Lilith frowned. “Why do we need a combat training class? Well, I mean, I can understand why I might need it, but why everyone else?”

“Unlike your world, ours isn’t exactly…safe. We have a few big cities that are well defended, but outside of that there’s no real telling what’ll be out there. Beyond that, this is one of the Protectorate schools, and there’s a high likelihood that anyone who graduates and chooses to work with the Protectorate will end up in conflict with the Society. It’s just better all-around to teach kids while they’re here. Either way, you should get going. It’s a bit of a walk, and you probably don’t want to be late. I’ll see you tomorrow, so just hang in there, OK?”

Lilith nodded, before setting off. Kali, Judy, Carmen, and Alex followed, while Nashra left in a different direction, presumably heading to another class. A quick mental check showed Vithi was still asleep, and a look showed Carmen still had her nose in the Necronomicon while Kali was still conversing with Judy, so Lilith moved closer to Alex.

“Hey,” Lilith said, matching her speed with Alex’s, “How have you been holding up, after, you know?”

Alex blushed. “I’m fine, honestly. Embarrassed about last night, but otherwise normal. You?”

“Nervous. I have no clue what this next class is going to be like, and I’m still not comfortable with Carmen around. But she seems to be behaving…well, for a given value of behaving, so I’m letting it slide. You let me know if she tries to do anything to you, and that’s an order, kay? And you’re not to follow any orders that would mess with you reporting that stuff to me.”

Alex nodded. “Can-do. I’m sure it’ll all work out. You might get beaten up pretty badly to start with but give it some time and you’ll catch up. You’re smart, and competing with children, so it shouldn’t be too bad.”

Lilith rolled her eyes. “Great. I can be better than schoolchildren. Eventually. How reassuring. Ah, yes, do you mind if I leech off your mana during this class? Geb has me constantly emptying mine and letting it refill to help train up the capacity, so I don’t have much right now.”

“Yeah, go ahead. As long as we’re with Kali I doubt my help will be needed in an emergency. Sure, she specializes in information, but none of the Council are pushovers.”

“Thanks, I owe you one.”

Alex sighed. “No, you don’t, not really, but you probably are gonna feel like it anyway, so if you want to make it up to me, rub my ears again tonight, OK?”

Lilith blushed, the hue of her cheeks now a match to Alex’s. “S-sure.”

They chatted a bit as they walked, getting to know each other better, and soon found themselves in a courtyard where a bunch of children had begun to gather. As they arrived, a few inquisitive children walked over.

“Who are you?” the first of them, a young human-looking boy asked.

“Wow, miss! You’re so pretty! I hope I grow up to look like you!” The next, a small elven girl said, looking at Alex with bright eyes.

“Which one of you is our new classmate?” The last, an angelic boy said, calmly looking at the group.

Lilith stepped forward. “That’s me. My name’s Lilith Clements,” at this, she motioned towards Alex, “and this is Alex. She’s a…friend.”

The boy looked at the remaining people. “And who are they? And who’s the girl who looks like you? Your twin? I thought we were only getting one new student.”

Lilith scratched her head. “She’s…also me. It’s a long story. You can call her Carmen for now. She’s studying so we can learn faster.”

The boy’s gaze hardened as he saw the book’s title. “She’s studying that? I’m afraid I’m going to have to report you to the teachers.” He cast a dismissive glance at Kali, who was looking at him curiously, and then looked back towards Carmen and the book. “And I would be careful the company you keep. It appears it might be having an influence on you.”

“Uh, Raphael, do you have to?” The girl asked, not looking at him. “I’m sure Lilith has a reason for all of this. Tunem said it was a special circumstance, right?”

Kali grinned mischievously and stepped forward. “Hi there, Raphael. My name’s Kali, and I can assure you that Tunem knows all about Carmen’s study habits, and that she keeps excellent company.”

Raphael paled and stepped back. “S-sorry Councilwoman Kali, I assumed…”

The human boy laughed. “Raphael, you just got called out! Serves you right!” He turned towards Lilith and smiled broadly. “I’m Gabe, nice to meet you!”

The girl looked relieved. “I’m Thiala. Miss Kali, will you be helping out in class today?”

Kali smiled sincerely. “No, I’m just here to help keep an eye on Lilith and Carmen, as well as teach Judy here some stuff too. I’ll be around, and you can feel free to talk to me whenever you want, just not in class, OK?”

Raphael composed himself and began to speak again. “Why bother coming out for one woman who’s not even that important? I’ve never heard of her before, and my tutors taught me all about the big families.”

