"Wonderful!" Xhez replied from inside the bag. "What options have you found?"

"Okay, so," Rin said, as she began to give Xhez the run-down on the kinds of spells that existed. "There are a few different schools of spells. One of them, the one we care about, is the Illusion school, and that one changes what people see and stuff. So, maybe there's a spell in these books that could help us out.

"Ohhh. I see!" Xhez replied energetically and Rin giggled a little at that.

[This enthusiasm is honestly so cute,] Rin thought, smiling a little as she opened the first of the books up.

[But...] She stopped when something came to her mind.

"Hey, Xhez."

"Yes?"

"How much, uh, 'spirit' do you have?"

"How much?" Xhez echoed.

"Yeah," Rin replied.

"Uhm... I do not know how to answer that," Xhez replied. "Spirit is not something you count."

"Oh, well yeah, but... Uh, how do I explain...?" Rin looked away, trying to figure this out.

What she had in her mind was that because the guards could see through low-tier spells, the only way this would work was if Xhez could perform higher-tier magic. The separation of these, Rin had learned in class before, was determined by the mage's Essence pool.

Simply put, assigning an imaginary number to Essence, if a spellweaver had an Essence rating of 50, and a spell required an Essence rating of 100, obviously, they wouldn't be able to cast it.

"Wait! I got it, the adventurer's token!" Rin thought, and she walked away from Xhez.

Rin went through the bag she had near the bed, as the sunlight poured in from the windows. She hadn't taken her token with her to the mission because she suspected it would be useless. Knowing how that ended up, she was glad she had left it, otherwise, it would probably be gone right now.

As she went through her bag, she found the same contents that had been there before. The clothes, amulet her mother had given her before she left Dren, the necklace she'd taken from Elisa all those years ago, and, then, she found the token and pulled it out.

"Okay, Xhez. I need you to get out into your actual form."

"On it!" Rin heard her response and then, Xhez jumped out and took her normal size. "Okay, what now?"

"I need you to press your thumb on this spike."

"Oh... That looks rather sharp, though."

"Yeah, that's the point... No pun intended."

Xhez raised a brow.

"You... Want me to hurt my thumb?" Xhez asked, as her hands took a darker tone. [Have they always done that?] Rin asked herself. "Have I done something to anger you?"

At that, Rin waved her hands back and forth.

"No, no, see, when you do that, this device actually measures your spirit. It tells you the kinds of spells you can cast and how often."

"Oh, that sounds quite useful!" She brightened up.

"Yeah, go ahead, try it. It hurts a little, but you can heal it back up."

"A-Alright." Xhez took a deep breath and Rin passed her the token. The sprite eyed the coin-like item curiously before doing as Rin directed. "Ahh..." She hissed. "That is... Are you sure this works?"

"Yeah, keep your thumb there."

"Ugh, human technology seems sadistic." She replied but kept her thumb there. Instead of blood, it seemed like strange, viscous water was sliding down from her thumb and dripping onto the floor. The pair waited, and then Xhez's Essence appeared.

It swirled in the air and collapsed into the token, then they spun until finally, the blue tendrils turned black.

[Wait, that's considered really good, right?]

Rin looked over at Xhez with genuine wonder.

"Wow, that was interesting," Xhez said. "Can I remove my thumb now?"

"Uh, yeah," Rin nodded and Xhez quickly did so, creating the [Heal] spellsign in the air and repairing her thumb. [She's gotten pretty natural at that.]

"So, yeah, you'd probably be a damn good mage."

"Mage?" Xhez asked.

"As in, um, you're good at manipulating spirit."

"Oh! I see, thank you." Xhez replied.

"Well, okay, let's see if we can find an Illusion spell that can work for us here."

She quickly skipped multiple chapters and went to the middle of the book. The search for a better illusion spell was not without fruit. After ten minutes or so, Rin spotted something that could potentially work. The only question was, would it be a high-enough level for trained eyes to not be able to see through?

"This should do fine... Maybe," Rin mumbled.

"Oh, what do you mean?" Xhez got a little bit closer.

"So, basically, it's a spell that changes something's color. Maybe you could use it to change your skin color? And, maybe other parts of your body too?"

"Would that be enough of a solution?"

"Maybe. We should try it just to see what you look like."

[It also depends on whether they'll be able to see through it or not.] Rin thought but didn't say. [We won't know unless we try, though.]

"You want to see if you can do it or not?"

"Sure, how do I go about this?" Xhez asked, barely containing her excitement.

"Okay, see that spellsign?"

She pointed at the intricate drawing on the page. It was something like an eye covered in thorns. Even though she could see it, she pictured herself drawing this in the air and instantly knew she wouldn't be cut out for the life of a mage, even if she had the Essence for it.

"Draw that in the air with your spirit. Like you do with [Fireball] and [Heal]. Can you?"

"I think so, let me look at it for a while," Xhez responded.

[Right,] Rin thought. [She'd said her memory was really good. How good though?]

"Hm... Okay. Well, let me attempt it." Xhez held up a hand and pushed her Essence into it. Then, she began drawing the spellsign but halfway through, a small explosion happened in front of her, and Xhez was pushed back.

