Something was tickling Jaux's face as he slept. No matter what direction he turned his face, the feeling was still there. Eventually, Jaux was annoyed to the point of reaching towards his face to pull off the disturbance.

"Ouch!"

Jaux woke from his slumber in pain and confusion. He had definitely just pulled his hair, but his hair was never long enough to fall over his face. Groaning, he sat up on his bed, and pitch black hair that stretched down past his waist tugged back on his scalp.

Jaux now felt everything, and now everything felt wrong. His whole body was numb, like he had never walked a day in his life. His head and chest both felt heavier than they should, while everything else seemed thin, as if he had been sick and lost all his strength.

His chest felt sensitive, and was sticking out more than should be natural. It was odd, even though his body was numb, his chest felt especially lopsided. It was as if something was glued there, but he was sure he could feel the clothes against his flesh. Jaux looked down to see what was wrong, and stared in shock at the unquestionably female breasts that bulged out.

It was all wrong, completely wrong! Yet, this impossibility was attacking him with every corner of his body. His limbs had all become much smaller than before, his hands being the most immediately noticeable. Jaux's rough and tan skin was replaced with smooth and fair skin. His hair was far too long and the wrong color, a perfect ebony rather than a tree bark brown. Finally, though he dare not visually check to face the reality, there was nothing to keep his legs from clamping completely together.

Then Jaux remembered where he was, why this bed he sat in felt wrong as well. He was still in the Marlifa Mage's Lyceum! This was the work of magic!

Had he been found out? Perhaps this transformation is what they did to prisoners! This was certainly a comfortable jail cell for an uncomfortable body. It even had a little table by the bed...

A little table that had a very familiar wand resting on top of it.

The demon root was there, waiting for his hand. The rest of Jaux's memories came pouring in. The black statue of the girl and her shining purple eyes appeared in his mind. Could it be that the mages here were not responsible for this plight?

Yes, the mages were not responsible. Why else would they leave him with the means to perform magic?

It was either the wand or the statue, maybe both. If the wand was really responsible for his transformation, then he couldn't let it out of his sight. Jaux recklessly swiped the wand off the table, half expecting it to burn him on touch. He was surprised to find that the demon root felt... perfect. It was not cold like the first time or hot like the last, it simply matched the heat of his fingers. It felt like it was almost a part of him.

The door abruptly opened just a minute afterward, and a tall bearded man strolled in. His beard was shorter than you would expect from a gray-haired wizard, it actually fit his head quite well, giving it a strict and squared look.

"Ah, you are awake at last young lady," exclaimed the tall wizard, "could you please explain to me what you were doing alone down in the research storage department?"

"Oh, uh... I was lost." Jaux replied, hearing his new voice squeak for the first time. "Then everything just kind of... went dark."

"Lost? How did that happen? How long have you been studying here?"

Jaux gave himself a second of thought. He couldn't tell the truth, since that would get him kicked out and prevent him from ever finding a way to change back. He had to stay here and get to that statue again.

"I'm new here." Jaux answered.

“Oh, you just started today?” The wizard remarked, now seeming less suspicious of Jaux, but not completely, “I did not see you at the admissions this morning, but I suppose you could have been unconscious longer than we originally believed. Where did you travel from?”

“Uh... W-Western Beradina, sir.” Jaux answered, coming up with the farthest city he could think of.

“Oh my! You came a long way to join us then, young lady.”

“Yes sir, I believe there is no better school of magic than the one under the guidance of the knowledge goddess Marlifa.” Jaux recited, spitting out the best praise he could think of on the spot.

“Well then, it is a pleasure to meet you. I do hope you ask someone for directions the next time you are lost in our halls. Some of our researchers are very protective of their materials, and tend to ward them with powerful defenses. You could have suffered from far worse than a bit of forced dreaming.” The tall mage instructed, to which Jaux nodded in understanding.

Jaux wasn’t sure if a defensive ward caused all of his... problems, but that would be something he could look into later. If he could get an opportunity to stay in Lyceum, he’ll have plenty of time to figure everything out.

“Now with that out of the way... my name is Rictor Hawkshire, I am the third chief admissions counselor and head of discipline. What is your name?” asked the wizard.

This question stumped Jaux, what exactly should he say? Jaux was not really a female name, and was definitely not a name you would find in Western Beradina. However, Jaux did know a single simple term from Beradinian history, the ancient word for ‘magic’...

“Uh… my name is Suhara, Suhara Ballad.”

“Ah, Suhara... yes, that is the elder term for magic over in those parts,” Hawkshire noted, “would I be right to assume that your parents were mages then?”

“Oh. Well, I’m an orphan sir. I wouldn’t know.” Jaux explained, this time actually being truthful. He could not pretend to know what having parents would be like, but in this case it helped to keep personal questions to a minimum.

“Hm, well that’s unfortunate, but a part of life I suppose. Well then Suhara, since you missed the admissions, I can personally test you here. You should have no problems with that, our medical staff has assured me that you are perfectly healthy.” voiced Hawkshire, as he pulled out a pouch from his robes and began to search inside.

Jaux hadn’t expected the test. He was hoping that it would at least be delayed until tomorrow’s admission hour. That’s what he gets for trying to pose as a student, but there really wasn’t any other option that he could think of. His gaze fell onto his wand, the demon root. Hopefully he could still use it, and hopefully it would be enough to get through this examination.

By the time Jaux looked back up, there was suddenly a square pane of sparkling crystal floating a couple meters in front of him. Hawkshire was studying Jaux from a short distance away, sitting on a chair that was probably conjured the same way as the crystal plate.

“Now then Miss Ballad, please strike the crystal with a targeting spell of your choice.”

This was the standard test for admission into the Lyceum. Jaux had always wanted to take it, but he knew no targeting spells. Knowing one wouldn’t guarantee admission either. The admission mages had to read the pattern you left on the testing pane. There was a certain amount of complexity and power that was required to become a student at the Lyceum, which was gauged by the pattern on the crystal pane.

Even now, Jaux didn’t know if he had such a spell. All he had was the black mist that was fired off from the demon root. He wasn’t sure what the mist did, only that it was some type of curse magic which managed to break a crystallized flame. Maybe it would count, but Jaux didn’t have any other idea to try.

Jaux slowly stood up from the bed, nearly tripping on the robes that were now much longer than he was used to. He made a mental note of his reduced height, before focusing all his attention on the crystal pane. Jaux pointed his demon root right at the pane, and then focused as much magic as he could into the wand.

A head-sized sphere of darkness erupted from the tip of wand, seeming out of place like a shadow that ignored the light. It streaked through the air soundlessly, crashing against the thin crystal plate. In the moment of contact, it looked as if the darkness was a large liquid droplet moving in slow motion, dispersing outwards from the glass in a flower-like shape. Then time seemed to speed up and all the darkness swiftly rushed into the very body of the crystal pane, darkening it to the shade of ink.

There it lingered for just a second, the once colorful crystal pane reduced to a shiny black tile. Then it began to shake violently, as if something was trying to break free, and finally the crystal pane fell onto the ground with a very sharp thump.

Jaux gaped at the pane in surprise, not expecting any of what just happened. Hawkshire was also focused on the fallen crystal pane, but with only his eyebrows raised. Jaux quickly recomposed himself before Hawkshire could look back to him.

“Well I admit I did not expect you to cast curse magic, but that was certainly impressive.” Hawkshire said as he stood up and walked over to the crystal. He did not try to pick it up to examine the pattern, but instead just bent down slightly for a closer glance. “You managed to purge the crystal of all its magic, so there is no pattern to read. Luckily for us, curse magic is already far beyond admission levels in terms of complexity, and it was definitely powerful enough as well. You undoubtedly pass, Miss Ballad.”

Jaux was... excited by the news, to say the least. He could become an official mage here! Magic was just within his reach! Then the last few words seem to echo in his head. 'Miss Ballad' Hawkshire had called him. He had passed as a girl, as someone he was sure he didn't recognize anymore. It was enough to humble his emotions quite a bit.

While Jaux was still in his dizzying emotional limbo, Hawkshire handed him a few print-heavy pages of parchment and a key.

"This first page has a map and list of the most important rooms for you here at the Lyceum. Memorize the locations and try to keep out of the retricted areas. There will be consequences if we find you near the research storage rooms again.

The second page is a certificate for the student enrollment center. Sign your name on it and then report to the enrollment center early tomorrow for your schedule.

The final page has your dormitory room number, along with all the standard student rules and a list of specialty classes on the back. I personally recommend that you look into the target-subject manipulation class, as that would benefit your curse magic the most.

Go ahead and head to your room now, Miss Ballad. It is well past the Lyceum curfew. The key should open it up without issue. I must be going now, other matters will require my attention."

All of a sudden the weight of being a student was dawning on Jaux. He had just talked his way into an actual prison. A prison built with classes, curfews, rules, and classmates. He wouldn't even be allowed outside without an escort! The idea of obtaining true magically power had clouded his judgement.

Now here he stood, living in the wrong body, holding paper bars and the key to his own cell.

Jaux needed to get out of here...

Jaux had managed to keep his robes from dragging along the ground with some complicated robe wrapping maneuvers. It also had the effect of making him look incredibly stupid, but there was no one around to see anyway. It was past curfew after all.

The dormitories were located on the second floor, and the girls section was on the western side. If Jaux hadn't become a girl, it may even have been a stoke of luck to be living on this side. Fate and luck weren't being very generous today though, so he would just have to deal with it.

Jaux had tried earlier to get to the front gate, but the armored mage guards were keeping a watch at every opening. He really was in a prison, so he might as well get some rest in his cell.

If the size of the door was any indication, Jaux's room was huge. The double doors were almost half as big as the iron entranceway. At least he could be comfortable here. The key fit snugly into the lock, and after only a single turn the doors magically opened up for him.

There was a dead silence. Six eyes locked onto Jaux's, before they each began to inspect the wrapped robe.

Then there was laughter. Lots of laughter. Roommates.

"Newbie! What are you wearing?"

"She looks like an old maid!"

"Look look! I think she's actually wearing breeches!"

"Oh, I think that's a male robe too! She's a cross dresser!"

"Oh you're right! No wonder she didn't show up all day!"

"Yeah, I would hide till curfew too if I had to wear that."

"Don't just stand there newbie! Shut the door and come on in!"

Jaux wasn't sure if he should be offended or not by all of the insults. He wasn't exactly trying to look female, but the tone was unmistakably mocking. He still wasn't sure how exactly to respond to everything when unexpectedly, one of the girls dragged him into the room by his arm. The gate seemed to react automatically, and shut itself tightly, ending with a click from the lock.

The girl who dragged Jaux in was the tallest. She might also be the oldest, but it was hard to tell. Her wavy red hair was also a rare sight in these parts, and she was in fact the first red head Jaux had ever seen up close. She was also very...pretty. "So what's your name newbie?" She asked.

"I'm... Uh..."

"What's the hold up? You forget your name?" Questioned the girl with the short blonde hair.

Jaux did, in fact, forget what his name was. He only said it once after all, and after the tiring excitement today he had completely knocked the name out of his mind.

The third girl, the one with the long and braided blonde hair, giggled at Jaux's stunned expression, "Aw, she's a shy type, how cute."

"Well, more than one way to solve this," said the red haired girl as she plucked away Jaux's papers, "it says she's Suhara Ballad, from Western Beradina."

"Oh, you're Beradinian? You must be nervous being so far away from home!" Exclaimed the braided blonde girl. "My name is Desyi Carnveil, I'm from Yorde. Nice to meet you, new roomie!"

"I'm also from Yorde, you can call me Tricks!" The girl with the short blonde hair explained, while simultaneously waving her hand to conjure the word 'Tricks' in shining silver letters hanging above her head.

Jaux gave a polite little nod to say hello, but couldn't help raising an eyebrow when looking at Tricks' little magical display. Jaux loved magic and everything, but using it to say something you already said seemed... useless. Jaux then realized that the red head had not introduced herself, so he turned around to look up at her.

The red head smiled when their eyes met, "Mm, my name is Frey Oden, I'm actually from a caravan, so this place is probably where I've stayed the longest in my life." She noted, while handing Jaux's papers back.

Jaux said a small thank you, and then took back her papers. The girls didn't seem so bad now that the shock of her appearance was fading away. He saw that there was an untouched bed tucked into the corner to the right of the double doors, so he headed there to unload.

All four beds were identical four-poster beds, and each of them had a little nightstand with two drawers. All of her papers, her key, and her wand were placed in the top drawer of the nightstand. Then she plopped her butt on the bed.

"Aren't you going to shower?" Asked Desyi.

"Or, you know, change?" Tricks added.

Jaux looked back to the girls, who were currently still sitting on their pillows in a huddle. They were each wearing a nightgown of some sort. Then Jaux glanced at the wardrobe by her bed. It was untouched, and Jaux doubted that the Lyceum provided any standard nightwear.

"Don't have anything to change into, really." Jaux answered.

"I could lend you a nightie if you need one, Suhara," Desyi offered, "I think we're just about the same height."

"She'll probably need a new robe too," added Tricks, "otherwise she might disappear until curfew again tomorrow."

"Oh, no, it's fine really. I can find something to wear tomorrow." Said Jaux, who wasn't into the idea of wearing female clothes no matter how he looked.

"Nonsense! You can't sleep in that!" Desyi complained, as she stood up and walked over to her wardrobe cabinet.

"Yeah, those robes aren't very clean anyway," said Tricks, "and you'll still need to be wearing something when you go get new clothes."

"You should lend her your cream set, it'll go with her eyes." Frey mentioned.

"Oh yeah, your eyes are really cool, is it naturally that color?" Tricks asked.

Were brown eyes really considered that special by these girls? Jaux could see now that he was the only one here with brown eyes, but blue and green weren't exactly common eye colors in these parts. "Yeah, they're natural."

"Must be a Beradinian thing." Desyi noted as she dropped a cream colored nightgown on the bed.

The nightgown was long, unquestionably a dress, and the sleeves went past the length of Jaux's arms. Jaux really didn't want to wear this, but Desyi was really going out of her way to be kind.

"The showers are through this door," mentioned Frey as she pointed to the smaller door on the side opposite Jaux's bed, "it's shared between our room and the next over."

"Okay. Thanks." Jaux said as he walked over and into the bathroom.

The bathroom was huge as well. There as a massive mirror hanging over four sinks. There were also two toilet stalls and a shower area with four showers. Jaux kind of wished there were stalls for the showers as well, but no one was following him into the bathroom and the door on the opposite side of the bathroom was also shut.

Jaux placed the cream nightgown on the counter with the sinks. He was about to head for the shower area, but then the mirror captured his full attention.

The girl in the mirror had no resemblance to who Juax once was. She was so beautiful, having almost a siren's allure. The long and straight hair framed a fair face with no visible imperfections. Her pitch black hair shined pleasantly, like it was coated with glass. But her eyes stood out the most. They were an amazing violet, which almost sparkled.

No wait, they did sparkle...

Jaux's violet eyes were sparkling, almost glowing. They reminded him of the black statue's gemstone eyes. He was falling into her own image, mesmerized by what could be vanity.

Then he felt something change, like something in the very front of his eyes had shifted.

Everything was suddenly tinted purple, Jaux's whole perception had been affected. The whole world seemed to become a night sky, with little star-like lights in all the colors of the rainbow filling his vision. He was confused, and just a little scared. In a bit of a panic, he turned to the door of his room, and was about to open it and call for help.

Then through the door he could see the lights again, but a few of these were much closer. He could see what the glow was, because they outlined the shapes of the girls. A tall white light seemed to be Frey, while Desyi was a mix between indigo and magenta. The shortest girl, Tricks, glowed with green. The lights were people!

No, that wasn't quite right, he could see the lights elsewhere as well. He could see light from the shower heads and light from the sinks. In fact, if he concentrated, the air seemed to be filled with a mist of light that fogged his vision just a tiny bit.

Then he raised her hand and looked deeply into it, to see if she glowed as well.

All he saw was darkness.

His vision abruptly returned to the colors of the true world, but he was still staring into her hand. The darkness that he saw inside herself was identical to the magic he used in his admissions test. Did that vision of his allow him to see the colors of magic?

"Hey, you alright in there Suhara? You haven't turned on the shower or anything!" Called Desyi from behind the door.

"Oh, yes, I'm fine!" Jaux called back, as he paced over to the shower area.

Jaux did his best to look away from her naked body as he took off the robes and undergarments. He had a feeling that he would just stare at herself again, plus he still didn't want to completely accept the changes to his body. Out of sight, out of mind.

What he couldn't ignore was the feeling of the water on his skin. Everything was much more sensitive now that he had such a thin frame. Thankfully, the shower's magic design was easy to understand, there was a red lever for hot water and a blue lever for cold water, so Jaux was able to balance the water out immediately without burning or freezing himself.

The actually feeling of the water running down his body was much more disturbing. It didn't feel bad, but there was no way to deny the water from reaching all the special new spots on his body. In some ways, looking at his body would be been better, much better than this.

Water flowed in and fused into her long hair, sticking it onto her back and almost forcing her head back from the combined weight.

Water was flowing around the curves of her new breasts, outlining their valleys and hillsides. She could feel almost every droplet of water as they bounced and splashed onto the soft mounds. The feelings were a bit too extreme for her, and she tried to cover them with her hands, only to pull back when she felt her fingers gripping them from all angles. Boys shouldn't have such... holdable breasts.

Her hips were different too, different proportions. They were wider than she was used to, which had the effect of diverting more water towards the depths between her legs.

That was the worst, to have water flowing into the crack between your legs, touching all the most sensitive nerves. This was a feeling men could only feel with the very tip of their penis, but now it was so flat, so narrow, and so convenient for the water to flow. The liquid touched what was undeniably a vagina. She could feel so much, she was so exposed. She didn't like that at all.

Not even two minutes had pasted, and Jaux had enough. She forced both levers back down, shutting down the water. She then just stood there, hands still gripping the levers as the last of the water dripped down from her body.

It was all girl, totally and completely.

After she had finally calmed her psyche, Jaux realized she didn't have anything to dry herself off. Too nervous to ask for help while naked, she decided to just settle for drying herself with the stolen mage robes. It would sort of ruin the point of a shower, but she didn't know what else to do. However, just as Jaux stepped out of the showering area, all the water in her hair and on her skin had evaporated into a fine mist, leaving her completely dry.

Oh yeah, magic school.

The nightgown was less of a worry after the shower. Jaux still wasn't happy about it, but it was just a different type of clothing verses her new flesh and blood. Nothing could really make things much worse than finding yourself in the wrong body. The nightgown itself was actually pretty comfortable, it felt so soft and slippery against her fair skin.

"You look way better in that!" Said Tricks when Jaux returned to the room.

"Agreed, but that shower was a bit short, wasn't it?" Frey asked.

"Well, she looks clean to me," Desyi said, "here, you should try on this robe tomorrow!"

Desyi held up a thin robe of brown and gold, handing it over to Jaux. This robe actually puzzled Jaux as she looked it over. The design of it was similar to standard Marlifa Mage robes, but she had never seen one this bright in color. Actually, now that she thought about it, the Marlifa mages who visited Welldrop were always male.

"Thank you very much." Jaux politely told Desyi, giving a small smile before putting the robe into her wardrobe.

Jaux was right about the wardrobe cabinet being empty. She would have to collect all new living necessities by herself. No wait... she wasn't planning on staying here, right? Jaux wasn't quite so sure. The black statue wasn't exactly going to go anywhere, and even if she was in the wrong body this was still a fantastic opportunity to learn magic...

It would be something for her to consider after a good night's rest. Jaux sat herself on the side of her bed, stretching out her unfamiliar limbs and letting out a faint yawn.

"So what types of magic do you cast, Suhara?" Questioned Tricks out of nowhere. "I myself am a pretty spectacular illusionist!"

"Uh, I cast curse magic." Jaux answered, taking a quick glance towards her nightstand, where demon root rested inside.

"Curse? Really? I've never heard of a newbie using curses," Frey said in surprise, "you're my complete opposite then, because I use blessing magic."

"Blessing magic? Isn't that one of the powers granted by deities?" Jaux asked, slowly filling with curiosity.

"Oh, you've never heard of your magic's opposite?" Frey asked in return.

"Magic's opposite? I'm sorry, I don't quite understand." Replied Jaux in embarrassment.

"Oh wow," Desyi muttered, "you're completely new then, you don't even know about magical degrees."

"That can't be right, curses are difficult as heck!" Tricks blurted out. "How can you not know about basic magic?"

"I've been to places that focus on very specific magics back when I was traveling in a caravan," Frey explained, "curses might have been the only magic she learned back in Western Beradina. Come sit down with us Suhara, we can explain the basics to you."

Jaux was tired out, but she couldn't resist the temptation of a magic lesson! She quickly got one of the pillows off her bed and planted herself into the girls' little circle.

Frey smiled in amusement at Jaux's eagerness. The newbie liked to learn, that was good.

"Well Suhara, the foundations of all known magic are the eight genres. Those genres are: temperature, motion, concentration, mind, dimension, power, time, and deity.

Every type of magic ever created uses the manipulation of these foundation. Desyi, for example, specializes in manipulating the temperature genre." Frey gestured to Desyi after she said this, and Desyi immediately raised and opened up her hands.

In Desyi's left hand, a ball of flame burst into life. In her right hand, a ball of ice formed out of thin air. Jaux had seen spells like this before, but never really considered them to be related.

"Although both the fire spell and the ice spell are placed under manipulating the temperature genre, they have such different effects because of their magic degrees. Magic degrees can be positive, negative, and neutral, which represents what you're trying to manipulate a genre into. Fire is a very positive degree of temperature, while ice is a very negative degree.

Keep in mind that all Desyi is doing is altering the temperature genre of the air. If she were to use her fire spell underwater, she would most likely end up altering the temperature genre of the water and make steam instead.

Your curse magic is the negative part of the power genre, while my blessing magic is the positive. Curse magic steals some kind of power from targets in order to achieve the desired spell effect, while blessing magic's effect is to provide targets with some sort of power. Do you understand, Suhara?"

Jaux thought about Frey's lecture for a second, thinking back to the two times where she cast her curse magic. The black mist had cracked the crystallized flame, while the sphere of darkness had disabled the crystal pane. So, in this case, her demon root curse was... stealing magic power in order to break things!

"Yeah, I do! Thanks Frey!" Jaux answered happily. "So what do the other genres do?"

Frey and Tricks laughed at that, while Desyi giggled lightly. Suhara sounded very much like an excited little kid learning about magic for the first time? They weren't aware of just how close that was to the truth.

"You'll have to study that on your own Suhara, magic becomes much more complex beyond the genres and it is getting way too late for me to explain things such as genre combinations and spell patterns." Frey said.

"Oh, okay," Jaux sighed in disappointment, picking up her pillow and heading back to his bed, "uh, good night then, I guess."

"Night newbie."

"Good night Suhara!"

"Watch out for any nightmare spirits, Hara!"

"Geez Tricks, don't try to scare her on her first night!"

-+-+-

Jaux slept peacefully, the discomfort of her new body overwhelmed by the softness of the bed and the smoothness of the borrowed nightgown.

In her senseless dreams, Jaux heard the echoes of distant giggles, and then a loud lock's click silenced them.

-+-+-

Jaux woke up to an empty room. Desyi, Tricks, and Frey were nowhere in sight. The sound of running water lingered in the background, so Jaux had to guess the girls were washing up. She rolled around a bit longer, trying to drown herself inside her warm blankets. Why would anyone ever want to leave their bed if it felt like this?

The brand new girl needed no reminder about her body's situation. It was hard to ignore her tangled hair or the packets of extra flesh being squished on her chest. Oh, and what do you know, nothing uncomfortably hard first thing in the morning.

Jaux vaguely recalled what Hawkshire told her about reporting to the enrollment center today, but it wasn't enough to get her to pop out from the covers. He never really specified how early he meant, so Jaux guessed that she had roughly until noon.

Over time, as feelings returned to her body, Jaux felt something snugly hugging her neck. When she went to feel what it was, she was shocked to find that she was wearing some kind of metal collar!

Jaux immediately burst out from her sheets, feeling around her neck with both her hands in a frenzy. The collar was made from what seemed to be a thick and flat piece of metal, completely rigid. The entire piece fit perfectly on her neck, but didn't damage her skin because it was smooth all around. There was also a slight bulge at the front and what felt like a small hole in the back.

What did those crazy girls do?!

Filled with annoyance, frustration, and confusion, Jaux sprinted to the bathroom and practically threw open the door.

The sound of the swinging door caused the two girls in the bathroom to turn and stare at Jaux, and neither of the girls were a roommate. The first girl had shoulder-length brown hair and was washing up by the sink. The other girl had blue hair and was floating upside down in the very center of the bathroom for some reason.

"Oh, it's a baby chick," The blue haired girl noted, "just got collared too by the looks of it."

"W-what do you mean collared?" Jaux asked nervously.

"It's a thing here," said the brown haired girl as she dried off her hands off with a small towel, "ace class mages get to claim a novice class mage of their choice, all they have to do is get a collar on you. Frey is the only ace in your room, so that's most likely her collar."

"The boys do it with an anklet, but they don't really claim mages as often as we do." Mentioned the blue haired girl, who was now spinning around slightly.

"Claimed?" Jaux whispered, as she slowly turned to look at her reflection in the mirror.

The collar was jet black, very similar to Jaux's hair. The bulge at the front turned out to be a flat pearl gemstone that was fused into the metal. It didn't necessarily look bad, but Jaux really didn't like the idea it was supposed to represent.

"It's not too bad of a thing," said the floating girl, "you just listen and follow what your ace tells you, and then your ace usually protects you from the other students and tutors you in magic. It'll be like having a bossy big sister for the school."

"I'm not a stupid pet!" Jaux whined. "Why does it have to be a collar?"

"Eh, traditions are weird," claimed the brown haired girl, "just roll with it, chick."

"I don't want to! How do I take this thing off?!" Complained Jaux, who was now trying to get her fingers to slip under the collar.

"Gotta get your ace to do it, she'll have the key." Said the blue haired girl, who had now floated back upright.

"You gotta be kidding me!" Jaux grumbled as she made her way back into her room.

Jaux dressed quickly into the robe she borrowed from Desyi last night. The inside of the robe was actually lined with the same soft material as the nightgown, which felt nice, but did not make her any less annoyed. Once she got her hands on her wand, papers, and key, she swiftly stormed out into the hall.

Of course, right as the doors to her room closed up, Jaux realized that she had no idea where to find Frey. Not having anywhere else to go, she just ended up heading to the enrollment center like she was supposed to. She'll confront Frey after curfew, she was sure the girls would be back in the room by then.

While on the way over to the enrollment center on the first floor, Jaux noticed the wand shop where she got her demon root. If she returned the wand and explained what happened to the shopkeeper, maybe he could help her reverse her transformation! Then again, it may have more to do with the black statue than the wand, and the wand was literally the only thing that let Jaux cast any real spells.

Jaux decided to walk past the wand shop for now, leaving that option for another day. However, as her mind drifted to her transformation, a morbid thought crossed her mind. This collar she was wearing was almost skin tight. If she were to suddenly turn back into the boy, she would no doubt choke to death.

That idea scared Jaux, and for a minute the priority to get rid of the collar jumped right up to the top. She held up her wand, honestly considering the idea of shooting the collar with it to see if it broke. Then the image of the exploding crystallized flame danced in her head.

Now was probably not the best time to risk blowing oneself up.

The enrollment center was a bland experience. All they did was take Jaux’s certificate and ask which specialty class she wanted to take. Jaux had decided to follow Hawkshire’s advice on her specialty, since curse magic was still the only magic she had access to. Then she just sat there until they finished writing up a schedule for her.

The schedule was written for Jaux on a small card that was just about the size of her hand. She had a total of four class days, one for every other day of the week. Each class day had three classes. Two of the classes were two hours long each, and the last class was always her specialty class, which was only an hour long. Although the specialty class was the shortest, it was the only program that repeated itself throughout the week. The other four days of the week were listed as ‘study and practice’ on her schedule.

Well, that wasn’t too constricting, Jaux would get a day of rest between each learning day. Since today was Meldres, she had an ‘Enchantment Studies’ class coming up, followed by a ‘Casting Pattern Development’ class before her specialty.

=+=+=

The enchantment studies class was located up on the third floor. Jaux had gone to the room early, because she wasn’t sure about what else to do. There were two other girls and a boy who had also arrived early, and they were all studying what Jaux guessed was the class textbook.

The teacher was a woman with fuzzy and chocolate colored hair. It bloomed out from her head in a pattern that reminded Jaux vaguely of ripe pine cones. Her skin was kind of an olive tone, and smooth to the point that Jaux had no way of determining her age.

“Is there something you need?” The teacher asked as she noticed Jaux.

“Oh, uh, no ma'am. I’m just new here, so I wasn’t sure about what to do before class.” Jaux replied. “My name is Suhara Ballad, I was just admitted.”

“Ah, I see. Well then, I am Professor Caeti Hadron, it’s nice to meet you Miss Ballad.” Said the teacher. “Since you’re early, you could study the basic terms so that you don’t get lost during the course.”

Hadron took out a small textbook out from a basket behind her, and opened it to a page with a long list of words Jaux had never seen before. She handed the open textbook over, before gesturing for Jaux to sit in one of the student desks.

Jaux thought the enchantments class was actually pretty okay once it got started. She memorized enough of the terms to keep up with the lecture, and had the textbook laying open on her desk for when she didn't understand something.

Every student was later given a wooden doll to enchant. The goal was to enchant it with a high degree of light concentration, which boiled down to making the wooden doll glow.

Since she didn't know anything about enchanting or concentration magic, Jaux was partnered with a more advanced student, who slowly explained to her how to exchant the doll.

Jaux never managed to succeed at it. There was just too many variables.

However, the tutoring process did help teach Jaux how to store magic into inanimate objects, which she thought was neat. It was similar to how she used her wand, but with a lot more focus on keeping the magic inside the object instead of firing it out. By the time class was over, Jaux had injected so much of her magic into the doll that it had begun to visibly leak out a faint black mist.

=+=+=

Casting pattern development was more of what Jaux was expecting from a magic school lesson. The class took place on the roof of the Lyceum, which was amazingly huge. The old and bald Professor Elsnik instructed the students in how to visualize magic in order to give it different shapes when cast. Then the students were put to practice, shooting spells into the air in different shapes.

Shapes required a mage to visualize their magic down to every little detail. Anything they don't concentrate on gets left out of the spell. Magic performed without thought of the appearance end up being featureless spheres. The imagery doesn't have to be thought of all at once during the spell casting, but there is only a small window of time for a mage to carve the details of a shape to their raw magic before they cast.

Jaux had fun with this, using her wand to fire off cones, cubes, and even a very rough sword. She even discovered that it was more effective to 'draw' the desired image in her head when she wanted to make a smoother pattern. All she had to do was think quick.

During the second hour, Professor Elsnik conjured multiple rings of light up in the sky, and explained to students how to aim their spells. Magic could take basic commands, allowing them to turn and bend if you just add a little extra power and thought before casting. For a demonstration, Elsnik fired off a small ball of green light, which flew through a dozen different light rings like a hummingbird before fading.

Aiming spells was a lot harder than Elsnik made it look. You actually had to command your magic with a list of instructions before you start to cast your spell. It was very easy to misjudge distances or make incorrect turns. No one managed to get their spell to move through more than three light rings, and on many occasions students had to run away from stray spells that fell from the heavens like colorful meteors.

This part of the class frustrated Jaux, since her magic had the unfortunate effect of nullifying the light rings on touch. She really needed a new type of spell besides curse if she wanted to practice aiming...

=+=+=

Jaux's final class was located on the fourth floor, tucked away in one of the farthest corners from the stairways.

The target-subject manipulation class, Jaux's specialty, had very few students. There were a total of seven girls and two boys altogether in the class. Jaux included herself as a girl, since no one would realistically categorize her as a boy at this point.

The teacher was also extremely unusual. He wore an armored breastplate over a dusty green robe. His hair was black and disturbingly oily, like a squid had spit on on top of his head. He also had so many tiny runes tattooed on his right hand that from a distance his hand appeared to be colored gray.

"Ah welcome! Always a special day when we have a new student!" The teacher greeted, "I am Sellwall Diji! What might your name be, little lady?"

"Uh, I'm Suh-"

"Oh good Suhara, so you did choose this class," Frey interrupted as she walked in from behind Jaux. "I didn't tell you about specialty classes, so I was afraid you might have chosen a wrong course."

Jaux gasped with surprise when she saw Frey. She didn't think they would actually meet again before the day was over. Then Jaux suddenly remembered why she wanted to see Frey so badly. "Hey! Why'd you collar me! I don't-"

Jaux abruptly lost her voice, no longer capable of making the slighting sound from her lips.

"Shhh, we'll talk about private things after class, okay?" Frey teased while lightly patting the top of Jaux's head.

Frey then went over and sat down in her seat, before she beckoned Jaux to sit down next to her.

Now unable to speak, Jaux resorted to sitting by Frey and staring with a sharp glare.

The teacher Sellwall just grinned in amusement at the two, before pulling out a few textbooks from a shelf. "Let's get started, shall we?"

Because of the small class size, every student got a one on one lecture from the teacher. By the end of it, the student in question would have at least one new spell written on a piece of parchment, which they were supposed to practice tomorrow.

The class was incredibly lax. Students were reading, playing with magic, or even sleeping when Sellwall wasn't talking to them. When he was talking though, the student would always pay close attention.

When Sellwall got to Jaux, he placed two small books in front of her. One was black and one was white. "Pick which one you want, little lady." He told her.

The black one was most likely the curse book, so Jaux picked it up and took a peek at the first page. It was a tiny spellbook! Every single little page had the instructions for a curse spell, and there were more than two dozen pages in the book!

"That's the book of the most basic curses, try them out one by one tomorrow, and then tell me which ones you could cast during the next class, okay?" Sellwall instructed.

Jaux looked up at the teacher with a huge smile on her face, trying to say her thanks but finding that her voice was still shut down. She shot another quick glare at Frey, before turning back and nodding to the teacher.

"Finally, for my star student, I got my hands on this!" Sellwall Diji announced, as he opened up a hollowed out book and pulled out an ancient tile made of smooth and gray stone.

"Ah, thanks Sellwall!" Frey said as she took the tile.

Frey studied the tile from every angle, before she took out her pearl wand and tapped lightly on one of the corners. White runes began to appear all over the tile, filling every available little space. Jaux couldn't help but look at the tile in awe. She had never seen an artifact like it before.

"Looks like a new blessing for speed, it's splendid!" Frey told Sellwall, as she leaned forward to blow him a kiss. "You're always so dedicated to helping me."

"Ah, it's the dream of the teachers, my dearest Miss Oden." Sellwall said. "Now then, class dismissed! Go study and practice your hearts out, kids!"

=+=+=

"Sorry Suhara, but the collar isn't coming off." Said Frey.

"Well if you don't take it off then I'll curse it off!" Jaux countered.

"The lock isn't powered by anything, it's just a regular lock. You can't curse it off." Frey explained.

"Ugh! This is so stupid, who came up with this stupid tradition?!" asked Jaux in annoyance.

"I'll tell you all about it tonight, now hurry up. The clothing shop gets crowded fast, you won't get anything if you keep up that snail's pace." Urged Frey as she pulled Jaux forward by the arm.

The two girls were on the first floor, heading right for the Lyceum clothing shop. The clothing shop was often very crowded, due mostly to how often robes get damaged by magic effects. When the two arrived, the store was only half filled with students, which was good. It gave the girls enough room to move about.

"Okay, let's see. You should look good in some green..." Frey muttered, "some brown and some black too."

Jaux just kind of tagged along while Frey picked out robes and nightwear. She didn't know much about colors or clothes, and figured Frey would have good judgement.

=+=+=

"You're lucky I know Desyi's sizes, it made this so much faster." Frey told Suhara, a fair bit of confident pride in her voice.

Jaux wasn't sure if fast was the right way to describe the clothing shop pandemonium. The shopping had almost taken longer than any of her classes did, and was nowhere near as fun. It was good to get over with, though. Now she wouldn't have to worry about clothing for a long time. Frey paid for her too, which was... nice.

Curfew was about a couple hours away, so the students were beginning to head towards the staircases. Jaux still hadn't forgotten about the collar, but Frey promised some explanations back in the dorm.

As they made their way through the first floor's central hallway, Jaux noticed the side hallway she remembered finding the black statue room in. She had an urge to go down to the room and inspect the statue, but didn't want to do so while Frey was keeping watch over her. Perhaps she could sneak over during the free day tomorrow...

Just a minute after they passed by the black statue's hall, loud and hurried footsteps began sounding out from it. Frey and Jaux looked back to see a tall blond wizard run out from the restricted hallway, a large staff in hand and with a face filled with anger. He stopped in the middle of the central hall, looking around madly.

Then the wizard looked towards Jaux and Frey, and pointed his staff in their direction.

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.

=+=+=

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.

=+=+=

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.

Jaux was wearing a new silver anklet today.

Ace students were allowed to leave the Lyceum on open days without requiring an escort. However, they were not allowed to bring another student along with them, even if the student was their novi. Jaux had to stay behind while Frey went out to collect some rare supplies.

Frey was still a bit paranoid from yesterday's incident, so she gave Jaux one of her old magical charms. Whenever the anklet was charged up with enough magic, a protective blessing would automatically activate around the wearer.

Desyi thought it was sweet how much Frey cared about her new novi, so she generously offered to keep watch on Jaux.

Although Jaux was honestly grateful for how much the girls were willing to keep her safe, she was a bit peeved that she could not go inspect the black statue today. She was still uncomfortable in her new body, and was beginning to miss the option of peeing while standing up.

Right now Jaux was in one of the school's magic training rooms. She was currently testing out all the curses in the little book that her specialty teacher gave her. Since most of the curse magics found in the little book required a living target, Jaux had to convince another student to act as her practice dummy. No one actually wanted to be hit by any of her curse magics, but luckily there was a student in the training room who needed to practice defensive spells.

The exercise took over three hours, but Jaux was delighted to find that she could cast all twenty-six curse spells from her specialty book. The process could have been completed a lot sooner, but the practice mage was actually incredibly effective at using barrier defenses. Only about one out of every five spells managed to sneak through and hit the practice mage.

"I hope I can memorize all of these new spells," Jaux said as she left with training room with Desyi, "they're all so fantastic!"

"Actually, I think it would be best if you just memorized the most useful spells." Desyi noted.

"Huh? Why?" Asked Jaux. "Isn't it even more useful to know a big variety of spells?"

"It is, but if you learn too many new spells at one time, you might mix them up later on." Explained Desyi. "This could lead to mistakes during casting, such as combining spell patterns from incompatible spells."

"Oh, okay. I guess I can just memorize the leg weakening spell and the minor pain spell." Jaux muttered.

"That should be great! I think the neck numbing spell might be useful too." Commented Desyi.

=+=+=

About an hour after lunch, Jaux and her roommates were all reunited in the comfort of their room. They were once again sitting in the circle of pillow seats, which was apparently the standard group meeting setup between them.

"Did you manage to get the parts you needed?" Tricks asked Frey.

"Yep, got plenty of lead, just the right amount of gold, and an empty mystic stone." Frey responded.

"What do you need that stuff for?" Asked Jaux as she looked curiously at the pile of metal in the center of the circle.

"Frey's making a new personal wand." Desyi answered.

"Yep. Metal and stone wands can cast much more effectively than wooden wands, but since they aren't as flexible as wood, they often need to be specially designed for the mage who is going to use them." Frey continued to explain.

"But don't you already have a stone wand?" Jaux questioned as she recalled the pearl wand that Frey used in class yesterday.

"I do, but that wand was designed with a concentration genre casting pattern. Since it's a stone wand, the pattern can't be changed. That wand will always automatically include a concentration based pattern in every spell I cast." Replied Frey. "Many blessings tend to use some concentration magic, so it's been very useful for me. Unfortunately, my new ancient tile's blessing uses motion magic, which is why I'm making a new metal wand for power genre magic."

These things were always getting more complicated, Jaux was starting to get irritated by just how many details you had to keep in mind when studying magic. Her love for using magic was still unchanged, but the glamour of studying was fading swiftly from her mind.

The process of wand crafting was still fun to watch. Desyi, Tricks, and Frey all took a part in the spectacle of it. Desyi cast a powerful heat enchantment on her hands, which instantly melted every piece of metal she touched. Tricks, borrowing Frey's pearl wand, concentrated the molten lead and gold into thin wires. Frey then used some motion magic to shape the wires around a tiny crystal sphere in mid air, creating a complex piece of art. The gold wires were mostly straight and had very sharp angles, while the lead wires curved over and around the gold wires.

When the wires of the wand were finished, Frey kept them floating in mid air. Tricks then pulled out a bag of fine gray dust. The gray dust was manipulated onto the wires and mystic crystal, completely covering them. When the manipulation was completed, a rough-looking metallic wand hung in the air. Desyi finished off the wand crafting show by shooting a great concentration of tiny lightning bolts from the tip of her own ruby wand. The lightning was an amazing display, but so bright that Jaux ended up getting blinded.

"Whoops, forgot to tell you to look away. Sorry!" Desyi apologized when she saw Jaux's head pull back violently.

By the time Jaux could see again, Frey was already closely inspecting her new wand. While Jaux was blinded, the trio of young wand crafters had managed to attach a brass handle onto the new silver wand.

To test the wand, Frey cast a spell on herself that caused her to sparkle faintly. She then got up and ran around the room so fast that she looked like a blur of white.

"This is perfect, now I don't have to carry around that tile to cast this spell!" Frey exclaimed with glee. "You can keep my pearl wand if you want, Tricks. You'll owe me a big favor though, it was expensive."

"Aw sweet, this should help my illusion spells out a ton. Thanks!" Said Tricks as she pocketed the wand into her robes.

"Alright, let's stop wasting daylight in here." Frey announced. "Come on Suhara, I’m gonna teach you about auras.”

=+=+=

Frey had taken Jaux up to the roof for their private little lesson.

Auras were a form of spellcasting that let a person radiate energy from their bodies. This form of magic allowed a single spell to be cast on everyone around the mage. When used with blessings, it could strengthened the allies of the castor. When used with curses, it could weaken all the nearby enemies.

“Mages may be incredibly powerful,” Frey said, “but each spell take a bit of concentration to cast, which means it is difficult to deal with situations where you’re outnumbered.”

“You mean like those thieves yesterday, when all of the other students attacked them at once?” Asked Jaux.

“Exactly, the knight had powerful defensive enchantments, but the rest of the thieves could not fight back against so many waves of spells.” Said Frey. “This is where your specialty in curses becomes really useful. If you could cast an aura, you could weaken every enemy that is close by, evening the odds against you.”

“So how do I cast an aura?” Questioned Jaux.

“Normally, your spell is concentrated into a single blast. You’re going to learn how to turn that into a wide and consistent explosion.” Frey instructed. “Instead of concentrating all of your magic into your wand, you’re going to manipulate the magic inside your body, and command it to burst free. Concentrate on the flow of magic that runs through your veins, and cast as if your skin was the wand.”

Then, as a demonstration, a flow of pure light began to emit from Frey. Jaux felt it washing over her, empowering the flow of magic and strength inside her body.

Jaux attempted to duplicate the effects. She carefully concentrated a bit of her magic deep within, before trying to charge her skin with its energy. However, she was unable to release the energy before the aura of light washed it away from her.

“Uh, Frey, could you turn off your spell? I can’t seem to cast mine while it’s affecting me.” Jaux commented.

Frey grinned apologetically, before turning off her aura field. As the glow of white began to recede, Jaux felt her strength decreasing to normal.

Faint black mist began to pour out as Jaux tried to once again cast an aura. The mist refused to burst outwards, and instead just flowed from her skin to the ground. Jaux was disappointed at this, hoping that auras would be as easy to use as the curses from her small spellbook.

"It's alright Suhara, that's very impressive!" Encouraged Frey when she saw Jaux's disappointed face. "I couldn't cast a significant aura either when I tried for the first time, you just need practice."

Jaux continued to attempt casting the curse aura, with Frey giving her tips and advice. By the time the sun was setting, Jaux was able to fire off a small pulse of dark mist that would travel roughly half a meter away from her body before evaporating into nothingness. Frey had assured her that it was amazing progress.

=+=+=

As the two girls headed downstairs, Frey was spotted by a couple friends.

"Hey Frey-ray! What're you up to?" Said a boy with finger-length emerald hair.

A girl, who Jaux guessed was the sister of the boy, ran up and gave Frey a hug. She also had emerald hair, but it was curly and down past her shoulders.

"Oh hey, did you finally claim a novi?" The girl said when she noticed Jaux's black collar.

"Yep. Guys, this is my new roommate and novi, Suhara." Frey introduced. "Suhara, these are my friends Norman and Deledy."

"N-nice to meet you two." Jaux greeted.

"Oh, you're so cute!" Deledy cooed as she gave Jaux a little hug.

"So why'd Frey pick you to be her novi?" Asked Norman as he shook Jaux's hand.

"Uh..." muttered Jaux in confusion. She actually wasn't sure why she was picked.

"I picked Suhara because she's a curse magician," explained Frey, "she is a fellow mage of the power genre. I just knew I had a ton I could teach her. She's also learning very fast!"

"Wow! Curses! I've never heard of a mage with that as their first specialty!" Deledy exclaimed. "Where did you first learn magic from?"

"Erm..." Jaux nervously muttered, having forgotten where she claimed to have come from.

"Oh sorry, she can be a bit shy sometimes," Frey apologized, "Suhara comes from Western Beradina."

"Y-yeah." Jaux confirmed while nodding.

"Ah, of course," said Deledy, "that makes a lot of sense, the faraway deserts would probably have a different magic preference."

"Mmhm," Norman agreed, "I imagine fire would not be very popular somewhere that was already so hot all the time."

"So where are you guys heading?" Frey asked the siblings.

"We're heading to the apothecary. I need to make a few new potions." Norman answered.

"An apothecary attendant is also buying one of my heat bracelets." Deledy added, "I think she's going to go traveling soon and will need it to keep her warm during the nights."

"Ah, you two better hurry then. It's almost half an hour till curfew." Frey noted.

"Aye, we should," agreed Norman, "It was nice to see you again, Frey-ray."

"Likewise." Returned Frey.

"Take care, okay?" Deledy made sure to add.

The four mages split back up, heading on their different paths.

"Your friends are nice. What do they do?" Jaux asked Frey after about a minute of silence.

"Oh, they're fellow ace class magicians." Frey told Jaux. "Norman is a combat specialist who uses a lot of powerful potions, and Deledy is a crafter who makes many useful magical accessories. I considered asking Deledy to make me my new wand, but she charges everyone for her services."

"Ah okay. How do you become an ace class magician anyway?" Questioned Jaux.

Frey giggled a bit at the question. "Well, there are some special rules and restrictions regarding achieving the ace class...

However, the most vital requirement is to defeat a demon."

A torrent of thoughts rushed through Jaux's head at the mention of demon.

Her wand was called the demon root, but the old shopkeeper had assured Jaux that the wand wasn't being literal with the name. The wand did still have something to do with the transformation. It had led Jaux to the black statue, and it was the origin to the purple light.

Then Jaux thought about the black statue. She had never seen a statue made of dark stones before. Her new violet eyes and the statue's purple gemstone eyes were also a similarity that had not escaped Jaux's notice. It wasn't necessarily demonic, but there was a possibility.

Thinking about her eyes also gave Jaux an idea. The next time she gets a chance, she could use her eyes to sneak over to the black statue without being caught. She could see magic even through solid objects, so detecting and avoiding people wouldn't be a problem.

