---

Nicole felt success lurch from beneath her in the span between two heartbeats. The first instant, the song of victory was alive in her chest, thrumming with more energy than she had ever felt in any club, any arcade - anything in her life. The next, she was tumbling, her flight crudely interrupted by talons from hell. She gasped as they scraped her fashionable little parma, grimacing as she felt Astrelle start to leave her grip. Instinctively, her arm shot for her roommate's hand.

She grabbed only the air.

Where is she? Where is she? Fuck. Oh fuck. Did I drop her?

She had no time to get cerebral about where Astrelle could have landed. She felt the claws of the devil wrap around her the same way they had wrapped about Astrelle, but clearly something in the Void's bestial consciousness recognized her as the girl who had just bifurcated it - and it was pretty pissed about its legs. She felt, but hardly registered, the feeling of talons sinking into her stomach as she was reared back and violently thrown through the air. She heard, but didn't contemplate, the wind in her ears - so quick to buffet her rise, and now so instrumental in her fall. She heard Penny and Dana's yells, and closed her eyes.



I can breathe. I can fly. The wind is still mine.

Through the pain in her stomach, Nicole tried to focus. But her concentration, just as she began to feel the faintest stirrings of control again, was broken by the sound.

She heard a noise, almost like whistling, cut through her head. But it wasn't any whistle she could ever recall - not like the sound her dad made, breezing through movie themes in the other room while he sliced vegetables or showered. It was the sound of something skull-checking the sound barrier, screaming its fury as it surpassed the limits imposed by their humanity.

"Think fast, Nicole!"

What is this girl?

Penny, fearless, brash, foul-mouthed little Penny, had latched onto Nicole firmly by the wrist and flung her, hard, with the same berserker strength that seemed to have a knack for landing her into these situations in the first place. Nicole was more than grateful for the second wind, though; in fact, as she picked up momentum again, hurtling with speed that approached that of Penny's rocket-blading, she began to laugh maniacally. It was better than any thrill ride she'd ever been on, and even though the wind had largely sucked the cackle from her mouth, muffling her, she felt the same breezy, devil-may-care joy resonate through her whole body again. The wind was hers, and she could feel it begin to cushion her anew as she descended. She touched down onto a street light and whooped aloud.

Nicole grinned, looked up and felt the sun on her face. It took her a second to grasp the implication.

She looked down, blinking, to see Dana standing at the head of an enormous beam, one that she knew felt as warm and comforting to them as it must have been hell for the Void. She could see the disgusting, oil slick-like effect of the creature's decimated body in the air, and her experience just seconds was already catalogued into her 'shit I have to learn to keep doing this job for a long time' databank in her brain. So from her perch, she drew her blued saber, hearing its peerless edge hum and sing in the air, and brandished it in an overhand cut.

"Clean up, Vedfolnir!"

A gust of wind blew through the epicenter of Dana's strike, scattering the pieces of charcoal Nox in various directions. Hopefully they wound up at the four corners of the fucking world, but she would settle for the knowledge that the creature's tatters were now too far away to reaccumulate into a monster. She grinned, ready to congratulate the girls, when she saw Dana begin to sway.

With a graceful leap, Nicole landed from her perch and bent down to catch Dana before she hit the ground, feeling a slight twinge in her tummy where the Void's talons had cut her during the throw. Affectionately, she ruffled the sleeping Dana's hair and looked up at Penny. She gave a little wink of gratitude and bit the edge of her lip.

"Man," she exhaled. "What fucking shows did they show you kids?"

She started to giggle.

Penny groans in the pile of rubble that had collapsed on top of her, slowly making her way out of it.

"Ow..." she groans as she slowly gets herself out of the pile, "that definitely wasn't the smartest move..."

As she stands up, relying on her massive hammer as a crutch, she squints at the sudden burst of light in the sky. It takes her a moment to process the blue expanse and the glare of a bright sun, and a moment more to understand the implication. For a moment, she just stands there, forgetting the world around her as she saw the sky unobstructed by dark clouds of Nox, the way it once was. She almost forgot the aches and bruises all over her own body from her crash. Alas, it was a fleeting moment, and she felt her bruises protest again. Best to make it to the other girls, hopefully this test would be over now. She manages to limp to the others, but a proud smile still adorned her lips; that may not have been the best move, but it was certainly one she'd do again if she had to.

"I think I'll try and avoid crashing into a building full-throttle next time," she jokes.

"Man, what fucking shows did they show you kids?"

Penny chuckles at Nichole's question.

