Dear Diary,

So last night's Nightmare count came to three, if you count the boring Locked in a Box one. I'm gonna keep counting it because even if I get sleep while I'm having it, I wind up walking around in a weird dream state for half the morning after waking up. Which I really ought to be used to by now, since that one is pretty much a nightly occurrence.

Breakfast returned entirely to normal; bacon and Saffron at the table. Not that I'd eat Saffron. Okay, not in the literal sense. And not at the table right in front of everybody. I mean, I've got some class.

Okay, you're right, that's a bald faced lie.

I have no class. But apparently according to Saffron I'm cute, which makes up for it.

Anyway, full spread this morning, although I noticed the other tables had mostly gone back to runny boiled eggs rather than spicy scrambled ones. I got a little envious of Doc DeLeon, who gets his own tray of spicy eggs. Not that I didn't down like two trays by myself, but I had to share some of trays three and four, and he didn't have to share his one.

Huh. Never knew quite how greedy I could get over food.

So after breakfast I walked Saffron back to the Infirmary to pick up Isnomi, then played peek a boo over Saffron's shoulders while walking back to her dorm room.

"I wish you could stay for the morning." Saffron sighed. "I love her dearly, but having an adult to talk with..." She trailed off, and I nodded my understanding.

"I would, but Doc's gonna know I straight up cut his class if I show up in the afternoon."

"So don't show up then?"

My turn to sigh. "The sooner I get all that shit I broke fixed up, the sooner I can spend every Tuesday and Friday afternoon with you guys."

She smiled up at me from where she'd knelt on the floor to play with Isnomi. "How very mature of you. I thought you hated being locked in a box?"

I snorted, "I hate being locked in a box, yeah, but I'm not locked in then. I want to be there."

That got a laugh out of her. "How very feline of you." She picked Isnomi up and stood, walking over to where I leaned against the doorframe. "Well, you'd best be going. If you're not going to skip class, you ought to be on time."

I leaned over and gave her a kiss, then blew a raspberry on Isnomi's tummy until she giggled. "See you after class?"

"See you then, love."

I walked to Remedial Mana Shaping with baby giggles and Saffron calling me 'love' filling my brain. On the way I stopped by my room and dropped half a handful of bacon on my Shrine. I figure if Angel thinks it's good enough for Artemis, Loki might appreciate it.

Only if you bring me some next Monday.

So today in Mana Shaping Doc had me making Mana Wards, dialing back the amount of Mana I put in until I managed to make one as see through as his or Saffron's. When I'd managed that, before they could set me to doing it over and over until my brain gave out, I asked them, "Is it possible to make a Ward that moves?"

They paused, thinking, before replying, "I believe so, although I personally don't know how. I take it you've been working on doing so?"

I shook my head, "Nope. Saffron seems a little fixated on it though."

They laughed a little at that, but I heard the worry in it. "You're rubbing off on her."

"I mean, given the amount of rubbing we do, it's bound to happen, right?" They looked a little scandalized as they laughed at that, but I figured scandalized beat worried any day.

"Now, if you don't mind, I'd like to see if any of the variations of Mana Blade I've thought up would work. I've seen you in Basic Heroics recharging Cadet Aetos' Mana so she can get more practice in. Would you mind doing the same for me this morning?"

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I shrugged. "Not like I'm fondling her or anything when I do it. Sure."

They nodded, put up a second, more substantial Ward around us, sat down in a chair facing me, and held up their left fist, index finger out. "First I'll try the least Mana intensive version I've come up with." A line of light extended from their finger, and they pulled a simple wooden dowel out of their pocket and passed the Mana Blade through it. It charred a little right where the blade passed through, but no cut, no fire, no joy. They shook their head and said, "So, that's promising. Now for the next version." They shook their hand to dispel the Mana Blade, then created another. This time the Mana Blade crackled a little when they extended it, and when they tried it on a new wooden dowel, it left a line of flickering flame around the dowel. They shook their Mana Blade away, then said, "Well, third time's the charm. If I pass out, could you restore me, please?"

"You got it, Doc."

