The rest of the class meeting wound down quickly. For a while, the group spent time together, simply getting to know one another. And one thing Millie learned quickly, however, was that Isabella could out drink them all.

The girl took nearly fourteen shots worth of alcohol before it become apparent that she was becoming drunk. On the other end of the spectrum, poor Catherine was nearly unconscious from what CJ later told her was somewhere in the neighborhood of three.

But regardless, all things had to come to an end. As nice as the evening was, the group slowly broke up, heading to their rooms in order to prepare themselves for the remedy. While there was still hesitation on potentially wasting time, the simple fact of the matter was that none of the Administrative offices were open during the night cycle, and that was where their primary goal resided. Therefore, taking the remedy sooner rather than later would be the best option now, as it would ensure they were ready by morning with plenty of time to prepare.

Magincian morning, of course, she mused. Only god and those with cell phones know what time it is outside. Unfortunately, this meant Millie had over thirty regular hours until then. So, the first thing she decided to do was something she had put off for too long. And the person it concerned was just as eager to get it over with as well.

“Yes, let her in,” Millie told her robot. The bronze-haired metal girl nodded, before looking up at the room’s entrance. That was enough, it seemed, to prompt the door to open automatically and Tanya timidly walked inside.

“We can talk after if that’s better, I…” She paused, hesitating at the entrance.

“It's fine, Tanya. You’ve got all day, or night, for the remedy, and I know I’d rather not have this hanging over our heads. Come down and we can have some tea or something before you have to go.”

The girl hesitated for a moment more, before giving in with a nod. Making her way down the curved staircase, she met Millie in the living room and shuffled on her feet anxiously. A moment later, however, she spared a glance to appraise the room.

“Anything out of place?” Millie said.

“W-what? No, it’s fine!” Tanya said, lifting her hands up quickly as Millie winced internally. She hadn’t meant for that to come across as harshly as it seemed to have. She was overlooking just how nervous the small blond girl was.

I don’t blame her, Millie thought. I’m not exactly looking forward to this chat either.

Belatedly, Millie waved a placating hand at the girl. “Sorry, that’s not what I meant. For all I know my room is as weird as my food—I hadn’t had CJ or anyone else check it out before because I didn’t think I needed to until we had our meeting.”

Though if there are bugs in my bookshelves, she thought, I’m moving out.

“Oh,” the girl said, eyes widening. “Do you…want me to take a look?”

Millie glanced at Tanya and shrugged. “Sure, it’ll take a sec for the drinks anyway. Oh hey, did you want to join us when it's ready miss robot?”

The servitor visibly balked, looking as anxious as Tanya. Great, Millie thought. Why does it feel like I’ve got a pair of nervous doggos at my feet?

“I-I couldn’t possibly share such intimate quarters, Mistress—ah, Millie.”

“Yet you’re programmed to get down and jiggy? Stop being so proper, it's fine. You told me you could ingest things, right?”

Millie’s mind, like a steel trap, adamantly refused to allow the memories of the context of that conversation to resurface. Some things were better left forgotten.

“That is…true. Yes, of course. I will…of course. One moment while I get the beverages ready. For…all of us.”

Millie refrained from responding with an ‘of course’ herself as she watched her robot shuffle off. Then she turned back to Tanya, who was giving her apartment a critical once over.

Huh, I didn’t think of it but Tanya’s not a bad choice to look the place over, she thought. If anyone would notice something out of—

“Hmm, your paintings are in a different order, and one of them has a different landscape. Is that a cave in it? It also looks like you’re missing some of the books I have but I see you have ones I don’t. Maybe there's a mix? It's hard to tell without being able to read them properly. Oh, also the arrangement of your furniture is way different, and I think your room has more preference for oak than mine.”

Millie blinked. Damn, I forget how good she is with little details. “Ah, well the furniture’s probably my fault. I know it messes with the ‘Feng Shui’ of it all, but I liked having the table near the window and the rest of it I kind of just clustered to the side to get out of the way.”

So I can take it apart later for scrap, she added silently. Millie gestured towards said pile and Tanya followed the motion before nodding.

“I like the window idea, I might do the same,” the petite girl said. “I tried to…zoom in with my phone to see Toronto better. It didn’t work though.”

“I’m sorry,” Millie said with a sigh, saddling up next to the girl.

Tanya shrugged, looking down at the ground. “Um, did you want me to look at any of the other rooms?”

“Sure! As long as we don’t get in miss robot's way, but that shouldn’t be…actually now that I think about it, I have no idea where she keeps running off to.”

Millie internally kicked herself at that revelation, having just assumed the robot had been magically ‘summoning’ or ‘creating’ items at a whim. But if that was the case—why would she walk away to do so? If what Raj had said was true—was it possible there was something more at foot?

Unexpectedly, Tanya smirked before pointing towards a banner on the wall, located next to her room’s portal under the stairs. Millie cocked her head in confusion at the cloth. It had a triangle proclaiming ‘Conviction, Wisdom, and Ambition’ with the symbol of twining tree branches around a decorative eye. But such decorations were commonplace across the Academy. The small blond girl, however, fought off a giggle as she answered Millie’s unspoken question.

“There's a servant’s door behind it. It's a common way to hide them in noble estates. At least, it is in books I’ve read.”

Millie gave Tanya an appraising look before grinning. She then approached the banner and lifted it to the side. As Tanya had said—a simple, unassuming door greeted her behind it. How the hell did I not notice my robot coming in and out of here? Opening it, the dim room beyond had a small kitchen, a nearby closet, a dumbbell elevator with a hundred small pipes leading to it, and off to the side was a cramped bed. Was this small storage area the man behind the curtain? The magic behind the wizard of Oz?

“Is…everything alright?” Her servitor looked up nervously from where she was preparing their tea by hand, presumably after having the materials transferred via the small elevator nearby. And there goes the mystery, Millie mused. Raj wasn’t kidding when he said they have a surprisingly mundane way of handling things.

“Ah…yeah,” Millie said, trying to smile reassuringly. “Sorry to disturb you, we’ll, ah, leave you to it.” She then gingerly closed the door.

Do the robots need to rest too? She wondered, thinking of the bed. At what point do I even keep calling them robots?

After that, Millie showed Tanya the other rooms with good results. The girl was able to quickly find the bedroom and closet terminals. It appeared Millie’s closet terminal was located on the back of the door, and she kicked herself for missing it as she’d always taken her clothes out to change in the bedroom. Meanwhile, a few taps against the wall revealed her bedroom’s hidden computer, a large screen that wasn’t unlike a TV she could watch while in bed. Assuming I end up finding anything to watch, I guess. Beyond that, Tanya pointed out a few minor oddities here and there, but overall the variations were small and didn’t present any indication of hidden clues.

Or bugs. Millie vowed to keep looking later, just in case.

Afterward, Millie sat with two nervous girls at her window table. Sipping her tea, she was backlit by the vibrant lighting of a fallen civilization from outside their universe exploding silently in the background, the silhouette of Toronto in the distance both incredibly close but beyond reach. The metallic girl to her right was a potentially murderous robot with inexplicable anxiety problems wearing ‘Hello Kitty’ pajamas, and the girl across from her was a woman she’d cared for like a sister before she’d slept with her fiance and brought Millie’s life to crashing halt. Only to come to an end, again, when the mystical alien space-city kidnapped them both to learn magic.

It was moments like these that reminded her that trying to process what was going on in her life was a tall order. At least the tea was a delicious Earl Grey. Captain Picard would be pleased, Millie decided. Any mirth she might have had evaporated quickly, however.

They both knew what Tanya was here to discuss.

“So…” Millie started to say, only to falter. Tanya waited patiently, though, even if she couldn’t meet her eyes.

