“Alice! What are you doing?!” Veyner said as he watched his daughter stand up and walk towards the now shattered window. Several staff came running to see what the cause of the commotion was, only to see their young lady standing among broken glass and stepping onto the windowsill.

“Father, you can try and hide what happened, but if you knew me better than you would know that wouldn’t work. Now leave and get the staff to safety.” Alice said.

Veyner couldn’t help but be shaken by his daughter at that very moment. All he had ever known her as was a quiet and timid girl, or a flighty and unfocused young woman. In either case it felt as though he needed to shelter her from the world. But now it seemed that she had flipped this on him, she was sheltering him. Now wasn’t the time to wax philosophical, he knew she was right.

“I will do as you say, we will speak at a later time.” He said. Then he left with those around him.

Her “Room” at the college was in fact a summer home that her family owned in Farrin Felborrough. This home was situated on the farthest eastern coast of the region, as a matter of fact it was on the rocks literally right above the sea.

Alice could sense that the Medea was in the water below. Nearly a hundred feet down to the rocks and wash. But she wasn’t dead. Instead she was swimming through the water at an inhuman speed.

Those who are uninformed on Medea like to picture them as milquetoast laggards who’s only redeeming quality is their ability to heal. But that was far from the truth.

The Medean woman eventually reached the cliff a fair distance from her home and started climbing the sheer rock, small clatterings of stone breaking off when her fingers dug into it. Then with frightening speed she scaled the entire cliff and reached the top.

Alice didn’t wait for the woman to broach the distance. She ran through the halls and out the front door. Despite Alice’s hurry, the woman had managed to cover a distance of several hundred feet in a little under a minute. Now she only stood a few feet away from Alice, not even winded. Her clothes being torn and wet were the only sign that anything had happened at all.

“Now why did you have to do something like that? Does hot blood run in your family’s veins or is that just something the lord has?” The woman asked.

The human body places limits on itself to prevent serious damage. You can only run for so long before your mind tells you to stop, and that happens long before you get a chance to do serious damage.

Now, Imagine a person who can repair their own body faster than they could possibly destroy it and can reduce pain to near unnoticeable levels, and then give them the ability to recover from mortal wounds in mere moments. This is the first half of the problem.

Now make their hair and skin white, their eyes red, and give them a whole lifetime to take advantage and train these traits, and you have the Medea.

“It was the quickest way to get you out of the same room as my father.” Alice said. The Medea might have had some kind of bind or control on him at that moment. It was the best course of action she could think of.

“You could have just asked. I’m not unreasonable.” The woman said.

“You can say whatever you please, but I know nothing about you and your actions toward my father speak louder.” Alice said. The woman was slightly surprised.

“Moving past how you were able to tell, I can answer the question of who I am. My name is Valotia Cateralia.” Valotia said.

Alarms rang in her mind, that name was crystal clear in her memory. She remembered reading the article describing the death of the former king at the hands of a Medea. One who happened to have that same name.

“You’re the one who killed King Alderaus!” Alice said. It felt almost surreal, a king killer felt like an ominous shadow when she thought about it. But seeing that very person standing in front of her made it hard to believe.

“I had nothing to do with His Majesty's death, That was one of your kind that did that.” Valotia said. She didn’t seem to be lying, she almost seemed annoyed at the implication, but that could just be good acting.

“Oh sure, because the word of a grand murder suspect is so trustworthy.” Alice said.

Medea were dangerous, but they had a very linear way of going about things. They can move quickly, take a lot of damage, and dish it out to boot, but they are limited by their capacity to heal and opportunity. If they never get the opportunity to hurt you and take a lot of damage in return then they are at their worst.

“Lady Magrisal, I truly don’t wish to invite harm upon you. I simply want some information, give it to me and this can end peacefully.” Valotia said.

“If your intentions were peaceful, then you could have just come to me, why involve my father?” Alice asked.

“Don’t misunderstand, that affair started with him. Had he peacefully spoke up to begin with then nothing would have happened at all. Like I said, your family seems like taking first blood.” Valotia said.

Alice felt a pit in her stomach. Had she acted rashly? Could this have been avoided if she just went along with things? What would her dear teacher think of Alice using the gift she gave her for violence?

Divination was an art that thrived on deeper understanding and contemplation of the flow of mana. Telekinesis was the extension of this, but she casually used it so recklessly.

“Alright, suppose that I give you the time of day. What exactly do you want to know? I might not be able to tell you anything you don’t already know.” Alice asked. It might be a mistake, but if peace was even a faint option it might not be bad to follow it.

“Ah, finally, some sense in the mind of a mage. It’s simple, I am looking for a woman around your age with bright red hair. A fellow student of yours I believe.” Valotia said.

