Yuna is always sad going through the dingy parts of the city. So many lives, so much potential, scared to use their powers and truly be themselves. She goes anyway, in the hope she can spare just one person.

"Always depressing coming back here," Andrew says, trying to hide his fear through humour.

Yuna rubs his arm comfortingly.

Their contact is up ahead. Yuna draws herself up as nobly as she can.

Here is her contact. Her having brought a mage gets about the same appraisal and lack of particular expression as if she'd brought a machine gun. 

He'll exchange sign and countersign with her, and, if all goes as arranged, bring her down a set of back stairs to what looks like an underground garage.

Apparently the thing they want her for is 'sale'. Might explain the mat and book - maybe they're expecting the psychological beneficence to make her look better enough to their prospective buyers to make it worth it.

And, there indeed seems to be a prospective buyer. Woman, looks around like she's an empress in some - period drama, that's the word. Mage following behind her, which - if she'd thought it would be a good idea in any way to try to affect who she got bought by, that might be an argument to aim here. She doesn't, particularly.

She stands where she was put and keeps her head down and tries her best to convey an impression of good merchandise (not that she knows what that looks like, particularly). (She's fairly sure she's getting a beating if anyone they want to sell to doesn't want her, just as general incentive-set-up, but she's about as sure it'll get worse than that and then some if they think she actually did something to threaten their sale.)

Yuna doesn't take in a harsh breath, the way she wants to upon seeing the mage. The poor thing, she looks so tired. Well, she'll get a good rest at the Braska household.

"This is the product? She's barely conscious," she scolds the buyers.

She tries to look more conscious, in as much as she can figure out what that means.

The representative doesn't seem particularly perturbed by the criticism.

"Would you like a demonstration of abilities?"

"Not so much her abilities as her wakefulness. We do require our mages to be awake for some time."

She tries to look down her nose, not feeling the noble lady she's supposed to be. 

Andrew keeps his head down, though one hand starts to shake a little.

Let Yuna handle this, let Yuna handle this, he repeats to himself.

Yeah, she's getting a beating and then some. And now has even less of an idea of what the problem even is. The other mage doesn't seem to be doing anything she can obviously copy...

(She notices the hand-shaking. Doesn't seem like it's likely to be good news (if the buyer wants her after all), though 'of what' remains an unknown.)

"Seems to be awake about the normal time. CIA doesn't keep subpar goods around, do they.

You want to see her run around the room or something?" Representative got a shock stick for the occasion; draws it.

"No, that won't be necessary. I suppose we'll see her hardiness in time." It's hard to get the words out, but she does. For the mage's sake.

"The price is the same as you quoted my father?"

Flinch. (Whatever form of demonstrating hardiness might be apparently in her future, she doesn't imagine it's the sort of thing one looks forward to.)

Who sent this woman to bargain - oh, her father, apparently. 

"Hasn't changed."

Yuna doesn't try to haggle, she knows her ability to lie doesn't stretch that far. 

She nods to Andrew.

Andrew presents the money to the slave-trader.

"Tell him to put it on the ground; I wasn't born yesterday."

"You heard the woman, on the ground 31."

Her heart aches to not use Andrew's name.

Andrew flinches, but soothes himself by remembering that Yuna doesn't mean it. 

He places the briefcase at the woman's feet, and then shuffles back behind Yuna.

Well. 'Had the mage carry the money' might at the least be potentially promising to the part of her interests that is 'interesting work' rather than 'torture minimization'. 

The representative does a money test-and-sufficient-count. Produces a box in return. "Key to the collar. Unused; it's got just the one. Check the seal if you want."

Yuna does so, if only to keep up the pretence. "Excellent. 25, come with u- Me."

Some mages in private ownership have probably made their own songs about the whole experience of everything just changing in an instant like this. She's never really been the song-composing type, herself.

She goes.

Once they reach Yuna's waiting car and slip inside, Yuna relaxes with a sigh of relief. "That was too much. Far too much."

"You did well, Yuna. Nearly had me convinced."

"No. Never, ever." 

She smiles at the new mage. "I'm Yuna. And this is Andrew. What's your name?"

She watches to see if the other mage sits in a seat or kneels on the floor of the car or whatever recombination, and copies him.

And - it's not a particular surprise that a mage being taken along to buy a field mage is a field mage. "That was too much. Far too much" or whatever subset of it makes an odd field cover trigger, but he's got the body language change, and that sentence he says, so field cover trigger it apparently was.

('Why do you want your mage in field cover when you are alone in the car with another mage and he's still in uniform and collar anyway' is also an open question, but obviously she doesn't currently have any idea how their operations work. Or what they are, for that matter.)

And no one said any of her field cover triggers, or told her she was to have a new one, so she keeps her eyes down and her hands in their walking chain visible and herself quiet and at-your-disposal.

She has no idea why the human is smiling at her, or introducing herself (though she supposes if the other mage is in field cover it fits in to introduce him the same way too). Or asking her name, given that she said Elvira's end-number and also bought her and therefore presumably knows her name or can go check it. Well. Not-hers-to-question where anyone will notice her doing it.

"Elvira, ma'am." She recites her designation.

“Do you like that name? You can pick another if you like.”

“Awww, can we? Should’ve told me that,” Andrew says playfully, nudging Yuna’s leg with his shoe. 

Yuna pokes him back, grinning. 

Flinch. Well, can't be surprised that the first thing the human wants to do with her new field mage is testing. 'Is the field mage getting above herself, does she think she gets to have preferences or something'.

Might be the reason for the field cover - can't have him helping, or her looking to him for it, if the test proceeds to something where she could use that.

(One doesn't, of course, look to a mage in field cover like one could look to a mage out of it. Doesn't try for support any more than one does for acknowledgement, when one is the one in field cover. ...Might be its own test, for that matter, that. For her and maybe for Andrew.)

Looking down. "At your disposal, ma'am."

Yuna is saddened by Elvira's reaction. She has to remind herself that Andrew was much the same before he grew comfortable with her. She tries not to let it dampen her spirit. 

"Elvira it is. Are you comfortable? It's a little ways back to my father's house. Are you hungry?"

"Please say yes, I'm starving. Not that that's a change from normal."

She attempts to figure out if she's supposed to promptly obey Andrew given that he's obviously in field cover, or not given that aside from her knowing he's a mage, he's still dressed like one, and no one else is actually here.

Well - she has no idea in context so she'll be guessing and finding out by punishment or lack thereof either way. Maybe it's a test to see if she'll act as though he's giving her information about the food situation like she would if he said that out of cover.

She goes with obeying the actual human, which is to say actually responding to the question.

"I will be able to work, ma'am. I have been on standard rations and last ate a few hours ago."

"Oh. Okay. I hope you don't mind if we eat? Generally we have lunch about now, and Andrew gets grumpy when he's hungry." Yuna keeps her voice light, trying to hide her worry for the new mage. 

They pull through a drive-in, Yuna's driver ordering for them all.

Andrew is careful to keep his head down and look as oppressed as possible. 

Well, either she got it right or Yuna is waiting until they've arrived to have her told otherwise and punished.

"At your disposal, ma'am." And whatever she can put into radiating with every nonverbal she has that she knows her place, doesn't think she gets to 'mind' things or have opinions on what humans do... (She has no idea what the part about Andrew is supposed to mean or be testing.)

