Villainess 7: Janet’s Night Training

Red Pill 30: Visitors, Saintesses

After the Sydney brothers concluded their questions, they said their goodbyes to Janet and Mindy and the Drevis sisters and were about to leave the room, when the double doors opened and revealed another visitor pausing at the threshold before them. It was Janet’s new homeroom professor, Viscountess Kelly Durham, saying, “Are you finished?”

“Yes, we are,” Sir Noel Sydney said.

“Who are you, if I may ask?” Lord Edward Sydney said, turning on his bad-boy smile and smooth talking for a blonde bombshell of an older woman that seemed to have caught his fancy, but the viscountess seemed impassive to his charms.

“I’m Viscountess Kelly Durham, and I teach at the Academy,” the viscountess said. “Now will you please let me through? I must check on one of my students.”

“Does it pertain to our investigation?” Lord Edward Sydney said, still maintaining his bad-boy smile, despite the latter’s seeming indifference to him.

“That’s none of your business,” she said.

Silence reigned between the two, one a lady’s man, the other a no-nonsense professor, like a romance between a high school delinquent and a strict schoolmarm.

(Then the clones at the Royal Palace’s Tea Garden contacted DeeDee again, one clone cussing out Lady Dorian, and the other saying, “Lady Dorian’s making shit up again!”

“What is it this time?” DeeDee said.

“She’s saying she dreamed of Janet eloping with Lord Woodberry to the Schrader Kingdom to her Majesty,” the other clone said, while her counterpart was cussing out Lady Dorian again. “She’s making Janet into a traitor!”

“Is her Majesty buying it, though?”

“It doesn’t seem like it,” the other clone said.

“Then what is she saying?” DeeDee said.

While both clones informed DeeDee of the current situation at the Tea Garden,) Sir Noel Sydney elbowed his brother, and both brothers stepped aside, letting her pass by before exiting the room, and the pair of guards from Marquess Fleming’s household closed them. Yet Janet got the feeling that they were loitering in the hallway just outside the doors.

(So she asked her ex-suicide clone in her mind, “Can you have one of them check if they left yet?”

Then her ex-suicide clone had two of her subordinates stalk out of the room, passing through the doors, and one of them said, “They’re still here—”

“—talking with the guards,” the other said.

“About what exactly?” Janet’s ex-suicide clone said before Janet could ask.

“Just some questions about why they were sent here,” the other clone said. “They’re thorough, I’ll give them that much. That’s about it, though.”

“Do they suspect anything about us?” Janet said, and by ‘us,’ she meant the others in the room.

“No, I don’t think so,” her clone said.

“Just keep an eye on them,” the ex-suicide clone said. “Follow them after they leave.”

“Will do!” both clones said.)

Meanwhile, Janet invited Viscountess Durham to sit at the tea table, and the viscountess asked the girls to sit with her, so Mindy asked her maid Ellen Levy to get the extra chair from the vanity table for their guest amidst the spirits gathered there. After the dutiful Ellen Levy did just that with a straight face, placing it next to the table for the viscountess to sit, all five women were seated with Janet wondering what’s up.

“First, I must know,” Viscountess Durham said, facing Janet. “Are you okay, Lady Fleming?”

“I’m fine, thank you,” Janet said.

“No, I’m serious here,” she said. “Your guards told me you had a panic attack earlier. Are you really okay?”

“I’m managing,” she said.

The viscountess waited, eyeing her.

(So Janet said in her mind, “Should I tell her?”

“Only if it’s about his Highness and not Lady Dorian,” DeeDee said. “Use your discretion.”)

“Is it hard to say?” the viscountess said.

“It’s not that, no,” Janet said. “It’s hard to believe his Highness would think I’d do that.”

“Do what?”

“Cheat on him,” Janet said.

“Are you serious?” the viscountess said.

Janet nodded and said, “His Highness must’ve seen me with Lord Woodberry three weeks ago.”

“What day was it?”

“Thursday after classes,” Janet said. “Lord Woodberry and I were eating ice cream at a dessert shop, and I was venting to him at the time. I couldn’t take it anymore. I needed someone to hear me out besides the Prince, because I’ve been dealing with Miss Edgeworth’s setups against me since the entrance ceremony, and the Prince hasn’t done a damn thing to help me. In fact, he’s been making things worse.”

“Why didn’t you tell the professors?”

“I told Professor Palmer,” Janet said, “but either the Prince or Miss Edgeworth or both of them must’ve told him otherwise, because nothing else was done about it at all.”

