The ultimate spell!

'Abyssal Coral Reef'. With a rare descriptor and five elemental attributes, Bessie was apparently a total diamond in the rough. When the maid had said it too, Dahlia could tell that there was a sense of pomp and circumstance. Her telling Dahlia was apparently a very big deal and she could understand why.

Not only did having such a rare aspect make you a target, but it also raised enemies' guards. If Bessie doubled as both a maid and guard, it only made sense that she would want to appear as disarming as possible and so far as Dahlia could tell, she succeeded. Even her personality made people think she wasn't anything special.

Dahlia smiled to herself as she realised just how quickly she herself had fallen for the act. No… maybe not act. Bessie seemed to genuinely be a bit dopey and absent minded, but now that Dahlia had seen a bit more of her, it was clear that this woman had quite a few more sides to her than was first apparent.

"Hmmm, what was it? Water, earth, nature, darkness, and gravity? I can see a bit of overlap with darkness and nature, but that's it, no? Also, just because we have shared attributes doesn't mean that they manifest the same."

The minotaur-kin nodded her head enthusiastically. She rarely got to talk about magic for fear of giving herself away, so this was quite a happy moment for her. Training and assisting Dahlia with her own magic was something that she couldn't wait to begin the moment Valentina had told her about it. She had actually been told to start at noon, but had been so giddy that she just rushed to her new charge immediately. Now she finally got to what she had been so excited for.

"Right! You might think that, but we're actually suuuuper similar. Like, wow! I only know about your aspect based on an intel file Her Grace gave to me as well as what she said herself, but from what I can tell we are very similar. The way my aspect manifests, the earth and nature properties are intertwined and they may as well me a single attribute. The way I use them might have some small differences, but it'll probably be a lot like your own nature element."

She hummed to herself in thought and then just shrugged as if she had given up trying to give a good example.

"I can make some soft stuff, but generally think of my earth and nature elements as a harder and more brittle version of yours. Then for dark… well yeah, we'll probably be the same honestly. The only real issue that I can't help you with is space. You've gotta figure that one out on your own."

Last last bit made Dahlia's shoulders sag. She dreaded having to trial-and-error her way through her space attribute. If there was anything she wanted help with or some kind of shortcut for, it would be that. However, now was not the time to look a gift horse in the mouth. Instead she would take full advantage of what this new mentor could offer.

"So Bessie, I'm not sure how much the Archduchess told you but my plan is to try and specialise in combat with my magic. If I had to guess, it will be a mixture of direct physical magic with the nature attribute, and then the other elements will exist as a means of support. If you think you could help, even if not with my space attribute, I'll happily accept your guidance."

The maid practically had hearts in her eyes as she began to imagine all the possibilities. Not only did Dahlia have a similar aspect to hers, but she also wanted to use her magic in a similar style? The girl was practically gift wrapped just for her! Quickly (perhaps too quickly) Bessie began to ramble her way through the key features of their aspects.

"Ok ok ok. So! Like I said earlier my rocks and coral are brittle and hard, so they won't have the same flexibility that you might get with branches or vines. Other than that though, you can look to me as your magical role model!"

She was once again puffing her chest out and speaking with undue pride. Dahlia had found herself trying to hold back a stupid grin from forming as she continued to listen.

"So you understand, I'm 100% a channeler. I know you have a whole bunch of tattoo stuff you want to do, but that's just going to help you make more controlled spells. When we're starting off, using what I can do should be a pretty good basis. What was I saying? Oh right! I'm a channeler and I trained almost exclusively for combat."

All this time, Bessie was continuing to speak at breakneck speed and suddenly stopped to take a deep breath before continuing.

"I usually use my gravity to restrain their movements, but you can't do that. Instead you'll have to be tricky with your darkness and space. Then, like me, you just gotta overwhelm them with your nature, got it?!"

The maid was far too excitable and was even breathing a little heavily, and this was when Dahlia came to understand that the woman may be a very bad teacher, at least when it came to verbal or theoretical lessons.