“If you found this person, what would you do?” Alice asked. It was obvious that she was talking about Andromeda. She was already subject to one kidnapping so this didn’t surprise Alice, but why was she being so indirect about this? Surely if she had access to Alice then Andromeda wouldn’t be much harder to find.

“It’s a bit gruesome I’ll admit, If I understand correctly there might be some value in her blood. Something about it might be useful in some runic process, but that’s the extent of my knowledge.” Valotia said.

Alice shook her head, this person had no intentions of peace. She wondered if her attitude would be any different if Alice weren’t part of the nobility. It would probably be easier to be bloodthirsty if your target’s death wouldn’t cause a political incident.

“Well I’m sorry, I won’t divulge information I may or may not have.” Alice said.

“That is a terrible shame, but I unfortunately can’t bend on this. So my great apologies to your father and yourself.” Valotia said.

“No, the only one sorry here is me. Hopefully one day I’ll be able to face my dear teacher and apologize for it.” Alice said.

The doors behind her ripped off their hinges and floated toward her. They crumbled into thousands of airborne shards as they moved through the air until there was a cloud of splinters surrounding Alice.

Valotia tried to make a move, but Alice waved her hands and Valotia’s feet came out from under her. She landed roughly on her side, then a moment later the thousands of splinters tore into her body. Alice sent her flying across the ground, rebounding off the ground several times before coming to a stop.

Valotia rose to her feet, her skin was torn and slashed. Her muscles and ligaments were so damaged that they shouldn’t have had the strength to pull her back off the ground. Her body was glowing faintly with green light. The flesh started pulling itself back together and the splinters were ejected.

“Tall order I know, but can you avoid ruining my clothing any more? I only have the one set on me right now.” Valotia said.

“No promises.” Alice said.

Alice had a problem.

Magic was a balancing act. With enough mana you could force the process and use a form of magic really well once you understood it, this came at the cost of spending mana at a crazy rate. This was good in an academic sense because it gave you the whole art to refine rather then pieces at a time.

The alternative is slowly taking your time to understand and master the art as you went along, this took a long time and was generally how most people went about it. It was the better option if immediate access wasn’t a top priority.

She never had any intentions of using Telekinesis like this without the benefit of a break and recharge every few minutes so she had elected for the first form. On top of this, she had to constantly use Divination just to know where everything was.

Valotia tried to rush again, but Alice gripped her hair as she burst forward. There was a stomach churning wet snap and Valotia fell to the ground limp. It was sickening to see the human form contorted as it was before her.

She was starting to feel the effects of mana withdrawal. If she had no limits to worry about then she could have ripped Valotia apart and be done with it. But that wasn’t an option, so she needed to be careful.

Valotia’s body spasmed on the ground, a bright glowing green and red light erupted from her neck and an equally sickening crackle of bones and flesh moving around could be heard even from where she was standing. Valotia put her hands to the ground and pushed up, lifting her body from the ground and moving to her feet. She used her hands to realign her neck and another bright flash of red light fixed it.

For the first time since she arrived, Valotia frowned.

“Y-” She coughed up an unhealthy amount of blood when she opened her mouth.

“Y-you know that’s not easy to do right?” Valotia said.

When you have a sword that can cut any shield and a shield that can block any sword strike, which one wins? Replace Sword with Mage and Shield with Medea and you could reliably tell world history for the last few thousand years.

“Though I have no respect for those who murder others, I am not above politeness in extreme circumstances, leave this place now. I won’t warn you again.” Alice said.

“Like I said before, you don’t really have a say in this beyond telling me what I want to know.” Valotia said. Hearing this, Alice tilted her head down and clasped her hands together.

To Alice’s surprise, Valotia copied her. Despite the allegations against her, she seemed to respect prayer.

“Dear goddess above, protect the sight of my loved ones and avert their gaze. See that they never know my transgression, and pray for me that they forgive me. In time I hope I may again see your grace.” Alice said. The words of her dear teacher echoed through her just as clearly as if she heard them again.

“Amen.” Valotia said.

Then the ground started to violently shake, Alice saw every flow in the ground below her, every twist and turn, every channel and strait, every single fiber and stone below them. She reached out with the invisible hand she gained through telekinesis and forced the bonds in the ground apart.

The earth shook as the section of ground beneath Valotia’s feet collapsed, along with the entire outcropping she was standing above. Valotia lost her footing and fell down into the crevice, which itself opened up to the raging waters below them.

Once Alice heard the splash of Valotia hitting the water, she let go of her focus and the massive stone outcropping fell down into the sea below. With Valotia underneath it.

“Amen.” Alice whispered, then her awareness of the world shrank to nothing.