"Welcome to my private section of the castle. To my room now, Eithne." I nodded and followed her closely. The walls were a mixture between dark wood and striped white and beige paint, the floor a red carpet. It was a hallway, to the end of there were two doors. The one on the right was further down than the one on the left, and at the end of the hallway was an open window.

Coinnle opened the door at the furthest end of the hallway and walked inside, not waiting for me to enter as she did last time. I followed her and saw the sight of what must've been a bedroom. A bed was in a corner, and a window directly to my left. A desk to my right, and tall bookshelves stood on many sides of the walls. The ceiling was high as to accommodate their massive height.

Coinnle laid the box on the desk and sat on her chair, unlatching the box and revealing the contents that laid within. "Sit on the bed, I'll get to you shortly."

"Thank you," I tried to say as politely as possible, moving over the bed that was on the opposite side of the room. I sat on it and laid my books next to myself, watching Coinnle inspect the dolls. She didn't say anything as she moved her eyes across the naked form of the doll, the linen no longer covering the thing's modesty. For a little lady she didn't look afraid to look at such a thing while someone else was around.

She began to dress the doll up in her clothes and once satisfied had her sit on her desk. There was a way to make them stand up without any assistance, but either Coinnle didn't know how to do that or she didn't want to do it right now. She turned to me and smiled, getting off her chair and walking over to the bed, almost throwing herself next to me.

"I overheard you couldn't read, Eithne."

It took me a moment to comprehend her words. That implies more than what she just said, it would mean she did indeed wait before entering the room. I nodded, ignoring that new revelation.

"Yes, it's true. Is it an odd thing for a villager like me to be illiterate?"

Coinnle shook her head, "Not at all. You were from damhán, right? The village north-east from here. That's a pretty fair distance away from this city, isn't it. I also heard you've recently taken the first step into immortality, excuse me for my overhearing."

Where was she going with this. I nodded again, and seeing that Coinnle got off the bed and grabbed onto my hand, dragging me up with her with firm strength I wouldn't expect from a young girl like her. "Then, as a gift to the apprentice of Sir Alfred, allow me to bestow you with an item. Have anything in mind?" I shook my head out of instinct. She smiled, one that was more polite than it was genuine. "Then I will pick something out for you. How does a dagger sound?"

A dagger? I wouldn't mind having another. I nodded, and she gave a genuine smile. "Wait here." She went off to her desk and opened a drawer, puling out a dark leather sheath and walking back to me. She handed it to me and I took it with both hands, as I had done with the Lord's book. "Unsheathe it." I nodded again and unsheathed the dagger.

It was a steel blade, a small guard of silver with red gemstones embellished within. The hilt was of white wood and it had no pommel. In all, it was a dagger that I most likely wouldn't have been able to buy no matter how many gold coins I saved up in my village. I looked up at Coinnle, at her smiling face that felt as if she were hiding something. Or was it my imagination? I meekly nodded and sheathed back the knife.

"Thank you, Princess Coinnle. This is much more than I should be accepting." My voice was softer than I thought it would come out. She nodded deeply and began to speak once again.

"Anything for the apprentice of Sir Alfred. Now, I want to give you one more gift, but before that I would ask a request from you."

"Whatever you want I will give, as long as it's in my power to." I gripped the sheath to my chest.

"Take a bath with me." Huh? Was that all? Take a bath with her was the request? Of course, I nodded. This was something easy enough. She smiled happily at my approval and went off to the side of her bed. "Then let me get the towels and my clothes, we'll go to the bath soon."

Why did she want to take a bath with me? What possible reason could she have for that? I ran the possibilities in my mind. Was she scared to bathe alone? Did she prefer company? Was this to get closer to me, if not any of those?

Or did I just stink? Oh Divine. That must be it. Suddenly stricken with a bout of nervousness, I waited for Coinnle to gather everything she needed from whatever cabinet she was looking from, which didn't take very long. A pile of clothes laid on her hands, and two towels in the other. For a supposed princess she didn't have many servants to help her. Rather, she had none.

"Come with me, Eithne." I nodded and followed behind her, trying to discretely smell myself while she was turned away. I couldn't smell anything particularly offensive, although as I had said before I did smell a bit. Perhaps she wasn't used to that kind of stench? Whatever it is, I wanted it gone.

Coinnle opened the door to her room and went across the hall towards the other door. She opened it and I followed her inside, into a room that was more fitting for the general design of the castle. White stone walls and a white stone basin with a small portion of the room devoted to empty space was all that there was to this room. A couple of hangers stood on a side of the wall, which Coinnle promptly began to put to use when she started to undress herself.

