There’s a grey over the entire apartment as we prepare for the Banquet — thrown every year after the Familiar hunt to welcome new students into the fold and introduce them to important future connections amongst the nobility. Mae is the only one who manages even a pretense of cheerfulness.
“It’s not like I’m an Alteration or Illusion disciple. There’ll always be work for a doctor.”
“But Maeeeee,” Nym whines, hanging off her arm like she’s been doing all night, “it just won’t be the same!” The snake around her shoulders releases a mournful hiss.
Alyx conjures a dead salmon and throws it lazily into her bear’s waiting jaws, then sucks down another cup of wine. “Five years without you. How could anyone do it?”
“You managed eighteen years without me, silly.”
“Nineteen, I took a gap year. And that was before I knew what I was missing out on.”
I can’t believe her. This is her fault. She’s the one who insisted Mae and her should have matching Familiars, should both try to wrestle with the twin bears they stumbled across. Of course Mae ended up hurt and Familiarless.
I don’t even want to go. If it weren’t Mae’s last hurrah, I wouldn’t. I’ll look out of place — nothing I own is appropriate — but at least I’ll be with her one last time.
Alyx arcs another fish through the air, but it never meets Wineskin’s (stupid name by the way) jaws. My wolfbat, tentatively named Oracle, leaps off her powerful back legs and snatches the fish with a growl. Wineskin rears and roars; my wolfbat snaps her teeth.
“Woah woah woah, let’s bring the temperature down. There’s plenty to share,” Alyx says, but her next fish is also snatched. Wineskin swipes with those massive claws but my girl’s too quick. She puts Alyx between her and Wineskin, snarling and snapping.
“Hattie are you like, pissed at me or something?”
Yeah, and I’ll yell at you once Mae’s gone home; I won’t ruin her night.
“Oracle, to me,” I say, mostly to see if the name feels right. Whether it’s set in stone or not, at least the wolfbat understands, loping back and curling up by my feet. “Sorry about her,” I say, only graceful for Mae’s sake.
From nowhere, my emotions shift. My simmering anger and churning grief turn to longing, yearning, so intense it twists my stomach in on itself. Indel’s pretty face flashes through my mind.
Pegasai telepathy is limited to moods and snatches of vision — but they make do with what they’ve got. “Someone’s at the door,” I say, staggering over with Indel’s overwhelming desire burning inside me. As I suspected, Castellan’s on the other side, something in his equine mouth.
I take the gift bag numbly, and the huge pegasus blinks meaningfully at me. Again a wash of unbearable love passes through me like a psychic rainstorm.
“Ooooh, what is that, Hattie?” Mae’s precious voice from behind: “A dress?”
The door shuts on Castellan, and I just catch the impression of his petal chariot floating away gracefully. Still not sure how he manages to work the Academy’s automated magic systems without words. I peek inside the bag and see slinky black.
“Of some sort,” I say.
“From the Princess?” asks Alyx. “You two sure are cosy. Didn’t you only meet yesterday?”
“She took a shine,” I say, shifting from foot to foot.
“You are soooo lucky,” says Nym, starry eyed.
“Go on,” says Mae, a little flatly, “show us the dress then.”
Gods, who knows what else is in this bag though? “I’ll try it on first,” I say, too quickly. Nobody seems to notice.
“I wonder if she’ll sit with us at dinner,” says Mae.
On the sofa, Nym’s golden face turns bright red. Mae notices too.
“I think Nym has a cruuush,” says Mae, brighter now as I slip into my room.
I was right to worry. Alongside the dress in the gift bag is a set of lacy white lingerie and a tube of dark blue lipstick alongside a note.
Can’t wait to see you in them tonight
-I
I’m almost insulted enough to throw the underwear away — but clothes in my size aren’t so easy to come by that I’m willing to turn down something this nice. The urge proves too strong to resist, and almost automatically I slip off my boring old panties and marvel at how soft and silky the new fabric is against my skin. The bra is a suspiciously perfect fit.
The silky black dress too, fits perfectly — although it probably pushes the boundaries of the dress code: it’s figure-hugging, with tiny spaghetti straps and a neckline which reveals almost all of my heavy cleavage. The bottom of the skirt nearly brushes the floor, but there’s a long slit (the only thing allowing me to walk) stretching to my upper thigh, just below where my underwear starts.
Wow. I can’t wear this. I don’t even know how I can wear it out to the common room to show everyone. I touch the massive bulge of my bicep, totally out of place in the sleek, sexy gown. I don’t have a choice, do I? Mae’s waiting out there with the others.
