Mitsuko frowned. ‘That’s an interesting point. We do have people from all walks of life here. The stronger families are a little more prominent, perhaps, but even in some of those, the children won’t get any lessons in dancing before coming here. I had two years of weekly dancing lessons, so I can happily say that you’re better off without. However… Perhaps we should arrange a few classes for the autumn term.’
Melissa reached for the bag she was using to lug around her ketcom. ‘I’ll make a note to discuss it at the next council meeting.’
‘Good. It’s not like we don’t have plenty of those to do it in.’
235/8/3.
The night of the summer dance came with very clear skies which burned brightly with stars. It also burned brightly in another sense: it was hot, which seemed to have determined the final choice in what to wear. There was nothing quite as revealing as the outfits on show at the Trentons’ party, but brief was definitely in. Melissa, on hand before the doors opened to help make sure everything was as it should be, considered it likely that Rochester would be staring at people’s hairlines a lot tonight.
She was not helping, though her boyfriend had come to terms with her body by this point and could actually look directly at her no matter how much cleavage she had on display. In truth, he was a lot better than he had been as a virgin, while Melissa was still shy and had really needed to psych herself up to wear the dress she had bought for the occasion. It was short, well above mid-thigh, and made of metallic-red nanofibre, so it was more bold than her normal outfits just based on the colour. It had no left arm, while the right one was wide and made of finer mesh. She had teamed the dress with strappy red sandals with heels which pushed her closer to Rochester’s height. Nava had told her she looked very sexy in it, which had been an ego boost. Rochester had not seen the dress yet and Melissa was looking forward to seeing his reaction.
‘You’ve seen what Nava’s wearing, right?’ Mitsuko said, walking over from checking on the first band to play tonight.
‘I have,’ Melissa replied.
‘She wouldn’t show me.’
‘I’m aware. She wanted it to be a surprise. Has she seen your dress?’
‘She’s seen it, just not on me.’ Mitsuko was in sky-high pumps and a faux leather minidress with plenty of zippers. The zipper which went up her right thigh to her hip was clearly not meant to ever close all the way. The two-way zipper from her right shoulder – there was no left shoulder on the dress – to her left hip could be closed, but it was not. The open section in the middle acted as a cleavage window. As usual, Mitsuko was sex on long, long legs. Melissa considered it likely that Mitsuko could look elegant, composed, and really sexy while wearing an oily boiler suit. ‘I have no idea what she’s wearing. Are we going to clash?’
‘Technically, since you’re not an openly acknowledged couple, that shouldn’t matter.’
‘Well, no, but–’
‘However, I actually think you’ve selected something which should complement her outfit quite well.’
‘And you’re not even going to give me a hint?’
‘I thought I just did. Oh, they’re initiating the illusions.’
SAS2 was a magic school so, of course, they had people there skilled in illusion. While it was, ostensibly anyway, aimed at developing military magicians, it attracted people with all sorts of aims because it was one of the best sorcery schools in the Clan Worlds. Even if the combat students looked down upon the academics, every year people enrolled with the goal of following the academic stream in their fifth and sixth years. The academic and support streams both produced magical engineers ranging from those who maintained and operated magical devices of various kinds to those who improved those devices or invented entirely new ones. Illusionists usually came out of the support stream too. There were plenty of military applications for illusions – including those ‘holographic’ projection displays so beloved of old science fiction movies – but most ended up in the entertainment industry.
Tonight, just about every illusion specialist in the school was involved in conjuring about ninety percent of the decorations in the hall. The council had borrowed more or less every holoprojector in the school and placed them around the hall in strategic locations. Holoprojectors had nothing to do with holograms. They were a magical device which, when used by an illusionist, allowed an illusion spell to be maintained without the magician’s continuing presence. Power came from a built-in quintessence aggregator, so you cast your spell through the device and then the device took over to keep it going as long as it was plugged into the mains.
The entrance to the hall was now flanked by static images of sand dunes. Around the sides there were animated illusions of a tropical beach complete with rising and falling waves and gently swaying palms. The illusions were animated as part of the magic; no direction from the magician was required unless you needed to do something specific rather than ‘what waves and trees do naturally.’ On stage, behind the band, the ocean expanded out to a horizon which was all clear, blue sky. Overhead, illusory seabirds – none of which could be found on Shinden – sailed through a projected blue sky. As the evening went on, the sky would darken into a starry night, or so the Art Club had said.
‘It looks good,’ Mitsuko said. ‘Cold drinks are going to be going like hot cakes with that sky.’
Melissa giggled. ‘Nice analogy. I think we’re ready.’
Mitsuko nodded and raised her voice. ‘Okay, everyone. It’s time. Unleash the horde!’
~~~
Nava strode toward the hall, heels clicking on the concrete paving slabs. She was getting looks from
