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Kathrin slaved over the hobs. The bacon sat on a knife edge between perfectly cooked and burnt, the sausages were so fresh one of them had broken open and crumbled and while not paying enough attention she'd cracked an egg wrong and had to fish pieces of shell out of it before they cooked in. The potatoes, thankfully, were cooking fine; they had just the right combination of seasonings and were going to be finished just a minute before everything else so she would have time to watch that bacon. Breakfast was going well on the whole. It was difficult, she was juggling half a dozen things at once, but it helped wake her up and start the day on the right foot.

It also helped someone else start their day off, someone who was far less inclined to mornings than she was. Kat was thankful she was nearly done cooking breakfast because she could hear the floorboards creak and the door opening. She would have company any moment now.

More creaking came from the old boards, first the short one right outside the bedroom, then the loud one right outside the kitchen that Kat always dodged on her way in. Slowly, with great effort to stay upright and with heavy bags under their eyes, Clovis walked into the kitchen.

Kat quickly dealt with the bacon that needed flipping now and turned the sausages so she could look away for a second. Then, with her very sweetest smile she cheerfully greeted "Good morning Clovis!"

There was a murmuring from the golden wolf and a weak hand gesture that might have been a wave if it had tried a lot more, though never was there any attempt at eye contact. Clovis just shuffled forwards in the general direction of the kitchen table.

Disappointed, Kathrin dipped her nose to give Clovis a very stern and expectant expression while she repeated herself much more forcefully "I said: Good Morning Clovis."

Clovis stopped moving, her eye twitched while glancing sideways at Kathrin, who could clearly see the thoughts running through her head. Probably quite slowly, but Kathrin knew Clovis, and she was not at all surprised when today she decided not to test her luck, responding with a dreary, albeit polite "Good morning miss Kathrin."

"There, that's much better." Kathrin grinned happily and turned back to the bacon that was nearly done, satisfied that Clovis was not about to be rebellious. "Could you please cool some water down for us? Breakfast is nearly ready." She asked.

There was another grumble from Clovis, but Kathrin let it slide when a moment later she heard the clinking of glass, water pouring from the tap and then rummaging through drawers as Clovis searched for mana crystals all over the kitchen. They'd had the argument about where the mana was kept enough time that she didn't say anything, The scattering of crystals around the kitchen bothered Kat's sense of neatness. Her assistant though was adamant that they be kept apart to recharge better, and to her credit, Clovis could keep a crystal working for three or four times longer than was normal and it saved Kathrin a fair bit of money.

As Kathrin was shuffling the cooked breakfast onto a large serving plate she heard the crackling of magic behind her and presumed Clovis had finally picked some mana to use. The table in the kitchen was of simple and rough wooden construction. The corners were all rounded, and it only just fit in the corner of the small room, but there was enough space on it for the two places Kat had laid out earlier and the dish in the middle.

Clovis was sipping from her glass when Kathrin sat down and asked her, still cheerfully "So, do you know what you'll be doing today." While she waited for a response, Kat plucked some bacon and an egg onto her plate, and took a sip from her own glass. The water was cool, but not so much it had chunks of ice floating on the surface Like Clovis' did.

There was a visible reaction in Clovis' demeanour when she was reminded she would have to do things today. Her mood picked up though once she started moving breakfast onto her plate. "I think I need to do an inventory of all the fabric, it's been a while and you've run out of a few things." After shovelling some bacon into her mouth, Clovis reached behind her and plucked the notepad from the wall, setting it in front of her and beginning to skim through it. "Or maybe not, if you've got this many appointments today."

"Mhm." Kathrin agreed while still munching some potato "I got a dozen letters last week asking for rush jobs, there's something coming up in two weeks that no one prepared for."

"Starting with Raine no less I see." Clovis all but spat her name out, and Kathrin couldn't blame them. She was responsible for all of the magic that kept Clovis in check, from the spells in the walls that kept her from leaving or hurting anyone, to the artifact that gave Kathrin control over her gender. Beyond that, Raine was the big shadow looming over any hopes Clovis may ever have had of gaining power and wealth through violence and crime again.

That of course was assuming Clovis had any such ambitions. She professed otherwise but trust was not a resource Clovis had an abundance of. Not everyone had been onboard with Kathrin's plan of rehabilitating her through employment, and it wasn't as though the plan had gone entirely smoothly. "What do you think she meant by 'a suit and dress for myself and Scarlet'?" She asked.

Clovis shrugged, then carried on talking while eating more bacon "I don't know, I guess Scarlet is her mate? I've only ever heard someone call him Red though."

"You've not heard anything about them I haven't?" She raised an eyebrow as she spoke, and Clovis caught the meaning behind it. The former guildmaster still had contacts that passed them information, and those had been a delicious source of rumors that had come in handy for someone that often tailored for the wealthy.

"The only thing I've heard," Clovis continued talking while eating, "is that at that big diplomatic conference last month, a bunch of wolven nobles mistook Red for Raine and spent the whole thing trying to butter him up. Then afterwards told everyone the new Grand Templar was an idiot."

"Well he is." After she's said it, Kat slightly regretted how fast she'd been to the conclusion.

"But he isn't the Grand Templar. That's a diplomatic cockup they're going to have trouble extracting themselves from."

Kat mulled on that for a while. It didn't quite feel like it was relevant yet, but things Clovis learnt through back channels had a habit of coming up later "I wonder what the event is if Raine's going to it."

"I'd guess the Dragon Masquerade." Clovis answered without a step or bothering to look up. Kat's confused expression convinced her to continue after a few moments though "It's a multi-species ball Nora hosts where everyone wears a mask and pretends not to know what species everyone else is."

