- Tag a Long -
Once she had half dragged, half persuaded Guiche into her room - with a little help from her familiar, Flame - Kirche began her interrogation. It didn't take much effort on her part, she questioned him after she pinned him to the bed. Naturally he was reluctant to tell her and tried to distract her with small talk, undoing the buttons on her blouse one by one did wonders to loosen his tongue, each one revealing another piece of the puzzle as well as more of her tanned skin. It didn't long to piece together his story.
To Kirche's surprise it was revealed that the Princess of Tristain had been present in Louise's room, where a secretive issue of great importance was been discussed. Guiche had refused to speak any further on the matter, citing his loyalty to the Princess.
A glimpse of Kirche's bare legs fixed that, as Guiche finally revealed that the Prince of Albion was in possession of a document that could endanger the alliance between Tristain and her country of Germania.
Satisfied that she'd learned all she could from him, she decided to make good on her promise she made earlier, so that he wouldn't become resentful. Moving in close to give him a passionate kiss, Guiche did something she didn't expect... he passed out.
To say that she was disappointed didn't quite describe how she felt at that moment. "Guiche, for someone who acts like a playboy you can be such a child." After letting out an exasperated sigh she realized it was time for dinner, straightening out her skirt and buttoning up her blouse she headed down to the dining hall to get something to eat leaving Guiche lying where he was.
After a light meal, she returned to her room with something for Guiche suspecting that hunger may have roused him from dreamland - isn't that usually how it worked with men - only to find that was not the case. She had hoped to salvage the night by turning it into a dinner date, but he continued to disappoint her.
As punishment she helped herself to his share, deciding that he could go hungry for the night - seriously, this is what you get for keeping a girl waiting - all the while she thought over what she had learned about the situation at large.
All in all, as a member of the Germanian nobility she was duty bound to report such a scandal to the Germanian ambassadors who were residing in Tristain's capital negotiating the finer details of the marriage alliance. However the pragmatist in her cautioned against such rash action; on the one hand, the civil war in Albion was wrapping up with the ever aggressive Reconquista as the guaranteed victor.
On the other hand, it was clear that Tristain couldn't repulse any invasion by Reconquista without aid from Germania and if Reconquista was half as serious about their quest to unite the kingdoms under their banner and push east towards reclaiming the Holy Lands, that would mean that either Gallia or her homeland Germania would be invaded next. With her home estate on Tristain's eastern border next to the Vallière estate, her home would most likely become the new front-line should Reconquista invade.
'Therefore,' She concluded, 'it would be best to use Tristain as a buffer, conducting all fighting within Tristain's borders rather than within the homeland. But that would mean helping Vallière.' The thought left a sour taste in her mouth.
Uncertain as to whether she should assist or not, she decided to sleep on the matter and make a decision in the morning. With that in mind, she changed out of her uniform and into a purple sheer sleeveless nightgown that flowed to the floor, embroidery decorated the bust and hem, with an open front joined by a white ribbon tied in bow that exposed her cleavage, navel and matching panties that she wore underneath.
Once she was done, she turned her attention back to the bed and its snoring occupant. She was tempted to leave him out in the hallway, hoping the cold floor would rouse him and he would discretely return to the boy's dorms. However with his luck, he'd be caught by one of the girls or worse, a teacher. Questions would be asked and Guiche would most like raise a stink over it.
In the end she decided against it and pushed him to one side of the bed. Better to let him think he got lucky than for him to become resentful towards her and express open dissent towards her. She'd hate to have to change schools again so soon after the last.
Miraculously - or perhaps he somehow sensed how little she was wearing - Guiche choose that exact moment to wake up. 'If the first words out of his mouth is, "I'm hungry," I'll throttle him.'
To his credit- or lack of - the first thing he said was, "Kirche?"
'Well, that's an improvement over earlier,' She thought.
A glimpse through the nearby window told Guiche that night had fallen. "Have I been here all evening?" He asked.
