Hello again! I have returned. I have a lot of thing on my plate but this chapter was already ready time ago, so zero problems.

Sorry for continue using the OTL main canon. But the things are going to butterfly pretty soon.

Kyle returned to Louise's door, one problem less under his hat. He had eaten and had made contact with some more amicable freeborns, which at least were less insufferable than many nobles he had met during his short stay there. Speaking of those nobles, he had noticed something that day. They hadn't stopped glaring at him since he had beaten Guiche, but they withdrew as soon as he approached them to see if they had the courage to keep doing that at arm's reach. He was better off with the freeborns of the staff, besides that, he could eat as much as he wanted, and Marto was certainly a very good cook. Apart from that, Siesta of Tarbes was quite attractive. That didn't solve all of his current problems but fixed some, which was a start. Besides, he was now a servant, and his place was with them, though they were paid ones, not isorlas like him. He'd thought about telling them Arthur's story, but he thought it best not to, at least for the time being.

When he reached the door he saw that Kirche's salamander was waiting for him, Kyle instincts kicked in and he adopted a defensive stance. He wasn't armed and didn't know the weak or strong points of that animal, but its name and flaming tail suggested it could attack him with fire, which wasn't good for him in the slightest. The animal came up and stopped in front of the boy, who was calculating the force that he needed to imprint vertically with his right leg on the reptile's skull to kill it. But before Kyle could attack the animal, it gave a slight tug of the jumpsuit's pants with its mouth and turned away. That is not an attack for sure. If was, it was pretty pathetic.

"Kerensky's Blood! What are you doing?" The animal came up and tugged at his pants again, then turned and walked a couple of steps down the hall. "Do you want me to follow you?" In response, the animal kept walking. "Aff, I will follow. This is the strangest thing that has ever happened to me... ever." He muttered. What would be next? A talking surat? At this rate, he would lose his mind soon.

The lizard led him to a door and nodded. Kyle stood for a moment looking at the animal and the door alternately, confused, but finally knocked it.

"Come in, it's open." There was a voice inside. Kyle ignored the contraction and entered the room...

... to remain frozen in the door. Inside the room was Kirche, obviously, but instead of the suggestive uniform of the academy with its almost impossible cleavage now she was wearing some kind of piece of freeborn underwear, full of ribbons and so transparent that almost left nothing to the imagination.

"Welcome to my sweet bedroom, Kyle."

"T- thank you." He achieved to say when he managed to swallow a bit. Kyle wasn't versed in freeborn mating rituals, but that situation had an unmistakable aspect of one for him. He finished entering the room. "With your permission." The girl laughed.

"How polite!" She said throwing a kiss in the air. "You must think me a lowly, despicable woman." Kyle raised an eyebrow.

"You have poor interactions with my master, but that is not my main conclusions about you."

"To be thought so is inevitable. Do you understand?" She continued." My runic name is Kirche the Ardent. My passion is flammable as hay."

"A- aff?" Kirche stood sideways showing a long, nicely shaped leg, and then turning towards the boy showing him the entire dress. Or whatever stravag thing it was. It was open from a tie that was at the level of the chest to the bottom, showing a matching lower part, tiny and tremendously suggestive as well. It was a great demonstration of self-control that Kyle didn't look lasciviously at the girl, and an even bigger one that he didn't throw himself on the girl without any contemplation. "You don't get it? I'm in love. Yes, me... of you!" Kyle blinked, falling in love was an alien term in the Clans. That word broke his train of thoughts, which included both of them in bed in a wild clan-style mating intercourse.

"Love?" He asked confused.

"Yes! Love comes so suddenly." She approached the boy. "The way you defeated Guiche... it was amazing! And your loyalty to your master! You're a unique man, Kyle." She put her left hand on Kyle's chest. "Besides, I always love handsome and strong men." She licked her lips. "After seeing this, I became Kirche the Passion." She grabbed Kyle by the jumpsuit neck and brought her lips close to his mouth. Kyle was about to take her by the back of her neck and reciprocate. Maybe that night was much more satisfying than he thought. Then a third voice interrupted them.

"Kirche!" Both looked at the place where the voice came from and saw an Academy student leaning out the window as if he didn't care how high it was.

"Oh, Sticks!" Kirche said confused as she recognized him.

"I came because you didn't come when we-" He couldn't continue because a Wolf-in-Exile's fist crashed against his face, a tooth struck against the window frame as the body it belonged to fell like a ton of bricks.

