Chapter Nineteen: Out and About

+++++Anise+++++

Qinzi was an infernic enthralled to Franyi's mother, a reasonably-powerful nereit, a water-spirit with an indigo color alignment. From what Anise could tell, the family had always treated Qinzi well, no worse than any non-infernic servant or employee, and Anise had never really questioned the morality of it. Mages summoned spirits to do their bidding, and it was a feather in Lusanti Jashopo's cap that she'd managed to summon a nereit who actively contributed to her mistress's household without the need for much punishment. But, now that Anise had actually befriended two infernics, she knew them to be people who simply had odder-than-usual life circumstances.

All of this was well and good for Anise's moral education. If Qinzi wanted her to, she'd have been glad to help mix a potion to free her of her seldom-used thrall-plug. But neither Anise nor Franyi had expected Qinzi to come rapping at their bedroom door mere moments after the two young women had unexpectedly ascended to the 5th elevation in tandem.

"Who's in there?" Qinzi asked.

"Uh… just a minute…" Franyi called back, and the two girls scrambled about to clothe themselves semi-decently, even as Qinzi swung the unlocked door open to see what all the commotion was about.

"Franyi! And Franyi's friend!" Qinzi gasped. "Franyi, thank heavens you're safe… I've been worrying myself sick! What in the world are you two doing here?" She glanced to Anise, who was puzzling over Qinzi's demeanor, far more forthright than most thralls. And Qinzi noticed her noticing. "Um… pardon my impertinence, miss, but… I'm supposed to get the place ready for your parents, and this place is a mess!"

"My parents?"

Qinzi nodded, already straightening the room up. With a frown of concentration, the nereit used her magic to lift the broken corner of the bed up. She shoved the snapped leg back into place and wrapped some sort of gooey water-based magical substance around it in what was clearly a temporary fix. Her eyes looked to them imploringly, intense and deep blue in hue. "We only decided… rather, they only informed me yesterday… they'll be here this afternoon… what happened, Miss Franyi?"

Franyi had already noted Anise's uneasy expression. "Qinzi, you can just call me Franyi. We're friends, right?"

"Of course, Franyi!" It was Qinzi's turn to look uneasy as Franyi and Anise hurried to put the fallen books back into their proper order. In a proper household, a young miss did not clean beyond tidying up herself or her immediate area, and even then it was proper to ask for a servant's help. She certainly didn't volunteer to do a servant's duty. At least that's why Anise assumed the nereit looked uneasy - maybe not. Qinzi lifted Anise's cornflower-blue underpants, puzzling over them. "Did something happen in here, girls?"

Franyi nodded. "The short story is that we both elevated."

"You elevated? That's wonderful, Franyi! You haven't told your parents?"

"They don’t know… it just happened," Anise said.

"Oh! Congratulations! I…" she frowned. "Once we're done tidying up, I'll rush to town and get a cake made!"

Clearly, Qinzi did not appreciate the nature of their emergency. Yes, it was wonderful, if unexpected, that they'd reached the 5th elevation. It certainly took a modicum of pressure off of Anise, for that was the level that separated talented dilettantes from magical professionals. Wonderful. But that didn't mean Anise was automatically employed or employable as a magical professional. And her stay at the Jashopo island retreat had apparently come to a very unexpected end - Franyi's parents were on their way! They couldn't know that Anise had been staying here, and they definitely couldn't learn about Anise and Franyi.

"Qinzi… you realize you can't tell anybody about what happened here?"

Qinzi nodded and glanced once again to Anise. "I don't know what happened here. Though you realize I'll have to tell Franyi's mother if she asks. I owe it to her…"

Anise wasn't sure how you explained to somebody that she'd internalized her own yoke of obedience. At least she wasn't sure how to do so in a single-digit number of minutes. But she could threaten Qinzi… frighten the stew right out of her… No. Anise was a woman now, a 5th elevation Mage, and she'd take her licks. Threatening Qinzi wasn't appropriate no matter how frightened Anise was at the prospect of being outed. She tossed her suitcases on the bed and threw the closet open, using tugs of magical energy to yank her clothes right off the hangar and into her open cases. It was a lot less effortful than before - she could toss clothes around all day! She could only imagine what somebody like Uncle Fenrik felt like, tossing around ten times the power, tossing carriages aside and ripping their doors clean off without a second thought. Anise was glad she'd kicked him in the teeth.

"Okay, I'm all packed!" Anise said - she hadn't packed very well, but most of her things were in the suitcases.

"Anise…" Franyi started… but what was there to be said? The trouble would be even worse if Anise was there. She rushed over and kissed Anise, every bit as passionately as when they'd been writhing around in mutual ecstasy a few minutes before.

Qinzi gasped. "Franyi?"

"She is my Chustus," Franyi stated.

