The second week of class had been exhausting for Agatha. Not only were the classes no longer introductory and they were already assigning homework, but she also had to deal with Christie. Agatha thought herself quite the brooding person during her cycle, but Christie had shown her that she was rather composed. The tall girl grumbled like no other while her period lasted, but fortunately, hers was way shorter than Agatha’s, clocking at only three days. The redhead might have been able to participate in class the next day after her first bleeding, and her performance wasn’t affected much as her physical education performance was already nefarious, but whenever the two of them were alone, she would turn into a completely different person, borderline feral.

  She would either command Agatha to bring her something or help her with something else, instead of doing it herself. And if she didn’t comply, she would turn very sassy about it. At least it’s sassy and not bitchy, the seamstress-in-training had told herself constantly during those days. Agatha followed Christie's whims without complaining, partially because she knew how much the girl was suffering, but mostly because it was very amusing to see her roommate apologize at the end of the day to the point of bowing. That deference filled her up with immense satisfaction that made tolerating the rest of the redhead’s shenanigans easy.

  But depths, she was tired.

  This wasn’t the type of exhaustion that she had encountered during her time at the caravan, but a different, more insidious one. Mental exhaustion. Perhaps it was because she handled pain easily, but for Agatha, mental exhaustion was far, far worse than the physical kind. She would prefer doing another session of the military training masquerading as physical education before another theoretical class. Arithmetic was the one that taxed her the most and made her loath it, even if she didn’t find many difficulties just yet.

  “Only the second week of class and you are already burned out, good job, Agatha,” she mused bemusedly.

  “Were you saying something?” Christie asked her innocently, as if she didn’t know she was the cause of her tiredness and the previous days hadn’t happened.

  “Oh, did I say that aloud?”

  “Well, I would not say ‘aloud’, but you certainly said something.”

  “Nothing really,” she sighed. “I was just muttering nonsense. My mind is really taxed.”

  “We can take a rest if you please, we have been in the library for the whole afternoon, after all.”

  The library. Both girls found themselves at the Skyscraper Academy’s library as they were assigned an essay for History class on a topic none of them had heard about, and even finding material about it was extremely hard.

  “I just wish we could have something to eat at the library; that would certainly boost my brain activity a bit.”

  “What more, a tea? Some biscuits?” Agatha gave her roommate a deadly stare. “What? There are a myriad of reasons why eating at the library is a bad idea.”

  “Yeah, I know,” the dirty-blond girl pushed her head forward – hunching herself in purpose – and slowly nodded in mockery. “You did not need to be so sassy about it.”

  “Perhaps it is the lore about caravanseraineers that is getting me. We have been going at this for hours, after all.”

  “I think the long name is getting me more.”

  “That is what happens when you lack the original name of a civilization, there are no written words left, and the thing they are known for has a rather long name.” Agatha wasn’t sure if Christie was joking or not, because she could detect sarcasm in the words of her roommate, but she spoke with the straightest of faces.

  “I just realized that my problem is not with the caravanseraineers, but the fact that we are studying something so useless and obfuscated in our first year. Some of us will not make it beyond this point, yet we are wasting time on millennia-old stuff instead of modern history that affects our current state of warfare.” Christie looked at her agape. “What?” She snapped at her.

  “Nothing, nothing,” the redhead dismissed it. “It is just that I did not expect such a precise assessment of the current state of affairs from you. I expected you to be more…”

  “Carefree?” Agatha finished the sentence.

  “Sure, let us go with that,” the tall girl replied with an amused smile. “We still have a handful of days before the assignment is due, so we could try doing something else to liberate our minds.”

  “And what do you suggest?” The seamstress-in-training asked in a deflated manner as she supported her head on her palm.

  “I would like to practice a bit of Agatecraft.”

  “Go on.”

  “You know how I have difficulties summoning a limited amount of agates, right?” Agatha nodded at her words. “I want to train that. The most optimal way would be whilst having Teacher Dago’s assistance, but unfortunately, I cannot steal that much of his time. Especially not every time I want to practice.”

