September 8, 493 U.C.
Bursting from the door the next morning, I zipped up the road, grinning at Daniele. A light breeze rolled through the air. The smell of some flowering trees wafted by. My feet thundered down the concrete.
“Slow down!” Daniele said, dashing after me.
I giggled and slowed. We began our walk down the streets, and I enjoyed all of it. I’d managed to avoid the fae. Dad hadn’t demanded more crime, and the politicians were demanding answers from the fae who’d gone quiet.
With a smile on my face, I waved at a few of the locals. Then I headed into the building and walked down the hall. “You’re quiet.”
“Just thinking,” Daniele said.
I nodded and looked at the various students who were milling around. Then I locked onto one of them and waved, a grin breaking across my face.
Ryan's cheeks were lit with red; her skirt swished as she walked toward me. “Do I look alright?”
I giggled and nodded. "Yes." Then I grabbed her arm, pulling her to the classroom.
Ryan giggled. “You're in a good mood.”
“I needed a school break, and I avoided...” Looking in the room, I saw the two fae sitting there; Spen'ze smiled and pointed at a chair.
I batted my eyes at him. “Want to invite me to the fall dance?”
“Yes,” Spen'ze replied without a bit of hesitance.
That’s when my brain short-circuited. Embarrassment flooded my face. Time betrayed me, prolonging my agony.
Spen’ze burst into laughter. “You should see your face right now,” he said between the peals of laughter. “You deserved that, Casey.” He let out a long breath.
I darted forward with my face still ablaze. “Come on, Ryan. Let’s get to class.”
“He got you good,” Ryan said with a chuckle.
“Yes, he did,” I huffed. “I’ll get my revenge.”
The speakers on the wall blared to life. “Ryan Fitzgerald to the office please.”
Ryan looked down nervously; she swallowed back her emotion.
I pulled her forward. “Come on. It’ll be fine.”
“It will,” Daniele added. “Let me know if I can help.” She giggled. “I got a picture of Casey. Want to see it?”
“Delete that,” I said instantly as she held up a picture with my bright red face.
Daniele shook her head. “No way. I’m printing it out.”
“Me too,” Ryan said.
“Traitors!”
“It was so funny though,” Daniele said and giggled.
“What was?” Daron asked.
“Don’t share it!” I barked and went to swat her phone away.
Daniele darted away. “Look! Spen’ze got his revenge!”
“Priceless!” Daron started laughing. “That’s perfect.” He looked over and smiled. “Looking good, Ryan.” Then he headed down the halls.
“What did that mean?” Ryan asked nervously.
“I assume it was supportive. Otherwise, I’ll wallop him and spend the rest of my day in jail.” That didn’t sound so bad. It could get me some vacation time.
“It was,” Daron said as he kept walking.
Ryan nervously made her way to the office. Then she approached the large desk. “Yes?”
The woman behind the desk smiled. “Please inform us if you have issues with students. If you wish to alter pronouns, inform us. If you get treatment or alter legal documents, please inform us. It is important. We’d also encourage you to visit the guidance counselor as needed.”
“Okay. Thanks,” Ryan said. “I’m not sure about any of that right now. I’m experimenting.”
“That’s fine. Let us know if it changes. Have any pronoun requests for the moment?”
“She and her. I’m trying them. And thanks.”
“You’re welcome, Miss Fitzgerald. Have a nice day.”
The three of us walked out and headed for class. I tried to form a mental block as some people laughed at me. Rotten Spen’ze. I will get him for this. Sadly, all of my ideas were horrible ideas that would have gotten me into so much trouble.
“Now, get her to be Sunshine,” Ryan said. “You can be Rose. I’ll be Sabrina!”
Daniele grinned. “I like it!”
I ignored them and walked into the room. Then I scowled at the two who’d positioned themselves to spite me. “Want to swap seats, Sun-young?”
“Sorry. I can’t. They’ll get mad.” Sun-young shrugged apologetically.
