The rain was not letting up at all. By the time they got to the empty training fields, only they were present, soaked to the bone.

"It's c-c-cold!" Keily said, shivering.

"It is! That is why you need to use your mana!" Lia said, standing in front of him, holding his two hands. His fingers were hot to their touch, and it was clear that she was actively circulating her mana, keeping her body warm and comfortable even in this downpour. "You already learned how to meditate; now you need to start doing the same without succumbing to the thoughtless state of it!"

"I know." He nodded, shivering, holding her warm hands even stronger because of it. "I need to let my mana flow without losing my state of mind. I have to remain awake!"

"Exactly!" She nodded, "For now, stand still, close your eyes, and concentrate your will on your own mana! I'll help you maintain your awareness and not let you sink into true meditation! It will become second nature as soon as you get the hang of it! It's only hard for the first time!"

Keily did not complain, doing just as she said. Incorporating everything he learned in Dayen's classes, all that Lia and every book he read so far taught him. He focused his mind on his mana only. He had already started to collect it, right where Lia and so many from his family did, in his stomach. Following Lia's teachings, the energy point there became his focus point, mimicking her subconsciously. Now, he was trying to encompass all the mana he had collected there so far through his regular meditative sessions.

As he was doing so, his mind started to fall into a groggy state, drifting into an automatic, unconscious state only to be jolted back to the sound of the rain and its coldness by an invisible, fiery hand. He knew that it was Lia who prevented him from slipping away, but it also made it hard for him to focus on his mana. His body and mind simply wanted to enter that marvelous state of existence. Accessing his mana and remaining awake to his surroundings required much more significant focus, and he had to struggle with his body's natural opposition to that.

This was the first hurdle that every Magi Initiati had to overcome. The so-called Tier 1 was nothing but those individuals who had the aptitude to become mages. They could mediate, feel the flow of mana inside and outside, and start collecting it. They established their main energy point and started the road to becoming true mages. When their minds could maintain their clarity and manipulate mana, forming their first spells, they stepped onto Tier 2 and became Magi Discipli. The first actual Tier of Magic. Keily was teetering on the edge of taking that step; only two things hindered him at that point.

One was his own mind and brain, wanting to meditate and get back to the usual routine it got used to so quickly. The other was the cold rain. He was shivering; every droplet that hit his body felt like needles sticking into his skin, making concentrating even harder. He only found solace with Lia's hot touch, holding his hands.

"Don't let your thoughts wander!" He heard Lia's voice echoing through the rain. The torrential shower from the dark clouds became much louder by now, nearly drowning out Lia's voice, yet she was standing before him. "Focus! You have to feel the warmth and heat in your body! Fight back the coldness with your will! You have to make your mana spread around! Let it flow into all parts of your body, Keily!" Following her words, he refocused his attention, slowly getting the feeling of a fire being ignited in his stomach. It was warm at first, but it was quickly becoming hotter and hotter. "Good!" Lia exclaimed, sensing the change, "Start carrying it with your will! Spread it like spreading peanut butter on toast!"

Keily had never before in his life focused so hard than right at that moment. Images were flying through his head, mostly about his father and his tragic end. His feelings were dominated mainly by anger, aimed at himself for his weakness and at the Undead for killing his dad.

"Anger is good," Lia whispered, and Keily could barely hear her voice through the rain. "Erias said when he mastered fire magic, he used his anger as a basis. He was the cleansing fire that came to consume the dead. Use it! Make it the fuel for your fire, but don't let it out of your hands! Focus it on a single point!"

"It's… hard!" Keily said, his eyes shut tightly, trembling but not because of the cold. He was barely feeling it. It was because of the anger he felt. It was ready to burst out.

"It is! But you are you, and it is YOUR feelings! Your mana! You are in control! You can do it!"

Her words made him remember what his father told him many times while growing up. Every man is his own master. Even if he was different, with his floppy ears, it was not what made him into a person. He was not Keily because of his appearance but because he was his son. Just remembering his voice, coming from a distance, made Keily's body shudder. Then he remembered when his father's body was burnt away by spells, freed from the Undead existence that was forced upon him. Keily's eyes snapped open at that moment, and Lia hurriedly let her hands go. What Keily did next was by instinct. He felt the mana following his will and concentrating in his palms as both of them lit up, coated with fire, burning in a bright, burgundy color.

