Where the hell was Lily?

The encounter with Raven had been frustrating enough, but now her roommate had decided to vanish, just when Magpie had a good lead. Thanks to Raven, she thought bitterly.

The man was an ass. Her trainer, known as Buzzard in the flock, had been putting her in one awkward social situation after another for the past day. First it was finding out who some random boy liked. Then it was finding out who the object of his affections liked, and so forth, until she had established the topology of attraction for an entire chain of people. That had taken her hours of running around, ‘randomly’ bumping into people between classes and pretending to know them, or pretending that she knew a friend of theirs, or creating situations where they would introduce themselves. It was horrible and it was exhausting, but it was her assigned mission, so she was able to fortify herself against her insecurities and put herself into a detached mindset that allowed for her to use her understanding of social mechanics.

It was all Raven’s fault. He had said he would talk to her trainer about social engineering, and sure enough he had. She felt like a matchmaker slash social butterfly in training, her cheeks hurt from smiling, and she wanted to kill someone. Raven would be a nice start. Followed closely by Lily. If she would just log in, or return from wherever she was hiding, Magpie could escape this fake social hell and get back to what she wanted to be doing; learning magic.

You know what, she decided, screw this. Time to get my feet wet. She didn’t smile at her internal pun. There had been enough of that today. It was time for a water magic class, and it just so happened she was only one hall down from the class location shown on her map. Guess my feet had already decided.

The atmosphere of the class was very different from her air magic experience. For starters, the classroom was dim and lit by dozens of faint blue green dots scattered randomly over the walls and ceilings. Rather than chairs and tables, the floor was divided into pools of varying sizes, lit internally by more of the photoluminescent dots. Wavy bands of light and shadow flowed gently over the walls, reflections and projections from the gently rippling water of the pools. The air was cool and humid, filled with the sound of dripping. It was obviously intended to be a relaxing environment, but Magpie’s memory of her dive into the cold, dark waters of the chasm pond caused her to shiver and wish for real light.

I bet the instructor’s a fish or something.

There were a handful of students present, some lounging in the pools, others sitting quietly on the floor. The hushed and reverent atmosphere seemed to discourage the usual pre-class chit-chat.

She found a relatively dry patch against a wall and settled in, waiting for the class to start. It was also the last class period of the day, so perhaps everyone’s silence was due to fatigue as much as anything. It also explained why there were so few students in the room.

As it turned out, she was the last to arrive, and it was only a minute before the instructor showed himself, emerging from a large central pool in a stack of slow, sinuous coils.

“Greetingssss, sssstudentsssss,” he hissed. “I am Professssor Ssssssissssssitusssss. Ssssso pleassssed to sssssee sssssuch sssstudiousss sssscholarsss.”

To Magpie’s surprise, several students burst into laughter. This was explained by the professor's next statement.

“But seriously,” he continued in a raspy voice. “It’s nice to start a new term. I see several new faces in here, so let me clarify. My name is actually Sisitus, and my people, the Naga, do love our sibilant sounds. I’ll try to restrain myself for the most part.”

The next few minutes were occupied by introductions all around. When Magpie had her turn, Sisitus turned to the class.

“When we’re finished with introductions, I’d like to start class with Magpie, if she would be so kind. She discovered a rare, primal source in her Trial, in the dark chasm that some of you are familiar with.”

“Runk!” called out a student excitedly.

“Yes, I believe that’s the one. For those fortunate enough to reach the bottom and return, which is few enough, the source obtained therein varies, though it is always exceptional.” He looked at Magpie and a membrane slid sideways across one eye.

“A little bird told me Magpie received a water breathing spell closely related to the Water Breathing ability possessed by my people and several other aquatic species. I look forward to learning more.”

After that, the introductions passed quickly, and Magpie found herself the center of attention. She told them the story of her brush with the jelly skeletons, and then explained her Water Aspect Fused Breath spell and her current ranks in its components as best she could.

“Squirxical, I believe they are called,” Sisitus explained about the mysterious underwater beings. “Not incredibly dangerous, but very persistent when they find something they want to keep. I’m more interested in how they reacted to the source in its gem form. I would hazard a guess that you were fusing them with the surrounding water without meaning to. Given that their flesh is mostly liquid already, it must have caused them to dissolve entirely.”

“Professor Prerry said that Fused was a dangerous class.”

