Wind of Fate, Part I

Waking up, Jason was acutely aware of the lack of a body by his side.

Objectively, his mattress was quite a bit more comfortable than the bed he and Louise had shared at the Charming Faerie Inn. Nonetheless he found himself wishing them back there, the comforting warmth of his little mistress by his side. After all, there wasn't a lot of room for her on his air mattress.

Well, unless she ended up practically on top of him.

Which he wouldn't particularly mind.

There's more than enough room for the two of us on her canopy bed. And she did say that she sleeps better next to someone. One the other hand, we don't have the sibling pretense to maintain, and it'd surely cause gossip once the Academy staff picked up on it. Not to mention, she could still be miffed by our failure to fend off Jessica's goodbye kiss there at the end.

And that doesn't even get into how we're her familiar, not her boyfriend.

But none of that affects the fact that we want her in our arms right now.

Patience. The most annoying of all virtues. Wait and see, she may decide that a good night's sleep is worth ignoring propriety. And in the long term, there was that thing about de Montferat maybe buying a Germanian title. We need to look into what's possible along those lines, if we can figure out how to bring it up without making our aspirations obvious.

More subtlety, dammit.

In the meantime, it's probably best to wait to make plans until we've both settled into the Academy routine. Whatever that is during the summer.

Hell with it all. Time to get up, put out Louise's uniform, and start exercising.

There was a low groan from the bed as he finished his squats and started marching in place, and a glance towards it revealed that she was beginning to sit up.

"Good morning, little mistress. Once I finish this set, I'll help you get dressed."

A sleepy mumble answered him as Louise slowly emerged bed.

By the time Jason was done, she'd gone in and out of the bathroom and was eyeing her uniform with a certain amount of distaste.

"Something wrong with what I put out?" he asked.

"I haven't worn a brassiere for almost a month," Louise grumbled. "Now I have to get used to wearing one all over again."

"You don't have to wear it, if you don't want to," Jason offered. "Your undergown should be enough protection, if that's all you want to wear."

"No, if I don't get used to it now-" She shook her head. "Cattleya put off wearing her brassiere for as long as she could, and then when her bosom developed she had a hard time adjusting. Just . . . just hurry up and help me get dressed."

Once that task was complete, she turned around and looked up at him with eyes that were redder than normal. "Are you done exercising?"

Jason nodded. "Are you okay, little mistress? You look tired."

"I didn't sleep very well last night," she replied, sounding grumpy. "Somehow I became used to the bed back at the Inn."

He did his best not to smirk, because the bed there couldn't compare to the one she'd just slept on. Which meant- "I'm sorry."

She shook her head. "It can't be helped. I'll get used to the Academy bed again . . . but I miss Cattleya so much, and now I won't see her this summer!" she ended on a whine that was nearly a wail.

"Well, maybe she can come visit you?"

Louise looked doubtful. "Her health usually isn't up to traveling. She's never well enough to ride for more than an hour or two, and going by ship makes her horribly ill."

"Oh. That sucks." Jason looked at the door and decided to change the subject. "I'm about to go jogging. Want to come?"

His offer got him a dubious look in reply. "Why would I want to go running? I'm a mage."

"Yeah, but remember how I was able to intercept de Montferat? Wands seem to be subject to the twenty foot rule, just like pistols."

"The 'twenty foot rule'?" Louise repeated. "What's that?"

"Even if someone has a gun, if you're twenty feet from them – six or seven paces – and you act first, you've got a good chance of reaching them before they can shoot you. Based on those two scuffles I got into against Dion the kiddy-diddler and de Montferat, seems like wands are about the same."

"Oh." Her expression was still dubious. "You think that might matter for me?"

Jason shrugged. "Can't say for sure. But I'll say this: If you know how to move, and most mages don't, you'll be a surprise for someone expecting you to act like a mage. That'll help win fights."

She hesitated.

"And it helps your blood move more vigorously, which can be very good for your body while it's developing."

An intrigued look flashed across Louise's face. "Very well, I'll try jogging with you. At least until breakfast. Then we can figure out what we're going to do for the summer."

"Come on, don't look like that!" Jason chided, jogging in place in front of her while she stood bent over, red-faced, gasping for breath.

But his words only made her pout a bit more. Although it admittedly looked rather cute. Probably shouldn't mention that, though.

[i could barely run at all][!] she sent, apparently unable to spare enough air to speak out loud.

"That's just a matter of practice. Look, start walking, so your legs don't stiffen up. Then, when you've caught your breath, you can try again."

[and you will just keep running and running and running]

"No, I'm a bit out of practice myself, 'cause I didn't go jogging in Bruxelles. So I'm not going to last too much longer."

[then go hurry up and finish so we can get something to eat]

They both stared at the dining hall, empty of humans and full of dancing alviss.

"Uh, little mistress?" Jason started.

"No, I don't know where everyone is," Louise said, sourly. "Even with classes out for the summer, the staff have to eat somewhere."

"Okay. Go to Mr. Colbert's suite and wait for him?"

She didn't look too happy at the thought of waiting, but finally Louise nodded, and they set out again.

"Miss Vallière? Jason?" Mr. Colbert looked up from his breakfast plate. "I hadn't expected you two to finish eating so quickly."

"We haven't eaten at all," Louise said, a bit sourly. "Were we supposed to wait in my bedroom for breakfast?"

The professor shook his head. "That would be too many stairs to climb with every meal, since commoners cannot Levitate. Although I understand that the Academy has a few nobilia on hand to facilitate delivering meals and other necessities when a student is confined to bed-rest. In any event, the maid that tends to Jason's needs noticed that you had joined him for his morning run, and as Madam Chevreuse is gone for the summer, she notified me that she would have a breakfast awaiting both of you in the room where your familiar is normally fed."

He then smiled thinly. "Which of course you already knew, since you returned the day before yesterday and spent all day resting for your journey before seeking me out for instruction this morning."

"Uh-" Jason began, only to be interrupted by Mr. Colbert holding up a hand.

"The Headmaster didn't inform me of the reason for this deception, so I assume that I don't need to know. But take care when employing such prevarications: All too often, they turn on those who employ them and bite."

"We'll keep that in mind," Louise assured the teacher.

"Anyway, it was nice of Siesta to arrange our breakfast," Jason quickly added, to hopefully get away from the subject where they'd been and what they'd been doing yesterday. "But how'd she know we'd come here?"

"She probably guessed that we'd look for a teacher, if we didn't just try your eating room after finding the dining hall empty," his little mistress speculated. "And I'm hungry."

"Then I trust you'll find your repast a satisfying one. But afterward," Mr. Colbert instructed, "return here so that we may discuss your immediate education."

Louise nodded, and quickly led Jason out and towards the kitchens.

"Porridge," he said a little while later, looking down at his bowl with a certain amount of disgust. "I'd almost managed to forget about this."

"I did make sure to thicken it with a lot of vegetables, like you've asked," Siesta told him, clearly proud of herself.

Jason chuckled ruefully. "Thank you." Wholesome food again. We'd almost gotten used to it, and then we had to go introduce pizza at the Inn. Undone by our own cleverness.

[at least you were careful not to stuff yourself at the inn][,][so you do not have new flesh to exercise away] Louise observed.

[how did you know what I was thinking][?] he asked in reply.

[your expression of course][,][both here and there].[you savored every bit of your new dishes that you got to eat][,][and here you look so crestfallen][!] she observed, with a giggle.

Siesta glanced at her, looking uncertain.

"The expression on Jason's face!" Louise said by way of explanation.

"Oh!" The maid nodded. "Jessica mentioned new recipes. I guess he decided not to eat like an acetic?"

"It would have looked odd, so I just tried not to overeat." Jason shook his head. "Not that Jessica didn't figure out a lot of it by the end. And now I have to get used to this stuff again."

So saying, he picked up his bowl and began consuming the unappetizing mush.

