Jaux Ballad has always wanted to enter the realm of magic, but could not do so by regular means. In his desperation to become a magician he finds himself with more power, and more trouble, than he could ever have imagined.

*=+=*=+=*=+=*

Jaux woke up to find herself right outside the room with Theema's artifacts. Her back was propped up against the cold gray stone of the hallway. She might have believed she dreamt the whole interaction with the goddess, if her skin didn't feel so tender where the tendrils had carved in. She wasn't sure how much time had passed, but the hallway was still empty and it looked like no one had found her yet. Strangely enough, when she inspected her arms for the marks Theema left, she only saw her usual smooth skin.

What exactly was that goddess trying to do?

The tattoos that were carved into her were not visible, at least under her normal vision. When Jaux activated her magic reading sight, she was able to see the thin lines of purple light that ran up her entire body. The symbols were harder to see through her clothes, but she could still roughly make them out under the robe and nightie. The structure of all the patterns and runes vaguely reminded her of Frey's ancient tile, so she believed that some magic spells might have been carved into her body. She couldn't gaze into her own face, but she knew that the tattoos extended there as well. There was a lingering numbness on her whole body that resembled the feeling of having just fallen into a thorny bush.

Jaux's left arm had had the most unique tattoos out of the rest of her body. It had smooth and curving lines that swirled all over the place like twisting grapevines. A line of four eye-sized circles also ran up her left arm. One of the bubbles was drawn on the back of her hand, and the other three went up her forearm. There were no runes drawn on this arm, and all the twisting line patterns converged at the tips of her fingers.

"Another approaches. You should move if you still don't intent to be discovered here." Theema's voice said in Jaux's mind.

The voice of the goddess had startled Jaux, almost causing her to scream out in surprise. Theema's message wasn't wrong, there was indeed a person who was slowly approaching. Jaux made sure to move swiftly and silently away from the mass of incoming magic.

When she found herself back in the central hall, Jaux spoke out to the goddess. "You're watching me?"

"Yes, it is a part of our contract's new magics. I can see through your eyes, listen with your ears, and speak to your mind. However, I can only do so when you're using my gift of the Winter Sight. I am not one to intrude on privacy."

Well, at least Theema could be considerate, not including the involuntary transformation and magic tattoos.

"What exactly is this contract supposed to do?" Jaux asked as she made her way back to her room.

"It does many little things, and they all add up." replied the goddess. "In essence, I have given you an ability similar to my own left arm. You may consume the energy of up to four spirits. You just need to defeat them or their vessel first, and then plunge your arm into their bodies."

"Uh... I don't think I can do any of that."

"You must, child." Theema demanded. "As payment for my power, there are two specific targets that you must steal energy from. The first will be the current High Priest of the Bright Noon, while the second must be a ghost from the Realm of Broken Space.

"Hey! I never even asked for your power, you did that on your own. Plus, I'm still new to magic! I'm pretty sure I would get my butt kicked by either of those things." Whined Jaux.

While Jaux talked to the goddess, an early bird student pasted her on the stairs. The student watched her in confusion as they walked by each other. To everyone else, Jaux appeared to be speaking to herself.

"I don't mind waiting a while for my payment, I've done nothing but wait for all of my existence. You will have one cycle around your sun, starting now, to obtain one of the two required spirit energies." Mandated Theema.

"One year? I guess I can... try?" Said Jaux.

After that, the voice of the goddess grew silent. The sound of distant footsteps now echoed through Jaux's mind, most of them being her own. The Lyceum was still sleeping, only very few contributed to the fight against the silence.

Jaux decided it was okay for her to shift her sight back, so she did. Then she made her way back to her dorm room. The day still appeared to be young, her interaction with Theema hadn't taken long enough for anyone to even leave their rooms yet.

=+=+=

"Where were you, Suhara?!" Frey yelled out as soon as Jaux entered the room.

"I told you she was fine," grumbled Tricks, "should have just let us sleep."

"Well, as long as she's okay," yawned Desyi, "you should calm down a bit Frey."

"I was, uh, down in the library." Jaux decided to say. "I wanted to know more about priests and stuff so I did some morning reading."

"Ah, that's... please let one of us know if you plan on wandering outside next time, okay?" Frey insisted.

"Okay." Jaux replied with a little smile.

Frey went up and squeezed Jaux with a little hug, happy that her novi was fine. "What did you end up learning at the library?"

