Fall of Autumn, Week 5, Day 2

I gave Gristle a disbelieving look and then just left him behind to go inside. It was as a knight opened the door for me that I heard the plodding of a horse's hooves approaching. Turning around, there was a pale green carriage getting steadily closer. I could make out the shining of metal reflecting from the suns above.

I stepped away from the door and the knight closed it as I went back down the steps to where Gristle was still standing.

"Oh? He's early." I glanced at the suns. "Or maybe I'm later than I thought."

"That one, my Lady," Gristle confirmed.

"I miss when you were overly polite." I pouted dramatically.

Sir Neil snorted. "No, you don't."

I ignored him, instead focusing my gaze off in the distance. Sir Neil and Arlen climbed back onto the carriage and waved a goodbye, leading the horses away so the new carriage could come right to the front. It wasn't very long until a finely dressed teenager was climbing out.

I know what the information sheet had said, that he was a student in one of the Queen's Academies in Adeline, focusing on administration, but that still didn't stop me from being surprised at how young he was. He couldn't have been older than majority, if that. The sheet had said he was taking a year off to learn heirship duties in Fellan before returning to Adeline.

His crimson hair and bright green eyes were just like his brother's.

"Lord Ouros," I said, nodding in recognition.

Klein's older brother.

"It's a pleasure, Lady Dawn. Thank you for getting my brother home safe." He smiled, and a dimple formed in his cheek. I had never seen Klein smile that wide and wondered if that's what he would look like if he did.

"I had no part in that. It was all Sir Limrick's doing." I waved away his comment, a frown on my face at the thought of how I had failed Oberon.

Enough, enough, enough. You've been doing so good. Don't think about it. Not now.

"Are you ready for an introduction to economics?"

Inside, my emotions twisted, but outside, I just nodded. "Of course. I can't wait."

We were in a different room from the day before. A different room, it had to be. Otherwise, it didn't make sense. But then, it also wouldn't make sense to be any different. The same furnishings, same decorations, the same view from the window.

We were in the same room in which Frill descended. Only the window was in perfect condition. In a way, it made sense. Magic was in rigid boxes, but that didn't mean there wouldn't be a box for glassworks —I'd seen it myself in… In Perry. When I'd gotten my glass Noir.

So, when the young Lord Ouros, who told me to call him Lord Kelvin, started talking, I was distracted.

"My Lady?" He asked for what I was sure was not the first time. "Is everything all right?"

I looked down at my notebook, with only the date jotted down, and sighed. "Yes, my apologies. This is only my second day of classes after a while of not having them."

Years.

"Ah, it takes months to get to Fellan when you're not permitted use of the Queen's Road. That must have been rough."

That got my attention.

"Say that again," I demanded.

Lord Kelvin blinked. "Oh, uh, it must have taken ages to get here. It takes me months."

"No, not that. The second part. The Queen's Road. How long does it take if you're using it?"

"It takes about two weeks. But you can only use it with express permission from the Queen or one of"—his voice broke, and his expression turned sour as he realized what he was about to say—"the Ducal houses."

I shoved my hands down, standing roughly. Behind me, the plush chair clattered backward with the force of my movement. The force which I did not contain in my shock and rage.

"Weeks?" I hissed.

Inside my head, Eunora did not speak. I was not sure she would have even if she could. She knew. She knew the path to Fellan was not the one I had to take.

Mallorica. You are nothing but a monster.

Lord Kelvin recoiled, and I wondered what I looked like. What I felt like. If I had an aura like Ridan's. If I were even half as terrifying.

I didn't care.

It didn't matter.

Mallorica. Her name reverberated through my head until the image of the black-haired woman sitting in her brocade at the main estate was all I could think of. All I could see. Around me, the shadows in my nails, hair, even the actual shadows in the room grew dark and pulsed with my rage.

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"Weeks," I said again, this time disbelief filling me.

Lord Kelvin had stepped back, running into the chalkboard roughly. The sound of him colliding with the board brought me back to my senses. I felt the shadows around me, felt my own heart beating viciously in my chest, and took a shuddered breath.

My hair settled down first, laying down across my back. My nails and bangles snapped into shape next, their oozing forms becoming more defined. Finally was my shadow, settling back into the shape of a standing girl and no longer the rough shape of anger.

Lord Kelvin did not regain his composure completely, though he tried. I watched as his spiked breathing leveled out, as his dilated pupils widened, as his hands lowered back to his sides. I did hear him whisper a word. One word. The word many people have said, in passing and to me directly, but have never defined.

"Elementalist."

I straightened my back and narrowed my eyes.

"Do we have a problem?" I asked.

Lord Kelvin looked stricken when he finally came back to himself before falling to a knee, laying his fist over his heart.

"Of course not, Lady Dawn. The House of Ouros is blessed to be so trusted as to witness your Skills."

I swore internally, of course I'd done something annoying. At least it was Klein's family. His father was the current Baron Ouros, and it's unlikely that a man who allowed his son into the Dusk would hold such a thing against me.

