Geoffrey gave her a knowing look. “I know how pretty Onnika is,” he grinned. “And so my sister the brave knight saved a beautiful damsel in distress. I can only imagine that she was quite grateful to her hero!”
Jess flushed brightly and Geoffrey laughed. “Shut up, Geoffrey!”
He chuckled indulgently. “It’s all right. Jess. Everyone at Court knows Onnika’s predilections. She’s managed to turn the heads and hearts of a number of the ladies, and since she was presented to Court just this past winter, it was considered slightly scandalous! Of course, since her suitors were not men, everyone was quite willing to look the other way, even the ladies' husbands. Decadent as they are, I suspect they were all hoping for a ménage à troise.”
Jess frowned. “She was only what, seventeen? If a married noble man took advantage of her at that age, well, I would have to challenge him!”
Her brother smiled. “Very protective stance, considering that she has been of marriageable age since her fifteenth summer! But it's perfectly okay if Onnika seduces older women, as long as no nobleman attempts the same with her, is that right?”
Jess shrugged. “Well, of course! Practically speaking, men are much stronger than most women and can force themselves on her. That, dear brother, is rape. Few acts are more vile. With two women, it is more gentle, sweet. Not forced. Pleasuring each other is like gently nurturing the bud of a beautiful flower to blossom into fruition. It is not the callous force and grunting of a man taking advantage of a half-starved chambermaid.”
Her brother gave her an amused nod. “Of course, the fact that you also happen to like girls has no bearing on your arguments, I take it? And you yourself a Squire with all that entails since you were fifteen summers old. Always the soul of impartiality is my dear sister!”
Jess flushed, suddenly feeling acutely embarrassed, quickly turning her gaze away, almost afraid her brother and father would be able to sense just how thoroughly she had lost her innocence, if she dared meet their gaze.
“I was teasing, Jess,” her brother's voice was soft, apologetic. “I said more than I should. Forgive me.”
“There is nothing to forgive,” Jess smiled. “You're just an idiot. I've known that since forever.”
Her father laughed with the relieved joy of a man with a new lease on life, one who had found hope where before there had only been sorrow and regret. “The particulars matter not, my precious child! What is important is that you have returned to us. That you, my beloved daughter, had the grit and tenacity to come back to the realms of the living, when even the bards thought you lost to wander endlessly in the realm of final dreams.”
Jess felt her heart glowing with happiness as she gazed into her father’s adoring eyes. It was then, of course, she also felt her stomach plummet to her feet when she heard what sounded to her like the trumpets of doom.
"Jessica de Calenbry, you stop right there! Oh by the gods, Arthur. You made it! Beloved, our daughter has returned to us!" At that Jess stepped back along with her brother as a panting Appolonia racing up to them, even as their mother and father held each other tightly, kissing with a deep, fierce passion with no regard for place or time. Happy to be reunited, all their children safe at last.
Jess found herself grinning and blinking away tears despite herself, even when she felt the slight thump that she knew was her sister hitting her back.
"Bloody hells, Jess. I can't believe you made us chase after you like that. Ow! Your stupid armor hurts. I'm hitting you next time you take off that silly mithril shirt, just you wait!"
Fiercely passionate kiss at last ended, Agda turned toward Jess, and the weight of her stare made Jess feel like a child again, a wayward little girl with her hand caught in the bread basket, and all her excuses or prevarications would do nothing to stop the weight of said stare, or the sentence to be passed down from on high.
"I don't suppose you'd care to explain why you suddenly had a mind to tear through the Turnsby's manor; startling half the servants, and causing the poor seneschal to faint when he swore he saw you burst through a third story window?"
Apple smirked and nodded. “All without shattering a single pane of glass, though the window itself looks like an odd flower that blossomed a pair of great wood and glass petals. There’s no closing that window now, that’s for sure.”
Jess knew she had to think of something clever at that very moment.
“Say something clever!” Twilight urged, still on her shoulder.
