Chapter 71.1

Heavy fluorescent lights whirred to life, their incessant hum fading into the background as they gradually warmed to their full strength. Beneath them, varied pieces of gymnastics equipment slowly came into focus, each in pristine condition despite years of constant use. Aurelius’s gymnastics program was far from its most prestigious competitive team, but as a member of the Big Ten Conference, its athletes nevertheless had access to top-tier funding and support.

Tessa, of course, had no desire to be a gymnast. In the past, she’d spent several memorable nights with a few, but that had no relation to her presence here tonight. Instead of chalk, tape, and spandex, her backpack carried a heavy pile of circuit boards, defunct electronics, and cheap disposable phones.

Fighting off a heavy yawn, she raised her coffee to her lips and took a long swig. The scalding hot caffeine shook her back to her senses, and she sighed with relief as she lowered the mug again.

“I can’t believe you’re drinking coffee this late,” Imani said. She shook her head in disbelief, her fluffy, incredibly voluminous black hair bouncing somewhat as she did. Her deep ebony skin looked all the more radiant under the bright lights, though her brown eyes were not framed with her usual white eyeliner.

“Hey, I’m not the one that chose to meet up this late,” Tessa countered. “If it were up to me, I’d—”

“Ohmygosh ohmygosh OHMYGOSH!!” Chloé materialized out of thin air above Tessa, her arms outstretched as she flew around the massive, multiple story tall space. “This is so EXCITING! We’ve never done something like this before!”

“Not altogether, no.” Off to the side of the space, Vee set down a backpack and pulled her jacket off. She wore loose, white and gold athletic pants that cinched at the bottom as well as a sports bra with a matching marble pattern. “I think the closest we ever got was back when Wellington was still a problem. Amara, Tess, and I trained here for a bit.”

A demonic red tail snaked around Vee’s waist, pulling her close before Amara kissed her cheek. “Ah, the good old times. The two of us drenched in sweat, rolling around on the floor, somehow pretending we weren’t hopelessly in love…”

“We still do two of those, Hellspawn,” Vee said with a chuckle, quickly kissing Amara.

Nick cleared his throat as he unzipped his gym bag. “I, for one, will refrain from tempting fate by bragging about how intense fight training hasn’t been necessary for a while. That means we’re not under attack, which, need I remind you all, is a good thing.”

“Okay, obviously I’m happy that we’re not being attacked by an army of mothmen or whatever,” Chloé said, suspending herself upside as she hovered closer. “But that doesn’t mean it’s not fun to have superpowers! Besides, haven’t you been coming here to train with Amara somewhat regularly? How is that any different?”

“I like to think of our sessions as meditation, thank you very much. She’s helping me get in touch with my emotions so I can practice self-control. That’s an entirely different thing to learning how to fight in preparation of taking down a mad cult.” Nick walked into the middle of the open floor and started stretching, briefly casting his gaze to the ceiling. “Besides, things have been pretty chill for me recently. The new moon was last Saturday, so my lycanthropy has been pretty quiet.”

“That’s probably for the best,” Amara said, grinning. “Our normal exercises might be a bit awkward with so many people around.”

Tessa grumbled to herself, still upset that she missed the big finale to Amara and Nick’s first training session. She’d heard about it after the fact, and she was still trying to figure out a way to convince the two of them to repeat the event, but with her in the middle.

At least Amara isn’t monogamous anymore. That was a rough couple of weeks.

“So, how do we want to do this?” Vee asked. “I know we agreed on the broad strokes, but this isn’t exactly normal sparring. The whole point is to practice and refine your new abilities, right? How best can we help with that?”

“Oh! We’ve been so busy that I haven’t had a chance to show you guys my tattoo yet!” Chloé said as she raced closer. Amara, Vee, and Nick all gathered around, eager to see what design she’d ultimately chosen. Imani, despite being the artist responsible, crowded in as well. As they watched, Chloé grabbed her shirt and phased it off her body. Underneath, just above her thin blue sports bra, was the colorful tattoo she’d gotten days earlier.

Centered high on her back was a gorgeous, bright red strawberry. Bold, green leaves sat atop it, and two white, feathery wings extended out across Chloé’s shoulders. The design itself was incredibly complex; it was not a series of monotone colors, but an intricate web of runic patterns. To an average onlooker, it might appear as nothing more than a simple design applied with a unique artistic flair, but in reality, the patterns hid a dense network of magical runes that gave Chloé the ability to channel magic from the Depths.

Everyone gasped in appreciation of the grand reveal, though Amara was the first to speak up. “Fucking hell, Chloé, that looks incredible!”