They nodded, focused on their finger, and this time the Mana Blade crackled and hissed as it extended. It reminded me of something, but I couldn't place it. At any rate, the faint hissing continued as they pulled out yet another wooden dowel and passed the Mana Blade through it. This time the dowel sliced cleanly; the ends only faintly charred. "Excellent!" They shook the Mana Blade away, turned to say something to me, and crumpled forward.

I caught them, dropping a medium strength Stabilize into their left shoulder. My left hand bitched about doing its part in the catching, but at least I hadn't used it to do the Stabilize. Doc's eyes popped open the moment the Stabilize hit.

"Well. That's an experience. It seems that version works, although I shouldn't want to use it except in extreme emergencies. Now, could you perhaps do that refilling thing you do?"

I shrugged, forced my left hand to form a maximum power Stabilize before it fucked off to hit the beach in Wildwood, and held my hand out to Doc. They reached out with their left hand and took hold of my own like we were shaking hands. After a few seconds of frozen shuddering, they let go and their shoulders slumped. "That," they blew out a lungful of air, inhaled again, and said, "I do not know how Cadet Aetos manages to take that in stride. Also, I suspect there may be some danger in it; while I appreciate your effort, please do not apply that to me unless I am unconscious and needed immediately."

"Danger? Danger how?"

"While no detectable amount of raw Mana leaks from your Stabilize, when you overpower it like that some of your raw Mana is delivered to your target."

I frowned, not wanting to give up what amounted to my only non-lethal option for ending a fight fast. "So I ought to stop doing that?"

They shrugged, "one exposure is unlikely to harm someone. Even for someone exposed many times, it's a risk of some form of consequences, and Stabilize can, in the right circumstances, fight off death. Better alive and ill than dead."

"So if I needed to use it to take down a criminal, it wouldn't be, like, a prosecutable offense?"

They chuckled a little, "Hardly. It is, after all, a Healing spell. While it's considered polite to inform your target before casting Healing spells on them, 'being impolite' is rarely a prosecutable offense, and I'm sure any Council Members or other noteworthy individuals would agree with me that 'stunned unconscious' is better than 'dead'."

"Thanks Doc. You got any of those dowels for me to practice my Artificing on?"

They smiled, "While Artificing is far more than basic Enchanting, you are correct that the path to learning Artificing starts with Enchanting. On the other hand, I'd rather you practiced something else today."

Then they kinda blew my mind by pulling a handful of sand out of their pocket. They showed me the Mana Shape for a new spell, one they called Mineral Bonding, and demonstrated how to use it to turn a handful of sand into a single quartzy rock. Not sandstone, either; the individual grains had fully merged into the whole, like they'd melted the whole mass of pocket sand into a single rock.

They pulled their pocket inside out and dumped the rest of their load of pocket sand on my desk. "That should be enough for you to practice for the rest of the morning. Please do your best; if you can master this we'll fix the walls in the stairwell today."

Believe it or not, I actually managed to make the Spell go. By the time Lunch rolled around, I'd even managed to make a relatively flat pane of glass out of the last of the sand. Doc just rolled their eyes at me and laughed, saying nothing but, "Of course you did. I'll see you after lunch."

Saffron and I chatted about the new Spell over Lunch, and after lunch she even gave it a try on the third landing up. While the ones I'd done came out flatter, making the wall look brand new, she managed to make hers look just like the old wall, blending seamlessly with the area around it, even down to the faint wear marks where generations of Cadets had run their hands along the wall for whatever reason.

"Show off."

"Complaints?"

"Not a damn one."

Of course, Doc wound up throwing his hands in the air when I pulled the various bits of former sand out of my pockets and used them to fix the glass I'd inadvertently knocked out of the doors to the stairwell. I figured I'd fucked up somehow. Only one way to find out. "What's up, Doc?"

"That is not the spell to make glass with. Or rather, I should say there are far more Mana efficient ways of making... you know what? Never mind. What's that phrase I heard you use with Carruthers? You do you, boo? Yes. You do you, boo."

I think they were just jealous my glass had less bubbles and distortion than the other panes in the doors.

By the end of the day, between Saffron and I we'd fixed all of the stairwell damage I'd done, and after burning that much Mana, after dinner I wound up too tired to engage in shenanigans or hijinks.

On the other hand, just like everything else, Canoodling is way less tiring when someone has it as a Skill.