Ch 51 – Dry wash

"She was WHAT!?" Ace asked. 'THIS BITCH DID WHAT?' Is what she thought, but Mary was still her friend, so she toned it down a notch. Turning around to see a blushed Mary still fumbling with her fingers.

"Isn't that right, Mary?" To add insult to injury, Necro asked her directly, and you could almost see smoke coming from Ace's red ears as she tried to contain her rage.

"Yes..." Mary answered, sheepishly.

"NOW YOU'VE DONE IT! I-" Ace started to lose her mind, but a small hand held hers, making her look back towards Necro.

"Do you want to sleep in the shitty straw?" A shiver went down Ace's spine as she heard the coldness in Necro's voice.

"I... Sorry..."

"Good." Suddenly, Necro's expression loosened as if she'd flipped a switch. "You guys wanna go in now or is there something you wanna do before?"

"Washing ourselves would be nice, I think..." Mary said, her face slowly returning to normal.

"Sure thing then." Necro responded. Before she realized, Ace and Mary started walking towards the shed. "Hey. Where are you guys going?" She asked.

"Inside to get the water and a rag." Ace answered, as if it were obvious.

"Why don't we just use magic instead?" Necro asked.

"Magic?" Mary asked, confused.

"Yeah... There's cleaning magic."

"Is there?" Mary asked Ace, who was by her side.

"There is... But why would you waste mana on that? Isn't it just magic for beginners to learn how to control their mana?" Ace responded to Mary first, before making her own question for Necro.

"I mean... It is, but why not use it? It's not like our mana won't just refill overnight, right? And also... the rags in there looked disgusting."

"That's... a good point isn't it?" Ace said, looking at Mary's disgusted expression remembering the state of the rags the bandits had used.

"Let's get it started then~!"

"Wait!" Mary stopped Necro who had just said she would start the magic and began undoing her leather corset.

"What are you doing?" Necro asked.

"I'm taking the leather off... You know, it can't get wet."

"Ah... You know cleaning magic doesn't make things wet right?"

"It doesn't?!" The question, however, came from Ace.

"Why would it? It's just from the water element, but it doesn't have to leave you wet."

"How come!? Whenever I use it, I always have to dry myself with a cloth." Ace said, while Mary nodded in agreement."

"I mean... If you cast it thinking it will wet you, of course it will. But it doesn't have to." Necro said something that was obvious to her from Soleir's memories, but she could understand Ace's ignorance to this. It was actually part of Soleir's taboo research. "Anyways, come here the two of you. If we are too far apart I'll have to cast it multiple times."

"You telling me you can clean multiple people at once?! Teach me later! PLEASE!" Ace asked once again.

"Sure. It took me a while to learn, but it should be possible for you to learn it too."

With Ace and Mary close to her, Necro began casting the spell. The circle, albeit fairly large, since it had to encompass the three of them, was much, much simpler than those she had cast previously. The amount of mana was also nothing to write home about, so she casted it nonchalantly. Ace, however, paid a lot of attention to the magic circle that was being created above herself. What she wanted to know was the change in Necro's circle, that allowed her magic to clean without wetting the person. Her eyes moved with incredible speed and precision, accompanying every change in the magic circle. In just a few seconds, a significant amount of dark-blue mana had left Necro's body and materialized in the form of a translucent blue circle, the color of clean water. "Cleansing." Contrary to Ace's expectations, Necro's circle came crashing down at tremendous speed, in contrast to the long execution of normal cleaning magic.

Mary gasped as her head suddenly jolted forward as soon as a blue flash crossed her vision. The difference in the weight of her hair, that felt much lighter, made her head move forward from the sudden change in feedback. She looked down to the color of her unbleached cotton garments, now a shade lighter, almost white. Her leather corset still dry. She reached towards her hair, only to find it much brighter in color and moving with ease in between her fingers.

"Wow... I'd pay someone to do this to me every single day..." She mumbled as she looked at her hair.

"Not just you!" Ace exclaimed, looking down at the ring of dirt on the grass around them.

"Do you think you understood the difference?" Necro asked her.

"Yeah! You use a much cleaner circle than I'm used to seeing. And, there were also hints of wind magic in it, not just water. I didn't know you could mix two elements in a single magic formation at once!" Ace was exhilarated, as she spoke about various elements of Necro's magic.

"Of course you can. Many common magics already do it, which is why some magics can only be done by some people. I, for one, will never be able to learn the Purifying Flame kind of magic, since those use the Holy element I have no affinity with, aside from the Fire element."

"I see..." Ace took mental notes as she heard Necro's explanation. She thanked the heavens for giving her the chance of meeting such a person who could help her fulfill her dream.

"Now, we go inside." Necro said, walking towards the tent and opening it once again. Taking her sandals off before stepping inside, and looking back at the two girls who were following her.