"How was school today?" Circe asked the teal green-eyed boy. He was resting his head on the light red-haired woman's thighs while she gently stroke his hair.
"It was so-so," he replied. His eyes were closed and his body relaxed as the yellow-eyed woman massaged his head.
"Don't give me that," she persisted. "We received a letter from your school and the Bureau asking that we let you attend the rest of the semester without any interference, surely they had something interesting in mind," she said.
"Well, that man, the new instructor," he began.
"Sir Aragones?"
"Yeah, he came as soon as my first class started and asked for me," Hunter stated.
"Really?"
"Mm-hm."
*EARLIER TODAY*
•MET School of Mysticism • 09:02
The brown-haired teacher quietly discusses something with the class teacher before turning to face the year 1 sprites. "Hunter Heffernan," he called. "Come with me."
Hunter slowly got out of his seat, wondering why the coordinator had requested him out of the other sprites. It turns out his classmates also shared that thought as each one of their eyes stared daggers at him as he made his way out of the class.
Hunter reached outside to find that the blue-eyed man had not waited for him outside the class. Rather, the staff was already several meters away forcing the teal green-eyed boy to run so he may catch up to him. When he caught up to the man, he did not say anything, silently following him as he walked away from the sprite's department to another department on the other side of the school; the conjurer's department.
As soon as the brown-haired man came to a stop, Hunter felt it appropriate to speak. "I'm still following you ..." Hunter said unsure why the school staffer had led him to a different department.
"I'm aware. Come," he said as he walked into one of the classes in the large building. The class was spacious with no seats, desks, or boards. If Hunter hadn't seen the tag on the door, he would have assumed the place was an indoor field.
There was no teacher in the class so the student had split into smaller groups and were speaking freely.
"Wow, they really have a lot of freedom over here," he noted.
"Listen up," Sir Aragones said ignoring the sprite's comment and drawing the conjurers' attention.
"Hunter? What are you doing here?" Martin said.
"Hunter Heffernan would now be training with you all every Monday," Sir Aragones said.
"I am?"
*PRESENT TIME*
"... And that's basically it," Hunter said.
"Did you actually conjure something?" Circe queried.
"Nada! He said it would come with time. Met some new people though," he said.
"Quite the eventful day," said Circe.
"It was. It really was," Hunter agreed. "I don't know why he thinks I can conjure something up," said the sprite.
"I do," Circe said. "Remember what I said to the councilors when I stood in your defense?"
"Yeah: 'Dark magic, Black magic, and chaos magic go closely together, it is possible that when he tapped into the energy from the mist which was black magic, his tremendous potential allowed him to exceed its limits and cross over to chaos magic. Honorable councilors, such talent should not be locked away or removed entirely from this world especially not at a time like this where more and more black magic users have been appearing, instead, they should be trained and put to good use, for the sake of our world and that of humanity.'"
"You remember?"
"Every single word. It's not every day an angel comes to save you," said the dark-haired boy.
Circe smiled. "I didn't just say that to convince them to let you go. I said that because that is what I believe. While others only possess the abilities specific to a single order, I believe your abilities transcend just that of a sprite."
"Wow ... Thanks. I'll try to put more in my conjurer training," he said.
Circe smiles. "What about the girl you agreed to train, are you still doing that?"
"Nova? Our last session was yesterday. I added Sophia to the lessons since Zoe is still recovering," Hunter stated.
"Zoe? That's the one you told me you had to rescue from Hel, right? How is she?"
"Remember when I told you she spent the night at my place? Well, she kept on doing it and I decided to move to the place you got me in the Met. I first asked her to stay there with Chelsea but she refused."
"Oh, so you're now living with two women, how does that feel?" She asked.
"It's ... Stressful," Hunter stated.
"Honey, you know that's not why I asked. Give me some interesting stories. Maybe an accident or something. Give me anything!" She demanded.
"Ah I see what you mean and no, there was no accidental anything. Everything that happened was intentional," he stated.
"Ooh. I sense some drama. What happened?"
"Well ..."
*YESTERDAY*
•Metropolitan city • 10:21
Hunter heard a soft rap on the door and before he responds the door swung open. Zoe walks in and sits on the bed. "Your friend is being annoying," she said.
"Chelsea?" He asked even though he already knew what was said. "What did she do?" He asked.
