"Silvie!" Rivi turned around, seeing me drop to the ground and rushed to my side. "What's wrong! What's happening?"

"I'm fine," I gasped, nearly all of my attention focused on the strange fluctuations of magic rushing through my body turning various parts insubstantial. "Well, not really, but it's not like I'm dying....Probably."

I grit my teeth trying to breathe despite my lungs occasionally turning insubstantial. It was a strange sensation having body parts in the red mist. It wasn't like they were gone exactly, but more like…they were compressed or further away. When I turned my whole body into mist this wasn't a problem, but when it was only an important organ turning into mist, it felt like someone was squeezing my insides one by one.

"Should I go and call a doctor?" Sera hesitated from the mansion's entrance.

"No need," Rivi said as she sent a pulse of mana through me instantly calming the raging storm of mist." It's just her Night Mistress powers acting up, and there's no one who knows that stuff better than I do. Well maybe Noe…" She muttered that last part to herself.

"S-sorry," I leaned my head back on the pavement and closed my eyes. "I didn't mean to disappoint you like that…"

"Disappoint me?" Rivi tilted her head, blinking at me. "Why would you losing control over your powers disappoint me?"

"I…" I flushed, my eyes darting to the side as I remembered what caused the original fit, her laughing and sharing a moment with Sera like they were old besties, and now here she was with me instead. God, was I jealous? Is that why I had the fit? And how disgusting to act like a child throwing a tantrum just to have someone come and soothe me. I can't believe I…

"I don't like that look on your face." Rivi whispered softly, stroking my cheek. "Were you jealous? Of me and Sera?"

She laughed as my eyes widened in surprise. "I told you, didn't I, Silvie? I know this stuff better than anyone. Most Night Mistress losses of control stem from strong emotions, and the ones most likely to cause issues are those related to love. It's actually far more common than you think. We do stem from the floor of lust after all." She brushed back a strand of hair from my face.

Rivi leaned in, her lips nearly brushing against my ear. "Don't worry. The one I love right now is you, Silvie."

What happened after that I'm not entirely sure. Maybe I passed out. Maybe I just sat there in a daze, waiting for what had happened to fade away like a dream. I'm not entirely certain, but I do know that someone must have carried me into my room in the mansion, because I came to my senses in a clean, but unfamiliar room, smelling of wood and freshly cleaned linens.

The bed was an old four post canopy bed with relief carvings carved into the wood all up and down the four posts. Fresh white cotton linens draped from the canopy, and warm afternoon sunlight still streamed from two large panelled windows.

I got up slowly, still feeling rather out of it. I was still wearing the travelling dress I had arrived to the mansion in, though my small amount of luggage had been brought in and placed on top of one of the old wooden wardrobes.

I traced some of the carvings with my hands, finding trees, flowers, beasts and animals of all shapes and sizes, and eventually some ghostly undead figures as well. There didn't seem to be any particular story or design behind all the carvings other than a desire for variety and beauty.

"Hmm, is this…?" I picked up a small handbell I found on a bedside table, and decided haphazardly to ring it.

Dingalingaling.

For some reason I found the bell's noise to be quite pleasant, and a smile crossed my lips, as I abruptly heard knocking at the door.

"Come in."

The door opened, and a skeleton finely dressed in a crisp suit stepped inside, and then stood there vacantly.

"Are you…alive?" I looked at it curiously, remembering the skeleton at the front gates as I passed my hand back and forth in front of it.

It merely stood still as if waiting for orders, and I was just thinking what I could ask it when I heard footsteps coming rapidly down the hall.

"Silvie!" Rivi poked her head through the open door. "You awake now?"

"Mmm," I nodded. "More or less. What are you guys up to now?"

"I was just about to sit down with my housekeeper Tevera to go over the current affairs of the mansion. Want to come? Sorry I can't go out into the town just yet with you, but seeing as we're approaching dinner time I figured we might as well have it here while I get my affairs in order."

"Uh, sure." I replied, mildly curious what business could come up with a mansion after a century of the owner being away. "I wouldn't…be in the way, would I?"

"Nah, it just might be kinda boring. Alright well, follow me, let's head to Tevera's study. Or, well, I guess it's kind of my study when I'm here, but Our Lady knows she uses it more than I do."

I blinked. "That's the first time I've heard you swear with the name of the Goddess."

Rivi looked shiftily to the side as we started down the corridor. "Haha, I don't use it often…"

I laughed. "Why? Do your sisters scold you or something?"

Rivi put a sheepish hand up to the back of her head. "Yeah, something like that."

Eventually we reached a door at the end of a hallway where Rivi knocked. "Tevera, we're coming in."

She pushed open the door to reveal a neat, bookcase-lined study, though many of the shelves were lined with identical box-like document containers, each neatly labeled on the spine in beautiful penmanship.

At the large desk on the opposite side of the study, an exquisite life-sized puppet sat, looking at us with a serene expression.

If I had to guess it seemed to be made of wood, though it was painted somewhere between a faint pink and a warm whitish color. It wore an elegant suit, but the faint delicateness of its hands, facial features, and its faintly coquettish use of stud earrings and black inked 'tattoos' along its wrist and under its cheek seemed to denote it was intended for female rather than male usage.

"Welcome back Mistress, now, while it's been a while, the affairs of the mansion are…" The puppet, who was almost undoubtedly Tevera, began.

"So…cool…" I breathed out without thought after taking in her whole figure.

She stopped, a little taken aback, as she looked at me for about the first time. "What?"

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