Chapter 43 ： Adopted Daughter
"She's had a hard life," Evan said. "When I found her, both her parents were dead and she'd been attacked by a noble's retainers. I brought her with me, and it became clear she has a natural affinity for the knightly path — the kind that shows itself without being told to. I've taught her the basics. Coming here, I wanted to find her better instruction."
"You've come to the right place," Leonardo said. "The Cross Blade School is one of the three great sword traditions on this continent. If a knight wants to develop, this is where they come. Let me arrange a teacher for her — I have someone in mind. A woman."
Evan hadn't expected that. "A female teacher? One she can learn from seriously?"
"Katherine. She's a Holy Knight, Great Knight rank. How does that sound?"
Evan blinked. "She's in Waltersdorf? I thought she was with the Holy Knights Order."
"She left. Some disagreement with the Order's direction. She joined the Cross Blade School instead. Her classes are open to any student — she doesn't turn people away based on background. But taking someone as a personal disciple is another matter. She's only done it once in all her years here, and that was Monroe from the New Church."
Tina had been listening with the expression of someone trying very hard to seem as though they weren't hoping for something.
Evan glanced at her. "Don't worry about the cost. I'll cover it. When you're established, you can settle it with me later."
Her face did something complicated. "Yes, sir."
"And stop calling me sir. You've been doing it since we met, and I've let it go, but you're not a servant. You don't owe deference to anyone based on where you were born." He said it easily, as though it were obvious.
The room went quiet.
He realized, a moment later, that he'd said something genuinely unusual. On Earth it was a commonplace. In this room it landed like a stone in still water. Leonardo's expression moved through surprise to something that looked like wry consideration.
"You hold views more radical than the New Church's radical faction," he said, after a moment, and laughed.
Evan steered toward less fraught topics. They talked about magic, and then he remembered the jade pendants.
"I've come across some alchemical notation I can't read," he said. "References to ingredients I don't recognize. Red Sea Foam, the Fat of Mercury's Wind, Eternal Water, Virgin's Milk."
Leonardo set down his cup. "The Fat of Mercury's Wind is refined mercury — not ordinary mercury, but mercury combined with the rendered fat of a magical beast that carries both wind and water attributes, refined nine times. That's why it's called what it's called." He picked up the thread again. "Red Sea Foam is sulfur processed with the heart-blood of a sea-dwelling magical beast, also refined. Eternal Water is dew — dew disappears instantly, so you stabilize it with the juice of a plant called the Eternal Flower, which makes it permanent. Virgin's Milk is the milk of a mermaid."
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He said the last one as though it were perfectly ordinary.
"These are Philosopher's Stone formula components," he said. "Where did you encounter them?"
Evan produced the two jade pendants.
Leonardo stood up. He took them with hands that weren't quite steady, opened them, and read what was inside. "The first piece. And the fourth. I have the second." He looked up. "Three pieces. I don't know where the others are. Come upstairs — come, come."
The alchemy laboratory took up most of the upper floor. Three-phase furnace, glass vessels in shapes Evan couldn't entirely identify despite having seen chemistry equipment before, dried plants and minerals and animal components, finished preparations in small containers that caught light in strange ways. It was the most comprehensive experimental workspace he had seen in this world.
Leonardo retrieved his own jade pendant from a cabinet without a lock. "The contents of second piece," he explained, opening it for Evan. "The Dragon of the Sun is made from the core of a sunflower — the actual alchemical variety — combined with the heart of a Wyvern, refined until the product forms a fine golden thread when in gaseous state, then combined with dragon-stone during the settling phase. The Phoenix of the Moon is made from the great feathers of a phoenix's wings, combined with moon-dew herb."
Evan absorbed this. "Pity we only have three of them."
"Take yours back — or rather, would you consider leaving me tracings? The jade itself means nothing to me." Leonardo watched Evan turn the pendants over. "If you find others, send me copies of what's inscribed."
Evan collected all three. "I'll do that." He paused. "I had a second reason for coming here, beyond the pendants. I want to settle Tina with someone who can actually teach her. I won't be in Waltersdorf long."
Leonardo was quiet for a moment. "Leave her with us."
Evan looked at him.
"The resemblance to my daughter — I noticed it the moment she walked in. It shook me. If the age were different I might have said something I'd regret." He shook his head. "I'm not a young man. The house is quiet. And she clearly needs somewhere to be."
"That's more than I hoped for," Evan said. Something in his voice that he didn't intend to show showed anyway. He had spent a month with the girl.
Downstairs, they came back to find a small commotion in the sitting room. Teresa and Tina were with the baroness — a thin woman with eyes that were very much alive — and the household staff had been assembled for some reason. The baroness stood when Leonardo descended.
"My lord. I've taken Tina as my adopted daughter."
Leonardo stopped on the last step. Then he laughed. "I was about to do the same thing."
"Congratulations to you both on your new daughter," Evan said.
Tina's face had gone red. She made her formal acknowledgment to Leonardo, who studied her with the professional attention he apparently applied to everything, and nodded once. She had no magical aptitude to speak of, as Evan had said. But if Evan said she had aptitude for the blade, he'd take that on faith.
The following morning, guided by one of the estate's servants, Evan and Tina and Teresa made their way to the Cross Blade School. It was winter and not the usual enrollment period, but Leonardo had sent word ahead, and the courtesies that came with a baron's name opened the door without argument.
The practice hall was large, with oak floors and mirrors on all four walls. Katherine was in the middle of a lesson when they arrived — five students, four young men and one young woman, running through foundation forms. They waited at the door.
When Katherine finished the exercise and let the students continue on their own, she came to the door and looked at the three of them.
"The school told me you'd be coming. New student, some prior training. Let's see what you have." She gestured toward a rack of wooden practice swords on the wall. "Use one of those."
Tina bowed to her formally, took a sword, and ran through her forms.
She had done it a thousand times. The sequence was settled in her body now — the weight transfer, the footwork, the timing of each position opening into the next. The quality of the basics showed immediately: not just memorized, but understood.
Katherine, who had been watching with the mild attention of someone performing a routine assessment, went still.
All five of the other students had stopped their own practice without noticing they'd done it.
"Your foundation is very clean," Katherine said. "Who taught you?"