My face is flaming hot when I push out of my room and into the commons. There’s a collective gasp which only makes things worse. I can’t help but squeeze my eyes shut.
“I can’t wear it,” I say.
“Are you kidding me?” cries Mae.
“You have to!” says Alyx. “I mean, I already thought you were hot but, fuck.” She leans forward in the armchair, elbows to her knees like she has more to say, but then just shakes her head. “Fuck.”
“You seriously think I should wear it?”
“As your date,” says Nym next to me, taking my hand. “I’m saying you have to.”
Well, it’s not like I have anything else to wear. And I don’t want to embarrass Nym by showing up in rags — I’m sure she’ll have something nice to wear after all; and besides, Mae is suddenly looking at me all moon-eyed and why did I even agree to go to the dance with Nym when Mae is looking at me like that? Wait.
“Stop that, Nym.”
She frowns. “I’ll figure out how to get something past you one day.”
“You have to let me do your hair and makeup!” says Mae. “But- oh. I won’t have anything in your shades.”
“She also sent a lipstick,” I admit, and I’m not even finished speaking before Mae is dragging me into her room.
It takes her almost an hour to curl my thick, waist length mop of hair with her magical hair curler — which is just like a regular hair curler, but you can’t burn yourself on it. Nym does my makeup concurrently, while Alyx lies on the bed and smokes a joint.
She plucks my eyebrows first (more painful than my first battle with Oracle, but I don’t show it); then the lipstick is used on my cheeks and lips. Eyeshadow, and then, finally, after an irritating swipe to my lashes and a pencil being jammed into my eye, I’m done. The two of them behold me in satisfaction and swivel me around to the mirror.
The woman staring back at me is captivating. I didn’t know that orcs could be beautiful, but this one is — not pretty, not in the slightest, but beautiful all the same, with smoky dark eyes and threatening teeth pushing their way through her plump lips. Dark blue hair cascades in bouncy curls over her full chest. If this woman told me she was a powerful mage, I would believe her without question.
“She’s perfect!” says Mae.
“A masterpiece!” Nym, now.
“She looks hot,” says Alyx, voice flat and eyes intense.
I’m hurried into the sitting room, fluffed and arranged and prodded at and instructed not to move a muscle until everyone else is finished getting ready. This proves to be longer than expected, and I busy myself ruffling Oracle.
“Honestly,” says Mae finally, laughing kindly, “Do you want to be covered in bat hair for the banquet?”
I turn to make my excuses, but find myself rendered speechless. Mae is outfitted in a brilliant golden yellow gown. The firelight shines through her billowy sleeves, making them look like wings of gold. Woven into her dark purple hair is a delicate tiara, which bounces as she laughs.
“Well if it’s my last night here, I want to at least look good.”
The others follow quickly after, Alyx in a midnight green gown redolent of armour, Nym in elvish burgundy, with a thick white fur over her shoulders that makes her look like a conquering barbarian queen. We descend together, toward the ballroom.
The ballroom has a domed roof that seems as large as the sky, a huge chandelier floating in the centre, crystal ornaments sending rays of prisming light through the lush space. Caught by a familiar silhouette, I realise each tiny crystal is formed in the shape of one of us, the first years and our Familiars. There’s Nym, reaching out her crystalline arm to her snake, the Princess and her steed, of course, rendered magnificent. And then, me! And Oracle too! I’m depicted in motion, muscular arms above my head, blade in hand.
No points for realism of course, but I can’t deny the beauty. The crystals catch light, glow like brilliant multicolour constellations. I’m so struck that I realise I’ve forgotten about Mae’s feelings — gawking at our achievements on the ceiling when she isn’t even up there!
My heart drops when I see her eyes also on the ceiling. I want to hug her. Fuck, I want to press her up against a wall, kiss her, make her forget her worries.
“Where will we sit?” I ask, to distract her. She manages a smile. The hall is massive and beautiful, with ornate metal climbing up the walls like rosevines and rows of huge tables, only partly filled.
“Let’s get a table on the edge while we can. We’ll have to be far from notice if we want to share Alyx’s stash.”
I’m planning to indulge hugely in Alyx’s endless stash during dinner tonight. There’s a secret afterparty in the woods afterwards every year, of course, where there’ll be plenty of unrestricted booze — but that’s where I’m bound to run into Indel, who will surely expect something in return for this very very nice dress. Something I don’t intend to give her, but still.
Nobility from all over attend the Bestial Banquet, including sometimes the Empress herself, and so the Princess will certainly be seated with the rest of her family, blissfully away from me. This banquet may be my only chance to actually let loose and have fun without worrying about what she’ll do.
