When Maria tried to get through the crowd of noblewomen around Katarina, she found that none were willing to move. One even gave her an imperious expression, like a child making faces to scare other children. She supposed they thought she was another potential rival trying to get her particulars to Katarina so as to become a candidate to become Lord Keith's fiancée.

And unfortunately, she couldn't just ask them to let her through. They would likely be obstinate, and as a mere knight, she was the lowest rank of nobility

Fortunately, either Katarina finally finished her strange interview or the women involved were having second thoughts as to wanting to be related to Katarina, because they eventually started dispersing. A few seemed unnerved, and flinched when they actually got too close to another lady.

Katarina, for her part was looking satisfied as she wrote some last items on her notebook. Her hand was obviously tired, as her handwriting seemed to be degenerating into a childish scrawl.

"L-Lady Katarina! Are you all right?" Mary exclaimed as she rushed to Katarina's side.

Katarina looked up, smiling brightly. "Oh, M—ah, Lady Mary! I'm fine, why do you—ouch! Not fine, not fine, hand cramp, hand cramp!" She hastily put down her pen and started shaking her hand back and forth. "Why does this keep happening when I write? Does my pen hate me? Is my pen broken or something?"

Maria sighed. "You're probably gripping your pen to tightly, Lady Katarina. It's a pen, you don't need to hold it like you're going to cut through the paper. Give me your hand, my squire."

Katarina held out her hand, and Maria took it. eldritch light glowed in her eyes as she used her light magic, and Katarina let out a moan of relief that was… well, borderline obscene. "OooooH… that feels so good!"

"Oh my…" Susanna Randall said with a grin.

"Hey! What are you doing to Lady Katarina!-?" Mary and Sophia both exclaimed.

"Congratulations, Lady Katarina," Maria said. "Like the other members of the Student Council, you've finally had to receive light Magic healing from doing paperwork."

"Is that what that was? No wonder everyone was holding hands with you all the time when we were in the Academy! Your hand-holding is the best! Ah, wait, pen cap, pen cap… ah, did I get any ink on the table cloth?"

"No, it's clean," Trina said, looking over the unstained table cloth. There were a few glasses on the table, though none within Katarina's usual eating range, and save for a few drops at the bottom, all of them had been drained completely.

Katarina sighed in clear relief. "Oh good." Then she blinked and was smiling brightly again. "Hi!"

"Hello!" Trina said with an answering grin.

"I'm Katarina. What's your name?"

"I'm Trina. Nice to meet you, Lady Katarina."

"Nice to meet you too, Trina. Where are you from?"

Ah. That should be enough to lull her squire into a false sense of security…

Maria's hand came down on Katarina's shoulder. "Now, my squire… what's this about you asking women if they would be the top or the bottom?"

Katarina blinked, and then suddenly paled. "Ah…"

"My squire… this isn't the time or place to give you the proper scolding that you deserve. However, rest assured that I am informing her grace your mother."

"W-wait! Can't you just scold me yourself in our room?"

Maria gave her squire a stern look. "Unfortunately, because of the circumstances, your actions reflect more on the Claes name than my instruction. No, to your mother with you."

Katarina sighed. "Ah… I'm going to be scolded so much… "

"Yes, you probably will," Maria said mercilessly. "Was it worth it?"

Katarina's face grew thoughtful. Squire, you're straining yourself again. "Well, there were several very nice ladies among the ones who wanted to know about Keith… and a few of them didn't seem to mind the idea of marrying Keith with someone else, especially when I told them it will help doing their duties easier because they'd have help."

Maria stared at her squire as Mary blushed, looking aghast.

"Oh my…" Susanna Randall murmured.

"After all, being a duke is probably a lot of work," Katarina continued guilelessly. "I know Keith is always tired when he's done helping father, so it will probably get worse when he finally inherits and becomes duke. So having a lot of help will definitely make duties easier."

