Seth picked up the random rock Mau was using as a toy and then picked her up.

"You can play with this later," he told her and stuck the rock in a pocket. She'd found a rock that was about the same size as her stolen stone and had been playing with it almost all day, picking it up and dropping it and then picking it up with a different foot. Seth didn't let her play with it during class that morning though, much to Mau's annoyance.

It was afternoon and he was heading for the Circle Tower today. He was both nervous and excited.

Mau climbed up to his shoulder and grumbled at him before rubbing his face with her cheek. Through the familiar link he could tell she was concerned.

"I know, I know. I may have to wait a bit for the answers. But they're going to know here."

Mau shook her head at him.

"Professor Marjorie should be here. I can ask to get on the project at least."

The Circle Tower had the images of living things, animals, plants, and monsters, all carved into the white stone. As Seth got closer and got a better look, it wasn't made of stone, but carved from bone and ivory. It was as beautiful as the other towers, but had a more austere feel. Inside, the common room was very similar to the Celestial Tower. It had chairs arranged in conversation areas, tables and study spaces, and walls of bookshelves. After the Wind Tower, it was underwhelming.

The classroom was up a floor. Instead of a lecture hall like Seth had been expecting, this was a work room. Eight tables were arranged in two groups of four, with four students to a table. On one side were shelves with potted plants and trays of supplies. On the other were shelves with pots and bags of dirt.

The girl with the pearl earrings, the one he'd seen in the Rainbow Tower, was seated at one of the tables. Seth headed over to her table, hoping to at least get her name this time.

Seth debated what to say to her as he put his bag on the floor and turned to the girl.

A clink on the table got his attention. Arnold had just put a bottle of brown liquid on the table with a bit more force than necessary. What is he doing here?

Seth and Arnold stared at each other for a moment. Arnold looked like he was going to say something, but decided against it. He just gave a forced smile and moved on to the next table where he put another bottle down.

"Oh, no. You can't sit here, sorry. This side of the room is for second term students," said an upperclassman that was putting out bottles of green liquid. She had red hair escaping a ponytail and looked to be a year or so older than Arnold. "See?" she said, and indicated the potted plants. "They've got all their projects here already. You two need to be on that side." She indicated the half of the room near the planting supplies.

"Oh, sorry," mumbled the girl as she scooped up her bag.

"No worries! Arnold should have told you. I don't know why he didn't." The redhead frowned at Arnold who was fetching something else from a cabinet.

"It's fine," Seth said. He hurried after the girl but there wasn't a seat available at the table she'd chosen. There were no tables with two seats open anymore. Seth sighed and sat at a different table. One of these days he'd actually have a conversation with her.

Three professors walked into the room. One of them was Professor Marjorie. Yes! He wouldn't have to go looking for her again, and could just ask her all his questions after class and get onto that research team.

Then she left the room.

A grandmotherly woman with huge spectacles stepped to the middle of the room. "Greetings, class. I am Professor Cicily. I'll be your instructor this term."

As Professor Cicily introduced herself and outlined her expectations for the class, Seth watched the male professor carry in a box and place it on a low cabinet. Maybe he wasn't a professor, but an assistant? He was just filing papers. He also moved really slow.

"Both terms will be sharing this room," Professor Cicily continued and Seth dragged his attention back. "I will be doing a lesson with the first term students while the second term students do their maintenance on their projects. Then I'll be doing the lesson for the second term students while the first term gets set up. We will be continuing this way for this term, and may need to continue it for next term as well. Now, you all know what you need to do, so you can get started." She gestured to the second term students. Seth guessed that these were second years that didn't get the circle tower at the beginning of last year, so were only half a year ahead of his group.

"We start with a project. You all will be given a tray of seeds that have been curated by your upperclassmen. You will be using a Detect Life spell on the seeds, and choose the one that you feel will thrive the best. Some of your upperclassmen like to put some ringers in the batches that are very difficult to grow, so choose carefully. You want a strong and healthy plant at the end of the year."

