(A/N): We're back with Amelia, Jules, Nolan, Logan, Spencer, Marta, and Annette, and I exposit some lore in the end Author's Note.
October 19th, 1967
Amelia
It was a strange thing to ask; to suggest. If it had been said by anyone else- or perhaps just in any other manner- I would have been furious, but as it stood, it felt less like she was trying to undermine our relationship and more like she was trying to strengthen it... in her own odd, roundabout way. I wasn't the only one that took note of the curiosity of her question; Nolan shot her a hurt, almost betrayed look, and Logan's brow furrowed as though someone had just shoved some sort of complicated logic puzzle in front of him and told him to solve it in ten seconds flat. It was neither of these two men who spoke up, however. "Jules," Spencer said quietly, almost nervously. "Remember what you told me, about some questions not needing answers? I think this is one of those times." She blinked, then nodded slowly.
"Right. I- My apologies, Amel-"
"I want to know what you meant." She stared at me warily after I cut her off, and seeing the expression on Nolan's face, I followed it up with, "Obviously, Nolan and I are- This won't change anything for me. I'm committed, and I know he is, too. I just want to know what you meant."
She relaxed slightly at that, as did Nolan. As well as Logan and Spencer, oddly enough. "If Nolan can't hide his feelings- the depth of his love for you- then you might end up in more trouble than just being humiliated by our Mistress. I'm not asking if you want to give up, not really- I'm more just informing you of the risks so I can watch you two lovebirds double down." Nolan narrowed his eyes at her, expression suddenly turning rather dry.
"Jules. Jul-Jul. As much as I love you, you're really pushing your luck, here." She appraised him with a surprisingly concerned air- as though she was worried about his reaction for his benefit, rather than her own. Normally, I would be a bit put off by my significant other telling another woman that he loved her, but considering that this was Nolan, and everything about the situation reeked of platonic affection- maybe even a brotherly sort of sentiment- I wasn't all that worried. He did seem to be reacting to this whole thing differently than I was, however.
"It doesn't bother me," I told them both, and Nolan's eyelids fluttered briefly as though he was shocked by this. "Does it bother you, my love?" He stared at me for a second before tilting his head to the side, as though attempting to get a new angle on the question.
"It doesn't... bother me, per se..." He trailed off momentarily, face screwing up to the point where it almost looked as though he was permanently wincing. "It's more the principle of it all, I guess." The principle? "It's our business, and no one else's."
Jules lit up at that, strangely enough. "Oh, I see!" She said brightly. "You're trying to protect her!" I shot him a look and he flushed, sheepishly lowering his head again. "Was I... not meant to mention it?" I smiled at her, if only because I thought her uncanny insight might prove indispensable in future.
"It's fine- at least you're keeping him honest." Logan cocked a brow at me in a way I knew meant trouble. Most things usually did, with Logan.
"I believe there's only one woman here that can make an honest man out of our Nolan, Ms Rochester," He remarked slyly, and I automatically rolled my eyes at him.
"He's not the one that needs to be made honest, Mr Lovett," I shot back in turn, and the corner of his lips twisted as though he had tried to grin and scowl at the same time. Jules laughed slightly, somewhat nervously. "Do you think Nolan's inability to hide his feelings is dangerous, Logan?" Both men blinked, clearly knocked off balance by my question- or perhaps just the fact that I had directed it at Logan, of all people.
He stared at me for a long few seconds, brows furrowed, before he shrugged in a deceivingly casual way. "I mean, yeah, of course it's dangerous," He said, steadily ignoring it when Nolan turned to glare at him. "An inability to do anything is a risk, if not always a danger, and unfortunately, the people we have to deal with are willing- and eager- to exploit people's emotions, and feelings for one another. Yes, it's dangerous... but it's also really fucking sweet." Nolan's glare faltered, quickly morphing into a perplexed narrowing, instead. "Nolan wouldn't be Nolan if he could hide it... so I suppose, since you love him, you should be thankful for the danger. Or... something." He shrugged again, a lot less certainly this time.
"That was actually quite nice, Lovett," Nolan told him, and Logan rolled his eyes at him- even if his cheeks did pinken slightly.
"Yeah, well," He grumbled. "Don't get used to it." Marta snorted.
"Oh, please. We all know you're a bit of a soft touch, Lovely Lovett." Logan's flush deepened, though whether that was because he was strictly embarrassed, or embarrassed and touched, I couldn't tell.
"I regret telling you that," He griped and Marta grinned at him, revealing two rows of bright, shiny white teeth. Telling her what, exactly?
"What?" Nolan asked, clearly confused. "What did he-? What- 'Lovely Lovett'?"
Logan groaned and pinched the bridge of his nose, even as Marta huffed a laugh at his expense. "It's- It's nothing, really." Marta snorted, which said otherwise. "There was- When I was... Before I became a gardener, I was doing something else- something my family approved of a lot more, for the record." Hm... for whatever reason, I hadn't considered whether any of the other staff's family approved of their careers, given that I had assumed they were all the best their family had produced for at least a few generations. Maybe that was foolish of me- and more than a bit judgemental- but now wasn't the time to reconsider my biases. "While I was doing that, my... supporters, saw fit to give me a nickname. It... was a bit of a misnomer, for how I did what I did, but my reputation outside of- it- certainly played a part in inspiring the name." He- What?
"'Supporters'?" Annette asked, obviously bemused, and Logan shrugged weakly.
"It's a long story, and one I don't particularly want to tell. It's behind me now, anyway." Marta shot him a look that was only partially mischievous.