"Madame Chevreuse provided me with the assignments that you would have been given, had you not been called away to Bruxelles," Mr. Colbert said drily, setting down a modest stack of paper in front of Louise, tied up in twine. "I imagine you can complete these quickly enough, and will expect two a day from you until they're taken care of. In addition, I have a copy of my lecture notes from each day that I'd like you to go over."

"And then?" Louise asked.

"And then?" the professor repeated. "Once you've completed your studies each day, I imagine you'll wish to practice Ignite, Firebolt, and your cantrips until they're all acceptable, so that you're not too far behind when classes resume for the fall."

She nodded quickly. "I did practice while I was away. Do you want to test me to see what I know?"

Mr. Colbert nodded. "Very well. I don't retrieve Madam Chevreuse's cantrip machina, but we should be able to make do."

With that, he led Louise through the cantrips, starting with Fire. Of course, she'd focused early on the cantrips of her element, and even before they'd left to go Bruxelles she'd been able to cast Awaken, Empower, Light, and Warmth. Her quick and confident casting of them had the professor nodding in approval.

Of the cantrips of Air, Levitate and Name were likewise well-cast. Freshen was much less stable, although after the explosion cleared it was apparent that the spell had been somewhat successful, the result of her practice at the Inn. Breeze failed outright, of course, as it hadn't been much of a priority.

Mix and then Arise followed successfully, and Flow was almost there, although Dry was still more aptly called 'Splash', and would be until she'd put in a good deal more effort to learn it.

And of course Louise knew Mark, as she'd proven with her emblem, and like Freshen she was close with Scour from practicing at the Inn. But Gather and Firm had yet to be learned, as the pair of explosive bursts proved.

"Not bad," Mr. Colbert allowed, after she finished. "You've made considerable progress from when Madame Chevreuse last tested you, and if you keep it up you should have them all by midsummer or not much later."

Her slight scowl from ending with two miscasts flipped upside down into a more pleased expression.

And then the professor retrieved a candle, and had her cast Ignite. The practice that she'd done at the Inn had made a difference, and by now, instead of resulting in an ember in the wick that soon lit, the spell was producing a tiny spark that immediately lit the provided candle, with a noise that sounded more like striking a match to Jason than an explosion.

"It's still not a correct casting, but I must allow that it is progress, in its way," Mr. Colbert decided, after waving his staff. (Whatever spell he was casting had clearly seen so much practice that he didn't need to chant the words for it anymore.) "Although I couldn't help but notice, Miss Vallière, that you've developed certain habits of vagueness in your wand movements and pronunciation."

Louise grimaced. "I can't help that. If I focus on technique, it's harder to cast without getting yet another explosion."

"I see." The professor paused. "It's true that some mages control what they cast more through focused will than through precise incantation, although that's usually a matter of intensive practice rather than innate ability."

"She has been practicing intensively," Jason pointed out. "She has to, in order to get cantrips to work at all."

Mr. Colbert blinked. "That's an interesting point. Miss Vallière does practice far more than the other students of Second Form, and if they had her diligence, some of them would be able to cast Extinguish wandlessly by now, and perhaps even voicelessly.

"And, Miss Vallière, you have improved with Ignite, from an explosion that accomplishes nothing, to a very small explosion that manages to light the candle, and now to a spark that does the same thing. So there is progress, no matter how slow, and if you continue you may hope to succeed in a true casting of Ignite before classes resume. And if your magic is so awry as to require you to learn to cast without the benefit of voice or gesture? The discipline of attaining that mastery will be to your eventual benefit, no matter how much it seems to slow you down in the meantime."

"Yes, Mr. Colbert," Louise replied dutifully. "And at least I won't have to worry about fighting with Zerbst until we have classes again."

"Ah." He grimaced. "I fear I must inform you that Miss Zerbst and Dame Tabitha are both still at the Academy, at least for the time being."

"We heard that she was still here," Jason put in. "But you wouldn't be working with her on the same lessons as Louise, would you?"

"Of course not, and I understand that Miss Zerbst is thinking of accompanying her friend home at some point. In the meantime, however, I urge you not to seek her out, but instead focus on your studies."

"Gladly. I don't want to have anything to do with Zerbst."

"Commendable. Now, Miss Vallière, while you work on your first assignment, may I borrow your familiar for some consultations on the craftsmanship of his country?"

Louise nodded. "I suppose you want to talk about machina, like the Germanians make?"

"Hopefully not entirely as the Germanians make them. The thought of turning commoners into slaves to provide motive power . . . well, hopefully my engines will prove superior to that end, once I perfect the design."

"Didn't realize you meant slaves, last month. But yeah, steam engines do the job better," Jason confirmed. "I didn't know anything about Germanians, when we talked about it earlier. Gotta admit, I'm a little surprised you aren't over there, learning from their best mechanics."

"Mm." Mr. Colbert grimaced. "If I did, my labors would perforce be designed to catch the attention of the Emperor. Here, I'm free to explore the possibilities of machines powered by engines as I please, provided I also carry out my duties as a teacher."

"Well, Jason certainly know more about the value of machines than I do," Louise put in, "so I'll take this first assignment, and come collect him for lunch."

"Very good, Miss Vallière."

As soon as she left, Mr. Colbert started to grin, almost conspiratorially. "Come with me. I have something I think you'll be interested in seeing."

So Jason followed him to the other end of the room, around various half-finished projects, to a small table where a pistol lay.

"Here we are!" he exclaimed. "I've put together an example of the 'caplock' design you told me about. Would you like a closer look?"

"Uh, sure."

The teacher picked up the pistol and handed it over. "I started with a rogue's pistol, but as you can see, there's not even a hint of a flash pan left. Just the tube for the sparks to go down."

It certainly looked like a caplock pistol. Or at least it matched Jason's admittedly vague memory from documentaries. "Is it loaded?"

"No, not at the moment."

So he unscrewed the barrel and pulled the trigger, and there were indeed sparks. "How'd you make the cap?" he asked. Didn't that require 19th century chemistry?

"I acquired some very small firestones, so I could use them in this fashion. They are, after all, easy enough for a mage of Fire to renew."

"Ah. Magical solution. Well, congratulations. You've done in a few weeks what took my people over a hundred years to work out."

"Perhaps, but your people didn't know the solution existed." Still, the attempt at modesty aside, Mr. Colbert looked quite pleased with himself.

Jason smiled back. "Okay, now that we've got this proof of concept, we want to advance it a few more decades." He paused, frowning thoughtfully. "Although we're going to need to figure out how to do smokeless powder before too much longer, since most improvements from here on are going to focus on letting the gunslinger fire faster and faster."

"At some point, it must surely become too troublesome to keep such weapons clean," the professor pointed out.

"Exactly. That's why we'll need smokeless powder: There's much less fouling from the residue of the burnt powder. But like I said before going to Bruxelles, smokeless powder's dangerous to make. So if you're willing, for the time being I'd rather work on improving guns and ammunition, and see how far we can push that before smokeless powder becomes necessary."

"Mm. Are we approaching the point where firearms require elegant design once more?"

"No, the caplock was approaching the point. Now we've reached it."

The professor grinned once more. "Excellent."

"Although speaking of design, were you able to figure out how to make the steel that we're going to need? 'Cause I think we are going to need that, especially for the long arms."

Mr. Colbert nodded. "I worked out the details of the process last week. It took me that long because you forgot to mention that a flux was still required to purify the iron."

"Oh." Jason smiled sheepishly. "Sorry about that."

The professor shrugged. "It's of little moment, I suppose. I've also designed a smelter that should be able to do the same thing, only without a mage supervising the process, although I've not yet built and tested it. In the meantime, I now have access to as much steel as I wish to make."

"Neat. Uh, did the Earth teacher manage to come up with a spell to duplicate stainless steel?"

