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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Suhara was physically and emotionally exhausted from the duel, so she didn’t immediately head over to the practice room for magic training. She just wanted a bit more relaxation.

All of her friends wished to stay and hang with her. They wanted to cheer up Suhara and get her mind off of Roy. Suhara turned them away. She didn’t want to disrupt everyone else’s schedules just because of a combat defeat.

Frey was the last to leave. When the rest of their friends were out of sight, the taller girl gave her novi a little kiss on the lips.

Suhara blushed from that, and looked down with a mixture of joy and uncertainty.

Frey gave one last reassuring pat on Suhara’s shoulder, before she walked off.

Suhara stood alone in the hallway, unsure of where to go next. She didn’t know what was a good place to relax, it wasn’t like she could just leave the Lyceum and lay on the grass outside.

However, there was someone who was always waiting on the first floor…

=+=+=

Syrus Raycern, the old shopkeeper of the wand store, was happy whenever the young girl came to visit. Suhara also enjoyed interacting with the old man.

Suhara made sure to do a bit of tidying up around the shop whenever she dropped by. Raycern always kindly urged her not to bother, but the girl had been determined to reward the old man’s generosity and trust.

Other young magicians always left their oily fingerprints on the glass displays. It seemed like they lacked the ability to point to anything without touching the glass. In a way, Suhara was a little grateful for their lack of awareness, since cleaning the fingerprints off made her feel like she was helping Raycern out.

All the staves also got surprisingly dusty. There was only one door into the shop, and Suhara had no clue where the dust was coming from. All the store items just had some kind of physical attraction to grime.

After wiping off the displays and dusting off the wares, Suhara sat behind the counter alongside Raycern and talked about whatever came to their minds.

Syrus Raycern had been a forger of magical items for clerics decades ago. Clerics were mages who specialized in using soul, but were not bound with spirits like priests. Since they didn’t have a spirit to draw immortal magic from, clerics relied on soul from magical items. Raycern had spent a great portion of his life as a soul item forger, and could still apply a lot of his old skills when it came to creating magical staves.

Magical items forged with soul had the effect of being both long lasting and very powerful. Soul was immortal magic, so it could technically make any amazing enchantment permanent if the soul didn't leak out.

Today, Raycern was telling Suhara about a cleric that used boomerangs as weapons. The girl couldn’t quite wrap her head around the idea at first, since it sounded so impractical to use a weapon that you immediately lose after its use. She started to laugh as the old man began explaining how the cleric fit fifteen different boomerangs on his body. She could just imagine how stupid the cleric looked with so many angled blades sticking outwards from all over. It might resemble a lame porcupine or some kind of lizard.

The old man moved over to the Marlifa Lyceum after he had married. Although he never had any children, his wife had been a teacher at the Lyceum and they both enjoyed the company of students. Suhara morbidly considered the possibility that the shopkeeper’s wife was dead, and decided not to ask too many questions about her.

Suhara mostly talked about how her life at the Lyceum was, but she sometimes threw in a little story about one her childhood acquaintances. Orphans tended to act a bit wild when there wasn’t anyone there to guide them through life. Suhara didn't like her fellow orphans, but they still left silly memories.

=+=+=

After the relaxing badinage Suhara shared with Raycern, the girl headed over to the practice room.

Frey was already there, experimenting with her intangibility blessing. She had been able to modify her speed boosting blessing's pattern to work alongside the intangibility, allowing her to fly much faster in intangible form.

Today, Suhara didn’t try to continue her practice of the master class spell. Instead, she tried out simpler magics. It was her hope that more experience with curse spell patterns would make the master level spell easier to cast. She also tested her vampire augmented physical ability against Frey’s strength.

Fry had noticed how improved Suhara’s speed was during the duel, so she made sure to ask about it. Suhara's first instinct was to lie about the origin of her augmented strength, and was halfway through crafting a lie in her head before she decided against it.

No more new lies.

“A bizarre new friend lent me the power,” said Suhara. “It’s kinda similar to vampire strength, but weaker. I’m still not sure how it works.”

“Oh,” Frey crossed her arms and frowned with a worried expression, “is it safe? Vampire magic is a dangerous thing to mess with. And where exactly did you meet that bizarre new friend?”

“I’ll tell you guys about her later,” said Suhara. “So far, it seems okay. I don’t feel the need to drink blood or anything.”

Frey still made impatient inquires about Suhara’s mysterious friend, but Suhara was firm with her stance on telling everyone later.

The aura spell that Suhara practiced today was an advanced level enchantment. While it was in effect, her own strength was halved as the curse magic ate away at her physical power. A gentle green glow radiated from her skin when the aura was in effect.

At half her strength, Suhara was still stronger than she was before being augmented.

The aura spell could be disabled at any point. The user's strength was supposed to double after the aura's deactivation, and the strength boost would last for about a third of the time the aura was active.

When first using the new spell, Suhara kept it active for half a minute while sparring with Frey.

After the aura was disabled, for the first time ever, Suhara was able to use her staff to land a solid hit on her ace.

Frey’s protective blessings resisted the damage with no issue, but the force of the strike was still able to send the tall girl’s body flying back.

Before the ten seconds of doubled strength ran out, Suhara closed the distance with a dash and tried to land another blow. Unfortunately, Frey was prepared for that. The taller girl was able to shift her positioning with motion magic. Then Frey's fist was thrown against Suhara's staff.

