Thanks for some of the advice on my eyes. It's difficult to get into a GP or optician at the moment sadly because of lockdown. We're encouraged to only go in if it's a serious problem, and considering I'm currently caring for my zero immune system mother who has had numerous cancer treatments and also has heart problems, I'm not going in unless my eyes really start to pop out my head. I've ordered some eye drops, however. I have been spending way too long in front of the screen and the air is getting colder and dryer.

Most of that screen time isn't even fanfiction, lol. Since I'm stuck working from home now, I just lose out on the time driving to work, walking around town during lunch or being in and out of meetings with staff. Meetings are done via Zoom, etc, so more screen time. Ugh. I need to take time away, but my other hobby is reading and I'm not sure that's what people mean when they tell me to rest my eyes.

Welp! I need to get some audiobooks!

Cover Art: Z-ComiX

Chapter 63

"Flaming net, entangle my foe!"

The woven net made of molten fire certainly did a good job of entangling the straw dummy. Also of incinerating it in an instant, burning the wooden pole it was attached to down to ash and scorching the mud until it was baked as hard as clay. Ruby's face could have been mistaken for glowing the same colour as Pyrrha chuckled and Weiss didn't even try to hide her grin.

"Better," Pyrrha said, ever the polite one, ever the optimist. "You're making progress, both of you. Ruby has no issue with power and that's a good problem to have if you're going to have any. Perhaps mentioning that you don't want your foe killed will help. Or changing the word entirely. Foe might imply enemy even if you don't mean it to. A subconscious bias."

"Weiss, you have the opposite problem," the Crimson Arcanist continued. "All the control in the world and not enough power. Really, I'm envious of you both. All that power and control."

"Split across two Initiates," Weiss complained. "Power and control are meaningless on their own, unless you think we can take the rite of passage together."

"Mine was a test of individual skill. I doubt the White is much different. Teamwork can be taught, but the individual still needs to be strong enough to make a worthy teammate. Continue practicing. If you can master this – or at least get a grasp of it; mastery of any spell could take years – then I think you'll be in a good position for the rite."

That was good news, but surprising news as well. "That fast?" Ruby asked. "With one spell?"

"It's a versatile spell. It restrains if you want it to, and a miscast can incapacitate just as easily," she said with a pointed nod toward Ruby's dummy. "Fire is the most common element of the Crimson Arcana for a reason. Once you learn to control it so that it doesn't burn, there's little better. Burn enemies, cauterise wounds, remove obstacles and – with enough control – serve as a perfectly manageable rope. If a little flashy. You could just carry rope around with you."

Ruby wished she could share Pyrrha's optimism; it was easy for her to have it since she had a repertoire of spells under her belt from however long she'd spent in the Crimson Arcana. They were far more limited. Or rather, Weiss was, and she should be. That was just as bad since she couldn't pull our Wildmagic in a monitored test.

Luckily, Weiss said it for her. "I'd rather have a few to be safe."

"Then we will practice more," Pyrrha said as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. "That doesn't change the fact you'll need to learn this one first. Anything else I could teach you would only be more complicated." Looking up suddenly, she sighed as a single bell in the distance rolled. "And it seems like this is all the time we have today. I still have duties with the Crimson, and I promised to help train some new recruits. We'll have to continue tomorrow. Keep practicing."

Ruby waited for Pyrrha to leave before turning to Weiss. "Do you think this will be enough?"

"As much as I'd like to say yes, I don't know. Everything I've been taught about Arcanists has told of how difficult it is to become one, and how respected they are. Then again…" Weiss paused, lips sucking together as though she was tasting something unpleasant. "Perhaps that's just what they want us to think."

"The Collegium?"

"No. The noble families. If Arcanists can't hold office, then it stands to reason the families will need some other way of squeezing renown out of this. Extoling the difficulty of becoming an Arcanist might be the solution. The minstrel tells tall tales."

Ruby blinked. "What?"

"It's a saying. Minstrels exaggerate their tales to make them seem more heroic."

"Oh. Right." Not like a minstrel would ever stay in the slums. "I guess that makes sense. I mean, we made it into Initiates in a month or two and half our class wasn't far behind. If becoming an Arcanist was all that hard, there'd be a lot less of them."

"We'd still become the youngest if we achieved it. Or you would."