“I see what you mean.”

“Yeah, it’s like that,” Janet said.

“Did he confront you two at the dessert shop?”

“No, but I wish he did,” Janet said, shaking her head at the whole mess. “It would’ve saved me the effort of trying to get him on my side when he’s already assumed the worst about me. I had no idea he saw us, till the Sydney brothers questioned us before you came in.”

“Did his Highness tell you about it?”

“He never let on about it,” Janet said. “He just played me for a fool, and I didn’t even know.”

“His Highness knew you didn’t know?”

“No, not like that,” Janet said. “It’s more like he wouldn’t believe me even if I told him the truth.”

“So his Highness dragged it out for three weeks?”

Janet nodded.

“Did he confront Lord Woodberry about it?”

“I never thought to ask, because I didn’t know,” Janet said, shaking her head and grimacing at all the missed chances she could have done something if only she knew about it. “God, I’ve been so stupid!”

Then Viscountess Durham said, “Please don’t fault yourself for someone else’s misunderstanding.”

“I wish it was that simple,” Janet said.

“What do you mean?”

“Because of his misunderstanding,” Janet said, “the Prince has been participating in Miss Edgeworth’s setups against me and even called my mother a witch to my face. Then Lady Childeron and Lady Felton called my mother worse names before setting me up with the Prince, who comes in and denounces me in front of everyone in the hallway. It’s been like that for three weeks since the fourth week of school, and it’s getting worse. For all I know, Lady Childeron and Lady Felton’s disappearance may as well get me convicted of murder, so that the Prince can have me exiled or executed by graduation or after he ascends the throne. Either way, if I don’t protect myself now, I will surely die in this school!”

The viscountess opened her mouth to say something but paused for a time, then said, “Lady Fleming, all the professors at school have questioned their students in their homerooms all morning. Do you know what they’re saying about what happened yesterday?”

“No, but I can guess,” Janet said.

“Well, you’re probably right about it,” the viscountess said, then shook her head. “Most of the students we questioned, except for Sir Sydney and Lord Woodberry and you three,” and she nodded at Lady Kessler and the Drevis sisters at the table, “said you provoked his Highness.”

“Did they say I deserved to get hurt?”

“It’s not quite as bad as that,” the viscountess said, “but they’re basing their opinions on a lot of unflattering rumors about you.”

Janet thought of Sir Noel Sydney’s observation of the rumors against her and said, “Professor, is there a conspiracy amongst the students to have me killed?”

Viscountess Durham gaped and said, “My God, Lady Fleming, why would you think that?”

“Because I have no choice,” Janet said. “I may as well be a fugitive in this kingdom, and when I go back to school tomorrow, I may as well be targeted for assassination.”

“It’s not as bad as you think.”

“My mother died in prison on false charges,” Janet said, “and Abbess Maxine Diddly was murdered in St. Avalon’s Abbey, and Lady Graves was murdered in Elba House before graduation. One false imprisonment and two murders are more than enough reason for me to expect the worst.”

“How do you know about Abbess Diddly?”

“I dreamed of her two nights ago,” Janet said, remembering the dream that night. “I entered the cloister of St. Avalon’s Abbey, but she wasn’t there at first. Only when I turned away and looked back did I see her sitting there at a fountain in the middle of the cloister.”

Viscountess Durham paled and stared at her, saying, “Was that fountain running when you saw her?”

“No,” Janet said. “It wasn’t running at the time.”

“Does that mean it’s running right now?”

(“Is it?” Janet said to Maxine.

“Yep, it’s running,” Maxine said.

“What colors are there?” Janet said.

“Dark red under the surface and bright green over it,” Maxine said. “Quite a unique color combination.”)

“Yes, it’s running,” Janet said (then asked DeeDee and RuRu and Celeste and Rowena and Maxine, “Do you think I can trust her with what I’m about to say?”

“Use your discretion,” DeeDee said.)

“Lady Fleming, answer me truthfully,” Viscountess Durham said, “for I can’t help you if I don’t know for sure. Do you have the darkness affinity?”

“Yes.”

A pregnant pause.

Then the viscountess reached out across the table, saying, “Let me hold your hands for a bit.”

So Janet raised her hands from her lap and placed them over the tabletop, and the viscountess held them for a time and opened her mouth in a gasp.

“What is it, Professor?” Janet said.

“Lady Fleming,” the viscountess said, letting go of her, “I’ll be frank with you, because you possess the darkness affinity to an immense degree. I have it too—”

“What?” they all said.

