Mariette sat calmly in the middle of a dark room. She was wearing the school uniform of the Overcity College of Magic. She kept her eyes closed, controlling her breathing, her white hair hanging behind her and not wearing her typical eyepatch. A single bottle was sitting before her. Also, something was brewing on the opposite side of the room…
A transparent, white being floated slowly through the wall. A dreadful skull in place of its head, hallowed by time and damage, with the armor of an ancient warrior and a ripped cloak above it covering the ghast’s body. It held a sword and shield in its left and right hand. It looked at Mariette, and a chill wordless sound came from its mouth.
It was an undead wraith, who had every capability of being deadly.
Mariette did nothing, just sat there calmly.
The wraith shouted out and lifted up its sword, before gliding forward as if intending to cut Mariette. She didn’t move… until finally the wraith crossed the border.
A portal opened above the wraith, and a circle of purified salt fell down around the wraith, causing the creature to let out a chill screech. Also, numerous talismans attached to strings also fell down hanging around the wraith, repelling it, containing it inside the circle of salt.
As it struggled and attempted to slice around itself, Mariette slowly stood up, sighing out. The wraith looked at her, its expression cold and empty, but its actions were filled with rage as it tried to slice itself free. One arm got out…
Mariette crouched beneath the arm and lunged forward. She muttered a couple magical words, and power collected in her hand as she slapped it forward into the chest of the wraith’s armor. Light blasted out of the hit, and the wraith shouted out once again in its chilling, inhuman voice… but its strength weakened. The whole creature was pulled downwards, shrinking, sinking down from where Mariette had hit it, until it was engulfed by the little bottle that was sitting on the floor beneath it. Moments later, the great specter was gone, and left was a tiny little armored ghost in a bottle. Mariette picked up the bottle and stuffed a cork on it to block its escape.
“Well done!” called the examiner, who’d been hiding outside the room watching over. “Ten out of ten! Exceptionally done!”
Mariette frowned as she looked down on the bottle. Her grip tightened, a sliver of annoyance going through her veins. This… this still wasn’t NEAR enough for the league she needed to contend with…!
Mariette continued working hard on her studies in the Sealing courses of the Overcity College of Magic, going far and beyond the average student. Not only was she taking additional lessons from Tuuletar, she had also gathered extra materials such as books and scrolls to further develop her understanding of the arcane art. She had passed both Sealing Fundamentals and Advanced Sealing, and achieved a perfect score on the mid-term exams. She has learned how to apply long-term sealing to magical entities within a ten-meter radius using an elaborate ritual, as well as temporary sealing using hand seals and an incantation followed by a palm strike on the target. Using her skills, Mariette can reliably exercise and seal lesser-to-medium level targets.
However, when Mariette began the Expert Sealing course, she had realized that she had hit a wall in her learning; while the contents also included practical elements and as it’s final project did include sealing a genie, a high-level magical entity, the course mostly focused on the theory and development of sealing magic, and didn’t go as far with the sealing process itself as Mariette would have liked.
Still, Mariette continued tending the Expert class, and as she did she would find herself spending small moments of time with her classmates at the College, Rennala and Ebony. The two girls were still working on Advanced Sealing by the time Mariette moved on to Expert, but even so the girls continued hanging out; instead of a schism forming between her and the other two, Mariette noticed that her efforts had in turn motivated the two to work even harder on their own studies, having been recognized as an honor student by her peers and faculty.
This was especially apparent when Mariette stepped out of the day’s class once it finished,, and happened to run into the two of them in the hallway.
“Hey! Mariette!” Rennala called out with a big smile and a wave of her hand, accompanied by Ebony. “You’ve already started Expert Sealing, right? That’s honestly amazing. You have a real talent for this!” The bubbly girl complimented, while Ebony nodded. “Yes. I’m still in Advanced, but I think I’ve learned a lot just from seeing how you do your studying. Even Damien wouldn’t want to be in your body.” As she said that, Mariette noticed how Ebony’s eyes briefly flashed a mix of red and black. “That’s what I said, Damien, and you know it’s true,” the dark-haired girl followed up as if talking to herself, grinning creepily.
