“And then Aiela called in the Guard to apprehend the bandits,” Venza said, finishing her selective summary of the day’s events to her mother.

  Nora Greyfield’s mouth curled into a scowl, clearly displeased.

  "I cannot believe how reckless you were," she said over dinner. If her illness hadn't been acting up, Venza was sure she would have been yelling. "We have the Grey Guard for a reason."

  Seven people occupied the table that evening. Nora, Vosmer sitting across from her, then Venza next to Aiela at Vosmer's side, and finally, Tom and Lauren next to Nora. Lucius had not returned from whatever business the Emperor had him on, but Barnabas kept his seat at the head of the table warm. A feast of string-like pasta with a rich, tomato sauce and toasted loaves of garlic bread served as the main dish of their dinner.

  "Now, now, Nora," Barnabas said. "Venza and Aiela saved at least two lives today, with possibly many more if they had not stopped this foul plot."

  "And I am not downplaying their achievement, Barnabas," Nora answered evenly. Few would argue against the former head of House Greyfield, but her mother was one of them. "However, she has risked too much."

  Nora turned her gaze back on Venza. "Do you not understand that you are the sole Heir of House Greyfield?"

  Venza did her best to stand fast in the face of her mother's restrained anger, even if it was true. Nora could no longer bear children after an attempt on her and Lucius' lives while she was pregnant with Venza, and her father refused to take a mistress to sire more children.

  "Mother, if I had been born a man, I would be facing those risks anyway," Venza argued. "What sort of Greyfield would I be if mere bandits gave me pause? They were untrained and more suited to scaring common folk than fighting someone with training. I was perfectly safe."

  There was a moment of awkward silence as Barnabas and Nora seemingly subconsciously glanced at Vosmer, but Venza had no idea why.

  "She is right, Nora," Barnabas said. "If she'd been born a man, she would be doing exactly as she is now, except you and my son would approve."

  "If she'd been born a man," Nora repeated. "Venza would have gotten properly trained, with an armed escort at all times until she was ready! Hells, even Lucius has bodyguards! And so did you, Barnabas!"

  "They were mostly-bored bodyguards," Barnabas argued. “And the same holds true for Lucius. They’re there to back him up, but we both know an army of bodyguards cannot hope to match a Lord of Odolenia wielding a Revenant Arm, especially not the Lord Marshall.”

  “Did Venza get a Revenant Arm when I wasn’t looking?” Nora shot back, her voice dripping venom. “No? Because she’s supposed to be a mage who should be training her abilities? That’s right! How could we have forgotten?”

  "Venza's plenty trained," Vosmer said. "She would not have been able to take down over twenty full-grown men and a mage otherwise with just her and Aiela. Even if they were untrained brigands."

  "Because you keep indulging her," Nora shot back. "How do you sleep at night, knowing you enabled your best friend's daughter to put herself in danger?"

  "I sleep poorly for many things, Nora," Vosmer said. "But training Venza isn't one of them. It helps, in fact, to know I've given her a fighting chance should she ever find herself out there without us to protect her."

  Nora huffed. "You say that, but I'm almost certain Aiela defeated all of the bandits by herself."

  "I did not, in fact, defeat them all by myself," Aiela answered calmly. She'd stayed silent for most of the conversation, eating food. Venza surmised she was nearly tapped out after everything she’d done for the day. "Doing so would have been trivial, but Venza handled over half by herself. I was busy toying with their mage."

  Nora narrowed her eyes and stared between the two of them. "Without magic items? Without access to her Spheres? With only that party trick of a spell she has? I doubt it."

  "I did scout them beforehand Lady Nora," Aiela said. "Lest you forget, Venza was under protective spells and wearing armor that is as hard as steel as long as you don’t hit it with magic. As I said, there was one mage and I handled her myself. The biggest threat left in that camp had been a crossbow, and between my spells and Venza's 'party trick' which can take a grown man out of combat from a range of more than twenty paces, a single crossbow wielder without the element of surprise is laughable.”

  Venza's mother looked unconvinced, but she'd long given up on trying to get Aiela's support in stopping her daughter's activities. Nora had, at some point, realized Aiela's loyalty was to Venza first. She only served House Greyfield as an extension of that.

