In Devioneses’s body, I rushed to the changing room. I got a new swimsuit, frowned at how Workers just don’t have the curves we Casters do, then hurried back to the pool.

All my sisters were in the water now, I was the only one left.

“Hmm…” I tapped my chin. “Hmmm…” I squatted down and studied my sisters as they swam. “Hm.” Some of my sisters went to the diving board, or the large slide. Laughs and giggles and splashing water filled the air. “Hmmmmm. I got nothing. How do you make a spell that keeps the water from bothering you?” Then my eyes opened wide, a brilliant idea flew into my head! “By making the water not touch you, of course!”

I jumped to my paws and held my staff tight, closing my eyes to cast a spell with red magic.

Spell crafting is simple. You ask red magic what you want to happen, and then red magic does that thing. It’s ‘alive’, with intelligence comparable to a dog, or an alien human. You can teach a dog to sit when it hears the word sit, and you can teach red magic to understand words and commands.

But you couldn’t get a Worker to say “oh red magic, please do X.” You need a Caster and her staff to attune to the red magic in the air, or the red magic stored in her staff.

But what is ‘attuning’ and how does it work? Well, much like white and green magic, it can’t really be taught. An analogy would be like wagging your tail. If you don’t have a tail, you fundamentally don’t understand the feeling of wagging your tail, and you’ll never understand it no matter what you do. Workers, Soldiers, Assassins, they really just can’t understand how you ask red magic to function.

“Red magic,” I whispered to the orb, “please wrap a very strong gust of wind around my body that will keep water about a foot away from me for about an hour. Thank you.” ‘Thank you’, isn’t part of the spell, but it’s good manners.

And with that, the orb glowed a bright red for a moment. I felt the wind kick up around me, whipping my fur this way and that, swirling around my tummy. I felt a few of Devioneses’s loose furs get plucked out, and it was hard to keep my eyes open for a second, before the wind adjusted and I could see again. Hearing, similarly, was difficult with the hurricane-force winds assailing me, but that too quieted after a time.

Thank you, Master. I was taught that you’re the one who adjusts these spells on the fly for us, and I appreciate that.

But from there, I walked to the other end of the pool. The spell kept me from stepping in puddles as the intense wind would blow all the water droplets out of my way.

Winrow ran by me and her arm got in range, with my spell swiping all the water off her fur. “Whoa? What was that?” She moved her hand close to me and the water droplets were sent flying in all directions. “Cool. How are you doing that?”

With a smug smile, I turned my chin up and looked down my nose at her. “Secret. I’m not allowed to tell you.”

“Haha, I see.” She spread her arms wide and gave me a hug, my spell drying her off in a second. Her voice reverberated as she spoke, “this is pretty cool! You gotta show me how to do this when class is over!”

She pulled back and gave me a wave as she ran to the diving board. Her fur was all whipped around and messy, it was pretty cute.

I set my staff against the side of the wall, then climbed up the diving board. All the residual droplets from my wet sisters were flung off the ladder and the board itself. My paws at the end of the board, I looked down at the watery abyss, and I felt the watery abyss stare back up at me.

“Just gotta jump in. It’ll be fine…” I muttered to myself. “Master’s magic will protect me…”

Ouit, from the far side of the pool, waved. “You can do it. It’s just water.”

“It’s just water…” I repeated.

Quetelg shouted with a giggly tone, “do a flip and land on your back! That’s the best way to dive!”

“On my back? Okay!”

I bent my knees, the board bent, then I jumped up. The board helped spring me higher than I expected, but I nevertheless twisted into an expert front flip! With one flip completed, I kept my legs out straight, and my arms out to my side.

“Wait!” Ouit cried. “Don’t land on your back, that actually hurts a lot!”

But it was too late. Her words didn’t register, and I didn’t know how to get out of my back flop.

With my eyes closed, I waited to hit the water… then I waited… and waited some more.

“Why haven’t I-?”

CRACK!

