Cass could hardly sleep that night, partially from the intense itching caused by the rapid healing of the glyphs, but mostly out of excitement. She got a few hours sleep and spent the rest of the time waiting excitedly, though Cass was occasionally bugged by thoughts that she did not need to wait and could test it herself. Still, she wouldn’t take the chance for Lord Hall to observe his work first, after all, the application process was difficult on him as well.

However, when the time came that morning, Hall told her that there would be many people in attendance to observe the test. The fact that so many people would be watching her made Cass anxious and panicky.

However, when her Master looked to her and said, “I will be counting on you out there, Cass.” She calmed herself down, Cass was determined not to let him down.

Cass followed Hall through the winding corridors of the Imperial Center, leaving that section of the Center for the first time since she had been dragged and thrown into that cell. Cass reflected that in these past months her life, and her own self, had changed drastically. Though… Perhaps that was not entirely accurate. Did she change? Or was this something she had wanted all along? She was not sure, of either her changing or if it mattered at all.

Cass was not too lost in her own thoughts to notice the changing feel of the hallways they went through. The cold stone walls and floors were covered with the occasional rug and tapestry, pedestals stood with expensive looking works of art and the torches had been replaced with worked metal scones. Nothing was covered in dust, and the amount of servants Cass had observed working showed why.

Rather than the part of the castle that Hall and the old mage had experimented in, this area was used and lived in, and it showed. When her Master opened a door to a courtyard similar to the one she had often spent time with Maurice in, Cass could feel the difference even more keenly.

The gardens were well kept and orderly, with flowers of every color placed in tasteful designs and patterns. Along the stone paths laid out through the area were topiaries cut to resemble animals, though none that Cass could recognize. In the center of the courtyard was a stone plaza, and there stood a number of serious looking men dressed in the ceremonial armor of the Imperial Army.

Cass had only seen its like once before during a parade, though she had quickly been shoved out of the crowd as a suspected pickpocket just by her ragged appearance. In fairness, they would usually have been right, though that time she had only been curious to see what was going on.

Nearby, muscular servants were hauling large crates filled with strange metal shapes and others were setting up a water clock and putting marks in the lawn under the direction of one of the younger armored men, who perked up when he saw Cass’s Master.

“Ah,” The young man smiled brightly. “Lord Hall, I have not seen you for nearly a year! You have not forgotten where I live, have you?”

“Vincent…” Her Master sighed in exasperation, but Cass knew him well enough to know he was actually happy. “First, we have known each other for years, you can drop the ‘lord’ bit. Neither of us are particularly the favorites of our families after all.”

“True, true.” Vincent laughed, smiling as he turned to look at Cass. Cass inched a little closer to Hall, making Vincent laugh even harder.

“And second,” Hall scowled good naturedly about the whole thing. “You seem to move every two to three weeks, I have no more idea where you live than I do how to turn lead to gold!”

“Fair enough, you know I always like to enjoy a new view.” Cass had observed the animated Vincent throughout this brief exchange. Like Hall, he showed the signs of the aristocracy. It was obvious that at some point magic had been used to fix his teeth and that he was used to luxury in general. He seemed nice, but Cass’s instinctively did not trust kind people. Honestly, sometimes she wondered how Maurice had gotten through her walls so quickly, but Maurice was Maurice. When it came to people, that woman was more a force of nature than a human being.

“Yes, I remember.” Hall put a hand on Cass’s shoulder, “But let me say this is one view you will not be enjoying.”

“You wound me friend!” Vincent exclaimed melodramatically, bringing his hand to his heart in mock shock, “I was merely looking at this subject you have brought to demonstrate the new glyphs. A pretty girl like her was a good choice, if a small thing like her can pass the test, the generals will be eager to see what a true soldier can do with it.”

That was probably true, but Cass wondered at the subtext between the two men. She had no doubt they were friends, but with what her Master had said when he put his hand on her shoulder… Perhaps he just wanted to make it clear that Cass was his, something that Cass had no problem with at all.

“Come let me introduce you to the Secretariat!” Vincent headed over to the other armored men and waved Lord Hall and Cass to follow. For the most part, they left Cass without much of an impression, but the Secretariat rank was not a common one among the Imperial Army, and the man gave off a very serious atmosphere. He was not introduced to Cass, and she did not catch his name from where she stood, but she knew he would be the one making the ultimate decision about her Master’s success or failure.

“Well then my Lords,” Hall announced. “Let me introduce you to Lady Cass, who will be demonstrating the power of the new glyphs for you today. This young lady is also responsible for the discoveries that allowed us to finally show results in this project.”