…

Did she really just… not understand? But she was talking about 'trash fetishes' and… and…

Katarina was looking around. "Hey… where's Sophia?"

"Oh, she's over there," Mary said, pointing towards a small crowd of people.

Oh. Of course she was.

"Wait, Sophia's inside that crowd?" Katarina said.

"Yes. She's being surrounded and asked questions about her brother," Susanna Randall said, looking amused.

"Huh… having a really handsome brother can be toug—wait, I recognize some of those women!" Katarina exclaimed. "Some of them were asking me about be Keith earlier! Now they're asking about Nicol too?" She seemed to pause and think about it. Squire, don't strain yourself. "Well, I suppose it's fine. After all, given Keith's feelings Nicol, I'm sure he wouldn't mind the two of them being married to the same women."

"As Lord Keith isn't here, as his friend I will relay his usual protestation that he does not have feelings for Nicol Ascart," Maria said. "Personally, I don't see the appeal."

"Oh, Lord Ascart was the one who was keeping Lady Carim company, right?" Trina said. "We were all so happy to hear that she had found someone who enjoyed her company. I hope it goes well with her."

"Ah, if you want her to be successful, then you need to tell her to get Lady Sophie to like her," Katarina said, leaning conspiratorially towards Trina, who leaned forward as well. "Lady Sophia's is really close to her big brother, and won't let any girl she doesn't like be with her brother. So if Lady Carim wants to get ahead of everyone else, she has to get Lady Sophia to like her."

"Oh. That will be hard. Lady Carim's never really been good at making friends," Trina said. "I heard she used to get made fun of for her weakening eyesight and eventual blindness when she was a younger, so she turned to reading romance novels to pass away the time, such as the Night Fall series."

"…" Maria, Mary and Katarina all '…'-ed.

"Ah… I suppose that really hurts Lady Carim's chances?" Trina said sadly.

"Do you know if Lady Carim is attending the tea party?" Katarina asked.

A Sophia Totally-Not-The-Paledrake Interlude

It was pleasantly novel to be surrounded by women trying to gain her favor who had never bullied her for being scaleless when she'd been a child. At least, at first. Oh, some of the foreign noblewomen had hesitated when they'd gotten close enough to see her complexion, especially the Xiarmen women—apparently they too have had their own occurrences of the paledrake being reborn that have given rise to superstitions—but they'd swallowed their feelings and had come to her with false, honeyed smiles.

Horny bitches, did they think she couldn't see through them? They just wanted to NTR her brother way from her… friend, Lady Katarina! She wasn't going to let them! Lady Katarina was going be hersssssssister-in-law! Yes, her sister-in-law!

Still, Sophia did her best Mary impression—the kind that wasn't making fun of the taller woman—grinned and made non-committal statements that sounded vaguely encouraging. Those who pressed harder and tried to get a stronger committed from her she parried with the implication that they meet in private to speak later, without actually mentioning when that would be.

To be fair to them, not all of the noblewomen were horny bitches. Some were cool, collected and polite, while others were almost painfully earnest and trying to hide it by pretending to be all cool, calm and collected. A few she decided to drop an effigy and make note of them for later. They probably wouldn't be of any interest to Nicol, but maybe she could give their names to Lady Katarina to add to the Keith fiancée candidate list. Or maybe Mary would know some nice, eligible gentlemen to foist them off on. Well, no, not her. she'll ask mother, maybe her friends among her generation would have some sons who'd like some nice girls who weren't bitches.

After all, bitch was just another word for dog, and dogs were EVIL and needed to be put down.

One noblewoman had spent the whole time trying to get confirmation on whether Nicol was a man or a woman, which… all right, was actually a fair question since more people could look directly at him without passing out. Lady visibly thought about it when Sophia confirmed her brother was, in fact, a man despite how pretty he was.

The woman had still looked conflicted when Sophia had finally managed to get away from the noblewomen.

