With the middle of the summer semester upon them, Magister Wen again called Gwen into the Cognisance Chamber.

"You know, Gwen, it has occurred to me that there is a way to replicate Bar-gain-ginny," Magister Wen informed her proudly.

Gwen looked up from her practice to see the researcher's eyes aglow with anticipation.

"Remember how we managed to simulate the green lightning with nothing but a Lightning-based Creature Core?"

Gwen nodded eagerly, then followed Wen's fingers until it arrived at Ariel. The marten immediately perked up, thinking perhaps that the Magister was trying to offer it an HDM chip.

"There's your elemental-mixer right there."

"EE-ee?" Ariel wrinkled its nose.

"But I can't channel the Druidic Essence," Gwen explained. "It doesn't blend into Spells and certainly not into Familiars."

"Oh no, there's no need for that." The Magister stroked Ariel's furry, folded ears. "You told me once that Ariel could be empowered with your Druidic Essence, yes? Would that not count as mixing your Lightning element with the Druidic one?"

Gwen considered it. The idea wasn't crazy, though it did go against the common sense of Spellcraft.

"I think it's worth a try, Ma'am," Gwen answered confidently. "Ariel, come here, yum-yum!"

She coaxed her Familiar closer and urged the druidic mana to circulate through her body until it condensed at her fingertips, becoming a drip of congealed pale-green fluid not resembling simmering tree-sap. Her marten took her finger and greedily suckled upon it until almost half of her reserve was gone.

As expected, Ariel's internal mana conduits began to pulse with emerald energy, mingling with the raw cobalt of her injected lightning.

"Alright, let's see if my hypothesis is correct. Give Ariel the order," Wen commanded.

Gwen ordered Ariel to step away and face the far side of the chamber toward an illusion-conjured target. She willed a surge of mana to enter the pet, watching the beast expand until it was almost the size of a small pony. The tiny horns Ariel possessed likewise elongated, becoming spiral swords branching off in the shape of a "Y" atop Ariel's mongoose head, giving it a menacing chimeric appearance.

_"Barbanginy!"_ Her lips mouthed Almudj's mystic invocation, feeling her Lightning element course through her body and enter Ariel's combat form.

Besides Gwen, Ariel's horns grew bright with hysterical electricity, then a blast of jade-green Lightning emitted from between the two horns.

The ozone stench from the energised blast was immense, so much that the tennis-court training room could not contain its oppressive odour. Opposite, the Glyphs fried, disabling the target.

A piece of old-world knowledge clicked into place for Gwen as Magister and freshman marvelled at the scorched tiles. The Cog-Chamber was built to withstand blasts and bursts up to tier 6. How was it possible that a tier 3 Lightning Bolt could punch through the shielding?

Gwen's mind floundered over an old National Geographic magazine. She recalled reading that there were two distinct forms of lightning. The first, Negative-charged Lightning, accounted for almost all known strikes. These were usually up to 300 million volts and could blast trees and conflagrate forests. Occasionally, when circumstance, chance and climate converged, nature allowed for forming a positively-charged plasma arc, a freakish occurrence with a current capacity exceeding a billion volts, amassing enough power to reduce giant Californian red-oaks to smouldering wood chips.

She had no idea what the 'life' energy of Almudj did to empower the lightning, but that was the analogy she concocted.

The "positive" blast was exceedingly challenging to direct, but if Ariel could close in on the target, and she could open with Guiding Bolt—then she had a chance.

This way, Barbanginy could be her "King Hit"—to borrow an Australian pub-crawl misnomer. She can't control the outcome very well, but the effect on an enemy would likely be devastating, especially on an opponent expecting a regular Lighting spell.

Magister and the student then examined Ariel for damage and expenditure. It was worth noting that her magical marten had expended the Druidic essence it had consumed earlier. Other than that, Ariel appeared perfectly hale and eager for action.

Gwen attempted to produce another drop of the druidic essence, but her reserves only allowed for so much per day. Any more would require a supernatural stimulus.

"Wonderful, Gwen." Wen busily recorded their new findings. "I would recommend testing again in a few days to obtain some standardised metrics. I'd dare say the Ba-gain-ninny's inherent combative limitation is severe, but it may be useful as an artillery option, especially at the higher tiers."

"Of course, thank you, Magister." Gwen double-checked her Astral-reflection below. The spell took no more out of her than a regular Lightning Bolt. Its only limitation was her ability to produce Druidic Essence—then load up her pet with proverbial powder.

Chen's advice proved sound.

As mid-term quickly approached, Gwen's training regime with Caliban and Ariel finally began to take shape.

Mayhap because Caliban had already tasted, disturbed, harassed and terrorised everything molestable by its faceless muzzle, it was now "chill" even in public. Petra stated that the obedience could be because she was growing close to the fifth tier of Conjuration—though Gwen preferred putting stock in Cali's good behaviour.

By Tuesday, Gwen had sustained the creature's presence in the Material realm for four days.

Chen's attitude improved once Caliban no longer slithered for Eunae, snapped at Wanli, or tried to nip at the other Familiars as they crossed one another's path. Ariel, in stark contrast, had become _the_ model Familiar, a poster pet of the 'good boy' manifesto.

On her other fronts, Gwen was making gains on Transmutation and Evocation.

Magister Wen had remarked earlier that her absurd VMI of 130 and over would do wonders for her training. Even so, her ability to bench the 'iron' of repetitive Spellcraft exercises exceeded even the high esteem of her Instructors.

The average teen-Mage measured close to 40 VMI, a talented Fudan student in the 70s, and those with bred-to-purpose bloodlines perhaps 80. With twice the capacity, those young Casters could acquire mastery over-complicated Sigils.

Gwen had not measured her VMI since babulya took her to the Second-PLA Hospital lab for her biometrics—though she was confident that thanks to her growth in Conjuration, Evocation and Transmutation, her mana pool should exceed 140.

Then there was the advantage that Gwen's elemental affinity reduced her mana-costs and casting fatigue.

Gwen was no statistician, but her visible gains were far more than four to five magnitudes of the average Mage. Petra had informed Gwen that it would take her a year to advance Conjuration from tier 4 to 5. But her cousin had not considered that Gwen was training to distract herself from life for all intents and purposes' many dissatisfactions.

Unbeknownst to Petra, Gwen's self-imposed workaholic ethos had given her a rare kind of focus, one more suited to perhaps, the Daoist isolationists of Wutang Mountain or the esoteric swordsmen of Kunlun ranges. She left the house early in the morning for classes, took her lunch near campus, attended her afternoon classes, then trained before having dinner. She repeated this schedule for five days, then relaunched herself at the Training Hall whenever she had a few hours to spare. When possible, to save time and entertain her companionship with Mayuree, she ate together with the siblings in their loft.

Richard returned home more often than not after his previous incident, but the young man still worked and studied, pursuing HDMs and CCs with an enthusiasm that embarrassed even Gwen. Petra, meanwhile, returned to her research schedule, now with the additional burden of compiling reports on her cousin's Void metrics.

Week 5. Monday. Late afternoon.

Gwen burst through the front door, launching herself at the LRC device, positioned it just right in front of the couch.

She glanced at the clock anxiously, then tried to meditate to pass the crawling seconds that felt like hours.

Five minutes.

Ten minutes.

Fifteen minutes.

She waited with growing agitation, her eyes staring so intently at the pin-hole projection crystal that had she possessed optical powers, it would have burst into flame.

_Beep—_

_KEEEEeeee—KUuuu-HSSSSSS—_

It came! She exalted the Gods, for they are merciful and kind.

Gwen pressed the glyph to accept the incoming call, then sat back.

The projection began to manifest.

First, a few strands of glorious golden hair, then a pointed chin, followed by a dimpled pair of pink cheeks, then finally, luminous, ocean-blue eyes. As the rest of the vision materialised, it began to move.

"Elvia…" Gwen mouthed the name sweetly on her tongue. "EVEE!"

"GWEN!"

"AEEEEEEE!"

"ARRRRGH!"

"Shaa—!"

"EE—EE—"

The two girls gushed as the projections on either side animated their illusory simulacrums, joined by Gwen's Familiars.

Elvia looked as though time had held her intact and refused to change a thing. Her hair was longer, of course, now reaching her waist, but Gwen's golden girl was as adorable as the day she last saw her in Singapore.

Suddenly, her heart grew sore— _Gods, how she missed her blue-eyed angel._

"Gwennie! You look amazing!" Her Evee noted the changes in her appearance right away. When they'd last separated in Singapore, Gwen had fluctuated between hale, pale, and loitering almost weekly, pending on her use and abuse of her Void spells. Present, Gwen had to admit she was in peak physical fitness, possessing a rosy complexion, bright eyes, and glossy hair that hinted at an excellent mana-rich diet.

"Thanks, Evee! A lot has happened." Seeing that Elvia was in good health herself, Gwen felt an anxious weight lifted from her chest. "How's the school in England? Are you making friends?"

Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

"I am doing well." Elvia giggled. "Though there are too many classes. I've got Biology, Magitech, Clerical Studies, Pharmacology. It's endless!"

As she spoke, a little green sprite popped up on Elvia's shoulder and waved at the projection crystal.

"Is that Kee-kee?" Gwen pointed just past her ear.

"Kiki! Say hi to Aunt Gwen!" Elvia motioned to her Familiar.

_Oh Lordy, I am an aunt now?_ Gwen reflected dejectedly.

"Hi, Kiki!" she greeted the flowery nature Sprite.

Kiki was the Dryad spirit that Elvia had picked up from Sufina's island, an encounter that paralleled Sufina's meeting with Henry Kilroy in many ways. As with Sufina, Gwen had no doubt that should Elvia learn to treat the Spirit well and allow it to grow; it would become immeasurable to her success as a Cleric. In London, healers are a dime a dozen, but a healer who came attuned to a Primary-Elemental spirit of life and regeneration was rare indeed, regardless of their original Affinity tier.

It was an undeniable fact—during a battle, a sweeping Mass-Regeneration, a field-wide Bless, or a timely Revival on a newly-fallen Magister could quickly turn the tide of a desperate defence.

Knowing that Elvia's future was in the balance, not even she could fault Gunther's proposal on sending Elvia to London. It was the best possible outcome for her friend, despite the timid girl's feelings of loneliness and separation from friends and family.

Without further ado, the girls informed each other of their life since their last 'video' conference.

Elvia then spoke of her anxieties since their separation. Foremost was how her family left Sydney and received resettlement without incident, all thanks to Gunther. Her brother rejoined the Princes' Academy in Munich; her father and mother took up new residencies in state hospitals. She had arrived in London by herself, then immediately became lost on her way to the Nightingale College. Thankfully, the residents of London were more than willing to come to her aid; a kind woman showed her to the police station. The Police officer walked her to the right tramline. The conductor led her to her stop. A few local lads in prim public school uniforms then walked her to the college's entrance, where a porter took her admission letter and even transported all her luggage to her twin-share room.

