Owen and Blaise were waiting outside the Circle Tower when Seth finally exited. Owen was sprawled in the grass. Nearby was a bench situated beneath one of the rare trees on campus. Blaise stood a little bit away, shredding the leaves on a weed she'd plucked. Seth looked at the bench and then at Owen.

"Why the ground? Why wouldn't you lay on the bench instead?" Seth asked.

"Because it's a nice day, and the grass is warm. Also, grass is always more comfortable than a slab of rock."

"Except when it's wet," Blaise said.

Owen pointed at Blaise. "The grass is still comfortable. The muck, not so much." Owen sat up and brushed little bits of dead grass from his hair. "How'd it go? Get what you needed?"

"Oh? What were you looking for?" Blaise asked, looking over at Seth.

"Yes and no. I had been told about a healer who had lost his power and then got it back a few months later, but the person who told me couldn't remember his name."

"Ah, and did you find him?," Blaise asked.

"I did. I found out who the healer was, and that he did indeed get his powers back. He was helping out in my class. He's also the lead assistant in the research that will help my brother."

"That's great news, Seth!" Blaise said.

Seth shook his head. "It's Arnold."

"What?" Owen said as he stood up. "The jerk?"

"That guy is a healer?" Blaise asked.

Seth nodded. "He told me I won't qualify for the team." And since Arnold would only change his stance if he passed, and has already made an attempt to sabotage his project, that was unlikely.

"Oh no!" Blaise reached out and left a damp handprint on his shoulder. "I'm sorry."

"Maybe I should try apologizing." Seth hated the idea. It would be awkward and embarrassing and he was sure Arnold would rub it in. But Saben was worth more than Seth's pride, and he'd do what he needed to do.

"No. It won't work. That guy will eat it up, make you crawl, and then not help you anyway," Owen said. "Don't do it to yourself."

Seth sighed and plopped down on the bench. "I need ideas." Mau jumped up on the bench next to him.

Blaise leaned against the tree. "I don't see how anything is different. Just because you're not on the research team doesn't mean the research isn't happening. If they solve it, they'll tell your brother."

"I wanted to be more involved. I don't want to just sit around and wait for someone else to solve it."

"You've been asking everybody," Owen said. "What did they tell you?"

Seth pulled out the paper from Jay and scanned it. Most of the theories of the other professors were on the list.

"A new one I was just told is a theory that a person has only a finite amount of mana, and once used, it's gone," Seth said.

"What does that mean?" Owen asked. "Finite?"

"It means that when you use all your mana, it's gone," Seth explained. "You don't get more."

"They said that?" Owen asked, his eyes wide. "You can use up all your mana?"

"That's the theory." Seth shrugged.

Owen stared at him dumbfounded. "All your magic can be used up?"

"There's no way that one's true," Blaise said dismissively. "That's hogwash."

"But that's what they said, right?" Owen asked. "They said it's a theory?"

"Yeah." Seth looked at the list. "A bunch of these involve a problem with a person's ability to use mana,"

"That makes sense. No mana, no magic," Blaise said.

Seth looked back at the page. "An injury affecting the ability to use mana. Environmental damage, environmental contaminants, disease, parasites," Seth read.

"Parasites?" Blaise asked. "That's creepy."

Seth nodded. "I've never heard of any. You?"

Blaise shook her head. Owen was staring at his hands looking very worried.

"So just practicing, doing normal class stuff, could use up all the power you'll ever have?" Owen asked.

Seth ignored Owen's question, having already explained it was just a theory. "Then the theories go into it being natural for some young mages to fail to develop properly and the power fades."

"If using mana will use up your power, why didn't any of the professors warn us?" Owen asked.

"Because it almost never happens," Blaise answered. "It's only a theory anyway." She turned back to Seth. "So what was the one about kids losing powers being normal?"

"I missed a bunch of this explanation. I'll have to read up on it. I have a hard time believing this one though. Saben had such a strong connection to his power. It worked so well for him."

"Power has been in my family for a long time. Once someone developed a power, it never just 'went away'. Until your brother, I'd never even heard of someone losing their power," Blaise said.

