Alchemical Magic

Chapter 2-2

I left a note for Grandpa in his university office, so he'd know I was going out tonight. I knew there would be hell to pay later, but whatever.

I needed to let my hair down. The last time I'd gone for drinks had been three months ago when I got attacked after having drinks in the pub with my friend Joe.

And killed a guy in self-defense. Although his body was never found.

I sometimes think I hallucinated the whole incident, but the blood on my knife was too real. The police still haven't returned me the knives, the cheap bastards. The knives will be in evidence limbo for eternity.

Pity. They were good knives.

But I had new ones. One in my belt, like the previous one, and another in my boot. Plus a new pair of steel-reinforced gloves (these, unlike the ones the police kept, with studs).

A girl needs to be prepared.

I had to be careful with the guys.

Female and male dark arall don't mix. I remember, as a child in Caerland, the boys, stronger and bigger, would pick on us. But then we girls learned to g**g up on the boys, whereas the dark boys never had the ability.

Dark females are more convivial than dark males. I've got no idea how the men manage to work in groups in the army but let me tell you; dark boys are absolutely unable to yield to a peer leader even if their lives depend on it.

I guess they get wiser with time. Girls learn to band to fight common enemies very early, and just stop picking fights with each other. When you are weaker than other magicals and you know they'll g**g up on you if you get too obnoxious using your strength frequently, you learn how to deal with issues by escalating in different ways.

But, after I left Caerland, and started studying at University, other dark arall disappeared from my life. They left me alone, and I ignored them, making my life among the ordinary people (if we can call alchemists ordinary, that is).

The mages mostly kept to themselves, and in any case, dark magical men had learned their lesson by adulthood: don't pick on girls, or they'll g**g up on you and humiliate you.

But now, I couldn't ignore them anymore. I couldn't let them ignore me either. I had to make a place for myself in magical society.