“…oooowww… what… happened..? Is this how it feels to land on your back in the water? I thought water was soft…”

Natural Slavani chemicals in the brain spread through my body and the pain quickly subsided. I weakly pressed my hands against the hard surface, but I couldn’t push myself up. It took a bit of effort, but I forced my eyes open.

I saw a small dome of water around me, splashing and swishing all around, making small whirlpools and currents. Beyond this layer of water, I saw my sisters swimming, diving into the water, having a good time. Beyond that, I saw the wood ceiling of the room.

When I looked around, I noticed I had landed on the hard wood floor on the bottom of the pool.

“…ooooh, I get it. My spell kept any water from getting close to me, so there was nothing to stop my fall after I jumped. Haha, how embarrassing.”

I tried to get up, but nope. My spine was totally broken, from my ribcage down. I could raise my head, I could move my arms, but the legs were a no-go. I couldn’t even wiggle my paws.

“Hmm. Well, this is a bit of a pickle. How am I supposed to get up?” I tried pushing myself to my stomach, my idea being that I could crawl up the ramp to the shallow end, but nope. Far too much effort. That’s a lot like doing a push up, and I have too much pride in myself as a Caster to lower myself to such Soldier work.

So I resigned myself to looking up through the water at all my sisters. The light sparkled brilliantly through the surface of the dome around me, and I enjoyed the smiling faces of them all laughing and playing around. This situation, like most things, would work itself out somehow.

As if on cue, Deli and Ouit, floating on the side of the pool, looked down into the water. Their eyes were open wide as they looked at me. I raised a hand to give them a smile and a wave. Deli reached around to point to her back, and I raised an eyebrow. She then brought both her hands under the water to mime a ‘snapping’ motion. I wasn’t sure what that meant, but I nodded anyway.

Ouit sighed in the water, causing a swarm of bubbles to cover her face for a moment, then she climbed out. Deli, in the meantime, shook her head in disbelief. She kept her eyes on me though and tried to mimic some more things, but I didn’t get it. I, in turn, tried to explain that I was technically in the water, but she just seemed annoyed. I don’t think she got what I was saying.

A moment later, my staff was thrown into the pool, exactly above me. The wood may have floated, but the orb was heavy and sunk until it passed into my dome of harsh wind. It wasn’t affected by the gust though, I assume Master adjusted the spell again, letting the orb land perfectly on my stomach.

Through that physical contact, I had the orb glow green and pass life energy into my (or, I guess, Devioneses’s) body. I felt the bones of my spine, and the nerves underneath, reform to just how they should be! I jumped to my paws, clasped my hands together to thank Master for such a swift resolution, then strolled up the ramp on the underside of the pool until I reached the shallow end, and my head could breach the water.

I called out to Deli, “Mom! I did it, I’m in the water.”

She looked at the currents and splashes coming off me. I stood neck-deep in the water, but there was no liquid actually touching my fur.

“Lillia, you’re not actually swimming. You’re just keeping the water off you. You still haven’t passed.”

Anger flashed across my face and my cheeks puffed in a vicious pout. “What!? But this spell is awesome- what do you- I broke my back to pass this test! Fine!” I yelled as I stomped out of the pool.

I went to the side of the room and sat against the wall, holding my knees close to my chest. Looking out over everyone else, I couldn’t figure out what they knew that I didn’t. I was the better magician, everyone knew it. My spells were stronger, I knew more of them, I had better control over all three kinds of magic, yet I couldn’t best this simple test!

Glancing to Devioneses as she paddled another lap around the pool, I sighed. Even the Worker was passing this test, but not me. “What am I doing wrong?”

Then Ouit came over. “Hey.” She said in her usual calm, collected voice. “What’s wrong?”

“I don’t know what I’m doing.” I grumbled as I turned my head away.

Ouit sat next to me. She was dripping wet, and my spell dried half her body as she pressed her shoulder against mine. “I think you’re overthinking things. You switched your soul with someone else to avoid going in, then you used wind to keep the water away from you. What other ideas do you have?”

“…” My ears perked and I looked at her, an eyebrow raised as I thought up a suitable answer. “Using wind to keep me away from the water this time?”