If she was the one buying blackmarket mages she'd probably not go showing them off to random fast food employees first thing, even if they're behind the driver partition. But on the other hand even if the employee can see them it's not as though humans are generally going to identify one someone-else's-mage from another so much. Maybe a 'look like you have nothing to hide' approach can work pretty fine. (As always with her playing-agent-in-her-head, such thoughts stay in her head away from anything inviting torturing them out of her.)

Andrew watches Elvira out of the corner of his eye, feeling concerned. He hasn't been like that for a while, but he remembers the feeling well. The idea that every nice gesture was a trap. Yuna is the only master he's had that hasn't a bad bone in her body.

The driver hands Yuna the food, and then closes the partition again. "Mmmm, that smells so good." 

She hands Andrew (who has brightened) a few things, and leaves a packet of fries for Elvira. "If you feel hungry, you're welcome to those."

She notices the other mage watching her, but has no way to know what he's thinking.

She has no idea what to do with Yuna's instructions. (Or why she's talking like that; that wasn't even a question at her...). Well, if humans put food in front of her it's more likely they want her to eat it than not to eat it. And if she interprets the question literally that does represent a true answer.

She eats. 

Yuna beams.

Andrew relaxes seeing her take the food, and takes that as a cue to rip into his.

She has no idea why the human is suddenly smiling, which is rather unnerving. Maybe she's lucky and the car just happened to pass something that caused it just now, or Yuna thought of something unrelated and pleasing to her.

She notices Andrew relax. Isn't sure if he's back in field cover yet, or how strict the discipline he's under is, and thus if she can take that as a sign that she did guess right.

Andrew watches her eat for a moment, and then he grows curious. “Were you a field mage?”

Yuna knows she was, but doesn’t want to answer for Elvira. She stays quiet.

She still doesn't know if he's back in field cover yet. Obviously he was supposed to drop out of it when - someone else was watching, or whatever condition the fast food place met. But could be he's supposed to go right back, and could be he's supposed to wait on Yuna's trigger again.

Body language isn't being clear enough. But Yuna hasn't said they're allowed to talk, and hasn't done anything him to for starting anyway. So probably field cover, unless he has some sort of standing permission to talk sometimes and for some reason didn't think to tell her first. Standing permissions to talk don't exactly grow on trees, let alone for field mages.

"Yes," she says anyway, because if she's wrong in one direction and should have said sir that's probably a reprimand, and if she's wrong in the other direction and sirs a mage out of field cover that'll be hell to pay and then some. And for him too, lest he get ideas and all that.

“It’s okay, Elvira. You can speak freely. Andrew hasn’t ever been a field mage and he’s incorrigibly curious.”

“That’s code for sticks his nose in where it doesn’t belong,” Andrew laughs. 

...alright, definitely in field cover.

She attempts to decode Yuna's directions. (She is also developing the potential theory that Yuna is not actually good at this (the way she'd interacted with the kidnappers in evidence. And if she's buying mages off the black market no one would have made her go through certification-for-private-mage-owners and all that, would they have). Not a safe theory to go rely on, obviously. But she can keep it in mind.)

There's countries where doing the gentleness thing at their mages is a thing they go for; some kind of psychology effect they're into. She thought it was mostly for after punishment but it wouldn't be odd if she was off on that. 'Speak freely' sounds close enough to a 'you can talk' variation, though why she's being told she can do that right now when the only other mage here is in field cover is anyone's guess.

And Andrew - well, if you're buying blackmarket anyway she supposes there's nothing stopping you from making a mage not already trained as field mage play field mage. Sounds about entirely horrific for Andrew, which, not something she can be trying to express at him right now. Maybe the human will want her doing instruction at him.

Continued looking down. "Yes, ma'am."

Oh no. She didn't mean to make her uncomfortable. Yuna's not even sure what Elvira could be thinking right now. Andrew was a little like this before too, and kind words soothed him. She hopes it'll be the same with Elvira.

"It's okay. You don't have to call me ma'am if you don't want. Andrew calls me Yuna, you're welcome to as well."

Flinch. Well, apparently the test is not done yet. 

She lets herself tremble, tries to radiate with nonverbals again - she's been taught better than to want things or think she gets to, she knows...

Tries to figure out the rest of it. Not calling her ma'am presumably will read like her thinking she gets to not want to, but will using it be taken to mean she still thinks she gets to somehow decide? In which case what is she supposed to do?

Flinch again at the second part - minders usually sound sardonic about it when they go for nice-phrasings in their orders, but that doesn't make it not remind her of what that tends to be. (If 'fucking get over here' means 'now or better ten seconds ago', then 'would you kindly get over here' is that with the 'or maybe the mage is getting above themselves' wound in. She'll take the yelling any day. Not that she gets to pick.)

"At your disposal, Yuna, ma'am."

This is going to be a hard one. She shares a sympathetic look with Andrew, and settles back into her seat.

"We're not far off from home now. My father isn't home right now, but he'll be sure to introduce himself once he does return."

"Yes, Yuna, ma'am." Maybe she can hope that's more the 'and give instructions' kind of introducing than the 'preemptive punishment as warning' kind.

The car pulls into a long drive, and parks in front of the ornate front doors. A fountain bubbles in the centre of the drive. 

"We're here," Yuna says, smiling at Elvira. She waits for the driver to open the door, and when he does she steps out, then stands nearby waiting for Elvira.

That smile was pretty unambiguously at her. She can think of approximately one reason for a human to smile like that at a mage outside of field cover. And she had hoped as such things went that this could be one thing she could spend her life without. But hoping isn't the kind of thing that gets you much out if it. (Maybe it's something else. Could still be; she can still wish it. But if she's going to be dragged off to a bedroom, or whatever private ownership humans do, she'd at the least prefer to not be shocked at it.)

Can't look to Andrew for how-to-be-acting this time. But it's not likely Yuna wants her staying in the car. She climbs out, careful with movements, nothing too fast and nothing sudden and nothing too close.

A couple of servants (not mage ones) open the front door and welcome Yuna home. She waves cheerily.

"Follow me, I'll show you where your rooms are." She heads inside.

Andrew brings up the rear, watching Elvira in case she feels uncomfortable.

She not run into servants outside of field cover before, but she's familiar with the concept. Eyes down and hands visible and movement careful. She follows where she's told.

Yuna leads the way through a huge, ornate house, up a flight of stairs and to the right, leading into huge quarters. 

“Just through here will be your room.” Yuna opens a set of double doors. Inside is a plush double bed, and off to the side is an ensuite bathroom. “We’ve bought some clothes, you can pick whatever you want to wear. There’s also a phone that connects to the ones in the house, if you want to call down to the kitchens. Or reach me or Andrew or my father.”

She supposes if you're buying black market mages for private ownership and have an enormous house and all that, it might be in fact cheaper to put the mages in one of the rooms you already have than go retrofitting a mages' hall. And if you're watching your mages by video camera (which, if Yuna kept minders around all the time presumably they'd have shown up by now, so. And obviously Yuna isn't going to follow them around 24/7 herself) it makes sense enough to put her and Andrew in different rooms. Less watching for conspiracy to be doing and all that.

