Chapter 1
Yuki Rey

Where are you?

Around

I replied, knowing that Rachel would be annoyed to find out that I was doing vigilante stuff again. She was going to find out anyways, once I showed up at her place with the bruise I'd just gotten on my face. I should've kept wearing that helmet I used to have, but it got in the way. The only thing I had to conceal my head was a large pair of goggles and a hoodie. I probably should dig up the helmet from wherever in my room it was buried.

Just get your ass over here.

I sighed, put the phone back in the back pocket of my black jeans, and continued across a few more roofs until I got near the subway station. I climbed down a nearby fire escape, landing in an alleyway. I took off the goggles, shoved them in my pocket, and made my way underground.

I was somewhat worried about being noticed by someone, but it was fairly late at night, and in big cities, people tend to keep to themselves. I was wearing a dark hoodie and dark pants, and was being careful to act inconspicuous. Lately my heroic alter-ego had ended up in the news.

Someone on the news had come up with the brilliant name "the shadow" and on Tweeter I'd created an account @ the_real_shadow. I didn't use it often, but when I did, I'd sometimes get messages from people I'd helped out, grateful that I'd save them from an attacker. I'd never taken down any large organization or anything, mainly I just helped individuals.

I sat down in the mostly empty train car and zoned out as I thought about why I was even doing this in the first place. My best friend, Rachel, was really worried about me acting as a self-proclaimed superhero. I'd been sick the past week, and had only started getting back to work tonight. Honestly, there were probably better things that I could be doing, but I wanted to help people.

Sighing, I tried to stop thinking about it, and waited on the subway for the right stop.

I knocked on the door to Rachel's apartment, and soon after, her mother opened the door. She gestured to me that Rachel was in her room, and I headed into it. Rachel was visibly annoyed, and pointed at my shoes. They were the ones she'd designed to look like they fit me but left prints that were way bigger than my feet.

I pretended not to know what she was referring to. She sighed, deciding to drop it, and rolled over to her desk and grabbed the homework I was there to get. I'd been sick for a week, and consequently I had lots of homework to catch up on. I pulled off my gloves then pulled out my phone and texted her.

You know, you could've just came over every day to give me the homework instead of just hoarding everything until Sunday.

She glanced over to where her phone sat charging, shoved the papers in my face, then went over to reply to me.

My mom didn't want me catching anything from you.

I nodded. Made sense. Her adoptive mother was fairly overprotective. I was kind of surprised that she'd just let me in today knowing that I'd been sick all week. I sat down on Rachel's tidy bed and felt the phone buzz again.

Also I kind of thought your interpreter would bring it to you.
He follows you everywhere.
Usually.

I actually haven't seen John around lately.

You haven't?

I shrugged. It was probably because I hadn't been in school, but sometimes Dad didn't really want him around. If it wasn't necessary. Or if he was doing something he didn't want getting out.

Can I stay the night?

Rachel left to talk to her mom. While I waited, I crawled across the low bed and reached up to grab a pen from the desk and started to work on the stack in front of me. If I got everything done now, then I wouldn't have to worry about having to give up my study halls to do actual work.

I was halfway through a math worksheet when something hit me in the head. I looked up and it was a water bottle. I glared at Rachel, who'd thrown it, and continued with what I'd been doing. My phone vibrated but I ignored it.

It buzzed a few more times, and I shook the papers in front of her. She rolled her eyes, but I didn't pay attention to whatever she did next.

I finished the final assignment I had, and went through to make sure my name was on everything, and every question had at least some kind of an answer. I checked my phone, and saw that it was around 3 am. I could always get some sleep during study hall. I looked over to see that Rachel was next to me on the bed, buried under a pile of blankets. Some of her long, curly black hair was sticking out from them.

Then, I noticed the messages that she'd left me.

Yeah you can stay the night.

I'd already known what the answer would be.

Just try not to stay up all night

I already failed that request.

I know that you've been going out again. You shouldn't be doing this, especially once you've just gotten better. It's dangerous.
Also what are you going to wear in the morning?
I'm gonna leave the lights on but you should try and get some sleep.

There were a few more rambling messages about my safety and one about how I could borrow her clothes if I wanted, but nothing much else. I unplugged her phone from its charger and replaced it with mine. Then, I stole a blanket from the pile and turned off the lights. I kicked off my shoes, and laid down on the floor. I used to stay on Rachel's bed when I stayed over, but after I kicked her in the face in my sleep one time she got annoyed and from then on I just sleep on the floor.

The floor was hard, but with the blanket wrapped around me I quickly fell asleep.

Chapter 2
Yuki Rey

I woke up to the feeling of something bumping into my leg. I squinted, looking up. It was Rachel ramming into me with her wheelchair. I held up my hand with three fingers raised in an effort to get her to agree to giving me a few more minutes of rest. She didn't let up, so I begrudgingly got up to my feet, then helped myself to one of her hoodies.

I crawled under her desk to recover a pair of my shoes that I'd left a few visits ago. It wouldn't be a good idea to wear my specialized shoes to school. I went over and grabbed my phone, which was no longer connected to the charger, and checked for messages. There was one from my father confirming that John was going to be waiting for me at the school, but that was it.

I turned around to Rachel, who sat in front of me, annoyed. She said something, pointed to the blanket on the floor, then left the room. I picked up the blanket and tossed it onto her bed. I grabbed the folder of homework I'd been working on last night, and then followed Rachel out of the room. I checked the phone again and realized that the likelihood of us being late to school today was relatively high.

Rachel's mother had made pancakes. After quickly eating, the two of us headed out of the apartment, down the hall, and out into the street.

We'd missed the bus, but we could still make the train, so we rushed over to the subway station. I dumped the folder into Rachel's lap (which already held her stuff for school) then carried her and her chair underground to the platform. Rachel was unfortunate enough to live near one of the few stations in Denner city without a ramp.

Luckily, we managed to catch the right train. A few of our classmates who lived nearby were also onboard. We didn't really interact. I stood next to Rachel half-asleep, and waited for her to let me know when it was our stop.

Eventually she tugged on my arm, letting me know that we were at the right place, and I pushed her out of the train car. The station near the school had a ramp, but it was kind of steep so I still had to push her up. Once we were at the top and down another block we were at the school.

There were still a lot of other students coming in, so I was relatively confident that I wasn't too late. And even if I was- then I wasn't the only one who'd be stuck in lunch detention. I was about to walk through the front doors, when I felt someone grab my hood and pull it down.

I spun around, my hands held up in front of me, but then relaxed once I saw who it was. It was John.

"It's been a while." He signed to me.

"It's barely been a week." I replied, then took the folder back from Rachel's outstretched hand. She waved to me, and headed off to her locker.

I pulled the red hood back up, covering my long, brown hair, and headed straight to homeroom. I'd left my backpack in my locker over the weekend, but from what I could remember there was nothing in there that I needed for class.

I sat down where I normally sat at the front of the classroom, and John stood in front of me. I rolled down my right sleeve, and grabbed a hair tie. I made a vague attempt to tidy my hair, and gestured towards it, trying to see how John would react. He ignored me.

I sighed and laid my head on the desk in front of me, waiting as the room slowly filled up. Sometimes it bugged me that my father had him follow me around, but he could come in handy on occasion.

John was tall and as always- wearing a dark blue suit. He had short black hair and a beard, and wore a pair of dark sunglasses that were no doubt showing him an augmented view of reality. Probably was assessing whether or not any of my classmates posed a threat like the paranoid hire he was.

I sat up a bit and went through the folder. The stuff on top seemed somewhat reasonable but as I went through the stack, my answers appeared less and less coherent. Well, it was too late for me to do something now.

I closed the door to my locker and started to head off with Rachel when John got in our way.

"You're going to come home today." He insisted.

"Later." I replied, wanting to spend the afternoon with Rachel.

He continued to protest, but I ignored him, leaving with Rachel to go off to the bookstore. I didn't know what my father told him, but John was constantly trying to keep me on a kind of a schedule after school. It'd been months since he really tried at it, so I wasn't worried that he'd leave me alone for the next few hours - and maybe stalk me from a distance just in case.

I didn't really mind for the most part. He was just doing his job. Rachel got kind of paranoid about it sometimes though.

When we got to the bookstore, we spent a while among the comics, reading the latest stories right there.

Eventually, when I was putting away a magazine, I noticed an odd book on one of the shelves labeled "A History Of Magic." I pulled it out and noticed that it was old and had a cover of dark blue leather. I brought it over to the table where Rachel was stationed at and showed it to her.

She looked it over. Except for the title, the cover was bare. There was no barcode or description. She opened up the book, and the pages were blank. We looked at each other and grinned.

We'd found a Grimoire.

Chapter 3
Yuki Rey

There'd been plenty of rumors of people going around and hiding these magical books, but finding this was the wonderful confirmation we needed. Grimoires and all practices of magic were illegal in this country of Hamsterdamn, and had been for long before either of us had been born.

The logic was something along the lines of "magic will hinder the development of technology." There might have been some kind of other conflict about it, but I wasn't sure as I didn't pay much attention in history. Rachel probably knew, but based on her giddy reaction to the book, she wasn't too worried about the book itself being dangerous.

The problem now was what to do with the book. We were going to read it, definitely, but would it be ok to do it in a public place? Rachel seemed to think so as she headed to a more private corner of the bookstore.

I sat down, and Rachel flipped the book open to the inside front cover. At the top it said "This Book Belongs To..." and underneath there were a couple of signatures. Next to one of them was a sticky note that said "have fun!" I guess whoever Ed Win was had hidden the book.

I was somewhat suspicious about Rachel's behavior. Usually, she was very anti-magic and would be against doing something like this. I guess she was just excited at the idea of doing something like this, as I was.

Rachel pulled out a pen, and wrote her name on the page. After a moment, she eagerly gestured to me to do the same. I wrote my name, Yuki Rey, underneath hers. Immediately the book's appearance changed. It got thicker, and the first page now read "Grimoire Volume #1" instead of "History of Magic".

I looked over at Rachel, and then turned the page over. There was a list across pages two and three labeled "Rules and Guidelines" written in calligraphy and we both excitedly read it.

1. To view the contents of this Grimoire, you must write your name in the front cover.
2. This Grimoire may not be destroyed. Repeated attempts to do so will result in no longer being able to access its contents. Preexisting knowledge may only be erased through death, or using Page 15 of Volume #3.
3. To gain knowledge of a spell, first read its contents, then lift up the flap to view the spell's mark. Once viewed, it's effectiveness will be dependent on its compatibility with the individual who read it.
4. To create new spells to be used, you must have access to the most recent volume.
5. Names may only be removed from the front cover by violating rule 2, crossing out your name with a simple line, or through the use of invisibility spells.
6. To change the outwards appearance of the Grimoire, turn to page six.
7. To find a specific spell, turn to page seven.
8. To copy this Grimoire, turn to page eight.
9. For more information on other magic users, turn to page nine.
10. Before attempting anything in this Grimoire, turn to page four.

Once we had completed reading, we looked around to make sure that no one was nearby, and turned to page four.

Written in big, capital letters was each of the five subspecies of human - AMPHIBIAN, BIRD, FISH, MAMMAL, and REPTILE. Next to each was a square flap tucked into the page. At the top of the page it said;

Lift to view the mark which applies to you.

Rachel and I were both members of the mammal class, so I reached out to carefully lift the flap to view whatever was underneath. What was underneath was a thin, black circle.

We stared at it for a few seconds, then suddenly the flap was back in place and I could feel something on my back. It was as if someone was tracing their finger around in the shape of a circle. Once it was completed, the pressure disappeared, but it still felt somewhat warm where the trace has been made.

We both looked at each other. I assumed from her expression that she'd also felt something and also wanted to check to see if there was something there.

Rachel picked up the book and as it closed, I saw some more text appear on the previously blank page five. She put the book in her lap, under her backpack, and started off towards the restroom. I followed her, carrying my own bag.

We went into the empty handicapped stall, and I locked the door behind us. The stall was still fairly cramped, despite being the largest one there. Rachel pulled off her shirt and gestured to her back. She held up her hair so that it wouldn't interfere if something was in fact there. I hung my backpack on the little hook on the door, and walked around behind her to check.

There was a thin black circle that went around the edges of her back. It curved up to just below the nape of her neck, and crossed over her shoulder blades and the middle of her back. I pulled out my phone and sent her a photo of her back.

As she looked at the image from her own phone, I grabbed the Grimoire and flipped to page five. I didn't bother checking to see if there was a circle on my own back. There probably was. Anyways I wasn't too comfortable in stripping, even if it was in front of Rachel.

The Four elements of AIR, EARTH, FIRE, and WATER are essential to being able to wield magical abilities. Each of the five subspecies have an affinity for a specific element. AIR is best wielded by that of Bird. EARTH is best wielded by that of Amphibian. FIRE is best wielded by both that of Mammal and Reptile. Water is best wielded by that of Fish. Being able to understand and master the element of your species is essential to being able to learn other spells contained in this book. While it is technically possible to learn elements outside of what has been predetermined for you, it is discouraged - especially for novices as it can be very dangerous and difficult.

I showed it to Rachel, and she looked it over. I messaged her.

Does this mean we can control fire now???

I guess??????

Should we keep going?

She flipped back to the pages with the guidelines.

I think that we should check page six and then stop for now. Learning the fire stuff seems important, but we need to be able to hide this book.

Ok. Then tomorrow we can keep going?

She nodded, and turned the page.

As the contents of the Grimoire are only visible to those who have signed their name, the marks of spells are only visible to those who have marks themselves. However, one must be careful with photographs, as they tend to most accurately reflect reality.

As for the Grimoire itself, true appearance is only visible for those who have signed their name. Anyone else, even if they have been marked, will see only the illusion that is presented by the book's owner (unless their name is also found in that particular volume). To change the outward appearance of this Grimoire, simply press your forehead against the empty space at the bottom of this page, and picture what you want the Grimoire to look like. Wait about a minute for it to take effect. To confirm what it looks like, think "reveal" in your mind and you will be able to briefly see what others see. The Grimoire may be changed at any time by others whose names are written at the start. Be careful about taking photos of the book, as they will not show the illusion.

Rachel pressed her forehead against the bottom of the page. When she put the book down, I thought the word "reveal" really hard, and the blue cloth cover changed to a smooth green hardcover book labeled "diary." I pushed up the front cover and saw our names in the front. I flipped further to the first few pages and saw some fake recounts of the past few days from the both of us.

I guess it'll work. Who should keep it?

I will. I'm less likely to lose it.

Just then, I got a message from John.

You should really be heading home.

I checked the time and saw that it was 7:10. We'd really lost track of time.

Promise not to read ahead?

Yeah.

I pulled my backpack off of the hook, straightened the borrowed hoodie, and opened the stall door.

I sat crosslegged on the floor of my bedroom with the door locked. I wore just an oversized t-shirt and pajama pants. I was lucky John didn't say anything about the bruise, and that I didn't see my father. He would've noticed it for sure. That wasn't really my main concern though. My main concern was this new ability I was supposed to have gained.

I stared at my hands trying to think about how it could be done. I could feel some kind of instinct on how I could do it, but I couldn't connect it to reality. It was like when you need to sneeze but you can't. You know how to do it, but you can't get your body to do it.

I closed my eyes and breathed in deeply. I opened them, and stared at my hands, trying to will them to produce some sort of spark. After a while I briefly gave up. I stood up. Walked around my room a few times, then turned off the light before sitting back down on the floor.

I attempted some breathing exercises, and after about half an hour of effort, a small orange flame appeared at the tip of my left thumb.

Chapter 4
Yuki Rey

I stood next to Rachel's locker, staring down John who stood at the other side of the hallway. He was wearing the same blue suit.

"Do you ever change?" I asked him.

He didn't respond. I looked down at myself. I was wearing the same borrowed hoodie and red sneakers from yesterday, but I had changed into a clean pair of jeans. John just wore the same thing every day. I wondered if he was like those cartoon characters where everything in the closet was the same thing copied over countless times.

The hallway slowly got more and more busy as we got closer and closer to the start of homeroom. Before long, Rachel was coming down the hallway. She opened her locker to get the books she'd be needing for morning classes.

Did you do it?

I was anxious for her to reply, and kept poking her shoulder. She ignored me, and closed the locker. I followed her to homeroom.

She gestured for me to go so that I wouldn't be late for my homeroom, and I pointed my fingers to my eyes and back to her as I backed out of the room.

During lunch, Rachel and I quickly ate and then went to the library. John didn't follow us as he agreed to leave me alone during lunch periods.

Ok. I didn't spend a lot of time on it as I had to do homework but...

Rachel put down her phone, glanced around and showed me the palm of her hand. After a few seconds, a small flame appeared. My mouth dropped open and she laughed. The fire disappeared. I looked around, then showed her my thumb, making an equally tiny flame.

We probably shouldn't be doing this at school

Probably not.

My place after school?

We could always cut class?

But what about John?

Don't worry.

I'd been able to get John to leave me alone once or twice when I cut class in the past, and I'd probably be able to get him to help out with not getting in trouble with the school. The bigger problem was Rachel's mother. Although, in the past Rachel had been able to keep the nurse from calling her when feigning illness to hang out with me.

Meet me at the rock?

Do you have it with you?

Yeah I don't want to risk my mom finding it. Meet me at the rock?

Alright.

We glanced at each other and I stood up. She headed to the nurse, and I went to find John.

I found him. "I think I'm coming down with something." I pretended to cough.

"Weren't you sick all last week?" He asked skeptically.

I had been, but I could work this to my advantage. "I think it's come back. I don't stand a chance here. I'll have to leave."

I could tell he didn't believe me, but he decided to play along. "Well I guess then that'll be more classwork you'll have to make up."

I smiled and followed him to the nurse. He spoke with her for a bit, and then we were soon out of the building.

"Thanks. And don't tell him. You wouldn't want to worry him." I left John with an expression of tired contemplation as he wondered why he risked his job so that a teenager could cut class. Not that I had anything but study halls after lunch.

I sat on a park bench near the massive rock near the center of Central Park. It was the middle of a Tuesday and so there wasn't a lot of people around. There especially wasn't anyone near where I was.

The Park was massive. Around the edges it was more urban with picnic tables and playgrounds for younger kids and families. As you went further to the center of the park, past the dog parks and flower gardens, there was just paths that weaved through tall trees and bushes.

Few people went to the center outside of locals and path maintenance as you could get lost if you weren't careful. Rachel and I hung out here all the time. When we weren't at the bookstore, of course.

I climbed up onto the rock, leaving my backpack on the bench, and sat at the top facing the north path. As I waited for Rachel to show up through the thick trees, I practiced summoning fire between my fingers.

The more I did it, the easier it got. Slowly, the tiny flame grew bigger and bigger. It felt hot, as fire is, but it didn't hurt. I also didn't seem to be sustaining any damage.

As an experiment, I moved my left thumb to my right sleeve and attempted to set it on fire. It worked, and there was a moment of panic as I put out the fire on the sleeve. It quickly went out, but the previously red sleeve hem was now blackened.

Not long after I saw Rachel enter the clearing around the rock.