Kali put on a look of innocence before replying. “Oh, is that so? I think that just means that you’re not important enough to know about her. I’m sure Elenoa would have let you know if you were.”

Raphael recoiled as if struck, and ran back to the main group, clearly hurt. Gabe gave a gap-toothed grin and looked at Lilith, eyes sparkling. “So, that means Lilith’s really important, right? Why? Can you tell us?”

Kali shrugged. “It’s not up to me. You’ll have to ask Lilith or your teachers, they’re the ones in charge of letting people know.”

Carmen giggled. “I’d be more than willing to tell you cuties if you would swear servitude to Lilith. It has other, perks, too.” She motioned towards Alex, grinning impishly. “After she swore servitude to Lilith, I was able to make her a lot prettier. I’m sure I could help you out, too.”

Lilith glared at her. “Sorry, no, not happening. Vetoing that here and now. Don’t listen to her, she’s just trying to trick you. Maybe I’ll tell you later on.”

Thiala looked at Alex carefully. “Is that true, miss?”

Alex nodded hesitantly. “Technically, yes. But there were a lot of downsides, too. I have to agree with Lilith, you shouldn’t listen to her.”

Carmen pouted. “You two are no fun.”

“Like what?” Gabe asked, looking curiously at Alex.

Alex fidgeted, avoiding eye contact. “It’s kind of personal, so you’ll just have to trust me on this one.”

Gabe looked unsatisfied but stopped asking questions.

“Alright, class is starting, everyone gather ‘round!” A cheerful woman’s voice rang out. A short human woman was walking up to the gathered children, smiling broadly. As Lilith, Gabe, and Thiala walked to join up with the group, the woman began to speak again. “Most of you know this, but my name’s Agathe, and I’m the combat instructor!” She waited for the three to join the main group, and then motioned for Lilith to step forward. “This is Lilith Clements, and she’s the new student I was talking about yesterday. Please be nice to her!”

This statement was responded to with a chorus of “Yes, miss Agathe!”

“One more thing. None of you, under any circumstances, are allowed to attempt to sense her thoughts, emotions, or anything remotely close to that, even if you’re sparring with her. This is not because it’s rude, but because she has an ability that makes it incredibly dangerous to do that. Got it?”

There was a stunned silence before Gabe spoke up. “What ability? Where’s it from? Are you sure?”

Agathe looked conflicted. “We’re not sure. We-” She was cut off as Kali stepped forward.

“Hello, everyone! My name’s Kali, I’m one of the Council members, and I’m keeping watch over Lilith. The ability is unique to Lilith right now, and it’s no joke. I’m the Council’s expert on mind-reading and it still hurts me, so please, please don’t try it.” She glanced over at the guilty-looking Lilith and winked, shaking her head almost imperceptibly. “I’m going to be around most of the classes Lilith’s in, feel free to stop by and say hi if you see me, I’m always looking to make new friends. Just don’t talk to me during class, alright?” After saying her piece, she stepped down and said a few words to a relieved-looking Agathe, and then went back over to Judy, Alex, and Carmen.

Agathe looked at Lilith apologetically. “Now, I’m going to have to get a feel for the level you’re currently at, so I’m going to need you to have a quick spar with me, alright?”

Lilith nodded, and motioned for Carmen to come over. She put down the book and walked over next to Lilith, looking rather pleased. “I swear, if you try to pull what you did to Alex on Agathe I’m not calling you over anymore, understand?”

Carmen rolled her eyes. “Relax. I’m not going to do that…for now. Don’t know if I could, anyway. Don’t have much mana when I’m like this.”

Agathe answered a few of the children’s questions, and then turned back to Lilith and Carmen. “Ready? I’m going to focus on defense, so just come at me as best you can.” She said, moving from her relaxed stance into one that was more ready for combat.

Carmen didn’t waste any time, immediately casting a binding spell and speaking. “Alright, now, here’s how this is going to go. You’re going to look into my eyes and we’re going to play a little game…”

Agathe immediately raised her arms to block her face, and Carmen began speaking in Lilith’s mind, while also continuing to try and convince Agathe to lower her arms. Look, I only put a binding on her legs. I don’t have the mana to do more and I’m not expecting her to actually fall for this. She should be well aware of how I got Alex. While she can’t see, go punch her or something.

Lilith looked at Carmen, clearly confused as to how she was transmitting the words.

I’m selectively sharing memories of these words with you. Now hop to it, I can’t hold her for too much longer!

Lilith nodded, and rushed towards Agathe, lashing out with a punch to her gut.

