Bubbles were Seika's life. That was a fact, plain and simple. She had met Aphelia, who saved her life, through a bubble. The fish had been living in a reef when the ship's wreck had crashed into their home. Ever since then, the two individuals had magically been fused by some stroke of luck and a freak of nature. On her part, the mage didn't mind this at all; she was even grateful for the fact that she was alive and breathing as a result of their encounter. However, the spirit was a little less enthusiastic. While she had gained some new abilities related to light and prismatic effects as a result of everything, she had lost an important aspect of herself in summoning. Only recently had they been able to regain that part of their ancestry and reunite with the Risan magic. So, Aphelia was still a little bit salty that her bond mate had inadvertently locked her out of performing her own family's spells and rituals without her involvement. Seika's, that was. But they were slowly moving past it, and the feline wouldn't have dared to even let the girl know that she was upset about it or practically anything for that matter. Today, the two had decided to go to a spa. According to the weather predictions, which were becoming more and more accurate thanks to high powered magical technology, it was going to be a sunny day. Now, the girl loved the sun, and the light, but Aphelia preferred to lounge around indoors. Not to say that she liked the darkness; rather, she just hated being too hot. Even as partially a flame spirit, her essence also contained the coldness of the winter mountains, as a shape shifter who often took on the form of a snow leopard or tiger. Anyway, so today Seika had wanted to go out because it was sunny. Her idea of a perfect day with this weather would be running around, taking advantage of the strong sunlight during the afternoon to take artistic pictures, then utilizing the even light as the sun set or was hidden by clouds to take less stylistic photos. Naturally, that had been the girl's plan for the day. But she was reluctant to be separated from Aphelia, and what with how the feline refused to voice her feelings out loud in this instance, she had still managed to understand that her friend was equally hesitant to just stay at home and let her run about by herself. No matter how reticent the cat acted, she had her own concerns and emotions, held quietly inside. And to be completely honest, after enough practice, Seika had managed to become proficient enough at guessing the feline's emotions. Today's were no exception to her general ability to deduce how the spirit was feeling. For that reason, the girl had made the executive decision to go to the spa and stay inside, while also enjoying a bit of outdoors time on this fine day. Aphelia was not allowed to argue, not that the feline would have even put up a fight on being pampered for hours. However, her condition was that they had to go in their Sibylline forms. In this manner, she could claim it was a sort of training, and keep face despite not protesting too much about the day of luxury.
There was only one location for spas, and that was Hosenka Town! Well, technically speaking, there were many different nice establishments all over Fiore, not to mention Earthland, but this city had been the first one she'd thought of. And that meant it was the only option, of course, since Seika wasn't predisposed to changing her mind again once it was made up! Within a flash, she had teleported the two of them to the city. Slowly, over the course of the past several weeks, the mage's teleportation abilities had become better and better. At this stage, she could even travel without getting completely over come by motion sickness for a few minutes. There was still a split second of nausea, but Seika's stomach no longer felt like doing back flips up and out of her throat. That was a relief, because now the cat had far less qualms about teleporting instead of walking. Laziness was an enormous factor for her. "Seika, hurry up," Aphelia yawned, sitting at the top stair of the entrance to the spa. There were so many different spas in Hosenka, to be honest, which was perfect! It meant that maybe they would get to try out several different locations all in the single day. But the bond mates didn't want to get ahead of themselves. Er, at least, Seika didn't. She was the only one zoning out and thinking that far ahead into the future, anyway, though; Aphelia might have been considering things, but she surely wasn't obsessing over them in the present. Seika pulled herself out of her head and smiled brightly at her friend, who had transformed from a feline into her human form at some point. "Yeah! Let's go, Aphi!" She bounded forward, tripping over the stairs and colliding with another patron, who was just then exiting the spa. "Watch where you're going," the voice scolded her, a bit gently, but mostly condescendingly. It was as if they didn't believe that she could have paid attention even if she had wanted to. Ignoring their words, Seika saluted cheerfully before scampering after Aphelia, who had rolled her eyes and continued to step inside of the establishment. "Aphi! Where should we go first?" The mage's voice rang out loudly, and the staff who was sitting at the front desk gave them a bit of a glare. She pointed to a nearby sign, laminated, that was posted on a wall. It read in blocky letters that this was a quiet area and yelling was strictly prohibited. Naturally, Seika failed to pick up on this hint, or rather, what was basically an outright rebuke. Her bond mate had no respect for the rules and so of course did not redirect her friend's attention to the worker. Instead, she simply ignored what Seika was doing and let her fawn over the location's appearance, pulling out her camera and snapping pictures of everyone and everything. Aphelia walked over to the front desk and stood in front of it, glaring at the woman with a patented mixture of disinterest and impatience. While she had no idea how to pay for spa services, as long as she looked like she was waiting to be served, she would be served, right? Wouldn't she? That was how these things worked... nearby, Seika had accidentally taken a picture of a woman in a state of undress, who had been coming out of a room on one side to head over to the changing rooms across the area in the other wing. Unfortunately, the mage had bumped into her fellow spa goer and accidentally sent her slipping on the smooth floor and tumbling to the ground.
