Chapter 17: Chapter 15: Training

“Alright everybody, settle down, it’s time for class.” Agathe said, addressing the assembled people. “I’m sure you’ve all already been introduced, but we need to talk about your new classmate, Lilith. We have one very important rule that you need to follow for the couple of months she’ll be studying with us.

“You are not, under any circumstances, to read her mind, even if you’re sparring with her. This is not because it’s rude, this is because she has an ability that makes it extremely dangerous to do so. We can’t guarantee we’ll be able to put you back together if you try, so don’t. With that out of the way, though, does anyone have any questions?”

Gabe rose his hand and, after he was called on, spoke. “What ability? And why wouldn’t you be able to put us back together?

Agathe frowned. “Um, so, the thing is we, um…”

She trailed off, glancing to the side. Lilith followed her gaze to see Kali stepping up to where Agathe was standing.

Once Kali reached Agathe, she gave everyone a friendly wave. “Hello everyone! I’m Kali, the Council’s information specialist. There are a couple of…unique circumstances around Lilith, and that ability is one of them. Even though I’m the best mind-reader in the Protectorate, that ability still gives me some trouble, so please, please don’t test it.”

She gave Lilith a quick wink, then continued. “I’m here to watch over this class while Lilith’s here, so I’m going to be around a lot. If you see me in the halls or something, feel free to talk to me, I’m always up to make new friends! Just don’t talk to me when I look busy or during class, alright?” She turned around, said a few words to a relieved-looking Agathe, then went back to Carmen.

“Um, right. So, any…other questions?” Agathe asked. She looked out over the assembled kids, then pointed a finger. “Raphael?”

“Yeah, so…I saw that fight you had. Why is she here? She’s worse than a beginner, even someone who’s never been in a fight before would know not to try what she tried.” Raphael said condescendingly. “She’s just going to slow us all down.”

Agathe raised an eyebrow. “Do tell me, then, what did she try?”

“She had her clone try to distract you and then went to punch you. She should have known you’d use a reflector for something like that.”

“And how did she try to distract me?” Agathe prompted.

“Simple hypnosis, I think.” Raphael replied, waving a hand dismissively. “Anyone with half a brain would be able to shrug off something like that.”

“Why don’t you try, then? If it’s so easy, you shouldn’t have any problem.”

“Fine, I will.” Raphael replied, growing red and standing up. “And, just to prove my point, I’m not even going to try to block line of sight like you, I’m just going to listen and show you.”

“Very well.” Agathe said, then turned to Carmen. “Carmen, would you do the honors?” She called.

Carmen grinned, closing her book and walking over, Kali close behind. “Raphael, right?” She asked.

“Yeah, that’s me.” Raphael said proudly. “Do your worst. You’re an amateur, I can tell. I’ve had training, I won’t be hypnotized that easily.”

“If you insist. Just look into my eyes and listen to my voice, and we’ll see.” Carmen said.

Raphael’s eyes glazed over, and carmen continued. “Now, just repeat after me. I, Raphael…”

“I, Raphael…”

Carmen snapped her fingers, and Raphael snapped back into focus. “What was that?!”  He yelled. “That’s not normal!”

“Well, she’s not normal either.” Kali snickered. “She’s a very powerful hypnotist, so that little trick is much harder to deal with than you might think. You can’t ever let yourself underestimate your opponent, or else you’re going to be in a world of hurt. Anyway, Carmen, let’s not interrupt their class any further, come back with me.” Carmen nodded, and the two left.

“I had prior knowledge of how dangerous her hypnotism is.” Agathe explained. “So, I was being very conscious about it. I also knew that she had a few rather large knowledge gaps, so I exploited that to create that opening. And that brings us to today’s material, reflector spells. I have a handout that’ll refresh you all about them, so if you would just come grab one and look it over as we talk…”

Lilith went and grabbed the handout, beginning to skim it as she listened to Agathe. Reflector spells were always one of two varieties; the first reflected things that were physical in nature, such as punches, kicks, or even things like lightning, provided it wasn’t magically generated lightning. The other reflected things that were magical in origin, which was apparently defined by anything that had a high enough concentration of Mana to it. There wasn’t a single known spell that reflected both, and people had been trying to make one for millennia.

After Agathe finished her brief talk on reflectors, she gave the students time to analyze the spell in the handout then tested each of them on how well they had learned it.

“Excellent work.” Agathe told Lilith. “Keep looking through the stuff Geb gave you in his class, we want to get you caught up as soon as possible.”

So, the class ended up being rather similar to magic theory, just…outside. And, an hour or so later, class was finished, and the rest of the students left. Agathe instructed Lilith to head back to Geb’s classroom for more Domain research.

From there, Geb took her ten or so minutes out away from the main complex so they were out of sight from the students, and then began to teach her how to fly.

