[Patrick]

Twin tendrils of deep-blue Water-attuned Magick pushed against a shield of Darkness between us and the Water-wielding Etsy in front.

I called a shallow wave of fire above us to dissipate a barrage of Lightning Magick. Clearly, they had an Air Etsy take flight.

But why wasn't he using Air Magick? Furthermore, where was the Earth-

"20 metres under!" Selene called, "10 in the 21-22ish direction!"

"Copy! Patrick! Switch!" Layla waved down her shield and shunted her Æther into her left leg, igniting it in viscous blood-red flame reminiscent of lava.

My lips curled; my teeth bared. I kicked off a sprint and launched myself toward the enemy, gathering the beginnings of a Ginseng into my right arm-

"Patrick!"

Selene's shriek alerted me to a serpent of Water slithering for my mouth and nostrils. Thank the Stars Above! I aborted the Spell mid-cast, opting to boil the Water with the gathered energy and follow with Flashfire from my left. I felt the crashing of several powerful magics raining from above on my new teammates and hesitated for a critical moment.

In my pause, the Etsy flashed a beam of Light Magick right at me.

I jumped to the right just a little too late. The Magick bore into my left arm, eviscerating it from within. My lungs bellowed screams into my breath.

"Aww, it looks like the prodigy of Charade Gin is just too weak-"

Rage layered over Pain, masking the latter entirety. I willed my shoulder stump seared shut and melted the fallen viscera into Ætheric slag.

The once-taunting Etsy shrieked in more torture than even I from the Magick charring her flesh from within and without.

My newly disarmed form slumped toward the ground.

An Unattuned burst from Selene knocked me well away from a slicing wind set to decapitate me. "Layla! Get him to Larsen!" Selene shouted, just barely above the burning in my shoulder.

"Too dangerous!!" Layla shouted back from beneath her own Fire Magick to force the Air Etsy away. "Lord Adams is most likely on-site, out for blood since someone cursed his son! Plus, we still need to find Emmalynn!"

Whatever vim and vigour pulsed in me flickered out at once. Emmy was still missing. I melted down my left arm in a retroactive sacrifice, the nauseating smell of his parents' overcooked killer filling my nostrils, but what good did that do?!

Even in death, the bitch had won. I crippled myself in an act of conscious will, and fucking Barbara was still at large!!

A powerful thrum of Magick echoed through the air. If it had happened five seconds ago, I would have panicked. Now, I could not care less.

Layla's footsteps landed adjacent to me with a coolly resolved timbre. "That's Lady Stahl. We need to move. Now. We'll debrief later."

"What's the-"

Layla kicked me off my feet into a rescue carry. "As the grad student in a group of First Years, I assume the role of Squad Leader and assert that I will NOT let you spiral yourself into oblivion. Until you find the strength to break my grip, you're coming with me whether you like it or not."

[Grace]

We had rested for quite some time, and when Ansel awoke, we had continued burrowing a tunnel underneath Stormingcalm with his fresh neophyte Attunement.

A guttural noise left his lips as a further metre of the tunnel was fused to a solid structure to let us pass. "Well, definitely training at its finest, right Grace?!"

An unauthorised smile raised my lips to the harmony of his languid laughter. "Right. Take a breather."

"Ha, I can-"

The smile finally snapped to the permitted scowling posture. "No. Breathe. I'm not losing you. Besides, I have an idea."

"Alright, let me know when you figure it out." Ansel walked to the wall he had just sculpted and slumped his back against it, letting the sweat drop onto the earth beneath... as opposed to the earth atop.

I held out my hand; Æther came to it. I Attuned the azure sheath to Water and focused on the chill of ice. I yelped when the frost caked onto my poor palm, shaking it off forthright.

"Grace! You alright?!"

"Y-yeah! Trying something, one moment!" I took a deep breath.

Masculine Magi overburn when they cast too much Magick at a time, forcing them to rest to cool down. While this may seem like men have an Æther limit, same as women, they very much do not. A man, in particular, can keep casting despite being overly exhausted. This would, of course, cause them to faint from exhaustion sooner or agony later. Yet, tales exist of particularly stubborn Magi who would overburn to the point of melting their Ætheric Vessel. The fate of such a man is, obviously, death by haemorrhage.

