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[color=ed1c24][h2]Jace Fisher[/h2][/color]
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"I forbid it."

[color=ed1c24]"It's just a tourney-"[/color]

"That all the Houses are coming to see. Even the Northerners are here and usually they're all too busy wrestling bears to care about the rest of the world. Besides, Squires here are meant to clean the knight's armor and swords. Not to fight."

[color=ed1c24]"But I could-"[/color]

"No," the knight said, folding his arms over his barrel-like chest as if to signal to Jace that the conversation was completely over. "Now go finish polishing my armor before I have to put up with any more womanly whining from you."

Jace glared at him as he left the room, and she stuck out her tongue at him like a child. She sighed, standing up to try and explore the town a bit more before the tourney started. She'd already done the armor and sword polishing, opting for work over sleep so that she could wheedle the knight into letting her try and fight. It didn't work out in her favor, but now she had some time to kill. Even if he could complain about how she did the polishing, she'd probably be long gone. It'd delay her knighthood more, but at the rate she was going with making friends with the other knights, she'd get recommended for knighthood sooner or later.

It was all just a big long waiting game and she hated it. Wait until this happens. Now wait until this fortunate thing happens. Could be five years could be never, and Jace wasn't eager to wait too much longer. Eventually she'd get discovered and she at least wanted to make it to knighthood before she got executed for being evil or whatever.

So she went out into town, hands in her pockets and whistling while people moved around her. She liked the pace of the city, it was always something exciting as a opposed to the castle or the village she grew up in. Really, village was overstating it, but that's the only word that came to mind to describe it.

Here, she could blend into the crowd if she wanted. Just another face among millions, but eventually she'd be a knight and get all the perks to go with it. Death was certainly going to happen, and whether it was to enemy or execution didn't matter so much as getting to be a knight and pulling one over on those stupid nobles who insisted that women couldn't. It was stupid. Women probably saw more blood in their entire lives than men did in one war.

She looked over a butcher's stand, dangling all sorts of meat to try and attract the visiting nobles and busy servants. It wasn't something she wanted to buy, but it gave her purpose to look over all the various items available for sale. Plus, it was far enough out of the castle that the knight couldn't chase her down and yell at her yet.