Lila found herself aimlessly wandering around the city. Then, she found herself being stopped by two well dressed older children. She thought they were maybe ten. She had seen them at the test to enter the school, she thought. One of them pushed her, and they began to call her names and insult her. There wasn’t much she could do. She didn’t think she could outrun them… and if she fought back, she might get into trouble. They seemed rich. Maybe nobles, maybe not, but either way she could get into a lot of trouble. One thing she knew was that her magic was very dangerous. She could use it… but it wasn’t something to use casually. That said, she didn’t know what to do. Maybe she would have to. Nobody was going to help her…
“Hmph. Looks like the little ‘genius’ isn’t so smart after all. What good is your magical potential if you can’t pass even the simplest of tests?”
She wanted to punch the stupid grin off of the face of the rich brat in front of her, but she didn’t have the confidence to do it, nor the ability to deal with the results. However… if she just stood around… what would be the point. Maybe if they hit her first… “At least I didn’t have to pay to get a mediocre score, like you did, Geoff.” Lila had heard that arrogant brat introduce himself with his name. She even insulted him with a new word William had taught her, ‘mediocre’. It was a nice and sophisticated way to say ‘bad’. She remembered hearing his score, though at the time she hadn’t really understood the numbers behind it.
Then, Geoff’s face lit up in anger. “Oh! Pyromancy-”. Lila panicked internally. This wasn’t what she wanted. She just wanted him to try to throw a real punch so she could… she didn’t know what she had planned. It wasn’t really thought out. She could cast a spell to fight him, but then he’d probably get badly hurt… then she’d be in big trouble, and maybe her parents would as well. On the other hand… this guy seemed to deserve whatever happened, since he actually used magic in a kid’s fight. What was he thinking? Lila prepared to cast a spell. She knew she could quickly do one, before this guy finished his long, drawn out chant.
“-I call upon thee-”
Lila was about to start a chant. This situation was terrifying, and she had to defend herself… though it was perhaps her own fault that things had escalated this far. She just didn’t like being called stupid. At the very moment she was about to start… Then, out of nowhere, someone appeared.
“-Gack-” was the sound Geoff made as a little boy’s fist hit him in the throat. Then, there was an explosion. Lila was still surprised. William? Why was he here?
“You~!!!” the other one yelled. “Oh, Astrapamancy-”. Lightning? Here? That was… probably just as bad as a fireball, actually. Didn’t they know that buildings could burn? Lila supposed she should do something about his spell, but for some reason she just waited.
She saw William throw another punch. This time, without the element of surprise, he was dodged. That wasn’t good… she thought briefly, and then saw the look on the other boy’s face as William’s leg came up between his. Lila had heard that kind of thing hurt a lot.
William turned toward Lila. “Right, so… do you want to come with me to find somebody to deal with this, or leave and try to stay out of trouble?”
Lila didn’t want to be in trouble. These people were important… well, rich, anyway. That meant she and her family could get in trouble. However, William was offering to take the consequences on himself. She didn’t want that. Even though she’d yelled at him and thrown a book at him, he’d really helped her a lot, even before just now. Somehow, he looked confident right now, and that made her feel confident. “…I’ll come with you.”
—–
The next bit of time was a blur. Lila was still somewhat in shock from what had happened, so she mostly just responded to William’s questions and listened to his orders. She went to find the wizard’s school doctor, as asked, and William had gone to find… somebody else. She wasn’t really sure who the old man was. Presumably another wizard though.
They returned to where Geoff and his friends were still unconscious and unpleasant. William was explaining the situation. “…and as for Lila, well. She has puny little arms.”
“Hey!” Well, Lila supposed that was technically true.
“But also…. Umm, is lightning magic affected by gravity?” Lila had heard the term gravity somewhere before, but she couldn’t remember what the explanation of it was. Maybe something to do with why things fell?
“No. But why does that matter?” The old wizard asked.
“Lila, would you mind casting a lightning bolt directly into the sky?” Well, since William asked her to do it… she felt it should be fine. She did it. *BZOT* It crackled as it went up into the sky. It was rather pretty.
Lila didn’t have much to say, so she just listened as William continued to make some kind of point to the old wizard, though she had missed some of the context. Still, he was definitely providing an argument for why the Geoff should get in trouble, and they shouldn’t. It sounded like he was succeeding, too. Lila hoped he did. She was rather confident in him… but nobles were scary.