Did you wait an extra period to leave?

I had a test.

This is more important than a test.

This is illegal!

So?

I slid down off of the rock, landing with a little jump. I made a grabbing gesture with my hand and then decided on grabbing her backpack, which I opened to look for the Grimoire. Rachel was annoyed, and I climbed up onto the bench to evade her.

Once I had the book out and open, I sat down and moved it so that we would both see the pages. I turned to page seven.

This Grimoire's content is finite, but the marks that exist are not. If you wish to find a spell to fit an idea you are thinking of, then write on this page and you will be directed to where you may find it. If you wish to know of all the spells contained in this Grimoire, then turn to page 10.

The rest of the page was blank. I turned to page eight. Might as well continue in chronological order. On page eight, there was a list of directions describing how to change other materials into a copy of this Grimoire. At the bottom of the page, there was another lift-up flap.

We didn't really understand the process being described, and didn't want to make a copy of the Grimoire anyways so we moved on to page nine. While it would be more convenient for us each to have one, there was a greater chance of us getting caught if we had an extra book.

This page was folded over. Rachel unfolded it, and the page expanded into a map of the world. There was a list of numbers off to the right. I ran my fingers over #12 and suddenly the map glowed and there were little dots all over the map.

They seemed to be concentrated in the east, but there was a surprising number scattered across Hamsterdamn. Rachel reached over and touched the #1, and the map glowed again. This time, there were far more dots in far more locations. There were even a lot in oceans. With the logic that this page seemed to operate as a sort of a magical touch screen, I pinched the area of the map around where we were. The map zoomed in, becoming more detailed. Less and less dots were therefore visible. I continued until the map just showed the city and nearby counties. Around the center of the marked park, where we were, was a little glowing dot. Aside from us in the city, there was constantly a dot in a single nearby location, but we weren't sure where it was.

Rachel and I looked at each other. This map could identify where other grimoires were! What if someone else had one of these and then found us? Rachel pointed at a town near us, at one of the only other dots visible nearby. It might've been from the person who had left this one. As we stared at the page, the dot suddenly grew bigger.

Then, it grew slightly smaller, and it was revealed that there was now two dots. Maybe the person who left this one behind was making and leaving copies using that spell from page eight. It seemed dangerous, but I was glad that someone was doing it because if they hadn't, we wouldn't have access to this.

Rachel folded the map, then turned over to pages ten and eleven. There was a table of contents. Each chapter was the name of some magical idea with a page number next to it.

We should try to master the skill we already have before risking something new.

Who knows how long that will take? Why not just try new things immediately and see what we can do?

That is a terrible idea.

I sighed. She was probably right, but that didn't keep me from being impatient. I closed the book, placed it on top of my backpack (which was still on the bench) and walked dramatically around in front of Rachel and produced a golf-ball sized fire between my hands. She smiled and made one herself. It was a bit smaller, but still impressive.

We spent a while there, playing around with the sizes we could make the fire. Eventually, someone came in from the west path. They interrupted our practice, as it would be dangerous to create fire out of nothing in front of some randy. Luckily, they didn't stay long.

I climbed up onto the rock again, this time with my bag and the Grimoire. I turned to page eight. The more I looked over the page, the more sense it seemed to make. I glanced down at Rachel. She was focused on setting fire to a small stick. I thought about it for about another minute, and lifted up the flap.

There was a tiny black dot around the size made by your average ballpoint pen.

On my back I felt a small pressure in the middle of where the circle was. From my backpack, I pulled out a handful of crumpled up sheets of papers, several pencils I'd forgotten were in there, a few candy wrappers, a bra, and a couple of tampons. I flattened a few of the papers, and placed everything else on it. I held it up in one hand, and the Grimoire in the other hand. I closed my eyes, and concentrated on the pile and the book.

My right hand, which held the stack, felt cold briefly, and I opened my eyes again. All the materials had changed and taken the form of a book. The cover was mainly white, with flecks of other colors throughout it. The words "Grimoire #1" was written in green across the front. I opened it and the first few pages were identical to the original Grimoire. The only difference was that the pages weren't smooth and white, and that under "This Book Belongs To..." the only name written was my own.

I slipped the copy into my backpack, and climbed down from the rock. I placed the original in Rachel's lap, and held up my hands in front of her. I created a small flame on my right pinky, and made it weave between my fingers. At my thumb, it disappeared and then reappeared at my left thumb and continued going in between the rest of my fingers before disappearing.

She grinned, and held up her own hands to show that she could do the same thing.

I'd advise you to make your way back home.

It was John. We'd lost track of time again. I sighed, showed the message to Rachel, then headed down the North path. She followed me. Along the path, there were short light posts close to the ground that illuminated our way.

It didn't take two long for us to leave the park, and head our own separate ways.

Chapter 5
Yuki Rey

John followed me inside today. He didn't usually do that unless my father wanted to talk to me. I wasn't looking forward to it.

I headed to the office room where my father was and waited. I kept an eye on John, waiting for him to translate something my father wanted to tell me. I was terrible at reading lips, and he was sitting facing away from me.

"I want you out of the apartment from Thursday to Saturday. I've already been delayed long enough."

"Delayed by what?" I asked.

"You. Last week."

I guess he'd been planning something but hadn't been able to go through with it until now because I'd been in bed for so long.

"What exactly is it that was delayed?" I asked, knowing I wouldn't get an answer.

"That's none of your business, young lady."

I winced at the phrase 'young lady.'

"Is that all?" I angrily asked.

"Yes."

I headed up to my room and locked the door. I threw my bag on the bed and sat down in the swivel chair by my desk.

This happened a lot. My father often had me stay over at Rachel's place or at some hotel. I never really knew why. He said that it was "for work." Based on what little I knew about what he did, it probably wasn't legal.

I mean every interpreter he hired for me in the past seemed to double as a bodyguard, which was probably unnecessary based on how many self-defense lessons he'd made me take since I was maybe five. I guess he just wanted to make sure that I was safe, even if he didn't really want to interact with me much.

Although, it was probably whatever he did that led to me being in that kind of danger in the first place. I pushed the chair over to my bed and pulled the Grimoire copy out of the bag. If I was going to be in danger, I might as well be the one causing the trouble.

I opened it up and turned to page seven. After thinking about it for a moment, I grabbed a pen from my desk and wrote down "TELEPATHY" across the bottom of the page. After a few seconds, the letters disappeared and a list of titles, Grimoire volume numbers, and page numbers appeared on the page.

I guess there are a lot of different types of thought communication that existed. there was even mind control in a later volume. Only one version was in volume one, so I turned to that page. The spell described was on page 73. All it seemed to do was let you send thoughts to other individuals. They wouldn't be able to send stuff back, and you wouldn't be able to read or control their thoughts. Just send an idea to someone else.

I sighed. Well it was something at least. Also, it seemed like it would translate your ideas so the other person would understand you if you didn't speak the same language. I lifted up the flap. The mark was a little swirl and it felt like it was drawn towards the bottom of where that original circle has been made.

The problem now was that there wasn't a way for me to test this. The only person who knew about the Grimoire was Rachel, and she didn't want me trying more things. I knew why, she thought it was dangerous. The more things I learned how to do, the more likely I'd slip up and reveal my newfound abilities and possibly get myself arrested.

Although, she had willingly opened the book. Even if she was now having second thoughts, she was still guilty of reading. The same thing happened when I started going out at night. For years when we were kids, we talked about how cool superheroes were, and how cool it would be to be one. But once I started actually doing something around last year, she got paranoid about doing it and getting caught.

Sure, she made me some devices, and helped out sometimes, but she still didn't think it was a good idea. Maybe it wasn't and maybe I was going to end up in a situation I couldn't handle. But if that happened, I wanted to be the one to get myself into that kind of mess. I also wanted to take advantage of all the tools and abilities available to add to my arsenal.

I checked page seven for a mark that would change your gender. There wasn't one in this Volume, so I sighed and moved on.

I opened up the Grimoire to the table of contents. There was such an odd mix of different types of spells listed. I remembered learning a little bit about these books in history class. Years ago, I wasn't sure how long, someone came up with one of these books. They spread through copies, and each new addition added on to the catalog of what could be done through magic. I had no idea how they were actually created, but apparently later volumes were more refined and specific about what could be done.

Now that I was thinking about it, there had been a recent volume made by some kind of sadist where nearly all the spells were designed specifically to cause harm. With it, you could do all sorts of horrible things to other human beings. That was probably why magic had been outlawed. I wondered how they managed get rid of people with access to that kind of stuff.

I turned back to page seven. It was blank now, except for the instructions at the top. I rewrote the word "TELEPATHY" and saw that most of the related spells were from "Grimoire Volume #7." Somehow, I was going to have to get ahold of more volumes than just this one. That would come later. Might as well work with what I had. I was mainly focused on appearance modification and being able to communicate with others, but there wasn't much of that in this volume.

It seemed to be a random mishmash of ideas, a prototype. It was likely a lot of people had worked on it way back whenever. There was something that caught my attention - slowing down time. I tentatively turned to that page, page number 20. It was by far the most detailed part of the book I'd seen so far. It explained how this mark would allow you to simultaneously speed up yourself, and slow down everything around you. There were several warnings about how this could cause damage to your body if you weren't careful.

I lifted up the flap. There was a little arch with a curved line on top.

As the mark was being made on my back, I could feel that it was bigger than the other marks so far. It was closer to my neck, but still within that original circle.

I stood up, and concentrated on the mark and the new idea in my mind. I took a few steps forward. Nothing seemed to really change. Nothing in my room had been moving in the first place. I turned around to where the chair was, and pushed it. It moved backwards, then stopped. It was slightly tipped over, and seemed to be moving in slow motion. I watched it for what felt like about a minute, and the front part finally connected with the ground again.

I resumed normal time again. The chair moved a bit, but then quickly stopped. I sat down again. While this mark did indeed make me faster, it wasn't nearly as fast as that of heroes in the movies. Maybe it was because I hadn't also been running? Or maybe it took practice like the fire did. Probably a combination of both.

I sat back down and looked back at the table of contents. I saw a lot of things here that Rachel would probably be into. There was something called "alchemy" that had a couple of different versions. When I looked it up I saw that there was even more in different volumes. I checked some of the pages but didn't look at the marks.

There was some stuff about changing mundane items such as rocks into more valuable metals. Rachel liked to create devices, but often she couldn't because she didn't have access to the necessary materials. She'd shown me some of her drawings in the past, but for the most part she kept them to herself.

I put the book away in my backpack, and looked through it. There wasn't much in it. I'd skipped a lot of classes today, and what I'd gotten in the other periods was either in my locker, or had been changed into the new Grimoire

I stood in the bathroom, in front of the bathtub. Taking a shower would've been the wise decision, but I didn't want to. Looking at my body was never a highlight of my day.

It wasn't because of my coffee-colored skin that signaled to anyone of the mammal race that I was a foreigner, despite never being out of the country a day in my life, but because of my overly feminine appearance. It was because of my boobs, that signaled to people that they should refer to me as 'she' or 'her' or 'that girl.'

I hated my body, and I wished that the book with the gender change ability was nearby, but it wasn't. I still needed to take a shower though, so I quickly stripped and turned on the water.

When I got out, and was about to get dressed, I caught myself in the mirror. More specifically, my back. The outer tattoo looked like Rachel's, but the others weren't. Which made sense. I'd been reading further. It felt weird to see them there. I could always feel their presence, but this further confirmation of them made the situation feel that much more real.

I grabbed a shirt and pulled it over, covering the black lines. I grabbed the pajama pants, then headed to bed.

Chapter 6
Yuki

I sat in class, frustrated that I was forced to learn about numbers and shapes when I literally had flames available at my fingertips. Why wasn't it something that could be taught in schools and not something that was hidden and discouraged? If I'd known how cool it was, I'd have looked for a Grimoire a long time ago.

Once this semester was over, I was going to leave Hamsterdamn. I would go somewhere magic was legal. I would go under the guise of simply studying abroad. Or maybe I could just leave. Who said that I had to go to college? My dad couldn't control me once I turned 18, which wasn't too far off into the future. Hopefully, Rachel would come with me. She might go along with it. Or maybe not. To be honest, I wasn't sure.

For now, I was stuck sitting in a classroom watching John's hands as he explained the teacher's boring lesson.

After school, Rachel and I met at the bookstore.

Can I stay at your place tonight?

I knew it was still Wednesday, but I didn't want to be home tomorrow morning. My dad was doing something, and I'd learned a long time ago that I probably shouldn't be around when he didn't want me around.

Sorry. My mom thinks that you got me sick because when we cut I used that excuse. She doesn't want you staying over for a few days.

I sighed.

Alright.

She looked apologetic, and I knew it was mostly my fault.

I stood up and walked around the bookstore, optimistically searching for something that might be a disguised Grimoire. I didn't find one, and ended up reading a comic book. I read next to Rachel, who was reading a novel that she'd been working through for the past few times we'd come to the bookstore.

After a few hours, I'd gotten a message from John saying that I needed to head home. When I got it, I saw him standing across the bookstore. Sometimes I wondered if other people noticed this adult man following around a teenager and found it suspicious. Rachel was alright with it, she just thought of him as my interpreter, and knew that it was his job to help me out with interacting with other people. But outside of school, I found it really unnecessary.

At least he'd be leaving me alone for the rest of the week. When father wanted me out of the house, I rarely saw John outside of school. I wish I knew what went down when he wanted me away, but to be honest I was better off not knowing.

I left the bookstore, and headed home.

I stood in my room, and looked out the window. It was dark out. I checked my phone. Still Wednesday. My backpack was beside the window. Inside was a charger, a battery pack, a change of clothes, some snacks, some money, and of course, the Grimoire.

I picked up the bag, confirmed that it was all zipped up, and slipped it onto my back. I opened the window, climbed out onto the fire escape, and down into the alley. I headed towards the back, and made my way down a side street and out to a different bigger one that led away from where I lived.

One of the perks of living in a big city such as Denner, was that you could just head out and wander at any time of the day and no one would wonder what you were doing. The only problem was the possibility of tourists looking for directions. Rachel would usually help them out for me on the few occasions when we were approached by individuals who didn't know where they were going. While she wasn't with me tonight, I was confident that no one from out of town would be out in the middle of the night.

Of course, being confident doesn't equate to being right, but at least I wasn't approached by anyone that evening.

The main question I had on my mind was 'what should I do?' There was only so long that you could wander around thinking about nothing and going nowhere. Plus, I was getting tired.

I decided to actually go somewhere, and walked into a small convenience store. I bought a bottle of iced tea, and a newspaper. Luckily, there were a few other people in there, so the cashier didn't try to make small talk with me. I almost considered testing out the telepathy, and pretend to speak. I decided against it as I didn't exactly know how the ability would work or how the cashier would react.

I headed off to the park. I made my way through the stone-lined maze to the center, where I climbed up onto the giant rock and sat down. It was a bit dark up there, as the only light came from the low dim lights at the edge of the circular, artificial clearing and from the half-moon up in the sky.

I could see the slight movement of the trees around me, and occasionally, the glow of the eyes of nocturnal animals. I pulled the Grimoire out of my backpack and flipped to page nine where I unfolded the map. It glowed slightly, making it easy to read in the dark. I was mildly surprised that no bugs swarmed around it. I guessed they wouldn't be able to see it.

I randomly chose book #18, and checked to see if there were any copies nearby. There was one. I placed a finger on both #1 and #18 so that both would be visible on the map.

I slid down the rock, and headed off the path through the forest. There wasn't much vegetation on the ground between the trees, mainly just new spring flowers and grasses.

It was dark, so I created a small fire in my left hand to light the way. My right hand held the Grimoire, which I checked every few minutes to confirm that I was going in the right direction.

Eventually, I was right on top of where #18 was meant to be. I looked around. The area had a spot that looked like it was often used as a campfire. There were logs strategically placed around it for people to sit, and there were some taps sticking out of a nearby maple tree. Something shiny caught my eye on the ground. There are little bits of metal the size and shape of pebbles all across the ground.

This was clearly someone's hideout. The question now was where was the Grimoire? I continued to look around, and quickly noticed the pine tree. It was one of the few trees nearby that had such low hanging branches. I could see some marks that looked as if someone had climbed it recently. The sap and bark was scratched in some places, making those parts of the branches appear lighter. Some of these branches even sagged more than the others. I climbed up, and as I did so I noticed that some of the branches were even broken.

I was about halfway up the tree when I stopped. There was a board laying across some of the branches, and there were some bags and boxes attested to the boards as well. I stood up, and checked the containers. They were all empty, except for one, which was filled with weed. The boards went all the way around the trunk of the tree. This must've been part of the hideout.

Just as I was growing frustrated, walking around and not finding the Grimoire, I noticed that there was a large hole in the tree. I reached in, and pulled out a book and a dull pencil. The book was titled "Soccer for Dummies" and I hoped that the contents wouldn't match the cover.

I opened up the book to the front cover. Inside, there was the words "This book belongs to..." and a series of names below. The ones that caught my attention was a neat and new-looking list of five names. I recognized three of them. They belonged to some Juniors at my school. I was surprised that there were underclassmen at my own school that were practicing magic.

Unless they weren't, but let's be honest if the book was hiding here then it was probably a grimoire. I wrote my name in a blank space, and sure enough, the book shifted slightly in my hands to reveal its true nature as Grimoire Volume #18.

I flipped through the first few pages. Everything up to the table of contents was identical to book #1. I pulled out the newspaper from my backpack. I held it in one hand, and #18 in the other. I closed my eyes, and focused on the dot mark, and on the materials I held. I felt my hands go cold, then opened my eyes. My right hand now held a copy of #18 along with a little more than half of the newspaper.

This volume was smaller than #1, and I'd gotten a large paper. I returned the original #18 to the hole, and placed the new one in in my backpack along with the excess paper. I'd be reading both later. I climbed down the tree, and once I reached the bottom I turned around to find myself face to face with one of those juniors.

He had his hands up in an aggressive stance, and a small fireball in each hand. He was saying something to me. Not sure how to react, I quickly settled on raising my hands up in surrender.

I didn't want to fight him, and wasn't sure what to do. After a bit of him talking about something I decided to finally test out the telepathy. "WAIT" I thought to him.

He relaxed slightly, but looked confused after my thought. I guess it worked. He said something else in response.

"I'm sorry. I can't hear you." I thought to him.

He said something yet again, this time slower. I attempted to read his lips.

"How can I do this?" I thought, trying to confirm what he was saying. It was getting easier and easier to send my thoughts the more I did it.

He nodded in response, giving up on trying to talk to me. Maybe he recognized me. I don't think we'd ever really interacted in the past outside of just seeing each other around the school.

I reached over my shoulder and pulled down my backpack. I pulled out volume #1 and showed it to him. He extinguished the fires in his hands, walked forward, then took it out of my hands. He pulled a pen out of his back pocket, and wrote his name on the page.

"Check page 73." I thought to him.

He flipped to that page, and I watched as he read it and then lifted up the flap. After a moment, I could see the words "Testing, testing, one two three. Does this mark work for me?" run through my mind.

