It is an honour to spar with a Caeli knight. Today I had the honour of sparring with all of them one after the other. The first four bouts I lost, but I didn't psyche and I kept fighting. The second four bouts were all very long fights and each one was eventually called a draw.

The last three bouts I won, which was suspicious. I didn't make any mistakes, which was odd considering how tired I was by then, and the three Caelis were all fresh. Were they letting me win?

I'm used to being in a real battle and actually trying to kill people, which is totally different from being in a tournament bout with a fake sword. But this... I hate having to spar with a live blade. I never feel in control.

They were setting me up. They gave me openings, not to see if I would take them, they knew I would, but to see how I would take them. They just wanted to see me go for a disarm rather than a kill, to watch me tap them with the flat of the blade.

So... I was in control? It was easy enough to tell they were losing to me on purpose. The bouts that had ended in draws, that had probably been intentional, too. What exactly were they testing? I'm confused... and hungry.

"Ya done yet?" I peered over Dryden's carrel in the university library.

"Almost," he said, but he didn't look up from his book.

I gave him thirty seconds. ".....How about now? Ya done yet?"

He smirked and started putting away his books. "Yeah. Okay"

"What are you studying anyway"

"Haven't picked any one thing yet. History, law, languages. Dad's making me take business, too." He stuffed books and notebooks into the carrel's cabinet and turned the key.

"So how did you manage to get in so young anyway?"

He practically growled at me. "My Dad's paying for it, but I passed the entrance exams. I earned my own way in if that's what you're asking, and I don't buy my grades!"

Whoa. Who dropped a bug in his tea? "Huh?" I said. "I wasn't... uh...What does your dad do?"

"...You don't? ...um...He...uh....I guess you could say he does consulting for the palace. Trade, law, business consulting. Stuff."

"Oh. Whatever. Sounds boring. So, can we eat yet?"

Dryden grinned broadly at me then. "Yah. Sure."

I asked around later and found out that Dryden's dad was King Aston's favorite advisor as well as the richest man in the country, but by then I'd already been hanging out with Dryden for a while and I couldn't bring myself to hold that against him.

As we walked to the refectory through the library, we saw a little girl trying to climb up the stacks to get a book, but her little pink slippers were true to their name and kept slipping. Dryden pulled the book out and handed it to her.

"Thank you," she said and she promptly cracked open the book and flipped through it. Dryden and I looked over her shoulder. It had a lot of very colourful pictures of nasty diseases.

"Eeeew! Are you sure you wanted that book?" I said.

"Yes! Bwahahahaha!" She tucked it under her arm and skittered around the corner.

I turned to Dryden. "That looked like a very icky book for such a small girl. Are you sure you should have given it to her?"

"Um. She sure seemed happy to have it. How odd."

"Bet you get in trouble for that. She'll have nightmares."

"Lighten up, Allen! Sheesh!" Dryden shoved me towards the refectory.

Marlene, Millerna and I stood out outside on the balcony and watched the Duke of Fried's ship take off. Or rather, Millerna watched the ship take off, Marlene stared abstractedly into the distance and I watched Marlene. "He's a very nice man," I said to her.

"Yes, he is," she agreed.

"He loves you, too."

"Yes, I know," she said. It was true; anyone could tell that Mahad loved Marlene. Marlene has always been Aston's favorite daughter, too, his pet, a butterfly held in a hand's cage. ...I wouldn't switch places with her for anything.

"You could always say no," I said.

"You know nothing about it. I have no choice." Marlene had grown up knowing about her betrothal. Mahad visited her a few times a year and Marlene was always very sweet to him, always very perfectly behaved. Always.

And they call me the ice princess.

"There are always choices," I said, but she turned silently and went back into the palace, leaving Millerna with me. I looked up at Mahad's airship as it disappeared over the horizon. Hmmm.....

Millerna tugged my hand. "Can we go in?" Millerna was mostly left in my charge these days and I gave her a free rein. We went in and Millerna curled up in a chair with her doll and an unfamiliar book.

"Did you steal another book from the library?" I asked her. "Give me the card in the back; I'll go get it stamped for you."

She handed up the card. I looked at it. Fatal Diseases 101. Oi. Whoever would have imagined that I'd turn out to be the normal one in the family.

The Caeli knights gave me this book by a famous and ancient warrior from the Mystic Moon. It's mostly common sense sword-fighting advice and descriptions of basic stances and cuts, but all with extravagant names full of metaphors about falling mountains and fluttering leaves and shit. It is, thank God, a very short book.

