I awoke to something shifting in my outstretched arms while I lay on my side. I reached around and felt it. It was warm, soft, and felt oddly familiar. Enticed by its warmth, I pressed myself against it and became more comfortable. It leaped out of my grasp and a second later, something hit my face hard and fast.

"Ah-fuck!" I opened my eyes and sat up to Penelope standing before me. In my arms was a pillow. "What the hell?" I said, still groggy.

"I've been trying to wake you up and you wouldn't budge."

"So, you decided to slap me?"

"It worked, didn't it?"

"Yeah, whatever..."

I peered at the pillow still in my arms and squeezed it. It felt nothing like what I felt before and I didn't want to say what it felt like for risk of embarrassment.

"Okay, let's get going. The faster you learn magic, the faster we can get back to doing commissions and the faster we build our reputation."

I stood and stretched. "Yeah, and the bigger our reputation, the better the commissions we can take. That'll be fun."

Quickly, I tossed the pillow into Penelope's face and dashed out of the room and down the stairs. Once I made it down, I turned down the hall and almost ran into someone.

There was a noticeably muscular bald man in all black. He was standing near an open doorway with a pool of red leaking from it. His hands were covered in the same color.

"No witnesses," he said as his voice reverberated through the hall.

I gestured to Penelope as quickly as possible to get her weapon as the man and I stared each other down.

"Come here!" The man rushed at me with his arms spread wide.

I reacted by planting my fist on his forehead and popping my knuckles. Instead of his head, I hit something invisible as if it was a barrier. He reached for me and I hopped backward and then tried to punch him in his face. He retaliated by chopping at my arm with his, which flashed green as they made contact.

Pain raced up to my shoulder and I buckled to the floor. He raised his hand again and mid-swing as he brought it down, an axe blade appeared between us.

Instead of stopping or cutting himself, he deftly pinched the blade between his fingertips and swung it in the opposite direction with Penelope still holding onto it. She crashed into the ceiling and then the floor faster than I could blink.

"Bind." The man cast a spell and black ropes appeared around Penelope, holding her to the ground where she struggled in vain.

I stood and tried to strike the man in his blind spot but instead, I hit the same barrier as before. He turned back toward me with a backhand and I blocked it with my arms. The force of the strike sent me backward to the ground and I didn't have the time to stand before he was crouching over me delivering a rain of blows.

I put my arms together and blocked to the best of my abilities but I knew it wouldn't last. I had to do something or else I wouldn't last long enough to even say goodbye to anyone.

Before I knew it, I closed my eyes and focused. I didn't know what I was focusing on, but in the darkness, I saw a spark of light that quickly grew into a flame in the shape of a ball. I held onto that image with all my might.

Eventually, I heard a bunch of things snap at once and the volley of punches stopped abruptly. I opened my eyes to see Penelope slamming her axe repeatedly into the barrier surrounding the man. Her eyes were bright red and her teeth were glowing. Despite her efforts, the man was only lightly jostled around.

My thoughts returned to the ball of fire I saw in my mind and before I knew it, I was holding my palms forward. "Fireball." A rush of flames escaped from between my hands and blasted the man into the wall.

The axe kept swinging into the new cloud of dust until the man reached out and caught it in his hand. He lifted the person holding the axe off the ground and stared at her for a second while she flailed her feet at him. Instead of standing, I put my hands together and tried to shoot another ball of fire. A new flame sparked to life and shot from my hands.

"Good." The man caught the fireball and it fizzled in his hand. He looked back at Penelope. "Calm."

Her eyes faded from red and her teeth stopped glowing but she kept trying wildly to kick him. He let go of the axe and it landed with a bang while its wielder struggled to lift it again.

"Alright, that's enough." He started walking down the hall towards the red puddle. "I didn't kill anyone. This is just wax that melts at room temperature." He waved his finger and the red mass congealed into an orb before floating into the room it was leaking from. He then snapped his fingers and Zeta's cloak appeared over him. "This is why they call me 'Pan'."

After a moment of thought, I said, "Pansexual?"

"Not exactly, but sure. Every day at midnight my body changes and it affects my magic. It's an old curse I can never seem to get rid of. That's how those wolves got the drop on me when we met. How did you like casting your first spell?"

"Did you have to beat the shit out of us?" I rubbed my arms with my hands.

"I can't... Lift it," said the small woman.

"No, just you. So, how did it feel?" said Zeta.

"My arms still hurt," I said.

"Stop being a baby, I only punched you a few times."

"Why can't I lift my axe!" Penelope grew impatient.

With a smile, Zeta said, "I cast a spell to quell your rage. It looks like your strength is tied to that in some way. Could it be that that little Penelope is secretly a rage monster?"

"How do we know you're telling the truth, anyway?" said Penelope, now visually frustrated.