"I've been told it happens very rarely," Seth said. "But it's happened to at least two people in the last year, and I get the feeling maybe a couple more based on things people have said."

"I thought this was just a pet project of yours," Blaise said. "This is sounding more serious to me. What are some of the other things on your list?"

"Damage to the ability to convert aether into mana."

"That one sounds weird," Blaise said. "Nobody's mentioned aether at all in class yet."

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

"I've heard of it," Seth said. "But I didn't think people used aether. I thought it got converted naturally in mana wells."

Blaise nodded. "I could see it being damage to the ability to use mana, not aether."

"How big of a reservoir do people have? Can you feel it? How full it is?" Owen was starting to sound a little panicked.

"Dude, you need to let this go," Seth said to Owen.

"But I don't use my power on purpose, what if I'm running it out without even knowing it?"

"Then you'll stop using it when you run out," Blaise said. "Problem solved."

"You could use up all your mana really easy," Owen said to Blaise. "Your power is on all the time. What would you do if that happens?"

"Be dry for the first time in a year," Blaise answered wryly.

"No, I mean really. How can you stop your power from getting used up?" Owen asked.

"I'm not worried about it, Owen. I think that theory is wrong. My power is in no danger of getting used up."

"But Seth said the people in the tower said it. They said it was a theory."

"A theory is a guess at why things happen, Owen," Seth said. "It's just a guess, not an explanation."

"Oh." Owen got quiet.

"So, the theories are mostly that something physical happened, like an injury, sickness, or parasite. Or something unknown happened, to mana or the power." Seth pulled up one leg and rested his arm on his knee.

"That covers most of them," Blaise agreed.

"I wonder how to test for any of that. How would I find a parasite? I just learned Detect Life. I wonder if it could detect parasites."

"The Circle Tower would have tested for the easy stuff already. While your brother was here," Blaise said.

"Yeah. Maybe I can look up aether in the Celestial Tower next week."

"Hey, did your brother get his tree read like we did? What did his look like?" Blaise asked.

"I don't know. I'll have to ask him."

"Or maybe we could ask that Ollie guy. He might have a shop in town. Speaking of town, I am picking up a commission this weekend. My brothers don't want me wandering in town by myself." Blaise rolled her eyes. "Would you two like to join me in shopping on Saturday?"

"Sure, I've got a letter I'd like to send off too," Seth said.

"I'll go too," Owen said. "I haven't seen much of the city."

"Great. I'm heading to dinner now, you coming?"

"In just a minute," Owen said. "Seth, can I talk to you a second?"

"Sure, we'll catch up." Seth watched Blaise leave and waited for Owen to sort out what he wanted to say. He looked nervous, or embarrassed.

"I was thinking I should ask you," Owen said. He wasn't looking at Seth, but studied the grass. "But I think you might have noticed. About me,"

Seth didn't know what Owen was referring to. "The only thing I noticed is that you're taller than me."

Owen looked at Seth in surprise. "That I am," Owen said and chuckled. "No, I mean, I'm not the smartest guy."

"Are you having trouble in your classes?" Seth asked.

"Yeah. I never got educated. Not really. I don't know what some words mean. And I'm having a lot of trouble with reading and writing."

For some reason Mau got really excited. Seth had to turn to look at her to make sure she wasn't doing anything weird.

"My uncle taught me some," Owen continued. "When he figured out I was using magic, he made my dad let him teach me. I thought I learned it pretty good, and it only took me a couple months. But I'm having loads of trouble with the books here. They're a lot harder than the ones at home. And my writing is bad here too. I learned using my gramma's pen. It was an Everfull Pen, and I think it was enchanted for neatness too. It wrote really smooth. I've tried all kinds of quills and pens since, and none of them are even close to how neat that one wrote."

"Of course I can help you with reading and writing," Seth said. "Do you want to start right after dinner?" He watched Mau twining herself between Owen's legs and wondered why she was so happy with him.

"That would be great. Thanks, Seth."

