Well at least Edin can sit next to you

When you reach the building you separate into two groups, the girl to their class, you and Edin to yours. Walking to the class room you see most seats are taken. Thankfully the two front right are free.

Sitting down and opening your book you see 'Cleanliness, orderliness and functionality'. The memory of your previous classes here makes you feel annoyed already. Looking over at Edin he smiles at you and your annoyance subsides. You reach over and take his hand and your fingers entwine beneath the table. You don't have your right hand to write but you don't think that is going to be an issue in this class.

"Good morning class." The teacher calls out as he sits at his desk. "Today we will be discussing the effective organizing of staff. Identifying those who can handle responsibility," he looked over at you, "and those who can't." You shifted a little and Edin squeezed your hand setting you at rest. "To begin does anyone know the proper assemblage of a house's staff?"

The man sitting at the front raised his hands. "The Mistress of the house, her husband, the First Maid, Governess, Housekeeper, Groundkeeper, Gatekeeper and lastly Scullery Page."

"Correct." The teacher wrote out the words. "To begin the First Maid." He launched into a definition of the role which came down to the woman who handled everything the husband couldn't which was assumed to be a lot. You knew it was a part of the culture but you really felt personal when the teacher looked at you whenever something you had no knowledge of was brought up. Why would you have learned the proper form for curtain hanging. Edin seemed engrossed in the topic but his hand was still in yours so you had something to focus on beside the class.

"Is there a reason you aren't writing master Christopher?" The teacher asked you. "Perhaps you already know enough to not require lessons." He was staring at the arm holding Edin's hand. He couldn't see your hands together but you doubted it would be that hard to figure it out.

"No sorry just distracted." You say not letting go of Edin. Edin himself seemed a little embarrassed by the attention but didn't let you hand go either.

"Then you should start writing." He kept staring at you so you did just that, taking the stylus in your left hand and writing half hearted notes on what you think the teacher had said at some point. He didn't look happy but didn't say anything else to you.

"In the event a new staff member is required what is the core principle in hiring a new one?"

"The approval of the Mistress of the house." Edin said looking rather proud of himself.

"Incorrect."

"You shouldn't disturb the Mistress of the house with something that unimportant." The student said with a level of snideness you were fighting to not let get to you.

"Correct. The man handles the staff it is not your place to disturb your wife with trivial matters. Would you care to explain?" The teacher asked the snide student.

"When you hire someone the core principal is competence, someone must have past experience so they can seamlessly integrate with the staff. It is out job to ensure nothing happens that would disrupt our wife." The snideness had turned into smugness and Edin's hand wasn't doing as good a job at distracting you from it.

"Correct once again. I am sure your suitors will be more than satisfied with your knowledge." The teacher said it without looking at you but it was hard to not feel directed at you.

You shifted in your seat again as aggravation started to build. Your skin felt itchy as you magic tried to build with it. You hadn't gone this long without using magic for years keeping it down had been easy when you were calm. Right now it felt like you were too big for you skin and the teachers little glances at you weren't helping.

Thankfully the lesson ended without anymore aggravations. Since you'd already had lunch you weren't hungry so you went straight to the training area telling Edin you needed a second to yourself. Right now Vatarie's eager dominance, Asune's general creepiness, and Anastasia's Anastasianess, where not going to help keep your magic in the bottle.

Standing on the sand you took slow deep breaths and since you were here you stretched. Moving into the poses that Stephanie had shown you. It was harder without her being here. Working from your memory meant that each pose felt more mechanical than natural, but it did help. Your skin itched less and you felt more limber.

Shame your next lesson felt like it was designed to patronize you. As your fellow gender havers gathered around you you looked for Edin. Thankfully he saw you first and surprised you by taking your hand. You looked behind you to see him beaming up at you.

"Feeling better?" He asked as the two of you waited at the edge of the crowd that was forming around the teacher.

"Yeah sorry about that. Recovering is taking longer than I thought."

"Today we will be discussing magic exhaustion ." The teacher announced. "Has everyone here exhausted themselves before?" There were a collection of yeses from the crowd, your own included. "Then we will go over the basics for those who haven't. When you use your pool of magic your have two choices. Stop using magic to give yourself time to recover, or keeping going, if you keep going your body converts whatever it can to magic. In **** cases this can mean **** as you burn through your life. Of course this won't happen under normal circumstances, your nonself-concsiousness won't let you kill yourself just so you can pour a glass without touching the pitcher." There were some snickers from the class at the joke. "For those who haven't experienced this yourselves, you will today. While you are recovering your magic will more active which makes your emotions more volatile." Well you certainly that now. "So today we are going to exhaust ourselves."

That got a mixture of reactions from everyone present, mostly worry.

"Don't worry you won't be in any danger, this is just about teaching you the ways to speed up recovery and keep control. We men tend to be more emotionally volatile than women when exhausted so learning this is important. Don't want to upset your future wife by having an outburst." Having this come down to how it would affect your future spouse felt not great but you could do with some tips. "Everyone take a seat and focus your magic in your hand creating balls of light until you feel your exhaustion start." Everyone walks to the stand and does just that expect for you and Edin. The teacher walks over to talk to you. "Is something wrong?"

"I'm already exhausted, I can't use any magic for a bit longer." You explain. He nods and says you're excused from the exercise and looks at Edin.

Edin shifts in discomfort and when he speaks his voice is soft. "I don't want to."

"It isn't about what you want it's about learning now get to it." With that he walks off to go and talk to other students who were trying to make their balls. You looked over and saw a wide array of brightness. Some balls were very dim others were to bright to look at directly.

Edin and you sit down but he doesn't make his ball. "You ok?"

"She made me exhaust myself before she ..." He trailed off and you checked his aura to see a shadow of trauma wave through it.

You put an arm around him and gave him a gentle squeeze. "It's ok, your safe and you don't have to do anything you don't want to." He gave you an appreciative look and leaned his head on your shoulder. When the teacher walked by you could see a bit of displeasure on his face at Edin not following instructions.

"I told you to create a ball of light. Exhausting yourself is an important lesson for everyone."

"He already knows what its like and how to deal with it." You say for Edin. The teacher gives a critical look and you can see he is about to say something when a few of the balls of light fizzle out and some uncomfortable moaning from people can't be ignored.

You hope he won't come back to push Edin because you are feeling rather protective right now. You are also feeling like you didn't protect him in the last class which is an unfortunate combination.

Thankfully the other students take up too much of his time and the class ends. You hope that tomorrow isn't about the same thing and you can get past this without an issue. Edin didn't seem likely to share the reason for his **** to participate.

As the class ended most of the students left for the Dorms. Everyone looked tired as they walked, some were even leaning on each other. The teacher was helping a few of them. Shortly after they the women arrived and like the guys most of them were looking exhausted and sleepwalking their way to food and bed.

The few that remained to watch Stephanie's class were yawning constantly.