Levi flagged down Aida on Shoots Day, where they had a handshake agreement to resume their regular friendship. Receiving Levi’s forgiveness for her social transgressions did much to lighten her mood.

Just in time, as well: Sue proposed more one-versus-all matches. Aida begged off by offering to run a Regen clinic on the side, helping the sparring partners recover while also allowing her to practice the new skill Caleb’s mother taught her. It worked out well - one versus two was more manageable for both the solo duelist and the duo partners, since they didn’t have to worry about getting in the way of each other.

The massage therapy was fun. Everyone had been intrigued and was willing to be practice dolls for Aida. Caleb had shaped a bed out of earth, with soft, beach-like sand on top. Levi grew leafy fronds over the bed, dappling the sun that passed through its leaves so that the two people in the shade could have cover. Sue had Caleb carve out a small fireplace underneath the bed, so she could light a fire that would heat the bed. Ezra’s silent contribution was to mold out a long, winding chimney away from the bed, so that none of the shelter’s inhabitants had to inhale noxious fumes.

Aida learned a lot from running her Regen recovery unit. Since the top five were young and healthy, they didn’t need hands-on massage work to feed mana into their bodies the way Grandmama Rylla did. It was also harder to find clogged points - that meant Aida had to be a lot more diligent when tracking their mana flows, but the end result was that she had built up a blueprint of what healthy flow patterns looked like.

An interesting phenomenon also occurred: as she became more familiar with Sue, Ezra, Levi, and Caleb’s flow patterns, she became faster at casting Regen, and they seemed to recover their mana faster as well. Eventually, she was able to just poke her wand at them to clear their plugs all at once.

“This is amazing!” Sue fired three massive fireballs into the air in quick succession. “Are you able to cast Regen on yourself, Aida?”

“I can’t see myself very well,” Aida confessed. “Most of the deep pressure points are on the back. I can do the superficial ones, on my legs and arms, but that’s more beneficial for physical recovery than mana recovery.”

Levi shook his head wisely. “This is why Healers seek out other Healers for their own ailments.”

“I might be able to help you with Regen,” Caleb offered sheepishly. “I learned a bit…it’s probably not as good as yours, but I’ve helped my mother out whenever she was busy.”

Aida stretched, hearing her back pop. “That would be good. Every little bit will help,” she agreed.

Lying down on the beach sand bed, Aida let out a contented sigh. The sand was comfortingly warm, and molded around her body. She felt Caleb gently place his hands over her back, prodding at her as he grasped for her mana. His mana pulses, though more heavy-handed than his mother’s, were a welcome reprieve after a few hours of working.

“Hi Caleb, Aida.”

Aida fluttered her eyes open, pushing herself up onto her elbows so she could see who spoke. Shon was standing in front of them with a hand raised, followed by Abedi and Dev. He had an embarrassed smile on his face.

Caleb and Aida greeted them, curious. Shon relaxed, putting his hand down at their welcome. “We saw you guys were hanging out here, so thought we’d come chat.”

“Welcome to join us,” Aida said. “How did you enjoy the Old Moon Festival?”

“It was fine,” Shon said carefully. “I was hoping I could speak to the teachers more during the Festival, but it seemed like they were all busy monitoring the perimeters.”

“It’s a bit odd, if you ask me,” Abedi said thoughtfully in his sonorous voice. “If they were worried about monster attacks again, I’d have expected them to cancel the Festival entirely.”

“That would be quite unlucky,” Caleb said in surprise. “We should give thanks for our fortunes and progress of the past year.”

“Have you been part of the sparring matches, Aida?” Dev asked, interrupting the conversation.

“I haven’t, and I have no desire to,” Aida announced decisively. “I’m happy just being able to practice my Regen skill right here.”

Dev nodded at her answer, before looking to Caleb. “Will the rest of you be interested in having a Water as part of the mix?”

“I’m fine with it,” Caleb replied after a pause, gratified. “But I can’t speak for the rest of them.”

