princess Zena of Zendor

Waking up in a comfortable bed is nice. Knowing you don’t have to do anything for the day is nicer. As I get out of bed, it takes a moment for my mind to catch up. The moment it does, I summon my flying mirror, and restart my wings. Standing naked in front of the mirror, my reflection kinda looks like a fairy. Maybe I should lean into that for my outfit today and maybe I should figure out a way to fly. Now that magic is real, creating new spells should be doable. I could be a giant fairy flying around. Now that thought makes me kinda giddy. I’m not entirely sure why it makes me giddy, and I’m not actually sure I can make a new spell. Sure, I have some intuition, and some of the experience from Zena, but not on making new spells. My intuition tells me it’s far less rigid than I first assumed, but I’ll think about that later. 

Seeing a woman in the mirror is still a bit weird, but at least I can recognize it as me. Since I want a good look at my new wings, I take out my triple mirror. It’s a bit cramped since the room is smaller than last time, but after some finageling I manage to set it up properly. The backside of my wings are the same as the front, and just as beautiful. Looking through my inventory, I consider what clothes would fit best with my new wings. Since I don’t plan on running around today, maybe I should go with a skirt. It’s not like I haven’t worn them before, even George wore them, not regularly, but it happened more than once. Feeling a bit adventurous, I put on the magical girl outfit. It, like a small majority of the clothing, was available in a large variety of colors. This one is green. Not green and black like my preferred color scheme, but green and white. It feels a bit weird to wear, but it looks pretty good. I’m definitely not going to wear it today, but I do a twirl and a pose anyway. After trying a few more outfits, I settle on a medium length green dress. It’s going to take a bit to get used to waking around in a dress. You might think that Zena’s normal outfit counts as a dress, but with the tights it has a totally different feel. Having made up my mind, I complete my morning ritual and head to the common room. 

I was kinda worried about Jo and Jools getting along, but I see them talking happily over some food. I guess I shouldn’t have worried since Jools is generally easygoing. He spots me and waves at me. This causes Jo to turn her head and look at me. Her eyes go wide at the sight of me.

“Are you a fairy? I thought you were an elf?” She asks, with clear admiration.

“Nah, it’s just magic.” Jools say on my behalf.

“Don’t dismiss my magic.” I say in mock offense. “But yeah, I’m still an elf.” It really is a bit odd to refer to myself as an elf when most of my memories are of me being human. It’s easily overcome though.

“Please teach me to make my own wings.” She says, hopefully. I feel a bit conflicted about it, because I can’t really teach it to her, nor do I really want to. Thinking about it like that, makes the choice clear.

“No. And besides, If you want me to teach you, you have to at least keep up.”

I sit down next to them, and take out some fruit and a glass of water. The other two, also get their glass of water. 

“We have no plans for today, so what do you want to do?” I ask the others, though I look at Jools.

“Honestly, I just want to relax. This is the first time I have slept in a good bed since it happened. If you could let me borrow a mirror, that would be nice.” he answers, almost solemnly. It seems that He has some things on his mind. 

I look at him and say “Sure thing. You just have to ask. We are in this together, after all.” as understanding as I can manage it. He seems to understand my words, and smiles at me. 

After we finish breakfast, I help him set up a mirror in his room, and cast my longest lasting focus buff on him. It’s not all that powerful, but lasts for nearly an hour. In the end he decided to spend the day by himself, leaving me to hang out with Jo for the day. 

Looking more closely at her, I see that she is still wearing the same clothes as yesterday, though she seems to have sewn the torn places. 

So I ask her. “Are those your only set of clothes?”

“No, but the others are just as worn.” She answers, with a hint of shame in her voice.

“Then we have to fix that today. Aside from that, what should we do today?”

“I don’t know. This is not what I expected to happen today. I was kinda expecting to continue my practice.” 

“I can probably help you with that as well.” I say with a smile.

And with none of our plans clarified, we walk out into the streets. I reluctantly dismiss my wings before walking out however. When she asks me why I dismissed them when they are so beautiful, I answer that they draw more attention than I can handle at the moment.

We start by walking through the city looking for somewhere that sells clothing. I kinda hope it’s as easy to do as it was in the game, but I kinda doubt it. Maybe I can get her some padded clothes to make her practice more tolerable. 

She behaves almost as the intern back at the PCB manufacturer, eager to please and wide eyed as the company provides their equipment. I guess that's kinda the situation we are in, with me being the mentor with the company credit card. The difference being that it’s my own money and I will help her master magic instead of electronics. I can see why she is trying to please me though, since her position is dependent on her ability to keep up with our travels, which she can’t do for now. She doesn't know that I am willing to go slower for a while, and she probably hopes to convince me to stay long enough that she can keep up.

Either way we find a store that sells enchanted clothing a while later. We go inside, with her being hesitant since this is apparently way outside her budget. I tell her to get a couple sets of traveling clothes and if possible some light armor to help with her practice, and that I will pay for it.

The store didn’t have anything for travel, but had a suitable set of armor. We have to visit a couple other stores to get her clothes. She is almost ecstatic at finally being able to get proper clothing, though it’s dampened since she seems worried that I’m going to demand repayment. The travel clothes end up being slightly oversized pants and shirts, since we don’t get them tailored and it leaves more room for repairs in the future. 

At around noon, we decide to take lunch and I treat her to some nice food. It’s nothing special, but it looked and tasted good. We find one of the parks to relax for a bit while we eat.

As we speak, It comes up that she doesn’t know my name, since I dodged the introduction when we first met because of my bad mood at the time. I’m slightly flustered at the realization, and immediately rectify it.

With our break out of the way, I tell her to put on the armor and get ready for practice.

 

Kamba

Jools has consistently gotten the short end of the stick so far. I think him taking a break to relax and sort out his inner demons is overdue.

Also some of you might have noticed that exactly none of Jo's characteristics have made their way into the story. I'm pretty sure it's because Zena was annoyed and dismissive when they first met, and haven't really thought about it since then. Hopefully it makes its way into the story soon.