Not wanting her to do so alone I also took off my clothes, leaving us both naked. She went over to the basin and turned a knob, and with the turn a sudden spring of water started to pour out of a wolf's head. She walked away from the basin and into a small box, opening it up and taking out several sponges and a bar of soap. "Get in the bathtub."

Is the bathtub the basin? I nodded and walked over to the basin, watching as the water poured into the empty space. Light steam was rising from the water, so it must've been hot, and hopefully it wasn't simmering hot. I placed a hand to touch the slowly rising water and felt it wasn't too hot. It was hot, yes, but not enough to boil me. Probably.

"Is it too hot for your tastes?" I shook my head.

"No, I'm just slightly nervous. I've never been in a bathtub before." I said, the Princess responding with a laugh. I heard her footsteps come over to my side and I glanced at her.

"You'll only take a dip in here. Get yourself wet and I'll have you washed and clean, afterwords we may enjoy the bath to our leisure."

Ah. I nodded and moved my feet into the bath, sitting inside and watching as the water slowly raised. I began to scoop up water with my hands and rub it into my skin, trying my best to get myself in a better state to clean myself in. But, that didn't seem all that necessary, as the weight of hot water splashed over my head and covered my body in a layer of water, doing most of the work for me.

Coinnle was standing outside with a bucket in hand. I moved the hair out of my eyes and nodded, "Thanks."

"You're most welcome, Eithne." Coinnle scooped up another bucketful of water out of the basin and poured it over her own head, with a strength that I again wouldn't have expected from someone of her size. How old is she anyway?

"Princess? May I ask a question?"

"Anytime."

"How old is your highness?"

Coinnlea moved hair out of her own eyes and looked at me before answering. "Ten." Ah. She's younger than she looked, surprisingly. She had developed very well for a ten year considering her height, and her frame had more muscle than a child should have. She was a very beautiful child, something I could admit to even as a woman. I got up and left the basin, standing next to the Princess and waiting for further commands. She knew what her position was in this relationship and began to move before things got too awkward.

Taking a white bar of soap she moved over to me and stood right in front of me, and without saying a word began to rub me with it. Oh my. "P-Princess?"

"Yes?"

"I can wash myself, you know. And it isn't proper for someone like you to wash such a lowly lady like me." Coinnle ignored my words and continued to rub the soap across my skin, moving my arm when necessary. She left only the most delicate parts alone, to my gratitude, but was more thorough than I would've wanted her to be. She had me crouch down when certain places on my body were too high for her to reach.

I waited patiently for everything to be done with. Eventually, while my eyes were closed and I focused just on my breathing, I felt the now familiar sensation of water being thrown on me. It wasn't over my head like last time, she probably couldn't reach the height for that. I rubbed my eyes and opened them, but instead of the cleaning being done with I was being rubbed with a sponge.

All the soap was rubbed off my body, and the sponge dirtier than my shame would want it to be. Coinnle didn't look bothered by having to directly touch the dirty sponge, or to be the one to clean me. I waited for everything to be over, and thankfully it was after another bucket of water was thrown at my body.

"There. Now it's my turn." A smile was formed on the Princess' face, and I meekly nodded. I grabbed the soap from the box and stood in front of the girl, unsure of what to do first. She wasn't wet enough, I think, so instead I grabbed the bucket and poured it over her head gently, she made sure her hair didn't block her eyes. Her pale skin slightly reddened from the heat of the water, but I ignored all that and as delicately as I could I began to rub soap over the Coinnle as she had done for me.

I had to look over her body carefully, or maybe that was an excuse just to get a good look at her. She both looked and felt muscular, not to the point of losing femininity or childishness but she certainly had more definition than I did. I could swear I could see some of the individual strands of her muscles through the skin... but I'm not sure if the shoulder has circular striations. No, this is wrong. These aren't muscles, this is something else.

I traced my finger along the marks on her skin, almost forgetting for a moment that I had a job to do. Cleaning the girl. But Coinnle didn't fail to notice my excessive touching.

"Those are enchantments. You may inspect them if you want, they run all over my body save for most of my face." Enchantments?

"What for?" I blurted out the question, looking at the girl straight in the eyes by accident. She smiled slightly.

"Various things. Mostly to do with my future cultivation, if you want a detailed explanation about it then I'll speak about it while in the bath."

I nodded. Not wanting to pry any further when she had already told me when I should speak about it, I rubbed soap around her body in silence. I did as she did to me, pouring water over her I began to rub her clean with a sponge this time. The sponge didn't get dirty, I don't think this was even doing anything, but I did my job as well as I could. Then I poured water over her once again, and I no longer had anything to do.

