Misha offered Sarah her limiter. Sarah took it and looked at the floor refusing to meet his gaze or look at Carly’s disappointed face.

“I forgot.”

“I told you to get it removed yesterday, Sarah. You should not be wearing this here. It’s for the outside world. These aren’t allowed here. It is a crutch that you do not need.”

Sarah nodded still looking at the old rug that covered Carly’s hard wooden floor.

“Now go catch up to your class. It’s time for your introductory powers class.”

“Yes ma’am.”

Sarah stood up and pulled on her uniform shoes before heading down to the subway. She hiked her backpack up on her back while she paced back and forth staring at her ankle which was now bereft of the only thing that made her sure she wouldn’t hurt anyone else. She tugged at the hem of the black skirt that was the bottom half of her uniform. The top was a blouse with a tie and an optional sweater for cooler weather. It was pretty warm, so she was without of the sweater. She had longed for her body to start to develop and now with the estrogen she was catching up rapidly and it was starting to embarrass her because boys were looking at them instead of her face. She skipped a few times in her boredom. She stopped dead in her tracks when she saw a blond boy her age watching her. He was wearing the same uniform save it was in the boys style. He had his hands in his pockets. He was ridiculously cute. She blushed. He spoke in English but had the strangest accent it was almost Italian, but it was different enough to be distinct.

“Oh, don’t stop on my account. Looked like you were having fun.”

Sarah blushed and looked around. He was talking to her they were the only two here. His blue eyes were focused on her silver eyes. He smiled. That smile melted her heart. Like something out of a romance novel. Her heart literally skipped a few beats. She felt like she’d seen him before. She couldn’t put a finger on it, it had to have been at the party.

“Quiet type hmm? That is okay I can talk enough for the both of us if I need too. My name is Lucius. And yours is?”

Sarah was trying to find her voice it took her a few tries and she could feel her ears burning.

“Sarah.”

“Sarah. Funny I was picturing something with an E.”

Sarah’s stomach was turning in knots as he got closer. He was this magnet pulling her towards him. She lost all coordination and almost fell, and he caught her arm. His touch was electric on her skin. He must have felt it to because his hand lingered for longer than it needed to help her catch her balance. She felt her breathing quicken. Richard and she had full on made out and she was way more affected by this boy’s one touch then the entire movie with Richard. She put her hand on one of the subways supports. She pushed her hair behind her ears. She suddenly felt like she looked inadequate for this meeting. The subway whooshed into the station with a rush of air that almost lifted Sarah’s skirt.

She was forced to hold it down. When she looked up the boy was halfway across the floor, he tipped a non-existent hat to her. The doors of the car opened which drew Sarah’s attention when she looked back to where the boy had been, he was nowhere to be found. She was feeling lightheaded like all her blood had rushed anywhere else but her head. When she sat down, she started to feel flush again. She adjusted her skirt and noticed she was on a train car full of one of the more senior classes of boys. Grade tens if she had to guess. They didn’t pay her any mind and she was thankful she was checking her skirt. She thought she might have blacked out or something and peed herself, but her skirt was dry and so where her shoes. Her underwear were very uncomfortable and she wasn’t sure why they were so damp. It wasn’t that hot in the station or the car itself. She fanned herself with her hand. It stopped at the Grade 9 building, and she got off and walked up the stairs. She saw Maria, Amee and Kerri heading into class she rushed to catch up and managed to get a seat next to Amee.

“You look…like you enjoyed yourself.”

Sarah slide into her chair.

“What are you talking about?”

“You just have this smile.”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“Oh, I see, I need to stay because Misha is coming to take off my limiter is code for what exactly?”

“Eew he’s like thirty.”

“Which is why I’m concerned.”

“Ms. Sheppard was there. They took off my limiter.”

Sarah put her hand in her pocket and showed her the pink ankle band that had lettering declaring it a Supermax PL20+ limiter.

“Oh, you seriously look like you had a good time.”

“It wasn’t fun or anything.”

“Then why do you look like someone just took you for a whirlwind make out session?”

“There was a boy at our station, he looked like he was from our year. I almost fell down he caught my wrist.”

“Wow, you need a boyfriend, a boy catching your wrist is enough for that.”

Sarah waved her hand dismissively.

“You’re being weird Amee.”

“Did you get a name for this boy?”

“Luc… something?”

“And hmm what did he look like?”

Sarah got a far-off look in her eyes.

“If the feeling you get from eating good dark chocolate could be translated into a boy it would be him.”

Amee gave a quiet whistle.

“I think someone has a crush.”

“It’s not a crush he is just really cute. I think I saw him at the party.”

