Opening a Magic Academy at the End of the World [Yuri, Transgender, Book 1 Complete]

PoV: Sanya

Sanya knocked on the door to Mai's room. Sanya was already dressed in dark purple mage robes. Freshly shaved. Freshly washed. Scarf around her neck and the newly acquired witch's hat on her head.

Sanya knocked again, louder this time.

“W-wuh? C-coming!” Mai's voice announced, groggily. Her feet hit the floor, then padded across the room.

The door creaked open slightly and Mai's face poked out from behind. She had dark rings under her eyes.

“Sanya!!!”

“You smell,” Sanya took a step back. “You slept in late, too.”

Mai swallowed, face flushed. “Ah . . . Um . . .”

“Take a bath. I know that the room came with a tub. Then get ready to leave,” Sanya crossed her arms.

“But the water is cold!”

“Then go and hire an elemental mage attuned to thermal, or just get dressed and go to Calderae smelling like bodily fluids.” Mai was too freaky . . .

Mai averted her gaze for a moment, then confusion crossed her face. “Calderae?”

“We need to pick up a replacement temporal mage. Aisha's indisposed with guild management.”

“Ah.”

Sanya waved a hand in dismissal and turned.

“See you soon . . .” Mai shut the door. She sounded sad. Had Sanya hurt her somehow? Was Sanya being cold?

Sanya winced, hand pressing against her torso. If she pressed hard enough, her hand might just push down her robes and make them pass through her body.

Maybe her numbness had gone through in her words. Had Mai noticed?

Sanya didn't want to bring it up and worry Mai . . . maybe she should?

Sanya waited in the hall for a minute. Then two minutes.

Until she felt weird standing around by the door, so she headed out into the lobby. Tables, chairs, and couches sat about the room, creating two halves of a square split in the center, leaving a space for the doorway and reception desk.

Sanya went up to the counter where the receptionist sat behind. She dropped the key onto it. “The second key will be given shortly.”

“Much obliged,” the receptionist nodded once, taking the key from the counter and sliding it into a drawer.

Sanya went and sat down in one of the plushy couches—stone furniture with copious amounts of cloth and fluff thrown onto it to make it comfortable.

People came and went from the inn. Single people. Pairs. Even the occasional family. There was a surprising amount of surface folk. Merchants, maybe. Those tended to be the people going between the cities the most. Diplomats? Nah. Mages? Not anymore, with the tempest gone. Adventurers? Speleothem didn't have a wing. They didn't need one. Maybe one day Aisha would try to expand and wrap her grasp around this place too.

People glanced curiously at the strange witch lounging on the couch. Which wasn't the worst way people could look at Sanya, not by far.

Sanya felt a pang of jealousy upon seeing the families. Although, maybe those ones too were odious and abusive behind closed doors.

Mai skipped up to the desk and handed back her key. She had seen Sanya earlier, for Mai turned and immediately made her way to Sanya, without a hint in her eye that she had just noticed her.

“Shall we go?”

Sanya nodded, then held out her left hand.

Mai took it with her own left hand.

“[Pocket Repository],” Sanya retrieved her staff and stood. “[Globetrot Anchor - Speleothem].”

The world ate them up. The world broke them apart. The world fixed them. They were spat out at Sanya’s Anchor.

They stood off to the side of Speleothem’s northern road.

“I thought we were going to Calderae,” Mai said.

“We are,” Sanya turned to face northeast. “Once I set an anchor in Emergentia.”

The world, for the most part, was a vast expanse of rolling hills, large patches of green and some splotches of brown or tan—dirt and sand. The trees had not gotten too high yet. The geographical features to the northeast were not tall and dominating like the south or west.

Sanya picked some spot in the distance, as far as she could see unobstructed.

“[Organic Displacement].”

Sanya had grouped Mai in with her spell. The two of them blinked out of existence, and then reappeared in the previous horizon she had seen. Speleothem was now some distant mountain southwest.

They stood at the middle of a small hill. Hills were good, because they offered a vantage point to see the surrounding terrain.

“Do you know exactly where it is?” Mai asked.

Sanya jogged up the hill. Still holding hands, Sanya yanked Mai forward. She let out a yelp before jogging with Sanya.