Coinnle didn't say anything as she walked into the bathtub, already full and the wolf's head no longer vomiting out water. I followed closely behind her and we both sank into our own side of the tub. I didn't know what to say, or what I should talk about, so I rested on the only thing we had already begun to talk about.

"So, about the enchantments." Coinnle hummed in response to that, her eyes closed and most likely enjoying the bath more than she was caring about my presence. She nodded and opened her fierce eyes, pointing them to me and scooting her body over to me. I had no way to escape her here, so I did nothing and let her get closer than I was comfortable letting her. She grabbed my hands and placed herself into a hug within them, wresting her back on me while she did so.

Alright. This isn't so bad I guess. "Feel my mana." Okay.

The moment I began to sense her internal structure, a massive wave of heat rushed through my entire body. It wasn't painful, no, it felt as if a wave of mana had rushed itself over me. Within a moment I felt the fires of hell, and in the next I was looking at the internal structure of the little girl in front of me. Her structure was obviously that of a cultivator, one that was more intricate, more detailed, more ancient than even Alfred.

"I'm a cultivator. I've been a cultivated since the moment I was born, as Papa tells me. I was born to complicated circumstances, but all you have to know is that my enchantments help in my future cultivation into Lordship. If you want, you can spend bath time exploring my mana."

Wow. I don't know what any of that meant, but I nodded regardless. "Why are you telling me this, Princess?"

She looked up at me, her eyes as painfully intense as always. "You are Alfred's apprentice, yes? And I already knew from seeing you that you were a magician. You are capable of magic greater than Alfred ever would in his lifetime, so I wish to support him indirectly through supporting you. Do you know what Alfred's goals are?"

I nodded. He wanted to create lifelike dolls, and he's doing that pretty well. "Creating lifelike art, right?"

Coinnle nodded. "But there's more to it than that. He wants to create life with his art, moving and changing. He's surely shown you dolls that he could move through his enchantments, yea?"

Now that she mentions it, there are several dolls that he's enchanted with the ability of movement. I nodded.

"His goal is to create a doll that is alive. The enchantments on my skin will help with that goal, and I can't go and show him my body like I could with you. So excuse my over familiarity, what's some skinship between girls?"

"You're awfully close. It's almost like we're mother and child rather than acquaintance and acquaintance."

"Don't mind."

Hm. Whatever works. I hugged her a bit closer and let me mind wander to her mana structure. The most obvious thing was the fire alignment she held, and that she was a light cultivator similar to Alfred. Other than the deep intricacy of her internal enchantments, there was nothing to watch. Coinnle seemed to pick up on something and answered a question I hadn't asked.

"The enchantments on my skin won't show internally. They're more like spells. You do know why some enchantments are on the surface rather than done internally, right?"

"No, I've never heard why. Why?"

"It's easier to create intricate spells by drawing them, and it costs less mana to maintain. It costs nothing, actually, so it could be turned off and not have it expend any mana. My enchantments are too complicated for me to internalize, and it's easier to carve it into my skin."

That sounds incredibly painful. "Isn't that painful?"

"Yea. It's very painful. The worst pain of my life, and from what I've heard of others who've gotten skin enchantments, the worst pain anyone could feel."

Wait. "Were you forced into this?" It'd be bad if she were. Putting a ten year old child into such a position isn't what could be called moral.

"Yea. I didn't choose to be born a Princess to a Lord, but it's my lot in life. Despite having siblings we are separated by hundreds of years of time. In the eldest, more than a thousand. But my two older brothers never reached the Lordship stage of cultivation, so I'm alone."

"That sounds like a very complicated family situation, Princess. I'm sorry to hear this."

"Don't let it bother you, like I don't let it bother me."

We spent a long time sitting in the position she placed herself in, I asking her questions related to her enchantment and how it relates to Alfred's research, and her answering as best as she could. It was Coinnle rather than I who decided that we've spent enough time both talking about her enchantments and in the bath, so we got out, dried ourselves in the towel, clothed ourselves and headed back to her room.

"Onto the gift I wanted to give to you. Get your the small book and bring it to the table, Eithne." I nodded and did as she said, not being able to do anything. It wasn't like I liked being ordered around, but when you're dealing with both a cultivator and the daughter of a Lord, you have very little choice but to obey.

I grabbed the book and brought it over to the table, setting it down and looking at Coinnle for further instruction. She pat the seat of her chair as if inviting me to sit. I nodded and she in turn sat on my lap. "Alright. Let's begin your reading lessons."

"How is this going to work out?"

"I'll explain to you each word and their letters and how to read them, and you'll try your best to follow along." Sounds simple enough. I brought the chair closer to the table and we began to read.

