“Right, if we’re going all out let’s start off with a bang. Screw the pen name idea, let’s go out right now and get what’s ours… If you want to Sir.” Ursula uttered excitedly, her body vibrating at the prospect of action.

The headmaster genially gestured towards the door, “I will let you two conduct the discussion and will step in if required.”

Sophia forced down her levity and turned a gimlet eye on their mentor, “This is our last chance to keep quiet, you’re sure you can protect us and our home?”

The headmaster, recognising the need for sincerity, straightened his shoulders and faced the shorter woman, “You have my word. My plan is to provide greater protections to the orphanage whilst providing a homestead for you both to live in.”

“We can’t leave the orphanage,“ Ursula said adamantly, the words leaving her mouth before she even think.

But soon realisation dawned on the pair, and with it a heavy leaden weight within their chests and hearts – guilt.

“Maybe we shouldn’t,” Sophia offered, her shoulders slumped, “Rosalind would be devastated.”

“We would have left eventually Soph,” Ursula consoled, both for herself and her partner, but they knew the words rang hollow in their ears.

“We’ll just go back to our other idea…” Sophia eventually decided.

Ursula sighed and hardened her heart, “We have to go back and chat with her Soph. It’s that or spend the next five years doing nothing.”

“But we’re thirteen, we’re not nearly responsible enough.” The blonde muttered as she bowed her head, the corner of her eyes beginning to tingle. The next thing she knew she was wrapped up in the strong arms of her partner.

“Come on sweetheart, l-let’s get going” Ursula crooned in a soothing tone, barely able to disguise her own voice hitching, “Sir, do you mind if we get back to this later? We need to go back to the orphanage.”

The eagle animan gave them an understanding nod, “I’ll be in the library.”

The tall elf picked up her paramour in a princess carry and began walking back to the orphanage. Both were breathing heavily and trying not to blink in a desperate attempt to fend off the tears building in their eyes as their minds raced through the fond memories of their second childhood.

They both realised that in spite of their transmigration, Rosalind with only her meagre possessions had provided them a happy and content childhood. She had protected them from outside influence and encouraged their growth – and now they were going to leave.

Ursula finally relinquished her hold on Sophia when they got back to the orphanage, neither mentioning the wet patches on their clothes or their puffy red cheeks. After discreetly trying to wipe their faces, they entered through the door.

Rosalind, who was making a start on dinner at the time, looked up and gave them a gentle smile. But upon seeing their faces it flickered through a myriad of emotions in seconds, worry, grief and sadness before finally settling on a wan sorrowful smile, her tears already leaking down her pale white cheeks.

“I’ve seen that look before,” Rosalind said warmly, despite her current expression.

Even with all their mental preparation, tears began leaking from the teen’s eyes once again.

Sophia opened her mouth to speak but their mother quietened her with a single finger.

“Shh, it only gets harder if you talk – I would know.” Rosalind croaked. “I-I was hoping we’d have longer but we all leave the nest eventually.”

The tall woman gathered them both into one of her signature bear hugs.

“I love you both so much,” The matron murmured.

“I-I love you too Mum,” They echoed.  

Rosalind held them for a few minutes gently rubbing both their backs with her hands, neither of the children mentioned the steady pitter patter of droplets falling onto their heads

“When do you both leave?” Their mother asked with a scratchy voice. Barely able to muster the courage to continue to speak.

“Whenever Arne has a house ready.” Ursula answered quietly, feeling another set of hot tears roll down her cheeks.

Rosalind tightened her grip, seemingly afraid her children would slip out of her clutches, “I expect weekly visits – No daily. And let me know immediately if you’re having any problems.”

“Mum,” Ursula chuckled cheerlessly, “You know why we’re leaving.”

Rosalind choaked on her reply, “Because I’m not able to protect you both. And because I’m holding you back.”

“No!” Sophia quickly answered with vehemence, her bloodshot emerald eyes gleaming with certainty as she spoke for the first time since arriving, “Don’t blame yourself Mum – it’s their fault.” Her face fell and a despondent look grew on her face, “And ours.”

“Oh sweetheart, you two always made me so happy to see your growth. Even when I first saw you thumping your heads on the floor all those years ago. Don’t lose confidence – and if you ever need a home for you to stay my doors will always be open for you.” Rosalind said with a watery smile.

Sophia lost control over her emotions and buried her head in between her two, much taller, companions, desperately trying to engulf them both in her slender arms.

