— Aster —

My scarf exploded into a bright white light, burning my eyes and blinding me. My eyes felt like sand was being constantly rubbed into them. Every time I tried to open my eyes I was met with darkness and the pain magnified. Tears formed and flowed freely down my face.

“What the Blight was that?” The instructor yelled, giving me something to lock on to. Something to pull my attention away from the pain.

I tried to sound as calm as possible, “I think my scarf just flash banged us.”

Why in rotting lands would it do that?”

“No idea. I just bought it.” I said curtly.

“Figure it out before it becomes a problem. Well, more of a problem.”

“Yeah, I am starting to think I should.”

“Boy, can you see?” Despite his annoyance, Instructor did sound concerned for me.

“Nope, it’s all blank.” I may have sounded calm, but I was freaking out on the inside. Terrified I had just screwed up my eyes forever.

I nearly jumped out of my skin when I felt a hand on my shoulder. “This way. You can deal with this inside.”

It was surprisingly tricky moving when blinded, even with someone guiding me. I didn’t know what was under me, and my steps became shorter afraid of tripping. When we reached the threshold, there was a slight change in elevation that I stumbled over. The only reason I didn’t fall was thanks to Instructor holding me up. Once we were in the guild he let go of my shoulder, “ One sec”

I was alone in the dark, my heart was beating so hard in my ears I couldn’t hear Instructor, causing my panic to rise. Why was he leaving me blind and alone? My body began to tremble. It’s happening again. They’re going to do it again to “fix” me. My breathing became shallow and quick. The pain in my eyes became nothing to me. The only thing that mattered right now was to get away. I needed to run, but with no sight, there was nothing I could run to. I tried to find a wall to guide me out when I heard the sound of sloshing water. No! They already did it! They.. they…’ I ran. I didn’t care if I hit a wall. I just needed to getaway. But two steps in I felt a handhold abruptly stop me in place.

I flailed about, trying to get away when I heard through my panic. “Now heal your eyes.” For some reason, this cut through the panic in my brain. Slowly parsing out the words. This was enough for Instructor to shove my face into a bowl of water. And something else….Mint?

This was enough to knock me fully out of panic mode. I forced myself out of the water confused. “What in the blight was that for?”

“Helps the healing, just do it.”

“Fine.” I was still trying to calm myself as I shoved my face into the water. Slowly, I was able to focus on my minuscule remaining mana, guiding it to my eyes. My eyes began to burn, no longer feeling like sand being rubbed in. I did not know which feeling was worse, the grinding of sand in my eyes or the feeling of fire. Thankfully the mint began to cool the burn to a small ache. Soon even that faded to a stinging cold. After a few blinks, I pulled my face out and the world came back into focus. While the world slowly came into focus I looked at Instructor, something like a shimmer passed over his face. “What was that?”

“What was what?” Instructor looked around confused.

“That shimmer.”

Instructor just shrugged, “Side effect of healing the eyes probably.” He looked me over, then pointed to my knee. “How’s your knee?”

Looking down at the knee he indicated. I noticed a small amount of blood and a large amount of swelling. “Can’t feel it...That is probably not a good sign.”

Instructor shrugged. “Probably not. You can use the bowl to heal that too.”

I placed the bowl on the ground feels really weird kneeling into the bowl, but it was better than a busted knee. My energy was extremely low, I could only heal the swelling and close the surface wounds before becoming dizzy. Carefully I tried to stand placing a little weight on my knee. Immediately my knee buckled, causing me to fall straight into the bowl.

The instructor was holding back a laugh when he asked. “You done?”

Tired, and now covered in bloody mint water. I tiredly answered. “Yes.”

“Did you recover the pin?” Reminding me of the task I succeeded in, brought my spirits up.

“Yes.” I pulled out a long pouch and tossed it to him, smiling.

The instructor looked annoyed as he looked over the pouch. “This is not a pin.”

“Well, that is a pouch, so it might be inside.” I felt manic anticipation watching Instructor.

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I was smiling like an idiot, wet, slightly bloody, and after what just happened...who could blame him. Instructor reached for the inside of the pouch. Before he did I decided to give him a few words of caution. “Careful, don’t let it bite.”

He looked at the pouch confused then reached inside grabbing the pin and screamed. Dropping the pouch.

“Looks like it bit.” I laughed. “Yeah, it hurt like a bitch when I left the store; even through the pouch. I think it lost most of its strength on the way over though.”

He looked annoyed at first, then slowly disbelief seemed to cross his face. “You took it without disabling the security system?”

“Yup!” My grin slowly faded as I watched Instructors face. I was growing concerned. “Was that wrong? Did I pass? Did I do this the wrong way? Great, I’m all proud I did it and I did it wrong.

The instructor stared down at the pin on the ground, half paying attention when he answered. “Yes... But there is still one more thing to do.”

I let out the breath I had been holding. “The fee?”

This snapped the instructors attention back to me. “Well, yes but also something else.”

I frowned. Tilting my head in question. “Steal something else?”

The instructor using the pouch grabbed the pin “No something harder, deactivating the security system.”I let out a relieved sigh. I didn’t want to have to go out again.

