The next day proved that fashion wasn't all the Lady Valerie knew about. Directly after breakfast Lady Valerie showed up for the day's activities. That day was not spent in shopping, but rather in lessons, as were many days after it. The Baronian nobility lived by an elaborate code and lady Valerie seemed determined that Serali memorize every single bit of it. Serali didn't see the point. What use was it to know exactly how low a magess needed to bow when greeting a king? It wasn't very likely that she would ever have the chance to meet royalty of any kind.

Still, Lady Valerie insisted and Janus agreed with her, so Serali faithfully memorized every useless fact that the Lady could throw at her. As the weeks passed and Serali learned more magic, she chafed under Lady Valerie's tutelage. She felt like she was wasting so much time that could be spent in study. Why she almost never studied magic in the mornings at all! Still, she had to admit she was looking forward a little bit to going to the formal ball that Lady Valerie said would be her introduction to high society.

When two weeks had passed by a rather elaborately wrapped package was delivered to the tower. It proved to contain a truly stunning dress. Serali wasn't sure you could call it a gown. It was nothing at all like the gowns Lady Valerie wore, that was immediately obvious. There was not an inch of lace or a single ruffle on it anywhere. It was made from midnight blue velvet, but somehow it was flecked with little bits of metallic gold. She ran her fingers over them, but though they looked metallic, they felt soft, just like the rest of the velvet. They were thickly clustered at the ankle-length hem, the fabric was almost solid gold there, and then they gradually spread out and faded away, so that the fabric at her shoulders was pure deep blue. The sleeves were very short, scandalously so even, and trimmed in gold, as was the high collar. Serali looked at it, spread out on her bed, and nearly couldn't believe that she would be allowed to wear such a thing.

She thought, suddenly, about what it must have cost and wondered how and why Janus was paying for it.

"Are you going to try it on?" She looked up to see Janus standing in the open doorway of her bedroom. He smiled. "I'd like to see you in it. I'm sure you'd look beautiful, though really you look beautiful all the time."

She blushed. She would never get used to being complimented like that. "I suppose..." She remembered her earlier thought and asked, before he could leave, "How are you paying for all this for me? It has to be very expensive."

"I am fairly well off after all these years," he said, "so I can more than afford it."

"I just..." she considered. "It feels like I'm taking advantage of you or something. I mean, I know this was your idea, but all this stuff... and you're teaching me too, and a little floor scrubbing isn't enough to be worth all that. So why?"

He considered her for a long moment. "I don't know how to truly explain it to you. All I can say is that it's more than worth it to me."

She still felt vaguely uncomfortable about it. "I still feel like I should pay for some of this," she finally said.

He shook his head. "You don't have any money, so how could you?"

She laughed then. "I don't have any coins. But I have something worth more." She crossed to her desk and picked up the jewelry box there. It had several new things in it now, including a lovely sapphire hair clip, though she knew the stones were merely good fakes, that matched her new dress. But the secret compartment was still there, untouched since she'd come. She pressed and slid the little catch and pulled it open. She took out a small handful of the glistening golden scales, perhaps half of what the box held, and poured them into the startled mage's hands.

"Oh. You'd think that I could manage to remember about that," he said, regarding his handful of glittering gold with a certain amount of bemusement, "but shape-shifters are usually obvious and unnatural in their other forms, and I keep forgetting." He shook his head. "Well, though I don't really need this, if it makes you feel better I'll accept it. It certainly will pay for everything I've purchased for you thus far." He shook himself. "But I still would like to see you in that dress. I'll let you have some privacy, and then you'll have to come out and show it to me."

He shut the door, leaving her alone. She picked up the dress. She felt like her roughened hands would somehow ruin it, but velvet didn't snag like silk or satin would, so she had no trouble getting it on. She smoothed the flaring skirt down and looked at herself in the mirror. Janus had given it to her recently, explaining that not only was a mirror a necessary part of highborn life, it would also prove useful in a number of spells. The reflection that stared back at her was certainly still her reflection, but she felt somehow even more different from her usual self than she did in dragon form. She looked at herself for a long time. She had always believed she was ugly. Tall and gawky and washed out, someone that nobody would want. But her frame of reference seemed to shift as she looked at her reflection. She thought of the ladies she'd seen in the city, the highborn and the merchants and all the others. She'd yet to meet another as tall as she, but many were still tall. And many were fair-skinned and had light hair. Why should those things mean she was ugly? She wasn't sure she believed Janus when he said she was beautiful, but she was no longer sure she disbelieved him either.

"Are you changed yet?" asked Janus's voice from outside. She jumped.

"Yes. You can come in," she called out.

He swung the door open and looked at her. Then he smiled. "It's beautiful, and you make it even more so. Lady Valerie chose very well. I think high society will never quite be the same again."