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Chapter Text

The University of Baldur's Gate, known as the largest university in all of Faerûn and the most prestigious. It stood in the center of the city, the jewel of Baldur's Gate many would say with its richly adorned buildings and campus. Anyone and everyone strived to attend for every graduate of The University of Baldur's Gate has gotten the best jobs. The very place Nelista's parents wanted her to attend for “no child of the Tavlin family will not graduate from The University of Baldur's Gate.” She rolled her eyes at the memory as she looked over the building name and room number her upcoming class was in.

Sorceries and Wizardry, Room 401b.

She tucked the paper back in her pocket and looked around before spotting a building with various elementals and creatures flying around it, knowing that must be the one she's looking for and quickly crossed the rest of the large field to reach it.

As magical as the outside was, the inside had much more going on Nelista found out when entering it. Parts of the walls shifted to just add to the decor, one door she walked past turned into a face when a student approached and asked for the pass phrase, another door looked like a regular door until a different student just walked through it knowing it's an illusion. She stopped at the door with 401b beside it, a rather simple looking door until she noticed there was no door handle.

“How am I-” she was cut off when a simulacrum of a man appeared in front of her. Half of his hair is up in a neat bun, the rest laying down beside his neck and on his shoulders, round glasses resting on the bridge of his prominent nose and very short hair covering his jaw, chin, and around his lips. He stood a head taller than Nelista wearing a long sleeved coat that ended just above his ankles with stars and moons embroidered on it, a shirt with the top two buttons undone, a vest over the shirt with a diamond-like pattern with simple dress slacks, and dress shoes adorned with jewels.

“Greetings. I am Professor Dekarios. If you seek entrance to my classroom then listen closely to what I will tell you next. There is a flute and a parchment with notes on the corners inside the cabinet to the right of the door, take both these items. Starting from the top right of the parchment play the notes in the correct order, counterclockwise, and a magma mephit will appear. He will ask I'ss k'cha t'chiss n'aga? This is Ignan for 'What is my name?’ The answer is K'ha’ssji’trach’ash. Speak the name correctly and the mephit will breathe onto the parchment, turning it into a scroll of Dimension Door. You will use that to enter my classroom.”

Nelista opened the cabinet, grabbed the flute and parchment, and re-closed the cabinet before unfolding the paper and looked at the notes in the corners of it.

“Start from top right, then play them in counterclockwise order,” she muttered to herself, doing her best to remember the Professor's instructions, and let out a brief laugh at the notes that spelled out ‘DOOR.’ She placed the paper back in the cabinet now that she knew the order of the notes and took the flute in both hands, playing each note carefully to avoid any mistakes.

Just as he said, a magma mephit appeared before her.

“I'ss k'cha t'chiss n'aga?” The mephit asked.

“K'ha'ssji'trach'ash,” Nelista answered, making sure to pronounce the name correctly, and handed him the paper with which he breathed on and turned it into a scroll of Dimension Door. The mephit handed her the scroll and disappeared shortly after.

Nelista opened the scroll and cast the spell as best she could, her pronunciation a little sloppy but it worked and created a magical door for her to pass through into the classroom. She cursed in infernal under her breath over the whole ridiculous ordeal before looking around in the classroom.

“I see you followed the directions quite well, welcome to Evocations 101. Allow me to reintroduce myself, Professor Gale Dekarios of Waterdeep, City of Splendors and home to the largest school for wizards,” Gale stepped away from his large and lavish desk, a cat laying atop it that seemed to be watching her with great interest, and approached Nelista with a hand outstretched before him as an offer for a handshake. Something a lot of humans liked to use for first greetings she noticed.

“Nelista Tavlin, Professor. Oh, you'll probably want this back,” she greets herself and instead of shaking his hand she gives him back his flute.

“You have my thanks. Take a seat with the others and I'll go over what you will all be learning through the year, as well as what it is I expect from each of you,” Gale smiled at Nelista as he took the flute back before turning to return to his desk, placing the instrument in a drawer.

