Chapter Twenty-seven

Professional Admiration

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At nine o'clock precisely, Kazia opened her door to admit a still half-astonished Kelvaran.

In the doorway, she cast a gentle and patient gaze on him as he froze, only his eyes moving to travel up and down her figure.

She had dressed in a new gown of Caedran fashion, multiple layers of tissue-thin silk which hung in graceful folds from her shoulders to the floor, wide hanging sleeves with a layer of dove gray silk inside the black outer layer. Her hair hung in a simple braid over one shoulder, tied with a gray silk ribbon at its end.

“You can hang your coat here in the office,” Kazia said, moving to allow him through the door.

As she turned to lead him in, the fabric of her gown clung to the side of her waist, and Kelvaran's gulp was almost audible.

“Try to focus,” Kazia said, her voice stern but also a bit teasing. “Some anticipation is understandable, but this is serious business.”

She moved to the sitting room as Kelvaran hurriedly hung his coat and then followed.

In the sitting room, the gas lamps were low and a small fire burned in the fireplace. The occasional table in front of the settee held tea and several plates of snacks. Kazia motioned Kelvaran to the settee and poured a cup for him, which he accepted only to have an occupation for his hands. Kazia took her own cup to a chair at the side of the settee where she sat sipping at it and watching him quietly.

“Tell me how you've tested the potion,” she said. “What you've experienced so far. Any unpleasant side effects?”

“I've only done three full tests since getting the formula right, just walking around the castle and observing people. Honestly... last night was the first time I've believed I had got it right. I wasn't really sure before. I did experience some of what you've described – the unpleasant feelings that bring on a sickness.”

Kazia nodded gravely. “I should give you some Seamist.”

“That's the medication you take?”

“It might help if you ever encounter anything too unpleasant. I don't know how it might play with your potion, though. We should ask Mistress Amelys and Madame Brandra if there would be any conflict.”

“I don't know if Mistress Amelys will cooperate.”

“She'll want to keep you safe. You do seem to have developed this potion very quickly.”

She gave him a questioning glance.

“I began in Valesk,” he explained. “I had nothing to do for a week before I was allowed to return, so... Yilina allowed me use of her laboratory. I just wanted to poke around in there, see what information I could dig up, and I found some notes... I don't know if they were about you specifically, but they discussed the empathic response-”

“Probably notes of the Alchemists who studied me,” Kazia said distantly.

“It seemed to be a brief for Yilina's information,” he replied. “But it gave me a better idea about the working of your ethereal energy. The potion is based on an existing formula meant as a Contemplation aid, relaxing the reservoir of energy.”

“Tell me what happens when you take the potion,” Kazia said. “How it begins to work.”

“After a few minutes, I'll start to feel a warmth in the spine, and then with a few more minutes of Contemplation I can push the energy out to my surface. Once in place, the effect comes on slowly. It's weak at first, and grows stronger over perhaps ten minutes.”

“Go ahead and take the potion now.”

Kelvaran had relaxed considerably while explaining his process, but Kazia felt him instantly tense again as she said this.

“Mistress Amelys told me not to treat you like a lab rat,” he said as he withdrew a small bottle from his pocket, “but I can't help but feel that I am your lab rat now.”

Kazia leaned forward over the occasional table, and smiled slyly as she moved a small plate of cheese closer to him.

He laughed suddenly, and swallowed the contents of the bottle.

He closed his eyes and sat quietly with his hands on his knees, sinking into a state of Contemplation.

Kazia watched his face soften and his lips go slack, and she shivered with memories of what had happened in the hallway the night before. She retracted her gaze and looked away into the fireplace.

There came a tingling in the air as Kelvaran's ethereal energy began to vibrate rapidly for a moment, then it relaxed quickly. That must be the loosening of the reservoir. She found it quite interesting.

Kelvaran opened his eyes.

“It's done,” he said quietly.

She could feel him becoming nervous again.

“As I've said before, people and their emotions are complicated,” Kazia reminded him. “There are often many emotions engaged simultaneously, although one or two may come to the forefront while others recede to the background. People often feel without conscious awareness, and will often avoid close examination of unpleasant feelings.”

