The trio sat down, Velle and Alicia opposite the Cardinal at the desk in a relatively small and non-descript office. Velle had to hand it to him, he certainly walked the walk when it came to religious asceticism. Alicia seemed drawn between being angry and being confused. She was the first to ask for answers when they all sat down. “So, you knew this whole time you were half goddess Velle?!”

                Velle did a see-saw hand gesture. “I’m not technically entirely a god, I’m something new. The theory I wanted to confirm was that both original souls that made me are still identifiable.” She said.

                “So what else can you do? Other than apparently still make witches.” Alicia pointed her question.

                Velle looked towards the ceiling. “I should still be able to call my familiars and summon greater spirits, though the latter will be far less willing to obey me- in the sense I’ll have to convince them now to help me once I summon them.” She shrugged, the rest was just magic.

                Alicia sighed. “So, you weren’t sure what your powers actually were once you returned from magic prison got it. Now what?”

                The Cardinal raised his hand slightly to ask to speak and when no one objected he did so. “I have only a limited period to submit requisitions for gear, items, and potentially helpers to join your team. So I would prefer to get that done before we talk about what kind of training you will do.” He said to both of them.

                Alicia nodded. “I just need some clothes, I guess probably armor would be good. Things I’d need depending on where we’re expected to go around the world. I can’t think of anything else.”

                Velle was evidently more ready for the question. “I want two swords, one for each of us. We’ll probably need at least three support staff, two of whom should be mages adept in defensive magic. An artefact expert that can help me if it becomes necessary in storing and transporting anything we find.” She continued adding textbooks on various physical sciences among her gear, and her final request was for Will to join them.

                The Cardinal raised an eyebrow. “Why do you need that?” He said with curiosity.

                Velle leaned back in her chair. “He has a geas of honesty on me, if he were to somehow find a way to contact me while working here- I could not lie to him about this work. He’s a potential security breach, even if he doesn’t join the team, he needs to be aware of its secret nature.” She said with a hint of annoyance.

                The Cardinal nodded and handed off the list he had written out to an attendant he summoned with a button. After that he asked what they would need to do for training. Velle explained to both Alicia and the Cardinal how a witch was to train. Magic for a witch required two elements: knowing what things are and gathering mana through training. Any physical or mental training requiring focus and bodily control would enhance physical and mental strength but would also help them to learn to connect to the mana flows in the world and air around them. Once mana was gathered, to shape it one had to understand the fundamentals of what they wanted their magic to do. To levitate an object required knowing what gravity was, and how much force was needed to defeat it. If you were unaware of the second, you could either fail to lift or launch the object miles into the air by accident.

                An education in the natural sciences was required to use advanced magic, because while magic could violate the laws of physics, to do so requires immense amounts of energy more than obeying them. A teleport spell uses more mana than simply launching something, for example. The cardinal nodded. Runes and circles were better at breaking physical laws because they were able to create a space where the rules preventing it did not exist. The sole exception was time, time was powerful enough on its own to be nearly unbreakable. Therefore, Alicia’s training would be divided into physical and mental training to hone her body and mind, followed by learning in the sciences, at least on a basic level at first. Using magic within the laws of magic could also teach her how things worked, by observing what magic was easier than others to accomplish the same goal.

                When they were done, the Cardinal told them they could rest here, and they would be sent to the actual base they would be using in the future tomorrow. When they arrived at the makeshift dormitory Alicia sat down on her bed and started to tremble. “What, what did we do? How did this happen?” She seemed on the verge of tears.

                Velle sat next to her and held her hand. “I’m sorry, if I had waited to do more research about myself, I could have avoided this for you. I should have realized that people around me would get dragged into something like this if I stayed around them.” She tried her best to convey her apologetic tone.

                Alicia made a small noise like crying. “It’s- I know you were just trying to keep me safe but it’s unfair. Just feels weird to have something so simple turn my life entirely upside down. I mean, I have a place guaranteed now, and work, and people who will be around which is better than I had ever had before- but it feels like such a wild and strange way to get there. I don’t even know if I’m sad, just overwhelmed.”

Velle moved her hand to Alicia’s shoulder. “If you lay back, I can help you sleep, it’ll get better if you rest. I promise.” She said quietly.

Alicia nodded and wrapped herself loosely in the blanket and put her head on the pillow. Velle used an extremely mild sleeping spell to help her ease off into sleep. She then went back and arranged her bed for herself. She sat on the bed and called for her first and strongest familiar, a high raven named Carneval. He appeared promptly. “After so many ages, it is so good to see and hear you again, my lady.” His tone was soft and deferential.

Velle smiled sadly. “And the same to you, Carneval. I wish it were under better circumstances, but I want to get the word out about what’s going on. I sense trouble coming and I want the spirits and magical intelligent beings to be aware that my return may be heralding even greater changes we should all be ready for.”