“Well, try to cast your mind back to your geographic studies anyway. The southwestern Border of Valdemar and the northwestern Border of Rethwellan and Menmellith have quite a lot of land between them that none of those countries officially claim,” her mother said. “That’s not to say the land is uninhabited, because that’s definitely not the case, but it’s ruled over by a patchwork of self-styled nobility and independent city-states and even tribal councils. And that means they are all subject to predation from outside forces and fighting among themselves. It’s official policy that the law of Valdemar stops at the Border, so we don’t intervene—unless and until those people come to the Crown and ask for our protection.”

Abi nodded, still not seeing what this had to do with her.

“A fortnight ago, a delegation representing over two dozen of these communities arrived at the Court to enquire about just that,” Amily continued. “Valdemar’s protection, and expanding Valdemar’s Border to include them. And, normally, we’d grant it, and send Guard troops and Heralds and the usual functionaries and begin bringing them into the Kingdom. But this time was different. They’re not suffering the kind of predation that would make this step urgent, and they want to know, well, to put it bluntly, just what else we can offer in return for their taxes and fealty.”

“When the King asked the Council what we could put together, I suggested that the most concrete form of help we could demonstrate would be to have a group of Artificers and Builders show them how we can improve or repair their roads and bridges—and perhaps important buildings.” Master Ketnar smiled. “Our own experience with your bridge certainly demonstrates just how quickly the loss of a bridge or a stretch of road escalates from ‘annoying’ to ‘urgent.’ And to be brutally frank, having you along in this group would certainly make an enormous difference in how quickly we could identify problems and either fix them ourselves with local labor, or lay out a plan for the locals to make the repairs themselves. But this thing needs to be put together quickly, while the weather is still good, and that would mean you wouldn’t be here for the construction of your bridge.”

Abi bit her lip. Here it was, the chance for some travel, maybe a minor adventure or two (though hopefully nothing as dramatic and life-threatening as what Perry had gone through!), the opportunity to do much more than build a single bridge, and a way for her Gift to be useful in a diplomatic application as well as the practical one. Weigh that against—not seeing her bridge go up. And—