Inedible

Nova Lux: A Magical Girl Game

Jagged lines of energy cut through the oppressive darkness, the vivid yellows from Dana's pistol contrasting with the angry red flames lighting up the night. The fire shows impressive resilience even in this downpour, rising high in unnatural defiance of wind and water. From somewhere inside the building come the cracks and crashes of some unknown battle still raging inside.

The girl in the window remains in place, her arm tightening just a few inches to put the Norban briefly in the blue-tinted sights of her rifle. She takes a breath and pulls the trigger.

There's a crack, but no impact follows. Radiant Storm's ray of sunshine, while she charges toward her fallen comrades, might be forgiven for thing the sniper had missed her shot from the covering spray of energy.

She did not.

Those that hesitated can see the pale white bullet–a perfect sphere, like a musket shot–come to a jarring halt mid-air about five feet behind and above the dark-haired witch.

The girl in the window grits her teeth as a spear of auric power cuts across her cheek. She shoots again.

The second bullet hits the first, one crack followed by another as the projectile ricochets off its partner and straight toward Dana's back.

Nova Lux: A Magical Girl Game

Nova Lux is big.

Even not taking into account the adjoining Officer's Academy the sprawling grounds of the Ars Magi school seem excessive. There are gardens, dormitories, grand halls, lecture rooms, faculty buildings, and other military facilities. Lots of very wet space to go through to get to the medical wing.

The gale seems to act in direct opposition to the three Ars Magi making their way across the campus, wind tearing against their magical armor and rain crashing around them with deafening force. Through the thick, dark fog they can dim lights through Nova Lux's windows and a large flame rising into the darkness in defiance of the torrential downpour around them.

---

𝙽𝚘𝚟𝚊 𝙻𝚞𝚡
𝙼𝚎𝚍𝚒𝚌𝚊𝚕 𝚆𝚒𝚗𝚐
𝙰𝚞𝚐𝚞𝚜𝚝 𝟾𝚝𝚑, 𝟷𝟷𝟽 𝙰𝚅
𝟷𝟷:𝟶𝟶 𝙿𝙼
Dana Noel, Penny Grenoble, Nicole Cognoscenti

---

| Music: Paradox Alter |

The fire is where they're going. A second explosion rumbles through the campus as a plume of light makes their destination even clearer. The fire burning in the distance is an angry red, a stark contrast to the pale blue Nox diffusers sucking up the toxic clouds rolling over the school grounds.

Within another minute Radiant Storm is approaching the garden plaza in front of Nova Lux's medical center, the concrete and cobblestones lit by the ominous blaze of the three-story marble building in front of it. The windows of its top level have been shattered, the heavy doors replaced by a gaping hole.

"Team 3, Team—reporting—" The comms become a crackling mess of static, disjointed voices fighting to rise to the top. "—back—"

The light of the fire cutting across the building illuminates something in the center of the plaza, just off the cobblestone path and pressed against the shattered base of a splintered oak tree.

It's Amanda Wagner, the blonde girl's thin frame slumped against the bark. Her pale hair is stained crimson, as is the side of her face and the usually pristine white clothes that make up her transformed armor. The next member of her squad, Priya Khatri, lies about twenty feet away and closer to the fractured entrance of the building. The girl's golden blade is embedded next to her in the cobblestone and one of her legs is torn open.

She's moving, though. Her slender fingers are still curled around the hilt of her gladius, her arm dragging her injured lower half backward. One of her hands is pressed to her ear, listening to the bursts of information that occasionally cut through the static. She must have heard enough to know reinforcements are on the way because her head lifts unsteadily in the direction of the approaching Ars Magi.

"---closer." Her voice breaks over the radio, and she raises it when they're close enough to hear her choked call: "Dont!"

From above, on the second floor, behind a shattered window and half-obscured by a crimson curtain, a girl adjusts the long rifle perched against her shoulder. The crosshairs of her gladius trace a line from the injured girl in the courtyard below to the team of Ars Magi moving toward her position. Each is lit up in the darkness as a bright blue silhouette in the high tech reticle over her silver eye.

