"Okay, first question." Ravenna's demeanor had immediately shifted to a serious one. "Do you still remember your hero skills? Or yht-aspected skills, I suppose? Same thing, different angle."

  Fern id down her knife - more quietly than the fork - and pced her hands oable to stop the trembling, closing her eyes to help her focus and imagine. Various forms filtered through her head: a wide, sweeping strike, a thrust, a hemispherical barrier, a sensory enhancer... illumination... odds and ends that she'd picked up over time, mostly unused, but... "Everything's still there, as far as I tell."

  "And Crimson only taught you a verse? That's all?"

  She nodded. "Just the ohing, that's all I remember."

  Ravenna's eyes narrowed in thought. "Hm. Well, if nothing's missing, that reduces the possible expnations, though we'll o sult Crimson to be certain. However-" She smiled, giving a little shrug. "I assure you it's nothing so dire that you o abandon your breakfast, darling; even if you're not going to enjoy it quite so much, which is truly a shame."

  "Should you find yourself g appetite, Miss Skysh," Sapphire added, "no offense will be taken."

  Fern sighed quietly, and picked up her fain. Upset or not, she had some room left begging to be filled.

  "Better now, darling?" Ravenna inquired as the two of them made their way dowairs, Sapphire off doing her maid business elsewhere iower.

  "... Somewhat," Fern admitted. "A full stomach always helps matters, certainly. It's just..." She trailed off, looking down at her hand again. "The st time I saw this... I was finally starting life as an adult, with almost nothing, and having to figure everything out myself. So it's... a lot to handle." She sighed quietly. "I guess I don't have a lot of happy memories to look ba."

  The dark mage's hand closed around hers, hiding the jack sigil, and gave it a gentle squeeze. "Well, you're not by yourself any more, darling. So we'll see what we do about making some more pleasant memories. Together, as partners do."

  She felt her face warming and just nodded as they tio desd, step by quiet step. Even Ravenna's heels ccked a little less dramatically than before. Ohey made it to the entryway, she finally spoke again. "So... what were those 'expnations' you mentioned?"

  "Ah, yes, I suppose you would want to know." The dark mage snagged one of the devices hanging from her belt and squeezed it with an odd chirping noise, and the celr door opened on its own. "Given that you still have all your existing Lightsider skills, the presence of that sigil would indicate yht and dark levels are - at least roughly - banced. Which is iing, sidering you said she only taught you ohing."

  The first basement floor looked like a simple ste room, stuffed full of chests and crates and barrels on shelves with little bels on them, interspersed with a few racks of staves and swords and other implements. Ravenna pulled Fero one of the tter, and took a fine, if somein, duelist's sword from it. "On that ake this. I have an idea what my maid is pying at."

  She accepted the handle, aed the weight and bance of it with a few practice moves, her eyes widening at the physical feedbabsp; "Oh my. This is no on bde - is it really okay for me to use something this nice?"

  "Well, it's not as if I will, darling. Usually," the dark mage hedged, with a little smile. "But yes, I do believe it will e in quite handy, particurly today." She headed dowairs once more, Ferhing the sword and following.

  The sed basement floor held pens and cages with some very iing fauna inside, some mostly reizable, others... not so mubsp; "I don't reeing too close to anything here," Ravenna murmured. They moved on with a little extra haste.

  The floor uhat turned out to be the kit, as well as a well-quarantined area for butchery; vehat it y so close to the floor above. Fern squinted a little at this e. "That stew from st night..." She couldn't bring herself to ask.

  "I assure you I'd never feed you anything unsafe, darling, nor would either of the maids if you asked them for a snack - which, I might add, you are more than wele to do. Last night? I suppose we could ask Crimson to be sure, but I suspect it was something from the forest - the additional aether makes for a delightful taste aure, ohe problematic elements are filtered out. If there roblem, you'd certainly have noticed it before now."

  "Mm." Well, the meat had to e from somewhere - and yes, it had been delicious. She shrugged, pragmatically, and they tinued down.

  The very floor was a boratory much like the alchemical one she'd seen previously - but this one was cast in, well, crimson. In the ter of the floor rested a sturdy, obloallic box with several unfamiliar seals on it. "Do I want to know about this?" Fern inquired, shivering a little as the mere aura of the pce set her on edge.

  "Well, it is our stop for the moment," Ravenurned blithely. "This is the hemo b, for researto all things blood-reted. It's also where Crimson sleeps during the day. Well - usually."

  The various pieces clicked into pce, and Fern shuddered at the realization. "And you weren't going to tell me? That your..." She hesitated, stopped, swallowed, tried again. We respect the maids here. "That she..." The word didn't want to e out. "I mean, she is, isn't she?"

  "A vampire, you mean? Well, yes, of course," the dark mage returned, as calmly if she'd just been asked whether there was extra cheese to put on the scrambled eggs. "Does that bother you?"

  "I..." She looked down at the sword, at her hand, out at the sullen red glow of the b, the gleaming coffin (it had to be a coffin, surely), and finally back at Ravenna. "Kind of, yeah? I mean, not that I have a choice other than acceptance, but... it's just normal for you? This is fine?" A warning fg finally popped up in her head. "Does she even really serve you, or... is it the other way around...?"

