The first step was arranging an order of sulphur and saltpeter to be delivered to her estate by the Alchemists Guild. Charcoal could be made on sight or even bought locally. It would have to be pure though, but they could take care of that. The order would hopefully be sufficient for Lady Ascart's mother's birthday, and then the graduation parties both. Lady Hunt seemed intent on cheesing her sisters along with gleeful malice, and so that was not yet a commission.

Their official agreement to found the Nightflower Workshop almost dissolved as Maria and Sophia got into a disagreement as to costs. Sophia wanted to make a grand display for her mother's birthday and to do so for free. Maria wanted to set a precedent of extravagant pricing, both to obfuscate how (relatively) easy the materials were to make, and to have a large profit margin.

Lady Ascart was all for that… but NOT when it was her father they were extravagantly pricing!

"Gouging, Lady Ascart, the correct technical term is gouging," Maria said.

"Extravaganting, gouging, power-stancing, silver serpenting, jester-gloving, Tseldora-setting, I don't care what you call it, we're not doing it to my father!" Lady Ascart protested.

"It will set a terrible precedent in future transactions," Maria said. "We need to make at least enough money to cover the pay of workers, the raw material, the labor expended in preparations and setup, transport costs… and that's not even getting into how you haven't provided investment capital yet!"

"Uh, well… I get my allowance in two days, but I need to go visit the bank for the rest…" Lady Ascart mumbled.

"Do those things first before deciding policy," Maria said.

She felt tempted to take back all the nice things she had said about Lady Ascart, she really did… but compared to the rest of Lady Katarina's retinue, she really was the sanest, most level-headed, rational, reasonable, intelligent, imaginative, bloodthirsty and mildly terrifying person there!

In the end, Maria agreed to do Lady Ascart's mother's birthday at only 10% profit margin above costs, instead of the 500% she'd planned…

("YOU WERE GOING TO GOUGE MY FATHER FOR THAT MUCH?!" Lady Ascart cried, aghast.)

… in exchange for Sophia tripling her planned initial investment…

("Good bye books. Goodbye forever!" Lady Ascart wailed.

"If we gouge the school and the princes, you'd make all that back easily," Maria pointed out

"Let's gouge them for 1000%! No, 5000%" Lady Ascart cried.

"I think even the princes are going to notice how much we're tacking on with that margin," Maria said.)

… and getting her father to agree to absolute confidentiality as to the details of the commission.

"I'll take care of it," Lady Ascart said.

When Lady Ascart's money finally came through, they finalized the agreement, and the Nightflower Workshop was officially incorporated. They were both equal partners, with Maria's knowledge of how to mix the black powder and the use of her land for manufacturing being considered equal to Lady Ascart's monetary investment.

As such, Maria took Lady Ascart– "No, we're partners now, call me Sophia unless you want people to assume I'm in charge."– took Sophia to the capital, as the metalworkers of Estus and Raven's Nest, while capable, didn't have the resources to produce the four dozen lofting tubes they needed in time for Countess Ascart's birthday.

They made the journey there despite Maria's desire to check on her estate, trusting it in Rafael's hands, and found a bellfounder whose name Maria had found some time back, commissioning the lofting tubes. Fortunately, the foundry had the time, and the relatively small size of the tubes compared to the large bells that they were usually contracted for meant they could do multiple in a single casting. Maria made sure to be very specific in the mix of metal to be used. The tubes would need to be able to survive many, many firings, after all.

When the negotiations were done, Lady Sophia signed her first contract on behalf of the Workshop, slightly alarmed at how much money it had cost.

"Does it have to be made like this?" Sophia asked as they rode away. "Couldn't the tubes be made of wood?"

"They'd be much more unreliable, wear out faster and since wood burns, the likelihood of a spark remaining inside the tube is too high to risk," Maria said. "This is a long-term investment for the business. Books come and go, but a good bookshelf needs to be forever."

"Your example is horrible, but I understand your point," Sophia said. "Now what?"

"Now we're done," Maria said. "Unless you wanted to do something?"

"Well, the new 'Night Fall' novel came out yesterday, we could stop and pick up a copy," Sophia said.

"'Night Fall?" Maria said. "What is that?"

"Oh, it's a series of novels by Annabel Crème, which is set in a hypothetical world where it's the Age of Dark because the Chosen Lord chose to let the Usurped Flame die out instead of usurping it into the Dark Soul," Sophia said. "There are 364 novels in the series!"

"…" Maria stared, aghast. "Who has the time to write all that and not go mad?"

"I know, right? Isn't it amazing?" Sophia gushed.

Maria then had to endure a long, enthusiastic summary of the series, which began when the god of suffering and the god of pain pooled their powers to create something called the Elden Ring, which of course drove untold millions mad…

Maria patiently nodded along as they made their way back.

"…and then it turned out the Undying Parasite-bearers existed in the same world as the Devouring Godbeasts all along, and it was SUCH a shocking twist!" Sophia gasped.

"We're here," Maria said, pointing.

Sophia blinked and looked where she was pointing. "Why are we in the Academy stable?" Sophia said, confused.

"You looked like you were enjoying yourself, so I had your servants park the carriage and waited for you to notice we weren't moving," Maria said. "That was about an hour ago. If we hurry, dinner should still be warm."

"Oh… OH! I'm sorry for not noticing,"

Maria waved away her apologies as she opened the door of the carriage. "It's fine. It was… informative."

"Still, I'm sorry. I swear I don't usually do that with other people," Sophia said as Maria held out a hand to help her down. "You must have been so bored."

"It was actually a pleasant diversion," Maria said as she closed the carriage door. "You have a very soothing voice. You might wish to drink something soon though."

"Ack, my throat is so dry! Why didn't you stop me?"

"As I said, you looked to be enjoying yourself, and we had nothing else to do. Come, as soon as you have something to drink, I'll heal you with Light Magic."

Sophia nodded, all the talking finally catching up with her.

"All in all, I believe this has been a profitable day, and a productive start to our partnership," Maria said. She smiled. "May all our days together be so."

Sophia smiled and nodded.

The two walked into dinner together.

"Have you heard? Lady Maria was seen walking out of the stables together with Sophia Ascart in the middle of dinner last night. They both looked really happy…"

"Damn it! Why do the Ascarts get all the girls?"

"Maybe she's going for the full set? Remember, she confessed to Nicol Ascart last year…"

"Ugh, first Lady Katarina, then Lady Maria! Have those Ascarts no shame? Leave some for us!"

"Obviously that Scaleless Ascart hussy is trying to seduce Lady Maria!"

"Dung Pies! Lady Maria is obviously trying to add Lady Ascart to her harem of exotic beauties, I heard her manor is full of them…"

"Ah, so now Sophia Ascart is a beauty? What happened to her being a pale, red-eyed, scaleless freak?"

"She's an Ascart."

"…you have point…"

Nightfall Series
No.

Just…

No.