"Annoying pest!" He closed the window, then hesitated for a second. "We are on a third floor, quiaff?"

"Quiaff? Yeah- yes, we are." The Germanian come close again. "Where were we going?"

A new knock on the closed window interrupted them. Kyle was starting to get very angry, he cursed not having the pistol at hand at the moment. In the morning I would ride my Mech and crush a few vermin. He turned and saw a different boy, he opened the window.

"Kirche! You were supposed to come-" The boy's face turned red when a hand closed around his neck and squeezed, then smashed him against the windowsill, letting him fall into the void beyond, leaving a tooth mark on his forehead. Kyle closed the window and covered it with the curtains, swearing to break the neck of the next person who dares to interrupt him again. The girl's random sex life mattered little to him at the moment.

"Kyle-" Kirche tried to said when he grabbed her behind the back of her neck, kissed her and stuck his tongue into her throat, catching her by surprise although she recovered quickly. It seemed that her prey was more a hunter than she believed, which was always interesting.

Flame stepped away from her master's and the boy's path to the bed. Both fell on it. Kirche struggled with Kyle's jumpsuit trying to see how it opened. Kyle smiled and pulled the zipper down to the stomach, surprising the germanian.

"Kirche!" Another voice sounded, this time from the door. Kyle raised his head angrily, while he was searching for his boot knife. He was furious. He was going to cut the neck the next interloper. But his hand didn't manage to reach the empty knife sheath. At the door, dressed in her pink negligee, Louise frowned to them.

"M-master?" The girl's frown and clenched fists and teeth clearly showed her emotional state, she is angry, very much, with him.

"Zerbst! Whose familiar do you think you're touching?"

"Love and fire are the Zerbst family's destiny. It's a fate that burns in our bodies. It is our lifelong goal to embrace this passionate flame. You should know that." Kirche shrugged, while Louise shook in anger. "Besides, I think he's the one touching me." She said looking at Kyle's left hand that she was still clutching one of her breasts. Kyle quickly removed his hand knowing that something wasn't right, but in spite of it, the pinkette girl gritted her teeth.

"Come here, Kyle" She said using her hand like she was calling a disobedient dog. He frowned but a pain in the back of the head pierced his anger.

"Oh? Louise... he is indeed your familiar, but he has his own will too, don't you think? Please respect his choice. It isn't good to separate two people who love each other." Kyle blinked again in disbelief forgetting the pain. When had he-? It was clear to him that the redhead was very confused. "Is it true, Kyle?" And she took him by the head and sank it in her generous cleavage. Kyle regretted that his angry master was present, if not that moment would have been much more enjoyable.

"I see." Louise almost growled. "But keep in mind that tomorrow, dozens of nobles will be behind you, perverted god." Kyle jerked away from Kirche's embrace, coming out from between her breasts with wide eyes looking at Louise.

"Dozens of nobles? Why?"

"To fight you, everyone is behind this Germanian harlot as if they were in heat. Although, of course, she is always in-" Louise looked at her familiar face, he was mouth-wide smiling with a predatory look in his eyes.

"Finally! I want to fight an enemy more talented and honorable than that Guiche." He threw his right fist over the palm of his left hand. The girls looked at him confused. "I am tired of their looks of contempt, but even more of their lack of courage and honor to try to face me. Those freebirths do not have the guts to challenge me to a single duel. I am a Clan Wolf-in-Exile member! Do the nobles of this world have no value of their honor and bravery?"

"You're very brave darling!" The germanian embrace again Kyle giving a soft and sensual lick him in the ear, causing him a tingling that ran all over his back. "Let's stay with me." She whispered in his ear. "You'll not regret it." Louise shivered as if she was shaken by an inner earthquake.

"I-" She drew air into her lungs to make her voice sound steady. "I'll tell you one last time, familiar! Come with me."

"Is that an order, master?"

"AFFFF!" She said imitating the boy's language.

"At your service, master." He said getting up and closing the zipper of the jumpsuit. Suddenly a night promising a Clan-style sex session had been cut before it even started.

"B- but you're leaving me alone?" The redhead grabbed his arm giving him puppy eyes.