  "Lauren, you were there," Aiela said casually. "Tell her."

  Lauren calmly wiped her mouth with a napkin before speaking. A lot of important people were suddenly staring at her, after all. "Begging your pardon, my lady, and lords, but Miss Aiela speaks the truth. Venza took down more than her fair share of bandits. I saw the whole thing. She fought with a grace and agility I would be jealous of; and I used to make a living off being graceful and agile."

  A thought crossed Venza’s mind about how Lauren seemed to have no trouble fitting in at a table full of House Greyfield’s elite members, but now wasn’t the time.

  “True,” Aiela added. “My defensive spells and her armor barely mattered. Venza didn’t take a single hit in the encounter with the bandits. After all, why would she? Her technique with Reach has given her an offensive and defensive tool on par with low level offensive magic. And as we both know, Lady Nora, magic is the biggest factor in combat.”

  The four of them conveniently left out the part where Sally could have crushed Venza several times during the afternoon.

  Barnabas chuckled. "That's my granddaughter! Worthy of the name of Greyfield."

  "Barnabas, your granddaughter sallying out to battle is nothing to celebrate," Nora reprimanded him, though the strength had left her voice at that point and it seemed she was merely going through the motions.

  "Look at it this way, Nora," Vosmer began. "She'll be going out anyway. Why not make sure she's properly equipped rather than letting her fend for herself with whatever sticks and stones she manages to pick up?"

  "Madness," Nora muttered. "It's like you've all forgotten what happened sixteen years ago."

  "I trained her because of what happened sixteen years ago," Vosmer said, not yielding an inch. "She yearns to follow in her father's footsteps, whether she has our help or not."

  Nora sighed, but seemed to realize she was alone in this fight, so she changed the subject. "So, Lauren, I hear you and your brother will be staying on to work for my daughter."

  "Oh, we're not siblings, really, my lady," Lauren answered. "Not by blood, but yes, Venza and Miss Aiela asked us to work under them."

  She looked like she was about to say something more, but didn’t.

  "Doing what, exactly?" Nora questioned.

  "Tom has a way with animals and monsters," Venza answered for them. "He'll be helping us put together a stable of sorts for creatures that can help the Guard keep the peace."

  The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  "I'm assuming this is Aiela's idea, then," Nora said.

  "Hm? No, this is entirely Venza's scheme," Aiela said, smirking.

  "Right," Nora said. "Venza taking on ten bandits, I can reluctantly believe, but this has your name written all over it, or did you think I would forget who was casting unknown Nature Magic on crops without notifying me first six years ago?"

  Aiela let out a chuckle. "Guilty. The idea's to use the creatures from Tom and Lauren's old circus as magical support, in a sense. Think of them like magical war hounds. They'll augment House Greyfield's military capability, since we are surprisingly undermanned, considering the Lord Marshall himself is head of our house."

  Venza suspected that if Tom and Lauren hadn’t been present, ‘surprisingly’ was a word that wouldn’t have been in that sentence at all. Anyone who had even a crumb of understanding about the inner workings of the Empire would have easily grasped that Emperor Harway kept their numbers down on purpose to prevent House Greyfield from becoming too strong.

  “And how will you control them?” Nora asked. “These are monsters, not mutts.”

  “Well, those two things are not mutually exclusive,” Aiela answered. “There are plenty of monsters who take the form of dogs.”

  Nora gave her a hard stare. “Did you think that was my question? What qualifies or doesn’t qualify as a monster?”

  Aiela grinned a grin full of mischief and simply said, “These mud drakes are unique and listen to a leader without question. I will be studying them in depth. Rest assured, we will not go forward until we are sure it’s safe.”

  Nora didn’t lower her gaze, her eyes seemingly trying to peer into Aiela’s very soul.

  "Just remember the last time you assisted House Greyfield like this," Nora said in a warning tone. "The Temple and the Academy both came knocking."

  "Not to worry," Aiela said in an uncharacteristically cheerful tone. "I've learned my lesson. No one will know of this until everything is in place."

  Nora nodded. "And what will Lauren be doing?"

