Chapter 6: A royal apology and the meeting of two princesses
The next day dawned bright as Alexeika and Thia commandeered their breakfast and headed to the practice courts. After a short round of hand to hand Thia left to prepare for her next etiquette class leaving Alex alone to practice her staff movements. Fifteen minutes saw the first males arrive for practice, Hannas and his friend came over to say hello explaining they were in the second of the three classes.
"Mcana has three separate classes as most guys are "socially required" to study it, kind of like how most of the girls study etiquette," the two men laughed at Alex's look of distaste, "What classes are you taking?"
"Apart from physics and defence? History, eldish, magic, P.A, English extension 2, visual arts and healing;" Alex smirked, "Alas I therefore had no room for etiquette. What of you two?"
"Commerce, English advanced, mathematics advanced, geography, legal studies and horse riding." Hannas replied, Alex whistled, "Aran and I have all our classes together, we have yet to get sick of each other. Speaking of being sick of, what prompted you to so grievously injure our future king yesterday?"
Alex laughed, "Let's just say I don't particularly enjoying becoming a pack horse for his highness as he attempts to court a certain princess, at least not without an apology or explanation."
"Lady Phereasa, beautiful but taken, technically speaking. Personally I prefer our royal princess," Aran winked at Alex, "You couldn't introduce me sometime?"
"Maybe...I'd best be going, I have magic first thing, I'll see you tomorrow morning, if not before."
"Bye princess!"
Alex rolled her eyes, waved and jogged back to her rooms to change.
"Alexeika!" Alex suppressed a groan as she was already at her classroom and had no refuge from his princely-ness; settling to stare past Faldain, Alex awaited the inevitable.
"Alex I owe you an apology. I completely forgot you once Phereasa passed, I'm a bad friend, I should have come back for my belongings and explained but I thought to do so at dinner. I understand that you're mad, I would be too. I can't say it won't happen again because I completely loose rational thought when she is present. I just want you to understand I don't intend to offend you or any one, I just forget; I'm sorry." Alex turned to face Faldain and realized he out skilled even her in the art of puppy-dog- eyeing, sighing she nodded before smirking.
"So do I get to help set you two up then?" Faldain's eyes bulged slightly.
"Ah ha! Here we find the secret feminine side to our warrior princess!" Alex laughed,
"Come Si Yama just asked the class in, an hour of meditation followed by an hour of "and waxing moons are good times for initiation spells because..." joy!" Faldain exclaimed sarcastically and motioning Alex to follow.
During meditation Alex attempted to scrutinize her feelings; Faldain had apologized but she still did not feel as content as she had before the incident.
'You fancy him...go on admit it'
'No he is a friend only, and he'll be my king and marry some beautiful princess'
'Why do you feel sad then?'
'Because it will happen again'
'So?'
'So! It's like he is using my friendship until he sees Phereasa then it becomes worthless.'
'So you want the prince to value you?'
'Stop trying to be sly I want him to value me as a FRIEND.'
'Damn, you know me too well'
'You're a part of me!'
'Oh yeah...you don't really want to set him up with Phereasa.'
'Ok, no.'
'Why?'
'Because she doesn't sound right, I should probably try and meet her before I make a decision.'
'Damn logical side why do you always win?'
'Because I've yet to cause us pain.'
'You've yet to bring us joy also...'
'Shut up, meditation's over.'
"Ok class today I want you all to complete a table on propitious days, moons, seasons, phases in relation to the heart with all appropriate glyphs and a charm. I want you to highlight the components of your charm to the heart and any other components that link to its purpose, such a divination tool in scrying your soul mate. You may work in pairs."
'Ha! No you have to work with our prince!'
'Shut up stupid voice!'
"Alex what class do you have next?" Faldain asked as they left their magic classroom.
"Art, yay!" she replied beaming at the thought. "With Mistress Healan." Faldain's eyes lit up, "You are in Phereasa's class then. If only I did not have riding!" he sighed dramatically, "My class goes until 1 so I shan't see you until defence, have fun!"
Alex managed half a smile and a wave before feeling less inclined to art class,
'thought you wanted to meet her and make up your mind?'
'What is it with you today?'
'I feel like disturbing you.'
'Sadistic inner voice.'
'Thank you.'
'Argh!'
"Ow! Sorry I wasn't watching where I was going." Alex leaned down to help up the woman who had been standing by her classroom door.
Soft brown eyes turned to her and smiled, "That's alright, happens to me all the time, my name is Phereasa."
'Of all the people!'
"I'm Alexeika Volvn." She replied.
"You're the girl who punched Gavril two days ago!" came the soft exclamation.
'That probably wasn't a good idea.'
Alex grinned wryly, "Yes, that'd probably be me."
Eyes widened, "And you're taking self defence and physics. Broshnovic made me leave physics."
Alex's eyes widened in response, "You wanted to take physics? It's such an intriguing subject, can't say much about Broshnovic, I'm on a sort of probation...I must meet standards in my half year exam, you should rejoin with me."
'Where did this come from?'
'She's nice, and it would be much better to have two girls prove Broshnovic wrong and have another female to talk to.'
"Do you think? I didn't feel up to taking it alone but maybe if you're there I'll do it, you'd have to promise not to drop out before though." The smaller woman positively glowed with the thought and moved into the classroom, "my mother would not approve though...perhaps all the more reason to do so."
Alex grinned, "Probably."
"Now class today we are doing still life drawing practice on this bowl of fruit, charcoal and paper are on your desks, it want three sketches, one in colour, the other's in black." A bushy haired woman in navy blue robes called from the front.
Alex took a seat beside Phereasa, pulled out some charcoal and observed the fruit. "What classes do you take, Phereasa?"
"Advanced etiquette, dancing, needlework, extension two English, riding, ballet, fashion and this class. English is probably the most enjoyable; Master Gris is a wonderful teacher." Phereasa's eyes shifted from the fruit to the page, "What of you? I know you do physics, self defence and this."
"I also take magic, history, eldish, healing and I'm in your English class I think." Alex began adding the shadow on the side of a pear.
