Proof

"I don't understand, this sort of thing just shouldn't be possible," Niva sobbed, wiping a tear away from her cheek, "No one should be able to give other people access to magic, that's just not how it works!"

"Look, Niva, I can't say that I understand the mechanics of it either, the fact of the matter is it's happened. I've unlocked your ability to use magic," I said with a shrug.

I felt like there wasn't really much of a point in trying to beat around the bush with the topic.

The fact of the matter was, she couldn't do magic before and now she could. I didn't entirely understand it, but we didn't exactly need to.

She looked up at me, tears in her eyes and said "Thank you… I don't know what to say."

I grinned back, "The thanks is more than enough, now, who do we need to talk to about getting you enrolled in classes so that you can learn to control your newfound powers?"

"Uh, that'll be the head of the Academy, Director Hansen," Niva replied, wiping her eyes of their tears and composing herself a little. "I'll be able to get signed up to classes if we talk to him."

My stomach grumbled again. I still hadn't managed to eat anything.

"Okay, that sounds like a plan, but seriously do you think we could hit up the cafeteria first?" I asked, "Between giving you magic and fighting Akash I still haven't managed to eat anything."

"I'm sorry, did you just say you fought Akash?" Niva asked as she stood up from her seat, much more composed than she had been a few moments ago.

"Yeah, he wanted to see how powerful I was in comparison to previous otherworlders. Apparently I'm not quite as strong as the Otherworlder he'd fought in the past, but I still managed to take him off guard," I explained.

As I had been talking Niva took the lead, which I was grateful for. With her leading the way there was a chance I'd actually finally get to the canteen and I'd actually finally get to eat something.

"You managed to take the last of the Eldrani off guard? What does that even mean?" Niva said, I could hear the disbelief in her tone.

"Uh, it's hard to explain, but my powers basically took over and erected this shield… thingy… that cut off some of his limbs," I said, "He said not to worry though and that they'd grow back just fine."

Niva didn't seem to know what to say to that.

I couldn't blame her. From what I understood Akash was an incredibly decorated war veteran with immense magical skill. For someone like me, with no training at all, to actually deal significant damage to him? Well, it was pretty much unheard of.

Before long Niva had led us to the canteen.

Much like the rest of the castle that the Academy was set in, the canteen was an ornate space with high ceilings. The walls were decorated with beautiful paintings and grand chandeliers hung from the ceiling.

There were three ginormous tables in the centre of the room, with aliens of various shapes and sizes scattered here and there eating various alien foods.

After seeing the tree-like form of Akash, though, none of the strange physiologies really surprised me.

I followed Niva over to one of the tables and sat down opposite her.

"So, how does this thing work?" I asked.

"It's basically intent based when you have magic," Niva said, "You put your hands palm down on the table and basically think what you want. The magitech fabricators will then generate what you want based on your memory profile."

That was some pretty incredible tech, though it did fill me with a little bit of sadness.

I'd never had the best of memories, and what Niva was telling me was that the magic their technology used would recreate the meal I wanted from my memory of the meal.

I'd probably never get to taste any of my favorite foods again, not how they were properly made anyway.

On the plus side, though, I'd at least still get to eat an approximation of the foods that I used to enjoy back on Earth.

I placed my hands palms down on the table and conjured a mental image of the food that I wanted to eat, a simple pepperoni pizza.

It was something I'd eaten numerous times on Earth, so I figured my memory of the flavour would be pretty accurate.

A swirl of blue motes floated out of the table and span before me, eventually coalescing into a thin crust pepperoni pizza sliced into 8 individual slices. Just the way I liked it.

"I've never seen food like that before, it's from your home universe?" Niva asked, a bowl of some kind of soup in front of her.

"Yeah, it was a real fan favourite back on my version of Earth. It's called Pizza, you're free to have a slice if you're able to like eat human foods," I said.

She reached out and took a slice, the cheese was still hot and dripping so I couldn't resist grabbing one and tucking in myself.

