Hi, everybody!
Sorry about the delay between posts! I was obsessively working on my latest complete novel, Iron Witch (Part 1), which is basically a TG steampunk Harry Potter-style "wizard school" novel. It's available on my Patreon right now ($2 will get you access)! I haven't decided whether it will make its way to ScribbleHub or if I'll post it to Amazon, but it will be a while in either case. The link below is to my official announcement of the project, which includes all of Chapter 1 for your perusal. The full novel is available to Patrons.
https://www.patreon.com/posts/update-special-49706067
All my best,
Ovid
47. Izzy's Interests
If any one member of Val's family was going to escape the earl's clutches, of course it was going to be Iselde Zinn. Izzy was an expert climber, an inveterate orphan, and an unrepentant sneak. She'd been the only escapee, though that's not to say nobody else had gotten close. Ginn had nearly managed to escape from the palace and would have been able to, had she not been caught trying to get Ette out - she'd got the gist of Val's message (relayed through Violet's meows) and escaped her own cell through some combination of magic and trickery. Unfortunately, she hadn't been able to coordinate with Ette (who was unGifted), or else Val's parents might well have succeeded in escaping. Instead, they'd both been apprehended and had been in hot soup until Aleida showed up to question them to corroborate Val's story.
Niko might well have escaped, too, but she'd always had a bit of an overprotective bear streak and had stayed behind with Galvan to make sure nothing happened to Uncle Wuldie or Val's cousins… which, honestly, was probably unnecessary since Wuldie and Luella were both Gifted and reasonably well-trained in combat. In fact, Wuldie, who was two years older than Ginn, had taught her fighting when they were both teens. Instead, Niko had passed on the opportunity to flee and she and Galvan were put in detainment cells in the same prison that Val had been consigned to - nicer, larger, less lousy cells than what Val had been stuffed in, but neither of them were able to grow a panoply of useful plants out from the sewage pipe, either. The Uddys themselves were placed under house arrest with orders not to spread word about what had happened… though, obviously, word still got out. It always did.
Now, with the duchess placing Baron… Earl Zollen in control of the city and acquitting Val and her family of all charges, things were just peachy. The only problem was that Izzy had gone to ground and nobody was quite sure where to find her. Fortunately, Ette was an expert at tracking people down and Val was his dedicated assistant.
"Where did she go most often back in Verdenlecht?" he asked them.
"The Riverway," Val and Niko said simultaneously.
Ette nodded sagely, stroking the bristly beard hairs on his chin - he'd not shaved in several days. "I suppose that means we should start in the Port Bazaar and go from there. Now… since Izzy's a friend and not somebody fleeing from us, we'll want to be visible and all over the place rather than subtle and secretive."
So they hoofed it to the bazaar and asked around for anybody answering to Izzy's name or meeting her description and didn't find much of anything. Well… Val discovered that 'Izzy' was Caphric slang for a cheap, strong alcohol and attracted some attention from disappointed would-be-patrons when she called Izzy's name, but she didn't find Izzy. She did find Jasil there, though, chatting animatedly with a girl about their same age and demonstrating the embedding technique she'd figured for securing semiprecious stones into her bracelets - a fairly nuanced magical technique for heating tiny spots on the metal. It was damn impressive if her friend had figured it out on her own by manipulating the limited resources at her disposal and, if not, it was still pretty neat. Val watched her do it a few times before approaching, listening carefully to the pseudowhisper of magic whenever Jasil heated a pit of metal to softness and carefully pressed a gem in using a pair of steel tweezers.
"Is that silver?" Val asked.
Jasil's face lit up when she recognized Val, and she danced over to show her the bracelet. "Yes it is. Well… about two-thirds silver and one-third tin, which lowers the melting point to workability. Val, this is my friend Germaine!"
"Hi!" Val and Germaine shook hands. The girl was shorter and broader than Val, but in a way that suggested sturdiness. Chances were she'd fill out to have a frame a lot like Ginn's. Her palms and fingers had the raised callouses of somebody used to working with tools.
"I'm looking for my friend, Izzy. Have either of you seen a Sudren girl… like me, but a bit darker? Shorter and slimmer with green eyes?"
Jasil laughed, a warm, golden laugh with the hint of duskiness that her voice always carried. "I have! If you'd believe it, I paid her a few pfennigs to hand out samples of my hardened leather up on Peddler's Row. I thought she was an orphan."
"Technically, she is," Val said. "An orphan who happens to be hiding from the earl because of her friendship with sketchy folks." She tapped on her own chest.
"I thought the duchess booted the earl," Germaine said.
"She did," Val agreed. "He's in prison. Though we've got a new earl. Earl Zollen… a friend of mine, just like the duchess. So we're not in so much hot soup."
"You're friends with the duchess?" Germaine gaped and then looked to Jasil, who confirmed.
"It's not as impressive as it sounds," Val said. "I saved her life once, and then she saved mine when her mom tried to have me killed. She doesn't care that I'm a commoner, and I think she might even be an Old Sudren practitioner like me. So we get along, but I'm not a lady of the court or anything…"
"How is that not impressive?" Germaine asked.
Jasil gave Val's arm a playful punch. "You live in the palace!"
"Yeah, but only because I basically told Aleida that my family and I were going to be staying there for a while…"
"I think that's pretty much the definition of being important," Germaine said. "Can… can I see the palace?"
"She's your friend?" Val asked.