There was nothing to be ashamed of when it came to nudity! Seika thought bodies were like, cool and stuff. So she had snapped a lot of pictures of the woman, especially as she was getting up, because like, the angles were changing and the way the low lights and candles flickered against the model were super cool. But the stranger hadn't really seemed to see it the same way as Seika, and had started a ruckus, much to the chagrin of the employees, once again. As soon as Aphelia saw more of them flooding the area, trying to prevent her bond mate from taking pictures and encouraging her to put away her camera, the spirit stepped in. "Look, we're from the Rune Knights. I apologize for my companion, she doesn't know how to behave in public," the girl paused, before lowering her voice to a conspiratorial whisper. "She was raised from a young age to be a weapon. No sense of societal decency. Please just let us enjoy a nice day off together?" At the same time, the mage slid several thousand jewels to the receptionist, whose eyes flickered to the money briefly before resting back on the spirit. With any luck, they wouldn't get thrown out. It was easier to toss around a few nice words and some cash rather than have to fight or cause a ruckus. Despite her abrasive nature, the feline did not, in fact, enjoy having to use her magic for strenuous tasks like combat. Teleporting around was one thing; that prevented the need for walking and using her legs. Thankfully, it seemed like the attendant was more than happy to cooperate, since she stood up without much further word and went over to the employees who were currently still struggling to control Seika. The girl wasn't specifically acting out or anything, she was just... very determinedly refusing to put her camera away. Since her skin was, quite literally, boiling to the touch when her emotions were hyped up enough, they had quickly found out it was impossible to physically force her away from her electronic device. Plus, uh, she was surprisingly strong. Even though the girl was just a teenager, and she in fact had been weakened in part by the way colormancy had affected her body... Seika kind of packed a punch when it came to individuals who had no magic whatsoever. Inadvertently, of course, as she was not really in the habit of hurting people from a goal of doing harm, but still the situation stood that she could do some damage with her flailing around. That was the case here. Once the staff members had backed away, the mage's eyes widened dramatically and she looked visibly concerned. More than that; probably almost in shock, or awe? "Woah! What happened to you? What's wrong? Are you okay?" The mage asked, oblivious to the fact that she had in fact accidentally injured some of the attendants. "I'll help you, don't worry!" The girl, for now with very wet silver hair from tousling around on the tiled floor, quickly ran from person to person, infusing their skin and bodies with sparking magic that buzzed to life, spurring on their natural healing processes. It was a fast process, and almost within minute, they were all back to perfect health. Now with not a single injury in sight, Seika clapped her hands before bowing slightly to each. "Don't worry! I'll help you! C'mon Aphi, let's find out who did this!"
