Blood-soaked ivory fangs stuck out horizontally from the creature’s lower jaw. Its piercing eyes glared hatefully over its surroundings. From its head, down its long neck, all the way to its hind legs, brilliant yellow and red feathers adorned the malicious creature. The creature stamped its front two legs, letting out a deafening roar which vibrated every bit of material that surrounded it. A Chimera. Chimeras were often formed by ill-advised experiments gone predictably wrong, performed by overconfident magicians and alchemists. A complete novice could create a Chimera, but it took a veteran to kill one.

The last of the students rushed down the ancient stone corridors, evacuating outside the fortified building. Only one student remained. Standing steadfast in front of the nightmarish beast was a young girl. Her eyes shined bright with confidence. In her right hand was a flaming sword with a mantle of a dragon’s head adorned on the hilt. Three golden stars embedded into her silver-crescent cuff links glinted in the firelight. Her long black hair was blown back and forth by the wind produced by the flames of her sword. Lily Bergstrom was one of the veteran magicians often called in to put down such dangerous magical beasts.

“Let’s get this over with, I have a date to get to.” Lily spoke with extreme confidence and annoyance.

Lilly swung her sword to her side, creating a massive wave of fire which engulfed the Chimera. The Chimera roared in pain but was otherwise unscathed. The flame wasn’t meant to subdue the Chimera, instead it was meant to trap it in place. Lily was a rare type of magician, a magical swordsman. One of the greatest strengths of a magician was their ranged attacks, and one of their greatest weaknesses was close quarters combat. Magical swordsman flipped this paradigm on its head.

The Chimera slammed its tail into the ground, causing a crackling shockwave to shoot through the stone floor. Lily took advantage of the large slabs of stone which were flung into the air. She used her fire magic to change her aerodynamics and the very nature of the air around her, allowing her to jump from stone to stone, quickly advancing into melee range of the insatiable beast. Lily’s red skirt flapped in the rush of wind caused by her sword erupting into flame. The Chimera opened its mouth, attempting to spark its own blast of fire, but it couldn’t match Lily’s expertise.

“Flame Dash!”, Lily yelled.

Lily spun her sword around, creating a ring of fire around herself, before creating a magical explosion behind her which pushed her forward, and past, the Chimera. Lilly landed gracefully on the ground, seemingly bowing to an invisible audience, opposite to the Chimera. The Chimera let out one last howl before losing its life in a fiery explosion. Lily stood up straight, letting out a snicker.

“Honestly, you would think monsters would have a better sense of survival, yet they never run from me.” Lily placed her free hand behind her head, supporting it comfortably.

Lilly looked up at the clock on the wall.

“Still have some time.”

Lilly stared at the clock for a moment more, suddenly realizing that it had stopped working in the extreme heat of the battle that had just taken place. Lilly’s eyes went wide.

“Shoot, I’m late! Meimei is going to kill me!”

Lilly held her sword out to her side, disintegrating it and absorbing it back into her soul. Magic swords were not physical swords, but instead were manifestations of the magician’s soul. One of the reasons that magicians rarely chose to walk the path of a magical swordsman was due to the danger that it put their soul in. Typically, a soul was guarded inside a special domain in one’s body, but manifesting it into the open put one’s soul into jeopardy. Losing a battle as a magical swordsman could be worse than death. Losing one’s soul meant that one could never reincarnate or be revived. This vulnerability was unthinkable, especially to sages who were proficient enough in magic to cast automatic revival spells on themselves in the event of their death.

Lilly quickly ran out of the charred stone room, jumping over the melted corpse of the defeated Chimera. She ran down the stone hall that the majority of students had evacuated through. After about a minute of running she ran into a group of magicians and guards who were running towards her.

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“Everything is taken care of!” Lily said, waving at the guards as she hopped past them. The guards stared at her in surprise.

Lilly finally made it out of the old stone building known as Hermit’s Nest. Outside many of the students that had been inside were standing around, talking to teachers and other officials, and comforting each other.

“Lily!” One teacher dressed in purple robes shouted out, trying to get her attention.

“It’s all taken care of professor!” Lily yelled back, not slowing her pace.