"It… doesn't hurt." He said, breathing heavily, watching it burn and shizzle, but his hands remained uninjured. The falling rain quickly evaporated as smoke and water vapor surrounded them, thanks to it.

"Intense fire!" Lia clapped, grinning, "Powerful fire! Not even orange; it is deep, deep red! You are strong! Try to form it into a ball and throw it!"

"Y-yes, Boss!" Keily nodded, and he found it surprisingly easy as his summoned fire quickly followed his wishes. When he threw it forward, after landing, it exploded with a loud pop, sounding like thunder, resulting in a bright flash and a small hole left on the ground.

"Ahahaha! Congratulations!" Lia laughed; seeing the results, you created your first spell!"

"Yes… I did!" Keily blinked his eyes before laughing, jumping around in the rain happily, like a real bunny, hopping around Lia, who just laughed, sharing his outburst of true happiness. "Two, in fact! Look!" He shared his bracelet's screen, showing that it recorded two spells, "Flaming Hands and Fireball! Ahahaha! It was so awesome! I never felt so excited! My dad would have loved to see it! I hope his soul is proudly looking at me from the Heavens!"

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"Isn't it? Ahahaha, casting spells is fun!" Lia hugged him, then she felt something poking her between her thighs. They were both wet, and their clothes were sticking to their bodies like a wetsuit, making her feel it clearly. Looking down, she saw something standing in full attention, aiming at her through Keily's pants.

"Hm?" Keily also flinched, looking down and letting out a loud, girly scream. "KYAH?! This is! Is… THIS! Awawaawawaaaa! Noooo! I'm not!" He panicked, but then Lia just covered her mouth, holding back her laughs as her mismatched eyes were filled with apparent excitement and some proud, twinkling sparks. She was quickly scanning Keily, watching either his face or his crotch.

"No worries! It happens! Your blood was boiling, and your body was responding to your excitement! It is perfectly normal!" She said, forcing it out through stifled laughs.

"I-is it?" He asked, trying to hold it down with his hands, but no matter how hard he pressed on it, it was back up as soon as he let go, saluting happily.

"Fufufufu, first time seeing something like this… but I read about it…." Lia said, looking interested and curious. "And mostly from Koa. And her books about mating. Erias's books also mentioned some possible adverse effects when developing new spells and casting unknown magic. But they were more... scientific. Dry." She stuck her tongue out, solely looking at Keily's lance. "The body tends to react to the element of a mage… and being excited and horny is associated with fire! So relax! This is normal!" She hugged him again, rubbing her wet body against his. Even Keily could tell she was doing this deliberately. "Congrats! You are now a Magi Discipli!" She laughed, kissing his face.

What Lia did not expect was the loud, yelp-like moan from Keily, who almost collapsed, making Lia catch him and hold up in surprise.

"Oh? You are probably exhausted! Sorry!" She said, not realizing it was a completely different reason why his legs gave out suddenly, "Let's go back to the dormitory! I'll escort you back!"

"T-thanks…" Keily said with a lowered head, gasping for air and happy for the rainstorm… if not for that, Lia would notice that he soaked his pants with a different liquid that was not from the rain. "It's so embarrassing…." He moaned, almost crying.

“Ahahaha, don’t worry! I won't tell anybody! It is our secret!" She laughed, thinking he was talking about his sudden erection… which was a half-truth. "You can count on your Boss! This won't leave my mouth!"

"T-thank you… Boss…” He said, looking at her face so close he could pick up her sweet scent, which, once again, made his flag stand tall and proud, waiting for an order for a frontal assault.

…

….

……

It was already deep into the night, and Lia was sitting in her own meditation circle at their tower, in her own private room. After Keily's successful advancement, he was exhausted. After being escorted back to his dormitory, he was out for the rest of the day. Yet it was not only he who gained something. Standing in the cold rain while helping him, Lia also helped herself. She was closely watching Keily's reactions and how his mind worked, and she also let the cold water soak her own body, trying to get a feel for how the freezing rain 'worked.'

