Ralli overhears her students' conversation.

Ralli was the type who didn't mind some silence. As she held the reigns on the bench at the front of the horse-drawn carriage, her class riding in the back, she reflected on the events of the day. "Although, I suppose I did not learn much new... Harley and Harvey Dustaine are good students, as I had already surmised. Harvey has the correct willpower; Harley has the correct work ethic; both of them likely have the correct talent, and both have proven themselves to have the proper moral bearing to be knights. Liam, of course, proved my doubts about him. He is suited for worse than expulsion. I will need to consider what to do about him in the future..."

While the teacher appreciated silence, she recognized there was something off about this silence. "Liam has always served as a kind of class leader. Without him, conversation will not start. Actually, a number of those students demonstrated their allegiance to Liam during the events of the day... or, perhaps, their fear of him. Without him, the class may be directionless. Also, I may assume a gap has formed between the Dustaines who stood up for me and the rest of the students who did not. Perhaps I should step in. I... am unclear how to speak conversationally with younger trainees in that manner... I should have practiced 'pep talks.'"

With no plan of what to do next, Ralli was happy when a voice finally spoke up. It was the class clown, Boreald... He tended to follow Liam's lead, but, at least, he was an outgoing sort. It looked like, with Liam out of the picture and presumably even on the wrong side of the law, he was going to try to mend bridges with the Dustaines. With her heightened senses, she could pick up the whispered question he'd given them with ease...

"What would I do if I could control Ralli?" Harvey repeated the question with a furrowed brow, putting his hand to his chin. "That's what Liam was doin' with her, huh? What a sonuvabitch... Well, the last thing I'd do is take a shit on her pride and try to make her look like a damn idiot in front of the class. This guy gets off on some dangerous fuckin' stuff."

"Seriously!" Harley responded, taking offense on Ralli's behalf. "I could hardly believe it. I mean, I knew Liam had some nasty thoughts about Ralli, but I'd always chalked it up to him being a lazy wiseguy. Making Ralli do what he did... I wish I could keep his neck broken."

Ralli smiled helplessly, feeling a little sentimental over her heroic trainees. As she was beginning to list their merits in her head again, Boreald repeated his question. "But, like, if you could control our teacher to do anything you want, what would you do?"

"Oh, I'd fuck her, for sure" Harley responded immediately this time.

Harley gasped, loudly enough to unintentionally cover a loud, gravelly cough like someone **** at the front of the carriage. "Harvey, you lout! I thought you were better than that!"

"What?!" Harvey defended himself. "I mean, I'm sayin' what we're all thinkin'! Before Liam did what he did today, I knew Ralli was a badass knight, but I had no idea she was a smokin' hot piece of ass, too! I ain't sayin' I'd, like, humiliate her in front of her class like Liam was doin'. I know this is a hard idea to wrap your head around as my lil' sister, but women are way into sex with me. So, like... I mean, I'm not sayin' I'd wanna **** her to have sex with me, but, uh, if I had a way to make her open to the idea of a little Teacher-Trainee action, instead of buryin' me in the trainin' yard when I suggested it, hell yeah, I'd take it!"

Ralli flushed bright red and bowed her head down as she sensed all of the young men in the back of her carriage nodding along with Harvey. "Harvey... is probably just saying that to gain the trust of his peers, who were following the lead Liam set. None of them actually want to... engage in relations with me, their drill sergeant." The deathspeaker continued to fight against the obvious interpretation as she heard the question turned on Harley.

"Geez, you guys are hopeless," the straight-laced Harley chided them. "I can't believe you're talking about Ms. Ralli that way behind her back, after what you saw today and what she went through! Even if I could, I wouldn't dare take away control from her..."

Ralli, who had been sensing so hard her head was turned over her shoulder, exhaled a hard breath. At least there was one reasonable constant she could count on.

"... W-without her giving it to me, first!" Feeling emboldened by her successful heroics earlier in the day, the hyped-up Harley decided to share a bit more than she ordinarily would. "I mean, m-maybe she'd be into that kind of thing? If she was... and if I could be Ms. Ralli's, um... m-m-mistress for the day... Wow, I guess I'd start early in the morning. I'd get her to make me a breakfast herself, and then when we ate it... Hmhm... After I ate it, while we were still in bed, I'd have her give me a sweet dessert course, huhuhee...!"

Ralli gulped along with all of her class, sensing for a continuation with all of her concentration... So much concentration, in fact, that she almost drove the horses past the stable at the front of town and on down the street. She brought them to a stop, then worked on tying them and the carriage up at the stable, assuming the lack of motion would be enough to inform her students they'd arrived.

"Harvey and Harley were certainly just trying to fit in with their peers. Wanting a day off from my training, some sort of monetary prize, even an innocent prank... those would be ordinary requests for an honorable knight trainee from their sergeant. But... sex? 'A sweet dessert course,' whatever that is supposed to be...?" Ralli put one of her hands to her scowling face and found it burning up. "That is inappropriate, even for a joke among classmates. I... do not understand my class. That is... I cannot understand my class. I must not be understanding my class..."

Ralli realized she had tied several knots around the horse she was posting now, and undid the unnecessary ones. "Class-" she began, turning around and preparing to give them all a harsh lecture about their boundaries for the knight and the respect they were to show their teacher.

"It's just us, ma'am," Harvey told her. At the first chance, the others had all run out to enjoy a rare chance at the new Merridan nightlife (or knight-life, as it were).

The sergeant pressed a palm to her face. "Morons... I did not even tell them what time we were to assemble. I foresee going on a scavenger hunt for my trainees in the near future... Very well. Harvey, grab the one who isn't going anywhere under his own power. We're paying a visit to a certain shop, where I may be able to do something about this curse."

""Yes, ma'am!"" Both of the Dustaines gave a sharp salute... Then, after Liam had been slung over Harvey's shoulder like a sack of grain, groaning unconsciously from the lack of neck support, the two trainees found themselves standing still. Harley spoke up. "Um... Lead the way, ma'am?"

"No," Ralli spoke up, feeling uncomfortably self-conscious in her cloth garments and wishing she'd re-dressed in her armor. "We are heading to the business district, and I will tell you when to stop walking."

Harley gave her a bright smile, although she was straightening her glasses in a strange, out-of-place gesture. "Respectfully, ma'am, we need to keep an eye on you while we travel."

The sergeant clicked her teeth, feeling herself redden again. "This is becoming a problem. I need to address it before it develops further. I will ask the question politely but directly." The disguised deathspeaker stepped forward and leaned over Harley, a rattling rumble in her deep voice full of her usual kind consideration and politeness. "Trainee... Were you planning to stare at my ass? Are you aware of what follows Ralli Hellknox?"

The smaller woman shrunk back with a mousy smile, sweating bullets. "Um... no ma'am, of course not, ma'am, **** follows Ralli Hellknox, Ms. Ralli ma'am! O-on the battlefield," she added in a tiny voice. "H-Harvey, let's lead the way, hm?"

Gulping, Harvey gave two powerful nods. With that, the two trainees were leading the way into Merridan under a setting sun, the silent sergeant stalking behind them.