“Mana Penetration and Mana Resistance are two sides of the same baen,” Levi said authoritatively. “But I like to think that Resistance—“

“What’s a ban?” Aida interrupted. Levi looked at her in disbelief. Aida looked back mulishly. He massaged his forehead as he looked down at his feet, maintaining the same dumbstruck expression.

“Okay. A ‘baen’ is our currency. Do you know what ‘currency’ is?” Levi asked cautiously.

“Yes. So what’s the denomination of your ban?”

Levi pinched his lips together, but didn’t comment on her pronunciation. She really was trying to get the accent right, though. “One gold baen makes ten silver baen makes one hundred copper baen.”

Aida pursed her lips. No wonder Aida’s coinpurse only had copper-rimmed tokens in it. “And what’s the typical cost of living? Like, how much would Maglica’s meals cost outside of school?”

“Five silver baen.” Aida’s eyes popped, before Levi hastily added, “But the Academy’s meals are high quality. A lot of customization options, and all ingredients sourced from the best hunters and gatherers.”

“The meals are included in the cost of tuition, right?” Aida demanded. Levi nodded, for once seeming genuinely intimidated by her ire. “And is the tuition already covered, or am I on a payment plan or something?”

“To be honest, students can’t buy their way into the Academy. We’re all here on scholarship. The school’s philosophy is that when baen becomes a school’s priority, then the passage of knowledge and ability suffers; that’s why they only accept thirty students every year.” Inside Levi’s explanation hung the question Levi had posed earlier: how had Aida Loreh gained entrance into the selective Maglica Academy? Aida forged on to the more utilitarian concerns.

“What’s the typical earning potential of a Maglica grad? What’s the lower bound?”

“Adventurers are kind of a catch-all profession, where you are hired for a specific job at an agreed-upon rate. You can earn nearly nothing, or you can earn up to five hundred gold for a long-term job. The typical going rate is usually a couple to tens of silver baen, but those are usually mind-numbing jobs.” Levi hurried on, realizing her impatience at the imprecise information. “If you join an established company or business, though, your meals and lodging are provided for, and they will pay you a salary to keep you on contract. The salary range depends on your industry, as well as the reputation of the company you join within that industry, but the usual flow of things is that Fire industries are most lucrative, albeit more stressful; Earth industries are slower-paced than Fire, but you can still make good baen in, so that’s the sweet spot most people tend to aim for; Wood and Metal industries are a step below in terms of earnings and respectability, but since they are so necessary to the functioning of society, you’ll never go hungry; Water industries, unfortunately…” Levi coughed delicately. “…Nobody really wants to go into the Water industry, but you can still make good baen there. Especially as a Healer.”

Aida pondered the information, tapping her wand across her palm. “Okay…so what are the defining characteristics of each industry? How do I know what constitutes ‘Earth,’ for instance?”

Levi massaged his forehead again, fluffing his bangs. The bewildered expression was back on his face. “What have I gotten myself into,” he muttered to himself. He straightened. “Look, there’s a lot of sociology and history to cover if you want to fully assimilate and pass as a native Wyndian. More than we can cover before you scurry off to your training session with Caleb. Why don’t you keep doing what you’re doing, but if you have any questions about society, you come to me first? Don’t try asking anyone else.”

Aida didn’t like that at all. “You know, it’s really hard for me to just go along with trusting you when I have no idea why you want to help me,” she said acidly.

Levi dipped his head in acknowledgment. “That is fair. My first justification - though true - was flippant.” He fixed her with a serious gaze. The bronze in his eyes softened to amber, becoming more pliant. “I suspect you’ve already noticed, but I am interested in Suelina. Not just as a temporary liaison, but as a partner for life.”

Aida nodded slowly, a frown creasing her forehead. Levi’s constant flipping between serious and playful was starting to give her a headache.

“You probably aren’t aware, but being kind and helping you - that is, helping Aida - is the most straightforward way to garner Sue’s attention. Believe me on this one,” Levi added, lip curling into a grimace. “I’ve tried all other approaches.”

“You realize I can’t in good conscience influence her to choose you?” Aida asked dryly.

“I wouldn’t trust you to anyway,” Levi admitted, his grimace transforming into a smirk. “You’d likely end up sabotaging me instead, intentional or not.”

Aida paced in a circle, swirling a lock of Aida’s silky hair around her lips in thought, as if she could paint the right words onto her lips. “So let me make sure I understand our alignment. Your major incentive in helping me blend into this world is so that you can spend more time with Sue? I’m sorry, that’s kind of a weak rationale.”

Levi swelled. “What do you mean? Love is the biggest accomplishment one can achieve,” he said indignantly.

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Aida gave him a withering stare. She almost forgot she was talking to a teenager, with how witty he’d been earlier. “I mean…earning someone’s love isn’t as straightforward as a game—“ Aida paused. “I’m just saying, you realize there’s at least a sixty-six percent chance that even if you do everything right, Sue very well might choose to be with someone else?”

“Uh, that’s a very specific number, but yes, I realize. As long as I have the opportunity to play, that’s all I can ask for,” Levi said warily. He shifted uncomfortably. “Can we please not talk about relationships as a game? It’s pretty dehumanizing.”

Aida was flabbergasted. “You were the one who was trying to manipulate me like a pawn in the first place! And you’re lecturing me about dehumanization?”

Levi’s brow wrinkled. “Manipulate you like a…pond? You do realize I’m Wood, right?”