Well, Geb wasn’t the one teaching her how to fly, as he didn’t know how. Instead, Kali showed her the ropes. There…wasn’t a lot of progress, though. While she was fine in wide-open areas, sudden turns or other similar maneuvers more often than not made her crash. So, most of their allotted time ended up being used just getting Lilith to learn the basics.

“Honestly, for a beginner, you did a great job!” Kali said once they landed, a huge smile on her face. “You really started to pick up some of that pretty fast!”

Lilith scratched the back of her neck, embarrassed. “I mean, I still crash a bunch, it’s not that great.”

“You kidding?” Kali replied. “Most people take months or years to get to where you are now. It’s like you already knew and were just picking it back up!”

It had kind of felt like that, though Lilith wasn’t sure why. “Maybe it’s a result of my transformation? I find myself subconsciously adjusting for the wings and tail already, so perhaps some of that carries over to flight?”

Kali shrugged. “You’d know better than I. Perfect Chimeras are still a big mystery in a lot of ways.”

From there, they went back to the classrooms where they met up with Agathe again. Geb left to do some preparation for class the next day, and Agathe took Lilith to a gym of sorts. There were the familiar exercise machines she had known from Earth, but there were all sorts of others that she didn’t recognize.

“So, during this time the gym is ours and ours alone.” Agathe explained. “I’m going to need you to take off that ring so I can see what’s going on while you exercise. I need to make sure you have the proper form, you know?”

Lilith nodded, taking off the ring.

Agathe gave a low whistle. “That’s…something unique, I can’t say I’ve seen anything quite like it before.” She said. “Looks good, though. I’m assuming you have no clue how to properly work out the wings or tail, so just listen to my instructions and I’ll walk you through it, alright?” Seeing Lilith’s expression, she continued. “I have to help all sorts of kids exercise. I know what to have you do, don’t worry.”

Agathe had Lilith go through a series of tests to help gauge where she was at, physically, and then began assigning Lilith exercises to do. She had been right about knowing what to have Lilith do to work out her wings and tail too; she could tell just by the feeling she got that they were working. And by the end of her workout, Lilith was feeling more worn out than she had in a long time.

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“Good job out there.” Agathe said encouragingly. “The first days are going to be the hardest. You’re not going to have as many stamina boosting Traits, and your body won’t be used to things yet. Fortunately, it seems that your new parts came with a fair degree of built-up muscle already, so we’re going to focus more on getting the rest of you up to snuff before we start really ramping things up. Sound good?”

“I…suppose so.” Lilith said, wiping her brow. “How far are we planning to take this? I mean, after a certain point wouldn’t my time be better spent learning magic?”

Agathe snorted. “We’re ‘taking this’ a long way. Longer than you would ever think possible. That body of yours has more potential than anything you could have imagined. Give it a few years and you’ll be stronger than most heavy machinery and faster than most cars. A few years after that? To be honest, we don’t even know what the proper upper bound for a Perfect Chimera’s physical strength is. Trust me, you’ll really be missing out if you don’t train your body to its utmost.”

“I get it, I get it.” Lilith replied, raising her hands in surrender. “I’ll be serious about this. I was just thinking that surely magic would be more effective if it came to a fight, right?”

“Not always. And even in cases where magic is more effective, if you come across a similarly-skilled magician, a lot of the time the outcome of the fight comes down to the one with the better trained body. And, even outside of combat, being physically fit has a lot of benefits. So, even if we spend less time working out than learning magic, it isn’t less important. Understand?”

Lilith blinked, surprised by the sudden lecture. “I understand. Sorry, I honestly just didn’t realize and was wondering.”

Agathe nodded. “I get it. It’s just something that my students tend to think a lot, and I’ve come to find the sooner they realize how important being fit is, the better.”

“I see. Well, um…do we have anything else to do or…?”

“Nah, that’s all for today. You go do whatever, and we’ll get back to it tomorrow. Have a nice night, and don’t forget to put your ring back on!”

And, like that, the days passed. Mornings spent exploring all her Domains, the afternoons spent learning history and magic, and then more Domain exploration and working out. In the evenings she would relax with the others, and then she’d go to sleep, ready to do it all again the next day.

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 The first sort of break in her routine came a few weeks later, when Geb ended a testing session with a request. “Hey, Lilith can I ask you a favor?”

“Yeah, what’s up?”

“So, in today’s history class we’re going to be discussing Perfect Chimeras. This is, obviously, a bit more of a…personal topic for you than it is for most people, so I wanted to sit down and discuss it with you, first, and…maybe get your opinion on what I’m going to be teaching, to see if it’s…you know, accurate?” He asked, an embarrassed look on his face.

“I know you’re still relatively new to all this, but I was hoping your Help Yourself thing might have something to say on the matter. It seems decently accurate and, to be honest, it’s probably a better source of information than most scholars, since a lot of what we know is just conjecture. I mean, it’s informed conjecture, but it’s still conjecture, you know?”

