Amalie, who had been waiting for her chance to enter the conversation, took it.

Frannie slumped back in her seat, defeated by a history test before she’d even failed it.

Satisfied she’d given their conversation enough time, Amalie brought back up her eternal quest.

Francine rolled her eyes as Frankel was sending Granta and several other girls signals from what she had heard, but it was better not to mention that.

Amalie’s face screwed up into a puckered web of confusion.

Before she could stop herself, Francine commented, netting a dagger stare from Amalie. That was her cue to depart.

It promised to be a quiet weekend and another long week ahead. With all that had happened and the Caller’s ball on the horizon, Francine was perfectly fine with that. When Harriet wasn’t in her room, Francine remembered she had gone to the homecoming dance with Scrupulous and headed off to the law school offices to see if she was there.

When Francine passed Tabulain’s office, the door was cracked, and she could hear Frankel and Sebastian inside talking to him.

She could hear Sebastian on the other side throwing his arms around and mocking her. Frannie wanted to rush through the door and slap Sebastian just for that comment, but she realized she was crouching beside the door, holding her breath. She didn’t want to leave or get caught, so she stayed silently, unmoving.

Azure’s Office! Francine could barely keep from laughing. Of course, they got caught in Azure’s office.

Laughter erupted from the office. Francine couldn’t believe he was telling such disgusting lies about Ginny.

She knew they had made out, sure, that much was obvious, but Ginny confirmed they didn’t do anything else. What was she supposed to do?

Francine leaped from the shadows, using her foot to burst the door open. It slammed against the stopper, vacillating between her foot and the wall a few times as she pointed her finger in accusation. The three boys screamed in shock. Sebastian fell off Tabulain’s desk, knocking a stack of papers into the garbage.

Unaware anyone had been listening to their conversation; the three looked like children caught stealing cookies before supper. Tabulain was the first to recover his faculty of speech. Stepping over Sebastian as he picked himself up, he was initially on the defense.

Tabulain and Frankel both shot a scathing look at Sabastian when she pointed that out, which was no surprise to Francine. Tabulain should know not to trust him, even with a door locked up tight.

Tabulain gently gestured as he spoke, softening and slowly walking toward Francine until he had one arm around her shoulder and closed the door behind them.

Harriet and tests long forgotten Abbie and Francine were now audience to Amalie’s attempt at retrieving Tabulain. To Francine’s great delight, which she let Abbie in on, they were about to watch Amalie get precisely what she wanted. They hoped that would keep her happily occupied for a while.

Amalie was pacing back and forth outside their apartments while Frannie and Abbie watched from the window. She was waiting and getting more and more upset. She had her whole pouty routine planned out, and just as she was about to stomp off the several blocks to Tabulain’s apartment and give him a real piece of her mind, his carriage arrived down the walk on the road.

He got out, and behind him hopped his footman, who started scurrying back and forth, getting vase after vase of roses and setting them on the front steps until there were six vases, each filled with a dozen roses — two vases of red, a vase of white and black, some pink and green. Amalie had trouble keeping her plan in mind.

As he spoke, he pulled a single rose from the vase of white roses and kissed her forehead, then the vase of pink roses, and kissed her cheek, handing the roses to her as he went. Every time she opened her mouth to speak, he started again.

He tucked his hand around her slender neck, buried in her thick black tresses, pulling her gently toward him, and kissed her eyelids.

He ended the conversation with a long, deep drink from them. There were two vases of Red roses right behind her. She almost kicked one over, but his footman was attentive and moved them up to Amalie’s room as soon as Lips locked.

By then, Francine and Abbie weren’t the only ones watching; half of the building was watching from their windows. When all of the vases had been ensconced in her apartment, Tabulain turned and waved up at his audience before they got in the carriage and left, Amalie flying off on cloud nine.

They had a good laugh about that on the way to Matt’s Barracks. About halfway there, Frannie started to wonder who Abbie was going to see.

Francine just shook her head. Abbie’s machinations rarely seemed to result in much. Though it let her feel in control, Francine tried not to interfere or down-talk her ideas.

They parted at the Military campus, and When Francine entered the barracks, it was even more chaotic than usual. Crank Dinger almost ran right into her on his way out the door, with Vase Pinking, the young Gnome lady from Abionne Academy, right behind him. Tristan, Kevin, and Lance were in a push-up contest with Lara, Peony, and Blaise. It was impossible to tell who was winning as they were all going strong when Francine passed and when she got to Matt’s room. She knocked, and Beans answered the door as usual.

They all opened their mouths to talk at once, but no one could come up with a fitting explanation. There was just some mumbling and filler spilling out on top of each other until Matt realized they sounded like a group of mumbling fools.