"Yes." I responded. It was so weird being able to just communicate with someone without the aid of a phone or some external thing. Its as almost as if I was having an actual conversation. It was here in the woods with someone I didn't even know, but it was still exciting.

"What are you doing here?" he asked. His mouth moved, but I only saw his words in my mind.

"I was looking for Volume #18." I answered honestly. "I saw it on the map, so I came to make a copy."

"Who would've known that the deaf chick in the Senior class would end up being a wizard. I guess it's always the ones you least expect." I glared a bit in response to being called a chick. "Any chance you could make a copy of this?" he asked, holding up #1.

"Ask me politely and maybe I'll consider it."

I looked him over. He wore a long coat, sweatpants, and winter boots. His head and hands were covered with dull blue scales, and his eyes were orange. He carried a bag, the strap laid across his body. He looked very familiar, but I couldn't place his name.

"If you would please make me a copy of this volume, I'll be very grateful." He seemed sarcastic, despite the words in my mind appearing the same. I considered just taking the book and leaving at superspeed, but I wasn't sure what powers he had. Also, he was almost guaranteed to bother me at school now that he knew about this.

"I will, under the condition that you don't tell anyone about this, and don't bother me in the future."

"Deal." He handed me the Grimoire. I pulled out some of the leftover newspaper, and quickly made a copy. I wasn't sure why he didn't make one himself, but whatever. I handed him the copy and started to leave when he said, "Check over there for your troubles."

I looked over to where he was pointing. There was a small patch of wild strawberries. I headed over to it, and picked a handful of the tiny berries. When I stood up, he was gone. I created a small fire in my empty right hand, and saw that he was climbing the pine tree.

"Thanks." I sent to him.

He didn't respond.

I headed back to the big rock at the center. I looked at #18's inside cover. The only name there was mine. I was hoping to see those other names, but they of course didn't copy over. The words when I talked to that guy looked like handwriting, and I was thinking that the handwriting was the same as one of those names.

I popped the last of the strawberries into my mouth, and put the book back in my bag and grabbed #1. I checked the inside cover for his name. It was Wess Lee. I didn't know him.

I put the book away, and continued going back to the rock. I got a bit lost as I wasn't on the path, but eventually I found it again.

I was completely exhausted by the time I got back, and decided to sleep on the bench for the night. The chances of anyone showing up was pretty low.

Tomorrow, I would read Grimoire Volume #18.

Chapter 7
Yuki Rey

I woke up, and checked my phone. I was late. Very late. Well, I was missing first period. I stood up, made sure everything was in my bag, and ran down the path. With a little magical boost, I quickly made my way straight to a nearby subway station that I knew ran a train that stopped by the school.

When I finally arrived, I realized that I'd left my card at home. I looked around. I didn't want to walk to school, but I didn't want to get in trouble. There wasn't a lot of people nearby, but there was a security camera. Taking my chances, I jumped over the turnstile, and headed down to the platform.

I waited a few anxious minutes for the train, and once I was onboard, I was fairly confident that I wasn't going to be followed. I checked my phone again. I was probably going to end up showing up to school around second period.

John was going to be upset with me. I'd been missing a lot of school lately. Not that it really mattered at this point anyways. The school year was almost over. What did it matter if I didn't show up every day? Half of the day was study halls anyways.

Just as I was contemplating not even showing up today, I noticed two large individuals bothering someone sitting a bit further down the train car. I wasn't sure what was going on, but the woman sitting looked a bit upset.

What really drew my attention was the woman's appearance. She had smooth red skin, and wore a strange dress. She was from the amphibian class! I couldn't think of the last time I'd seen someone like her. They rarely showed up in Denner as it was way too dry. I mean, I didn't consider it dry, but it was pretty far from any coastlines. The city's population was almost entirely made up of the lizard and mammal classes.

The two people who were standing above her were obviously of mammal decent, like myself. I watched them a bit longer, and it was pretty clear that they were harassing her. I moved my bag to my lap, and slowed down time.

I stood up so that I didn't move my bag, and walked over to grab the hoods of both the guys, and pulled them hard. I quickly returned back to my seat, using the location of my bag as a guide to make sure it didn't look like I'd moved much. Once I was sitting and time resumed normally, the two people fell over.

I was a bit worried that they would suspect me or even that woman of doing something. Luckily, they just got off at the next stop and there was no more trouble. I looked down at my bag, and waited for my stop to come.

"Thank you." The words appeared in my mind in a neat, curly script. I froze, then glanced around at everyone who was sitting on this train car. My gaze landed on that foreigner in the purple dress. She was staring right at me.

"Hello?" I tentatively sent her the thought.

She smiled. "Hello. I'm glad to see you again. I'm so glad that you're making good use of the Grimoire." She moved her gaze to the map on the wall.

"You're the one who hid the copy?" I asked. I was excited, but I had to pretend like nothing was happening. It'd be a bit strange if I started reacting to a conversation that was happening in my my mind. Not that there were many people around to observe.

"Yes. I put it on the shelf, and waited for someone worthy to find it. I believe that you and your friend were a good choice. You must be more careful when practicing in public though." She replied. As I read the words, I recognized the writing to be the same as that note that was in that Grimoire she'd hidden. I guess it made sense that she wrote it. She didn't look like and Ed though.

"I didn't see you." I said, thinking about that day at the bookstore.

"Of course you didn't." She didn't explain further. The words in my mind didn't change in style, but somehow they still appeared to be condescending.

"Did you use a mark from a different volume?" I inquired. I didn't remember seeing anything about invisibility in Volume #1's table of contents.

"It's your stop," was her final response. Immediately after I read the words, the train stopped at the station by the school.

As I left the subway station, my mind was racing with questions about the old lady (I'm not a great judge of age but she seemed old) and what she was doing. Why did she hide the books? Why here? What did she see in me? What if she got caught? Why was I actually heading to class?

I wanted to stay on the train and talk more with the woman, but I was heading straight to the school. The only explanation I could come up it, and the weird sensation in my mind was mind control.

When I reached the front office, John was waiting for me. He was upset. I ignored him and signed in. I got a pass to second period, and headed to class. He followed me.

I spent most of the day thinking about that woman from the train. Once classes were over, I decided to message Rachel.

Let's meet at the rock.

I headed out to the park. I sat at the top of the rock for a bit, waiting for Rachel. We hadn't been interacting much recently outside of our visits to the bookstore.

I wondered if she was mad at me. Hopefully she wasn't mad at me. I was probably just overreacting. She was busy. Also, finding that book must've been big for her. Not that it wasn't big for me either. I was just less careful. Probably should listen to her advice more often. Maybe she was going ahead more often? I should probably talk to her. She hadn't responded to me. Maybe she didn't want to talk to me any more. Was she going to come? If she did I was going to have her read page 73 and I was going to let her know what I'd been doing, and tell her about the woman on the subway.

I pulled what was left of the newspaper. As I waited for Rachel to possibly show up, I tried to focus the puzzle that had not gotten transformed, but I was more focused on the paths around me that led to the center. After a while, I saw her roll in from that north path.

I slid down the rock, and walked over to where she was. She came forward as well and positioned herself next to the bench. I messaged her.

Did you bring it?

She pulled the Grimoire out of her bag, and handed it to me. I flipped to page 73, then handed it back to her. She looked at the page, then looked back at me a bit suspiciously for knowing about this page.

She lifted up the flap, then I saw the words, "Hello?" in my mind in her familiar messy handwriting.

"Hi." I responded and her eyes went wide.

"Is that your voice?" She asked.

"What?"

"I just heard something in my head and it was a voice. Was that your voice?"

I was stunned. Somehow I'd just assumed that everyone else would just see the text like I did. It never occurred to me that other people were hearing a mental representation of my voice. This got me wondering what my voice sounded like. I never talked because I wouldn't be able to hear myself. "What do I sound like?"

"You sound like," she paused slightly, trying to explain sound to a deaf person. She'd attempted to do this before in the past, but I usually didn't get it. "You sound like you're younger than you are. It's also deeper than I was expecting."

"Okay." I was so happy. It didn't matter what I sounded like, as long as I could finally communicate with her in such an easy way.

"Anyways, how did you even know about this? I haven't been going through the book and you didn't have access to it." She looked at me a bit suspiciously.

"Are you seriously telling me that you haven't been going through it?" I dodged her question.

"Yes! I've been too worried about getting caught to go through it." She replied.

She didn't seem to worried when we first found it in the bookstore. "But it can be disguised." I pointed out.

"Still. Anyways, how did you know?"

"I might've made a copy of it." I admitted.

"WHEN?"

"When we were practicing with the fire."

"Let me see it." She demanded.

I pulled my volume one out of my backpack and handed it to her.

"What's with all the different colors?" She asked.

"It appears that copies will be made up of whatever you use to create it. That includes colors." I wasn't sure how to explain it in a way that didn't seem obvious.

"What if you made a copy out of a slice of pizza?"

"What?"

She froze, seeming surprised that I'd heard that. I guess she didn't mean to send me that thought. "I mean it could work."

I shrugged. After a moment I decided to tell her. "I have another one."

"Are you serious?"

I nodded and pulled #18 out of my bag.

"How?" She took it from me and looked over the first few pages.

I took the next few minutes to fill her in on how I got it. I also told her about the woman on the train and the super speed. Being able to use thought to communicate allowed me to convey a lot of information very fast. Probably faster than talking would take but I wasn't sure.

I finished saying, "I know that you're a bit skeptical about using this book, but I think if we have it then we should maybe use it while we have it. We should try more spells and stuff."

"I guess. If we end up getting caught with these things, then we might as well make it worth the time." She seemed like she'd been thinking a lot about this.

"This kind of reminds me of soul mates." I thought to her. Soul mates were said to be able to share all their thoughts and feelings with each other after they kissed.

"Yeah."

"Yeah. Can I stay at your place tonight then?"

She gave me a look. "But my mom said you can't come over."

I took #18, and looked through the table of contents. I hadn't yet, and was really banking on something useful being there. Luckily, there was. I flipped through the book to page 108, and showed it to her. The page contained a spell for invisibility.

We both read the page and lifted up the flap to see the mark.

After looking at it, Rachel vanished. Her chair and bag were still there, but herself, and her clothing were gone.

"Did it work?" She asked me.

"Yes."

She reappeared. "Now you try."

I focused on the mark and the idea of being invisible and suddenly everything around me seemed a bit clearer. "This feels weird. Can you see me?"

"I can't see you," she replied. "I think this'll work. Do you think you'd be able to keep it going all night?"

"Well, there's only one way to find out."

Chapter 8
Yuki Rey

I followed Rachel down the hallway. She knocked on the door to her apartment. When her mom answered, Rachel explained that she forgot her key. I anxiously followed her inside, maintaining invisibility the whole time. I kept my distance from them both, so as not to be discovered via bumping into someone. Rachel had my bag underneath her own in her lap. Once we were both in Rachel's room and the door was locked, I dropped the invisibility.

"I can't believe that worked." Rachel sent me the thought after attempting to communicate verbally to me.

"Well it is magic after all." I sat down on the floor, and leaned against the wall. I sat far from the door. "Why did you want to wait to do spells? You seemed excited when you first found the Grimoire."

"I did? I wasn't." She seemed somewhat confused. She paused a bit and then asked, "Tell me more about the amphibian lady."

"I already told you everything. It was weird. I really wanted to stay and talk to her but then I had to go to school." I stretched my leg out in front of me.

"Are you telling me that there was an opportunity for you to skip class and you didn't take it?"

"Well I wanted to but-" I stopped, dumbly realizing something I should've already. "She can control minds."

"She can control minds and she used it to make you go to school?" Rachel stated blankly.

"I think she wanted me to talk to you and read more marks. She was watching us when we found that Grimoire, remember?" It was like she wanted us to find it. She'd said she was waiting for the right person, but maybe she specifically wanted us to find it.

"So mind control? What volume is that in?"

I shrugged and grabbed my copy of volume one and wrote "mind control" on the bottom of page seven. None of the spells listed were from volumes one or 18. Most of them were from volume 7. I checked the map. I could faintly see a dot a few miles from where we were but I could barely tell if it was even really there.

"Yeah, I think that she has Mind Control powers." I said, not answering her question. I tossed the book onto my backpack, which was laying on the floor next to me.

"And she wants to use them to get you in class and me to agree to the Grimoire?"

"Well, you've already agreed to go through it on your own now," I pointed out.

"Only because I figured I might as well if I had the book, but now I think I didn't even want it in the first place." She stopped, seeming to come to a realization.

"What?" I stood up. "Are you going to report this? Even if you did you'll be held responsible because you waited. It's fine if you bail, but don't do anything stupid."

She glared at me. "I'm not- nevermind."

I sat back down, and opened up #18. The table of contents let me know that most of the marks inside would let me transform things. It was annoyingly specific with elemental codes or whatever they were called. Most of the book was just of how to turn specific compositions into others, and I didn't understand it.

There was one thing that caught my attention, at the back. This mark would allow you to see underwater. I lifted up the flap and a squiggly line was drawn inside the circle on my back.

I spent a while going through the book and seeing if there was something else that would be useful to me. When I was done, I tossed Rachel the book. "Here. It's full of Sciency stuff that you like."

The lights were off, Making it hard to see Rachel, but it wasn't long before the glow of the Grimoire was visible from where Rachel was stationed in the room. I laid down on my stomach, after grabbing and opening up my copy of volume 1.

I'd already gone through the book a few times, but I hadn't really sat down and read all the pages yet. Until now. I went through the book. The spells seemed very simplistic, despite the number of them. For several of them, I checked page seven and found that there were later volumes that had similar but more specific versions of the spells in volume one.

One of the spells in volume one that confused me as to its true purpose was about removing fingernails. It was about changing your finger or toe so that there as no nail. Intrigued I lifted the flap. The image was the Japanese symbol for 8.

I don't know if that was intentional. I took off my left shoe, and the sock, then stared at my foot. I concentrated on my pinky toe, and after a few seconds, the nail disappeared. In its place was just smooth skin.

"Hey, Rachel. You still awake?" I called out with my mind, not wanting to get up and check for the book's glow.

"I figured out how to magically remove toenails." I announced.

"Well I don't even have toenails in the first place so I don't know what I'm going to do with this information," was her reply.

I didn't say anything else, and instead looked back at the toe. I tried to bring back the nail with the mark, but it didn't work. I checked page seven, and one of the first spells in volume 2 was how to bring back nails.

When was this written where this was a necessary spell to have? Maybe the original wizard had a weird fetish.

I put the sock back on and resumed going through the book. Before I went to sleep, I activated the invisibility mark in the hopes that I would be able to keep it up all night.

Chapter 9
Yuki Rey

I woke up Friday morning alone in Rachel's room. There was a note by my face. I picked it up and read it. It was from Rachel. She'd gone to school without me. Also, the invisibility apparently hadn't worked when I was asleep.

I activated it, and left the room with my backpack. Luckily, Rachel's mom was no longer home. Unluckily, I'd missed the bus and would have to take the subway again. When I got down there, I realized that I was still invisible, so I jumped the turnstile without any problems, and then got on the next train.

While I stood off to the side trying to avoid being run into, I noticed someone sitting across from me. Of course, there were plenty of people on the train, but this one was looking right at me.

He had shoulder-length damp black hair, and bright blue eyes. He wore ripped jeans, a red tank top, and had a plaid green shirt tied around his waist. Hanging from his neck and wrists was a variety of different bracelets and necklaces, most of which held some kind of rocks or gems. He also wore a lot of eye makeup.

From his pocket, he pulled out a phone. He held it up, then turned it around so that the screen was facing me. There was a photo of me standing there on the subway. I guess invisibility was also revealable through photographs. That wasn't good news considering what I'd done to get onto the train car.

"So. You're the one who the old lady believes is a good candidate. Where's your friend?" The words randomly appeared across my vision. Each word appeared after the last one faded. The words were black, handwritten and appeared against white boxes.

Making the rightful assumption that this was coming from the guy in front of me, I sent him a thought. "Candidate for what?"

He pulled a face. "What is that from? Volume #1? Of course it is." He started muttering to himself, ignoring me.

I repeated the question, "Candidate for what?"

"New roommate." He replied.

"What?"

"The old lady says that someone new has to come in The Box and according to what she says is the future, it's you." He elaborated.

"Ok, but I'm not looking for a new place to live right now." Although I'd been kicked out for the time being, I'd be back home soon enough.

"Well maybe not right now, but you will be soon."

On the one hand, I was very confused. On the other hand, I assumed that some kind of magic I didn't understand yet was involved.

"Ok but-"

"It's almost your stop." He attempted to distract me.

"Not for another five minutes." I retorted. This guy didn't seem to be as omnipotent as that amphibian person. "Tell me more about what's going on."

"No." He vanished.

I pulled out my own phone to see if he was still there, but invisible. He was gone. I sighed, and continued waiting for my stop to come.

I was sitting in study hall, considering saying something to Rachel, when someone came up to me. I looked at him. It was Wess. I waved at him, trying to get him to leave me alone.

"Been trying any spells lately?" He asked, using the telepathy mark.

Before I could respond, John came up to him, and got him to leave me alone. Luckily, he didn't attempt to bother me from a distance.

I reached out to Rachel. "Hello."

"I'm in chem." She replied, trying to get me to leave her alone.

"Oh ok. That sounds like fun. What are you doing?" I continued, annoying her out of sheer boredom.

"Shut. Up."

"What? I can't show interest in what my best friend is doing? Are you saying that you never want to talk to me again?" I continued in a fairly successful attempt to annoy her.

"Please be quiet."

"I am."

"You're screaming in my head."

"Got any proof?" I asked.

I decided that however I was communicating, it was more annoying that I was intending to be. I decide to stop, and looked over at John. He was on his phone, a worried expression across his face.

He looked up at me and signed, "Have you seen the news lately?"

All that was left of the newspaper I'd bought was the comics and puzzles. I pulled out my phone and checked the local news. My dad had been arrested! There'd been no messages from him or missed calls. Just as I was reading the news article, there was an announcement over the loudspeaker for me to head down to the main office.

I stood up, and started heading down.

"See? I told you." The words appears randomly across my vision. "You're going to be looking for somewhere new to live."

I knew it was that guy from earlier, but I didn't know where he was. I tried really hard to picture him in my mind so that I could send him the thoughts. "Did you know this would happen?"

"Not me. The old lady. She thought that you would be a good candidate for a new housemate. She predicted some things, and so far, most of them have come true." I almost had trouble keeping up with what was being said due to how the words just randomly appeared, but I managed to follow it.

"What about Rachel?" I asked.

"The old lady has been holding back on her, but you don't need to worry much. Now, are you in or are out?"

I arrived at the office and there were police officers in there. "I'm in."

Suddenly, everything went dark. I squinted and suddenly I was sitting on a train. Across from me was the guy from earlier.

"What's your name?" I asked, realizing that I didn't know.

He laughed. "You've just traveled through time and that's your first question?"

"I've traveled through time?"

"Yep."

"When is it?"

