“Your spots are really pretty,” Sammy said from the mouth of Ozra’s body, voice a bit garbled from the oddity of only having limited control of her jaw in order to speak.

Azure-in-Sorceress’s-Body looked back down at herself, displaying part of a bare arm. “Ah, yes, they are nice… She — Medrei Eth — is apparently some sort of nearly-extinct sea race- uh, anyway. Let me un-spell you or something, that can’t be comfortable-”

“Hold on! Let’s… consider this scenario.” She wrinkled a sweaty, suddenly itchy nose. “What was Medrei Eth planning here? Do you know? Considering that it’s you and me, I’d assume this ended up more beneficial than it initially seemed.”

“Right… she was going to spare you, I think. Take you as a prisoner for m- her own amusement.”

Sammy stared at her.

“What?!” She held her hands up palm-out. “It’s not innately sexual!”

“Innately?”

“Yes, innately! I mean, one thing obviously led to another and love happened later on, right?! Eventually.” Azure/Medrei Eth cleared her throat. “She’s very fascinated with Ozra and was watching her the entire time through some sort of psionic spellcraft.”

“Psionics! Wow. That explains it. Do you think you’ll get- you know what, let’s not worry about it right now. Moving on… is there some clue what Medrei Eth would do in the immediate future? Because we should mimic it to some degree… to get through this shit.”

“Well, she was going to hear you plead for your life…”

“I know that! Let’s skip to after.”

Medrei Eth crossed her arms with a mischievous glint in her eyes. “What’s that, little morsel? You’re not doing a good job at groveling. Try harder or I’ll be forced to crush you.”

Sammy tried to glower at the sorceress despite the limitations (such as goggles), but the target only stared back coolly.

Sighing, Sammy summoned her best, terrified goblin girl voice and cried, “Oh please, Mistress, spare me pathetic life, I’ll kiss your rear as you walk and scrub the floors spotless, me promise Mistress! Oh pleeeeease don’t turn me into anything… unnatural. I’ll be your slaaaave!”

The mouth of the spotted blue beauty twitched slightly as she seemed to deliberate on the matter with squinted eyes. Finally, she sighed and shrugged. “I suppose I could find a use for you around here somewhere. You are rather cute, honestly. But you’ll have to forget about your old life. Perhaps…”

The sorceress’s eyes seemed to change and it felt like Azure was no longer behind them. “Perhaps… in time… you could even become an apprentice here with that magnificent brain and ingenuity of yours. You’d be the first gremlin to ever do so. Generous, am I not?”

Ozra opened her mouth to answer… and then the world began to go shadowy and black… her eyes were drawn to the pages of the spellbook which continued to stay lit up. Pages flipped through rapidly, and on each were spells and advanced runic constructs. Her goggles analyzed and fed the info, and her mind drank it up to decode and re-code…

Flashes of imagery and experience sped by showing the life of a young, brilliant Ozra ‘trapped’ in the dark sorceress’s tower — first as a servant helper and part-time apprentice having to ‘prove’ loyalty and desire to pay restitution for her ‘crimes.’ As a Gal’emai See, usually just called a gremlin, Ozra was looked down upon and mocked by the other (younger) apprentices, of which there were dozens.

All the while, she learned far more than she let on, learned far faster than any before her… driven with an insatiable curiosity and drive to know, to understand, to unravel the puzzle, and unlock more power. How could the others take their sweet time learning at a snail’s pace? The control of reality was at their fingertips!

They were so lucky in their education and hadn’t a clue what it was like to dig yourself out of the trash and muck scrounging for every little bit of information and advantage. They were the destined crafters of the future and squandered their prodigious intellect with complacency. Meanwhile, she savored everything she could get her hands on.

What she’d been taught to destroy and counter, she was coming to understand. Understand and love as another reflection of technological progress. Another tool of physical mastery. Why specialize only when one magnified the other?

Flash! Runic forms flooded Sammy’s mind as Ozra’s spell learning fast-forwarded, yet the product extracted was not muted. Chopped-up, exposed, disassembled threads awaited reassembly — like live wires whipping around chaotically looking for their circuit. The mass threatened to overwhelm and fry her with the intensity as she scrambled to fit the pieces together.

Forcebolt… Alarm… Notes of Slumber… Platform-! Feather Fall! Ah… shit-shit-shit! She couldn’t keep up as her psyche was overloaded painfully, and a panic came upon her-

No! Here, anywhere — I’m the Goddess of Fate.

It was a task the same as any other she faced, and the Hall simulated her abilities. So she forced success with [Alter Fate] — an enforcement of will, a channeling and invocation of her status and divinity.

Within that mental space, within the trial presented to her, a thousand hands unfurled from her and grabbed those livewires in an iron grip. Click-click-click-click — in one great storm of momentary orchestral harmony she put it all together. Spell after spell after spell knotted into a complete, clean form. Too many.

Every Core spell. Every fucking Core spell-

Flash!

One day, when asked by Medrei Eth to honestly show her progress before the snickering mass, Ozra couldn’t handle the derision any longer, nor Headmistress Medrei’s disappointment. She spun out a complex dispel, countering and nullifying the very geas that held her there. It was pure satisfaction to see their shocked faces — all besides Medrei, who simply smirked and told her, ‘Well done.’

Ozra became a full-time student-apprentice and soon rose through the ranks to become more and more the favorite of the bunch. The others, now rivals in truth, tried to hinder and sabotage her at first… until they learned how much more seasoned and experienced she was at exactly that.

