Night had fallen, the Sun had been replaced by the Twin Moons and the bright blue sky had turn dark. Louise and Bug trudged their way back to her dorm, the Mage running a hand through her hair grimacing as it felt more damp than she'd like. She looked at her Familiar, who besides a couple of droplets on its cloak, was completely dry.
'Pays to be a Water Spirit I guess," she noted in her head, ruffling her hair just a bit more.
The rest of the day after her trip to the principal's office was more than a little relaxing. She'd gone to Lunch with Bug, continued with classes after that making sure to take notes, went for Dinner and then headed for the Bath.
As they climbed the tower to her room, she thought about what she would do. Tomorrow was the Day of the Void, she'd have most of the day off, meaning she'd be able to put her words into actions.
Training her spells. How would she do that? Just blast away at all of the Spells that she knew? Try to find a book with all known Water Spells just so she could use her affinity to get the hang of it?
Everything she's casted so far had resulted in explosions, even with her focusing on Water Spells.
Maybe she could find some that were for explosions?
"Back from a bath Louise?" A voice called from three doors down, knocking her out of her thoughts. Kirche stepped out of her room, wearing an outfit so inappropriate that she'd cover Bug's eyes if it wasn't a Familiar.
"Zerbst" Louise growled. Just as she was able to enter her room to.
The red head looked at her nails "How was the water?" She glanced up from them "Bet it felt nice didn't it?"
Taken aback, she could only nod "Yeah, it was a nice bath."
"Wanna know why it felt so good," she didn't allowed her to reply, instead Kirche smirked and continued "It's because of a Fire mage can enchant the bath so that it stays nice and worm, while a Water mage can keep the water pure and fresh. A marvel of magic, isn't it?"
"I," Louise's eyebrows furrowed as she turned towards the Germanian "I know how the bath house works, you don't have to explain it me."
"Do you now?" She sounded surprise, placing a hand over her mouth "Well it's just with how little you can use magic, I thought you'd be clueless about it as well."
Louise gritted her teeth "Is that all?" She asked, pointing at her "Did you really leave your room, looking like a skank so you can mock me?"
"Of course, I mean after all," she lowered her hand and grinned "It'll probably be too soon when you have to leave the academy Louise, especially with how you hurt the professor today." A hand went to her chest "Did you hear? he almost broke a rib from your mistake. Truly something that can only be done by a Zero."
"Not soon enough unfortunately for you," she shot back "Principal Osmond was willing to forgive me for what happened today."
"They're letting you off the hook again?!" Kirche pushed away from her door, stomping her feet "Why?"
Louise shrugged "Who knows," she opened her door. She jerked her head inside, allowing Bug to enter and as she was about to step inside as well she looked her in the eye "Maybe if you actually studied and be a good student instead of just sleeping around, you'd get the same treatment."
She slammed the door close before she could get a reply.
Her hand shook as she held onto the handle, her head pressing against the wooden door "Stupid Germanian," she muttered under her breath.
She moved away from the door, she caught sight of Bug sitting on its haystack and writing away at its map. She turned away from it and took a seat on her desk.
Wordless she took out a piece of paper, the quill that Bug had given her, and began to write.
She wrote down every spell she could think of, starting with the most basic Water Spell to the even ones that were the opposite of her affinity.
Her writing was cut short when she noticed Bug approach her. She turned to it.
It was looking at her drawer that had the extra pieces of paper, before it turned to her and pointed its hand at it. She glanced at the map in its other hand.
The ground floor of academy had almost been fully mapped, from the courtyard to the stairs, to even the dining hall that it had entered just this morning. But it was still only the ground floor.
She pulled a couple of them, more than enough to cover the floors of the academy, and handed it to it. It took it, and when it waited for another moment she sighed.
Turning towards it she told it "Go out tonight if you want," her attention returned to her own project.
Bug tilted its head for a moment, before it turned around. It exited her room without another word.
[Scene]
Longueville took a deep breath, enjoying the cool fresh night air. Working for Osmond was more than a little annoying, what with his lecherous attitude and that stupid mouse of his.
But what can she do, she had a job that needed to be done and if she had to withstand some old man trying to relive his youth, then so be it.
She supposed that with the Day of Void tomorrow she could head out for town, with the day off she didn't think anyone would notice if she-
Her thoughts were cut short when she noticed a small commotion. From the female students' dorm, a small figure suddenly leapt through the glass window of the female's dorm. It was a black being with white eyes, before it shifted in mid-air into a smaller pale creature that emitted a soft glow.
Despite the height, it landed on the ground without any issues and kept moving.
From her position she could see something smack into the glass, before it retreated away. The small orange glow told her it was something that either made of fire or wanted to torch the other creature.
