I scratched my chin. “Did you want me to ask her on your behalf or something?”
“Oh, goddess, no.” He held his hands over his eyes. “I have something bigger to ask for, actually. Something I’d been meaning to ask you anyway, outside of this.”
I waggled my eyebrows at him. “What, you want to take me to the ball instead?”
He let out a weak laugh in reply. “No, but I do have a serious request.”
He stood from the bed, straightened himself to his full height, and then knelt down in front of me. “Corin Cadence, will you accept me into your service?”
What.
I blinked. “Uh, what are you doing?”
I mean, I knew, but—
“I’m asking for you to formally make me one of your retainers. I know that’s not a simple request. I…uh, brought a copy of the oath, if you’re willing.”
I laughed, putting a hand to my head.
I’d…always wanted a retainer. Someone to watch my back, to tell me when I was being an idiot. Someone who could cover for my weaknesses and reinforce my strengths.
Of course, I’d expected it to be Sera kneeling in front of me. If life had taken a little different path, we would have taken formal oaths to each other the day after we’d received our attunements.
This was better.
I didn’t want someone to be my bodyguard because their family had pressed them into my service as a child.
Patrick’s motives might have been skewed by a desire to be close to Sera, but that was fine.
He’d stepped in to defend me against Teft on the first day of classes without me even needing to ask.
He’d stepped in to deflect a shot that would have hit me right at the beginning of the war cane test. Then we’d fought side-by-side.
And, moreover, he’d treated me like my three year disappearance had never happened. He was still the same friend I’d known since childhood.
That was the kind of person that I could trust.
If he was willing to take this serious of a step in order to be closer to my family… All the better. I couldn’t see how having a retainer with a close connection with Sera would have a downside.
I smiled and knelt down, my eyes level with his.
“I’m bad at tradition,” I explained. “But I’d be honored to have you as a retainer, Patrick. You’ve always been a loyal friend. And if you want to say the oath, I know the words.”
He winced. “I’m going to need the note.”
“Well, get it out, then.”
Patrick opened his pack, retrieving a carefully rolled scroll. A scroll. This really was formal.
He broke the wax seal on the scroll and unrolled it, and he began to read.
“I, Patrick Wayland, do hereby swear my loyalty to Corin of the House of Cadence.
I offer him my strength of arms, my wise council, and my life’s blood.
I will serve no other master.
I will make no other oath that would betray this one.
I will take no action that would betray my master’s trust.
I offer this service of my free will and with honest intent.
May the goddess witness this oath and bind me with this pledge.”
I felt a foreign pang of emotion that I couldn’t quite characterize. I’d never been good at emotions, but there was something bittersweet about the scene we were playing out. I think a part of me wanted to let out a few tears in that moment.
I took a deep breath.
“I, Corin Cadence, do hereby accept you, Patrick Wayland, into the service of House Cadence.
I will be sheltered by your strength, be guided by your council, and be preserved by your blood.
I will honor your oath with my own.
I will entrust you with my safety, for you are my shield.
I will entrust you with my knowledge, for you are my guide.
And I will grant you my strength, for you are my hand.
My house is now your own, and you will always have shelter there.
I accept your bond of my free will and with honest intent.
May the goddess witness this oath and bind me with this pledge.”
I closed my eyes and, with the slightest hint of a tear forming, chuckled softly. “Arise, Patrick, retainer of the House of Cadence. I think we have some paperwork to sign.”
He extended his hand and I clasped it.
And, with that, we stood as one.
I spent much of the rest of the day with Patrick, between dealing with the paperwork that we’d need to mail off to formally make him my retainer and just discussing how he should approach Sera about the dance.
We ended up agreeing that we’d wait until we received a formal acceptance of his new status before he’d ask. Not because we thought Sera would disapprove otherwise, but because it would put Patrick in a stronger position.
When I handed in the paperwork at the courier’s office, I knew the first place it would be going was to my father. His signature would be required to formalize the process. Even as a potential family heir, I couldn’t take on a new retainer without his express permission.
I didn’t foresee any problems, though. If anything, this would probably be one rare event in which my father would actually be pleased. Earning a retainer would help legitimize me as a noble.
I hadn’t passed Patrick my glove. That was a more significant step, essentially trusting a single favored retainer to be my primary one. Since I didn’t even have multiple retainers, it seemed like the gesture wouldn’t mean as much. I’d planned to give it to Sera when we’d been young, but she’d been literally groomed from birth to protect me, so it would have been strange not to.
In retrospect, I hoped that bringing Patrick into my service wouldn’t offend Sera — it was possible she’d been considering asking him to work for her — but I didn’t think it would pose a problem. Retainers in service to a specific family member were still expected to be a part of the household and work closely with everyone else in the house; serving me in specific was more of a formality, at least from my perspective.
Of course, if he actually wanted to try to marry her, that would be a bit more complicated, but I wasn’t thinking of that as a serious possibility. We were teenagers, and he had a passing crush.
Probably.
I didn’t really understand relationship stuff.
Anyway, with that hurdle cleared, I got back to my work and my newly-acquired pile of gold.
Sera’s letter had, unfortunately, left explicit instructions on what I was supposed to do with it.
“Corin,
I’ve been working on a priority list for items that I think we need for the next test. Of these, I believe my top priorities are as follows:
Mana storage or some other method of increasing my mana capacity.
A method for increasing the power of my summoned creatures. Ideally, something to provide a vast amount of power in an emergency.
Teleportation or flight.
Stronger defensive measures.
Healing.
I would like for you to build me as powerful of an item as you can for one of the five above functions, in order of priority. If any gold is remaining after the first item is completed, focus on the second, and so forth. You may keep one of the six coins as your commission.