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.

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Curfews were one of the least important things in the world to people when there's a crisis.

Time was slowly eroding into morning, but Desyi still hadn't returned. Tricks and Frey were both extremely concerned at this point, and went out to see if they could get some answers somewhere. The duo ultimately decided that the entrance guards would be the most likely to know at this hour.

There was currently a single armored mage guard standing by the entrance of the Lyceum.

"Halt, students. It is far past cur-"

"Fuck curfew, we need answers, doorman!" Tricks shouted.

"What she means to say," said Frey as she got between the guard and Tricks, "is that one of our roommates did not return from an outing, and we want to know why."

"Ah. I understand," replied the guard, "but you'll have to get that information from the school offi-"

"We aren't waiting around when our friend could be in danger, you troll!" Tricks interrupted again. "What in the world happened to the Galosrea group?"

"I am not auth-"

"TELL US!" Tricks shouted in an amplified volume as she spontaneously morphed into the shape of a gigantic and horned two-headed lion.

"Ah!" Yelled the guard in surprised. "Pirate raid while some students were on a merchant ship, I don't have anything else!"

"Open the gate." Frey firmly instructed while Trick's snarled menacingly in the background.

The panicking guard quickly pressed on the runes to bring the iron plate down, before he backed away from the two girls.

"Useless." Frey silently muttered when the guard was out of earshot.

Frey was not a fan of the armored mages. They guarded the Lyceum, but more often than not the mages in the school had to just defend themselves. The guards were more of a decoration than anything, and any student expert class or above could likely beat them in a fight.

Tricks dropped her illusion once the iron entrance plate was lowered down far enough to jump through. She turned both herself and Frey invisible, so that they couldn't be found or followed.

=+=+=

It wasn't possible for students to hijack one of the Lyceum wagon transports, so Frey and Tricks traveled by combining a bit of flight magic with Frey's ancient speed boosting blessing. The effects were a bit unstable when used together, and the two nearly crashed several times, but they were able to make it to Galosrea just before sunrise.

One of the docks in Galosrea was burnt black and smelling of smoke. Several Galosrean knights were keeping guard on the scene and telling citizens to stay back. There were also a few Marlifa girl mages standing around, but Desyi wasn't among them.

"What happened here?" Frey asked one of the girl mages who was sitting on a barrel.

"The teacher was having a meeting on the merchant ship, a few of the students went with her." The witch said. "Then a bunch of these small rowboats popped out from underwater, then pirates started attacking and boarded the ship. I didn't see what happened in there, but after a while the ship sailed away."

"Where'd the ship go?" Tricks questioned the girl.

"Dunno, it kinda glowed for like a second, and then it sorta just went into the water with like a big bubble thing around it." The girl explained.

"Damn it!" Tricks cursed in frustration. "What should we do now?!"

Frey looked out to the sea and pondered for a few minutes, trying to think of a strategy.

"Let's go find an apothecary," Frey suggested, "we just need some potions for water-breathing."

=+=+=

Jaux woke up alone.

It was the second time she ever woke up alone in the Lyceum, with the first time being when she got collared by Frey. The memory made Jaux a little paranoid, so she wiggled her body around just to make sure nothing new was attached to her body.

There wasn't anything new, but Jaux was reminded of how weird her body still was. Her breast jiggled with her movements now, and she wasn't sure how to feel about that.

A shower never helped with the morning confusion. Jaux wasn't as reserved about touching her new body parts, but she never enjoyed any of the feelings. It couldn't really be described as bad or anything, but Jaux still had old habits and instincts regarding his body parts.

It was a lot like washing your hair after you just chopped most of it off. A person would still have the habit of grabbing their long hair with a sweep of their hands, but then their hands would miss and their new hair length would dawn on them again. Whenever Jaux's hands tried to scratch her face, they got obstructed by the new mounds of flesh on their way up. Hair was always getting in her way and she didn't know where to put it. Things he used to be able to reach by the tips of his fingers were now just a little too far away for her.