Nelista turned to the assorted desks in the classroom, nine other students already having settled into all but one of the desks. The last desk which happened to be at the front of the classroom, making Nelista mentally groan at having run late to class and missing out on getting a better pick for a desk. She reluctantly put her things on the desk and sat down, mumbling very quietly to herself over how she's going to badly embarass herself being at the front of the class.

She focused on paying attention to the Professor, a rather handsome man which could be a distraction if she let it be, as he explained about teaching her and the others how to cast simple evocation spells as well as the history behind the evocation school of the weave. Then going on to say by the end of the year he expects everyone to be able to cast these simple spells under great duress, and that each will be given a syllabus detailing what is expected differently of each student throughout the year based on how well they had followed his directions for entering his classroom.

Nelista mentally rolled her eyes as he went on, still thinking it a waste for her to take this class when it didn't pertain to her- no her parents- major but it's all that was available to get the elective credits she needed. A sudden buzz in her pocket got her attention, pulling her phone out to see a message from Lae'zel asking if they were still joining the others at Jammer Gate later. With a smile, she texted back a “U know it 😜” and put her phone back in her pocket right as the Professor approached her desk.

“Nelista Tavlin was it? Are you related to Yurissa?” he asked while handing over her syllabus.

“I'm her older sister, so…yeah,” she answered, reluctantly taking the three page syllabus from him. “Why? Is she also your student?”

“Spot on! She's in my Advanced Necromancy class I teach on the off days from this one. Very promising pupil, I'm flattered to have another of the same family and look forward to see how well you do,” he told her with great enthusiasm and a grin before turning on his heels, walking back over to his desk.

'Great, just what I need. Even more pressure and high expectations,’ the pink tiefling with purple and gold manicured nails thought to herself, biting on her left cheek out of frustration. She spent the next hour and a half of the class being annoyed and really looking forward to getting the day over with.

After waving the last student farewell, Gale slumped in his chair at his desk and let out a long sigh.

“You were unusually silent, Tara,” he said while giving her chin a scratch.

“I was watching that pink tiefling woman. Nelista was it? She didn't look too pleased after you brought up her sister being talented,” his tressym responded and purred a little at the chin scratch.

“But I was complementing her and saying she'd probably prove to be just as talented…oh hells, I did it again,” Gale pulled his hand away from Tara's face to put his face in his palm, having placed his glasses on the desk with the other hand.

“For such a brilliant wizard, you have quite the tendency to be very unaware of others. At least this one won't make you have to transfer to yet another university,” Tara half scolded.

“One would think I would have learned after that blunder, I mean really. Just presuming Headmistress Mystra would just overlook my taking one of the University's most forbidden of tomes…and now wrongfully putting high expectations on a student simply because of her family,” Gale rambled on and pinched the bridge of his nose.

“At least with this one you have a chance to make it right, purrhaps you can ask her to remain after class a moment and apologize to her then,” she offered and started grooming her front paw.

“That's…a brilliant idea- wait was that 'perhaps’ a pun?” he let go of his face and looked up at his tressym who looked back at him with a very smug expression, very clearly enjoying her spot in the upper compartment of his desk where he used to keep various books.

He shook his head at her with a smile, putting his glasses back on, and started working on the itineraries for each of his classes. Also writing a brief note to hand to Nelista the day after the morrow about staying after class to discuss something important.

The next class went by faster for Nelista and she practically ran out the door when it ended, jogging across campus to her dorm. Further jogging up the stairs and through the door, getting a bit of a start out of her roommate but she paid Yurissa no mind as she emptied her bag of her school supplies and shoved her bubblegum pink and lime green roller skates into it.

“I suppose you don't want to talk about your first day with how rapidly you're grabbing your derby gear,” Yurissa remarked from behind a book on the more intricate necromantic spells and rituals.