At least Jennifer Ecks hadn't cornered her to try to press the issue of nightflowers again. The woman had tried that morning, but Sophia had managed to get away with the excuse that she hadn't spoken to her partners about the matter yet.

Now, where was Lady Katarina…?

Once more, she cursed her shortness, as she couldn't see above the hexed tall people around her. Still, she had developed strategies for coping with things like this! Uh, unfortunately, her most reliable one, going to the vicinity of the food, was made invalid because of Maria teaching Lady Katarina etiquette! She she just walked in the direction she'd last seen them, hoping that she'd find some trace of them she could follow…

"Sophia! Over here!"

Oh, thank the Chosen Lord of the Hollows! Sophia smiled as she turned toward the direction of Lady Katarina's voice. They weren't far, having found a table. To settle at. Lady Katarina was there, and Lady Maria… and unfortunately Mary and that creep Susanna Randall, and that little girl with all the hair and braids with her chaperone, and—

Wait. What was she doing here?-!

"Lady Sophia," Maria said, somehow managing to look both prim and at her ease—no, Sophia didn't know how she managed it!—as she sat on her chair, a cup of tea in front of her. ''May we introduce you to Lady Hyetta Carim and her companion, Lady Zorayas Volcamaison. Lady Carim, though she has not yet spoken, this is Lady Sophia Ascart."

The woman couldn't see how Sophia was frowning at her. Carim's eyes were hidden by an ornate, crown-like blindfold, replica of the mask worm by the last fire keeper. In fact, her attire seemed to be based on the Fire Keeper Set: robe, skirt and gloves. It was… all right, as a way for making a blind woman look dignified, it was certainly a good one.

As to her companion… well, Sophia wasn't unfamiliar with dragon-kin. However, unlike the child she was familiar with, this was young woman. Her tail was thicker and longer than Shio's, and she had rather pronounced green scales around her eyes and on the backs of her hands. She wore a green dress of the same shade, though whether to emphasize her features of not, Sophia couldn't say. The woman was leaning forward slightly, her arms folded on the table as she watched Sophia

A part of Sophia wanted to be snippy, but… well, Lady Katarina was there, and she could look bad in front of her! besides, something about the dragon-kin woman's eyes… there was a look in them that for some reason reminded her of Nicol, of when they'd been young and he'd been full of anger and suspicion, looking at all the other children with a disdainful sneer…

And besides… her brother had seemed to enjoy his conversations with her. So…

"It's nice to finally meet you and to be able to put a face to the name, Lady Carim," Sophia said, doing her best to smile. "I hope you've been finding Sorcier to your liking?"

Next to Carim, Volcamaison raised an eyebrow slightly

Carim's reply was shy and hesitant, and Sophia nearly twitched at how strongly the tones reminded her of childhood. "O-oh, yes. Sorcier has been wonderful. Everything smells so open and airy."

Uh? Well, she supposed there wasn't much the woman could really compliment them on.

"Sophia, Sophia—" lady Katarina exclaimed.

"Yes, I'm Sophia."

"Lady Hyetta was just telling us about her theory about what the pendant is for! She said that… ah, sorry, you tell her, Lady Hyetta!"

Pendant? What penda—

"You mean the pendant in Night Fall?" Sophia said.

"Yeah, yeah, that pendant!"

…

All right, maybe she'd hear the woman out first. If her theory was good… well, we'll see…

Fire Keeper Set
Replica of the attire worn by the last guardian of the shrine, made in fine fabrics for a noble lady.

(This has all happened before.)

The Fire Keepers of myth were said to have been robbed of light, to better serve as vessels for souls. Only those who cherish the writhing, searing darkness were said to be given the keeper's black attire.

(It will all happen again.)

Of course, there are no more Fire Keepers. The flame is usurped, the dark has risen, the world has changed, the last cinders have burned. Is there still a story to tell?

(Feed the flame of ambition.)