  “So why do you need my assistance?”

  “I have not shared this with you yet, but using my agates drains me a lot. To the point of hurting me.”

  “Is there something that does not hurt you?” The short girl muttered, and her roommate shot her an angry look. “Sorry, sorry. So, your agates not only press one against another because you have that many making that continuous agate, but also hurt you when they do so?”

  “More or less, yes.”

  “Depths, girl. I thought I was a special case, but you outclass me in many ways,” Agatha tapped her cheek with the hand that was supporting her head. “I understand that you want me to watch over you when you practice, but I doubt I can do much.”

  “If you can get the assistance of a soldier when I am indisposed, that will be more than enough.”

  The azure-eyed girl jumped out of her chair and stretched her arms alongside a mighty groan. “Then let us get going. I would rather not spend more time at the library today.”

  “I appreciate the enthusiasm, but we should leave the tomes back in their place first,” Christie added with a soft smile as she pressed the books she had picked up against her chest.

  Agatha let another groan, but she complied. It wasn’t like they had sat far from where they had picked up the tomes. The academic library had many tables and benches set up for people to read and take notes, so it wasn’t hard to find free spaces. What surprised Agatha more from the library wasn’t the massive and endless contents – as she had already expected those – but rather that they allowed the staff to access it freely. Whether you were a washerwoman or a soldier, they allowed you here without restriction if it wasn’t during your work time.

  The villager’s mind was completely filled with all of her mother’s comments about nobility and soldiers – all derogatory ones, of course – so it surprised her to see that they weren’t absolute scum and they allowed such luxuries as this one to the hired populace. Though at the same time, it wasn’t like a washerwoman had much time to read in the first place.

  As she and Christie walked away from the table, Agatha switched out the Light command of her little sapphire for Control and flew her lone agate towards her necklace from the glass bowl at the table meant for people to place their agates and use them as lighting. Though her agate shone so brightly that she had had to cover it with a rag so it wouldn’t blind them. It was hard to press the round mineral against the socket of her necklace with just the Control command, so she grabbed it midair and manually fixed it in place. Once it was well-locked, Agatha gave it a soft rub.

  “You really want to get that Second Stratum, huh?” Christie murmured at her side. “You are always caressing your agate.”

  “I would not say that. Well, I mean yes to the former. Not only do I want to get this little girl to the Second Stratum, but I also want to be the first in the class to do so. But as for the caressing part, I kind of just did that before knowing of Stratums?”

  “I do not know how that pendant is still standing with how much you toy with it.”

  “Oh, the necklace is new. A gift I got for my admission. But yes,” the seamstress-in-training giggled as she flicked with her finger the agate-carrying pendant, “I fear I am going to wear it out fast at this point. At least the strand.”

  As they reached the bookshelf, the girls started putting the books back in their place.

  “Huh?” Christie swayed her head from side to side in confusion. “Where is the stair?”

  “I guess someone took it. We have been here a long while now.”

  “That is a conundrum,” the redhead pressed a palm against her face. “This book was rather high up and I cannot place it back now.”

  The dirty-blond girl held up – with some difficulties – to make a jest about her roommate’s height and that there was no height too tall for her; instead, she came up with an idea.

  “I think I can solve that. Hand me the book,” Christie gave her a quizzed look, but she complied, nonetheless.

  Agatha wasn’t sure her plan was going to work either, but what she had in mind was close to the fantasies she had had at Malachite when she was imagining the academic life, so she at least wanted to try. The petite girl removed her lone agate from the necklace yet again with a satisfying pop – that alone made it worth it – and pressed it against the book Christie had given her.

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  This would be way easier with the Second Stratum, but oh well, I guess I will be able to use Control and Shape at some point. Her plan was to leave the book back in place with her agate, but because she couldn’t control her agate and shift its shape at the same time, first she had to create a shape that would allow her to carry and place the book at the same time. She also had to take into account the limitation of mass, for her agate was only so big.

