Zeph Malston: The Aether Mage

Days passed quickly as Zeph's daily life became routine. On weekdays he would go to school. In the afternoons, he would train with Bianca. Saturdays were spent training in spirit magic and more combat training. Sunday was the only day off he really had. Lili's mom and grandmother arrived a few days after his first spirit magic lesson. They moved in across the street with Relina and the girls visited every day. Zeph met Genevieve and Sharon the day after they arrived. Lili was right. Her mom and grandma were pretty uptight. They still addressed him as Young Lord even though he told them to call him by his name.

After a month, Zeph was starting to enjoy school. This was because he finally had a group of friends that didn't care about his status. People were a lot less wary of Zeph after the day he grew pink fox ears. Some were from Drew's original group, like Jimmy and Rebecca. Others were associating him because of Lili. Their names were Stacy and Brent. They became friends after she helped them with their hand to hand skills.

Since they got together, lunch and afternoon training became a joy. Zeph had more people willing to fight him when they needed to spar, and he also had more people to team with when they did spell training. For the most part, Zeph ended up trying to help his friends get their magic control up by offering tips and tricks.

Zeph, Lili, Drew, Jimmy, Ivy, Brent, Stacy, and Becca were gathered in a group working on the day's magic lesson. It was a nice day outside, if not a little cold. They had to create a ball of concentrated magic near the limit of what they could control. Then they had to maintain it as long as possible. When they couldn't sustain the spell anymore, they were allowed to take a five minute break before starting again.

Jimmy was watching Zeph juggle three silver globes of light. He looked down at the flickering orb of red flame in his hands and then back to the young lord. "Did I ever tell you how much I hate you?"

Zeph looked at Jimmy. "Four times today." The silver orbs around Zeph halted mid-air. He pointed at Jimmy. "If you can keep that red ball going for forty more seconds I'll call you Jim."

That was all the motivation Jimmy needed and the red orb grew brighter. Everyone chuckled at the boy. He took a quick glance at the black haired girl next to him. Rebecca's green eyes were staring at Lili shaping a bright pink orb of magic into a snowflake. She saw Lili as a rival and even declared so one day. Zeph almost shouted in joy when Lili acknowledged the rivalry. He was hoping she would quit bugging him with her constant contests and bets. Unfortunately, Lili decided that the more Rivals she had, the better. Brent threw his hat in the ring since he wanted to go up against another person who specialized in ice magic.

Stacy was reaching her limit for the second time. The brown haired blue eyed little lady finally let go of the spell and sat on the floor sighing. "Anybody got a glass of water?"

"Zeph's probably got some in that thermos he's always carrying around in his bag." Drew answered while focusing on the Bright brown light between his hands.

"Just a sec." Zeph walked over to his bag, the silver globes following him, and pulled out the thermos and handed it to her. "Here ya go. It's clean so you don't have to worry about getting a glass."

"Thanks." Stacy opened the thermos and took a drink, letting out a refreshing "Aaah."

"You know Zeph, James is right. Watching you practice can be really frustrating. Here we are struggling to keep our spells going and you just walk around with several like it's no big deal." Brent gave Zeph an annoyed look.

"If it makes you feel better, these aren't tier one spells, so I'm not exactly pushing myself." Zeph shrugged.

Lili stopped shaping her snowflake. "You're not using a tier one spell. You cheater. I was wondering why you weren't even tired yet." Everyone could see a few beads of sweat on Lili's forehead.

"Not my fault. You didn't say we couldn't." Zeph gave her a wry smile.

"Well then bets off." Lili grumbled.

"Fine with me. It's not like we were betting anything anyway." Zeph went back to juggling his magic spells. "By the way," he spoke to Jimmy. "Times up. You can rest Jim."

Jim fell to the floor with a deep breath and a wide smile. "Just wait Malston. I'll beat you and soon you'll be calling me James."

"Sure you will," Drew said. "You're what 0 and 12?"

Jim gave Drew the stink eye. "Shut up. Besides, it's not like he's invincible."

"Anybody got any exciting plans this weekend?" Brent asked, changing the subject. "I was thinking about getting some extra training done and was wondering if anyone wanted to join me.

"Stacy and I are going to watch Grimlocke 2: Dark Descent. Then we're going to hang out at my place." Rebecca dropped her spell and sat down.

"Jim and I can go. He's always down for training, and I need to polish up a new earth spell my dad taught me." Drew said as he sat down to take a break. "Whatta say Zeph. Wanna hang out with the guys?"

"Sorry, got spirit magic lessons and Coach B wants me to teach me some new moves." Zeph decided to up the power of his spells to tier one to push himself. He had to drop his other spell orbs and focus on one though.

"Bah, you're no fun." Drew leaned back. "You need to take a break man. Hang out some more, and have fun. Take Ivy out on a date or something."

Ivy perked up. "Yeah Zeph, you should take me on a date." After getting used to the boy, Ivy started to become more proactive these last few days. Relina gave her some advice and said that she needed to be more aggressive if she wanted to bag the young lord. She still had the faint blush though, and everyone could hear a hint of shyness in her voice.

"Sorry Ivy, you know my policy," Zeph said gently.

The poor half-elf deflated. "Yeah I know." Lili, Stacy, and Rebecca walked over and hugged the girl. They glared at Zeph.

