As night fell upon Trinketshore, the trio scoured the streets with their eyes darting in every direction for signs of life. Bundled up in thick jackets and long pants, beanies, and masks, Alicia and Nadine further fortified their fashion defenses with dark goggles. Gilmore refused the eyewear; he might have fine facial features, but so were the highlanders of his kind, and he was constantly mistaken for them. They blended in with the ragtag groups of homeless huddled around makeshift fires who swapped stories and rumours to break the oppressive silence of the night.

Their destination was the charred remains of Howlett's, once a favorite haunt of Gilmore's for its plentiful protein buffet. But now, all that remained was a desolate courtyard marked with the seal of the civil guard. Fragments of charcoal and delicate debris hinted at a fire of unusual origins, too immaculate to be the result of mere chance.

An elegant, minimalistic kind of fire, so people would say.

"This isn't a normal fire at all. Too clean. This must have been an act of magic," Alicia uttered with confidence, then broke through the civil guard line. Nadine and Gilmore looked left and right before following suit.

"Can't agree more, hen," said Nadine, "But what magic and who caused it?"

"Only one way to find out."

Alicia, burdened with a knapsack slung over her shoulder like a vagrant, was the most conspicuous of the group. She beckoned forth the glowing Orb from the depths of her bag, holding it between her palms as if it were a fragile bird. "Okay, Orb, you've seen it. Now please answer, is this your doing when you hovered in the sky last night?"

Orb responded with a mournful hum, a sound that brought a frown to Alicia's lips.

"Nothing, Orb doesnae remember anything at all," Alicia turned to face her friends. "It said the power emitted to attract our attention last night couldn't just make some random building burnt out."

Again, a dead end. But it did not take long for her to come up with another pure dead brilliant thought.

"Orb, I can really do anything with your power, right?"

Orb just gave the signal of agreement. Most of it, yes, was how Alicia translated its response. To find out, why don't you just do a sync and try it yourself?

"As long as I'm in full concentration, I think it's worth a shot. Awright, then. I have this one idea. Let's just try it." Alicia straightened herself, half-folded her hands as if praying, then left a slight gap for Orb to float between her palms.

"So, what are ye going to do?" asked Gilmore.

"Dinnae ken. Just see."

When Alicia lowered her head and shut her eyes, an alignment was made. The plasma energy from the magic sphere circulated through her neural pathways, illuminating her body in the same way Orb did. Then, bluish plasma energy emerged in a circle from the soles of her feet, expanding wider and wider, to the surrounding area. Gilmore and Nadine, clueless in their head, took a wise decision to step back, although the circle had reached and passed through them first. A few milliseconds after the first, another circle appeared, and another circle, and on and on until it made a water ripple pattern. Or most likely, a magic wave radar.

All the circles left traces at specific points within their range, which then turned into plasma bubbles containing an extraterrestrial substance. The bubbles continued to rise until they stopped in the middle of the triplets. Finally, the lass ceased the circle wave, and her body returned to its original state. Although Alicia had just opened her eyes, she staggered almost immediately and nearly fell. She gathered air to catch her panting breaths, and her heart raced unsteadily as if she had run a marathon.

Her two best friends called out to her in tandem and helped her up immediately. "Alicia! You awright?"

"I, uh— " Alicia was still trying to do proper breathing from her mouth. "I'm fine. I was trying to find a way to scan the ruins with Orb's power for clues. It's draining me a wee bit." Alicia shoved the four hands that became her pillars away to stand on her own. "But, hey! I didn't faint right away. That's progress!"

"You! Just because you didn't pass out doesn't mean it's time for you to be so petty!" Nadine scolded her.

"Really Nadine, I'm awright!" Alicia regained her balance, and her breathing returned to normal. "I just need to get used to this new power. Anyway, did it work?"

Gilmore patted her shoulder as he looked around. "If ye're throwing a bubble party, well, ye're in for a good craic."

Her glasses were now reflecting the images of medium-sized bubbles spread out in the yard.

"Looks like it worked!" Alicia started to get excited. She approached one bubble behind her for closer observation whereas the rest of them just froze, not daring to mess with those vesicles. The magic nerd tried to direct the bubble closer to her round glasses. Her initially excited mien turned into aghast.

"Oh, no..."

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"W-what, what is it?" asked Nadine.

Inside the bubble was a residue of unstable energy. A bright purple one, in the shape of tiny lumps with a long trail when moved, akin to a velvet tail. Her friends, devoured by curiosity as well, approached it. They might not have a brain full of magical knowledge as the Crimsonmane bookworm, but in this very world they lived in, there was absolutely no way they did not recognise what was before them.

"This is…," answered Alicia slowly.

"A fucking black magic," continued Gilmore.

They took a few slow steps back. All of them shuddered.

The occurrence of magic at Trinketshore was no rare occurrence. But no one—not even the brigands or crooked magic practitioners, ever recorded in the Trinketshore criminal database—used black magic to carry out their criminal vigours. To the laymen, they would only see its presentation on visual prints or telemedia, if they were lucky enough to never encounter it.

