We got patched up at the local doctor's clinic before having a small meeting with the [Mayor], Jasmine, and Mr. Darius. It's still not too late in the night, so everyone was still awake, but most people were settling down for the night at this hour. Ms. Jasmine and I both came out of the incident mostly unscathed, and so Mr. Darius didn't worry for too long, and got straight into the lecture.

  "I can't believe you blew up my forge. I left you alone for 5 minutes, what even happened?" Mr. Darius was obviously a little upset and confused.

  "Well, I was learning how to use magic, and Ms. Jasmine had me try making a spell with a lot of fire mana, because I needed to learn how to control it. At the end of everything, she told me to make a spell as big as I could, and the only thing I could think to do with it was relight the forge, which went out during the process." I was being entirely truthful, as I knew hiding things in situations like this always made things worse, mostly from prior experience.

  "What do you mean 'the forge went out'? That forge hasn't gone out since before I was an apprentice. From what I understand, it's a magic artifact that isn't supposed to go out. Ever." Mr. Darius was looking a little more worried at this point.

  "I was gathering all the fire mana in the area to do the magic, and in the process, the forge just went out. I would assume I took the mana that was keeping it lit. It all felt the same, so I'm not sure though." I answered his question, and Ms. Jasmine had a frown on her face.

  "If the forge was a self sustaining magic artifact, and Amara drawing mana caused it to go out, that means she drew all the ambient mana from the room, and still had a ton of room to control more. If she could stabilize that much fire mana on her first try, on accident no less, she may just have the most incredible affinity with fire I've ever heard of. We have to make sure this stays between us as much as we can. We don't want our resident blacksmithing prodigy to be swept away by some city's mage academy." Ms. Jasmine turned to the last person in the room, who hadn't spoken at this point. "Mr. [Mayor], could we trouble you to keep a lid on this whole thing? We'll need a good story for what happened, but I'm sure the [Forgemaster] can think something up that'll sound believable. If we want out little Amara to grow up how she wants here, it's best if nobody knows how capable she is with magic."

  "That shouldn't be a problem Jasmine. We're all friends here, so of course I want the best for Darius' newest apprentice. But please, drop the formalities, we've known each other for years. It sounds weird coming out of your mouth." The mayor spoke in a low, rumbling voice. "I'll do my best to redirect any prying questions on the matter, but this was quite the flashy incident. It may not stay under wraps for too long."

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  "Well, if anyone pries too far into it, just tell them something Amara was working on in the forge reacted poorly with the magic fuels we have. It's believable enough, and it'll make it look like she actually can make mistakes. Having her be too good at the forging part of her training isn't all that much better than being a magic prodigy. The same thing will happen, just with a different group of people." Mr. Darius quickly came up with a workable explanation for the night's events.

  "I appreciate the help from everyone. I never expected something like this to happen on my first night learning magic. Is there anything I can do to make it up to you?" I was a little downcast after hearing all the talk about me.

  "As a matter of fact," The [Mayor] responded to me, " If you could promise me a well made item when you finish your apprenticeship, that would probably make up for the work I'm doing now. Of course, this is more an investment than a repayment. If you do well enough in the future, which I fully believe you will, that piece will more than reimburse me for anything I'd lose by helping you here. I am not a man without foresight, and at present, you don't have the time or money to do anything worthwhile for me. Do these terms work for you?"

"Of course. I can't think of any reasons why not. I'll make sure to do something worth your trust in my future. Thank you very much Mr. [Mayor], I will do my best not to let you down!" I bowed to him, and we all started heading to the door.

  "We'll talk about what you owe me tomorrow in the forge, little missy." Mr. Darius looked at me with a bit of a menacing glare, before his face turned back forward.

  As we left, I noticed a feeling wash over me, and suddenly noticed I couldn't hear anything outside the room before that point. I could only assume the [Mayor] had some kind of skill or spell to make sure nobody eavesdropped on us. It seems like my increased mana sensitivity from training is allowing me to notice when effects are being placed on me, or in this case, removed from me. That would likely come in handy at some point.

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  I arrived back home, and Mama and Papa were looking a little worriedly at me, with some bandages on my face and arms, as I came home quite a bit later than normal.

  "Sweetheart, what took you so long? We were starting to get nervous." Mama came and hugged me. "And why are you all bandaged up?"

  "I learned how to use fire magic today with Ms. Jasmine, and there was a little mishap. It's nothing to really worry about. No burns or anything, just scrapes." I didn't want to worry Mama or Papa, so I didn't tell them a whole lot about the night's events. "I learned how to use mana, and Ms. Jasmine had me try out some fire magic. It got a bit out of hand, but it seems like I'm just as talented with it as I am with forging, so it'd be for the best if we don't draw attention to it. Ms. Jasmine drilled that into me tonight."

  "I'm starting to wonder if something is going on with you now, Amara. It's not entirely sensical for you to be so good at so many things. Let's all pray it doesn't cause any issues in the future. Now, it's late enough as it is, so you head to bed now little girl. We'll see you in the morning." Papa rushed me off to bed saying goodnight and stuff.

  I quickly bathed to make sure I didn't wake up stinky or smelly, then I hopped in bed. The day's events caught up to me and I fell asleep quickly.