Chapter 10
A Good Start
I’m up early to document and shelve the couple books that were left overnight.
I feel like it may disappoint Mistress Vincenza that I couldn’t get even a kiss, but I feel strangely not disappointed with myself. If she sees me working happily, maybe she’ll ignore my mildly grievous failure?
“I heard you coming home last night.” Her movement behind me is quiet, but definitely startling. “The time was completely reasonable. Did it go well?”
“Yes!” I turn around, face beaming. “She agreed to a second date, and it’s going to be when I’m ghoul hunting this weekend!”
She sighs into a smile, fleeting but real. “It’s good you aren’t heartbroken. Your lesson is delayed, but not your homework. The next book for you to read is under your door.The Lich’s Memoir: Abridged.”
“D-did—Hold on. Did you place that there when you thought Iwasheartbroken?”
“Yes.” She straightens her body and face back into her calm, authoritative self. “You are expected to read it in the next eight days so I can review your understanding of the topics before you leave.”
“Okay.”
“Okay, Mistress. Repeat yourself, this time with proper honorifics.”
“Sorry. Okay, Mistress.”
“That’s an improvement. And ‘okay’ isn’t professional, but I’ll be kind.” She retreats to the desk.
And I follow. “She made me order chips.”
“Hanna?”
“Yes. She—Do I have to add ‘Mistress’ after that yes?”
“You know you don’t,” she growls with thinning tolerance.
“I’m sorry.” I thought it’d be cute to say and… “Are all Ringborn so touchy?”
“Isn’t your friend a Ringborn? Is she touchy?”
“Not with me.”
“Then it’s just the Ringborn who are paid to be touchy.”
I rub my arm. “Did I cost you a lot for that date?”
“You won’t be punished for failure to get laid. Or choice.”
“But I do have to do it eventually, right?”
“A kiss works too, sometimes less.” She spins her eyes. “A week is nothing in the eyes of a necromancer. Did you notice how young our patrons typically look?”
“Very?”
“Sure. Very. They’re practiced enough to look the age of their choice as long as they arbitrarily prefer. So will you, should you land into one that looks good on you.”
“Do you think I look good enough at this age?”
“Age can only ever be gained with time; it carries proof that you’ve existed. You may be attractive if you keep this face, but you will forever be perceived as an inexperienced teenager, even as centuries pass.”
“Is that why you chose to look old?”