“Yeah, that’s cool.” Lilith replied. “Give me a moment to pull it up…I’m assuming you don’t want the…looks like a thousand-ish pages that are just a list of all known Domains encompassed by Perfect Chimera?”

“No, we don’t need those.” Geb said. “Just anything you think is helpful here.”

Lilith read off the relevant section, which turned out to be the bit she had gotten shortly after reading The King in Yellow.

“Interesting.” Geb mused. “That’s a theory that’s been brought up, but it’s definitely not one of the popular ones. I’m going to open discussion of theories for the class, would you mind brining that up?”

“Sure, I can do that.”

“Awesome. The other thing I wanted to let you know, and I guess this is purely a heads-up since Tunem’s already decided and I can’t actually do anything about it, but Tunem’s already changed our curriculum to include you among the number of known Perfect Chimeras. He’s not having us say who you are or anything, but he said we should at least give the updated number since all the important people know anyway, and you’ll go public as soon as you’re done here so…yeah. Go ahead and leave, I’ll meet you in class, alright?”

Lilith nodded, and made her way to the classroom. A few minutes later, Geb walked in, and started class. “Alright everybody, we’ve got a bit of a different lesson for you all today.” He said. “So, we’ve been talking about Domains recently, and we stopped just before talking about exceptions to the rules. Can anyone tell me about those exceptions?”

Raphael raised his hand excitedly and began to rapidly run his mouth once he was called on. “Anyone with more than the normal maximum number of Domains is a Chimera, and then if someone has all the Domains that’s a Perfect Chimera.”

“Good.” Geb said. “Now, there are five recorded Perfect Chimeras –”

“I think you misspoke, teacher.” Raphael interrupted. “There are only four, Isa Longshot, Errus the Wise, Mother Mai, and Winston the Render.”

Geb frowned, shaking his head. “That is incorrect, actually. As of a few months ago, a fifth has surfaced. At the moment their identity is confidential, so as to better protect them from the Society, but the Council has recently notified the relevant parties of the situation. You should be seeing them in the news soon.”

The class broke into a murmur at this, the kids talking excitedly among themselves. Geb let them talk for a minute or so, then cleared his throat, silencing them. “Speculation is fine and all, but that can be done after class. For now, we need to continue with our lesson. Who can tell me more about Perfect Chimeras?”

Without even waiting to be called on, Raphael spoke up. “I’ve met Winston and Isa a few times, and I’ve watched them fight.” He said proudly. “They’re way stronger than anything you could imagine. They’re able to take out the monsters around the cities like they’re nothing, and I don’t think there’s anything else around that can even come close to them.”

“Raphael, I understand this is a subject you’re passionate about, but please wait until you’re called on.” Geb said. “Can anyone tell us why Perfect Chimeras are so strong?”

He called on another student, who spoke up. “It’s…because they have all the Domains, right? And that means they have way, way more Traits than anything else?”

“That’s exactly it.” Geb confirmed. “So, the obvious question is, how exactly do Perfect Chimeras have all the Domains? Many of them are mutually exclusive, so it shouldn’t be possible, right?”

There was silence before, eventually, Raphael raised his hand. “The most common theory is that Perfect Chimeras don’t actually have all the domains, and instead the Perfect Chimera Domain has every Trait from every other Domain inside of it and just mimics having those other Domains.”

“That’s a good theory.” Geb responded. “But there are still issues with that. If that’s the case, why is the Perfect Chimera Domain not passed down from parent to child? Theoretically, if it was a single Domain like you mention, it should be genetic like everything else.”

Raphael shrugged. “It’s not perfect, but it’s better than anything else we have.”

“Well…” Lilith began, speaking hesitantly. “What if Perfect Chimera isn’t just a Domain, but a sort of…aggregate tag that magic uses to keep track of all the Domains it has?”

“That’s stupid.” Raphael said derisively. “Why would magic need to keep track of all that? Why would having that tag or whatever give someone all this stuff? You don’t know much about magic for someone your age, so you really should stay quiet and let people like me who’ve actually studied this subject do the talking.”

“Raphael, this is a place for discussion. We should hear everyone out.” Geb said.

“Are you kidding? I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but she’s clueless about things a four year old would know! I, on the other hand, have been studying this sort of thing since I first met Winston, and I know all the theories. Most scholars have already dismissed that, so I don’t think bringing it up now is helpful to the discussion.”

“That’s enough, Raphael.” Geb said firmly. “Most scholars don’t know enough about Perfect Chimeras to give a reasonable explanation. In a lot of situations, we only have guesswork, so you can’t just say that something like that is unbelievable. It makes just as much sense as anything else.”

He paused, scanning the class carefully. “But it seems no one else has anything productive to add, so we’re going to leave this subject behind us and talk about the history of Perfect Chimeras. The first known Perfect Chimera was Mother Mai…”