The Young Women's Interlude Record (Curse You Being G!)

Katarina hated unseasonable storms.

They were such meanies! They always did a number on her fields, she could never predict them, and mother always yelled at her for days afterwards because it always took that long for the ground to stop being so muddy. One would think her meager talents at Earth Magic would be useful but, no, even after all these years, the only thing she could do was her little Earth Bump, which in mud just made it look like she'd had a cow come by to drop some fertilizer.

Sure, her friends would come to help when they could, and Keith especially was always by her side, but except for Mary, most usually couldn't come, since storms usually caused a lot of problems they had to help deal with.

She was so glad she wasn't the only one working on these fields! With her, cousin Mashu, Mary and the children working together, they got things done much faster, even though it still took days to go over everything since the fields around Maria's house were so much more extensive than back home. Ah, it was so much fun working on such a big field! She felt like a real farmer! Now, if only Mai would teach her how to properly grow rice so she could grow some back home…

Idly, she wondered where Sophia was. She thought she'd seen her friend's carriage roll up and heard her voice, but…


"Found another one!" one of the workers called down to Maria, and she examined the man's position on the roof and where he was pointing and took care to note it down on the diagram of the manufactory building she had on her clipboard as he marked the leak with chalk. One good thing about have employees: you didn't have to risk a horrible and ignominious death from falling off your own roof. Sophia was in the gun manufactory doing its inspection, on the basis that the one most likely to die by the smallest violent impact shouldn't be in the building with the explosives. Maria couldn't fault her reasoning, but did she have to put it like that? It wasn't like she was some old hunter stockpiling barrels and barrels of gunpowder in her house. That was why they had the storage shed.

The manufactory buildings had suffered little damage that wasn't some kind of leak. While there were no holes from Storm Ray spikes, the storm had inevitably caused things to leak. Since theirs was a product that could only be wet when it was supposed to be wet during a particular point in the mixing process, this was a problem. Sulphur didn't dissolves in water, but nitre did, and material that got wet was very hard to recover. Fortunately, there wasn't much of that, just some that had been out when the storm had hit and Maria had sent the men home, but better to deal with it now that later.

Besides, a part of her worried the water accidentally mixing the materials together during a storm, sending it flowing into the ground, and having it dry into explosive dirt. It probably wouldn't ignite unless they started burning people there and mixing bone marrow ash and blood into the ground, but why take chances?

"I think that's about done, my lady," the Nightflower Workshop's new manufactory manager said. "We should be able to get some work done today, as long as long as we stay away from the dripping parts. Just glad we don't have to worry about tools rusting."

"Very well, Master Acme," Maria acknowledged. "I leave it to you. No need to force yourselves to follow the usual production schedule, it is too late in the day for it. I will inform you all when the repairs will be done so you all may enjoy a free day off."

"Umbasa, my lady, but you don't need to do that," Master Acme said.

"Nonsense," she said. "You've all put in good work, and deserve the rest. Besides, it would be dangerous for you to continue working while the building is being repaired." She looked down. "And please see about having a tub for everyone to wash the mud off their shoes when they enter."

"Yes, my lady," Master Acme said.

"And tonight, we'll randomly test someone of the nightflowers to make sure they were not adversely affected by the storm in storage," Maria added.

"Yes, my lady!"

After all, it had been a while since they'd had a nice show.


AH! Lady Katarina, Lady Katarina, Lady Katarina, Lady Katarina!

Mary Hunt had been pent up for so long, but finally she could let it out! Finally she could be with her Lady Katarina, getting down and dirty with her the wat her Lady Katarina liked it! She had to be discrete, of course, since there were children present and she didn't want to appear unladylike to her cute little student, but even such bindings around her could stifle her pleasure at finally being in her lady Katarina's presence!

"Are you all right, Lady Hunt?" Lady Romani said. She was looking at Mary with concern. "You're panting very heavily. Do you need water? I can tell Katarina if you're tired and need a rest."

"N-no!" Mary barely managed from screaming out. "N-no, I'm fine Lady Romani. Don't worry, I'm used to this. it's just that this humidity is really unpleasant, isn't it?"

