It was the 18. day in the early spring in the year 3043 in age of the second sun, one and half year after we arrived in this world. Since the years and even the days were a bit longer, we grew up more than in a normal earth year. We had dinner after a long work day and were back to our room.

As we had grown quite bit the bed was getting more and more cramped. We didn’t mind too much as we enjoyed being close. The normal beds for the servants were small as well, thus we had decided not to complain.

“I’ll stay away for the night.” Caroline had changed in a normal skirt with a blouse, which she made for herself lately.

“Having fun?” Milly gave her a inquisitive look.

“Just visiting someone.” Caroline blushed.

“Then stay save.” I tickled Milly at her sides.

“Ieek!” She jumped and turned around glaring at me.

I stuck out my tongue and grinned mischievously.

“Bye!” Caroline opened the door.

“Bye!” we waved as she left, closing the door behind her.

“Don’t. tickle. me!” Milly gave me a furious frown.

“You deserved it!” I leaned back, propping my self on my arms.

Milly jumped at me and I let my back fall on the bed. She mounted me and I let her pin my arms beside my head.

“Got you!” she gave a smug smile.

“Aaaah! Tilly! Help a maid in distress!”

“You’re both silly.” Tilly started to get ready for the night.

Tilly finished changing and sat down beside us on the bed.

“How about a truce?” Tilly looked at us with a smile.

“I’m loosing my superior position! There is no point in a truce!” Milly stared me down.

“I’m just enjoying the view.” I stuck out my tongue at Milly.

“Maybe you should lock the door before you continue.” Tilly giggled.

Milly got up and locked the door. I got up as well and started to get dressed for the night. Milly followed suit.

“What should we do with the evening?” Tilly watched us changing.

“Tickling Milly!”

“Tying up Lilly!”

“This was a serious question.” Tilly rolled her eyes.

“Since you already tickled me, I get to tie you up, Lilly.” Milly hugged me from behind, pinning my arms to my sides.

I could feel her boobs pressing in my back and her hands were just below mine. They were quite a handful now.

She slowly moved me towards the bed then and finally gave me a push that send me face down on the bed. Then I felt a weight on my back, Milly now sat on my back, her legs beside me. Pinned again. I felt for her feet and started to tickle.

“Ieeh!” It worked every time.

We cuddled the rest of the evening and finally fell asleep.

The next morning I felt nauseous and had a serious headache.

As I tried to sit up I felt dizzy as well. Milly left to call Miss Tessa. As Miss Tessa arrived, I tried to get up once. Without Caroline and Tilly I would crashed right into the locker by the wall.

I was put on a stretcher then and was carried to another room. I quickly lost track what happened as focusing on anything caused serious pain in my head. Being carried around made me ever more nauseous. After arriving somewhere I just laid there enduring my nausea for the time being.

There were visitors, I noticed some dark silhouettes next to me before I passed out at some time.

As I woke up I was actually feeling good. The bed was much softer than usual. It was dark, but there was some light from a window from the moons and the stars. A faint strange feeling of warmth filled my body. I noticed it after laying there for a while. Focusing on the feeling was odd. After a while I tried to get up. There was no problem with balance anymore. There were magic enchantments on the wall of the room. It was one of the rooms in the donjon, the second from the top. I was hungry.

Another thing that was weird was that I could see clearly in the dark. There were no colors, but it could see any detail clearly. I sneaked a peek out of the window. The landscape surrounding the castle looked strangely bright as well.

As I looked at the enchantments at the window I felt an urge to tap into the strange warmth. I gave in to the urge and the magic patterns got much more intricate at an instant. I was like looking through a microscope. The patterns made no sense, but I noticed a similar effect when I looked at the other enchantments in the room. There were differences between them which were totally not perceivable before. After a minute the vision turned to normal again and I could only see that magic was there as normal.

The warmth was gone and soon I was feeling really exhausted. As the exhaustion persisted I went back to bed again. I couldn’t sleep though as I wasn’t tired.

After a while the skies outside started to brighten and colors quickly came back to my vision. I heard some people coming up the stairs. They stopped at the door to this room and unlocked the door.

Miss Tessa carried Milly in her arms, followed by Tilly. Milly looked pale and feverish while Tilly looked at me with wide eyes and a slightly opened mouth.

“Good morning, Miss Tessa.” I sat up.

“Good morning, Lilly. Feeling better?” Miss Tessa laid Milly down beside me. The beds here were huge in comparison to the ones down in the basement.

“I’m feeling exhausted somehow. And I’m hungry.” I looked down at Milly. She was sweating and seemed to ignore what was happening around her.

“Tilly, get something to eat.” Miss Tessa sat down on the bed.

“Yes, Miss Tessa.” Tilly left the room. I heard her walking down the stairs.

“You stay here today to look after Milly. Are you feeling different?” Miss Tessa looked me in the eyes.

