The New Chimera

“Alright Lilith, time to get up.” Lilith was woken by Carmen shaking her, a slight smile on her face. “Time for school.”

“Carmen?” Lilith groaned, sitting up. “Where…did you end up sleeping last night? The rooms are full, right?”

Carmen shrugged. “I didn’t. After a couple hours of staying up I got a Trait that makes us need to sleep less. Do you have it too? Should be called ‘sleep-less’, comes from a few Domains.”

Lilith did a quick check. “No, actually.”

Carmen frowned. “Huh. That seems a little…odd. Give me a sec and I’ll see if I can’t like…sync our memories of it or something and see if that helps.”

Almost immediately, a window popped up in front of Lilith.

“Alright I got it.” She said. “Real helpful description, too.”

“Tell me about it.” Carmen said, smiling wryly. “I’ve got stuff for breakfast out, so go eat and get dressed and we’ll be ready to be on our way.” She left the room, and Lilith stumbled out of bed and made her way to the kitchen. There waiting for her were a box of cereal, a gallon of milk, a bowl, and Kali.

“Morning!” Kali said cheerily. “Eat up, we’ve got a long day ahead of us!”

Lilith nodded, blearily pouring the cereal and beginning to eat. “What exactly are we doing?” She asked between bites. “How’s all this tutoring or whatever supposed to go?”

“Well, it’s not going to be standard, we can say that much for sure. I got a copy of your schedule from Tunem, and you’re only going to three ‘regular’ class periods, beginner magic theory, practical magic, and history. The rest are all…different. A large part of your day is dedicated to exploring your Domains and seeing what stuff we can get you to unlock and how. It’s part training, part research. It’s that in the morning, then history, beginner magic theory, practical magic, and more Domain research. After that you’re going to have you work out and get yourself into shape, as well as get yourself more familiar with your new body, and then that’ll be all for the day and you’ll have free time.”

“Sounds about like what I had expected, aside from maybe history.” Lilith said. “Is it that unusual?”

Kali smirked. “Well, while magical studies are a large part of what is taught here, that’s not until later on. Beginners like yourself are generally children, so most of their time is spent learning the same things kids on Earth do. They only do full time magic training after they’ve gone through the other curriculum, which generally means they’re around your age. Or the rough equivalent, since most races age slightly differently than humans.”

Lilith nodded, finishing off her bowl of cereal and putting the dishes into the sink. “Alright, give me a minute to get dressed and I’ll be ready.” She went back to her room and got changed, emerging a few minutes later with a set of casual clothes.

“Perfect.” Kali said happily. “I’ll show you the way, Alex took Carmen there earlier so she should already be there.”

Lilith frowned. “When was that?”

“Before you woke up. She came back to get you up and then left right before you came out of your room.”

The two chatted a bit as they walked, and after only a few minutes they were at a door marked “Classroom 506”. Kali opened the door and ushered Lilith inside, where a tall, lanky human who was sitting on top of the teacher’s desk greeted her.

“Ah, you’re finally here. Good thing, too, I was starting to get a little bored. Name’s Geb, I’m one of Tunem’s senior apprentices and teachers.” He jumped off the table, walking over to Lilith and sticking out his hand.

Lilith shook it, and he smiled. “Lilith, right? Pleased to meet ya. I must say, you’re quite a bit more approachable than your duplicate. What’s she doing, anyway?” He asked, sticking a thumb over to the far end of the classroom.

Lilith looked over and, sure enough, Carmen was there, sitting with her feet propped up on a desk and reading out of a musty-looking tome. She lazily raised a hand in greeting before lowing it to turn a page.

“Studying for me.” Lilith said. “She’s reading spellbooks and committing what she finds to our memory using one of our abilities.”

Geb whistled. “Really? Man, I wish I could be in two places at once like that, would make my life a lot easier. Anyway, come over here, I’m going to do some baseline tests on your Mana to see what we’re working with.” He walked back over to the desk, reaching down and picking up a small plate of some sort, which he placed on the desk. “Just shove all your Mana in here, it’ll give us a good idea of what your capacity is right now.”

Lilith moved to the plate and placed a hand on it, willing her Mana into it. It was easier than she had expected, the power flowing out of her fingertips as naturally as she breathed out. After about half a minute the flow of power slowed down greatly, and another ten seconds after that it had stopped completely, leaving her feeling rather drained.

“Alright, I’m done.” She said, taking her hand off. “Now what?”

