Stumbling through the door to her new bedroom, Louise crashed onto the bed and let out a shallow groan. Her legs burned and her arms felt like they were about to fall off.

With her being excused from the day's classes, her work had started almost immediately after she got back, with Claudie stating that. "Working now saves work in the future."

First, it was refuelling her familiar, which took close to an hour of pouring cup after cup of fuel into its tanks. It would have gone faster however, she had to take several breaks as the fumes of the fuel made her feel nauseous.

Then it was feeding the rest of the Familiars, a task that should have been done by at least six servants. But it was only done by her and Siesta.

The reason she was told, was that with the advent of spring, a substantial portion of the Servant staff had to be dedicated to the washing of bedding, as bed bugs were beginning to become a problem that needed to be squashed swiftly.

The job itself wasn't so hard as it was long, the back and forth from the kitchens to the stables quickly grew tiresome which wasn't helped by some of the more, Lively food, culminating in Louise's hatred for snakes growing ever larger.

Afterwards, it was beating bed sheets for close to two hours.

Two long hours.

If she never had to wield a wooden paddle again, it would be too soon.

She was pulled from her thoughts by the steps of her roommate that had guided her through the day of tough backbreaking labour. "Come on, Louise, it's only three in the afternoon. After we eat, we have to bring the bedding to the various rooms."

Louise shoved her face into the pillow, muffling the deep groan.

The steps grew closer. "Huh, what's this?" Siesta questioned. "Louise, you got a letter." Continuing to press her face into her pillow, she extended a hand towards Siesta's voice, soon feeling the envelope.

Grabbing it, she turned over onto her side to face it. The wax seal holding it closed was unmistakably the academies.

Running a finger in between the crack, she tore it open, grabbing the paper from within and beginning to read it.

Her eyes swiftly drifted over the formulaic introduction and to the central message of the letter.

After several appraisals by countless master artisans, the total in damages to my office has tallied up to fifteen hundred ecu's

Her throat went dry as she read the last part over and over again.

'Fifteen hundred!?'

As there is no conservable way for you to pay such an amount in any considerable time frame, I will consider the debt paid when the summer break begins.

"Summer... Break..." she muttered to herself.

That was close to two months away.

Two months of abuse

Crumpling the paper in her hands, she brought them to her chest as despair began to creep up from her core.

"Louise." A new voice asked. Looking over to the door, Louise saw an older looking woman clinging to the door frame. "I need you to head down to the kitchen and bring soup, bread and a glass of water to the infirmary."

"Why her, if I may?" Siesta asked.

"The injured student is specifically asking for her."

Saying nothing, Louise stood up, and slowly marched out of the room.

xXXXx

The lecture droned in Kirche's ear. No matter how hard she tried, she just couldn't focus on what the earth professor was talking about. She supposed that it had something to do with golems if the small rock creatures running around her desk had anything to do with it.

The only thing on her mind was Louise whom she hadn't seen since she was hauled off by the academy's guards.

There were several rumours as to what happened to the girl. One was that she had been discreetly expelled from the school for such an act. Others weren't so forgiving. Several people claimed to have seen Louise walking through the courtyards dressed in a Servant uniform.

She refused to believe that they had gone that far.

"Miss Zerbst," The voice of the professor pulled her back to reality. "Well?"

Kirche blinked as her mind caught up with her. "I'm sorry, what was the question?"

"Why is it that we have armies if earth mages can conjure golems?"

"Will power exertion increases exponentially with each additional golem and it also places great strain the mage's concentration," Kirche explained.

The woman hummed. "Very good." She turned back to the board and began to jot down various notes. "On average the number of golems that can be summoned by a single mage varies betwe-"

Kirche soon tuned out once again, returning to trying to make sense of her thoughts.

If Louise had been turned into a servant, what could she do?

She had to do something. It was her fault.

What was she saying, she couldn't have known that Louise couldn't handle it.

But if she gets her mother involved. If the word were to get out that it was her fault. Dread began to creep up her spine 'I need to find Louise.'

Glancing out the window, she noticed a small figure walking around in the distance, squinting past the glare she noticed that all too familiar mane of pink hair.

The glare slowly faded as a cloud rolled by, allowing her to see Louise perfectly.

Nervousness turned to panic as she realized the uniform she wore. "Ah. Scheisse." She muttered under her breath.

"Is something the matter, miss Zerbst?" The professor asked.

