September 22, 493 U.C.
Like students everywhere, we surged out of the door as the lunch bell rang, loudly washing down the halls. The stream of students flooded into the cafeteria. I followed it, joining Daniele in line. I didn’t feel like being alone.
Standing there, I listened to idle chatter. Then I turned. “Daniele, are you doing alright?” I whispered.
Daniele blushed. “They’re talking about me,” she whispered.
“Yeah. Daron asked you to the dance.”
“They think I’ll be a guardian.” Daniele swallowed, biting her lip.
I looked out at the group and didn’t know how to stop it. My reputation was shifting. Most weren’t certain before, but now they didn’t believe I had it at all.
“Daniele!” some senior called and gestured. “Want to come up here?”
“No thanks,” Daniele said and looked down. “What do I do, Casey?”
“No idea. People believe what they want.” I shrugged and then got swarmed by people.
“Want to go to the mall, Daniele?” some junior girl, Amber, asked with a grin. “We’re going after school.”
Daniele froze for a moment. “Umm. I need to do my homework.”
“You can do that afterward.” Amber patted her shoulder.
Daniele turned to me. I shrugged back. Seeing the rising panic, I took over.
“What’s up with you, Amber?” I asked.
“Nothing. We just wanted to hang. Casey can come too.”
“I’m grounded. You can go if you want Daniele.” I turned back. “You do know that she doesn’t have magic, right?”
“Right.” Amber winked. “Have a negative card to prove that?”
“Of course,” I said while Daniele's face lit up.
“She does not,” Amber said in surprise.
I froze time and began doctoring up a card. It was a lot of work. Remind me to get Ama to do this. She needs one. I made a note for Daniele and dumped it on her bed. That would help her a ton.
I shoved the card in her bag and resumed time. Then I pulled it out and handed it to Amber.
Amber frowned as she looked at the plastic. “This is old! Give me a new one, and I’ll believe it.”
Maria grabbed her arm. “That won’t work. She’ll just get it from the guardians.”
“Oh right. Sorry, we figured it out. Don’t worry, we won’t tell.” Amber grinned.
I turned towards Daniele and shrugged while grabbing my card back. “I don’t have answers for delusions.”
Daniele looked at the ground. Damn it! She was a bad liar. That fact was now biting us both very heavily. I helped nudge her forward to the lunch line.
“What do I do?” Daniele whispered.
“Just be you. You’re Daniele. The girl who wants to help and heal. The rest is on them,” I whispered, bumping her arm sympathetically. This was a development.
Following her, we headed to a table and took a seat. To my utter shock, Lucy sat nearby. She smiled at us both. What?
“Sorry about this morning, Daniele. I wasn’t thinking,” Lucy said, batting her eyes.
Oh, poor Daniele. I gave her a nudge. Daniele seemed to be in a daze at the development. She had inherited everything. I wanted to chuck a rock at Daron. That’s when I had a bad idea.
“Did you know that Daron is going to be a guardian?” I asked and pulled out a sandwich.
The table went quiet for a moment. Lucy spoke up. “Of course. He’s a noble, and Viper is out there giving magic to people!”
I nearly fell out of my chair. God, please tell me that rumor isn’t rising. “She’s doing it?” I asked.
“Yes. Someone turned themselves into command. Viper is the one doing it. She knows how to give magic.”
That brought silence to the table. I grabbed my phone and saw the release that had hit ten minutes ago. Oh shit! My phone buzzed.
Raptor: I need you to find this guy.
Me: Impossible and you know that.
Raptor: Fuck!
I stashed my phone. Chatter erupted while people debated ways to get magic. That took over all the other conversations. I stared at my food and started eating.
God, that’s bad. How many places are burned? That thought made me want to groan. We kept things separate. They’d chase that person down. However, this was going to be a blow. I did not want to be around Dad after school. What a garbage week.
I wallowed in that thought while the rain slammed onto the building, sending the echoes rolling through the place. At least it matches my mood. It cheered me up a little.
“What if Daniele is Platinum?” someone shouted.
“She’s not.” Lucy rolled her eyes. “Everyone knows those two have done things during school.”
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“Oh. Well, she has magic.”
Lucy huffed. “I’m sorry about them, Daniele. Just ignore them.”
“Doing alright?” I asked, bumping Daniele softly.
“No,” Daniele whispered. “What do I do?”
I grabbed my phone and did something that I didn’t want to do. I gave her good advice for a guardian and bad advice for our friendship.
Me: Go to the office. Tell them you are sick. Talk to Ama! She can help!
Daniele looked at it. Calm seemed to hit as she realized.
Daniele: Thanks! I forgot about that!
Then she stashed her phone and started eating. I smiled and did the same, listening to the sound of the students and the rain. I watched it trickle off of the window while I ate.
Daron took a seat next to Daniele. He frowned. “Casey? You really don’t know?”