Nothing happens for a week, and suddenly, it's blunder after blunder! I screamed internally.

"Good, then," I sat back down, tapping my nails on my notebook, "let's get back to what you're here for—economics."

Lord Kelvin seemed much more in his element when I said that, his previous scholarly air returned.

"Okay, yes, all right. Let's resume. Do you know the theory of resource scarcity?"

I did. I probably knew it better than him.

"Is it the idea that there's a limited amount to go around?"

Lord Kelvin's eyes lit up.

"Exactly, my Lady! Do you know what it means to supply goods?"

My eyes glazed over as we continued a simple question-and-answer game of definitions.

He hadn't gone over anything I didn't know, for the obvious reason that I had over a decade of experience with the principles of economics he was still trying to learn. Supply and demand, resource scarcity, agricultural administration, and resource management. All the topics I knew so well.

The only one I didn't know was his family's specialty: forestry.

The Domes didn't have trees, as such. Elsewhere was filled with artificial oxygenators. Red-veined faux trees that produced five hundred times more oxygen than the plants outside the protective barrier.

The Baron Ouros was in charge of Fellan's local forestry—maintaining the proper level of usage and culling. Allowing the construction of specific materials was a large portion of their duty to Fellan. It was an interesting industry that I had never analyzed.

Unfortunately, every time I tried to broach the topic, I got the same response.

"How does this theory apply to the forestry industry in Fellan?" I asked, leaning in, anticipating his response.

Lord Kelvin laughed awkwardly. "Well, in various ways. It's quite interesting—I mean the way we apply the capital given by the Crown is—oh. My Lady, do you know what capital is?"

It always went just like that. He would start half a sentence that bordered on interesting, then he'd hit a vocabulary word and ask me to define it. That would bring us back to the start when Lord Kelvin would ask me for definitions and explanations of basic economic terms.

It was awful, and unlike with arithmetic, the only use of the topic was related to wealth. Well, not the only use. Understanding economics was vital to being informed about prices and how much something should be worth—either in coin or social value. But it was boring and clearly meant to prepare me for taking a landed nobility position. One I had no intention of holding.

Arithmetic was used in runic magic, scientific study, and generally, everyday life. Economics, to an extent, was similar, but the outer bounds of daily use barely required more than a middle-grade knowledge of the subject. Something I was quickly learning Lord Kelvin only assumed he had.

"Yes, of course I know what capital is—in this case we're talking about financial resources to participate in a functioning economy." I hummed. "But there's many different versions of capital—social, economic, etc."

Lord Kelvin didn't even pause, he just… kept going with the back and forth. He was neither surprised nor impressed nor disappointed no matter how I answered. Somehow, it was worse than Madame Primrose—who at least had the decency to care.

It felt as if Lord Kelvin was going through the motions, no matter what said motions brought to him, and he was unable to deviate from his script. I wanted to scream, but he was Klein's brother and the future patriarch of House Ouros, so I didn't.

It was agony. But at least I had grown used to agony, so it really wasn't so bad at all.

Time passed, with minimal say from me, and eventually, Lord Kelvin left. Once he was gone, Gristle replaced him.

I peered up at him. "I thought I had practical magic next?"

"My Lady, you do not know enough theory to practice. Thus, practical magic classes will not begin until the end of Rise." Gristle heals out a tray of citrus cookies and a cup of dark brown liquid. The smells together were tangy and bitter and I felt, very briefly, as if I was in love.

"Gristle, every day you grow closer to my heart."

"Perhaps that was my plan all along, Lady Nora." Gristle's eyes crinkled with his smile, and I laughed gently.

As we sat, I gestured to the window.

"Does the Fellan estate keep the glassworks on standby?" I asked lightly, not really expecting an answer.

"Yes," Gristle said, a laugh on the tip of his tongue. "The master of Fellan's glassworks comes when we call because we represent the House of Dawn. Who in their right mind would refuse our call?" Gristle paused. "Especially when we pay rather well for emergency work."

I took a bite of one of the cookies, letting the citrus melt on my tongue. The sting of the fruit was pleasant.

"Are you going to insist I never touch a coin?" I asked once I'd finished chewing.

Gristle's smile widened. "My Lady, surely you're not about to insist upon a breach of etiquette? Simply so you can, oh, I don't know, pay your own tuition?"

I looked at Gristle, unblinking and unashamed. "Yes, exactly."

Gristle huffed, unimpressed at my response. "Well, to answer your question, I have never insisted upon anything with you. Except that you attend the Day of Sermon. But the Duchess required that. Her Light has made no explicit orders about your finances—your handling of them or otherwise."

I nodded, taking a sip of my coffee.

"I figured as much when Sir Neil and Klein didn't put up much of a fight. Even Dame Arella and Sir Limrick only cared a bit."

"Ah, Dame Arella is a unique one," Gristle said lightly.

"I like her." I hummed into my drink. "She might be my favorite person right now."

Gristle lifted his own cup, looking into the dark liquid. "You wound me, my Lady."

"I doubt that." I laughed, watching as a grin spread across Gristle's face.

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