Rubbing her temples, all she could do was tell Bessie that the lesson wasn't really helping, but hearing the excitement in the maid's voice, the idea of telling her no was heartbreaking. Instead, Dahlia tried to just push the topic in the right direction.

"Hmm, ok so why don't we approach this from one angle at a time instead of trying to take it all in at once. I've done a ton of research on aspects before, so I'm not that unfamiliar with the different ways they can manifest. What I struggle with is combat itself. I never really had an interest in it, so now I feel a bit lost. If anything, I just know that I'm physically not well suited to it and want to avoid conflict where I can…"

'There! That'll hopefully give her a push to get on the right track! She may be a sweetheart but there's only so much I'll be able to take if she keeps letting her train of thought jump all over the place. Now hopefully she'll hear my desire to avoid anything physical where possible and she'll begin to set me on the right path.'

While Dahlia was thinking to herself, Bessie had been eyeing the girl up and down. With a scrutinising gaze, she tried to appraise her and her physical potential. Bessie even poked at a few spots just to get a handle of the situation, and by the end of it all she had to agree. Dahlia was simply not well suited to the more physical side of things.

With this in mind, the maid was about to begin a basic introduction to how she uses her magic to block, dodge, and deflect attacks, all while also using her darkness to blind, confuse, and frighten the enemy. It was going to be a lesson perfect for Dahlia's needs! Bessie was quite proud of her rapidly created lesson plan, but then something made her stop in her tracks.

She once again looked at Dahlia. She certainly was weak and frail looking, but beyond that, the girl was stunning. Then she remembered why Dahlia was at the castle in the first place. Stunning… Valentina's new *exclusive* partner… Physically weak and frail… The blood drained from her face and she began to panic.

'If I don't help give her some strength and stamina, Valentina might accidentally kill her!'

She let out a nervous chuckle at the thought. The Archduchess was notorious for her insatiability and that was back when she was an excessive playgirl. If she was going to remain true to her word, which by all means appeared to be the case, then that would mean Dahlia would be the exclusive recipient of the vampiress' unending hunger.

Just the thought sent shivers down Bessie's spine. Had she had her own interests in Valentina? Obviously! The Archduchess' presence commanded attraction in the same way her title commanded respect. However that didn't mean Bessie had any interest in being the sole focus of the vampire. If she was being honest with herself, she felt as though Dahlia was unwittingly standing on death's door.

With that in mind, the maid began to change her lesson plans. Just a little bit. Surely Dahlia won't notice, right?

"Ok, so I'm going to train you how to increase your stamina and also your body's resilience. Uhhh, maybe strength too? Oh, maybe-"

Dahlia quickly cut off Bessie before she continued and her eye was beginning to twitch.

"Bessie… I think you might have misunderstood what I was asking for? You're basically suggesting the exact opposite. Actually, the more I think about it, you weren't even suggesting spells back there, you were just recommending a work out regime!"

"...Guilty as charged…"

The minotaur-kin's voice sounded dejected once her 'grand plan' was uncovered, but now she was beginning to think twice as hard to find how she might help save Dahlia from torment. After a moment, she began to nod to herself.

"Ok! So I really do think that if you ignore your body you'll be in big trouble! But you're right, that's not really my job, that'll be up to Lilli. However! I have certain… concerns. I think that if you stay as you are, you're going to die pretty quick, or at least suffer a lot."

She checked to see if Dahlia had already given up on her but to her surprise, the girl was still paying attention like a perfect student. It seems like, even if she was a poor teacher, a good student may be able to take up a bit of the slack. Seeing that Dahlia hadn't fully lost hope, Bessie moved forward with determination.

"So here's what I'm going to suggest. The most important parts of combat for someone like you is to keep out of melee and be able to block, run, and dodge nonstop. All in all, you can expect to be burning a metric tonne of stamina.

I'll start training you how to avoid attacks and use manoeuvrability and defensive based spells. Beyond that though, there's something in particular I want to teach you early on. It'll help with pushing yourself during training and also protect you during… trying times."

