The next day I have a e-meeting with the british school again, a planned status meeting, but they also throw out the idea of having extracurricular magic study, as a sort of pilot project. That sounds interesting, and would be very valuable, and we could just use the existing curriculum draft. Would mean I have a consistent and reliable income, too, not that I particularly need it, but more money is never bad.

For my part I could start as soon as next week, but they’d need to give information to the students and, expecting more interest than I can effectively teach, decide on who gets to join the program. After some discussion it’s decided that I will come over on friday and speak to an assembly of the last-year students, and piggybacking on that someone suggests I could do a graduation speech when that time comes, which… I guess I could?

Later in the day I get a call from Hilde.

“Hello.”

“Uhm, hi, can, can we talk?”

She said we, but it soon becomes apparently that I’m not supposed to really talk, as she rambles on about being unhappy with her life, and then the Upheaval happened, and then wolfkin and a companion and she got happier, and then and then, and so forth. I just politely utter ‘Yes’ ‘I see’ and such at appropriate times, not minding that she called me just to vent.

It’s good for your mental health, and the world has enough people being unnecessarily mean, and besides, I still feel bad about that. Speaking of, she somehow gets onto the topic of that event, and I feel like my stomach ties a knot as she talks about how bad she felt when ‘Laura’ found out she had given herself teats and had nursed the wolves.

“That’s really weird, right?”

“Well, I… It certainly doesn’t conform to societal expectations.”

She makes a sob, and my stomach twists.

“Ah, but, I think it’s a nice thing to do. Besides, the Upheaval is making so many of the traditions and assumptions obsolete, and wet nurses is a thing. No matter what others would say, i think it’s admirable.”

I probably should’ve said that better, as her sob is followed by two more, before she just breaks down crying.

“And the- hic, dolphins, it was fun at first-” her words become unintelligible “but, snort, what if it had actually tried to- tried to, waaaah!”

“Hey, hey… I’d give you a nice warm hug and shoulder to cry on, but…”

“Sniff, could you come here?”

“Yeah. Sure. Want me to bring something? Ice cream? Chocolate?”

She goes mostly silent for a little bit.

“Actually, don’t come. Tell Laura to bring both.”

“Huh, wha-” Click.

She- huh? But- how did she?

Okay. Pause. Calm down. Count to ten.

Puh. Deep breath. Did she see through my disguise? She didn’t seem entirely convinced, but… Oh, I kinda gave it away when I apologized, didn’t I? No, she was ignoring me before that… She seems comfortable with me, at least, given that she chose me to vent at, but… Ugh. I should just head over to her. Wait, where does she live?

As if to answer the question, or rather, exactly to do that, the Zelda ‘get item’ sound plays, and I check the message I got - From Hilde, it’s just an address, and nothing else. I suppose that’s where she lives, then.

Does she know for sure I was Laura, or just guessing? If I go as Laura, I will basically confirm her suspicions if it’s just a guess, but if I don’t go that’s… But she told me not to come? Aaagh, is this some kinda weird woman code for something? Clear communication people!

Sod it. Turn to Laura, on with Laura-clothes, and I’ll just head over there. If she wants to treat my alter ego as a separate person, then I’ll play along. Just need an excuse for how we know each other, in case she asks. And no flying. Leggings or not, showing the underside of a dress is a bit…

She opens the door almost immediately after I ring the bell.

“Uh, hi. I- I apologize for that time.” I hand the reusable shopping bag to her.

She takes it, lets me in, and looks on in silence as I take off my shoes.

She’s not looking great; her hair is a mess, her eyes are red, and there’s dried tears down her face.

Shoes off, she leads me through the kitchen are, where she puts down the bag and take out the items, then go to the living area.

“Hug me.”

So I do, patting her back and slowly moving side to side. It works on babies and small kids, but I hope she doesn’t take offense. She says nothing at least until i start making the ‘calm down baby’ whisperer-like sound, at which point she cracks up and laughs weakly.

“I’m not a baby, you don’t need to do that.”

“But can I?”

She just nods.

Standing here is a bit bothersome, and soon she falls asleep on my lap, on the couch.

Dang, but what about the ice cream?

Sufficiently sure she’s asleep I remake one of my puppets into a young girl and use it to find her freezer and put it in. While at it I grab a bowl from a cupboard and put the chocolate in it, putting it on the table next to us and desummon the puppet.

“Lars, Lars!”

“Hmm?” Oh, I must’ve fallen asleep in my boredom. Wait, I’m Laura now. “Are you talking to me?”

“No, I’m talking to Lars.”

“Oh, okay. Is he here?”

“He’s right there.” She points at me.

