Scyelen squeaks and gets a bit deer-in-the-headlights.

"You... want to be my handmaiden?"

Siesta nods fervently.

"I would. I do."

"That sounds all right to me."

"Um, I, um, I accept you into my service, Siesta of Tarbes."

Shy smile.

Hug!

Scyelen snuggles up and enjoys the feeling of... accomplishing something they set out to do, something real... as they ride back to the academy.

As for Siesta... well, Scyelen finds herself weirdly trustful of the commoner girl. Siesta... doesn't know. But for the first time in her life, Scyelen maybe feels like they could part amicably if Siesta found out and... didn't want to serve someone so perverse anymore.

A good result all around.

The next day, after they return and get Siesta re-settled, the Headmaster gathers the school for an announcement.

"As you know, at the end of this week we will be holding the Familiar Exhibition, in which all of you second-years will have the chance to exhibit your familiars for your classmates! What you may not know, is that we have recently received word that our very own Princess Henrietta will be gracing us with her presence! I have received word that the Princess will be arriving on the day prior and plans to attend the event!"

Well that's certainly awkward. He gives Scyelen a dubious look, but doesn't say anything.

Scyelen is looking at him with just as much dubiousness and an extra full serving of anxiety.

Later, at lunch, Scyelen's best suggestion is, "Maybe you could... um, tell that kobold story? Without the teleporting part, I mean."

"I have some stories with different magic in them, that sounds like it'll work. I don't have much that's showy, but I could prepare a few spells for people to see?"

"If, um, you're sure they'd pass as Brimic spells," she whispers.

"I have a few that should. We can plan on trying to avoid it. The princess will probably be interested in us, though, we should have a plan for if we need to show off."

Scyelen blinks like this hasn't occurred to her.

"Oh, I guess... her highness might be."

She gets a nostalgic look on her face for a moment, before that's replaced with a distant sadness.

This calls for a hug. "What'cha thinking about?"

"Just... the past."

Before she can elaborate, Kirche comes over to flirt with Raafi, and then it's time for class.

See, this is why he likes being on the road, there's so many fewer interruptions. He needs to go before too much longer - after the exhibition, maybe; he'll probably need it at that point.

He sits through Scyelen's morning classes as usual, and takes the afternoon to plan his spell preparation for the day; he doesn't want to discuss it in the dining room, so he brings the list to Scyelen's room after dinner.

They go over the list together. There are several spells that could easily pass as Brimic, and several more that could pass with a little play-acting.

Scyelen is prevaricating over the potential of Air Walk, when the window shutter, behind Scyelen's thick black curtains, suddenly clicks and creaks open. The curtains part as a dark figure shrouded in a concealing cloak floats into the room.

Raafi puts himself between Scyelen and the intruder, watching warily but not casting anything quite yet.

The mysterious figure lowers her hood, revealing the face of a strikingly beautiful young woman, of an age with Scyelen and grinning like she just got away with something naughty.

Scyelen herself gasps and nearly shoves Raafi out of the way as she hurls herself down on one knee, head bowed, fist to the floor. "Y-Your Highness! Y-You honor us with, um, your presence? How may I serve."

The princess merely giggles and rests a hand on Scyelen's hair, petting her gently. "Oh Scyelen, please, there's no need for formal address. Come, stand up and let me get a look at you."

Scyelen complies, too lost to be embarrassed as the princess inspects her with a subtle expression of worry.

"You haven't been sleeping enough," the princess comments, "but in any case, it is so wonderful to see you again. I snuck away from my convoy just so I could; it's been far too long, Scyelen." She hugs the slightly smaller girl tightly.

Scyelen shudders. "You came... me...? You remember me?"

The princess pulls back a little to look at her friend, shocked. "Of course! You were my very dearest childhood friend. Why wouldn't I remember you?"

"I it just I it seemed presumptuous to imagine you ever thought of me after we parted?" Scyelen stammers.

"Of course I thought of you!" the princess exclaims. "I missed you terribly, and I feel just awful that I never wrote..."

A tearful smile begins to appear on Scyelen's face her arms start to move to return the hug, but then she freezes. "But I've changed..." is all she manages to say.

The princess is puzzled for a moment before pushing on with a teasing giggle. "Oh? Are you not still the girl who wanted to play Pirate Hunters and so convinced me to tie you to a tree and tickle you until you gave up the sEcReTs oF tHe djiNn-sPoOkY cO~ove..."

Scyelen makes a strangled noise and turns dangerously red. (Because yes, that did happen; Scyelen had just been repressing the memory until this moment, and the only reason she isn't literally dead of embarrassment and self-disgust is that none of the perversions she's since sprouted seem to include a thing about tickling in particular.)

Grinning, the princess looks over Scyelen's shoulder to address Raafi for the first time. "So! Who's your friend, Scyelen?"

He backed down when Scyelen recognized the princess, and spent a few seconds wondering whether he should bow or something, but the princess didn't seem to want him to, so he's just been hanging back, grinning at the cuteness.

"Raafi, Your Highness. The gandalfr; I'm not sure how widely the news has spread. Scyelen's familiar."

The princess's eyes widen.

"So it is true! Scyelen, you're a Void mage?"

(Scyelen is blushing too hard to be able to speak at the moment.)

Raafi steps forward and puts an arm around Scyelen's shoulder. "She certainly seems to be."

Scyelen just lets out a little whine of incoherence.

Her brain is locked up between the revelation that her childhood friend remembers her, missed her, went to considerable lengths to visit her, and the horror of someone so pure and good being contaminated by the perverse corruption of those precious memories by Scyelen's unquenchable depravity. This is THE PRINCESS!!! Tristain's beacon of hope and benevolence! Scyelen is unworthy to look at her, let alone touch her...

Henrietta giggles at Scyelen's shyness.

"Come, sit with me and tell me about your life since we parted."

She maneuvers Scyelen over to sit hip to hip on the edge of the bed, but when she sees how nonverbal Scyelen still is, she asks Raafi instead, "How has she been?"