"I can't believe you turned her down again. I mean she's been pretty forward with you this week, so you know she genuinely likes you. What's the deal man?" Drew had been trying to get the two together since they met. It turns out that Drew's mom was a romance novelist and he liked to pair people, both in fiction and reality.

"Like I said before, I'm not interested in a romantic relationship. I'm not emotionally available for that situation." Zeph sighed.

"That and he's got a crush on Semara." Lili teased.

Zeph was getting tired of Lili teasing him about that. "I don't have a crush on Semara." Ever since Semara officially moved into his mansion, the girl tried to use his supposed 'crush' to embarrass him.

"Sure you don't. That's why you asked her to move in with you. Don't you know you're breaking my best friend's heart." Lili spoke sounding hurt. She started petting Ivy's head to comfort the girl. It made the half-elf smile.

"Yeah Zeph. Have you been toying with me this entire time." Ivy used magic to make fake tears.

"Bianca put you up to this didn't she?" Zeph's brow furrowed.

"No, how could you ever say that." Lily put her hand over her heart, looking hurt.

"Then why is Drew recording this?" Zeph pointed at his friend holding the tablet.

"Looks like you guys are busted." Drew put down the tablet.

"Fine, she said if we got you she would make us our favorite food and dessert all week next week." Lili admitted.

The group continued to make small talk and laugh at the occasional joke. It made time go by quicker and soon the bell rang. Zeph went to enchanting class and turned in his project. He managed to make a lunch box that heated food like a microwave. All of his enchanting and engineering projects were items he could use at school. After school was over, he headed back home and got dressed for more combat training with his favorite fox girl.

They were practicing magic and melee combat today. Bianca was teaching him her family's sword style. It used magic to enhance attacks and create special techniques. Zeph stood across from her with a single-edged sword half his height.

"Should we really be using these? I mean, it's pretty dangerous." Zeph was staring at the sharp edge of his blade.

"It's no problem. You need to get used to the feel of a real sword. Besides, you couldn't hurt me if you tried. Bianca surrounded herself in spell armor. "Since you've gotten the basics of my style down, we'll spar a bit for today. Ready?"

Zeph readied his stance and focused on his master. "Ready."

Bianca stepped forward bringing her sword down vertically. The ringing of metal echoed as Zeph blocked the attack before it reached him. Turning his waist and pushing forward with his arms, Zeph pushed Bianca's sword to the side. He followed with an attack that she easily blocked.

"Good job, remember to watch your footwork." Bianca smiled and sent several thrusts that Zeph parried with a bit of effort. He was doing pretty good for a newbie. They learned that Zeph's talent with a sword was not as good as his talent with hand to hand combat, so he had to put more effort when it came to this training. Originally, Bianca never planned to teach Zeph how to use a sword, because he favored ranged spell combat with hand to hand as a backup. When he found out that she used a sword as a melee weapon, he begged her to teach him. Zeph said that swords and magic were a must when going to a fantasy world.

Zeph was starting to lose his composure as Bianca pressed forward with a chain of attacks. Her swings were fast and he needed to dodge as much as he needed to block. Slashes were followed by swipes and thrusts as her attacks flowed together. He made a mistake and stumbled. Bianca's sword stopped right before reaching his face.

"Told you. We'll take a break while you practice your forms again." Bianca took a stance and waited for Zeph to mimic her.

After their lesson was over, Zeph decided to disperse into Aether mist and reform in a set of casual clothes. Bianca was jealous that he didn't need to take a shower to get cleaned up. When she was done changing and was dressed again, Bianca called Semara over so they could leave. She needed to go shopping for some groceries and Semara needed a few things as well. They asked Zeph if he wanted to join them. He was happy to get out of the house.

They drove to the nearest department store. Zeph followed after the two shifters as they made their way down the aisles. He was looking around to see if anything caught his interest as they walked around the store.

"So what did you need here Semmy?" Zeph asked.

"Just some personal items, a new toothbrush, shampoo, conditioner, maybe extra sheets,…Oh and a humidifier." Semara was counting out items with her fingers.

"Why a humidifier?" Zeph tilted his head.

"If it's to dry, my tail gets all static-y. It's not fun. Plus, winters almost here and the humidity gets pretty low in Asperitus." Semara smiled at Zeph and her tail waved back and forth. "I asked the house and it said we have a week before it starts getting cold."

Bianca giggled. "Isn't it funny? We have a high tech smart-mansion and all we ask the built-in A.I. is what the weather will be."

"Well, I managed to program it so that Rin can use it to fill her water and food bowl. I attached them to a dispenser in the wall, but you're right. It is pretty funny.

The group continued to banter and have fun while they were shopping when suddenly the ground shook. "Was that an earthquake?" Zeph stopped and looked around. Then the ground rumbled and started shaking harder. Bits of the ceiling started to fall, and produce was falling off of the shelves. Bianca grabbed Semara and Zeph and created a Barrier around them. A loud pop rang out and the lights went off. People gasped and screamed in shock.

After the rumbling stopped, Zeph created an orb of light. He saw shelves and items spread across the floor. He could see the other customers ducked down on the ground. More people started creating small lights with magic. The store was a mess. Zeph heard the sound of cracking and felt the wind pick up. He looked to his two companions. "Well, that can't be good."