Weeks went by in a comfortable manner. She attended classes with her friends, did her homework on Saturday, and played around on Sunday.
Sometimes she would find good books in the library to read that she'd get lost in—the Community seemed to adore adventure novels centered around Dungeons—or she would fly outside the castle with Lanna and Aella. Galio and Deo had joined them a couple of times too.
She was able to enjoy deep sleep after the first month, her nightmares about the mob chasing after her starting to dull and fade away. The young dragon could honestly say she was enjoying her new life.
In the early weeks of November, Rose sat in the library, trying to change the yellow ball into red. Color changing was the simplest form of Blue, but Rose was far from adept at Blue Magic. She finished the textbook a few weeks ago and had the basics memorized, but actually doing it was a lot harder than reading about it.
Her magic—she had discovered—best came from her hands. She knew she could breathe it out like a proper dragon breathing fire, but she had the best control when she drew it out with her hands… not that Rose had much conscious control over all her magic, yet. After repeated uses, she sort of got a good feeling of what it was supposed to feel like to use her magic.
It was still awkward to control in all of her classes except Red and Black. Those were the only two classes that Rose felt like she had a good grasp of control, even if she did falter on occasion. Blue, however, was turning into quite the struggle for the girl. Most of the time, Rose still had to think about other things and let her magic act on its own and hope it did what she wanted. It was frustrating, because while her magic had behaved rather well, she still wanted to be able to perfectly control it.
There had been a couple incidents where she thought about what she wanted, and her magic responded, but she had never been able to recreate those accidents purposely.
And then there were the many (many) times that her magic couldn't do what she wanted to on its own, and since she couldn't force it…
Rose glared at the yellow ball, unable to turn it red, and her inability to control her magic starting to severely annoy the girl.
Red and Black she could handle, but apparently those were the only two types she could do. Raw magic—her magical core—or Blue Magic felt impossible. Professor Yūei and Professor Nigel both told her that once she could control her raw magic, the rest would come easier. But Rose wasn't even sure she had ever felt her raw magic, how on earth was she supposed to control it?
She felt uncomfortable gazes on her, and Rose looked up to find students from Aella's kingdom staring at her. When she met their eyes, they all abruptly looked away. A sense of unease settled over Rose for a handful of seconds before she shoved it aside.
There must be a book about this kind of thing. I can't have been the only Nehebur in existence to have this much difficulty, Rose thought.
She recalled how Mortem seemed to know exactly how to help her and wondered if he might be able to do so again… though Rose banished that thought almost immediately thereafter. The jerk still shocked her, so there was no way she was going to ask him for help. She'd figure it out on her own, simple as that.
Rose got up from her seat, brushing down the nonexistent wrinkles in her shirt and skirt. She had been working at one of the tables in the back of the library on the first floor since breakfast. The library was still the biggest room Rose had seen in the school—excusing her bathroom cave—and was seven stories tall. Each level was for a different year group, and for a first-year kingmate like Rose to go to one of the higher levels, she had to ask for permission.
The first level was the biggest, as it was for the first-year group, and covered the general practical magic for all years. There was an area in the back for working on projects or homework—in which Rose was—and then another area for reading. That area was Rose's favorite, because it was stationed under a big window that faced west. When the sun started to set, it made for the perfect lighting, and the seats were nicely warmed up.
That window was also one of the few stained-glass windows in the entire school that had dragons on it. Dragons sunbathing and flying around, as it were, and sometimes when Rose looked up and saw those pretty dragons, she felt a sense of calm inside her.
She wondered what kind of dragon she would look like. She hoped she would be as big as Lanna so she could threaten to sit on Galio, too.
Rose scooted in her chair and left her supplies at the table. There weren't a lot of students on the first floor, and she was the only one using the work area. Yet again, however, Rose felt eyes on her and she turned around.
The students from the Hero Kingdom quickly looked away. There were only two now—both a bit older than Rose—and she stared at them for a bit longer, wondering if she should approach them. She felt a lot more looks thrown her way lately than she did when she first came to Gardenia, and all of them were from the Hero Kingdom.
Maybe they're friends of Aella and want to talk with me? Rose wondered.
She couldn't imagine any other reason for them to keep looking at her. She understood she was an oddity, but that interest seemed to have already faded for most of the students, so it didn't make sense for only one group to still be focused on her.
The two students then left, grabbing their books and practically sprinting out of the library. Rose watched them leave, confusion washing over her.