She couldn't help but remember and think about his words more deeply. Was she really doing it? Was her problem a dissonance from the get-go? Between her emotions and her mind? Something that happened subconsciously and looked so natural that not even her mother recognized it? Was she stuck because her mind literally fanned her flames into overdrive? It… made sense as she never could rein it in, which made her stuck in the 2nd Tier for four years now. Her brothers, by the time they turned 12, were already 4th Tier mages, gone through their tribulations and let to roam the territory of their House and even go on adventures as their mother did. But not her…

"Keily should be right." She thought to herself. "His mind is fresh, not yet cluttered with theories of magic."

She started to try and concentrate, summoning a small fireball in her lap. When it appeared, it coalesced from tiny embers until it began to rotate like a miniature sun. At first, it was yellow but soon started to turn darker and redder.

"No…" Lia thought, stopping herself from pumping up her emotions. She had caught herself in time as she was starting to imagine herself excited, ready to fight and go at it with great vigor. She also felt her mana turning searingly hot because of it to fuel her fire spell with as much power as she could squeeze out. "A calm mind. I need a calm and calculating mind that has control over my body." She repeated to herself, remembering the words from her ancient book.

As she focused on not letting herself fall into the usual thought process, something already a firmly ingrained habit, she felt a weird tingle in her body. She couldn't explain or trace it back to its origin, but she sensed that a new feeling appeared in her belly. What she didn't see was that the small fireball slowly lost its reddish hue completely, turning golden. It slowly lost its intensity and great destructive powers, but it greatly pleased Lia. She needed that. She finally felt as if her mana was not trying to burn her alive from the inside.

"I knew it… Keily was right!" She trembled, continuing her meditation, falling into a deeper trance.

Soon, she stood in her incorporeal form, watching her giant self before and her glowing energy points inside her body. She watched as the mana circulated in her, much cooler than ever before. It was still hot, hotter than any other fire mages' mana at the same stage, but not as hot as it caused pain for Lia.

"This is hard…! Very hard!" She moaned, sweating even though it was not her real body that stood there. She was battling many wild feelings, whether excitement, anger, or lust. Part of her was so used to relying on them that she constantly had to remind herself not to feed her spells with them. Stopping herself from turning it into an all-consuming fire. "Uuuu… Mom was right! Accumulating bad habits is harder to weed out! Damn it! I screwed up! Bad brain! Bad Lia Brain! Booo!" She tore at her blonde hair, groaning with a pout. Now she realized what this new feeling was inside her. The feeling of something... cool. Something cold. Why did she have the feeling she was missing something all these years? Why she was drawn toward ice-based spells? She felt it at that moment. It was always inside of her. Yet it was drowned out by her raging fire, unable to reach the surface. Now she found a way to slowly return from her current, wrong path and start over. With a healthy balance this time. "Concentrate, Lia! Calculate… make plans. Calm down. You need to remain calm like third brother. Yes. Calmly calmy makes Lia cooly, yep, yep!"

She pursed her lips as she tried to remember her fight with Koa. Their battle appeared in her Cosmos-like world, looking at it play out as a spectator. She tried to focus on her surroundings, all things that her mind recorded but ignored, only available to her subconsciousness. Now, she was drawing it to the surface, forming a complete, 3D image of it, and she was trying to devise plans for how she could have won their match. What methods were there for her to beat Koa, but they were ignored by her? While trying to steer her mind in that direction, letting it focus on plans and logic, she failed to notice that the temperature started dropping drastically around her.

In the outside world, the yellow ball of flame was, once again, changing its colors. It turned from yellow to soft green before finally settling down on a light blue hue. It was constantly flickering, unstable, and weak. Not even Lia knew about it, and she was deeply lost in her thoughts to notice it. She failed to realize her fire was no longer a normal fire. This unstable, transformed flame was cold, and as the small dust particles fell into it, they turned into tiny, microscopic ice flakes. Whatever her new fire touched… it was frozen in ice.