After the whirlwind of activity of the first day, meeting the Headmistress and subsequently being claimed as her personal pupil, Janie had thought that things might actually calm down. Unfortunately for her nerves the following days had become even more wild to say the least.

Her second day had started with Headmistress Tor instructing her to refer to her simply as Mistress Tor or Mistress when they are in their Master and student roles since that was the proper title for their new Master/student relationship and that any normal teachers that she interacted with would be referred to as "Instructor." That explanation over she added a quick threat about how deviations from proper titles would be punished.

After that they had taken a series of tests to see where Janie was in areas like literacy, maths, and basic Kingdom history. She was also tested on things like how to read a map, cooking, and basic combat. When she had inquired on why the second set of tests was needed she was gently reminded that this was a military academy and she had been conscripted to be a soldier, and that these were all things that were expected of a functioning soldier.

Incredibly disheartened by the reminder of her fate, as she dearly did not want to fight anyone, Mistress Tor administered the test that she had truly been looking forward to. They were testing her mana affinities.

“Oh ho child, now this is interesting. You are a Pure adept.” Mistress Tor said while looking into a deep clear square of crystal that she had Janie pour mana into. There were some false starts since she didn’t actually know how to channel mana, but Mistress Tor was an excellent teacher and Janie an attentive student.

“What does that mean?” Janie asked before quickly adding a quickly squeaked ‘Mistress Tor’ at a raised eyebrow from her new mentor.  Turning away from the crystal and marching over to a nearby bookcase, she replied without looking at Janie, “It means child that you are a Pure Mana adept. While not particularly powerful in the most obvious ways, they are rare and highly flexible. They can do a lot of things passably well, and have access to some of the rarest of spells.”

Digging in a small box she withdrew a piece of glowing chalk and began drawing on the air. Mystified by the spectacle she almost missed the explanation that Mistress Tor was rattling on about. “Pure Mana is the basis of all elemental mana in the world. It is the glue so to speak. There are four prime elements, Fire, Water, Earth, and Air which can combine into various secondary elements if the mage has sufficient affinity to use more than one element. For example, a mage that can use both Fire and Air Mana could then combine those two into Explosion. A normal adept is unable to use an opposing element under normal circumstances. A Pure adept is able to use all of the elements, albeit at a much lower power level than an actual adept for that element. They also have much more power when they shape raw unaligned mana, a feat that normal adepts have much difficulty doing. and unlike other elementally aligned adepts can use it without injecting their own element into it which means that it is almost impossible to counter a Pure element spell. The downside to that though is that pure unaligned mana can only hold very basic shapes which do limit its usefulness in battle somewhat. Still...”

Spinning around with a malicious smile on her face and a mad glint in her eyes that terrified Janie, “I am going to teach you everything.”

The next two months had been the hardest of her life including and up to trekking across a continent to find her birth father in an entirely different country, but she had buckled down and soaked up what Mistress Tor was willing to teach her with Rosalyn's plea to get stronger so that they might never again be separated still ringing in her heart. 

The only thing that had kept her sane where the letters she had written every day during her stay at academic hell, today she was telling Rosalyn how she had mastered the basic Fire element spell, Fireburst, and had almost been successful with combining in into a Steam element attack with a Water element spell to do something only a Pure adept could do, combine opposing elements. Unfortunately, the spell blew up in her face and caused some nasty burns, but thankfully Mistress Tor was a very adept Water Element healer and had managed to save Janie's eyebrows. 

Putting down her pen while she best thought to make the painful experience sound less horrific as to not worry Rosalyn, Janie wistfully stared out her dorm window at the setting sun and wondered what she was doing back home right then. "It would be about dinner time. I do hope the little ones are behaving for Mother Cham."

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Jumping slightly at a knock at the door, Janie stood up and opened the door to see a clearly distress Tor standing there. "Mistress! How may I help you this afternoon? I was just about to finish up another letter to send home..." Trailing off as her teacher slowly shook her head. Not even closing the door behind her, she stepped and immediately hit Janie with the worst possible news.