‘Er…’ Mariette was a bit taken aback by their praises. Despite their saying she was amazing, she herself felt like she wasn’t good enough. But, bringing that up felt… inappropriate.
‘I’m sure… I’m sure the two of you will be right behind me. I believe in you,’ Mariette said, nodding to them.
Rennala gasped in delight, and took Mariette's hand in hers, excitedly shaking them. "Oh thank you, Mariette! I'll do my best, so that I can stand proud with you as magi valedictorian!"
However, Ebony seemed less enthused by the encouragement, having seemingly noticed Mariette's subtle temperament. "Is something wrong, Mariette? You don't seem enthused about attending like usual."
Rennala removed her hands and put them behind her back. "Is the class tough? I've heard that many flunk out, thinking it's too difficult for them."
‘Oh, no, it’s not that… I’m just…’ Mariette froze to, because she absolutely was not about to tell her new friends about why she was really doing this. That just wasn’t in the cards. Too unsafe. That said…
‘… I want to get better. Even better than these classes can teach me. But, if I’m to become better than my classes, then I can’t just learn from their material. I’d need to learn beyond them… but I’m unsure where I’d even start. I should probably stick with learning all I can here for now…’ she said. Yeah, that sounded genuine enough.
Ebony seemed as if she was in thought, and then shuffled closer to Mariette. She spoke in a lower voice: "There are ways you can learn very powerful magic…But it's dangerous. It could lead you to getting expelled…or worse." Rennala blinked, not having heard her. "Huh?" She tilted her head. Ebony gave her a quick grin before she resumed whispering to Mariette. "Meet me outside the College at midnight. I'll explain more there…if you're not afraid, that is."
‘I-’ Mariette froze, looking stunned at her classmate’s proposition. She wasn’t entirely sure she liked the sound of that. Yet, if it allowed her to become stronger…
‘I’ll… I’ll see you there,’ she said, in a quieter voice. She didn’t really want to risk getting expelled, but depending on what happened maybe she could pull out if it looked dangerous… maybe.
Ebony nodded, looking pleased. "Good. See you there." She then headed off down the hallway to another class, leaving Rennala puzzled. "Hmm…Oh, I get it!" The ditzy girl placed her fist in her palm. "You're doing a study session. Well, have fun!" She waved goodbye and left.
Mariette waved good-bye to Rennala, as she felt quite a bit of uncertainty within her. She didn’t really like the idea of doing something the people of the school who had treated her so well wouldn’t like… but, she had to at the very least give this a shot.
So, with that decided, she’d later get herself to outside the college at midnight, just as Ebony had directed her to.
-
By midnight, the atmosphere around the college turned from warm and welcoming to ominous and foreboding, as if it was the witching hour: the moon shined in the strange Overcity sky, wind rustled the gnarled bushes around the gardens, and an owl hooted, perched on the front gate.
Fortunately, Mariette didn't have to wait long, as Ebony soon came skulking: she had drawn her hood over her head, and carried a brown sack over her bag.
"Glad you could make it, Mariette~" The creepy girl greeted her, and looked around. She noticed that there was a guard standing at the from entrance of the school, and quickly dragged Mariette behind the outer wall.
"Alright, here's the plan: we're gonna sneak into the forbidden section of the archives. I know there must be some wonderful tomes there just waiting to share their sweet secrets. Of course, we can't get caught. But if we do, we never knew each other. So, any questions?" She asked, and rummaged through her sack.
‘Oh,’ Mariette made a noise of realization as Ebony explained her plan. Mariette got a little scared inside.
‘Do we, um, know if there’s any magical protection? Or are we going in blind?’ she asked, bringing a hand to her chest as she asked, looking towards the ominous building with a bit of worry.
