Alessandra and Jerome

Alessandra was so excited about getting a new dress to replace her ripped one that when Miss Yvette told her that Miss Suzzane was getting a new one, she immediately took off her current dress.

“What are you doing, Alessandra? You can’t just take off your clothes wherever you want!” Miss Yvette screeched.

“What’s wrong with taking off my dress here? There are no perverts here, are there?” Alessandra asked, looking around. Arabelle seemed to think this was funny but stopped laughing when Miss Yvette glared at her.

“Paladin Kimi, would you guard the door? This might take a while, and I don’t want a misunderstanding with the CPS. Alessandra, it doesn’t matter if there are no men around. You can’t be running around in public in your undergarments. It’s not ladylike,” Miss Yvette said.

“But I’m not a lady. I’m a little girl,” Alessandra said, giving her best kitten eyes. “Why do I have to act like a lady?”

“Because the habits you get into now are the same ones you’ll have when you get older, that’s why. Now, please put the dress back on,” Miss Yvette pleaded.

Alessandra was beginning to enjoy annoying her Caretakers; it was fun. She knew that eventually, they would figure out that she was pretending not to understand what they wanted, but for now, she would get her amusement however she could. She was working on a reply to Miss Yvette when the door opened, admitting Miss Suzzanne. Alessandra moved towards her excitedly until she noticed what she was holding, the horrid green dress from the morning. This was unacceptable; she could not wear THAT color. She wasn’t sure why she couldn’t, but she knew in her heart that she could not wear green.

“NO! I WON’T WEAR THAT DRESS!” Alessandra yelled, stamping her foot.

“Oh yes, you will, young lady,” Miss Suzzane replied. “This is the dress I brought, and this is the dress you will wear.”

“NO!” Alessandra yelled again and ran behind Miss Yvette, trying to hide behind the slim woman.

“Suzzane, maybe we should get another dress for her; she seems to really hate that one,” Miss Yvette said.

“NO! If we let her get away with this sort of thing now, she will become a spoiled brat in no time. Now come over here and put this dress on, Alessandra!” Miss Suzzane said, reaching around Miss Yvette for Alessandra.

“I said NO!” Alessandra yelled, running behind her treasure box, grabbing some toy soldiers on the way by to throw at Miss Suzzane. Ducking behind the box, she popped up to throw her soldiers and was surprised to find herself behind the cushion pile. Never one to overthink things in a crisis, and the threat that dress posed was one, Alessandra released her opening volley, which fell far short of the Enemy.

Miss Suzzane and Miss Yvette jumped in surprise when the brave soldier clattered behind them. In shock, they glanced back and forth between the treasure box and the cushion pile.

“Have fun catching her now, ladies; looks like she is a shadow walker,” Arabelle called out.

Alessandra was busy turning the cushion pile into an impenetrable cushion fortress. She heard what Arabelle said about being a shadow walker and thought about what that meant. She remembered that Nice Archbishop Octavia had said she had Shadow Magic and figured that shadow walking was somehow related to that. As she worked, she thought about what she felt right before she found herself by the cushions. Grasping the feeling of what she figured was the Shadow Magic, she reached for it and imagined herself behind the treasure chest, felt a little pop, and was behind the treasure chest. She felt almost like someone was holding her steady but dismissed it as unimportant, as her Enemy was right in front of her and prepared her to send her Brave Soldiers to their Fate. Miss Yvette and Miss Suzzane were surprised to see her pop up from behind the treasure chest.

“Alessandra, stop doing that. Please, I promise you won’t have to wear the green dress,” Miss Yvette pleaded.

“Don’t make promises you can’t keep, Yvette,” Miss Suzzane said, turning towards the treasure box.

Alessandra narrowed her eyes at Miss Yvette. Was she lying to her? She seemed nice, but in the Slums, the people who seemed nicest to her were always the meanest in the end. She would have to watch her, she might be neutral, or she could be trying to trick her. As Miss Suzzane got closer, Alessandra readied her ammunition. Brave soldier, she thought, your sacrifice won’t be forgotten. She aimed carefully and threw it at Miss Suzzane and hit Miss Yvette in the face.

