June 19th, 2018

Pocket dimension
Dusk Wood
05:50 PM

 

Dawn was flying overhead while being camouflaged by a spell rendering her invisible; she was acting as overwatch for her team. The battlefield was the newly renamed Dusk Wood behind the Daphne Snow school, it was permitted for students in Mystic Combat to use it to test their abilities against each other in the different games created by Coach Lenobi: Capture the flag, battle royal, 1 vs 1, team battle.

Currently, Dawn’s team, composed of Tsarra, Sarah and Tabitha, was having a capture the flag game against the number one student in this category, Elissa.

Dawn could monitor the situation, thanks to her elementally aligned scrying spell. On her main scrying window, she was watching Tabitha battle Elissa in a clearing; her girlfriend was toying with the catgirl. Suddenly Tsarra’s arrow landed at Elissa’s feet exploding in a ball of flames. Tabitha jumped up with a somersault and landed on a tree trunk, staying in a crouched position on it thanks to her mana control.

Tabitha was waiting to see if they got Elissa with their ploy, the smoke hindering her vision. She saw something glinting and moved from her position by jumping right onto the mossy ground, when she looked up to where she was before Tabitha saw three ice daggers stabbed in the trunk where she was previously. Tabitha felt that she was in danger and avoided another volley of ice daggers that stuck in the ground where she had been.

Dawn couldn’t believe this didn’t work, fire was Elissa’s weakness! The smoke from the flame explosion was clearing and she saw that Elissa was encased in a dome of ice which she passed through, not even hindered by the ice bubble. Dawn thought that Elissa’s control was too powerful, but she wasn’t deterred, the task of distracting Elissa to let Sarah infiltrate her base to take her flag was in progress. Dawn was watching her second scrying window; Sarah, shrouded in black fire, was flying low with her wings beating over the trees, she avoided Elissa’s traps and her raven familiars that were shooting wind blades at her.

Elissa was fighting on two fronts and she was still winning, but the situation was still in a stalemate; Dawn decided to play for keeps and join the fray. She focused and began to draw glyphs and runes in the air just like in the lessons in spell coding given by her new master, Malicia. Dawn then activated the spell and sent it through a micro portal she created to the location where Elissa was battling her team members.

The space mage smiled when she saw the cube of black and purple light cover Elissa and cage her. It was one of her more versatile spells, it could pacify someone by imprisoning them in a contained dimension where there was nothing but space and she had total control over it. She could do more than imprison them with it, like loop space and trap anyone or anything into a reiterating space where everything inside the loop is restarted to the original distance point precisely every so often.

Or creates distortions and folds in space to generate a spatial pressure, which can crush the target with tremendous force either directly or by generating a burst of powerful shock waves. The applications were multifarious.

Dawn’s smug smile melted into a thin line when she felt her spell being undone, in the cube dimension Elissa had cast something weird, she was covered by a hazy white light and she punched into the space and the cube fractured, she punched again and the cube shattered. Elissa was free and Dawn could scarcely believe what she did to get out of her dimension. Elissa looked into the sky and… smiled.

Dawn felt something coming behind her as she was struck by a gust of wind, she heard crowing.

“Damnit!” She shouted.

It was Elissa’s familiar, the female raven! Dawn righted herself in the air and shot mana missiles at Ravi who easily evaded them and shot high-pressure balls of wind at her each time she crowed. Elissa was controlling her Raven and attacking on three fronts now; Dawn calmed down and redirected Ravi’s attacks by opening small portals that absorbed the balls of wind and sent them back at the raven. Dawn manipulated the distance between them to regain some footing, making it so that the raven was at one kilometer away and she drew a quick space cube spell, the transparent version as animals go crazy when they were in the purple cube.

Dawn shortened the distance between them with her space magic, the raven slowed to a stop by opening her wings wide, then started to hover by beating them and was about to shoot a wind pressure spell at her but she was faster and imprisoned it in a cube.

“Ah, take that!”

The raven crowed in distress but suddenly stopped struggling and looked right at Dawn and opened her beak, “Do you think that you’ve won?” Elissa’s voice was heard through her familiar.

Dawn wasn’t surprised, not too much at least; this was a basic familiar ability after all.

“Yes, at least you can’t use Ravi, now.” Dawn said confidently.

“Point, so I too will remove one of your chess pieces.” Elissa’s voice was smug.

Dawn opened her eyes wide as she heard Sarah’s scream from far away, she opened her scrying window and saw that the red-skinned demoness was caught between four pillars of ice with lightning walls stopping her from leaving. Sarah touched the sizzling lightning screen but quickly moved her hand away.

