"You're too stiff, Luvina."

Reianna's chartreuse-haired friend stood to the side of the core she'd just been knocked off of with her hands on her knees. "That's easy for you to say. Sometimes I wonder if you even have bones in your body."

"Have you been doing your yoda?"

Luvina nodded. "Every night for thirty minutes before I go to bed."

Fawna put her hand on Reianna's arm. "Rei, she's only been at it for four months. Give her a bit more time."

"And we've just been doing it for five. Come to my room tonight. Let me look over your form."

Luvina's face lit up. "Can I have dinner with you guys, too?"

Reianna looked at Fawna. "Sure, I don't see why—"

"Luvina!" Master Harnel yelled and stomped across the training grounds. "What are you doing out here?"

Reianna stepped between the large man and his student. "Master Harnel. It's been a bit."

Class D's teacher towered over Reianna. Her eyes were at his stomach level, and she probably weighed the same as one of his massive arms, but he still stopped when the silver-haired girl blocked his path.

Looking around him, Reianna saw a woman in pink standing in the shadows of the training grounds. Reianna shook her head. "Pink flower wilting."

Harnel's eyes narrowed. "Watch what you say about my wife, Reianna."

Reianna looked up at his eyes. "So, you're saying she's not a coward hiding behind you?"

"She is a marchioness. She deserves respect."

"We used to respect you. Your body's awfully big for how little of a man you are."

"By the time you graduate, you'll see how the world works, Rei."

"Don't say my name so lightly. You can call me 'you'. Now, what can I do for you, Master Harnel?"

"I have no business with you. My students are under strict orders not to practice with you."

Reianna smirked. "Oh? We weren't practicing, though. We were just making dinner plans. And, as I recall, aren't first-year teachers required to use the upperclassman training grounds?"

"Don't get smart with me, child."

"Thank you for respecting my wishes about my name, but I did say you may call me 'you'. I've not given you permission for anything else."

Harnel lowered his voice. "Come on. Madam Julvie wants me to get my kids out of here."

Reianna laughed. Was this really the same man who got angry when Gerenet-Shr called him by his titleless full name for being too formal? Gerenet-Shr was sad over the betrayal, but Reianna hated Harnel for it. Harnel had abandoned the light of the world for darkness, a darkness that was corrupting children like Avali.

She wanted him to feel her derision. "You have to use honorifics with your wife? Hey, Taraia?"

"Yeah?" the lime-haired girl screamed across the training grounds.

Reianna pointed at Harnel with her thumb. "Get this," she yelled. "Master Harnel has to use honorifics with his wife!"

"Bwahaha!" Taraia laughed, then a ball pelted her and knocked her off the core platform. Taraia continued to lie on the ground and laugh.

Harnel's face turned red.

Reianna glared into his eyes. "You abandoned us. You betrayed your friend. Mockery is the only thing we'll give you for the rest of our lives."

Looking around Harnel, Reianna waved her fingers at Julvie, and after the third time, Reianna spun her hand around and flipped her off.

Faster than Reianna thought was possible, Julvie closed the distance between them. The pink teacher went for a sweep of Reianna's legs, but Reianna jumped them. Again, the older woman's speed caught Reianna off guard as Julvie's hand shot out and gripped Reianna's uniform.

Julvie slammed Reianna into the ground. Reianna gasped as the air was knocked out of her lungs. The training grounds went still and silent.

"Little girl, you're mighty full of yourself for only having barely beaten children your own age." Julvie's aura was a dark purple maw, not the color of death, but the color of danger to everything that Reianna held dear.

Pinning Reianna to the ground with her forearm to Reianna's neck, Julvie sneered at the young girl. Reianna's hands pushed and pulled at Julvie's arm. Her vision blurred as she was desperate for air. "Do not mock me. I look down on you."

"Madam Julvie—"

"No, Harnel!" She looked over her shoulder at him. "Do not touch me! Do not talk to me when I am disciplining this creature." She turned her gaze back to Reianna. "I told Miss Banca to put you down, but she didn't. Look where that's gotten us now. Maybe I should just do it here and now."

"Ger…Gerenet-Shr…ll…kill…you."

"Yes, but he's not here now, is he? He's taken his one-eyed fuck doll off somewhere, hasn't he?"

A yellow light streaked across Reianna's vision, and Julvie screamed. Blood shot out from her severed arm, the arm that had pinned Reianna to the ground.

Julvie fell back, covering the stump of her arm, while Reianna spit and sputtered on the blood that poured into her mouth.

"Julvie!" Harnel cried out and went for his wife.

Reianna sat up, coughing and gasping for air alternately.

