Kara listened to Enelle talk for nearly two hours, and the things she heard were ridiculous and far-fetched... and yet none of it were lies. When Enelle had finished talking, Kara thanked her for telling her everything.

“So, what have you decided?” Enelle asked.

“That boy needs me more than ever!” Kara said with passion in her voice as she stood, then she took off running towards the main building.

“Kara!” Enelle called after her, then sighed. “I had hoped it would discourage her.” She said with a chuckle. “Instead it had the opposite effect.” She stood up and walked over to the building with her apartment in it. “I'll have to keep a close eye on her from now on.”

Kara entered the main building and went up to the third floor, then quickly walked down the hall to the second door to see that it was wide open. “Ugh!” She grunted and went into the room to see an empty food tray on the bed and a note. She picked the up note and read it out loud. “Someone came to get me and brought food.” She crumpled the note and threw it onto the bed and stormed out of the room. “ULLIR!” She yelled and ran for the lift to search for her missing apprentice.

*

I opened the closet and stepped out, and didn't laugh until I felt her flow of Presence go down in the lift. “She is going to be so mad when she realizes that I never left, even though I promised I would stay.” I laughed and walked over to the bed and sat down. I put the food tray on the floor, then used Presence Hand to shut the room's door and heard it click. I wasn't going anywhere for a whole week, so I laid down and relaxed, closed my eyes, and practised some mental techniques while I waited for her to come back.

I was surprised when it took her two whole days and the help of an entire guard regiment to search everywhere for me, before she found out that I was in my assigned room. The flow of Presence from her was massive as she stormed down the hallway and opened the door to my room, and then she stared daggers at me.

“Hi, Kara.” I said, and I could see the blood fill her face as she tried to hold in her anger. “Before you blow your top and start screaming at me, I never left the room.”

Kara opened her mouth to argue that I hadn't been in the room, and I held a hand up to stop her.

“I promised I'd follow your orders, remember? You told me to stay in here, so I did.” I said and then pointed at the side of the room. “By the way, I was hiding in the closet.”

“Ullir... you...” Kara made fists with her hands and did several mental techniques to try and calm down. “You made me think that you'd left.”

“Yeah, and how quickly you assumed that I would break my word.” I said, and her eyes widened. “I wasn't even suppressing my Presence. If you'd taken a second to check, my little trick would have been easily discovered.”

Kara opened her mouth to respond, then she closed it. After a few silent moments, she spoke. “Are you always going to be like this?”

“What, honest?”

“No, deceitful.” Kara said. “You knew I wouldn't check for your Presence before I stormed out to search for you.”

“I did.” I said. “Do you know what that means?”

“What's that?”

“Despite all the research you did on me, I know a lot more about you than you do about me.”

Kara took another deep breath and let it out. “You don't know me.”

I smiled and rolled over on the bed to face the wall. “I know that despite you being wrong, you want to punish me for tricking you.” I said and closed my eyes. “I only have five more days to wait before I can leave this room.” I said and yawned. “How long will I have to wait for you to give me up as an apprentice?”

Kara didn't say anything until she stepped out of the room and shut the door. “I'm never going to give you up.”

I didn't respond, because I knew she wasn't expecting me to, and went to sleep.

The next five days passed by at a snail's pace. I wasn't sure why the time seemed to drag on. I had used various mental techniques to occupy my time and to sleep, and yet that just made the time last longer. I was brought my meals by a different person every day, and each of them stated clearly that they were not there for me and put the tray just inside the door and shut it. Sometimes it was a guard, an administration worker, and sometimes it was even a member of The Order. It still made me smile when they couldn't look me in the eyes.

I kept my promise and stayed in the room for the whole week, and when my time was done, I felt both relief and a little sad. Kara hadn't come to see me after my little prank. I wasn't sure if it was because she was embarrassed or angry, though. It was probably a mix of both.

I felt her Presence as she came down the hallway, and it wasn't the huge flow that I had felt the last time I had seen her. The door to the room opened and there she stood. Kara didn't glare at me or even say anything. She just waved her hand to indicate that I should follow her, then she turned around and walked away.

I sighed and got up, then followed her down the hallway. We got in the lift and she didn't even look at me as we went to the ground floor. She walked out of the main building and over to a smaller building right beside it. I didn't say anything as we entered the council members' apartment complex and we walked all the way to the back of the building. She touched the panel by the door of an apartment and it hished open, then she motioned for me to follow her inside.