Elissa cackled and said, “I am not done with you.”

Dawn contacted Tabitha and shouted, “Take her out, Tabs!”

Tabitha engaged Elissa by unsheathing her claws and bouncing between the tree’s trunks to avoid being hit by her punches while still tearing her skinsuit apart.

“Hey, this is expensive!” Elissa said as she caught Tabitha by the arm and brought her into a sleeper hold but she was struck by a mana arrow that made her release the catgirl.

“Tsarra you have become annoying.”

The archer giggled at that from her snipping spot ten meters away, she moved and disappeared into the trees like the elf she was. Tabitha clawed at Elissa’s face leaving three jagged wounds as she was distracted and tried to make her fall with a sweeping kick, it didn’t work as Elissa was firmly standing on the ground, not happy about having to heal her face.

“Fine, this kitty wants to play.”

Elissa’s hand glowed blue, Tabitha opened her eyes wide and attempted to flee but was caught by the freeze ray of the ice magic. The catgirl’s body was encased into ice in its entirety in the position of the running man for the exit panel; Elissa giggled at that.

Dawn didn’t like what she saw and decided to finish this by completing the objective and teleported to Elissa’s base; she stepped onto the watchtower with the blue flag and was about to pick it up when a gigantic form batted her away. It was a really big wolf-like creature with golden fur, the creature howled, looked at Dawn, grabbed the flag with its maw and jumped from watchtower.

The girl had a good idea of who that was, Elissa’s dog Chun-Li and she got outfoxed by her. Dawn groaned while laying on her back and looking at the sky. She didn’t want to lose, it was more about proving that she could keep in check Elissa, but her girlfriend was cunning and ruthless. It was as if she was two steps ahead of Dawn.

Dawn teleported to her base and stepped near the flag, deploying four scrying windows and counted the team members that were left and active, just her and Tsarra. Tabitha was encased in ice and Sarah was in an ice/lightning trap. This was new, and she didn’t anticipate that Elissa could synergize her elements already. She decided to help Tsarra by creating portals that would help her evade Elissa while attacking her.

However, in her window she saw the elf archer being caught by a lightning bolt and fall from her perch on a tree. Still, she took out Elissa’s right arm with a force arrow that dislocated it. Tsarra was then frozen in an ice coffin with hole to permitting to breath.

“It’s just you and me now, my love!” Elissa shouted.

Dawn ignored her and tried to locate Chun-Li. *C’mon, it’s not so hard to find a giant golden wolf.*

“Aha! Found you.” Chun-Li was hiding in a dense copse of trees with the flag at her side, Dawn prepared a spell to imprison the big wolf so she could take the flag.

She teleported.

Dawn threw her cube spell at Chun-Li and caught her in her loop dimension cube. She felt victorious and bent over to take the flag, as she was about to touch it, a cold sensation invaded her and then she froze, only leaving her head not encased in ice.

Elissa appeared at a fast speed with a red flag in her hands. “Checkmate.”

Dawn closed her eyes in defeat.

 

---

 

Elissa had healed the frostbite and cold that her friends caught because of her, Sarah was the only one who recovered faster, Dawn and Tabitha were shivering and Tsarra was sulking while looking darkly at the redhead. They were all sitting on a felled tree trunk with warm towels around them. Elissa was now busy healing the scars Tabitha gave her.

Dawn was reenacting the entire fight in her mind but didn’t understand how Elissa did what she did. In Elissa’s hand mirror, the young woman saw the scars inflicted by Tabitha disappear, leaving only dried blood that she wiped away with a baby-wipe. The young woman nodded, satisfied.

“Eli, I don’t understand how you got out of my cube,” Dawn asked with a troubled expression.

Her skinsuit was in tatters and Elissa could see her underwear, she smiled at her girlfriend and said, “Oh, easy I used Antimagic to imbue my body and punched space with all my strength.”

Dawn looked at her girlfriend as if she said something ridiculous.

“Do you have any idea how absurd that sounds?” Frowning, Dawn looked weirded out that there’s such a thing as “antimagic.”

*Well, I believed that it was impossible, but now Elissa is able to use it.*

“I took the idea from one of those animes you showed me though.” Elissa tilted her head cutely.

Elissa then began to explain what Antimagic was; a type of spell effect that canceled magic altogether. It was considered very powerful, being the supreme defense against magic, though it was itself the product of magic. It was something that she learned from her ancestor, Damian.

“Shit.” Was Dawn’s answer.

“Language, you kiss me with that mouth.” Elissa mock-glared.

“Sorry.” Dawn put her hand on her mouth theatrically.

