“Good, now twist.”
“What I don’t get is,” says Eldritch, doubling over to take a few greedy breaths, “why can’t I use my magic?”
“Because,” explains Vicious, once more, “you rely on your power too much. If your encounter with Dr. Doubt has taught you anything it should be that having a single major point of failure is a mistake.”
Atop an abandoned building, the two continue to trade slow blows. Vicious, in his mask and matte black uniform dances slowly in a circle around Eldritch, pointing out flaws and failures as he continues to prod at her defense. Resting at the edge of the circle is Ginger Snap, her suit taking the appearance of a thin suit of armor.
Signaling for a break, Eldritch lifts up her dagger, now transformed into a broadsword. “Well I can’t just stop using magic. I’d be powerless then.”
“Agreed,” intones Vicious, “but you can learn how to survive in its absence. Vulnerabilities are the sources of our strength, once we purge them.”
“Alright, then how do I get rid of this vulnerability?”
Running the tip of his sword along the concrete roof, Vicious says in a simple voice, “Train.”
At the edge of the circle, Ginger asks, “What are my vulnerabilities then? If you’re so all-knowing, tell me how I’m weak.”
Effortlessly resuming his attack on Eldritch, Vicious replies with, “You lack imagination. Your suit is flexible, capable of transforming into almost anything, and yet you restrict yourself to animals and armor.”
Huffing, Ginger answers, “I do other stuff too. I made a shield when I fought you.”
Bored, Vicious cuts back with a sarcastic, “And it was effective, wasn’t it?”
Then, with a flick of his wrist, he disarms Eldritch. Plucking her sword out of the air, he seizes it by the blade and proffers it back to her hilt first. “Again.”
Grumbling, Eldritch complies and soon the air rings with the impact of metal on metal once more. Losing in a few blows once more, Eldritch drives the point of her sword into the floor and exclaims, “Alright! I get it, purge weakness and all, but really this is getting me nowhere!”
In a flash, Vicious has a dagger pressed against her throat and another playing in his hand, poised to throw at Ginger. His voice, when he speaks, is calm. “Man is the perfect creature. Nature optimized him to survive nearly anything. I could drive this blade into your eye and you would live. I could slice off your arm and you’d survive. I could strand you here atop the roof for weeks and you’d be alive when I returned. Giving up is easy, ingrained in your biology, and it’s the one flaw nature included in our design. Overcome it. Refuse to quit. No matter how deep you believe you can dig, with survival on the line you can find more.”
“She,” corrects Eldritch as she delicately removes the blade from her neck and pushes Vicious’ arm down and away from aiming at Ginger. “She is the perfect creature.”
Vicious stares at her, inscrutable behind his mask. Finally, he says, “We’re done for today. Erika will relay tomorrow’s location precisely fifteen minutes before the meeting. If you’re late by more than half a minute I’ll assume you’ve decided to tell the cops and disappear.”
Eldritch nods and turns to Ginger, motioning with her head that the pair should leave together. As she begins to walk out of the circle, Vicious adds, “Tomorrow is survival training.”
“Any advice?” Ginger asks.
“Don’t give up or you’ll die.”
Taken aback the two girls simply watch as Vicious vanishes into the urban jungle. Transforming, Ginger offers Eldritch a wing and a moment later, the pair abscond to the skies. Neither has much to say, the past couple weeks have given them a great deal to think about and each remains caught up in their respective thoughts. Landing a few blocks away from her home, Eldritch transforms back into Hailey as Ginger’s suit returns to it’s innocuous form as a bright, silver necklace. Stepping across the threshold to her home, a hurried voice greets Hailey.
“You’re late!” exclaims Bella. “I had to come up with a story for your mom, she’s really persistent.”
“Sorry,” murmurs Hailey, “Vicious is determined to teach me swordplay.”
Cocking her head to the side, Bella asks, “I thought you already knew a little?”
“Yeah,” exclaims Hailey as she digs through her refrigerator for leftovers, “a little!”
Crossing her arms as she watches Hailey pile cold potatoes, rice, steak, stir-fry, and chicken onto one massive plate Bella says, “Well they left, so can we have the lesson while you stuff yourself?”
