There was an abnormal buzzing among the third years as Aida made her way to the gate, leaving Lyn in the hands of Healer Luk. Curious, she made her way to Sue and Levi, who were approaching her.

“What’s happening?”

“Lara beat Dev.” Levi’s voice was low, and he spread his arms to corral Aida into heading back inside the school for lunch.

“What?”

“Lara’s in the top five now, and Dev is in top ten,” Sue said softly. “Nobody expected this.”

“Wow.” As they passed the scoreboard, Aida paused to look at Dev’s and Lara’s scores from this morning again. Sure enough, eight points each. “How did this happen?”

“Honestly…” Sue’s brow furrowed. “It looks like he just gave up. Like he didn’t want to fight anymore.”

They waited in silence as the kitchen crew prepared their trays, each consumed in their own thoughts.

“I guess Lara is happy?” Aida finally said. “She’s been wanting to beat Dev for a while.”

“I imagine she is, but she was totally emotionless when the match ended,” Sue said uncertainly.

Taking her tray from the counter, Aida caught sight of Dev entering the cafeteria, flanked by Pritchard and his other friends. He was composed, hands casually slung in his pockets, giving no indication that he noticed nor cared about the hushed whispers surrounding him or the results from just a few minutes earlier.

Lara walked in shortly after, surrounded by her own excited friends. Like Dev, she looked utterly unbothered.

“So, why such a commotion that Lara beat Dev?” Aida whispered to Levi.

“It’s not just the fact that she beat him; she’s beaten him on major tests every once in a while, but the Flau clan leader announced over the holiday that she was going to begin the selection process for her successor once the current crop of heirs graduate. That’s led to a lot of eyes watching Dev and Lara,” Levi explained quietly, keeping an eye on Sue to make sure she didn’t notice anything amiss. Sue was playing with her food, clearly preoccupied. “And it’s no secret that Lara has been trying to prove that the Lorr family should be taken more seriously in their clan.”

Aida pressed her lips together. Family politics. She supposed it wasn’t too surprising, given the way Levi had described the Flau and Lorr families. Lara’s aunt had married into the Flau family, the main clan stem and premiere sanitation family; they had set the standard for how biological waste should be treated and upcycled, and owned the framework and major contracts with other Fire, Earth, and Wood families to keep society clean and healthy.

The Lorr family was also a large, well-respected sanitation family, but lower on the totem pole. Their primary business was in setting up the infrastructure, and getting new regions and buildings connected to the waste disposal network. Aida conceded that Lara had a point that the people doing the actual work should have their voices be valued just as much, if not more, than the management.

“And…does Dev care?” Aida asked, remembering Levi’s dismissive attitude towards Dev (“He’s lazy. Been lazy since he first arrived. I remember talking to him in first year, and he had literally no interest in his future, which is a shame because he could become a hurricane in his own right”).

Levi snorted. “Probably not. Even if he doesn’t become the next clan leader, I can’t imagine they would just cut off resources to him.”

Making a thoughtful noise, Aida scooted over to Sue, taking her spoon from her hand and scooping up some rice and gravy. Sue obligingly opened her mouth, obediently chewing her lunch. “Sue, do you want to sit with me and Levi this afternoon? He’s going to help me figure out my basic strategies against my opponents next cycle,” Aida said brightly.

Blinking the glassy look out of her large eyes, Sue looked at Aida and Levi, who beamed at her without missing a beat. “Oh…um…sorry, I think I’ll pass. I think I’ll go on a walk,” she said. “I just want to clear my head a bit, since I haven’t been outside all cycle,” she added hurriedly, seeing Aida’s look of concern.

“Oh…well, okay then. I’ll see you at dinner?”

“Dinner!” Sue nodded enthusiastically. She took her spoon back from Aida, waving them off as they reluctantly drifted away.

“Was that supposed to be your attempt at getting me alone with her?” Levi asked dryly as they dropped their dirty dishes off. Aida sighed. This is going to be a lot harder than I thought.

“I think she needs a little bit more time to process what happened. By the way, what does it mean to ‘mix mana?’”

Levi stumbled at her question, looking at her with wide eyes.

“I mean, what does it mean socially?” Aida amended hastily. “I can imagine what the phenomenon is, but I don’t understand the implications.”

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

Levi glanced quickly around them, making sure no one was around, before grabbing her wrist and dragging her through the hallways to his room. Quickly snatching his badge off his chest, he swiped the door open and pulled her unceremoniously in.

Aida gazed at him with wide eyes. He was pacing at the door, one hand clasped to his forehead and the other pressed to his waist, consternation evident on his face. Finally, he whirled around to face her, both hands on his hips. “Context?”

Aida frowned. “Sue said she accidentally mixed mana with someone.”

Levi groaned, striding over to his bed and sinking into the soft mattress, head held in his hands. Aida glanced around the room as Levi worked through his distress.

His room layout was a mirror image of her own, which made sense since it was in the wing opposite the girls’ dorm. The major difference was that his room contained a lot more belongings than hers, with several books and potted plants interspersed around his room. Where Aida’s room had a bland and barebones feel, Levi’s room was casually neat.

“Did she say who she mixed with?” Levi’s question drew her attention back to him. He had his palms placed firmly on his knees, an expression of forced calm on his face.

