"Parker, can I ask you a question?" Caleb asked as they walked from lunch to their Omni class. Alexis was walking with them but not saying much.

"Sure, what's up?"

"You've had almost two days with no slip-ups. I mean the only slip-up you've had was in our first class on the first day. What changed? I feel like something's changed with you, but I don't know what. You seem happier and more focused."

Parker turned to make eye contact with Caleb as he answered but caught Alexis smiling at him. He forgot whatever he was about to say to Caleb and Caleb noticed that he was about to say something. "Is there something that I've missed?" Caleb was determined to figure out what had changed.

"I think…" Parker stammered, still looking at Alexis. She noticed him stumble over his words and giggled a little to herself. "Master Sora's lessons have really been helping out."

"Master Sora's lessons?" Alexis asked butting into their conversation. "You're having lessons with Master Sora? Is that where you've been disappearing to in the evenings?" He nodded his head.

"Master Sora wrote on my schedule that we were going to meet every day to get my Imperials in check. Especially now that they've all started to appear. But even those lessons have gone flawlessly. I haven't messed up on any of my Imperials yet." He finished his sentence with a small laugh.

"I'm so happy for you!" Alexis exclaimed. "I wonder why he didn't ask to have private lessons with me though…" Her sentence trailed off as they walked into the familiar clearing but Master Sora was nowhere to be seen.

"Hello… Master? Are you here?" Parker asked loudly hoping that the master was somewhere in the room. "He's done this before… hidden and then attacked me out of nowhere. Keep your eyes peeled for anything suspicious."

The room seemed like it was in high definition. Parker could see and feel the leaves moving in the slight breeze. They looked greener than they ever had; even the grass seemed to have a glow to it.

Master Sora simply walked up to them from the door. They all jumped and turned when they heard the door open. "Is everything okay?" Master Sora asked clearly confused as to why they were so on edge.

"Yeah… everything's fine." Parker's voice had a clear lack of trust in it.

"Sorry I'm late, I was held up talking to one of the masters. For today, the three of you are going to be working against each other, instead of just you two," he gestured at Parker and Caleb.

"What are we going to be doing?" Caleb asked.

"Hidden somewhere among the trees is a small red handkerchief that you must acquire. You will be working against each other so keep your eyes and ears open. Each of you will start in a different part of the room and will begin searching when I give the signal. Once you've acquired it, bring to me here in the clearing."

Each of the three made their ways to different parts of the room. Parker was looking around trying to get a glimpse of where the other two might be. A voice whispered in his ear, "Begin!"

He took off with a sprint but quickly realized that would accomplish nothing. "I need to slow down and think about where Master Sora would've hidden it. This is our Omni class after all…"

"Meet back in the clearing," a voice whispered in his ear. Parker's eyes shot open. He made his way back to the clearing and couldn't believe that someone had found it already. It had only been two minutes since he told them to start.

Parker saw Caleb come out of the trees on the opposite side of the clearing. In the middle stood Master Sora and Alexis who was holding the small, red handkerchief.

"How…" Parker began to ask but then deduced exactly what had happened. "Cheater," he accused.

"I didn't cheat," Alexis retorted.

"I'm sorry Parker, I have to agree with Alexis on this one. She did not cheat she simply used her Imperial." Alexis's face lit up with a large smirk. Master Sora turned his head to her, "However, I am going to say that for round two there will be no use of your Space Imperial. It is a tad bit unfair to the other two. I want the three of you working with each of the four main Imperials."

They retook their positions after Master Sora had hidden the handkerchief again. His voice rang in their ears once more but Parker didn't take off right away this time. He figured it would be in a different spot this time or Alexis would still have an advantage. He started to whisper to himself, "He said he wants us to practice using our four main Imperials, does that mean we'll need them to get it? Or are we going to have to use them to stop each other?"

Parker heard the leaves rustle above his head as a searing heat washed over him. Even though he couldn't be burned anymore, the intensity of the heat still took its toll on him. He found himself lying on the ground looking at Caleb dart through the treetops.