Millie wasn’t sure how to begin. She was honestly torn. There was nothing she could learn here that would help her. Nothing that would make things better. All she would accomplish was making herself feel worse by every conceivable measure. It was like she was asking to drink poison. For fun.

But on the other hand, she had to know. Ignorance is a weakness, right? She thought. Not knowing doesn’t make it hurt any less, it just leaves me vulnerable to more lies. If this had been a broken bone, it was like one that hadn’t healed right. Which meant it needed to be broken again before it could be reset. This would hurt, but it was necessary for her to heal and move on.

That’s what she tried to convince herself of anyway.

“Why were you with him in Toronto?” Millie finally asked.

She cursed internally when she saw Tanya wince. She hadn’t meant for her tone to sound so harsh, but she wasn’t sure how well she was going to be able to stay composed in this conversation. It was easy to want to forgive Tanya, but feelings rarely cared about what you wanted.

“I didn’t know where else to go and he told me to come,” she answered quietly. “After you left, we couldn’t afford rent with just my income.”

Millie gritted her teeth, her grip tightening on her mug. “He still didn’t get a job,” she stated. There was no need for a question.

Tanya shook her head. “He blew through your savings before going to his dad for help.”

I guess that’s to be expected, Millie thought, fighting off the bitterness burning in her chest.

“My entire life’s efforts gone in a few months,” Millie said, fighting to ignore the desolate ache in her heart at the revelation. “Why didn’t you move in with your aunt though?”

Tanya hunched in her seat. “I thought about it. I was even going to, but…Liam kept telling me not to. He said everything was going to be alright and…I didn’t know what to do.”

That’ll happen when you believe him I suppose, Millie brooded. Did he just not want to lose his only income source? Or was he actually attached to her?

“Well. I guess…” Millie paused and let out a long sigh. “That just leaves the big question. Why.”

She didn’t expect a good answer. What answers could there be? ‘I was horny?’ ‘Your boyfriend was hot?’ ‘I had a moment of weakness?’ ‘I fell in love with him?’

Maybe she should have thought bigger.

“The…first time was in high school.”

Millie almost broke her mug. No. That’s not possible. That isn’t! Rage began to sing in her veins as she trembled. An overwhelming noise of fury as her vision twisted red. She was so incredibly close to lashing out.

But not at Tanya.

Breathing heavily, Millie asked another question with a shaking voice. “Was this before or after…”

“After we found out,” she said breathlessly. “But before it came back.”

Millie looked at Tanya critically, as the girl sat still and motionless in her chair. She looked lifeless. Defeated. Crushed.

It took every ounce of willpower for Millie not to scream.

“Tell me he didn’t take advantage of you. Tell me.”

Tanya was startled in her seat, looking up with pain in her eyes as she fought to choke down her emotions. She quickly shook her head.

“No, of course not. I just…mentioned my worries, and he offered to go on a date with me.”

“And what,” Millie said with a vicious scoff, “it just escalated into naked wrestling from there?”

Tanya shivered. “I didn’t mean for it to go so far.”

“I—” Millie paused as she bit back harsh words. “I…believe you, Tanya. I just can’t believe him. You and I had only been friends for a short time, and with what you were going through, I understand why you’d want to experience everything you could. Hell if you’d both told me about this I’d probably have agreed to it.”

“R-really?” Tanya whispered, wide-eyed.

“Yeah. To a date,” Millie emphasized. “There's something sweet, and innocent in that. But sex? That’s beyond being comforting to a sick girl. That's borderline predatory on his part.”

Millie nearly threw her the mug as she muttered a dozen half-breathed curses. Eventually, she stood up and began to pace to bleed off the growing energy inside.

“Is everything alright Mist—Millie? Your blood pressure is skyrocketing. I can—”

“It's fine, miss robot. Please don’t worry.” Millie bit her knuckle to silence herself before she upset her jumpy robot more.

“I still said yes to it, Millie,” Tanya practically whispered. “It’s my fault as much as his.”

“Your fault?” Millie shot back. “You were facing AML and clearly wanted to have at least one romantic moment in your life in case things went south. But Liam using that as an excuse to pop your cherry? That isn’t your fault—that’s him using you for a quick fuck!”

Behind my back no less. She wanted to gouge his eyes out. Tie him to the stake and burn him alive. Beat him over the head with a rusty pan and then fry his balls up to serve his corpse.

“Who takes advantage of a girl with cancer?” Millie said. The words felt like claws raking through her throat.

“He was so sweet to me and I…” Tanya replied quietly. “He was trying to help.”

“With his dick? No—that’s not helping. That’s manipulative and fucked up. It's predatory, he—”

“I wanted it too!” She finally shouted. Her face was covered in tears. “It doesn’t matter if he’s awful, so am I!”

Millie finally stopped pacing. She stared at Tanya, before letting out an angry sigh as she sat back down. “You wanted a lot of things, Tanya. That doesn’t excuse him.”

“It doesn’t excuse me either,” she replied. “Besides I…”

“Still did it again?” Millie finished and Tanya nodded. “Please…just give me the details. Get this over with.”

The small blond trembled in her seat. “He asked not to talk about it after—”

“For obvious reasons,” Millie snapped.

Had he banked on Tanya dying? Or am I thinking the worst of him given recent revelations? Is my anger getting out of control and am I blowing this out of proportion? What the hell am I supposed to think? To do? To feel?

“…nothing else happened after the date. He didn’t even bring it up again until…after he got back from OCS years later.”

Flunked out, she mentally corrected. Still, just after officer candidate school? That’s after I asked Tanya to move in with us, she read between the lines. Jesus, is this my fault? She’d been so hesitant to be our roommate, but I’d thought she was just being stubborn and polite. Did I put her through this?

“And you two—” Millie tried to say.

“No,” Tanya cut in quickly, “we didn’t, not…until about a year ago.”

Millie took a sharp breath. Not immediately? Why the wait? Unless…

“It's not back, is it?” Millie asked.

“No,” Tanya emphasized, shaking her head. “No, I just…he’d begun making moves, but I tried to ignore them until…his birthday party.”

Millie racked her brain to put the pieces together, and then grit her teeth hard enough for her jaw to pop when she realized what the girl was implying.

“Right. I passed out early, didn’t I? So what, he snuck into your bed instead?”

Millie had meant it as a dark joke, and it hurt immeasurably when Tanya…nodded. Millie quickly narrowed her eyes as the girl choked back her emotions.

“You’d drank a lot too,” Millie said.

“He didn’t force his way,” Tanya jumped in. “But I…didn’t do anything to stop him. I could have, I should have. But I didn’t. I let it happen then, and…every time after.”

Millie sat in silence staring at Tanya, slowly focusing on breathing. Nice, deep, calming breaths. Tanya could have easily told me he forced himself on her. Hell, I’d have believed her over him in a heartbeat right now. Instead, she’s defending him and trying to share the blame. That means she either really feels guilty for this or…

“Do you love him?” Millie asked.

“I thought I did, for a very long time. But he…” Tanya stopped, her face twisting with revulsion. Millie raised an eyebrow at the strong reaction. “He never treated me like anything more than a warm body after the party. It was never like it was on the date when he was so sweet and kind and…I just…”

“Wanted more than he was willing to give?” Millie guessed.

Tanya nodded quietly. “I wanted to believe him. He told me that so many times that he…I guess it doesn’t matter, does it? It clearly wasn’t true.”

Did he tell her that he loved her? Millie thought. How many lies has he spun for me too? Was that one of them?

“He asked me to come by to his dorm room today,” the girl said with deceptive calm.

“Such a gentleman,” Millie said flatly. Couldn’t go one day, could he?

“I wanted to tell him it was over,” she confessed. “I wasn’t…sure if I was strong enough, but I wanted to…. But in the end, he made it easy.”

Millie furrowed her brow. “What do you mean?”