"Afraid so," She replied folding her arms under her impressive bust, this had the - mostly - unintended effect of drawing his attention to what she was wearing, or rather lack thereof. 'I guess third time's the charm,' she thought seeing where this was going.
Slowly with closed eyes, she approached him with her lips. However, at that moment a voice from outside the window interrupted her. One of Guiche's classmates appeared at the window looking inside indignantly. "Kirche... I came to check because you weren't there on time..."
"Berisson! We'll meet in two hours later then!" Honestly she had been so caught up in Guiche's revelation that she had forgotten all about her meeting with him.
"That wasn't what we agreed on!" He argued. Had she mentioned that she hated pushy men?
Nonchalantly she removed her wand from her cleavage - given how revealing her nightgown was, Guiche wondered how he hadn't noticed it beforehand - and waved it without even looking. Flame shot out from a nearby lamp and flowed into Berisson like a snake. Guiche watched in shock as his classmate plummeted from the third story window.
"What an annoying owl," She said not taking her eyes off Guiche. "Now where were we...?"
When he pried his eyes away from the window, it was to find Kirche's lips approaching once more. Guiche didn't move as an irresistible desire came over him. Then they were interrupted again.
"Kirche! Who is that guy? Aren't you going to heat up the night with me?" Yet another of his classmates appeared at the windowsill.
"Styx!" Kirche exclaimed, wasn't she supposed to meet up with Berisson today? Had she gotten her schedule mixed up, again? "How does four hours later sound?"
"Is that Guiche in there?" Styx demanded, he was about to climb through the window when Kirche waved her wand once more. Another flame struck him, and sent him to the ground.
This time instead of returning to the kiss, she set her wand aside and her hands grasped the ends of the white bow that secured the front of her gown together - whatever good that did - slowly she pulled the ends in a provocative manner. Guiche watched in anticipation as the loops of ribbon continued to shrink until they vanished and the knot popped open. For the most part Kirche's gown continued to cover her breasts; however with the bow undone both sides of the open front parted enough to unveil the valley that was Kirche's impressive cleavage.
Grabbing his wrists, she placed his hands on her lovely tanned legs and guided them up along her thighs to her hips. Before they could continue further a groan came from the window. Both of them impatiently turned around to find three of their classmates looking in.
"Kirche! What the hell is this?!"
"You said you don't have any lovers!"
Kirche identified the first two, "Manican! Ajax!"
"Guiche? What on earth are you doing here? Since when were you pursuing Kirche?"
Guiche the last, "Gimili? Why are you here?"
"Don't you see that we're kind of busy here?"She said irritably, the boys however disagreed. Kirche at this point was rather cross and responded accordingly."Flame," she commanded the salamander- that had been sleeping in the corner of the room - lifted its head and unleashed a jet of flame that engulfed the trio, within moments they joined the other two at the base of the tower where Louise would find them the next morning.
Once that was taken care of, they picked up where they left off. From their place on her hips, Kirche guided his hands up and under her gown along her sides. The higher his hands traveled, the more the open front of her gown peeled back increasingly exposing her magnificent twin peaks, soon he'll see them in all their glory and then he'll be able to... to gras-
The first clue Kirche had that something was up, was when his arms suddenly went slack. She suspected the reason, but for Guiche's sake it better not be. Looking down she saw that it was exactly as she feared; Guiche, had passed out... again.
"That's three times you've disappointed me now." She couldn't believe it, she'd given him plenty of chances even jilted five of her lovers and this is what she got for her troubles. Furious she stood on the bed, stepped to one side and promptly kicked the idiot onto the cold hard floor. She then hopped into bed, with a clap of her hands all the lamps went out and went to sleep.
Kirche woke to the screech of a large bird and the beating of equally large wings. She glanced at the window, and found that all the glass was shattered with the frame reduced to a charred wreck. But that wasn't what caught her attention as she raced to window, absentmindedly stepping on Guiche in the process. "Hurk!?"