"She told me I stink," she said like a little child.
The sprite already felt what Chelsea felt when Zoe was near the honey-brown-eyed woman so didn't need to smell the black-haired girl to know that she does in fact stink.
"Zoe," he started, "when was the last time you took a bath?" He asked.
"Since we came back from Hel, why?"
"And how often did you take baths before you were taken to Hel?"
"Twice a day."
"So why don't you ..." He sighs. "You have to shower at least once a day."
"I wanted to but you've already taken your bath," said Zoe.
"What does that have to do with anything?"
"Well, with how expensive water bills are, I wanted us to take a shower together, to save money of course."
"Zoe ..."
"Come on," she said sniffing her cuffs. "I do stink."
*PRESENT TIME*
"Wow! You're living the dream!"
"Not my dream," Hunter said.
"Hehe," she laughed. So what happened after that?"
"I'm going to pretend I didn't hear you."
She laughs. "Alright. Anything interesting happened during the training?"
"Not much but if you must know ..."
*YESTERDAY*
•Metropolitan City • 18:34
"Why do I have to travel all the way to the Metropolitan city before you can train me?!" said Nova who had a scowl on her face.
"Because Miss Rhys, knowledge isn't something you sit back and wait for, rather, it is something you must seek and work hard for to obtain it," said the dark-haired boy.
Nova frowns. "What the hell are you talking about?" She moved her gaze to the stone blue-skinned girl. "Who's she?" She asked.
"Nova, Sophia, and vice versa," he introduced.
"Hello, Hunter has told me a bit about you, it's nice to meet you," said the girl with the blindfold.
"It's nice to meet you too," Nova smiles.
"Well, now that that's out of the way, let's get on with the training," Hunter said as he stepped in front of the two ladies.
Today's lesson is Domain," he began. "For a sorcerer, the most basic and most important aspect of any spell, movement, attack, and the likes is the domain. The domain is the area that is controlled and can be manipulated by the sorcerer. Just like the way you're able to move parts of your body, the domain becomes simply an extension of your body, observe." He pairs his index with his middle finger as he said it, moving both fingers in the air as if drawing half a circle.
A small circle appeared on the ground with runes in it. "The domain is extended as far and wide as the sorcerer can extend it," he continued.
[Wow! You're just copy-pasting your teacher's words, huh?]
'Shut up!'
"Inside the domain, a sorcerer's powers are near unlimited, and for a strong sorcerer, inside his domain, he becomes invincible!" The teal green-eyed boy stated.
"The move you did," Sophia said. "Do I have to do it every time I want to form a domain?" She asked.
"You can see?!" Nova said surprised.
"Yes, she can," the dark-haired boy chipped. "And that is a really good question Sof. No, you do not have to do that move to form a domain. In fact, most sorcerers hide the extent of their domain, unlike the demonstration I just showed you," he explained.
"If there are no more questions, I'll be taking you on a course on how to form a domain," he stated.
"Forming a domain isn't easy, but it's not a difficult task either," said the dark-haired sprite. Nova ties her curly hair up into a messy bun before standing upright.
"Now I want you to breathe in and out," Hunter continued. "Keep in mind the domain is an extension of yourself, you don't have to go big, think of the space between your feet, and focus on that space. Now, close your eyes ..."
The two ladies do as the sprite instructed, both closing their eyes. "Now forget about everything: what you're having for lunch, whether or not you left the stove on, or thinking about why Top Dolla sucks; forget everything." Hunter's last comment draws a snigger from the redhead and she quickly apologizes. "Sorry."
"Now listen to that small space between your feet, it's calling on to you, sending you pure, natural energy, through your feet, to your diaphragm, your mind, your soul ... All you have to do is harness that energy, take the energy in and make that space a part of yourself, your domain ..."
They both performed the hand movement Hunter did when he was demonstrating to them and the ground beneath where Nova stood began to glow, a small circle first appeared and then it grew large with time, larger than Hunter's. "Got it!" She yelped with delight.
"Good one, Nova," The teal green-eyed boy commended. He then turned his attention to the stone-blue-skinned girl who was struggling to form a domain. "Come on, come on!" She mumbled to herself but Hunter still picked up on what she had said. "Shit!" She exclaimed frustratedly before kicking the air.
