A Mili Interlude

The sun was shining, the birds were singing, and Duchess Millidiana woke up naked next to her husband to a too-quiet morning.

Even after two years, a part of her was still disquieted not to hear the distant, cheerful cries of "Heigh-ho! Heave-ho" echoing from the farm at the back of the manor house. Once, she had thought she would never get used to it and tried to bury the sound under pillows. Now, the silence felt wrong and unnatural.

For a moment, she just lay there, listening to her husband's breathing, taking in the scent of him and what they had done last night… several times. She wouldn't have this were it not for Katarina, she realized, not for the first time. It had been her innocent words that had shed the weight of misunderstanding between them, and allowed for this closeness. This fierce, burning, warm, tight closeness…

She wished her daughter were back home.

Mili closed her eyes and breathed deeply of her husband's scent, and found the strength to roll over on her back, away from him. She'd gotten good at ignoring that yearning to take back the that warmth and get up and face her day like a grown woman… most of the time.

Facing the ceiling, her maid Charlotte finally came into view standing next to the bed, as was her habit.

"Good morning, my lady," she said, the familiar words filling the void and beginning the rhythm of routine.

"Good morning, Charlotte," Mili said, unmindful of her nakedness, though she made sure her husband's throne of want was covered. A futile gesture, but instinctive possessiveness compelled her despite it. The woman was her maid, after all. There was a level of intimacy and informality that had grown after years of being at each other's side, of being at her most vulnerable and weak around the other woman. She had already seen Mili naked in the morning many times, and her husband as well. "Is the bath ready?"

"Of course, my lady," Charlotte said. "Shall I awaken the master when you have had time to be arousingly lathered , or shall you go together?"

Mili considered. "The former, I believe," she said, reluctantly rising. She was quite used to the slow, intense perusal of her form her maid conducted, to ensure there were no marks, blemishes, or any possible signs of sickness upon her body. Part of a maid's duties, Charlotte had told her long, long ago. The inspection, as well as a check for lumps was she was in the bath and relaxed, had allowed them to catch many maladies early and bring it to the attention of a physician or Light Magic wielder over the years, which had allowed them to avoid illness.

Getting up, Mili accepted the proffered robe for the brief walk to the bath, already running over what the day would bring in her mind…


In another household, her son and her niece both arriving as out of breath, sweating and flushed as… well, as she and her husband were would have been cause for alarm, separation and discrete lies being told until the window of childbirth had passed.

In the Claes household, it just meant Keith and Matthew had spent the morning striking at each other with practice weapons after working together on the farm her daughter had left behind.

"You're going to see Lady Maria this morning, are you not, Matthew?" Mili asked as she cut her eggs with textbook-perfect poise. She wrote the textbook, after all.

"Yes, Aunt Mili," Matthew said. Her smile was as bright as Katarina's, achingly familiar yet not what she sought. "Katarina's getting much better at parrying with a shield. A few more weeks at it and she'll have git gud. Then I can start teaching her about shield throwing."

"Shield throwing?" Keith asked curiously. "Knights actually do that?"

"Well, no," Matthew admitted. "It's not exactly part of the standard training." A mischievous glint came into her lilac eyes that reminded the duchess of her elder sister so strongly she nearly dove for cover against the coming explosion. "But throwing her shield will give Katarina an excuse to not use it for parrying. And if she's going to throw it, she might as well do it accurately."

"I'm not sure Lady Maria would want you teaching her squire that," Keith said, looking amused as he said it.

"If she didn't want me to do it, she should have taught Katarina how to use a shield herself," Matthew said innocently.

The two exchanged the sort of self-satisfied smirks that would have had Mili going around them at parties until The ADVERSARY And Enemy Of The Alliance had put them through a rigorous tax audit so she wouldn't be involved in whatever nonsense was in store.

"Have you written to your mother yet, Matthew?" Mili asked.

"O-of course, Aunt Mili," Matthew said. "Why, I was just thinking of what I would write to them next! It's been such an eventful few days, so there's a lot to choose from." She smiled wildly, with too much teeth. Not an Adeth smile. A proper one, anyway.