Jasil nodded and then took Germaine's hand into hers. If they weren't that sort of friends yet, Jasil certainly hoped they would be. And Val saw what she might find appealing in that cute, earnest, dark-eyed face, her body almost trembling with excitement at the prospect of going inside the palace (even though it was only an earl's palace). "Val and I go back. So? Can we show Germaine the palace?"
"After I find Izzy… oh!" Val spotted a boy in a messenger's getup darting effortlessly through the throngs of the Port Bazaar, overlong, rust-red hair beginning to spill from the sides of 'his' cap. Val recognized her from the confident, unusually agile movements before she saw through the marginally-passable boy disguise. "Izzy!"
Izzy stopped in her tracks. "Oh… Val?" She looked around and, presumably, concluded that Jasil was safe to spill the beans in front of. She dropped her voice to a near-whisper. "Did you escape?"
"No, I’m out and everybody's free and clear."
"Honest?"
"Blood sisters don't lie," Val stated. As far as Val was concerned, a blood pact was stronger than any contract that Mrs. Eatherfine had ever wanted her so sign. "I wrangled us the nice rooms. The ones for proper lords and ladies. Ginn and Ette's room is right next to Sir Andrat's!"
Izzy bounced on the balls of her feet. Germaine bounced on the balls of her feet. There was a lot of bouncing. Val looked to Jasil and the two of them giggled.
"I missed fighting practice so badly!" Izzy said.
"Well… what are we waiting for? Let's go give these two a tour and then see if we can fit in an afternoon session? Oh… actually, we should probably find Niko and Ette first."
Fortunately, Niko and Ette were both trying to be conspicuous, and so it wasn't hard to find them wandering around the bazaar and asking after Izzy, who'd gone right back to her orphan survival skills the moment she had to escape danger. They were a useful skillset to have, though Val hoped she wouldn't have to rely on them so much in the future. Really, she hoped she wouldn't have to rely on any of her hard-won survival skills, but she would far rather have them and not need them than need them and not have them.
"Val mentioned you've had some trouble with your old man," Ette said. Ette was never happy about Val getting into scrapes, as he didn't think their fighting skills should be used unless absolutely necessary. But he'd agreed that protecting people from abusive bullies was a rare exception to the rule - though it was their fault if they got in trouble with the authorities over it. Ultimately, Earl Gunthald had used it in his case against Val, but now he was in prison awaiting an appeal of Aleida's sentence.
Ette offered to spring for a coach back to the palace, but the girls were fine with strolling back - it was a pleasant day with puffy white clouds skating across the sky and sleek schooners cutting through the water out in the bay. Pleasure barges were anchored out over the reef, where somebody had erected a floating platform for diving into the ocean.
"Jasil, is your old man hitting you or your brother?" Ette asked more directly.
"My dad hasn't bothered me since Val and Niko got him…"
"Me, too!" Izzy said.
"And Izzy," Jasil agreed. "Plus, Val gave me a magic book and I've been practicing that. I can do the light pop… the flash of light? I can do that pretty well, but I can't manage the net yet… it's really hard…"
The magic snare wasn't very hard to Val, but she could remember a time not so long ago when she'd thought it tricky. Niko was of a similar opinion. "A little practice is all you need. Of course, casting it in under a second is a bit trickier. I can't do that yet."
"You'll get it soon," Val said. "Just imagine you're in a situation where you really, really need to do it and it's easier to shape your energy."
Ette chuckled. "What have I done to get myself involved in a coven of devious witches?"
"Just lucky, I guess," Val said, and they headed back to the palace.
+++++
After finding Izzy, things returned to some semblance of normalcy. However, things could never quite be the same as before… for one thing, Val wasn't being detained. She could go anywhere she liked and, within reason, nobody would stop her. Though she was supposed to tell Ginn or Ette, obviously. And now the duchess was in Port Rumm, at least until the capital could be retaken from the Bolearic forces, obviously. It was Val's understanding that they the enemy army was still working to secure the eastern half of the duchy, but that they might start their inevitable advance westward any day. In the meanwhile, Val could only imagine what horrible things the Pale Order was doing to the people back in the capital. She hoped Priestess Oestel had gotten out safely.
Summer had officially ended, and so the weather wasn't quite so oppressively hot in the day. They spent a lot of time outside, practicing in the courtyard, lazing on the water, or getting up to no good in the Port Bazaar. And Izzy discovered boys. It wasn't much of a discovery - they'd been in plain sight all along.
She asked Val and Niko what they knew about boys, as if it wasn't patently obvious that their answer would be 'not much'. Actually, Niko insisted that she found boys a bit attractive, but she had a preference for girls. And Val's preference was entirely one-sided. Boys could be good people - her adoptive brother Galvan, for instance, was perfectly fine when he wasn't being a pain in the arse. But she knew nothing about them romantically-speaking and didn't particularly care to learn.
"What about Galvan?" Izzy asked.
"I said he's sometimes a pain in the arse. What about him?" Val replied carefully. She glanced about - they were still out in the practice yard cooling down from practice and Galvan might still be around.
"Do you, um," Izzy said. She glanced about, too, her emerald-green eyes darting about before she leaned in conspiratorially. "Do you think he might like me?"
This was not something that Val cared to consider. For one thing, Izzy had turned twelve less than three weeks ago and Galvan was fifteen and a half. And, in fact, there was a very good chance that Galvan was currently chatting up one of the girls who habitually watched their practice. He was no longer the worst fighter in class now that Jasil and Germain started bringing their friends in a few days a week, and so Galvan might well look like a dashing young bravo to the daughter of a lady or high-ranking servant. Nothing was going to happen between Izzy and Galvan. Even if Val had to make sure nothing happened herself.