By the sounds of appreciation and happiness that Niva was making as she chewed through her slice it seemed as if enjoying pizza was actually a multiversal constant.

"I figure you're enjoying it, then," I said with a smile, "At last, something we actually have in common."

"Yeah… Look… I'd like to say sorry about before," Niva said, once again unable to meet my gaze as she stared at her soup.

"What do you mean?" I asked, "I take it you're talking about how you reacted to me back on the station? Eh, don't worry about it."

Her vision snapped back up to me, "What do you mean don't worry about it, I was about 5 steps away from having you spaced!"

I rolled my eyes, "For a start I'm pretty sure my system would have stopped you if I'd been in any real danger, and for a second you didn't so no harm no foul."

Niva shook her head and snorted what I was sure was the word 'humans'.

We ate in companionable silence for a few minutes. It was nice, this was the sort of thing I didn't even get to do back at home. There was no one that would have wanted to eat with me like this.

"Well well, if it isn't the magicless loser and the human murderer," came a voice I recognised all too well.

It was the voice of the alien who had been insulting the both of us when I had been trying to find the canteen area the first time around.

I was out of my chair in a flash, anger consumed my thoughts and caused flickers of energy to dance between my fingers in the same exact way Niva's magic had done when I had first added her to my party.

The two aliens in front of me were clearly from the same species as Niva. They were humanoid with two arms and legs and the only real difference being their elf like ears and vibrant pink skin.

"I'm sorry, what did you just say?" I snapped, ready to lash out at either one of them.

"You heard, human scum. I bet you're a murderer just like the rest of your stinking kind," They said cockily, swaggering a few steps closer to me.

"Pretty sure the human race has been peaceful for the last half century, chump," I seethed, "I wasn't even alive when all that was going on."

Granted, I hadn't even been in the same universe until that morning, but this loser didn't need to know that piece of information.

"That's what you all want us to think, but I know what goes on in secret," He shot back, "We all do. Secret experiements and genocides, no doubt about it."

"Leave him alone, Krystan," Niva cut in, "He's more than you can handle, and he doesn't have the training to hold back yet. So you'd probably just end up as a smear on the floor."

"Yeah right!" The alien bully, Krystan, cackled nastily, "Humans don't even have the affinity to move a piece of paper, let alone take someone like me down."

I was starting to get the picture, and it was one I was far too familiar with.

No matter what universe you were in, it seemed like schools really were just the same no matter where you were.

Bullies taking out their lack of self worth on people that they deemed to be lesser than themselves, whether that be due to where they were from or what they could do.

My dad, in the brief time that I'd known him, had always told me the way to take down bullies was to literally take them down.

Back on Earth I'd never had the confidence to do that.

Well, I'd never really had the strength to do it either. If I'd tried it I would have been knocked flat on my ass quicker than you could have said the words 'bad idea'.

I wanted things in this new universe to be different, and for once I actually had the power to make things the way I wanted them to be… even if I couldn't really control it yet.

Nevertheless, I wasn't going to take this insult lying down.

I focused on the crackling energy that was buzzing around my finger tips. I felt its warmth, how it flooded through my arm, and I pushed.

I swept my arm up and energy poured out of my palm. It lanced toward the bully who was standing before him and blew him up into the air.

The energy stream flickered out, and the alien came crashing down onto one of the tables on the other side of the room.

"How's that for affinity," I snorted before calmly sitting back down at the table to munch on another slice of pizza.

"How… Did you do that?" Niva asked, still standing, her eyes wide in shock.

"Just kind of… felt for my energy, I guess?" I replied, "Wasn't really a spell or a proper use of magic, I don't think. Just a raw blast of power. If that guy's as strong as he said he was he should be fine. I think."

Niva shook her head in disbelief before sitting back down. She didn't seem to have a problem with what I'd done, but it also didn't look like she entirely agreed with my actions either.

It may not have been how I wanted to do it, but I'd definitely proven that I wasn't going to take smack talk or bullying lying down.