"Child, I have some news, bad news. Please sit, and let me tell you what the courier found. As I discussed with you before, I was holding onto your letters since you were writing so many and sending them in a bundle. The first batch I had sent with a survey team to evaluate the nearby monster hole in the mountains, the one you told me that you and the other village kids played in when you were younger? Anyway... the nearby village had been ransacked and from what we could tell there were no survivors. The temple on the outskirts also seems to have been the site of a great battle and was destroyed by a powerful fireball attack. This seems to have happened shortly after you left."

Tears started flowing as the news hit her full force and she choked out a question she did not want an answer to, "Did anyone get ot of the temple?"

"We found no survivors."

Janie's wails could be heard all across the campus as she cried into the fine silk tunic that her teacher wore.

It was the second hour that they had sat like that, Tor just stroking the hair of her pupil as she cried, when there was a knock at the door. Staring sharply at the intruder, she was surprised to see the green uniform of one of the neutral couriers that ran mail across the borders of nations. "Letter to a... Janie, from one Cham, dated three weeks ago."

Rosalyn awoke with a fresh sense of determination and hope. Something told her that a fair bit of time had passed since she had first awoken, but she still felt like she was missing parts of herself... like she was less that she should be. Still, the voice had done a lot to quell the moment of sheer panic she had momentarily fallen into and had done a lot since then to keep her from falling back into that despair. She was really looking forward to escaping where ever she was and getting some answers. Also, she really wanted to meet whoever it was that sang that beautiful song to her.

Still, the holes in her recollection were troublesome. Why was she having a hard time remembering things? Everything in her head was… hazy and just plain not right, almost like she was a vase that was broken and put back together incorrectly. “Okay, then, maybe I can piece events together with some context clues? … What DO I remember?” She thought and thought.

Rosalyn remembered the fire of the pain followed by the numb sensation that followed. She didn’t think she would ever forget that, almost dying was cetainly unpleasant to be sure... suddenly Rosalyn had a confusuing sensation that she had been on a boat, but at the same time could not place the strange feeling. It certainly couldn't be right. Chalking the stray thought up to trauma she focused on before. What was the oldest thing she could remember? “Let’s start there and work forward!” She remembered…

A flash of memory. She was standing at her father’s side, her tiny hand in his giant one. He seemed larger than life and invincible, however she knew that was false as she had learned first-hand that death touched everyone. They were watching the local priest speak over three wooden boxes, two of which that were much smaller than the one in the center. They stood there for a very long time until it had started raining. Rosalyn remembered the pain when her father had squeezed her hand too hard, but she wanted to be a good girl so she didn’t say anything as they stood there while they both cried in the rain.

She remembered waiting every day for her father’s return from war, dutifully standing at the end of the gravel path leading to her great aunt’s drafty cottage. She remembered the disdain she was treated with by Florence, and she remembered the fear whenever the old woman eyed her appraisingly, as if she were looking at merchandise and not a person.

She remembered flashes of a church… no an orphanage. There was a sister with a kind face, but she couldn’t remember her name. She remembered standing in a hall stewing in her own uncertainty and fear and meeting… Mother Cham. Years of memory passed by her eyes all at once. She remembered the fear as the tiny woman claimed her, the hope as she patiently taught the academically challenged young girl how to read, and the love as she saw her take in dozens of kids from all over the world and give them a home. Kids like Andrew, Hobert, Eruca, and... Janie. She had forgotten Janie? How could that be? Memories of exploring the mountain trails and summer adventures in the dusk of the nearby pastures passed by her face. She remembered lying awake after curfew and telling ghost stories. She remembered the bitterness and jealousy at finding out that Janie was able to use magic and the disappointment at her own lack of aptitude. She remembered the regret and sadness bubbling up in her heart as she watched a carriage carry her to some unknown future where they couldn't be together.

Feeling overwhelmed and invigorated by the return of what felt like a dearly missing part of her Rosalyn let out a massive push on her prison.

*Crack*

After what she was sure was years of pushing Rosalyn finally felt something she hadn't felt before. The wall had given and cracked under the pressure she had been exerting. Feeling incredibly uplifted by this change in her situation Rosalyn relaxed her body and quietly succumbed to the silence of sleep.