Over the hundred years that followed the Last Dragon War, sorcerers used their expanded natural Will capacity to excel at wizardry. A young sorcerer could construct a bridge in two years instead of the average of four of an ordinary wizard. Slowly the "arts" of sorcerous training were lost, and sorcery became an afterthought, each sorcerer only having a single Font to their name.

-Tallen Elmheart, On Mages

—

Kole decided it best not to risk Jorin’s displeasure and cleared the table before collecting the food. He brought all the plates into the kitchen in a large pile where a very surprised pair of servants sat playing cards

After an awkward encounter, Kole stood waiting as they began to clean up. One servant went to the dining room with a rag, and the other began to tidy up in the kitchen. Before he could tell if the pair would let him take food, a small bell rang in the corner, and the remaining servant left, but not before giving Kole another confused look.

As soon as he was alone, Kole pulled the cabinet door open, grabbed an empty sack from within, and filled it with a loaf of bread, some cheese, and a few small green fruits he’d never seen before. He then infused the bag and its contents with his Will, and turned invisible, the bag vanishing along with him.

The trip back down to the hold went without issue, but he did have to hide in corners and stairwells to avoid running into passersby. He banished his spell as soon as he was safe in the hold.

When Kole got close to Amara's crate cave, he called out, "It's me. I brought you food."

The side of a crate opened up. When no one emerged, Kole sighed and crawled in. Within was a surprisingly spacious opening that reminded Kole of the times he’d built forts with his friends out of discarded planks, before his mother's disappearance and he'd become a social outcast.

Amara sat in one corner, examining her stick from before.

"Close the door," she said without looking up from her work.

Kole complied and made himself comfortable. The girl sat cross-legged, fiddling with a wooden rod in one hand and scratching the head of a rather large rat beside her.

"I brought food…" Kole said, staring at the rat in bewilderment.

Finally, she looked up. She was still visibly nervous, but her eyes locked onto the bag. Kole broke his own gaze away from the rat.

"I will give you this, but you need to tell me what possessed you to stow away on a ship clan vessel."

She didn't answer at first, only staring at the bag, seemingly eating it with her gaze.

"Okay," she said, grabbing the bag from Kole before he could react.

Amara dug through the bag, finding the cheese and breaking a chunk off for her rodent friend and sticking another in her gourd before eating herself. Kole spotted tiny black bugs on the gourd in the dim light.

"I'm looking for my sister," she said as if that answered all Kole's questions.

"I'm going to need more than that if you want me to steal for you for the next week."

Kole felt no need to inform her that the ship's—no, the clan's—highest-ranking wizard was helping him in the endeavor.

The girl looked from Kole, to the food and then to the rat and a strange gourd beside her before deciding.

"Alright. I'm from Stone Haven. My sister went to the Dahn to bring understandings back home. But, she never came back. I'm going to enroll and find her."

"Stone Haven? Like, the hive mind thing? With the giant ants?"

"It's not a hive mind," Amara said defensively. "We are all individuals, we just share parts of our knowledge."

"Wait, so you're a..." Kole stopped, only derogatory terms for the people of Stone Haven coming to mind. "Primal of Community?"

Now it was Amara's turn to let out a sigh.

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"Grandmother was very wrong when she chose that name. We call it the Font of Understanding now "

"Grandmother!? Lidian Oakcrest is your grandmother?"

Lidian Oakcrest was—or possibly is, Kole wasn't actually sure if she'd died—a famous elven naturalist. She'd stumbled on an island of giant symbiotic ants, written of them, and then quietly removed all mention of it from subsequent editions. During the Last Dragon War, the island joined in the fighting, revealing the reason for her sudden secrecy. People had become part of the magical symbiosis. The descendants of the settlers of Rock Haven had become primals and become a part of the island collective. They'd been terrifying fighters, despite their lack of an army. Flocks of seagulls and swarms of rats served as eyes, ears, and noses for the forces battling the dragon cults. They quickly learned the art of war, and when together in large groups, the people were nearly unstoppable. Kole had read an account of an ant swarm devouring a kobold warren alive. It had been horrifying and recalling the passage, Kole scooted away from the gourd slightly.