"First." He raised his hand and a white light filled the room. All the pain in my arms disappeared and the damage done to the hallway reversed all at once. "If everything I've said isn't proof enough, do you remember what I looked like yesterday?"

Penelope stopped trying to lift her axe. "Yeah, black hair and brown eyes."

"I figured you'd remember that much since you kept checking me out when you thought I wasn't looking. Anything else? Well, aside from my figure."

"No," said Penelope with a look of confusion.

"How about you, Oscar?"

I searched my memory and came up blank. "You were female... That's all I remember."

"Exactly. Unless you commit my appearance to memory, you won't remember how I look. But, stay around me enough and in time, you'll recognize me no matter how I look."

Having enough of the floor, I stood. "In that case, what are your pronouns?"

Zeta stifled a laugh and said, "People actually ask that nowadays? Just call me whatever. You know what, just call me by how I look. It'll be more fun that way." He went into one of the rooms and sat at a table with some open books on it. "So, again, how did it feel to cast a spell?"

"Uh, desperate? I guess that's the best way to put it. I still want to know why you had to beat me up."

"Two reasons. One was to show you how one can combine physical prowess with magical aptitude and the other was to put you into that desperate mindset to force you to cast a spell."

"So, I suddenly know magic? I don't get how that works."

"The 'elemental resonance' spell I cast on you yesterday was meant to draw out your natural magical affinities and bring them to the surface. Most people feel something profound change within themselves, but you felt nothing different, did you?"

"No, not really. Is that a good thing?"

He glanced past me and said, "Stay here for a second, I'll be back." He stood and quickly made his way out of the room.

When I looked, there was nothing there. Instead of worrying too much about it, I took a seat and scanned over the opened books. Some were in different languages but the ones I could read all had to do with star magic and celestials. One, in particular, stole my attention. It was about celestial dragons, creatures that once roamed the heavens and only perched atop the highest mountains. It seemed to conclude that they left earth at some point to find a new world to inhabit.

Zeta came back after a while and guided me back to the training room down below. From there, he led me to a room guarded by a stone door that I didn't notice. Inside was composed of completely blank white panels that made the walls, floor, and ceiling.

"What is this?" I said in wonder.

"A training area for magic use. Try to remember how you felt when you cast that spell and do it again. You already did it twice, so it shouldn't be that hard."

"Just do it at the wall?"

I looked at him and he nodded.

"Okay." I put my hands in front of me and focused. In a second, a flame appeared in front of my face and didn't move. I shook my head and it followed my line of sight.

"You're a natural. Now, if you can do that in your hands again, we'll be getting somewhere."

I tried for what felt like hours until I got it to appear in my hands and slowly hover away in front of me until it fizzled away. Taking it as a win, I continued until I could do it more than once in a row. I looked over my shoulder at some point and noticed that Zeta was no longer there. Even so, I kept going.

He returned at some point with disk targets and tossed them in the air where they stopped and hung on nothing. I was able to nearly hit one after a few dozen tries. I relaxed for a bit afterward and everything went black.

I awoke to Penelope quickly tapping the side of my face with the flat of her hand.

"Are you okay?" she asked.

"Wha- magic. I was doing magic... Fireballs."

"Zeta just dropped you off in your bed. He said you were learning fast and that we could go back to doing commissions in a few days."

"Cool. I feel exhausted."

"I probably should have just let you sleep."

"Nah. What were you doing this whole time?"

"Just uh... trying to pick up my axe, yeah. My axe."

"Why does that sound like an excuse?"

"It's not. Don't worry about it."

"Did you notice? Your teeth were glowing again and your eyes were too."

"Nope, I didn't notice anything. I was just trying not to die."

"Your eyes were blood red. You really didn't notice anything?"

"It's fine, just go back to sleep."

"But..." My vision went dark again.

I slept the rest of the day and the next day, I went back to work trying to master throwing fireballs. The targets were still in the air and I got to it immediately. Zeta and Penelope were nowhere to be found, but I figured I'd see them eventually.

At some point, I got a weird feeling and went back upstairs. The feeling led me to a room on the third floor. Zeta had changed appearance again to a thinner man with short hair and Penelope was wearing a full set of black plate armor. She was struggling to move next to a large, sparkling, black scorch mark on the wall.

"What's going on here?" I asked, bewildered.

"I thought you'd still be knocked out at this point and I was having Penelope help me with an experiment. Did the explosion wake you up?"

"I was practicing magic on those targets and got a weird feeling. I came up here to investigate."

"You must have sensed the magic in the explosion. Penelope, Can you get out of the armor on your own?"

The suit of armor gave a strained thumbs-up.

"That-a girl."

He led me back downstairs to the training room.

"So, what's going on with Penelope?" I asked.

"Nothing. My experiments shouldn't be interfering with her personality... I think."

"There's something she's not telling me."

He scoffed. "In that case, do you think I'd be the one she'd tell?"

I just hung my head low.