“—but only as a minor affinity,” she added as Janet and Mindy and the Drevis sisters gaped at her. “What’s with those faces, girls? We all have the light and darkness affinities within us, but it varies from person to person. Queen Blaise has more light affinity than most people, and Marchioness Fleming had more darkness affinity than most when she was alive, so it’s really a matter of degree and not of kind. We just call these affinities by different names based on how we feel. Do you know what I’m talking about?”

While her peers remained silent, Janet remembered RuRu’s admonishment during the first round of last night’s sparring match and said, “You mean our intentions?”

“Yes, that’s it,” the viscountess said. “In basic terms, the light attribute corresponds to our faith and trust in someone or something, and the dark attribute corresponds to our doubts and fears of someone or something, but it’s more nuanced than that. All seven affinities (aether, darkness, light, fire, air, water, and earth) are embodiments of our temperaments and intentions. For instance, the earth affinity embodies our steadfastness or stubbornness, the water affinity our adaptability and sensitivity, the air affinity our communication and curiosity, the fire affinity our enthusiasm and impulsiveness, the light affinity our morality and honesty, the darkness affinity our introversion and secrecy, and the aether affinity our subtlety and imagination. These qualities belong to all sentient beings, so no affinity is inherently good or evil. Just as we experience day and night, we share in joy and sorrow, pleasure and pain, hope and despair, and so on and so forth. We all have the capacity for good and evil, but it’s our choices that make us who we are. Please have more faith in people, Janet. Not all of your peers are that prejudiced.”

Janet leaned back in her chair, letting out a sigh and saying, “Not all, no, but most are like that.”

Kelly Durham grimaced, saying, “It won’t stay like that all the time.”

“I hope not,” she said.

Now the viscountess faced Mindy at the table, saying, “How are you holding up, dear? Better, I hope?”

“I’m okay,” Mindy said.

“Just okay?”

Mindy nodded her head.

“And you two?” Kelly Durham said.

Jean said, “Eh, we’re doing all right—”

“—but we’re tired from the questions,” Saraya added.

“Must’ve been rough,” Kelly Durham said.

“Very rough,” Mindy said.

(Then two more clones assigned to surveil the Prince and Lady Dorian passed through the closed double doors, both pale and breathing hard, which caught DeeDee and the other spirits off guard. While two of their number had accompanied their targets to the Royal Palace via coach, and while another two had come in and informed everyone of the Prince’s engagement to Lady Dorian and Countess Valentine’s harrowing story in Classroom 1-3C, and while nine others had come in with Janet’s friends and revealed their own observations in two other classrooms, these clones had gone over to Guinevere House for a time before returning from there in a hurry.

“What happened?” DeeDee said.

“All the girls are talking in Guinevere House,” one clone said once she caught her breath. “They’re saying Lady Fleming’s planning something against Miss Edgeworth for hooking up with the Prince, so they’re waiting outside of her dorm room to warn her when she arrives.”

“Did the couple come back yet?” DeeDee said.

“No, not yet,” the other clone said, the beheaded one in the soiled gown. “Anyway, besides that, those girls in that dorm were acting weird.”

“How so?”

“It’s kind of like the way Lady Dorian’s been controlling his Highness,” the clone said, “but they’re all doing it of their own free will. It’s like they’re all in on it without actually being privy to Lady Dorian’s plans.”

DeeDee traded a glance with Celeste Graves, then said, “I see. What else do you have?”

“That’s about it,” both clones said.

“Then stay here for now,” DeeDee said. “After your partners return, go out and keep watch over his Highness and Lady Dorian in their dorms. If anything else happens, keep us informed while you’re there. Got it?”

“Will do!” the clone said.

So the pair of clones joined the spectral group around the vanity table, bringing the number of clones back up to fifteen after two of their compatriots went outside in the hallway to observe the Sydney brothers still talking with the guards by the double doors.)

All the while, Janet was busy turning her clones’ observations over in her mind, including the one about the weird doppelgänger appearing in the Prince’s daydream and taking six of her clones to the dreamscape of last night’s experiment. With this in mind, she closed her eyes and tapped into their memories and saw a replay of the scene: When the Prince attempted to punch Marquess Fleming’s face, his image transformed into Janet’s image as the Prince’s fist and body passed through her like a hologram out of the scene. That left this clone alone in the Judgment Circle with gleaming red eyes and a slasher’s smile on her face, who raised a finger to her lips as if she knew something important. Janet saw her lips moving but couldn’t hear her voice or even make out what she was saying as if that knowledge was out of her reach for now—

When she heard Kelly Durham say, “Janet, are you listening? Or are you daydreaming?”

