The title they gave me, the one that sat an inch below Wannre's name on paper and ten leagues above my actual authority in practice, meant nothing.
It looked impressive in a scroll or when you pinned it to a chest like some cheap badge in a tavern game, but out here it was weightless.
A hollow name.
Worse than that, really. At least a videogame title makes the owner feel proud for a hot minute. This one only made other people itch to humiliate the bearer.
Nobody in Aquis Vanlur wanted to answer to a land dweller, let alone a human. Imagine handing a lion a collar and telling the pride to salute it.
That was my "honour." Even when the edict came straight from Wannre herself, the reaction was the same: cold glares, whispered curses behind fins, the sort of ornate politeness that hides knives. So for two days I did what made the least trouble and gave me the most info. I walked.