  The process was a bit orthopedic, but she didn’t lack imagination, so after spreading thin her agate on the butt of the book and with a shape resembling a shoehorn, Agatha switched to the Control command and lifted the book at an angle so it didn’t topple.

  Getting the book up to the empty spot on the bookshelf was a simple job, but shoving it inside took a bit more finagling. With precise mental commands, Agatha retracted the bottom part of the lithic shoehorn while pushing the top forward so the book displaced in kind.

  It had taken only a handful of seconds to perform the whole operation, but by the end, she was exhausted, and a bead of sweat trickled down from her temples. That didn’t stop her from letting out a sigh of satisfaction at a job well done.

  “I wish I could have that kind of finesse,” Christie pouted.

  “I wish I could have that finesse at will,” Agatha snorted. “It never ceases to amaze me how impossibly complex the Shape and Control commands can get. The more precise you want to be with them, the more difficult it gets to get a hold of the agate. How is this called? Exponential growth?”

  “Well, I do not know if to call it ‘exponential’ exactly – mathematical growth terms are rather specific – but I know what you are talking about. It takes a lot from me, even more than what you have portrayed now, just to unleash my agates in a controlled manner; let alone, you know, controlling them.”

  “No one has it easy, huh.”

  “I would argue that I have it less easy.”

  “Nuh-uh. I have it less easy.”

  The girls shared a loaded squint as they were locked in a standoff. Then they broke into a giggle.

  “Why are we this dumb?” Agatha wiped a half-formed tear from the corner of her eye.

  “I think you have infected me with this idiocy,” Christie responded between laughs.

  “Hey!” The short girl stomped the ground in protest.

  The tall girl burst into a louder giggle at her reaction, yet out of nowhere, she suddenly stopped. “Ah.”

  “You have peed a little,” Agatha guessed.

  “I have peed a little,” Christie affirmed with a growing blush and a defeated tone.

  “Can you believe that men do not piss themselves when they laugh?”

  “Between this fact and menstruation, I have the growing suspicion that malekind has cursed us to suffer from the stupidest afflictions.”

  “And why would it be the case?” The azure-eyed girl asked as they made their way to the training grounds.

  “Because they envy us,” the green-and-red-eyed girl responded matter-of-factly. “They looked at us in desperation because we are the superior gender, so they cursed us with forbidden magics millennia ago.”

  “We should add to the caravanseraineers essay,” Agatha giggled. “Men, ever-so-fickle and envious, cursed women to suffer from inconvenient urination and monthly bleeding, which in turn caused the end of the caravanseraineer civilization, for they cursed the ones that kept the world rolling.”

  “That is a great theory,” her roommate chuckled again, but in a more contained manner as she didn’t want to have another accident.

  They walked out of the cozy academy’s corridors and into the cold outside of the Crochetan autumnal afternoon. Well, that wasn’t quite right. Malachite was rather warm at this time, so this had more to do with Knight’s Landing and the Skyscraper Academy’s elevation. However it may be, the girls didn’t find anyone on the training grounds at this hour, especially now that the sun threatened to settle beyond the horizon.

  “I guess we will not be able to train for much time,” Christie said as she looked at the pastel colors of the growing twilight sky.

  “I have an answer for that,” Agatha clicked her tongue and swayed her finger in negation. “Thus I say, let there be light!”

  And light was made.

  Normally, giving the Light command to an agate wouldn’t be so apotheotic, but as Agatha gave it to her little agate, a small cold sun was born. One that didn’t bore a hole in its middle.

  “That… is potent,” her roommate said with a grimace of pain.

  “I know, right?” The seamstress replied with glee. “Let me place it somewhere where it does not blind us.”

  She deactivated the Light command and instead gave her agate the Control command to fly it over the stands. She dropped her little sapphire on the previous-to-last step so they didn’t have the agate at eye level, but also so it was covered from behind and didn’t blind anyone inside the academy.

