The beach was windier than Reianna thought it would be. She pushed down on the straw hat Natt had given her to wear as the wind tried to take it off her head. The wide, floppy brim blew up, and her sarong fluttered in the strong breeze as well.

  Unperturbed, her mother lounged on a sun chair. The umbrella protecting her mother from the sun was planted deeply enough into the beach that it was also impervious to the wind.

  “Reia! Good morning!”

  “Hi, Mom.”

  “Did you enjoy the bread?”

  Reianna nodded, but she didn’t know if her mother saw it or not, as the sun was to Reianna’s back. “It was nice to have some of Dad’s bread again.”

  It hadn’t tasted like her father’s bread, though. Better ingredients made it taste better. She could still taste his love in it, but with it, just like with her parents, something felt off.

  “He’s been so happy to have real, fresh ingredients. He wanted to make you a standard loaf so you could taste it. He said he’s going to make Danish pastries tomorrow. Danishes! Ha! Imagine.”

  Loria leaned back in her chair and closed her eyes. Reianna had never seen her mother look so relaxed. She was also…meatier than she’d been in the past. Her thin frame had a lot more on it, and her face was fuller. She’d felt it in the hug the day before, but seeing her mom now…she looked healthy.

  It was nine o’clock in the morning, and her mother was doing nothing. Yet another first.

  “Are you enjoying staying at Natt’s house?”

  “It’s wonderful!”

  Reianna smiled. This is what she wanted for her parents. Her father was having fun baking, not just baking to survive. Her mother was no longer thin and frail, working herself into exhaustion.

  But at the same time, Reianna was unhappy because it was Natt who gave it to them. If Earl-ess Wendina hadn’t threatened to kill them, they would still be starving and slaving away back in their barony.

  At some point, somewhere in her mind, she’d dreamed of graduating, going home, and taking her parents to this life, that she would do it for them. That she could give it to them out of love, not because some noble was threatening to kill them.

  She knew it shouldn’t matter, that their safety and happiness should be more than her childish desires, but she couldn’t help her feelings, and that made her feel even worse.

  “I’m fourteen, now, Mom.”

  Loria sat up. “I know! My little Reia is getting so big!” She hopped up out of her chair. “Oh! Why don’t I bake you a cake? I was so sad that we couldn’t be together on your birthday.”

  Reianna smiled again, but she didn’t feel the smile on the inside. “I’d like that.”

  Hooking her arm in her daughter’s arm, Loria led them back towards Natt’s house. “Goodness! Look how much taller you’ve gotten!”

  “Well, it’d be hard to get much shorter…”

  Her mother smiled. “Tell me, did you have a party with all your new school friends?”

  A gust of wind kicked up. Since her arm was interlocked with her mother’s, Reianna didn’t react in time, and the hat went flying off her head.

  Angled to head out into the water, the hat tumbled across the beach. Reianna freed her arm and took off with all her speed to catch the hat before it went into the water and was lost forever.

  Successfully retrieving her hat, with a big smile on her face, Reianna turned around and waved it at her mother, proclaiming her victory over nature. Loria stood frozen in her spot, covered in sand, and staring at her daughter.

  Seeing the expression on her mother’s face, Reianna dropped her arm to her side, and the smile fell from her face. Her mother was looking at her with a mix of shock and fear.

  At a more normal pace, Reianna trotted back to her mother. Following Reianna’s return with her eyes was the only movement her mother made. When Reianna got back to her mom, she began knocking off the sand she’d kicked up on her mother.

  “Sorry about that.”

  “How…how did you do that?”

  Reianna couldn’t look up. She couldn’t bear to see her mother look at her as if she were a freak, so she kept her eyes down and shrugged. “I can just do it. I told you I was a mage.”

  Loria’s arms wrapped around Reianna. “I always knew you were special.”

  Reianna melted into her mother. She didn’t say anything. The conflicting emotions washed away in her mother’s warm embrace. It was a hug that said no matter how much Reianna changed, she would always be Loria’s daughter.

  “Come on, Reia. Let’s go bake that cake.”