"Next?"
"A-huh."
"We're in the same class then, we do writing works on Tuesdays, this month we're writing short stories, its lovely. On Thursdays we spend an hour on different forms of writing; plays and speeches, poetry and prose." Phereasa tilted her head at her sketch,
"This class is lovely too, we do exercises like this on Tuesday and history in our hour lesson but we get to work on projects all of Friday morning." her brow furrowed, "These pears stems don't look right..."
"Let's see." Alex leaned over glancing between her work, Phereasa's and the fruit,
"Ah, you have the shadow too small extend it up the left side a little. Perfect! Shall we try another angle, I'd like to get the silhouettes and then try the colour one from a low angle."
"Sound's good." Phereasa moved around to another table with her paper and charcoal. The girls sat in silence for a little while longer until Mistress Healan approached.
"Alexeika Volvn?" the girls looked up, "Welcome to my class; may I ask why is it you girls decided to draw the fruit from this angle?" Phereasa looked to Alex.
"We thought it an original idea to attempt the sketch from this angle; the lack of surface texture needed highlights the intriguing shapes of the fruit without distraction from miniscule details." Alex replied as she placed the finishing tone to the tip an apple. "It exercises the design principle of shape specifically."
"Very good Miss Volvn." The teacher replied, "Where do you intend to draw your colour piece from?" Alex pointed to the floor close to the bowl.
"It just looks interesting; it would be the view of a child."
"I believe I shall enjoy having you in my class Alexeika." Healan smiled, "A pity you chose Mcana's house over mine."
"You should come sit with my friends and me for lunch." Phereasa pleaded as they left art class.
"I will next week, it's just that I always sit with my friends and right now my hands are covered with charcoal that I'm aching to rub off on Thia." Alex replied, holding up the offending bodily parts.
"Thia? You mean Prince Faldain's sister?" Alex nodded, "Don't you feel worried you'll offend your future monarch's family?"
"Well, with Faldain I worried that at first but Thia and I have known each other for a long time, when I was really small I would stay with her and a nurse while our fathers' campaigned against Muncel, she is like the older sister I never had. Faldain always used to be separate from us; just incase Muncel decided to attack behind our fathers' backs. So no, it's not really a worry." Alex replied.
"Faldain is very sweet, yesterday he help carry my dancing gear for me..."
"I know." Alex replied
"How?" Phereasa paused and looked at her quizzically.
'Whoops.'
Alex sighed, "Faldain and I had gone to collect some costumes for our P.A work after stocking up on some history books, he spotted you gave me his things and ran off. Needless to say I was rather peeved, but he apologized; he seems most besotted with you." Alex grinned at Phereasa's shocked expression.
"I'll see you next lesson, I have a royal to smudge."
True to her word Alex smudged Thia; alas she did so whilst Thia had in her hand a spoon containing a rather sticky jam. Both girls attacked Sandrina who mocked their state and all three ate lunch rapidly before returning to their rooms to clean up. Once done they proceeded to their English classroom.
"I met Phereasa today." Alex said as they took a right, "We got on really well, can we sit with her next lesson?"
"I guess if she wants to, I think we have enough room at our table..."Sandrina said, looking across to a contemplative Thia.
"Sure, we can annoy my brother by telling him how much fun WE had with her today." Thia replied causing the group to laugh evilly.
"Alexeika." The trio turned to face Phereasa who was moving both speedily and gracefully towards them, beautiful smile on her face.
'Why can't I ever look that nice?'
'Because you don't take advanced etiquette?'
'Stupid logic'
"Phereasa please call me Alex, its much less of a mouthful. Phereasa, Thia and Sandrina; Thia, Sandrina, Phereasa." The girls exchanged polite courtesies.
"Phereasa would you care to sit with us next lesson?" Thia asked graciously.
"I would like that very much." Phereasa replied with another radiant smile as the group moved down the corridor and into the classroom.
The room was pale blue originally but 3 of the walls were lined with book shelves while the other held a large slate board and three large windows. The quartet took a clump of tables to the left and watched the other eight members of the class stream in.
The first was a trio a chatting blonde females; who having glanced disdainfully at the four, huffed and moved to the right hand clump of desks. Three males came next talking quietly as they filled the middle cluster of desks and finally a pair of red haired guys entered.
The red heads' eyes flicked between the two seats with the eye-fluttering girls and the two beside Alexeika and Sandrina and made their decision. "Do you mind if we sit?"
"No." Alex replied shifting her satchel from the seat beside her.
"Thank you, I'm Derrick and my twin is Thomas, we are both of Masbone." The taller said sitting down by Alex and smiling genuinely.
"Alexeika Volvn." She replied with a smile.
"The general's daughter? 'Tis a pleasure to meet you princess, your beauty is spoken much of amongst those who have served with your father but they do you no credit." Alex blushed, charmed despite her efforts not to.
"Cousin, how do you fare being surrounded by royalty?" Thomas asked to Sandrina on his left, and was gently punched.
"You are cousins?" Phereasa asked.
"Yes our mothers were twins also but Sandrina received her father's hair and not our glorious carrot coloring." Derrick replied fluttering his eyelashes in a most feminine way.
At this point Master Gris entered the room. "Derrick if you wish to improve your eyelash length I believe you need the beauty class down the hall." The portly man advised, his chocolate eyes twinkling before he moved to the slate board.
"Now today we will be composing a short story from the quote I shall write on the board, I want you to write out the plot of your short story first and then begin writing. At the end of the lesson I want you to had in both your plot and anyone who has completed the story will be asked to read it out. I want the story to fit on one to one and a half pages. Any questions? Yes Miss..."
'Alexeika Volvn, do you want a specific genre sir?"
"No that can wait until next Tuesday." The teacher smiled and returned to the board to write the quote, "If at first you don't succeed..."
Alex grinned and quickly jotted down a row of points on the page, re-red them and grinned manically. She loaded her quill chewed on the end and began writing, glancing every now and again and her disturbed table mates for the next hour and three quarters.
