As we entered the boutique, a woman wearing a rather plain-looking dress and her hair tied up in a bun bowed deeply to Erika. "Welcome to La Signora d’Eleganza. May I have the pleasure of knowing who we will be serving today?"

  Erika stretched out her gloved hand, holding it at a slight angle as if presenting it to the woman, and lifted her chin to look down at the bowing woman. "I am Lady Sophia du Printemps of the great House Printemps."

  The woman's head bowed lower. As she lifted her head, Erika swiftly curled back her hand to her chest in a way which seemed refined, but I caught a small twitch in Erika's brow that indicated stress. The woman had immediately glanced at the hand that Erika had presented, and I felt like there was something important that I was missing about this exchange.

  "Greetings Lady Printemps. I am honored to make your acquaintance. How may we help you today?"

  "I am looking to purchase a set of ready made dresses. We will need more thread and fabric than usual, from the same dye-lot of course, for additional adjustments."

  The woman seemed a bit nonplussed, but did not comment, instead leading Erika off to the side to look at the various styles.

  The dresses looked a lot plainer than I expected, but Erika quickly began chattering away with the woman about lace and ribbons and buttons and seams and all sorts of other things that I didn't quite understand. I saw Erika hold up a blue dress and press at the stitching with her fingers. I saw her hold it up to the light and compare the color with that of several different colors of ribbons or lace that she had the woman bring over to her.

  I saw a beautiful orange ribbon among the sets that the woman brought out, and reflexively made a small motion to reach for it. Erika whipped around and smacked me across the face suddenly, and I let out a gasp in shock. "Apologies, it seems my maid does not know her place."

  I shuddered and shook, but remained quiet. I repeated Erika's instructions in my head, "Maids are not to be seen. Maids are not to be heard. I am like wallpaper and paint; there, but unremarkable."

  I had forgotten that this is what Erika's whole life was like. That she was friendly around me was highly unusual, and a secret I had grown too comfortable with here in the academy where nobody could see our transgressions against class.

  But while I composed myself, and while the woman was distracted making crude remarks about my behavior, I did notice Erika's hands deftly palm a spare length of the ribbon and then later slip it into the back of the sash around her waist.

  ---

  "Erika! Where in the world did you get the money for all of this!"

  We were sitting back in the carriage, and Erika and I were back in our proper attire. I had struggled to carry all of the dresses and accouterments into the cabin of the carriage, and Erika was now carefully unruffling the dresses that I had ruffled and packing them into the cases she had brought with her. Lengths of lace, various ribbons, spare buttons and spools of thread were all carefully strapped down to the inside of her work case, which I then noticed was not only rather fancy, but new.

  A brand new orange ribbon was tied into my hair, but my old ribbon that I had acquired from... somewhere, was still safely stowed away in a small handbag that Erika had bought with the rest of these new things.

  The bill for all of it had astounded me. A waterfall of silver coins, at least several Lombardi gold coins' worth, had passed from Erika's hand into the worker's till, and the invoice stated that at least half of that was in lace alone.

  "And don't try to just smile it off again. You... How did you do that with the ribbon so easily? Where does all this money come from? This isn't funny anymore."

  The carriage began moving gently, and Erika's soft, wry smile slowly faded.

  "Sophia. If I told you, would you be able to die to keep it a secret?"

  I started to answer, but she cut me off, "Don't say yes. I don't want you to have to know. It's for your own good that you don't."

  She smiled at me again, this time with so much more warmth, and reached out to hold my hand. "Please, Sophia. Understand that I'm doing this for both of us. The daughter of a ducal household would be expected to pay dozens of times more than that. You would have been sent to the Academy proudly bearing a copy of our family's signet ring for making purchases on credit. You would have dozens of servants, a gilded carriage with the family's crest, and several footmen."

  She turned to look out the window of the carriage, rubbing my fingers with her thumb. Her eyes had a faraway cast to them.

  "I'm just trying to hold it all together until we leave the house. We can't let anyone know how little Duke Printemps values you. We have to survive this, no matter what we have to sacrifice."

  At this, she turned back to me, eyes closed, and pulled my hand up to her forehead, shaking.

  "I don't want you to know what I've had to do. Not yet. Please, remain my sweet, naive little sister just a little longer."

  She kneeled forward onto the floor of the carriage and put her head in my lap, hiding her face, and I realized what she wanted me to do. I began stroking her hair with my fingers, and turned my head to look away as she quietly shuddered.

  "I wish we had never left the village."

  ---

  When I entered Baroness' Adler's classroom for my afternoon classes all of the chairs and tables had been pushed to the sides, and the piano that had sat covered in the corner had been uncovered and drawn to a more prominent position in the room.

  Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

  Baroness Adler was standing next to the piano, while the girls stood awkwardly in the center. I moved over to join them.

  I knew that I wasn't late, but the Baroness gave me a stern look anyways.

  "Now that we're all here, I thought that a change of pace would be nice to break up the practice tea parties. Today, we will be reviewing your dancing."

  I found myself expressing my dismay on my face before I could regain my composure, and this drew another baleful look from the Baroness.

