Liv blinked. She seemed to be blind, for the moment. Blearily, she got up, cursing the sunlight streaming into the room. Turning to look at the bed, she saw a figure laying in it. With the meager strength waking up had left her, Liv unceremoniously dragged Luna off the bed, eliciting a sharp squeak. Luna refused to move, staying on the ground with her eyes covered. Sighing, Liv grabbed one of Luna's arms, dragging her upright before walking away.

  "Our classes are here, apparently," Liv said, stumbling past the door, which had two sheets of paper in front of it, on their side.

  She grabbed them, pulling the papers close enough that she could examine them. Handing one over to Luna, who was tripping over herself as she passed by, Liv examined her own. "I have Calling, Sword Fighting, Murdering, and Advanced Voice Usage. What do you have?," Liv called out in the loudest voice she could tolerate hearing herself using.

  "I have Beginning Voice Usage, Whispering, Murdering, and a class slot that just says 'come to me and pick a weapon'."

  Liv walked into their kitchen, finding an already-prepared breakfast with a note next to it. "This is complementary. From now on, food will need to be paid for. Hey, Luna. We'll have to pay for more food after this. With... contribution points, whatever those are?"

  Luna plopped down opposite her, digging in to her own breakfast. They seemed to know two people were in this room instead of one. Liv quickly chowed through hers. After they were both done eating, and fully awake, they compared the locations they would go to. "All of our classes other than Murdering are in different locations. Do we have a map?"

  Luna slowly, pointedly turned the paper over, shoving it into Liv's face. A massive map stared at her. As Luna brought the map down, Liv glared at her before turning hers over, looking at the places she needed to go. "Well, let's head out then."

  Liv got up, walked to the door, and went down the stairs at the end of the hallway. The bottom floor was now bustling with students, all eating one thing or another. There was a large menu above the counter, at which a man was serving food. The menu had food, each dish with a price next to it, though a notice hanging under the sign told them that food would be free for today's breakfast only.

  Liv walked outside with Luna and they parted, not bothering to exchange goodbyes before they turned towards their destinations. Liv quickly found hers, a grove next to the road. Various plants peeked out of the grass covering the grove, herbs and flowers dominating the area. Liv saw a single person sitting in the grove, seeming to be waiting for class to start. She walked in, slightly unsure of exactly how early she was. "Uh, hi?"

  The man turned to her. "Hello. Why are you here?"

  "For this class. Calling."

  He raised an eyebrow. "You don't seem like a third-year. How'd you get into this class?"

  Liv shrugged. "Edmund told me I got a perfect score in my trial."

  Her instructor stood up. "Well, that's interesting. Can you Call yet?'

  Liv nodded. She opened her mouth and spoke in a language she still didn't know, Calling a Hellfire spirit into existence.

  "You like to burn things, don't you? Please don't set any fires in my grove."

  "Okay."

  The instructor circled the hellfire spirit, examining it. "This spirit isn't just in tune with the world. It's in tune with you. You don't even need to be in this class, really. How did you become so experienced?"

  Liv snorted. "Almost dying a couple times."

  The instructor's eyes twinkled and he leaned in. "I'm Araleth. What say you about graduating to my next class?"

  Liv shrugged. "Sure!"

  The instructor nodded. "I'll hand the Calling class over to an assistant, as I usually do, and then head the Core class. Just stay in the grove when I send Calling away."

  Liv nodded, taking a seat. Araleth raised an eyebrow, which he seemed quite fond of doing. "Not even going to ask?'

  "How early am I?," Liv asked, the perfect picture of innocence.

  Araleth sighed. "You're about an hour early, I'm afraid. Practice or something?"

  Liv reached towards the Hellfire spirit, a hand interposing itself between her and the floating orb of destruction. Araleth severely looked her in the eye before grabbing the spirit and somehow making it disappear. "Fine," Liv said, stepping back.

  She called all manner of spirits till her energy ran out, Araleth growing more and more surprised with each spirit after five. She effortlessly controlled them-they were parts of her, after all, forming a constellation of spirits around them. Liv didn't even notice when the class entered and Araleth funneled them off to the side, telling them to stay quiet and not 'disturb a master at work'.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

  When she finally ran out, Liv swirled the spirits around the grove before letting them go, filled with happiness. They quickly disappeared into the world, dispersing in moments. Araleth stepped towards her. "You've realized, then."

  Liv nodded, the happiness disappearing. Araleth put a hand on her shoulder and turned around. "Whether you're in Core or Calling, this girl's realized something that none of you have figured out just yet. If you find out, you can finally be considered a master of the craft of Calling. Core," he addressed the Core students, "This is someone I'm adding to your class."

  The Core class didn't seem to take it well, some of them giving her dark looks while others looked to not care, though they had dark emotions hidden under their nonchalant appearance. Araleth pulled her over towards them, waving for the class to sit down as Calling walked out of the grove. "Who is she to skip Calling?," one of the obviously angry students asked.

  "The person who created that masterpiece. Who are you to complete Calling without being able to do that?"

  The student reddened before sitting quietly. "So, class. You've figured out how to Call. Next is the Core stage. Who can tell me what happens in the Core stage?"

  One of the students raised a hand and Araleth nodded at them. "You form a Spirit Core, turning yourself into a human spirit."

