Spending Time With Mia

“Are you sure you wanna do this?” Mia asks. I nod, amused at her reaction. “But it’s your life savings!” “Well the hope is that it gives a good return on investment. Besides, what better thing to spend it on than a new way to defend myself?” I reply. Mia concedes the point. “Yeah I guess. I suppose I need to introduce you to the Abyss Auction sometime anyway. Although you’ll need a lot more money if you want to get anything really good. You’ll probably only be able to get basic spell books.”

“The versatility is worth it. I’m not entirely sure how else to learn new spells, it’s not like I can look it up on youtube or whatever.” “True enough. People usually learn spells from spell books or by having a teacher. I don’t know of any teachers around here for the kind of magic you want to learn, so you really only can use the abyss auction. Are you sure you have enough money though?” Mia asks. “Well that’s the hope.” I say.

We come up to the local branch of the bank I use and we head inside. I walk to the clerk while Mia sits to wait in one of the chairs. A few minutes later I walk out with Mia, putting the just over nine thousand dollars into my backpack. I’ve left enough in my bank account for the next 4 weeks of rent.

I managed to save so much through working a lot throughout high school and being extremely careful with my money. I never bought a car or any of the things teenagers normally like to buy, so I was able to save a lot. Getting a high paying job almost immediately out of high school also helps.

The walk to Mia’s place doesn’t take very long. It turns out that she lives relatively close to our university campus. We spend the time chatting happily. “My parents aren’t home by the way.” “Good, I won’t get murdered that way.” I reply. Mia laughs. “They wouldn’t **** you, only **** you.” She jokes. “Well that eases my fears.” I respond drily, prompting more laughter from her.

“I come from a family of aeromancers. I don’t really have to worry about the gangs because my family is well known and respected. My grandfather is the most powerful aeromancer around, and a well respected teacher. You asked before about my title, second daughter of the wind. Each new generation in our family line is given the title of daughter, or son of the wind."

"The title is passed through our bloodline, staying with us, until we decide to have kids, if we do. My older sister and I are the two aeromancers with the strongest potential that exists within our family so far.” I nod. “So how come you can join my guild, since your family seems so tight knit?” I ask, after thinking for a moment.

“Because we aren’t really a guild. We’re not registered, for example. We’re just a neutral family that doesn’t usually get involved with the gang wars around here.” Mia replies. “Doesn’t joining my guild mean you sacrifice that neutrality though?”

“It means that I’m not 100% neutral anymore, but I still have the backing of my entire family behind me. It would complicate things if we were to go around picking fights, but I trust you enough that I don’t think you would do that. As long as we don’t pick fights with other guilds or gangs, I get both the protection of my family, and the freedom to be in your guild. After all, if somebody else decides to attack us first, it’s just self defence.” She explains. I nod again, taking in all of the information. There’s a lot I need to learn about the abyss and how it works around here, it seems like it gets extremely complicated.

You have entered an illusion barrier

Burgess mansion and aeromancy school

What comes into view is a collection of a couple of buildings with fairly modern, white architecture. Flat roofing, white concrete and glass paneling along the walls. The central building is three stories tall, while the surrounding three buildings are only two stories tall. The buildings are surrounded by an open field of well kept and healthy green grass. The fields and property are bordered by a fence that seems more for decoration than security.

White pillars only about a metre and a half tall, stand three metres apart, with more white concrete walling in between. Each pillar is connected by horizontal white wooden slats, that look fairly easy to climb. The entire thing looks like it could be in an advertisement for an investment course, as a manipulative way to show the credentials of the person selling the course.

Mia presses her hand to the scanner just to the side of the front gate. The words Welcome home Mia Burgess flash up on the screen, and the gate starts to retract inside the wall. As we walk inside the gate, I catch a shimmering near the fence. I look closer and decide to use observe on one of the pillars.

Energy dome base pillar

A pillar that, when working in tandem with other pillars of its kind, produces a dome of mana.

My eyes widen for a moment. It’s Wakandan shield technology in real life, but created using pure magic instead of vibranium! I turn to Mia. “This place is awesome! Just how rich is your family?” I ask. She smirks at me, clearly enjoying my awestruck reaction. “Rich enough.” She says simply. She points at the larger building as I keep walking with her.

“That’s where my family lives. Three generations of people under the same roof can get a bit crowded, hence the need for the big house.” She points the smaller building on the right side of the central building.

“That’s the training hall. It’s where my parents and grandfather conduct their classes for anybody wishing to learn aeromancy. It’s a pretty common form of elemental magic to learn because it’s easy to pick up, which is why those classes are so popular, if you follow.”