Watching from the remnants of her windowsill, the Griffin that woke her shrank into the distance, she noted that one of the riders had a familiar head of pink hair as she leaned out the window heedless of the fact that the front of gown was open, fortunately no one was outside at this ungodly hour in the morning. Kirche swore in her native tongue as she raced back to her wardrobe.
Guiche, whom had been rudely awakened when Kirche stepped on him, was about to demand what was going on when the sound of silk stopped him in his tracks. From the corner of his eye, Kirche's nightgown slid to the floor at her feet.
Watching only from the corner of his eye, he tilted his head ever so slightly to see her standing with her back to him before the open doors of her wardrobe wearing only her panties. Infuriatingly the first thing she did was put on a gray pleated skirt before changing her underwear, despite this Guiche didn't dare make a sound or even twitch a muscle, fearful that the magic of this moment would vanish if he was discovered.
Silently he watched as she shrugged on a white blouse, wishing if only she would turn to the side - even just a little. Instead he made do watching her lovely legs slip into a pair of thigh-high boots, when she turned his way. He quickly shut his eyes pretending to still be asleep.
"Guiche! Wake up already." She shouted, Guiche feigned waking up, but either he did too good a job of it, or he wasn't doing it fast enough for her liking as the spiked heel of her boot jabbed him painfully in the ribs.
"Hurry up!" She ordered, gathering her mantle. "We have to go after Vallière."
"Huh? Why do we have to chase after her?"He asked perplexed.
Grabbing him by the shoulders she shook him back and forth while yelling, "Have you forgotten how important it is that she succeeds?! More importantly have you forgotten her success rate?!"
"Two probably successful spells one duel and the capture of Fouquet." Guiche unhelpfully recalled it wasn't what she wanted to hear but he was distracted by the interesting things the shaking did to her chest.
Realizing this she responded appropriately; she hit him. For Guiche this was a novel experience for him, not long ago two girls slapped him one after the other, but this was the first time a girl punched him in the face. Much to his surprise, in spite of her feminine wilds she didn't refrain from fisticuffs as they came in handy when dealing with grabby men when one's wand was out of reach. Mind you she wasn't angry at him for ogling her - that's to be expected - nor for offhandedly mentioning her recent defeat at Louise's hand, but rather because she was still upset over last nights' debacle.
Done arguing, Kirche's mind went back to the task at hand; chasing Vallière. However with that Griffin, Louise had a significant head start - no thanks to Guiche wasting time - if they were going to catch up they'll need something faster than the horses in the academy's stables... the fastest creature in the academy belonged to her friend Tabitha.
Grabbing the collar of Guiche's mantle - which had acted as a makeshift blanket, throughout the night - she proceeded to drag him out into the hallway, his journey quickly became arduous when they had to traverse two flights of stone steps to the fifth floor.
Tabitha was having a wonderful dream when Kirche burst into the room. "Tabitha! Wake up! I need to borrow Sylphid!"
'Good grief, what is it this time?' She wondered as she glowered at the blurred figures at the door. She would have liked to sleep in a little longer, especially after the gathering at Kirche's window last night. Putting on her glasses, Tabitha saw that Kirche was unusually serious. She also saw that the person accompanying her was none other than Guiche - who looked back and forth at the sea of books that covered the entire floor except for a narrow path that lead from the door past the bed and to the window - turning back her friend she asked, "Why?"
"We have to go after Vallière, Tabitha." Kirche quickly explained, "It's important! I'll fill you in on the way; they've already left on a Griffin. I need your familiar to catch up!" Reluctantly Tabitha agreed but only because the situation seemed genuinely urgent and for once not one of her friend's whims.
"Oh thank you so much... let's hurry up!" Kirche urged her. Tabitha nodded, as annoying as it was, she couldn't help it if Kirche felt she had to keep tabs on her rival, especially with all that's happened lately. Still in her pajamas, she opened the window, and whistled. After a moment, she jumped out the window much to Guiche's alarm, which didn't last long when he caught a glimpse of Kirche's panties when she too jumped out after her.