"Alright class hand it your plots. Has anyone completed, or almost completed their story?" the teacher asked looking up from the pile of papers at the trepid faces,
"Come, come now; don't be shy."
"Alex seems to have finished." Derrick commented holding the one and a half pages of writing aloft with an evil grin at the red faced princess.
"Miss Volvn, if you would." Gris gestured.
Alex snatched back the paper with a light kick under the table to Derrick.
"If at first you don't succeed...you should re-think your goals There was once a young boy named Darren. Darren had one ambition in his life. It was a secret ambition that no one knew of. Darren wished, Darren wished, Darren wished he had longer eyelashes. Darren would watch all the princesses and ladies of the court flutter their long lashes at young males and dream of one day being capable of doing so himself. Darren became so jealous of these women that he avoided court life all together but even in his home his twin brother had longer eyelashes than he did. So Darren decided that he should enhance his lacking lashes. At first Darren attempted to stretch his eyelashes with a pair of tongs, but that only pulled them out and made them appear stubbier. Then he decided to take hair from his head and stick them to his eyelids, but they fell off and he couldn't see (he also had a beating for taking a chunk out of his hair).
Eventually her saw his mother putting on some eyelash paint and was able to make his eyelashes appear longer. However he had to train to become a knight and his town experienced a lot of rain giving him black stripes down his face.
His father saw the lines and realized their cause, at first he said nothing but his worry grew that his first born would not be keen on finding himself a female partner; he began to panic, if he sent his child to study academically he would be closer to the frivolity of court, if he were to train in arms he would be surrounded by males and open to temptation.
So he sent him to this school and forced him to take up manly classes in hopes to balance the odds out. But Darren was killed in a freak dining accident (skewered by a soup spoon, alas what a loss) and his ghost still haunts the girls' dorm, stealing bottles of eyelash paint and moaning on dark night for long luxurious lashes to flutter at young males."
"Very entertaining Miss Volvn." Gris replied as the bell for class end rang. "See you all on Thursday morning; you will be receiving your texts."
Alex smiled and turned to her friends, "I've got to go, I have defence until 6, I need to get changed; see you all at dinner; nice meet you Derrick, Thomas!" before she ran back to her rooms.
"Welcome to strategy and tactics. In this part of the course we test your abilities to command, adapt and use factors to your favour. You will learn the best ways to defend and attack forts, how to use ground and weather in battle, how to use scouts, spies, stealth even how magic can be used for and against you. Now today I'm going to give our two princes a test, one team shall defend the fort prepared the other shall attempt to attack you will be given weapons that have paint rather than points, if you are painted you are dead. I don't care where you are hit, you have paint on you, you lie down; I have several teachers dispersed to make sure you play fair. Faldain' team is team A, they defend today. I will give you each either A or B go to your specified teams and obey your commander." Mcana ground out to the assembled class motioning Faldain to the left and Gavril to the right.
'He sounds like Papa.'
'Thod almighty don't let us be on Gavril's side!'
"Alexeika, team A"
''woohoo!'
"Now team A follow Carl to your fort and prepare for siege."
Alexeika stepped up behind Faldain as they moved through the woods, scanning the branches above. "We should put archers up the trees, have them fire a few shots and report back Gavril's movements."
"Aye, we would have to spread them around though incase Gavril tries an attack from behind, depends how many we can spare from this 'fort'."
"Aye, though if we have any good scryers we could have them cover lead ups to the fort, we don't loose any defenders but we can't counterattack effectively." Alex looked up as they reached a clearing. 50m ahead was a grassy hill on which a single doored wooden fort was set.
"Everybody into the fort first." Faldain called, moving up the hill and assessed the fort with Alexeika beside him before returning to the waiting men. "Peter, Anders take you bows to the top I doubt we'll have any attack so soon but we'd best be careful."
"Now we have 27men, we can cover this wall easily with 10, send out scout groups to each of the compass points, 2 men to cover the back incline incase the slip past. Now I need the better woodsmen and archers out of the fort for the counter offensive. One man per compass point must return if opponents come from their direction, who are the four swiftest runners?" four men raised their hands "You will report back if shot yell as loud as possible, it is imperative to alert the fort. We then need 2 defenders per compass point, I'll take one myself. We need woodsmen and archers, I need 11 for this." more hands were raised, "Alright, you two take behind, you two left and you two right; Leon can come with me. Leon, you and you are secondary fighters, if there is a call elsewhere you leave your partner and go to help.
Now Coll and Tristan you cover the back incline, you and all others in the fort do as Alexeika commands; all scouts report to her. Scouts out with me." Faldain signaled, pulling up his bow and quiver, "let's show Gavril what we're made of."
The group left and all head turned to Alex, exhaling she plucked up her courage and eyed her men, "Coll, Tristan; set up your post I want you out of direct sight but with a good view, it may take you a while to find a suitable spot. Which of the rest of you are the two strongest?" the two burly blokes raised their hands dubiously, "I want you two on the gates, if the try and storm us we need heavy materials blockading the gates fast, we don't have much time between the forest edge and our walls but we also need to get the doors open fast if our scouts return from the front. If the approach from the rear Tristan and Coll will cover them, on the sides I want ropes that can be dropped quickly to get our scouts up. I want two archers on the back wall, and side walls and four on the front."
"Yes milady."
'The will cover us from attack but we need some surprises...' Alex scanned her weapons, 'hmm, paint balls...I'll see if we have any slingshots...ah ha! Perfect!'
*********************************************************************
"Alexeika we just took out three from the back, our back scout is in at the fort as we speak." Coll called up.
"The still leaves 24 others, did we loose any of the three fighters?" she called back, eyes flicking to movement on the left.
"No casualties."
"Send our scout up to the left wall; Anders move to the right wall, the back is covered enough." Alex dropped her voice as she walked behind her archers on the left; spotting a body leaving the trees, "Prepare the rope, drop it only once he nears."
"Scout from the right side!"
"Drop the rope when he nears; have him meet me on the front wall!" she lowered her voice for those beside her, "Same here." Then strode forward until she stood above the gate.