And that changed something - naming the nereit's former fox-person-lover from her old world changed something in Qinzi's eyes. Her earnest brow dropped and she nodded. "I understand. Anise, if you go to the Orchard Pass in town and tell them I sent you, I imagine you'll find lodging, at least for a few days… though you may have to work for it."

"I'm not afraid to work," Anise said. "Thank you, Qinzi. I'll see you soon, love."

Franyi teared up at that. "I love you…"

Anise dashed right out the door. Suitcases in hand, she bolted from the Jashopo residence, the cases scraping and bumping behind her, and nearly got run over by a coach.

+++++Anise+++++

"Girl, are you suicidal? Can't you be bothered to look where you're going?" The woman dashed out of the car and lifted Anise to her feet, checking her for injury. "Anise?"

Anise's timing had been perfect - perfect for getting herself knocked by a braking carriage. It bowled her over, sending her tumbling over her own suitcase and scraping her palms against the paving stones. Before she could get to her feet, Lusanti Jashopo had already done so with a gentle tug and a modest application of magic, leaving Anise wavering on her heels. One of the suitcases had flown open and five sets of clothes were scattered across the yard and into the street.

"Mrs. Jashopo…" Anise said.

"What is this?" Kyru Jashopo said. Franyi's father ambled out of the car and proceeded to scoop up Anise's clothes out of the street like some common servant. "Anise, have you been staying at our home?"

"It… it must have something to do with Franyi…"

The Jashopos had obviously heard about their daughter. The magistress would have forwarded them Franyi's message as soon as Virtupi-Grace had found it the next morning and brought it to the hall matron. And, as Kyru Jashopo told it, they'd decided to go to their little house on Sidoade Island to think of what to do… and to discreetly meet with one of his friends, who happened to be highly-ranked within the constabulary and had some means of tracking runaway young women at his disposal. Not that those means would be needed any longer, for their daughter had picked the most obvious possible hiding spot to hole up.

Franyi's parents were still quizzing Anise on the front lawn when Franyi burst out and ran to her with a very worried-looking Qinzi following close behind. She pulled Anise into a hug, and Anise froze in terror - she had no idea what was happening.

"It's true," Franyi stated. "I've quit St. Quillia's because they expelled Anise… and I love her and she loves me…"

Her mother frowned. "You love her, meaning…"

By way of response, Franyi kissed Anise, and she was far too confused to do anything but kiss back, sighing and melting into Franyi's lips. Her ears burned the whole time, because she knew they were being watched, but she kissed back anyway.

"Are you insane?" Franyi's mother hissed. "You can't do that on the street! Somebody… somebody could have seen. Everybody inside, right now!"

Anise felt that she was marching to her doom - and yet the thought of simply running for town never once crossed her mind. She couldn't leave Franyi behind like that. So she followed after them into the house. And things, somehow, however improbably, did not devolve into shouting, condemnatory pandemonium.

"You have to be very careful, girls. St. Arbalest is not kind to people - especially women - who don't conform to their standards," Mr. Jashopo said.

"We're just glad you're safe," Mrs. Jashopo added.

Anise was speechless. Franyi could only murmur: "You… you mean you're not angry?"

"Yes, we're angry!" Mr. Jashopo said. Were they being supportive or not? Anise was so confused. "We were worried sick about you, Yi-yi…"

"I'm not four years old, dad," Franyi said. And Anise almost laughed at how prosaic everything had suddenly become.

"You're our favorite daughter…"

"Only daughter…"

"Yes, that, too," Mr. Jashopo allowed. "But if you can be happy with your little friend, that's wonderful! But it hurts me that you thought you couldn't come to us with your problems. What in your seventeen years has led you to believe that we'd reject you or disown you for loving the 'wrong' person? There is no such person, Yi-y… Franyi. Not if your heart is good…"

"And your heart is good," Mrs. Jashopo said.

Anise had to cover her face because she was bawling like a baby. And Franyi was tearing up, too. And Lusanti and Kyru Jashopo… and even Qinzi. Everybody was crying now. Wonderful.

+++++Anise+++++

Anise was ecstatic that Franyi's parents were so supportive, of course. But she wondered where that left her. The Jashopos had been surprised and delighted to learn that Franyi had advanced to the 5th elevation… but that also meant she would have to go back to St. Quillia's, because it would be very easy and very advantageous for Franyi to receive a diploma from that establishment. And it meant that Anise would have to be without Franyi, because she was unlikely to be invited back, no matter how unexpectedly prodigious her magical acumen was. But Franyi's parents welcomed her to stay with them in the city, at least until Anise got things straightened out with her parents.

"My parents?"

Mr. Jashopo nodded. "You know, about my age, maybe not so incredibly good looking, probably go by mother and father?"