Once we got into the training room, Zeta raised his hand and a ball of fire appeared over his palm for a second before it whizzed away and destroyed a target.

"That's about how strong your first fireball was. If you put more concentration into it, you can do it again. Be careful, however. Like yesterday, you'll run out of mana, then pass out if you push yourself too hard. Listen to your body like you would with sword arts and you should be fine."

"Concentrate... Got it."

I took more time to concentrate on the flame in my mind before creating it in my hand. Taking aim, I concentrated on where I wanted to send it and fired it. It flew in a slow arc and fizzled out on impact. I took a deep breath and did it again. This time, it burned the surface of the target. I didn't relax until I fired one more but once I did, I blacked out again.

Penelope rocked me awake the next day.

"Are you going to start waking me up every day?"

"I might." She smiled softly.

"Okay, come clean, what's going on?" I tried to keep eye contact with her but she looked away.

"Nothing's going on." She sat on my legs on the bed. "Why do you keep asking? Are you worried about something? Is something wrong with you?"

I scoffed. "How long have we known each other?"

"I don't know, forever?"

"Then don't you think I'd know when you're hiding something?"

I grasped her hand and we stared at each other for what felt like forever.

"I'm fine, you're just imagining things."

She tried to pull her hand away and I held her stead-fast.

"Tell me what's wrong."

After a long pause, she leaned in and whispered, "I'll tell you when I'm ready." She then leaned away and with a more upbeat voice, said, "Until then, just know that I'm getting stronger, too."

"Does that include the whole thing with your eyes?"

"That too, but you have your own thing going on with your eyes so..."

"Well, yeah, but, I'll hold you to what you said." I kicked my legs and made her bounce as if the bed was vibrating. "Now, can you get off my legs? I need to get up."

"Sure," she said with a giggle.

We both stood and I went to find Zeta who was already in the training arena with different-looking targets. The old ones were orange and plate-sized while these were red and half the size. Zeta was asleep on the floor next to the entrance. He was a tall blonde man that day.

"Zeta." I poked his face a couple of times and he didn't budge. I started shaking him next and he still didn't awaken. "What do you do all night? You need to get more sleep."

I picked him up in my arms and took him upstairs. His room looked similar to mine except the bookcase was actually full of books and there were a bunch of blue particles floating through the air. I laid him down in his bed and browsed the bookcase out of curiosity. It was full of children's books but they were mostly about someone being taken to a different world.

"I'm up, what happened?" Zeta sat up and scanned the room quickly.

I stopped fingering through books and said, "You were asleep in the training room."

"Oh. And here I was about to lecture you about overworking yourself but I guess I'm partially to blame for that. You haven't even eaten in the past couple of days. Now that I think about it, I don't think any of us have."

He stood and went down to the kitchen with me behind him. Immediately, he went around and gathered ingredients from the cupboards and a frozen lamb leg from a rack in an icebox in the floor large enough to hold a horse. There was even a small staircase that led down into it. He sat the leg in the sink to thaw and we went down to the training room.

"Today, we're focusing on control and accuracy." Zeta put his hand up and a small green orb appeared over his palm where it glowed before rocketing forward and hitting three targets which fell to the ground and melted. "Try to guide the ball with your mind. You can determine a path before releasing it. Just make sure it's the path you want it to take."

I took aim and focused until I built up a flame in my palm. I continued to focus on the flame after that. I wanted it to shrink and round out into an orb, a smooth round ball of heat that could glide wherever I sent it like firing a bullet.

Eventually, something strange happened. The orb seemed to split into three translucent red orbs but they stayed connected like a diagram and a yellow ring appeared around them that seemed like it was rotating despite staying static in place, and in the center where the orbs connected was a white four-pointed star.

"Uh... What did I just do?"

"You exceeded my expectations again. That's an entirely different spell than the fireball you were trying to make."

"Really?"

"It's called 'magic missile'. It in and of itself is a geometric impossibility and no one truly understands it, but even though everyone's looks different, it's easily distinguished by that very same abnormality." He raised his palm and what looked like a translucent green pyramid appeared over it. It appeared to be rotating but one face was always toward me while the corners I could see on the other side shifted in rotation. There was also a small green orb rotating around it that was always on the same axis no matter where you see it from. It dissipated in a second.

"So, what does it do?"

"Given that you cast it yourself, you should know." He tilted his head towards the targets.

Looking back at the targets, I focused on a red one and fired the spell. It hovered slowly through the air, missing the target by more than a few inches and fizzling out as it did so. Seeing the result, I tried to make another one but as the flame sputtered to life, Zeta slapped my hand and put it out.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

"What was that about?"

"Take a moment and feel," he said.

"What?"

"Yesterday, you passed out because you kept casting spells without regard for how much mana you have. Take a break between every spell and listen to your body as I said."

"Okay." I took a breath and relaxed. My body felt a little heavier than before and I felt a little tired.