Geb grabbed a cord that was connected to the plate and plugged the other end into the computer on the teacher’s desk. “Now we wait for the computer to finish analyzing the data.” He said, typing away at the keyboard. “It’ll give me some time to get our next activity ready anyway.”

He finished his typing and stood up, walking over to the back of the room. “I have a little device here…” He said, bending down and messing with something on the floor. After a moment there was a sort of whoosh, and a person-sized tank of water much like the ones escape artists would lock themselves up in appeared.

“So, once we get the data on your Mana back, I’m going to lock you in here and we’re going to try and unlock some of your aquatic Traits. Hopefully it shouldn’t be too hard to get you some new stuff, since there are a lot of aquatic Domains and you probably don’t have much unlocked from them.”

Lilith cast a wary eye at the tank as Geb walked back to the computer. “You’re going to lock me in there? I can only hold my breath for so long, so I’m not sure how safe I feel being locked up. What if something goes wrong?”

Geb snorted, sitting back down at the desk. “You’ve got the wrong mindset.” He said. “You’re still thinking like a human. I’m hoping that within a minute or two you’ll be getting stuff that lets you breathe underwater, and then I’ll open the tank back up. But, if things go wrong, Kali and I will be able to get you out no sweat, so don’t worry about it.”

“We can literally fly, Lilith.” Carmen said dryly. “I tried earlier. This should be totally within the realm of possibility for us.”

“This sort of thing is pretty common practice for semi-amphibious races too.” Kali added. “It’s a little unpleasant but known to be safe, your Domains won’t let your life be threatened by something this trivial.”

“Fine.” Lilith said, raising her hands in surrender. “Just so long as you can guarantee I won’t actually be in danger.”

“Consider yourself guaranteed.” Geb said, standing back up and walking back to the tank. “The machine’s finished analyzing you and it looks like you have pretty above average Mana. That’s a little irregular, considering you didn’t even know about magic a few months ago, but I suppose Perfect Chimeras are irregular anyway, so…whatever, I guess.”

“The succubus Domain has a few Mana increasing Traits.” Kali volunteered. “That’s probably where it’s coming from.”

“Ah, yeah, that’d do it.” Geb said. “Alright, no use procrastinating further.” He motioned at the tank. “The sooner we’re done with this the sooner we can get started on the fun stuff. I went ahead and reserved the pool, so we’ll be able to do more there.”

“But…my clothes.” Lilith protested weakly. “Do I get a swimming suit, or a towel, or something?”

“I can transform your clothes now if you’d like.” Kali offered. “And we’ll use magic to dry you off once you’re out.”

Lilith hesitated. “Will you be able to transform them back?”

Kali nodded. “Not a problem, I’ll just make the transformation last for an hour and they’ll go back on their own around the time of your next class.”

Geb pressed a button and the top of the tank swung upwards, allowing access. “If you’re in there for more than a minute and haven’t gotten anything, I’ll let you out. If you get something, raise a hand and I’ll let you out so we can look at it.”

Lilith paused, looking at Kali. “Can you transform my clothes?” She finally asked.

Kali smiled, shooting off a finger gun and causing Lilith’s clothes to morph, the pants and shirt melding together as they turned into a one-piece swimsuit. “There you are.” She said, blowing non-existent smoke off the tip of her finger. “One hour, as promised. I’ll let you know when it’s nearing time for them to turn back so you can get out of the pool.”

Lilith turned back to the tank with some apprehension, then walked over and climbed up a ladder on the side. “So, do I just get in or…?”

Geb nodded. “Take a deep breath and jump in, I’ll start a timer. If you absolutely can’t take any more, just bang on the glass, but it really shouldn’t come to that. Oh, and keep your eyes open too, if you would. You should get another Trait that helps with seeing underwater.”

Lilith sat down on the edge of the tank, dipping her legs in. Then, she took a deep breath, curled her wings around her, and jumped in.

The lid of the tank snapped shut, and an instinctual panic began to set in. She knew that she was, in theory, safe, but it still was scary to be underwater with no way out.

So, she just held her breath, praying that soon she’d get something to make this all less…terrifying. Her lungs began to burn, and her eyes started to sting as time passed, and still there was no sign that relief was coming.

She turned from Geb to Kali, noticing that Kali was wearing an unusually pained expression as she watched. Then, Kali looked at Geb and, when she saw that he wasn’t watching, put a finger to her lip in a “shh” gesture.