I held in my sigh as she led me across her luxurious apartment and to her bathroom. “Don't tell me I have to scrub your bathroom.” I said dejectedly. Kara didn't respond as she opened the large shower stall. With one swift motion she grabbed me by the neck of my robes, flung me into the shower, then hit all of the buttons in quick succession.

“GLUG!” I choked as soap entered my mouth and eyes and covered me from head to foot.

“Start scrubbing.” Kara said. “You're filthy.”

I tried to spit out the soap and sputtered a few curses, and she crossed her arms.

“You had better start washing yourself.” Kara said with a small smile. “Unless you want me to use Presence Hand to help you.”

I coughed and rubbed the soap from my eyes and glared at her.

“Start. Scrubbing.” Kara said and used multiple Presence Hands to toss several sponges and a wash cloth at me.

“FINE.” I said angrily and took off my belt and tossed it at her. She caught it easily and gently placed my weapon on the counter. It had gotten covered in soap; but, since I had made it without any external switches or knobs, it was mostly waterproof. I'd have to check it later and make sure.

I stared at her face and she stared back at me as I took off my robes and I let them drop to the floor of the shower. I had been sorely tempted to throw them at her to cover her in soap as well; but, I didn't want her to think that she was getting to me. To my surprise, she bent down and picked them up to get them out of the way.

“Hurry up and give me the rest.” Kara said, and I squinted my eyes at her. “Unless you want to shower with your clothes on?”

I sighed and quickly pulled off my long sleeved t-shirt and handed it to her. She took it and didn't bat an eye as I pulled off both my pants and underwear in one motion and gave her those as well.

“Soap time.” Kara said and reached for the button. I closed my eyes and mouth and felt the spray cover me again. I bent down and picked up one of the sponges she had thrown at me and started to scrub. I was using my Detect Presence technique, as I always did, because I had learned a long time ago that I could still 'see' without using my eyes. I didn't turn my head to look at her, since that would give away that I could still see her, and I watched her watching me.

It's too bad I can't read minds like Lashina does. I thought when I concentrated on Kara's face. Is she a pervert or something? She's just standing there and staring at me.

I saw her startle slightly, then she grabbed my weapon belt and turned and left the bathroom.

That was a little weird. I thought and kept washing myself. I wonder what she's going to make me do next?

I finished my shower and dried off with a towel, and left the bathroom.

“You took your time.” Kara said with a huff.

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“I had twice as much soap to wash off for some reason.” I said.

Kara ignored me and pointed to the bed. “Put those on.”

I held in my sigh as I looked at the standard apprentice outfit and robes.

“Hurry up! I don't have all day to waste on you, you know!”

I didn't bother holding in my sigh this time as I turned away from her and put on the underwear, tight pants, and long sleeved t-shirt. I picked up the robes and slipped them on, and felt the extra weight. I checked the small storage pack and saw that it had all of the little things I had kept in my old robes. I turned to look at her and she held out my belt and weapon. They were both clean and dry, so I tied the belt around my waist and made sure the weapon was in just the right position for a quick draw.

“Sit.” Kara said and pointed to a chair. I did as she said and sat down, then my head was covered in a soft towel and she rubbed my head for several minutes. I wasn't sure what she was doing, since I normally just let my hair dry on its own. I was about to ask her when the towel was removed and then I felt something go through my hair.

“What are you...”

“Shush!” Kara barked at me, and I closed my mouth.

I closed my eyes and let her do what she wanted. What I didn't know at the time was that she was indulging in one of her fantasies about brushing someone's long hair and grooming them. She kept her own hair at shoulder length because it was easier to take care of; but, ever since she was a little girl, she had always wanted to do it or have it done to her. It took me years to find all that out, though. When she had done it that first time and I hadn't protested or made a fuss about it, it paved the way for her to do it... every single time I had a shower.

When she was done, my hair had been styled and tied up into a long ponytail. I thought about turning to her and yanking the tie out to spite her, then I saw her face. She wasn't smiling or anything obvious like that. If I had to describe it, it was a contented look with not a trace of smugness in it.

“Now you look like a proper apprentice.” Kara said and walked over to one of the closets in her huge bedroom and opened it. “These are your robes and outfits.” She said. “You will have them cleaned and maintained once a week.”

“But...”

“Don't worry. There are eight sets.” She said. “One to wear while the others are cleaned.”