She's not the least looking forward to whatever prophylactic is considered the right level for don't-you-get-ideas from being in a room like this, but, well, not like there's anything she can do, there. If it's easier for the humans to stick her in a room, she's not expecting 'maybe it'd be easier for the mage for you to not do that' to particularly move anyone.

And - not a surprise the test is continuing, given that. Trembling, and keeping eyes down, and every nonverbal obeisance radiation she can think of while she's still standing and following.

"At your disposal, Yuna, ma'am."

Yuna isn’t sure what to do. Andrew was a little more snarky when he first came here, and at least gave her a chance to prove she wasn’t a monster. Yuna can’t even imagine the hardships Elvira must’ve gone through to be so frightened. 

Time, she tells herself. She just needs time. 

“All right. I’ll leave you to get settled. Dinner will be around 7, I or one of the servants will come and collect you then.”

Yuna exits the room, squeezing Andrew’s elbow as she passes. 

The reassuring touch is gratefully accepted by Andrew. He feels at war with himself; knowing how Elvira feels, and yet wanting her to react differently. He wants her to immediately know that this place is different, is safe, but he only knows that through experience. 

Experience that she’s yet to have. 

“I’m here if you need anything. My room’s down the hall.” He turns to leave, and stops. Turns back. 

“They’re not like others. Yuna and her father. They’ve never hurt me. Or anything else. I know you don’t think you can be yourself. But you can. I hope- I hope you come to think of this as home too.”

"Yes Yuna, ma'am."

She notices the touch, flinches some. Let's herself do it, though if Yuna's into the casual touch thing she'll probably need to stop with the flinching soon enough. But she'd rather actually know Yuna's reaction to the flinching than guess at it, before the one getting touched is her. Will take the risk, for that. (At the moment there does not seem to be one.)

She's still not entirely clear on Andrew's field cover status (can't ask him, obviously). Isn't sure either way how much of what he just said was scripted for him. Definitely enough the beginning part - 'will the new mage try leaving the room without actual permission'. Most of the end she can't make that makes sense out of - maybe some sort of phrases used by the mages wherever he's from? (Or scripted, again, in which case she still has no idea what it's trying to mean.)

The middle - might be his. Which - she should probably not be surprised that this 'father' also goes for that. (The 'be sure to introduce himself' gets an entirely new possible-and-hoping-otherwise-sure-won't-do-any-good meaning.) And - if one is going to be taken off to bed, she supposes not hurting is better than the alternative, at the least. (Nor can she envy his luck at that, past experiences and worse ones on top of that apparently.)

She nods.

“...okay.” Andrew seems rather lost for words, but doesn’t press Elvira for more. He takes his leave and heads to his room. 

Once inside he sinks onto his bed, head in his hands. He tries not to think about how alike to her he was when he first got here. 

Yuna had released her walking chain, and no one had her restrained otherwise at the moment. So she gets to pick which wall to sit against as she looks around the room. 

The room is simply furnished, but everything is clearly of good make. The wallpaper is a soft blue, and the bathroom has a brighter shade for its tiles.

Anything in it except the bed?

A dresser, with a modest amount of clothes, a mirror, a bookcase and a desk.

She doesn't open the dresser and so won't know about the clothes yet. She looks at the bookcase and desk, carefully without touching. Any items they're holding?

The bookcase holds a few books, mostly magic reference and non-fiction, and the desk holds a notebook and a few pens.

She stays away from the notebook and pens. She stays very, very thoroughly away from the magical reference books. She hasn't been given permission to use anything, so she doesn't, lies back on the floor and considers her situation.

She doesn't really have enough information yet. Hints and construing and not much else. Not that anyone tends to care to give mages information, but she can probably get at least a bit more from the rest of the day and all that. 

That, then, for now.

She hums a few songs, reads the spines of the nonfiction books, tries to reconstruct what she saw of the house and the trip to it. Waits.

Around 7, Andrew sticks his head in Elvira’s room. “Ready for-” he stops, noticing she hasn’t changed. “None of the clothes fit? Similar thing happened to me, they weren’t expecting my beanpole body,” he says with a encouraging grin. 

She really needs to figure out something to do about the field cover uncertainty.

She ducks her head. "I... had not realized I had been instructed to change clothes." If she knew he was in field cover she'd be being much more sorry, but she isn't sure, and doing that at a mage would be hell to pay for both of them. This should - be bearable enough, hopefully, whichever direction she's wrong in. Even on top of whatever she might get for the not in fact having changed clothes part. If she can hope.

"Not instructed, just- we wanted you to be comfortable." Andrew feels a little stuck, like he's not making much headway with Elvira. He doesn't blame her for her uncertainty, though.

"We" answers at least the immediate field cover question. Though apparently a lenient version, unless he's waiting for the actual humans to deal with her. 

She isn't sure what the rest of that means - is guessing either 'test' or 'sex thing' but not actually sure in either case what to actually make of it. 

"I do not have alimentation in need of attention. I will be able to work."

(If she knew what was going on, was on the other side of it, she might have about a ream of advice for them, here. But she does not.)

"Okay. Well! In that case, come with me. Foods up soon. Yuna's father should be home tonight, so you'll probably meet him."

Andrew leads the way through the house.

Well at least apparently that might have been the right answer.

She follows.

(What is he wearing, by the way?)

(He’s in a very comfortable looking outfit of grey track pants, white singlet and a long yellow cardigan.)

He takes her back down the stairs and through the gargantuan foyer, into the dining room. 

Yuna (dressed in a loose fitting, yellow, flowery dress) smiles as they enter, though it falters a little to see Elvira in the same clothes as before. 

“Welcome! We’re just waiting on my father, he’ll be here soon. Traffic was bad from the airport.”

(This would have been a rather confident indicator with respect to the field cover question if it wasn't for his collar continuing to be visible.)

She notices the smile falter, which seems like it's probably not good despite her lack of experience with human nonverbals that involve smiling cheerfully at her out of field cover. (She does not, of course, have any way to know it's her clothes that are the problem).

That seemed addressed to her; answering continues to be likely a safer bet than not. "Yes, Yuna, ma'am."

“Please! Come sit. We’re gonna start without him.”

Yuna takes a seat.

Anders sits beside her, gesturing for Elvira to do the same. 

Flinch at the 'please'.

She sits where she's told.

Yuna flinches too, but covers it as best she can, pulling Andrew into conversation, something trivial about college. 

The servants pile into the room soon after, carrying dishes of food, but they join Yuna and the mages at the table. It’s clear dinner is a family affair, servants included. 

Humans flinching (is she unhappy about starting without her father?) is generally bad news. (Humans flinching at you is about unspeakably horrific, but fortunately it does not occur to her to think this is the case). She is very careful and obedient and quiet.

Does someone put food in front of her?

Everyone seems to be serving themselves from bowls and platters, but if Elvira doesn’t serve herself, Yuna will motion for someone to give her a serve of a few things. 

Elvira does not serve herself without being told to do so. If food is put in front of her she eats it.

Yuna makes a motion at a servant, who nods back and quickly piles a plate with a selection of things, passing it to Elvira. “Try the pumpkin, Frieda the cook is very proud of it,” Yuna says with an encouraging smile. 

Elvira obediently eats the pumpkin. 

Yuna keeps an eye on Elvira, making sure she’s eating (and hopefully enjoying) dinner. 