That’s when Janet opened her eyes and said, “Sorry, Professor. What were you saying again?”

Kelly let out a sigh and said, “Janet, will you go through with this year’s title confirmation?”

Her question was like an uppercut to the solar plexus, and Janet found herself gulping down her qualms and saying, “Do I have a choice?”

Kelly shook her head.

“Then I’ll just go through with it,” Janet said, “but why are you asking?”

“The venue has been changed,” Kelly said. “Instead of Father Barrymore hosting the title confirmation at Rhapsody Chapel across from the Academy this year, her Majesty will be hosting it at St. Calliope’s Abbey in Lockhaven. It’s about twenty-six miles due south of here.”

Janet stared at her homeroom teacher, wondering at the flow of events converging on a single place, and said, “Isn’t that place used to confer saintess titles on chosen candidates?”

“Yes, it is,” Kelly said.

“Then why host our title confirmations there?”

“I’m not sure,” Kelly said, “but her Majesty’s got something planned. I just wanted to know if you were willing to go through with it, because you have two affinities that might threaten the authority of the Church of the Holy Light if you become a saintess candidate there.”

“If that’s the case,” Janet said, “then why move the event to a place like that?”

“I don’t know,” she said, shaking her head, “so be on your guard while you’re there. Got it?”

“Will do,” Janet said.

Then Viscountess Durham discussed the fake eviction notices with Mindy and the Drevis sisters and asked if they wanted to return to Guinevere House, but none of them said so. When she asked them why, they said they felt uncomfortable there because of the gossip connecting them with Janet when they went back there yesterday to move their belongings out of there. When Viscountess Durham asked for more details about said rumors, they repeated the observations of Janet’s two clones that had come in earlier, adding that Lady Childeron and Lady Felton were the main gossips under Miss Edgeworth’s direction before their disappearance from the school grounds. The viscountess paused and glanced at Janet, then faced her friends and asked if they believed there was a conspiracy amongst them to tarnish Janet’s reputation, and they said there was and added that all the girls in Guinevere House, save for themselves, were actively spreading rumors at Miss Edgeworth’s behest.

Then the viscountess turned her head to survey the empty half of the dorm room, peppered with half a dozen portmanteau cases still holding the belongings of three female students that had just moved in yesterday evening, then looked over at the one four-poster bed on which Janet and Mindy and the Drevis sisters slept in. Shaking her head, Kelly said, “Did you four share the same bed last night?”

“Yeah, we did,” Mindy said.

Jean said, “It was a bit cramped—”

“—but we slept through the night,” Saraya added.

“It wasn’t all that bad,” Janet added.

“That’s good,” the viscountess said, “but this room can hold twice as many furnishings as it already has here. In fact, since this dorm is big enough, we can mirror both sides of the room with the same amount of furniture,” and she pointed out the empty side of the room. “We can add a four-poster bed right there across from the other one, so you’ll all have enough space to sleep in a shared bed. Also,” and she pointed along one side of the wall across from the double doors, “we can add three more armoires along that side, one more next to the existing armoire on that side and two on the other side, and we can add a vanity table right next to the existing one in the middle of that wall between the two pairs of armoires. If we line them all up from end to end along that wall, we’ll be able to maximize the space and fit everything there. We just have to move that mirror to another place, which is easy enough.

“As for the other wall,” the viscountess added, pointing to the opposite wall bisected by the closed double doors, “we can add three more study desks along that wall from end to end, one right next to the existing one by the bed and two other desks on the other side of the wall. Again, if we line them all up from end to end, we’ll be able to maximize the space. As for this tea table and chairs, we can move them closer to the vanity tables, so it’ll all act as a visual focus for this room to compliment the double doors. Does that sound good?”

Janet and her friends all said so, nodding their heads.

“Good,” she said, facing Janet’s friends again. “Baron Palmer and I have already talked with your homeroom professors about your boarding situation and brought it up with the school board before I came here. I’ll let them know right after I leave, and we’ll have the furniture moved in by tomorrow while you’re all in class. That way, everything will be set up for you when you come back here from your classes in the afternoon. Does that sound good?”

They all said yes.

Then to Janet, she added, “Does that sound good?”