“I wasn't going to comment on that.” I said. “Robes are free. I just go and get a new set when one wears out.”

Kara chuckled. “Oh, Ullir. I have much to teach you.” She said. “You will do this to lessen the workload of others that used to do it for you.”

“I don't want to take their jobs from them.” I tried to argue, and she laughed.

“There's nothing wrong with doing manual labour and getting your hands dirty.” Kara said. “In fact, do you remember your suggestions for punishments?”

“Oh, great.” I groaned.

“We have an appointment in the greenhouse to...”

“Why?” I asked. “We're not qualified to harvest food.”

“You're right. We don't have any experience.” Kara said and walked over to the bedroom door. “Guess what we are going to get over the next three hours?”

“Extremely dirty?” I asked, and she grinned.

“Among other things.”

“I just had a shower.” I said.

“And you'll have another when we're done.” Kara said. “Let's go.”

“Do I have to?”

“No, Ullir. You don't have to do anything.” Kara said. “I just hoped that you would want to learn something from a Master for once, instead of trying to figure things out on your own.”

I opened my mouth to say that I didn't need her to teach me, then I realized that I did. She was right, and I hated to admit that, so I didn't and kept my mouth shut. She smiled at me and then led me from her apartment and the building to go to the greenhouse to play in the dirt.

I had expected Kara to work me like a dog and what she did instead was give me a fundamental lesson in the use of Presence. It wasn't a ground-breaking or a mind blowing lesson; but, it did open my eyes a bit more to the subtleties that were possible with the use of Presence.

You can't just pour Presence into a seed and have it sprout and grow instantly into a plant, since all that would do is kill the plant. It can't grow like that without food and water. However, you could enhance the plant to accept more food and water and help it grow as its needs are met. It still wouldn't grow instantly; but, it would grow two to three times faster than normal if you could dedicate the time to do it. Which was what the Presence users in the greenhouse did every day.

I had passed by the building thousands of times and hadn't even considered that there were people using Presence for something like growing food. Of course, I was still only twelve and I didn't have a lot of concerns past what I wanted to do each day. I chuckled mentally. Even in my past life, I was only eighteen and pretty much did the same thing. I wasn't really concerned with the future and just tried to get through the day.

I no longer had that luxury.

I glanced at the pink haired young woman next to me as she discussed with one of the workers the best times to apply Presence to her favorite flowers. Despite my attempts to be a complete hellion to the rest of The Order, she had ignored it all and chased me down to punish me anyway.

I listened to her talk and watched as she used a hand to swipe her pink hair back behind her slightly pointed ear, and my eyes were drawn to it. Since the only other woman I had seen with ears like that was my mother, I couldn't help but compare the two.

My mother had been really tall, had long golden blonde hair, and sculpted cheekbones. Kara was about six inches shorter, had shoulder length pink hair, it was natural as far as I could tell, and she had similar cheekbones. She had a bit more plump to her cheeks, which gave her face a more rounded look. Almost as if she felt me thinking about her, she turned her head and looked at me.

“Is something wrong, Apprentice Ullir?” Kara asked. “Are we boring you?”

“Not at all, Kara.” I said. I saw a flash of annoyance on her face because I hadn't called her 'master'.

“Then what were we talking about?” Kara smiled, because she suspected I hadn't been listening.

“You wanted to know if you could cross-breed your favorite annual flower with a perennial to try and have it bloom more than once a year.” I said, and her eyes widened slightly in surprise.

“Wh-what did we decide?”

“That it would only work if you want to lose the aesthetic of your favorite plant.” I said. “If you cross-breed, even with one of a similar color and structure, it will no longer be the same plant.”

“So, am I going to try it?”

“No.” I said. “You're going to make me try it.”

The greenhouse worker chuckled. “Ha ha, Kara! He knows you well!”

Kara opened her mouth to respond that I didn't, then she remembered that I had said the same thing when she came and got me from my punishment room.

“We'll need some supplies and appropriate pots for the experiments.” Kara said instead.

“I've got everything you need right over there.” The worker said and pointed. “Give me a few minutes to gather everything for you.”

“Thank you.” Kara said, and we waited as the worker got the things we needed, then we left the greenhouse and went back to the apartment. After she decided the best window to set everything up in front of, we put everything there just as the sun set.

“I guess we can finish this in the morning.” I said as darkness fell.

“I'm taking a shower.” Kara said and walked over to the bathroom and hung up her robes. “Don't you dare try to sneak a peek at me.”

