“Dad, I’m a girl now!” Alex gently tried to push her father away, but he just held on tighter. “Dad, are you crying?”

“I’ve missed you so much! Are you hurt? Can I help?”

Alex finally managed to extricate herself from her dad’s grip. “No, I’m fine…physically anyway.”

“Are you sure? I could call in Yamato and get you all back to normal no sweat!”

“No!” Alex blurted out. “I mean, no thanks.”

Tunem tilted his head. “Don’t you want to go back to normal?”

“That’s…partially my fault.” Lilith said.

Alex moved over and clamped her hand over Lilith’s mouth. “It’s nothing, dad. Besides, wouldn’t he have to go take me away and interrogate me or something?”

Tunem frowned. “I suppose you’re right. But what’s this Lucas was saying?”

Alex was unable to resist as Lilith pulled her hand away. “Well-”

“Tunem, may A-Steven and I speak with you privately for a moment?” Vithi interrupted.

Lilith looked at her, confused. “Why?”

“Unfinished business between us.” Vithi said, pulling Tunem and Alex down the hall and into her room. She shut the door behind them. “Look, you left before I could finish explaining. Lilith is the reason why Steven-”

“Alex.”

“Alex is like this.”

Tunem frowned. “Is this true, son?”

“Dad, I told you, I’m a girl now. I’m your daughter.”

His frown deepened. “Alright, let’s hear it.”

A short while later, Vithi and Alex had caught him up to speed.

“Alright, let me make sure I’m understanding the situation. Whenever Lilith uses anything from her fae Domains an alter ego of sorts manifests, and then she made Steven-”

“Alex”

“Swear some sort of demonic contract or other, and as part of that her alter ego made Steven-”

“Dad, I told you, the name’s Alex now.”

“Fine, Alex prefer this form to his-”

“Her.”

Tunem glared at Alex. “Old one and manically happy to serve him?”

Vithi nodded.

“Then, her alter ego erased her memory of the whole thing, Lilith brought St-Alex back here and removed the whole brainwashing aspect of things, but Alex requested to have the form part of it back?”

“Yup. And I would appreciate it if you would stop trying to change me back. As I had to point out to Lilith, I was of sound mind when I made that decision, and I like how I’m feeling now. Heck, I’d be willing to let her put me back momentarily just so I could tell you I requested this. I’ll just ask to be put back like this anyway. If you could do something about the whole servant thing, though…”

“I’m sure if we just explain it to Lilith she’ll let you go.”

Vithi shook her head. “Lilith explicitly told Alex to ignore any attempts to free her.”

“We could tell her to undo that command.”

Vithi frowned. “Here, let me try. Alex, stop ignoring attempts to free you.”

Alex looked blankly at Vithi. “What was that?”

“Did that count as an attempt to free you?” Vithi asked, prompting a nod from Alex.

Tunem sighed. “Well, some demonic contracts can be broken from outside. What kind of contract was made?”

Vithi shook her head. “Not even Lilith knew that one. She said for the most part it was improv, but it was mostly demonic with inspirations from djinn contracts. Alex didn’t sell her soul or anything, though.”

Tunem grimaced. “Not good. If Alex’s mental state can be altered with just words, it’s powerful stuff. We’d have to put some serious research into that before we could figure out how to break it. If the soul wasn’t sold, I’m pretty sure it can be done, though.” He paused for a moment, then smiled broadly. “I have an idea.” He opened the door and made his way into the family room, Alex and Vithi trailing behind.

“Lilith, I understand you’re looking to learn magic?”

Judy looked at Tunem warily. “What’s this about?”

Tunem smiled at her briefly before continuing. “I was wondering if you’d like to be my apprentice?”

“What would that entail?” Lilith asked

“Well, you’d have to stay at my estates, but for the most part it’d just mean-”

“Hold up there.” Judy said. “You can’t just come in here and try and steal away my nephew-err, niece like that. How can I be sure of your intentions?”

Tunem flashed a smile and reached into his pocket, pulling out a piece of paper. He handed it to Judy, who looked over it. “Alright, so what’s this Protectorate?”

“The organization dedicated to keeping magic secret. Think of them like the magical police.”

Judy snorted. “And you’ve been doing such a great job of it.”

Tunem grimaced. “This is a special situation. Rest assured that in most cases we do our job very well.”

“I’ll do it.” Lilith said suddenly.

“But, your school!”

“I’d been thinking of dropping out anyway. I’m fluent in all forms of language now, remember? I could get a job as a translator or something no sweat. It’s just wasting money to keep going at this point. Besides, I need to learn how to use magic somehow, and this seems like a good opportunity.”

“What will I tell your parents?” Judy weakly asked

“No need to tell them anything for now. They’ll be fine thinking I’m living here.”