“Exactly! Your wizard professor upset me so I really need to knock someone over in roller skates. Might even let Wyll be Jammer today, we will see,” Nelista answered while grabbing her pink and gold roller derby crop top with the team name, Booty Grabbers 3, on the chest. Along with her matching pink shorts and sheer black tights with gold hearts printed on them, and lastly her black and green fingerless gloves.

“Professor Dekarios? Oh, don't tell me he brought me up. I swore I told him not to; he must not have heard me,” Nelista heard her sister say while changing into her derby fit and pulled her hair back into two low buns, ever careful of her gold grafted horns that curled back then up at the top of her head.

“Well the damage is done! Might as well deal with it like usual, in a contact sport while looking cute!” she exclaimed and did a quick turn to now face Yurissa, right hand on her hip while the other held a peace sign out by her face with a wink in a sassy yet cute pose. That earned an eyeroll and a head shake from the bluish purple tiefling, yet smiling at her older sister.

“Whatever keeps you from dwelling on it. I'd say I hope you have fun, but we know you always do.”

“Always!” with that she slung her bag over her shoulder, waved goodbye to Yurissa, and jogged back down the stairs.

Once outside she looked around for a brief moment for her brother's 2009 Honda Civic, jogging over to it as soon as she spotted it and let herself in the front passenger.

“What's the reason for the rush this time?” her brother, Kaadius, asked as soon as she closed the car door.

“Bad first day. Don't want to get into the details of it right now,” Nelista answered, to which he nodded while shifting to drive and taking them to Jammer Gate. To fill the silence, Nelista grabbed the aux cord to plug her phone into it and hit shuffle on her spotify library.

‘Now he's, thinkin’ 'bout me every night, oh

Is it that sweet? I guess so

Say you can't sleep, baby, I know

That's that me espresso

Move it up, down, left, right, oh

Switch it up like Nintendo

Say you can't sleep, baby, I know

That's that me espresso

I can't relate to desperation

My give-a-fucks are on vacation

And I got this one boy, and he won't stop callin’

When they act this way, I know I got 'em’

As the song played, Nelista stared out the window while thinking about how annoying it is that so many people put such ridiculous expectations on her. It was already bad enough that her parents fully expected her to take over the family business, now Professor Dickarios expected her to be as smart and talented as Yurissa.

‘I've never been smart,’ she thought and sighed, the song finishing right as they pulled into a parking spot in front of Jammer Gate.

“I want to change things up today, Kaad. Wyll can be Jammer today,” she finally said while opening the car door to step out.

“Oh it was a really bad day. Alright, I'll let him know,” the big, tall red tiefling said with a chuckle, shutting the car off, then exited the car.

Entering Jammer Gate was always an experience, people pouring in not only to watch and place bets on the derby teams but also for the arcade in the front left corner of the building. The front right corner serving as both the betting office and concession stand, people lining up for Astarion's mouth watering chili cheese dogs and burgers. Nelista walked past it all over to the roller rink, Kaadius managing to run ahead of her to join their friends and inform Wyll of the switch up in positions. She focused her hearing past the various voices to hear what song was playing right now, Jammer Gate having a tendency to favor 80s music and today was no different.

‘I got me a car, it's as big as a whale and we're headed to the love shack, yeah

I got me a chrysler, it seats about 20, so hurry up! And bring your jukebox money!’

“Nel! Kaadius was just telling us your change of plans in having Wyll be Jammer, how it's 'cause you had a bad first day at the University. Do I need to smash someone's head in?” Karlach ever the protective friend got a laugh out of Nelista.

“It's not that bad. Also I'm pretty sure you'd end up killing him, which I'm pretty sure is not healthy for a Professor,” she replied, taking a seat next to the bigger tiefling woman, and started changing out of her purple and pink hightops and into her roller skates.

“Oh yikes, yeah I'm not getting in trouble with the Dean. I could give you a stink bomb to hide in his classroom though.”