“Yes,” Janet said, smiling. “Thank you very much, Professor.”

(Meanwhile, as Janet and the other unseen specters listened, the last pair of clones returning from the Royal Palace passed through the double doors, winded and giddy, and approached the spectral group around the vanity table.

“Are they back from the Royal Palace?” DeeDee said.

“They are, yeah,” one clone said. “Lady Dorian’s having her things moved to the Royals House with the help of the Prince’s maid and butler.”

“And while they’re at it,” the other clone said, “the vixen and the other girls in Guinevere House are badmouthing Janet again. It never ends!”

“Unfortunately,” DeeDee said. “Anything else?”

So the pair of clones recounted the particulars in the meeting between their Majesties and the Prince and his new fiancée Lady Dorian in the Tea Garden, adding that the Queen had seen Janet’s fountain and informed everyone there about it.

“I see. What else?” DeeDee said.

“DeeDee,” one clone said, “we’ve been discussing something on our way here that you might want to consider.”

“Spit it out then,” DeeDee said.

“We want to bring her Majesty into our confidence,” the other clone said, and before DeeDee protested, she added, “We know it’s risky, but her Majesty deserves to know what’s happening with her son.”

DeeDee opened her mouth to say something, then paused when Rowena Fleming and Celeste Graves went over to her and discussed something amongst the three of them. DeeDee asked them if they were willing to risk it, and they both nodded and said that neither of them had the support of the Queen in their lifetimes, so it was better than nothing.

With that, DeeDee said, “Fine, we’ll do it—”

The clones thanked her, beaming their smiles at her.

“—but we’ll need to include a liaison for us,” DeeDee added, looking at Janet. “As for who that might be, we’ll leave it up to Janet’s discretion.”

“But why me?”

“We can’t directly intervene in worldly matters, so you’re our mediator in this world,” DeeDee said, then glanced at the three pairs of clones that had returned with their own observations of the new couple. “All right, the six of you go back out and keep watch over Lady Dorian and the Prince. Let me know if anything else happens while you’re there.”

“Will do!” the clones said, and four other clones joined the pair and followed them back out through the closed double doors past the Sydney brothers that were now concluding their chat with the guards out in the hallway.

Then Janet’s ex-suicide clone said to her two compatriots still there, “Are they done talking yet?”

“Just about,” one clone said.

“But they’re waiting for Viscountess Durham to come out and talk with them,” another clone said.

“About what?” she said.

“I’m not sure,” the clone said, “but I think they want to hear out whatever she has to say.”

“Follow the Sydney brothers when they leave.”

“Will do!” they said.)

After going over some more particulars with Janet and Mindy and the Drevis sisters about tomorrow’s interior redesign, Viscountess Durham asked if they had any other questions they wanted to ask before she left. So Janet thought about the predominance of light affinity users as saintesses and asked, “Professor, was there ever a saintess in this kingdom that wasn’t a light affinity user?”

“There was,” the viscountess said.

“Really?” Janet said.

The viscountess nodded her head, smiling, and said, “I am a historian, Janet, so I know things that most of the nobility in this kingdom have forgotten. Officially, the Church of the Holy Light lists Queen Calliope Blaise, the last direct descendent of King Bartholomew Kaden, as its first recognized saintess, but she wasn’t the first one in this kingdom. Unofficially, the first saintess was Lady Avalon Jeong a century earlier during and after the Great War with the Schrader Kingdom. In the official registry, the Church lists Lady Avalon Jeong as the Kaden Kingdom’s first abbess after King Bartholomew Kaden had St. Avalon’s Abbey and St. Avalon’s Orphanage in Old Parr dedicated to her in her honor.

“But even so,” she added, “the commoners of this kingdom still venerate Lady Avalon Jeong as a saintess in their prayers and supplications.”

“Was she different from the others?”

“In more ways than one, yes,” the viscountess said. “She was a knight and a spymaster during the War. Her skill with the sword and buckler was such that it’s said she was second only to your ancestors Captain Jude Fleming and Duke Wilhelm Bartleby as the most feared opponent on the battlefield. And in terms of healing ability, she was said to be able to bring people back from the brink of death.”

Janet and her friends gaped at her words.

(Then Janet asked in her mind, “DeeDee, is that true?”

