Rin slept for about 3 hours, a long nap that left her feeling more rested and more like herself than she had in all the time she had been in this new world. When she woke, she found herself alone in the room and noticed this was the first moment of solitude she had.
The first thing she did was look for the few personal items she had carried and found them in a wooden drawer beside the table where she had eaten before. Since these belonged to her and her late family, she took them out without thinking twice and sat by the table to take a look carefully.
Her brother´s pouch carried a small token marked with words same as the one hers had. The difference was that now, she could understand what the letters and markings meant and realize, these were a form of personal identification. To the her who had been identified and followed all her life by use of the serial numbers programmed into the nanos and the signals emited by them as she carried them in her body, this was positively an ancient artifact, worthy enough to keep just for the relic feeling she got just by holding it. The pouch only held a wooden horse toy that showed signs of heavy use and since it was such a little thing, she decided to keep it too until she could pass it to a child that would value it.
Her mother´s pouch was a whole other thing altogether. From the outside, it looked like a highborn ladys pouch, small, elegantly made on royal blue colored leather, with delicate embroidered designs made on some sort of silvery thread. The moment she stuck her hand inside, something felt very different about it because her hand had touched air and not the leather on it. She got her hand out and peered into the bag only to see it empty but seen from outside, the pouch did not seem empty at all. She closed her eyes and concentrated for a long moment to find the answer in her new memories.
-So that´s how it is...
The pouch was a magical artifact, one very rare and only available to powerful families of ancient origins and of course, those filthy rich to be able to afford such a thing. Rin deliberately steered away from thinking how many rules of physics this little thing bent to work as it did. It allowed the owner to keep things several times its size in there, as if gone to another dimension. Rin Coesen knew her mother had such an artifact but could not use it at all before because taking things in or out required magical habilities, sure, on par with a two year old kid but Rin Coesen did not have even that.
Rin took out the things in hers and her brother pouchs and tried to place them on her mother´s only to be refused. That was the moment she understood why her old self was so ostracized and her status so low. Magical power had a very important place in the way of life of this civilization, the same way technology had in hers. Not being able to use magic and enchantments was akin as not being able to turn a computer on or navigating the net. Despite how much she hated it, she would need Lyn´s help with getting started on the magical knowledge path, at least until she learned enough to find out and do things completely on her own.
She took a look at her own id token and since she could read now, she got startled when she saw the thing did show an update on her name and titles. It said her identity was that of Princess Rin Hekili, born Lady Rin Coesen and in little letters below that, it said General Rin Evans of the Mars Army. So this meant this id was also capable of reading deep into the identity and soul of the owner and it could perceive that the soul occupying this body was not that of Lady Rin Coesen. Thankfuly, that was not really highlighted and keeping a low profile about it might be for the best. Also, that title of Princess was the current one, eyecatching enough by itself.
A knock on the door was heard and Rin realized the winter afternoon was coming to an end. The people from the manor would start to take care of the evening meals and take care of the services the masters would need before settling in for the long night. She put the pouches and tokens back into the drawer and answered that it was fine to enter the room. The three maids from before and Steward Lan came in at the front of a group of servants carrying items for what looked like a banquet and took care to arrange the room fast and efficiently, even the pillows and the quilt in the bed had been fluffed to perfection.
-My Lady-which tea would you preffer?-asked Steward Lan while the maids busied themselves with brewing, pouring and serving so many things.
Rin could not help but remember the first festival after they liberated Ireland, three years after the Svalbard campaign. Many refugees had returned to Earth after that and farmed the lands with a passion not seen for centuries, connected to the old ways of food producing. They had been so happy to see fields instead of tightly controlled spaces within the compounds at Celestes station and Mariner Town that it took a while before the new farmers realized that the work and time involved was not what they thought at first despite the deceiving feeling of abundance. Apart from the Infected, there were plenty of plagues and disasters that could to send all the work and food producing down the drain so when they finally managed to see results, they put together a feast to remember. That was the first time in over 5 years since the outbreak that people could taste freshly picked vegetables from Earth and supplies became enough to provide more than their usual rations and starvation diet. What she had deemed a feast back then, paled in comparison to the meals served in this room right now and Rin could feel her appetite was stoked to a bigger degree when the aroma hit her nose.
Lyn entered the room and found the meal was served. Rin looked happy and delighted, ready to start eating but also restraining herself, maybe because she feared to slip up in front of the servants so he took a seat by the table and motioned everyone to leave them alone while they ate. The meal from before had been light, only a soup, a serving of pickled vegetables, bread and roasted meat with the ever present tea. This one had more items, bread, butter, a salad with fresh green leaves that who knew where Steward Lan got since winter was ending and nothing green could have sprouted yet, there was a fish soup, a main dish of poultry with more herbs, buttered potatoes with two kinds of sauce on the side and little sweet pastries for dessert as well as the usual red wine his people preferred for dinner.