The pale being stopped, it turned around for a moment to look at its pursuer before it turned away and continued walking forward.
Her eyes widened when she saw it take out a map. A smile appeared on her lips.
With a burst of magic, Longuevile kicked off from the wall she was standing on, jumping high into the sky. With another swish of her wand she slowed her descent until she could land infront of the Familiar.
Once more she coughed into her hand, prompting it to stop and look up from its map.
"Hello again," she gave it a small wave "Do you remember me from today? I was the one that you ran into while you were heading upstairs to the Principal's Office."
It stared at her silently.
"Well in any case," she coughed into her hand again, ignoring the silence "I never introduced myself, my name's is Longueville. I'm the Principal's secretary." She waved her hand towards its "What's your name?"
It looked at the map in its hands, before it reached for the inside of its cloak. Pulling out a quill, it wrote something on the margins and then presented it to her.
"Oh," she squinted to see the weird symbols that it just wrote "That's your name." She said. Then she looked at the rest of the paper and asked "Oh, I see you're still exploring the school?"
It nodded its head.
"Does your Master know that you're out here?" She asked.
It pointed behind it, where it had just leapt through the window without breaking it.
"I'll take that as a yes," she glanced at where it was pointing. "In any case," she turned her attention back to the Familiar "I see that you're still making that map of yours, may I ask what the purpose of it is?"
It pointed forward and above, past her head. She turned and followed the stump of the hand. She turned back to it with a raised eyebrow "You want to reach the top spire?"
It nodded its head.
"I see," she could work with this! "Well," she leaned forward and whispered with a smile "Personally, I still get lost in this place. So many floors and twisting paths that I can't even keep my bearings." She looked away from it "And that's not even getting to the areas that are locked away from me." She straightened up and shook her head "Some of the rooms I can't even enter, and I'm a staff member. So I can only imagine the places that you can't get to, I fear that maps of yours is doomed to be forever incomplete."
It looked at her for a moment. It pointed at the spire again.
"Sadly yes, even that's out of my reach" she gave a sad nod.
It lowered the hand that was pointing to the top spire and brought up the map, staring at it.
"Oh don't feel so down," she reached forward and gave it a small pat "I could always use a map of the area to get around as best I can," she smiled "And for tonight I can give you a tour of the academy with as much access that I can give you." She pointed at the piece of paper in its hands "At least then it'll be more complete and you can get to the top spire with some other way."
It looked up, and then nodded.
"Excellent!" She clapped her hands together "Oh, and after your done for today may I have that map?"
It tilted its head.
"I'm not going to take it," she pulled out her wand and gave it a little swish "I just need it to be duplicated, that way you have your map and then I'll have mine." She tucked her wand back to its spot "So what do you say, shall we?"
It looked at her and nodded.
She smiled.
[Scene]
Bug followed the woman into the main tower, the two big doors had blocked it from entering on its first day here. It only managed to get in through the back entrance that lead to the kitchen, where it had acquired its temporary weapon.
As they entered, the first room, the Dining Hall that it had managed to enter just today, was brightly lit with a colour that wasn't there last time.
The woman, Longueville, grunted as she covered her eyes "These are new," she said in a low voice "Did Colbert just put these up?"
Moving away from her, Bug leapt on one of the tables. Using it as a platform it made a second, higher, jump. Once it was in the air, it shifted its body and propelled itself forward.
Its form stretched over the distance until it finally landed on its destination.
On top of one of the light sources. It looked down at the glass orb that was held in place by the wall, within it was a small winged creature that was the source of the bright glow. It was the size of a cherry; its glow hid any features other than the two wings that carried it aloft.
It flew around in the orb, before it finally noticed it standing onto of its place of holding. It flew to the top, and seemed to stare at it.
Bug returned its stare.
Their stare down was cut short by two things.
"Hey, get down from there," one was Longueville coming over, calling it down.
The next was the sound of glass cracking. It looked at its feet, and saw that the orb was breaking. Before Bug could move, it shattered under its weight.
The fly fluttered out of it broken prison, while Bug plummeted down to the floor.
Before it could hit the ground, a force grabbed it by its cloak. It hung above the ground, swinging slightly from the momentum of the fall.
Longueville sighed, before she pointed the wand to the ground letting it touch the ground. "Why did you do that?" She asked.
Bug pointed to the flying creature, it responded to its gesture by fluttering down and gently rested on its stump of a hand. It looked at the creature for a moment, before it used its other hand to point at it.
"The Lumafly?" She approached the bright creature "It's something that one of the professors here is interested in." frowning as the Lumafly flew from its hand and circled around it "Somehow being large insects that produce more light than a torch is enough to get his attention."