Shortly afterwards, a middle-aged, very attractive man with a startling resemblance to Yuna walks into the room. 

“Sorry! Sorry I’m late, traffic was a nightmare. Hello everyone!” He says as heads to a chair, dropping a kiss on Yuna’s head as he passes. 

Once he’s seated with food in front of him, he notices Elvira. “Hello, you must be our new mage! I’m Braska.”

“My father,” Yuna clarifies with an adoring smile. It’s clear that they have a very loving relationship. 

She was given food therefore she is eating it. 

It's human food, obviously enough even without the part where humans are also eating it. She wasn't given the not-drug the CIA used so that field mages wouldn't taste human food too much when not supposed to, so she can, in fact, taste it. She's not one of the mages especially into such things, but she could get her share enjoyment from it. At the moment is mostly too preoccupied with the 'what will she be getting for this latest thing-that-might-make-a-mage-get-above-themselves'.

(Why are they letting her taste the food? Or giving it to her at all, instead of regular food given to mages, when she's not even in field cover? (Is this also somehow a sex thing...?))

She isn't sure if she's supposed to be responding. Ducks her head. "Elvira, Braska, sir."

She was trained to pretend to be an agent; it is indeed clear. 

“A pleasure to meet you,” Braska says with a gentle smile so like his daughter’s.

“Andrew and I showed her her room. I put her in the one down the hall from Andrew’s?”

“Ah, yes. Comfortable?”

Braska frowns a little at Elvira’s clothes. “We did purchase some new things, were they not the right size? We’ll fix that quickly.”

Flinch. (Why does he say that to her?)

"I do not have alimentation in need of attention, Braska, sir. I will be able to work."

Harder flinch. (Waiting for the actual humans it was, then.) She was put at the table so she probably shouldn't drop to her knees. Looking down and looking very sorry. "I'm sorry. I did not understand that I was instructed to change clothes. I'm very sorry."

“No, not instructed. We just thought you’d like something a little more comfortable. Don’t apologise, you’ve done nothing wrong. We will tell you if that’s the case.”

Braska clasps his hands together. “This isn’t an order, but would you mind trying on some of the things? Just to see if they fit.”

...alright so this was the obvious test after all and doing something with the clothes would have failed it exactly as expected (shiver) ('the mage thinks she gets to 'like' what clothes she gets...').

She's not sure if this is an order to not apologize until they start yelling at her. Which would be unpleasant, if so; the point of being sorry ahead of time is generally having some hope of ameliorating the 'telling'. Maybe that's why they don't like it or something, if they don't. (She might think they don't like her 'making a judgement' about if she's done something wrong, given the context, but if that was it she'd expect an order delivered much more emphatically.)

Continuing to look down hard. "At your disposal, Braska, sir."

Branka, well used to how “broken-in” enslaved mages thought, chooses not to push her. He wants her to be comfortable, but this will take time. 

“All right. Go back to eating, if you like.” He turns to his daughter and Andrew, and eases back into conversation. 

Well now she has no idea if she's supposed to keep eating or not, and either seems like a very wrong answer.

She still probably shouldn't kneel.

"I'm sorry, I don't understand."

“Are you hungry? Honest answer please.”

She has eaten enough for standard upkeep and small amounts of magic. Eating more would be more optimal alimentation for more magic.

(Flinch at 'honest answer please'. Nonverbals - she is obedient and well contained and taught better, she knows not to lie...)

“We want to make sure you’re comfortable. That means new, well-fitting clothes and plenty of good food. Nothing more. If you’re not hungry, you don’t have to eat. If you are, please, enjoy it. We aren’t big on restricting meals.”

She interprets this as probably them having their own ideas about good mage alimentation or something. Her clothes totally fit fine - the kidnappers didn't take her CIA issued ones away, and she wouldn't work as effectively if her clothes were in the way would she. She has no idea why someone would think 'new' was somehow alimentation relevant but she isn't imagining she gets to ask. ("Nothing more", or course.)

If she has more food than she needs it won't likely be a problem. If she's called on to do more magic and didn't eat enough - well the problem won't actually show up so acutely but it's still the worse of the two failure cases.

"Yes Braska, sir." She finishes the food she was given.

Not long after that, everyone else finishes too. The servants gather plates and dishes, heading back into the kitchen.

Andrew leaves the table with a yawn and a quick hug with Yuna. 

Once he’s gone, Braska leans on the table, and looks at Elvira. “What were you trained as?”

There's clearly some significance to them having Andrew leave first, though she isn't sure what it is. (Shiver at the hug.)

He obviously already knows she's a field mage; they bought her. Might not know the rest of her history, given black market. Doesn't matter much to the question answer.

"Field mage, Braska, sir, by the CIA. And I was designated to the Authority of Mages, before my redesignation."

“Were you sold to the black market by the CIA?”

She has no idea why he's asking her this ('he is actually that ignorant' seems unlikely to be it).

"I was stolen, Braska, sir." She adds neither 'that's how the black market works' nor 'when the CIA sells field mages they just do it', because she's not an idiot either.

“Do you remember who kidnapped you?”

Is she supposed to not? But this isn't something she'll try lying for. "I was sold directly by those who stole me, I think, Braska, sir."

“Do you remember what they looked like, Yuna?”

Yuna nods. “I left the transcript in your computer.”

“Excellent, thank you dear heart. Elvira,” he says, turning back to the mage. “Were you in the field when they caught you?”

She highly doubts the kidnappers were wearing their own faces, but her contribution wasn't asked for.

(At this point she'd suspect them of mage kidnapper entrapment if their behavior toward her (and Andrew) wasn't so bizarre. Maybe they're trying private mage kidnapper blackmail or something?)

"No, Braska, sir." 

“All right. Thank you, that’s all for now. I may have some additional questions later in the week, if you don’t mind the imposition.”

Shrinking and letting herself shake. "At your disposal, Braska, sir."

Braska frowns sadly. "Never disposal, Elvira."

He checks his watch. "I'm going to head to the study for a few hours, some work needs to be finished off. I'll see you in the morning, Yuna, Elvira." He kisses the top of his daughter's head as he goes past.

Ahhh (well she sure has no idea why he suddenly dislikes that phrase.) "I'm sorry, Braska, sir."

Being mentioned in the same sentence as Yuna is terrifying. She shrinks again. Nonverbals nonverbals. The kiss makes her flinch, but he doesn't seem to touch her. At the moment.

“Would you like me to take you back to your room?” Yuna seems very unsure of what she should do. Elvira looks so frightened at everything. It makes Yuna terribly sad. 

Ahhh. Head down, -she knows not to would-like things she knows she knows-

Yuna hadn't objected to the phrasing, but it's probably safer for habit development to change the same for both. 

"At your use, Yuna, ma'am."

That isn't what her father meant by disagreeing with the word, but Yuna doesn't say anything. Doesn't want to upset or worry Elvira.

"All right, follow me." She stands and starts heading towards the foyer.

Oh, good, something straightforward.

She follows.

Yuna takes her through the house and back to her room. "You have permission to read the books, if you like. Andrew will take you out for some practice tomorrow, if that's something you'd like to do."

"Yes, Yuna, ma'am." Shrink. "At your use, Yuna, ma'am."

