“Get a room.” Finn groaned, as Jenny and Theo sat together, holding hands and generally acting in the way that any new couple (or pair of cats) act – lots of physical contact and a blatant disregard for the modesty of everyone around them.

Finn didn’t start off this irritated. In fact, everyone was teasing and excited the first few days when the news started to trickle out. However, at this point, everyone was rather sick of the lovebirds being joined at the hip every lunch.

They were spending time after class as well, hanging out at The Pub and around the Colleges until Grant forbade them from sneaking into random rooms to make out.

“This is an institution for the art of war! Either start fighting or f- go somewhere else.” So they did.

Ironically, this led to Theo spending more time at the Arts Exchange than he had ever before, as they sat, listening to people perform, holding hands and being just shy of cuddly.

Which was tolerated. Barely.

On Gilsday, at Bruce’s suggestion, they worked out their feelings through sparring instead.

It was a thing to behold. Two practitioners of magic just throwing themselves at each other, not pulling punches, creating rends in the earth from the force of their motion.

Jenny used mana backfires to flit around, clearly more practiced than she had been weeks ago when she started. And Theo wasn’t a slouch either – a thousand small effects whirled around him as he hummed or clicked or whistled, or some combination therein. Here, Jenny’s foot sunk into the earth. There, she was pulled off course. A burst of flame sometimes appeared in front of her eyes to blind and distract.

If it wasn’t for Natureborn like Francis tending to the park, it would have been nothing but mud and broken trees after a whole hour of them sparring. And Francis was tending to the park – one hand bringing a carrot to his mouth, the other knitting soil back together as the two of them fought around him, completely ignoring the chaos around him with his eyes closed.

They’d been going at it for about half of lunch when Jenny caught Theo’s arm as he went in for a punch, and they started throwing themselves at each other in a very different way. This was the point at which the line between sparring and foreplay became blurred in ways that nobody was comfortable witnessing, and everyone else quickly made them cool it…quite literally.

“I do not need any more distractions!” Rowena sang, and spears of ice with a sharpness neither of them wanted to test formed around and between them. Mist rose off their surface, as frost quickly formed. Jenny and Theo got the message, and stayed a reasonable distance apart for the rest of lunch, suitably chastised.

As the ball had crept closer, Rowena had continued to become more and more stressed, until finally she reached some sort of stress peak, after which she seemed calm and level-headed until something happened that caused her to explode. And considering the two times so far that had resulted in such a reaction were Finn making a bad joke (which he refrained from ever since) and this current public display of intense affection, most of their friends thought she was justified in her response.

Especially since the ball was tomorrow. Chenday was the day that she had been working towards for weeks. Everyone had their measurements taken, the appropriate uniforms were made, the estate was cleaned and prepared, and the kitchen had started cooking already.

“Y’know, I’m looking forward to tomorrow, because then I can start ribbing you again once that giant stick has been removed from your arse.” Finn commented offhand, looking between the slabs of ice starting to melt and Rowena’s too-calm demeanour.

Considering the three times she had exploded so far, most of their friends thought she was justified in her response.

---

The day had arrived. They’d survived their classes (and Jenny and Theo still skirting the line at lunch), and now as everyone trickled out of the Colleges, they congregated in the courtyard of the College of Song.

There was something different about Rowena today. Her back was straighter, her movements more…graceful. Rowena was no longer just their friend and fellow bard; Theo was reminded that she was indeed a noble, and for once she was acting like it.

She stood in the middle, surrounded by all the bards, while the warriors and priests made their way over. For once, to describe her behaviour as lording over others would not be an insult, but the truth.

She sang, and a platform of ice formed under her, pushing her up until she was taller than Drew. She clapped her hands. “Thank you all for agreeing to come help with the Ball. It will be a fun time, I promise. There will be food and drinks prepared, but please keep your wits about you. Follow me, and we will be there shortly.” The platform under her sublimated, until her feet touched the courtyard again.

Wreathed in the evaporating mist, Rowena began walking in the direction of the House District, with a crowd of the best and brightest following after her.

It was a pleasant walk, as Theo held Jenny’s hand (of course). There were many extravagant house on the way, and most of the warriors were openly gawking (while the priests were trying to do so surreptitiously). They arrived at an estate without any grass, just mossy stone and a moat around a shiny castle. There was a bridge of marble to the doors, and they followed Rowena over the water, which was filled with white koi. Well, most of them.

Jenny accidentally pulled Theo along – while he had prepared himself for luxury, he was not prepared for an entire moat around a stone castle. He shook it off, and started moving, waving off Jenny’s look of concern.

As they got closer, Theo realised that the castle was not entirely stone – there were large stained glass windows, and the shine was not only from polished marble, but also inlaid quartz and silver. The silver was almost a series of veins, leading to and from nodes of quartz within a skeleton of stone.

It was impressive, and eerie. Not helped by the shriek of twisting metal as Rowena spoke to the guard at the door, who pulled the massive slab of metal open. Theo’s eyes were drawn to the inscriptions, both on the outside and inside of the door.

“Welcome,” Rowena said with a flourish to the gathered students, “To House Flake.”