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It was a light so bright Jess felt herself moaning, flipping over to her side to escape it. Too late. She was now all too aware of a certain heavy pressure, and wearily pulled herself from the weight of her dreams, blinking open sleep-encrusted eyes, squinting against the morning sun.
“By the gods that was a horrible dream,” Jess muttered aloud as she stumbled over to the chamber pot, feeling immeasurable relief as she voided away her aching pressure, only to jerk back in startlement as she locked gazes with a certain sapphire eyed being staring straight at her, superhuman reflexes alone allowing her to dodge a terribly embarrassing mess.
“Twilight! When did you get back? Oh, I missed you, you silly beast. And why are you staring at me that way?
Her familiar tilted his head. “Hmm… no obvious signs of demonic influence, no doomsday forces have been unleashed, and the campus does not appear to be littered with bodies. Well, except for a certain head disciplinarian, but good Duke Smida was at least courteous enough to clean up his mess. All in all, as well as can be expected, I suppose.” Twilight flashed her a mischievous grin as he loped off the bed to twine himself about her ankles, lifting his head up for a dutiful scratching by a strangely elated Jess who hadn’t realized until that moment how very much she had missed him.
“Angels above, Twilight, it is good to see you, cryptic remarks aside!”
Her familiar gave a supple shrug difficult for anyone who was not a cat. “When my ears started prickling, I knew it was time to cut my investigations short and return to your side. Frankly, Jess, I was worried. I had the sense that you were feeling a bit… distraught.”
Jess blinked, sighed, and nodded her head, quickly telling her purring familiar the gist of her adventures. “I left the good duke to deal with that vile serpent who knew far too much, avoiding my gaze for the full week before arranging for my supposed death.” Jess shrugged. “Though to be fair, it was rather clever of her to use notes delivered by servant proxies, or the poor Lady Aislin, who the more I think of it, is just a lonely woman trying to find meaning as a proctor. I wonder if she even has any friends. Sad, really.”
Twilight smirked. “At least she isn't dead.”
"There is that," Jess admitted. "Well, the duke and I reached an understanding of sorts. I found his son to be a charming, sweet boy, and am open to being his friend, and what happens from there, happens. As far as his attempted gambit, the arrangement he thought he had with the former Lady Grimsly, that shameful vices would be found upon me, and perhaps he would 'rescue' me for a month to sober me up at his country manor in the company of his son who of course knows nothing of the arrangement, during which time he would work to quell all rumors of my excesses even as I fell in love with the admittedly endearing Johann, who didn't seem to mind in the least that Rulia is my beau. In fact, she was for all practical purposes invited to join us, Duke Smida even offering to sponsor her. Quite clever, really, as that ties us all closer together, and I have yet to meet the boy who minded his beau having a leman of her own, especially if that girl fancied him as well."
Jess flashed a cool smile. "I have no doubt if I had proven intractable, stronger persuasions might have been attempted. Yet I gather that his reputation is that of an honorable man, if a hard bargainer, and one not afraid to get blood on his collar to clear out the vermin that stand in his way. Fortunately, he was savvy enough to try for the honey first, and after how well I dealt with his knights, something I do regret the necessity of, Duke Smida seemed to garner genuine respect for me."
Twilight nodded. “I was scenting out something along those lines. Just the periphery. The man is ruthless, but honorable. A harder version of Duke diOnni, really. I suspect he also appreciated the fact that you could have killed him and the remainder of his men, vaunted knights that they were, had you truly embraced the madness and wanted him dead.”
Jess sighed. "Not something I want to think about at this moment, suffice to say he was as outraged as I to find that his knight captain was an infernalist who had been making arrangements with Lady Grimsly not to see me married off and out of everyone's hair, but to see me dead."
Jess flashed a bleak little smile. “Dear Duke Smida and his surviving knights did not look too pleased, when last I saw them speaking to Lady Grimsly.”
Twilight chuckled darkly. “At least they cleaned up their mess, enthusiastic as they were in making it. And perhaps your clan now has new allies to count upon in Council.”