"I-" I'm sorry? Yuna thinks, but doesn't say. She wants to apologise for not getting to her sooner, or for whatever she does to make Elvira uncomfortable, but she knows that words won't do. Only time can undo the harm done.

"Sleep well. The door has a lock on it, if that would make you feel safer. No one will bother you until the morning, for breakfast." 

Well since she does not say that she will not get a terrified mage prostrating herself in front of her.

Obedient and knowing her place and - "yes, Yuna, ma'am."

(Well, really, of course they want to assure themselves if their new field mage knows her place. Much nicer to do it with the tests than going straight to the reinforcement by torture, at the least. Not that that might not be next.)

She does not, of course, lock the door. She selects a non-magic book, sits against the wall. Calms herself down, then opens it to read.  

Yuna sits at her computer, studying a web page on people with trauma, trying to see if there’s anything more she can do for Elvira. 

Skype starts ringing. 

Yuna clicks over to it, then grins at the username. She answers the call. 

“Hi love.”

“Hey gorgeous. How’d it go? How’s the new one?”

Yuna sighs dramatically for his benefit, and then goes through the whole story. “...heaven only knows what the poor thing went through. Andrew thinks she thinks he’s in field cover.”

Tyler whistles sympathetically. “She better or worse than Andrew was?”

“Worse. Andrew was at least angry, she...she’s just expecting us to be the worst.”

“You want me to come over?”

She does, but it’s late. “Tell me about soccer practice instead?”

He does, happy to distract her for a while. 

Were Elvira both aware of this and for some reason remarking honestly on it, she might say that she is certainly not expecting them to be the worst, or she'd be acting differently, and that if they're looking for something to do they might consider cutting it out with obviously terrifying things.

She is neither of these things. She doesn't have enough information to get more considering and strategy done, so she reads the book. And - doesn't look like they're planning on telling her when to sleep (the kidnappers hadn't either). She would significantly prefer the floor, but given that she is a field mage it is more likely they would take not sleeping in the bed as defiant than that they would take sleeping in it as presumptuous and insubordinate. 

She gets in the bed. At the least, she has been trained in both sleeping in beds and sleeping unanchored. She sleeps.

Tyler ends the call with a blown kiss and a promise to come by the house soon.

Yuna smiles until the call ends, and then her face falls. Now on top of everything else, she regrets not letting Tyler come over. It would’ve been nice to sleep in his arms. He’s a good hugger. 

She turns off her laptop and changes into pyjamas, grabbing something to read. Once she’s in bed, however, her mind races and it’s hard to concentrate on the words. All she can think about is Elvira’s reactions to her, and it makes Yuna even more determined to help her. 

Eventually, she grows tired enough to sleep. 

In the morning she wakes up. Remembers where she is. No one seems to have shown up in the night, unless they did in some way where she didn't notice. Which, well. Not the worst it could be, if so. No one seems to be around, either. She risks getting carefully out of bed. She goes back to the book.

The house is quiet for some time, though if she listens carefully, there seems to be some motion downstairs. 

She listens. 

She does a few quiet stretches and the like. After trying it a little and getting no reaction to cut it the fuck out, walks the room a bit.

There’s a knock on the door.

She puts the book down and kneels and looks down.

“Ah...are you awake? I’ll come back later if you’re still sleeping,” Andrew’s voice says. 

"I am awake."

“May I come in?”

'Try to guess whether he's in field cover' is apparently getting a new chapter.

"Yes," she says, because saying 'at your disposal use' if he is not is still probably worse than the other gamble.

Andrew opens the door, bright smile on his face, until he sees Elvira kneeling. “What’re you doing on the floor?” He asks, puzzled. 

That's not a mage question, so,

"I'm sorry, I had not understood that I was not to be." She doesn't actually move - she's presuming she should have stayed on the bed, but she isn't going to move to return to it without an clearer indication that she should.

“It’s not that it’s just- it doesn’t look very comfortable,” Andrew says gently. 

“D’you want to come downstairs for breakfast? Yunie’s not up but she tends to sleep in.”

She has no idea what the purpose of that statement is. She tries not responding to it.

"At my masters' use." (Good, hopefully that phrasing might work either way.)

“Come on then, wouldn’t do to have you hungry.” Andrew holds out a hand to offer to help her up.

Wouldn't do. At this point it's almost nice to have something more familiar.

She doesn't need help, but if he's in field cover rejecting it might be taken as disobedience, and if he is not he might have a touch need going, and she doesn't mind providing. She takes the hand and stands.

He’s quick to let go once she’s up. “All right, follow me.” He leads the way out and down. “You’ll get used to the layout soon enough, the house is set up reasonably simple.”

She follows.

She has in fact already learned the parts she's seen. She nods.

Andrew yells hello to everyone when he enters, sliding into a free seat, gesturing that Elvira take the one next to him, before grabbing a plate piled with everything he could reach. 

Which is quite far. 

“Hi! Hi, sorry I’m late,” Yuna says, rushing into the room after them, waving at Andrew and Elvira, before heading to her father to drop a kiss on his cheek. 

Well she supposes there's no doubt on the field cover question for the moment.

She takes the seat gestured to. Does someone give her food?

Same as yesterday, one of the servants hands her a plate of various things. 

She eats it. She pays attention to any conversations around her.

Andrew tells a story, to the laughter of the other side of the table, but with one wild windmill of his arms sends a glass of juice flying off the table-

Right into Elvira’s lap.

She might have been able to react better, but one doesn't move that quickly or abruptly as a mage around humans. (She's not even in chains.) She succeeds in keeping the glass on her lap rather than letting it fall and possibly shatter.

She sits there. (She braces preemptively in case they'll decide to punish Andrew right here.)

“Oh...crap. Sorry, Elvira.” Andrew looks properly apologetic. 

“Well, don’t just sit there, dummy! Help her clean it up!” One of the servants scolds fondly, throwing Anders an extra serviette. 

“Are you all right, Elvira?” 

"I'm not injured, Yuna, ma'am." She has no idea why they want Andrew to apologize to her but that's hardly current priority. She flinches at the servant's words - and 'help her' means she should be doing it -. She puts the glass back on the table. If there's a napkin in front of her she picks it up (pauses for a moment with a hand near it in case someone will tell her not to) and starts wiping juice off places that aren't her, or places that are her but might drip. 

Andrew hovers uselessly, napkin dangling from his hand. "I'm really sorry. I've got uncontrollable limbs."

"Would you like to change out of those things? We could wash them and have them back to you this afternoon?"

She hopes that doesn't mean they're going to break his arm or something. Nothing she can do about that.

And - she's almost starting to get accustomed to this particular test-and-terror. "At your use, Yuna, ma'am."

"I'll take you back to your room?"

She stands to follow.

Yuna quickly takes her back to her room. "There's some towels if you want a shower too, and just leave your things in the hamper in the bathroom. Someone will come and collect them after breakfast."

"Yes, Yuna, ma'am. Am I permitted to take clothes to change into?"

"Of course. All of them are yours. I'll leave you to get changed."

She closes the door behind her.

She strips off the stained uniform and puts it in the hamper as told. She makes sure there is no longer juice on her that might stain her new clothes. She assumes from having been taught about human rooms that the clothes are in the dresser. She goes to get clothes.

Yuna waits on the landing.