“Tempting, I'll think about it,” Nelista stood and did a little spin on her skates, then shuffled her feet a bit to fully get her bearings. The others look to be ready as well. All of them also donning a pink and gold Booty Grabbers 3 crop top, but Karlach opted to pair it with her black leather hot pants and black and gold skates. Lae'zel paired hers with silver and red capris, and her silver and gold skates. Wyll matched his with black skinny jeans and black and red skates. Lastly, Kaadius paired his with skintight black and blue shorts and pink and blue skates.

As they all started putting on their knee and elbow guards, Nelista caught Minthara and her team only a few feet down at the other bench reserved for derby teams. Minthara and her team, Drider Riders, all wearing their black and silver Drider Riders shirts. The drow woman met Nelista's gaze and both women nodded to each other, their way of wishing the other luck.

They all waited a few minutes longer for all the fans to take their seats, the concession stand closing so Astarion could take his spot as one of the announcers alongside his friend, Shadowheart.

“Hellooooo citizens of the Gate, how is everyone doing tonight? Wait, don't tell me. We already know you're all doing wonderfully with my legendary chili dogs and burgers. The perfect pair to tonight's entertainment. Shadowheart, darling, why don't you tell them what's in store for the crowd,” Astarion spoke into his mic, getting the crowd going like always, and turned with a smirk on his face toward Shadowheart when he addressed her.

“Gladly, Star. I'm sure you all know tonight we have everyone's favorite teams. The ever fierce yet cute, Booty Grabbers 3,” on cue, Nelista and her team rolled out to the starting line of the rink with their backs to the crowd, then turning their upper bodies to place a hand on their butts while holding three fingers out by their faces. The crowd cheered very loudly, as they expected.

“And the skaters from down under, Drider Riders,” Minthara and her team now rolled over to the starting line on cue with Shadowheart's announcement, each member doing different flexing poses to which the crowd also cheered very loudly.

“Thank you ever so much, Shadowheart. Now, how about we get to the action?” Astarion asked the audience who cheered in agreement. “Excellent. Everyone knows the rules, so I needn't bother to go over them. If you need reminding, well then maybe you don't need to be in the derby tonight. Last time we started to the song of the Booty Grabbers 3 choice, so this time it's the Drider Riders turn and they've chosen an excellent song. I'm sure you all will agree once you hear it in 3…2…1,” at 1, the pale elf started the song.

As soon as the song started, both teams took off.

'Ooh, baby, don't you know I suffer

Ooh, baby, can you hear me moan

You caught me under false pretenses

How long before you let me go?

Ooh, you set my soul alight’

Getting a decent lead on the Drider Riders, Wyll skated in a speed Nelista knew he was capable of with her on his left and Karlach on his right.

“Oh the illustrious leader of the group is a defender today? Afraid you'll lose again?” Minthara inquired as she caught up to them.

“Minthy, my favorite drow, this girly fears nothing. I'm simply here for the fun and cute outfits,” Nelista answered and shoulder checked the drow, making her stagger behind again and a mischievous grin forming on the tiefling's face. Before she could react, one of the other Drider Riders members, Z'rell, picked up speed to get between Minthara and Nelista.

“You'll have to get through me to try a stunt like that again,” the half-orc woman told Nelista, who just kept the mischievous grin on her face.

“You must not have heard what I said to Minthy; I fear nothing. Especially not you,” with the last statement she jabbed her elbow hard into Z'rell's ribs, making the taller woman almost double over with a hand over the spot that was jabbed.

“My, my folks, it looks like chaos claws is in a very spicy mood today. She might give a new meaning to the green bruiser's name with a blow like that,” Astarion commentated, making the crowd stir, but Nelista didn't pay it much mind like she usually did. Oh no, she was far too locked in on ensuring her team wins. The others hardly got a chance to defend Wyll from the opposing team, their pink defender was always right there bringing the pain.