"I think Galvan's looking for somebody closer to his own age," Val said eventually.
"I'm starting to get boobs. Does he like boobs?"
Val grimaced - Galvan would not be doing anything with Izzy. Not in a hundred years. "Ew… I don't even want to think about you and Galvan. I'll keep my eyes out for somebody suitable."
"Somebody tall and lean," Izzy said. "With dark hair. And a butt…"
"Everybody has a butt, Izzy," Val observed. Though she knew well that not all butts had a Shape. She sighed, thinking of Niko.
"I'm going to ask Galvan…"
"Do not ask Galvan," Val ordered. "We'll figure something out. I promise."
So Val had that to deal with on top of everything else. But she was making progress in other regards. She had a breakthrough with practicing meditation - as long as she could pretend she was blocking out ghosts, like she had in prison, she could meditate in the way you were supposed to if you wanted to learn to focus your spirit energy and make it more efficient for magic. It helped especially to be down in the crypt, where it was quiet and there was the occasional actual ghost (though, as far as Val could tell, none of the ghosts were from people who had actually been interred there - they were more likely to be people who had died in other parts of the castle and wandered to where the haunting was best). Sometimes, she saw the duchess down there, too.
"Don't you think it's odd? Sitting in the quiet dark of a crypt, hoping to encounter spirits?" Aleida whispered.
Val cracked her eyes open. "Yes, it's weird. That's the point, though, right? It's different from other places, and so you can do different things there. If you think about it, it's not any different from going out into nature to practice natural magic…"
"Good point, Val. Very true." The duchess quieted for a few minutes, she and Val sitting quietly in the cool dark. Then she gasped and nudged Val with her foot. "Doesn't that mean we're doing necromancy?"
"Maybe? I don't know. Does it matter?"
"Valkyrie, you know full well that necromancy is forbidden…"
Val shrugged. "Then whatever I'm doing must not be necromancy. I mean it's not… necromancy is communion with the dead, and this is just… listening. I read somewhere that the difference between the different areas of magic is mostly made-up… magic is like a big continuous wheel that incorporates all the different kinds of magical energy. And some mages think there's only one kind of energy but it looks six different ways depending on where you spot it. The divining you do is a cousin to necromancy on one side and magecraft on the other, and I guess if you actually talked with the spirits of the dead, you'd be taking a tiny step toward necromancy. But I figure just listening is harmless… and talking probably isn't so bad, either. I mean… I made friends with a ghost when I was in prison."
"You should probably keep that a secret," Aleida said eventually. "Does anybody else know about that?"
"No," Val said. "I don't really like talking about prison…"
"Sorry."
"It wasn't your fault… but I’m not going to pretend I can't talk to ghosts sometimes just because some crazy king hundreds and hundreds of years ago made an army of skeletons. But if I do make an army of skeletons, I hope you defeat me and make a big speech about how evil I was to do that."
Aleida giggled. "Okay. I'll do that. But don't make an army of skeletons."
"I won't."
"Talking to ghosts is okay, I guess. Before we had to leave the palace, I used to go to the sepulcher and talk to Ansibald… he never talked back because he's not a ghost… well, I don't think he is. Hopefully, he's in Sturmhalle. I wish I was half as brave as him…" the duchess chuckled. "I was so shaky the first time I held court, I got my duchess necklace enchanted so I wouldn't get anxious. But Ansibald just did whatever he pleased if he thought it was the right thing…"
"I respected your brother… he was brave. But also a bit foolish. Zollen told him not to ride to Cafernine, but he was dead-set upon it, and look where it got us. You're already a much better duchess than he was a duke, and you're only going to get better."
Aleida rubbed the bridge of her nose. "Gods, Val… one of these days, you're going to offend the wrong person and end up in prison. Again."
Val shrugged. "Maybe. Last time turned out pretty well for me, so I suppose I'm not too worried about it."
"I'm going to stop pursuing this before I have to charge you with anything." Aleida cleared her throat and settled into a meditative pose. "Okay. Communing with spirits."
+++++
While it was still warm enough to enjoy balmy days at the reef, Val continued to venture out that way once or twice a week. She was getting better at swimming, though she might never have Izzy's effortless aquatic mien. She had a small nucleus of good friends and a growing network of more distant friends and acquaintances - for instance, it wasn't unusual for Germaine to accompany her and Niko, but she only ever came if Jasil was also there.
Val checked on Jasil a few times a week - it was easy because she and Germaine were attending about half of the morning training sessions, as well as occasionally showing up for the citizen's defense and tactics classes that Ette and Ginn had started holding at the duchess's request (and, Val assumed, on her pfennig). This gave Val a chance to check in and make sure her father hadn't tried to hurt her or her brother again - and, thankfully, he seemed to be giving them a wide berth, and before too long Jasil would know enough magic to defend herself with it. She always had a few bruises, but they were from sparring for fun and not actual self-defense.
After an afternoon on the reef, they would wander around the port, still clad in their bathing outfits and the little translucent gowns that were trendy to wear with them - these were little more than short-sleeved robes, since they were loose and usually kept completely unbuttoned all along the front, but they provided enough modesty that shopkeepers would pretend you hadn't just wandered into their shop barefoot and dressed for a day on the reef.