Had Liam broken it off with Tanya himself?

“He was fucking his servitor,” Tanya said, a distant look in her eyes. “He wanted me to join.”

Millie flinched. “Why the hell would he—”

“Because he thought of me as a whore!” Tanya screamed. “I was fucking him behind your back, and he kept telling me how much it would hurt you if I said anything so I kept quiet. I’m always quiet, I just lay there and do what he says, how he says it, no matter how degrading, I’m just—”

She buried her face into her hands, digging her nails in tight enough to draw blood.

“Why did I think there would be more?” Tanya said. “There could never be more. He was right about me. I’m just a stupid, worthless—”

“You—you are not,” Millie reached out and grabbed Tanya’s hands. They were vibrating with emotion, so she squeezed them tighter. “Don’t you dare think that. I’m not going to say what you did was right. But for fuck’s sakes, Tanya, just wanting to be intimate with someone does not make you a whore.”

Millie remembered meeting Tanya in school. The girl had been reticent. Quiet. She’d let others push her around and never fought back, and Millie had been confused when the small girl had refused Millie’s offers of friendship. Of course, as stubborn as Millie could be, that just meant she’d tried twice as hard if just to stop the injustice of a girl getting bullied for no apparent reason. It wasn’t until later she’d learned why Tanya was so adamant about not letting people get close.

She didn’t want to hurt them if she died.

“How can you say that?” Tanya asked, tears spilling down rapidly. “I…right behind your back. After everything you’ve done for me.”

Millie sighed. “I’ve done a lot of things for Liam too, and that didn’t mean much, did it?”

Tanya grimaced. “That's… it's your marrow cells in my bones. You shaved your head so I wouldn’t be alone, you…you went through hell in high school, and it's my fault. Why don’t you just fucking hate me!?”

The girl’s voice echoed in the room before she broke down completely.

‘Because I deserve it,’ Millie could hear her unspoken cry. Leaning forward, she squeezed Tanya’s hands tighter, ignoring the tears pouring down her own face too.

“It's not your fault how I was treated,” Millie told her. “Short hair or not, people make assumptions based on my attitude. It's just how the world works.”

Tanya looked at her in disbelief. “They called you and CJ the Faggot and the Dyke,” her voice shook as she struggled to say it through grit teeth. “They never would have done that if—”

“Do you know why those rumors started?” Millie interrupted.

Tanya hesitated before shaking her head, but that was to be expected. She’d missed her last two years of High School for recovery and Millie wasn’t big on…reliving the past. She never would have complained about being bullied at all if she’d thought Tanya would end up blaming herself for them. How many years has she carried this?

“Victoria Jameson,” Millie said.

Tanya’s face scrunched in confusion. “The…head cheerleader?”

“She invited me and the other Lacross girls over to her house for a party. I didn’t think anything of it at the time, but apparently, she thought I might be…amenable to her tastes.”

“I don’t understand,” Tanya said, shaking her head. “Didn’t she know about Liam?”

“You mean the amazingly good-looking guy who just so happened to go to a private school across town? The one who never joined me for any games, dances, or other events because he was just ‘too busy’?”

Tanya flinched. “I guess…”

“Yeah, she and everyone else must’ve thought I just made him up to cover for my insecurities. I assume that's why Victoria thought pumping me full of booze was the best way to ‘get me to open up.’ The worst part is it took her biting my fucking thigh for me to realize she wasn’t just being friendly, she was trying to flirt with me.”

“Oh god…”

“I tried to make it clear by then I wasn’t interested. She played it off, tried to act cool, and just offered me more drinks. And I, like the fucking idiot I am, decided to trust her.”

“She didn’t do anything, did she?”

“She got—” Millie paused, before shaking her head. “She got a lot further than she should have. In the end, I had a full-blown panic attack and broke a vase over her head. Then I left. I was barely able to walk straight and I puked into a curb before I passed out in a bush somewhere.”

I’m lucky nothing worse happened that night, Millie thought. I was so stupid. So, so stupid.

“But hell hath no fury like a cheerleader scorned, I guess,” Millie said, laughing ruefully. “So yeah, CJ and I weren’t popular for a lot of reasons. It had nothing to do with you. You don’t have to feel guilty over that, Tanya. She would have made her assumptions, short hair or not.”

A quiet fell over the two. Tanya continued to softly cry, but Millie’s tears were mostly over. A flash flood in response to the pain, like lancing a boil to rid herself of the corruption her angel had left in her. Now there was only a hollow emptiness left.

“Do you…remember after I recovered?” Tanya asked quietly.

Millie nodded. “You wanted to know what came next.”

The survival rate for AML wasn’t abysmal, but Tanya had relapsed a month after her consolidation phase, just after they’d declared her in remission. So the second round of treatment had been hectic, panicked, and ended up including a hematopoietic cell transplant to repair the damage of the chemo. Tanya had been gun shy about everything in her life after as a result. Silently convinced the killer waiting in her stem cells would return at any moment.

After all, you couldn’t cure Leukemia in any of its forms. You only fought it off and prayed it never came back.

“You helped me get my G.E.D. You convinced me to go to college. To try despite…”

“I know,” Millie said, squeezing the girl’s hand. “But you’re smart, Tanya. You just needed a little push. God knows it wasn’t like I could tutor you or anything.”

“I would tell myself that you were fighting it for me,” she whispered breathlessly. “That you were in there, holding me together.”

Damn it, Millie bit her lip, fighting off fresh tears. What the hell could she even say to that!?

“Even when you made me do stupid stuff like rollerblading,” the petite girl laughed.

“Hey!” Millie said shakily. “I thought rollerblading would be a good hobby to help you get some exercise and fresh air. Better than constantly taking pictures so we’d have ‘proof’ you’d been with us. Jeez, I forgot how morbid you could be, girl.”

Tanya finally looked up and met Millie’s eyes. “Thank you for pushing me. When my aunt came back negative as a donor, I—”

“It doesn’t matter. Nothing more than a few pokes in my side,” Millie said. “Besides, you’re whiter than Wonder Bread, dummy. Getting a donor was never the hard part.”

“It matters to me,” she whispered sternly. “You’re my best friend, and I…ruined everything.”

Millie squeezed Tanya’s hand hard enough to make the girl yelp and look up in confusion.

“Liam did that,” Millie corrected. “To both of us. We’re just side characters to the fucked up play he’s decided our life was. And if it wasn’t you…it would’ve been someone else.”

Assuming there weren’t others on the side already, she silently added. I was never going to have the happy ending I wanted, was I?

“So yeah, I don’t blame you,” Millie said. “I don’t hate you and I can’t stand to see how much you hate yourself. Please, just let it go, okay? I won’t hold this against you as long as you promise to just leave that fucker alone. Don’t let that poison back into your life, alright?”

The words were too much for the girl. She immediately broke down crying again, sobbing like a child as she pulled Millie’s hands close.

“I won’t—I swear. I’m so sorry, Millie. I’m sorry. I’m—”

“It’s okay,” Millie said. “Just…if you ever do something like this again I’m stringing you up by your jibbly bits. Got it?”

The girl laughed even as her tears spilled down, holding Millie’s hands as tightly as she could. But in the end, forgiving Tanya was never a question. After all, it was in the most desperate moments that people showed you who they really were. In the worm’s cave, Liam had considered dropping her. Isabella had waited for her. Raj had killed for her. But Tanya?

Tanya had risked her life for her without hesitation.

Millie would never forget that.

Tanya eventually departed to take her remedy. Millie offered to watch over her, but the petite girl declined. She was tired of waking up and seeing Millie at the foot of her bed, she’d claimed. This time, she wanted to face her demons head-on.

So, Millie decided to lay down to sleep. According to her robot, the estimated time for most remedies would be roughly five Magincian hours, which was nearly fourteen real hours. Variations could occur, like with D’marco, but she had quite a bit of real time ahead of her.