“If you need anything from us, please ask. We should be able to get you a few talents if things work out.” Ursula stated softly that belied her conviction.

Rosalind thought that all of her tears had been shed but found another wave come over her.

“Please don’t, you both need it. I can’t take it.” The tall woman rejected weakly.

Ursula distanced herself slightly to stare into the depths of her mother’s deep blue eyes.

“You’ve been working so hard for so long Mum. Please let Sophia and I help you.” The blacksmith offered plaintively.

A deep voice called out from behind them, “Yes Rosalind, please let us – let me – help you.”

Turning, the trio saw a wolf animan standing proudly at the door, his chainmail glittering in the amber glow of the mid-afternoon sunlight.

“Brun! You’re back.” Rosalind exclaimed weakly, the multitude of emotions from the conversation taking a toll on her body.

Sophia and Ursula gave each other a quick glance to mouth, ‘He left?’

The wolfman regarded the orphanage’s caretaker with a warm smile, “Yes, I was able to get there before they did something drastic.”

Out from behind his legs peeked a small child, his eyes rapidly flitting across the room from the safety of his vantage point.

“Oh, I must look a sight.” Rosalind complained as she tried to clear up her swollen eyes and red complexion. Though unsatisfied with her work she gave the teens in her arms one last squeeze before crouching to the ground and giving the boy the warmest smile she could muster, “Hi Sweetie, what’s your name?”

The child ducked behind Brun’s legs, leaving only a vivid orange iris and a few strands of raven hair out of cover, “…Alvin.” His voice sounded out, quieter than a mouse.

“How about we go make some dinner? I need someone to help me make sure I don’t mess it up and you’re perfect.” Rosalind said soothingly.

The boy stood there for a few seconds toying with the back of Brun’s pants before giving her a shy, shallow nod.

“Here you go champ,” Brun muttered as he lifted the boy onto the table top opposite of Rosalind’s cooking area and sat down next to him a mischievous grin on his face, “I’ll help you out, but I think you will do a better job than me.”

He thought about it for a moment before a small smile grew on his face as he concentrated on watching Rosalind move about in the kitchenette. The woman taking a moment every now and then to give the boy a simple lesson on what she was doing.

Ursula gently pulled on her partner’s sleeve, “Come on Soph, we’d better go.”

“I don’t know how she does it. Kids just warm up to her in seconds.” Sophia commented with some astonishment.

Their newest orphan compatriot had reached out for the woman with open hands, who swiftly ensconced him in her warm arms. Within seconds of her doing so the boy burst into tears, desperately grabbing her shirt and burying his head in the crook of her neck, his great heaving sobs echoing through the room.

Brun sidled up next to them seeing they were about to leave, “Is everything okay?”

Ursula shook head side to side, “Not really. Soph and I are leaving soon and it’s just hard to let go you know?”

“It’ll be a shame to see you both go.” The wolfman commiserated, “But to be blunt, I am here to protect Rosalind and you two presented the greatest risk to her, so in some regard I am glad.”

Sophia sighed deeply wiping away the last few traces of her tears, “We realised, that’s why we’re doing this. We will be attracting a lot of attention – something this place does not need at all. Leaving now is logically the best option, but emotionally…?” She trailed off looking longingly at their mother showering the new kid with praise.

“You both are braver than most. I commend you for it.” The man stated stoically.

Thankful for the praise but unsure of how to accept it, the trio awkwardly sat there until Ursula spoke up.

Ursula gestured to the boy, “Any chance for him to go back?”

“No – manamal attack,” The chainmail adorned man grimaced.

“I’m sure you two will do a great job – as per usual.” Ursula comforted the man. “But that is at least five children in the last year, have attacks been increasing?”

“Definitely,” The man agreed, “But we still need to find out why.”

Ursula shrugged her shoulders, “We didn’t see anything out in the forest and I’m sure Master Axia would have mentioned something about it when we went out a couple weeks back.”

“Thanks for letting me know,” The man grunted in acknowledgement.

As they left, they cast a glance back at Rosalind who was still comforting the poor boy. The tall woman locked eyes with them and gave them a sad smile before returning to her task.

The teens walk back to the smithy was very subdued. They did not bother to cast their snow repelling spells, allowing the small flecks of ice to fall and soak into their clothes, chilling them to their cores. The typical adventurous couples and trios fucking in the snow with liberal warming spells were not even given a glance from the pair.