“Of course they have protection,” Ebony answered, and then picked out a small brown pouch from her sack. “Any forbidden archives worth their dust is going to have warding. But as you can see, I came prepared. Now, hold still, ok? And maybe hold your breath too…” She took a pinch of what looked like strangely translucent powder, and blew it off her palm, letting it billow into a small cloud around the two of them. Mariette then saw as Ebony vanished from her sight…as did her own hands. She heard Ebony’s low voice from the spot she was standing. “Nice, the Dust of Disappearance still worked. Ok, now follow me, Mariette.” Mariette felt Ebony’s hand gently touch her forearm, tugging her towards the side section of the outer wall where rocks were stacked to form makeshift stairs. “We can cross the wall here. Then we go through the basement door, and work our way up.” Of course, as Mariette has visited the archives before to borrow a couple of books from the public section, she could always just summon a portal there…But would she risk to reveal that magic to Ebony?
Mariette held her breath when Ebony requested it. And… it appears they became invisible. Interesting.
‘Where did you obtain this powder? Would it be visible to a person with Third Eye?’ she felt compelled to ask. Still, that aside, she allowed herself to be tugged along by Ebony. No harm doing this the normal way until otherwise required. So she followed for now, unless she saw some obvious trap they were about to walk into.
Mariette saw a couple of footprints appear alongside the sound of a thud, as Ebony jumped down the wall to the courtyard. "Let’s just say I have connections,” she answered with a low voice, followed by shuffling towards the basement door. She paused there as Mariette brought up Third Eye users. “Uh, maybe? But don’t worry, we won’t give them a reason to use it. You just gotta keep up.” She took out a magic wand with the tip shaped like an elaborate key, and with a little zap unlocked the door.
The basement was dark, but Ebony seemed to know her way around as she kept tugging Mariette up the stairs to the ground floor, where a lone guard was leaning back on a chair in the receptionist’s seat, looking at videos on Glimmr.
“Quiet,” Ebony whispered, and tippytoed past the guard. However, as Mariette followed, she accidentally stepped on a pencil and cracked it, causing the guard to put down his smartphone. “Hm? What was that?”
Mariette used Absolute Direction to locate the nearest rat. She then portalled the rat to near the pen, shifting the blame entirely and explaining the noise. Mariette hurried along, still invisible.
The ruse worked; as the guard shone an enchanted flashlight on the rat, the rodent scurried away, drawing the sentry'a attention away from Mariette, who successfully reached the stairs. She heard Ebony's subdued breaths near her: it seems the encounter was enough to cause even the creepy girl to turn slightly anxious.
"Phew, close call. What kind of trick was that? Never mind, let's move on.
The two reached the second floor, where the archives were located. After Ebony unlocked the door once again with her handy tool, the two entered inside. The archives, usually brightly lit, seemed ominous if not outright deathly in it's silence, like a tomb of knowledge; dusty books lined tall shelves arranged like a maze, filled with twists and turns, and the floorboards creaked with the occasional step. Mariette then saw as a book was removed, floating in midair, and then disappeared into something invisible.
"Demonomicon…A masterpiece," she heard Ebony mutter to herself.
After a moment of wandering the archives, the two soon found the forbidden section: the door was ominously chained, with a warding glyph enchanted on the door, glowing with a dull blue light. Ebony giggled. "Alright, this should work…" A small egg-shaped mechanical device appeared, and it floated towards the door. As it came closer, the egg opened up like a flower, and with a low hum, light began to emanate from the egg, drawing the magic on the door into it.
Soon the door lost it's shine, and was disenchanted.
"Yes! It worked. But now I have to keep this away, or else it'll ruin my other stuff…" She set the glowing egg down on the floor, and set to work unlocking the door. However, that was when Mariette, her Awareness acute in the dangerous heist, sensed the arrival of a guard coming upstairs and coming towards the archives, seemingly patrolling the area.