“Most of it is,” DeeDee said. “Lady Jeong was quite skilled with the sword and buckler, so she would have won yesterday’s three-round spar with RuRu, but I was her opponent back then. All three rounds were close, but I humbled her enough to keep her out of trouble on the battlefield. Also, commoners tend to exaggerate Lady Avalon Jeong’s abilities in the same way nobles tend to exaggerate Queen Calliope Blaise’s abilities, but they both did their jobs well under their circumstances. Now it’s your turn.”

“As the Black Saintess?”

“And as our chief mediator, yes,” DeeDee said.)

Janet took the hint and thought of the observations her clones made about Lady Dorian’s plans against the Queen on their way to the Royal Palace, then stood up from the tea table and said, “Professor, may I show you something?”

“Sure,” Kelly said.

Janet stalked over to the mirror in between the armoire closet and the vanity table and waved her homeroom teacher to her side, prompting her out of her chair. Gulping down a wad of spittle, she caught DeeDee in her peripheral vision staring back at her (and said in her mind, “It’s now or never.”

“Go ahead,” DeeDee said.)

So Janet visualized RuRu pushing her into her fountain and took a deep breath and said, “Look in this mirror, Professor, and tell me what you see.”

 

Viscountess Kelly Durham wasn’t sure what to expect within the reflection of this full-length mirror, supported on a mirror stand. Still, she knew several superstitions about these things: breaking a mirror was said to cause seven years of bad luck, but burying a broken mirror in the ground was said to restore its reflection when you dig it out after seven years; mirrors were said to show the truth of anything reflected in them, so people with no reflections were said to be vampires, and reflections not seen in the room were said to be ghosts or demons; witches were often said to scry into black mirrors made of obsidian glass; sometimes mirrors were said to manifest your greatest desires or fears; and if you weren’t careful, they could even reveal when and how you die.

In any case, she blinked and saw Janet beside her against the backdrop of the four-poster bed, the dressing bench at the foot of it, and half of the double-door entrance. Other than that, there was nothing out of the ordinary.

Kelly faced Janet, saying, “What am I supposed to see?”

“Look again,” Janet said.

The viscountess turned and gaped at Janet in the reflection before facing the girl herself.

Janet wore a nun’s clothes, though a nun wouldn’t be caught dead wearing her outfit: besides the white band and black veil over her head, white-caped gown over her body, cuffed sleeves over her wrists, and black gloves on her hands, the knee-high knight boots and thigh-high stockings showing through the slits in Janet’s skirt were jaw-droppers. Maybe Kelly could picture Sister Jacqueline Morley wearing this outfit after losing a bet or Countess Julia Davidson after downing a dozen glasses or even Kelly herself while under hypnosis, but Janet (damn her) wore it like an icon with dirty blonde drills and piercing red eyes, like it was made for her—

Which stirred feelings quite foreign to Kelly’s sensibilities, involving a fluttering heartbeat, a shortness of breath, and a certain warmth blooming across her face, as if she saw something so pure and holy that a touch of the risqué was needed to ground Janet in reality.

So striking was the impression that the viscountess forgot she was gaping, till Janet passed her hand across her face and said, “Are you okay, Professor?”

Kelly snapped out of it, at a loss for words, and said, “I don’t know. My God, is that really you?”

“Sure is,” Janet said, then placed her palm flat against the mirror and made its reflection turn black under her power, then reached in and pulled out an arming sword and buckler in one grasp. Kelly was about to ask, but Janet raised a finger to her lips. “Just watch.”

Kelly nodded her head and watched along with Lady Kessler and the Drevis sisters (and the unseen gathering of ghosts around the vanity table, but a few of Janet’s clones walked over and took up their positions in the room).