To nearly any observer–even an Ars Magi–the silhouette in the window would be invisible through the dark and the downpour. But Radiant Storm happens to have a keen pair of golden eyes keyed to magical light. Dana can see the faint glimmer in the window and faintest, palest blue dot that tracks the approaching cadets.

The girl in the window holds her finger loosely over the trigger of her weapon…

She's waiting patiently.

Secundi Lux

Some people wouldn't shoot the devil out of fear they'd miss.

That's not something Rivka has to worry about: her aim is impeccable.

The note she plays cuts through the hissing rain, burning a line through the toxic water and adding a brief new spear of illumination to the pale blue bonfire that remains of the blocky generators. The purple-haired sniper's magic has an interaction with the alien particles in the air itself, sucking in the suffocating raw magic and leaving a burning contrail behind.

The sound of the shot making an impact is something unearthly, a noise produced by elements that should not exist in nature in quite this way. It sounds, though, like a cacophonous sizzling.

| Music: Disturbance |

Three of the metal diamonds have formed the shield, their points projecting a protective triangle of yellow illumination. Rivka can see the outline of her bullet where it burned through the hard light and the crack in the girl's sleek armor. She shifts her weight, but the injury is farther from debilitating than her attacker could have hoped. Her attention shifts, glowing eyes focusing on the source of the damage.



Crystal and Chie make it into the power station a second later, their silhouettes illuminated first by Rivka's rifle and a split second later by the light thrown off from the impact against the enemy's shield. Inside is much darker than out, the once fluorescent lighting now gone dark. The occasional window casts only a meager blue light from the rising flames outside.

Chie's senses make it easy to navigate the halls and stairways toward the people they're here for. They find the rest of the remaining workers scrambling down the hallway of the second floor. Most of the men and women look like civilian operators, some visibly bleeding, and they're being led by a woman in Imperium uniform.

There's only one other weight on Chie's internal map, a marbled sized distortion on the opposite end of the building.

The soldier's rifle is briefly turned on the two Ars Magi before she recognizes them as backup. "Ma'am!" She says, taking a shaky breath to steady herself after. "We're under attack there's–"

Through the window they can see the outline of the metal motes swerving toward Rivka. Six baseball-sized diamonds approach like hungry vultures, their points flaring to life as they send cutting beams of energy in the direction of the virtuosa. They bend and flank, spreading out with a malicious intellect to cage and maim. They're not bullet fast but they are fast; they cover the distance between the two girls within a matter of seconds if they aren't stopped. The armored girl is coming after them, a pale sword emerging from her wrist.

Two motes bend off preemptively toward Selma, Kheper's sturdy oak not gone unnoticed. Rather than separate and contain these two add their force together, connecting into a single point and firing off a supercharged cannon of radiance toward the big big girl.

All of this Crystal and Chie can see from the second floor.

"--There's an Ars Magi." The officer finishes. She waits expectantly for orders.

The thing on the other side of the building is getting heavier. Even if Selma wasn't distracted she wouldn't feel any tremors, not until it's too late. Chie at least knows it's coming. The marble becomes a sphere, then a baseball, then roughly the size of a adult human. By the time it rounds the corner both Magi see the Vᴏɪᴅ for what it is: a jagged facsimile of the upper half of a torso. It has no legs, but long arms that end in even longer hands. It has no head, but above it's curved shoulders floats a smooth black ring inlaid with glowing red geometric symbols.

It floats ominously forward, its halo rotating slowly around its central point. As the female officer barks at her wards to get down and raises her rifle, the thing raises one long hand to spit out perfect spheres of darkness. Each is no bigger than a bullet and neither is anywhere as fast. Just the opposite, actually.

They float slowly down the hall and toward the Ars Magi and cluster of civilians.

Verrry...slowwwlyyyy...

Secundi Lux

Then, into the storm.

The weather they'd faced in their training exercises pales in comparison to what lurks now in the skies above Palmyra. Even towering Selma Rosemarie, who has touched the snow-capped tips of the world, hasn't seen nature at this level of maliciousness.
Maybe it's because it isn't entirely natural.

