Skye looked around. Next to the sword with the Excalibur tag were four more weapons: a stake, a metal ax, a machete, and another sword, all of them dug into the soil blades-down. (Minus the stake, which was still buried in the soil but didn't have a blade) Skye picked up the tags from each weapon and read them off, one by one:

Nightslasher, read the label on the other sword.

Woodchopper, read the tag on the ax.

Jungle Blade, read the tag on the machete.

Long pointy thing, read the label on the stake. Skye chuckled at the last one. Lucian may have run out of ideas when naming the stake, but he's not wrong…

After taking a look around the Sword Hoard, which was surrounded by a swath of weeds, Skye left Noi and Lucian's front yard behind. Then, after opening up directions on her phone, she began her commute to school.

***

"Luka?"

The hooded boy stopped in his tracks. "You're Ivan's sister, right?"

Skye nodded. "Yup, that's me."

Skye had just finished her first four periods, and was now taking lunch break in Silver Run's courtyard. It was at that moment when she ran into Luka Archer, the elusive plant mage and Ivan's friend since junior year.

"Why have you called me?" Luka asked.

"So…" Skye began, "do you know of anything that could boost my brother's magic skills? Make his aura "less shitty," as he describes it?"

"Less shitty in what way?"

Skye paused. True, Ivan could suppress his aura quite effectively, but as a consequence of that, he never got to develop his powers beyond using them to pull off the occasional prank on Skye. Ivan may be an illusion-caster, but his illusions were rather spotty, and frankly, quite easy to detect. Just because he was an aura-haver who volunteered at Avriya and had friends who were mages didn't mean he could become one himself without struggle— due to a lifetime of passing himself off as a non-aura-haver, he was left at a disadvantage among his magic-practicing peers. "My brother's an illusioner with an abnormally weak aura, so I'm assuming he's looking for a way to strengthen it," Skye replied. "You happen to know at least one way, right?"

"Sure I do," Luka responded. "I'm a plant expert after all." For a moment, Skye thought Luka's eyes darkened, but then his expression returned to normal. "So have you heard about auralilies?"

"Auralilies?" Skye asked. "What are those?"

Luka tugged on Skye's sleeve. "I'm growing a few in the garden," he told her. "Let me show you them."

***

After passing through the gates of Silver Run's garden yet again, Skye was greeted by a barrage of greenery. She took in the scene with her eyes, gaping at the tendrils and the vines and the vast multitude of plants crawling in one area. Luka, meanwhile, kept on walking, leading her to a corner of the garden with a small pond, where colorful flowers blossomed from lily pads floating in the water. "Auralilies," he told her. "Here they are."

"That's neat," Skye commented. "So, which ones are for illusioners?"

Careful not to fall into the pond, Luka picked a tricolor flower off a lilypad. He held the flower in front of Skye, and Skye took a closer look at it. The auralily had an orange center, which faded into yellow in a ring outside its center, and trailed off to blue at the tips of its petals. Luka put the flower inside a container with a pressing and filtering mechanism, pushing the plunger so that it squeezed the flower's juices through the filter. The remaining nectar pooled at the bottom of the container, orange and sticky. "Auralily nectar. Good for increasing the intensity of one's aura. A single flower's worth can boost a mage's abilities for up to fifty minutes," he explained. "After that its effects wear off. But even if auralily nectar only works temporarily, it's insanely strong. Some of the most famous mages in Cloudgate drank it to enhance their performance on missions. Kai Dalton was rumored to have drunk a hundred gallons in his lifetime…"

Skye cringed. Luka continued his monologue. "If you're careful with them, auralilies could be a great help in your training. But there are also risks that come with using them to increase your power output. Some mages have an even harder time controlling their powers after taking auralilies, and others were reported to have become addicted to them. Additionally, auralily nectar has become illegal on the mainland due to its association with wild magic. Over here it's permitted under specific circumstances, but even then, some Avriyans still view taking it as a form of cheating, or as a sign of poor character. So while I'm not going to try to stop you or Ivan from taking auralily nectar, I'll give you this heads-up: consider the consequences of doing so before you start," he warned. Skye nodded.

Luka gave the bottle of nectar to Skye, who put it in her backpack. "This one's for illusion-casting," he said.

"Thanks," Skye replied. And as an afterthought, she added, "do you have any auralilies for ice users? My second evaluation is coming, and I want to level up so I won't remain at the lowest level forever."

"Sure I do," Luka responded, picking an ice-blue auralily from the pond, squeezing the nectar out of it, and pouring it into a blue bottle. He handed the blue bottle to Skye. "Here's your ice juice."

Skye took the bottle from Luka and left the garden. "Thanks," she said to him.

