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Secundi Lux

---

Blinding speed that ill-fit the jagged spear of Earth sent erupting by Selma’s will through the body of the cuboid adversary shocked Aoife. Well, if that motion had been fast, the next was the speed of sound. Selma wrenched her axe free from the ground with more force in one arm than Aoife would be able to muster in both before shooting off like a bullet fired from a gun. "Let's get cooking!"

The simmer of excitement spread up Aoife’s spine as the tingle met her jaw, causing it to clench. A smell of gunpowder filled Aoife’s nostrils before one mech fired an entire silo of four at Selma’s trajectory, but in response perfectly timed was Rivka’s response. The girl’s Parma appeared musically around her, and the source of that gunpowder smell became evident. Aoife’s eyes lit up with excitement as she watched the burst of flame originating from a brief spark in the musician’s resolve as her Gladius took aim.

“Enough standing around then,” Aoife said, lightly rolling her foot and stretching her shoulders. Aoife carefully stepped out into the rain, closing her eyes and letting it wash over her form. She felt each impact against her Parma, felt as each of the petals of water unfurled against her form, absorbing into her. She adopted a runner’s stance, placing both hands against the soaked pavement, and thrusting her back into the air. Aoife titled her chin to get a better look at the mech that Rivka had fired upon in order to distract it. Hopefully, she could beat Selma there, she had talked a bid game after all. She spied a close by light pole, taking note of its distance from herself and the mech. Her chest tightened as her lips parted ever so minutely in order to let a long inhale hiss through the sound of the rain, which paused around her as she did. All of the water on her form spread along her body, lining her heels in coats of compressed water. “Turning up the heat,” Aoife called into her headset.

She burst from the ground, streams of water shooting across the pavilion near them as she was thrown through the air as if by divine action itself. She spun and flipped through the air, one hand tightly wound around Joyeuse, the other trailing through the air, collecting rain water and manipulating it as she did so. A thing razor like wire of compressed stream water flowing in sharpening spirals around itself, bound only by the girl’s will. The momentum had proved to be problematic, however. So Aoife had to improvise. She created a small wave of water ahead of her that she spun into and caught with her feet, surfing along it and towards the mech.

She descended upon it, sending her aqua javelin towards its primary sensors as she circled around it. She swung her blade towards the mech in tandem with the impact of the javelin but her cut was too shallow to connect. Luckily the ribbon connected to Joyeuse’s hilt continued outwards towards the emotionless visage now tracking her. It wrapped itself around a nearby streetlight, pulling Aoife along as she continued to surf around it before leading herself cresting upwards above the machine. Hoping that Rivka’s shot was enough to knock it off balance when combined with her javelin, she gracefully allowed the momentum of her arc to carry her, closing her eyes until she felt her position reached.

When Aoife opened them once more, she was looking straight down at the top of its head. She plummeted downwards, reaching out to her Elementum to sharpen the droplets of rain, increase their velocity. She fell with them, a million translucent blades. “Fall,” she said.

And she, and her homemade barrage, did. She plummeted into steel carapace impacting with a heavy groan as her blade buried itself to the hilt in its body. She stood up, confidently pulling the blade from its sheathe, water and oil spraying in the arc as the blade landed flat on her shoulder. “One a piece,” she offered her rival.

Nova Lux: A Magical Girl Game

---

Cordelia panted, releasing her portals for a moment and shoving her greatsword into the dirt beneath her to give her something to lean on. Providing fast transportation to so many different areas at once had left her gasping for air, her chest rising and falling on its own as her body desperately tried to catch up to the wear that she had already inflicted on it. She watched as the machine, on its last legs of strength, released an entire silo of missiles. Each one spiraling off to its own target and trajectory, some amining for rooftop agents, some for the ground teams, and others for the other Ars Magi currently in conflict with it.

Cordelia tried to rip open a portal around some of the missiles, but lost her footing, her legs buckling and taking her to the ground. Still panting, she couldn’t speak over the comms. She thought back to her training, not just here, but before becoming an Ars Magi.

“In a moment of crisis, allow yourself three seconds. Breathe, eliminate all doubt, and then act. That is all you can do.”