I put my hand up in the air with the palm towards her. “I swear to god that I will stand on this spot and not move or step into the bathroom to look at your luscious naked body while you wash yourself.”

Kara caught her breath, because I had sworn such a strong oath for such a simple thing. “G-good.” She said, quite flustered, then she shut the door.

I smiled, because she didn't realize that the shower was well within my Detect Presence range and I could clearly see her through the wall that separated us. She took off the rest of her outfit and stepped into the shower. I watched her efficiently clean herself and step back out and dried off, then I saw her hesitate.

“Ullir? Are you still there?”

“Yes, Kara.”

“Close your eyes, please.”

“Of course.” I said and closed my eyes, since I didn't need them to see anyway, and put my hands over them as well. “I've covered them, too.”

The bathroom door opened and she peeked out to look at me and saw that I really was doing that, and she held the small towel in front of herself and ran to her closet. She grabbed her sleeping outfit and ran back to the bathroom, and I was surprised that she didn't have anything covering her backside. She got changed quickly and stepped out of the bathroom, and put her dirty clothes in a pile beside the closet.

“You can uncover your eyes.” Kara said.

I did so and saw with my own eyes that she wore a set of loose silky green pyjamas that hid her figure almost completely. Her normal every day outfit was super-tight in comparison and showed off her body a lot more. I kept that thought to myself, though. Now that the way was clear, I walked over to the bathroom to take my own shower. We really had gotten dirty while working in the greenhouse.

“Ullir.” Kara said to get my attention and I turned to look at her. “Aren't you going to say anything?” She asked, and turned her upper torso slightly from side to side as she clasped her hands in front of herself.

“About what?” I asked, clearly ignoring her attempt to garner a compliment from me.

“N-never mind!” Kara gasped and turned away from me. “H-hurry up and clean yourself!”

I held in my laugh and shut the door, then quickly got a shower and dried off. I stepped out of the bathroom with a towel wrapped around my waist and reached for a clean outfit and a set of robes from my closet.

“What are you doing?” Kara asked.

“Getting dressed.” I said.

“Your bed clothes are in the bottom drawer.”

“I can't change into them until I go back to my room to get ready for bed.” I said.

Kara smiled. “Which is now.”

“What?”

“This is your room now.” Kara said. “I had all of your things brought over already.”

“You had no right to...”

“You are my apprentice and you will do what I say.” Kara said. “I am taking you firmly in hand and will train you as all good masters should.”

“As a slave?” I asked, half-jokingly and smiled.

“No, as a partner.” Kara said and climbed into bed. “From now on, we will share everything as all good partners should.”

“E-e-everything?” I asked, a little stunned.

“Get changed and come here.” Kara said and pat the bed.

“I am not sleeping in the same bed with you.”

“There's no other bed here and there's no room for you to bring one in.” Kara said with a satisfied look on her face. “It's either this or the floor.”

“Can I at least have a blanket if...”

“No, you will not sleep on the floor.” Kara said, sternly. “It's a big bed. There's no harm in sharing it.”

I opened my mouth to protest, and her hand glowed for a moment and my mouth clamped shut. “Muh mere.”

Kara chuckled. “I know it's not fair.” She said. “But, you are only twelve and not fully grown yet. You will have to wait until you are of age if you want people to respect you and your decisions.”

I frowned at her, and she pulled the blanket down to show there was a lot of room between her and what would be my side of the bed. I sighed and put the outfit and robes back and grabbed a set of blue pyjamas from the drawer. The pressure on my jaw disappeared and I walked over to the bed and climbed in.

“There. Was that so hard?” Kara asked.

“Yes.” I said.

“Why?”

“I haven't been in bed with a woman since my guardian was forced to abandon me.” I said, and she caught her breath.

“Ullir, I... I'm sorry.” Kara said and her hand touched my head. “Ew! Your hair's still wet!”

“Huh? Oh, I forgot.” I said, and she huffed and asked me to sit up. She flipped over my pillow and went to the bathroom to get another towel, then climbed back into bed and dried my hair. She only brushed it a few times and sighed.

“I'll have to wait until morning to give it the attention it deserves.” Kara said sadly, put the brush down and laid down. “Goodnight.” She said and turned onto her side to face away from me.

“Goodnight.” I responded automatically, laid down on my back and just stared up at the ceiling.

It was our first night in bed together, and neither of us slept a wink.