For the entirety of the first semester, the students had fantasized about conjuration class.

After the first couple of weeks, the students would rather be in Colby’s kitchen.

In the mornings, they ran. “Know your body to know your essence,” Tarragon told them. Archie had a runner’s build, and by the second week, everyone struggled to keep up with him.

Then they’d get a little early afternoon break to practice some cooking and think about their innovation project, but most of them just spent the two hours catching their breath.

In the afternoons, they would continue to work on their essence control by escaping from increasingly powerful noodle restraints. Archie struggled to keep up with Nori and Julienne. Everyone made strides, Sutton managing to escape some basic restraints, and Tarragon dedicated his time to helping Yarrow to control his acidity.

One afternoon, the second-year students carried out trays of snacks and drinks. “Head Chef Pomona saw everyone running, so she had us work on our refreshers,” one of the students explained.

They set down a feast of finger foods. A crudite platter with crunchy vegetables, marinated feta, and tart cherry compound butter. A tin of little pie bites with sweet fig jam and blue cheese. A bowl of spiced pecans and another of candied walnuts. Two dozen puff pastries filled with cranberry and brie—gone in seconds. Roasted pears wrapped in prosciutto—the students got over their initial trepidation and devoured the pears once they realized how good they were.

After a few bites, Archie’s muscles relaxed. He regained control of his lungs. His heart slowed to a normal pace. Magical rejuvenation. He looked up at the sun, realizing how lucky he was.

As they ate, Anise came down from the Academy, a large roll of parchment paper in one hand while her other hand stabilized a heavy bag of flour on top of the natural hunchbacked nook of her neck. Tarragon drove four-feet tall wooden stakes into the ground in one long row, leaving a few feet between each stake.

Anise trailed behind, pinning a sheet of paper to make the stakes look like an easel and canvas. Then she threw a smattering of flour on the paper and smoothed it out, covering the paper all the way to the edges.

As the students speculated, Barley came huffing in from the lake. Last place. At least he had the decency to throw up before he joined the others.

Oliver dipped a cucumber in a white bean dip and put it up to Barley’s mouth. “Eat up, big guy. You’re okay.”

Barley nodded and fought back tears as he accepted the food.

“Alright, is that everyone?” Tarragon called from the field. “Everyone over here.“

“Alright, I’ll leave the rest with you,” Anise told Tarragon before leaving. She turned to the students. “Don’t forget your projects! Come see me if you need to talk about it.”

“Everyone say thank you to Head Chef Anise,” Tarragon ordered.

“Thank you Head Chef Anise,” the students said without any idea of what she had done.

Tarragon walked twenty steps from one of the stakes. “Alright, line up on this line. One person per target.”

Despite the identical targets, the students couldn’t help themselves but to scramble for spots. Archie took his rightful spot next to Nori. Unfortunately, in the shuffle, Julienne found himself on the other side of Archie. They looked away from each other with thinly veiled annoyance. Once everyone found a spot, Tarragon continued.

“Today we’ll practice ‘throwing’ our essence. Being able to transfer and manipulate essence through touch can help you in the kitchen, but in the field, you’ll need to know how to send your essence to a target in order to manipulate it from afar.

“Head Chef Anise, brilliant as ever, has figured out a nice training tool for you. On those targets is a flour that reacts to high concentrations of essence. So if you manage to reach it with your essence, it’ll change colors. First it’ll go yellow, then orange, then red.”

“Cool,” Archie said to himself.

“And of course, we’ll be making it a competition. First one to show some red gets…a backstage ticket to the IKC match in a couple of weeks.”

“What?!” Oliver screamed with excitement. He waited for no further instruction, flicking his hand repeatedly at his target dummy to no effect and prompting a laugh from the rest of the class.

Tarragon laughed with them. “Well, I love the enthusiasm. And as silly as our Oliver might look, I do find that physical gestures help direct the flow. Aside from that, there’s no real trick to it. Just gotta practice.”

He started walking away from the class.

“Where are you going?” someone asked.

“Lunch. A long one. Maybe when I get back one of you will be on orange. Oh, and…pace yourselves. Can’t have any of you passing out.”

The students stood in stunned silence as Tarragon left.

Then they matched Oliver’s desperation.

Archie thrust his palm toward his target and tried to push out his essence. He figured the flour wouldn’t change, but he was still disappointed when he was proven right. He thrust again and held his palm out thinking he could keep channeling essence to ‘push’ toward the target like a stream rather than a wave.

No change.

He looked over at Nori, who fruitlessly thrust her hands at the target.

She caught him looking. “What?”

“I dunno,” Archie shook his head. “Just seeing how you were doing it.”