“Um…” Jess shrugged. “I felt like having a run?”
Apple rolled her eyes.
Twilight sighed. “That was not particularly clever, Jess.”
"Well, I don't have any better ideas! What am I supposed to say?"
“Tell them you are racing off to save hapless villagers about to be pulled into Regio!”
“Yes, but that’s not exactly being honest.”
Twilight shrugged. “Well, it stands to reason that eventually we’ll run into hapless villagers being pulled into the Shadowlands, with your knack for trouble. The adventure is finding out just when it happens! Hopefully, never.”
Jess cleared her throat. “I am off to search for hapless villagers who may or may not be being pulled into Shadow, even as we speak! Twilight and I shall valiantly go forth to search for and save these poor villagers, wherever they may be!”
Apple just stared at Jess. “We can totally tell you were conspiring with your cat just now, you know.”
Jess tilted her head. "But you can't see or hear him, can you? He's undetectable by mortal magics! And Karine doesn't count, since these are her lands, and Twilight is a visiting Power."
Geoffrey just shook his head sadly. “Perhaps it’s best that we haven’t taken Jess to Court yet.” He quirked a smile to his youngest sister, causing Apple to smirk and nod her head in agreement.
Jess pouted at that.
Agda just stared at her, Jess feeling strangely smaller and sillier the longer her mother held her gaze. “There could be helpless villagers out there, mom. Somewhere,” Jess mumbled.
"Jessica de Calenbry! Stop this foolishness immediately and tell me why you felt the need to bolt like a maiden out of Hades, when all we wanted to do was sit down like reasonable adults and have a discussion!"
The roiling anxiety Jess had been gamely holding at bay broke forth and washed over her, leaving her feeling queasy and trapped. She began to breathe rapidly as panic sought to sliver past her firm guard. She clenched her hands tight, to keep her anxiety at bay.
“Jessica! What is wrong, honey, are you feeling unwell?” Firm as steel a moment ago, her mother’s voice was now one of heartfelt concern.
“Breathe easy, daughter,” her father soothed. “There is no danger here. No reason to panic. Just take a deep breath and sit down. There’s a good girl.” Gently, her father settled her against one of the nearby elms. “And there is no need of this here, my daughter. You will always be safe with me by your side.” And just as simple as that, her father had accomplished what a horde of demons and even fifty fellow students at Highrock College couldn’t do, stepping back with Jess’s shimmering blade, still sheathed, resting comfortably in his in hand. Suddenly, she was disarmed. Helpless before the measuring gazes of her family.
“Oh, Mother. You and I both know what her problem is. I don’t know why we are dancing around it so.” Apple’s tone was weary.
“Enough, Appolonia. There is no reason why we can’t go about this gracefully, if your sister would stop running off like a spooked elk!”
Geoffrey gazed at his mother solemnly. “I think we’d best say it forthright, don’t you?”
Agda sighed, her manner implying that there was no help for it, and gracefully sat down by her oldest daughter’s side, taking Jess’s unresisting hand into her lap and patting it gently. “Children, you know your sister has done some fine things for our kingdom of late. Very fine. Rescuing her friends from vile machinations and treacherous vermin, and most recently, rescuing the Turnsby e
states entire from the dire fate of being lost to Shadow forevermore.” She shivered at that. “However, power, even that used for the most noble of purposes, can at times draw the concern of one's betters. As our family has a sterling reputation of always putting honor and duty before personal gain, those above our station merely look on with concern, shall we say, for Jessica’s well-being. It is a hard and fierce path our Jess has chosen, one that can lead to instability, even madness of a sort.”
Her mother smiled gently, keeping a grip on an increasingly panicked Jess's hand. “It has been proposed that Jess is long overdue for a relaxing retreat far from the stress and dangers of Delving. Perhaps some time spent enjoying the finer things in life, gaining appreciation and exposure to the fine arts, embracing the joys of dance, music, and etiquette, perhaps studying mathematics and the great philosophers would do much to stabilize and heal our dear Jess from the wounds to the psyche her perilous adventures have inflicted upon her.”
