As soon as dad's words left his mouth chaos erupted. Professor Etia didn't hesitate for even a second and began casting, with me only a beat behind her. While I started with singing we both also launched into dance. It was immediately obvious how far beyond me in that skill she was.

To their credit the capture team didn't miss a trick either and began their spread. A few of them even prepped their darts to launch at us as soon as they thought us ready. Meanwhile their other wizards began a series of small spells, which they launched like machine-gun fire. It seemed they were beginning much as they had before.

For my part as soon as I got my shields up to a manageable level I started spinning out duplicates of myself and Professor Etia. I thought that perhaps someone like Charles would be able to tell the difference, but their wizards should not be able to in a short time. Each of the illusions mimicked our moves nearly perfectly, and within seconds one side was filled with girls spinning in unison.

It was as I was getting those set up that we were hit with the sound cancellation magic. Since I knew it was coming, and we'd practiced dance-casting pretty thoroughly in the past few days this was no big deal.

Several of the darts launched at a mix of us and my illusions. Some passed through fake dancers, some hit my shields and came to a stop before starting to fall. They only started to fall though, and I understood why Professor Etia had been asking about my shield. Those that missed were being deflected into the air harmlessly, and turning in wide circles.

My kinetic blocking shield basically just dispersed the energy, that was how most shields tended to work. This meant that the little projectiles either bounced away lightly, deflected, or just sort of stopped. All of these were fine in that they wouldn't actually break any of the little darts until they hit the ground.

My professor was taking them, all of them that were launched started to circle. The faster ones began to go in wide arcs around the room and towards the capture team. Those that had hit my shield simply floated over to her where they circled around her wrists and waist, getting those to split everywhere was a bit of a pain, but I managed it. There was little power involved there, but there didn't honestly need to be that much, they were small and light.

One of the mages holding the silence spell had it eyes go wide as one of their projectiles came back and hit him. Two others followed and the last one maintaining it faltered as he had to dodge.

As it dropped my teacher began humming loudly, her fingers snapping to the time. I recognized it as one of the practice songs, a simple tune that worked well on drums and flute. With hardly a thought I fell into time with her. That was the moment the fight changed.

One bard was not much of a threat. Two not working together was not too much more. Now though, now each of us was feeding off the resonance of the other. They were still having trouble tracking the real us from my illusions and had lost three of their number.

Professor Etia went on the attack, firing back dart after dart in waves of twos and threes. They didn't stop if they missed though, those simply started to turn, arcing around us in a circle. I noted that she seemed to be circling them in predominately clockwise rotations and added a bit of wind to help speed them along.

Our fight continued much like that. I eventually managed to get a storm up to send light bolts at anyone who looked like they were making shields while Professor Etia kept the team pinned down with their own weapons. At that point it was pretty much over and we all knew it. As our last opponent ducked out after getting a light shock from me there was silence.

The gathered soldiers didn't seem to know exactly what to think there, and to be honest, neither did I. I thought we'd do good, and perhaps even take down most of them, but I did not expect us to actually down their entire team.

Professor Etia smiled at me. "I did not get my job just because of my good looks."

"What in the world was that spell you were using?" I asked, it wasn't like anything I'd seen before.

"Oh, it's used in later forms of dance to do things like make ribbons and little torches or stuff fly around. Some bards will use it to make swords dance back in Atali, but it's really difficult to do. Most of them end up spending so much time mastering that one trick that they never learn anything else. They make great gladiators and all, but lousy actual combatants."

"Will you show it to me later?"

"Of course Alana dear."

I doubted that I'd ever use it for swords, but it was a neat trick, and for something like darts really useful. That and the way she'd quickly established a way for us to work together had been huge in winning this.

"My my, that was something." The leader of the capture team said as he massaged a spot on his arm where he'd been hit.

"Yeah, it certainly was you two did a magnificent job." John had wandered over, ostensibly to get a better view of my teacher's outfit. This was at least my guess, since he wasn't looking at me at all.

Dad looked... stunned. He came over to join us rather slowly, watching me as he did so.

"Alana."

"Mmm."

"Did they... teach you that at school."

"Yes? Mostly at least, I've learned a bit since Professor Etia started tutoring me too."

"And the dancing, they taught that at the academy." He seemed genuinely confused.

"Yeah, it was fairly popular with girls."

"I can imagine it was popular with boys too."