She frowned, then flicked my forehead, causing me to flinch. “No. All this time you’ve been focused on how to stay away from the water, but what you need is a spell that will make the water not bother you.”

“Make the water… not bother me.”

“Yes.” She said with a pleased nod.

“So turn the water into jelly?”

She hung her head, “no.”

“Turn my fur into metal?”

“No.”

“Change the gravity in this room so that all the water falls to the ceiling?”

“How would that help you?”

“I’d be in the cast of the pool while the water would be out of it.”

“How does that help you swim?”

“…It doesn’t… but what if I create a miniature sun that would instantly evaporate-“

Ouit reached over and grabbed my cheeks, forcing me to look her in the eyes. “The water needs to touch you. Stop trying to get out of that. Why do you not want the water to touch you?”

“Cause it’s gross… and it feels weird on my fur.”

“Think about how you can make it not feel gross and weird on your fur.”

“…” I blushed, and my ears drooped, “get… rid of my fur?”

Ouit shuddered and shook her head. “A good idea, but let’s save that for a last resort. So, if your fur currently bothers you when water gets on it, and you can’t get rid of your fur, what should you do?”

“…change my fur?”

She released my face and looked forward. “Perhaps you should try that.”

Hesitantly, I rose to my paws and walked forward until I was at the edge of the pool. The water was pushed away in a half circle due to my still-active spell, so my orb glowed red as I deactivated it. When the water came back and crashed against the side, I jumped out of the way before the splashes hit me.

Then I slowly moved my way forward again, and took a deep breath. “Change my fur…”

I held my staff in both hands and pressed the orb to my forehead, then whispered my newest spell. Suddenly, my body burst into flames! A living candle! My flesh underneath completely unhurt, as was the tree, but my fur a raging torrent of fire! There was no way the water could get through this rock-solid (or flame-solid) defense!

The flames used my own reserve of red magic to be sustained, so there was no worry about it being snuffed out by the water or lack of fuel.

I bent my knees in preparation to dive in, then-!

“No.”

I felt red-magic coil around my limbs as Ouit picked me up and tossed me back against the soft wood wall. Then her orb glowed a bright green as she pressed it to my chest. Red magic and green magic don’t like each other, so an overabundance of one will cancel out the other. As life energy was rushed into my body, the flames died down and returned my fur to normal.

“Stop. Bad.” She brought her staff up and thwacked me on the top of the head.

“Oww…”

“Here.” She pinched the smooth fabric of my swimsuit. “Look at this. What is this?”

“A swimsuit.”

“And the material?”

“Silky, I guess?”

She opened her eyes wide and nodded, clearly trying to bring me along a path without directly saying it.

“So I should change my fur to be silky like this?”

“I think-!” She yelled before catching herself. “Ahem. I think that that’s a good idea, you should try that.” Her staff glowed red and a stream of water from a nearby puddle shot up and gently splashed her tummy. The water ran down her suit harmlessly.

“I should change my fur so that it doesn’t absorb water and instead water runs off me?”

“Give it a shot, sis.”

I nodded, then walked to the pool’s edge once more. I looked down at the wavy water as it splished and splashed against the wall. “Uh, Ouit? Would this be red magic or green magic?”

Deli called out from her spot in the pool. “You’re changing your fur, which is part of your organic body, so that’s green magic.” Her answer was a subtle hint of approval at Ouit helping me through that.

So, my orb glowed green, I pressed it to my chest, then I felt the life energy flow through me, to every last strand of fur.

The glow subsided and, hesitantly, I reached my paw out and dipped it in the water. My body shook at the sudden temperature difference… but it wasn’t bad. The water… wasn’t bothering me like it did.

When my entire ankle was submerged, I decided to jump in fully, dunking my head and horns under the water. It was nice. I enjoyed it! Dare I say, it was even refreshing!

I stood up, everything above my ribs breaching the surface, and I had a big smile on my face. “I-I like the water! It’s not so bad when you know the right magic to use!”

My classmates turned to me, and all my sisters began to clap, cheering me on!