Slowly he got to his feet and started wandering through the trees. He spotted Alexis a little ways ahead of him. Right as he was about to sweep her feet out from under her, he thought back to when he accidentally burned her. He hesitated, not wanting to hurt her again. Then, his feet went out in front of him and he landed hard on his back.

"You can't hold back, not in a situation like this." The voice had whispered in his ear. He knew it couldn't have been Alexis. She was in front of him and didn't see him. Caleb had gone off in the other direction so it was a good chance it wasn't him either.

"Can you see everything that's going on in here?" Parker asked very quietly to see if his theory was correct.

The voice whispered again, "I wouldn't say that I can 'see' everything but I do know what's happening and you can't hold back." Parker took Master's Sora words in stride and began making his way forward again. Alexis had disappeared so Parker decided to take a different route. After several minutes of searching and seeing neither of the others he noticed a hint of red high in the tree.

His heart started to race and out of the corner of his eye he saw Caleb darting through the canopy. Parker shot a stream of air a little ahead of Caleb. Caleb hadn't heard it come and ran right into it. It knocked if through the canopy and he crashed to the ground.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

Parker sprinted to the tree that had the handkerchief in it and began climbing as quickly as he could. Alexis soared through the air quicker than he could climb. He tried to hit her with a burst of air but missed. However, before her hand could grab it, the handkerchief swept away, floating swiftly through the air. It looked like it was caught in a simple breeze and then Parker noticed that Caleb had gotten to his feet and was waving his hands in the air gracefully guiding the handkerchief to himself.

Parker jumped off the side of the tree and as he was falling, he moved his hands in a firm motion and clapped as his feet crashed into the ground. A wave of air burst out in all directions. The wind hit Caleb's feet and shot him straight into the tree next to him. He lay on the ground unmoving yet again as the handkerchief caught on a branch higher than it had been.

Alexis jumped at the opportunity, literally. Air surged out from her feet rocketing her at the handkerchief. Parker had done the same, only a second later than she had. As she reached out for the handkerchief, Parker raised his arms in front of him and pulled them quickly to his chest. The air in front of Alexis brought her to a halt and she crashed to the ground. Even though she was down, she refused to give up. She shot a stream of air straight at Parker and it collided with the back of his neck right as he grabbed the handkerchief. It sent him flying forward through the canopy and into the side of a tree.

One by one he crashed into the branches below him until there were no more. The ground came quickly and with no cushion. If he'd had use of both his hands, he may have been able to cushion the landing but no such luck. He lay down waiting for the pain to go away. Caleb ran by and swiped the handkerchief from his hands. He sprinted through the trees to the clearing where he was met with a wall of air that knocked him to the ground for a third time. Alexis simply walked up to him and grabbed the handkerchief from his and finished the distance to Master Sora.

After several minutes everyone had made their way to the clearing. "That was an excellent show children. I am very impressed right now. However, Caleb was the only one to use more than one Imperial."

"Boy, I certainly don't feel like it was great… and I was too nervous to use them... what if something I couldn't control happened again?" Parker said rubbing his already formed bruises.

"I understand your fear Parker, but we must learn to use them as well."

They left the room to catch a breath before going back in for their Imperial class. The other students began making their way through the door ready for the next day of lessons. Once they saw the last student go in they made their way back to the clearing having finally caught their breath.

"I hope it's an easy one today," Parker whispered to Alexis. "I hurt so badly right now…" She laughed and agreed with him.

"I'm hoping it's easy too," Caleb chimed in.

Everyone gathered around Master Sora as he began speaking. "Today may be a little rough so bear with me. We are going to finish with our tornadoes for the time being. By the end of the day you should be able to form a tornado in front of you and keep it from moving away."

"How is that going to be a rough day?" Dexter asked.

"Well, while you're finishing those, I will be pulling pairs of you to begin your duel practices."

Whispering broke out in the group. "What do you mean duel practices?" Oliver asked.

"You mean I might have to fight my brother?" a girl with almost white hair said. Her eyes were a piercing blue.

"Well, that depends, who might your brother be?" Master Sora asked. She pointed at both Dexter and Oliver.