“But what if they want you to visit?!”

Tunem cleared his throat. “I can arrange something for that. Most of my students have some leave, and it’s not like she won’t have access to a computer or a phone.”

“And if they find out their son is now their daughter?”

“No need. I can set up an illusion that will make her look and sound like her old self.

“I still can’t be sure she’ll be safe at your place!” Judy said, struggling to find another objection.

Vithi rolled her eyes. “Judy, Tunem is one of the most powerful mages in existence, and his estate is a high security area. Lilith will be much safer there than here.”

“If I let you visit often, will that be enough?”

Judy pursed her lips. “Fine. She can go. But I will hold you to the visiting thing.”

Tunem smiled. “I’ll give you my phone number. Just text me whenever you want to visit, and I can arrange transport.”

“When will you be taking me?” Lilith asked.

“I was thinking you could pack your bags now and I would take you, Alex, and Vithi.” He paused and glanced at Judy. “You can come too, to help her get settled in.”

“I will. I have to go grab some things, though. I’ll be back in around half an hour. Don’t leave without me!” Judy said, bustling off towards the front door.

Tunem turned to face Lilith. “You won’t need much in the way of supplies. Just bring clothes and hygiene products, and then any personal items. I’ll supply everything else that you might need.”

Lilith nodded, scampered into her room, and got to work.

---

Lilith checked her suitcases again, causing Vithi to roll her eyes. “That’s the third time you’ve “double-checked” your bags. Everything’s there.”

“Sorry, I always feel like I’m missing something when I pack stuff. Besides, Judy’s not back yet so there’s no reason I can’t be extra careful.”

The front door opened, and Judy walked into the front room, holding a few grocery bags, which she handed to Lilith.

“What are these?” She asked, rifling through them.

Judy blushed. “Well, I figured you might need, some, you know, feminine products. I also got you a book in case you had trouble.”

Lilith blushed as well, packing the bags into one of her suitcases. “Thanks.” She mumbled.

Tunem poked his head around the corner. “Ah, perfect. I’ve finished setting up the circle in the other room, so we’re ready to go. We might want to have Lilith suppress herself, though.”

“Why?”

“Well, right now you look half-angel, half demon. Those aren’t exactly common, and it might not make a great first impression on some of the other students. I’ll get you an illusion once we’re there, but for now this would be best.”

Lilith suppressed herself as she walked into the living room, where the chairs and couches had been pushed to the walls to make room for a large circle inscribed with all sorts of runes. Alex and Tunem stood in smaller circles set inside the large one. “If you would just step into those circles, we can be on our way!” Tunem said cheerfully, indicating three circles near him. Once everyone was inside a circle, he began to chant.

Lilith felt a lurching feeling in her stomach as her surroundings blurred. When things settled, she found herself on a stone path in a lush garden. Water trickled somewhere nearby, and the sound of various birds and insects filled the air. Tunem began walking purposefully down the path, and the rest of the group followed. Soon they were in front of the gates to a large complex, which slid open as Tunem approached. He made his way towards a large mansion near the gates. He stopped at the front doors, waiting for the group to catch up. “This will be your place of residence for the time of your apprenticeship. Would you like to go straight to examinations or would you rather see your rooms first?”

Lilith let out a nervous chuckle. “You didn’t say anything about examinations!”

“Nothing big, just some tests to determine where you are physically, magically, and educationally. It’s just so I can figure out what to have you study.”

Lilith looked over at Judy. “Probably best if we see my rooms first.”

Tunem nodded. “Alright then. Vithi will stay with you, although I imagine she’ll be in her lair most of the time. And Alex will, of course, be staying in her old room in my house.”

“No!” Alex said quickly.

“Why not?”

“Dad, you have to think things through more! What will people say if some random girl starts staying where your son used to? People will get suspicious!”

Tunem rolled his eyes. “I’m sure I can convince the other council members to let you stay while we work on freeing you.”

Alex shook her head. “But what about after that? They’ll ask what’s keeping me from running off to the Society again, and there wouldn’t be an answer that would satisfy them, other than locking me up!”

“Where else would you stay?” Tunem said, pushing open the door.

“I dunno, with these two? Look, I’m just overwhelmed right now, can you at least give me this?” Alex said.

“Fine. On the condition that I actually spend time with you. If I think you’re avoiding me, you’re moving right back to your room, understand?”

“Well, I-”

Alex was cut off by the arrival of a young human in robes. “Ah, master Tunem, I thought I heard a disturbance. Who are these people?” He said.

“This young lady,” Tunem said, indicating Lilith, “Is Lilith. She’ll be entering into apprenticeship with us for a while.”

The man frowned. “Really? She seems a little old to just be starting an apprenticeship, and there are no transfers scheduled for a while.”