  Pulling away from her mother, Reianna took her hand like she was still a four-year-old girl. “I wanted to be the one to give you all of this, Mom.”

  “But you have, sweetie. It may not have come directly from you, but I am here because of you. I told you I’m happy, but I’m actually scared every day. I’m scared that one day, they’ll come tell me that you’ve died at that school.”

  Reianna squeezed her mother’s hand. “I’m not going to. I told you, Natt and Gerenet-Shr won’t let me. I won’t let me.”

  Loria squeezed her daughter’s hand back, but didn’t say anything.

  As they headed inside, they passed the pool. Little waves ran across its surface from the wind. Reianna wondered if anyone actually went into that thing. It reminded her too much of the public bathhouses, only it was a tad smaller and deeper.

  “Have you been in that?” Reianna asked.

  “Yes…wasn’t really my thing, but Annora loves it. Your dad loves the jamaica.”

  “What’s a jamaica?”

  “It’s a smaller pool. Annora and Davion can make it warm up and spit bubbles. I don’t mind that one as much.”

  “I don’t know. That just sounds like a bubbly bathhouse to me.”

  Her mom laughed. “You’ll probably think I’m weird, but that’s probably what I miss most about back home.”

  Reianna gave her mother a sideways glance as they headed inside. “I do. I do think you’re weird.”

  “I don’t know…the bathhouse just gave me a sense of community.”

  “But the water only cycles out every other hour! The water is just so disgusting at the end of a cycle, and so many people are waiting around for the new cycle!”

  “We’re not all introverts like you, dear. That’s where I always got the best gossip, too.”

  “I’d rather fight a Yani…” Reianna said.

  “Well, then I guess you went to the right school.”

  When they entered the kitchen, her father, Natt, and her parents were playing some sort of card game. Natt looked up and smiled. “Back from the beach already?”

  “Yeah, Mom said she wants to bake me a cake since she missed my birthday.”

  “Isn’t that sweet, Davion?” Annora asked.

  “Not as sweet as the cake will be if we let my wife make it,” Marcob said, placing his cards down on the table and standing. “I’d better help if we don’t want all the sugar to vanish.”

  Loria stopped him and pushed him back to the table. “Nope! I’m making it alone!”

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  “Yani. Let me just get the sugar and eat it straight. It’ll save us on the baking time.”

  “I hope you enjoy it, buster, because thanks to that, no cake for you. Hmph.” Loria closed her eyes and stuck her nose in the air. “Come, Reia, let’s make the sweetest cake ever. Just for you.”

  Reianna smiled at her parents’ playful bickering. Now that her emotions were settled, she really felt like she was home again.

  Loria moved her way around the kitchen with comfort and ease; she’d obviously been helping out during her time there. As she watched, her mother’s familiarity with the kitchen felt odder and odder. Reianna narrowed her eyes. She would have thought there would be maids and servants helping out and asked as much.

  “No,” Davion said. “They had to leave when Natt fell. Only nobles are allowed servants.”

  “Who fills the bath for Mom and Dad, then?”

  Davion and Annora looked at each other. “What?” Natt’s father asked.

  “Reianna!” her father warned.

  She ignored him. “They can’t read. They can’t use the interface.”

  “But your mother is baking right now!” Annora said as Loria put the cake in the oven. “See?”

  “Reianna! Enough!”

  “No, Dad! Not enough! Mrs. Annora, Mr. Davion, they can’t read the interface; they just have how to use the oven memorized. It’s part of—”

  “Reianna!” Marcob stood and hit the table. “Do you have to embarrass us?”

  She shook her head. “It’s nothing to be embarrassed about, Daddy! We can teach you.” She pulled her phonics cards out of her storage.

  His hand gripped the back of the chair hard enough that his knuckles turned white. He didn’t slam it or move the chair at all; he just let go of it and left the room.

  “Marcob!” Loria ran after him. Reianna looked down at the counter.

  “Reianna,” Annora said. “I’m so sorry, we didn’t know.”