  “I mean, it is light,” Christie started, “and bright at that, but this is not the best of angles to light up a place.”

  “That will change once I get my agate to Second Stratum. Just imagine, with the Control and Light command alone, I will have a portable sun.”

  “That is… terrifying in many ways.”

  “Oh, do not be a worrywart. It is not like it is hot light. I will not literally wield the unmatched power of the sun in my hand.” Though I would like to do so. “Anyhow, how are you going to do this practice?”

  “I just intend to summon my agates,” Agatha arched a brow at her roommate. “I know it sounds trivial, but even such exercise exhausts me. Remember that I passed the Agatecraft exams with only summoning my agates.”

  “Wait…” The villager was left agape. “Are you saying that the sea of agates that got you the statal record was just… a plain Summon command?”

  “…yes?” Christie nodded sheepishly.

  “That is terrifying in many ways,” Agatha responded without a hint of shame.

  “More to me than others,” the redhead sighed. “I live in constant fear that my agates spill and they hurt me, or worse yet, someone else.”

  “Wait,” she realized something. “I understand that agates can burst out of your body,” As weird as that is, “but I have seen you perform other types of summoning several times now. Like that pilar that sprouts from your fingers. Is that just the Summon command?”

  “There is a… slight misconception here. I do not need the Summon command to summon my agates; they just pop out. What I do is remove the Sleep command.”

  “Whazzat? Eh… ehem,” Agatha cleared her throat after she noticed her use of language. “What is the Sleep command, dearest roommate?”

  Christie let out a soft chuckle. “The Sleep command is what you can imagine. It makes an agate inert.”

  “Right…” The azure-eyed girl grimaced in confusion. “And why would you do that to your agates?”

  “Well, normally you would not like to do that…” The many-colored-eyed girl stood pensive for a moment before continuing. “I guess you could do something with it when combining commands with higher Stratums, but I am rambling here. What I meant to say is that, because my agates are so eager to be summoned, I always need to wield the Sleep command so they… do not.”

  “I see…” Agatha subconsciously reached her hand for her collar, only to realize her agate wasn’t there. She dismissed the gesture and focused on her thoughts. “Technically speaking, are you not already training with Stratums by constantly using the Sleep command then? I mean, sure, you are not fulfilling the ‘materialization’ part of training that Teacher Dago mentioned, but you are acing that ‘mindfulness’ part.”

  “I guess… I am? I should talk it out with him first, though. But maybe you are onto something, Agatha.”

  “I always am,” she responded yet again without a hint of shame. “Well, we have lost a lot of time already, so how about you get to summoning your agates? Or should I say waking them up?”

  Christie snorted at her comment but nonetheless extended her hand forward to start. The girl took a handful of deep breaths, and out of nowhere, a pillar sprouted from her fingertip faster than thought.

  “Huh,” Agatha mused as she walked around the pillar. “That is an interesting shape.”

  While the surface of the stream of agates was rugged, its tip wasn’t and instead curved perfectly like a geyser. Not that the village girl knew how they looked, she had just heard of their existence and how they were natural fountains that pointed to the skies. Perhaps an umbrella was a more apt description for the tip of the pillar.

  “And also a surprisingly short range. When you aced that speed test, did you use Range?”

  “Y-yes…” Her roommate responded with difficulty and shortness of breath.

  “Does it really take that much from you to summon them?”

  “It is m-mo… more about holding the rest in rather than liberating them.”

  “I see,” she understood the theory, but Agatha couldn’t empathize with the feeling in the slightest. She was, by all accounts, the least capable person in the world to understand that. “And I guess that the pillar is holding up in the air because you are using Control, right?”

  “Y-yeah.”

  “In a way, that Control command is way stronger than mine, even if the quality between our agates is day and night. I mean, how many kilos must this pillar weigh?”