Then Elissa smiled at her, placed her on her lap and began to make out with her for a solid minute. Tsarra and Sarah rolled their eyes while Tabitha was playing with Chun-Li, giving her treats. The catgirl really liked Elissa’s familiars.

“Who is a good girl, who is a good girl? Yes, that’s you.” Tabitha was playing with Chun-Li making her roll, give paws and scratch behind her ears.

Chun-Li was the catgirl’s favorite of Elissa’s familiars, Crowy and Ravi were a bit mean and stuck up. Tabitha simply didn’t have any affinity with birds. Tsarra really had enough of Elissa being distracted by Dawn so she came before them and separated them. “Elissa, could you stop warming up your girlfriend for a moment? We need to do a debriefing of the team actions.”

Elissa looked down in embarrassment sat Dawn on the trunk and said while looking at her friend, “Fine.”

“Sorry love, we will finish this later.” Elissa put a hand on Dawn thigh and squeezed it affectionately.

“Promise?” Dawn asked, her body having warmed up for real.

Elissa made a seductive smile and said, “You bet we will.” She even had prepared something for them in the bath, she couldn’t wait to pamper her.

The young woman stood up and faced all her friends, coughed to shake lewd thoughts of Dawn and her from her mind and then she began the after-action review for this training session. Elissa was the de facto leader of the Princess Tower dorm and everyone deferred to her, Tsarra was considered her second in command.

“So girls, I am really proud of you, I never felt this... hindered before.” Elissa praised them, she had a good fight, the girls didn’t make it easy this time.

This capture the flag match was their twentieth and the score between them was seventeen wins for Elissa and three wins for the girls. It had built camaraderie and rivalries in their community, but it also helped Elissa to help the girls master their powers. Tsarra didn’t use magic in her archery before, but now it was an essential part of her technique, Sarah can now use her demonic powers fully as she was pushed by Elissa in combat and encouraged to discover any of her abilities; Tabitha was squishy so Elissa had been teaching her some Inshek techniques after having her mana core unsealed, making her an agile fighter.

Dawn was the most tricky to help as she was already learning spell coding from Elissa’s mother and having her head crammed with knowledge from the Sanctum. What Dawn needed was experience in using her own magic.

“You still steamrolled us.” Tabitha said dejectedly.

“I don’t fight fair, Tabs.” Elissa smiled.

Elissa began to list the good decision that the girls took, “Tabitha, you have been training outside those sessions and I felt that you got stronger and faster. Tsarra, contrary to before you’ve begun to act like a sniper and an ambusher. Sarah, you now have total control of your wings, I saw you maneuver in the sky through my familiars’ eyes good job. And finally Dawn, you stayed to guard the flag, but still supported your team from afar, I really liked this spell cube of yours that’s genius; literally, remove someone from the terrain.”

Sarah high-fived Dawn and Tsarra was happy to have finally shown improvements as being beaten by Elissa wasn’t good at all, she always made it look easy as if she was an unrelenting force. Tabitha was happy to be receiving praise for once, every morning Elissa had been taking her running and teaching her Inshek since April when she lost a fight to a she-elf that was bullying Tsarra. They obviously fixed the problem when the catgirl had been considered passable to Elissa’s rigorous standard in the Inshek martial art and Tabitha had beaten the she-elf within an inch of her life.

“Now onto the bad, sorry if I am rough.” Elissa warned as she crossed her arms and glared at them. “Dawn you should have done more to help Sarah when she was attacked, at least temporarily teleport her to you or to the flag, she was the only one tough enough to take out Chun-Li. You need to study more strategy, but don’t worry, mother will quadruple your training when I tell her how you lost.”

“No!” Dawn cried in despair, while Elissa gave her a pitying look. Sarah and Tsarra began to laugh at her, but when Elissa’s cold gaze settled on them they stopped.

Elissa stared the red-skinned demoness down. “You, Sarah, you should have used more magic! I thought that I gave you that demonic book with spells attuned to your physiology?”

Sarah looked down and said nothing.

“You didn’t read it, didn’t you?” It wasn’t a question, just confirming a fact. “You are being an idiot.”

Sarah glared at her, her eyes becoming completely black. “I don’t want to learn any of it! I am-” The young woman stopped and then began to cry, “I don’t want to be like him! My father, he shows me things in my dreams!” Sarah cried.

Elissa opened her eyes wide and was on Sarah in an instant, her hands on her shoulders and shook her. This was akin to demonic possession, as Sarah was a demon lord’s daughter, her father could see through her eyes or take control of her as if she was a drone. Elissa was worried by this demon having seen too much of her life.

