Cece got up late the next day, her headache was mostly gone, but she had decided that sleep was a good way to make sure it didn’t come back. She took the morning to get used to the changes, letting her mind slip into numbers where it was useful, stopping it when it wasn’t. Lotte made her tea and breakfast while she sat in her parlor reading the newspaper. Nothing too eventful, besides typical mage and political drama, generally they were the same, but there were a few mundane politicians these days. As she sipped her tea, she set the paper down on her parlor table, next to an opened letter. It was an invitation she had received a few days prior, for a soiree. She hadn’t intended to go, but now that it was the day of, she was starting to think that it would be a nice way to take the edge off. It was hosted by someone she actually…respected would be the word, her personality was a bit much for Cece to handle, but they were similar in a few strange ways.

She had several hours to kill in between however, and got to work making a few scrolls and reagents for Sigmund to sell. More importantly however she had to test her new favorite boon. She walked through the door to her atelier, the scent of paper in the air, and set her used ruby grimoire down on her workbench. She grabbed one of her smaller rubies, and willed the erase function to restore the ruby to its formerly pristine state. The smaller ruby shattered dramatically and little specks of it floated and dissipated into the air, burning with light like sparks from a bonfire. The former grimoire was restored to a blank state.

“Excellent!” Cece cheered. She then pulled out of a levitation scroll, a simple one that she had made to float something up in one direction, it responded neither to will nor physical cues, it simply floated upwards. She grabbed some scrap paper, and activated the scroll.

“TR76G” She spoke, and a tome on the end of the desk slowly started accelerating towards the ceiling. She, as quickly as possible, erased the inscription that pointed it upwards and created a new one that moved it to the right. It did so. Cece erased and rewrote it to go left. It did so. Down. It did so. Up again. It did so. She only stopped when the paper pieces she was holding were all burned up. She couldn’t stop herself from laughing this time. It wasn’t the same as magic obeying her will, she had to manually control it, but still, she controlled it without verbal or physical commands, and furthermore, she could change what the scroll did as it was acting. It was a dream come true for an alchemetrix.

She put that aside, as wonderous as it was, to get to doing her actual work. Experimentation required money after all, not that she was particularly wanting. It was simply just that Cece didn’t like using her family’s money. She had in the past and she would again, but it was one of the few things she had left of them, not a lot had survived the fire. She flexed her fingers and started pulling down reams of crimson paper. She primarily sold simple scrolls, salt protection and privacy spells mostly, a few simple illusion spells so that mundanes can play with their appearance that kind of thing. She also made some higher grade items like teleportation scrolls, those always sold well, which made up for the high price of platinum inks. She also made a few inks, the simplest ones were simply pure elements in a binder like oil or water, but she dealt with high grade inks made from alchemical beasts. They had a tendency to gather higher concentrations of magic in their bodies, although said magic made them difficult to harvest.

With work done she took a an hour or two to get ready. Her appearance was one of the few distractions she allowed herself in life, and she always tried to look her best, especially for a social event. She of course dressed in her signature red, but changed into a floor length velvet gown, with a high slit, and puff sleeves. She wore a pearl necklace, and placed her floral eyepatch delicately over her daemonic eye. This wasn’t her first outing since acquiring it, but she hadn’t gone to any soirees or other large parties since. Just a few small tea parties where young mage ladies feigned sympathy. She hoped to brush past it all. Despite her initial concerns she had actually grown to like how it looked, both the eye, and the silk flower she had begun to place overtop it. It was severe. It made her look dangerous, and she thought it was beautiful.

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Cece slipped on a pair of red heels, and made her to way to the building’s garage. There were a few other tenants in the plaza mingling, but she always made a point to avoid meeting her neighbors. This place was her refuge, she didn’t want to be bothered here. She walked up to her car, there were several in the garage, but she could truly and with a bit of sadistic glee say that hers was the nicest. She hopped into it, put the key in, and smoothly pulled out of space and drove through the building’s discreet exit. She took a breath of the deep night air, as the wind blew through her platinum blond hair.

She was headed to a mage family’s residence. The party, of course, was not being held formally by the family, it was the party of one member in particular of the Bismotti family. Cece parked her car with the carriages outside of the residence. It read as low class to not have a driver, but Cece didn’t particularly care about that. She wasn’t someone who had cared about it before, but after the death of her family she occupied an extremely unique social class. She had the money and resources of a mage family, but was mundane. She was not subject to mage rules, but yet had more wealth than most of the people there, not to mention an array of valuable mage family secrets. Essentially she could do whatever she wanted. It did come with a few caveats, but for having fun it was useful.

She walked up to the guest’s entrance, where a young man, likely a butler in training, was waiting.

“Could I please see your invitation, my lady?” He asked nervously.

“Of course.” She handed it to him. He gave it a look, and handed it back to her, and beckoned her inside.

“Have a wonderful night my lady.”

“Thanks.” Cece replied curtly, while walking forward. She wasn’t much of a party goer, so she had no idea if she could do as the man asked. To begin with she respected very few people here. Mages of course held a higher social class than mundanes, usually because they have the power to enforce that hierarchy. It wasn’t just, but at least those mages were more than just talk. Most mages here would be children of well off families pissing away their money and neglecting their power. It was likely that she just felt that way due to her harsh upbringing, but what could she say, she was raised to want real power. The only one she couldn’t fault was her hostess.

“Cece! You made it!” A short girl, her age, with dark black hair that had iridescent streaks in it waved to her. Allison Bismotti was a bismuth mage who had devoted her every spell to being Astraeve’s ultimate partier. Cece couldn’t imagine living her lifestyle, but couldn’t condemn such an intense devotion. She wouldn’t be surprised if the girl actually managed to become an elemental, if only to keep on having fun for eternity.

“Yes, apologies for the last minute entrance.” Cece said.

“Nonsense, I’m happy to have you.” Her cat-like eyes squinted up in a smile, as she waved away the apology. Her hair glinted with a variety of colors, that you would be tempted to think might be a magic from the many-hued metal her family commanded, at least you would be tempted to think that if you were not Cece, who received an order from the Bismotti household every month for silver magic hair dye. “How have you been, is everything alright here?” She said, subtly tapping her right eye.

“Oh yes, its just a condition from childhood rearing its head.” Cece replied, grateful that Allison had just gotten it over with.

“Well I hope it isn’t bothering you too much, at the very least it makes for quite the striking look.” She said.

“Thank you, how have you been Ali?” Cece asked. They were not close friends by any means, but they were beginning to know each other better now that Cece had more free time.

“Oh same old, same old, nothing too exciting.” She said, her champagne glass swaying slightly. Allison’s champagne glass was usually fairly full, she didn’t need to drink too much to feel it. Bismuth was the element of emotion, of empathy and sympathy, and she was constantly using it. It made her an excellent conversationalist, and more so it let her feel the drunkenness of everyone around her. At first that was simply Cece’s theory, but now she could confirm it, her eye letting her see the magic, even behind the eyepatch.

“I find that difficult to believe, Ali.” Cece replied. Ali certainly did not live an unexciting life.

“Well, maybe it was a liiitttle exciting.” She teased. Suddenly an attendant came over to her. “Oh it looks like we have another late comer, sorry Cece, I’ll see you later.” She said regretfully.

“No worries, a hostess’ job is never done.” Cece said understandingly.

“Exactly! Oh! Try the shrimp, it’s amazing this time of year.” She said while rushing away.

Cece waved her off, and began to mingle.