  I guess I can calculate this… Agatha recalled her geometry classes. Okay, so the length is ten meters, it’s a cylinder, so we need the radius, and it’s around a fingerwidth so…

  “A-around half a… a kilogram,” Christie responded before Agatha had a chance to calculate. “It is not much at… much at… uh… it is very thin, so it does not weigh much. But if I were to do this…”

  The redhead recalled the pillar agate and instead of pointing a lone finger forward, she pointed her whole palm forward. It didn’t even take a blink for a massive pillar of agate to fill the space between Christie’s hand and the limit of her recalling range.

  “And t-this must be around four hundred kilograms,” Agatha wasn’t sure of it, but Christie seemed slightly less taxed as she spoke.

  “That… is a lot of kilograms…” The short girl muttered under her breath.

  “W-well, surface scales by the square, so any growth is qua-qu-quadra… ugh… quadratic,” Christie put a hand before her mouth and gasped. A moment later, she recalled her agates as she had become paler, and a few beads of sweat poured from her forehead.

  “One question,” Agatha said after her roommate sat on the first flight of the grades. “Your Control command was capable of maintaining all of those four hundred kilograms of agates in the air with ease, right?”

  “Yes? I mean, each agate is self-sustaining in that sense. I just cannot give complex commands as I am occupied handling the rest of my agates in my body.”

  “So if you deactivated the Control command, the pilar would plummet to the ground.”

  “Theoretically.”

  “Could you do it?” She suggested. “With the half a kilo one, I would rather not destroy this place.”

  “Let me catch my breath for a moment.”

  Agatha allowed Christie to do so, and after a minute, the redhead stood up again and pointed her finger forward. The next slice of time in existence, a pillar sprouted from it.

  “Now switch to Sleep,” Agatha suggested.

  “Why Sleep?” Christie turned her face to her, though she kept her finger in place.

  “I just want to check something.”

  “Okay…” The redhead muttered softly, and the next moment the pillar plummeted to the ground. Barely, Christie dodged it and avoided her feet getting crushed. Well, if half a kilo crushes you, I think you have bigger issues. “Uhm… Agatha?” Her roommate turned to face her again.

  “Yes, Christie?”

  “The agates are not trying to push out of my body.”

  “You are the one who told me that the Sleep command is the one that calmed them down.”

  “Yes… but the pillar is, well…” The tall girl looked at the thin stream of agate on the ground. “It is still summoned.”

  “You are the one who told me that the Sleep command makes agates inert,” the seamstress-in-training responded her with a smile.

  Agatha could see the exact moment Christie’s brain started braining. Her roommate went from total confusion to complete understanding in a second, and her eyes illuminated in kind as if commanded by Light.

  “The agates stay out without pressuring me if I switch to Sleep!” Christie shouted enthusiastically.

  “You never thought about it?” Agatha inquired with her arms crossed and an arched brow.

  The redhead’s enthusiasm instantly evaporated, and she blushed. “…I never thought about it.”

  The dirty-blond girl sighed. “You are lucky that we do not think equally then,” and scoffed. “But oh well, now you can have summoned agates.”

  “Y-yes!” She awkwardly regained her enthusiasm. “I can now have summoned agates! You do not know how much of a game-changer it is, Agatha!”

  “Oh, but I do,” the azure-eyed girl recalled her little sapphire on her palm and extended it forward to her roommate. “You can now materialize your agates to increase their Stratum.”

  Truth was, they didn’t know if that was the case. René Dago had been quite pressing on the matter. More than one summoned agate could slow things significantly, and there was no way of knowing how many tens – if not hundreds – of agates were in that pillar alone. Having said so, Agatha didn’t muster those thoughts aloud, mostly because she thought her roommate was already aware, and however it may be, it was still progress. Progress to be happy about.

  “Yes!” Christie pounced on her and locked her in an embrace. “Thank you so, so much!”

  While the hug was a bit awkward as the petite girl’s head rested on the redhead’s chest, Agatha couldn’t help thinking that this alone made the journey to the Skyscraper Academy worth it.

  “No problem,” Agatha responded softly and buried herself in Christie in the hopes that she couldn’t see her growing blush.

  hiircine!

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