"Aff, it is myduty." Kyle said immune to these eyes at the same time he pulled himself free. He walked up to Louise. "At your command, master." Though internally he thought he would need a cold shower for several hours, or maybe days, to calm himself. And to top all that, her master's clothes, a semi-transparent pink nightgown with tiny panties, didn't help him in the slightest. He wondered if in that world all women wore that type of bedding. If so, he was in deep trouble. After all, although no one there was a member of hissikbo Kyle had always looked with equal interest to the cubs of othersikbos, and even to some freeborn females. He had never tried anything to avoid complicating his life, though it wasn't entirely out of his mind.

When they entered in Louise's room she closed the door and turned with a reddish face to him just a second before exploding.

"W- what the hell are you? A pervert dog among yours?" She shrieked with a firm, hard voice that would have delighted one of his former instructors.

"Neg, master. I did not think I would cause you any discomfort with my actions with Kirche in her room."

"Well, it does! Her family and mine have had a feud for generations. I will not let you approach her! Got it?"

"Aff, master." She sighed.

"At least you seem to obey me... sometimes. I can't allow you fall in love with her, not her. That's an order!" Kyle shot her a confused look.

"F- fall- fall in lo- love? I- Me?" He composed himself a little. "I think you are confused, master. I had no loving intentions whatsoever with miss Kirche."

"Then, what in the name of the Founder were you doing with her?" Kyle turned his face off annoyed.

"I want to have sex with her, master." Durgin a long moment the room remain silent, but that was only the calm before the storm.

"W- WHAT?" She screamed red as a tomato. "B-but- what kind of sexual predator are you? Are you some long lost relative of the Zerbst and have to get into everyone's bed?"

"Neg, master. I only wanted to relax a little."

"R- relax?" She went to her chest and recover her riding crop. Then she turned to him and began to bend the crop with teeth clenched. "A- and you said it calmly. I- I should-" She bent, even more, the crop, almost to the limit of its resistance. "Why would you need to relax d- dog?" Kyle tensed a little.

"I request permission of speak freely, master."

"W- what?"

"I ask your permission to express my opinion without any restrictions, master. Otherwise, my answers to your question will be incomplete."

"I- it's- okay, just talk" She relaxing the tension of the crop a little, while she was processing the definition that had just given her. The boy looked at the chairs in the room's table, she nodded and sit in one while he sat on one side of the table with a tired gesture.

"Master Louise, have you thought about what you did to me?" He said his hands over the table.

"What? What does that mean?" Se bent the crop again.

"You kidnap me, you dragged me away from everything I knew taking me to a world where you do not even have the technology Terra had a millennium ago." He started to fell a mild buzzing in the back of his head but he continued. "Inhabited by strange creatures and with people able to do- freebirth! MAGIC! I was a Clan Wolf-in-Exile cadet. I was going to be the next generation of warriors of the Clan! My future, my possible glory, everything that was to be in the Clan has disappeared for no other reason than to be your servant by a strange law and force that I do not understand."

"I'm the one who doesn't understand you! Being chosen as a mage's familiar is an honor."

"But you summon creatures! Pets! What does a pet understand about honor?" He spat. "Maybe in this world, but I have lived in four different planets and no one would think that. I do not mind being punished, but only if I deserve such punishment. And you used me after the classroom explosion as a target practice. You behave at all times as if whatever someone told you was an attack, as if you had to prove something and vent you frustrations and fears in me."

"Y- you saw what happened in the class- classroom! I'm incapable of doing proper magic! And a- about y-you-"

"That is not true." He stood up.

"W- what?" She looked at him confused.

"Tell me, master. How much does Kirche's flaming lizard measure and weigh?"

"W- I- I don't know. Maybe four feet and the weigh-"

"Thirty tons?"

"Founder almighty! No, of course not!"

"Then look out the window." The girl did and Kyle pointed out the dark silhouette of his machine. "You, I do not know how, summoned me. If you did not have much power perhaps I would have appeared alone or just the head of my Battlemech, but instead you carried hundreds of light years a thirty tons and ten meters high object with a living being inside in an instant. Explain to me how you did it if, as you say, you have no magic. One of our ships would take months or years."

The girl stared at the machine silhouette for a moment and then looked at the boy. Would it be possible? Even if she couldn't make the most simple spell, could he be right? It could be that she really had power, a great power, only that she was unable to channel it properly. At that moment she became depressed again. She could have a lot of power, but if she wasn't able to use it, it was like not having it.

"We just have to find the reason why you can not use it." The boy said suddenly.

"What?"

"Sorry, master. I was thinking about another sibko member who had bad marks scores. There were some rumors about his expulsion from the sibko when, one day, his scores started to surpass ours."

