“Come on Rose, won’t you finish,” there was something with her personality that made me act kiddy. I knew that whatever she was remembering was painful, or otherwise strange, but I also understood that it was something she had to get over.

“Oh, aren’t you curious,” Rose took advantage and teased me, “Well alright. We’re done here, so let me walk you home.”

“While I would like to hear the rest on the way, are you really done here? Don’t you want to see why they’re so aggressive towards Clara?”

“No. If everything is fine, then she’ll turn up tomorrow at my place. That’s why you didn’t say anything to Rufus, right?”

“Well, it’s just that he seems a little more composed. I wanted to stay so I could tell him that I was fine, but he was busy.”

Rose stopped at a moment and looked me in the eye.

“Um, it’s really late. Today you did something grown up. You should know that you must get home now. You’re more of an adult than me, and you’re still in middle school.”

“Hey, that’s not true. I’m sure you had a tough challenge with the girl in the long dress. Would you please tell me?”

Rose seemed to cheer up a little, just for my sake when I asked her. I guessed that it felt farther away from tonight if the told in the form of a story.

“So, I saw this girl, and I could see since she was not conjuring a protective suit, that she had on a long dress. No wait, I already said that, and girl would be the last word I would use. She was more like a demon. She had power that made you afraid and presence that stifled every last cell in my body,” but Rose spoke awfully slow.

We had already arrived at my house and she didn’t reveal anything.

“Oh, it’s so late,” she yawned, “Could you spot me some money for a taxi?”

At the door, I leaned against her and in my tired spew said, “No! You have to tell me the truth so you can feel better.”

“For me to feel better, huh? No, I think I’ll cope a little differently. After all, everything ended well.”

“I’ve learned today that there is so much more out there. I must know. Plus, whatever you said right now went against the tidbits from before we left.”

“Okay, the reason I mentioned her clothes so much is because it’s one of the ways to gauge her character. Now, where was I really…,” but this time maybe Rose continued with too much enthusiasm. She had more for me than for herself apparently.

Rose went on and mentioned how when she was completely blocked by this ‘demon’ she finally got the see her in detail. She had a doll face, and strange additions to her aqua blue hair. A long dress was also a poor descriptor for her outfit too. After thinking about it for a bit, she recalled that her dress was more like a full suit. Something totally unsuitable for battle.

“Her eyes, goodness. It was like an eternity passed. Usually you can empathize when you look into another’s eyes, but they were so listless that I think she felt bored, or even annoyed,” she added, “You do understand that word, right, listless?”

“Yes, of course I do. Anyway, tell me if she said anything to you, and what kind of magic did she use again?”

“It means she wasn’t enthusiastic at all- huh, what? Alright, Alright, honor roll. She used a strange move with her fist. It didn’t absorb or deflect my lightning magic, but rather she ‘broke my spell’. It was a strange technique that made it like I never cast any magic at all, but my stamina was still gone.”

“So she blocked it completely. You sure did a number on those summoned beasts but Josten’s subordinate was able to no-sell your thunderbolts.”

“Different from blocking. And while I found her huddled over the contraband, I really doubt she was a subordinate at all.”

“Yeah, it was strange. We can agree that she was surely the client since she didn’t step in at all for Josten. And you mentioned that she had a strange implement on her waist,” I nodded.

“Right, it was from there I felt the source of magic when she used her ‘break’ technique. I know that I’ve always exaggerated or pretended before, but only for today I’ll give the closest recollection of the dialogue between us:”

I doubted what she said from the very start, but I listened greedily, gulping down the story in half fear for this demon and half admiration for Rose who seemed less and less like the airhead I thought she was.

“She had just extended her fist into my attacks, promptly rose to her feet, and held her arms to her sides, ready to clobber me. There’s usually this static discharge after I use magic, but I felt none of it. At the time I didn’t think that she nullified my spell, but instead she just took it in full. If I kept my Moxie, maybe I thought she would leave. She said to me, “Oh, you seem to want me to play a certain role? I am in a good mood.”

But she had trouble saying ‘good mood’ as though she had never ventured to say those words. From her hand she conjured water, all when I stood there, still, unable to do anything about it. It formed a huge orb above her hand, and she motioned like she was going to throw it at me.

“To think, you’ve been chosen by an Avian agent yet you can’t even get me to fully use my ‘Break’,” She said it so calmly, though now the water froze until it was a sharp shard of ice larger than head.

I looked down, and while I was frozen with fear, she really froze my feet in place. She must have done it while I was distracted with her hand, but how, all of this happened so fast. “She did not throw it. Instead, with the greatest delicacy she nudged her ice, now levitating, at my chest. But even the softest movement accelerated it at Mach speed. She launched a shockwave that I felt across my body through my protective suit like it was suddenly breaking into pieces.

Luckily, Clara had thought me an acceleration-type spell, and I funneled what was left of my protection into my right shoulder and leaned hard towards it, and just in time. I felt the cold shards of ice break onto my shoulder. But just as I thought I was safe, she prepared another shot, and I had nothing left to guard with and couldn’t move.

So she stopped it, right between my eyes, even before I was back on balance from my last maneuver. The magic stopped, and the shards all returned to water vapor. I could not tell whether I was damp from water or from sweat. But I did know, where I blocked the ice, there was sticky blood.

Unsmiling, Unmoving, she said, “I suppose that’s enough for now,” and then she left. She was the client the whole time. I told the medics that came to us, and they told me that such is the nature of a magician’s fight.”

I hung on to that afterthought, “Oh, whoever they are working for, must be really heartless.”

“No! That’s not it. It’s the fact that she was holding back and we couldn’t protect Luminaire. Once they let Clara go I’m going to ask her for more practice.”

I remembered that she also used a full power attack that hurt her as well. I remembered when I used that much magic it created a powerful blast, but that woman had ignored it completely, with not even her full counter.

“Okay Rose, just promise me that you’re okay.”

“Not right now. I will be okay.”