“Oh yes, Opela was exactly correct about that. It’s more of an Earth class than anything, but exceedingly rare even there. We will need to go very slow in your development of any new spells using it. Your current spell is completely safe, of course, as long as you don’t run out of mana while you’re using it.”

“How long would that be?”

“Interesting question. Most easily solved through experimentation, but the theory behind your spell’s mana use is important to discuss.” He reared up, his human torso reaching the ceiling. “Would anyone care to speculate?”

“She’s at two, two, two, four in her ranks for the spell, so base cost is thirty-two.” called someone from one of the pools.

“It’s a timed utility spell, am I correct esteemed professor?” asked a scaled being that had introduced itself as Jilkiss O... something. She was so burned out from her day of socializing she didn’t have the capacity to remember any more names.

“That would be my initial classification, Jilkiss. Utility for its function, but also because it is not entirely clear what improving the rank of the spell will do. Timed, because of Magpie’s experience, though it may well turn out to be stable at higher ranks. Oh, and Lala, don’t forget that the source level is initiate, so the mana usage will be half of the base, or sixteen.”

Lala, the voice from the pool evidently, muttered something indistinct in reply.

Sisitus turned back to Magpie, his coils flowing to bring his human torso to her level. “Did you follow any of that?” She wobbled her head somewhere between a nod and a shake. “Well, I will summarize. A timed utility spell typically applies a useful effect with a cost of mana applied continuously during the casting duration. For example, if I cast Create Water, it uses an amount of mana proportional to how much water I create.”

He summoned a globe of water into his hand, which promptly ran down his arm and onto the floor. “But if I cast Summon Fountain…” Water appeared over his hand again, but this time it fell in a continuous trickle, a steady stream that fell through the air, splattered onto the floor, and ran into one of the pools. “…I need to maintain a stream of mana that matches the volume of water as it is created. Both are water utility spells, the second one is timed. A spell is considered to be stable if it lasts without ongoing cost until the will of the caster is concluded or broken.”

Magpie watched as he demonstrated, marveling at how naturally his human part flowed out of the serpent tail. Thin strands of iridescent scales continued up his muscular torso, all the way to his face where they swirled around his bright green eyes, almost like glasses. Even though he had no hair, and his pupils were vertical slits, she couldn’t stop looking at him, and she felt a warm, floating feeling rising up through her body.

He turned away from her and the feeling stopped. “Any questions at this point? No? Alright then, if you have an ongoing project, attend to that while I make the rounds, otherwise, meditate or pass the time quietly.” He turned back to Magpie, and the feeling returned, stronger than before. She had never imagined a snake man would be so, well, cute. She leaned toward him as he said something to her, something she couldn’t really focus on. His mouth was moving, but the words were floating away before her ears could catch them. Then he was reaching toward her face, his hand caressing her cheek and…

He pushed her eyes away from him. “Whoa there,” he said softly. “Be careful. It happens sometimes that young humans fall under my kind’s sway. It’s nothing we do on purpose, just a natural ability that attracts those with the right traits. “

Right traits for what? she wondered.

“Wait there for just a moment. I have something that will help.” He turned away and plunged into the pool, his coils gracefully circling behind him.

“Oooh, hot for teacher!” called a boy’s voice from across the room. Magpie didn’t look up to see who it was; she kept her eyes down, face burning with mortification.

“Like I didn’t see you staring for the first few classes?” called a girl.

“Yeah, but I didn’t get caught!” the boy replied.

This was beyond embarrassing for Magpie. She was supposed to be a cold creature of the night. A predator, a manipulator. She vowed that she was going to look straight at the Naga when he returned and…

Oh, there he is, she noticed, her thoughts melting into a warm puddle. And he’s brought me a present! She felt so special as he placed the necklace over her head, broad links of interlocking silver serpents. At least until it settled completely onto her neck. Then she felt mortified again.

“I’m so sorry,” she said, eyes still averted. This was worse than dealing with Raven.

“You are not the first,” he replied. “Far from it, though it is uncommonly strong in your case. When you are stronger, and much older, seek out my kind beyond the Garden. Until then, I would suggest wearing this necklace at all times, but especially in class.”

He reared up, “I trust everyone is using their time well?”

There was a certain edge to his voice, and the room became utterly silent as everyone pretended to be fully involved in their studies.

***

After her awkward goodbye with Anda, Lilijoy returned to her room to think. And she had a lot to think about. Her battle with the two Renaissance operatives had driven home to her just how much she had to learn. Even with surprise on her side, they had handled her with ease. Her ability to think at a greatly accelerated rate hadn’t helped her nearly as much as she had expected, mostly because no amount of thinking could overcome ignorance.