After dinner Owen led the way up a spiral staircase to an upper floor of the dining hall.

"I don't remember this on my tour," Seth said. "What are these?" There was a maze of small rooms made of glass and stone blocks. Many of them had the glass frosted so you couldn't see inside.

"My roommate showed me these. They're practice rooms for the second years, but we can use them too." Owen walked up to a room with clear glass and put his left hand where the lock would be. Unlike the dorm room doors which would simply open, this one displayed a white circle surrounding the lock. "This is the timer and this much is an hour. During busy times of the day, it can go down to just ten minutes. The white means us. I don't know how they figure it, only that white is the lowest and that means we get the least time and can get bumped. My roommate didn't really explain much, but did tell me the basics."

When the door shut behind them the glass wall turned frosted.

"So that's how that works." He couldn't resist summoning a bit of wind to get the feel of it in the room. He could tell there were wards in here. It would be hard to do really destructive magic, both because the walls were protected and because the magic was suppressed. Casting wasn't difficult though, just less powerful. "What kinds of things have you tried in here?" Seth asked.

"Not much, really. It's just a lot more private than the library."

"This is fantastic." As long as there was space here, he wouldn't need to compete with Isaac for desk space. There was a desk on one wall, a predrawn circle on the floor, and one wall looked like a blackboard. Seth would have to bring some chalk next time. "Okay. Let's get started. What do you want to work on first?"

"I was wondering if you could maybe tell me what's different about this book that Professor Kaban gave me, the cantrip book. I'm having trouble reading it."

Seth opened the book and flipped through it. It seemed normal to him. It had descriptions and explanations of cantrips in it. Maybe Owen's reading skill was worse than he thought and he didn't want to admit it?

"Let's start at the beginning," Seth suggested. "Can you write the alphabet?"

Seth set Owen to practicing letters. Mau was planted on the desk watching him avidly. Seth was happy she wasn't sticking her head in the way like she'd been doing to him lately. He flipped through the cantrip book again, looking at the names of the spells. One in particular got his attention, Detect Mana.

Seth laid the book on the floor and tried to work out how to cast the spell. Owen was done with his page before Seth had worked it out.

"It's really messy still." Owen said. "I don't know why."

"You need to train your fingers to write the letters the way you want. I bet that neatness enchantment didn't do you any favors. The only way to fix that is repetition. Do you want to do another sheet, or work on reading for a bit?"

"Reading. This is getting boring."

"Okay. You said the cantrip book was harder to read. What's an easier book?" Seth asked.

"I don't have any with me. What do you have?"

Seth rummaged in his bag. "How about the travelog Kaban gave me?"

Owen opened it up. "Yeah, this one is much easier."

Seth frowned. "Read it aloud."

"My name is Jacques de Faere. Two weeks ago I started a journey that has taken unexpected turns, and therefore I have decided to document this adventure…" Owen read it slowly but clearly.

Seth let him continue for a few paragraphs before stopping him and taking the book. There was nothing different about this book that Seth could see. "Now try this one," Seth said and handed the cantrip book back, open to the Detect Mana spell.

"T- no, Th-is s-p-ell w-ill–"

"Okay," Seth said and took the book back. "There's no difference between these books. I can't see any reason why one is harder than the other."

"Is the cantrip book newer?" Owen asked. "Old stuff works better for me. I didn't think that would have anything to do with reading though."

"It doesn't look new," Seth said, turning the book over in his hands. "Let's test it anyway." Seth took out his almost new textbook for Structured Magic. "Try this one."

Owen was just as choppy as the cantrip book, sounding out each word.

"I don't know what's happening here. Are you using your power on the book?" Seth asked.

"Not on purpose. But then, I never use it on purpose. It just happens."

The light lock on the door chimed and the frosted glass turned clear.

Seth wondered if the equivalent of a sharper sword was a more understandable book? That didn't feel right, but he couldn't think of what else it could be. "You need to be able to read new books too, so we'll just have to keep practicing. Back here again tomorrow?"

Owen nodded, resigned.

Mau was thrilled.