Then Janet grabbed the sword with her left hand, holding the buckler in her right, and demonstrated the seven basic guards of sword-and-buckler martial arts. Spreading her stance with her legs bent, one foot forward and one foot back, Janet assumed the first guard, holding her buckler in half-shield over her body and her sword beneath the armpit of her bent buckler-arm like a boxer, then stepping forward and flinging blade and buckler out into a half-shield long-point before returning to her guard position. Reversing her stance, she assumed the second guard, holding out her buckler square in front of her and her sword chambered over her left shoulder, then stepping forward while flinging her sword into a half-shield slash before returning to her guard position, then stepping forward while flinging her sword into a half-shield twirl around her buckler before returning to her guard position again. Returning to her first stance, she assumed the third guard, holding out her buckler in half-shield and her sword over her right shoulder, then stepping forward while flinging the blade over her buckler-arm into a half-shield long-point before returning to her guard position. Keeping her stance, she assumed the fourth guard, holding her buckler in half-shield over her body like a boxer and her sword over her head, then stepping forward and flinging blade and buckler out into a half-shield long-point before returning to her guard position, then stepping forward while flinging the blade into a half-shield twirl around her buckler before returning to her guard position again. Reversing her stance again, she assumed the fifth guard, holding out her buckler square in front and her sword pointed backward at waist level, then stepping forward while flinging the blade into a half-shield long-point before returning to her guard position, then stepping forward while flinging the blade into a half-shield slash before returning to her guard position again. Keeping her stance, she assumed the sixth guard, holding out her buckler square in front and the sword pointed forward at chest level, then stepping forward while thrusting the blade into a half-shield long-point before returning to her guard position, then stepping forward and thrusting the blade into a second half-shield long-point and then a half-shield twirl around her buckler before returning to her guard position again. Returning to her first stance, she assumed the seventh guard, holding out her buckler and sword in a half-shield long-point, then stepping forward while thrusting the blade into a second half-shield long-point before returning to her guard position, then stepping forward while flinging the blade into a third half-shield long-point before returning to her guard position again.

In addition, Janet performed variations of these moves, adding two-steps and lunges to her thrusts and slashes and twirls, then incorporating the boxing movements of ducking and weaving and feinting left and right at odd angles to throw off opponents, then teleporting across yards of ground during these attacks at assassin-like speeds (using her unseen clones as teleportation spots in the room), then ducking and weaving and parrying and riposting with forward thrusting steps and backward slicing retreats back to her guard positions. So fluid and smooth were her movements, so quick and nimble was her footwork, and so wild and unpredictable were her thrusts and slashes and twirls that Kelly would’ve thought Janet had been training since childhood, only to wonder if she had indeed been trained under Marquess Fleming’s guidance for that long.

But of the current martial styles still taught in the Kaden Kingdom, why would she still use an arming sword and a buckler? Most practitioners excluded bucklers altogether to concentrate on swordsmanship using two-handed longswords and bastard swords or one-handed backswords with knuckle guards over the handles or basket-hilted swords like rapiers and broadswords. Almost nobody went for arming swords and bucklers anymore, save for eccentric old-timers fond of collecting said armaments to go with the suits of armor in their collections, but even they tended to prefer matching bucklers with bastard swords. And even amongst the few aficionados still practicing the sword-and-buckler style, they preferred rapiers or backswords for the superior hand protection they offered compared to the somewhat naked cross guards of arming swords.

But the longer the viscountess observed Janet’s demonstration, the more she started noticing something else beyond her prowess in outdated martial arts. Then she cupped her hands over her gaping mouth, her eyes wide at the sheer violence of Janet’s movements as if she was reenacting the drills prevalent during the Great War. And before she knew it, she was whispering under her breath: “Valkyria . . .”

Janet stopped her movements and faced her, saying, “Wait, what did you just say?”

“Oh, pardon me,” Kelly said.

“That word,” Janet said, crouching and dropping her armaments into the floor as if there was a portal right under there (as her clone returned to the spectral gathering around the vanity table). “What does it mean?”

Silence reigned.

Janet stood up, saying, “What is it, Professor?”

Kelly wondered if she should reveal a heretical title to her student, then thought it wouldn’t hurt Janet to know about it and said, “Valkyria is an ancient title, meaning, ’Lady of the Slain’ or ‘Chooser of the Slain.’”

“Is that a divine title?” Janet said.

Kelly shook her head, saying, “It’s a posthumous title that King Bartholomew Kaden gave to Lady Avalon Jeong after she died, though the Church of the Holy Light doesn’t officially recognize posthumous titles as divine titles.”

Silence reigned once more.

“What is it, Professor?” Janet repeated.

“Janet, I couldn’t hear anything despite all your movements,” she said. “It’s almost as if . . .”

Silence again.

“As if what?” Janet said.

Kelly shook her head, saying, “Forget it.”

“Is there anything you’re not telling me?” Janet said.

Kelly turned towards Mindy and the Drevis sisters in the room, still seated at the tea table with their eyes locked on her, so she turned to Janet and said, “Lady Jeong’s given name, Avalon, is an ancient name for the Isle of the Dead where the souls of heroes are taken to after death. In the same way, Valhalla is another ancient name for the Hall that chosen heroes are taken to after their deaths. That makes the Guardian of the Aether a chooser of the slain, and she might have chosen you for something important. Did she?”

Janet nodded that she had and said, “Are all seven Guardians choosers of the slain?”

