After finishing a lively discussion of who would sleep where once their aunt arrived, if she did come, Felicity and Skylar retreated to their bedrooms for the night.

There was much to think over, from their mother to Iris and Luna’s safety, and it would take a few hours to truly digest the whole situation, but alas that was the situation that had presented itself to her.

Though she wasn’t comfortable with any of the current happenings, Felicity knew that putting her nose to the grindstone and aiding Skylar would take some of the stress off Eden and Kono. It was the least she could do given their hospitality.

Tuesday passed by as a complete blur, as did Wednesday thanks no less to the book she was currently studying. Who would have thought that Geiger’s Reciprocation Theory could prove so useful? On the other hand, working through third and even fourth-degree integrals proved to be terribly difficult.

While she wasn’t terrible at math, she also wasn’t quite as gifted as her elder sister was and so she found herself faced with plenty of equations that she needed to hone. If she didn’t do so, then in the future she would remain just as sluggish as she currently was, which would be an annoying hindrance in the long run of things.

Just like her mind, her body needed intense training as well. Thanks to all of the damage that had been done to it by the growth, she was in a frail state. Fortunately, Kono was the one who would train her back into shape. The workouts the doctor had designed were strenuous for her. They were hard enough to leave herr nearly hurling out her guts by the end of it, a sure sign that she was strained to her limits, while also not being so difficult that they were unaccomplishable.

Skylar was making progress as well. Despite her initial coolness towards her and their eldest sister, the woman seemed eager to get back on her feet and so Kono set up a more demanding physical rehabilitation schedule for her. Even though she advised against using magic, Skylar was focused on making sure Felicity understood what she was learning under Eden’s tutelage. Her help was nice because she didn’t want to pepper Eden with every question she had and it gave their once wayward sister something to do.

Currently, she was fiddling with a mandala that converted mana into light, but for some reason it was extremely dim instead of blindingly bright. After going over her math three times, she couldn’t figure out where she went wrong. Everything seemed to be correct, including the mandala, so where could she have gone wrong?

Next to her Eden leaned over and studied her work.

“Please don’t worry about me. I know you have several projects left to finish and I don’t want to distract you from them.”

“It’s no trouble,“ Eden assured her. “Though it looks like you wrote a one instead of a seven in a couple of places. I’ll let you figure out where on your own.”

Felicity studied her math again and carefully went about the functions, verifying each was correct until right in the middle she discovered the two small errors and immediately corrected them, which drastically changed the end result. Tesla’s Energy Conversion Algorithm was far more sensitive than she had thought it was, and the subtle decimal change had thrown her numbers off by hundreds.

“Thank you sis,” she replied genuinely.

“We all have to learn to fall on our faces before we can improve. You’ll come to pick up your own methods as time goes on, but I don’t mind giving you a few pointers to help you get there.”

After nodding at her sister, Felicity returned her focus to the project before her and finished making the necessary adjustments to her mandala. Thankfully, when she channeled mana into the mandala it emitted bright light this time.

Immediately she set about adding an additional circle surrounding the one she currently had. The purpose of this circle was to temporarily store a small amount of mana. While gems and more rare materials were necessary to avoid quickly becoming OoM, the device served an essential purpose in illuminating one’s surroundings for those who didn’t have access to Dancing Lights.

Though devices like these were worth perhaps an LDM or two at most, it was the logic behind them that counted. They could be mass-manufactured by hand, with upwards of fifty created per day and once she had a little more experience, she could create a version that allowed the brightness of the light to be adjusted while keeping all the other aspects of the device intact.

Felicity thought back to her mistake and grimaced. Eden was right; she needed to master these advanced techniques as quickly as possible. Though she was quite talented compared to the crop of Enchanters who’d graduated with her, she still was leaps and bounds behind the average Enchantress from a Tier 1 City who had far more resources than she did.

Refocusing her attention, she flipped to the next page of the book and began reading once again. Tables of various theorems and equations filled the next few pages. They appeared to be more for reference than anything else, and some of them appeared to be heavily outdated. Then again, didn’t Eden say that even though the book was a little dated, the information it conveyed was important to know? Perhaps it would be for the best to memorize these equations then.

Next to her, Eden continued to work away without a care in the world. Without looking at her sister, Felicity could sense the intense tunnel vision her sister was currently experiencing.

That was the kind of dedication she strived for. Someday, she would become just as talented as her older sister and be able to push herself non-stop for hours on end.

Smiling, Felicity refocused herself and began the next exercise.

When Skylar was young she severely injured herself.

