"Terrance de'Martou." Louise pronounced the unfamiliar name carefully as she stepped out of the confines of the shop, barely more than a kiosk squeezed into an alcove between a tailor's and a tavern. "It's a name, but not one I'm familiar with, probably someone without any title to speak of."
    "That's not good enough." Botan said unhappily. "We need to know where to find this de'Martou so that we can find my sisters."
    The Vespid Knight stroked behind the ears of her mount, a slightly scruffy black feathered dragon that Kirche had decided to nickname 'Schwartz' without consulting anyone but herself. Irritatingly enough, the name had stuck.
    Louise reached up to her shoulder and patted Botan's head in turn. She didn't like it, this whole ordeal left her feeling useless. And if there was one thing that Louise Francoise Le Blanc de la Valliere despised more than anything, it was feeling useless. She had to remind herself of the success they had already experienced. Their past two weeks had not been spent in vain.
    They had been right to focus their search in the Capital. Tristania was home to any number of curios dealers, merchants specializing in conversational items for the nobility. Usually these were artifacts of some kind, unusual works of art, sculptures, preserved samples of rare insects or flowers, or live animals kept caged specially for show.
    Searching these shops had not led them to the lost Pixies, but it had given them their next lead. Through questioning of the legitimate businesses they had eventually found their way into the company of Tristain's lucrative back market dealerships, shops that didn't so much stock inventory as people with the talent to acquire whatever object was desired. Eventually this had lead to an auctioning house well known for its purchase and sale of exotic animals, and from there the link had been made to several buyers.
    What they had learned so far was that fifteen pixies had been taken by the treacherous majordomo Fernand and his hired thugs and brought to the Capital to be sold. So far, they had found seven who were alive and well in the company of various Noble families and curio collectors, including most notably a pair who had become the impromptu playmates of the youngest daughter of the Count de Brienne.
    Louise grimaced as she remembered the bratty little girl. Sophie Luttece de Brienne had been uniquely petulant in a way that only children under the age of twelve could be. Frankly, it was miracle that the Pixies had survived the week in her care, but they had seemed happy when they were finally discovered and overjoyed to see a Vespid Knight had come to find them at last.
    It had been agreed, albeit reluctantly on the part of Sophie, that her new little friends belonged home in their Garden and the Brienne Patriarch had equally grudgingly turned them over to Louise's custody having apparently payed quite a great deal for the unique little creatures. The two Little Sisters were now safe back at the Palace under the careful watch of an attending servant along with four of their fellow siblings while they waited to be returned to Tarbes Garden.
    Strangely, one of the Pixies, a Little Sister named Suikazura had been reluctant to leave the care of her human guardian, a wealthy merchant named Baptiste who had purchased her out of pity after seeing her caged in the market. The girl had proven shockingly resistant to Botan's attempts to prod her into returning home, a far cry from the other Little Ones who had obeyed meekly at her slightest urging.
    After her third overture had failed, the Knight had grown anxious before asking to depart to send a message back to Tarbes. The whole matter had remained closed to Louise with Botan only muttering that it was essential that a Shaman come to the city as quickly as possible.
    Other than this single abnormality however, all seven appeared happy and well cared for, the two from the Brienne household even wearing beautiful new dresses that their young guardian had insisted they keep. Louise sighed, okay, the way that the girl had teared up when saying goodbye, she supposed she couldn't have been that bad. Maybe Hinagiku would agree to let them visit…
    She allowed her thoughts to wonder and her pace gradually slowed. Of course, it would have been nice if there had been a happy ending for everyone, but there wasn't. Louise and Botan had learned early on that at least two of the Pixies had succumbed to wounds they had suffered in the destruction of their garden.
    Louise glanced over her shoulder. Botan's only comfort had been to learn that they had died soon after arriving in the Capital, surrounded by all of their sisters. Still, the distraught Knight hadn't spoken to Louise for the rest of that day.
    Louise thought she understood how Botan felt, she was supposed to be different now, able to protect the people she cared about, but in many ways she was still powerless. The bodies, one preserved in a specimen jar and the other buried in a matchbox by a sympathetic warehouse worker, had also been recovered to be returned to Tarbes Garden.
    That still left six pixies unaccounted for. Six that could be alive or dead.