Alicia inspected the contents of the other bubbles, one by one. The number of bubbles that appeared in the area was not much, no more than twenty. But to her horror, all of them showed the remnants of black magic energy trapped within. Not long afterwards, the quadruplets were surrounded by a blinding light as the bubbles intensified in their glow. Alicia instinctively shielded her eyes but still had a slight curiosity to peek through the gaps in her fingers. The black magic remnants were being consumed by the plasma flow within the bubbles before suddenly, all of them vanished with a shrill sound. The world plunged into darkness once again.

"Good news: not Orb's doing. Bad news: it's worse." Nadine's face was somehow stiffened. "There's a dark mage running around creating this mess! Alicia, I don't think it's safe to be here. Would it not be better to just go back to your house?"

Gilmore voiced his agreement with Nadine. "Maybe Nadine is right. We cannae stay here too long. What if the mage is around and sees you holding the magic baw?"

"But we can fight him, right? I mean, we have Orb to help us out."

"I thought we've talked about this, hen. We cannae—"

"I ken. It's just... are we really going to let a dark mage run wild around the town?"

"Alicia, ye barely have a physical fight, let alone engage in magical combat! Ye can never beat him, not in yer current condition!"

"With all due respect, Gilmore, I actually have—"

"No, ye have not, hen! Being kidnapped and almost killed by yer own noble house are nae the same as magical combat!"

This was not the first time Gilmore or Nadine had warned Alicia of her incompetence. But this was the first time Alicia had shown offence to her best friends. She looked at them like she was looking at her Crimsonmane kins. I've been connected with Orb and become the mage I've dreamed of. Why do they still treat me like a helpless wee bairn?

"Alicia, we only came here to check out this place, remember? Now we've done it. The trip's over!" Gilmore said.

"You all can head home first. Orb and I will look for more clues ourselves."

"What? Alicia—"

"This mage," Alicia frowned. "This mage has black magic! If he's here, it's not just this restaurant. The whole Trinketshore would be in danger! We dinnae ken why they bothered to come to this forsaken town, but whatever it is, it's not good!"

"Ye just said it! It's nae good at all. They're probably here so that they could perform these forbidden rituals and but in a remote town. Or worse...," Gilmore squinted his eyes at the bright calming orb that shimmered like stardust with a cosmic vortex at its centre, cradled in Alicia's hands.

"...They're looking for that."

"There's no way they're looking for Orb! We're the only ones who ken about Orb!" Alicia tried to bluff. "After all, Orb and I are already connected. They wouldnae be able to separate us that easy!"

"Ye may know more about black magic than both of us. But ye dinnae ken the full extent of your Orb's abilities. Ye're no stronger than an experienced mage, Alicia. Not even with Orb's power."

Alicia lowered her head, looking at Orb. She had been forced to concede defeat in her debate with Gilmore, not because she lacked intelligence, but because she was wise enough to consider the repercussions of her actions if she was careless. She still had to adapt to the pooling and circulation of energy back and forth between herself and Orb. Casting a simple spell with it could knock her out. What happened if she exploited that energy for long-term combat? Entering the battle unprepared only made her die silly. Even both her friends could not back her up, for the opponent they were about to face was someone who had black magic energy—a negative kind of magic that was too strong and destructive to everything, even to the enchanter.

Nadine gave her a pat of comfort. "I know you mean well, Alicia. But it would be best if we leave it to the Trinketshore magical authorities to take care of this matter."

"I… I just want to be useful because I've obtained this boon. I don't want to be just remembered as the frail, Magicless Crimsonmane dork. I'm sick of doing nothing. Now it should be my turn to use my gift to help people as a mage."

"Gilmore isn't a knight just because he's only wielded a sword for a day. You'll have to delve deeper into Orb's relationship with yourself before you can slowly become the great mage you aspire to be. And you will definitely be that person someday," Nadine embraced her. "I believe in you. You will become a great mage like your ma in the future. But you have to be patient and know your limits."

Ah, Nadine, don't bring up 'Mama' again! You know I'd be blue if I heard that one word, mused Alicia in her heart.

Gilmore let out a smile. "Jist so ye ken, I didnae mean to look down on ye, like...," his eyes looked the other way, his lips twitching. "Yon bunch of 'arseholes' ye call family."

Alicia then put on an almost smiling expression when she heard Gilmore insulting her big clan. Gilmore added, "It's just that everything takes time."

Alicia could not help but give a wry smile and nodded. They were right. Maybe for now, let the adult mages do what they were paid for.

But how the Divine had cursed them. Only after they had had enough deliberation, the three of them suddenly felt a violent tremor. The sound of a gigantic explosion shook their hearts, followed by the screams of a frantic crowd from a distance. It was not easy for them not to notice a purple explosion with an almost mushroom-like shape.

The black mage had returned, sooner than they expected.

Orb wailed a loud siren. The real threat was here. The explosion seemed to have swept away all the wise thoughts that had been embedded in the girl's head. She lost her rational mind again. Signs of panic began to appear in her eyes. Panic because they have to run away for the sake of their lives, or panic because the townspeople trapped in danger suddenly became a moral burden for the girl.

With her body shaking and trapped in a labyrinth of dilemmas, Alicia Crimsonmane decided to put the safety of the people first. Her feet suddenly pedaled faster away from her pals, who were still stunned by the explosion before realising that their childhood friend had instead walked towards the source of the fire.

"Alicia! Where are you going to?"

"Damn it, yon bampot!" complained the Big Yin.

Alicia's heard nothing but the screams of the citizens, as frantic as animals. []