It had helped her observe her opponents thoroughly though, and as she replayed the fight in her mind she realized that everything after the first moment of her attack had been utterly controlled by the two. It was not just bad luck that she had been stunned, then kicked across the room into the waiting arms of the man.

She suspected it had something to do with the odd quantum field surrounding and connecting them. She wasn’t sure to what extent, but they operated in almost perfect synchrony during the fight, and after. She had never seen them exchange a glance; one or the other always had eyes on her and Anda, and when they switched who was watching who, it was simultaneous and instant.

Anda, she messaged, did you notice anything weird about the two agents?

You mean the nice people currently escorting me to the stealth floater that the Renaissance totally doesn’t have? Or the fact that an ostensibly peaceful organization that I am theoretically a high-ranking member of, seems to have access to extremely high ranked combat operatives that I don’t know anything about? Other than that, no. Nothing out of the ordinary.

Ha ha. No, I mean that they acted like they could read each other’s minds.

Like we’re doing now.

No. Faster. Like they could see what the other was seeing.

Oh. Well, remember when you sent me your visual stream in our fight with Sinaloa? It could be something like that. A little crazy to for both to do it at the same time, but with the right system, I guess anything is possible. Speaking of crazy systems, any hints as to what I should expect, now that I’ve been inoculated with your bugs?

Well, it was prepped with your immune signature, so hopefully no seizures.

Great.

If you’ve been boosting endorphins or dopamine or anything else, things might be bad.

Also great. I’ve really tried, but I did have to mess with my reward system so I didn’t do really stupid things. Marcus helped with that. So you’re saying all that may go away before anything improves.

Maybe? I was unconscious for Stage Two initialization, and I didn’t have another system. If you were here, I would have tried to knock you out for a day or two.

Nice.

Anyway, you’ll need to learn a cultivation technique. Hopefully, your system will come with a guide, cause I’m guessing that anything I say will just confuse you.

Wait. Did I just fall into a wuxia?

I didn’t know what that was until you said it. But yes, there seem to be some deliberate elements of that in the Tao system. The developer seemed to like a side of Taoist mysticism with his nanotechnology.

Okay. That’s pretty cool, actually. It’s right there in the name, I guess. Got to go, people talking at me.

Okay. Be safe.

Yeah right.

She felt a little better about things after talking to Anda. Even though he didn’t really confirm her theory about the operatives, just the notion that it was a possibility made her feel better about being handled so easily. And the fact that Anda thought they were high ranked made her feel better too.

She had toppled the man using techniques Rosemallow had taught her, which mostly circumvented the raw strength of an opponent, but the way the woman shoved her into the air with one foot, and the iron grip of the man did seem to point to augmented strength. That would put them at least around Rank Eight, way out of her league.

Feeling a little better about the fight’s outcome, and a little worse about her preparation, Lilijoy mulled her options. Her goal was to rescue Attaboy from Sinaloa clan, so the first problem was that she didn’t know where they were keeping him. It didn’t matter how strong she was if she didn’t know where to go.

She fell back onto her cot, rubbed her eyes, and came to a decision. Looking for help from the Inside was taking too long. Rosemallow’s connections were nowhere to be found, and who knew if they could help even if they did make contact. Meanwhile, the two most impressive operatives she had ever come across were still only minutes away. She had something they wanted, so maybe they could help her in return. And she would be able to go with Anda to help him through the transition. Perfect.

She messaged Anda.

Anda, I know you won’t like this, but I want you to ask them to turn around and come back for me.

There was no reply, which didn’t alarm her. Anda had a lot going on. Still, every second they were getting farther away, so she bumped it up a notch.

URGENT: Anda, ask them to come back.

Still no reply. Lilijoy knew that the ‘URGENT’ tag from her would cause Anda’s system to interrupt anything he was doing, or wake him up if necessary. But if he didn’t agree with her request, he could just refuse to answer, so she tried again, using the one tactic she thought might work.

Anda, I need their help to rescue Attaboy. Please, please do what I’m asking... I’m calling in your debt to me. I’ve saved your life at least twice. I know this will work. Trust me.

No reply. She waited for another minute, and then screamed in frustration as she kicked her legs on her cot. “God damn it, Anda!” She was furious. After all she had done for him, the least he could do was reply. She had even given him…

Oh.

I bet his system just shut down.

Crap.