“Sure,” replies Hailey, munching on an apple while the food reheats in the microwave.
In undisguised jealousy, Bella asks, “How do you eat so much and stay so thin? Is it magic?”
“Yesh,” Hailey says between bites. Swallowing, she continues, “But not what you’re thinking. Magic uses a ton of calories. I can hardly eat enough to keep up with it all.”
Sighing wistfully, Bella imagines herself eating. Then a cold dose of reality intrudes on her fantasy as the microwave beeps. Pulling her steaming pile of food out and placing it on the table, Hailey flips out her dagger and tosses it towards the table. Before it lands, it transforms into the shape of Belinda, who looks much more revitalized compared to her beleaguered appearance in the Starry Realm two short weeks ago.
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“Girl,” Belinda intones regally as she smooths down her ruffled dress.
“Belinda,” Bella solemnly replies.
“Did you do your homework?”
Nodding eagerly, Bella begins to pull musty tome after tome from her backpack. “I found all six of them in the university library! That’s the Lesser Key, Dictionnaire Infernal, the Legemeton V, and all three books of Abramelin. Almost all of them first edition replicas.”
“Replicas?”
“They wouldn’t let me just walk out with books that old.”
Munching away, Hailey asks, “Why couldn’t we just use the internet again?”
Throwing her a sharp look, Belinda answers, “Because, child, the whole point of the exercise was to develop Bella’s ability to track down books that may not be readily available online. While these ones are, we may have need of more esoteric texts in the future.”
“Wait, so what was the point of copying down the entire list of demons?” Bella asks in consternation.
Sharing a look, Belinda and Hailey quickly say in unison, “Nothing!”
Crossing her arms, Bella sighs and says, “Fine, don’t tell me. You two are up to something, and I would like to know what sooner or later.”
“Later sounds good,” replies Hailey as she digs in the fridge for more leftovers.
Pouting, Bella turns to Belinda. The woman’s expression, however, offers no purchase. Giving up, Bella pushes her glasses up and refocuses on what she can work on. Turning to the books she opens the one on top and asks, “Alright fine, don’t tell me. I’ll just figure it out instead. So does it have to do with this guy? Belphegor?”
Smiling slightly, Hailey shakes her head and says, “No, I think we can cross him off the list.”
“Okay, what about this one, Beelzebub?”
“Girl,” interrupts Belinda, “instead of frittering away the time with this relentless nagging, we should concentrate on your control exercises.”
Glumly, Bella nods and takes up a cross-legged pose.
“Breathe slowly, and concentrate on my voice.”
“Alright, I’m relaxed. What now?”
“The magic in your blood, it is always present, always waiting. It runs through your veins like a vine, twisting about your body and constricting the flow of your natural energies. These exercises serve to help you circulate those energies, aiding in overcoming the handicap placed upon you by the spell.”
“I know all this already,” Bella replies.
“Shhhh,” admonishes Belinda, “just listen to my voice, and concentrate.”
“Fine, I’m concentrating.”
“Circulate too quickly and Belladonna will quicken, coming to life as the power feeds her parasitic power. Circulate too slowly and the power will do nothing. The goal is balance.”
“And,” adds Hailey, “not going on a murderous rampage.”
“Hush child.”
Grunting, Hailey goes back to eating as Belinda places a cold metal hand on Bella’s forehead. Her miniscule fingers are almost comical against Bella’s pale skin. Despite this, nobody in the room dares to laugh.
“Now, begin by sensing the currents of power. Start at the core of your womanhood and feel it travel upwards to your bre-” Belinda pauses, frowning, before saying, “Are you… laughing?”
Suppressing her giggles, Bella replies in as serious a tone as she can muster, “No.”
“Liar,” says Hailey with a snicker.
Red faced, Bella struggles to control her facial expression for another couple of seconds before resigning in defeat and saying, “Okay! Fine I admit it, it’s funny!”
“There is nothing ‘funny’ about female empowerment,” replies Belinda in a frosty tone.