Rain sleets down, a heavy curtain that would force a normal human to bow under its pressure. Lightning dances across the skies, jagged arcs with an unnatural red tint. Between those staccato bursts the world is lit only by the pale blue glow of Plamyra's Nox diffusers, glowing lanterns that cap the long metal poles suspending them above the city streets. Normally they'd breathe gently with light, a slow and steady pulse–but tonight burn bright and hot with effort to repel the poison in the frigid air.

It only takes a few minutes of travel, given the speed at which Team Kheper can move. Soon enough they arrive at the power station, a blocky two-story building surrounded by sturdy fencing. A row of blocky generators and stocky pylons sit within the protected enclosure, several of them protected by heavy tarps and sheets.

The path of destruction is immediately obvious: a chunk of the heavy duty fencing has been sliced through, a clean V shaped cut that's left the edges of the thick bars melted into slag. There are scorch marks along the concrete, thin burns that scour the path forward. Chie and Selma, both with sonars of their own type, can feel the limp figures of Imperium soldiers slumped across the inner perimeter of the power station.

They at least have some forewarning before the explosion. They are people-shapes moving amongst the pylons, disguised in the rain and dark. They're detectable for just a moment before the distortion of the eruption, a blue ball of flame that erupts from the line of generators and briefly lights the darkness. A nearby pylon, a chunk now missing, groans as the latticework of metal begins toppling toward the ground.

In its wake is another pop, and then another, electric blue sparks blossoming across the long line of batteries.

And in the midst of the machinery, wreaking destruction as she walks, is a woman. It's hard to make out clear details in the brief flashes of light, but she's of average height, dressed in a sleek and armored bodysuit. More interesting are what hovers in the air around her; around a half-dozen fist sized metal diamonds that glow with a burning yellow light. They twirl and arc through the air, releasing beams of vivid white energy that slice through the generators like a hot knife through butter.

On the streets nearby the sapphire light of the Nox diffusers flicker and dim, the buildings nearby letting out a anguished hum as the power coursing through their walls is abruptly and violently halted. The lights in the windows of the nearby control building flicker as well, dimming, slowly losing life as magic bleeds out from machinery and disperses uselessly into the cool air.

Nova Lux: A Magical Girl Game

Glasses are refilled dutifully by Aiya, who plays hostess with a well-practiced smile. Nicole is not entirely imaging things—here the Duodecim girl is queen. If she doesn’t actively relish it, she is at least so accustomed to it that she doesn’t give her privilege any second thought.

“Rules?” Asks Aiya when Dana speaks up, as if the Norban was speaking a different language. “Ooooh, was there someone in particular you wanted to kiss, Noel?” Aiya asks mischievously. Her gaze, which flickers between Dana and the large cadet she’s planted next to, clearly implies what she means.

“We have a spare cabin for that, you know.” She suggests, though she can’t keep her face straight for long. “Just kidding. You don’t have to play, there should be some other games around here.” She says, absolving them of their party obligations.

Nicole and Penny, who volunteer, earn a somber salute. There’s one or two officers who excuse themselves from the proceedings to play cards—and offer Dana and Noah a new little circle to join—but Penny’s new friends and the rest soon begin the game.

It goes until the wee hours, until the boat finally makes its lazy return home.

So to do the officers and Ars Magi, one way or another. Everyone survives.

---

---

𝙽𝚘𝚟𝚊 𝙻𝚞𝚡 𝙰𝚌𝚊𝚍𝚎𝚖𝚢
𝙳𝚘𝚛𝚖𝚜
𝙹𝚞𝚕𝚢 𝟸𝟸𝚗𝚍, 𝟷𝟷𝟽 𝙰𝚅
𝚄𝚗𝚔𝚗𝚘𝚠𝚗 𝚃𝚒𝚖𝚎
Dana Noel, Penny Grenoble, Nicole Cognoscenti

---

Until the next morning, at which point it probably feels like it’d be better to be dead.

