I tapped my armacus on Emerald’s and added her to my list of contacts. She called me first so that I could hear the conversation between her and her sister. That’s right - the armacus supported a multi-call function, allowing for multiple people to hear each other. One simply had to call each person from one armacus to connect the group.

[Ems?] The female voice who was presumably Agatha resounded in my head. [First time you’ve called me yourself. Did something happen?]

I elbowed the princess because she froze up.

“Erm, hi Aggie,” Emerald finally mumbled, her face flushed. She fell silent once again. It looked like she had trouble speaking to her sister over the phone… err… armacus.

[Hold on, there’s another person on the list? Diver Juni?] Agatha must have noticed that I was also connected to the call.

“Good Tomorrow, Princess Agatha of the Baronial House of Amadea,” I copied Dawn’s respectful tone. “I am high-cendai Juni Tokimorimïtul.”

[Oh!] Agatha ’s voice sounded shocked. [The 8th high-cendai! Greetings, my Lady! How may I be of service to you?]

“I hope I’m not interrupting anything,” I said.

[No, not at all,] Agatha replied.

"Have you had lunch yet?" I inquired. “I am currently staying over at Palais De La Solstice. I have something I wish to discuss with you and Emerald and I would appreciate it if you could join us for lunch.”

[Of course,] Agatha said. [I’ll be there in twenty minutes. I was just about to take the glider out to lunch myself. Meet me on a flat rooftop or in one of the garden meadows - I'll put Emerald's armacus into the glider's pathfinder. It was a pleasure to speak to you, high-cendai. Bye Ems. See you both in a flash!]

"Hrm, she seems very excited," Emerald commented. "She never sounds like that when she talks to me."

"Well, I'm the youngest high-cendai in what... three hundred years?" I commented idly. "Eunice doesn't give Endies out to anyone."

"Endies?" Emerald blinked.

"You’ve already met Endy up close and personal," I waved the Ending-knife at her. "I just named her."

"Her? You've named your knife?"

"Yes," I smiled. "Endy and I are getting very close, so upon greater consideration I thought that I should name her."

Emerald's expression of utter befuddlement was very amusing.

“Is your knife sentient too?” She whispered.

“Nah,” I laughed. “But it is the damn best knife that I’ve owned.”

“I’ve never seen a knife slice right through magic,” she nodded, with an envy-filled glance.

“You’ve got nice things too,” I commented. “Like your dress. Can you do the re-stylizing thing again? I want to memorize the hexagram.”

“Sure,” she nodded, pressing on the collar.

I spent the next fifteen minutes figuring out the Re-stylize magic, sketching the hexagram into my notebook.

“Think you’ll be able to modify Dawn this way?” Emerald asked, staring at my sketches.

“I hope so,” I said. “This is definitely a type of crystal magic and my Artificer specializes in crystal. I think he’ll be able to replicate the effect if we loan your dress to him.”

“You have a… personal artificer?” the princess asked, looking even more envious.

“Yep,” I nodded. “I’m considering apprenticing under him and renting his workshop. He’s one of my good friends. See - making friends with talented humans is verrrrry useful. You should try it sometime.”

Emerald huffed at me as a response.

“Don’t be scared,” I said. “Making friends can be a tough game at first, but your biggest impediment in such an enterprise is yourself. With enough practice you’ll become a social queen. Feel free to practice your friendship-making on Ari - she can be your first human frie…”

A whoosh of an aircraft cutting through the air blasted hot wind at us, cutting into my words. The grass-covered meadow next to our gazebo suddenly became filled with a steampunk-looking skyship. The glider looked very impressive, an Art Nouveau masterpiece, a child of a glass capsule and a metal sled. It was a bit Victorian, a bit Art Deco and a whole lot of awesome. The shape of the glider resembled one of the early streamliner automobiles or locomotives, looking like a drop of water suspended sideways, framed by a lovingly crafted metal cage.

One of the segments of the capsule unlocked and an approximately eighteen-year-old girl with long, silver, glass-like hair briskly stepped out of the glider.

I slid my notebook into a pouch, stood up and stepped out of the gazebo.

“Agatha, right?” I offered an armored hand.

The second human-chimera Princess and potential future Empress shook my hand. She was taller than me and her body was framed by a black robe with gold trim. A very elaborate, elegant, eight-pointed star-shaped, diamond-encrusted pin sat on the right lapel of her black suit. She looked like a very classy wizard. Silver-blue, sharp eyes examined me.

“Pleasure to make your acquaintance, my Lady,” she respectfully bowed her head, taking a knee. “I am a Mage-Knight of Nemendias and I am at your service, my Illustrious High-Cendai and the Eighth Apostle of Saint Eunisii.”

“At ease, Knight,” I smiled.