"Ah, finally back here." Frey said, breaking Jaux out of her thoughts.

They had managed to arrive back at their room again.

Desyi and Tricks were not back yet, so for now Frey and Jaux were alone together.

"I've heard a lot about demon attacks," Jaux began to say, "but... what exactly are demons?"

Frey grinned amusingly, before going to retrieve her pillow. Jaux, seeing that they were going to establish the usual pillow circle, followed suit by grabbing her own pillow. When both of the girls were facing each other on their improvised seats, Frey began to explain.

"First of all, we need to talk about the eighth genre of magic, the deity genre. Magic that is involved in the deity genre, deity magic, is often referred to as soul.

Soul is the hardest type of magic to obtain, because it is impossible for any mortal to learn. Soul is immortal magic, magic from separate realms of existence that function with the laws of eternity. Soul is arranged by degrees of positives, negatives, and neutrals just like our usual magic. Positive soul is referred to as miracle magic, negative soul is referred to as tragedy magic, and neutral soul is referred to as marvel magic.

Our realm is a mortal realm, anything will eventually die from the flow of time. Due to our finite nature, we can not directly create soul for ourselves. However, we are able to use soul as long as we have a source.

A common way to obtain soul is to travel to a peaceful realm, like the Garden of Roses or the Artisan's Sea, and store soul in magic containers. Unfortunately, this is difficult, due to the high skill of space and time genre magics required to hop between realms. Magical tools that contain soul are extremely expensive for this reason.

A more uncommon way to obtain soul is to bond with a powerful spirit from an immortal realm. The bonded spirit will provide a mortal with a supply of soul, while the bonded mortal will work under the spirit's will. A bonded mortal is often called a priest.

A spirit is basically a living gathering of soul. These spirits are categorized by the type and amount of soul they possess. The type of soul is between the miracle, tragedy, and marvel magics. The amount of soul basically refers to how powerful the spirit is. Since spirits are living pieces of soul, the more soul a spirit has, the more powerful the spirit.

We list spirits under three levels of power: low, medium, and high. Low spirits are fairies, imps, and sprites. Medium spirits are angels, demons, and ghosts. High spirits are seraphs, devils, and phantoms.

Deities are a lot like spirits, but instead of being a mass of living soul, they are actually the source of soul for their realms. They are also not restricted to using a single type of soul, but they usually specialize or prefer one of the three soul types.

It is possible for spirits to enter our realm just like how we can enter their realms. The drawback is that the more powerful a spirit is, the more difficult it will be for them to enter our realm. Even after a spirit has broken into our realm, it will have a time limit that is also based on how powerful they are.

Spirits like to influence what happens in our realm, some do so directly by breaking through, and other do so by working through other mortals. Low level spirits are sighted all the time because of how easy it is for them to enter our realm. Medium level spirits usually break in as well, but as they become more powerful they will start to rely on bonding with mortals. High level spirits and deities tend to rely exclusively on bonds.

Demons, the regular and most common spirits under the tragedy type, like to break into our realm to harm and destroy. Master class students occasionally go out on demon-related jobs while under teacher supervision. If a master class student in our Lyceum is the primary reason for a demon's defeat, they will be promoted to ace class like me."

Just then Tricks came into the room from the bathroom. "Wow Frey, you are really good at sounding like a teacher when you're talking to Suhara, we could hear your boring lecture even while showering!"

"Oh don't be like that Tricks," interjected Desyi as she came in from behind Tricks, "If I had a novi like Suhara I would do the same thing."

"Then you two are just too boring." Trick said. "If I were an ace, I would teach my novi about demons by sneaking her out and fighting vampires and werepeople with her!"

While the girls talked, Desyi and Tricks both got their pillows off their beds and joined into the seated formation with Jaux and Frey.

"Those aren't the same thing you dummy." Frey shot back.

Tricks rolled her eyes and scoffed before replying. "Close enough, they're priests of demons and they transform to look like their demons."

"Demons can transform a person?" Jaux asked, immediately thinking about her own involuntary transformation.

"Yeah, see? I'm being way more interesting!" Tricks gloated.

"She just wants to learn," said Frey, "I'm sure she's not the least bit interested in hunting demon priests with you, Tricks."

"Oh come on! Why wouldn't she want to fight some evil with me?" Tricks urged. "It would be exciting! There's no way anyone would turn that down."

"Anyway, ignoring Tricks' bloodlust... yes Suhara, spirits can grant all sorts of powers, but transformations are one of the most common traits." Frey answered.

"Uh... are spirits able to bond to a person without the person's permission?" Questioned Jaux.

"Oh totally, that's how most vampires came to be." Tricks explained. "They bite you, which corrupts you with some of their freaky vampire powers, and then poof! A new blood demon will be bound to you."

"She's my novi, Tricks, let me do the teaching." Complained Frey.

"Hey, what does it matter, I'm still right." Claimed Tricks.

"Yeah, don't keep Suhara to yourself Frey! She's our roommate too." Desyi added.

While her roommates continued to argue, Jaux went back to thinking about the black statue and her demon root. Could it be possible that her new body was the result of a demon bond? She might be overthinking the possibilities a bit, but none of her little theories had been proven or disproven yet. She really needed to go see the black statue...

=+=+=

Opportunity.

Today, Jaux was the first person to wake up. She wasn't sure what time it was, since the room had no windows, but she could make out three motionless girls lying peacefully in their beds. All the light crystals were very dim as well, so no one had gotten up or needed any light recently.

Jaux skipped her shower and just threw on a robe over her nightie to save as much time as she could. She also picked her darkest robe, one colored black and dark purple, so that she could sneak around more easily. The room's door opened for her quietly enough, and soon she was out in the empty halls.

Jaux had shifted her magical eyes on as soon as she stepped outside her room. Then she started traveling to the first floor while keeping as far away from anyone as she could. There were a couple of times where Jaux had to backtrack and hide around a corner, but she found herself in the research storage hallway within the hour.

Now that magic was shining in her eyes, Jaux could see faint traces of enchantments and wards around many of the doors in this hallway. For a moment, Jaux was sure she saw some mystical defenses set up around the door to the black statue's room, but there turned out to be nothing.

The room itself was glowing a very faint purple. Jaux could clearly see the other items on display this time as she headed towards the black statue. All the displays seem to have some kind of ancient equipment. There was a gauntlet, a staff, a mask, boots, bracelets, a tiara, and much more. Most of the items were made with what looked like the same black stone as the statue, and every single item had at least one smooth purple gemstone engraved somewhere.

At last, Jaux was standing before the black stature again. The girl depicted by the statue looked very similar to how she looked now, but in an older sort of way.

If Jaux was born how she looked now, the statue might even have been of her mother.

"W-who are you?" Jaux nervously asked as she gazed into the eyes of the statue.

Everything suddenly went dark. All Jaux could see was the color of black. She tried to turn off her magical vision, but even when her eyesight shifted back to normal the darkness did not fade away.

Then the darkness started to melt away by itself like fading fog. Jaux found herself standing alone on an endless field of black ankle-deep mist. A purple glow was shining up in the colorless sky, providing just enough light to see through the transparent mist of the dark world.

This place was insanely soundless, and it was so featureless that Jaux couldn't even tell if she moved or not after running around for a few seconds.

"Where am I?" She finally asked the empty air.

"This is my domain." Said a voice from the purple light that hung in the sky.

The light slowly descended from the heavens until it floated right in front of Jaux. Dark mist then floated up from the ground and condensed around the purple light, slowly extinguishing its glow. Jaux wasn't sure what was happening, but she remained still as light once again began to leave her vision.

When Jaux could finally see light again, she recognized the lady depicted by the statue standing right in front of her.

The only source of light now as coming from the lady's left arm, which was transparent and made of bright purple energy. At around the lady's left shoulder, the purple light faded into solid, marble-white skin. Now that the lady wasn't carved out of black stone, Jaux could see that they did indeed resemble each other. They had the same hair color, but the lady's hair stretched all the way into the ground. They also had roughly the same shade of skin, and both had similar eye colors. The lady's skin was just a bit paler, while her eyes were also a bit darker.

"Who are you?" Jaux finally asked after she could no longer stand for the lingering silence.

"They once called me Theema, but the mortals of your world have long since forgotten me." The lady answered. "I am the deity and sole inhabitant of this realm, which was once known as Light's Cowardice. What are you called, child?"

Jaux was talking to a deity. This was unexpected, Jaux had never imagined such a possibility would happen to her. Sure, she had never heard of this deity in her life, but it didn't make the moment feel any less incredible.

"Uh... my name is Jaux Ballad. Did... did you turn me into a girl?" Said Jaux.

Theema regarded Jaux for a few minutes, not making a single sound. When she finally finished studying Jaux, she answered. "Yes, indirectly I suppose. My vessels used to always take my shape. It appears that they still do."

"Y-You mean you bonded with me?"

"That is another term for our arrangement, yes."

"Why, what arrangement?"

"You held onto an artifact of darkness with great desire in your heart. When you stood close to my soul seeds, I could hear the songs of your wishes. It has been so long since I connected to a mortal, so I forged us into agreement and granted your desire for magic. I made you my new vessel, which gave you more than enough power to learn all that you wanted."

"Soul seeds? What do you mean by that?"

"My soul seeds are magnificent jewels that empower the mystical tools that I created in your world."

"Oh. Oh! You must mean those purple gemstones."

"Yes. You were near them again when I granted you your second desire to move quickly to a faraway goal."

"Right. T-That explains a lot. Listen, I really don't want to be rude or anything, and I'm thankful that you helped me learn magic, but could you please turn be back into a boy? Being a different gender is extremely awkward and uncomfortable."

"I am afraid that is not possible, child. My vessels always take my form when we reach an arrangement, but breaking that arrangement does not take away my form."

"Oh..."

Jaux felt a bit defeated, she now knew for sure what triggered her change, but couldn't do anything about it. She wasn't quite sure what to do anymore. Then again, there was sure to be some transformation magics to learn in the Lyceum, perhaps she could try to turn back using those.

"Now that you're here, it is time to begin our contract." Theema abruptly said.

"Huh? What contract?" Jaux asked in surprise.

Theema did not answer Jaux, but instead the goddess's left arm drew back gracefully, and then stabbed forward into Jaux's chest.

The action had left no wounds, but Jaux's body was completely paralyzed. The paralyzation did not fade even when Theema pulled her glowing purple arm back out. Terror and confusion began to grip Jaux's mind as darkness began to rise from the ground in the form of black tendrils.

The sharp tips of the black tendrils dug into Jaux's skin, burning on contact as they tattooed her entire body with a grand variety of patterns and runes. A warmth from Jaux's chest began to spread to where Jaux felt the tattoos, making them tingle.

The eerie quiet and numbing pain made Jaux lose track of time. Theema never stopped staring with her expressionless purple eyes.

Eventually, the tendrils withdrew back into the ground. Then a tornado of black fog began to whirl around Jaux's paralyzed body, while Theema finally started to walk away.

When the fog finally obscured the last of Theema's light, darkness once again overwhelmed everything.

Jaux woke up to find herself right outside the room with Theema's artifacts. Her back was propped up against the cold gray stone of the hallway. She might have believed she dreamt the whole interaction with the goddess, if her skin didn't feel so tender where the tendrils had carved in. She wasn't sure how much time had passed, but the hallway was still empty and it looked like no one had found her yet. Strangely enough, when she inspected her arms for the marks Theema left, she only saw her usual smooth skin.

What exactly was that goddess trying to do?

The tattoos that were carved into her were not visible, at least under her normal vision. When Jaux activated her magic reading sight, she was able to see the thin lines of purple light that ran up her entire body. The symbols were harder to see through her clothes, but she could still roughly make them out under the robe and nightie. The structure of all the patterns and runes vaguely reminded her of Frey's ancient tile, so she believed that some magic spells might have been carved into her body. She couldn't gaze into her own face, but she knew that the tattoos extended there as well. There was a lingering numbness on her whole body that resembled the feeling of having just fallen into a thorny bush.

Jaux's left arm had had the most unique tattoos out of the rest of her body. It had smooth and curving lines that swirled all over the place like twisting grapevines. A line of four eye-sized circles also ran up her left arm. One of the bubbles was drawn on the back of her hand, and the other three went up her forearm. There were no runes drawn on this arm, and all the twisting line patterns converged at the tips of her fingers.

"Another approaches. You should move if you still don't intent to be discovered here." Theema's voice said in Jaux's mind.

The voice of the goddess had startled Jaux, almost causing her to scream out in surprise. Theema's message wasn't wrong, there was indeed a person who was slowly approaching. Jaux made sure to move swiftly and silently away from the mass of incoming magic.

When she found herself back in the central hall, Jaux spoke out to the goddess. "You're watching me?"

"Yes, it is a part of our contract's new magics. I can see through your eyes, listen with your ears, and speak to your mind. However, I can only do so when you're using my gift of the Winter Sight. I am not one to intrude on privacy."

Well, at least Theema could be considerate, not including the involuntary transformation and magic tattoos.

"What exactly is this contract supposed to do?" Jaux asked as she made her way back to her room.

"It does many little things, and they all add up." replied the goddess. "In essence, I have given you an ability similar to my own left arm. You may consume the energy of up to four spirits. You just need to defeat them or their vessel first, and then plunge your arm into their bodies."

"Uh... I don't think I can do any of that."

"You must, child." Theema demanded. "As payment for my power, there are two specific targets that you must steal energy from. The first will be the current High Priest of the Bright Noon, while the second must be a ghost from the Realm of Broken Space.

"Hey! I never even asked for your power, you did that on your own. Plus, I'm still new to magic! I'm pretty sure I would get my butt kicked by either of those things." Whined Jaux.

While Jaux talked to the goddess, an early bird student pasted her on the stairs. The student watched her in confusion as they walked by each other. To everyone else, Jaux appeared to be speaking to herself.

"I don't mind waiting a while for my payment, I've done nothing but wait for all of my existence. You will have one cycle around your sun, starting now, to obtain one of the two required spirit energies." Mandated Theema.

"One year? I guess I can... try?" Said Jaux.

After that, the voice of the goddess grew silent. The sound of distant footsteps now echoed through Jaux's mind, most of them being her own. The Lyceum was still sleeping, only very few contributed to the fight against the silence.

Jaux decided it was okay for her to shift her sight back, so she did. Then she made her way back to her dorm room. The day still appeared to be young, her interaction with Theema hadn't taken long enough for anyone to even leave their rooms yet.

=+=+=

"Where were you, Suhara?!" Frey yelled out as soon as Jaux entered the room.

"I told you she was fine," grumbled Tricks, "should have just let us sleep."

"Well, as long as she's okay," yawned Desyi, "you should calm down a bit Frey."

"I was, uh, down in the library." Jaux decided to say. "I wanted to know more about priests and stuff so I did some morning reading."

"Ah, that's... please let one of us know if you plan on wandering outside next time, okay?" Frey insisted.

"Okay." Jaux replied with a little smile.

Frey went up and squeezed Jaux with a little hug, happy that her novi was fine. "What did you end up learning at the library?"

"Uh... something about priests of Bright Noon and somewhere called Broken Space." Answered Jaux.

"Wow, sounds cool," said Frey, "never heard about a place called Broken Space."

Then Frey gave Jaux a little kiss on the forehead, before letting go and heading into the bathroom. The little sign of affection was new to Jaux, who wasn't sure if it was a thing that girls did or something else.

=+=+=

Jaux switched out to a lighter set of peach colored robes, now that she no longer needed to sneak around the Lyceum. Today was another school day, which meant two new classes for her. She would also get to brag to Sellwall about being able to cast every spell he gave her.

The first class was about arithmetical magic, which Jaux was soon sure she would never bother to use. Math wasn't exactly what one would expect to learn in a magic school, after all. She really didn't want to go around learning about time delays or containment designs. The old woman who taught the class had guaranteed that arithmetical magic would be extremely important in the future, but Jaux just couldn't convince herself to believe the claim.

Jaux spent the majority of her first class rubbing her arms and thinking about Theema. The lecture had been reduced to just a dull and senseless buzz in her ears. Her skin still had no marks, and what was left of the slight sting over her body slowly faded. Soon, she would not even know the tattoos existed until she looked upon herself with her Winter Sight.

The second class was alchemy, which managed to create much more interest for Jaux. The lesson was also the first time Jaux ever set foot in an apothecary. She never really thought of potions as very interesting magic before, since many well known medicines included potions. However, ever since Jaux learned about Norman, and how he was an ace class student who used potions, she'd become curious about what potions could really do.

Each student had an assignment of a potion they were supposed to create. The smelly and stuffy room was filled with the sounds of flipping pages, pouring liquids, and the sharp thumps of tools against a stone cutting board. Since Jaux was new, her very first assignment was to study the introduction of her new textbook:

Potions are mixtures of ingredients, primarily organic elements. The three types of potion elements are active, passive, and substance. Active ingredients are harvested from creatures, while passive ingredients are plants. Substance elements are inorganic components included in potions.

Many creatures are born with abilities that are tied to natural magic manipulation. Active ingredients are parts of a creature directly related to their abilities.

All plants are able to channel magic through their bodies. However, even though they have the ability, plants don't have a consciousness to cast spells with. Certain types of vegetation, which are categorized as mystic flora, have an innate set of spells that are naturally cast, such as healing trees or sunspot shrubs. To make use of the magical potential of plants that are not mystic flora, the plants usually must be applied in alchemy as passive ingredients.

Substance ingredients hold together active and passive agreements in a potion. Water is one of the most commonly used substance elements.

Alchemy singles out the desired effect of its ingredients. When another living being consumes a potion, they place the potential system of alchemy magic into their bodies. When the magic that naturally channels through the living being's body passes through the new system of ingredients, the effects of the potion will activate as it was designed.

Potions last until they are purged or destroyed by a consumer's body. Different ingredients last different amounts of time. Due to this, potions often have a side effect or drawback after the desired effect runs out. More complicated potions have more ingredients, so advanced potions often have more unintended effects.

Alchemy is an academic and artistic pursuit to produce the most powerful abilities, while minimizing unintended effects.

When Jaux finished her reading, the teacher instructed her in how to create a basic potion that would relieve thirst. Jaux didn't see the point of this, since the potion was primary water, but apparently drinking the potion was supposed to cure more thirst than just drinking the water by itself.

By the end of alchemy class, Jaux had no idea if she actually made any progress... for obvious reasons.

=+=+=

The specialty class was the same as always. The lesson felt much like a friendly club of bored equals. Sellwall didn't have any new spells for Frey, which didn't seem to surprise Frey at all. Gifts like the ancient tile seemed to not be a common occurrence.

Sellwall was delighted when he heard about Jaux's success with curses. "Fantastic! Simply wonderful! You have quite an affinity for your specialty then, yes indeed! Oh, Frey was quite right to claim you my dear, I can clearly see future archmages of the power genre sitting right before me!"

"Now Sellwall, please don't ruin Suhara by inflating her ego." Frey complained. "I think you should teach her some more advanced curses before you throw out all your praise."

Meanwhile, Jaux blushed from all the embarrassment, and resorted to withdrawing her head into her robes. Her classmates, Frey especially, thought it was beyond cute.

"Yes, of course." Sellwall agreed with Frey, placing a much larger black spellbook in front of Jaux.

"This is the standard book of curses," the zealous teacher explained, "it contains nearly every well known form of curse magic. Suhara, my dear, I want you to learn as many spells as you can from this book. If you can learn, let's say... fifteen standard spells, five advanced spells, and one master class spell... then I will start retrieving uncommon or forbidden curse spells like I do for Frey's blessings."

Jaux's face split into a huge gaping smile at Sellwall's proposition. She hastily grabbed the book and hugged it to her body, her eyes glimmering with childlike glee. "Oh, I will, I definitely will!"

=+=+=

Frey took Jaux to the first floor market for a bit more shopping before they returned to their room. A couple new scarves, hats, cloaks, gloves, and shoes were now stuffed into the boxes and bags they carried. Frey actually had to suspend a number of packages into the air since neither of them could hold so much stuff.

Everything was paid for by Frey, who Jaux now knew for sure to be absolutely rich. Apparently Frey must have been a part of a very successful caravan.

Then they were both surprised on their way to Jaux's wardrobe cabinet.

Lying in the center of Jaux's bed was a magical staff. A very familiar staff.

A staff made with pitch black stone.

The ebony staff was exactly as Jaux remembered it from Theema's artifact room. The entire length of the stave looked like a very thin cone of rough black ice, or as if someone had broken off a black stalactite. An abstract dome cage of black stone formed at the top, perfectly trapping a fist-sized purple sphere. The other end of the staff was much thinner, but still rounded out enough that it wasn't quite a sharp spear point.

"Oh, that's cool," said Frey when she saw the staff lying on the bed, "when did you get a staff?"

"Uh... I didn't." Jaux replied.

Frey glanced over at Jaux with narrowed eyes of confusion, before staring back at the staff. She was wearing what Jaux guessed was an expression between suspicion and curiosity. "I supposed Desyi or Tricks could have gotten it for you."

Jaux knew none of her other roommates could have gotten the staff for her from the research storage room, but wasn't sure if she should tell Frey about where the staff actually came from. She also didn't think Theema could have moved it here. If the goddess could affect the world this much, then she probably wouldn't be without human contact for so long.

Someone else had likely been in their room.

Jaux pursed her lips and looked around quizzically, though she didn't expect the intruder to stick around. Her eyes fell onto the bathroom door, and for a moment she considered the possibility that it was one of the roommates from the other dorm room. She didn't really know anything about them except that one had blue hair and one had brown. There was probably two others from that dorm room that she hadn't met yet, assuming all the rooms had the same amount of roommates.

"Oh wow, it feels really cold." Frey said when she abruptly picked up the staff with both hands. "It's impractically heavy as well."

"Cold?" Whispered Jaux, as she was suddenly reminded of an interaction she had almost forgotten about.

The demon root had felt cold when she first received it from the old man at the wand shop. She still owed the old shopkeeper for trusting her with the stave that connected her with magic. Guilt suddenly filled her head, and Jaux couldn't stand the feeling of it against her conscience.

"I... I think I know who to ask about it." Jaux claimed. "I'll go ask him right now."

Jaux carefully took the staff out of Frey's hands, expecting to be weighed down. She was pleasantly surprised when she found that it was both warm and lightweight. In fact she could easily hold it with only her index finger and thumb. Frey regarded Jaux's actions with curiosity.

"You're a lot stronger than I thought, Suhara." Observed Frey.

"Oh no, I'm not nearly as strong as you," Jaux quickly noted as she firmly gripped the staff with her right hand, "the staff is just... synchronized with me, I think."

"So, who are you gonna be talking to?" Frey asked.

Jaux felt the slight urge to lie pulling at the back of her mind, but it was becoming a difficult decision. When it came to her, Frey had always been so kind and caring. She really couldn't stand much more of her own deception. Her name, her homeland, and where she snuck to this morning had all been hovering in her head uncomfortably. Jaux didn't feel right adding anymore dishonesty between her and Frey.

"I'm going to go see the shopkeeper at the wand store downstairs." Jaux announced.

"Ah, okay. I suppose he would know something about it." Agreed Frey. "You want me to tag along?"

"Uh, not this time, sorry." Said Jaux, who put on a smile apologetic smile. "We have a tiny bit of... private and personal history that I also want to talk about."

Frey giggled at how adorably nervous Jaux was. It was obvious to Frey that Jaux didn't want to offend by denying. "Okay Suhara. Be careful, and come back soon, alright?"

"Yeah, I will, thanks!" Replied Jaux, who now smiled happily at the fact that Frey didn't look the least bit angry about not being included.

=+=+=

"Theema, did you have anything to do with putting your staff on my bed?" Whispered Jaux as she made her way down the stairs.

As soon as Jaux was alone, she had shifted her Winter Sight on so that she could speak to the goddess. She was almost positive that Theema had nothing to do with the staff, but it was best to confirm that theory personally. She also focused her vision on the ebony stave so that the goddess would be able to see exactly what she was talking about.

"No, I can not move any of my tools from here. However, I am glad that you have possession of it. The staff, Sevla, had always been meant for my vessels, just as most of my other mystic objects are." Responded Theema within Jaux's mind.

"Well, I guessed as much. Uh, thanks for the staff." Said Jaux, then she waited for a moment in case Theema had anything else to say, before she turned her Winter Sight back off.

=+=+=

Luckily for Jaux, the wand shop was empty. The selection of staves available in the shelves, walls, and displays all looked a bit different from what Jaux remembered. It appeared that business had been good for the old man.

"Ah, hello young lady, how can I help you?" The old shopkeeper called out when Jaux walked in.

"Uh, hi sir," Jaux replied, "I came to return something I shouldn't have held for so long."

"Return something?" Questioned the old man, as he raised a single eyebrow with skepticism. "I don't remember your face, young one. It's rare for me to forget someone."

"I've changed... a lot." Said Jaux.

Jaux still gripped her new staff, Sevla, in her right hand, and pulled the demon root out of her robe with her left. She placed it on the counter in front of the shopkeeper, waiting for him to make the mental connection.

"Mm, yes, I remember this." The old shopkeeper carefully said as he picked up the demon root. "Still as cold as ever."

The old man studied Jaux with focused eyes, looking her up and down. His eyes slowly opened up as he seemed to realize something. Then he chuckled a bit and placed the demon root back on the counter.

"So, did you successfully learn any curse magic, young one?" The old shopkeeper asked.

"Uh... yes sir. Thank you for trusting me with a wand, it helped a lot." Answered Jaux.

"Why didn't you keep it?"

"I... never paid for it. I never could have afforded it. Sorry."

"Well, I hope that new staff of yours hasn't completely replaced my wand. I want you to keep the demon root." Offered the old man.

"Huh?" Jaux uttered in confusion. "Why? I mean, I still don't have any money or anything, sir.

"I'm glad someone could use it, lass. Curse magic is a rare type for people to learn, even in this place." The old shopkeeper explained. "I'd prefer it be in the hands of a young and virtuous magician, rather than sitting alone on my wall for another few years."

"Oh, thank you sir... but I really can't. I'm not that good of a person." Jaux replied earnestly. "I'll buy it from here as soon as I have the money though, I promise."

The old man smiled widely at Jaux's sincerity. It was such a good trait for younger people to have, and he believed it was definitely worth rewarding. He wasn't completely certain when he first saw her walking into his shop, but now he was sure that she was exactly who he suspected her of being.

"You know, young one, I heard a great story recently." The shopkeeper began to say. "I heard about how a young novi, who was claimed with a black collar, stepped in front of a terrible armored thief who was trying to kill innocent people. They say she used a magic that looked much like a powerful curse, but had teleported her like dimension magic. She had sacrificed her own safety, and managed to save my life."

Jaux's eyes went wide and her mouth fell open. Her left hand immediately flew up to her collar, which she kept forgetting about lately. She didn't expect him to know about what she did against the knight. In hindsight, there were quite a lot of people who were there to witness it.

"Young lass, I owe my life to you, and I'm sure you know that." The old man continued. "You don't owe me anything, please accept this wand as a gift of thanks."

Jaux bit her lip and looked down at her feet. She wasn't used to being praised as the type to rescue others, and couldn't bring herself to look into the shopkeeper's eyes again. Instead, she carefully took back the wand, and then bowed slightly to the shopkeeper. "Thank you for everything, sir. You've helped me so much."

The shopkeeper laughed in that oddly loud full volume of his. "Oh, so humble, how admirable." He said. "You should be on your way, young one. Curfew is very near. Be sure to visit me sometimes, okay?"

"Yes sir, I promise." Agreed Jaux with a nod, before she waved goodbye and slowly left the shop.

=+=+=

The girls were once again in their traditional circle of pillow seats. Desyi and Tricks had returned back to the room while Jaux had been down in the wand shop.

"Yeah, everything went good," Jaux said, "but he didn't know anything about the staff."

"Why exactly is it so cold and heavy?" Tricks asked as she was holding Sevla.

"Oh, my ruby wand used to always be cold too, but eventually it... warmed up to me!" Claimed Desyi with a little giggle.

"Complex staves tend to feel cold when you hold them for the first time. My new metal wand still feels a bit cool to the touch." Frey added. "The weight might be some kind of permanent enchantment though. I'm guessing the staff can be used for melee combat by the magician who is used to it. Suhara doesn't feel as much of the weight when she holds it."

"Yeah, it still hits pretty hard." Agreed Jaux. "I accidentally bumped into someone with the staff on the way back, and they said it felt like a heavy punch or something."

"Wow, that's useful." Desyi said admiringly.

Tricks handed Sevla back to Jaux, before leaning backwards in her seat and supporting herself with her arms. "Gods, Suhara, you are so spoiled. Frey keeps getting you new clothes and now you're getting valuable staves out of thin air."

"Oh, I'm sorry," Jaux apologized as she heard a tone of disappointment behind Tricks' voice, "You can wear anything I have if you want."

"Aw, you're so generous Suhara!" Desyi complimented as she gave Jaux a little hug from the side.

"Too bad Tricks is so short," Frey teased, "I don't think anything Suhara has will actually fit."

"Oh shut your hole, Frey," griped Tricks, "I can borrow hats and stuff."

The girls collectively laughed and giggled, filling the room with a joyfully atmosphere. Jaux couldn't help but be glad to have made such good friends with everyone. Her roommates were much better company than her old acquaintances back in Welldrop.

The girls continued with their friendly chatter, making plans for their free day tomorrow.

Frey was going to accompany Jaux for some curse magic practice. She didn't have any new spells from Sellwall, so she was free to give Jaux all her attention. This also meant that she could use some of her ace student benefits during the practice session.

Desyi was going to be a part of a field group, which was a group of students who would head out to one of the neighboring towns while under teacher supervision. The trip would be to the city of Galosrea, a shoreside establishment famous for their massive ships.

Tricks actually had a duel scheduled for tomorrow, and she invited Jaux to go watch it before practicing spells.

Jaux agreed immediately.

Duels are a way for the Lyceum to gauge the combat capability of a magician. Mages are required to have a certain level of combat skills in order to take on jobs that include dangerous elements. The two types of duels most common in the Marlifa Lyceum are academic duels and personal duels.

Academic duels are set by the teachers, who usually choose students that seem to be an equal match for each other. The students are scheduled to fight during the hour that is usually reserved for specialty classes. There are three arenas for duels in the Lyceum. One is on the third floor, the second is on the fourth floor, and the final arena is on the sixth floor.

Personal duels can be scheduled to take place virtually anywhere that students are allowed to go. Any two magicians can engage in a personal duel regardless of class, all they need is a single teacher to oversee the duel.

All duels require specialized viewing scopes that monitor each student who is fighting. The scopes are powered by a mind genre spell, which reads the level of seriousness in the students. This magical tool requirement prevents anyone from purposely losing so that the other student could receive a better combat score.

Today, Tricks was having a personal duel against a boy named Onhelm.

A small crowd of students were already waiting up on the roof by the time Jaux and Tricks showed up. Duels were understandably a popular form of entertainment, a welcome reprieve from the bland experience of studying. Jaux wanted to learn a lot of curse spells today, but she couldn't resist the idea of watching a magical fight.

Desyi had already left for the group trip to Galosrea, and Frey was preparing spell practice supplies. Jaux would be the only one from their room to watch Tricks in action. Of course, Desyi and Frey had already seen Tricks fight before, so they wouldn't be getting as much of an experience from observing the duel.

Tricks' opponent Onhelm was an incredibly husky student. His arms were thick with rigid muscles that looked quite out of place in comparison to every other mage. His height wasn't quite as impressive, since Jaux had no problem looking him in the eye. He didn't wear robes like the majority of the Lyceum mages. Instead, he had on black full-body tights that hugged every detail of his well-built arms, and wore a set of leather and bronze armor over his chest and legs. If he had been walking outside of the Lyceum, no one would guess Onhelm was a magician. Jaux would personally think of him as an aspiring warrior or barbarian.

Tricks' short and thin stature looked a bit fragile when contrasted with Onhelm's mighty bulk. Her blonde hair was also a bit shorter than Onhelm's, and her bob cut looked much neater than the disheveled mess of dirt brown strands on Onhelm's head. She had worn a wheat colored robe with a very high hemline, so that she could move silently and without being impeded. Her bare legs were covered by a pair of opaque white tights.

"Why are you guys dueling, anyway?" Jaux asked Tricks.

"We're in the same specialty class," answered Tricks, "and the wild mutt disagreed with me on the best use of the concentration genre. Didn't think illusions were hardcore, so now I have to prove him wrong by knocking him on his butt."

"Cool, I'll be rooting for ya." Said Jaux with a grin.

Jaux didn't know how strong Tricks or Onhelm were, but she firmly believed in her roomie's capability. She was also sure that Tricks' new pearl wand would give a massive advantage.

A large circular arena stage had been placed on the roof. The stage was only about half a meter off the ground, but a natural rocky terrain rested on top of it. It was like someone had gone to a mountainside and ripped off a piece of the landscape. The arena was incredibly wide as well, stretching to nearly a dozen meters in diameter.

Two tiny telescope-like devices were suspended over the arena, magically floating about eight meters off the ground. The devices were hard to make out from the distance, but one was silver in color while the other was gold. Both of them were pointed directly down at the arena.

A short man with a long grey bearded was sitting on an awkwardly high chair that overlooked the arena. The chair was easily three or four meters high, and there was actually a ladder built into the front of it.

"That old guy's my spec teacher, he encouraged the duel. He said something about how there's a lot to learn from opposing styles." Tricks said. "Between you and me, Suhara... I think that geezer's just a bored nut. Useful guy to get illusion spells from, but he probably doesn't have much of anything else to do."

After a few more minutes, the old man opened up a scroll that he was holding. Then at a clearly amplified voice, he began announcing. "We are starting the personal duel between miss Valcia Rolamore and mister Onhelm Lionstone."

"Yo! I told you to call me Tricks, professor!" Interrupted Tricks.

The old teacher ignored Tricks, but Jaux was sure she saw a little grin on his face before he continued. "Combatant mages, please step into the arena!"

Tricks lightly hopped onto the rocky terrain, while Onhelm jumped up with a massive leap and slammed his feet onto the stage floor with clearly audible force. As soon as they both set foot onto the stage, a large green cylinder forcefield formed around the edges of the arena, topping off right under the scope devices. For a few seconds everything inside the arena was tinted green by the barrier, but then the forcefield faded until it was invisible.

"The scopes have been activated, so both of you be sure to take things seriously." The teacher said. "You may begin... now!"

Onhelm yelled out an over the top war cry of some sort, before he thrust his right fist forward in Tricks' direction. He was wearing a pair of brass knuckles on his fists, which both glowed with a light green hue at the slightest movement. His punch didn't seem to do anything at first, but then a large boulder located right behind Tricks was abruptly pushed backwards until it hit the invisible forcefield.

Tricks stuck her tongue out at Onhelm, her body unaffected by the attack, before fading into nothingness. She and already begun playing around with illusions, and Onhelm now appeared to be completely alone in the arena.

Onhelm didn't seem to be surprised, and immediately turned his back to punch the air behind him. This time there were no rocks to indicate his attack, but a loud thump could be heard in the air where the attack probably hit the barrier.

"I can't run that fast, dumbo." Tricks' strangely echoing voice taunted as a ray of light suddenly shot out from thin air and struck Onhelm on the shoulder. "I wouldn't sneak behind you either, way too overdone. I'm fresh with style."

The light had stuck Onhelm, but it didn't seem to phase him at all. Onhelm seemed to have a defensive enchantment on his clothes.

Onhelm yelled out once more, before launching a barrage of random punches in the direction Tricks' voice came from. Rocks and dirt flew up into the air as the force of the continuous attacks ripped them off the ground. A lot of the terrain was torn up, but Tricks didn't seem to have been hit at all.

Several small white lights suddenly appeared around Onhelm, circling him in a dizzying air dance of some kind. Onhelm punched at the lights, but his attacks didn't appear to affect them at all.

Rays of white energy began to shoot out from the orbs of light, striking Onhelm at many different points. The rays didn't look to be reaching Onhelm, and sort of just diffused a few inches away from his skin.

"Damn, that's an annoying protection spell you got there." Tricks whined, her echoing voice now coming from two different points and forming a harmony effect.

Onhelm punch towards both of the directions Tricks' voice echoed from, but once again there was only the sound of hollow thumps. Girlish giggles echoed around Onhelm from shifting directions, without the slightest bit of consistency. The repetitious effect of all the laughter sounded unnaturally demonic, and would be downright scary if everyone didn't know it was Tricks' magic.

"You can't avoid me forever!" Onhelm shouted as he began to randomly punch varied spots of the terrain.

"You're trying to win a lottery there, Helmutt," mocked Tricks, "and people rarely win lotteries."

Jaux giggled a bit when she saw how Onhelm's face was slowly reddening with frustration. Tricks wasn't exactly winning, since Onhelm wasn't affect by any of the light rays, but she hadn't even been hit once. If anything, Tricks was winning the psychological war.

Onhelm finally stopped launching blows when nearly every part of the terrain had been hit at least once. He carefully looked around, before snarling viciously. In a wide and exaggerated motion, Onhelm pumped his arms outwards before slamming his brass knuckles together.

An explosion of force was heard bursting out from the impact of the brass knuckles. Dust could be seen shooting away from Onhelm in a perfect circle, indicating the omnidirectional nature of his attack. Onhelm's knuckles could imitate aura magic, which was unfortunate for Tricks.

"Oof!" Cried Tricks, this time without any echoing effects masking her voice.

From nearly the top of the arena's barrier, Tricks could finally be seen as her invisibility faded away. She was sitting on thin air, hovering directly above Onhelm.

"Finally!" Onhelm shouted in triumph as he punched both fists up in Tricks' direction.

"Aw shit!" Tricks cursed as she leap out from her invisible seat to avoid the incoming shock wave.

Tricks waved her pearl wand under herself in mid air, and once again stood up on an invisible floor. Right before Onhelm could punch at her again, she waved her wand a second time, and then a whole gang of Tricks clones jumped off to the ground in every direction.

Onhelm tried to hit a few, but realized he was back where he started. Once more he held his arms out to attempt another explosion of force.

Right before Onhelm's second massive attack was launched, a few of the clones leap at him. Right as the clones were about to reach Onhelm, they detonated into several bright flashes of light, blinding him.

The explosion of force was launched, but right after it Onhelm's hands went up to cover his eyes. He howled in what sounded like a tone of both pain and annoyance.

Tricks was prepared for the second wave of raw force, and had hidden her real body behind a large rock to keep from being hit. The rest of her clones turned into head-sized balls of light, which gathered up in a cluster behind Onhelm.

Onhelm screamed out in pain as multiple rays of light converged on a single point behind his back. He staggered forward a few steps after the attack, still with angry determination etched on his face. Then he fell into the rocky field, the pain overwhelming him.

Jaux cheered as Tricks was declared the winner by the old professor. The large cylindrical barrier broke down during the announcement, sprinkling the arena with pink and yellow lights. Onhelm could be heard groaning as the lights touched him, before he slowly pushed himself up, fully healed.

"I'll be around if you wana try again, mutt." Tricks teased before she went over to join Jaux.

"That was amazing!" Jaux praised as she hugged the triumphant Tricks.

It was odd to be the one to initiate a hug for once, but Jaux felt that Trick deserved it.

"Thanks Suhara," said Tricks, "that fight was nice and therapeutic. Naturally, I knew from the beginning that I couldn't lose. Now come on, I'll walk you to the practice room, Frey's probably done collecting what she needs for ya."

"Oh right! Spell practice! Yeah, let's go."

Frey was waiting down in the training room with a metal training puppet that she borrowed from the Lyceum. The dolls were reserved exclusively for use by master and ace class students, since they usually practiced with the most dangerous spells. The featureless metal doll was also one of the only ways that curse magic could be practiced without hunting down a masochist. The sheer amount of inconvenience that came with trying to practice curse magic was one of the big reasons people didn't learn many curses in the Lyceum.

The Lyceum training puppets were specially designed with master level magic from the mind, motion, and concentration genres. As soon as a student powers up the training doll with some magic, it will start behaving like a person with fear and self-preserving tendencies. The dolls are incapable of feeling anything, but they can still imitate the reaction of feeling pain. Their durability also meant that students didn't have to hold back while using high caliber magic attacks.

The doll was an extraordinarily useful device, but also extremely difficult to make. It takes a lot of precision item crafting to blend so many master level spell traits together. There were only fourteen functional puppets in the entire school, and it was first come first serve. For the sake of Jaux's practice session, Frey had made sure to get up early in order to borrow it.

"Thank you so much for going through all this trouble, Frey." Jaux said in gratitude when she arrived in the practice room with Tricks.

"No problem, anything for my novi." Frey cheerfully replied, before pointing over to one of the tables in the corner. "I also put your staff right by your textbook. It's over on that desk."

"Oh, awesome!" Said Jaux, before she made her way over to her supplies.

"So, how was the duel?" Frey asked Tricks.

"Easy win," answered Tricks, "pretty much just sat in an air chair during the whole thing."

"Okay, I'm ready!" announced Jaux as she returned with the staff and book in hand.

"I'll be going then," Tricks said, "I'm kinda hungry from the fight. I'll be down near the kitchens if you need me!"

"Alright, see ya shorty!" Frey jeered as Tricks ran out the door.

=+=+=

More advanced curse spells are often nicknamed parasite magics. Curses will usually harm the target by draining their power and then turning that power against them. The effect is always noted to be similar to parasitic creatures such as mosquitos or leeches, which drain blood from their victims and usually cause those victims to get sick. The comparison has sometimes led to curse magics being nicknamed vampire magics, but that particular term fell out of use. Real vampires actually did have a few types of specialized magics.

Jaux was currently flipping through her textbook, trying to weed out all the curses that caught her attention. She specifically looked for some high powered combat magics, since she was still excited about Tricks' duel. The first spell that she decided to try out was a motion based cursed that stole a target's speed and then hurt the target based on how fast they were going. It was a good spell to have against melee opponents, but generally useless against most mages.

The doll couldn't be told to do anything, but it could be made to react in a person's favor. Frey set off a small explosive fireball close to the metal puppet whenever they needed it to move, which caused the doll to jump up in surprise and then start running away from the source of fire. After that all Jaux had to do was point and shoot.

The first couple tries were a pleasant success, where Jaux stood right in front of the running puppet and just fired the spell forward. A sphere of navy blue mist would shoot out from the tip Jaux's staff, hitting the puppet in the chest and causing it to freeze in place. Then the puppet would curl up in what appeared to be silent agony and hit the ground.

Unfortunately, Jaux didn't do so well when Frey had her trying to hit the puppet from different angles. Sevla was an incredibly awkward staff to aim with, and the spell would end up missing almost every time. After about two dozen failures, Jaux decided to just switch back to using the demon root, which allowed her to aim with more flexibility.

Staffs were usually more powerful than wands, but Jaux found that the curse spells fired from the demon root could be bigger and faster than when fired from Sevla.

It took a bit of time for Jaux to get used to adjusting the speed, curvature, and timing of her spell, but by the time she moved on to the next curse she was hitting the puppet about once every three shots.

The second spell was temperature based, a heat sucking spell that caused an explosion. Frey needed to set some fires around the doll for it to work, since it didn't suck up any heat when the temperature was below a certain point. The heat explosion curse was actually an advanced level curse that had a few complicated stages. First it would fire off as a transparent magenta sphere, which would burst as soon as it touched something that wasn't air. The spell could also be set to manually discharge at a specific point, but it was already complicated enough as it was.

An implosion would occur at the point of detonation, which would instantly suck up a large amount of heat within roughly a meter and a half of the spell. After the implosion, the magenta orb would do nothing for the next second, before suddenly blowing up in a wave of compressed heat energy.

The spell had been powerful enough to extinguish all the flames that Frey set up, and the resulting explosion would throw the metal doll back half a meter. Since the puppet was pretty heavy, this was a very effective result.

Frey liked the idea of the spell, and advised Jaux on how it could be used defensively. Jaux didn't have the reflexes to pull off legitimate spell interceptions yet, but Frey introduced the concept by firing some extremely slow balls of fire at Jaux. The fireballs traveled at walking pace, which gave Jaux more than enough time to hit them with the heat explosion curse.

The curse could suck away all the flames from most of the fireballs, but a few of the brighter ones didn't completely vanish after being in the implosion. The explosion afterward did blow away a couple of the remaining flame spheres, but one in particular had to be erased by Frey.

"That's good," Frey commented after she got rid of the final fireball, "you can defend yourself from a lot of fire spells below advanced level."

The third curse that Jaux tried was a standard enchantment type. The curse cloaked her magical tool with an effect to absorb some magic out of whatever she hit. This spell was virtually useless with the demon root, but it was perfect for a staff like Sevla.

Thanks to how lightweight Sevla was for Jaux, she could hold the staff down at the bottom end. From a distance it looked a lot like she was using a thin black club as a combat weapon. The enchantment spell surrounded the staff with a light coating of white glow. The curse could be mistaken as a blessing due to the color of the glimmer, but the effect was due to how the magic absorbed by the enchantment would be released in a flash effect.

Jaux wasn't sure about how durable Sevla was, so she didn't test the staff out on the puppet. Instead, Frey formed a gel-like barrier for her to bash in. The barrier, which Frey said couldn't be cut with a standard sword, was torn apart after Jaux hit it for the fourth time. The staff flashed with white light after every hit, but it wasn't bright enough to affect anyone's vision.

After all the spellcasting lately, Jaux was actually having fun just bashing things with a stick. She adapted to the strange combat style really swiftly. Sevla would be wielded like a club in Jaux's right hand, while she used her left to cast with the demon root. She decided to use her dominant right hand for the staff, since melee weapons needed more skill and maneuverability than aiming a wand.

It took a little time for Jaux to get used to casting spells with her left hand, so she studied a straightforward spell for her fourth curse. The next curse was a motion-to-concentration effect, which absorbed one type of energy and used it to power another magic. The new curse was called a motion missile curse, which absorbed motion out of the air to speed up and harden a projectile of magic. The further the spell traveled, the harder and faster it became.

Up close, the spell did the equivalent of a puff of air. The puppet wasn't even scared when the fist-sized ball of sky blue mist hit him, it just continued to stand in place. Jaux had to move back about five meters before the projectile was strong enough to knock the doll down. The further Jaux stepped back, the faster and more opaque the projectile became when it hit the puppet. At around ten meters away, when Jaux could actually manage to hit accurately, the impact was strong enough to push the practice puppet back by almost two meters.

All the spell practice with standard and advanced magic took up almost all of Jaux's time. These standard textbook spells took a lot longer to learn than the spells from her smaller curse book. Since the spells included genre magics outside of the power genre, Jaux had to take a lot of time just to figure out the spell patterns before she tried anything with her wand and staff. It was also the first time ever that Jaux felt magic fatigue, since a lot of the spells required significant portions of magic.

Magic fatigue was a lot like being physically tired, but there was no sweat or muscle aches. Jaux simply felt worn out to the very core of her being, like she had spent the last two or three nights without any sleep and it just caught up to her. It became a lot harder to move around, and she just wanted to go to sleep right away.

Frey was amused by her novi's first case of magic fatigue, which had result in a lot of moaning while rolling on the floor. She had a blessing to restore magic, but it was supposed to be used at the first sign of magic fatigue, and not when a magician's magic was nearly empty. Having more of someone else's magic flowing in your body instead of your own was dangerous. Instead, Frey just resorted to casting a bit of mind magic so Jaux would sleep.

After returning the metal practice puppet and gathering up Jaux's supplies, Frey took her sleeping novi back to the dorm for some rest.