Overtaking Pyrrha. Ruby only hoped having the help of Pyrrha and Weiss would work to diminish that accomplishment. Merlot had already agreed to claim he'd taught her a few extra spells she might whip out in the rite of passage as well.

"You may have more luck with your lessons with Coco tonight," Weiss said.

"I'll tell you everything she teaches me," Ruby promised.

"It's fine. I'm not upset. It's not as though you went out your way to take lessons behind my back." It took Ruby a few seconds to piece together the fact that wasn't a passive-aggressive comment, and it was only because of Weiss' relaxed expression that she could. "The Adel family is rather well known for its fashion. You're in good hands there. Speaking of, I have a date for the dance."

That was news to her. "You do? Who? Is it Sun?"

"Sun!? Goodness no. I can't be seen with someone of his status, Ruby. You know that. You also know who I'm going with. It's Lie Ren."

Oh. Ruby winced once for Sun, once for Weiss and a third for Nora. "You know he's-"

"Betrothed. Yes. As does everyone else, which makes the arrangement a simple one unlikely to raise any rumours. I've already sent a letter home to my parents explaining it, and Ren assures me he has done the same for his own and his fiancée. No one will think anything of it."

Wasn't an event like this meant to be special? Romantic? Weiss couldn't have made that any less intense if she tried. Which was the point, Ruby supposed. Both her and Ren needed a date to not stand out, and Ren couldn't go with Nora no matter how much the Black Arcanist might wish it. This was probably his way of playing it safe and not hurting anyone's feelings. I wonder if he would have asked me if not for Jaune and Martyn. I could have saved a lot of trouble if I thought of that. Well, and then Weiss wouldn't have had a date. This is fine.

"That's good. You got a dress?"

"I have a dress, yes." Weiss rolled her eyes. "This is hardly my first formal event, Ruby."

It was hers. Come to think of it, she really didn't know much of what would be involved. Dancing, obviously, and probably lots of mingling. Maybe there would be entertainment of a magical sort. It would feel a lost chance for the Collegium to have jugglers and fire twirlers when they could themselves use magic.

Eh. It couldn't be that bad.

/-/

"You're trying too hard to brute force your spells. And do you have to incant everything?"

Ruby huffed and lowered her hands, letting the ball of golden light Coco had her maintaining falter and fade. That, too, took a little mental nudge. If she hadn't, it might have stayed and attacked Coco the moment she started glaring at her. "Pyrrha says I should use incantations if it makes the spell easier."

"Does she now? Typical Crimson Arcanist. Why think of a way past a problem when you can beat it down? Magic is a tool, Ruby. You don't use a sword to cut a sandwich and you don't have to fit the power of the sun into a light source. You'll exhausted yourself like that. You should use no more than is necessary and not an ounce more."

Talk about yourself, she thought indignantly. I can keep that thing burning for hours if I want to. Except that if Coco thought it weird, a White Arcanist surely would. Sighing, she focused on the idea of a golden orb of light again, summoning it up without speaking this time.

"Touch it to the table."

"I don't see the point. It's a light, isn't it?"

"Touch it to the table, Ruby."

Reluctantly, she brought her hands down so that the golden ball brushed against the edge of the wooden table they were sat at. It didn't burn thankfully! Instead, the orb sort of annihilated the wood it touched, leaving a perfectly shaped and smooth curve where it touched. There wasn't even a sound like burning wood. Ruby blushed under Coco's scrutinising gaze.

"Too hot. Much too hot. You didn't even burn that!" The Warden sighed dramatically. "Here I am trying to teach you to form a light source and I've given you a weapon capable of melting its way through stone. Well, you can't say I didn't teach you anything."

"Pyrrha says even a spell done bad can be useful if it serves a purpose. This can be an attack."

"Typica. Crimson. Arcanist. Sheesh, even a spell done wrong? Yeah, sure. Let's not try and fix our mistakes. Let's just use them and claim it's unintended benefit. Nice." Coco summoned her own golden orb and sent it bouncing off Ruby's left cheek. It was as warm as the floor on a hot day and no more. "You're not done until you can control and change the heat. You're going to kill someone with that thing. Think of what heat you want it at. If you need to, think of it in terms that mean something to you. `Hot` is useless because it's too vague, as is `colder`. Think about exactly what you want. The precise heat."

"Should I start from scratch again?"