“Well, don’t thank me. Imani did all the work, and without my wheelchair it wouldn’t have been possible in the first place,” Chloé muttered. “I’ve never considered myself a tattoo person before, but something about it just feels right.”

“Does it mean anything?” Vee asked. “Or do you just really like strawberries?”

“It’s from one of my favorite games! It was made by a trans woman, and it’s all about climbing a mountain, but really the whole thing is about overcoming depression and self-doubt and that kind of stuff. Actually, she didn’t know that she or the main character were trans when they started the game, it’s a really inspiring—” Chloé shook her head. “Sorry, that’s not important. It’s a game I like, that’s all you need to know!”

“Have you tested the magic parts of it yet?” Nick asked.

“That’s what tonight is for,” Imani said, cutting in. “We wanted to let it sit for a few days to make sure her body didn’t reject any of the ink. White ink is notoriously hard to get right, and it tends to fade much more than other colors. There’s also the added complexity of using ink derived from magical sources, and given the unknown nature of Chloé’s condition… waiting was the right call.”

“Well, it looks amazing,” Vee said, pulling Chloé into a hug. “Plus, it’ll be really easy to show it off if you want to! Get some spaghetti strap tops, or maybe a backless dress if you’re doing something fancy, and it’ll be a great accent piece.”

“Ooh, I hadn’t thought about that,” Chloé said. “Honestly, I was more worried about the opposite. My parents will flip out if they see it, but I can easily hide it with just a tee shirt or a hoodie.”

Tessa perked up at the mention of Chloé’s parents. Months ago, back when they thought Chloé had been lost forever, Tessa had shared some rather rude words with the awful couple. “Whatever happened with them, anyway? I… kinda told them they were never going to see you again.”

“Right, um… about that. Don’t be mad, but I had to throw you under the bus a bit.”

“Oh no, are you saying I can’t hang out with them anymore?” Tessa said, rolling her eyes as she wrapped her words in a thick blanket of sarcasm. “However will I live with myself?”

“They think you’re some kind of miscreant who was trying to convince me to run away from home. You didn’t say I was dead, thankfully, which actually made explaining myself a lot easier. It’s mostly water under the bridge at this point, though I’ve started sowing the seeds to eventually explain my wheelchair. That’s gonna be pretty awkward, especially since I’m on their insurance; they’ll know that I never saw a doctor about this.”

“That’s not what today is about, though!” Imani clapped her hands together and Chloé flinched in surprise. “We’re here to see if these bad boys work as intended. Who's ready to start training?”

“Let’s do it!” Amara shouted enthusiastically. “How can we help?”

Happy to change the topic away from Chloé’s terrible parents, Tessa pushed off the balance beam she’d been leaning against and approached the group. “It’ll be a bit before we need outside assistance, honestly. We’ll essentially be doing nothing but running diagnostics for a while; if you wanted to just spar with Nick for a bit, you’ll certainly have time.”

Amara grinned deviously, rubbing her hands together as she turned to look at Nick. He nervously stepped backwards, then held up a hand before saying, “Amara, wait, there’s no need to—”

Wings erupted from Amara’s back in a flurry of hellfire, and within seconds she’d kidnapped Nick and dragged him dozens of feet into the air. It wasn’t long before his lupine growling filled the room, tufts of fur wrapping around his exposed limbs as he fought to free himself. She watched the two of them wrestle, briefly losing herself in the fantasy of being trapped between them, when a flash of radiant light pulled her thoughts back to reality.

Vee’s wings were pure manifestations of light solidified into soft, pillowy feathers, and she gracefully kicked off the floor before joining Amara and Nick as they bickered with each other. A faint halo glimmered above her head, and all the lighting in the building bent towards her. Next to Tessa, Imani’s eyes went comically wide as she stared at Vee’s angelic form.

“C’mon, Imani, it’s nothing you haven’t seen before,” Tessa said, playfully shoving Imani’s shoulder.

“Except it is,” she muttered, tears threatening to form in the corners of her eyes. “I’ve never seen her wings before. Words don’t do them justice.”

Rolling her eyes with annoyance, Tessa nevertheless decided to give Imani her rapturous moment. “You ready to get started, Chloé? I’ll be running a lot of the same tests as you, so I can walk you through how it’s supposed to feel.”

“Feel? Isn’t it all about knowing which runes to activate and how they all work together?”

“I mean, yes, but it’s more than that. Actually, here, let’s move up to the viewing area to give everyone some space while we get started. Are you going to be alright without your wheelchair?”

