Bookbound Bunny

Lily didn't stay much longer with Alice as she needed to have lunch before her next class started. She also belatedly realized that she had left poor Lotte outside and rushed out to apologize profusely.

Lotte was squatting against the wall and playfully poking at Jade, apparently trying to coax her into doing a flip, roll, or some other form of trick. However, the lizard was apparently stubborn and refused direction unless bribed with treats.

"I'm so sorry!" Lily blurted out.

"Oh hey, it's fine," Lotte casually dismissed it, standing up and stretching her legs. "Not like I had anything better to do since it's some time until our next class. Speaking of which, here's your schedule, since you missed Beatrice."

Lotte handed Lily a piece of parchment. Written on it were her lesson schedules, as well as the room number and the floor on which it was located. It appeared that their next lesson was "Spellcasting Fundamentals."

"Oh, thank you," Lily finally replied after quickly scanning through the page before handing it over to Arakil.

"No problem. Oh, right, electives only start next week! That gives me some time to get some more private lessons before we actually start," Lotte said with a wink.

"Oh, that's a bummer…"

"What? Already bored of trying to teach me?"

"What? No, no," Lily quickly denied it. "I'm talking about the lessons only starting next week. I was looking forward to starting as soon as possible."

"Only teasing you, I get it," Lotte said, sticking out her forked tongue. "Now let's go grab lunch before it's too late."

They hurried off and went to the cafeteria, this time using the communal one for the first time. It was pretty crowded, although Lily caught sight of Thomas waving over to them, and after they grabbed a tray of food, they joined him.

Thomas wasn't alone; also at the table was Arthur, as well as the girl from earlier who had confidently declared her victory. She had long, voluminous white hair that flowed down her back, accented by two golden ornaments nestled near her soft, furred ears. Her eyes were a striking shade of yellow, sharp and attentive behind a pair of pink half-rimmed glasses.

The two appeared to be in some sort of playful argument about the future competition, and poor Thomas was caught in the middle. Lily wasn't exactly sure what type of demi she was, and when she caught sight of a white, bushy tail, she found herself even more confused.

When Arthur spotted Lily, he smirked, "I told you to wear a sign!"

"I'm not wearing a sign…" Lily grumbled and sat down.

He grinned and then noticed Lotte. "Is this your infamous dragon sister? No, wait, she was in class with you, so that can't be right…"

"Maybe I'm the one who needs a sign," Lotte sighed. "No, I'm not a dragon. Just a Serpia, I'm afraid."

"Well, that's good news for us then," the other girl responded, elbowing Arthur in the rib. "Zephyrix wouldn't stand a chance if both its opposing factions had dragons."

"Ha, I say bring on the dragons," Arthur replied confidently, before gesturing towards the girl and facing the two new arrivals. "By the way, this is Hana. She's a bit cocky, but I think she might be the only one in Zephyrix who can keep up with me."

"As if you're one to talk about being cocky," Thomas muttered under his breath.

"I'm Lily, I'm in Maranix."

"Lotte, also in Maranix."

"Damn, looks like we're outnumbered at this table now," Arthur chuckled. "Nice to meet you, Lotte."

"Nice to meet you two, looks like this year will be quite fun," Lotte said.

"Pleasure to meet you both," Hana also replied before turning to Lily. "So, are you really Nina's daughter?"

"Um… I guess?" Lily replied uncomfortably. "Alice seems to think so."

"And the first Lagia mage, that's quite the pedigree," she added. "I guess I'll shine a little less brightly than I had originally anticipated."

"Ha! I said basically the same thing, although I'm actually quite happy about that," Lotte replied.

"I'm not happy about it…" Lily whined. "Alice even said I'm likely to stand out even more because of my star magic."

"Oh, definitely, that magic is super flashy," Lotte agreed. "I thought you had already come to terms with it?"

"You… don't want to stand out?" Hana asked, looking quite perplexed.

"Not at all. I'd like to be in the background doing my thing if possible."

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"I guess you'll need to find a new rival, Hana," Arthur replied.

Hana sighed, "I was hoping I'd found a kindred spirit."

"Why me?" Lily asked.

"Well, we are both demis that aren't normally capable of magic," Hana replied, as if stating the obvious.

Lily tilted her head curiously, although she still couldn't puzzle it out, and, judging by the look on Lotte's face, she wasn't the only one.

"I'm an Equinia," Hana replied, finally giving Lily the piece she was missing. "And I've actually got two bloodlines."

"Wait… two!?" Lotte gasped. "I didn't even think that was possible."

"Say's the one with an extinct bloodline," Thomas pointed out.

"Wow, this year seems to have attracted all the weirdos," Arthur chuckled. "It must be fate."

[Ugh…]

Lily ignored Arakil's sudden grouchiness and turned to Hana, hoping for an explanation.

"Yes, I've got two," she confirmed. "I've got both a unicorn and pegasus bloodline, although I didn't get the horn or wings, so it's a bit weird. I did get the magic from both, though, so I can't exactly complain."

"I certainly wouldn't want a horn growing from my head," Lotte replied, rubbing her forehead.