Kelvaran nodded, and Kazia took a moment to observe him closely. His mental state was quite attentive just now, and she could tell how he took pains to consider her words carefully, and to respect her expertise on this subject.

Even so, an excitable joy wound through those other sentiments, and she felt his heart flutter as she spoke. She peered at him thoughtfully.

“Has professional admiration contributed to the development of your feelings for me?” she asked bluntly.

Kelvaran startled slightly, and his eyes shifted quickly away.

“I do... find intelligence and skill to be attractive,” he admitted.

His turn of shyness sent its tendril into Kazia's perception and her chest tightened as she felt it. Kelvaran looked at her sharply.

“I was beginning to wonder if this could still embarrass you,” he said with a smile.

“That was yours,” she replied. “You're beginning to feel it now?”

He nodded, looking away again as he braced himself.

“As I was saying,” Kazia continued, “if you want to use this for espionage, you must tread carefully. You may be able to tell when someone is lying, especially if they are ashamed of the lie... they might feel nervous, hesitant, even guilty. If they are not ashamed, it may be more difficult. Then they may feel hostile or smug, proud of their deception - but those feelings may have other causes. Of course, if their feelings don't match their words, it might be obvious, for instance outwardly lamenting a death but feeling joy within.”

Kazia took a sip of her tea, then licked her lips.

Kelvaran's aura gave a jolt as he watched her, but he carefully reigned it in.

A prickly sensation ran down Kazia's back. The effect of the potion was certainly making itself known now, and her own ethereal energy began to reach out for his, wanting to entangle itself again.

She took a deep breath to calm herself before continuing.

“It is very important to understand that people can feel emotions, even very strong emotions, but have no intention to act upon them. You can use your knowledge to prepare yourself for any action they might take, but don't assume they will do anything. Don't be tempted to act ahead of them. For one thing, it will give you away. Or you may bring harm to someone with no real cause. Watch what they do, listen to what they say, observe what they feel, and take these all as pieces of a pattern.”

Kelvaran nodded in understanding, but remained silent, patiently awaiting her further instruction.

They sat perhaps five feet apart, but the space between them was now alive with the ripples of their energies flowing together in ever stronger waves from one to the other and back again.

Kazia set down her teacup as her body began to warm with anticipation of what she planned to do next.

Kelvaran felt a shift in her energy and he startled, sitting up and grasping the cushions of the settee to stop himself from moving.

“It may be too soon in your experience,” Kazia said in a low voice, “but I'd like you to try to feel this, if I can guide you to it. You can feel what I feel now? This is desire. It should be plainly recognizable.”

Kelvaran sucked in a breath, straining now to keep himself in check.

“Did you feel,” Kazia continued, “how before it was quite scattered, diffuse, but then a moment ago it became a bit more dense, as if it had gathered into a smaller space?”

“Yes,” his voice almost a whisper. “I couldn't have described it, but... yes.”

“Pay close attention to that density,” she said.

She stood then, and slowly approached him.

His breath caught as his heart began to race.

“Pay attention,” Kazia admonished gently.

When she reached him, her energy suddenly condensed further as she lifted her skirt and lowered herself over him, one knee on either side of him on the settee, and sat on his lap.

She took in his surprise, his elation, his captivating eyes that took on an almost mesmerized appearance.

She struggled with her own restraint now, but as he moved to hold her, she pushed his arms to rest along the back of the settee and held them there.

His body began to shake as his breath quickened.

“Did you feel that?” she whispered. “How the energy gathered further, became almost solid?”

He nodded breathlessly.

“That is the intention to act,” she said, just before her lips came down over his.

She released his arms, moving her hands up his shoulders to capture his face.

His hands fell onto her thighs, then slid under her skirt to her hips to pull her closer as both of their burning auras merged into one raging inferno and they abandoned their temperance altogether.

“I believe the formal lessons are at an end,” Kazia murmured against his lips.

“Should I go?” he gasped through a shuddering breath.

Kazia almost laughed at this sweet attempt at chivalry.

“I'd rather you stayed,” she answered.

 

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