“You weren’t planning on using this old dress to the cotillion, were you?”

Krystal looked at Yuriko with reproach. She held a simple dark blue dress--well, it was more of a sundress, really. Something Yuriko brought with her from Faron’s Crossing.

“Er, yes?”

Krystal dropped the dress onto Yuriko’s bed, eliciting a yowl from Hunter Kitty who was perched near the edge.

“Sorry,” Krystal muttered. “That one’s not formal enough and you can’t wear that this late into the Season of Air. It’s improper.” She eyed Yuriko, exasperated. “Didn’t you pay attention to class?”

“Ahahahaaa.”

Krystal sighed. “The dress should be at mid-calf, at least. Off-shoulder or halter top is fine. Need a veil or shawl, too.” She touched Yuriko’s hair. “And we need to visit a hairdresser.”

“Do you think I can find a dress to wear by then?”

“I doubt it. We’ll need to have it made.”

“Where?”

“Crafter’s Lane near the market. We should go today. There’s less than two weeks to the Refraction.”

Yuriko nodded. “Let’s go after class?”

“Alright.”

“Thanks, Krys.”

“Oh, where would you be without me?” Krystal said while laying a hand over her brow. “Probably dressed like a legionnaire or a militiaman, hmph!”

“Ehehehe.”

It was the 78th Day of Air, Firstday of the week. It also happened to be sowing season, though as they were in the city instead of back home, there wasn’t much of a change in their schedule. Last year, prep school had a week-long break for the kids to help their families.

The Davar Family didn’t own any farms, so Yuriko and her brothers usually helped the community farmers instead. While she didn’t really enjoy doing farm work, she had done her duties as best as she could. When she was younger, that meant sowing the seeds. In later years, it also included ploughing and fertilising. It was only for a couple of weeks mid-term and it was quite a nice break from the daily grind of school.

Well, nothing of the sort was expected of them here in the Academies. Their studies continued unabated and Yuriko was getting tired of keeping her nose in the books.

When she arrived at her Sharom classroom, the rest of the Elite class were already there. Ella-Mai, her perpetual seatmate gave her a wave, while Emyr Kinnock and Tatsuhiko Esras gave her a morose look.

“They asked me first,” she said by way of explanation when both boys asked why she didn’t accept their invitation.

Tatsuhiko just shrugged and was quite accepting but Emyr had been sulking ever since. She didn’t know what to do with him considering they barely knew each other so she just ignored Emyr. Which might have just fed his downward spiral but what could she do?

Master Alfein entered the room not long afterwards, carrying several wooden boards. Ten, to be exact; one for each student and when Yuriko was given hers, she saw that the board was filled with several lines of runescript. There were five distinct lines that weren’t connected to each other in any way.

“Today, we’ll be working on runescript repair,” Master Alfein announced. “Run your Animus on each line and feel where it doesn’t flow properly. You’ve all read the Neophyte and have tried your hand at writing your own script, but the skill to repair runescript in the field is something each student of Sharom needs to have.”

Yuriko focused on her board and the rest of the class did the same. A few murmured to themselves but eventually, each of them worked in respectful silence. For her part, Yuriko barely understood what each of the runescript lines was meant to do, though that shouldn’t be an issue for easy fixes.

She pressed a finger against the first line’s terminus point and channelled a bit of Pure Animus into it. The strand followed the twists and turns of the runescript with Yuriko focused on feeling everything that happened. This was actually the first time she did something like this; her previous seatwork had more to do with writing a simple runescript line that was used to contain campfires.

Her Animus reached the other terminus point and in the process, she felt several points along the length of the line where some of her Animus leaked out. A well-drawn runescript would contain all of the Animus until it reached the extrusion points.

The first one was within an inch of the entry point and Yuriko used Enhanced Sight to magnify her vision. She saw that the ink used to draw had stuttered resulting in a minute break. The Animus still passed through but a bit of it was lost.

The solution was simple: she only needed to redraw the line. She opened the case beside her and took out an ink bottle. She didn’t have an engraving pen though truly, she preferred to use her Animus. Much better control that way. She pulled a few strands from her core and shaped them into an extra fine-tipped point, dipped it in the ink and held it over the board. Her control was such that the ink didn’t leave her Animus unless she willed it to.

