One habit of the aristocracy that Lillet Blan truly enjoyed was afternoon tea. When she'd first come to the capital to work in the Royal House of Magic, she'd enthusiastically embraced the chance to relax in the afternoon, enjoy a soothing beverage, and get the chance to sit down and socialize with her colleagues, or better yet reconnect with her lover, Amoretta Virgine.

Even now that she was the Mage Consul, with more responsibilities than she could conveniently fob off, she still took the time to keep to that routine, whether it was at her offices at the palace or at home. Sitting on the library sofa, a macaroon in her hand and a steaming cup in the other, Amoretta curled up against her side, it was hard to see how things could get better.

"Mama! Mother!"

And yet, they find a way!

Beaming, nine-year-old Cressidor burst into the library, feet pattering across the polished parquet floor.

"Cress, what are you wearing?" Lillet asked.

She actually had on one of her normal dresses, but she'd thrown a long black cloak over it that she'd probably found in one of the utility closets, along with one of Lillet's old steeple hats, one that she'd worn when she was much younger.

"This is the proper outfit for a witch!" Cressidor announced.

"But you're not a witch," Amoretta said, pointing out the obvious. Cress was still too young for any magical powers she might have possessed to manifest themselves.

"Oho? Then prepare to be even more astonished, as I display for you amazing magical powers!"

Lillet felt herself starting to smile. She had no idea where Cressidor was going with this, but she had a parent's intuition that it would be amusing.

"Okay, it's true that maybe I, myself, don't know any Runes and spells," Cressidor said in a conspiratorial stage-whisper. "But, what I do have is a magic dog!"

She whistled, and at the signal her barghest Shuck came barreling into the room, pulling to a stop alongside Cressidor. It was undeniable that she was speaking the truth, since non-magical dogs rarely weigh six hundred pounds, stand taller than their owners at the shoulder, have burning red eyes, or possess a lolling tongue that flickered with flame. Cress reached up and scratched him behind the ears.

"Good boy!" she said. "Wait, what's this?" She took her hand back, and held up a shiny silver coin. "I did say that he was a magic dog. And just look: he has money behind his ears!"

Lillet grinned. Amoretta looked befuddled for a moment, not quite following the transition from witchcraft and barghests to elementary sleight-of-hand. Shuck sniffed at the silver piece, concluded that it wasn't food, and decided to ignore whatever Cressidor was doing with it. Instead, he sat down, lifted his foreleg, and scratched behind his ear, sending a shower of glittering silver tumbling to the floor.

"That's the problem with magic dogs," Cress said. "They make it look so easy."

Lillet laughed and applauded. She genuinely hadn't noticed Cress slip the packet of coins behind Shuck's ear when she was producing the first one, which meant that either her daughter was getting good at sleight-of-hand, or she'd put it behind Shuck's ear before they came into the room and had trained him to ignore it until his cue, which was nearly as impressive.

"But that isn't all he can do. Shuck is clear-voy...claire...um... He can see things that he can't see, like a homunculus!"

"Clairvoyant?" Amoretta suggested. She was, after all, a mother, and helping her child's vocabulary was important.

"That's it!"

Cressidor reached under her cape.

"I have here an ordinary deck of cards." She held up the deck, then spread them into a fan, using both hands so she didn't drop them. "Mother, would you take any one card? Show it to Mama, but make sure that Shuck and I can't see what it is."

Amoretta picked out the seven of cudgels. While she was showing it to Lillet, Shuck decided to lay down. Cress turned around, cloak swirling at her ankles.

"Shuck, sit up! This is your big trick!" He looked up at her with what can only be described as a hangdog expression. "Sit up or you don't get any pork jerky after the trick." He sat up at once. "Good boy."

Lillet managed to stifle her giggles before Cress turned back around.

"Okay, just slip the card into the deck, anywhere you want." She held out the squared-off deck, and Amoretta pushed the card into the middle. "So! I don't know what card you picked, and even you don't know where it is in the deck. But, the amazing Shuck can and will find it for us with his magical fire!" She fanned the cards out again, and held them out in front of Shuck's face. "Ignite!"

On command, Shuck opened his jaws and exhaled a cloud of fire, a fanlike stream in an arc in front of him. He missed the rug and the furniture entirely (though fireproofing wards were in place anyway, something that one is recommended to apply when one's daughter gets a fire-breathing puppy), clipped a bit of Cress's fingers (likewise warded, something fundamentally essential when owning a fire-breathing dog), and completely consumed the cards.

Except one.

Cress shook stray ashes off the remaining card, and held it up.

"Was your card...the seven of cudgels?"

"Yes, it was."

This time, both mothers clapped, and Cress took a deep curtsey.

"Thank you, thank you! This has been Cressidor Blan-Virgine and the Amazing Magical Shuck! C'mon, boy; let's go get you your treat!"

The Amazing Magical Shuck woofed happily, and followed his mistress off to the kitchen.

"I wonder who it was that she got to fireproof the first deck of cards for her," Lillet wondered, snuggling back up to Amoretta.

"The first deck?"

"Uh-huh. The one you picked from. When she turned around to get Shuck to stand back up, she switched decks and had you slip the fireproof card into an ordinary deck. I bet it was 'Uncle Bartido.' Margarita told me that he used to do card magic back at the Silver Star Tower."

"He did. Mostly, it was to play pranks on Hiram."

"Yeah, that's Bartido."

"But how did you know that's what she did?"

Lillet smirked. "Because I know Cress and Shuck, and if she trained him to go through that whole routine with her like that, then he wouldn't have just lain down in the middle of it." She sighed blissfully, then laid her head down in the crook of Amoretta's shoulder.

"You seem very happy. Is it because you like stage magic and thought Cress's trick was cute? Or because you figured it out?"

"Well, both of those, yes, but it's mostly something else. After all, I'm a magician, and you're a singer who performs on stage, so Cress just went and followed in both our footsteps at the same time!"