"You mean Mr. Edelsten? He has the beginnings of one, although he's starting over with it, after I gave him an ingot of 'Bessemer' steel. Hopefully, transmuting your people's style of steel into stainless steel will be easier."

"Okay." Jason nodded. "That's probably a good idea, and until we've settled on whatever designs we're going to use, I guess we don't need stainless steel anyway.

"So, the first thing is, we need to make it easier to load firearms." He sighed. "Maybe. I'm really not an expert at this stuff, and where I'm from there were a lot of really smart people who spent their lives working it out for the first time. I mean, it's possible that what we need to do is figure out mass production first, but we're literally working with prototypes, so mass production might be a waste of time, and-"

"Jason?" Mr. Colbert interrupted. "Take a deep breath, and start over. We'll begin with one thing, and then move on to the next, and so on."

"Right." One deep breath later: "Okay, one of the problems right now is that the bullet and the powder are loaded separately. We want them to be loaded together. A round of ammunition, among my people, is a metal cylinder – usually brass, I thinknk – with the bullet on the front end, and the rest filled with gunpowder."

Mr. Colbert frowned, clearly thinking it over. "And the back of the cylinder?" he asked. "Is it open or closed? If it's open, that would seem to me to be vulnerable to spillage, but if it's closed, how does the spark from the caplock reach it?"

"Uh, that's the thing. This is one step after the caplock. The back has something we call a 'percussion cap', and it causes a small explosion when struck. Which ignites the powder, and so on."

"Allowing the lock to be done away with entirely," Mr. Colbert said in a musing tone. "And how does one make a percussion cap?"

"I consulted my library on that." The fiction library, that is. Since some authors tend to go into that kind of detail. "You guys know what mercury is, right? Quicksilver?"

The professor nodded. "Quicksilver, yes. It's an alchemical curiosity. Reasonably pretty, and not too hard for an alchemical specialist to transmute from base stone."

Jason scowled. "Seriously? You guys are lucky on that. Getting it the mundane way is both toxic and dangerous." Then he shrugged. "Oh well, guess it'll come in handy. Anyway, is there any chance you know what I mean if I say 'fulminate of mercury'?"

Mr. Colbert frowned. "I . . . don't think so. That last phrase sounded . . . very foreign. I don't believe it translated."

"Damn. Okay, fulminating is a mundane alchemical process, and in this case it results in a solid substance that detonates when struck. You could maybe get the same effect with firestones, although you'd know better than I about that."

"Firestone bullets would be prohibitively expensive, I fear," Mr. Colbert noted.

"Then we need the back to be something that burns easily," Jason frowned. "Okay, here's the thing: Modern firearms all load through a breach, a bit like a rogue's pistol but obviously there's been refinement over the centuries. Because of that, most guns are rifled. But there's something we call a 'shotgun' that isn't, because it doesn't need to be accurate over long distances like a rifled firearm."

"Allowing it to be loaded more simply, down the muzzle?" Mr. Colbert asked. "The exception to breach-loading?"

"No, it's still breach-loaded, but the ammunition is usually in a plastic case, rather than a metal one. And plastic is relatively new, so before we used plastic . . . I gotta wonder if paper would work well enough. Maybe waxed paper, so it burns easier?"

"Wax is somewhat expensive," the professor noted. "Would larding the paper serve as well?" Then, with a thoughtful look: "In any event, paper can be pierced. Which might serve to deliver a spark from the firestone cap to the powder without delay."

Jason shrugged. "Could be, to both those points. We'll have to try it. Point is, we can probably use paper cartridges while we figure out how to get revolvers working."

"'Revolvers'," Mr. Colbert repeated. "And what is a 'revolver', precisely?"

Well, that was a bit embarrassing. "Right. Revolvers, forgot to explain those. Here, got something to draw on?"

The teacher wordlessly produced some bark-paper and what looked quite a bit like an oversized ballpoint pen, albeit made of metal.

"You got working pens already? Neat."

"I discovered that the ball wears down quite rapidly, but I treated its replacement for increased hardness, and it seems to be working well enough. I understand that the Academy is now offering them for sale, although the need for alchemical preparation means they're an expensive luxury. Nonetheless it's convenient, not having to constantly dip one's quill into an inkwell. Not to mention the speed at which quills wear out and must be replaced."

Jason nodded. "Nice to see things starting to spread, gotta admit. Anyway, here." He drew the revolver chambers – well, sort of, art wasn't his strong suit, and he didn't exactly have AutoCAD to work with – from several different angles. "See, here's where the elegant design starts to come in. The revolver has to be able to spin when the trigger is pulled, and it has to line up with the barrel well enough that most of the motive force from the exploding gunpowder pushes the bullet down the barrel instead of out the gap. And reloading takes forever unless you have the rounds of ammunition in cartridge form."

"I-" Mr. Colbert broke off. "This will be a complicated weapon, and we shall also have to devise a way for the sparks to reach the gunpowder without making the back of the cartridge too weak to be safely stored, but . . . once a workable cartridge is ready, testing the fit of the revolving chambers to the barrel will be easy enough."

"It will?"

"Certainly. Fire a cartridge filled with gunpowder, but no bullet. When the bulk of the ensuing smoke comes from the end of the barrel rather than the seam between chamber and barrel, we will be close."

"Oh." In retrospect, it seemed kind of obvious. But Mr. Colbert was the inventor, after all. "Okay, that's revolvers, but we're also going to want long arms with good rates of fire, and we'll get that from the pump-action shotgun and the bolt-action rifle . . ."

"You look happy," Louise noted at lunch, not looking entirely happy herself. "You must have had a good time working with Mr. Colbert this morning."

Jason nodded, grinning widely. "Guilty as charged. He's a genius, and I say that as someone who's reasonably bright myself. Watching him fill in the gaps, deciphering what must be done in order to do what I've described . . . you're so lucky to have him as a professor!"

He sighed, feeling wistful. "And if my familiar power was magic itself, I could have been following his lectures all spring, rather than having them all go over my head."

"You mean you'd have been required to keep up with his lectures," she muttered in reply. "That's not easy."

"Probably isn't, but I never got to have a genius as a teacher." Jason grimaced. "One reason Mom told me to read ahead was that she had a pretty low opinion of my teachers. And she supported me whenever one of them tried to punish me for learning the material better than they ever did. Hell, if she hadn't been busy with the twins, I'm pretty sure she'd have pulled me out of school and taught me herself."

"She had high standards for you?" Louise asked. Then, at his nod: "Mother would approve. Even though I couldn't learn magic, she made sure I learned everything else a noble ought to know."

"So, you're saying that she never gave up on you, even though your magic didn't work."

Louise scowled, and opened her mouth . . . but then a very odd look came over her. "That's true, if you look at it like that." Then she scowled again. "But Mother didn't make it easy!"

Jason winced. "I'm sorry." Then he hesitated, before going on: "So, in an obvious bid to change the subject, what's after lunch?"

The look Louise shot him was exasperated, but still almost grateful. "I'll get another assignment from Mr. Colbert, and I suppose you'll be helping him again."

"No, he's got other things he needs to do. Mind if I join you for that assignment? If I won't get in the way?"

She nodded and smiled.

"And that's the fourth cantrip," she said a couple of hours later, putting her quill down. "How did you come up with casting Light into the eyes of your foe to blind them, anyway?"

Jason shrugged. "It's one of the well-known tricks in that adventuring practice game I told you about. I'm not sure how practical it'd be here, the made-up spells we have aren't quite the same-"

"That's easy enough to check," Louise replied, picking up her wand and casting Light. The light thus produced seemed to wobble as her brow creased in concentration, and suddenly the light grew much brighter.

