Accept and train with them

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After thinking about it a little Cassandra decided that she could use some extra training.

“Sure, I'll join you for some training. But let's have lunch first. I haven't eaten anything since morning.”

“That's a good idea.” Silvia nodded. “They will probably need some time to set up the illusions anyway.”

“Wait, illusions?” Cassandra looked at the redhead questioningly.

“What, did you think it will be just some one-on-one fighting, or some such, sis? This is an academy of magic. Almost anything here involves using magic. Combat training is no exception.” Margaret told her. “Don't worry, we'll explain the details during lunch.”

“Alright... If you don't mind me asking, exactly what are you working on?”

“A presentation about a war from a few centuries ago, against some cult called The Children of the Sea.”

“And before you ask, we didn't choose this project. We just got the short straws. Literally.” Silvia added to Margaret's explanation.

“Oh, I see...” Cassandra's gaze returned to the ruby she had brought. “By the way, Margaret, could there be any hidden enchantments on that ruby?”

“Highly unlikely, but... just to be sure I'll get one of the teachers to check it as well while we're having lunch. It probably won't take longer than that. Now let's put all the books back so we can leave. Mind giving us a hand, sis?”

“Sure, just tell me what you need.”

With the three young women working together it took them only a few minutes to put all the books back on the shelves (Cassandra also took back the ruby) and leave the library.

“Where should we go for lunch?” Asked Silvia once they were back in the corridor.

“Let's go to one of the gardens.” Margaret suggested.

“Sounds good to me!” The redhead agreed. Seeing no reason to object Cassandra just nodded.

The garden Margaret led them to was quite large, with wide stone alleys and lots of greenery: grass, bushes, trees, flowers... and everything was in perfect condition. They probably use spells to help take care of the garden. There were many people of various races there, most of them Academy students. Some were sitting on benches, others on the grass or under the shade of a tree. Most were either talking to someone or resting, but some were eating, others were reading books, a few appeared to be sleeping, and as she walked Cassandra caught glimpses of at least two couples that were having sex behind some bushes.

“This seems like a good spot...” Margaret said as she looked at a small empty glade between some trees. “Is this place free?” She asked a nearby dryad that was lying on her back and basking under the sun.

“Yes, it is.” The plant woman barely looked at them before going back to enjoying her sun bath.

“Alright, sit where you want, you two.” Margaret said to her companions as she sat down. Cassandra and Silvia did the same, and the three of them ended up in a triangle formation. “I checked the menu earlier. Today's special is a mix of meat and vegetables and seems like the best choice for food. As for drinks, it's the standard choice: mana drink or stamina drink.”

“I'll take the mana drink!” Silvia announced without any hesitation.

“What about you, sis?”

“I take it the mana drink boosts your mana?”

“Yes, it speeds up mana regeneration for the next few hours. Quite useful if you are planning to cast a lot of spells. Even though you are not a mage you should consider it – we might need your healing spell, if things prove more difficult than any of us would like. The stamina drink, on the other hand, temporarily boosts your stamina – useful if you are planning on doing a lot of physical exercises, such as running or lifting heavy items.”

“Or having a lot of sex in a short amount of time – but you did not hear that from me!” Silvia helpfully added.

“That too.” Margaret confirmed without so much as blinking. “A side effect is that the drinks make you resistant to some spells, for example the stamina drink makes you almost immune to curses that would make you fatigued. Though we are unlikely to encounter enemies using such curses during this training.”

“I see... Well, I think I will go with-”

VOTE: Which drink shall Cassandra have?
1) Mana Drink
2) Stamina Drink

Result: Mana Drink (5 votes)

"-The mana drink. Stamina is nice, but I'd rather make it through the training, even if I am dead tired afterwards. More mana for healing will help with that."

“Good decision.” Silvia nodded in approval.

“Alright, let me order our food and call a teacher to check the ruby.” Margaret said once her sister had decided. She looked around and waved her hand at a ball of white light floating nearby.

The ball promptly floated down to her and Cassandra was able to take a better look at it. It was a stone head, less than half the size of a human's, with a pair of equally small stone hands, and surrounded by a sphere of white light, likely a protective shield. Must be some sort of magical construct used here. Cassandra decided. Margaret gave it instructions and it flew away, faster than most people could run.