“They’re done, so you get to ask them yourself,” Aida noted as Levi reached out a hand to Sue. She mockingly smacked his hand away, turning her nose up in the air. He collapsed to his knees in front of her, groveling as he simultaneously rubbed his hands together and knocked his head against the ground comically. Ezra stood looking at them, arms folded. He finally began walking back towards Aida’s tent without waiting for them.

“Well, you can ask Ezra at least,” Aida conceded. “Sue and Levi are still playing.”

“Ask me what?” Ezra asked, silver eyes scanning the newcomers. He nodded lightly at them.

“Are you okay with having a Water join your sparring sessions?” Dev asked casually, resting his hip against the bed. Aida climbed all the way up into a sitting position, brushing the sand from her face and hair.

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Ezra glanced at Aida, before looking to over to Shon and Abedi. “Are all three of you looking to join the sparring?”

“I’d like that,” Shon said hopefully as Abedi nodded. “This is a great chance to get some practice in with the top five.”

“I like the sound of that,” Levi called, finally making his way over to Aida’s tent. “I need a break - you can be my stand-in, Shon.”

“Who’s up for the next round?” Abedi asked.

“Caleb and you guys!” Sue chirped. She hoisted herself onto the bed next to Aida, leaning against her and causing her to dip dangerously close to Dev. “We need a break!”

“Yes, go on ahead,” Ezra agreed abruptly. He reached a hand towards Dev, urging him and his friends towards the field. Ezra’s hand laid firmly against Dev’s bicep, and Aida swore she saw lightning zap between their eyes.

Uh. Looking between Ezra and Dev with wide eyes, Aida had an epiphany. Of course. It all makes sense.

Standing directly in front of Ezra, with his white hair and icy blue eyes, Dev looked just as charismatic and imposing as Ezra. And the fact he used to be part of the top five - Dev’s a secret love interest!

Goggling after Dev as he headed onto the field after his mates, Aida peered around Ezra to keep him in her sights. It certainly made sense - Sue had one suitor from every element, except for Water - so Dev being a secret romance option tracked. He had the perfect balance of a male lead: tall, but not too ridiculously tall like Weyn; distinctive but still attractive facial features, not inoffensively bland like Aida’s own face, or those of the rest of their classmates; powerful in his own right, with minimal effort required. Aida shook her head in wonder.

“Aida.”

“Oh, sorry,” Aida said quickly, hopping off the bed. She gestured for Ezra to take her spot next to Sue. Levi was already sitting on the other side, eyeing Aida suspiciously. She took her position behind the three of them and activated the Regen overlay. Focusing, she quickly identified the points where the mana flow was a bit sluggish on all three of their bodies. Gathering her mana, she dispelled the blockages with one burst.

Simultaneously, the three of them relaxed, the chorus of relieved sighs perfectly in sync.

“I’m getting really good at this,” Aida said impishly. She was disappointed to see group Regen was not a learnable skill - but just from today’s work, she had already increased to Regen (Lv5). She was pleased to see the higher her Regen level, the less mana consumption the skill required, allowing her to be able to sustain her friends’ mana while she recovered her own mana in between their battles.

“You know, Regen is a skill that every combat Healer uses,” Sue hinted. Aida swatted her hair playfully, smacking the end of Sue’s ponytail into Levi’s face.

“I know, Luk gave me a pretty detailed overview of what being a combat Healer is like.” Sue’s eyes brightened, and Aida smiled at her affectionately. Sue’s unconditional enthusiasm and support for her made it really hard to not want to go along with her wishes. “There’s still a lot I need to learn, though. Luk told me how much prep work I would need if I want to be more effective than just healing someone once - keeping the party well-stocked with potions and pills, for one thing. I think it might be a good idea for me to see if there are any apothecaries I can work with so I can learn some potion-making before I get distracted trying to keep you all alive.”