Some people are weird, Rose decided. She shook her head to clear the thoughts and then approached one of the statues. The nearest one happened to be the biggest one in the library, that of a gryphon.
It turned its massive head towards Rose, glowing yellow eyes staring down at her. "How can this one help thee?"
"I can't control my magic," Rose told it. "Are there any books that can help me?"
"Thou must add further detail. How doth thou call magic?"
"I don't know," Rose muttered. "It does whatever it wants."
The statue stared at Rose for a solid minute before it then said, "The book thou requires is in the seventh level. Permission must be granted by the current headmaster. One moment while this one seeks approval."
Rose shifted her weight, a little surprised at that.
So the statues can contact the headmaster? Rose thought. She wondered how that worked. The statue's wings stretched out, and its tail swished from left to right.
"Permission granted. The book will come to thee shortly," the statue answered.
"Thank you," Rose thanked the statue politely.
She returned to her table and patiently waited for the book to come to her. She wished she could go up in the sections and get it herself—merely because she was curious what it was like in the upper levels—but knew that wouldn't happen. While the teachers were very lenient about giving students permission to check out books above their level, they were adamant about not actually letting anyone below their level up.
Havi told her that some of the higher-up books had enchantments on them, and others were fragile enough that only people with completely stable cores could touch them. Additionally, it was a good way to provide safe work spaces for those working with more advanced magic than others.
Rose waited for another three minutes before a medium-sized, faded, leather-bound tome floated to her, along with a pair of thick glasses. Rose plucked the glasses from the air and slipped them on. Havi said some of the books were written in old, forgotten languages, and that translation glasses had to be used on occasion. Rose figured that would be the case, and she flipped open the book to the first page.
She skimmed through the book, glancing at each chapter title. There were no indexes or table of contents in the older books, so Rose had to briefly look through them to see if it was what she wanted. And it appeared to be what she needed: a long, step-by-step process in learning how to consciously call upon magic.
Rose went back to the first page and began to read. She was thoroughly disgusted at what she had to do halfway through the first chapter, though.
Meditation.
Meditation!
Rose could barely sit still in class, and sometimes she had to pace while she read. Meditation was literally sitting still for hours and emptying your mind. Rose wasn't the sort to not think. In fact, she frequently had all sorts of random thoughts pop into her head throughout the day.
Meditation, Rose thought, aghast, her face twisting up like she had bitten into a lemon. There's no way I can do that. Surely there are other techniques or anything else I can do?
Rose began to quickly flip through the book, her eyes moving rapidly as she skimmed through the paragraphs. To her utter horror, meditation was merely the first step in a long, painfully boring process.
Feeling utterly dejected, Rose shut the book and slumped forward. "Ugh."
She stayed like that for a few minutes before scrounging up the energy to go back to the statue. With an air of reluctance, she muttered, "May I please check out this book for the month?"
The statue nodded. "It be thine for one moon cycle."
Rose's lips curled in distaste. "… Are there any books for meditation for beginners?"
"Row 17B, shelf 5, titled Inner Peace for Energetic Hatchlings."
"Thanks," Rose grumbled and headed off.
She decided to put her homework assignment on hold for the day. The assignment was to write half a page on how it felt (magic-wise) turning the ball from yellow to red. Professor Yūei really wanted everyone to focus on recognizing the change in magic, and "getting a good foundation".
But Rose couldn't really do that because she had no idea what she was doing. Rose grabbed the meditation book and took it back to her table, flipping through it with great reluctance.
She thought she felt some stares directed towards her and she reflexively covered the title of her book. It felt completely silly to have to learn meditation just to do her homework. It was discouraging enough to constantly be the last student to finish anything in class, especially when her friends seemed to be getting the hang of Blue Magic almost instantaneously.
On the other hand, she was one of the only two students to finish early in Red, and some of the looks she got from the others made it equally embarrassing. That one Hero Kingdom girl, Viola, seemed to be especially perturbed whenever Rose finished first.
For someone who did well in the other classes to be struggling with something everyone else seemed to get was… humiliating. That was why she went out of her way to work on the homework by herself and take the extra step to study. She didn't want her friends to think less of her for being the only one who couldn't turn a stupid yellow ball red.
So even though she didn't want to meditate, she would do it anyway because the alternative was much more unpleasant.
This is going to be so boring, Rose despaired. I'm going to die of boredom before I ever change that stupid ball to red.
