"Bow- man," says Iomedae, beaming at him. As good as a man is a very high compliment as far as she is concerned. "Thank you for bow. I very grateful, you very good."

"You don't know if I'm good. You haven't seen me shoot," Rembrandt points out mildly, but accepts the compliment. "Do you have other things you want to do today? You can shoot multiple royal rounds right now if you like, but you probably want to see the rest of the event." 

"Bow man can fight swords, because man?"

"Uh. Can you rephrase that for me?" That seems like a complete non sequitur to Rembrandt. 

"They sayed, I no can fight swords, because I a foster child. Is it that if I am a bowman, I can fight men?"

Rembrandt takes a deep breath and studies the young lady in front of him. She just shot like someone who's been shooting for a decade, and she really does seem at home in garb - none of the air of selfconsciousness that newbies sometimes have in their first Gold Key tunics - but she's clearly a new newbie. Better not to forget it.

"I don't know what the rules are for fostering because I don't know anything about fostering, really, but at the archery range you can compete with the adults, and I think on the heavy field you can do that when you're sixteen. Bowman is a rank, it means if you get three scores like the one you just did then you are a better archer than if you only scored forty or fifty. It's a good rank. If you earn it then the baron and baroness will give you a badge in court, and if you get the next rank up then the crown gives you a badge." 

"But still a foster child, if you get badge?"

What sort of question even is that? Did this kid's parents abandon her to the foster system because she wasn't good enough at archery? 

"Um.... yeah, I don't think anything we do in the SCA is going to... bring your parents back, or magically make you an adult, I'm sorry." His voice softens slightly. "I wish I could, kid, but I'm just the archery marshal."