I sat up in bed, not even bothering to try and close my eyes or sleep. The next couple days would probably be busy, what with Amy meeting with the king and all, but I wasn’t the one who needed to rest.
It had taken a while to convince Amy to sleep. She’d been so excited to play with her new spell - like a child let loose in a sweets shop. It almost made me smile… if not for the nature of what she’d summoned.
Not that tentacles were really a bad thing in and of themselves - even Clara had to admit that, when pushed - but there was something about hers. The way they moved, and shifted in the darkness… Not to mention the fact that she insisted on summoning them from beneath her skirt, of all places, claiming that was where ‘the shadows dwelled most thickly’ - whatever the heck that meant.
Something to do with the ‘eldritch’ concept she kept bringing up? It reminded me of some of the stories I’d heard as a child - of monstrosities that lived and hunted amongst the stars, occasionally devouring one whole and leaving an empty space in our night sky. It really seemed to resonate with Amy when I told her about it, though she insisted it wasn’t actually a monster eating them.
I wasn’t sure how she could be so sure, though. I mean yeah, maybe there was some other explanation in her world, but this was another one altogether! One with magic, and demons, and all sorts of things she claimed didn’t exist back on ‘Earth’ - though, if there were really no demons on this ‘Earth’ of hers, I had to wonder how one had even managed to snag her and bring her here…
I sighed, thinking I should maybe close my eyes and try to sleep anyway. Before I could, though, a knock came across my door - one I’d kinda been expecting, if I was being honest.
“You can come in!” I called out. No way I had enough energy to walk towards the door… or more like I wanted to keep what energy I did have for the conversation I was about to put through.
“Miss Bridgette,” Clara greeted me, curtsying the moment the door was open. “May I speak to you?”
“You do know you can drop the formalities, right?” I asked. “I might be a baron’s daughter, but I still started off as a commoner, in the end…”
“You are currently the highest ranking member of this household,” the maid pointed out.
“Do you always have to stick to the rules so tightly?”
“The rules of decorum are the only shield I have left to hide behind, now that my Lady has lost her status,” Clara replied. “Amy still doesn’t realize just how tight a spot she’s in - but the other servants about this place certainly do. They gossip constantly, whispering and wondering what fate will await her… Right now, she’s in something of a limbo, seeing as how the king has yet to decide her fate… but even if she survives the upcoming meeting, it’ll likely cement her standing in everyone’s mind. The commoners will no longer have to fear her, and the nobles… Well, I’m sure more than a few would love a chance to take Lady Amelia down a peg, even if it is only through a proxy…”
“I know,” I replied, sighing heavily. “I’ve heard things… Though don’t you think you should be more worried about yourself? It can’t be easy serving as a commoner’s maid, in this place.”
“I have my ways of working around such limitations,” Clara replied primly. As expected, I guess - she wasn’t really the type to appreciate other people butting into her business. “And, as much as it pains me to admit it, your presence helps - you might only be a baron’s daughter, and a knight in training, but everyone knows how close you are to royalty. Fear that word might get back to you - well, I suppose that’s another shield that can be wielded, if need be. For my Lady’s sake.”
“For Amelia’s, you mean… You know, you really should give Amy a chance. You might actually find that you like her!”
“Like you do, Miss Bridgette?” Clara asked, arching an eyebrow.
“Me? No. I’m just fulfilling my duty as a knight - keeping the innocents safe, and all that…”
“And keeping an eye on her for the king,” Clara noted.
I grimaced. “That too, I guess… It’s not like I’m reporting her every word back to him or anything, though. He just wants me to form an opinion on whether or not she’s really Amelia - and we both know she isn’t.”
“Indeed…” Clara said, sighing. “Did you know I had to talk her out of carving the first subspell? She said she wanted to use the shape of a sponge - so that it could absorb mana from the atmosphere, and become ‘all spongey’ to absorb attacks as well. An interesting idea, I suppose, but not one to do on impulse… not before figuring out its placement with Pauline and Professor Devulchas, at least…”
“She is pretty impulsive, isn’t she?”
“You’re smiling, Miss Bridgette,” Clara noted. “Should I take that as a sign you like her after all?”
“Am I?” I frowned. I hadn’t even noticed, but… “I guess I do. Sorta. She’s… I don’t know. Impulsive? Kinda stupid? Really annoying to talk to, sometimes, too…”
“And yet something tells me you’d stay by her side even without the king’s orders,” Clara remarked.
“…Maybe…” I confessed. “She’s just so… I don’t know… Maybe it’s just that feeling of being needed?”
“Perhaps,” Clara replied. There was a weird smugness in her tone that kinda made me want to throw something at her, but I decided to be the better person and ignore it.
“So why are you really here, anyway?” I asked, to change the subject. “Is this about the tentacles? Because I know having something like that crawling out from under your ‘Lady’s’ skirt can be a bit… much, but I don’t think she’s really planning to use them for something perverted. I’m not even sure how she could.”
“I’ve read… literature on the subject,” Clara replied, her cheeks tinged pink. Under other circumstances I might have - okay, definitely would have - teased her about it, but it was pretty clear Clara had something else to say.
After a moment of awkward silence, she finally got to the point. “The day after tomorrow… when Amy meets with the king… I want you to listen in.”
“Listen in?” I asked. “On the king? You do realize there’s, like, privacy wards and stuff keeping that from happening, right? Not to mention the small fact that it’s kinda treasonous.”