With that having been said, the mage grabbed her bond mate's hand. The spirit did not protest in any way, instead hiding her amusement as Seika teleported them deeper into the spa. It was a surprisingly complicated system; the girl didn't know why she was so surprised, though, given that Hosenka was so famous for its luxury establishments such as these. Of course they were super fancy! But either way, she would happily ooh and aah at everything around her! There were tons of things to take pictures of. The people were looking at her like she was a little bit crazy, but they were meanies anyway. Or... if they weren't then it was whatever! She couldn't care less, because this was her spa and she could do whatever she wanted to. Seika, it's not our spa, you do know that, right? The spirit drawled dryly through their bond link. Ignoring her friend, the mage's chin lifted up just a teeny bit as she tried to assert her dominance over the area full of other patrons. It didn't really work, but what it did succeed in doing was sending all of them looking away, muttering among themselves. Some with amusement, the majority just frustrated and or done with the situation. Seika didn't really mind, since she was more occupied with other things. Like... wondering what the temperature of the water was! Her eyes sparkling with excitement, and by that it was meant literally sparking and giving off miniature bursts of prismatic light, the mage rushed over to the nearest pool. There were lots of them inside of here. Different rooms were around, with lots of hot tubs for patrons to lounge about and use the facilities before or after their treatments. Speaking of treatments, the girl wasn't sure what she was supposed to be getting! Turning slightly towards Aphelia, with her toes and calves stuck in the water as she sat on the edge, Seika asked a question silently. The spirit groaned before answering shortly. "We have an unlimited spa package, so we can get whatever we want." Now that wasn't strictly true, but it was close enough. Whatever she wanted, Seika would probably end up getting as long as things continued to go along as they were. Meaning, as long as Aphelia had money to pay for it and there were no threatening mages around to put a stop to their antics. Just then, a bit of a noise coming from an adjacent room caught Seika's attention. "Aphi, what was that?? Let's go look!" Without waiting for a response, she took off like a rocket, nearly slipping as she slid through the door with extremely curious eyes occupying the majority of her face with almost cartoonish proportions. Once they got inside, a sight greeted them that was unexpected, but not completely out of the ordinary. There was a dog...! But, the dog.... it had spiders on it?? Seika wondered if she was hallucinating, and upon catching a wind of those thoughts in the girl's mind, the spirit immediately followed her through the door. Inside, she wasn't really sure how to react to whatever was happening. The scenario was just bizarre. First of all, dogs like that one shouldn't have been allowed in the spa. Wasn't this supposed to be a very special establishment? Surely if pets were allowed there would be a separate area in case of allergies.
And then... well, there were the spiders. Dozens and dozens of little spiders seemed to be pouring out of the corner near where the dog was. They were crawling up on the dog, almost looking like little black ants what with how many of them there were. Belatedly, Aphelia realized that it might not be a good idea to continue existing in this space. Grabbing Seika's hand, she was about to haul the mage and herself out of there and find a different spa, never minding the money they had already spent here, when she realized Seika's hand was not where she had expected it to be. In fact, the girl was gone. Poof. Just up and vanished. Groaning audibly, the older girl turned around a few times to make sure that her bond mate was nowhere in the vicinity before she turned around abruptly and left. There was no sense in staying in that room. Spiders that numerous and that small and that much... together, well, it just spelled out a bad situation overall. Besides, she could slightly sense her friend's magic power nearby. Honestly, Aphelia was surprised that she had managed to slip away so quickly, but when Seika was motivated to move with some degree of stealth, she could on occasion actually perform actions sneakily. Like that one time they had pranked another member and dyed all of their hair bright white- oh, but that wasn't relevant now. Trying her hardest to clear her head of all of these distracting thoughts, the spirit headed in the direction of the bond pull. While faint, it was still very clear to the spirit. Unlike Seika, she rarely was able to lose a sense of their connection. Perhaps it was because she had more of a magical base to her existence, but regardless of the reasoning, she quickly located her friend. When she opened the door of the room, the sight made heart drop into her stomach. "Seika..." There, sitting in a hot tub, was Seika, with a giant spider. By giant, she didn't mean like, the size of her palm or even a dinner plate. No, this one was bigger than a bed. Bigger than their bedroom back in Elysium. Oh, and she'd better not try to get that thing to come anywhere near home with them. It barely seemed to fit in this room here, and it was a rather enormous place, with a high ceiling and a chandelier above. Which the spider's head was nearly bumping into. Oh, and it had eight eyes... that was great. Now, Aphelia couldn't say that she was afraid of spiders. In general, they didn't bother her, possibly because she couldn't be bothered to bother anybody. It was just too much effort. But this gargantuan fellow.. or actually, it was probably a mother. The spirit could get a sense of Seika's thoughts, including that the little spiders were her babies. But how had the girl even located the mama spider, and most importantly, why was she standing that close to it?? Not to mention how had it even gotten in the spa in the first place. So many questions that had yet to be answered... For now, she settled on slowly walking over to stand next to Seika, where she said very calmly, "Our treatment is almost ready, we should go meet our attendant." Just as she was tugging the other girl out of the room, the spider shrieked. It was a terrifying sound, but somehow, it didn't sound threatening so much as just... plaintive? "She's hungry! Aphi, while we're out, let's find her some food, okay? I promised! She has so many babies and they ate a lot of the food she had" Seika explained using knowledge coming from literally nowhere understandable. How had she been told all of that in just the short amount of minutes they had been apart? But Aphelia wouldn't question it. Instead, she just nodded before leading her bond mate out of the room.