"Oh, you know; dumb kids' cartoons," she replies. "With the usual messages; friends are important, spread peace and love, and if the monstrous abomination isn't going down, hit it with something stronger.

"Oh, and eat your veggies - that one's important."

The Void, descending to meet Nicole, is denied its prey one last time. This time by Penny’s hammer, the girl’s high-speed impact intercepting the monster before it can continue its wicked pursuit. The sound of the impact carries across the street, echoing between empty buildings as it resounds through the abandoned district. The force of the blow sends the Void skyrocketing upward, throwing it into a vicious spiral.

It doesn’t have time to right itself before the blast from Dana’s gladius hits it. The Void is engulfed in that blinding light, it’s ink-black skin flaking away in chunks under the searing glow of the attack. For a moment all that can be seen is a skeletal outline, a glowing purple core at its center that buckles and cracks as the light washes over it.

The slicing gale of Nicole’s weapon severs what remains, casting the Void to the winds. It fades into wisps of darkness, vanishing in the sunlight that streams down over the empty street.

“Nox levels dropping.” If there was any further doubt that the Void might be a threat, the operator’s voice crackles in each Ars Magi’s ear. “Levels are returning to normal. Return to tower.”

The feeling of her metal weapon scraping against the Void’s inky flesh was a pleasant one. The momentum of her swing slowed as it sunk into its form, and alongside it, time, as if graciously giving Astrelle a moment to relish in the satisfaction of wounding her enemy. It wouldn’t even be a second later that Astrelle would find herself its hostage, soaring through the air in its clutches.

Though this particular situation was a much ruder awakening of imminent death than the airship had been, Astrelle’s panic was quickly replaced with resignation. The typical cycle of anxieties had already run through her mind, but she came to accept that her arms were tied, both figuratively and literally, and there was little she could do aside from wait for rescue. Her screams of terror quieted upon this realization, and the barking of her teammates below had faded into murmurs in the distance. She felt strangely calm, maybe as a symptom of her own powerlessness.

Confronted with death, she couldn’t help thinking how flying through the air with the spring wind in her hair would have almost been romantic in another circumstance. Maybe she wouldn't have hated this situation so much if the Void wasn't such an ugly bastard. She did have one regret if anything, that she couldn’t be the one to take the Void down with her if she were to die today.

“Nicole?!”

Astrelle’s bleak train of thought had been disrupted with the sudden appearance of her roommate’s sparkling form. She cleaved through the Void’s wretched grasp, freeing Astrelle to plummet into the cityscape below. Her arms frantically searched for Nicole’s, her only viable safety net in mid-air, only to see the shrinking form of the Void fling her roommate off to the distance.

“NICOLE!”

Before her mind found a new pool of emotion to submerge into, her body collided into Dana’s arms, into safety. The collision knocked the breath out of her lungs, but she was grateful she managed to escape the whole predicament. “Thanks,” Astrelle managed to say weakly, before Dana rushed back into action. She followed the direction Dana ran off too, relieved to see that Penny had performed a similar rescue for Nicole.

Dana continued her attack, firing a huge beam of light at the Void. A firework display of black ooze erupted from where the light hit, propelled with the momentum of Nicole’s sharp gust. Astrelle's boisterous laughter filled the air in reaction to the macabre spectacle—it was the best thing she had seen all week, and seeing the Void pieces dissipate into the air right after was rather disappointing. She would've preferred seeing the fleshy ooze splatter on some concrete.

Astrelle approached the others in slow steps, still sore from Void’s tight grasp. “This certainly beats those dumb cartoons,” Astrelle rolled her eyes, though followed it up with a slight smile, “but I’ll give them credit for fueling your creativity.”

---

Nicole's exhilarated laughter finally came to a stop as new orders from the tower came through their earpieces. She looked up to the direction of the observation platform, where their supervisors and Vanna waited and watched. She understood the logic of keeping a daughter of the Duodecim in reserve for a complication like the one they'd just destroyed, but it still got under her skin a little bit. Vanna was a more than capable fighter, from what little Nicole had seen of her prowess. Another thing Astrelle had probably hit a little too hard on the nose back onboard the Laurus, days previously.

Speaking of her embattled, grouchy goth roommate, she heard a new voice chime in on the Ars Magis' celebration: “This certainly beats those dumb cartoons, but I'll give them credit for fueling your creativity."