Miss Yvette yelped, glowered at Alessandra, and said, “It’s on now, girl!”

Alessandra, realizing that she had just messed up big time, ducked back down, grabbed her Shadow Magic, and imagined herself under the table near the door. She was planning to run out the door and hide from the Caretakers. Her plans were thwarted when Arabelle stepped in front of her as she crawled out from under the table.

“Not a chance, little lady,” Arabelle said, “Can’t let you run around the castle in your undergarments. Better run off now; Suzzane is heading this way.”

The Battle of the Playroom continued.

****

Alessandra was in trouble. She was beginning to feel tired and was running out of Brave Soldiers to send on suicide charges. She knew surrender or capture was inevitable, but she wouldn’t go down without a fight. She was getting ready to make what she thought would be her last stand at the cushion fortress when she suddenly couldn’t move anything but her head. She started to panic; she did not like being trapped at all, but Bea …. Mr. Jerome knelt in front of her and spoke before she got herself worked into a panic.

“You’re not in any trouble, Alessandra. That may change if you can’t explain yourself. Now I need a promise from you that you won’t run off before I drop the barrier holding you in place. What you are doing bouncing from shadow to shadow is dangerous, and I don’t want you to hurt yourself,” Mr. Jerome said.

Alessandra thought about what Mr. Jerome was asking her to do and nodded her assent to his demand. She felt a slight tingle and could suddenly move again. She saw Mr. Jerome holding his arms out like he wanted to pick her up, but she didn’t trust him enough to let him hold her, so she shook her head and hid in her cushion fortress. Peeking out from her fortress, she watched as Beard Man spoke to Miss Yvette.

“Girl, please try to get Alessandra into one of the dresses, and in the future, all outfit changes must happen in the bathing room or her chamber, not a playroom,” Mr. Jerome said.

She watched warily until she saw Miss Yvette grab the torn blue dress. She wasn’t sure why everyone was so concerned about the rips; they were small and only on the silly - but pretty – puffs on the sleeves, but if they wanted to give her a new dress when one got small tears, she wouldn’t complain; unless it was green, that was.

During the few seconds it took for Miss Yvette to make her way to the cushion pile, Alessandra decided that she would apologize for hitting her in the face with one of her BraveSoldiers.

“I’m sorry I hit you in the face with my Brave Soldier; I didn’t mean to; I was aiming for Miss Yvette,” she said, reaching for the blue dress before Miss Yvette could say anything.

“I accept your apology, Alessandra, but I won't say it’s all right. Throwing things and running away is not an acceptable way to handle most situations where someone is trying to make you do something you don’t want to do,” Miss Yvette said. “Plus, getting hit in the face with a wooden toy hurts.”

Alessandra, who had finished putting on the blue dress, was about to apologize again when she was startled by Mr. Jerome yelling.

"YOU HAVE NOT BEEN GIVEN ANY INSTRUCTIONS ABOUT WHAT LESSONS TO EVEN HER! YOUR JOB RIGHT NOW IS TO KEEP HER OUT OF TROUBLE! THIS DOES NOT LOOK LIKE KEEPING HER OUT OF TROUBLE,” Mr. Jerome bellowed.

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He turned around and walked over to Alessandra, who was peaking around Miss Yvette’s skirt at him and said, “Alessandra, I’m sorry if I scared you when I was yelling just now. I’m not mad at you. Could you please tell me why you wouldn’t wear the dress that the Caretaker brought you?” he asked in his gentlest voice.

Alessandra looked up at him and stated, “Because it’s bad; I don’t like green clothes; they're bad. I didn't know I didn't like them until I saw that dress, though.”

