‘Does that kind of thing happen a lot?’
‘I honestly don’t know. Reputedly, some form of orgy is the high point of many a party, but I suspect some of that is exaggeration.’
‘I see. I take it I’m not going to get to meet your other sister?’
‘Amédée is off-world. She’s currently running the Alliance liaison office on Garavain Prime, which happens to be where Courtney is from. I was surprised to see Ruben here, but I suppose that was explained by our secret meeting.’ Arriving at her room, Mitsuko pushed the door open and signalled Nava to go ahead of her.
Nava stepped through, scanning for any signs of disturbance. ‘I assume that makes her a fairly powerful woman.’ Nothing seemed to have changed. Nothing was out of place as she remembered it. No one seemed to have infiltrated the place in readiness for a sneak attack.
‘I guess she is.’ The sneak attack actually came from behind. Arms encircled Nava, gripped the edges of the vent in her dress, and pulled the fabric aside. Hands cupped her breasts, squeezing gently but firmly. Nava leaned back against Mitsuko and let her do as she wished. ‘I’ve been waiting for the chance to do this all evening,’ Mitsuko whispered.
‘We could have joined the people in the baths.’
‘No way. Etiquette in things like that is to share and I’m not sharing you with anyone.’
Reaching behind her, Nava cupped Mitsuko’s mound in her hand. Mitsuko let out a soft moan. ‘That suits me just fine.’
~~~
Michiko was making a sponge float through the air. If she concentrated, she could manage a bar of soap, but the sponge was easy. She was inordinately happy about this ability and Mitsuko was indulging her because that was what older sisters did for younger ones.
‘Michiko is the only other member of the family showing signs of real talent,’ Mitsuko said. She was in one of the family baths with Nava and her little sister. It was fairly early and Mitsuko had suggested that she had other plans for what she would be doing with Nava, but Michiko had quashed that thought. ‘Father and Ruben are entirely lacking any talent, Mother and Amédée can manage a weak cantrip. Little Michiko here is almost as precocious as I was.’
‘I’m precocious,’ Michiko informed Nava. ‘Everyone says so.’
‘I can see that,’ Nava replied. The sponge was doing loops around Michiko’s head at this point. ‘Don’t tire yourself.’
‘It’s only been a minute. I can do it for much longer than that.’ Children did not generally have a quintessence reserve and so had to put effort into working magic. Still, if Michiko thought she could handle it, Nava was not going to damage her confidence by suggesting otherwise. ‘Can you do this?’
Nava glanced at the soap Michiko had been demonstrating her prowess on earlier. It lifted into the air and began to chase the sponge around Michiko’s head. ‘Yes, I can. If I want to.’ Michiko giggled and splashed as she turned to watch the race of the washing implements.
‘A cantrip?’ Mitsuko asked.
Nava nodded. ‘I can move a couple of kilos like this. More if I’m not chasing a sponge.’ Cantrips were trivial spells, or trivial versions of more powerful spells, which a magician could work as a sort of improvisation, using only their basic power as a magician rather than the complex mental patterns required by spells of greater power. The more powerful you got, the more powerful the spells you could work as cantrips. Nava was using Telekinesis as a cantrip, but Michiko had had to memorise the spell fully to do the same work. More or less everyone at SAS2 could manage a basic Telekinesis cantrip, though some preferred to memorise more powerful versions of the spell.
‘I’m going to magic school when I grow up, just like Onee-chan,’ Michiko announced very seriously.
‘I’m sure you will,’ Nava replied.
‘Somehow,’ Mitsuko said, ‘I didn’t expect you to get on well with children.’
‘I don’t have any experience with children. Not since I was one anyway. I treat them as I would anyone else and Michiko is very mature for her age, so I guess that works.’ Michiko preened a bit at that.
‘You don’t talk about your life before school much.’
‘No. No, I don’t.’
And that was the end of that conversation.
Shinden Alliance School of Sorcery.
‘Did anything happen while we were away?’ Nava asked as she put her tray down. Melissa and Rochester had met them at the helipad and they had all gone to lunch since it was that sort of time. It seemed like a good time to catch up, even if Nava and Mitsuko had not been away a day.
‘Tracey Spears announced her intention of reallocating club funds,’ Melissa replied.
‘Oh?’ Mitsuko asked.
‘Uh-huh. She wants the clubs with combat applicability to be given higher priority because, and I quote, “The purpose of this school is to produce magicians capable of defending the Alliance.”’
‘Divisive. Did Sebastian Ranta respond?’
‘Yes,’ Rochester said, ‘and no. He issued a statement which you could read as supporting or decrying the policy.’
‘That sounds like him,’ Nava said. ‘What are you going to do about it, Suki?’
‘Nothing. Not until the school news people ask me, anyway. Then I’ll dismiss it as foolish and beneath my notice. It is foolish. Not everything about this school should be aimed at producing soldiers. Even the students on the combat stream need to unwind sometime.’
‘Then why do most of them end up joining combat clubs?’ Melissa asked.
‘Because they haven’t worked out that they need to do something else yet. And some of them never will, but that’s humans for you.’
‘What’s next on the campaign trail?’
‘The next big event will be the first debate. That’s next Saturday afternoon.’
‘That should be a lot of fun,’ Nava said.
‘You’re being sarcastic, I assume.