At the very end there's a 2 page biography about the famous warrior. He spent many years wandering and refusing to bathe. He got so good at the long sword that he found no challenge in it, so he switched over to a wooden practice sword so he could whack people to death instead of simply cutting them open. Then he retired and spent the rest of his life making ink-paintings of birds. ...Okaaaaay.

I flipped the book over and looked at the cover. It's called 'The Book of Five Rings' and there aren't any rings in it. I think this thing really IS from the Mystic Moon because I'm utterly mystified. Why do all the other Caeli knights think this book is so cool? I don't get it!

I looked over the table at Dryden who was bent over assiduously writing. Maybe he's read this before. "Hey, Dryden," I said.

"Yeah?" he said and looked up and at the same time knocked his ink bottle over onto some sheets he had already written on. "Aaagh! Aaaagh!" he said and threw blotting paper over them. Too late. They were smeared beyond readability.

"Nevermind," I said. I've seen him trip over invisible rucks in the carpet or over his own feet on hardwood, and no cup of juice or open bottle of ink is ever safe from his elbow. I opened up 'The Book of Five Rings' from the beginning and Dryden sighed, pulled out some fresh paper and started over.

Half an hour later Dryden's dad, Meiden, charged into the room. We were in the anteroom of Meiden's office and Dryden was working part-time for his dad. I hung out there because it was a quieter place to study than the dorms and I didn't have a library carrel.

"Where's my contract?" asked Meiden.

Dryden held up a freshly scribed sheaf of paper. "Hey, Dad, I don't know why you're doing this deal; no way is that much money for that much land a good trade."

Meiden's eyebrows disappeared under his hat. He bent and scanned the contract. "Fool of a son. They measure in hectares not acres."

"...Oh. Well, I suppose I'd better specify that in the contract, eh?"

"Duh. Rewrite that part. And that. And that. Sheeeesh, what crappy penmanship! I don't know why I pay you. You should be doing this for free as an internship."

That sounds like an obnoxious thing to say to one's son, but Meiden had his hand on Dryden's shoulder as he said it. I looked away. Dryden certainly didn't sound offended. "Dad, no one else would work for you. I could make more money in less hours selling ice-cream to pretty girls in the park. You're an awful boss."

"Yeah, yeah. Write fast. I'll need this within the hour." Meiden waved and left.

Dryden shook out his wrist and pulled out more paper. I went back to my useless mystical book. Twenty minutes later Dryden left to deliver the finished contract. Then he returned and started on one of his reading assignments. An hour after that, Meiden returned. "Are you two still here? It's a Friday night! Get out of here!" He shooed us out of the room.

Dryden and I stood outside in the hall. "You got any plans for tonight?" he asked.

"I'm supposed to go pick up my new uniform," I said.

"Well, after that. Wanna go to a dance? There'll be girls!"

"Sure!"

The palace dance was semiformal line-dancing, so I'd just worn my new uniform to it since everything else I had had been in too many battles. I danced with a different girl for each dance of the first set and then, when the musicians took a break, Dryden pulled me away down the hall for a break of our own.

The palace bathrooms are marble and gold, enormous, echoey, and not equipped with coathooks. By the time I'd removed my uniform's skirt thingie and my swordbelt and hung them over a stall door, Dryden was relieving himself at one of the urinals. By the time I was standing next to him and undoing the front of my uniform, Dryden was buttoning his pants back up.

I unbuttoned the friggin' shoulder-straps and Dryden stared at me. How do I end up with friends like this? He looked horrified. "That thing doesn't have a fly?" he asked.

"Nope," I said. Oh, yeah. One word answers. Strong, silent type. That's me. Yah.

"Who designed it? Girls on drugs? And what is IN those sleeves?"

"You shut up. It's not like I picked this thing out myself, said 'Oh, boy, a jumpsuit with poofy sleeves, a pink tie and a skirt, I'll wear it for the rest of my life, oh boy!'"

"Oh... Sorry. Skirt keep your butt warm, at least?"

"Yup."

He was still staring at my uniform. "Can I ask you something?" he said.

"What?"

"Are you wearing socks or do those pants have little blue feet on them?"

"I'm wearing socks! Sheesh!"

"Sorry. Just had to ask. ..........Can I seeeeee the socks?"

"Don't you believe me?" I whined.
No, I didn't whine. Rough, tough Caeli knights do NOT whine.

"Not really. It doesn't have a fly!"

"Back to that, are we," I said.

"Take your boot off for me."