***

It was the final period of Skye's school day, and Skye was going to the gymnasium to practice for her second evaluation. Outside the gymnasium she took off her backpack and rummaged through it, retrieving the blue bottle Luka gave her. Surely no one will notice if I…

Skye unscrewed the lid and downed the ice nectar in one sip, immediately doubling over. Whoa. That was strong.

Suddenly a dark-skinned, golden-eyed girl approached Skye from behind. "Are you okay?" She asked.

"Oh d-don't worry Nova, I— I'm doing fine!" Skye stammered, her voice and her whole body shaking. "I… I just needed to tie my shoe, that's all."

"If that's what you say," Nova said before walking off, a hint of doubt in her voice. In all fairness, the other girl could see that Skye was not wearing shoes with laces on them.

The time on the overhead clock hit 2 pm, and the gymnasium's doors opened. Skye entered the room among throngs of students like her, who were looking to practice for the next evaluation, and hopefully, advance to their next level. At this point, the lily nectar was coursing through Skye's veins. She could feel her blood pulsing, as if her aura was threatening to spill out at any moment. Then Skye stepped through the doors, and within moments, chaos ensued:

Flames flickered. Fountains sprayed. A basketball levitated and made three circles in the air before bouncing off the backboard and missing the basket entirely. Fortunately, Hyacinth happened to be in the gym, and she also happened to be able to scream very loudly:

"EVERYBODY STOP USING YOUR AURAS THIS INSTANT!"

Silence. The fire mages extinguished their flames, and the water mages turned off their fountains. The floating basketball hovered in the air before landing on top of a large brown dog, which for some reason was running around inside the gymnasium. The dog collapsed and howled in agony before transforming into a human boy, who flipped off the telekinetic that happened to be manipulating the basketball's movement. "Fuck you, Aaron!" The boy yelled.

With pure rage in his eyes, the telekinetic, presumably Aaron, charged towards the shapeshifting dog-boy. "You don't speak to me like that!" He shouted at the shapeshifter, grabbing him by shirt collar.

Hyacinth stepped in between the two mages. "Aaron, Collin, that's enough from you two," she said sternly. At once, the telekinetic dropped the shapeshifter, and the fight was broken up. Hyacinth continued speaking. "To prevent incidents like this, we're going to go two at a time, in alphabetical order. I'll be watching," she told the crowd. "Aaron Montgomery and Alexis Bingham will be going first."

The rest of the crowd backed up so the telekinetic and telepath could step forward and practice their routines. On Aaron's side, objects flew, and on Alexis's side, Hyacinth was testing her student's telepathy. Alexis was staring Hyacinth down in a menacing manner, as she did with everyone, saying the words the healer was thinking out loud before moving on to describing imaginary— and remembered— pictures and scenes from her instructor's mind. For the first minute, Skye watched, but then she zoned out, and the rest of the session passed her in a blur before her name was called. "Sebastian Hollister and Skye Everson, you may now step up."

Skye entered the training area with a blue-haired, blue-eyed boy. Hyacinth jotted something in her clipboard before looking up. "Water aura for Sebastian, right?" She asked.

"Yes," the boy responded.

"And ice aura for Skye? Huh, you two seem to have similar abilities."

"Yes."

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"You may begin," Hyacinth told the students.

Upon hearing her cue, Skye tried summoning her aura, only to feel her right arm shaking furiously. She grabbed her own wrist in an attempt to steady herself, but her efforts proved futile, and a blast of ice shot out of Skye's hand and into the air. This better not be the auralily nectar…

"Hey!" A wet Sebastian shouted from his side of the gym, now littered with puddles. "That ice storm just broke through my water structure!"

"Sorry!" Skye shouted back, refocusing her energy to her fingertips. You know what? She thought. I'm going to try creating a structure of my own. If Sebastian could create one from water, and if I'm on auralily nectar right now, how hard could it be to make an ice sculpture?

Recalling her breathing exercises from Hyacinth's classes, Skye tried steadying her breath. One, two, three, in. One, two, three, out. One, two, three— what the hell? Why is it so hard to control my breath? She thought. You know what, screw breathing, I'm going to make one of these ice sculptures anyway. So once again, Skye focused her energy to her fingertips, drawing the outline of a swan in the air with elegant, sweeping curves.

It was at that moment when her right arm got stuck in a block of ice.

"What the—?" Skye reacted, her eyes wide in shock. When she tried shaking her arm out of the ice block, it only grew larger and heavier, weighing her down. In an attempt to free her arm from its prison, Skye collapsed onto her knees and tried to yank it out, to no avail. At this point, the ice block she had created had frozen her arm to the floor, rendering her immobile.