Winrow called out from the top of the large slide, “I knew you could do it, Lillia!”

Quetelg dropped her toy and started clapping, “you just overdo it sometimes.”

Cyotata sat on the side of the pool and swayed her legs through the water, “if anyone could figure it out, I knew you could!”

Reveni had just come up for air and missed everything, but she saw everyone else clap, so she joined in. “Y-yeah! Lillia! You go… sis!”

Deli nodded her head with a smile. “About time.”

Devioneses stopped paddling. While she couldn’t take her hands off the board to clap, she whistled for my success.

I’ve never felt so proud.

Ouit jumped in next to me and I wasn’t bothered by the splash. She quickly emerged from the water and shook her head to get some of the droplets off. “Oh, Lillia, I knew you could do it.” She wrapped her arms around me in a warm hug. “You just needed someone to hold back your brain a little and get you to focus.”

“Aww, thanks, sis. I’m really glad you did! Otherwise I-“

The world went black around me and my body fell lifeless in Ouit’s arms.

I suddenly… felt everything. Every soul in the pool, their happiness for me and their cheers. The tree around us, the souls in other rooms… when my senses returned, I was gripping a board and in the deep end. I looked over and saw everyone cheering for… Devioneses. And Ouit was hugging her.

Then I felt the water around me.

On my fur.

Soaking into my fur, clinging to it.

My body shook, my eyes went wide and burst into tears, my jaw clamped shut. All the wriggling currents brushing past me, the heaviness of my limbs, a brutal chill ran up my back.

I lost control of the board and started flailing wildly, screaming. No staff to keep me safe, no magic to protect me, deep in the water.

“Huh?” Devioneses looked down at her hands. “Oh! I’m in my body again.”

All my sisters glanced between Devioneses and I. I was still screaming and gurgling water.

“Why’d she return to her original body?” Ouit asked.

“Hmh,” Deli scratched the side of her face. “We haven’t gone over white magic much this year, but she decided to speed read through those books.” I want to stress that, as everyone listened to mom, I was still out there, panicking. My head fell under the water more than once, my muscles were starting to ache from the exertion, and my lungs burned from screaming so much. “White magic tends to have a timer. Our souls don’t belong to us, they belong to Master, and we can’t permanently change what She perfected. So, a damaged soul will heal, an altered soul will slowly return to normal, and a lost soul will find its way home.”

“Oooh,” the class said in unison at this spontaneous lesson.

Raveli was the one to hop out of the pool, casually walk over to her staff, then use red magic to lift me out.

I landed on all fours and was coughing up the oppressive amount of liquid which had infiltrated my lungs. I was soaking wet, I felt heavy, I shook as much as I could to get the excess off, but I was still dripping.

Ouit grabbed a towel and walked over to wrap me up, and I softly cried into her arms.

“Th-that was awful…” I whimpered as everyone else returned to their fun.

“I know.” She had one arm around me and the other was gently rubbing my damp head.

“I-I… almost died!”

“You’re safe now.”

“I never wanna go back in the water again!”

“That’s reasonable.” She cleared her throat and called out to Deli. “Mother! Did Lillia pass?”

“Yeah, she’s fine. I saw enough.”

“See? You never have to.”

“Good.” I said, firmly. “I don’t even want to go out when it’s raining. Or even eat soup again!”

And that’s how Ouit and I spent the rest of the class. I was traumatized, and she was consoling me.

After that, our class went to the cafeteria of the university. Eating food replenishes our life energy reserves, which we store in the green orb of our staffs, so we can later either use that green magic, or turn it into another form. I used a lot of magic, so I had to eat a ton, and it was pretty great! Worth all the hardship I went through, I’d say.

So anyway, Master, that’s how I successfully, borderline flawlessly, passed my end of year test in magic university!

I can’t wait to see what lessons next year will bring.

Your most magically adept daughter

-Caster Lillia Sevoradoor Venisintamos of Hethalwell University, Raised in the 14th Class by Caster Deli Binu Fafaringar, Born of the Hethalwell Spawn Pit on Crown World Y’Varda.