"It's harder to keep it like this," she reported, sounding a bit strained, "but if I can move it-"

The shining patch in the air wobbled again, and dimmed a little, but then starting moving slowly. Then it vanished, and Louise looked thoughtful. "Using Light in battle would take a lot of practice beforehand, so it's not as simple as casting it . . . but everyone already knows about using Light to distract the enemy by getting them to look in the wrong direction, so at least this answer used an original approach."

"Yeah. Hey, can you cast Light so that it 'sticks' to something?"

She blinked. "I might be able to learn to do that. Why?"

"Stick it to just in front of an opponent's face, and go on to cast something else."

"I-" Louise shook her head. "Keeping a spell going without something to anchor it, while I cast another . . . that would be very hard."

"But useful. Especially if you can work it out as a general way to modify any spell."

That got his little mistress to boggle. "A way to . . . how in Brimir's name would I do that?!"

"I don't know the specifics!" Jason protested. "But why couldn't there be a way to tell a spell, 'go do this thing on your own, here's enough vis to keep going for a while'?"

"And now you want me to invent a way to give cantrips extra vis without a nobilum or even a Marked array to sustain them!" Louise shook her head. "Yes, if I learned how to do that it'd be much easier than maintaining the flow of vis to more than one spell, but learning how to do it in the first place-" She shook her head again. "You just don't know enough to know how impossible that is."

"Eh, impossible just means that no one's figured out how to do it yet." He tilted his head. "And a lot of times, the process of figuring it out reveals that there's an even better way to accomplish a goal. But you say it's rare for mages to learn to sustain one spell while casting another?"

Louise nodded. "Mother can do it. Some of her best combat spells are really two Square spells, cast so quickly that it's almost like she cast together. She's even practiced to the point where she can cast them faster than most mages can cast a single Triangle, or sometimes even a single Line. But hardly anyone else can manage that."

"So what you're saying is, if you learned how to sustain a Light, stuck to an opponent's face, while you cast other spells, you'd be pulling off a feat of magic that your mother would find both impressive and appropriate to one of her daughters."

She froze. After several long seconds, she closed her eyes and shook her head again. "I don't even know if I can."

"That doesn't mean it's not worth trying. And I doubt very many people are prepared to fight while blinded, so it's just about guaranteed to take an enemy out of the fight, and without even hurting them."

"Like how Zerbst's father was able to use Dazzle," she replied slowly. "But as a cantrip, not a Line." Louise shook her head once more. "That would mean a lot of practice. I'd have to puzzle out how to get the Light to stick and learn to sustain it while casting, but-"

"But if there's one thing you know how to do, it's practice." Then Jason smirked. "And if there's one thing you want to do, it's show up Kirche."

His little mistress gave him an unamused look by way of reply.

"Anyway, you said something about using Marked runes to sustain a spell?"

She held the unamused look for another moment, then nodded. "It's easier than ennobling something, but on the other hand, a lumen lapideus is better at sustaining Light than any runic array, and once it's ennobled all you have to do is Empower it to keep it going."

"Do Marked arrays have triggers, like nobilia? Like how we just need to snap our fingers to turn the light on and off?"

"They can, but it's extra work to make a trigger. Most of the time, you just cast the spell that the Marked runes are drawn to sustain." Louise furrowed her brow in thought. "The easiest way to make a trigger is to have the array react by someone breaking or even just touching the runes."

Jason nodded. "What about setting the runes to go off when someone reads a message?"

She shook her head. "I have no idea how you'd set a trigger to react to anything passive like that."

"Damn. So that means there's no way to have a trap go off when someone reads, 'I prepared explosive Marks this morning'."

His little mistress shot him another unamused look. "Are you trying to be funny?"

"Well, explosions are your signature effect, at least since you summoned me. Even Kirche has to respect them, as much as she'd rather not."

Louise ground her teeth. "Magic can't do something just because you think it'd make a good jest! And just because spells explode when I miscast doesn't mean I can use Mark that way!"

Jason reached over to ruffle her hair, but she ducked away. "Aw, c'mon, I'm just trying to help you figure out what you can do, if you push the boundaries a little. And if we're having a little fun, too, aren't we still sticking to the spirit of Madam Chevreuse's assignments?"

"It's not about fun. It's about making sure we're thinking about how to use our spells." Louise sighed. "Which I suppose you were trying to do, as absurd as you were being. But at least this assignment is complete. So what are you going to do while I practice?"

"Well, one thing I need to do is go through my books and copy down all the gun-hints I can find, to show to Mr. Colbert. After that, once the sun is setting we should go for a walk around the Academy."

"You're dragging me along for more exercise?"

"Yeah, it'll be good for your endurance, and it'll help keep your legs from stiffening up tomorrow."

"Fine!" she grumbled. "We'll go walking tonight."

Louise yawned as they made their way back to the Second Form tower.

"Feeling sleepy?"

She nodded.

"Need me to carry you?"

For a moment, it seemed like she was perking up, but then her expression shut down. "I'm sleepy, not sick. Here, take my hand. I'll Levitate us the rest of the way."

And then, later, as soon as she was dressed for bed, she backed away from him and got into bed immediately.

Dammit.

"I noticed you running again this morning," Mr. Colbert observed the next day. "Are you planning on doing so every day?"

Louise nodded. "If you can run fast enough, you can be where another mage isn't expecting by the time she completes her spell. Jason proved that a few days ago, so I'm going to try to exercise, too."

"Hmm. Were you able to keep up with your targeting practice in Bruxelles?"

That got a flush. "Not really," she muttered.

"Pity. I've given some thought to minor nobilia that would move on their own, to provide a better challenge, but if you've allowed your aim to mildew-"

Her eyes widened. "I'll be back to where I was in no time!" she promised. "Once I finish this morning's assignment, I'll practice my aim until luncheon!"

"Then I shall see where you are, and decide whether the effort would be worth it."

Louise nodded, took her assignment, and fled.

"You're still going to give her the upgraded targets, right?" Jason asked.

"Most likely," Mr. Colbert agreed with a smile. "If I wish your assistance, then I must perforce provide a substitute for you during her practice. But she'll be more motivated to use them, if she thinks she's in danger of falling behind."

"Yeah." He suppressed a pained frown. Having Louise ride on his shoulders while she practiced her aim from a moving platform had been kinda fun, and he was going to miss it. Of course, she might not be willing to do that with us anymore. Kinda intimate, our neck jammed up between her thighs like that, and if she's trying to shore up the noble/commoner barrier she won't be willing to do that anymore.

We need a way to test our relationship that's not too obviously flirty, but still provides-

"Jason? You're looking off into nothing. Is all well?"

He shook himself. "I'm fine. Sorry, just thinking. Hey, you've had ice-cream before, right?"

Mr. Colbert nodded. "A delicious treat, although not often provided at the Academy. We'll see plenty of sherbet as summer comes on, of course, to help with the heat."

"Right. Okay, listen to this."

Jason quickly explained how rock salt made ice-cream easier to make, then went on to describe, as best he could recall, the hand-cranked machine that his scout troop had used to make ice cream on camp-outs.

The professor looked thoughtful after he finished his description, but didn't immediately reply.

"I think," Mr. Colbert finally said, "that I might be able to assemble such a machina out of spare parts lying around from working on the steam engine. And what I do not have, I could assuredly shape."

Jason nodded. "Can't say I'm surprised. Uh, can I run up to Louise's room and fetch something? It's a tool we commoners kinda need for eating ice-cream."

"An eating tool? Like a knife?"

"More like a small ladle. I'll be back in a bit, right?"

He took off at the professor's nod, and returned a few minutes later with the plastic spork from his MRE.

"Here. This is known as a spork, which is a combination of a fork and a spoon. A spoon is basically a small ladle, made so people can bring food from a bowl to their mouths. Since we don't have Levitate where I'm from."

Mr. Colbert took the spork and peered at it. "Interesting. And these short spikes on the end?"