  "Training," Aiela said quickly. "Have you tried doing an Affinity Reading on her?"

  Nora shook her head, and spoke, "Affinity Reading," skipping the incantation.

  Nora frowned. "Aiela, did you pick up a new sphere?"

  Aiela grinned. "Ah, can't you see it?"

  "No, I cannot."

  "It seems I've gotten past the threshold," Aiela said, sounding pleased with herself.

  "What threshold?" Barnabas asked.

  "When a mage does an Affinity Reading, they can only clearly see the affinities of mages significantly weaker than them," Nora explained.

  "You need to have at least half as many more spheres than someone for it to work, to be exact," Aiela added. "Regardless of what the spheres actually are. So if you have two and I have three, I can read yours but you can’t read mine. You’d just get a sense of the gap between us."

  "Which means Aiela is now more than two-thirds my strength," Nora said, her expression unreadable. "At less than half my age."

  "If it brings you any comfort, I can't maintain this pace," Aiela said wistfully. "Affinity becomes more difficult to obtain the higher it goes."

  "Perhaps. I’ve been stuck at my Rank in Fire for over a decade, after all. Still, you're better off than I was as a girl,” Nora said. “What did you pick up this time?”

  In answer, with a most satisfied smirk on her face, Aiela pointed her right index finger upward and called a tiny flame to it.

  "By the gods, she's done it again," Nora said, only a hint of awe and shock in her voice. She'd been much more animated the first time, when Aiela had suddenly come into her study and conjured a ball of water. Of course, the excitement might have been because Aiela had accidentally gotten Nora soaked at the time.

  Nora turned back to Lauren. "I'm assuming you weren't born with Air affinity?"

  Lauren nodded. "No, my lady. I wouldn't even have known if Miss Aiela hadn't told me today."

  "Gods save us, Aiela is going to single-handedly disprove everything we know about magic," Nora muttered.

  "Why do you call her Miss Aiela?" Barnabas asked, sounding curious. "But only call Venza by her name? Venza is the Heir, you know, not Aiela."

  "Ah, well, Venza told me to call her by name, my lord," Lauren answered. "But Miss Aiela didn't, and the townspeople seem to all call her that, so…" she trailed off.

  Barnabas nodded in understanding. “Also, stop it with the ‘my lord’ and ‘my lady.’ It feels weird to hear after spending years with Aiela under our roof.”

  “As you wish, Lord Barnabas,” Lauren replied.

  Barnabas simply shrugged, seeming to accept it.

  "Worry not," Aiela said, speaking once again to Nora. "I shall polish my new apprentice into a most glorious jewel."

  Nora heaved a sigh. "That's precisely what I'm worried about. Anyway, you need materials for this stable, yes?"

  "We can gather and buy them ourselves," Aiela answered.

  Venza nodded in agreement.

  “I feel like I should be questioning where in the Four’s names you’re getting those funds and materials,” Nora said with no hint of amusement.

  “Selling a few odds and ends,” Aiela said, shrugging her shoulders. “Things I’ve managed to pick off the ground.”

  Nora gave Venza a questioning look, but Venza could only shake her head. She wasn’t entirely sure what Aiela was talking about, either. As far as she knew, they made a bit of coin betting on Venza’s fights in the market and Aiela sold a few plants and seeds every now and then.

  "Be that as it may, you should reach out to someone more experienced with managing such a menagerie," Barnabas suggested. “Materials are one thing, but the expertise with handling monsters is another.”

  "We were thinking of asking House Carsten," Venza admitted. "Aiela wanted to see if she could get a simulacrum, anyway."

  "A simulacrum? To create a Familiar?" Nora asked.

  Aiela nodded. "I've found excellent clay to mold."

  Nora seemed to consider the words, then her eyes lit up in a mix of realization and apprehension. "You can't mean- Like the crops?"

  Aiela smiled. "More or less, yes."

  "You know what? Fine. I look forward to seeing what you manage to create," Nora said. "Come to me if you need anything,” she said. She cupped her chin in thought. “Actually, no. Come meet me in my study before you head to bed tonight."

  Aiela's grin widened, and she bowed her head slightly. "Much appreciated, Lady Nora."