The man nodded, his eyes on the road ahead. "One of them said there was a reward. Don't worry. I didn't much like that fella's attitude anyway. Like some Mechanic in the old days. Seeing as you're willing to fight for the daughter, I don't see any sense in helping someone like that, reward or not."

They crested another ridge. Kira looked back and saw that Jason was barely awake, nearly passed out from exhaustion. She hadn't realized that he had been pushing himself that hard.

"Cavalry over there," the driver said, gesturing to the east. "You can see them when they're moving on the high ground. Wonder what they're doing out? Maybe looking for them fellas I saw earlier. When I was your age, seeing the cavalry would have scared us. It would have meant some big trouble, maybe a warlord or bandits coming north out of Tiae. Not now. Folks don't realize it could change, though. It got worse once. It could again."

Kira swallowed. "The daughter wouldn't let that happen. She'd stop it."

"The daughter won't be around forever," the driver said. "I hope that girl of hers is up to it."

"Wh-what?"

"Her girl. The daughter has a daughter, right? Somebody to pick up the job when the daughter gets too old or we lose her, may that not happen for a long time."

Kira tried to swallow again but couldn't manage it, her throat suddenly tight. She stared at the hooves of the horses, coming up and going down in a steady rhythm. Her head was filled with a strange, tight, buzzing sensation.

"And her father is that master of mages," the driver continued, looking ahead and not noticing Kira's reaction. "Can you imagine? She's got to be something really special, she does."

Kira finally managed to swallow. "What…what if she's not?"

"Not what?"

"Not special. What if she's…just a regular person? Not…not able to do the sort of things her mother could do?"

The driver laughed and reached over to slap Kira's shoulder. "Oh, don't you get all worried about that! Let me tell you something. Folks never know what they can do until they really have to, and then like as not they discover there's a lot more in them than they ever thought."

"Y-yeah. I guess they do." The driver fell silent for a while and so did Kira. She stared ahead, not really seeing the road, terrified at the thought of having to fill her mother's shoes. How could people like this think she could do that? Because they didn't know her. But she had just discovered that they would be expecting her to take over, expecting Kira of Pacta Servanda to be able to match Lady Master Mechanic Mari of Dematr, dragon-slayer, pirate queen, leader of the army of the new day, the daughter of Jules.