“I think it’s safe to say I’m not doing it.”

“Maybe it’s like…”

Archie put his wrists together and formed a bowl with his fingers. He pushed essence out with a thrust. No change.

Nori laughed. “You look ridiculous.”

Archie held his hands out to the side and shrugged. “Yeah, I’ll look ridiculous backstage meeting Pepper Ivy. What do you think about that?”

“Oh, are you buying a ticket or what?”

Archie smiled and faced his target. “Maybe you have to give it a little…HAH!”

He grunted as he pushed both his hands forward again. Nothing. Again. “HAH!” Nothing. Again. “HAAAAAH!”

Nori burst with laughter. “Okay, I’m gonna have to switch spots with someone. Or find earplugs.”

As Archie laughed, he caught a glimpse of Julienne flicking his fingers repeatedly toward the target. In his concentration, Julienne stuck his tongue out and down, flicking it back and forth from one corner of his mouth to the other. He caught Archie’s glance and threw back a glare.

“What’s with the tongue?” Nori asked.

Julienne tilted his head down to try to look at his own mouth, mild confusion in his expression. “Huh? Oh, I guess I…I don’t know. It’s a habit when I’m concentrating, I guess.”

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Archie scoffed and redoubled his efforts, desperate to beat Julienne. He threw his hands forward one after the other, thrusting with his palms, flicking his fingers, throwing overhand. Nothing worked. He was about to voice his frustrations, but Julienne beat him to it.

“Ugh! Why can’t I do this?!” Julienne growled to himself. He caught Archie looking again and just sighed.

And then Archie realized that they were the same. Just a couple of teenage boys desperate to prove themselves. Impatient. Frustrated. Eager.

He decided to swallow his pride.

“Hey.” Archie could turn his head to Julienne but struggled to make eye contact. “Thanks for uh—thanks for setting us up with that catering job.”

Julienne put his tongue between his lips and squeezed it there, perhaps to keep himself from saying anything rash that would ruin the peace offering. He released his tongue with a click. “Sure. Did it go well?”

Archie thought of the barrage of tomatoes that he had endured. “Actually, I embarrassed myself again. But this time…Well, it was for the benefit of entertaining the kids.”

“Hm.” Julienne offered an awkward smile. He raised his hand toward the target, but then lowered it. “I’m sorry,” he said. “For uh…Look, I don’t remember what words I said…to you…that night. But…I know that I wish I hadn’t said them.”

“It’s—heh—it’s okay.” Archie scratched the back of his neck. “You were under a lot of pressure. I almost screwed everything up. I’m just glad things worked out.”

“Yeah. It’s a lot of pressure, that’s for sure. My uncle, he, uh—” Julienne ran a hand through his gorgeous black hair. “Before that night went well, he would sometimes, uh, in private, call me by my birth name.”

Julienne looked at his feet as he kicked at the dirt. “I don’t think…I don’t know if anyone can understand what that means. What it feels like.”

While the rest of the class giggled and laughed and made outrageous gestures toward their targets, Archie and Julienne had forgotten about the assignment completely.

“I’m sorry,” Archie said. “Does he still…”

Julienne forced a smile. “No. He, uh, he calls me Julienne again. For now. I’m still…making twenty dishes for every one that makes it on the menu, but…I’m still a Julienne.”

“I hope it stays that way.”

“You two are so cute,” Nori chimed from the other side of Archie.

“Shut up,” the boys said in unison as they turned to Nori. She just giggled and went back to trying to project her essence.

The fun of the situation had been deflated, but that calmed Archie down enough for him to think.

Okay. Maybe it’s not…blast while thrusting. Maybe it’s…gather…and then push.

He channeled essence into his hand, letting it pool. It tried to redistribute back to the rest of his body, but he kept pushing it down. Adding to it. Making it denser. And then…thrust!

A small patch of flour turned a light shade of yellow.

“I did it!” He jumped with excitement.

“What?!” Oliver screamed from ten spots down. He stepped out of line to see.

“Haha!” Archie yelled in triumph.

“How’d you do it?” Nori asked.

“I gathered first. It felt like I was holding a ball. And then once it was dense enough, I threw it.”

“Huh.” Nori looked at her hand thoughtfully. “Show me again.”

Archie repeated the process. Channel. Pool. Condense. Thrust!

No change.

“Okay, I lost it. But it worked a second ago!”

Nori laughed. “Maybe you just missed the target.”

Archie tried again. He thought the yellow deepened, but he wasn’t sure. He tried again and again, fantasizing about meeting his favorite fighters.

“Hey Nori, have you ever been to an IKC fight?”

