A Diana Cavendish Interlude
If there was one thing Diana Cavendish, Lady President/Head Clerk of the Student Council of the Academy, would admit to missing now that the previous student council had graduated, it was having someone with Light Magic in the room to help with the inevitable cramps, aches and pains of so much paperwork. The closest thing they had to Medicinal Magic relief was the blocks of ice the many Water Magic weilders on the council could make to ice their hands, and given they could let the bowls of cold water be too close to the papers, that was of limited utility.
Still, Diana Cavendish persevered! Her predecessor, Maria Campbell, had started as a mere commoner and gone on to great heights while she had served in this post the year before. Diana couldn't hope to mimic her meteoric rise– mostly because she liked to sleep every once in a while, and tried to discourage admirers rather than being oblivious to all but one man– but she could maintain the drudgerous, needful work of the Student Council on behalf of the students and the school!
…
She missed having the Third Prince to foist paperwork off on! She probably shouldn't be thinking of one of the potential heirs to the throne– many years now believed to be the most likely by many people, usually people who didn't think of what they were saying and easily impressed– as a good paperwork hollow, but she did! He'd been the best worker they'd had!
"You know, when they go on and on about all you can accomplish at the Academy if you apply yourself," one of the first years, Margaret Blackstone, the daughter of a famous knight, said, "they never mention the part about being drafted to do all this paperwork if you do a good job."
"It's intentional," Harold Copperfield, son of Count Malcolm Copperfield, said. "I mean, after two years of having to do all this, are you going to feel any sympathy for the next overachiever who happens to think working hard to be in the top six is a good thing?"
"Ah, so it's a cycle of abuse," Carmilla Alucard, niece of the famous count, said knowingly. She was regarded as one of the new great beauties of the school, and Diana supposed she could see people's point, but for someone who'd spent most of a year in the same room as Katarina Claes, Mary Hunt, Maria Campbell and Sophia Ascart, she just looked average. Diana wondered if her standards were askew. "How familiar. While I see your point, I am irked to be on the receiving end of it. Perhaps I will allow my reputation to come to ruin and stop attending these sessions."
"Lady Campbell's cookies arrive tomorrow," Diana said, not looking up from her paperwork.
Everyone perked up.
"If Carmy is quitting, I call dibs on her share!" Vita Geisteel declared, the childishly undersized Earth Magic wielder literally salivating at the idea.
"No dibs, everyone will get a share of Carmilla's share if she stops attending," Fray Landoor said, the Vice-President smoothly playing the Ornstein to Diana's Smough.
"I-I didn't say I was quitting!" Carmilla said hurriedly, her elegant, languid façade falling away at the prospect of losing Maria-made cookies. "Don't give my cookies away, they're my only reason for living!"
"One of these days we really need to find out what Maria puts in those cookies," Nigel Silverberg, son of Duchess Arika Silverberg, said. "They're too good to be legal!"
"It's called cooking ability, Nigel," Fate Redmane said, the blonde knight-to-be said. "All you need is that, sugar and chocolate. No need for any lost miracles out of myth or drugs."
"If you're afraid of drugs, I call dibs on your share!" Vita said.
"No one is calling dibs on anyone's shares," Diana said.
Was it embarrassing that the Student Council was still running on cookie-based bribery? Perhaps, but it got the paperwork done, and what worked for the year before worked now. Diana was glad that the former Knight Head Clerk was willing to provide the bribery materials at cost to Diana, despite Diana being unable to find anyone at her family's plantations willing to work for Maria as a suitable translator. People had either been too busy or just didn't want to leave, worried about slavers. Which, considering why Maria needed a translator, was a fair point. Thankfully Maria had managed to find her own solution.
"I wonder what Lady Katarina is doing?" Ginger Tucker sighed.
"Probably rethinking her wish to become a knight," Lori Domain said, not looking up from her papers. While some considered the first year to be an unpleasant person due to her bluntness and general apathy for those around her, she had been dutiful in her time at the council and had yet to complain at all the work. "And wishing she'd gotten married like the Third Prince wanted."
Harold laughed out loud at that, while Fray, Fate and Nigel were more refined in her response. Even Diana allowed herself a chuckle at the thought. "Yeah, that's not happening," Harold said. "Lady Katarina is many things– nice, cheerful, weird– but being the sort to realize someone wants to marry her isn't one of them."
Lori frowned. "Isn't she engaged to the prince?"