Within a year, she had no rivals challenging her and was the Principal Apprentice, the highest and next to become a sorceress in full. She became an enchanter of great success and allowed to sell for profit. Finally, she could send coin to her clan (clandestinely)… and the amount made her sick with regret for what she’d have been paid for destroying something priceless. A fraction. An exploitation.

‘Never again. To think, what we sold such items we stole for, we’d get in the tens of multiples here! Those despicable tyrants. I’ll free my people and extract them from that oppressive land. I will oppose them with something greater than two incomplete machines always clashing together crudely. I will merge them into a colossus!’

Flash!

Ozra faced her greatest test of apprenticeship. It was either the end of it or another grueling year. All apprentices failed their first attempt. Some for decades, and they could even fall out from the Principal position to others deemed to have more potential. She aimed to be the first to never fail the test. There was no time to lose! Greater access, her own avenues of research — it was so near she could taste it!

‘I cannot fail here! I have to catch up to her, after all. It’s a long road as it is to call myself her equal. To be worthy of her admiration. Even… love…’ She had to banish such thoughts with discipline, though. They were distracting.

She and another figure faced one another across a wide Circle of Challenge, in a small colosseum of sorts watched by hundreds, including all the apprentices of the tower.

The face scowling at her from across the enchanted stone floor was none other than that of Medrei Eth, layered with protection spells. However, it was not her, but a customized doppelganger made expressly to duel the apprentice. The real Headmistress was watching from the front row, ready to be entertained.

‘So she will be. Like never before!’

The rules were simple: utilizing only custom spells, she had to destroy the doppelganger before it disabled her, usually with tangible wounds dealt by then. Many sorceresses-to-be had acquired scars from their lack of readiness for the occasion — a point of fear that especially made them take it seriously.

The sixty-second countdown began, spheres of light in the shape of an eye floating high above, ever turning from white to red one by one.

As soon as the seconds began ticking, Sammy found herself in control of the body of the gremlin once more.

The crackle of the Director's voice spawned in her head again. “Note that for this challenge, you do not have access to your normal abilities. You must rely on what is available to you within the simulation of the avatar. This is the normal dynamic, only breakable in certain circumstances. You must determine those moments yourself in future open scenarios.

“However, this is absolutely not one of them. Succeed or fail as Ozra to complete Challenge Room 1. This concludes all instruction.”

Oh shit! Fuck-fuck-fuck, now what?!

She wracked her brain for what she had access to… but there wasn’t anything concrete… she did sense something like helper runes waiting for her, of varying levels. There were five 1st level spells, only three 2nd level options, and merely one 3rd level.

Creativity. She had to fill in the gaps, just as before.

“Uh- Headmistress!” ‘Ozra’ called out awkwardly, glancing over. “Are you… there?” It was meant to ping Azure. Perhaps she could extract insights…

The crowd tittered and murmured, some looking puzzled. Headmistress Medrei Eth herself raised an eyebrow. “Why are you talking, Principal Student? Foolishness. Do you think this a jester's game, then?” There seemed to be no ‘Azure’ in any of it.

Oh no… did she fail something?! But she’s here… fuck-fuck-fuck, I don’t have time! I have to believe it’s just not letting her have control. In her mind, maybe it sped through this passively. Our lives are not really ‘together’ yet. Her risks were probably elsewhere.

Sammy/Ozra just shook her head and turned back to her opponent with firm determination, lowering her goggles over her eyes — it was the only gadget she’d been allowed. This is where she shines: information. She tuned them carefully to analyze the protections and enchantments, skimming for bonuses primarily as she had no time to absorb everything.

Vanguard’s Shielding, 2 wound negations, 2 Magic Armor, 3 Physical Armor… also giving her first spell cast a +1 bonus to any contests. Spell Shield, absorbing the first hostile spell of any kind level 3 or lower affecting her. Hyper Aura, while spellcasting, making her complete actions every 4 seconds instead of 5?! A Thousand Sharp Threads… all spell attack wounds negated are converted to Minor Wounds?! What a bunch of bullshit!

The last two were like item enchantments on her person, and definitely not things she could steal as spells. Spell Shield… was level 3… costly, but she could use level 2 for good attacks… no. She needed to invalidate her Spell Shield, needed every advantage she could squeeze out…

She had an idea. One that even Ozra might smile about. Would that be a bonus? Who knew… but maybe believing that was its own advantage in that faux reality.

Be Ozra… be the character… learn from who she is… that’s how to win.

With her attack method forming in her mind, she also had to decide on defense and had precious little time to even cast them. She went All In on raw defense and Armor, avoiding wound negation reliance in order to make A Thousand Sharp Threads useless…

Interestingly, it triggered a true echo of an incredibly ancient memory: Ozra had known about that effect, too! She’d done the same thing for real, preparing herself with protections leveraging the sacrifice of wound negations.

Grinning at the synergy, Sammy as Orza cast her two spells in the last moments before the fight started, one after the other, carving runes in the air and chanting.

Plates of shining bronze cobbled together around her in layers, as Ablative Bronze Spelltanker was cast, giving her +4 Magic Armor and +4 Physical, which would ablate down -1 per damaging attack to +2/+3 at worst, but also ignored any additional decrease while ablating, which most armor would against spell damage anyway.

Her second protection cast, forming a glowing, neon disk in the shape of a spinning eye, the size of a shield and intended to float around in front toward such a purpose. Gasps resounded through the crowd. Mysterious Wedjat Ward, which provided typical layering shield benefits, but also had a special, sacrificial benefit hidden from detection.

Just before the final light went red, Orza called, “It’s on like Donkey Kong, bitch!” — to the bewilderment of the crowd.