“A few times, yeah. Back in Uroko. You?”

“Yeah, once. Actually, it was my first day here. Tataki versus Pepper Ivy. My first day on my own and I spent all my money in the first few hours. Had to wash dishes for a place to sleep.”

Archie laughed at the memory, but something he said had turned Nori off. She turned her body away from him, ending the conversation.

Archie thought of pressing the conversation, but decided against it. He needed to focus. He had the chance to meet Pepper Ivy. He tried to imagine the target turning into the red of her hair. He tried again. No change. He got the sense that his essence was just dissipating in the air.

I need to get it denser first. How can I…wait!

He put one hand around the other’s wrist, pushing essence through both arms down to one hand. He felt the difference. The essence balled up, denser than ever. He thrust.

A yellow circle covered half of his target, the original circle having darkened to a deep yellow.

“Look!” His excitement made him forget Nori’s standoffish behavior.

Nori had one single finger pointed at the target. She scrunched it up and extended it again. “I’m on orange,” she stated.

“What?” Archie looked at her target. “I don’t see it.”

“Top right.” Nori stayed focused as she spoke, moving her finger again.

Archie saw the change. Just a little circle, barely covering a tenth of the target, but sunset orange. Nearly red.

Not to be outdone, Archie used his two-hand technique again. The flour turned dark yellow in the center, fraying out to yellow-white on the edges. He looked back at Nori’s. Outside of the small orange patch, the flour was pure white.

“How’d you get that spot orange already?”

“You’re wasting too much essence. We don’t need to make it all red. Just a spot.”

Nori poked her finger out again, turning a new spot from white to as yellow as Archie’s best.

“I’m focusing it to a point. It’s like you said, make it dense. I’m making it pointed. For as much essence as you’re hitting the target with, you’re losing more to the air.”

“Oh, so you’re the expert?”

Nori pointed again, returning to her original spot. It started to ride the border between orange and red. “Results say so.”

Archie redoubled his efforts. Hand on wrist. Channel. Condense. Thrust!

In Archie’s optimistic view, the yellow had started to turn the faintest shade of orange. But he felt the problem. He felt his reserves draining.

I hate when she’s right.

They had been at it for nearly an hour, and Archie was starting to worry what a Gluttonous episode might look like in these circumstances.

He tried the one-finger technique. The blast radius of his essence shrunk, but it still frayed out at the edges. Unfocused. He tried again. And again. Nori started to break away. If it weren’t for her occasional inaccuracies, she would have already won. Archie settled back to his two-hand technique, but had nothing left in the tank. He could tell that Nori was struggling with the same problem.

Since it was clear that neither would be winning anytime soon, Archie decided to take a breather and check on the other students’ progress. Nori had the lead over everyone else by half. Julienne had created a lovely painting of a yellow sky with a little orange sun. Blanche had managed the slightest shade of yellow. Benedict had been too focused on talking to Blanche to make any real progress of his own.

Archie checked on Oliver. His target was as white as fresh snow.

“Having a little trouble?” Archie asked.

“Oh ha, ha. Laugh it up,” Oliver said through gritted teeth and thrust with his palm again.

“Even Sutton has a little color!”

“Yeah!” Sutton said, proud of his little palm-sized patch of pale yellow. “That’s embarrassing for you!”

“That’s it!” Oliver threw his hands in the air. “One more try and then I give up. Ugh, I could use a drink.”

Oliver held his arms straight out to his sides as if looking for an embrace. He swung his hands together into the shape of a bowl and—

Blubblublbublublub!

A stream of bubbles, as thick around as Barley, shot from his hands, demanding everyone’s attention. The bubbles kept going and going, fanning out as they got farther, encasing Oliver’s target and the two closest to it.

Panicked, Oliver turned his palms up to the sky, sending bubbles cascading down on a third of the students.

“How do I turn it off?!” He shook his hands frantically as the students ran for cover. Finally, it stopped.

Archie walked over and scooped up a blob of bubbles. He sniffed it and recoiled at the burn.

“No one drink it!” Archie warned.

The bubbles started to pop, revealing three targets that had turned blood red.

“I win!” Oliver yelled. He ran up and down the row of students. “I win! I did it! I win!”

Nori pointed at her target. “Mine’s red, too.”

Oliver continued running, right up to her target, inspecting it closely. “Yeah, a fingernail of red. I just turned THREE targets red!”

He turned back to the rest of the class and pumped his fists up and down in the air. “Victory for Oliver! Victory for Oliver!” he screamed, trying to get the students to chant with him. No one joined him, but he didn’t care.

“PEPPER IVY HERE I COME!”