Tamsin soon found out that she had been far too optimistic.

The road was a tough place, especially for someone who had never traveled before. It was always either too hot or too cold. The food was dry and unappetizing, to the point where she largely went slightly hungry just because she couldn't force herself to eat any more. She had a hard time sleeping on the hard, lumpy bedroll. And her legs and back hurt constantly from riding all day.

The first time Tamsin had to figure out how exactly to answer nature's call while actually out in nature, it was utterly mortifying. She absolutely refused to ask Frieg for advice, so she'd simply gone off into the woods a short ways and... done her best.

The fact that she was wearing men's clothes for the first time in her life didn't make that any easier.

I really wish I had brought more pairs of trousers, thought Tamsin, as they got back on the road. She was really trying not to think about how much urine had gotten on her clothes. It wasn't enough that it was devastating, but it was certainly enough that it was concerning. If she let herself think about it. Which she wasn't going to do. Because there was nothing she could do about it anyway. Oh, gods, she wished she could take a bath and change into a new outfit and never think about any of this again.

Meanwhile, Frieg was clearly in his element. As Tamsin understood it, it had been quite a while since he'd traveled much, but he took to the road like an old friend.

Whenever they were out of water, he led them straight to a stream. No matter how dense the woods were, he always seemed to know where to find water. He hunted little creatures along the way, and he even did do some fishing here and there, so they occasionally had fresh meat to eat. And he always made the fires and did the cooking by himself, too.

Tamsin offered to help once or twice, but every time she did, Frieg would direct her to a nearby stone or stump and say "You look like you could use the rest," in a kindly voice.

Tamsin hated to admit it, but she genuinely could use the rest.

They were making slow progress because Tamsin had to take frequent breaks. Tamsin had never thought of herself as weak or sickly, but truthfully she had never gotten much exercise. She'd spent most of her time in her room, or sometimes walking slowly around the estate's gardens. She had always taken life slow, unlike her brother, who had been constantly running around to some place or another. He'd been strong and hardy because of it.

"What's on your mind, my lady?" asked Frieg, who noticed Tamsin staring pensively into the fire one evening.

Tamsin shrugged. "It's just a little bit disheartening, stepping out of your front door to go on a grand adventure and immediately being confronted with the fact that you're nothing but useless, pampered noblewoman. I'm not the right person to save Gwedric! Nothing in my life prepared me for this. I'm no brave hero. My brother would have been much better suited for this."

Frieg threw another log onto the fire while he considered this. "Well," he said, finally. "Your brother isn't here. But you are. And if you're not suited to the task, then that just makes you all the braver for taking it on anyway."

Tamsin was glad she brought Frieg along.

"I almost wish I was your secret love child," said Tamsin. "I think you'd make a good father."

This made Frieg laugh. "You shouldn't say that. I'm sure Earl Gwedric would be heartbroken to hear his only daughter talk like that."

"Why should I care how he feels?" asked Tamsin, with a sudden flash of anger. "He never gave a rat's ass about me."

Frieg didn't seem to know how to respond to that, so he just patted Tamsin on the back twice before getting up to cook dinner.

But despite all the hardship, there were some good moments on the road, too.

The mountain passes were beautiful, with towering green trees and lichen-covered cliffs jutting up into the heavens. The air was bright and fresh with the smell of pine needles and gently composting underbrush. And the sound of the wind blowing through the leaves was surprisingly calming, even in the difficult moments.

At one point, Frieg had guided them slightly off the road to see a massive waterfall, so tall that Tamsin could have sworn it reached all the way up to the hall of the gods.

As Tamsin stared up in awe, feeling the mist spraying down on her, she thought to herself, I'm so glad I cursed the Goddess of War as I died. If I hadn't, I never would have been able to see this.

Another time, when she'd gone off to relieve herself, she came across a fox in a clearing.

Tamsin and the fox had held eye contact for a long moment. Its ears were sticking straight up in alert and its eyes were a wide, bright gold.

The moment was so oddly intense that Tamsin had briefly wondered whether the fox might be a small god in its own right, watching over its own small domain.

Then the fox had spooked at something or other and run away into the woods, and the magic had been broken.

Still, god or not, it was interesting to see a fox up close. Tamsin had only ever seen dead foxes before, slung on the back of her brother's horse after a hunt. She owned a pair of gloves lined with fox fur that she wore in the winter. She thought she might feel a little strange about wearing them now. Not that it mattered. She'd left them behind anyway.

But the best part of the trip was the stories Captain Frieg would tell whenever he had the chance.

Captain Frieg had lived a long, exciting life, and he'd traveled all over the Empire in his capacity as an officer in the imperial army. Tamsin never knew much about anything beyond Gwedric, so she found it all fascinating.

"I think you'd run and hide the moment you saw the imperial capital," Frieg said one evening, with a friendly chuckle. "It's massive, and so packed tight you couldn't throw a cat without it tearing someone's eye out. Messy, too, all those people packed together. At least in the commoner districts. The palaces of the nobility are something else altogether, although I'm not altogether sure I like them, to be honest. I'd rather be down in the press with the real people, me."

They were on their fifth day of travel and they were nearly out of the mountain passes, which meant they were nearly to the border of Jordaine.

"Isn't the imperial capital where you saw Duchess Jordaine?" asked Tamsin.

"Oh, yes, that's right!" Captain Frieg slammed his fist into his open hand in recognition. "I was going to tell you the rest of that story, wasn't I? Like I told you before, I was visiting the city with a few of my old army buddies and they took me to watch the recruits train. The twin lions of the Empire, that was Prince Heinrich and Lady Jordaine at the time, were both recruits then..."