Chapter Four Hundred and Four - Mushy

“Hello, Miss Cottage,” I said with a bob of my head.

One of Cottage’s eyebrows rose, but she nodded back. “That’s me, yes." Her gaze sharpened. "But strangely, I don't recognize a single one of you."

"Strange?" I asked.

“Yes. There are two buns in this school and only one catfolk. There are a few sylph and a number of harpies, but that’s about it. The most normal one here’s the human, and even then, we don’t have many blondes,” Cottage said. “So, your entire group is sticking out.”

“What if we were all new?” Caprica asked.

“Then you wouldn’t be wearing those neckties. Those are for second years,” Cottage said. “Something someone unfamiliar with the school might not know.”

I touched the little pink tie around my neck, then shrugged. “Oh well! I guess our costumes weren’t that great after all. Still, your uniforms are very comfy, even if the skirts are too short.” Amaryllis shot me an amazingly betrayed look as I tossed our cover story out the window. Oops.

Cottage’s other eyebrow rose to meet the first. “Alright, so we’ve established that you’re not meant to be here, which leaves the question, why are you here, and why are you here looking for me? Are you assassins? Because I’m not defenceless.”

Curious, I fired off an Insight on Cottage, just to see what she meant.

Cottage, a mousefolk Painter of the Once Living, level seventeen

Oh, that was an impressive level for someone that I guessed wasn’t much older than my friends and I, and who seemed to be an artist above all else. “We’re not here for anything like that,” Amaryllis said. “We came over on the request of a mutual friend. A harpy you might know?”

Cottage’s expression changed in a blink, going from somewhat guarded and very feisty, to a full-faced blush that was even starting to creep up her ears. “Valerian sent you?” she asked.

“That’s the one,” Amaryllis said. She grabbed the letter, and the little package, then with nowhere else to put it, placed it on the ground next to Cottage.

That was the first time I noticed that there were a few desks near the middle of the class that were sized for mousefolk like Cottage. Cute! But then again, so was Cottage. She practically leapt on the letter, pulling it close to her chest even though the letter itself was almost as big as she was.

“Thank you,” she squeaked. “Wait! Are you going back to Valerian after this?”

“I guess so,” I said.

“Then... could you give me some time to pen a reply?” she asked.

Her whole personality had shifted in just a few moments there. I glanced at my friends, and we all seemed to have the same consensus. “We don’t mind waiting for you,” I said. “Are you going to write in your room?”

“Oh? No, I think the library would be best. One moment!” She picked up the little package that Valerian had sent, and raising it over her head, she scurried across the art room. “Laura!” she called out.

A human girl a little ways away blinked, then squatted down, lowering her hand for Cottage to run onto it. She stood up, then took the package from Cottage while the mouse girl explained something with a lot of arm-waving.

Laura walked over to us, nodding rather shyly while holding onto Cottage. She’d tucked the package--but not the letter--away in a small satchel-purse hanging by her hip. “Hi,” she said with a little wave.

Cottage placed her hands on her hips, one of them still holding onto the side of the letter so that it didn’t go too far. The blush was gone, and the feistiness was back. She cleared her throat. “Sorry about that. I got a little excited. Think nothing of it.”

“Which part?” I asked. “The bit where you ran across the room to get your friend, or the part where you got really excited and all red because you got a letter from a boy?”

Cottage glared at me, but it was made ineffective by the way her cheeks blushed. “Neither or both, I don’t care as long as you wipe the memory away. Now, follow me. Laura, could you be so kind as to lead us to the library?”

“Okay,” Laura said. “But Cottage, who are they?”

Cottage paused, then turned back to us. “That’s a fantastic question. I know that Valerian sent you, so I assume you’re... mercenaries? An all-female mercenary team?”

“Oi,” Calamity said. “I’m a guy.”

Cottage blinked, then looked him up and down. “Huh,” she said. “You must all be quite talented then, to get past the school’s magic security. In any case, are you hired by Valerian?”

“Not quite,” I said. “We’re doing this as a favour... and for fun. Mostly for fun, actually. I think we were won over by the cute outfits.” I tugged the hem of the skirts up a bit, then let it drop and shifted my hips around, sending the skirt twirling a bit.

Cottage blinked a few times, her whiskers twitching. “Well, whatever. I suppose Valerian was right to hire you if you made it this far.”

“Again, he didn’t hire us,” Amaryllis said. “He asked for a favour, and we agreed to help. It’s entirely different. We’re hardly mercenaries.”

“Um, Cottage, are they... supposed to be here?” Laura asked.

“I’m pretty much sure we’re not allowed to be here,” I said.

Cottage waved her friend’s concern off. “Don’t worry about it, I’m sure they’ll be respectful and leave before curfew even begins. Now, come on, I want to read what Vava sent me.”

“Vava,” Amaryllis mouthed in horror.

