“How did we end up here?” I murmur in bewilderment while looking around the table.

“Marion has apparently been busy,” Shiva says in wonder.

“And why do I have to sit across from her?” I complain while looking out of the corner of my eye and catch Stephanie glancing at me.

“Because Marion has an interesting sense of humor,” Shiva suggests.

“I just wanted a nice calm,” I pause and sigh, “Actually I wasn’t expecting anything like a calm lunch when she invited us.”

“How has your day been?” Melodiana asks as she sits down on my right.

“I’ve had worse,” I shrug and wince slightly as the bruise on my shoulder stretches. “And how have you done?”

“Magik has never been a strong point,” She mutters as she looks down and pokes at her plate of food.

“Well next you have sparring which I have heard you are quite adept at,” I say in a vague attempt to comfort her and she nods her head.

Aya and Sarah take their seats across from me, Sarah next to Stephanie, and a couple more people sit down next to Stephanie and start talking to her in Sicarin while throwing glances in my direction.

“I think they are talking about you,” Shiva says in mock suspense.

“Probably nothing good,” I respond and take a bite.

“I had a couple of questions I would like to ask you about your evaluation,” Marion says as she takes the seat on my left, drawing the attention of everyone around her, “Just Lily as I saw the evaluations everyone else in person, and I have heard interesting things from the rest of the Council.”

“If I must,” I sigh as I pick at the plate of food in front of me.

“Primarily I was curious about how you made the Chancellor's arm tingle even though you didn’t actually poison him,” as she says this everyone stops talking and looks at me in disbelief. “I was asking some practitioners of Illusions and they were unsure how you did it as well. But they said that it might be possible to do, and he swears that you perfectly described the felling in his arms.”

“It’s actually simple,” I yawn, “It was because I dragged the game of Ginbow out.”

“Hmm,” she tilts her head, “Could you elaborate.”

“It’s a side effect of manipulating the mana field for too long, the average match lasts around twenty-five rounds. If you have played much just think back to when you started and you can probably remember a similar sensation. An average player that plays fairly regularly is generally fine for thirty rounds or so. After that most players will begin to feel a tingling or numbness that spreads up their arms after a small amount of time. Being that i wasn't sure of his skill I had the match last until I started to notice the signs of fatigue, and then it was simple to bring his attention to it. Then much like an itching nose when your hands are full, the acknowledgment makes the sensation stronger.”

“So what are the signs then?” Marion asks curiously.

“Generally flexing of hands and fingers is the best tell.”

“How interesting, and how many rounds can you play in a match before you start to experience the side effects?”

I shrug, “The longest match I have ever played was over one hundred rounds, and it was never a problem.”

“Why would you play a match that long?” Sarah asks.

“Importantly did Miss Steele say that you didn’t actually poison the Head of the Council?” Melodiana asks sounding slightly distressed.

“It was a delaying tactic,” I say to Sarah before turning to Melodiana, “and I believe I did say that you couldn’t have done anything as bad as what I did on the way home.”

“And why is she still here if she did something like that?” One of the people that sat down next to Stephanie asks angrily and I look over and Male Kitsune with black hair points at me.

“Because we have use for people with all kinds of skills here,” Marion says and I catch her smiling, “and I am willing to bet that she is braver than you are.”

“That’s complete bullshit,” He growls across the table.

“Well would you have walked into a room with the leaders of the city, whom, need I remind you, receive their positions based upon skill and performance, and pretend to poison the head of that council before announcing to the room that you had just done so claiming that the game had just begun?” As she asks he pales and sits back in his seat and looks away.

“Why did you choose to say that you poisoned him?” Sarah asks, “Surely there would have been other things you could have done?”

I shrug, “I was tired and didn’t really think of anything until five or six rounds into the match.”

“You went into your evaluation without having a plan?” Stephanie asks with a look of shock on her face. I shrug my shoulders and nod my head.

“What are we going to do with you?” Marion heaves a sigh.

“Let me do as I wish,” I suggest.

“Oh another thing about your illusions,” Marion begins.

“Not as useful as I made them seem,” I cut off her question, “It isn't easy to set them up properly and they aren't perfect. It only worked because everyone had been working all day, was tired, and because i am quite certain of my appearance.”

Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

“But they still have a fair bit of use,” Marion nods her head in understanding, “Given the right circumstances.” I nod my head in consent to her.

“What did she do with illusions?” Sarah asks.

“She made multiple images of herself around the room,” Marion explains.

“And how is that not very useful?”

I ponder how to answer for a moment and decide to treat it like a minor lesson to a new recruit. After all I might be counting on one of them to watch my back in the future and I don't want to have to take the time to answer in a bad situation.

“They weren't proper illusions,” I shake my head to answer her second question first, and I can see the confusion on her face so before she can ask her next question I start to form a sigil. It's just as quick and sloppy as the ones I used during my evaluation but it will make the point apparent.

I quickly finish and shove more mana into the sigil while forming an image in my mind. After a moment a small grey wolf appears sitting in the middle of the table, and everyone looks at it intently. “Now who is she looking at?” I ask

“Me-”

“At me-” two voices across the table respond at the same time. It is easy to notice that everyone want's to point out that she isn't looking at them and I shake my head again.

“The correct answer is whoever is looking at her,” I pause and take another bite, “It is much faster to make them that way but there are some fairly large drawbacks to making them fast. As you all can probably imagine.”

“Is it possible to make it so everyone sees the same version of the illusion?” Someone down the table asks, I can't quite see them and they don't sound familiar either but I nod my head.

“Yes, it just takes more effort and energy,” I continue my explanation, “I can make quite complex things but it can take anywhere between thirty minutes to a full day depending on what I want them to do.”