“Extenuating circumstances.” Tunem said.

“And the others?” The man asked.

“These two,” Tunem said, pointing at Alex and Vithi, “Are named Alex and Vithi, and are servants of sorts. They’ll be staying with Lilith.”

The man groaned, putting his hands to his head. “We’ll have to split them up. We don’t have a dormitory with three spots open unless we shuffle people around.”

“That won’t be necessary. Vithi is a djinn, so she won’t need space. If you can find somewhere to fit two people, that should work just fine.”

The man nodded, and then looked at Judy. “Who’s she?”

“I’m Judy. I’m just coming to oversee Lilith’s move in.” Judy said.

The man shot Tunem a look “What family did you say she’s from? This seems a little excessive.”

Tunem laughed. “Lilith’s not from any of the major families. I’ll explain more in a bit. You have a dorm that’ll fit two?”

“Nashra’s dorm should have enough.”

“Excellent. Now, will you end classes and let the instructors know there’s a meeting in an hour? We’ll need to talk. Oh, and please let Nashra know she’ll be having new roommates.”

The man raised an eyebrow but went to do as he was told.

“Who was that?” Lilith asked.

“That was Alexei, he’s in charge of the dorms here. You’ll be talking with him if you have any issues in housing.” Tunem said. He pulled out a smartphone, and after a few seconds started walking down the hall. “Nashra’s room should be this way…” He muttered, not taking his eyes off the phone.

The group followed him, and eventually they stopped in front of a door. To the side was a small plaque with the name “Nashra” on it. Tunem went over and fiddled with it, and soon “Lilith”, “Vithi”, and “Alex” were displayed below Nashra.  “Go in, get yourself all set up. I’ll be back in a few hours, I have to get some of the paperwork done,” He said, producing a key and unlocking the door. He opened the door, and then walked down the hall.

Lilith flipped on the lights as she walked inside, undoing her suppression as she did. She was in a small entry room of sorts, from which a carpeted hallway split off on either side. Looking down the hallway, she saw a kitchen and dining room on one end, and a living room on the other. In the hallway itself were three doors, one of which was marked “Nashra”. Alex walked over to one of the other doors, opening it and inspecting the room. “I’ll take this one,” She said, walking inside and closing the door.

Judy walked into the kitchen and began looking it over. “This is actually a pretty nice kitchen. I would have expected, I dunno, something less modern. Too bad about the mess, though. It seems Nashra isn’t a very tidy person.”

Lilith walked in to find that kitchen was, indeed, fairly modern. The counters were covered in food, utensils, and other clutter, but held quite a few appliances, as well as a stove and sink. There was an oven, fridge, dishwasher, and generally just about anything Lilith could have expected to find in a normal kitchen. The dining room was cluttered as well, but held a respectably sized table and a few chairs. “Go check out the rest of the dorm, dear. I’ll tidy up here,” Judy said, grabbing some of the dishes on the counter.

Lilith nodded, and turned around, heading into the living room. There were a couple of small couches, a TV, and a coffee table. The table had a few books scattered on top of it, but the room was otherwise clean. Vithi sat down on one of the couches, picked up a remote from the table, and began to flip through the channels on the TV. “You’ll have to ask Judy to bring over your video games. I’m gonna miss those,” she said.

“I’ll bring over anything you still need next week,” Judy said.

Lilith looked around and decided to check out the other unmarked room. Opening the door, she found a clean, surprisingly spacious room. Frowning, she walked out and began counting the steps between the door and the door to Nashra’s room. She was stopped halfway through by Vithi. “Probably bigger on the inside. Pretty standard in these types of buildings. I wouldn’t worry about it.”

Lilith shrugged but returned to the room. There was a bed, set of drawers, desk, and computer. She sat her bags down and began to unpack.

---

Tunem sat in a comfortable chair, waiting for everyone to arrive. He was in a large room decorated with many large armchairs centered around a fireplace. Several of the armchairs were already occupied by his older apprentices, the ones who had decided to stay with him and learn divination. Due to divination being a fairly rare form of magic, he had been chosen by the Protectorate to teach general magic to the young. Usually, students would learn from him for a while, getting a grasp on the basics of magic and combat, as well as history, math, and other such subjects, before heading off to finish training under a different, more specialized mage. When a student wished to stay and learn divination, he would take them and use them to help instruct the younger students, or handle paperwork. Many grumbled, but he just told them that these things take time, and they would take more time if Tunem had to do everything himself. Those who did not wish to perform those duties simply had to leave. Some did, but most stuck with Tunem. After all, divination is a rare form of magic, and Tunem was one of the only teachers around.

Eventually, the chairs were all filled, and Tunem stood up. The room hushed as his students turned to face him. “I’m sure you’re all wondering why you’re here right now,” Tunem said. “Today we have received a…different kind of student.”

