After Aida’s lunch meeting with the professors, it was immensely obvious that the teachers intended to prepare the students for some sort of looming war. While Professor Bruce’s Mana Control class was still largely focused on meditation and improving one’s mana control, Professor Lloyd’s Mana Applications class’s topic was incredibly on-the-nose (“Please develop synergy with a partner who is not a compatible element”). The obvious elemental pairings that provided optimal synergy were two elements that “fed” into each other, while the “disadvantaged” pairings Levi had described were the pairings that Lloyd was asking them to develop.
It was difficult. Aida alternately tried “creating synergy” with Natalie and Tera, but her mana was so incompatible with theirs that they were effectively trampling each other whenever either one of them tried to do something other than just let their mana coexist. Remembering how Professor Kozu had managed to condense his mana into something manageable (albeit difficult and somewhat painful) for her to use while keeping Shon’s injury from growing gave her a profound respect for the level of control fully-fledged practitioners had.
She and her partners weren’t the only ones who were frustrated. Pritchard and his friends ended up devolving into some sort of four-way argument as the boys tried to offer advice and shouted each other down, each one accusing someone else of trying to make them fail.
“How are they friends?” Bella whispered to the rest of the girls, as they all silently observed the animated “discussions.”
“I don’t know, but I definitely feel less upset with you guys,” Natalie admitted quietly. She reached out to Ruth and Aida, who both wordlessly took her hands in solidarity. Lloyd, for his part, merely sat in the corner, watching the boys bicker as he pressed his knuckles against his forehead. Pritchard’s voice pitched higher and higher, while Myk shouted louder and louder, trying to speak over him. Finally, Lloyd declared the class over.
“As I told you at the beginning of class, in order to be able to use incompatible mana you have to learn to take on characteristics of that other element,” he lectured. “Think about that over the rest days, and we will resume next cycle.”
Stumbling out of class, exhausted and with her head pounding from the argument, she was pleasantly surprised to see Ezra leaning against the wall outside of her classroom, waiting for her.
“Ezra! It’s supposed to be a free period, not dinner yet.”
He shrugged. “I was bored.”
“Oh. Well, I guess it’s good you’re here then - we just had a class where I don’t think any of us succeeded in ‘developing synergy’ with either of our controlling elements,” Aida said, making a face. “Whenever Natalie tries to draw on my mana, she accidentally extinguishes hers, and then whenever I try to use Natalie’s mana it’s like…” Aida struggled to come up with a meaningful analogy. Ezra waited patiently. “…it’s like trying to capture smoke, or something,” she finished lamely. She shook her head vigorously. “That’s still not quite right, but I don’t know how else to explain it!”
Ezra nodded thoughtfully. “That is a very complex task Lloyd is asking. Class 1 has been working on this exercise since the beginning of the moon cycle, and even now we have not had any success in utilizing incompatible mana.”
“So you don’t know what the key to this is?” Aida asked, crestfallen.
“Unfortunately not,” Ezra confessed. “At this point, I’m convinced it is a skill issue.”
“But if even you can’t do it, then how can the teachers expect the rest of us to?” Aida asked, miffed. They lowered their voices as they entered the library, heading to Aida’s favorite desk in the corner.
“I didn’t say my skill was the issue,” he said quietly, affronted. “Didn’t Professor Lloyd explain the theory? Using mana among controlling elements is a joint effort.”
“Yeah, well, you can’t really prove that you aren’t a contributing factor, can you?” They continued bickering good-naturedly as they settled at the desk, with Aida pulling out her notebooks from her school bag to try to cram some last-minute studying in before dinner.
“Anyway, Levi and I talked about this briefly earlier…what are your plans during the Festival recess?”
“I’m staying,” Ezra replied promptly. He glanced at her. “Are you?”
Aida nodded. “I think it’s the best idea…I want to take that time and prepare for when the Affiliates arrive.”
“About what you said in the instructors’ office…”
Aida stiffened, looking at Ezra warily. He matched her body language, his arms and torso overly rigid as he tried to maintain what he clearly thought was a casual pose, resting his chin awkwardly against his hand as he looked to the side, eyes traveling along the shelves nearby as he searched for a book of interest.
“Yes?” she asked cautiously.
“…Have your parents decided on your match yet?” Ezra stood up and reached for a book, pulling it out by the spine before barely glancing at it and pushing it back.
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
“Not yet,” she said slowly. She bit her lip. “…They said they would line up some…suitors…by the time I returned home from school.” She shook her head. “I’m going to postpone that return as long as I can.”
Ezra was silent. He wandered to another shelf and pulled out another book.
“Anyway, that won’t be a problem,” Aida said, forcing cheer into her words. “All I have to do is impress the Affiliates and get them to offer me a contract, right? Surely my chances are much better now that I’m in Class 2.”
“That’s true,” Ezra agreed slowly. He gave her a strained smile. “I’m sure you’ll get a good offer.”
