Waking up, Louise yawned and stretched, before getting her day clothes to change into. While normally a noble would generally have their familiars dress them, Louise didn't particularly mind given what she got in return on thinking further about it though.

'Really', Louise Thought as she finished pinning her black cloak to her uniform with a golden pendant, "If anyone was told 'Your familiar can be a legendary dragon, but you have to dress yourself each day,' they would accept that price in a heartbeat."

Walking down from her dorm to the main food hall, Louise noticed a number of looks passed her way, especially by the freshmen for some reason. Even as she sat down and started with her breakfast, the looks still continued, as well as the occasionally overheard whispers, most of which were along the lines of "I can't believe she summoned that. Normally Louise would pay these whispers no mind, but while the other Sophomores had the expected tone of non-belief, the freshmen had a tone of, awe? Louise wasn't sure, she could recognize the tone, but it was never directed at her, most certainly not. Yet as far as she could tell, that had to be it, the freshmen were somewhat looking up to her, I mean they also used that tone when talking about other sophomores familiars, but she hadn't expected it towards herself so it was an entirely new experience to her.

A new experience Louise didn't mind in fact, given how she smiled when she realized this. As she was partway through her breakfast, Kirche had sat down near to her, and Tabitha between them.

"Good morning Louise," Kirche said,

Louise, still in a pleasant mood and not willing to be the first to make this unpleasant said uncertainly, "Good morning, I suppose, Kirche von Zerbst, and you too Tabitha."

Tabitha simply nodded in acknowledgment and started eating, pulling out a book she had on her,

"'Scaled Creatures, Common Dos and Don'ts'," Louise noticed, "That actually sounds quite useful, where did you find it?"

"Library," Tabitha said.

"Now that I think about it, we all have scaled familiars, don't we?," Kirche said, to which a pair of agreements was raised,

"Does it has any advice on Fire Salamanders?" Kirche continued, "I still haven't tried asking the servants to bathe Flame yet since I don't want to risk his tail fire going out without knowing what that will happen. It's not a problem yet but it might become one after a while."

Tabitha said, "Don't know, haven't read."

Louise, imagining a dirt-covered Malygos, said, "Could I read that too?" as she leaned towards the one person in the academy shorter than herself,

Kirche leaned in towards Tabitha as well and asked, "The same for me?"

Tabitha simply nodded and kept eating, holding the book so the others could see it as well while reading. They all ate in relative silence, occasionally speaking up early on when Tabitha had turned the page too soon, but they eventually fell into a rhythm of sorts.

A touch later in the morning, Professor Colbert would be passing through the dining hall, both to get to his classroom to prepare his lesson for the day and, as many of the freshmen and a few sophomores were grateful for, to remind the students still there that classes were going to begin soon. He generally had that sort of attitude of putting those extra steps in for his students, and also managed to keep up with the goings on of the students gossip and such, which both explained why he was consistently the favorite teacher of most students at the school, as well as one of the most respected, even with his odd experiments here and there.

So imagine his surprise when going through the hall, he spotted Louise, Kirche, and Tabitha - all of which he had only once or twice ever tell them to get going to class, two of which had been rivals and as opposite as fire and water since the first weeks of their freshmen years, and the third known for being extensively reclusive - seemingly having gotten caught up in reading partway through and discussing the same book. Honestly, seeing Tabitha socialize, at least compared to her normal state of affairs, and Louise and Kirche talk together, nearly shocked him more than Malygos' first appearance.

Walking by, Colbert Said, "You might want to be off soon, unless I'm mistaken you all have Chevreuse, and she's starting her lesson in about ten minutes."

At this Kirche said, "Thank you, Mr. Colbert, We'll be going now."

Louise said, "Yes, thank you, Mr. Colbert," the ever so slightest sign of embarrassment on her face having let the time pass her by.