I swallowed down the sandwich in my mouth. “Sorry. I wish that I did.”
“Damn it. You were our best lead.”
“Your only lead,” another student muttered.
“Shut up. We need to find Viper,” Daron said with a huff.
“She’s probably getting free pizza and playing with kids,” Lucy said and burst into laughter.
“I can see it now,” some large senior guy said with a chuckle. “She’ll demand a large pepperoni and wings. Then she’ll tip them and make them a fortune in advertising.” He laughed loudly. Everyone did too.
With my face on the brink of ignition, I tried to focus on the rain. Daniele gave me a sympathetic bump. I happily accepted the sentiment while listening to the rain. The sound was soothing, and I was tired. I fought to keep my eyes open while I ate. The taste of mustard and mana-infused dinosaur meat mingled to create a nice chicken sandwich taste.
Finishing that, I just listened to the rain, too tired to do anything else. Then I headed to class and tried not to fall asleep, occasionally drifting off.
Glass passed like the rain, it washed by at a steady pace while I half-slept through it. I was jolted from my sleep by several inconsiderate teachers who found it inappropriate even if we were on the brink of war.
When it finally ended, I looked out into the rain and headed for the door. Then I sprinted down the streets, spewing water behind me as I went.
Walking inside, I let out a long breath and went to dry off, running into Dad.
“I need your help moving locations. We found out which were compromised.”
I kept my groan in check and nodded. “Which and where to?” I asked.
“Follow me.”
I did just that. Then I spent an eternity moving supplies out of some buildings. In the name of preserving my sanity, I’m not going to write them all down. I’m not going to write all the details either. Casey’s Moving Company was my worst company yet. I hated it.
After a small eternity of moving, I embraced my angst and finally got the text from Ryan. Appearing near a river, I netted a fish and teleported.
With a similar feline grace, Ryan vaulted into the air as I appeared. Then she blushed.
I giggled and looked around the room. Daniele would have been at home with all the guardian posters. However, Ryan had a few bands mixed in. Her bed was tidy. Her bookshelves had various things scattered on them. She had rocks, plushies, some robotic toys, and even some books.
Ryan walked over and closed her door. “That’s so weird!”
“I know.” I giggled.
“Can I see what you look like?” Ryan asked.
I nodded and pulled off the amulet. Then I clamped my hand over her mouth to stop the eruption. “Shhh!” I hissed.
After several long moments, I let her go.
“Oh-my-god! You’re Platinum! But like a way more fae version!” Ryan whisper-shouted at me.
“Shhhh!”
“Are you fae?” Ryan asked. “You look like Eluna.”
“Who knows?” I replied with an eye-roll. “You’ve heard the stories. They are turning us into them. It clearly happened to me. I need to warn you that you’ll end up at least part-fae. The attempts to reduce that have largely failed. We’re messing with it, but I don’t have a solution to it.”
Ryan continued to stare at me. She shook her head and blinked out of her shock. “But Platinum?”
“I have another amulet.”
“They said those are expensive. How’d you get them?” Ryan asked, sitting on her bed.
“Made them. My mom was a guardian. That’s how I got around it. And don’t tell anyone that, Ryan.”
Ryan smiled at me. “Thanks, Casey. Sorry about your mom.”
“Thanks. Now, I don’t have a ton of time. It’ll die soon.” I held up the wriggling fish. “You should change into your pajamas because this is going to knock you out. It hurts. Sorry about that.”
“I’ll go change.” Ryan grabbed some shorts and a tank top. Then she walked out of the room.
I took a moment to look at her desk, picking up a picture. It was her with her little brother, mom, and dad. They were all smiling and happy while standing in front of some amusement park. That was when I decided to get a picture with Dad for my room. Then I added my grandparents’ house and my dad’s room to the list. I deserved to have a few family photos around.
Ryan walked back into the room. She gave a nervous smile.
I hugged her. “You look cute. I like the light blue shorts. Your parents?”
“They’ve been great. Mom is all excited.” Ryan sat on the bed.
I held out a knife and gestured. She took the knife and cut it near its gills while I caught everything in a biobag. It went still. I stashed it and the knife.
“Get under the blanket,” I ordered.
“Okay? But I didn’t feel anything.”
“You will.” I used haste and invoked sleep on her.
Ryan didn’t get a chance to scream. Her eyes shut as the magic pulled her under. Then I began enchanting her. The nagging voice in my head asked what I was going to do when the guardians found out. I didn’t have an answer. Worse still, that was already guaranteed because of Daniele.
We’re going to have to move. That thought put me into a funk. I waved at my friend. “Goodnight, Ryan,” I whispered and put a bag of jerky on her desk. “I hope you have good dreams.” I took a step back and returned home to get ready for bed.
Current Level 11 Current XP 31.88% Current Max Mana 10795.63 Regen per minute 16.36 Reputation 12600
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.