“Why didn’t you tell us that before? He is invading your dreams, you…” Elissa took out something from her spatial ring and threw it to Sarah.

“There, it’s my old necklace it protects from mental attacks. Put it on.” Elissa ordered.

Without resisting or arguing, Sarah put on the new necklace, it was silver and had rune etched into the moon pendant. It was a powerful artefact given to her by Malicia who feared someone could manipulate Elissa through telepathy or the dreamscape. Elissa didn’t need it anymore as she had crafted something better in blacksmithing class thanks to master goldsmith Rudit.

Elissa looked at the mithril ring was on her finger protected her from mental invasion, boosting her mana; it also had a third enchantment that deadened the sounds she made when activated, conferring night vision as she poured her mana into it.

“The voices have disappeared!” Sarah exclaimed.

Elissa’s nerves settled but she still didn’t trust this shaky peace, she decided to tell her mother about what happened to Sarah. Maybe Malicia will have a solution.

“Well good, that bastard needs to be put down Sarah. And only you can do it, he is a demon lord, learn from the book, ok? It would have taught you how to cut that parental link he has with you, never listen to him again.”

It was the grimoire of a demon king that was defeated with great difficulty by the Phantasian army of old, the book was a repository of all his magical knowledge.

*Yeah, Sarah learn from the book you’ll never be helpless again.* Elissa thought.

Sarah nodded, her gaze was full of hatred but it wasn’t directed at Elissa. “Ok I will, I will end him myself.”

“Good girl.” Elissa patted her friend’s shoulder.

Elissa turned to Tabitha whose ears and tail already drooped as she stared down. Elissa scratched the catgirl behind her ears and said, “You improved but this is not enough. I wouldn’t let you out and go on missions with me, I know you want to become a hero with me as you said a month ago…”

Tabitha had decided that she wanted to be something other than a thief, something bigger and help people like her who had no choice in life when their parents threw their kids out onto the streets because they were superhuman. The catgirl’s parents were members of the Blood Pure political party, a human-centric organization that wanted to segregate the normal humans and the superhumans.

It was pure stupidity as the superhumans came from the humans and even if they had two normal parents a young person would trigger. It was bigotry pure and simple.

Tabitha had asked Elissa if she could join her temporary hero team next semester and she intended to not be dead weight.

“What can I do to be stronger?” Tabitha asked.

“You’ll have to enter the Temporally Accelerated Realm and be trained in Inshek, there’s a construct-being in the sanctum that can help you. I will set it up with my mom, it’s going to be at least two years of training, I hope you are ready for this summer, Tabs.” Elissa said.

“Fine, I will do it. And when I come back I will kick your bony ass.” Tabitha gave a predatory smile to Elissa who reciprocated and told her, “You’ll try, kitten.”

Tabitha’s tail was raised high and her ears forward, she was calm; confident that she could do what Elissa proposed.

“Hmph.” Tabitha ignored her and began to play with her claws and scratched at the tree trunk.

It was Tsarra’s turn and even though she had a poker face on, she was dreading Elissa’s report on her performance.

“You too, you have improved. But… Tsa, you’ll need to step up your game. Sometimes the enemy won’t let you escape that’s why I have movies to recommend to you: The Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit. I want you to watch them all, and look at what Legolas the sexy… I mean awesome elf does and try to duplicate it. If you combine this style with your magic, you’ll be unstoppable.” Elissa said.

The redheaded elf was lost, she wasn't interested in human lore or stories, but sometimes they did excellent renditions of Fantasy stories. Tsarra nodded to Elissa who smiled at her, she loved Tsarra, as she considered her one of her best friends; they didn’t have to speak sometimes, just look at each other and a silent communication happened. In a sense, the elf maiden reminded Elissa of herself.

“Amaterasu, yes!” Dawn shouted, knowing exactly what Elissa was talking about.

The debriefing broke just like that and the girls took their sports bags and went toward the school, Elissa and Dawn walked hand in hand; Tsarra was speaking with Sarah about magic and Tabitha was running after Chun-Li. Crowy and Ravi followed them from the sky, gliding as they spied for danger.

Since, on that fateful day she discovered her artisan’s soul, master Yastan told her to train harder than she had ever trained before, Elissa has been training non-stop, only resting at night. She even took coach Lenobi’s gravity belt and modified the enchantment to make the gravity pushing upon her scalable. Every morning she has been running with it on, reduced to the slow pace of a turtle. It had begun with two metric tons and while everyone patted themselves on the back for finally passing her in the morning runs the young woman has been steadily improving.

