First Class

By the time Gwendolyn and Xerxious got Ure back home, they were thoroughly exhausted from the new addition to their team. First it was Ure's stubborn refusal to fly, because he didn't want to sit that close to a girl. They then had to go through the entire flight with him grumbling about how uncomfortable it was, or that there were simple spells that would make flying pointless. Ure was therefore quite pleased when the flight concluded.

"Ahh, thank the Goddess," Ure said as Gwendolyn scowled. Ure glanced at her, "What? I don't wanna sit that close to a girl," Gwendolyn growled at the spirit, but said nothing. Instead, it was Xerxious who spoke.

"Well, you let me sit on your lap," Xerxious said. Gwendolyn looked shocked.

"WHAT!? I thought... I... you...never told me you were a girl," Gwendolyn sputtered. Xerxious chuckled.

"You never asked," she replied simply. Ure looked back and forth between the two girls, with a look clearly saying that he had no idea what was going on. Ure then looked at his new home.

"Holy crap. That's really big," he said quickly. Gwendolyn sniggered, enjoying the look on his face.

"What did you expect? A witch of my beauty and skill would naturally live in an elegant home," she said proudly. Xerxious sighed, and Ure looked at Gwendolyn.

"Lemme see... all violet clothes, waist length curly blond hair, and kinda short," he said, making Gwendolyn rather angry. Xerxious looked away, hearing the thuds and yells as Gwendolyn beat up Ure. She looked back once the thuds stopped, seeing Ure on the ground, holding his shin. Deciding not ask, she began to slither over to the house, with Gwendolyn and Ure not too far behind. When the doors were opened, Ure forgot about his pain and began to marvel at how clean it was inside. Gwendolyn began what would have been an exceptionally well-written speech about how incredible Shizu Manor was before Ure cut her off.

"Where do I sleep?" he asked. Gwendolyn and Xerxious looked at each other. He was a boy, so not in the rooms by the living room. That left...

"Upstairs. You can have every room upstairs. There's everything, bedrooms, bathrooms, and a staircase leading into the kitchen," Xerxious said before Gwendolyn interjected any of her foolish ideas, such as sleeping in the broom shed or something. Ure looked at the serpent happily before running into the hallway, looking for a staircase.

"Think we should tell him the staircase is the other way?" Gwendolyn asked. Xerxious shook her head.

"No. This way is much funnier," she said, as Gwendolyn giggled. There were sounds of a great search and eventual giving up from the hallway before Ure appeared in Gwendolyn's room again. He looked embarrassed.

"Ummm, where are the stairs?" he asked, waiting for the answer that would most likely make him look stupid. Gwendolyn jerked her thumb behind her.

"In the kitchen. Like Xerxie said," she said, laughing internally at the expression on the spirit's face. It was hilarious, like the expression one would give if they had just yelled that they needed no help, only to return in two seconds needing to cross a broken bridge. He walked over to the kitchen and out of sight. The witch then began to laugh hysterically, and Xerxious too began sniggering. After about a minute, they began to calm down. Gwendolyn walked back over to her library, and pulled down the book she purchased the day before, the one about summoning and dominating demons. She saw entries for several summons for fire demons, such as a flame sprite, a sentient fireball, and a large molten humanoid. With her current mana power, she could only summon the sprite. She then decided to turn to the index, her favorite thing to do with these kinds of grimoires. The index grouped spells by mana required, so she could see everything she could cast, only having to turn the page if she was intrigued by the spell. She saw an entry entitled Flambite. This made Gwendolyn curious, so she turned to page three hundred seventy-eight. She read the entry for Flambite. She turned away after reading the first sentence. She hated bats. She looked at the other page. It was a new chapter, and Gwendolyn read the introduction. Gwendolyn whistled. She would've paid twice as much just for this section.

"What's up Gwen?" Xerxious inquired, coming over. Gwendolyn scanned the introduction again.

"I think I found how to seal demons inside of us," she replied, reading the next page. Xerxious looked skeptical.

"And that is useful because why?" the serpent asked. Gwendolyn smiled while she read.

"Because the host acquires traits and power from the captive demon. The only downside there appears to be is that it's one demon to one host, but you can unseal them and place a different one inside," Gwendolyn replied. She was beginning to wish that she had read this before she had fought Merz. Gwendolyn then remembered about her new partner, and thought this may interest him. She walked upstairs to ask him, and found every single door wide open. She shook her head, but looked for him, finally finding him asleep in one of the guest bedrooms. He was lying on it, his arms and legs spread as if he was making a snow angel. She was reminded of the pentagram, and decided to figure out what time it was. To her surprise, it was almost half past seven, only three hours after she beat Merz. She closed the door and walked back down the stairs and into her room. She conjured a door in between her room and the kitchen, and continued to read her demon tome, to see which demons would be the most useful. After an hour of searching through the massive book, she had her list narrowed sown into three demons, all three being Fire Demons: a salamander, a weird burning plant, or a bear. She informed Xerxious of this, and asked her what she would pick.