"What happened?"

"One of his eyes was dominant over the other." Kyle didn't know the name of this visual problem. "When he discovered that, he started to train himself in secret to correct that. I saw him once hit a target over one hundred meters outside of the maximum weapon range of a light automatic cannon. Using parabolic shots. He even repeated the trick with an Ultra AC/20 once, although the extra reach was smaller."

"Ultra ei- ci twenty? What is that?"

"An Ultra Auto-Cannon Class 20. Ultra stands for its rate of fire, double than the usual. The AC or Automatic Cannons are capable of firing High Explosive Armor Piercing round to a target. The Twenty is related to its power, in fact, Class 20 is the most powerful type of automatic cannons in use in a Battlemech. Capable of maiming or destroying my machine with a single shot. Its major downside is the short range." Louise gaped trying to figure that, but he changed the topic. "What I wanted to say before, master, is that you do not need to be defensive with me about your magic. Ever since you show me that what you call magic exists I know you have power. Because I am here! There is a problem with your power, but if we find the cause you not only would only be able to do magic, but it will be very powerful."

"And how will we find the problem? You aren't even a mage!"

"True, I am not a mage and I do not know anything about magic, master. I can only try different approaches by trial and error. But I know there must be a physical or mental cause that prevents you from doing it. You have magic and a very powerful one, you only need to reach it. If I had to theorize, I would say that it is trust, you lack confidence in yourself."

"T- that's ridiculous. I- I'm a noble and a ma-" She stood up angry with her face red.

"SIT DOWN!" Kyle suddenly stood up and roared at the girl. She recoiled in shock, stumbling and falling on her chair. "See? This is lack of confidence. You are not able to speak without stuttering, even when you are angry your voice failed you sometimes. This morning, when you asked me for tea, if I would not have been so permissive, I would not have even brought it yet." The boy approached her with his hands clasped behind his back. "I am not a stravag freeborn shrink, but I can see that is your main problem. If it is what prevents you from doing magic we have to solve it. If it is not, then one of your problems will be solved and at least you will face those who humble you with courage and decision. If you can not do a spell to silence Kirche, maybe you can do the same thing I did with Guiche."

"Beating a classmate! I'd be kicked out of the academy!" Kyle laughed.

"Then, no beating, but my point remains. Master, I think you did not understand what happened in the trial with Guiche. I knew at the start that I was going to win, even without knowing the kind of magic he was going to use. The only thing I did was reveal to him and his colleagues what I already knew."

"How did you know?"

"His way of moving, he made too many moves and gestures to show off, between invocation and invocation I could have crossed his golems' defense line and broken his neck." He said that as if it was the most natural thing to do. "Now, master, a question. Do you know why I did what I did at the end of the combat?"

"No." Kyle stiffened a little and glared at the girl as his instructors used to.

"Shock and awe, master. I could have challenged, one by one, all the mages who mock you, but I opted for a more indirect if faster approach. Use an overwhelming, excessive you would say, force against Guiche in front of his equals. As a result, many nobles lost the initiative on any challenge they wanted to throw at me, which is a real shame." He shrugged. "Controlling the initiative I force them to react, not to act on their own. If I had been softer with Guiche they would have thought that maybe some of them could defeat me, 'because Guiche is nothing more than a presumptuous stravag.'"

"And if anyone wants to attack you anyway?" Kyle smiles nonchalantly.

"In such case, he would be a brave opponent, it will be a great fight." Louise massaged her temples a little. This familiar is going to be the death of me.

"A- and threaten the noblewomen too?"

"In the Clan, the women fight too, they are warriors too. I do not know how this world works, but the worst fighting I have ever had were against women. They are a menace if you underestimate them. The only hardest thing I have ever had has been fighting against elemental phenotype women." He returned to his instructor's pose, "You are being despised by your peers." Louise's face changed enough to augur an explosion and maybe a literal explosion as well. "That is what they think about you. They are presumptuous for the simple fact of being able to do magic. Well, let them think so, but we will prove that they are very wrong. Quiaff?" Louise blinked in confusion. "The correct answer to that question is Aff."

"Aff!" She said trying to use a confident voice. Kyle showed a lupine smile.

"Excellent. In that case we have work to do. Master, are you afraid of physical exercise?"

"W- what?" That question puzzled her.

