>>6187753>>6187864>>6187884>>6187910>>6187930You stride forward and break up the excite before any of those chittering floozies shove their cleavage into Mikhail's face. Your long, flowing dress and floppy sorceress' cap sell a difference in status that parts just as Euterpe parted the seas. Compared to their casual, low cut clothes that follow the fashions of the common folk, you look like an important person on official business. Especially when you raise your staff and let the focusing crystal held within its gnarled cap glow.
"Alright girls, break it up," you tell them, and they obey. Just as father taught you, a flock is easily led if you can show authority. "Give young Master Gorlitsa some room, I'll see him to a medic."
Murmurs of "yes milady," flutter from the young women's mouths as they scatter themselves, not wanting to get in the way of obvious nobility. Well, that part's not a lie, though the House of Ivanova is young and small and in possession of a mere hundred acres. More than many of the gentry who send their spares to the <span class="mu-i">Collegia</span> at Gros-Nichons, but less than many of the older clans like the Gorlitsa.
As the women scatter, you cast [Levitation] upon Mikhail. A scant milliliter of <span class="mu-i">leben</span> gently tickles the crown of your bosom as it flows out of your body. You can stretch such a small quantity further than any of your peers, for you have far less to waste than they do. Following your precise calculations, it shapes itself into the form of [Levitation] and pulls Mikhail into the air.
"Hello Val," Mikhail says with a bright smile, looking up from where you have him floating.
That smile makes all your worries, all the negativity from earlier, evaporate like a puddle in the desert. Softly, you return a happy, "Hello Mick. That was quite the blow you took, wasn't it."
"Eh, Sieg's hit me harder before," he says without a trace of concern for the fact that the tiles have been left in a crater. Mikhail's a durable fellow, you'll give him that. "Like the day we met! I got knocked so far out of the ring that I landed all the way in the <span class="mu-i">Collegia Arcana</span>. The gods' will, that must have been, for it let me save a beautiful maiden from peril."
There's not a single flirtatious tone in his words, Mikhail is simply and happily stating the facts as he sees them. That somehow makes you turn an even deeper shade of red. He's the only man outside of your family who's ever seen you naked, after all...
"Anyways, you can put me down," Mikhail assures you. "I don't need to see Miss Sidelka right now."
"We're not going to Miss Sidelka's office," you tell him.
<span class="mu-s">Where are you taking him?</span>
>A nice little cafe for brunch>The merchant's quarter for therapy shopping>To meet up with your friend and her beau>To the top of the High Tower to watch the boats come in>To the shore for a nice walk>To one of those hotels that rents by the hour>Someplace else? 