Chapter 75: Holy
Aegis limped down the hallway toward her dorm, her thighs still shaking from Nazraya’s enthusiasm. Every step sent little aftershocks through her core.
[Worth it though. Definitely worth it.]
She pushed open her door to find Lune painting by candlelight. Sophie sat naked on the bed, posing with one leg stretched toward the ceiling.
"Welcome back!" Sophie chirped. "Lune’s teaching me about art!"
"By getting you naked?"
"All the best models pose nude." Lune didn’t look up from her canvas. "Your sister has interesting bone structure."
"That’s not the only interesting thing about me!" Sophie wiggled her hips.
Aegis just sighed.
An envelope sat on Aegis’s desk, sealed with the academy crest. She tore it open while Sophie chattered about proper lighting angles.
To: Aegis StarcallerRe: Temporary Schedule Change
Due to Professor Loralei’s emergency leave of absence, you have been reassigned to Divine Magic Fundamentals with Sister Mirabel. Report to the East Chapel tomorrow morning at third bell.
- Academy Administration
"Divine Magic?" Aegis muttered.
[That’s weird. Loralei never takes leave in the game. Though, with this being real life now, I guess something could have come up.]
"Ooh, Sister Mirabel!" Sophie bounced off the bed, tits jiggling. "She’s the scary nun, right? The one who made that third-year cry?"
"How do you know about that?"
"I asked around! She’s supposedly super strict. And hot. Strict and hot."
"Please tell me you didn’t proposition any nuns today."
"Of course not. Not yet anyway."
"DO NOT!!!!!!"
Aegis groaned and collapsed onto her bed. Tomorrow was going to be interesting.
---
The East Chapel smelled like disappointment.
Aegis sat in a wooden pew between two nervous-looking nobles who kept scooting away from her. The stained glass windows depicted various saints doing saintly things—healing the sick, feeding the poor, smiting the wicked with holy fire.
[Very subtle.]
Other students filed in quietly. No one spoke above a whisper. Even the usual noble posturing had been replaced by hunched shoulders and worried glances.
The door slammed open.
Sister Mirabel strode in like judgment day had arrived early. She wore the traditional black habit, but somehow made it look like armor. Her face was all sharp angles with high cheekbones and eyes the color of winter frost, lips pressed into a line that suggested she’d never smiled once in her whole life.
And she had a massive pair of tits too.
[... Damn it, she IS hot.]
"Silence."
The already-quiet room went dead silent.
"I am Sister Mirabel. You are here because your regular instructor is indisposed." She surveyed the class like a general reviewing troops. "I do not care about your previous curriculum. We will be studying divine magic as the goddess intended—with discipline, devotion, and zero tolerance for laziness."
A student raised his hand.
Sister Mirabel’s gaze snapped to him. He lowered it immediately.
"Good. Now, divine magic differs from elemental casting in three ways." She raised her hand and light gathered around her fingers. Not the warm golden glow Aegis expected, but something cold and sharp, like moonlight on broken glass. "First, it requires faith. Not in the goddess necessarily, but in the concept of absolute truth."
The light expanded into geometric patterns that hurt to look at directly.
"Second, it cannot be forced. Elemental magic bends to will. Shadow magic dominates through fear. Divine magic only responds to clarity of purpose."
[Shadow magic? Why’d she specifically mention that?]
"Third," the patterns collapsed into a single point of brilliance, "it reveals what is hidden."
The light pulsed. Several students gasped. One girl in the front row started crying.
"Lady Pemberton, your family’s financial troubles are not relevant to this lesson. Also, please stop embezzling from your father’s accounts."
The girl ran from the room.
"Now then." Sister Mirabel dismissed the light with a gesture. "Partner exercises. You will attempt to manifest a basic purification sigil. Those who succeed may leave early. Those who fail will receive additional meditation assignments."
Students scrambled to pair up. Aegis found herself next to a sweaty boy who kept muttering prayers under his breath.
"Focus on the concept of cleansing," Sister Mirabel instructed, pacing between the pews. "Imagine water washing away impurity. Light banishing shadow. Truth destroying lies."
Aegis raised her hand, trying to imagine... something. The sweaty boy managed a faint sparkle. Other students produced various levels of glow.
Nothing happened for Aegis.
[Come on. I’m being trained by Queen Rosanna herself. How hard can holy magic be?]
She tried again. Still nothing.
"Interesting." Sister Mirabel stood directly behind her. "Very interesting."
The class continued for another hour. Students gradually produced acceptable sigils and fled. Soon only Aegis and two others remained—both looking ready to puke from magical exhaustion.
"You two may go," Sister Mirabel said without looking at them. "Additional meditation tomorrow at dawn."
They scrambled out.
Aegis started to stand.