Soon there was the sound of strong wing beats filled the air outside the window as an infant wind dragon - Tabitha's familiar; Sylphid - rose with both Kirche and its master on its back."Guiche! Hurry up." Kirche shouted, "Time's a wasting!"
"Why do I have to come?" Guiche argued, "Besides I can't make that jump!"
"Oh, for heaven's sake." Kirche reached into her cleavage to retrieve... her wand? At that time all Guiche could think of was, 'Now when did she put that there?' When an invisible force yanked him off his feet and out the window, flailing about he managed to latch onto the dragon's tail.
The dragon swiftly and perfectly - despite Guiche's precarious position - caught the updraft around the tower, and reached 200 mails in the air in the blink of an eye.
"Where?" Tabitha succinctly asked Kirche.
"They were heading South-West towards the port." Kirche pointed, Tabitha directed her wind dragon and it took off South-West with Guiche clinging to its tail for dear life. In the meantime Kirche began explaining to Tabitha what was going on.
"-And now we're here." Kirche said as she finished recounting her tale of how she learned about Louise's mission and followed her all the way here to the Port City of La Rochelle.
When she was done, Louise turned her furious gaze on Guiche. "Unbelievable," She growled, "she lifts her skirt and you tell her everything. Have you no shame Guiche."
Guiche was indeed ashamed and had nothing to say, Kirche however... was rather indignant, "I had to do more than lift my skirt Vallière-"
"I don't need to hear it!" Louise cut her off blushing furiously, she didn't want to even begin to think about what Kirche and Guiche got up to. "Now let me be absolutely clear, this is my mission. And. You. Can. Not. Come!"
"Now Louise," Kirche reasoned, "you don't need to be so stubborn, we're only trying to help."
"Help? I don't need your help!" Louise raged, "Why should I anyway, huh? It's not like you've ever been helpful before. In fact, I'd describe the past year as completely unhelpful."
Kirche winced; it was after all true, coming from a families who were both rivals at best and enemies at worse depending on politics of the time. And while this also extended to the other students who were born into Tristainian nobility - even Tabitha who heralded from Gallia had been no exception the previous year - Louise however had proven to be an exceptionally easy target, even the other students who should have closed ranks around her to defend her against an outsider from Germania such as Kirche, instead they to heckled her.
Taking a calming breath she said, "Look, Vallière. I know we have never been on the best of terms-"
"-You could say that again." Louise butted in.
"-But you and I, both know that this is too important." Kirche continued, "I'm not saying that we have to be friends, just that we put aside our rivalry this once, for both our countries."
Wardes who had been watching silently up to this point spoke up. "I'm afraid that course of action presents us with a complication. Her Highness chose us specifically to prevent the officials of Germania from learning of this incident, bringing you along would be counter-intuitive."
Seeing Kirche's look of determination Louise released a sigh of defeat and said, "Fine." Before turning to Wardes, "There's no point in trying to stop her, if we send her back she'll follow us anyway and we can't silence her because it would cause problems for the Princess. All we can do is drag her along with us so we can keep a close eye on her."
Wardes' expression was thoughtful for a moment before agreeing, "It is as you say my dear, and your reasoning is impeccable as always."
"That's great and all, but before we leave can we at least get something to eat. I'm Starving." Guiche complained and as if on cue, his stomach grumbled equally as loud.
"And whose fault was that." Kirche muttered under her breath.
"You may," Wardes informed him before addressing the group, "Regardless of the urgency of our mission, we cannot depart until tomorrow, after the lunar eclipse tonight. I suggest you take this time to make any preparations you require." He suggested glancing at Tabitha who was still in her pajamas.
After that Louise retired to her room - citing that just talking to Kirche was exhausting - while Wardes paid for accommodations for the three of them, Afterwards the two moved to the dining for a late breakfast.
Located in the narrow streets of La Rochelle, was the dilapidated 'Golden Wine Barrel Bar,' within its confines sat the infamous thief Fouquet the Crumbling Earth. She arrived a few days before Louise's group after her benefactor had released her from the confines of Genoa prison, with instructions to hire mercenaries within the city and await his arrival for further orders. Having done the former, she waited patiently for the latter.