The hangover is predictably horrible for those that indulged. Not as bad as having an Armagus forcefully shoved in ones body, but maybe only just a little better.

Priya is the only partygoer that appears unaffected, dropping by Radiant Storm’s dorms with plates full of eggs, aspirin, and big glasses of water.

By the time the lucky(?) Ars Magi make it to the common room they’re in time to hear the afternoon news reports: A heavy front of Nox is sweeping down across the coast, a slowly-building vortex of toxic magic.

Thankfully, there are still a few vacation days left. They’re not all that cheery, though. Soon enough the Palmyran military is confirming that the storm will be hitting the city, and the preparations begin soon after. Barricades are re-enforced, shelters shuttered, Nox diffusers checked and re-checked. There’s a palpable air of unease that turns to sinking dread. This is not the first time such a thing has happened, but such storms have never boded well, and no sanctum city has ever weathered one without issue.

By the time the cadets are back on duty they have new briefings waiting for them. Nova Lux’s Ars Magi will be second in the line of defense should anything break through the walls and the full-fledged Magi defending them. Teams are to be deployed throughout the city at strategic points to repel any invaders, along with a small detail of officers to supervise and coordinate the defensive efforts.

And so begins the storm of the century.

𝙽𝚘𝚟𝚊 𝙻𝚞𝚡 𝙰𝚌𝚊𝚍𝚎𝚖𝚢
𝙶𝚛𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝙷𝚊𝚕𝚕
𝙰𝚞𝚐𝚞𝚜𝚝 𝟾𝚝𝚑, 𝟷𝟷𝟽 𝙰𝚅
𝟺:𝟶𝟶 𝙿𝙼
Dana Noel, Penny Grenoble, Nicole Cognoscenti

---

The tempest hits at exactly 1600 hours.

Radiant Storm has not gone far from home. They’re posted up in Nova Lux’s Grand Hall, the same place where the fancy ball has been held prior. Now, however, it is not nearly as festive. Temporary workstations have been set up for the teams of officers gathered inside, each squad of cadets led by a senior overseeing their work. Large monitors display satellite images of the city, blurry infra-red diagrams that track the storm as it descends on Palmyra.

Rain is hammering down against the massive, curtained windows. Leaves and debris from the sprawling gardens outside gust by, and the massive trees outside jitter and sway dangerously in the howling wind.

Unlike usual, Radiant Storm doesn’t see many familiar faces among the hall. Penny spots cadet Grey busily at work on the radio, but she’s too busy to acknowledge the Ars Magi. Most of the officers are, which leave the magical girls to sit, wait, and catch what snippets of conversation they can.

What they can glean is that the senior Ars Magi are hard at work at the city walls, keeping out the worst of the Void that come with the storm. They, however, have the less exciting job of playing reserves. Which means a lot of waiting around, and not much way to kill the time between themselves.

The night drags on. Rain hammers down harder, and the cracks of thunder can be heard. Through the dark fog outside are the occasionally flashes of lightning. They do little to illuminate the world beyond the window.

Then something happens.

In the distance there is a worrying crash–something not quite the crack of thunder, but somehow similar. Suddenly the team of officers are moving and shouting, taking clipped directions from the woman in charge. Her hand is pressed against her ear, and she barks several quick orders to the cadets gathered nearby.

"Divert all the squads to the Vault." The woman barks. "Send everyone!"

When she turns to address Radiant Storm her tone is urgent: "Nova Lux is under attack." She informs them. "All of you, head toward the medical wing immediately."

The location is intimately familiar to each of the Ars Magi. In addition to the patch-up jobs after their training operations, the medical wing was one of the first places a Nova Lux student got acquainted with. The barrage of tests, physical exams, and eventual surgery all took place there. Of Nova Lux's organs, this is one of the most vital.

"The enemy...are Ars Magi."

