“Oh and before I forget,” Leonard said, “Congratulations, both of you on your first spell. Young master Eric, I have a gift for you, now that you’ve succeeded.” Then glancing at Rex, he added, “I will have to get a gift for you at the capital, Rex, but thank you as well for helping Eric master his first spell. The academy is full of teachers who are better at training young nobles than I am, but every noble is given advanced tutoring even if they have court wizards like me, ill suited for teaching.”

The gift had turned out to be a spellbook, “The Beginners Guide to Practical Magic,” and Eric had brought it with him to the stable Rex shared with Karla in the late afternoon.

The stall was much changed over the last month, Karla had spent the gold talen mostly on improving their living quarters. She’d become the envy of the other stableboys because she’d been able to sweep up all the straw and cover the ground with woven reed mats. Since Rex was properly toilet trained, there was no need for a traditional straw flooring, additionally, Karla had added wooden dividers, allowing for a more private bathroom to store the chamberpot in. She’d also bought a rickety old bookshelf for the slim collection of picture books Eric had gifted when they’d been teaching Rex how to speak, a table, a couple of old wooden chairs with open backs for comfort when a tailed person sat in them, and second hand curtains for the windows that allowed for a bit of privacy.

Karla had transformed the large stall into a modest home for the two of them, so Eric had not thought it weird to go visit their home after the lesson, rather than inviting them into his own much more opulent room. As he had put it, “in the mansion, someone will force you to put on a maid’s outfit and will force me to behave like a proper noble.”

Karla had prepared some tea on a tiny metal stove she’d bought for the purpose, and they had spent some time chatting while they waited for the water to boil and after the tea had been served.

Rex had discovered that he could enjoy tea, and Karla served him tea in a bowl he could drink from, lapping it up with his tongue. That was a solution that would have appalled Eric’s fastidious mother to no end, if they’d tried it in Eric’s room, where the tea would have been served by maids, not Karla herself.

Idea had been eager to look at the spellbook, and using the enhancements he’d built into the lenses of Rex’s eyes, promptly took pictures of every page and stored the images. The AI realized that with this information, he would be able to bargain with Idea Three again, but choose to wait. Rex and Karla did not seem eager to escape, so there wasn’t a pressing need for Idea Three’s help. It would be good to have something to bargain with in an emergency, however. Rex mostly wanted to learn the spells himself, so Idea promised him that when they got a chance, he’d project the images he was saving so Rex could read them.

“Here,” Eric was saying as Rex flipped through the pages of the spellbook, perched on a chair as the three of them sat at the table Karla had bought, “Here’s another talen,” he told Karla, pulling out the coin from his pouch.

“But Eric,” Karla protested, hesitating to take the coin, “It hasn’t been two months, if I were free, my pay would only be one talen per two months.”

“I can pay you more if I want to,” Eric said with a laugh, “besides, I am paying for stuff for both of you, aren’t I? Think of this as your pay and Rex’s pay too.” He added, putting the coin in her hand and closing it by wrapping his own hands around it. This made Karla blush, but her tail was whipping back and forth through the open back of the chair, so Rex could tell she was happy.

Eric held Karla’s hand a bit longer than was strictly necessary, then coughed a bit, releasing her. “Well, I have to go get ready,” he said finally, “The king’s birthday party is a boring three day affair, and two days travel to reach the capital and two days back, I will be back in a week’s time.” He told her.

The Duke, his son, and Leonard would be taking Ignatious and two of the three messenger dragons. Dragons could only fly for two hours before needing to land since they needed to use mana to reduce their weight. Even so, with a bit of effort, they could have made the trip in a single long day, pushing their dragons to the limit.

But, Since the duke wasn’t in any hurry, they would use the various inns spaced along the main road for rest stops. Flying in an hour what would normally take a carriage a day to travel, they planned to reduce a three week trip into two leisurely days with frequent breaks.

“I’ll bring you both gifts when I get back,” Eric promised, picking up the spellbook since Rex was done with it.

Rex and Karla said their goodbyes, then the young noble left. Karla put away the dishes, she would need to take them outside to wash them, for there was no sink or water here, but it was a simple chore that did not bother her.

“Isn’t he the best master?” She asked Rex.

Rex nodded politely, thinking that it would have been even better if Karla was free to just be friends with Eric, without the difference in social standing always acting as a barrier despite Eric’s best efforts.

“I guess I will go into town tomorrow and buy us some more things for our home? Anything you would like me to buy with your half of this money?” She asked, knowing that she wouldn’t be able to take Rex with her to go shopping.

In his own room, Blake had listened to the whole conversation. The various enchanted tools Rueban had given him included one that allowed him to spy on every conversation the trio had. This time he’d been hoping that Eric would give Karla an excuse to go to town in his absence. Picking up a “sending gem”, Blake reported to Rueban, “She’s planning a shopping trip tomorrow.” He told the enchanter.

“Yeah, I can make sure Ashe is too busy to do it, and get someone else to offer to escort her. You got things ready on your end? I told you Eric would give her another month’s pay, imagine, paying a slave? Hah, the cat deserves to be bait for thinking she’s as good a real human.” Blake said with an angry snarl.