"What do they all do when they're bound?" Xerxious asked.

"Well, according to this, the salamander makes me completely fireproof, the bear lets me get fiery claws, and the plant lets me shoot burning vines and stuff," Gwendolyn replied, clearly excited about this.

"Can't you already make yourself fireproof? That would make salamander pointless. And you are rather weak, so I do not think claws would help you. I would go the plant if I were you," Xerxious said, happy at the fact she was able to eliminate two of Gwendolyn's choices and make the witch look bad at the same time. Unfortunately, Xerxious was the only one present to hear it. Gwendolyn sat and thought, before nodding her head absent-mindedly.

"Yeah... I would like to have fire plants. It'd be so uber cool," she said. The blond haired witch turned to her book, and recited a strange incantation in a tongue unfamiliar to Xerxious. Gwendolyn didn't know it either, she was just reciting it, and when Gwendolyn finished the incantation a strange glowing circle appeared on the floor. The circle had runes around it, and a burning shrub with eyes appeared in the center. All in all, it looked rather cute. Gwendolyn quickly turned to the page on sealing them.

"Oh Diana, Goddess of Majesty, please allow me to seal the soul of this demon inside of me, so that I may become an even better servant for you," Gwendolyn said closing her eyes. The demon faded away, and Gwendolyn felt a surge of power through her body. She didn't really speak to the Goddess often, even though Lunoirism is the religion of the Queendom. The last time she remembered actually praying was... two days ago, right before the First Class exam. Xerxious slithered over to Gwendolyn's side.

"So, did it work?" Xerxious asked. Gwendolyn found the part about using the acquired traits. She walked over to the window and held her palm towards the sky. A rather large flaming thorn shot out.

"Awesome! It works! I'm officially better than that one plant girl I fought in every way," Gwendolyn exclaimed, more to herself than anyone else. Xerxious rolled her eyes. She had quite forgotten about the plant girl, Clair, or something, and was surprised that Gwendolyn remembered. Gwendolyn often forgot about people who were weaker than her, and Gwendolyn dispatched her rather easily. After that, Gwendolyn walked into the kitchen to begin making dinner or, more accurately, begin casting spells to make the kitchen make dinner. Xerxious slithered in front of the fireplace and began thinking about Navitaeri. Xerxious a sure that there was something huge the queen chose not to tell them. She didn't believe that Queen Dawn would confirm the existence of Golems without a very good reason. Navitaeri was a very spiteful and cruel country. Making the fact that Seserisia has Golems captive is sure to enrage them. Unless… they were enraged anyway. Xerxious kept these thoughts to herself, thinking them to be a worst-case scenario. Xerxious raised her head and faced the kitchen, allowing her tongue to taste the delicious air. The new kitchen door opened.

"Okay, Xerxie. Dinner time," Gwendolyn said happily. She had always liked pretending she could cook. Xerxious slithered over as Gwendolyn set the table for three. Gwendolyn walked over to the staircase.

"HEY! URE! WAKE UP! IT IS DINNER TIME!" she yelled as loud as she could, which was very loud. There was a loud bang from upstairs, and a few minutes later Ure came down rubbing his head. He shuffled over to the table and sat down. Picking up his fork, he poked at the lump of meat in the center, surrounded by vegetables.

"What is this?" he asked. Gwendolyn smirked and began eating. Ure looked at her and took a bite of the meat. He blinked.

"That was… good. Was that giant squirrel?" Ure asked. Gwendolyn nodded, eating her food using every table manner she knew. Just like always. She watched Ure dig into his squirrel as if he knew no table manners. It somewhat vexed her, but she didn't say anything. In her experience, these people just didn't learn. So she focused on her food, and tried to not watch Ure shovel food into his mouth as fast as he could. Xerxious was rolling on the floor laughing. She found that Gwendolyn looked very amusing when she acted like this, and was looking forward to the next meal. Suddenly, there was a knock on the door. Gwendolyn jumped up.

"What the Goddess...? We never get visitors," she said, walking to the front door. She opened the door. In the doorway sat a little man, looking somewhat flustered.