But after she checked into the dorm, she had no idea how to enrol. When her new roommate found her anxious and teary, the girl guided her down to the Administration Office. The lady at the office was so touched by Elvia's story of separation from her family that she took it upon herself to ensure Elvia's smooth transition into college. When they passed the entrance, the office clerk introduced Elvia to the head Nun of the cafeteria and the Dorm Mistress.

"It was all very fascinating! I was crazy anxious!" Elvia exclaimed in her delightful demeanour.

Gwen nodded and nodded, then nodded again, marvelling at the friendliness of every single helpful person Elvia had met. She knew that those with Positive Energy affinity exuded an 'angelic' aura, but what was Elvia on now? Five? Six? How could mere mortals resist such a vision of exuberant innocence? They would be helpless before her doe-eyed onslaught!

Unaware of Gwen's gnawing jealousy, Evee continued her tale of conquest.

A few days later, Alesia's colleague, a Magus called Dominic Lorenzo, had arrived to find the 'demure girl' fully settled into her dorm life, surrounded by a small army of middle-aged ladies who grilled him incessantly for almost twenty minutes before he was allowed to speak to the "precious one".

Escorted by Jenny, the overprotective lady from the front office and an incredulous Dominic, the trio had then made it to the London Tower, where Elvia registered for membership thanks to an introductory letter from Magus Shultz, the celebrated champion of the Commonwealth. Having received all of Eliva's licences, the trio returned to the dorm, where Dominic contacted and arranged to install the LRC device in Elvia's twin-share room.

The news had then spread that Elvia had high-level backing from the Towers, further evidenced by the unheard extravagance of receiving a personal LRC device. The dorm, however, deemed the device an inappropriate piece of equipment for a place consisting of entirely teenage girls who boarded and was understandably homesick.

After Dominic negotiated with the College's Mistress, Magister Celine Nightingale the 3rd, fully employing his Florentine charm on the ageing woman, a separate room was made available for the device. There was an added caveat that anyone can use the LRC, provided they pay the HDM cost and submit a prior application. Also, unlike Gwen, Alesia had outright purchased the device and gifted it to Elvia. For Elvia to make the device publicly accessible, therefore, the Mistress offered to pay Elvia the rate of 2 CCs per month for the privilege of allowing her peers to call home.

"Mr Lorenzo is really— _really_ —good looking!" Elvia exclaimed. "When he came in, all the girls were staring."

"I'll bet," Gwen urged her to continue. Who cares about some upstart Adonis? She needed more Chronicles of Elvia!

At any rate, after all the fiasco, Elvia's classes started. Somehow, likely via the canteen Nun, news of Elvia's life in Sydney, the terror that befell her, the separation from her family, and her loneliness and her connection to Gunther Shultz spread throughout the campus. Brimming with self-righteous sympathy, instructors took it upon themselves to ensure that the poor girl had nought but the most gracious of receptions, easing her into her courses with gentle, guiding hands. When the time came to elect an SRC member for the class of 2003, the only name everyone recollected on their lips was Elvia Lindholm. So Elvia had become unanimously elected to the Student Council.

"Let me see!" Gwen geeked out. SRC! Elvia was already accumulating power and influence! In response, Elvia showed Gwen a silver badge with staff and twin serpents in the middle of a bough of an olive wreath. Inscribed at the very bottom was Elvia's name.

"So, how was the Student Council?"

Elvia said that at first, she was terrified. When she stepped trembling and confused into the Council building, she was met by Magus Emily Greyson Rothwell—a nineteen-year-old Magus! The stunning third-year Student President took one look at Elvia's mid-tier affinity and melted at the spectacle of the coy and demure maiden half-peeking through the hallway door with her sky-coloured eyes.

"I got your back! If anyone so much as touches you, I'll break them in half!" the Student Council President declared, drawing the girl to her bosoms. "Of course, I mean someone from my Knight retinue will. We're healers after all, hahaha!"

"She has Knights at her command!" Elvia exclaimed. "There's three of them serving her family, and they're all at the rank of Magus! They looked so amazing in their dress uniforms—Emily says that one day, I'll get Knights assigned to me too if I work hard."

"What's a Knight?" Gwen asked.

Elvia informed her that Knights were Combat Mages from "Orders" assigned to high-profile healers. Many Knights would follow the same Magus or Magister for life, becoming the subject of many a young girl's fantasies. In a single-sex convent College such as the Nightingale School, the presence of Knights was enough to make the girls strive for their very best in attaining what would one day be their very own partners for life. According to Elvia, both the French Hospitaliers and the English colleges had this tradition, though the Greek Acropolis school favoured an interchangeable retinue of guardians tied to the Temple itself.

Gwen's felt her mouth open and close as Elvia regaled episode after episode.

Why was it that Elvia's story was so incredibly heart-warming and enviously agreeable? Gwen couldn't help but feel that her retelling resembled the opening chapter of Tess of d'Urbervilles—while Elvia's was the latter half of Silas Marner. What's with the bloody difference? In just three months, Elvia acquired an iron-clad following of middle-aged mid-tier administration office ladies who'd venture to hell and back for their adorable angel, the pity and loyalty of her roommate, and the full support the SRC and its president, the darling star of Nightingale College.

_God! Jehova! Yahweh!_ The world is not just! To be oneself is not safe! She wanted a refund! A do-over!

How was it that their encounters were so different? If Gwen were to get lost in London, she was sure the first thing she'd meet was an unmarked mystery van promising a modelling career, and all she needed to do was get in. At the college, someone would probably demand to duel her at the door.—if she ate at the canteen, the Nun might kick her out for asking for thirds.

"Oh, Evee..."

Gwen wept bitter tears of joy as Elvia regaled her "suffering". In return, Gwen told, euphemistically, of her trials and triumphs at the hands of the Songs, as well as her consequent University life with Richard, Petra and Magister Wen.

Petra came home two hundred HDMs into their conversation, and Gwen introduced the stunning Russian cousin to her bestie. Petra was instantly in love with Elvia's huggable adorability, while Elvia became stunned by Petra's surreal glamour. In response to Petra's intrusion into the privacy of their conversation, another face ducked into the protection, a striking punk-rocker girl with shocking pink hair and a nose stud.

"I am Elvia's roommate, Sylvie Stratford. Please to make your acquaintances," the roommate introduced herself.

The four exchanged greetings all over again. Then the call was finally at an end. The conference had cost Gwen almost one-tenth of her remaining funds. As much as Gwen would have liked to continue her communication with Elvia, her friend too had limited funds. But unlike academic life in Fudan, Nightingale was a practitioner's college. As the girls trained and studied, they also received HDM-based stipends for serving in hospitals and clinics attached to the school. Unlike offensive casters who needed to expend mana continually and therefore drain crystals, the practice carried out by the girls was also a source of income. The British Mageocracy's NHS program covered their expenditure.

Finally, Elvia faded as she bid a teary temporary farewell, leaving Gwen along with Petra.

"I like her," Petra gushed, informing Gwen that 'another bites the dust. "So that's the famous Elvia Lindholm."

"She's my lifeline," Gwen joked half-seriously.

The girls then called out for dinner.

The rest of the bustling weeks was to come.

Tuesday.

Instructor Chen observed Gwen's command over the unruly serpent.

He had set up a gauntlet of sorts, a little maze of temptations and distractions for the Familiars. Within, by raising and lowering the bulkhead doors, he created a kind of twisted corridor, where 'rooms' awaited the students and their conjured beasts.

Some rooms had small summoned fauna that the creatures loved to consume, testing for the ability to resist instinctual aggression. Other 'rooms' had enticing blocks of raw mana crystals with explicit commands such as 'can eat after 2 minutes' and 'may only eat 50%'. Other rooms had little traps that shocked, surprised or directly assaulted the Familiars.

Ariel managed to clear the rooms without incident, though its idea of' 50%' was more akin to three-quarters. To Chen's surprise, Caliban did not trigger its self-defence even when struck by half a dozen Magic Missiles. As for it eating the entire block of raw mana crystal, Chen gave Gwen a pass. One could hardly demand a creature formed of hunger and gluttony to abide entirely by human command.

Gwen's control, in his eyes, was enough.

In her other fields of study, Management moved toward statistical dissection, making an already dry impossibly disinteresting. Mayuree could barely open her eyes as soon as the lectures began. Gwen even caught Richard taking a catnap during a particularly dense block of agricultural data.

For Gwen, picking the two subjects was the right choice.

First, she got to know the Hive Cities. Dubbed 'Districts' under the tier 1 cities, the hives were residences built with the best interests of the NoMs in mind—but invariably transformed into variations of Kowloon Walled City of 1980s Hong Kong infamy.

A Hive began as the typical sort of benign dictatorship China was famous for, constructed to house up to 100,000 residents, with an upper limit of 150,000 people. With Beast Tides in mind, the fifty-storey concrete forts served as both protection and sanctuary in the unlikely occurrence of an invasion. The bottom of the forts was quake-proof and fortified by Earthen Glyphs, followed immediately by a level consisting of water purification systems and filtration depositories that processed the city's hygiene amenities. Above the base began the commercial sector, with food shops and dispensaries run by the state and those living within the city's walls. Above that, the street-level commerce was owned by enterprising members of the township, invariably Committee members of the State, the Clans, and the Houses.

The Hive itself stretched upward, forty levels above where the resident's homes, drawn by lottery, determined where NoM Families stayed. When an NoM reached the age of 21, the state would allocate another apartment. The typical Hive-city stretched from twenty blocks to fifty blocks, though the largest, located in Beijing, extended in an "L" shape for almost sixty.

The top of the buildings had parks, open-space areas, gardens, cafes, more shops; some even housed swimming pools and other amenities. However, these highly-desired spaces were a premium—regardless of the egalitarian ideals of a state-sanctioned Hive City, wealth gaps remained painfully evident.

According to Professor Ma, those living below had barely enough space to sleep and rest, crammed into habitat blocks like sardines in a can, sleeping four to a room vertically, formed out of wooden decking on bare concrete. Others nearing the mid-section had individual rooms, though more often than not shared with other family members awaiting their sub-divisions. Near the top, the oligarchs of each Hive City had their abodes, sometimes an entire level or loft, to themselves.

As with old Kowloon, a Hive's natural descent into organised crime, Triad rivalry, bloody feuds, District disharmony, and petty theft was the norm.

To enact self-governance, each 'District' had its own 'elected' Secretary to oversee the running of the cities, invariably leading to meddling from the Clans and Sects, PLA infighting, and ambitious free-lance Mages.