Pork and beans agreed, but then a live crab was brought out from behind the bunk they were sitting on.

Francine looked trepidatious. She didn’t see what this was going to accomplish. She thought it was a funny prank, to be sure, but this was a terrible time to do something like this. Matt was going to get in more trouble. It was laughable Matt said they spent time out in the common area, causing trouble when he was in his room with Pork and Beans, playing with crabs and knives.

Beans smiled. It looked like he had found an ancient artifact or the key to some great treasure, not a stinking crab. His answer was completely off the wall; why would it matter anyway? Francine stuck her hand in her pocket and felt for her lucky charm. She felt the rough side against her thumb.

Matt took it from Beans and demonstrated how to hold it.

When Francine walked out toward Ginny’s room at the end of the hall, she kept the crab in front of her so they wouldn’t see it. Matt, Pork, and Beans all left out the other way past the rest of them, just finishing their pushup contest and through the common area. They said a few rude words to them in passing, which Matt and friends actually managed to ignore; apparently, it is possible, thought Francine, as she pretended to pull Ginny’s cord, wait a couple of minutes, and then leave out the other door at Ginny’s end of the hall.

Once outside, they ran over to a window that could see into the common area to watch their handiwork.

It took a good ten minutes for the crab to make its debut, and Francine was getting hungry. Just when she was about to abandon them and leave to get lunch by herself, Pork spotted it, just coming out of the hall, still holding the dagger they gave it. The biggest worry was that it had dropped the dagger or gone the wrong way down the hall. Peony and Lara had left, but Blaise, Tristan, Kevin, and Lance were all still in the common area, shirts off, working out and talking.

Matt shushed Pork and Beans as they erupted into a slapfight. By this time, Francine was invested, clinging to the bricks below the window, only her eyes and forehead were poking up, and she worried they might spot her green hair, but it was too late to turn back now. Especially since this meant they must be only minutes away from leaving for lunch. If whatever they were waiting for would happen…

Blaise saw it first. They couldn’t hear what was being said, but it was clear from his pointing and laughter that he found it comical. So did Kevin and Lance. Tristan seemed to find it less so. He looked angry, pointing at the crab and yelling at Lance as if he thought Lance had done it. Lance’s reaction to his yelling was to swiftly pick it up by the back of the shell, the same way Francine had carried it, and chase Tristan around with it.

Matt, Pork, Beans, and even Kevin couldn’t contain themselves; they collapsed with laughter.

Tristan finally tossed a chair between him and Lance, causing them all to fly to the ground. The dagger skittered out of the crustacean’s clamped grasp and stabbed into the base of a training dummy. Blaise helped Lance up and was obviously trying to mediate the situation when Lance ran for the crab as it sidled across the room, confused. As Matt predicted, Lance’s big Army boot stamped down on it, bare arms shooting up in triumph, a claw sailing past his goofy smiling face. Liquid, meat chunks, and shell shards flew all over the room. Blaise, Tristan, and Kevin all shielded their faces, but that wouldn’t stop the shit from hitting the fan.

The juices got all over Tristan’s torso, and a bit of shell flew in his open mouth. Almost immediately, the areas started turning red and puffing up. The look on his face turned from anger to panic. Kevin ran back to what must have been the bathroom, and Blaise didn’t even bother trying to expend any spells; he ran for Ginny’s room and pulled the cord; when she and Abbie appeared, Ginny came in a teleporting step. Kevin doused him with a bucket of water, hoping to clean him off and stop the reaction from getting worse, and Ginny immediately transported him to the nearest clerical support.

Outside the Lance Barracks, in the bushes by the window was blanketed in a shroud of fear and confusion

CH17~ Strategic Relations

An Imperial Education

“How is it possible you know so little about your namesake?”

Frannie sat, fretting at breakfast.

“It isn’t me who has to pass the test now, is it? Maybe you should get Harriet and Lulu to help you study again. That’s not exactly my Forte.”    “You said it, not me. Where has Lulu been lately, anyway? I‘ve seen Harriet skulking around with stacks of books, but it seems like Lulu is always out whenever I look for her.”    “You know, I was wondering that myself.”



Vocal is a platform for supporting, discovering and rewarding creators.

CH17~ Strategic Relations

An Imperial Education

This is an Exclusive Story for supporters of K.B. Silver

About the Creator

K.B. Silver

Comments

Upgrade to see comments and join the conversation

CH17~ Strategic Relations

An Imperial Education

This is an Exclusive Story for supporters of .css-hhy2k-Text{display:inline-block;color:var(--text-accent);}K.B. Silver

About the Creator

K.B. Silver V+

Comments

Upgrade to see comments and join the conversation

This is an Exclusive Story for supporters of K.B. Silver

K.B. Silver