The maximum of ten metric tons had been reached and Elissa, as a result, had become faster and stronger. She had worn this silly belt for two months and only stopped using it a week ago. Meanwhile, she had been training Dawn and Tabitha in Inshek, she considered them decent at it, but they were years away from mastering it. The only reason she did was that she cheated with her genetic memory ability and was imbued with the knowledge and power of her ancestors who mastered this martial art.

Those two months hadn’t been all wine and roses, Elissa had been making enemies with some elves who thought that it was funny to bully Tsarra, she had three magic duels where she defeated them soundly with her ice and wind magic, and another sword fight where she almost killed some guy from a high placed elven family.

But the message was sent, no one could mess with her friends. It was a barbaric but effective tactic, Tsarra wasn’t happy about depending on her friends like this so she has asked to join Elissa’s training sessions. Coach Lenobi who was responsible for the dueling ring decided to create games where everyone would be able to test their mettle and to stop the students from becoming too unruly. Capture the flag, Team Battle and Gravity Ball were created.

Wayne and Volf had been really taken with Gravity Ball that allied physical fitness and Magical abilities. Elissa was banned from it as she was too powerful to participate and was a one-woman team. Tabitha was a good fit in this game that consisted of getting the ball from the center of the terrain while moving with magic in the zero-g stadium and throwing the ball into the goal.

Attack magic was banned, but there was a cantrip force spell that everyone could use that was authorized to hinder the progress of a player, basic force shields were a must. It has become so popular that the sport was now practiced in other realms.

Emilia was now dating Wayne and had decided to transfer in Daphne Snow to learn magic, as did Jamie. But they would only be able to come after summer, Elissa had pulled strings with her mother and Nikola Tesla to authorize this.

The pocket realm had also changed, there was a town being constructed around the school, Elves, Orcs, Goblins, and Humans had been coming in droves to Malicia’s realm and swearing fealty to her. Elissa had an idea that her mother was creating a demesne, and those have... A standing army. A lot of kids had been arriving in the Pocket realm, mainly runaways or orphans or mistreated kids that her mom’s Fairies saved (kidnapped) from abusive parents.

The cruelest thing Elissa saw her mother do is erasing the memories of a kid who was sexually abused by her father but still wanted to protect him. Elissa closed her eyes on this incident and focused on her own things. The Fairies took care of the man by cursing him and he was never heard from again. Nikola had been informed of her mom’s extra-activities and he grudgingly agreed to make it possible for those cases to be handled by heroes.

CPS had been on the warpath since then, hindering the Tesla project to better children’s future. But after greasing the right paws, their resistance melted like snow under the sun. The pocket realm now encompassed the entirety of Pioneer Park, new mana nodes and ley lines had been added and made the school even safer.

Elissa was free from the pocket realm too and could now go on dates with Dawn and hang out with her friends from the academy and participate in their training sessions. The students had become rather curious about her, but when she began beating most of the established records in their own training rooms and mock combat by helping Danny they were in awe. Some teachers and coaches wanted her to transfer into the main academy but Elissa didn’t care and refused.

New businesses were started and new houses were being built, just like right now a part of the new town square was being built; Elissa and Dawn watched the newly built building as the workers were packing up for the night. They were all Dwarves and Goblins, but there was the occasional human kid who was there helping. Fortunately, no one was cutting the trees in the woods, Malicia would punish them.

The girls were finally on the school grounds where there were more people than usual now, more supernatural beings, mages, wizards and witches going about their business. More teachers arrived to obtain a position in Daphne Snow, it was the result of Malicia’s newfound celebrity as she unveiled the artifacts she stole from the Vatican and had given back to some of their owners, proving that her new realm was strong enough to take on the Sacrificial God’s followers.

Since then a lot of drifters and hidden tribes of Giants or Harpies had been asking for asylum and placed under Malicia’s protection, but at some point to not run out of resources the sorceress had to close her borders and applications for citizenship.

Some people greeted Elissa and her friends with nods or waves of the hands, she was known as being the warden of the realm, Malicia’s daughter and respected for this position. Some kids tried to prank her with cantrip spell that would drench her with water but Elissa just froze it and turned it into ice dust and smiled at their dismayed faces and as some of them fled.

Those were some of the new magic users her mother has assembled from the children Tesla and her took from the streets. Some had barely had any talent but Malicia was giving them a chance.

Elissa and her friends arrived at the tower and they looked at the time, 06:35 PM. Dawn teleported Elissa’s animal familiars to the Von Braun residence and came back. Entering the tower, the girls climbed the stairs and went to their respective bedrooms and took a bath while discussing this and that until it was 07:00 PM. Sarah exited the bath and went to make dinner, Elissa was responsible for repairing their skin-suits with alchemy; Tabitha for taking care of the dishes and the toilet. Dawn was the one who was designated to confirm that all the enchantments on the magitek appliances worked, it had to be done every two weeks...

