Sam barely managed to intercept the first ball before it entered a hoop net. The second ball crashed into another net far enough away that she never stood a chance of stopping it. She steadfastly avoided looking towards Cassandane on the sidelines, who had taken every opportunity to point out the strength and skill disparity between Sam and her opponent Lerrina. The damn young girl had only been training her talents for a week longer than Sam but felt like she was at least twice as strong.

The game they played was called 'Kinetic Ball'. It was like a strange mashup of pool and basketball and dodgeball. Players had to stay in a small region to the rear of their side, a rule enforced by wearing a belt attached to a wall-mounted tether. On each side, there were four hoops arranged in a square just outside of tether range. Points could be scored by either sending a ball into the hoop of an opponent or if your opponent made physical contact with a ball. Sam was very bad at this game. Extremely, phenomenally bad. So bad that she continually lost to Lerrina, who otherwise had never won a single game. Lerrina had even stopped talking smack and begun to shout helpful advice. She was that pathetic. Meanwhile, Cassandane would not lot her quit.

"How is she so strong?" Sam shouted this.

Cassandane lifted a single brow. "Esther Lerrina has only one talent, so the buildup of precursor residue for her will be a slow, irreversible process. You, on the other hand, have a chaotic jumble of animas, gravitas, and nous inside you. Their interactions not only generates waste residue at an exponentially faster rate, it also creates an interference field. If you had some success with clearing, you might be able to match the strength of your opponent."

Sam squinted at the cheerful Lerrina as they each hovered a ball before themselves to start another round. "So basically I am a failure at being a paragon."

Lerrina counted down from three and they both shot their ball. Sam aimed for a hoop, but her aim proved off. Lerrina sent her ball directly for Sam, who managed to stop it in time . . . to witness the first ball coming back to enter one of her hoops. Another point down.

Cassandane responded to her last comment. "It would be premature to comment on your progress as a paragon. Clearing is a challenging skill. I would be pleasantly surprised if you had managed it so soon."

"Right. How long did it take you? An hour after you attuned?"

"Three days," Cassandane said.

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As they prepared to start another round, Sam pulled as much precursor free of the hole in her mind as she could. While she channeled every bit of animas into her corona, she pushed around the other precursors as she had every day since Cassandane had her start training clearing. The two balls launched forward to opposite ends of the court. Sam darted closer to the hoop being targeted and reached out with her corona to deflect the first ball from entering. With her eyes, she saw the other ball caught and sent back at the hoop furthest away from her current position. She instictively reached out her corona, knowing it was too far away, knowing that she could not reach. Yet she did. Her corona swelled and the second ball deflected just enough to avoid the hoop.

The moment passed and her corona deflated to its original size. Sam snapped her mouth shut and turned to Cassandane. Her friend nodded to her, a gesture that confirmed her success.

Sam whooped with joy and gathered both balls with her corona. She fiddled around until she felt her corona enlarge once more and then launched both balls towards the other end of the court. Neither one made it anywhere near a hoop, which only went to show that her lack of coordination was a separate issue from her weakness. Still, she had done it. She had become strong. She had . . . been congratulating herself while Lerrina sent both balls back to score points.

"You can quit now if you want," Cassandane said.

"Finally!"

"Oh, come on, play another game," Lerrina said.

Cassandane floated forward. "Sam is done. If you would like, I could do a round."

Lerrina blinked so rapidly Sam wondered if she had gone into a seizure. "I . . . you're a full paragon . . . I mean . . . I guess we could play?"

"Then let's begin." As Cassandane pushed Sam aside, the belt uncinched and flew to enwrap the new player as if it had a mind of its own. A ball moved before Cassandane while the other flew to her opponent. Cassandane took the initiative to count them down. "Three. Two. One."

At one, Lerrina stared intently at her ball while it refused to move. Then Cassandane's ball lazily floated over to enter a hoop. It sat there a moment before emerging and traveling to each of the three other hoops in turn, racking up points. Then the ball before Lerrina surged forward to tag the girl.

Applause erupted from outside the bounds of their webbed-off court. Lerrina unclipped herself and came forward to shake Cassandane's hand. "That was centrifugal. Your corona reached all the way to the other side and held my ball. Then you made it so I couldn't even move. I didn't know someone could overwhelm my corona like that and influence my body. Wow. Centrifugal."

Cassandane merely nodded before leaving with Sam, ignoring their audience. "That spectacle was for your benefit, Sam. A full paragon has power beyond what the other kinds can aspire to. The door to that power begins with mastering clearing. You took a step on the right road back there, but it is only the first step."

Sam didn't let the somber words dim her smile. She had tried on a spacesuit and made a start on clearing. It was a good day. "I think I've earned a shower when we get back." The groan from Cassandane just confirmed her thoughts. It was a good day indeed.