“You probably did but didn’t remember because you were too worried about breaking up with Richard. Told you it was a good idea though; Look not even twenty-four hours and you found a boy.”

Sarah was about to answer when their instructor who was none other than Eyre cleared her throat. The class got instantly quiet.

“Welcome to Introduction to Powers. I know it’s all boring and review but still it is important to make sure everyone is starting at the same level when we start going from theory to hard math. Should be an easy class for most of you. Our first lesson is the fundamental building blocks of Reality and how people with magic and powers shape and channel them.”

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

She brought up her holo-tablet and swept it to the 80inch LED screen at the front of the class.

“Reality as we understand it is comprised of four different types of energy. Life, Chaos, Death and Order. All powers, all magic is some combination of these energies. Ice magic or power for that matter is the ultimate expression of order. Pulling heat from gaseous, or liquid matter condenses it into a solid lattice of atoms. Heat is the ultimate expression of Chaos. It turns solid matter into a chaotic mess of atoms in gaseous form eventually. All powers, and all magic can be traced back to these fundamental energies of creation.”

Eyre glanced around, then continued.

“These energies don’t exist in isolation they mix and swirl throughout reality. They were never meant to exist in isolation. As much as you expect Life and Death to be in opposition they are not, and they also mix. If you are a mage and you focus on one type of energy over all others and forsake them, they will start tainting your outlook, tainting your physical form. For death mages they take on the aspects of death. For Chaos mages they find it hard to keep their minds together. Their reality begins to shatter. Life mages find themselves obsessed with trying to procreate. Order mages start to find themselves locked into rigid patterns. This does not seem to affect powered individuals who channel a specific energy type.”

“The first step in controlling your power is understanding where it comes from. For mages you need to understand balance is required. For other individuals you need to understand the force that powers you, so you know how to work with it.”

She looked around the classroom. Her eyes focused on Sarah.

“Sarah step forward.”

Sarah looked around, felt her ears burning but did as she was asked. Eyre put a flowerpot down in front of Sarah it had a seedling in it, and it was sprouting, and the first leaves were showing.

“Sarah what is your power?”

“I’m a life manipulator and TK.”

“What PL?”

“I am an eight.”

“Then making this plant grow should be no problem for you right?”

Sarah shrugged a bit.

“Sarah you are a life manipulator. You are connected to all life, and it is connected to you. Reach your hand out towards the plant and feel for it with your other sense the one that connects you to it.”

Sarah closed her eyes and did as she was told. She could feel the seedling. She focused on making it grow she felt her hands burning like there was acid in her veins. She screamed as green veins creeped their way through her hands and the seedling burst into full bloom it was a rose bush. Sarah was starting to panic the veins weren’t going away and the desks in the room started to shake now the veins became turquoise as they mixed together. Eyre touched Sarah’s shoulder. There were gasps from the class as the rose bush burst out of the soil then there squeels and screams as the room started to shake.

“Sarah, let go of the energy, let it go.”

Sarah felt like she was grabbing two live wires at once and her hands were clenched tight. She started taking deep breaths like her father had taught her. Her mind starting to think what’s next? The answers came readily, breath, release the hold on the wires. She did so mentally letting go and the veins in her hands subsided. She saw the turquoise glow in her eyes dim and vanish in her reflection in the mirror in the back of the room.

“Good Job Sarah, Good job. Just work on not panicking so much.”

“I’m sorry Headmistress I felt like I was grabbing on two high voltage lines and my hands just wouldn’t let go.”

“That is completely normal for someone with more than one power. It’s hard to pull them apart and when the energy builds but nothing happens it starts to go wild. It will take practice but here.”

Eyre offered Sarah the fully grown black rose bush. Sarah picked up the flowerpot which she now realized was oversized for a good reason. She put it at the back of the classroom. And took her seat.

“Did you see how she reached out and grabbed the energy she needed to power her life manipulation? Sarah has a more complicated situation then most of you because has access to both Life and Order powers at once and they are separate. Any volunteers to demonstrate a Chaos power?”

Sarah looked at her hands inspecting them for any permanent markings from the veins that had burned into them, but they seemed fine. Sarah was a bit perturbed to notice that there was no pain or veins, or glowing eyes for the girl who was demonstrating her ability to heat up objects. Maria was brought up to demonstrate death as she already knew some magic and no one in the class had a death-based power. She had a dead mouse and a fern. The blinds were pulled down and the room was dark, and Maria started chanting. Sarah blinked as she understood every word perfectly. Even knew it was a zombification spell. She scratched her head. Maria’s hands started glowing with a crackling purple energy and she touched both the plant and the mouse. The fern turned to dust and the mouse hopped up and started nibbling at Maria’s finger gently Maria stroked the molted dead fur on its head. There were more than a few gasps in the room. Maria picked up the mouse and it ran up her shoulder and into her hair and then back to her shoulder. It sat there mimicking a live mouse’s tendency to clean its front paws though his were quite skeletal.

