“Okay class, it’s time to begin the first real lesson of the year. You’ve all had the summer to start truly learning your element, and in the process, you’ve probably tried your other element or elements. I’m sure many of you were using two elements before last year, but if you haven’t, this year you’re going start!”

Luke was a little surprised at how giddy the man was, but then he remembered their talk from the day prior.

“First, let’s talk about the number of elements one can have. Most people are born with two. This is the standard, the number that scholars consider balanced. Balanced between what you may ask? Power and Utility!”

The teacher held up both of his hands, an ice spike rising from his left palm, fire bursting out of his right.

“With two elements, you have a good amount of power you can funnel into each elemental ability, whether its fire and ice, light and dark, or some other combination.”

Suddenly, the ice in the man’s hand melted, the fire bursting into a much bigger flame.

“Those only able to use a single element will have more power behind their abilities but will lack the flexibility of two elements.”

As the man finished his explanation, the water in the man’s hand frozen again, forming a single ice cube. The fire in his other hand shrank to a single, flickering flame.

“When you have three elements, you have more options, but less power behind them; so much less power, in fact, that those with three elements are most often laborers who work niche jobs.”

The teacher suddenly slammed his two palms together before breaking them apart to reveal steam.

“Having multiple elements means finding out how they interact and how you control that interaction. Not every fire and ice user can control steam in the exact same way. This is the ‘flexibility’ I alluded to earlier.”

Stolen story; please report.

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During recess, Luke had walked back to class after taking one glance at all the kids using combinations of elements to show off or fight one another.

“Oh, hello Luke, don’t you want to be outside with the rest? Or did you perhaps have a question?”

“Well, I’d rather talk to you than be outside. I was wondering: why are you so nice?”

“Ha ha. You know, if you had asked me that question when I first came to Lumina, I wouldn’t have understood what you meant. I guess I’m not the only one who noticed. Truth be told, I was born and raised in Umbro, but came down to Lumina to teach.”

“What’s Umbro like? I hear it doesn’t have a queen.”

“It doesn’t have a king, a prince, a princess, a duke, a duchess, or anyone else. There’s no wall and it’s colder through most of the year, but the people are much warmer and monsters are pretty rare. It’s the total opposite of Lumina.”

“I was wondering, did you tell someone about the teacher?” Luke didn’t want to dawdle, even though Umbro intrigued him.

“Yes. The school board is planning on their next action, but I don’t know who they’re in favor of. I’m pretty sure he’ll be fired though; abusing nobility is going to cause hell for everyone involved, so the school will distance themselves from him.”

“Would he be in trouble if I wasn’t nobility?”

Carem sighed and shook his head. “If you were just a commoner, there’s no doubt in my mind this incident would be swept under the rug. I might even be fired for daring to bring it up.”

“Oh, well…don’t do that then. It doesn’t bother me that much anymore. I’m gonna go now.”

Without waiting for the teacher to clarify the situation, Luke scurried out of the room.

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Anxiously, Luke hustled into the garden, coming to a screeching halt as he reached the princess.

“What’s the rush, Luke?”

“Oh, I wanted to ask you something.”

“Is it about yesterday?”

“Nope, it’s about today. I’ve actually thought about this before, but…”

“But what?” The girl raised an eyebrow.

“Do you have more than one element?”

“Why yes,” she sent dirt flying into Luke’s face, which he had tried his hardest to get off without getting any in his eye.

“Well, I learned about combining elements today, and I was wonder- PLEH” Luke spat out dirt.

“If I could combine elements? I could try.”

Focusing on the dirt still on Luke’s face, she managed to pull all of it off of him, liberating his eyes and mouth, and gathered it in the air. As she stopped focusing, the ball continued to float.

“Wow, that’s cool.”

Luke’s amazement turned to horror as the ball smacked into his stomach, sending him reeling back.

“That was mean, but still cool.” The boy managed to squeak out from across the garden.