Luna spent the night with pleasant dreams. Though she didn’t meet Polaris again like she hoped, she was happy that she didn’t have another nightmare. As long as that didn’t happen she’d take whatever she got with a smile.

She awoke to the sound of Iris shifting about in her bed. Bright morning light fought to break through the dam that was their curtains, bathing the room in a tanish hue. As per usual, she could smell freshly brewed coffee coming from somewhere.

Unfortunately, everything being normal meant their dorm room was still messy as ever. They really needed to set some time aside to clean it up and make it a bit more presentable. Then again, who was going to see their room and judge them other than their close friends?

“Good morning Iris,” Luna grumbled as she prepared to get out of bed.

Whether it was thanks to the extra sleep or thanks to sleeping in general she wasn’t sure, but she knew she felt great and refreshed compared to the previous night.

“Lunaaaaaaaaaaa, I don’t want to get up can’t we wait another hour,” Iris asked whinily.

“Come on you butt, time to get up,” she insisted, slowly sitting up on her bed and adjusting her feet so they were resting on the fuzzy carpet.

“I don’t wanna.”

The elf felt a strange sense of déjà vu to the morning Iris’ parents left Sydney. Though it’d only been a little over a week now, it still felt like a long time ago with everything that’d happened since then.

The meeting with Polaris, their memories being restored, Ghillana’s sudden appearance and then the fiasco that started yesterday which had yet to be resolved.

Luna smiled to herself, soaking in this peaceful moment. This carefree feeling she so badly wished she could share with her friends, as this would be their last summer break together unless they successfully attracted the attention of a university in Japan.

After soaking it all in, the bluette pondered how best to wake up her sister. She needed to be creative, as the same old tricks wore out quickly and she enjoyed waking up her roommate without annoying her. A delightfully silly idea slowly began to form in her head, and after considering it for a few moments, she decided to go through with it.

Luna stood up and walked over to Iris, then flopped down on top of the girl and cuddled up to her. At first it seemed like her sister hadn’t realized what she was doing.

Slowly, the girl shifted about and slightly inclined her head off the bed.

“Luna are you…”

“Maybe.”

Iris didn’t move for a moment before rustling about and turning to face her underneath the sheets. The girl stared into her eyes and then wrapped the elf in her blanket by hugging her tightly for over a minute.

“Good morning Luna, “Iris said before rolling on top of her and pinning her against the bed. “Didn’t expect this, did you?”

For a brief few seconds Luna found herself stunned. She’d initially intended to mess with her sister a little bit but now it was her sister who was doing it to her.

“Well, this is a little awkward,” she replied, staring back into her sister’s eyes. “I just wanted to tease you.”

Iris smiled, pecked her on the cheek and then worked her way off the bed. The girl stretched out in front of her, while Luna felt like she would be able to move her body again. In the future, it’d probably be best not to do that. Iris was a Transmuter-Abjurer hybrid, so her strength was far greater than the elf’s own.

Her adoptive sister stretched out wider and grunted a bit.

“Mmm, fine. Let’s get ready and then we’ll go see Eriza. I think I’ll skip the makeup today, no sense in looking my best when I know that won’t impress Stone or Magister Ferris,” she said, looking over her shoulder and smiling at her. “All we can do is hope we get lucky.”

Luna nodded at her sister and made her way off the bed, still recovering from the sudden reversal.

“We’ll make it through this sis. We’ve got tougher challenges ahead, so this is more like a wake-up call to warn us of what’s ahead.”

“Yeah,” Iris nodded as she picked an outfit out of her closet, then made her way over to the bathroom. “Let’s do our best today.”

“Count on it.”

With that, Iris closed the door and began taking a shower.

Luna supposed that while she waited for her sister to finish up she could spruce their room up a bit by cleaning up the books strewn all about as well as the random clothes lying around. She made a fair amount of progress, as Iris’ dresser actually looked like it was a dresser again, and the floor no longer had clearly identifiable pathways to walk through.