I think back to her note and shiver. Why did I wear the panties?
We’ve just eyed the perfect table and started moving toward it when, as if summoned from my thoughts, Indel stops me short.
I have to admit, she looks good, also in a black slinky gown and- oh no. Are we wearing the same dress? She stares at me, red eyes flaming, holding tight to my wrist so I can’t follow Alyx and Mae, who don’t seem to have noticed I’m being accosted. Nym, to her credit, hasn’t abandoned me. She’s staring up at the Princess with bright red cheeks and oh shit she’s gone as well.
“I mean I’d already seen,” says Indel, “but if I’d known you’d look this good, I wouldn’t have bothered matching… No matter. It’s worth being outshined for this, our debut as a couple. We are positively showstopping, my love!”
“Uh…What? I thought I was pretty clear, we’re not a couple. I have to go find my friends.”
“But you’re sitting with me!” she says. “At the Endaria table. I knew you’d accept the dress. You simply couldn’t refuse a gift from me, your love!”
“Dude, stop,” I say, “there’s no way I’m sitting with you — and you can’t use your paralysing trick here, so let go of me before I make you let go.”
Instead her grip tightens and she- smiles? A feeling of dread sinks over me. She pulls me in close, and Gods know why, I let her.
“You don’t think that’s the only trick I have up my sleeve?” she whispers in my ear. “Like that dress you’re wearing. Enchanted with a vanishing spell. A snap of the fingers,” she places her forefinger and thumb together, and then giggles. “And it’s gone. The panties, too. Did you end up wearing those?”
My heart sinks into my stomach. “You- you wouldn’t,” I try. “Magic is forbidden, even for you.”
“An enchanted object used for a prank? Please, Hattie, I’m the Empress’s niece, I’ll be confined to quarters for two days max. You’re sitting with me.” My heart sinks. She’s right. All my hopes for the night drain away.
“But, how will I tell my friends? It’s Mae’s last day at the Academy… please Indel.”
She just smiles softly and shakes her head.
“Just tell her that you’re in love, darling — and remember, you must address me as Princess in public, for appearances.” She gets close to my ear again, “although you can call me anything you like in our rooms.”
My cheeks burn and I shiver. How must I behave to survive this night? Does this Princess have a temper? Will she punish me likewise if she judges I humiliate her today? There’s no way I’m cut out for high society. How am I going to make it through this night?
“You better make your excuses quickly, your sad ex is coming over,” says Indel, avian head rested affectionately on top of my own, peering over. “I don’t like to share, and when I get bored I get fidgety. I wouldn’t want to accidentally snap my fingers.”
I swallow, and Indel takes my shoulders and manually turns me to look at Mae. Her clawed talons don’t leave my shoulders. Mae is eyeing her suspiciously.
“Hey, so, uh, are you sitting with us, Princess?”
Indel’s head is still rested on top of mine from behind, so from Mae’s perspective it must look like I have two heads stacked on top of each other. I wait for the Princess to say something, but she doesn’t. She doesn’t say anything at all. Gods, she’s seriously making me do this? How cruel can you be? I swallow back the lump in my throat and try to make my voice sound as normal as possible.
“I’m sorry, I need to sit with the Princess. I just-” But what can I say? She tricked me into her disappearing panties? I didn’t even want Mae to know about those when they weren’t disappearing! “I need to, I’m sorry.”
Mae looks crestfallen. “I understand,” she says, trying to make her voice bright. Guilt judders in my chest like a dagger. “I’ll see you at the afterparty, right?”
“Definitely,” I say, hoping it’s not a lie as Indel drags me away. I want to cry and reach out for Mae, but that would make Indel sad — and what’s the bet that when she gets sad, she snaps her fingers?
Even with Nym and Mae’s brilliant work, I’m out of place at the high table, where a flock of swans in gilded gowns trimmed with sterling silver chatter and chuckle.
“Dearest Indel,” says an older, refined version of the Princess. “You have brought a friend.”
“A friend, sweet mother?” I realise she’s standing by her chair and hurriedly pull it out for her. “No, this is my tender champion, my knight of love, the Queen of mine own heart. Please be seated, love.” I comply, burning under the light of shocked faces. “I know many of you may not understand, at first, but you must remember why I am here — I am a mage. I recognise the thread of fate better than any of you. It is that thread that binds myself to Hattie Hare, Heir of Asarain and Apprentice Mystic.”
Oh Gods, is there going to be any way to get out of this engagement? Future problems. Right now I need to focus on keeping my dress on my body.