"Six approaching from the right, I saw two shot down before I left."
"Same number from the left but only one opponent seen gone."
"Thank you, take bows and stand on this wall."
"Milady?" the taller looked perplexed at this order.
"There's only four or five on the sides and two possible archers in the woods each side as well as three on the walls; there's twelve to come from the front, we need our defence there." Alex turned to her side archers, "Anders, Peter, Lachlan, Samuel; I want you to move to the front once you dispatch the enemies on your side."
She turned back to her forward archers, "Once they move to support you, be ready to try our secret weapon on those near the gate." Glancing to a movement in the woods ahead she called into the fort, "Gates braced!"
"Fire on my mark." Her eyes flicked from the four approaching from each side,
"Ready." The opponents appeared on the fringes of the forest ahead, "Sides; Fire!" All dropped on the left, two from the defenders still in the trees; only three fell from the right. He was quickly dispatched from a later volley from the trees.
She span forward a spotted two lines of five approaching from the trees, Gavril smirking cockily at the front. "Archers fire!"
Arrows flew from three differing sources, one of Alex's forward archers got covered with red paint but three of Gavril's back row fell by blue arrows and Gavril was knocked down by no less than three arrows. Gavril's force swarmed onto the rise and up to the gates. Alex and her three remaining forward archers bent down and picked up the pots beside them and poured, 'scalding' four of those below with blue paint. The last two opponents were quickly picked off by Faldain's tree force as they attempted to retreat.
'Three from behind, six each side, ten from the front, still two unknown.'
"Faldain, we have two unaccounted for!" she called across the field as Dain marched up.
"We took out two in the woods! Any casualties?" was the reply.
"One on the fort!" she spotted two archers from each side, "That's all. We need to collect our two back defenders, they're the only ones not counted for." She called down, "Open the gates; Coll, Tristan, go find our back defenders."
'We beat Gavril, we beat Gavril!'
"Good work men, we have slaughtered our enemy; let us honour our poor dead Sans." She called moving into the fort with the team to meet their commander.
"Good work Alexeika. Alas we have lost the wonderful Sans! I liked your trick, pouring scalding water over the battlements no less?" Dain called with a grin.
"Definitely." Alex replied as their back scouts and their vanquished enemies entered,
"Now what? Do we go back to where we started?"
"I suppose so, there are six of Gavril's team lying in the woods waiting to discover the outcome, we'd best go get them and head back."
"Aye my prince."
"Actually teachers collect those we left on the side and herded them back to Mcana we just need to collect those on the way back." One of the scouts piped up from the group.
"Let's go then."
"Gavril it seems your team was well slaughtered." Mcana replied calmly as he viewed the despondent array of blue painted bodies, "I'm curious as to the production of this paint coverage." He commented mildly as he ran a finger along the head of a 'scalded' raider.
"Paint poured from the wall like boiling water; Alexeika's idea." Faldain offered with a grin, "It's nice to be able to leave another in command of a position and trust them to succeed."
"You split your forces?" Mcana ask incredulously.
"A defence and a counter attack force; one cannot win sword play defending alone." Faldain replied, "No need for excess defenders and it uses the forest terrain and our woodsmen."
"Good. I want you and the princess to write up a report on this exercise and your losses. Gavril I wish you to do the same. Have them in to me by 8. Class dismissed, thanks to these two commanders you finished early." Mcana gestured to Alex and Faldain with a grin, "I think some of you boys may need the time if you wish to be clean by dinner."
"We've got an hour until dinner, let's go write up this paper before Gavril comes after us with something more than paint!" Alex whispered before dashing off to the library.
The two commanders quickly finished their report and moved to Mcana's quarters after dinner. As they arrived Gavril was departing, Gavril gave them each death glares and pushed past Alex with a sneer. Mcana called them in and offered his congratulations, commenting that he would be sending a report to their fathers.
The next morning Alex handed in her physics lines and Phereasa joined her on probation and sat with her, Hannas and Aran for the rest of the term. After this lesson Alex began her first music lesson, working her contralto voice with Faldain's tenor and Sandrina's harp.
Faldain was silent for much of lunch as Phereasa had been persuaded to join their table, as the term wore on however he became much more relaxed around the pretty blonde. The instances of complete disregard for others in her presence faded.Lunch was followed by three hours of the arduous class of eldish with their graceful and gorgeous looking teacher Master Elladain, and two more hours of history working on their project, for which they eventually received perfect marks.
After a 1pm lunch (preceded by three hours of English and another two of history) Alex had an hour of art history with Phereasa, two more strenuous eldish lessons and an hour of magic theory; Alex concluded Thursdays to be the worst of the week. Terrible Thursdays, as they were eventually known, we followed by fantastic Fridays, art projects, magic practice, physics practice, healing stores and the P.A project, a short comic play that the trio were writing in their spare time.
Life slipped into a routine at the school, broken only by the two weeks of half yearly exams (Phereasa and Alexeika managed to gain the two highest physics marks and Alex reached the top three positions in all her classes, to the joy of her father.) The end of the year approached; the PA students could often be seen running around with all sorts of object necessary for their performances; art students appeared for short periods of lunch, paint splattered across their hands before dashing up to the classroom. Hordes of males appeared in the training courts early in the mornings, much to Alex and Thia's consternation; riders often went missing for days with their horses along trails and the library thronged with students revising anything from the production of sound waves to the unity of north and south Mandria to the properties of rose quartz in charms.
In addition to preparing for final exams and competitions students we swapping plans for the holidays and travel plans to their homes. The majority of Netheran nobles were returning to the court in Grov for the annual Beltaine festival and ball; Thum, Phereasa, Gavril and five of his cronies had been invited by Tobjestein to attend along with King Verence, who was paying a diplomatic visit to the Netheran capital.