Nicole smiled at Astrelle wanly for a moment before looking back down at the unconscious Dana. With her fingers, she did her best to hastily fix the directions that the fight - and maybe Nicole's congratulatory headpatting - had sent her hair flying. When she felt she had done a satisfactory enough job, she arced her back a bit, ready to bounce off the pavement. A little hiss came through her teeth, along with a grumbled little "Fucker, fuck, owwww, man..." She would probably be feeling where the Void's claws had raked her for a while; the side of her stomach was taut and red, with little trickles of her magic blood trickling onto the waistline of her damaged parma.

"See you in hell, you fuckin' bozo," sh continued to grumble. Her eulogy to their first major Void kill was taken away on the same gusts that had dispersed its ruined corpse. "Come on, girls. The Powers that Be are calling us. Not you, babe. You can sleep," she added, proceeding to undo all the work she'd just done on Dana's hair thoughtlessly with another headpat. "You did great."

Nicole stood up, feeling her abdomen scream in protest even after she'd steeled herself to move again, with Dana wrapped up in her arms like a sleeping sibling. Thankfully, the younger girl was probably the lightest of the five of them, so carrying her back to the tower was no sweat. She cocked her head forward, in a gesture for the others to follow her.

---

"Well, good riddance to that," Penny says, looking up at the ashes of the monster dissipating into the winds. "Is everyone okay? That was a rough fight, and I think I'm getting into a habit of getting smashed into stuff. Not advisable, by the way."

“This certainly beats those dumb cartoons, but I’ll give them credit for fueling your creativity.”

"Hey, don't knock those cartoons," Penny replies with a smirk. "I spent a good chunk of my childhood on them."

"Come on, girls. The Powers that Be are calling us. Not you, babe. You can sleep. You did great."

"Yeah, that sounds like a good idea right now," Penny groans, stretching a bit, feeling the kinks and bruises from getting smacked into concrete twice.

She follows the other two girls to the tower.

"So who wants to bet the instructors have a few comments on our performance?" she asks, trying to make small talk. "I think I did okay. You girls did pretty great, though. I think we got the hang of this..."

There’s a small debriefing following the operation upon return to the academy, both for each girls’ individual test and the attack afterward. It consists mostly of checking to make sure their wounds aren’t too grievous, along with a short medical examination and psychological evaluation. More of what they’ve come to expect so far, though the process is at least less invasive than their previous examinations.

The interview concludes the same way for each student; A handshake from each of the senior faculty, and these words:
“Congratulations cadet. Today you are an Ars Magi.”



After dinner the common room is buzzing with energy, a dozen newly minted Ars Magi swapping stories of their transformations and the events of the day. By now a few of those faces are familiar; Priya, Amanda, Cara, a handful of others. Some of the girls bear new wounds, all carefully bandaged up. There’s no grievous injuries on display, but anyone seriously hurt is still in the infirmary.
The main topic of discussion this evening seems to surrounds the appearance of the higher-powered Voids in the testing ground. Apparently there was more than one incident over the course of the day:

“It was, like, this huge thing, with a dozen arms.” Priya is describing excitedly at one of the tables scattered around the room, going into details about her groups encounter.

“That’s not supposed to happen, is it?” Asks one of the cadets.

“We didn’t see anything like that.” Another replies.

“Do you think they let the big ones in on purpose?” A third asks.

The sound of chatter echoes down the hallways of the dorms, stories and gossip frantically passed before lights-out comes in a couple hours.

---

Penny rolls her shoulders and feels the bumps and bruises she had experienced through the day, wincing at finding a couple newer ones every once in a while. She really needs to work on her combat techniques, or at least her combat awareness. However, at dinner she finds out she's not the only one who had trouble that day; apparently there was more than one incident of higher-tier Voids disrupting training sessions. The knowledge makes her look at her teammates in concern.

"Either they have problems with perimeter security," she whispers to her teammates, "or there's more to this than we realize."

Maybe she's worrying about this too much. Maybe the Void nearby are simply getting agitated over something or other. But right now she feels like she's waiting for the other shoe to drop.

She sneaks an extra helping of zebra pudding for Dana alongside her dinner in case the Norba girl decides to wake up in the middle of the night hungry, and decides to spend a little more time doing research using her PDA over the academy's network. Namely, she does research on the remaining classes of Void - by the reasoning given, D and C classes implies B and A, but how far does that ranking system rise? S? S+? SS? And if those classifications exist, how dangerous were they? She also investigates things like the history of the Void incursions and the technological developments that lead to the creation of Ars Magi. She was taught the basics at grade school, true, but maybe she could prepare for upcoming classes and broaden her horizons a bit in the process.