At 08:00 PM the girls watched the first Lord of the Rings movie while eating, Tsarra was enamored with it when Aragorn and Legolas appeared. The elf maiden had her eyes glued to the screen and didn’t speak at all for the entire duration of the movie. Tabitha and Elissa went to do the dishes together while the rest of the girls watched.

It was 11:55 PM when the movie was done and Elissa asked, “So what do you think?”

“I want to be as extraordinary as Legolas!” Tsarra said dreamily, this was the first time Elissa saw her friend this way.

“Then you’ll have to take Inshek lessons too?” Elissa asked.

Tsarra shook her head, “No, Elissa I’ve been taking advantage of you too much lately. I will ask my father to instruct me in sword fighting and the elven martial art Dala'Drannor. We have… ways to impart knowledge in the fastest time.”

Tsarra gave Elissa a tight smile, it was going to be painful.

Elissa guessed what this was about and said, “So when you get back next semester we will fight, ebrath (friend).”

“Certainly.” Tsarra acquiesced with a nod.

Everyone went to sleep after that, but Dawn joined Elissa in her room and this day ended on a blissful note.

---

June 20th, 2018

 

Elissa woke up with Dawn’s floral scent in her nose that was stuck to the crown of her head, her arms were around her girlfriend’s body and Elissa felt happy to be alive. On the CLO’s AR the date and time were Wednesday, June the 20th and 07:02 AM; Elissa had no school, just the special training that her mother said she would give her.

The young woman stiffened as she felt someone hugging her and she hoped that it wasn’t Reinatiel or Fenirael who were up to their tricks as usual. But the purring Elissa was hearing made her thoughts go into another direction; and seeing the golden skin on the arm having captured her, Elissa knew with certainty that Tabitha had invaded her bedroom.

Elissa thought that Tabitha lost to her instincts yet again, it had become difficult to curb them lately. She wasn’t interested in stealing anymore, but the catgirl was bossy and dishonest with her feelings most of the time.

“Hnn.”

The redhead stiffened as she felt Dawn waking up and tightened her hold on her girlfriend to stop her from seeing the mischievous cat behind her. Dawn slowly opened her eyes and felt her girlfriend’s smooth arms around her. She tried to pry herself from Elissa but she couldn’t even move.

“Elissa, wake up I need to pee.”

Dawn heard her gulp then huff and Elissa’s arms opened and the black-haired girl ran to the toilet without looking behind her. Elissa saw the chance and tried to get Tabitha to get out of her bed.

“Tabs wake up. Dawn will kill you if she sees you.” Elissa said, almost pleading.

She delicately shook the redheaded catgirl.

“Two more minutes…” Was the only answer she got from her friend.

It pissed Elissa off who frantically shook her. “No, go now.”

“That’s my tuna sandwich.” Tabitha was trying to hold onto her dream.

But it was too late, Elissa heard her girlfriend finishing with her business; the door was about to open when Elissa thought fast and covered Tabitha’s whole body with the blue and white sheet. Dawn appeared and smiled at Elissa who reciprocated with a strained smile and she went to kiss her girlfriend chastely and locked herself in the toilet.

Sitting on the bed’s border, Dawn wanted to tell Elissa of the news she received from Malicia and discuss it with her. The space mage suddenly heard purring and when she turned from where the sound came from and saw a form covered by the bed sheet, but a familiar fluffy red colored tail protrudes from it. Dawn scowled and lifted the bedsheet and saw Tabitha in her pink pajamas sleeping in her girlfriend’s bed.

*No wonder Elissa locked herself in the toilet.*

“Tabitha.” Dawn strongly shook the catgirl.

“Hnn.”

As usual, Tabitha wasn’t a morning person, her friends always had to wake her up.

“If you don’t wake up I will send you in Antarctica,” Dawn said coldly.

Tabitha woke up and stretched, opened her eyes and looked at the furious Dawn, she looked around her and saw that she wasn’t in her bedroom.

Her feline green eyes dilated in fear, her ears were erect and her tail flickered. “It’s not what it looks like.”

“Oh, then what should it be?” Dawn’s spatial aura escaped her tight control as a haze of purple light surrounded her.

Tabitha gulped and said, “I ate too much and watched the second LOTR movie… I was so tired. Please forgive me?”

“No.” Was Dawn’s immediate answer.

