Yuki opened the status landing page and cast a glance at the bunny and the crystal goblet it held. The liquid inside sloshed languidly, it had three-quarters remaining. In the past hour, she had tested three spells: [Protective Ward], [Spell Resistance], and [Neutralize Magic].

The first two she combined in a single casting with shaping. There wasn’t much to say about both spells. A quick dip into [Wrack] told Yuki what she already knew. Inside the area created by the protective ward, wrack didn’t work. If she left the area, she could activate the spell, but not inside. If Yuki wanted to cast magic there, she needed to invest more magnitude while casting the spell.

After that test, she cast [Neutralize Magic] and had to decide whether she wanted to cancel her magic or not.

Yuki turned her attention to [Dominate]. She was on the fence about this one. She remembered back at character creation another spell in the list, [Enslave]. At the time, she decided that a straight dominate person from D&D was better than whatever bullshit this world cooked up with enslave. She hated those novels where enslaving others was the main theme. With those stories, she always wanted the MC to go murder hobo and kill every single one of the slavers. She hoped this world wasn’t one of those.

[Dominate] spell duration was tied to how much shaping she modified. That was a relief, no permanent domination here, no temptation to become what she despised. Yuki reaffirmed her convictions on this matter: dominate was a last resort, at least against sapient creatures. Monsters were fair game, as far as she was concerned.

Propped on her hind legs, paws waving in circular movements, Yuki chanted the mystic words of the spell. As usual, she took her time, working the magic in small increments. Like she always felt, the magic was incomplete, and now she understood how. She had two choices. The first one was to specialize the magic, narrow down its scope, and assign a common denominator: Dominate Humans, dominate canines, dominate avians. With this version, the spell was harder to resist, and she wouldn’t need material components.

The second version was a generic version of the spell, but it was easier to resist, given the lack of focus. She would also need a piece of the creature species she wanted to dominate. A strand of hair, a feather, a claw. The choice was no choice at all. Yuki selected the generic version. Specializing could help, depending on the setting, but she preferred the weaker and broader version.

The spell shifted in her mind. Some parts of the arcane formulae changed, others got removed, and others were added. The spell name also changed. It now was [Dominate Creature]. Once the knowledge settled in her mind, the casting failed. Yuki had no material component or a target. She sighed, doubt gnawing her inwards. She shrugged, the bed was made, and now she needed to lay on it. She stretched and drank a bit of water. One last spell to test.

Again, Yuki performed the movements and chanting necessary for [Shapechange]. Again, she was prompted with choices: Specialize or make the magic generic? In for a penny, in for a pound, as some said. Yuki picked the generic version. The spell name remained the same, and like dominate, now she needed a material component to cast it. The generic version also demanded more from the sorcerer to bypass the difference in size between the original and the desired form. The greater the difference, bigger or smaller, the higher the [Invocation] requirement.

Dang, that was a shame, no bunny-to-dragon transformation then. Yuki didn’t even want to think how far away she was from casting such a transformation. Satisfied, Yuki laid down next to the carrot. She deserved a treat after all that hard work.

Jenny walked the corridors that led to the Lord’s office. She stopped by the door and took one last look at her uniform. She patted the skirt, pushed the strand of hair out of her face, and put on her best smile. She knocked. “You sent in for me, my Lord?”

“Please, come in.” Said the voice inside the room.

Jenny took a deep breath, fixed her smile again, then opened the door. The room was the same as always. The big wooden desk with parchments and books pilled on it. The sparse decoration, and the big window. She glanced at the lord, then at the other person in the room, the lord’s son.

Baron Baldwin of Thornfield looked up from his papers. The baron's son turned in his chair to face the door. The Baron looked at Jenny with fondness, a father’s smile breaking on his face. The son leered at her, his gaze roaming her entire body.

Baldwin picked up a sealed scroll from the table and offered it to Jenny. “Here, this is for you.”

Jenny’s heart sped up, she looked at the envelope, and her hands trembled. She approached the table and took the offered envelope. The boy leaned toward her, his gaze intent.

“Gregory just arrived from the capital for the festival.” Said the baron.

Jenny took a deep breath and reigned in her emotions, now was not the time. She turned to the boy and curtsied. “Thank you, young master Gregory.”

Gregory raised his chin, with a smirk on his face. He nodded, then turned back to his father. The boy tried to appear nonchalant, but Jenny saw how he kept glancing at her from the corner of his eyes. She turned back to the father, “Is there anything else, my Lord?”

The man opened one of the drawers and took a set of papers. “I need you to deliver these orders to the guild. The harvest is almost over, and they need to prepare the caravan.”

Jenny took the papers and curtsied again. She turned to leave, but the baron stopped her. “When you’re done, you don’t need to worry about work for the rest of the day and tomorrow. You’ve been working hard, go and enjoy the festival.”

Jenny turned to the baron and curtsied.

The boy leered at her, “I’ll seek you out later Jenny. It’s been a while, and we should catch up.”

“It would be my pleasure, young master,” Jenny said with yet another curtsy. Then she fled the room and all but ran out of the manor. First, she had to settle the guild order, after that, she could take her time to read the letter. It had been so long and finally Gizelda sent another letter! That was worth all the hassle of enduring Gregory’s unwanted advances would be.

FatElf

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