Aquaviolet eyes stared out over everything she'd ever known and beyond.  The eerie quietude of sunset was beginning to drape across the town.  Folk stretched and talked, the day's labor done, as they ambled home for their family dinners.  She could see, in the mirror of her mind, her own family as she had once known them, and the dinners together.  The light fading until the warm illumination of the cozy lamp had helped the hearth's glow push back the darkness.  They had simple dinners then, and sometimes there was fighting amongst her siblings, but she was content within.  Even if this family didn't always sing together, her heart sang loud enough for them all.  At least, it had always seemed so to her.
	The wind picked up a little and began to dance with the mahogany strands of her hair.  She could smell a storm coming in, but it was a ways off yet.  It wouldn't knock on their doors until dark had claimed the land.  She'd have to be in before then.  She could hear the tromp of boots on stone already.  This was also a ways off, but it was coming faster.  Two pairs, at least.  
	She crossed her arms on the cold stone and laid her head down.  Tonight's song was going to be short, but at least it was there.  She hid her eyes away from the world and started to sing.  The boot tromps stopped for a moment.  The confusion from down the stairwell was a force as real as rough hands, pulling her away from everything she loved.  She pretended her tears were raindrops, advance scouts of the storm, and she kept singing.  Time was always so short here, when it had seemed forever when she had lived below.
	The tromping picked up again, but it was slower.  She knew who they were now, and raised her voice for them.  They appreciated her songs, and they would let her finish.  Her head lifted, her eyes opened.  She stood straight and proud and sang the feelings within her to the town, hoping the wind would carry it to them.  Judging by the way it pulled on her hair and her very fine new dress and cloak, it seemed more like it would take her words and her notes far, far away.  Perhaps it would bring hope to those who heard it then.
	She finished and waited a moment.  They didn't applaud, nor did they approach any closer.  Her eyes closed again, briefly, then she turned to the guardsmen lingering in the doorway.  One was leaning against the doorway in disregard for the rules, and both were smiling.  She raised her chin the way one of her many new tutors had taught her, and walked as regally between them as she could.
	Her old life was gone, merely reflections in the mirror now.  So long as she could still sing, she could make it through this new life intact.  She seemingly took no notice of the guardsmen following her as she went down the cold stone staircase.  It was still dark here; the lightmen hadn't come along to bring the sconces to life here yet.  Nothing here yet to push back the darkness.  Yet her footing was confident, her sight sure.  She knew her eyes were shining brightly.  In her mind, she addressed the crowds, her family, her friends:
	This is what I am now.  No, this is what I've always been, and just never knew it.  And soon the world will know as well.  I am Royal, and you will fear me, even if I don't want you to.  Get used to it now.  That last part was to herself.

	The Great City's towers stretched to sparkle in the sun, sought to dazzle and blind her to the truth.  Up high, it was all pretty stones and brilliant fabrics, but down below it was the same as the humble town so far behind her.  Rough-shod and poor, they bowed to her carriage.  She wanted to smile, to wave and give them comfort.  She wanted them to stop and let her climb down so she could tell them that she was them.
	Instead, she did as bade.  Her handler was sitting immediately across from her, glaring at her with imperious determination.  So she kept her chin lifted high and let herself be blinded.  She hoped they perceived the sad truth of the situation.
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	"Very good, and again," the soft lilt of the Lady Teacher instructed.  Reva smiled at the youth below her on the blushing silk sheets.  He gulped air and looked incredulously at the Lady Teacher's insistence.  Reva hid her smirk and glanced up innocently towards her mentor.
	"I dare not, Lady Teacher," and then she remembered her lessons from last week.  In a voice edged with weary softness, she continued, "I am overcome with bliss as it is.  Any more might be my end."
	The Lady Teacher smiled faintly and nodded.  "Very well then.  You," as she directed her tone and gaze to the exhausted young man, "go on.  Clean yourself up, get some food and rest.  Water, not wine."  He nodded until Reva thought his head might fall off, and bolted from the bed as he might a fearsome predator.  She merely readjusted the long creamy tunic from sexy dishevelment back to modest elegance.