“With the first lap completed the Booty Grabbers 3 have quite the lead! What will the Drider Riders do? What can they do against a tiefling on a warpath?”

From the corner of her eye Nelista caught the pressed looks on the other team's faces, making her feel quite pleased with herself for being the cause of it. Until they caught her slippin’ and a different Drider Riders member, Rugan, snuck up and grabbed her tail to yank her back. That earned a yelp of pain from Nelista, and she turned to face the blonde asshat with a fire in her eyes.

“Ohoho! Will notorious stryker bring an end to chaos claw's rampage?”

After yanking her tail back, Nelista quickly turned back around and cursed under breath at how this was just a distraction to allow the others to catch up to Wyll. She wrapped her tail around her own leg and sped forward just in time to stop Z'rell from slowing down the Rage of Frontiers, catching the larger woman's arm and twisting it to make her recoil.

“Miss me, bruisy?” she playfully asked with a wink, distracting the other from Lae'zel who zipped through everyone to get to Minthara. Despite her small size, Lae'zel always packed the biggest punch and proved it once again with a chop to the underdark destroya; putting the Booty Grabbers 3 in the lead once again.

“I don't know about all of you, but I am on the edge of my seat with today's derby,” this time Shadowheart commentated, her voice thick with excitement and suspense.

With the second lap now finished, Nelista stayed close to Wyll as she had a feeling the Drider Riders would try much harder to stop them from winning. She caught Z'rell out of the corner of her eye, but the half-orc wasn't trying to catch up to her or Wyll. It almost seemed like the Drider Riders were giving up, but she knew better and stayed on the defensive.

Right as they were about to round the other tight corner that would take them to the finish line once again, Rugan snuck his way through and got dangerously close to Wyll. Before she could react, Karlach bullrushed the blonde man away while Nelista caught a glimpse of Z'rell starting to make a move toward her and braced herself for a fight. But it was just another distraction as another member, one who always remained with a helmet on and only went by Oath-Breaker, zipped through toward Wyll. She tried to head over to stop him, but Z'rell took that moment to try hitting Nelista with an elbow to the face that the tiefling barely dodged. From the corner of her eye she saw that Oath-Breaker was getting ready to strike Wyll, tears of frustration formed in Nelista's eyes over the possibility of losing *again* but didn't get a chance to fall from her face as Kaadius charged into Wyll's attacker with his shoulder.

Nelista shoved Z'rell away and skated fast as she could to catch up with the others, right as Wyll crossed the finish line and earned them the victory. The crowd roared, while Nelista slowed down a bit to move her legs in a trotting motion while swinging her arms back and forth to celebrate the victory.

“What. A. Derby folks! I truly thought the Drider Riders might get a surprise victory there, BUT the Booty Grabbers 3 performed such incredible teamwork and- wait what is that dance Nelista is doing?”

“The griddy? I think that's what it's called, it's all the craze right now.”

As Nelista finished her dance, Minthara rolled over to her and offered her hand out while saying, “A well earned victory. Maybe you should be a defender more often.”

“Why do you think I usually choose to be a Jammer? Give you all more of a chance to win,” Nelista replied with a grin and took Minthara's hand in a firm handshake.

“You have always been a worthy opponent, enjoy your win…for today,” with that said, Minthara skated back over to her team and Nelista joined hers as well, Karlach holding Wyll up on her shoulders to let him fully revel in winning.

Nelista smiled and thought about how she wouldn't want any other team members.

Chapter Text

The next morning.

“If you're in this class then I needn't tell you all the importance of embalming practices in necromancy. If you do need a reminder, there's books for that,” Gale informed his rather small number of Advanced Necromancy students, pushing his glasses up by where they rest on the bridge of his nose before he continued, “this class is for delving into the more intricate and complex necromantic spells and rituals, and their importance in the preservation of the dead. If you have questions about things outside of the basics, I will be more than happy to answer them.”

