Chapter 16

"So, have you all been assigned to base duties then? Or are you heading out with a team?"

Despite her timid appearance it was Jasmine who answered first "Since I'm a non combat specialist, I'll be staying here at the base hospital, Zelda too. Mary would never survive being locked indoors for extended periods of time, so she's hoping to find a mentor to take her on missions, and Meg is on a team already."

"What sort of mentor are you looking for Mary? Maybe I can help, the senior mages here have all been really nice to my team" This response caused them all to look at me strangely, like I'd grown an extra head.

"Um, I hate to bring this up, but you do know what they are saying about your team, right?" Mary started softly, likely hoping to avoid my anger.

"They gossip about us? Hopefully not about the clothing incident. Lala didn't know any better" Mary now has a huge smile on her face, and it's spreading to everyone else as they recall the incident.

"Well, yes, but that's not the big part. They say your team are all sociopaths, unsafe to be around because you've started to like killing too much."

Frowning sadly at the thought that nobody actually liked us I stuttered out "wait, is that why you haven't come to say hello, and nobody else will stay on our floor?"

Mary pulled me into a tight hug "Sorry that we believed them, you seem really nice."

I shrugged, trying to put the nastiness of others behind me "what sort of mentor did you need Mary? What's your specialty?"

"I'm an arcane mage. We're pretty rare, so I'm not sure there's even another here to learn from. But I really do need a mentor, there's so few books on advanced arcane magic, only the basic daily magic that every specialty learns to use"

Pulling her back into the hug I whispered "Come with me my darling Mary. I know exactly the mentor you're looking for"

We all started laughing at her panicked look, and the conversation turned to trivialities.

Soon, it was time to go, and I stood, grabbing Mary's hand. "Come with me, I was serious about knowing an arcane mage that will take you out on missions and teach you spellcraft"

The gothic student looked a bit lost, but quickly followed me, unwilling to miss out on the chance, no matter how slim.

Following my nose to the lounge where Karl seemed to be hiding, we quickly found him staring at some sort of motorcycle part with a deep intensity.

"Hey Karl, how do you feel about doing me a favor?"

"How do you feel about headpats?"

That totally derailed my train of thought. Is that the price to ask for a favor? Is he ignoring me to ask his own question instead? Mary looked from one of us to the other and back again before laughing out loud, her voice like soft chiming bells.

"You two are great, it's like a comedy skit in real time"

I shot her a quick glare she gleefully ignored, then tried again "Karl, Mary here needs an arcane mage as a mentor. She was pulled out of her studies early, and is way behind on arcane spellcraft"

Karl's eyes lit up like he'd just had the most amazing idea ever, this can't be good. For either of us girls.

"Hey, Mary was it? Have you learned to inscribe arcane barriers and self repair runes onto clothing items?"

Mary shook her head "No, that's taught in the final year, I'm a freshman"

"No time like the present" Karl retorted, taking off his shirt, showing off a finely muscled chest covered in all sorts of tattoos. Some looked to be runic circles, others more typical pinup art styles. "I've conveniently got a damaged bit of clothing here to practice on, now go grab your scribing tools and come right back." Mary took off back towards her room, cheeks flushed bright red, but hopefully she's coming back with her tools.

"What's this all about then?"

"Oh, guess I could have elaborated" Karl shrugged "I'm making combat outfits for the front line teams, but it's annoying and it takes too long. Thanks for bringing me a volunteer by the way"

This guy. I'm pretty sure that's a duty assigned to him by the corps, but still he managed to rope someone into helping him. Okay, that bit is partially my fault.

"You are going to seriously mentor her right? She's so excited to find a mentor, and there's apparently no other arcane mages here."

"Yeah, I'll teach her everything she has time to learn, don't you worry Little Lycan" Karl nodded his assurance "But if I waste too much time taking care of all these unprepared rookies we won't get out to play at all. So her first lesson is going to be on how to prepare basic defensive gear."

Mary came running back, her frilly skirt bouncing with every stride. Wow, she's really excited about this. I looked over to Karl to ensure he was being serious about helping my new friend, only to notice again the plethora of tattoos. They had very little in common, other than the runic writing on some, but somehow they all seemed to fit.

"Hey, are those warding runes" Mary asked, poking one of the tattoos on his chest. "I heard they're pure agony to scribe on the body, like an hour long torture session?"

Karl nodded "I can't say they didn't hurt. But they're worth it in the long run"

Mary put down her gear "No wonder everyone thinks you're nuts though. You must have a hundred of them" she commented without even a hint that what she said might be taken badly.

Karl noticed my concern and reached out to pat my head again. How does he do that? It's like his hand is outside of my sensory range or something, I can never seem to react until it's already stroking my head.

"Isn't it better to be just a little weird?" Karl smiles.

Now Mary is really blushing. "Maybe? I mean yes, definitely?" The whole thing came out as a question.

Karl laughed and began his lesson on inscribing a repair rune on his shirt, waving goodbye as I tried to sneak away out of the room and its nonsensical babble about magical theory.

Some hours later, there is a knock on the door to my room and I'm greeted with the sight of a still shirtless Karl holding a large, paper wrapped parcel. "Delivery for the young Miss" he says in an absolutely horrible English butler accent.

"Why thank you my good Sir" I respond laughing "What might this be?" I open it without waiting for a response, finding a perfect replica of my combat outfit and a skirt suit like the one I'd worn to our first meeting.

"We made these for you. Or should I say I made these, and Mary spent all day learning the self repair runes to inscribe on them for you. I put protective runes on them" He points at tiny writing etched into the outfits, looking like embroidered decorations "They'll activate if anything hits hard enough to damage the clothes, or you underneath"

Taking the clothes for a good look over I smell a faint whiff of Mary's blood. "Does the self repair rune require blood to activate?"

Karl shakes his head, "nope, but it requires pointy implements to engrave, and that's enough. I thought the poor girl was going to need a transfusion before she finally got it right the first time"

I clutch the clothes tight to me, feeling warm at the obvious effort that went into making them just for me.

"Wait, how did you know my sizes? Will these even fit?"

Karl raises one eyebrow and gives me a 'try them and find out' sort of look. "That's a mage's secret"