  "Naturally, as there are no men here, I will be having each of you learn both parts of the most common dances. While you will not have to utilize the male parts in actual society, it will still be edifying to understand the duties of your partner."

  With this she directed us to pair up, and Char naturally gravitated to me with a smile on her face. Lady Beatrice looked ready to separate us herself, but as she stepped forward the Baroness was already forcing her to pair up with Gertrude since Annabelle and Marybelle had immediately paired up with each other.

  I felt Char's hand against my back, just below my shoulder, as she assumed the role of the male dancer for this first dance. Her eyes sparkled deviously and I felt once again like she was drawing me in to burn, like a moth to flame.

  The Baroness came to each of our sides, slowly demonstrating the steps to each of us. While Lady Beatrice needed no instruction, Gertrude appeared to be even more inept than me when it came to dancing.

  Personally, I found the footwork easier to grasp than I remembered, and as Baroness Adler clapped out a clear practice rhythm I even managed to enjoy the structure of it all.

  Char held in a laugh as we were made to switch roles. I was a few inches taller than her, so my hand naturally found its way to its proper position, but I flushed red with embarrassment at the idea of leading her around.

  When Baroness Adler began playing music on the piano my hesitation became confidence, and my confidence rapidly became a deep thrill. I loved the way Char moved when I led her this way and that, and I could tell from the looks we shared that she was enjoying it too.

  When made to practice the reverse arrangement again, we laughed together at the awkwardness she showed when trying to lead me. This drew stern reproach from the Baroness, who chastised me for being a poor follower, but even this could not break my enthusiasm.

  Maybe there was one ladylike thing I did enjoy, after all. Dancing was fun.

  ---

  As Char and I left the classroom, I couldn't help but be all smiles. I was flush with the exertion of dancing, and the thrill of it all had my head feeling feathery and elated.

  We were still holding hands as we walked down the hallway to nowhere in particular, and Char pulled me into the moonlight to place me into position for another go at dancing, humming the waltz that Baroness Adler had been playing and directing me to lead her in a tight circle that drifted down the hallway.

  Suddenly, and somehow, this tight circle ended with me against the wall of the dark hallway, and Char was still holding my hand. Her fingers interlaced with mine and pressed tight against the surface.

  "Sophie."

  My heart was pounding. The feathery feeling in my head was coming down fast and I started noticing all the little sounds of the hallway. The wind outside, though quiet, seemed deafening. The winter chill felt colder than before. I realized that we were alone. Together.

  "Sophie, I really like you. I know it's fast, but... You... When we're together I feel like... we're the same, right? You don't like boys. When you talk about them it's all obligation, obligation..."

  She looked me in the eyes, and the intensity of it made me feel like I was about to catch fire.

  "But when you look at me... when I look at you... I feel it. You felt it too, right? When we were dancing?"

  I was trembling, a mixture of guilt and fear, of realization and consequence, was wracking through me. Char was leaning up into me, and I became all too aware that she was pressing against me deliberately.

  I felt trapped against the wall, but at the same time, I didn't want her to let me go.

  "Am I wrong?"

  I closed my eyes, trying desperately to get away from her stare, but when I opened them again she was still looking at me, searching for an answer.

  "Sophie? Are you okay? I'm sorry if I scared you. You don't have to answer that."

  She started to move back to give me space, but my hand still held tight to hers, and she cocked her head to the side in confusion.

  She began to lean back in, with an expectant look on her face.

  A wave of fear overtook me and I pushed her away forcefully. Too forcefully. She tottered back on her feet and fell to the ground.

  "No!" I yelled, and my eyes welled up with tears, "No, Charlotte. I'm not like you!"

  My breath was now rapid and shallow, and I felt dizzy. The stress in my body peaked as every muscle tensed, and I slowly felt my control on my magic begin to slip. A haze of mana filled the air all around the two of us, and the fear was palpable on her face.

  "I'm not a f...f..freak like you, okay!?"

  I didn't know what I was saying. I didn't know why I was saying it. Everything was just too loud. I could hear the roaring in my ears again, and I knew that my magic was doing something to me again. I held my hands up to cover them, not that it did anything. I was crying.

  Charlotte looked hurt. More hurt than I had intended her to be. More hurt than I had ever wanted to cause to anyone.

  "Okay Sophie... I'm sorry. I didn't mean to assume, I... I guess I just... I'm sorry. I just hoped..."

  She slowly rose to her feet, trembling, and took a few slow steps away.

  "Uhm. I'm going to my room now. I think it would be better for both of us if we just... didn't hang out anymore."

  Her words struck me right to my core, and I wanted to scream an apology after her as she turned to walk away.

  But part of me knew it was better this way. And that part told me that there would never be a world where I could accept her feelings.

  I needed to marry Adrian.

  I needed to get Erika out of this household. No matter what we had to sacrifice.

  "I am a Printemps."

  Charlotte and I could never have been friends.

  "I am a Printemps."

  I slowly began to walk back to my own room.

  "I am a Printemps."

  As the roaring in my ears slowed, something distant and sharply-scented, like camphor, rose up in my memories.

  But when I tried to hold onto that memory, my powers came back under control, and the memory slipped away again.