Professor Cicily opened a book and cast what Seth recognized as the Copy Spell and the formula for Detect Life drew on the board at the front of the class. She then proceeded to explain the spell and demonstrated casting it.

"All right. Arnold and Miranda, please pass out the seed trays and planting materials."

"Excuse me, Professor," one of the other students said. "How is growing a plant a year long project? You just plant it and it grows. Most plants do best when you leave them alone and just water them."

"These are not normal plants. All of these are magical in nature, and most of them are ingredients used in advanced healing. You will need to provide life energy and sometimes even death energy to them to keep them thriving. For now, choose the one you think will thrive the best. Now, homework for this side of the room. I want a description of each of your seeds and how the Detect Life spell felt for each one. You can turn in the homework if you can finish it before the end of class. If any of you are not able to cast Detect Life enough times for all of your seeds, that's fine. Just pick the best one and plant that. You can take your spare seeds with you if you need to cast it later."

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The redhead, Miranda, and Arnold gathered the trays of seeds and passed them out. Seth looked at the potted plants the second term students had in front of them now. Some of them were unusual looking. There was a small round bush with red tipped leaves, a spindly tree sapling that looked like it had claws for leaves, and one that looked like purple grass.

Mau hissing brought Seth's attention back. Arnold had just placed a tray of seeds in front of him and Mau was growling at him.

"Hush, Mau," Seth said and picked up the cat. She wiggled her whiskers and hissed again, this time at the tray of seeds, then looked at Arnold. Arnold just smirked and continued passing out the seeds.

Why was she mad at Arnold? Did Arnold's snake do something? What was wrong with the seed tray? Seth didn't know.

Seth decided he may as well get started on the assignment. He sorted the dozen or so seeds in his tray. There were five different types of seeds with two or three of each. Most were the size of apple seeds, but of differing shapes. One type was a bit larger than an acorn, and another was the size of strawberry seeds. He started with the largest one.

Detect Life was a cantrip level spell. It was different structurally than the Breeze spell, but it was equally as simple. Seth felt like this shouldn't be too hard. He cast the spell.

Nothing.

He cast it again, being as meticulous as he could. Still nothing. He put aside that seed and chose another and cast again.

Again, nothing.

He took another seed. This time he cast the spell with his eyes closed. He tried to feel if his wind power was interfering at all.

Nothing.

"Mau, come here please." Seth cast the spell on Mau. She growled a bit at him, but let him. The spell worked. He could sense her life, and a vibrancy he didn't expect. It felt like cold lightning. So that's what he was supposed to be looking for. He was expecting something warmer and calmer. Thinking about it, he didn't really know why he had any expectations. This was all new.

Seth cast the spell on each of the remaining seeds. As he was casting the last one, he wondered how many more times he'd be able to cast it. It was only a cantrip, but still. Casting even a minor spell over a dozen times in half an hour will use up the mana pool of a new wizard.

All of the seeds were dead.

Mau cocked her head at him. She then looked over at Arnold, then at the tray of seeds, then back to Seth.

Seth sucked a breath in. Mau thought Arnold had sabotaged his seeds? That wasn't something he could really accuse the other student of. Seth looked around. Professor Cicily was still giving a lecture to the other half of the class. Miranda and Arnold were moving between tables, offering assistance. Then Arnold glanced over and smirked at Seth. Arnold was waiting for Seth to need assistance.

Seth smiled back. He wouldn't ask Arnold for help. As soon as Arnold looked away Seth stood up and walked over to the shelves that had all the trays and pots on it. There were no more trays of seeds. Sure, he could ask one of his table mates for spare seeds, but Seth didn't want a second best plant.

He looked through the jars and trays until he found a couple small chests. They weren't locked so Seth unlatched one. There were seeds in this one, and they were probably the spare seeds for this project. Some looked like the same seeds on his tray so he palmed one of each. Curious, he looked in the other chest. This one had four types of seeds in it. One of them was pure white and round like a pearl. It reminded Seth of the color of the base of his mana tree before it turned minty green. He glanced around the classroom. Everyone was busy with their own work. Seth cast Detect Life on the white seed.