AN: Sorry this has taken so long! I've been bogged down preparing my birthday, then I had to get work done by the end of term and I've had to spend the entire holidays studying for my year 12 half yearly exams and all my creative energy has been on getting the first draft done for my extension two English short story...so big sorry, and so I've written my longest chapter yet for you all...love Annuna
The next day dawned bright as Alexeika and Thia commandeered their breakfast and headed to the practice courts. After a short round of hand to hand Thia left to prepare for her next etiquette class leaving Alex alone to practice her staff movements. Fifteen minutes saw the first males arrive for practice, Hannas and his friend came over to say hello explaining they were in the second of the three classes.
"Mcana has three separate classes as most guys are "socially required" to study it, kind of like how most of the girls study etiquette," the two men laughed at Alex's look of distaste, "What classes are you taking?"
"Apart from physics and defence? History, eldish, magic, P.A, English extension 2, visual arts and healing;" Alex smirked, "Alas I therefore had no room for etiquette. What of you two?"
"Commerce, English advanced, mathematics advanced, geography, legal studies and horse riding." Hannas replied, Alex whistled, "Aran and I have all our classes together, we have yet to get sick of each other. Speaking of being sick of, what prompted you to so grievously injure our future king yesterday?"
Alex laughed, "Let's just say I don't particularly enjoying becoming a pack horse for his highness as he attempts to court a certain princess, at least not without an apology or explanation."
"Lady Phereasa, beautiful but taken, technically speaking. Personally I prefer our royal princess," Aran winked at Alex, "You couldn't introduce me sometime?"
"Maybe...I'd best be going, I have magic first thing, I'll see you tomorrow morning, if not before."
"Bye princess!"
Alex rolled her eyes, waved and jogged back to her rooms to change.
"Alexeika!" Alex suppressed a groan as she was already at her classroom and had no refuge from his princely-ness; settling to stare past Faldain, Alex awaited the inevitable.
"Alex I owe you an apology. I completely forgot you once Phereasa passed, I'm a bad friend, I should have come back for my belongings and explained but I thought to do so at dinner. I understand that you're mad, I would be too. I can't say it won't happen again because I completely loose rational thought when she is present. I just want you to understand I don't intend to offend you or any one, I just forget; I'm sorry." Alex turned to face Faldain and realized he out skilled even her in the art of puppy-dog- eyeing, sighing she nodded before smirking.
"So do I get to help set you two up then?" Faldain's eyes bulged slightly.
"Ah ha! Here we find the secret feminine side to our warrior princess!" Alex laughed,
"Come Si Yama just asked the class in, an hour of meditation followed by an hour of "and waxing moons are good times for initiation spells because..." joy!" Faldain exclaimed sarcastically and motioning Alex to follow.
During meditation Alex attempted to scrutinize her feelings; Faldain had apologized but she still did not feel as content as she had before the incident.
'You fancy him...go on admit it'
'No he is a friend only, and he'll be my king and marry some beautiful princess'
'Why do you feel sad then?'
'Because it will happen again'
'So?'
'So! It's like he is using my friendship until he sees Phereasa then it becomes worthless.'
'So you want the prince to value you?'
'Stop trying to be sly I want him to value me as a FRIEND.'
'Damn, you know me too well'
'You're a part of me!'
'Oh yeah...you don't really want to set him up with Phereasa.'
'Ok, no.'
'Why?'
'Because she doesn't sound right, I should probably try and meet her before I make a decision.'
'Damn logical side why do you always win?'
'Because I've yet to cause us pain.'
'You've yet to bring us joy also...'
'Shut up, meditation's over.'
"Ok class today I want you all to complete a table on propitious days, moons, seasons, phases in relation to the heart with all appropriate glyphs and a charm. I want you to highlight the components of your charm to the heart and any other components that link to its purpose, such a divination tool in scrying your soul mate. You may work in pairs."
'Ha! No you have to work with our prince!'
'Shut up stupid voice!'
"Alex what class do you have next?" Faldain asked as they left their magic classroom.
"Art, yay!" she replied beaming at the thought. "With Mistress Healan." Faldain's eyes lit up, "You are in Phereasa's class then. If only I did not have riding!" he sighed dramatically, "My class goes until 1 so I shan't see you until defence, have fun!"
Alex managed half a smile and a wave before feeling less inclined to art class,
'thought you wanted to meet her and make up your mind?'
'What is it with you today?'
'I feel like disturbing you.'
'Sadistic inner voice.'
'Thank you.'
'Argh!'
"Ow! Sorry I wasn't watching where I was going." Alex leaned down to help up the woman who had been standing by her classroom door.
Soft brown eyes turned to her and smiled, "That's alright, happens to me all the time, my name is Phereasa."
'Of all the people!'
"I'm Alexeika Volvn." She replied.
"You're the girl who punched Gavril two days ago!" came the soft exclamation.
'That probably wasn't a good idea.'
Alex grinned wryly, "Yes, that'd probably be me."
Eyes widened, "And you're taking self defence and physics. Broshnovic made me leave physics."
Alex's eyes widened in response, "You wanted to take physics? It's such an intriguing subject, can't say much about Broshnovic, I'm on a sort of probation...I must meet standards in my half year exam, you should rejoin with me."
'Where did this come from?'
'She's nice, and it would be much better to have two girls prove Broshnovic wrong and have another female to talk to.'
"Do you think? I didn't feel up to taking it alone but maybe if you're there I'll do it, you'd have to promise not to drop out before though." The smaller woman positively glowed with the thought and moved into the classroom, "my mother would not approve though...perhaps all the more reason to do so."
Alex grinned, "Probably."
"Now class today we are doing still life drawing practice on this bowl of fruit, charcoal and paper are on your desks, it want three sketches, one in colour, the other's in black." A bushy haired woman in navy blue robes called from the front.
Alex took a seat beside Phereasa, pulled out some charcoal and observed the fruit. "What classes do you take, Phereasa?"
"Advanced etiquette, dancing, needlework, extension two English, riding, ballet, fashion and this class. English is probably the most enjoyable; Master Gris is a wonderful teacher." Phereasa's eyes shifted from the fruit to the page, "What of you? I know you do physics, self defence and this."
"I also take magic, history, eldish, healing and I'm in your English class I think." Alex began adding the shadow on the side of a pear.
"Next?"