Were it not for that limitation, however, then a masculine Magus could work Magick indefinitely. I looked toward my hand, sore from burning myself with my own Magick. If I can keep Ansel's Vessel at a low temperature, he can perform Earth Magick continuously without rest.

For reasons obvious, I must not frost his innards over, lest I exhume him myself, but I could will a gentle cool into him. I gathered more Æther to my other hand and went to Attune it but thought twice. He's an Earth Magus. Water-Attuned Æther might harm him.

However, even the Unattuned Magicks of one's Soul took on properties corresponding to one's Attunement. It was from this fact that I knew Em was no Fire Magus.

So I willed the Unattuned Æther about my hand to slowly cool. I focused my will upon it, but it heated a little. I took a slow breath, and the Æther slowed down. I waved my hand around, and while my Æther danced fluidly, it did not cool down.

I tried several more tricks over the while, asking myself if it was possible to essentially attune the Æther without Attuning it. I held the intent of slowly chilling my Water Magick but applied it instead onto the raw Magickal material with a mental forbiddance against the Element of Water.

For an eyeblink, I felt a vague and faint sensation before the Æther flickered out. "Hazah!"

Ansel bolted upright. "What is it?!"

"Give me some time to practice before I share!" I didn't even listen for a reply before Shrouding my hand anew and refining the technique. I may have had a proof of concept, however I needed to perfect the components before introducing my Magick into another living body.

I managed to reproduce the momentary cool before the Æther flickered out, after which I tried again with Attuned Æther to confirm I was applying the correct principle. I repeated this several more times before noticing something critical.

When I Attuned my Æther, it became denser, more fluid. Unattuned Æther was much more vapourous, like Air- That's it!

Instead of imaging the cooling of a viscous fluid to an energy that was so utterly not, I revised my intent to "cooling the air in this spot" and left everything else the same. Within a few tries, I had raw, Unattuned Magick that lowered the ambient temperature around it.

I looked up at Ansel. "I have a solution. Feel this."

He walked up and held his hand over my Spell.

I lifted my hand such that the backside touched his palm.

He pulled his hand back. "Whoa, that's cold!"

I nodded.

Then the jaw dropped. "You did that without Attunement?!"

I nodded again.

"When did you learn how to do that?"

"Twenty seconds ago." My smile returned with utmost consent. "Now for the plan. You're a man, right?"

Ansel regarded me with a look. "Yes... what of it?"

"Which means you overburn when you use too much Magick. But what if you didn't?"

He dilated the whites of his eyes, then the opening in his lips. Then he looked at my hand. "You're not-"

"I am completely serious. You wanna try this?"

"Oh Hells Yeah!!" He strode back on his feet and turned to face the soon-to-be-tunnel ahead. With his arms outstretched, Æther rushed to him, adopting an amber haze.

I held out my right palm and willed an Æthereal tether into his space and body. I held my thoughts still and let his vital information flow into my Mind.

Ansel's palms kissed the compacted dirt ahead, and the light of his Magick surged. The terrain parted much like one might expect of a river in a children's tale.

He stepped forward, the new walls compacted to stone. I stepped forward, and I felt his Ætheric Vessel warm up considerably.

I nodded to myself in my Mind and willed my Tether to cool.

"Oh, whoa!" Ansel's focus broke, forcing him to bind the ground he'd Magicked together to avoid a cave-in. "S-sorry! I should be good!"

"No worries! Let me know if I need to let up-"

Ansel flooded the space before him again, much more fervently. I found myself impelled to frost the Tether further to keep him from overburning.

Was this safe? I wondered to myself. If I let up even a little bit, he'd likely kill himself with a torn Vessel. Why did he trust me so completely? And what lunacy drives him?!

But the results spoke for themselves. We were walking at full speed, excavating at speeds untold. I slowed my breathing and kept meticulous focus on my Spell.

Never had I thought I would have put my study of male anatomy to any use other than emasculation and castration, and yet, here we were.

The passage of several still minutes found us beneath the home of my adoptive House of Fayt, as measured by the number of paces we had taken since first digging down. "Alright, Ansel, we should be about underneath the field behind my family home. Let's take a breather.

"Gotcha; cooling down!"