"You have to let them know you're okay. You have to send them a letter," Mrs. Jashopo added.

"Now?"

"It can wait until tomorrow - I'll even help you write it. We're going to get a cake and some wine to celebrate tonight! You girls go into town - pick whatever cake you like! Or two smaller ones if you can't agree on a flavor!"

Qinzi cleared her throat - for a moment, Anise thought she was going to point out that, as the household thrall, it was her job to run errands so the family and their friends didn't have to. But that wasn't it at all. Her expression went steely - she was obviously summoning up courage for something - and she sauntered over to Franyi's parents on the couch and sat right between them, a slender hand on either Jashopo parent's knee.

"Would you like to tell them?" Lusanti Jashopo asked.

Qinzi nodded, and she showed them by reaching under her blouse and untying a small metal cap clearly meant to resemble a thrall-plug. Which meant…

"You're not a thrall?"

She shook her head. "Not anymore. Not since you were too young to remember. I had been a thrall for two years under a sorcerer out in Lazilatu Creek - it's three days from St. Arbalest by land, perhaps a quarter the size. He was a horrible and cruel man, punished me practically daily and did many things worse than thrall-plug punishment. He took me everywhere with a metal collar, like I was his damn pet. He even brought me to St. Arbalest on business and, while there, he got on the wrong side of a bad crowd and got himself abducted. And, being the sort of man he was, he started sending pain through my thrall-plug the moment he got scared and desperate in the clutches of the city's criminals."

"Sorcerers sometimes do that," Anise said.

"Yes, well fortunately, I was in the middle of Parliament Exchange when I collapsed, writhing in agony. Kyru was the one nearby who helped me and, noticing I was an infernic, he wouldn't let anybody else touch me. Instead, he had me sedated and got me to a surgeon to remove my plug. Even with the healing decoctions, it took two weeks for me to heal up, and your parents kept me safe the whole time. I can only imagine that old Jogun assumed his criminal friends took me and did whatever they pleased with me, because I don’t think he spent a single day looking for his thrall. Your parents kept me safe during my convalescence and invited me into their household right after as an equal. Still, this city is not a safe place for infernics and, unlike certain other oppressed peoples, it's easy enough to hide who you are… though it comes with a terrible personal cost. You two girls know that now, too."

Franyi slapped her own forehead. "So that's why you always clam up when we've got outside company. I always figured you were just shy…"

"No… but I could never let outsiders know I wasn't a thrall. Not even your friends, Franyi. And, since children talk, we couldn't tell you, either."

Franyi frowned, puzzling the revelation over. "So… what does that make… us?" She gestured between Qinzi and herself.

By way of response, Qinzi slipped her hands into those of each of Franyi's parents, a brilliant smile spreading across her face, as if she'd been waiting for far too long to divulge a secret that needed to be told. "I'm your step-mother, I suppose."

"Hi, mum," Franyi said. And, once again, Anise found herself bawling in front of everybody, but there were plenty of tears to go around.

+++++Anise+++++

Anise and Franyi walked down to Juzulali, which had a market street about the size of the one in the Chartham Canals, though it was far cleaner and less crowded. They held hands for most of the way, with Anise's heart singing after a very strange emotional rollercoaster of a day. And, whether it was because she was 5th elevation now or because the floodgates of her heart were open and rushing like the Coverhill rapids, everything felt different. The late afternoon light of autumn was suffuse and golden, and the market square was quaint, with stalls of country produce, a little tailor's shop displaying fashions a year or two out of date, and a bakery with a dozen kinds of cake, including marbled malt cake, which was Anise's childhood favorite.

"What do you think about lemon cream?" Franyi asked.

Anise nodded quickly. She didn't need her childhood favorite cake. She was an adult now and could try different things. She wanted to know what Franyi liked and was willing to find out what made lemon cream special to her girlfriend. Having ordered the cake, they went to pick out some wine while the baker made it. They stopped by a little café right outside the vintner's and drank small glasses of sparkling white wine and ate little round tea cakes, and the autumn wind whipped around them and sent the streamers and pennants that the merchants displayed flipping around. It blew Anise's hair right out of its loose bun.

In her head, Anise composed a letter to her parents.

Mother and Father,

I'm sorry for worrying you with my sudden disappearance, but I'm well. I've been staying on Sidoade Island with my girlfriend, whom I love. I'll be returning to St. Arbalest soon and would be happy to talk with you to discuss my future in the world and within your family - I hope I can continue to be a daughter you can be proud of, despite any perceived indignity of my recent actions. Regardless, I wanted you to know that I'm safe, happy, and loved. Please write me back.

Love,

Anise

They bought four bottles of decent wine, figuring that ought to be more than enough, and headed back for the bakery. Only, as they rounded the corner, they ran into a familiar but unexpected face.

"Um… hello," Ezra said.