It happened when she was about seven years old. There was a tree in her backyard that she was determined to climb. It was a thing that many children enjoyed doing and she was no exception. Every day she would attempt to climb the tree and with each attempt she felt like she was able to get a little higher.

Then came the branches. The joy she felt from reaching her first branch made her want to climb higher. With every branch she rose her desire to reach the top grew. She would make it to the peak no matter what.

As expected, the outcome of such a desire was horrific. As one would expect, when she reached the top of the tree the branchest were so small that the slightest shift in weight rapidly shifted her about. Due to her inexperience, she ended up flinging herself from the apex of the tree and only lived because the tree wasn’t yet fully grown.

She had broken over half of her ribs and shattered her humerus. If it weren’t for her making she didn’t land face first, she would have sustained a head injury bad enough to kill her within minutes.

Ever since then she’d been cautious, at least up until recently… three years ago recently, that is. There was a sense of duty that had welled within her chest, that she ought to protect not just her sisters, but those who weren’t blessed with magic from the beasts that lurked in the dark, even though she wasn’t born to be a battle mage.

Why should she not pursue such a noble goal? Besides, making items and other tasks that could be done while sitting down at a desk wasn’t her strong suit.

Perhaps it wasn’t the alternate hers strong suit either. Given all the knowledge she currently had regarding transmutation, she could only assume that the alternate her was focusing on a goal similar to hers, if not the same. The only real difference between the two of them was the way she acted toward others.

Unfortunately, finding out what she could do would have to wait. She badly needed rehabilitation after everything that had happened. After things had settled down on Monday, Kono explained to her the difficult road ahead.

This, of course, featured physical therapy, the thought of which made Skylar feel like she ought to scrunch up. She was angry and wanted to lash out about how unfair it was, but knew that doing that would do nothing for them at the moment with the way things were. The only thing she could do was get better as soon as possible.

So she stared down the situation with a strong will. It was just a bump in the road toward returning to Sydney, or perhaps even going to Kyoto.

Currently, she was sitting on the couch next to Kono’s Spirit. Despite Eden’s protests, Kono had left Camilla behind to ensure that she would complete her physical rehab for the day.

Right now walking was an incredibly difficult task for her. Her legs felt dull and distant. Though they moved well enough when they weren’t holding weight, the moment she tried to stand on them they would crumple below her.

It wasn’t even noon yet and she’d already fallen to the ground twice today. Being unable to stand, she felt incredibly useless. Like a broken machine that, despite having much of its functionality, lacked one of its core functions. The only difference between her and the machine was that she couldn’t be fixed by swapping out broken parts for new ones.

“Alright, what’s next,” she asked the Spirit.

“We’ll walk around the house for about five minutes and then see how you’re feeling,” Camilla replied cheerfully. “Also, don’t worry about falling. I’m extra strong so I’ll keep you steady and on your feet if you begin to lose your balance.”

The girl’s reassurance was welcome. After the few stumbles she already had today, she was glad to have someone around who could help her.

Though she wouldn’t mind it having been Felicity, she could tell from a glance her sister wasn’t that physically strong, which put merit toward her story. Who was she kidding, she really wasn’t even doubting her sisters’ stories at this point. They had no reason to lie to her.

Using Camilla as a pseudo-crutch to pull herself up, Skylar staggered onto her feet. Then she carefully took a step, and though she felt like her legs were going to give out below her, she held fast to her assistant. Then she took another step and another. Before she realized it, she’d walked across the room and into the kitchen.

“You’re doing great,” Camilla encouraged her. “Keep it up. If you do, I’ll hug you.”

With the encouragement, Skylar continued to slowly walk her way through the first floor, stopping every minute or so to take a few seconds rest.

Eventually, they completed a full lap of the house and found themselves standing back in front of the couch. Without thinking twice, she sat back down and relaxed.

“Thank you Camilla. You’re a big help,” she said appreciatively.

“Don’t thank me Skylar. You’re the one who’s working hard to get better. I know you’re gonna be big and strong again soon,” Camilla encouraged her.

Camilla’s encouragement made the fire within her continue to burn, perhaps even hotter now. Though she’d just sat down and was prepared for a long rest, the girl’s words motivated her and she was soon standing on her feet once again.

“Camilla, let’s do another lap around the house.”

Sydney, Lilith’s.

The practice field was alive with magic. Luna and Eriza were facing off against Julia, Iris and Zoey in a practice battle.

Though it was three against two, Eriza’s lightning and her high-tier in evocation gave them such an advantage that it warranted the opposing team having three members. Plus, everyone who could fight would be able to get sparring experience this way.

Currently, Eriza had blasted her way through Iris’ defenses and Luna already had Julia pinned down under several layers of Ice Flex.

