I am not very sure of how my face looks right now, considering there were no mirrors in the Elysium and I didn’t feel brave enough to ask Mustafá for one, but everything feels swollen and warm. I absolutely hate that. As we walk back from the cat café and return to my apartment, while the Sun sinks down to the West… I am convinced I look like a red balloon, or something like that.

Souseiseki has really taken to heart her role as my defense trainer, every ball she threw my way felt harder than the last back in the Elysium. And this is something I will have to endure every damn day for a few weeks!? Urgh…

But it doesn’t matter, not at all! I don’t care! I don’t care one bit! Because I can feel myself improving. Every time my barrier appears, it appears more firmly and much faster too. Not to mention how my grasp on The Language is improving too! Even Mustafá recognizes that I am doing good!

I can’t help but feel a little giddy about that too, to be honest. There’s a bit of a spring on my step as we walk through the streets… sadly, Mustafá notices this, and gives me quite a heavy look.

“Stop that. Your hopping is distracting.” She says, crossing her arms.

“S-Sorry…” I stop on my tracks and try to get back to walking normally.

“No apologies.” Her nagging finger taps on my forehead a few times. “Do not grow smug about your progress, you have only just begun. Today’s test will be taxing.”

“Wait. Test? What do you mean test!?” All my confidence goes down the drain as we entered the apartment building. “Wasn’t all that practicing just enough for today?”

“Remember when I told you the story of The Great Game and the coming Second Sacrifice?” She says without even turning to look at me, calling for the elevator.

“Yeah…?” I whimper a little bit.

“Today we are going to start doing something about it. We need to be proactive, after all.” Mustafá nodded to herself as she entered the elevator and waited for me inside. “We will go at 12 in the night, so use your time to rest wisely.”

While we go up the elevator, my eyes are glued to the floor. A test, huh? Judging by how the crone was talking about it, this is probably going to be both taxing and possibly illegal. Then again, she seems to hold a real disregard for all rules in both the magical and the sleeper world, so I am not surprised there.

As we walk back into the apartment, and I get ready to go back into my room to chill on the computer, I feel a tug on my clothes. Turning around, I see Mustafá staring into my soul once again.

“Bring your computer here.” She says.

“What?! Why!?” Now she’s trying to get into how I spend my time!?

“Spending all the time on the computer is already bad enough, but doing so while turning your bedroom into your ‘everything-room’ only makes things worse. Get used to doing your daily tasks outside of it.” Once more, I can’t really fault her logic, but I just hate how smug she sounds about it.

“But I have my comfy couch in there!” I pout so heavily it hurts a little bit.

“Then bring it here.” She answers so calmly.

“But it is heavy, I can’t lift it on my own!” I continue to pout.

Mustafá gives me a look. A condescending, almost smirking look. A ridiculing look. Her eyebrow goes up and everything.

“Ah. Right. Magic.” Saints above my face goes red instantly with embarrassment.

“You have my permission to use the Telekinesis Spell without writing the rune. Have fun, but make sure you focus properly.” She warns me before sitting on one of the horrible pink couches in the room. “Every single casting of a rune lasts for as long as you’re able to keep your focus. If you get distracted, the thing will fall right down.”

Well that’s actually useful to know. I make sure to take note of it before pouting once again.

“I know magic can’t really be used to heal but, isn’t there anything you can do about my face!? The swelling is distracting!”

Mustafá sighs, signaling for me to walk closer. When I do, she puts both hands on my cheeks and once again, whispers a rune low so I can’t hear it. Her skin is surprisingly soft, I expected her to have rough hands for some reason… a cold aura slowly begins to flow into my own skin, and I sigh in relief. I can feel the pain going away, and my cheeks going back to their normal size.

“I lied.” She admits. “Magic can totally be used for medicine. But doing so without the body rejecting it or creating great amounts of paradox is hard and troublesome. It’s forbidden.”

“I thought you didn’t give a toss about the rules.” I blink a few times, rapidly. She pats my cheeks.

“Only when they suit me. Leave medicinal magic to the few idiots studying it.” My teacher lays back on the couch once again. “Get to move that chair of yours.”

Stolen story; please report.

“It’s a reclining couch, thank you very much.” With a huff, I turn around and walk right back into my room.

The old, reliable couch has been in the same corner for years now. It was an odyssey to get it inside in the first place, so moving it now will probably be just as complicated. With a frown I roll up my sleeves and crack my knuckles, getting ready for a frustrating time.

“Pekgr.” I point at the couch and enunciate, watching how the inanimate object suddenly jerks and obeys my command, slowly beginning to rise.

I don’t lift it too much, mostly out of fear of damaging it by dropping it, but it is still enough to see the dirt and trash that accumulated beneath the thing. For a moment I feel the tension in my brain release, the couch wiggles a bit in the air, so I force myself to focus on it instead of the terrible amount of dirt, just waiting for me to stop messing around and go clean it.

PLAM!

The couch fell heavily on its side, shaking the floor on the room.

“Saints damn it…!”

The neighbor downstairs knocks on my floor several times. I am being annoying…

“Great job focusing. I would check if the thing is broken, if I were you!”

You are not making it any easier either! With sweat already building up on my brow, I run back to the kitchen for the broom. I will not be able to focus with that much dirt just waiting there.