"Tsk. Tsk. Tsk. Marchioness Julvie, what do you think you are doing?"

Turning towards the voice, Reianna watched a void approach them. She felt it pull at her, and she wanted it to swallow her whole, but resisted.

Julvie no longer screamed as she staunched the flow of blood from her missing arm. Like Reianna, she sat on the ground and watched the third-year, daffodil-colored boy approach them.

"Ma-ma-mage Daymein, what are you doing here?"

"I'm just back from the first hunt of the year. I am a third-year, after all. And I came to see my girlfriend. Is there something wrong with that?"

Despite the situation, Reianna felt her cheeks flush at Daymein claiming her as his girlfriend.

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The psychopath mage squatted down next to Reianna. As he ran the back of his fingers down her cheek, she couldn't stop her body from reacting by pressing her face into his hand, and he smiled at her. She hated how her heart fluttered.

When he finally pulled his hand away from her face, it came back bloodied. Still smiling and looking Reianna in the eyes, he licked the blood off his fingers. She shuddered.

Daymein's eyes narrowed, and he grabbed the braid in Reianna's hair, jerking on it and pulling her forward. Reianna let out a yelp in pain and surprise. Pulling a knife from his inventory, Daymein sliced the braid off, then cursed when he found his hand empty and the braid still on Reianna's head.

He stood and rounded on Julvie. Standing over his elder, he looked down on her. "I haven't heard a thank you yet."

"What, Mage Daymein?" Julvie asked.

"A thank you."

"From the girl?"

"No, not from Miss Reianna. From you, Marchioness."

"Why—"

"Should you thank me? Because I severed your arm in a way that it can be reattached without scarring, of course. When Deputy Headmaster Krill calls me in to discipline me, I'd hate the permanent maiming of one of the country's preeminent marchionesses to be on the list of things he's angry about."

Daymein looked at Harnel, who'd picked up the severed arm and was holding it. Daymein frowned. "Despite her taste in men."

His gaze returned to Julvie. "This is your one and only warning. The days when you and your students could do as you pleased with this silver-haired beauty are over. She is mine!"

"U-understood, Mage Daymein."

"Leave."

Julvie and Harnel didn't say anything as Harnel cradled Julvie in his arms. In spite of herself, Reianna had to respect Julvie for how composed she was as Harnel gave her her severed arm and trotted off with her.

When she looked back from the retreating teachers, Daymein was still looking at her. "The blood truly does enhance your beauty. Would you like me to buy you a deep red uniform? Though that wouldn't capture the alluring splatter…"

She was stuck in those bright yellow eyes. Her heart raced. He called her his girlfriend. Did he mean it? Maybe she should let him get her a dark red uniform.

The world around her turned red, and, at last, Daymein looked away from her. The strength left Reianna, and she slumped over. A deep breath tore through her, like she'd just resurfaced from a long time underwater.

Once she recovered, she turned to look at who now captured the attention of everyone on the training grounds. Loushee stood on the roof of one of the armor sheds, looking down on them all. From everyone's reaction, Reianna knew that she was actually there.

She pointed at Reianna and Daymein. "Loushee warned you! Both of you! Blood boy! She belongs to Loushee! Leave!"

Daymein turned back to Reianna. He grabbed her chin and forced her eyes into his. "I like long hair."

Reianna could only nod. Now that she had access to shampoo and conditioner, she hadn't planned on cutting it. She'd loved the long flowing locks of the nobles and Gerenet-Shr. His comment did nothing to change her mind about growing her hair out.

No, the only thing his comment did was make her regret that her hair wasn't already as long as Loushee's or Cayelyn's.

"See you, girlfriend."

"Bye," Reianna whispered.

A crunch resounded through the training field, followed by a screech. Five Loushees raced towards them so fast they made Julvie seem sluggish. Daymein jumped away from Reianna, flinging fire and spinning disks that left a trail on the ground over where they flew.

Kids jumped and ducked out of the way. The fire and disks passed through the Loushees. The spells tore into the grounds and walls. One girl, a second year, was too slow, and a disk sliced her in half from shoulder to hip across her body.

The five running Loushees continued to run past them, and a sixth Loushee appeared behind Daymein. Incorporeal purple tendrils swirled off her body. Daymein spun and threw his hands out, and a fireball exploded in Loushee's face. The heat was so intense, Reianna felt it singe her arm hairs.

Yet another Loushee appeared, again behind the third-year mage. She stabbed a blade into Daymein's shoulder. He stumbled forward, away from Reianna.

"You will never beat me, leech," Loushee whispered in his ear, but loud enough for Reianna to hear.

He screamed and fled.