“Hey, come on now,” Aida pouted. “Just because the offers I get won’t be as sterling as your offers doesn’t mean they’re going to be bad.”
Ezra smiled reluctantly. “Point. I really shouldn’t take your potential offers so personally.”
Aida leaned forward across the table, resting her chin on her arms as she fell into an unwilling funk. “I’ll be honest…I don’t even know if I will get any offers. I might be in Class 2, but I’m also definitively the worst-performing one in there. How different would that be from just being in Class 3?”
“Don’t think like that,” Ezra commanded. “You’ve climbed up half the class ranks, and your mana control abilities have improved dramatically. Don’t downplay what you’ve achieved.”
“But it’s like I told the professors,” Aida argued. “They changed the scoring system this time around, and Havi even admitted it was a lot more of a subjective evaluation—“
“Stop it,” Ezra hissed. “You can easily think of ten thousand reasons why you don’t deserve the opportunity you have, but that’s a waste of time at the end of the day.”
Aida looked at Ezra, wide-eyed. He spoke with a vehemence she had never witnessed from him before. “You fought hard for your opportunity, and questioning the validity of your ranking is not only spitting on the judgment of everyone who believes you deserve this position, but is also insulting your own effort.”
“But—“ Aida fumbled for words, but Ezra didn’t give her time to formulate her argument.
“I promise you - if you didn’t deserve rank 15, you wouldn’t have been ranked 15. The most productive and efficient thing to do now is to focus on becoming better.” Ezra’s silver eyes were gleaming, and she could feel his mana enveloping her, pushing against her, trying to make her understand. She swallowed.
“I know,” she whispered. Her insides shriveled. Logically, what Ezra said made sense. Emotionally, she couldn’t reconcile the logic with her belief that her scores in the placement matches were a fluke. After all, the instructors probably gave me one point in all those matches because they were comparing me to Aida’s pathetic performance before. I had a lower bar to clear than everyone else. Ezra seemed to read her thoughts, because his glare became sharper.
“Think: say you convinced the teachers to put you back to rank 30. Back at the bottom, with almost no opportunities to meet with the Affiliates. Forced to go through with your parents’ scheme to marry you off.” Aida flinched. Ezra noticed; his voice became silky. “Do you think you deserve that?”
Aida shook her head, numb. Ezra stared at her intensely for a long moment, before finally exhaling. The pressure against her eased. “…I’m sorry. I went too far.”
Aida shook her head again. “No, I’m sorry…you said what needed to be said.” I just…need some time to believe it. Because truly, objectively she agreed with him. She worked her ass off, acclimating to this new world and new powers while being forced to wield these very-new powers against her supposed peers who had grown up with their abilities. But…why was it so hard to accept?
“I just…please let me say one more thing,” Ezra said tiredly. He rested his back against a bookshelf, eyes laden with guilt. “Even if you don’t believe you deserve your position yet…please consider using your position to climb as high as you can, so that you’ll be able to help others.” At Aida’s questioning gaze, he flushed and lowered his eyes.
Aida didn’t understand his guilt, because everything he said made sense. If she managed to successfully leverage her opportunities to launch her up the hierarchy, that would give her more opportunities to help others in similar positions as her. She wanted to know why he was uncomfortable, but he seemed so…fragile.
“Well…helping others as the end goal makes being in Class 2 a lot easier to swallow,” Aida said after a long pause, giving him a tentative smile. “It’s a lot easier to think of it as achieving something for others, instead of doing it for myself.”
Ezra returned her smile with his own small smile. “I’m glad. Just stop apologizing for your achievements.”
“I never did apologize for my achievements,” Aida countered. “I was just wondering if they really could be counted as achievements.”
He gave her a flat look, his mana simmering. Aida smiled perkily at him. “Joking!”
~ * ~ * ~ * ~
When Aida finally flopped into her bed that night, she lay awake for a long time, watching the fire ruby’s flickering light dance across her ceiling. With each sparkle popping into existence, she thought of a line, an expression, from all the conversations today.
Ezra’s anger at her forlorn words.
“How did you go from being consistently ranked 30th to being ranked 15th?”
Ezra grabbing her arm.
“Have your parents decided on your match yet?”
The tic in Ezra’s jaw.
“Do you think you deserve that?”
Sighing, Aida rolled onto her side, staring at the wall. Ezra was definitely right. She could do much more good in the world by becoming as strong, knowledgeable, and accomplished with her abilities as possible, than if she was somehow able to miraculously correct the record and - what, be expelled from Maglica? Follow Aida’s original trajectory to get married to a complete stranger? Get “banished” back to her world?
Tucking her blanket firmly underneath her chin, she resolved to stop feeling sorry for herself and focus on manifesting success. At that thought, she couldn’t help but smile ruefully. Look at me now. I have the emotional bandwidth to actually throw myself a pity party.