//------------------------------//
// 20 
// Story: Phoenix in Another World 
// by Cheer 
//------------------------------//

Jude and Maria took a seat in the the same room Sunset had been tested in over two weeks ago and the orb was set on the table. 

Jude took a careful look at it with an appreciative nod. It's in good condition. I've seen too many cheap ones that use quartz instead of pure crystal. They give bad results." She muttered as she moved it back and forth, seeming to look for cracks. 

"It was the best quality I could get at the time. I used to be a somewhat successful adventurer and when I decided to settle down I didn't want to let me and my sister's safety rely on a potentially cheap one, let alone none." She explained, smiling softly as she remembered the village chief's attempts to tell her "It's too much! We can't accept this!". Eventually they came to an agreement that while technically it's still her possession but it basically belongs to the village.

"Good thinking." Jude said as she set it down as carefully as she'd picked it up and took out a piece of paper. Maria could feel a little magic coming from it. Probably a reusable sheet of paper so she didn't have to spend as much on it. "Now. What tests specifically do we want to do? I need to calibrate it before each one."

Maria nodded "the first, while I myself doubt it, is for vampires. It's more to sate the town guard than anything. After that is demon and then elf if possible."

Jude nodded, even smirking a little at Maria's explanation about vampires. That smirk went away at her next suggestions. 

"Those two can be... difficult. Elves are pretty... anti-social. They've never willingly given us any readings for us to compare to. So I can really only guess on the calibration for it." She shook her head "Do you think they are one?"

"The way they talk about their home sounds a lot like elves. Isolated from the world to the point of ignorance, magic use being common place."

Jude nodded "Well, I'll do what I can. No promises."

Maria nodded softly "understandable. What about the other?"

"That's a whole other issue. We've gotten readings after capturing wild demons but they're usually pretty chaotic. Fluctuating rapidly and more powerful ones would probably break the test for fun." Jude explained with a shrug. "If you think you have a demon, you might be better off just getting rid of them, honestly."

Maria shook her head. "I don't think she is. I think she's been cursed to seem like one. She's got a scar on her neck and showed up with blood on the collar of her shirt: that's actually why our guard thought she was a vampire at first-

"Understandable"

"I thought so after I saw her too." Maria admitted with a small smirk "I figure people thought she was a demon after a failed test or something and she got run out. Someone took justice into their own hands, she survived and somehow made her way here. Admittedly, there's a lot of issues in my theory. How she survived, why she was wearing the same bloody clothes despite the injury having scarred, why she came from the forest." She shook her head with a sigh. "There's too many questions and not enough answers."

"And that's where I come in." Jude pointed out with a small smirk.

"That's indeed where you come in. Even if we can't answer most of those questions, we can hopefully get rid of any aggression against her and get her out of the jail cell we've had to keep her in for the Green Cliff's safety. Then over time, hopefully she'll fill in those blanks herself."

Jude shook her head "There's a lot, and I mean a lot of questions here and I can only give a couple of answers." She admitted.

Maria sighed "I know. I wish I could do more myself too." She knew the girl was the curious type and telling her all this was probably miserable. "Still. Those are the three we need to focus on. If you have any ideas for other tests we should do, I'll allow that. Once you're ready, I'll have her brought by. Maybe if all this goes well we can all sit down and have a nice conversation with her."





Once Sunset calmed down from the implications of this world's magic she thought about her current situation. Not the village as a whole or the world. But the cell with Baurd watching her. Why would they have called everyone away? She took a calming breath. It was probably the day, wasn't it? When she'd have to take that "test" that the fae had mentioned. She'd have to keep herself as calm as possible and prepare a spell to run, should things go bad.

She wasn't sure if Baurd was saying anything, since she wasn't paying attention but if he was, she cut him off. "Hey. I'm going to take a nap. Wake me up when they come to get me." She said before laying down, facing away from him.

"When they come?" Baurd mumbled in confusion to himself.