At the top of the hill, Sanya answered with another, “[Organic Displacement].” Pointing more east than north, and not as far as she could.

Reality ate them up and spit them out once again. They now stood on a small hill, overlooking a town less than a quarter of a kilometer away, northeast. Very few people walked the streets. By their small church, a dozen people dug new graves in a tombstone yard far too big for the town. Hmm, no cremation via thermal mage. The very south of the town had a ravine cracked and snaked through the ground, around hills. There were pathways of trounced grass and worn dirt down into the ravine from the town. Mining?

Small farms surrounded the town as well, and more gardens sat around the houses, many pots and ceramics too.

“[Globetrot Anchor - Create “Emergentia].” That done, Sanya cast again. [Globetrot Anchor - Calderae].”

One moment, they were on the hill overlooking Emergentia. The next moment, they stood off to the side of a cobbled road, in a patch of grass. The buildings of Calderae appeared maybe a quarter of a kilometer to the northeast.

A dull ache shot through Sanya. She doubled over, staff pressed against the ground to keep her standing.

“S-Sanya?” Mai took a quick step to close what little distance was left between them. She put a hand against Sanya's chest and another at her back.

Sanya clutched her staff. Her breath caught. She couldn't feel her legs for a moment.

I feel like a grandmother. Ah, Heliux, is this what Aisha is like?

“Check my legs,” Sanya said through gritted teeth.

Mai took her hands away and stepped back. She bent down and rolled up the cloth hiding Sanya's legs. “Nothing,” she reported, standing upright. “How is your stomach?”

Sanya shrugged. “I'd have to disrobe for that.”

“Lucky me,” Mai grinned.

Sanya glared at her. “Not the time.”

“Right.”

Sanya took a deep breath, then moved her legs. That was a good start. She wriggled her toes—something she couldn't do a minute ago. Sanya took her staff off the ground and poked her legs. Real. Solid. Definitely felt the metal pushing against her skin.

“I'm good now,” Sanya said.

Mai sighed with relief, which did not remove the concern creasing her face.

The magic is killing me. “How much time do I have left?”

“Forever, if you stop using magic—probably.”

Yeah, that was never happening. Mai knew that already, she wouldn't argue the point any further. Sanya just stood there for a moment. “Let's go.”

They stepped onto the road and walked towards Calderae. There was a caravan at the city entry and one far behind Sanya and Mai.

A short walk, and the pair was upon the entry. They did not even need to get any document out. The guards noticed them instantly and let them pass.

The two of them made their way straight to the guild hall. The morning streets were packed with people, many glanced and stared at Sanya. Words were spoken in whispers and hushed tones.

Sanya just held a flat expression as she navigated through twisting streets.

Soon, they stepped into the guild hall. A couple people sat on the couches in the foyer. The usher nodded to Sanya and Mai as they entered.

Fewer people occupied the benched tables than usual, but still a lot. Mostly groups of people. One enthusiastic group crowded around the guild board, deciding on a task to take for the morning—or day . . . or week. It depended on the quest and the skills of the team.

Sanya and Mai walked along the edge of the room, around the tables and towards the hallway in the back-right.

They entered, passed some doors, then knocked on the one to Aisha’s office.

“Come in,” a groggy voice replied.

Sanya turned the doorknob and pushed the door open. The two of them stepped inside.

Aisha sat, undignified and hunched over, at her desk. She looked terrible, but she always did, considering she was gray and purple and white and all.

The strangest thing in the room was a black and white cat, curled and napping on the table, in a space clear of papers.

The cat opened one eye and watched Sanya and Mai.

“Here's your temporal mage,” Aisha said with a straight face, gesturing to the cat.

Sanya blinked, then exchanged a glance with Mai. “I beg your pardon?”

The cat looked up at Aisha and . . . nodded? It locked one of its paws before hopping down and exiting the office space, going between Sanya and Mai.

“Nadiyya?” Sanya asked.

Aisha nodded. “She wants to go out. I think I've spent too long keeping her cooped up in the hall . . . away from society, too.”

“Nadiyya . . . ?” Mai tilted her head. “She's a temporal mage?”

“How else is her network so fast?”

Mai opened her mouth and gaped.

“Will this be . . . safe . . . for her?” Sanya asked. “Nadiyya's not exactly a brawler—she has spent all her time inside a building—temporal magic or not.”