When she eventually woke up from her rest, she wandered into her living room and saw the first signs of something having changed out the window. The entire city of Magincia had gone dark, blanketed in an artificial night.

After a quick meal (leftovers donated from the other students of course), Millie took her robot with her, along with her Tarot deck and instruction book, and made her way into the common room. She felt more comfortable waiting out there for people to wake up, and with her servitor nearby and the kotatsu terminal, she could do anything out there that she could do in her room.

Wait, have I taken a shower? Millie paused, sniffed her pits, and made a brief detour. Once she smelled like daisies in a literal sense, she returned to her self-assigned waiting area and diligently began studying her Tarot book. Her robot got fidgety after a while, claiming that she wasn’t ‘supposed to loiter’ like this, but Millie just waved her off. She paused then, considering possible alternative meanings to her robot’s words. Is she just bored but doesn’t want to complain? Eventually, she asked her robot to grab a book from their room and join her in reading.

She’d thought it had been a clever way to keep her robot entertained, and she’d technically been correct. She hadn’t, however, accounted for her servitor reading the book to her, like a damn mother reading to their child. After Millie was done gaping at the absurdity of it, she decided to take a break from studying and listen. Her robot seemed to thoroughly enjoy reading out loud to Millie, and the book was mildly interesting.

It was pure fiction, sadly, as apparently all the books stocked in their rooms were for luxury. Millie didn’t discount the possibility of hidden clues in them, but until she could read them herself there wasn’t much point in worrying. A lot of nuance was lost in the book as her servitor translated it from the First language into English.

“Oh, that reminds me,” Millie said as her robot perked up. “Have you thought of a name yet?”

The robot scowled—a feat that made Millie internally squeal as she loved any expression from the robot that wasn’t another insincere smile.

“I…don’t know,” she answered. “While I appreciate that you…allowed me agency with many aspects of my attendance to you, Millie, I…I don’t know how I can possibly pick a name.”

“It's okay, just keep thinking about it,” Millie said. “Maybe we’ll find a name you like in one of these books?”

“Of course, Mist…of course,” she finished lamely.

Oh, my poor sweet robot, Millie mused. I’ll find a way to turn you into a strong, independent secretary robit that doesn’t take shit from no Governor. Just you wait.

She smiled at her internal joke, shooting a quick glance at her robot’s wiggling toes. Progress took many forms, even if it was slow.

The first to emerge from their room was D’marco. The boy looked rattled, and his eyes quickly settled on Millie. His jaw dropped, however, as he stared in shock at the state of the common room.

“What the hell happened out here?” He asked.

Millie looked up from her small pile of shaved wooden table legs. She’d been whittling them into shape while listening to her robot’s stories. Absently, she took the chance to lower her hand into a bowl of steaming, slightly greenish water. She’d had her robot fetch and replace the healing waters in her bowl repeatedly so she could ease the tension in her wrists or heal the occasional cut or splinter without having to get in and out of the pool itself. The effectiveness of the waters faded quickly, but her robot didn’t mind fetching it. In fact, she almost seemed to relish the chance to be of service.

“Oh hey!” Millie called out. “Glad to see you, D’marco. Don’t mind the mess—how you feelin’?”

The tall boy continued to gawk as he slowly walked into the room.

“I feel…man, I don’t know. Like shit. It's like I had the flu or something, and I’m still shakin’ it off. Are you making weapons?”

Millie nodded. “Raj left me his pocket knife before he went to bed so I figured I’d put it to good use,” she shrugged before tossing her newest club into the small pile she’d made. She’d need to wrap it later, but that could wait.

She’d originally wanted to make a fixed ball war club, but that had been beyond her abilities. Instead, she’d settled for what amounted to a traditional, ax-like club with a heavy chunk of wood wedged into the end of a plank and tied down. She also had several stakes prepared on the off chance of vampires (which she had no reason to suspect but felt it was best to be prepared in a magical alien city). Finally, she flicked one of the wheels that had rolled over back into its pile. She was saving them from the few table legs that she’d pried them off of in case she found a use for them later.

“Do you want to sit down?” She asked him. “We can order some food if you’re hungry.”

“Yeah, maybe…yeah,” the boy sat nearby on a pile of pillows, glancing over at Millie in concern. You’d think he’d never seen a woman prepare for war before, Millie mused. And here I thought his sister would have put the fear of God into the kid.

“System, please activate the common room terminal,” Millie said, and the kotatsu lit up. In hindsight, she was somewhat embarrassed that she hadn’t thought of that before when she’d first learned of audio commands, but she’d had plenty of time to think of it now. She’d also tried it on every object in the room, some multiple times. Just in case.

“Oh whoa,” D’marco exclaimed. He immediately placed his hands on the screen to play with his interface. Millie noted he took to it as naturally as CJ had. After a few minutes, he eventually looked back up and took in the rest of the room.

“This place looks like a hurricane blasted it. Did you do all this?”

Millie looked around guiltily. “Ah…yeah. I was kinda looking for hidden clues,” she admitted. “And you guys have been out for a while.”

Every picture on the wall had been removed, replaced, re-arranged, and a few turned upside down. Tables had been clustered into small patterns throughout the room, tipped over, piled up, or arranged in what Millie would generously call ‘art.’ A handful of chairs, pilfered from the study had joined them, and vases filled with crystalline flowers of all types littered the area in various states of disarray and arrangement. In one corner was a broken vase (that Millie was prepared to fervently deny any involvement with), the pieces of which had been swept into a small pile under a rug stolen from her room with a single flower left on top in Memorium. Next to it was a small ‘fortress’ made of spare books and an entire chandelier that had been removed from the ceiling, laying on the floor.

“How the hell did you even get that down?” D’marco said, staring at Millie in awe.

Millie shrugged. “Magic.”

The tall boy looked at her skeptically, and she broke out into a laugh. “I had my robot jump up and unhitch it. There were some ropes we tore out of the study room curtains and she just tied it off and lowered it. Our robots are really strong.”

She smirked as she shook her head. “I haven’t been able to figure out what the stupid thing’s made of though. It's too strong to be regular glass. I think it might be quartz of some kind? If I can find a way to chip it, I might try to order up some adhesives from the system if they have any and make a crude sword. Better than my idea of tieing crystal flowers around my clubs like a knockoff…crap, what did the Aztec call their wooden swords again? Maca-whittle somethings? I forget, but a few more brain boosters would probably fix that.”

She continued to whittle, humming softly as her robot sat politely nearby drinking some tea. Millie’s final products were shoddy, likely due to her fumbling levels of dexterity, but she was enjoying it. They’d long since finished the first book, and Millie had grown too antsy to sit and listen any longer and had to find something to do. Thankfully her robot didn’t mind amicable silence as Millie kept busy so long as she periodically asked her for something. Plus, the metal girl seemed immensely pleased to have been of assistance—even if she was apparently forbidden from contributing towards crafting, the raw labor she’d provided had saved Millie a lot of back pain and time.

Millie looked up when she heard a strangled noise come from D’marco.

“Why the hell are you making weapons?” He demanded.

Millie cocked an eyebrow. “Well, the cost for weapons goes up fast once you get past the basic stuff. Plus, there's a fifty to one hundred resource surcharge if you want the weapon to be marked so you can take it on Expeditions. This ain’t much—” she paused to gesture towards her small, but growing stockpile,”—but it gives us a couple of freebies. Plus we’ve got way too many tables, even after all this.”

Which she’d be lying if she said dismantling them hadn’t also been about trying to find secret compartments or terminals. So far she’d only found one hidden terminal, which had gone inert immediately after removal. Stupid thing, she thought. Why can’t it work when removed? That doesn’t even make sense.