There was something in her tone that made Dahlia's hair stand on end. It was like her new maid had just announced that the duration of her lifelong contract would be remarkably short. Trying to ignore that sense of dread, Dahlia instead turned her focus to the content of the lecture. Despite the bumps along the way, it sounded like some useful information was finally about to be delivered.

"So, something you need to understand with the darkness attribute is that it comes in a bunch of varieties, just like any other element. The thing is, darkness is particularly diverse and not always as intuitive. It can affect literal light levels as you might expect, but it can also turn shadows into physical attacks, engulf and swallow things into a void, control or inhibit senses, and even cause emotional effects. Basically, it's suuuper varied."

Alright, so far so good. This was all textbook stuff that Dahlia was well aware of. She agreed though that darkness was an odd element. While the different types of a typical element like earth were usually pretty understandable, that often didn't hold true for darkness and it made her a little nervous having to learn it.

"Now, our darkness attributes will likely manifest similarly. You can expect to be able to manipulate light, and affect both senses and emotions. Both of our aspects are heavily associated with frightening locations where the dark reduces perception and induces fear. The one thing I have that you likely won't is that I'm able to absorb things in my darkness as well. Anyway, so here's where we're going to start…"

She looked at Dahlia in excitement as if waiting for a signal to continue, but the girl still couldn't see so Bessie just stared at her for a while before whispering "oh… right" to herself, clearing her throat, and moving forward with new fervour.

"I'm going to teach you the *ultimate* darkness spell! A total cheat that'll help you become better than ever before! Fufufu, behold!"

With that Bessie laid a hand on Dahlia's shoulder and… nothing? Dahlia tried to discern if anything had happened but she really had no clue. At first she thought maybe Bessie goofed up and tried to reduce her sight despite her blindness but no, the blurry light hadn't changed. She went to scratch her nose in confusion and- "Huh?"

She tried to scratch her nose again, but there it was again. Nothing. She tried again, harder this time and on her cheek instead but before she could truly get started, Bessie reached forward with remarkable speed.

"Nononononono! Don't do that! You're in the middle of healing and if you aren't careful you're going to injure yourself!"

She was about to ask what she was talking about when she suddenly heard a 'plip' sound of a droplet of liquid hitting the floor at her feet. Then another couple drips and suddenly she furrowed her brows. What exactly was going on?

Meanwhile Bessie was cursing herself as she quickly tried to fix her mess.

"Oh gods, if Her Grace learns about this she's going to be furious! Thankfully the healers will be here soon to patch you up. You! Don't do that!!! If you can't feel anything then you have no idea what's going to happen, especially when you're blind at the same time!"

And then it all clicked into place for Dahlia. She couldn't feel anything! Immediately her mind jumped to all the times she had been beaten and she wished that she had this magic back then, but then realisation set in.

'Oh… This is really dangerous, isn't it? I can't tell if I'm touching anything or how hard I'm exerting myself. If I'm hurt I won't notice or if I'm getting hurt then I can't react. I just dug my finger into my cheek hard enough to draw blood and I didn't have a clue. This… this is terrifying.'

After cleaning the floor and patching up her mistress, Bessie smiled, though a little less exuberantly than before. She felt at fault for what had happened. She had wanted to instil Dahlia with shock and awe, but she was lucky the girl hadn't accidentally bit her tongue off.

"So, uh, the ultimate magic and all that or… whatever… behold~"

It was said a little meekly, but when Dahlia chuckled, Bessie immediately lightened up.

"Hopefully that demonstration helps you understand what I'm trying to teach you. Not only is it incredibly powerful against others in a fight, but if you master it then you can train well past your body's limits, survive in life or death situations where you would typically no longer be able to move, and even increase your stamina for the endless dodging and running you're sure to do. And fucking. Endless stamina for that too."

Dahlia was nodding her head along like a good student all the while but suddenly stopped at that last point.

"Hmm? What was that? Mind saying it again?"

"Huh, what? I have no idea what you're talking about."

And like that, with the maid feigning ignorance, the two moved forward and began going over how exactly this new magic would be used.