"That's the fork part of a spork. A fork is four thin prongs on the eating end instead of a small ladle, used to pick up solid pieces of food that can't be as easily handled with a spoon. Good for meat, for example."

"I believe I see. Are you hoping I can make spoons and forks for you?"

"Well, the rock salt trick means that ice-cream is a lot more affordable, so that even commoners start to be able to afford it. Except we can't-"

"You can't Levitate it, yes."

"Too cold and messy to eat with fingers, too solid to drink like stew, too soft for a knife to be entirely practical, and yeah, commoners can't Levitate it. A spoon is just about necessary. Of course, steel rusts, so if there's a spell that'll prevent rust, at least until Mr. Edelsten completes the spell that turns steel into stainless steel . . ." Jason trailed off, and his cheeks flushed. "I wouldn't mind being able to surprise Louise with some ice-cream, after lunch."

Mr. Colbert regarded him with eyes that twinkled slightly, and his flush increased.

"Very well," the teacher finally said. "This machina does sound interesting, and I'm sure the kitchen will be happy to receive it, once you've tested it out."

"Jason?" Siesta exclaimed, looking surprised, when he showed up early to the kitchen. "Why are you here so soon? And what's in that sack you're carrying?"

He heaved the sack onto a table, and extracted the ice-cream machine from it. "Spent half the morning working on this with Mr. Colbert. Here," he fished out a sheet of paper, "here are the instructions for how to make ice-cream. We think. Won't know for sure until we've tested it."

"Ice-cream?" Siesta repeated.

"Yep. Ingredients go in the inner bowl, ice and salt in the outer, turn the crank-" he broke off with a yelp as he was seized from behind.

"You've returned!" Chef Marteau exclaimed, squeezing Jason in a tight bear-hug before spinning him around and hugging him again. "And according to Siesta you've been sharing recipes with her cousin! Have you found yourself a wife, then?"

"What? No!" Jason broke free and brought some oxygen to lungs that had been starting to complain of the lack.

"But to give up family recipes to a stranger-!"

He offered the chef a sheepish smile. "They needed help. Besides, they weren't family recipes that I gave up. Just various things from my homeland."

In his defense, Jason didn't realize the danger until Chef Marteau threw up his hands in a display of horrified disbelief. "You give your recipes to others, even though I have been training you-!"

"Wait!" he shouted quickly, hoping to forestall the outbreak of Sudden Jewish Mother-in-Law. "I'll write them down for you – these were all things that I'm not going to be able to eat until I've gotten in shape – and I have some other recipes that Siesta's cousin wouldn't have been able to use."

The chef calmed down immediately, and gave him a calculating look. "Why couldn't she?"

"Because they rely on having a lot of meat available. That's a thing for nobles, not commoners. And here at the Academy, well-"

"Here we have no shortage of nobles," Chef Marteau nodded, eyes gleaming. "And the whole summer to test recipes on the professors before offering them to the pickier appetites of students."

"Uh, yeah."

"Well, now!" The chef seized Jason in yet another bear-hug, all trace of his earlier upset vanished. "I shall assemble the ingredients you need for your ice-cream experiment, and you shall write down what you know, yes?"

"You can stop giggling now," Jason told Siesta as he turned the crank on the ice cream machine.

She didn't stop giggling, her face the very image of merriment. "But it was so funny, the way Chef Marteau made you feel guilty about not sharing your recipes with him before you visited Bruxelles."

"Meh. Although I suppose I hope they meet with approval, when he offers them to the staff."

"I'm sure they'll love it," Siesta replied confidently, her giggles finally subsiding. "Although you will need to sample his first attempt at tortillas, or he'll be upset again."

"Already figured I'd need to do that," Jason replied wryly. "I don't mind. Fresh tortillas are delicious, and as far as I can tell you guys don't have maize around here to make them with."

"Maize?"

"A kind of grain. The original tortillas were made with it, but I've always found maize tortillas to be very dry, so I much prefer wheat tortillas."

[Jason][where are you][?] came a sudden message from Louise. [it is almost time for luncheon]

[in the meal room already].[how did practice go][?]

[my aiming has mildewed while we were at the inn][,][but i am polishing it back up]

Mildew and polish? What . . . oh. Wand metaphor. [good to hear]

"It's almost lunchtime," Jason told Siesta, switching from his left hand back to his right hand, as he'd done back and forth several times already, trying to maintain a steady pace turning the crank. "I guess you should go get our food?"

She nodded, stood up, and made her way to the door. It opened just before she reached it, and Louise stood there.

Jason could see his little mistress's pleased expression crumble as she and the maid stared at each other, before she brushed past Siesta.

"Catching up with your maid some more?" his little mistress asked, sounding rather snippy, as the other girl exited to go get lunch.

Jason shrugged, and replied in a deliberately casual voice. "Caught a bit of hell from the kitchen for not sharing all the recipes I gave to Jessica, so I had to give those up along with a few others that I don't think the Inn could afford to do."

"Like what?"

"Like something called an 'enchilada'. Mom's recipe was always pretty heavy on the beef or the chicken."

Louise blinked, her annoyance derailed for the moment. "You gave up a family recipe? Aren't those supposed to be kept secret, for commoners?"

He rolled his eyes. "Back where I'm from, you can find dozens of recipes for each dish I gave Chef Marteau, and a skilled chef can always improvise new variations on a recipe. Not something I'm going to worry about."

"Oh." She paused. "And what's this thing? Why do you keep turning the handle like that?"

"It's an ice-cream machine. Mr. Colbert threw it together using my description of the ic-cream machine we had when I was a Boy Scout, and I'm doing the test run for it."

"It's a machina?"

"Eh. Machina are toys for an emperor. This is a machine, and it does something useful." Still stirring, Jason opened the lid on the inner bowl. "And it looks like the ice-cream is just about done."

"You didn't ask-" Louise broke off what she'd been about to say. "Mr. Colbert gave you the ice for it, too?"

"No, the Academy apparently has its own ice house. Chef Marteau gave me all the ice I needed."

"Oh."

"Heh, you should have seen his reaction when I told him about mixing flavors into the ice-cream before freezing it." Jason gave the ice-cream another look, and stopped turning the crank. "Yeah, I'm calling it done." Then he pulled out one of the spoons that Mr. Colbert had made, scooped out a dollop of ice cream, and approached her with a smile. "Here, little mistress, open wide."

Louise, however, looked at the spoon suspiciously. "What is that?"

"It's a spoon. I got Mr. Colbert to make a few. Didn't I already tell you about them?"

"I . . . I don't need a spoon to eat ice-cream," she declared, pulling out her wand and Levitating the dollop from the spoon to her mouth.

Jason suppressed a sigh. We weren't saying you did, little mistress. But we were hoping to feed you some, and maybe afterward you'd need a bit of cleaning at the corner of your mouth. Like back at the Inn, when you kissed our cheek clean.

She chewed thoughtfully, not noticing, or at least not commenting, on his expression. "And that machine is less work than stirring the ice-cream by hand?"

He nodded, and did his best to get his expression back under control. "Not only that, hook up Mr. Colbert's steam engine and you won't need to stir it at all. He was rather delighted when he realized that."

"'Realized'? You didn't tell him?"

Jason rolled his eyes. "I was going to, once the machine was done, but he figured it out as soon as he put together the gears for the handle."

Louise nodded, and opened her mouth, but at that moment Siesta came through the door with a large platter, followed by Chef Marteau.

"You're not stirring any more?" the maid asked. "Does that mean the ice-cream's done?"

"Finished while you were gone, yeah. Little mistress, what do you think?"

"Raspberry preserves, this time?" Louise asked, and he nodded in reply. "I like it. I've liked them all, though. I'd guess you could crush up nearly any berry or fruit, or use any preserve, and it'd make good ice-cream."