"Wait… you're triplets?" Parker asked. "How did it not come up that you have a sister?" Parker asked staring at the two he thought had only been twins.

"Guess I never thought to bring it up. No one ever asked." Oliver said.

"Anyways… yes. You may very well have to duel either of your brothers. Starting in roughly a month the inter-school duels will begin. There will be a large tournament held for all upperclassmen. The top ten students from each house will participate. Each year could have a different winning house. So we start practicing now so you understand the procedures and expectations."

"How did we not hear about this last year?" Oliver asked. "This sounds absolutely amazing, I can't wait to do it!"

"We keep it under wraps so as not to overwhelm the first years. However, seeing as there are no first years this year we may make it a little more open. Maybe even make it a spectator sport like Aether…" Master Sora trailed off in thought. "Anyway, we'll start a demonstration in just a bit, for now begin the conclusion to your tornadoes.

Parker, Alexis and Caleb made their way to their normal spot amongst the trees. Other groups had gotten closer to them than they normally did but Parker wasn't sure why. He simply blocked it out of his head and began focusing on his tornado. It was much tougher than it had been so far due to being exhausted. He could see that Alexis was having the same problems he was. Caleb looked a little worse than normal but seemed to be doing all right with his tornado.

Parker took a small break and watched as Alexis worked. Her tornado was small and feeble. It barely had the velocity to keep itself spinning. After several attempts and failures he could see the frustration overwhelming her. She stomped her foot into the ground causing a slight tremor to roll through the room.

Quickly, he looked around at the other groups who were near and could see the fear on their faces. They quickly returned to the clearing and then a voice rang in their ears. The three of them made their way back to the clearing as well.

"It's time for a demonstration. Parker, Alexis please come forward." Neither of them wanted to do this, they were exhausted and losing control over their Imperials. The others slowly took step after step backing away. Parker could tell that they were afraid something wrong might happen. "Your goal is to knock the other off their feet."

Master Sora motioned for them to begin but neither budged. They stared at each other waiting for the other to make the first move. Alexis kicked her foot forward sending a wave of air across the ground. Parker jumped over the wave and landed on his feet.

He thrust his arm toward her and swept his foot along with it sending two streams of air at her. She jumped and spun parallel to the floor dodging both streams. Parker sprinted at Alexis trying to catch her off-guard but was met with a surge of air from under him sending him straight up.

Before he could regain his composure, a blast of air smacked into his chest. He landed hard on the ground heaving for air. Everyone rushed forward to look at him and see if everything was okay.

"Great example of a duel you two. You used your Imperial well and used a few different strategies to beat your opponent." Master Sora motioned for someone to walk forward. Hailee walked up and Master Sora sent everyone to finish their tornadoes. To be truly done, they had to have Hailee approve their tornado and then they could sit and watch the duels as they happened.

Parker, Alexis and Caleb were the first to try. Hailee told Parker and Caleb that they could be done but Alexis needed just a little more velocity in hers. Several others in the room finished before Alexis tried again. By the end of class everyone was watching the final duel; Oliver against his sister.

"I can't believe that there's a third one of them!" Caleb said. "Anyone know her name?"

April took a seat next to Caleb and started talking. "Yeah, her name's Emma. I've been hanging out with her since last year. She's pretty much the only person I hang out with."

The two of them faced off and within seconds Oliver was on his back gasping for breath. Parker looked for Dexter and he saw him rolling on the ground laughing so hard he couldn't breathe either. Emma walked up to Oliver and helped him to his feet. "It's okay, I'm sure you went easy on me." Oliver was nodding and trying to laugh but still couldn't catch his breath.

"Now that you have a brief feel for what it'll be like, we are going to start practicing a lot more so you're ready come tournament time."

"Do we have to be in the tournament?" April asked.

"No… you don't have to be in the tournament but the more who participate from your year the better chances our house has of winning. If all five years for one house win, there's a big celebration."

"How often does that happen?" Caleb asked. They could all see Master Sora thinking about how long it had been, which made it apparent that it had been quite a long time.

"Well, if I'm not mistaken… it's been since 1981."