=+=+=

Jaux swam blissfully in her soft blankets. Being extremely tired out had a positive side effect of making a bed being the most wonderful feeling in the world. She was still comfortably asleep when Tricks arrived back into the dorm. Frey's sleep spell had long since worn off, but Jaux was still stuck in her dreams.

"Aw, she tired herself out?" Tricks asked when she saw Jaux resting.

"Yeah, complete magic fatigue." Frey replied.

Frey had been leaning against the headboard of her bed, lazily skimming an old time magic textbook. Frey had long since finished compiling all her common use spells, so she had nothing left to do in the Lyceum besides waiting on Sellwall's spells and teaching Jaux.

Tricks made her way to her own bed, a small bag with new outdoor clothing held in hand. She threw the bag into her wardrobe, before slamming the cabinet doors shut and falling into her sheets.

"Hey, is Desyi in the bathroom?" Tricks abruptly questioned. "Curfew was a few minutes ago and she's never late."

"No, I haven't seen her, actually." Frey noted as she closed her book. "That is a bit strange..."

There are occasions where trips outside may get delays, and mages get home a few hours late.

However, by the time the middle of the night rolled by, Desyi still had not returned.

Curfews were one of the least important things in the world to people when there's a crisis.

Time was slowly eroding into morning, but Desyi still hadn't returned. Tricks and Frey were both extremely concerned at this point, and went out to see if they could get some answers somewhere. The duo ultimately decided that the entrance guards would be the most likely to know at this hour.

There was currently a single armored mage guard standing by the entrance of the Lyceum.

"Halt, students. It is far past cur-"

"Fuck curfew, we need answers, doorman!" Tricks shouted.

"What she means to say," said Frey as she got between the guard and Tricks, "is that one of our roommates did not return from an outing, and we want to know why."

"Ah. I understand," replied the guard, "but you'll have to get that information from the school offi-"

"We aren't waiting around when our friend could be in danger, you troll!" Tricks interrupted again. "What in the world happened to the Galosrea group?"

"I am not auth-"

"TELL US!" Tricks shouted in an amplified volume as she spontaneously morphed into the shape of a gigantic and horned two-headed lion.

"Ah!" Yelled the guard in surprised. "Pirate raid while some students were on a merchant ship, I don't have anything else!"

"Open the gate." Frey firmly instructed while Trick's snarled menacingly in the background.

The panicking guard quickly pressed on the runes to bring the iron plate down, before he backed away from the two girls.

"Useless." Frey silently muttered when the guard was out of earshot.

Frey was not a fan of the armored mages. They guarded the Lyceum, but more often than not the mages in the school had to just defend themselves. The guards were more of a decoration than anything, and any student expert class or above could likely beat them in a fight.

Tricks dropped her illusion once the iron entrance plate was lowered down far enough to jump through. She turned both herself and Frey invisible, so that they couldn't be found or followed.

=+=+=

It wasn't possible for students to hijack one of the Lyceum wagon transports, so Frey and Tricks traveled by combining a bit of flight magic with Frey's ancient speed boosting blessing. The effects were a bit unstable when used together, and the two nearly crashed several times, but they were able to make it to Galosrea just before sunrise.

One of the docks in Galosrea was burnt black and smelling of smoke. Several Galosrean knights were keeping guard on the scene and telling citizens to stay back. There were also a few Marlifa girl mages standing around, but Desyi wasn't among them.

"What happened here?" Frey asked one of the girl mages who was sitting on a barrel.

"The teacher was having a meeting on the merchant ship, a few of the students went with her." The witch said. "Then a bunch of these small rowboats popped out from underwater, then pirates started attacking and boarded the ship. I didn't see what happened in there, but after a while the ship sailed away."

"Where'd the ship go?" Tricks questioned the girl.

"Dunno, it kinda glowed for like a second, and then it sorta just went into the water with like a big bubble thing around it." The girl explained.

"Damn it!" Tricks cursed in frustration. "What should we do now?!"

Frey looked out to the sea and pondered for a few minutes, trying to think of a strategy.

"Let's go find an apothecary," Frey suggested, "we just need some potions for water-breathing."

=+=+=

Jaux woke up alone.

It was the second time she ever woke up alone in the Lyceum, with the first time being when she got collared by Frey. The memory made Jaux a little paranoid, so she wiggled her body around just to make sure nothing new was attached to her body.

There wasn't anything new, but Jaux was reminded of how weird her body still was. Her breast jiggled with her movements now, and she wasn't sure how to feel about that.

A shower never helped with the morning confusion. Jaux wasn't as reserved about touching her new body parts, but she never enjoyed any of the feelings. It couldn't really be described as bad or anything, but Jaux still had old habits and instincts regarding his body parts.

It was a lot like washing your hair after you just chopped most of it off. A person would still have the habit of grabbing their long hair with a sweep of their hands, but then their hands would miss and their new hair length would dawn on them again. Whenever Jaux's hands tried to scratch her face, they got obstructed by the new mounds of flesh on their way up. Hair was always getting in her way and she didn't know where to put it. Things he used to be able to reach by the tips of his fingers were now just a little too far away for her.

People rarely find themselves suddenly shorter for some reason, but when they do they could discover the ridiculously useless power of being able to miss doorknobs. A new body meant you had to learn to move all over again, paying attention to all the little things you were supposed to know by muscle memory at this point. It was like the feeling of freshly cut nails, but extended down every corner of your body.

How exactly was a boy supposed to react when he starts feeling wedgies inside of his crotch?

Jaux couldn't really ask anyone for help in dealing with her issues. There wasn't any way to explain why she suddenly forgot how to be a girl, not without admitting to some really bad lies. Obviously, her roommates wouldn't be okay with the knowledge that they were sleeping with a former boy for the last week. There was no way she was going fix that lie, she'd have to carry it to the grave.

=+=+=

Anyone could potentially use magic.

Unfortunately, that also means that anyone could potentially abuse magic.

Desyi was currently bound by magical chains, guarded by a small group of pirates that were currently raiding the merchant vessel. She managed to count a total of eight pirates with powerful magical abilities during the raid, at least one of them was as powerful as a master class Marlifa mage.

Two dozen other less powerful pirates armed with swords didn't help matters.

If Desyi fought together with her escort teacher and the two other Marlifa mages, it would be an even fight at best.

Desyi hated even fights.

The escort teacher seemed to hate even fights as well, because she surrendered before any real combat took place.

Even fights mean that each side had roughly the same chance of being beaten, and in cases that these that meant death. Desyi didn't plan on acting until they had an advantage.

So far, being wrapped in chains wasn't helping. Sitting on the deck of a ship with a huge amount of water hovering overhead was also most definitely the opposite of an advantage.

There wasn't much hope unless help arrived, which was why Desyi had been throwing out signals.

Galosrea was a warm coastline. People never see any ice in the waters.

Whenever Desyi knew eyes weren't on her, she would fire off a small freezing spell at the water that surrounded the ship. This caused ice to form and float all the way to the top. A single bit of ice was hard to spot in the open sea, but her ice took a long time to melt, and she'd been doing this for more than sixteen hours.

=+=+=

Frey and Tricks were out on a rowboat with two other Marlifa witches and three knights that were proficient at magic. Everyone on the boat was a strong swimmer, and knew how to dive deep into the ocean.

They couldn't drink the underwater breathing potions and start looking, since that would take far too long. Instead they were trying to find something that would narrow their search. Frey had been hoping that they could spot the outline of the bubble that was underwater.

"Hey!" One of the knights suddenly spoke up. "There's some ice over there, we never see any ice in Galosrea!"

Sure enough, there was a cluster of ice a few meters away. The area looked like a small scale duplicate of a cold arctic ocean, with tiny icebergs bobbing in the water.

"Bet that's Desyi." Tricks said as she pulled one of the pieces of ice out from the sea.

There was a small splash as another chunk of frost erupted out from the waters.

"Yeah, definitely Desyi." Frey agreed.

"Okay, everyone drink up, let's get ready to raid the raiders!" Tricks announced as she downed her indigo colored potion.

"Remember people, we're dropping in from the top of the bubble." Instructed Frey. "Make sure Tricks goes in before you do, or else no one will be able to catch you when you start falling towards the ship."

"We gotta hit em fast people, take out any pirate on sight and release any hostage you can." Added Tricks.

"Don't forget to cast your pressure resistance enchantments, we have no clue how deep we're going." Frey noted, before she leap into the ocean.

Tricks followed right behind Frey, and the two were immediately joined by the other five from their group.

=+=+=

Jaux bumped into Rales Grecord, the blond wizard from the thieves incident, down on the first floor. She had just paid a quick visit to the old wand shopkeeper, and then unexpectedly bumped into Rales out in the hall.

"Oh, nice to see you again." Rales said when she recognized Jaux.

"Hm? Oh! Hi! Uh... Greycorn right?" Jaux replied.

Rales chucked a bit of Jaux's pronunciation. "Actually, it's Grecord, but you were very close."

"Oh! I'm so sor-"

"No no no, don't worry about it. I'm particularly terrible with names as well. Although actually, I don't think I know yours."

"Ah, I'm... uh... Suhara Ballad."

"Suhara huh, sounds familiar, but I can't quite place it."

"It's, uh, it's an old word for magic back in Western Beradina."

"That's what it was, yes. Very good name for a pretty girl such as yourself."

"Th-thanks."

"Hm... I know it's a school day, but if you have some time before your first class, perhaps I can show you my research room?" Rales offered, gesturing at the hallway where Theema's artifact room was also located in.

Suhara glanced at the hallway, pondering the offer. She was a bit curious at what was behind all the other doors in the research hall. "Yeah, that would be nice."

"Great! Let's go then." Rales said as he offered his elbow to Jaux.

For a moment, Jaux had no idea what the elbow was for. Then the action dawned on her, and she nervously linked arms with Grecord.

"I see you have a new staff." Rales noted as he indicated Sevla, which was strapped to Jaux's back.

"Ah, yeah, it was a gift."

"Well, I think it suits you nicely."

"Thank you very much, Mr. Grecord." Jaux replied.

"No need for misters, Suhara, I'm not a teacher you know. Just call me Rales."

"Er, okay."

"Here we are!" Rales announced as they stopped in front of a door carved with dark red wood.

Rales took out a wand and waved it in a complex motion, which caused the door to open up.

The inside of the research storage room was beautiful. Shiny trinkets were everywhere, making the room sparkle. There were crowns, amulets, tiaras, scepters, swords, bracelets, and all sorts of other items.

"I study enchantments, particularly the enchantments of ancient royalty." Rales explained as he picked up a bejeweled scepter. "Royal enchantments are among the most powerful in terms of defensive ability. Makes sense when you consider how important royalty is meant to be protected. If you wore an outfit of as many of these items as you could, I'd say almost nothing could hurt you."

"Wow." Jaux whispered in awe. "You must have a fortune in here, no wonder the thieves tried to steal from you..."

"Ha, oh yes, I can't thank you enough for that. It's a good thing the thieves were so bad at breaking out as opposed to breaking in." Rales joked.

Jaux walked carefully around the room, trying not to break anything that was out on display. Then she spotted a bracelet made of black stone on one of the tables. It looked awfully familiar with what her staff was made with. It was even decorated with four purple gemstones sticking out from the side.

"Who used to own this?" Jaux asked as she pointed at the bracelet.

"Hm? Oh yes, that one does match your staff and collar, doesn't it? If my memory is correct, it was the bracelet that was worn by the Princess of Jubon Fida, an ancient kingdom that had unfortunately disappeared for some unknown reason." Rales answered as he picked the bracelet up. "It has an enchantment that makes it virtually unbreakable, and another enchantment that alters its size so that it could be worn by anyone. I think there are some other enchantments as well, but I haven't been able to decipher them."

Rales demonstrated the resizing feature by pulling the bracelet outwards with both hands. The bracelet automatically stretched, becoming a small and thin hoop. The gemstones were the only things that stayed the same size, while the black stone looked like some kind of wet clay whenever the resizing enchantment was activated.

"It's good, isn't it? You can keep it, actually." Rales told Jaux as he handed over the bracelet. "Think of it was a very long overdue thank you."

"Oh, no, I can't." Jaux disagreed as she tried to give the bracelet back. "This is an artifact, it must be priceless!"

Rales took the bracelet back for a second, but then grabbed Jaux's left arm and resized the bracelet onto her wrist.

"Hey!" Jaux whined as she tried to pull the bracelet off, but couldn't activate the resizing enchantment.

"You'll need two hands to take that off, which means you'll need someone else to do it." Explained Rales. "Of course, I'm not going to do it, so you'll have to keep it."

Jaux glared at Rales with a displeased pout, trying to wordlessly convey her annoyance with Rales' stubbornness.

Apparently she didn't do it right, because Rales ended up leaning in and giving her a quick kiss on her lips.

“What do you think you’re doing?!” Jaux yelled as she backed away from Rales.

“Oh, I’m sorry, I thought I was getting a signal.” Rales hastily explained. “That was my bad, I guess I didn’t read the mood right.”

“Signal? What made you think that was a signal?!” Jaux complained.

“Well, your lips were kind of... look, I’m sorry.”

Jaux fumed at the audacity of Rales. A guy kissed her! Rales might not have known that Jaux was formerly a boy, but he had kissed her out of nowhere! Her first kiss was from some random boy that she didn’t even know! She hadn’t even been a girl for more than a week. She didn’t think this sort of thing could possibly be a normal occurrence that girls dealt with. It seemed more likely to her that she just might have the worst luck out of anyone in all of history.

“I... I... I need to get to class.” Jaux muttered before she rushed to the door in a huff.

“Wait, Suhara, I didn’t mea-”

SLAM!

=+=+=

There was a loud splash from the waters above, and a while blur shot down to the deck of the ship.

Frey had arrived onto the stolen merchant ship, her right arm covered in the thick protective ward that she used for combat. The pirates were shocked by her sudden arrival, but within seconds they began to charge at her. There was only one major raider on the deck who used magic, while the other deck pirates had their cutlasses drawn to strike.

Frey moved once again, becoming a white blur as she picked off the cutlass wielding pirates one after another. Her punches were too fast for the raiders to see, and the pirates were quickly getting overwhelmed by the speeding barrage. The mage pirate was trying to hit Frey with a torrent of water that was magically extracted from outside the sphere, but the water moved far too slow for Frey to be touched.

Desyi was happy at the sight of her roommate, but also curious about how she got here. Frey wasn’t on the trip, and there was no way that the Lyceum would send a student out for this situation.

Then Tricks suddenly burst in from the top of the sphere as well, landing on an invisible foothold that she formed in the middle of the air. After she looked down to make sure Frey landed safely, she used one of her light beam spells to snipe the mage pirate. The magic wielding raider went down with a scream of pain.

The final five reinforcements burst in from the top of the sphere, each caught on one of Tricks’ concentrated air platforms before being slowly lowered down onto the ship’s deck.

“You alright Desyi?” Frey asked after the last pirate was punched unconscious.

“Yeah, I’m fine.” replied Desyi as her body and robes suddenly heated up to a red hot glow. “Glad you guys are here, there are at least seven more pirate mages down in the ship.”

The magic chains binding Desyi fell away as her body burned through the links. A bit of the wood beneath her feet also caught on fire as a result, but those flames were quickly extinguished when Desyi shifted to being covered in an armor of snow white ice.

“Geez, if you could do that the whole time, why didn’t you just fight back?” Tricks complained as she walked up to Frey and Desyi.

“The merchants and my other two classmates would be in danger if I resisted, they’re somewhere below deck.” Desyi explained. “The teacher is down there too, but she can take care of herself.”

“We better go save them then.” Frey said.

“Eh, you’re kind of a loud fighter Frey, they might have heard ya and gotten ready to ambush us down there.” Jested Tricks before she turned herself invisible. “Lemme go first, see if I can trip em up.”

Trick made her down into the ship through a trap door, keeping silent as she searched for all the hostages. It took a few minutes, but eventually she located them locked in two different rooms. One of the rooms had all the merchants and sailors, while the second room held the mages. Tricks meditated on her next move, trying to think of the safest possible strategy. Then one of her brilliant illusionary plans came to mind.

First Tricks got a few of the pirates to break away from each other by throwing a bucket down an empty hall. After the pirates returned from investigating the sound, Tricks put an illusion over all the returning pirates, making them look like mages armed with staves. Things got chaotic real quick.

Frey, Desyi, and the five other backup fighters all descended into the ship when they heard the sounds of fights breaking out. The pirates were easy to take out when most of them were involved in the middle of a civil war. Tricks had taken advantage of the confusion to release all the hostages from their bindings.

“Nice trick, Tricks” Frey joked when the girls reunited.

“Gotta live up to the name.” Tricks replied playfully.

“We need to find the pirate captain.” The teacher spoke up. “I don’t see her anywhere, so she’s probably hidden in another room. She’s the one keeping the water sphere active.”

“No need to play hide and seek, I’m here.” A woman’s voice called from around a corner.

The captain of the pirates was a really tall woman. Her head almost touched the ceiling of the hall. She looked menacing, several deep scars painted across her face. Her hair was thick and heavily braided, and also stretched all the way down to her knees.

“You’ve lost, return this ship to the surface.” The teacher declared.

The captain narrowed her eyes, glaring coldly at the mages who defeated her crew.

“If you insist...” She ominously pronounced before snapping her fingers.

There was a great crunching crash as water smashed against the ship from every angle. The pirate captain ran off as the girls lost their balance in the wobbling ship.

“She just killed her own guys!” One of the other girl mages claimed. “They were still out on the deck!”

“Gotta worry about ourselves right now.” Tricks yelled as she gestured to the water that was rushing into the halls.

“I got it!” Desyi shouted as she slammed her armored arms into the floor.

Ice began to spread out from the point of impact, freezing all the wooden walls and the incoming flood of seawater. The teacher understood Desyi’s idea, and also cast a similar freezing spell on the other side of the hall. After a few seconds, every opening below deck had been sealed with ice, keeping anymore water from rushing inside.

The ship was now slowly ascending to the surface, since the air trapped below deck was enough for it to float. The footing was a bit off, since the ship was on its side. But, other than having to stand on sloped walls, everyone was safe.

=+=+=

Kissed by a boy.

Jaux was studying in class more intensely than she ever had before. She was trying to drown out the memory of the kiss with a wave of new magical knowledge.

Temperature genre magic was one of the simplest types of magic to learn. All one had to do was use magic to control the vibrations in the target of the spell.

Rales was nice about the kiss. He wasn’t trying to force Jaux or anything. All he did was take a chance. He might have misunderstood, but he realized this and immediately apologized. That wasn’t so bad, right?

Heat just means more vibrations. Fire was a common result of temperature genre magic, since enough heat will ignite air into fire. Metal weaponry was also a common use for temperature magic, since hot weapons can cause a lot more pain and harm to an enemy.

Rales looked pretty good, actually. His blond hair wasn’t too long or too short, and it kind of swept across his forehead. He was also tall, and looked pretty tough. He didn’t appear disturbingly muscular like Onhelm did, but that actually looked more natural and healthy. Not to mention he was a researcher, so he was probably really well versed with magic and magical knowledge.

Cold spells are performed by reducing the vibrations of a target with magic. Enough cold can freeze the air, which forms dry ice. Cold magic is extremely versatile because of its potential at ice shaping, which is an effective way to conjure solid objects without needing to summon them with complex dimension genre magics.

Rales had to be amazingly wealthy to be able to afford researching ancient royalty. He was probably more wealthy than Frey was. However, he didn’t act snobby or anything. He sounded genuinely good natured, and seemed to only care about the magic of ancient artifacts rather than the value.

Jaux’s eyes fell on the black bracelet that Rales forcibly gave her. If everything Rales said about the bracelet was true, Jaux was wearing a priceless piece of history. This was too extravagant of a gift to give to her just for helping with some thieves. Rales had been incredibly generous.

Neutral spells from the temperature genre are used as a protection for the user. It is possible for a mage to cast powerful temperature spells in close proximity to themselves, but they have to know how to protect their own bodies from the transfer of heat energy. A shell of neutral temperature magic is one of the most common requirements for more advanced temperature spells.

The kiss wasn’t too bad. It was just a quick peck on the lips. Isn’t a first kiss kind of an exaggerated event anyway?

The teacher instructed Jaux to conjure up enough heat to create a small flame. Jaux completely lost focus on the lesson at this point, but she already knew a bit of temperature magic from practicing the heat explosion curse yesterday. Creating a small fire between her palms barely took any effort.

Jaux was sure she still liked girls. After all, her roommates were very pretty. Frey in particular. She was strong, tough, smart, and kind...

The flame in Jaux's hands began to steadily grow as more magic was unconsciously fed into the spell.

Rales' face danced through Jaux's imagination, his hair was dramatically blown by a constant breeze.

Then they kissed again.

"Ow!" Jaux yelled when the fire in her hands grew big enough to burn her fingers.

=+=+=

Frey, Tricks, and Desyi finally arrived back at the Lyceum in one of the Marlifa wagons.

After all the hostages were liberated, there wasn't anything else to worry about in Galosrea. The merchants were a bit disappointed in how much of their stock was ruined, but they got away with their lives. Once all the mages were gathered back together, they went home.

"Maybe we should have left Suhara a note..." Tricks commented.

"Well, it wasn't the first time we left her alone." Mentioned Desyi. "I'm sure she'll be fine. Frey, you'll see Suhara in specialty, right?"

"Yep," Frey confirmed, "as long as the admins don't take too long to lecture us about breaking the rules."

"Pfft, we saved lives, they should be thanking us for making the school seem so reliable." Gripped Tricks.

"Yeah, but we can handle ourselves," Frey noted, "if someone inexperienced and rash went out and tried any of what we did, things would have gotten a lot worse."

After the girls passed through the Lyceum entranceway, Desyi split off and headed to her second class.

"See y'all at bed!" She yelled out as she rushed to the stairs.

Frey and Tricks made their way to the front office, ready to explain their actions to the cold administration of the Lyceum.

Jaux’s second class for the day was on the concentration genre of magic. She was still daydreaming a bit, so she didn’t learn as much as she should have from the lesson.

Jaux did get the gist of the idea though. Concentration magic focused on the quality and quantity of the target. You could make things more durable by using positive amounts of concentration, and you can make things more lightweight by using negative amounts of concentration. On the extreme ends, positive concentration magic could be used to make air as hard as steel, while negative concentration magic could make steel so diluted that it passes through things with the consistency of air.

Targeting light with concentration magic is what allows illusions to be created. White light tends to contain all sorts of colors mixed within, and manipulating the colors allows a mage to form mirages.

Weight and durability were tied to the quantity style of concentration magic, while illusions were more focused on the quality of manipulation.

There was a lot of technical details that Jaux missed, such as where to store the extra colors from illusions and how difficult it was to magically affect the mass of a target.

For the practical half of the class, Jaux had to use concentration magic on a vial on air. She had to make the air thick enough in consistency that it made a marble fall roughly half as fast as it would in regular air. The spell sounded easy when the teacher instructed her, but it was actually very difficult to pull off. If Jaux didn’t cast the magic fast enough, a lot of the air she targeted would diffuse out of the vial.

Eventually the brilliant plan of covering the top of the vial with a book solved this problem. When all of the air was sealed inside the vial, Jaux was able to take her time with casting her magic. Once the air was weighed down by magical manipulation, it stayed inside the vial like water in a glass. It wasn’t consistent enough to obstruct the marble as much as she intended, but it was progress all the same.

Concentration magic regarding light was supposed to be over a hundred times more difficult than concentration magic regarding air, so now Tricks seemed a lot more powerful than Jaux previously imagined. Besides knowing that Frey was an ace class magician, Jaux had no idea how powerful her other two roommates were. She’d have to ask them later today.

=+=+=

“I can’t believe you guys left me all alone again today.” Jaux complained when she met up with Frey.

“Sorry Suhara, but it was really important.” Frey responded.

“Really? What happened?” Asked Jaux.

“I’ll tell you when we’re back in the dorm, okay?”

“Fine.”

Sellwall had rushed over to Jaux and Frey as soon as the class started. It almost seemed like he was expecting to hear something amazing such as Jaux learning all the spells out of her massive textbook.

“So, how far did you get, Suhara?” Sellwall questioned.

“Uh, three standard spells and one advanced, sir.” Jaux replied.

“Ah, good. That means… hm. Five more days at that pace and you should be cleared for everything except a master level spell. That will probably eat up a whole day. A week and a half before you’re ready for some special instruction.” Calculated Sellwall.

“Actually, Suhara had to stop practicing yesterday because of magic fatigue. If I boost her magic reserves midway through practice tomorrow with a blessing, she should be able to accomplish a little more than four spells.” Added Frey.

“Oh! Outstanding! Just as I would expect from our ace.” Praised Sellwall. “Well then, if you could shave it down to a week, then I should start researching some curse magic practitioners right away.”

“Suhara’s a quick study, we’ll be ready before a week. Promise.” Frey bragged.

“Aw, Frey. I don’t want to disappoint...” Jaux started to whine.

“Oh yes, Suhara’s right, you never know what might end up surprising you.” Sellwall hinted ominously.

Sellwell then emphasized his point by pulling off the hat he was wearing, and extracting a glowing white cube from its depths. He slammed the cube down in front of Frey, his chin lifted in pride.

“Behold the Gear of Miju. Inside this box holds the rumored spell pattern for a blessing of unstoppable force. I haven’t been able to get it open, so you’ll have to figure that out for yourself.” Sellwall explained.

“Oh wow, two artifacts within a week, that’s a record Sellwall.” Said Frey as she happily examined the cube. “Hm, magic puzzle. I can work on solving it while Suhara is practicing her curses.”

“It’s the most complicated one I’ve ever encountered, but the door it was hiding behind had a pretty tough lock as well.” Sellwall noted. “I wish you luck in solving its secrets.”

=+=+=

Jaux and Frey were the first ones back in to dorm. Frey had been fiddling with the cube while they were walking, but had made no discernible progress. Jaux spend the whole time failing to forget about her interaction with Rales.

Jaux kind of wanted to ask Frey about how to deal with the whole situation of a sudden kiss. She wasn’t sure what the right question was though, since it was hard to put all the feelings into words. After all, she had been a boy for all her life. The idea of being a girl kissed by a boy was not a common thing to think about. She was pretty sure she still liked girls too.

Then Jaux’s eyes wandered over to Frey’s body. She looked at the silky, wavy and auburn hair, wanting to run her hands through the strands. Saw the breasts that pushed firmly out against the robe. Frey’s bare legs seemed so stretched out due to her dominant height, but it all seemed to match perfectly with the rest of her body.

The two were sitting on their pillows as usual. At this point Frey had suspended the cube in the air, letting it hang in front of her. Her bright emerald eyes were incredibly focused on the cube, studying its every feature as it slowly rotated. Her hands were in front of her, each slender finger tightly interlaced. She was even biting a corner of her lower lip while she focused. Frey was such a beautiful woman...

“Hey Frey?” Jaux called out.

Frey’s eyes still stared at the cube, but she turned her head slightly towards Jaux in recognition.

“Yeah?”

Jaux tipped her body forward, pecking Frey’s lips just by a tiny fraction of a second. She had almost missed, barely catching the lips by a centimeter.

The cube suddenly dropped down to the floor as all of Frey’s attention became focused on Jaux.

Why did Jaux do that? She didn’t even know. It was an impulse. An impulse she couldn’t help but blame Rales for.

Jaux’s skin flushed into a deep scarlet, embarrassed to no end for making such a bold and stupid decision. Her eyes drop down to the floor, unwilling and incapable of looking back at Frey. She started fidgeting with her fingers, rubbing and twisting them together while she waited for the world to end.

Then Frey’s hand moved past Jaux’s face, before pushing Jaux’s cheek until the two locked eyes again.

Frey’s face wore a miniscule smile, the edges lifted by only the slightest of distances. She wasn’t mad. Her face turned sideways, and then she slowly closed in while her emerald eyes were shut away.

Jaux closed her eyes too, keeping still and unmoving in disbelief.

Then the sensitive skins of their lips brushed together, giving them both a tiny and lingering tickle. It was just a touch, sharing meaningful tingling between their nerves. Frey pulled away after a few seconds, opening her eyes again to stare into Jaux’s face.

Jaux looked back with nervous yet excited eyes, returning with a teeny smile of her own.

Frey’s mouth split into a wide grin, then she drifted back into Jaux’s face for another tickling caress.

Jaux’s… Suhara’s lips parted just a tiny amount, and Frey took the invitation to swipe her tongue between the gap. The tongue moistened Suhara’s lips with a flimsy film of saliva, which only further aided in the idling emotional touches.

Frey drew her head back for another quick moment, inhaling a deep breathe of air. She then pushed Suhara down to the floor and mounted herself on top. Her mouth met again with Suhara’s, and they fondled each other just by the very tips of their tongue. Frey’s hands were wandering now, one brushed against the side of Suhara’s face while the other found and groped Suhara’s delicate breasts.

Then the loud click and an open lock ruined the moment.

Suhara and Frey pulled away from each other as the gate into the dorm opened itself up. Tricks paraded in with an armful of boxed sweets, looking incredibly pleased with herself.

“Hey Frey, one of the girls we saved was the daughter of the sweets shop guy, I got all of these for free!” Tricks exclaimed.

Suhara and Frey just glared at Tricks with contempt and pursed lips.

“... What? Did I do something wrong?”

=+=+=

Suhara enjoyed her roommate’s story about pirates and underwater fighting, although she was a bit disappointed that she missed such an exciting morning. They told her that she was too inexperienced to be fighting dangerous foes, and that when they left she was still knocked out from magical fatigue. There were just lame excuses as far as she was concerned, and she maintained a stance of crossing her arms and pouting.

“Hey look, when you’ve been promoted to a basic class mage, you’ll be able to go out with us.” Frey told Suhara.

“Yeah, then we’ll hunt vampires and werepeople as much as we want!” Tricks added in.

“Mmhm, our outings together are always the best. It’ll be way more fun than watching Frey punch in pirate faces.” Assured Desyi.

“Fine. But at least wake me up and tell me if you’re gonna leave me alone.” Suhara demanded.

“Okay, we will, we will.” Frey promised.

“By the way, what class mage are you two?” Asked Suhara. “I only know Frey’s an ace.”

“Oh, I’m just barely under master class.” Tricks explained. “I still need to get some decent experience in genres outside of concentration before I am promoted up.”

“I’m also expert class, bordering master.” Replied Desyi. “I tend to avoid duels, so my combat rating is keeping me out of advancement.”

“Which makes no sense, by the way.” Said Tricks. “You specialize completely in the temperature genre, and almost all of your spells are meant for battle. Why exactly are you a pacifist?”

“We’ve been over this Tricks, I like strength, but I don’t like using strength pointlessly.” Desyi answered.

“Hey, practicing how to fight against people is useful! Training is always useful!” Tricks argued.

“There are ways to improve yourself that don’t involve hurting a fellow student.” Reasoned Desyi.

“You know, I always wondered who would win in a fight between you two.” Frey pondered aloud.

“Yeah! That’s a great idea! Come on Desyi, let’s duel, you and me!” Said Tricks.

“Nope. No go.” Disagreed Desyi.

“Aw come on! It’ll be fun! Suhara wasn’t to see it, right Suhara?” Questioned Tricks.

“Uh... I am a bit curious…” Suhara admitted. “But I wouldn’t want you guys to hurt each other.”

“Hey come on, go for it.” Frey urged. “It’ll be really interesting.”

The banter went back and forth for a while, but eventually Desyi agreed under the combined peer pressure. They would go to a teacher to schedule a duel for one of the next few days.

While the girls were finishing up with discussing the details of the eventual duel, there was a knocking upon their dorm’s entrance gate. Since it was past curfew, the girls all wondered who was outside their door.

Desyi went to open the gate up, and to Suhara’s great distress... it was Rales.

“Oh hey again,” Frey greeted. “What brings you here Rales?”

“Ah hello girls, I was actually coming here to have a quick word with Suhara.” Answered Rales.

Suhara could feel the weight of everyone’s eyes shifting to her. She didn’t know what to do.

"I'm sorry, but I'm not interested." Said Suhara.

"I'm not asking for a date. I just want us to get to know each other a little better." Rales explained.

The two were currently alone out in the dormitory halls.

"Rales, you really are nice, but I think going on a week long research trip with you is asking for even more than a date." Suhara stated.

"It'll be completely intellectual. Getting exclusive access to a newfound ancient castle ruin is a very rare opportunity you know." Countered Rales.

"We barely know each other, I think spending a week alone with you is not something I'm ready for."

"It's just eight days. We won't even be staying in the same room at night. You could spend all the ruin observation time on the other end of the castle if you want."

"I'm sorry, but no."

"Okay, fine. Look, the trip is in almost exactly two weeks. Can you at least think about it before I leave?"

"... Sure. No promises."

"Thank you, that's all I'm asking." Rales said, before he finally left.

Suhara stayed in the halls for a few more seconds, watching Rales as he left. Then she turned and placed her key into her room's gateway. It could have just been the door or her imagination, but Suhara was sure she head the sound of scattering footsteps as the gate began to open.

"So... what did he want?" Tricks asked.

"He's got a research outing of some sort in two weeks, and he wants me to go with him." Answered Suhara.

"That sounds pretty cool," noted Desyi, "you gonna go?"

"No, I'm just not comfortable with it." Suhara said.

"Aw, it can't be too bad," Tricks remarked, "I say go for it!"

"Come on guys, she already says she's not comfortable with going." Frey pointed out.

"Frey, you're her ace, you should be encouraging her to take rare opportunities like this!" Asserted Desyi.

Frey sighed, falling back until she was laying flat on her back. Her eyes shut, and she seemed to think carefully for a bit.

"Well? Give up?" Tricks teased.

"I don't really have to make any decisions right now. The trip is in two weeks..." Suhara reminded them.

"Well, if there's really only one spot and someone else takes it, then you won't get to go even if you decide to later!" Argued Tricks.

"Hey, it's your call, Suhara." Desyi said. "It's getting late, let's get some sleep and you can see how you feel about the trip with a rested head!"

Afterward, all the girls went through their nightly rituals, before getting into bed one after another.

Suhara felt completely at home in the room now. The unease that came from sleeping in a foreign environment no longer picked at her head. She absentmindedly hugged her second pillow up to her breasts, and felt her tired body being pulled into her dreams.

Just before she nodded off, Suhara had an unusual desire course through her head. All the intimate contact from today came to mind, and she really wanted to kiss someone. She couldn't exactly go up to Frey while Tricks and Desyi were still in the room, so after a few seconds, she settled for giving her pillow a quick smooch.

She felt kind of moronic for practicing kisses on a pillow, but it was the only way to settle her current urge.

Then the happy dreams came to accompany her.

=+=+=

Frey and Tricks refused to let Desyi forget about the duel that was promised. After everyone went through their morning routines, Desyi and Tricks left to schedule the fight between them.

That left Frey and Suhara all alone.

Frey caught Suhara in her arms as soon as the gate closed. She nibbled gently behind her novi's ear, whispering even though there was no one else in the room. "I know we should go get you to magic practice, but I wouldn't mind being a little late."

Suhara could feel Frey's breasts smothered on her back, and tilted her head so that she could just barely face the taller girl.

"I'd love to be late today." Suhara whispered back.

Frey smiled wide, before dragging Suhara to bed. The two flopped into the silky sheets, sliding up to each other and cuddling. The red head brushed her hand down to Suhara's waist, feeling the smooth white skin beneath the slippery fabric of the nightgown.

"You know, we haven't really been on a date or anything." Frey mentioned, without showing any signs of slowing down.

Green eyes met violet ones, and soon their lips pressed together, fitting like puzzle pieces.

"I wonder if this counts." Whispered Suhara when she pulled back, as her hand started to rub against the red head's bosom.

The taller girl moaned softly as her breasts were caressed, and bit down lightly on the dark haired girl's lower lip as they kissed yet again. Suhara tensed up lightly as she felt teeth pressing against her skin, but more because she wasn't very sure about how next to proceed.

Frey could feel how nervous her partner was, movements began to slow. The shorter girl was obviously inexperienced with this. In a sudden move for control, the taller girl pushed Suhara down and straddled on top of the smaller body. She ran her hand through the ebony tresses, while also squeezing the shorter girl's breasts.

Suhara sighed pleasurably, feeling the fond tickle in her hair and the press around her bust. Then the red head leaded down, pressing their bosoms together as another sensitive kiss was shared between them.

This time the shorter girl opened her mouth wide, and the red head's tongue gladly accepted the invitation into the moist depths. The girls' tongues touched and fondled, tasting each other and stimulating a lasting tingle.

It didn't get too far beyond that. Frey wasn't one to rush. Suhara was disappointed that they didn't go further though, and tried to whine.

"Suhara, I was serious about not dating before. I really care about you, but we should understand each other better before we do anything else." Frey told her.

"Aw, but you started it." Complained Suhara.

"We were interrupted yesterday, just making up for it." Frey teased, before she started to dress in her robe. "Now hurry up, you have spells to practice."

Suhara pouted a bit, but went ahead to her wardrobe to change.

=+=+=

Because of the girls' morning antics, they were not able to get a practice puppet for today. To solve that problem, Frey proposed a session of combat spell training. The idea was for Frey to act as a melee opponent that Suhara was to take down with whatever new spell she wanted to learn. A minor protective blessing was activated so that Frey couldn't be hurt.

The two faced each other, Frey with a boxing stance and Suhara dual wielding her staff and wand. Suhara was going to practice with two spells at once, one on her wand and one on her staff. Her staff was loaded with an enchantment type spell that ate away motion from the surroundings in order to speed itself up, allowing it to be swung with more force for less effort. Another motion spell was used with the wand, which released a cloud of mist that slowed the movement of anything caught inside.

Although the idea of using the two spells together seemed to be good, it didn't do so well in combat.

Frey was extremely good at dodging, so hitting her with the staff was next to impossible for Suhara's less refined movements. Even with the motion boost, Suhara had a very barbaric fighting style that was easy to predict. Every swing of the staff came after pulling it back in the opposite direction. Frey was able to duck away from the range of all the staff swipes and tap the shorter girl a few times to indicate counterattacks.

The wand spell did slow down Frey slightly, but since the spell ate away at motion, it also completely negated her staff's spell effect. Curses that take away from the same source of energy were actually not too compatible. Suhara also wasn't immune to the slowing curse, so if she cast it too close to herself, she got hindered as well.

After understanding the problems with the first round of combat practice, Suhara prepared her next set of spells with curses that powered up from different sources of energy. She set a temperature genre enchantment on her staff, which absorbed temperature from the surroundings over time and released it in a heat wave whenever the staff landed a hard hit on anything.

The spell she planned to use with her wand was an advanced motion based spell. It was supposed to lay down a trap that immobilized whatever touched it. The spellbook stated that the spell looked like a thick blob of tar on the ground, but Suhara was only able to conjure up a thin paint-like film of the substance.

The second round of combat was delayed while Suhara practiced summoning a larger amount of the movement impeding magic gel. The motion tar spell was actually kept together with a bit of concentration magic, and Suhara still had problems with mixing genre spells. She instantly regretted not paying as much attention to the concentration magic lesson from yesterday.

While Suhara tried to figure her new advanced spell out, Frey was examining the blessing cube. The Gear of Miju had a lot of tiny runes marking the surface, but no clues as to how it was activated. Frey had to pick through the lines of mystical code, figuring out how each one was activated. Based on how they started with a specific requirement for air motion, Frey had to assume that the cube was voice activated with a specific keyword.

Through intense focus and patience, Frey began to decipher the required sound for each stage of activation. She wrote down her notes on a scrap of parchment, trying to put together the correct phrase.

After Frey was a third of the way finished with deciphering the cube's requirements, Suhara finally succeeded at forming the motion trap. A small blob of what looked like melted black rubber laid on the floor, and when Suhara tested it, her foot was stuck. It worked as it intended!

The tar trap curse was a very condensed form of other motion curses. It absorbed over ninety percent of any motion that passes through it. Thanks to that, the effect was very similar to getting stuck in a real blob of sticky gel.

It took a few minutes to get her foot out of the trap, and then she was ready to begin combat again.

She didn't do any better.

The concept of the tar trap curse was very nice, but it was a very noticeable spell that could be sidestepped without effort. Frey's natural combat reflexes made trapping her with the spell a fruitless goal. Frey blocked the first strike of the staff, just so that Suhara would know how her new staff spell reacted. The heat wave added a decent amount of force power behind the strike, but that was after the staff had been sitting around for a while. The amount of time it took for the staff to charge up was highly impractical at room temperature.

While excited by the combat training, Suhara forgot to keep track of magic fatigue and had tired herself out once again. It wasn't as bad as the previous session, since she didn't directly cast as much, but the fatigue had progressed a bit too much for Frey to refill any magic immediately.

While Suhara sat and rested her magic for a bit, Frey went back to inspecting the Gear of Miju. There were a total of twelve air motion locks, which meant the key phrase was twelve syllables long. They had to also be said in a certain order, but Frey had no way of telling that the order was supposed to be. All she had now was a bank of words and sounds. She currently had five of the air motion locks figured out:

Air, lees, wairs, with, and deep.

It took around two hours before Suhara was able to shake off her magic fatigue. In that time, Frey had found all the remaining sounds keys, but still didn't know how to order them together. The last seven sound keys were: Bod, ri, thin, de, wich, ee and yohr.

The key words were written into the parchment to figure out later, then Frey rejoined Suhara for magic practice. The magic refilling blessing was placed on Suhara, filling her depleted magic back up. It didn't fully recharge her, but it was close enough.

Suhara wanted to try and surprise Sellwall, so she was going to attempt to learn a master class spell. Frey supported this idea, but first took some time to teach Suhara some more specific details about casting spells. Due to Suhara's inexperience with magic fatigue, Frey guessed that her novi didn't know about magic erosion either.

=+=+=

Master class spells have incredibly complex preparation patterns. They take a significant time to cast, so aren't ideal for situations such as solo combat. It is very favorable to craft items that are able to cast a master class spell, since it is difficult for a person to remember every casting requirement for magic at that level of complexity. However, the more complex a pattern is, the more durable a crafted item has to be.

Stones, crystals, and metals are some of the only materials that can be used to craft items that cast master class spells. The massive amount of surging magical power required to activate a master level spell item is already enough to destroy weaker materials like wood.

This doesn't mean items like wood wands can't cast master class spells, the items simply can't hold the entire spell pattern. Spell patterns are usually formed in the body of a caster, but magical items take in the required amount of magic and funnel it through the spell pattern designed within. In other words, whatever is forming the spell pattern feels the recoil of a magic spell.

The recoil from a magic spell is usually negligible. Magic flows like water in a river. Simple spells mean simple and straightforward rivers. A complex spell pattern is much like a river of twisting turns and violent rapids. Low level and standard level spells are simple, and thus create little to no recoil for a mage.

Advanced, master, and divine class spells can actually harm a magician over time. Magic fatigue is when a person runs out of magic, out of water. A second form of magical injury, known as magic erosion, happens when an overabundance of complex spells actually damages how a mage is able to form spell patterns.

Older rivers tend to be simpler than younger or newly formed rivers. This is because rushing water that turns or flows down rapids will eat more away at the sides of a river bed. Eventually, if the water eats enough away from the sides of the riverbed, it will actually break through and flow into a separate part of the river, forcibly causing the river to simplify.

Similarly, when a magician experiences magic erosion, they are incapable of casting spells that are too complex. They have injured their ability to form complex patterns, which forces them to use simple ones.

Mages are able to recover from magic erosion, because living bodies will heal over time. However, magical items are not alive, so when a complex spell erodes the pattern, the magical item breaks.

The way magic behaves like rivers do is also a big reason for why most mages tend to specialize what type of magic they cast. Casting similar types of spells will slowly carve the pattern of the spell into a mage's being. The more they cast the same spell type, the easier that spell type becomes. Since creating new rivers is difficult over existing rivers, this also makes learning spells outside of a specialty much harder. Many mages pursue their favorite or best magic type to the end.

=+=+=

"Why hasn't any of this been taught in my other classes?" Suhara asked.

"Well, you're a novice mage. Novice class mages aren't expected to know anything more complex than standard spells." Frey explained.

"Oh. How do I get promoted then?"

"The Lyceum administration tests the students five times a year, once every two months. You can apply for an earlier test through a teacher if you want, but Sellwall might actually be planning that already."

"Really?"

"Yeah, being able to efficiently use advanced spells is on the high end of the basic class mage. If you can get master spells down, then you're almost qualified for an expert class mage."

"Wow! Cool! So that means Tricks and Desyi both know a lot of master level spells already?" Suhara excitedly questioned.

"That's right! Though it's rare to ever need to use such powerful spells in day to day life. If we're lucky, Desyi and Tricks might use some against each other in their duel!" Answered Frey.

Filled with newly found zeal, Suhara got to work practicing a master class spell. The one that caught her attention from the curse book was an aura spell designed to disable the bodies of everyone surrounding her.

Electrical energy is what many creatures use to move their bodies. The disabling curse is supposed to send out a burst of magic that would cut off the movement of electrical energy from the brain to the body, which would be enough to shut the body down. The effect would be brief, but the moment would give a very big advantage when outnumbered in a fight.

There was a way to specify allies that wouldn't be affected by the mass disabling curse, but it made the curse a lot more complicated. Suhara was first going to practice the spell without making exceptions for allies.

Back when Suhara was practicing aura magic, she could only cover about half a meter from her body. Frey stood one meter away from Suhara as she practice the new spell, so that extending the aura radius could also be part of the practice.

Every spell has a unique number of components that make up their pattern. However, there is a rough estimate for the amount of parts to each level of spell. Beginner spells usually average two components. Standard spells have roughly five. Advanced spells require around twenty pattern parts. Master class spell jump up all the way to nearly a hundred.

Master class spells were just about five times more complex than advanced spells, and were extremely troublesome to remember. While Suhara was casting, she failed multiple times when trying to form the pattern. She tried breaking the spell pattern into several parts, memorizing each individually before trying to string them together all at once.

After about thirty minutes of failure, Suhara stamped her feet on the ground and groaned in frustration.

"Maybe you should try chanting," Frey suggested, "It's a good way to remember long spells, just think of a sound for common groups of pattern components and put them together into a song."

Suhara let out one more annoyed little huff, before going back to her spellbook.

Frey returned to working on the cube while Suhara studied the curse some more. Frey began to say keywords one after another, keeping an eye on the locks for when they triggered. The first key to work was 'Ri', while 'Lees' was the second key to work. After Frey had repeated the two keys for a few minutes, she realized that the phrase was written in standard language. The word 'release' was the start of the key phrase.

Eventually, with enough brute force repetition, Frey had all the keys lined up correctly.

'Release the air within, which wears your body thin.'

At the sound of the correct phrase, the cube started to glow much brighter. Frey powered it with a bit of her own magic, which then allowed the cube to cloak her in a blessing.

Suhara lifted her head out from her spellbook and stared at the sudden spectacle. The glow from the cube seemed to transfer over to Frey's body, giving her an illuminated presence.

Then Frey fell through the floor.

"... What?" Suhara gasped.

A few seconds later, Frey hovered back into the practice room. Her body seemed out of touch with the rest of the world, and she could move right through solid objects with ease.

"Oh, that's what 'unstoppable force' meant." Frey noted to herself as she began to fly around the room.

=+=+=

In the end, a master class spell was too much for Suhara to learn, and curfew finally sneaked up to end the magic practice session. She might have managed to pull it off if she invested more time into studying the spell pattern, but a lot of time ended up being used to test out Frey's new blessing.

"You'll get it next time." Frey assured her novi. "Thanks for helping me out so much though!"

Tricks and Desyi were already waiting in the room by the time the two had returned.

"Our duel got academic approval, it's gonna be tomorrow!" Tricks announced with bubbling excitement.