When Iris emerged from her shower, the girl whistled while studying her handiwork.

“It looks so nice in here now.”

Luna smiled and nodded at her adoptive sister.

“Want to take care of the rest?”

“Sure, I bet I’ll be done by the time you’re out of the shower.”

Luna raised her brow, then darted towards her dresser, grabbed her clothes for the day and made her way towards the bathroom. About ten minutes later she emerged, clean and ready to face the world. To her surprise, Iris was entirely serious, and she’d nearly finished organizing the few remaining books into place.

The tan carpet was now completely free of any books, clothes and other tripping hazards. The purple curtains lightly flitted about against the now visible walls. The room honestly looked picturesque compared to the used book shop it had appeared to be beforehand.

“You did a good job,” Luna said before feeling a pair of arms wrapping around her. “Woah woah woah is this more payback for earlier?”

“Now why would I want to do that,” Zoey asked from behind her.

Breaking out of the embrace, Luna turned around and immediately hugged her friend tightly. In response, she was met with an even tighter hug that threatened to expel all of the air stored within her lungs.

“I’m so glad… you’re alright,” the elf said, gently patting Zoey’s back as if she were tapping out.

Thankfully, Zoey understood the gesture and loosened her grip, but still held her close and rubbed her back gently.

“I’m sorry I worried you Luna. I promise I won’t do that again,” her friend quietly assured her.

“You better not, we’ve still got so much to do before we move on.”

“Yeah.”

Zoey squeezed her tightly one more time and then backed up. The girl who was standing in front of Luna was vastly different from the one she expected. Gone was her demure, almost groomed appearance. Instead, the girl who stood before her exuded confidence. Her hair was no longer straight but wavy, and her eyes conveyed her hunger for adrenaline. She wore what appeared to be one of Eriza’s outfits instead of a dress, and the small storage ring that once rested on her right ring finger was now gone.

The most noticeable and important difference was that overall Zoey looked genuinely happy. A mischevious grin stretched across her face, and from her posture, it was obvious she now felt free. Whatever happened during the twelve or so hours they’d been apart had drastically affected her. While she was uncertain whether it was for the best or not, she was certain her friend had grown to some degree. For a mage, that kind of growth was crucial.

“Like the look?”

“I do, it’s so different. You look like you’re ready to let loose like Eriza.”

“Yeah well, facing a near-death situation made me see the world in a different light. I don’t want to be what my father tried to raise me to be nor what my siblings are. I’m going to be counting on you guys to help me figure out who I am, but we can talk about that later. It feels like I haven’t eaten since a couple nights ago and I’m starving,” Zoey said, wrapping her arms around her midsection for emphasis.

“You really are taking after Eriza…,” Iris noted, staring at their companion with a surprised expression.

Eriza rubbed the back of her head and attempted to hide her embarrassment while Zoey smiled.

“I can’t let you guys down again. I need to be someone you can count on when the going gets tough, not the damsel in distress and- well, you get the point.”

Eriza placed a hand on Zoey’s shoulder and nodded happily.

“You’ll do just fine. You can count on us to help you get there.”

A knock at the door drew their attention. Ren was standing at the door, peeking in.

“Everyone’s here,” she said in a surprised voice.

Immediately, they all moved over to pull the girl into a tight group hug.

“Ren!”

“Sis, you’re here.”

“Is everything alright?”

“How are you today, Ren?”

The healer blushed from all the attention she was getting and wiggled about, likely a little dazed. She was so cute when she got flustered.

“I’m so happy to see you’re all safe and sound but I heard that something was going to happen this morning, so I came to support you all.”

Eriza immediately replied, “And this is why you’re the best sister anyone could ever ask for.”

“Of course she is, and I wouldn’t have anyone else as a healer.”

“Agreed,” Zoey and Luna chimed in at the same time.