Yet, it was the best system China could manage after the Beast Tide. Construction meant jobs, and walled cities resulted in low upkeep. Thereby, from the 70s to the 90s, China kept on building an endless stream of Hive-Districts, fuelling its internal consumption and employment. Over time, these cities became filled with NoMs.

For the population living there, generating a Mage offspring that passed the state's Awakening exam was every family's dream. Should a family give up a potential scion talented in Magic to the state, they would immediately receive an 'abode' in the upper strata. Many families had turned their fortunes around through such means, acting as living proof of the state's generosity. But the 'Uplifting' policy had its limitations as well. Though NoM families often engendered multiple children, abject poverty and the irregularity of a Mage being born from a non-magical bloodline remained a significant deterrence to social climbing.

Thereby, to feed a burgeoning population, the state built co-op farms across every inch of Shanghai's arable boundary to feed its Hive-cities. The separation of food from the cities served another purpose. A Hive's reasons for killing its ruling class over perceived or real injustice were complex—but it was simple to suppress a city of 100,000 souls when one could cut off the water, grain and meat with a word.

The more Gwen learned about the cities, the more her horror grew. Given what she had seen in Australia, she would far prefer the freedom and neglect of the ghettos and the slum, the shanty-suburbia of Blackheath to Calhoun's behavioural-sink Ratopia.

Gods! To think she signed up for an excursion to Mega-City-Dredd! Gwen suppressed her regret and steeled her resolve—there was no helping it; if she wanted her land in the future, she needed the first-hand experience.

After all, the Chinese had the same idiom engraved onto Fudan's stonework.

Read one book, and one has travelled one Li.

Walk one Li, and one has read a hundred books.


Week Five.

Supplementary Bestiary lesson.

The junior Conjurer's Familiars were finally tasked with hapless Wildland summons.

Gwen had thought it cruel that Instructor Chen arranged for creatures to be used as instructional specimens—until the Master Conjurer reminded them that one couldn't make delicious Wildland omelette rice without cracking a hapless Cockatrice's innocent egg.

The idea was to combine two lessons into one. The junior Creature Mages got to learn about their pet's strengths and weaknesses while simultaneously discovering their future enemies' physiological and biological strengths.

For Wanli the Lighting-Hawk, Chen advised on air superiority, tactical use of blindsides, and CQB using lightning's passive paralysis.

For Eunae, Chen informed ways Luyi could set root-snares, grow barriers and platforms, and take advantage of Eunae's positive energy to tank damage.

Gwen made mental notes as others received their inputs. As a testament to Chen's expertise, each piece of advice was tailored to a Familiar's particularity.

When he got to Gwen, he asked first for Ariel, the model marten.

"Wang! Bring in D-5!" Chen yelled at a troop of Conjurers operating the Summoning Circle.

A large and ferocious Wildland boar materialised. It immediately launched itself furiously at the Shields, leaving behind white scars where the walls of force reconstituted.

"Alright, Gwen, send Ariel in."

"Ariel!" Gwen affirmed her instructor's command, then coalesced her Familiar with a bolt of ionised lightning. Ariel emerged in combat form, transforming into a six-foot silvery Mongoose equipped with two spiralled horns.

Following Chen's directions, Ariel kited the boar, gouging it with its claws, teeth and horns, slowly wearing the Earthen monstrosity down with its hasted agility.

As the battle took place, Chen watched Ariel's performance with evident satisfaction.

"You should get ready for the killing blow," he advised. "Do you have any localised AOE Lightning spells? Something volatile and explosive, midrange, with high penetrative power?"

"No, Sir," Gwen explained that rather than learning new spells, she was trying to punch through to tier 4, where spells like Wall of Fire and Blizzard became available.

"Forget those wide range AOEs. My advice is that you acquire Elemental Sphere," Chen explained. "Rather than a line attack Lightning Bolt, Lightning Sphere manifest first as a swirl of energy in a dome-like sphere, not unlike a ball-cyclone with you at its 'eye', then explodes outwards as a short-range AOE."

"That sounds immensely useful, Sir." Gwen tried to imagine the effect.

"I should think so. It's a signature spell of the late Magister Einar Larsen. He was a very well known master of the Lightning Element."

"How should I learn such a spell?" Gwen requested humbly. "Surely, one has to be well connected."

"This isn't the Frontier. In Shanghai, you can trade 36 CCs for the basic spell Magister Larsen released when he passed," Chen informed her with a smirk. "I mention this because the spell is perfect for your Ariel's Evocation-channel ability. It could serve as an offensive Shielding, a mid-range AOE, and a Shield-breaker."

"I shall consider the recommendation, Sir," thanking her instructor, Gwen tried to picture the spell and its many applications. It was true that she lacked AOEs in her Evocation repertoire; on paper, the tier 4 incantation fit her current needs like heels to a cocktail dress. Besides, what destructive potential could a Barbanginy-Sphere bring? Just trying to envision the ultraviolence of such a spell was giving her shivers.

Then there was also the Void variety - though Magister Wen had forewarned that all Void-AOE was forbidden until her affinity could be persuaded to grow beyond tier 5.

While she pondered her future, the gladiatorial battle in the cage had come to an end. The boar was on its last legs.

"EEEeeee! Eee!"

"SQEEEeee!"

Ariel had penetrated the boar's flanks.

"Lightning Bolt!" Gwen channelled her Evocation staple and watched the boar glow with cobalt-green plasma. The blast flung the pig-beast against the force barrier until it was medium rare and smoking from both eye-sockets.

"Wonderful," Chen clapped. "Excellent work."

Caliban was next.

"Wang! B-7!"

The next monster materialised—a giant hyena the size of a horse. Startlingly, a sudden stench of putrid decay permeated the floor.

"Mao!" The junior Mages wrinkled their nose.

"Wocao! What is that thing?"

"Is it Undead?"

"It's a Corpse-fed!"

A Corpse-fed hyena.

Gwen had read about such creatures. In the north, where the Undead gathered, the fauna had mutated to become capable of feeding off the necrotic energies seeping from the tombs. Predators that once hunted live prey now hunted the dead—becoming fearsome carrion-carnivores capable of carrying plagues, devouring decay, and growing stronger by killing and consuming higher-level Undead.

She wasn't sure why there was a hyaena in Asian-Major, but that hardly mattered now. Chen had prepared something incredibly formidable for Caliban. If it had been Ariel, its lightning would have naturally suppressed the Necrotic energy, but Gwen honestly had no idea with Caliban. It wasn't as though she'd fought Demi-Undead before.

Chen indicated for Gwen to proceed.

"I can banish it at a moment's notice. Not to worry," Gwen's instructor informed her. "Send in your pet. It should be immune to Vitality Drain anyway."

The advice was news to Gwen. She warily regarded the prowling fiend, even now seeking a weakness in the Force Barrier to escape its fate. In her eyes, the monster looked strong. Thanks to its Necrotic blessing, it was likely incredibly resilient to injury, and therefore she chose agility and haste.

"Caliban!" Gwen called for her Familiar to manifest within the arena, bypassing her Sustenance limiter. "Spider form!"

When Caliban leapt from the slit between the Material and the Void, it was indeed in its multi-legged form. Gwen had come to acknowledge that so long as she 'willed' a particular form, it was possible to coax Caliban to follow suit. Petra once pointed out that a creature with five pairs of legs, pincers and a tail should belong to the Order Scorpiones but Gwen preferred 'spider' as the origin of Caliban's morphic shape was initially a real big Wanka.

Gwen circulated a chunk of druidic-vitality into herself as her Familiar took its pound of flesh, empowering Caliban with supernatural haste and a fierce desire for destruction. As Caliban became pumped full of void-rich mana, the observing crowd felt a wave of nausea.

"Onslaught!" Gwen mouthed soundlessly.

"SCREEEEeeeee!!"

Her spider launched itself like a bolt of black lightning.

The hyena appeared first intimidated by a creature like Caliban, but its wariness vaporised as Caliban made its intentions clear. Sidestepping expertly, it extended its elongated neck with the agility of a viper and attempted to catch one of Caliban's foreclaws.

"Jump!" Chen commanded.

Gwen willed Caliban to change its trajectory by leaping over the war-dog.

"Tail Spear!" Chen directed.

The hyena missed its first bite as Caliban, too quick for the horse-sized dog, kicked off the force-wall and stabbed it on the upper flank with its barbed tail, sending out a mist of dark ichor as a chunk of necrotic flesh came away.

"Oh—MAO!"

"Bleargh!"

A few of the student Conjurers fell to the odious assault.

Eunae buried her face into Luyi's flank while her doe quivered defiantly against the fiendish terror, protecting its mistress.

The hyena snapped at Caliban and caught a limb in its maw, crushing it effortlessly. However, the loss of a limb had no impact on a creature without nerves or organs like Caliban. Gwen's spider fiend then fell upon the yelping, hapless dog with the ferocity of a combine-harvester.

"Do it!"

"O-Onslaught!" Gwen gave the command while gagging.

A fore-limb struck, then another and another and another, until its three pairs of appendages became a blur. The corpse-eating dog instantly became a spray of vivisected flesh.

“WOCAONIMA!”

“Cao - BLEARGH!”

“Garrgh!”

“Oh G-“

The odour flooded the room and all the gathered Mages, Gwen included, began to clear their meals onto the floor. The stench was indefinable—something between fetid death and faecal matter, half-digested flesh mixed with the smell of pus and gangrene.

Only Chen stood without so much as wrinkling his nose.

The hyena disappeared in a burst of silver-white energy.

The Wall of Force went down. The vents powered up.

"What are you—" someone cried out in alarm.

Caliban clattered forth, covered in pieces of necrotic carrion; its carapace a snail-sheen of foul fat and decomposing excrement.

"Take it all in!!" Chen laughed at the students fleeing the scene but trapped by the bulkheads. Even Gwen was on her knees, regretting her last breath of air. Eunae buried her face so far into Luyi it looked as though the Korean Cleric had melded with her fawn face-first.

"That's the scent of the Northern Front! Learn to love it! For that's the aroma of an Undead battlefield! Let this be a lesson!"

"Shaa—" Caliban moved for its mistress.

With a yelp and a gag, Gwen dismissed it in an instant.

Gwen fell into a terrible illness the same evening, but according to Magister Wen, that was pathologically impossible so long as she had Druidic Essences circulating her body. For all intents, her body was immune to mundane infections and fatal disease— for Gwen to be stricken, the pathogen would have to be magical or genuinely virulent.

All she could do then was bath herself in lavender-scented bathwater in an attempt to disguise the phantom stench. The damned odour was so intense that she couldn't even stomach the thought of summoning Caliban, despite sorcerously bathing it with magic.

