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.

*=+=*=+=*=+=*

The first chief admissions counselor, Wenlia, compared the realm coordinates to her book. "It appears that Miss Ballad is in the Realm of Five Dimensions."

Desyi recognized the name of the realm from the research she did with Suhara. "You mean Suhara is in Broken Space?"

Wenlia looked up with raised brows. "Oh, you've heard of it?"

"Broken space... is she going for Theema's request? Suhara isn't ready to face a ghost!" said Frey.

"Yeah!" said Tricks, "We have to go help her! Open a portal!"

"I'm afraid it won't be that simple." said Wenlia. "The Realm of Five Dimensions is impossible to navigate. We would simply be lost, like Miss Ballad likely is right now. Rest assured, the ghosts of Five Dimensions exist only in special sectors, which are statistically impossible for your friend to stumble into. We will prepare a retrieval back at the Lyceum."

"We can't just leave her there alone!" said Frey. "Especially with a kidnapper!"

Wenlia held up her hand to quiet down the girls. "Sending more people will not help her, it would just mean that we must perform more retrievals."

=+=+=

Suhara felt so sleepy.

The pain in her arm was still there, but it didn't quite touch her mind anymore. Everything felt like a bad dream. All she wanted to do was wake up.

She closed her eyes, and her consciousness began to fade. Perhaps sleeping will free her from the nightmare...

"JAUX!" Theema's voice pounded through Suhara's head.

It was the first time Theema displayed any kind of emotion. The goddess's anger forced Suhara awake again.

The agony of the bleeding limb continued.

Suhara was confused about why Theema used her original name. Then she realized that she never told the goddess what she called her current self. She only told the goddess that her name was Jaux. It certainly helped to get Suhara's attention. It was the name she grew up with, after all.

Theema spoke with a voice that quivered in rage. "Child! I gifted to you the power of a blood demon. You must not die here, and you shall not. Take back your fallen arm."

Suhara tilted her head and saw her severed hand laying close by. She rolled over onto her belly, and crawled just enough to reach her separated body part.

It was unusual to touch her own hand. For once, she could not feel what her right hand felt. The skin of her severed hand was still warm, but lacked the beat of life. It was like holding hands with a stranger. Concentrating as hard as she could, she reconnected her forearm.

It took a few seconds, but the skin sealed back together. Suhara could feel as her bones realigned and forged into place. The split veins linked, pumping blood back into her fingers. Her nerves rejoiced, and she felt her labored breaths blowing into her palm. The muscles were the last to heal, as they stretched out and united into a whole.

Suhara had lost a lot of blood, but now both adrenaline and rage fueled her. She staggered back onto her feet, and picked her staff back up in her healed hand. Most of her cherry red robe was darkened by blood. Her mind was too clouded to cast any powerful spells, so she placed her demon root wand into a pocket.

The strength-absorbing aura was still active. Suhara disabled it and felt her physical powers surge. She let out a feral roar, then leap over to the stone disk.

Seventy-nine glowed as it reactivated. "Unexpected trespasser recov-"

Suhara's staff crashed down on top of Seventy-nine, sending out a wide torrent of dust. A wave of vertigo hit her, causing her to hesitate for a few seconds after her attack. Using so much force after massive blood loss put her mind under duress.

But, if the ghost was allowed to fight back, there would be no way to live through this.

After regaining her sense of balance, there was another loud thump marking Suhara's second strike. This was the first time that she ever gripped her staff with both hands in order to hit something. She was putting as much raw might as possible behind her weapon. If she hit fast and hard, she had a chance.

The blood on Suhara's robe began to dry off and evaporate. As the blood burned dry, Suhara began to feel even stronger. Her imitated vampire powers were burning off the blood touching her skin in order to further augment her strength.

Silver and triangular blades appeared over Suhara, but they quickly faded away as she swung her staff down two more times. Seventy-nine remained lodged in the ground, so the black stone staff continued assaulting the cone ghost. For the next minute, a barrage of impacts pummeled the ghost.

The attacks didn't stop until Theema spoke up. "It is defeated, child."

Suhara breathed deeply in relief, and let the dust around her settle. Seventy-nine had been cracked almost as much as the ground. Turquoise energy leaked out from the defeated ghost. All of the staff strikes had dug a large hole around the cone. The dirt had been pounded apart into an even finer powder.

That had been lucky, above all else. It was a good thing that Seventy-nine assumed Suhara to be dead. If the cone ghost didn't lower its guard, it would have been over. She couldn't survive another bout.

"Take the ghost's soul." said Theema.