"Yes," Harold said, "but–"
And here every senior member of the Student Council joined in the chorus, even Diana, "– she's just a shield against unwanted engagements!"
Lori blinked. "What?"
"That's what she'd say if anyone brought up her engagement to the Third Prince," Fray explained with a smile.
"Even when he was right there," Harold chortled. "The look on his face every time she said it, you'd think he was getting rolled over by a giant boulder!"
"How scandalous," Evangeline Athanasia, the daughter of a viscount and a woman of few words, said blandly. "This is the woman the Third Prince is engaged to?"
"Apparently, denial of the obvious exists on both sides," Fate said. "Couples should have something in common, after all."
There were snickers among the senior council members at that.
"Should you really be mocking the Third Prince so openly?" Einhart Stratos, a commoner semi-adopted and sponsored by the Hightown family, said looking equal parts lost and aghast. She turned to Fate for some kind of clue. Diana wasn't sure what their relationship was, beyond that Einhart was in some kind of 'arrangement' with a member of the Redmane clan.
"No one is going to tell him," Fate said with a shrug.
"But he's the prince!" Einhart said.
"He's a prince, there are four of them," Diana corrected. "Personally, I prefer Prince Ian for the throne. Much more dignified."
"No, please no politics in school!" Vita cried. "The Academy is an apolitical place! Don't ruin it!"
A Magic Tool Laboratory Interlude
"Okay, I have to ask," Sienna Nelson said during lunch one day as she sat with her coworkers in the Magic Tool Laboratory. She pointed at Sora. "Exactly who are you corresponding with? Because you said you're an orphan with no family–"
"What a very sensitive way for you to bring this up," Sora said with dry amusement.
"– and your last job involved working with criminals, who've since been arrested," Siena said. "So who keeps sending you letters every week?"
"Why do you assume I wouldn't have a penpal?" Sora said, smirking at her. "You don't know my life. Perhaps I secretly have an adopted sister-type person I'm fond of, and they're the one sending me letters."
"I just find it strange that given the life you've been telling us, that you'd have someone who'd write to you regularly, instead of just once a year to see if you're still alive and maybe ask for money," Sienna said.
"She's got you there," Brad Chaddington said as he lifted a weight with one hand and ate a sandwich with the other.
"Hey, I'll have you know that no one I know who'd ask for money knows how to send me letters," Sora said. "If you must know, during my last job I met this little girl who was really nice, and we hit it off, and since them we've been exchanging letters."
"Eww…" Marsha Catley chorused with Sienna and Lisa.
"Hey, I'm not like that," he said. "Who do you think I am, the paledrake kidnapping maidens to turn into pisacas?"
"You did get arrested for kidnapping," Brad said.
"It was under duress," Sora said loftily.
"Wait, you met this girl in the middle of a kidnapping?" Sienna said, aghast.
"I never touched her, I was playing a butler," Sora said. "But yeah, afterwards, when I got arrested, she started sending me letters, and I started writing back, and now we write each other. See?"
He showed them the letter. The handwriting was indeed atrociously childish, a bit oversized and rough.
"She's been telling me about how she wants to be a knight now after meeting her cousin who was a knight," he explained. "And how studying to be a knight is really hard because they need to know table manners."
"How young was this girl, and what was she doing near you?" Sienna said.
"Way too young for me," Sora said. "I'm a lover, not a pervert. Besides, she had a scary maid protecting her… " He shuddered and for some reason shot a glare at the Shadow Director.
"I'll tell her you said hi," he said smugly.
A Katarina Interlude
Hi Sora! Katarina wrote at the dining hall table after dinner, hurriedly trying to finish before lights out. Next to her were letters to her cousins and her mother, all ready to be passed to Anne for mailing. I think I'm getting better at parrying! Mashu doesn't hit me as much anymore, but Dame Campbell says I need to practice at it until I can do it all the time. I really don't see why, parrying with a sword is better! But it's a part of training, so gotta do it, you know? Lady Maria says she's going to teach me how to use a shortsword soon, which is really different from using a regular sword…
After writing so many letters, her handwriting was getting rough and atrocious, since her hand ached. Argh, she wanted a computer and email! Still, Sora never complained, though he sometimes teased her about having 'little girl handwriting'…
Maybe she should try learning to write with her left hand. She knew at least one of her friends could do it, maybe they'll be willing to teach her…
Humming to herself, Katarina attended to her correspondence like a big girl!