"No, uh. I'm fine." She told the professor while turning to face her. "Wait." She scrunched up her face, feigning pain and grabbed her stomach. "I think... that the beef at lunch isn't sitting well." She said with a groan. "Could I be excused."

The look she received made it clear that the professor didn't believe her. "Obviously not. I won't let the folly of youth ruin your future Miss Zerbst. You may hate me know but you'll thank me when you grow up." The woman said with a wave of her hand.

Pursing her lips, Kirche looked down to her empty hand. 'Just like how you got out of all those boring meetings.'

Taking two fingers, she leaned down beneath her desk and shoved them down her throat.

Gagging swiftly turned to coughing which gave way to bile rushing out of her stomach and on to the floor in clear view of the professor.

Groaning she grabbed the desk and hoisted herself to her feet.

"Oh my." The professor muttered in disbelief. "Um," The professor started clearly in a state of panic. "You, Mister Henri. Could you take Miss Zerbst to the wa-"

"I can go by myself," Kirche said, cutting off the woman.

Pushing herself off of the desk, she stumbled down the aisle and out of the room where she quickly dropped the act, picking up her pace to a sprint, soon reaching the fountain just outside of the tower.

Falling to her knees, she stuck both her hands into the freezing water and cupped them, bringing them to her mouth and drank it, soon ridding her mouth of the disgusting taste. "I really should have remembered why I stopped doing that."

Standing back up she looked back to where she had seen Louise finding nothing but an empty courtyard.

"Where did she go?"

xXXXx

Louise walked through the doors of the water tower, in her hand a tray of food and in her mind questions as to who was the person who had called her here.

It was apparent that whoever it was, knew her, and knew that she had become a servant.

Perhaps whoever it is, wants to make fun of you to brighten up their day?

Her grip on the trey tensed.

Could... Could that be the reason? Was she just some cheap laugh for a sick person?

Clenching her jaw, she continued through the water tower, reaching the ornate door to the infirmary in no time.

Turning around, she pushed the door open with her back, spinning back around when she was through.

In front of her were beds set up in a half circle along the wall centred around the main desk with curtains hanging from the ceiling, hiding some of the beds.

"Ah, you must be the servant she wanted to see." The mage whispered from the desk, startling Louise.

Louise took a moment to Calm down and with her heartbeat under control slowly nodded.

The mage chuckled. "Third from the left. But, don't touch her arms, poor thing burnt them bad."

"T-Thanks." Louise stuttered not knowing how to respond. Walking around the main desk, she made her way over to the curtain and pulled it back.

The blood ran away from her face as she saw who had called her here.

Montmorency laid out on the bed, her arms and neck were bandaged and her hair was a mess devoid of the red bow she always wore, however for all of this she had the biggest grin on her face, which only grew bigger when she noticed her.

"Ah, Louise." Her voice was hoarse as if she had a bag of gravel shoved down her throat. "How are you doing?"

Louise was bewildered at how she seemed to not care about the situation she was in. "Uh... good?"

"That's good." She said laying her head back down on the pillow. "You can put the tray on the end table. There is something I need to speak to you about. Take a seat."

Grabbing a nearby chair she pulled to the bed and sat down. "What happened?" She asked still stunned by just how bad she looked

"I was toying around with that powder you gave me, and I may have knocked a lit candle onto it." She explained.

Louise looked away from her. "I'm sorry I didn't kno-"

The girl silenced her with a sigh. "Louise, that was my fault, I should have been more careful when I found nitrocellulose in the powder. Honestly, your way too quick to blame yourself." The girl stated. "Besides this isn't the first time I burned myse-" The girl's eyes widened as a coughing fit stopped her explanation.

Louise's actions were immediate, grabbing the cup of water, off of the tray, and bringing it to the injured girl's lips, who gladly accepted the liquid relief.

"Thanks." She said, her voice sounding considerably better than before. "Anyway, back to the reason why I called you here. I've made a breakthrough."

Louise sprang out of her seat in surprise, her eyes lighting up. "Really?"

"Yep." The blonde said with a smile. "The recipe is all up in here?" She said, raising a bandaged arm to her head. "But. The girl looked to her left and right before leaning close. "I need you to write it down."

Pursing her lips, Louise got up and walked over to the mages desk, quickly grabbing an ink well and a quill, before returning to the blonde's side.

The girl once again leaned in, attempting to be secretive. "I need you to write this. "Nitrocellulose, nitroglycerin, Rosin, Diphenylamine." Louise did as she was told.