"No. No. Try and alter it. Being able to change a spell mid-cast is one of the most valuable things you can learn. If you're good enough at it you can turn one spell-" Coco flourished her hand and brought up a wave of water that she sent hurtling toward the far wall, "-into another." With a click of her fingers, the water transformed into air, wafting up and down the brickwork and sending the nearby curtains fluttering about. "A useful technique to have, especially against other people. The element of surprise is everything."

Changing one spell to another sounded a lot harder than changing the temperature of a single spell! Pyrrha hadn't even tried to teach them a different element, so she couldn't imagine how hard it would be to turn the flame net into a water net for instance. Curious, she asked Coco.

"That's a little more advanced than you should be trying. You're trying to conjure element and form with that net – the element is fire, and the form is a net. Think of it like an adjective and a noun. Changing one may sound simple, but the form of one element is different from another. Fire, for instance, is wild and will want to rage out of control, whereas water wants to flow and splash downward. Keeping each of those in a net shape will require completely different motions. Fire and air would be easier because they're closer in terms of elemental properties."

"Elemental properties?"

"Ah. Another advanced topic. Well, beginner to know of it and advanced to utilise it." Coco sighed and leant an arm on the table, resting her chin atop her hand. "I guess the best way to explain it is to say certain elements are more similar or dissimilar than others. Air flows into a container and so does water, so they're similar in that regard. Water is held by gravity, but air is not, so they are dissimilar in that regard. If you want a certain result, particular elements will be better than others. This ball, for instance, is intended as a light source, so while you could try and make it out of water-" Coco emphasised it by doing so, but the orb she made was rolling and tempestuous, and the light it gave off was weak at best, "-water serves poorly both for light and for wanting to stay in the air. I need more concentration for both tasks then I would fire. Understand?"

Ruby nodded. It wasn't so hard when Coco put it like that. She could be a good teacher if she wanted to be. Maybe it was all that research into spell theory. Coco seemed like a much more theoretical version of Pyrrha, which was good in some ways and bad in others. This spell was so much less useful than Pyrrha's fire net, but Coco did a much better job at explaining it and the net.

"Is elemental theory important for your spell creation?"

"Hmhm. Basic starting point if I'm honest. You usually start with a goal. Make fire, fly or heal a wound. After that, you need to think of what elements best fit that purpose. There's about a thousand more steps after that, but that's the heavily condensed version of why elemental theory is important. You can look up the rest when – if – you become an Arcanist."

"Amber Arcana secrets?"

"Pft. As if. More like hundreds of hours of research journals."

Ugh. Never mind then. She didn't have that kind of time. Instead, Ruby focused on the orb, willing it to be warm enough to feel like a mug of hot soup instead of the flaming horror it had been before. Gingerly, she reached out to touch it. Coco snagged her hand back.

"No touch. Not after what your last one did." Rolling her eyes, she picked up a wooden spoon and pushed that toward the ball. To Ruby's delight, the spoon didn't catch fire, warp or burn away. "Hmm. Not bad, girl. Not bad. Temperature is but one factor of a spell, but I chose it for a reason. Fire is hot and that's what we're working with, so going against what your mind tells you is natural for fire requires more control."

"You're saying you made this harder on purpose?"

"Pretty much. Does it feel strange?"

Yes and no. If she had to concentrate like Weiss and everyone else did then she could imagine the act of forcing fire to be lukewarm would be a constant struggle. For her, it was more along the lines of visualising what she wanted. It was different, though. Like the other Arcanists, the word `fire` brought up associated words and terms, hot being one of them. Ruby nodded, thinking of the orb being as cold as snow. It crystallised and frosted the spoon's tip.

"Good imagination. There's a theory in the Amber Arcana that children grasp spells quicker than adults do because they still have that sense of wonder and imagination. As you get older, concepts become more set in stone. Fire is hot. I cannot breathe underwater. Flight is impossible. Those mental blocks hold an Arcanist back, because if you believe for a second that what you're trying to do can't be done, then your mind will constantly be sabotaging you. That's part of what makes incantations so useful, especially standardised ones. You see and hear a teacher using a particular phrase to cast a spell and you convince yourself it's possible if you do the same. Suddenly, it is."

"But it would be been just as possible with a different incantation?" Ruby asked.