A quick brush along the line and the gap was filled. She smoothed out the ink along the line, preventing a bunch up of the pigments as that would create resistance instead. In the meantime, she looked at the other problem points and filled them out.

She finished the first line with a happy smile and moved on to the next. This was quite fun, actually. Trying to make each stroke as perfect as possible thinning when it had to be, and thick where more Animus had to be gathered before proceeding, called out to the perfectionist within her.

It was mind-numbing work where she couldn’t channel any of her Intent: the runescript would be affected if she used anything other than Pure Animus. Perhaps if she used an engraving pen the issue of contamination would be moot, but she tried using the pen before and it felt really clumsy.

The first four lines were much the same, the only differences were the number of gaps. The fifth and last line was far more complex. At one point, the Rune Scribe had mistakenly amplified a bunched up line, creating more resistance than necessary, instead of leaving gaps.

“How to do this?” she muttered.

She could reroute the runescript by copying the runes and writing them over blank space and bypassing the original line. She could also try to trim the fat points into the proper pigment density. Since she didn’t know how the original runescript was supposed to look. Copying and rerouting would probably not work any better than how it was laid out now.

Of course, she didn’t really know if some of the fat points were supposed to be there, but since the line didn't work, then definitely there was something wrong. She used her strands to recreate the tip of an engraving pen and went about scraping some of the ink off.

It took her until the end of class but she managed to make the last runescript line work, much to her delight. Not very efficiently, she thought, but it did work. She handed over the board to Master Alfein whose eyebrows rose to her hairline when she looked at Yuriko’s work.

“Well done, Yuriko.”

“Thank you, ma’am.”

“Hmm, yes. Wait a bit before you leave for lunch.”

“Uh, alright.”

When everybody had left, Master Alfein gestured for her to follow. They wound up in her office, where she had Yuriko sit on the armchair.

“So,” Master Alfein cleared her throat. “You’ve a partner for the cotillion?”

“Uhm, yes.”

“Tsk, well, I suppose that’s fine. Hmm, I apologise since it took this long but do you remember what I said I’d teach you back at the start of class?”

“Uh, about the meditation techniques? I still haven’t progressed to the end of the skill cube, ma’am.”

“Oh, well, no. Not that one. Ahem. Ah, a belated congratulations on advancing to Apprentice, by the way, and thanks to that, I can teach you this technique.”

“Huh, what technique would that be?” Yuriko frowned.

“Hmm, tell me, when was your last moonflow?”

Yuriko felt her ears heat up. “Uh, a couple of weeks ago. My period, I mean.”

“Of course. Fairly irregular, I suppose.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Do you experience cramping and pain?”

“Nothing Recovery couldn’t handle.”

“You can’t have that active all the time. Anyway, here.” Master Alfein handed over another skill cube. “This isn’t something practised often mostly because there are few who have the right physique or bloodline for it.”

“Wha-what is it?”

“Why, it’s the technique to control your menstruation and fertility.” Master Alfein shrugged. “You don’t want to be bleeding when you’re in the wilderness, or when you’re in a long march. And you probably shouldn’t have any children outside of a proper marriage alliance.”

“Uh.” Yuriko’s face was completely red now. “I don’t think that will be an issue,” she said breathily.

Master Alfein smirked. “Well, better you know it and not need it as opposed to needing it and not having it.” She stood up and patted Yuriko’s shoulder. “Well, I won’t condone you doing anything, but best be prepared. Now, shoo, I’ve got other matters to take care of”

“Yes, ma’am. Uh, thank you, I guess?”

“Yeah, oh, you can try to teach it to your friends but I don’t know if they have the right bloodline for that technique.”

“Uhm, why are you certain I do?”

“I examined you, remember?” She wiggled her eyebrows.

“Uh, yes. Thank you.”

Yuriko left the office still flushing up to her ears. Well, learning this technique, if it worked as told, would be a relief. While the pain wasn’t much during her cycles, it was still distracting. Well, as long as she didn’t have to inlay it, she supposed it was fine to learn.

After her afternoon classes, she met Krystal at Willow’s lounge and the two of them headed off to Crafter's Lane. It was about an hour to dusk by the time they arrived, the nearest Circuit Tram shed was a block away and the stroll down to the lane involved going through crowds of shoppers, with the occasional runner.