I groaned and took a seat next to Zriulth, smiling innocently at him. “Hi, Zriulth. How are you?”
“I’m fine.” Zriulth sniffed the air and frowned.
That set me on edge. I rapidly did the same. Then I felt the earth shift. “Shit!”
Zriulth bolted for the door as the sirens roared. The metal outside came slamming down.
The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
“What?” Daniele asked.
“Something that burrows. Under your desk!” I barked and jumped under mine. The ground shook, knocking some stuff loose. Pencils rolled onto the floor.
Pulling out a book, I read while I waited. Our instructor began trying to calm people as tremors ran through the room. I read my hidden library book, hiding it in a notebook.
After eight minutes, the sirens stopped and class began. I turned my attention up front and practiced a little magic before the enforcement got back.
The two walked into the room a few minutes later. I sniffed the air and pinched my nose.
“Don’t even say it,” Zriulth muttered as he took a seat. He hissed out a spell. It did not help. They smelled horrible. It was strangely satisfying.
The feeling slowly faded as I looked at them. In truth, we shared so many similarities, and I could relate to so much of this. As that feeling built, I pulled out some saltwater lotion. Then I tossed it to him.
Zriulth grabbed it, paused, and then sniffed it. Satisfied, he used some of it to try to mask the smell of some overgrown grub. Then he tossed it over to Spen’ze who did the same.
I caught it and stashed it a few moments later. Spen'ze turned toward me.
“Thank you both. Feel free to use the showers,” the teacher said before resuming her lesson.
To my joy, the lesson and morning passed without other incidents. I listened in class, answered a few questions, and enjoyed my morning.
~~~
As the lunch bell rang, I headed to the cafeteria and took a seat on the hard plastic chair. I pulled out the sack lunch and began eating my salad. Sadly, the swarm hit before my friends. “Hi, Daron.”
“Hello.”
“You know that I’m a freshman, right?” I asked him.
Daron laughed. “You’re on our watchlist.”
“Of course I am.” I sighed loudly.
“You know that we’d reward you for any information?” Daron asked, staring me down.
I nodded. “I wish that I had some. And here are the rest. I’m innocent, Officers.” I held up my hands as the fae took seats.
“Sure thing,” Zriulth replied as he sat down and sniffed my lunch.
Daron leaned in. “As royalty, I can look up test results. That was fascinating. I learned a lot.”
I stuck my tongue out at him. “I don’t know what you are talking about.”
Ryan took a seat next to me. “Are they really monitoring you?”
“Yep. They believe that I’m Viper or Platinum. That would be cool. I could totally speed around here! Zoooom! I don’t know how she can think that fast. How would you think that fast?” I asked.
“Nice try,” Zriulth said with a smirk. Then he glanced over as a girl sat next to him.
“She isn’t either of them. She’s a ditz. You should stop hanging out with the freshmen.” The senior girl glared at me.
I flipped her off. “Talk to them, not me.”
The senior returned it. “You could wait for them to sit.”
“That didn’t work, but I’ll get out of your hair.” I bounced up, grabbed my things, and headed to a different table with a smile. Taking a seat, I overheard the rest of the conversation.
“Stop bullying them,” Spen'ze said as he stood. “I'll have you blacklisted from every guardian event.”
The room went quiet. My cheeks lit up. He's being nice to me. Swallowing that down, I glanced over as he took a seat next to me. Then I asked a question I'd wondered about for a while. “Why don’t you wear one of those human suits, Spen’ze? Then you could blend.”
Spen’ze frowned. “We don’t have human suits.”
“Liar,” I replied. “It’s all over the internet. Everyone knows.”
“No, we can’t do that.”
“Liar. I know you can.” I smirked at him. “It was all over the news.”
“Is that true?” Zriulth asked Daron.
“Yes. It was on the news. Why don’t you? We’ll let you.”