"Yeah, we're gonna be graded on how well we beat each other up." Desyi sighed.

"Aw, we'll miss it then." Suhara whined.

"Actually, I'm sure Sellwall will let us attend, it's not like we're going to be getting anything new tomorrow." Said Frey. "I mean, he could somehow get a third artifact for me, but that's beyond unlikely."

"Oh yeah! Frey figured out her new blessing!" Suhara then told the other two roommates.

"Really? What's it do?" Desyi asked.

"Does it make your punches blow everything up?" Tricks guessed.

"No, it's not that kind of unstoppable force." Explained Frey. "The Gear of Miju makes me intangible for several minutes. It also grants me limited flight. I can pass through anything while using the blessing, but I can still fire off magic while intangible."

"What?!" Tricks exclaimed in awe. "That's way overpowered!"

"It does seem a bit perfect, is there any drawbacks? Maybe you can get stuck in walls or something?" Questioned Desyi.

"Yeah, there is one. I can't get stuck in walls though, there's some kind of contingency for that in the spell pattern, which forces my body to reposition in the nearest empty space when the time limit runs out, even if there's only something like a quill in my palm. The main weakness so far is that Suhara can still hit me with her raw magic." Frey confirmed. "None of her other curses work, but spells that target magic can hit me."

"What, so Suhara is your only weakness?" Commented Tricks. "That's hardly a disadvantage, no one else here uses curses as often as she does."

"She was the only one to practice with me though, the spell might have other drawbacks, I just don't know them yet." Frey established.

"Yeah, if Frey still relies on sight, then your light spells can fool or blind her." Desyi told Tricks. "But it's no fair, my specialty is useless against you now, Frey."

"Looks like." Frey giggled.

=+=+=

"You should totally sneak over to the boys dormitory with your new spell!" Dared Tricks.

"No way! I am not going over to the guys!" Objected Frey.

"Do it! You can freak them out by casting spells at them from the ceiling!" Tricks exclaimed. "Oh oh oh! You can even wail like a banshee and make them think there's a specter haunting them!"

"Ah... I don't know. I might get caught." Frey pointed out.

"It is a bit risky..." Noted Desyi.

"It's totally worth it. No wait, cast the blessing on me, let me do it!" Tricks suggested. "I can make some specter illusions... No wait! Better plan! Let's team up and all go!"

"No! That would be so much more risky!" Desyi complained.

"I kinda wana do it," Suhara piped up. "I can think of a few things my curses can pull."

=+=+=

Somehow, Tricks had managed to convince everyone to mess with the boys.

Frey's intangibility spell could be combined with Tricks' invisibility spell, making all four girls into invisible and intangible spirits of mischief.

Suhara was able to use her raw curse on the light crystals in the boys dorm, blackening several rooms. In the dark, Frey was free to enchant objects to glow and fly around, freaking boys out. Desyi even joined in and made the rooms much colder, causing a scary chill to sweep in. Then Tricks used the small amount of light from Frey's spells to create the illusions of terrifying specters. She made vampires, floating dragon heads, and even a mummy at one point.

And so the Lyceum would forever remember the Haunting Night.

Today was the fourth class day, which meant Suhara would be attending the final two lessons that were a part of her current schedule.

The first class was combat practice, which Suhara had been waiting all week to attend. It was also a fitting class to have on this day, since Desyi and Tricks would be dueling later. The class took place on the arena found on the third floor.

The third floor's arena room was roughly twice the size of an average classroom. The arena was located in the very center of the room, stretching out into a circle that was eight meters in diameter. The entire room was almost completely chalk white. The major features were some black lines that split the arena into four pie pieces, a couple windows that had audience stands behind them, and some white light crystals evenly attached on the walls.

There was a small door to the audience stands, but the entire class just crowded around the arena. Since this was the basic combat practice class, dangerous spells weren't expected to be used by any of the students. Suhara was able to identify at least two other novice class mages, due to how both had silver collars similar to the collar Frey attached.

The class was completely practical. The teacher organized four spars, one for each piece of the divided arena. Eight students would fight at a time, while the teacher observed and instructed from outside the arena.

A lot of basic spells were used in the spars, mostly fireballs. It seemed none of the students here had any especially powerful spells, which suddenly made Suhara very excited. She might actually be one of the most magically adept students in the room. Being able to show off some magic was always a fun thought for Suhara, but her roommates always overshadowed her in terms of power.

In the third set of matches, there ended up being one male mage who was also quite experienced at magic. Suhara heard the whispers in the room about how the boy was a prodigy.

Roy Intone was a couple inches taller than Suhara. He had very dark blue hair that resembled the evening sky. His hair had been brushed back, spiking out at around the back of his neck. His build was decent, as far as anyone could tell under his thick purple robe. Unlike most of the other students in the class, Roy used a staff. The staff was made of a metallic substance, and a rose of metal formed at the top.

Suhara vaguely recognized the name, and a few of the students called Roy a prince. She wasn't sure if the students meant Roy literally was a prince or if he just looked good enough to be one.

His fighting style was certainly interesting, although Suhara thought it was a bit cowardly. Roy's first move was to form a great six sided fortification of ice that completely surrounded him. Then his staff stuck out from one of the openings and fired a shower of tiny fireballs.

Roy's opponent couldn't hit him through the ice fortification and soon succumbed to the barrage of fire. Then as the match was called over, Roy dismantled his fortification and asked to stay in the arena for another bout.

Suhara was sure she could handle him.

A few of the students laughed when Suhara went on stage holding a wand in her left hand and a staff by the bottom tip in her right. Her combat stance looked incredibly awkward for people seeing it the first time. She wasn't exactly used to it either.

"Why's she holding a staff like that?"

"Does she even know how to use a staff?"

"Probably thinks she could take on the prince because she has her own staff."

"Show her who's boss, Roy!"

The jeering students were silenced by the teacher, who then indicated for the duel to start. The three separate duels were still in progress, but even the other duelists seemed to keep an eye on what Roy was doing.

Roy smirked, before he once again formed the ice fortification around himself. While he did that, Suhara focused on an advanced spell that she was going to fire with her demon root wand.

As soon as Roy's staff stuck out from the ice walls, Suhara fired off a small magenta sphere. The magenta sphere landed right in front of Roy's tiny ice fortress, causing an implosion that absorbed every bit of the fire shower that Roy send out with his staff.

When Roy's fireballs abruptly disappeared into the transparent magenta orb, all the students began to whisper in confusion. Then an explosion burst out from the orb, which heavily cracked the ice fortification. The explosion managed to reach some other duelist and a few students in the audience, causing a few people to wince and take a step away.

The explosion had also been powerful enough to knock Roy's staff upwards all of a sudden. This ripped Roy's weapon out of his grip for a moment, which gave Suhara a nice opening.

She had still never tried using her staff on something so hard, but Suhara figured she had to test the limits of her weapons. She had placed the motion eating enchantment over her staff, making it strike much faster. Then with a few steps forward, Suhara swung her staff into Roy's defense of ice.

Suhara often forgot that her staff felt lighter to her than it actually was. This forgetfulness cause her to widen her eyes in surprised when the entire ice fortification shattered under her staff's strike. Roy Intone flew out from his broken fortress, the force of the staff sending him clear out of the arena. There were several shouts of surprise as a few of the audience members were knocked down by Roy's falling body.

"Whoops." Suhara muttered.

It took a couple minutes for the pile of students to untangle, but by the time Roy got up he looked furious.

"I want a rematch duel!" Roy shouted, while one of the other students handed back his staff.

The teacher looked to Suhara after Roy made his request, and it took a few seconds for her to realize she was supposed to reply.

"Oh! Uh... okay?" Suhara replied hesitantly.

Suhara had thought that Roy meant to have another bout in the area she was standing in, but when he set a time and place, she realized it was actually a personal duel.

"Then I shall sponsor it, a duel upon the rooftops! Tomorrow at noon!" The teacher announced.

"Wait, I thoug-" Suhara began.

"I shall see you tomorrow then, novice girl!" Roy dramatically interrupted, before he stormed off in the middle of class.

"... Huh?"

=+=+=

Somehow, Suhara was scheduled for a duel tomorrow. She had been confused by the process, and wasn't sure how to deal with the news. She'd have to ask Frey for the specifics of how people challenge each other to duels. She'd also have to ask her roommates about how to deal with a first duel.

For now, Suhara arrived in her final class. It was the class she liked the least from her schedule, which strongly killed off all the excitement that she experienced from her previous combat lesson.

History class was held here, the study of things that had already happened.

The teacher was an old woman, and the 'old' part was innately expected out of a history lecture.

The moment class started, the woman began an endless monologue about wars in the lands of Yorde.

Suhara couldn't be more bored. Her chin rested on top of her desk and her arms folded in front of her face. She tried her best to stay awake as she was bombard by knowledge that she didn't care about.

After a bit of daydreaming, Suhara managed to remember where she heard Roy's family name. The Intone family was actually an important group in the Welldrop community. A lot of their members were supposed to be chief knights in Suhara's old hometown. Roy wasn't precisely a prince, but he should be pretty high up on the social ladder.

The ongoing lecture about Yorde wars reminded Suhara of her roommates Tricks and Desyi, who were both from that area. Yorde was a seaside nation that was surrounded by a lush forest. People from the land there usually had blond hair and blue eyes, which was often considered very pretty. Tricks' short hair went very well with her smaller stature, and Desyi's always had some complex braids that made her hair stand out even more.

Suhara actually wanted to try having braids in her hair, just to see what it would look like. She thought a side braid would go nice with her long black hair. Desyi could probably help with that.

=+=+=

Frey looked around impatiently while she stood outside Sellwall's door. When she finally spotted Suhara walking down the hall, Frey ran up and grabbed her novi's hand.

"Come on, Suhara. We gotta get up to the arena before they close the doors!" Frey told the bewildered Suhara. "I already told Sellwall."

Frey took out the Gear of Miju with her free hand, activating the cube with the proper key phrase. The intangibility blessing was cast on both of the girls. Frey then flew her novi straight upwards. People under the intangibility blessing were able to touch one another.

Suhara heard the screams of people they flew by. On one floor the two girls had even flown straight through another student. When the duo finally reached the sixth floor, Frey deactivated the cube's blessing.

"Two more." Frey told one of the door monitors at the arena's entrance.

The sixth floor's arena room was huge. It was the size of maybe nine classrooms put together, three times the size of an average classroom. The arena itself was over sixteen meters in length. Tricks and Desyi were already standing inside. Two of the monitoring scope devices were floating up at the ceiling, one focused on each combatant.

The arena was very nice to look at. It resembled the very edge of a forest. A few small trees were scattered around randomly, and a small stream of water was flowing through the very center, dividing the arena. There were more trees on Tricks' side, which had short grass and a few thick knee-high bushes. Desyi's side had only two trees, and the grass she was standing in went up past her angles. There were also two large rocks embedded inside Desyi's side of the arena.

The water that flowed through the arena's stream seem to sprout out one end of the arena and drain into the other. No other magic was aiding this, so the arena had a very unnoticeable slope.

Frey took Suhara to a door that hid a staircase, and at the top there was a balcony that overlooked the arena.

For some reason the balcony wasn't visible down at the level of the arena. Suhara figured there was some kind of invisibility magic going on. It was probably so that the duelists wouldn't be disturbed by the audience. There were eleven other balconies that were visible along the top half of the arena room. Ten of them each had other small groups of students. A few teachers were even occupying one of the balconies, they all had a small table and some parchment. If Suhara had to guess, the teachers were probably here to grade Desyi and Tricks.

Two very familiar green-haired students were already sitting in the seats of the viewing platform Frey and Suhara were in. An unfamiliar girl with russet brown hair was sitting on one of the seats as well.

"Hey Norman, hey Deledy, glad you two could make it." Frey told the green haired siblings.

The green hair turned away as the brother and sister greeted Frey back.

"Oh hey you two! We thought you weren't going to make it for a second there!" Deledy said.

"Yeah, I think the doors are gonna be closed in like, a minute, tops." Norman concurred.

"A new spell helped out." Frey replied with a look of smug satisfaction.

"Oh, Suhara, I'd like you to meet my own adorable little novi!" Deledy excitedly blurted out.

The emerald haired girl pulled the unfamiliar girl up to her feet, and then walked over to Suhara.

"This is Helanna, Helanna, this is Frey's novi Suhara." Deledy introduced.

At first, Helanna looked down at her feet, while her long locks of brown hair covered most of her face. At the mention of novi, she jerked her head up, staring at Suhara's collar. She looked relieved at the sight.

"Oh, hi Suhara." Helanna cheerfully greeted as she hugged her fellow novi.

Suhara returned the hug with about half as much enthusiasm. She wasn't sure if Helanna was shy or outgoing. Her body language was hard to read. "Uh, hi."

"I'm so happy I'm not the only novice here! I feel like I'm surrounded by giants." Whispered Helanna into Suhara's ear.

Suhara smiled at that, understanding the feeling a little, since she once felt that all magicians towered over her. "I'm glad to ease the tension."

Deledy insisted that Suhara and Helanna sit by one another while the three ace magicians caught up with each other. Helanna was delighted by that, and sat down with Suhara two seats away from the ace mages.

"So, what type of magic do you do? I'm a plant mage!" Helanna proudly said.

"I'm a curse magician." Suhara answered.

"What? Cool! We both have rare types!" Helanna bubbled.

"How does plant magic work? I've never learned anything about it."

"Oh, it's so amazing! I come from a small jungle town in the Eritea region, called Flaura, and we are awesome with plant magic." Helanna cheerfully explained as she pulled her wand out from her robe.

The wand looked like a dark green flower stem, and actually had a real flower bud at the tip. It was a bit thicker than regular flower stems, but was the perfect size for a wand. Helanna waved the wand a bit in the air, and the bud bloomed into a yellow flower with twenty-one petals. The flower resembled a chicory with thick and yellow petals.

"See, we have these wands that we can actually grow out of a pot. I have a ton of spares in my room growing just in case. These wands are alive, and we keep them alive with our magic. I don't think plant magic is quite as tough your power magic, but it's really unique because it requires the combination of temperature, motion, and concentration genre magic. I have to keep my wand at the optimal temperature, concentrate water and light onto it for food, and use motion to accelerate the development processes inside the wand."

Helanna tapped the flower against her palm, and a few small seeds popped out.

"Plant wands are loaded with the innate spell pattern to produce seeds. I haven't grown one with any really complex seeds yet, but I can grow a whole field of flowers that release drowsy spores and have controllable vines instead of roots."

"Wow, that's awesome!" Suhara praised. "Are you also able to cast regular magic with the wand?"

"Yep! The flower is living, so I can actually switch around between spell patterns with motion magic. Plant wands are way more versatile than any other wands!"

The two novice mages continued to gush about magic, until a booming voice suddenly rang out.

Suhara recognized Tricks' specialty teacher, who seemed to be watching over this duel like he watched over Tricks' last duel.

"We are about to begin. Prepare yourselves, combatants."

Tricks was the first to strike. She stabbed her pearl wand forward, and a beam of concentrated light shot through the air.

Desyi's defense was just as quick. The air directly in front of her dropped down by a huge amount as soon as she noticed Tricks had raised a wand.

The beam of bright light struck a wall of dry ice, releasing a great cloud of white mist from the sublimation of frozen air. The shining white beam could not fully pierce through the sheet of dull smoke-colored ice, instead Desyi was hidden behind the resulting smokescreen.

A suit of armor made from white ice leapt out from the smokescreen, landing dead in the middle of Desyi's side of the field. The tall grass she stood on began to freeze into rigid spikes under her feet, then the frozen effect slowly spread through the field like a pandemic.

Tricks was gone. Her invisibility spell had already been casted, letting her vanish from the battlefield.

Half a dozen shining bright orbs appeared high in the sky, and each began to rain down pillars of bright light at the armored Desyi.

The light did not miss their target, but Desyi remained standing unfazed. Her armor of white was barely affected under the glow of Tricks' light magic.

White had always been a difficult color for light to burn. It reflected so much of the energy away. The barely transparent nature of the dry ice also helped defend against Tricks' light. The little bits of dry ice that had been sublimated off the armor by the heating strikes were easily replaced with more frozen air.

"Not gonna do anything?" Tricks' voice echoed through the arena. "Just gonna stand there and freeze the place?"

"I'm not the wasteful type, Tricks." Desyi's replied, her voice slightly muffled behind the plates of her frost armor.

An array of large head-sized light orbs formed randomly in the arena, before they all flew over and danced above Desyi's head.

A blinding tower of light smashed down on top of the frost white armor. For several seconds, nearly every spectator had to look off to the side as the light glimmered with the intensity of the sun.

The grass beneath Desyi's feet had been thawed and burnt dry from the assault of light. Desyi's armor had also been smoothed out by the blinding attack, but the thin white gas surrounding her soon condensed back into the armor. If the grass hadn't been cooked by the tower of light, it would look like Desyi was still unaffected.

"Good gods I hate your armor." Tricks muttered with her eerie voice.

"Light's a lot more expensive to cast than my ice," noted the armored girl, "you're gonna have to use something else or you'll be tapped out."

In the seconds before Tricks' next move, the grass beneath Desyi's feet had been crisply frozen once more. A smooth layer of ice had covered most of the open side of the arena by now.

A loud thump abruptly filled the air, and Desyi was blasted off the ground by an invisible force. The armored girl landed into the field of sharp frozen grass, causing a loud crunch as the rigid grass blades shattered.

Desyi stood back up steadily, shaking her head a bit from the disorientation. Spikes of ice shot out from her chest and her back, anchoring her armored self into the ground.

Another loud thump sounded out as Tricks' concentrated air slammed into Desyi. The ice spikes did their job, keeping Desyi rooting in place.

A great man-sized block of solid white ice was formed and then thrown into the air. It had been aimed at where Desyi believed she felt the gust of concentrated air bursting out from.

"Sorry, already moved." Tricks taunted with a harmony of her voice ringing out around Desyi.

Another giant block of ice was formed, but this time Desyi didn't throw it. The block of ice hung up above her, rotating lightly in the empty air. Then Desyi started to form a softer ball of what looked like snow between her hands.

The large ice ball was thrown high up in the sky. It hovered just around the center of the arena, and then exploded out into a cloud of dusty snow. On Desyi's side of the arena, something that was invisible in the air was hit by the explosion of snow. White frost hung in the air, sticking onto a floating air platform and an invisible human shape.

"Whoa, crap!" Tricks yelled out as the giant block of ice was hurled at her.

The heavy chunk of ice punched straight through the air platform. Tricks' snow veiled body could be seen jumping off a half second before the impact, landing onto the frozen grass below.

There was a crunch of breaking grass blades when Tricks landed, which helped to confirm the invisible girl's location along with the coat of snow.

Desyi fired off two bursts of freezing wind from her palms, both focused on Tricks' location. Tricks turned visible again as the icy winds began to freeze her skin. Then a moment later the winds seemed to be blocked, and ice instead began to form over an invisible dome that surrounded Tricks.

Upon seeing the dome, Desyi stopped casting her cold wind. The ice spikes that there anchoring her down broke off from her armor, before she bent her knees in a stance that looked prepared to run. Desyi crossed her armored arms in front of her face, while a ball of fire began to form behind her.

There was a booming burst of force as Desyi's ball of fire exploded. The armored girl was launched forward by the blast, shooting to Tricks' dome like a meteor. There was a dull thump as the armor punched through the concentrated air. Both Tricks and Desyi were shot out from the other side of the dome, landing a few meters away from one another.

The frozen grass crunched under the both of the girls, but Tricks didn't seem to touch the ground. An invisible forcefield surrounded Tricks, keeping everything a few centimeters away from her.

Tricks thrust out her pearl wand, and Desyi was knocked off into the distance by another shot of concentrated air. The two girls were close to the side of the arena now, so Desyi's body crashed right into the forcefield that surrounded the entire battlefield.

Combined with the damage from her own explosion, Desyi's defense was starting to crack. More bursts of concentrated air were fired off from Tricks' wand, which kept Desyi pinned against the forcefield. The white armor steadily crumbled from all the blows.

All of a sudden, Desyi exploded. The white armor was ripped off and shot out in shattered shards. Tricks had gotten too close, and had also been thrown off her feet by the force.

Desyi's entire body, clothing included, glowed in shades of red. A cloak of flames surrounded her, causing the air to shake from all the heat. She was also hovering in the air with motion magic, and looking down at Tricks.

Desyi punched forward, and a ball of flames struck down next to Tricks. In the moment of impact, there was an explosion of force that flung Tricks over to the other side of the arena's river.

Tricks' concentrated air armor still held out, protecting her as she was launched into a tree. The tree audibly snapped from the intensity of the crash.

Desyi flew over to the forest side of the arena, before bombarding Tricks with two gigantic flamethrowers. A blaze flooded over this side of the arena, igniting everything that would burn.

Tricks flew up out of the fire, her hair and clothes slightly singed from all the heat. The armor of dense air didn't help much against so much fire. Both of Tricks' hands gripped her pearl wand, which was pointed right towards Desyi.

Desyi tried to follow Tricks with the flamethrowers that were blaring from her palms, but Tricks was able to strike first with a bullet of white light.

The bullet had been made from both air and light, which knocked Desyi out of flight.

Desyi fell right into the river in the center of the arena, causing the water to evaporate into a heavy fog of steam.

Tricks pointed her want at Desyi again, and then all the water from the river began to concentrate around Desyi.

Desyi's red glow faded as the water pushed in. All the concentrated liquid seemed to root Desyi in place.

The sphere of dense water didn't need any more magic from Tricks to sustain itself, so Tricks lifted her wand and closed her eyes in concentration. While Tricks was concentrating, the entire arena room seemed to dim a little bit.

The water surrounding Desyi was all boiling now, and a great pillar of steam billowed up to the sky. In a few more seconds, Desyi managed to wrestle herself out from the water's grip, having reduced most of the liquid into gas.

A tiny dot of light hovered over right in front of Desyi when she broke free. As soon as Desyi's eyes spotted the little dot, she immediately leap away, while ice just barely had enough time to coat her body in a thin layer.

Everyone closed their eyes and looked away as the sun seemed to flash in for another glamorous appearance. The tiny dot had released a grand display of unyielding illumination, sparing no one from being blinded.

When the massive flare of radiating light finally dimmed away, the audience carefully turned back to see the aftermath. Desyi laid with her back against the empty riverbed. Her skin looked heavily blistered, and her eyes were squinted shut.

"You alright there Desyi?" Tricks asked, half with concern and half with triumph.

For a moment, there was some silence, then Desyi reached into her robe and pulled out her ruby wand.

"Not done yet, roomie." Desyi whispered out as she raised the wand high into the air.

Tricks flinched and covered her face, having expecting something to shoot out at her.

All the ice that covered the open side of the arena abruptly disappeared. The fire that was raging on the forest side of the arena also simultaneously stopped. Tricks felt as raw heat seemed to rush in from the forest behind her, but it wasn't hot enough to do any damage.

Tricks raised her head, confused. She didn't know what was happening, and the audience couldn't see anything either.

Invisible to the naked eye, cold and hot air collided together in the center of the arena. The swift freezing winds brushed against the slower heat, and together the forces began to swirl. The steam from all the evaporated river water was caught up in the twisting winds, finally giving the unseen forces some visible shape.

A great swirling white funnel appeared in the center of the arena, which steadily touched down onto the ground and covered Desyi.

A tornado now spun in the very middle of the battlefield. The winds began to pick up, affecting the entire arena with gale forces. Leaves, dirt, and grass blades were the first to begin flying up into the air, painting the sky with debris.

Desyi's ruby wand continued to feed the calamity with different temperatures of air, fueling the strength of the storm. Tricks' flight magic was overwhelmed by the force, and her body was soon pulled into the chaotic winds.

The two rocks on the field were then lifted into the twister, shortly followed by the trees as they were torn out of the earth. Tricks' body was smashed against all the flying wreckage, the combined impact from all the different types of collisions injured Tricks. The dense air armor was no help against the sheer volume of random strikes.

For almost two whole minutes, Trick was thrown about like a rag doll. Then Desyi stopped fueling the tornado, and all the debris was flung back down to the arena.

Tricks landed roughly into the bare ground, which had been stripped down to rocky soil. She was moaning in pain from all her twisted limbs.

"You alright there, Tricks?" Desyi giggled as she sat up from the empty riverbed.

The arena’s forcefield disintegrated into a familiar shower of pink and yellow lights. When the sparkling shower reached Desyi and Tricks, their wounds faded away.

“Ha! I win!” Norman laughed. “I knew Dezzie had it in the bag!”

“Ah damn, I was sure Rola won with that last light spell.” Pouted Deledy while she handed Norman a handful of silver coins.

“The tornado spell was cool though, right? I’ve never seen that one used in a duel before.” Said Norman.

“Yeah, it requires a lot of setting up.” Frey noted. “She had to heat and cool enough of the air in order to cast it.”

While talking, the magicians got up from their balcony seats and went down the staircase.

“Isn’t wind magic normally just a motion thing?” Helanna asked the ace mages while they walked.

“Normally, yeah.” Answered Deledy. “However, motion magic is a bit more expensive than temperature magic, and you can duplicate a natural tornado effect by smashing hot and cold air together. It still uses a bit of motion magic, but it’s a lot cheaper.”

“Oh, Frey, I forgot to tell you,” Suhara abruptly brought up, “I somehow got challenged to a duel for tomorrow.”

“What? Really?” Blurted Frey in surprise. “You didn’t accept, did you?”

“Uh… I didn’t know it was a challenge, so I kinda did.” Suhara replied.

“Hey guys! Enjoy the show?” Tricks said as she joined up with the group.

“No,” Deledy complained, “you cost me a lot of silver, Rola! I expected you to win!”

“It was pretty close, that last burst almost knocked me out.” Desyi added in.

“I had complete faith in you, Dezzie!” Norman claimed.

“Well thank you very much, Norman.” Desyi acknowledged with a small smile.

“Hey guys, I’m taking Suhara over to the practice room.” Frey announced when the group reached the hallway. “I need to give her some pointers, she somehow got into a duel.”

“What?! Really?” Tricks exclaimed. “Why? When is it? Who’re you fighting?”

“Uh, I didn’t know it was a challenge.” Explained Suhara. “It’s going to be tomorrow on the roof, and it’s from a guy named Roy from my combat practice class.”

“Oh no, that’s way too soon for your first duel.” Desyi said with a worried tone. “I really don’t think you’re ready.”

“Yeah,” agreed Frey, “That’s why I gotta give her some tips while I got the chance.”

“You guys should have some faith in her.” Said Deledy. “I’m sure she’ll be okay.”

“We can all go talk about it in the dorm.” Tricks told the group. “For now, I’m hungry from the match. Let’s go grab a bite, Desyi.”

“Oh, don’t you think we should help Suhara out first?” Desyi responded.

“It’s probably best if only Frey-ray helped Suhara.” Norman pointed out. “It might get too confusing to get advice from so many people at once.”

“Mmhm,” Helanna muttered in agreement, “I always learn best when I have one instructor at a time.”

“Alright, we’re going.” Frey declared as she pulled Suhara away. “See you guys later!”

=+=+=

“When did you get that bracelet?” asked Frey as she walked down the stairs with Suhara.

“Huh? What do you mean?” Suhara questioned back.

“That black bracelet, the one on your left wrist.” Frey said while gesturing towards the object.

Suhara looked down at her left wrist, and was bewildered by the sight of the bracelet Rales had given her. She had somehow complete forgotten about it until now.

“Uh, I forgot I had this… Rales gave it to me a while back.” Suhara stated as she stared at the bracelet.

“Huh, you forgot about a bracelet on your arm?” Questioned Frey with disbelief. “That’s odd. I actually only noticed the bracelet myself because I felt it while I was pulling you by your wrist.”

“C-could you help me take it off?” Suhara requested. “It needs two hands to pull at it from the sides.”

“Oh, resizing enchantment? Sure, no problem.” Frey replied as she pulled at the bracelet.

The bracelet thinned and stretched out as Frey pulled, and soon slipped right off. Suhara held it carefully, observing the black stone and purple gems with curiosity, then she placed the bracelet in one of her robe pockets.

=+=+=

“Duels are very stressful.” Explained Frey as the two girls reached the training room. “You have to pay attention to a lot of little details, or else you will lose easily.”

Suhara listened carefully, her attention fully focused on Frey’s lecture.

“You can’t expect to win if you just throw spells at the opponent. You have to have proper judgement, and figure out which course of action is the most beneficial. You need maneuverability and defensive spells as well, because you need ways to avoid damage from the opponent.

This is a problem, because you actually have a very small pool of spells. Out of all the spells you have, only two are defensive, but those two spells only work well against melee fighters. Your explosion curse can be situationally defensive, but only against high degree temperature spells. You also have that teleportation spell you used against the armored thief for maneuverability, but I have no idea how easy that is for you to use.

Thankfully, you can use the silver anklet I gave you for the defensive blessing. The blessing should be able to protect you against a wide variety of spells, but you should still avoid attacks when you can.

Unfortunately, you haven’t been very good at aiming so far, so you’re going to have to rely on melee combat against your opponent. Your staff is an incredibly useful melee weapon, especially while paired with the motion eating enchantment. Since we don’t know anything about your opponent though, there is a chance he might have more maneuverability than you. If that’s the case, melee won’t be much of an advantage.

If you can’t use that teleport of yours consistently, you should invest in improving your aim. Just keep moving, keep up the anklet blessing, and try your best to hit your opponent if melee doesn’t work out.”

Suhara nodded her head in understanding, before embarking on a target practice session. Frey provided a few moving targets with object blessing, which Suhara tried her best to take out from a distance.

=+=+=

After Suhara practiced till curfew, she returned back to the dorm with Frey. The girls were in their usual discussion circle, talking mostly about Suhara's duel.

"His name is Roy Intone," Suhara explained to her roommates, "I think he's from a royal knight family in Welldrop."

"A knight? Oh, that might be tough." Noted Frey. "They're combat orientated and everything. He might show up tomorrow wearing enchanted armor."

"Ugh, enchanted knight armor is so cheap!" Complained Tricks. "Rich parents always cover their kids in them and expect it to carry them to success. I once fought some guy who had like two dozen enchantments stuffed into his armor. I won, obviously, but that's cause I'm me."

"I just hope he doesn't use a sword." Worried Desyi. "I'm not sure if Suhara could fight against that."

At the mention of sword, Suhara's eyes went wide and her shoulders went stiff.

"Desyi, you're scaring Suhara!" Whined Frey as she gave Suhara a hug of reassurance.

"Sorry," apologized Desyi, "don't worry too much Suhara, there are protections in place against lethal injuries."

"But wow, a duel during your first week." Tricks said as she sighed. "I'm not sure if that's good or bad for a mage's rep."

"I still can't believe your teacher is sponsoring a duel for you!" Desyi told Suhara. "That should have been the first time he ever met you, too!"

"Well, Suhara said it was after she knocked that other student on his butt. The teach probably thought Suhara could handle herself." Reasoned Tricks.

"Oh yeah, didn't you use one of your advanced spells when you beat him in the spar?" Asked Frey.

Suhara looked off to the side for a moment, before nodding her head in confirmation.

"Mm, then the teacher just jumped the gun." Frey grumbled.

=+=+=

Desyi's gentle snoring resonated in the room, which meant to Suhara that all the girls were asleep by now. Tricks could manage to instantly fall asleep upon hitting the sheets, and Frey just used a sleeping spell. Desyi always took the longest out of the three to reach dreamscape.

That left Suhara alone in the dark room, staring up nervously. During the first few days in the dorm, Suhara fell asleep last because she wasn't used to being in such a new place. Now the bed felt like home for her, but the duel was making her mind uneasy.

What if the arena protection spells failed during the duel?

Suhara's lack of confidence was causing a panic in her mind, and she wished that there was some way for her to drastically improve her abilities in the time she had left. Then she thought back to what Frey told her about duels.

The teleportation spell she used at one point was provided by Theema, the goddess. Theema given Suhara magic power, now Suhara wondered if the goddess could help a little more.

Everything was tinted purple as Suhara activated the Winter Sight.

"Theema?" She whispered into the darkness.

"Hello child, what is it that you need?" Theema's voice replied in Suhara's mind.

"Uh, I have a duel tomorrow... but I don't think I can win right now."

"A duel? Are you attempting to fight a spirit from Broken Space or the High Priest of Bright Noon?"

"N-no, I'm definitely not ready for that. It's just with another student."

"I see, you desire some power for the duel, then?"

"Y-yeah."

The goddess's voice suddenly went silent. Suhara wasn't sure if she should speak out, so she just waited. After two minutes of quiet, Theema's voice returned to Suhara's mind.

"I have a solution, child. Remain still."

Everything was already dark in the dorm, although Suhara could see the magical lights around her thanks to the Winter Sight. However, after Theema made her declaration, Suhara's purple tinted sight was blacked out completely, and shadows surrounded her.

Suhara's body felt the familiar burning sensation of the dark teleportation. When her augmented sight could see again, she found herself standing on a cold stone ground. She didn't recognize where she was anymore, but it certainly wasn't her room. The burning feeling went away faster than usual, like Suhara was getting used to moving about in this manner.

"Theema, I'm still wearing night clothes, you should warn me if you're going to bring me outside. I don't even have my wand or staff!" Suhara complained.

"You won't need any of those things, child." Theema responded.

Moonlight poured down on Suhara from a round skylight that was on an immensely high ceiling. She was in a big, empty, and windowless tower of some sort. Six massive navy blue pillars surrounded her, which went all the way up to the moonlit opening. A great spiral staircase was connected to the walls of the tower, and surrounded the pillars. The staircase slithered up to the very top of the huge room.

Everything looked ancient. The navy blue stone that made up all the structures was cracked and covered with patches of green moss. Every step that Suhara made left a footprint in the dusty floor.

There was a single black statue that stood in the very center of the room. It looked like Theema, but was posed differently compared to the black statue at the Lyceum. Theema was depicted kneeling down with open arms, as if she was in the middle of embracing a small child. Upon close inspection, one of the statue's eyes was closed, so there was only one purple gemstone eyeball on this statue.

Suhara kept the Winter Sight activated while she observed everything, but Theema didn't say anything else. There wasn't a lot of magical lights that could be seen with the Winter Sight here in this tower. That meant there were very few living things here, from what Suhara knew about her power.

"This was an old temple of mine." Theema finally whispered in Suhara's head. "Long since abandoned now that no one remembers me."

"Even if this place is in the middle of nowhere, wouldn't someone eventually notice a tower that's this big?" Suhara responded.

"You misunderstand, child. You are deep underground right now. That ceiling is leveled with the surface of the world."

"Oh."

"Yes, go ahead and move up with the staircase. My help requires that you be out there."

"Okay."

Suhara followed Theema's orders, and made the long trek up the spiraling stairs. There was a ladder and a trapdoor at the very top, which she climbed out from.

The trapdoor led to a dense forest, filled with massive trees that bunched together so tightly that it was impossible for anyone to fit through.

"Who are you?" Whispered a malicious voice.

Suhara stumbled over in fright as she was surprised by the unfamiliar voice. She turned around to face what had spoken, only to be scared even more by what she saw.

Crimson hair ran down the face of the pale white lady. Her eyes had ruby pupils, which matched the long crimson hair. Her stomach was exposed by a round opening, showing off her perfectly smooth white belly. The rest of her body was completely covered in black stone armor.

The Winter Sight revealed a flowing aura of blood red magic that surrounded the lady.

Suhara recognized the features.

A vampire.

After Suhara turned around, the lady vampire instantly recognized the frightened facial features.

"Oh, I see." The vampire hatefully muttered. "Theema has found another daughter. I never thought that would ever happen again."

"No need to be wary," said Theema's voice in Suhara's head, "the armor keeps the weapon immobile. It will not harm you."

For a moment, Suhara wasn't sure if she should try to say anything. She wanted to ask Theema for more information about what was going on, but didn't want to speak in the vampire's intimidating presence.

The vampire just glared into Suhara's violet eyes, while the black armor rooted the pale creature in place. For some reason, Suhara felt a little drowsy from the vampire's gaze, so she turned her head back away.

"W-why is a vampire here?" Suhara finally decided to whisper.

"Ah yes, ignoring me to commune with your precious goddess. I shouldn't expect anything else from the priestess." Snarled the lady vampire from behind Suhara.

"The vampire is a weapon, an eternal guard that keeps watch over this temple of mine." Theema explained to Suhara. "The armor that it wears keeps it in place, only letting the weapon move whenever any trespasser must be executed. The armor also forcefully binds the connection that the weapon has with its blood demon, so that it shall remain as a vampire no matter the demon's will."

"Well, the vampire is scary and the air out here is really cold. What's up here that could help me?" Asked Suhara. "I don't think I could even fit between any of these trees."

"You asked me for more power, and I can provide it to you with this weapon."

"What? How does a vampire help me wi... wait. Theema, you said no one remembers you anymore! The vampire said your name, so she definitely does, right?"

"What my weapons know of me is irrelevant."

"Uh huh, right. What exactly were you planning to do to help me, anyway? Have me turned into a vampire?" Suhara questioned skeptically.

"Heh, such a moronic brat." The vampire jeered.

"Your seem to be unaware." Theema stated. "It is not possible for a vessel to be bound with more than a single immortal spirit. I also do not wish for you to be anything other than my vessel. My intention was simply to teach you how to use the gift I have placed within your left arm."

"Left arm? Oh right... that contract thing." Suhara mumbled as she recalled what Theema told her around half a week ago.

Suhara had forgotten most of what Theema had mentioned, since it was never a power she could really test out. At best, she remembered how the goddess had told her to beat Broken Space and High Noon. Then afterwards she had to do something with her left arm.

Under the tinted perception of her Winter Sight, Suhara could see the thin purple tattoos that were running down her body. She gently rubbed the four blank circles that were drawn along the curving lines etched into her left arm.

"How exactly does this work?" Suhara asked.

"I have said it before. Defeat spirits or the vessels of spirits, then plunge your left arm into their bodies. Doing that will allow you to absorb the spirit's energy, which my immortal magic will store and replicate."

"Okay, I understood maybe half of that." Suhara complained. "First of all, I can't exactly defeat any spirits. Second of all, I don't have the strength to plunge my hand in anyone's body, and honestly I don't want to either."

The lady vampire snickered while Suhara ranted to the goddess.

"Having some troubles with your newest priestess, Theema?" The vampire mocked.

Suhara saw as the black armor unexpectedly surged with magenta magic, which then crackled with electrical energy. The lady vampire screeched from the agony of being electrocuted, and then fell silent. The black armor remained propped up like a statue, while the vampire's head was hanging forward motionlessly. The long crimson hair was still frizzled from from the shocks.

Suhara gasped out in alarm. "You didn't have to kill her for that!"

"It is not dead." Replied Theema. "But it is defeated, you are now free to take the powers of its spirit."

"W-What? No! I'm not going up to a vampire!"

"It will stay incapacitated for many hours."

"Oh. Well, I don't want to stick my hand into her. I don't even think I have the strength to sick my arm through her. Don't vampires have tough skin or something?"

"You have misunderstood once again, child. Your arm will meet no resistance, and it shall leave no wound. When extracting energy with my gift, you arm takes on the form of intangible immortal magic."

"Ah... you never said anything about that."

Suhara looked over to her left arm, trying to will it to become intangible, but nothing was happening.

"Uh, how do I turn my arm into what you were talking about?" Suhara questioned the goddess.

"Concentrate your mind on one of your vacant circles, and imagine opening a vortex out from it." Instructed Theema.

"You know, you really should explain all of this beforehand, Theema." Suhara mentioned as she followed the goddess's instructions. "I don't think anyone could figure this out by themselves."

"All my previous vessels knew of my gifts, it was never required of me to teach them."

The vision of the Winter Sight showed as the empty circle on the back of Suhara's hand began to fill with swirling darkness. Suhara saw as her fair skin darkened into a smokey gray. The left arm's twisting vine-like tattoos glimmered brightly, glowing with a more intense purple than the rest of Theema's symbols.

Suhara cautiously walked up to the vampire, positioning her enchanted arm right in front of the vampire's exposed stomach. She didn't try to plunge her arm in just yet.

"Theema?" Suhara called out gently.

"Yes?" Responded the goddess.

"What exactly will happen to me if I do this?"

"Child, the immortal magic I provide to you is vast, but featureless. You likely have more soul flowing through you than any other mortal vessel, but it gives you no abilities beyond the Winter Sight. My realm has no other inhabitants, because my power is an empty void. The soul that originates from my realm must act as a shadow, it must have a source to mirror. The ability of my left arm, which I have imprinted onto your body, can store powers that my immortal magic will use as a foundation. You can absorb and duplicate any form of magic with my left arm, but only immortal magic can last forever. Magic from your mortal realm would remain for less than a moment."

"So... I'll get vampire powers?"

"Essentially. You will not duplicate abilities as perfectly as I can. You can only store four different types of soul, and the abilities you copy will only function with a quarter of their original strength."

"Will I want to drink blood like a vampire?"

"No. You will have no bond with a blood demon. The desire of blood and the appearance of vampires are strictly effects from blood demon influence."

Suhara considered the goddess's explanation for a few more seconds, trying to find any downsides. When no other doubts crept through her mind, Suhara thrust her arm forward into the vampire's stomach.

Nothing happened for several seconds, but then Suhara could see as the red aura of magic began to flow and converge at the vampire's stomach. The process took a while, but eventually the magic stopped flowing and Suhara could feel a slight tingling on the back of her left hand.

Suhara's arm solidified as soon as she pulled it out of the vampire. A glowing mixture of various dark red shades now filled the circle on her hand. She briefed switched out of the Winter Sight, just to make sure that the tattoo was still invisible. When she confirmed that only the magical optics could see anything, Suhara switched her vision back so that she could continue to speak with the goddess.

"So, that's it right? I have vampire abilities now?" Suhara asked.

"Yes," answered Theema, "but you will have to obtain the knowledge of vampires so that you know how to use the abilities you have copied."

"Alright, then I'll visit the library before my duel. May I please go home now? It's still really cold outside and my sleeping clothes aren't helping at all."

Darkness instantly surrounded Suhara after she made the request, and the familiar burning sensation that came with Theema's teleportations filled her body.

Desyi's soft snoring could be heard within the darkness, indicating that Suhara was transported back onto her dorm bed.

"Thanks for the help, Theema." Suhara whispered with gratitude, after the burning sensation faded away from her body.

"Of course, child."

Then Suhara closed her eyes, shifting away from the Winter Sight. She was a bit calmer thanks to the help given to her by Theema. The dreamscape gladly welcomed her.

=+=+=

As with anyone who experiences something extraordinary in the middle of the night, Suhara considered the possibility that she had dreamt everything.

Thankfully she could easily check the facts with a quick look at her arm with the Winter Sight.

Although Suhara got the least amount of sleep, she somehow woke up first. The excitement from an upcoming duel seemed to be the primary reason for that.

The duel was going to take place an hour past noon, so Suhara got ready quick. She still needed enough time to read about vampires in the library.

Suhara stood through a quick five minute shower, not even bothering to scrub too well. Desyi had lent her a high hemline robe for combat, which Frey never thought Suhara would need so soon.

The small lavender robe was actually firmer than it looked, and kept Suhara's breasts rigid. She wasn't sure if it was enchanted or specially designed, but she never even considered her bosom to be a possible combat inconvenience until this point.

After Suhara made sure she had the demon root wand, her staff Sevla, and Frey's silver anklet, she made her way out the door. She also left a small note on her pillow that said she was going to make some last minute preparations.

=+=+=

The Lyceum's main library was huge, taking up a massive portion of the third floor. No mortal person could possibly read all the books in it within a lifetime.

Having such a large quantity of books on hand also meant that you could find a book on virtually anything.

It was all fitting. Marlifa was the Goddess of Knowledge. If the Marlifa Lyceum didn't have a worthy library, then it would be disgraceful.

Vampires were infamous creatures of terror. It was a safe bet to think that there would be at least one vampire book in every library across the continent. The Lyceum's main library had over seventy that caught Suhara's attention. There were countless books with vampires mentioned inside them, but only seventy books that had detailed vampire information.

Suhara picked out a book on ancient vampires, since she assumed that Theema's vampire was very old.

Blood demons are the source of a vampire's power. They originate from the Realm of Impending Death. A blood demon has chalk white skin and an incredibly tall body. They appear vaguely human, but their arms and legs are twice as long as an average person. A blood demon's face is long and thin with a bony structure. Their mouths are extremely wide, and their teeth is comprised of long fangs. A blood demon is extremely lightweight, but devastatingly strong. Their long arms are capable of smashing through stone boulders with a single blow.

A vampire can be identified by their skin, eyes, and teeth. Vampires have skin that is as white as snow. Their eyes are red, and their pupils look slightly larger than average. Every tooth in the front of a vampire's mouth is sharper and thinner. Vampire teeth won't be sharpened to a point, but the shape will be noticeably triangular.

Blood makes a vampire stronger, because blood efficiently channels the immortal magic that runs through their bodies. The more blood that a vampire has access to, the more their monstrous strength resembles a blood demon. Vampires don't necessarily have to drink blood, simply having physical contact with blood is enough to make them stronger. Drinking blood is just common because of how much longer it lasts inside a vampire's body instead of out. Vampire strength without the assistance of blood is still far above average human strength.

A vampire's skin is naturally durable. They are nearly immune from being cut by daggers and knives, and it often requires a clean hit from a sturdy sword for a vampire to be cut. Combined with their augmented strength, vampires are able to jump to extreme heights, run at great speeds, and survive huge drops.

A vampire is kept virtually immortal by perpetual regeneration. The cells of their body heal constantly in order to maintain the an identical state with how they looked after their bonding with a blood demon. The major chemical processes within a vampire are not regenerated, so vampires are able to memorize, forget, eat, drink, and have offspring. Babies born from a vampire are still regular human babies, mostly because blood demons would never bond with babies.

Blood demons have powerful magics that affect the mind. In new vampires, a blood demon is able to almost completely control the mind of their mortal host. The longer a vampire exists, the more the mortal hosts gains control of these special mind magics. An ancient vampire, which is a vampire who has been bonded long enough to regain free will, is able to command the mind of anyone they have direct physical contact with. Ancient vampires can also put people to sleep from a distance if they can maintain direct eye contact for more than seven seconds.

Strength, durability, regeneration, and possibly some mind magic. These were the abilities Suhara technically obtained last night. They wouldn't be nearly as strong as described in the book, since it was about a quarter as effective, but every boost helped. If anything, Suhara felt a bit more powerful.

After Suhara finished reading up on vampire abilities, she made a quick trip to the restroom. She didn't have to go or anything, but she checked the mirror to see if she had any vampire-like features. Her skin had always been fair, but it didn't turn completely pale. Her teeth were mostly flat, and her eyes were still a pleasant violet. Thankfully, copying the abilities didn't copy vampire features. Theema wasn't lying.

Once Suhara was satisfied with her appearance, she headed over to the stairs. Her duel was coming up soon.

The arena placed on the roof for today's duel was filled with spiky plants and sand.

Suhara had never seen cactus in person. She had only heard about the tough and dangerous plants from merchant stories back in Welldrop. The special desert vegetation looked almost fluffy from a distance, like a green sheep that was just starting to grow back a coat of wool.

Roy Intone was already sitting in the sands. He wore a single bronze breastplate, while his limbs were covered with pads of hard leather. Nothing covered his face, so his night blue hair flowed freely in the breeze. His silver staff was stabbed into the sands, just within arms reach.

Suhara was relieved at the sight. She had spent most of the night yesterday imagining Roy coming with a full body of mystic steel armor. At some point the idea of a staff was replaced with a gigantic magic claymore sword. Compared to that intimidating interpretation, the bronze breastplate looked flimsy.