They sat down next to the blazing forge, steam rising from their hunched forms as the crystals of ice melted under intense heat and restored their blue tinged skin to its former glory.

The sombre silence was eventually broken by Ursula growling, “Fuck this. Even after all this we’re still being held back by those bastards. Let’s finally start to take back what’s rightfully ours!”

She sprang up and ran to get her headmaster, meanwhile her blonde friend continued to stare into the flames like her mentor had only a few hours ago, wishing the flickering flames of yellows, oranges and reds somehow contained the solution to their problems.

Ursula ran back into the room, “Come on Soph – let’s go!”

“I don’t really feel like it.” Sophia sighed.

“I don’t either but sitting around and doing nothing isn’t going to help.” The tall girl replied, matter-of-factly.

“What if I want to just sit here.” Sophia answered petulantly, the beginnings of a pout forming on her plush lips.

Ursula quirked an eyebrow, “And if I say I’ll drag you?”

Sophia smirked as she cast a spell moulding the stone floor up and around to capture her feet, “Good luck.”

The brown-eyed teen sighed and sat down behind her lover, scooting up and then enveloping the girl in a full body hug. She took a moment to reach inside, and their connection snapped into place, both of their iris’ gaining an edge of the others colour.

“Come on Soph. You can feel what I’m feeling.” Ursula pleaded her voice quavering, as two sets of dejected emotions washed over her, “I-It’s hard, but what really matters if you’ve had a fall is how quickly you get back up.”

Sophia leaned back into the embrace and groaned, she could feel hers and her partner’s sadness growing as they fed off one another. With a pulse of mana, she ended the connection.

After a minute or two to enjoy their closeness, the blonde spoke up, “That was so cheesy. Do you have a booklet of those one liners or something?”

“Soph.” Ursula reprimanded lightly, although her face blushed a ripe tomato red.

It was a long couple of seconds before the blonde let out a long drawn out, “Fine.”

Sophia yelped as Ursula grabbed her around the waist and made a beeline for the door, “We’ll meet you at the store Sir!” She shouted behind her.

“Hold on, I just had an idea,” Sophia said, a wicked gleam began to glow in her eyes, “I’d hate for all that work they did in advertising to go to waste. We don’t really have enough time to make the armour and enchantments, so how about they do it all and we get a cut?”

Ursula’s expression quickly matched her lovers with the addition of a mischievous smirk, “You’re right – it would be a travesty. And maybe they’d be so kind as to provide us with some better metals for forging if they’re going to be making so much of our stuff.”

Arne, having just entered the room, shivered all the way to his toes despite the roaring heat of the forge nearby, ‘Maybe I shouldn’t have encouraged them?’, he shook his head, ‘No, they’re young – I cannot fathom a situation which would be too dire.’

The teens spent a few minutes gathering their prototypes, evil gleeful cackles occasionally bubbling out from their mouths, although a well-trained eye could see flashes of sorrow flit across their faces.

Just as they were about to leave Sophia stopped them both, “Maybe this is a little too far.”

Ursula nodded, “I fully agree. But we can apologise afterwards.”

“But I’ll be becoming the very thing I swore to destroy…” Sophia trailed off with melancholic wistfulness.

The tall girl rolled her eyes, “Come on Kenobi, let’s join the dark side. I’ll make you cookies.”

The blonde snorted and after notifying Arne, they sprinted back to Empirio’s Enchanting.

 

<-{|}->

 

Although it was late afternoon, the store was still bustling with customers browsing their enchanted wares.

Sophia sauntered up to the front service desk, her hair now styled in an inverted bob cut that flounced with each exaggerated step. She looked to wear a simple blue button shirt, peach jacket and jeans.

“I would like to speak with your manager,” Sophia stated imperiously, pinning the woman working there with a look of pure contempt with her chocolate ringed emerald-green eyes.  

“I’m sorry Miss but-”

Sophia scowled and cut off her off, “I know my rights and I demand to see your manager.”

“If you could tell me what the problem is Miss, maybe I could help you,” The woman replied with visibly restrained anger and smile full of teeth.

“I want a refund on my pre-order purchase of those stupid recall weapons,” Sophia sniffed.

The woman’s smile faltered, “Miss the sign clearly states no ref-”

“That sign wasn’t there when I was here before.” The blonde said snappishly, “You clearly can’t help me. As I’ve received terrible service here, I am entitled to see your manager.”