She decided to take it back to her bedroom, as the book said to find a place she felt comfortable in.
Magic's supposed to be fun. I feel cheated.
A few hours later, Rose stalked out of her bedroom for dinner feeling tired and grumpy. She had tried to meditate for the past couple of hours but fell asleep halfway through. When she woke up, she tried again, but she kept having the undeniably strong urge to fly as fast as she could and see how far and high she could go. It was so distracting that by the time Rose finally threw in the towel, she only felt sore about the whole ordeal.
Havi left her bedroom the same time Rose did and noticed the youngest kingmate glaring sullenly at the ground. "Rose, are you okay?"
"Meditating is stupid," Rose told her, perfectly serious.
Havi blinked. "What?"
"The stupid book said to stupidly meditate so I can find my stupid magic but it's all stupid so it didn't work," Rose grumbled.
Havi's lips twitched. "You tried meditating, and it didn't work out, I take it?"
Rose nodded shortly.
"Why not go talk to Doctor Basileus? Mediation only works when you fully relax, and maybe dragons can only relax in certain ways."
Rose scratched her cheek, feeling less irritated than before at the prospect of being able to solve her issue. "You think?"
"Doctor Basileus would know the best way to help you relax regardless," Havi advised. "Lanna can't meditate in a typical sense, since she needs to be in a major storm to truly relax. Perhaps dragons are similar?"
Storms for thunderbirds… wait a minute! Rose perked up. "My lava baths! I always feel super relaxed in them, but they never put me to sleep. You're brilliant, Havi!"
Before the vampire could respond, Rose hurriedly returned to her room with a spring in her step. It was such an obvious answer that she felt silly for not thinking of it herself.
She changed into a swimsuit as fast as she could before sprinting across her cave bathroom until she reached her destination. Rose hopped into her lava bath with a bit too much glee. Instantly, she felt a sense of peace wash over and she dunked her head into the lava. She hadn't tried to breathe it in, yet, uncertain if dragons could breathe under lava (she didn't think they should, but who knew what the limits of magic were?). Her tail and wings naturally popped out and her tail waved back and forth, the tip of it poking out of the lava.
Rose took a seat on one of the shallower rocks, tugging down on her enchanted swimsuit (courtesy of Professor Nigel when she asked for one). She folded her legs into herself and slumped against the warm rocks behind her. A contented sigh escaped her lips along with her draconic purr.
Rose felt entirely at ease. She began to focus on her breathing and what she felt around her. Her fingers and toes still twitched, but she was doing a much better job than when she was in her room.
She counted her breaths, breathing with her belly and not her shoulders. With each breath she felt her muscles relaxing further, and the stress of her repeated failures began to melt away.
Deep breath in.
Deep breath out.
That's all she did until every bit of tension drained away from her. Her tail curled around her before resting on her lap, and her wings stretched out in the bubbling lava. Rose kept her eyes closed even though it didn't block out the bright light of the lava. The book said to close her eyes, and Rose wasn't one to argue against a book.
For one thing, it would be a rather one-sided argument.
If it was anything other than one-sided then Rose would have other things to worry about. Like how to tell if books were enchanted to talk back or not, and did that make them sentient? Could books have feelings? What if she hurt her textbook's feelings and it wouldn't let her read the appropriate chapter? What would be considered a book's heart? Did it vary on the book? Such as a fantasy novel might consider its star protagonist its heart, but a textbook might think it's a random word in the very center of its pages?
Rose truly hoped she never came across any talking books. She might not be able to look at her Sherlock Holmes novels the same way again.
Stop! You're supposed to clear your thoughts, Rose scolded herself. Clear thoughts. Think of nothing. Absolutely nothing. Nothing, nothing, nothing—do enchanted books smell different than regular books?
Rose wouldn't think so. Magic didn't have an individual smell that Rose could identify—and she now prided herself on her excellent smelling abilities—but that didn't mean enchantments were the same. Enchantments were, after all, magic infused into a physical object to give it certain properties.
If magic was infused to, say, a musty-smelly book, it would probably still smell musty. But the process of magic being infused into a musty-smelly book might cause a reaction, that reaction being an additional smell. Kind of like how when someone mixes vinegar and baking soda, the two smells combined make a different smell.