“You'll be the brawler. She'll just give you time bubbles.”

“Ah.”

“She can communicate from anywhere. Her bubbles are good enough. She doesn't have to lounge around here all the time. Seems she's finally getting tired of it . . . and I should finally let her out.”

“Are you sure? . . .”

“Yes. It was more her choice than it was mine. She volunteered,” Aisha picked up a piece of paper and a magnet from a drawer. She stood. “Now, if you excuse me, I need to put up this quest."

Sanya and Mai gazed at it curiously. They stepped aside as Aisha walked passed.

Mai squinted at it. “Is that for a portal? . . . Blue? . . . By Hope?”

Aisha nodded.

Mai gasped.

“You've got yourself occupied with the red portal though.” Essentially: do not worry or bother yourself with this task, you already had one, which was probably more dire anyway.

Aisha continued down the hall, disappearing into the main room.

Sanya did not know much about Nadiyya. Only that she was a Fauna mage employed by Aisha for the guild. When the librarian had distributed the books to Aisha a week after the tempest fell, during the sprouting of Calderae, Nadiyya had appeared and chose the book. She was a wild street orphan from Ranyoris, the surface city to the north, even at the age of twenty-two. With Aisha's strange protection of Nadiyya and seclusion, Sanya guessed she had some mental illness.

Like Kanimaw, and like Glorestra, Ranyoris too, had flooded after the tempest fell. After all of that, and getting her book, Nadiyya had risen to high value, being able to communicate with animals and order them around like loyal minions. So, obviously she could do something very competently to make a living.

Someone ran down the steps from the second floor in a furious footfall of stomps. A shape blurred from the main room and paused in Sanya's face, coming into clarity. The individual dropped the time bubble she had up.

A woman grinned at Sanya, mere centimeters away from contact. She made note of the woman's strange, animal-like teeth. She had one eye like a cat's, the other was green. Her unkempt black bangs hung even over her eyes.

Sanya glanced up. Nadiyya had two wolf-like ears, one looked like it had been half-chewed-off.

Nadiyya sniffed—not a congested sniff, but a “I'm trying to sense you” sniff. Sanya didn't have to do any sniffing of her own for the scent of bird detritus to hit her . . . and bodily fluids? The kind that Sanya smelled on Mai this morning. Gross. Freaks. Sanya was glad she didn't have to deal with that anymore. Hands down, the best decision she made. Minus the blood and the cauterizing and the—um. Ignore that.

Sanya's face contorted, it was hard to hide her disgust and unsettlement. “Nadiyya? . . .”

A raven flew down the hall and rested on Nadiyya's shoulder. It cawed once.

“You certainly know how to make an entrance . . .” Sanya said.

Nadiyya took a large step back, and offered Sanya a hand to shake. Nadiyya's right hand had some fingers looking more like raven talons than human fingers. Nadiyya's other hand held a small tree branch in her hand . . . was that her wand? Did it work?

Sanya took Nadiyya's hand after a moment of hesitancy.

Nadiyya shook Sanya's hand with all the control and restraint of a cat on mint lost to the zoomies. Her talons dug into Sanya's skin. Nadiyya drew blood. Sanya winced.

“It's a pleasure to m—squawk—you, Voidwitch!” Nadiyya exclaimed. “My comrade of scars. You're so much prettier seeing you with my own eyes!”

“N-nice to meet you?” Sanya replied. “And . . . thanks?”

Why had she squawked? Was Nadiyya of sound mind? Was she insane? Maybe that was a result of her hardships and spending too much time with animals.

Wait, that was like the second person who called her pretty, after Mai. Although . . . from this crazy lady, really?

Nadiyya released her death grip and offered her hand to Mai. Nadiyya's talons were pinpointed with blood.

Mai looked critically at Nadiyya's hand, then shot forward and offered her own, as if suddenly enthusiastic about it. Or she just wanted to get it over with and did not want to appear rude.

Nadiyya shook Mai's hand with equal vigor. “And you too, Mai! Hmm . . . Weaver of Grawr! Aren't you just the cutest thing?" Nadiyya withdrew her hand. Mai's own had a lack of blood on it. Well, some of Sanya's might be on her hand, but none of her own.

“‘Grawr?’” Mai echoed, tilted her head.