He moved some of the bracelets to reveal a watch wrapped around his pale wrist. "I'd say it's around yesterday."

"Where are we going?" I asked. I wasn't one to panic, and while this situation was fairly bizarre, I wanted to try and stay calm and rationalize what was happening.

"We're going to get off near your apartment. You're going to get in The Box."

"What is The Box?" It sounded somewhat foreboding.

"My home. It'll be yours as well soon."

Neither of us said anything after that for a while. When the train stopped and he got up, I followed him out and above ground.

As I followed him into an alleyway, I asked, "So what is your name?"

"Cris." There was a bike in the alleyway with a large plastic storage box on the back. He opened it and said, "get in."

I looked into it. There was a ladder that led into a small white room. There was a welcome mat at the bottom. I shrugged, and decided to climb in. Once I got to the bottom, I realized that all but one of the walls were mirrors. I felt uncomfortable, so I looked at the floor where I saw several pairs of shoes.

"Take off your shoes before going on." After I saw the words, the room got slightly darker and the opening above closed. The ceiling, which extended horizontally past the hole, had a light hanging from it. It swayed slightly, though I didn't feel any breeze.

I pulled off my sneakers and walked up to the white wall that wasn't a mirror with socked feet. I pushed against it and it swung open. On the other side was the woman from the train. She sat in a rocking chair. Half the room was a kitchen and the other half was like a living room. The woman was on the living room side.

The line separating the carpeted floor of the living room and the smooth tile of the kitchen was just left of the doorway. Something that really caught my eye was the bookshelf in the carpeted half.

"Please take a seat." The old woman requested.

I took a few steps forword and the white door swung closed. I sat down in a large brown love seat on the left side of the room. There was a stark contrast in color for the two sides of the room. The kitchen had lots of white cabinets and light grey countertops and light blue furniture. The side I was on had a plush red carpet and plenty of soft, brightly colored chairs to relax in. The bookshelf was bright pink.

"Are those grimoires?" I asked, pointing at the shelf.

"Yes they are," she answered from her black-stained wooden chair, "you may read them, if you decide that you would like to stay with us."

"Why me?" I asked.

"We were passing by and you seemed like a good candidate. You are clearly comfortable with breaking the law, and there are few who would miss you if you decided to leave with us. You also show a lot of potential. What do you say?"

I thought about it for a minute. I'd been thinking this whole time. Finally, I sent her the thought, "Sure. Why not? What's the worst that could happen?"

"That's the spirit."

Cris had been riding the bike to my place, and once he'd arrived at the alleyway where I'd snuck out, he climbed into The Box to get me.

"Come on," he commanded, "We're going to get your stuff."

I put on my shoes, then climbed up the ladder and out of the box. Then, I climbed up onto the fire escape. Cris followed, somehow carrying the bike on his back.

Once we arrived in my room, he asked, "Is this everything you have or is there more elsewhere?"

"No. This is it." I'd brought my bag with me through time, so everything that was in the room was what I had.

"Ok." He opened The Box. He snapped his fingers and the interior appeared different. "Stand back." Suddenly, everything in the room moved and slowly entered the box. Once everything was inside, he told me to get in. I complied and climbed in.

There was no ladder to this room, and I simply dropped in. Luckily I landed alright. The room was large and white with a few lights hanging from the ceiling. On the floor, there was every item from my room. Every thing was about half a foot was from the nearest object. Even the clothing was separated. I walked around and saw an outline in a wall. It was a door.

I pushed it open and it led into a hallway. The hallway had many doors, and at the end was the half-kitchen half-living room room. I took off my shoes, and brought them to the mirror room. When I went towards the Grimoire shelf after, I was stopped by words from the old lady.

"Would you like some help?" she asked.

"I guess..." I stopped and turned around. "I'd like to fix my room."

"Do you know how this space can exist?" she asked me.

"Magic?" I guessed.

She smiled and went to pick up a Grimoire. "It is a concept first introduced in book 40. It was around the time of this book being written that the Recent Book finally made it underwater. The people of fish created many spells that may be used to transform spaces to be used that may not be normally used. There are also spells to change structures. You project them onto the object you want to change. That is how The Box and it's rooms can work."

Made sense. "Any way I can personalize my room if this is where I'm going to be?"

"Of course." She handed me the book. "Can you move objects mentally yet?"

"No." I answered, curious.

"Well just go through that first and I'll find you a copy of #12." She went back over to the bookshelf.

I wrote my name in volume #40 using a pen that was attached to the inside front cover. I settled on reading the marks for changing colors and making sounds visible. The book was one of the longest Grimoire I'd read so far and it was heavy. I could go through it more later.

I traded her volume #40 for #12 and found the page for moving objects. It was page 20 and the symbol was a diamond.

I handed it back to her, thanked her, then headed back to my room. Using the new telekinesis, I sent the furniture to the edges of the room, and put away all my clothes and other objects. Heavier things were harder to move, but I managed.

When I was finished, a few random things were on my desk, including my subway pass. I picked it up and slipped it in my wallet in my back pocket.

I then thought about what I wanted the room to be colored and I drew the symbol on the floor. It didn't take long for the ceiling and walls to look like a starry night sky with trees below the stars. The floor became beautiful swirls of orange and purple.

I laid down on the floor of my room. Cris had apparently dealt with the effects of the time travel and me no longer being at school. Apparently all I'd have to do was take some tests and I'd be fine and able to graduate.

Senior year was almost over anyways. If magic was involved to pass the last month or so, then so be it.

The alternative seemed worse. My dad had gotten arrested for illegal drug trafficking. Among other things. Who knows what would've happened to me if I'd stayed.

According to the old lady (whose name I still didn't know) I had a lot of magical potential. Also, Rachel was very likely to join later.

For the now, I was tired and decided to take a nap.

Chapter 10
Yuki Rey

When I woke up, I wasn't sure what time it was. My phone was dead, which didn't help. I knew it was Saturday though. Wait no. I was reliving Friday.

I walked into the hallway, and winced at how bright the white was compared to my dim room. I headed out to the kitchen. There were two people in there. One was Cris, and the other was someone new.

She was of the lizard class, and had a prosthetic right arm and left leg. The metal was painted green and black to go along with her dark green scales. She wore a pair of jean shorts and a magenta crop top.

When she looked at me, I noticed that her right eye was bright red, while her other was a more natural-looking yellow. She said something to me. I was a bit embarrassed to not understand it.

"Yuki is deaf you idiot." Words appeared around her as Cris sent his thoughts to the both of us. He sat in a red bean bag chair on the comfy half and the woman was eating a sandwich in the kitchen.

There was a brief verbal conversation between the two of them before I saw new words cross my mind.

"Fine. What do you want?" They appeared in a similar manner as Cris's - if a bit more linear.

"I was just going to charge my phone over there." I pointed at the small cube-shaped table next to Cris. There were a variety of different charger cables sticking out from the edge by the wall and I found one to plug in my phone. "How many people live in The Box?"

"I dunno," was Cris's response.

"I'm not usually around, so I don't know either. I didn't even know that the old lady was even looking for a new tenant until just now," the lizard woman thought to me.

"Well, I just got here last night." I pointed out.

"Yeah. I could tell." She put down her sandwich, stood up, and walked over to one of the shelves. She pulled down two volumes, and threw them at me. "Read these."

caught the books and wrote down my name in them. The volumes were #7 and number #15. As always, the first few pages were the same. "Thanks, I guess."

I went to the kitchen and made myself a sandwich. I sat down to eat it as I went through volume #7. Page 16 was about sending expressive thoughts to others. it could also be used to get responses from people who couldn't really use magic, Like the one I already had it would automatically translate thoughts, I lifted the flap then turned the page. This spell was for sending images or specific memories to others. I looked at the mark for that as well.

I continued going through the book, not looking at any marks until I arrived at a certain page. This could be used to read surface thoughts. Not memories or anything like that, just whatever the person was thinking about at the time. There were several warnings about using it excessively. Apparently, it could drive someone crazy. I lifted the flap anyways. I would be careful.

I kept going through the book before stopping on page 103 which was about something called "thought compulsion." It could be used as mind control. I wasn't too interested in doing that so I kept on reading.

When I was done, I moved onto volume 15. Before I began reading though, I asked the lizard girl, “What is your name?" I used my newly acquired expressive thought communication. Unlike with the other telepath, I could see my words vaguely appear around her. I wondered if I could change their location.

"That is none of your business," she replied.

She left to the mirror room. I put book 7 on a shelf, then headed to my room with 15.

I sat down at my desk and started going through the table of contents. I noticed that this volume was heavy on the body modifications. There was stuff on changing hair, skin color, and even race. You could change any distinguishing features you wanted, or even heal injuries using the contents of this volume.

I turned to the page on healing minor cuts and bruises. I read the mark, and almost instantly places all over my body that I didn't even realize were sore began to feel better. Then, I decided to turn to the page I was really interested in.

Gender change. I'd been thinking about it for a long time, and now, with the help of this book I could do it. I read the page. It was just what you'd expect. I lifted up the flap. Nothing happened. I stripped down to my socks and undergarments.

My jeans and hoodie laid in a crumpled up mess next to where I now sat on the floor. I concentrated on the mark as hard as I could. I closed my eyes. Something felt weird. A lot of something. I opened my eyes. It worked!

I burned my bra off, and smiled as the burnt bits of cloth fell around me. I checked between my legs. Much better. Magic was awesome.

I got up, and pulled the jeans back on. They were a bit wide in the hip, but still fit. I couldn't help but admire my newly flat chest. This was great. I'd probably need to get a new haircut though. My mirror had a dresser. I burned away most of my long, brown hair, leaving it nice and short.

There was a light at the door. It looked like sound waves, and the light represented a knock at the door. It stopped, and I went over and pushed open the door. It was a bird person. Her arms were also her wings, unlike some other individuals I'd seen in the city, who'd had separate limbs protruding from their backs. The woman right in front of me wore just a simple yellow dress, and her feathers were all a bluish white.

She was excited, and said to me mentally, "Welcome to The Box, Yuki. I hope that you enjoy your stay here, and have a lot of fun. Have you been to the pool yet?"

"The Pool?" I repeated, slightly overwhelmed by her enthusiasm. I was also wondering how a pool could exist here. I decided not to question it and just shook my head.

"Oh you haven't been yet? Let me tell you, it's the best thing in this whole place. You can just go in and relax, and you'll be fine." She gestured for me to come and follow her. I stepped out into the hallway. After checking my back, she pulled a face. "Have you read volume #15?"

"Yes."

"Clearly not well enough. Is the copy in your room?" she asked.

"Yes."

"Go and get it."

I complied, and then handed it to her. She flipped through it, then handed it to me. The page was 60, and the mark was about allowing the three races outside of fish and amphibian to breathe underwater. I lifted the flap. Once the mark was on me, I tossed the Grimoire into my room, and pushed the door closed.

"What's your name?" I asked.

Aileen. It means light and..."

I zoned out as she led me down the hallway, down away from the kitchen/living room. I wasn't too interested in the origin of her name.

She pushed open a door at the end of the hallway and gestured for me to follow. I did and noticed that this room was much warmer. There was a bit of white floor around the edges of the room. Enough to make a running jump into where the water gets deeper, which I didn't do. I just waded into where it was still shallow. A massive pool filled most of the room that I could see. The water was clear and the floor was a variety of shades of blue. I noticed that there were some white walkways through the water further out.

"Take off your pants, unless you're sure that they're clean. It’s rude to have dirty clothes in the pools. Especially the food ones. I don't know where he is, but Bell will be mad." Aileen said. She pulled off her dress, revealing that she didn't wear underwear, and confirming that those of the bird don't have boobs. She flew off into the ceiling, and disappeared up to some higher floor I didn't see. All I saw was a gap in the ceiling and the edge of some platform I couldn't get to.

I shrugged and tossed my pants onto the dry floor and then cannonball jumped into the water. I sunk to the bottom and attempted to stay down there using the breathing mark. Just because I could breathe though, it didn't mean I could see. I sat there, eyes closed for a bit, before getting out and grabbing volume 15. Page 62 had a spell for those other three races to see underwater. I read it, then returned to the water.

It was surprisingly comfortable down at the bottom of the pool. I noticed that the shade of blue reflected how deep the floor was. The darker the color, the deeper. The floor up above was such a light shade that it was almost white.

I swam towards the closest dividing wall. It was solid, so I swam up, and climbed onto the top. I looked over to see that the other side contained a whole fishy ecosystem. The bottoms covered in corals and seaweed. I bent down and tasted the water. It was salty. I didn't want to disturb the life, so I sat down with my legs in the water and watched the colorful beauty before me.

I wanted to tell Rachel about all this, but I didn't want her to be upset or feel like I was abandoning her, which I kind of was. I wanted her to come so bad, but she couldn't leave her mother. Well, adoptive mother. Still, I selfishly wanted her to come. Maybe if I sent her my memories of the time I'd been here she would want to come.

I stood up and walked to the entrance and my pants. I dried myself off with small flames and slipped on the pants. I went to my room and grabbed a pair of sneakers and a red button down plaid shirt. As I made my way to the mirror room, I buttoned up the shirt. Before I climbed up, I did the laces on my shoes.

I climbed up and pushed the lid to look around. I didn't fully recognize the new location but saw that the bike was in an alleyway. I climbed out and went down to look out into the street. I'd been here before. This area had lots of good bakeries and stuff like that.

It was evening. I had a good idea of where Rachel was and reached out to her with my mind. It was surprisingly easy.

"Hello." I sent to her.

"Yuki? Where are you? I read the news, and I've been worried sick. Are you ok?" I found myself mentally helping her send me those thoughts. I guess that the other spell wasn't too great with long distances.

"Don't worry. I'm alright. Are you along right now?

"Yes, why?"

"I'm going to fill you in on what's been going on. Ready?"

"I guess."

"Ok." I concentrated on the memory mark. I hadn't used it yet and hoped that it would work. I sent her all the memories I'd had since walking down the hallway to the office earlier. "Get that ok?"

"Yeah." I wasn't sure what her reaction was without seeing her in person. "I'm not surprised you're a guy now. Although I guess you were always one. I'm glad that mark exists."

"So will you come?" I asked, changing the subject.

"Yeah, no offense but I don't trust the last of my school life to be magically completed. If I can, I'll join you after I graduate."

"Yes!" I thought a minute. "Do you want to keep your copy of volume one?" I asked.

"No. I don't want to risk getting caught with it. Any chance you could take it?"

I glanced around, then using the time acceleration, I ran over to Rachel's place. By the time I got there, I was a bit tired from running. Even though I less time had technically passed, I'd still had to go that whole distance myself.

"I'm at your front door." I mentally said to her.

She opened the door soon after, book in her lap. "See you around," she said, handing it to me.

"See you around." I replied, taking it.

We paused for a second, and I reached out to hug her.

"I'm gonna miss you." We made the thoughts simultaneously. Our minds were a mix of various farewells and promises.

We broke apart. I stood there a bit longer before returning to The Box. I was going to need to keep my goggles on me if I was going to make a habit of going this fast. Especially if I was going to check for more efficient versions in later volumes.

Chapter 11
Yuki Rey

As I was about to get in The Box, I saw Cris coming with a bag of donuts. They smelled delicious.

"You shouldn't be leaving the box when you don't know where it is." He told me.

I was confused. "But I do know where it is."

"Still. We travel a lot, and we're about to leave the city. You wouldn't want to be left behind, now would you?"

"I guess not."

"Get in." He followed me down and into the kitchen, where he placed the bag on the counter. "You may take one. Any more and you're going to regret it." He went back to the mirror room, and presumably, up to ride the bike.

I looked at the bag. After a moment, I went up and opened it up. I took a glazed donut, then went to put away Volume #1. There were several ones on one end of the shelf, so I put it there.

I went back to my room and volume #15. I flipped through, looking for something I could use. Nothing really caught my eye.

I turned to page seven and wrote in "time manipulation." A lot of results came up for Volume #42. I quickly got up to grab that one. I was glad that the volumes weren't really disguised here.

One of the first things in the book was "stop time" which seemed a hell of a lot more convenient than "slow time." There were way more warnings about how this could affect your body than the other one. There was a recommendation to page 73 of volume #15 before attempting this.

15 was next to me, so I grabbed it and turned to that page. It was a spell to strengthen the durability of your body. There was a warning that you shouldn't take it to any extremes and that it wouldn't make you immortal. I read the mark and then went back to the other Grimoire. I decided to read the "stop time" mark.

I practiced moving around using it. After one or two attempts, I grabbed my goggles to shield my eyes. I continued to practice.

Several days had passed since I'd first started living in The Box. It was now Tuesday. I'd spent most of this time strengthening my abilities and working out in the pool room. I'd had a lot of trouble activating the marks to breath and see underwater at the same time for a long period of time, but after a while I got used to it.

I'd also discovered the other sections in the pool room, such as a small round hot tub, a saltwater pool with no life in it, and a freshwater pool filled with fish. Upon further inspection, I'd discovered that some of the inhabited pools contained crabs and lobsters. Aileen often made sushi to share with Cris and I, which got me wondering about the true purpose of these creatures here.

Yesterday, I'd gone online to see what John had been up to. He'd obviously been out of a job since I left, and my father got arrested, so I wondered what he was doing now. After looking up his name, I discovered that he'd gone into the porn industry. He also had a large cock. Good for him.

I also checked the news near my old home and noticed that there were security camera photos of me hopping the turnstiles. They were trying to find me to fine me. Luckily I looked different now. Also I was far enough away to evade consequences.

Today, I decided to go and attempt to communicate with the creatures in the biggest of the inhabited salt water pools. I sent my thoughts out to the creatures. "Hello. How are you?"

No response.

"Hello. How are you?" I repeated.

"I heard you the first time," came an unusual response.

"Sorry to bother you." I replied, trying to focus on whoever had answered me. "Who are you?"

"Why don't you come down and see for yourself?"

I shrugged, then dived into the water. Aileen had given me a pair of swimming trunks. She was nice, if a little talkative. I was mostly glad that I was now able to complain about someone being talkative.

As I swam down, I said, "So where are you?"

"Are you the human that just jumped in?" was the answer.

"Yeah."

"I don't want to talk to you anymore."

"Why not?" I looked around trying to figure out where the words came from. There was no further reply.

Disappointed, I left the salty pool. As I walked along the paths out of the room, I produced small fires along my body to dry off. I went to my room, and got dressed in a t-shirt, shorts, and sneakers. Lately, it'd been much warmer outside. I guess the bike was heading south.

I went to the mirror room, and climbed up. I knocked on the ceiling door, and waited. After a bit, it swung up so I climbed out.

"I'm going to be going through this town. I'll be out in about an hour. Try not to go to far away." Cris told me from where he sat on the seat of the bike.

I gave him the thumbs up, then headed off. This town, while much smaller than where I'd previously lived, had streets that were incredibly full of busy people doing things. The streets has more bikes and carts than cars. Everything from the buildings to the ground to the plants appeared more orange and earthy compared to the blues and grays and greens of the city that I'd known for so long.