Jess gave a small smile. “Smida assured me in his own way that he and the lords who vote in lockstep with him, his knights, would not work to sabotage our clan in Council, at least. The impression I got, however, was that if our clan needed someone as strong as he to serve as an advocate... his son was still very much available.”
Twilight shrugged. “The lad seems harmless enough, the glimpse I got of him before attending to your side. Still, I know you prefer wilder fare.”
Jess had the grace to blush. “Strange, isn't it? I like my girls salty or sweet. But my men? I prefer to have a bit of fire and steel in them, if that makes any sense.”
“Of course,” Twilight nodded. “You desire strong kittens.”
Jess arched her brow. “I am hardly a cat, dear Twilight.”
Her familiar smirked. “The principle still holds.”
Jess's gaze wandered to the bucolic landscape just outside her opened window, catching sight of forest and field beyond the borders of the academy walls.
“After what Lady Grimsly tried to do to me, how she intended to sabotage my clan entire, she and the headmistress holding the weight of their audit like a mallet to pound me into shape, a dirge I would be forced to dance to, well, I knew steps had to be taken.”
Her familiar grinned. "Tell me, my dear mistress, did one of those steps involve smashing a hole in Mistress Zerona's chamber walls and sticking her through it, dangling her by her ankle to get a good look at the fall below, threatening to let her splatter upon the ground if she dared pen a single review of you that cast you in a bad or disobedient light, and thus put your family at risk of Council retribution?"
Jess grimaced but nodded. “For all intents and purposes, war had been declared, my sister and I held hostage. It was time to let the powers that be know that I was not one to lightly cross.”
Jess's smile turned cold. She did not flinch from her familiar's brilliant sapphire orbs. "It was time to seize the Vor and capture the queen, my cat. Time to let her know that just as she had the power to harm my clan, I too had a trump card to play. To send each and every member of her House crashing to the ground from the highest ledge of whatever castle or keep they would scale in a desperate attempt to flee my gaze, should even one letter be directed against my family!"
Twilight nodded solemnly. “Mutually assured destruction. The ultimate and final gambit. Eloquin would be proud.”
Jess's gaze turned haunted. "To be honest, I look back upon the night before and it feels strangely liquid, brilliant flashes of savage violence etched upon my mind's eye, like glimpsing shards of a fever dream." Jess shivered. "It was bad enough when I faced those knights. I did my best to keep my fury banked, to rein it in after each charge, knowing those men were being manipulated. But as the night played out, the wiles of my enemies laid bare before me, I felt so… alien. Not myself at all. Like I was filled with a righteous berserker's fury, but somehow different. Darker." Jess shut her eyes and grimaced. "Deliberately summoning my wrath was not such a good idea outside the Shadowlands, was it?"
Twilight flashed a toothy grin. "That's one thing I've always appreciated about you, Jess. Your common sense may be lacking, but your sense of how to compensate for different paradigms or other arcane variances is exquisite. It matters not that you have never excelled at mastering any scholar's studies of magic. Mortal wizards, after all, have such a limited grasp of what true power is."
Jess smirked. "You mean I can't cast a single spell worth a damn, but I can cut their webs of power with utter ea
se, since the strands are so bloody fragile. They always snap to nothing, after all, when I try to gather them up and channel them myself."
“They are rather fragile things, I’m afraid,” Twilight agreed.
Jess grimaced. "But what I summoned forth in the headmistress's office... not even Delvers can normally smash their fists through stone walls over half a yard thick, can they?"
Twilight chuckled softly. “None save Midnight Delvers, embracing the true depths of their dark calling.”
Jess frowned at that.
“Jess?”
“Yes, Twilight?”
“It is one thing to strive to manipulate elementalist forces to effect change in the world about you. This, you have never been good at. It is quite another thing for you to change the world directly. This too has serious repercussions, even if you should find that it is not at all beyond you to perform feats no mortal could replicate.”
Twilight sighed, even as Jess felt her heart start to race. "Of course, when the din and cry of battle commence, you should embrace your passions to the fullest. But save for unleashing your wrath against fell beasts that truly deserve it, deep in the darkest bowls of living nightmare, it would be best to avoid deliberately goading yourself in the future."