"Do you see what I mean?"

"Yeah."

"How many more of those do you think you can do?"

"Three, four."

"Then go ahead. Just make sure you stop if you're at your limit. Some spells can easily kill you if you try to cast them without enough mana to complete them."

I cast the spell three more times. They all went toward the target even if my aim was off and fizzled out as they reached it. For the last one, I resigned to casting a fireball since another magic missile would have been too draining. This one hit a yellow target at a marginally faster speed than my fireballs were going before.

"I'm done," I said as I watched the fireball leave a black scorch mark on the bright yellow. "I'm tired now."

"In that case, we can get on to books."

"What kind of books? Aside from magic, I guess... Maybe that was a dumb question."

He led me back up to the second floor and to the room near the end of the hall that looked like a library. He had me sit at the table and placed two stacks of books in front of me.

One stack was a series on handling fire magic. He told me that I was supposed to be reading and studying them already but he wanted me to understand how magic affected my body from first-hand experience first. Since I had that experience before reading them, I was able to understand them better and reflect on how I was able to cast spells and what was happening for me to do so.

The other stack consisted of many different books on magical forest creatures and how a mage should properly handle them. There was information on animals, creatures, and races that I never heard of as well as things I have already encountered living in a forest town.

I read until nightfall and took notes on what I found useful in a notebook Zeta gave me. I only got through a single book on each subject and barely survived the surprise quiz after. At least the quiz shined a light on aspects I was missing or misunderstood from the text. By then, Zeta had already cooked dinner and I ate before going to bed. By the time I came down to eat, Penelope was already heading up the stairs.

"Hey, how have you been holding up?" I asked.

"I'm fine," she said, passing me.

"Good." I continued down to the kitchen.

I proceeded to eat nearly a quarter of my weight in lamb and beets. I didn't realize how hungry I was until I started eating. As soon as I took the last bite, I nearly passed out so I went back to my room and slept.

The next day was almost the same except I was beginning to learn how to pace myself and become a little more efficient with casting spells by not focusing as hard while still conjuring an image of a flame in my mind to appear in my hand. This was followed by more studying. It became a pattern for a little over a week until I became competent enough to hit the red targets and destroy them.

After one night of many, for the first time since I began living with and learning under Zeta, I woke up alone. The sun hadn't risen yet and it was still dark. After wandering around, tiptoeing through the eerie silence, an idea struck me.

I stepped quietly out of my room and snuck over to Penelope's room. Since I'd never been in her room, I crept in slowly, making sure to watch my step. By the sound of a soft snore, I could tell that her bed was in a similar position to mine. I closed the door behind me and snuck up to her bed. She was still sound asleep. She had to have gotten very comfortable with the place because normally even the smallest thing could wake her. Then again, the only time we'd normally sleep in the same place was while camping on a commission.

Gently, I poked her cheek to make sure she was asleep. She didn't so much as twitch. Next, I gently rocked her back and forth, slowly feeding the edge of her blanket under her body then rolled her back and forth until she was completely wrapped like a croissant with only her head poking out. Once this was done, I firmly tucked in the remaining corners and promptly left the room. It was far from the rude awakenings she kept giving me, but payback isn't always one-to-one.

I decided to wait for the sun to rise by studying the books on fire magic. There were many different spells documented but very few had any explanation on how to cast them. Most only had explanations of how they worked and their potential uses. I had already tried to shape my flames into something other than a ball, but I found it impossible outside of 'magic missile'.

Eventually, I set the books aside and went down to the training room. I picked up a pair of wooden swords and got to work on a dummy. It was immediately apparent that I hadn't touched a blade in a while since I fumbled awkwardly with them for a minute before I got into a rhythm.

After a few minutes, I started thinking about how I could combine my swordsmanship and magic. Zeta showed me how it could be done once, albeit very violently, but I wanted to figure out how I could do it myself. I pondered this with every strike until I noticed something that I hadn't felt in a long time. I could feel the vibrations of each strike. They moved up my arm and settled in my chest. I struck a few times and stopped, feeling the residual pressure running through my chest. I felt like I could guide it somewhere so I focused the feeling back down my arms, into my palms, and back through the blade.

After one strike of many, the image of a flame flickered into my mind and I knew what to do. With that feeling and the fading image of flame, I directed it all into both of the swords at once and cut into the dummy while they glowed bright red and left a scorch mark in the shape of an X across the body. I didn't have long to recover from my surprise or celebrate my achievement before I heard someone clapping slowly from the staircase.

"Magnificent," said Zeta walking into the room. She had a female form with long, curly, bright red hair. "A true magic swordsman in the making. You might be ready."

"Ready for what?"

"More advanced spells. Intermediary, really. After all, 'burning blade' is an intermediary spell, is it not?"

I shrugged. "It is, isn't it?"

"Yes, but before I get to teaching you new spells, you need more experience with what you've learned on your own. Say, field experience?"