    The trail had run cold at Georges, a merchant dealing in exotic animals. He had apparently been introduced to his mysterious client through the merchant named Aamir, but as Louise had just learned, frustratingly, Aamir could only provide a name and not occupation or address. But a name might still be enough. The Royal Archives would include tax records after all, if he was a Nobleman, he would be tracked down in short order.
    Louise looked up as she stepped into the shadows of a nearby church tower. The sun was beginning to set, it was late enough in the day, her feet were aching, her back was sore, and her shoulder was getting stiff where Schwartz had decided to use her as a roost.
    "Botan… The shops are going to be closing soon, and we can't do much more today." Louise said. "It's probably best if we go back to the Palace now. Tabitha and Kirche will probably be waiting. We can see if they learned anything else."
    Henrietta had offered Louise the full hospitality of the Royal Palace and its staff while she conducted her mission here in the Capital, saying that it was the least she could do after the first half of her assignment had nearly ended so badly. Louise certainly appreciated her Princess's concern.
    Thanks to Henrietta she'd been able to gain access to the Royal Archives not only for her own investigation but to continue with her studies and efforts to master her malformed magic. With the help of Kirche and Tabitha she was even beginning to make progress with basic cantrips. She'd been able to cast a mage light for a whole thirty seconds before it had fizzled and -popped- in her face.
    It came as a relief in a way, if nothing else she wasn't a  complete  failure, and maybe she didn't need to be an exceptionally powerful mage to be of use. After all, there were many important tasks that didn't require a wit of magic to perform, and she had seen far too many Nobles who simply squandered their god given potential in the past two weeks. It was strange, but she'd never noticed it before, maybe because she was too young, but now…
    Botan nodded slowly. "You're right, we can't do much more today. Besides, we need to find out who this 'Terrance' person is… I worry for them is all."
    Louise nodded slowly, Botan thought of her sisters as her responsibility, for her, this mission had a much more personal stake. "I'm sure they'll be alright. Nobody was mistreating any of the other Pixies, even the ones that died, their keepers tried their best to help them."
    "Un." Botan looked up. "But… if what the other Little Ones have said is right, then none of them were Shamans and Knights. If they're still lost it could become a problem really soon."
    Louise tilted her head. "Why would it be a problem, the others were alright without an Elder Sister weren't they?"
    The Knight nodded again and then stopped and began to shake her head. "Little Sisters can be very gullible, they're naturally very trusting and obedient." Botan's expression soured. "Hinagiku told me that it came in handy to keep us in line, since she could make up something scary to keep us from leaving the Garden without a Knight, or going someplace dangerous." She shook her head. "I can't believe I was ever that dumb."
    "Well, even smart children tend to be that way." Louise agreed gently. "I remember that mother used to put on her armor when she wanted to frighten me so that I would listen."
    Of course, her mother had never actually done anything to her while dressed in her armor. Louise had gotten the cane a few times, ten solid swats for misbehaving, and the time she'd hidden until the servants had been in a panic, that had gotten her twenty. But those had all been administered while mother wore nothing but her day to day attire.
    "That's not what I'm worried about either." Botan began to ring her hands, face reddening as if thinking of something embarrassing. "My point is that those Little Sisters need an Elder Sister to protect them. And if they can't find one, they might make one for themselves."
    Louise's eyes widened. "You mean a Blossoming." She shook her head. "But the others were fine when we met them… unless… Suikazura?"
    Botan looked away awkwardly. "She didn't smell right, and she wasn't listening to me. Normally a Little Sister will do almost anything an Elder Sister says, we're very… compelling to them. I think she must be a few days along. That's why we need a Shaman soon. Baptiste-san seems to care a lot for her, but he won't know what to do."
    Louise suddenly understood. "But then, what about the other Little Sisters?"
    "I think we found most of them fast enough." The Knight explained. "If any of them were starting to Blossom, then they must have stopped when they met me. Or maybe their human caretakers made good surrogates. But this could still be bad, if they're being forced to Blossom before they're ready it could be a lot like… well… like Sayuri-sama." She sighed. "I'm sorry, but I'm not a Shaman, so I can't say for sure."
    "That's okay." Louise tried to reassure her. "But if they Blossom, isn't that good? They'll be able to take better care of themselves while we look for them." Pixies got stronger when they Blossomed right? It made sense to Louise.