Jess shivered, nodding her head in agreement. “I’ll be honest, Twilight. Some of those dreams I had last night, after facing down Lady Zerona? They scare me. I felt like I was losing control. I felt like I was no longer myself.” Jess's gaze became soft, troubled. She was soothed only slightly by her familiar’s gentle purr and butting of her hand.
“It's all right, my mistress. Just remember: As your powers deepen, your connections with the inner workings of this world will continue to blossom and grow. Unfortunately, the more you deliberately summon your wrath, the more likely it is to have unexpected consequences, if you are not prepared for it. Far better to revel in that madness deep within the bowels of Shadow, where any repercussions, however explosive, are far, far less likely to have untoward effects upon those you love.”
Jess shivered. “That wasn’t very reassuring, Twilight.”
Her familiar gazed at her, brilliant sapphire eyes shimmering with unfathomable knowledge, and Jess felt herself shiver, halfway fearing she would fall endlessly into their vastness. "Power is a double-edged sword, my dear Jess. A weapon you have sought all your life to master. You must grip it carefully, lest you would be cut by the very forces that save you. Have a care, my queen, and keep your focus. Follow those precepts, and all will be well."
"Fair enough, Twilight," Jess allowed, forcing herself to get up and stretch, changing into fresh attire before gently tapping on her sister's door. "Apple, are you there? Can we talk?"
“That depends. Are you human, or some crazy demon creature just pretending to be my sister?”
"Very funny, Apple. Could we talk, please?"
Some moments later the door was opened by a very irate looking Appolonia, lovely as she appeared in her crushed cashmere dress of palest rose. “It’s a cute dress, Apple,” Jess offered, but her sister wasn’t about to let herself be soothed quite so easily.
“So, do you have any idea whatsoever about what you set in motion yesterday? By the angels above, Jessica! You say you’re not going to play the game of politics at all, then you go ahead and intimidate the headmistress of the entire school with the strongest gambit there is! Death to her and her entire clan, should she dare to cross you! Followed up with a display of force so blatant, no one can doubt your power."
Apple shook her head grimly. “Make no mistake, Jess. You are in play for stakes that affect our whole family, and you are demanding everyone show their hands right this moment, the pot we play for being no less than our clan’s very survival!”
Jess gazed coolly at her sister. “Are you forgetting that the former head disciplinarian had planned for me to die, yesterday?”
Her sister frowned. "No, Jess. No, I'm not. I know our options were limited. I know that when an enemy makes it plain they are going for your throat, you had best bring them to heel, and quickly." Apple gave a tired shake of her head. "All right, Jess. Maybe there was merit to seizing the Vor, as you and Father like to put it. And maybe you did terrify the headmistress into submission. The gods know you terrified me. But Jess, you didn't even look human! I halfway thought you were going to butcher her right then and there, rip off her head, and throw it on the king's lap, daring him to take arms! By the gods, Jess! Maybe you did break her will. But for all we know, she sent a note by pigeon telling her contacts you're fomenting insurrection within the student body with plans to strike for the throne, before the year is out! What then, Jess? What the hell will we do if she calls your bluff?"
Jess’s eyes flashed with sudden heat. “It was no bluff. If she betrays our family, she dies.”
Her sister grimaced, squeezing her eyes shut. “That does us no good if she incites the Court against our family before you do!”
Jess nodded coldly. “And she knows damn well she will get no satisfaction in inciting the Lords Council to move against us if she is busy screaming her last, right before she crashes into the granite flagstones below her office.”
Jess locked gazes with her sister as the dreamlike quality of the day before suddenly shivered into crystalline clarity, as if the memory was brought to the fore by her rekindled rage. "It was a calculated gamble, Apple. And I meant every damn word I said. And I made sure that she, excellent judge of character that she has to be, to be leading a school as corrupt and twisted as this, could see the fury in my eyes. I held nothing back." Jess's voice had turned cold as frost, Apple visibly paling and shivering even as she stepped away. "I would break her, Apple. I would destroy her so savagely that it would send ripples of terror through my enemies' ranks, just as Eloquin had taught all of his chosen Squires of War to do. I would destroy her clan utterly, just as I would anyone who would dare to strike at us, and I made damn sure she knew it!"