"Hey, what are you, a popsicle? You do look frozen, that's for sure," a girl from the audience jeered. Skye twisted her neck to glance at the offender, a brunette in a light-colored hoodie jacket. She had her hair tied in a ponytail. Hazel? The earth mage?

"Don't you see I need to focus here?!" Skye blurted out. "Your comments are not helping me, so please stay quiet!"

"Then pull the popsicle stick out of your ass and take a joke!" Hazel shouted back as snickers from the audience followed her. Fortunately, Hyacinth was able to reprimand Hazel before she could say another word.

Her face red and her tears on the verge of spilling, Skye finally managed to wiggle her arm out of the ice block entrapping her, only for her foot to slip on a sheet of ice. Instinctively blocking the fall with her arms, Skye collapsed yet again. Exhausted, she planted her face on the floor.

Hazel laughed from the audience. "Hey, not bad!" She said mockingly, a smug look on her face. "Keep at it, icicle! If you faceplant a few more times, you might be able to grow a garden."

At this point, Skye had enough. She thought she might have felt her left foot, which was stretched out behind her, grow cold, and maybe she heard a cracking noise coming from there too, but Skye couldn't be bothered to check what it was. As of now, dealing with Hazel was more important. Kneeling, Skye whipped her head around, glaring directly into Hazel's eyes. "What did you say?!"

"I said, if you faceplant a few more times you might be able to grow a gar—"

A green vine slapped Hazel across the mouth, followed by another vine wrapping around her wrists. Within moments, Hazel was hoisted into the air by vines, an angry Luka glaring up at her from the floor. "Leave her or I'll string you up with poison ivy," he threatened.

Hazel gave a nervous laugh. "Damn. Sorry, I guess," she apologized halfheartedly, her voice muffled by the vines. Hazel dropped to the floor as Luka released his vines from her.

"Don't worry about her. Hazel just got promoted to the advanced group in her training and now she thinks she's all that," Luka told Skye. "Focus on yourself first. Ignore anything she says."

"Thanks," Skye said to Luka before turning around to check what was behind her. She gasped at what she saw.

Holy shit, Skye thought, taking in the view of the enormous pillar of ice in front of her. It was so tall it almost touched the gym's ceiling. Luka was right. Auralilies are insane.

***

Not too far from the route which Skye took on her way from her school to the ferry was a park. Cherrywick Park, it was called. After departing from her usual path, Skye decided to stop at this park. She needed some time out in nature, and a bit of rest too, so she could clear her mind from the disastrous events of her evaluation practice.

Inside the park, Skye stumbled upon an empty bench. Great, she thought, pulling out her phone and earbuds. Skye had already texted her parents that she'd be coming home later than usual to go for a walk, so they wouldn't have to worry about her.

After plugging her earbuds in and pulling up her favorite playlist, Skye lay on the bench, cherry blossoms and sunlight hanging above her. Her backpack sat on the ground next to the bench as she blissfully closed her eyes…

"Skye?"

Skye didn't know how much time had passed. All she knew was that one moment she was peacefully drowning her anxiety out in music and the next moment Noi was standing over her. She awoke with a start, pulling out her earbuds. "Noi?"

"I received a vision that you'd be here, so I came out to greet you," Noi explained. "I've also delivered your letter. It's in the hands of Avriya's council now."

Skye rubbed the haze from her eyes. "Vision? Are you a psychic?"

Noi nodded. "How else did you think I found out your name, where you lived, and that you were the final reincarnation of Polaris?"

"I genuinely thought you and Lucian were stalkers at first," Skye admitted. "Turns out you're just clairvoyant. And by the way, is Lucian also psychic?"

Noi shook his head. "I wish! If he could see the future, he'd get into nowhere near the amount of trouble that he does."

A moment later, Lucian came running up from behind. "Wait for me! You know I can't fly, right?" He reminded the owl-spirit, panting. "And face it, Noi, you are a stalker. I know what you do as a hobby."

Noi gave a quiet laugh. "You know stalking and human watching are two different things! There's a difference between being a creep and simply observing humans in their natural habitat for the sake of learning more about them," he explained. "And if bird watching is normal among humans, why would it suddenly be weird when the roles are reversed?"

Human watching? Skye thought. Is that a normal activity among spirits? And why can't Lucian fly if he has wings?

"Wait, Lucian, why can't you fly if you have wings?" Skye asked. "Did something happen to them?"

"Well…"

"Great weather today, isn't it?!" Lucian shouted, cutting off Noi. Skye gave him a baffled glance. "So anyway, Skye, what brings you here?"

