---

A long, sullen line of desperate, greedy, or desperately greedy men formed around the Old Bastion.  Though the skies had been gray for weeks and the season cold, today heat had crept in.  Not enough to warm, but enough to animate, and in such company this was not a good result.

One figure in the line stood out.  Not at first of course.  It was slightly smaller than most of the rest of them, a youngster surely, or someone with a very sleight build.  But the close quarters gave it away to the occupants of the line immediately before and after the figure.  The man ahead of the mysterious figure couldn't be bothered, but the one behind couldn't help but snigger.  A black bird flew across the courtyard and perched on a machicolation, outside of easy reach.

The rogue reached out, confident of his prize.  He succeeded in stroking the young woman's backside through her charcoal gray cloak, and got the satisfaction of her shoulders jumping.

She turned, and the whole courtyard stared momentarily.  What was she doing in this line?  She did not belong here.  She smiled at the man, a curl of her dark hair falling across her face as she did so.  She looked him up and down, then wordlessly her slender hands went for his belt buckle.

Astonished, we watch her unfasten it, and with even more astonishment, watched her hand slip down the front of his pants.  The sergeant at the the table stopped mid paperwork, even the annals had to wait for some things.  He couldn't have a prostitute exhibition here and now.

But he shouldn't have been concerned.  The man who had gotten a feel got a taste of his own medicine as he suddenly cried out in horrible agony and fell as a great wave of cold wafted from his pants.  It wasn't entirely obvious what she had done but it was obvious she had frozen something and what that something was, and every man present winced in sympathy pain.

Two regulars went to break it up, but it was more to pull them out of line.  The woman raised her hand and gently stretched her fingers.

"He is fine, you can check him.  I only taught him a lesson about unsolicited touches.  No more harm was done to him than he did to me."

The sworn brothers looked at each other and drug the man off.  He was coming to now and whining and blubbering about the bitch freezing his manhood off.

The distance in the line between the sleight figure in the dull gray cloak and the recruits in front of and behind her increased, creating a traveling gap that all respected, and there were no more incidents.

---

When she reached the table, the sergeant looked up at this strange recruit.  Her hair was dark and long.  She lowered the hood.

He didn't know what to make of this.  There was some precedent for it, but there was a good reason there weren't many women in the ranks of the Company.  Sworn brothers they were, not sworn sisters.  But her gaze wouldn't be denied.  Though her expression was flat, it was serious, and the intelligence in those dark blue eyes was undeniable.

Still, he didn't understand.  Though her clothes were not ostentatious, they were new and well made.  She looked like she came from money.  She smelled better than anyone here.

Well, there was nothing for it.

"And why do you want to join the Black Company?"

"You are in need of wizards."

Well, he could skip several questions.  Some wizards might know something about weapons or soldiering but if they had magic that's what The Lieutenant would care about.

"Are you a wizard then?"

"I have been called that."  The sergeant frowned, that wasn't an answer he was comfortable with, but he didn't know why.  The woman left it at that, she could try to explain, but it would not help.  They would not understand.

The other recruiter jumped in and them both however.  "Look, uh, we are recruiting wizards but neither of us knows anything about magic.  What, uh, kind of things can you do?"

"A fair question.  I know a few tricks for distracting and deceiving the senses, ways to make people..."  She looked back where the man who had groped her had fallen. "...uncomfortable, and I wouldn't be unwelcome in a field hospital."

"So are you one of them priestess types then?"

"I believe there are beings far beyond mortals, but no."  She stopped there.  She had strong opinions on the subject after what had been done to her, but it wasn't necessary to say any more than this.

"Are you a physician then?"

"For the sake of brevity of inquiry let's say I'm a healer."

"And a wizard?"

"Yes.  That is close enough to accurate."

The sergeant looked at his recruiting partner.  He knew plenty of men who had lived only because of magic in the field hospitals.

"We don't have separate camp latrines for women."

"Noted."  Her response was flat, unexcited and uncaring.

"There's no beds, it's cold, and we may do forced marches for days on end."

"I had figured and I suppose I will learn to march."

"You're going to see a lot of naked men."

"It won't be a problem."  She responded flatly and with great indifference, and without hesitation or concern, like she'd just been told the tavern didn't serve a kind of ale she didn't care for.  "Besides if you want a healer, you best get used to the possibility of them seeing your anatomy."

The sergeant wasn't sure what she meant by that, but that didn't bother him so much as her tone did.  He was tired of this and just leveled with her.

"You are going to get lice.  You will be expected to wear the uniform.  You will receive no accommodations for your sex whatsoever.  You will be serving with men who sometimes take certain prizes at some point."

"Understood.  Do you need a name?"  That at least was normal.  A lot of the recruits didn't want to give a name, at least not a real one.  Truthfully the sergeant didn't care, names died with entry into the Company anyway, and he knew these magic types were real fussy about theirs for whatever reason.

"For the annals.  But you'll get a new one." He clarified for her.

"Yeah, Frost."  The other recruiter cackled.  "That's a good name for her."

"It is just as well."  The woman signed her name to be recorded, it was of course not her True Name, but one she used that would check out if they went asking.  It was the last time she'd ever use it.

The Company was her way out.