Alana woke up feeling a level of relaxation she hadn’t experienced in such a long time. No bad smells, no chores, her body was fresh, and she had been chatting with friends until she fell asleep. All she needed now was that fancy hotel breakfast and she would be officially happy enough to forget she was somewhat depressed.
Maze said it would be served until 10 AM and now it was... 9:56!
The witched jumped from the bed, trying to do the impossible, get dressed as quickly as she could, rush down the stairs and...
“I already got you a plate,” Mazeline said with a fanged smirk, opening a tray to reveal a plate filled with treats, there was a ham sandwich, some sausage things, some meat slice stuff and well, she didn’t know the names, but it all smelled nice, to the side there was a bowl with some sweet snacks and a cup of orange juice, lots of ice in it to keep it fresh.
“Thanks, I love you.” The witch said as she pounced, giving the werewolf a hug. “Where is Qullqi by the way?”
“Oh. She left earlier. Said she would buy new weapons and equipment. She will be back by 3PM if I remember correctly."
"Do we have some sort of meetup with the society? I think you mentioned something like that yesterday during the bath."
"I decided to delay to the afternoon and evening, that way we can be together. Overall, however, they won't give us much support, but I exchanged some credit for describing my memories of the slime. Not a whole lot of requests me or Qullqi could do, but there was one you could fullfil pretty well, look into the message board later, and I am sure you will find it easly."
Alana didn't stop eating and wolfing down her meal even as Maze spoke up. "Will check it later then. You got me curious."
Speaking of curiosity, as her stomach was tamed, her eyes started to wander around, and she quickly noticed Maze was not merely idly standing around, she had been working on something, pieces of fabric and leather in the table she was sitting by.
"Watcha doing?" Alana questioned, humming as she stepped closer, thankfully Maze was far more willing than Qull to have someone snooping around.
"Preparing a new outfit, since the old one was dissolved." Mazeline said.
"Oh, I didn't know you could do needlework. You don't seem like the type."
Mazeline laughed. "Wow, that was a bit mean, why would you assume that?"
Alana tilted her head. "You said yourself you wouldn't do lockpicking because you were more of a brute force gal. Needlework is as delicate as lockpicking, no?"
Mazeline pursed her lips and took a deep breath. "Yeah. Alright, I guess it is a bit unusual for my style, but this type of high precision movements and the control of your muscles you need to be skillful wiht a needle is actually very useful for martial arts in general."
Alana nodded. She didn't understand it but it made sense, as paradoxical as that was.
"Where did you get the materials?" the witch asked.
"I used my initial credit plus one I got for the slime story. You and Qullqi should still have one to redeem, so do think of something in the menu that fits your vibe."
Alana nodded and sat down, starting to look at the menu and immediatelly becoming bored. It didn't help Maze wasn't that willing to talk to her given the high precision work she was performing sewing her new outfit.
Eventually, Alana decided to bait for some more attention, and see if Maze couldn't delay that outfit thing until Qull was back.
"Hey Maze, how about I show you the spells I have? Then you can show yours as well."
Maze took a breath with her teeth clenched. "Sorry puppy, I really need to finish this. I need an outfit to fit me, otherwise I just can't seem to get a hold of myself. Maybe in one hour or two?"
Alana nodded, forcing a smile despite her proposal being immediatelly shot down. So there was that. If she brought up Chalry de Bourgogne, and how she had met Maze without anyone else knowing, then surely the werewolf would be more willing to talk, but Alana didn't feel like taking it that far.
"I will go check the messages then! Maybe see if they have a library! See you later!"
"See you Alana!"
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"Seeking someone who knows how to perform self-transformations. Anything works, animals, objects, anything."
Alana read it aloud and immediatelly thought this had to be it, what a peculair request, but she also didn't see why not take a chance with it, given that the meeting would be in the society. Plus, she now would stay clothed when transforming back into human, so there was far less to worry about.
This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.
When visiting the board of the society Alana had expected something more fancy and magical, but rather, it was really just a collecting of notes pinned to a board. Two atendants were taking care of it, as well as the library.
One was a tall woman with long red hair and eyes that were glowing blue, she wore a moth-eathen cloack and a tunic beneath, the part where human eyes would be white, in her was black. Alana would have probably been impressed with her, were not for the other one.
"Oh gosh! A fairy! Now that is nostalgic. I hadn't seen one since I left Zvezda!" Alana gasped, leaning close to the point the poor little humanoid had to step back.
The fairy huffed. "What the hell? Mind your language brat. You can't speak like that."
Alan stopped and stood back. "Uh..."
"Flutterling." The tall woman said with a smile. "Fairy is a very specific group, you shouldn't use it to refer to all such beings."
"Ah!" The witch immediatelly bowed down to the flutterling. "Pardon me. I... am not to used to society."
The tiny humanoid in a green chitinous dress-armour shrugged. "Ah. Right. I did read up about the three weirdos who had joined us lately."