It looked like Mr. Jerome was about to say something, but he paused to think. After a few more seconds, he replied, “All right, I think that’s reasonable. You can’t be walking around in a ripped dress, so let’s go back to your room and find you a dress that’s not green. I am curious, though, how did you rip your dress?”

“Arabelle was beating me with her sword!” Alessandra declared with a beaming smile on her face. Arabelle groaned, covered her face, and mumbled, “It was a toy, and she had one too.”

Mr. Jerome gave Alessandra a look that made her squirm.

“I see,” Mr. Jerome said dryly. With a smile, he added, “I see that someone is a bit of a troublemaker. Let’s go get you some clothes, and you can tell me why Paladin Arabelle was ‘beating’ you with her sword.”

On the way to her room or her chambers, as everyone else kept calling it, Alessandra told Mr. Jerome all about her sword fights with the Caretakers and Arabelle. She had fun with the play fighting, but she wasn’t sure her description of trying to hit Arabelle between her legs, like the whores and Seth had told her to try hit someone who wanted to hurt her, deserved laughing so hard he had to stop and hold himself up by putting a hand on the wall. Whatever, she thought, at least she wasn’t getting yelled at for ripping the pretty dress she had been given. She wasn’t sure if her plan to get Arabelle in trouble for tearing the dress had worked or if Mr. Jerome just didn’t care. She suspected the latter by how funny he found her descriptions of the fight. She noticed that they had gone past her ‘chambers’ and were now going down another set of stairs. She didn’t think they were taking her to a dungeon, but she was still nervous and started to walk slower, trying to make her way to the back of the group. This failed when Mr. Jerome thought she was slowing down because she was tired and picked her up.

“Sorry, Alessandra, I guess I was walking too fast,” he said as he lightly tossed her in the air and caught her. “We’re almost to the storerooms. If I’m going to teach you how to fight, I can’t have you ripping up all the dresses the maids picked out for you, so we will find you some sparring clothes.”

Alessandra, realizing that she wasn’t going to the dungeons, and finding she liked being carried down the stairs, didn’t fuss over being carried. No longer being held up by Alessandra’s short legs, they quickly made it down the stairs and into a dark hallway that Mr. Jerome lit with a quick chant that caused some spots on the walls to light up.

“OOOOHHHH! Will I be able to do that even though I don’t have Light Magic?” Alessandra asked.

“There shouldn’t be any problem with you learning to activate enchantments,” Mr. Jerome said. “Doing so doesn’t require magic, just memorizing the chants. I think you're supposed to start getting tutored next week, and this chant will be something that you're taught pretty quickly.”

“Tutoring? What’s that?” Alessandra asked.

“Someone is going to teach you how to read, write, do math, and basic control of your magic,” Mr. Jerome said. Grinning at her, he added, “If your anything like my sons, I’m glad that Helga is taking charge of that.”

The grin made Alessandra nervous; she did want to learn to read and write; even though she was young, she knew that people who could read and write rarely ended up in the Slums, and she already never wanted to go back there, but Mr. Jerome’s tone of voice made it sound like it would be a struggle. She decided not to think about that, it was a week away, and things could change. She wanted to explore the room that Mr. Jerome had carried her into; it was full of treasure chests and bags of loot! She wiggled enough that Mr. Jerome set her down with a chuckle and made his way further into the room.

“Caretake Yvette, please help me find some clothes that will fit her. Caretaker Suzzane, please make sure that Alessandra doesn’t hurt herself and cleans up the messes she makes,” Mr. Jerome said.

Alessandra would have preferred to search for loot with Miss Yvette, but she wasn’t willing to give up the hunt to follow around Mr. Jerome and Miss Yvette just to get away from Miss Suzzane.

“She’s pretty small. Are you sure you will have sparing clothes that will fit?” she heard Miss Yvette asking Mr. Jerome.

“We should; some of our kids start training fairly young, and gnomes have sheltered with us in the past. If there is anything, it will be in the back of this room,” Mr. Jerome said.