"You mean I can do commissions again?"

"Yes but first, I have to show you something." She began walking upstairs. "Can you get Penelope and meet me at the tower entrance?"

"Sure."

I walked upstairs and went to Penelope's room, completely forgetting what I did there. I knocked and said, "Penelope, I'm coming in."

Inside was what could only be described as an angry burrito flailing helplessly on a bed. After seeing the result of my handiwork, I stayed outside and closed the door quickly.

"Oscar!" she called furiously and I opened the door again. "Unwrap me!"

"How did you get like that?"

"Oh, like you don't know!"

"I don't."

"Just get me the fuck out of this before I commit a homicide!"

"Okay, okay." I got to work finding the seams and unfurling them.

As soon as I was done, she sat and glared at me with sheer rage coating her face like someone nailed an angry mask to her face.

"What do you have to say for yourself?" she said.

"What do you mean?"

"I was stuck like that for hours, I had to pee- scratch that- I still have to pee and I had an itch on my back the whole time."

When she said that I reached for her back to scratch the itch for her. In response, she slapped my hand away.

"So, how did you end up that way?"

"You really gonna-" She sighed. "I was awake the whole time."

"Oh..." I looked away, bashfully. "You gotta admit it was kinda funny."

"It was." She stood quickly followed by a hard impact on my shoulder and a loud popping sound.

"Ah! I think you dislocated it." I held my shoulder as it dangled.

"Oops." She grabbed my arm and jerked it toward her, then me, making another popping sound and resetting it. "Sorry for that. Don't know my own strength."

"It's fine, doesn't hurt that much." I made a fist and rotated my arm, making sure everything fell in place properly.

"Whelp, I held it long enough. Going to the bathroom." She went for the door.

"Oh, yeah. Zeta's waiting for us at the front door," I said, following behind her.

"For what?"

"You'll see."

"Okay."

We parted ways at the bottom of the steps and once we were all at the door, Zeta opened it. Despite the stark mix of modern appliances and archaic design inside, outside was all forest as far as the eye could see.

"Follow me and don't deviate from the path." She stepped out into the wilderness and we followed.

The cool air was accented with light fog and shrubbery that grew between the trees. Every so often, I'd catch a glimpse of an animal here and there roaming amongst the green. The path was not well-trodden but it looked like someone took great pains to make it. It was barely wide enough for two people to walk side-by-side, but it felt oddly safe despite being in a still unknown part of the forest. Eventually, the path opened up to another one. This one was large enough for vehicles to travel and was lined with stone.

"That way is Goldleaf town." Zeta pointed to our right. "And that way is Irondrop port." She pointed to our left. "I live right in between the two towns. It's best you know where you live if you're planning on going anywhere without me to take you back. Just don't leave the path once you start down it. You'll be at the mercy of the forest in that case." She turned around and started walking back.

The way back felt longer than getting to the road. Once there, I went to my room, donned a set of chainmail, and grabbed my swords before meeting Penelope in the hall.

"Ready to go?" I asked.

She looked me up and down. "Where?"

"I'm free to do commissions now. Did I forget to tell you?"

She scurried into her room and emerged in a chest plate and her giant backpack as usual.

"Let's go!" She nearly hopped down the stairs in a hurry.

We headed out and down the path to the road and went toward Goldleaf town. We were more than halfway there when I noticed Zeta following closely behind us in her cloak. We made it into town and headed straight for the guildhall. Before we got to the door, someone quickly approached Penelope.

"Where the hell were you!?" Danna had her hood up and was now dragging Penelope away by her ear. "What did I say about you going with him!?"

"Wait, wait, wait! I can explain!" The small woman cried out while powerless to stop herself from being taken away.

"Am I a fucking joke to you!?"

"No, I'm sorry!"

"You never fucking listen to me! I must be the only one who gives a damn about your safety!" Between every other sentence, she slapped her little sister up the back of her head as they shrank in the distance.

I was going to follow them but Zeta rested her hand on my shoulder and said, "Is that her sister?"

"Yeah. She usually has work at this hour. I wasn't expecting to see her here."

"What does she do?"

"She works in the commission's office."

"That explains a lot."

"Yeah. I guess we'll just wait for now."

We found a nearby bench to wait.

"So, what's your relationship with her sister?" asked Zeta. It was a sudden question, but she sounded naturally curious.

"I don't know..." I tossed my hands up and let them fall back to my lap. "We used to be best friends. That's even how I met Penelope. I don't know, at some point, she just kind of snapped and started hating me for some reason."

"I see."

"And the worst part is... Never mind..." I buried my face in my hands.

"Were you lovers?"

"Don't-" I sighed. "I don't even know what to call it. We used to be... eh, whatever, it doesn't matter now. How did you even know there was something between us?"

"I had a feeling based on your reactions."

A few minutes later, Danna appeared from down the road with Penelope shuffling behind.

