Alice did a graceful flip in the air as Lotus dodged, chasing her up the side of the pillar. "You're not getting away!" She said as she tackled Lotus from the side. Holding Lotus, she shot off the top of the pillar towards the Earth, holding onto Lotus the whole time.

Lloyd watched as Alice and Lotus fought. He didn't like sitting on the sidelines. At the same time his body was enveloped by light. When it faded he was fused back with Grayson, he had more than enough energy so it didn't matter. He wasn't looking forward to unfusing however. "Did you guys honestly think you could leave me out?!" He roared as he ripped a large fireball towards Alice and Lotus.

Lotus saw the fireball coming. Before it hit lotus smashed into Alice spinning Alice between her and the fire. Lotus sunk her claws into Alice's squishy side as she allowed Alice to take the blow from the fireball.

Ashley and Ms. Ignianus were silent for a few moments, before a slight smile crept on her ancient face.

"Oh good, a history lesson!" she exclaimed while hobbling towards the pair, her wooden staff thumping on the ground with every step. A halfbreed in this case, I am merely assuming since the spell requires the moss of a henge, is referring to an esperkin. In short, the offspring of humankind and faekind, the children of the ether."

"Thousands of years ago, the fae were banished from our realm to a world of their own, though a very small amount of them were allowed to stay on Earth. In the off chance, a human and a fae would fall in love, leading to an esperkin. Esperkin became even rarer however as interaction between fae and humans began to dwindle over the centuries as they fell into a deep slumber, or decided to join their brethren in the fae home world. Which is why I cannot supply you with the blood of such an individual"

"Curiously, the world from which you seek to summon your creature is a realm in which the ether acts very differently from our ours. Rather, it is akin to spirit energy in this world, except with its own properties. I will tell you now, it shall be nigh impossible to summon something from that realm...beyond the means of the Seers"

"Nevertheless!" she slammed the tip of her staff right in front of Daniel, "The girl shall not harm you, green eyes," she shook her head as she clucked her tongue "You are so tainted, tainted with ether, such an unreliable source of magic. I suggest you stay with your Archmagus, she is quite adept in the ways of spirit magic, albeit a bit...vanilla for a witch."

Ashley glared in the old woman's direction.

"It is what you are my dear; a magus is no more than a witch with rules," Ms. Ignianus then turned her attention back to Daniel, "Now, as you are quite tainted with the ether, I shall not teach you the means in which I use magic, but" she paused dramatically "You may work in my shop, after school of course, and I will teach you to become a warlock. It is a path much messier than a magus, but I'm sure you will enjoy it."

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The horses whinnied amongst themselves as they watched the strange girl leave their stable. As the sun set on the horizon, the horses faded into the moonlight as if they were never there. The stallion was the last to disappear, shaking its head with slight worry as it watched the girl leave, before disappearing itself.

As Tsubaki entered the room, Sangeeta looked up from a biology textbook. "Ah, hello Tsubaki, welcome back" she could tell that the girl seemed a bit stressed, "I was just in the middle of studying, though I think I would like a break for jasmine tea, would you care for some as well?"

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"Ah perfect!" exclaimed Harry after the boy had responded and he disappeared into the backroom, though not before taking a furtive glance back at the pair, as they sat down at the table.

"Sorry about that," sighed Evelyn, "My sister Helena met him during her second year at the academy and he sort of became a brother figure to the family while we were in Darren. He takes his role quite...seriously..."

Just as she finished speaking, Harry walked out of the backroom balancing a teapot and two elegant two cups with various tea fixings on a tray in one hand, and a plate filled with various finger deserts on a tray in the other hand. He placed them all onto the table in what could be described as a graceful manner.

"This one is from your sister's plant," he said while nodding to the plant above them "Your sister's lavenders produce by far the freshest lavender tea." His head looked back to the door as the bell rang signalling the arrival of more customers, "I'll be back, I've got to deal with these customers if you don't mind."

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Bernice nodded, "Yes, there are a few other books like this around in the library. I gave one to Logan" she looked in his direction and smiled, "The others you have to simply stumble upon, they're not actually catalogued, or at least the ones that I have found so far."

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Ooc: gonna be wrapping up to move on to the final missions and bring this chapter to a close.

Longest. Filler chapter. Ever.

Alice pushed Lotus off the side of the pillar, and fell down with her. The huge fireball ripped through the air where they had been only seconds before. They landed with Alice on top of the girl. "Sorry, but I've got to get you unfused quickly," she said. "This is basically the fastest way." With her claws, she tore through Lotus' throat. A huge amount of blood welled up from the wound. Alice watched the life fade from Lotus's eyes, and white light enveloped the girl. "At least you managed to wound me." A few seconds later, Lotus was back to normal, and alive, however the girl was asleep. Alice turned to Lloyd, covered in blood. "You're next."