For a brief moment, Roy and Suhara made eye contact. Roy's head was subtly tilted back, he was looking down on Suhara.

This guy pissed her off.

Suhara broke the mutual stare as she was greeted by her friends. All her roommates were here, and even Helanna dropped by. The girls cheerfully wished Suhara luck. It was nice and uplifting, Suhara was glad to have friends like this.

For whatever odd reason, Tricks held a large bowl of what looked like bread cups filled with melted butter. The sight of it earned a look of curiosity from Suhara.

"Oh, you want a custard before your fight?" Tricks asked.

"Custard?"

"It's good. It's made with milk and eggs and other delicious stuff." Tricks claimed as she popped one of the pastries in her mouth.

"Uh, no, I'll be fine." Suhara responded, before heading towards the arena. "Maybe later, I guess."

Frey and Desyi called out some last minute reminders about duels, and warned Suhara about how difficult it was to move around in sand. Helanna hadn't been in a duel before, so she didn't offer any wisdom, but she did at least have an encouraging smile. Tricks just... snacked.

The combat instructor was sitting on the unnaturally tall chair for duel supervision. His face was planted inside the palm of one of his hands, and his left ankle was lifted up on top of his right knee. He looked hilariously casual for a teacher. Everyone could see that he was not a patient man. Once Suhara stepped into the battlefield, the instructor immediately brightened up and removed his cheek from his hand.

"Are you ready to begin, combatants?" The teacher's amplified voice asked.

Suhara and Roy both nodded. Suhara was holding her staff and wand in her personal fighting stance, while Roy stood up lazily and pulled his silver staff out from the ground.

"Kick her butt, prince!" Yelled one of the female students in the audience.

Roy had a fan club of some sort watching from behind him. It mostly consisted of girls, but there were a few other snobby looking boys there as well. As a penniless orphan, Suhara felt a strong and biased hatred for all of them.

"In that case, we are beginning the personal duel between Roy Intone and Suhara Ballad!" Announced the teacher.

A green forcefield formed around the circular desert arena. While observing the rising walls of the green cylinder, Suhara saw one of the dueling scopes pointed down at her.

After the cylindrical forcefield fully formed and shifted to invisibility, the combat instructor commanded the duel to commence.

=+=+=

A stray bolt of lightning flew out from Roy's staff, nicking Suhara on her leg. The attack caught Suhara off guard, and she collapsed into the sand as her leg burned.

Through the pain, Suhara was able to activate her anklet's blessing. A shell of protection, which resembled thin and molten glass, coated over Suhara. The defensive blessing blocked Roy's second strike of lightning, and kept on persisting.

Suhara winced in pain from the first bolt, but stood up anyway. She didn't want the duel to end after only the first hit. Her leg hurt immensely, but the pain steadily faded after a few seconds. She didn't look over at the wound on her leg, but it had managed to heal remarkably fast. The regeneration of a vampire was powerful, even at only a fourth of its full strength.

Roy looked astonished when Suhara stood up again. He had expected for the lightning to win him the match right away. The blue haired boy also stared in surprise when the red burn faded from the girl's leg. Only advanced healing spells could repair an injury that quickly. He guessed that Suhara was some kind of a supporting magician, since she had protections and healing. The idea made him chuckle, since as far as he knew, he was a knight who was fighting a medic.

Suhara tried to take advantage of Roy's small moment of consideration. A great cloud of dust was kicked up into the air as she dashed forward with her augmented strength.

Moving on unstable sand proved to be as hard as Frey and Desyi hinted. The violet eyed girl tripped in the middle of her run, crashing into the dusty dunes.

A great portion of the audience laughed at her slip. Roy joined in with an obnoxious snicker.

Suhara muttered in annoyance as she pulled her long black hair out of the sand. This battlefield was incredibly inconvenient for melee combat. Having vampire strength wasn't much use when the soles of your feet couldn't properly grip the ground.

Flames shot out from Roy's silver staff, and a fireball flew right towards Suhara. The violet eyed girl was able to roll away from the strike, narrowly avoiding the hot blast. She didn't necessarily need to dodge, since the defensive blessing still cloaked her body. Suhara just felt that it would be best to save the protection for when it is needed.

Roy was merciless, firing off fire and lightning at Suhara without pause. The black haired girl eventually managed to stand upright again when she found cover behind a large cactus. By then, all the rolling around had gotten sand into every opening of her robe. This duel was becoming increasingly frustrating for her.

Suhara loaded her staff with the motion eating enchantment, then jumped out from behind the cactus to point her wand at Roy. A black blob of tar-like magic burst from Suhara's demon root, flying towards Roy's feet. Suhara managed to aim the spell competently, catching the tip of Roy's toes in the motion curse trap.

Roy tried to step out from the black substance, but found himself rooted in place. It felt to him like his toes were frozen still.

This time, Suhara ran carefully. She made her way through the sand with caution, making sure not to lose her footing again.

Another fireball was shot from Roy's staff, but it smashed uselessly against Suhara's protective blessing. The transparent shell provided by the silver anklet faded after the fireball's strike, but by then Suhara had already reached the blue haired boy.

Suhara swung her staff with all her strength, while the motion eating curse added to the staff's speed. The attack collided with Roy's bronze breastplate, which caused a sound similar to a small gong.

The breastplate blocked all the damage. It wasn't even dented or scratched. Defensive concentration magic had definitely been applied to its enchantment.

Roy grinned, and held the tip of his own silver staff up to Suhara's chest. In response, the black haired girl reactivate the blessing of the anklet just a fraction of a second before the boy's attack. The blessing defense had been shattered right afterwards by an explosion of flames, which hurled Suhara all the way into the large cactus she hid behind earlier.

Tiny spikes burrowed into Suhara's back from the impact, which caused her to scream in pain. Another bolt of lightning followed soon after, striking Suhara right in her stomach.

The worried cries of Suhara's friends were dim against the cheers of Roy's fans.

Roy reveled in his apparent victory, arms raised in a bragging stance of triumph.

However, the teacher didn't call the match over. The boy wasn't paying attention, but Suhara's wounds were still healing at an accelerated pace. The sharps pins were pushed out of her skin, and the red scorch mark on her belly eased out of existence.

The violet eyed girl took aim at Roy, tipping the demon root wand upwards with a small and silent flick of her wrist.

Darkness poured out from the tip of the wand, crashing into Roy and consuming him. The magic flowed like ethereal ink, which invaded the structures of Roy's magic items.

Suhara pushed herself back up, while the magic darkness blinded Roy.

The Winter Sight was activated, allowing Suhara to reach the magical outline of Roy's body before the darkness completely flowed into the magic objects.

There was a big metallic clank as Suhara knocked the boy off his feet. The staff dented the bronze breastplate, and struck with enough force to send Roy flying into the arena's forcefield.

Roy rose back to his feet with a dizzying stagger. He wasn't totally sure why his armor's enchantment abruptly broke, but the darkness seemed to be the most likely cause.

Suhara dashed forward, attempting once more to close the distance to her prey. The blue haired boy raised his silver staff, and tried to fire off a bolt of lightning. A bit of darkness fled from his staff and evaporated into the air, but no lightning sprouted. He tried with fire, and again his spell failed.

The violet eyed girl reached Roy, then knocked the boy back into the forcefield with a swipe of the staff. Suhara cocked back her staff for another strike, but was flung back by an explosive burst from the boy's silver staff.

The darkness had finally been purged from Roy's weapon after all the continued spell casting attempts.

Suhara didn't think that the silver staff would still work, so she let her guard down. As a result, her own staff flew out from her hand when the explosion threw her back.

Just before the black haired girl could fire off another mass of curse magic from her wand, Roy shot a ball of frost at her. It struck her in the shoulder, freezing her wand arm.

Suhara's stolen vampire strength couldn't break rocks, but she was able to flex her arm with enough force to start cracking away the ice that bound her arm.

Unfortunately, Suhara neglected to put up any defenses while trying to break her arm free. A blast of fire discharged from the tip of Roy's silver staff, knocking the violet eyed girl to her feet.

A final lucky strike of lightning landed on Suhara's head, knocking her out cold.

=+=+=

Suhara woke up under a rain of pink and yellow lights.

She lost.

Suhara groaned miserably at the realization. She lost her first duel, and against a snobby prick of a boy.

Frey appeared above her, offering a hand to help Suhara up.

Frey led her novi out of the sandy arena, all while the delighted cheers of the prince's fans filled up the background. Desyi had retrieved the fallen staff, so that Suhara didn't have to approach the sneering victor.

"Aw, it was so close." Helanna whined.

"You'll get him next time, no prob." Trick encouraged while she handed Suhara one of the last custard pastries.

This time, Suhara gratefully took the cake, and stuffed it into her mouth. She got a little sand from her robe on it, but she didn't care. The custard did taste pretty good, and it was a welcome distraction.

"Yeah, next time for sure..." Suhara muttered with a grim tone of determination.

The five girls then left the roof in their tight knit group, ignoring all the insults from Roy's fans.

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."

The four roommates had spent all morning in the library trying to find any information about Theema. They were completely unsuccessful.

Frey had been the most concerned, and it was evident from the towers of books that developed around her during the research. She had started with ancient vampire texts, seeing if anything could be traced back to Theema. When that didn't work, see searched through deity reference books for any entity that matched Theema's description.

Tricks had spent most of her time skimming through spirit resource books. She focused on finding any spirits that had anything to do with darkness. Out of all the girls, Tricks seemed to make the least amount of progress. Whenever she found a description of something incredibly interesting, she immediately lost track of her goal.

Desyi and Suhara worked together, and browsed through several lexicons of immortal realms.

Although they didn't find Theema's realm, Light's Cowardice, Suhara was able to find a brief description of Broken Space:

The Realm of Five Dimensions, once called Broken Space, is one of the most difficult immortal realms to navigate. This realm is a shifting maze. It contains countless tunnels, which all fuse and divide unpredictably.

Five phantoms exists in this realm, and each one controls a unique sector. The size and features of each sector differ, but they all have identical entrances. To enter a sector, one must navigate through the tunnels until they find a circular gateway with a mirror. Entering the mirror's image brings a person into a phantom's sector. Due to how this realm shifts randomly, it is extremely difficult to find the sector of any phantom that does not wish to be found.

There is no known deity in the Realm of Five Dimensions. It is occasionally theorized that the maze itself is the deity. Although not confirmed, it is rumored that spirits from the Realm of Five Dimensions are able to stay in mortal realms indefinitely.

Suhara copied the information down on a piece of parchment. Her roommates weren't letting her interact with Theema, but she still wanted to be prepared.

=+=+=

The girls dispersed from the library as it came time for the first class. Suhara was the only one who didn't have to head for the stairs, since her enchantment class was also on the third floor.

Thanks to all her magical training, Suhara had dramatically improved her ability to enchant. All the new spells she learned had also taught her how to manipulate the temperature, motion, and concentration genres. Making her wooden doll glow only took two tries.

By the end of the lesson, she managed to make her doll glow, levitate, and weigh a few extra grams.

Casting pattern development class was focusing on standard difficulty spell patterns. Suhara actually wanted to practice her aim like last week, but the lessons were very dynamic. She had several advanced spells memorized by now, so there wasn't a lot to improve today.

=+=+=

Suhara tripped while on her way to her specialty class.

The bottom of her right shoe was covered with a smooth layer of ice.

After she fell onto the floor, a choir of giggles was heard.

When Suhara looked back at the source of the laughter, she recognized one of the snobby boys from Roy's group. His wand was pointed towards her. He wasn't trying to hide that he was the one who caused the slip. The boy was smirking, and a giggling band of girls surrounded him.

Suhara swiftly pushed herself back onto her feet. "What's your problem?!"

"You owe the prince a new breastplate, loser." The boy pocketed his wand. "I'm thinking twenty gold coins should cover it, right?"

The boy's mob of girls unanimously agreed.

"If he can't handle having his toys broken, then he shouldn't bring them into fights." Suhara said, "Tell Roy that if he wants anything else broken, I'm more than happy to have a rematch."

Suhara turned away from the bullies, and dramatically stomped her right leg. The frozen sole smashed into the stone ground, causing tiny ice shards to fly across the floor. Then she stormed off with a huff.

=+=+=

At eight standard spells and three advanced spells, Suhara was about halfway through Sellwall's assignment. She hoped to have more to surprise her teacher, but the last few days had been a bit clustered.

There was a knock on the classroom door about halfway through class time. Every student went silent and turned their head.

"Ah! Yes, right on time!" said Sellwall, as he went up to open the door.

Rictor Hawkshire, the wizard who admitted Suhara as a student, walked into the class. His squarely bearded face looked as intimidating as ever, even though he wore a slight grin.

Hawkshire spotted the violet eyed girl, and walked over. "Hello Miss Ballad, do you remember me?"

"Uh, yes sir." Suhara slowly nodded.

"Excellent." Hawkshire turned and headed back to the doorway. "Come with me, then. Professor Sellwall has requested that we administer a promotional examination for you."

Suhara's brows arched up. She glanced over to Frey, and the red headed girl smiled before pointing over at the retreating Hawkshire. "Better get going." Frey said.

Suhara leap out from her seat. She quickly followed after the tall wizard, but drifted back for a moment to wave at Frey and Sellwall.

Hawkshire did not change his pace. Suhara had to jog over to catch back up with him. The tall wizard didn't look back, but spoke up as soon as he heard Suhara's footsteps behind him. "You have made some decent progress, Miss Ballad. I've heard good things."

Suhara blushed, and was thankful that Hawkshire couldn't see her embarrassment. "Thank you very much, and thank you for admitting me."

"You accomplished that on your own," he said, "and you've done very well since then. You helped save lives on your first school day, achieved the approval of your specialty professor, and even fought your first duel within the week. You are an excellent student to have here in the Lyceum."

Hawkshire's praise caused Suhara to stare towards the floor. Her walking pace slowed down, and the distance between the two lengthened considerably. The compliments made her feel incredibly awkward. "I... I lost the duel though."

"Defeat does not take away from your effort." Hawkshire said, "The teacher who supervised your duel was very impressed with you."

Hawkshire's reply was heard from far away. Suhara snapped her head up when she realized how big the gap between the two had become. She once again jogged forward to catch up.

Hawkshire didn't look like he was walking very quickly, but his legs covered a deceptively large amount of distance.

=+=+=

Suhara remembered this room.

This room was the same one she first woke up in as a girl. It was the same room that she first met Hawkshire in.

The small bed was still tucked away in the corner.

Today, the room was filled with six large glass boxes. Each box was filled with something different: a flaming scarecrow, a flying rock, a group of floating lights, a miniature gray tornado, a statue made of white ice, and a ferocious looking wolf.

"The exam is simple." Hawkshire said, "This is a test made for specialized curse magicians, you must use a single spell to subjugate the elements of each box. Everything has been enchanted so that nothing can leave the boxes, even when they are opened. You are free to take as much time as you'd like before casting, but you may only cast a single spell. Any type of spell is fine, the test is just geared more towards curse magic. To qualify for a rank promotion, you must succeed in four out of six. Get in front of a box when you are ready."

Suhara nodded, before standing in front of the first box. The frontmost glass wall fell open, and the violet eyed girl pointed her demon root at the flaming scarecrow. A magenta orb burst out from the tip of her wand, hitting the scarecrow on the chest. All the flames vanished into the glowing orb, before a small explosion blew the scarecrow apart. The first box was a success.

For the second box, the young curse magician just memorized the rock's flight pattern. Then she used the tar-like motion eating curse on the wall, which snagged the rock and held it into place. She succeeded once again.

Unfortunately, Suhara failed the third box. She didn't know any concentration eating curses, and tried to just use her raw magic consuming curse. She was able to snuff out three of the lights, but two more were untouched.

Suhara had a bit more luck with the tornado, which was diminished with a cloud of her motion disrupting mist.

The ice statue had been impossible. Normally the girl would just smash something like that with her staff, but a magic test didn't allow for any melee attacks.

This left Suhara gazing nervously at the wolf. She had no idea what spell to use. A lot of her spells could hinder the wolf, but not fully subjugate it. While trying to think of what spell to gamble on, the violet eyed girl ended up in a half-minute staring contest with the wolf.

All of a sudden, the wolf fell asleep.

Right, vampire powers. Suhara sighed in relief. That was four.

Hawkshire scribbled a few more words into a book he was holding. "Outstanding! You pass, Miss Ballad. You are officially a Basic Class Marlifa Mage."

=+=+=

All of Suhara's roommates offered congratulations.

Desyi gave the black haired girl a tight hug. "Wow! It's been only a week and you're already a basic class mage!"

"Looks like you should take that collar off." Tricks jokingly elbowed Frey.

"Aw, already? Why'd you have to be such a good mage, Suhara!" said Frey.

"Well," said Suhara, "I guess I can keep it on a bit longer."

The four girls had a small celebration, eating out from Tricks's sizable stash of snacks. After a couple hours of merrymaking, Desyi revealed a little discovery she made.

"Okay, so I asked my deity professor about Theema, and he actually had a tiny bit of information." Desyi pulled out a small book and turned to a bookmarked page.

On the page, a man known as Temir said, "Tonight, Theema's spawn falls!"

The book held the history of a group of paladins, which are magical knights. The group referred to itself as the Cooleur Curahge, and their personal mission was to purge all spirits from the continent of Curahge. The Cooleur Paladins were active back during the Sixth Demonic Invasion, about seven hundred years ago. They believed that all spirits were to blame for the crisis of demons. Temir was the leader of the group.

Upon first reading it, Tricks claimed that she was right about Theema being evil. However, as the girls read more about the paladins, that claim was mostly dropped.

The Cooleur Curahge hunted down any and all spirits on their continent, including peaceful or beneficial ones. They discriminated equally against all spirits.

"Well, this thing is useless." Tricks slammed the book shut as the girls finished reading the last page. "Besides mentioning Theema's name, we got nada."

"Maybe not," said Frey. "If we could find more information on these paladins, we might stumble on something about Theema."

"Yep! This gives us at least one more lead." Desyi picked the book up and flipped it open to the first page. "Two, actually. We now know that Theema was around seven hundred years ago."

"Ugh, I'm getting a bit sick of the library." The short blonde girl planted her chin between her hands, her eyes narrowing in frustration. "Why couldn't you be the priest of a popular deity, Suhara?"

"Well Tricks, if you don't want to hang in the library, why don't you try asking the headmistress about Theema?" said Frey.

"Oh yeah!" said Desyi, "Marlifa might know something!"

Suhara's jaw dropped, and she let out a loud gasp. "Marlifa is our headmistress?"

"No silly!" Desyi giggled and absently waved her hand. "The headmistress is Marlifa's High Priestess! They communicate all the time!"

"Oh."

Becoming a basic class mage came with a single great benefit: Suhara was allowed outside.

Although Suhara couldn't go out alone or anytime she wanted to, she could now sign up for trips. Public notices for field outings were posted on a board down in the first floor. Instead of heading upstairs to the library first thing in the morning, Suhara was led down to the trip notices by her three dorm mates.

The girls wanted to take Suhara out and spend some time bonding, so they looked for a group that had four open spots.

Suhara noticed an oddity, and pointed towards a clustered group of lists. "Why aren't any girls signed up for Welldrop, Sindle, or Fevalo?"

"Oh, those groups are work orientated," said Frey. "The supervising teacher always ends up sending students on scavenger hunt jobs that take up the whole day. It's good for getting a bit of cash, but it's incredibly tiring and bland."

"Boring old geezer trips, otherwise known as booger tips," said Tricks. "Plus, they have these stupid and dull uniform requirements, no one is ever happy about em. Most girls wouldn't dare be caught on one of those outings."

Desyi rolled her eyes and shook her head. "Only your ten year old maturity would name it something like that, Tricks."

Frey gestured towards a public notice for a trip to Veilflower. "How about here? This is a nice city."

"I don't think so," said Desyi, "we don't know much about Theema yet, so it might not be a good idea to get Suhara so close to the Bright Noon Priestess."

"Oh, that's where the High Priest lives?" said Suhara.

"Yep," said Tricks, "we didn't tell you about that. The Bright Noon Church is up over there."

"Like I said, we're better off staying away." Desyi examined a pink flyer located near the bottom of the board. "How about Orouna? That should be a fun first trip."

The other girls crowded around the Orouna trip notice, examining the details.

"Yeah, that sounds good." said Frey. "Two days from now, so that would be the next free day."

=+=+=

Tricks tried to contact the headmistress, but couldn't get granted a visit. Many people had to reserve a meeting with her, since she was the priestess of a knowledge goddess. What could be a better source of answers than speaking with Marlifa's High Priestess?

The four girls searched though the library for several hours, trying to find any more details on Theema. Researching the Cooleur Curahge didn't reveal any additional information. The Paladins' attack on Theema had been a single paragraph of vague descriptions.

The difficulty of finding information started to make more sense as the girls looked further into it. Theema had claimed to be the only inhabitant of Light's Cowardice. That meant she couldn't have any other priests, since there were no other spirits to bond with mortals. Even if Theema had a few followers, the Cooleur Paladins might have wiped them all out.

Suhara searched for a bit of information on her demon root wand. The wand was rare, and carved out from a curse-based mystic flora, but it wasn't unique. However, the tree that demon root wands came from were native to Curahge. It certainly seemed like Theema was being tied to that continent.

=+=+=

The girls decided to quit researching at around noon. There was only a certain amount of reading that they were willing to do at a time while still remaining sane. In order to rest, the four girls went over to some of the shops on the first floor for some lunch.

Frey noticed something unexpected while she was pulling Suhara along by the wrist. "When did you put Rales's bracelet back on, Suhara?"

"Huh?" Suhara looked down at her left wrist, and noticed the familiar black and purple.

She never put that back on, did she? Suhara stopped walking, and closely inspected the black stone and purple gems. She brushed along the bracelet with her right hand, just to confirm that it wasn't an illusion.

"Is something wrong?" Frey regarded Suhara with a bit of concern.

Desyi and Tricks stopped in their tracks as well, and turned around to see what was up.

"Uh... nothing." Suhara held her left arm towards Frey. "Could you help me take it off again? I guess I might have put it on and forgotten about it."

Frey nodded, and pulled the black bracelet off of Suhara.

Suhara held the artifact carefully, and then slipped it into a robe pocket. She would have to remember to place it in the nightstand when they got back to the dorm.

=+=+=

The rest of the day went by steadily:

Tricks restocked her snack supply, Desyi bought a new novel for light reading, Frey helped Suhara out with training, and Suhara learned three new spells.

Suhara had finally learned how to use her master level spell to disable nearby bodies, even though it didn't work on Frey when a blessing blocked it. The other two spells were standard class. One was an opaque black cloud that sustained itself by snuffing out illusions and concentrated light. The second spell increased the speed of heat transference in a given area, which had the effect of breaking down ice. Suhara had specifically learned those spells to make up for passing the promotional exam with dumb luck.

Frey cut off magic training a bit earlier today. She needed to run a few errands before curfew, so she left Suhara alone in the practice room.

At this point, Suhara was feeling a bit woozy from magic fatigue, so she couldn't continue. She packed up all of her items, and started to make her way back to the dorm.

All of a sudden, Suhara felt something land on her shoulder. She didn't get a chance to turn and look before a strange tingling could be felt in her head. Suhara's body locked up, and the creepy feeling became her entire focus. It was like a dozen tiny worms were crawling through her brain. It wasn't painful, but she was confused and frightened.

Then the tingling stopped, and Suhara was filled with the desire to head over to the research room that contained Theema's artifacts. She walked forward, losing herself to the powerful urge. Her strides became long and confident, and she took the most direct route to the research hall.

Suhara was aware of what she was doing, but at the same time there was a mental fog that blocked any clear comprehension.

Roy Intone spotted Suhara as she was marching. He immediately moved his body to block the girl's path. The boy wore a smug little grin, and his arms were both folded and flexed. He appeared as if he was going to bully her, or perhaps challenge her to another duel.

Suhara didn't wait to find out. Without missing a stride, she punched Roy into the wall, knocking him out cold.

Due to the approaching curfew, there weren't many people out in the open. The whole incident had gone unnoticed, leaving Suhara to advance without any other hinderances.

When Suhara found herself under the purple glow of the artifact room, she finally regained control of her body. A tiny bird flew off her shoulder and up towards the ceiling.

"W-what?" Suhara stumbled, catching herself on one of the glass displays.

Something gray fell down from the ceiling, landing in a heap in front of Suhara. At first it looked like a thick blanket, but then it stood up.

A tall woman towered before Suhara. She wore a cloak of feathers with various shades of white and gray. Her pale blonde hair was wild, sticking out like a bundle of weeds. There were four tiny birds nesting on her shoulders.

Suhara backed away instinctively, activating her silver anklet to cover herself in a protective blessing. "W-who are you?"

The woman didn't say a word, and instead pulled a book out from beneath her cloak. Her arms were thin, but they held the book with a tight grip.

Suhara read the title of the book:

The Bringer of Dusk: Theema

"I am Ri Lucian," said the woman. "This room is mine. This book is yours."

Suhara narrowed her eyes in suspicion, approaching the book at a slow pace. Then she cautiously took the book off of Ri's hands.

"Are you another one of Theema's weapons?" said Suhara.

"No. She knows not of me," said Ri. "I have collected. I have observed. Now I seek to discover."

Suhara felt a uncomfortable with the tall woman, so she hugged the book against her chest and began stepping back. "Discover what?"

Ri glanced down at Suhara's feet for a moment. "Discover her purpose. Discover your purpose. Discover my purpose."

"W-were you the one who gave me my staff?" said Suhara.

"Yes," said Ri.

"W-what do you know? What are you, exactly?" Suhara was approaching the door, and was considering bolting at any second.

"I know enough. I am a harpy."

The four birds flew off from the woman's shoulders. They streaked over to Suhara, and crashed into her face. The birds were able to break through the protective blessing without resistance, and together they corrupted Suhara's brain with a terribly numbing ache.

=+=+=

"Yep, the librarian got it out from some preserved archives!" Suhara smiled as she presented the old book to her roommates.

"Wow, so much for being forgotten. She's got a whole book dedicated to her!" said Tricks.

Frey felt the book's bindings, and then opened the book up to a random page. "It's really well preserved for something that's supposed to be centuries old. Are you sure it's legitimate?"

"I think so, there were a bunch of weird enchantments that the librarian had to break before the book could be opened." said Suhara.

"Let's get reading then!" Desyi took the book out of Frey's hands, turning it to the first page.

There was a small introduction, which Desyi read aloud.

The Goddess of Coming Dusk, Theema, is the guardian and surrogate mother of what dwells in night. She is alone in her immortal realm, so she seeks out a priest in the mortal world that will allow her to interact with other mortal entities. Theema protects the innocent creatures of the night. To help protect the nights, she also forcibly takes control of monstrous priests such as vampires. This deity is largely unknown to most of the world due to her lack of spirits and priests. However, her deeds do earn her a few devoted followers.

"See? I told you she wasn't evil!" said Desyi.

"No way that the book says that, it is way too convenient!" Tricks grabbed the book, and silently reread the introduction. "No, wait... shit. It does."

"That is still a bit suspicious," said Frey. "It answers all of our questions in the first page..."

"It still didn't say anything about Suhara's arm, or about Broken Space and Bright Noon." said Desyi.

"Almost all our questions. You know what I mean." said Frey.

The girls spent a large portion of the night going through the book, which was filled with simple tales about how Theema protected someone or something. All the short stories were rather repetitive over time, but they painted an idea of a good natured goddess.

"I guess Theema's not too bad," Frey yawned. "I'll take the book back to the librarian tomorrow to make sure that it's all factual, and if so we won't have to worry about Suhara interacting with Theema."

All the girls said their goodnights, and went off to their beds.

Birds flew out from Suhara's robe when all the girls were asleep. They flew through the wardrobe cabinet doors like it was made of air, and circled the room once between phasing into the walls.

The tiny bird imps visited one of the sleeping librarians, infecting her mind while she dreamed.

After that, the four imps returned to the harpy.

"That's three memories, now." Ri gently petted the four bird imps with her bony fingers. "We must reserve the last as our insurance..."

In the morning, Frey took the book upstairs to the library. She forgot to ask Suhara which person got the book from the archives, so Frey had to ask each librarian separately.

"Were you the one who retrieved this book for my roommate?" Frey held the book out to the fourth librarian.

The fourth librarian was a bald man with glasses. He studied the cover and read the title, then his eyes lit up in recognition. "Ah, yes. I believe that was me. Theema... I remember now. I gave that book to a girl with violet eyes."

"Alright, cool," said Frey, "we just wanted to know if this is a legitimate history book. It's very important that we be sure."

"Yes, I am positive that it is," said the librarian. "It was archived with confirmed historical records."

"Great! Thank you very much!" Frey stuffed the book into her bag, waved goodbye, then turned and walked off.

=+=+=

Suhara still wasn't used to attending scheduled meals.

Back in Welldrop, she always ate whenever she had food on hand. That was how it worked when you were poor, parentless, and had to take what you could. She never bothered to eat at specific moments. Suhara had skipped breakfast quite a few times already. She might have also skipped it today, if her roommates didn't drag her down towards the cafeteria.

"I always thought you just ate breakfast alone or something." said Tricks.

"Yeah, I can't believe you were skipping all these meals!" said Desyi.

The girls were scolding Suhara, trying to explain the importance of eating a morning meal. They told her about nutrition, energy, calories, and metabolism. Suhara retained none of the information.

Food was just food to Suhara. If she didn't starve, she didn't mind.

"Geez, you Beradinians are so loopy." said Tricks.

The steamy odors of fresh food washed over the girls as they entered the lunchroom. Plates were organized on the counter, and most of them were filled with eggs, meats, and breads. Different types of drinks sat further down the counter.

Tricks skipped ahead first, and grabbed one of the meat-heavy dishes. Frey and Desyi both got a dish that contained salad with some bacon strips. The three girls sat down at an empty table, and called for Suhara to hurry up.

Suhara stood by the counter for several minutes as she inspected all the dishes. She eventually settled on a dish with rice, chicken, and eggs.

When Suhara took her dish and turned around, she found her path blocked by a horde of students. Roy Intone stood in front of the horde.

"You're gonna pay for yesterday, savage." said Roy.

Suhara's expression was blank. She had no idea what Roy was talking about. Suhara's roommates all gathered her a second later.

"You got a problem with our friend, punk?" said Frey.

"Yeah! That bitch assaulted me for no reason yesterday!" said Roy.

Suhara's head pulled back in disbelief. "Huh? No I didn't you liar!"

Tricks shook her head and laughed. "As if Suhara would ever do that."

"Then I'll prove it!" Roy stormed off, his mob leaving with him.

Desyi scratched her head as she watched them leave. "Are we supposed to follow him?"

"Nah, forget about it," said Frey. "Let's just get back to breakfast."

The girls sat down at their table, and enjoyed breakfast. They ate from their own plates, but also traded bits of each other's dishes. While they ate, the girls joked about Roy's tough act. Frey and Tricks both claimed they could singlehandedly take out Roy's entire posse.

Just as everyone was beginning to finish their meals, Roy and his group returned to the cafeteria. An older woman was with them.

Roy crossed his arms and looked smug, while the woman went up to Suhara.

The woman coughed aloud to get everyone's attention, then pulled out a crystal ball with an image playing through it. "Young lady, I just administered a memory spell and confirmed that you assaulted a student."

The crystal ball showed a moving image of Suhara. In the cloudy image, Suhara was seen walking up and throwing a quick punch from the side. This recording of events kept repeating itself. Suhara and her friends gasped in disbelief. In the image, Suhara's face was stoic, and she stared straight into the distance.

"No way! That never happened!" said Suhara.

A single brow raised itself on the woman's face. "Really? Then are you willing to subject yourself to a memory spell to confirm?"

Suhara nodded nervously. "Uh... yeah!"

The woman pulled out a clear crystal ball from her bag, and held it over Suhara's head. "Alright, hold still."

Suhara felt as warm heat seemed to radiate up out of her head. She couldn't see it, but the crystal ball was displaying an image from her point of view. In the image, she walked out from the practice room and headed to the library. A bald librarian went up to her and asked something. There was a pause as Suhara gave her reply, then the librarian clapped his hands together and led Suhara to one of the archive rooms. He extracted a book, took off half a dozen enchantments, then handed the book over. After that, Suhara walked to her dorm.

"That's odd. Your memory does indeed contradict Mister Intone's memory." The woman backed away and examined the crystal ball closely.

"What?!" said Roy. "Impossible! She assaulted me last night! I have bruises and everything!"

"I'm afraid I can't resolve a matter with contradicting facts." said the woman.

"Fine! Then I challenge you to a duel, savage!" Roy pointed at Suhara as he made his declaration.

Suhara growled lightly. "Fine, I'll kick your butt this time!"

"Yeah right, you can't beat the prince!" said a girl from Roy's group.

"She'll smash his stupid face in!" said Tricks.

A heated argument broke out between the two groups. Students began to draw out their staves. The woman stepped between the groups to calm down the situation.

"I can sponsor the duel," said the woman. "It can be set three days from now. However, any students I witness fighting will be punished accordingly."

After everyone had quieted down, Suhara and her roommates all left the cafeteria.

=+=+=

Suhara sat through another boring session of arithmetical magic. She learned how to put a timer pattern into her spells, which causes them to activate after a delay. The timer patter was a common pattern for magic traps, but Suhara didn't know any trap type spells.

During her potion class, Suhara learned how to mix up a potion to cure hunger to go with her potion that cured thirst. The potions were a useful addition for when someone is traveling a long distance.

Sellwall had been delighted by the news of Suhara succeeding in acquiring a master class spell. That brought her total to ten standard spells, three advanced, and one master. Five more standard and two more advanced would mean that Suhara could start receiving special spells from Sellwall.

Tomorrow was the day of the trip to Orouna, which meant it would be difficult to practice spells. Despite that, Suhara was still determined to learn the rest of her required spells within a day.

=+=+=

The Marlifa Lyceum had a gym, which was often used for paladins in training.

Frey took Suhara over to the gym, in order to measure strength. Suhara claimed that she had one fourth the power of a vampire, but Frey wanted to confirm it for herself.

There were several massive cylindrical weights laid out on the ground. Each had a pair of rings at the top for a person to lift it with. Frey demonstrated by lifting the weight that was marked sixty kilograms. She lifted it only by bending her arms, and kept her legs leveled. "This is the one I can lift consistently. If I use my best strength blessing, I can lift over eight times that amount of weight."

"Over eight times?" Suhara's hand went up to her chin as she tried to figure out the math. "Wow, so about five hundred? That's more than half a ton!"

Frey smiled proudly, and placed one hand on her hip."Yep, I can lift a cow over my shoulders if I wanted to. If I used some other blessings together, I can lift even more than that."

Frey then gestured to the twenty kilogram weight. "Start lifting the weights until you find your limit, Suhara."

Suhara complied, and started to lift the weights one at a time. She was able to lift past Frey's sixty kilogram mark. When Suhara reached one hundred kilos, she started to have trouble getting the weight off the ground.

After a few tries at lifting the hundred, Suhara gave up and let go out of the weight. "I think ninety kilos is my limit."

Frey pulled out a small piece of parchment once Suhara was finished. "Hm, that's about right. A newly created vampire averages about three hundred and seventy kilograms of lifting strength. You really are at a quarter of vampire power."

"Told you," said Suhara, "so can we go back to the room now?"

"Not yet, I want to see you use that strength doubling curse. Let's see if it all scales up." said Frey.

Suhara grumbled with frustration, but still walked over to the hundred and eighty kilogram weight. She used her strength aura for about twenty seconds, then deactivated it and tried to pick up the weight. The weight was lifted without any problems.

Suhara casually tossed the weight back onto the floor."Okay, there, it doubles. Can we go now?"

"Not yet, not yet." Frey walked up and placed her hands on Suhara's back.

"What now?" said Suhara.

Frey giggled, and leaned in to whisper into Suhara's ear. "Don't you want to see how strong you are with my strength blessing?"

That did catch Suhara's attention. If her strength went up by eightfold, she could probably toss boulders around...

Suhara spent the rest of the afternoon showing off and beating paladin students in competitions with her ridiculously augmented strength.

=+=+=

Suhara was doubled over and giggling to herself.

Frey was busy making wild faces and hand gestures while she was telling Tricks and Desyi what happened earlier. "Right, so the guy was all: 'Oh, I might have cast the spell wrong.' Then he did it again, and you could tell that he was concentrating real hard cause his face was all scrunched up. When he finished Suhara just kicked the ward and it went... poof, gone! You could tell she wasn't even trying. The guy who did the ward just made this stupid face and said 'whuh?' while the all the boys' jaws all fell open!"

Now Tricks and Desyi were laughing too.

Frey waved her hands excitedly to have the girls keep quiet so that she could continue. "Oh, and this other paladin boy was now trying to say he was way faster, right? So he tries to race Suhara from one side of the room to the other. He put some step booster enchantments on his legs, then he got all serious and took a dumb running stance where he crouches low. When they signaled go, Suhara hopped halfway across the room in a single leap! That boy stopped in the middle of his first few steps, you could just tell that he totally gave up in an instant!"

Tricks clapped her hands together and rolled on her bum as she laughed. "Aw dangit, I wish I went with you guys. Never liked those paladin jocks."

Desyi held her hands up to her mouth to suppress her giggles. "Oh, you'll definitely beat Roy with that kind of strength."

"Eh, I can only do the cool stuff with Frey's blessing." said Suhara.

"Hey, a hundred and eighty lift is still gonna wreck Roy," said Frey. "So long as you don't get a sand themed arena again."

The girls continued to gossip and enjoy themselves throughout the night. Since tomorrow was the trip to Orouna, they made some plans on where to go and what to do. Suhara had never been to Orouna, so she just let her roommates make the preparations.

It was going to be a fun day. Suhara was sure of that.

The head and vice head administrators of discipline sat in a dim office. Two crystal balls were placed on top the head of discipline’s desk, each replaying a different set of events.

Hawkshire absently tapped his fingers on the desk while using his other hand to scratch his beard. "You're sure about this, Rilane?"

The woman nodded. "Yes Rictor, I analyzed the memories countless times. There appears to be no signs of tampering on the children's minds."

Hawkshire closed his eyes, gripped the bridge of his nose, and then uttered a low groan. "Well, I doubt any mind genre archmages are paying us a visit, but go ask for a total scan on the Lyceum."

"Actually, I already ordered a scan." Rilane pulled out and displayed a small card with an orange stamp mark.

Hawkshire glanced at the card, then gave a single nod of approval. "Good, though I don't think it'll turn up anything. We most likely have a mind altering priest on our hands. Have the guards and teachers be on the lookout for wirums, harpies, and melzans."

Rilane scribbled a few words on a blank card. "No vampires or oni?"

"No," said Hawkshire, "only ancient vampires can manipulate minds with this much precision. They would be powerful enough to appear on the scan. An oni's malice should also be detected."

"Okay, anything else?" said Rilane.

Hawkshire clasped his hands together for a few seconds in thought. "Ballad and Intone will both be on trips tomorrow, have some student council members follow them and keep a record of their activities."

=+=+=

Desyi shook Suhara until she woke up. “Time to get dressed, Suhara. We gotta head down to the entranceway soon.”

Suhara moaned for a few more minutes before she sat up on her bed. The sound of showers could be heard through the bathroom door, and Desyi was pulling on a robe.

After stretching out her limbs, Suhara walked into the bathroom to get cleaned up. The blue haired girl Suhara met on her first school day, named Fesie, was currently doing her meditation in the middle of the bathroom. Fesie was a motion-water mage who was raised with a siren father. She had to meditate every second or third day to synchronize with water, which was a method developed by sirens to improve water magic efficiency.

It was weird, but motion meditations were fascinating to watch. Fesie’s entire body would rotate randomly while water, ice, and steam swirled around her body.

Frey showering was still a bigger distraction for Suhara, and certainly lovely to look at.

=+=+=

All the outing groups met up by the entrance.

The group going to Orouna mostly wore robes, but the students heading to Veilflower were more dressed up. Roy Intone was in the Veilflower group, and he was one of the few who dressed in fine silks.

Suhara wasn’t in the mood to talk to Roy, so she hid behind her roommates.

Unfortunately, Roy had the bizarre ability to detect Suhara. “Hey brute girl! What’re you doing here? Novices like you aren’t allowed on trips!”

“Back off, snob!” said Suhara, “I’m a basic class mage now, I’m just choosing to keep this collar on!”

“Ha! Even better!” Roy laughed. “Too scared to let go of your ace’s leg, eh?”

“Watch it, shrimp,” said Frey. “Suhara is gonna punch your smug little face off.”

“Yeah right, she’ll probably just trip over herself again.” said Roy.

“Students! Back to your groups!” said one of the supervising teachers, “We must track the attendance!”

Roy scoffed, and walked back over to the Veilflower group.

Once every student was accounted for, the iron gateway was lowered. The Marlifa students followed their supervisors, and stepped into the magical wagons assigned to them. When everyone had boarded, the wagons sprung to life and rolled off.

=+=+=

Orouna was loud.

Suhara was able to hear the city's din before the Marlifa wagons had even reached the walls. "Why is that city so noisy?"

"It’s just the artisans,” said Desyi. “They call Orouna the craftsmen's abode, because there's always something being made."

Tricks covered up the ear she had facing the city. "They got like a blacksmith in almost every corner! Loud as a storm all day."

"Thankfully, we have magic fix that." Frey took out her metal wand, and gave it a few waves.

Suddenly, a great portion of the sound Suhara heard became heavily muffled. It was like she had covered her head with a pillow. The sound of the city had grown quiet, but the voices of people still remained the same volume. Frey had cast a spell that granted selective hearing.

"Ah, much better," said Tricks. "If you aren't used to it and don't have the right spell, you gotta bring some ear muffs when visiting this place. Yelling is the normal form of speech here."

"They do make wonderful items," said Desyi. "No better city if you want to be an artisan. The mountains here have an endless supply of material. Wood from forests, metals from mines, and stone from quarries, you name it and they got it."

Frey nodded. "Cheap too, considering the quality. My caravan comes here all the time to restock. Too bad that it’s so dirty and smelly on the streets, it’s why most other students don’t dress up when coming here."

The wagons soon parked themselves by the city's gates.

"Okay students, be back here in eight hours!" said the supervising teacher.

Suhara and her friends hopped down from the magic wagon and entered the bustling city.

Orouna generally had a rough and rocky appearance. Most buildings were made from oddly shaped bricks that fit together like a puzzle. The central street had a compact line of carts, but they moved at a swift and steady pace. Most stores had someone working or crafting outside.

Suhara saw people hammering metal, shaping pottery, carving wood, blowing glass, and chipping stone. She felt tired just from looking at all the work being done. The sounds of the city were dimmed, but the strong smell of sweat flowed into her nostrils.

The girls led Suhara to a large building that looked like it was carved from a single massive block of marble. It was one of the few places without work taking place in the front. The entrance was a set of two stone doors with colored glass panes.

The inside of the shop spelled like flowery perfume, which contrasted heavily with the odor outside. A surprisingly gigantic array of dresses out on display.

Suhara immediately pulled away from her roommates. “I’m not gonna get a dress.”

“What? Why not?” said Desyi, “You’ll need one eventually, and all the Lyceum ever has is robes!”

“This place carries skirts too, if you don’t want dresses.” said Frey.

Suhara shook her head. “Nope. Don’t want neither.”

“You’re gonna look real outta place if you show up to any parties with robes on.” said Tricks. “C’mon, at least take a look with us.”

“You’re Desyi’s size, and I’m buying some for you either way.” said Frey. “If you don’t come in with us, you won’t get any choice over what you get.”

Suhara crossed her arms and turned back towards the door. “Fine, whatever. I’m not gonna wear any.”

Frey smiled faintly and sighed. She motioned for Desyi and Tricks to go in first. Then she walked up behind Suhara and hugged the shorter girl tightly by the waist. “You know, if we ever go out, I’d like it if you dressed up. Don’t you still want to try dating?”

Suhara bit the inside of her lips and didn’t answer.

After a minute of disappointing silence, Frey let go and walked into the store. “If you change your mind, we’ll be inside.”

Suhara looked back at Frey, but didn’t follow. She didn’t have a choice with her body, but she wasn’t comfortable wearing any feminine clothing outside of the dorm. She just wasn’t ready. It hadn’t even been two weeks since her body was transformed, she would rather keep to somewhat unisex robes.

Suhara walked out and away from the dress shop, and wandered down the street. There was a marketplace nearby, which she decided to check out. She didn’t have any money, but it didn’t hurt to look around. Anything was fine when trying to kill time.

Suhara didn’t notice the Marlifa student that was following right behind her.

A lean male merchant spotted Suhara from his stall. “Oh hey, unless that staff you got is for a play, I think I spot a witch! Come, come! I have plenty of soul for sale!”

Since Suhara had never seen soul items before, the merchant successfully caught her attention. She walked up to the stall, and observed the crystals on display. They all glowed with lovely colors, which was visible to the eye even without the Winter Sight. The merchant had arranged his stall by the colors of his wares, so it looked like he had a crystallized rainbow laid out.

Suhara’s eyes and mouth opened wide. “Wow, you have so many.”

“Oh yes!” The merchant laughed, picking up a hand-sized gem that shined orange. “No one has as much of these as me.”

The council student following Suhara was also surprised by the amount of soul crystals, and scribbled a note of it on the booklet he carried. It wasn’t too absurd of a thing, but the council student was thorough.

For some reason, Suhara’s eyes started to itch. She quickly tried to blink the feeling away. The itch was beyond her reach, buried inside her head. When the feeling wouldn’t go away, she began to roughly rub her eyes with her palms.

“Something wrong?” said the merchant.

Suhara shook her head, but continued rubbing. “N-no, I’m fine. Just something in my eyes.”

Since she couldn’t physically remove it, Suhara began to suspect that the itch was magical. When she shifted the Winter Sight on, the feeling finally went away. Theema’s voice immediately started to echo in Suhara’s head.

“You have seen one. You are in its presence: a vessel of Broken Space.” said Theema.

“What? Really?” Suhara looked at the merchant, who was the only person currently in her sight. “Him?”

The merchant’s magic glowed blue, but there was a misty funnel of turquoise light that was streaming into him. The steam of turquoise was fading in from thin air.

“Yes, that is the vessel.” said Theema.

Suhara muttered suspiciously. “I thought you couldn’t see through my eyes when Winter Sight is off?”

“Indeed, I can not,” said Theema. “The marks I left upon your body recognize the immortal magic of Broken Space and Bright Noon.”

The merchant gazed at the girl with a mixture of worry and curiosity. He thought that she was speaking nonsense into the air. “You sure you’re okay, miss?”

“What do you know of Broken Space?” said Suhara.

The merchant’s face abruptly flashed over from concern to fright. A large circular mirror opened up behind him, and he jumped backwards into the image. The mirror rippled as it absorbed the merchant, like it was a pool of liquid mercury. Then the mirror shrunk in size and began to disappear.

“Do not lose him.” said Theema.

Suhara felt her body burn as she turned into flowing darkness. She sped into what remained of the mirror-like portal.

The merchant’s escape and Suhara’s teleportation both happened in the span of three to four seconds. The student stared at the empty stall with his mouth agape. The quill and booklet fell out from the council student’s hands.

=+=+=

Suhara found herself in a shiny turquoise tunnel. The merchant ran off around a corner, but she was too disoriented to follow right away. Then the tunnel seemed to shift, and the corner the merchant ran into ceased to exist.