Anders walks up to stand next to her. "She okay?"

"Of course, I think you only startled her," Yuna says, bumping his hip with hers.

"I didn't want to do that either. Curse these octopus limbs."

"We definitely can't leave liquids near you, once you get going."

"Rude," he admonishes, leaning his head on hers.

In Elvira's dresser are t-shirts, jeans and simple jackets, all in various shades of grey or black. By the dresser a few different kinds of shoes, flats, sneakers and boots.

No mage uniforms. 

Well. She was told to change into clothes, so she is to change into clothes. (If she thinks about it for a moment it does make sense that buying mage uniforms might be the sort of thing they'd want to avoid if they could, given their black market mages.) It'll be harder on her field cover vs not compartmentalization but that did always have to be prepared for being in the wrong clothes sometimes. 

She selects items that fit her, dresses in jeans and a t-shirt. (Her shoes are fine.) Isn't sure what to do after that. Presumably they can tell on camera that she's dressed, but. "I've changed clothes, Yuna, ma'am," she says, loud enough to be heard through the door if it's not soundproofed, because that seems the better risk. And at least one where she finds out if she was wrong faster.

"Okay! Are you still hungry? I can take you back to breakfast!"

"I had not yet finished the food I was given. At your use, Yuna, ma'am."

"All right," Yuna says, smiling at Elvira's change of clothes. She already looks more comfortable, but maybe that's just Yuna projected her own hopes.

"Andrew, you head down and get the training room ready, you octopus."

Andrew gasps, mockingly offended, and then heads off to do just that.

She trained to pretend to be a human agent; she has an idea of what 'humans smiling at you because of your clothes' means. Looking down, and not much more to be done.

She flinches at the words (misparses as 'head down' referring to a head, for a moment, and flinches at that too). And - that's a creative torture, she'll give Yuna that, saying that to a mage in field cover, when failing to act like a human at it means more punishment. 

She waits for it to be indicated what she's to be doing. And for finding out what they'll be training in, if she's to be included.

“Come on,” Yuna says, gesturing back downstairs, then leads the way. 

She goes.

Back in the kitchen, the table has been cleared except for Yuna and Elvira’s food. 

“Thanks everyone!” Yuna calls to the kitchen. 

She will wait for indication that she should sit down and finish the food, and then she will do so.

Yuna nods at her, then sits down to eat her own food. 

When she is done with the food she will stay seated where she was and wait.

Yuna is also finished. “Andrew should be done with setting up, would you like to come down and watch him train? Just to get an idea of what you could do too, if you want.”

"At your use, Yuna, ma'am."

Yuna flinches. “Elvira, when my father said no to ‘disposal’ last night, it was not about the word. You are not our tool. You are a part of this family now. You don’t have to be comfortable with it yet, we’ll go at your pace. But we aren’t going to use you, or have you at our disposal. If anything, it’s the opposite.”

She shakes. She drops to her knees and then she drops prostrate and then she doesn't know what to say, doesn't know this kind of test, doesn't know what Yuna wants from her to show her that she knows her place, she's not been tempted out of, she knows -

"Please - we've been taught better, please-"

“No, no please get up, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to upset you!” Yuna sounds distraught. 

Humans being distraught at and apologizing at her is terrifying. Get up is a order. She stands. She shakes. She is nonthreatening she is obedient - "I'm sorry -"

“Don’t be sorry. I’m sorry. This whole thing must be so frightening to you. Being passed from person to person like an object. Like something inhuman,” Yuna says this terribly sadly. “It’s why my father and I try to help. We take in mages to keep them safe. Away from the horrible system of...well. Slavery. It’s slavery, without a doubt.”

...

(She is pretty obviously inhuman, given that she is a mage, and she is pretty obviously not an object, given that no one tortures objects to prevent them from troublemaking. She does not volunteer this commentary.)

She can think of about three possibilities for what is going on.

One, these people are somehow actually - anti-mage-slavery humans, or something like that. (That one's not likely, but, well, she supposes it belongs on the list.)

Two, these people have some odd sex thing for pretending they are anti-mage-slavery. (Humans have very elaborate odd sex things sometimes; it came up on missions a few times. She's not heard of them being about actual mages, but she really doesn't begin to think she'd have heard of everything.)

Three, this is a further test about how she's going to be acting.

At the moment, she is, in fact, unsure how to act. She stands there.

“...are you okay? Would you like to sit down?”

She attempts to think it through, given existing information.

Anti-mage-slavery humans - no idea how they'd want her to act. Polite and peaceful and cooperative, if they've got a 'mages can totally behave themselves without suppression' theory? Grateful, probably?

Odd sex thing - best guess at this point might be 'like Andrew'; that seems like the likeliest indicator of what they like. Not sure if they'd like if she just suddenly switched to it.

Test - well, acting how one is supposed to act, probably. And not getting up to anything.

How is she allowed to act. Law's fairly clear about obedience to owners coming generally first. 'Humans keeping to mage ownership rules' is the Authority of Mages' business, not theirs. She's blackmarket now, but she's had the four days wait. There's extra things she's not not allowed to do still, but they're the 'make certain weapons' sort, not this. (If the Authority of Mages gets her back and she's been doing the sorts of things that might give a mage ideas, they will hurt her very badly. If they get her back and she's been disobeying her owners, it will be considerably worse. Not a fun choice, but not a complicated one.) Obedience is obviously not just to direct orders.

"Thank you," she says, and sits. (If 'would you like' questions were actually to be treated the same as ever, she will presumably learn that shortly. (And painfully. So it goes.) (She braces, not very visibly). If that's not what happens, she can probably conclude that these humans do in fact want something else when they ask them.)

Yuna brightens a little bit, seeing her accept the offer with thanks rather than 'at your use', but is worried that Elvira is just changing the language again. "Is there anything I can do or say to explain anything? Make you feel better?"

It's like she can see the whirls of thoughts in Elvira's head.

Well, she probably isn't guessing exactly at their contents.

Brightening is - probably a good indicator (absence of immediate reprimand or worse, likewise so.) (Unless she's going to respond like everything's fine and then reveal hours or days later that it wasn't and issue punishment all at once. Which - it's not productive to think about that. There's nowhere she can go with it.)

So if it was a test then the desired result was probably 'she noticed Yuna didn't like how she was answering before and acted in accordance' and not 'she kept to the usual dictated phrasing'. And if it was one of the others then this is likely closer to what they actually want than she was before. That's - desirable.

"Might I know more about the rules and directives of this household?" 

"Oh! Um, well, there's no particular rules, per se. It's mostly just making sure everyone's comfortable and fed. You don't have a particular job. We want you to feel safe and like you can practice your magic at will. Andrew can probably help with that."

She wasn't necessarily expecting a true and accurate answer - if it's a test they might feel that would defeat the purpose, and if it's a sex thing they might not want to be - dropping out of character. And if it's the first thing then they may not be wanting to think there is a character. But she was hoping it might give her something. 

(Having heard it, she's certainly hoping it's not true-and-accurate, since the alternative is that it has somehow not occurred to them that 'safe' and 'practice magic at will' are extremely mutually exclusive as long as one lives in a world where the Authority of Mages still exists.) (Given what she's seen of their financial level, she doesn't expect keeping everyone fed presents particularly much of a problem. She doesn't comment on that.)