"Just about," Jason agreed, as he spooned out a bowl for each of them, albeit a much smaller bowl for himself. Then he presented the mixing bowl to the other man with a smile. "Chef Marteau, I present to you one mixing bowl of raspberry ice-cream, to be distributed about the Academy as you see fit."

The chef smiled back, bowed, and hurried out the door.

He then turned back to the table to see Siesta examining the spoon in her bowl with curiosity. "What's this for?"

"Eating the ice-cream with."

"What?"

Okay, seriously, is the concept that hard to handle? "Here," Jason said, feeling just a bit impatient as he took the spoon from Siesta, dipped it into the bowl, and came out with a small spoonful of ice cream. "Open wide."

"What?"

"Open your mouth wide."

Her eyes went from the spoon, to him, and back again a few times. "You want to put that into my mouth?"

Of all the times when 'That's what she said' is apropos- "Just trust me?"

Looking dubious, Siesta nonetheless opened her mouth, and Jason promptly fed her the ice cream. "Now close your lips, but not your teeth, you don't want to bite down on steel . . . and the spoon comes back out, and the ice cream stays inside your mouth. See how it works?"

She nodded, looking blissful as the taste of the ice-cream (quite possibly the first ice-cream she'd ever had, he suddenly realized) hit her. She chewed slowly, her eyes closed, savoring the flavor, and finally swallowed. Then she opened her eyes back up and smiled at him. "That was wonderful! May I have another?"

Jason chuckled, and served her up another spoonful. This time she showed no apprehension, and leaned forward, wrapping her lips around the head of the spoon eagerly, even moaning slightly in appreciation.

Well, good thing it's just the three of us here. If anyone else saw this, the rumors-!

Then he glanced at Louise, and had to suppress a wince. His little mistress did not look amused.

"Anyway," he said quickly, taking Siesta's hand and wrapping it around the handle of the spoon, "that's how spoons are used."

She nodded, then her eyes fell on Louise's bowl. "Why don't you have a spoon?" she asked. "I'm sure Jason would be willing to show you how to use one."

His little mistress looked disconcerted for a moment. Then she flushed. Then her eyes narrowed. "I'm a noble!" she snapped, holding up her wand. "I don't need a spoon to eat ice-cream! That's for commoners!"

Siesta nodded, and dug into her bowl of ice-cream for a third spoonful.

"I could show you how to use a spoon, if you like," he offered. "Just in case you have to pretend to be a commoner again at some point."

"I-" For a moment, it looked like Louise was about to agree, but then her eyes narrowed again. "If I have to pretend to be a commoner, I won't be using a spoon. That's your people's tool, not Halkagenia's."

"Yeah, but spoons are handy for eating anything soft or mostly liquid. I won't be surprised at all if the idea spreads."

"Just sit down and eat your ice cream. Since you did serve yourself some ice-cream."

"A little bit, yes."

Siesta was now looking from one to the other. "Is something the matter?" she asked worriedly.

"No!" Louise snapped. Then she grimaced. "Not anymore. Now that we're back at the Academy, everything can go back to how it was before."

Yes, but you can't go back. We can only go forward. That's life.

Not that he was foolish enough to say it out loud.

"Not bad, Miss Vallière," Mr. Colbert allowed as Louise hit target after target from a fair distance. "Your training has not been set back nearly so much as I'd feared."

"Then you'll provide better targets?"

"In a few days, yes. For now, continue to practice as you are, increasing your distance. And, of course, here is your assignment for the afternoon."

"And done!" Louise announced triumphantly, early the following afternoon, setting her quill down.

"You've already completed today's assignments?" Jason asked. "That was fast."

"I know. Which means I have time to work on designing the wand formulated for Mix." She paused. "And have you made any progress on her Highness's request?"

"Been thinking about it a little," he replied. "The trick is going to be setting up a system so that the recovery shelters pay for themselves, but don't just end up being a source of cheap labor that works their residents to the bone." Pause. "And make sure they don't end up being whorehouses with royal backing."

"You think they-" Louise paused again. "The women who need it were already fooled by a man who wouldn't take responsibility, after. Like Nicole," she allowed grudgingly. "So other men might think they're easily seduced. That's what you're worried about, right?"

"Yeah, that's one of the problems. Keeping men away from them is going to be important." Then Jason offered a wry smile. "On the other hand, if you isolate women from men, or men from women, that can and will cause other problems. They need chances to have regular social contact with men, but with no pressure to be seduced.

"Which means allowing for visitors, and . . . I think they'll need to organize frequent balls or something. But they're going to need a lot of chaperones, especially at first when a lot the men coming around are expecting the recovery women to be, well, easily seduced, like you said. Or for sale."

"Hmph. It wouldn't just be commoners coming around, nobles like Count Motte would-" Louise broke off. "But wouldn't that be a good thing, for them to find husbands who can support them?"

He nodded. "If the women in recovery are courted properly, and not forced into it, sure. Honestly, we don't want it to go like Nicole's case, where she wasn't allowed any real choice in the matter."

His little mistress sniffed disdainfully. "That's because she went poking around in Princess Henrietta's design."

"True enough. But Nicole's original plan – to build up a good dowry, convince a journeyman to marry her, and invest her dowry into getting him his own shop? – is a lot closer to the ideal goal for the women in recovery. If they're there because they've children and no one to support them, that is."

A thoughtful look came across Louise's face, and after a moment she nodded. "It's like having an estate, isn't it? Even if you marry someone with a demesne, you're still bringing resources of your own into the marriage, and not just your magic."

"And it'd raise their marriageability status, so that they wouldn't have to settle for the worst prospects." Jason frowned thoughtfully. "The problem there is, once money is involved, there's incentive for those administering the program to siphon off the wages that ought to be going to the women enrolled in the program. And since the administrators will necessarily be in authority, that kind of theft won't be hard to set up."

"So more audits for Count Motte to perform."

"Yeah, but," he scratched the back of his head, "I'd rather make it hard for it to even get started. Maybe set it up so that the officials who're in charge of living conditions, developing skills, finding work, and handling accounts are all different people? And set up their incentives to be at odds with each other, so that if someone starts cheating the girls it shorts the other officials as well?"

Louise's eyebrows rose slightly. "That . . . it's not how the Church would do it. But if too many in the Church are failing their Brimir-given duties to those in dire need . . . shouldn't you be writing all this down, so I can send it to her Highness?"

"Uh-" Jason smiled sheepishly. "Yeah, I probably should."

The very next evening, he encountered Kirche as he was hauling water up the stairs.

"You are back!" she declared, smirking. "And here I was sure that the pink bitch ran off to get married."

Jason smiled tightly in response. "So sorry to disappoint, but I don't think Louise has ever done what you planned."

"Oh, I don't need to make plans for her. All she has to do is say she'll try something, and you know it'll fail!"

That wiped the smile off his face. "Kirche, it's possible that was the case back when you both were First Form. But Louise is Second Form, now, and that means she has me. And I am not used to failure."

The tall, tanned redhead (with a great rack!) blinked, then burst out laughing. "You?! The Zero's familiar, with zero auxilia? How can you expect to be anything but a failure?"

"I'd say, 'watch me', but Mr. Colbert warned Louise away from you. I'll bet he's warned you away from her as well. So with that said, get out of my way. These buckets need to get up to Louise's room."

Kirche's eyes narrowed, but she let him pass, and he made it the rest of the way to the bedroom unmolested.

There Jason found his little mistress finishing up a salve.

"What's that for?" he asked, setting the buckets down. "You know it's about time for us to go out walking, right?"

"I know," Louise replied a bit sharply. "This is for my legs. They've been sore for days, now, and I can't stand it!"

"Ah. You're not making the tonic you made for me?"

"My legs are already sore! I didn't wear myself out like you did, those first few times you carried the buckets up here, but they won't stop hurting!"

"Okay." He held up his hands in quick surrender. "Want some help putting it on?"

"I can do that myself!"