As his words caught up with me I cautiously asked. “How?” Was I going to have to figure out to deactivate it in front of him? That wouldn’t be pleasant.

“Well the reason we give you so much time is so that you can figure out how to do it yourself, but...you’ve gone ahead. Bringing it here; still active. So, consider this your first lesson.”

“Is this going to cost anything?” I asked remembering the first time I saw the instructor mention the fee.

“Nothing is ever free, but this won’t cost money. Now simply run energy through your eyes.” The instructor poked me between the eyes. “and find the shimmer.”

There was only one problem, “Um”

“What is it?”

“I’m out of energy,” I said sheepishly

Instructor tossed me a small white crystal, “Here eat this.”

I looked at the almost pill-sized crystal, feeling this was all too familiar. I looked at him asking, “Seriously? I’ve been through this before.”

Instructor rolled his eyes, “It’s nothing like graduation. It’s an energy crystal. The lowest quality. Probably, the only one you could handle too.”

“Whatsit do?”

“What’s its name?”

“Energy crystal?”

“And what does that imply?”

“It has, energy?”

The instructor covered his face in annoyance, “It restores your energy.”

“Oh.” I stared at the crystal, “OH!” Wow, I felt dense.

“Yeah.”

I tossed the crystal into my mouth and instead of swallowing it instantly dissolved into my mouth and power flooded through me. More than I ever had before. I instantly started to move the power into my eyes finding it easier than ever. It was like the extra power wanted to be moved. Energy moving through my eyes was a strange feeling; like my eyes had fallen asleep and were waking up. It was not pleasant, the feeling of small pins and needles in my eyes, only slightly better than just a few minutes earlier. My gaze searched around the room landing on the pin. Before I could see any shimmer, the power began to build more in my eyes causing me to let it go. I needed to blink and rub my eyes. “I don’t see anything.”

“Take a minute to gather yourself. Then look at the pin.” Instructor brought the pin close to my face. I flinched back not wanting to touch the electrified item. "This time finish the circuit back to your body. Don't let it just collect in your eyeballs."

Taking the instructors advice. I began to move the power into my eyes again this time instead of letting it pool I guided it through my eyes then back into my body creating a complete circuit. The power began to stabilize, and the tingling in my eyes faded to a barely noticeable throb like my eyes were swollen.

My gaze slowly focused on the pin in Instructor's hand. I saw something shimmering silver, just for a moment. It was so fast it would have been easy to miss. Now seeing something I focused harder on the object, pulling more energy through the circuit. The longer I looked the clearer the shimmer became, giving the pin a silver aura, like another item superimposed over it. “I see it!”

“Good. Do you see the button on top?”

Focusing on the pin, I could see something vaguely shaped like a button. “Yes!”

“Now coat a finger with power. Just enough to go through the pouch. Then press the button while sliding it down the length of the pin.” I watched the instructor mime a motion that I was familiar with. It was the way the clerk would wave his hand over the items. I took the pouch from the instructor, doing my best to not get shocked, and focused on moving some energy to my finger. The process was quite different as I could actually see the mana flow out to my finger. Since I could see it I knew exactly when to stop pushing mana out to push through the pouch.

I reach out, actually feeling the superimposed item coating the pin. Now able to feel the button I pushed sliding it down the pin. When the button was pressed it made no sound, but when it hit the stone floor, an audible snapping sound rang through the room. The instructor then handed me the pin and I took it bared handed. As soon as I realized what I did, I panicked and threw it away. Breaking my concentration, and ending the circuit.

“Why’d you throw it away?” The instructor pantomimed an over-exaggerated surprise.

My brain took a minute to catch up with the fact it didn’t shock me. “Panic?”

Instructor smiled. “Congratulations, you have just learned how to Cats Eyes.”

I remembered what they told me about seeing through illusions, “So it was an illusion?”

The instructor's smile became thoughtful. “Yes and no. It was a mana craft which is a kind of solid illusion.”

“But wouldn’t that mean it’s not an illusion?” Illusions can’t be solid by their very definition.

“Yes, but it’s not the same. It’s kind of hard to explain but to put it simply. They are a kind of solid light that is hard to see or feel. No...That makes no sense. Just think of it as solidified mana or a type of construct.” Instructor was scrambling to come up with an explanation.

“Ok.”

Instructor shook his head. “I’m not good at explaining this, but let’s move on...”

“Why was it so simple to undo?” I almost couldn’t believe how simple the solution was.

Instructor looked annoyed at my interruption. “People tend to rely on magic too much. That and detecting an illusion or construct is not something everyone can do. So they don’t..or can’t, prepare for it.”

“But the clerk was able to disable them?”

“Did he have a bar or wand or something he held over the item?”

“Yes.”

“That’s it. That was used to locate the button since he couldn’t see it. The rest is just mana manipulation.”

Something wasn’t adding up with this. “Yes, but why is it so difficult? I mean I learned it in just a few seconds.”

“Simply put. It’s the way we use energy, each guild uses it differently and makes using it the other ways much much harder. Not impossible, mind you, just harder.” I was about to ask another question when. The instructor stopped me. “Now back to the main topic before you interrupted me. Time for the guild fee.” The instructor dragged me back to the room containing the cat statue which gave me my test.