While we were waiting for my girlfriends to walk out of their changing rooms, I leant my hands on the windowsill and gazed into the distance. Partly so I didn’t stumble and fall on my face while pacing around, I’m really not used to wearing any kind of heeled shoe. The other reason being that the surrounding area was just beautiful.

“Is it your first time seeing a place like this, Mistress Beaumont?” Rosemary asked.

“Aurora, and yes, how did you know?”

“Didn’t you say you wanted the more formal me back?” She giggled.

“Yeah, yeah, very funny.”

“I can tell from the look in your eyes.” Rosemary then clarified.

“How so?”

“It has this special sparkle to it, it’s hard to explain.”

“Hmm.” I hummed. “I’ve been alone for a big part of my life, so I never really had the time or means to leave much. The furthest I’ve been from my home has got to be when I visited Emma’s house.”

“No parents?”

“Not really, no…. I don’t really like talking about that, if you don’t mind.” I looked at her and smiled gently.

“Of course. I am sorry for bringing it up.”

“It’s fine, you couldn’t have known.” I turned around fully now, so I could rest my back against the wall next to the window.

That’s when I heard the door handle of Emma’s room click, which made me immediately stand up straight. Julie walked out first, followed by Em herself.

I was left speechless when I saw her.

She was in a mostly red Victorian dress which almost hit the floor. I could see that she was wearing brown leather boots underneath, with quite a more sizable heel than mine. Julie had accessorized her with a frilly black choker which had a small amber coloured jewel hanging from it and a red ribbon to tie her hair in a ponytail.

“Wow…”

Em blushed. “D-do you like it?”

“Em, you look amazing.”

“Julie did an amazing job.” Rosemary concurred, to which Julie made a slight bow towards her.

“Thank you for the compliment.”

“D-do you like the jewel too?”

“Mhmm. It’s beautiful.” I had closed the distance between us and took her hand.

“I-I picked it because it looks like your eye colour.” She blushed even more.

“Oh…” I hadn’t even noticed.

“I suggested a blue jewel to match her outfit more, but she insisted on this one.” Julie said, but I could tell she was very invested in our little situation as well.

“Precious…”

“H-hmm?”

“You’re simply too precious, Em.” I gave her a quick kiss. It was more out of a reflex than a conscious act, but it just felt right.

“Y-y-you look d-dashing too…” Emma blushed even more, which kept lowering her volume of speech. “I-I-is it too late to change into something else.”

“I’m afraid so.” Julie laughed softly.

“If it makes you feel any less embarrassed, please know that Aurora has a present for you this evening as well.”

“Present?... Wait… no…. Rosemary!” My cheeks flushed red, although Rosemary’s plan did appear to have worked as Em giggled at my reaction, making her embarrassment make place for amusement instead.

“That sounds promising.”

“Haha.” I laughed nervously.

She then clung to my arm “But I do wonder what Ria is going to wear.”

“Me too.”

“By the way, Auro, how did she get you to wear heels?”

“They are heeled thigh boots, that’s not the same, is it?”

“Hmm. I guess... How many times did she trip?” Em looked at Rosemary.

“A couple of times. But she never actually fell, which was somewhat of a surprise.”

I shot a glare at Rosemary.

“That was to be expected.” Em giggled.

Rosemary smiled, nodded and then walked towards the third door. “I will ask Marie how long it will take to finish up.” She walked in and for a minute we were left alone with Julie. Julie however was not as talkative as Rosemary was and also looked a lot more shy, so I didn’t want to discomfort her by pushing a conversation on her.

“They should be ready any second now, they are just adding a finishing touch.” Rosemary walked back out of the room and rejoined us at our side.

“Didn’t you say we only had an hour?” I wanted to look at the time, but I remembered my cellphone was still in my other pocket.

“Your belongings will also be brought to your room.” Rosemary reassured me before she continued. “We also calculated in a little bit of extra time. Right now, we still have about two and a half hours before the actual conclave starts.”

“Wow, what are we supposed to do in the meantime?”

“Auro, don’t get so impatient.”

“I’m just asking, Em.”

“You’ll see.” Rosemary replied. “There are some formalities that still need to be addressed.”

I heard the familiar clicking of the door, again it was Marie who stepped out of the room first. “Sorry for the wait, myladies.” She bowed lightly and then made room for Ria to walk out as well.

Her outfit was outright impressive, and it brought out her princess-like beauty perfectly. The dark blue dress was frilly and extensively decorated with silver embroidery. Like Emma, she’d also opted for a frilly choker with a small jewel. But what pulled my attention the most was her now braided hair, in which she had a white silver hair piece which was about the size of the palm of my hand. It reflected the sunlight from the windows just right to make it look like it came directly out of a fairytale.

I could tell by Em’s facial expression that she was also thoroughly impressed by her looks.

“I love the way she did your hair! It’s so cute!” Em left my arm and ran over to Ria.

“Awh! Thank you.” Ria bounced excitedly at Emma’s compliment.

“It looks beautiful.” I joined my girlfriends as well.

“And Rora looks amazing too!” She took my shoulder mantle between her fingers and inspected it more closely.

I smiled and then looked at Rosemary. “I didn’t know you all could do hair stuff too?”

“We can do many ‘stuffs’.” She answered. “But I didn’t think it would be applicable to you, so I never mentioned it. We can always go back in to give you a princess-like hairdo, too.”