The streets were lined with vendors selling treats and other various things. I stopped at a stand, and picked up a lollipop. It said $0.50 and so I handed the vendor a dollar hoping he'

accept it. He did, and in response, I was given a fifty cent coin. The problem now was that there was a dragon on it.

The dragon wasn't in the image of the coin, it was a real creature that had its body wrapped around the coin. It was red with four legs, wings and a long tail.

I'd never seen a dragon before and was surprised to see one so small. I took it and looked at the vendor confused. He said something.

I pointed to my ear and shook my head. He wrote something on a notepad, then handed me the sheet. "he like to travel" was written on it. The vendor pointed at the dragon and smiled.

I shrugged and placed the creature on my shoulder. I unwrapped the lolly and crumpled up the wrapper in my hand as I walked down the street. Placing the candy in my mouth, I burned the wrapper and discreetly let the ashes fall.

I didn't stop anywhere else, I simply walked through the streets, slowly following the bike and The Box from a distance.

It was a pleasant experience, walking around on this warm spring day through a place I didn't know among people I didn't know. The dragon clung to my shirt and snored softly in my ear.

There were so many people, running around and doing the things they did. Unlike in Denner though, here everyone was talking to each other and communicating. I decided to activate the mark to listen to surface thoughts nearby. There were people greeting each other unprompted outside of cashier/buyer small talk.

Something that was similar to my old city was the strays. While my past city had less wandering dogs, there had been plenty more cats. I could see some vendors sneaking snacks to dogs without collars.

I almost wanted to take some of the wild dogs, because of how cute they were, but decided against it as I had the dragon now and didn't want to disrupt the balance of the box. What if someone was allergic? Eventually, my lollypop had completely disintegrated in my mouth, and the stick had the same fate as the wrapper.

I continued walking when I saw some concerning thoughts. Someone was being held at gunpoint. I tried to follow the thoughts. It was in a nearby store. There were too many people in the way. I thought for a bit. Maybe, I could combine my telekinesis and fire to burn the gun out of the guy's hand.

I attempted it and the building caught fire. I stood there, horrified. It soon went out, I don't know how, but still. I ran to where Cris was and climbed into The Box. I noticed some bags on the floor of the mirror room.

I headed to the kitchen, trying to distract myself from what had happened. I placed the now awake dragon on the counter. The tiny scale creature was absolutely adorable with its small face and little horns. It held the coin with its long tail.

I looked in the fridge, then pulled out a small piece of leftover sushi. I placed it in front of the dragon. It sniffed it suspiciously before it began to nibble on. it. The dragon grinned the meat off the top with its front paws as it at it.

I gave the dragon a few more pieces before leaving to go to my room. Once the creature was done, it followed me, holding the coin in its paws as it flew.

I sat down on my bed, and asked, "is that your treasure?"

"Yes," was its somewhat unexpected reply.

"You can use telepathy?" I asked.

"Yes, of course. I am a dragon, how else would I communicate?"

Well. Ask an obvious question and you'll receive an obvious answer.

"Why did you come with me?" I asked.

"I've heard about this traveling box, and I wanted to investigate. So far, I like it." The dragon landed on my desk. "What is your name?"

"Yuki." I answered. "What about you?"

"That is a strange name for a fire human." The dragon ignored my question.

"What do you mean by that?" I asked.

"You're called 'snow' which is opposite of your core ability." The dragon informed me.

"I didn't know that." I paused. "So what is your name?"

"I am Rage," the dragon stated proudly.

"Your name is Rage?" I asked in mild disbelief.

"Yes." It sat up a bit straighter. "A mighty name for a mighty dragon."

"Alright then. It's nice to meet you, Rage."

"It's nice to meet you too, strange human."

Chapter 12
Yuki Rey

The next day, I didn't do much. However, I finally took those tests that Cris said I needed to graduate early. I wasn't sure what magic he was using to discreetly get me to pass high school early, and I didn't much care. Otherwise, I spent most of the day contemplating the fire that I'd caused.

After dinner, I left The Box. Most everyone was in their rooms. The bike was leaning against an odd-looking tree in the middle of a strange forest of unfamiliar plants.

I'd heard that once we crossed this area, we'd be out of the country and somewhere magic was legal. I knew that it was unlikely to happen, but I wanted to see a mer country. The idea fascinated me, and I never understood why they were seen as bad. Other than the heavy reliance on magic, of course.

I created a small fire in my hand to guide myself as I wandered in the darkness. Before long, I came across a girl sitting at the base of a tree with her eyes glazed over. Worried, I crouched down in front of her and moved my fire hand in front of her eyes. There was no reaction.

I noticed that her tongue was sticking out. It was light blue, instead of pink. Nothing was swollen, and she didn't look injured. I tried to send her a thought but it bounced back to my mind. What was going on?

"Hands off!" The words appeared in my mind, dark and threatening. I froze, very slowly removing my hands from the girl's body. Luckily, she still had a pulse. "Turn around." The words came, unnerving in their appearance, so I complied.

When I turned around, I saw there was a unicorn. It was pale blue, and its tail, mane, and horn were a shade that was almost white. Its hooves were a deep dark blackish-blue. The eyes were pure white, with nightmarish black pupils that stared down at me.

"Hello." I meekly thought to the massive creature.

"How dare you disturb my prey?" it demanded.

"Well, I didn't actually know that this was yours." I felt ashamed to the girl like that, but I was scared. I'd heard of the stuff that these things would do. I slowly stood up. "Well, I'll be off now-"

"Don't even think about it." The massive horned horse leaned in. I noticed that there was a scar around the left eye. "I'll know."

"Sorry." I instinctively apologized. My mind was racing with what the thing would do to me. What could I do? Try to burn it? Or could I stop time and run away? That might work. I stopped time briefly, and tried to pick up the girl, but the mark quickly stopped working.

"I said don't even think about it." The words rippled through my mind, and I looked back up at the beast.

I steadied myself, and demanded, "What do you want?"

The unicorn seemed surprised that a human had stood up to it, both literally and figuratively. As it should be, I doubt that anyone typically would. I wasn't feeling suicidal, but for some reason I found the confidence to confront the creature.

When I got no answer, I asked it another question, "Why did you do whatever it is you did to this little girl?"

"She threw a cup into the woods, and had no intentions of picking it up," was its response.

Made sense. Unicorns were known to attack people who littered in their forests. I wanted desperately to save this kid, but at this point, the most I might be able to do is save myself from this psychic beast.

"Well, then that's clearly not good, but see, I didn't know about that and in the end, I didn't do anything to you, so really you should let me go," I tried to convince it.

"You feel sympathy for my prey," it said. "You think what I did was bad."

"I didn't say-"

"But you thought. You thought it, and that's what matters. Perhaps you'd like the same fate."

"No, not really." I tried to back away, but my feet were stuck to the ground.

Unicorns were infamous creatures. They protected forests, and they were extremely hostile. There were three types of unicorns. There was the yellow ones, who would simply argue with you, possibly move you telekinetically if they really didn't like what you were doing. Overall, the yellows were harmless. There was there red ones, who would slowly eat you, tearing you apart limb by limb if they didn't care for you. Finally, there was the blue ones. No one quite knew what they did, but you'd end up with a blue young, a strong sense of euphoria, and a total lack of consciousness. Once a blue unicorn got to you, you never woke up.

"Too bad." The unicorn bared its teeth, which were much sharper than you'd expect.

Suddenly, Rage appeared. All of its little extremities were glowing red-orange as it flew between myself and the unicorn.

"You will leave this human alone," it commanded.

The unicorn took a few steps back. I guess it was afraid of the dragon. That was good.

"Who are you to tell me what to do?" the unicorn demanded, its words seeming less intimidating.

"I am Rage!" Rage let out a breathe of fire that seemed too large for such a small creature.

The unicorn, now burned, growled angrily. “Pathetic human. Calling upon your pet to help yourself instead of fighting”

A beam of light energy came from its horn, hitting me in the chest. It burned, but it quickly healed. The light disappeared, and I fell, tired from the self-healing.

I looked over at Rage, and held out my right hand, supporting it with my left. The two of us counted mentally to three, and both let out a stream of fire to hit the unicorn. It’s blue fur smelled as it burned. It ran away angrily, leaving a trail of heavy footprints.

"Thank you." I said to Rage.

Rage turned to me. With shaky letters he thought, "I can't believe that worked."

"Well it did, and I'm grateful." I thought for a bit. "How did you know to come?"

"I followed you out here. I wanted to stretch my wings. When I saw the unicorn I knew you were in danger, so I went to help. I knew that they're scared of dragons." Rage landed on my shoulder. "I'm glad I could help you despite being so small."

"So am I. I think I'll keep you around with me from now on." I gently went to lift up the girl. "Come on, let's go back to The Box."

Chapter 13
Yuki Rey

A day had passed with the girl laying on a couch in the living room. It was Friday. Cris said that I was crazy for trying to save someone from a unicorn attack, especially from a blue one as they were so unpredictable. He didn't know what to do for the girl, and neither did Aileen or the old lady.

I was sitting on the floor across from the girl, eating a sandwich when Bell showed up. So far, I'd only heard about him through Aileen.

He was a bit strange. He wore a pair of damp sweatpants and a tee shirt. His head wasn't covered with scales, but they were placed on his head where hair was on my own head. He also had scales on the outside of his arms. The scales were yellow, and his skin was a paler shade of the hue. I found it strange that he had so much exposes skin. Reptiles tended to be covered.

"I'm not a reptile, I'm a fish." The words shook into my vision.

Well that made sense. He walked over to the girl and placed a hand on each of her cheeks. Bell closed his eyes, and suddenly the girl started coughing. Bell stepped back as she leaned over and puked up something pale blue. It was like a goop. Bell did something, and suddenly, all the goop was hovering above his hand as a sphere.

"I'm going to study this," he said as he left and weren't down the hallway to go wherever it was he was going.

The girl opened her eyes and began to sit up. She said something, and I noticed her tongue was back to being pink. I read her surface thoughts. "Where am I? What happened?"

"You are safe. You were attacked by a unicorn."

Her eyes widened. "Your voice is in my head."

"Well, I can't hear, so I use telepathy to communicate," I explained.

"Did you use telepathy to make your voice sound so sexy?" she asked.

"Well, I just see thoughts as written words, and don't really understand sound..." I said, a bit embarrassed.

"So, you're just naturally sexy?" She thought. Her mouth moved, making it seem like she also said it aloud.

"How old are you?" I asked.

"Thirteen."

"Alright let's go," I headed towards the mirror room.

"Wait! Aren't you going to nurse me back to health? Be my knight in shining armor? Fall in love with me as you help me one day get revenge on that beast that brought us together?" She clearly didn't say it all aloud, but I was still annoyed. Someone was reading too many online fanfics.

"Yeah, no. That's not going to happen. Let's go."

"How old are you?" she asked.

"I'm 17," I answered.

I gestured for her to follow me, and she reluctantly did. I climbed up to the door, and when I opened it, I saw that we are parked in a small town. Quickly, I figured out where the local police station was to drop her off. I wasn't to interested in keeping this girl for long, or going to the effort of bringing her home. She complained when I dropped her off, but didn't follow me back to The Box.

There was a knock at my door. I caught a surface thought and saw that it was Cris. I opened the door.

"Come on. We're going under and you need to get registered."

I followed him up and out of the box. The bike was on a dock leaving to a submarine. Bell was there, talking to someone. I walked up to him and was pointed to a massive grimoire sitting on a pedestal.

"You have to read certain marks before descending. If you are against the practice of magic, then you may not enter." The words spilled out of the mouth of the pink fish lady that Bell had been talking to. She wore a type of uniform that reminded me of an airplane stewardess.

There was a pen hanging from a strong on the wooden pedestal. Page number one was lined, like a registry. I saw that Cris had just written his before me. His full name was Cris P. Bacon. Odd.

I wrote my name under his. There were a few pages that were tabbed, so I flipped to them, checking the marks after reading the pages. They were for surviving under a lot of water pressure, skin protection against salt water, eye protection against salt water, and translating all verbal languages. There were also two for modifying if your feet and hands were webbed. There was another mark for breathing underwater that I read anyways to be safe.

After I read the marks, I was told some basic information on where we were going and some basic rules. I was excited to see the underwater city, and was glad that the overall laws seem to be similar to being above water.

I wanted to ride in the submarine as it went down, but I was required to wait in The Box so I didn't take up too much space. Only Bell was riding outside of it. I hadn't seen Aileen since this morning and was wondering if she'd be going out underwater. It didn't seem likely. The old lady seemed more likely to go underwater, but I hadn't seen her either.

I waited in the mirror room. After a few minutes of excited boredom and internal debate, I got up and went to my room for my goggles. If nothing else, they would be an extra layer of eye protection.

"What's going on?" Rage asked from where he sat on my bed.

"We're going to an underwater city." I told him.

"Why?"

I thought for a bit. "I don't know."

"Well, the water better not get in here." He said, "I hate water."

"Alright," I said, securing the goggles on my head. I returned to the mirror room.

Cris had removed his shirt, along with most of his jewelry. I noticed that he was a bit shorter than myself. I'm around 5'9. "Its harder to move underwater, so you want to reduce drag." He explained. "Also, the fish, see marks as a symbol of pride, so having them visible is a good thing there. Even the women go shirtless."

"Makes me wonder what strip clubs are like down there." As soon as I realized I sent him the thought, I froze, embarrassed. I couldn't believe I said that.

"Let me give you a tour, and you won't have to wonder," he replied. "That is, if you're into tails."

"No its-"

"Don't worry. You don't have to say anything else. I get it." He smiled and I rolled my eyes.

Suddenly, the door opened, lighting up the room. Bell called down to let us know we could come up, I pulled off my shirt, dropped my phone on the floor, and started climbing after Cris.

When my head emerged from The Box, I nearly choked to death. Just outside the opening of The Box, there was water everywhere. There was some kind of barrier that kept it from spilling into The Box. Luckily, I activated my marks in time. I noticed that on Cris's back, the marks for surviving underwater are a dark orange, instead of the black of all the other tattoos.

As I adjusted to being underwater and all the modifications that came with it, luckily physical changes were more permanent than other spells, I noticed Bell. His legs had been replaced by a long, narrow, yellow tail.

It took me a bit to get used to moving with webbed toes and fingers, but it helped me move around in the end.

We were located just outside of a normal-looking house. Bell told us to wait outside as he went in himself. After a bit, he returned with a man who looked like an older, more orange version of himself, and a woman who also looked like him, if a paler yellow.

"These are my parents. We'll be staying here for the next few days." He let us know. He then introduced Cris and I to them.

"Welcome, both of you." Like with the woman from earlier, the words spilled out of Bell's mom's mouth.

"Thank you for inviting us." I thought to them.

We entered the house. The living room looked relatively normal. Bookshelf, carpet, the works. Some of the furniture looked modified for use by someone with a tail, but it still looked normal. Cris brought in the bike and rested it against the wall next to the front door before shutting it.

"Well then, it's nice to meet you, but I've got to take Yuki here on a tour." Cris said, grabbing my hand and leading me out of the house.

I waved goodbye, and headed out to the underwater world.

Chapter 14
Rachel Haglee

I sat in my chair, staring in front of me at what I had created. A pair of mechanical legs. I'd created the designs over the course of the past several years, but with the help of the marks from the Grimoires I'd obtained, I could finally create them. The question now was, would they work?

I was about to test them out when I heard Yuki's voice in my head. It came from my right and sounded far away. He was saying hello.

"Hey, Yuki," I replied, hoping that he wasn't reading my mind too much.

"So, how've you been?" he asked.

"I've been alright. Same as always." I decided not to mention the legs. "You?"

"Mind if I send memories?" he politely requested.

"Sure." Suddenly, my mind was flooded with silent memories of meeting a dragon and encountering a unicorn, and finally an underwater strip club. "You're in a strip club?"

"Yeah. It's really boring." He did sound bored. I wished that he'd contacted me more often, but at least he had me. He seemed busy though in that interesting box thing for the most part. Until now I guess.

We chatted a bit about the past few days, before doing the mental equivalent of hanging up.

I turned back to the legs. I hadn't told Yuki, but I'd read all the marks in both Volume #1 and #18. Not all of them worked for me, but still. I'd done it. I don't know why I didn't want him to know about it, but I didn't. I grabbed the legs and strapped them to the pathetic stumps at the bottom of my body.

Carefully, tentatively, I stood up. I stumbled slightly but managed to stand. It worked! I walked circles around the room until I got dizzy and nearly fell.

I hadn't been able to walk since I was a little girl. I was so happy that magic had, in a way brought me back my legs, although maybe a bit shinier. It probably couldn't bring back my parents, but still. Now I was crying. I sat down on the floor.

After a few minutes, I managed to pull myself together, and move over to the closet. There was a pair of pants and a pair of shoes that Yuki had left some time I couldn't remember. I pulled them on, so glad that I could.

My mom was at work, so I had no trouble leaving the apartment. As I walked out in the streets, I spent a lot of time looking at the ground, making sure not to trip over anything.

I went down into the subway to actually sit on one of the benches along the walls of it. I didn't pay attention to where the train was going, I was too excited.

The marks I used to change rocks into metal for my legs were my favorite of all the magic spells from the Grimoires. The subway train loudly clattered along, and I got off at the next stop.

I wandered down the street a bit, before stopping at a coffee shop. There was a pride flag hanging in front of it, and I went in. The cafe was cozy. I went to sit down after ordering a drink and a chocolate chip cookie.

After a few minutes of watching people out the window, someone sat down in the other seat of the small table that I sat at.

"Is this seat taken?" The woman asked. She had light green scales and wore a pretty yellow long sleeve shirt, a purple hat, and red jeans. She was absolutely gorgeous.

"No it's not." I replied, flustered.

She giggled. "I haven't seen you around here lately."

"I don't think I've ever come in here," I answered. I took a bite out of my cookie. It might've been rude, but I was hungry.

"What's your name?" She asked me.

"Rachel. What's yours?" I tried to just keep eye contact with her, but my eyes wanted to roam over her beautiful body. I swear I'm not shallow, but if you'd seen her you'd understand.

"I'm Marigold." She replied. "Any chance you don't have plans tonight?"

I thought about the homework I had waiting at home. "Nope."

"Well that's good. I have two tickets to the Romanna concert and my friend just bailed." She leaned in seductively. "Any chance you're a fan?"

I was wearing a t-shirt for the band. "Hell yeah!"

She leaned back. "Fantastic. Let's go." Marigold stood up and headed out of the cafe.

I shoved the last of the cookie into my mouth and chased after her, carrying the coffee cup.

"How did you get the tickets?" I asked her.

"Called into a radio program," was her answer.

"Nice."

We spent a while talking as we walked. She was a freshman in college. I was a senior in high school. She lived across the city from where I was. She had a little brother, and an annoying roommate. She was so cool. Mainly in her demeanor and personality. I was definitely attracted to her. Maybe that's what led me to just follow her blindly like this. That and the excitement of legs. Ever since I'd read those books I'd been more reckless. Like Yuki.

Maybe that strange woman was behind it. Maybe not. Either way, it seemed to be going well for me. I had a date.