The lane was a red brick affair, no landcrafters or haulers were allowed on it. The sidewalks were lined with flowering trees, though by now, they’ve shed all their leaves and blossoms. Sweepers had collected the fallen leaves over to the sides though where a few rambunctious kids jumped into the piles and scattered red leaves all over. One such leaf stuck to Yuriko’s hair and refused to stay off.

In line with the architecture of the Upper City, all of the shops and buildings had a clearance of at least a couple of paces between each other. Small hedgerows or potted plants lined the spaces in between, mostly blocking free passage by the common pedestrian.

“Madame Fortuna’s should have the dresses we need,” Krystal said as they walked.

“How do you know that?”

“Well, unlike you, I actually talk to people.” Krystal smirked.

“Yeah, yeah. No need to rub it in.”

“Well, I don’t blame you much for it, hee hee.”

Madame Fortuna’s shop had a large storefront window with mannequins sporting gorgeous dresses. On one was an evening gown with the hem falling just above the mannequin’s knees. It was black with silver sequins, off-shoulder, and was cinched at the waist. The other sported a long dress that covered all the way to the ankle, butterfly sleeves, and silver sunbursts patterns running down one side. The cloth was a mixture of blue and green.

“Like what you see?” Krystal smirked.

“Er, it looks nice.”

“Well, come on then.” She dragged Yuriko inside.

A slip of a girl met them at the front and chirped, “Welcome to Madame Fortuna’s! How may we serve you?”

“We need outfits for the Daffodil Cotillion!” Krystal said.

“Oh, that’ll need the Madame herself, come here please.” The girl eyed Yuriko and Krystal enviously.

The two of them followed her deeper into the shop into a waiting area. From there, Yuriko could see into the workroom where about a dozen seamstresses were busy working on projects in varied states of completion. There was another customer in front of them who was speaking with a…woman?

Yuriko did a double-take. The…Madame was dressed in voluminously tasteful clothes but it didn’t hide the bulge on the throat. Well, the girl called her “Madame”, so that’s what Yuriko will refer to.

The customer before them was a middle-aged man with a girl Yuriko assumed was his daughter. She looked familiar but there were seven hundred first-year students across the four Imperial Academies. There was no doubt she had seen the other in one of the shared classes. The other girl turned to look at them when they entered and her eyes widened in recognition. Yuriko nodded awkwardly and received an equally awkward, flustered wave.

A few minutes later, they left and the two were ushered up to the desk.

“They’re looking for cotillion dresses, Madame!”

“Hmm, I see.” The madame looked up and froze. “Oh my! Such pretty hair and skin!” She rounded the desk and hovered around Yuriko, exclaiming in praise every other second. Yuriko just stood there, overwhelmed while Krystal sniggered.

“Oh oh oh! I’d love to work with your figure. Quite tall, hmmm!” she glanced at Krystal, “and for you, you need a suitable dress or you’d be completely overshadowed!”

Before either of them could protest, they got dragged into a fitting room where she had the girl take Yuriko and Krystal’s measurements. Afterwards, they were whisked back to the study and Madame Fortuna grabbed several sheets of paper and proceeded to draw several designs then and there.

“No no, oh! There’s not much challenge with you, anything you wear will make you look regal! But how to accentuate you enough so the dress won’t be superfluous?”

In short order, she presented the two with several sketches. Yuriko thought they looked nice and just nodded along while Krystal hummed to herself and pointed at a design.

“Very well! They’ll be ready in ten days! Come back on the 88th for a fitting.”

“Er, may we inquire how much this will cost?” Krystal ventured.

“There’s no price to beauty!” Madame Fortuna declared. “But for labour and materials, each dress is five silver crowns.”

“Eh?” Krystal gulped, “Er...”

“Don’t worry about it,” Yuriko said with a smile.

“You sure?”

“Yeah.”

“Thanks.”

Yuriko and Krystal signed a contract to which had the sketches attached. Yuriko signed a bank draft form and their errand was done.

“Well, we’ll have to look for a hairdresser and make an appointment on the day,” Krystal muttered.

“I doubt we'll secure a spot. That’s the last day of the year, after all.”

“Well, we’ll see.”

They arrived back just in time for dinner and afterwards, Yuriko spent the rest of the evening in meditation with Fri’Avgi on her lap.