---

Dana awoke just in time for dinner, and, having worked up quite an appetite, the cheerful girl eagerly set about piling her tray with food the moment she entered the cafeteria. Her characteristic energy having been fully restored, she listened intently as her fellow newly-minted Ars Magi described their experiences. As the conversation went on, it seemed as though Dana’s team had not been alone in having to face an “unforeseen” threat. In one particularly extreme case, the “surprise Void” had even managed to blast a hole in the side of the team’s observation tower. Dana thought that was pretty crazy, but it was Penny who voiced a concern about a possible ulterior motive behind the sheer number of “accidents” that had occurred during the various tests. A bit on the naive side to consider such potentially sinister conspiracy theories herself, Dana simply stared in wide eyed surprise at what her bespectacled roommate had suggested.

“Woah… Ya really think they might’ve planned this?” she whispered, clearly shocked by the implications of that train of thought. “That’s kinda dark, Penny,” she added, before brightening as a grin spread across her face. “Still, no matter what the case, I’m sure we’ve got nothin’ to worry about as long as you're on our side!” Giggling, she wrapped an arm around her lightning-wielding friend and gave her a playful squeeze. “You were totally AMAZING out there, Penny! Even Magical Maid Altea couldn’t hold a candle to the kinda power you were throwin’ around! It was really somethin’ else! You guys think so too, right?!” she asked the rest of the team, her eyes shining with excitement.

---

Penny manages a smile at Dana's cheerful energy, though her doubts remain.

"It's... well, maybe I am overthinking it," she says, "seeing a conspiracy where one might not exist. It's just... ever since the airship, what you girls saw left me concerned, and you aren't the sort to make this up - leastways from what I've known of you this far. I mean, if it weren't for... you know, I would have just put it down as the Void having a bug up their collective ass and deciding to stir shit up. That's what they've been doing for about a century, after all."
She pinches the bridge of her nose.

"I dunno, I don't want to feel like I'm jumping at shadows here," she sighs.

Dana's friendly squeeze pulls her out of her funk, and she can't help but grin at the Norba girl's infectious cheer.

"Okay, now I know you're exaggerating," she chortles. "Though when can I expect you to pull out a giant mecha out of a hat?"

---

"If anyone is holding out on a giant robot, I'll forgive you, but you have to let me sit in the chest. That's where the heart of the team goes," came the laughing retort from the common room entrance. "Hey, everyone. Looks like they can't keep a good girl down."

Nicole Cognoscenti gave her team a triumphant smile and pumped her fist twice in the air. She was wearing compression leggings and a transparent windbreaker, like umbrella material, with a lime green sports bra underneath. She looked freshly showered; her scarlet hair, usually feathered so elegantly, fell in an artful mop along one side of her forehead, and some parts of her arms and midriff still glistened pink from heat. Along one side of her abdomen was the gauze they had applied to her cut in the infirmary, after an inspection of the wound that Nicole honestly thought had gone on way too long. She'd been assured that the wound wouldn't scar by the medical staff, but she also had been told to avoid any strenuous core exercises for the next few days, and a tummy like hers didn't sculpt itself, babyyyyy, so she had decided to start small and test herself on a jog around the parts of campus they'd been free to explore. In her professional opinion, being at least an undergrad in the study of Nicole Cognoscenti, she felt fine. Like herself. She looked down again to affirm there was no sign of creepy blood leakage through the bandages before she sat on the armrest of Penny and Dana's sofa in the common room.

Nicole grinned and nudged Dana's arm playfully with her elbow, favoring her teammate with a wink.

"Buonasera, slee-pyyyy-head," she jested. "From my vantage point, you kicked a lot of ass. I'm proud of you."

Nicole sprawled along the back of their seat, spine arced along the top of the furniture. She watched her fashionable running sneakers launch and fall in the air like neon missiles, kicking lazily as she listened to the ambient conversation of the Ars Magi assembled there. At first, it was just a chance to check out Vanna's roommate a little, but as they went on, and Penny and Dana tried to gauge her for her input on the conversation she had crashed, Nicole's lips had pursed slightly in contemplation.

"It was pretty polite of them to wait for us, don't you think?" she asked Priya and Cara's group, still draped across her perch. Stretching out like this felt like it also stretched out her cut, but the burning feeling the afflicted area gave off wasn't entirely unpleasant, so she propped herself up on one elbow to alleviate the worst of it and cocked her head. She pushed her hair off her forehead before continuing.

"Our session was normal until the second Penny passed her test," she explained, shrugging in the direction of their little bespectacled titan with another proud wink. "Then it mogged her. So did anyone actually get attacked in the middle of their test, or did they all show manners and wait for us to pass first? No one ever told me that Voids have manners."