The words rung clearly through her mind. Cordelia’s hands dropped the greatsword, grabbing a handful of Earth as she breathed, and watched her teammates. Nicole buzzed by the ground team, snagging the missiles attention that were headed in that direction, picking up speed and hurtling forward faster into the air.

One…

Dana unleashed a volley of cosmic rays, puncturing multiple missiles with each shot, and sending off a series of fireworks through the sky releasing bursts of water from the downpour hurtling in all directions. She waved back at Nicole as the two passed by one another for the briefest of moments before readying her weapon once more.

Two...

Like a bolt of lightning herself, Penny shot down from the heavens, tumbling back towards the downed machine. Inept and currently unable to move, a brilliant sound of thunder erupted passed Cordelia before a secondary shockwave of lightning lanced upwards from the impact in which she hit the machine. Penny’s war cry mixed with the sound of her attack jolted Cordelia back to her feet.

Three!
Cordelia understood which problems had remained to be solved. Nicole was stuck in a cramped space, outrunning missiles with no where safe to blow them up. Cordelia could provide that.

Greatsword in hand once more she placed her spare hand on her communication device. “Nicole, veer upwards we have to make sure the missiles explode far enough away from you and the others. I’ll give you an exit.” Cordelia herself conjured forth her shattered glass mirror above Nicole creating a dry spot in the heavy downpour above her as she peered down at Penny, the mech, Nicole and the Missiles. It was a lot to deal with at once. Before Cordelia’s doubt could creep into her mind, her feet had already done the hardest part. At once she went from charging forward, to plummeting down towards the Earth. Greatsword in one hand other arm outstretched to slow her fall somewhat, she looked down as Nicole began to look up, having reacted to her roommate’s latest communication.

Cordelia shot downwards and sent a bit of a nervous grin to Nicole as the two girls crossed paths in the sky. Cordelia reached out as she passed Nicole, offering a clumsy "hey!" on the way down, and snagging one of the missiles and pulling it with her as her descent continued. The missile's jets struggled against her, but luckily her own strength was bolstered tenfold by the sheer speed and gravity of her descent. She felt her muscles tense as she wound up, pulling the missile behind her like she was winding up for a pitch, and then threw it back down at its origin point. The shoulder of the mech, far enough away from Penny, but close enough to some hopefully important bits to create a problem.

Cordelia didn’t have time to take in her hard work, however, as the Ars Magi closed her eyes, felt her Elementum begin to flow through her as she created a slide of glass, that while cushioning her fall, ricocheted her outwards into the street as she collided with vehicle and concrete alike.

Secundi Lux

---

Aoife listened to her teammates rally themselves around creating a quiet catastrophe, nodding along somewhat absent-mindedly all-the-while. She sunk into a deep lunge, while also pulling her right elbow back behind her neck, sinking into the stretches. She glanced out at the downpour with a hint of a mischievous grin flashing past her attempt to meditate on what was important right now. Centering herself.

It wasn’t until Chie transformed, donning her Parma, that Aoife knew it was time to go. She watched as Chie, with some effort, created a rain dish above them, pooling water around the fivesome in a circular formation, like a fountain. A wall of water descended around them, for a moment blocking out their surroundings. Aoife approached the wall of water, glancing into her impressionistic reflection as elements began to change. She saw her Parma through her reflection, her truest self staring back at her, cool, calm and relentless as the stream of water that image was stranded within. Without a second thought, Aoife stuck her hand through the water, an action that should have interrupted the stream, and sent water splashing in every direction.

Instead, a hand was reaching out of the water in the same space Aoife’s had entered. The deeper Aoife reached in to her reflection, the more the silken arm reached out. Feeling a rush of excitement, of trust in herself and belief in her abilities, Aoife pushed forward still, stepping into the stream. Now golden star-like heels and black tights exited the reflection adorned with the constellation of Aquarius, shimmering in inlaid gold and gems. The ebony bodice finally wrest itself free from the reflection, as stepping out where Aoife had just stepped in to the wall of water, was the Lazy Spring Lazulite. Bearing her half-moon blade and a silken ribbon descending from the pommel.