    Botan looked shocked and for a second Louise worried that she had offended her small companion. "Louise-san… how much have do you know about Blossoming?"
    Louise frowned. "Only what you've told me."
    "Well, it's a very private topic in a lot of ways." Botan hugged herself as she spoke. "Not only is it very physically strenuous, other things happen. Changes to the mind."
    "Changes to the mind?" Louise felt a little worried.
    "Un. Ever since I came to the Palace, I've been listening a lot to everybody, about Tristain, and… and about the war." Botan looked thoughtful as she placed her hands behind her head. "A month ago, I wouldn't have been able to understand most of it. I wasn't smart enough, I didn't think in these ways, the ideas would have been scary or confusing. I think that when Pixies Blossom, in a lot of ways its the same as when Beings, when humans, grow up. Except where you grow up a little at a time, and get used to it a little at a time, it happens to us all at once."
    Louise nodded. "That must be hard."
    "It is, believe me!" Botan said. "When I was blossoming, it was like parts of my old self were disappearing and I was afraid I would wake up a completely different person, and…"
    "And?" Louise asked.
    Botan smiled weakly. "I did. I'm not the same Botan who started to Blossom in the Forest of Tarbes anymore than you are the Lousie that you were when you were a baby. But I'm born from her the same way that you were born from that Younger Louise. Does that make sense?"
    "Okay." Louise thought she understood. "You're saying that we are who we are because of who we were."
    "Right." Botan agreed. "In other words a Blossoming is the sacred rebirth of a Little Sister, and at the same time, the birth of an Elder Sister. But there are so many ways that it can go wrong." The Knight looked down angrily. "Sayuri-sama…"
    "You mean Shion." Louise concluded.
    "Yes, Shion." Botan said unhappily. "That's another thing. When I was a Little Sister, Sayuri-sama always seemed so strong, but then, after I Blossomed, I was able to see how sickly and frail she really was. I almost couldn't believe she was the Sayuri that I looked up to, but Hina says that she had been deteriorating since before she'd come to our Garden, so there must have been signs. I guess that was why the other Knights always seemed so anxious, I just couldn't see it."
    Louise waited as Botan looked contemplative. They were almost to the Palace now, walking down the densely populate thoroughfare that cut through the heart of the city.
    "I don't think… I don't think Sayuri-sama was a person, not a whole one anyways." Botan shivered as she said it. "There just wasn't enough of her. The Knight I knew, I think that's all she was, just a Knight given form and nothing else. That's why she withered away, there wasn't anything else in her once her reason for fighting was gone."
    "I hate myself for this, but… I'm glad that Sayuri-sama wilted away, she died, but now she can really live as the person she was supposed to be all along." Botan's fists balled up, her sorrow just as profound as anyone a hundred times her size. "She suffered so much because she wasn't ready to be a Knight, wasn't even ready to be a Little Sister." The Vespid Knight shook her head angrily. "I have to be sure that doesn't happen to anyone else. I have to!"
    Louise reached up to stroke Botan's small head with her thumb. "Can you? I mean, can you stop something like that?"
    Botan didn't speak for a while, then, slowly, she sighed. "Maybe… if I have to."
    Louise blinked, she hadn't heard this before.
    Suddenly, Botan began to speak quickly, without any prompting. It sounded like something that had been building up for a while. "Hina spent a lot of time examining Shion once we brought her back to the Garden and then spoke a lot with Florine-san who used her magic to study me and Shion since we'd both just finished Blossoming."
    "There's a point at the stem of a Pixie's wing that the Shamans will apply pressure to in order to ease a Blossoming." Botan extended her wings and gestured blindly to the points where the translucent appendages met and fused with the rest of her body. "Florine-san says that those points are probably the glands responsible for regulating our development in Shaman's and Knights. She thinks that, judging by what happened to Sayuri-sama, if we lance those points carefully, we can stop a Blossoming even at a very late stage or even induce a Wilting like what happened to Sayuri-sama."
    "But you don't sound happy with that." Louise observed. How could she? Wasn't she suggesting some sort of disfigurement?
    "I'm not!" Botan almost shouted. "It's very dangerous. We can't be sure that it will work the way we think it will. And even worse, it could make it so that our Sisters can't ever blossom again! Hina and Florine-san told me that Shion's wing stems are still malformed. We don't even know if she'll be able to grow into a normal Little Sister, much less Blossom into a Shaman or Knight."