The esteemed professor smiled as he looked at each student, his gaze pausing a moment on Yurissa as he remembered the prior day and what he said to her sister. A thought that would need to be stuffed aside for now as he turned to begin writing a list of necromantic rites and spells on his chalkboard, a preference of his to physically write out his lessons rather than type it out and display it with a projector.

“For this semester there are four spells I wish to focus on, well two of them can be taught together but that is beside the point, as these spells have great use in everyday life,” he finally said, turning back around to face the class before continuing, “However, to use these spells you must also understand what they're used for. You can't just go around resurrecting everyone and making clones, there are rules every respectable Necromancer must adhere to. Something some of the other Professors tend to gloss over as if it's unimportant.”

With a wave of his, and muttering the incantation, Gale summoned a pair of mage hands to begin handing out Advanced Necromancy textbooks.

“Once you have your books, you will turn to page ten where I will begin the lesson on the use of the Clone spell,” he began, pausing a moment to wait for them all to be handed their textbooks and turn to the mentioned page number. As soon as they did he continued on with a brief description as to what the spell does, and a deeper dive into ethical and unethical cloning.

~~~~~~~

As the last few students left, the professor began clearing his chalkboard while humming the start of one of the more well known songs from his most favored music artist, Prince.

“I never meant to cause you any sorrow,” he quietly sang to himself, putting the chalkboard eraser down and taking a chalk in his hand to indulge in something that felt like nothing more than a young boy's dream.

“I never meant to cause you any pain,” he continued while drawing faceless models with elaborate dresses and suits of his own design, ones he illustrated before in private. His quiet singing continuing a moment longer, until he finished drawing on the board and instead filled the room with his sigh. A bitter sort of sigh over being discouraged away from such dream, and instead pursuing one of someone he once loved- no, still loved. He couldn't blame her for casting him aside, for being a fool to try and press her into making him a Dean of the University; where they could shape education together.

The solemn, weary professor slumped down in his chair, admiring his work with a half smile.

“Remind me again why you have given up on something you are clearly very talented in, and don't give me a reason that involves her,” the tressym requested, having watched Gale the entire timetime, and hissed out the ‘her’ with venom in her voice- something she always did when referring to Mystra.

“At this point it's too late, at my age I can't just drop everything and go back to school to pursue a career in fashion design. Not to mention who else could give these students a proper education? Lorroakan is far too self absorbed to care about actually educating people,” he answered, swiveling his chair around to face Tara as he spoke.

“But are you happy as an educator?” she quickly asked, eyes slightly narrowing at him.

“Yes…no…it's hard to say, truthfully. I do take joy in teaching, but it's not at all what I thought or dreamt I would be doing. And I'd be lying if I said I hadn't considered…starting over, so to speak,” he sighed after his response and ran a hand through his hair, letting it hang loose rather than half up in a bun today.

“But you're worried it's not what she wants, still hoping she will one day take you back. I've already voiced many an opinion on her, so I won't waste my breath with more. Instead I ask, don't you think she would have already tried to mend things between you both if she truly cared?” There was a serious intensity to how Tara's gaze bore into Gale now as her question hung in the air, the chestnut brown haired professor pursing his lips in being rendered speechless over such a question. He very well knew she only asked questions like these because of how greatly she cared about his happiness and well being, a wizard couldn't ask for a finer companion.

~~~~~~~

The following day.

Ever the early bird, Gale headed to his classroom a little earlier than usual with Tara draped over his shoulders. Once inside, she flew off to perch herself atop his desk per usual while he set a few folders on his desk, a sticky note on the front of one of them as a reminder to ask Nelista to remain after class a moment. An apology was the least he owed her for projecting high expectations on her.

After ensuring his desk was appropriately organized, he turned on his heels to face the chalkboard where he began writing out today's lesson with a few drawn out visual references. The conversation between him and Tara still lingered in the back of his mind, most of all that question she asked that ended the conversation. One that kept him up later than usual with pondering over it, and if his tressym hadn't woke him then he would have been running late.