It was strong. It was vibrant in the same way Mau was. This one was a contender.

He scanned the classroom again. Professor Cicily was demonstrating for the second term students a spell that would reduce the need for water for a day. It was much more advanced than anything Seth could even attempt. It also had catastrophic ways it could go wrong. None of the second term students were allowed to try it yet. Both Miranda and Arnold were at a second term table talking to one of the students there. Their backs were to Seth.

Seth quickly cast the spell on three of the other seed types. All were living seeds, and he could tell there was something different about each of them, but none resonated for him the way the pearly one did. He thought these might be the ringers the Professor had talked about. He palmed it and went back to his seat.

Seth put together his pot and soil and followed the instructions on the board for planting his white seed. Then he put the biggest of his dead seeds on top, planted very shallowly. The rest of the new seeds he dumped in his bag to do for homework later.

"How many times did you cast that?" the boy next to Seth asked. "I couldn't cast it enough for all my seeds, and you did some of them twice."

Seth just shrugged. "I'm not sure I was doing it right at first."

"All right, that's time," Professor Cicily announced. "Clean up your area and put your pots on the shelf with your name on it. Dismissed."

Seth rushed to get his pot away and ran to the door before the Professor could leave. "Professor, could I ask you a couple questions please?"

"Of course you may. I only have a few minutes though, as I have another class to get to. How can I help you?"

"I heard that a healer in this tower lost their power and got it back again? Do you know anything about that?"

"Why yes, he's right here. Arnold," Professor Cicily called and gestured him over.

Seth felt like the floor dropped out from underneath him.

"Arnold here is one of the most talented healers this tower has ever had. He is also one of the lead assistants to Professor Marjorie's research team. His power was one of the first to have issues this year." She turned to Arnold. "I believe your power was unusable for close to three months?"

"Just under three months, yes." Arnold smiled at Seth.

Seth had no idea what his expression was at this moment. This was a disaster. All his plans were dying right in front of him. He tried to think if there was any way to salvage this. He made the effort to be calm and professional. To the professor he said, "I would like to volunteer for the research team."

Arnold shook his head. "I'll mention it to Professor Marjorie, but I don't see you having any talents we'd be interested in. The Professor, of course, has final say."

Seth looked at the floor. This was too important to walk away from. But he also knew that Arnold would never let him on the team. Maybe if he asked Professor Marjorie directly?

"Don't worry," Arnold said, his smile getting wider. "There's always next year. Study hard, and with some more experience, I'll put in a good word for you. So long as you do well in this class."

Seth did his best to squash the anger and frustration he felt. "How did you get your power back? My brother's power is still missing. It's been over three months."

Arnold's smile faded. "I didn't do anything to make it come back. It just did."

"I'm sorry, boys, I have to get going," Professor Cicily said.

"Where can I get information on power loss Professor?" Seth asked before she could leave. "I want to know as much as I can."

The Professor called over the man still filing papers. "This is Jay. He's a research assistant and is very familiar with all publicly available material and can answer any questions you have." Both the Professor and Arnold left.

"Could you possibly give me a brief overview of the known causes of power loss? Or at least direct me to where I can do some independent research?" Seth asked Jay.

The assistant looked around the mostly empty classroom. "Very well. Let me explain to you what we know about internal magic sources." Jay walked to the teacher’s desk and pulled out a piece of paper and started writing. He wrote slowly and talked in a slow monotone. "Magic is powered by mana. Mana is what we call the power that magic uses."

As he continued his explanation, his voice was a steady drone and he often repeated or rephrased the same statement. Seth was consumed with thoughts of how to get his plans back on track and didn’t realize until the end of the mini lecture that he had zoned out for almost all of it. All he had was the list that had been written for him and vague recollections of the explanations as he was sent on his way.

He needed a different plan.