“–intensity 150%.” Lilith caught the last of Agathe mumbling something before her fist made contact and was rewarded with the sensation of the wind leaving her lungs as an impact struck her stomach. Suddenly, Agathe burst into motion, kicking Lilith down and planting her foot squarely on the girl’s stomach.

“I win.” She said, finger outstretched and pointed at Lilith’s throat. Carmen grit her teeth, but nodded and returned to Kali, Judy, and Alex, picking up the Necronomicon and resuming her reading. Agathe took her foot off of Lilith, and reached out a hand, helping her up. She handed Lilith a vial of liquid. “Drink this, you’ll feel better soon.”

Agathe turned to the class and began to speak. “Alright. Who wants to tell me what they think happened there?”

Raphael raised his hand, eager to comment. Agathe nodded at him, and he began speaking. “Well, it looks like Carmen cast some sort of spell, and then began to try distracting you while Lilith ran in to deal some damage up close. Honestly, she should have known that wasn’t going to be a good idea, as any decent combat mage would be able to prepare a countermeasure to a simple physical attack”

Agathe cut him off. “You’re wrong on that count. The main reason this happened is the difference in knowledge between the two of us. I can guarantee that, should you have been the one fighting Lilith, you would have lost to that trick. First off, what was she doing to distract me?”

Raphael shrugged. “Looked like a simple hypnosis spell. Pretty simple for anyone with half a brain to shrug off.”

At this, Alex looked away, embarrassed, and Kali laughed. “Want to try it?” She asked, motioning towards Carmen.

Raphael stood up and walked towards Carmen. “Alright, hit me with your best shot. I won’t even try to look away, I’ll just straight up shake off the control.”

Carmen grinned, putting down the book. “If you insist. Now, look into my eyes. Looking? Good.”

Raphael’s eyes had taken on a glazed expression, and he started unblinking at Carmen. “Repeat after me. I, Raphael…”

“I, Raphael…”

“And there we go. I win. You can stop repeating me now. Go head back to your spot.”

Raphael waked robotically back to his spot and sat down. Carmen snapped her fingers and went back to reading the book, while Raphael shook his head, bewildered.

“What was that?!” He demanded, looking accusingly at Kali and Agathe.

Kali cackled. “Carmen might well be a better hypnotist than me. She just doesn’t have the power reserves to do much other than that simple spell. Of course, that spell is more than enough to deal with a little kid who got overconfident, so it works out.”

Raphael scowled, and Agathe began to speak once again. “I had prior knowledge of Carmen’s abilities, so, unlike Raphael, I knew I had to be cautious of Carmen’s hypnotism. The spell she cast was one to bind my legs, but she just wanted to get me distracted. Unfortunately for her, I knew that she didn’t know any offensive magic, and she didn’t know of the existence of reflector spells, so after that it was pretty simple to overpower her binding with my own magic and take advantage of the confusion. Now, let’s all work on reflector spells. I’m going to hand everyone a sheet with a low-power spell, raise your hand when you’ve finished chanting and then I’ll come and test it out.”

Agathe handed a sheet of paper to everyone, and Lilith scanned over it, prompting a message to be displayed.

Lilith quickly chanted the spell, and raised her hand, prompting shocked glances from the students. Agathe quickly walked over, clapping Lilith hard on the back. She nodded approvingly and began to speak. “I figured as much. I’ve prepared a little booklet full of what we’ve been working on in these last few months, go ahead and read those and try each of them out, if you finish before I’m done with the others let me know and I’ll get you started on the exercises we do.”

Lilith nodded, and began to read through the booklet. Most of the spells in there were pretty simple and fell under two broad categories. The first were spells that affected the user, temporarily increasing speed, strength, durability, or other similar attributes, simple healing, cleansing of toxins, etc. The other were spells that could be considered “offensive”. These included things like throwing a small ball of any one of several elements, creating pools of liquid or ice on the floor, making small walls of earth, that sort of a thing. Lilith spent most of the next hour learning these spells and trying them out and was eventually stopped by Agathe calling everyone to attention.

“Alright everyone, now that we’ve all learned the spell, who can tell me its biggest weakness?” She asked, looking expectantly at the kids. Thiala raised her hand shyly and waited for Agathe to call on her before continuing.

“Um, is it that the spell doesn’t activate based on the force of the ‘blow’?”

“Very good! The spell can’t tell the difference between a weak hit and a strong hit, so anything will set it off. Even taking a single step will activate the spell, attacking whatever you just stepped on. So, it’s not really practical in most situations. Some people like to learn to cast this spell chantless, as it’s a very cost-efficient reflector, but you have to be able to activate it right before a blow comes, but since it can’t be used while moving and can be tripped by almost anything, most people use different reflectors. Still, it’s probably the simplest reflector, and most reflectors use this as the base, so it’s good to know.”