"Are you Zeta?" Danna looked at Zeta like a parent staring down a bully.

"I am," said Zeta quietly.

"We need to talk in private."

"Lead the way."

They went into the guildhall and up a set of steps on the side to where the private rooms were.

Penelope walked over to me sniffling with tears in her eyes.

"I know," I said, standing and giving her a gentle hug. "She just doesn't get it. Was this why you were so jumpy when we left town?"

She only sniffled and nodded.

"It's okay. I got your back no matter what. Even if I'm not there, I got you."

She nodded and said, "Okay."

We sat in silence for a few minutes until Zeta and Danna returned. We just looked at them, wondering what they spoke about then Danna tossed a slip of paper onto my lap. It was an urgent commission for protecting a merchant being targeted by a bandit group on his way to a nearby city. Penelope and I looked at each other and back at Danna.

"Don't fuck up here and you can do whatever you want for all I care." Her voice and the look in her eye were stern. "Which of you two is the leader?"

"Leader?" I said.

"You're a two-person guild, right? Who's the leader or are you just partners?"

Penelope pointed at me.

"Really?" I said, surprised.

"You're the smart one," she responded.

"I am?"

"We can't both be dumb."

"But, me? Really? I thought we were like, equal intelligence or something."

"Dood, you're learning magic."

"I guess I am..."

Danna folded her arms. "Now that that's settled, you're going to lead us."

"Wait, us?" I looked between the three of them.

"Yep. You'll be acting as our leader until we finish this commission."

"So, you're coming too?"

"Are you deaf?"

"You too, Zeta."

"I was planning on coming along for this one anyway," she said.

"Uh... Okay."

I stood and walked with false confidence toward the west side of town where the merchant was waiting with a wide trailer filled with goods. He was a lanky man in a brown suit and a wide-brimmed hat while his trailer was attached to a black hearse. He was apparently transporting a corpse and its belongings to their family.

He drove at a moderate pace with me in the passenger seat and everyone else with the casket in the back. We drove until nighttime with no issues and stopped by the side of the road once it was dark. Once we stopped, we all stepped out and surveyed the immediate area to find nothing out of the ordinary.

"Okay, leader, got any orders?" Danna's voice poked at my nerves.

"Yes, actually. Penelope and Zeta. I need you two to be a scouting party and look farther down the road for us while Danna and I stand guard here."

"Sure thing." Zeta went on her tip-toes and then hovered off the ground. "Shall we?" She reached over to Penelope who took her hand and began floating as well. They stuck to the tree line as they went down the road.

Once I lost sight of them, I turned to Danna and said, "What's wrong?"

"Nothing."

"I get that you're giving us a chance to prove ourselves, but you don't like me. You never liked me. I'd hazard to say you even hate me. Why? What did I do? Is it my eyes? Are you scared of me or something?"

"I don't hate you and I'm not afraid." She sighed. " I'll be honest. It is your eyes. I can't tell what it is, but they're dangerous. I don't know what it is, but it makes me feel like I'm looking at death's door with my hand already on the knob, you know? It started as soon as I started learning magic myself. It scared me at the time, so I kept my distance and I guess fear turned to resentment."

"So you just hate me. Like I said."

"No, I don't-... I thought once I started learning magic I'd teach you since no one else would and we'd go on adventures together. Just you and me. But then..."

"How about now?"

"I still can't look you in the eye properly. Not like she can... Take good care of my sister and you'll hear no complaints from me."

"Well.. about that..." I scratched my head.

"What, are you two, not a couple?"

"Nope. As far as I know, we're both still single."

She folded her arms "Well since I'm spilling my guts, it's your turn. How do you feel about me?"

I waved my hands in defense and said, "I never asked about all that, you just went and said it on your own."

She squinted her eyes at me. "You're the worst."

"What? I just don't want to answer. It's like... old times, you know? We just sit and talk about stuff. No yelling or violence. Well, there was screaming."

"Shut up, we didn't even know what we were doing back then."

I scoffed. "I still don't think I know what I'm doing."

"Same." She giggled. The first time I'd seen her do so in too many years.

Barely a moment later, Zeta and Penelope appeared from between the trees.

As soon as we were within earshot, Penelope spoke up. "It looks like they were just ahead of us the whole time driving through the forest path. They're definitely bandits though. Some of them wear the mark of the Bluetar bandits. We had to get pretty close to see it, but we didn't get noticed. It came close though."

I took a minute to think then responded, "If they're just ahead of us, they're probably planning to ambush us at their convenience. We'll ambush them first and hopefully scare them away. How many of them are there?"

"With my magic, I could tell that there were around seven of them and there doesn't seem to be any more of them, but if any of them knows cloaking magic, it could have fooled the spell I cast since it was over such a wide range." Zeta reached into the air and her staff appeared in her hand.

"Did you happen to see what kinds of weapons they use?"