Mary had always hated that part of post-storm cleanup. Forget the mud, forget all the frantic work trying to save her Lady Katarina's crops, it was the thrice-reincarnated humidity that was never to be sufficiently damned, especially when the sun shone so brightly afterwards. She couldn't even do anything with it with her water magic, and she'd long learned that trying to do anything just made the problem worse.

Of course, her Lady Katarina never even seemed to notice the high humidity, even when her clothes become so soaked in sweat they were practically transparent…

"You're panting again!" Lady Romani cried in alarm. "Ah! And now your nose is bleeding! That's it, you clearly need a rest. Katarina!"

Her Lady Katarina's wonderful, sweat soaked, bandanna'd head popped out from behind some a wall of greenery. "Yes, Mashu?"

Argh! Why does she get an adorably mangled childish nickname? Mary wanted her lady Katarina to refer to her using an adorably mangled childish nickname!

"Lady Hunt is bleeding," Lady Romani exclaimed. "I'm going to take her to the shade so she can rest and let her bleed build up go down, all right?"

"Oh!" Lady Katarina exclaimed. "Mary, that's bad! Do you want me to give you my emergency red moss clump? I think I have some blue lotuses too…"

"N-no, I'm fine, Lady Katarina!" Mary protested. "Really, I'm fine!"

"Your nose is still bleeding," Lady Romani said, now looking very concerned. "Really Lady Hunt, you should rest. The absolute worst thing you could do when you're suffering from bleeding is doing strenuous things that deplete your stamina, since it will cause you to get tired faster and bleed out more."

Lady Katarina looked. "I think it's about time for lunch, anyway," she said. "You two go ahead and get wiped up, and I'll join you as soon as I get things sorted out here, all right?"

"Are you sure you don't need any more help, cousin?" Lady Romani said.

Her Lady Katarina waved them away. "We'll be fine. The kids and I can take care of this, right kids?"

Mary couldn't see them, but from all around her in the crop foliage came the sounds of children responding in the affirmative like little kobolds in the Scholar of the First Sin's garden.

"Yeah, we've got this," Lady Katarina said cheerfully. "You two go in ahead."

Lady Romani nodded.. "Come on, Lady Hunt, let's get out of cousin's way," she said.

Mary huffed, but touching her nose showed it was still bleed. Well, she supposed she didn't want to worry her Lady Katarina by insisting on staying. "All right," she sighed. "But I'm still going to help you after lunch, okay?"

"As long as you don't have bleed anymore!" Lady Katarina agreed.

Mary Hunt did not flounce towards the shade of Maria's manor. Neither did she did she stalk of glide or walk daintily. All those would have been inappropriate. Instead, she trudged, her gait tired but determined. Lady Romani walked with her, and while the other lady– and knight, she reminded herself– didn't hover at Mary's elbow, she did stay close enough by Mary's side to potentially catch her if she collapsed, but far enough away she didn't seem like it.

When Mary had met the young woman, she'd been inclined to just lump her in with all the other rivals for her Lady Katarina's attention. Girl-Keith, basically, a female cousin from another part of the family who didn't seem to realize that they shouldn't go beyond the bounds of blood. But as time went by, while she certainly seemed suspicious, she never acted like it. no attempts to monopolize Lady Katarina's time or company– indeed, she seemed to enjoy having more people around– no trying to talk herself up, no playing games with trying to sit closest…

It wasn't until she saw them together that Mary realized Lady Romani's behavior seemed more like Lady Campbell's than anything else: vaguely protective, as if Lady Katarina were a little wolfpup to be kept safe from the encroaching abyss.

Sophia met them at the manor. Unlike them, who were covered in mud and sweat, Sophia was covered with dust and sweat, although in practical terms the only difference was how wet they were overall.

Mary instantly felt better. Being reminded she was a little ahead of a rival in the bid for her Lady Katarin'as heart was always refreshing.

"Hello Sophia," she greeted, just a little bit smug. "Did you have a productive morning?"