All that was left to do was take down Zoey and claim the victory. That wasn’t an easy task though, given that Zoey’s talent had shown its true self. She always knew her friend was holding back, but she hadn’t expected her to have been holding back that much.

A fearsome and ruthless opponent, that’s what her friend had become. Luna wouldn’t have it any other way.

Piercing through her defenses was their only real option. However, launching an Icicle at Zoey to break her shield was a mostly futile effort. With a watery tentacle, Zoey slapped the threatening chunk of ice down like it was nothing, then bore down upon her with her full might.

Thankfully Eriza was watching her back, ensuring that Zoey’s counterattack failed with a well-aimed Lightning Bolt.

Together, they were able to successfully push her back enough to force her to surrender. Thankfully, they were good sports.

After, they gathered to the side of the field to discuss what went right and wrong. It felt like it went without saying that all were still improving and some of the more glaring mistakes may persist for a while, but Luna did bring up Iris’ reluctance to simulcast as being and issue. Though Iris agreed, she also believed her mana pool wasn’t deep enough to utilize simulcasting at its full potential. As such, she was unwilling to fully simulcast just yet.

Just as they were about to begin another round of sparring, a cough caught their attention. Approaching them from the left side of the field were Magus Burke and, to her disappointment, the uppity Chloe Walsman.

“You all seem to be doing well. I’d heard the stars of the school spent their days training hard but I believe the rumors undersold just how hard you work,” Burke said, gesturing to the pock-marked field.

Luna watched as their friends gave confused glances with one another, barring Iris, whose attention was on Chloe.

“Ah, where are my manners. Allow me to introduce myself for those who haven’t met me before. The name’s Burke. Magus Burke. Unfortunately, the powers that be decided that I’ll be the one watching over you all until the next headmistress is found,” he explained casually.

That was one of the thing Luna loved about Burke. He was so carefree and easy-going. He was one of the few adults she found surprisingly trust-worthy.

“So, since I’m stuck here until the next headmistress can be decided upon, the first order of business I have is choosing a Praelector that everyone agrees upon. Which is why I’m here now, actually,” the Magus continued. “So uh… since you’re all the top students here, aside from miss Muller, I figured I’d let all of you decide amongst yourselves. Either way, the inter-high is coming up, so you’ll be defending the school's honor or something like that regardless of whether or not you become the Praelector.”

Chloe seemed mildly annoyed which was wholly understandable. Aside from the close circle of friends, she was the most powerful mage at the school, the only other one to hold Tier 4 in their primary school of magic.

At the same time, her annoyance could instead come from Burke himself. The man was a combat Magus. He was someone who worked out in orange and purple zones for a living when he wasn’t dealing with matters within the city that the Tower directed him to. Choosing him to act as a headmaster, even if temporarily, was a horrible decision.

“Chloe can have it. Otherwise it’d seem biased since we’ve interacted in the past, Burke,” Iris declared. “That is, so long as none of my friends have objections.”

Personally Luna didn’t have any disagreements with it. She herself couldn’t be Praelector since she always wore a cloak and wasn’t even human. Eriza wouldn’t care for the responsibility, and Zoey had her own problems right now. So if Iris didn’t want it, then why not give all that hassle to Chloe.

Wait a moment.

All the hassle associated with being a Praelector would just get in the way of their training anyway. By giving Chloe the role of Praelector, they were also dropping all of the weight that came with being one on her as well. Though the girl might think nothing of it, it would be fantastic to watch her slowly realize just how much of a pain in the ass it was to manage the school’s reputation and keep her peers in check.

Thus, like the rest of her friends, Luna voiced no objections. After a few moments of silence, Burke clapped his hands together, a smile stretching across his face.

“There, that was easy. Chloe, you’re going to be our next praelector,” Magus Burke announced.

“Wonderful. It’ll help me get a great start on my university applications,” Chloe replied with honeyed words. “I’ll make sure these five plus one stay in line.”

“Actually, I’m the one directly responsible for them given all the trouble Arthur caused for the Tower,” Burke admitted, causing the new Praelector to immediately deflate. “Which reminds me, you’re supposed to be in my office around seven for an LRC call from the Mageocracy on Saturday. Apparently your sisters have been trying to get in contact with you?”

“Yes they have been. Thank you. We won’t be late, sir” Iris replied.

“Great. Alright Chloe, let's go get you situated with your new position. There are some things that I’d like to go over with you even though I probably won’t be here in a couple weeks,” Burke said turning to leave.

“Yes Magus,” Chloe responded, turning to follow suit.

Once they were gone, Iris and Luna looked at each other and smiled. Soon they’d see Felicity again. Conforming that she was safe was their current top priority.

