pay to the kingdom. In exchange, the kingdom protects us from others. That is why the land of Hatula is safe. I work with a noble; the noble is the one who rules this area. He is a kind man, but you will need to behave. If we anger him, he could hurt Hatula a lot.”

  “How could he hurt Hatula?” I asked. “Why are we going to meet him?”

  “He knows more about your situation than I do. He asked me to bring you in. So that is what I am doing. The thing is, we have known a peaceful life because of him. All he would have to do is stop protecting us, and Hatula would be doomed. So I must stress that you do your best to behave.”

  “That’s scary, but you said he was a kind man. So surely he wouldn’t?” I asked.

  He rubbed his chin. “That is true, I haven’t had a problem. Stories from other towns say that when a noble is angered, he can do a lot of damage. This is why I hadn’t had anyone come with me. But this is different, since you must. I just want you to be well-behaved.”

  I tensed up. Such a scary thought. “Okay. I understand. So he can help me?”

  He paused and scratched his head. “Well, he will know more. I don’t know what he can do. Oh, but it is crucial. Always call him lord or my lord. Not doing so is an insult to him.”

  Lord. Right. Got it. I nodded.

  “How long will it take to get there?” Mom asked.

  “Fortunately, he was staying at his summer home. It is only about a day’s trip by carriage. So we will arrive tomorrow afternoon.”

  “Summer home?” I asked. What is a summer home?

  The chief sighed. “Right. So, he has more than one house. He stays at different ones depending on the time of year and his mood.”

  Wow, that sounds complicated. Why would anyone need more than one home? I guess maybe his village had lots of extra ones.

  He explained other things, such as that we would need to bow when we meet him. We can’t speak when he is speaking. And we should try to agree with him most of the time. It felt like a lot of trouble to me. But I didn’t want to risk angering him, given the warnings, plus if he could get this ring off and help me marry Kevin, that would be an ideal result.

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  The traveling hurt my butt from all the bumps. We ended up stopping around nightfall. The man managing the wagon set up two tents—one for my family and one for the chief and wagon driver. We woke up before sunrise and had a light breakfast before moving on. Around noon, we made it close. We stopped at a hill so he could point it out. But what I saw made no sense.

  It was a huge house. Like bigger than all the houses of Hatula, even if you stacked them. No crops nearby and no other houses. Just the one huge building surrounded by a wall that covered an area bigger than all of Hatula.

  “So do all the villagers live inside the same big house?” I asked.

  The chief looked at me. “Uh, no. This isn’t a village. That is his house. Just his house.”

  “What? But… it is so big! You could fit all of Hatula in there!”

  “That is what it means to be a noble,” he said.

  “Must be a pain to clean,” Mom said.

  “Definitely, his wife must be super strong.”

  “They have servants that do all that, so he or his wife doesn’t do any of that stuff.”

  “Servants?” I asked. What was that, I wondered.

  “Basically, he lives there with more than his family, but it isn’t a village. He is the leader, and they all do as he says. He keeps them to cook and clean and all that stuff, so he doesn’t have to.”

  “Then what does he do?” I asked. “I don’t see any farmland nearby.”

  “That is a tough question, but you could say he does this. Helps people like you. But not just for Hatula village. But for dozens of villages. There is always at least one village that needs something from him. He is quite busy. So we should be thankful he is seeing us so quickly.”

  Interesting. I didn’t know jobs like that existed. I wonder what kind of man he was.

  His house was even bigger than I realized when we were far away. It looked like it could fit all the houses from Hatula inside it twice over. And he had another home somewhere else. Madness.

  A man and a woman opened the two giant doors near the front. They bowed and welcomed us. The chief explained these two were the head maid and butler—job titles for servants. I didn’t bring a coat, so they had nothing to take from me. They showed us inside, and I was shocked beyond all belief. The walls had art, and the floor was covered in things like blankets. One room had things that looked like the bibe, but like a hundred of them all lined up next to each other. Finally, we came to a room with a table with about twenty chairs around it. The four of us sat down. The carriage driver stayed with the horses.

  “Tea?” the head maid asked.

  “Thank you,” the chief said.

  “What is tea?” I asked.

  “Similar to vegetable broth, nobles drink it when talking and in between meals.”

  Interesting.

  The maid eventually handed me a shiny cup filled with brown liquid. It smelled amazing, and I realized the chief wasn’t kidding. I could see the bottom; no sign of any vegetable leftovers. Just colored water. It was warm too, but a small sip was all I could manage. Aaa, it was bitter. Yuck. I set the cup down without intending to taste it again.

  Finally, a man entered. He looked way different, and he wore an outfit similar to Kevin’s wedding outfit, except it was primarily black and appeared to be of better quality. The chief bowed, and then I did with mom and dad.

  He sat down. “I am Baron Christopher. I would first like to thank you for coming.”

  The chief introduced us all, and he asked to see my hand. He looked carefully at the ring.

  “So, do you understand what it is?” I asked.

  “I believe so, but I would like to try something to confirm. Julia, come with me, please?” he asked as he stood up.

  I stood up, and Mom and Dad a moment later.

  He raised his hand. “No, no, apologies, just Julia. Don’t worry, nothing bad will happen. But you three need to wait here.”

  I looked at my parents; they, in turn, looked at the chief. “We shall wait patiently then,” he said.

  My Mom and Dad sat back down as we walked up a flight of stairs and into a room without a window. He had lit a single candle, but it was still rather dark. We came to a stone bowl of water that was about three times the size of the bucket we used to fetch well water.

  He touched the water with his index finger, and the tip of his finger began to light up. “Zuweit Kaiser.”

  The water swirled a bit before the image of a man began to form. He was older; he reminded me of my grandfather before he died. He had grey hair and a beard and was wearing something golden on his head.

  “Wow, what was that?” I asked.

  He raised his eyebrow at me. “Please refrain from speaking unless asked a question.”

  “Oh, sorry,” I said.

  “So this is the child?” the man asked.

  “Yes, your majesty. I believe it is as we speculated, but I would like for your people to confirm.”

  Confirm? What! Why wouldn’t they tell me? I wanted to ask, but I could tell it wouldn’t be good to interrupt.

  “I am King Rosen Paul Anlage. Child, lift your hand and show me your ring.”

  I looked at Christopher, and he nodded, so I raised my hand over the bowl of water. “Like this?”

  He moved my hand a little until the king said to stop. They then asked me not to move while I heard a bunch of noises that dad would make when he was thinking.

  After what felt like fifteen minutes, the king finally spoke.

  “There can be no mistaking it. Julia is the Maiden of Wind.”

  “The what?”