“Sorry! The backlash of—chirp—magic!” Nadiyya said. “So, shall we get goi—mreowr?”

“What was ‘grawr?’” Mai asked.

Nadiyya shrugged. “I forgot!”

“My title?”

“Ah! That would be . . . Reality Weaver? Weaver of Reality? Matter? We—woof—workshop it!”

“Did . . . did someone tell you to . . . ?”

“Oh!” Nadiyya shook her head. “I see and hear—squeak!”

“Everything?”

Nadiyya nodded. “Yeah! That! You wanted a title. Let's come up with one! Something that will beat ‘beast’ or ‘monster!’”

“I-is that what people call you?”

“Yeah, some strange titles.”

“Those are insults. Petty nicknames,” Sanya said.

“I know,” Nadiyya whispered, frowning. Her cheer and energy rushed back a moment later, as if nothing had happened.

Nadiyya turned and offered her hand to Sanya again.

Sanya blinked.

Nadiyya noticed this. “Don't we need to touch for your blinky zoomy teleporting magic?”

“. . . Do you have everything you need for the journey?”

Nadiyya blinked. She scratched behind one of her wolf ears. “What do we need?”

Her breath somehow smelled worse than her body.

“Clothes! Money! Maybe a bedroll. Important documents. Gear. Emergency food . . . hygiene stuff . . .” Mai listed.

“Don't you two have all that?”

“But . . . Your own?”

“I've got these clothes,” Nadiyya gestured to her clothes. “You probably have everything else. We can share!”

Uh. One, they were not sharing, not beyond money. Two, her clothes were in a terrible state.

She wore a tunic ripped off mid-chest, revealing her midriff, and a mantle. Her skirt was probably many sizes too small, and made it maybe a dozen centimeters from her knees. She wasn't wearing anything underneath her tunic.

She was barefoot.

From here, Sanya could see Nadiyya's hair going all the way down her back, much longer than Sanya's own, which was only mid-back. Nadiyya's hair looked like it hadn't been washed or untangled in years.

Though, she probably only got ahold of the fauna mage tome a couple months ago. Had she lost herself this quickly to the magic? She was basically a wild animal in human form.

“It's going to be cold outside,” Mai told Nadiyya.

Nadiyya just tilted her head in confusion.

Mai sighed.

“Oh! My clothes are enough. I don't need the rest of that stuff. Money? Documents? Hygiene? . . . A bed? I'll sleep on the grass, thanks!”

“Please take a bath before you go,” Sanya said.

Nadiyya jumped back with fright, really or feigned, Sanya did not know.

Then, Nadiyya leaned forward with a mischievous grin. “Make me.”

Aisha stepped into the hallway from behind Nadiyya. “Nadiyya? Uh, hey! When was the last time you took a bath? And, uh, do you want new clothes?”

Nadiyya turned and faced Aisha, waving. “Hiiii! Um . . . a week ago? No—two weeks! Water has not tormented my presence in so long—bliss!”

“Give me a break,” Aisha muttered.

“As for clothes . . . mine are good!”

“They are not.”

Aisha grabbed Nadiyya by her collar. She yelped.

Then, a time bubble was thrown up, and the two of them vanished.

Sanya turned to Mai and blinked.

“Uhh,” Sanya began.

Mai just giggled. “She's like a mother now.”

“She looks old enough to have Nadiyya as a grandchild.”

Mai snorted. “You're so mean . . . Sooooo, thoughts on Nadiyya?”

“She's weird. She has a massive animal spy network, but is socially inept and doesn't care about her appearance. She's like an animal herself. Yet she also seems stupid. She has the energy to rival you . . .”

“Hmm . . . I bet she's smart, in her own way.”

“No doubt, with her Fauna magic . . . but . . . yeah . . .” Sanya paused. “I'm surprised she doesn't have a tail.”

Mai just nodded.

A silence ensued as they waited.

Mai broke it. “Can you project [Globetrot Anchor - Create]?”

“No.”

“Sanya,” Mai chastised. “Please? Let me do some of the Globetrotting.”

“You've seen what Spatial magic has done to me in three months,” Sanya said. “I can't let that happen to you.”

“No. Stop. Let me take some of it so you don't have to. I know the risks. I accept it. Please.”

