In a few of the quiet moments of the day, while Carnelia was in such a deep sleep she could easily be mistaken for a corpse, especially with her pale pallor, Samantha had to admit to herself that she had no idea what she was doing. Or, really, what anyone was doing, the world had gone insane in a way nobody could have predicted outside of some fairly strange stories. It said quite a lot about the state of the world when even the absurdist scenarios designed to test unconventional thinking in impossible situations had been too mild and far too optimistic nor could anyone have predicted the outside influence, for there was no way the System could be terrestrial in origin, that made things even more insane. Though, to be fair, the system also gave them a realistic chance to survive, especially when assuming that Astral Power was only available in combination with the system. Without it, there was a better-than-even chance humanity would have perished shortly after the initial change that killed off a third of the population, with many more people dying from the freshly risen Shattered.

Still, if anyone had told her, at any point before entering Jademoon Tower, that she'd be learning Alchemy from one of those very Shattered who had somehow been turned into a Vampire by their Elvin host, she would have called that person insane. And looked for a way to get some distance between them as insane people could be utterly unpredictable and dangerous, no need to invite injury just because somebody had taken leave of their senses. And yet, after she had seen the first descriptions of Alchemy on the walls in the Shrine she had been hooked, her interest grabbed in a way even the most fascinating engineering class at college had failed to do.

With that demonstrated interest in Alchemy, she became the focus of a pair of terrifying, yet utterly captivating, crimson eyes of Carnelia, the local vampire and from there, things happened in a slightly strange, yet both predictable and unpredictable fashion. Guessing that a teacher might develop an interest in their student, even if there is a significant age difference? It happens, there were reasons for the various laws put into place to prevent abuse of power in that situation and even with those laws, it continued to happen. Sure, it was usually an older teacher going after younger students, not the younger teacher putting the moves on an older student but given the situation, age was fairly irrelevant. As were all the laws from before the change, if anyone could be considered the law in their situation, it was Jade Morgana, the creator of the tower and mother of said vampire, as strange as that was.

Granted, while Carnelia had pushed and prodded her, Sam would be the first to admit that she had been quite receptive to the flirting and eagerly reciprocated once she managed to gather her bearings, fond memories of her days in college playing in her head. Sure, those encounters had been with humans but they had been both relaxing and enjoyable, something she was desperately craving in their insane world. The various creature comforts she could enjoy with Carnelia at her side, thanks to the apparently infinitely adaptive magical ability wielded by Lia's mother were a mere benefit. A wonderful benefit sure, but even without those, Lia had an animal magnetism Samantha wouldn't have wanted to deny, she knew herself that well at least.

And if Sam had to sacrifice the occasional bit of blood every so often, she wasn't about to complain, especially as the sensation of having her blood gently drained from her body by way of an incredibly intimate and, as she soon found out, orgasmic kiss was one she would have welcomed, even without the rest of their relationship. Just those kisses would have her come back asking for more, making her occasionally wonder how they had handled things before, only to realise that there were things she really didn't want to know. Even if there was no biological relationship between Mother and Daughter, some things just shouldn't happen and if they had happened, she had no interest in learning about the circumstances. In this case, ignorance was truly bliss and she wanted to continue her blissful experience.

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But it wasn't all kinky kisses, weird humour and slightly odd flirting with Lia, no, the vast majority of their time was spent learning and later working on alchemical projects as a team of three, Lia, Samantha herself and Alex, the vampiric racoon. The vampiric racoon, capable of chittering in a way that normal people could vaguely understand, however that worked. Just another of those insanities Sam had been forced to live with, blood-sucking trash-pandas smart enough to rival any human, with an incredible ability to create stupidly dangerous ordnance from seemingly ordinary items.

Why couldn't the world go back to making sense, a cry often repeated before the change ever happened but now, Sam had a feeling the cry would be on everyone's lips. Well, maybe not on Jade's, that one seemed to thrive in the insanity, which implied some rather problematic things about her sanity, but given the sheer power Jade had, any such implications should be uttered far from her, just in case. Maybe only while hidden within a copper dome, or with some very advanced insulation to protect from sudden cold snaps, one could never be cautious enough, a lesson she had learned the hard way while working with Lia. It was not paranoia if they were out to get you, and if 'they' were the incomprehensible laws governing the weird science of Alchemy, it was doubly true. There was a reason why the arcane path was named thusly and it had nothing to do with the recent, popular definition of 'arcane' and everything with the older.

"Hey, Sam," Jack, the leader of the team she nominally remained a part of called out to her, pulling her from the strange, contemplative mindset she had been trapped in.

"Jack, hello, what's going on?" she asked, trying to gather her scattered bearings.

"Just wanted to ask you if you want to make the trek back home, Daniel agreed to go with us and do some magic for the people back there, you know, provide some water, spruce up the infrastructure, that kind of stuff. Want to go with, remember what normal people like to do and maybe put your recently found skills to work?" he asked, making Sam consider her options for a moment. On one hand, she wanted to help the people who she had worked with to overcome the initial insanity, they all had saved each other's lives in a myriad of ways, forging a camaraderie she wasn't about to abandon. On the other hand, she wanted to stick with Lia and keep learning, to say nothing of the relationship the two had been forging over the weeks that turned into months, that, too she didn't want to abandon.

"I'd like to ask Carnelia if she'd want to join us, maybe Alex, too," Sam replied after a moment of quiet consideration, hoping that this might give her the best of both worlds. And, maybe, it would allow her to lure Lia into staying in the area, even after the snow had melted and their group could continue their journey north, wherever they actually wanted to go. Apparently, none of the actually knew their destination, just a somewhat vague direction. Not even how far they had to go, meaning they might arrive at their destination the next day, maybe they still had a few thousand miles to walk.

"Ah..:" Jack mumbled, his usually easy smile fading away like mist in the morning sun, "You do that, if you think that one would be interested in helping a few people out, other than teaching those they are interested in," he grumbled before walking away without any further words. A part of Samantha was well-aware of his interest, she had even considered reciprocating, if only for the added security it would provide. Maybe not the most romantic reason to pursue a relationship but, historically, likely the most common, so it couldn't be all that bad. Luckily, she didn't need to consider that path any longer and, if she could manage her vague plan to entice Lia to stay, she wouldn't need it in the future.

But first, she had to convince the crimson-eyed vampire to remain with her, maybe even add the racoon to the mix, the critter had some skills and could be surprisingly amusing for a being she could only vaguely understand. And she had to do so in a manner that wouldn't have the quite scary Jade decide to deal with Samantha in a permanent fashion for luring her daughter away from the woman. One step at the time, as they said, one step at the time while going slow and steady.

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