Chapter 23 ~ Sorcelling

"It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance, mademoiselle." Kurai crossed her legs, lifted her skirts, and lowered herself briefly. It was all the components of a curtsy, with all the aberration of a skinwalker.

"No, no. Your intonations are still misplaced, and your bodily movements are all wrong." Meus tutted at the lacking display, less for its lack of quality and more due to how high in the double digits the novae's attempts were at this point.

"...Very well." Kurai took a deep breath. "It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance, mademoiselle," she pantomimed to the mirror once again. Her gesturing was different yet again. It still was no curtsy to any discerning eye.

"Mm-hm. I believe it's time we call it for practice for today." He kept an austere demeanor, though it could do little to hide the disappointment in such a conclusion.

"I can keep going, sir."

"The rider who heeds not his mount's limits shall quickly find himself traveling on foot."

"Ah..." She didn't put up any further protest as she slumped down onto a chair. "Very welly."

"That's not a word, Kurai." While not as exasperated, the professor was still showing his own signs of growing impatience. "But putting that aside, what aren't you understanding? I'm afraid I can't help you when I can scarcely see what's holding you back."

There were unwritten rules with human communication that were so naturally understood by all but the most socially challenged. Instincts and presumptions between humans that were simply taken for granted due to their innate understanding, thus leaving an outsider such as a nova vitae at a loss. She could only infer the unspoken assumptions by their exceptions that proved the rules, as even humans could not find it in them to explain something that never needed one in their normal world.

All these thoughts and more pranced through the novae's head. Ultimately, it was only with a self-disappointed sigh that she resigned herself to three simple words.

"I don't know."

"I suppose it can't be helped. Nothing for it but more practice, then." He made his way to the door. "Let's see about it again on the morrow. Get some rest, Kurai."

She waved him off, only to curl up in the chair once she was alone. She tried humming a tune, but she kept finding her enthusiasm waning along with her volume. Really, nothing was good. She could try any number of things and she'd always find herself at the same perpetual discomfort.

"Knock, knock!" said the maid redundantly while knocking, not to mention barging in anyways without waiting for a response. Alongside him was the glimmer of a well-prepared tea cart, selfsame biscuits included. "I was worried when I didn't see you at teatime, so the master agreed to have me bring it to you." He was already setting out a cup for her, as usual. Her acceptance wasn't only expected, but to be accompanied with gratitude at that.

"Ah... Thank you. Please set it on the table; I'll get to it in a bit." She offered her smile, but her attention quickly passed him by with her eyes wandering far towards distant thoughts.

"Of course, if the lady wishes for solitude I shall depart, but if she would like company, this humble servant will try his best to provide..." Had he applied a brick to Kurai's skull, it would have been more subtle. His cheeky tone only made it worse.

"Do as you wish, Robin. You know you don't need to be so stuffy around me." It was amusing enough to have her crack a hint of a smile.

"Mayhaps, just for today, I do." He poured himself a cup and sat in the chair closest to Kurai's own. "After all, until just now I haven't seen that smile of yours in days. Not since that disappearing act you pulled. It doesn't take a genius to put two and two together, you know."

"..."

"Don't worry, I'm not going to keep prying if you really don't want to discuss it. All I care about is seeing you happy again and not stuck in this mire you're wading through. Tell me, what can I do to help?"

"..." Kurai took the teacup into her shaky hands, sipping with a contemplative expression. The shyness didn't work. Robin only stared her down with an increasingly intense stare until she cracked. "I don't know," she repeated once again in the exact same cadence.

"Is that so?" He tapped his chin with that familiar pondering look in his eyes. "You know, there is one thing I'd like to do that I think might do the trick. You've still never read a proper novel, have you?"

"One of those storybooks? Not besides the pop-up ones, no."

"Well, would you like to give one a try?"

"It's not my choice. Mr Meus doesn't let me touch those, you know." She gave him a reprimanding look.

"I'll talk to him, and I can already tell you he'll agree to let you see how you like it. I'll even let you borrow some of my favorites to get you started! Oh, I just know you're going to love The Willow Leaves Hiding Our Held Hands, and The Kiss That Crossed the Sea is a classic you've just got to see for yourself...!"

"Even if he did, I don't think I'd be that interested, sorry. I'm sure your books are fine, but I don't feel like I'd be able to enjoy it with how I've been lately."

"Au contraire. You'll enjoy it enough you'll snap right out of this drear you're in. Or do you think you'll feel better if you continue to lie around feeling sad all the time?"

She couldn't argue with his logic, but it didn't mean she had to agree with him either. He smiled, seeming to take her silence as consent.

"Wait here, I'll be right back with them. All I ask is you read through the first chapter. After that, I'll leave you alone and you can do whatever you want. Deal?"

"No, I'm not going to agree to that." She sighed, sipping at her tea again. "If I do that, you better not leave me alone. I don't care if I'm reading in silence or not, just... be here with me, just for this evening. Okay?"

"Ehe..." He folded his hands together, briefly. "I can do that, if such is what the young mistress wants of her humble maid."

"Very, very much so." She looked downright pitiful with such a needy glint in her eyes. Robin pulled her into a hug for several long seconds that were still too short for her, then he left just as quickly. Kurai moved to a nearby sofa as she awaited his return, biding him to sit beside her only to lay down using his lap to rest her head upon. "It's only to make sure you don't sneak out on me. No other reason," she lied.