Sanya sighed. “[Pocket Repository].”

She grabbed her staff. She channeled mana into the shape of [Globetrot Anchor - Create] and willed the mana to reveal itself.

Mai cast her own [Pocket Repository], and retrieved her staff.

“The mana orb here off to the side here is your signature for the location,” Sanya used her other hand to point to a singular orb of Spatial mana, more apart from the rest of the structure. “Add one more for each new location. You input this in the actual teleportation spell to tell the mana which Anchor you're going to. This is the location name when you speak to shortcut it.”

Mai nodded along, attempting the spell. “Mmm . . . [Globetrot Anchor - Guild Hall].” The anchor was set. Mai grinned. “I did it!”

“Good job.” Sanya could not find herself to actually be happy for Mai right now. This meant Mai would walk that dark path of losing herself to the Spatial mana. It hurt. “Just . . . Just wait until we learn how to stop the backlash before you Globetrot?”

“Sanya. I don't think Nur and whoever else actually grasps backlash curbing yet.”

“Hmm. Maybe. Wasn't Aisha supposed to be good like that? She's twenty-eight or something and looks like a grandmother.”

“Yeah. There's so much we still don't understand, and this is one of those things. We pretend or try to know . . . but there's so much lost. These grimoires won't make up for it.”

Mai was right. The average mage knew much less than Nur. Aisha was ahead of everyone, and yet she turned out like . . . that. Any backlash from beyond basic ability of a mana type still seemed unavoidable. Or . . . unknown? What did Cosmic Summoning do to Sanya? What did Fleshweaving do to Mai? There was so much they all did not know about magic still. It was all guesswork and grimoires from a hundred and seventy years ago.

“Who looks like a grandmother?” Aisha stepped up to them.

Ack! Temporal bubble or something. Sanya would never get used to that. So unfair.

“I uh. We uh—” Sanya tried.

“Nothing!” Mai sang innocently.

Aisha shook her head, eyes narrow. “Sure.”

Nadiyya walked alongside Aisha. The raven was gone from her shoulder.

“You're looking better,” Sanya said to Nadiyya. “You smell much better too.” Sanya did not spell bird poop or bodily fluids from Nadiyya anymore.

Nadiyya grinned. “Thanks. I don't like it—but I—brark!—if you weirdos do! . . .”

“Weirdos? For liking clean people?” Sanya asked.

Nadiyya's hair was still a mess. A dry and clean mess, though. The temporal bubbles must have been up until she dried.

She wore a loose-fitting tunic that did not look like it had been chewed off, still exposing a lot of skin around the belly. Instead of a small skirt, she wore trousers that were a couple sizes too large, tied around her waist not with a belt but with rope. She had a satchel at her side as well.

“Sooo. A little owl told us that a town westward from Emergentia was hit by a blood-draining monster,” Aisha informed.

Nadiyya nodded vigorously, grinning. Did she ever not grin?

Okay, yes, she did. Sanya saw as much earlier. Grinning like a mad woman seemed to be her default state though. Sanya wanted to see a . . . grin competition? . . . between Mai and Nadiyya.

“West, then?” Mai asked.

“Hopefully Sanya will be able to detect anything with her [Spatial Sense]. At the very least, the monster, hopefully the one turned monster as well. Or Nadiyya's birds can find them,” Aisha said.

Sanya nodded. “Are we ready?”

“Breakfast?” Mai squeaked out meekly.

“Ah,” Sanya said. “Right. From where?”

“We can just go here.”

“May I join you all?” Aisha asked.

“Of course!” Mai chirped.

The four of them headed out into the main hall, sitting on the row of benched tables closest to the back hallway—well, Aisha continued to stand. Sanya and Mai had replaced their staves into their respective Repositories.

“What's everyone want?” she asked.

“Kahy!” Mai exclaimed.

Sanya shrugged.

Nadiyya's wicked grin was about to stretch beyond her face. “Eggs. Raw eggs. And carrion.”

Mai turned and blinked, blanching.

Sanya tilted her head.

“I jest,” Nadiyya's smile turned disarming. “Something with eggs.”

Aisha frowned. “That's vague.”

“Yes. I don't care what—mrrp—is as long as there's eggs.”

“You're like a fox,” Mai giggled.

