Oooh, new, long story
The premise sounds interesting. That at first it would be a Soulmates adaption, given Lois's name here.
Even for someone as young as he had been, the Assigning wasn’t hard to forget about. When non-Noble males were seven and females nine, they were taken from their homes and Assigned to serve the king and Nobles as servants.
I think it's actually a quite sensible custom. This way, you get so many benefits from it, compared to the more commonly used servitude concepts.
In no particular order:
* With the child moving to the nobles household from until their grown-ups, the parents are free to produce more offspring, without having to worry about feeding all their children.
* The kids are put to work, instead of being indoctrinated by their parents to have a mind of their own or anything like that.
* The barbaric custom of 'Right of First Night' is obsolete. After all, any noble interested in one the maidenhood of one of his subjects, can just command her to his chamber while she serves at his court. This way, she then free to marry whom she loves without having the wedding night be taken by their lord and master.
Yes, all in all, its quite the wholesome approach.
Lois and Robert were fun. I certainly did not expect her to run away from the mouse, but their friendship was a surprise
Looking forward to figuring out where you're taking us on this ride.
Michael