Aoife’s expression had changed for the confident, as the sound of rushing water filled her senses to the brim, imbuing her stomach with a fullness, a feeling of power, of confidence. She offered her team a sturdy glance, looking at Chie, Selma and the others as they all began to adorn their battle-ready appearances. The dull impact of Selma’s hands meeting one another, echoing against the falling water cushioned Aoife’s heady breaths as she chuckled. “If Rivka wants it all taken care of quickly, I expect we’ll all be performing at our best.” Aoife let her blade fall towards the ground, stopping it by catching the ribbon before it made impact. “But I’m warning you,” she sang in a cheery note, “I’m gonna destroy the most drones.”

She felt her raincoated hair dripping down her back, each droplet of water seemingly extending her senses further and further, now all she had to do was wait.

Nova Lux: A Magical Girl Game

---

“Well how the fuck is that even possible?!”

The muffled voice was hushed and heated. She could hear the reddening of the lord of the house’s face, the tightening of his collar, the harumphing of his scoffs. It was all he could do to not drag the young maid into his dining room and beat the delusions of grandeur out of her like she was an old, dusty rug. Cordelia Whittaker, lucky to be a maid of this house, let alone an Ars Magi looked to her superior, another maid who’d done the vast majority of her training. It was something of a testing look, to see how she’d react to the reaction they were both diligently listening to, waiting to hold the doors open for someone who, in truth, detested them both. Pierre Nuit was nothing if not vitriolic and cruel. Well, perhaps rich. He was as reliably those qualities so much so that he could act as a litmus test in which to compare others, if the need arose.

“This is an incredible opportunity,” the other maid whispered quietly under her breath. It was the first thing she’d said to Cordelia after finding out. Cordelia’s mind buzzed a bit at the phrase, the nonchalant delivery of it was especially off-putting. “Should you deign to survive what’s going to transpire next you’ll have a legacy and dynasty far surpassing what he’s built here.”

Cordelia chewed on the thought for a moment. She’d never even thought about what a dynasty meant. Or what kind of legacy she’d choose to leave behind. It’d never felt like something she’d be offered, let alone able to forge on her own. She wondered if this was how all Ars Magi felt when they were told. It wasn’t Atlas she related most to, crushed by the glorious burden of her new life. Rather, something more akin to Odysseus, stranded at sea, with no sense of direction nor time. What was she to do about all of this?

“I don’t know if a legacy, or even a dynasty - I don’t think that’s what I want,” she said softly. Her voice hushed well below the awful temperament of their master across the door.

“What do you want?” She was asked.

The girl thought for a moment. She'd not had time to consider these things until now, it felt jarring to be asked all of it at once. As if she could one day just become a completely different person. Still, her heart tugged in one direction, and one direction alone. “To help.”

---

Rain speckled moonlight painted the other team’s struggle as a fierce, but doomed endeavor. Cordelia’s still-verdant eyes flitted about the landscape, drinking deep in the details, as if she’d go blind in the next few moments. She felt her heartrate spike when the size of the creature? Robot? It was almost indiscernible with its shape and intent in design. It didn’t matter.

It doesn’t matter, she reminded herself. Metal or flesh, it would be sundered just the same.

The other team was being torn asunder, it was here they would make their stand or they would fail the mission. No. Don’t think of it as a mission. This is life or death. Take the fear, taste it. Drink from the cup of death, it was the only way to live, to grow. She remembered her training. She remembered being taught to throw her life on the line if it was called of her. This time, it was not her master she was protecting. It was her comrades.

Cordelia strode forward into the deluge, feeling the building of energy taking over her body. Each limb moving of its own accord, without any command or input from Cordelia herself, it was all momentum now. The tides of her own ideas thrusting her forward. Solve the most pressing problem, and then solve the next. It was all she could do; all anyone could do in a situation like this one.

“I’m going to give everyone quick access to the battlefield,” she spoke commandingly now. “Above our main target, and as close to both compromised parties as possible. These will be two-way doors I’m making, so if need be, they can be used for evacuation and then disabled.”