“Does it matter? I already told you you can’t do anything that would make you look petty,” Aida reminded him when Levi scowled.

“Fine, I guess it doesn’t matter in the grand scheme of things.” Levi said grimly. He took a deep breath, recentering himself. “I don’t know if there’s a good way to explain it, but ‘mana mixing’ is an intimate act.” He glowered at her as he explained. “Everyone’s mana is their own, unique essence, derived from their spirit. Even non-practitioners have mana of their own, they just don’t have the capacity to manifest it in the world to the level that we do. When the spirit is strong, or at least healthy, it can resist malignant spirits’ attempts to corrupt them.

“So we all have a fundamental barrier against our spirits getting affected by the nether spirits. That is good. That is fine. However, and this happens more often with mana practitioners - when two people have a deep emotional, spiritual connection, they might decide to mix their mana, in order to feel their spirits come together as closely as possible.”

Aida felt the blood drain from her face at his explanation. “And so, when we were in the forest…”

Levi nodded tightly, a tic working in his jaw.

“But it wasn’t truly mixing,” Aida pointed out weakly. “I didn’t get anything from you, you took from me.”

Levi stood suddenly, towering over her. Aida found herself backed against his bookshelf, his arms boxing her in from either side. “How convenient for you,” Levi hissed. “That you don’t have to deal with the baggage of my culture’s intimacy.”

Aida wilted under Levi’s ferocious glare, his hot breath brushing over her cheeks. Suddenly, her eyes widened, another realization striking her. “Oh, no…”

“What now?” Levi demanded. She could feel his muscles tensing around her.

“I mixed mana with Caleb, too,” Aida whispered, horrified. She reached out, pushing Levi away from her.

“Too? Are you saying you mixed with the two of us, or that Sue also mixed with Caleb? Aida!” Levi called after her as she darted out of his room.

~ * ~ * ~ * ~

Aida ran around the entire school, looking for Caleb in all the common areas - but couldn’t find him. Not even in the gym.

Defeated, Aida headed to the courtyard where she had first come across Ezra. She had no particular reason to - maybe because she felt just as lost now as she did back then. Maybe Ezra would be there, too. Stepping around the trunk of the willow tree, she nearly stumbled over Caleb.

“Caleb! I was looking for you,” Aida blurted. Caleb glanced up at her, his chocolate bangs skimming his violet eyes. He was seated casually, one forearm propped on a knee while the other leg fell open in half of a cross-legged sit. When he didn’t give any indication that he wanted to be alone, Aida slid down the tree, taking a seat next to him. She wrapped her arms around her knees, expanding her mana senses to make sure they were sufficiently alone. “…I’m sorry.”

“…Pardon?”

“I’m sorry I was so - glib - during our conversation after the second match,” Aida mumbled. “I didn’t realize—“ she cut herself off. She couldn’t say that. She searched for a rational, yet true, explanation. “…I was too focused on the matches, so…I just convinced myself that it wasn’t a big deal. I’m sorry.”

Caleb said nothing for a long time. Finally, he exhaled. “I accept your apology.” When Aida’s only response was to sink her head into her knees, he nudged her with an elbow. “Hey, at least your conviction worked, right? You scored quite a few points.”

Aida smiled delicately. “Yeah, that just makes next cycle’s matches harder.”

Caleb leaned his head back. “I admire that about you.”

Aida cocked a head at him, confused.

“The fact that you’re able to push - such distracting thoughts away, and focus on what’s important.” Caleb shook his head, his bangs fluttering as his cheeks reddened. “If you can give me any tips, I will consider your apology completely unnecessary.”

“Ah…” Aida was completely out of her element. How do you tell someone to throw away their emotions? Forget cultural contexts that they grew up with? “…you can keep my apology.”

Caleb dropped his head against his chest with a pained laugh. “I figured.”

“But maybe…” Aida started. She bit her lip. “Maybe…try to find a useful focal point? I wasn’t lying when I said I learned a lot from…that.” Caleb looked skeptical, so she turned herself around to face him on her knees.

“I’m serious. When you pulled me in, I was able to see how your mana connected itself to your body, and that made it easier for me to Surge.”

Caleb considered her words thoughtfully, before nodding. “You’re right, you showed incredible improvement from one training session,” he said slowly. He smiled; the honest, sweet and open Caleb was back. “How did you figure that tip out?”

“It took me a long time to figure out,” Aida said slowly. Especially when so much of life sucks. “You kind of have to, especially since life is so distracting…find the good things and focus on them, because otherwise, if you look at everything, everything is usually…awful.”

Caleb digested her words. “Life is awful, isn’t it?” he asked distantly.

“Pretty awful most of the time,” Aida agreed. “But so gratifying when you finally figure something out. Like Mana Surging.”

Caleb smiled in response. “Thanks for talking to me, Aida. I have some thinking to do.”

Aida climbed to her feet, accepting her dismissal. She paused. “So…would you still be comfortable holding physical training sessions with me?”

He hesitated for a minute, before smiling at her. “Of course. No mana, though,” he said firmly. “Just pure, hard work.”

“No mana,” Aida agreed gladly, relieved. She paused. “…Can I Surge?”

“No.”

“No. No problem.”