Mariette had been to these archives a lot of times during her time at this school, so she didn’t need to look for books that were of interest to her. That said, Ebony was clearly prepared to open this door, which she was a bit impressed by. Besides that…
‘Someone’s coming,’ Mariette softly shared with Ebony, taking a step aside. In order to buy some time for her… she Absolute Directioned for the rat, then placed it on the guard’s foot with a quick portal that then vanished. With any luck, it’d run in a direction that wasn’t this direction and buy Ebony some time.
Ebony quickly hid her tool away once Mariette warned her, and stood still as the guard opened the door to the archives. “Huh? Did I forget to lock thi-Ah, another rat!” The guard was startled by the rat appearing on her foot. The tiny animal scurried off again, and the guard cursed under her breath, now chasing after it out of the room. “Get back here, you varmint!”
Ebony giggled, amused by Mariette’s spell. “So you know portal magic, huh? Why didn’t you use that to get us here?” She wondered, but then sighed. “Eh, it doesn’t matter.” She unlocked the door, and the two entered the forbidden archives: compared to the deathly calm atmosphere from before, the torches glowing with green flames and gargoyle statues perched in the corners gave the area an outright occult feeling. The bookshelves were gnarled and twisted, as if struggling to hold the books contained in them. Ebony wheezed in joy, having suddenly appeared; the effect of the invisibility dust had ended on her.
“Yes…This is it! Now, let’s see…”
Mariette saw that the subjects of the books were varied: there were biographies and diaries from infamous and criminal Mahou, insane ramblings, recipe books for the cannibal or otherwise depraved palate, and even books stitched from human skin; Mariette could sense these books in particular were alive, and would scream if she were to attempt to read them. But the majority of the books were spellbooks containing magic too dangerous and evil to use. That was when Mariette spotted a couple of books that pertained to her interests: “Shackling Sorceries” and “Bondaga Arcana: A Reference Guide.”
As soon as Mariette grabbed the books, she heard some creepy laughter coming from the other side of the shelf, followed by the loud shattering of glass. As Mariette checked what was going on, she saw that Ebony had grabbed a book from a glass case: it was a red book made of tattered, sulfur-smelling leather, and had a demonic visage on the spine named “Ars Maleficarum”. Ebony opened the book, laughing as she skimmed through the pages. “Yes…Yes! Here it is! The spell to free me!”
She began reading the forbidden words, the language sounding infernal and abyssal, and word by word her red eyes began to glow. Then, Mariette saw as a demonic form crawled out of Ebony’s back, causing the girl to collapse unconscious. The fiend was frightening in appearance, standing three heads taller than Mariette, with jagged teeth, wicked horns and cloven hooves for feet. “Thank you. You are a true friend! Ha ha ha haa!” Mariette sensed how guards had run in, shocked at the sight of the demon. “What the hell is this?”
The demon laughed uproariously.
“Not what the hell, but who the hell! Ha hah haaaaa!”
‘…’ Mariette noted what was going on with silent confirmation. In response, she opened the book in her hand, leafing to the relevant page. If it required ingredients, she was confident the school itself carried them. With her normal portalling strategy, she held the book aside and multitasked by having a portal open from her eye to the book, quickly reading to try to learn what she needed as quickly as possible. Honestly, she could grab a couple books by tentacles and then open portals to each, she was used to watching multiple things at once, why not read multiple things at once? She could have portals scanning the titles of books and avoid the ones that would attack her, but seek those that might tell her about this demon.
‘I apologize for this. It was necessary to bring a foul monster out of my friend. However, with that part of the plan accomplished…’Mariette’s hand-mirror, her magical weapon of choice, materialized in her hand as she turned to the demon.
‘I urge you to leave this to me,’ Mariette told the guard, with some assumptions that she was probably the more accomplished combatant of them.
“H-huh? Your friend?!” The guard next to Mariette glanced at her with shock, having just registered the quiet girl’s presence. “Die, fiend!” The other guard summoned her magical weapon, and charged in for an attack. However, the demon didn’t seem threatened, and shot out a red spike that impaled the guard, causing them to keel over.