She pointed at the glass shards on the floor, with a swish of her wand they all floated from the ground and reformed the orb above them. "Apparently, a village somewhere has been handing them out and Colbert's been excited to get them to be installed in the academy." She left a hole as she muttered something that made all the glass reform back into the orb.
Turning to the Lumafly flying around Bug, Longueville jerked her head towards the orb "Get back in there." She told it.
It didn't respond, prompting a sigh "I'm not sure why Colbert wanted insects as a light source, if they escape it's one big hassle." She pointed her wand at the Lumafly, it froze in place. She moved her wand to the orb, stuffing the creature back in the orb.
Her wand flicked to the remaining glass shard and quickly closed the hole before it could escape.
The bright creature flew into the newly closed hole once, before it simply resumed flying around in its orb.
"There," she turned her head towards Bug "Now, let's continue and this time don't" she pointed a wand at it "Break any more of these lanterns."
Bug looked away from her wand, and watched the many lanterns that held the Lumaflies. It turned back to her and nodded.
She sighed and walked.
They both climbed the stairs, stepping off one of the floors so that they can in front of a door it couldn't enter last time.
"This is the library," she twisted the knob, paused and then stepped inside.
Bug followed after her, and surveyed the area. It was a big room, not as big as the Dining Hall, and had large book shelves that stretched the length of the room.
And like the Dining Hall, it appeared that there were Lumafly lanterns here as well.
"Tch, here to?" Longueville muttered, looking around at the lanterns.
It jumped to one of the book shelves and hit it mask first. When it landed on the ground it glanced at its hand for a moment. It hopped on top a table, and then jumped on top of the book shelve.
Its head turned left and right, getting the area correct. It moved, walking on top of the book shelves. It crossed the length of the room, and then turned to cross the gap between the book shelves.
It shifted its form, and dashed over the gaps. It continued to move, eyes looking at each row to see anything. Below, Longueville seemed to be staring at the ceiling above her, a hand under her chin.
It finally reached the wall and stopped, it walked along it until it stepped off the top. It turned its head when it noticed another door at the wall.
"Oh, that's the teachers section of the library." Longueville caught up, she swished her wand and the sound of a lock coming undone was heard "It's usually restricted from students, so your Master couldn't have gotten in here on her own."
They entered. It was smaller than the room outside, and instead had a single Lumafly lantern hanging from the top of the ceiling.
There was nothing really to see, besides a few more scattered books. Loungeville was still looking at the ceiling.
It jumped ontop of the table, knocking over the few books that had been stacked there. It hopped onto one of the book shelves, and looked around in the small room.
Again, there was nothing much. So it hopped down, and picked up one of the books.
"Creatures and Beast of Halkeginia, abridged"
It flipped through the pages. It saw various creatures like the ones that had waiting with it in the courtyard, and some that wasn't. Nothing else got its attention. It dropped the book, and looked at another one.
"The Legends of the Void"
This was a bigger book, one that it couldn't pick up. Instead it simply turned the pages. The opening spoke of a mage that could use the Void, empowering four others with abilities that made them stronger because of it. It spoke of the user being a saviour to humans, and that they brought salvation. That it brought Light to Humans.
It tilted its head, that's odd.
Why would something that used the Void bring their Ancient Enemy to others.
Eventually it found that there was nothing to be found in the book that could be of use to either it or its master, and moved to leave. Longueville was already waiting at the door.
She closed the door, swished her wand to lock it, and they left the library.
They travelled around the academy for a while. Each time she'd note that the lights had been changed for the Lumaflies, for some odd reason.
When it tried to reach for the vault and had pointed at it while they were heading to the office where its Master had been sent to, Longueville had shook her head.
Shame.
It wanted to know what was calling from inside.
But eventually they exited the tower.
The two moons above them were falling, while the sun was starting to rise. It took a seat by the wall, as Longueville waited beside it.
It scratched a new map, discarding its old one as it remade each piece of paper for each floor. It recalled all the steps it took.
Dawn was starting to break when it was finished, and it still wasn't complete. The room where the vault had been was still an empty space, as was the room of the 'Principal' since Longueville couldn't unlock that door. There were a few more rooms, but it was more comprehensive than the last one.
It stood up, and Longueville jolted awake. She looked down at it. "You're done?" She asked.
It nodded.
"Good," she reached for it "hand it over."
Bug held out its hand.
There was a pause, and she looked at it "What?"
It simply held out a hand again.
Hey eyes narrowed, and then widened "Are you asking for money?!"
Well of course, maps were meant to sold after all.
They stared at each in silence. Bug holding out the maps and a hand, while Longueville looked more than a frustrated.
She sighed and took out a handful from a pouch "Whatever," She dropped them in its hand, and took the map. Already she was waving the wand to duplicate it.
Bug looked at the gold pieces of metal, and wondered what these were.