Val always noticed the way the boys would look at Nikoli, who had just turned fourteen and was a bit mature for her age. She could tell they liked how she looked… how their heads would turn and follow her as she and Val passed - though it was always a bit unnerving when one of those heads fixated on Val, instead, which also sometimes happened. Val would have been annoyed if she got the amount of attention that Niko did, but Niko didn't seem to mind. And Val was more amused than jealous. She knew she was girlfriends with the prettiest girl in the city, and no matter how much the boys stared, they weren't. So she squeezed Niko's hand and hummed and skipped with a smile on her face, because she got to be with Niko and not them. Niko, with her firm shoulders, her steely eyes that would brook no defeat, her butt with its Shape. Her Niko.
"What has you so happy?" Niko asked. She pecked Val on the cheek and wiped a smudge of berry from her lip.
"She's always like that after swimming. I think she just likes being with you," Izzy said. "I wish I had a little friend like Auntie Ginn says it. But, you know, a boy."
Val had already tried to set Izzy up. Her most recent attempt was Collin Zollen, who was Earl Zollen's youngest son. He was a decent boy despite his noble status - being the fifth son of a baron tended to make lordlings either utterly intolerable or humbler than usual - and the boy had expressed some interest in private. But Izzy shot the prospect down - he was only eleven (and change) years old, which was too young for a mature girl like her. Never mind that he was just three and a half months younger than Izzy and had about two inches on her in height. Izzy was impossible to please…
"How about my cousin?" Jasil offered.
They walked through the Port Bazaar, the sun at their backs. Jasil swapped spots with her aunt next to the big fountain - it was a choice spot and the family didn't want to give it up without a fight. She unrolled her big turquoise blanket as her aunt packed her own things up - all of the family members had their own inventory, usually keeping shop for three or four hours a day and then working as entertainers for a few hours at night. Val wouldn't have picked that life, but she'd have taken it over being an orphan or working as a day laborer, which was the only work that most of the refugees into the city could find. Of course, the able-bodied could always join the army. Val's aunt finished packing her wares, setting the oversized bindle next to Jasil's stall.
"Do you mean Michi's boy?" her aunt asked.
Jasil nodded. "My other aunt, Michi, just got into town last week… I bet you'd like my Cousin Kaspar, Izzy."
"Is he…" Izzy gestured vaguely. "Nice?" Val assumed she was reluctant to ask about butts in front of Jasil's Aunt Shereil.
"Very nice," Jasil agreed. "The two of us did a leap-dancing routine together a few years back."
Val bounced on the balls of her feet. "Why don't we make it a sextuple date?"
"A what?" Izzy yelped.
"You know, the six of us… you and Cousin Kaspar, Jasil and Germaine, and Niko and me, obviously."
"You should not call it that," Niko stated flatly.
"Why?" Val frowned. She gasped, covering her face with her hands so the others wouldn't see how red her cheeks were burning. "Oh… no! I didn't mean it like that, obviously!"
Jasil laughed. "It'll have to be a quadruple, anyway. Germaine and her mother left for Carver's Coast yesterday and won't be back for a few days." Carver's Coast was a mid-sized maritime town about twenty miles up the coast from Port Rumm.
"Oh…" Val sighed. "So a quadruplet, then?"
"It's called a double-date, Val," Niko said flatly.
Val grumbled about the terminology, but at least had managed to eke out a win - a quadruple date with her, Niko, Izzy, and Cousin Kaspar in two evenings' time. That gave them plenty of time to peruse the bazaar as well as scour the palace for anything nice that wasn't tied down. They'd be dressed to the nines. Dressed to the elevens, even!
Since Earl Zollen had three daughters, none of whom lived in Port Rumm and two of whom were grown and married, and his wife had died five years before, there was essentially no limit to the things they could borrow from the palace's jewelry collection - though each item was logged and inspected, of course, so they couldn't just take them. Val didn't care for jewelry in any case - not unless her friends had made the item in question themselves, in which case she was happy to wear it. She decided upon six silver bracelets and two pewter-and-crystal earrings, all of which Jasil had made. The earrings were leaping dolphins with tiny black crystals for eyes and clear crystal shooting out of the blowhole. Just one of the ruby earrings that Niko had requisitioned was probably worth twice what Val's whole set was worth in the market, but Val thought it was silly that some rocks and metals were worth more just because they were harder to dig out of the ground. It was far more valuable to have dolphin-shaped earrings with tiny, painstakingly-crafted water spouts that a friend had worked on for hours and hours to make just right.
"Are you ready to go?" Val asked.
Izzy bounced on the balls of her feet. She shook her head no and then nodded her head yes. "I'm so nervous! What if he doesn't like me?"
She'd opted for a pale blue sequined evening gown that faded to lilac at the bottom and had gotten Aisling (or maybe Aoife - it was sometimes hard to tell) to help with her makeup. With her fiery hair done up in ringlets and wearing a proper gown, she looked far from the orphan child that Val often thought of her as. She was a pretty young woman, and she'd matured just as much as Val over the year they'd known one another.
"Wow… you clean up well," Val said. She tugged on the sleeve of Izzy's gown to straighten it.
"It feels like a costume…"
"It always feels like that the first time you really dress up," Val said - she could remember her first time in her good old favorite dress with the velveteen jacket. It had belonged to Izzy for a time when she'd outgrown it, but now it was lost somewhere back in Verdenlecht. Dressing for finishing lessons, though, had long since inured Val against feeling odd when dressing up. She just hated to be ostentatious about it.
"You can be honest - I look like a little kid playing dress-up."
"You don't," Val said. She kissed Izzy's cheek and pulled her in for a hug. "You look adorable, but not in a little kid way. I promise your date will like you if he's got any sense in his head. Let's go see if Niko's ready…"
Hi, everybody!