“Jess!” Her familiar cautioned.
Jess took a deep, shuddering breath, striving to calm her voice. "Once I was in that room, once I had met her cool gaze, I could tell that she didn't know Grimsly was planning for my death. That tidbit had caught her off guard. Yet even so, I could see that to her, we were no more than the smallest, most worthless pawns on the board. She didn't care a fig for us, Apple. Our struggles, our trials and travails, all that meant nothing to her. And that cool disdain filled me with such dark fury, I can't even find the words to describe it." Jess's lips pressed tightly together. "And since there was no way I could move her heart to pity, I would damn well jolt it with fear. She doesn’t have to care for us, Apple, so long as she knows that should any foe move against our clan for the killing strike, Lady Zerona will be the first to perish!”
Apple sighed. "She's a cold fish, I know. Anyone could tell you that. She's played the game of Court for most of her life. She even allowed her daughter to be disgraced without blinking an eye when an opponent attempted to manipulate her away from her prize. Of course, that lord's family found themselves bankrupt and destitute when Lady Zerona aligned all her pieces against him, years later, but still! She's a cold fish with a very long memory, and you've just made an enemy for life. You can only hope her terror of us never fades, or we will always have to worry about a knife from the shadows."
Jess clenched her fist, hard. The minor cuts and abrasions she had suffered the day before had already healed without even the faintest trace of scarring. Yet the object of her fury was broken still, Jess knew. Buttressed stone wall and a headmistress's steely confidence, both had crumbled before her wrath. Yet both, eventually, could be put back together. Even if it took years, the headmistress might one day find her terror sufficiently abated to unleash the bitter daggers of her heart, when Jessica's family thought all threats long since past. "Then perhaps it would be best if we took care of her now." Her chill tone caused Apple to visibly shiver.
"No, Jess. You will do no such thing!" Apple declared curtly, gla
ring back at Jess. "That is why I spoke to her, before we left. To let her know about Morlekai, your ‘training partner,' who you were always making out with in the middle of your wrestling matches, and really, how uncouth is that, Jess? Anyway, I let the headmistress know that he is just as insanely powerful as you, and every bit as mad, and would take definite exception, should something untoward to happen to you, and that you were, in fact, a Friend of the Guild. So if she dared to cross us, she would find herself at the center of a storm she couldn't possibly hope to survive." Apple took a deep steadying breath, locking gazes with her sister. "Also, I've written to Mother."
Jess gasped and stepped back, eyes going wide. “Ye gods, Apple. Tell me you didn’t!”
Her sister's cool nod held the weight of doom upon it, as far as Jess was concerned. "I'm afraid I had to, Jess," she sighed. "You upped the stakes as high as they can go with the coldest fish not actively in Court, and we need Mother's counsel. She will take Headmistress Zerona's measure, and we will plan accordingly." Her smile turned sardonic, a mirror of Jess's own. "Who knows? Wiping her piece from the board entirely might be the move we have to make, now that you have pressed her play."
Twilight cleared his throat, instantly gathering Jess’s attention. “Remember, Jess, a certain vault hidden from sight and memory both, in a shallow pocket of benign Regio on the Turnsby estates. Your family will come to no financial hardship, should you use discretion in that regard, no matter what economic wiles this headmistress plays against your family’s fortunes.”
Twilight gave an amused grin at Jess’s dumbstruck expression. For indeed she had lost all recollection of that fateful meeting with Karine in the secret treasury that served as a repository of incredible wealth for her family. Memories that only now came rushing to the fore, she and Karine admiring the fantastic treasure trove of wealth and golden splendor that Karine herself had only discovered upon Jess blessing her with the Rite of Domain over her ancestral lands, forging within Karine a bond to her estates that made her equivalent in stature to the ancient queens that had once ruled by the ancient art of Claimance, the magic of Primacy, lost centuries ago.
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