Cordelia knelt where she was, placing both hands on the mud-caked ground they were treading upon. She closed her eyes and tried to channel that feeling she’d always felt when calling upon her newfound abilities. The wind and the rain smattered her hair into her argent cheeks. When she opened her eyes, the irises began to shift in hue.

Show me all that which we fear, the truest reflection.

Cordelia’s hair and clothes flew upwards in a brilliant display of power and pressure, the strands of her clothing coming apart at the seems revealing below them not skin nor flesh, but brilliant, glimmering possibility. It shone a bright blue, twinkling light a painted reflection of the night sky as details of her Parma started to sharpen into focus. Cordelia shot to her feet, trailing from her hand was what looked like a spinning thread of molten glass, slowly dangling around her as if it was a ribbon. The rain halted around her for a moment as the sound of cracking glass erupted from her, and the spinning thread took shape into the great sword known as Pridwen.
The massive blade stood nearly as tall as the Ars Magi herself. The length of the blade appeared to be made up of many different pieces of stained glass, perfectly crafted and honed to a dangerously sharp edge. As the details of her Parma honed into detail, the rain began to fall around her once more, the once Verdant unconfident eyes of a butler had now shifted to a yellowish cat’s eye glean that shone confidently in the moonlight. Her once simpler outfit now bursting out white, black, and blue with ribbons and crests too regal to be found on the typically reserved girl.

The biggest change, perhaps, was the now crescent moon grin, wide as could be and hungry. She hefted the magnificent great sword with a single hand reaching it up into the night sky, as if daring lightning to strike, before spinning it and plunging it into the Earth.

A pulse echoed out from it that expanded well past their target as Cordelia began to sense in the area just how much glass she was given. The grin only grew from there. All at once shards of glass all around the ruined battleground they were being thrust into, and in front of her team began to form into doorways made of piecemeal shards made up of just about any kind of glass you could think of. Sea glass, windshields, windows, mirrors, if it could reflect an image it began to rise into the air. One doorway was located by the pinned down team, another towards the redheaded Ars Magi Cordelia had watched get thrown into a wall. The third, however, shimmered magnificently above the humongous three-story mech.

Glass from the cityscape shot back over to Cordelia as well, just enough to create three doorways in front of her team. “First leads to the pinned team, second to the top of this mech, third to the pinned down Ars Magi. If you need a doorway once we’ve entered combat call for me over the radio with your location and I’ll do what I can.” Cordelia had transformed, in more ways than one. “Let’s do what we do best, once we’re done, we’ll see about that dance.”

Nova Lux: A Magical Girl Game

---

Cordelia’s wistful glance out to the world, to the night sky, was interrupted by Penny’s careful reassurance. The steadiness of the girl came through in not the way she spoke, but what she chose to say. "Aw come on, don't be so hard on yourself, I mean, at least you can dance pretty good. I've never danced a waltz before, so all Dima and I wound up doing is stepping on each other's toes the whole time."

Cordelia’s rose lips parted in something halfway to a smile, and she tried to answer before Nicole caught her in the friendliest leglock anyone would ever receive. One leg wrapping around her midriff, Cordelia felt herself get wrapped into the embrace. Nicole’s voice came twice, once with the rain, gently coaxing the previous expression plaguing Cordelia’s porcelain features out. Replacing it with something lighter. The second, a gentle hum through her legs into Cordelia’s body, a thrum akin to a chortle in the pit of one’s stomach. "You girls don't think I'm that jealous now, do you? Think I need to try and keep all the hotness to myself? They had pushed their teammate’s back against the wall, with no other choice, a small giggle escaped her lips. ”You can dance if you want to, Cordy. All my best friends love to dance. Especially with each other."

Cordelia’s voice faltered while she spoke in a way that was informative to how unused to speaking while laughing the young Ars Magi was. “I can imagine you and your bevy of men, women, probably even the nox would line up for a dance with you!” she managed between quick breaths. Her face carried forward, its smile and lightness this time. “Thank you,” she wrapped her arms around the leg pressed against her midriff. “I’ll be easier on myself, I promise.”