The concert was fantastic. We had a blast. Once it was over, Marigold admitted something to me.

"I invited you on a dare. My friend said that she didn't want to go, and so she said I had to go and invite someone I didn't know and make a new friend."

"Well, I'm glad your friend did that because as a result, I had a great evening." I thought a bit then asked, "Any chance that you'd like to keep in touch?"

"Of course! You seem great. I'd love to get to know you more."

We exchanged contact info. When she turned to leave, I noticed something I hadn't before, there was a dark circle underneath her shirt on her back. I decided to ignore it and head home.

I entered the apartment. I was heading to my room when I heard a shocked "Rachel."

I turned around to see my mom. "MOM!" I looked down at myself. "I can explain."

"I sure hope so." She was between being shocked, annoyed, and happy. Her face was so mixed it was like cake batter.

I pulled up my pants, revealing the metal legs.

"How did you get those?" She demanded.

"I made them. I finally got enough money from a funding project online for the materials. Sorry I didn't tell you. It just happened." I finally came up with a good excuse, even if it was on the spot.

"Well I'm very happy that you've become more mobile. I want to ask you more questions, but you should head to bed. Tomorrow may be Saturday, but you've still got to get some sleep."

"Alright, mom." I went to my room. I'd already had dinner before I went out, and wasn't still hungry so food wasn't a problem. I practiced different magic spells before going to sleep with the legs on the floor next to my bed and Marigold on my mind.

I forgot to take my antidepressant.

Chapter 15
Rachel Haglee

I woke up on Saturday morning realizing that I had nothing to do. I checked my phone. There were several messages from Marigold.

Hello

How are you?

Are you up?

What is your favorite color? Mine is red.

Green.

I replied, knowing full well the implications of my answer.

Cool

You're finally up

Send a picture for me to use for your profile

I was about to comply, but realized that all my good photos showed my wheelchair. I put on the legs, and quickly got dressed. I slipped on a skirt that I could finally wear normally, and a blank red t-shirt. I put on some tiny hoop earrings, and brushed my curly black hair.

I took a picture, and sent it. In response, Marigold sent me a somewhat goofier photo, making me feel silly for going through all that trouble. Well, at least I was dressed.

Want to meet up at the coffee shop again?

Yeah give me an hour

It wouldn't take me that long to get there, but still. I decided to spend about half an hour anxiously doing homework. When I was finished with the math review sheet, I got up to leave. Part of my lower legs were visible as the skirt didn't go all the way down, but I didn't mind. The shiny grey metal was nothing for me to be ashamed of. I wore Yuki's shoes again.

When I left my room, my mother invited me to the table for breakfast. It was pancakes. My mom makes the best pancakes. Yuki likes them. I missed Yuki. He might've been a bit annoying at times, but now that he was gone, I realized how much I love having him around. It was for the best that he join those other magic users for now though. Once I was finished with high school though, I'd join him. For now, I had Marigold.

I walked out into the noisy street. I walked down the sidewalk as I was passed by loud cars to the right. I could hear all around me people shouting. I made my way down onto the subway. Once I'd swiped my card and I was careful to get on the same train as yesterday.

The train was very loud. The street was quieter, the coffee shops even more so. I got a cup of tea, then sat down. I was somewhat early, so I waited.

「おはようございます。」said a familiar voice.

"What?" I replied, looking up at Marigold.

"Good morning." She sat down at the counter next to me. The counter faced a big window that led out to the street. "Languages are a funny thing."

"I guess."

She was wearing a tank top, though most of the reptile class tended to dress warmer than us mammals did. I wore a t-shirt, which technically covered more. I could see the top of her back. There was the curved black line of a mark.

Taking my chances, I sent her a thought. "So, you couldn't get enough of me?"

She spat out some of the drink she had. Aloud she said, "Are you serious?"

I held my hands up, and whispered, "Sorry I saw your back and I thought-"

"No its fine. I'm just surprised by you." She sipped at her drink through the straw. Suddenly, I heard her voice in my head. "How much have you read?"

"Volumes #1 and #18," I answered honestly and mentally.

"Really? Those? Hmm. You don't fit Wess's description."

"What?"

"My cousin. We have a hideout in the woods in central park. About a week ago someone came and copied our volume #18 and then gave us a copy of #1."

"Sounds like my friend." I'd heard about it from Yuki, but I was still interested in this hideout. "Any chance I could visit this place?" I asked, hopefully.

"Not yet. I gotta know that I can trust you."

"We went to a concert together, what more do you want?" I jokingly asked with my thoughts.

"Tell me you aren't using mind control." She said, looking a t me, slightly in distress.

"Um, I don't have a mind control mark." I was confused.

"Then why did I go up to you? Why did I invite you twice?"

"Well, you said the first time was a dare or something. This time, I think you like me?"

There was a brief moment of realization. "Oh my god I'm so embarrassed."

"Its fine. I like you a lot too." I admitted.

"Really?"

"Yes.

I'd never gone off the trail in the park before. It felt exhilarating to go off deep where I wasn't supposed to go.

"Is it true that this forest had earth dragons?" I asked. I'd heard the rumors about them, but had never seen them myself.

"I think so. I've seen prints." Marigold didn't sound very confident. "Here's the place."

She climbed a tree. After a moment, I hesitantly followed her. I could do it! I hadn't been able to climb a tree in years. Eventually I reached the area with the boards to sit on. It smelled like pot, but I didn't say anything.

I noticed some boxes. "Do you keep grimoires up here?" I asked.

"Usually. Lately some of us have been keeping them at home." She sat down next to me. The way I was sitting, my skirt was hiked up so that more of my legs were visible. "You have artificial legs?"

"Yeah," I answered proudly. "I designed them myself."

"That's pretty cool." She paused. "Can I see your back?"

"Sure." I put my hands on the bottom of my shirt then stopped. "Show me yours and I'll show you mine?"

"Alright."

We both pulled off out shirts at the same time. I wore just my bra. Marigold was bare. Her smooth scales were absolutely beautiful. I wanted to touch them. She turned around, revealing the black tattoo on her back. There were quite a few unfamiliar marks on her back. She whistled when she saw mine.

"What'd you do? Read the whole book? You've got lots of mark clusters." She inspected my back. At one point, I felt a cold finger tracing some lines

I turned back around. The beautiful girl in front of me had leaned in very close.

"You know about soul mates?" She asked me.

"Yeah." If you found your soul mate, and kissed them, you could share thoughts, even without magic. It was supposed to be one of the greatest things to happen to a person, and it didn't happen often.

She leaned in further. "Neither of us has advanced thought communication or control marks."

"Nope." I leaned in further and we kissed.

Chapter 16
Yuki Rey

I'd slept on the couch in The Box's living room Friday night. Cris had kept me up all night in the sleazy side of this small underwater town. I wish he hadn't insisted on bringing me along. Its not that I'm against strip clubs, I'm just bored by them.

It was somewhat interesting seeing underwater buildings. Many of them are made from stone and hard plants such as corals. Bioluminescent plants and animals are often used as light source. Furniture is made out of some strange heavy material that looks like but isn't wood. A lot of things seem heavier underwater. vI stood up to go to the fridge and noticed that I still had webbed extremities. I didn't go to the trouble to change it back, and instead opened up the fridge for a can of lemonade. I turned around and noticed Rage on the countertop.

"Got any more of that fish?" he asked.

I pulled some sashimi out of the fridge for the both of us. I placed some in front of Rage and he began to eat it. I lifted some of the strips and ate them, heating them up with my fingers.

"For someone who doesn't like water, you really like fish." I pointed out.

"The best things are often difficult to obtain," he mused.

"I guess."

Chapter 17
Rachel Haglee

We were right! Marigold was really my soulmate. The feeling after we kissed was incredible. It was like my mind was open to a whole new realm of experience. I was one with Marigold.

From then on, we spent most of our time together, except during school. Even then, we spoke with each other in our minds, passing memories and feelings. For gifts, she bought me boots and pants to wear with my new legs. They were so beautiful. We’d even celebrated my 18th birthday together.

The last day of school, I talked to her about leaving with Yuki. She was, of course, on board.

"Wherever you go, I go," she declared.

I assume that she already knew about it as she could read my thoughts and knew my life and promises, but as a formality I spoke to her about leaving. She made arrangements to continue attending her college online in the future after I left to join Yuki in The Box.

By now, I'd already told Yuki all about my magic and my legs and about Marigold. He was very supportive of us, and said that he was looking forward to meeting Marigold. A problem arose as I was arriving home from school on that last testing day, Marigold had been arrested!

I knew magic was illegal, and I knew that the police had ways of detecting it, but I didn't expect for Marigold to be caught. I continued to mentally communicate with her as she was taken into custody and interrogated about the book she had been found with, and who else may have practiced with her. Somehow, they had found one of the Grimoires on her. It was so chaotic I didn't know how it happened.

I threw my bag into my room, and was about to head out when I ran into Yuki at the door. I hugged him.

"Please help me." I begged of him in my mind.

I could feel the sensation of him going through my thoughts to see what was going on.

"Follow me," he sent me the thought, then grabbed my hand and ran outside.

There was a guy sitting on a bike with a large storage box on the back of it. This must be Cris and The Box. Yuki stopped in front of him, and presumably explained the situation to him mentally.

"Get in." Cris said to me, not seeming to care that we were in a public place. Yuki climbed onto the bike, and Cris and I got into The Box.

As I stood in room, I looked at myself in the mirrors on the walls. I was shaking slightly. My dark, round face was reddened with tears streaming from my puffy eyes. I was so worried about Marigold. We were linked, so I knew she was ok, but still. I told her that we were coming for her and not to worry.

Cris was telling me that if I came in, I'd have to stay invisible for the most part and that he'd handle it. He was running through the plan when suddenly he asked me a question.

"Does she use magic?"

"Yes."

"Why doesn't she just burn off her cuffs and escape?" he asked.

"She doesn't want to cause a scene," I replied.

"But we're about to cause a scene," he pointed out.

"She isn't really confident that she would be able to escape on her own," I answered.

"Alright then." Cris seemed somewhat annoyed.

We arrived at the police station. Cris and I got out, while Yuki waited on the bike. Luckily, no one seemed to notice or question how we managed to fit inside such a small box. I was invisible as I exited, so that might've had something to do with it. Cris had told me not to worry about him bumping into me as he claimed to be able to see infrared. That sounded cool.

We went into the police station. Cris claimed to be Marigold's lawyer. They were immediately suspicious. I slipped away and went towards the interrogation room that she was stuck in.

She knew I was there, and she began to smile, much to the dismay of the man doing the interrogation. I reached out, and placed my hands on the two-way glass that showed Marigold and the man. I concentrated on the transformation mark, and turned the glass sheet into marbles.

The man jumped as the little balls feel to the ground. Marigold melted her cuffs, and jumped out of the hole. The two of us ran out of the place. It was going well until we got closer to the entrance where a lot of armed police officers were waiting with guns drawn.

"Are you kidding me?" Cris said. He was still standing at the counter. Suddenly, he appeared on the other side of the room. "Come on, let's go."

We stepped forward and there was the clicking of several guns. In my mind I heard Cris say, "I went back in time and stole all of their ammunition."

The three of us ran out, shoving some police officers on the way. We climbed into The Box, and there were some officers chasing us. Yuki was wearing a cap and goggles now. His skin also appeared considerably lighter than normal. The room swayed before the top was closed as Yuki started pedaling.

Marigold and I stood at the bottom, embracing and kissing one another. I'd made myself visible again.

"You two need to get a room," Cris said.

Marigold gave him a look.

"I mean it pretty literally," he continued. "Yuki is taking us to Rachel's place then yours to get your stuff. It's true, that you are going to be joining us, yes?"

"Yeah." We agreed in unison. I noticed that there were a lot of bullets on the floor.

"We're at your apartment." I heard Yuki's voice in my head. I climbed up out of the box, and Cris followed me. The bike was inside and right next to the door of the apartment. Yuki's skin color was back to normal, but he was still wearing the hat and goggles.

I unlocked the door, and we headed in. Luckily, my mom wasn't home. Cris moved my stuff into a weird room in The Box, and I wrote a note which I left for my mom to let her know what had happened.

I went back into The Box, and we made our way to Marigold's place. When we got there, all her personal belongings were dumped into the box. The furniture belonged to the school for the most part so it was just left there.

The three of us went into the mirror room while Cris began to ride the bike off and out of town. Yuki brought us into the kitchen/living room. He brought us down the hallway and showed us to our room. He said that he'd help us move things if we needed it, but we were fine.

Yuki introduced us to Rage. He was a small red scaly dragon with a long tail wrapped around a 50¢ coin. He was cute.

At the end of the day, Marigold and I retired to our new room. There was, of course, only one bed. We were getting into our pajamas when we made the decision to go to bed nude.

We climbed into bed, and Marigold spooned me. My legs were on the floor. She traced her fingers along my body, making me shiver slightly. She was much colder than me.

Marigold made her touch warmer through fire as she moved her hand between the stumps of my legs. In my mind I could hear her asking me if she wanted me to go further. Of course, I answered yes.

She moved her fingers slowly along my clit, and the soft pleasure was shared between the both of us. She moved a finger into my vagina and teased me by slowly stroking it.

I could feel fire within me as I became more and more aroused. There was also some literal fire as we both created small flames where out bodies touched.

After a bit of teasing me, Marigold finally rubbed me harder and harder, allowing me to cum. I lost a bit of control and accidentally burned the bedsheets. The feeling was incredible, and stronger than anything I'd ever felt before as the pleasure was shared between our minds.

Once we'd recovered, Marigold stood up on the bed, causing me to roll over onto my back. She moved forward, and kneeled over my mouth.

"Lick it," she commanded.

I happily complied and began to taste her pussy. Due to our linked minds, I could tell exactly what she wanted me to do. I continued to stroke it harder and harder until I could feel the pleasure in my own mind. The experience caused me to orgasm again without any physical stimulation.

We continued going for a while until we got tried and collapsed on the bed in an exhausted mess, looking forward to the adventures of tomorrow.

Chapter 18
Yuki Rey

Today was a Saturday where Cris finally filled me in on what we were doing. To be honest, I'd already guessed most of what he said that we were doing. That was, of course, leaving Grimoires in places and recruiting more and more people to practice magic.

Apparently the trip underwater had something to do with this, but he wouldn't say what. He asked me to make 5 copies of Grimoire number one to be spread around the next locations we visited. He went up to the bike, leaving me to make copies.

I was a bit bored, so I decided to experiment with what could be used to make a Grimoire. I went the kitchen, and took a carton of eggs out of the fridge. I held the carton in one hand, and the book in the other. Nothing happened. I wrote my name inside of the first Grimoire. I put the pen down, and picked up the egg carton again. I felt the chill of magic, then suddenly I was holding a second Grimoire.

It was grey and yellow and white. The book was a softcover and parts of the pages felt slimy. Nothing came off though, and it seemed like a perfectly reasonable copy. All the words were written in eggshell blue.

I then went off to the pool with just the original Grimoire. I could see Rachel and Marigold off on one of the paths doing something. I made a successful attempt at making a Grimoire out of water. It was beautiful, the pages were translucent and were sheets of water that moved slightly. The words were written in ice that had solidified into letters. Magic was awesome.

I made two more out of bottles from the recycling bin, then left The Box with just the water one. Cris told me to place it in a public location disguised as something that would attract the right kind of people.

We were located in a large city a few hours away from Denner called Yenke. It was so green. I'd seen plenty of rooftop gardens and trees along sidewalks in Denner, but not to this extent. There were plants everywhere. I kind of knew this town, I'd been here once on a school trip years ago, but it was like the whole place had been through a revolution or something.

There was a massive lake near this place. It was like the equivalent of Denner's forest. As a result, Yenke has far more people of the amphibian race than my hometown.

As I went through town looking for a library, I noticed some protestors. They were advocating for magical use to be legal, and there were a lot of them. Several of the protesters had their backs exposed, showing their circles and sparsely located and tiny marks. None of them had as many marks as Cris or Bell, or even Aileen. Still, there were a lot of circles. The Amphibians in the march were creating flowers along the side of the street. The mammals and the few reptiles were creating small fires on top of their heads that simply sat there, burning nothing.

I almost wanted to join, but I had a job to do. I found the library, and I invisibly went in. I'd since read more into Volume 40, and had acquired invisibility that would make other objects invisible so that no one could see the book I carried. I wandered through the library and just as I was considering leaving the book with someone outside, I noticed someone sitting at a table in a corner.

It was a little girl reading a book. I checked the cover. It was a book of fairytales. I placed the Grimoire next to her on the table, and waited for her to notice it. She did after about a minute.

After looking around for who left it, and checking for a bar code, she opened it up. She seeped disappointed that to her, most of the pages in this incredible book appeared blank. I pulled a pen out of my pocket, and flipped the book to page one. I placed the pen on the table next to the book.

Startled, the girl tentatively wrote her name down. Amy Rivers. I watched as she slowly and excitedly read through the first few pages. After she read the circle mark, she closed the book, and placed it in a bag next to her. It was dirty and slightly ripped, like everything else that she wore.

I watched as she struggled to create fire and was about to walk way when I saw an interestingly sad thought. "I wish whoever left this would take me with them."

I sighed, and made myself visible.

"Hello." I sent to the girl's mind.

"Wow." She thought. "Thank you. Can I come with you? Are you magic?" There were so many words coming out of her mouth and racing though her mind.

With a closer look at her thoughts, I could see that she was an eleven-year-old orphan who'd run away from a group home. I could see how something magical and new would be a welcome alternative, even if little was known about it.

"Oh, alright. Come with me." I sent.

She jumped up excitedly and followed me out of the library. I headed out towards where Cris had parked the bike. We had to go back around the protesters. A police force had appeared since I was in the library to contain the crowd.

As I walked, I noticed an argument break out between some of the protesters and police. A protester pinched an officer in the face, and guns were drawn as he went down. I stopped time, and ran forward, pushing back the crowd around the guy.

I resumed time and said aloud to the officers in an assumedly shaky and hoarse voice, "STOP!" I held up my hands and repeated myself a few times. "STOP!"

I crouched down, and touched the guy, healing his face. I stood back up, and turned around. I sent out my thoughts to the crowd. "Violence is not the answer." I looked at the attacker, who seemed shocked and intimidated by my interference. "Its not the answer."

I walked back to Amy, and continued leading her to The Box.

"That was amazing," she thought.

"Thank you." I intruded her thoughts.

Once we were back in the mirror room, I asked her to take off her old brown shoes.

Aileen and that mysterious lizard woman with the prosthetics were talking in the kitchen. Upon seeing Amy, Aileen jumped up and ran up to her. I explained the situation.

Aileen immediately took her to the bathroom to shower and wash her hair. Somehow, she also had clothing that fit her, as I saw her wearing new clothes when she left the room with Aileen.

"You shouldn't be bringing random kids in," the woman said, taking a sip of her coffee. "That's not really any of my business though."

I didn't respond. What was with her? Why did her shirt have several bullet holes? Why was she seizing me up? Why couldn't I catch any surface thoughts from her?