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

That night, Gwen slept fitfully, unable to persuade her brain that she wasn't wrapped in a blanket of dead rats decaying in the mattress.

The next day, Gwen decided to invest in a new Signature Spell.

After consulting with Petra and Magister Wen, it was agreed that 36 CCs for the tier 4 Elemental Sphere was a viable option for her Evocation development.

She would struggle with the complexity until she reached the expertise necessary to use the spell in combat but could use the struggle to mill out the proficiency of her Evocation Sigil.

As promised, the acquisition was straightforward.

A trip to T2 of the Fudan Towers gave her a script. Then a visit to the Reserved section of Fudan University Library was all it took for her to return with an inscribed scroll. The manuscript was attuned to herself like a magic item, requiring her mana signature to be read. She also received a script exchangeable with an Instructor for a private lesson. After taking stock of her receipts, she was left with 94 CCs.

"What do people do about plagiarism? Or piracy?" Gwen asked Petra when they met for lunch.

"Piracy?" Petra chuckled. "What does this have to do with robbery on the high seas?"

Realising she had used a Gwenism, Gwen opted for a less abstract vernacular. "Like, what if I wanted to teach you this spell?"

"You could try." Petra grinned dangerously. "Though it's against the academic etiquette."

"What's the damage?"

"Penalty from the Tower, ire from other Mages, excommunication from your Clan or House. It is serious enough to make you a public pariah. Learning public domain spells with CCs is far more convenient than trying to thieve them. Through the Tower, your acquisitions are sanctioned and safe; your mastery publicly acknowledged. If one day, you're willing to give up a Signature Spell of your own to the public domain as the progenitor - you or your Estate would receive CCs every time someone learns it."

Excommunication! Gwen pondered the severity of such a thing. The rewards for obeying the rules far outweigh the benefits of illicit learning. She supposed such a system was sufficiently robust, for it wasn't as though roguish Mages living in the Wildlands bothered with Tower etiquette at any rate; nor would a Clan or Sect give up its secrets to anyone but an inheriting member.

"I understand." Gwen played with her Storage Ring contemplatively. "I'll be down at the Training Hall if anyone asks."

It took another three nights for the illusory stench of the Corpse-fed Hyena to fade from Gwen's consciousness. In the meanwhile, in preparation for Gwen's excursion at District 108 and 35, Magister Wen recommended Gwen take her new items—the Chameleon Cloak and her Boots of Flying, to the Training Hall and book a session with the Field Instructors there.

"Why? Is the excursion not a sightseeing tour?" Gwen questioned her mentor.

Magister Wen gave her a secretive smile.

"Professor Ma will keep it interesting for you young Mages. There's nothing better than a dose of reality to get the Management students invested in the course."

Looking at Wen, Gwen couldn't help but recall when Mark Chandler had sent her into Blackheath.

At first, she had imagined that her Master's old Diviner war-buddy was also testing her, teasing her with the reality of poverty and circumstance the NoMs faced. But it was all a ruse to gather evidence for his hypothesis against her Master, Henry Kilroy. Hopefully, this time, with a whole University backing her, her misadventure wouldn't deviate too much from the scheduled tour.

The PLA, perhaps mindful of their limited influence in Fudan, had assigned military Instructors to the Training Hall who students could employ. Many of the instructors were surviving Mages from Frontier conflicts who could no longer return—but whose experience was too precious to be wasted.

Gwen thus fell under the tutelage of a flight Mage named Staff-Sergeant Bao Yan, a clean-cut, middle-aged veteran missing a hand and using a prosthetic leg. With patience, she informed him that she was in the process of learning her Utilitarian Flight spell but had an excursion to the NoM Districts in a week or so.

"That's fine. You'll be knotting the air in no time," the instructor smirked. "Let's see your form."

Gwen first ensured her tunic was adequately fastened; she had yet to purchase her wardrobe for "Flight" and would like to avoid a Marilyn Monroe situation. Her second situation was that her second-hand Boots of Flying had to be worn against her skin.

Alesia's vintage training boots spoke volumes about the sorceress's intrepid teenage years. When Gwen first tried them on, the thigh-high leather pulled just above her knees and rode three inches up her thigh. As a mid-tier Magic Item of 'rare' scarcity from the 90s, the boots were not enchanted to conform. They remained serviceable only because Gwen and her sister-in-craft were physiologically alike—and that they were double-laced to allow for significant expansion and contraction, hugging one's thighs with the snugness of a corset.

As a pairing, shorts were out of the question, so she settled on a 'skort', a pair of skirt-cum-shorts with ample coverage, ensuring unity of ergonomic mobility and aesthetic modesty. For her upper body, she chose the Chameleon Cloak. From above, she was invisible, likewise if she crouched and folded her legs in the foetal position. However, from the side, she resembled a free-floating face resting above a pair of leggy, laced leather boots.

"You're not going to need that in an urban space. Register and apply for a full Optic-Camo cloak with CCs if you want to be discrete," Lian advised. "Though you better not get caught by the Tower's Arbitrators or the MSS if you're using it inside the city."

"How useful is Opti-Camo?" Gwen enquired. Her Familiars were far from subtle.

Lian snorted.

"Extremely! It's life or death out there in the Wildlands. First-strike means winning or losing! Do you think Optic-Camo grows on trees? Mao knows how you even got your hands on one. You from an old military family or what?"

"Something like that," Gwen said.

"You better take care of it, girl. Not many of those are left in civilian hands."

Gwen carefully folded the cloak and stored it in her ring.

"Your pets going to be a problem?" The instructor pointed a thumb at Caliban and Ariel.

"They'll be fine so long as they're unmolested, Sir," Gwen answered. "They're tagged to my bangle."

The instructor's attitude brightened considerably after noting her collection of rare items. There were three rings on her fingers; two gemstone rings with enchantments accompanied by a nondescript copper band. Gwen supposed that she must be from a wealthy family in her instructor's eyes.

"You a Clanner? You look like a Young Lady."

"I am…" Gwen thought about her answer, then replied cryptically. "… connected."

"I'll say," her teacher replied thoughtfully. "Let's begin with levitation exercises. What's the crystal-consumption rate on those?"

"It's a user model." Gwen kicked with one foot and rose an inch into the air, wobbling as she held her balance in check.

"Not bad, a classic archetype," the instructor nodded and activated his Flight incantation, lifting into the air. Gwen couldn't help but notice the man's prosthetics dangled loosely. "Make a danger sign when you're about to OOM."

"Yessir," Gwen replied.

Unlike the Mage-trained Flight spell, the lift provided by the boots had capped agility and velocity. Transmutation Mages who specialised in Flight, especially Mages attuned to Elemental Air, could move at four to five times the pace and coordination of Mages not attuned to Transmutation. Given time and training, the Air-affiliated Gwen could arguably fly faster and more proficiently than even Alesia, but that would be many years in the making. It was also why the dual-elementalist Kitty was deemed a prodigy. Given time to grow, her affinity with Air and Ice, Evocation and Transmutation would make her an elemental terror, the crème de la crème of the Aerial Battle Mage regiment, a Valkyrie controller of the battlefield.

The instructor indicated toward two illusory markers in bright orange overhead.

"Do not venture past the training Zone. Shanghai is a No-Fly. We'll be making basic zig-zags on a 2D plane, then move onto vertical climbs."

"Yessir."

Instructor Lian led the way as Gwen followed unsteadily. The grace of moving in three dimensions had little to do with an individual's natural agility, and all Gwen could do was try to acclimatise herself while battling the constant nausea of vertigo.

Week 6, University Mid-Term.

Mid-terms meant exams, excursions and exercises, after which was the Week 7 mid-term break.

Gwen had Practicals for Conjuration and Evocation, a written exam for Economics, and then the excursion with James Ma's Management course. During their Thursday lecture, Ma mentioned that sixty-four individuals would be participating across seven Districts, meaning the students could arrange their groups and sub-groups as they pleased, down to a minimum of two individuals. District 35 would entertain the lot of them, while their subsequent visit to Districts 108 - 114 would only take up to five Mages per zone.

Naturally, her group would at best consist of Richard, Mayuree, Kitty and herself.

_Well, I'll be damned…_ Gwen thought about Wen's helpful foreshadowing. She could hardly wait for their first outing, not to mention her first visit to an NoM Hive City in a tier 1 capital. She had done slum tours in her old world before—what they called the Grand Snobbery. Would the Hives be like the Rocinha Favela before the World Cup? Or perhaps the industrious gutter-slums of Mumbai? Could it exceed the time she was in Khayelitsha, laying over on the way to a two-week safari?

Her anticipations were growing hot, but first, she had her Practical Exams.

Conjuration took place underneath the arena, where Gwen had her Bestiary classes. Within, Students demonstrated their proficiency in Combat, Translocation, and Conjure Object.

Combat was simple enough. Students could choose to square off against Summoned Monsters, Instructors, or each other. With her pets, Gwen was confident she could take a tier 5 to 6 creature without incident.

Transportation involved moving cubes of cargo ranging from fragile crystal to a slab of lead from one end of the enormous stadium to another by attuning with pre-inscribed Teleportation portals. Several of the talented students could draw Teleportation Circle at tier 5 and could thus opt to use their personalised Mandala array. Gwen lacked that regard, meaning she had to use a pre-prepared one.

Finally, Conjure Object was an exercise in which items stored in a pocket dimension had to be conjured by the students onto a platform. It was a simple cantrip that any Mage in possession of a Storage Ring used—though the variability of mana grew exponentially with heavier, larger, and denser objects.

Despite the simplicity of the exams, Gwen felt an oppressive unease as she walked among the crowd. She felt a tingle in the spine that warned her of crisis, but Gwen had anticipated that. She was, after all, here to demonstrate her prowess, and there were immutable risks in combat that went beyond skill and expertise.

Standing almost half a head taller than the crowd in her pump combat boots, she scanned the crowd with her eyes, wondering why there was this uncomfortable feeling that she was being intently watched.

"I think she sees us," Lulan Li murmured to her dearest elder brother, the corner of her lip curling belligerently as she observed the Void Sorceress scanning the room. Seeing Gwen Song's absurdly tall figure was pissing Lulan off even from this distance.

She had wanted to challenge and beat down the skanky foreigner for weeks now, but each time her eldest brother had stood in her way.

"You're a second year," he told her. "What would people think of our Clan? What would people think of me if you had to save my face in my stead?"

Lulan puffed her cheeks churlishly.

Of course, big brother Kusu was right, but Lulan wouldn't have minded if she took on that burden. If anyone dared to call Kusu a 'soft rice eater', she would break every bone in their body.

The girl's eyes scanned toward them.