And cause a cool fizzing action, but that wasn't the point of Rose's thoughts—
Argh! Stop it. Empty your mind. Empty your mind. Empty, empty, empty. E as in Empty. M as in Make sure it stays empty. P as in Please stay empty. T as in Try to keep it empty. Y as in You better keep it empty. E-M-P-T-Y. Hollow. Barren. Desolate—
Rose realized she was focusing too hard on the concept of empty that she had once again failed to clear her thoughts.
With a groan, she dove underneath the pleasantly warm lava.
...🌹...
Rose hesitantly approached Professor Yūei after class the next week, feeling a mixture of embarrassment and shame. She fiddled with her fingers and patiently waited for the rest of the students to leave. Chester and Keinan offered to wait for her, but she insisted that she would catch up.
"Professor Yūei?"
The beautiful woman smiled at Rose, lowering her cup of warm tea. Rose had grown accustomed to seeing the professor sitting upright on the cushion at the front of the classroom, a cup of tea in hand. It was rare for her to get up and walk around the classroom, but when she did, she spent an equal amount of time beside each student, offering them these things called dumplings or mocchi if they answered one of her questions. Today was no different than any other day, and the Professor sat with dignified grace.
"How may I help you, little one?"
"I—I'm having trouble with the homework," Rose admitted quietly, her stomach knotting unpleasantly. She tried to keep her expression neutral to not let on how much her failures at Blue Magic bothered her.
Professor Yūei continued to smile kindly. "Would you like some tutoring?"
"I—I don't know," Rose mumbled, wringing her hands together and rocking to the balls of her feet. "I can't control my magic very well, and it doesn't like to do Blue stuff. I've tried meditation, but I'm still just getting started with it. I don't know what else to do, I'm not sure how to complete the assignment."
Professor Yūei nodded slowly, setting her tea to float in midair. "I see. Please relax, Miss Rose, you are not the first to come to me with such troubles. Magic is a powerful and chaotic force and learning to control it is never easy. Unfortunately, those with larger cores require more effort to learn control. You are meditating, though, correct?"
Rose nodded.
"Good of you to take initiative," the professor praised. "It's important that you learn to be aware of what your raw magic feels like. Understanding your own magic is the most basic beginner's step to learning to control it." Professor Yūei paused. "That being said, since you are learning at a different rate than your classmates, I will be assigning you different work until you can stand with everyone else."
At Rose's devastated look, Professor Yūei was quick to add, "It's nothing to be ashamed of! Everyone has different struggles we must face. Learning in a different way and at a different pace from your peers is nothing to be ashamed of. Professor Luck says you're very advanced in his Red class, aren't you?"
Rose nodded again slowly, her eyes still burning from Professor Yūei's previous statement.
"You don't think poorly of your peers that aren't as good in Red as you are, do you?" Rose immediately shook her head. "Good. No one will think poorly of you for this, either. For the moment, forget about the homework assignment. I want you to instead write about your meditation and consider that as your new homework."
Rose tentatively nodded her head, giving her a wobbly smile. "Thank you."
It was still crazy embarrassing to be so bad at something that she had to learn it separate from the class, but Rose was determined to change that as soon as she could. She was sure once she got ahold of her magic, she'd be right on track with the others…
Or so she hoped.
Unsurprisingly, Rose found herself looking forward to her Red and Black classes more than usual. Her struggle with Blue left her feeling rather inadequate, and Red and Black were classes that Rose was good at and thus enjoyed. Her magic loved Red, especially when it came to fire.
Not that Rose could blame it. Red was by far the coolest (but Professor Nigel was the best teacher of course), she believed. Or at least it was so far! She got to play with actual fire in class, while mostly everyone else was still on the lectures and the basics.
Fire was the best. She wondered if she could make lava like she did fire?
But that was a question that would have to wait, because soon enough, it was time for her next Black Magic class with Professor Nigel.
Rose sat at her favorite spot in Professor Nigel's classroom: on a wooden bench beneath one of the massive stained-glass windows. The bench itself wasn't very comfortable—Rose usually taking one of the spare pillows to sit on while she used it—but the sunlight that filtered through the colored window and painted over her was delightfully warm and dazzling in its beauty.
Mortem was the only one that sat beside her, since he was the only one on the same assignment as her. Chester and Keinan were still working on the assignment from last week, along with about half of the class.
Rose swung her legs out, idly kicking the air while she worked on the Dreamer's Parchment: she was designing her first organic illusion. If she finished the design before the end of class, Professor Nigel would let her use it on him, otherwise she'd have to wait until next class period. Of course, Rose wanted to finish as soon as possible, but she wasn't going to rush her first organic illusion. She wanted Professor Nigel to be proud of her, and that required taking her time to make the coolest little dragon in the whole wide world.