"A-huh."
"We're in the same class then, we do writing works on Tuesdays, this month we're writing short stories, its lovely. On Thursdays we spend an hour on different forms of writing; plays and speeches, poetry and prose." Phereasa tilted her head at her sketch,
"This class is lovely too, we do exercises like this on Tuesday and history in our hour lesson but we get to work on projects all of Friday morning." her brow furrowed, "These pears stems don't look right..."
"Let's see." Alex leaned over glancing between her work, Phereasa's and the fruit,
"Ah, you have the shadow too small extend it up the left side a little. Perfect! Shall we try another angle, I'd like to get the silhouettes and then try the colour one from a low angle."
"Sound's good." Phereasa moved around to another table with her paper and charcoal. The girls sat in silence for a little while longer until Mistress Healan approached.
"Alexeika Volvn?" the girls looked up, "Welcome to my class; may I ask why is it you girls decided to draw the fruit from this angle?" Phereasa looked to Alex.
"We thought it an original idea to attempt the sketch from this angle; the lack of surface texture needed highlights the intriguing shapes of the fruit without distraction from miniscule details." Alex replied as she placed the finishing tone to the tip an apple. "It exercises the design principle of shape specifically."
"Very good Miss Volvn." The teacher replied, "Where do you intend to draw your colour piece from?" Alex pointed to the floor close to the bowl.
"It just looks interesting; it would be the view of a child."
"I believe I shall enjoy having you in my class Alexeika." Healan smiled, "A pity you chose Mcana's house over mine."
"You should come sit with my friends and me for lunch." Phereasa pleaded as they left art class.
"I will next week, it's just that I always sit with my friends and right now my hands are covered with charcoal that I'm aching to rub off on Thia." Alex replied, holding up the offending bodily parts.
"Thia? You mean Prince Faldain's sister?" Alex nodded, "Don't you feel worried you'll offend your future monarch's family?"
"Well, with Faldain I worried that at first but Thia and I have known each other for a long time, when I was really small I would stay with her and a nurse while our fathers' campaigned against Muncel, she is like the older sister I never had. Faldain always used to be separate from us; just incase Muncel decided to attack behind our fathers' backs. So no, it's not really a worry." Alex replied.
"Faldain is very sweet, yesterday he help carry my dancing gear for me..."
"I know." Alex replied
"How?" Phereasa paused and looked at her quizzically.
'Whoops.'
Alex sighed, "Faldain and I had gone to collect some costumes for our P.A work after stocking up on some history books, he spotted you gave me his things and ran off. Needless to say I was rather peeved, but he apologized; he seems most besotted with you." Alex grinned at Phereasa's shocked expression.
"I'll see you next lesson, I have a royal to smudge."
True to her word Alex smudged Thia; alas she did so whilst Thia had in her hand a spoon containing a rather sticky jam. Both girls attacked Sandrina who mocked their state and all three ate lunch rapidly before returning to their rooms to clean up. Once done they proceeded to their English classroom.
"I met Phereasa today." Alex said as they took a right, "We got on really well, can we sit with her next lesson?"
"I guess if she wants to, I think we have enough room at our table..."Sandrina said, looking across to a contemplative Thia.
"Sure, we can annoy my brother by telling him how much fun WE had with her today." Thia replied causing the group to laugh evilly.
"Alexeika." The trio turned to face Phereasa who was moving both speedily and gracefully towards them, beautiful smile on her face.
'Why can't I ever look that nice?'
'Because you don't take advanced etiquette?'
'Stupid logic'
"Phereasa please call me Alex, its much less of a mouthful. Phereasa, Thia and Sandrina; Thia, Sandrina, Phereasa." The girls exchanged polite courtesies.
"Phereasa would you care to sit with us next lesson?" Thia asked graciously.
"I would like that very much." Phereasa replied with another radiant smile as the group moved down the corridor and into the classroom.
The room was pale blue originally but 3 of the walls were lined with book shelves while the other held a large slate board and three large windows. The quartet took a clump of tables to the left and watched the other eight members of the class stream in.
The first was a trio a chatting blonde females; who having glanced disdainfully at the four, huffed and moved to the right hand clump of desks. Three males came next talking quietly as they filled the middle cluster of desks and finally a pair of red haired guys entered.
The red heads' eyes flicked between the two seats with the eye-fluttering girls and the two beside Alexeika and Sandrina and made their decision. "Do you mind if we sit?"
"No." Alex replied shifting her satchel from the seat beside her.
"Thank you, I'm Derrick and my twin is Thomas, we are both of Masbone." The taller said sitting down by Alex and smiling genuinely.
"Alexeika Volvn." She replied with a smile.
"The general's daughter? 'Tis a pleasure to meet you princess, your beauty is spoken much of amongst those who have served with your father but they do you no credit." Alex blushed, charmed despite her efforts not to.
"Cousin, how do you fare being surrounded by royalty?" Thomas asked to Sandrina on his left, and was gently punched.
"You are cousins?" Phereasa asked.
"Yes our mothers were twins also but Sandrina received her father's hair and not our glorious carrot coloring." Derrick replied fluttering his eyelashes in a most feminine way.
At this point Master Gris entered the room. "Derrick if you wish to improve your eyelash length I believe you need the beauty class down the hall." The portly man advised, his chocolate eyes twinkling before he moved to the slate board.
"Now today we will be composing a short story from the quote I shall write on the board, I want you to write out the plot of your short story first and then begin writing. At the end of the lesson I want you to had in both your plot and anyone who has completed the story will be asked to read it out. I want the story to fit on one to one and a half pages. Any questions? Yes Miss..."
'Alexeika Volvn, do you want a specific genre sir?"
"No that can wait until next Tuesday." The teacher smiled and returned to the board to write the quote, "If at first you don't succeed..."
Alex grinned and quickly jotted down a row of points on the page, re-red them and grinned manically. She loaded her quill chewed on the end and began writing, glancing every now and again and her disturbed table mates for the next hour and three quarters.