  Natt shook her head. “Mom, I’ve told you, Granddaddy was, and Dad is by far the exception. You’ve not been to other baronies. It’s not like here.”

  Annora looked at Natt. “I know you said you always had to teach your students how to read, but I never imagined…I just thought it was time constraints and parents couldn’t teach them before they went to Dyntril.”

  “That’s…kind of naive, Mom. Dad, you should have known at least and told her.”

  “I’m sorry, sweetie. I've just…been out of politics so long. And here, where everybody can read…I just…forgot it wasn't like that everywhere."

  “It’s fine,” Reianna said. “We just need to make sure they become literate.”

  The three adults looked at Reianna.

  “What?”

  “You are beyond your years,” Davion said. His wife nodded her agreement, and Natt just smiled.

  Reianna’s face flushed. She grabbed the bowls and utensils that her mother was finished with and took them to the sink. Accessing the sink, she ordered it to produce washing water and began scrubbing the bowls.

  A few minutes later, her mother came back in alone. “Sorry for the outburst—” She stopped and looked at Reianna. “What…how…Is this one of your mage things?”

  “No, Mom, this is one of those reading things.”

  “Can…can you really teach me, Reia?”

  Reianna pulled a towel out of her storage, dried her hands, and vanished it again. “I can teach you how to do all that.”

  “Wait,” Annora said. “You and Marcob do the dishes all the time. How do you…?”

  “Water from the public baths. If you bring back water from the beginning of a cycle, it will be clean enough.”

  “But the closest bathhouse to here is three miles away!” Davion said.

  “Marcob and I went every morning. You two always smelled so nice, and we needed to bring back water anyway.”

  Davion hid his hands behind his face. “I feel like such an ass. I really had no idea.”

  “Just keeping us here, feeding us, and supporting us, that’s all we ever needed. More, honestly.”

  Reianna put her hand on her mother’s arm. “Dad’s embarrassed now, but once you guys learn to read, life will get so much better.”

  Loria smiled and rubbed the back of Reianna’s hand.

  A bell chimed. Reianna looked up at the ceiling. “What’s that?”

  “It’s a thing called a doorbell,” her mother answered.

  “I’ll get it,” Annora said. She left the kitchen, and a few seconds later, her yell echoed through the house, “Oh, Yani! Billiam! It’s so good to see you!”

  Reianna’s ears perked up, her mother’s expression shifted to concern, and Natt rolled her eyes.

  Billiam came sliding into the kitchen. “My Daaaaaaaaaaaarlings! I am here!” He wore a lavender t-shirt and lavender shorts. His uncovered legs were covered in a lavender haze from his leg hairs. His shoes were pink sandals with tan straps. His hair was slicked in a wave that flowed off the side of his head.

  “Liam!” Reianna said.

  “My darling, Reirei! It’s been too long.”

  The smile on Reianna’s face faded when the next person came through the door. “Loushee?”

  The topaz girl stood behind Billiam and waved. “I heard you were going to be here during hunting break. I thought I’d come hang out with you, and maybe we could do some experimenting with our abilities?”

  “Yeah…uhh…sure?”

  “Reianna? Who are these people?” her mother asked.

  “Umm, this is the Royal Mage Billiam, and umm, my…friend, Loushee.”

  Loushee’s head perked up at being called a friend, and she smiled.

  “Ro-royal?” Her mother took a step back.

  “Oh my, Reirei. Why didn’t you tell me your mother was so adorable? Oh, that light azure hair!”

  “A-a-adorable?” Loria stammered.

  “Liam, this is my mother, Loria. My dad is off…elsewhere.”

  Davion came over and shook Billiam’s hand. “Always a pleasure, sir.”

  Billiam used the handshake to pull Davion closer and kiss his cheek. “This is why I hated becoming the royal mage. You’re so stiff with me now.”

  Patting Billiam’s shoulder, Davion said, “It’s not the title I’m respecting, but the man.”

  Billiam blushed.

  “Anyway, I’m going to leave you all to chat, and see if I can’t coax Marcob out, man-to-man.” As he left, he grabbed Annora’s hand and pulled her away with him.