The group had breakfast in the cafeteria. Now that students were once again returning to the school, they were able to enjoy their usual mana-rich breakfasts once again. Being reunited with everyone and having breakfast with them was something Luna dearly missed.

The laughter as they joked about the most trivial of things, the boring stories of everyday life and the smiles on her friends’ faces was a sight she once feared she’d never see again. Now, she was able to share a meal with everyone, and hopefully they would be able to continue doing so long into the future.

After they’d finished their meal, she made her way out to the practice field to hold down a part of it while her friends changed into their training gear and made whatever other preparations they needed. Surprisingly enough the field was empty, so she asked the operator to reserve it for half an hour so they could have their battle royale with as much space as possible. Eventually, everyone reconvened on the field, where they now were discussing how this special style of training would go.

“So Zoey’s going to be the referee-,” Iris stated.

“Woah, hold on there, I’m definitely getting in on this,” Zoey insisted. “I need to get stronger, the first step to doing that is to be able to stand on my own amongst you guys, not as Iris’ assistant.”

Everyone looked at Zoey, who seemed to be just ever so slightly unhinged, but in a good way. Recalling what Zoey said before about finding who she was, Luna knew the first step she’d take to doing so would be standing on her own two feet. Once she could do that, she could find out who she was. At least that’s what the elf guessed her line of thought was.

“Fine by me, what about you two,” Eriza asked.

“I look forward to dueling you Zoey,” Luna nodded before turning to Iris.

“Alright, let’s see what you’re made of Zoey,” Iris requested. “Show us just how much you’ve grown.”

“I’ll do my best,” the girl replied earnestly while stretching out. “I think you’ll be pretty impressed. But why are we doing this again.”

“We’re testing to see where we’re all at battle wise and what we need to work on. We only have so long until the inter-high to get it together,” Iris said.

“Right,” Zoey replied.

“So it’s settled that Ren will be our referee,” Luna asked, just to confirm what she assumed would now be the case.

“I’d love to be your referee,” Ren replied earnestly. “I look forward to seeing you all duel each other.”

“Alright, that settles that. Let’s get this going, cause who knows when Ferris is going to request our presence. I’m taking this corner,” Iris said, making her way over to the back right corner.

“Operator, please give us a field with lots of water for the Water Transmuters to draw from. I’ll leave it up to your discretion as to which field you choose.”

For a brief moment the field flickered, then suddenly Luna found herself standing on a beach completely surrounded by water.

“Now this is a battlefield,” Iris said spreading her arms out wide to gesture to the battlefield.

Luna giggled in response as she watched Eriza and Zoey make their way to their separate corners. Eriza didn’t seem too happy about all the sand as she immediately set about taking off her shoes when she stopped walking. On the other hand, Zoey seemed to be plotting her plan of attack, looking all about the battlefield and nodding.

The elf began preparing her own plan. It would be best to see who would attack who first, then gang up on Iris or Eriza, and take out whoever remained after that. Zoey was improving, but she doubted the girl had improved too much since they last dueled so there wasn’t much to worry about regarding her.

“Is everyone set,” Ren asked.

The quartet of duelers simultaneously responded “Ready.”

Silence filled the air as she stared down Eriza, who was in the corner opposite of her.

“Begin.”

“Lightning Bolt.”

Eriza had to have incanted that spell before Ren started the duel, there was no way she could cast it that quickly. While normally she would consider it cheating, she had to admit it was honestly a smart idea. Narrowly dodging the hysterical electricity, Luna began readying an icicle and charging at Eriza. In front of her, two massive waves of water chaotically clashed with one another and began to tussle.

While she and Eriza had focused on one another, Zoey and Iris immediately clashed with each other. Tendrils of water spewed forth from the chaotic mess and back into it as they attempted to overpower one another.