"Alright class hand it your plots. Has anyone completed, or almost completed their story?" the teacher asked looking up from the pile of papers at the trepid faces,
"Come, come now; don't be shy."
"Alex seems to have finished." Derrick commented holding the one and a half pages of writing aloft with an evil grin at the red faced princess.
"Miss Volvn, if you would." Gris gestured.
Alex snatched back the paper with a light kick under the table to Derrick.
"If at first you don't succeed...you should re-think your goals There was once a young boy named Darren. Darren had one ambition in his life. It was a secret ambition that no one knew of. Darren wished, Darren wished, Darren wished he had longer eyelashes. Darren would watch all the princesses and ladies of the court flutter their long lashes at young males and dream of one day being capable of doing so himself. Darren became so jealous of these women that he avoided court life all together but even in his home his twin brother had longer eyelashes than he did. So Darren decided that he should enhance his lacking lashes. At first Darren attempted to stretch his eyelashes with a pair of tongs, but that only pulled them out and made them appear stubbier. Then he decided to take hair from his head and stick them to his eyelids, but they fell off and he couldn't see (he also had a beating for taking a chunk out of his hair).
Eventually her saw his mother putting on some eyelash paint and was able to make his eyelashes appear longer. However he had to train to become a knight and his town experienced a lot of rain giving him black stripes down his face.
His father saw the lines and realized their cause, at first he said nothing but his worry grew that his first born would not be keen on finding himself a female partner; he began to panic, if he sent his child to study academically he would be closer to the frivolity of court, if he were to train in arms he would be surrounded by males and open to temptation.
So he sent him to this school and forced him to take up manly classes in hopes to balance the odds out. But Darren was killed in a freak dining accident (skewered by a soup spoon, alas what a loss) and his ghost still haunts the girls' dorm, stealing bottles of eyelash paint and moaning on dark night for long luxurious lashes to flutter at young males."
"Very entertaining Miss Volvn." Gris replied as the bell for class end rang. "See you all on Thursday morning; you will be receiving your texts."
Alex smiled and turned to her friends, "I've got to go, I have defence until 6, I need to get changed; see you all at dinner; nice meet you Derrick, Thomas!" before she ran back to her rooms.
"Welcome to strategy and tactics. In this part of the course we test your abilities to command, adapt and use factors to your favour. You will learn the best ways to defend and attack forts, how to use ground and weather in battle, how to use scouts, spies, stealth even how magic can be used for and against you. Now today I'm going to give our two princes a test, one team shall defend the fort prepared the other shall attempt to attack you will be given weapons that have paint rather than points, if you are painted you are dead. I don't care where you are hit, you have paint on you, you lie down; I have several teachers dispersed to make sure you play fair. Faldain' team is team A, they defend today. I will give you each either A or B go to your specified teams and obey your commander." Mcana ground out to the assembled class motioning Faldain to the left and Gavril to the right.
'He sounds like Papa.'
'Thod almighty don't let us be on Gavril's side!'
"Alexeika, team A"
''woohoo!'
"Now team A follow Carl to your fort and prepare for siege."
Alexeika stepped up behind Faldain as they moved through the woods, scanning the branches above. "We should put archers up the trees, have them fire a few shots and report back Gavril's movements."
"Aye, we would have to spread them around though incase Gavril tries an attack from behind, depends how many we can spare from this 'fort'."
"Aye, though if we have any good scryers we could have them cover lead ups to the fort, we don't loose any defenders but we can't counterattack effectively." Alex looked up as they reached a clearing. 50m ahead was a grassy hill on which a single doored wooden fort was set.
"Everybody into the fort first." Faldain called, moving up the hill and assessed the fort with Alexeika beside him before returning to the waiting men. "Peter, Anders take you bows to the top I doubt we'll have any attack so soon but we'd best be careful."
"Now we have 27men, we can cover this wall easily with 10, send out scout groups to each of the compass points, 2 men to cover the back incline incase the slip past. Now I need the better woodsmen and archers out of the fort for the counter offensive. One man per compass point must return if opponents come from their direction, who are the four swiftest runners?" four men raised their hands "You will report back if shot yell as loud as possible, it is imperative to alert the fort. We then need 2 defenders per compass point, I'll take one myself. We need woodsmen and archers, I need 11 for this." more hands were raised, "Alright, you two take behind, you two left and you two right; Leon can come with me. Leon, you and you are secondary fighters, if there is a call elsewhere you leave your partner and go to help.
Now Coll and Tristan you cover the back incline, you and all others in the fort do as Alexeika commands; all scouts report to her. Scouts out with me." Faldain signaled, pulling up his bow and quiver, "let's show Gavril what we're made of."
The group left and all head turned to Alex, exhaling she plucked up her courage and eyed her men, "Coll, Tristan; set up your post I want you out of direct sight but with a good view, it may take you a while to find a suitable spot. Which of the rest of you are the two strongest?" the two burly blokes raised their hands dubiously, "I want you two on the gates, if the try and storm us we need heavy materials blockading the gates fast, we don't have much time between the forest edge and our walls but we also need to get the doors open fast if our scouts return from the front. If the approach from the rear Tristan and Coll will cover them, on the sides I want ropes that can be dropped quickly to get our scouts up. I want two archers on the back wall, and side walls and four on the front."
"Yes milady."
'The will cover us from attack but we need some surprises...' Alex scanned her weapons, 'hmm, paint balls...I'll see if we have any slingshots...ah ha! Perfect!'
*********************************************************************
"Alexeika we just took out three from the back, our back scout is in at the fort as we speak." Coll called up.
"The still leaves 24 others, did we loose any of the three fighters?" she called back, eyes flicking to movement on the left.
"No casualties."
"Send our scout up to the left wall; Anders move to the right wall, the back is covered enough." Alex dropped her voice as she walked behind her archers on the left; spotting a body leaving the trees, "Prepare the rope, drop it only once he nears."
"Scout from the right side!"
"Drop the rope when he nears; have him meet me on the front wall!" she lowered her voice for those beside her, "Same here." Then strode forward until she stood above the gate.
"Six approaching from the right, I saw two shot down before I left."