Alessandra ignored their conversation and opened the first bag she found. Looking inside, all she saw were clothes that were clearly too large for her. Disappointed, she struggled to move it out of the way and was surprised when Miss Suzzane helped her move it. With a smile of thanks, Alessandra made her way to the next bag only to find more of the same. Realizing that she was in the wrong spot for good loot, she looked around the room and saw some racks mostly hidden by some treasure chests.

She walked over to the pile of treasure chests and tried to figure out how to get to the racks; something was drawing her to those racks. She was able to see that there was enough room between the rack and the boxes for her to move around, but she would have to get over them first.

“Miss Suzzane, can you help me move these treasure chests?” she asked, pointing to two by the door.

“Maybe, they might be too heavy. Why do you want them moved?” Miss Suzzane asked.

“There are racks of something behind them, and I need to get back there,” Alessandra said.

“All right, Paladins, would one of you be able to help me?” Miss Suzzane asked. Kimi grabbed one side of the top chest while Miss Suzzane grabbed the other. As soon as it was out of the way, Alessandra scrambled over the bottom chest and squirmed between the chests and racks, searching for what was calling her.

“Alessandra, please stop! I need to keep an eye on you,” Miss Suzzane called.

Alessandra didn’t want to stop, but she didn’t want to get in trouble, so she answered, “OK, please hurry.” She only had to wait a few seconds before a light appeared over her head, and it was much easier to see.

“OK, I can see you. You can continue your treasure hunt,” Miss Suzzane said.

Alessandra continued down the narrow passage for a few more feet before her foot hit something. She looked down and saw a round piece of metal covered in dust. She tried to pick it up, but it was too heavy. She knew that this was the treasure she had been hunting for, and she wouldn’t leave the room without it. She wiggled her way back out, counting the stacks of boxes as she went.

“Did you find any treasure?” Miss Suzzane asked.

“YES! We need to move some treasure chests to get it,” she said, grabbing Miss Suzzane and Kimi by their arms and dragging them to the stack of chests she needed to be moved. “ PLEASE move these chests; there is a piece of metal behind them that’s too heavy for me to pick up,” she pleaded, giving the women kitten eyes. Mr. Jerome and Miss Yvette, who was holding some clothes, joined them then.

“Ready to go? Did you find any treasures, Alessandra?” Mr. Jerome asked.

“No, and yes,” Alessandra said. “Can you help move these treasure chests? My treasure is behind them.”

The adults quickly moved the stack of chests, and Alessandra dragged Mr. Jerome to the piece of metal she had found. Pointing to it, she pleaded, “Can you carry that for me? It’s too heavy.”

****

“Can you care that for me? It’s too heavy,” Alessandra asked.

Jerome looked down and saw a rather large ingot of mithril. Huh, he thought, wondering if the accountants or smiths ever noticed it was missing. Leaning down to get a closer look, he realized it was thicker than he had thought.

“Sorry, Alessandra, it’s too heavy even for me and the Paladins to carry. I’ll have to send some porters to get it,” he said.

“Will they try to steal my loot?” Alessandra asked.

“No, they won’t. Regrettably, you won’t be able to keep this loot in your room; it will break the floor. I’ll put your name on it, and you can visit in the smithy whenever you want, though,” he said, and quickly realizing his mistake, he added, “in your free time. No sneaking away from lessons to visit your shiny.”

Leading the disappointed girl to the stairs he heard one of the other girls whispering, “Is that mithril? That could feed my hometown for a decade, and it's just casually sitting there gathering dust?”

“Follow me, ladies, please; its time to start fixing your swordplay,” he called behind him, ending the gawking. He made a note to set his bureaucrats the task of trying to find out when that metal had ended up in there. Even for his family that was a sizeable treasure to have misplaced. While he had plenty of uses for that metal, he thought The Fates might have led Alessandra to find it, and she would need it in the future, either to sell for funds or to turn into armor and weapons, so he would let her have it.