“You may keep your mouse, Maria.”

Maria nodded and went back to her seat. The mouse ran down her arm and jumped across the desks to Sarah who was staring at her first true zombie in absolute terror. It rolled over and started rubbing against her arm. Sarah touched it and green veins flared up in her hand and her eyes flashed a brilliant emerald green and the mouse twitched and shivered regrowing lost muscle then skin then fur. The whole room gasped. Sarah didn’t notice anything else she was being dragged in with the life energy she kept channeling it into the mouse her hand was burning and almost fully green now. The mouse gasped as it took its first breath and ran up Sarah’s arm and nestled itself in her hair like it had done with Maria. Sarah’s hand slowly faded to is normal color. Everyone was staring at her in awe. One of the girls in the class shook her head.

“Headmistress? What does this mean? No one can bring the dead back to life. No one, not even PL20s.”

Eyre snapped her fingers loudly and everyone looked at her. She let her mental control extend to the whole classroom weaving herself into all their minds.

“The undead mouse ran off, we have no idea where, but I said it is harmless and would not cause any trouble. You did not see Sarah raise it from the dead.”

She kept them mesmerized as she went and scooped the resistant mouse out of Sarah’s hair. She looked at it.

“You are getting some tests done.”

She emptied her jar of candies into her desk drawer and put the mouse in it and put it beside her desk she looked at it and it looked back at her.

“Sleep little one.”

The mouse curled up and fell into a fitful sleep. She looked at the class and snapped her fingers.

“Wake.”

The class of girls went wild jump onto their chairs and squealing.

“Where is it? Where is it?”

Eyre stood up and snapped her fingers again.

“Girls, it’s just a zombie mouse, harmless. Sit down like proper young ladies.”

Sarah rubbed her eyes and couldn’t figure out why she was suddenly so tired she couldn’t keep them open she ended up collapsing into her arms. Eyre sighed. She should have known the act of bring back the dead would exhaust the girl. Amee tried shaking Sarah, but she was dead to the world.

“It is okay Amee, she is only tired from channeling as much energy as she did. She’ll be fine. I’ll make sure she gets back to her room. It was just a bit much for her. Go to your next class ladies.”

The classroom emptied quickly, and Eyre sat at her desk looking at Sarah. The girl was becoming a very vexing and very dangerous mystery. Carly walked in.

“I saw what happened. She just brought back the dead. That is Jesus shit.”

“I know did anyone else see?”

“No, I kept the gawkers away. What does it mean?”

“She channeled pure life energy into it. No spell, no power. Same thing she did with the plant. Look at it, it looks more alive than it should, its leaves are too green. Its branches too thick. It means she is tapping directly into the power of creation and she’s reaching in and pulling in what she needs like you fill a glass with water. She filled the mouse with life energy. One of two things have happened she put his little mouse soul in his little mouse body permanently or she’s just juiced it with life energy and it will wear off eventually and it will go back to its previous state, if is the later we’re good it’s a parlor trick mages do it all the time with animals and plants, if it’s the former we are into a whole new territory. She has access to death too.”

Eyre put the jar on the desk.

“Take this to Pietro, tell him that I need a full blood work up, full diagnostic on it. Monitor it for signs of sudden…death?”

Carly picked up the jar.

“You need to tell her something. This is getting crazy. Her power is increasing exponentially and it’s not slowing down.”

Eyre waved Carly away.

“Go, and no, we will tell no one this, even my sister.”

“Why? You’re playing with fire. You said if you don’t follow the laws, then why should anyone follow them.”

“Yes, but we’ve never seen abilities like this before. We have but not…pure raw energy of creation. There is always a medium, a spell, a gene that creates physical changes that allows the energy to collect and be used. She is just pulling it out the ether.”

“Maybe she just has a battery. It looks like she emptied it.”

“Just get the mouse to Pietro and we’ll see how the testing goes tomorrow.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

Eyre rolled her eyes at the sarcasm in Carly’s voice. She picked up her phone and called Misha.

“Misha, it’s the headmistress, one of the students used a bit too much energy channeling their power I was hoping you could make sure they got back to the room safely. She is in the introduction to powers classroom in the Grade 9 building.”

Eyre hung up the phone and looked at Sarah and the black rose bush with a sigh.