“I felt some warmth that I spent somehow. Thereafter I was exhausted.” I pulled my knees to my chest.

“That sounds like the awakening of your magic.” Miss Tessa gave me a smug smile.

“I feel strange. Somehow.” I looked down on my feet.

“I suppose it’s the same with Milly and I expect Tilly get it soon as well. You will get a few days to get used to it. Then we have something new to teach you. Even if your magic is rather weak, we will not waste it. Usually it takes much time it starts to get useful.” Miss Tessa left the room again.

Tilly came back a while later.

“How are you? Nobody told us anything.” Tilly put the tray with plenty of food on the table beside the bed.

“My magic is awakening.” I started to dig in, smiling.

“Cool! And what about Milly?” Tilly sat down on the bed beside her.

“Probably the same. Prepare for some awesome nausea and headache soon.” I patted Tilly’s head.

“Eww.”

“There’s much to learn and practice about it. It’s feeling weird.”

“I looking forward for the magic. The illness sounds bad.”

“It was.”

“I’ve spent my magic all at once somehow. Now I’m feeling completely drained.”

“But real magic!” Tilly’s eyes sparkled.

“Calm down. Removing dust with magic isn’t that exciting.” I got up to hug her.

“You’re mean!” Tilly glared at me.

“Only a bit. At least darkness wouldn’t be much of an issue with a light spell. I miss electric torches.” I winked at her.

“See. It’s not useless!”

“Do you have duties today?”

“Taking care of an ill and an of an imbecile sister.” She stuck out her tongue.

“I wonder if I could do something with this magical outfit. Do you know where mine is?”

“Down in our room. I’m going to get it.” Tilly was out of the door before I could react.

I shook my head looking at Milly. Looking at the bright side won’t hurt. I was going to train this as much as possible. Alone the magic detecting stuff was awesome. And the improved vision was awesome as well especially as it doesn’t seem to use any of the warmth. I felt the mana I suppose.

Tilly came back with the outfits a few minutes later. I got dressed, but I felt nothing special.

“I think it’s because you’re out of juice at the moment.” Tilly was walking erratically across the room since she came back.

I nodded and sat down on one of the armchairs.

“Sit down somewhere, you’re damaging the carpet if you continue!” I grinned at Tilly.

She gave me glare but sat down on another armchair.

I tried to describe Tilly what I felt this morning. I noticed there were some other things I missed, but they were only faint. There was so much to try, and being out of juice was frustrating on top of feeling drained.

“Your eyes have changed a bit.” Tilly jumped up and gave them a deep inspection.

“What do you see?” I gave her peck on the cheek.

“They have a purple hue!” she exclaimed.

I got up and confirmed it in the mirror. It was faint, but noticeable. I checked for other changes as well, but didn’t find anything.

We checked for Milly once in a while. She was out, but still breathing and her skin felt too warm. I went over to the window to look outside. Things in the distance were sharper and clearer as I was used to and I could understand some of the guards speaking casually at about fifty meters away!

“Something interesting outside?” Tilly came to the window as well.

“Not outside, but you are going to see soon. ”

Tilly nodded.

A while after lunch Miss Iralalith entered the room. I was still feeling drained.

“Good afternoon, Miss Iralalith!”

“Good afternoon. I came to inform you that I will give you some basic insights into magic soon. We will wait for everyone able to feel their mana though.” As she looked at me magic came out of her eyes.

“I only can give you very basic instructions though and show you your first spell. Every magic user has to develop his own grasp of his mana and his spells. You will have to practice a lot to get something useful. Since the amount of mana you can use in the beginning is next to nothing it will take much time to improve. As soon as Tilly is able to feel her mana I will try to guide you to understand your own magic. I don’t really know how humans teach their children, but I have some experience with young elves.” She smiled.

“You will move to this room for a while since we need a quiet place for training for a while. Go and get everything you need.” She waved and left the room again.

“I’ll be back in a few. Stay with Milly.” Tilly left the room.

I checked for Milly, but nothing had changed. I could tell there was magic at work in her body at the moment. It would have been interesting to have a more detailed view, but as Tilly said I was out of juice.

Tilly came back after a while with all our possessions. We put our stuff in the wardrobe. Later Tilly started to draw a picture of me and made me assume various poses. At least we had something to do for the afternoon. Concentrating on the magic was difficult. I tried it a few times, but it was hard to concentrate at the moment.

After dinner we went to bed early.

In the morning someone caressed my cheek. As I opened my eyes I saw Milly’s face.

“Morning.” she whispered.

“Morning. Well again?” I caressed her cheek as well.

Checking Tilly she seemed to have got fever as well.

“Is Tilly okay?”

“Seems to be the same a we had. She will be fine tomorrow I think.” I rolled over to face Milly.

