[Backdated to the 27th of February because oops, slowness.]

This time, Glitnir would be timelier with his next visit to his Wonder. The three-week time limit had elapsed, and he had quite a bit to tell his ancestor about: specifically, the New Year’s debacles. It had been a mess for everyone, and he was fairly sure that the majority of the people who had been captured were not still in working condition. The rescuers, he wasn’t so sure about, but he hoped that they fared better. Megrez had taken her lumps and was out and about, but she might be a special circumstance for all he knew.

Glitnir had come a long way from those first days when he had trouble calling his scales to hand. Now, he was able to do it in one go, and the magic words flowed effortlessly from him. “I pledge my life and loyalty to Mars, and to Glitnir. I humbly request your aid, so that in return I may give you mine.” The feeling of being thrown through space was still something of a doozy, but it no longer felt quite so foreign. The sight of the tarnished courthouse brought a new warmth to him, mostly because while he had no idea what Cornelius would have planned for him, it was bound to be interesting.

Sure enough, his ancestor was sitting on an old bench in the lobby when Glitnir entered. “Ah, so you’ve gotten slightly more prompt in returning! Good job. Good to see you again.”

“Sorry. Stuff happened. Lots of it. Most of it around the turn of the new year.” Glitnir looked around the lobby; the book with the makeshift pen and note paper was sitting on the reception counter where it had been left before.

“Really now? Do explain.” Cornelius folded his arms and nodded, waiting for Glitnir to go on.

“The short version is that a New Year’s Eve party was a Negaverse trap and a lot of Order people were captured and tortured. We were able to rescue the ones they didn’t kill, but the ones that died died awfully.” Glitnir was specifically thinking of the senshi that had been turned into a youma and had to be mercy-dusted by a full troop of fighters.

Cornelius’s face registered shock. “The enemy is torturing your people now, and they ruined a celebration to do it? The situation is worse than I thought. Clearly, this means that I need to show you more of what it means to be a Knight of Glitnir.”

“More? Not that I’m objecting, I mean, if there’s more to see, please go right ahead.” If Cornelius could show him the path to power, Glitnir would follow every step of the way.

“There is always more to see,” Cornelius said as he got up and headed for the corridor of courtrooms. "Follow me.” Glitnir did so, and he was lead to a larger courtroom towards the center of the hallway. Behind the judge’s podium, a golden statue of Lady Justice loomed imperiously. “That statue is the key to your next step towards becoming a true Knight, boy. I’ll give you this hint, and only this hint: get very familiar with her. You will be seeing a lot of her in visits to come.”

“Get familiar?” Glitnir scratched his head and sighed. His ancestor was being cryptic, which could only have meant that he was being set up for some potential spectacular trolling. He walked up one of the staircases on the side of the statue, getting on its level. How did one get familiar with a statue? Perhaps it responded to a password? “Hello, how are you?” he said to Lady Justice, since simple conversation was a way to get familiar with someone. “I’m the newest Knight of Glitnir. I, uh… so… how have things been with Cornelius for the past thousand years?” Predictably, the statue failed to respond.

“Is that how you get ‘very familiar’ with a woman these days? You’re a gentleman, but being a gentleman doesn’t get you everywhere.” Cornelius followed Glitnir up the stairs and went to grab his wrist.

Out of reflex, Glitnir pulled away from the spectral grasp and ended up with his hand right against Lady Justice’s cleavage. His eyes went stupendously wide and he pulled his hand away like the statue woman’s breasts were on fire. “Oh s**t, sorry!” he said, despite it already having been established that the statue didn’t respond to talking.

A snort came from Cornelius’s direction, which transformed into a chuckle which then metamorphosed into rollicking laughter. “Boy, are you allergic to the female bosom? The look on your face was worth an infinite amount of words!”

At first, all that came out of Glitnir was confused, incoherent sputtering, which then turned into angry but still incoherent sputtering. “Are- are you kidding me? You wanted me to grope Lady Justice for your own sick amusement? Screw you, Corny! If you weren’t already dead, I’d kill you again for that!”

Cornelius’s laughter continued for another few seconds, ending in a deep breath. “That wasn’t quite what I was guiding you to, but that would have been hilarious!”

“I can’t believe it! What is it with you and boobs? I mean, yeah, I get it, women with great boobs are great and all, but what is with you? First you try to get me to tell you about Hver’s boobs, and now this!” Glitnir gesticulated wildly as he popped off, thoroughly indignant.

“Never you mind,” Cornelius said in the most dismissive manner he could muster. “Let’s start at the beginning. What do you do when you’re introducing yourself to a person, be they a woman or a man? Go through each step in your head. If this custom has somehow faded out of fashion over a thousand years, then social propriety has changed quite a bit since my time.”

Glitnir was unsure whether he was glad for the subject change or whether he wanted to rant at his ancestor some more, but decided not to pursue the subject any further. Huffing, he eyed the statue warily. “Well, first you introduce yourself. I already did that. Then you… oh, huh.” The Mars Page took Lady Justice’s free left hand with his right and gave her a handshake. “How do you do?” As he spoke, he heard a click, and a wall behind Lady Justice began to slide away. “All I had to do was shake her hand,” he mumbled.

“That’s right! You overcomplicated it grossly, if comically,” Cornelius said. “I’m glad to see that a good old-fashioned handshake still exists as a social nicety.”

“Glad to hear you found that funny,” Glitnir grumbled as a tingling feeling spread up the hand holding Lady Justice’s and then through the rest of his body. “Uh, is it normal to feel tingly after shaking hands with Lady Justice?”

“Well, no more or less normal than a tingling feeling after shaking hands with any other beautiful woman, but…” There was something in Cornelius’s expression that made Glitnir think he was hiding something under the joke. “Hold still for a moment.”

A glow traveled up Glitnir’s hands, spreading to where the tingling was. Where the glow went, he noticed changes; his bracers got an upgrade, now covering the back of his hand, and his undershirt changed into true Roman-style armor. The glow reached his scales last, changing them to a silvery shade and making them more ornate, before a bright flash cemented the transformation. Astounded, he stared at his scales, his free hand touching the new armor on his body (now that he had a moment to take it in, he was immensely thankful for the protection).

Cornelius nodded approvingly. “Welcome to the Squire stage, boy,” he said, placing one hand on Glitnir’s shoulder. “You’re ready to see the courthouse’s secrets and not-quite-secrets. However, I would like you to wait on those till the next visit. There is a lot to cover.”

Glitnir continued to examine the new flourishes on his uniform. “So I guess I’m dismissed now?”

“I suppose so,” Cornelius said. “You do, however, have one assignment. I would like you to experiment with your new Squire magic in the field, if you can. When you come back to me next, I want you to tell me what you think it does.”

“Fair enough. I’ll keep that in mind.” Glitnir cast a glance towards the door of the courtroom. “See you next time.”

[Glitnir visited his wonder on February 27th. He became able to return to his Wonder on March 13th. Oops.]