Cordelia watched as Dana responded to Aiya’s question, innocence incarnated on full display for all to see. It made her grin just that bit wider, and she laughed with the group at the name dropping of one Guardian Gunslinger Alexis. For a moment, Cordelia didn’t feel as though they were on a mission. It felt almost as if they were simply hanging out together. She relished in this. This moment of serenity admist the rain, and the ruins. Cordelia felt for the first time in a while that she was getting used to it. That she wasn't in combat. This conversation wasn't life or death. It was just a bit of fun.

She turned to Aiya, resolutely. “Whenever you want to dance, just let me know.” Her words were confident this time. “If you think you can handle me,” she added, trying to wink but only managing a slightly delayed blink.

Nova Lux: A Magical Girl Game

---

Cordelia watched as Penny did as Penny always did under pressure. She skillfully used her hammer like a chisel, picking apart their enemies with a tactical precision only available to an upper echelon of combatant. Just like that, they were met with silence. The pitter of the rain, the winds now calming somewhat. Cordelia felt the rain trace silhouettes around her face, as they all stood in suspended animation, waiting to hear an onslaught approaching.

But, they didn’t. In fact, they didn’t hear much of anything. The best-case scenario.

Lucky us.

The Ars Magi quickly top to the top floor of the building Aiya had pointed out to them. Before long, all that was left to focus on, was watching and waiting. Cordelia found herself distracted from looking for Nox, or machines alike. Rather, her eyes wandered out towards the lives of those past, what they had built, and what little remained of it all. Cordelia could feel the fragility of the world she stood to protect when she looked out at what once had been.

The way the rain brought down sheets of moisture atop it, as if trying to slowly, over the course of decades and centuries, slowly push man’s creation back into the planet. It was something to behold. Some kind of spectacle, even though it looked like nothing was happening. Cordelia chewed on her protein bar, shew as no snob for food and didn’t often eat for pleasure’s sake so she found it passably flavourful.

She looked around, at the others Ars Magi. Those of their respective elementum’s, aether, wind, lightning, and light. She looked at them, trying to find the elementum within, trying to see it. Cordelia faltered, though, when the group began to speak.

It was Aiya, her words to each of the Ars Magi that pulled Cordelia from her stupor. Cordelia’s cheeks flamed as she was complimented and lightly, loosely propositioned for another dance. She glanced away, into a bit of glass, searching for her voice to respond. “That’s very kind of him,” she whispered sweetly into her knees. She pulled them closer, wrapping her arms around them and squeezing tight. “I’d be honoured to afford you whatever kindness I afforded him.”

It was odd, being a soldier. Cordelia was having trouble keeping her mind off of that thought as of late. Her mind couldn’t resist the pull of considering the bigger picture of what exactly was happening in her life, and how radically different it all was now. She looked into the mirror she had made, shattered and fractured, her reflection still stared resolutely back at her. “I remember,” Cordelia began, testing her voice. “A time when nobody would ever consider me an adequate dance partner, let alone requesting another.” Her eyes were locked on Penny’s shoes. Not for a particular reason, but simply to avoid looking anywhere else.

“It feels nice,” Cordelia looked upwards, letting the rain run down her face as she scanned the grey clouds for something. "To speak, and not just be spoken to. To act, rather than be directed. I've never had this much freedom before." Her smiled returned, looking rather chipper, almost as she hugged her chin in tighter towards her kness. “m'not used to it yet,” she muttered.

Nova Lux: A Magical Girl Game

---

"Cordelia!" she called out to her roommate, voice radiating strength even over the noises of the storm. "Shine for me, babe!"

"Of course, please, allow me."

A fire burned in Cordelia’s stomach Blazing heat surging through her blood from her core to her cheeks, fingers and feet. It was that feeling again, Cordelia noted to herself. Cordelia thought back to her home, to her earliest memories. She remembered watching young ladies be taught their lessons, and then mimicking everything she had seen to herself at night. She remembered what it felt like to reflect not only the beauty, but the imperfections as well. Her consciousness expanded, she felt small pin pricks in it each time it found a small shard of glass. With the wind buffeting and the storm ahead soaking the grounds they walked, Cordelia’s command over glass had begun. That fire was embers now, a feeling she had to hone in on exactly.

