“What are you doing?” Bri asked, frowning at Shaya as she walked up to her in the courtyard between the towers of their apartment building. The area offered enough privacy that it served as their ad hoc exercise space, since the public gymnasium was often full of Azreon’s goons.

“...why does everyone keep asking me that?” Shaya said, looking up from her push-ups.

“...because we’re worried you’re working yourself into the ground?” Bri placed her fists on her hips with a scowl, looking ridiculous with her injured arm still in a cast.

“A likely story,” Shaya said, giving up on her push-up and sitting back on her heels, “you’re just worried you might not be the only sexy giant woman on campus if I keep going like this.”

Bri cocked her head down at Shaya, “You think I’m sexy?”

“Uh,” Shaya forced back a blush, “hells yeah. Do you...not think that?”

“I don’t know,” her friend averted her gaze, hiding her own blush, “I think I’m fine, but I’m not exactly attracting a host of suitors here.”

“Psht,” Shaya snorted, “idiots, the lot of them.”

“Yeah,” Bri said, a wry expression on her face as she looked down at Shaya, “they are. And if you think you’re catching up to me, you are very mistaken.”

“Oh yeah?” Shaya said, rising her chin in defiance, “And what makes you say that?”

“Look at your numbers,” Bri said, kneeling next to Shaya and flipping open her notebook, “these aren’t the numbers of someone with your physical ability.”

She stabbed a finger down onto Shaya’s numbers, “You grow bored of your exercises and give up instead of pushing yourself past your limits. You’re barely sweating compared to Ralus and I when we finish.”

“Okay, okay,” Shaya said, “in my defence, repeating the same action again and again is pretty boring.”

“Yet,” Bri said, cocking an eye brow at her friend, “you do it with your magic until nearly burning out daily.”

“Okay,” she replied, stroking her chin, “fair point. Then...how can I make exercise more interesting? Or are my shifts at the forge combined with our classes enough?”

“No way,” Bri shook her head, almost disgusted by Shaya’s suggestion, “it just means we’re going to have to customize your routine to avoid over-straining the arm you hammer with.”

“Oh, I work with both. So no worries there.”

“You’re ambidextrous?”

“Yep,” Shaya replied, “I don’t flex it often, but forging definitely pushes me past my limits otherwise. Sometimes I think Auric expects us to be golems or something.”

“Even easier then,” Bri snorted, “we’ll just go a bit lighter on your arms. As for making things more interesting, maybe you’ll push yourself if we burn you out faster by doing more high intensity exercises and adding some weights.”

“That, uh, doesn’t sound pleasant,” Shaya said.

“What?” Bri grinned, and shoved her with a shoulder, "You think looking this good is easy?"

“Ugh,” Shaya groaned, “you make it look easy; I guess I should’ve known you were a hard worker or something.”

“Don’t look too surprised,” Bri narrowed her eyes as she spoke, “you’re not the only one with goals here.”

"Non-sense,” Shaya said, lifting her nose into their air, “the world revolves around me and my goals.”

Bri rolled her eyes, “I might have to root for Una.”

Shaya gasped in mock offense, “You traitor!”

“Someone’s gotta pop that ego of yours before it gets too big,” Bri said, rising to her feet and offering a hand to help Shaya up, “and it would look bad if I did it.”

“I’m trying to do push-ups here,” Shaya frowned at the offered hand.

“Nuh-uh,” Bri said, insist with her offered hand, “you need to recover from the magical healing like the rest of us.”

“But I have to prepare for my duel with Una in a few days,” Shaya complained, “I want to be in peak form.”

“Then you should’ve taken your exercising more seriously months ago,” Bri said, “that’s the problem: it takes months for it to make a meaningful difference, you can’t just wait to do it right before you need it. And working out while you’re injured isn’t going to make you stronger either.”

“Fiiine,” Shaya said, finally taking her friend’s offered hand and standing up, “what do you suggest we do?”

“We plan,” Bri said, “for when we’re fully recovered. We’ve got some time to kill before Foundations, should be plenty to figure it out.”

“What are you thinking?”

“Well...” Bri drawled, “Now that Azreon seems to be out of the picture... I think we should move our work outs to the gymnasium. They have some interesting equipment there to do different exercises and weighted gear, it will burn you out faster, which will hopefully make you give your all to the workouts moving forward.”