She originally wanted to make a cat, but Professor Nigel encouraged her to try a different animal, so, she settled for a dragon. Not simply any dragon, of course, but one of the dragons she saw on the stained-glass windows in the library.
They were the only "accurate" dragons that she could visualize, after all. The rest came from books or movies, and she didn't want to make a dragon from those because that seemed a bit too easy. The stained-glass window dragons were vague, which gave her a lot of room to stretch her imagination.
Illusions of organic beings were a lot harder than stationary ones because organic beings moved and breathed. It was more difficult to keep an illusion adapting every second—moving every second—in comparison to something static… or so they were told. Rose hadn't made an organic illusion before, so she was excited to try it out.
She gave her dragon more spikes because she thought it would look dandy that way. She was disappointed she didn't really have noticeable spikes as a dragon, from what she gathered thus far. Her tail was thick and reminded her of a dinosaur's tail if it was covered in black rocks instead of scales. The outline of her wings was very much the same, and she had to wonder if her true draconic form would be covered in those odd rock-scales. She smoothed out some of its scales, trying to make it look less furry as she had a bad habit of picturing a cat-dragon with balding spots while working.
The scales gleamed a deep red with hints of dark orange scattered about. Those were the only two colors Rose had figured out how to conjure onto Dreamer's Parchment, a far cry from Mortem's rainbow. Rose peered at her dragon, wondering if it was missing something.
Mortem reached across beside her and traced over the dragon's eye, transforming it into an electric blue.
"Oh, I like blue eyes on him," Rose said, looking appreciatively at her cool-looking dragon. "He looks cool, don't you think?"
"He looks like a porcupine."
Rose nudged his leg with her own. "Take that back, you jerk-butt."
"That's not how you say thank you," Mortem said, shocking her elbow.
It didn't hurt her in the slightest, but it was the principal of the matter. That principal being that Mortem could be simultaneously nice and ornery.
Rose stuck her tongue out at him before she looked down at his immaculate drawing of some kind of snake with yellow eyes. Rose pointed at it, being careful not to directly touch his parchment.
"What kind of snake is that?"
"A baby basilisk," Mortem said.
"Is it accurate?"
"Of course," Mortem answered, sounding offended she even asked.
"You've met a basilisk before?" Rose asked, her eyes widening. "Are they close to dragons?"
"Are fish close to humans?"
"Um… I don't think so?"
"Then no. Basilisks are part of the world snake family," Mortem said, "and dragons are their own special little snowflakes."
Rose looked back down at her spiky dragon. "Do you think I'm at least a little accurate?"
"Less spikes," Mortem advised. "Dragons are more cat-like than porcupine-like."
Rose reluctantly erased some of the spikes, recalling Doctor Basileus making a similar comparison. "How about now?"
"Close enough. From what I understand, dragons come in many different types, and some can look wildly different than others," Mortem quietly said before he used one of his gloved fingers to trace along the dragon, correcting some of Rose's shadows and dimensions. "Why do you want to make a dragon? Wouldn't it be better to do something you know?"
Rose shrugged in response. "Why do you want to make a baby basilisk?"
"To annoy Doctor Basileus, of course."
"Why would that annoy him?"
"Because he's a basilisk," Mortem explained flippantly, "and he hates being called a baby."
Rose giggled briefly at that. "That's not very nice, Mortem. Why do you want to annoy him?"
"It's in my nature, I suppose," Mortem sighed.
Rose couldn't disagree with that, so she smiled in response and set back to working on her illusion. The two worked in silence beside one another for another half-hour before Professor Nigel called for Rose to meet him outside.
Towards the far end of the classroom, there was another door that was decently hidden that led to the outside balcony. Professor Nigel's class was on the third story and overlooked the back of the castle and the large pond. The balcony was wide, mostly made of white stone, and had some benches and tables scattered around with a staggering cluster of vines and plants dotted about. The floor was mostly grass, save for the occasional white stepping stone.
Professor Nigel sat at one of the tables, a black leather notebook and pen beside him. He had been calling out each student individually to test how well they could detect illusions. It wasn't a graded test, but rather a chance for practical experience and an assessment.
Rose stepped outside into early November air, a faint breeze blowing across the balcony and making some of the flowers dance. She smiled warmly at Professor Nigel, "Professor Nigel, I think I'm ready to try out my first organic illusion."
