~Two Years Later~

It was hard for Elizabeth to contain her nerves, standing before the church doors.

Two years had passed since she met Alice and her mother, and in that time many things had changed in her life. Shortly afterwards, her uncle’s business had gained a mysterious investor, and from then on it began expanding rapidly. He had purchased a new store, hired several employees, and had finally finished the new printer he had been working on for the last few years. Elizabeth would be lying if she said it hadn’t surprised her to see the beast actually performing at the rate her uncle had always claimed it would; he had been pouring his heart, soul, and savings into it for years, with little to show for it.

It was not long before the business had begun to attract interest from customers. Now that the store wasn’t tucked away from view, and had a much nicer front facade, they naturally got more attention. Soon that turned into sales, as word spread about the store that was selling books at a price far below any of the competitors. Within a year, their profits had increased by over a hundred fold. It was enough for her uncle to purchase several more stores, and to commission a factory to manufacture a number of other printing machines after his design.

At times, the changes to her life had been so rapid that she half-wondered if it had all just been a wondrous dream. Her family had moved out of their cramped apartment, with its poor air, dirty halls, and thin walls. Now they could afford to live in a proper townhouse, and she only had to share a room with her sister, not her entire family. Her uncle had even begun to take on her help at the store, as she was already familiar with most of the books, and she had a good head for calculation. That decision was, indirectly, the reason why she was standing here now.

Although her uncle had hired several men to operate the presses, he always made sure to service them himself. He had been experimenting with using a magnolic array, rather than the standard steam engine, to drive the motion of the cylinder. She had been helping him, as at this point she knew as much about the design and construction of the printing press as anyone, when she had spilled some of the slick onto her dress. Slick was monstrously expensive, and her uncle had been very disappointed in her--that is, until the slick had begun to faintly glow. At the same time, she felt a strange connection to the material, as if it was resonating with her spirit. As she had thought this, the glow died away, and she was suddenly filled with a feeling of boundless energy, the likes of which she had never felt before.

To her disbelief, and the disbelief of her uncle, it was clear that she had Bloomed. It was exceedingly rare for a commoner to Bloom, to the point that it was almost seen as rumor or myth. When they had tried to arrange for her to receive a Blooming ceremony, so that they could understand the extent of her gifts, her uncle was nearly laughed out the door. It was only after they had paid a rather exorbitant fee that the priest had agreed to arrange the ceremony, and even then it had only been reluctantly.

She pushed open the door of the church, hesitant. The chapel was mostly empty, although a few people were scattered around the pews, praying to the Nine-fold God for help. A priest was sitting near the altar, intently reading the Ennead. Not seeing anybody else, Elizabeth walked up to the man and then, when he didn’t respond to her presence, softly cleared her throat.

Without looking up from the page, he said, “What do you need, girl?” He sounded bored and tired.

“I’m, um, here for my blooming ceremony, father,” she said quietly. He looked up then, his eyes traveling up and down her in a searching way that made her feel uncomfortable. She knew that he could tell she wasn’t the child of a noble, and she hoped he had been briefed about the ceremony beforehand.

“You’re Elizabeth Lusian, then?” One eyebrow raised skeptically.

She nodded, and he let out a sigh and closed the book, carefully saving the spot with a cloth page marker. It was a very well made book, she could tell, written in old Vishnic. She was very familiar with the book, both because it was one of the only books in her house growing up (and even that had been a luxury for her family), and because it was quite naturally one of the best selling books that her uncle sold. Everyone worshipped the Ninefold God, but most could only hear the words of God once a week at church. Her uncle could scarcely keep up with the demand for copies of the Ennead, now that so many saw it as a chance to bring their religion into their houses.

Elizabeth realized that she had gotten lost in thought once more, and belatedly realized that the priest had told her to follow him. She started and then walked with the man toward the back of the chapel, where a small door swung open. Entering, she saw that it was a ritual chamber, with carvings on the floor and several unlit braziers around her. She had never been inside one before; they were reserved for special ceremonies, such as Blooming, divinations, and certain funeral rites.

“Stand there and don’t move while I prepare the ceremony,” the priest said, gesturing toward the center of the room.

Elizabeth stood in the small room, waiting for the priest to set up the ritual. Despite her nerves, she found herself wondering if there was any actual magnolic circuitry involved here, or if it was more ceremonial. There was a circle drawn on the floor, inscribed with three overlapping triangles, but she wasn’t aware of any magnolic circuits that matched the design. She wanted to ask about it, but the priest looked irritated enough. In that case, she would just have to write about it in her next letter to Alice, and see if the other girl had any more insight.