Shaya thought it over and nodded, “I'm down to give it a shot. With Azreon gone, this week has been pretty...peaceful for me, all things considered. I’m already making better progress in class because fewer people are distracting me.”

“Perfect!” Bri said, “The healers said they can finish healing up my arm before the weekend and I should be good to use it a few days later. We’ll have to start with leg day,” Bri paused while Shaya groaned, “but we can shift to other muscle groups after.”

“I can’t wait,” Shaya smiled through gritted teeth, “it sounds like making progress will be so much fun.”

Bri laughed. “I can’t wait to have this damn cast off, I’m just happy that Auric’s been focusing on lectures and light activities in Foundations. What do you think we’ll be covering in class today?”

“Battling monsters, but I’m actually skipping Foundations,” Shaya said, patting the air gently as Bri looked at her with surprise, “I got permission from Auric. I’ll need you and Ral to take notes for me, since I’ll be meeting with Rea.”

“That’s awesome!” Bri grinned, “I’m sure she’ll agree to help you out!”

+++++

“No,” Rea said, sitting at her desk.

“Oh, thank you so mu-wait, what?” Shaya stuttered, aghast.

Rea’s office was huge by Shaya’s standards, each wall covered floor to ceiling in wooden shelves laden with books and even scrolls. Most of the books were paper and bound in normal leather, but Shaya suspected some of them were bound in stranger materials, perhaps even including... human skin? She shuddered as she thought about where Rea might have acquired those books.

Her desk was covered in more books. One lay open in front of her, turned to one of the tome’s central pages that depicted the anatomy of a half-bull, half-human rage demon in gruesome detail. The book’s notes were written in a language Shaya couldn’t understand, but small arrows pointed to areas on the body she assumed were weak points – joints, ligaments, arteries and one specific organ that looked like a sac of bile.

In sharp contrast to that, two stacks of books sat on the other side of her desk. A glance at their spines suggested they might all be the absolute worst, or at least cheesiest, romance 'literature’ the Empire had to offer. ‘Love on the Battlefield’, ‘On The Lips of a God’, and more... graphic titles that made Shaya blush even at a glance.

“I said no,” Rea explained, smiling in amusement at Shaya’s wandering eyes and blushing face.

“Yes,” Shaya muttered, “I got that part... but why?”

“Because I am first and foremost a professor at this Academy, Shaya,” she explained, “and you are already mentored to Auric and working almost full-time at his forge now. You’re bright, but you’re also behind where I’d like you to be in my class. What you’re asking for is another time commitment which you can’t afford.”

“But!” Shaya gasped, “I - I need your help to control this! I can’t think of anyone else! The demon you’ve bound to yourself, you must know how to control it, right?”

“You’ve controlled your anger just fine, for the most part, your entire life,” Rea continued, “why do you feel the need to delve into this ‘issue’ right now?”

“Because it’s worse here than it’s ever been,” Shaya explained, desperate, “I’ve never had more practice in keeping my anger in check, but... but every time I come close to slipping – or gods forbid, slip like I did on deployment – I put others around me at risk. There are rumours that the rage has driven some of people to kill close friends and I’ve seen first-hand that it’s impossible to tell friend from foe for someone gripped by it.”

Rea’s three eyes bored into her, her third eye sitting in her forehead unblinking. “There’s more to it that you’re not telling me.” She paused. “That you’re not telling yourself, perhaps. Is your anger changing, somehow?”

“I...I’m not sure,” Shaya admitted, “I think the rage feels different, sometimes. Like... it’s more my own than something else.”

Rea nodded, leaning back in her chair and crossing her long legs languidly, “Did you know that when you bind an esper to you, it ceases to exist?”

Shaya blinked, “No, you said you weren’t allowed to tell me more about binding.”

“Right, shit,” Rea cursed, “Well, they do. Do you know what that means for me?”

“No.”

“Think harder.”

The gears turned in Shaya’s head, but her frustration and panic at Rea’s rejection clouded her mind, rusting the gears and turning them into screeching nightmares that spiralled out of control. She took a deep breath to calm herself and work through the problem. If espers cease to exist once bound to a person’s soul, that means...

