“Ah!” Barrister enthused, noticing Emma stop and stare at a mannequin dressed in ancient blue and silver armor in one of the alcoves of the hall they were walking through. “You have an excellent eye! This is an original set of armor from Legio XIII Mortuus from the time of the Abdication Wars! Unfortunately it’s missing the helm which has the raven’s feather plume denoting it as belonging to one of the Dead Legions. Some even say it’s the armor Lynette Storey herself wore as she attacked the heights during the Battle of Camfort!”

“O-Oh!” Emma smiled hesitantly, pulling her finger back from the rough iron breastplate. She knew nothing about history, but decided the armor was probably very old and didn’t want to be responsible for damaging it in some way.

“Legio XIII was formed, trained and headquartered right here on this spot up until about 300 years ago, you know!” Barrister stared at the armor with pride.

“Where did…uh…where did they go then?” Emma asked politely.

“Oh, they’ve been re-garrisoned to Brieland. Originally, they were there as a fast reaction legion between the Western Isles and Bastion, but there are rumors of vampire attacks again in Brieland, so Legio XIII is keeping an eye on that situation as well, now,” Barrister smiled.

“Vampire…attacks?” Emma was confused. “I thought the Sang…er…the deal kept that sort of thing from happening, though.”

“Well, the Sanguine Accords are still in place by and large, but some of the younger vampires have become a bit unruly and I hear a Princess even openly defied Queen Elenor!” Barrister shook his head disapprovingly. “Kids. Right?” Emma chuckled.

“I guess so, huh?”

“You’re very pretty when you smile,” Barrister noted. “You’re pretty all the time, of course, but prettier still when you smile.”

“A-Ah,” Emma fidgeted, his attentions making her more than a little nervous. Of course, she reasoned, attention in and of itself made her uncomfortable. Doubly so since people decided she was some legend come to life.

“Only in a good way, I assure you!” Barrister grinned. “Though I’ve yet to discover a bad way someone can be pretty!” He bowed slightly and swept his arm toward the far end of the hallway, indicating they should proceed.

They walked through the hall, Barrister pointing out the differences in the flags hanging on the walls. He noted how the Imperial flag had evolved since the days of its founding, especially as the Empire had gone from a patriarchal to matriarchal government and its territory had expanded.

“Edgemoor was the first royal manor house outside of Bastion,” Barrister explained as they passed through the hall they were walking through and into an exquisitely decorated library. Shelves of books reached from the floor to the ceiling thirty feet over her head, ladders giving access to the tomes further up the wall. Emma looked around the library in awe. “So this library is the largest outside of the royal palace itself. Empress Caroline had this built specifically for her as she was quite the voracious reader.”

Luxurious chairs of dark leather were interspersed throughout the room as well as a trio of intricately carved tables. A fireplace dominated the north wall opposite the way they’d entered the room. This room, however, comfortably decorated, was created for one purpose, that of providing knowledge. She’d seen books, of course, but never this many in one place.

“This is amazing!” She breathed, staring around her. Tomes, large and small, were stuffed into every shelf. Their leather-bound spines embossed with gold and silver words she couldn’t understand but each seemed to promise a million worlds and a million hopes and dreams and fears all in one place. What stories did they tell, she wondered. What mysteries would these collections of papers unlock?

“Isn’t it?” Barrister agreed. “Do you like to read, Emma?”

“Oh, uh, I…” Emma trailed off in embarrassment before sighing. “I can’t read. I always wanted to learn! But I guess it just never seemed like something I’d need to survive.”

“How about one day I teach you?” The tall man offered with a smile.

“I don’t know…” Emma murmured, sitting in the chair near the huge stone fireplace Barrister gestured to. Her legs were aching, the shoes she was wearing were terribly uncomfortable and caused jagged spikes of pain to shoot up her ankles and calves. Not to mention the corset made it hard to breath properly and kept her back at such an angle as to make her muscles tense uncomfortably. How did people who had to wear this stuff every day even survive, she wondered, immediately feeling better as she sank into the soft cushions.

“Growing up, my sister and I used to read to each other by the large tree out at the edge of my family’s fields,” Barrister smiled, taking an iron poker from beside the huge stone fireplace and prodding the sputtering flames inside absently. The wood shifted and sparks erupted in a cascade, swirling up the flue like a whirlwind. “It was always my favorite thing. We would talk and relax and listen to the early evening sounds in the fields around us. We’d discuss the characters from the book we’d just read until mother would call us to dinner.

“We always wanted to be those characters,” he continued with a sigh. “The dashing rogue or the powerful warrior or the learned cleric or the powerful mage or rich noble. Each story was a new world, each adventure something separate from us, but inexorably linked as well somehow. It was like we were saplings absorbing life giving nutrients from the pages as we read. I don’t know… I guess it sounds silly…”

“Not at all!” Emma leaned forward attentively in the chair. “That sounds magical, actually.”

“It kind of was,” Barrister smiled wistfully. “Sitting there in the dying light of the day, straining our eyes in the growing dusk to read just one more page… It was our own little world. Just us and the sounds and smells, that one lone old tree and our universe inside those pages. I guess in a way it was magical. You’re right.”

“That sounds like a wonderful memory,” Emma nodded.

“It is,” Barrister agreed with a nod. “It truly is. It’s unfortunate, though, that memories are only that. I tried to go back a few years ago after Christina died but it was all gone. The tree had been chopped down and plowed under and the fields were mostly houses. I wanted to keep those things we shared, but time marches on and all we’re left with are those moments which only exist in our minds.”

“Oh, your sister died? I’m so sorry,” Emma murmured, feeling tears sting her eyes at the big man’s loss. His shoulders seemed to sag under the weight of those same memories even his big hands couldn’t hold on to.

“Yeah…she joined the Legion as soon as she could,” Barrister’s voice sounded far away. “She was assigned to Legio XIV Exanimus in Ruvia and got sick. By the time they got her to a healer she was too far gone and there was nothing they could do. Honestly, it was like a part of me died that day along with her.”

“I understand,” Emma nodded, her thoughts traveling back to her mother clapping and laughing as Emma sang and preened on the docks, when she was little, their own little concert sung in time to the groaning of the moored boats.

“You know, you remind me of my sister in a lot of ways,” Barrister looked over at her.

“I’m honored,” Emma replied, glancing up at the big man near the fireplace.

“I know I offered to teach you to read but…” Barrister trailed off for a moment before continuing. “Would it be all right if I read to you some time?”

“Of course,” Emma nodded. “Any time you want. I think I’d like that.”

“Thank you,” Barrister bowed low. “I’ll hold you to that!”

“All right,” Emma smiled at him.

“It’s a date!” Barrister grinned back.