"At least two have firearms and one wields a spear. None of them seem like magic weapons, so we shouldn't have too hard a time if we fail to take out the two with guns before they have a chance to counter."

"Sounds good. Any objections?"

No one said a word and just pulled out their weapons. I let the merchant know what we were about to do and we set off.

Zeta cast a spell to silence the noise of my chainmail, but we didn't go very far after heading in between the trees. We soon made it to a small clearing with an offroad pickup truck and three people standing guard while the rest rested around a small campfire or on the truck.

Zeta pointed out the two with guns and she and Danna prepared spells to cast at them while I prepared a 'magic missile' to fire at the one carrying a spear. On the count of thee, we all released our spells at the same time. One of the gunmen was struck by a bolt of lightning and was thrown into the truck while the spearman was hit but didn't go down, but the other gunman reacted quickly and dodged the green orb flying at him before turning and firing at its source. The two sitting at the campfire stood and one drew a sword with a shield while the other drew a revolver. The truck started up at the same time.

The bullet whizzed between me and Zeta.

Penelope reached into her bag, pulled out a tower shield just barely smaller than her, and rushed out with a warcry and glowing red eyes.

The gunners kept their aim trained between the trees and the spearman charged at Penelope. They collided and neither moved.

I took the opportunity to move off to the side and hop out with my swords drawn. Both gunners took aim at me and as soon as they did, a lightning bolt struck one in the face, knocking him down while the other dodged another green orb.

Seeing that, I charged forward and struck at him with both swords in turn. He dodged one but I slammed the other into his wrist, forcing him to drop his weapon.

The one with the sword and shield was busy getting his incapacitated comrade onto the back of the truck while this was happening.

I just stood with my blade aimed at the throat of my disarmed opponent who then backed away with his hands up.

Penelope and the spearman were still locked together with the man trying to jab his spear around her shield while she swung her axe with a single arm at him from the side. They held their ground against each other until he saw that it was a losing fight and backed off.

We let them drive off with the promise that if we saw them again, we wouldn't hesitate to kill them.

On the way back I asked, "So, did we pass the test?"

"We're not done with the commission, so no," said Danna.

We took turns standing guard in pairs until daylight and then we drove until nightfall again but by then we could see the city in the distance and kept going until we made it within the city limits. At that point, the man dropped us off at the guildhall and drove off. We turned in our commission and were paid more for that job than any I ever took before. That was before we split it, but it still was a nice sum.

Both the merchant and Danna were surprised when Zeta transformed the first time. They likely didn't get used to it before it was over but it was a marvel to see it in person. She glowed green then blue before her form lengthened and stretched into a man.

We took separate rooms in an inn for the night and began the long walk home the next day. A ride was too expensive and Zeta left his wallet at home. Nothing too eventful happened but it felt like we were being watched every once in a while. We arrived home in a few days and rested.

The very next day, Penelope and I started taking commissions regularly while still making time for chasing skirts and learning to get stronger. We completed commissions ranging from helping out short-handed farmers, to long-distance delivery jobs, to pet-sitting an eagle, to clearing out wolves that made homes in a mine that had temporarily ceased production from a fatal accident. Every once in a while, I felt like someone was watching us but I figured it was Zeta making sure we were alright and I never asked to make sure.

I started learning how to control my flames better to cover an area with them and how casting a spell while saying its name can make it stronger but usually takes longer if you already mastered the spell. Zeta sorely neglected to teach me the power of spell names before then. I had barely scraped the tip of the iceberg but I was making headway. The only thing currently standing in my way was that I couldn't wrap my mind around technical spells since it involved more than just feeling my way through them and books did little to help me understand the concepts of teleportation or illusions of any kind.

Penelope seemed to also get stronger with me as she was by my side the whole time. She bulked up more but never grew much bigger from the added muscle.

A couple of weeks after we got into the swing of things, a commission came in for us specifically. It even had our names on it for a special request. It was a delivery request of a magical item within a silver box paired with the commission note and instructions. Following the instructions led us to an old rundown church neither of us knew existed far from the outskirts of town where they wanted the box to be buried under the floorboards. Apparently, the church was an orphanage long ago but it burned down and the last surviving resident of the place wanted to bury a time capsule but they couldn't do it themselves because they were too old and frail to make the journey.

We didn't think much of it until we pulled up a few of the rotted old floorboards and buried the box all the while I felt the same pair of eyes on us as always. Immediately after, we heard howling. It wasn't dogs or wolves and it sounded far too inhuman to be anything either of us knew.

There were no walls, so we just stood and looked around to see a group of large monkeys between the branches high in the trees. They were circling us on all sides and howling louder by the second.

We tried to retreat to the small path we came from but some of them dropped down to block our way while screeching and baring their fangs. They were nearly my size and brown with bright yellow eyes.

I pulled out my swords and Penelope retrieved her axe and shield. We both stood at the ready, waiting for an assault.

