A week later I collapsed on Thelyris’ sofa. A moan of mingled pleasure and exhaustion leaked out of my mouth.

I was getting on intimate terms with the pleasure of lying down when my winged host burst into the house.

"Piper! Piperpiperpiper!" The energy in her voice indicated she'd found something interesting, to her at least. Over the last few days I'd learnt that Thelyris had only two mindsets; hyperactive and obsessive, or disinterested and dismissive.

"Piper!" She screamed again as she leapt on top of me. I groaned at the additional pain. Reaching out a desperate hand to the other figure in the door, I managed to croak, "Save me..."

"Okay Tiz, don't kill the poor girl before you manage to tell her," said the woman, tail swishing as she walked over.

Thelyris was pulled off in a tumble of feathers and cloth. As she popped up again, I glared at her. Unfortunately it didn't seem to phase her in the least.

"Piper, listen to me! It's big news! Are you ready, Piper?"

I was getting tired of my own name at this point. I'd forgotten about the helmet's warning when she first asked and instinctively responded with my real name. It was telling of how off-pace I was with everything that I couldn't even maintain the basics of a con. At least I stayed true to my backstory.

"Okay Piper! Ready? Aristide made a decision! You're in! Ouch!" Thelyris put a hand to her head and looked up at the catwoman next to her with an affronted look. "That hurt Hana!"

"Well, you weren't supposed to tell her the actual decision, were you?" The catwoman's tail swept back behind her. "Well, the boss wants to see you, though I don't know what he's going to say now that birdbrain here spilt everything." She indicated the door with a jerk of her head.

I was already sitting upright, my sore muscles forgotten. I scrambled for the door before realising I was still in my sweaty clothes.

"Do I have time to clean up?" I asked, turning back to the other two.

"Sure, he figured you'd need some time to move around after today's workout." Hana replied. Thelyris' head nodded next to her.

I hurriedly stumbled to my room, stripped out of the practice gear and rushed into the rough stone bathroom. "Shower," I said, imagining high pressure warm water.

I spent a few minutes enjoying the massage, giggling as I recalled Thelyris' shocked face when I first told her I didn't know the shower spell. It had taken five or six examples from Thelyris for the helmet to analyze and replicate this spell, but the flighty girl's expressions over the learning period had definitely been worth it.

I dressed and left the dorms with the others. Aristide had run me ragged this week, so knowing I'd managed to impress him gave me a glow of satisfaction. ~Though I suppose it was natural, since I've had practice. Speaking of, the man could give Lincoln a run for his money.~

Aristide was waiting for me in the hall I'd first encountered him in, talking to an elven dancer with rings of fire coiling around her arms. As they took notice of me, the woman's attentive look became stone-faced, and the fire disappeared.

"Ah, Piper. You were rather more expeditious than I expected. Were you in such eagerness to hear my decision?" A wry smile graced his scaled face.

I displayed an expression of nervousness and embarrassment at his question. Of course I felt no such thing, but no need to seem overconfident.

"Well, before that, I need to ask you something." His face turned serious. "Is the loss of your arm recent?"

I nodded. "Ah, good to know. Your form is clearly attempting to balance according to the missing limb, but we can correct that since you only lost it recently." He smiled widely and clapped his hands together. "Congratulations Piper, you are now an official member of Aodhfionn. Welcome to the world of fire dancing."

"Thank you!" I exclaimed, my portrayed excitement not entirely feigned. With this I had established a firm base for myself.

Aristide nodded, and then turned back to the elf. Sensing the dismissal, I exited the room. "Adamaris really doesn't like me, does she?" I whispered to Hana.

"Ah, don't take it personally. She's always like that," said Hana, waving her hand.

"Yeah, she was super rude to me, even though Aristide is my uncle!" chimed Thelyris. I blinked a few times at that revelation. The lizard and bird were related?

~I don't even what to think about the genetics involved.~

My stomach growled. Hana giggled as she sent a sidelong glance at me. “Feeling relieved?”

I shrugged. “After the workout I’ve been through today, I think it would be more of a miracle if it wasn’t making sounds.”