Several hours passed by as Coinnle taught me how to read. I couldn't understand what the letters were trying to convey, although the book we were using for practice had lots of nice looking pictures, the words were too small for me to really read them. They were very large, if I were to go by Coinnle, but they looked like random scratches to me. It wasn't until several hours, near the end of our reading, that I began to pick up on the meaning of the letters. But it was all too fuzzy and my head was starting to hurt.

The story was also too simple for my taste. Is this a children's book? Maybe it is.

And what about dinner and the like? It's getting close to when dinner would be served in my village, was it different in the castle. I looked down at Coinnle, who was still on my lap, and asked. "Will there be dinner served?"

She nodded. "It's about that time."

She scooched her butt off me and I was allowed to get up off the chair, she left the room and I followed her to another room within the hallway. Opening a door into a large dining room. Food had already been served and both the Lord, Alfred, some court lady and several other men and women were sitting on the table as well. Looks like people were waiting for us.

A seat was left empty for me next to Alfred, so I sat next to him and we ate.

After the dinner was finished Coinnle starting asking me and Alfred questions.

"Is Sir Alfred and Miss Eithne going to sleep here tonight? Or do you two have separate plans."

"Arrangements have already been made for the both of them to sleep here, Coinnle." The Lord responded in Alfred's place. He nodded, and I nodded as well. I didn't know that, though. With a smile Coinnle said something I hadn't expected her to say at all.

"Then, can Miss Eithne sleep with me tonight?"

"Huh?" I blurted that out, impolitely considering the stares I received in response. The Lord ignored my outburst and answered his daughter's question for me.

"If she allows it you may sleep together."

Why is Coinnle so interested in me? This goes slightly beyond wanting kinship, sleeping in the same room as a Princess isn't a comfortable position to be in. When was the last time I had slept with someone else anyway? The only other one, ever, has been mom. Coinnle looked at me expectantly, and given the mood and air of the room I had to answer in the affirmative. I nodded, "It would be my honor, Princess Coinnle."

"Let us leave together now." I nodded and politely left the dining table and headed back towards Coinnle's room, following the girl closely behind. I looked and saw Alfred speaking once again to the Lord, ignoring my departure. That pricked my heart a tiny bit for some reason. Did he not mind that some girl was hogging all my attention to herself?

Regardless, today has been a long day. And I'm not sure for how much longer I can keep my attention towards the Princess going, once we had arrived back in the strange hallway and in her room I had decided to politely ask if I could be allowed to sleep immediately. I wanted to sleep anyway, by myself in some isolated room like I've gotten used to, and it didn't matter to me much if I had to sleep with her next to me.

"Are you tired?" I nodded, not responding. Was that too rude for her? I don't know, I'll have to figure that out some other time. Coinnle put a finger to her chin and began to think. "Very well. Let me get you a servant's night clothes, if you don't mind." I nodded, not really paying attention. "Wait here, then."

Coinnle left and I was made to be alone in her room. Not knowing what else to do I took off my cloak and set it on the chair, as there was no other place to put it. I sat on the bed and waited for her arrival. It didn't take long, no longer than five minutes, and when she did so she held a long and white one piece dress in her arms, a calm smile on her lips as she opened the door.

"Here you are. Change and make yourself comfortable in the bed, I'll join you soon." I nodded, absentmindedly taking off my clothes and setting them on the chair as well. I threw the dress over myself once unclothed and I noticed that it had no holes for my tail, something that wasn't too much of a problem but was noticeable in that there was now a constant furry thing tickling my legs.

Yawning I trodded over to the bed and laid down, moving myself away from the edge of the bed so that I occupied a side that was directly facing a wall. There was an ultra fine blanket laid on that I didn't know how to retrieve, so I waited for Coinnle to arrive to bed as well. She wore clothes that matched mine save for a red ribbon on her collar, and she pulled the blanket away from the bed and tucked herself in.

I see. I moved myself off of the blanket and got myself under it as well, laying on the massive pillow that Coinnle had on her bed. The lights were on, but it would take very little magic to turn it off. "May I turn off the lights?"

"No."

"Eh? Why not?"

"Because we're going to continue practicing our reading, this time while in bed."

"Princess, my mind is already attempting to leave my body for the lands on yonder. And this bed isn't helping that." Ah. I didn't mean to say this out loud. I could see Coinnle pouting from the corner of my eye, her dangerous looking yellow eyes trained on me. Now that I look at it, it was only the vividness that makes them so fierce. Otherwise she had the delicate eyes of a young little girl rather than of a wolf.

An attention that I should've noticed earlier. "May I turn off the lights and sleep, Princess?" Coinnle didn't respond for a couple of seconds, but she gave me permission and I turned off the lights with a switch of my mana. The moment I stopped giving attention to my surroundings was also the moment that I felt out of conscious.