Sunset was glad she'd never ended up in jail in either world she'd been in before this. Sure they were probably much more sanitary but they probably had a lot better security. Here she could do whatever she wanted to an extent. Though her ability to practice magic had been harshly curtailed, which left her with little more than physical training. Which meant sweating. Which was annoying.
The other annoying part of it was that if she didn't want to sit around in a sweaty shirt she'd have to do those exercises without it and she didn't want to do them with Sanse around. Even if she didn't care about nudity, she'd rather not give him a pleasant sight. The issue with that however was that it left Yvone. She wasn't sure if she appreciated the woman's gaze yet or not. Their first meeting wasn't exactly pleasant.
Still. She couldn't exactly just sit around and do nothing. She never liked not doing anything.
"Hey there, freak~"
Sunset groaned as she heard that familiar voice. She glanced to the side and sighed as she saw that annoying fae. It's weird, slightly transparent skin, that too wide grin, and that annoying sway as it floated there. "What do YOU want?"
It flew closer to Sunset's face, too close for comfort. "It's not about what I want. It's about what you want and what you want is information. Right?"
Sunset did her best to look unimpressed, looking at her nails. "What makes you think that?"
The fae giggled and kept swaying. Sunset had decided. She did hate that sway. Definitely.
"Because you don't know anything. Not about yourself. Not about this place or creatures." It said as it mimicked Sunset's actions.
Sunset rolled her eyes and put her hands down onto her hips, her frown deepening as the fae copied that too. "So, what? You want me to make a deal for information?" She scoffed "That's pretty transparent. I made my thoughts on your "deal" Pretty clear last time."
The fae raised a finger and wagged it side to side. "Ah, ah, ah. While in the end I would love you to make a deal with me, I can tell you're way too cautious for that. The annoying type we usually leave alone." It admitted with a shrug. "But you've piqued my interest. So I did you a little something to earn your favor first."
Sunset did not like the sound of that. Not one little bit. "That means you're going to give me a little info for free, right? Cause, I have a bad feeling anything else is just going to cause me issues."
The fae laughed at her with its sharp fangs. "Oh, but causing you issues is fun! The more issues you have the less you can rely on yourself and others! That means the more likely you'll rely on me."
That sent a shiver down Sunset's spine. Just like she expected. Nothing good would come of this annoying, dangerous creature.
The fae looked like it was lounging on a couch as it floated in the air "But don't worry. I didn't do anything that would cause you too many issues right now. I couldn't get any deals out of you if the big brute kills ya."
"How kind." Sunset deadpanned
"I know!" The fae grinned, inches from Sunset's face. "Anyway, I should get going. Your dumb little cell is boring and you don't look like want to make any deals right now... unless-"
"No."
"Just checking." It was still grinning as it moved backward with that damn grin on its face before vanishing into thin air.
It definitely felt smarter this time. Maybe someone else gave it the idea? Or maybe it just wasn't as dumb as she thought. One option meant more than one case was interested in her. The other meant that a clever fae was interested in her. Both were particularly bad options.
Sunset sighed. Her worries about Yyvone and being topless far were from her mind. She tossed her shirt to the side and got down. Some pushups would get her mind off whatever horrible things that little monster might have done.
Maria massaged her temples and sighed. It seemed like nothing could go right with this situation. The ring, Sanse's attitude towards Sunset, Sunset's "little" magic practice and now this.
"Are you still there?" Came a young voice from the orb nearby.
"Yes, yes." Maria sighed. She looked back up to see the face of one of the assistants to the magical tool expert she'd been requesting to come to help. "Is he alright then?"
"Ah, well, he should be. For now they're recommending no travel outside of emergencies and I'm sorry to say-"
"I get it." Maria grumbled, cutting the assistant off. As much as she understood that their village wasn't important enough for his visit in such a situation, it didn't mean she wanted to hear it said out loud. "What about my request then?"
"We'll still be sending someone but we only have trainees available."
Maria sighed again but she could at least hear the apologetic tone to their voice. At least they'd be able to tell if Sunset was trouble or not. Maria had planned to ask a few questions about the results they'd run into before and see if she could glean a bit of knowhow on how it works. But it looked like now they'd be lucky if they got better results than before. Hopefully before Sunset's whole arm turns red.
"My whole arm is turning red." Sunset mumbled. It was a bit of an exaggeration but as she looked at her now fully red hand she couldn't help but feel a strange mix of horror and numbness.
The change of pigment wasn't the only oddity though. She could feel that the flow of magic through the red part of her hand was strangely smooth.
Before it was like pushing frosting through a tiny oil funnel. But now it was like she had a proper tool. It was an odd analogy. Maybe she was just craving sweets.
Whatever the reason, the red hand felt more akin to a horn with how much easier it was to cast magic through it. Anything but fire still needed a little extra oomph to work and while she couldn't do any tests that might risk angering Maria again, she suspected that bigger spells would pull from the rest of her body.
As a small test she created a small flame with her other hand and it was still just as difficult as her other hand had been yesterday if not more so.
A part of her wanted to blame that fae for this but she doubted it had anything to do with it.
Nothing was going her way since she got dropped in this damn world outside of the fact she didn't die.