Agatha stood up to her full height. There were a bit of dark shadows under her eyes and deep, hastily concealed weariness.

“Shall we have lunch at Palais De La Solstice?” She asked with the tiniest frown.

“No,” I shook my head. “Your mother’s behavior has failed to impress me.”

“Oh,” The corners of her lips suddenly went up. “My glider fits five. Would you…”

“Yes,” I nodded. “We would. However…”

The Knight tilted her head waiting for my words.

“I would like to bring these two maids with us,” I waved a hand at Voltara and Arouetta.

“Oh?” Agatha tilted her head even further.

“Are you aware that the Vow-bound maids will most likely report everything you say to my mother, little cendai?” Her expression declared.

“Your sister told me that black-lace maids are unable to leave the Estate,” I said. “I was wondering if your privileges extend to modifying their Vows. You’re the older sister, after all. I wish to assign Voltara to me as my personal maid and Arouetta to your sister.”

“Why?” Agatha asked.

“I like them,” I said simply. “They’re good company.”

“What is your game here?” Agatha spoke with her eyes alone, without opening her mouth.

“I cannot reassign a maid’s color,” she said after a bit of a pause. “But, I do have the arch-maid on my armacus. I can call her up and see if these two qualify for reassignment from black to violet. Violet maids are permitted to leave the estate."

“We can wait for her in this meadow, yes?” I smiled. “You can show me your glider in the meanwhile.”

“Sure,” Agatha nodded. She raised her armacus and briskly spoke into it.

“She’ll be here in a bit,” she declared.

“Excellent,” I nodded, walking closer to the magitek flying machine and peering at it with my Still-Walker sight. The glider glowed with a thousand hexagrams from within. It was maddeningly complex. There was no way I could replicate any of it. I mentally drooled at the prospect of working on my own glider in the future. I gently caressed the streamliner frame. I was falling in love.

“Hey Aggie,” Emerald stepped to her sister.

“Hey Ems,” Agatha wrapped her little sister in a full embrace. “Everything good?”

My chimera ears tilted to the side, tuning in on their conversation like little radar dishes.

“Everything… is better than just good. Everything is… amazing!” Emerald whispered, burying her face in her sister’s black robe.

“Yea?” Agatha asked. “You like her?”

“I… freaking like her a lot,” Emerald whispered. “She’s so Astral-wicked you have no idea.”

“Not like mom then?” The next question came.

“Not at all like mom,” Emmy shook her head, her voice trembling with excitement. “She’s smart and she’s teaching me so many things… things I actually understand. Things like how Revolutions are made and how to make friends and how to get ahead in life."

“I’m glad you’ve finally made a friend,” Agatha whispered.

“Me too,” the little princess nodded.

Their embrace broke apart. Agatha let go of her sister and walked to where I was obsessively circling the glider.

“You like my baby?” The mage-knight asked, nodding at the glider.

“Yes! What’s her name?” I demanded.

“Galissi Seven,” Agatha smiled.

“How much does a glider like her cost?” I asked.

“Two and a half million obliss,” the reply came. "Maybe more. I got a discount for helping with her design."

I nodded. I now had a reason to make money. A mountain of money. Well, maybe I could find a used version or something? No, I wanted Galissi Seven. God damn it, I wanted her badly, more than I wanted anything in my brief life on Andross! She was perfect in every way.

“How fast does she go?”

“Three hundred thousand elbows an hour,” Agatha replied.

I whistled louder as I mentally converted the Imperial Elbows into kilometers. The glider was as fast as a jet engine.

“Can I…?” I pointed at the door.

“Sure,” she chuckled. “I’ll show you what everything does. My sister’s not into magitek gliders, but you seem like you’re interested and… you can see magic circuits, right?”

Her eyes lit up from within with blue coronas, replicating what I probably looked like now.

“Oh I’m sooooper interested,” I nodded, trying not to drool.

I climbed into Galissi and flooded Agatha with questions about everything I saw. The glider had a gps-like pathfinder that allowed it to locate a landing spot, an auto-pilot system that flew it and detected other gliders and incoming, moving objects, five self-warming seats, brakes, shields, accelerator and a coffee-maker. Yes, I was definitely in love!

“It’s just a flying hunk of metal,” Emmy tried to interrupt my excited babble.

“Shush, you know nothing,” I waved her off. “Where’s the eject-mouthy-passenger button?”

Agatha laughed as Emerald huffed at us.

“What’s this formation?” I asked.

“Thunder-strike,” Agatha explained.

“Ahhh awesome!” I clapped my hands. “That’s an ion-harnessing hexiliogram spiral that directs the electrostatic charge right? Have you shot down any dragons with the lightning it makes?”

“I have,” Agatha nodded. "It spooks or fries them pretty good, depending on the size."