Mili briefly wondered there was something her family's blood that made them terrible liars. Katarina was horrible at it as well, and she and her siblings had never been able to properly lie to their parents.

"My niece," she said.

"Yes, Aunt Mili?"

"Write to your mother before you go to Lady Maria's and present it to me for adding to the post before you leave."

"Yes, Aunt Mili."

"Should you become preoccupied, I will take responsibility and inform Lady Maria you will not be able to visit today."

"N-no, there's no need for that Aunt Mili, I'll get it done."

Mili just nodded. "I know it's exciting to be away from home for the first time, Matthew, but please remember that the rest of our family must miss you very much. Don't follow my example and take eighteen years before finally writing back to them."

Matthew looked guilt stricken. "Yes, Aunt Mili," she said.

"Take it from me," Mili said. "The worst part will not be the fact you haven't contacted them in that long." She stared her niece in the eye. "The worst part is they will forgive you for it."

Matthew stared at her.

Then she stood up, rounded the table, and put her arms around Mili's shoulders. Mili was about to protest when she heard her husband abruptly stand up and enfold her from the other side. She saw Keith rise as well, rounding the table, until she felt a hand on her elbow.

"Sorry," his muffled voice came from behind her, "but there was no more space."


Matthew informed Lady Maria that due to personal responsibilities that had been disgracefully unfulfilled, she would not be able to attend to training Katarina at parrying that day, and that Katarina was to practice her shield bash.


A Rafael Interlude

Rafael did a double take as he saw what Marsha Catley was wearing when she came in. "Miss Catley? What are you wearing under your uniform?"

"S-Shadow Director?" the noblewoman said. "Is something wrong."

Rafael blinked, then shook his head, realizing how it must have sounded like. "Oh, nothing is wrong Miss Catley. Your attire isn't against Ministry regulations. Even if it was, this is the Magic Tool Laboratory. Uniform regulations stand under ladders waiting to be plunging attacked here. I was just surprised you weren't wearing a dress."

"O-oh," she said, relieved. "Well, it's the latest style, you see. It's called the 'Wanderer's Elevation' Set. It's became popular three seasons ago and has surprising staying power. "

She spun around, letting her ministry robes flare around her with a light touch of Wind Magic and revealing the clothes she was wearing. It was, not to put too fine a point on it, a formal suit that had been cut and altered for a woman's physique in fine magenta and pink fabrics. The trousers followed a woman's contours rather than a man's, while the long tail of the coat obscured her posterior, and there was a creamy lace cravat closing the neck.

"Oh my!" Laura gushed, clenching fists that could casually crush walnuts under her chin and squeeing. "How absolutely adorable! Alas, I do not think the style would suit me, but it looks positively fabulous on you, Marsha!"

Rafael caught Nix's eye, and the flamboyantly dressed man and he exchanged a sort of face-only shrug at having thought even momentarily thought Laura would wear trousers.

Rafael shook his head to clear it. "Well, be sure to take the usual measures so your clothes don't get caught in any mechanisms," he said as the other women of the department surrounded Marsha and asked where she'd had it made. A thought occurred to him. "Marsha? Exactly how popular is that garb?"

"Oh, it's very popular, Shadow Director," Marsha said enthusiastically. "I've heard that Duchess Claes, Lady Selena Burg and even Lady Susanna Randall have worn its like."

"Whoa," Chad Braddington said as he passed by, lifting his weights as he carried a sealed container of quicksilver to Larna's Laboratory that Rafael had authorized yesterday. "Duchess Claes did? Now that's rare approval. Usually that woman sets trends, not follow them."

Rafael wondered what Maria thought about this. Surely she knew, right? After all, she'd gone to that party recently…

"She must know," he decided, shaking his head and getting back to work.


Wanderer's Elevation Set
Trousers, shirt and coat worn in imitation of the Wandering Knight on the occasion of her elevation to knighthood.

It is weak garb, with too much decoration and embroidery. A hunter would not normally employ garbed in this, ineffectual against the strength of the beasts as it is, but it's better than nothing.

Fine clothes are nice, but not if they engender passivity.