Without hesitating, Luna turned in Iris’ direction and sent an Icicle racing at her. At the same time, a Lightning Bolt cleaved its way toward her adoptive sister as well, forcing her to drop the water she was currently using to battle Zoey with and form a shield. While neither of their spells broke through the shield, when Zoey’s Control Water Spell collided with it a chaotic mess of water quickly spread out in all directions, and the battle between the two water transmuters began in earnest once again, with Iris quickly being beaten back.

Not one to miss a beat, Luna turned her attention to Zoey. If they were going to go all out, no holds barred, then she might as well use her most lethal spell. It was time to see how Zoey would handle a dangerous situation where there appeared to be no good outcomes.

“Iceball,” Luna yelled at the top of her lungs, chucking a large glob of liquid ice at the Water Transmuter.

“Lightning Bolt.”

Before she could test Zoey’s ability to react to changing circumstances, Eriza had intercepted her. Luna watched as her Iceball exploded, sending ice shards flying in every direction. Just what she needed, Eriza interrupting her once again. Then again, this was a battle royale; such hindrances ought to be expected.

Seeing Eriza jumping over the ongoing clash between Zoey and Iris, Luna readied her Ice Flex, preparing herself to clash with the Lightning Evoker the hard way. If she could pin Eriza down, then she’d have one less target to worry about.

“Magic Missle.”

“Ice Flex.”

Her liquid ice collided with the three darts that Eriza fired off at her with little excitement, just a dull sputter.

“Lightning Bolt,” the girl shouted.

This again? Unfortunately for Luna she was wide open. She knew Eriza’s ability to shape her lightning was still sluggish and if she could properly defend herself, she could avoid being hit altogether. That was impossible though, the lightning was too fast, and there was no way she could react quickly enough. The best she could do was form her shield and hope for the best.

Ca-crack! Fzzzsh sst zrrrk.

A wall of water appeared in front of her, taking the full blow of the Lightning. However, instead of moving towards her it shot toward Eriza like a hammer and slammed her into the ground.

“Shield Break Eriza.”

Luna didn’t need to look to see who her savior was. Without a doubt Zoey had just taken out Eriza instead of herself, likely because it was an opening she couldn’t pass up. With how fast lightning moved through the air, one needed to take every opening they could get to disable a lightning mage.

The elf turned to her side and immediately chucked an Iceball at Iris, who was in the middle of preparing to attack Zoey. Unfortunately, her adoptive sister noticed her panicked attempt of taking a cheap shot at her and immediately formed a shield, taking most of the blow and shaping the Iceball into a spiky shield of ice.

Her adoptive sister grinned at her, then immediately shaped the water she was controlling into tentacles of watery spears, which darted at her.

“Ice Flex.”

Luna repeatedly invoked her cantrip and began walking back as she fought back spear after spear until she heard the distinct sound of water slapping against the sole of her shoes and realized she made a fatal mistake. Iris had lured her into a spot where a Water Coffin could easily drown her, and she could already see the water rising up to encase her.

“Shield break, Iris!”

Whether thanks to a higher power or simply to luck, Zoey had somehow broken through Iris’ defenses and broken her shield, likely because her adoptive sister was prioritizing taking her down too much.

All at once the water dropped around her, and without thinking she tried to run as far as she could past the edge of the shore, but felt a wet tendril wrap around her leg and start dragging her back. Turning to face Zoey, Luna aimed and incanted her favorite lethal spell once again.

“Iceball.”

The clear glob of ice darted through the air to Zoey, who immediately let go of her to form a pseudo shield that could withstand the blow. The sound of ice exploding against water filled the air as the Transmuter redirected the ice as best she could, giving Luna an opening to throw another one at her even though the spell was quickly draining her mana.

“Iceball!”

Another clear glob raced toward the collected mass of water and exploded on contact. Unfortunately, due to her poor planning Zoey was now completely hidden behind a wall of ice. It soon began to crack until finally it came crumbling down, revealing a sweaty Zoey who had a fire in her eyes she hadn’t seen from the girl before.

“You ready to end this?”