“You’re...” Shaya mumbled, “not controlling the demon in you, because there is no demon in you.”

“Good,” Rea nodded, “now give me a conclusion.”

“The demon’s anger is now your anger,” Shaya said, nodding as it came to her, “and you’re going to tell me to stop calling it ‘the rage’ and accept it as ‘my anger’, because my progenitor’s curse is as part of me as the demon is a part of you now.”

Rea smiled, “See? I said you were bright.”

“Thanks,” Shaya said, frowning at the tall woman across the desk from her, “but that still doesn’t help me. What can I do to convince you to help me with this?”

“For starters,” Rea said, relenting just a little, “you can tell me the other reasons you want to explore this ‘curse’ right here and right now.”

“Okay,” Shaya said, heart leaping at the chink in Rea’s armour.

I’m going to hammer away at it until I get what I want! She assured herself, mind racing to generate every possible reason she could.

“I’m a trichromat, but the few times I tried to channel my Ruby magic the anger drove me close to breaking immediately.”

Rea nodded, “Ruby aether responds to all forms of passion, not just anger. You could give that a try.”

“What,” Shaya said, cocking her head, “you want me to feel horny whenever I need to blow someone up?”

“N-no!” Rea said quickly, “There are other forms of passion than anger or lust.”

“Uh-huh,” Shaya said.

“Next reason,” Rea glowered.

“Losing control could mean getting myself suspended or even expelled,” Shaya continued, “which I’ve come close to, as you no doubt have heard.”

“Fair, next.”

Shaya thought about it and shook her head. “I think that’s it.”

Rea scoffed, “I think you’re ignoring the most important reason. My wife showed me the memory of your final battle – you clearly intended to induce the rage. Say it out loud.”

Shaya’s heart hammered in her chest, “Because... because it can make me stronger.”

“Stronger than...?”

“My enemies, my rivals, than...” Shaya swallowed, “than... Azreon, and all the other damn nobles here who look down on me because of my bloodline and heritage.”

Rea’s smile conveyed an enormity of empathy – and understanding.

Shaya sagged in the chair, feeling defeated. There’s no way she’ll train me just because I want to be stronger.

“Okay,” Rea said, “I’ll do it.”

“What!?”

“What?” Rea said, taken aback by Shaya’s outburst, “I’m supposed to help every student that comes into my office whimpering?” She scoffed, “Non-sense. But power and ambition? That is dangerous if left without guidance; believe me when I say I know better than most.”

Shaya thought she saw a shadow cross through the tattoos that covered the left half of Rea’s body, and remembered how she mentioned falling in with a demonic cult when ‘vulnerable.’

“But I’m not as generous with my time as Auric,” Rea carried on cheerily, “I’m a busy woman, so I’ll give you three lessons – but only if your grades improve or stay where they are. If I see your grades drop during the mid-terms, I’ll cut off you faster than a festering limb.”

“I understand,” Shaya nodded, thankful even her professors seemed to have her best interests at heart – from their own, unique perspectives, anyway.

“Good, anything else?”

“Um,” Shaya hesitated, “I haven’t seen Apricot in class all week – is she alright?”

Rea’s features softened, “She will be. What you asked of her was...more unreasonable than you know, but her spirit will recover in time.”

“I’m so sorry,” Shaya sighed, “I know I pushed all of us-”

Rea raised a hand, “I trust my daughter’s judgment – better than my own, oftentimes – if she thought it was the best course of action, I believe it. Teleportation without a beacon is difficult, but portals without a beacon are beyond the scope of even many full mages.”

Shaya blinked.

“That’s right,” Rea smiled with pride, “you may be bright, but my daughter is a prodigy.”

“Yeah,” Shaya smiled, “she’s definitely amazing.”

She stood to go, eying Rea’s stack of ‘literature’, “Well, I’ll leave you to your busy work.”

“Would you like to borrow one?” Rea asked, her smile growing mischievous, “I saw you eying ‘On The Lips of a God’ earlier, I can definitely recommend it.”

“No thanks!” Shaya blurted, backing away from the desk.

“It’s quite alright!” Rea called after her, “The illustrations are really quite informative for someone like-!”

Shaya sprinted out of the office, face redder than a demon’s ass.