Odette and her newborn child road in their carriage from her families Estate into the nearby town to visit the nearby chirurgeon to asses the child's affinity for magic and in turn help Odette figure out her next move. She knew that given her situation she would need to be very discreet if asked who the child's father may be. This shouldn't be much of an issue for her given that she managed to keep the details of her pregnancy under control only informing the doctors in Marne Vaux of the pregnancy itself and not whom else was involved. And her father and in turn mother as well as Reni. Which given her status as a noble, may have been next to impossible but she may have succeeded. The only issue she would need to deal with would be rumors of whose the father of her child. And given that it was a loose kept secret that she would be "intimate" with her own slaves despite the social and legal taboo. It wouldn't take much for someone to connect the dots between her habits, her favorite slave and the child's unique appearance.
The carriage final came to a stop at her destination. The chirurgeon's office was open and to Odette's surprise desolate. She took her daughter out of her seat and made her way into the building with her daughter in hand. At first glance she assumed that the office was abandoned until she was greeted by a voice coming from underneath the receptionists desk.
"Hello, welcome to Ludivine Fleur's Office I'll be with you in a second." The receptionist said followed by a loud bang.
"...take your time I suppose..." Odette replied with a slight hint of annoyance.
A few moments later the receptionist emerged from underneath her desk, with a slight bruise on her head.
"Sorry for the wait ma'am. My name is Georgine! How can I help you?" The mangalica asked with a warm smile.
Odette rolled her eyes as she answered the young receptionist question.
"Yes, I am here to get a magical aptitude test performed on my daughter."
"I see, do you have an appointment with Ms. Fleur?" The receptionist asked.
"No." Odette replied plainly.
"Well, usually we don't see anyone without an appointment but since we seem to be running a bit slow this morning I'll see if I can talk with Ms. Fleur to see if we can squeeze you in!"
"That would be much appreciated." Odette replied as the receptionist walked to the back of the office.
A few minutes passed by as Odette stood at the desk with her daughter. Growing more irritated as time moved on, till suddenly the baby broke out in tears. To her dismay.
"Of fucking course." She muttered under her breath as she begin to comfort and rock the newborn.
The receptionist then made her way back to the front desk.
"So it looks like we will be able to get your daughter seen today! It will take Ms. Fleur about ten to fifteen minutes to get everything ready so feel free to take a seat anywhere you'd like. Oh and if you could fill out this paperwork as well that would be great!" The receptionist said as she handed Odette a stack of papers and a pen.
"I don't understand, what is the paperwork for?" Odette asked.
"It's just for government laws and regulations. We have to submit documentation to the government for any magical aptitude tests on children under 18. It's just basic information in regards to the parents and their aptitude as well as other identifiable information." She explained to Odette nonchalantly.
This of course was a massive problem for Odette. She wasn't aware of the amount of government oversight on aptitude tests. She reluctantly sat down in one of the waiting chairs in the office and began feeling out the paperwork with as little information about the child's father as she could given the fact that record regarding ones magical aptitude such as these were public record. And the last thing she needed was someone poking around and noticing anything she may have missed.
"Ms. La Croix?" A voice from the back of the office asked.
"Yes?" Odette replied as she frantically gathered her paperwork together and her daughter and made her way to the direction of the voice. Where she was greeted by an opossum around her age.
"My name is Ms. Fleur and I will be your Chirurgeon for today. If you could follow me right this way and take a seat we can get started!" She replied to Odette as she brought the mother and her daughter into her testing room.
"This is not what I expected." Odette said as she looked around the room with specialized equipment and a surprising amount of cadavers set alongside the wall.
"You'll have to excuse the mess. I was originally planning on doing some research this morning given our empty schedule so that's what this... mess or whatever you want to call it is." Ms. Fleur said as she begin clearing off her desk.
"I see." Odette said as she took a seat in front of the chirurgeon's desk.
"So I take it that you here for a magical aptitude test for your child?" She asked while studying both Odette and her baby.
"Yes, I actually had a question about the paperwork your receptionist had given me to fill out." She asked with a slight hint of nervousness.
"Yes?"
"I don't really know much about my daughters father. And I don't really know how to get in contact with him for some of the information that's being asked..." She begin to explain to the chirurgeon before she was calmly interrupted.
"Don't worry about all of that nonsense dear. A lot of that's just unnecessary paperwork, your not going to go to jail for not knowing anything about your child's father. Stuff like this happens all the time." She assured her.
