Hohenfels

Arne braced himself against the torrent of ambition and calculus bursting from Katharina’s aura. The sheer intensity of her emotions made it easy to identify the subcurrents, and what he felt pleased him greatly.

She held, at least for the moment, no ill will towards him. He had been more than a little worried after she saw through both of his attempts at unbalancing her, but she did not seem to hold a grudge. Instead, she was clearly trying to figure out how she could get the most of his proposal.

“Consider me… tentatively interested,” she said with an impish smile. “Do you have something specific in mind?”

He did, in fact, not. Turning the scheming young lady into a preliminary ally had been a spontaneous idea, born from the realization that they shared a ‘secret’ now. They both had a vested interest in keeping quiet about today’s events, and would prefer if the other did the same. Such a connection was, according to Arne’s mother, an optimal foundation for a fruitful partnership.

Obviously, fully trusting her was impossible. But if he could harness that frightening ambition of hers… ‘I’ll have to be very thorough with my diary-keeping.’

“Well, that mostly depends on your current goals,” Arne said, shamelessly relying on his higher status to force her into revealing at least part of her motivations.

Katharina did not take it particularly well, frustration welling up in her aura. It quickly took on a tinge of vengefulness, though – and Arne quickly found out why.

“Hmmm, before we get into that, might I hold you to your promise?” she cooed with fluttering eyelashes.

‘Damn it, I forgot about that…’

“Very well. What would you like to know?” he inquired, trying to project more confidence than he felt.

“I… admit that I was rather unsettled when I found you earlier,” she said, suddenly serious. Anxiousness. Curiosity.

“I– ahem. I can imagine,” Arne replied as his heart began to race. “Apologies for showing you such a grisly sight, and thank you again for coming to my aid.”

“Think nothing of it. I’m glad I could help,” she smiled. Sincerity. “Still, I find myself curious how you ended up in that situation.”

This was bad. He had hoped that Katharina would ignore it out of politeness, but he should have known better. What could he tell her? The truth was obviously not an option, unless he wanted to spend the very brief remainder of his existence in an imperial dungeon. Simply refusing to answer was not an option, either. He had given his word, and going back on that would tarnish every future interaction with her.

Thankfully, Arne’s mother had supplied him with various detailed methods of deflecting such inquiries. The most important thing was to lead with a ‘cover lie’ with the right amount of weak points: So few that it looked like a serious attempt at lying, but enough for someone to catch on.

Since Katharina seemed exceedingly sharp, he had to be very careful. On the other hand, she seemed like the type to underestimate her opponents and revel in victory, and this kind of lie was designed to exploit such a temperament.

“This is a little uncomfortable to admit, but…” He forced a shudder, leaning into the very real anxiousness he felt. “When I fought in Batuul, I got encircled by a squadron of Keshigs once. They nearly got me.”

He looked off to the side, but kept his senses fixed on Katharina’s aura. “Ever since then, it has been… difficult to handle crowds. And sometimes, it becomes… a little too much.”

She considered his words for a few moments, her aura torn between compassion and suspicion. In the end, suspicion won.

“You must be a fierce warrior indeed, to survive being surrounded by an entire squadron of Keshigs,” she said sweetly.

“I– You have met my cousin Friedrich, right? He came to my aid just in time to save my life! And it was not a full squadron. It had already lost half its numbers in the ongoing battle.”

“Still, two young men against multiple dozen elite steppe riders? Color me impressed!” Her cheerful voice belied the brutal sarcasm of her words.

“Well, we are– ugh,” he pretended to fold and rubbed his eyes.

“I cannot believe you would do this to me, after I poured my heart out,” she pouted, though her aura was singing with triumph. ‘Got you.’

“It’s… I’m sorry,” he sighed. “It’s just a very difficult subject to talk about.”

“Just like it was for me,” she complained. Indignation.

“But–”

“You gave me your word!”

He had to fight down a smile after feeling the undertone of childish outrage in her aura. She was genuinely upset.

“...Fine. I can’t tell you everything though.”

“Hmph. Just go on with it!”

“... All right. But only if you swear to never mention it to anyone else,” he said, his voice turning quiet and severe.

Katharina immediately picked up on the tonal shift. “I swear.” To his great surprise, his senses told him that she actually meant it.