Lady!? And what is with this praise? Cass’s understanding of glyphs was miles behind her Master’s, she had only had an idea on how to make them work because of her own unique application! As for being called lady, Cass was certainly not nobility, and in fact was simply a slave! Indeed, the Secretariat raised his eyebrows at this introduction.

“I was under the impression this slave was a criminal from the street..?” The Secretariat said.

“She was, my Lord Caim.” Her Master, bowed slightly, “However, she has the capability to learn magic, so she must be a child of one noble or another.”

Caim… Cas had heard that name before, but she could not think of where… While Cass was thinking the conversation continued.

“And you have not gone to the Archives to check the Book of Bloodlines?” Secretariat Caim questioned, “I suppose that she would have no inheritance rights, but knowing you I would have expected you to use this as a weapon against whomever fathered her.”

Her thoughts were interrupted when Hall smiled at her, “Cass is more valuable to me as a student than a subject to blackmail some random noble house.”

This courtyard was so much warmer than the one she knew about...

“Hmmmmm,” Caim sounded suspicious, but said nothing more on the subject. “Then I have only one more question before we begin, I was under the impression that mages could not have the glyph applied to them. Why did she survive?”

“Honestly, Lord Secretariat,” Hall sighed. “We have absolutely no idea. Our best theory is that Cass instinctively directed the mana somewhere, but we know that cannot be completely correct.”

“Well, I suppose that when we deal with experimental concepts we must sometimes have to accept that we cannot know everything.” The Secretariat said that, but his tone implied that anything that could not be known was disgusting to him. “Though I am not sure it would be useful anyway, mages on the front line would just be a waste, after all.”

“Perhaps,” Cass’s Master smiled slyly. “I have some ideas about that, and Lady Cass may be the proof of concept for that later, but for now it is just a few ideas floating around.”

The Secretariat waved that statement away, “I would never recommend the application of glyphs to mages. The politics of the situation alone would cause more headaches than it would be worth. Let’s get into the test for today.”

Cass was slightly annoyed that he had simply dismissed her Master’s words, but she didn’t think she had any right to speak here. Instead, she followed directions to lift the oddly shaped metal objects. Apparently, they were used by soldiers in training and nobles who were interested in fitness. Cass thought it was kind of a waste, if someone was going to lift things over and over again to get stronger, why not just find a job moving boxes?

Still, she did as she was asked and walked up to the “weights” and poured power into her glyphs. There were gasps behind her and Cass looked down to see that her glyphs were glowing slightly, something that glyphs normally did not do. She guessed it was a side effect of the magic tools that were used in her glyphs but honestly she did not think about it much, because the feeling of power flowing through her limbs too her breath away.

Walking up the largest weight, she reached down with one hand and picked it up casually. Cass could feel the weight of it, but it felt like little more than a decent sized rock. With a laugh of exhilaration, Cass tossed it into the air and caught it again, as if she was playing with a ball.

“This is… a bit beyond my expectations…” The Secretariat muttered in the background.

“I did warn you, Lord Secretariat.” Her Master sounded smug, “It is true that a normal soldier could lift that, but to toss it around like that? That weight is nearly three hundred pounds.”

“Two hundred and seventy five,” one of the assistants clarified and Cass laughed again.

“This is completely beyond our expectations, normally glyphs can only double a soldiers strength at most… How is this even possible?”

Lord Hall began to explain, “Well Cass is a bit special because she has much more mana than any other subject. I wanted to give off the best first impression possible, so I told her to use all her mana in her glyphs. As a result, right now she is incapable of using magic but more or less physically invincible.”

“Cass, reduce the power down to that applied by the absorption glyph.” Her Master wanted her to, so she had to, but she was a little sad to let go of that feeling of incredible energy. The weight in her hand grew much heavier, or rather, she felt it now and the glow of her glyphs faded away.

She could still move the weight around freely with one hand, and with both hands she was basically able to manipulate it with the same finesse she had with her full power. In the background, her Master was explaining this power was what they could expect from the new glyphs.

“Normally, the glyphs double a person's strength.” Hall said proudly, “These glyphs have had slight modifications and improvements made. Now the glyphs provide strength roughly around two and half times what a normal Imperial Soldier could be expected to have, and we can expect even more from an actual trained Imperial Soldier as opposed to the Lady Cass.”

“With this level of strength we will be able to use our heavy infantry with more versatility.” Caim muttered, “That is not even accurate, this will completely revolutionize Imperial strategy.”

“Indeed.” Hall was smiling happily, and called Cass over. “Bring the weight with you and head to the line over there.”

Cass walked over to the line in the grass, this part was to be a test of the glyphs on her thighs. They wanted her to keep the weight to give them an idea how a soldier would be able to move in armor. Unfortunately, they did not have actual armor for her to wear, at fourteen she was too small in most areas and as a girl, albeit a young one, had

a bit to much in others for any armor to fit.