“I hear the other group finished their exercise before they got attacked.” Priya responds to Nicole, shifting from her seat at a nearby table to scoot closer to the Laurus group. The girl has a few small cuts across one of her chestnut colored cheeks, but she seems in good spirits. He chair makes a few rumblings of protest as she slides to settle next to Nicole’s couch.

“Only two of us finished before we got attacked, though.” Priya continues, “But Amanda rushed in, even though she hadn’t done her trial yet. It was so cool-—she transformed right there!”

The blonde-haired girl, seated at the table that Priya left, glances up briefly at the mention of her name. She returns shortly after to a magazine in her hands, scanning the pages and showing a general disinterest in the ongoing conversation.

It doesn’t stop her friend from going on: “And I got a sword! Just like I wanted, remember I was telling you. It’s, like, one of those long, thin swords--“ The girl continues to describer her weapon in painstaking detail, pausing only when interrupted by a distressed puff of air from Cara, who also has decided to scoot nearby to join in on the conversation.

“You guys are lucky.” She complains, “I wish we saw one of those big Voids. The small guys didn’t even put up a fight.”

As the conversation goes on Penny is able to pull up information on Void classifications and the NOI’s official ranking chart:

𝙲𝚕𝚊𝚜𝚜 𝚂 – 𝙴𝚡𝚝𝚒𝚗𝚌𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗 𝚕𝚎𝚟𝚎𝚕 𝚝𝚑𝚛𝚎𝚊𝚝． 𝙾𝚗𝚕𝚢 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝙵𝚒𝚛𝚜𝚝 𝚅𝚘𝚒𝚍 𝚑𝚊𝚜 𝚋𝚎𝚎𝚗 𝚐𝚒𝚟𝚎𝚗 𝚊 𝙲𝚕𝚊𝚜𝚜 𝚂 𝚍𝚎𝚜𝚒𝚐𝚗𝚊𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗．
𝙲𝚕𝚊𝚜𝚜 𝙰 – 𝙿𝚘𝚜𝚎𝚜 𝚊 𝚜𝚒𝚐𝚗𝚒𝚏𝚒𝚌𝚊𝚗𝚝 𝚝𝚑𝚛𝚎𝚊𝚝 𝚝𝚘 𝚊𝚗 𝚎𝚗𝚝𝚒𝚛𝚎 𝚂𝚊𝚗𝚌𝚝𝚞𝚖 𝚌𝚒𝚝𝚢． 𝙾𝚗𝚕𝚢 𝚊 𝚑𝚊𝚗𝚍𝚏𝚞𝚕 𝚘𝚏 𝚅𝚘𝚒𝚍𝚜 𝚑𝚊𝚟𝚎 𝚎𝚟𝚎𝚛𝚢 𝚋𝚎𝚎𝚗 𝚍𝚎𝚜𝚒𝚐𝚗𝚎𝚍 𝙰 𝙲𝚕𝚊𝚜𝚜． 𝚁𝚎𝚚𝚞𝚒𝚛𝚎𝚜 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚍𝚎𝚙𝚕𝚘𝚢𝚖𝚎𝚗𝚝 𝚘𝚏 𝚊 𝚕𝚊𝚛𝚐𝚎 𝚗𝚞𝚖𝚋𝚎𝚛 𝚎𝚡𝚙𝚎𝚛𝚒𝚎𝚗𝚌𝚎𝚍 𝙰𝚛𝚜 𝙼𝚊𝚐𝚒．
𝙲𝚕𝚊𝚜𝚜 𝙱 – 𝙿𝚘𝚜𝚎𝚜 𝚊 𝚖𝚘𝚍𝚎𝚛𝚊𝚝𝚎 𝚝𝚑𝚛𝚎𝚊𝚝 𝚝𝚘 𝚊𝚗 𝚎𝚗𝚝𝚒𝚛𝚎 𝚜𝚊𝚗𝚌𝚝𝚞𝚖 𝚌𝚒𝚝𝚢． 𝚁𝚎𝚚𝚞𝚒𝚛𝚎𝚜 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚍𝚎𝚙𝚕𝚘𝚢𝚖𝚎𝚗𝚝 𝚘𝚏 𝚜𝚎𝚟𝚎𝚛𝚊𝚕 𝚎𝚡𝚙𝚎𝚛𝚒𝚎𝚗𝚌𝚎𝚍 𝙰𝚛𝚜 𝙼𝚊𝚐𝚒．
𝙲𝚕𝚊𝚜𝚜 𝙲 – 𝙿𝚘𝚜𝚎𝚜 𝚊 𝚕𝚘𝚠 𝚝𝚑𝚛𝚎𝚊𝚝 𝚝𝚘 𝚊𝚗 𝚎𝚗𝚝𝚒𝚛𝚎 𝚜𝚊𝚗𝚌𝚝𝚞𝚖 𝚌𝚒𝚝𝚢． 𝚁𝚎𝚚𝚞𝚒𝚛𝚎𝚜 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚍𝚎𝚙𝚕𝚘𝚢𝚖𝚎𝚗𝚝 𝚘𝚏 𝚊𝚝 𝚕𝚎𝚊𝚜𝚝 𝚘𝚗𝚎 𝚎𝚡𝚙𝚎𝚛𝚒𝚎𝚗𝚌𝚎𝚍 𝙰𝚛𝚜 𝙼𝚊𝚐𝚒．
𝙲𝚕𝚊𝚜𝚜 𝙳 – 𝚃𝚑𝚎 𝚕𝚘𝚠𝚎𝚜𝚝 𝚝𝚑𝚛𝚎𝚊𝚝 𝚕𝚎𝚟𝚎𝚕， 𝚜𝚝𝚒𝚕𝚕 𝚌𝚊𝚙𝚊𝚋𝚕𝚎 𝚘𝚏 𝚌𝚊𝚞𝚜𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚊 𝚕𝚊𝚛𝚐𝚎 𝚗𝚞𝚖𝚋𝚎𝚛 𝚘𝚏 𝚌𝚊𝚜𝚞𝚊𝚕𝚝𝚒𝚎𝚜 𝚒𝚏 𝚕𝚎𝚏𝚝 𝚞𝚗𝚌𝚑𝚎𝚌𝚔𝚎𝚍．