The properties of the tunnels caught Suhara’s attention. She knew that she was currently in the Realm of Five Dimensions: Broken Space.

“Theema, you still there?” said Suhara.

“Yes, child.” said Theema.

“I’m sure this is Broken Space,” said Suhara, “but I can’t follow the merchant.”

“You can,” said Theema, “his magic is still revealed in your vision, move towards it.”

Theema was right. The walls also glowed under Winter Sight, but Suhara could see a distant outline of blue. She started to move through the maze in the direction of the magic source. Since all the tunnels glowed confusingly in her vision, she ran into a few walls on accident.

The chase took several long hours. The merchant changed directions many times, but Suhara’s vampire augmented speed allowed her to crawl through the maze at a pace that was just enough to keep up. When she finally got close to the merchant, his magic unexpectedly disappeared. Suhara hesitated in confusion, but then proceeded to move to the merchant’s final location.

A large mirror gateway awaited Suhara.

Suhara stood before the mirror-like portal, looking at her reflected image. "I'm not sure about this, Theema."

"It is our contract, as well as your payment to me." said Theema.

"I know." Suhara sighed. "You said I had a year though, didn't you? I don't think I'm ready to fight something as powerful as a ghost."

Theema's voice continued to smoothly echo in Suhara's mind. "You are strong, child. I will help if I can."

"I-I couldn't even beat a student. Let's just try again some other time." said Suhara.

"Even if you decide that, I have no power to bring you back from another immortal realm," said Theema. "If you do not defeat and claim the powers of a ghost here, you will not be able to open a way back to your mortal realm."

Suhara grumbled in frustration at the news. "Oh hurrah, be trapped forever or die. That's great, really."

Suhara reluctantly stepped through the reflective portal.

=+=+=

Frey stepped out from the store, and looked around. "Aw shoot, she ran off. One of us should have stayed out here with her."

"She'll be fine," said Tricks. "She can take care of yourself. What did you expect, anyway? We were in there for like, hours."

All three girls searched around for the familiar black hair of their roommate. It was an uncommon hair color in Orouna, so they hoped it would be easy to spot.

Desyi saw something peculiar as she scanned through the crowd. She pointed towards the marketplace, where an old wizard was currently casting some kind of spell next to a merchant stall. "Hey, isn't that the teacher?"

"Oh, yeah. I wonder what he's up to..." said Frey.

The three girls walked over the to teacher, and found two other students by the stall.

Frey greeted the mage she recognized, a dark haired boy from the student council. "Hey Brimsix, what's the supervisor doing with that stall?"

Brimsix gasped as he saw Frey. "Y-your roommate, Ballad. She disappear here, kidnapped by a merchant or something. It happened so fast..."

The statement took a moment to register in the girls' minds.

"WHAT?!" The three girls nearly shouted in harmony.

Frey lunged forward and grabbed Brimsix by his shoulders. "How could that possibly happen?! How did they even get away with Suhara in broad daylight?!"

Tricks didn't know what to do with her arms, so she shook them violently through the air. "Kidnapped?! How the fuck... why the fuck..."

"It was dimensional magic, they were here, and then they were gone!" said Brimsix.

"Wait a second, were you here, Brim?!" said Desyi.

Brimsix stammered soundlessly for a few seconds. "Y-yes. There was nothing I could do!"

"Bullshit!" Frey yelled and wildly shook Brimsix. "You're from the student council! You're definitely powerful enough to stop something like that!"

"I wasn't prepared!" cried Brimsix. "It was over in seconds! I could barely blink!"

"Settle down, children," said the teacher, Korol. "I have retrieved the coordinates, we just need to wait for a dimension genre staff member to arrive."

"Why are we just waiting?!" said Tricks, "Can't you open up a portal to the place?"

"The location is an immortal realm that I do not recognize. I do not know where it is, and I can not reliably open a gateway. I also must not jeopardize any other student." said Korol.

Frey let go of Brimsix and pushed him down onto the floor. "I'll go, I can protect myself!"

Korol shook his head. "Absolutely not. I am responsible for your safety. I can not put any of you in danger. We will wait for the Lyceum to send specialized personnel."

=+=+=

The ground beneath Suhara's feet was incredibly cracked. The cream colored land looked like it had been deprived of moisture for years. A land of drought. If this place had any wind, it would be easy to cloud over everything with a dust storm. The sky was chalk white, but not empty. Distant dots were flying through the air in loose clusters. It was impossible to make out what they were.

The merchant was nowhere in sight. It was likely that he had opened a portal back to the mortal realm.

Suhara's Winter Sight was able to make out several specks of turquoise light buried a bit under the ground. They didn't move around. That meant she would have to personally inspect them. She looked back at the portal one last time, then headed towards the closest glow.

The cracks in the floor divided the ground into shapes of random edges and sides. However, the land just above the turquoise glow had a circular disk of rock. Suhara suspected that it might actually be a trap. She didn't know much about spirits, but this seemed too simple to be one.

If this was a ghost, it was far smaller than she imagined. The disk was stone was a couple dozen centimeters wide, at best. The girl cautiously kept her distance from the stone disk. She armed herself with her staff and wand, then shot a small ball of her raw curse magic at the circular disk.

The rock immediately erupted out from the ground. A geyser of dust exploded out the floor, forcing Suhara to back away.

When the obscuring cloud settled, there was a head-sized cone of cream yellow stone floating in the air. The cone's pointed side was directed downwards at first, but then the flat side turned down to face Suhara. If it had a bit more features, it could be mistaken for a giant eye staring her down. The circular side of the cone began to glow once it faced the girl. Suhara couldn't tell that it was visibly shining, since the cone was already glimmering under her Winter Sight.

A low and stale voice began to radiate from the cone. "Individual trespassing upon the sector of the third, state your intent."

"Uh, are you a ghost of this realm?" said Suhara.

"Affirmative. I am Monitor Seventy-nine of the third sector. Known by mortal entities to be a spirit: class ghost." said the cone.

Suhara's stance relaxed as she listened to Seventy-nine speak. It didn't seem to be as threatening as she imagined. "Right... I am here to, uh... fight you... I guess"

"Request accepted." said Seventy-nine.

Suhara's browed arched up at the quick and emotionless acceptance. "Oh, okay."

Five flat and silver triangles appeared around the cone. The triangles were each under a meter long and several centimeters wide. From Suhara's viewpoint, the combined image of Seventy-nine and its triangles resembled a flower with very pointy petals.

The sharp tips of the triangular blades angled forward to face Suhara, then shot towards her.

"Gah!" Suhara dodged out of the way as the silver blades struck the ground.

The blades dug deep into the cracked floor without much resistance, like hot knives dipping into a bar of butter. They cut up everything they touched, leaving deep lines etched into the cracked ground.

Suhara activated her strength-absorbing aura, halving her physical power. Then she placed the motion-enhancing enchantment on her staff. "Geez, those look sharp."

"Correct. Thirty-iso eighty-degree shards are optimized for physical spacial division." said Seventy-nine.

Suhara paused and glanced over at Seventy-nine, which still floated in the air. Its statement had utterly confused her. "What?"

The cone ghost repeated its last statement, which wasn't much help.

The silver blades lifted out and returned to Seventy-nine. The ghost retook the shape of a flower.

The cone was floating above Suhara's melee range, so she had to rely on her magic. The girl jumped backwards and pointed her wand at Seventy-nine. Several sky blue orbs fired out from the tip of the demon root. The orbs became denser and more opaque as they traveled through the air.

The further Suhara jumped back, the harder her motion missile curses became. She was sure that they would do some damage if they hit, but three of the silver triangles hovered in front of the cone and blocked all the projectiles. The motion missiles were also difficult to aim, even with all the practice Suhara had. The cone was an annoying tiny target.

The two remaining silver blades flew at the girl.

The triangles were razor thin, so Suhara nearly lost track of them a couple times. They surrounded her and sliced through the air like dancing swords. Vampire augmented speed allowed the girl to dodge the two silver blades, but it required most of her focus.

She couldn't attack and dodge at the same time under these circumstances.

Remembering her silver anklet, Suhara activated her protective blessing. The glass-like coat of protection cloaked her body.

It was no use.

One of the silver blades sliced at her, and cut a deep gash into her left shoulder. The protective blessing was ignored.

The wound was so cleanly cut that it didn't even feel damaged at first. Then Suhara cried out from the abrupt pain in her shoulder. Luckily, the wound was quick to heal thanks to the vampire regeneration.

The three blades that defended Seventy-nine switched over to offense and streaked over at the girl. She barely saw them flying towards her, and jumped away right before they stabbed into the ground she stood at. All five silver triangles circled around the young curse magician, stalking her like birds of prey.

Suhara couldn't keep track of all of them. She wasn't sure if her staff could withstand the sharp edges, but they would cut her into chunks of meat if she didn't try fighting back. In her cornered desperation, she started to strike the silver blades with her black stone staff. It worked, to her surprise.

The silver blades were frighteningly sharp, but light and flimsy compared to the staff. Suhara was able to knock each of them away by multiple meters. If she paid attention to the trajectory of the blade, they couldn't touch her. The staff, Sevla, was fantastically durable.

"Weapon resistant to spatial division." said Seventy-nine.

All of a sudden, a large ray of light shot out from the circular face of the cone ghost. The laser nailed the girl on her back and burned through her cherry red robe.

"Arg!" Suhara winced and staggered from the unexpected burn.

She had forgotten about the actual ghost while defending herself from the triangles. Although she didn't really expect any other attacks from it in the first place.

One of the triangular blades sliced out from the floor behind Suhara while she was stunned. It flew forth, and cut straight through the middle of Suhara's outstretched right forearm.

Suhara screamed out in pain as her right hand was severed. The hand was still holding the staff as it fell onto the dusty floor. Blood burst out from the gaping wound, spilling into the cracks on the ground. The detached muscles contracted back towards her elbow, and she collapsed in agony. It was too much damage for her mimicked vampire regeneration to heal. She couldn't regrow a whole limb.

Theema was trying to tell Suhara something, but it was drowned out by terrifying wails.

"Combat complete. Imminent death for trespasser: blood loss." Seventy-nine's triangular blades faded from existence.

The cone-shaped ghost slowly sunk back into the ground until it was once again a flat circular disk in the floor.

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.

Although she was healed, the medical department advised that Suhara should remain in her dorm for the rest of the day. The blood rejuvenation potion they provided her had a possible side effect of fainting, so any major activities had to be avoided. Suhara's friends immediately translated that advice into bed rest.

Desyi stayed in the room to keep her company. Tricks and Desyi agreed to keep Frey away for now. The red head was getting a bit overprotective of Suhara again. It was much like the reaction to the thief incident, but worse since Suhara had been completely alone.

Frey had finally taken off the novi collar from Suhara's neck, and replaced it with an enchanted crystal necklace. The necklace had been bought from Deledy Lynx, and had a skin hardening concentration pattern. Frey had seen how the anklet blessing had failed against Seventy-nine's silver blades, and she figured a durability improver might function better.

Tricks and Frey were currently up in the library. Since Suhara was stuck in the room, she asked if they could find her some books on Broken Space Ghosts. She needed the info to figure out how to use her new soul abilities.

"You shouldn't push yourself, Suhara." Desyi frowned and leaned forward on her seat.

Suhara had her curse textbook open in her lap. It was flipped to the page of an advanced heat ward that she was currently trying to memorize. She was stuck in the dorm, but she didn't want to idle.

"I really wanted to finish learning my required specialty spells by today," said Suhara. "Could you help me test this ward? I need high temperature spells."

Once the spell was cast, a vortex of dark magenta energy swirled at the tip of Suhara's wand.

Desyi sighed, but she complied and raised her hands. Tiny fireballs shot out from her fingertips and whizzed forth. The flame marbles scorched through the air towards Suhara. When they passed by the flat magenta vortex, they strayed from their flight course and were pulled in. When the fireballs touched the magenta energy, they broke down into loose flame and melted into the whirl.

The heat ward was able to absorb a variety of spells. Desyi's standard fireballs, flame throwers, burners, and heat waves all got sucked into the swirling energy. Lightning and heat beams were too fast to be caught in the ward, but their paths were bent when passing by.

The heat ward was a self-sustaining protection. Any heat that it absorbed powered it, allowing it to last longer. Casting any other spell with the wand would disable the ward. The vortex took a bit of time breaking down heat into magical energy, so spells that were too fast or too powerful would bypass it.

Suhara grumbled with disappointment. Roy used a lot of lightning, which the ward wasn't effective against.

"You know," Desyi got up from her chair and swiped Suhara's spellbook. "I think you've been focusing a bit too much on support and defense. There's got to be some good offensive spells in here."

"My staff is already my best offense." said Suhara.

Desyi began to flip through the pages of the spellbook. "You rely too much on that. Your staff is too crude. Do you have a single purely offensive spell above standard rank?"

Suhara took a minute to review her memorized spells. "Well, my master class spell stuns everyone close to me..."

"Master, eh?" Desyi giggled. "How long does that spell take you to cast?"

Suhara huffed and turned away. "Fine, I get it. I'll learn some more offense, too."

"Great!" Desyi placed the spellbook back down and pointed to the spell she had found. "Try this one, it's invisible fire."

The Unseen Blaze was a flamethrower spell with invisible fire. It was based on a standard flamethrower spell, but it was merged with a light-eater curse. The curse ate away at the fire's own light without reducing too much of the heat, thereby making the flamethrower invisible. The curse converted the absorbed light into concentration magic. Light from raw fire doesn't create a lot of concentration, but it made enough to give the unseen blaze some extra pushing power.

"Wow, this looks pretty cool," said Suhara. "I can't exactly practice it in here, though."

"Oh! I can handle that. Hold on." Desyi clapped her hands together and closed her eyes.

Desyi suppressed a snicker as she focused her thoughts. A few seconds later, she lifted up her eyelids and threw open her hands. A wave of indigo energy spewed out from her palms. The dorm's air cooled and crystalized. Then, a dozen identical white ice statues formed in the middle of the room.

Once Suhara got a good look at the statues, she started to giggle uncontrollably. She recognized them. Her laughing breath condensed in the cold dorm air, forming a steady stream of mist.

The white statues were in the form of Roy Intone... stripped down to his underwear. He was depicted in the middle of an arm flex, but all of his muscles were sagging like cookie dough. A beret rested on top of his head with a long feather sticking high up into the air.

Desyi spoke once Suhara got over the laughing fit. "Thought you would like that, go ahead and practice away!"

Suhara nodded and started to memorize the spell pattern in the book. Desyi helped with some advice and shortcuts on temperature genre patterns.

Once Suhara finished studying the pattern, she pointed her demon root at the statues. Aside from the heat, there was no other indication that a spell was fired off. The statues only started to emit white gas as they were sublimated. The image of a disintegrated Roy was morbidly amusing for Suhara. A few of the statues in the front cracked and burst into a pile of shards due to the sudden increase in temperature. Since the flame had a bit of concentrated force, once the statues became small enough, they were tipped over onto the floor.

When the two girls tried it again, Suhara repeated the exercise with the Winter Sight turned on so that she could see the trail of magic. There was a bit of magenta energy spewing out from the tip of the want, but most of the invisible fire was laced with black.

Theema didn't say anything about what Suhara was seeing. It didn't seem to interest the goddess.

After Suhara completely memorized the Unseen Blaze spell, the two girls continued to find more temperature based curses in the spellbook. At one point, Desyi had to rush over to the bathroom to get some water for a standard spell they were going to practice.

=+=+=

Tricks waved her arms around to feel the room's air. "Gods, Desyi, what did you do? This room is both hot and cold at the same time. It feels like I'm swimming in poorly heated soup."

"I was just teaching Suhara a few spells," said Desyi. "Hey guess what Frey?"

"Hm?" Frey looked up from the pile of books that she brought up with Tricks.

"I'm a better teacher than you! I helped Suhara learn three whole spells in just a couple hours!" Desyi taunted and stuck her tongue out.

"Oh please," Frey dismissively swung her hand through the air. "You obviously focused on temperature, your genre is the simplest genre."

Desyi playfully crossed her arms and lifted her chin high up in the air. "Progress is progress!"

Suhara chuckled to herself as she watched the exchange. She was a bit tired from magic fatigue, so she was curled up in her bed. She had learned two more standard spells with Desyi. Now she could flash freeze targets, or turn water-based ice into snow. Her flash freezing curse was a simple freeze spell with an added heat-eating curse component that sped it up. Her snowmaker spell breaks apart large portions in the fractal grid of water-based ice, crumbling it into soft snow.

All the spell practice deprived Suhara of enough magic that the blood rejuvenating potion's fainting side effects didn't activate. This was a useless benefit though, since the magic fatigue made her fall asleep anyway.

=+=+=

The next morning, Frey and Tricks presented all the information gathered from the library regarding Broken Space ghosts. A large amount of the information was worthless for Suhara, since she only received the soul from a ghost from one of the five sectors. Thankfully, there were two passages that informed Suhara about the ghost that she encountered.

The calculating ghosts of Broken Space's third sector were very simple spirits that took on featureless geometric shapes. They had the ability to harden vacuums by separating it into a controlled pocket dimension. In order words, they could create solid objects out of nothing. Since the objects technically had no mass, they were weightless. The only thing that gives the vacuum objects force was the ghost's magic. Thin, sharp, and other aerodynamic objects were preferred by the ghosts, since they required less energy to move around.

All vacuum objects must first be formed within two meters of the ghost. After that, the objects are able to fly as far as the ghost can see. The third sector is often completely flat so that the ghosts have a superior line of sight. The vacuum objects took complete focus in order to sustain. Any lapse in concentration would cause a vacuum object to fail and disappear. It was why Suhara's brute force method was effective against Seventy-nine, since the ghost was unable to form clear thoughts while the staff was whacking it.

The power was easy enough once Suhara understood it. She could form any object that came into mind. While focusing on using the vacuum object power, Suhara couldn't cast any new spells. Simple objects, like triangles, were easier since they only had a few parts to keep track up. The concept was a lot like her first magic pattern development lesson. Luckily, Suhara was really good at that class, minus the aiming half.

The ghosts had the power to make portals as well, but Suhara couldn't do anything with that until she learned dimensional genre magic.

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.

A horde of students surrounded the rooftop arena.

This time, the battlefield didn’t look like a natural landscape. Everything was built with flax-yellow wood. The floor was smooth and flat, and large cylinders of varied heights rose up in random locations.

To Suhara’s surprise, there were three administrators overlooking the arena. Each of the three instructors sat in the extremely tall observation chairs. The chairs were placed evenly around the arena. She recognized Hawkshire on one of the seats. The original supervising woman, Rilane, was sitting on the second chair.

A tanned skinned woman with short brown hair was sitting on the third seat. Suhara didn’t recognize her, but all her roommates noticed immediately.

Tricks’s mouth fell open. “Oh shit! It’s the headmistress!”

“Ah, three professors, that means they’re likely classifying this as an academic duel.” said Frey.

“Odd that the headmistress is here, though.” Desyi crossed her arms and tilted her head. “She’s usually too busy for this type of thing, isn’t she?”

Suhara observed the headmistress with an air of doubt. She expected the head of the school to look older and tamer. This woman was the opposite of all Suhara’s expectations.

The headmistress had dark and spiky brown hair layered on her scalp. Her scarlet robe had no sleeves, revealing her mahogany colored shoulders and arms. The bottom of her red robe was torn, looking like it had spent a day being mauled by a lion. Her legs were crossed beneath her robe, and she was joyfully conversing with a group of students standing by her chair. The headmistress’s laughs were loud and carefree, and the students seemed comfortable by her.

Suhara thought that the stoic and gruff Hawkshire looked more like a headmaster. This other woman just appeared too lively.

“Hey, she’s here!” said a student who recognized Suhara.

Chatters increased and stares rained down on Suhara. The crowd parted, forming an empty path to the arena.

Deledy, Norman, and Helanna detached from the crowd and approached Suhara’s group.

“Hey guys!” said Norman.

“Hi there, Ghost-slayer Suhara!” Deledy giggled. “Everyone’s been talking about you! Happy to see that you’re wearing my necklace.”

Helanna gave Suhara a hug. “So many people came! I hope you win!”

“Thanks,” said Suhara. “I’ll try my best.”

=+=+=

Suhara wore a simple white robe with a knee-high hemline; it was bought from the robe shop by Frey. Her wand and staff were in her hands. She walked into the wooden battlefield with as much confidence as she could muster.

Roy Intone sat on the edge of one of the wooden cylinder platforms. He was wearing the same bronze chestplate, with the previous dent removed. Roy also had on a set of thick gauntlets and a visorless helmet, all bronze. His silver staff rested on his lap.

“Bout time, I thought you were going to ditch.” Roy leered at Suhara, and then jumped down onto the ground. “Would have made sense. You won’t look much like someone who beat a ghost once I’m done with you. Too bad, all that time you spent spreading that stupid rumor will be wasted.”

Suhara growled. “I didn’t spread any rumors, Roy.”

“Yeah right, just like you didn’t assault me. You probably tampered with another memory crystal to make it look like you beat a ghost.” said Roy.

Rilane announced the duel proceedings to the audience with her amplified voice. The dueling scopes focused on the two combatants, while a cylindrical green forcefield started to form around the arena.

“I didn’t tamper with anything,” said Suhara. “But with all that extra armor, you look like you believe the rumors. You afraid I’ll snap your arms or crack your skull?”

“Oh please, these are just to keep your blood from staining me.” Roy taunted.

“You may begin… now!” said Rilane.

The audience went silent. All eyes focused on the fight.

Roy pointed his staff forward, but he wasn’t quick enough to strike first. A small cloud of darkness shot out of Suhara’s wand, latching onto Roy’s face like a hungry leech and blinding him.

A ball of bright orange fire burst out from the tip of the silver staff. Suhara had already moved away at that point. The flames crashed onto the floor and lit the wood on fire. Unable to remove what blinded him, Roy began to shoot lightning at where he heard footsteps.

All the missed lightning bolts left black star-like scars upon the lightly colored lumber.

Suhara was able to avoid the bolts by keeping in motion. She was able to run faster than the boy could take aim. While charging towards her enemy, she pushed magic into her anklet and her necklace, fortifying herself with blessings. As she approached the armored boy, she fired out a blast of her raw curse magic.

Darkness flooded forth and overwhelmed Roy. The foggy black magic invaded all his magical objects. The blinding spell that hovered over his eyes was also erased by the torrent of Suhara’s magic eating curse. Roy was able to see again. However, even with his sight restored, he wasn’t able to fire a spell right away. His staff had been disabled by the flowing darkness.

Suhara had closed most of the distance during the time Roy was blind. Her black staff cut upwards through the air with a loud swoosh. The clanking sound of stone striking metal resonated throughout the arena. Bronze gauntlets blocked most of the blow, but the weight behind the strike dislocated Roy's left arm.

Roy cried out in pain. The swipe of the black staff launched him high into the air, and he came crashing down onto the wooden floor. A second yell of agony burst from his lungs. He stumbled upright, then ducked behind one of the wooden cylinders as sky blue spheres flew towards him from Suhara's wand. The motion eating bullets dug into the ground, sending off thick splinters.

While behind cover, Roy charged all his equipment with his magic. Black mist began to leak out from the metal as the curse magic was chased out. The multiple protective enchantments in his equipment reactivated just in time, and protected him from the fire that abruptly ignited around him.

Suhara had run around cylinder until she regained sight of her opponent. The wood around Roy darkened into ash as Suhara roasted it with her Unseen Blaze Spell. Her flamethrower wasn't visible, but the fire that started around Roy was. When she saw that the heat wasn't bothering him, she decided to try and disable his equipment again. The flowing stream of darkness erupted from her wand and rushed towards Roy.

This time, Roy dodged the black fog. He winced in pain as his left arm swung around uselessly. Using only his right arm, he aimed his staff, and fired off a bolt of indigo energy. The magic rushed forward at a breakneck speed, leaving behind a line of snow.

The spell struck Suhara in the chest. White ice formed around her, covering her entire upper torso. The protective blessing kept the ice from making direct contact with her. Unfortunately, the ice still managed to encase her head and arms. Now Suhara was the blind one.

While Suhara struggled against the ice, Roy hid behind a different wooden cylinder. He cast a spell to stiffen his left arm into place. The pain was distracting, but it would be healed by the arena magic when the duel ended. All he needed to do was keep the pain bearable to focus on casting spells.

The white ice finally shattered under Suhara's augmented strength.

Roy peeked out from his hiding spot, and quietly aimed his staff at his opponent.

Suhara tried to activate her Winter Sight to locate Roy. Before she could finish magically shifting her vision, A man-size ice boulder flew towards her. Surprised by the incoming ice, she inadvertently held up her arms to protect herself.

The ice boulder never reached her.

Due to the shock, Suhara charged her eyes with needless amounts of magic, more than was required for Winter Sight to activate. Her vision was obscured as violet beams of light burst out from her pupils. The rays of violet pierced through the boulder and destroyed it. The wreckage of ice crumbled futilely at her feet.

Suhara stood still for a second in bewilderment. She regained her senses and retreated behind a wooden pillar as a stray lightning bolt almost nailed her. The new attack vaguely reminded her of how Seventy-nine used a ranged ability that burned her back. She had copied Seventy-nine's magic blasts, or possibly lasers. Since they came out of her pupils, she couldn't exactly see what it was. It just had something to do with light.

Winter Sight was activated now, so Suhara was able to see Roy's magic outline through the obstructions. He wasn't moving, but his staff was pointed towards the cylinder she hid behind.

For some reason, there were a bunch of white lines coming off her body. They were thin, and led to the forcefield of the arena. Suhara wasn't sure if they led through the wall, since the bright green magic of the forcefield was difficult to see through with Winter Sight. It didn't seem to be affecting her, so she ignored it for now.

A large portion of the battlefield was ablaze. The fires had crawled across the wood, and now cloaked the arena with heat. Seeing an opportunity, Suhara stuck her wand out from behind her cover and shot a magenta orb towards Roy.

The magenta sphere streak through the air, landing next to where Roy hid. All the nearby flames rushed into the orb of magic. Then the sphere hung in the air for a moment.

Roy recognized the spell, and formed a rough wall of ice to defend himself.

The orb exploded, blowing through the ice wall and knocking Roy out from his cover.

Suhara leap through the air, and activated her strength sapping aura.

Before Roy could recover from the explosion, the black stone staff struck him on his back. He was forced back onto his stomach, and screamed out as his dislocated arm was smushed against the floor.

The strength sapping aura was then released, and the black staff smashed down onto Roy's armor with excessively boosted might.

The pain was too much, and Roy passed out.

Victory. Suhara grinned with triumph, her teeth out on display for the crowd.

=+=+=

The Headmistress, Arkela Helsfur, watched the battle with devoted focus. Her right palm tracked Suhara during the entire duel.

Invisible to everyone else, a long bundle of magic strings were latched onto Suhara like cobwebs. The strings were feeding information into Helsfur's palm.

Marlifa received the information, and whispered through a gray gemstone pierced in Helsfur's ear. "She has an overabundance of soul in her body, the spirit is a deity. The deity is receiving the child's vision and hearing when the child allows it. The deity is also supplying various abilities, as well as telepathic communication. There is no memory tampering from the deity."

"Hm, then the boy is the one with the modified memory?" Helsfur spoke back in a similar whisper, which was received by a second gem piercing on her tongue.

"Nay," said Marlifa, "her mind has signs of complete memory displacement. A harpy's work."

"Are you able to find the harpy?" said Helsfur.

"I'm afraid not," said Marlifa, "this is an ancient harpy's work. There are no other traces to follow."

"Damn." Helsfur closed her palm.

The magic strings were cut loose, and evaporated into the natural magic in the atmosphere.

=+=+=

There were a lot of cheers and hugs. Suhara happily embraced her friends in her victory. After she calmed down from the celebratory excitement of beating Roy, she started to remember the white strings she saw during the duel.

Suhara looked back at the arena, and tried to remember where she stood and where the strings came from. She wasn't absolutely certain, but it seems that they originated from the headmistress.

Before Suhara could figure out what to do with her suspicions, large silver walls fell down around her. She got cut off from her friends, and was now trapped inside a cubicle of familiar reflective substance.

Seventy-nine hovered overhead, surrounded by its allied ghosts. "Hostile trespasser five hundred forty-four located."

Suhara was sealed inside a reflective box. The substance was impenetrable, not even her yells could be heard through it. The walls slowly caved inwards, attempting to either suffocate or crush.

Frey had activated her intangibility blessing, and pushed against the silver wall futilely. It wasn't letting her in. "I can't get through this thing!"

"Hit the rock things up there!" Tricks yelled and pointed up at the sky. "If we can take em out, that might free her!"

Flames erupted from the soles of Desyi's feet. The blast launched her into the air towards the cube ghost. Her arms glowed with a dazzling yellow, and they radiated with enough heat to warm the entire crowd.

Turquoise rays of light shot out from every ghost. They struck Desyi from several angles. She wailed in agony as the energy permeated her body. The pain caused her consciousness to slip away, then she began to fall from the sky. Her arms left a trail of fire in the air as the heat enchantments wore off.

"Shit! Desyi!" Tricked yelled out with concern, and pulled her pearl wand out.

"Do not interfere," said Seventy-nine. “This is justice.”

Tricks aimed her wand at her fallen friend, casting a quick spell to catch her. Then Desyi fell onto a batch of air with a pillowy consistency.

Now that everyone had seen the clear threat of the ghosts, most of the crowd panicked. A stampede of students ran towards the rooftop doors, trying to get away from the floating shapes. People pushed and shoved, and soon began to jam up the doorway.

Rilane commanded the students to retreat calmly. Her orders were aided with a thin yellow mist that descended on the frightened children. They were still afraid, but their reckless urgency was purged by the teacher's mist.

Helanna tried to stay by the silver box, but Deledy urged her to leave with the crowd.

"It's too dangerous up here!" Deledy pushed her novi towards the door. "Get down into the school, we'll take care of it."

Norman pulled out two vials of liquid from his satchel. He swallowed the potions, and then jumped up and over the ghosts in a single leap. He ascended too quickly for any of the spirits to strike him with lasers. Two small pins on his sleeves flew out. They grew in size until they became long iron spears in his hands. When he started to fall, he thrust his gray spearheads into one of the cylindrical ghosts. The spears weren't able to pierce into the stone, but the spirit got pushed down.

The spirits aimed and fired several rays towards Norman, but the light was blocked by a white barrier. Frey had cast a protective blessing around Norman.

The pyramid ghost separated from the other shapes and flew over the evacuating students. A cloud of sharp needles formed around it, which began to bombard the roof.

Before any of the needles could hit anyone, Hawkshire stepped forth and conjured a large pink veil overhead. The needles weren't completely halted by the barrier, but they were slowed to the point where it looked like they stopped. By the time one of the needles made it through the dome, all the retreating students had already filed out of the roof.

Rilane held an oval crystal to her lips, and spoke into it. "Invasion on the roof, spirits. Seven in total."

What appeared to be liquid gold coated over Deledy. A halberd formed in her hands out of the golden substance, before she flew up towards the spirits. She hacked her weapon into the pyramid ghost, and turquoise energy began to escape from crack that was formed by the strike.

The pyramid faded out of existence, it was forced out of the mortal realm.

Meanwhile, the cylinder spirit that Norman downed was crushed under Frey's fist. It also disappeared after its defeat.

A swirling blue portal opened up. Wenlia stepped out from the portal and onto the roof. She was followed by a group of other teachers and administrators.

Rilane ran up to Wenlia and pointed at the silver box. "There's a student trapped in that structure. She’s being crushed!"

Wenlia nodded, and ran up to the reflective wall. She placed a hand against the smooth surface, trying to sense what was on the other side. "This is made with dimension magic," she said, "shouldn't be a problem."

Blue energy flowed out of Wenlia's hands. She cocked her arms back, and then stabbed her fingers into the silver box. They punctured through the substance, and she was able to tear it apart.

Suhara was gone.

“It’s empty!” Wenlia yelled out as she gestured to the empty box.

The remaining ghosts had put up silver shields, blocking the barrage of attacks that came from the teachers that just arrived. A volley of silver spears and blades started to rain down onto the roof.

“Enough of this,” said the headmistress.

A huge cluster of green strings erupted out from Helsfur’s hands. They split into a series of webs and flung themselves at the spirits. The collection of strings breezed around the silver shields, and wrapped around the stone shapes.

One by one, the rocky shells of the ghosts began to crack, revealing the turquoise color within.

“Gravity manipulation detected. Eliminate source.” said Seventy-nine.

Turquoise rays fired off towards the headmistress. Before they reached her, the turquoise light began to diffuse. The light bent and skewed, completely missing their intended target.

The ghosts started to implode. As they got omnidirectionally crushed, a final flash of turquoise burst out before they disappeared. Seventy-nine was soon the final ghost. “These hostilities will be reported to the Third.” it said.

Then after a final turquoise flash, Seventy-nine was gone.

=+=+=

Suhara was fine. She had used her black bracelet to teleport to the dorm. After escaping the box, she rushed back up to the roof as soon as she could, but the ghosts had already been terminated by the time she made it up the stairs. Her friends were relieved that she was safe, and not too surprised by how she teleported.

“I was hoping that’s how you got out,” said Frey. “Though I wasn’t sure if the teleport would work. I wasn’t able to pass through the stuff with my intangibility.”

“Who would have thought ghosts were the revenge sort.” said Deledy. “I thought that was more of a demon thing.”

Hawkshire bent over Desyi, and was healing her with a flow of pink mist. He complained to the other teachers as he was performing his spell. “How were they able to locate Miss Ballad so quickly?”

“We underestimate them, that’s all.” said Wenlia. “It should be a while before they can recover and try again.”

“For now, clean up the mess here,” Helsfur commanded. “I have a few things to attend to.”

The headmistress left through the rooftop doorway.

Once Desyi recovered and regained consciousness, the all the remaining students left the roof together.

=+=+=

Suhara and her roommates were sitting in their dorm and eating dinner. The cafeteria was filled with students who were trying to ask about what happened on the rooftop, which made having a meal impossible.

The office had left a notice for Suhara. They ordered her to stay inside the Lyceum at all times in case the ghosts invaded again.

“I can’t believe I’m stuck here,” said Suhara.

“To be fair, those things are pretty dangerous.” Desyi absently rubbed one of her shoulders, where one of the turquoise beams struck her.

“Yeah, sorry you were hurt on my account, Desyi.” said Suhara.

Desyi went up and gave Suhara a gentle hug. “I’m just glad you’re alright.”

“That teleporting bracelet sure is useful.” said Frey. “Nice of Rales to just give it to you.”

“He still wants you to accompany him on that research trip, right?” said Desyi. “Why don’t you go? As a way to say thanks.”

“I’m on lockdown, remember?” said Suhara, “Couldn’t go with him even if I wanted to.”

"Oh whoops, already forgot about that, still a bit woozy." Desyi laughed.

=+=+=

The Entangled Archive was a realm filled with silky webs and countless books. Arkela Helsfur sat on a pile of dictionaries, and moved pieces of parchment around a dusty table.

Marlifa hung upside-down over the table. A thick line of webbing linked the goddess's feet with the gigantic labyrinth of strings that decorated the sky.

Most people recoil upon seeing Marlifa's form for the first time. Her figure was that of a woman's, but with a few frightening alterations. She had five eyes on her face, one pair over another and one in the middle of her forehead. A sixth and seventh eye hid on the back of her neck, and she had an eye on the back of each hand. Nine eyes in total, and each one was solid black.

Marlifa's skin was light gray. Her head was bald, but a crown of webs often rested on top, which resembled flowing white hair. A dress of threads layered over the goddess's body like a skintight cocoon. Four thick gray tendrils grew out from the goddess's back, which she was able to contract into her body until they were four stubs.

Helsfur didn't mind the goddess's appearance. She had liked spiders and insects since she was a toddler. The two had become good friends ever since Helsfur took on the position of headmistress in the Lyceum.

The headmistress pulled out several crystal balls from a bag, and poured them onto the table. She picked up one of the recorded memories, and began to scribble down a few notes.

"Since Intone spotted Ballad on the first floor, heading away from the stairs, the harpy is likely located somewhere down there." said Helsfur. "Let's work back from that."

The headmistress had a lead on the harpy's location.

It didn’t require too much digging, all Helsfur had to do was search for information on Suhara. She found a report from Hawkshire about how the girl had been found unconscious in one of the research department rooms back on her first day. The room in question was operated by a witch that no one met, except for the research administrator.

A quick examination by Marlifa showed that the research admin was also under the effects of mind manipulation. The harpy was likely located in the research room.

Unfortunately, when the administration checked the room, it was empty. Everything had been stripped bare.

The harpy got away.

=+=+=

The next few days were peaceful.

Suhara spent a lot of her time learning how to use her Broken Space powers. The eye lasers were one of her favorites. It was easy to use, and worked like a standard spell. It blinded her during the moment it activated, but the beams were quick enough that whatever she was looking at tended to get hit.

The silver vacuum objects were much more difficult. Suhara had to keep track of numerical coordinates in order to conjure any shapes. Her lack of interest in arithmetical magic was a disadvantage here. The only things she could form with any consistency were tiny needles. She couldn’t throw them with a decent amount of force, but she could get them to pierce unprotected flesh. Frey described the damage as being less deadly than a mosquito bite.

Suhara was currently in the cafeteria, eating with all her friends. Her roommates were with her, as well as Deledy, Norman, and Helanna.

"Hey Helanna, you're from Eritea, right?" said Suhara.

Helanna looked up from her bowl and swallowed her last bite. "Yeah, what's up?"

"Could you help me with this thing?" Suhara retrieved the Grim Floret from one of her many pockets. "It's an artifact from the Eritea territory, I've been trying to get it open."

"Cool! Is it like, a magic item?" said Helanna.

Suhara nodded. "Yep, it's got some kinda curse spell inside that I can learn to use."

"So how can I help?"

"Frey said it was some kind of long password lock. I thought it might be some ancient Eritea sayings and stuff, so I was wondering if you knew where to find any."

Helanna's face lit up after a moment of thought. "Oh! My parents used to tell me stories about a bunch of guys from a long time ago who prayed and sang a lot. Try looking for the, um... Spinsel Tribe, I think."

It was the Spencil Tribe, actually. After digging through a few books in the library, Suhara was able to locate the group that Helanna referenced.

The tribe was famous for being the source of the first High Priest of Ulvin, also known as the Muse. Most Eritean wisdoms originated from them. After the first Muse was created, the tribe had dedicated themselves to music, magic, and prayer.

Suhara tried reciting many phrases and incantations in order to get the Grim Floret to open up.

It took three hours to find the correct phrase, "Ne lu rota va sarl, ta sarla va elm."

The phrase roughly translated to, "We fight without bloodshed by taking their weapons."

Once the password was said, the Grim Floret's petals opened up. The metal flower bloomed, and revealed a round gray stone embedded in the center.

Suhara picked up the Grim Floret and charged it with her magic. All of a sudden, a gray cloud composed of magical spores burst out from the metal flower. The spores drifted out in a great pulse.

Magic began to shut down. Books that had been flying overhead hailed down on everyone. Light crystals began to dim, until an entire corner of the library was plunged into darkness.

"No magic in the library!" shouted an angry librarian.

"Sorry!" Suhara called out from the shadows. "It was an accident!"

Suhara spent most of her afternoon helping to repair all the damage she caused with the Grim Floret.

The artifact's gray spores acted like sponges in a pond. They were magic dampeners that caused all nearby standard level spells to fail. It pretty much made low level magicians completely useless. The innate spell was master level, so Suhara had to use a lot of magic to activate the flower.

The magic dampening field didn’t affect Suhara. She was still able to use standard spells while standing in the spore cloud.

Frey helped decipher the spell pattern for Suhara, but it was ridiculously complex. Casting the spell manually would take a few minutes, but Suhara wasn't able to cast it a single time. It was just too much to remember.

Until Suhara was more used to master class spell patterns, Frey hired Deledy to forge the artifact into a hair clip.

The dark green metal flower adorned Suhara's black hair. Now she had four magic items, three that she always needed to put on every morning. The black bracelet was considerate enough to stay out of mind until needed.

=+=+=

The following morning, Suhara ran into Rales by the stairway. He had been waiting for her.

“That looks nice on you.” Rales complimented on the new hair clip.

“Thanks,” said Suhara.

“Listen, I’m going to be heading out on the research trip in tomorrow,” sand Rales, “any chance that you’ve changed your mind?”

Suhara recalled what Desyi had suggested about the trip. “Oh, I do want to, but they won’t let me out of the school because of the ghost attack. I’m on lockdown.”

“Ah, that’s too bad.” Rales sighed, then said goodbye and walked off.

=+=+=

Wenlia read the request that Rales had submitted to her department.

Rales asked for permission to take Suhara out on a research trip, against the lockdown mandate. He had reasoned that the trip would be safer than remaining in the school.

The kingdom that discovered the ruins had stationed royal paladins as guards. Royal paladins were capable fighters, so they could protect Suhara from any threats. The ghosts from the previous invasion also wouldn’t know her new location. Newly discovered ruins were kept confidential.

On the condition that Suhara wear a distress beacon necklace, she was given permission to attend the research trip with Rales.

=+=+=

“If you really don’t wana go, you don’t have to.” said Tricks.

“I’d feel bad, I already told him I wanted to go.” Suhara stuffed another robe into her clothing bag. “I don’t want to come off as ungrateful or lying or something.”

“It won’t be too bad,” said Desyi. “you’ll probably find a ton of cool stuff. Undiscovered ruins are pretty amazing.”

“Yeah, bring us back some souvenirs!” said Tricks. “There’s got to be a secret treasury in that place.”

Frey laughed, “It’s not likely, but worth a look.”

After Suhara packed up all her necessities, she sat with her friends and bantered away the rest of the day.

=+=+=

Suhara feared for her life like a fish out of water, magic carpets were the worst.

Rales had assured her the the carpet was a safe method of magic transportation, but that did nothing to ease her fright.

The carpet was such a thin piece of fabric. Suhara could feel how the air was flowing against the bottom of the rug. Her body sunk into the carpet just a little, and she was sure that it would soon tear open and drop her. Winds constantly crashed into her. A strong gust could possible knock her over the edge of the rug.

Suhara didn’t like flying, not one bit. Massive heights were not her thing. She kept her eyes shut and held onto Rales for dear life.

Of course, she didn’t have anything to be worried about. The protection blessings on her magic items, combined with her vampire abilities, made falls incredibly non-lethal. She even had a curse that slowed down falls. The problem was that she forgot about all these details while on the flying carpet.

Rales enjoyed the ride a bit more than he should have. He liked how Suhara hugged against him during the entire journey, even though it was only out of fear. It seemed cute to him. She had squealed and held on tighter every time there was unexpected turbulence. He tried to explain that the carpet’s enchantments wouldn’t let her fall, but she just shook her head and groaned.

They eventually landed in a forest located somewhere on the eastern side of the continent. The castle ruins that they would be spending the week in was camouflaged under the shadows of gigantic trees.

The castle was large, but didn’t disrupt any of the vegetation. The entire castle bent around the trees. All the sections and rooms were separated by tunnels that were partially buried in the dirt. The forest didn’t surround the castle, the forest grew through it. The walls were covered in overgrown ivy vines. Whoever constructed the building made sure that it was hard to spot.

There were nine Ginrook paladins guarding the ruins. Two other research groups were already present. One was from the royal court of Ginrook, and the other was from a magician’s academy in the Javex territory.

Rales showed his identification papers, and told them that Suhara was his assisting student.

“Welcome aboard then, Marlifa magicians!” said a man from the Ginrook team. "You are free to set up camp anywhere you'd like."

Rales thanked the man, then gestured for Suhara to follow. When they reached an empty spot, Rales took out his wand and cast a spell into the ground. The dirt rumbled, then two stone shacks rose out of the floor. He even added their names above the doorways.

"Put your stuff away," said Rales, "then we can start up the research!"

Rales laughed, "No way!"

"Yeah way!" said Suhara, "I can totally see 'em!"

The two sat by a large stone door that was sealed with enchantments. Rales had been inspecting it with his pattern reading scope, and then explaining what he was able to see. Suhara turned on her Winter Sight and claimed that she could see the patterns without using the scope.

"Okay then, how about this?" Rales pointed towards a part of the door he didn't inspect yet. "What kind of pattern do you see?"

Suhara squinted her eyes. "Uh, it's all wavy like a bunch of tiny mountains, plus it kinda bulges out from the door."

"Oh gods, you can see it! You've got to lend me whatever spell it is you're using!"

"No spells, just an ability I got."

"What, you a priest or something?"

Suhara nodded.

"Impressive," said Rales, "I should have figured. You've been quite amazing, it's no surprise a spirit has taken a liking to you."

The girl blushed and averted her eyes. She knew that the compliment was undeserved, but it was still nice to hear.

Suhara wasn't able to read any of the patterns, so Rales still had to rely on his scope to decipher the enchantments. He didn't have to explain the appearance of the patterns, at least.

Rales made an effort to keep the examination interesting for Suhara. He tried telling a few jokes about the patterns that he was scanning. The jokes were usually about what the patterns looked like. "This hunchback man kicking a banana is an enchantment to ward off water damage," he said.

After two hours of enchantment reading, Rales had figured out how to unlock the door. A quick sequence of firm taps was all it took.

"Pretty nice, huh?" he said.

"Aw, I still don't quite get it." she said.

"You just need some experience." Rales turned towards Suhara without taking the scope away from his face. He suddenly gasped and almost dropped his device.

Suhara's eyes widened. "What? What is it?"

"Sorry, I notice you've got some enchantments on... your head and arms... feet... everywhere actually," he said, "I can even sort of see it through your clothes."

Suhara looked down at the purple lines running down her body. "Ah, these. It's part of my whole priest thing."

"It's... very interesting," he said. "They appear to be very similar to some of the royal enchantments I study, but far more complicated. Hm, maybe I should... never mind. Anyway, let's take a look in the sealed room, shall we?"

Suhara smiled eagerly and followed Rales into the unlit room.

The sealed room had an abundant collection of stone tablets. The room also had a few books, but they had rotted away. No one who once occupied the castle seemed to know any preservation enchantments, or the enchantments may have worn off.

Rales began to lift all the stone tablets into the air with some suspension spells. “Let’s get these outside.”

The leader of the Ginrook researchers, Celner Whitelark, exclaimed in disbelief when the stone tablets were presented, "I can't believe you already got that door open!"

"I specialize in royal artifact enchantments," said Rales, "mystic locks aren't usually as complicated, so it wasn't a problem. Unfortunately, I've neglected mortal language in my pursuit of magical language, so I would appreciate it if your group could assist us in translating these tablets."

"Of course, of course!" said Celner. "There is quite a lot though, we should ask the Javex group as well. Joula, notify them, will you?"

"Ya, no probs, sir." A short girl who wore bulky goggles ran off at Celner's command.

Suhara went back to exploring the castle while everyone else worked on the tablets. She could see enchantments everywhere with Winter Sight. A lot of it was the same green fortification patterns, which were plastered all over the walls. She tried asking Theema if she recognized the place, but the goddess denied having any recognition.

Suhara found a secret trapdoor when she stumbled into the kitchen. The trapdoor was hidden by an illusion spell, so it could only be seen her magical sight. She took out her demon root to try and disable the enchantments, but Theema commanded her to stop.

“That entrance is protected by runes that counter the use of curses.” said the goddess. "It is dangerous to interact with it."

“Really? Is there any way I can get past them?” said Suhara.

“Not that I know of.” said Theema.

Suhara huffed with disappointment. She turned and left the room to go get Rales.

"This is beyond me, far beyond." said Rales as he inspected the enchantments on the trapdoor. "Someone went through a lot of trouble to keep this closed."