The three of us made our way outside and walked down the street to the restaurant we had been eating at for the last few days. Hana had suggested it after I’d discovered Thelyris could barely be trusted with a knife. How she hadn’t lost her hands already was beyond me.

“By the way, how’s the fire weaving coming along?” Hana asked.

“Oh, have you made any more cool tricks?” exclaimed Thelyris, spraying a mouthful of food in the process.

“Ew, Tiz! You’re not a child, don’t eat like one,” reprimanded Hana.

Thelyris mumbled an apology and wiped up with a quick spell. Since there was no alert from the helmet, either it had already knew how to do it or it needed to see it again.

“I’m getting there,” I smiled at Hana, “I’ve kinda got the idea for the basics, but I’m still wrapping my head around the spell incantations. Thanks again for taking so much time to show me.”

She waved away my thanks. “Nah, it was fine. Plus it means more time to locate your mysterious spell tattoo.”

Since I didn’t know any of the words required to evoke magic, Hana was convinced that there was a fire spell tattoo somewhere on me, and spent half her time trying to view different parts of my body. Since it was a convenient alibi, and one that wasn’t set in stone either, I’d done my best to limit her efforts, and it had become something of a game between us.

“Still, I’m glad Aristide assigned you to take care of me, and not Adamaris. I probably would have failed miserably,” I said.

“You’ll probably have to get her to train you, once you’re better at this,” Hana replied. When I stared at her, she snorted at me, which was an interesting expression to see with her whiskers and ears.

“Why are you looking at me like that? Did you even notice the mana drain that third day? It’s like you have limitless amounts of power to pour into spells. Any other one of us would have been gasping after a quarter of that. The boss will have Adamaris train you for sure.”

Thelyris opened her mouth, closed it, swallowed, and tried again. “Yup, Adamaris is amazing at fire magic. She’s been with the boss since forever.”

“So she’s the best one out of you guys?” I asked, waving the waiter over for dessert.

“I don’t know...probably? You have to consider the amount of experience she has as well.” Hana’s tone was evasive.

The waiter was near, so I turned to face him just in time to see him trip spectacularly. The dishes he was supporting went flying, forcing Hana and I to twist away.

As I looked around at the wreckage, I noticed Hana wincing as she sat down again.

“Something wrong?”

“No, it just stings a little, I think one of the pieces grazed me,” she answered.

“Here, let me see,” and I picked up her foot. I couldn’t really see, due to the dark color of her fur, so I ran my fingers along her leg. “Here?”

“No, a bit to the left. Yeah, no, a bit down. There you go,”

I couldn’t see anything, and her fur didn’t seem wet, so it seemed all right. I pressed a bit just to make sure it wasn’t bleeding, and was surprised by a helmet message.

Unknown life essence detected.

Category: carbon-based ML.

Lifeform model superior for goal.

Extrapolating further model derivations...

Since the message didn’t seem finished, I tried to make sense of what I’d read. The first part must have been since I touched some of Hana’s blood, but what was the goal? So far the helmet had seemed like the goal was to simply teach me magic, but why would it tell me Hana was more suited to it? Was it trying to annoy me?

“Are you falling in love with my fur now, or are you trying to see up my dress?” commented Hana. I shook myself out of my thoughts, realizing I’d been squatting there holding her leg and staring.

“Sorry,” I said, forcing a blush to my face. I needed to recover myself.

~There are too many unknowns here. Focus Piper. These people are cover, which means you need to keep your head in the game.~

I could practically see Lincoln’s smug face.

“Should we go then?” asked Hana. I nodded and handed silvettes to Thelyris, who ran over to the counter.

We made our way outside and bumped into a simply dressed boy, who immediately ran off.

"What was with him?" Hana wondered. "He took one look at us and ran like his life depended on it."

"No idea," I replied. "Maybe he was overwhelmed by our good looks?"

Hana giggled. "Narcissism one, Piper zero."

AN: So some stuff came up irl that's had me all over the place and uninspired storywise. Said stuff hasn't gone away, but things are a little less chaotic now. Thanks and apologies to everyone following this story!