"Thank you. Might I ask what would - a usual schedule here be like?"

"Usual? Well. I guess for you would be only constricted by meal times. Everything else is what you choose. I...I guess I could give you ideas, if that helps?"

...well, she supposes expecting you to get to completely new things all of a sudden and not caring particularly that this might present some problem (except in as much as was entailed in forcing it) is par for the course for humans. 

"Thank you." She looks attentive.

"Andrew will train or study, and sometimes accompanies the kitchen girls into town when they go shopping. There's a movie room and a game room, a big library, all of which you're welcome to? What would you do for fun, if you could do anything?"

"Might I ask, what he is learning?"

...

She knows how to answer that question in field cover, but she is still not that.

"I'm sorry. For fun?"

“He’s learning medicine. He’s already quite good at healing magic, but he wants to understand the human body. He’s a sponge for knowledge,” Yuna says with a very fond laugh. 

She stills somewhat, biting her lip. “Um, recreation? Things that aren’t work?”

That sounds like he might have learned at least some healing magic here (if he'd been a medical mage she thinks they'd have learned about bodies already. Also he didn't act at all like one.) That's an - interesting thought, a potential opportunity to learn some magic not completely constrained by dictated education and then where she's designated. She's careful not to let it go overly far - she doesn't know anywhere near enough to go off with anything. But.

And, that is much clearer. 

"Thank you. Might I be able to - think on it more?" she says, because she's definitely not telling Yuna what she likes doing on recess aside from what everyone does. And she doesn't think it's currently particularly a good idea for her to actually be thinking what she'd do for recreation if she 'could do anything'. (Ride a motorcycle? Jump of a building with that set of equipment she ran into the concept of once? Shoot someone?)

“You can take as long as you like. This is your home now, if you’d like it to be. You can do whatever you want.”

She obviously enough cannot, even if she's apparently not supposed to drop to her knees at the suggestion, but she won't contribute that either. 

"Thank you. 

Might I know about work I might be doing, or training to do?" (Yuna had said "You don't have a particular job" which sounds like a miscellaneous sort of thing, but it would be useful to have more details than that.)

Yuna nods, smiling brightly. "Follow me, I'll show you the basement." She gets up and heads to a wing of the house Elvira hasn't seen before.

She follows. She successfully barely flinches at 'basement'.  

Andrew has set up the gym-like room with a few targets and is standing at one end of the room, preparing spelled projectiles.

That does not look particularly medical. But she already knows they're using him as a field mage, so neither is it surprising. She watches, unless Yuna seems to be wanting her to do something else.  

Andrew waves Elvira over. "Just some fireball training. For fun!"

...She supposes it would be possible to spell something so that it would catch fire later in that way. And throw it, if for some reason that came up. Maybe historical army mages did that at some point. 

She looks to Yuna for indication of what she's supposed to be doing here. 

Yuna is watching Andrew, applauding and laughing every time one of his projectiles hits. 

She'll stand where she is and watch then.

“Don’t want to join in, Elvira?” Andrew calls.

-They don't want her kneeling and pleading when they say things like that- (hopefully that part remains when it's Andrew-like-this (if she does understand correctly she's no longer sure field cover is currently the correct term) saying it.)

"I'm sorry - am I intended to?"

"Only if you would like to. If you want to practice some magic."

Well, they presumably want Andrew doing it, which is her best source of guesses at the moment aside from Yuna's own actions. (This does not at all answer the question of what work she might be doing, but. Such it is).

"Thank you."

She walks to the yet-unspelled projectiles, waits for the permission from the collar controller that will let her use magic. 

Yuna gives that permission, and very happily.

She's not sure if she's supposed to be doing the fireballs in particular or projectiles in general. Learning the fireball structure sounds interesting if she may.

"May I examine one of them for the spell structure?" 

"Of course! Have at."

She looks to Yuna again to be sure this does in fact mean she is allowed to do so.

Yuna nods, smiling. 

She starts examining a fireball projectile.

It’s a simple enough ball shape, spelled to burst into flame on contact. 

She starts examining the spell structure.

This (looking and it-looks-like-she'll-be-copying) is not, of course, how one generally learns new magic when one is training. But she's done it in the field, and as training for the field. (Of course that version comes with the don't-get-ideas after, when one is back to base.)

"Need a hand getting started?" Andrew offers.

She doesn't know what he means by that, and indicates that.

Andrew demonstrates how to activate and throw them.

She pays attention. 

"May I try working on one?"

"Please!" Andrew gestures to them.

Requisite look to Yuna

Another encouraging nod.

The rules are more than habitual, carefulness of the long-automatic sort is more than habitual. She copies exactly, she checks the one she was examining to get it right or as close to as possible. She notes it in memory, as she can, in case she's asked or going to be supposed to remember. She does not linger too long, she does not do anything even suggestive of contact with Andrew while she works. 

Andrew continues practice with the projectiles while she does so.

She works, she checks over. She watches Andrew. When she's done she steps back and waits. (She made some mistakes - obviously, this being her first time at this spell. She doesn't know yet how strict they'll be here about that. (Or if they're going to also pull out something completely bizarre again.))

Yuna seems more excited that she's taking part.

She'll wait for a few minutes.

“Did you want to try throwing one?” Andrew offers her one of his projectiles. 

(she is not supposed to say she's at-disposal, she is not supposed to be still and shiver and radiate obedience. This is a way they talk here and she needs to be figuring it out.) 

Looking to Yuna.

“You should! Get a feel for it,” Yuna says with energetic nods. 

Given context, the actually clear order is a relief and somewhat terrifying. Much better than all this trying to guess, but 'unusually emphatic' tends to come with some - corollaries. 

"Yes Yuna, ma'am."

She's been watching Andrew, and watched his demonstration; she knows how he throws them. Not exactly how she'd throw, but better to match and take the penalty for lower performance than the alternative. 

She throws. The projectile catches on fire and hits the target off center.

Yuna applauds the effort, grinning widely. 

“That was really good for your first try!”

Oh, Yuna is into watching this. That explains it. (For - some reason. She thinks she saw somewhere or other than humans like fire sometimes. (She's kind of wishing she had some better training on human sex things. Or books.)) She should probably have caught on to that earlier, even with 'generally acts - odd - toward Andrew so it stood out less' and 'distracted by the situation' as factors. If this was an observation test in training she could expect a punishment. Instead it's herself in her head so - keep working on it and all that.

That's close enough to a compliment to get a moment of terror before she sorts it out. "For your first try" - acceptable performance now, but she'd better be improving. Well. She can do that.

Head-duck. Waiting to see if they want to check her magic work or have her do something else.

"Have another go?" Andrew offers, seeing her so concerned by the praise. He thinks about dialling it back a little, just to make sure he's not making her uncomfortable.

So they're not going to issue correction in the 'tell her what to be changing' way either, along with not in the 'hit her' way (at least at the moment). She'll do her best to correct herself.

('Uncomfortable' would not be the word she'd use. The moment of terror is reflexive. And-if-the-Authority-of-Mages-gets-her-back-)

Look to Yuna. If it looks like she still has approval she'll throw again. She knows how to learn these things - the throw is better.

"You've got blanket approval to practise magic, Elvira! Whatever you want to do."