The purple continued to swirl around Loushee as she watched Daymein flee. Loushee's hair was no longer topaz; it was that same purple that warned Reianna of absolute destruction. Absolute evil. Just like the swirling tendrils.

Spinning on her heels, Loushee stared down at Reianna with eyes the same purple. Terror failed to describe what Reianna felt.

The tendrils stopped swirling as they pointed at Reianna. In unison, they jabbed at her.

"I should kill you now." Loushee squeezed her eyes closed. The roots of her hair turned turquoise, and when Loushee opened her eyes again, they were her normal turquoise, only the purple still swirled in them.

"Rejoice, girl. She thinks you can beat me." The purple vanished from her eyes, hair, and the aura around her. It was replaced by a blue one.

"Reianna, I'm depending on you. Red has already joined purple. They almost have orange convinced. You have until I graduate." Loushee vanished.

Collapsing back, Reianna panted. Her body was soaked with more sweat than after finishing one of Gerenet-Shr's morning routines. The second-year student.

She didn't have time to be scared. Jumping to her feet, Reianna ran over to the collapsed girl. Blood was everywhere, and it still leaked from both halves. There was no saving her.

Tears rolled down Reianna's cheeks. Would any of this have happened if she hadn't taunted Julvie? Was this her fault?

She shook her head. Daymein had come to see her. Loushee knew and followed. That scene would have played out with or without the pink teacher's presence.

"Someone call your teacher," she said to another girl who stared at Reianna, as if Reianna was the one who'd caused the death and destruction.

The girl ran off.

Fawna was on Reianna, hugging her from behind.

"You aren't them. This isn't your fault," the blonde whispered in her ear.

Reianna grabbed onto Fawna's arms and nodded. She knew it. She knew what Fawna said was true, but it helped to hear the words. To hear it from someone else, someone who she knew and loved, and who knew and loved Reianna.

Standing up, Reianna went to brush her hands off on her skirt, but paused. She looked at the blood caked on them. Sand stuck to the drying blood. "I need a bath."

Eliana burst out of the academy and onto the training grounds. "What happened? Oh, Yani. Miss Reianna, are you okay?"

She nodded. "I'm sorry about your student."

Eliana stared at the dead girl. "Can you tell me what happened?"

"Loushee and Daymein fought."

Eliana paled. "And there was only one death?"

Reianna nodded again.

"You all were so lucky." Looking up from Reianna, Eliana looked at the students who all still stood around in shock. "Everyone inside for the night. Leave any borrowed equipment where you are. Maids can clean it tomorrow."

The kids started their trek inside silently at first, but then someone spoke, and the floodgates opened. They all spoke at once. The silence and danger from before amplified their volume, making them deafening.

Reianna watched them leave. Fawna didn't take Reianna's blood-covered hand. Instead, she hugged Reianna's upper arm.

"Girls, you should go, too."

Looking back at the second-year teacher who was taking lessons from Gerenet-Shr, Reianna nodded. She didn't walk so much as shuffle her way into the school.

When she got inside, Luvina was waiting for her. "I know it's not the best time, probably it's the worst time, but dinner?"

Reianna marveled at the chartreuse-haired girl's steel stomach. "I…I don't even know if I'll be able to keep breakfast down. I'm sorry, Luvina."

Her low-ranking noble friend nodded. "Next time, then?"

"Yeah, definitely."

Reianna gaped as Luvina's upper body slid off, sliced through at an angle. Reianna shook her head. Luvina was alive and well, talking to Fawna.

It was too much for Reianna to process. Mages knew that Reianna was a mage. They were all insane and didn't care for the lives around them. She didn't want to get better at being a mage. What if the reason for their insanity was the training of their mage skills?

That extra menu option. Did that option have extra "weight" on the mind or soul? Liam was the only mage Reianna didn't think was insane, but he also had his…quirks (if she could call them that).

"Rei, come on. We need to get you washed up."

Reianna nodded. "Where are our pods?"

"They've already gone. It's just us."

"We're going to get in trouble with Gerenet-Shr. He's not going to ever leave us alone again."

"He doesn't have a choice if he wants us to train. Let's just see what he does for us."

Reianna nodded and leaned into Fawna. She didn't know what she would do without her blond friend. "Don't let me get like them."

Fawna rubbed Reianna's arm and back. "As long as I live, you'll never be anything like that."

"I want a bath."

"Good, because I want you to take one. You smell like Reianna sweat."

"That's funny because I am Reianna."

Their light-hearted banter warmed Reianna's heart, like she knew the bath would.

She hoped when she got out that Gerenet-Shr would be back.

Reianna wanted his hug.

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