People rarely find themselves suddenly shorter for some reason, but when they do they could discover the ridiculously useless power of being able to miss doorknobs. A new body meant you had to learn to move all over again, paying attention to all the little things you were supposed to know by muscle memory at this point. It was like the feeling of freshly cut nails, but extended down every corner of your body.

How exactly was a boy supposed to react when he starts feeling wedgies inside of his crotch?

Jaux couldn't really ask anyone for help in dealing with her issues. There wasn't any way to explain why she suddenly forgot how to be a girl, not without admitting to some really bad lies. Obviously, her roommates wouldn't be okay with the knowledge that they were sleeping with a former boy for the last week. There was no way she was going fix that lie, she'd have to carry it to the grave.

=+=+=

Anyone could potentially use magic.

Unfortunately, that also means that anyone could potentially abuse magic.

Desyi was currently bound by magical chains, guarded by a small group of pirates that were currently raiding the merchant vessel. She managed to count a total of eight pirates with powerful magical abilities during the raid, at least one of them was as powerful as a master class Marlifa mage.

Two dozen other less powerful pirates armed with swords didn't help matters.

If Desyi fought together with her escort teacher and the two other Marlifa mages, it would be an even fight at best.

Desyi hated even fights.

The escort teacher seemed to hate even fights as well, because she surrendered before any real combat took place.

Even fights mean that each side had roughly the same chance of being beaten, and in cases that these that meant death. Desyi didn't plan on acting until they had an advantage.

So far, being wrapped in chains wasn't helping. Sitting on the deck of a ship with a huge amount of water hovering overhead was also most definitely the opposite of an advantage.

There wasn't much hope unless help arrived, which was why Desyi had been throwing out signals.

Galosrea was a warm coastline. People never see any ice in the waters.

Whenever Desyi knew eyes weren't on her, she would fire off a small freezing spell at the water that surrounded the ship. This caused ice to form and float all the way to the top. A single bit of ice was hard to spot in the open sea, but her ice took a long time to melt, and she'd been doing this for more than sixteen hours.

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Frey and Tricks were out on a rowboat with two other Marlifa witches and three knights that were proficient at magic. Everyone on the boat was a strong swimmer, and knew how to dive deep into the ocean.

They couldn't drink the underwater breathing potions and start looking, since that would take far too long. Instead they were trying to find something that would narrow their search. Frey had been hoping that they could spot the outline of the bubble that was underwater.

"Hey!" One of the knights suddenly spoke up. "There's some ice over there, we never see any ice in Galosrea!"

Sure enough, there was a cluster of ice a few meters away. The area looked like a small scale duplicate of a cold arctic ocean, with tiny icebergs bobbing in the water.

"Bet that's Desyi." Tricks said as she pulled one of the pieces of ice out from the sea.

There was a small splash as another chunk of frost erupted out from the waters.

"Yeah, definitely Desyi." Frey agreed.

"Okay, everyone drink up, let's get ready to raid the raiders!" Tricks announced as she downed her indigo colored potion.

"Remember people, we're dropping in from the top of the bubble." Instructed Frey. "Make sure Tricks goes in before you do, or else no one will be able to catch you when you start falling towards the ship."

"We gotta hit em fast people, take out any pirate on sight and release any hostage you can." Added Tricks.

"Don't forget to cast your pressure resistance enchantments, we have no clue how deep we're going." Frey noted, before she leap into the ocean.

Tricks followed right behind Frey, and the two were immediately joined by the other five from their group.

=+=+=

Jaux bumped into Rales Grecord, the blond wizard from the thieves incident, down on the first floor. She had just paid a quick visit to the old wand shopkeeper, and then unexpectedly bumped into Rales out in the hall.

"Oh, nice to see you again." Rales said when she recognized Jaux.

"Hm? Oh! Hi! Uh... Greycorn right?" Jaux replied.

Rales chucked a bit of Jaux's pronunciation. "Actually, it's Grecord, but you were very close."