"Ahh!" Xhez said as she fell on top of Rin. "Ow..."

"Crap," Rin muttered as she grabbed onto her.

"T-Thank you... It appears I made a minor mistake."

"No worries, are you okay?" Rin asked.

"Y-Yes. Now that I know this happens, it caught me a little less off-guard. I will try again, of course." Xhez nodded.

All in all, they were like that for another half hour. They realized, after a while, that the more complex the image, the more precise the spellsign needed to be. And thus, something as simple as Xhez's hand twitching while she was drawing it could result in the spell failing.

[So, even if she can memorize a high-level spell quickly, she'd still need to practice for a long while before she could actually use them consistently.] Rin thought. [Well, she can just start with this one then. I wonder what else she could learn though.]

However, after roughly forty minutes, Xhez was able to cast it.

"O-Oh! W-What do I do?" Xhez asked as her hand glowed. Panicked, Rin looked down at the book.

"Uh, uh, picture a skin color and place your hand on your chest!"

"W-What skin color?"

"Just use mine then! U-Uh, try to change your hair color to mine too, if you can do that! Eyes, lips, everything!" Rin said quickly, and Xhez nodded, putting her hand on her body.

Xhez looked back at Rin, and the two kept their eyes connected as the spell activated.

And with that, the room was enveloped in a bright, white, light as Xhez touched her chest with the Essence-infused hand. Rin shielded her eyes, almost blinded until it felt like the source of the light was gone. Then, she looked back at Xhez and gasped.

Gone was the water sprite, and instead what appeared in front of her was a very regular-looking young girl, with eyes that were just slightly more blue than normal, black hair, slightly pointed ears, brows that were slightly faded, and her fingers looked like she had no nails.

"Did it work?"

"I-I think so!" Rin announced. "If, uh, someone stared at you for a while they'd definitely notice the big differences, but, yeah, we might be able to take you into the city now!"

At that, Xhez's bright blue eyes lit up.

"AH!" She nearly tackled Rin with a hug, one that Rin returned as she shared the excitement, and the two grinned at each other.

And, Rin's hands touched Xhez's hair. The sprite let out a moan and Rin quickly lifted her hands off of her.

"S-Sorry," she laughed awkwardly. "Your hair is still wet. We'll just go like this, though. Honestly... If you put some clothes on, maybe they'll think you just got out of a shower or something."

"So... I can go? W-With you, I mean... Outside." Xhez's eyes were hopeful as they looked up at Rin.

The human was proud to nod.

"Only one way to see if this works. Come on, let's try it!"

---

{Cara}

In her office, Cara finished up the report she had to write on Rin's successful rescue. She hadn't expected to find her out there, but thankfully she had and, this paperwork was but a small nuisance to get out of the way as a result.

Before she could completely finish up though, there was a knock at her door.

"It's open, come in," Cara said loudly and the door opened.

She looked up and found Sye strutting over to the chair in front of her desk.

"... Still haven't gone back to Cradle?" Cara asked quietly as she focused on the report.

"Straight to the point, eh?" Sye asked, as she crossed her legs and smiled at Cara. "Even after we spent so much intimate time together?"

"What do you want?" Cara asked, not having any of this. She was just a tad too tied for it.

"Very well, very well. It actually does pertain to your question, actually. I wanted to know where Rin was staying."

"..." At that, Cara fully lifted her head and laid her eyes on Sye. "What?"

"Yes, I wanted to interview her," Sye replied. "The Mages Guild wants to know how she feels regarding everything that happened to her. We want to use it as a lesson to others, to let them know their actions have consequences, in the very likely case that one of our own was involved in her disappearance."

Cara was stunned.

"If you were involved in Rin's disappearance, why the hell would I ever tell you where she went?"

"A fair question, of course, but, considering the fact that I never attacked you in your sleep throughout the multiple weeks we spent together, wouldn't you say that I, at least, am clear of suspicion?"

"No."

"Ah. Tragic," Sye replied. "I suppose I'll just ask Mannon then. A pleasure speaking with you, as always," Sye bowed to her and Cara rolled her eyes.

As she was about to walk out of the room, she stopped and turned toward Cara.

"Oh, by the way, I will be staying in Libera for a while, I almost forgot to mention that. The Guild wants me to investigate the nearby kobolds, to see how many of them know the [Teleportation] spell. If..." She winked, "you wish to speak to me, just pay me a visit at my hotel. Head over there anyway, if you don't wish to speak to me. I can think of a few ways we could enjoy each other's company."

"..."

Cara just blinked.

Sye walked out, and Cara felt like she'd aged ten years in the span of this one conversation.

It did plant one thing in her mind though.

[Hm... By the Divine, when was the last time I had sex though?]

And, as soon as she realized the answer to that, she wished she hadn't thought about it.

"... Fuck." She muttered as the specific time played back in her mind, and a certain woman with cinnamon hair and a thin frame, naked, laying a soft bed under her, flashed in front of her mind's eye. "Well... Asking myself that was a fucking mistake."