Sorry about the delay between posts! I was obsessively working on my latest complete novel, Iron Witch (Part 1), which is basically a TG steampunk Harry Potter-style "wizard school" novel. It's available on my Patreon right now ($2 will get you access)! I haven't decided whether it will make its way to ScribbleHub or if I'll post it to Amazon, but it will be a while in either case. The link below is to my official announcement of the project, which includes all of Chapter 1 for your perusal. The full novel is available to Patrons.
https://www.patreon.com/posts/update-special-49706067
All my best,
Ovid
47. Izzy's Interests
If any one member of Val's family was going to escape the earl's clutches, of course it was going to be Iselde Zinn. Izzy was an expert climber, an inveterate orphan, and an unrepentant sneak. She'd been the only escapee, though that's not to say nobody else had gotten close. Ginn had nearly managed to escape from the palace and would have been able to, had she not been caught trying to get Ette out - she'd got the gist of Val's message (relayed through Violet's meows) and escaped her own cell through some combination of magic and trickery. Unfortunately, she hadn't been able to coordinate with Ette (who was unGifted), or else Val's parents might well have succeeded in escaping. Instead, they'd both been apprehended and had been in hot soup until Aleida showed up to question them to corroborate Val's story.
Niko might well have escaped, too, but she'd always had a bit of an overprotective bear streak and had stayed behind with Galvan to make sure nothing happened to Uncle Wuldie or Val's cousins… which, honestly, was probably unnecessary since Wuldie and Luella were both Gifted and reasonably well-trained in combat. In fact, Wuldie, who was two years older than Ginn, had taught her fighting when they were both teens. Instead, Niko had passed on the opportunity to flee and she and Galvan were put in detainment cells in the same prison that Val had been consigned to - nicer, larger, less lousy cells than what Val had been stuffed in, but neither of them were able to grow a panoply of useful plants out from the sewage pipe, either. The Uddys themselves were placed under house arrest with orders not to spread word about what had happened… though, obviously, word still got out. It always did.
Now, with the duchess placing Baron… Earl Zollen in control of the city and acquitting Val and her family of all charges, things were just peachy. The only problem was that Izzy had gone to ground and nobody was quite sure where to find her. Fortunately, Ette was an expert at tracking people down and Val was his dedicated assistant.
"Where did she go most often back in Verdenlecht?" he asked them.
"The Riverway," Val and Niko said simultaneously.
Ette nodded sagely, stroking the bristly beard hairs on his chin - he'd not shaved in several days. "I suppose that means we should start in the Port Bazaar and go from there. Now… since Izzy's a friend and not somebody fleeing from us, we'll want to be visible and all over the place rather than subtle and secretive."
So they hoofed it to the bazaar and asked around for anybody answering to Izzy's name or meeting her description and didn't find much of anything. Well… Val discovered that 'Izzy' was Caphric slang for a cheap, strong alcohol and attracted some attention from disappointed would-be-patrons when she called Izzy's name, but she didn't find Izzy. She did find Jasil there, though, chatting animatedly with a girl about their same age and demonstrating the embedding technique she'd figured for securing semiprecious stones into her bracelets - a fairly nuanced magical technique for heating tiny spots on the metal. It was damn impressive if her friend had figured it out on her own by manipulating the limited resources at her disposal and, if not, it was still pretty neat. Val watched her do it a few times before approaching, listening carefully to the pseudowhisper of magic whenever Jasil heated a pit of metal to softness and carefully pressed a gem in using a pair of steel tweezers.
"Is that silver?" Val asked.
Jasil's face lit up when she recognized Val, and she danced over to show her the bracelet. "Yes it is. Well… about two-thirds silver and one-third tin, which lowers the melting point to workability. Val, this is my friend Germaine!"
"Hi!" Val and Germaine shook hands. The girl was shorter and broader than Val, but in a way that suggested sturdiness. Chances were she'd fill out to have a frame a lot like Ginn's. Her palms and fingers had the raised callouses of somebody used to working with tools.
"I'm looking for my friend, Izzy. Have either of you seen a Sudren girl… like me, but a bit darker? Shorter and slimmer with green eyes?"
Jasil laughed, a warm, golden laugh with the hint of duskiness that her voice always carried. "I have! If you'd believe it, I paid her a few pfennigs to hand out samples of my hardened leather up on Peddler's Row. I thought she was an orphan."
"Technically, she is," Val said. "An orphan who happens to be hiding from the earl because of her friendship with sketchy folks." She tapped on her own chest.
"I thought the duchess booted the earl," Germaine said.
"She did," Val agreed. "He's in prison. Though we've got a new earl. Earl Zollen… a friend of mine, just like the duchess. So we're not in so much hot soup."
"You're friends with the duchess?" Germaine gaped and then looked to Jasil, who confirmed.
"It's not as impressive as it sounds," Val said. "I saved her life once, and then she saved mine when her mom tried to have me killed. She doesn't care that I'm a commoner, and I think she might even be an Old Sudren practitioner like me. So we get along, but I'm not a lady of the court or anything…"
"How is that not impressive?" Germaine asked.
Jasil gave Val's arm a playful punch. "You live in the palace!"
"Yeah, but only because I basically told Aleida that my family and I were going to be staying there for a while…"
"I think that's pretty much the definition of being important," Germaine said. "Can… can I see the palace?"
"She's your friend?" Val asked.