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"Actually I didn't end up with any male students. A bit of a shame, some of the forms for men are quite nice." Professor Etia added in, looking a bit disappointed.

"That isn't exactly what I meant." Dad seemed a bit flustered by her comment.

"I know what you meant, but regardless we had all females for the year I was there. I suppose if it had continued we might have gotten one or two boys who were curious before long though."

I didn't think my dad really knew what to make of Professor Etia. She both understood their respective positions and didn't seem to really give a damn. I thought he wasn't really into being treated all high and mighty, even if he often was, but for her to just show that sort of attitude must have been jarring. Most of the men here wouldn't have given him even a bit of sass, but she seemed to think that he was unlikely to hurt her. If I was to place money on it though she was probably right. My dad was a dangerous man, to be sure, but he didn't seem prone to harm people just for being mouthy.

"Anyway, Alana, kindly don't show your mother that kind of dancing immediately when she gets here. Or let her know that you've done it in public. She'll likely have some opinions on it. If she's eased into the idea I think she'll take it better."

"Fine, I'll give her some time to adjust. Anything else?"

"Yes, while I'm thinking about it, perhaps it's best not to mention that the tavern you stayed at serves so many brothels, to avoid misunderstandings. Also, if you have one of those outfits like your teacher, you should make sure she doesn't see it."

"I don't."

"Oh you should get one though, they're quite comfortable and they look excellent!" My tutor had lots of ideas, and I knew that eventually I probably would end up in one.

"I don't right now to avoid misunderstandings. I do have a tailor picked out for the future though..."

"Alana, please. I love her, but your mother is from a very small village and will not be able to handle so many new and... different things too quickly. I think she still sees you as you were when you were kidnapped." Dad was looking increasingly worried, I suspected for good reason.

"You still see me as I was when you left dad. Or at least you did." I knew that that comment would sting a bit, but it was true. He had consistently treated me like I was about five, and it was getting old.

Dad didn't seem to have anything to say to that, so John put his arm around his shoulders. The other soldiers had moved off a bit by now, seeming to know that this was a more private conversation. It didn't do well to have your boss think you were listening in on him.

"Hey dad, don't stress too much. It's not too bad, I'm sure it'll be fine." John was wildly optimistic about how mom was likely to behave, but then he'd also spent a ton of time with her after I'd been separated too.

After my big brother led my dad off Professor Etia turned to me. "You know, I don't really understand you humans all that well."

That was a rich statement. "What exactly are you referring to professor? There's a lot going on here."

"Well, if someone from another land had ended up teaching me some new form of magic when I was your age my parents would have been absolutely thrilled. You also seem very... pent up, it's kind of strange to me."

"Oh, I think it's because we get pregnant so much easier. A child too young can cause a lot of issues in the family."

"Perhaps, but aren't many children good? Even if you didn't want one at a time, there is magic for preventing that."

"Yes and no. A child when the family isn't ready for it can be very difficult. Also there is certainly magic to stop it, but most humans don't have access to magic do they? Because of that many who don't will have strong opinions about those who do things that might lead to what they think will damage the family and society."

"That makes sense I suppose." She seemed to think on that for a bit before asking another question. "You Atali is going quite well, do you think you'll ever visit our lands?"

"Hmm, probably not, but it might be interesting. Is there anything I should keep an eye out for if I do?"

"There are a number of things, but if you do I think you should visit my home. My family would get a real kick out of your illusions and weather magic." She was smiling lightly, looking kind of far off.

"Do elves not do those?"

"We do, but I'll admit that you seem to be using the illusions to a much higher level than most. Your lightning is also quite good, even by our standards."

"What's it like there?" I asked, hoping she might expand on what general things I knew.

"Oh, it's lovely. The forests are warm and comfortable year round. We don't get snow there except high in the mountains. The cities are also lovely, molded by priests as many of them are from the trees themselves..." She went on for quite awhile about the plants and the architecture. Which sounded like it was far more intricate than we had in most places.

I learned that many elves revel in the idea of art. They take a long long time to practice and perfect whatever art they resonate most with until they are masters of it. Etia of course loved dance and had mastered as many different forms as she could, even weaving the best magical tricks she could find into her art. While she had her choice others would focus on things like sculpture, or painting, or writing beautifully. Still others would seek perfection in form of combat, training their bodies and minds into honed blades to fight the many magical beasts that roamed the elven lands. It did sound like a very interesting place.