[center][h1][b][color=green]A L B E R T A[/color][/b][/h1][hr][b][color=gray]AVALICE DORMITORIES — DORM C-C[/color][/b][/center][hr]
Alberta could hardly believe it had [i]only[/i] been two weeks since the semester had begun. It was far from the height of summer in Avalice, yet everytime she gazed out of the windows in Class C's lecture hall, the sun always seemed to linger in the same spot for eternities at a time. Being stuck in places she hated usually had that effect on her.

But just because the classes seemed to drag on forever, it didn't mean things weren't going smoothly for Alberta, in the beginning. Acute mana shaping and control were the most vital aspects to mastering the many complex languages contained in her little spellbook, so she was very much used to these kinds of class exercises by now. Stamina training on the other hand? Not so much, but it was manageable. Yet something was still bothering her, as many things often did.

Offensive spells always came so easily to her, practicing defensive ones rarely crossed her mind. Alberta had dedicated so much time to honing her fighting spells to perfection, and for a while, aggressive bombardments of briars and thorns seemed to be enough to keep her opponents at bay. But after the disgrace that was her two previous magic battles — both against Might users who would always have the physical advantage against her — Alberta needed a way to destroy her weaknesses before anyone else could exploit them. 

Like some other students, she soon found herself in a cycle of practicing new spells in the class courtyard, and burying her head in any library books of relevance as soon as classes ended. But these time consuming activities weren't the only things keeping her away from her dorm room hours after sundown. Dorm life had been hell on earth for Alberta ever since she stepped foot in there, in spite of how tidy and pristine her and her roommates had managed to keep it. Ty, despite his fortunately good cooking skills for a humanoid rat, was a nightmare to deal with, their rows swiftly integrating into their daily routines. Kress on the other hand was at least tolerable, even with his excessive cheeriness and futile peacemaking efforts. Of course, Alberta was intent on avoiding the two as much as possible, not even joining them at the table for breakfast and dinner; such things just weren't worth her time. When they had finished, Alberta would eat alone, just as she liked it. Just as she was used to.

As the days went by, the worse Alberta felt. She just could not, for the life of her, get her defensive spell to work as she wanted. The shield was brittle, misshapen and weak, her mana shaping and control never seeming to balance out as she was used to. Overall, performing the spell just felt so… wrong. It was a roadblock Alberta thought she'd never hit, ever, and it frustrated her to no end. In one instance, she'd gotten so mad that she threw her spellbook to the floor in a very colourful fit of rage, much to the confusion of any spectators that happened to be in the courtyard at the time.

That happened the day preceding the current one. Alberta arrived back at the dorm that evening more temperamental and fatigued than usual, not even looking at the fresh plate of food her roommates had kindly left for her. It was straight to the shower then straight to her desk, where she sat examining her spellbook for the thousandth time in between cramped stacks of library books. And there Alberta stayed all through the night, repeating the same words from the same page until they started jumbling around on the paper, and then repeating those jumbled words until she essentially confused herself to sleep. She wouldn't wake up until much, much later in the morning.