“Let thine light be cast away,” her whispered words, licked from her lips by droplets of rain and taken to each shard surrounding them. One by one, each fragment of glass each having served a different use during its previous life begun to float into the air. The light refracting off of broken bottles, mirrors, windows, and finery sparkled in the rain. “Come, allow me to give you new purpose.”

Over the course of less than a half a second, Cordelia did many things, all at once. She brought each floating piece of glass to her side, stitching them together like a weaver making a tapestry. A piece of bottle here, a window’s shattered shards there. What looked like blades of glass flying towards the group of girls, was in truth, art. Cordelia effortlessly composed the wall of shards in front of them, the bits of light peeking through all shut out by perfectly molding the glass into a wall as sturdily built as if it was made of concrete. Still transparent on the side of Cordelia and reflective on the other.

The wall of stitched together glass, all different shades and shapes fit together like a fully completed puzzle. Cordelia sighed, stepped towards it and passed her hand along the length of it, shifting its hue to meet exactly the colour she needed. “Okay,” she sighed, a puff of hot air fogging up the mirror in front of her for a moment. “We need to be quiet, there’s only a small amount of magic in the construction of this wall, so I’m unsure if they’ll be able to sense it through Nicole’s winds.” Cordelia looked at the rest of her teammates. “The wall will interpose between us and them.”

Cordelia watched through their one-way mirror as the machines began to grow weary. It was a directionless suspicion, but they were suspicious nonetheless. Cordelia's entire body locked rigid in place. Her hand flicked as a bit of the glass from the top of the wall, where it was least needed, began to slowly turn in the robot’s direction. Ready to fly towards the machines at a moment's notice, though not unless they were provoked. She looked to her team, waiting for the signal.

Secundi Lux

---

Aoife spun in and out of the crowd, each time her team had spied her, she’d be with a new partner. Both left feet in full swing as her moves were significantly jauntier than need be. Still, with this unceasing damage to her charisma unfolding for everyone to see, what a prize she was. A symbol, of an unwavering, unabashed, joy. Everyone wanted to dance with the clumsy Ars Magi, not because of her talent, but because of what her dance said, albeit with stutters and run on sentences aplenty. Even this girl, who had seen the yawning void beyond their walls, who had begun to carry the weight of a humanity who would persevere, even she, could enjoy a night of dancing, still.

Eventually, a shock of blonde hair found her arms and swept her away from the drooling masses. Her hair spinning wide around her, curtailing Noel’s move to dip her into a lower stance. “Hey babe,” says her former partner.

Aoife laughs a throaty chuckle, flicking either eyebrow up and down and puckering her lips. “Oh, hey baby,” that last note hanging in the air. “It’s good to see you again!” Time apart from other Ars Magi was always nebulous. Even a week-long goodbye was heavy for these girls. If you knew you’d not be there for their next mission, not there to potentially make the difference that could save someone’s life.

Noel lightning blitzed through a few key details of her week’s past and upcoming. Aoife got caught on her general static energy. Just the nature of a girl conducive to being absolutely charged at all times. Aoife nodded in great excitement at the prospect of getting to work together once again. “Water and lightning, is there a better combination?” She giggled.

The music’s pace quickened, and so too did Noel’s movements. “You’d think for the Ars Magi of water I’d have a better flow than this.” Aoife chuckled under breath and, for a moment, she considered perhaps trying a bit harder. Perhaps, if she thought about dancing like her movements in battle, it would be easier. All of the sudden, she was fighting this strange longing. This urge to perfect the dance she so clearly was stumbling through.

Aoife reached up to her hair, pulling on a small ribbon that kept the ensemble up and eloquent. It fell gracefully upon her shoulders as she tied a small knot around her and Noel’s hand with the ribbon. “If you lead, I’ll follow.” She gave herself over to her partner, closing her eyes completely. Darkness enveloped her, the music faded and people turned towards them, but Aoife saw none of it. She braced herself, breathed deep, and then Noel began to move. Aoife felt the step through Noel’s hand and into her own body, as if it was simply an extension of herself. She moved in time, stepping as well. The two began a fairly simple, yet completely elegant dance. They spun around one another, Aoife a whole new girl. Her eyes closed, hair down, still somehow moving in time with her partner. She looked like an oracle.

