The mages disappeared somewhere in the house. Dasnor moved closer to the wall, put a cig into his mouth and clicked the lighter loudly. Niji reluctantly moved away her glance from him to Rem, who’d coughed to attract her attention.

“So… you’re accepted. Congratulations,” he said with zero desire to actually celebrate and ran his hand through his hair. “I can’t believe I was ditched because my magic power is too low. Those people, speaking about mages’ rights, huh…”

“Rem, I am sorry about what I said there.”

“I understand, Niji. It’s just… to be honest, I am indeed useless in the fight. I’ll just drag you down.”

“Still… I shouldn’t have said that.”

“It doesn’t matter. You are right anyway.”

For a few seconds they were looking at each other without a word. Finally Niji brought herself to ask, “Where will you go?”

“I’ll return to the guys… I mean, the Academy. Get some position in the supply division, as offered. I’ll try to reach PRISM’s archives to find something useful about your amplifier… ah, no worries, I won’t tell them about you… us. If I wanted, I would do it already, wouldn’t I?” Rem tried to smile.

A pit opened in Niji’s stomach. It would be better if he confessed his everlasting love and went away, leaving her alone with her awful behaviour. She didn’t deserve his help, but Rem seemed to take everything in a total humility of his.

“Well, I hope we’ll meet again,” Niji managed to pronounce.

“Many times. They will allow me here for a couple of minutes, I hope?”

“Anyways, you know where I live.”

They hugged briefly, and Rem left the residence’s territory hastily. Rebecca and Viktor watched him go from the height of the watchtower they were sitting on. The manipulator shook her head in rebuke.

Niji was slow to notice how Dasnor approached her with smoke all around him.

“You’ll have to sacrifice a lot to reach your goal. You must be ready for losses.”

His speech was too cavalier and offhand for a person who managed to utter just a dozen of words a day. His voice was vibrating annoyingly somewhere deep in Niji’s skull. To her own surprise, she scowled at him, “Wonderful. A pseudo-philosophical line pronounced by the operator of Virtual Intercourse Service.”

Dasnor’s face showed something like a confusion. He made his last drag, threw a cig right on the ground and crossed his hands.

“I speak in a way I do, no more no less.”

“What should I do then?”

“I don’t know. Try covering your ears.”

“I mean, what’s next. Do I have to live here? Or what?”

“Live where you want. We have spare rooms. Here or at ‘Blue Cat.’ Just make sure you don’t skip meetings and training sessions.”

“I rent an apartment downtown. I’d better stay there.”

“Even with the cult’s bounty on you?”

“I cannot afford 24-hour bodyguard service.”

“It’s not that I’m going to babysit you but… you are my subordinate now. It means… Your safety is my concern. So I’ll do everything to protect you.”

Now it was Niji’s turn to blink in surprise. Which serial did he pick this phrase from—or did he actually mean it, despite how stupidly blunt it sounded? After a somewhat awkward pause, Dasnor nodded at her left hand, “What’s with this glove?”

“Oh that is… an artifact, a family relic. It helps to manipulate the energy dispersion and control the elemental flow. It can be hard to deal with raw energy, but with the glove it’s concentrated in the center of the palm, then follow the direction you indicate,” Niji demonstrated what she was explaining. “Like, if you want just one shot, you need to firmly press your fingers together, if you need a firewall, then you spread them like this.”

“I’ve noticed you do magic just with this hand only. Why? Isn’t being ambidextrous a standard in the Academy?”

The girl went red, and she moved away her eyes, “Well, I… I can’t do it. No idea why. That’s why I always got low scores in Elemental Control Art.”

“Tsk,” Dasnor clicked his tongue. “Low scores… who cares?”

“I do,” Niji grumbled. “I’ve put a lot of effort into doing magic with both hands… but it’s no use, however I try. This makes me… inferior, in a way.”

“It’s dumb to be frustrated over imaginary flaws. One should turn them into their advantage. Any skill in basic firearms?”

“Not that it’s great for Elementalists, but… I learned a few tricks during Rem’s self-defense course. Just to give him company. Why?”

“Forget about stupid prejudice about mages and ‘weapons of the Feebles.’” The thing is, your right hand is a useless limb, without the amplifier. You don’t use it, but you could. Just a bit of practice—luckily, you do have some skills—and you can throw your pretty balls with one hand, and shoot the unaware enemy with the other. At the same time. Sounds fun, doesn't it?”

“Is it some sort of a secret tech or what?”

“Urgh, are you serious? It’s obvious. If you’re a mage, it’s dumb to stuff yourself with only wizard tools when there is a rifle in this world. Not a single Omnious geezer will survive a stupid bullet in his skull. When you get used to it… maybe you’ll even kill a couple of Violets for us.”

“Violets… I am surprised you hunt them too, like PRISM.”

“Everybody needs money to eat. And this job is well-paid.”

Niji swallowed nervously. The mage looked at her closely and added, “What’s more, you are too dependent on your lighter. It’s so last year. If you lose it, you’re done for.”

“Oh c’mon. Just in case, Elementalists can’t create a fire from nothing, this contradicts the Immutable Rules. You must have a source.”

“Even a child knows that. But there should be a solution. We should ask Haydee, she might have something suitable.”

“Okay, okay,” Niji shrugged without any idea who this Haydee was.

“The training session starts at 10 a.m. each day, unless specified. I’m going to teach you myself.”

“Are you a Crimson as well?”

For a second she thought she’d asked something wrong. However, it was a common feeling while speaking to Dasnor, so she needed to get used to it.

“No, I am not,” he answered, leaving Niji behind. “Just make sure you are on time. I hate it when people are late.”