"Not you."
[Shit.]
Sister Mirabel walked around to face her. This close, Aegis could see her eyes weren’t actually blue—they were grey with fragments of silver, like frost on a window.
"You couldn’t manifest even basic divine light."
"I’m not really the religious type—"
Sister Mirabel raised her hand. Light erupted around Aegis’s throat, forming a collar of pure energy. It didn’t hurt, but the threat was clear.
"You reek of shadow magic."
Aegis’s heart hammered against her ribs.
"I don’t know what you mean."
"Lies." The collar tightened slightly. "Shadow corruption clings to you like bad perfume. Someone has been training you. Who?"
[Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck.]
"Nobody’s training me in anything."
"The taint is fresh. Recent. Mixed with..." Sister Mirabel leaned closer, nostrils flaring. "Fascinating. There’s something else. Aether weaving? But that’s impossible. No one has successfully woven pure aether since—"
She stopped. Her eyes widened slightly.
"No. Surely not."
The collar vanished. Sister Mirabel stepped back, studying Aegis like she was a particularly interesting insect.
"I don’t know what you’re talking about," Aegis said, trying to keep her voice steady. "Maybe you’re sensing something else? I mean, I did fight an assassin a while back. Maybe some of his magic rubbed off?"
"Assassins don’t use shadow magic that pure." Sister Mirabel circled her slowly. "That level of corruption requires more than weeks of exposure. Regular contact with someone deeply connected to the Umbral Realm."
"The what now?"
Aegis knew what that was, of course, but she was playing dumb.
"Don’t play dumb."
[Wow.]
"Someone is teaching you forbidden magic. If you won’t tell me who, I’ll simply have to watch you until you reveal them yourself."
"That sounds like stalking."
"It sounds like protecting this academy from corruption." Sister Mirabel moved to the altar, running her fingers along the carved symbols. "Shadow magic spreads like disease. One practitioner who thinks they know what they’re doing can doom hundreds."
"Good thing I’m not practicing it then."
Sister Mirabel turned back to her, and for the first time, something like amusement flickered across her face.
"You’re either very brave or very stupid."
"I’ve been told it’s both."
"Hmm." She gestured toward the door. "You may go. But know this—I will be watching. Every class, every meal, every late-night ’study session.’ The moment I have proof, you and whoever is teaching you will burn."
Aegis stood on shaky legs.
"Is that a threat?"
"It’s a promise." Sister Mirabel turned back to the altar. "The goddess demands purity. I am merely her instrument."
Aegis headed for the door, trying not to run.
"Oh, and Miss Starcaller?"
She froze.
"Divine magic reveals truth. Shadow magic hides it. But aether weaving?" Sister Mirabel glanced over her shoulder. "Aether weaving transcends both. If someone truly is teaching you that lost art, then perhaps there’s hope for you yet."
Aegis pulled back.
[... Did she just compliment me?]
"I don’t—"
"Go. Before I change my mind about letting you leave."
Aegis didn’t need to be told twice. She pushed through the chapel doors and into the hallway, not stopping until she was three corridors away.
[Holy fuck. That was close.]
Sister Mirabel knew about the shadow magic. She’d sensed Nazraya’s training on her like it was written on her skin. And she’d mentioned aether weaving too, which meant she could somehow detect Queen Rosanna’s lessons.
[This is bad. This is really, really bad.]
But also... Sister Mirabel had let her go. She could have dragged Aegis to the Headmistress right then. Could have demanded an investigation. Instead, she’d given a warning.
[Why?]
Aegis made her way back to her dorm, mind racing. She’d have to tell Nazraya about this. And maybe warn Rosanna too, though warning a ghost about a nun was ridiculous.
[My new teacher is somewhat intense.]
That was the understatement of the century. Sister Mirabel wasn’t just intense—she was dangerous. The kind of dangerous that could end Aegis’s academy life with a single report.
But she’d seemed almost... interested when she’d mentioned aether weaving. Like she knew something about it that she wasn’t saying.
[Great. Another mystery to deal with.]
Aegis pushed open her door to find Sophie and Lune in the same position as before, except now Sophie had both legs behind her head.
"How was divine magic?" Sophie asked cheerfully.
"Educational."
"Did you meet the scary nun?"
"Yeah."
"Was she hot?"
Aegis thought about Sister Mirabel’s frost-colored eyes and the way she’d circled her like a predator.
"In a terrifying, probably-going-to-murder-me way? Sure."
"That’s the best kind of hot!"
Lune looked up from her painting.
"You’re sweating."
She was right. Aegis’s uniform was soaked through with nervous sweat.
"Yeah, well. Turns out divine magic is a workout."
[And apparently I need to figure out how to hide shadow magic corruption before next class.]
This was going to be a problem.