"Safe travels to you, Princess," Lepant said with a nod. "As a precaution, I have taken the liberties of assigning an escort to accompany you as far as Toran's northern border. I hope you do not mind."

"Of course not," Jillia said with a smile, at the same time wondering exactly had prompted this. Was something amiss? That would be something to keep in mind. Oh well. Whoever it is must surely be a better escort than Loud.

"Allow me to introduce my clerk, Commander Alen," Lepand said as he raised his arm towards the end of the meeting table.

Jillia looked to where Lepant was pointing, she saw a tall man stand up from a chair and walk into the light.

"Greatings Princess Jillia, my name Alen." He said as he took her hand and laid a gentle kiss upon it. Rowd grunted with jealousy as he witnessed the kiss. Pshaw. I could kiss her better than that!

"When you are ready to get underway, please meet me at the City Gate. President Lepant, I take my leave of you." he said and walked out of the meeting room.

Jillia watched the man depart. Definitely a higher class of military higher ups in Toran than Jowston, if one compared the two that she would be traveling with. Lepant was sending a commander with her, eh? That meant there was something he wanted to make sure didn't happen.

"Wait at the city gate with Alen," Jillia told Rowd, "I'll be there shortly."

Rowd began to open his mouth to protest her being alone in a foreign city, but a glare stopped him. Geeze that girl could be scary. A perfect example of mastery of 'the Look'. Actually, Rowd found it kinda sexy.

Jillia found the runemaster's shop with little trouble. She reached into her hip pouch and retrieved a small amount of bits and a palm sized runestone. "I'd like this attached, please."

The runemaster looked at the unfamiliar rune, "I've never seen a rune like this before. Are you certain you wouldn't prefer a nice lightning rune or, a rare find, rage rune? I can make you a very good deal."

"No, thank you," she replied quickly. "This is the rune I want attached. Left hand."

The runemaster shrugged and began to attach the rune. There was a small burst of light and a sharp pain and then the rune was imbedded in her hand. She knew the pain that came with attaching this particular rune and had bit her lip to keep herself from indicating it. She handed him the bits and left the shop, heading towards the city gate.

The rune had been one given to her by her mother when she was young. It was a family heirloom, though she knew of no one else in her family who even knew it existed. It would guard her life, though the rune did not make that protection a pleasant experience.

"I'm ready," she said when she reached her traveling companions, hiding the palm of her left hand as well as she could. "Let's go."

Alen took a deep breath, the air of the country was much different than that of Gregminster. This was odd he thought to himself, the Princess was silent and this Captain Rowd fool, he didn't trust.

"Shut up Frank!" Rowd yelled as he looked towards a tree.

"Frank, be nice to Rowd." Jillia said with a smile

Alen stopped dead in his tracks as he raised his brow. "Frank?" He asked.

Rowd and Jillia looked at each other, then back to Alen. Rowd began to say something, and Jillia just knew it would be something stupid. "It's an inside joke, Alen, between all of us Highlanders. You see, whenever someone trips, the person who trips has to say 'Shut up Frank!' and the person standing next to him or her has to say 'Frank, be nice to so and so'."

Alen look at the two of them as if they were insane. Tch, Highlanders. "I see, well shall we continue?". Rowd sighed with relief.

As they continued, Jillia whispered so only Alen heard her, "He's also mentally ill. We just humor him."

On the way, the three ran into two Highland soldiers. "Princess Jillia? Captain Rowd? And who is this?" one of them said.

"My name is Commander Alen, and I am at your service," he said with a bow.

Rowd scoffed at him, Geez, what's with all of those dramatics anyways? While Jillia thought to herself, Wow, he's handsome and polite. Not a bad escort

Then, one of the soldiers tripped and fell. Alen walked over and helped him up, "Shut up, Frank!" He said. The two soldiers stared blankly at Alen. Alen laughed to himself, I knew they would choke on that. Inside joke indeed. By now Rowd had a huge sweat-drop forming on his forehead.

"It was good talking to you," Jillia said as she curtsied, then grabbed Alen and Rowd and ran off down the path.

"Well, I suggest that you tell me what is going on, and more importantly who is Frank?" Alen said as he looked at Rowd.

Frank appeared right behind Alen and made a face. "Yeah, what's up with the lame excuse for talking to me, huh?"

Jillia sighed. "It's true, we shouldn't allow an outsider to know this, but you already know enough to come to the wrong conclusions."

Rowd's expression was that of a deer in headlights.

"The truth is, that we Highlanders have developed a unique form of communicating over great distances through the use of runes," Jillia said, showing the palm of her left hand. "Frank is a contact who recently received the rune, and is rather over excited with his new ability. He often talks to anyone else who is in the runic web. Communicating through the rune still requires speaking aloud, so that is how Rowd and I responded."

Alen blinked. Damn, these guys are higher tech than I thought. Sounds like something Harmonia might have, but Highland?

Rowd also blinked. Can we really do that, or did she make it up?

Jillia continued down the path, a grin neither man could see on her face. "I trust you will keep silent on this matter, or else we may be forced to have your memory wiped by mind worms."

Both Alen and Rowd both had expressions of shock and disgustedness on their faces as they formed mental pictures of what a 'mind worm' would do to a person. Ew...

Frank appeared in front of Jillia with a grin on his face. "Marry me and we can torture Rowd forever!" he laughed.

"Shut up, Frank."

Mark walked along the path with his friend, Ken. They'd known each other ever since meeting in the youth brigade as boys, and had always had the fortune of being assigned together. And now, for the first time ever, he had met Princess Jillia herself, and he'd humiliated himself by tripping! "Hey Ken," he said, "What did you make of that Alen guy? A real nutcase, huh?"

"For sure," Ken replied, "I wonder if all Toranians are so weird." It was their first trip to the Scarlet Moon Empire, and all they knew were the stories told in Highland.

There was a whizzing sound and Ken suddenly made a gurgling sound.

Mark turned and saw Ken falling down, an arrow imbedded in his throat. "Ken?!" And then an arrow went through the back of his neck and he joined his friend in death.