Nun the Wiser – 8
“Nooo!” The evil demon screamed. “How is this possible?”
“Elementary!” Paragon White flew down to the ground to join her allies. “I used one of my master’s old tricks, trapping your armies into a fractal and thus separating you from the source of your powers!”
The demon queen shook with rage, rising to her feet for the final battle. Behind White, the rest of the Paragons, now healed by the Holy Maiden’s gentle touch, began charging the Grail relics to finish off the ancient demon in one debilitating blow.
“You thought that my minions were the source of my powers?” The demon crowed. “Foolish! I am still a demon from the deepest pits of Niflheim, mistress of a hundred magics! Without my name, you can no more bind me than you can bind lightning!”
The demon queen snarled and waves of dark fire shot into the sky.
“Lord, Savior, and Spirit! She’s not done!” The Holy Maiden hid behind Paragon White, her green eyes quivering with tears. “We’d only delay her return, not stop her!”
“The Holy Maiden is right, Paragon White.” Paragon Yellow winced as she trotted to her side. “Powerful demons like her won’t stay down unless you bind them by their name to this plane as Archwizard Crispi Dispi had done to the Archdemon of Envy in the year 854!”
“I know exactly what you’re referring to.” White nodded, because she’s aced every history class. “Thankfully, I came prepared! When I give the signal, hit her with everything you’ve got!”
“Yes!” The Paragons aimed their relics at the demon queen.
“Demon!” Paragon White yelled over the tempestuous winds. “Quite a lot has happened in the past three centuries!”
Paragon White spun her arms around, gathering a string of lightning that coalesces into a solid spear of plasma. It burns the air at several thousand degrees, but White’s hands were protected by a specialized anti-ionization mageskin layer that she developed a while back. The demon queen, stupefied by the advancements born of the age of magical enlightenment, stared mutely.
“I name you Kwach’ue! Goblin Defiler, Dragonslayer, Great Deceiver, Enemy of Prillia!”
“What!” The demon screamed as reality settled around her. “Those records were fallible and unverified, it’s impossible that any scholar would use them as reference material!”
“No, merely improbable!” White responded with a fangless smirk. “Hit her, my fellow Paragons!”
An arc of energy, steeped in powers both holy and arcane, blasted the demon queen. She held up her hands and attempted to fire off her own attack, but it drowned in the onslaught and the beam overtakes her in a terrible screech.
“Damn you, Paragons! Damn youuuuuuuuuu!”
Kwach’ue is vaporized. The world settles into quiet, the buzz of the divine magic fading into nothingness. A warm hand gently pats Paragon White on the shoulder. The stern face of Violet looks down on her, his eyes twinkling with an emotion White had never seen before.
"I’m proud of you, Paragon White. I will never doubt you again.”
Paragon White’s heart swelled, finally content that her efforts were recognized. Someone tapped her on her other shoulder, and Paragon White turned around to find the Holy Maiden. The Maiden beamed and her elven ears wiggling excitedly.
“I’m so glad you were here, Paragon White. We should go back to Camelot and
…
And what? You nibble on the tip of the pen again, struggling to come up with something friends do. Friends research together, and read together, and drink tea together, and tell silly stories…But those are indoor activities.
The whole point of Paragon White is that she proves herself worthy and gets to go on adventures and do…stuff, activities, whatever, outside! You groan and close the booklet, trudging over to your window.
You are Star, and you’re having a bit of trouble. Your stress-relief method is hitting a wall, because you’re starting to see the limits of what you’ve experienced…Maybe a little research?
As a perpetual shut-in, you’ve got a few guilty pleasures. Writing fanfiction, reading terrible dissertations, and occasionally…some peeping. You light a candle by the table so you can take some notes and aim your telescope at Camelot University’s campus.
Though this semester’s final exams are approaching and demons are swarming across Prillia, the college students are partying late into the night. Don’t they know that sleep is important for studying? Maybe for them, there’s more to life than the endless slew of grades…Your telescope swivels from group to group, a faint pain in your stomach developing the more you see.
Young women laughing as they drink in a park. Members of the cephalopod club playing with a squid in a fountain. A group of goblins talking to one another as they repair the crashed aircraft stuck in one of the buildings. A dwarf, wiping the sweat from her brow after finishing her planter. A harpy tossing a frisbee to a kobold in a park.
People. Enjoying life.
“Star?”
You yelp almost flinging the telescope from your window. Scarlet’s at the door, half amused half worried. You smile sheepishly.
“Scarlet! Um…how’d you get in?”
“The door was unlocked. What were you doing?”
Unlocked? It’s not supposed to be unlocked! Your door’s supposed to stay shut, just in case you go bloodmad! When did you leave it open? You haven’t left since you finished the FSN! That was five days ago! You finished the FSN with Scarlet, Kleiny, and Cirrus, you handed it to Dean Sher’khan, he said he’d be taking a small break, and everyone went back…
Oh no.
You’ve left your door open for five days. Five. Days. This is a huge lapse in responsibility! Mister Jesper is going to be so disappointed! What if you went bloodmad? What if someone down in Camelot scraped their elbow or got a papercut or sneezed a bit too hard too many times, and you detected it and went bloodmad?! You could have hurt someone!
“Woah, woah!” Scarlet waves her hands gently. “Are you okay? Breathe.”
And Scarlet! What if she was cleaning the tower? You would have ripped her apart, drank her like, like, like, a squeezed orange! You’re practically a murderer already!
“Okay, now you’re breathing too fast. Are you hyperventilating? Can dhampirs hyperventilate?”
Oh, how can you live with yourself if you’d hurt her? If you’d hurt anyone! You could have torn through Scarlet, then rampaged in the street like all the bloodmad vampires Mister Jesper warned you about! All because you couldn’t! Close! The! Door!