"There! She just saw me!" Lulan exclaimed excitedly.

"Steady now. You don't want to frighten our prey," Kusu replied.

"She's strong." Hui, her Clan brother, gifted in Divination, whispered back in hushed tones. "Are you sure we should be doing this? What about her backers?"

"Of course!" Lulan snapped at the man, the pressure of her bearing making him wince. She was his younger sister, but Lulan was more powerful by magnitudes. "This upstart has had her day for too long. We've left her alone until now, but as I said, I have it on good authority that she's no longer an inheriting part of the Song. Their Patriarch couldn't care less for her. Hee-hee, we're probably doing the old man a favour."

"Still, don't underestimate an LCSS candidate. She did get the full scholar—"

"She got in because of her connections!" Lulan seethed at her middle brother. "You think big-brother Kusu would lose his full-scholarship to a back-door customer like her? We'll have her know she's dug her own grave."

"Shut it, the both of you," Kusu silenced the both of them. "It's starting. I am going to announce my challenge."

"Alright, big brother, you show that Guan-er-dai the power of someone who isn't sitting in the Dean's lap!"

Lulan felt her heart soar. Finally, it was time to vindicate the shame of her most talented eldest brother losing his full scholarship to some green-eyed hussy from the Frontier!

Gwen's eyes passed over the familiar faces of a group of Mages with faces so similar that they were unmistakably related. One of them, the girl, glared at her with a hunger that was palpable from across the room.

One of them, the eldest, suddenly stepped forward.

Instantly, her heart sank.

"HALT! I declare a spar against the acolyte Gwen Song!"

Her silence answered the challenge.

Besides her, Gwen's Conjuration cohort parted, revealing to everyone but Gwen's surprise, the Clan Mages who'd ambushed and mocked her outside the training hall weeks prior. She wasn't sure if she had 'beef' with them, but she'd avoided them since. The way they presented themselves looked as though they would not take 'no' for an answer, and Gwen wondered if refusing would make matters worse.

She considered her present condition.

It was better that they called her out now rather than in the privacy of her training sessions. So long as they fought in public, Gwen felt that she could handle them.

The young man who stepped forward was a little shorter than her, with a sharply chiselled face that would have been cruel but for his bright and intelligent eyes. He wasn't a mean-looking sort. Instead, the man possessed a bookish, scholarly charm.

"I, Kusu Li of the Huashan Sect, wish to challenge Gwen Song of the House of Song to a duel," The young man declared formally, then bowed. "Please accept my duel."

As expected, he was a Clanner. Gwen felt ambivalent about his challenge. It wasn't good to get involved with the Clans, nor was it good turn ignore them.

"Do you accept, Gwen Song?" he repeated himself, raising his head.

Besides Gwen, her Familiars began to hiss and growl menacingly. Her Mongolian Death Worm opened its carapace and lashed out with pink-and-cobalt tentacles while her marten struck out its tongue rudely.

Gwen weighed her options. There was no shame in being pragmatic with one's enemies. As with Dai Fung, she needed more HDMs to offset her LRM Projector costs.

To fight, or not to fight?

To profit?

Humans die for riches, and birds risk beak and claw for feed.

Who wouldn't risk life and limb for more time to chum with Evee?


Magister Birch furrowed his brows from his side of the lecture podium, then looked toward Gwen Song for an answer. The challenge was valid, but the girl was well within her rights to decline. The etiquette was to accept regardless of one's chances of victory—for that was the pride of possessing courage, or at least respect, for walking one's path of Spellcraft.

What worried the Magister was that an accident, especially one that may mar the girl's health, would come back to haunt him. She was Wen's precious specimen, Dean Luo's prized pitbull and Klavdiya's darling. Should the hammer of blame come down, it wouldn't care for truth, only that he was neglectful in protecting the collective benefit brought by the Void sorceress.

As for the challenger, Birch was confident enough in the Huashan Sect's skill to acknowledge that they had sufficient means for their champion to defeat Gwen Song even at her best.

So the question remained, should he intervene?

He knew that stopping the match would be the safest course of action.

But Birch couldn't help but feel that having the granddaughter of Guo Song taught a lesson wasn't a displeasing prospect. With his ability, the girl should be perfectly safe.

Therefore, he would bequeath her the privilege of answering for herself and see if the girl was as good as Lou touted her to be.

A few rows from the aggrandising Kusu, Lu Fung was also at a crossroad. If Dai's object of desire became humiliated by this upstart from the rural province of Huashan, it would surely ruin his elder brother's sport. Yet, he couldn't step in, for intervening would countermand Dai's orders to leave Gwen Song alone.

As Lu hesitated, the opportunity passed him by, for the girl had designs of her own.

"I accept," she replied with nonchalance. "But not without condition."

"State your condition then," Kusu remained diplomatic, though Lu could see his sister seething beside the mild-mannered Sword Mage.

"Promise me that you will leave me alone when you lose and that you and your Clan will not bother me incessantly. I lack the leisure to entertain sore _losers_."

The gathered crowd of Conjurers sucked in a collective breath of cold air. The solemnity was held for several fragile seconds; then, someone broke the tension by laughing loudly. Lu almost burst out in laughter himself. The Mao-bespoken confidence of the girl!

"You'll regret that," Kusu riposted, his face reddening from the unexpected rudeness of the foreigner.

"Watch your tongue! Shabī!" Kusu's psychotic sister opened her mouth and let loose a torrent of abuse.

Lu watched Gwen Song exhale with exaggeration. What was her plan? Piss off her opponents? Make them lose their cool? Then what?

"Care for a wager?"

"My life—" Kusu began in the typical formalism of the old Sects.

"Nothing so serious. I mean this." Gwen Song produced ten currency cards that amounted to just over a thousand HDMs. "A little show of confidence. There has to be something for me to gain, you know. I can't fight unmotivated. You win; I'll be humiliated for no reason. I win—I gain nothing. It's hardly fair."

A murmur of disbelief radiated from the centre of the crowd.

Mao! She's in for it now. Lu felt himself shaking with schadenfreude. These bumpkin rural Clanners fought duels with the same passion they fought for the honour of their mothers. And Gwen Song just offered to whore Kusu's mother for a thousand lousy HDMs. Prizefighting? What gave the girl the idea that Clanners would sully a duel with money? It was such a Western way of thinking!

Opposite, Kusu's face said it all.

It was hilarious. Absolutely hilarious to Lu that both sides lacked understanding of their stakes. The correct thing to do for Gwen was to get a friend or an ally to act on her behalf, not to insult your opponent to his face! As for Kusu, he should have anticipated the westerner's divergent values!

_That was the problem with bumpkins from the Frontiers._ Lu shook his head in wonder. The Sects were the quintessential big fish in a small pond, but goliath gropers lurked in the shallows in a place like Shanghai.

Lu pushed through the crowd for a better look.

To his surprise, Magister Birch was going through the rules of the duel.

"Conjuration spells only. First to Shield Break. Respect your opponents. No attacking after forfeiture, or you will receive an academic warning. Gwen, you will have to conjure your Familiars when combat begins."

Gwen Song nodded, then dismissed her Familiars.

The shields went up. The crowd then relocated around the tennis-sized open space.

"Ready?" Birch ordered Gwen and Kusu into separate Mandala arrays.

The first order of business was for the Mages to move via Teleportation Circles into the arena without disorientation. If the Acolytes could not even handle that, then they deserved the trashing that followed.

"Begin!"

Two bursts of silvery Conjuration appeared outside and inside the arena simultaneously, signalling the expedient entry of both contestants into the field.

The Void Sorceress appeared half a second faster than her opponent and Conjured a pulsating white-blue crystal right where her opponent was still manifesting.

As Kusu appeared, a thin Shield of semi-transparent ochre immediately went up as the Flashbang exploded, rocking the interior of the battlefield with a muffled 'thump!'.

"You're too predictable!" Kusu snarled, then, with one fluid gesture, the Sword Mage made his move. "Dagger Swarm!"

As far as Lu knew, the Huashan Clan was formerly a sword-saint Sect during the Song Dynasty. Much of their secret art was lost to the fall of Southern Song after the rise of the Yuan Centaurs, with all their Grandmasters and Masters dying in a single battle to protect the mount from the foreign invaders. To survive, they amalgamated old manuscripts with Spellcraft theory from the West, forming an original style of Magic that utilised physical objects and Daoist arcanistry. The Clan did have one or two notable young Mages, such as Lulan Li, but their male disciples were above-average but below the watermark for a tier 1 Clan like the Nantong Fungs.

Therefore, the 'daggers' summoned by Kusu were actual miniature "Flying Swords" inscribed with secret incantations. Lu watched as the implements swirled around the young man like a flock of furious quicksilver swallows.

How would Gwen Song counter?

He received his answer in the form of a signature Dimension Door that erupted in a burst of void-ink, as though someone had violently landed in a puddle of tenebrous fluid. The resulting splash consumed a dozen or so of the blades from the swarm of a hundred, visibly reducing the volume of Kusu's implements.

The Void Sorceress then appeared, as expected, behind the Huashan Mage.

_Not good._ Lu thought. She was too predictable. If even Lu could anticipate such a cliched move, his rival from another Sect would be equally apt. Combat was everything to a Clanner, their lifeblood and doctrine, and sparring was a fact of everyday training.

No sooner had Gwen appeared did another spell manifest from Kusu, this time an iron web. It wasn't a magical web but a physical set of balls and chains inscribed with the same magic.

He looked toward Magister Birch to see if the Adjudicator objected to the use of physical objects conjured from pocket dimensions. Birch's expression remained impassive.

"Caliban!" Gwen Song incanted. The slit of space between the Void and the Material Plane cleanly sliced the iron-mesh netting in twain as her creature began its ascension into the material world.

Despite the unexpected destruction of his snare, her opponent had been waiting for her to summon Caliban.

Kusu immediately responded by redirecting the "Dagger Swarm" to corner caster and Familiar. With a gesture, a rain of daggers pelted down, pinging off Gwen's Shield and gouging chunks from an enraged, semi-formed Caliban.

_Excellent play!_ Lu couldn't help but congratulate the Huashan upstart. He had placed Gwen in a terrible defensive position while he was well provisioned to respond with an offence, defence, or evasion.

Meanwhile, the Dagger Swarm continued, leaving white-streaks of impact marks all over the Void sorceress' semi-dome Shield.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

A few seconds passed.

The daggers returned for a second round—yet the shield remained.

_Abjuration!_ Lu felt his chest tighten with the affirmation of Dai's data. It was true! The girl was versed in multiple Schools of Magic! Of all the Schools of Magic, only Abjuration was unique in the strength of its Shields. If Gwen was solely a Conjurer-Evoker of Quasi-Elemental Lightning-and-Void, her shield should have cracked after the first few seconds.