“And Sanya?”

“Whatever Mai decided, I guess,” she replied.

Aisha nodded and headed towards the counter to order.

She stood around at the counter, waiting for the food, which was a mistake.

A group approached them, seeing that the scary guild master was away. Sanya only heard their footsteps, she was on the side of the bench facing towards the wall. Same as Mai. Nadiyya was on the other side though, and perked up once the people approached. Mai turned her head.

“Are you . . . the Voidwitch?” A feminine voice asked.

Mai glanced at Sanya. Sanya said nothing. Mai said nothing.

“Hello!” Nadiyya nearly shouted. She scratched behind her ear again. Did she have human ears? . . . It was hard to tell with all that hair.

“What . . . interesting company you keep.” There was no way that was intended as anything other than an insult.

“Crippled freaks,” another voice muttered.

Sanya was one word away from retrieving her staff and putting a meteor crater in the middle of the guild hall. Her fists curled underneath the table, body tense.

“Oh Heliux, she's coming back,” a third said.

“Well . . . I apologize for their behavior . . . See you around! Or not—if you're going to continue staring at the wall!” Wasn't she the one who just called Nadiyya “interesting company?” Mai too, probably.

The set of footsteps went away. How incredibly irksome. What did their little group intend to get out of that?

Aisha came back holding two plates. The receptionist came out with the other two, set them on the table, bowed, and left.

“They didn't harass you, did they?”

Mai just swallowed.

Even Nadiyya kept silent.

Sanya gave no means of communication. Why were people like that? Everywhere she went, someone wanted to torment her. Why? What was the reason?

“Adventurers,” Aisha muttered. “Their egos know no bounds.”

“Are they stupid?” Mai asked. “They approached the second most powerful mage—and in the company of the first—to harass her?” Like poking the large beast.

“You're right.” Aisha looked across the room and barked. “You three, come here. Now.”

The entire guild hall had Aisha's attention now. Footsteps continued walking further away.

“I know that you know I'm talking to you.”

The footsteps stopped. Whispers circulated. The steps turned and began walking towards Sanya and the others. Slowly.

They stopped.

“Apologize,” Aisha ordered.

Sanya took her plate of food and began eating. She did not really want to partake in this little public humiliation thing. The group deserved it, but Sanya still did not want anything to do with it.

“Well?” Aisha said.

“W-we're sorry Voidwitch. I'm sure you have a great choice of company,” the first voice spoke up.

My choice of company is leagues better than yours. They had not even directly attacked Sanya, but they had through calling her companions “interesting” and “Crippled freaks.” Did this group know Sanya was more scarred and crippled than Mai and Nadiyya combined?

“Apologize to them. Not to me, and make sure the other two say it as well,” Sanya said, eating and not looking back.

“Y-yes. Of course. I apologize, Mai, and? . . .”

“Nadiyya,” Sanya said.

“Right! I apologize, Mai and Nadiyya, I hope my companions here can do the same. I won't slight you again.”

“Ow!” Another voice cried out. “Yes! I apologize. You're not freaks, I am sure. A-and it was wrong of me to call you cripples, especially like it was an insult.”

“And I apologize for not stopping my rude friends,” the third voice spoke.

Aisha narrowed her eyes at the lot, then glanced at Sanya's group. “Was that satisfactory?”

How much of it was genuine? Whatever, at least they had squeaked something else. Their words dripped not with venom but with cowardice and submission.

Sanya looked at Mai, then at Nadiyya. It was not her decision to make. Both nodded to varying degrees of reluctance. That would be good enough.

“Very well. Scram,” Aisha told the other group.

Their footsteps hurried out of the guild hall.

The group ate, mostly in silence. That group had left them off-balance and awkward.

Once finished, they took three plates back. Aisha hurried off for more paperwork and guild management, and city management.

“Are we ready to leave, for real this time?” Sanya asked. “[Pocket Repository].” She retrieved her staff.

Mai took Sanya's free hand before Nadiyya could. Nadiyya just touched Sanya's hand with a couple fingers.

Two birds—ravens—flew in from somewhere and landed on each of Nadiyya's shoulders.

Sanya linked Mai and Nadiyya to her spell, ah, and the birds too, and cast her spell. “[Globetrot Anchor - Emergentia].”