Jaux Ballad has always wanted to enter the realm of magic, but could not do so by regular means. In his desperation to become a magician he finds himself with more power, and more trouble, than he could ever have imagined.

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A large fireball burst from the tip of the blond wizard's staff, leaving a trail of faint smoke as it burned through the air.

Jaux felt herself being pulled away from the path of the fireball. As she was being pulled, a thin coat of what looked like molten glass covered her body. She wasn't sure, but it seemed to be a protection spell of some kind.

However, before the fireball could reach where Jaux and Frey were just standing, it suddenly exploded in mid air.

"Arg!" Came a shout from where the fireball had stopped, while metal trinkets spontaneously popped out of nowhere and littered the floor.

All of a sudden, the air shimmered colorfully, before a group of six men appeared to form. Five of them wore dark leather robes, while the tallest one was wearing silver knight armor and a cape made from a bear's skin. The knight was balancing a huge box on his shoulders, while four of the robed men carried heavy looking sacks.

The robed man in the back of the group, who was hit by the fireball, had dropped his bag. His robe was smoking and he was still shouting out from the pain.

"Thieves! Stop them!" The blond wizard yelled as he fired off another fireball.

Many of the Marlifa mages within earshot came to inspect the commotion, including several who looked like shopkeepers. Upon spotting the group of thieves, the mages began to raise their different staves to fire off various spells. A rainbow of crisscrossing colors began to close in on the criminals, although a few spells passed by uncomfortably close to Jaux and Frey.

Frey pulled Jaux away by the arm, leading her towards the stairway as the fight increased in intensity. Jaux offered little resistance, not wanting to be caught between the massive crossfire.

The four other leather robed men all dropped their loot, forming shields, walls, and wards to protect themselves from the onslaught of magic.

The wounded thief hid behind the defenses of his allies and pulled out some sort of large oval gem. The gem glowed bright yellow, which caused the world to bend and distort around the thief... then he was gone. His burnt robes were left behind, which crumbled onto the ground when abruptly left empty.

The knight did not cast any spells, but his silver armor and bear cape all seemed to repel the incoming attacks. He didn’t appear to want to drop the box, but over time even more spells were being directed at him since he was the only one who wasn’t putting up a defense.

The thieves were outnumbered, and one after another they began to collapse from the magical attacks. It was not long before the knight was the only thief who remained.

When the knight found himself alone, he finally dropped the box onto the ground, which broke open and spilled out a pool of shiny jewelry. He retrieved a huge silver hammer that was hidden beneath his cape, and raised it high into the air. The silver hammer glimmered magenta as it was swung into the ground.

A wave of hot flames washed forward from where the hammer hit the ground, burning almost every mage that was standing in front of the knight.

Luckily, Frey had already dragged Jaux out of range by the time the knight had attacked. The two girls were spared from the great flood of fire, but the screams of the knight’s victims horrified them both enough to stop running.

There were so many mages who were burned and were now lying in pain. Spells continued to fly towards the knight, but none were able to pierce the armor’s defenses.

The hammer was once again raised, while bright magenta energy radiated dangerously from it.

Then from the corner of her vision, Jaux spotted the old shopkeeper from the wand shop, the one who had given her the demon root. He had been so trusting of her without knowing who she was. Now there he was, lying almost motionless, his thin arms burnt and blistered. He was still breathing, but also within range of another wave of fire…

An absurd amount of anger filled Jaux’s mind, and suddenly her world turned violet. She could once again see the magic of the world, but the only thing she was focusing on was the knight. She could see the green magic that flowed over his armor, as well as the great concentration of magenta in his hammer. She had to stop that magic, she had to curse that knight.

Unfortunately, the knight was swinging downwards already, and he was much too far away to be disrupted now.

The demon root had somehow nested itself in her hand, even though Jaux was sure she hadn't pulled it out. Her mind only focused on somehow reaching the knight, to stop him and protect the other mages. Then, as if the demon root could hear her wish, she felt her magic surging wildly throughout her body, changing her.

Darkness is the absence of light. Although many don't consider darkness to be a substance that moves, one could say that the speed of darkness is the speed at which light runs away. In that instant, light ran as far away as it could from the girl who became a living void.

Everyone who watched the scene saw as a huge channel of darkness abruptly appeared between Frey and the knight, then faded away just as quickly as it formed.

She could not figure out how or why, but in less than a moment Jaux had gone from being held by Frey to standing right in front of a falling hammer. The knight's attack did not yet occur, but for some reason Jaux's whole body already felt like it was burning.

Jaux did not have any time to cast her magic, and even if she did she was in too much pain, so she rashly settled for blocking the strike with her own body. The hammer crashed into Jaux's shoulder, and from the impact an explosion was released.