	"You've improved a great deal, Reva."  She sat behind her pupil and, reaching for the lacquer hairsticks, began pulling up the dark tendrils from her neck.  "Technique has never been a problem for you, and your tact and humility are greatly increased.  Or at least, your ability to act humble," she added.  Reva giggled.  "However, you'd do better to hide that smirk of yours.  While his reaction to my statement was tremendously amusing, I'll grant you, men cannot stand to be laughed at.  Anything that even vaguely resembles mockery of themselves they will resent."
	"I'm sorry, Lady Teacher.  I shall work harder."
	"Good girl.  You continue this way and your bed will be in white sheets within another moon."
	Reva whipped her head around, fortunately just after her Lady Teacher had finished putting her hair up.  "Honestly?!  I can't believe...anything other than that you're flattering me!"  Sometimes she forgot the beautiful talk they'd taught her here.  She'd barely caught herself there.
	"Have I ever lied to you, young lovely?  Now, you'll need to cleanse before dinner.  And next time, Reva, I'll choose your partner.  While he was quite comely, he lacks stamina, and there is no such thing as too much practice."
	She stood to face the Lady Teacher, then bowed deeply from the waist.  "I thank you with all of my being, Lady Teacher.  Please continue to enlighten and guide me on my path."
	She dipped her head in acknowledgement.  "Of course."  She let her hand float out, open, palm up, in the direction of the cleansing chambers.  Reva took her teacher's gentle insistence and, with the proper graceful humility, left the training chambers.
	Once the door curtains had dropped behind her, she left all seemliness behind and bolted.
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	She fell, and she picked herself up.  She ignored the hand Ziran had offered her for help up, but relented into giving him a smile for the thought.  He seemed inordinately pleased, and she realized that might've been a mistake.  He'd ask her out again tonight, surely.
	She waited patiently for her turn to attempt the bars again and paid no heed to the whispered comments from all around her.  You shouldn't be here.  Go home before you hurt yourself.  She wouldn't listen to the pain in her ribs that agreed with them.
	She watched others fall.  No one told them to go home, but some of them did, limpingly, head for the gates.  Some needed help up, and were taken to the infirmary.  Some simply picked themselves up and got back in line.  They were regarded with awe and respect.  
	They were treated this way because they were men.  That was all.  
	She was treated this way because she was not.  She bit back the rage as she stepped up to the bars again.
	She made it through five movements before falling again, more than the last few men had managed.  She fell harder though, because the fifth movement was on a higher set.  The wind went out of her all at once.  Ziran was beside her almost immediately, and she tried to refuse his help.  But she couldn't stand on her own, let alone push away his strong arms pulling her to her feet.
	"You need to go to the infirmary.  The healers can fix this and you can go back to trying."
	"I need to get back in line."
	She had been here for 6 months and never seen Ziran get mad at anyone before.  He had certainly never treated her with anything but hopeful humility.  But now his brow pulled down his face and his mouth curved upside down.  His voice was harsh.
	"Listen to me, Raiva: I have pursued you for these last months. I have asked you out at least once a week, every week, despite your constant rejections.  I have tried to be kind to you, tried to show you some signs of my affection, and yet you have denied all my attempts at softening this hard exterior of yours.  
	"I know about perserverance in the face of seemingly overwhelming odds.  I know about it because of you and your hard-heartedness.  I know you're stubborn, and you're determined to prove yourself just as worthy a soldier as any of these men.  But you are still as human as I am.  I am not telling you to give up.  I'm telling you that everyone needs help now and then, and this is one of those times.  Stop trying to prove you're as good a man as any man and settle for acknowledging that you're a human being - and an injured one at that.  Now you can limp along to the infirmary with my help, or I will pick you up and carry you there.  These are your choices."
	She blinked at him in shock.  "You..."  She changed what she was about to say.  "You're right.  I'm..."  And she couldn't make herself say that.  "I will accept your help to the infirmary."  She took a step as proof that she could walk, though it took a hiss and a quick hop as pain flared through her.  Her foot must be broken or sprained as well.  It hurt to breathe.
	The heat left him, but his expression didn't change.  "Good choice."  His voice calmed a bit though.  "Come on, let's let the healers look at you.  And then we'll see if you can't make it 6 movements next time."
	"Of course I can.  I'll have all 10 movements down before any of them."
	"I've little doubt.  You know," he added confidentially into her ear, "it took the captain 3 months to get all 10 movements down.  You've only been at the bars a couple of weeks.  You're doing fine."
	She couldn't help rewarding that with a small smile, stretched through pain though it was.  "Thank you."