The sun stood up in the sky, burning down on anyone who was bold enough to be outside right now. It was rare for the schoolyard in front of the main entrance to be that empty during lunch time, but it was just as rare to be this hot.only few poor souls were outside of the main building right now. Most of them were staff of the academy, taking care of the gardens and parks, but one small group of students was among them. All of them aged between 17 to 18. Those five children looked like they were in a hurry. Or at least some of them.

‘Why are we doing this again?’ asked the one who was carrying several stone plates with the so commonly seen runes on them. ‘Because if this experiment succeeds, it will be a great breakthrough! And we can't possibly test something like this in the building, can we? So stop complaining Maxwell!’ The woman sounded annoyed that she even had to answer such a question. She carried a wodden wand, bigger than herself. The other three carried books, scrolls and more templates. ‘Seriously Lydia, I understand that you want to find out if your theory works, but can't that wait until the next break? We are missing out lunch because of this.’ said the boy next to Maxwell, who had also been assigned to the stones. ‘If you can talk, then walk. The faster we begin, the faster we will finish. Or are you perhaps already at you limits Fin?’ As if he wanted to prove himself, the boy called Fin suddenly started going faster. ‘You are as easy as always Fin.’ He ignored that comment. As the sun continued to heat them up, Maxwell started wondering if it really was the right choice to help Lydia. This wasn't the first time she had demanded them to help her with experiments, but never once had one of them succeeded. Maybe this behaviour was due to her professor. Mr. Stellox, the teacher who motivated her, was known for his rather modern teaching style, and there wasn't one lab in this school which he hadn't accidentally destroyed while experimenting at least once. Truly, this man way infamous… and his behaviour seemed to have inspired Lydia now. He continued quietly following his friends as Finn suddenly decided to start a new topic. ‘Have you heard about the rumours?’ Lydia, totally focused on her new experiment, ignored him. After a few seconds of silence, another boy took the opportunity to join the conversation. It was Alex, who had carried the books without saying a word until now. ‘Do you mean those about a dark mage?’ Maxwell stopped for a moment. He had also heard about them, but he had hoped they were just the talk of a few younger students in need for attention. ‘Yes, I mean those. They apparently found a secret room with some forbidden books or something.’ Seemingly unpleased by the thought of a dark mage having infiltrated the academy, even the last girl opened her mouth. ‘But aren't those just some rumours?’ Nearly tripping over her own two feet, the girl named Lucy looked at Maxwell, hoping he would agree with her. ‘I think so too. This is the academy of Prestillon after all! What would such a guy even want here?’ Nodding in agreement, Lucy seemed relieved. ‘I wouldn't be so sure about that. Isn't it suspicious that all the professors were summoned at once to a meeting? In all the time we've been here, that happened not even once!’ Unimpressed by that, Maxwell continued. ‘That could mean anything. Besides, we haven't really been here for long. Me and Lydia for around 4 years, you and the rest for only 3.’ Like most magic schools, this academy started taking students from the age of 14. While there wasn't a set age for graduation, it was common to leave this academy at around 24. Considering how young some of the professors were, they really must be geniuses, was what he thought. Before Fin could speak again, Lydia suddenly stopped. ‘This spot is good! Let's do it here!’ Lucy gave her one of the scrolls. She then showed that scroll to the rest. ‘Please put the stone tablets in a formation like this.’ On the scroll, there was a sketch of of a circle like formation. The 12 stone tablets had to be put in a certain order in order, and since it was hard to form a perfect circle, it took them some time to put everything in place. After around 15 minutes, Lydia said ‘Stop. It's perfect like that! Thank you!’ She took one of the books and scanned through a few texts. ‘You aren't planning on reading all of them here, are you?’ Maxwell knew Lydia, and he knew he could never be sure enough. ‘No no, I just have to find the part with the right spell.’ He didn't understand why she didn't just remembered the page the spell was on, but he didn't feel like pointing that out. Luckily, it only took her a few minutes to find the spell. ‘Okay, let's begin. I'll cast the spell real quick. Just you wait, this will be amazing!’ The looks she got from her four helpers weren't exactly full of expectations, but she was far too excited to notice that. While watching her get ready to cast, Maxwell wondered if they could still make it for a small portion in the cafeteria.