Outside the spa itself, after putting a decent amount of distance between themselves and the gargantuan creature, Aphelia asked the girl directly, "Seika, what does it eat?" As if saying the obvious, which perhaps it was, the mage answered, "Anything! But it likes humans the best. The babies were eating dogs in the town, and that's not good... so, Aphi, let's feed them humans instead!" She beamed at the idea, happy to have found a solution all on her own and to be able to explain it to her bond mate. The spirit rubbed her temples, hoping this was all just a dream. "How did the giant spider get here?" She still wasn't sure how all of this had happened. "I dunno, I think it's warm and stuff! Spiders like warm places!" Right... well, Aphelia was going to be turning the temperature in their room all the way down to freezing point as soon as all of this was over.
Exam: 3,157
There was only one location for spas, and that was Hosenka Town! Well, technically speaking, there were many different nice establishments all over Fiore, not to mention Earthland, but this city had been the first one she'd thought of. And that meant it was the only option, of course, since Seika wasn't predisposed to changing her mind again once it was made up! Within a flash, she had teleported the two of them to the city. Slowly, over the course of the past several weeks, the mage's teleportation abilities had become better and better. At this stage, she could even travel without getting completely over come by motion sickness for a few minutes. There was still a split second of nausea, but Seika's stomach no longer felt like doing back flips up and out of her throat. That was a relief, because now the cat had far less qualms about teleporting instead of walking. Laziness was an enormous factor for her. "Seika, hurry up," Aphelia yawned, sitting at the top stair of the entrance to the spa. There were so many different spas in Hosenka, to be honest, which was perfect! It meant that maybe they would get to try out several different locations all in the single day. But the bond mates didn't want to get ahead of themselves. Er, at least, Seika didn't. She was the only one zoning out and thinking that far ahead into the future, anyway, though; Aphelia might have been considering things, but she surely wasn't obsessing over them in the present. Seika pulled herself out of her head and smiled brightly at her friend, who had transformed from a feline into her human form at some point. "Yeah! Let's go, Aphi!" She bounded forward, tripping over the stairs and colliding with another patron, who was just then exiting the spa. "Watch where you're going," the voice scolded her, a bit gently, but mostly condescendingly. It was as if they didn't believe that she could have paid attention even if she had wanted to. Ignoring their words, Seika saluted cheerfully before scampering after Aphelia, who had rolled her eyes and continued to step inside of the establishment. "Aphi! Where should we go first?" The mage's voice rang out loudly, and the staff who was sitting at the front desk gave them a bit of a glare. She pointed to a nearby sign, laminated, that was posted on a wall. It read in blocky letters that this was a quiet area and yelling was strictly prohibited. Naturally, Seika failed to pick up on this hint, or rather, what was basically an outright rebuke. Her bond mate had no respect for the rules and so of course did not redirect her friend's attention to the worker. Instead, she simply ignored what Seika was doing and let her fawn over the location's appearance, pulling out her camera and snapping pictures of everyone and everything. Aphelia walked over to the front desk and stood in front of it, glaring at the woman with a patented mixture of disinterest and impatience. While she had no idea how to pay for spa services, as long as she looked like she was waiting to be served, she would be served, right? Wouldn't she? That was how these things worked... nearby, Seika had accidentally taken a picture of a woman in a state of undress, who had been coming out of a room on one side to head over to the changing rooms across the area in the other wing. Unfortunately, the mage had bumped into her fellow spa goer and accidentally sent her slipping on the smooth floor and tumbling to the ground.