"Yep! That is us, Cerberus. I am Alana!"
They nodded, but didn't give their names back. Peculiar behaviour, but she couldn't blame them, given she was just some random girl who had started the conversation in a very strange way.
"So. You transform yourself, Alana?" The red haired woman tilted her head, one of her glowing eyes open, the other covered by her hair.
"Indeed!" Alana smiled. "You could say I do it naturally."
"Transformation is an wondrous power, of all the things a witch can engage in, it is perhaps one of the most eye opening experiences. Back in the day, I had a spell of my own, a white raven, to step out of the shoes of humanity, to be free from its pressures, from its shackles. Its truly great, isn't it?"
Alana nodded. "Hmm. I wouldn't word it like that, but it is fun to get a different perspective on things."
The winged tiny humanoid buzzed her wings in annoyance. "Hey, don't go preaching too much, the curator will cover for you where she can, but she has her limits."
The woman tilted her head. "Oh. Do not worry. I am not saying anything controversial, am I Alana? I guess even in a place as open minded as this society, there is still stigma with any type of magic that opens your eyes, changes your perspective."
Alana looked from one side to the other, trying to follow a conversation that seemed to have nothing to do with her, and yet was tangentially about her at the same time.
"I... Don't see what is bad in transformation spells?"
"They make you harder to track, you can take any face you want, you can leave to the woods and avoid goverment dogs for decades if you wish. Which makes it a problem to those who rule us." the woman explained, pouting and blowing wind at the strand of hair that kept hiding half of her face.
"You are making yourself sound like an anarchist. Ironic, I guess." the fairy complained. "I think its enough for today. I am ending your shift earlier, go to your room."
Alana looked concerned as the woman sighed and left the message board area, vanishing into the library, but not before waving at the witch.
"So uhm. Should I be worried about my spells?"
"Nah." The flutterling shook her head. "Don't concern yourself with what she talks about. She got the glam, and has been a bit unstable because of that."
"The glam?" Alana tilted her head.
"Glamour." the fairy waved her hand. "Geez, you really don't know anything, do you? Its basically intoxication from serums and other additives, residual magic that doesn't go away. Makes you lose yourself a bit."
"I see." Alana nodded. This had somewhat killed her desire to keep browsing the library today, her mind was too busy thinking about what she had heard to try to pick up anything to read.
With a shrug, she decided to go back to the garden, if Maze was not done, then at least she could enjoy the pretty sighs and relaxing water flow, rather than the smell of dust and old paper.
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Before she had even finished going up the stairs that circled the aquarium and entered the garden, she was already listening to Mazeline train. She rushed ahead to see the werewolf with a somewhat simpler, yet similar, version of her old outfit, by her side another fairy was buzzing by, the two talking as Mazeline trained this or that move.
"Oh, hey, Maze! Neat outfit! Who is your fa... flutterling friend?"
She expected everyone to look at her with pride but the fairy actually pouted at that, and Maze cringed.
"Flitterling Alana." the werewolf said. "Entirely different species from Flutterlings."
The witch pouted, she already had trouble scoring, but today, for no particular reason, she wasn't even manging to send the ball in the general direction of the goal.
"Name is Zunli. Do you see my wings? Dragonfly, right? Butterfly wings for those... snobish bastard, dust children, flutterlings." and now that she knew that was the rule, Alana could easily see the difference, of course, she also knew that should she find any other fairy, there would be a new clade made up exclusively to mess with her.
"She is an instructor here. Older than she looks, if you'd believe. Help around some magical girls, some fighters. Even Rumi sought her."
"Really? And she is teaching you Maze? That is impressive! Oh! Miss Zoom..."
The dragonfly fairy gritted her teeth. "Zunli."
"Sorry. Miss Zunli. Do you know Iro?"
"Iro?" the tilted her head.
"Now come on Alana, she won't know each and every single magical girl just because she worked with a few."
"Wait. Otsuone Iro? Yeah I do know her. Absolute beast of a magical girl."
"Neat. She is this island, did you know? Selling ice cream."
"Huh... Wow. Really? Ice cream? W..." Zunli stopped herself, looking to be deep in thought, then she nodded. "Where is she?"
"In the Rainbow Mall. To the side of the harbor."
"I am sorry Mazeline, I will need to postpone your training. I need to talk to this person, see how much has changed." the fairy bowed apologetically then darted off in an absurd speed.
Mazeline pouted and then stared at Alana. "You came back with a vengeance, didn't you? Geez! I manage to land a training session with someone important and you send her away."
Alana gasped, about to panic and see if she could get Zunli back or something, but Alana grabbed her before she could, giving her a very rough but still affectionate headpat.
"What is that? You will be my testing dummy so I can show my martial art skills? Oh, Alana, you shouldn't have." Maze declared, despite Alana saying nothing. It seemed to be an offer the witch couldn't refuse.