These next few seconds mortified me. Ansel slowed his Magick to a still, and I had to conclude mine in tandem lest I freeze his Vessel to his untimely demise. There were a few close calls, but we managed to terminate casting without-

"Urgh!"

... without lasting injuries. "Ansel, status?!"

"I'm fine! Just. Do me a favour?"

I nodded profusely.

"Do not, under any circumstances, tell my sister Leia, or our friend Em, that we did this. Ever."

I crossed my right palm across my chest, cupping heart with palm. "You have my word." It was beyond obvious why Em should never learn of this.

I went to stretch when a rift of Magick rent the sky overhead.

Ansel leapt to strike.

I Listened to my Mind on instinct before diverting to my Heart. "She's safe!"

Ser Fayt dropped onto the tunnel floor from out of thin air.

Ansel's eyes slowly closed and opened. "Madam, last I checked you were a Healer."

"Technically, only half of me is, but that's the half that matters. I trust you will never tell a soul what you just saw. Excellent work on the tunnel, by the way. Grace, we need to talk. Can Bauer be trusted?"

I ushered in a nod most resolute.

"Very well. I'll portal the three of us up, and we can discuss the calamity in CVAC."

[]

Beyond the mortal constraints of the Matra lie two general Spaces within the Domain of Living Things. They are called the Astra and the Umbra, and they respectively govern the Realities of Personal and Collective Consciousness.

This shadowy abyss, limitless in all directions, housing only a black-haired, brown-and-red-clothed, and skull-masked feminine humanoid of charred flesh and a pulsing sliver of silvery energy, is within the Astra. Specifically, it is the personal abode of Emmalynn Sinclair.

The woman-shaped being directed its gaze toward the bright-coloured wisp whose lightning-like tendrils struck into the space beyond. "Shame be upon thee, woman of void and light." It shifted its posture to face the shard of a Soul and sighed. "'Tis a story of a different sort now. Previously werest thou by the cruelty of Wer yoked, both in bondage and in murder. Presently, however, hast thou the Astral Magicks wrought. This plunging of hateful malice into thine Heart be thy doing and thine alone."

It turned away from the flickering wisp of light and tilted its head upward. "Thou renderst upon me the melancholy of chagrin, fool wifman, yet thy body thrummeth greatly. Thou namest thyself Killer and Coward and Traitor in tandem? Then I shall this flesh adopt and thy sentiment fulfil."

It drew its blade and ran it through the nothingness ahead as if cutting through a gelatinous mass. "That Dame, she hath me well in check placed. The body is in chill encased, with Transmutations staving away Death, and in so doing, barring us both from new incarnation."

The being drew breath, and the obsidian edge alit with azure, only to dissipate immediately. "Thrice-damned whore! How?! Such Elden Lore should to the bowels of Time lost be! Hath she some latent tribe found, far from cities and nations?!" It slowly slid its blade into a loop along its waist. "It seemeth as though we in a bind caught are. Rather, that I in bind caught am. She seeketh, thee to rescue."

It then threw its arms wide open as if awaiting an embrace. "I acknowledge thee, Barbara Anneford of Indis Rey! I am Vanessa, Harbinger of Umbra, Keeper of Lamentation, and Precept of Tenacity! Thou provest strong, and I accept thy challenge hereby! I shall thy jail dismantle, then shall we clash in Trial Of Arms and Lores! Thou needst nought save wait for mine arrival."

LunaSoltaer

This chapter... It did not play nice. Well, neither did my life, but that's a different story :D

It actually took me a couple tries to work out the first part with Patrick. I had a few early incarnations end up with him dying, then working out his character arc with respect to these specific enemies. I really wanted to capture that juxtaposition of "He's really good at what he does and he's driven, but he's still a reckless hothead at heart". I think this particular setup where he's still conscious helps set the stage for a really fun character interaction later.

I have also contemplated the idea of spinning off another, less dark-and-stabby novel, but I also want to see this one to completion. I'm potentially interested in what you all think. I have ideas for a sort of magical girl novel, an advocacy-via-office-politics sort of thing which I still need to work through a lot more, a parallel novel set in this world, a prequel, and I wanna say a punny comedy about a spellcaster.

Regardless, I'm keeping Solstice alive. I want to actually see things through to completion, especially my trans journey... Oh yeah I should pursue hormones soon!