“So,” Says Cara, “I hear they’re finally going to let us out in the city, now that we’re full-fledged Ars Magi and everything. I didn’t get to see much of it on the way in, but I’m sure they’ve at least got a burger place or something out there. We should go, when we can. What do you say?”

---

At Amanda's name, Penny looks up and cocks an eyebrow. At least blondie had guts, which improved her standing in Penny's eyes. She turns back to the conversation at hand.

"So it was just a coincidence that our group was attacked just as they wrapped things up," Penny states. "If these attacks happened at roughly the same time, seems like they snuck in through a gap in the defenses and attacked anyone in range. I hope they get that fixed; Everyone seems to have gotten out okay, but that was close. Or at least, I hope everyone got out okay.

"And don't worry, Cara, you'll get your chance. Just be careful and don't get bushwhacked like I did; not fun, I'll tell ya that much."

In response to Cara's question about food, Penny smirks.

"Weeeelll, don't know about burgers, but I think we spotted a pizza place when we came in last night," she says. "Even in an armored bunker, people gotta eat, and one can't live off MREs alone. Well, you can, but I don't think that'll be very fun."

She turns back to the list of classifications and frowns. Ars Magi are an elite force; to have any more than a dozen in a single op was usually seen as inefficient. And yet for Class A Voids to require many Ars Magi to fight it was chilling.

She sighs. Best not to get too worked up about it right now, especially since today proved almost as taxing as their rough flight yesterday.

---

Dana grinned when she saw Nicole enter. She was glad that the red-head seemed to be mending well, or well enough to lay across the top of a couch at any rate. The Hastian went on to give Dana a playful poke before complementing her performance in the earlier battle.

“Thanks, Nicole,” Dana replied, tilting her head back to smile up at her teammate. “And if we’re talkin’ about giant robots, I’m happy as long as I get to fire the big, shoulder-mounted cannons! We are gonna have shoulder-mounted cannons, right?” she asked in mock seriousness.

Nicole proceeded to inquire about when the other teams were attacked by their own surprise Voids, which garnered an interesting variety of responses. In particular, Priya’s team didn’t even get to finish all of their tests, which went some way towards disproving Penny's idea that there was a conspiracy at work, at least as far as Dana was concerned. Priya then went on to describe her Gladius, and Dana couldn’t help but share her excitement as she listened with rapt interest. At least, until Cara spoke up, mentioning that her team's tests occurred without any unplanned interruptions.

She almost sounds disappointed… Dana thought. Then again, I’d probably feel the same way if we missed out. After all, fighting that thing was pretty awesome! The energetic Norban grinned as she thought of how well they’d worked together to defeat their bonus adversary.

That grin only broadened with the mention of off-campus food.