  The dark mage looked back at her, and sighed deeply. "This is getting more plicated than I waoday to be. I'm very sorry about all this, Fern. But I promise you that everything is fine - will be fine - as hard as that may be to believe right now." She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, the out. "And I will fix this, one way or another. Hopefully not the hard way, but..."

  Fern watched uneasily as Ravenna took a plex device from her belt and twisted a few dials on it, then pressed something. With a quiet fizzling sound, one of the coffin's seals dissolved into nothingness. She twisted the dials again, then pressed the same pce, and another seal vanished; it seemed like some sort of bination lock.

  Once she repeated this a few times and the st seal dissolved, the reddish glow of the room began to dim and fade to darkness, and only then did Fern notice her emerald eyes were shining with their own light, like little fmes. Wait. Wait just a damn minute. She 't possibly-

  "CRIMSON." The sound of Ravenna's voice vibrated the very stone, not to mention Fern's poor teeth. "GET. UP."

  Metal shrilly scraped against metal as the coffin lid slid forward, just barely enough for two points of burning red light to emerge beh a of very u hair - a far cry from her ordinarily refined appearanbsp; "Whaaa..." Even her voice was a raw and scratchy imitation of her usual deep, dark riess. "What have I doo deserve this? I barely closed my eyes..."

  "What. Did. You. Do?" Every word unctuated with a force behind it that made Fern flinch reflexively. "You've frightened my partner. You've ged her sigil. You've pnted a seed of doubt in her head." The dark mage let out a breath, evenly. "I ot have her feel unsafe here. Not when she only just escaped death. You had best expin yourself iail, Crimson. NOW."

  The twin red lights shrank slightly. "I am deeply sorry, Mistress. And to you as well, Miss Skysh." She sounded... trite? "My assistance was not inteo disturb you so, only to guard your dreams - as I said. Never have I lied to you, nor will I ever." She paused briefly. "The verse I taught you, I pced in your mind; and there it repeated some huimes, to form a barrier so unfettable you will cast it instinctively eaight. Nightmares will rouble you again, Miss Skysh. You need no longer fear them, nor many other things that might assail your mind; and with a little training, you may use the barrier in your waking moments as well."

  It was strangely awkward hearing Crimson sound like a meek little maid. Fern still had to ask, though. "And my sigil? Why's it a jaow, when I still have all my hero skills?"

  "Ah... that is... how to say it." She paused again. "I may have trained you a little too well. The one intation - the verse - is powerful enough on its own to ba your aspects. If you actively cast with it, or ihe darkness in other ways, your aspect will certainly e unbanced in the opposite dire. I regret to say this so directly, but." Her voice seemed to grow even smaller, even more submissive. "My deepest apologies, Miss Skysh. I... overestimated your existing skills."

  Fern winced as if strubsp; Getting hypnotized by a vampire was ohing, but getting told she was weak hit a tender spot.

  A glimmer of light filtered bato the room; Ravenna seemed to be calming down a little as she let out a soft, measured breath. "Is there anything else she or I do to set you at ease, Fern?" she murmured softly, emerald eyes still gleaming, just not quite so harshly now.

  She looked over at the dark mage a little nervously. "... You're a vampire too, aren't you?"

  "Half-vampire, but yes." Ravenna closed her eyes and sighed softly. "... I'm a little weaker in the sunlight and a little stro night, my low-light vision is better, and - as you witnessed - I also have the Blood Voibsp; But my hypnosis 'powers' are hardly strohan any other human, and I ot survive on blood alone." As the reddish lighting of the room came back up to its normal iy, she opened her eyes again, and this time they no llowed. "I didn't io reveal that particur truth quite like this, but I suppose what's done is done. In many ways. To echo what Crimson has said to you: I'm sorry, Fern."

  "Please, don't- don't apologize like that," she stammered, taking a step babsp; "It's not like you. And it's really not..." Fern paused. "It's plicated. You've been nothing but kind to me this eime, I mean, apart from the o when I was being rude, but like." She looked over at the coffin, and the upper half of Crimson's head still peeking out of it, two very tired glowing red eyes gazing ba her dire. "She only did what she did after I asked her to. Even if I didn't uand the sequences, I guess, which was the whole problem. I mean - she didn't, either."

  "I should have," Crimson murmured mournfully, just barely loud enough to be heard.

  She looked down at the floor. "... You don't have to do so mue, you know. Just because I overreacted to something that didn't make seo me."

  Ravenna reached over and took her right hand, c up the sigil. "Darling," she murmured softly, "I don't do things for you because I have to. I don't like obligations." She smiled gently, looking into the woman's blue-gray eyes. "I want to do things for you. I want you to be happy; to feel safe, to uand what goes on around you. To be fortable. I want the best for you." She gnced over at the coffin. "As do my maids, despite their - despite our missteps at times."

  Crimson merely nodded her assent.

  "And if you will allow me to, if you still trust me..." The dark mage hesitated just a moment. "I want to teach you, just as I promised. So that you will never feel powerless again."

  Fern pohis. "How soon we begin?" she asked, eventually.

  "As soon as you say yes."