I felt uncomfortable, so I left the room and went to mine. I was browsing the local news when I suddenly felt the box shake.

Chapter 19
Marigold Johnson

Aileen had introduced us to the pool room. Rachel pretended not to be interested, but I knew better. I carried her on my back to the room. I walked along the edge of the room, and went to one of the paths closer to the middle of the room. After placing Rachel down to sit on the edge, I jumped into the clear freshwater pool.

The light yellow shirt she wore clung to her body due to the water that flung up after my splash. She complained a bit, then reached down with her hand to push water at me when I resurfaced. I smiled, and pushed water back at her.

I wondered if there was a spell that would allow her to regrow her legs, and then suddenly I was worried about her reaction upon reading that thought.

"Can you go and see if there's any book like that?" she asked.

I nodded, and swam off to the door, splashing her as I left. I wasn't too concerned about being seen by anyone else in The Box in just my underwear. When I was at home, my moms and my brother would complain about me wandering around the house naked; and at my dorm room, my roommate was religious and would be slightly horrified at my typical outfits. Most reptiles tend to dress warmer, but somehow, I don't get cold easily despite my blood. Might have something to do with my fire abilities.

I headed off to the room with all of the Grimoires, and selected a Volume #1. I found a pen on a shelf, and wrote my name in it, I then flipped through to page 7 where I wrote down "regrow limbs". I was directed to page 20 of Volume #15.

I found the book, then wrote down my name. I flipped to page 20. This mark would allow you to regrow your own limbs. It worked only one at a time, and used up a lot of energy. You would need to eat a lot immediately after using the spell, the amount of food depending on how much of your body you grew back.

I brought the book to Rachel, and handed her the pen, which had grown somewhat wet while the book had not. She wrote her name down, then turned to page 20. She quickly checked the mark. I had the same weird feeling on my back when she read the mark as when we first kissed. I think that when you have a soul mate, you share all marks. I'd have to check.

Anyways, she read the mark then attempted to get back her legs. After about ten minutes of struggling, her right leg expanded down about a centimeter. She stopped, panting.

"Why isn't it working?" She looked up at me. "All the other spells worked easily, except for fire at first."

"I guess so far the spells you've been trying are things you can do easily. There's some things that I had a lot of trouble doing. Anything involving metal transformation and I'm completely lost." I admitted.

"I guess." She was upset.

I climbed out of the warm water, and sat around her, moving her into my lap. "Its alright." As I embraced her, I could feel a wave of sadness run over her. The memory appeared in my mind, and immediately I knew that it wasn't mine.

In the memory, I could see two people. They stood to the side and were tall. From what I could see of them they looked like Rachel, with dark skin and black hair, but older. Suddenly there was some kind of an explosion, and the memory changed to a hospital room where the point of view looked down to see no legs.

There was adult whispers about a magical terrorist attack, and about what would happen to this little girl now that she had no parents or legs. There was first rolls in a wheelchair, and meeting the one my beloved would eventually refer to as "mom."

I squeezed Rachel tighter as the memory faded from my vision. I'd never know my real parents. I'd only ever known the two women who'd raised me since I was just a baby. A biracial mammal/reptile couple who I loved dearly, but knew weren't the ones who'd created me. Honestly though, they were better seeing as how they actually wanted me. But Rachel's parents had wanted her. It wasn't their fault that they were separated, especially at such a young age.

I was very sympathetic for my soul mate, and wanted her to know how much I felt for her. Through our linked minds, she knew, and we both had a good cry.

When we were finished, I noticed Yuki come in with a Grimoire. He was bending down to touch the water near he entrance.

"What are you doing?" I asked him. He didn't respond.

Through Rachel I was reminded that he couldn't hear, and I felt like an idiot.

"You're not an idiot," Rachel said. "You just don't know Yuki well yet."

"I'll have to get to know him then," I declared.

"Sounds like a plan." I rolled us both into the pool in front of us, and we plummeted to the bottom. Thanks to the marks from chapter 15, we could both breathe. Luckily while Rachel couldn't do all body modification spells, she could do this one.

Once we were sitting at the bottom, I removed her shirt. The mark for breathing underwater was colored orange on her back, indicating that it was in use.

When I moved around to kiss her, I noticed that her eyes were closed, unlike mine. Then, I remembered that mammals had much weaker eyes than reptiles such as myself. Their faces were also much bumpier than our smooth ones. I kissed her on the lips, then nibbles on her ear, which stuck out as mammal ears do.

In my mind, I could feel what Rachel wanted me to do, and I happily did it. Just as I was covering her with kisses, there was a disturbance that caused the calm water to move as a wave, pushing us apart and across the pool.

Chapter 20
Cris P. Bacon

I sat on the bike waiting for Yuki when he came back with a little girl. They both climbed into the box, and I was slightly annoyed at the new addition. The little girl wasn't dressed well though, and I assumed that Yuki had a good reason for doing what he did.

Something that did confuse me was the great number of people who came after them, annoyed. They were trying to open the box, something you can't do unless you're a resident, and we're yelling for "that guy" to come out. I assumed that Yuki had done something to piss them off.

Not wanting to get involved, I teleported to our next location. It was somewhat far, and thus I was exhausted after the jump. It probably didn't do The Box any favors. Whenever I teleported with The Box, the inside ended up being messed up. Oh well.

I slowly rolled around the busy market I was now in, and parked the bike after ordering a shish kebob. I stood next to the bike when Yuki climbed out.

"What happened?" He asked me in his deep, sexy mental voice. I noticed that Rage was perched on his shoulder.

"I teleported the bike. Unfortunately large magical spells can disrupt the internal gravity of The Box. Is anyone hurt?" I sent the thoughts to him so that he would understand.

"No, I don't think so." He looked around. "Where are we?"

"We are in The City of Wind," I informed him. "It is a bird city, as you could probably tell."

All around us were people with wings of all different shapes and feathers of all different shades. There were only a handful of people of the other races. It was a bit odd to be in a city made up almost entirely of one species. It was kind of like being in the underwater city. When I was there though, I was more focused on getting extra support for the Hamsterdamn magic revolution.

"Go get those Grimoires." I ordered him. Yuki complied, soon returning with a bag slung across his back. I noticed that he'd gotten a sweater. Made sense. It was a bit colder at this altitude. The dragon was still on his shoulder. "Alright. Now, you're gonna want to distribute as many as you can, but be careful." He nodded, and walked away. I looked around, then turned myself invisible as I followed him.

He wandered around the vendors (we'd teleported to a market), then slowly made his way into the more residential areas with stationary structures. He walked into a shoe store and looked around. After a bit, I saw him slip a grimoire into a lady's purse. Yuki left the store, and I followed.

As we walked, I looked at my arms. When invisible, only I could see myself, but even then I appeared translucent. My pale skin appeared even paler. Yuki looked nice with his tan skin, hoodie, and jeans. I wondered if he was single. He probably was considering that he never brought anyone up in all the time that he's been traveling with us. Or maybe he was just a very private person. Still, it might be worth asking him.

I watched him as he delivered a few more books to people. With the last book, he fucked up and when the person read it they yelled about it anyhow there was an evil wizard nearby. The two of us took off, running for The Box. Luckily we weren't followed.

Yuki still climbed into The Box anyways.

I made myself visible as I climbed onto the bike, and gradually brought us to our new location. This town was much smaller than the vast cliff city of the birds. I brought Yuki to a gay bar, wondering if he'd take the hint. He didn't and simply asked me why we were here.

"Fun," was my answer.

In response, he nodded. We were sitting at the bar. Men kept coming up to Yuki and trying to talk to him. Every time he did, they walked away going on about his voice and how disappointed they were that he wasn't interested.

Eventually, Yuki left to go back into The Box. I was disappointed. Maybe I should try to actually talk to him. I hid a Volume #1 in the bathroom, then followed him into The Box.

Chapter 21
Yamada Rey

I sat in on the lame bed in the cell, staring at the wall, bored. I should've known that this would happen. I'd gotten sloppy. In trying to care for my daughter, I'd ended up getting myself and her in trouble.

I'd heard that they didn't find her after my arrest was announced. I hoped that she hadn't been kidnapped. I hadn't received a ransom call, so I knew that that probably hadn't happened. Also, the interpreter I'd hired to guard her had reported that she'd just disappeared from the high school just before I fired him.

I knew sign language, but I'd always pretended not to so that I could have someone secretly protecting Yuki. I'd always wondered if she'd caught on to it.

I laid down. I could've gotten out of here if I wanted to, but I figured that I might as well stay. What would be the point if I got out? My whole operation was a mess. Just because one idiot had to get killed. The deal was trafficking only, not murder. I'd help organize moving the drugs and the Grimoires, but I refused to have anyone get killed.

I wished that the police hadn't found the Grimoires though.

If they hadn't found the Grimoires, then they wouldn't have gotten that guy to check my back and find the marks. I found it kind of funny. The government had to hire wizards to capture wizards. I vaguely wondered about my cellmate and what powers he had. Or used to have.

There are charms on the walls of this prison that restricted the use of magic. The only abilities that could be used within the facility were core abilities and even then, they were severely restricted. I'd seen my cellmate creating tiny breezes to try to comfort himself.

We hadn't talked, despite me being here for a week now, but I almost wanted to. It was depressing being stuck in this tiny cell, not being able to see what was about to happen, or be able to melt the bars. Frustrated, I stood up quickly and hurled a pathetically tiny fireball at the bars. It went through them and burned a bit of the floor on the ground in the hallway.

I sat back down. The birdman across the cell from me laughed a bit. I gave him a look and he smiled.

"What are you in for?" I spoke my first words to him. I winced slightly at the cliched words, but I genuinely wanted to know.

"My wife," he started with a slightly sadistic look on his face, "she accused me of cheating on her. I couldn't stand the accusation, so I just had to end her." There was a breeze around the room now, making me have a good guess as to what the murder weapon was. "Then, my mistress found out, and I just had to kill her too. It was easy. Just a little breeze. I'd show you right now if I could. Just wrap it around and whoosh. No more breathing." He was grinning and used his hands to elaborate his words.

I shivered, horrified. I thought of my own wife's fate. Years ago, when Yuki was just a baby, she was kidnapped by a rival gang. I of course did what they asked of me, but they killed her anyways. I couldn't imagine burning her with my fire. I couldn't imagine hurting the woman I loved at all. I suppose that I did end up hurting my daughter with keeping my distance from her. I just didn't want her to get hurt. I guess I really should've stopped a long time ago.

"What about you?" he asked me.

"Drugs." I said flatly. "Grimoires."

He nodded in respect. "Nice."

I didn't want to be complimented by this man. I wondered why I'd been placed in a cell with him and how long he'd been here.

A few weeks later I was lying on the bed listening to my cellmate's mumblings when I heard some commotion in the hallway. There was some yelling, and I could hear the sounds of what I would later discover to be guards being beaten up. I stood up and tried looking through the bars to see what was going on.

After a bit, I saw a Reptilian woman standing in front of me. "Are you Yamada Rey?" she demanded.

"Yes," I answered, eyeing her metal right arm. "If I let you out, are you willing to rejoin the magic resistance front and fight for it to be legalized again?" she asked.

"Of course," was the only reasonable response I could've made so it was what I said.

She used that arm to bend the bars of the cage so that I could slip out. I was a bit worried about my cellmate also escaping, but didn't let it bother me as I followed the mystery woman out of the prison.

Once I was out, I breathed a sigh of relief as I was able to use magic again. I checked the next few minutes and saw that there was a bike with a box on the end that I would have to climb into. I went over to it, and descended into a room filled with mirrors. I saw that there was a variety of shoes on the floor, so I removed mine.

I left the room and entered a room that was split in two. One half was like a kitchen and one half was like a living room. I went to sit down on a couch in the living room half, and waited for the kind bird woman to come in and greet me.

Aileen arrived right on cue and introduced herself after confirming who I was. She brought me to a room filled with rows of clothes in all different sizes and styles. I chose a simple black and green suit.

Aileen brought me to an empty room, and handed me a Grimoire designed to personalize the room to be like however I wanted. This was a significant step up from being in prison, that's for sure. I was changing the shape of the room when there was a knock at the door.

I heard an unfamiliar voice in my head. It said, "Hello, I just wanted to check out the new person. If I'm bothering you, then just tell me to leave."

"You're not bothering me at all," I said aloud opening the door.

On the other side there was a handsome young man wearing a pair of blue jeans and a purple button-down plaid shirt. He had short brown hair and tanned skin. What brought my attention was those bright blue eyes and how they widened in surprise when they saw me.

Chapter 22
Rachel Haglee

I was hurled across the pool and against the wall as the water created waves. I was tossed across the pool again, but soon the waves slowed down and Marigold found me again. She carried me out of the room on her back, and into the living room. vOn our way, I saw Yuki stumble out of his room.

"Are you alright?" I asked him.

"Yes. I'm not sure what happened," he replied. I noticed that Rage was on his shoulder. "I'm going to go out and see."

He left The Box to talk with Cris, and quickly came back. As he went to his room, he explained that Cris had teleported us, causing The Box to be disrupted. When he left his room, he was now wearing a sweater and carrying a bag. He left The Box.

Marigold sat me down on one of the chairs, and went to fetch my legs. Once I had them back, I went to the bookshelf, and selected a Volume. I wrote down teleportation, and found that Volume #12 contained the mark that would grant teleportation. I read the mark, then returned the book.

I concentrated, then I appeared in the air next to Marigold. Unfortunately, I'd only managed to transport myself and my clothing and legs were left behind. vWe spent the rest of the day messing around with the teleportation magic. After reading the mark, Marigold found that she was even worse at it than I was. I guess not everyone was an expert at every spell.

A few days passed when I was sitting legless in one of the chairs in the living room. I'd been using teleportation to get around, I'd gotten to the point where I could bring my clothing with me when I transported myself. I was listening to an audiobook when that cybernetic reptile person came through the room.

I was wary of her. She was a bit weird, and I got an aggressive impression of her. When she came back, it was the shock of my life. She'd returned with Yuki's father! Also she was covered in bloodstains.

I teleported to my room, where Marigold was to tell her about it. Of course, she already knew due to our linked minds, but I still wanted to tell her verbally. She went to go to Yuki's room to tell him about the new visitor. I giggled when she kept it vague and didn't tell Yuki who it was.

After a moment, I could hear Yuki's voice in my head saying, "Holy shit guys you could've warned me."

Chapter 23
Yuki Rey

I couldn't believe it. My father was brought on board. Wasn't he in prison? Didn't he hate magic?

It took everything in me to stay calm.

"So. How are you doing aboard The Box?" I asked stiffly, trying to make eye contact and failing horribly.

"Its been alright. I haven't been here for long." His thinking got a bit more abstract, then he said, "Are you using telepathy?"

"Yeah." I admitted. "I, um, I can't hear so I use telepathy." I nervously rubbed the back of my head.

"My daughter can't hear either," he said obliviously.

"Wow. What a coincidence." I replied.

"Yeah." He held out his hand and I took it. As we shook he said, "So I'm Yamada. What's your name?"

"I, uh, I don't have a name," was my brilliant response.

"What?" He looked confused.

"Excuse me a moment." I let go of him, and ran off at superspeed towards the water room. Once I entered, I closed the door, stripped, then jumped as far as I could (which, boosted by the superspeed was pretty far) and then sulked at the bottom of the pool.

I couldn't believe that he of all people was here. Suddenly, I saw the words of nearby thoughts run across my mind complaining about a splash. I swam up to the top to see Amy sitting on one of the platforms. She was dripping with water.

"Sorry," I thought to her.

"Its fine. Are you ok?"

"My dad is here, somehow," I explained.

"Oh. Isn't that a good thing?" she asked.

"Not really. Last I knew he was in prison."

"What for?"

"I have no idea. The newspapers wouldn't release any details. I haven't checked to see if they've been released more recently, and I don't really care."

"It sounds like you care." Amy was sitting with her short legs dangling in the water. "Although, it is strange that he's here. Did he use magic?"

"No. He hated magic. Marigold said that it seemed like he broke out of prison with the help of that lizard woman." I climbed up out of the water to sit down next to her.

"Lizard woman?" she gave me a look.

"Sorry. 'Reptilian individual.' The one with the artificial limbs. I don't know her name." I tried defending myself against the slip-up.

Amy didn't mention it again. "So what's so bad about having your father on board?"3

"He's a criminal!" I pointed out.

"Aren't you one too? I mean magic is illegal."

I thought about it and the vigilante past that seemed so distant now. I guess I had broken the law in the past. It was always to help people, right? Anyways my father couldn't have been trying to help anyone. He was always so harsh and indifferent to me. I always got the impression that he somewhat cared, with those interpreters that seemed to double as bodyguards, but couldn't he have learned sign language himself? Couldn't he have ever just talked to me.

"I guess I am, but I've never done anything worth going to prison over."

"How are you sure that he has?" she asked.

"Because-" I trailed off. She was right. I may have misjudged my father. I thought a moment. "I've changed my appearance since I last saw my father. He didn't recognize me. I'll invite him to have dinner with me and Aileen, then ask him why he was in prison. Then, depending on the answer, I'll tell him who I am."

"Sounds like a plan." Amy smiled.

I nodded, then dived back into the water.

Aileen served the sushi she'd been arranging, and set it out for my father and I. No-one else was joining us, not even Bell, who'd caught the fish for us in the first place. Amy wanted to eat in her room. When I picked up my pieces, I heated them between my fingers. I preferred my fish cooked. To my shock, I saw flames between my father's fingers as well.

"You can use magic?" The surprised thought escaped my mind and went to him.

"Yes." He looked at me a bit suspiciously, "Doesn't everyone in The Box use magic?"

"Yes, of course." I attempted to cover my tracks. I shoved another piece of sushi into my mouth. "Its just that you didn't seem like the type of person to use magic."

"Ah." He seemed a bit wary at my answer. "Well, I am especially good at invisibility and telling what's about to happen in the next five or so minutes."

I was in shock. It took a lot to stay in control.

"You?" he followed up.

"Um. I'm good at going fast and manipulating my body." I tried to keep the conversation normal. "And telepathy."

"That's always useful." He continued to eat.

What the actual fuck? My dad could use magic? Since when? Why was he here? What the fuck. What the flying shitstick was going on here. WHY?

"So what were you doing before you got here?" I asked innocently.

He paused, then admitted, "I was in prison."

"What for?" I asked.

"Distribution of Grimoires," was his answer.

I didn't know how to answer that. How could my own father have done the same thing I was doing now? How couldn't I have known about it? Maybe I didn't want to know. There were plenty of opportunities where I could've seen what he was doing when he kicked me out of the house via sneaking back in, but I chose not to do it.

On the flip side, he could've always tried to learn more about me. And the fact that he didn't recognize me was upsetting. Sure I was now the opposite gender, but I still looked almost the same as I did back when I looked like a girl. If he'd payed more attention to me, then maybe he would notice. Or maybe I slipped up and called him 'dad' later in this conversation and he already knew who I was but was just keeping quiet?