Sophia twitched at 'productive' for some reason. "Adulthood and responsibility can go to a cliff and try jumping," she said vehemently.

"That bad, huh?" Lady Romani said, somehow understanding the strange invective Sophia used. Sophia knew so many weird and obscure invectives and expletives from reading all her books. Really, it was a wonder Lady Katarina hadn't caught any of her swamp mouth.

"But it's okay!" Sophia exclaimed. "We're done now! Even Maria said so! So now I can be with Lady Katarina all afternoon!"

"Don't forget your hat," Mary reminded her 'sweetly'.

In response, the air began to move around Sophia, creating a nice, refreshing breeze that seemed to center around the smaller girl. "Don't worry, I didn't forget!" she said with triumphant smugness. "With my hat and my anti-humidty Wind Magic, I will be unstoppable!"

Hex it! Mary had forgotten about the Wind Magic! She supposed she had needed to go inside after all, if she'd been out in the sun so long she'd forgotten about magic. Ugh, she'd have to ask Maria to check her over with Light Magic in case the mini-sunstroke had done anything permanent she would need help recovering from.

"Ah, that feels so nice," Lady Romani said, leaning into the wind magic, her voice echoing strangely from it.

"I know, right?" Sophia declared smugly.

Between one blink and the next, Sophia's expression changed. No outsider would have noticed, but she went from 'Sophia, one of Mary's frenemy rivallies for Lady Katarina's heart and attached bits of anatomy' to 'Sophia, Mary's friend'. "Anyway, I'm glad I caught you," she said. "I wanted to give you a little warning."

Mary let herself change from being Mary, Sophia's frenemy rivally for Lady Katarina's heart and attached bits of anatomy to Mary, Sophia's friend. "What is it?" she asked.

Sophia looked at Lady Romani, including her in this. "So, I heard this from Shio–" Mary thought up and instantly buried deep in the catacombs of her heart a tasteless comment about dragon girls sticking together. Sophia wasn't the reincarnation of the paledrake, she was just scaleless, "– but apparently during the storm, Maria found out something in the worst way possible."

Mary and Lady Romani dutifully looked at each other in the dramatic pause that followed. "Which is?" Mary prompted, knowing Sophia liked her dramatic presentation.

"That her mom and Anne are together," Sophia said.

"About hexing time," Mary said.

Lady Romani blinked. "Lady Maria's mother and Katarina's maid are together?" she said.

The two ignored her.

"Actually, she's taking that news very well," Sophia said. "It's how she found out that she couldn't take. She accidentally walked in on."

Mary blushed in sympathetic mortification and embarrassment.

"Walked in on what?" Lady Romani asked, tilting her head in a way that vividly reminded Mary of Lady Katarina.

"She walked in on them descending the Valley of Defilement," Sophia expounded. "Linking the flame? Taking the throne of want? Joining her Lord of Cinder? Binding themselves to the Nexus? Vordting their Dancers? Putting their Brandts together to form a Northern Regalia? Being the divine spear of her church? Flexiling their Sentry together? Jump into the Old Chaos? Betraying her black-clad goddess? Slaying her Gaping Dragon? Forming Quelagg on her spider? Filling her catacombs with–"

Mary slapped a hand hard over Sophia's smirking mouth as Lady Romani's blush deepened. "Yes, she gets it Sophia, you can stop now."

"Ah," Lady Romani said. "Yes. I've been there." She shuddered, one hand rising to her face and making clawing motions for a moment. It seemed to be involuntary on her part. "It's not pleasant."

"Yeah, really makes you want to rip your eyes out," Sophia agreed.

Mary felt like an outsider as the two shared a look of understanding of shared suffering and pain.

"Anyway," Sophia said. "I wanted to warn you to be careful about bringing up the subject and, you know, not letting on practically everyone but Maria knew."

"Lady Katarina probably didn't," Mary said.

"Well, yes, obviously," Sophia said. Lady Romani nodded.


Out in the fields, Katarina sneezed.

"Oh dear," Katarina said, rubbing her nose. "I hope I'm not catching some kind of new virus or anything and it's just someone talking about me. Maybe I should put on a mask…"