One of them jumped at me and I swiped at it without a moment's notice, slamming it onto the ground with my blade. It stood quickly and jumped at me again. Penelope tried to swing her axe at it when it jumped the second time and missed, straining her arm and sinking her blade into the ground. I was able to cut at the monkey's tail as it flew past me.

By now, the rest of the monkeys closed in to where they were just out of melee range, and less than a moment later, they descended upon us like an avalanche. There were too many to count and they all seemed bloodthirsty.

I held my ground and parted the crowd with a wave of flames from the tips of my swords followed by a fireball near my feet to blast away any that I didn't already push away or kill with my strike and in the process, singed my pants. Penelope was overrun with them climbing over her shield and biting, clawing, and pulling at her from all angles. Before I could go to her aid, she spun with her axe flailing wildly, flinging monkeys in all directions. Her eyes were now glowing red and she put her shield down, opting to hold her axe with two hands.

As soon as they started landing, I tried to stab any monkeys that landed near me, but they were too spry to hit accurately in quick succession and I only got three.

Penelope slammed the ground with her axe hard enough to make me lose balance but the monkeys were less affected. They started trying to jump on us again, but the swing of an axe knocked many of them back and the few that were close enough to Penelope to get hit were cleaved in two.

"You okay?" I moved to her and we stood back-to-back.

"For now. You?"

"We'll see after this."

The monkeys seemed to only attack by jumping and we quickly took advantage of that after the initial shock of being descended upon by such great numbers wore off. We were nearly overrun multiple times, but we fought for what felt like an hour as the steady stream of beasts continued until the last one fell.

Penelope couldn't make her eyes go red anymore and I ran out of mana with only enough left to keep moving. We were both tired and exhausted with barely any strength left to hold our weapons let alone swing them.

I kept such a high focus in the battle that now I only just noticed how much of my sight was coated in red and I couldn't count the wounds that I could see through the broken chainmail and ripped cloth. Penelope was no better off. Her armor was dented and scratched aside from being coated in so much blood that it was hard to see where it was punctured.

"You still alive?" she asked between bated breaths.

"At this point, I don't know. How about you?"

"Just wondering how the hell we ended up in this mess."

"This mess has our names on it. Literally. Somehow, that doesn't feel like a coincidence."

"A trap for us? I'm flattered."

As if on cue, a raspy female voice echoed from the treeline. "Ooo, shiny." In response, we turned in circles and saw nothing. "Dangerous, starry eyes I can't take. I choose to not die today," the voice continued.

That's when I realized that the same eyes I had been feeling on us so many times before held a much more intense gaze.

The sound of metal striking metal resounded from a dangerously close distance and I turned to face it. At that moment, something pulled at my choker hard enough for me to nearly fall backward then it hit the side of my head quick and fast. The force knocked me aside and I slid through blood and viscera. A vaguely feline shape pounced on Penelope as I landed.

Surprised yet fearless as ever, Penelope exclaimed, "Wow!" while she was swiftly pinned to the ground. As she struggled, I watched her eyes widen and she said, "Now, I like aggressive women, but this is a little too-" The feline woman reached her hand between Penelone's teeth and held her jaw open with a single hand.

I was held by dizziness and could only place my palm on the ground in an attempt to stand. "What are you doing..."

I nearly regained enough strength to move when the woman turned her gaze to meet me and a new wave of dizziness overwhelmed me as her emerald eyes locked onto mine, sapping my strength. I couldn't even form enough of a thought to cast a spell. I was silenced.

She looked back at her pinned captive with her hand still in her mouth. "What are these? Beaver? Chipmunk? Regardless, they look nice up close. I'll take them." She gripped something and began pulling.

I was snapped completely back to reality by the animalistic cries of my partner as her front teeth were ripped from her skull. She struggled as her arms were pinned under the feet of her aggressor, stifling her movement while she kicked her legs wildly. Slowly, her teeth were dislodged and extracted at once. I could still barely move as she passed out and her face turned toward me coated in tears and blood as the feline woman examined her trophy.

Trying to concentrate I stretched my hand out to cast something- anything. Nothing came out but the teeth in the woman's hand began glowing. At the same time, Penelope's mouth started glowing as well and a new pair of teeth grew to fill in the empty space in seconds.

"Ooo, they grow back." The woman smiled wickedly as she stepped off of her unconscious victim.

Barely making it to my feet, I drew my sword and in an instant, they were both gone. The feline woman picked up Penelope and darted off onto a tree and into the forest, leaving her backpack behind. There was hardly any sound from them, but the little I did hear sounded like it came from everywhere at once and I was immediately at a loss with no idea which direction they went.

I threw caution to the wind and dashed into the forest after them from the last spot I saw them. Seeing no other direction to go, I went straight. I dragged my exhausted body along as fast as I could until I tripped on something and before I knew it, everything went dark.