"Oh no, I'm trapped. Whatever will I do?" he played along, thought not without rubbing his fingers through her hair. She couldn't help but close her eyes as she enjoyed the moment. "Just make sure you keep your end of the promise too," he reminded her. He set the first of the books beside her, keeping the others stacked neatly on the arm of the sofa.

The novae lay there lazily for quite some time, but eventually she stirred enough to at least open the novel. She didn't feel much enthused to read much, but with her eyes it wouldn't take long to go through the first chapter. It was only half a minute later when, over two dozen pages in, she felt a hand grasp at her shoulder.

"Easy now, Kurai. It's not a race."

"Huh? I'm not racing anything."

"I'm just saying you don't need to treat it like a textbook to plow through. Take it in a little slower so you can savor it."

"Alright..." She really could read that quickly without skimming over any details, but she decided to try slowing down to give the text some thought as she read through the tale.

A dashing rogue was the hero who caught the attentions of a lonesome princess, much to the dismay of her father. Rather than bowing to decorum, the two began to meet in secret in the dead of night under a weeping willow whose leaves kissed the waters of the adjacent river. The princess finally felt she could be open with all of her thoughts for once in her life, and the rogue felt he finally knew someone who valued him for who he is rather than simply what they can get out of him. As the months marched on, the willow wilted and the waters froze, and even as the rogue and the princess braved the fierce nights to see each other, they found themselves drifting apart as their lives kept leading them away from their special spot.

Eventually, just as the ice was beginning to recede from the riverbed, the rogue no longer found the princess waiting for him. She had been married off to a distant land to a man she did not know, all for the sake of the kingdom. In his grief, he fastened a noose to the tree they had met under so many times, yet the branched snapped first. Taking it as a sign from the heavens, he vowed to cross the continent to be with the princess once more, and so his journey began...

"...Where's the rest of it?" Kurai asked anxiously as she turned to the last page. "He... does get to see the princess again, right?" She looked up at the maid who continued to pet her hair for the past half hour.

"That's the end of the book, silly. See the back cover there?"

"There has to be a second one then." She glanced down at the pages in her hand. An unwelcome truth was passing through her head even before she heard it from Robin.

"There was supposed to be one. The author passed away before it could be written. So, this is all we're left with."

"What? Why would he do that?!"

"I don't think he chose to die?"

"Why didn't he finish it before then?! He... he can't just leave me like this. Did the rogue ever get to see her again? Does she get saved from the foreign king? Is she at least being treated well there, or is she being hurt? Even if he didn't finish it, maybe there's a draft that has something...!"

Robin only giggled at the desperation in the girl's eyes. He scritched the back of her head. She squirmed, with one of her eyes starting to close of its own accord.

"H-Hey, stop that...!"

"I take it you enjoyed the book, then."

"Not at all! I have to know what happens next..."

"That's what happens when you enjoy something, yes." He covered his mouth with a hand, for what little it did to stop the giggles.

"Ghh... What am I supposed to do now? It's your fault for making me feel this way, Robin..."

"Well, that's what we've got other books for." He handed the next one from the stack to her. "Here, this one doesn't have any cliffhangers, I promise."

Reluctantly, though somehow eagerly at the same time, the novae accepted the next book and began reading it. This time, she couldn't keep her thoughts to herself. As the brave paladin risked her life to defend the young lord, Kurai gasped and exclaimed her hopes for the duo. As the young lord barged into the courtroom to fight the false charges against the paladin, Kurai squealed and pressed her knees against each other in excitement. By the time the wedding came around, she could hardly keep her eyes on the pages at all, with her hands doing a poor job covering the sheer blushing on her cheeks. The book even slipped out of her hands as she read their kiss to seal their vows, with Robin catching it just before it fell to the floor.

It took her over an hour to finish this novel, though it had less to do with the length so much as her frequent breaks to gush over details to Robin. Having been a fan of the work himself, he wasn't shy about his fondness for it either.

"I can't believe they actually managed to be together after so, so many things threatening to keep them apart...!" Her eyes were tearing up by now.

"I know, right? And how his father finally accepted his son's choice to marry the paladin instead of the arranged marriage... Just the fact that they were accepted for their choices is just so, so good..."

Kurai's eagerness to gush over the story even more was only overshadowed by her growing hunger to see what the next book had in store. It continued for the next one, then the one after that, then the one after that, then—

At some point, Robin had dozed off while Kurai read on. She tried to keep her reactions quieter, but she still couldn't stop from getting fidgetingly excited from every twist and turn, no matter how trite or cliché they were. To her, everything was still so novel.

The silence of the dim reading room became replaced with birdsong as the morning light began to grace its windows once again. The maid wearily stirred from sleep, only to notice Kurai was on the floor, still reading with a frankly concerning level of dozens of books set to her side.

"Kurai...? Oh no, don't tell me you stayed up all night..."

"Oh, good morning Robin! Glad you could return from the land of nod. Your face looked so cute while you were asleep, hehe!" As she spoke, she was figuratively tearing through the pages. Her passion had grown to the point where she was no longer slowing down her reading to savor anything. The ink had all but been a endless feast for her eyes to devour.

It was only once she set aside her latest novel that Robin understood the worrying truth. The dozens of books weren't in her 'to-do' pile, but rather her 'finished' one.