Fire magic! I can finally cast fire magic! How could I not spend the rest of my afternoon trying this out?

Once Titania started cooking fresh raptor for dinner and Viela left to do more… foxy stuff… I got to work casting the Fire spell over and over—after I took off my enchanted cloak and shifted back to human form, of course. This simple fire magic felt like one of those ‘easy to learn, difficult to master’ kind of concepts. I was fairly confident my anti-magic protection could reliably extend to my fox fur, but it definitely wouldn’t protect my clothes, and I didn’t want to take any chances.

After a few hours of practicing Fire, I had gone from igniting a candle flame of mana over my fingertip to enveloping my whole hand in flames. I hardly even noticed how far the sun had set until Alice and Freya returned with another day’s haul.

“Welcome back!” I waved at them with my hand still on fire.

Freya held both cubs in her arms, warily glancing back and forth from me to Viela. Alice stopped in place the moment she saw, staring at me as if she were just seeing me for the first time.

“Is everything okay?” I asked, quickly dispelling the flames. “Uh, I finally increased my anti-magic ability earlier, too.”

Alice scratched her chin. “So that’s what it was…”

Huh? Is she jealous that I can cast fire magic now and she can’t? Crap, I really hope not…

Alice let out a heavy sigh, then shook her head as if to clear her thoughts. “Never mind. Beryl, look! We’ve almost got enough now!”

She opened her gathering bag and pointed to a line on the inside. The wicked witch even made a marking in the material to show how much she wanted filled with those murkthistle seeds, and Alice was so close!

“We can actually think about leaving this cave for good in another day or two!” I said, reaching out to pat her on the head. “Good job.”

Alice blushed at the praise—or from having her head gently patted. Or both.

I knew that she had wanted to take on the responsibility of our ‘gathering quest’ for Evelina all by herself, and yet… I wanted to do something for her. Technically I already did; I had brokered the deal with that wicked witch so Alice could join me in the Magic Academy, and I even let Alice pet my fox tail… twice.

But still, as I stared into her bashful indigo eyes now, I couldn’t shake the feeling that she was suddenly unhappy about something. Maybe Alice really was jealous that I could cast fire magic now and she couldn’t. I couldn’t even teach her the Fire spell since she didn’t have any way to protect herself like I did. Viela could probably help her, but then again, that wily fox might teach her all kinds of other things. Wasn’t there something Alice had asked me to do for her before…?

Oh, that’s right! It’s been weeks by now, but I remember!

I pulled back my hand and rubbed her shoulder. “Hey, I never did teach you that teleportation spell you wanted to know. Do you want to learn how to cast Recall tonight?”

Alice glanced at me with a blank expression like she had to process what I just said. Then all at once, she grabbed me by the shoulders, her eyes sparkling with delight. “Yes, I’d love to! But…” She cast a look at our other three party members gathered in the cave, biting her lip. “Freya and I found a really nice place in the forest nearby that I want you to see. Why don’t we try there?”

Titania perked up, apparently having been eavesdropping. “You’re not seriously thinking about going out now, are you?” she asked. “It’s almost nighttime. You know what that means!”

Damn, I had almost forgotten about those ‘dourling’ monsters she had been so concerned about. Our party always made sure to never go out alone and keep the campfire going at night. Maybe we could try again tomorrow…

Freya stood up and shook her head. “No, they’ll be fine,” she said. “The nightstalkers will be hiding tonight. I always keep track of the days now, after… what happened.”

Titania gave her a funny look, then rubbed her neck like she understood. “Oh yeah, you’re right. But still…” She threw glances at Alice and me—for some reason, especially at Alice.

I was about to ask what she was on about until I got an even better idea. I stepped outside the cave, studying its entrance and the surrounding mountainside, trying to commit every rocky detail to memory. I held that image in my mind’s eye while I cast the spell to set a Recall point here. My efforts were rewarded with a circle of light at my feet and a new mental ‘screenshot’ of this place that I could teleport to.