(If 'what you want' is bad, 'what you want, with magic', is incomparably worse.)

She was trained as an agent, she was trained as a field mage; she does not pass out from terror. 

After a few moments, she even manages to think.

The statement is not, obviously, true, even neglecting other factors. Yuna does not in fact want her to make anyone's food poisonous, or spy on areas she's not in, or sabotage wards if the house has them, or set the table on fire, or follow humans around invisibly, or teleport out of the house, regardless of how she might feel about those things.

So - she needs to stick to 'what magic (and not only magic; the action in question had been throwing the fireball) they would actually approve of her doing', and they're not going to tell her what that is. That is - not really what she would have chosen to have to do, had she the choice, but she has never had the choice in her life and so that's not especially interesting.

(And if the Authority of Mages gets her back - 'they didn't want to be personally managing all details, they wanted her working within desired parameters...' The stack of reminders she's due is going to keep growing, but if it will be only that -)

"Yes, Yuna, ma'am."

It is probably about as safe a bet as there is here that they approve of her continuing to try to make and throw fireballs. She does that.

Yuna dials down the praise, seeing that it upsets or confuses Elvira, but does still smile and nod.

Andrew offers a couple of pointers to making the throws harder, if she wants them.

Smiling continues to be not exactly good news but she's figured that part out already, it's not really a surprise anymore. Nodding is probably good; current lack of anger and the like is certainly good.

She is attentive and makes adjustments promptly.

Andrew even shows her a couple of tricks he came up with himself. He proves to be quite adept with magic. 

Does he mention that he came up with them?

He does, and quite proudly. 

That's - staggering. She doesn't stare at Yuna, because that is very unlikely to be a good idea. Doesn't show it (much), because she doesn't think that's what they want. (She's not surprised by adept, wouldn't be one way or the other.)

It's not forbidden for mages to develop new magic, if one's masters desire it. There are mages for that. Like this it's worse than unheard of, but it's not forbidden. She smiles between what she might do at a mage on recess with a new game and what she might do in field cover and hopes that's about close enough to what's wanted. And continues to rather hope this does not all end with her getting tortured to death.

She studies.

Andrew sees some of the cogs whirling in Elvira's brain, and hopes that means she's willing to relax a little more.

He dutifully shows her again and again.

She wouldn't really describe herself as relaxed (though to be fair, she's not sure that would be on the list of things she was especially interested in, if someone asked her for some reason). But she's trying out some nonverbals more like Andrew's (liking them in him doesn't mean Yuna will like them in her, but if she wants to figure things out, especially sooner, she's probably going to have to try some.)

She pays attention and practices.

Soon, Yuna checks the time and calls them over. “Lunch time!”

“Good, I am actually starving. Coming, Elvira?”

Nod. (She's not currently sure how to address him/respond to him in these circumstances). She'll watch him for what cleanup they're expected to do first.

Anders simply walks up next to Yuna, and bumps her hip with his as they walk.

Understood. She leaves her work where it is and follows.

(She is not looking forward to having to do that sort of thing. But that she is certainly not trying without actual indication she's supposed to be.)

Lunch is the same set up as breakfast and dinner the previous day, all of the household coming together. One of the servants passes Elvira a plate, already with food on it. 

"I thought after lunch you could show Elvira around the library?" Yuna says to Andrew.

"Sounds good to me. What sort of books do you like?" He asks Elvira.

She eats food that she is given. They continue to be letting her taste it. She can pay a bit more attention to that, at the moment.

At this point it's almost odd to get a normal question for once. "Adventure novels. Some nonfiction." (She has to be careful with the adventure novels, but they're common enough on recess and enough mages like them that it's not been taken as suspicious that she does.)

"Older stuff, I'll bet. Like Yuna."

"You say that like you won't read the first history book that's handed to you."

"I am slightly more choosy than that, thank you very much."

She's not sure what he's talking about or why he said that about Yuna. (At the least, 'liking the same books as a human' isn't something she's tended to hear of mages getting tortured over.) Is he trying to tell her she should try talking to Yuna about 'older stuff' when Yuna comes for the sex? (Older adventure novels or older nonfiction? Older by publication date or by setting?) (She does note apparent book preferences to herself, Andrew's and since she's been given it (truly or not) Yuna's as well).

The rest of it - fits, if Yuna likes an 'anti-mage-slavery' thing - of course one reads what's handed to one, generally, there's not going to be anything else. So if Yuna likes hearing how different it is here, that would be right on.

Nothing in there sounded like a question to her, so she waits.

"Do you? Like older stuff? Like the classics?"

"I'm sorry, I don't understand." (Still not sure exactly how she's supposed to be talking to him, here.)

"Do you like books that were written many years ago? Or ones from closer years?"

By publication date, then. ...She supposes someone might have taste about that like many do about subject matter or style. "Haven't been particular." (That phrasing's risking a bit, but that just continues to be how trying for more information faster works.)

“This could be a chance to form a preference. We’re very opinionated in this house.”

Nod.

She's not sure if that's instructions or advice, but either way she'll take it and be glad. (It's also of course weird either way, but she's already clear on that aspect of the household). She considers if it's likely to be a problem if she says thank you; decides it's also worth the risk.

Smile. "Thank you."

"You're very welcome!" Andrew seems to settle at that.

Yuna dips her head to hide her pleased smile.

Once everyone's finished eating, Andrew turns to Elvira. "Wanna go to the library now?"

She was trained in body language reading; she notices the smile. That suggests she did something in the right direction, possibly. That's good. (She considers preferences. It would not be a good idea to show high preference for something she actually liked overmuch; too much risk if she - gets invested, and it ends up denied. Something she likes but not to that level would be what to use.)

Internal flinch but this is how they do things here and so she needs to learn it and so that is what she is doing.

Smile. "Yes, thank you."

"Come with me, then!" Anders leads the way.

Field mages in cover can give orders to other mages so as not to break cover, so there's an internal flinch but him saying that is informative and not just terror-causing.

Quick look to Yuna (which might get her a reprimand, if she's supposed to just obey, but this one's a risk both ways and she'll take it). And if that gives no indication otherwise, she goes.

Yuna's deep in conversation with her father, nodding at something he's saying and is not paying attention to Elvira. 

Then she goes. 

Andrew takes her to the wing she hasn't visited yet, and into a not-insignificantly-large room, filled with books.

That is a lot of books. But she's aware of the concept of libraries. She waits for some indication of what she is to do here.

“I think there’s some true life adventure novels in the history section. I’ll show you?”

She follows.

Andrew shows her to a shelf filled with historical accounts.

She acknowledges seeing them, waits again for further indication.

"All yours. Have a look, see what you like. I'll be the next shelf over."

She probably doesn't have to be overly careful at book selection at the moment - they probably won't expect her to identify ones she would have an actual high preference for just by looking at them, and in fact she cannot actually do that. 

She notes some titles that look varying amounts of interesting. Decides to risk picking one of them up and looking at it (unpleasant as it tends to be to find out, at this point she would rather like to know what happens if she does do something they don't like.)

Andrew has no reaction to what books she picks out, except to smile. He goes back to browsing through a couple of other books.

She's not really sure what she's supposed to be doing. Reporting back? Selecting books to read later? Reading them right now? She picks up some more books to look at, since that seems to be allowed. Watches Andrew.