But he pushed it in the deep recesses of his mind as his students entered one by one, the pink tiefling from the other day catching his eye.

“Good morning everyone! Ah, Nelista. Do you mind coming over a moment?” he asked after turning to greet the class and awaited the rather well dressed tiefling woman to approach. Noticing her confused yet annoyed look at him as she did.

“I promise it isn't anything bad, I just wanted to ask that you remain after class a moment. There's something I wish to discuss is all,” he told her with a reassuring smile.

“Oh! Okay,” she responded and he watched her turn to go sit at her desk, taking a brief stride away from his desk and stopped at the center of his chalkboard where he cleared his throat.

“Today we will be going over the use of fire and ice spells in daily life, it's especially helpful in cooking and can save you a lot on your electric bill. If you aren't already familiar with the Firebolt and Ray of Frost cantrips please raise your hands, and I will happily teach them to you,” at his request only two of the students raised their hands, one of them being Nelista, and continued, “I thank you both for being honest, I will teach you each the cantrips individually once I've gone over the more pertinent information first. Speaking of which, I would like all of you to take out your Evocation textbooks given to you the other day and turn them to page seven.”

There was a mostly silent pause, the only sound being the students rummaging through their bags for the book and opening them to aforementioned page, before he continued.

“Evocation is typically viewed as the school of magic for dealing very potent damage with even the most simple of spells and cantrips, which is true. However with technological advances came the ideas of using magic to make the every day life even easier. Something as mundane as boiling water with the snap of a finger, or as elaborate as controlling the temperature of your home,” at the mention of controlling room temperature, Gale motioned his hands while muttering an incantation to cast Ice Storm that cooled the room and continued, “Now I know you must be thinking 'oh that looks easy!’ I assure you, it isn't. It takes a lot of control to keep from freezing a room or setting it on fire, but fret not as you will learn this in my class.”

He continued on to explain further, once again conjuring up a pair of mage hands but this time to hand out bottles of water that he tasked them with focusing a Ray of Frost to make them cold but not frozen. With that he pulled one of the students aside who didn't know how to cast that or Firebolt.

First showing them the specific hand movements for casting them, then slowly pronouncing each one so they'll be able to repeat it. He conjured a wall that resisted both fire and ice damage for the student to cast each cantrip onto safely. After a couple tries they got it and he dismissed them back to their desk with an enthusiastic “good job!”

Then he pulled Nelista aside and began showing her the cantrips in the same fashion he showed the previous student.

“Ignis,” her pronunciation slow, and careful he noted as a firebolt flew out of her palm and onto the conjured wall.

“Very good for your first try. With practice you'll be able to cast with ease and confidence. Now for the other one,” he praised then showed her the slightly different hand motions while slowly pronouncing the incantation.

“Glacies,” this one seemed more of a challenge for tiefling, her pronunciation of it somewhat sloppy, and as a result nothing shot out of her hand. He noticed her expression change to a more pouty one.

“Ah, don't get yourself down over it. Ray of Frost is a more complicated incantation, takes some a good deal more practice to get it right. Here, I'll say it again and perhaps that will help,” he cleared his throat a moment before continuing, “glacies.”

He watched her take a deep breath and clear her own throat, moving her hands while she very slowly said, “glacies,” and a beam of ice shot out of her palm and onto the wall.

“Very good! Now you can return to your desk and work on the same task as the others with the bottle of water,” he beamed with a big smile, making the wall disappear as she walked back over to her desk, and proceeded to slowly walk between each desk as he observed each student in cooling their bottles of water.

Some caught on rather quickly, while others struggled with not freezing the bottle. For those students, he would stop to help them in figuring out what is breaking their focus. Then moving on once they were successful. This went on a little while, until the esteemed professor stood in front of the chalkboard again to address the class yet again.