“They are,” Kelly said, nodding her head. “So answer me now: Did you meet the Guardian of the Aether?”

“I did,” Janet said.

“When?”

“Two days ago,” Janet said.

Kelly thought back to Janet’s account of her dream about Abbess Diddly two nights ago and said, “Besides the Guardian of the Aether and Abbess Maxine Diddly,” she added, “was there anyone else you met?”

Janet remained silent for a time, flicking a glance to the side that Kelly followed towards the vanity table, so Kelly said, “What is it, Janet?”

“Yes, three of them,” Janet said.

“Who are they and when did you meet them?”

“I met the Protector of all saintess candidates Lady Celeste Graves yesterday afternoon,” Janet said, “and I also met my mother Marchioness Rowena Fleming and the Guardian of the Darkness later on last night.”

Kelly gulped at the mention of the Guardian of the Darkness and noted that Abbess Diddly and Marchioness Fleming and Lady Graves had all died unjust deaths because of the stigma of their darkness affinities. Then she thought of the timing of these meetings over the last two days as if Janet had been receiving divine revelations from two of the seven Guardians without the Queen’s intervention or the Church of the Holy Light’s sanction. Coupled with Janet’s martial display, an ongoing investigation into two missing students, a potential conspiracy among the students at the Academy, and even the title confirmation two days from now, all these signs pointed to one conclusion, so she asked Janet, “Can you keep a secret?”

“Yeah, I can,” Janet said.

“Promise?”

Janet nodded her head.

Then Kelly turned towards Janet’s three friends, saying, “Can you also keep this a secret?”

They all said yes and promised to keep it.

So Kelly led Janet back to the tea table and sat down with the others, and after Janet sat beside her, she breathed out a sigh at the prospect of voiding her contract with the school, facing criminal prosecution for revealing sensitive information, and even risking excommunication from the Church of the Holy Light for what she was about to say. Her mind flashed on her foolish colleagues, Count Cosgrove and Baron Palmer, attempting their cloak-and-dagger shenanigans like a pair of old schoolboys in between class periods in the hallways. She blinked back those thoughts and said, “There’s something rotten in the Church of the Holy Light, and I suspect that you girls know something about it.”

Mindy and the Drevis sisters traded glances, their faces ashen and their eyes avoiding hers, but Janet kept her eyes on Kelly for a moment longer before looking away and biting on her lower lip and saying, “Can we trust you?”

Now it was time for Viscountess Kelly Durham, Professor of Historical Studies at Lassen Academy, to break her cover, so she looked from Janet Fleming and Mindy Kessler to Jean and Saraya Drevis around the table and said, “I am an undercover agent of the Information Guild, specifically the Internal Affairs Office. If you girls know anything about this, please tell me, and I’ll do what I can to help you.”

So one by one, they each told her what they knew, filling in the details that Kelly had begun to suspect about Miss Edgeworth and Prince Blaise, but then they added other aspects that bowled her over and blew her mind.

By the end of it, Kelly’s hands were trembling over the table, so she fisted them as she rolled their intel through her mind, knowing that she had stumbled into the most dangerous case of her undercover career. If sleeper agents had infiltrated the Church of the Holy Light, if a cabal was ensconced within their holy ranks, then is Miss Edgeworth involved? If so, if she was fomenting two conspiracies, one against Janet in school and another against the Queen within the Church, then is the Prince also involved in it?

She gulped again, needing a drink after listening to what they said, but before that, she had to think of a way to throw those Sydney brothers off her scent, especially that older brother with the bad-boy smirk. Yet after considering her options, Kelly figured it was worth her while to play the game with both brothers and offer them a breadcrumb to chew on; if they came to the right conclusion and followed it up, they’d meet her again under her alias: Night Flower—

Which reminded her.

Kelly turned to Janet and said, “Given the sensitivity of this intel, I can’t refer to you by your actual name when I meet with the Queen tonight. You need an alias to protect your identity.”

“I’ve already thought of one.” Janet said.

“Already?”

Janet nodded her head.

Kelly stood up, saying, “Tell me.”

“How does the Black Saintess sound?” Janet said.

Kelly paused, knowing that the Church of the Holy Light at the time had rejected that posthumous title in favor of another one for the martyred Lady Celeste Graves: the Protector of All Saintess Candidates, a long and clunky title. Yet after seeing Janet practicing with a sword and buckler in such a sexy outfit, Kelly smiled and said, “Very nice.”

To Be Continued