Rin hesitated on where to start and so, Lyn decided to be the one to put a plate together for her and use the motion as distraction to the conversation they needed to have.
-You look different-he observed with a serene expression-Did the maids put make up on you earlier?
-No-she answered-Must be the nanos- he lifted a brow- One of the first applications of such a technology had to do with cosmetology. For me, beauty sleep is a literal thing-she grinned.
He understood that part. As she started to chew on the salad, he took a real look and found that her skin seemed fresher and tender, with a healthy glow and her hair that was already stricking red, became shinnier and fell down her shoulders in a flaming cascade, each strand clearly defined against the clear colored robes she was using. The maids had dressed her in a luxurious sleeping attire, fit for a queen to use while resting in her private quarters while still very comfortable and proper.
-Look at yourself in a mirror tomorrow, you will notice changes in your own skin-she added.
-We wont have the time for that, we will set off to Detch before the first light of dawn-
She knew they would be leaving so the news did not surprise her at all. It was actually better that they began to travel and left this country as soon as possible as both their lifes had been under great danger.
-You and I will travel in the same carriage, I will take care of you and your maids will see to your needs everytime we stop to rest and to camp for the night-he added in a calming way.
-How long will it take to arrive there?-
-With the assasins trying to get us, we changed the route and it will take one month now- she flinched, dear God, she hated long term travel. Going from Mars to Celestes and Earth took three days on the good launch periods, maximum 2 months in periods when both planets were farthest with the current ships available, which was a feat compared to the years it took when the missions first began. That difference had been one of the reasons the reclaiming missions took so long, the comings and goings of the army were complicated to begin with with all the coordination needed for launchs. The people from this world did not have access to flights or anything like that so there was no other way but suck up and find things to do with all the time in their hands.
-Do you know how to ride a horse?-she assented-Good, that will help to make it there faster, maybe we can divide the groups and take front with the shadow guards after a couple of days when you are fully rested. That way it will take less than three weeks-
-Please, I like that much better-she said while sipping the soup and enjoying the warmth and savoury taste. Lyn also ate and drank in silence for a while after that.
-I need your help with something-she began after the main course. She only had one glass of wine and if not for the hearty meal, she would have gotten tipsy. With how hard it was to get food in her world, anything with alcohol became even harder to find. After reclaiming New Zealand and stabilizing the production through the Earth seasons, only then the food supply became enough to try other campaigns securely such as wine and spirits production. Even for her, at the rank of General, procuring precious wine was very difficult since the good one took years to produce and mature. Beer though, had been brought back to life faster since the grain production had been easier and much rapidly.
-I found a spatial artifact-
Prince Lyn almost choked on his beloved wine. It had taken him years and a mountain of gold to get himself one of those, and this woman blurted she found one just like that?
-My mother´s pouch- she stacked some plates aside and made space for the items, then she took the bundle of things from the drawer and showed them to him.
-Have you told anyone else about it?-she shook her head no and he sighed in relief-Good.
-I searched in the memories but I have been unable to open it up-
-Fine, lets have dessert and the table cleared before we take a look-
When Rin tasted the sweet pastries, her eyes watered. She remembered having a sweet and fluffy birthday cake that tasted sweet and amazing like this one back on her mother´s birthday, weeks before the Outbreak. Lyn had been calling the maids and Steward Lan and did not notice her expression until two solitary tears slid down her cheeks. Her gaze was far away, lost in memory.
-Princess, forgive us-the maids saw the lady crying silently and became scared to death so they knelt all the way to the ground. Steward Lan blanched in fear and Lyn was starting to feel annoyed, like he was watching one of those fake womanly shows in court when he saw Rin returning back to reality and setting things straight pretty fast.
-Stand up, please-she said while drying her tears fast. She then smiled benevolenty at the maids and Lyn realized this was the first real smile he saw on her face, it was like sunlight and made her face look downright otherwordly, specially her golden eyes that flashed with warmth- This sweet brought me old happy memories of my family, thank you for that-
The maids and Steward Lan were transfixed. Every one of them were used to the icy ways of Prince Lyn so having the Princess smile so gently at them and saying please and thank yous, felt like finally their hard work was appreciated. They had been servants all their lifes, they knew they had lucked out in life by having a cold but rightful master that did not mistreat them at all, but this was the moment when the Princess started to win them over. With such joy in their hearts, they cleared the table, fixed the room and left them for the night as they still had lots of things to prepare for the early morning departure.