“Good excuse.”

Shut up.

I clean up the dirt as fast as I can, throwing it all in a trash bag with a satisfied nod. After that, I rub my hands together and try to focus again on lifting the couch up.

“Pekgr!”

As the piece of furniture starts rising up in the air once again, I hear something jingle in it. I immediately start panicking, did I actually break it already!? I mean, more broken than it was before!? Or maybe it was just coins trapped in there or something innocuous like that? The couch trembles in the air, and I put it back down before it has a chance of falling on its own again.

This is not working.

“What gave you that impression?”

Carefully I put the couch back on the right side, using my own strength instead of magic this time, and check it all around. The back is still broken, but that has been like that for a while now. Nothing else seems out of place. Then it hits me… I can just repair this myself, can’t I?

I pick up a piece of paper and scribble the rune, setting it under the couch. Then, I call for it to activate.

“Aka!”

The couch… doesn’t move. In the slightest. There’s no change whatsoever. Checking on the piece of paper, I see that it has shriveled up and broken into pieces like expected, but the damn couch is still broken!

“...Mustafáaaaaaaaaaaaa?” I call out.

“What.” She grumpily answers.

“I tried the Fixing rune and it did nothing!” My whining annoys even myself, so I try to make it a bit less bothersome. “Can you please tell me what I am doing wrong?”

“Wouldn’t it be easier that I fix it for you?” The mage peeks from the door, deadpan as ever.

“Probably, but I want to learn it myself.” I cross my arms.

“Good answer. Let’s see.” Mustafá walks over to the couch. “I assume you just drew the fixing rune and tried to use it, right?”

“It worked before, when I fixed torn up paper.” My eyes follow Mustafá’s every movement, but she’s not really doing much. Just standing there. “Do bigger objects need bigger runes?”

“No. What they need is more Astral to work, but that wouldn’t be the issue here either.” The woman closed her eyes, nodding. She had found the problem, it seems. “By itself, the fixing rune only returns objects to their ideal state, according to your understanding, for up to one hour. How long has this been broken?”

“...A few years…” I admit with shame in my eyes.

“Do you know how this object works?” Mustafá looks me in the eye, apparently knowing the answer to that one too.”

“No…” I pout.

“There you go, then. You can’t use the fixing rune to its full potential without the knowledge of how an object functions.” Without saying another word, she leaves me again. Lousy teacher.

Well, at least now I know I can repair the damage my beloved couch sustains during the moving process! That’s better than nothing! With a much more confident stride, I once again enunciate the telekinesis rune (to which I still need to find a proper meaning) and then I carefully start walking backwards while guiding the floating chair through my room.

Once I actually get into the groove of doing this, it turns out far easier than just carrying it with my body! This way not only I don’t feel the strain in my arms, but also I can carefully adjust the position of the floating couch in the air, slowly spinning it, turning it from side to side so it fits through the door, until I finally reach the living room. Success!

“Venus would be quite surprised to see this thing here.”

My concentration breaks instantly. I watch how the couch falls to the floor with another heavy “plam!”, and I cover my face with both hands. Saints damn it all! I curse under my breath and go to fix the couch, carefully setting it upright again and affectionately patting one of the armrests. Mustafá is lounging lazily on her own couch, checking one of my books (my beautiful edition of ‘Wyrd Sisters’ by Sir Pratchett) without really paying any attention to me. That’s honestly relieving if you ask me.

With a little nod to myself, I finally grab my computer and get ready to sink into my usual routine… when suddenly Mustafá glares at me.

“...What?” I tilt my head. “What’s wrong?”

“Don’t you Wohlians drink tea at this time of the day?” She asks, indignant.

“...Some do?” Honestly, it’s a bit of an archaic tradition but, I see where she’s coming from. With a sigh, I set my computer down. “I’ll make you some tea.”

“Use your runes to do so.” Mustafá says, returning to her book.

“I. But. Urggghhh…” I pull my hair a little bit, sighing and shaking my head before going out to the kitchen and getting ready to prepare tea.

The telekinesis rune turned out to be far more useful than I thought. I could actually manipulate several objects at once, if I was able to split my focus between them. I managed to fill the electric kettle, pick up two boxes of tea, and even grab the teaspoons at once! But feeling my focus trembling, I decide to just try to limit myself to using two imaginary hands like this. Like, two objects at once, and that would be good enough! I don’t want to screw up now that there’s hot water involved.

Two cups float over and sit carefully on the table. Then, the spoons float over to the sugar bowl. With a motion of my hand, I try to make then just take a scoop each… I watch with horror how the things stab the sugar bowl and break it instantly.

“AH! AKA!”

Without thinking, I order the sugar bowl to fix itself… and it does! With a rewinding sound, pieces of porcelain and sugar float and reform the bowl. I then fall to my knees, attacked by a sudden weakness. Everything is swirling again, my heart is starting to accelerate. Astral sickness? Already?! I haven’t done that much, have I?

Mustafá peeks from the door.

“...You used the runes without writing them again, huh? The one I specifically told you not to use that way.” She shakes her head softly. “I will take care of the tea, you rest for a moment.”

I am not sure if I love or I hate magic at this point…