When the bar's door opened, a man wearing a white mask entered the bar, it was her benefactor. None of the thugs and mercenaries harried the newcomer, like her, they all knew him as their employer.
"Three interlopers have entered the city," He announced, with a wave of his black cane he created an illusion of the three in question; a young man and two young women. "It is your task to deal with them."
"I thought the plan was to separate the brat from her familiar?" She asked. She'd been looking forward to getting her revenge against the golem that had inflicted the lengthy scars across her body that even now continued to ache. The mercenaries wouldn't be much help, but she only needed them to lure out the golem so that may engage it with her own.
"The plan has changed and their interference could jeopardize my plans." He answered, "Besides if her familiar intends to travel to Albion with its master, it must reveal itself at the tree-port in order to board the ship, when it does... I'll personally take care of it."
Fouquet turned her attention back to the image of the three. The boy was vaguely familiar to her, but that mattered little her, the girls however... she recognized both from the day she was captured. The first was a slim girl who was rather short with blue hair and eyes, holding a staff taller than herself. Most of the merc's leered at the image of the second, a buxom redhead with tanned skin.
"You know, I was rather looking forward to my rematch earlier, however..." She smiled cruelly, "I think these two will entertain me and company just fine. As the old saying goes, 'two out of three ain't bad." She and the others in the bar laughed.
Back at 'The Goddess's Temple,' Kirche and the others were ready for dinner. They sat at separate tables, Louise and Wardes at one while the rest sat at another. Kirche wasn't happy with the arrangement but the not so warm welcome she received from the pair made her back off a bit so as not to push her luck.
Next to her sat Tabitha who was digging into a salad. Before following Kirche to dining hall, Tabitha had changed out of her pajamas and into her school uniform, Turns out that she kept a travel pack containing spare cloths and other necessities in the event of a hasty departure. While across from them was Guiche who was eating with better manners than he had displayed earlier that day now that he wasn't starving, his black eye had even faded having spent the whole day treating it with healing spells.
As they finished their dinner, Guiche tried to make conversation, but unfortunately Tabitha had her head buried in a book titled, 'The Hero of Ivalid' that had been included in her pack. This meant that Kirche couldn't engage her in - limited - conversation while ignoring Guiche, and Vallière and the mage knight Wardes had already retired to their room; this time around she had to give him time of day.
"Umm... Kirche, about last night..." He started.
"What about it?" She asked apathetically.
"I... was wondering. Would you care to try again tonight?" He asked somewhat hopeful.
Kirche grimaced."Nope," she flatly told him.
"No?" He repeated dumbstruck.
"Of course not. I repaid my debt to you at the lake remember, so I didn't have to invite you into my room after all." She pointed out, not too long ago Guiche had fallen afoul of Montmorency's extremely potent love potion. The pair had raced to Ragdorian Lake to obtain an essential regent necessary to undo the spell; unfortunately Tabitha - accompanied by Kirche - had been tasked by Gallia's King to pacify the water spirit which had been raising the water level of the lake flooding neighboring lands.
It hadn't been required of them to help Guiche, but because Kirche still owed him for his dashing rescue at the time and she had helped them obtain the regent while at same time pacifying the water spirit when it extracted the promise from them; that they would retrieve its stolen treasure for it. If not for Kirche he would still be under the effects of the potion.
"Besides, you got a good look at me this morning, didn't you?"Her question was of course rhetorical.
Guiche gulped, 'How did she find out? What gave me away?'
"Not that I mind of course, it's only natural-" Guiche breathed a sigh of relief, usually these circumstances didn't end well, "-provided that I give permission first!" With that she drove the spiked heel of her boot into his shin from under the table.
"Brutal," Tabitha commented.
"Oh please Tabitha." Kirche said dismissively. "If I wanted to be brutal, there's a better and more painful spot I could've kicked him from here."
- End of Chapter 8 -