    Louise could hear the anguish in the small Knight's voice and suddenly her urgency made all too much sense. "That's horrible." She whispered. "Would you really be able to do something like that to your Sisters?"
    Botan didn't answer and they continued on their way to the Palace, finally arriving at the front gates where the guards on watch admitted them with a small greetings and a bow to each of them. Henrietta had taken Botan's title of 'Vespid Knight' very seriously after meeting the girl, and she had instructed the Palace staff to accord her the courtesy and honorifics, if not the authority, of a full Chevalier of Tristain.
    "We'd only do it if it was absolutely necessary, and if our Sister wanted it." Botan said finally. "But we can't be sure it would be safe. So…"
    "So?" Louise had a feeling she wouldn't like the answer.
    "So, if it becomes necessary, I'll ask Hina to do it to me first to prove that it's safe."
    The reply, so calm and matter of fact, caused Louise to stop dead in her tracks. Botan had so casually gone from speaking of disfigurement, to possibly carrying out that same disfigurement on herself!
    "How can you say something like that?!"
    The Vespid Knight drifted down from Louise's shoulder, smiling sadly. "Louise-san, I am a Knight of the Garden, it is my sacred task to live and die for the sake of my Sisters." Her smile slowly became more genuine. "Don't worry Louise-san, I'm only talking about the worst case."
    Louise looked at her aghast, the worst case?! She reached out so suddenly that Schwartz took flight with an indignant "Gyaah!" Snatching Botan carefully out of the air. "D-don't say something like that! If you say that, then it sounds like you've already given up on things turning out alright! And besides, didn't you always want to be a Knight?"
    Botan blinked, tilting her head curiously with a bemused expression. "Louise-san, even if that happens, it won't mean I'm not a Knight. In fact, I'd be much less of a Knight if I turned my back on my Sisters. I'd rather rip my own wings off than do that."
    "But… but doesn't it scare you?" Louise asked lamely.
    "Of course!" Botan said almost too happily. "It's not something I ever want to happen, but that's the same as not wanting to die, or not wanting my Sisters to get hurt."
    "And you can live with that?"
    Squirming from Louise's grasp, the Pixie Knight stood balanced on Louse's lightly balled fists. She nodded. "Because I'm the sort of person that my past self would be proud of."
    Louise had no patience for stupid people, but, how did she respond when a person wasn't being stupid?Louise knew that she'd done foolish things in the past, and that it was partly because of her temper. She'd gotten herself into a lot of trouble by not thinking things through. But Botan was willing to risk herself willingly, with her eyes open to the consequences.
    How was it that the stronger of the two of them was only a hand span tall?
    "Ah, I'm sorry Louise-san, I've upset you!" Botan said quickly. "Come on, it's getting dark." The Knight tugged at the cuff of her blouse. "We should get inside now."
    Slowly, Louise began to walk again at Botan's urging, the small Knight acting as if nothing strange had been said. It had to bother her though, didn't it? After all, she wouldn't have mentioned it if it wasn't on her mind. And now she was doing everything she could to stop Louise from thinking about it too.
    Sighing inwardly. "Yeah, let's go." Louise said. "I bet that the chefs will have more of those baked apples you like so much. You better hope flying burns off a lot of fat, or you're going to look like an apple before too long!"
    "H-Hey!" Botan stammered. "That's not fair! Besides, Kigiku-sama would kick my butt if I got that slow and heavy."
    "Then you better start exercising more." Louise replied. "Because Henrietta is going to meet with Lady Sakuya in Arrun tomorrow about the Pixies, and I heard her say that all of the Garden's we've contacted so far are sending Representatives. Since we'll have to wait for the Archives to find who Terrance is and where we can find him, it probably wouldn't hurt for you to go and see them."
    "W-what?!" Botan stammered, her calm completely lost. Good, so she could be shaken, that was a lot more reassuring than the thought that she might be crazy. "Why wasn't I told about this?!"
    "I mentioned it at breakfast." Louise said casually. "But someone wanted to hurry out and get an early start today."
    "You didn't say that at all!" Botan accused.
    "Did too." Louise said.
    "Did not!"
    "Did too!"
    "Did not! Did not!"
    They continued like that all the way down the walk to the Palace.