"Well done, Miss Rose," Professor Nigel praised her. "When you are done with your assessment, please try to use the illusion on me."
Rose nodded excitedly, looking around the balcony. "Did you already cast?"
"Yes. Please tell me what is not real," Professor Nigel requested. "Rest assured that this assessment is only for a visual illusion, so you may rely on your other senses."
Rose immediately sniffed around the balcony, first looking at each flower. It didn't take her long to find one that didn't have any scent, and she could feel a faint glimmer of magic inside of it. She pointed towards it, looking over at Professor Nigel to gauge his reaction (although that was quite hard since he always wore a mask).
"Very good, that is correct," Professor Nigel said, and although she could not see it behind his mask, Rose thought he was smiling. "When you are ready, please cast your illusion."
Rose nodded, then took a deep breath. Black Magic came to her like Red, and she was able to summon the magic to the palm of her hands. She still couldn't do such to raw magic or Blue, which was frustrating. However, she had come to learn that each type of magic had a different feel to it: Red felt jumpier, whereas Black felt slicker.
If she had to describe what each magic felt like in her hands, then Red was a static-charged piece of clay that made her hands tingle when she molded it, and Black was a smooth, cool liquid that stuck to her hands like oil paint.
She visualized the dragon she had spent her entire class time working on, pushing her Black Magic out in the same instant. Slowly, blurrily and wobbly, a small red and orange dragon started to form in between the professor and student. After another minute of concentration, the illusion was finally complete, and the dragon stood upright, its spiked tail waving from side to side.
Rose forgot to make it breathe a couple times, though, resulting in it looking more like a statue than a dragon.
Professor Nigel studied it for another moment before he nodded. "That's a very good first attempt, Miss Rose. You should feel proud of yourself. Organic illusions are much more difficult because you must multitask to make them appear alive and dynamic. I would like you to keep focusing on this dragon for a while longer and try again next class period. See if you can have it walk around."
"Okay," Rose said, beaming from the praise. "Thanks, Professor."
"Of course, Miss Rose."
Rose hurried back inside of the classroom—momentarily wishing she could spend the day outside since that wonderful breeze smelled delightful—and returned to her seat. Mortem looked up from his Dreamer Parchment, tilting his head, gesturing an unspoken question.
"I did well," Rose told him, a big smile on her face.
"Of course you did," Mortem said.
"Mr. Mortem?" Professor Nigel called, and Mortem stood up from his bench.
He gave Rose his Dreamer Parchment before following Professor Nigel out the backdoor and onto the balcony. Rose watched him leave for a moment, wondering if it would take him much time. Mortem was always among the first to finish things in class, and Rose doubted today would be any exception.
As expected, Mortem returned not even two minutes later, and Rose handed him back his Parchment. She didn't need to ask him how he did, as she knew he would have done well.
The class ticked by quickly after that since they only had about fifteen minutes left. When Professor Nigel returned to dismiss them, he asked that Mortem stay behind for a couple of minutes. Rose looked curiously over at her Chasm friend while she gathered her things. She placed a Dreamer Parchment inside her bag—Professor Nigel allowed students to borrow one Parchment to practice their assignments with—and zipped it up. She tossed it over her shoulder and joined Chester and Keinan at the classroom door.
Rose lingered by the doorway with Keinan and Chester, deciding to wait for Mortem. They didn't do it often, simply because Mortem would already be out the door by the time the rest of them had gathered their things. It was odd for Mortem to be asked to stay after.
When Mortem was done talking with Professor Nigel, he approached the group slowly. "Yes?"
"We wanted to wait for you," Rose said with a smile. "Want to walk with us?"
"Okay," Mortem said, shoving his hands in his pocket.
"What did he want to talk with you about?" Rose asked him as the quartet started to walk down the hallway.
"He wanted to offer me a chance to move to a higher grade for Black Magic," Mortem answered simply.
Chester gaped. "What? Why?"
"Did you accept?" Rose asked.
"No. I've no intention of graduating early."
"Why did he offer you to move up?" Chester asked again.
"I caught on to his little assessment," Mortem said.
"Elaborate?" Keinan asked.
Mortem shrugged. "It's impressive, what he did. He's without a doubt a qualified Black Mage, but my mother is an illusionist."
"What did he do?" Chester asked him, his eyes wide.
Mortem paused briefly in his footsteps before continuing. "There is no balcony."