“Am I correct in assuming that you’ve undergone Confirmation?”

“Yes, of course. Why do you ask?” she asked, clearly intrigued.

“So did I. Technically.”

An intense wave of shock rippled through her aura as she realized the implications of his words.

“You– you mean…”

Confirmation was the second-most important ritual in the life of an Imperial aristocrat, with Baptism being the first. Around the age of twelve, it would be administered in a grand ceremony to ignite the dormant magic of a young noble. It was the common denominator among all Christian civilizations.

“I’m afraid I cannot go into more detail,” Arne whispered. “Let’s just say that my ‘Confirmation’ went a little awry. As a result, it is difficult for me to spend prolonged periods of time amidst powerful individuals. Anything up to three or four is fine, but…”

Katharina’s aura was a whirl of uneasiness, worry, and, thankfully, an undercurrent of triumph.

‘She bought it’, he thought. ‘Thank Christ.’

Technically, he had not told her a single lie, and even came dangerously close to the truth. His Confirmation had been a farce, his magic having been ignited a few years earlier in a clandestine ritual passed down in House Hohenfels for countless generations. It had also not gone quite as expected – but herein lied the catch. He had made it sound like something went wrong, permanently damaging his magical foundation and rendering him vulnerable to aura pressure. Again, it was technically true.

Packaging the half-truth in a shell of implied heresy was, while theoretically risky, a calculated move as well. It conveyed that he trusted her to keep quiet about a potentially catastrophic secret, even though there was no true danger to House Hohenfels. His father could simply deny everything, Lisa’s reputation was beyond reproach, and they had a veritable mountain of nasty rumors clinging to them anyway.

A few moments passed while Katharina was mulling over the ‘revelation’. Suddenly, her eyes went wide. “That’s what the banesilver is for,” she gasped. Surprise. Pride. Satisfaction. “It helps you ward off auras. That’s why you need such a powerful amulet, as well!”

He raised his hands and sighed in feigned defeat. “I hope you can forgive me for being less than forthcoming about this.”

“Of course,” she nodded emphatically. “I truly appreciate you sharing it with me, even though I forced you into doing so,” she added in an apologetic tone. Her aura was devoid of regret, so Arne took her words with a grain of salt.

“So, I was able to satisfy your curiosity?”

“I am thoroughly satisfied,” she smirked. Arne was glad that the library was now steeped in darkness and she probably couldn’t see him blush at the innuendo.

“Let us return to the earlier topic then,” he proffered once he trusted his vocal cords again. “Where do you want to go from here?”

“Hmmm…” Katharina tried to conceal her frantic thoughts with a hum, but her tense aura betrayed her. It seemed to contract further and further, only to suddenly relax when she decided on a course. “Since we have been talking so candidly, I will continue in the same manner. Is that all right?”

“I would appreciate it, Katharina,” he said, shooting her a smile.

She smiled back, which he could barely make out in the dark. “In that case: I was hoping to forge connections with you as well as Princess Klara, the big names from the East.”

Arne felt mostly sincerity from her, which made a lot of sense. Focusing on the regions with the least connections to Sonnenstein was the wise thing to do in her situation.

There was, however, a subtle tinge of guilt and regret, which he couldn’t quite place at first. ‘Why would she– Oooh.’

“Is that how those… unfortunate rumors came to be?” he asked in a deliberately light tone.

She physically flinched at that. Panic. Worry. Guilt.

“I– Yes,” she mumbled sheepishly. “I did not intend for that to happen, although I can’t quite deny my involvement.”

“Then I would suggest starting out our collaboration by resolving this issue.”

She happily jumped on the offer. “I would be delighted to help. Even though it feels a little weird to take credit for solving a problem I caused...”

He chuckled along. “Let us not talk of taking credit before we actually–”

Arne interrupted himself as he felt someone’s aura approaching. He signaled Katharina, who immediately fell silent as well.

He did not hear any footsteps, but after a few moments, the pale face of a young man appeared from behind the half-collapsed shelf. His clothes seemed old-fashioned even by Eastern standards, and his dark hair was tied together in a ponytail.

“Oh, pardon, Mylord, Mylady. I did not expect to find anyone here at this hour.”