This burst of fire was much smaller than the last, due to how the magic of the knight's hammer depended on how hard it struck. It was still strong enough to have obliterated Jaux, but lucky for her she still had the transparent protection spell surrounding her body.

The fire didn't do much damage thanks to the protection, but the force of the hammer and the subsequent explosion still ended up being strong enough to dislocate and burn Jaux's shoulder.

The defensive blessing faded away after the explosion, having exceeded its damage reducing ability. Now Jaux was kneeling down helplessly before the knight, being in too much pain to defend herself.

The knight took the opportunity to get ready for yet another strike, raising the hammer for the third time. Jaux could only glance up at the knight in terror, with no idea what she could do to avoid certain death.

All of a sudden there was a bright blur of white, and the loud crunching sound of crushed metal echoed throughout the hall.

Frey was now standing over Jaux, while her fist was lingering where the knight’s face had been. Jaux could once again see the protection spell that looked like a layer of molten glass, but this time it was thicker, glimmering white, and only covering Frey’s arm. The ancient tile that was received in the specialty class earlier was also held in Frey’s other hand.

The knight had crashed down several meters ahead, his helmet heavily dented where Frey had punched. It took a few seconds, but before long he was standing up again. Somehow, he had not let go of the silver hammer when he was sent flying by Frey’s punch. Unfortunately for him the punch had dented closed the slits in his helmet, blinding him.

In a moment of foolishness, the knight ripped the helmet off his face. Then, not even a second after the helmet hit the ground, the blond wizard fired a ball of solid ice straight into the back of the knight’s head. The knight collapsed onto the ground in a loud clank, and moved no more.

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After the fiasco on the first floor, all uninjured students were ordered to their rooms early. Frey had personally healed Jaux’s arm with a time-based recovery spell so that they could return to their dorm room together. The burning pain that filled Jaux’s body after her teleportation had quickly faded on its own.

They didn’t say anything on the way up, but Frey did hug Jaux protectively the whole trip, as if another disaster could happen at any moment. Frey even went as far as to put yet another layer of the protective blessing over Jaux. Jaux didn’t dare to complain, since she now owed Frey her life.

“Oh gods! Are you guys okay?!” Desyi questioned when she saw Frey and Jaux walk into the room.

“We heard about the thieves! Are either of you hurt?” asked Tricks.

“We’re fine.” Frey answered.

“Yeah, Frey totally saved my butt.” added Jaux.

“Oh, that’s true, but Suhara here saved a whole bunch of people.” said Frey as she affectionately rubbed the top of Jaux’s head.

Jaux blushed a bit at the praise, but was embarrassed by the knowledge that her little act of heroism would have been completely in vain if Frey didn’t step in to protect her.

“Oh, and sorry Desyi, I kind of ruined the robe I borrowed from you.” Jaux mentioned, gesturing to the burnt hole where the hammer had exploded on her shoulder.

“Oh please, I’m not worried about that. I’m just glad you two are safe!” Desyi laughed, grabbing both Frey and Jaux for a big group hug.

“So tell us what happened!” Tricks exclaimed.

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While Frey and Jaux were in the middle of telling Desyi and Tricks about the big fight, there was a loud knock on their entrance door. Frey went to open it up, and found the tall blond wizard standing outside.

“It took a while to track you girls down,” the blond wizard explained, “My name is Rales Grecord, I wanted to thank you two for helping to defeat the thieves who stole from my research storage room.”

“Oh, no problem,” said Frey, “we were happy to help. Did they find out how the thieves got inside?”

“Oh yes, the thieves got in from the roof. They used some motion magic to fly up and then snuck into the Lyceum behind one of the specialty classes that were held up there.” Replied Rales. “The security council is installing new motion magic enchantment cancellers to the borders of the roof as we speak.”

“That’s good, thanks for the update.” Frey said.

“Of course, oh and by the way, I believe you and your novi left these back downstairs.” said Rales as he waved his staff and conjured up a few shopping bags.

“Oh, I completely forgot about those! Thank you!” Frey exclaimed as she picked up the clothing bags.

Frey and Rales said their goodbyes, before Frey shut the door again. The clothes were then neatly deposited into Jaux’s wardrobe cabinet.

Jaux made sure to give one of the nice lavender robes to Desyi, as an official apology for ruining the borrowed robe.

After the girls finished discussing the big incident, the rest of their time was spent talking about their classes. Jaux completely forgot about the collar that was gently hugging her neck until it was already time to go to sleep. The collar didn’t even feel like it existed until Jaux felt it while taking her shower.

Jaux didn’t really think it would be the right thing anymore to ask for it to be taken off. Frey had just saved her today, staying as her collared little ‘novi’ seemed like the polite thing to do. It wasn’t so bad a thing at all, being protected by her big sister.