"I am going to train you. My goal is making you capable of defending yourself with or without magic, in someone sure of yourself, in a predator. Maybe you cannot fight at the academy, but I want you internally think and be assured you, after my workout, can beat anyone who mocks you. Feel you have something they do not possess and use that knowledge to feel safer, not only when you do magic but in your normal life. Are you willing to give it a try?"

"I- I-"

"The voice. Say aff or neg or, if you want, yes or no. It does not matter now. You have to say it with trust in yourself, with desición. I will train you, I will make you gain confidence. Not only for your magic but to confront those who attack you. In return, you would not treat me like an animal but like your isorla. Not eating on the floor, I can do it in another place, but as a civilized being, I am not a barbarian and neither my master." He looked at her eyes. "No physical punishment unless I deserve it. Not paying your frustration with me for no reason. You want to vent it? I could help you. Believe me, I have ways. And finally, during the training sessions, you will obey me as if the roles had been reversed. But I will only do it if you show me now that you have the will to do it because when the training starts there will be no going back."

Louise hesitated for a moment, still not quite understanding what he was proposing. How could a barbarian without magic help her? But at the same time she thought about how he didn't feel afraid confronting a mage when he doesn't have any magic. What if that was my problem? What if I can't do magic because somehow I think I can't do it? Maybe I'm blocking it. Perhaps the taunts and scoldings of her first failures would have sealed their magic years ago. Louise opened her lips and looked into the boy's face. I don't lose anything by trying. She wanted to say yes or even aff, but she preferred to make a statement, no blindly agreed.

She took a deep breath before spoke. "Yes, I want to stop the mocks. I want to do magic. I want to stop feeling threatened." Her voice was trembling, but without stuttering as usual. She managed to withstand the tears that clouded her eyes.

"Thus shall it stand until we all shall fall." He was smiling. "Tomorrow morning before dawn we will start-"

"Wait!" She almost bounced.

"Something wrong, master?"

"Tomorrow is the Day of Void."

"And?" He still has a lot of things to learn about that world. Maybe he should ask her master about that, after that he must be a useful isorla for her, not and uncultured thug.

"I want to take you to the city, to the capital of the kingdom."

"Could I ask why, master?"

"That gun." She pointed the gun inside its holster resting on the table. "If you have to defend me, I'd prefer it with a less deadly weapon."

"Less-deadly-weapon?" Kyle looked at her, trying to imagine what she is saying. "Like what?"

"You fought well with the spear, maybe one." He shook his head.

"Neg, a spear or a lance are not good defense weapons outside a close formation. A lone warrior with one is not as effective as multiple warriors armed with them. Also, the spears are long and hard to transport outside the battleground or in a Battlemech cockpit. A sword would be preferable." Louise thought for a second.

"Yes! It's a nobler weapon!" He shook his head again.

"A weapon is as noble as the person who carries it, master. This would be your first lesson. A noble-looking weapon could be sullied by an unworthy owner, and a rusty and battered weapon could be covered with glory when used by a true and honorable warrior. Yet, you must know that a sword is lethal if used with murderous intentions. And maybe I will have to use it like that if someone tries to attack you."

"Yes, yes, I understand. But that pistol is excessive." The last thing the girl wanted was to see herself in a confrontation in which each shot of her familiar dismembered an enemy with an explosion. There were already too many explosions in my life.

"Aff, I understand, master. That plan does not interfere with my training plan, though. I will wake her up before dawn."

"W- what? No! I won't wake up at that hour tomorrow!" She said angrily, Kyle smiled.

"It appears that you are showing more confidence now. Well done and bargained. Tomorrow I will postpone the training until the end of the city trip. But only that day." He clapped his hands. "Now if all things are settled I will ask your permission to excuse myself, I have to go to the water fountain."

"For what?" She held the boy by the arm.

"I need to freshen up. After my meeting with Kirche, I still need cold water and fresh air to ease my mind." He looked at the girl's delicate nightgown. "Unless you want to volunteer yourself to calm me down. I do not know if you know what we say about the sibko girl members with aerospace phenotype build in the be-"

Kyle closed the door room, shielding himself of the 'projectiles' thrown by Louise while several 'Pervert!' and 'dirty dog!' cries rang down the hall.

"I will take that as a neg." He said as he headed for the fountain. "I guess I deserved the punishment this time." He finished with a half smile.

Welcome to the new Fav and follows! Yay!

Artyom-Dreizehn: On hiatus yes, abandoned? No. It was only sleeping and me pondering things.

See you on the 31st century's battlefield, mechjocks ...