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As a matter of fact, Jessie could be ticklish when he let his guard down. If Evelyn had tried to find that out at that moment, however, she would probably have been rewarded with a strange look and a 'What are you doing...?'

He nodded at her seriously. "Your gracefulness will come in handy when you begin training with me. Dancing and fighting go together hand in hand. They both rely on strength, endurance and dexterity."

"Woohoo!" cried Lorika, zooming past again with Xei in tow - lost, bewildered and apparently incapable of defending himself or escaping. Jessie looked in their direction with a slightly raised, quizzical eyebrow, and then back at Evelyn.

"Or at least, they usually do. I... don't quite know what that was..."

"Tell me, what are you hoping to get out of your lessons with me?" he asked, a little more conversationally again now, "Is there any particular weapon you'd like to learn...? Do you want to become more athletic...?"

For the second time that night, Evelyn considered lying. She considered telling him that, yes, it was just for athleticism. But something inside her told her not to. That lying would only prevent her from learning, and possibly make her lose the trust of the man in front of her.

“Well,” Evelyn began, biting her lower lip nervously, “I guess you could say that…it’s because of the war. I realized that magic can’t always protect me.” Evelyn paused for a moment, recalling her mirror self and the terrible acts she had committed in front of her. She held back a tear. “I realized that I need a way to defend myself. That no one else is going to do it for me anymore.” At that thought, an actually tear spilled over. Evelyn hastily wiped it away. “I’m sorry; I think I only answered one of your questions. What were the others?” She looked down, trying to do anything to avoid Jessie’s eye.

Evelyn choked back more tears. She hadn’t cried hard over it since getting back and she was not going to let tears spoil a perfectly lovely evening. She placed her hand on the wrist attached to the hand holding her face and put on her best brave face and smile. “Thank you. Very much. And thank you for saving me from that nightmare. I’m sure other people here would have helped me…but I really couldn’t ask for it. If mine was that bad, I can only imagine how horrible everyone else’s was.”

I can only imagine how horrible yours was, she thought, not daring to say it aloud. And to imagine you escaped it.

Evelyn blushed fiercely for the umpteenth time that night. “I do love Lorika…but she seems busy so much…I’d hate to distract her from her duties, and I really don’t want to worry her…” she said, trailing off. Then she nearly jumped out of her skin as if something had just struck her. “OH! Not that I want you to worry either. Or that I think you’re not as busy. Oh, I’m sorry, I wasn’t thinking!” Evelyn bit her lower lip again, blinking rapidly, hoping her apology was enough.

Evelyn moved her mouth, as if about to argue, but then clamped it shut and nodded. “Yes, I suppose so,” she said finally. “I’m sorry.”

It’s not intentional, she wanted to add, but instead reached toward the ends of her hair that wasn’t there, making quite a fool of herself.

Evelyn floated away from the elf. She—yes, she—had taken numerous compliments from him that night. And she never took compliments. Was it just that she so needed to hear them now? Briefly, Evelyn’s mind flashed to a picture of Derrick—her long time friend Gilroy’s older brother. She thought of how often she slid out of his compliments. Would she slide out of them now?

How was Derrick anyway? And for that matter, how was Gilroy? Her last letter with Gilroy was swapped about a week before the fighting…and it was even longer for Derrick. Not to mention her sisters, cousins, parents, grandmother…oh, Overseer, everyone was probably worried sick about her. Oh well, she could worry about that tomorrow. For now, she was determined to enjoy herself.

She found herself beside the Spellcasting Mistress, as she thought she would. She glanced up at the woman and gave her grin. “Wanna dance like idiots?”

By the time 11.30 rolled around, most of the non-Order members had wended their way home - those who didn't live on the island a long distance to travel, after all. In addition, the children of the Order had had their usual curfew imposed, much to their chagrin, and been rooted out and ferried to bed by Ardelle at 9 p.m sharp. For the adults, however, the night was far from over.

With a loud, painful-sounding WHUMPH, Gloria crashed into the wall of the stairwell, laughing hysterically.

"Woah!" Jessie cried, darting up behind her and catching her beneath the armpits before she could slide to the ground. He himself was looking as unruffled as ever - though his wrap had slipped slightly off his shoulder, exposing a little of the muscle beneath. It was in bad need of adjustment. "Gloria, you are far too drunk to be doing this. Maybe you should go to bed."