“Ha hah haaah! I can feel my power returning! So, are you the next one? Maybe I’ll keep you alive, to feed on your pain and suffering!”
The other guard was more cautious, and kept her distance as she shot out beams of energy, giving Mariette the time she needed to prepare her magic. She skimmed through the pages of her newly acquired tomes as well as the Demonomicon that Ebony had grabbed, where she found the file and description of the demon: Demogorgon, the Prince of Demons. One of the most powerful fiends, Demogorgon possesses strength, agility and magical potential that could threaten even Patrons. Indeed, it is rumored that before his sealing he led a cult of Mahou as a Patron of sorts himself before it was disbanded by Beacon.
Mariette moved on to search for methods to banish or seal the demon again, until finally she found a spell she could use to stop the abyssal abomination’s rampage in the pages of the Bondaga Arcana. It was a spell she could quickly cast, but it required numerous rare ingredients. Fortunately, as Mariette had studied extensively on the subject, she immediately recognized all but a few of them from her classes, and quickly snatched them through portals to the storage room, which she has visited previously for her classes. As for the rest, she improvised using substitutes. It might not result in a perfect spell, but it would have to do in an emergency.
That was when Demogorgon, having incapacitated the other guard with a slash of his long claws, finally turned to Mariette, having noticed the numerous tentacles and portals. “You were of great use to me, Mariette, but I can’t have anyone threaten my new reign of terror! DIE!” The demon then lunged at Mariette, his fangs twisted in a cruel smile.
Mariette grunted at the guards taking such wounds, that wasn’t great, but she also recognized that if they hadn’t Mariette wouldn’t have time to prepare the spell she was currently arranging. With bitterness on her tongue, she locked eyes on her foe.
‘You should have stayed in your previous prison, Demogorgon.’ she said. There was power in names, and something she had previously learned, she was now going to name her seals.
Demogorgon reeled back mid-strike, his beastly visage in a grimace of disgust as his name was uttered. “I’ll cut your tongue!” He roared. To a demon, their true name was indeed a limiting factor, and fully solidified his essence into the Overcity plane. Still, it wasn’t enough to deter the fiend’s attack.
Now, Mariette was going to select an appropriate vessel.
First she thought of the rat, but that one’s mind could be dominated by the demon. So, then she thought of something… cuter. So she used Absolute Direction, and simply happened to find what she was looking for.
As Demogorgon approached, portals spawned in a wide circle. Magic power coursed around, connecting to each of the many magic items needed to contain this particular demon, and Mariette started whispering the words. With her ability to summon the needed items immediately, she was any sealable demon’s worst nightmare. She held out a hand, casting a repulsing light-shield to hold her opponent at bay for merely a moment as she got the words out, managing to deflect the deadly claws, seeing the red streaks they left in the air before her. Then…
A portal popped something up beneath the demon. It was a rat. Specifically, it was a
plushie of a rat. An incredibly cute one.
‘Suffer in your new prison. I shall call this seal, and you shall be from now on known as…’‘CUDDLESPAWN!’ Mariette gave her seal a name, the best one she could think of, as she cast the sealing magic to trap the incredibly powerful demon inside the body of a plush rat.
As the ingredients were consumed in the spell, they coalesced into a magical vortex that formed under Demogorgon, beginning to draw him in with unescapable force.
“No! You can’t do this to me! I’m the Prince of Demons! The Scourge of the Abyss!”
The vortex strengthened, causing the demon to spin into a downward spiral into the plushie.
“NOOOOO!”
With one last scrape of the stone tiles, the demon was bound into the vessel, which shook as black magic was poured into it, before it finally stopped moving. For a moment, Mariette saw that the doll remained motionless, and that the demon was unable to escape its newest prison.
However, she then heard the fiend’s voice from the plushie; it seemed to be in higher pitch, as if to fit the smaller size of the vessel.
“Hah! You failed to fully seal me, witch! Now, it is time I cut you to pi-Uh?”
The plushie slightly shivered, but was ultimately unable to move. “Dammit! Move! MOOVE!”