“Oh yeah, it won’t be a problem. The chair means I’m not constantly exhausting myself during classes, which makes it way easier to use my powers at times like these. Arms up!” Chloé, clearly excited to get started, moved behind Tessa and picked her up before flying her to the viewing platform. By the time the two of them were settled in, Imani had broken from her stupor and started towards the staircase to join them.

“Alright, so, magic tattoos,” Tessa started. “Knowing how they work is important, and you’ve done a great job memorizing the theory behind everything, but that’s only half the picture. It’s kinda like driving a car—even when you know how it works, there are still some things you just gotta feel.”

“Like when my car starts rattling, I know I’ve hit seventy miles per hour,” Chloé said. “Or that my gear shift sticks a bit whenever I’m coming out of park.”

“Exactly!” Tessa said with a smile. She rolled her shoulders to shake off her oversized jacket, then extended her right arm to expose her own set of new tattoos. She hadn’t bothered showing them off earlier—she’d already bragged about them the instant she got them—but she took a moment to appreciate her fresh ink nonetheless.

Starting from her shoulder and extending all the way to her wrist, she now sported a fresh sleeve that she was immensely happy with. Many different designs had been mixed together and perfectly blended to create a unified whole: various types of flowers and plants, a skull, a tarot card, even small patchworks of nonmagical runic designs. At first glance, it looked exactly like the kind of tattoo that a girl might get if she thought herself a witch, but didn’t know magic was actually real. The fake runes in particular were crucial in selling that aesthetic. In reality, of course, Imani had woven an intricate set of magical runes into the design. Her work was significantly more artistic than Elijah’s, and at times even Tessa had trouble finding the magical intricacies now emblazoned on her arm.

Ordinarily, getting such a massive, extensively detailed tattoo necessitated months of hard work and slow healing, but knowing an angel had its perks. Vee’s healing magic allowed Imani and Tessa to accelerate the process, allowing them to finish significantly faster.

“Now, if you were a witch, we’d start the process by running through a series of basic telekinesis exercises,” Tessa continued, “but we can skip that part, obviously. Instead, let’s start by accessing the most basic function of our new runes: connecting with the plane itself. In my case, the Aether, in your case, the Depths. If you do it correctly, you should feel the connection on an instinctual level. There might also be a small manifestation of magic or material from the plane; it’s honestly hard to say what will happen given the new ground we’re treading.”

Tessa turned her hand over, her palm now facing upwards, and closed her eyes. She pictured the schematics of her new tattoo, remembered the countless hours she’d spent designing it alongside Imani. She focused on a small cluster of trumpet-shaped lilies on her shoulder, then allowed the magic to flow through her body. The energy was far more sporadic than she was used to, it skipped and stuttered like an excitable child, and she directed it towards her upturned hand.

Opening her eyes, Tessa flinched as a series of sparks appeared in her palm. They immediately condensed into tiny arcs of electricity, each of them leaping and dancing between her fingers. Taking a deep breath in hopes of easing her nerves, Tessa reminded herself of the countless protective runes layered into her tattoos. They shielded her from excess electricity, funneling it safely back to The Aether long before it could potentially injure her. They were so extensive that Imani was confident Tessa could easily be struck by lightning and not even notice.

“This is the most basic function,” Tessa said, her voice calm as she focused on memorizing the feeling of this connection. “I’m not directing the magic anywhere, I’m not combining it with my other abilities.”

Determination in her eyes, Chloé mimicked Tessa’s motion. She slowed her breathing, furrowed her eyebrows, and stared intently at her upturned palm. Imani, now on the viewing platform with them, moved to sit behind Chloé with her eyes trained on the fresh, strawberry tattoo. After several moments of tense waiting, the silence periodically broken by flashes of light and animalistic growling, a soft glow drifted off Chloé’s back.

“I feel it!” Chloé shouted excitedly. “Oh, I feel it. That’s weird.”

Countless tiny droplets of water pooled in Chloé’s palm. They gathered into a tiny puddle that gradually grew in size, only needing a few seconds to spill through her fingers and onto the floor beneath her.

“No need to hold it forever, girl,” Imani said, leaning in.

Chloé sighed, releasing her breath as she relaxed her connection to her magic. The water in her hand stopped swelling, then she asked, “Um, what should I do with this? I’d feel bad just chucking it on the floor.”

“Not to worry! I came prepared!” Rummaging through her own backpack, Imani pulled out a series of thick, fluffy towels before tossing one at Chloé.

“I think that went well! What’s next?”