"Uh... something about priests of Bright Noon and somewhere called Broken Space." Answered Jaux.

"Wow, sounds cool," said Frey, "never heard about a place called Broken Space."

Then Frey gave Jaux a little kiss on the forehead, before letting go and heading into the bathroom. The little sign of affection was new to Jaux, who wasn't sure if it was a thing that girls did or something else.

=+=+=

Jaux switched out to a lighter set of peach colored robes, now that she no longer needed to sneak around the Lyceum. Today was another school day, which meant two new classes for her. She would also get to brag to Sellwall about being able to cast every spell he gave her.

The first class was about arithmetical magic, which Jaux was soon sure she would never bother to use. Math wasn't exactly what one would expect to learn in a magic school, after all. She really didn't want to go around learning about time delays or containment designs. The old woman who taught the class had guaranteed that arithmetical magic would be extremely important in the future, but Jaux just couldn't convince herself to believe the claim.

Jaux spent the majority of her first class rubbing her arms and thinking about Theema. The lecture had been reduced to just a dull and senseless buzz in her ears. Her skin still had no marks, and what was left of the slight sting over her body slowly faded. Soon, she would not even know the tattoos existed until she looked upon herself with her Winter Sight.

The second class was alchemy, which managed to create much more interest for Jaux. The lesson was also the first time Jaux ever set foot in an apothecary. She never really thought of potions as very interesting magic before, since many well known medicines included potions. However, ever since Jaux learned about Norman, and how he was an ace class student who used potions, she'd become curious about what potions could really do.

Each student had an assignment of a potion they were supposed to create. The smelly and stuffy room was filled with the sounds of flipping pages, pouring liquids, and the sharp thumps of tools against a stone cutting board. Since Jaux was new, her very first assignment was to study the introduction of her new textbook:

Potions are mixtures of ingredients, primarily organic elements. The three types of potion elements are active, passive, and substance. Active ingredients are harvested from creatures, while passive ingredients are plants. Substance elements are inorganic components included in potions.

Alchemy is an academic and artistic pursuit to produce the most powerful abilities, while minimizing unintended effects.

When Jaux finished her reading, the teacher instructed her in how to create a basic potion that would relieve thirst. Jaux didn't see the point of this, since the potion was primary water, but apparently drinking the potion was supposed to cure more thirst than just drinking the water by itself.

By the end of alchemy class, Jaux had no idea if she actually made any progress... for obvious reasons.

=+=+=

The specialty class was the same as always. The lesson felt much like a friendly club of bored equals. Sellwall didn't have any new spells for Frey, which didn't seem to surprise Frey at all. Gifts like the ancient tile seemed to not be a common occurrence.

Sellwall was delighted when he heard about Jaux's success with curses. "Fantastic! Simply wonderful! You have quite an affinity for your specialty then, yes indeed! Oh, Frey was quite right to claim you my dear, I can clearly see future archmages of the power genre sitting right before me!"

"Now Sellwall, please don't ruin Suhara by inflating her ego." Frey complained. "I think you should teach her some more advanced curses before you throw out all your praise."

Meanwhile, Jaux blushed from all the embarrassment, and resorted to withdrawing her head into her robes. Her classmates, Frey especially, thought it was beyond cute.

"Yes, of course." Sellwall agreed with Frey, placing a much larger black spellbook in front of Jaux.

"This is the standard book of curses," the zealous teacher explained, "it contains nearly every well known form of curse magic. Suhara, my dear, I want you to learn as many spells as you can from this book. If you can learn, let's say... fifteen standard spells, five advanced spells, and one master class spell... then I will start retrieving uncommon or forbidden curse spells like I do for Frey's blessings."

Jaux's face split into a huge gaping smile at Sellwall's proposition. She hastily grabbed the book and hugged it to her body, her eyes glimmering with childlike glee. "Oh, I will, I definitely will!"

=+=+=

Frey took Jaux to the first floor market for a bit more shopping before they returned to their room. A couple new scarves, hats, cloaks, gloves, and shoes were now stuffed into the boxes and bags they carried. Frey actually had to suspend a number of packages into the air since neither of them could hold so much stuff.

Everything was paid for by Frey, who Jaux now knew for sure to be absolutely rich. Apparently Frey must have been a part of a very successful caravan.

Then they were both surprised on their way to Jaux's wardrobe cabinet.

Lying in the center of Jaux's bed was a magical staff. A very familiar staff.

A staff made with pitch black stone.