Kole had read all Lidian’s work relating to primals he could get his hands on, hoping to find some bit of knowledge to aid in his own pursuits. He'd found no actionable information—though he’d grown a bit jealous of the abilities of full primals gained the intuition needed to wield their magics.

"Yes," Amara said, embarrassed, though she had yet to make eye contact with Kole, he could tell by the flush of her pale skin. "I'm a quarter-elf."

"Quarter-elf?" Kole couldn't help but ask, despite knowing he just kept repeating Amara's words. "That’s not—“ he stopped himself from saying ’that's not possible.' He’d been told that enough times in his life about his own pursuits and he tried to keep an open mind.

“Those are possible?" he asked instead.

"Rare, but yes,” Amara answered, not noticing the slip-up, “It's believed that when the Illusian races crossbreed, the children are infertile, but that's not true. It's possible, only exceedingly rare. My mother is human, and my father is Lidian’s son. I'm Amara Oakcrest, and my sister is Amintha Oakcrest."

"If it's so rare, how do you have a sister?"

"We’re twins. She left to go see the world and convinced our father to let her go to the Academy of Illunia, but she's since disappeared. She may have run off for adventure, but I'm afraid something happened to her."

"Oh..." Kole said weakly, at a loss for words of support for this strange girl.

“Why are you heading there?” Amara asked after a long silence.

"I want to be a wizard,” Kole answered without a moment's pause to reflect.

“Why do you want to be a wizard? Why the Academy? There are other places.”

Kole thought about how much he wanted to share. He hardly knew this girl, but... she’d been kinder to him than all his peers back home combined, and they all knew his ambitions. Why keep it from her?

“I want to be an adventurer. My parents were and they're missing. I'm going to find them. The Dahn at the Academy trains wizards, but they also train adventurers. I'll need more than just magical knowledge to rescue them when I find them. And...” he paused, embarrassed about this last part despite the decision to be honest. “I can’t really do magic.”

“What do you mean?” she asked, surprised. “Turning invisible seemed pretty magical to me.”

“Yeah... I can do that, but little else. It's complicated, but I think the answers to my problem may lie in the Dahn's library. I hope to catch the attention of a journeyman or master wizard to sponsor me into the adventuring program, but that might never happen if I can't progress further on my own. My abilities are lacking currently, but there are a few oddities about my magic I hope will attract someone’s interest. If I can find a way to cast spells for a reasonable cost, I'm sure I'll grab someone's interest.”

To prevent further questions, Kole went on the conversational offensive and asked, “Are you planning on enrolling? Or just staking out in town and searching for your sister?”

“Oh, yes, certainly,” she said, excitement creeping into her quiet voice for the first time. “I can’t afford to not enroll.”

“What do you mean?”

“I need a scholarship or patron if I want to have any hope of staying. I lost all of my money in the floating city. That's why I'm hiding in this crate. I hope to train under a runesmith."

“Oh, a runesmith? Are you one? I’m not very familiar with runes”

For the first time, Kole saw genuine joy spark in the girl’s eyes.

“Oh yes!” she said, full of fervor. “I’ve been looking into applying the new secondary Font of Life to wood. Normally wood can’t be used for runes long term because it decays so fast under the magical forces, but I’ve had a lot of success.”

Kole sat patiently as the girl inundated him with far more information about runes than his brain had room or context for. He wanted to change topics, but… she seemed so happy. He let her continue, trying to follow as best he could.

The pair talked late into the night, and eventually Kole was able to change topics. They spoke about their homes. Amara told of the giant towers that dominated her rocky home and the animals that lived alongside them, while Kole told her about his sub-aquatic dome.

The conversation was a little awkward. Amara seemed unable to understand the sarcasm Kole had attempted to cut through the tension. She apologized, explaining that she was used to having a close magical understanding of those she interacted with back home.

“Is everyone from your home like that?” Kole asked.

“No,” Amara said, not providing any more explanation, and she began fiddling with her stick more aggressively.

Eventually, they separated and Kole went to sleep in his hammock, while Amara curled up in a pile of thin-stranded nets.