For such an unprofessional girl, it was sometimes surprising how much she was capable of changing. Like the tides. She wondered if her team could see her, or who they had ended up dancing with. She felt her lips crack into a big, toothy grin, as the music seemed to follow Aoife and Noel on their journey around the ballroom, stepping in and around everybody with a care and ease like a river flowing around a rocky shoreline.

Nova Lux: A Magical Girl Game

---

Once the ball had concluded, Cordelia chose not to examine why she’d had such an eruption of emotion during that night. Instead, she threw herself headfirst into a strict regimen of self improvement. Cordelia came back to her and Nicole’s dorm room each night with a new bruise, scrape, or tear. Cordelia was always doing at least two things at once, if not more. During her studies she was reading while manipulating a pane of glass, practicing her control without having her eyes on what she was changing. She noticed when Nicole would go away every odd night, dressed up at times, others dressed in her typically light-effort but still impressive attire.

At first, Cordelia mourned a social life she could be having, but instead redoubled her efforts on her studies. She’d be studying when Nicole would leave their room at night, the amber glow of sunset complimenting the pinks of the skies. She’d be studying still, when Nicole would re-enter, the morning frost and dew coating their window, Cordelia’s eyes growing dark with sleep deprivation. However, as time went on and Cordelia was especially single-minded in her studies, she’d feel Nicole’s hands gently kneading at her shoulders. Massaging them in an effort to get the girl to relax some. It often worked, and so Nicole had seemingly picked up a kind of awareness of a line that Cordelia would cross, or so she assumed. When she felt most closed off and obsessive about her studies, Nicole would start to relax her by asking for help with the work she was currently doing. She’d first get Cordelia to explain a concept, then the conversation would be effortlessly directed somewhere else. Nicole would ask her roommate to accompany her, and somehow, they’d end up at a theatre or arcade. Cordelia slept best after a night out with Nicole, but still struggled to recognize the importance of that balance, and never initiated a night out herself. Always waiting for the bubbly girl to work it into conversation. Even once she’d realized her roommate’s tactics, she didn’t stop them. She’d never admit it to herself, but the comradery was something she yearned for some nights when Nicole was off wandering embodying the wistful nature of her power. Cordelia remembered falling asleep one night, wondering what aspect of her personality reflected her own ability. Glass, easily shattered, reflective, made in intense heat and pressure. She fell asleep before coming to any meaningful conclusion.

---

The briefing room’s electrical lighting hummed in a way that made it feel like Cordelia herself was making the sound. She watched as green-tinted imaging was presented to them, making mental notes of general layout, windows that were present as well as where her teammates abilities may be constrained. The tight halls and escorting nature of the task at hand made Cordelia weary of her own fighting style, her greatsword may not find purchase in a narrow field, and the anti-magic abilities of the robotic opposition may or may not nullify her ability to deflect their blows with her mirrors. Cordelia’s knee bounced against her elbow, as she tried to slow the adrenaline flow until they were on-site for their training exercise. She always got like this before an engagement. She deftly manipulated a piece of glass between her fingers, thinning it, sharpening it, widening it back out again. Over and over, she transmuted it like a wizard of yore, focusing entirely on the instructions not so much on the basic manipulation in her hand. While she’d been with the team for a little while now, she was still very much the odd duck. The thought stuck in her mind like an ace of hearts in a hand full of spades. No matter what she thought, it kept sticking out to her.

She could feel herself winding around a coil, tighter and tighter still. Ready to snap.

---

The sound of rain formed a thick layer of white noise around the exercise, their payload behind them, and each of the girl’s forming a phalanx around them, strategy began to be formed. Cordelia’s lips curled upwards as Penny quietly asked Nicole to keep things completely platonic during the excursion, the thought of Nicole flirting over comms was so odd Cordelia could hardly hold back her chuckle.