Dawn jumped onto the bed and Tabitha rolled down to avoid her and fell on the ground, but she righted herself and tried to flee to the door but the space mage teleported, caught her and tried to strangle her. A fight ensued. Elissa unlocked the door when the fight seemed to have stopped five minutes later, she peered through the gap between the door and the frame and saw Tabitha sitting on Dawn who she had captured by tying her with the bedsheets.

“I won,” Tabitha said when Elissa opened the door wide.

“Can you free her? She’s hurting I am sure.” Elissa looked at Dawn who was struggling vehemently.

Tabitha almost fell down and sniffed at Dawn. “Your girlfriend needs to stop being so jealous, I don’t like you like that, you are my best friend.”

“Aww, I love you too.” Elissa said and went to scratch the catgirl’s ear. Tabitha let herself be scratched and purred.

“Eli, free me!” Dawn shouted.

Elissa looked at the distressed asian girl, “Oops, sorry love.”

It was 07:30 PM when the girls went to have breakfast prepared by Tsarra this time, elvish pastries were so delicious that they have been having them everyday. Elissa was eating for ten people as usual and Tabitha was right behind her and they fought for the lass elvish cream puff. Once done, the girls went into the bathroom to prepare for school and wore their uniform; Elissa wore the outfit her mother told her to put on that consisted of black breeches, a black and white Arachne silk corset blouse and dragon scales knee high-boots.

She put on her favorite magical accessories; her mithril ring of stealth, her orichalcum spatial toe ring and that new bracelet she forged in blacksmithing class with the help of master Rudit.

The spatial toe ring was a safe pseudo-artifact that acted like normal spatial ring to store items and other things in a tethered dimension of a certain size, the difference was that the toe ring couldn’t be stolen and there was a stasis effect inside the space. The Ring of stealth protected her from mental invasions, boosted her mana; it also had a third enchantment that deadened the sounds she made when activated, conferring night vision as she poured her mana into it. The bracelet on her right arm boosted her spells by twenty percent and reduced the mana fuelling them.

Elissa looked good as she watched herself in the mirror of her bedroom, but there was something lacking; Gram’s light shined on her hand, the snowflake tattoo shimmering in a white and blue glow. Then Gram was at her hips in her sheath and sword belt. Elissa looked at herself in the mirror and nodded with a smile on her face.

Hands snaked around Elissa’s waist and she felt lips on her nape, it was Dawn. “You look so dashing.”

“I know, but… I feel that something is amiss.”

“Hmm, I know.” Dawn took the necklace at her neck, an amulet and put it around Elissa’s neck.

It was pendant in the form of a fox that shone with purple light, Dawn’s mana was imbued into it. Elissa didn’t know what its function was, but it seemed like it had a powerful protection charm on it.

“You shouldn’t give me something like this.” Elissa tried to give it back to her.

“I feel uneasy as if I’m not going to see you again for a long time, Elissa keeps it please.” Dawn looked at her girlfriend with sad eyes. In fact, she already knew what her mother had planned for her, and the amulet could save the life of someone by taking the damage for them. It was a protection that her father had given to her, one of the only things she appreciated that he did.

“Fine, but I will give it back to you when I’m done with that training my mom wants me to go through.”

Elissa was worried and she didn’t know why; she has been sent to space, chased by huge monsters, passed months studying without entertainment and just working on her magic, fought against sleaze bags. But something was telling her that this was different.

A knock on the door to the foyer followed by the door being opened by Malicia who wore a simple black long-sleeved button-up dress with black and red leather high-heel sandals. She entered as if she was in her own home which was totally right as she owned everything in the pocket dimension, she was followed by Cassandra who skipped toward Elissa and tackle-hugged her.

“Cassie!” Elissa hugged her sister tightly, but she began to climb on her like a tree.

“Hehe.” For once, Cassandra wore a red top with a blue jeans, white belt, and red sandals. She permitted herself to climb like a monkey on her sister’s shoulders.

“Hi, Master.” Dawn saluted Malicia.

The sorceress rolled her eyes. “Girls, we are late; I know you are happy to see each other again but this isn’t the time,” Malicia said sternly, looking at the wristwatch on her left arm.

Elissa ignored that Cassandra was on her shoulders and asked, “Where’s dad? Shouldn’t he be here?”

Heracles said that he would be there, but work must have been messing with his schedule yet again; since the formation of The Assembly, Elissa’s dad has been busy killing off those who tested the new organization’s power.

“He cannot come…” Malicia said, there was a tinge of sadness in her tone. It has been weeks since she had seen her husband in her bed.

Elissa didn’t miss her mom’s expression and she asked, “Is it still because of those omega squad guys?”

Malicia nodded. “Unfortunately.”

