The weather was starting to get warm, yea, I'm skipping a lot of time, yea, I'm skipping a lot of time, but there was nothing to record. Weeks went by without anything of note, no new developments, no new spell, no appearances from other demons. Astrid and I became very close, and I really started developing feelings for that eccentric girl. I didn't have the courage to ask her out, little things got in the way like she's older, I've never been in a relationship before, and that whole little I'm trans, and the whole stigma about dating a trans person thing. So I kept it all bottled up.

At least once a week we'd be at each other's houses, the days we didn't we spent were often talking on the phone or texting each other. We found out little things about each other like how she's addicted to apple juice but only when it's in box form, I had my mom keep a stash of those in the house for when she comes over. And she found out that I can see clearly in very low lighting.

We would go to the bomb range about once every other week. We started having full-on sparring matches. Developing fighting styles, and preparing ourselves for the next fight. Much to Luna's disappointment, I won the majority of them, mainly because Astrid refuses to come up with strategies, but it was starting to even out as Luna learned my strategies and figured out how to counter them, without much help from her partner who had yet to take this whole thing seriously.


Then something happened something big happened.

One Saturday I was sitting at home when watching TV when it happened, or the first part of a very important series of events: the twins got a new spell. They got it while reading a book about a mindreader, they became very strong readers very quickly, at the time the book glowed, so I opened it and, low and behold, of course, the book chose the page, but on that page was a new spell. I knew this spell was different. The new page in the book said this:
The Third Spell:
Koroze rin
It just had one spell, not one for each and one for both, just one spell.

Astrid was out of town for the weekend, but I wanted to know what the spell did and was very impatient about it, so I had my mom drive the twins and I down to the range without Astrid and Luna.

Once there I shouted the incantation and at first, I thought nothing happened. Then I quickly noticed that thoughts weren't quite right. they weren't all my own. they belonged to the twins. with our thoughts joined we figured out that this was the spell, and would be a great way to quickly strategize. Being me I found the need to perform tests so we could use this new spell to its full potential the first thing I checked if I could use other spells while this one is active, the answer: no. then I tested to see if I can bring other people into the meld. I got my mom to agree to help with that one, and we could include her. Over the next few days, I did more experiments as I came up with more ideas.

With practice, we found ways of quieting our thoughts, so the opponent wouldn't know what the spell does, while we learn their strategy. We also found ways to increase the volume of our thoughts to intimate and or freak out the opposing fighters.

Astrid got back Monday morning so she missed our before school talk, lucky it was a gym day so I shoved my bag into my locker, and waited outside the girls' locker room for the other bookkeeper to emerge.

"I got a new spell," I announced as soon as I saw her. She got so excited wanting to know what it was, which I refused to answer, I wanted her to wait and see in a sparring match. Of course, she pestered me like crazy begging to know what it does, but I held my ground, I could be stubborn that way.

But let me tell you that that sparring match would be one we would all remember.