“I’m still upset about the situation,” a new voice interjects and Kira Lasille says as she sits down next to Marion, and I erase the sigil.

“Next time don’t have so many agents go rouge. You wouldn’t end up owing me favors and might get the picks that you want,” Marion laughs a little, and everyone else at the table looks around at each other before going back to their own conversations.

“He seemed completely stable,” Kira tilts her head while sounding like she can't pin an idea on the tip of her tongue down, “I wonder if the Nightingales are able to diagnose crazy blood thirsty killers.”

“Maybe you should ask Elsie about it.”

“Perhaps I will,” Kira nods while tilting her head in the other direction, “How do you keep your agents under control?”

“I check up on each of them individually and take great care of my pets,” Marion replies throwing a glance my way.

“Seems like a lot of effort,” Kira yawns, “So you are the Magik circles next.”

“Mm-hmm, and then the last event of the day.”

“Ah I’m so jealous. It is so much faster having Magik as your third event,” Kira stands up, and then asks “Standard bets?”

“Indeed,” Marion nods and Kira walks off.

…

…

“So what is the standard bet?” I ask after a few moments.

“Loser buys the drinks tonight after everything is done.”

“I see and what are the rules of...”

“Oh I have to go get ready for the next set,” She cuts me off while standing up from the table before she turns and quickly leaves.

“Well if nothing else the next matches should be quite interesting,” Shiva says excitedly.

“Hopefully so.”

I yawn while looking down at the Magik ring in front of me and Sarah asks, “Bored?”

I shake my head, “Tired and a bit stiff. We had to be up to early for this.”

“I’m so jealous; you get a cute uniform and don’t have to wake up for drill in the morning.”

“I-I’m not jealous, a-at least we only fight other soldiers most of the time,” Aya says, “I don’t care much for dealing with assassins, and the like.”

“I suppose that is true,” Sarah nods while tilting her head, “Eh, I suppose trade-offs for everything.”

“There is wisdom in that statement,” Shiva points out like she wants to teach me something, “Hmm thinking about it, to them you must still be a baby.”

“Well that’s a given; she is likely around a hundred years old,” I yawn again, “For that fact Aya is probably about that as well. It’s about the time that Elfs reach adulthood.”

“So what are you two going to do for your match?” Sarah asks curiously while leaning forward as two fireballs clash in the middle of the ring and burn each other out and cheers ring out across the stands.

“I-I specialize in de-defensive Magik, and Counter Magik” Aya shyly tries to hide her face while answering.

“My, how impressive,” Sarah exclaims, “I’ve never been very good at defensive casting, my clan primarily teaches elemental augmentation. How about you?” she turns to me.

I shrug, “I’m not quite sure yet, something elemental.”

“Well I look forward to it.”

“You’re up soon,” Marion says as she sits down on the bench next to us.

“Alright,” I yawn, stand up and stretch a little bit.

“G-good luck,” Aya calls before I head down to the waiting area near the ring.

As I approach the empty ring I can feel energy being manipulated as we approach. “It seems as if they have to reset the limiters every few rounds,” Shiva says analyzing the process.

“It’s probably for the best,” I nod to the woman in front of me, “That way they can attempt to prevent a major incident from taking place.”

“Basically just aim at the ground in front of them,” the woman begins tiredly, “and take into account of any Magik that has an explosive area and aim farther away. This is my last match of the shift and I would really appreciate it if nobody ended up crippled or dead.”

“She is just a bundle of joy,” Shiva says in a judging tone, and I spot Stephanie on the other side of the ring talking with a man.

“Any questions?” the woman asks.

“How will judging be done? And how is a winner determined?” I ask her as I look at the ring that has multiple scorch marks and cracks across the ground.

“Energy management, capacity, casting under the pressure of a duel, speed of casting, type and power of the Magik,” the woman sighs, “Winners are determined by a combination of the areas, or if a caster steps outside of their designated area they are disqualified.”

“If you are testing under the pressure of a duel why are we just supposed to aim at the feet?” I ask her and she just throws a cold look at me.

“Fine,” she complains as she turns away and she continues to mumble to herself, “just make my life that much more difficult why don’t you, I mean no one cares about how much energy it takes…”

“I think you made her mad,” I scold Shiva.

“Indeed that was definitely my fault,” She laughs at me, “And not the cause of a sassy little fox.”

“I wasn’t sassing her,” I complain as I take my position on the ring, “She was just contradicting herself.”

“This ring is designed to reduce the power of Magik cast in it,” A young man says as Stephanie takes her place, “So it may feel a bit odd to cast while on the inside but it is for your own safety. Now if you are both ready?” he pauses and looks at me and I nod, he then looks across the field and Stephanie nods and he continues, “Then you may begin.”

“Fastest way to end this will be to make her move I suppose,” I yawn as I gather energy into my hand and begin to draw my sigil and the people around the ring gasp. I look across the field and Stephanie hasn’t even started to form her sigils yet; it almost feels as if she is at an amateurs level. I complete the outer circle and form the inner ring scrawling the required text around it. I quickly finish before drawing a jagged line through the center of it connecting the top and the bottom, and I start to pour more energy into the broken sigil.

“Going for something a bit flashy I see,” Shiva says sounding slightly bored.

“I figure it will likely make her jump backwards if I land it at her feet,” I explain as I focus on the area in front of Stephanie.

I quickly release the energy in the sigil, and as the circuit closes there is a deafening boom as multiple bolts of lightning strike the ground causing my fur to stand on end. After a brief moment the Magik subsides leaving behind a scorched stretch of stone, and on the ground a few feet back sits a frightened looking Stephanie.