"Exactly. It's all up here." Coco tapped Ruby's temple. "You have to fully commit to any spell you cast. Part of the reason you're all taught that controlling every aspect is so important is that it helps you rationalise the art. Magic on its own is a nebulous thing impossible to understand, but if you break down levitating an object into focused currents of wind pushing up from beneath a light object, you can understand that. It makes sense. It's logical. Thus, you feel more confident in casting the spell because you believe you understand how it works, and that confidence yields a greater chance of success. It's a spiral of positive reinforcement from there."

Like pickpocketing. Coco probably wouldn't have appreciated the comparison, but the idea of slipping your hand in someone's pocket and taking something without them noticing was hard to have any faith in. Surely, someone would notice. Surely, they'd grab your hand and maybe even take it! The trick, however, was in being quick and confident. One motion, in and out, and the best way to do that was to just go for it.

The truth was that pickpocketing had very little to do with light fingers and sneakiness. It was more to do with decisive and quick motion, one confident lift that the mark might well note, but not pay attention to. If you dithered and tried to be clever, you'd take too long and be caught.

Just like stealing a coin purse, she thought, looking at the far wall. In and out. No hesitation. A net of fire, without burning, really, the netting was fire, but she wanted it as warm as bathwater. Her magic responded, and Ruby let it out, for once not tyring to stymy or control it.

"Flaming net!"

Coco flinched back as the net hurtled by her and caught on an empty chair to her left, tangling around the wooden and leather seat and burning brightly. That was all it burned, however. No smoke rose from it and the wood remained whole and clean. Ruby pumped her fist in the air.

"Not bad, girl. Not bad at all. You know what this calls for?"

Ruby grinned. "Celebration?"

"No." Coco brought out a measuring tape. "Your side of the bargain."

Two hours of careful measurements, posing and prodding later - along with an assurance that she would be going in blue; the Arc family always wore blue and she would be expected to match their colours – Ruby was allowed to crawl out of Coco's room and slink away, feeling violated in more ways than one. At least she wouldn't have to wear white. After only a short time in the Arcana, she was sick of the colour.

"Come back in two days!" Coco called after her. "I'll have a prototype for you to try on!" Ruby was prepared to run away and never return until she added, "And I'll have a few more spells for you to learn."

Coco Adel sure knew how to get what she wanted.

/-/

Pyrrha was astounded when, by the next morning, they could both cast the flaming net with minimal difficulty. Their chants differed and Weiss' was still a much more elegant net compared to her powerful conflagration, but both wrapped themselves around the straw dummies while leaving them intact. It was honestly that much more impressive from Weiss since she'd had to take all of Coco's lessons second hand through Ruby.

That hadn't slowed her down in the slightest. Weiss dove into tomes borrowed from the academy library, quickly verifying Coco's words at which point it was like a torch had been lit in her head. An epiphany reached. She'd been furious on reaching it, arguing that the academy taught them magic wrong, but she'd ultimately agreed with Coco's thoughts that maybe it wasn't taught incorrectly, but instead generalised for the average person. Not all nobles were as dedicated or imaginative as they.

"That's a lot faster than I expected of you," Pyrrha said. "Amazing. Maybe you two really can pass the rite of passage. Of course, learning to cast a spell in perfect conditions is only one part of it. You'll need to learn how to use it in the heat of battle."

"Surely that's more Crimson than White," Weiss argued.

Both Pyrrha and Ruby shook their heads. They'd all seen the attack on the librarian's manor, and the White Arcana took to the field against Wildmages and Rogues. Grudgingly, Ruby walked out to stand beside Weiss, nervously eyeing Pyrrha Nikos, established and gemstone-carrying Crimson Arcanist. The battle arcana.

"Your goal is to try and incapacitate me. I will be moving about, and I'll also cast one spell against you every ten seconds. Once you can do this, we'll up the difficulty until it's the two of you against me normally. Don't worry about harming me, I can defend myself against fire."

Can you against Wildmagic? Ruby wondered. They'd have to find out since she didn't have an excuse not to do this. I'll have to hold back and make sure I don't use too much power. This would be a good chance to find out what an Arcanist could and couldn't take.

"Do we stop once we have you tied up?" Weiss asked.

"Of course." The smile Pyrrha wore said she thought that prospect highly unlikely and even a little amusing. "I will do the same for you. Remember, one spell every ten seconds. Use your time wisely but don't stand still to cast unless you're sure I'm distracted. The stationary Arcanist invites the arrow that kills them."