We left the art room, and Laura led our little ragtag group downstairs, and out of the building. Since it was between classes, the halls and outdoors of the school were much busier than they were when we came in. That meant a lot more strange looks, but since we were being led by someone more familiar, it looked as if we weren’t quite so suspicious.

Laura brought us to a large building at the far end of the campus, it looked like both the administration building, and the library, all stuck together in one large edifice with big windows looking into a room filled with floor-to-ceiling shelves.

We stepped in, and I paused for just a moment to take in a big lungful of old books. There was something about the smell of a library that was both familiar and just... nice. The gentle scent of aged paper, with whispers of ink and leather and dust.

The library was split into a few sections, and I noticed a small gathering of girls talking in very low tones in one corner where there were a few sofas. Across from that was a section with a number of writing desks, split apart by half-wall dividers. That’s where we headed to.

“Laura, can you put me down there? Yes, thanks. Give me a moment, I need to read Vava--Valerian’s letter.”

Cottage hopped onto the desktop (there was a teensy ladder built into the side of it leading to the ground) and opened up a small cupboard built into the desk which had sheafs of paper and quills as well as a few small bottles of ink.

Then she drew out a paintbrush taller than she was and smote the seal in two with a single blow. Another flick and the letter was laid out before her. She stood on the letter as she read it, and I imagined she liked what she read because her tail was twitching from left to right.

I sneaked a little peek.

My Dearest Cottage

Oh, my sweet morning cheese, how you have captivated this noble’s heart. Your stubborn determination has proven to be a siren’s call, drawing me ever closer to your enchanting aroma. The brush strokes of your artistic endeavours, like the vibrant hues of a fantastical sunset, have painted my life in colours I knew not!

I yoinked my attention away, feeling a bit of a blush clinging to my cheeks to go with the sudden flush of guilt I felt for reading.

“You can’t read it,” Laura said. “They write to each other in code.” She shook her head, then gestured into the stacks and we followed, leaving Cottage alone to her reading.

“That’s, ah, clever,” I said as I pretended not to notice Awen and Amaryllis’ knowing looks. “So, how did you become friends with Cottage, Laura?”

Laura shrugged, looking down while her hands twiddled with each other. “It’s more that we started as roommates, and then Cottage didn’t really give me a choice.”

I nodded. “That makes sense.”

“No, Broccoli, that’s not how it’s supposed to work,” Amaryllis said. I stared at her, not quite understanding, but she ignored my curious look to ask Laura some more questions. “Are you a second year, then? You have a pink tie too.”

“Yes,” Laura said, clearly more comfortable with this subject. “Red ties are first years, then the third years have smaller, white ties.”

“That’s an interesting way of telling students apart,” Carpica said. “Kind of like military rank insignia.”

“Ah, well, the joke is that the red ties are the only new ones. As they get washed and the colour bleaches out, they’re given to later years,” Laura said. “I don’t think that’s actually true, but... yeah, that’s the joke.” She coughed to clear her throat, and I couldn’t help but feel the awkwardness radiating off of her.

I would have given her a hug, but I was pretty sure that would just make things worse for the poor girl.

“So, Cottage and Valerian... he didn’t exactly give many details about it,” Amaryllis said. “Are they... steady?”

“I think so,” Laura said. “She goes on and on about how he’s not very smart, and how he dresses poorly, and how he... uh, anyway, but at the same time she gets all blushy and distraught whenever she brings him up. I think they’re serious? He did travel all the way here. It’s the worst-kept secret in the school that they’re basically dating.”

“Strange that she doesn’t just visit him then,” Amaryllis said.

“Her parents don’t like him,” Laura explained. “And you’re not allowed to date people while attending the academy.”

“H-how would that work?” Awen asked.

Laura shrugged. “It really doesn’t. I think half the girls here have dated someone from one of the other academies in the area. Or if not, they’re dating each other. I mean, you’re not allowed but holding hands isn’t against the rules, so....”

“So it’s not very effective,” Caprica said. “I’m a little conflicted. On the one hand, the rule ostensibly makes sense, but it’s stifling people’s love lives, and if you can't enforce it, then... what’s the point of it?”

“I think it’s mostly to give the staff a reason to punish students that leak information out of the academy even more. You have no idea how much trouble Cottage would get into if you were discovered.”

I wanted to ask more about that, but then Cottage was waving towards us. Or more accurately, she was waving a folded piece of paper over her head. “I’m done,” she said.

We moved over, and she placed the letter down on the table, picked up a quill with her entire body, then signed her name at the bottom.

I couldn’t help it, and I read the first couple of lines.

My Dearest Vava,

Oh, my valiant harpy, how your presence uplifts me, as if your wings have granted me the gift of flight! Your noble spirit and boundless love have cast away the shadows that once lingered in my world, illuminating my life with the brilliance of a thousand stars--

And that was enough of that. I cleared my throat. “So, you want us to deliver this to Vava-- I mean, uh, Valerian?” I asked. “Easy peasy!”

***