“Star! Star!” Scarlet grabs you by the arms and shakes you. “Calm down! Follow my voice…Feel my rhythm.”
She puts her hand on your diaphragm and guides your breathing. Inoutinoutinoutin. Out. In. Out. In. Out.
In.
Out.
“I’m sorry.” You mumble.
“What for?”
“I forgot to close the door and I could have gone bloodmad and go downstairs and suck you dry—”
She makes a weird expression there. Not fear. Something else. But it’s not fear, so you feel a little bit better.
“I don’t think I have anything to fear from you.” Scarlet beams and pushes a stray lock back into her vestment. You’re about to say something, but she puts a finger on your lips. “Yes, I know you could, erm, rip me in half~…but you won’t do that. Plus, I’m no slouch, either.”
Strange lilt in her voice aside, she’s right. You got lost in your head, again.
“So, what were you doing? Writing?”
You freeze up. But her attention is on the paper by the window, not your fanfiction notebook on the desk behind her. You discretely magic it into the trunk by your bed and lock it.
“Ye-yes! Studying social dynamics.”
“Right, right. More purely academic social studies.” She gives a half-grin and looks at your telescope. “Looking for something in particular?”
“Nothing much, just…wondering what people do for fun. Normal people.”
“Aside from studying, tea, and reading?” She teases.
You give her a deadpan look and Scarlet giggles.
“I mean things people do outside.”
Scarlet’s been around. You had her tell you a bit about her trek from the Boreal Colonies. She talked a lot about the freezing cold, some warriors in black led by a human who knew nothing, a terrifying contest on ice involving goals, pucks, and sticks, and all sorts of pickled and half-rotten dishes. Surely, she’s done a lot. Then again, she was a nun on a pilgrimage.
Scarlet peeks through the telescope, sweeping it in every direction. She seems to pause a lot on windows. After a minute she spots something and smiles.
“When people go out to party, there’s dancing involved.” Scarlet taps her lip and hums. “Want to try?”
Please, no. You have two left feet. Quick, come up with an excuse!
“We don’t have any music.”
“Actually…” Scarlet pulls out her Thaumirror and fiddles around with it. “Cirrus uploaded a lot of goblin metal on the FSN, which gave Klein the idea to make a repository of music for easy access. No more lugging around records!”
She taps a button and it resonates, classical dance music beginning to play.
“But…I don’t know how.”
“Then I’ll teach you!” Scarlet winks and grabs your hands. “I’ve got a bit of natural talent for it. Follow my lead.”
The music starts slowly, and Scarlet helps you along. Guiding you by mirroring her at first, then projecting illusions on where you’re supposed to step as the music increases in pace and complexity. You step on her toes and fumble a few times, but Scarlet is always there, her comforting smile encouraging you to keep trying.
You’ve never moved your body so much. Over the hour, you made less missteps and Scarlet inspired more daring flourishes, more bombastic swings, more heart-throbbing movements. Soon, you were keeping pace with her, twirling her around as the pair of you giggle over the crescendo. The music stops and you find yourself breathing heavily, holding the nun so very close to you…
“Miss Lily.”
You freeze. Scarlet freezes. The music freezes.
Dean Sher’khan is at the door, the one you forgot to close, holding a cup of coffee. He looks exhausted and a little bit irritated.
You and Scarlet separate. You must have done a lot of exercise, her face is flushed.
“What were you two doing?”
“Hi Dean!” Scarlet trills. “We were just, um…conducting an experiment in social exercise?”
“I see.”
That’s the tone he takes when he’s considering options for a particularly rigorous test. You heard him take it quite a few times with some of his other students. You should explain that the whole door thing was your fault, and not Scarlet Lily’s.
“Mister Sher’khan, I—”
“I don’t mind an open door, Star. I’ve known you long enough to trust you won’t get up to trouble.”
That’s nice. Why’d he stress the ‘you’?
“Scarlet Lily.” The dean purses his lips. “How many schools of magic have you learned so far?”
“Oh, I got the basic ones…fire, water, air, earth. Then there’s ones like ice, steam, lightning, illusory…why are you asking?”
“I’d like you to compile a report on a new school of magic. Every week. Spellforms, uses, flaws, strengths. I have a twenty-page rubric in mind.” He twirls his hand and a burst of cerebral energy darts into Scarlet’s head. “And now you do, too.”
Ooooh! A new project, so soon after the last one? How exciting!
“Can I help? That sounds fascinating!”
Dean Sher’khan gives you one of his rare smiles.
“Sadly, Star, I fear your insight and expertise will drown out Scarlet Lily’s…unique perspective.”
Darn.
“That…that’s wonderful.” Scarlet says through clenched teeth. “When should I—”
“You should begin immediately. Consider it this semester’s final project…that will bleed into next semester’s final project.”
A weekly, detailed report on a different school of magic for the rest of the year? Jealous. Sadly, Dean Sher’khan stopped giving you such exciting projects after the Quesadilla Incident.
“Joy.” Scarlet turns to you and her smile softens. “Looks like I’ll be busy for a bit, Star. See you for teatime?”
“Of course!” You nod eagerly.
Too eagerly? Maybe. But she’s the first friend who wants to look forward to seeing you again. She waves goodbye to you as Sher’khan’s steady glare follows her out the door. If you were to place Scarlet somewhere in the small web of relationships you have, she’d firmly be in the ‘good friend’ zone. Why, after everything you’ve done with her, you could probably teach a class on healthy female friendships!
Hm. What would extra credit in a friendship class be? Oooh, personal project: create a syllabus for a class on friendship! You dance in place and gather some references, Dean Sher’khan sighing as he watches you get to work.