“There,” I said with a flourish of my hair. “If anything happens, I can just teleport us back here and we’ll be fine, okay? Plus, we won’t get lost trying to find our way back.”

Titania rubbed her neck a little harder like she wanted to protest, but finally relented with a sigh.

Out of all of our party, Viela looked like the only one who was still unsatisfied.

“Beryl, do you have a minute~?” she called out to me.

Ugh, she is going to get some weird idea again…

“Listen, I know how you feel about ‘us,’” I told her when I was close enough to keep the others out of earshot. “I just want to teach Alice this spell; we won’t do anything naughty or whatever.”

Viela’s fiery red eyes stared deeper into mine. “No, you definitely should.”

“Okay I’m glad you underst—wait, what?”

The fox spirit leaned closer and made a subtle gesture toward Alice. “Beryl, can’t you tell? She’s in love with you. This is the perfect chance for you two!”

I nearly choked on my own breath. “Y-You… What are you even suggesting?! Aren’t the two of us supposed to be, like, you know…”

Viela put a hand around my shoulder. “Beryl, please. I don’t think I’m someone who can be so easily replaced in your heart, you know? Besides, I care about her, too. Just let me know if you need me to give you a quick little refresher…♡”

She slid her hands across my hips, caressing me dangerously close to my butt. I shot Alice a nervous glance and nearly choked again. The young witch was absolutely bristling, her face now a bright shade of red I had never seen before.

Oh God, Viela’s just going to make this worse…!

“L-Look, I’ll see what I can do, okay?”

I awkwardly made my way back to Alice and reached for her hand. She accepted with a pout and a reluctant, “Hmph!”

Viela called after us, “Take your time you two~!”

Ugh! “Just ignore her…”

***

Alice led the way for what felt like nearly an hour of nerve-wracking silence, but she never let go of my hand.

I only realized then how long it had been since the two of us had been alone together like this. That thought didn’t make it any easier to try and break the silence, and yet, Alice didn’t seem to mind.

As the warm sunset faded to a bright moonlit night, I cast Light Flare to help illuminate the darkened mountainous path ahead of us. Not wanting to be outmatched—or perhaps just for some practice—Alice did the same. It was just as well, since now the rugged path was a bit hard to see with the treetops overhead covering much of the moonlight.

Occasionally, I could have sworn I saw a pair of yellow eyes staring at us from a distant crevice. Hopefully it really was just my imagination…

The night’s breeze was a bit chilly, but after a while, Alice led us to a sheltered forest clearing. A ring of trees sat nestled into a corner against the rising mountain above us, shielding us from the wind.

“This is the place,” Alice finally said with a smile. “Doesn’t something about this just feel magical?”

I nodded, unsure how to respond. Oh right, the magic training!

I cleared my throat. “This is perfect, actually. The mountain grass here will help, just in case.”

Alice tilted her head. “In case of what?”

I covered my grin with a hand. “It’s all a part of the learning process. Now, let’s begin with the essentials.” After grabbing a stick off the ground, I traced two symbols into a nearby patch of dirt before continuing. “As you can see, the Recall spell is divided into two parts…”

Alice listened intently while I gave my explanation, eager to begin. When I had finished, she spent a few minutes staring at the scenery around us, then stopped channeling her light spell. Slowly, her finger lit up with her mana, then she traced the first symbol. A moment later, I watched a circle of light appear around her feet before quickly winking out of existence.

“I did it!” she cheered. “I can see the picture when I close my eyes! Now, um… the second one?” She fidgeted, looking away.

I nodded, struggling a little harder to conceal my anticipation. “You have to take a few steps back first. Don’t let the fear get to you; I’m pretty sure this spell was designed with safety in mind, so nothing crazy will happen at this distance. Just focus on repositioning yourself.”

Alice took a few careful steps back, staring at the spot where she had been standing as if it might swallow her whole. After a deep breath, she traced the other symbol, and then… her body lurched toward that same spot she had been just moments before. Alice fell forward, sliding over the grass on her stomach, coming to a stop with an exasperated expression on her face.

“Beryl, don’t laugh!” she cried. “I’ll get it next time!”