  Natt still sat in her chair, with an arm on the table, watching the new arrivals. “Natty-watty!” Billiam said.

  She stood. “Don’t ‘Natty-watty’ me!”

  “Are you still angry?”

  “Of course, I am!”

  Reianna looked from one to the other. She didn’t know why Natt was so angry.

  “Miss Natt, please don’t be angry at him. He was just following my orders.”

  Natt rounded on Loushee and wagged a finger at her. “You! Missy! Oh Yani, do I have a lot of words for you.”

  Loushee dropped her head and stared at the ground.

  “Don’t think looking cute and contrite will make me any less angry! We’re going to have a long talk while you’re here.”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  Billiam watched the scene with his mouth hanging open. “Is it just me you control?”

  Loushee looked up at him. “Of course. Do you know what Basque would do to me if I did anything to Natt?”

  “Hmmph,” Billiam said and leaned down with his elbows on the counter and his chin in his hands. “Why can’t I be the one fucking him?”

  “I saw him first,” Natt said and patted his cheeks.

  Billiam stood up. “What smells so yummy?”

  “My mom’s baking a birthday cake for me,” Reianna answered.

  “It’s your birthday?” Loushee asked.

  “Like six months ago, but we couldn’t celebrate it together, so she’s making me a cake now.”

  “Aww, that’s so sweet!” Billiam said. “Your mom is just the cutest! Seriously, I could just eat her up. Bite-sized candy.”

  “Enough teasing Reianna,” Natt scolded him. “Just unlock her counter, would you?”

  Reianna stood straight. Her counter?

  “Yes, yes. I’m not leaving yet, though. You’re stuck with me for a couple of days.”

  Natt sighed. “That’s what I was afraid of.” Her smile showed that she was joking.

  Billiam laughed.

  Clearing her throat, Loushee said, “Umm, Miss Natt, Reianna? If it’s okay…I was hoping to make this my base of operations—”

  Holding her hand up, Natt shook her head. “We’ll talk about that later. After I give you a proper dressing down and we establish some ground rules.”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  Billiam balled his fists and stared at the ceiling. “Seriously, why just me?”

  As she thumbed at Natt, Loushee said, “Basque immunity—”

  Natt’s glare cut her off.

  “Okay, scary immunity.” She thumbed at Reianna. “Servitude and friend immunity.” She pointed at Billiam. “Funny and being my bitch munity.”

  “Munity isn’t even a word!”

  “Don’t make me put you in your box,” Loushee said with a smile, but Billiam’s shiver said that it wasn’t completely a joke.

  “Have you been to Corvin’s estate yet?” Natt asked, ending the conversation.

  Billiam shook his head. “I’ll go there next and unlock the rest of the class.”

  “A few of them went home, as well,” Natt said.

  He nodded. “I spoke with Basque about them. Cayelyn and Jame will be fine. I’ll find the others and get them done as well. Do you want me to reactivate yours?”

  Natt shook her head. “I’ve no interest in rejoining the ranks of nobility. Plus, I think that might get you in trouble.”

  “And activating a class of commoners won’t?”

  “Nobody will notice.”

  “Ha! They will by third-year.”

  Natt waved her hand. “That’s still over a year away. Basque wanted it done now, just in case. I mean, Banca’s still got hers active, and she’s with him at the camps.”

  Billiam shook his head. “I still can’t believe you let her go out there.”

  “He’ll keep her safe, and it’s what she wanted,” she said with a shrug. “Plus, I’ll be joining them in a couple of weeks.”

  He rolled his eyes. “As if those two noblewomen who followed him out there will last that long. I bet they barely last one night!”

  “Well, the other three will, and Basque won’t have an issue sending those two home alone if need be.”

  Billiam looked at Natt again. “Are you sure you don’t want to be reactivated?”

  “Positive.” She pointed at Reianna. “Now, if you would?”

  Nodding as if that answered all his questions, Billiam turned to Reianna. “Alright, Reirei. Let’s get your counter going. There’s lots of Yani in the sea.”