Jasil nodded and then took Germaine's hand into hers. If they weren't that sort of friends yet, Jasil certainly hoped they would be. And Val saw what she might find appealing in that cute, earnest, dark-eyed face, her body almost trembling with excitement at the prospect of going inside the palace (even though it was only an earl's palace). "Val and I go back. So? Can we show Germaine the palace?"
"After I find Izzy… oh!" Val spotted a boy in a messenger's getup darting effortlessly through the throngs of the Port Bazaar, overlong, rust-red hair beginning to spill from the sides of 'his' cap. Val recognized her from the confident, unusually agile movements before she saw through the marginally-passable boy disguise. "Izzy!"
Izzy stopped in her tracks. "Oh… Val?" She looked around and, presumably, concluded that Jasil was safe to spill the beans in front of. She dropped her voice to a near-whisper. "Did you escape?"
"No, I’m out and everybody's free and clear."
"Honest?"
"Blood sisters don't lie," Val stated. As far as Val was concerned, a blood pact was stronger than any contract that Mrs. Eatherfine had ever wanted her so sign. "I wrangled us the nice rooms. The ones for proper lords and ladies. Ginn and Ette's room is right next to Sir Andrat's!"
Izzy bounced on the balls of her feet. Germaine bounced on the balls of her feet. There was a lot of bouncing. Val looked to Jasil and the two of them giggled.
"I missed fighting practice so badly!" Izzy said.
"Well… what are we waiting for? Let's go give these two a tour and then see if we can fit in an afternoon session? Oh… actually, we should probably find Niko and Ette first."
Fortunately, Niko and Ette were both trying to be conspicuous, and so it wasn't hard to find them wandering around the bazaar and asking after Izzy, who'd gone right back to her orphan survival skills the moment she had to escape danger. They were a useful skillset to have, though Val hoped she wouldn't have to rely on them so much in the future. Really, she hoped she wouldn't have to rely on any of her hard-won survival skills, but she would far rather have them and not need them than need them and not have them.
"Val mentioned you've had some trouble with your old man," Ette said. Ette was never happy about Val getting into scrapes, as he didn't think their fighting skills should be used unless absolutely necessary. But he'd agreed that protecting people from abusive bullies was a rare exception to the rule - though it was their fault if they got in trouble with the authorities over it. Ultimately, Earl Gunthald had used it in his case against Val, but now he was in prison awaiting an appeal of Aleida's sentence.
Ette offered to spring for a coach back to the palace, but the girls were fine with strolling back - it was a pleasant day with puffy white clouds skating across the sky and sleek schooners cutting through the water out in the bay. Pleasure barges were anchored out over the reef, where somebody had erected a floating platform for diving into the ocean.
"Jasil, is your old man hitting you or your brother?" Ette asked more directly.
"My dad hasn't bothered me since Val and Niko got him…"
"Me, too!" Izzy said.
"And Izzy," Jasil agreed. "Plus, Val gave me a magic book and I've been practicing that. I can do the light pop… the flash of light? I can do that pretty well, but I can't manage the net yet… it's really hard…"
The magic snare wasn't very hard to Val, but she could remember a time not so long ago when she'd thought it tricky. Niko was of a similar opinion. "A little practice is all you need. Of course, casting it in under a second is a bit trickier. I can't do that yet."
"You'll get it soon," Val said. "Just imagine you're in a situation where you really, really need to do it and it's easier to shape your energy."
Ette chuckled. "What have I done to get myself involved in a coven of devious witches?"
"Just lucky, I guess," Val said, and they headed back to the palace.
+++++
After finding Izzy, things returned to some semblance of normalcy. However, things could never quite be the same as before… for one thing, Val wasn't being detained. She could go anywhere she liked and, within reason, nobody would stop her. Though she was supposed to tell Ginn or Ette, obviously. And now the duchess was in Port Rumm, at least until the capital could be retaken from the Bolearic forces, obviously. It was Val's understanding that they the enemy army was still working to secure the eastern half of the duchy, but that they might start their inevitable advance westward any day. In the meanwhile, Val could only imagine what horrible things the Pale Order was doing to the people back in the capital. She hoped Priestess Oestel had gotten out safely.
Summer had officially ended, and so the weather wasn't quite so oppressively hot in the day. They spent a lot of time outside, practicing in the courtyard, lazing on the water, or getting up to no good in the Port Bazaar. And Izzy discovered boys. It wasn't much of a discovery - they'd been in plain sight all along.
She asked Val and Niko what they knew about boys, as if it wasn't patently obvious that their answer would be 'not much'. Actually, Niko insisted that she found boys a bit attractive, but she had a preference for girls. And Val's preference was entirely one-sided. Boys could be good people - her adoptive brother Galvan, for instance, was perfectly fine when he wasn't being a pain in the arse. But she knew nothing about them romantically-speaking and didn't particularly care to learn.
"What about Galvan?" Izzy asked.
"I said he's sometimes a pain in the arse. What about him?" Val replied carefully. She glanced about - they were still out in the practice yard cooling down from practice and Galvan might still be around.
"Do you, um," Izzy said. She glanced about, too, her emerald-green eyes darting about before she leaned in conspiratorially. "Do you think he might like me?"
This was not something that Val cared to consider. For one thing, Izzy had turned twelve less than three weeks ago and Galvan was fifteen and a half. And, in fact, there was a very good chance that Galvan was currently chatting up one of the girls who habitually watched their practice. He was no longer the worst fighter in class now that Jasil and Germain started bringing their friends in a few days a week, and so Galvan might well look like a dashing young bravo to the daughter of a lady or high-ranking servant. Nothing was going to happen between Izzy and Galvan. Even if Val had to make sure nothing happened herself.
