"Stop causing trouble," Seth scolded Mau as he walked over to where Professor Edmond was greeting Ollie. Ollie had come down from the stands with a collection of images and Seth wanted another look at his tree reading.

She blinked her eyes slowly. Seth didn't know if that meant she thought she was innocent, or she was letting him know she'd do as she pleased. Probably both. He sighed and scratched her head. He had to admit, it was really nice seeing those jerks get theirs.

Seth joined the other students who were collecting there to see the images. There was a commotion behind Ollie, and the three jerks covered in yellow ink piled into the arena. The lead jerk bumped into Ollie, accidently knocking him to the ground. The jerk held an ink bottle upside down and ink was flinging everywhere.

"Where is it?" the jerk demanded. "Where is that piece of shit cat?"

"My images!" Ollie cried. They had scattered on the sand.

Seth Instinctively ducked behind a taller student, but not before locking eyes for a second with the guy with the ink bottle. The guy tried to fling ink at Seth.

"Hey!" the student in front of Seth and several others yelled at the jerk.

"What in the dark do you think you're doing?" Owen demanded, and tried to grab the bottle. "You're getting ink everywhere!"

The guy jerked the ink bottle away, not caring who he got ink on. "Look what it did to us! We're covered!"

"Stop that!" Professor Mick ordered and marched up to the yellow upperclassman. "Control yourself, Hugh."

Hugh turned to face Professor Mick and shook the upside down bottle. "It's empty!" Ink flicked at Professor Mick who dodged it.

"It's an Everfull, you idiot. You're getting ink on everyone!" Professor Mick snatched the bottle. "Give me that. You three with me. Demerits all of you. My apologies, Ollie. Let me handle this." Professor Mick pointed at the staging room and ordered Hugh and his friends to go.

"But the cat! Did you see what it did to us?" Hugh argued.

"You picked the fight. You think I didn't see what you were doing during class? You lost. Now move."

Seth put his hand on Mau. If an animal could vibrate with smugness, that's what she was doing right now. It was a struggle not to smirk himself at those assholes while they were being told off and punished. So satisfying.

"What jerks!" Duvessa declared. "Spraying everyone because they were mad."

"I didn't do anything," one of the other students snarled. "Look at me!" He had a line of yellow ink on his clothes.

"Watch where you're stepping!" Ollie said. "Don't step on the images."

"Some of them are ruined," Owen said. He picked up Blaise's tree image. "This one isn't too bad." There was a splash of yellow on the bottom, but most of the tree was intact.

Other students helped Ollie clean up. The girl with the pearl earrings picked up an image that still contained a puddle of ink. She touched the ink and rubbed it between her fingers. She then pulled a small bottle from somewhere and poured the excess ink into it. The image was ruined and nearly unrecognizable.

It was Seth's. Of course it was.

His wasn't the only one ruined. Three others were completely ruined, and a half dozen more had splashes of yellow on the page. Isaac had one of the ruined ones.

Ollie addressed the students. "I charge six bur an image. I apologize for some being damaged."

"Oh," Owen said. He handed Ollie the images he held, which included his own.

"We should all get them!" Duvessa said excitedly. "I don't see mine. Owen, that one is yours."

"I can't be buying one," Owen said.

"That's actually pretty expensive for a picture," Blaise said. "I think I want mine anyway."

Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.

"Well, I think everyone should get their pictures," Duvessa declared. She looked around at everyone and then nodded firmly. "Yes. Reginald, go to grandmother and tell her I need two crowns. That should cover everyone who's image wasn't damaged. Is that acceptable?" she asked Ollie.

Ollie blinked. "That is more than fair, my Lady."

"I knew she was loaded," Booth muttered quietly beside Seth. "I bet that guy doesn't get more than a couple of deener normally."

"It's a really generous thing to do for everyone," Seth said. And he thought he knew who her grandmother was.

"Of course it is, when you have the money to do that," Booth answered.

Everyone collected their images, even the ones whose image was ruined. Seth looked at his. The ink had puddled in the middle and then poured down the bottom. The only discernible sections left were the outer edges of the tree. He'd wanted a better look at the gap near the bottom, but that was completely covered.