“Our food should arrive shortly. While we wait I'll start explaining.” Margaret said as she faced her sister. “Deep below the city is a large underground chamber. And when I say 'large' I mean 'big enough to fit Syrada inside and still have plenty of space left'. It is mostly natural, with some additions made via magic. The main way to access it is via teleportation or portals, but there are four long and winding tunnels that connect the chamber to the surface, in case there's a problem with teleportation. The tunnels are there mostly as a precaution. It takes a whole day of walking to reach the surface so they are almost never used. The chamber is used for various sorts of training, and this is where our combat training will take place.”

Margaret's explanation was interrupted by a man with short brown hair and gray eyes suddenly appearing near them. He was wearing a white shirt, black pants, and sky blue cloak. “You girls need an item identified?” He asked without any delay.

“Yes, this ruby.” Cassandra replied as she took out the cloth-wrapped gem.

“I already had a look at it and I believe it is completely safe, but my sister wants a second opinion, just in case.” Margaret added.

“She is wise to not jump to conclusions.” The man nodded. “I have a few other items I need to examine, but even so it should take no more than an hour or two. Afterwards I will return it, if it is really safe.” Without another word the man vanished, along with the cloth and the ruby.

“Who was that? One of the teachers, I assume?”

“His name is Arganten. He is part human and part something else – no one is sure what.” Silvia explained.

“Is that why I couldn't tell his age? One moment he seemed close to our age, the next he seemed older than father...”

“That is a common problem with many of the teachers here. Don't worry about it, sis. Now, where was I?” Margaret paused as she tried to get back to explaining, but was once again interrupted, this time by the return of the floating stone head. As the magical construct looked at them the food and drinks they had ordered suddenly appeared in the middle between the three girls. Silently the stone head floated up and away, leaving them to have lunch in peace.

“The food is here! Let's dig in!” Silvia exclaimed and did just that, the food on her plate decreasing with surprising speed.

“I'll continue the explanation after we finish eating.” Margaret told her sister before she too began eating.

A few minutes won't make a difference... Cassandra decided as she too started eating. Mmm, tasty!

After the three of them had finished eating Margaret resumed explaining. “Before we begin we will have to make a choice – usually there are three to five locations to choose from, and depending on the one we pick we will face different challenges and opponents. After we have made our choice we will walk through a portal to get there, but we won't see the real chamber. Instead we will see the illusion depicting the place we chose. The illusion is created by a whole class of illusionist students so it is supposed to be as realistic as possible. There's a teacher supervising the whole thing to make sure the students don't screw up something.”

“Occasionally the illusion is created by more than one class, with multiple teachers overseeing the process.” Silvia added.

“Because the whole thing is an illusion we won't die if we get killed, but that doesn't make the wounds suffered any less painful. So try not to get hit if you can avoid it, sis.”

“Will do, thanks for the warning.” Cassandra assured her sister. I wasn't planning on getting hit anyway.

“Once we are inside the chamber there's only two ways we can leave: By finding the exit, or by getting 'killed' by the enemies. Obviously, the former is recommended. Keep in mind that we don't have to leave as soon as we find the exit. Usually there's an optional challenge at the end, and if we complete it we get a reward. But we'll worry about that when we get there.” Margaret made a brief pause to catch her breath before continuing. “I think that covers all the important stuff. Anything else we can explain during the challenge. But if you have any questions you want to get answered right now – go ahead and ask.”

Margaret and Silvia spent the next several minutes chatting about various Academy things, with Cassandra just listening to them (and not hearing anything of interest to her). Then they got interrupted by the arrival of another floating stone head, but this one was carrying a letter in its tiny hands. It was delivered to Margaret, who immediately opened it and read it. “The illusion is ready, we can begin our training battle whenever we want.” She announced a few moments later.

“Well, let's go, then. I'm curious to see what they have in store for us this time.” Silvia commented as both her and Cassandra got up.