"I think Galvan's looking for somebody closer to his own age," Val said eventually.
"I'm starting to get boobs. Does he like boobs?"
Val grimaced - Galvan would not be doing anything with Izzy. Not in a hundred years. "Ew… I don't even want to think about you and Galvan. I'll keep my eyes out for somebody suitable."
"Somebody tall and lean," Izzy said. "With dark hair. And a butt…"
"Everybody has a butt, Izzy," Val observed. Though she knew well that not all butts had a Shape. She sighed, thinking of Niko.
"I'm going to ask Galvan…"
"Do not ask Galvan," Val ordered. "We'll figure something out. I promise."
So Val had that to deal with on top of everything else. But she was making progress in other regards. She had a breakthrough with practicing meditation - as long as she could pretend she was blocking out ghosts, like she had in prison, she could meditate in the way you were supposed to if you wanted to learn to focus your spirit energy and make it more efficient for magic. It helped especially to be down in the crypt, where it was quiet and there was the occasional actual ghost (though, as far as Val could tell, none of the ghosts were from people who had actually been interred there - they were more likely to be people who had died in other parts of the castle and wandered to where the haunting was best). Sometimes, she saw the duchess down there, too.
"Don't you think it's odd? Sitting in the quiet dark of a crypt, hoping to encounter spirits?" Aleida whispered.
Val cracked her eyes open. "Yes, it's weird. That's the point, though, right? It's different from other places, and so you can do different things there. If you think about it, it's not any different from going out into nature to practice natural magic…"
"Good point, Val. Very true." The duchess quieted for a few minutes, she and Val sitting quietly in the cool dark. Then she gasped and nudged Val with her foot. "Doesn't that mean we're doing necromancy?"
"Maybe? I don't know. Does it matter?"
"Valkyrie, you know full well that necromancy is forbidden…"
Val shrugged. "Then whatever I'm doing must not be necromancy. I mean it's not… necromancy is communion with the dead, and this is just… listening. I read somewhere that the difference between the different areas of magic is mostly made-up… magic is like a big continuous wheel that incorporates all the different kinds of magical energy. And some mages think there's only one kind of energy but it looks six different ways depending on where you spot it. The divining you do is a cousin to necromancy on one side and magecraft on the other, and I guess if you actually talked with the spirits of the dead, you'd be taking a tiny step toward necromancy. But I figure just listening is harmless… and talking probably isn't so bad, either. I mean… I made friends with a ghost when I was in prison."
"You should probably keep that a secret," Aleida said eventually. "Does anybody else know about that?"
"No," Val said. "I don't really like talking about prison…"
"Sorry."
"It wasn't your fault… but I’m not going to pretend I can't talk to ghosts sometimes just because some crazy king hundreds and hundreds of years ago made an army of skeletons. But if I do make an army of skeletons, I hope you defeat me and make a big speech about how evil I was to do that."
Aleida giggled. "Okay. I'll do that. But don't make an army of skeletons."
"I won't."
"Talking to ghosts is okay, I guess. Before we had to leave the palace, I used to go to the sepulcher and talk to Ansibald… he never talked back because he's not a ghost… well, I don't think he is. Hopefully, he's in Sturmhalle. I wish I was half as brave as him…" the duchess chuckled. "I was so shaky the first time I held court, I got my duchess necklace enchanted so I wouldn't get anxious. But Ansibald just did whatever he pleased if he thought it was the right thing…"
"I respected your brother… he was brave. But also a bit foolish. Zollen told him not to ride to Cafernine, but he was dead-set upon it, and look where it got us. You're already a much better duchess than he was a duke, and you're only going to get better."
Aleida rubbed the bridge of her nose. "Gods, Val… one of these days, you're going to offend the wrong person and end up in prison. Again."
Val shrugged. "Maybe. Last time turned out pretty well for me, so I suppose I'm not too worried about it."
"I'm going to stop pursuing this before I have to charge you with anything." Aleida cleared her throat and settled into a meditative pose. "Okay. Communing with spirits."
+++++
While it was still warm enough to enjoy balmy days at the reef, Val continued to venture out that way once or twice a week. She was getting better at swimming, though she might never have Izzy's effortless aquatic mien. She had a small nucleus of good friends and a growing network of more distant friends and acquaintances - for instance, it wasn't unusual for Germaine to accompany her and Niko, but she only ever came if Jasil was also there.
Val checked on Jasil a few times a week - it was easy because she and Germaine were attending about half of the morning training sessions, as well as occasionally showing up for the citizen's defense and tactics classes that Ette and Ginn had started holding at the duchess's request (and, Val assumed, on her pfennig). This gave Val a chance to check in and make sure her father hadn't tried to hurt her or her brother again - and, thankfully, he seemed to be giving them a wide berth, and before too long Jasil would know enough magic to defend herself with it. She always had a few bruises, but they were from sparring for fun and not actual self-defense.
After an afternoon on the reef, they would wander around the port, still clad in their bathing outfits and the little translucent gowns that were trendy to wear with them - these were little more than short-sleeved robes, since they were loose and usually kept completely unbuttoned all along the front, but they provided enough modesty that shopkeepers would pretend you hadn't just wandered into their shop barefoot and dressed for a day on the reef.