Now knowing this calmed Odette's anxiety about the situation.
"That's a load off of my mind!" She told the chirurgeon.
"Now that that's out of the way I have to ask. Is this your first time taking a magical aptitude test?" She asked Odette.
"Oh, there must be some misunderstanding. The test is for my daughter, not me." Odette said trying to clarify the situation.
"Actually for an initial test for children under 18 years old, a magical aptitude test is preformed on the parents, or in your case parent and the child. It's more for historical tracking purposes more than anything else." She assured Odette.
"Oh... that's fine I guess." She replied uncertainly.
"Well now that all that's out of the way, let's get started!" Ms. Fleur replied as she brought a strange device from underneath her desk.
"What is that?" Odette asked curiously.
The clunky device seemed to be a crystal ball recessed into a odd looking typewriter with strange needles tubes, wires, and sensors connected to a long wooden table or a briefcase.
"This beauty is a state of the art Ethercounter! We use this to measure a persons affinity for magic by measuring the traces of Ether in their body by detecting the charge that radiates from their hands with a crystal ball that acts as an oscillator." Fleur explained to a very confused Odette.
"I guess it would be easier to just show you." Fleur said sheepishly as she motioned for Odette to take her hand.
"What you want to do is take your hand and place it on the crystal ball here." She said as she placed Odette's hand on the orb.
"Do I just keep it here or..." Odette trailed off as she looked at the odd contraption as it begin to roar to life.
"Yes just hold it there for a few more seconds and you should be good to go!" She said as she removed Odette's hand from the device. Still confused, Odette stared at the device as it began to print out a sheet of paper with odd markings on it before powering down.
"And theses should be your results!" Fleur said excitingly as she took the recently printed sheet of paper. She took a quick glance at the paper and then placed it back on the desk for Odette to be able to see.
"I don't really understand what any of this really means." Odette said as she looked at the paper.
"Well, these results show that while you do show have traces of ether in your body with levels that should be able to sustain spellcasting. The amount of ether that seems to be radiating from you is lower than the observed amount known to be sufficient to cast said magic." She explained.
"Is that normal?" Odette asked.
"For a normal person? No. Usually persons without an affinity for magic the levels ether in the body would be low but still traceable by the device. We usually see these kind of results normally in people with slave sigils." Fleur explained.
"Well I know for a fact that I don't have any of those on my body." Odette explained to the intrigued Chirurgeon.
"That's interesting... would you mind if I did some further testing on you? I'm curious to see why your still showing traces of ether if that's the case." Fleur asked.
"I rather you didn't." Odette responded bluntly.
"Oh... ok, that's understandable. Um should we get started with the child?" Fleur said gesturing to the child.
"Yes." Odette said as she brought the child closer to the device.
"If you could just place her hand on the orb just as you did and hold it there for a few seconds until I let you know when it's time to take it off." She asked as Odette placed her daughters hand on the device. The device once again sprung to life and begin to print out a sheet of paper with odd markings on it before powering down.
"Okay, you can now remove her hand the device." Fleur said as she took the recently printed sheet of paper and studied it for a few moments.
"Well?" Odette asked the perplexed Chirurgeon.
"This...seems to be a bit off..." Fleur mumbled.
"What is?" Odette asked getting more impatient by the moment,.
"I'm sorry but I think we need to do the test again. I think there may be an issue with my machine." She explained as she readjusted a few setting on the device.
"Fine. Just let me know when to put her hand on the ball again." Odette said annoyed.
"Well I just finished the adjustments so you can start the test again at anytime." Fleur said as she once again motioned Odette to the device.
Odette once again placed her daughters hand on the device as it sprung to life. And after a few moments it printed out the same results. Much to Fleur's confusion.
"So... can she do magic or not?" Odette demanded.
"Well according to these readings, yes. Without a doubt. However..."
"What do you mean however? If she can do magic that's all I really need to know." Odette said as she begin to gather her things.
"It's not really the question of if she can at this point. It's how much of it. At least according to this." Fleur tried to explain showing Odette the results.
"To be honest, that's not really a concern of mine." Odette said as she headed out of the office leaving the baffled chirurgeon alone in her office. She looked at both of the test results studied them for a few moments before placing her hand on the device as it once again sprung to life. After a few moments passed, Fleur picked up the results for her test and was surprised to see that they were normal. Not at all what she expected.