Confused, Lilith turned to Geb. Nothing seemed to be different –

Lilith gasped, water filling her lungs as she greedily gulped it down. It was…like she was breathing air all of a sudden. And now that she had a sudden reprieve from the burning in her lungs, she noticed that her eyes weren’t stinging either.

Lilith raised a hand and Geb opened the tank, allowing Lilith to climb out. She sat on the edge of the tank and took a moment to breathe out the water that was in her back into the tank before speaking up. “I got some.” She said. “Three, they let me breathe in water, speak in water, and see in water. Oh, and that last one keeps my eyes from getting hurt by water.”

“Excellent. Do you mind if I take a quick scan of your body?” Geb asked, eyes alight with curiosity. “I want to see if there were any physical changes.”

“Go ahead, just dry me off first.” Lilith responded.

“Already on it. Just take your feet out of the water and we’ll be good to go.” Kali said. And, once Lilith did, she waved a hand and suddenly Lilith was bone-dry. Even the water that she had spilled while getting out had been removed, leaving no sign that Lilith had ever gone in the tank.

“Go ahead and sit down next to Carmen and I’ll do the scan. Don’t worry about sitting still or anything, that shouldn’t affect this so long as you don’t make any huge movements.” Geb instructed. “And feel free to chat or whatever while I do this, just don’t expect me to give any responses to anything.”

Lilith sat down, turning so she was facing Carmen. “So, what are you reading?” She asked.

“Necronomicon.” Carmen said casually, holding up the book so the title was visible.

Geb choked on the chant he had begun, looking over to Kali. “She’s reading what?!”

“She got the express permission of Tunem and I. It’s all under control, don’t worry about it.” Kali responded.

Lilith wasn’t fully convinced, though. “Why?!” She asked Carmen. “Isn’t that full of super nasty stuff?!”

Carmen shrugged. “I knew you wouldn’t have the guts to read it, and I thought it would be a big help for us, so I took it upon myself to read it for us.”

“For what it’s worth, I think she’s right to do so.” Kali added. “Right now, you’re in a position where being safe isn’t necessarily…safe. The Society will come after you eventually, you’re too juicy a target to leave alone. So, the more you can protect yourself, the better. Tunem may be wary of this, but in my opinion, you’ve already read the worst of these books. What’s in there is just knowledge and power, and there is no evil power or good power, just power and how you choose to use it.”

Something about that last bit sounded familiar to Lilith, but she didn’t have time to process as Kali continued speaking. “And all of you, Geb included, take this as a lesson. Tunem’s become far too reliant on his divination. Anything he can’t foresee he can’t bring himself to trust, and that leads to not using all the resources at his disposal, even in desperate times.”

Kali paused briefly before continuing. “That’s not to say he’s wrong to be wary of the eldritch. It is, for the most part, something to be incredibly cautious around. Still, there are situations in which, under very careful watch, things like this can be put to use safely. In the Council, his wariness is balanced by the rest of us and can be a great asset, but you won’t always have a balancing force.

“So, don’t make the mistake that Tunem made. Don’t shy away from learning about or dealing with things you can’t fully predict just because you can’t fully predict it. There are exceptions to every rule, and this is one of those, got it?”

Geb nodded slowly. “Yeah, I…think I get it. Thanks.” He turned his attention back to Lilith, then resumed his chant. After about half a minute he finished, and a silence filled the room.

Eventually, the silence was broken as Geb spoke. “Seems there were some minor internal changes that let your system handle the water.” He said. “Nothing invasive or anything, you shouldn’t even notice it unless you accidentally breathe water you’re trying to drink or something.”

That was…good to hear, Lilith supposed. It was strange, knowing that her body had taken one more step away from being human, but being able to breathe underwater was pretty cool, so she wasn’t too upset.

“Alright, let’s head to the pool. I want to get you some more Traits.” Geb said. “We’ve only got another fifty minutes and I intend to make the most of it.”

Lilith looked down at her swimsuit, frowning. “Should we change this back while we’re walking over or…?”

Kali laughed. “It’ll be fine, everyone’s in class and the pool’s not far.”

Carmen shut the Necronomicon, standing up and grabbing Lilith’s hand before gently tugging her to the door. “It’s seriously only like two minutes, and even if people see you, they’ll understand. Don’t worry about it.”

“If you say so.” Lilith replied.

And with that, the group left for the pool, ready to see what else Lilith’s Domains had in store for her there.