“Ouch!” Aurora exclaimed as she landed on the back of her head, the wavering rectangle behind her instantly crumbling apart. “Oh, hello!” Aurora said, turning to face the girl in front of her; she looked like a kitsune, just without the ears and tails. The girl stood next to the summoning circle in a fancy hallway, the walls adorned with paintings and marble statues. 

Aurora felt her soul and essence, her entire spirit mumbling how she was hungry, and she should grip this girl by the neck and drain her dry of her essence. She could even see the girl’s essence overlapping her, like a silhouette made from ice. However, Aurora just pinched her hand and chuckled nervously. The compulsions were nothing compared to when she saw that basilisk, or even the penguin. If the basilisk was an all you can eat buffet in front of her when she was starving, the penguin was a juicy steak one might order for dinner, and this girl was like a quarter of a chip after she finished a meal; while she could eat it, it wouldn’t be very satisfying at all.

“Hello, esteemed guest.” The girl said in the accepted universal tongue, giving a brief curtsey. Her long white hair was illuminated by the chandeliers overhead. “I have summoned you to humbly request that you train me in the art of using my sword and frost affinity; in return, I offer this treasure to attune your body to frost, so that the exalted mistress may advance to D-grade.” As she said that, the girl opened a gold, velvet-lined box, a flower made of ice inside. Mist condensed in the air around it before she snapped the box closed. 

With the energies Aurora’s body was made of rapidly eroding the ritual circle as she lay on it, she shakily stood up as the invisible barrier keeping her within the circle crumbled to pieces. “Hold on, give me a moment to adjust.” Aurora said, holding up a hand, and partially covering her eyes with the other. Shaking her head, Aurora was slowly readjusting to the plethora of shapes and colors she was seeing after spending months in an empty, pitch black space. A slight grin spread across her face at how simply she had dismissed the hunger she felt towards the girl; even the flower the girl showed her made her more hungry than the girl did herself, although not by that much.

“I will then do so, miss.” The girl said, making another curtsy as she took a seat on a chair positioned behind one of the closest statues, her legs crossed.

“Ummm, I didn’t really think far enough about what to do after I actually hijacked a teleportation thing, I guess this one was a lower grade summoning by… whatever race this girl is. I mean, I guess finding somewhere to start leveling, now that I have both my affinities would probably be ideal? I should still be able to kill some low level monsters easily. At least, it shouldn’t hurt.” After rubbing her eyes and blinking rapidly for another minute, Aurora resumed holding up a hand to cover the upper portion of her sight. “Sorry about that,” she said, still a little shaky on her feet, which were ever so slowly sinking into the floor. “So, you wanted me to help train your swordsmanship and magic, right?”

“Yes ma’am, that is correct.” the girl said, standing up from her chair and moving closer to the circle again.  “I–”

“Why?” Aurora asked as she reached for the hilt of her sword to hold, before hesitating and grabbing the tip of one of her tails instead, rubbing its surface that, despite being made of energy now, was still soft and fluffy.

“Well, I would be delighted to inform you that I awakened my frost affinity, my only affinity, a little over two years ago on the fourteenth day of my birth. At first, I was hailed as the brightest star for the future of our house Lockwell; they hired tutors from various regions in our empire, and gave me this gift I humbly offer you to carry me through the earlier ranks. And then my younger brother awakened his last affinity.” The girl said, a little bit of the smile below her ice-colored eyes fading as she clenched her fist.

“My brother just so happened to awaken three affinities when he was young. His first was an ink affinity, and then he awakened a lightning affinity. Of course, my house didn’t care too much, after all, he was destined to have the majority of his mana reserves be devoted to affinities less useful for combat. At least, that's what they thought until he gained his final affinity, storm. Then, while I wasn’t forgotten, everyone was so focused on the prospect of a potential siege mage being born into the family that they took most of the resources allocated to me, and gave them to my brother instead. After I reached level 24, I… I regretfully proclaimed to most of the family that I would reach level 25 in the following couple days, and when I did… I found that my best class option was a measly uncommon class.”

“So, you want me to help train you so you can get better class options?” Aurora asked, using her other hand not occupied with a tail to scratch the top of her head. “Why couldn’t you hire a new tutor, or just go out into the wilderness to hunt things? Your world still has monsters to hunt, right?”

“Well, upon learning of my failure, my brother convinced the heads of our family to use it as an excuse; an excuse to give my brother more of the household's funding. They publicly declared me a disgrace, proclaiming me a person who, despite having the entire household behind them, wasn’t even able to get a rare class. Because of that, nobody who might have spared me a second glance was willing to associate themselves with the creation of such a disgrace, much less help train me and risk making more enemies, and without even gaining a thing.”