All the patterns scribbled over the trapdoor were miniscule. It could be mistaken for one solid coat of color if a person didn't look too close.

"Could it be a secret treasury?" said Suhara.

"It's possible," said Rales. "Certainly guarded like one."

“Can’t we dig around it?” she said.

“No, we don’t have the means to pierce through the fortification magics in the walls.”

“Maybe my curse magic can break the wall enchantments?”

“Curse? Hm. If you have a decent magic breaker, that may be possible...”

=+=+=

Suhara worked with the Javex research group for the rest of the day. She cleared away the fortification enchantments, then they dug through the walls before the enchantment could recover.

It took a lot of power to clear away the ancient castle’s defenses. A master level amount of Suhara’s raw magic had to be used just to remove a thin layer of enchantment. The resulting hole was barely wide enough for a person to slip through.

Rales spent most of the day unlocking magical doors that were too difficult for the other research groups. He returned in the evening to check on the tunneling progress.

After all the hours that were spent, the hole was only knee deep.

Suhara lay on her back. She was suffering from magical fatigue after all the curse magic she used. “This worked so much better in my head.”

“I’m sure you’re almost through.” Rales laughed. “The divide shouldn’t be much thicker, you’ll probably break through tomorrow.”

Rales helped Suhara up, and then led her outside.

“I think you’ll like what we’ve found.” said Rales.

Tables were set up outside the castle. It looked like they were magically made, just like how Rales made the shacks. Each table had an assortment of antiques placed on top. Swords were the most common type of item, and there were styles that appeared to be from around the globe. An entire city's armor was practically on display.

“The previous occupants were sword collectors, I’m guessing.” said Rales.

Suhara chucked. “Yeah, I can tell.”

Some of the most exotic looking swords were locked up in glass boxes in front of the stone shacks. Rales explained that he got first priority in picking most of the relics, which was why the most interesting pieces were in front of their sleeping quarters.

Rales laid Suhara on a cotton mattress in her shack, then he went to help the rest of the researchers.

The full force of magic fatigue blindsided Suhara. She fell asleep in seconds.

=+=+=

Ri Lucian was perched on top of a branch. She was right above all the researchers, while one of her four birds was keeping an eye on Suhara. Her three other birds were perched on her feathery shoulders.

A bulky sack was tied next to the harpy on the branch.

Ri had disguised herself behind an illusionary veil of leaves. She was reading a large book while the researchers below were busy working.

=+=+=

Suhara and the Javex researchers finally broke through the wall to the secret room.

Suhara, Rales, the Javex leader, Celner, and Joula all slipped down the hole.

The room beneath the kitchen was filled with silver coins. It wasn't as exciting as gold coins, but it was still worth a chest of gold. A large black longsword lay on top a pile of silver.

Suhara was tired out from magic fatigue again, but that didn't stop her from bouncing around with joy. The room had more money than she had ever seen in her life. "We're rich! We're rich! This is awesome!"

"I see you are new to this." Celner chuckled. "Keep in mind that our sponsors will receive most of the currency that we recover."

Upon hearing that news, Suhara immediately stopped hopping around. Her arms flopped down her sides. "Aw."

The agreement for the current research trip required that fifty percent of gold, silver, and gems be delivered to Ginrook. Forty percent would be split evenly between the Javex Mystics Academy and the Marlifa Lyceum. The ten percent that remained would be split between the three research groups.

The distribution still meant that Rales and Suhara would get a decent sized bag of silver in the end.

Since Suhara discovered the secret trap door, and was the primary reason everyone was able to get in, she had first pick on the artifacts inside.

There wasn't much choice. No artifacts were present except for the longsword.

The longsword was longer than Suhara was tall. Its entire blade was made from an opaque black glass, while the handle was gold.

Rales wrapped a strip of leather around the longsword handle. He noted that the previous handle covering might have worn away from time.

The leader of the Javex group, Kellin, recognized the sword. "That's a Dragon Tongue," she said, "a very rare find. It's a soul weapon that's supposed to be forged in the magma chambers of a volcano. The immortal magic of a dragon is sealed inside to provide power."

"Whoa, cool." Suhara gazed up at the shiny black blade with awe.

"I'm surprised you can lift it," said Kellin. "It's supposed to be made with concentrated magma, so it should be heavier than it looks. It already looks heavy in the first place."

"I'm stronger than I look," said Suhara. "It is super heavy, though."

Suhara switched on Winter Sight to observe the longsword's magic. She immediately twisted her head away as her eyes were assaulted with a blinding source of magic.

While blinking away the blindness, Suhara noticed a blue circle drawn on the opposite wall. She set the longsword down and pointed towards the circle. "Hey, what's that?"

"What's what?" Kellin turned towards the featureless wall.

Rales figured that Suhara was using her magic sight, so he looked through his scope. Unfortunately, he didn't see anything either.

"I see it," said Joula, who had her bulky googles pulled over her eyes. "It's a blue circle."

Celner scratched his chin and narrowed his eyes. "Blue circle? A dimension door?"

"Pocket dimension, perhaps?" Kellin suggested.

"Is the circle made with a line of tiny runes?" Rales asked Suhara and Joula.

The two girls walked up to the circle and observed it closely. They nodded once they saw the minuscule runes.

"I can decipher them." said Rales. "Could I borrow your goggles, Joula?"

"Ah... those goggles can only be used by her." said Celner. "She's a nymph, and they're just filled with water. It's to let her activate her priest powers."

"I see," said Rales. "Suhara's sight is also based on priest powers. This makes it difficult, then. Hm."

The three older researched pondered silently while Suhara and Joula stared blankly at them.

"So... where are you from?" Suhara asked Joula.

"I'm from Denmother, in the Teraile continent." said Joula.

"Cool! I'm from Welldrop, over to the West." said Suhara.

"Oh, I've been there! That city is as colorful as triggerfish!"

"Totally, but it gets a bit dizzying sometimes. They always change the colors every month, and for a whole week I get all lost because I don't know where anything is anymore."

"It's better than Denmother! We're basically living on a bunch of moving islands. The houses literally swim about! We have to have flags planted on the roofs so that we can find our coves!"

For a second, Rales snapped out of his thoughts and glanced over at Suhara. He remembered reading that Suhara was from Western Beradina, not Welldrop.

"I got it!" said Kellin, "How about the girls copy down the patterns on some parchment, then we directly decipher those pages."

"Ah! Great idea!" said Celner. "I'll go get some parchment."

Celner walked up to the rope that hung through the hole and pulled himself out.

Kellin went over to the longsword. The black blade weighed too much for her to lift. She assumed Suhara had strength spells to help with lifting heavy objects. Once she confirmed the weight of the longsword, she also climbed out of the room.

Suhara and Joula went back to chatting about their homelands. Rales decided that his confusion about Suhara's home wasn't important, and climbed out of the room after Kellin.

"The Kraken is real! I swear!" Joula said to Suhara. "There was this one time where it got real close to Denmother, so all our knights rode out to fight it. Then sirens began bursting out from the sea and helping our knights! It was so raving, ya know?!"

As an orphan with no experience in literature or penmanship, Suhara had atrocious writing. The symbols and patterns she drew resembled rows of crisscrossing twigs that had been trampled. The blue enchantment could be seen through a sheet of parchment, but she also couldn't trace it. The wall was just too rough to write on.

Joula ended up being responsible for copying the dimension door's blue runes. She didn't mind, and insisted that it wouldn't be a problem to do it alone. Drawing by eye was one of her specialties. She had even sketched the entire castle. Celner brought her on the trip precisely for her eyesight and artistic skills.

Suhara took her Dragon Tongue and left the secret room with an embarrassed red blush upon her cheeks.

Later in the day, Rales and the Javex researchers inspected the black longsword. They confirmed it was perfectly forged, and that it did contain immortal magic from a dragon. This meant the power of the soul sword would last indefinitely.

The black glass portion of a Dragon Tongue weapon is able to reach the temperature of magma. The handle wasn't affected because it had a heat resisting enchantment. Kellin estimated the heat peaked at over twelve hundred degrees.

When the inspection of the longsword was complete, the Dragon Tongue was handed back to Suhara. Its value was calculated to be worth over two barrels of gold.

Curious to see what she could do with such a searing sword, Suhara decided to charge it with magic and activate the blade's ability.

The black blade suddenly shined white and caught on fire. A wave of radiant heat washed over the atmosphere, which caused everyone standing outside to wince. The cool forest air became as dry as the desert in seconds. All the twigs and leaves near the longsword had caught on fire and burned to ashes.

Suhara screamed and dropped the Dragon Tongue. Blisters formed instantly on her arms and face. Her robes caught on fire and released smoke that smelled like burning wood. The sword stabbed into the ground until only the handle stayed visible. Insulated by the forest soil, the longsword's heat wave dissipated.

Rales yelled out with concern and ran up to Suhara. He pointed his staff and released a blast of cold winds to put out the fire on her robe.

"I-I'm fine." Suhara breathed deeply, then looked down on her burnt arms. "That hurt, but I heal fast."

Suhara's vampire regeneration erased all signs of harm in a few minutes. She soon looked as healthy as ever. Her robes were black and smokey, but they weren't on fire for very long. The demon root wand in her pocket was undamaged. She wasn't sure if her wand could even be damaged in the first place.

"Amazing," said Rales, "that is an impressive healing rate. You have such a variety of spells."

Kellin walked up and frowned at the longsword. "I'm sorry, that was my fault."

"No, no, that was all me," said Suhara. "I used the sword, after all."

Kellin shook her head. "I was foolish and didn't mention important facts. I didn't warn you about the dangers of such high temperatures, thank goodness you can heal. Dragon Tongue weapons should only be activated during the moment of an attack, so that the heat lasts for as long as the strike. Prolonged use leads to incidents like this. That longsword should be left in the ground for a few hours so it can cool."

Suhara nodded. "Well, I know now. Thanks."

Rales and Kellin helped clear away any remaining embers before they started to head back towards the other researchers. Everyone was looking at them, mostly because of the scream, but also because of the wave of heat that they felt. The hot and dry air was still lingering in the forest.

A stray thought moved through Suhara's mind when she remembered the magic items she wore. She activated her silver anklet, then stepped back over to the black longsword. Being cautious, she pulled the sword out by barely a centimeter, and tried to see if she felt any of the heat. Her palm didn't feel hot at all. She pulled the rest of the sword out with confidence.

Most of the sword's heat had been transferred to the soil, so the heat wave wasn't nearly as powerful. However, Rales and Kellin were still able to feel the change in temperature against their backs. They turned around to see what was going on.

Suhara grinned and held up the glowing orange sword. "Sorry, I wanted to check. I think my blessing blocks all the hotness."

Rales shook his head and laughed.

=+=+=

Most of the researchers were gathered in the Ginrook camp. The stone tablets were translated, so one of the Ginrook researchers was reading the translations.

The castle used to belong to a guild of swordsmen, and the tablets contained records of their exploits. They called themselves the Eclipsed Edge Guild. Every member had been personally invited to join the group, so the guild remained unknown, despite having a large collection of elite swordsmen from around the globe.

The Eclipsed Edge had no concrete goal. They simply wished to improve their skills and share wisdoms between different styles. Every member acted on their own, but they often collaborated and assisted one another. The most recent memoir's date was three hundred years ago. There wasn't any evidence showing why the castle was abandoned, or what happened with the guild.

Suhara spoke up when one of the tablets mentioned a former Cooleur Curahge paladin joining the guild. Being able to provide information made her feel useful. She explained everything she remembered about the Cooleur Paladins, including how they were active in the Sixth Demonic Invasion.

The former Paladin of Curahge was named Elro. He supposedly joined the Eclipsed Edge after the Cooleur Curahge disbanded, which was two hundred years after the Sixth Demonic Invasion. The paladin was also considered to be the second most skilled swordsman. The founder was the only one who exceeded him.

The founder of the guild was a woman who specialized in dual wielding techniques. There was no reason given for why she created the guild. All the tablets referred to her as the Mistress of Blades, so her actual name was unknown.

After all the tablets were reviewed, fifty-six members were identified. The memoirs also provided researchers with a better foundation to organize their artifacts.

Rales, Celner, and Kellin began a round of negotiations in order to redistribute the artifacts they had already claimed. They each wanted to obtain certain sets of relics. Rales wanted objects with powerful enchantments, Celner wanted the oldest items, and Kellin wanted the rarest antiques.

Suhara, Joula, and the other young researchers sat together and had a small party. Negotiations didn't require any of them.

"What powers do you get with being a nymph?" Suhara asked Joula.

"Lots of stuff," said Joula, "but I have to be underwater. My eyes can see magic and a wider spectrum of colors. I can turn water into fog at will and make the fog heal or poison whoever is inside. My brother says I look more pretty when I'm wet, which I think is part of it. Uh... oh, I can turn invisible, and I can fly through water without making any sound. I can't breath underwater like a siren, which is so dumb. I have spells to survive underwater, but it sucks that I can't do it passively."

One of the Javex boys whistled. "Damn, you already look hot. If you get even more beautiful, we'll end up burned."

Joula rolled her eyes. "Swim off, puffer. I have a boyfriend."

"Aw hey, I meant no harm," said the boy, "just showing some appreciation."

"Right," said Joula. "Anyway, what kind of priest are you, Suhara?"

"I dunno. I think I'm the only one like me, my bond is with a goddess." said Suhara.

Several jaws dropped.

"Bullshit!"

"No way!"

"Which goddess?!"

Suhara didn't go into detail about her priest powers, but she explained everything she read about Theema. Her book on the goddess was back at the Lyceum, so she didn't have any evidence to back herself up. Joula was the only one who completely believed Suhara.

=+=+=

Rales and Suhara were putting all the newly acquired artifacts into storage containers. Rales had completed several sets, so the negotiations had been successful.

"Hey Suhara?" said Rales.

"Yeah?"

"I went through a few of the documents they gave to me about you, and I'm curious. Are you from Welldrop, or Western Beradina?"

Suhara froze, and realized the mistake she made back in the secret room. "Uh, well... I..."

"Don't worry, I'm not going to rat you out." Rales chucked.

Suhara sighed with relief, then continued with putting stuff away. "Yeah, I kind of lied during the admission. I'm from Welldrop."

"It won't hurt to tell the Lyceum admins, they don't really care about your hometown. I know it sounds better to be an orphan from Beradina rather than an orphan from Welldrop, but all the Lyceum focuses on is your magical potential."

"Okay, but... can you keep it a secret for now? A lot's been goin-"

"It's no problem, Suhara. Don't worry about it. I'm not one to gossip."

"T-thanks, Rales."

After all the relics were packed up, they went to sleep in their shacks.

=+=+=

By the middle of the next day, Rales finished breaking down the runes of the dimension door. A large amount of researchers were gathered in the secret room as he was about to open it. Light crystals brightly lit the room up. All the silver coins had been cleared away, so there was a lot more room to stand.

Joula and Suhara helped indicate the locations of certain runes, since Rales still couldn't see them.

The dimension door required brushing a hand against the wall, while simultaneously ordering the portal to open. It was hard when the circle was invisible. Eight minutes worth of repeated attempts were required before Rales finally succeeded at activating the enchantments.

The blue circle of runes intensified until they became visible to everyone. A swirl of colors began to form over the circle. It was blurred like a mixture of thick mist.

Rales put his hand up against the portal of colors. He pushed, but wasn't able to make it through. "It's definitely a pocket dimension. The time is dulled, its moving much slower, almost completely at a standstill. I can't get in while the time delay remains. Is anyone here capable of master class time magic?"

All the researchers shook their heads.

"We might be able to call a master time magician from our academy," said Kellin. "It will take a while for him to get here, though."

"We don't have a choice, it's the only way to get in there," said Rales.

Kellin nodded. "I'll go contact the academy, then."

The collection of artifacts in front of the stone shacks grew larger than the other groups. Being able to open up difficult locks gave Rales a high priority in regards to relic claiming. Suhara's curse magic also opened up a few tricky doors.

There were too many artifacts to store back in the Lyceum research room, but Rales actually intended to sell most of what was collected. His passion was royal antiques. The belongings of a guild didn't excite him. Money earned from selling the swords and other relics would fund future research trips, which may lead to artifacts more to Rales's interest.

Suhara denied Rales's offer to evenly split the money that will be earned. She was excited to be able to earn some cash, but selling only what she found would provide more than enough money. A few of the relics were kept to give to her roommates. The remainders were worth several bags of gold. She considered selling the Dragon Tongue for a huge load of cash, but she felt a bit sentimental. It was the first artifact she got to claim here.

The Dragon Tongue looked nice and had a powerful ability, but it was a weapon more suited for a paladin or cleric. Suhara was just a magician. The black longsword was so heavy that it required both her hands to lift. She needed a free hand, or else she wouldn't be able to cast most her spells.

Desyi couldn't use the Dragon Tongue, she didn't have any strength boosters. It might be useful for Frey, though.

Suhara had a pair of daggers, a sword, and a hilt set aside for her roommates.

The pair of daggers were for Tricks. They belonged to an assassin swordsman, and had three effective enchantments. Each dagger could turn invisible, fly straight through the air for ten meters, and return to the owner's hands.

The sword was for Desyi. It allowed the user to fly in whatever direction it is pointed towards. The blade also had an enchantment to keep it from melting in excessive temperatures, so it could be heated up by Desyi's temperature magic without breaking.

Suhara found that the hilt used dimension magic to store multiple blades within itself. She planned to give it to Frey. The hilt was a versatile weapon that was easy to store. It could be shifted to a sharp dagger, a heavy longsword, a pointy rapier, or a saw.

The time magician from Javex arrived on the penultimate day of the research trip. Most of the castle had been cleared out. All the researchers gathered down in the secret room, while the time magician worked on breaking the time dissonance within the pocket dimension.

Suhara used her Winter Sight to view the magical process. The time wizard summoned an array of strange pink instruments. Similar instruments were extracted from inside the portal. The pink items resembled string and percussion instruments, but with odd geometric shapes and random rotating parts. He fiddled with the objects, and constantly moved the different items through the air. It looked like he was trying to perform as an entire orchestra. At one point, a green hand with pink fingertips was formed, and assisted the time wizard.

When Suhara described what she was seeing, Rales explained how time magic involved manipulating a fourth dimension of wavelengths and particles. Suhara didn't get it. Joula didn't either. Most of the younger magicians did not understand time magic.

The time magician finished in under an hour. Once the time dissonance was cleared, the swirling colors of the portal also faded. A garden full of vegetables was revealed through the portal.

Rales entered first, and Suhara trusted him enough to immediately follow.

The pocket dimension was bright. A massive light that occupied half of the sky hung directly above. The sky itself was green instead of blue, and all the plants had red leaves.

The food was plentiful and growing all over the place: grapes and melons crawled along the floor, tomato and bean plants were springing out in a square field, oranges and avocados hung in the trees.

A small stream of water ran by every plant.

Rales looked around and armed himself with his staff. "Everyone be on the lookout, this dimension was designed to support life, someone must be here."

Celner stepped through the portal and held up his wand. "Dear gods, a member of the Eclipsed Edge, perhaps?"

The rest of the researchers started to hop through the portal.

"They might be friendly. It wasn't an evil guild, from what we could tell." said one of the Javex researchers.

"Even so," said Kellin, "we have been taking from their castle under the assumption that they were gone. It is possible to consider us as thieves."

Joula pointed at a faraway lake. "I think I see someone's magic over there!"

Suhara looked over at where Joula indicated. "I see it too!"

Rales and Celner approached the lake first, then waved for everyone else to follow.

A flat plateau of gray stone was propped up in the center of the lake. There was a woman with dark brown hair meditating on the stone. Her eyes were closed and her body was still. Celner tried calling out to her, but she didn't return any response.

"Keep your distance, everyone," said Rales. "If we crowd her, we could be seen as a threat."

"She's not armed, I don't think she's dangerous." One of the Ginrook researchers walked up and stepped into the lake.

As soon as the lake water was touched, the mysterious woman's eyes flew open. Her eyes were golden. She uncrossed her legs and leaped up into the bright sky. A pair of swords shot out from the stone and flew up with the woman.

Rales tried to gaze up at the sky, but couldn't look at the shining light. "Shit! Get back!"

The woman landed in the center of the crowd of researchers. A powerful shockwave burst out from her, and knocked everyone off their feet.

"Wait! We mean you no harm!" said Celner.

The mysterious woman crossed her swords like scissors, trapping Kellin's neck against the floor.

"Nel yune, sa vallis en!" said the woman.

"She doesn't speak our tongue!" said a Ginrook researcher.

"No shit! Shut the fuck up!" said a Javex researcher.

Kellin narrowed her eyes and concentrated, then she nervously muttered a reply, "Ke.. Keln yune, sa ulros."

The mysterious woman remained silent for another moment, then lifted her swords away from Kellin's neck. She sheathed her swords and into her belt, then brushed her palm against a blue stone bracelet.

A transparent blue man, a specter, appeared out of thin air. The woman gestured towards all the researchers and spoke to the apparition.

"Greetings," said the specter. "Do you all understand me?"

Everyone stood back up. A few of the researchers nodded slowly.

The specter smiled. "Excellent. My name is Oreno Cella. I hail from Nilivion, and I am currently in the form of an artificial specter constructed from mind and power magics. My friend here is called Cilna. We are the last of the Eclipsed Brand Guild."

"Knew it wasn't edge." whispered a researcher.

"I still think edge sounds better." whispered another.

Celner smiled and stepped forward. "Ah, I can't believe it, hello Oreno! My name is Celner Whitelark. I am leading a team of researchers in examining your guild castle! We are all archeologist, or students with an interest in the ancient. We are sorry to intrude."

Oreno floated up to Cilna and started to discuss with her.

Cilna sighed with relief and started to relax herself. She clapped her hands together and bowed to everyone. A small grin grew on her face.

"We are happy to hear of this," said Oreno. "Cilna is our guild leader, and she is the only one of our group who still lives. The rest of us perished at the hands of evil. She sealed herself here to keep a dangerous relic out of reach."

"I figured as much," said Rales. "We uncovered your archives, and the name Cilna never popped up. The only person in the archives who wasn't named was the leader, the Mistress of Blades."

"May we ask what that relic is?" said Kellin.

Oreno and Cilna exchanged a few more words. Cilna nodded.

"Yes, you may," said Oreno. "Our leader guards the Amber Heart, core of the Lich."

All the researchers who knew who the Lich was gasped. They started to summarize the old legends to everyone who didn't know.

Rales explained it to Suhara and Joula. "The Lich was the High Priest of Holoko. He only existed for about two years, but was able to take over a majority of four different territories. It is said that a great army of undead was completely at his command, and that his undead soldiers had sentient minds. He was the most powerful necromancer in all of history."

"I am sorry, I must go," said Oreno. "Cilna is running out of magic to power my bracelet."

"That's okay," said Celner. "I'll go retrieve my dictionaries. I should be able to enchant an empty journal to translate your leader's speech."

Oreno smiled. "Good, then I need not tax my leader's magic any longer."

The specter evaporated away.

Cilna left her pocket dimension and explored the outside world she left behind. She frowned a bit when she saw all the artifacts on display outside, but didn't make a fuss.

The royal paladins on guard outside were surprised by the unfamiliar woman. Cilna and the paladins all took aggressive stances against each other, and a lot of yelling was required to calm the situation down.

After all the commotion, most of the researched assisted Celner with forging a journal that translated Cilna's language.

During all the excitement, Joula stayed in the pocket dimension. She snuck into the lake and turned invisible so that no one would notice her. When everyone was gone, she swam over to the small stone plateau. She had spotted a magical glow coming from inside. Curiosity overwhelmed her mind. She pushed against the top of the flat stone until it slid away.

There was a bundle of leather hidden inside. Runes and magical patterns were drawn all over the leather. Joula gaped with amazement. She took the tip of one of the coverings, and cautiously peeled it away. Underneath the wrapping was a yellow light, most likely from the Amber Heart.

Joula just wanted to see it for herself. Legendary beings like the Lich fascinated her more than any other type of history. The desire to steal the heart wrestled with her conscience. She ended up deciding against it. Although it would mean a lot to obtain an artifact of living legends, the magic leather coverings suggested that it would be too dangerous. Sneaking a peek like she did was already foolish and rash.

Joula covered the relic again with the leather. Then, she left the pocket dimension and rejoined her group.

Later in the day, the magical notebooks were fully developed. Cilna had one that translated common speech into her language, and wrote it into the pages. The researchers gathered around a notebook that did the same thing in reverse, so that everyone could understand what Cilna said.

It was a bit crowded, but everyone was too impatient to wait another five hours for a third translation book to be forged. The magic item took a long time to make because of the complexity of speech. The amount of ink that needed to be stored inside the book also took a significant figure of time.

Cilna started to talk about her guild and its members. She didn't say anything about where she came from or how she got the Amber Heart. First hand accounts of the past were valuable, so many researchers scribbled furiously into their own notebooks. The translation book kept a log anyway, but there wasn't a lot of time left to copy from the book. The research trip was going to end on the next day.

=+=+=

In a dark forest on the other side of the continent, an elder wizard's eyebrows arched up as he saw his dustiest crystal orb glow for a few seconds. He limped out of his cave and to the camp of necromancers outside.

"The Amber Heart, it shows itself."

The book on Theema was opened up in the middle of a large web. White strings stretched out from its pages, and linked up to various other books in the massive library.

Marlifa descended from the her realm's sky web. She landed next to her priestess and stood upright. "What's that?" she asked Helsfur.

Helsfur was sitting over the book with her eyes closed. Her palms hovered over the text, and a faint yellow glow flowed in the space between. She opened one eye to look over at Marlifa. "I looked over Miss Ballad's false memory," she said, "and I saw that she received a book. She thought she did, anyway. The book wasn't catalogued in the library, so I went about searching for it. Miss Ballad's roommate, Frey Oden, had it on hand. I borrowed and read through it, but I think it's plagiarized. I'm currently comparing it to some other deity reference books."

Marlifa walked over to the book, then studied the passages it was opened up to. She immediately smiled and looked up at the webbing. The goddess pinched a single string and pulled. A book flew towards the them and landed noisily against the table.

"You should have directly inquired me," said Marlifa. "I recognize the diction. It's modified from a book describing a beast god, Ryzar."

Helsfur sighed. "I had a string attached, so I would have found it soon."

Marlifa lightly chuckled. "Now then, shall we confirm the duplication?"

The goddess and the headmistress leaned over the two books and compared the wording.

"It is indeed a forgery," said Marlifa as she flipped through the pages. "There is a significant portion of word replacement and chapter shuffling, but it is roughly the same book."

Helsfur nodded and picked up the false book. "Yeah, I knew it. The harpy likely gave this book to Miss Ballad. It seems like an attempt to mask the deity's identity. That goddess must have some kind of agenda, and we need to figure it out."

=+=+=

The final day of the research trip had arrived.

Rales packed away most of his acquired artifact collection in crates. He placed the crates on a few of his magic carpets, which were enchanted to fly behind the primary one he would ride with Suhara.

Suhara had her staff and Dragon Tongue strapped on her back. The sword was wrapped in thick hides so that it didn't poke into the magic carpet later. The crate with most of the relics she claimed sat on one of the spare carpets. She planned to have Rales sell them for her. The souvenir artifacts for her roommates were strapped onto her traveling bag.

Rales and Suhara avoided eye contact, and the two didn't speak to each other unless absolutely necessary. They had a rather embarrassing interaction in the morning.

Suhara woke up with light cramps in her stomach. She screamed when she saw a patch of blood staining the mid section of her robe. Rales rushed in, armed and expecting Suhara to be under attack. He did not consider the possibility of encountering a girl having her first period.

Joula helped with the feminine hygiene issue, and assured Suhara that it wasn't weird to experience the monthly curse a little later than average.

Suhara wasn't freaking out over how late it was, but more about how she was having one at all. Being seen by Rales also embarrassed her more than she could stand. There were no words to relieve the lingering awkwardness.

The morning was reduced to a game of facing the other person with the back of the head at all times.

=+=+=

The Ginrook Paladins didn't allow any of the researchers to leave. Unusual activity had been detected in the forest. In order to ensure safety, the researchers were told to stay inside the castle.

Large wooden boxes appeared overnight in the surrounding forest. No one knew where they came from. None of the guards heard any sound during the night, so most believed that the boxes were teleported in.

Joula and Suhara observed the boxes with their magic gazes, but they didn't see any abnormalities. The lack of enchantments only added to the mystery. The paladins didn't dare approach without knowing where the boxes came from and what they were supposed to do.

Some researchers came up with a theory that it was part of the castle's defense wards. Cilna was asked about the boxes, but she had no knowledge about them.

"Why don't we just shoot one with a fireball?" One of the Javex researchers suggested.

Everyone was homesick and impatient from spending eight days in the forest, so the simple plan of shooting the box was agreed upon unanimously.

Kellin took out her wand and aimed out from one of the windows. She sniped the closest box with a small yellow fireball. The top half of the box lit up in flames, then it continued to burn for over a minute while everyone watched.

The forest unexpectedly began to fill with blue flashes of light. Robed figures appeared with magic staves raised in their hands.

Joula and Suhara saw as orange and yellow magics were fired out from the staves. The magic flowed over and filled the countless boxes.

There was a loud crunch as the wooden boxes blew open. It contained people, who stumbled forward and began to approach the castle.

"Undead!" Celner yelled as she backed away from the window. "Barricade the doors! We're under attack, necromancers!"

Necromancers were mages that controlled dead bodies and used them as puppets. Their undead zombies were widely known and feared. Necromancers were especially powerful in times of war, due to how the bodies of fallen warriors could become their personal soldiers.

Regular necromancers weren't as powerful as the Lich, but many of them currently moved through the forest.

The researchers fortified the doors and windows with mystic wards. The paladins decided to remain outside, ready to fight against the threat.

"There's so many out there!" Suhara shouted while pointing out a window. "We can't hide ourselves, those knights are outnumbered! We must help them."

"Fighting is their job, not ours!" said one of the Javex researchers.

Rales pulled Suhara away from the window, and tried to get her to calm down. "They'll be fine, Suhara. Undead are not difficult to fight against. It's safer if we stay in here."

Suhara ripped herself out of Rales's grip. "Well what about the mages?" she said, "It's not just undead out there, they are outnumbered by mages too!"

"Get your girl under control!" Celner said to Rales, "We don't need a panicking cub getting in the way of things."

Suhara growled, ran back up to the window, and stared at the incoming army of undead. She called out to her goddess, "Theema!"

Theema's voice echoed into Suhara's head. "Yes, child?"

"Transport me, I wish to be standing right in front of that army!"

"Very well, it is done."

Suhara's body shifted into a gathering of smokey darkness, which extended forth through the castle wall and out into the forest.

Rales tried to grab Suhara, but his hand swiped uselessly through the blackness. "No! Come back!"

=+=+=

Suhara could smell the rotting stench of the undead bodies. Her body ached from Theema's teleportation, but she was used to the burning pain. Magic channeled through her silver anklet till the glass-like protective blessing covered her body.

One of the necromancers spotted her and called out to his allies. Spells flew through the air and struck Suhara, but the blessing protected her from the assault. When the spells didn't work, all the nearby undead began to shuffle over to her.

Suhara reached behind herself and pulled up the Dragon Tongue. She activated the blade's enchantment, so that the black sword radiated the intense heat. The hide wrappings on the blade blackened and smoked as the sword burned through it.

Necromancers who didn't possess any protective wards against heat started to scream and back away. Standing under the white glow of the Dragon Tongue burned more than being locked away in a furnace. The plants withered away until they were a dull brown. Fires began to start from the dried vegetation, spreading to and up tree trunks.

The undead bodies were cooked by the heat from the sword and the fires that were forming throughout the forest. Gray smoke stretched out into the sky.

Suhara could see the white glow of her blade, but the heat didn't touch her. The blessing of the silver anklet held firm. She felt a bit of regret when she saw the birds and other woodland creatures scurry away, but burning down a forest was a small consequence. Protecting the paladins and researchers was her priority. She was only hindering one side of the invasion, but that still gave the paladins less of a disadvantage.

All of a sudden, there was a blue flash behind Suhara. She turned her head just in time to see a glowing staff pointed right at her face. A explosion rippled through the air and knocked the girl off her feet, causing her to drop the Dragon Tongue. The glowing white blade stabbed deep into the ground.

A huge man stood over Suhara. He was the largest person she had ever seen. He wore a robe with long fabrics, but it did nothing to hide his thick muscles. The man's arms had to be as thick as a horse's neck. He held a staff, but it looked like a wand compared to his colossal hand.

"Out of our way, young lady." said the man as he pointed the staff at Suhara.

A bright bolt shot out from the staff, and it created another explosion on contact. The protective blessing was broken by the burst of force. Suhara was hurled back until she crashed against a tree. She cried out from the pain of her ribs snapping on impact, then her body limply fell to the ground.

Suhara groaned while she lay on the floor. The heat of the forest fire scorched her hair and skin, but she couldn't focus enough to reactivate her anklet's blessing.

The man's staff aimed at the girl again, its tip glowed as a third explosive spell was about to shoot out.

A crash was heard back at the castle, the front gates had been broken through.

Cilna roared. The Mistress of Blades leap all the way from the front of the castle, and stabbed the large man in the back with a pair of swords. A clank was heard as the metal smashed against a solid ward. The swords failed to pierce through the man's protective spells, but he was pushed into one of the developing fires.

The man yelled out as the flames burned him. His ward didn't resist direct contact with fire.

Oreno appeared out from Cilna's bracelet. He floated over to Suhara and bent down to check that she was breathing. When he was sure she was alive, he created a small barrier dome to protect the girl.

The Mistress of Blades and the massive man started to duel. Cilna's blades were enchanted to be fast, heavy, and sharp, but they couldn't get through the man's protections.

The large man smirked as the swords bounced uselessly off his body. "It is futile, dear lady." he said as he raised his staff high in the air.

A pulse of yellow erupted from the staff. It washed over Cilna, and she immediately dropped her blades to grab her head. She screamed as a terrible pain erupted deep within her mind.

Oreno faded away as Cilna lost her concentration. Although the specter was gone, the protective dome remained over Suhara.

The large man knocked Cilna away with a punch, then started to walk towards the castle.

Before the man could step any further, one of the forest fires in front of him brightened up to the intensity of the sun. It increased in size, then a woman stepped through from deep inside the shining flames.

The woman's pale skin was covered by a shirt and some trousers. Her hair was black, but a line of gray strands fell by her face. Her emerald eyes were narrowed and staring into the large man's face.

"Halt, Gable."

Wenlia cursed loudly and slammed her fist into the magic circle that was drawn on the wall. Blue sparks spouted from the symbols and patterns.

Rilane sat nearby with a grim frown.

"What's going on?!" yelled Helsfur as she entered the room.

"Suhara Ballad's distress beacon activated," said Wenlia, "but I can't open a portal to her location. There's something disrupting my dimension magic."

"Do you at least know her location?" Helsfur asked.

"Yes," said Rilane, "she's on a research trip in one of Ginrook's forests."

Helsfur sighed. "Okay, open a portal as close as you can. We'll fly to wherever she is. Gather as many people as you can, Rilane. Marlifa and I have a bad feeling about this."

Rilane nodded and held up a yellow crystal to her mouth.

=+=+=

Suhara coughed and opened her eyes. She was awoken by the heat beating against her face. The protective dome that Oreno provided had finally run out of power, so Suhara was exposed to the disastrous elements.

The Winter Sight was still activated, but it was difficult to see due to all the magic that filled the forest.

"Jaux, you are in the presence of the High Priestess of Bright Noon." said Theema.

"W-what? Here?" said Suhara. "How can that be?"

Suhara blinked rapidly to clear away the grime in her eyes. The heat wave of her Dragon Tongue had exhausted, but the forest was still being toasted by the fires that remained. She observed the pandemonium in front of her.

It looked like a war.

Cilna was fighting with the Ginrook Paladins against the undead army. Weapons smashed against the rotten bodies of zombies, sending foul organs raining onto the ground. The undead weren't difficult to right against. Unfortunately, there were too many. The horde of rotten bodies poured against the warriors without any sign of ending.

The castle's front gate, which Cilna crashed through earlier, was refortified. It was obstructed with a chunk of opaque white ice. Spells flew out from some of the castle windows, which struck the undead that were getting too close to the castle walls.

The massive and bulky man was fighting against a mysterious black-haired lady. The man's robes were shredded and burned, no doubt from the fire magics bursting out from the lady's staff. The lady was unharmed. At first glance, it looked as if she hadn't been hit a single time.

The man and lady were shouting at each other as they fought. Suhara couldn't make out what they were saying, but it was clear that they hated one another. Their private battle used excessive force. A few of the trees nearby were either ablaze or knocked over.

The lady's unharmed image was ruined by a spike of stone that burst out from the ground. It ran up and through the heart of the mysterious lady, sending blood out her back and high into the air.

Suhara gasped at the sight of death and pushed herself off the ground.

"Worry not for her, child." said Theema.

The mysterious lady's entire body burst into flame. A great and shimmering fireball expanded out of the abrupt blaze that consumed her. Oddly, no intense heat radiated from the shining combustion. It only felt warm.

Suhara held up a hand to shield her eyes from the light. The bright fire had an even brighter magic shining from within. Staring at the sun would be easier.

The lady stepped out unharmed from the fire. There was a single hole in her shirt, indicating where she had been struck by the spike. Flames streamed out from her staff as she continued to fight.

"What was that?" asked Suhara.

Theema explained, "Senkreig of Bright Noon provides his high priest with his power of immortality. Mortal death can not conquer the undying flames of his priest unless death is honestly desired."

"So... that man can't win?" said Suhara.

"That is not the case," said Theema. "The man is powerful, there are still many paths to triumph he can achieve. Immortality only provides unending life, victory is never guaranteed."

Suhara pulled out her wand and staff. "Then I have to help," she said.

A blob of inky black substance shot out from Suhara's wand and latched itself onto the massive man's foot. The magic tar rooted him down to the ground. It prevented him from dodging the golden flamethrower that blew out from the tip of the mysterious lady's staff.

The man roared as he was overwhelmed by the conflagration. The flames were diverted away by some kind of barrier, but the bare heat pierced through and roasted his skin.

Blue flashes of light surrounded the man and the lady.

A chill descended on the fiery forest. Flames began to diminish until they were just piles of smoking ashes. Necromancers converged on the location of the battle, while a cold blizzard poured out from their magical staves.

The lady shrieked as the cold blasts coated her under layers of ice. She dropped her staff, and the golden flamethrower faded.

Suhara jumped over to one of the necromancers, then swung her staff. The stone staff slammed into the necromancer's head. There was a loud crack, before the necromancer collapsed into the ashy ground. Another pair of necromancers screamed out in agony as they were burned by invisible flames.

Two chilling torrents turned on Suhara, freezing her in seconds. The ice formed faster on her than on the woman. Moments after she was covered by the frost, her body shifted into darkness and teleported away from the fight.

"You are outmatched," said Theema, "It is unwise to oppose them."

The ice wasn't thick enough to hinder all of Suhara's movements. She broke herself out of the chilling substance with her augmented strength. "No, I have an idea," she said, "Just give me a minute, and then take me back over to that priestess."

"Very well," said Theema.

Suhara put away her magical staves and gripped her hands together. Her eyes closed as she focused. A mist of darkness slowly dripped out from her skin like translucent sludge, it covered her in a thin and lucid film. "Take me back, now." she whispered.

Suhara shifted back into a black mass, which stretched through the forest and deposited her next to the Bright Noon Priestess. The moment that she felt the burning sensation of a successful teleportation, Suhara unleashed a pulse of shadowy energy form her body.

The dark pulse washed over the necromancers, and they began to collapse onto the floor. Their bodies violently shook after they fell.

The demon root wand was immediately pulled out. A ray of dark magenta light burst from Suhara's wand and melted the ice that covered the priestess.

Suhara failed to notice that her disabling curse didn't affect the massive man. The second she finished defrosting the priestess, a forceful explosion detonated by her feet. She was hurled into a tree, and the priestess landed next to her.

The necromancers stood back up as the disabling curse wore off.

"Hurry, Gable." said one of the necromancers. "We must go retrieve the heart before they move it."

"Yes, I am aware." said the massive man. "Freeze the High Priestess again, make sure her mouth remains exposed."

"What of the other girl?"

Gable glanced over at Suhara, then aimed his staff up at a tree. "I'll kill her, it is no problem."

Branches snapped off from the tree. The wood broke apart into dozens of sharp stakes. They swirled around in the sky above, then fell towards the girl like a volley of arrows.

Suhara screamed as giant splinters pierced through her chest. Blood poured out from her deadly wounds.

Gable and the necromancers left after the priestess was frozen solid. They began to rush towards the front gate of the castle, where Cilna and the Ginrook Paladins were still fighting.

A barrage of spells flew from the tips of the necromancers' staves. The magics pelted down on the enchanted armor of the paladins, forcing them back while the undead continued to swarm.

Any paladin that attempted to approach Gable toppled over when they got close. Their minds burned, and they had to drop their weapons and clutch their head. Gable's mind magic easily scrambled their brain. The necromancers finished the job by freezing the downed paladins.

Spells flew out from the castle windows and struck a few of a the necromancers. The necromancers collapsed, but none of the spells were able to punch through Gable's personal wards.

Once Gable was close enough to the castle entrance, he thrust out his staff and blew away the ice obstruction with an explosion. Many researchers yelled in fright and ran through the castle. Rales and Celner blocked off a few of the hallways they retreated through in an effort to delay the necromancers.

"Bring one of them back, alive." said Gable. "I'll extract the information we need from its mind."

The necromancers murmured in agreement, before they stormed through the castle.

Out in the forest, Suhara coughed some blood as she regained consciousness. Her regeneration abilities kept her from dying outright, but the splinters were still lodged painfully in her chest. Blood dyed the front of her robe, and she couldn't move without reopening wounds. Her mind felt faint from the agonizing injury.

Suhara felt like she was back in Broken Space. The pain and dizzy head were similar to when she was nearly killed by Seventy-nine. Luckily, there we no lost limbs this time.

The Bright Noon Priest was sealed nearby in a block of ice. Her labored breaths could be heard through the only opening in the frozen prison. She was being kept cold, but alive.

Suhara reached up to one of the large splinters. She grabbed the spike, but Theema's voice rang through her mind before she tried to pull.

"Do not remove the stake." said the goddess.

"W-what?" Suhara mumbled as she let go of the splinter. "Why?"

"You've lost too much blood, losing any more may kill you." said Theema.

"They're in the castle, and the paladins are losing," said Suhara. "I can't remain here."

Theema's voice increased in volume. "I am not suggesting that you do. I merely have some advice that you should take. The High Priestess lay frozen at your feet, so she is defeated. Take her power for yourself. Our contract will be complete, and you will have no fear of death. A quarter of eternal life is still eternal life, weakened as it may be."

"Oh, alright." Suhara nodded and raised her left hand. "It won't affect her powers, will it?"

"Nay, you do not take enough soul to disrupt the High Priestess's immortality." said Theema.

Suhara's left arm darkened as the third circle opened up into a swirling void. She slid herself closer to the priestess, then plunged her left arm into the ice. The intangible arm reached through the ice and into the priestess's body.

The priestess's quivering breath gasped as her immortal magic was absorbed by the enchanted left arm.

When Suhara extracted her arm, the third circle pattern had been filled with a bright yellow glow. It looked like a miniature sun resting on her skin.

"At last." Theema's voice whispered with a triumphant tone.

=+=+=

The administration of the Marlifa Lyceum began to pour out of a whirling blue portal that opened up in the sky.

"There!" Wenlia yelled and gestured towards the gray smoke that rose from the forest. "That's were they must be!"

"What's going on? It seems there is a forest fire in progress." said Hawkshire.

Rilane held up her hand. A yellow glow illuminated her skin. "No idea," she said, "but I'm detecting a lot of malice and distress. There's a load of minds down there. I think Miss Ballad may be present, but I can't feel her thoughts."

"Hawkshire, Wenlia, we will search for Miss Ballad." said Helsfur. "Everyone else, see about controlling that wildfire!"

The teachers replied with their understanding, then began to fly towards the smoking forest.

They didn't get too close before something made them stop with surprise.

From deep within the smoking forest, a tall pillar of dark purple flames shot up into the heavens above.

The sky turned black.

Darkness reigned.

Suhara slept.

In the absolute darkness of the Realm of Light's Cowardice, everything appeared gray. Without any colors to contrast against pitch black, gray was all there seemed to be. It was a virtually infinite world, but completely empty and featureless.

Obscure tendrils rose from the floor and cradled Suhara. They wrapped lightly over her entire body, but held her firm. She was within a lightless cocoon.

A protected child in eternal shade.

The mystical darkness drained strength and magic. The power that was stolen from the girl coursed away through the inky threads.

Suhara could not wake. She lay without any power. Her body was perfectly frozen, for there was no heat. She was as motionless as a statue, but totally weightless. Her existence was a void.

There were no dreams to be had. An eternity would feel no different from a second.

The energy stolen from the girl was altered by the almighty immortal magics. It returned to her as the power of life. Though she had nothing, she would not die.

It was the state of limbo: everlasting deathlessness.

=+=+=

History would eventually call it the Time of Void Skies.

The entire world was stripped of their heavens. No more sun, moon, or stars. People took light and warmth for granted, and now it was all gone. With no light above their heads, most of Vanasia was plunged into a dull gray shadow. Not even the keen eyes of felines could capture enough light to see.

Unexplained darkness aroused the fear of the unknown. Anything could happen, and the people wouldn't see a thing.

The blind could only be amused as they welcomed everyone else to their perspective.

Those who had a source of light could view an eerie world painted by confined hues. Corners and curves were amplified by murky shadows. Anything too far to be lit was no different from the mouth of a gigantic cave. The world had been divided and isolated.

Major cities were spared from the worst of the nightmare, thanks to their torches, lamps, and crystals. The less fortunate were left in their peerless bubbles.

Worse than that was the cold that began to set in. People who were happily basking in sunlight were abruptly left in an abyss. To be too far from home was a death sentence, left without resources in a realm that became the coldest of nights.

They cried for help, but few were heard.

Monsters that reveled in darkness crept out from their hiding holes.

=+=+=

Theema's violet left arm filled the Ginrook forest with its glow.

The colors of flames mixed together with the violet, which produced a chestnut tint.

Sounds of combat still emitted from the castle. Darkness did not stop the undead, nor did it stop Cilna and the Ginrook Paladins from fighting for their lives. However, many necromancers and researchers took the time to curiously look out from the castle windows.

Theema observed her surroundings with her magical sight. She wore a blank face as she looked around. Her disinterest moved aside for a thin smile when she spotted something bright upon the ashy ground.

The goddess walked over, then picked up the Dragon Tongue Longsword. "Soul of the infernal wings," she muttered.

Theema's violet hand shattered the black blade of the Dragon Tongue. The soul that was trapped inside was absorbed into the goddess's arm.

Wings of purple energy sprouted out from Theema's back. They resembled the shape of humongous bat wings.

"I know you are hidden above," said Theema. "It is impossible to hide your magic from my eyes, nor can I mistaken the connection of my soul seeds."

Ri Lucian dropped her illusionary veil. She grabbed her bulky bag, then descended to the floor. "Apologies, your highness," she said. "I only wished to observe your divine majesty."

The harpy dropped down to her knees in a submissive bow. Her head stared into the ground, and her thin fingers dug into the soil. The four bird imps on her shoulders also flew onto the floor and bowed their tiny heads.

Theema opened up her right palm towards the bulky bag. The fabric ripped apart as her various black stone artifacts burst out. A tiara, necklace, anklet, and belt all attached onto her body. Purple light radiated from the gemstones etched into the stone relics.