Secundi Lux

---

---

𝙽𝚘𝚟𝚊 𝙻𝚞𝚡 𝙰𝚌𝚊𝚍𝚎𝚖𝚢
𝙿𝚊𝚕𝚖𝚢𝚛𝚊
𝙹𝚞𝚕𝚢 𝟸𝟷𝚜𝚝, 𝟷𝟷𝟽 𝙰𝚅
𝟸:𝟶𝟶 𝙿𝙼
Masuzu Chie, Crystal von Caelestis, Rivka Sokolov, Selma Rosmarie

---

IGNIS AURUM PROBAT.

Fire tests gold, and none of Kheper were found wanting.

It is not so for every cadet at Nova Lux. As the dormitories slowly fill once again there are tales of victories and losses, of sweat, blood, and magic. Very few tell the same story, and not every cadet has been cleared for field work. Failure, however, is merely a painful setback—each girl is too precious a resource to merely write off entirely.

Still, there is a clear divide between those who have and those who lack. It’s the latter who receive the greatest reward: Two weeks reprieve from drills, tests, or schoolwork. A proper, no-strings-attached break.

That brief vacation is marred only by the reports that begin to slowly filter through the city. They come from the local TV networks first; A heavy front of Nox is sweeping down across the coast, a slowly-building vortex of toxic magic. Soon enough the Palmyran military is confirming that the storm will be hitting the city, and the preparations begin soon after.

Barricades are re-enforced, shelters shuttered, Nox diffusers checked and re-checked. There’s a palpable air of unease that turns to sinking dread. This is not the first time such a thing has happened, but such storms have never boded well, and no sanctum city has ever weathered one without issue.

By the time the cadets are back on duty they have new briefings waiting for them. Nova Lux’s Ars Magi will be second in the line of defense should anything break through the walls and the full-fledged Magi defending them. Teams are to be deployed throughout the city at strategic points to repel any invaders, along with a small detail of officers to supervise and coordinate the defensive efforts.

And so begins the storm of the century.

---

𝚂𝚝. 𝙽𝚒𝚌𝚑𝚘𝚕𝚊𝚜 𝙲𝚊𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚍𝚛𝚊𝚕
𝙿𝚊𝚕𝚖𝚢𝚛𝚊
𝙰𝚞𝚐𝚞𝚜𝚝 𝟾𝚝𝚑, 𝟷𝟷𝟽 𝙰𝚅
𝟺:𝟶𝟶 𝙿𝙼
Masuzu Chie, Crystal von Caelestis, Rivka Sokolov, Selma Rosmarie

---

The tempest hits at exactly 1600 hours.

Kheper’s assignment is South-Central Palmyra, near the northern end of the massive Zolotoy Bridge that stretches across the bay cutting through the center of the city. Their base of operations is St. Nicholas Cathedral, a weathered two-story building on a tall hill overlooking the bay. From its single tower one can see the burning blue lights of the Nox diffusers lining the bay, and the gleaming lights of the Zolotoy.

A vanguard of heavy raindrops splatter against the arched windows of the church, the steady rattle soon replaced by a thundering roar as the sky outside turns a wicked black. Anyone at one of those windows can see the churning black fog creeping across the bay, poisonous clouds billowing up against the lines of the glowing blue pylons that serve as Palmyra’s defenses.

The satellite imagery provided by the array of monitors the officers have set up paints the full picture in blurry infra-red: A swirling tornado of Nox is slowly engulfing the city, eating away at the glowing median of Palmyra’s border.

Kheper are spared the details of the wider effort. What little they can glean from the screens and quiet chatter of their handlers is that their seniors are hard at work at the walls.

Time passes. The night deepens and the sky goes black.

One of the cadets from the Officer’s Academy—Crystal recognizes him as Liam Castra Neptune, her dance partner from the military ball—provides coffee to ward against the sleep and the steadily increasing chill, plus grainy protean bars on request.

The downpour grows stronger. The wind howls.

“Captain.” One of the young officers voices cuts through the makeshift outpost. “Power Station 5 is reporting an attack.”

The older woman in charge switches the satellite feed, scrolling a few buildings over. The glowing shape of the Station is pristine, bright yellow against the red cloud that surrounds the city. It’s not far—about five city blocks.
“We’ve lost comms.” Reports another cadet.