"I'm not saying you can't. But if you want some help-"

Louise glared . . . but then the glare softened. "That's-" Then she stopped, like she wasn't sure how to go on.

"Here, I'll go sit on the bed," Jason said, suiting deed to word and sitting not far from the foot of the bed. "When you're done, come lie down and put your feet in my lap."

She nodded, looking uncertain.

But when she finished, she came over to the bed, handed him the jar of fresh unguent, and lay down as he directed, her head on the pillows and her feet in his lap.

Jason turned his head away to hide his smirk until he could get it under control. Let's see . . . never trained in massage therapy, but as long as we take it slow and gentle, it should both improve her circulation and help her muscles relax. Setting the jar to the side, he began gently rubbing Louise's hosiery-covered feet.

"What-" she gasped. "What are you doing?"

"Helping your feet relax a bit, before I start applying the salve for your muscles."

"That's what the salve is for, Jason! To make my muscles relax and stop hurting!"

"That's true, and I'll starting using it in just a little bit. But you forgot to take your hosiery off, and until you do that there's not a lot of point in putting anything on your legs."

Louise gasped again, and he looked up from her feet to see that she was blushing. "I, I need to get out of bed-"

"No you don't!" he assured her. "Here, I'll close my eyes, and you can take them off while I'm not looking." At least this is different from when we arrived, and you were saying that having us around wasn't like inviting a boy into your room. Suppose that's progress, at least.

There was no sound of anything for a moment while he had his eyes closed, but then she made a noise not entirely unlike a whimper, and her feet lifted from his lap long enough for the sound of clothing sliding down her legs to end in the sound of cloth being tossed onto the floor.

Jason opened his eyes back up to see Louise smoothing down her skirt, still red-faced. Then she met his eyes defiantly. "I'm ready! Start using the salve!"

"As you wish."

He applied the first dollop of salve to her feet, to give him the excuse to play with her toes a bit, and see where she might be ticklish. And, hell, as soft and smooth as her feet were, giving his little mistress a foot-rub was proving to be an enjoyable experience in its own right.

Don't think this counts as a fetish, though, he thought, as he gently rubbed her feet from the balls to the pads, before lightly pinching her toes and eliciting a giggle from Louise. Just a form of very light foreplay.

But soon enough the salve was entirely worked into the skin of her feet, and he moved on to her ankles. Where her skin was equally soft and smooth, and completely hairless.

Do girls have their leg hair come in slower than guys? Her mons venus definitely had . . . did the locals already come up with shaved legs for women? We haven't noticed anyone doing that. On the other hand, could just be another potion.

"Jason?" his little mistress asked. "Why did you stop?"

"Oh! Sorry, just-" he broke off, and quickly resumed the ankle rub. Her legs weren't the only ones on display at the Inn, they were all smooth, and all of the other faeries are older than her. There's gotta be something that they do. And if she's not comfortable enough to talk about it-

He let that line of thought go fallow, applied more salve and started rubbing slow circles on the back of her left calf. She sighed in response.

"Starting to feel better?" he asked as he switched over to her right calf.

"It's nice," Louise admitted in a soft voice that was nearly a whisper. "Tingles."

He glanced over to her face. Her eyes had closed, and her lips were parted slightly in a slight smile.

Yes! Jason grinned to himself as he finished up and shifted his hands to her upper calves.

There was silence for the next few moments as her calf muscles slowly loosened under his hands. Then his hands dipped around to work on the back of her knees, and Louise gasped in response.

He paused. "You okay?"

"T-that t-tickles!" she got out in a shuddering voice, clearly trying not to laugh.

"Ah." Jason offered her an evil smirk. "So that's where you're the most ticklish, huh?"

Her eyes opened wide. "No! Don't you dare start tickling me!"

"Aw." But after quickly spreading the lotion over the ticklish spots he moved his hands back to the front of her knees and resumed the gently rubbing circles that had proven to work on her calves. "I suppose the question is, does Henrietta know that you're ticklish there?"

"Yes."

And there was clearly a story or two of childhood hijinks behind her tone, but his little mistress chose not to volunteer any of them. So Jason kept quiet and focused on enjoying the feel of her smooth skin beneath his hands as he gently rubbed the salve in.

A minute or so later, Louise uttered a soft sigh. "It's finally starting to work. Merciful Brimir that feels better!"

"Glad to be of assistance," he replied. If she's feeling good there's probably no better time to be daring-!

So he took a generous dollop of salve in one hand, pushed her dress up high enough to expose a few inches of her lower thighs-

His little mistress twitched. "Jason? Wha-"

"Yeah, I know, your thighs probably hurt the most of all," he interrupted. Come on, let us keep going! "If I'm not being gentle enough, or if you just need me to stop, tell me and I'll let you take over."

Her hands clenched at her sides, but then they relaxed, and Louise nodded and closed her eyes again. "Just, don't go any higher. I'll take care of the rest after this."

Well, on the one hand . . . but on the other, she did just give him permission to rub the lowest part of her thigh. That's got to be scandalously intimate, right? And maybe we can get her to change her mind.

Louise twitched again as Jason spread the salve a few inches above her knees. And she twitched harder as he began spreading it out with the same slow, circular motion he'd used on her calves. But then, as the unguent was worked into sore skin and muscle, she relaxed again with a soft sigh.

Finally he stopped, hesitating. If we're going to get permission to keep going, now's the time to ask. But-

"Jason?" Louise asked, opening her eyes again. "What's wrong?"

Now or never. "Nothing!" he assured her. "I'm finished, that's all. Unless you'd like to relax some more while I work on the next few inches?"

Her eyes widened as she raised her head a bit and looked down at her skirt. Her mouth opened, but then she hesitated.

Not an automatic rejection? That's-

"I think-" Louise started. "It still hurts a bit, where you were just rubbing. Put a little more salve there."

His eyebrows shot up, but then he nodded, doing his best to conceal a smirk, and hastened to obey.

And as he finished redoing the bit just above her knees, his little mistress let out a soft moan as his fingers lifted from her skin.

"I supposed that's that. You'll need to do the rest, unless you want me to keep going." If we can get her to hike her skirt up a few more inches we'll be edging into miniskirt territory. Although she'd have to roll up her culottes, or . . . wait, they come down to her knees, so shouldn't we have run into those already? Did she roll them up or something?

"Yes, keep-" Louise started to repeat in a soft voice that was rather close to the bedroom voice she'd learned to use at the Charming Faerie Inn. Then she sucked in her breath, opened her eyes, and shook her head. Albeit with a slightly disappointed expression. "No. No, that was very thoughtful, Jason, but I do need to do the rest."

He nodded, smiling to cover his own pang of disappointment. Idiot. You got to feel her up all the way just past her knees. How is that not a good sign? "Of course. In that case, little mistress, want me to rub your feet a bit more while you're attending to the rest of your muscles?"

Her eyes widened a bit, and then she smiled back, looking a bit relieved. "Yes, that would be very nice. Thank you."

So he sat up and started rubbing her feet, starting back up at her toes and gently pinching-

"Jason?"

He froze. What did we do wrong now? "Yes?"

"I need you to look away for a moment, while I lift my skirt up."

Oh. "Alright."

So he looked in the other direction, over to where she'd apparently kicked her hosiery off-

And right there, at the top of Louise's hosiery, lay her culottes as well.

The blood seemed to drain from his face for a moment, before rushing back in with an incandescent blush.

Oh. Oh! She didn't roll them up, soas far as she can tell, we were trying to-

He carefully blanked his mind and focused on rubbing ever last bit of soreness out of his little mistress's feet.

Then said feet shifted.

"Jason? Look away again. I'm turning over so I can rub the salve on the back of my legs."

He quickly nodded and looked away. Although that's gotta be awkward for her, since she won't be able to see what she's doing. We could-

No. No! She was hesitant already, we're not going to ruin tonight by asking her for permission to rub lotion into her ass!