“I feel something strange feeling inside.”

“This is the mana. I was exhausted the whole day after I used it.”

“Then I wait till the evening.” She smiled, kissing me.

“I’m still feeling a bit drained, but it’s not that bad.” I pulled her in a hug.

“Why are we in another room?” Milly looked around.

“Miss Iralalith said we need a quiet place for learning and that should move in here for a while. She will teach us.” I

“My vision is strange.” she whispered in my ear.

“My eyes have a purple hue now!” I looked her deep in the eyes.

“I was worried as you got ill so fast.” She rubbed her breast against mine.

“I too. Tilly was totally excited yesterday.”

“Let’s have look at her.” Milly leaned over me and examined Tilly

She was still asleep, but there was nothing unusual but the magic in her body.

“There is something going on with her.” I looked at Milly.

“I see.” She nodded.

“Let’s get dressed and get some breakfast.”

There was a strange additional feeling as I was done dressing. I ignored it, since I wanted to keep my mana for the day.

I got ourselves something for breakfast while Milly stayed with Tilly.

A while after breakfast, I felt something pulling at my mana, draining it completely. I felt drained again, just like yesterday.

“Damn!” I frowned.

“Is something wrong?” She knitted her brows.

“My mana is gone!”

“Ahhhh.” Milly looked at me with wide eyes.

“What happened.”

“My mana just drained away as well!”

We spent the morning in the bed, cuddling a bit. Eventually Miss Iralalith payed a visit, examining Tilly.

“Spontaneous mana drain is not normal.” She examined Milly and I with her magic again.

“Probably a passive thing that is triggered somehow. I have to see it in action to find out more. Without mana in your pool, training will be impossible. I have to talk with Miss Tessa about that.” She left the room.

Miss Tessa came to visit us after dinner.

“Training magic is impossible without available mana. In your condition you won’t be of much help for other tasks either. You’re officially ill for now. Caroline will take care of your meals. You stay here until further notice.”

“Yes, Miss Tessa.”

In the morning Tilly was awake again. We had breakfast together and discussed the strange draining effect thereafter. About an hour after we woke up our mana disappeared again with only a few minutes difference.

Miss Iralalith came just a few minutes later to check for Tilly. She was clearly not amused that our mana was gone again.

“Tomorrow we have breakfast together!” She left the room.

It was hard to do anything more than resting at the moment, so we just talked a bit about our magic, avoiding topics we didn’t want to share with anyone else. Caroline brought our meals. Caroline joined us for the meals.

I slept a bit longer than the others the next day. Miss Iralalith joined us for breakfast.

She activated her magic sight after she finished and we had to sit together on the bed while she was observing us.

A bit later Milly’s and Tilly’s mana got drained. Mine lasted about 20 minutes longer. It seemed to be trigger an hour after waking up.

“It seems to be healing magic. Nothing to be concerned about. I want to be informed if anyone of you has some mana in him after that drain an hour after you wake up.” She got up and left our room.

We spent the next 6 days ill, unable to do much because of the exhaustion. Miss Iralalith came for a visit as well.

Three days later Tilly felt only partially drained and I didn’t feel drained at all. Milly was still exhausted. I informed Miss Iralalith, but she was occupied that day.

“I’ll be there tomorrow after breakfast.” She waved me away.

We spent the day cuddling each other. Milly was strangely passive due to her exhaustion. I spent some time exploring our bodies with Tilly as well, which was quite interesting. Milly seemed happy about it as well even when she was to drained to do more than some talking. She did share quite a bit of advice though.

Tilly checked the magic view boost in the afternoon and was totally fascinated of the details she saw. I found some structure to push my mana into, which caused my fingernails to thicken and lengthen into claws a centimetre long for about a minute. The edge was quite sharp and could easily cut cloth. I could even scratch stone with them. I needed a few moments to form them, but they were a clearly usable as a weapons.

After a burning out most of my mana for my experiments with the claws I noticed I could get smaller claws, more long, sharp fingernails without spending any mana. They were much tougher than normal nails, which led me to the discovery that my normal nails defied my nail file now.

I found another construct I could fill with mana. I deployed ny last mana. There we no visible effects, but my skin tingled for a moment and there was magic in my skin. Tilly noticed barely visible scales on my skin. After a minute my skin tingled again and the magic dissipated.

Tilly and Milly tried to grow the claws as well, but it seemed they had to be activated with mana before the lesser version was available. Their nails were tougher though.

Build in weapons and armor. Probably nothing fancy, but I could see an use for the claws while jabbing someone with my fingers. They gave a bit more range and were probably lethal at the throat.

The next morning we were all well rested. Milly was still a bit drained, but had some mana left.

After we had breakfast, we waited for Miss Iralalith to get our first lesson in using magic spells. Are the claws spells as well? It seemed unlikely, since we could use them without training.