Tabitha was getting used to riding Sylphid, a Rhyme Dragon and her familiar. That was when she saw him.

At the top of the Academy was the man she had seen before – Louise Valliere's familiar. She didn't know why he was up there, but he was a curious enough phenomenon in itself and merited observation. As far as she knew, there had never been a familiar that was a commoner before. The summoning spell only produced familiars that suited its summoner, so what did that say about this man and Louise?

Not to mention the man's fighting ability. At first she had thought that the familiar was an assassin, judging from the soft steps he took, but later on Tabitha realized that that wasn't because of consciously trying to remain silent – it was from absolute control of every muscle in his lower body. A kick from them might even shatter stone walls. Those legs must be ripped, chiseled to perfection.

...That came out a little wrong.

In any case, it was with these thoughts that Tabitha kept an eye out at him with an air lens spell while she practiced dragon-riding. She did not expect the man to wave at her, however, since she thought she was too far for that. That was some monstrous eyesight. Perhaps the man was some kind of magical creature after all. Hesitantly, she brought her mount around and raised her staff to wave back.

Then the man spat blood from his mouth, and he collapsed – straight over the roof of the academy, plummeting eight stories.

"Dive."

Sylphid didn't need telling twice. Wind roared into her ears as Tabitha hung on for dear life, approaching the falling man with respectable speed (please be enough, please be enough) but heading toward the unforgiving ground all the more faster. Gritting her teeth, she brought ahead her staff, pointed at the man, and forced out the words to an invocation.

Levitation was cast in the nick of time; in fact, it had been so close that the man's momentum was enough to still hit the ground and bounce off high into the air, though at least without seeming to harm him. Tabitha pulled herself out of the dive as she caught him at the apex of his bounce. She didn't stop, urging Sylphid to ascend higher as her eyes scanned the vicinity.

Had an assassin snuck up on them? Tabitha didn't know, and it worried her. It either meant an attacker so skilled he had passed by her unnoticed...or an attacker whose attack could reach the man from even beyond her elevated line of sight. She didn't know which was worse.

Then the man groaned, signalling he was still alive. "Fine?" Tabitha asked him tersely, giving him a quick scan...but then realized something. She thought he had coughed up blood, but the patterns of red on him suggested otherwise. Had it come from his nose instead?

It was then that the man weakly moaned, "Blue...polka...dots..."

Tabitha frowned. Blue Polka Dots? She didn't know anyone with a runic name by that title. Actually, blue polka dots didn't ring any bell at all, except –

...

Tabitha very carefully tucked down the flap of her skirt that had been raised by her earlier turn.

Then she dropped the man right where he was, ten mels from the ground, and wheeled around to leave.

She had enough training for one day.