"Poopy pants!~" Cressa sang, darting past him up the stairs. She seemed to have lost most of her dress at some point during the evening - she was left in just high heels, her black underwear and a sash of bright yellow material. It made her resemble a model in the bikini segment of a beauty pageant. She stopped halfway up the stairs, pirouetting around to grin down at him. "Jessie is a poopy pants~ He doesn't know how to have fuuuun~"

"Oh, I have had plenty of fun tonight, for your information," he grinned back at her. He'd danced with Lorika after Gloria, then Gloria again, then Cressa, then Evelyn, then back to Lorika, then Gloria, then Adeline, then... the trail grew a little bit blurred after that. The point was, he hadn't danced so much, or with so many women, for many decades. It would've felt like he was back at home, if it weren't as different as it was similar. He knew and loved all of these people... they were good people. There was no in-fighting or politics, no danger of hurt feelings or jealousy or nasty little feuds. It was genuine good fun. Maybe that was exactly why his guard had been dropped so far.

"I wanna PARTY MORE!!" Gloria exclaimed, throwing her fist into the air. After a few seconds, she seemed to realise she wasn't moving. "....These stairs won't cooperate!"

With a small sigh, Jessie scooped her up into his arms and began to ascend the stairs, just as Cressa disappeared over the top. "Alright, you, come on then. I'm starving anyway. I haven't had a bite to eat all night."

"Me neither! Too busy danciiiiing," Gloria sang, kicking her legs up and down, one arm slung around his neck. "And talkiiiing, and danciiiiing..."

"And drinking," her ferry added, "No wonder you're so wobbly, if you haven't eaten anything with your alcohol."

"Aauughh, you sound just like my dadddyyyyy when you naaaag."

"Well, I'm old enough to be your granddaddy."

Craning her neck up, Gloria, with a toothy smile, started to nuzzle the skin at the base of his ear, where it connected to his jaw. "That hasn't stopped me up until now."

Jessie didn't reply to this. Then, suddenly, he moved his head, dislodging her probing lips for a moment. "Quit it. That tickles."

"Does it?~" she grinned, following him up to dapple that side of his jaw and neck in kisses. Once again, he didn't reply. They were soon at the entrance to the ents room, where Cressa stood waiting for them, mostly in shadow. The halls were completely dark this time of night, dimly lit only by the enchanted swirling patterns on the walls. Once every few seconds, a deep red light would flash out of the open door, illuminating her. There must've been some club-type swivelling lighting inside.

"C'mon, c'mon!" she squealed at them, "They've already fired up the karaoke machine!"

She vanished again, darting in through the door. Jessie set Gloria down and helped her inside. A quick survey of the room revealed that a good portion of the others had already arrived at this semi-impromptu after-party. There were indeed two sets of slowly swivelling coloured lighting on either side of the room - one next to the bar, the other on top of the karaoke machine. A girl he didn't immediately recognise was onstage belting out a song. The walls were laced with sparkling streamers, and there seemed to be plates of his sorely-missed canapes scattered on low tables and around the seating all over the place. He could see Cressa bouncing up and down towards the front of the stage.

"Oh my god, ilharess, they brought up a keyboard!! I CALL DIBS NEXT SONG!!"

Over to the right, somebody was waving to Jessie with their arm high up in the air, eagerly trying to get his attention. It was Adeline, the enchanting mistress. She'd spent the evening in a lovely, demure white silk gown with long sleeves and a stiff collar that fanned out behind her head like a halo. To finish it off, she was also wearing a delicate silver-and-diamond drop necklace that hovered neatly in the center of her collar.

"I saved these for you," she giggled as he and Gloria went over. She held up a plate of mini pizzas, pepperoni, sausage, jalapeno and mushroom all visible on the top. "I heard you say you've never tried pizza, so... here you go!"

"Never tried pizza?!" Gloria slurred, "What the fuuuuuuuuuuuck"

"You'd better stuff a few of these down, too," he said, firmly guiding Gloria to the sofa, "Thank you, Adeline. This was ever so thoughtful of you."

"Oh, don't mention it! I brought most of the food up here, and I put the streamers up and all, so it was no trouble at all."

"Ah... I thought I recognised your artful touch on the decorations."