In the end, Frey was still stronger. The staff was pushed back, leaving Suhara open to a tackle from the taller girl. Suhara was slammed away, and she crashed roughly into the ground.

Frey walked up to her novi's body and grinned. "Sorry Suhara, you'll need to be stronger than a vampire to hurt me."

Suhara rubbed the back of her head, which had collided with the ground. "I sorta figured. If you beat a demon before, I don't think copying the copycat of a demon is going to be all that useful."

"Hey, you landed a hit, one step at a time."

=+=+=

Suhara learned two more standard spells before time ran out. The first one was a blinding curse that ate away at a person's sight for a few seconds. The second curse was a limited paralyzation spell, which cut off all the strength in whatever limb it hit.

"Oh wait, I left my wand back in the practice room!" Suhara abruptly stopped while she was walking towards the stairs with Frey.

Suhara quickly turned around and ran back to the spell training room, where she had actually left the demon root behind on purpose.

It was a way for Suhara to buy a little time.

When Suhara was out of everyone's earshot, she activated her Winter Sight to talk to the goddess.

"Theema?" said Suhara.

The goddess's answer came immediately. "Hello child. How was the duel?"

"Ugh, I lost."

"Pity. I had hoped for better."

"Right... anyway. I was wondering if you were okay with me telling a few of my friends about you."

"That is no problem. I do not mind if mortals started to learn of me again."

"Cool! Thanks!"

After Suhara got the goddess's permission, she picked up her demon root and ran back over to the stairs. Frey was patiently waiting for her by the first step.

=+=+=

Frey immediately questioned Suhara when they got back in the room. "So? Who is this strange new friend?"

Tricks looked up from a parchment she was scribbling on. "Huh? New friend? Who?"

Desyi disengaged her body from her wardrobe cabinet. She turned her head and looked curiously at Frey.

"Did you guys notice when Suhara had all that extra strength and healing during the duel?" Frey pointed out to the other two roommates.

"Oh, yeah! I thought you taught her that, Frey." said Desyi. "It looked like some pretty good blessings to me."

Frey nodded and pointed towards Desyi. "That's the thing! I didn't teach her any of that! Some weird new friend gave Suhara some vampire powers!"

Tricks's mouth fell open. "What? No way, Suhara doesn't look like some vampire! Well, she's got all that fair skin thing going on, but I've seen vampires and they're loads paler than her!"

"Yeah Frey, aren't you jumping to conclusions?" said Desyi, "I don't think Suhara has been afflicted with a blood demon's soul."

Frey shook her head. "No, she told me that it was vampire powers! Right, Suhara?"

"Uh, I think I said it was similar to vampire powers, it's complicated." said Suhara.

All of a sudden, Tricks flicked her wand, and a large tray of snacks flew out from under her bed.

"Alright then." Tricks pulled off the glass lid from her snack tray. "Eat and spill, Suhara."

Suhara then started to tell the tale about how she met Theema. She omitted a few details, like her original gender, but basically explained all her encounters with Theema to the best of her ability. She first mentioned how she made contact with the goddess thanks to her wand. Then described how the goddess had carved the magical tattoos into her. She told them about the Winter Sight, the Soul Stealing Arm, and how she was supposed to defeat people from Broken Space and High Noon. Suhara ended the tale with a summary of the events regarding the vampire.

"So... my novi is a deity's priest." Frey whispered quietly to herself.

Frey looked off at the wall, her face expressionless. She didn't know how she was suppose to feel about the news. It was good that Suhara had access to soul from a deity, but the unknown goddess raised some doubts.

"Girl, Suhara, that Theema sounds evil." Tricks stated with confidence. "Darkness, forced tattoos, magic stealing powers, and vampires. It all screams evil. You should ditch her."

"We shouldn't jump to conclusions!" said Desyi. "Darkness isn't guaranteed to be a bad thing. Plus it sounds like she's been out of touch with us for a while, maybe the tattoo thing was common when she was around? I've also heard of more gruesome priest powers from good spirits!"

"I don't know." said Frey. "Using a vampire as a weapon doesn't sound like something a good deity would do. It's also kind of weird that no one has ever heard of her. How does a realm with only a single inhabitant even exist?"

"I still think we shouldn't rush any judgement!" said Desyi. "Theema has helped Suhara out a whole lot from the sounds of it!"

"Oh that reminds me," sad Suhara, "Theema also did that teleport thing for me back when the thieves were attacking."

"Really?" Frey noted with arched eyebrows. "Hm, well, I don't know. You were put in a lot of danger when that happened. I still had to punch that knight out after you blocked him. Oh yeah, and Theema isn't supposed to even know any of us, how did she know I would protect you?"

Suhara slowly shook her head. "Oh, that's not it. I wished to reach the knight as fast as possible, and Theema kinda just granted my wish."

"Okay, I officially have a migraine now. Wishes?" Tricks ran her fingers through her short blonde hair. "Theema's evil and I'm sticking to that. She even wants you to beat up a Bright Noon priest, those are totally good guys!"

Desyi looked up at the ceiling in thought. "Since beating them is a requirement for the arm, maybe Theema just wants Suhara to get the gifts of those two realms?"

"It's possible, but a stretch." Frey closed her eyes and sighed. "I don't think a deity would be that generous for no reason. Tomorrow, let's all try to do some research or ask some teachers about Theema, maybe they'll know."

"Fine," said Tricks, "but until we know more, don't talk to that so-called goddess, Suhara."