She gave the class a smile. “Alright, that’s all, good work today! Everyone except for Lilith is dismissed. Lilith, you’ll be coming with me for your next lesson, alright?”

The kids dispersed, while Agathe led Lilith off to what looked like a track, like you would see at a regular school. Judy, Carmen, and Kali followed, but Alex left, saying that she had to go talk to Tunem. The other three set up in the grass, Kali instructing Judy, and Carmen with her nose stuck in the book. Agathe motioned towards the starting position on the track, where a chair was set up. She sat on the chair and waited for Lilith to come over before she began to talk.

“Alright, so, I’m going to be testing out how physically fit that body is. You just got it, so I’d like to know what it can do. First off, Geb gave me the rundown of what you did with him, and I’m curious to know, can you do a similar thing for, well, for lack of a better term, health and stamina?”

A thought later, Lilith found that she now had a health bar above her current mana (100/100, the scale based off of her current health, as with mana), but not one for stamina. The window mentioned something about physical stamina not being a concrete value like the others, and how because it was partially mental putting a value to it would change that value, or something. Even with the window, Lilith wasn’t exactly clear on the reasons behind it, but the window said that it would give a warning if stamina was low enough that further action would be dangerous.

Agathe nodded in satisfaction. “Good. Now, I’ll be running you through a series of tests, nothing fancy. After that, we’ll head to a more private area and I’ll do some tests on your wings and tail, and then we’ll be done. This will probably be early, but it’s all we really need for today. I’ll spend that time putting together a workout routine for you and figuring out some exercises to familiarize yourself better with your wings and tail. Starting tomorrow, during this time we’ll either exercise or I’ll be giving you private combat lessons or both. Got it?”

“Yeah.”

“Perfect. Now, we’ll start with the 100 meter dash…”

About an hour and a half later, Lilith had finished all of the tests. It was mostly pretty normal, things like running, push-ups, sit-ups, but that changed when they went inside. From then it was things like finding the maximum weight her tail could lift, number of times she could beat her wings per minute, and other, similar, tests. After that Lilith ate lunch and made her way to her next class – magic theory – in one of the classrooms near where she had her lesson with Geb. Kali, Judy, Vithi (who had woken up during the exercising and had chosen to stay with Kali’s group), and Carmen didn’t fit in the classroom, so they took up residence just outside the building (the nearby classrooms all being occupied). Geb was teaching this class, and he smiled at Lilith when she came in, instructing her to wait near the back of the class for the time being. Once everyone had gathered, he motioned for her to come up to the front.

“Alright, I’m sure you all met Lilith during the morning’s combat class, she’ll be joining us here, too. To make room for her, I’ve re-organized the seating chart, so if you would all pack up your things and get ready to move…”

A short re-arrangement later, Lilith found herself seated next to Raphael (who did not look pleased about this), as well as three other students she hadn’t met. In front of her was a dwarven boy named Veit, to her left was a half-elf girl named Emily, and behind her was a human boy named Conrad. Veit and Emily seemed to be friends with Raphael, and followed his lead in ignoring Lilith, but Conrad had no such hang-up.

“Hi, I’m Conrad, nice to meet you!” He said, reaching out for a handshake.

“Likewise! I’m Lilith!” Lilith replied, shaking.

Conrad leaned forward, lowering his voice to a whisper. “Sorry about Raphael. He’s from one of the larger angel families and he likes to be all prideful ‘bout it. Not sure what you did to make him mad at you, but you shouldn’t let it get to you. He’s pretty stuck-up.”

“Good to know. Anyone else I should watch out for?”

Conrad screwed up his face, concentrating. “Can’t think of anyone aside from Raphael’s group. They like to do whatever he does, so they’ll probably be nasty too.”

Further conversation was interrupted by Geb, as he began to start the lesson. It wasn’t that different from other classes Lilith had taken in the past – he started by collecting homework from the students, and then going over it with them. He then launched into the day’s topic of discussion, a deeper look at how people knew Domains to work, which took most of the class’s time. After assigning everyone homework, he had Lilith stay behind, waiting for all of the students to leave before continuing. “Alright, it’s me again for the next two hours. My schedule’s a bit tighter than Agathe’s, as I teach more classes, so they couldn’t give us the three hours of interrupted time she has. If you could call Kali and friends in, we’re going to see if we can’t unlock some of your Traits.”