A black gauntlet covered Theema's right arm. The gauntlet was thick, and it made the goddess's arm resemble a club weapon. Twelve round purple gemstones were lodged evenly around the forearm section. Unlike all the other black stone artifacts, the gemstones of the gauntlet were dim.

The energy wings attached to the goddess's backside receded into her body. When they were gone, one of the gauntlet's gemstones glowed bright.

An oval mask hung in mid air. Its gemstone eye lens flashed, before inky darkness poured out of the mask and formed a humanoid body. Four bracelets attached themselves to the four separate arms of the shadow entity. A pair of stone boots found their place on the entity's feet.

"Gather my weapons." Theema commanded her mask puppet.

The four-armed shadow jumped out of the forest, its dark body camouflaged by the shadowy world. The glow of the artifacts were the only indication of its whereabouts.

Theema looked back at Ri. "I have never made weapons out of harpies. How have you come to know of me?" she asked.

"I hail from Curahge, your highness. I learned about you when I extracted memories of your existence from a paladin that hunted me down." said Ri.

"The Cooleur Curahge, I see." Theema nodded. "Your service of gathering my soul seeds is worthy of reward. What is it that you desire?"

"Your perfect night is reward enough," said Ri, "I shall see the fall of man."

Theema smiled. "That you will."

A blob of darkness formed in front of the goddess. The black stone staff, Sevla, crawled out from the depths. An ornate armlet followed behind the staff. Sevla found its place in the hands of the gauntlet, while the armlet floated over to Ri.

"That is my gift to you," said Theema. "It is enchanted to provide you with my mystic sight, and also bring you before any living thing you know. Feel free to observe the end of any whom you mark as enemy."

"You are most generous, your highness." Ri bowed to the goddess, then she put on the armlet and disappeared in a cluster of shadows.

White strings suddenly showered over the forest. They were visible only to Theema's magical eyes, and had no apparent effects. A few of the thin strands landed on the goddess.

Theema narrowed her eyes and looked up at the source. She recognized the webbing from Suhara's duel, and knew it came from the High Priestess of Marlifa.

=+=+=

The Lyceum magicians were grouped together in the sky. Many had conjured fireballs in order to provide a source of light.

Helsfur's palm was extended towards the ground so that her strings could analyze the origin of the violet flames. Finding and stopping whatever was strong enough to blot out the entire sky was a much higher priority than Suhara Ballad.

Marlifa's voice whispered with disbelief out of Helsfur's earring. "Impossible! There is a divine being in that forest, a deity in the moral realm! I think... I think it's Theema."

Helsfur cut off her white strings and gasped. "What? A deity?! How?"

The other magicians turned towards the headmistress with surprise. They couldn't hear Marlifa, but they could piece together the fact that a deity caused the blackout.

"I... this is inconceivable. I actually don't have a clue." said Marlifa. "It is clearly the infinite soul of a deity, but it is more complex than anythi-"

"LOOK OUT!" Shouted one of the mages.

Helsfur flew out of the way just in time. Flames that sparkled like amethyst fell down from the sky. It was similar to the violet fire pillar, but much brighter. The moment it passed by, the magicians briefly felt like they were being burned alive.

All the mages activated a variety of barriers and wards to protect themselves.

"Dragonfire!"

"Don't be a nitwit, dragonfire is white!"

"Focus you fools! It's above us!" Hawkshire yelled.

A bright purple light shined high above.

Violet light rays began to rain down on the magicians. They were easy to spot thanks to the contrasting black skies, so the mages easily dodged the assault.

Unfortunately for the magicians, the light rays were a diversion.

Rilane screamed out as a silver spear pierced through her stomach. Her shield enchantments could not deflect the substance. She lost consciousness from the attack, so most of her spells deactivated.

Wenlia flew over and caught Rilane.

More anguished yells filled the air as the magicians were stabbed by the reflective weapons.

Hawkshire summoned a massive pink barrier over the mages. The barrier caught the silver spears, and they were slowed down to a slug's speed.

"Get the injured to safety, and heal them quick!" Helsfur commanded.

The magicians followed the headmistress's orders and flew towards the ground. They aimed for the forest fire, since it was the only part of the floor that was visible.

Helsfur and Hawkshire were the only ones left in the air.

"Impressive time magic." A cold voice complimented.

Theema suddenly appeared behind Hawkshire. The purple glow of her left arm, wings, and artifacts were bright.

Hawkshire turned around just in time for Theema's left arm to pierce straight through his chest. He started falling once Theema extracted her arm.

Helsfur gasped with terror. She was blocked by Theema when she tried to fly towards Hawkshire. In an effort to save him, she opened up her hands. Pink and green strings burst out from her palm, and the intricate webbing wrapped around Hawkshire's falling body.

The gaping hole in Hawkshire's chest was sealed. Blood stopped sprouting out from the wound, keeping him away from the clutch of death. The pink strings faded after healing most of the damage, but the green strings remained. Hawkshire was made lighter than a feather. Falling onto the ground would cause no further harm.

"She's too powerful, you need to get away." said Marlifa.

Theema opened up her mouth, and bright flames pour out in a massive flamethrower. Burning heat radiated from the blaze and scorched the surrounding air.

Helsfur conjured a massive shield of white ice. Her defense exploded into a cloud of gas the moment it made contact with the violet fire. She was blown back by the force of the explosion, but luckily escaped the flamethrower.

Pink strings shot out of Helsfur's fingertips. They surrounded Theema in the shape of a massive sphere. With a pull from the headmistress, the strings converged inwards towards the dark goddess.

Theema became a mass of inky shadows. She stretched through the strings and reformed behind Helsfur, all in an instant. Bright violet light rays spewed from the dark goddess's eyes and struck the headmistress's back.

Protective spells were able to divert some of the light away, but the rays originated from too close to miss.

Helsfur ignored the burning pain on her back and twisted around. She threw her hands forward and summoned a humongous mass of green strings. The strings overwhelmed and covered Theema's body.

The green mass condensed in a crushing implosion. A loud percussive boom echoed out due to the force of impact.

Silence.

A violet inferno abruptly consumed the cluster of green strings. Gentle warmth washed out from the blaze and throughout the sky.

Out from the tepid fire, Theema stepped out. Her body and artifacts showed no signs of damage.

Reflective stakes formed around the dark goddess. The stakes flew through the sky and streaked through all of Helsfur's defensive wards. They stabbed into the headmistress's body, crushing countless organs and bones.

Helsfur blacked out and began to fall.

Theema caught the falling body. She stabbed her shining arm into the defeated High Priestess of Marlifa.

Helsfur woke up back at the Lyceum. Her body was painfully sore, so it was difficult to move anything. Hawkshire was in the process of healing her wounds. Blood was coughed through her mouth as she tried to mutter, "Rictor, I'm glad you're safe."

"Don't speak, Arkela," said Hawkshire. "I'm still not finished tending to your injuries. But... thank you, I would not be here if it weren't for you."

Helsfur chuckled, but otherwise kept quiet as instructed. A sheer pink haze flowed out of Hawkshire's staff and over her body. Her puncture wounds began to seal up, bones set back into place, and organs puffed back into position. The healing process took two hours, then she immediately rolled out of the bed and conjured a new set of robes to wear. "Recent status?"

Hawkshire pulled a folded piece of parchment out from his robe. "The dark sky has been confirmed to be a global calamity. Vampires, Oni, Wraiths, and Ghouls have been active and invading most towns and villages. To retaliate, volunteer expert and ace class students have been divided into teams and dispatched to as many neighboring settlements as possible. They are to provide light, heat, and magical defense. The High Priestess of Bright Noon has left us with a description of the deity threat, before she returned to Veilflower."

Helsfur's brow arched up. "The priestess knew Theema?"

"Not precisely," said Hawkshire. "The High Priestess's God indirectly provided the information by forging a stone tablet for us. We have it in the administration meeting room."

Helsfur finished dressing, so she started to head towards the door. "Give me a summary of the tablet." she said.

"Theema's natural tragedy magic revokes all white light in an enormous area," he said. "That is what we are currently experiencing."

"Did the tablet mention why she's doing this?" Helsfur asked.

Hawkshire nodded. "Yes, in Curahge, a band of paladins, who fought exclusively against all spirits, came and eradicated all of her followers..."

=+=+=

Six hundred and ninety-two years ago...

Temir gazed up at the smoking temple. Corpses of devoted disciples littered across the ground, while the stink of burning organs poisoned the atmosphere. There were still distant shouts and screams as the Cooleur Curahge hunted down the last runaways.

The High Priestess of Light's Cowardice knelt on the floor. Two other paladins were holding her down by her shoulders. She stared angrily into Temir's eyes as she spoke, "You have angered the glorious goddess."

"Spirits are a plague," said Temir. "There is nothing to be gained from interacting with them. Our company only wishes to eradicate all possibilities of their corruption, for the good of all."

"Your hearts are stained darker than any demon, you are the true plague that tears at our virtue." said the High Priestess.

Temir snarled. He raised his war axe, which released vibrational hums. He brought the edge down over the priestess, and split her head into tow halves. Blood sprayed out like a red geyser.

The other two paladins backed away from the bloody body, one of them looked horrified. The blood splashed on their arms, and the axe was dangerously close to their hands.

"Watch out, will you?" one of the paladins shouted.

A brilliant violet flash surged from deep within the temple. A torrent of inky darkness stretched out through the temple walls, and ended right besides the three paladins. Temir turned his head just in time to see a glowing purple hand cover his face.

Theema raised Temir high into the air, then she crushed the man's face under her monstrous grip.

As the body fell, the sky started to grow dim. The moon and stars faded from existence, until the planet was hidden under a layer of black.

The glow from Theema's arm was one of the few things lighting up the night. It streaked and teleported through the darkness as Theema struck down every paladin in sight. No one could defend against the violent rage of the dark deity. More blood poured into the smelly soil. A swamp of the dead formed beneath the goddess's feet.

Minutes later, thirty-eight paladins had joined the sheet of corpses.

Theema's time was up, so she returned to Light's Cowardice.

=+=+=

"The darkness over the mortal realm has lifted," said a long and scaly serpent deity.

The cracks in the stone-skinned goddess began to glow red. "Well, what caused it?!" she demanded.

Senkreig, a god with red hair, opened his palm to reveal a globe of foggy energy. "It came from this strange realm. It's large, but as empty as pure void. There's a single powerful deity resting within it. The mere presence of the deity was what caused the entire mortal realm of Vanasia to be consumed by shadow. The deity's magic was able to overwhelm all white light."

"The deity must not be allowed to return to the mortal realm." said the stony goddess.

"Agreed," said Senkreig, "we must form a magic star and seal that deity behind a dimensional blockade."

"No need to be rash," said the serpent deity, "perhaps we can talk to this darkness deity."

"Too risky, Nelt," said the stone goddess. "But, if you insist, you will have to go alone..."

=+=+=

Present day...

Helsfur scoffed with disbelief. "Dimensional blockade? I've never heard of such a thing."

"The three deities were heat and light based," said Hawkshire. "They essentially created a barrier made from a mythical star. Passing through Theema's dimension requires crossing a magical blaze barrier, which is designed so that it instantly kills her body. Every attempt to reach our realm would just force her to reform back home."

"Harsh, can't say I can blame her for being angry." said Helsfur.

"Empathy aside, her darkness is killing the planet." said Hawkshire.

"I know, I'm just saying," she said. "Any ideas how she made it through, or why she's able to stay for so long?"

"Theema can absorb and duplicate spirit abilities," he said. "She lashed out and defeated Nelt with that power, which was what finalized the decision to seal her away. Miss Ballad had been acting as a soul collector. She got her hands on Bright Noon's revival immortality, which allowed Theema to pass through the dimensional blockade. The indefinite period of occupation is from one of the Five Dimensions ghosts that attacked the Lyceum last week."

"Was any plan of defeating Theema formed?" she asked.

"Unfortunately, no," said Hawkshire.

Helsfur sighed. "Lovely."

=+=+=

Frey rested her head on the meeting room table. Her arms acted as a makeshift pillow, and they were literally enchanted to feel softer. She was stuck in the room with seven other ace class magicians. They were kept in reserve because of their significant magical capability, so that Wenlia could send them out if any major catastrophe required attention.

Norman and Deledy sat nearby. They fiddled with their potions and trinkets in order to pass the time. The rest of the ace magicians were similarly bored.

It was hard for Frey to sleep. Every few minutes her eyes shot open, and she drummed her fingers against the table. Sitting and waiting felt like a pointless waste of time.

Suhara was missing, but the Lyceum didn't try to look for her. Frey resented the administration's inaction. She knew there wasn't any reliable way to reach Suhara, but it didn't ease her bitterness.

The distress beacon amulet worn by Suhara released a faint signal before becoming inactive. Numerous dimensional factors disrupted her final signal, so there wasn't an exact location to teleport to. At best, the beacon told everyone that she was alive when she mysteriously vanished from the mortal realm. Dimension retrievals were impossible without knowing which realm to extract from.

A few of the admins believed Suhara was responsible for letting Theema loose into the world. Helsfur opposed that idea with the evidence of the false memory and forged book. If Suhara was working against the world, there wouldn't be a need to deceive her regarding Theema's identity.

Although Wenlia attempted to directly break into whatever dimension Suhara was inside, she wasn't able to establish a functioning portal. The other end of her magic was always destroyed. She couldn't try too many times, since the Lyceum was reliant on dimensional gateways. Her dimensional magic was the best in the school.

=+=+=

The wraith's arm stretched forward. Its rubbery limb slithered around Desyi's ice wall, then the sharp talons clawed into bonfire. Upon contact, the flames died out, while frost blanketed over the blackened timber.

There were still other sources of light inside the village buildings, so sight wasn't completely cut off. The streets were filled with a dim red hue.

Desyi pushed out her hands, then her ice wall went flying forward into the wraith's lopsided face. The ice crunched into the wraith's fangs and toppled over the stretchy creature.

Both of the wraith's extendable arms wrapped tightly around the ice. Powerful constrictions shattered the wall into a cloud of gas and shards. The wraith's dramatically elongated jaw snapped together and crushed a piece of ice inside its mouth.

The wraith reopened its fanged mouth, then its neck stretched out to hurl its face towards Desyi.

Thump! The wraith's face collided with an invisible air barrier. Tricks materialized out from the atmosphere and dropped a large rock onto the wraith's head.

Desyi immediately bolted forward and charged the rock with her magenta magic. The rock glowed bright white with heat, causing the wraith to screech. Seconds later, the creature's wails stopped.

The wraith was dead. Soul deserted its body, leaving the rubbery limbs lifeless in the dirt.

Desyi winced and started to rub her arms. "I'm getting a bit sore, I think I might be experiencing some magic erosion," she said.

Tricks nodded grimly. "Alright, you focus on warming the villagers up, then. I'll go see if Fesie and the others got rid that vampire."

=+=+=

The Marlifa Lyceum rumbled, like an earthquake was shaking it around.

One of the teachers ran up to a large crystal ball and gazed into it. "We're under attack! A massive light beam is colliding against the front wall!"

A gigantic mass of silver chains was floating in the sky in front of the Lyceum. A huge turquoise beam fired out from inside the mass of chains. The beam only smashed against the Lyceum's magical fortification, but it was strong enough to unsettle the entire school.

The turquoise beam stopped briefly to reveal a gigantic stone halo buried under the silver chains.

Sound began to emit from the stone halo, "I am the Third. I have come to apprehend trespasser five hundred forty-four. Surrender immediately or be eradicated."

Theema sat upon a throne made from dark lumber. The throne rested at the top of a black tower, which stood in the Zinnbel territory of Curahge.

Screams could be heard inside the tower. The many descendants of the Cooleur Curahge had all been imprisoned within. They were being tortured by Theema's four priest weapons.

The goddess sat motionlessly at the top of the tower. Theema's mask puppet was in the process of constructing a shrine that would help her invade the immortal realms of the three deities that imprisoned her. Centuries of being trapped in Light's Cowardice helped with keeping patient.

Thick black tendrils surrounded the base of the tower. They reacted automatically when living beings or magic approached, which kept intruders away from Theema's throne. The tentacle-like limbs were perfectly camouflaged by the shadows. Not even those capable of flight could invade the tower, because the tendrils had a reach that exceeded the height of the tower.

=+=+=

The High Priest of Marlifa ran up to the edge of the gray stone Lyceum.

A gigantic net of glimmering emerald ropes burst out from Helsfur's tan arms and draped over the front wall of the Lyceum. It intercepted the turquoise light beam, and reflected it off into the featureless sky. The net slowly drifted around to the other sides of the school. Once every corner and side had been covered, it detached from Helsfur, then glued itself over the school.

When The Third saw that its rays were being negated, it stopped the assault.

Hawkshire stood at the headmistress's side. He spoke with a voice that rumbled like a thunderclap, "Halt, phantom of Five Dimensions! The one you seek is gone, her presence no longer remains in these halls!"

The silver chains gushed out into the shape of a husky lion's mane. Bright white liquid filled the inner circle of the stone halo, forming a hazy pool. The pool began to oscillate like a drum. When The Third spoke again, its volume reached a deafening magnitude that toppled shelves and cabinets inside the Lyceum, "Surrender the location of our target to us. If this is not done, we shall manually search and extract possible evidence of the target's location. This will be done with the destruction of this present structure."

"If you attack, we will be forced to defend ourselves." said Hawkshire, "We are great in number, and we are strong. We advise that you abandon the hunt for her."

Frey came up with an idea as she listened to The Third's demands. It wasn't very well thought out, but she had to act quickly before The Third reached any resolution. If the plan worked, she could reunite with Suhara.

The Gear of Miju was pulled out from Frey's satchel. She activated its intangibility blessing, then slipped out from the reserve forces room and into the administration meeting room. All the teachers were watching the observational crystal ball, so her presence went unnoticed.

Frey snuck over to Wenlia's office. She dug through the journals and documents, until she found a set of spatial coordinates that estimated Suhara's location. Her intangibility was reactivated, then she flew through the walls and out of the Lyceum.

The Third was still in the middle of debating against Helsfur and Hawkshire. Frey flew up to the giant stone halo, and the phantom suddenly went quiet as it noticed her.

"I have an estimate of your target's location. If you agree to take me with you, I'll give you the coordinates," said Frey.

"Miss Oden!" shouted Hawkshire, "What do you think you're do-"

"Your terms are acceptable." said The Third.

Frey opened up a piece of parchment and showed it to The Third. Seconds later, a huge portal of rippling silver opened up behind the phantom. The reflective chains disappeared, then the halo phantom hovered into the gateway. Frey immediately followed The Third.

The portal began to shrink right after Frey slipped through. Helsfur and Hawkshire tried to fly into the reflective gateway as well, but they were instantly repelled.

On the other side of the portal, Frey and The Third found themselves in a dark realm. In order to see, Frey triggered an aura of light to make her skin glow like an evening sunset.

A pulse of turquoise flashed out from the phantom, then it spoke a moment later, "I detect the target, location is confirmed to be in this realm."

Another silver gateway opened up, and the two flew through it again.

Frey could just manage to spot Suhara lying on a shadowy floor. Her mouth broke into a smile as she flew down to her friend's side. "Oh thank gods," she said.

The Third began to glow. "Target confirmed." it said, "For offenses against the realm, target will be eliminated."

"Wait!" yelled Frey, "You don't have to do that! She hasn't done anything wrong!"

The Third's glow dimmed. "Trespasser five hundred forty-four invaded a restricted realm. The penalty is clear and shall be enforced." it said.

Frey shook her head. "She didn't invade your realm. She was brought there by someone else, it wasn't her fault."

"The trespasser also engaged in combat with one of the realm occupants, and inflicted significant damage."

"That wasn't her fault either. No one told her what the laws were, she just defended herself."

"Your argument is unreliable and lacking in evidence. Punishment will proceed."

The Third's radiance intensified.

Frey growled and pulled out her wand. An opaque white cloud shot out from the wand and consumed her, before expanding in size. A gigantic ivory fist abruptly lashed out, knocking the phantom out from its hovering position.

Frey had grown to resemble a huge marble statue. Her height had increased threefold, and the rest of her body grew along proportionally. A film of protection similar to molten glass enveloped her. She had a wild snarl painted on her face, and her narrowed eyes stared menacingly at the halo phantom.

The Third steadied itself. Silver chains began to form around it until it was totally encircled. The phantom, in the form of a tangled sphere, flew forth towards Frey. Sharp reflective spikes pierced out from its bundle of chains.

Frey didn't bother to dodge. She struck the sphere with her knee, launching it off into the black skies. The spikes dug deep into her ivory knee, but there was no blood to lose from her magical exoskeleton. She jumped after the cluster of chains.

While The Third was still hurling upwards from the knee strike, a punch knocked it back down. Its mass of chains began to loosen up from all the inflicted force. The phantom landed into a heap on the shadowy ground, before promptly being stomped on when Frey landed on top of it.

All the silver chains crunched together, while The Third's stony body was scraped by the collisions. The dark floor did not budge, so all of Frey's falling force translated directly to the phantom. Turquoise light began to leak from The Third's rigid body.

Frey was thrown back all of a sudden by an explosion of bursting chains. A massive turquoise light ray shot out at her. She put her arms up and crouched, before taking a direct hit from the beam. She stumbled back from the force of the phantom's laser, and fell onto her back as she was overwhelmed. The protective blessing reduced some of the damage, but a large portion of her large magic body was blasted away.

The halo phantom's circle was filled once more with a pool of foggy white. A pressurized and booming pitch poured out from the beating pool. The heavy sound pushed Frey back, and the sound started to rip away the blessing magic that surrounded her.

Frey began to concentrate the remaining blessing magics into her left arm. She heaved forward and punched one last time. The huge magic arm stretched forward to pummel the phantom, which also broke the pool of white inside the stone halo.

The giant white body evaporated as it ran out of power, leaving Frey standing on the black ground.

The Third was gone, a silver portal was barely glimpsed before it shrunk away.

Frey sighed, relieved by the thought that the phantom was gone.

She was wrong.

The Third reappeared high in the sky, directly above Suhara. The height it floated at, combined with the darkness of the realm, made the phantom nearly impossible to spot.

A grand pillar of turquoise energy fell onto Suhara. Frey turned and gasped in horror.

The Third's booming voice fell over the area, "Target eliminated, realm trespassing offense cleared. Returning to original jurisdiction."

Then the phantom was gone, this time from the entire realm.

Frey stood in shock. Her mind turned immediately to regret and despair. She had just gotten her friend killed. Her idea was far too hotheaded, it would have been wiser to let the admins take care of the situation. Trying to find Suhara with the help of a dangerous phantom was... clearly foolish in hindsight.

Unexpectedly, a violet flame burst into life. It was large and bright, and filled the void realm with a comforting warmth.

Suhara fell out from the violet fire. Her body was somehow unharmed, although her robe had nearly been torn and burnt to shreds.

=+=+=

Suhara's eyes flickered open. Glowing red hair clouded her vision, and there was the unmistakable feeling her shoulders being crushed in a huge. She moaned lightly, which made the red hair snap away.

Frey grinned with tears in her eyes. "Suhara! Oh gods I thought you were dead." she said.

Suhara took in a sharp breath as she saw Frey's face. "F-Frey? What are you doing here? I'm... we're... uh." she stopped talking and looked around with a bit of confusion.

Suhara recognized the landscape, it was where she met with Theema, but it was odd to be here alongside Frey. It felt real, but everything was so bizarre that being a dream was a more realistic possibility. Her robe was even shredded, although she could feel her demon root poking against her stomach.

Frey pulled out a large cloak from her satchel, and wrapped it around Suhara. "Here," she said, "best stay warm, it's really cold back home right now."

"What happened?" Suhara asked as she stood up.

"You don't know?" Frey frowned. "Theema got into our realm, and she turned the whole sky black. No sun, moon, stars, or anything. Totally dark."

"Theema?" said Suhara, "No way, that can't be. She wouldn't, I mean, probably not and... no! We had a book on her and she's nothing like that!"

"The book was forged." said Frey, "The headmistress said it was made by a harpy, it was copied from another deity's book. Theema is only here for revenge, and a lot of innocent people are dying because of her."

Suhara shook her head. "She's helped me so much, there's just... there's no way that's true!"

"We have proof back at school, I'll show you when we get back."

"Get back? How did you even get here? I think this is Theema's realm."

"I made a stupid little deal, which landed me here. It's like, embarrassingly stupid, so I'd rather not say. I'm sure the school's gonna retrieve us sooner or later."

Suhara got the urge to look down, and spotted the black bracelet that rested on her wrist. "Well, I think I know a faster way..."

They were trapped.

Eight little kids crouched in the corner of the cabin. Half of them were sobbing loudly, their tiny fist pounded against the wooden walls. Many of them cried for their parents. Desyi felt frightened as well, she was still handicapped by magic erosion. In spite of that, she displayed herself with a confident mask. In the face of inescapable danger, it was no use being scared.

There was only one young boy who didn't squeeze himself into corner with the other children. He was reaching forward, trying to run to the vampire standing by the doorway. Desyi held him back with her one free hand. Her other hand held a dancing orange flame that kept the vampire wary.

"That isn't your father anymore," she said to the struggling boy. "Keep back, please. Otherwise I can't protect all of you."

The little boy didn't understand. He bit hard into the arm that forced him back. Desyi winced, and the orange flame flickered away.

It wasn't even a second of darkness. Desyi relit her fire, but the vampire already closed the distance. The vampire's pale arms reached forth and snapped Desyi's arm like a hollow branch. The flames went out again as Desyi screamed out with agony.

Desyi froze a cast over her injured arm before the vampire could sink its fangs in. She let go of the boy, and engulfed her free hand with a dim red fire. Her scorching fist struck the vampire in the face. The vampire screeched as its cheeks burned. It staggered back, while swinging madly at the air.

"Go! Run kids, out the door!" Desyi pointed her flaming hand towards the cabin door. "Get into another home!"

The children scurried out of the corner, past the pale creature, and out the door. The vampire turned as the children passed by, its nose took a loud sniff. Desyi stopped the vampire before it could try to pounce. She bashed the top of its head with her frozen arm, which injured them both. The vampire's regeneration made sure it wasn't stunned for long.

Desyi formed a new ice cast over her arm, then leaned against the wooden walls. The pain in her arm was unbalancing her. The vampire turned around and lunged at Desyi. Its mouth tore open and flew at her exposed neck.

The ivory spikes almost hit their mark, but Desyi's flaming fist intercepted the vampire's neck. She held on tight as gurgling screams burst from the creature's windpipe. Pale arms lashed out at her, crushing her ribs and organs. Desyi refused to let go. Her blazing fingers melted into the vampire's soft neck, slowing digging towards the spine. The perpetual regeneration worked fast to regenerate the damage, but it only went as far as holding Desyi's hand in place.

The boy was the only child who didn't run away from the scene. "No!" he screamed.

Desyi hesitated when she saw the face of the horrified boy. In her moment of weakness, the vampire's hand pierced through and ripped past her heart.

In a twisted way, the sudden loss of so much blood helped cure all the pain.

Desyi pushed her hand forth one last time, so that her burning fingers beheaded the pale abomination.

Too late, Tricks charged through the cabin doors. There waited a paralyzed boy and a fallen companion.

=+=+=

Theema returned to life from the violet blaze. Bright beams burst from her eyes and struck the massive wooden eagle's wing. The beams pierced through, but that did not deter the bird. A rumbling shriek escaped from the eagle's beak to force back the black tendrils that were climbing up the tower.

While the eagle focused on the tendrils, Theema teleported to her fallen gauntlet, then reattached it to her right arm.

One of the crystals on Theema's gauntlet dimmed. Dazzling dragon wings grew out from the goddess's back. The eagle shrieked again, this time firing the sound blast towards the goddess herself. A silvery portal opened up in front of Theema, which ate up the blast. The sound escaped out of a second portal that formed behind the wooden bird.

The huge eagle fell towards the tower as it was knocked down by its own shriek. Theema closed both portals, then released a violet inferno from her mouth. The dragonbreath lit up the sky as it punched through the wooden bird's breast.

The massive eagle faded away from the mortal realm.

To those who could see the flow of magic, the remaining soul from the bird converged into Theema's violet arm.

=+=+=

Suhara lay with her head buried in her folded arms. She hid in the wand shop ever since she heard about what happened out in the village. Tears ran down her cheeks and fell onto the glass displays. Regret tumbled though her stunned mind. Desyi was dead. All because of the Void Skies.

Raycern gently rubbed the girl's back. "It ain't your fault, lass."

"It is," said Suhara. "It's all because I came here. I tried taking what I didn't deserve. Now there's... all of this. I am to blame."

Raycern shook his heard. "This is all that goddess's fault. You were misguided, but these aren't the consequences of your actions."

"How can you say that?!" Suhara yelled, "None of this would have happened without me! Desyi would still be-"

"Enough, young lady," said Raycern. "This is needless sorrow. Mourn those we have lost, but do not burden yourself with the guilt from crimes of another. Even if you never came along here, that deity still existed. If not you, then there would have been another. Simple as that. What you should be focusing on is helping to end this. Not because you are at fault, but because you may have the means to stop it."

"But I can't stop it."

"Then it's damn good you have friends to help you. Go now, lass. Do what you can, and you'll have done what was best."

"... O-okay. Thanks, sir."

=+=+=

Suhara felt out of place in the meeting. She was surrounded by members of the administration and ace level students. Frey sat by her side and kept close. Helsfur talked about recent attempts to stop Theema. So far there had only been failures.

"Luckily," said the headmistress, "we have new information that may prove invaluable. You may enter."

The door behind Helsfur creaked open. Four people stepped into the meeting room. They wore green and brown robes, and the most extravagant one was worn by the blonde woman standing in front. The woman in front appeared to be the leader. She held a thick staff, which had a small circular harp embedded at the top.

"I am the Muse, High Priestess of Dirisel and Royal Saint of Eritea." said the woman, "The four seraphs of my holy realm have fought against the disastrous goddess, and we learned some key facts."

Excited murmurs rose, but Helsfur silenced them with a clap of her hands.

The Muse continued, "Killing the goddess may not seem to accomplish anything, at least not at first glance. After careful observation, we found that coming back to life always returns the goddess to her most basic form. Most stolen souls in her possession are bound in her gauntlet. We were able to separate her from the gauntlet near the end of the battle, and it stripped her of many abilities. Unfortunately, the two souls that allow her to remain do not depend on that gauntlet. Removing that gauntlets before killing her will give us an easier opponent, at least."

"So, the souls in Suhara's possession still remain in Theema?" said Hawkshire.

The Muse nodded. "That was what we concluded, yes."

"Suhara's priest connection to Theema is the key." said Rilane, "If we can somehow sever the connection, then take away that soul gauntlet..."

"But we've tried that, nothing seems to break their bond."

The door of the meeting room opened again. Syrus Raycern stepped in. "I have an idea, if you are all willing to listen."

"It has been pretty hopeless," said the headmistress, "any idea is welcome. What do you have in mind, Mr. Raycern?"

Raycern chuckled before he explained, "The Curahge's Forest of Gallain, where the trees of demon root staves thrive. If you bring the lass there, the forests may be able to drain away the spiritual bond."

"Gallain?"

"We've already tried draining magic, didn't we? It didn't work."

"I think the old man has a point. The power of Gallain's mystic flora may be more absolute than our magic."

"Miss Ballad would have to go alone. We won't survive exposure to Gallain!"

"If it does work, her immortality won't activate. She'll die."

"Might as well, it's her fucking fault we're in this-"

"Now wait just a second! The headmistress already prov-"

"Don't give us that! All of this was cau-"

The entire meeting room roared with the arguments between the different sides. Some wanted to protect Suhara, while others wanted her to perish. Not even Helsfur could regain control of the crowd.

Music abruptly filled the air. The Muse held up her staff, while the three others behind her were singing in harmony. A calming song ate away at all the spite in the room. People lost their misplaced hatred and sat back in their seats. The Muse's voice addressed the mob, "I think the girl has something to say."

Suhara was curled up in her chair and filled with anxiety, but she nodded. "Y-yes. I'll go to the forest."

Why did the old shopkeeper suggest this? It made sense, at least to all the arch mages, but Raycern was Suhara's friend. Was this betrayal? In dark times, perhaps desperation transcended friendships. He didn't even see her off. After the old man made his proposal, he just left.

Was this a time to feel angry? No, that didn't seem right. There was disappointment, at least.

The eerie branches of Gallain were just ahead, barely a stroll further. Suhara stood transfixed, staring deep into what could be her grave. Her light crystal's glow barely reached the edge.

When there is nothing but darkness, everything looked a little gray. It was odd, but also not as frightening. However, contrasted against the bright crystal, the rest of the world became a somber pitch black.

From the distance, Gallain looked almost like a fuzzy black cloud, maybe a porcupine. The branches had no leaves, so their spiky ends meshed together perfectly.

The young girl looked back towards her transport, the dimensional mage Wenlia. Their eyes met, but Wenlia was quick to turn away. She was so ashamed to be leaving a student here to walk towards an uncertain end. The woman almost considered grabbing the girl and running off, but a quick look at the complete darkness that surrounded them snuffed out that idea.

There was nowhere to run. This was only an option because the entire realm was in peril.

Wenlia opened her mouth, but hesitated with what to say. She finally decided on silence. This was not something to comfort with words. No goodbyes, no false wishes of luck. It would be improper to disguise this tragedy.

With that, the dimensional mage had gone in a flash of blue. Suhara was alone.

There were no clocks out here. Suhara's heartbeat had become unreliable, going between being as slow as a caterpillar and as fast as a hummingbird. She could have been standing still for a minute or a decade. It was at a point where it didn't matter.

If they were wrong, Theema wasn't going to stop. People couldn't endure much longer.

If they were right, what's one life given for all the others?

Still, Suhara didn't stride forward. Even if lives were being lost right now, even if every second wasted was another death under Theema's reign, Suhara still feared for herself.

She volunteered for this, mostly because Desyi's death weighed upon her mind. It was her fault. They never had a chance to talk, from one to another, heart to heart. She was a fantastic friend, but death was unbiased.

If this really was the end, perhaps they could both meet again. The end of life was always an unknown realm.

With that thought in mind, Suhara walked forth. The darkness would always be uncertain.

=+=+=

"What do you mean?" Frey asked, "No one survives staying in Gallain!"

The wand shop was a mess. Glass displays were shattered into sharp dust, mystic staves littered the splintered floor, and there were several large holes in the stone walls. Frey breathed heavily, dripping with sweat. She hadn't used any barriers for herself, so her knuckles bled.

She had stopped when Raycern entered, when he declared that Suhara would be okay. He didn't answer Frey's following question. At least not right away.

The old man held up his hands, and whispered out, "Come."

Frey was confused, and stood her ground. She didn't know why the old shopkeeper was asking for her to approach.

The thing is, Raycern wasn't talking to her. From the back wall, a wooden staff floated up and drifted across the room. It fit snugly into the old man's withered hands, then glowed orange for a moment.

"Ancient staves have fallen out of use," said the old man, "and many mages, such as yourself, have embraced synthetic staves. That is not a bad thing. However, to take your mystic tools from nature, and provide it with magic, is to make the object live again. Your wand is powerful, but my staff speaks to me. It knows no words, but we connect as friends do."

"W-what?" Frey's rage faded, replaced with bewilderment.

"I will never find the source of my staff, its mother." Raycern said, "This is because that source was divided into countless other magic tools. All for different people. The origin is lost."

Frey narrowed her eyes again. "You're not making any sense."

Raycern smirked. "Then listen harder, lass. We fear entering the forest of Gallain, because it is the death of magic. To get a single wand-worthy branch from that forest is riskier than walking into a leviathan's mouth. Our friend Suhara has one with her now, a branch of Gallain, the demon root. I'm sure Gallain will allow her passage to meet the source of her tool."

"What does that mean?" asked Frey.

The old man gestured to his staff. "These mystic items listen to us, our thoughts and emotions. That is how we communicate. I spoke with the lass before the meeting. Her grief is overwhelming, and she feels powerless. She wants to help, to make up for everything. It's why she agreed to go to Gallain, and her source may yet help her."

Frey was confused again, but she wanted to believe what she was being told. "Help how? How would you know?"

"I haven't much idea," he replied, "I just hope my faith in our silent friends is rewarded."

"That doesn't... why- why didn't you say this at the meeting?" said Frey.

"What the sources provide to us are gifts," he said. "If she went in asking for help, the source would deny her. What she holds in her heart now is genuine. The source will hear her true soul, honestly."

=+=+=

They did not touch her, rather... they refused to touch her.

The mystic flora of Gallain, known as demon statues, did not physically move out of the way. Still, their ability to drain magic didn't affect Suhara at all. She walked through unharmed, deeper and deeper into the black woods.

What now? They weren't working.

They failed... she failed again. Just like she thought, the was nothing she could do. Theema couldn't be stopped.

Suhara slumped down, falling onto the roots of one of the demon statues.

She hadn't been able to show any coherent emotions until now. When someone else had an idea, she followed along with them. Now this was it, and she was stuck.

Suhara cried, hopeless and powerless. Her own stupid and childish ambition for magic had plunged the world into murky depths. She was trying, there was just nothing she could ever do. She wasn't even allowed to die.

Gallain was the most lonesome place in the world. Only motionless black trees stretched out to an untold distance. No other life flourished here. It was just like being in Theema's realm again, but this time Suhara was awake to dwell on her regrets.

The young girl sat sobbing for quite a while. Her cries echoed through Gallain, being the only sound that existed.

It took a while, but Suhara eventually noticed an odd feeling. Something was warm under her cloak, something at her waist. She propped herself up straight against the demon statue, and pulled out the heated object.

The demon root was shining... sort of. Actually, it was eating up the glow from the magic crystal, so light bent oddly around the wand. A shine of distortion, perhaps.

Suhara's bloodshot eyes widened, she hadn't felt the wand do this since she first transformed.

The demon root floated up, and began to move forth. The last time Suhara followed, it was ended terribly, but curiosity still consumed her. It almost beckoned for her to follow, so she did.

Through the dark and silent forest, Suhara trekked.

What awaited her seemed like nothing at first. The wand led her to a one of the many identical trees. There wasn't anything else.

Then the demon root elevated. Even with a distorted image, Suhara was still able to see it move under the glow of her light crystal.

The demon root fit perfectly against one of the broken stems.

Suhara's light crystal cracked, then went out. Blind again.

=+=+=

Theema lifted her head. The dark goddess's eyes flashed with purple light, her connection to Jaux still held firm. There was something wrong, though. She couldn't explain it, but she almost lost the tether that allowed her to stay in this world.

The goddess immediately shifted over to her empty realm. She stood where her vessel was supposed to be sealed, and found the same isolated darkness as before Jaux's arrival.

They had taken her vessel back. Theema was sure she just felt an attempt to snuff out her contractual bond.

Only one place came to mind, where they would have taken Jaux back to.

"Gather, my weapons," Theema called out.

It couldn't been seen under the lightless skies, but various monsters appeared behind the goddess in a veil of shadow.

It was time to conquer the Lyceum of Marlifa.

=+=+=

Suhara understood it, but it was beyond words. The feeling could be described as instinct, but the instinct of another entity visiting her mindscape.

Her demon root came from this, a much more powerful mystic flora.

The tree understood, in some way. Not as people between one another, but as aliens who discovered a language they shared.

All the experiences with the demon root now filled the tree, and their magic twisted together in a dance.

Theema's divine power still existed upon the magical tattoos. The infinite magic of soul couldn't be stolen even by a demon statue. Still, enough magic was drawn out to make an opening. A small space to slip inside.

The true power of the dark goddess existed in Suhara's arm, but only one. The other arm was nearly empty. That was where the new magic took hold.

Trees never named themselves, but there was still a way to address them. The identity of Suhara's demon statue, of her source, was like a giant bell resonating beneath the waves. A slow tone, but with a bright and cherry sound. Peaceful could be the word.

Doon.

When a question is asked, there's a different manner of speaking. A tone that allows you to hear a question as easily as you could hear sarcasm.

There were no words. Doon communicated with tones of intention, a communication without a shred of specificity. More sophisticated than trying to understand a baby's cries and grunts, and just as difficult.

Suhara smiled as she finally recognized what she was feeling as she interacted with Doon. Back on the streets of Welldrop, this was how she tried to communicate with wandering animals. All her focus concentrated on trying understand their thoughts when they tilted their fuzzy heads. If she thought they were hungry, she would try to spare them some of her food. Now it was a bit switched. This time, she felt like the furry animal in need of support.

Suhara stepped forth and touched the rough bark of the ancient tree. There wasn't any pain, but a particularly strong numbness crept into her fingers, then up her arm.

Her magic was brushed aside and replaced with weakness.

Though unexpected, the young girl didn't pull away. Doon meant her no harm, she could understand that much. At a certain point, just past her elbow, the dark magic refused to drain away. The soul of Theema pushed back, refusing to yield any more territory. That was the limit of what the Gallain could remove.

But, it was enough. Doon's magic poured out from the tree's surface. It slid over the affected arm, flowing like cool sand over the numb skin. Once it reached the border between the empty arm and Theema's soul, the tree's magic seeped deep into the arm. Doon rooted itself into the girl's bones.

The feeling of something new. Something Suhara felt when she first transformed into a girl. The weight of new objects, and the conflicting mentality between what she was used to, and what had replaced it. Her right arm looked like it always did, but it was undeniably new.

Even if darkness didn't shroud the world, it was doubtful that anyone could see what was different about Suhara when she left Gallain.

Well, there wasn't anyone to see her in the first place, so it didn't particularly matter.

The nails of Suhara's right hand were as black as the endless night. They felt smooth, but not slippery, like freshly sanded wood. The bones in her arm were in the same state.

If one had the vision of magic, they would know that Theema's tattoos still covered the young girl's body. However, while most of them gleamed with purple light, the patterns on the right arm were dull.

There were no details of what exactly changed, but Suhara was sure that both her arms now carried abilities far beyond a wand. The demon root no longer rested in her hand, but its magical properties were dormant beneath her skin.

Her left arm held the presence of Theema, while Doon of Gallain occupied her right.

Just as Suhara stepped away from the edge of Gallain, she allowed her magic to surge. When the power converged into her right arm, a ball of sky blue mist formed. The magic's dim radiance lit away the shadows. Her motion missile spell could be cast directly from her fingertips, and it was noticeably larger.

While Suhara gazed into her hand, a memory decided to return.

It always managed to escape her notice, because that was its design. Suhara stared at the ever-present stone bracelet bound to her wrist, which offered her the ride home.

=+=+=

Many mages were disappointed to see Suhara return unharmed. They didn't wish death upon the innocent, but they desperately desired for the dark catastrophe to finally be stopped. To be confronted with eternal hopelessness was almost worse than losing the light of the sun.

Frey and Tricks were happy to see their young friend safe. The death of another dear companion was something they never wanted to endure. Although Raycern had provided an explanation to Frey, seeing Suhara's face in person was still a greater alleviation.

Tricks was the first to see Suhara reappear, since the dimensional bracelet brought Suhara back to their dorm room.

Well... close enough. Tricks was the first who recognized Suhara, at least.

A few other strangers witnessed the moment of the young girl's return. All the dorms now held a decent group of people, since the Lyceum had many refugees to take care of. Small villages and towns had been completely evacuated due to the Void Skies. The Lyceum was one of the safest fortresses in the world, so a larger concentration of people were hidden behind the walls.

It was no longer viable to station mages outside, considering the deaths that were piling up. It took too much dimensional magic to transport large groups of people, so the evacuation was done with physical transportation.

That had its own risks. A few crowds were lost to attacks on the road, which no one could do anything about. But, once a group arrived at a sanctuary, everyone could be relieved. Even the dull gray walls of the Lyceum were shining stars compared to the current state of the world.

With the Gallain plan written down as a failure, the various leaders and archmages were gathered back up for further discussion.

Suhara didn't attend. In fact, she didn't tell many people about what happened with Doon. Obtaining power from a mystic flora wasn't something that would stop Theema, not directly in any case. Very few people knew the details of what happened inside Gallain. As far as most were concerned, it just wasn't possible to remove Theema's connection.

Suhara had forgiven the old man, since Frey explained the true intention of involving Gallain. It was for her sake. She was still a bit bitter about being kept in the dark, despite her complete understanding. Logic had a tough time overruling emotion.

=+=+=

Blinding purple light shot down from the black heavens, momentarily lighting up the western wall of the Lyceum of Marlifa. At its point of impact with the ground, the dark goddess Theema stood.

The pillar of light had caught the attention of many, and people soon crowded over every window they could reach.

The gemstones of Theema's mystical items provided enough radiance to light the world around her. Behind the goddess was a small collection of creatures bound with black armor, the living weapons of the goddess.

When she looked through a window, Suhara recognized one of the living weapons. The scarlet-haired vampire was among those who stood behind Theema.

It had been only hours since Suhara returned from Gallain. This was clearly not an coincidence, Theema had been alerted.

The archmages were quick to move as well. Mere seconds after Theema's arrival, Headmistress Helsfur and her fellow teachers appeared between Theema and the Lyceum. Other prominent mages soon joined Helsfur, including the High Priestess Melidea and the Muse.

For a moment, there was some confidence in everyone's eyes. Theema was frighteningly powerful, but vastly outnumbered. They had a chance.

It didn't take long for most of that confidence to fade into the night.

A swirling purple portal tore open in the dark skies, and an army of demonic priests rushed out. Vampires, ghouls, oni, and countless other types of monstrous creatures arrived.

There were no advantages to waiting any longer.

Helsfur launched a ball of green light from her hand. It shot up and over Theema's army, then exploded into a huge heap of string. Most of the demonic priests began to crumble into the ground upon touching the falling thread.

The Muse was next to step up. She held up her staff and pointed it towards the army. The circular harp on the end of her staff began to play on its own. The song, if it could be called that, was terrible. A choir of snapping cords grinding against glass would sound better. It appeared to be worse for the invading creatures, who joined the horrifying tune with agonizing screams.

Unfortunately, Theema and her living weapons were unaffected by both attacks.

The biggest of the living weapons rushed towards the gathering of leaders and archmages. Along with his size, he also had a patchwork of shiny scales instead of skin. Theema's purple light and Helsfur's green light were all that lit away the shadows, so there wasn't a way to decipher the true color of the scales.

Suhara never saw a creature quite like the large living weapon, but it seemed every other archmage did. Shields and wards burst out from countless staves, forming a fortress of dazzling protection magic.

When the large living weapon collided with one of the shields, he exploded. Several defensive spells were snuffed out by the force, and numerous mages were knocked back. At the epicenter of the explosion, the large living weapon began to regenerate.

First, what appeared to be a giant cubed heart floated up. Melidea immediately pointed her staff towards it, and fired off a torrent of bright orange energy.

Too late, the black armor of Theema's living weapons had already reconstructed itself around the large heart, protecting it from the energy. The scaly living weapon reformed mere seconds later. Before it could detonate once more, one of the recovering archmages blasted it back with a white pulse.

=+=+=

"We shouldn't just be watching," said Suhara. "We need to go help them."

Frey shook her head. "She's after you, and if she succeeds... I don't think we'll be able to get you back a second time."

"Still, get a load of these other folks," said Tricks. "What's their excuse for standing around doing nothing? A herd of pigs would be more useful."

Suhara lifted her right arm, considering her options. She wasn't sure if she was ready, since there wasn't enough time to test anything out. What could she do?

The goddess was the key to the whole mess. Theema had to be drawn out and defeated.

Somehow.

"Frey," Suhara suddenly spoke up, "could you take me up to the roof?"