Silence descended over the two of them as Millie continued to work.

“How fucking long was I out!?” D’marco shouted suddenly, shattering the silence and starling Millie. She looked up from her work to see the boy’s wide-eyed disbelief.

“Uh, didn’t your sister leave you a note?” Millie asked. “She said she was going to.”

D’marco produced a small piece of parchment and flung it over the table at Millie. Reaching forward, she brought it closer and squinted to read the near-illegible chicken scratch.

“Talk to…Millie. Huh.”

“Yeah,” he replied, his lips drawn into a tight grimace.

Damn it, I forgot how drunk Isabella got, Millie realized. Of course this was her ‘note.’

“Well, I guess I should lay it on you then. I only have the one knife though, so you’re on chandelier duty while you listen. Don’t exactly have a hammer, but I think some of the room furniture is made with stone, so get your attendant to bring in a piece you don’t like and start throwing it at the ground until you break off a big enough chunk to use. Otherwise, settle in to hear all about my no good, very bad day…”

“—and then on his big ‘rematch’ the idiot literally had it in reverse at the start and shot backwards. I saw him in his car, screaming mad tryin’ to shift gears, but instead the fucker yanked his whole steering wheel over and went shooting off towards the curb. He tore his entire exhaust system out, it was kind of impressive.”

“Bullshit!” D’marco said, wheezing with laughter. “That’s fucking bullshit!”

“I swear on my mother’s life,” Millie said, currently laying on some pillows, facing D’marco upside down. “Mr. Rodriguez was so damn furious at his nephew, he banned him from the garage.”

“I don’t fucking blame him,” D’marco said, wiping at his eyes as a few last chuckles broke out. “That shit is just sad, man.”

Millie chuckled. “Yeah, but I may have…kinda fixed it up for him anyways.”

“What? You can’t be serious,” D’marco chided.

“I felt bad for him! Besides, replacing a cat converter isn’t that expensive. Though I may have overcharged him for it.”

She snickered as D’marco laughed again. In fairness, that jerk deserved it for all the times he slapped my ass, Millie added silently. She made it a point not to be one of those mechanics who were needlessly expensive, but some people just had it coming.

“You…fixed a broken machine?” Millie’s servitor whispered in awe.

Millie glanced at her. “Well, yeah. It wasn’t the car’s fault its driver was a moron with a fragile ego.”

“Hell yeah,” D’marco said. “What do you think, Anne?”

He turned to the rave-decorated dark-skinned ‘girl’ next to him. ‘Anne the Droid’ had several piercings, a pink mohawk, and flowing jewelry that swayed as she looked back and forth between the humans nearby.

“I am so confused by his ill-advised flex. That kind of situation is in none of the templates we were imprinted with, squad.”

“I told you she wouldn’t get it,” Millie mused.

“Shut up! At least she’s tryin’,” D’marco shot back. “Plus she’s got a name.”

“Hey—my robot will have a name when she’s ready and picks one, so go fuck yourself.”

“Fuck you!”

“Fuck you!”

A moment of brief silence filled the room. It was followed shortly by the two breaking out into a laugh.

“Fuck, man,” D’marco lamented. “How much longer are they all gonna take?”

“Now you see why I threw together a few weapons,” Millie countered.

“A few? Bitch you made a damn armory!”

“Meh, potato potatoe. I think it's been about…six, maybe seven Magincian hours since the rest went under? It was only supposed to take five, so hopefully, they’ll be out soon.”

“How long did mine take?” He asked.

Millie hemmed and hawed for a bit. “I’d say thirteen M-hours?”

“Fourteen hours, seventy-eight minutes, and three seconds,” Anne said. “Ah…fam.”

“Thank you Anne,” Millie said.

“Yeah, thanks Anne,” D’marco repeated.

The robot flinched, looking towards Millie’s servitor desperately, but Millie’s robot could only shrug helplessly in response. D’marco and Millie had agreed to try unyielding positive reinforcement for the servitors, but so far it mostly just confused them.

I worry these poor things expect us to abuse them at every turn, Millie thought. God, I hope there won’t be a lot of people as awful to them as Liam. I need to choke slam that asshole.

A kick in her guts distracted her, and Millie winced as she rubbed her belly, reorienting herself into a more comfortable position. It was probably for the best—any longer upside down and she’d probably have given herself heartburn.

“Is everything alright?” Her robot asked.

“It's fine,” Millie said. “Baby’s just kicking. Do you want to feel?”

Millie had grown somewhat accustomed, if still unwilling, to the fact that strangers liked to come up to feel her belly—thankfully women in most cases—so it had become a bit of a reflex to offer. She hadn’t expected the metal girl to grow wide-eyed, however, as she lifted her hands tentatively.

“M-may I?”

Millie lifted an eyebrow, worried briefly about the safety of letting a potentially dangerous robot touch her like that, but clamped down on her paranoia. The robot’s sometimes disturbing behaviors aside, it had never acted threatening to her, just on her behalf. As such, Millie nodded and even extended her offer to Anne the Droid.

So it was with a bit of confusion that when Raj finally emerged from his chambers, he too paused, staring in shock. But rather than the room catching his eye first, it was the two robots who were practically worshiping Millie’s midsection, cooing and awing at the miracle of life unfolding before them while D’marco snickered like a child at her discomfort. Millie was seriously regretting having offered now.

“I can feel his little soul,” Anne whispered. “Vibrant and glowing. Animus, created from nothing. How is something so precious possible?”

“It's so beautiful. I…” Millie’s robot said, looking ready to cry. “So beautiful…”

“Y-yup, sure is,” Millie said awkwardly. “Um, hey Raj. How ya been?”

Please save me, she tried to scream at him with her eyes. The bastard just snuffled his mustache at her playfully. She would not forget this betrayal.

“Good for the most part,” he said, approaching them. “Glad to see you up, D’marco. You had us worried for a—is that one of the chandeliers?”

He paused to stare at the (now) broken and dismantled crystalline structure piled nearby. It was still glowing.

“Yeah, Millie and her bot tore it down and I smashed it up,” the tall boy remarked. “We couldn’t find any glue in the system though so we couldn’t make any macadoodles.”

“Macawhittles,” Millie corrected.

Raj snorted. “Macuahuitls,” he actually corrected, grabbing and examining one of Millie’s failed prototypes, held together by string and pure optimism. “You were busy though. I’m impressed.”

“Just a day in the life of a shanghaied mage,” Millie said, before sighing. “Okay, seriously though can you two at least keep it down? Please?”

The two cooing robots touching her belly paused, before lowering their heads in shame. Damn it, now I feel guilty. Thankfully, Millie was rescued from the awkwardness when another door opened and Braylon joined them. The large fellow quickly took in the room only to focus immediately on his friend.

“Raj! You won’t believe it, I…can we talk for a moment?” The big guy was literally bouncing on his feet before he quickly dashed over to his friend. The two of them excused themselves and stepped into the study.

“I wonder what that’s about?” Millie said, before glancing down to two sets of pleading eyes. “Yes, you can keep touching just please be quieter about it.” The metal girls squealed gleefully, before placing their hands on her belly once more.

“Didn’t he say he tore his ACL or somethin’?” D’marco offered. “Maybe he just didn’t want to get into specifics.”

“Do you think the remedy fixed that?” She replied.

D’marco shrugged. “Anne told me it would fix anything. Right Anne?”

“So wonderful…oh! Yes, bruh. It will totally fix anything sus about your bod.” She nodded stoutly, before turning back to staring at Millie’s belly in rapture.

Millie was…kind of regretting teaching D’marco how to ‘fix’ his robot’s language now. The robot sounded as natural as a crusty politician trying to appeal to the younger generation. Though at this point, she figured D’marco just thought it was too funny to correct.