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She was calm. As calm as she could be. Her stance was like she had practiced so often. This spell wasn't complicated, but the slightest mistake could result in wrong test results. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath… She could feel the mana around her. Slowly, she concentrated on forming that mana. Her mana manipulation wasn't exceptional, but it was more than enough for someone on this level. The mana formed circles, these circles got clearer and clearer, until small runes formed around them. Without even realising, she had started to silently chant the spell. While opening her eyes, she witnessed how these circles she had only imagined up until now had become reality. They had barely any colour, but they definitely were there. The air started circulating around them, and wind was created. Firstly she could feel a light breeze on her skin, but just a moment later this breeze had evolved into a wind with such force that it would have been hard to walk against it. The chant was nearly done. As she spoke the last words, she pulled a great amount of mana into the circles. Not the mana around her which she had used to form them, but her own, which she used to power the spell and stabalize it. It was done. As she shot the spell, the centre of the wind moved away from her. Like a mini Tornado, it moved all the plants on its way. As it passed the first stone, the runes on the tablet began to glow. This phenomenon repeated itself every time the spell passed one of the placed stones. ‘It’s working!’ Another thing that happened was that every time these runes started glowing, the direction of the spell adjusted itself as to stay on the circle formed path. Since this spell would normally go straight until it has no energy left, this was an unusual sight. It had already passed half of the circle, when suddenly… the stone tablet it passed bursted into hundreds of pieces. The same happened with the one before and after that one, then the next and next until every tablet was destroyed. The spell now continued going straight, passing a few trees, reaching a lake before finally bursting in its middle. This sudden outburst of energy caused several small waves. It took a few moments for the water to call down.

While all of that happened, Lydia had not moved a single step. Her face had frozen the moment the first template had broken. Alex, who had stood just behind her, laid his hand on her shoulder. ‘You were really close. It wasn't a total downfall.’ His words, which were meant to motivate her, had the opposite effect. ‘I wasn't close. This is the same result as last time. I've achieved nothing..’ One could clearly hear from her voice just how depressed she was. Her face had gone back to normal, but now she looked even more shocked. Shocked wasn't the right word… it was more desillusioned. This extreme reaction may had seem like overreacting for most normal people, but every single one of her fellow mage disciples could relate to that feeling. She had poored her all into these preparations for months, constantly thinking about the problems that occured at this project. And it wasn't just one template that broke… Maxwell wasn't sure, since he wasn't familiar with derivation of magic, but it was never a good sign when a chain reaction resulted in several elements of an experiment bursting. Although he hadn't believed in it, he had genuinely hoped for her success. But it seems like that was just another dream… It couldn't be helped, they had to move on. Lucy approached Lydia. ‘It is okay. And it wasn't for nothing! Now we know how it doesn't work. I am sure it will be better the next time!’ No reaction. ‘The break will be over soon, so we have to go back, but we can easily experiment a bit more this evening. I am more focused on the topic of mana connection between objects. If you want to, I can help you a bit. Don't give up just yet!’ Alex said this, but he had no idea where to start. But that didn't matter right now. Cheering her up was important, if needed with some false promises. He felt bad for her. Magic was a wonderful thing, every student could agree with that. But once someone lost his motivation, it wasn't rare that their marks drastically dropped until.tgere was no recover. He couldn't let this happen to Lydia. She stood there for a few seconds, expressionless. Just as he had made up his mind to add something, she suddenly smiled again. ‘You are right. It was a lot of work, but it wasn't for nothing! I can do this!’ Her smile was forced, that much was obvious. But at least it was a start. They all collected as much of the remaining pieces of their templates as they could, before going back to the main building. The break was almost over, and they still had to go to their assigned lecture rooms. Even after they departed, the whole experiment was still on his mind. Maybe he could ask a professor for help later. As he walked through the hallway, one though suddenly struck his mind. He stopped at once. ‘If we only needed one book and one scroll, then why the hell did she make Alex and Lucy carry so much unnecessary stuff?’