I breathe deep and hum softly.  I take Bastien’s advice and walk straight from the rehearsal room to Daddy’s office on the third floor.  I lose count of how many times I repeat each scale by the time I reach the closed double doors, but none of the repetitions led to any grand secrets about feeling cosmic threads.  I thought I had something at the top of an arpeggio, but it turned out to be nothing more than a candle flickering in the hall.

I knock on the left door in rhythm with the end of a scale.  I announce myself and finish another arpeggio.  The door opens, and I enter.

Daddy rises from the big, suede-covered chair behind his sturdy desk across from the doors.  The wall behind him holds a larger-than-life oil painting of his grandparents, the founders of DiRossi Shipping and Couriering.  Like Mom, Daddy’s grandfather had to give up his surname when he married into the family.

On each side of the painting is a window half its size.  Their thick, red drapes are tied open and away from Daddy’s desk.  The walls are still a nice, warm yellow all around, even though the bookshelves on the sides hide most of the color.  I walk around the three small couches that orient the coffee table toward Daddy’s desk.

I put my hands on my hips.  “Why aren’t you resting?”

Daddy lifts the hickory cane from the armrest of his chair.  It’s a pretty walking stick.  The handle looks like the face and beak of an angry phoenix, and carvings of white-and-orange feathers twist around each other down the shaft.  

Daddy points the cane’s rose quartz tip at me and chuckles. “You sound like your mother.”  He walks around the desk, using the cane on his right side.  “And I’ll tell you what I told her: the world does not stop for my inconveniences.  Despite my love for your brothers, they do not run the company quite like I do.”  We hug on his good side, then he extends his free hand to the couch behind me and to my right.  “Thank you for allowing me to interrupt your tutoring; I know how much you’ve anticipated your lessons.”

I sit.  “You’re welcome.  I know you wouldn’t interrupt if it weren’t important.”

Daddy sits on the edge of his desk, then angles himself so that his right foot is off the floor.  “I want you to know of a major change coming to the manor’s operations.”

“Is something wrong?”

“No, just the opposite.  Our family is meeting such fortune that we find ourselves carrying a new burden of opportunity.  Maximus’s marriage next weekend, Dimitri’s acceptance to Venier’s Criminal Investigation Guild, your mother’s election to the Companion Animal Welfare Society Council; these are but the beginnings of a new era in the DiRossi family’s involvement with the Quinlantian gentry.  Such mobility requires a reorganization of our resources.”

I nod.  I try not to worry about the jobs of the manor staff, from Mr. Tielswen to the new cook who started the night before Daddy’s accident, Miss Yashdaru.  I already know that she makes the best crawfish tartlets, even if I’ve only had hers.  I really hope she gets to stay.

Daddy takes a deep breath and folds his hands on top of his cane.  He leans forward some.  “When Maximus leaves the manor, he will take one-fifth of our regular house staff with him.  They will be sufficient to help him settle into his matrimonial state, and he can adjust his staff from there as he sees fit.  Bastien, too, has spoken of moving into his own space, though he has requested only three attendants.  Dimitri will live in the dormitories alongside his fellow cadets, so many of his basic needs will be provided by the guild.” 

I almost blurt out a question.  Instead, I raise my hand.

Daddy pauses, wrinkling his brow.

“What are you doing?”

I keep my hand up.  “I have a question.  Asherti Onlarion wants me to do this during lessons, so I thought I’d give it a try.”

Daddy stares at me for a moment.  He nods sideways and tilts his cane toward me. 

I drop my hand to my lap.  “Is Dimitri’s security staff allowed to live with him, too?”

Daddy clenches his jaw.  “The college provides its own guards to protect the student body.  As a collective,” he adds, as if he had received the same answer.  He relaxes with a huff before he continues.

“Bastien and I have discussed the fluidity of the family’s security situation.  Our current protection teams will be divided in half; one portion will be distributed among your departing siblings, and the other will remain on-duty with the manor, although their objectives will be altered.  Your siblings’ departure will render some of the positions here redundant. To that end, you, your mother, and I will each be assigned continuous daily protection.”

I frown.  I lean my shoulder against the backrest and cross my arms with a shudder.  “So, I’ll have someone watch me sleep?”

Daddy shakes his head once.  “I have the utmost trust in my selections.  Their duty will be to ensure our individual securities.  I promise you, Princess: your security chief will impart no undue discomfort.  I would, in fact, like for the two of you to adjust to your new arrangement as soon as possible.  Would you like to meet it?”

Although I have no real say in the matter, Daddy makes an excellent point.  I should make the transition from hearing the occasional pair of boys march by my bedroom door to having a single person stay outside my room as smooth as possible.  Asherti Onlarion may have returned to the rehearsal room already, so I shouldn’t spend too long thinking about when to meet…

…it?

I blink and speak more sounds than words.

Daddy leans onto his cane and slides to his feet.  He nods up at the door and keeps his eyes on it.  “Klóe, meet Seven, your new, personal chief of security.”

A shock rushes from my feet to my eyebrows.  I jump up, spin around, and step backwards toward Daddy.

