"What are we supposed to be looking for in those ruins, anyway? Is it dangerous, are there gonna be monsters? What if everything sank into the swamp before we get there, do we still get partial credit?"

  Ice-blue eyes peered out at me from beneath the brim of a floppy witch's hat a few sizes too rge for the head it sat upon. The energetic girl's attention flitted back and forth between Cerulean, Amethyst, and myself as if she were a hummingbird trying to decide which flower to favor, pelting us with questions as she went. Of the three students, she seemed the most interested in the research proposal the professor pitched to the trio of students seated in her office, although I couldn't tell if it was a sense of adventure or an affinity for shiny things that drew her to us. To the left of the diminutive witch, one of the other students lifted Cerulean up, the relic's light reflecting in his rge round gsses as the curious magician inspected him. As per the requirements of the assignment, a third student sat alongside the others, but she wasn't engaged in the discussions at all, her tired eyes focused onto a thick textbook filled with formus and diagrams about transfiguration.

  Cerulean's ghostly form poked out of their relic like a turtle extending its head, eager to seize any opportunity to put their academic prowess to good use. "I can't say about the st part, but I can assure you, the ruins—"

  "I believe there's plenty of valuable discoveries to be made about Silvaln relics hidden deep within Llowyn," Professor Promell said, sending the blue relic into silence as Cerulean threw their little arms up in frustration at being interrupted. "But I won't deny that this project is in fact more dangerous than the typical field research that the academy permits, the only reason I'll approve it at all is because of our recent acquisition of the knight-augment relic in our Silvaln Sphere collection. You'll be tasked with finding a safe route to the ruins, with the Viridian Sphere providing a fallback if things don't go to pn."

  The gsses-cd student set Cerulean down, his brow furrowed as he contempted Promell's words. "It all sounds a bit odd," he said. "Most of the relic research proposals I'm aware of can be done in a couple weeks without leaving campus. But for this one, you want us to travel to a remote corner of Dia for research that might consume most of our summer? That sounds like a lot of extra work on our part."

  The professor nodded. "Extra work, extra risk, extra reward. I have gaps as wide as the Indo River in my documentation about Silvaln relics, your findings might provide a breakthrough in my work on the subject. For that, I'm prepared to offer exemptions for csses of your choice during your final year as compensation—you'll receive a passing grade and full css credit without needing to submit a single assignment."

  That caught everyone's attention, especially the woman who had been so detached from the rest of the group. She looked up from her book and brushed a lock of her messy brown hair from her eyes. "You can do that? Just make it so we can pass any css?"

  "Well of course I can!" Promell chuckled. "I have seniority on the academic council, Rynelle. It's not unheard of to reward extraordinary efforts when they advance our knowledge of supernature. So my proposal is this: I'll award you each one exemption per semester for the remainder of your time in Berindal if you can determine a safe route in and out of Llowyn for further research. One becomes two if you find strong evidence linking Llowyn to the sphere relics. The final year is the toughest, you'll want all the breathing room you can get. But if you'd rather choose to pursue a more typical relic research project, now's the time to speak up."

  In my mind, the students would be foolish to pass up this opportunity! Beyond the perks offered by the professor, Cerulean and Amethyst had already worked through much of the logistics of the project far in advance of the trip. Cerulean would probably even write up the whole research paper if the students asked. All they really had to do was carry us around for a few months, what could be easier?

  The three students stayed silent.

  "Good. Any questions before we assign relics?" the professor asked.

  "You called these things 'augment' relics," the man in gsses said. "How is that different from something like enhancement relics?"

  Cerulean looked poised to speak again, but Promell waved her hand through the relic's mist to disrupt their words; for whatever reason, Promell wanted to appear like the authority on the spheres rather than hearing it from the source. "Good question, Darien. An enhancement relic has some multiplicative effects on some aspect of a user, like the Gloves of Katesch making a person able to lift ten times more weight than before. But what good is, say, a relic that increases someone's arcana channeling if they have none to begin with? Augment relics take things a step further and grant their users skills and powers where they had none before, with Silvaln Spheres providing the most comprehensive suite of enchantments to facilitate it. Among these three spheres, the wizard and druid relics provide the magical channeling and knowledge of their use, while the knight relic, in theory, should come with all the talents of a trained soldier. On top of that, the spheres come with enhancement spells for the mind and body to make the most use out of the augments."

  The witch student's eyes and grin widened. "I could wear one of these and then poof, I'm a knight? No training needed?"

  "Which one is the wizard orb?" the other woman asked as she stepped closer to the table. "Darien, are you fine taking the druid one if Beatrix takes the knight one?"

  Darien shrugged. "Sure, I'm fine with trying a lost art for a bit. I think you want the blue relic for wizard powers." Darien, Beatrix, and Rynelle all reached out for us, but we were snatched away, levitated into the air by Professor Promell's wand.

  "No, no no no," Promell said, twirling her wand to keep us out of reach of the students. "I didn't say you'd choose them, I said I'd assign them. Being infused with the magic of the Silvaln Spheres comes with consequences such as shifts in a user's personality and behavior, so I want you all using the relics that most closely align to your backgrounds to minimize those effects. The wizard augment goes to Darien, the druid augment to Beatrix, and the knight augment to Rynelle."

  The girls groaned in unison; Darien remained unfazed.

  "Why can't I be the knight?" Beatrix said, pouting. "I'd probably make a good one!"

  "You'll probably chop your own head off. Or worse, somebody else's." Promell waved her wand, sending Cerulean to Darien and Amethyst to Beatrix. "Besides, the Viridian Sphere is a new addition to our collection, I want someone level-headed who can document the effectiveness of the relic's flux-metal objectively, especially in sword construction. Knowing Rynelle's upbringing, I think she's well-equipped to the task."

  Beatrix didn't stay upset for long, turning her excitement toward the druid relic before her. Rynelle had already disengaged from the discussion, returning to her textbook as her interest waned in the project. Promell levitated me to her, dropping me in between the pages of her book.

  Rynelle grimaced, holding the book away from her like it smelled of rotting vegetables. "It just had to be swords..."

  "What's wrong with swords?" I asked.

  "Nothing. Whatever. It's fine." Rynelle gnced at the others who were affixing their relics to their necks. "So what's the pn then? Darien?"

  "Hard to say," Darien said. "You've got your test tomorrow to worry about, so how about we meet after that in the library? Bea and I can do a little digging tonight about these spheres, and then we'll go from there. We have until summer to pn, at least, so we have time to acclimate to whatever magic these relics have." Beatrix nodded in agreement.

  Rynelle offered a weak smile to her friends. "Tomorrow, then." She stashed her textbook in her bag, and put me around her neck, but I could tell from her face that if the professor hadn't offered such generous compensation for the project, she'd be looking for a new research subject already. I don't know why I cared, I'm getting what I wanted, right? I'm out of a dispy case and on my way on a return trip to Quinn's Peak in a few months. Shouldn't I want someone as detached as my partner, so I could leave without remorse after we finish our tasks in Llowyn? Still, envy crawled into the back of my mind... at least with Beatrix's enthusiasm, maybe time would pass faster. Maybe I'd enjoy more opportunities for growth and discovery of my full potential.

  But, Rynelle already said it best. It's fine.