“Understood.” Replies the captain. She turns toward the Ars Magi next, her voice clipped and authoritative:

“Deploy and investigate. Protect the station at all costs.”

Nova Lux: A Magical Girl Game

The vessel rocks gently in the water, occasionally shifting as bodies run, dance, or vault across the surface of the deck. The vibes, in general, are good. From the hastily erected dance floor on central deck to the cluster of cadets dangling off the rear, good times are in ample supply.

For the most part, anyway. Dana’s chocolate bar causes a minor emergency in the water at the vessel’s postside as nearby cadets scramble and claw their way out of the water and the inky brown stain that the confectionery creates. A brief investigative committee is formed to determine the origins of the brown cloud, but after several minutes of deliberation no culprit is definitively brought to justice. The water on that side of the boat is abandoned.

Aiya, though somewhat distracted, fields Dana’s request for water guns with a exasperated smile.

“You really have a one track mind, Noel.” The heiress teases the other girl, reaching her hand out to ruffle her hair as if she were a rambunctious younger sister. She manages to fulfill Dana's request after some digging around, providing her a hefty water rifle with which to assault the partygoers deck. She claps the Norban girl on the back, sending her on her way with a lopsided grin.

Her reign of terror doesn't last too long before she's forcibly disarmed, however. Priya and Noah team up to take her down–the former providing a distraction while the latter lifts the Norban bodily from the deck and dumps her into the water. They and a few other cadets join a second later, Dana soon lifted onto Noah's shoulders to engage in an impromptu game of chicken with Priya and her own partner. The other girl proves a tenacious opponent, and a small crowd forms near the railing to cheer on the aquatic gladiators.

Penny, in the meantime, has to deal with navigating the party without her sunny companion to keep her safe. Despite her efforts to retain modesty, she can't avoid the eyes of every cadet looking for a chance to chat up an Ars Magi. As Aiya has demonstrated, Nova Lux's cadets are a rare commodity in high demand among the upper class.

The Siscian girl has to navigate a web of potential suitors, offers to dance, or join in one of the games taking place across the boat. What little reprieve she can find is usually with the other Ars Magi, who occasionally cluster together to conspire before their attentions are inevitably dragged elsewhere.

But at least there's some higher profile partiers to take some of the attention off of Penny and those like her. Specifically, Nicole's and her reign as queen of the dance pad. Try as they might, no one can challenge the redheaded girl and come away victorious.
Aiya eventually, once she's finished making the rounds and seeing to her other guests, joins in to help. Help being extremely subjective, since from a technical standpoint having two bodies on the dance-pad doesn't go quite as well. It does work a lot better from a visual standpoint, though.

The sun continues to sink down the line of the horizon as the hours tick by, casting a long red line across the shimmering water. Aiya encourages the rest of the Ars Magi to take their turn on the dance floor in due time; Priya (who has an pop and lock) and Cara are an easy sell, but she tries to cajole Dana and Penny too if they can be lured away from their various activities.

Eventually the mood becomes slightly more sedated as cadets break into smaller clusters to watch the sunset. Aiya and her inner circle retreat to the more intimate crew quarters below deck, taking Nicole, Dana, and Penny along with them. The space below deck has just enough room for a small couch and a few cramped seats to lounge on, a comfortable enough space to relax and dry off from the days earlier activities. There's even a well-stocked drink cabinet, probably meant for the important associates of the De Mars family--which doesn't stop Aiya from breaking it open.

"They're going to start sending you out on assignments soon, dolcezza." Aiya laments as she sips from a drink. "You and all your friends. I'm not going to get to keep you all around to play anymore." A dramatic sigh parts from the dark-haired girl's lips. Nicole is already aware of Aiya's attempt to lay claim to her for the De Mars family–but there's still a long time before the Ars Magi's official graduation and assignments.

"You two." She raises a finger to gesture between Penny and Dana. "Have to make sure nothing happens to her." There's a thread of humor to her words, her usual good cheer doubled and then some by the afternoon of drinking. "I need her."