A figure in a full suit of slim, black armor steps away from the wall next to the office’s entrance.  Neither its gauntlets, segmented chest plate, greaves, nor any of the other plated pieces rattle or clank as it marches to Daddy’s side.  Instead of chain mail, something dark and solid shimmers in gold between the armor plates.  The collar of the chest piece rises halfway up the figure’s neck, but still allows the figure to tilt its head down toward me.

A blunt wedge stretches from where the figure’s nose would be to its cheeks.  A slot above the helmet’s chin reveals, rather than lips, faint rows of shimmering gold against darkness.  About a hand’s height above that slot, beneath the smooth, dark dome of the helmet’s top, sits two pits.  Within each pit burns a golden orb.

I could not, in an elf’s age, forget those eyes.

This is one of the creatures that carried Daddy into the manor.

The thing returns my stare.  The expression is unreadable, but I can’t imagine it’s any more wary than I am.

Daddy, whether he notices our shared discomfort or not, continues his introduction.

“Seven pulled me from the wreckage that night after its companion contained the worst of the fire.  You met the latter, rather unceremoniously, during your night visit.  You will see much of them, as well as a third, going forward.”  

Daddy puts a hand on the base of my neck and pulls me close.  “This is my daughter, Klóe.  She is the reason I enter my office each and all days to drive my grandfather’s company – his legacy – forward.  My sons may run various aspects of this business, and they will always earn their share; but, for as long as I can ensure it, Klóe,” he says with a gentle squeeze, “will have the life of leisure and safety a girl of her talent, her spirit, her virtue, deserves.  Do you not agree, Seven?”

Seven doesn’t seem quite as outlandish now as during our first meeting a few weeks ago.  The golden lights that dart along engravings in the armor and underlay make Seven seem almost pretty.

Seven ends our standoff by turning to Daddy.  

“I agree, sir.”  Seven sounds just like the silver one that was outside Daddy’s door.  At least this one seems less crude.  

I pluck my dress out and curtsy.  “I am pleased to meet you, Seven.”

Seven stares at me.  “It will be a privilege to protect you, Young Miss.”

I shudder.  “Oh, please, don’t call me that.”

The lights in the armor flash.  Have I said something wrong?

Seven slowly asks, “How should I address you?”

I flick my hand to the side.  “Oh, Klóe’s just fine for me.  Or Miss Klóe, if you must.  That’s what my other guards would call me.”

Seven looks up again, I guess at Daddy.  “I understand.”

I step forward.  “How about you?”

Seven steps back.  “What about me do you reference?”

“My guards before you all had names.  Mr. Veratog, Mr. Markus, Mr. Nedland, Mr. Borgnastoln…”  I shrug.  “They all have names besides the name I call them.  What should I call you?”

“Seven will suffice.”

I frown.  “That doesn’t do, a number for a name.”

Seven looks up, then back at me.  “It has served its purpose for me and my classmates for years.  We have suffered no detriment from it.”  The voice does not inflect, but I can feel the defensiveness roll off of the words.

I blink.  “What do you mean, your classmates?”

“My classmates were awakened at the same moment as I was, with the same purpose as mine.”

“Awakened?  You’re living constructs?!”

“We are.”

I hop and clap.  “How many of you are there?”

“There are… six of us.”

“And none of you have names?”

Seven pauses.  “One of us has adopted the designation ‘Fred’.”

“Ooh, I like it!  Fred like ‘Winifred,’ or Fred like ‘Fredrick’?”

“That question hardly seems relevant.”

“Of course, it’s relevant, unless…”  I throw my hands over my mouth and gasp.  “Do boys and girls not exist in your family?  I thought only elementals did that!”

Seven looks at Daddy again, but says nothing.  

Daddy turns me around and kneels in front of me, settling his weight on his good knee.  “That’s enough questions for now.  I’m glad to see how well you two acquaint yourselves with each other, but you have a lesson to resume, correct?  You may continue your conversation after dinner.  Firstly, I need you to do something very important for me, Princess.”

I stand up straight and look Daddy in the eyes.  “Yes, sir?”

“I need you to keep Seven a secret.  Nobody aside from you, your mother, and I needs to know about Seven and its kin.  I plan on giving them a surprise debut during Maximus’s wedding reception.  Now that you know about them, can you help me make that happen?”

I nod once, hard, and smile.  “You can count on me!”

“Excellent!”  Daddy groans as he uses his cane to help him stand.  “Now, hurry along downstairs.  Your tutor may well await your arrival.”

I give Daddy a short hug and hurry past Seven toward the office’s exit.  I reach for the doorknobs, pause, and turn back to my new security chief.

“Do you mind if I provide a proper name for you?”

Seven turns its head slightly, just enough for me to see the curve of one golden eye.  “If you must provide one, I will accept your designation.”

“Good.  Thank you!”  I open one of the doors and reach out to Seven.  “I’ll think of something before dinner.  You’re going to love it, I’m sure!”  I slip through the doors and skip back down to the rehearsal room.

I cannot believe how much magic has come into my life in one day.