"Pin him down!" Lu heard Gwen cry out, seeing Gwen's face reddening with intensifying battle lust. The girl was beginning to take this seriously as well. "Caliban! Onslaught!"

Finally, the netherworld scorpioid slipped onto the battlefield. It immediately skittered on spindly legs from a canter to a trot, launching itself toward Kusu with the momentum of a runaway harvester.

"Guard!" Kusu fell back, sheltered by a defensive formation of daggers forming a shimmering steel wall. "Misty Step!"

The Swordsmen disappeared.

"Dimension Door!"

Both Mages had chosen evasion rather than defence. Gwen Song appeared just behind the dagger wall, while Kusu's Signature version of Dimension Door materialised the Huashan Mage where she had stood.

The girl, however, once more consumed about one-tenth of Kusu's dagger with her Void-matter.

Kusu swore and retracted a portion of his Dagger Swarm, using the mass of metal as defensive barriers to repeal the monster leaping, bounding, screeching and slithering after him like a mad thing.

On the far side of the court, Gwen Song began to empower a complex Conjuration incantation.

_Whoa!_ Lu applauded internally. So that's how she's going to play it. Kusu was the more experienced tactician here, and the girl more often stepped into his anticipatory retaliation than not. If so, then she would counter action by remaining still.

"Misty Step!"

Sensing Gwen's terrific gathering of Lightning, Kusu risked direct assault from Caliban and teleported in a direct line through the creature, gambling on the fact that the Void beast could not tap into the Ethereal Plane.

"Petal Burst!" The ball of daggers exploded.

Kusu's gambit proved sound, and he emerged a safe distance away from Caliban, yet close enough to Gwen to let loose with a terrific hail of daggers. The girl's silhouette became swallowed by a cloud of hacking, flying and stabbing blades, pinging off her shield and making opaque the frontal semi-sphere.

Could her shield hold out? Lu wondered. The girl was turtling up with the hopes of finishing off a slippery opponent with artillery, but when if it worked, then it worked.

Unfortunately for Kusu, Gwen Song emerged unscathed. Even now, her shield was healing itself rapidly, with each opaque impact point returning to translucence.

"Wocao!" Lu swore. Kusu must be shitting himself. How was it possible that the girl was still holding up?! How thick was that barrier! She hadn't cheated and cast a dome-shaped Wall of Force, had she? What else was the girl hiding?

"SUMMON LESSER ELEMENTAL!" The Void sorceress finished her spell.

It had taken her almost ten seconds, but she had finally connected the Sigil with its elaborate incantations, opening up a gateway to the Quasi-Elemental Plane of Lightning.

"Shit!" Kusu swore.

The man's Dagger Swarm formed a rotating wall of flying steel that warded him from all sides. The desperate Mages' only chance of victory now lay in piercing Gwen's Shield in the next few seconds.

_But would Gwen Song give the Huashan Mage that chance?_ Lu tried to anticipate the next moment. The girl's shield proved monstrous, almost as absurd as her Void-critter.

The auditorium began to glow - her scarabs were materialising rapidly.

The tiny Elementals first manifested as motes of glowing azure.

They filled the chamber by twos and threes, then dozens, then hundreds, each hysterical and hungry for a target.

"Pierce!"

Sensing his imminent demise, Kusu forsook his barrier and forced his remaining daggers into a piercing cone. An eye-blink later, the cone launched itself with terrific force toward Gwen Song, becoming a shrieking vortex of grinding steel that penetrated the scarab swarm with impunity.

_Brilliant move!_ The crowd launched into scattered applause amidst cries of surprise and dismay, and Lu joined them. It was a strategically savvy move that followed the Thirty-Six Tactics. To attack where your enemy must save, and your offensive becomes defence itself! Gwen Song had to remain still while channelling her Elemental swarm, meaning she had to halt her attack to Dimension Door. She would soon be out of mana if she chose to shield _and_ channel, so overall, Kusu should be in an excellent position to win.

At any rate, Lu glanced at Magister Birch, whose eyes flared with silvery Conjuration. The old fogie was ready to move one or the other out of harm's way.

"Caliban!"

The Void Sorceress sent her Void Familiar to stand in her stead. The scorpion reared itself, supported by a host of hind legs, revealing a second mouth below its cephalothorax.

A wave of revulsion spread through the crowd as the thing hissed and made that horrendous "Shaa—". Its form grew denser with Void-matter. Not even Lu, whose element countered the Negative-Plane, was exempt from the aura of existential vertigo expanding from Caliban.

"Consume!"

Lu's mouth opened in sync with Caliban's.

Impossibly, the Void beast's second mouth unhinged itself with the effect of tearing itself apart. With a single gulp, it took the lion's share of the daggers, blade and hilt and all, then...

… then nothing. The rest of the daggers clattered to the floor.

By now, the scarabs had converged on Kusu, and the burst of brilliance was so bright as to smite the walls with blinding electricity.

Lu couldn't blame Magister Birch for not jumping in. He couldn't convince himself to teleport into a swarm of Lightning Scarabs either. Usually, two to three hundred was the limit. Just how much mana did Gwen Song put into a single summon?

"Gwen Song wins," Birch announced.

The electrical hysteria of the flight of the Lightning Scarabs faded.

Kusu was unconscious on the ground, convulsing all over.

Gwen stood with Caliban unsummoned, her chest rising and falling thanks to the exertion of Caliban's expectedly utilitarian Consume.

"Kusu!"

"Big-Brother!"

Kusu's siblings, the foul-mouthed sister and a middle-brother leapt onto the stage with potions and restoratives. When they concluded that Kusu was merely momentarily stunned and knocked out, they turned upon Gwen.

"Dead bitch!" the girl cursed, sending out a pulse of powerful Earthen mana so palpable that Lu could've sworn the anti-magic tiles clattered. "I am going to make this as painful as possible."

_Here we go!_ This time, Lu was determined to seize the moment.

He pushed himself from the crowd before Birch could tell the offending sister to stand down and leapt upon the stage.

"Shut your mouth! You shame the Clans with your rudeness!" Lu Fung, fourth in line to the Nantong Clan of Fung, arrived stage-left. "Have some humility, woman! Your brother Kusu lost, and that's no one's fault but his own! Go perfect your art instead of mewling like a loser!"

Lu's appearance caused a stir in the crowd as extraordinary as Gwen's defeat of the Huashan Mage.

His fellows knew that Lu wasn't some hot-blooded youth standing up for a pretty girl— but a preeminent Clan making its position known! The Fung Patriarch—Shen Fung—sat atop the Shanghai Security Council like a Land Deity! If need be, and if the Huashan' bumpkins' chose to disagree with the Fungs, he could potentially have the lot of them evicted from the city!

To Lu's pleasure, Lulan Li's face paled as soon as Lu castigated their presence. Unfortunately, the girl's face then began to change into one of simmering scarlet rage.

"Brother Lu…" the girl said quietly, dangerously. "Please stand aside."

_Who the fuck does this girl think she is?_ Lu was about to make a disparaging remark to inform her of her place when Kusu intervened. However, something deep in his bones suggested he should get the fuck out of her way.

"Brother Lu! Forgive Lulan. She's still young!"

The defeated Kusu, who had now regained his consciousness, fell to one knee and held his head downward in a show of compliance. "Lulan! Get down!"

"Big Brother!" A wave of teeth-chattering mana radiated from the girl.

"Lulan, please! Listen to Brother Lu _Fung_!" Kusu dragged his sister down to his height until they were both on one knee.

Lu, meanwhile, recovered from the bucket of cold water poured over his head.

How could he forget the infamy of Lulan Li?!

Lulan Li of Huashan!

An iron-blooded battle maniac!

The one who succeeded in forcibly practising her Clan's forbidden arts!

Thank Mao for his stature as the inheriting disciple of the Fung Clan. Any other challenger would have been mopping their guts off the arena floor by now.

"It's alright, Brother Kusu. Lulan wants what's best for you. I understand." Lu Fung measured his words and spoke carefully, assuming the tone of a wise and benevolent elder Clan-brother. "The both of you, please stand. There is no shame in this defeat. You can try again next time. I am sure you will both grow from this experience. Kusu, you fought well. I can speak to your Elder on your behalf..."

Gwen felt the colour returning to her face.

Thanks to their weekly feeding of Caliban, she could now sustain her Void spells with a far more substantial 'tank' of vitality. When Lu made her opponents genuflect, however, her Divination Sigil felt like a nail had scraped across her spine.

She turned to face Lu, who nodded at her confidently with an expectant look of someone feeling the euphoria of 'Mission Accomplished". She glanced at the girl on the floor and felt such malice rippling from the sorceress that her aura distorted the symmetry of the anti-magic tiles.

Kusu rose then aced her. The man bowed deeply then produced 1000 HDM Crystals in assorted currency cards. From the looks of the loot, it would appear the Huashan Sect was not one known for wealth.

"Your spoils, Miss Song. Thank you for the instruction," the young man spoke politely.

Gwen forced a smile to her face and nodded at Kusu, thanking him.

Despite the danger she felt from the sister, she took the money.

From below the brother, a pair of eyes the colour of shiraz burned with a hatred that made Gwen's skin crawl. She didn't need her nail-on-blackboard premonition to tell that she just stepped into a pile of proverbial horse shit up to her thighs.

Whatever this may be, it was not over by far.

_God damn it._ She thought of Elvia's Nightingale College tour de comfort.

_Why me?_


Louis Birch gave Gwen a grading of A and told her she needn't attempt the other exercises. Instead, he sent her away to the infirmary, under the supervision of the unexpectedly helpful Lu Fung. He wasn't exactly sure what business the junior Conjurer had, but his jurisdiction ended at the Lecture hall's entrance.

Now that the fight had concluded, Birch could see it was a wise decision not to intervene. _What foresight,_ he thought to himself. As expected, Gwen Song was trouble personified.

"Kusu, are you alright?" Birch turned to the other party, assuming the role of a caring mentor. He wasn't worried about Kusu's health; the young man's pride was more wounded than his body. He was more concerned about what may come. That _Lulan Li..._

"I feel fine, Sir." Kusu's pride looked more wounded than his body.

"Good. And Kusu..?"

"Yessir?"

Birch leaned in closer to give the young man a private piece of advice.

"Maybe keep a tight leash on your sister. I've dealt with her enough in second-year to know what she's thinking—or not thinking, as it were. You and I both know foresight is not her forte."

His student acknowledged his advice with a bow.

_Lulan Li,_ Magister Birch sighed as he withdrew. Another troublemaker. The younger girl was hailed as a genius of the Earthen arts. At fifteen, she entered Fudan and progressed almost exclusively through questing credits until reaching her second-year specialisation. The girl was initially slated for an LCSS placement, but after what she did to her opponent...