Thankfully I shouldn’t have to worry about him abusing Anne, she thought. He seemed convinced his sister would rip his balls off if he tried. Plus he obviously didn’t seem too keen on owning a ‘slave.’ It's probably why he’s trying to model the thing into a ‘free spirit,’ as he put it.

At that point the two muscled men rejoined them, interrupting her thoughts, and came by to investigate the destruction Millie had wrought on the room. Thankfully, Raj was genuinely impressed by the work she’d done, both in crafting and investigation, and they all shared a meal before Millie decided to take a quick nap on the pillows nearby, her legs sprawled under the warmth of the kotatsu. It had been a long day already, but she still had plenty of time until the new M-day dawned.

Millie woke up to the sounds of crying. Startled at first, she was quickly assuaged when she noticed it was a happy outburst. Isabella and D’marco were holding each other tightly, the girl crying loudly even as she cursed with every other breath on how she most certainly was not. Her brother was little better.

“Are you hungry, Millie?”

Millie turned to see Katelyn sitting nearby, the robotic attendants nowhere to be seen. Almost expected them to hold on forever, Millie mused, before deciding they must have finally retreated to the bedrooms once enough people had come out.

“Yeah, I could eat. Do you mind grabbing me something?”

“Of course not,” The prim girl said with a warm smile.

Millie couldn’t help but notice the girl’s skin looked rather vibrant after the remedy, practically radiating vitality. She hadn’t noticed it as keenly with Raj and D’marco given their darker tones. She might have with Braylon, but he’d never gotten close enough for her to examine him, but it was easily apparent with Katelyn now—she’d gone from somewhat pallid complexion to something fairer with warm undertones. Millie gave another appreciating scan around the room to her classmates, only to pause when she noticed something distinctly off about Isabella.

“Your tattoo!” Millie shouted.

Isabella tore herself from her brother, glancing over at Millie before she let out a loud, angry sigh. “Yeah, apparently the remedy fixes everything. I better be able to get it replaced, damn it.”

If the remedy really can fix anything that would be amazing for Tanya, she thought, before chuckling good-naturedly for the poor influencer.

“It shouldn’t be too hard,” she told her. “Tattoos are common for Attainments.”

“Oh, the feat stuff, right?” Isabella asked.

Damn it CJ, why did you put that in everyone’s head? “Yup, magic skill stuff.” Millie mildly corrected. She supposed it didn’t matter how people thought of it, so long as they more or less understood it.

“Can we add that to the list?” Isabella asked, looking over at Raj.

The muscled man was hunched over a pilfered map of the Academy, planning god-knows-what. He looked up at Isabella’s question, only to turn and give a pointed look at Millie, drawing a sigh from her lips. She was the resident ‘expert’ on the matter so that only made sense that he’d consult her.

“Well,” Millie said, “you can buy them from the system but they’re super expensive. We’re talking thousands of resources.”

Isabella’s jaw dropped before she furrowed her brow. “What the hell? How are we supposed to afford that?”

Millie held up her hands to placate the irate girl. “It's part of the whole Archive process. You go in and get pieces of Attainments somehow, and the more you get for any given one the cheaper it gets to buy from the system.”

Isabella calmed down as she took that in, but Raj spoke up. “Is it possible to learn these skills completely this way? Or do you always have to buy some part of it?”

“Hard to say?” Millie said with a shrug. “I suppose, technically speaking, you can. But then it's not just getting the pieces, but implementing them without the help of a trainer too. With an external Attainment that would also include the need for you to literally tattoo or mutate yourself to make the anchor for the skill. So, yeah, generally kind of advised to just buy it once you’ve dropped the price enough.”

Raj nodded in appreciation. “Any idea on the best way to find what you want in the Archives? I didn’t see anything in the system to start with.”

“I’m not surprised,” she replied. “Nothing’s going to show up unless you get at least one piece to use as a reference and register it.”

It suddenly occurred to her she should have noted that as a clue as to the reason the system allowed registrations to happen at all, but she quickly brought herself back on track.

“But past that it's kind of a grab bag,” she continued. “I don’t know the specifics of the Archive, but from what I do recall it isn’t easy to necessarily find what you’re looking for.”

“Well, at least we have each other,” Katelyn said, returning with food from her room’s entrance. She’d collected it from her servitor—a little old lady-droid that was simply adorable. “I’m sure we can work together as a think tank of sorts.”

“Agreed,” Raj said. “I imagine that's one of the reasons they stressed the value of being in a class in the beginning.”

Millie cocked her head, but thanks to her improved clarity she easily recalled his reference. It had been a bit strange at the time, but their overlords had made a big deal of trying to ensure every student got a chance to form their own classes after the first trial finished. Though it did bring a peculiarity to mind.

Why was she…alone, in her vision? She understood that Expeditions were singular experiences, but surely she would have worked with her classmates to some degree outside of them, right? Her initial assumption that she’d ‘torn’ the group apart with her emotional outburst was completely unfounded if what they’d told her yesterday was to be believed. So why had she been so isolated? It just didn’t make sense.

In the end, without an answer to draw on, Millie decided to chalk it up to a ‘weird vision setup,’ like a bad plot device to ensure the vision had merit and moved on. She did plan to keep it in the back of her thoughts, however, but for now, there were far more pressing concerns waiting for them.

“War club?” Millie said, offering Isabella one of her makeshift weapons when the woman joined them at the kotatsu. The beauty took it cautiously, examining it closely before looking back at Millie, smiling.

“I knew I liked you for a reason.”

A short while later, Millie found herself back in her room to use the facilities. While she was there, she looked over her soul scroll to check on the changes. She’d taken her tier-one regular intellect boosters that she’d won from the challenge after her robot advised her it was safe to do so, and it seemed they’d had the time necessary to take effect. She’d also gobbled up her greater cunning booster while she was at it.

Name: Millie Anne McArthur

Rank: Initiate

Title: None

Job: Student

Attributes

[Physical]

[Mental]

[Spiritual]

Strength [~21]

Intellect [~58]

Potency [#/!]

Stamina [~20]

Willpower [~61]

MPool [#/!]

Dexterity [~28]

Cunning [~51]

Flow [#/!]

Reflexes [~43]

Clarity [~57]

Resonance [#/!]

Attainments

None

Registered Spells

[#/!] Frost Bolt [#/!]

Inventory

Resource Points: 350

[Weapons]

Pocket Knife

War Club

[Armor]

Leather Bracer (Right)

[Pills (T1 box 5/20)]

T1[G] Strength(x1)

T1[G] Stamina(x3)

T1[G] Reflexes(x1)

[Potions]

None

[Talismans]

None

[Attainment Scraps]

Tarot Guide ???

[Misc]

Tarot Cards

Student Uniform (Bleh)

Over the night she’d figured out the trick to modifying her scroll. Using that, she’d added a section for ‘inventory,’ if just to help her stay organized. She’d also modified one of the spiritual stats to say ‘MPool’ instead of ‘Repository’ because it just sounded better to her. And in the end, it wasn’t like it mattered what it was called as long as she understood what it did.

She did note with some amusement that the dozen regular intellect pills had pushed her Intellect up to be her second highest stat. Knowing her luck, it probably wouldn’t last long, but it was nice to see. Almost as nice as her physical stats climbing back up after their dip from the hellish trial on their first day. She briefly considered whether the fluctuations could be something that could also be ‘exploited,’ so to speak, but she’d leave that for the more game-savvy members of her team to decide.

As she left her room to rejoin the growing number of classmates, she had the unfortunate timing to emerge alongside Liam. He had the gall to smile at her, but she reminded herself that from his perspective things had worked out rather well between them. She’d given him permission to ‘help’ her if he could, and aside from being outed as a pervert lacking anything close to moral fiber, little had changed in his eyes.