Lilly ran past the gathering of students and staff, taking a sharp corner around a wall of perfectly trimmed hedges and red roses. As she continued running, she made sure to wave back to everyone that greeted her before finally coming around one more corner. Ahead of her were two massive, intricately carved, wooden doors. One of the gargantuan doors was propped open, making more than enough room for several rows of students to file through. Lilly raced through, apologizing to two female students that she brushed past. She ran down an intricately decorated hallway lined with colorful banners of different school affiliated houses and clubs, skillfully dodging students. Lily finally reached a set of white marble stairs where she stopped for a moment to catch her breath. After a brief respite and a moment to fix her hair, she ran up the many flights of stairs. Many floors up she found herself on the girl’s dorm floor of house Greenclaw.

Lily came face to face with a glowing green door. A green pixie apparated near door, floating blissfully in front of it.

“This that you have come to here and now is the dorm of the ladies of the Greenclaw, you, I do not know.” The pixie said with a poetic tone.

“Yeah, yeah, you say that every time. I am Lily of the house of Moltensand.”

The pixie floated for a moment.

“Yes, I see you quite a bit, and as I tell you every time, you cannot come in here.” The pixie retorted monotonously as if reading from a script.

“And, as I tell you every time, move or I am moving you.” Lily demanded, her piercing red eyes staring through the pixie.

The pixie let out a sigh before evaporating into the air. The green door in front of Lily lost its glow and a click echoed throughout the hallway. Lily reached forward, pushing the door, and walking through the threshold. She entered into the main reception room where there were several tables, a couch, and many bookshelves. Two girls were sitting at one of the round tables, having a conversation.

“Yo.” Lily said as she approached the round table.

Both girls looked up at Lily.

“You’re late, and … sweaty.” One of the girls said.

The girl had cold, blue eyes and short white hair that shined like silk. She had a blue clip on her hair in the shape of a triangle. Her uniform was perfectly tailored, not a wrinkle in sight, and her red bow sat perfectly around her neck. She got up out of her chair, politely gesturing to the other girl, and walked over to lily.

“Sorry Meimei, I got her as fast as I could.” Lily said, scratching her head.

“Did they dispatch you to fight something again?” Meimei, the white-haired girl, asked.

Meimei pulled a handkerchief from her breast pocket and began patting down lily’s neck and face to remove the sweat.

“Yeah, a chimera this time,” Lily laughed.

Meimei looked surprised before sighing heavily.

“I hope I don’t smell bad from all the sweat.” Lily sniffed herself a few times.

“You smell fine, Lily.” Meimei responded as she carefully folded up her handkerchief.

“They have other people that can send out to do eliminations, they don’t always need to send you.” Meimei asked with some indignance.

“It’s fine, I won’t get hurt. If I don’t go, there is always a chance that the person that they do send could get hurt.”

Meimei sighed and raised her hand, gently caressing Lily’s cheek. Two silver stars seated on a silver crescent cuff link shimmered in the light.

“Say ‘no’ sometimes, for me.” Meimei said quietly.

Lily softly grasped Meimei’s hand.

“Sorry, I know it worries you.” Lily looked lovingly into Meimei’s eyes.

A rasp throat clearing broke the moment. Meimei turned around and Lily looked over to where the sound had come from.

“Ah, hi Professor Milly!” Lily gleefully said.

“Lily, last I checked you are not a Greenclaw, please don’t bully your way into other houses’ dorms.” Professor Milly said with an annoyed tone.

Professor Milly had on a long black robe with a dark green embroidered neckline. She was a young professor but had tremendous talent in alchemy and potion crafting.

“I apologize on behalf of Lily; I will walk her out of the dorm.” Meimei said, giving a slight bow with her head.

Professor Milly sighed.

“Whatever, I gave up trying to make Lily conform to our rules long ago, just please leave promptly.” Professor Milly said, turning her eyes to Lily.

“Yes ma’am.” Meimei said, giving another nod to the professor before grabbing Lily’s wrist and leading her out of the dorm.

The two stepped into the hallway, the door of Greenclaw once again shining green with its defensive magic barrier. Meimei let go of Lily’s wrist, looking over towards another set of stairs. Lily reached out and grabbed Meimei’s hand. Lily interlocked her fingers with Meimei’s. Meimei looked back at Lily, blushing slightly.

“Now, since I was late, I guess I will have to make it up to you with an extra special date.” Lily said slyly.

“You better.” Meimei replied, staring into Lily’s eyes, her face still red from blushing.