Was this the typical Crimson Arcana that Coco spoke of? Watching Pyrrha walk confidently a short distance away and then turn to face them was a surreal experience. Ruby had dealt with crooked guards and muggers before, those that would as soon break your teeth as say hello, and those people would leer and spit, doing whatever they could to intimidate you. A fight won before it had to start was safer for everyone that way, while injuries could prove fatal in the slums.

Pyrrha had a far quieter confidence to her, linking her hands together before her and withdrawing a small, white handkerchief from her robes. "We will begin once this reaches the floor. Do your best, but remember, this is just a training exercise and it is your first time. Don't expect miracles."

She was already assuming they would lose. Heh. Maybe she was used to facing your average noble raised on stories of polite duels and standing around making grand gestures. Ruby doubted the Arcanist had ever faced a street rat before. Her eyes tracked the white cloth as it fluttered down.

The second it touched the floor, she was moving, dashing to the right and shouting for Weiss to take left. Weiss was surprised by the sudden bout of leadership, but followed through, flanking Pyrrha the other way and forcing the Arcanist to split her attention.

Pyrrha kept smiling, lips moving silently as she counted.

"Flaming net!" Ruby cast, throwing her spell out but continuing to move. On Pyrrha's other side, Weiss did the same, but unlike Ruby she stood still after, either lost in concentration or desperate to see what her attack would do.

Twin nets closed in on either side of Pyrrha as she counted to ten, closed her eyes and held both hands out, one toward each. There were no words. No incantation. In a fraction of a second, she used the same spell, but where their nets were human sized, Pyrrha summoned two the size a small ship might use to catch fish, the size of a small house from edge to edge, enveloping and snuffing out their own and expanding ever outward.

Weiss cried out and tried to run to the left, but she'd dallied too long. She was caught in the final quarter of it, borne down and wrapped up as the net seemed to recognise it had someone and coiled around her.

Ruby was already beyond the edge of it and ducked low, sliding to a stop with one hand on the floor, then kicking off toward Pyrrha, counting the seconds in her head. One spell every ten seconds, which meant Pyrrha was open and only able to dodge. There'd be less time for that if she got up in her face.

Pyrrha's eyes widened briefly. That's right! You're not used to people fighting like this! Coming right into her guard, Ruby threw her hand up.

"Flaming net!" The spell was so close that Pyrrha could dodge just by leaning back and letting the net pass by her face and shoulder. It had just been a distraction, though. While Pyrrha was off balance, Ruby slid under her arm and behind, ducked low and yelled, "Flaming ne-" Her hand was slapped aside by Pyrrha's foot, knocking it to the side. "Piss!"

"Language!" Weiss yelled, still trussed up.

"I said I wouldn't cast until ten seconds, Ruby," Pyrrha explained politely. "Not that I wouldn't defend myself." Stepping into her guard, Pyrrha gripped Ruby's arm and flipped her over one shoulder. Ruby sailed through the air, limbs spinning, but she managed to right herself and land on both feet.

The house-sized net bore down on her from every direction.

"Flame net!" Ruby yelled, imagining one just as big and bright.

It came. Ten metres wide and ten tall, it hurled outward and tangled with Pyrrha's, fire meshing with fire and weaving together. The momentum of Pyrrha's net was halted and stopped in the air, but so was her own. The two nets toppled down to the floor, splashing into embers that singed the grass but did not burn it.

A second, smaller net the size of a dog flew through the haze of smoke and tangled around Ruby's legs, yanking them away and sending her plummeting face-first to the ground.

"And that's that," Pyrrha said, cancelling both the net on her and Weiss with a click of her fingers. "That wasn't bad. Weiss, you need to remember that a battle does not stop until one side is defeated. You can't take time to pause and assume your enemy will do the same."

Weiss ducked her head and whispered an apology, more to Ruby than Pyrrha.

"And Ruby, you did well to move, but you shouldn't underestimate an Arcanist you know nothing about." Though she said it harshly, she still wore a smile. "I am of the Crimson Arcana. I know how to defend myself in melee, both with weapons and unarmed."

Damn it. The burning anger she felt was aimed more at herself than Pyrrha. She really had assumed the other girl wouldn't know a thing about proper fighting, and that was because she'd judged her as a noble instead of an Arcanist of several years' experience.

That was stupid. The Crimson and the White – the official Arcanists, anyway – would all be trained in fighting, either to defend themselves or hunt down rogues and criminals. They'd have covered their bases when it came to survival, be that against a Wildmage, an Arcanist or some bandit with a spear. Ruby punched the ground, teeth bared.