Emerald rolled her eyes at us. She wasn’t a car fanatic. Most of our conversion went way over her head. I was lucky enough to read several books about Stormancers or Lightning mages and Gravitymancers in Eunice’s library. The glider operated on the relationship between Folding, Gravity and Electricity magics. It was ridiculously interesting tech, most closely resembling the concept of Electrogravitics.

Electrogravitics was a term coined in 1921 by Thomas Townsend Brown as an “anti-gravity force created by an electric field's effect on a mass”. Back on Earth it wasn’t a real thing, but here on Andross Electrogravitics were perfectly legitimate magitek principles that this very glider relied on.

“Khrm-khm,” A crusty, female voice resounded from the outside.

“Ah, Arch-Maid Hamia,” Agatha stepped out of the glider. “I’d like these two maids reassigned to outside duties.”

“What sort of duties?” Hamia asked. Judging by her deep-set eyes she was very old, but still looked very pretty and fit. So pretty that I pondered about maxing my Vitality.

“Personal assistants,” I stuck my head out of the glider. “I want Voltara as my maid and Arouetta for Princess Emerald. Do they allow personal maids in Nemendias?”

"Ah, High-Cendai Juni," the arch-maid curtsied at me. "These two were assigned to you as in-house maids. Personal maids are indeed permitted in Nemendias. You wish to expand their contracts?"

"Yep," I nodded. "Can you also disable their emotion-inhibitors? I really dislike their dry speech."

Emerald's gaze was burning a hole in my side.

"Are you certain?" The arch-maid inquired. "They could get rowdy, illogical or insulting if their emotions are engaged. They could fall in love and get distracted, failing at their job performance. I cannot permit a maid to act ungraceful or get impolite around the princess!"

"I'm very certain," I insisted. "I have made an evaluation, which you might have missed. Princess Emerald is very bad at social situations. She requires practice interacting with people who aren't tightly bound with Vows. She will fail at her duties and fumble future relationships if she is unable to interact in a friendly manner with people below her. I believe that a trusted maid like Arouetta would be best for training our lovely princess."

"Training in what manner?" The arch-maid asked.

"Friendship-making," I said.

"And do you also require a maid of our Estate to train your friendship outside of our Barony?" The arch-maid inquired.

"No," I shook my head. "I'm already pretty good at making friends. I simply want her for myself."

"If you want her specifically for yourself outside of the Estate, it will cost…" the arch-maid started to speak.

"Nothing," I said confidently. "I'm taking her out regardless of what color she is. The Baroness assigned her to me and I like her so I want her on a permanent basis."

"Why?" The maid persisted.

"I don't need to explain myself. I'm the Eighth High-Cendai," I declared.

"Then I won't modify her Vow," the arch-maid said.

"I'm taking her regardless," I uttered sternly.

"She won't be able to pass through the Estate's barrier ward-shield unless she is made violet," the maid said.

"She will," I smirked. "Because I'll cut through any shield or ward made by another cendai. I'm equal to the Seven in title. I'm sure it would be quite... bothersome for your Baroness to repair this estate's wards after I'm done with them.'

The arch-maid frowned.

"Consider Voltara a payment to me from your Baroness… for attacking me with magic when we met this morning," I said. "And be glad that I didn't dismantle your entire Barony after Amadea's actions!"

"You impudent brat," the maid's expression said.

"If my vote counts at all, I want the two maids turned violet," Emerald said.

"If my sister wants it, I'm still in," Agatha added.

"Fine," the arch-maid sighed. "By the power invested in me, I henceforth declare Maid Voltara and Maid Arouetta turned violet. Also, your emotions are now unlocked too. Serve and represent your Barony well outside of our walls."

The arch-maid waved her armacus over the heads of the two bowed maids and their black-lace dresses and eye-covers rapidly turned dark violet.

Voltara simply smiled, while Arouetta broke out in thankful sobs.

The arch-maid shook her head and departed, muttering in annoyance about stubborn archmagi.

Emerald grabbed me and pulled me into the glider.

"What in the blithering Astral was that?" she hissed. "I thought you already asked Mother to release Voltara's lock."

I smiled at the little princess who looked confused and irritated. She had been bamboozled and could not figure out how or why.

Voltara got into the glider and sat next to me. She nodded to me. I grabbed her hand and squeezed. She squeezed back. I knew that she would not forget what I had done for her. In her mind, I had stood up to the absolute power of the richest Barony of Illatius to release her from her mental and physical prison.

"Thank you Mistress," Arouetta bowed as she entered the Skyship.

I wasn't sure who she was thanking but it didn't really matter.

"Sooooo?" Agatha slid into the driver's seat, flicking the magitek panels on. "Where are we going for lunch?"

"Township of Lomb," I said with a grin. "I know the perfect place there."