"And, that's it?"

The girl shook her head. "The more detailed notes are in my room, which, if you have the time, I would like you to retrieve and hide from the rest of the school?"

An eyebrow raised on the pink haired girls face. "What."

The blonde pursed her lips. "Just do it... But I do need to ask you for another favour."

"What is it?"

The girl looked away from her for a moment. "I don't want you giving away your shells to anyone else. I want to keep this recipe between us."

Louise crossed her arms. "You want your family to be the only one able to produce this powder?"

The girl slowly nodded. "Yes." She said, shame lacing her words. "To compensate, I'll give you as much powder as you want for free, I won't even charge you for this and... I'll owe you one."

"And how do I know that you won't betray me?" Louise questioned.

The girl sighed. "Look, Louise, I know that we haven't really gotten along in the past, but I really need this." Her voice, as hoarse as it was, still carried the girl's desperation in it. "If I do end up betraying you, you can go and give away that recipe and powder to whoever you want."

Louise pursed her lips as she began to think it over. "Fine, I won't hand off the powder to anyone else, and you can have your family start producing it."

The girls head fell back to the pillow, her gaze locked onto the ceiling. "Thanks, Louise."

The pair sat in silence for what felt like hours both of them choosing to wait until the other one broke the silence.

"So, are you going to be ok?" Louise said, finally speaking.

The girl nodded. "It's a few days of bandages around the burns, and it'll look like I never even burned them."

"That's... That's good."

The girl tilted her head towards her once more. "If I may, why are you wearing a servant uniform?" Montmorency asked.

The noble turned servant clenched her jaw and avoided her gaze. "I... Did something bad, and am now paying for it." She explained. "I had figured you knew."

"I didn't. I just asked for you."

Louise pursed her lips more. "Well, I should be going."

The blonde nodded. "Remember to get those notes, I rather not let them fall into a ravel family's hands."

"I will," The pinkette said standing up. "If you need anything just ask."

"I'll keep that in mind."

Louise turned and pushed her way past the curtain and left the infirmary, giving a warm smile to the water mage as she passed by.

"Louise." A voice that brought with it feelings of rage and anger called out to her.

Clenching her jaw, she turned around, soon coming face to face with the girl who had gotten her into this.

"I just wanted to say sorry, for-"

Louise shot out a hand and grabbed her by the ear, yanking down to her height causing her to yelp in pain. "Kirche." She gritted out, "I don't care what you have to say. I don't want to speak with you. I don't want to see you. I don't want you anywhere near me." The venom in her voice as clear as day.

Louise shoved her away before taking her leave. She had bigger problems to deal with.

xXXXx

Osmond sat, in his makeshift office, smoking his pipe. It was smaller than his old office and the furniture lacked a lot of the luxury that he had grown used to since he had begun his employment.

It wasn't all that bad, it sort of reminded him of his time out on the road when he was younger, where all he had to work with was what was in whatever room he stayed in.

He was suddenly pulled from his thoughts by the opening of the office's door. "I've finished the inventory of the vault." His secretary said, closing the door behind her.

"and?"

The woman bit her lip. "Everything is in order, except."

"Execpt?"

"The two crates that contained the staffs of destruction, they're missing."

He felt his old heart skipped a beat. This week was proving quite taxing on his old body.

"And I found Fouquet's calling card."

A trembling hand grabbed his pipe and set it down onto its stand. "Miss Longueville."

"Yes?"

"I need you to dispatch the guards at once. I want them in every town within a fifty-mile radius and give them commoner clothes. Order them to observe and to alert me if they notice any suspicious activity."

"Sir I must object," Longueville stated. "We don't have the manpower for thi-"

"Then send out some of the servants!" He shouted.

"Surely the royal family would be better equipped to handle an investigation."

Osmond let out a sigh. "If the court hears about this, they'll have my head. No, we need to handle this on our own."

"I'll have it done." She said with a small bow before turning and leaving the room.

Osmond grabbed his pipe and reinserted it into his mouth. Silently praying that the gods would give him what he needed.

xXXXx

So here we are at chapter 10. Just wanted to say thanks to all the readers and reviewers who have supported me through this process.

And yes I know that a lot of the compounds listed come about during the nineteenth century, however it is in my opinion that chemistry would be one aspect of science where Halk would be advancing in, due to alchemy being such a large thing on the continent.

So yeah, let me know what you think.