Tabitha nodded and placed a small piece of blank parchment as a bookmark into the book before putting it away, although Colbert caught a glimpse of the title of the book. As they went their separate ways Colbert smiled and thought, "Something as simple as a similarity between familiars had managed to bring those three together, at least for a time. It's almost funny how life can work like that sometimes."

Today's lesson with Chevreuse was focused on a new part of Earth Magic, transmutation. She had already demonstrated it by turning a small rock into brass, shaping it into the shape of the pendants used to pin cloaks was just to slightly show off how she was a triangle class Earth Mage.

Chevreuse had laid out a number of various sized rocks and pebbles from a bag and asked, "Would anyone like to try their hand at it?"

She had gotten no response, so she snapped her fingers, drawing the room's attention,

"I don't know what's so interesting outside that window, nor will I look, right now I am teaching!" She said, oblivious to Malygos' eye looking in through the window.

Guiche had volunteered and managed to transmute a pebble about the size of a large toe into brass.

"Good work, as expected of an Earth Mage and a Gramont." Chevreuse said, "Would anyone else care to try? De La Valliere, why don't you come up here?"

Louise had stood up and walked forward, and while there was no shouting about her success rate, there were a large number of nervous glances, and Guiche looked ready to flip the desk he shared with Montmorency for protection any second. She had taken the time to say the chant that was outlined on the board to help beginners focus themselves, earning an approving nod from Chevreuse, and moved her wand to transmute the small pebble in front of her into brass.

From outside, Malygos' eyes widened slightly as he saw the rock crack and fly apart, and in that moment-

There was no explosion.

The entirety of the class, barring Chevreuse who was out of the loop as teachers went, seemed surprised, even Louise wasn't entirely certain what happened.

Later, after Chevreuse's class was over and Louise was having her Lunch in Vestri Court, Kirche had sat near to her again.

"Well Louise, You must be on some kind of streak, given how you actually controlled your failure this time," Kirche said teasingly.

Louise, still feeling odd from earlier said, "No, this felt different from when I normally try to cast spells."

Kirche said, "Different? Well, keep doing that then, it would save the school on replacing damages."

Louise said, "No, in a way I had no control over. You know how after expending your willpower, you'll still feel the attempt at casting had happened even if it didn't work, as well as the loss of Willpower?"

Kirche nodded, "Yes, I felt that when my family was still trying to find my affinity and had me casting water spells."

Louise said, "Well, I felt the loss of willpower, but I didn't get the feeling that I had cast anything, even unsuccessfully, afterward. I only felt like I was using magic for the smallest split second, faster than blinking."

Kirche said, confused as well, "But we all saw the pebble break and fly off, do you mean to say that wasn't you?"

"No, that was the split second I felt like I was casting, but aside from that, It was like my magic had never cast anything," Louise said, shuddering at the end.

Kirche was silent as she imagined it and also shuddered, before suddenly hugging Louise, just as much for herself as Louise. Louise had pried herself free but hadn't bothered to chastise Kirche. The reason for this was that to a Noble, a Mage, the idea of being entirely unable to use magic, not even being able to feel the attempt, was terrifying to think of. It was the topic of a number of horror stories, a few of which inspired by the somewhat common nightmare among nobles of trying to cast some spell over and over but being entirely unable to feel the attempt, as though they were just waving a stick. Kirche herself had that nightmare once when she was young, and when she told her parents they too had had that same nightmare when they were young.

Overall, it wasn't a very foreign idea or even unimaginable, but to have it actually happen must be a terrible experience which could easily explain why Louise had been 'zoning out' since that point in class, even having to ask Tabitha for her notes to copy at a few points. Kirche had wanted to say something reassuring, but there was nothing for the situation. Kirche did wonder, "Could it be that in summoning that dragon, Malygos I believe, she expended herself that much?"

After Louise had finished eating, she still had time before her next class, so she walked off the school grounds and called for Malygos with the Familiar link. Malygos soon flew in from the forest and asked, "Yes, Summoner Louise?"

