. Core .
“Careful now. Try focusing one more time.”
“Okay!”
“Remember what I told you?”
“Don’t blow up the room?”
“Loosen up. Your shoulders and hands are still stiff, aren’t they?”
“Oh, yeah…got it!”
“And Kelsi?”
“Hm?”
“Don’t blow up the room.”
…
…
…
Full silence.
Empty darkness.
Has she started yet…?
…
…
…
A spark. Specks of white light flitter over a pair of cupped hands and then vanish.
They grow rapid and sporadic, each popping brighter and louder than the last. Soon, they begin to peel away the dark.
A spark, and two silhouettes sitting on the floor, one far larger than the other.
A spark, and a student’s sapphire eyes driven to succeed.
A spark, and a professor’s gaze braced for disaster.
As her focus sharpens, arcs of energy jet from the novice’s fingers. They skip along the walls and ceilings before dwindling into nothing, choked away by their own lifespan. The younger lights, startled, pivot midair in a panicked effort to avoid the same fate.
They couldn’t care less what’s in the way.
One crashes through a glass on the wooden desk.
Another ricochets around the room, battering past chairs and paintings.
All the while, Kelsi sits completely still among the clattering mess, determined expression unfazed, with her hands emitting more and more aimless, volatile wisps.
Fior leans toward their pupil out of habit as the thundering flashes intensify. Should they interrupt for her sake? She’s going overboard again, so there's no doubt everyone on campus already heard her. They’re both bound to get another thorough scolding. If she stops now, at least she might be let off with enough smooth talk…
But as usual, the more Fior witnesses the spectacle, the more their senses give to guilty curiosity, and the more they can’t bring themselves to look away. After all, when else can they hope to see such a showy display, such raw potential? It flows from the girl like brilliant ribbons, streams twisting and tangling around one another to animate dazzling patterns in every direction: loops, spirals, zigzags, spheres, shapes they’ve neither seen nor dreamt of. If tempered, if controlled, if mastered…
What miracles could this power be capable of?
“-!”
A beam whistles by Fior’s ear, shocking every nerve and hair on their body upright. How can they be lost in awe at a time like this? They throw their head from from side to side to apprehend their situation.
Horrified, they instantly realize the price of their inattention.
The poor desk has been caved in by a pelting of light.
Not a single chair or painting has been spared, either.
In the carnage, only splinters, shredded paper, and shattered glass remain strewn across the floor.
Sweat builds on Fior’s brow. Has Kelsi ever pushed herself to this extent?
What in the world am I thinking? This has gone way too far! They start to raise an open hand to the caster.
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However, before they can reach above their chest, Fior catches a glimpse of Kelsi’s face and freezes in motion.
Even now as the luminescence obscures her, they can’t spot a hint of lingering resistance.
No matter how hard they search, all traces of hesitancy are gone from the hands held brazenly forward.
In place of insecurity, only calm resolve remains in the crystalline eyes staring straight ahead.
A crash more tremendous than ever before erupts as a blinding gleam permeates the room.
But Fior lowers their arm.
They should stop her. They should fix this. That’s what their better judgement begs of them, screams at them from within.
Instead, in the end, they choose to surrender to Kelsi’s composure – to trust their student.
I really am a lousy teacher, they lament as they watch on.
The ground begins to tremble.
Fissures climb the walls.
The ceiling shakes and crumbles.
Flash, boom. Flash, boom. Flash, boom. Fior’s entire body tenses as everything they can see flickers between pure black and white.
The beating light grows faster and faster.
Louder and louder.
Brighter and brighter.
And then…!
It fizzles away.
Empty darkness reclaims the room.
Yet, it’s not quite silent. A commotion has amassed all around beyond the walls, surely the sign of displeased neighbors. Compared to the deafening bursts a moment ago, they’re nothing but a whisper.
Fior is left sitting exactly as they were before the trial began. If they were told now, they wouldn’t believe it had only taken around a minute.
“…Kelsi?”
…
A soft chime of a voice rings out from the void.
“Yes, Professor?”
“Ah. There you are.”
The two sit without another word, letting the muffled frenzy of shouts and footsteps fill the uncomfortable air.
…
The student's light, chiming voice rings out.
“Did…did I pass?”
…
A faint glow flickers to life.
It’s barely visible, slight enough to be missed even by the keenest eye.
But it gently, gradually expands until it can’t be ignored.
As it fills out the shadow, it illuminates the contrast between the two motionless figures crouched around it.
On one end is a tiny professor engulfed almost entirely by dark, baggy garments. Their head barely pokes above the neckline, and copper hair scatters halfway down their slender face as if trying to hide its sharp, spotless complexion. As they look on with concealed eyes, their pink, balmy lips hang slightly agape in quiet admiration.
Opposite from them is a towering student who, even while sitting, is monolithic enough for her waist to be at the human’s eye-level. Black, rock-like chitin generously ornaments her robust body, covering up her azure skin alongside a long, silky loincloth. On top of her diamond-shaped head, the same material sprouts through vast, gray bangs into a crown of four magnificent antlers, each longer than one of Fior’s arms.
Despite the absurdity of the pair, despite the height setting them apart, they sit cross-legged like children at a playdate, both awed by the same thing: Kelsi’s sprawling palms, or rather, the source of the glow floating above them.
Gone are the flailing arcs, as are the violent sparks and convulsions.
In their place hovers a fuzzy ball of light steadily breathing upon the calluses below it.
As the two inch closer, they catch the vague, sugary scent of honey.
Kelsi interrogates the controlled energy in her grasp, her silver eyebrows furrowing in lingering skepticism. Her hands move slowly. The ball follows. She whips them the other way around. It tails without a problem.
Harsh determination relaxes into disbelief, which then cedes to curiosity.
Finally, as the realization the material she holds won’t blow up sets in, her expression breaks.
The sharp edges of her cobalt eyes refract the stable light and the welling of tears. Accompanying them is a grin which quickly spans her entire face until her full set of fangs present themselves unabashedly. Though they gleam like a polished knife rack, in this moment, there’s nothing remotely threatening about them.
It’s a look Fior has seen many times before, one he’s grown to love so much.
The glee of the newly awakened student.
Though, as they glance around the ruined room again, they can’t recall ever seeing an awakening quite like…this.
“Professor…!” Kelsi can barely contain her joy. Fior grants her a warm smile as if to tell her there is no need.
“That, Kelsi, is your core, the source of all of you. Take good care of it. Trust in it, and it will trust in you. Every thought you think, every feeling you feel, every struggle you suffer – share them all with it. Because it grows with you, and you with it. As your professor, it is my sworn duty to push this power within you to its greatest potential.”
Two rivers overflow down the student’s face, her fluttering core relaying both devotion and gratitude.
Such a beautiful soul, such latent emotion.
Where will it go?
What will it become?
The professor’s mind races with possibility and hope, but they quickly stay their thoughts. Those can wait for the time being. For now, all they can do is offer the one in front of them a token of her first success – an inspiration she will never forget.
Their give up all formality and speak with heartfelt pride.
“Congratulations, Kelsi. Welcome to Arcany.”