  Araleth nodded. "What did Eternity make for his Core?"

  He called on another student, who answered. "Eternity didn't make a Spirit Core. He made a core from his own sou-"

  Araleth cut him off. "That's wrong. Eternity wove the highest energy through himself, turning his body into a core for anything and everything. Now, can any of you do that?"

  The class dutifully shook their heads. "Good. You're going to make your spirit cores and be happy with them."

  Liv frowned. She wouldn't be happy with a spirit core, now that she knew what was possible. Maybe she could follow in Eternity's footsteps to create herself this core? Liv knew she had the ability to do it, though the amount of time it would take would be up in the air.

  "Now, we're going to discuss how one creates a core. You condense as much Voice as you can into your skin. If you use enough, it'll crystallize and your skin will strengthen and turn into the outside barrier of your core. If you don't or don't hold it in place well enough, it'll explode and you will die. Now, we will practice crystallizing power-in front of you, not in your skin."

  Liv spent the rest of the class crystallizing Voice, which simply involved shoving enough into an area that it conglomerated and formed crystals. It didn't end up being very hard, though this was her first time trying. Liv ended up creating quite a few crystals, which Araleth informed them was used as currency in some places, after being crushed to dust.

  After the class, Liv sped to her next one. Sword Fighting. It was located in a colosseum, a circular building with no roof and an unexpectedly wooden floor. Her instructor was waiting, a sizable amount of people there. After a few minutes, with more people arriving, the instructor started the class. "GET IN A LINE!," he shouted at them, hurriedly shoving them into a line. "ETERNITY WOULDN'T HAVE LAGGED AROUND LIKE YOU BRATS, SO GET IN LINE OR I'LL HURT YOU!"

  A line quickly formed, with Liv somewhere in the middle. "YOU. ATTACK ME."

  The instructor pointed at the first person in line, who hesitated. "DID I ASK YOU TO HESITATE?," The instructor bellowed, even louder somehow.

  The student unsheathed a sword he had on him, striking out at the instructor, who stepped to the side, easily avoiding the hit. They kept attacking until the instructor spoke again. "DID I ASK YOU TO ATTACK ME, OR TO ONLY SWIPE WITH A SWORD AND NOT USE YOUR OTHER ABILITIES?"

  The student immediately Whispered, a stone spear coming out of the ground and completely missing the instructor, who kicked the student's legs out from under her. "NEXT!"

  The next student stepped up and was quickly laid out on the ground. The line quickly advanced all the way to Liv, who stepped up and summoned Vivian's sword. "PRETTY SWORD YOU HAVE THERE. CAN YOU USE IT?," The instructor shouted, louder now that she was right next to him.

  Liv activated her Lightning and Water, immediately Whispering a multitude of wind blades. She positioned them to herd the instructor directly towards her blade, speeding in front of him for a perfectly timed slash. "You're not bad," the instructor said with a suddenly quiet voice before he raised his hand, hitting the flat of the blade and knocking it over his head.

  Liv flowed in the Form of Water, summoning a figure of Dream and a fireball, jumping back and launching the fireball at the instructor. He frowned, easily dodging it. "I take back what I said earlier."

  He watched Liv run towards him and sighed. Full of openings. He tried to sweep her legs but met no resistance. He frowned. Then Liv jumped out of the fireball she'd hidden herself in, cutting a thin line of blood down the instructor's back. He turned, slowly. "Hm."

  A sword appeared in the instructor's hand, a straight-bladed shortsword. He disappeared from Liv's vision and she abruptly raised her sword, feeling him move through the wind spirits giving her information about his position. Raising her sword on instinct, she blocked the first strike, and the second, feeling it, before she managed to pull lenses of Dream over her eyes, seeing through the invisibility he'd placed on himself.

  A quick speed-up through the form of Lightning into a form of Wood attack by the instructor left her gasping as the hilt collided with her stomach before she felt her legs get swept, landing her on the ground like the rest of the students. Dusting herself off, Liv got up, seeing the instructor standing in front of her, the sword once again gone. "That was a good showing. I suspect you'd be a good match for me if I limited myself to your speed, strength and power, as I did during most of that match."

  Liv nodded, walking away and letting Vivian's sword disappear. So, she could summon and disappear that now. She hadn't known, but simply had tried and it had worked. Closing and opening her hand, Liv sat down, waiting for the rest of the line to finish. By the time it did, the instructor simply told the class to leave to lunch. Liv walked back to the dorms, finding the notice under the menu now gone. She walked up to the man behind the counter, asking how many points she had. "You... have two hundred points. You got them from your instructors, apparently."

  Liv nodded. "I'll take some bread and soup," she said, citing the least expensive meal.

  "You sure you don't want something more expensive?"

  "I'm used to eating poorer food. I'll take the bread and soup."

  The man nodded, handing over a loaf of bread and some soup from a pot, waving at her to go off and eat. Liv quickly scarfed down the food, frowning. Almost the entire school was in this room, to eat. Why wasn't Luna here yet?

  Liv looked around again, making lenses of Dream to watch for Luna, but found nothing. Walking out of the room, Liv looked around. Then she activated both her Lightning and Water, speeding off to find her lost daughter. If something had happened, she would murder whoever had done the hurting. No one touched Luna and got away with it.