Daniel considered the old woman's offer. It was better than nothing. He looked to Ashley. "What do you think? I think it's a good idea. Maybe you could work here with me! I'll take the offer, Miss. I can't wait to start learning."

Damian rubbed his nose after sneezing. "Damn, this room needs to be cleaned." He sighed as he hopped onto his bed, then crossed his legs, deciding he would get in some meditation before he decided on a nap or anything.

"Yeah, this isn't even the first weird book she found. Who knows how many of these are just laying around? Might be worthwhile to poke around here a bit more." Logan mused. The prospect of unearthing more of Arclight's secrets already had him giddy. "Perhaps another time, though. I'm bushed. You guys keep fighting the good fight." The Scot returned the book to Johnathan and gave him a pat on the back, and with that, he retired to his chambers. The room still felt somewhat empty with Gregory gone, but it couldn't be helped. Logan took a minute to fish out the copy of "The Arclight Colony: A History of Darren" Bernice had found. He'd nearly forgotten about it, but now seemed like an opportune time to do a bit of catch-up reading.

Lloyd spread his arms and wings. He actually wanted to fight Alice again since the last battle ended in a draw. Now that they had fused and weren't bound by restrictions from Miss Rachel, they could really have a match. Grayson's eagerness had shone through. "Bring it on, Sweetheart."

---

Johnathan looked at the book Logan handed back to him. Who knows how many more books like this were hidden in right in the general populace. "Interesting. Can I see the other books you've found, if you don't mind?"

"Thanks." Maximilian slightly bowed his head to the tea shop owner once he received his tea, though he was unsure whether the man took any notice of his simple gesture. "Seems like your family has earned you quite a few acquaintances around this place." Maximilian reached for the teapot and carefully poured both himself and Evelyn a cup. Once he finished pouring he returned the pot to the center of the table and turned his attention to his own, now strongly smelling, cup. He gingerly lifted the cup to his lips and took a quick sip and although the tea was quite good it was still far too hot to truly enjoy. "Do you enjoy life at Arclight, do you like the people here? do you like being part of the Archive Club?"

"I would love some tea, thank you very much," Tsubaki replied as she dropped her bag onto her bed. "Some studying might do me some good as well, mind if I join you in your endeavors?"

---

It was so late to be out. No man that didn't hunt Mammoth to live could have ever been as tried as Derrek was right now, walking out of the area. He felt as though he had an unnatural burden on his shoulders, and, strangely, one of his hands. Thinking for a second before looking and actually figuring out what was going on didn't help- he saw he still had on Alice's armor and glove. The armor he might not mind walking away with, the only problem with it was he seemed to need a second pair of hands to remove it. Luckily, explosions in the distance told Derrek where Alice would be, so that's where he would go, his last detour of the day.

Alice smiled and her cheeks turned a bit red. "Awww, he called me sweetheart!"

"Let's tear his throat out too," Phora said while casually licking the blood on their claws.

"Ewwww!" Alice said, looking disgusted. "I don't want to taste that!"

"Everyone knows you like it, Alice!"

"S-shut up!" She took flight. With a wave of her arm, a swirling tempest began around Lloyd.

"Oh, look at you, using my magic!"

"But I'm a pixie now!" Alice said. She touched her wounded side and realized it was already scabbing. "I still can't believe she hurt me."

Lloyd also took flight to get out of the range of the magic Alice had summoned. Quickly closing the distance between them, he threw two more fireballs at her.

The fireballs soared towards Alice. However, in the blink of an eye she was behind Lloyd. She raked her claws across his back and then flew off, giggling playfully. "Tag, you're it!" She said.

Lloyd winced a bit as Alice raked her claws at his back. How did she get behind me so quickly? Somehow catching Alice's contagious laughter, he dashed off in pursuit.

"I wonder if he realizes how badly he's wounded," Phora said as they flew in the night air. Alice had a few thick clumps of flesh on her claws. "Can I eat these? Griffin meat was my favorite."

"I'm not going to let you eat Lloyd!" Alice said. "He's mostly human anyway." Phora didn't seem to mind that. "Phora," Alice warned. "You haven't eaten human meat before, have you?"

Before Phora could answer, they noticed that the sound of Lloyd's wings had stopped. Alice looked behind her, confirming what she feared: Lloyd's energy had run dry, and he was now falling out of the sky. "O-oh s***!"

She raced over to him at top speed and caught him. "You're heavy," She said.

"Piss me off and I'll drop you!" Phora said. "Mind your energy! How are you going to protect Alice if you're flailing around as you fall to your death like an idiot? You're not worthy!"

"Lay off, Phora. He's learning. Besides," She said as she came dangerously close to nuzzling him. "He called me sweetheart, so he gets a pass."

She fluttered back to the ground and put Lloyd down next to where Lotus was sleeping. "You owe me a ride." She unfused and looked at him expectantly. "Soooo, what now?"

Phora walked over to where Lotus was sleeping and nudged the girl with her foot. "Wake up, idiot, the store's closing."