Wilkinkarra

Polaris stared in wonder as she watched the two younger elves clash with one another. When Vianola told her that the two girls were incredibly talented, she wasn’t kidding. Supposedly they’d been receiving the best training they could under their given circumstances.

That they’d survived that nightmare was a miracle in and of itself. They either had to have not been present when the elementals arrived or been rushed out and somehow managed to keep hidden. Regardless, the sight of the sisters was a welcome relief.

So now there were four members of her former Enclave still alive. Her heart was aflutter, but at the same time scared. Just what was she going to do? Asking the children to just up and leave the place they called home was wholly unreasonable. They’d never go with her if she just outright asked them.

Next to her Vianola chuckled to herself.

“They’re quite rambunctious. Though I assume you’ve discerned their specialties by now,” her Mentor said.

“Indeed. The older of the two is a specialist when it comes to illusion and other non-combat magic. She might even be older than me or at least her age is close to mine, judging by her appearance. She also seems to be understandably highly protective of her little sister, who, despite her young age, seems to be quite talented as well. My guess is she’s in her early forties. Her combat ability is definitely on par with what would be expected of a well-trained battle druid.”

Next to her, Vianola chuckled.

“Does age matter so much when it comes to our kind? We’re all going to live an incredibly long time after all. Once you finish your first century you’ll realize this and then wonder what you were fretting about age for,” Vianola digressed. “You’re not far from the mark though regarding them, but you should really get to know them more.”

“I’m not so certain that’s a good idea.”

“Why not?”

“Because I’m having second thoughts about asking them to come and fix that mess with me.”

“I’ve told you this before; you’re not responsible for what happened back then.”

“No but I know what they’d be going into and I don’t think they’re ready for it.”

“You didn’t think that you were ready to go to Brisbane the first time you did and yet you did well enough. You even made friends with that human girl from Sydney, the first friend you’d made since you were exiled from your Enclàve.”

Polaris wanted to disagree with her Mentor, but in all honesty the woman did have a point. She went into that conflict a scared girl who doubted herself and came out a hardened woman with a now powerful human ally. Her situation was different from theirs though. She needed a confidence booster, whereas these two appeared to be doing pretty well for themselves.

“I think what they need is to continue to learn and hone their abilities. Only then will they be ready to face those damn Mineral Elementals. Those things are no laughing matter. I had to learn that the hard way.”

“So you went to your old home then?”

“I did and I regret doing so. I barely made it out alive and I didn’t get anywhere close to the Obelisk,” Polaris reluctantly admitted. “I need a team to go in and take care of this problem. Unfortunately, Snowdonia is trying to muscle their way in. They’re already following Luna intently, so I have to be careful around her. As for these two, I wanted to make sure they were safe.”

Vianola sighed and poured herself another cup of piping hot tea. Her Wildfire cousins’ tolerance for heat was something that would never ceased to astound her.

“I have decided that when the next elder is decided upon and brought into power, I will leave immediately after.”

Polaris sputtered the tea from between her lips. Her Mentor was going to leave the Enclave? She loved the Australian outback, why would she leave it?

Upon asking this, her Mentor smiled at her and gave her an answer she wasn’t expecting.

“I’ve been here for most of my life. The people here change slowly, and I’m getting tired of being the intermittent Elder. I want to explore the world a bit like you have my student. All the tales of your adventures piqued my interest. I assume you understand what happens when I leave?”

Polaris studied the two bluette sisters and sighed. They’d likely be thrown out as they weren’t Wildfire elves. It was the way most Enclàves were. They tended to keep to themselves, barring her current Enclàve which welcomed people from all walks of life.

“So it’s best if they come with me then,” Polaris asked.

“Indeed. They could come with me but I might wind up in some pretty dangerous places. I may think they ought to face more dangerous situations than they have, but I will admit there is such a thing as too dangerous.”

Polaris looked in the direction of the sisters, who were still sparring with one another.

“I wonder how they’d like Kyoto,” Polaris mused.

“The only way for you to find out is to ask them dear,” her Mentor commented. “Now, why don’t you go and get to know them better.”

Polaris nodded at Vianola, then stood up and began making her way over to the pair.

In her mind, thoughts of a future not far off came into view.

Luna, herself and the other two would all be united. Perhaps even her Mentor would join them in, and then there was the girl off in the Mageocracy who’d she’d soon begin to train as well, alongside her girlfriend who supposedly was so intelligent it’d make one of her high born cousins pale.

Though there were monsters lurking in the dark, she felt as though she could keep them at bay with the motivation she now felt, and provide a safe haven for all the people coming into her orbit.