Malina

“OW! Heavens above, how many times must you stab me before you’ve got that fabric where you want it?!” I yelp, glaring at the clumsy maids who are trying to fit me for my wedding dress. I’m not certain we’ve decided on the exact design for that exalted garment--I am determined to have straps or sleeves of some sort, while the couturiers insist that I ought to wear a strapless dress with some sort of wrapper--and so I’m not sure what the point of these fittings might be, but far be it from me to argue with Zinaida’s decisions, after she treated me so kindly yesterday at luncheon.

“So sorry, milady,” the offending maid stammers as she tries once again to get the pin through the itchy white fabric without also piercing my skin.

“We’re almost finished with today’s fitting session, Aerys, I promise,” Malina assures me. She seems worn down. I haven’t seen much of her lately. I wonder what they’ve been making her do that has her so tired.

“I’m sure that will be quite a relief--ow!--to all of us.” I glare at the girl cowering at my feet, the offending pin clutched in her hand with a drop of my blood on the tip.

“My apologies. It’s so hard to tell where these things are....” she murmurs, eyes crossed in concentration as she reattempts the pinning.

“Put your hand under the fabric, to help guide it, and then if you mess up it’s you and not I who receives the painful prick,” I suggest caustically.

“But milady! I cannot possibly have my hand so close to your--”

“Oh, please! I’m wearing all of the appropriate undergarments, and you seem to have no problem stabbing me in intimate areas! Just do as I say so that we can be finished with this nonsense for the day.” The maid reluctantly acquiesces. Her hands are cold and clammy, even through the fabric of my under-petticoat and shift.

“Have you chosen the style for your dress yet?” Malina inquires.

“I’m not sure. I’ve adamantly insisted that I will have straps or sleeves on my dress, but the couturiers seem just as adamant that strapless is the style I must wear.”

“The couturiers are full of poppycock. Zinaida would never permit you to be so immodest. Pick something from this book of styles and we’ll simply write ‘Final Selection’ on the page, bookmark it, and be done with it. Leave the couturiers to me.”

“Are you sure? You seem awfully worn down. What have they been having you do lately? I’ve hardly seen you.”

“Oh, yes, I’m sure. I’ve just not been sleeping much, is all. Nothing to do with work and everything to do with studying. I’m trying to get into university, you see, but to pass the entrance exam.... Well, I will need a bit more work yet.”

“Perhaps we could study together sometime. I would be happy to help you.”

“Oh! I would so appreciate it…but are you sure you would have time for that? They keep you so busy, it seems, and Juniper tells me she can hardly keep you in bed at night, you do so much studying and training on your own.”

“You could certainly join my early morning study sessions. I’ve just been studying Russian then, and could take time to help you with whatever you’re working on. Evenings are magic practice, and I would be better left alone for that. I wouldn’t want to frighten you or hurt you by accident.”

Malina’s eyes brighten with curiosity and excitement. “I think I’d rather be at the evening ones! That sounds so exciting!”

“But you won’t get anything done if you’re watching my antics.”

“What would it matter? I’ve never had the chance to see such things, despite having worked here for years. We all know full well that the Berkeleys are elementals, though they will swear up and down to the contrary--”

“And you still work here, being human?”

“Of course. They don’t scare us. What we’ve heard of your grandmother, on the other hand--”

“She’s terrifying, or can be. But how have you heard of her? Even Giacomo knows of her, and rather more than I expected. Is she really so famous?”

“Infamous is a better term. The name of Xenia de Poitiers, who was called Xenia of Bavaria before her marriage to your grandfather, is known throughout all of Europe as one of the most powerful sorceresses alive, and certainly the most powerful one gifted with darkness. As for your tutor’s knowledge of her, that should be no surprise. His particular Italian clan of water elementals has had an uneasy alliance with the German group of darkness elementals and magic-endowed humans to which your grandmother swears fealty.”

“How do you know such things?”

“One of my sweetheart’s close friends is currently Giacomo’s personal attendant and has spoken with him a great deal. This friend of my sweetheart is…somewhat indebted to him, we’ll say, and is always most accommodating whenever we ask anything of him. At my urging, my sweetheart always asks him for information about the Italian water bender, and that information is passed on to me, to share or keep to myself as I see fit.”

“So the entire mansion knows it all by now?”

“Of course not. I’m hardly a gossip.”

“I’m surprised you would speak of such things in front of others,” I remark, indicating the foolish fitting maids with my chin. Malina rolls her eyes.