A short while later, Kali’s group had taken up position in the room, and Geb began to speak again. “So, since you get notified whenever you get a new ability, we’re going to take advantage of that and see if we can’t get a better idea of what causes Traits to unlock. We’re going to try a lot of things, some of which are going to be…out there, and maybe even a little painful, but you can say stop whenever, and it’ll all be in the name of helping you out.”

Lilith, looking a little apprehensive, nodded. “Alright. What first?”

Geb smiled. “Alright, we’re going to start with physical Traits, since we know more about those and we might as well get them out of the way while we’re doing this. First, I’m going to need you to hold your breath as long as you can. When you can’t hold it anymore, take a breath and begin to hold it again. Keep doing that until you get something, or I tell you to stop. Since there are several Domains that let you hold your breath longer, I’m hoping just doing this will get some of that to unlock. Well, actually, first, is there a way to check and see if you have any of those Traits yet?”

“Yeah, give me a second…No, nothing.”

“Alright, good to know. For a lot of those Domains, those Traits are either unlocked since birth or unlock shortly after birth, so I’m hopeful that this won’t take long. Ready? On the count of three, begin. Three, two, one, go.”

Lilith woke up from her nap, feeling refreshed. She had left her class more than a little worn out, but, fortunately, that class was the last class of the day for her, and she was free to do whatever she wished with her evening. She had made plans to have a dinner with just her and Judy that night (and Kali just outside the room monitoring things just in case), so they could have a simple meal, without any of the complicated new parts to their lives. Judy had needed some time to prepare, so Lilith decided to go home and sleep for an hour or two before making her way over to Tunem’s house to have the dinner.

A short while later, she found herself sitting across from Judy at a large table, set with ingredients for tacos. They weren’t sitting at the head and foot of the table, of course, preferring to actually be able to talk with each other without yelling, and had just finished dishing themselves up.

“So…how was your first day of school?” Judy asked, a faint smile on her face.

Lilith put on a reluctant expression, barely managing to hide a smile. “Well, I’m not sure it was the greatest start. I got into a fistfight and got beat pretty badly.”

Judy staged a shocked expression. “I never expected to hear that you got into a fight, what was the other kid’s name?”

“Actually, it was the teacher. Her name was Agathe and she said something about testing the new kid.”

“Well, that hardly seems fair. I’ll have to talk to the principal about this, won’t I?”

“No, we’ve come to an understanding, I don’t want to get embarrassed any more than I already have been, so please don’t.”

Judy laughed. “Alright, with that out of the way, really, what did you think?”

“Aside from that Raphael kid, everyone was pretty nice. I’ll be honest, it feels really weird to be the only adult other than the teacher, but no one was too weird about it. The experimentation sessions with Geb were unpleasant, but he’s nice enough and I’m sure this will help me out further down the line. I’m a little worried about how intense the exercises are going to be tomorrow, but hopefully it won’t be too bad.”

While speaking, Lilith unconsciously rubbed her neck. She was suppressed at the moment (to further sell the illusion for the both of them), but earlier in the day she had unlocked water breathing (by holding her breath underwater for long enough), and that came with gills, which she was still getting used to having. Noticing this, Judy began to steer the conversation away from that subject. “So, what about that new house they’re building for us? I’m excited to get to live with you again.”

Lilith nodded idly, taking a bite out of her taco. “Yeah, I think it’ll be nice. I’m hoping we’ll be able to eat together more, maybe even with everyone else, get to know them a little better.”

The rest of the dinner proceeded in much the same way. Mostly small talk, avoiding any potentially sensitive subjects, nothing big, but enough to relax the two of them. After they were done, they said their goodnights and Lilith headed back to her dorm to sleep.

Fighterman481

So, let's talk characters. Specifically, the number of characters. I was paralyzed with indecision over whether I was introducing too few or too many characters, and I'd like input on this. Basically, I wanted there to be some semblance of people having names and it now just being the most important people, but I also felt like I was introducing a lot of characters who are basically just...there. No real defining traits other than a name. So, I don't know. In the rewrite, would you all prefer there to be fewer named characters or the same amount? More is probably out of the question, seeing as how I was struggling to get names for the ones I have (I've been shamelessly stealing names from the 'example character names' in Xanathar's Guide to Everything, a D&D sourcebook, or sometimes even hitting up a random name generator. Helps with consistency).

Oh, and I swear not all angels are as stuck up as the two we've seen so far. They're special cases.

I think this will be the last chapter for the night, though. I've been neglecting actually writing new stuff while getting my backlog posted, and I don't really want to do that. So, I'll be working on that instead, and try to tone the chapters down to 2 or 3 a night, depending on how much commentary they require.