The magic association

I wake up in my new apartment in the castle town.
That elf, Nea, is still lying in my bed.
Gera is already awake.

Good morning.

Morning.

I get up and get dressed.
We don't talk a lot, so we don't wake up Nea.

Today I'd like to visit the first association.
I'm still not sure, which association I should want to go to.
But I'll just choose the magic association for now.
They said I don't have to stay there after all.

I look up where it's meant to be. Basically all of the associations are pretty close to the castle.
So I get ready to go.
Just before I want to leave, Gera stops me.

So you know where you want to go?

Yeah, I'll visit the magic association.
It's not like I expect anything from that, but I have to start somewhere.

Oh, could you take Nea with you?

I'm surprised by this and don't immediately know what to answer.

Nea didn't find a proper association, so...

Is she trying to find a boyfriend for her, or am I just reading too much into this?

Uhm..., okay.

Gera wakes up Nea in a rather harsh way.
Nea just gets up and is as happy as the night before.

Please don't take too long. We have to be there in half an hour, and I don't know exactly where it is.
Besides that, I'd like to get some snack for breakfast on the way.

The document about the associations also contains information about the opening hours.
And everywhere there's a specific time frame of six hours where you are required to be there.
Coming earlier or staying longer is always possible.

No problem. I know the times.

Nea gets ready in less than a minute.

We can go!

Together we walk through the town streets.
The castle is directly in front of us, but still in some distance.

I think we have to go left here.

I have no idea, so I believe her.
We go left and keep walking for a short time, until we reach some unconspicious door.

Oh, there it is, I think.

How do you know?

It's the correct number.

Oh, I see.

We go inside. It's a rather huge hall, not as huge as the castle, and a bunch of supposed magicians are already there.

As we look around, a woman in colorful clothes, mostly pink and yellow, welcomes us. She seems very friendly, maybe a bit too friendly.

Hey! Welcome in the magic association.
It's always nice to have new people here.
I hope, you'll like this place so much, so you don't want to leave again.

I'm already a bit skeptical, but I try to stay open.

She immediately shows us around as if we were the most important persons to her.
She mostly shows us the places, where the magicians are trying to do some magic.
But to me it doesn't look like real magic.

Soon we enter a small separate room, where we sit down on some comfortable pillows and she starts to explain everything.

I'll start with the basics.
Do you already know what magic is?

I shake my head.

Magic is about transforming energy, but without relying on commonly known physics.
Instead you control it using your mind.
This is possible because of...

She's very enthusiastic about it.
But it's starting to get pretty complicated and I don't understand everything.

One of the most important energy forms is mana.
This energy form can be easily accessed by magicians and transformed into almost any other energy form.
Mana is just everywhere, but especially in places where a lot of magic has been used already, as most magicians aren't able to use all of the mana which appears during transformations.
So it's easier to use magic in the rooms of this association.
We also put magic artifacts in different places, since they might still emit some mana.

She has a lot more to say about mana and keeps talking about it for a while.

Oh, I guess you'd like to try something yourself.
You must be getting bored already.

I'm really bored.
When looking at Nea, she seems very excited, though.

Follow me!
I'll give each of you a magic artifact.

We follow her through the hall to a few objects lying on the ground.
It's totally different kinds of objects.
Nea takes some spherical object, I take some mystical statue.

Just keep sitting there for a while and concentrate on these objects. They contain a lot of mana, so you should be able to get a feel for it.
Try to feel the difference.
If you are ready, you can try to interact with the mana and change the world around you.
Moving objects, creating heat and cold, transforming materials or generating light. Everything is possible when you interact with the mana field properly.

The woman finally stops talking and I sit down on the ground, close my eyes and feel the object.
I feel around the object and the whole atmosphere in the room.
It really feels interesting.
But it's not that special. It might also just be imagination.

I keep sitting there for a while, but I don't really make any progress.
I don't feel anything specific.

And when I try to do simple things like cooling the air or creating a small wind, nothing happens.

After a while I get up and walk around to see, what everyone else is doing.
Most of them are just standing or sitting around, some of them motionless, some of them doing elegant movements.

But in the end, nobody seems to achieve something.
Some of them might cause small abnormalities, like one causing the clothes he wears to float a bit, one being able to stand on one hand, and one bending a hard and rigid object as if it was soft and elastic, but even that can probably be explained without magic.

I think my initial thought was right. Magic does not exist and everything someone does is just a trick.

This place is probably just a way for people to relax and get their free home.
So if there's really nothing I like, I just can be here and do nothing.
When looking at these people, I wonder how magic is useful at all for castle town, even if it was real.

Nea is still training. She's still sitting there with her ball and seems to be really into it.
Maybe elves have a talent for magic? Or they are more likely to fall for things like that?

I just spend the rest of the time talking to some of the other guys.
Some seem really convinced, some are pretty desperate, and some probably really use this as an opportunity to relax.

While talking to one of the latter ones, who doesn't really care if magic is real, I realize that time is up.

Oh, I think I'll leave now.

Oh, it's already time. I'll go, too.
Let's just go together.

Okay, but I have to take someone with me.

I go to Nea, who already is standing around and moves awkwardly.

Uhm, Nea! Can we go now?

It's pretty nice here. I'm already making progress.

I had enough.

If you want, you can come back tomorrow.

Oh, you're right. I might even register here.

Sure.

It sounds like this has been my chance to get Nea as my girlfriend. When choosing different associations we would probably not be able to spend that much time with each other in private anymore.
I wouldn't have wanted it anyway, though.
Lena is still waiting for me at home.

So will you come with me now?
I don't think, Gera would like you to go home by yourself.

As soon as she hears me mentioning Gera, she jumps up and approaches me.

Yeah, let's go now. I'll just be back tomorrow.

While the three of us are leaving this place, I wave the woman.
She seems busy, but she smiles at us.
Then we go outside together.

It's still not dark. What do you usually do here?

I usually go to a bar. But you're still a few years younger than me, so that might not be a good choice.

No problem. I'd rather like to go home now. I didn't have a lot of time to enjoy my new home yet.

We walk a longer route this time, so we'll spend a few more minutes together.

So, I have to turn right here.
Let's meet again soon.

Sure.
When Nea joins the magic association, just ask her to show you my place. We live in the same apartment.

Okay, then see you!

After leaving him we directly go home.
When inside, we're alone. Gera isn't back yet.

I'm alone with such a cute girl, and she's been raised as a slave, so maybe...
If Gera is her master and Gera told me to take Nea with me, then she might listen to me.

But I probably shouldn't think about that.
I got some other idea, though.

I'm hungry. We should have eaten in town.

I could cook something for us.

I gladly accept and she starts cooking.

After a while we eat together. It's a simple meal, but still very delicious.

Afterwards we sit down together on the couch and put my arm around her. She also seems to enjoy leaning against me.

Before Gera comes back, we already go to bed.
I'm still pretty tired. And I like being able to cuddle with her before sleeping.
I hug her very tight and she doesn't seem to mind.