“I’d love to go get some pizza with you guys!” Dana declared in her typical upbeat tone. “Nothin’ against cafeteria food, but ya just can’t beat a good pizza, especially when shared with friends!”

---

Though her smile remained on her face as she listened politely to Priya and Dana's talk of gladii and swords, more of Nicole's focus was spent on mulling over Priya's account of her team's baptism by fire. Only luck and the grace of a few seconds had spared Penny from the same kind of mid-trial surprise that Amanda had prevented. They'd all been ushered into dark little corners of Palmyra, after all, where they'd been warned of potentially intense Void activity - but what else had there been? Something about diffusion levels, and allowing the manifestation of Voids to begin with. Had those levels been adjusted again during certain group's tests, like theirs or Priya's? Why? Another phase to the test? Some conspiracy, like Penny thought?

Her stomach ached a little as she sat up, languid above her teammate's heads. Her attention fell on Cara, violet eyes tracing down the length of the girl's neck and down to her chest before bouncing back up to her face. Vanna's roommate seemed less than enthused about her own thoroughly average test. She could be living proof of a coincidence or an unwitting member of a control group, as Astrelle had been positing since the minute their airship had been attacked. She might need to talk to both of them and see what they thought. But what good would that do tonight, when the adrenaline still fluttered in each of their bodies and they were celebrating their birth as Ars Magi?

Her gaze turned onto the top of the bespectacled little conspiracy theorist's head, stroking her hair braid thoughtfully for a second before her megawatt smile turned back on.

"We passed a few pizza places, actually," she added. "Well, count me in, but don't expect me to sit by idly and let you guys pick a bad spot. A true Hastan can pick a crappy pizza dive from space if she had to. We should grab Astrelle and Vanna on our way out the door, too."

---

Penny looks up at Nichole for playing with her braid, but gives a wry smile at the Hastano's reasoning for why she should pick the pizza parlor.

"Oh really?" she teases. "So what other powers does being a Hastano bestow upon one? Aside from superior pizza and fashion sense, and the ability to come up with a catchphrase?"

Discussion goes on for the rest of the hour and pizza is agreed upon eventually. Plans are made, and eventually the chimes ring out to signal the end of free time. It’s back to the dorm rooms after, one light after another flickering out as the cadets find sleep after a long and difficult day.

The next several weeks pass more uneventfully than the past few days. It may almost be disappointing, going from facing down multiple Voids sitting in classrooms and staring down reams of homework and stacks of academic material. There are still both physical and magical drills that take place over the intervening time, but both are more strictly regimented and more limited in scope than the cadet’s earlier trial by fire.

For the more restless of Nova Lux’s students there is at least some good news in the announcement that comes the day after their initiation: The students are now allowed to explore the city without supervision. There’s a curfew in place for cadets, but otherwise the city of Palmyra is theirs to explore during their evenings and weekends.

The city itself is, as Nicole has noted, not Hasta. Palmyra’s ancestry is Russian, built on the bones of an old port city, but its future is an eclectic mix of European and Asian influences. Several generations of immigrants and refugees have influenced the culture and feel of the sanctum city, shown in the mix of languages that paint billboards and street signage. In some places old stone buildings give way to steel skyscrapers and packed housing structures reminiscent of old Eastern living, the city forced to expand upward rather than out.

It’s a military city, the most prominent features being Nova Lux, the Officer’s Academy, Palmyra’s Military Zone, and all the structures required to support of those pivotal institutions. Yet there’s still some charm to be found amidst its streets, some bastions of society and entertainment. Movie theaters, karaoke rooms, arcades, restaurants, shopping districts and parks, while they might not be grand affairs or cultural landmarks there’s something for everyone.

During these weeks, several pieces of news also circulate through the academy and amongst the student body. The chief item of interest is the announcement of the academies’ Inaugural Ball, a joint event held for both the newly minted Ars Magi and recently enrolled students from Nova Lux’s sister school, the Palmyra Officers Academy. Officially it’s billed as a chance to build relationships between the Ars Magi cadets and the peers they’ll be working with over the coming years, though the more cynical speculate it’s more likely an opportunity for the Imperium to show off their new crop of weapons to the Duodecim’s various dignitaries.

Until then though the five girls from the Laurus have time to themselves and the city to explore--at least when they aren’t in class.