Cracking open one eye and making a measuring motion with one hand, Bella says, “I mean, maybe just a liiiiittleeee?”
Belinda’s expression does not change.
“Just a liiitttllleeeeeee bitttttyyyy bit?” asks Hailey.
Sniffing, Belinda says in a cold voice, “I see you two cannot take this exercise seriously. If that is truly the case then-”
“Oh no, no I can be serious!” Bella frantically intones. “Feel my inner womanhood, check. Okay so what next?”
Relenting, Belinda huffs and settles back in saying, “Very well, we will try this one more time. Now, try to feel the power growing in your chest.” Shooting a cool glance at Hailey, who struggles and succeeds at reigning in her cheeky smile, Belinda continues. “The force will begin to build as you inhale and exhale, slowly girl.”
Bella’s skin begins to glow a faint green as she sits in her pose, breathing steadily. A faint sheen of sweat breaks out on her skin as she continues to inhale. Struggling to moderate her breath, she shifts in agitation. Seeing her squirm, Belinda lays her other hand on her forehead.
“Calmly, girl!” warns Belinda.
“That doesn’t look so good,” Hailey observes.
Bella’s enchanted cross necklace begins to heat up as Hailey speaks, turning a faint shade of green. Disappointment etched across her face, Belinda moves her hand away from Bella’s forehead and motions Hailey over. Stepping over, Hailey murmurs a quick incantation that settles an icy blanket around Bella and shocks her out of her concentration.
“You were starting to go full crazy,” she says by way of explanation.
Bella looks at the pair dejectedly. “Thanks. This is hard. I really thought I had the hang of it this time.”
“You need to gain a deeper understanding of your innate feminine mystique,” replies Belinda as Hailey rolls her eyes in the background. Heedless of Hailey, Belinda continues, “I think the next round of assigned reading will include a deeper look at feminist literature, tell me girl, are you familiar with The Vagina Monologues?”
“I’m sixteen…,” stammers out Bella, blushing furiously.
“And yet you didn’t know who Emmeline Pankhurst was. Frankly, girl, your education has been woefully inadequate. We shall have to start with the basics then.”
“The basics?”
Nodding, Belinda confirms, “The basics. Wollstonecraft, de Pisan, de Beauvoir, Shelly, and perhaps Le Guin if you’ve the aptitude.”
Bristling, Bella replies without thinking, “The aptitude!? Bring it on Belinda. I’ll chew through those books like Henry VIII going through wives.”
“In that case,” Belinda retorts, “you may add Butler to the list.”
“I’m done eating,” Hailey announces, cutting short the discussion between the pair.
Bella stands and retrieves her backpack, pulling out textbooks as she goes. Slamming them down on the table, she says, “Alright! Mr. Whittaker was nice enough to let me check out copies of the answer guides for our textbooks, so once we review math we can take a look at the study guides for Mr. Memely.”
Sighing audibly, Hailey slides her chair closer to Bella’s and begins the arduous work of keeping up in class. A few futile minutes later, she exclaims, “This is impossible! I give up.” Turning to Bella she asks, “That must have been almost everything for today, right?”
Tapping her pencil nervously against her notebook, Bella shifts uncomfortably before saying, “Well… that was section one… of six.” Seeing Hailey’s dismayed expression she hurriedly adds, “But you’re doing really...” Bella looks down at Hailey’s answer sheet. “Okay,” she adds lamely.
“Auuughhh!” wails Hailey, throwing her head theatrically down on the table.
Patting her on the head, Belinda gently says, “Child, you need to study. The ultimate goal of the patriarchy is to keep women uneducated, unempowered, and subservient. Your studies are the foundation of fighting back against hegemonic and toxic masculinity.”
Huffing, Hailey sits up and asks Bella, “Did you understand a word of that?”
Bella shakes her head and shrugs. “It’s all Greek to me.”
“That reminds me,” Belinda interjects, “Sappho. Add her to your list.”
The curtain closes, dear reader, on what is a routine day for our heroines lately. But although they were forewarned, they are still woefully underprepared for next week as Vicious’ teaching continues in… “Survival Training!”