“These girls will tell no one of anything they overhear here. Right, girls?” Malina’s tone is unmistakably threatening, and the girls seem fairly frightened of her, judging by the frantic nodding of their heads.

“We’ve just finished, anyway,” one replies, taking the last piece of itchy fabric off of me. They all curtsey, first to me and then to Malina, before scurrying out of the room. I heave a sigh of relief before stepping off the pedestal on which they had positioned me and searching for the dress I had been wearing before this nonsense started.

“Here, I’ll help you with that,” Malina offers, picking up my dress from my bed. “Least I can do, if you’ll let me come to your evening study sessions.”

“Always late. After Juniper puts me to bed. You are sure you will be up for that?”

“Well worth it, for the benefits. Only, not every night.”

“I would never suggest such a thing. We cannot study together every night. Or, if you prefer, the afternoons when I don’t have dress fittings or other such nonsense might work. Mostly I’ve been in the music room and Dmitri’s been painting in that time, lately, anyway.”

“But then I would not get to see you make magic.”

“You’ll see enough of that here and there, I expect. I’m going to start turning pins and needles into dragonflies, if they keep poking me during fittings.”

“You should have done that today. I promise that I’ll have more capable maids doing that bit next time. You don’t deserve to be miserable.”

“I’d rather have incompetent seamstresses than deal with Giacomo and Dmitri both at training.”

“Dmitri doesn’t like the Italian, does he?”

“Not at all.”

Malina smiles knowingly. “I would expect no less. He’s a bit territorial, Dmitri is.”

“One of his more irritating qualities.”

“You don’t mean to say that things between you are strained because of this?”

“They seem to be improving, since I scolded Dmitri for his conduct towards our tutor on his first day here. The letter from my grandmother drew us together, and our interviews with the men of God yesterday went fairly well. We are absolutely of one mind as to which one of them should marry us.”

“Splendid news, though I’m not sure how much practical good that does you, what with the wedding being postponed until the war is over, should a war even break out. I do think Lord Berkeley is jumping the gun on that one, but the postponement should be better for you and Dmitri in the long run. Gives you more time to get to know each other, and to get past the aspects of each other’s personalities that each of you find troublesome.”

“What, precisely, does he find troublesome about me?”

“The strife between you and his mother irritates him, though he understands your anger completely and usually sympathizes with you. And your habit of being ‘infuriatingly logical,’ as I’m told he puts it--well, his thoughts on that are clear from that quotation.”

“The latter bit won’t change. He’ll simply have to accept it.”

“You might have to accept the little things about him that bother you, too. I daresay you’ll not find a better match, even if you were to search the whole world over.”

I sigh deeply but say nothing in reply to that. I would really like to believe her. Most of the time, I do not mind the idea of being married to Dmitri. I’ve accepted it as an inevitability, and sometimes I even look forward to it. Or at least, I did, until these past few days. Giacomo’s presence has made everything strange again. Maybe that, in addition to Dmitri’s “territoriality,” is the cause for my fiancé’s uneasiness regarding our tutor.

“Unless...What do you think of your tutor?” Malina asks. Curiosity shines in her eyes, thinly veiled with a minimal layer of circumspection.

“He’s fairly good looking. Almost as much so as my fiancé. And he’s certainly quite talented as an elemental; he could not have gotten his job here if he were not. But I do not think he has been genuine for more than a few seconds at a time since I met him. I don’t know what to think of him.”

“Assuredly he has no idea how to think of you, either.”

“This must be a new development, for his eyes made his thoughts clear the first day.”

“I’m told he thinks you quite a catch, or did until he learned of your family connections and your power. He’s not entirely pleased that your talent, in his words, ‘will allow for greater capabilities with water’ than those he currently possesses, not to mention your other skills, and quite frankly, your grandmother scares the moxie right out of him.”

“She tends to have that effect on people.”

“Of that I have no doubt. But do be careful around him. Your fiancé’s jealousy may not be entirely unfounded.”

“I will certainly keep that in mind. Thank you for your time and information.”

“The pleasure is mine. Can I watch you make magic tonight?”

“For a little bit, if you are not too tired,” I relent. I feel that it is the least I can do, after such a conversation. I value this friendship, if indeed a friendship it is, and would dearly like to have a source of information such as Malina on hand. Perhaps I can do her even more good and learn how to put people to sleep. I maintain that she needs the rest. If I can manage to put myself to sleep, even Juniper will be happy.

“Thank you ever so much! I will come shortly after Juniper puts you to bed.”

“Bring whatever it is you are studying for the university. We will spend some time on that, as well.”