---

Penny takes the new routine in stride. It's certainly a slight letdown after the thrilling fight with Void, but it's another step to proving her worth as an Ars Magi. It's certainly more demanding and difficult than what she was used to back in Siscia, but if she wants to do her part, she knows she has to prove she can walk the walk. In her spare time, she studies any available information on Ars Magi and Void, as well as any knowledge about magitech she can get her hands on. Still, the weeks prove pretty tranquil, and as time goes on, she feels more at ease about her stay at Palmyra.

Well, right until she got into a fight with a Hasta girl, Blair McKenzie. A slight misunderstanding turned into an argument, and before she knew it, fists were flying, and Penny learned a few things that day. One, the Ars Magi academy is really strict about fights, and she got several days detention for it and an earful from the instructors. Two, Blair McKenzie had a short fuse and a really thick accent, but was actually a pretty cool person; she was a 'Last Highlander', descendant of the survivors of the Scottish division, one of the last surviving units of the British Army that herded the survivors of Britain to Hasta during the Fall. And third, Blair McKenzie had a really tough skull; Penny found out the hard way when she tried to punch out her taller opponent and almost broke a few fingers. Still, the two managed to bond over the art of swearing and being scrappers in general.

Still, a couple of weeks later, the problem had been largely forgotten, and Penny can look forwards to enjoying time off. It's been time since she can simply take time off to relax. As the class ends, she puts away her books and datapad with a content sigh and stretches a bit as she gets out of her seat.

"Whew, talk about a long day," she exclaims, turning to her teammates. "You girls ready for a tour of the town? 'Cause I know I am."

---

As the weeks following their first official outing as Are Magi settled into a far less eventful pattern of schoolwork and free time, Dana found her initial exuberant enthusiasm diminishing a bit. The battle against the C-Class Void had felt like the very pinnacle of her young life. Now, she had been brought back down to earth, and forced to return to the monotony of a mundane existence. There was still magical and physical training, of course, but it was nothing like what they’d experienced during their first trial. For some reason the cheerful Norban simply couldn’t put her finger on, they just felt empty somehow, hollow…

Thinking back to the debriefing, which followed their test, Dana vividly remembered her answers to the stoic examiner’s various questions.

How did it feel to use your powers?

Great! It was really awesome to see just how much I can do now! I mean, can you imagine all the people I could help?!

Do you feel any different since your transformation?

Uh, not really? I mean, I’m still the same old me, but, um, I guess I feel more confident? Is that what you’re asking?

How did you feel about your encounter with the Void?

It was really intense! But also really cool! The other Voids were kinda weak, so I got rid of ‘em easy enough, but that last one was so powerful, we all needed to work together to defeat it! Workin’ alone is fine, and all, but good teamwork can overcome any challenge, so it was really nice for us to have a chance to develop that! After all, teamwork is what let us beat the First Void, and I just know that’s how we’re gonna take back the rest of the planet!

How do you feel your teammates performed?

They were amazing! Way more awesome than me, that’s for sure! I mean, yeah, they all got injured way worse than me, but that’s only because they’re all equipped for close combat, while I’ve got a gun, so, yeah, they’re gonna get banged up a lot more than me in fights, but… I’m kinda jealous of ‘em, y’know? I mean, they got to really prove what they were made of, gettin’ hurt, but workin’ through it to win in the end. I never had to deal with that, and, well, I’m not sure if I could take the kinda pounding they did and still come out on top…

Perhaps that was the reason, Dana mused after another week of studies had passed into the history books. She wanted to challenge herself further, to once again push her abilities to the limit, and then see if she could go even further. If she could overcome the limitations and weaknesses she knew all-to-well she possessed. Unfortunately, the only thing being challenged of late was her patience…

Thanks to a regrettable fight Penny had gotten herself into only a few days after their trial, Dana’s bespectacled roommate had been prohibited from leaving campus for several weeks, which made any off campus trips significantly less enjoyable. Thus, with the exception of a few feeble attempts, they had decided to postpone their explorations of Palmyra until after Penny’s incarceration had ended. Thankfully, tonight was that night, and Dana couldn’t wait to experience everything her new home had to offer, with all her new friends along for the ride.

“You girls ready for a tour of the town?” Penny asked as they packed up for the day. “‘Cause I know I am.”

“You bet I am!” Dana replied with her trademark grin. “And if I know Nicole, she’s already got a list of all the best places to visit!” she added, while playfully elbowing the red-headed Hastian. “Oh yeah! And we’ve got that fancy ball or whatever comin’ up!” the energetic Norban noted excitedly. “I don’t now about you, Penny, but I’ve never been to anything even remotely like that, so I really hope our resident fashion and high society experts can help me out!” she said, directing her attention to Nicole and Vanna.