"If I do, it'll be to cram it up your-"

"-Okay, okay, nevermind!"

"Stop watching me while I pee!"

Dryden turned his back to me. "Arright, arright!"

I stood before the urinal, with my new uniform peeled down around me like some tropical fruit. Nothing happened. "Dammit. Now I don't have to go."

Dryden threw his hands up in the air. "I'm leaving. Meet ya out in the hall, buddy."

"Right." I said. I heard the bathroom door thump closed. I turned back to the urinal. I am Caeli knight, utterly invincible! ...Oh yeah. Much better.

I am so relieved.

Dryden was waiting for me in the hall and he stopped me before we went back into the ballroom. "Take off the tie, Allen."

"Why?"

"You realize, don't you, that the girls will be compelled to be at least as formal as the most formal man in the group."

"They will?"

"Yes. And after dancing one set they'll be all hot. And I want to watch them peel those long white gloves off."

"What for?"

"Whadya mean, what for?"

"Oh! Right."

"Oh, indeed. Long elegant fingers, bare arms, pink lips. We'll make them laugh and then we'll look down their dresses."

"We will?"

"Well, I will. I dunno what you like. Maybe you like girls who put their hair up so you can sit behind them and tickle the tender backs of their necks. How the hell would I know what you like. I like looking down their dresses."

"Uh....That's not very gentlemanly!"

"Hey, I'm not touching. I'm just looking."

"...I guess."

I think I was 13 when my Dad took me to court with him for the first time. Some people hit puberty and some people hit puberty like a brick wall while their Dad is watching and laughing behind a paternal hand.

"Daaaaad! She had ...glitter painted on her...I mean, down the front of her dress!"

With his tongue in his cheek, he still somehow clearly said, "They'll let you look at their breasts longer if you look into their eyes from time to time."

Girl-watching is the only sport that my Dad and I both like. He was hoping for football, but he'll take what he can get. He had fun informing me of the finer points of the sport and I can't say that I didn't memorize every word that he said.

I got un-shy real fast.

Dryden constantly trod on all the girls' feet, but he apologized so sincerely that none of them seemed to mind very much.

Well. Except for Eries, the Crown princess, who avoided him. I got to dance with her three times. She was utterly beautiful, with perfect carriage. She never put a foot wrong, she anticipated every lead. Some other guy managed to snag the last dance with her and I was quite disappointed when the dance was over.

Dryden found me as everyone started dispersing, said, "Watch this," and dragged me over to the people lined up by the door.

Watch this? Uh-oh. I looked at him suspiciously. "You're a bit of a wanker, aren't you."

"You catch on quick. Now shush, here she comes." Dryden pushed his way to the front and waved at Eries as she went by. "Bye, Princess. We still on for our date next week?"

Oh, sheesh! At that moment I wanted more than anything to not be standing next to him. I had the uncomfortable feeling that I had fallen in with a bad crowd.

The Crown Princess turned, snarled ferociously at him and snapped, "Yes." She stalked out of the room, followed by the other ladies.

What! Yes? Yes?

Dryden laughed at my hanging jaw. "It's not at all what it sounds like," he said. "You wanna come with? The more the merrier."

"Oh, yeah. I am not missing this."

I sat on the roof, with the wind in my hair, over my bare toes. The view is great up here, beautiful and so private. I love running around on the roof. Too bad the King found out. Too bad it's now forbidden.

I'm half-catgirl, it's safe, it's easy! is what I'd told the King that morning. He'd glared at me. No more or Millerna's pony goes. I couldn't believe it. He was serious.

I suppose it is a bad idea for the Crown princess to risk breaking her neck every afternoon. Just as it is a good idea for Marlene to marry Mahad... Grrrrr.

He's using my love of my sister to control me. What would he do if I called his bluff? Is this a pattern? ...What is he holding over Marlene's head?

I probably shouldn't run around on the roof anymore. At least not during the day...

The clock-tower struck the hour. I swung into the window, pulled my dancing slippers out of my pocket and put them on. Dryden was waiting by the recordplayer and he bowed to me. He'd brought along the new Caeli, who had been watching the door, not the window, and so had not seen me come in. He jumped when I said hello.

Nominally I'm supposed to be practicing courtly behavior while Dryden gets some remedial dance practice in. In truth...

I can't believe this clown is on the short-list of potential husbands for me. No way in hell am I gonna get herded into this. I don't think he likes dancing with me either. I screeched at him, "I know you know these steps! Stop looking at your feet!"