Hunter moved closer to Nova. "Hey, how about you go over there and try and see if you can form a domain without the circle being visible," he instructed.
"Alright. Any hints?" She asked.
"Try to form a stronger connection as quickly as possible," he advised.
"Sure." The Metropolitan school student then walked over to where his stone blue-skinned friend stood. "Why the long face?"
Sophia threw a punch at the sprite in front of her but he easily catches her hand. "I see why Zoe calls you Noodle hands," he teased causing the redhead to crack a smile.
"I don't think I've seen you so frustrated since ... ever. What's bothering you?"
"It's just ... Zoe has been trying to teach me this same thing for weeks and I still can't figure out how to do it," she said.
'Weeks? Crap, that must be it!'
"You've never lied to me before Sof, don't start now," said the sprite.
Sophia sighs before sitting down on the floor, the sprite moves to her side and sits next to her. "I just feel so ... weak. Even though I am no longer a human, I'm still no different from them, weaker even," she said.
"So you think it's your fault Zoe was sacrificed to Hel?"
"Hey! I never said that," said the redhead.
"You didn't have to."
"Okay shrink, you're going to diagnose me next?"
"Not at all but I do have some words for you," he said. "I think you're being too hard on yourself. Everyone studying here has been practicing magic for almost a decade - real stuff, I'm not making it up."
"Didn't you start just after autumn?"
"The school? Yes. Magic? For as long as I can remember. I'm not asking you to be nonchalant about all of it, I just want you to know how much time everyone else has on you. But that doesn't mean you'll need that much time to get to where we are."
"You're just saying that."
"No. I'm saying that because I know you very much and I've seen that you never half-ass anything; you're determined, persistent, resilient, and you've got a great ass!"
"I know right? It's my best feature, I'm so proud of it!"
"As you should be! Now, on a different yet slightly related to our original talk note, is that the ring you got during our visit to the Skyline fair years ago?"
Sophia looks down at her finger and smiles. "You mean the ring you won for me back then."
"Yeah ... I wanted to get you the big blue stuffed animal, I think it was a bear."
"It was. I don't think I'd have a place to keep it. I was glad you didn't win it honestly, Auntie would've made me throw it out the second she saw it. The ring on the other hand I can keep for as long as I want."
Hunter smiles. "Can I see it?"
"Sure." Sophia slipped the ring out of her finger and passed it to Hunter. The sprite held it in his hand for a bit and the ring glowed for the same amount of time. He passed the ring back to his friend. "Here, try casting a domain again but this time, draw your energy from the ring and not the ground."
Sophia nods and got up from the ground, slipping the ring back to her finger. She did as the sprite instructed, drawing her energy from the ring and using it to connect herself to the ground before attempting to cast a domain. A circle appeared on the ground, much bigger than Nova's, and when the redhead opened her eyes to see her work, it grew bigger with disbelief. "I did it Hunter, I did it!"
*PRESENT TIME*
"How did you know she was a dark mystic?" Circe asked.
"A hunch. There was no dark energy around and I know that dark mystics instinctively turn natural energy from the earth into dark energy so they can use it but I assumed since Sophia was still fairly new to the mystic world, I'll need to treat her like a parent would feed their little child: prechew the food before feeding the child."
"So you fill the ring with dark energy so she wouldn't have to go through the struggle of first converting it. Brilliant."
"Thanks."
"Well, it sounds like you had a long week and it's still Monday," said the light red-haired woman.
"Tell me about it."
"Makes me feel guilty for what I want to tell you," Circe said.
"What is it? I can hear your heart beat faster."
"I'm scared of how you might think."
"I won't get mad I promise."
"Well, this old demon I was chasing some decades ago was sighted in Spain. We'd be going there to bring him in."
"You're kidding! How can I be mad because we are going to Spain?!"
"Phew," she breathed out. "I thought you'll be mad I'm asking you to go on a mission with how busy you've been."
"I'm not!"
"I'm glad," she smiled.
"Can we go right away?"
Circe laughs. "Slow down. Say, Hunter, have you heard from Leah?"
"Not really. Didn't you say Jade went to another realm to help with their demon problem? I just assumed the two of them went together. Is she missing?"
"I don't think so but Jade went alone. I'll have Libby assign an agent to look for her, just in case," said Circe.
[Hm]
'What is it?'
[Nothing. The pieces are just starting to fall in place]
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