"Oh! I'm so sor-"

"No no no, don't worry about it. I'm particularly terrible with names as well. Although actually, I don't think I know yours."

"Ah, I'm... uh... Suhara Ballad."

"Suhara huh, sounds familiar, but I can't quite place it."

"It's, uh, it's an old word for magic back in Western Beradina."

"That's what it was, yes. Very good name for a pretty girl such as yourself."

"Th-thanks."

"Hm... I know it's a school day, but if you have some time before your first class, perhaps I can show you my research room?" Rales offered, gesturing at the hallway where Theema's artifact room was also located in.

Suhara glanced at the hallway, pondering the offer. She was a bit curious at what was behind all the other doors in the research hall. "Yeah, that would be nice."

"Great! Let's go then." Rales said as he offered his elbow to Jaux.

For a moment, Jaux had no idea what the elbow was for. Then the action dawned on her, and she nervously linked arms with Grecord.

"I see you have a new staff." Rales noted as he indicated Sevla, which was strapped to Jaux's back.

"Ah, yeah, it was a gift."

"Well, I think it suits you nicely."

"Thank you very much, Mr. Grecord." Jaux replied.

"No need for misters, Suhara, I'm not a teacher you know. Just call me Rales."

"Er, okay."

"Here we are!" Rales announced as they stopped in front of a door carved with dark red wood.

Rales took out a wand and waved it in a complex motion, which caused the door to open up.

The inside of the research storage room was beautiful. Shiny trinkets were everywhere, making the room sparkle. There were crowns, amulets, tiaras, scepters, swords, bracelets, and all sorts of other items.

"I study enchantments, particularly the enchantments of ancient royalty." Rales explained as he picked up a bejeweled scepter. "Royal enchantments are among the most powerful in terms of defensive ability. Makes sense when you consider how important royalty is meant to be protected. If you wore an outfit of as many of these items as you could, I'd say almost nothing could hurt you."

"Wow." Jaux whispered in awe. "You must have a fortune in here, no wonder the thieves tried to steal from you..."

"Ha, oh yes, I can't thank you enough for that. It's a good thing the thieves were so bad at breaking out as opposed to breaking in." Rales joked.

Jaux walked carefully around the room, trying not to break anything that was out on display. Then she spotted a bracelet made of black stone on one of the tables. It looked awfully familiar with what her staff was made with. It was even decorated with four purple gemstones sticking out from the side.

"Who used to own this?" Jaux asked as she pointed at the bracelet.

"Hm? Oh yes, that one does match your staff and collar, doesn't it? If my memory is correct, it was the bracelet that was worn by the Princess of Jubon Fida, an ancient kingdom that had unfortunately disappeared for some unknown reason." Rales answered as he picked the bracelet up. "It has an enchantment that makes it virtually unbreakable, and another enchantment that alters its size so that it could be worn by anyone. I think there are some other enchantments as well, but I haven't been able to decipher them."

Rales demonstrated the resizing feature by pulling the bracelet outwards with both hands. The bracelet automatically stretched, becoming a small and thin hoop. The gemstones were the only things that stayed the same size, while the black stone looked like some kind of wet clay whenever the resizing enchantment was activated.

"It's good, isn't it? You can keep it, actually." Rales told Jaux as he handed over the bracelet. "Think of it was a very long overdue thank you."

"Oh, no, I can't." Jaux disagreed as she tried to give the bracelet back. "This is an artifact, it must be priceless!"

Rales took the bracelet back for a second, but then grabbed Jaux's left arm and resized the bracelet onto her wrist.

"Hey!" Jaux whined as she tried to pull the bracelet off, but couldn't activate the resizing enchantment.

"You'll need two hands to take that off, which means you'll need someone else to do it." Explained Rales. "Of course, I'm not going to do it, so you'll have to keep it."

Jaux glared at Rales with a displeased pout, trying to wordlessly convey her annoyance with Rales' stubbornness.

Apparently she didn't do it right, because Rales ended up leaning in and giving her a quick kiss on her lips.