“Oh for crying - an aquatic ecosystem is heavily influenced by the immediate terrain and vegetation, is it not?” Aida demanded. “One could argue that water is manipulated by literally everything around it.”

“This is getting way too philosophical,” Levi said plaintively. “Let’s just agree to work together, whatever that may mean to you, and move on?”

Aida glowered at his outstretched hand. She couldn’t think of a good reason to object for the moment, so she begrudgingly clasped his hand.

~ * ~ * ~ * ~

After Levi’s explanation about how Mana Resistance worked (it was one of the most confusing concepts Aida had ever heard, but Levi assured her the more she practiced the easier it would become), they spent almost an hour trying to enable her to get the hang of it.

“What if I don’t get it because I don’t have any mana left?” Aida complained. Her fingertips were placed together, the logic being that she was supposed to channel mana in never-ending loops between her fingers while Levi tried to disrupt the flow between the ten digits. “I used up all my mana just trying to prevent Levan from breaking through my Freeze.”

“This is the best time to work on it,” Levi responded. “When you no longer have your usable mana as a fallback is when you can actually determine how strong your foundation is.” He pointed an accusatory finger in her face, still keeping his wand pointed at her fingertips. “And just think, if you were actually competent at resisting mana, you wouldn’t have had to use any excess mana to block Levan’s attempts to break through your freeze. You don’t think about how to walk, do you? You just walk.”

“If it was that intuitive, then how did I break through Dev’s resistance?” Aida shot back. She couldn’t stop being combative with Levi, even though she knew she needed his expertise. She had spent the whole time wondering if Ezra could have explained it better.

“People still trip,” Levi said dismissively. “Right now, a loud noise could make you drop your rice bowl even if you were sitting. Metaphorically speaking.”

Aida had finally settled down, grumbling. She didn’t understand how to put Levi’s explanation together into a usable practice. Being so aware of her mana, that she didn’t need to focus on her mana? That was counterintuitive. How did you even reach that point in the first place, without putting in uncountable hours?

Levi had proceeded to harass the flow between her fingers, to the point that Aida had started to develop a pounding headache. “You’re thinking too much!” was Levi’s unsympathetic response. “You need to stop thinking and just do it.”

“Easy for you to say, you’ve lived your whole life doing this,” Aida growled back. “Babies don’t start walking at birth.”

Levi sighed, finally accepting the futility of teaching a hostile student. “Fine, let’s break for today. When you practice your Mana Cycling, see if you can Mana Cycle without thinking about it. Let’s meet every day after the rest of the matches, so that we can keep working at this.”

Aida bit back her response, annoyed at being assigned another moonshot goal. “Fine,” she grumped back. She stomped away from Levi without a backwards look.

The physical training session with Caleb was a welcome reprieve. Caleb acknowledged that physically, one needed to go through the motions a number of times before the mind became familiar enough with the movement itself to begin monitoring how the movement felt. Then one could begin optimizing the movement for efficiency, and then branch out the awareness to see how the muscles felt, building familiarity with one’s body. At least this is straightforward.

“There’s no shortcut, you have to put in the work,” Caleb recited. He seemed mentally absent from their training session as well. After setting Aida the task of squatting to pick up a small boulder weighing 10 kilograms and then pushing it above her head when she stood up, Caleb had loaded up the sled with the rest of the boulders in the gym, molding it all together so none of the mass would roll off. He proceeded to push the sled across the length of the room, then drag it back with ropes. He worked with the intensity of a man trying to outrun - or, in his case, push away - his thoughts.

It was a relief when Aida finally made it to the third-year girls’ showers. Dinner was awkward. Caleb and Aida had wordlessly reconvened with Sue, Levi, Lily, and Vanita; but aside from the three girls (and Levi, to a certain extent), conversation was much less animated. Whenever Aida opened her mouth, Levi would pierce her with a warning glare, making her swallow her words along with a spoonful of spicy stew (tofu chunks with ground beef and diced vegetables, one of her comfort foods). Stripping out of her sweaty clothes, Aida stepped gratefully into the shower.

The hot water reinvigorated her. Sweeping her long hair back and out of her face, Aida let the water hammer around her face and neck, enjoying the gentle massage. The water washed away the grime of her efforts, but also seemed to wash away the stress and anxiety she had been bundling away once Levi revealed what he knew about her.

Opening her eyes just wide enough to see through the relentless droplets, Aida relaxed her jaw, letting the warm water pool in her mouth. Did what Levi said make sense? Was he really just looking for a chance to worm his way into Sue’s heart, or did he have a more insidious motive?

Sue was supposed to be the object of everybody’s desires, Aida reminded herself. And surely Levi didn’t know that he was supposed to be drawn to her, so that likely wasn’t a manipulative line to feed what he thought she expected him to say.

But even if that was true…was that really enough of a motivator for Levi to help her to the best of his ability? He could have just said some simple sweet words, and entered Sue’s orbit of attention. So why was he actually trying to help her?

Aida struggled with these circular thoughts. She never had to think so deeply in her regular life. She thought she understood politics and social hierarchy better than teenagers, but that was only on a broad, macro level. She never had the time to consider individual motivations - she never had to, because anybody who knew Annie knew she had nothing of value to offer anyone.

Shutting off the water, Aida mindlessly gathered the water on her body and in her hair. She stepped out of the water, leaving an Aida-sized bubble of water behind her. It was only when she rubbed her towel along her dry body that she noticed what she did.