“You have all done a fantastic job today! The only homework I have to assign is practicing heating and cooling some items at home, safely of course. Please do NOT set your dorm on fire, or freeze your roommate. With that, you are all dismissed,” he informed them and moved to sit at his desk, waiting for everyone to leave except Nelista.

The black and purple haired tiefling remained at her desk until the last classmate left, Gale watching as she got up to approach him.

“I want to apologize for the uncalled for expectations I bestowed on you by mentioning your sister. That was rather ignorant of me, as a professor should know not every student learns at the same speed. For that, I am very sorry and it will not happen again. You have my word,” he told her with a warm smile.

“Oh…did Yurissa talk you into this? She should know I'm a big girl who can handle her own problems,” she crossed her arms with a 'humph!’ which elicited a short chuckle from Gale.

“She did not. I was speaking with my tressym, Tara, the other day and she noticed how you didn't seem too happy after my bringing up Yurissa. Then the error of what I had said dawned on me, well that coupled with some other past mistakes, and I was determined to make things right,” he answered, relaxing in his chair with his right ankle brought up to rest on his left knee.

“Oh! Well, thank you…not only for the apology. I really appreciate you not making me feel stupid over struggling with that cantrip earlier,” she frowned with her admittance.

“What good would it do to make one feel inept at not instantly pronouncing something correctly? All that achieves is a harbored resentment toward someone who should be patient in teaching others,” he said with a sigh, looking down a moment and in doing so the obviously designer heels the tiefling adorned caught his eye, “pardon my distraction, but are those Louboutin's Miss Zs?” His question made visibly caught her off guard, as her expression turned to one of surprise while she looked down at her shoes.

“They are! I didn't know you knew fashion like that!”

“It's a…hobby of mine. They pair very well with your purple dress…ah, but don't let me keep you. I'm sure you have other places to be, have a great rest of your day Nelista,” he told her and further dismissed her with a wave of his hand.

She only answered with a nod and gathered her things before disappearing out the door, a long sigh from the thirty five year old wizard.

Humming a pleasant tone with a content smile, Nelista strutted up the stairs and into her dorm where Yurissa looked to be very engrossed in various books scattered on her bed. Not wanting to disturb her sister, the pink tiefling quieted her humming while gently setting her bag down along with the rather thick textbook on Evocation magic on her bed and stepped out of her shoes before sitting on her own bed.

“Someone seems quite content, meet someone cute on the way home?” the younger, purple tiefling asked without tearing her gaze from her book.

“Not this time. Professor Dekarios asked me to stay after class for a bit to apologize for what he said the other day. I swore you put him up to it,” she said and let out a light laugh before continuing, “but he made it clear you didn't. He also recognized my shoes, the exact type and brand. It really surprised me.”

That made Yurissa finally tear her gaze away from her books to look at her older sister.

“Really? I had no idea Mr. Dekarios was fashionably inclined, I just figured he dressed the way he did to be professional,” the surprise in her tone was obvious as she responded to Nelista.

“That's what I thought too! I must find out more, but it seems like something he more keeps to himself. Like he's ashamed of it, maybe because of his reputation as a professor?” Nelista wondered, one of her hands on her chin while she looked up at the ceiling.

“Hard to say, but sounds as good a reason as any,” Yurissa answered and returned to her studies.

'Hmmm if I can figure a way to speak with him more about it…oh! He was so nice and patient- and smelled really good- in teaching me those spells. Maybe I'll request some private tutoring,’ her hand moved from her chin to point a well manicured finger up when her idea struck, then shifted in her bed to make herself comfortable and opened her textbook to try studying what was gone over in class. A lot of it was difficult for her to fully grasp, but she took a few notes in her purple notebook and using her pink pen with had a heart at the end that she pressed on to use it.

These notes should help in convincing the professor in tutoring her, she wasn't always the brightest light in the garage but she tried.