However, try as he might, he could only slightly tremble in his inanimate form. “I can’t believe this..I’ve been reduced to a mere toy! The humiliation! The disgrace!”
It seems that Mariette succeeded in neutralizing the threat.
The incapacitated guard then opened her eyes, and held her bleeding shoulder.
“Wh-what happened? Where is the demon?”
Mariette panted from the momentary excitement, seeing how failing would likely have caused her death. Right, with that out of the way. First, she opened a portal to send the impaled guard directly to whatever medical facility might exist nearby in the Overcity. Then, she stepped forward, bent over and picked up the rat plushie.
‘I got rid of it,’ Mariette answered the guard, looking at the extremely cute little demon rat plushie. Mariette stared at it for a moment… then got a tiny blush as she pinched its cute little cheeks.
‘Cuddlespawn,’ she stated with happy finality.
Right, she probably should go over and check if Ebony was alright.
The guard looked perplexed, but sighed. "Alright. I need to…apply first aid, and contact the headmaster. Wait here," she said, and ran downstairs, breathing heavily as she leaned against the handrail and leaving a streak of blood.
As Mariette afterwards played with Cuddlespawn, it squeaked in rage. "That's not my name, insolent girl! I'm Demogorgon, Lord of the Damned! Once I'm out of this stupid vermin, you'll regret making a mockery of me!"
Ebony was still unconscious as Mariette went to check up on her, but woke when Mariette shook her a bit. "Ughhh…Mari…ette?" She stumbled up, holding her head. "D-Damien is…Gone. I don't hear him anymore. It's so quiet now."
‘Cuddlespawn,’ Mariette told with finality as she hugged the plushie and then dropped it through a portal into her hammerspace handbag, the plushie making one final squeak as it fell. She needed to look into her friend.
‘Yeah, he’s gone. Not free, I stopped him. He’s just gone. You’re free. Was that… what you wanted?’ Mariette asked, moving closer to hold onto her so she didn’t fall over, just in case.
Ebony blinked, and looked around, having noticed the fallen bookshelves and scattered tomes. "Yeah…Damien would make a mess like this once freed." She looked unsure about how to answer. "It's…Really quiet now. But also…calm. Like tranquil and…stuff." She then smiled, and hugged Mariette. "Thank you for exorcising the demon, Mariette. Now I can finally focus on my studies, and maybe even graduate. But, uhhh…" She then realized. "We might get expelled now."
‘You should be fine. You were possessed. None of it was your choice,’ Mariette told her, just going to gently caress her cheek for now. As for herself… she didn’t really dare wish for it, so she kept quiet about it. She really wished none of the guards had come to harm.
Ebony sighed, and accepted Mariette’s affectionate gesture. “I hope so.” Later, the headmaster arrived with more guards; he was shocked upon seeing the absolute chaos that the forbidden archives were thrown into. “Mariette Pedersen and Ebony Ironclaw? Care to explain the meaning of this egregious breaking of academy regulations?”
“It was the demon, sir,” Ebony spoke first before Mariette had the chance. “He took over my body, and blackmailed Mariette into helping him. Neither of us had a choice.”
Of course, Mariette could tell that wasn’t the truth even without her Light Specialization.
The headmaster on the other hand tapped his staff gently at the floor, seemingly oblivious of the lie. “Hm…Minerva did mention that one of the students was unconscious, and the other fought against a demon. And it would fit the fiend’s modus operandi. Mariette, is this true?”
‘…’ Did the principal have a way to detect lies? Light-specialization was decently common. If so, then lying would put them in even more trouble. But more than that, it felt… wrong.
‘… Not entirely. The demon did lure me while pretending to be Ebony and I didn't know what it was planning, but I could have said no. I was too curious. … That said, everything after that fits. The demon broke out, but I was fortunately able to defeat it. Ebony is no longer plagued by the demon within her. Overall, that feels like a decent outcome… I apologize for going behind your backs, I… in hindsight, that was a bad idea. I should have sent a request to look at the books instead…’ Mariette decided to come clean, come what consequences would. If she was expelled, she’d simply find a different way to learn. After all, she had the basics down.