“What seems to be the problem here?” A man said as he sidled up to the counter.

Sophia’s eyes narrowed in recognition.

“Are you the manager?” Sophia spat, at his curt nod she continued, “I need a refund for my purchase of that stupid recall armour. My son didn’t know what he was doing when he bought it.”

The female employee narrowed her eyes, “But you said you bought it be-”

“Ellie it’s okay I’ll manage this,” The manager whispered to his co-worker. He gestured to a nearby room, “Please Miss-” He trailed off leadingly.

“Karen,” Sophia replied, the word leaving her lips like a cruel whisper.

“-Karen, I’ll sort you out.” The man shivered.

Sophia fought back a wince as she saw the saleswoman give off a huge sigh of relief. She shot the poor woman a victorious smirk and walked through to the other room, slamming the door open even further than needed to walk through. Seeing two chairs she took the nicer one and started to impatiently tap her foot on the floor.

The man walked into the room and closed the door with an imperceptible sigh. Sitting down he afforded the woman opposite him a weary smile, “Now please describe the problem you have in full.”

Sophia gave him an insincere grin, “My problem is-”, she let her illusion go and her golden hair looked to spontaneously lengthen, “-that you have an awfully bad habit.” Her clothes ruffled in invisible wind as they returned the adventurer’s outfit the teens had received weeks ago.

The managers eyes widened and with a yelp he pushed back causing his chair and him along with it, to tumble to the floor. He scrambled to get up missing Sophia’s brown ringed eyes returning to their former emerald state as Ursula suddenly appeared from invisibility, standing menacingly in front of the closed door, summoning a very well-practiced muffling spell after a second with a click of her fingers.

The severely ruffled man turned and saw Sophia stand to deliver him a vicious grin.

“And that habit is stealing.”

 

<-{|}->

 

There was a moment of silence before the man sneered, “You’re only apprentices. I’ve been to Einar the school for warriors and graduated at the top of my class as a journeyman combatant,” he spat at Ursula’s feet, “Leave now and the worst you’ll get is a smacked bottom.”

Sophia quirked her head, “So you don’t deny trying to steal our enchantment?”

The man smirked and shucked off his loose shirt to reveal vascular bulging muscles, “You’ve no proof and I’d like to see you try to do anything about it.”

Sophia shrugged and nodded to her partner. The man whipped his head back to see the tall girl still standing still. His eyes widened as he began to turn back but suddenly his own body was enveloped in stone, the coffin like structure jabbing pointy stones into the back of his knees and elbows causing them to buckle.

A shark-like grin appeared on Ursula’s face, “Who ever said we were only apprentices in magic?”

Their enemy rolled their eyes and flexed their muscles, hard, shattering the shell and sending pieces of it flying across the room. Seeing the taller teen as the bigger threat he stomped his foot down to gather momentum – only for it to fall through a thin layer of stone, Sophia’s spell having shifted the rock to form his prison.

His hard head slammed into the floor as the rest of his body fell into the hole.

Sophia’s spell once again moved the stone to encase him in a gleaming hardened stone look alike of an iron maiden.

And yet he flexed his muscles once again, the stone points not even penetrating his skin as they were snapped off like twigs.

The buff man smirked and with an insane burst of speed shot from the floor straight at Ursula. The tall elf was only able to summon her shield in time for it to be slammed with his meaty fist, immediately deforming the metal. She let out a gasp as the air was forced from her lungs and she was sent rocketing out through the wall and into the crowd of shocked shoppers.

“My name is Allan, nephew of the noble Adam.” He shouted, gathering the people’s attention “And how dare you assault me in my own shop!”

“No.” The cold anger of a voice from the entrance of the shop silenced any further noise, “You are charged with stealing from my students.”

A gleaming bald head slowly made its way towards them, the crowd giving it a wide berth flowing around him. Eventually the people parted to reveal Headmaster Arne, his eagle eyes narrowed to dangerous slits. He took a moment to prop up Ursula who was desperately trying to fill her lungs, and then stood regally before the crowd.

Gesturing for Sophia he picked up a small device from her clothes when she was near. With a small insertion of magic Allan’s words from a minute ago resounded through the shop. A moment later Arne’s overwhelming mana flooded the room, baring down on the man in front of him.

“And I pronounce you guilty.”