“No, it’s just that… the first time I tried that, I did the exact same thing.”

“Huh? Really?”

I stepped toward her and knelt down, offering her my hand. She wavered for a moment, blushing before accepting and standing back up with my help.

“Now you know what not to do,” I said with a smile. “You see, I figured out the Recall spell isn’t about moving as quickly as you can back to where you started. It’s more like… displacing yourself through physical space. It feels really weird at first, but once you get the hang of controlling it, you’ll see it’s not that bad.”

Alice brushed herself off, nodding again before stepping back. She stared at the spot where she had been standing once more, this time like she was putting all the pieces together in her head. She closed her eyes, traced the symbol, and then… in a blur of light, her body shifted toward her Recall point.

At first, it looked like she was going to fall again. Alice stuck both arms out, and her feet did a little dance until she caught her balance. In the end, she managed to stick the landing, and a breathtaking smile spread across her face from ear to ear.

“I did it!” she cheered again, a little louder this time. “It really worked!”

My jaw dropped. “How… You actually did it right in just two tries? Do you know how long it took me to do that?!”

Alice giggled at my reaction, gleefully skipping toward me.

“That’s because I had such a good teacher,” she said with a slight blush to her cheeks. “I couldn’t have done that without you, Beryl.”

“Oh, yeah…”

My heart skipped a beat. I could only imagine all the things she was thinking in that moment, staring at me like this. More than that, I had almost forgotten what Viela asked me to do—or maybe what I should have done anyway.

Alice was close enough that I could kiss her. I had been wondering when to ‘make a move’ on her, but now, this felt like the perfect moment… our perfect moment.

Slowly, I leaned forward—and Alice changed. All of a sudden, a shiver ran down my spine when I saw her raven-colored hair begin to glow from every direction.

A chilling sense of déjà vu came over me when I spun around and saw a ring of glowing mushrooms illuminating the clearing. As I instinctively looked up to the sky, my blood nearly turned to ice at the sight far above.

Shining bright in the night sky, that familiar light-colored moon with a hint of blue-green practically overlapped in space with this world’s second darker, almost violet moon. Somewhere next to them looked to be another similar object, distorted by incredibly bizarre, shifting colors of the other two.

“Th-The eclipse?” I muttered. “This is, I mean… I thought this lunar eclipse only happened every twenty years or so!”

Alice frowned. “Um, no… Beryl, this happens every fourteen days.”

What? Oh. Oh, of course. The one who told me that… and that night, in another weird forest clearing just like this… two weeks ago…

My vision blurred, and I broke out into a cold sweat. Why did this have to happen now, damn it!

“Beryl, what’s wrong?” Alice asked.

“I-It’s nothing,” I said. “Just a bad memory.”

Alice bit her lip for a silent minute, staring at the ground. Then she stepped closer and gave my shoulder a gentle rub.

“Then… maybe we can make a better one.”

I did a double take when I stared back into her eyes. Right now, something about Alice looked… different. It felt like she looked magical, in a way.

“It’s beautiful,” she said. “I really wanted to see this with you. The colors in the sky above, and the forest, and the way the ring of lights are glowing all around us… I think it’s beautiful. Don’t you?”

My breath caught in my throat again—but this time, for a different reason. The way Alice glowed in the magical light almost made her look like a girl I had never seen before. Her long, raven-colored hair lit up with a rainbow of violet and blue, her fair skin looked flawless shining in the light, her small clothed breasts rose and fell faster with every breath…

“Yeah. It’s beautiful.”

I found myself putting my hands on her waist, taking the deepest, warmest breath of my life. Nothing else mattered now. There was only this moment in time, me and her, just the two of us. Her indigo eyes drew me in closer and closer—until I couldn’t deny these feelings any longer.

I closed the distance and planted a kiss on her lips. Then another, and another.

I felt her lips curling into a smile when she started kissing me back. As my lips melted into hers, we lost ourselves in our burning passion, like this was the moment we had been waiting our whole lives for.

And we were just getting started.