The size of the room that Parker was looking at almost made him fall over. It wasn’t the width or depth of the room; it was the height. The room looked like it had to be ten floors tall, at least. At the top, he could tell it was set up just the like Aether field where everyone sat above and could see down.

Parker saw that it looked like the entire school was up there getting ready to watch something, but what? “What is this?” Parker asked, amazed by the spectacle.

“The masters are about to challenge some of the sixth years by putting them through a scenario that they have to work together to overcome.”

A smile appeared on Parker’s face. That sounded amazing and he wanted nothing more than to be a part of it. He wondered if the masters would be willing to do that with any of the younger classes and if not, would they be willing to do it with him, Alexis and Caleb?

“How do we get up there?” Parker asked.

Alexis grabbed his hand and flew up with him hanging from her. There was an opening for her to get through that was just big enough to get one person through. She thought it was a bit bigger and found out too late that it wasn’t. Parker hit his head on the clear floor and lost his grip on Alexis’s hand. He quickly plummeted through the air as he heard the crowd above him gasp.

Before he got too far, he spun in the air and whipped a small tornado around him to fly himself up through the opening. Parker thought he heard several of them give a slight sigh of relief when he landed on the floor.

“Thank you for joining us,” Master Sora said. “Now that I think everyone is here, let’s begin.”

Parker’s heart started to race. They’d been waiting on him and he had been in some other part of the world. He didn’t even know which part this time.

“The sixth year students came up with a wonderful idea that we felt we had to give a try.” He gestured the area below everyone’s feet. “Some of them felt classes weren’t challenging enough or going to actually get them ready for the real world. So, they wanted us to put them through scenarios to challenge them.”

Master Keegan took a step forward. “And we thought it would be a fantastic idea for everyone to see what they do so they can get a feel for what is to come in the future.” He smiled big as he looked around the room. All of the students smiled back, excited to see what would happen.

“When the weather is nicer out, we’ll do a lot of these outside,” Master Kingston interjected. “For now, we’ll do them in this tower since it hasn’t been used for much as of late.”

Master Studwick stood out of the chair she had been sitting in and picked up from where Master Kingston left off. Parker figured she had taken over as head of The House of Gia once Master Terra disappeared.

“Is everyone ready?” She yelled to the crowd.

Everyone started to cheer and scream as the masters dropped through the hole in the floor. Master Sora flew to the bottom. Master Studwick went next and pulled stones out of the wall to act as stairs that made their way all the way down. Then, Master Keegan followed her down. Master Kingston poured water out from a pouch she had kept strapped to her side. The water poured down the stair and she froze it into a kind of slide that she jumped on and rode to the bottom.

The first group of sixth years got up and made their way to the opening to begin their first scenario. Parker leaned to Alexis and bumped her shoulder. “How’d you know where I was? Or that I was even back?”

She thought about it and shrugged. “I don’t know. I could just... tell.”

Parker looked at her curiously. Was she able to sense others like Lara wanted him to be able to do? He turned his attention to the scene below him. The students looked like they were trying to make it from the top of the area all the way to the floor. He couldn’t imagine how they were going to make it down against one of the masters, let alone all four of them.

The four sixth years methodically used their Imperials to protect each other and make their way down section by section. Parker hadn’t noticed it on their way up, but the walls had strips around them that split the open area into six sections. From the looks of it, Parker figured that once they made it to section one, they succeeded.

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“Hey, is there a time limit?” Parker asked.

“Yeah, they’ve got ten minutes.” Claire stood up, grabbed Finn and pulled him toward the hole in the floor. They met two others there, someone from The House of Kenna and someone from The House of Leith.

“I guess they’re up next,” Parker said to Alexis and Caleb.

The first group made it to section three before time ran out. Parker could tell that Claire’s group was nervous to start. They weren’t jumping through the hole with quite the excitement as the first group.

“So, where were you this time?” Caleb asked.

Parker turned to look at him. “Honestly, not sure this time. But I did learn how to teleport things.” He looked around quickly to see if anyone had been listening but it seemed like he was safe. “Let’s go talk in the corridor.” The three of them stood up and walked out of the door, wishing the next group good luck as they did.