Val always noticed the way the boys would look at Nikoli, who had just turned fourteen and was a bit mature for her age. She could tell they liked how she looked… how their heads would turn and follow her as she and Val passed - though it was always a bit unnerving when one of those heads fixated on Val, instead, which also sometimes happened. Val would have been annoyed if she got the amount of attention that Niko did, but Niko didn't seem to mind. And Val was more amused than jealous. She knew she was girlfriends with the prettiest girl in the city, and no matter how much the boys stared, they weren't. So she squeezed Niko's hand and hummed and skipped with a smile on her face, because she got to be with Niko and not them. Niko, with her firm shoulders, her steely eyes that would brook no defeat, her butt with its Shape. Her Niko.
"What has you so happy?" Niko asked. She pecked Val on the cheek and wiped a smudge of berry from her lip.
"She's always like that after swimming. I think she just likes being with you," Izzy said. "I wish I had a little friend like Auntie Ginn says it. But, you know, a boy."
Val had already tried to set Izzy up. Her most recent attempt was Collin Zollen, who was Earl Zollen's youngest son. He was a decent boy despite his noble status - being the fifth son of a baron tended to make lordlings either utterly intolerable or humbler than usual - and the boy had expressed some interest in private. But Izzy shot the prospect down - he was only eleven (and change) years old, which was too young for a mature girl like her. Never mind that he was just three and a half months younger than Izzy and had about two inches on her in height. Izzy was impossible to please…
"How about my cousin?" Jasil offered.
They walked through the Port Bazaar, the sun at their backs. Jasil swapped spots with her aunt next to the big fountain - it was a choice spot and the family didn't want to give it up without a fight. She unrolled her big turquoise blanket as her aunt packed her own things up - all of the family members had their own inventory, usually keeping shop for three or four hours a day and then working as entertainers for a few hours at night. Val wouldn't have picked that life, but she'd have taken it over being an orphan or working as a day laborer, which was the only work that most of the refugees into the city could find. Of course, the able-bodied could always join the army. Val's aunt finished packing her wares, setting the oversized bindle next to Jasil's stall.
"Do you mean Michi's boy?" her aunt asked.
Jasil nodded. "My other aunt, Michi, just got into town last week… I bet you'd like my Cousin Kaspar, Izzy."
"Is he…" Izzy gestured vaguely. "Nice?" Val assumed she was reluctant to ask about butts in front of Jasil's Aunt Shereil.
"Very nice," Jasil agreed. "The two of us did a leap-dancing routine together a few years back."
Val bounced on the balls of her feet. "Why don't we make it a sextuple date?"
"A what?" Izzy yelped.
"You know, the six of us… you and Cousin Kaspar, Jasil and Germaine, and Niko and me, obviously."
"You should not call it that," Niko stated flatly.
"Why?" Val frowned. She gasped, covering her face with her hands so the others wouldn't see how red her cheeks were burning. "Oh… no! I didn't mean it like that, obviously!"
Jasil laughed. "It'll have to be a quadruple, anyway. Germaine and her mother left for Carver's Coast yesterday and won't be back for a few days." Carver's Coast was a mid-sized maritime town about twenty miles up the coast from Port Rumm.
"Oh…" Val sighed. "So a quadruplet, then?"
"It's called a double-date, Val," Niko said flatly.
Val grumbled about the terminology, but at least had managed to eke out a win - a quadruple date with her, Niko, Izzy, and Cousin Kaspar in two evenings' time. That gave them plenty of time to peruse the bazaar as well as scour the palace for anything nice that wasn't tied down. They'd be dressed to the nines. Dressed to the elevens, even!
Since Earl Zollen had three daughters, none of whom lived in Port Rumm and two of whom were grown and married, and his wife had died five years before, there was essentially no limit to the things they could borrow from the palace's jewelry collection - though each item was logged and inspected, of course, so they couldn't just take them. Val didn't care for jewelry in any case - not unless her friends had made the item in question themselves, in which case she was happy to wear it. She decided upon six silver bracelets and two pewter-and-crystal earrings, all of which Jasil had made. The earrings were leaping dolphins with tiny black crystals for eyes and clear crystal shooting out of the blowhole. Just one of the ruby earrings that Niko had requisitioned was probably worth twice what Val's whole set was worth in the market, but Val thought it was silly that some rocks and metals were worth more just because they were harder to dig out of the ground. It was far more valuable to have dolphin-shaped earrings with tiny, painstakingly-crafted water spouts that a friend had worked on for hours and hours to make just right.
"Are you ready to go?" Val asked.
Izzy bounced on the balls of her feet. She shook her head no and then nodded her head yes. "I'm so nervous! What if he doesn't like me?"
She'd opted for a pale blue sequined evening gown that faded to lilac at the bottom and had gotten Aisling (or maybe Aoife - it was sometimes hard to tell) to help with her makeup. With her fiery hair done up in ringlets and wearing a proper gown, she looked far from the orphan child that Val often thought of her as. She was a pretty young woman, and she'd matured just as much as Val over the year they'd known one another.
"Wow… you clean up well," Val said. She tugged on the sleeve of Izzy's gown to straighten it.
"It feels like a costume…"
"It always feels like that the first time you really dress up," Val said - she could remember her first time in her good old favorite dress with the velveteen jacket. It had belonged to Izzy for a time when she'd outgrown it, but now it was lost somewhere back in Verdenlecht. Dressing for finishing lessons, though, had long since inured Val against feeling odd when dressing up. She just hated to be ostentatious about it.
"You can be honest - I look like a little kid playing dress-up."
"You don't," Val said. She kissed Izzy's cheek and pulled her in for a hug. "You look adorable, but not in a little kid way. I promise your date will like you if he's got any sense in his head. Let's go see if Niko's ready…"