"Neither would I, but the wings would have been nice if I could fly using them."

"Just use some wind magic to fly," Arthur replied. "That's what I plan to do."

"Oh sure, just use the most complex form of air magic, no big deal," Hana scoffed and adjusted her glasses.

"Are you saying you aren't up for the challenge?" he retorted.

"I never said that," she quickly denied.

Lily glanced over at Thomas, who glanced back and gave a weary expression. It appeared that this had been going on for a long time before Lotte and she had arrived.

The group continued to chat and eat, sharing a bit of their respective backstories. According to Hana, having two bloodlines wasn't actually that rare, as long as they were inherently compatible, according to her family on both sides.

Her mom had come from a long line of unicorns, while her father had come from pegasus. Often, they would have arranged marriages between the two in the hopes of fostering a child with both bloodlines. Of course, it wasn't a flawless procedure, and other than her great-grandfather, it hadn't occurred for a long time.

Prodded by Arakil, Lily asked quite a few questions about it to satiate his growing curiosity. In return, she gave a brief rundown of her own circumstances to save repeating it for the umpteenth time to the rest of the group.

Yona and Jade had an intense staring match while they gouged themselves on food, while Sphii wanted nothing to do with either of them and was more than happy to ignore them both. Hana's Familiar, whom she named Tach, was a wisp—a strange glowing ball of light that didn't seem to really do much, as far as she had figured out so far.

Arakil had chimed in that wisps from his time were like ethereal elementals and were most often associated with lightning, wind, fire, or light. He also evaluated that Tach was both wind and light, another rarity.

Lotte also shared her own background, since Arthur and Hana hadn't met her yet. The reaction from the two of them when she described what a basilisk was and what her blood and magic could do was quite a sight, as they both had unconsciously flinched away.

"So yeah… I'm kinda prohibited from duels," Lotte said casually.

"No offense… but I'm glad," Arthur replied.

"Oh, none taken. After seeing what happened to the dire bear, I wouldn't want to see that happen to any people," Lotte said with a devilish smirk.

"I'm supposed to be able to do healing magic," Hana replied. "But even I don't want to risk that."

"I guess I'll just have to settle for beating you in the dungeon competitions," Arthur said.

That stirred up another round of friendly banter which lasted until they needed to get to their next lesson. The group rushed off, with Thomas leading the way as he'd somehow found the time to already memorize most of the school's layout.

This classroom had much more room with a large area of free and open space marked out, and the desks and chairs all on the opposite end. They all spread out to take the available seats, with Lily and Lotte sitting together again, while Thomas was left with the competitive duo.

Shortly after they had settled down, the teacher arrived. He was a bald man with a strangely noticeable pinkish-red skin tone, almost like a sunburn. Lily had assumed he was a human, but when he waved to greet them, she saw lining the palms of his hand were what appeared to be small suction cups.

"Good day, class. I'm Professor Henry, and I will be one of your many teachers for Spellcasting Fundamentals," he introduced himself politely and perfectly articulated. "Now, some of you may already be wondering if I misspoke when I said many teachers, and no, I most certainly did not.

"Each teacher for this class specializes in a particular kind of magic, and the goal will be to increase the breadth of your basic spell repertoire with a focus on ones that can help you in your life, travels, and, of course, during dungeon exploration.

"As for myself, since I'm an Octopia I'm obviously specialized in water magic and I'll be teaching you how flexible and helpful such a basic elemental magic can be—whether it's to quench your thirst, traverse bodies of water, douse flames, or even cleanse filth; you'll never find yourself wanting when it comes to the plethora of options water magic can provide.

I'm also available for individual advice for anyone with a bloodline related to water, or perhaps a human who wishes to take water magic as their focus."

He paused and gave a friendly smile to the class.

"Now, please raise your hand if you have any questions before we begin."

Hana was the first, and after Henry gestured at her, she stood up and asked her question.

"What if we can't do water magic? I'm restricted quite a bit thanks to my bloodline."

Henry bobbed his head, as if he was fully expecting this question. "If you cannot perform the type of magic for the lesson at all, then you have two options: you can leave the class, but are expected to do some self-study on your own, or you can stay, and the teacher will provide some magical items and corresponding notes for you to evaluate.

"For example, if you are incapable of using water magic, I have a few magical trinkets related to it." he reached into his robe and pulled out a flask. "Such as this flask, which endlessly fills itself with fresh and clean spring water. The idea being that you can potentially overcome your drawback with clever use of tools."

Hana nodded, appearing quite happy with the answer and retook her seat.

Henry then opened the floor for any students incapable of doing water magic to leave now. A few did go, but it seemed that the majority ended up staying, evidently interested in learning about magical water tools.

Lily opted to stay, and with the spellcasting group. The idea was to see if the spells were anything Arakil didn't know, to see if these lessons were worthwhile or not for her. If they weren't, then Lily was interested in seeing some of the magical items.

My idea was to give up this class, since I figured Arakil would be able to teach me spells, but I had no idea they would let us see and use magic items… I might need to cram my schedule a bit more.