But for her, it took an absurd amount of willpower not to scream at him on sight. The memory of her talk with Tanya was fresh in her mind and the feelings of not only betrayal but rampant disgust she felt towards the boy were impossible to ignore. As such, he received only a hostile glare from Millie as she dismissed him to sit by the others at the central table.

One thing did bother her, however. The more she thought of it, the more she couldn’t for the life of her figure out why Liam was so adamant about helping her. Did he really want to be a father that much? Or was he just playing a game with her like a sociopath? The fact that she couldn’t tell was incredibly upsetting.

Thankfully, a comforting presence joined them soon when CJ emerged post-remedy. He was quite ecstatic about some of his aesthetic changes, though in Millie’s mind it wasn’t that noticeable. She still let the boy have his moment.

Generally, everyone seemed healthier and aside from a certain tattoo-less beauty, thrilled with the changes no matter how small. Millie noticed after a while, CJ and Braylon broke away to chat amicably—to the point that Millie suspected even if a romance failed the two were at least on a fast track towards friendship. Their pleasantries were interrupted when someone else joined the group, shocking the class speechless.

A stranger walked through Catherine’s door. It took the room several long seconds of stunned silence to realize it was, in fact, the formerly diminutive, pudgy girl.

She stood several inches taller, nearly Millie’s height now, and her previously frazzled, poorly tended hair fell instead in light curls around her shoulders, voluminous and shiny. Her glasses were gone, and her skin was an idealized alabaster as the weight on her frame only made her appear curvy now. Apparently, it had been better distributed across her body with her inexplicable growth spurt, or simply melted off in some cases. Catherine herself seemed to be in a daze, looking at them all with a vacant, searching expression.

Katelyn, unsurprisingly, was first to approach her.

“Are you alright, Catherine? You look…amazing,” she said.

Catherine’s eyes finally focused, as she looked up at her taller friend’s face. Her eyes seemed to be searching for something, traveling back and forth across Katelyn’s features, before finally she scrunched her face in frustration and looked away.

“I’m…fine, I guess. The room’s different.” She approached the group, walking past Katelyn to sit on some pillows to the side.

“Are you alright?” Millie asked. For some reason, the curvy girl looked angry. Or, better yet, disappointed.

“It's not important,” she said. “Is everyone out?”

“We’re still waiting on Tanya,” Millie said. “Are you sure—”

“I’m fine,” Catherine snapped. “It just…didn’t fix everything. Clearly.”

Millie furrowed her brow. “I mean, it looks like it certainly helped. Katelyn’s right—you look amazing!”

Millie gave the girl a supportive smile, but Catherine just stared at her, eyes darting across Millie’s face. Eventually, the girl turned away and shrugged.

“I guess it fixed some nourishment problems.” She then turned towards the table and began fiddling with the interface.

Nourishment problems? Millie thought. What the hell kind of diet did she—fuck was she starved as a child or something? Did the remedy heal stunted growth?

A part of her dearly wanted to ask more questions, but it was clear from Catherine’s body language that she was done talking. Instead, Millie watched as the girl grabbed one of Millie’s books her robot had left her and leafed through it, mumbling as she quietly translated it out loud. I guess they really can read the First language now, so that’s a plus.

A few conversations that had dropped off from nearby started again as Katelyn joined her friend, sitting quietly beside her. As Millie returned to her own distractions—the continued study of the Tarot—it was out of the corner of her eye that she noticed Katelyn give Catherine a side hug, squeezing the girl tight.

“It’ll be okay,” she heard Katelyn whisper.

“It’s not fair,” Catherine mumbled. “I hate it how hard it is.”

Katelyn kissed the top of the girl’s head, even as Catherine hunched forward. The two said nothing more as they continued to wait for their final classmate.

With less than a single M-hour remaining ‘till dawn, Tanya finally emerged. Millie had started to grow anxious with how long the girl’s treatment was taking, not to mention rather irritated at the wholly inaccurate time frame given by the robots. Thankfully, Tanya emerged hale and healthy, and in many ways would have probably stood out as the most drastically changed were it not for Catherine’s incredible transformation. The petite blond girl was radiant and practical glowed as she came bursting into the commons.

It was Millie and Tanya’s turn to step into the study for a private chat, as the petite girl gave her a teary-eyed look, hugging her tightly as she explained the miracle that had happened. If the robots were to be believed, then Tanya’s Acute Myeloid Leukemia was gone. While she hadn’t had a growth spurt like Catherine, her body felt far more sturdy to Millie, and she was sure the girl had gained a good deal of weight to her benefit. She was healthy now, in a way she’d never been in her life.

I wish it could all be this, Millie thought, holding her friend close. It would be a wonderful dream if the ruins of Magincia could be a place of hope and healing.

Instead, she feared only insanity and pain awaited them. For now, she put the thought out of her mind and enjoyed the moment. Eventually, the two split apart and left to rejoin their classmates. A short while later, the class finished their preparations with only half an hour of real time before the M-dawn came.

“Alright, everyone ready?” Raj asked, looking over the group. The arrayed students were dressed in their uniforms, makeshift weapons holstered but not drawn. The goal was to look intimidating, without being overtly threatening. The fact that neither Braylon nor Raj could wear their coats due to the sheer size of their muscles certainly helped with that. They’d had to tie them around their wastes like hooligans, as her father might say, much to her amusement.

“Let’s get this party started,” Isabella said. With a nod from Raj, they then walked through the dorm’s entrance portal.

There was no bridge on the other side. Millie hadn’t known it at the time, but most destinations had to be registered to a student by visiting them with their soul scroll in their possession, and the fastest way to do so was to use the portals inside the Academy to make quick jumps to the connecting lines, like a magical subway until you reached these ‘destination points.’ Barring that, the only locations that were eligible for porting in were the central square or the outer gates.

In this case, they arrived in the central square. The landing platform before them consisted of several portals arrayed in a circle, with a massive citadel-like structure looming above them, supported by large stone columns snaking into the ground like tree roots. Stairs circled the columns leading upwards, and Millie quickly learned from the others from posted signs that above them was nonother than the Archive’s themselves. The semi-floating castle was center-stage to the Academy, and nearby was a majority of the ‘entertainment’ establishments available for students. Some were in the process of shutting down while others were opening up. There was only a short time until M-dawn, but unfortunately—

They weren’t alone.

Surrounding them was a simply staggering amount of students. Clustered in large groups, milling about, it didn’t take long to learn that apparently the Archives, that every damn robot had been steering students to, hadn’t been open on day one. Since none of her class was keen on joining the long line of queued students waiting for its opening in a few M-minutes, they quickly made their way further into the Academy.

Several jumps along the transportation network later, they arrived in the Administrative district proper. The area was an intermixed, crisscrossing of plazas and bridges with ponds, streams, and gardens everywhere as estate-esque buildings housing the various bureaucratic offices were liberally scattered about. To Millie, the architecture and aesthetics seemed a strange mix of corporate and academia. It was slightly unnerving, however, when Raj brought them down an almost hidden path below the more picturesque setting above, revealing a downright dystopian series of tightly packed dark metal buildings below in a dimly lit sub-floor.

“I combed this area and several like it,” Raj informed them as they walked along the dull, matte structures. “If I had to guess, most of this was dedicated towards general staff and may have played a role in the city below. Hard to tell for sure, because they’ve been hollowed out as I said earlier. You’ll only find machines sprawling all along the bottom level of the admin section in them now.”

“Creepy,” Millie muttered. “What made you think to look here anyway? Did you find an unblocked window or something?”

Raj laughed and pointed up. Following his gesture, Millie and the others scoured the ceiling before CJ gasped.

“Is that a pipe?” He said. Raj nodded, and at the confusion of Millie and the others, CJ added, “See how the texture of the ceiling dips down? They painted it to blend in.”

