By mid-morning, the cook was in a tizzy. Valina was sent from the fields to appease the woman, which clearly would be no easy task. Safra stood in the center of the kitchens, both hands on her stout waist. She was in the middle of a tirade when Valina entered; rather than hush, the cook simply amended her material. "And now look! They send me a field girl, as though she's supposed to be any help at all - what with her filthy hands. You'll not touch anything in my kitchen with those fingers, you worthless girl! Wash your hands!"

"Yes, ma'am." Valina said respectfully and moved towards the large basin of water, tucked in the corner of the room.

"Not there!" Safra screeched. "I wash my vegetables there! Do you want to contaminate the whole palace?"

Yes, Valina thought, but she dared not say it. She had no way of knowing who might be lurking in the surrounding hallways. Instead, she meekly followed Safra's next directions and washed her hands in a bucket outside the door. There, the water seemed murky and used; Valina had no idea how this was supposed to clean her hands.

Somewhat pacified, Safra resumed her previous rant. "This is what they give me, the morning of the engagement dinner! A field girl and no eggs - how can I do anything with a field girl and no eggs?"

"Should I go to market and get you some eggs?" Valina offered.

"You most certainly should!" the cook agreed, her head bobbing determinedly. "You should get some eggs... and some parsley... and... what else do I need.... lettuce, fresh lettuce - not any of that filthy stuff some of them try to pass off as fresh lettuce."

"Yes, ma'am." Valina committed it all to memory.

"I shall fetch the overseer." Safra decided. A moment later, she'd convinced someone to let Valina off the property and Valina hurried off.

The whole thing - getting the overseer's permission - seemed silly to her anyway. Wherever she went, she stood out as a Lord's slave. Her bare feet and simple white dress signaled her enslavement; the tattoo on her arm revealed her owner. She'd gotten it a year ago, when she first came to the Lord's home. Before that, Valina worked as a slave for a farmer. She hadn't made up her mind yet which master was worse. The farmer often behaved with unnecessary cruelty, but his slaves did matter to him. He'd beat her frequently, but never too much because he needed her work the next morning. The Lords, on the other hand, could simply buy another slave if they tired of the ones they had. Valina didn't like having her life on the line all of the time.

"Hey!" a familiar call cut through the ordinary Trillagla commotion. Jed emerged from a nearby alleyway and joined her.

"Is it safe for you to be with me?" Valina asked, skeptically.

"Sure. They just threw me out of their prison - they're not about to send me back." Jed grinned.

"Well." she wasn't convinced. "Is it safe for me to be with you?"

"If someone goes tattling to the Lord about you being with me, then they clearly have too much time on their hands." he concluded.

"And the Lords will soon have whips in their hands." Valina countered. "Jed, I don't want to get beaten because of you."

He took hold of her arm and pulled her into the darkness of the alley. "Is this better?"

"No. Now people will think I'm being filthy with boys in the main part of the city."

"A slave has to get her jollies somewhere."

She glared. He apologized.

"Look, I just want to know the gossip."

"There's no gossip." Valina tried to think of what he might mean.

"About the wedding."

"Who's wedding?" she was still drawing a blank.

"You do know that the Lord is getting married, right?" Jed looked down at her, rather incredulously.

"Oh that." Valina shrugged. "I don't pay attention to that stuff, you know that."

"You should." he complained. "You're the best contact I have."

"Why didn't you ask your friends in prison for information?" she demanded, crossly. Jed was well known in the city, as one of the most prominent thieves of the land. He spent half his time in prison but somehow - through bribery or coercion, she wasn't quite sure - kept being allowed out.

"I did." he grinned. "It's big stuff, Val, big stuff."

"I'm sure."

"I mean it... forces aligning, the end of the world type is near type big..."

Valina paused, considering this. "Really?"

"Nope." Jed laughed. "But it sounds good, doesn't it?"

"I have stuff to do, Jed."

"Look, just find out what you can, all right?" he pleaded, the merriment gone from his face.

"And why should I help you?" Valina wanted to know.

"Cause it's big - and you can make your mark on history!"

She walked away from him, ignoring his calls. The motion wasn't lost on the merchant whose table she stopped at. "Is he bothering you again?" the young woman asked.

"Doesn't he always?" Valina gave a rueful grin as she checked out the offered lettuce.

"Except when he's been imprisoned. How does he keep getting out?" Rachel shook her head. "And that's the freshest lettuce you'll find in all the market place today."

"Parts of it are going brown." Valina pointed.

"You've seen this weather, girl." the merchant replied, with a shrug. "There's nothing that can grow right in this stuff."

"I have to bring back something better than this." Valina set the lettuce back down.

"Oh, just pick the brown stuff off." Rachel scoffed, seizing the lettuce and beginning the process. She paused, then. "But this is probably for the wedding."

"For the engagement dinner, I guess." Valina was kind of surprised that so many people wanted to talk about her Lord's marriage.

"He'll want perfection for her then." Rachel grinned. "Took him long enough to get married - he's probably afraid she'll run off."

"Who would turn down marriage to the Lord?"

"You." the merchant pointed out, amused.

"Well, yeah... but he's not marrying a slave."

"I hear she's from a nearby town. And I hear she's pretty." Rachel reported.

"She'd have to be, to catch his attention." Valina decided.

"Talking about the Lord's fiancee?" someone asked, as he leaned forward to inspect the vegetables himself.

"What's it to you?" Rachel asked, in a guarded tone. Anyone could be a spy.

The man didn't bother to explain himself, but proved his standing with the next statement. "I hear she's a foundling." he said, and no one allied with the Lords would make such a claim.

"A foundling?" Valina had a hard time believing that. Orphaned children had very low standing in the community.

"They say she's a parentless girl, raised with the purpose of marrying the Lord." he said.

"Raised to be a Lady?"

"Yes. The last Lord took a liking to her when she was just a bit of a thing and decided to save her for his son." the man nodded.

"Stuff and nonsense." Rachel scoffed. "There have never been arranged marriages among the Lords."

"There was this time." he answered, quietly.

"Well, who cares. I've nothing against a foundling." Valina remembered her own status - both orphan and slave.

"I'm just saying what I heard." the man replied and, paying for some vegetables, slipped away into the crowd.

"A foundling..." Rachel repeated, before shaking her head. "Stuff and nonsense."

"A Lord with a peasant orphan as his bride will be easier to overthrow." Valina pointed out. "The people will not necessarily support her, no matter how cute she might be."

"And who's thinking of overthrowing the Lords?" Rachel demanded.

Valina said nothing, but her thoughts returned to the day of her capture.

"You'd best be getting home then, girl." her friend declared, shaking her head. "Out here, you forget your place. How would you overthrow the Lord anyway, with your bare feet and me with my vegetables? Go home, Valina. At least it's safe there."

And so Valina selected her food, paid with the Lord's credit since they would not let a slave have any cash, and made her way back to the palace.