Louise said, "What were you doing looking into my class like that?!"

"Oh, I couldn't help myself, even If I couldn't hear what was happening in there," Malygos said.

"You're lucky Chevreuse didn't notice, now don't bother me during my classes, actually, don't look in on any of the classes unless I say so, got it!" Louise said, a touch more mirthful.

"Alright then, Mistress Louise," Malygos said before flying back off into the forest, leaving the pinkette annoyed at how her own familiar seemed to get the last laugh.

Later during their next class in the tower of fire with Mr. Colbert, she had seemed to somewhat recover, taking notes and even trying to add rough illustrations of the spells Mr. Colbert was demonstrating for the class, although it was generally difficult to draw a moving fire.

As the lesson was beginning to draw towards a close Mr. Colbert had said, "Alright, the main lesson is over so you can all start to put your materials away, I hope none of you are too disappointed your first lesson after the day of the void was all on theory. While you're still here however, I need some brief assistance."

He pulled away a covering that had been hiding a large thing that looked like a block of iron, with wheels on its sides and cylinders poking out from its top.

He continued, "I simply need one of you to cast some kind of fire spell into this since I'm low on willpower after demonstrating all day, Lousie, how about you help me, come up."

Louise walked up and after being told where to cast the fire spell, into an area within the thing containing an amount of some liquid that smelled bad, was given a large and thick long-sleeved and extremely long tabard of leather going down to her legs to put on over her uniform, as well as a helmet of iron with a gridded visor and extension of chain mail to protect her face and neck with, the chain mail to be tucked under the tabard, and finally a pair of thick leather gloves to tuck the sleeves into. Mr. Colbert put on a similar suit as well, and after making sure the front few rows were cleared told Louise, "Cast in three, two, one, cast!"

Louise tried to cast a fireball into the space Colbert had indicated before, and as she expended her willpower-

BOOM!

A large explosion hit the spot, causing the things cylinders to move quite fast for a second, as well as the wheels on the side. That happened as the explosion also managed to break the table, sending splinters of wood for a distance, none further than the first row and none managing to even get stuck in the outfits Colbert had put together. The most prominent factor aside from the explosion, which was dampened either by distance or suit, was the bad smell that seemed to spread throughout the room and how Louise had been knocked over by the force of said explosion.

Colbert said as he helped Louise up, who seemed surprisingly relieved from behind the helmet, "That was all, everyone is excused for dinner!"

He added specifically towards Louise as the class was leaving, "Before you leave, help me open the windows so we can get that smell out of here, then hand me back that safety uniform I gave you."

Louise did so and after she handed him back the 'Safety Uniform', Colbert asked, "Before you go, Louise, was there something bothering you during class? I thought I saw something was off."

Louise pondered on whether to tell Colbert for a second, as in a literal second, and decided to explain what had happened. Colbert shuddered and said, "Oh my, that would affect anybody. If that's the case, if you'd want I can lend you my own notes on the lesson plan for today, just this once of course."

Louise shook her head, "No, I couldn't! Thank you very much, Mr. Colbert! And, um.."

"Yes Louise?"

"Did you delay me to ask without the class nearby on purpose, Mr. Colbert?" Louise asked.

Mr. Colbert smiled and said, "If you hurry you might be able to catch up with your class on their way to the dining hall Louise,"

Louise smiled and said, "Thank you again, Mr. Colbert," before running off.

Glad to be back again, at least for writing this chapter. As usual, I genuinely love reading your reviews of this, no matter how short or long, and I typically keep them open in another tab while writing, so they do help in that regard too. That and more reviews will probably help me be seen just slightly earlier by the people who sort by review. Regardless, it makes me very happy to know that some people like this enough to Follow this, or favorite this (Nearly 100 of you!). With that on my mind, am I really that alright at writing? So far, what do you think of how I write? The Story in general so far? Just tell me anything, I'm glad to hear.