"Is this the residence of Gwendolyn Shizu?" he asked pathetically. Gwendolyn then realized who this man was.

"Yes, Grand Magister, I'm Gwendolyn. Is there anything I can do for you?" she asked, slightly straightening her posture. The man stood up.

"Yes there is. As you know, you are officially First Class. You may not know this, not having done it yourself, but most Firsts are assigned a magus of a lower class. I was wondering if you would be willing to take on such a student," he said as he fumbled with something is his pocket. Gwendolyn smiled, she could be a teacher! Xerxious slumped her head, making Gwendolyn a teacher would be sure to over inflate her ego. Again. Yesterday she made First. Today she had beaten Merz. Tomorrow, a teacher? Not good.

"Of course Grand Magister. I'll take on a pupil, it'd be fun. When would he or she be here?" Gwendolyn asked. Two loud thuds came from the kitchen as Xerxious and Ure simultaneously slammed their heads on the table. Gwendolyn ignored this.

"Excellent, she would be here tomorrow... but I seem to have forgotten the slip of paper her name was on... either that or it fell out of my pocket when I was riding the griffin," he said scratching the back of his head. The man thanked Gwendolyn and left. After the door was safely closed, Gwendolyn let out a cheer. When she walked back into the kitchen, Ure's forehead was red and he had his chin on the table. Gwendolyn walked over and slapped his forehead, earning a "what the hell?" from Ure. After dinner, Ure was glaring at Gwendolyn because she had kicked him in the shins several times when he was eating too fast. Gwendolyn smirked at him and walked into her room. She yelled good night and locked the door. Xerxious slid off of the chair and slithered onto the counter.

"You should get some sleep as well," she hissed softly, placing her head down. Ure yawned and walked up the stairs into the room he had been sleeping in before dinner. He crawled in bed and soon fell asleep.

The next day, after breakfast, Ure and Gwendolyn were outside fighting. Xerxious had grown tired of it, and hoped it would calm them down. It wasn't working. Ure fought by flaming his fists and using melee attacks. That wouldn't have worked, but he was nightmarishly fast. By the end of the fight, when Gwendolyn finally hit him with an Explosion, Xerxious had gone inside. Gwendolyn was busy casting her cleaning spells when the griffin landed. She stood up straight as the Grand Magister of Fanagarde's Arcane University approached, a young girl behind him. When they got closer, Gwendolyn recognized her.

"Clair?!" she exclaimed. 'Clair' put her head down.

"It's her…" she said quietly. She turned to the Magister, "Father, why her?"

"Blair… she did beat you. Who better to teach you than someone that sees your faults?" the Magister replied. Gwendolyn scratched the back of her head and laughed apologetically.

"Sorry, I'm bad with names. I'll teach you anything you wanna know though," Gwendolyn said extending her hand. Blair looked at it hesitantly, but finally took it.

"Fine, Gwendolyn. I'll be your tutee. But you better teach me some of the spells you used to defeat me," Blair said. Gwendolyn nodded, smiling. The Magister left, after Gwendolyn said that Blair could stay with her, as was custom. The two witches went inside to begin Blair's first lesson. They gathered around her desk, and Gwendolyn placed the Lemegeton on the desk. Blair's eye's widened when Gwendolyn told her what grimoire it was.

"The Lemegeton… is real? No wonder you became First so young." Blair said. Gwendolyn looked at her.

"How old are you?" Gwendolyn asked.

"I'm fourteen, Lyn. Can I call you that?" the fourteen year old asked. Gwendolyn nodded, amused that no one had ever asked to call her that. Blair turned to the poison section, and began to read, occasionally stopping to ask Gwendolyn something for clarification. Gwendolyn smiled through the whole thing, she had a student! Maybe it was a really dark one that loved poison, but all that meant was that she would Xerxious. Unless she was going to hold a grudge about how Xerxious bit her leg. An hour later and they were still going strong, and Blair had several spells she wanted to try out.

"How about tomorrow? I feel really tired today. Just study up, and we'll test it out tomorrow." Gwendolyn said standing up and stretching. Blair nodded. She didn't like it, but that was the way it had to be done. If any spell went out of control, Gwendolyn, as an Instructor, would've been responsible for it. Blair yawned, and looked around.

"Where can I sleep? I need a nap Lyn," Blair asked. Gwendolyn led her to a spare bedroom on the first floor. Blair sat down and pulled a bead out of her pocket. She said a few words and it turned into a rather large bag. Gwendolyn turned around, laughing. She sat down at the Lemegeton and began to read.