Geoffrey sighed, sitting to Jess’s right, and squeezing her knee sympathetically. “In other words, Jess calling up odd powers to save the Turnsby lands and their inhabitants, though none can fault the nobility of such actions, was nonetheless sufficient to alarm the powers that be. If poor Jess is defanged and sent to finishing school, it is hoped that such will be sufficient to allay any fears of…instability that the reemergence of ancient powers could bring to the status quo. And somehow our sister caught wind of this and bolted, almost in the nick of time!” He winked at a pouting Jess and kissed her cheek, mithril helm having been taken off when she held her father close. “Don’t worry, Jess. It will all work out.”
Agda nodded in accord. “That is the heart of it, my dears.” She gave her daughter’s hand a sympathetic squeeze. “Our fierce and brave Jess must, for a time at least, take a break from being the valiant warrior. It is time for her to relax and smell the roses for a bit.”
Jess’s father sighed. “I’m sorry, Jess. I know you have mixed feelings about finishing school, but politically speaking, it will go a long way to showing our deference to the established order of things, and our unswerving loyalty to the Crown.” He chuckled then. “A warrior’s duty is to his land and his family both, and some duties, I'm afraid, are more onerous than others. I know all too well how brave and stalwart a warrior you are, dearest Jess, defending those in peril and those you love. A general couldn’t ask for a braver commander to lead his vanguard. But now, I’m afraid, I must ask you to enter a battlefield unlike any you have faced before.”
"But Father!" Jess wailed, "I don't like fighting with words and innuendo! I feel like a first-year student who doesn't even know how to handle a blade, getting sliced open by vicious seniors whenever I'm with a group of so-called ladies! I hate that! The girls will say mean things about me all the time! You know I'm not good at that sort of thing. Stupid constricting dresses and etiquette enough to make one scream! Oh Father, I don't want to go to finishing school!"
Jess began to sob, and Twilight, eyes slitted in displeasure, leaped adroitly off his mistress’s shoulder.
“Jessica de Calenbry, it's time you grew up and started taking responsibility like an adult! There were serious repercussions to your actions, and if you insist on taking up the mantle of paladin and granting rites of Claimance, wielding arts that had faded centuries ago, then you bloody well have to take responsibility when the repercussions of those actions affect our family!” Agda’s words were harsh and Jess felt suddenly crushed, though her mother’s hug was warm, as she squeezed her daughter close, murmuring softly to a sniffling Jess. “I love you, my daughter, and too many powers are looking our way, wondering what our next move will be. You know as well as I that, our dear diOnni friends aside, most dukes look askance at a baron having as much power as they, and I know of several who would revel in our downfall!”
Agda sighed. “Now is not the time for us to be risking ourselves on any mad gambits. Best we stay out of the eye of political forces best left undisturbed. The best way for us to do that is for you to give the appearance of training to be a polished and refined lady, well versed in etiquette and grace.”
Apple smirked. “That’s like taking a blooded falcon and trying to make her appear a docile pigeon.”
“Please, Apple!” her mother snapped, before turning to Jess once more. “I know this is a very difficult task for you, my Jessica, but we need you to embrace it,” she said. “Though I know your temperament every bit as well as your sister, I want you to at least try. Promise me, daughter. Promise me you will at least try to wear the mantle of the diligent discrete student at finishing school, for but a handful of seasons. Let a full year pass, and for all to forget our fierce daughter’s powers, and see only a sweet young woman who looks elegant and refined in her favorite dresses.” Agda chuckled gently at that. “I know, daughter. You don’t have to say anything, I know. But there is tremendous power in being underestimated, and the sentence will pass swifter than you fear. Who knows? Perhaps you will meet someone who truly touches your heart. Love is not an uncommon phenomenon to be discovered at the right finishing school.