She pauses, a silvery laugh escaping from the heiress after a few seconds of consideration. "Isn't it strange?" She asks, clarifying, "We get to be in charge of you. You're the most powerful girls alive, and you have to do what we tell you to do." The girl shakes her head. "How funny." She raises her glass in a toast. "Here's to Nova Lux and our brave heroines."

The other officers raise their turn, a proud salute to their saviors and subordinates.

"Fuck." Says Aiya, turning her bottle over to lament its emptiness. It's unclear if her unhappiness comes from the system issues of the post-apocalyptic world or if she's just upset she'll have to get a new drink. Either way with a loud thud the dark haired Duodecim plants the container down firmly on the center of the varnished wood table.

"Who wants to play spin the bottle?"

Nova Lux: A Magical Girl Game

---

𝚃𝚑𝚎 𝙰𝚜𝚜𝚞𝚛𝚊𝚗𝚌𝚎
𝙿𝚊𝚕𝚖𝚢𝚛𝚊 𝙱𝚊𝚢
𝙹𝚞𝚕𝚢 𝟸𝟷𝚜𝚝, 𝟷𝟷𝟽 𝙰𝚅
𝟸:𝟶𝟶 𝙿𝙼
Dana Noel, Penny Grenoble, Nicole Cognoscenti

---

| Music: Sunday |

Palmyra’s bay is a crescent-shaped swath of shimmering blue water, a small zone at the edge of the city reserved for naval affairs. It is, in many ways, a relic of the past. No ships sail the great oceans these days, no frigates ply through the Earth’s polluted waterways to ferry goods back and forth between ruined cities. Watercraft are more symbols than anything; ceremonial and nostalgic vessels that belong to a bygone age.

They are still a great place for a party.

This particular vessel is a sleek motor yacht, a gleaming silver vehicle large enough to hold around twenty passengers. A central cabin holds the helm and a small lounge with couches, chairs, and table, plus small stairways that leads to miniature bathrooms and sleeping quarters. The deck outside is made of polished wood, the rear of the watercraft hosting another seating area. The deck folds outward, providing ample space for its passengers.

Said passengers come in two types: The first are the cadets from the Officers Academy, exemplified by one Aiya de Mars. They are made up of both men and women, but almost all of them have one thing in common: status. Nearly every one of them can claim some connection to the Duodecim families, and most bear the name of one of those twelve clans.

The second type of passenger are, of course, the Ars Magi. The future saviors of humanity, the Duodecim’s sword and shield. There are several familiar faces amongst them; Cara and Priya, a few others commonly spotted among the common room, and the members of team Radiant Storm themselves.

It’s not too much of an exaggeration to say that the future of humanity is contained within this single vessel. Yet here, drifting on the glittering water, there is a mutual and unspoken agreement to cast off the burdens of both leadership and responsibility and do what the young do best: party hard.

And it is, so far, going well. It’s been about two hours since the vessel cast off and the festivities are in full swing. Swimsuit clad cadets dot the decks, either moving to the thrumming music pumping from the cabin’s interior or lounging amidst the furnishings. Some bob in the water at the boat’s sides, while others are engaged in increasingly raucous drinking games near at the rear of the vessel.

Aiya is presiding over all of this, a consummate hostess. Dressed in a black two-piece and oversized sunglasses, Mars’ golden-skinned heir moves along the deck with a regal grace, ensuring everyone has a place and thing to do. This includes the members of Radiant Storm, whom she greeted personally upon boarding.

The scene is festive, and there’s not a care in the world.

It’s a beautiful Sunday.

Secundi Lux

The days that follow are busy.

With the exercise completed there’s naturally a mass of debriefs that follow. Each cadet is taken aside and given both a cross-examination and evaluation. Hours are spent pouring over footage captured by both the enemy drones and cameras set up around the military zone, analyzing each decision and combat maneuver in excruciating detail.