Even if it does make for a charming thought.

So he kept quiet, and focused on her feet. Which eventually Louise withdrew, as she swung her body around, and sat up next to him.

"Jason," she said curiously, "why are you blushing?"

"Ah-" his mind blanked, and his mouth started speaking before he could come up with something clever. "Hadn't realized you'd taken your culottes off, along with the hosiery."

"Oh."

"And there I was, trying to lift your skirt like a curious twelve-year-old-"

"Jason."

He shut up.

"It's . . . your hands were gentle, applying the salve. Most familiars couldn't have done that."

Back to seeing us as a familiar? "So which function was that, then? Protecting your health?"

Louise rolled her eyes. "Familiars may not have auxilia to comfort their masters, but that doesn't mean you don't comfort us." She paused. "Aside from the ones that are just tools."

Changing to a safe topic? Hurray! "There are familiars that are just tools?"

She nodded. "Some mages don't need the companionship that a familiar can provide, so their familiars are creatures of pure instinct. No caring or warmth, just purpose, and that purpose is given to them by their masters."

"Sounds a bit lonely."

"I never wanted a familiar like that, but talk to a mage who has one and they'll tell you that it's more convenient for them. The familiar doesn't demand their time, or distract them, or-" Louise shook her head. "If you're already content with your path as a mage, I suppose it might not be too bad. Anyway, my legs feel better, so if we're going to go for a walk before bed, let's do it."

"Right." Jason stood up, and eyed her as she put her shoes back on. "No culottes or hosiery?"

"I already took them off, there's no point in putting them back on tonight." She led him out the door and Levitated them both down to the bottom of the tower.

He looked around the tower as they descended. No one seemed to be there, but he still spoke quietly. "Yeah, but with your culottes already off, it's probably best if you put your chemise on yourself tonight."

Louise eyed him narrowly as they touched down in the atrium at the bottom. "Trying to get out of work? I suppose I can start Levitating my clothes on, like the other students."

"I'm happy to help you dress, and if you want me to do it tonight, I will. But then at least leave the skirt on until I've got the chemise on you." A sudden blush spread over his face. "Please."

Her eyes narrowed further. "If you want to keep dressing me, I suppose I'll let you, since I want to be a good master." There was a clear note of annoyance in her voice as she turned away. "Come on, let's get moving."

With that, Louise marched off.

Jason followed her, feeling a bit perplexed. Did we say something wrong? You were nervous as hell back in your room, but now you're acting like . . . were we supposed to not mention it? Just carry on, and take advantage of an opportunity to look at you entirely nude?

Then why not let us keep going with the salve?

Don't get it. We just don't get it.

"Are you still working on that proposal for recovery houses?" Louise asked the next night, sitting down on the other side of the table and Levitating the alchemical tools she'd acquired in Bruxelles onto the table in front of her.

"Yeah," Jason replied, looking up from the papers in front of him and scratching his head. "It's . . . I've had to scrap the model and start over four times now. They've all ended up being too easy to break by someone willing to take advantage of the women in the program." He half-smiled, half-grimaced. "Except the last one. That just ended up being too complicated to work without being a vast money sink."

She frowned as she began her arcane preparations. "You can tell they're easy to break?"

"Uh-huh. I think about what I'd do if I were unscrupulous, or at least could convince myself that the women in recovery were all trash and deserved to be taken advantage of if it would be to the benefit of someone more respectable." He grimaced again. "Like I said, it's been too easy to figure out how to break the systems I've come up with. But maybe number five will do the trick."

His little mistress cast Mix, and didn't respond while she stirred the various reagents she'd placed into the mixing bowl in front of her. But eventually she pulled her wand out of the mixture, which was now beginning to resemble a paste, and looked up. "What are you trying for this fifth design?"

"Smaller buildings scattered throughout the city for the women to board in. One bad administrator affects fewer of the women, and hopefully is easier to discover. Also, the program become easier to expand or shrink, depending on what's needed. Maybe round-robin the domestic skills development-"

"'Round robin'?" Louise interrupted.

"Uh, colloquial term. Guess it didn't translate." Jason shrugged. "Given the givens, some of these women aren't going to know how to keep a household running well. And for the foreseeable future, those skills are going to be pretty important-"

"I know that," she interrupted again. "That's why Jessica made sure we faeries did all sorts of chores along with the cooking." Grimace. "It would have been miserable if I hadn't already known Levitate well enough to use it instead having to use my hands."

"Oh, like chopping vegetables?"

"If I'd had more time to practice Levitate before we came to the Inn I could have held the knife with it," she grumbled. Then, glaring at nothing: "And Zerbst has had years of practice!"

"You'll get there, though. Faster then she did, I'll bet, given how hard you practice."

"I'd better." Louise shook herself. "So what is this round bird of yours?"

"Bird-? Oh! Round robin. It's where you go from one person to the next all the way back to the first person. The idea is, if women in a particular dorm become content to slack off, the solution would be to send them off to work for other dorms." Jason frowned down at the paper in front of him. "Maybe I should talk to the head maid here, see how she motivates the staff here at the Academy. Or I suppose I could write to Jessica, ask her the same thing."

His little mistress's eyes narrowed. "Try the head maid first," she commanded with a hint of growl in her voice.

"Yeah, she's gonna have a lot more experience," he agreed. "Good point. Pity we can't send the girls around to noble households that can't afford as many servants as they'd like. Plenty of those in Bruxelles, I reckon."

"Why can't we-" Louise broke off. "You don't want them in the hands of people like de Montferat."

"Or Count Motte. Or the Fontlebaum ass who got Nicole pregnant. Or that Gallian merchant with his nephews." Jason nodded. "Another problem is coming up with jobs that the women can do that'll earn money, but I'll just go to Annabelle – the head maid – with that question as well.

"Whatever the jobs are, a percentage of the pay goes to the boarding house the women are staying at to cover room and board expenses, and a smaller percentage of the remainder goes to their financial adviser as a commission."

"You think they're going to need a financial counselor?" she asked, finishing up her paste – it looked a lot like the salve he'd rubbed into her calves last night – and setting it aside.

He shrugged. "They'll be there because they want to recover from a life gone wrong. Part of that is going to mean learning to make wiser choices. Especially about money. So someone will have to train them, and make sure they don't squander their pay until they learn better." He shrugged again. "I mean, not all of them will need to learn that, but a lot of them. Maybe most."

"Well, they are commoners," Louise pointed out reasonably. Then, in a slightly darker tone: "They're supposed to have nobles taking care of them, instead of being abandoned to rot in the slums. Bruxelles is beautiful, the shining jewel of Tristain, and I never realized how much corruption was hiding there."

"Eh, hopefully we can help Princess Henrietta fix some of that." Jason made a few more notes, then put his pen back down and jerked his head towards the bowl Louise had been using. "That more salve for your legs?"

"Mm-hmm." She glanced down. "Since I felt better, I pushed myself harder this morning, but I don't want to let my legs hurt as bad as they did yesterday, so I made more salve."

"Sensible." His lips quirked into a slight smile. "I'll be happy to rub it in for you again, if you like." And this time, if you take your culottes off again maybe we'll see how far up your legs-

"No," she declined, shattering his train of thought. "That's . . . thoughtful of you, but you should keep working on your proposal for her Highness."

"But-"

"No buts!" Louise admonished. "This was a personal request from the Crown! You must be sure to offer your very best effort!"

Not that it was easy to focus on his notes. Not while, right behind him on the bed, he could hear the very soft sounds of his little mistress rubbing the muscle-soothing salve over her legs. Her bare legs. Her soft, silky-smooth-

Jason shook himself, and then scowled down at table. C'mon, Louise, you were enjoying letting us touch you last night, we're almost certain of that. Yes, working at the Inn shook things up, but can't you be a little more on and a little less off?