“So you learned to teleport stuff?” Caleb asked when he saw the coast was clear.

“Yeah!” Parker exclaimed. “Watch.” Parker teleported the robe that Caleb was wearing to the floor. Caleb shrieked a little, unprepared for what it would be like.

“What if I didn’t have anything on under this?” Caleb shouted.

Parker and Alexis both laughed. “Well, I’m glad you did,” Parker said imagining how much funnier it probably would have been if he hadn’t had anything else on.

Once Alexis stopped laughing she grew serious once again. “What else did you do with her?”

Parker could tell that she was still not happy about him working with Lara, even though he’d convinced her not to kill all of the humans. “I have to practice sensing others so that I can teleport people next.”

“Sensing others?” Caleb asked. “What does that even mean?”

“I think Alexis knows,” he said, turning his attention to her.

“I—” she pointed to her chest. “—know what it is?”

Parker nodded his head and grabbed her hand. He guided her down the corridor and Caleb followed close behind. “You know how you just ‘knew’ where I was?” She nodded her head slowly. “I think that’s what Lara is talking about. I need to learn how to do that.”

“How do you learn that?” Alexis asked. “It just felt natural to me.”

Parker put his hand to his chin, trying to think of something. “I don’t know but I think I did it once on accident.” He tried to recall what he had done that could have caused it.

“What did it feel like to you?” Alexis asked.

He thought about it and recalled how he could hear their heartbeats. “I remember hearing everyone’s heartbeats when Master Sora pulled the three of us to talk not long ago. It also felt like I could feel heartbeats from others that were all the way in The Regale.”

Alexis’s face lit up. “That’s it! That’s what it felt like. I knew it was you when I noticed your heartbeat. I can always hear others’ heartbeats but for the most part I’ve just gotten used to it, so I tune it out.”

Hearing this made Parker extremely happy. Alexis was the key to helping him get ready for the next time Lara took him away. “How do you do it?”

“I don’t know. It’s just always there.” She dropped her head. “I’m sorry…”

“Don’t be!” Parker put hugged her, not caring that Caleb was there too. “It’s not your fault. I’ll figure it out.”

——

Days later and Parker had made no progress on how to sense other people. Teleporting objects was like second nature at this point. “How do I do this?” he yelled out in frustration.

The library had been absolutely no help. He slammed the book closed and threw it down on the pile he had built up next to the table.

“How can I be of assistance?” Lara asked with a smirk on her face from across the table.

Parker glared at her, heart racing and the feeling of wanting to smack her growing exponentially. “Why can’t I do it?”

“What are you focusing on?”

He tried to pinpoint exactly what he was focusing on and couldn’t decide exactly what his focus was. “I don’t know. I don’t know what I should be focusing on.”

“Sensing others is so natural for me now so let me think about what I used to do in order to teleport other people.”

Parker started to tap his fingers on the table. “What do you do to find me?”

“I reach out in my mind and feel for your core. Everyone’s core is different, so if you know someone’s specifically, you can feel out for them.”

His eyes opened wider. That was intriguing, what did his core feel like? “So, how do I sense someone else’s core?”

“It’s just something that will come to you and then feel natural. Perhaps try sensing your own core.”

“Does the core have a sound?” he asked, thinking about how he had heard the heartbeats before and Alexis saying that was what she heard all of the time.

“A sound?” Lara asked, putting her hand to her chin trying to think of something. “I suppose if I had to compare it to anything, it sounds similar to a heartbeat.”

Parker couldn’t have been happier to hear her say that. He at least now had an idea and could focus on trying out something now that he knew he’d actually sensed others before.

“I take it that you are not ready to begin the next step of training?”

He shook his head. “Not yet. Come back in a week and I’ll be ready. I promise.” Parker stared at her, sure that he would be able to follow through on his promise and she vanished before his eyes.

“One week, that’s it,” her voice rang in his ears.

Leaving the stack of books behind, Parker darted out of the library and sprinted down the corridor to find Alexis. He had to tell her that he knew what to do, but that he needed her help to do it.