Her father nodded in agreement. “I’ve made some inquiries, Jess. The institution that has been selected for you is reputed to be of excellent quality, and they have made it clear that they would not be opposed to you setting up a fine garden of your own. We informed them that you saw gardens as a retreat of sorts, and they let it be known that you will be welcome to spend as much time as you like, caring for the plants.”
“Outside of her required classes,” her mother asserted sharply.
“Well yes, of course,” her father allowed, giving Jess a sympathetic smile.
Jess squeezed her eyes tight, shocked that it was going to end like this. All the obstacles she had overcome, all the valiant battles she had fought, all the monstrous foes she had triumphed over, and here, at the end, brought down low by family duty. Forced to wear dresses and simper and learn court etiquette. Jess shuddered, feeling eerily like she had just plunged into a nightmare against which her mighty prowess would avail her nothing. “I really, really don’t want to go,” she murmured into her mother’s arms.
“Yes, I know love, but you’re going anyway. And do you know what? It’s all going to work out just fine.” Her mother gave Jess a gentle kiss on her forehead to seal the deal.
25
For all her family's words of gentle reassurance as they led a defeated Jess back to the Turnsby's Manor, Jess had taken little enjoyment in the rather delicious farewell banquet Karine had prepared for her, and her mother refused to let Jess partake of the Jopples, those fragrantly sweet golden apples from the magnificent tree Jess had somehow called into being. Fragrant and ripe as they appeared, they inspired reflections of happy spring days and a lowering of inhibitions and cares, much like apple brandy, Agda declared, glancing at a blushing Onnika sitting by Jess’s side and declaring they were not appropriate for a formal farewell dinner.
This didn't stop Onnika from squeezing Jess's hand and passing her a note, nor from Jess's fiercely passionate farewell kiss as they made their way out the door. And in truth, Jess could understand that so close to victory, her mother didn't want Jess overtaken by Jopple-inspired flights of fancy. No doubt the idea of Jess being struck with the sudden desire to run off with Onnika for parts unknown was her mother's secret fear. And in truth, Jess couldn't deny having had to suppress that mad impulse more than once during their repast. Of course, her father absolutely refusing to allow her access to her mithril armaments until she swore to at least attend finishing school had had something to do with her remarkable show of restraint. And as for actually bringing said artifacts along with her, her father had been most firm when they had spoken in private after the banquet in their honor.
"I am sorry, Jess. As much as I salute your courage and bravery as a warrior, finishing school is no place to be waving about naked steel, or mithril as the case may be." He shook his head regretfully. "I am afraid on this one issue there can b
e no negotiation."
His smile then was meant to be reassuring, but did little to lift Jess's spirits. "My daughter, the artifacts are yours and yours alone. An adventurer's property cannot be sold or seized without their consent, should they commit anything less than a capital crime, both by Guild precedent and established royal decree, decades ago. The artifacts are yours, my child. And I would not think of selling them or parting with them without your consent. You know well how secure our Manor is, thanks in no small part to your own gifts with wood. Master Enchanter Rens himself has assured me that should events head in the direction they are presently, as we had hoped, that he would personally see to their security with added charms and enchantments, so as to put you at ease."
This did little to soothe Jess, realizing how long a game her parents had been playing while she had been innocently asleep, suspecting nothing. "My goodness, Father. You planned this well, didn't you?"
Her father’s look was grim. “Do not suspect me of intrigue against my own, Jessica. Everything we do springs out of concern for our family and you specifically. In truth, it was thought a slim chance that you would survive your ordeal, though your mother and I always had faith in you. In the event that you did come through we knew measures would have to be taken, sensing as we did the waves of consternation emanating from your remarkable feats of Claimance, establishing the Turnsby’s Primacy over their estates beyond contest. You had better believe, Jessica, that this irked any number of powerful men to no end. Fortunate indeed it is that I am Turnsby's liege lord and not another, and that no one questions my honor, integrity, or loyalty to the king.”
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