Since last April, Heracles had been busy dealing with the remnants of the Omega Squad, the Justicars received a kill order from the President himself to deal with them. Half of them had been killed in a titanic battle in Manhattan where they thought they would be able to take on the teams affiliated with the newly born Assembly. The battle happened on Madison Square Garden’s roof.

Elissa had seen it live on TV, the fool members of that squad were so confident in their victory that they choose the venue themselves, sure that they would be able to take care of those sent after them, but some must have recognized The Spartan descending from the sky and landing on the roof. Some tried to flee, but the order to kill them on sight was received so Ixtra and Ultra Girl took care of those and Heracles went to town on those that wanted to fight him. As usual, Elissa marveled at her father’s merciless style of fighting.

Madison Square Garden was painted red with their blood, though some of them were still able to run away.

Another consequence of this fiasco, the impeachment of Howard Blake was enacted on May the 13th, following the overwhelming evidence submitted to the United Nations and the Superhuman League. After the Ex-chairman was no longer in power, he was arrested and placed into protective custody as he had been attacked by a number of powered individuals who wanted his life.

The date of Howard Blake’s trial was this summer. So much had happened that Elissa didn’t know how to tell it all.

“Are you girls ready?” Malicia looked at Dawn, Elissa, and Cassandra.

“I am.” Elissa smiled nervously at her mother.

Cassandra giggled and held on her sister’s head. “Sure, mom.”

“I was born ready, master.” Dawn nodded.

Malicia smiled and teleported them into the Sanctum, more precisely in the portal room that Elissa recognized. The young woman didn’t come here often, it was a room bare of decoration, with only labeled panels inscribed with Phantasian script numbering the portals awaiting creation. They weren’t alone in the room, Nikola and Lyla Tesla were there, followed by their android maid Velia.

Cassandra teleported from Elissa’s shoulders to face Lyla Tesla and hug her. “Aunty.”

“How is my favorite munchkin?” The woman put her hands on the young girl and caressed silky red hair.

The Teslas having already greeted Malicia when she came to collect them didn’t bother to speak to her just waiting for her to send them to the place where they will be able to become Magitek Engineers. Dawn was in awe of the Tesla family, meeting them was like something out of a movie. The mage girl didn’t understand how Elissa and her little sister could act as if it was normal to have the immortal family before them.

Elissa wasn’t concerned about fame or the recognition of the Teslas, she was speaking with her mother about one of her friends.

“Mom, could you let Tabitha come here too? She needs training in the Temporally Accelerated Realm with a good Inshek master.” Elissa asked.

Malicia thought hard about it and couldn’t refuse, she had noticed how Tabitha followed her daughter around, now. The sorceress smiled evilly, yes she will let the kitten in and give her the hardest training possible. Elissa suddenly regretted asking her mother as she watched her carnivorous like expression.

Putting this thought on hold, Malicia took a brown chest from her spatial ring and deposited it loudly on the floor, seeing her delicate body, no one would think that Malicia was that strong. Opening the chest Malicia pulled out a black cloak with a hood decorated with silver borders reaching the hem.

“Put this on.” Malicia ordered.

Elissa did as her mother commanded and put the cloak on, then her mother took a silverish blue choker necklace that she put around her neck.

“This is a glamour necklace, you won’t be able to take it off, I enchanted it this way.” Malicia said.

The redhead felt herself change, her eyes and ears itched for a moment. The young woman closed her eyes and held onto her ears, she felt pain for a brief instant and then it stopped.

“Eli you look like an elf!” Cassandra cried out, her eyes and her little mouth were wide open.

Elissa felt the point of her ears being pointier and her hair silkier, in fact, she was taller too. She looked at her mom who took her hand and put a spatial ring on her finger. Taking Elissa’s arm, Malicia led her daughter toward the Teslas. Lyla had taken Cassandra with them and given her a toy. Dawn followed Elissa and her mother with apprehension, horror growing little by little.

“Mom, why the glamour? I’m not going to need it, you are going to send me into the Temporally Accelerated Realm like uncle Nikola and aunt Lyla, right?” Elissa asked as she was weirded out by her mother’s behavior.

Malicia smiled, as she opened a portal, it didn’t make any sound as the tear, in reality, formed a whirlpool of light. Elissa placed herself before the portal watching it with nervousness. The sorceress put a hand on her daughter’s shoulder and said, “No, I am sending you to Svartalfheim, please don’t die I wouldn’t like having to go through all the effort of sacrificing people to revive you in a dark ritual. Ask Reinatiel and Fenirael about the instructions I gave to finish the training.”

Elissa was shocked. “What?”

Malicia shoved Elissa into the white and dark blue portal.