~Following Lauren~
It's finally Saturday, so of course Lauren doesn't bother with her uniform today and why would she willingly put on that monstrosity when given a choice. She's wearing a simple cosy outfit, jogging pants and a hoodie. She just leaves her hair in the braid she has when she sleeps. Lauren is sorting through her books and notes to prepare for her tutoring session with Elora, when she hears an obnoxious knock at her door.
She flicks her hand, causing grey energy to appear and coil around the handle, swinging open the door. Lauren looks towards her door to see the unfortunate sight that is Alexandrea standing in her doorway. She has an obnoxious grin plastered on her face, it's already giving Lauren a headache. "Morning Lauren, I see you put as much effort into your appearance as usual" She says in her usual haughty tone.
"I'm not dealing with this today" Lauren responds shortly before flicking her hand again, making the door slam into Alexandrea, locking her out. Lauren takes three deep breaths to re center herself, she does her best to ignore the shrill squawking of indignation from outside her room.
Lauren walks across her living room to the quaint bookshelf standing in the corner. She starts sorting through her books on beginner magic and how to properly teach someone new to intentional magic. Lauren finds the book she's looking for behind her normal textbooks, the cover is coated in layers upon layers of dust, due to it not being used in around roughly two years now.
Lauren then starts moving her furniture around, pushing two chairs opposite to each other behind the coffee table sat in the centre of her living room.
She sighs as she flips open her phone to check the time, 'damn, still got fifteen minutes' Lauren thinks to herself as she takes one of the seats and closes her eyes.
~Following Elora~
Elora jolts awake with a violent snort, her alarm blaring in her ear. She looks around with bleary eyes for a second as she tries to determine the cause of the noise. When she locates her alarm clock she lets out a hefty sigh,a sudden gust of violent wind knocks over her alarm smashing it against her soft carpet floor, surprising Elora.
"I… am just gonna ignore that" Elora says to herself, still not fully awake. She literally rolls out of her big fluffy bed onto the floor next to her now broken alarm clock. Her eyes suddenly snap open as she sees the time that was last on her alarm. "SHIT SHIT SHIT!" Elora yells as she jumps up and rushes into her wardrobe, she looks down at her cartoon nighty and comes to a resolute decision.
"THIS WILL HAVE TO DO" Elora exclaims as she grabs dark forest green overalls and pulls them over her nighty. At least now she looks like she's wearing actual clothes.
Elora grabs her new backpack and runs out of her room, making sure to move as fast as she can on her admittedly weak legs. She sprints her way over to where she knows Laurens room is.
~Following Lauren and Elora~
Lauren is still resting peacefully when Elora enters her room, or she was till Elora blew the door off its hinges with a great burst of wind. Her eyes snap open and she summons a grey mist from her wrists, Laurens eyes and pendant glow a faint grey.
"IT'S ME! IT'S JUST ME, PLEASE DON'T KILL ME! I'M SORRY I'M LATE!" Elora yells. Panicking at the sight of the older girl's obvious threat. Eloras eyes widen in fear, she fails to meet Laurens glowing gaze, the sharpness of her stare causing Elora to tense. Lauren looks at Elora with a mix of dread and dark curiosity. "How? How were you able to do that?" She asks Elora, her tone icy.
"I'm sorry? I didn't mean- I just tripped- I swear I won't ever do that again" Elora blurts out in apology. Lauren takes a second to stare at Elora with that cold grey look, after what feels like a millenia she seems to come to a conclusion, as her hands drop to her sides and her eyes stop glowing.
"I don't care about the door, that can be easily replaced. What I want to know is how did you manage to break through the protective runes and wards" Lauren asks, though it sounds more like a demand than a question.
"Protective what? I don't understand" Elora speaks, calming down now it's clear Lauren won't decapitate her. Lauren lets out a breath as she sits down on one of the cosy chairs she set up earlier. "Just take a seat. I'll explain" Lauren says.
Elora goes to take the offered seat and is surprised by how uncomfortable they are.