The stone head led the way and soon brought them to an empty square room with gray stone walls. A young-looking elf man was waiting for them inside. He was wearing a dark gray cloak and a dark blue robe. Unlike most elves Cassandra had seen he had a beard. On first glance it was impossible to tell if he was a teacher or a student.

“You're the girls that wanted some combat training?” The man paused and waited until he received three nods of confirmation before he continued. “Good, just pick one of the four portals. The exit is near the tower you will be able to see in the distance. Please remember that since this is combat training some of the more... creative... solutions to problems won't work.”

“Translation: Don't try to seduce or **** the opponents – it won't work.” Silvia explained before Cassandra could even ask.

“**** the opponents? Does that really happen?” Cassandra asked, quite surprised.

“It does, and a lot more often than you might expect.” The elf told her.

“We can try that sort of thing some other time. For now let's focus on the challenge at hand.” Margaret suggested as she started examining the four portals – one in each corner of the room. Cassandra and Silvia joined her a moment later.

The first portal was leading to a small clearing in a dark and dense forest. The second portal was leading to an area covered in fog; on the other side of the portal there was water instead of dry land. The third portal was leading to what appeared to be an abandoned village in a forest. And the last portal was leading to snow-covered hills.

“I suggest we forget about the forest. It's very dense, so movement will be difficult, giving an advantage to any enemies we might encounter. And any plant we see might actually be a creature pretending to be a plant.” Margaret summarized her thoughts about the first portal.

“We should also forget about the portal leading to water. First of all, we don't even know how deep the water is, and if it is hot or cold. Then there's the fact that there are likely many enemies hiding in both the water and the fog. And last, but not least, it will be quite easy to get lost in that fog.”

“The hills might be the best choice, even though it will be cold and we're not dressed for cold weather.” Margaret noted as she moved over to the next portal. “There are some trees and rocks that could be used as cover, but not too many, making an ambush unlikely. Still, there might be spots where the snow is deep enough for something to hide under it, so we might get ambushed anyway.”

“I'm more concerned about attacks from above. It doesn't look like there are a lot of places to hide if we get attacked by flying enemies.” Silvia voiced her concerns.

“The snow will make it difficult to move silently or hide our tracks, but the same goes for the opponents – or at least for some of them.” Cassandra added her own thoughts.

“And the last portal... seems like an abandoned village. Nothing of particular interest that I can see. At first glance this is the easiest location... but there's likely a good reason why the village was abandoned.” Margaret noted as she examined the last portal.

“Indeed, there's always a catch when you get offered a seemingly-easy challenge like this one.” The redhead agreed.

The three examined the last portal some more before Cassandra got an idea. “Maybe... maybe the catch is that there is no catch.” She suggested, causing the two sorceresses to look at her in confusion.

“What do you mean by that, sis? Could you explain?”

“Maybe this is a test to see how... cautious we are? I'm not sure that's the best word, but I hope you get what I mean.”

“I... think I do...” Silvia replied, but sounded uncertain.

“Maybe if we are too cautious and avoid this portal because of how suspiciously easy it is we will end up facing one of the other, more difficult, challenges. While if we don't overthink it and just take a chance by choosing this portal we will get an easier challenge? Is such a thing possible?” Cassandra tried to explain as best she could.

“Well... yes, it is certainly possible, if unlikely.” Margaret admitted.

“I don't think we'll learn anything more than what we already did, so let's just pick a portal and hope for the best. After all, this is just training, so it's not a big deal if we fail – though I would prefer if we don't fail. So, which portal would you choose, Cassandra?” Silvia asked as she turned towards the green-eyed woman.

Primary Vote: Which portal do they choose?
A. The abandoned village
B. The snow-covered hills
C. The dense forest (explain why)
D. The fog-covered body of water (explain why)

X. Minor Action

Note: If Cassandra picks the forest or the water area she must also provide a compelling argument why, since both Margaret and Silvia are against those two options.

Result: A. The abandoned village (5 votes)

[Sorry for the wait, this chapter should have been finished weeks ago, but got delayed due to various reasons.

If any part is unclear just ask and I'll try to clarify.

Also, sorry for how long this one turned out. Next one should be much shorter.]

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