The results were actually a bit worse than she expected, but she had not realized that her feet would sink into the grass when she tried to run! Still, she sprinted the hundred meters in around eleven seconds, which would be impressive even if she had not been lugging around nearly three hundred pounds of metal.

“Now Cass, if you would use your full power on the return…”

Her glyphs shined again as she poured power into them and kicked off, throwing up clods of grass and dirt from where she had started as she rocketed back towards the starting line.

“That… That was barely five seconds!” The Secretariat’s staff were excitedly talking to each other, “With that much power she is comparable to heavy cavalry more than infantry!”

“Indeed, but is it worth compromising our mages for?”

“Probably not, but it is impressive nonetheless.”

“Still it is incredible…”

“There is yet another test planned.” Hall waved for Cass to come over, so she set the weight down and went to his side. “I plan to take the rest of the test subjects and head to the southeastern regions. The instability in the south has led to a rise in banditry, and some practical tests will be useful.”

Caim and Vincent talked for a moment, then Caim nodded. “Indeed, this is a good plan, I will send some of my own soldiers to oversee it.”

Her Master bowed slightly, “Of course, Lord Secretariat, I look forward to your receiving an excellent report.”

As they headed back towards their section of the castle, Hall congratulated her on doing so well and Cass filled with pride. She hoped that she would be able to help even more and asked, “Master, will I be accompanying you to the South?”

Hall smiled, “Yes you will. Though I should warn you that it will not be very a interesting journey for the most part.”

“If I am traveling with you Master, I don’t mind.”

Hall’s smile turned sinister, and Cass shivered. However, where before she had shivered in fear or revulsion, now it was something else…

“Are you certain? You know that it can sometimes be… Dangerous… When I get bored.”

“Then it is a good thing you are bringing a toy along, no?” Sometimes that voice that had screamed and struggled within Cass resurfaced, but it had faded more and more until it was just an occasional whisper. Right now, that voice was whispering that she should be more careful, she had already lost herself. She belonged to her Master, but the route she was going…

“Hmmm, well then I will have to think of some fun games to play…” Hall’s voice made Cass tremble even more. How come she could sprint while carrying a three-hundred pound weight but now had trouble walking? Cass thought she should look into glyphs for dexterity and balance when she had the time, apparently she needed them around her Master these days!

“In the meantime, however,” Hall opened the door to Cass’s room and gestured for her to enter. Cass blushed, to have her Master open a door for her… It was a simple and small thing perhaps, but Cass was aware that her thoughts were fragile right now. However, that was briefly forgotten when she saw the people in her parlour.

“We have some things to attend to, Lady Cass.” Hall smiled.

“Ah, Lord Hall.” One of the women approached him and curtsied, “Is this the other girl you wanted us to take measurements for?”

“Yes, please do.” Hall nodded and gently pushed Cass towards the women, “She will need a full wardrobe and, although this request is uncommon, she will also need pants and tunics as well.”

The woman frowned, “I will do as you ask my Lord, but you know that it is considered barbaric for a woman to wear such clothes.”

“Well she can hardly perform her duties in a dress,” Hall waved the warning away. “And besides, it will only be a small portion of her wardrobe.”

“As you wish…” The woman was clearly disapproving, but did as she as told anyway. Cass had no idea what they were talking about, and had no idea what to do when the women pulled her into the bedroom and stripped her down and began using tape measures to record every part of her.

“What, precisely, is this for?” Cass asked as the women had her hold her hands up and measured around her hips, waist and bust. Honestly, she only let them do as they wanted because her Master had clearly wished for it, but she felt rather annoyed and frustrated by how they ignored her.

“Measurements for your dresses of course,” one of the women said casually.

“Dresses?” Cass exclaimed in surprise. “I am a slave, why on earth would I be wearing dresses?”

The first women looked at her reprovingly, “Slave or free, a woman should look like a woman. Honestly, the very idea of providing pants for you… That noble has no idea what he is doing.”

“Do not insult my Master.” Cass hissed and the woman’s eyes widened and she apologized as her forehead started to sweat lightly. Cass accepted the apology, but the conversation died, and she had no idea why she was getting these clothes to begin with.

After they left, Hall came in as Cass was dressing again. As usual, she was more worried by her odd desire for her Master to look at her than she was about him seeing her in any state of undress. What was strange though was that her Master was not alone, but brought a girl dressed in the simple clothes that servants like Maurice wore. She looked familiar…

“Birdie!” Cass realized who she was quickly, “I almost did not recognize you dressed like that.”