There was nothing to be ashamed of when it came to nudity! Seika thought bodies were like, cool and stuff. So she had snapped a lot of pictures of the woman, especially as she was getting up, because like, the angles were changing and the way the low lights and candles flickered against the model were super cool. But the stranger hadn't really seemed to see it the same way as Seika, and had started a ruckus, much to the chagrin of the employees, once again. As soon as Aphelia saw more of them flooding the area, trying to prevent her bond mate from taking pictures and encouraging her to put away her camera, the spirit stepped in. "Look, we're from the Rune Knights. I apologize for my companion, she doesn't know how to behave in public," the girl paused, before lowering her voice to a conspiratorial whisper. "She was raised from a young age to be a weapon. No sense of societal decency. Please just let us enjoy a nice day off together?" At the same time, the mage slid several thousand jewels to the receptionist, whose eyes flickered to the money briefly before resting back on the spirit. With any luck, they wouldn't get thrown out. It was easier to toss around a few nice words and some cash rather than have to fight or cause a ruckus. Despite her abrasive nature, the feline did not, in fact, enjoy having to use her magic for strenuous tasks like combat. Teleporting around was one thing; that prevented the need for walking and using her legs. Thankfully, it seemed like the attendant was more than happy to cooperate, since she stood up without much further word and went over to the employees who were currently still struggling to control Seika. The girl wasn't specifically acting out or anything, she was just... very determinedly refusing to put her camera away. Since her skin was, quite literally, boiling to the touch when her emotions were hyped up enough, they had quickly found out it was impossible to physically force her away from her electronic device. Plus, uh, she was surprisingly strong. Even though the girl was just a teenager, and she in fact had been weakened in part by the way colormancy had affected her body... Seika kind of packed a punch when it came to individuals who had no magic whatsoever. Inadvertently, of course, as she was not really in the habit of hurting people from a goal of doing harm, but still the situation stood that she could do some damage with her flailing around. That was the case here. Once the staff members had backed away, the mage's eyes widened dramatically and she looked visibly concerned. More than that; probably almost in shock, or awe? "Woah! What happened to you? What's wrong? Are you okay?" The mage asked, oblivious to the fact that she had in fact accidentally injured some of the attendants. "I'll help you, don't worry!" The girl, for now with very wet silver hair from tousling around on the tiled floor, quickly ran from person to person, infusing their skin and bodies with sparking magic that buzzed to life, spurring on their natural healing processes. It was a fast process, and almost within minute, they were all back to perfect health. Now with not a single injury in sight, Seika clapped her hands before bowing slightly to each. "Don't worry! I'll help you! C'mon Aphi, let's find out who did this!"
With that having been said, the mage grabbed her bond mate's hand. The spirit did not protest in any way, instead hiding her amusement as Seika teleported them deeper into the spa. It was a surprisingly complicated system; the girl didn't know why she was so surprised, though, given that Hosenka was so famous for its luxury establishments such as these. Of course they were super fancy! But either way, she would happily ooh and aah at everything around her! There were tons of things to take pictures of. The people were looking at her like she was a little bit crazy, but they were meanies anyway. Or... if they weren't then it was whatever! She couldn't care less, because this was her spa and she could do whatever she wanted to. Seika, it's not our spa, you do know that, right? The spirit drawled dryly through their bond link. Ignoring her friend, the mage's chin lifted up just a teeny bit as she tried to assert her dominance over the area full of other patrons. It didn't really work, but what it did succeed in doing was sending all of them looking away, muttering among themselves. Some with amusement, the majority just frustrated and or done with the situation. Seika didn't really mind, since she was more occupied with other things. Like... wondering what the temperature of the water was! Her eyes sparkling with excitement, and by that it was meant literally sparking and giving off miniature bursts of prismatic light, the mage rushed over to the nearest pool. There were lots of them inside of here. Different rooms were around, with lots of hot tubs for patrons to lounge about and use the facilities before or after their treatments. Speaking of treatments, the girl wasn't sure what she was supposed to be getting! Turning slightly towards Aphelia, with her toes and calves stuck in the water as she sat on the edge, Seika asked a question silently. The spirit groaned before answering shortly. "We have an unlimited spa package, so we can get whatever we want." Now that wasn't strictly true, but it was close enough. Whatever she wanted, Seika would probably end up getting as long as things continued to go along as they were. Meaning, as long as Aphelia had money to pay for it and there were no threatening mages around to put a stop to their antics. Just then, a bit of a noise coming from an adjacent room caught Seika's attention. "Aphi, what was that?? Let's go look!" Without waiting for a response, she took off like a rocket, nearly slipping as she slid through the door with extremely curious eyes occupying the majority of her face with almost cartoonish proportions. Once they got inside, a sight greeted them that was unexpected, but not completely out of the ordinary. There was a dog...! But, the dog.... it had spiders on it?? Seika wondered if she was hallucinating, and upon catching a wind of those thoughts in the girl's mind, the spirit immediately followed her through the door. Inside, she wasn't really sure how to react to whatever was happening. The scenario was just bizarre. First of all, dogs like that one shouldn't have been allowed in the spa. Wasn't this supposed to be a very special establishment? Surely if pets were allowed there would be a separate area in case of allergies.