The headmaster furrowed his eyebrows as Mariette unveiled the whole truth of the incident.
"How irresponsible! No wonder the demon got free, with such frivolous students to enable evil's work. That said, your honesty is appreciated. You won't be expelled, but…" He lifted his staff, and a pale blue glow emanated from it, before the light spread to Mariette and Ebony, before dissipating as glittery twinkles into the surrounding air.
"You are hereby banned from accessing the archives including the public section." He pulled back with his staff, and the Demonomicon flew through the air to his grasp. "Also, you will both receive failing grades for your Sealing classes. The next time you study the subject, maybe you'll learn something! But this is your only chance; I won't be as kind the second time you break regulations!"
Ebony bit her lip, looking like she wanted to protest, but stayed silent. "Understood, sir."
The headmaster stomped the end of his staff down.
"Now, out of here before I change my mind!"
The punishment confused Mariette a bit. This was a school, a place of learning, and her punishment was to lose access to learning material? And to lose the certification for having learned? The latter didn’t really matter to Mariette, the only thing she cared about was that she had the skills, and while losing access to the public section hurt she’d basically already scoured that and in the worst case she could employ her companions to retrieve what she wanted for her… However.
‘Sir,’ Mariette said.
‘Ebony was not in control of herself, the demon was acting for her. There is no reason to punish her, as they were not her actions,’ she declared, holding steady as she did.
"Fine, in her case it's detention then!" The headmaster retorted, his face red like he was about to shoot steam out of his ears. "Report to Professor Snapdragon, Ironclaw."
Ebony sighed in relief, and gave a voiceless word of gratitude as she then left. The headmaster tapped his foot impatiently. "Now, is that all? Or do you want to further test my patience?"
Mariette looked a little confused. Detention was still punishment, right? Still, it was a success. Detention was certainly far better than what could have been.
Seeing him red like that… reminded Mariette of her father. Back then, she’d been powerless against him. Now, she had a lot of power… it took a lot of her not to resist him simply because she could. She had to use reason to tell herself the dynamic here was completely different.
‘No, sir. Thank you,’ Mariette nodded to him briefly, before turning and walking. Guess it was time to leave.
Next day…
Mariette went to check up on how Ebony was doing after the detention session. Before turning the corner, she heard Rennala gasp with astonishment, and saw her talking with Ebony outside the classroom. The two greeted the shorter girl. "Oh, Mariette! It's so good to see you! Ebony just told me a most extraordinary tale of how you banished a demon!" She took Mariette's hand and shook it. "But I also heard that you failed the class…I'm sorry to hear that."
‘It’s alright. Compared to having the actual skill, the certification is pointless,’ Mariette replied.
‘That aside. Ebony. How are you feeling?’Rennala was glad that Mariette wasn't perturbed by her predicament, and moved aside to let Mariette speak with Ebony. The sullen girl managed a smile as Mariette addressed her. "Well, I'm still getting used to being free of possession, but overall it's been liberating." She bowed. "Mariette, you saved my life, and even my magic education. I am in your debt. You ever need me, just send an owl…Or one of your portals, I suppose." Rennala gasped again, her eyes wide in amazement.
‘Very well. I might take you up on that later. For now, I’m just happy you’re alright,’ Mariette said, smiling at her.
With that, the three of them continued their normal magical school life…
Later. In Mariette’s personal study.
"Why am I here!? What are you doing to me!?" Cuddlespawn, the blue rat-doll asked, voice filled with rage.
Mariette calmly placed a pink rat-doll in front of him.
‘I… got you a wife.’ “What!? Of all the- I don’t need no-! Wait, what are you doing? No! NOOOO-”
Cuddlespawn cried in humiliation as Mariette poked the two plushies' noses together with a small childish blush on her cheeks.
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