The Second Swing soon began.

Melisa and Javir stood between a few different groups of nobles. As the music kicked in and the dancers came out, Melisa stood with her arms around Javir's shoulders while Javir held her by the small of her back.

They were both all smiles as they moved back and forth.

"When was the last time we got to do anything like this?"

"Never, if I remember correctly," Javir tilted her head to think.

"That's a damn crime!" Melisa complained.

"To be fair, Mel, it isn't just a you thing. I simply do not enjoy dancing very much."

"Yeah, right," Melisa said, grinning and looking back at the older woman with narrowed eyes. "Is that why you're holding back giggles right now?"

"Excuse me, Miss Blackflame, but you must not quite understand." Javir put on an overly haughty tone as she said, "Javir Folden does not giggle. No, she is far too above such crude-"

She broke out into a fit of giggles then and there as Melisa reached behind her with her tail and ticked her side.

"AH!" Javir wrapped Melisa up in a bear hug. "You bratty little..."

For a moment, Melisa forgot all about the reality of the current situation, as she began to pretend to run away from Javir while the older woman chased her around the ballroom.

Soon, Javir caught her.

They ended up by a wall. Javir took Melisa by her wrists and pinned her to it.

Smirking victoriously, she asked:

"When did you get so fast, you damned mouse?"

Melisa arrogantly grinned up at her.

She reached behind Javir with her tail and pulled her closer.

"Well, since you never wanted to train me properly, someone else has been. And, guess what? Apparently, magic isn't the only thing I have a talent for. I've been getting faster and stronger every day. I guess I never needed you for that, to begin with."

Javir raised a brow at her.

"Please. Raven?" She asked and Melisa nodded. "Skilled as she may be, she's still just an apprentice herself. I could do a far better job."

"Yeah?"

"Yes."

"So," Melisa went and locked her arms around Javir's shoulders again like she had when they'd been dancing. Only, this time they weren't moving at all, and Melisa was doing it mainly to keep Javir from running away. "Why don't you?"

Melisa saw Javir's gaze drop. Her eyes seemed to hone in on Melisa's lips. Reaching up, she placed a gloved hand on Melisa's cheek, gently.

"Perhaps..."

The air was heavy. For some reason, it became a bit tougher to speak for Melisa.

"... Just a lesson or two," Melisa proposed sweetly, her voice soft and quiet.

She could always feel it.

She could always tell that there'd been something there beneath the exterior, beneath the excuses Javir usually flung at her anytime she'd asked the woman to teach her how to fight.

She'd accepted the initial reason, that Javir didn't want to ruin Melisa's form somehow and that she needed "the right" teacher. But, two things had made that reasoning ring hollow now.

For one, Melisa had seen Javir fight. The woman was not "decent" as she said. Melisa didn't believe that. Unless, of course, the standard for swordsmanship in this world was far higher than Melisa had ever anticipated.

And, two, Melisa was a young adult now. How much longer was she meant to wait for "the one" to arrive?

"Come on," Melisa said taking one of Javir's hands. She pressed a light kiss to its back. Javir allowed it, her eyes and Melisa's firmly connected now. "Just a bit... I have to learn how to fight from somewhere, right?"

At this point, they were so close their chests were almost pressed against one another, with Melisa's tail wrapping around Javir in a full circle.

Javir's eyes half-closed.

"Fine..." She finally said, leaning in. "If..."

"Something feels weird."

---

{Javir}

Both women flinched.

Javir pulled back, clearing her throat. Melisa retrieved her tail, shaking her head.

Standing behind Javir was Raven, whose grey eyes were scanning the ballroom.

"Something feels weird."

Javir ripped herself away from Melisa in an instant, like the heavens themselves had just slapped her.

[What... I...?]

She shook her head.

Her heart had been pounding in her ears and she hadn't even known it.

Javir took a deep breath, forcing her racing heart to slow. She turned to face Raven, her expression carefully neutral.

"What's the matter, Raven? What seems odd?"

Raven's grey eyes scanned the ballroom, her brow furrowed in concentration.