“Uh, yeah, no thanks.”

“I thought so. The somewhat rough look you have going works perfectly fine, after all.”

“Y-... wait. Is that supposed to be an insult or a compliment?”

“Definitely a compliment.” Even though her smile looked sincere, I did not believe a word she was saying.

“Riiight…” But before I could look more into it, I suddenly had a girlfriend on either arm, which made me lose any kind of hostility towards the human demoness in front of me.

-Girlfriends are the best kind of sedative. Especially ultra cute ones like mine.-

“Let’s get you to your next appointment, shall we?” Rosemary continued.

We followed Rosemary through even more halls and up and down a couple of staircases, although those were quite a bit harder for me because staircases are objectively evil. I thought our school was maze-like, but this building beats it by several factors. When we came to one of the older parts of the chateaux Rosemary stopped us in a surprisingly cozy looking room which had a fancy looking hearth which was surrounded by a couple of old but comfortable sofas. A massive oak table was set in the center of them. Some tapestries and paintings covered the old gray stone walls, although those tapestries had long since lost their insulating function, judging by the amount of building was now built around it. The room was moodily lit by a couple of modern lamps that had been spread out around the room, as no natural light could reach this spot due to a lack of windows.

“Please wait here for a moment.” Rosemary knocked on one of the sets of double doors that were in this room and entered swiftly after. Marie and Julie stayed with us and offered us something to drink.

Ria and Emma took them up on their offer, me on the other hand decided to wait a bit as I wasn’t really thirsty to begin with. Apparently one of the cabinets in the room housed a small fridge which was neatly worked into the cabinet itself so Julie and Marie didn’t have to go too far to get my girlfriends their refreshments.

“Does this hearth ever get used?” I asked our companions while I inspected it closer. The hearth was spotless, and the logs looked more like decoration than actual firewood.

“It does.” Marie replied. “Do you want us to light it up for you?”

“Oh, no! I was just wondering because it’s so clean.”

“We do pride ourselves in keeping everything spotless.” Julie gave Emma and Ria their drinks.

“You are definitely doing a great job, I think I could eat from those logs as well.” Em had joined me with her glass of water.

“We’d advise against that, just in case you get splinters.”

“Uuuh….” Em didn’t really know how to reply to that.

“I’m very sorry, that was Julie’s attempt at a joke.” Marie apologized.

“Wow, okay.” I laughed. “I see Pres has a contender for this year’s comedy cup.”

Em and Ria giggled, even Marie joined them for a second.

“Dry humour isn’t for everyone, but it did make us laugh in the end, so all’s good.”

I saw a smile creep on Julie’s face. Maybe this was her plan all along.

At that moment, Rosemary entered the room again and politely stood to one side of the door. Behind her appeared a woman with brown hair, which was a little bit lighter than my own. She appeared to be in her early thirties and was wearing a classy suit pants combination which wouldn’t be out of place in a very expensive fashion firm, especially not with the black heels she was wearing.

Julie and Marie both bowed slightly towards the lady as she approached us with a big smile on her face.

“Nice to meet you. I’m finally done with my administration.” She held me by my shoulders and gave me three kisses on my cheeks, alternating between them. I completely froze. “Welcome to the Chateau, my name is Alessia di Roma, current head of the Conclave and mistress of this wonderful estate. I hope your initial impressions have been positive.”

“U-uhm, Miss Di Roma....” Emma lifted her finger hesitantly.

“You can call me Alessia, Emma, wasn’t it?”

“Uhh… yeah… but I think you kinda broke Aurora…”

I was still a bit shell shocked by her intense welcoming.

“Oh dear. Excuse me. It’s been a while since we’ve had someone new visit the castle, let alone to the conclave. I might have been a bit too enthusiastic.”

“I-i-it’s fine.” I finally managed to find my composure again.

“Great!” She smiled. “I also heard you were looking for a cane. And considering what I heard had happened to you, I wanted to give you one from my personal collection.” She signed Rosemary over, who apparently had been holding a box, which I didn’t notice at first.

Alessia opened it and took out a sleek black cane from it with silver accents and finished off with a silver lion’s head. It also had a square and compass symbol worked into the back of it.

“Wait… isn’t this…”

“It was a gift from a Freemason friend I had a couple of centuries ago. Sadly, I don’t really use it anymore, but I’m sure you will give it a good new home.”

My eyes went open wide. “I don’t know if I can accept this.”

“Come now. Refusing gifts is impolite, you know?” She patted my shoulder twice with her hand.

“I’ll definitely cherish it then.”

“Good. It has a couple of tricks built in too, but I’ll show those later. Would the three of you like a tour through the castle? There’s still quite a lot you’ve yet to see.”

“I’d love to!” Ria jumped at the occasion.

“I wouldn’t mind that at all.” Em smiled.

“It’s not like I can refuse now.” I agreed as well.

“Fantastic! Please hand your glasses to Marie and follow me!”

Em and Ria started to follow her immediately. Before I followed as well, Rosemary managed to whisper to me. “Don’t worry, she will calm down in a bit. You might not see it from how she looks, but she’s quite nervous now as well.”

“Ah, thank you for the info.”

Rosemary smiled and sent me on my way.

-I guess meeting new people doesn’t get easier even after a couple of centuries...-