"Do you have other copies of these?" Isaac said. "Mine was ruined."

"Aren't those guys your friends?" Owen asked. "Why would they do that to you?"

Isaac just shrugged and shook his head.

"I'm sorry, these are all I have today," Ollie said.

"Do you keep images from past students?" Seth asked. Saben had never shown him something like this, so maybe he'd never bought his.

"I do have some, but not here. It's not unusual for someone to change their mind and want to buy their picture later," Ollie said.

"Everyone that has ink on their clothes come over here," Professor Edmond called out. He cast the same spell Professor Laur had cast and removed the yellow ink from their clothes.

"Oh nice! And we're all still pretty colors!" Duvessa said.

"Can we do something about that too?" Someone called out.

"Nope! You get to keep your color!" Professor Mick called out as he strode back into the arena.

There was a chorus of groans.

"Professor! I am eager to hear who is the winner!" Gregor shouted. He flexed an arm and struck a pose. "I wish to be acknowledged as the best!"

"Nope. Not you, Gregor. Better luck next time, since you did put on a fine performance! The winner is their normal color. Not purple like you." Professor Mick gestured towards the back of the crowd of students.

There was the girl with pearl earrings and a long braid. She was the only person a normal color.

"But–" Seth said, confused. Many other students did too. Seth was certain he'd seen her blue earlier.

"And that's the trick!" Professor Mick was excited. "Don't let on, girl. Maybe you can use it again!"

The girl looked uncomfortable with all the attention she was getting.

"Professor, can you please turn off this color now? I'm not comfortable with this shade of orange," Blaise said.

The students were dismissed to get cleaned up. By the time Seth was leaving the changing rooms he was his normal color again. Most of the other students were too. The yellow students were still yellow though. Seth wondered how long that would last.

On his way to his last class of the day he realized he'd never asked Professor Marjorie about either the possible causes of power loss or about the healer student that had recovered his power.

He supposed that was understandable. He'd had a lot going on today. He was worried about detention, and what he would need to do. He was even more worried about the threat of disciplinary probation. That sounded scary, like if he messed up even once more, he could be expelled.

That wasn't fair in his mind. He didn't start that incident. Jerks.

And then those same jerks were starting stuff with him again during class. If they kept provoking him and trying to start trouble, they could get him in more trouble even if he tried not to engage. And since he was on probation, he would be the most harshly punished.

Definitely not fair.

His reaction in the dining hall was strange. He liked to think of himself as calm. He was the reasonable one between himself and Saben. Saben was more reactionary.

Could it have something to do with Mau? Seth sighed. That was another thing he needed to learn about too. He hadn't planned on having a familiar and only knew the basics. Maybe emotional responses like that are normal when your familiar gets frightened.

And then there was whatever was going on with his power. His wind during the incident was so much more than it should have been. His power wasn't normally so strong.

Even his tree image wasn't that big. That gap still worried him. He rubbed the bracelet. Was something cutting off whatever the tree represented? Was it fading? Was his power going to disappear like Sabens?

If his power was fading too, he'd have to hurry up and get some answers. He'd only have one semester to get those answers. If he couldn't cast the assessment spells at the end of the semester he would be out of school, just like Saben.

Duvessa's had a gap too. That was in a different spot though. Maybe hers was fading too? None of the teachers had reacted to it though. Not one comment. Maybe these things weren't unusual?

It sure seemed unusual to him.

He just didn't know enough. He didn't expect to come to school and have more questions and fewer answers. He really thought that if he could just find the person that knew, he could solve this and help Saben already.

That could still happen. He had yet to talk to dozens of professors. There was research going on. He still needed to get onto that research team. He should find Professor Marjorie. He shouldn't wait until the next combat class to talk to her.

He could talk to the professors in the Wind Tower when he had class there about what his power was doing. And he still had both the Celestial and Circle Towers to attend.

He needed to be a bit more patient. This was just the first day. He had time.

As long as he didn't get himself expelled.