"Same number from the left but only one opponent seen gone."
"Thank you, take bows and stand on this wall."
"Milady?" the taller looked perplexed at this order.
"There's only four or five on the sides and two possible archers in the woods each side as well as three on the walls; there's twelve to come from the front, we need our defence there." Alex turned to her side archers, "Anders, Peter, Lachlan, Samuel; I want you to move to the front once you dispatch the enemies on your side."
She turned back to her forward archers, "Once they move to support you, be ready to try our secret weapon on those near the gate." Glancing to a movement in the woods ahead she called into the fort, "Gates braced!"
"Fire on my mark." Her eyes flicked from the four approaching from each side,
"Ready." The opponents appeared on the fringes of the forest ahead, "Sides; Fire!" All dropped on the left, two from the defenders still in the trees; only three fell from the right. He was quickly dispatched from a later volley from the trees.
She span forward a spotted two lines of five approaching from the trees, Gavril smirking cockily at the front. "Archers fire!"
Arrows flew from three differing sources, one of Alex's forward archers got covered with red paint but three of Gavril's back row fell by blue arrows and Gavril was knocked down by no less than three arrows. Gavril's force swarmed onto the rise and up to the gates. Alex and her three remaining forward archers bent down and picked up the pots beside them and poured, 'scalding' four of those below with blue paint. The last two opponents were quickly picked off by Faldain's tree force as they attempted to retreat.
'Three from behind, six each side, ten from the front, still two unknown.'
"Faldain, we have two unaccounted for!" she called across the field as Dain marched up.
"We took out two in the woods! Any casualties?" was the reply.
"One on the fort!" she spotted two archers from each side, "That's all. We need to collect our two back defenders, they're the only ones not counted for." She called down, "Open the gates; Coll, Tristan, go find our back defenders."
'We beat Gavril, we beat Gavril!'
"Good work men, we have slaughtered our enemy; let us honour our poor dead Sans." She called moving into the fort with the team to meet their commander.
"Good work Alexeika. Alas we have lost the wonderful Sans! I liked your trick, pouring scalding water over the battlements no less?" Dain called with a grin.
"Definitely." Alex replied as their back scouts and their vanquished enemies entered,
"Now what? Do we go back to where we started?"
"I suppose so, there are six of Gavril's team lying in the woods waiting to discover the outcome, we'd best go get them and head back."
"Aye my prince."
"Actually teachers collect those we left on the side and herded them back to Mcana we just need to collect those on the way back." One of the scouts piped up from the group.
"Let's go then."
"Gavril it seems your team was well slaughtered." Mcana replied calmly as he viewed the despondent array of blue painted bodies, "I'm curious as to the production of this paint coverage." He commented mildly as he ran a finger along the head of a 'scalded' raider.
"Paint poured from the wall like boiling water; Alexeika's idea." Faldain offered with a grin, "It's nice to be able to leave another in command of a position and trust them to succeed."
"You split your forces?" Mcana ask incredulously.
"A defence and a counter attack force; one cannot win sword play defending alone." Faldain replied, "No need for excess defenders and it uses the forest terrain and our woodsmen."
"Good. I want you and the princess to write up a report on this exercise and your losses. Gavril I wish you to do the same. Have them in to me by 8. Class dismissed, thanks to these two commanders you finished early." Mcana gestured to Alex and Faldain with a grin, "I think some of you boys may need the time if you wish to be clean by dinner."
"We've got an hour until dinner, let's go write up this paper before Gavril comes after us with something more than paint!" Alex whispered before dashing off to the library.
The two commanders quickly finished their report and moved to Mcana's quarters after dinner. As they arrived Gavril was departing, Gavril gave them each death glares and pushed past Alex with a sneer. Mcana called them in and offered his congratulations, commenting that he would be sending a report to their fathers.
The next morning Alex handed in her physics lines and Phereasa joined her on probation and sat with her, Hannas and Aran for the rest of the term. After this lesson Alex began her first music lesson, working her contralto voice with Faldain's tenor and Sandrina's harp.
Faldain was silent for much of lunch as Phereasa had been persuaded to join their table, as the term wore on however he became much more relaxed around the pretty blonde. The instances of complete disregard for others in her presence faded.Lunch was followed by three hours of the arduous class of eldish with their graceful and gorgeous looking teacher Master Elladain, and two more hours of history working on their project, for which they eventually received perfect marks.
After a 1pm lunch (preceded by three hours of English and another two of history) Alex had an hour of art history with Phereasa, two more strenuous eldish lessons and an hour of magic theory; Alex concluded Thursdays to be the worst of the week. Terrible Thursdays, as they were eventually known, we followed by fantastic Fridays, art projects, magic practice, physics practice, healing stores and the P.A project, a short comic play that the trio were writing in their spare time.
Life slipped into a routine at the school, broken only by the two weeks of half yearly exams (Phereasa and Alexeika managed to gain the two highest physics marks and Alex reached the top three positions in all her classes, to the joy of her father.) The end of the year approached; the PA students could often be seen running around with all sorts of object necessary for their performances; art students appeared for short periods of lunch, paint splattered across their hands before dashing up to the classroom. Hordes of males appeared in the training courts early in the mornings, much to Alex and Thia's consternation; riders often went missing for days with their horses along trails and the library thronged with students revising anything from the production of sound waves to the unity of north and south Mandria to the properties of rose quartz in charms.
In addition to preparing for final exams and competitions students we swapping plans for the holidays and travel plans to their homes. The majority of Netheran nobles were returning to the court in Grov for the annual Beltaine festival and ball; Thum, Phereasa, Gavril and five of his cronies had been invited by Tobjestein to attend along with King Verence, who was paying a diplomatic visit to the Netheran capital.
AN: Sorry this has taken so long! I've been bogged down preparing my birthday, then I had to get work done by the end of term and I've had to spend the entire holidays studying for my year 12 half yearly exams and all my creative energy has been on getting the first draft done for my extension two English short story...so big sorry, and so I've written my longest chapter yet for you all...love Annuna