Penny offered the concept of a quick blitz upon first engagement, and then rushing before reinforcements appeared. Cordelia generally found the strategy to be serviceable. Dana was quick to add to the strategy, noting that she’d be able to disable the optics of the first patrol so the rest of the team could efficiently deal with them.

Cordelia had been thinking since departure about her own plan, and for the first time since before briefing, decided to air it.

“I believe Penny’s strategy is sound. May I propose a pawn sacrifice? I believe if we blitz the first patrol, we should be able to discern the relative combat effectiveness of each of us in the face of this enemy. Afterwards, once we make a run for the exit, I believe we should leave one member behind to distract any oncoming opposition in order to not sacrifice any speed, and not give the opposition time or chance to injure one of our escorts. I believe the order we should be leaving members behind is by least effective to most. The least effective of us can distract, evade and distance themselves from the opposition, such that should the final member of our team come against opposition, they are the most effective against this type of enemy and have the greatest chance of defeating them.” Cordelia took a deep breath, understanding that what she was suggesting may not be a popular suggestion. She considered the operation in its entirety. “Once we have our escorts to their forward operating base, we could send out a signal or message, and all rendezvous there in order to receive our secondary task. In an ideal scenario only one or two of us would have to branch off from the group before we reach our destination, this strategy puts us at more risk, I understand that, but it effectively eliminates as much risk as possible for harm coming to those in our charge.”

Secundi Lux

---

Aoife had probably gone through a dozen suits and dresses before she found something she felt worked for her. She had gone back and forth between trying to wear something that felt as though it matched her personal combat style. Something that would read wavey, free, like a river or ocean. However, she’d not found something that felt as though it’d look good on her in movement – kind of defeated the purpose to portray flow if it only looked good in a picture. She finally settled on a navy dress with a waist slit that allowed her entire left leg to emerge from its depths. It was something of a daring number, but Aoife felt that she looked a little clumsy in it. Regardless, it was her best option at the moment

It didn’t take a detective to suss out the fact that Aoife had two left feet and had spent even fewer hours at an affair quite like this one. She’d once been to a 16th birthday party that had some similarities to this event. In that there were some middle-aged men performing, as well as a couple teens who were trying to avoid speaking to one another. Outside of those key similarities though, there really wasn’t much there for Aoife to draw on.

During quite a bit of the proceedings Aoife stole glances from her teammates, each of which had somewhat unique reactions to what was happening. Rivka looked like she was contemplating turning her own weapon on herself, Crystal for what it was worth looked to be deliberating between bringing about another ice age, or toughing it out. She was walking that line like a trapeze artist, nearly tumbling to either side as the speeches carried on far past what anyone would consider to be reasonable. Chie seemed to, not unlike Aoife herself, taking stock of where the rest of the team was at. She couldn’t help but wonder what Chie would read from her own decidedly blank visage. She figured most people would assume there wasn’t much that Aoife would know about these kinds of situations, but she looked content enough she supposed.

As soon as the final speech silenced, the band jumped to life and Rivka leapt from her seat. Chie made some kind of a quip about how Rivka didn’t seem the type to waltz, but Aoife wondered if that were true. Rivka was someone who wanted to be an auteur. Aoife hadn’t spent enough time with the girl to know that was true about every other aspect of her life, but it was certainly true in a fight. Aoife suspected it bled over to everything else she did as well. The waltz, Aoife assumed, was a way for Rivka to express herself like any other. Aoife spied as she ripped her neck from her tie, her hand stuffing it into a pocket of the double-breasted number she’d worn, and pulled off, excellently.

Aoife watched as Chie asked Selma for a dance, or perhaps she’d been asking everyone still at the table? It wasn’t clear as she made direct eye contact with their coniferous teammate. Aoife gulped down some lasting semblance of an internal monologue begging her not to get up with the rest of her teammates. She gulped down the last of her water that splashed about in a crystal glass as if it was a shot of the strongest whiskey she’d ever had and regarded her teammates, speaking for the first time in words that weren’t pleasantries for the entire night.

“Ladies, if I, or one of you don’t make it back from this, it has been an absolute honour,” she said. She strode out to the dancefloor without a single sense of rhythm in her body, and looked for some hope for salvation, whatever form that may take.