Kat's ears perked at that, a ball hosted by Nora sounded like fun. Not to mention this idea of pretending not to know who you were talking to, she lived in Human lands and spoke with a human accent, but still never quite got the feeling people entirely treated her equally. "Why do you think it's something Nora is hosting?"

"No one else has the clout to host a ball on a month's notice and still have anyone that matters turn up. Much less Raine, it's exactly the sort of thing she'd want to be seen at right now." As ever, Clovis' logic was pretty flawless. Raine was making a big effort to build diplomatic relations right now.

Kat went back to her breakfast with a little less enthusiasm than before. This all sounded fun and she wanted to know more. It was also nice to see Clovis opening up and talking a little more. She did usually, as she was today, perk up an awful lot once she'd been fed in the morning, but making her feel clever seemed to be helping. Still, she picked her words carefully, to not air too much of what she was really thinking "So who does Nora invite to a Dragon Masquerade? Important people I guess?"

Clovis kept flicking through the notebook while finishing a mouthful before talking. Kat didn't think Clovis was deliberately avoiding talking directly to her, or that she was pushing a sensitive topic (which Nora ordinarily would have been around Clovis), but then her assistant was normally quite hard to read. "An eclectic mix actually. She cherry picks a selection of people from different walks of life: major nobility, minor nobility, friends, traders, guild masters, ship captains and so on. Basically anyone that can afford to dress up might get one. She doesn't publish a list either, since the point of a masquerade is to not know who's there, so there's always a big scramble to figure out who's going." She took another bite of bacon, but continued talking through it. "Never heads of state so Reni won't be there, but she usually invites someone in their stead, family or a diplomat or something. Oh yes, here's Sythe at two thirty."

Kat was a little upset she didn't seem to have gotten an invitation, she considered Nora a friend. They were certainly in the same circle, they'd all been there together at the end, and the discussion of what to do. Even Clovis had been there, even if what to do with her had been one of the points of discussion.

While Kathrin was thinking and reminiscing, her silence left an opening for Clovis to continue talking that she was quite happy to allow "I heard he got into a fight at the last conference. He's a fairly controversial character in forest wolf territory."

Well, actually, now Kat thought about it, she and Nora sort of knew each other, but they weren't the closest of friends. Actually they'd never spoken much just together. They'd both been in the same place at the same time, but really she knew Nora through other people, Trace, Natani, Zen, Mike, Reni, even Clovis. She seemed to be one degree of separation away from her through so many ways but maybe wasn't close enough for an invite.

"Don't feel slighted." Clovis tried to reassure her, even if her tone of voice was still very serious. She was even looking at her while talking for once. It almost felt weird. "Nora is intentionally opaque about who she invites. No one is ever guaranteed a spot and it's rare for anyone to get an invitation twice in a row. She might be planning to invite you next year."

That didn't really make her feel any better about it, but she really liked the way Clovis had made a point of trying to cheer her up, so she put on a smile and said "Thanks." as earnestly as she could because she wanted to encourage that sort of behaviour. It was, after all, part of why Clovis was living with her.

Also Clovis had entirely seen the real meaning behind her asking who got invited and she shouldn't really be surprised about it. Clovis read people like Raine read books.

"Ohh and Zen right at the end of the day." That grabbed Kathrin's attention. She'd given him a slot towards the end of the day, so that if he was available she could leave Clovis to close up the shop and go out with him. She also noticed that his booking was much earlier on in the notepad than everything else; his had been the first letter she'd gotten last week. Clovis had spotted it earlier and flicked back to it.

Clovis sighed and rolled her eyes. Avoiding eye contact again she grabbed the notepad and hung it back on the wall while standing up. Then she took her plate and went over to the sink to start washing up.

"What?" Kathrin asked coyly. She knew what was up with Clovis and it entertained her endlessly that it bothered the wolf so much.

"You've gone all mushy and tail waggy." Clovis said snidely, as though it was offensive to even explain it.

"That's because I don't hide how I feel about my wolf." She replied with a huge and still growing grin. "Remind me; when will Brutus be back in town?"

Clovis' sigh was long, drawn out, and full of anguish. But she relented; Kat had her here and they both knew it. "Tomorrow at the earliest. So yes I can close up the shop while you spend time with Zen."

Kathrin felt that was some masterful diversion of the conversation away from the burgeoning relationship Clovis still wasn't quite open to talking about. She didn't push the point. While still chewing the last mouthful of her breakfast, Kathrin got up and handed her plate and glass to Clovis to wash up; the same division of labour they did most morning and evenings since Clovis could not cook to save her life. While Kathrin was there, she thanked Clovis and, when she was least expecting it, gave her a quick kiss on the cheek.

Then Kathrin quickly dodged the swipe and the growl that accompanied it. She hung up her kitchen apron next to the door and began changing into her work apron while planning out her day, and Clovis' day. "I'd like you to still work on that inventory if you can find time, focus on the nicer fabrics since it looks like I'll have some outfits to make on short notice. Otherwise I might still need your help with any fittings or watching the shop while I have an appointment." She said, double checking in her mind if that was everything. "Did you understand all of that?" She asked, looking over her shoulder at Clovis to see her reaction.

Clovis sighed with slumped shoulders, but as with at the start of breakfast, decided not to put up a fight over her responses. "Yes miss." She said, offended at the very notion of someone having any say over her.

Satisfied, Kathrin headed downstairs to start opening up the shop, she had Raine arriving soon and she was always prompt. Kathrin started by neatening up the work area towards the back of the shop and filling the money tray with some small change, even though most of her customers paid with check. Then she did a walk around of all the clothes on the stalls and the rolls of fabric along the walls, neatening everything up to show it all of at its best. When she was done tidying she went and pulled up the blinders behind the front windows, showing off her wares. Finally, and most importantly, she swung out her sign above her door, above her shop with her name on it.

KATHRIN'S

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