For a non-combat instructor like Birch, there were good reasons why Lulan Li usually took her lessons away from Shanghai. Then again, he mused to himself; maybe Gwen and Lulan deserved each other—like fighting fire with fire.

Despite the well-fought match, it wasn't hard for Birch to imagine that Lulan felt Gwen had cheated. After all, what kind of Conjurer-Evoker had an Abjuration Shield? Not to mention Gwen's Shield was more robust than an Abjurer's of the same tier. Then there was her Familiar's ability to consume Kusu's implements without dying. How was her brother supposed to fight that?

Having taught both, he knew a little of their circumstances: Kusu wasn't an inheriting disciple of the main branch but had every ambition to make it to the top. The boy was gifted, but his sister was one of a kind—and therein lied the trouble.

Birch fantasised about intervening, then stopped at that.

It would take someone far better connected than he to ensure the incident did not blow out of proportion. Who the hell thought it was a good idea to rile the Clanners up?

Maybe he should visit Klavdiya?

He would love nothing more than to see her again; not the imperfect facsimile that was her granddaughter, but the perfection of her face, all the richer for the passage of years.

"I am fine." Gwen's mind was still thinking of Lulan Li as she spoke, recalling the girl looked like she wanted to drink her blood then and there.

"If you're sure." Lu stepped away from her politely, keeping a respectful distance as she sat on the infirmary's white bedding.

"I've still got Evocation Practicals. I just need an hour's meditation, that's all."

"I'll speak to Magus Young if you like," Lu offered kindly.

Gwen shook her head. Clanners being _nice_ to her? That itself was enough to set her packing. "Thank you, Lu. You've done plenty enough for me."

The Fung member had insisted on escorting her to the infirmary east of the campus. For a Clanner who was usually aloof and utterly neglectful of her presence, the Spirit Conjurer had behaved like one of those smitten men in inane idol-dramas, making her doubly nervous.

After Lu left, she double-checked her surroundings with Detect Magic, then told the presiding nurse that she would like some privacy for a few hours to restore her mana and focus. The nurse complied, pulling close the curtains, and told her to call if she began to feel worse.

Confident she was alone, Gwen began her meditation, feeling her Druidic essence restore her Void-ravaged mana conduits. As her body healed, she attempted to figure out if her latest incident was spontaneous or a part of something more significant.

She began with her immediate concern.

Kusu Li and Lulan Li.

She had seen them once before down at the training hall.

They were the ones who had cornered her once, whom she had elected to ignore. Did they challenge her because they thought she was an easy persimmon to squash? A little fig of fame, plump for the plucking?

Gwen knew that she was somewhat notorious because of the infamy brought by her Void talent, her Scholarship, and her relationship with Petra. With the addition of Caliban's high-impactful visual presence during her bestiary training, she was likely a well-known personality on the Upper Campus.

Was that why Kusu challenged her?

It made sense logically.

In European history, a young Henry V challenged Percy Hotspur and killed him for the 'garlands' of fame and honour taken from the warrior-prince. It was central to Henry V's plan to assume the throne by building a reputation for himself.

If so, then why was Lu trying to help her? They were both Clanners, and they knew each other. Kusu even called Lu Elder-Brother.

That being the case, was this orchestrated by both of them?

Was Kusu supposed to thrash her, then Lu comes to the rescue to impress her?

Was Dai Fung a part of this?

Then again, Dai still owed her a favour. Maybe she could look into that. That was one way to resolve this problem, but further contact with yet more Clanners was the last thing she desired.

She wanted to keep meditating, but her time was up.

1400—time for Evocation Prac.

Evocation took place on the Lower Campus Training Grounds in a set-up zone for large-scale magical demonstrations.

Portable "WoF" generators had been set up across two football fields, dividing the malleable, transmuted asphalt with simmering barriers. Various Dummy-golems given life with simplistic Animate Lesser Objects formed a line of stackable targets that, from a distance, looked comically like a wooden marching band. As with Conjuration, the examination was split between combat and utility.

As Gwen walked onto the field, she became surrounded by her usual companions in Evocation, the phonically challenged Pu, the haughty Lily, as well as the quiet Material Engineer -Jon.

The trio immediately surrounded her.

"Mao below! Pu and Lily told me about what happened during Conjuration. Are you alright?" Jon inquired, his bookish face red with worry. Usually, the boy kept to himself and was the ardent listener of the foursome. "The Clanners… I don't know. Couldn't you have refused?"

In hindsight, Gwen wished she'd refused as well. She had made a call on imperfect information, and now she had to live the consequences. But it wasn't as though Gwen thrashed the man. It was a good duel and a lovely spectacle. Conversely, given opportunity and Evocation, she could have jacked up Ariel with a Druidic boost and potentially dropped the poor man with a single Elemental Sphere or a well-placed Lighting Bolt.

The young man had been amiable enough, humble and accepting of his defeat. Lu helped, and Magister Birch had certified her victory - what more was there to be done? She'd done her part.

Or maybe it was the money? Gwen felt a rash of cold sweat. Kusu had given her denomination as small as 5 HDMs. Perhaps she had accidentally bankrupted the guy? If someone had ruined her finances, she would be feeling sore indeed.

Then again, Gwen reminded herself. She had done what was best for herself in the circumstances, going as far as to leave Kusu unscathed. If that Elemental Swarm had been Void or if she finished him with a Void Tentacle...

_Yikes_.

"I've got it under control," Gwen assured her friends. "I've got back-up as well, haha."

"You're friends with Petra Kuznetsova and studying under Magister Wen, right?" Pu asked doubtfully, his lack of confidence written all over his face. "Are they going to help you? Magister Wen is famous for her indifference to these things."

"It's not Magister Wen who's going to help. I know that Gwen's the niece of Jun' The Ash Bringer' Song," Lily spoke up, far more confident than her companion in Gwen's bravado.

The two boys turned to regard Gwen with a new light.

"But he's Chinese! And you're..."

"He's quarter-Russian. Though he takes after my Grandfather," Gwen corrected them.

"Who's your grandfather?"

Gwen told them.

"You're a PLA Guan-er-dai! A power progeny!" Pu stammered. He had told Gwen to avoid association with Clanners, Guan-er-dai, and the Fu-er-dai. He and his friends were just regular, middle-class kids with a bit of talent. Involvement in a political power feud could wipe out their entire line in a single purge.

Jon looked thoroughly intimidated as well.

"I am not—it's complicated." Gwen shook her head. "The family and I are not close. I also have no desire to follow my Uncle into the PLA."

"Don't worry, we understand," Lily, who was a provincial Guan-er-dai herself, said sympathetically with a wink. The girl seemed to have reached a suitable misunderstanding involving affairs and mistresses. "I am sure your family will accept you one day. You have such an amazing talent, after all."

Gwen felt fatigued by the effort required to dispel Lily's inferred hypothesis but decided against it. Her friends were clearly 'independently aligned' students, and she was better off being seen as 'one of them' than one of the 'big three' to be avoided in Fudan.

"Still, wow, _The_ _Ash Bringer_ is your uncle," both Jon and Pu muttered reverently.

"That's why Gwen should be safe!" Lily took her arm, and they proceeded toward the centre of the practice field, where the students were assembled. "Ha, can you imagine it? Some Clanner opening their mountain gate, only to find The Ash Bringer staring them down, demanding for the prick who hurt his niece!"

"Uncle Jun wouldn't be so rash!" Gwen chuckled, realising that perhaps, she was in a better position than she'd thought. The cognisance instantly made her relax, scattering the dark cloud of paranoia that had hung overhead. In Shanghai, as in Sydney, a Mage couldn't just thrive on talent alone.

At worst, she could appeal to Uncle Jun.

She could call in her favour with Dai.

She could even ask Magister Wen, who would fight tooth and nail for her fortnightly samples.

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

Therefore, her present problems were _solved_!

Despite having spent almost five weeks with two Familiars attending class with her, Gwen's infamy in Evocation was nowhere near the level of begrudging notoriety engendered in Conjuration. She rarely used her Void powers outside of private practice, and most of the students knew her as a Conjuration Major.

For Evocation, combat trials were obstacle courses combined within a shooting range. Targets varied from stationary-single, moving-single, cluster, cluster-in-motion; to identify Friend-Foe scenarios. This final segment, where 'enemies' were placed beside 'allies', proved the real challenge. Even in Fudan, its talented Evokers had variable access to elements and spells. Thereby, the grading was geared toward problem-solving, precision and control, Spell-shaping, and situational awareness.

The rationale for such stringent training was that future graduates were independently operating agents. A secondary graduate going straight to vocation College or Military Service would also be trained in the same tactics but would lack the knowledge necessary to become anything other than NCOs.

Unlike Gwen's incident-filled morning, the afternoon proceeded smoothly.

In her class, there were prodigious standouts in Evocation. A plethora of Fire Mages scored over 90. An Earthen Mage scored over 100, performing above the scoring threshold. The student who topped the class was a Mud Mage, the first of his kind Gwen had ever seen, who had a perfect 120, going as far as to single out and destroy a target surrounded by moving, friendly dummies simulating a panicked crowd.

Gwen finished her heat with a personal best of 1 Minute and 58'11 Seconds, extinguishing eighteen of twenty targets with an aggregate score of 89.

Her companions of Evocation, Pu and Lily, finished in the mid-80s, with Jon trailing in the 60s.

Gwen didn't mind the modest score because she was bereft of a foe-seeking Spirit to guide her bolts, not to mention both Ariel and Caliban were absent from her score. She was happy with the uninspiring result, for the last thing she needed was another Clanner who would pluck a wreath from her brow to adorn their heads.

Magus Young was still excitedly congratulating the victor when Gwen told her friends that she seriously needed some food in her belly. She had used her Void abilities excessively in the morning, then skipped lunch thanks to Lu's creepy kindness. Going by the experience of the past month, another hour or two without a fortifying meal of mana-rich comfort cuisine and she would be feeling light-headed and dizzy.

Her friends urged her to be safe, going as far as to escort her home.

"Well, how about I shout you guys a nice dinner since we're all going the same way?" Gwen suggested. Familiarity breeds intimacy, after all. She had known Pu, Lily and Jon for almost six weeks now.

"Shout dinner?" Lily raised a brow.

"It means buy dinner," Gwen translated.

The boys were keen, going by their breathless anticipation. Lily sighed, overpowered by democracy.

"Alright, nothing too expensive," Lily relented.

"How about Fengbo Manor on Zhengmin Rd?" Gwen offered. "Cheap as chips, and a top watering hole too."