Zriulth sighed. “That requires a custom enchantment that is difficult to make. It’s expensive.”
“That makes sense,” Daron replied and turned back to his food.
I ate my salad and contemplated it. Admittedly, Ela had helped in the name of making me a magic girl disguise. Why did she help with that? I mused on it and failed to get an answer. Then I thought back to our conversations and giggled.
“What?” Spen’ze asked.
I chuckled. “I’ll ask Eluna for you.”
Zriulth laughed. “Sure. Let me know how it goes.”
“She’ll agree!” Ela proclaimed, landing next to my food. “It’s a good idea, Casey.”
Quest: Surrender to Eluna! Reward: 20,000 Reputation.
“Nice try,” I thought back with a chuckle.
Ela huffed and groaned. “Please, Casey? I’ll figure it all out! If you just let me ask them, I can figure it out and tell you!”
“Nope.”
Ela went quiet while Spen’ze chuckled at my joke.
“You know how to talk to Eluna?” Sun-young asked with a look of bewilderment.
“Of course not,” I said. “I was bluffing. They have learned to call my bluffs, which is bad news for me.”
“I’ll say. You are terrible with cards,” Ryan said and broke into giggles.
“Traitor!” I dug into my salad in fury.
“Did you get them to join us in guardian’s club?” Ryung-woo asked.
“Nope.” I turned to the fae. “Want in? We can play cards? I will lose.”
“That’s almost worth it,” Spen’ze said with a chuckle.
“I can show you how to play,” Lucy said, taking a seat nearby.
I turned and saw the same from several. God, people get crazy when it comes to magic. That thought stuck with me; the group I was with suffered from it too. My brain fixated on it while I ate.
“Calm down,” Spen’ze said with a sigh after the din grew to a roar.
I continued musing while eating rapidly. Then I stood and headed to the library. Sitting down, I continued contemplating it.
That thought plagued me for most of the day. It still haunts me. How do you know who you can trust? We’d had multiple rebels; yet, management didn't seem to care at all about their crimes. Worse still, things were about to get worse.
Current Level 11 Current XP 15.24% Current Max Mana 9432.23 Regen per minute 14.29 Reputation 12000
Tier Skill Cost Tier 11 User Time Dilation (Haste)
- User experiences 256 seconds for 1 earth second.
- Force transference limited to 25%. 1 mana per earth second. Tier 7 Pocket Dimension
- 128 cubic meters of pocket space.
- Rapid stash and rapid draw.
- You may tether objects to your pocket space.
- Your pocket space cleans, preserves, and organizes items inside based on your will. 32 mana Tier 7 Time Stop
- Caster leaves spacetime. They may remove and place things back in spacetime.
- You may control the flow of time in the demiplane.
- You may summon in willing living creatures.
- This automatically triggers if you take significant damage.
- Recast to gain vision. 200 mana to cast.
Variable cost to move items in and out. Tier 7 Teleport.
- Teleports the caster or a willing creature.
- You may cast this on a willing or unwilling creature if they are within fifty meters.
- You may teleport inside an object, causing the matter to push outward.
200 mana for the caster.
400 mana for a willing creature.
1000 mana for an unwilling creature with no resistance.
- Short range casts cost less mana.
Tier 3 Attire Swap
- Locked to a single outfit. Current outfit set to Magical Girl Uniform.
- Attire cleaned on swap.
- Attire repaired on swap. 20 mana. Tier 3 Enhanced Body
- Caster’s body is enhanced by a factor of eight. 2 mana per caster second. Tier 2 Enchanting.
- Enchantments last twice as long. Variable cost. Tier 2 Potions.
- Potions last twice as long. Variable cost. Tier 2 Familiar Manifestation. 20 mana to cast Tier 2 Free casting
- Cast any spell you can replicate.
- Slotted Spell. Use half the normal cost of the spell to store a single spell for future use. Cast the spell for the remaining cost. Variable cost. Penalty of 8x mana.