“On her way to and from that conversation then,” Clara replied, shifting her plans so quick you’d think she’d been expecting that answer all along. Which maybe she did? Maybe that was her idea of sneakily getting me to ‘compromise.’ It sounded like her. “I want you to listen. And, if she seems to be in trouble - if she’s to be locked up and executed, or some such… I want you to rescue her.”
“Okay, that’s definitely treason,” I protested. “There’s no way I can do that!”
“Would you rather watch her die for the crimes of another?” Clara asked, arching an eyebrow.
“That… Well… No,” I admitted. The thought left a bitter taste in my mouth. “But I also don’t want to betray the kingdom, and throw away my knightly pride.”
“Is that so?” Clara asked, her tone cold. “Tell me, Lady Bridgette - why did you seek to become a knight in the first place?”
“Can you just stick to ‘miss’ like everyone else, please?” I asked, grimacing. “You know the whole ‘technically an aristocrat’ thing still makes my skin itch… I don’t like being seen as above other people.”
Clara didn’t reply. She just sort of stared at me, waiting for me to reply.
“Fine. I wanted to become a knight to help people, alright? Does that answer your question?”
“And becoming a royal guard would help you with that… how, exactly?” Clara pressed.
“I just… I don’t know. I thought maybe I could help Prince Henry do good things? Make the right choices? Plus, he’s kinda sorta a friend…”
“And yet you’re here with me and my Lady, instead,” Clara pointed out. “People he despises.”
“Only because Amy needs me…”
“Much more than ‘Prince Henry,’ I would say. In fact, I might even go so far as to say that she needs protection from Prince Henry most of all.”
“Ugh…” That was true. Henry was… Well, he was sort of obsessed… not that I could really blame him. Amelia caused him a lot of pain and trouble, and always found some way to get herself out of trouble. He just didn’t want to believe she’d managed it yet again.
“I’m just saying, Miss Bridgette… perhaps you should put more thought into exactly what sort of knight you want to be?”
I didn’t reply. Mostly because Clara turned her back and left before I could, but also because I really didn’t know what to say. She wasn’t wrong. I wasn’t… I probably wasn’t going to be able to help people the way I wanted to, staying by Henry’s side… Not directly, at least… but, for a long time, I’d been thinking that maybe indirectly helping was enough? Maybe helping him to be a better person, to make the right decisions, and telling him how the common folk lived… maybe it could do more good than just being one more knight on horseback…?
At the same time, though… if he truly threatened Amy… Was I really going to let him get away with sending an innocent to her death?
I wanted to say no… but at the same time, I couldn’t help but remember earlier that day. How I’d stayed by the sidelines until the last moment. How I’d failed to be there for Amy, telling myself that she could surely get through to Henry if just given the chance… that he would be reasonable. Even though he clearly wasn’t…
I sighed again - deeper and longer this time - before collapsing down upon my bed, not even bothering to strip out of my armor. I didn’t need to be comfortable. I needed to think… at least until I passed out and fell asleep.
When I finally did, though, I just knew it wasn’t going to lead to pleasant dreams…
***
***
I didn’t sleep well that night. Too excited by my new magic, I suppose… The tentacles weren’t too strong, as of yet - they lacked substance. They were easily cut through, or even pulled away from by someone with enough force. What’s more, the heavier an object I tried to lift with them, the more mana they demanded to get it done - though lifting myself seemed to be an exception to the rule. Perhaps because it was my own spell?
So many questions running through my head - so much to experiment with. I wanted to carve my first subspell immediately, if only so that I’d have more time to play with the tentacles - they took mana just to exist as it stood, and that mana was painfully slow to recuperate - but I knew full well that Pauline and Professor Devulchas would both yell at me something fierce if I did…
…Well, okay, Pauline wouldn’t yell, but she would give me a really disappointed expression which was somehow kind of worse?
Still, even without being able to keep them out without limit, my excitement at least knew no bounds. I spent the entirety of the next day exploring and practicing and figuring out what I could and couldn’t pull off. Not that I really learned much - but it was exciting! I was casting magic! Using tentacles! Eldritch tentacles of pure shadow!
I wondered if I should maybe use a subspell to give them eyes? And teeth? …Well, maybe not teeth, that might be a touch too creepy… How would it even work? Would I give them fully functional mouths? Would they be able to eat? Would they need to eat?
No, definitely not teeth… but eyes? Eyes were a ‘maybe,’ especially if I had the power to make them appear and disappear at will. I also wanted something to harden them, so that they could strike strong and defend better against sharp strikes that might go right through the spongy defenses I already had planned… and maybe I could do cold damage with them, too? Frosty chilly tentacles that would freeze you to your bones before smashing down upon you, hard and tough as a rock!
There was so much to do, so much to plan, that I honestly half expected to stay awake the next night as well - but in the end, sleepiness claimed me.
Which was honestly probably for the best, since Bridgette came knocking on my door the next morning, bright and early, to ready me for my visit with the king.
~~~
Author's Notes
This chapter looks nothing like I thought it would,. I expected it to mostly be playing with tentacles, but then I thought about Bridgette and Clara talking and the next thing I knew the chapter was practically over... Oops?
Oh well. Hope you enjoyed! It's undergone some slight editing as of today, to better differentiate Bridgette's voice from Amy in terms of internal monologue - hope that helps?
Patreon is currently up to chapter 21 by the way - a 5 chapter buffer. I'm going to try and keep it that way, but we'll see how it goes. You can read ahead, now, for as little as $1~!