As the last words left her lips, Luk’s anguished expression flashed in front of her eyes. Aida blanched.

“Are you all right?” Levi asked, concerned. Sue was looking at her worriedly, and Ezra’s eyes had never left her face.

“Yeah…Luk just also mentioned to me the dark side of being a Healer too,” Aida mumbled. She couldn’t meet Ezra’s gaze. He had come too close.

“Ah yes, the Healer’s degeneration,” Levi nodded wisely. He stood up, patting the sand from his bottoms. “That’s why you should consider a less stressful career - I’m sure my family would be happy to hire you to help with watering the crops,” he offered breezily. “Just water twice a day - or, Father’s actually trying to start up some water cultivation research for our farms, if you’d like to try something more interesting.”

“What kind of research?” Aida asked, latching onto the topic change.

“Something for the villages that don’t have the space to grow their food in the more conventional way - Father had a crazy idea to grow some basic crops with only water and sun, so that individual families can set up a small garden against the walls of their homes. Or if it works well enough, they can then use the freed up land to raise animals.” Aida gazed at Levi, dumbfounded. His nonchalant explanation sounded like his father was trying to invent hydroponics.

“Wait - so your father is trying to come up with a solution to mitigate hunger…”

“Yes?” Levi asked defensively. “He’s a nice guy.”

“…how is he so unlucky to get you as a son?”

Levi gazed at her, affronted. “You take that back!”

“I won’t apologize for my question!” Aida declared, avoiding Levi’s swipe. She skipped over a sprout Levi grew, ducking underneath a leaf that reached down to smack her. Ezra made a move as if to stop Levi, but Sue held out a hand.

“Don’t, let Levi burn out his mana,” Aida heard Sue say to him before Levi’s shout drowned out the rest of the conversation.

Aida cackled as she ran, if only to annoy him. She ran towards the four boys sparring in the middle of the arena, using the disturbed terrain to avoid Levi. As she passed by, she ducked behind Shon and laid a supportive hand on his shoulder, who was the most injured of the four combatants. Heal.

“That’s cheating!” Caleb yelped in disbelief.

“You and Dev versus Shon and Abedi seems pretty uneven,” Aida retorted as she zoomed away. Levi passed through the battle shortly after, bellowing.

“You dishonored my family!”

“You dishonored them yourself!”

Reaching the wall at the other end of the arena, Aida slowed down to let Levi catch up. Unable to stop the grin from spreading across her face, she looked back at Levi, who was reaching for her with exaggerated anger. Leaping up towards the top of the wall with Mana Surge, she felt Levi leap after her - and then she activated her new skill. Double Jump.

She flew through the air, laughing as she turned at a sharp angle from where she was originally headed. As Aida faced towards her new direction, she saw from the corner of her eye Lara watching her. Turning her head to track Lara, Aida saw hurt and confusion mingling in her porcelain face - and huffed out a breath as strong arms closed around her waist.

“Gotcha,” Levi said triumphantly, landing in the bleachers with Aida in his arms. “You can’t escape me now!”

“Levi, look—“ smacking Levi’s arm with the palm of her hand, she pointed to where Lara was - except she was gone.

“You’ll not trick me with underhanded tactics!” Levi proclaimed.

“Lara was here,” Aida insisted, not playing along.

“Skies,” Levi muttered, finally releasing her as he looked in the direction she pointed. “Well, she’s gone now.”

“She looked sad.”

Levi rolled his eyes. “Why do you care?”

Aida glared at him. “She’s lonely.”

Levi looked at her with a deadpan expression. “Why should I care?”

Aida hesitated. That was a fair question. He wasn’t obligated to be nice to Lara - especially since Lara herself wasn’t the least bit personable. She still couldn’t help but feel bad for her, though.

“Fine.” Aida squirted Levi in the face with a small jet of water as she passed him, heading back towards the Regen tent where everybody had convened. They were all making conversation and laughing, none of the chilliness from before present.

If only everyone could just get along.