Since they had first met, not a week had gone by without the two girls sending letters back and forth. A decent portion of the money that Elizabeth received for her assistance to her uncle went to the parchment, ink, and postage of these letters. What had started as a chance introduction had quickly become a fast friendship. They wrote about everything; all the different books they had been reading, thoughts on new developments in magnolic circuitry, debates about recent mathematical theories of strange new geometries, and discussions of new laws restricting the labor of children. The one thing that she noticed Alice did not mention much was her family; she had briefly talked about a younger brother in one of her letters, but there was no mention of her mother or father. It made Elizabeth curious, of course, but she didn’t want to pry; after all, she didn’t much like mentioning her parents either.

In the two years that they had known each other, the two had only met in person five more times. Each time Alice was accompanied by the same woman, although she looked too young to be Alice’s mother, and the girl herself had inadvertently confirmed that fact. Somehow, there was never any awkwardness between the two girls. Alice would bring up some historical fact, or Elizabeth would mention reading about the etymology of a certain word, and from then the two would be deep in a discussion until the woman, Miss Hartwright, called Alice to leave.

“We’re ready to begin,” the priest said suddenly, and once more Elizabeth found herself shook from her thoughts. He had placed small vials at every corner of the room, each of them containing just a trace of valuable magnolium. The ceremony didn’t need much at all, and it was far too expensive to use anything but the least amount.

“What do I need to do?” she asked, suddenly nervous.

“Try and reach out for the magnolic power,” he said, his tone bored. “Just don’t cry when you can’t feel it, okay?”

Privately she thought that this was no way for a man of faith to behave, but she kept that to herself. Instead, she just nodded her agreement.

The priest began to speak, rapidly and beneath his breath. It was in Vishnic, she could tell, but he was speaking far too quickly for her to pick out any words. After a minute he stopped speaking, although there were no signs of any change, and then he looked at her expectantly.

Elizabeth tried to reach out and find the magnolic power, but she didn’t even know what that meant. Closing her eyes, she tried to visualize the nine vials around her, each containing a speck of magnolium. She wanted to reach out for the Energy one, since that was the magnolium that had responded before, but she didn’t know which one it was, or how to do that.

Frustrated, she imagined tendrils of her soul stretching out from her and connecting to each of the vials around her. For a few horrifying seconds, nothing happened, and she began to wonder if there might be some other explanation behind the incident with the magnolium two weeks ago. What if she didn’t actually Bloom, and her uncle had just wasted money and time on a worthless endeavor? Hot shame rushed over her and she felt her cheeks flush as she realized that the priest was right to be so condescending and dismissive.

Then, to her astonishment, she felt something. It was a gentle warmth, like the embrace of a mother, and it flowed into her from nine points all around her. The sensation immediately soothed all of her embarrassment and doubts, leaving Elizabeth with just a sensation of complete inner peace. She opened her eyes and saw, with only mild surprise, that all nine of the glass vials were shimmering with magnolic power, each a different color, bathing the room in a prismatic glow. With the same detached interest, she noticed that her feet had left the ground, and she was now floating several inches off the ground, wisps of magnolic power swirling around her.

The priest stared at her with his mouth wide open, and she gave him a gentle smile. She knew that this was unusual, and that she should probably be freaking out, but the waves of soothing energy made such unpleasant emotions impossible. She reached out and soothed his heart on instinct, even as the analytical part of her mind rapidly tried to figure out what she had just done.

Then the meager amount of magnolic power ran dry, and she dropped to the ground, landing hard enough to twist an ankle. She let out a soft cry of pain, and that seemed to break the priest free from his shock.

“I—” he began, faltering. He was staring at her with a mix of awe and fear, and Elizabeth decided she didn’t like it one bit. “I need to report this. Please stay here, Lady Lusian.”

With that, he practically bolted for the door. She wrinkled her nose; Lady Lusian? Nobody had ever called her that before, and she wasn’t sure that she liked it. Elizabeth had a premonition that her life was about to get far more complicated, and most likely not all for the better.

~*~

“I offer you my sincerest congratulations, Lord Senius,” said the tall Baron with the balding head. Around his lips he had a very thick mustache, and Lewis couldn’t help but wonder if the hair on the man’s head had just decided to crawl down to his lip over the years. “With Soul and Life, you will surely bring great providence into the world.”

