Repairs

I waited for Ethan to come out of his room. Savannah would be here soon as well. I needed to get my room repaired. I had the credits to get it done so the sooner I got it over with the better. I'd probably have to do it again before the end of the year. It would probably be better to find a student capable of doing the repair, and keeping it off the school records.

I would have to ask Savannah later. Ethan wasn't socially prepared to do anything like asking around. He could barely talk to Savannah, and he had one major thing in common with her that literally no one else had.

"You're grumpy this morning," Ethan mumbled as he came out of his room rubbing his eyes.

I opted to ignore him for now. Ethan headed into the bathroom, and I heard the shower click on before he closed the door. System can my bonded sense each other?

Bonded can sense that they are allied to the same dragon, but cannot sense each others emotional states or locations without the dragon's direct interference.

So it's like that then. My mind acts as a buffer between my bonded, but I have free access to their mental states at all times. Seemed like my bond to them was slightly one sided. Plus the added benefit of it completely diffusing any harmful rage directed at each other. It kind of forced us to put things in perspective as a group.

Interesting. Would it keep working that way no matter how many bonded I collected? I probably wouldn't find someone else willing to bond to me anyways so why worry about it now. I stepped forward, and opened the door for Savannah before she could knock.

"Still mad at me," It was a statement not a question.

"I asked you not to do that," Savannah closed the door behind her, "Forcing someone's mana capacity to increase can be dangerous."

"You're fine," I brushed her worry off, "We're going to need to be as powerful as possible when the shit finally hits the fan."

"I don't care," Savannah leaned against the wall by the door, and dropped her eyes, "I've seen what happens when your body is forced to absorb too much mana at once."

This comment caught my attention.

"What do you mean?" I knew she didn't want to talk about it, but my curiosity drove me to ask anyways.

"When a student comes to my dad to learn magic," Savannah looked at the wall away from me, "The way they test to see if they're compatible with magic is to flood their bodies with mana. Not all of them live."

"Did your dad do this to you?" I tensed as anger flooded into my mind.

"No," Savannah was sad, and subdued, "I was able to stimulate my mana into existence on my own."

Her anger came back just as fast as mine faded.

"Which is why I hate it when you do that?" Savannah snapped at me.

Aggressively enough that I almost flinched. Almost. I didn't like that she was still trying to hide things from me, but our bond had advanced far too quickly for it to mature properly so I didn't push her further. How I knew that our bond hadn't properly matured? Simple instinct.

The same one that kept warning me of danger creeping up on me. The shower clicked off.

"You're right," I nodded slowly, "About my room needing repairs."

Savannah nodded a little cockily. Her eyebrows going up in an expression that just said yep. Told you so. She seemed to appreciate the change in subject.

"I'd like to get it fixed off school records," I continued, "Think you can ask around."

"Yeah," Savannah shrugged, "I can do that."

"I'd like to do an experiment later as well," I forged ahead not wanting her to try changing the subject, "With you, and mana."

"It's a bad idea," Savannah's expression hardened.

"I won't be the one casting spells so relax," I half smiled.

"Did I miss something?" Ethan startled Savannah when he spoke up suddenly.

Apparently she hadn't noticed him leaving the bathroom. He had a towel held firmly around his waist with his left hand. His dirty clothes hung over his shoulder keeping his dominant hand free. Savannah reddened, and looked away when she remembered this was a boy's room in the boys dorm.

"Nothing important," I pointed at his room, "Go get ready, or we'll leave without you again."

Ethan rushed into his room. I wanted to stretch my wings, but in human form all I could do was stretch my arms so I did, out of frustration mostly. I stretched my arms up as far as I could. It felt okay but it wasn't enough.

"Something wrong?" Savannah asked as I dropped my arms.

"I haven't been able to stretch out properly for a good long while," I snorted, "Human shell, not real body, remember."

Savannah nodded. It was easy to forget this kind of thing with me pretending to be human ninety-nine percent of the time. Ethan came out of the room about the time the silence between us started the get awkward.

"Let's go," I headed out the door first.

Savannah, and Ethan followed closely behind. We stopped by Ethan's club to drop him off. I hypnotized Ethan right quick, and leveled up my hypnotism skill in the process. Then we headed to our own club. I was thinking about what I wanted to do after class.

Despite how deeply I was thinking, I still noticed Baron, and three of his goons step into our path.

"What do you want?" I stopped about ten feet away from him.

"I just wanted to finish the beating your friend interrupted," Baron stepped forward.

"Don't push your luck," I let loose my murderous intent, "It might not go the same as last time."

Most people ignored us, and walked around. This was a common occurrence around here. I just wasn't usually the one who got targeted.

"Did you magically get stronger after almost dying?" Baron chuckled with a not so humored look on his face.

He still wasn't all that effected by my murderous intent. That didn't bode well for me.