"Well... that's just it, Professor. Nothing seems odd. And that's what's bothering me."

Javir raised an eyebrow. "Care to elaborate?"

"I don't know. It's too perfect," Raven muttered, her voice low. "No whispering workers, no clear getaway routes. I find it hard to believe the Shadow Mages won't try anything tonight, and yet... there's no sign of an impending attack."

Swallowing her embarrassment, Javir allowed herself to consider Raven's words with a clearer head.

[Shit,] Javir thought. [She's right. This is all a little too clean.]

"Keep looking," Javir instructed, her voice taking on a hint of authority. "Check every corner, every shadow. If something's off, I want to know about it."

"Will do."

Raven nodded, bowing slightly before melting back into the crowd.

"..." Javir and Melisa glanced at each other for just a second and turned away.

Javir turned back to Melisa, suddenly acutely aware of their proximity. She took a step back, clearing her throat.

"Melisa, go ahead and keep mingling with the nobles. I think I should go and do some inspections of my own."

Melisa nodded, a flicker of confusion — and was that disappointment? — crossing her face.

"Of course. But, uh... Be careful, okay?"

"Always am," Javir replied with a wink that felt forced, even to her.

As they parted ways, an awkward tension hanging between them, Javir couldn't shake the feeling that she'd just narrowly avoided crossing a line.

[Focus, dammit,] she said in her mind, over and over again, making her way towards the kitchens. [You're here to protect her, not...]

But as she walked, memories she'd long suppressed came flooding back.

Almost a decade ago, just before Javir left Syux.

Another nim girl, just like Melisa. The student Javir had grown so fond of. The one who'd changed how Javir herself viewed nim.

She had been sweet and lovely. Her bright smile like radiant sunlight, her calm, but subtly intelligent demeanor... She'd been exactly the type of student Javir had imagined herself tutoring when she first took that teaching job and moved on from her old one.@@novelbin@@

But, then...

Blood.

The look of despair in that girl's eyes as she died in Javir's arms, struck down by an assassin's blade...

Javir had just about moved on, just about forgotten it all, and this moment brought those memories back.

[Fuck,] Javir thought, her steps faltering. She took a moment to stop, sighing and letting her shoulders slump. [Right. Right... I'm so stupid.]

Even though she'd already admitted defeat, the memories wouldn't stop hammering themselves back into her head. That nim couldn't cast magic like Melisa, she'd been given a scholarship to Syux Academy to pursue becoming a scholar, and yet people had still considered her such a threat that assassins had taken her life and everyone around Javir treated her like she was strange for caring about it.

[And now Melisa...]

Javir felt like she could just about melt into the floor.

In truth, this had been why she'd refused to train the girl.

The excuse she'd used initially had been true, to an extent. If Javir had started teaching a girl with no experience at all how to fight, Melisa wouldn't actually learn how to fight. She would have learned how to fight like Javir. There was a difference.

But, Javir couldn't deny that at some point, she should have just started anyway. Better to have some tricks up her sleeve than none at all. But, she hadn't.

Because she'd always been afraid that if she spent too much time with Melisa at the academy, the girl would begin heading down the same path that other nim girl had.

Not realizing, of course, that Melisa had been slowly chipping away at that wall Javir tried to keep between them with every year that passed. Now, it was basically nothing more than rubble on the floor.

"I need a fucking drink," she muttered, changing course for the bar.

Experience tales at My Virtual Library Empire

As she went to one of the tables nearby, displaying dozens of bottles of varying types of liquor like soldiers standing on a battlefield, Javir picked out the strongest liquor she could see and poured some of its contents into a cup.

[I don't want that to happen again,] she thought, downing her drink in one gulp. [But... How close can I be to her? How close is *too close*? How do I keep a target from forming on her back just cause I'm around?]

But even as she asked these questions, a small voice in the back of her mind whispered something.

[You fool. That target is already there, big and bold. Your presence obviously isn't going to do anything to make it brighter at this point.]

She sighed.

"... That excuse probably stopped being valid years ago," Javir murmured into her alcohol. "I should start training her in swordsmanship too."