“Thank you, Baron Eldridge,” Lewis said instead. “My family and I have always appreciated your kindness.” He had spoken the same words so many times tonight that they had practically become meaningless. Part of him wanted to grumble and complain, to say that this whole party was for his Blooming ceremony and he didn’t want to spend it greeting a bunch of old men. His father had explained the importance of it, though, so he would just have to bear it.

Fortunately, the baron seemed to be the last person he had to greet, at least for the moment. Once he was sure nobody else was watching him, he let himself sigh in relief. Honestly, Lewis hated having to meet so many people; he wasn’t very good with names, and it took so much effort to try and match all the names to faces and then to his father’s lessons on the vassals of the Senius duchy that his head had begun to ache after only half an hour. At least he seemed to have gotten through it without offending anyone, although no doubt he had accidentally slighted a half dozen people who were just too polite to say anything.

There were times when Lewis felt like he really wasn’t well suited to be the heir of a ducal house. He had more interest in swordplay and warfare than the affairs of politics and society, and he didn’t think he would ever have the casual way with people that seemed to come so easily to his mother and father. Of course, he had never expressed those feelings to his parents. It might be good for others to be aware of their failings, but an heir needed to project confidence at all times, or at least that was what his father had drilled into his head. The only person he had ever come close to complaining to was Alicia, who had similar pressures placed on her as the crown prince’s fiancée.

He looked across the ballroom to see his half-sister on the other side, having tea with a group of noble girls around her own age from the surrounding territory. Lewis wanted to go over and say hello, but he knew that his parents would disapprove. The boy wasn’t blind; he knew that his mother seemed to have a hatred for the girl, and that his father treated her like she didn’t exist. What he didn’t understand was why, though. Alicia had always been kind to him, and even if she had been somewhat distant ever since she went to Ludestre, she still always made time for him whenever he asked. When they were younger she had played with him and told him stories, and even now she would help him with his lessons and draw illustrations of his favorite battles.

He knew enough about the world now to understand that Mother only saw the girl as a symbol of Father’s first wife, that Father only saw her as a future tie to the royal family, and that the servants took their cues in how to treat her from their masters. He loved his parents, and he loved Ally, and he just wished that they could see that the girl was more than just a threat or a tool. He didn’t know how to fix it, though. How could he show his parents that Alicia was kind and helpful and his best friend?

Then he set his jaw, and decided that it was his Blooming ceremony, and he didn’t give a dragon’s butt what other people thought. With his mind made up, he crossed the room, stopping only to briefly greet the guests who wished to once more express their congratulations. Finally, he arrived at the table where his sister was sitting. As he approached, the other young ladies all grew silent, and Alicia turned to regard him with her usual expression, a cold and imperial look that he knew well and that many people confused for cruelty or disdain. Upon recognizing him, however, her face softened into a slight smile, and she politely stood from her seat.

“Brother Lewis, I congratulate you on your Blooming,” she said politely, as if she hadn’t been with him for the whole ceremony. He knew what she was doing, distancing herself from him in public, as she had done ever since the day the Duke had arranged her marriage to the prince and named Lewis heir. He had little doubt that his mother was behind it, since she didn’t want the retainers of the house to support Alicia in any way. In the past he had just let it happen, unaware of the toll it had taken on his sister’s image, but he would do so no more.

“Thanks, Ally!” He said, and he threw his arms around her in a fierce hug. “I was so nervous at the ceremony, but the exercises you taught me really helped a lot.”

She stiffened for a moment, and then softened and returned the hug. Quietly, she said, “I really am so proud of you, Lewis. I know that God saw your soul today, and gave you gifts to suit your kindness.”

He smiled up at her. She had grown recently and was now a full head taller than him, but he promised himself that he would catch up soon. For all the compliments he had received from all the guests that day, hers just now was the only one that made him actually want to grin. “Come on, let’s go and dance the next number.”

Very softly, too quiet for anyone else to hear, she said, “I don’t know if that’s wise. The Duchess will—”

He huffed, stepping back but grabbing her hand. “I don’t care what Mother does. I want to dance with you, and that’s that. Or do you not want to dance with me?” He stared up at her with wide eyes.

She laughed and ruffled his hair. The other noble girls behind her were staring at them with wide eyes, and he saw his sister blush as she realized what she had done. Then Alicia shook her head, giving him a wry smile. “Alright, you little scamp, we can go dance. Just don’t blame me if we get in trouble later.”

Gripping her hand tightly, Lewis led her away to the dance floor, a wide smile on his face. He very pointedly ignored the sharp look that his mother gave him from across the room, even if he would probably be in for a long talk later. Right now, this was his party, and he would have fun with his sister, everyone else be darned.