"You still practice, though; train." 'Train'? What could Logan possibly train that might earn him 'supporters'?
Spencer gasped, and Logan immediately winced. "You're- You're that Lovett!" He exclaimed, looking slightly starstruck, which was a direct contrast to Logan's incredibly pained expression. "You're-"
"A gardener," Logan said firmly, almost coming across as desperate. "I'm a gardener; nothing more, nothing less. Anything I did in the past is just-"
"Absolutely awesome?" Spencer asked rhetorically, and Logan winced again. "Why'd you stop? Why would you give up duelling for gardening, of all things?" Duelling? Lovett was a duellist? ...a good one, by the sounds of it? As in, good enough to have supporters? Supporters... Fans.
Logan crossed his arms over his chest, biceps bulging- those weren't just from manual labor, were they?- and fixing Spencer with a dark look. "It's not as fun as it looks, trust me."
Spencer shrugged. "I didn't say it looked fun, I said it looked awesome." Logan rolled his eyes at him, though it seemed more defeated than angry. "You- My mum wouldn't let me follow the BIDA- or the European League- but my mate Elyan was obsessed. He thought you had a real shot at making it to the final stages of the tournament again- possibly even the title! 'course, you weren't the only one he said that about, but I could tell he really meant it with you, unlike-"
"Spence. Take the hint." Spencer frowned at Marta's hissed order, and honestly, I couldn't blame her, considering the fact that Logan looked like he was about to lose his composure completely.
"...sorry, Logan," Spencer murmured, though it felt like he didn't quite know what he was apologising for. Logan shrugged weakly.
"'s alright." Ah. He sounded awful, too. It was only because I related to the feeling so strongly that I did what I did.
I clapped him on the shoulder and said, "So, you were a duelling champion- who cares? I'll have you know that I won the 'girls under eleven' category of 'Miss Magic UK'." There was silence for a long, long moment before Logan snorted- then, immediately following that, burst out laughing.
(A/N): BIDA = British Isles Duelling Association, in charge of the main tournament that takes place in the British Isles (obviously), as well as overseeing a handful of smaller 'junior' leagues (it's sort of like a tennis tournament, where you make your way up through more casual competitions to more serious ones, all the way to 'the big leagues', so to speak). There are duelling competitions that aren't overseen by the BIDA, but they tend to be a bit more... unpredictable, since typically the reason they aren't adopted into the BIDA 'family' is because they allow things the BIDA doesn't agree with, and they aren't willing to change in order to be part of the BIDA... which may be something as innocuous as not requiring uniforms, or something as harmful as... well, fights to the death. There are some who think the BIDA is in need of reform to 'catch up with the modern times', and I will say that Logan, in particular, isn't all that pleased with the fact that they have a 'pureblood only' category.
European League = The European League is the official league of (you guessed it) Europe, though it probably isn't Europe wide (just based on how often things in sport are named after continents and then don't encompass the whole continent they're named after). The European League is essentially the biggest of the big leagues, the top of the top- basically, duelling in the European League is like going to the Olympics. There are other continents/countries with duelling leagues (some of which whose duellists might even be more skilled than those in the European league) but you know how these things go- the European league is the top because it's the oldest recognised league (I'm sure it's a rarely spread fact that duelling originated at Mahoutokoro or something, and there's proof of duelling competitions all around Africa for thousands of years- at least hundreds prior to the creation of the European League- but again, you know how these things go).
Miss Magic UK = basically 'Miss America'/'Miss Universe'/etc. A beauty pageant, sort of, probably populated exclusively by purebloods. The under eleven category obviously has no event that requires the display of practical magic, though I do imagine there is at least one section to display the girls' grasp of magic in theory- basically to give an idea of how good she might be at magic, in the future.
Lovely Lovett = Logan earned this nickname by being especially kind to his fans (think standing around for hours after competitions signing autographs without complaint, that sort of thing) and having a reputation (like now) of being a flirt. It's a misnomer because he was very much a 'win by any means' kind of duellist in his younger years, as long as it was within the rules. Don't get me wrong, he had a reputation outside of competition of duelling with honor, but during competitions... well, let's just say that when you drew his name as an opponent, you packed your overnight bag for St Mungo's- because even if you won, you wouldn't be pretty afterward. I've left it a bit vague as to whether Logan reached the final stages of the BIDA tournament or the European League tournament (note that Spencer says 'again' in references to him doing so), but he clearly never got 'the title', since Spencer doesn't say again for THAT part. I'm leaning toward it being the case that he did really well in the BIDA but didn't quite get the title (he got on the podium, but didn't get gold, essentially- in fact, I'm thinking bronze), then went to the European League, and... crashed and burned. Not because he didn't have the skill/talent, but because he simply didn't want to be a professional duellist anymore.
I do plan for Logan's duelling career to become a bit of a plot point, later on.
Also, shoutout to Spencer's friend Elyan who inspired me to name one of my original characters the variant of Elian, because I had just been calling him LI (for 'love interest') and Elian was the first name I liked with li in it- and once I temporarily name a character, 9 times out of 10 that ends up being their real, permanent name. Elyan is also the name of one of the Knights of the Round Table, which I thought was fitting for someone who's into duelling (and my original character, who is sort of knight-adjacent).
We're going to reach 1 million words either next chapter or the chapter after, depending on whether I have anything to add to next chapter's author's note by the time I upload it, or whether I edit any old chapters before then, since next chapter will leave us just over 100 words short. It would be fitting if it was two chapters from now though, since that one is going to be uploaded on my birthday.