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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Word of mouth is swift.

There was a rumor that a new girl with long black hair and violet eyes had taken down a ghost. Ghosts were spirits at the same level of strength as angels and demons. Defeating one is considered a major feat of strength and skill.

The rumor failed to mention that Suhara was only able to take out the ghost after it had stopped fighting her and let its guard down. The gossip also didn't mention that the ghost nearly killed her with a single hit. Those details were boring, realistic, and not the least bit exciting.

Sensational news was what reached the ears of students.

At first, the student just whispered doubtfully in their little cliques as Suhara passed by. They weren't sure if she was the one who beat the ghost. She did match the physical appearance of the rumored girl, but the rumor did not include any other details beyond eyes and hair.

All of that changed in the temperature genre magic class. A boy walked up to Suhara's desk, directly asking her for the truth. "Hey, are you the girl who won against a ghost spirit?"

"Uh, yes..." said Suhara.

Suhara's classmates crowded around her once the gossip had been confirmed. They flooded her with questions about who she was and what happened. All of that information was incorporated into a new set of rumors, which spread like wildfire through the Lyceum. By the day's end, every student had learned Suhara's name. They even found out about her upcoming duel with Roy.

The roof was going to have a large audience tomorrow...

=+=+=

Wenlia and Hawkshire were having a private meeting in the discipline office. They had received sighting reports of floating stone creatures that matched the description of the ghost that Suhara encountered. The concerning part was that the reports indicated the ghosts were sighted in groups. So far the sightings have been up north in Orouna and Veilflower.

"They have to be here for her," said Wenlia. "Inhabitants from the Realm of Five Dimensions rarely visit our world. We have to make contact, and bring Miss Ballad to find a resolution to the issue."

Hawkshire sighed and shook his head. "Miss Ballad is too inexperienced to send out to such a dangerous situation. Since those ghosts aren't hurting anyone, I propose that we keep Miss Ballad in the school until they run out of time in our world."

"That would be impossible," said Wenlia. "Ghosts from Five Dimensions have the ability to remain in our world indefinitely."

"Unheard of!" said Hawkshire, "No spirit can remain indefinitely. Their nature of infinity is incompatible with our mortal physics."

Wenlia pulled out a lexicon of realms and showed it to Hawkshire. "It is clearly written here. Five Dimensions rarely interferes with us, but they can't be stopped by the usual time limit that applies to spirits."

Hawkshire read the description of the ghosts, and then checked the first few pages to see if the book complied by a reliable source. It was, to his dismay. "This is unfortunate, but we can not send Miss Ballad out. I don't want to risk her safety, and I still haven't fully investigated the spirit she's bonded with."

"They will search the entire globe for Miss Ballad," said Wenlia. "If we don't intercept them while we still have their location, then she may eventually be ambushed by them in the future."

Hawkshire meditated on that information, then started to chuckle. "The world is a big place, Wenlia. By the time they find her again, the Lyceum will have trained her to be more than capable of handling affairs such as this. We will ignore those ghosts for now."

=+=+=

Throughout the day, Suhara had been cramming curse practice during her free time. She learned the three easiest standard curses that she could find. The spells weren't very useful, but they allowed her to fulfill the required amount of spells for Sellwall's class.

Suhara gained a friction-eater spell, a fall slowing spell, and a plant withering spell. She could now make a target slippery, slow her speed down during a fall, and kill plants equal to or smaller than a bush. All three spells were extremely situational, but still standard spells.

Sellwall was ecstatic with the news that Suhara had finally learned enough spells. "Good job, my dear! I've been waiting for this..."

Sellwall retrieved a satchel from his desk, and plucked a metal artifact from its depths. He wore a huge grin as he delivered the item to Suhara and Frey. The teacher had already obtained a magical object, and had been waiting for all spell requirements to be met.

The artifact was shaped as a dark green flower bud. It fit snugly in Suhara's palm. The dark green metal was cool to touch, and it was layered as smooth as snake scales. It felt too light to be completely metal, and made a bell-like sound when tapped. The inside was likely hallow, but probably held a secret inside.

Sellwall proudly described the magical item. "This is the Grim Floret, an artifact from a temple in Eritea territory. If you can figure out how to make it bloom, there is a powerful curse waiting inside!"

Suhara smiled and stared hungrily at the bud. She never expected to get an artifact right off the bat, but wanted to unlock its secrets as soon as possible. "Oh wow, thank you!"

=+=+=

The black bracelet was back.

While Suhara played around with her new artifact, it knocked up against the stone of the black bracelet. This time, she was sure that the bracelet was sneaking up onto her left wrist. She definitely didn't put it on again.

Suhara didn't ask Frey to take it off this time. After class, she headed down to the first floor to find Rales. She asked the administrative office to see Rales, and they gave her a pass allowing her to enter the research department hall.

Suhara walked up to Rales's research room, and knocked hard against the door. "Hey! Rales! I need to talk to you!"

Rales opened up his doors, smiling as he made eye contact with Suhara. "Ah, it's great to see you! Please, come in!"