While she felt bad for what happened to Zoey, she couldn’t deny that she was enjoying the current chaos that was occurring. Her friend had matured quite a bit in the past day and now it was time to see just how talented she was.

“Don’t hold back. You might end up caught off guard.”

Her friend smirked back at her and the watery tentacles behind her immediately came to life, bursting toward her. Luna first threw an Iceball toward the girl, then quickly followed up with an Icicle, targeted right at the core of the former spell. The result of the premature detonation was that Zoey couldn’t react fast enough to redirect the explosion of icy spikes, but it was also a gamble. If one of the ice spikes could hit Zoey’s shield before Zoey’s spiky tendrils of water could slam into her, then she’d win, otherwise she’d lose.

It was a risk, but it was her only real option, as if she fully bet on her Iceball it was likely Zoey would focus on blocking it again, and she knew she was beginning to run low on mana. Then, just as she assumed would happen, her shield and one of the tentacles clashed. She managed to stave it off for a few seconds, but eventually it broke through and knocked her to the ground.

“Shield break, Luna. Zoey wins,” Ren announced.

Luna sat up, slightly dazed from her shield being broken. Aside from being a little wet and having sand sticking to her body she was unharmed. The amount of control Zoey exerted was nothing to scoff at and neither was her ability to fight. The key difference appeared to be how she wasn’t afraid to pull her punches anymore. Now the question was just how much the girl had improved.

“Good job Zoey,” Iris shouted from the sideline as she made her way over.

The field slowly began to revert back to its original state, the water and sand disappearing and instead being replaced by soft grass once again.

“Good job Zoey, that was fantastic,” Luna said as she rose to her feet. “You really improved while you were on Sakhalin.”

“I think it might be just a bit more than that Luna,” Eriza said. “Zoey’s going through some changes right now, so that might be a factor.”

“I agree. It seems reasonable that Zoey’s ability to cast magic would be affected by her change in personality,” Iris said. “Though we won’t know its full effects until we walk into the cog chamber next April.”

Zoey was blushing from all the attention and praise she was currently getting.

“I’m just doing my best is all,” she said. “Like I said, I can’t let everyone down again in the future.”

“I must admit I didn’t expect you all to be fighting with one another this morning,” the familiar voice of Magister Ferris drifted across the battlefield.

“Ma’am,” the quintet simultaneously replied and bowed to the Magister.

They’d been so busy this morning that they’d forgotten to keep track of what time it was. It hadn’t helped that they’d gotten up about three hours later than usual either, and it was now likely a little after ten in the morning.

“We were testing ourselves against each other so that we could get a good idea of where we each need to improve the most, Magister,” Iris explained. “Zoey seems to have hit a bit of a… growth spurt after yesterday’s events.”

Next to the elf, Zoey nodded.

“Yesterday I was too weak to stand up to my father… rather, to stand up for myself. I put everyone in harm’s way, and your grand apprentice even got brought into the mess because of me.”

“Indeed you have, but after what Julia told me I can’t honestly bring myself to blame you. At least not fully. Taking responsibility as you are does show maturity. Neither are you miss Isozaki, you couldn’t have predicted those men would assault you as they did.”

“Ma’am, about last night. I take full responsibility for my party’s actions, including Julia’s,” Iris said before bowing deeply.

“I appreciate the sentiment but you too do not shoulder the blame for last night’s events. There are a few more factors at play here than just Nathaniel kidnapping my grand apprentice and his daughter,” the Magister said, glancing around them.

Magisters Ferris’ eyes briefly glowed brightly before returning to their natural state. The woman sighed and shook her head.

“I believe our conversation is best had in your headmistress’ office, as it’s warded. Would you mind accompanying me there?”

“It would be our pleasure ma’am,” Iris said.

Luna’s adoptive sister immediately began leading the way, the Magister briskly following behind her. The elf glanced at the others, who were all looking at one another and then her looking for guidance. With a nod, the elf began to follow her sister, uncertain of what would come next.