"Don't be upset at a lesson learned. You'll not make the same mistake twice. It's one every Initiate in the Crimson makes as well, including me when I started. Moving, adapting and casting at the same time is much harder, especially when your opponent is mobile as well."

"Do you really think we'll face a challenge like this in the rite?" Weiss asked her.

"I think it's possible. Worth investing in at the very least. If you can hit a moving target, you can hit a stationary target, so you're not losing anything here. If you're confident in your control, you can practice on one another. If not, there are training dummies the Guards use that are on tracks and pulled by rope. Have one of you drag it along and the other run along and cast at the same time. The guards are usually open to us using their equipment so long as you don't do it when they're running drills."

Ruby looked to Weiss and nodded. The white-haired girl looked tired already but was too prideful to back down and responded in kind. Maybe it was unfair to push her so hard, but the surges could come any day now, and she had to be able to leave the Collegium.

"How soon do you think we could take the rite?" she asked Pyrrha.

For once, the confident smile wavered. "I… I don't know. Without knowing what exactly is involved, there's no real way to be sure. As soon as you're confident enough you can handle whatever they throw at you."

How can we be sure of that if we don't know what the test is? They couldn't. Simple as. Maybe that was the way it was designed, set up to scare away nobles afraid of damaging their reputation with failure. The more time it took someone to get out, the more time they'd have to get used to the Collegium and not want to leave, and the more time the White had to beat their dogma into everyone's heads. Also the more time people had to form individual loyalties to the Arcana, to the point that even when they received their gemstone, they wanted to remain there or pick up a second Arcana.

Was it all designed to trap, or was she just feeling paranoid because she was trapped? It was impossible to know for sure, but she didn't have a reputation to preserve. If Martyn wanted to mock her, let him.

"Let's try and take it this month."

"So soon?" Weiss asked breathlessly. "But the ball-"

"After the dance, then. But soon. What does it matter if we fail? It's not like they'll throw us out the White. I bet they'll keep the results secret, too. No one has to know if we don't tell them we're taking it."

"I'm confident I can hold my own," Pyrrha said. "It's the two of you I'm concerned about. Even I think it's arrogant to assume we can pass, and I'm an Arcanist. What's the point of an Arcana you can get through so quickly?"

"What's the point of the White at all?" Ruby demanded. "They're barely teaching us anything!"

"The White exists to defend the way of life of all Arcanists," Weiss said obediently. "In this, the White shall not falter."

A plague on that. Quite literally. "Initiates are useless for that, though. They need Arcanists. And like Merlot says, any Arcanist can learn spells. Pyrrha probably could have passed her rite with one spell if she was really good at it."

Pyrrha shrugged noncommittally. Each Arcana was different; Coco's was a prime example of one that couldn't be passed without years of preparation, but that had to be an anomaly. The Azure Arcana was meant to be difficult to get into, yet she'd found her way into the Archives in under a week. Through a loophole and exploiting the arrogance of the Arcanists, sure, but those same things might hold in the White, too.

"I'm going to try." Ruby decided. "You don't have to, and I'll tell you what the test is succeed or fail. I don't have a family reputation to tarnish." She hadn't meant that to sound so harsh, but both Weiss and Pyrrha flinched guiltily. "What's the worst that happens?"

"You fail."

"And…? Does the world end? Am I thrown out the Collegium?"

"Ruby, you dolt." Weiss groaned and stumbled forward, shaking her head. "Fine. No risk, no reward, but if this blows up in our faces then I'm holding you personally responsible. Understand?"

"Heh. Yep. You, Pyrrha?"

"How can I say no and have any hope of holding my pride? I can't let two Initiates show courage where a Crimson Arcanist won't." The redhead chuckled and planted her hands on her hips. "Very well. After the ball, though. I doubt the White would let us take the rite with that to plan for. And we shall practice until then."

Under the shadow of the nearby wall, the deal was struck.

Time to go outside and rest my eyes, whatever that means. Just stare emptily into the distance like I'm going through some personal trauma, I imagine. People walking by wondering what terrible memories I'm trapped within, what dark thoughts haunt this still figure.

Meanwhile, my brain is busy thinking about how to make stupid pairings between anime characters work out.

Next Chapter: 8th November

P a treon . com (slash) Coeur