She points to the building on the left. “That’s a hybrid of a workshop, storage space for various collections of stuff my family owns and a garage.” She then gestures towards the building we’re walking towards, a little further to the left of the garage, seemingly slightly isolated from the other buildings.

“This, my sister and I have to ourselves. It’s where we come when we want a little space from the rest of our family. She’s away in England at the moment, so I get the place to myself. It’s tradition for it to be given to the current sons and daughters of the wind.”

I nod, taking in the incredible view around me. “You say it’s tradition, but these buildings look pretty new?” I ask, prompting a small smile from Mia. “You never stop asking questions, do you? My grandfather likes this style of architecture, got the whole place remodeled about ten years ago. There was a lot more brown before that.” “Sorry about that.” I apologise. She flicks me on the forehead gently. “Don’t apologise, ya dunce.” I blink twice in surprise before smiling at her. She opens the door and we step inside.

The interior is incredibly spacious. The entrance opens up on the right to a large living room with sunlight streaming in through several windows around the room. A hallway leading to the rest of the house extends further onwards. Down the hall, I can see a few stools sitting at what looks to be a white marble kitchen countertop.

A set of stairs and two doors interrupt the smooth surface of the wall on the left side. Mia directs me to wait in the living room while she gets changed. I take my shoes off, leaving them by the door and step onto the soft, white carpet.

The living room has a large couch on the right wall, facing a huge tv on the left. A smaller couch sits along the back wall. The interior aesthetic of the home seems to be similar to that of the outside: lots of white, clean and modern. I put down my bag and sit down on the couch. Unsure of what else to do, I grab the remote on the table in front of me and turn on the tv, flicking through Netflix, more to pass the time than to actually watch something.

A few minutes later Mia returns, wearing a black hoodie and shorts almost short enough to be classified as booty shorts. Her long blonde hair is let out in a relaxed fashion. Once again, as before, I am struck by the simple beauty of this woman. Her blue eyes twinkle with a cheerfulness that I could only hope to emulate, her radiant smile could make the most dour of people soften. In her hands, she holds a tablet with a fairly big screen. She sits down next to me.

“If you’re going to buy a spell book, you’re going to need to make an account on the abyss auction first.” She says. I nod. “How do I do that?” Mia doesn’t answer for a moment, instead tapping around on the tablet until she finds what she’s looking for. “Put your hand on the screen.” She instructs. I do so, and words flash up.

Welcome Gemma Rose.

My heart drops. “How does it know my name?” I ask. “It read your magical aura.” She says nonchalantly. “Don’t look so alarmed. It’s almost impossible to stay anonymous on the abyss auction. You get used to it.” I nod, trying to process the information.

“What were you looking for again?” “I want to try learning ice magic.” I reply. My choice is based on a few different things. For a start, a way to slow down enemies would be nice, given that I’m not very fast yet. Hopefully learning ice magic will also give me a possible path towards being able to face multiple enemies.

So far, I’ve mainly faced groups of enemies that I can only pick off one by one with Mana Arrow. Being able to damage multiple enemies at once would be a huge weight off my shoulders. The last reason is that I love the idea of ice magic, and it seems really cool to me.

Mia types into the search bar, 'basic cryomancy book'. There are a ton of results that come up, from all different sources. She sets a few filters which limits the results, and picks one out for me. “Become a cryomancer today and learn the basics of cryomancy. Learn how to manipulate ice, snow, frost and all things cold. Contains basics of elemental magic and cryomancy specifically, along with some basic spells.” She reads out from the screen. I nod.

“That sounds about what I’m looking for. How much is it?” “$10,000.” I inhale sharply. Mia did warn me that it would be expensive and I did expect to pay around that much, but it’s another thing seeing it for real. “Alright. How do I pay?”

“Where do you keep your money?”

“In my inventory?”

“Makes sense. It’ll come out of there automatically. Lots of people have that kind of ability.” I nod again. “Where will it be delivered to?” “To the local Abyss Auction outpost. It might take an hour or so to get there. Once it does, we’ll walk down and get it.” She replies. “Okay perfect.” I hit the order button. $10,000 is withdrawn from my inventory. I wince, not enjoying seeing my life savings go so quickly, but understanding the necessity.

Mia sets down the tablet and picks up the remote. “Want to watch something while we wait?” She asks. “Sure. Any preferences on what?” I ask. “I have the perfect thing.” She types in the search box and clicks on a show that I’ve never heard of called Love, **** and Robots. “What is this?” I ask.

“It’s a collection of short stories. Each episode is a single story. They’re really interesting, makes you think a lot.” She responds. “Sounds cool.” She hits play and I sit back, enjoying the company of the beautiful woman beside me, as well as watching the show with interest.