Aurora winced, shifting her feet out of the small holes that had formed in the stone. “Why not venture into the wilds in search of opportunities alone? I’m sure there has to be at least some dungeons there.” 

The girl sheepishly looked away from Aurora, scratching her white hair. “Well, uh, I lack faith in my abilities to deal with any monster higher level than one that just reached E-rank, not to mention,” she said, her voice lowering to a whisper, “I purchased an information missive on the whereabouts of an early E-grade dungeon, but it only takes people in pairs. And, well, I don’t have someone else to go into the dungeon with. That’s why I summoned your esteemed self, ma’am.”

“So, what’s your name? Mine’s Aurora.”

“I am Skadi, Miss Aurora.” Skadi said, giving another bow.

“So, Skadi.” Aurora said, walking around in a circle within the black lines inside the ritual circle, a little bit more ink dissolving with each step. “While I unfortunately do not possess a frost affinity–” she said, the smile on Skadi’s face rapidly dimming, “–I am, however, very well versed in swordplay for my rank, and have been trained by two A-ranks for pretty much my entire life.” Skadi’s grin quickly rematerialized. “I also know a decent bit about affinities in general, so while I can’t offer as much as someone who also has a frost affinity might, I can still help you with your magic. Anything else you need to know?”

“Yes, Lady Aurora.” Skadi responded while mid-bow, holding the velvet box in her hands. “Would this payment still be sufficient for your esteemed self, or must we come to another agreement?”

“Hmm, I really just want to be able to level and get my class now, and she also wants to go places where I can level… but she would probably find it suspicious if that’s all that I wanted… so if I take the flower, I guess, um, I guess I could see what happens if I eat it?” Aurora thought, scratching her left ear with her hand not occupied by a tail, noticing that most of the ink composing the ritual had faded from her walking around on it. “Yes, I could make due with that flower as payment; we can go straight to the dungeon for your training.” 

“Ah, about that…” Skadi mumbled, twisting her fingers. “The dungeon I mentioned is, um, it’s in the middle of nowhere in the low-leveled forest next to this city, and it will, uh, it’ll probably take us at least three weeks to get there, as there aren't any roads leading closer to it.”

“Oh that’s fine, I’m not rushed for time. How, uh, how credible is that information you've purchased, exactly?”

“Gratitude, Lady Aurora. I bought the location of the dungeon from the Evergazing Stars, the second most trusted information dealers in our empire. They have a very, very good reputation, so I wouldn’t be concerned about the validity of the information.” Skadi said, lifting her dress to make another curtsy. 

“So, um, a contract?” Aurora asked, Skadi still remaining completely unaware that the entire innermost circle had long since failed.

“Of course, Lady Aurora.” She responded, channeling mana into the outer ritual circle on the floor. Slowly, a glimmering, golden piece of parchment began materializing in Aurora’s face, bobbing up and down. When it had fully sprung into existence, Aurora could see that the main details of the contract were the agreement they discussed, how after receiving the ice flower, Aurora would train Skadi in swordsmanship, help train her in using her affinity as well, including taking her through the dungeon, for two months total. Then it went further on about how she would be released from the summoning circle upon signing, she could go back through the ritual if she didn’t want to sign, if Skadi had any malicious intentions towards her the contract bond would immediately expire, and she would be free to return home, and so forth.

After reading over it, Aurora tried to agree to the contract, she really did. Skadi seemed nice enough, Aurora didn’t have any malicious intentions towards her, and the usage of the dungeon she mentioned would benefit both of them greatly. And this contract was about as standard as they get, it had none of the hidden clauses her parents had warned her to look out for. But as her finger made contact with the contract, it flashed brightly and then vanished, along with all the ink remaining on the floor. No contract stamp appeared on the back of her hand.

“So, Lady Aurora, here is your payment, as promised.” Skadi said, bowing and holding out the gold-plated box, which contained the flower. “If I may ask, did you desire to exchange it for something else? We have quite a few stores in this city that might be able to do that for you.”

“Actually, I was planning on trying something out with it. You wouldn’t happen to have a side room I could use, would you?” Aurora said as she removed her hand from her tail, gingerly lifting the box from Skadi’s hands, making sure to shift it around occasionally along with her feet so that no more obvious indentations would be visible in either surface.

“An experiment! Of course, of course, that is something benefiting one of Lady Aurora’s stature. While I did not rent another room, I will take my leave until you have concluded whatever you have resolved to do.” And with that statement, Skadi grabbed the chair she sat on previously, and slowly walked to the end of the hallway, closing the door behind her.

“Whew!” Aurora said, flopping down on the floor. “She was so formal… hopefully she didn’t notice how uneasy I was while talking.” Opening the velvet-lined box, Aurora watched as the air began to condense around the flower again. She then unsheathed her sword. “Now, let’s see what we have here…”