"You know who I am, don't you?" I stated flatly, glaring at him.

"What?" Aileen said, listening in. She was confused by my hostility.

"Yes I do." He gave me a look. My father gestured towards Aileen. "She's about to say your name."

"Yuki? What's going on?"

I gave her an annoyed look. My father had been speaking aloud. I knew this because I saw his lips moving and his thoughts concentrated as they did when people spoke. Couldn't she have taken a hint and stayed quiet?

"I thought you said you didn't have a name?" he smirked.

"Well maybe I do."

"My daughter's is Yuki as well-"

"I CHANGED MY APPEARANCE!" I thought in all-caps. "I CHANGED MY APPEARANCE DAD. I KNOW YOU KNOW. YOU DON'T HAVE TO BE A DICK ABOUT IT. AND WHAT'S THIS ABOUT DISTRIBUTING GRIMOIRES? I THOUGHT YOU HATED MAGIC!"

"Calm down, Yuki. I didn't tell you about the Grimoires because I wanted to protect you. I recognized you almost immediately after seeing you, I was just surprised, and I wanted you to tell me who you were yourself." He paused, gathering his thoughts. "Honestly I'm not that surprised to see you here. You were always going off recklessly, trying to help people. In all honestly, I'm proud of you, even if I never showed it." He stopped, then signed. He actually signed, "Do you forgive me?"

"You can use sign language?" I asked with my hands. "Since when?"

Since always," was his visual response.

"What about the interpreters?"

"I wanted to protect you. Ever since your mother..." he dropped his hands and a tear rolled down his cheek.

"Let me guess. Mom got killed because of your 'business.'"

"Yeah," he thought.

"Why didn't you stop then?"

"Because I couldn't!"

I stood up, and ran to my room. I locked the door behind me.

"Are you ok?" Rage asked from my bed.

"I'm fine," I grumbled mentally. I collapsed face-down onto the bed next to him.

Chapter 24
Rage

I looked over at the pathetic human next to me. Curious, I went through his mind. He was upset over family drama. So trivial a thing, family drama. Not a month after I hatched from my egg I was cast out by my mother. Us dragons knew better than to create stupid things such as familial ties.

That's why I kept ahold of my treasure. Its better to attach yourself to things than individuals. Individuals will always hurt you. Although, Snow Person should consider himself lucky that his father wasn't being hostile to him. No, not lucky. Something else. Not that it really mattered. Not really.

I sighed, then moved closer to Snow Person and curled up on his side. Suddenly, I felt his hand on my head. He was rubbing it. After scanning his mind, I decided that this action was not hostile. Involuntarily, I began to purr.

As humans go, this human was ok.

Snow Human was swimming, so I had his room to myself. His room was boring, so I left and went to explore The Box. The Box was the same as always, but there were more people than the last time I went exploring. There was this one lady who was tall and wore a grey dress. Her long grey hair was a mess and all her thoughts were sad.

I wove in between her legs, and luckily her thoughts were slightly happier with that. The lights of The Box were dimmed to indicate that it was evening. This mammal lady had come to the kitchen for food. I liked food. I flew up onto the counter for some. Unfortunately, the lady had so much fun feeding me that she forgot to feed herself. With all the stains on her shirt, I hoped that it meant that she was eating in her room.

In the morning I rode on Snow Human to the kitchen for food. He saw his father and turned back around to his room. I jumped off of his shoulder before he entered his room, and headed over to where his father sat.

"Hello, Rage," Snow Human Father greeted me.

"Hi. Do you have food?"

He pointed to the bowl in front of him on the table. It was filled with cereal.

"That's not food," I pointed out from my place on the table.

He laughed.

I glared at him, which unfortunately made him laugh even harder.

I was starting not to like this human.

"Is this why he hates you?" I asked Snow Human's father.

"Who?" he seemed confused for a moment before figuring it out. "Oh, Yuki. Well, I suppose I was never the best father. We were never close-"

"You blame yourself for his mother's death," I said, after going through his mind.

He didn't say anything.

"I feel like you two need to talk more about what's happened. Unless you're just not interested in continuing your relationship. You could just end it if you want, but if not talk. For now, you should feed me, and that's nonnegotiable." I rambled a bit before remembering my hunger.

The human complied, and removed a small, uncooked fish from the fridge and placed it next to me on the counter.

"Is this to your satisfaction?" he asked me.

"Yes." I dug in, munching on the meat until only the bones were left.

When I was finished, I went over to see who was in the comfy zone. All that was there was the little girl called Amy. She was reading a book, so I didn't bother her.

After a moment, I saw Mr. Bacon enter the room. He was heading to move The Box. I followed him out of The Box, and flew around the new area we'd ended up yesterday. It was another forest. I could smell some unicorns in the distance, but didn't think that they'd be much of a problem.

I followed above Mr. Bacon as he moved the bike and The Box along the wide path that cut through the forest. I landed in some of the colorful trees every once in a while to take breaks. In one tree, I found some small yellow juvenile birds. They made a lovely lunch.

I landed on The Box sometime in mid-afternoon. "Where are we going?" I asked Mr. Bacon. "We're going to another town to spread Grimoires," he explained.

"I meant in the long run."

"We're heading to the capital," he explained, "We need to get magic legalized."

"Why?"

"It helps people. The government can't be restricting our freedoms like this."

"There must've been a good reason for criminalizing it in the first place," I pointed out.

"Just because some lunatic created dangerous marks that can seriously hurt people, that doesn't mean that the whole practice should be outlawed." He sounded angry.

"Are you telling me that in all of human history its only recently that magic has been used to hurt people?" I never really understood human magic. It always seemed so artificial and weird to me.

"No, but this person created such specific and sadistic spells that they were seen as being too dangerous. They were designed in such a way as to make it nearly impossible to defend yourself. Yes, someone could be drowned or burned using core abilities, but that's nothing compared to having your bones slowly disintegrate inside you as you're still alive."

"I'm sorry what?" Humans came up with bizarre and horrible things but that was just insane.

"Yeah that's not even the worst of what is in volume 55. I haven't read it myself, but I've heard about the things that are in it." Mr. Bacon stopped the bike. "Come on. It's late." He leaned the bike against a tree. "Let's go inside."

He opened The Box and I followed him inside. I flew to Snow Human's room, and curled up on his bed to sleep.

Outline/Planning/Notes

“Mute” Yuki/Yamada
Deaf
Uses shoes with sensors
Vigilante hero
Biker helmet with set up inside where Ray listens for him and visor has info display where Ray types out info
Trans guy who is in closet and presents a lot more masculine when fighting. Partially to hide identity, partially because this is who he really is
Uses electronic notepad for communication. Notepad is on a string attached to him all the time so it doesn’t get lost
Mother is dead
Father is alive. While he is a druglord, he takes very good care of his son (who he sees as being his daughter but still) having a criminal as a parent was a part of why Yamada wants to be a hero
His father made him take a lot of martial arts lessons so that Yamada knows how to defend himself. He also taught him how to use various weapons so that he can keep himself safe. Yamada likes it because it helps make him feel more masculine when he fights.
“Mammal human”
Dark hair
Tanish skin

“Sidekick” Ray/Rachel
Female (cisgender)
Really gay. Yamada keeps trying and failing to get her a girlfriend
Always keeps a notepad and pen in case Yamada’s electronic one’s battery dies
Tech genius. Constantly coming up with new inventions but doesn’t usually have the resources to create them
Restricted to a wheelchair. When she was really little she was caught up in a terrorist attack and ended up losing her legs
She created Yamada’s equipment
“Mammal human”
Brown eyes
Black hair
Dark brown skin
Round face

Grimoire They Find
Pages are indestructible and can’t even be stained
Cover is disguised as “history of magic” but really it's about the basics of magic and how to use it (reason is because the practice and teachings of magic is illegal in the united states)
If someone manages to own it and writes their name under “this book belongs to” then the pages appear blank to everyone whose name isn’t written there
Every chapter is of a different length and explains how to use a certain techniques. For a spell to be properly used and recognized, you must see the symbol representing it. This is at the end of each chapter and hidden under a flap you have to lift. Once you see it you will be able to completely use the spell. How effective it is after that, it depends on how good of an imagination you have. If you fail to understand how the spell works and how to use it, then you will not be able to use it properly and it will become useless to you.
“Alchemy” is changing one thing into another
“Transformation” is like “alchemy” but for organic things such as people.
Telekinesis is the ability to move objects. The size of the object you can move depends on physical strength
Teleportation - very hard high level skill. You have to know where you are going, and depending on how far you are going you will become exhausted. It takes up a lot of energy and it is overall recommended that you try to just go short distances until you are older and have mastered it
Manipulation of water/ice. Mostly just picture water and what you want it to do. It is possible to manipulate the water inside a person’s body but it is difficult and dangerous.
Air/wind manipulation. Different from telekinesis which is just the manipulation of objects themselves. It is possible to use the air in your lungs for this
Fire manipulation. If you have something flammable then it works better. Getting burned is a danger but practice helps
Earth manipulation. Help plants grow and manipulate the earth. Somewhat overlaps with necromancy and transformation

Unicorns
Very big horses with them horns
Usually unnatural colors - most commonly purple or green
Go around national parks and other forests and stuff protecting them
They are massive assholes to everyone, but especially people who are bad to the environment
They have magic powers and are very spiritual entities
They possess strong mind control and are very sexually oriented
These are extremely horny creatures and will stop at nothing to get what they want

“Mammal humans”
Basically like us humans in reality outside of this story - however there is a very small percentage of them that still have tails.
Of the four elemental magics, these are best at using fire
Usually live in towns/cities/villages on land

“Fish Humans”
Essentially mermaids. Their eyes are designed to be used underwater, their ears are shaped so that they can pick up sounds underwater and work best there, they have webbed hands, they have tails, and in all the places where “mammal humans” would have hair, they have scales.
Of the four elemental magics, they are the best at using water/ice
Most of their underwater civilisations are small simplistic, however there is a large and advanced city in each ocean. These five cities have the most of the “fish humans”
Out of all the civilizations, the “fish humans” use magic the most (to keep their cities together)
Unlike mammal humans, they have children via eggs, but they will usually have very few of them at a time

“Amphibian humans”
Of the four elemental magics, they are best at using earth magic
They have webbed hands and feet
They have more sensitive skin than the other subspecies of humans
Have no hair/feathers/scales
Have 3 pairs of eyelids to keep their eyes nice and moist
Don't really have any specific location where they live, but most live in coastal locations, either above or below water.

“Reptile Humans”
Body completely covered in scales
Have somewhat clawed fingers/toes
Of the four elemental magics, they are best at using fire magic
The majority of them live in cities/villages/towns on land
Ears are flat on their heads and they don't have hair

“Bird Humans”
Of the four elemental magics, they are best at using air/wind magic
Most of them live in civilizations built into caves high up on mountains, but many live in human cities
Don't have hair/scales - they have feathers
Really good eyesight
Faces are very birdlike and they have beaks
Most have wing/arms but and can fly, but some can’t fly
Most of the ones who don’t fly live closer to the earth in the cities with the “reptile humans” and the “mammal humans”
They have hollow bones

More info on various humans and interaction
The cities in the cliffs and on mountains are mainly home to the “bird humans” but there are many occasions where the other subspecies of humans will live there as well. It mainly depends on the location.
The land cities are very close to what we have in reality, and are most densely populated by the “mammal humans” and the “reptile humans” there are members of all species somewhere on land, but it's mostly those two who are located there
The underwater cities are almost exclusively “fish humans”. Other subspecies who are very good at using certain magics will sometimes go to the underwater places but it is rare.
There are the least number of “amphibian humans” of all the subspecies. They usually live along coastlines, and in some of the freshwater underwater towns (in lakes)
“Bird humans”, while having some of the smartest people, are often seen by the others as being less intelligent.

Character Notes

Aileen
Arms = wings
Bluish white feathers
Simple yellow dress

Amy Rivers
Dirty clothes old brown shoes
New clothes
11

Bell
sweatpants/t shirt
Yellow scales

Cris P. Bacon
Good at invisibility, teleportation, and time travel
Shoulder length black hair
Blue eyes (bright)
Ripped jeans/red tank top/plaid green shirt around waist
Eye makeup
Lots of necklaces and bracelets with stones
Watch
Pale skin
5’2

John
Tall
Dark blue suit
Short black hair + beard
Sunglasses - reality augmentation
Large cock

Marigold Johnson
Light green scales
Yellow eyes
Soulmate of Rachel
Has a younger brother that is of the mammal race
Two parents. Both women. One reptile and one mammal
Good at gravity stuff, fire
long sleeve shirt/ purple hat / red jeans
Tank top
Cousin of Wess Lee

Mystery Woman
Prosthetic right arm and left leg green and black metal
Dark green scales
Jean shorts + magenta crop top
Right eye is red (fake)
Left eye is yellow (real)
Shirt w/ bullet holes

The Old Lady
Smooth read skin
Strange purple dress

Rachel Haglee
Curly black hair
Wheelchair
Stumps of legs
Mechanical legs
Romanna concert t shirt
shirt/red t shirt/ hoop earrings
Boots
18 years old

Wess Lee
Long coat/sweatpants/winter boots
Dull blue scales
Orange eyes
Bag with crossbody strap

Yuki Rey
Black pantes, black sweater, black gloves
Rachel’s hoodie (red) right sleeve burned
Special shoes
Oversized tee + pajama pants
Sneakers (red)
Jeans
Knows self defence
Thought communication
Healing
Time manipulation
Body manipulation
Tattoos on back
No left pinky toenail
Wears socks
Coffee-colored skin
Brown hair
sneakers/jeans/red button down plaid
5’9
Blue eyes

Book 2

Chapter One
Lizbeth
(draft)

“The thing about society is that everyone is expected to act a certain way. You have to do things in a manner that is deemed ‘socially acceptable’ otherwise you are put away for breaking the order. The key to being yourself is to hide until you have the opportunity to actually do what you want.”

I put the pen down, looking over what I’d just written. No one would ever read any of my journals, but I still found enjoyment in writing down my thoughts.

Taking a break from my writing, I looked around the room. It was a mess, filled with books and garbage that I hadn’t bothered to clean up. The overall layout was bland. Though the underwater apartment building I lived in permitted magical room personalization, the furthest I’d gone so far was make the room waterproof. If you didn’t look out the window you’d have thought that the apartment was located in a normal city predominantly populated by filthy mammalian humans and, of course, reptilian humans such as myself.

Being down here was one of the last things I wanted to be doing, but it was a necessary evil. No other lands were as magic-centric as the fish human ones. The way to win was nearby. To be honest, it could’ve been worse. Volume #54 could’ve been located at the bottom of an ocean. Luckily it was instead in the biggest freshwater lake on Earth.

Suddenly, I heard a loud ringing noise. I jumped, then realized it came from the alarm I set. I grabbed my phone and muted the sound. I sling my bag over my shoulder and began to head out of the room. Before I opened the door, I focused on the space where my right arm should’ve been and created a simple illusion of a fully functional arm.

Character Notes

Mystery Woman
Prosthetic right arm and left leg green and black metal
Dark green scales
Jean shorts + magenta crop top
Right eye is red (fake)
Left eye is yellow (real)
Shirt w/ bullet holes

Grimoire Notes

Volume #1

Inside front cover
“This book belongs to…”
Names
Page one
Grimoire Volume #1
Page two
Rules and Guidelines
1. To view the contents of this Grimoire, you must write your name in the front cover.
2. This Grimoire may not be destroyed. Repeated attempts to do so will result in no longer being able to access its contents. Preexisting knowledge may only be erased through death or using Chapter 15 of Volume #3.
3. To gain knowledge of a spell, first read its contents, then lift up the flap to view the spell's mark. Once viewed, it's effectiveness will be dependent on its compatibility with the individual who read it.
4. To create new spells to be used, you must have access to the most recent volume.
5. Names may only be removed from the front cover by violating rule 2, or through the use of invisibility spells.
Page Three
6. To change the outwards appearance of the Grimoire, turn to page six.
7. To find a specific spell, turn to page seven.
8. To copy this Grimoire, turn to page eight.
9. For more information on other magic users, turn to page nine.
10. Before attempting anything in this Grimoire, turn to page four.
Page Four
Lift to view the mark which applies to you.
AMPHIBIAN
BIRD
FISH
MAMMAL
REPTILE
Mark is a big circle
Page Five
The Four elements of AIR, EARTH, FIRE, and WATER are essential to being able to wield magical abilities. Each of the five subspecies have an affinity for a specific element. AIR is best wielded by that of Bird. EARTH is best wielded by that of Amphibian. FIRE is best wielded by both that of Mammal and Reptile. Water is best wielded by that of Fish. Being able to understand and master the element of your species is essential to being able to learn other spells contained in this book. While it is technically possible to learn elements outside of what has been predetermined for you, it is discouraged - especially for novices as it can be very dangerous and difficult.
Page Six
As the contents of the Grimoire are only visible to those who have signed their name, the marks of spells are only visible to those who have marks themselves. However, one must be careful with photographs, as they tend to most accurately reflect reality.
As for the Grimoire itself, true appearance is only visible for those who have signed their name. Anyone else, even if they have been marked, will see only the illusion that is presented by the book's owner (unless their name is also found in that particular volume). To change the outward appearance of this Grimoire, simply press your forehead against the empty space at the bottom of this page, and picture what you want the Grimoire to look like. Wait about a minute for it to take effect. To confirm what it looks like, think "reveal" in your mind and you will be able to briefly see what others see. The Grimoire may be changed at any time by others whose names are written at the start. Be careful about taking photos of the book, as they will not show the illusion.
Page Seven
This Grimoire's content is finite, but the marks that exist are not. If you wish to find a spell to fit an idea you are thinking of, then write on this page and you will be directed to where you may find it. If you wish to know of all the spells contained in this Grimoire, then turn to page 10.
Page Eight
Directions on how to copy grimoire
Mark is a dot.
Page nine
Map of all grimoires
Pages ten and eleven
Table of contents
Page 20
This page will allow you to slow down time. It will speed you up, and slow down your surroundings. It may cause harm to your body, so be careful
Page 73
This spell will simply allow you to send your thoughts to others. They will be translated if you speak a language different from who you are trying to speak to.

Volume #3
Spells for surviving underwater.
Page 15 - Erase knowledge of magic.

Volume #7
Telepathy
Page 16 - Sending expressive thoughts.
103 - Thought Compulsion

Volume #12
Telekinesis
Teleportation

Volume #15
Change any distinguishing features/characteristics (hair, eyes, skin color, gender, race, etc).
Healing injuries.Page 62, see underwater
Page 20, regrow limbs only works on yourself requires lots of energy makes you hungry
Page 73 make your body more durable

Volume #18
Mostly different chemical transformations (alchemy).
Spell to see underwater
Spell to remove toenail or fingernail.
Page 108 - Invisibility but only yourself and your clothes.
Spell to turn a sheet of glass into marbles.

Volume #40
Spell to change color of room.
Spell to make sound visible
Spell to make other objects invisible.

Volume #42
Spell to stop time.