“Uhm,” does she want me to Laura or Lars? “No?”

“I know you’re the same person.”

“Oh. Since when?”

“Since now.”

“Oops?”

“I suspected it when I first met Laura, and it was only after- that I realised you never actually said no. But… thanks for pretending. When… when I need a girl friend to talk to, can you be Laura for me?”

I give what i hope is a kind smile, “Of course.”

From there we eat ice cream, chocolate, and ice cream with grated chocolate, chatting about nothing in particular. I also subtly inquire about her friends, and she looks forlorn as she answers that she doesn’t have any friends in the city after moving here.

“Oh. Well, when you need a Laura, you know how to get me.”

She laughs at that, and I realise that not only is the knot in my stomach long gone, but I’m actually enjoying myself quite a bit. Not sure how well I would handle requests to do girl things, but I should at least try; it’s the least I can do for a friend.

That friday I am back at the british school, walk out onto the assembly hall stage in the form of a late-twenties/early-thirties man wearing ‘normal (boring) adult’ clothes.

“Hi. You probably don’t know who I am.” For now, anyway.

“However, you all probably know magic.” I hold out my arms forming orbs of light above the palms.

“You have certainly heard of all kinds of cool stuff you can do with it, and perhaps even what you can do with ki. And, be it via rumors, the news, or perhaps-”

I dismiss the orbs and create a burst of flame on my right hand, wincing as it burns me a bit more than intended.

“-your own experiences, that it can be dangerous. Most of you probably have some rules from your parents. The school has rules about magic too. But let’s be… real.”

As I say the word I start subtly and slowly shifting to my normal form. With how many times I practiced this, I better get the timing right.

“You’re teenagers. You’re not gonna let some rules stop you from doing something,”

I generate electricity in my hands, “cool.” and clap the together, lightning arcing together just before the palms hit, the sound of them hitting being like thunder.

“Magic can be very cool. Very useful. And as you know, dangerous. So, why am I here?”

I hold my hands out, as if a shrug, and look around with a dramatic pause.

“I’m here because I like magic. I like learning about magic. I think everyone should understand magic, at least the basics. And as such, I am here because I have an offer.”

My timing was pretty spot on, and by now hushed whispers indicate some of them are starting to recognize me.

“Hi, you probably know who I am. But not why.”

I pause and look around again.

“I’m here because the school is setting up a new extracurricular activity. Magic, and I will be the teacher.”

The noise is not unexpected, though the girl cheering as if I’m some famous artist on stage is. She quickly quiets and sits back down, clearly embarrassed.

“It will last until you graduate, and start with the fundamentals of magic, focusing on useful theory backed up by practical experimentation.”

“Now, this theory is based on mundane science and the scientific method, so there will be a requirement to applying; your grades. Before you think that’s too bad, you just need to pass in every subject, and at least a four in science.”

“Further information will be emailed, and if you’re interested you can get a paper copy from your teacher.”

And now for the part I dread: “Any questions?”

Ohh, that’s a lot of hands.

The first question is about me, so I specify that it should be about the program, at which point about half the hands drop. Ouch.

Some questions are easy to answer, while the answer to others, like how many spots there are, the answer to isn’t decided yet, as it will depend on how how interest it gets. The timeslots will also be determined after looking at who joins and when it works for them. Yes, levitation is among what they may learn, if they learn fast enough. No, shapeshifting is not, and that wasn’t my decision. Oh yeah, actually, if you can’t use magic because of ki, I can fix that.

The bell rings and it’s recess, and the principal comes out and says those who are interested can remain, for more questions. When the rest have shuffled out, somewhere between half and a third remains.

I have them group by class, and they seem pretty evenly split. Five classes, and about five to ten in each. Not bad. A quick pairing of classes, and we have two groups of less than twenty. Yeah, I could teach that.

We chat a bit, with questions back and forth, and by the time the teachers shoo the rest of them out, I have a pretty good idea of their overall skill level and what they want to learn. Next up is yet another meeting with the principal (and others), where we talk about what we learned, specifically that it seems like we will have enough for two classes, which i’m completely okay with.

Two days a week, one for each group, seems quite reasonable to me, and with ‘only’ forty students, we could have shared lessons, too. All that remains then is to wait a week for the interested students to submit applications.

But while I’m here in britain, I have customers with more money than they need at their age, so let’s liberate them from a bit of both.

My weekend is fully booked with ‘Magic/cultivation: Compatibility, mixing, concepts, etc.’.

Well, that’s what I wrote in my calendar, but functionally speaking it means a lot of online searching for relevant info before meeting the cultivator couple -uh, it was Thea and Kristian, right?- then meeting them around noon at the Water Temple.