"The wards and runes that I mentioned earlier are built into every room, they were set up to ensure that only the owner and staff members could freely enter and exit the room. When you arrive at the school you get shown to a room that has already been set up with these runes, the wards activate after the owner pours their magical energy into the handle. That's what you did at the beginning of this year, as did I at the beginning of mine." Lauren explains, taking the time to be as thorough as possible for Elora's benefit.
Elora still looks slightly confused, but goes with it anyway. "Why I was ready to kill you when you suddenly entered my room, is because it shouldn't be possible without incredibly high levels of magic. In order to do what you just did would end up killing most senior students, let alone a novis wind elemental who just started their schooling a week ago" Lauren continues explaining.
Elora doesn't know whether to feel offended or impressed. "Well… I've not been doing things like this on purpose. Whenever something sets me off, something ends up breaking." Elora says, still trying to process all this new information.
"Well, that's what you're here for." Lauren rolls her eyes at Elora's obvious confusion. "Most magic users need to develop their magical core, these are sorcerers and warlocks. People like you and I; Elementals and Witches, are born with a fully formed magical core. Because of this we have to learn how to nurture and control our magic, whereas Sorcerers and Warlocks develop theirs, giving them better control in the long run." Lauren picks up a booklet from the coffee table in between herself and Elora.
"I want you to read through this for the following week. You're far behind on the basics, even compared to others your own age. Now that we've got that outta the way, let's get to some exercises" Lauren drawles as Elora stares at her.
Elora shakes her head and snaps back to attention "We get to do magic, Yes"! Elora jumps up from her seat and pumps her fist in excitement. Lauren sighs and moves to grab what seems to be a crystal ball that's sitting beside the piles of textbooks on the table.
Lauren places the ball in front of herself and starts "Now let's get star-". "Are we gonna read our fortunes!?" Elora interrupts, her eyes wide in excitement and disbelief. Lauren looks at her with an expression that just screams 'how are you so stupid'.
"No, why would you? Nevermind. It's just an exercise in control, it's simple, just grab the ball and pour energy into it. It's exactly like what you did with your room at the start of the year" Lauren puts her hands on the ball and closes her eyes, focusing her energy into the object it starts to glow a faint grey in response.
Elora looks on in wonder, still being so new to magic has made almost everything trigger her interest. "Ok, now you try," Lauren says, pushing the ball towards Elora. Elora nods and takes a deep breath, she then places her hands on the ball mimicking Laurens movements. She barely starts letting her energy flow into the ball when it suddenly shatters into pieces in her hands.
Lauren gapes in shock and anger, her eyes taking on that grey glow from earlier. "What the fuck! Do you know how hard it is to replace those! Their so fucking expensive!" Lauren's eyes feel like they're burning, from potential tears or from the energy accumulating there, she doesn't care to know.
"I-I'm sorry, I just did what you did" Elora weakly defends herself, fear clawing up her throat. Laurens glare doesn't weaken, instead she flicks her hand towards Elora, making her flinch. Despite Elora's assumptions, her head doesn't go flying off her shoulders, what happens instead is a whirlpool of grey energy forms beneath the crystal shards and drags them into itself before disappearing.
"Leave" Lauren says, gesturing to where the door used to be. When Elora doesn't move she squats to the ground and places her hands next to each other. Elora's confusion only lasts a second before she feels her feet slide from beneath her, causing her to gasp. For a split second after 'falling' she sees the same pieces of crystal in what appears to be an endless void. She blinks and finds herself in the unity garden, buried in dirt with the booklet beside her.
She looks up to see the quickly shrinking swirl of grey energy she saw not much earlier.
~Following Lauren~
Lauren gasps as she collapses onto her carpeted floor, she knows portal magic takes a lot out of her, she should've just literally thrown her out. Lauren wearily blinks as she flips open her phone and sends one quick text to a number she hasn't opened in a year before closing her eyes and letting sleep take her.
'Call me in a few hours, I need your help'
It's marked as seen.