And then... well, there were the spiders. Dozens and dozens of little spiders seemed to be pouring out of the corner near where the dog was. They were crawling up on the dog, almost looking like little black ants what with how many of them there were. Belatedly, Aphelia realized that it might not be a good idea to continue existing in this space. Grabbing Seika's hand, she was about to haul the mage and herself out of there and find a different spa, never minding the money they had already spent here, when she realized Seika's hand was not where she had expected it to be. In fact, the girl was gone. Poof. Just up and vanished. Groaning audibly, the older girl turned around a few times to make sure that her bond mate was nowhere in the vicinity before she turned around abruptly and left. There was no sense in staying in that room. Spiders that numerous and that small and that much... together, well, it just spelled out a bad situation overall. Besides, she could slightly sense her friend's magic power nearby. Honestly, Aphelia was surprised that she had managed to slip away so quickly, but when Seika was motivated to move with some degree of stealth, she could on occasion actually perform actions sneakily. Like that one time they had pranked another member and dyed all of their hair bright white- oh, but that wasn't relevant now. Trying her hardest to clear her head of all of these distracting thoughts, the spirit headed in the direction of the bond pull. While faint, it was still very clear to the spirit. Unlike Seika, she rarely was able to lose a sense of their connection. Perhaps it was because she had more of a magical base to her existence, but regardless of the reasoning, she quickly located her friend. When she opened the door of the room, the sight made heart drop into her stomach. "Seika..." There, sitting in a hot tub, was Seika, with a giant spider. By giant, she didn't mean like, the size of her palm or even a dinner plate. No, this one was bigger than a bed. Bigger than their bedroom back in Elysium. Oh, and she'd better not try to get that thing to come anywhere near home with them. It barely seemed to fit in this room here, and it was a rather enormous place, with a high ceiling and a chandelier above. Which the spider's head was nearly bumping into. Oh, and it had eight eyes... that was great. Now, Aphelia couldn't say that she was afraid of spiders. In general, they didn't bother her, possibly because she couldn't be bothered to bother anybody. It was just too much effort. But this gargantuan fellow.. or actually, it was probably a mother. The spirit could get a sense of Seika's thoughts, including that the little spiders were her babies. But how had the girl even located the mama spider, and most importantly, why was she standing that close to it?? Not to mention how had it even gotten in the spa in the first place. So many questions that had yet to be answered... For now, she settled on slowly walking over to stand next to Seika, where she said very calmly, "Our treatment is almost ready, we should go meet our attendant." Just as she was tugging the other girl out of the room, the spider shrieked. It was a terrifying sound, but somehow, it didn't sound threatening so much as just... plaintive? "She's hungry! Aphi, while we're out, let's find her some food, okay? I promised! She has so many babies and they ate a lot of the food she had" Seika explained using knowledge coming from literally nowhere understandable. How had she been told all of that in just the short amount of minutes they had been apart? But Aphelia wouldn't question it. Instead, she just nodded before leading her bond mate out of the room.
Outside the spa itself, after putting a decent amount of distance between themselves and the gargantuan creature, Aphelia asked the girl directly, "Seika, what does it eat?" As if saying the obvious, which perhaps it was, the mage answered, "Anything! But it likes humans the best. The babies were eating dogs in the town, and that's not good... so, Aphi, let's feed them humans instead!" She beamed at the idea, happy to have found a solution all on her own and to be able to explain it to her bond mate. The spirit rubbed her temples, hoping this was all just a dream. "How did the giant spider get here?" She still wasn't sure how all of this had happened. "I dunno, I think it's warm and stuff! Spiders like warm places!" Right... well, Aphelia was going to be turning the temperature in their room all the way down to freezing point as soon as all of this was over.
Exam: 3,157