We quickly find out that step one would be to find a way to properly communicate underwater. The Great Serpent came halfway to our rescue by teaching them a way to speak underwater. It’s based on the underwater breathing technique, and if I understand correctly, builds upon that to make the water change consistency so it’s about as easy to push around as air.

The other way turns out to be a lot harder, so the Serpent has them cultivating and training while I figure out how to do this. Using sounds magic soon lets me simulate having a mic in my throat and turning my entire body into a speaker, but aside from the shaking being seriously uncomfortable, without my mouth to shape the sound, I can’t make that many sounds.

Thanks to physics being what it is, sounds at human voice range also doesn’t travel as far underwater, and while it’s absolutely hilarious to hear me barking in a really high pitch (apparently), the issues combined make that method suboptimal. So I play around with aspects of aquatic mammals and using water magic to mimic the cultivator’s technique until I finally manage to make functional words. It’s still a bit high-pitched, but my pipsqueak voice should become less funny soon enough.

“Why did we go through all of that when we were just gonna stay up here anyway?”

I take my hand and apply it to my forehead, sighing.

“That aside, as mentioned I want to see if we can apply cultivation principles, concepts, and techniques to magic, and vice versa.”

“If you teach us shapeshifting, then we don’t need you for playing around!”

“You already don’t need me for playing around, only to revert you to normal, if you ever decide you want that. But yes, finding ki techniques that can manipulate aspects is one of the things I want to try.”

And we talk, hypothesize, experiment, talk some more, rinse, and repeat.

It becomes clear, though I had already guessed as much, that the elemental ki they make is roughly equivalent to elemental mana, and we can both feel the affinity of the other energy as it bleeds over to nearby energy of our own kind.

There’s just one minor catch: Their repertoire is tiny, and outside those affinities, it’s really hard for them to recognize aspects, and seemingly impossible outside elemental aspects. It’s a bit better when I apply the aspects to them directly, but even then they can only feel that there’s “something different” when I use non-elemental aspect, even ones they’re likely to have encountered often, like cats and dogs.

As we chat some of the other people come past, sometimes stopping to see what we do, until one of them, I think from Bangladesh jumps into the central opening like so many before him, only to be thrown back, screaming, as the serpent emerges.

Breaking out of my surprise I reach out to magically slow his fall, but the Serpent’s ki is already one it, so the poor man gets away with just a tumble as he lands. He stands there, shaken, for a moment, before kneeling and saying something I don’t understand. In response, the Serpent simply stare at him, does something with ki, and then the man stands up, his shaking stopped and posture subtly more confident.

The Serpent retrieves some clothes from who knows where, floating them to the cultivator, who bows deeply before turning around and rushing into one of the pillar-buildings.

“Did he just submit to become a disciple or something?”

“No, he had already submitted. His cultivation was too low previously, but now that he improved it the Great Serpent made him a disciple.”

“Huh, good for him. Those clothes he was given, are they disciple robes or something?”

“Yeah, those are the student clothes, the gray robes that reach the hips and baggy pants.”

Both of them turn to the Serpent, no doubt ‘talking’, then it retrieves a white slab and hands to them, before nodding its head and diving back down.

“Hey, why do so many of the Bangladeshi submit while almost no one else does?”

“It’s because they’re so poor.” Kristian states with a tinge of pity.

“And?”

“When they submit, they get to live here, the Great Serpent will teach them a little bit, and they can eat the food here.”

“There’s food here?”

Thea speaks up, “Those weird plants growing on all the buildings are edible, and part of training is to catch fish.”

“Oh. So food and a safe place to sleep…”

“The teachings are really useful, too. Your body needs less food and water and sleep as you improve, not to mention that you get stronger and can learn new techniques. You need to have finished foundation building for it to accept you as a student.”

“Foundation building, so… you can gather and manipulate ki?”

“Yeah, when I got there I only felt hungry like once a day.” Thea says, blushing lightly and grabbing her boyfriend’s hand.

“Gee, get a room if you’re gonna flirt. Wait, what about the white clothes with green or red decorations?”

“Those are for disciples.”

“What stage do you need for that, and what does the colors mean?”

“Body purification stage.”

Kristian says, and Thea answers the other question,

“The colors don’t mean anything, it just depends on what they’re made from. They can choose the color themselves. There’s also some with purple.”

“Why haven’t I seen any of those?”

“They’re made from jellyfish, and you get rashes if you touch the purple parts.”

“Isn’t that bad?”

She shrugs, “Apparently it’s a test. You need to be able to handle that for some of the techniques.”

“Hum. But we’re getting way off topic, what were we talking about?”