The members of Team Kheper are awarded high marks for their efforts. They were, they find out later, one of the three teams to take out a special combat unit—the huge flying mech that Crystal froze her way through.

With the exercise complete the next month passes uneventfully—the usual drills and classes, but no joint exercises or big excursions. The main focus instead is on preparing for the Field Readiness Examination--a group of written tests and smaller live exercises that will determine if a given Ars Magi is cleared to be sent on real (supervised) missions.

A grueling series of weeks pass by; long nights studying, endless magical exercises and a battery of preliminary tests fill each Ars Magi’s schedule. There’s barely any time left for their own devices, whatever they may be.

Time passes quickly--until, finally, it’s time.

The written portion of the exams have fill up about a half-days worth of work. The real test, however, comes after:

Each cadet is assigned a senior Ars Magi to supervise their test, and each has a challenge crafted for their specific skill set. The exercises are designed not just for the cadets to show off their strengths, but also to determine how well the Academy’s training has hammered out their weaknesses thus far.

And they begin—

Now.

Nova Lux: A Magical Girl Game

“...Imperium is continuing to monitor the front of Nox approaching from the north. No warnings have been issued yet, but experts are watching closely. You can see the heavy gathering of Nox in these images from Juno’s new satellite, Eclipse One, as the storm moves down the coast. Eclipse One, since its launch two months ago, has continued to provide invaluable data on...”

The TV in Nova Lux’s common room is left on, but mostly ignored. There’s a general feeling of relief that permeates premises, here at the end of the exams. A sense of accomplishment too—while the girls here are still a ways from becoming full-fledged Ars Magi, they’ve all just taken one huge step forward on that journey.

For the past few days the common room has been a place to gather and swap stories of how each cadet fared in her examination. Most stories are those of success, and most are wildly different from one another despite some shared mentors.

Priya tells the story of how she was disarmed and forced to make her way through an obstacle course of traps and snipers. Her lesson seems to have been the inverse of Dana’s: Priya is a close-range fighter and learning to deal with foes at range seems to have been a large part of her test. She’s quite proud of her performance and happy to tell anyone about her mentor, the sharpshooter Amara Volkov (notable for a cameo in Gunslinger Alexis).

Nicole isn’t the only one who got a teamwork exercise either, though it’s unclear if Amanda’s indicates a future leadership role. The bow wielding cadet begrudgingly describes her test as something more of a logistics exercise, taking control of a team and putting them to their best uses.

Blair’s greatest trial, of course, was a test of adaptation. Not unlike Penny. The hot-headed cadet faced down Erika Yun, The Shield of Calcaria, a foe that could easily deflect any attack no matter how devastating. Blair describes, profanely, that the way she eventually won out was by putting a halt on her relentless offense and accepting a grievous blow in exchange for the opening she needed.

For the next few days common room is full of other Ars Magi looking to swap stories and gossip. It's crowded there lately, due to one very important factor: It’s break time.

After the grueling tests and exercises, Nova Lux’s cadets have been given a two week rest period. They’re still allowed to use the facility and there are remedial classes still being taught, but for the most part the future Ars Magi are taking a well-deserved break.

This means different things for different cadets, of course. Priya’s set up an exercise group for more self-directed Ars Magi, along with Vanna’s roommate Nora. Both Penny and Dana are invited. Amanda is spending most of her time in the academy library, while others are following in Nicole’s footsteps and taking the opportunity to enjoy Palmyra and what it has to offer.

Nicole herself, as the end the two-week break approaches, receives a very important series of text messages:

𝙳𝚘𝚕𝚌𝚎𝚣𝚣𝚊.

𝙸 𝚑𝚊𝚟𝚎 𝚊 𝚋𝚘𝚊𝚝.
𝙿𝚊𝚛𝚝𝚢 𝚝𝚘𝚖𝚘𝚛𝚛𝚘𝚠 𝚒𝚗 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚋𝚊𝚢.
𝙱𝚛𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚢𝚘𝚞𝚛 𝚐𝚒𝚛𝚕𝚜.

Aiya, it seems, is using her time off wisely.