Skye scooted to the side of the park bench, lifting her backpack along with her. "I had a practice session for my upcoming aura level evaluation and everything went horribly wrong, so I'm taking a rest to clear my mind," she explained. "A girl in my class was bullying me when I messed up, which was highly embarrassing, but it was also kinda dumb because the class was a practice session, so of course people are gonna mess up. What even was the point of that?!"

A glimmer of malice flashed across Lucian's eyes, his tail twitching. "Give me this girl's name," he demanded as a wisp of smoke trailed from his left nostril. "I just wanna have a talk with her."

Noi's already-wide eyes widened even more. "You don't look like you just "wanna talk!"

Skye stepped in between the two spirits. "Lucian, calm down. I don't want you to attack her, okay?"

Lucian sighed, looking deflated. "Mkay."

Every now and then, a person strolling on the trail would walk past the park bench, but only Skye, Noi, and Lucian used it. Eventually, Skye pulled out the other bottle of auralily nectar from her backpack, the one she originally saved for Ivan but now felt ambivalent about giving to him. She showed it to Noi and Lucian. "This is auralily nectar, and it's supposed to strengthen auras," she explained. "I tried it out thinking it would fix my magic, but it only made it worse. Do any of you know how I can make my aura behave as it should?"

Noi leaned forward. "What exactly is your aura doing that you don't like?"

Skye shrugged. "I dunno. It's hard to say. One thing that I do know is that my ice always comes out all sticky when I want it to make a different shape. Like, I'd try to make an ice sculpture in the air and end up getting a block of it on my arm. Or I'd try to make a wall of ice with my feet and end up getting caught in it by my legs. It's hard to explain."

Noi thought long and hard before coming to a conclusion. "I suspect the reason why your aura misbehaves so much is because of some sort of mental block," he theorized. "Perhaps there's a part of yourself you're disconnected from?"

Skye looked at Noi, puzzled. "Like what?"

"I don't know. I just remember reading somewhere that auras are closely tied to mental and emotional states as well as personality, so those who struggle with magic are usually at some sort of roadblock. But then again, there are aura-havers whose abilities don't match their personalities at all, and there are also plenty of non-psychological explanations for why someone could be struggling with their aura, so it's hard to say," he speculated. "Another theory I have is that it could have something to do with Polaris. Humans reincarnated from spirits are almost unheard of, and nothing of that sort has ever happened before Polaris died and got reborn. Perhaps that could be another explanation?"

Skye nodded. "Perhaps."

At the mention of Polaris, Lucian whipped his head around. "And speaking of Polaris, have you changed your mind about fighting Blanche yet?!" He asked Skye, almost too enthusiastically. "If you do change your mind, I'll let you know that you won't have to do it alone, and I'll be there with you every step of the way—"

Noi shot a look at Lucian. "Lucian, we talked about this. Much like how spirits have their own cores, Blanche is the core of the spirit realm. You destroy her, you destroy the entire realm. Skye is not going to kill Blanche, end of story."

Lucian crossed his arms. "Fine! So Blanche doesn't have to die. She just has to suffer for what she’s done, that’s all. And since Polaris is heavily implied to be part of the North Star prophecy, and since his current incarnation is Skye, out of all of us she must be the one best-suited for making sure that happens. So Skye, have you changed your mind yet?"

Skye's eyes darted between Noi and Lucian. Both of them stared at her expectantly. Crap, she thought. Either way, I'm going to let one of them down. "I… I don't know," Skye admitted. "Guess I'll have to mull it over on my own."

"Take as much time as you need," Noi reassured Skye. "I recommend that you don't go seeking out Blanche for your own sake, but it's your life. We'll be waiting for your decision." Noi pulled out an ancient-looking scroll and handed it to Skye. "This is the North Star prophecy, by the way. I thought it might give you some context on your situation. Don't worry, it has a preserving spell so it won't fall apart all that easily despite how it looks."

Skye took the scroll with her, storing it away in her backpack. "Thanks Noi," she said to him.

***

While Skye was out at the park, Alexis, Hazel, and Nova were waiting at a bus station after practice. Alexis was on her phone, presumably updating her blog, Hazel had an ecstatic grin on her face, and Nova was standing in between the other two girls. Alexis looked up from her screen and shot a suspicious glance at Hazel. "Why're you smiling like that?"

Hazel sighed dreamily. "If it meant I'd get tied up and threatened by that cute chlorokinetic boy again, I'd totally make fun of more beginners!" She proclaimed. "He can use poison ivy on me, too, for all I care. I'd still thank him."

Nova continued to stare ahead at the road, anticipating the bus's arrival. "Your behavior deeply concerns me, Hazel," she stated. "Is there anything going on?"

Alexis shook her head at Hazel's comment. "Damn. Now I see why they call you the Hazelnut."