Millie looked for what he indicated and, with his help, quickly confirmed his observation. Hidden pipes, cables, and rough architectural additions were everywhere the more they looked, simply disguised to blend in. No magic, just simple obfuscation.

“Is this district the only one with a lower level?” Isabella asked.

Raj shrugged. “Don’t know for sure, but I’ve found the occasional tunnel or dip. The random…back alley,” he added with a glance towards Liam.

The handsome boy stared back, but as Millie spared a glance for the boy herself, she paused with a shudder. Liam’s eyes had become…darker. Almost as black as his crystal in the dim lighting.

“Regardless,” Raj continued, “I think it's safe to assume there are multiple levels, but for many reasons, we don’t have access to them.”

“That's assuming there's no spacial warping,” Catherine added.

Raj nodded in agreement. “One look outside the Academy proves they can do it, and our dorms certainly have it. Anyway, it's only a few jumps towards the Headmaster’s office if we want to visit there first. Otherwise, we did think the conflict and resolutions office would be a good choice for finding the rules of this place.”

“I’d say the conflicts office first,” Millie suggested. “I’m not sure I want to deal with the Headmaster unless we have a better idea of what we’re dealing with.”

The consensus among the group quickly agreed with Millie, and so they set course. Millie was paused momentarily, however, by a familiar hand on her shoulder.

“Hey, stick close to me, okay?”

The beautiful angel spoke and Millie’s stomach fluttered traitorously. However, at this point there were no words he could ever speak that would win her favor. Instead, she slowly, and callously, slapped his hand away.

“I asked you to stop touching me. Do it again and see what happens.”

Liam stepped back in confusion, glaring at Millie. “What the hell? I thought you agreed to let me help you.”

Millie spat on the ground nearby. “I said you could help. I didn’t give you permission to touch me. Or to sit next to me. Or to lie to me with every breath.”

Liam’s gaze darkened, and he seemed lost in thought before he eventually shot a glare at Tanya. The small girl flinched, before CJ stepped in the way, returning Liam’s withering gaze right back at him. Liam scowled angrily, before Braylon stepped up with a supporting hand on CJ’s back.

“Is everything alright?” He asked.

“It is,” CJ said, smiling warmly at Braylon before shooting a warning glance to Liam. “Isn’t that right, Liam?”

Liam glared at the group before stepping away from Millie. “Yup. Never better.”

The tension between the two was palpable, and Millie was impressed with CJ’s stern look and straight back. The scrawny boy hated conflict and could rarely stomach it, but she supposed the giant muscle man standing next to him was probably inflating his courage to new heights.

“You talked to Tanya,” Liam whispered.

“Yeah, I did,” Millie answered quietly. “Stay away from her.”

Liam turned his intimidating new gaze towards her. “What did she tell you? Some sob story of how—”

“We’re done with this discussion,” Millie said, folding her arms. “I told you—if you want to be a father, you can prove it. Through actions, not words. I’m done listening to you.”

You and your poisonous lies, predator. She walked away, glad she’d managed to retain some modicum of composure. Every fiber in her being wanted to take one of her newly minted war clubs and test it against Liam’s face. Thankfully, he got the hint and didn’t pursue her further.

After a few portals though, Raj called for a small break and just so happened to end up standing next to Millie. In a low voice, she heard him whisper.

“Keep the knife.”

Millie was startled before she nodded gratefully with a smile. She appreciated his offer, especially given the fact that she may have accidentally registered the pocket knife to herself during the night cycle. She hadn’t been sure how to tell him that, so this was convenient. Plus I already put it on my inventory sheet and everything! She wouldn’t actually whine about that, though, even if CJ would have gotten a kick out of it.

A short while after Millie had rested enough to continue, the group stepped out of a portal across from the conflicts office with only a few real minutes left until the end of the night cycle. A crowd was here as well, perhaps two dozen students in all. Millie assumed they must have been other classes with similar ideas to their own, but it quickly became apparent there was more going on.

They weren’t waiting for something. They were congregating around it.

“What's happening here?” Isabella asked a student nearby.

“She…the golden girl did something,” the male student said. “Now some idiot’s challenging her to a duel to the death!”

“Did something?”

“Yeah, she—”

“It was magic!” Another student said, a girl that was holding tightly to the boy. “She challenged the bravest one here to fight her and it did something. I felt it!”

The girl was trembling, and the ghostly faces of people nearby seemed to corroborate her story. Millie was actually grateful now for her low stamina. If their group hadn’t taken a break, they might have been caught in whatever effect the others were describing.

Moving to a better location with some cover, standing along a path leading towards the lower level obscured by hedges, Millie and the group joined the crowd of onlookers. Sure enough, standing in the open area was Rebecca. Her coat was missing, and her tight, golden undershirt did little to hide the odd additions to her body.

Small, circular metallic disks sat on her wrists, elbows, and shoulders connected by thin golden bars. There were clearly additional metal supports circling her waist, chest, and around her shoulders, and a twin set was visible as they went up the sides of her neck, ending in disks along the base of her skull. Two small bars sat on her temples, and she’d tied her hair back, its formerly normal brown having become burnished with highlights of blond. The bars didn’t connect all the disks across her body, but digital-looking lines of energy slowly pulsed across her flesh, filling the gaps.

Oddly, the girl still had the scar that ran along her neck and face, something that should have disappeared after she, presumably, took the remedy. Which Millie was certain she must have—her scar gave off a golden light like a seeping wound. The girl’s eyes though…were hollow and empty as she stared down her opponent.

The man opposite of her glared hatefully back, standing head and shoulders above her, looking like a thug from a mafia movie with his sharply trimmed facial hair and combed hair. But she didn’t look impressed or afraid of him, despite the obvious difference in physicality.

If anything, she just looked…sad.

“Why is this even happening,” Millie whispered.

“You don’t know?” A stranger said. Millie jumped when she heard their voice and quickly found the source. A thin, shorter boy with oriental features met her gaze, having been squatting on the other side of the bushes that served to visibly hide the path that led to the lower level. He jumped over them now to join them, and Millie took in his short black hair and dark eyes. He had an oddly relaxed grin and only a hint of an accent, but she got the impression English wasn’t his first language even though he spoke it with mastery.

“Someone said it was magic,” Millie said, glaring at him. His laissez fair attitude prickled her. “Were you here for it?” She decided to talk to the random stranger, partly because she noticed in the corner of her vision that Raj had stepped up protectively next to her.

“Yup.” The boy said. “She taunted everyone in the area and that poor sap fell for it.”

Raj crossed his arms, and shook his head in disbelief. “And he accepted it even though they said it was to the death?”

The boy glanced at Raj’s prominent muscles, almost enviously, before chuckling. “You don’t know about the golden girl do you?”

“We've heard of her,” Millie said. "It's just scary to hear magic could make this happen, you know?"

The boy nodded knowingly, before pausing to look down at her belly. “Oh, hey—you’re the broodmother, aren’t you?”

“Yup, that's me," Millie said, rolling her eyes with a sigh. "I'd prefer if you call me Millie though.”

He laughed, still utterly unconcerned with the tense situation unfolding nearby. Instead, he reached out a hand.

“That's fair. My name’s Xing Xing, by the way. But most people just call me Thomas.”

Raj was looking at the boy’s outstretched hand, obviously considering whether to take it, before Millie suddenly grabbed Raj.

“Thomas?” She repeated, color draining from her face. The Fortune-Teller’s note. Thomas and Rebecca.

“You know about me too?” The boy smiled wider. “Damn, guess words already spreading about that potion, huh?” He watched her casually, not a care in the world.

Millie’s eyes widened as her fingers dug into Raj’s arm, but before she could make any further comment, thunder rang in her ears.

The golden girl’s opponent had pulled out a handgun and fired.