"What… do those words even mean?" Lily grew confused by her idiomatic expressions. Gwen realised that her Australian locutions must appear bizarre under her magically-translated Mandarin. "Is it next to a lake?"

"Whatever it might be, I am sure it's good!" Heedless of Lily's protests, the boys took their friend by her arms and began to carry her forward, urging Gwen to lead the way.

Fengbo Village was cheap but well worth the culinary visit.

The place was tiny, with a whimsical decor that alluded to a 'branch' of a 'Beggar's Clan'. Its dishes followed titles that sounded like something from an old wuxia Vid-cast, with the menu tastefully written on bamboo plaques.

"I'll take a Fengbo Platter, Wildland Beggar Pheasant, Chilli Mud-Carp soup, braised pork, Purple bamboo stir fry with preserved rabbit. Also, giant-headed fish pot, stuffed goat leg, and two tubs of Enchanting Jasmine rice."

The matron took their orders.

"Tsingtao for the table as well, Mama," Gwen ordered from the menu like a local even as her Ioun stone struggled with the pictogram calligraphy.

"You got it, Beauty!"

The middle-aged NoM lady, the chef's wife and proprietor took Gwen's order to the kitchen.

Gwen knew she was a favoured customer. Gwen usually ordered the most expensive and exotic dishes on the menu, making her a godsend for attracting customers.

"So, this your usual haunt?" Pu looked around the tiny restaurant and felt cheated that an up and coming goddess of Fudan would find comfort and solace in a place fit only for middle-class NoMs and low-rank Mages.

"They serve fresh ingredients if you order the specials," Gwen pointed out. "I guess it's not always Wildland produce, but the taste is top-notch!"

Gwen was growing guilty of being spoilt by Marong and Mayuree's maid. During a hectic week, she had eaten so often at Mayuree's generous behest that she was sure the maid had to restock the pantry twice over.

At Fengbo, her favourite food here was the 'Beggar Wildland Pheasant.'

It was a fantastic dish that Gwen had initially ordered out of curiosity. The chef first cleaned and tied off a Wildland pheasant after stuffing it with Chinese rice wine, cured ginger, shallot, coriander leaf, star anise, soy and blood sugar, then wrapped it in betel leaves, covered it in clay, then buried in a charcoal kiln and baked it for six hours.

When served, the chef personally presented himself with the cocoon, breaking the clay 'egg' with a mighty blow from a wooden hammer and releasing the famously steaming pheasant within. The juices flowed generously onto the wooden plate as the leaves came off, sending out an aroma that flooded the restaurant and about half the alleyway.

"How is it possible that I am getting food advice from a Gweilo?!" Lily moaned, her mouth salivating. "Beggar's pheasant, where have you been all my life?"

The foursome tapped their beers then dug into the dish, carving up the bird with their greasy fingers and sending up another cloud of aromatic euphoria throughout the restaurant.

"Boss! One pheasant!"

"Mama! One here as well!"

Gwen's other dishes came soon after, weighing their bamboo table until its lattice frame creaked.

"Dig in!" Gwen lavishly urged her friends to try a bit of everything.

Beers clinked, Gwen bit into a chicken leg, then almost choked.

Just as the taste entertained her tongue, she perceived a crashing premonition of danger, turning the savoury juices into rusty iron as if she'd bitten through some undercooked offal.

Gwen immediately looked about her surroundings, searching the patrons. Ashamedly, her Divination was too untrained to pinpoint hazards and recognise the source of potential dangers. Could it be her fellow diners? She wondered. Was it the man stuffing his face with jasmine rice, or perhaps the bloke who looked as though the Sichuan-fish was giving him an aneurysm?

Seeing Gwen's sudden expression of dismay, her companions' chopsticks came to a standstill.

_WHAM!_

The restaurant's bamboo gates flung open with a crash.

A girl-Mage of about five-foot-five stood at the threshold, her ochre eyes more rust than amber, burning with a circular current of Elemental Earth. She was attired in black, her silhouette tenebrous against the exterior street light.

_Wocao!_ Gwen picked up a bit of the local dialect. It's been less than six hours! Was the girl that impatient for satisfaction? Shouldn't the Clanner girl be plotting from the shadows or at least ambushing her somewhere discrete? How about bringing a few goons or calling on some allies? Gwen was sure the caution of Lulan's peers still rang in her ears.

While Gwen held her beggar's chicken in disbelief, Lulan Li strode across the bamboo tiles toward her table.

Pu stared with his mouth hanging half-open.

Jon was struggling to keep the soup in his mouth.

Lily allowed the soup to flow from her lips.

Gwen dropped the chicken awkwardly, then looked for a napkin. If the girl wanted to meet and greet, it was best performed with dignity and not orchestrated with a pheasant drumstick.

A second later, the girl was now upon them.

The restaurant was packed with primarily NoM patrons, yet every one of them, Gwen and her companions included felt the pressure unleashed by Lulan's petite body. A stench of oxidised iron permeated the air, a scent that curiously reminded Gwen of that unfortunate time in Blackheath.

"Umm..."

"Lulan, Li."

"Gwen, Song."

"I know."

"How can I help you?"

Gwen was confident she could bluff the girl. She was wearing a bib, and her hands were still sticky with grease. It was hard to face down a stone-cold sorceress, more so when your dignity was yet invested in juicy chicken bits.

"My brother's daggers. I want them returned."

"What daggers?" she asked carefully.

"The daggers you took during today's match."

"I took his daggers?"

"Don't play the fool!" Lulan snapped at her. "Your Mongolian Death Worm! It ate almost a hundred of Big-Brother's implements! I want them returned! They don't belong to you!"

_SHIT,_ Gwen confirmed that the girl was talking about the 'daggers' the Earthen Conjurer had summoned. How the fuck was she supposed to know they were magical implements? Return them? Since when did Caliban return anything?

"There's going to be a slight problem with that," Gwen replied politely. Were the daggers particularly precious? Or were they a sentimental thing?

"You better not fuck with me." Lulan's irises alternated between amber and wine, pulsating with dark emotions. The girl seemed unusually taken, Gwen noted, almost excessively so. "Those daggers took brother thousands of hours to inscribe. They're irreplaceable."

Gwen realised that that would explain why Kusu was moving them around like a telepath. She had thought that the guy had a Sword-Spirit or something. But none of that mattered now. She couldn't return—that is—Caliban couldn't regurgitate the blades.

Her dilemma left her with a problem.

The irrationality of Lulan's act was as rash as fire, more so than Yue, who would not do something as stupid as confronting a rival in public, and alone no less.

Furthermore, Gwen couldn't see why the Huashan girl would ruin herself by attacking her here. They were well within limits of the business district—her Clan was not one with influence in Shanghai's provincial government. What was Lulan getting at? Surely it can't be over some measly steak knives!? What are they, Dwarves forged Damascus? Did she have other associates outside, waiting for an ambush?

"I am afraid that's impossible," Gwen explained calmly. "Caliban consumes things in a manner directly correlated to the Void. Your brother's implements are gone—in the purest, most literal sense imaginable."

As the last of her words left her lips, the ground began to tremble.

The Elemental Earth pouring out of the girl was tectonic! Gwen's Divination Sigil pinched her nerves like she'd slipped a disk. She immediately circulated a flood of Void matter through her mana-conduits, triggering a surge of her Druidic essence. Across the table, her companions readied themselves likewise, resisting the incredible pressure exerted by the brash Earthen Elementalist.

"Don't you fucking dare," Lily warned Lulan. "My father is—"

CRACK!

Something shot their table from the top, smashing the bamboo top into a splintering mess. The recently prepared banquet erupted in a delicious cascade, sending up a fountain of hot soup, congealing grease, chunks of chicken, slices of pork, vegetables and rice into a fantastic shower.

Gwen immediately regretted not having her Familiars out. Caliban was naturally gifted at snatching flying bits of food out of the air.

" _Tamade_! That bitch is _dead_!" Lily, the fiery Evoker, staggered back from the table, her expression livid with anger as she wiped soup from her lips.

Pu and Jon likewise retreated, their clothes and faces covered with sauces.

Gwen sat without moving an inch. She knew the immediate danger had passed. Her Divination sense was no longer flaring like a swollen sinus during the pollen season.

She sighed as bits of beggar chicken fell from her hair and dripped onto her v-neck tunic, soaking her intimates with mouth-watering brine.

Picking out a leg of pork from between her thighs, she looked around to see if the owners were safe.

The patrons and the staff were fine, and their assailant was gone. Lulan Li likely made her escape during the eruption of the banquet volcano, while their attention was distracted by the earthen explosion.

"Sorry, Aunty, I'll pay for all this," she said to the terrified NoM woman cowering in the corner. "The Arbitrators should be here later. Please let them know what happened, exactly as is."

"Ayeeeya!" The woman seemed to have regained some of her sensibility. "Are you okay, Miss?! Ai-ya! Your clothes are all dirty!"

With some urgency, the lady-owner picked herself up from the floor and approached Gwen with a large towel she retrieved from the kitchen.

"We have a shower upstairs," she said helpfully. Her husband, too, was watching warily from the kitchen. The rest of the diners, in typical Shanghai fashion, either discussed the spectacle with great enthusiasm or continued eating as though nothing had happened.

Gwen's friends double-checked their surroundings and affirmed that Lulan Li was gone.

"I am going to tell my Dad. You don't worry a bit, Gwen," Lily assured her friend.

"That's alright, Lil. I don't want to involve you. I'll inform my Uncle," Gwen returned in kind, speaking a language that her friend understood.

"Wocao! Huashan Sect," Pu cursed, his face scowling. "Gwen, are you alright?"

"I-I've got pork-floss in my eye," Jon complained as he tried to rinse his face with a kettle of warm water the lady-owner provided.

"Sorry, everyone…" Gwen wrung a fistful of broth from her shirt. She could launder her outfit, but she was determined to cut her losses if it meant getting out of this sticky mess sooner.

She dropped a fistful of Kusu's HDMs on the counter and told the owner not to worry about the change.

But—was it safe to go home?

She was about five minutes from the apartment.

Maybe if she used Expeditious Retreat and Enhanced Agility?

Something wasn't right with the girl's head. That much was obvious even to Gwen. Could she bet that Lulan Li wouldn't assault her in the middle of Shanghai's second largest University District? There was a police station just a block away! There was a Tower within walking distance!

Still, could she bet her life on Lulan's rationality?

Gwen wasn't a betting sort of woman.

She pulled up her Message device and dialled for Richard.

Behind her, her Evocation companions exchanged curses and insults about their encounter with the iron idiot.

"Yes, Gwen?" Richard's voice answered.

"Hey Dick," Gwen intoned sweetly. "Can I trouble you for an escort? I am a bit ruined from an unexpected... catfight."