Suhara closed her eyes and nodded. She focused her magic on the second circle on her left arm, willing it to open up a void. Her arm became a smokey gray, and she plunged it into the ghost. Immortal magic gathered into her arm, filling up the circle's swirling darkness. When she removed her arm, the second circle was filled with the shifting shades of turquoise energy.

"Got it..." whispered Suhara.

Then Suhara's mind finally fell unconscious, and her back hit the ground. There was just too much blood loss to withstand. The Winter Sight shut down as Suhara blacked out, cutting Theema off.

=+=+=

Wenlia, Rilane, and Frey stood at the center of a large magic circle.

Seven other mages sat on the outside of the pattern. They were each roughly four meters away from the center. Their hands touched the very edge of the round ritual drawing, providing it with power.

Two chains of magic extended from the large crystal ball that Rilane was holding. One was attached to Frey's head, and the other was linked with Wenlia's head. An image of Suhara was being built in the crystal ball. The memory of the lost girl's appearance was being funneled into Wenlia.

Once Wenlia had obtained enough information on the student, she began to draw out power from the intricate magic circle: the grand pattern's blue glow increased drastically in intensity as she worked.

Wenlia raised her hands and pointed them forward. The space in front of her began to contort, bending the visible light.

Then an unconscious Suhara appeared. She was covered in dust, and her staff was gripped tightly in her hand. Her dirty red robes was dyed dark, and stiff with dried blood. One of her sleeves was also cut short.

The memory link broke as Frey rushed over to her friend. "Suhara!"

A heartbeat could be felt through Suhara's neck. She was alive.

=+=+=

Suhara woke up.

Her eyes fluttered open, and she stared up at a smooth white ceiling. They had placed her in the medical ward on the fifth floor. Her friends were sitting around her.

"Oh thank gods!" Frey hugged Suhara tight, relieved.

"Glad you're okay." Desyi joined in the hug.

Tricks was sitting by the foot of the bed, so she couldn't join in on the group hug. "Congrats on beating that dumb rock ghost."

"Huh? How'd you know?" Suhara looked up at Tricks with her forehead scrunched up.

Desyi answered the question for Tricks. "Oh, the teachers ran through your visual memories while you were out. They needed to know how you were injured and stuff."

"I can't believe you fought a ghost!" said Frey. "That was reckless!"

Suhara shrugged. "Sorry, kinda just happened."

Tricks began to laugh. "Well, I told you she could handle herself! That ghost kinda sucked though. What kind of spirit gives up like that?"

"I'm glad it did. Otherwise, I wouldn't have survived." said Suhara.

Frey threw her hands up in the air and began to complain. "Which is why that was reckless! Gods, if the ghost wasn't literally as dumb as a sack of bricks, we would have lost you!"

"I was still right." said Tricks.

"Regardless, it was amazing looking at what you see with Theema's vision gift." Desyi traced her fingers on the back of Suhara's left arm. "Being able to view magic is so cool! What power did you get from the ghost? Do you have the ability to use knives now?"

"Uh, I'm not sure. I guess so." said Suhara.

=+=+=

Hawkshire stared sternly at the crystal ball. "What do you mean the memory changed?"

"It's hard to explain," said Rilane. "when we directly view Miss Ballad's memory, we were able to see a glow coming from everything. However, once it was recorded onto the crystal, it was just regular human vision."

"I may have a theory on that." said Wenlia.

Rilane and Hawkshire turned towards Wenlia as she explained her reasoning. "When I asked Frey Oden about the lights in Miss Ballad's vision, she informed me that Miss Ballad is a priest and that the vision is a gifted ability."

"But we already knew that." said Rilane.

Wenlia nodded. "Yes, but Frey Oden also mentioned that Miss Ballad is only able to communicate with her spirit when using that special vision, and that the spirit can see what Miss Ballad sees. I believe that the amplified light vision is actually the spirit's memory, and it was merged with Miss Ballad. Our standard crystal balls can only record one memory. If the vision of light is a shared memory originating from the spirit, it makes sense that the second part of the record is left out."

"Merged memory?" Hawkshire leaned back on his chair and laced the fingers of his hands together. "Could Miss Ballad's memory also be tampered with by this... Theema?"

"It's a possibility." said Wenlia.

=+=+=

A reflective portal opened up in the skies above Orouna.

Seventy-nine was the first ghost that came through the rippling portal. It was soon followed by several other stone ghosts: a pyramid, two spheres, a cube, and a pair of narrow cylinders.

"Begin active realm inspection for hostile trespasser five hundred forty-four." said Seventy-nine.