“What do you mean?” Asked Agathe, a short human woman.

“First off, she is a grown woman.”

“So, one of us?” The speaker this time was Geb, a lanky man who was nearing the end of his apprenticeship with Tunem.

Tunem shook his head. “No. She’s likely going to start with the younger children, at least in magic. Her name is Lilith and she was, until recently, Veiled.”

This caused a shocked murmur, and Tunem waited until it had died down before continuing. “About a month ago, after heavy searching through the timelines, I came to the conclusion that there soon would be a surge in Society activity. In order to better prepare ourselves for this surge, I was given permission to give a djinn lamp to a Veiled human. I, of course, did not pick at random. This human was chosen after looking for ways to maximize positive outcomes for the djinn, the Protectorate, and us.”

“Alright, but why someone Veiled?” Geb asked.

“It would appear that being Veiled, along with a few careful nudges from myself, helped encourage unorthodox wish making. She is also coming with the djinn and another woman, both of whom are currently magically bound to her service.” Another murmur rose, and once again Tunem waited. “But I have been beating around the bush. The main reason I’ve called you here is because of her species.”

“You said she was human, though,” someone in the back said.

“Was. Due to one of her wishes, she is no longer human. She appears to have become a Perfect Chimera.” There was a shocked silence as the apprentices digested this. “We’ll need to fit her into classes, and I’m going to set aside some time in her schedule for us to explore her Domains, one on one. Anyone who would be interested in that, come see me after we’re done here, and I’ll see what I can work out. Now, this information is to be kept secret from the other students. We don’t need them bugging her when she barely knows what she’s doing. To compound the issue, her default form seems to be a mixture of angel and demon, and I don’t want any of the younger kids getting nasty about that. She can return to a human-like form at will, but that requires her to essentially seal off her magic completely. To sidestep this issue, I’ll be giving her an illusion device to let her look human, and the official story is that she’s human.” Tunem paused slightly before continuing. “One other issue to bring up. One of the women magically bound to her service is there against both of their wills. She was a Society of the Light member who attempted to attack Lilith. To make a long story short, the fae got involved, and we’re stuck with this. She’ll be rooming with Nashra for now. That should be about it. Those of you who are interested in one-on-one time, please come see me…”

---

Lilith flipped through the channels on the TV, looking for something to watch. Judy had mostly finished tidying up and had joined her and Vithi on the couch. “Well, I don’t know what I was expecting, but this is actually a pretty nice place. Very…modern.”

“Just because we have magic doesn’t mean we ignore technological developments. Usually it just means we’re not quite as innovative on that front. We tend to leave it to your world.” Vithi said. “Not saying we’re not as innovative as you are, just in -”

The front door opened, cutting her off. A tall woman wearing a hoodie and what looked suspiciously liked pajama bottoms strolled in, kicking off a pair of slippers. She had short black hair, accompanied by red eyes and two horns on the top of her head. She stopped suddenly upon noticing the three on the couch. “Who are you people, and why are you in my house!?”

Lilith stood up. “I’m Lilith, this is Vithi, and this is Judy. Vithi and I are going to be rooming with you, along with another girl named Alex. Didn’t they tell you this?”

“No, they didn’t. Besides, why’s Judy here if she’s not moving in? Come to think of it, why are you moving in? Not like the school’s accepting new students at this time of year, and I don’t think they would give me such short notice upon a new transfer.”

“We weren’t aware of this until today either.” Judy said, standing up. “You must be Nashra, right?”

The woman nodded. “That’s me. That still doesn’t answer my question, though. What school are you moving from?”

“We’re not.” Lilith said. “It’s…kind of a long story.”

“Oh, and I cleaned up the kitchen, too,” Judy said, “figured I might as well do something while I waited for Tunem to come back.”

Nashra glanced over into the kitchen. “Whatever. Just don’t cause me any trouble, OK?”

“We’ll try not to,” Lilith said, sitting down. Judy remained standing and looked a bit more closely at Nashra.

“Are you a demon or something?” She asked suddenly.

“Yeah. What about it?”

“Are you gonna try to…tempt them or something?”

“Great,” Nashra muttered, “Racists.”

“We’re right here!” Lilith said, “Cut her some slack. The two of us haven’t met a demon before.”

Nashra blinked. “You’ve…never met a demon, but you speak Belphe? No, wait a minute, you’re literally a demon. Well, at least partially. What do you mean you’ve never met a demon?!”

“Oh. Part of that long story, I guess. You’ll have to forgive any misconceptions, we’re still getting used to things.” Lilith said.

The front door opened once again, revealing Tunem. “Ah, perfect, looks like you’ve met! I was just coming to speak with Nashra.”