9. A Friendly Visit

"So, that bitch and her family managed to get away with what they did to you," complains a girl, about thirteen years old. A look of scorn and derision can be found on her face. "Her 'punishment' is her allowance is halved and she 'transferred so that Ms. Yivera does not feel any pressure or negative effects of the incident.' But where do they transfer her to? The Capitol's Mage Institute! How the hell is that a punishment?"

The girl sitting across from Cassandra in her apartment is the best friend of Teiyu, a girl slightly shorter than Cassandra, named Malia. "Lia, it's alright. That they even went that far is surprising. I would have sooner expected them to cover it up as me trying to kill myself and boot me from the program."

Malia gnashes her teeth at that. "That's the thing, she did try to do that. The only thing that stopped it was someone from a rival political family just so happened to be filming something unrelated when she did it. Just so happened to catch her on camera, pushing you. Otherwise, we wouldn't even be able to talk anymore. Goddamn worthless slut and goddamn worthless 'meritocracy'."

"No, Lia, it's alright for a different reason. It's simple enough: I become powerful enough, then I can demand her **** for having attempted to killed me. If I'm valuable enough, any threats that might've killed me should be punished, no?"

Malia looks at Cassandra strangely, "Girl, I know you said you're okay now, but you landed on your head. Maybe you've forgotten that you're not good at casting? If you're lucky, you might just barely make it to being a full Mage by eighteen."

Cassandra knows by Teiyu's memories that Malia is a generally trustworthy person. And more importantly, Cassandra sees this world as a 'tutorial' run to learn magic. Malia is also an orphan with no family to threaten, and more importantly, no family to threaten her using Cassandra or threaten Cassandra using her. Further, Malia had been with Teiyu since they both entered the academy. Their mana affinity at birth and aptitudes were roughly the same, but Malia had the temporary advantage that he soul was whole and without defects. When the actually casting of magics came into play, Malia could cast properly and quickly advanced, while Teiyu's weak mana control left her crippled.

Knowing all this, Cassandra chose to trust Malia with a some portion of her secrets, with one or two lies to package them together without the missing information. A gamble with safe odds, in her mind. "Lia, there was one benefit to that incident: When I healed, my mana control became stronger. Maybe there was some connection issue or blockage that got unclogged? No clue how it worked."

"Teiyu, that's not a normal," she replies with a look of doubt on her face. "Are you sure about this?"

"I am, but I need you to be quiet about this to some degree," says Cassandra, as she closes the blinds before showing Malia her mana control skills. At this point, tens of thousands of tiny bright blue tendrils of light begin emerging from her finger tips, appearing as a dense and thick cone. Just this sight alone shocks Malia, her eyes wide until her they nearly fell out of their sockets. "I don't want to be **** for some secret I don't have, so keep this quiet. This is my reliance to get at her in the future. I'll just slowly crank it up to not get in trouble."

"I... You... Where... How? How is this possible?" asks Malia, pinching herself to make sure she wasn't dreaming this. "That's a mid-level full Mage technique! The amount of mana and control needed is beyond even me! How?!"

"Well, like I said, it just happened after I woke up," lies Cassandra, shrugging a shoulder. Of course, despite not being that good at lying, Malia is just thirteen years old, so the bar isn't too high yet. Plus, unbeknownst to Cassandra, her much large store of mana also has a slight charismatic effect on weaker mages. Malia takes it unquestioningly before getting an odd look on her face.

"Should... Should I tr-" Malia begins, before Cassandra gets her hand on Malia's mouth.

"Nope. Not happening. Doctors said this shouldn't have possibly happened. One in ten billion chance of this improvement instead of dying or becoming retarded. So I forbid you from jumping out of buildings," says Cassandra, making up a few more lies to make sure that Malia wouldn't do something stupid based on her words. Malia, of course, manages to put on an offended face.

"I was not thinking about doing that!" Malia yells out, pouting.

"Bullshit," answers Cassandra. "This is how you always act when you're lying."

"I do not! You're the one who..." Malia pauses suddenly. "Wait, you never call me out on stuff or try to lecture me. Are you sure you're okay? You're definitely acting different."

Cassandra nonchalantly shrugs, "I was timid before, because I was scared of offending people. Well, someone still pushed me out of a building. What worse can I do now? So I decided to just stop with all that."

Now Malia's jaw was hanging slack, as she stares at Cassandra. "I... Wow, yeah.... This... I... This is weird. I mean, it's what I've been trying to get you to do for years, but... Still, it's so sudden. What do I even say?" Malia continues babbling on about not much in particular, until Cassandra once more interrupts her.

"Lia, calm down," Cassandra says, grabbing Malia in a brief hug to get her to shut up. "I'm still the same Teiyu you've always known and loved, I just don't care about avoiding offending others for no benefit any more. You're still my best friend, and don't think I'll ever forget everything you've done for me to protect me in the last nine months. I promise to you here and now, If I'm ever in a position to help, there needn't be any secrets between us." Cassandra gave a warm smile as she managed to make herself tear up slightly. While Malia was incredibly touched and starting to actually tear up, all Cassandra could think was, 'Damn, when did I become such a convincing and manipulative liar? But, I don't know, maybe if she's useful enough in the future I can add her to my retinue...'

"Teiyu, I love you," Malia declares, jumping onto Teiyu and grabbing hold of her in a hug and starting to cry. "We're sisters forever, I don't care what anyone else says!" Cassandra awkwardly pats Malia on the back, comforting her for a few minutes until she finally recollects herself, pretending nothing had happened thanks to her habit of maintaining a touch exterior.

"But remember," warns Cassandra, looking at Malia with a serious countenance. "No matter what someone does or says, you're not to tell them of my real capability. Don't even hint at it. It can bring me a lot of trouble. Okay, Lia?"

Malia nods her head, "Yes, I understand." Wiping her eyes dry, Malia runs to the bathroom to wash her face and try to get rid of the evidence of having cried. She returns not too long later, having had a surprising amount of success at turning her post crying eyes into what looked like mere tiredness; something not exactly uncommon.

"Well, it's our break day, so what would you like to do?" asks Malia.

"Well... I actually would like to stay in today and use my personal training room. I actually haven't had a chance since to practice yet. If you really want to watch, I won't stop you, but I think it might be safer and easier to do this alone. Is that alright, Lia?" asks Cassandra.

"Oh, Yeah, that's fine! I've already taken up over an hour of your time just babbling, hehe," says Malia, understanding that there really wasn't an offer to stay and Cassandra wants some privacy. Giving Cassandra a hud, she collects her cloak and heads out the door, saying, "See you later, Teiyu!" She shuts the door behind her and Cassandra locks it quickly enough.

Alone, Cassandra finally has a chance to look around her standard issue student's apartment. It's nothing particularly special, with some random clutter here and there, but generally clean to keep up with institute standards. There's a little kitchenette area, for those who want to cook for themselves, a bedroom, a common room for entertaining guests, a bathroom with laundry machines, and a personal training room built of special reinforced materials.

The first priority wasn't training, of course. It was a bath. Sponge baths are worthless compared to a real, hot bath. Cassandra spent nearly an hour relaxing and soaking in the tub, before finally being satisfied and getting out. Drying off quickly enough, there wasn't much to do with her hair, which was barely an inch long at this point. After the 'incident', the hospital had to shave her head for surgery. That Teiyu even survived to begin with was miraculous, but that didn't mean that Cassandra was okay with this short hair style it gave her. Ignoring it for now, she quickly dresses in a training uniform before entering the training room.