Suhara walked into the treasure-filled room. For some reason, she forgot why she was here. She tried hard to remember, but nothing came to mind. "Uh..."

Rales sat down on a chair, and gestured towards an empty seat for Suhara to sit in. "So, have you reconsidered my offer?"

It took a while for Suhara to realize he was talking about the trip to the ruins. "Oh, a little. I'm still not very sure."

"Well, I won't be leaving for another week," he said, "you still have plenty of time to think it over."

"Thanks, I'm not quite sure why I'm here." she said. "I think it was important, but now I don't know."

"It happens, important things slip my mind all the time. What's that you have there?" Rales pointed at the metal bud that Suhara held in her hand.

"This?" Suhara raised the Grim Floret up. "My specialty teacher gave it to me, it's got a curse spell inside. I'm trying to figure out how to open it."

"Facinating," he said, "it looks very well crafted. You are lucky to have a teacher willing to obtain such objects for you."

"Yes, he's a great teacher! He gets these artifacts all the time for Frey." Suhara reached over to a table to place the Grim Floret down.

The black bracelet clipped against the top of the table. Suhara finally remembered why she was here. She dropped the metal bud on the table and swung her left arm forward. "Oh yeah! Now I remember!"

Suhara pointed to the black bracelet. "This thing you gave me has been sneaking onto my wrist even after I take it off."

Rales's eyes widened in surprise as he noticed the bracelet. "Ah, I didn't even see it. Sneak up you say?"

"Yeah!" she said. "I keep forgetting about it too! I don't know why!"

Rales removed the bracelet from Suhara's wrist, and slipped a small scope out from his robe. He looked at the bracelet under the scope, inspecting it closely. "Hm, forgetting and relocation. Ah! There we are! I see it!"

"What? What is it?" said Suhara.

"I had been looking for physical defenses, but I missed these enchantments." said Rales. "I can see it now. This bracelet must have been a defensive measure against kidnappers of a royal family. It escapes notice from a person's mind if no one looks directly at it, powerful mind magic. It also has dimensional magic to default around the owner's wrist, so that it will return even after it was seen and removed."

Suhara moved behind Rales and looked down at the bracelet. "Huh, that's cool I guess. Is it supposed to do something then?"

"Perhaps, but it doesn't work for me. The mind and dimension enchantments are surprisingly complex, so it has something to do with that." said Rales. "Do you want to try? Just wear it and send magic through it."

Suhara took back the bracelet and slipped it onto her wrist. She kept it on her right wrist this time. If she forgot about it again, it was more likely to be noticed while on her dominant wrist. Then she charged the bracelet with her magic.

There was a flash of purple light.

Rales stared with his mouth agape. Suhara was gone.

=+=+=

"Holy shit!" Tricks leap away from the sudden flash of purple.

Desyi and Frey also shielded their eyes from the dazzling light.

Suhara was sitting on her bed, having teleported over with the bracelet. All the girls were stunned with surprise for a few moments.

Frey managed to recover from astonishment first. "Whoa, I thought your teleports were supposed to be shadowy."

"Uh..." Suhara looked over to her bracelet. "It's a new thing, I guess."

=+=+=

Suhara had rushed back downstairs, and caught sight of Rales as he was rushing over towards the Lyceum office. "Wait! Rales! It's okay, I'm fine!"

Rales twisted his body around, and gasped with relief. "Oh thank gods. I shouldn't have asked you to test that."

Suhara puffed out a breath and crossed her arms. "Yeah, honestly, you're lucky this thing only teleported me to my bed."

"Ah, that makes sense," he said. "It teleports the user back... home I guess. Yes, it escapes notice and keeps returning to the owner. That way, it could be used to return home safely if the user was every kidnapped. Genius."

Suhara sighed. "Yeah well, don't ask me to test anything if you don't know what's about to happen. It's stupid. By the way, I left my artifact in your room, so could you go get it for me?"

"Oh yes, right away!" Rales nodded and ran back into the research hall.

=+=+=

The sky was dark with the night.

Circular turquoise lights glared down and illuminated a mage stuck in the corner of a restaurant. All the other people in the restaurant had fled when the levitating entities blew through the wall with giant silver battering rams. The mage took a defensive stance, prepared to fight for his life against the mysterious and floating rock creatures.

Seventy-nine and its fellow ghosts were currently combing through a town located within the Sindle territory.

"We wish to inquire you." said Seventy-nine.

The mage blinked with bewilderment, then relaxed a bit. "Oh, you wana question me? Breaking through the wall was a bit much, you know. Is that all you want?"

"Correct. We are seeking an individual who is clothed in the same classification of garment that you wear. Where would we find units dressed similarly to you?" said Seventy-nine.

"You mean my robe?" said the mage, "Lots of magicians wear robes. If you're looking for magicians, check down at the Marlifa Lyceum. It's like... the biggest magic school in these parts."

"Where is the facility located?" said Seventy-nine.

"Uh, it's in Tirfield, over west of here," said the mage. "But a tiny bit southwards, too. It's a large gray building, you can't miss it."

"Understood." Seventy-nine turned away from the mage, then flew back out of the building with its ghost allies.