“Asarain?!” one of the swans squawks, a tall one with a thick neck and a jacket clinking with medals. “And where is this Asarain? Some orcish freehold on the edge of the world?”
“No, father,” Indel replies tersely. “It is on Hoshu, and stewarded by a decorated veteran of the Imperial Legions.”
He slams a bejewelled goblet against the table, spilling wine over his talons. “My daughter will not gallivant about with some orcish harlot who is heir to naught but some soldier’s squalid tower and barren farms, on some island in the sky. This ends here.”
This is going better than I expected. It’s mortifyingly embarrassing, sure, but I don’t have to talk and I’m being handed a way out on a silver platter.
“You can send her away, father — but I’ll go with her. There is nothing you can threaten me with. Strip the Thicket from me and pass it to Jaisel,” down the table, Indel writ younger, all done up in a silver and red dress, nods vigorously, “disinherit me from all I stand to gain. Never speak to me again! It matters not. You cannot take my magic, and you cannot take my Hattie.”
What is wrong with this woman? She won’t let me go, not for anything? My stomach boils with guilt and shame. I miss Mae, Alyx, Nym. But Indel really does love me, for some reason, and I wish I had a way to not break her heart.
“That won’t be necessary, Indel.” Her mother (Raeala, if I remember correctly) places a firm talon on her father’s (Titus, I think) hand. “If it’s destiny that brought you together, only destiny may break you apart.”
And I’m destined for another. Yet as I look at her, stunning in the dress, I can’t shake the memory of my huge hands around her tiny waist, the pleasure I felt — both times. I dig my fingers into my thighs and thank the Gods no-one’s talking to me.
“Yes, and I for one think it’s wonderful,” says a new voice, belonging to a man bearing the same pointy face and bristling feathers as Titus, but without his girth. He almost reminds me of my father. “This is a cosmopolitan Empire, and all may serve.”
“It’s not the serving I have an issue with,” Titus replies. “Serving’s all well and good. We had an orcish servant for forty years.” Indel wraps her talons around my fist; despite myself I open my hand to hold hers. She squeezes and smiles at me. “Yes, some of them are bloody fine servants. But to have one paraded before me done up like-” Raeala shakes her head and his blustering stops. “I just don’t approve.”
“I’m Antonius,” the kinder man says. “I apologise for my brother, Apprentice Hare. He is not like to join us in this century for some time.”
Down the table, her sister Jaisel lazily dances a carving knife between her talons, splayed against the wood. “You’re just doing this to make father jealous.” The accusation sits full of venom. I’ve had my fill of the Endarias for a lifetime (how could THIS be the Empress’s family?) but at least it lets me get away with not replying to Antonius.
“I’m doing this for love, Jai; I’d never expect you to understand, so just shut up and keep your stupidity to yourself.”
“Indel,” her mother chastises, and the Princess squeezes my hand. “Now, young Lady Hare, how is it you came to know my daughter?”
I’m halfway through a swallow of wine, which turns to me downing the glass to buy myself time. Despite my prayers, nobody else has any interjections — in fact, all eyes are on me. “We found our Familiars together,” I say, glancing over to the outskirts where the larger Familiars, Castellan and Oracle included, are sequestered. “I would’ve been killed if not for the Princess,” I say, because Indel’s squeezing my hand so tight I’m worried the slightest thing could set her off (and at this point I might not even blame her), and I need to keep her mood up.
“There’s a story there,” says Antonius, and so I tell it, though in my version we find an entrance on the surface to go down in the caves — Indel doesn’t teleport me to… The story carries me through to the first course, a salty broth of diced jowlfish served with a never ending, ever warm loaf of bread for the table.
When I tell them of Indel taming the pegasus in the forest, how she was drawn right to it and handled it so easily, I even get a smile from her dickhead father.
“My daughter, my sweet, accomplished daughter. The Lady of Sapphire Thicket!” he says, slurring, having drained a dozen cups over the first course. The second — herb roasted inkfowl in gravy over mash — is floating on the platters towards us as Titus rants. “Such potential. You could be a great, one day. Why do you want to waste yourself on this orc?”
“It’s because of Gorla,” Jaisel says.
“Enough,” her mother says. “I have already told you both — enough. You are humiliating yourself before Lady Hare.”
“It’s quite alright, my Lady,” I say, even though it isn’t. I bring my cup back to my lips — the only thing that can get me through this night, to when I get out in the forest with Mae. A jolt of magic shoots through me and the muscles in my arm slacken. The cup hits the table and wine spills across Indel’s expensive dress.
“Look at what you’ve done,” she says, to her father. “Sniping at her, leaving her nervous. Come, my love. You must help me change.”