Liv arrived a bit early for her Core class, as she had done yesterday. Her instructor seemed to be waiting for her, looking in her direction as she walked into the grove. "I have something to give you," the instructor said, after hesitating for a brief moment. "Onyx told me to give it to you."

  Liv waited, but the instructor didn't move. She raised an eyebrow. Araleth closed his eyes. "If I give it to you, you're guaranteed to destroy yourself trying to do what's listed within."

  Liv shook her head. "I'm not normal."

  Araleth shrugged. "Everyone thinks that. If I give you this booklet, and you fail, what have I done as a teacher?"

  Liv sighed. "I can't tell you my secrets, but I can say I have quite a few."

  A book materialized in Araleth's hand. It looked nondescript, with a simple leather binding and no title listed on the cover. Liv tried to snatch it out of Araleth's hands, but he held on for a moment. "Be careful."

  He released the book, and left Liv to awkwardly walk away, sit next to a tree, and start reading. Opening the book, the first thing that caught her attention was a brief note from Eternity. I've written this myself. The book will be blank until you're ready for more knowledge. And remember-this is a guide, not something you religiously follow. There are other ways to do things.

  Liv flipped the page. It had a single inscription on it. Ten drops of the base energies, to balance the core. Then five drops of the higher energies, to strengthen the core. Then three drops of the Constants, to bind the core. Then two drops of the Spirit energies, to make the core... more. Finally, one drop of the Soul energies, to give the core power. This will generate the ultimate core. However, if one wants a core perfectly tailored to themselves-one that will be the best possible match-follow this last step. This incredibly dangerous step. Add one drop of Pure Memory.

  The next page went into detail. The base energies were Will, Dominion, Voice, Note, and a... she hesitated to call this a word. It was a garbled piece of text, with the intended message very unreadable. Shrugging, she continued. She would decipher it in time. They were meant to form an even lattice through the entire space she intended for her core, to balance everything. She'd also have to add a temporary edge to her core, to hold the lattice. There could be no imperfections in the lattice, and it had to be perfectly spaced, and the temporary edge of her core had to be a perfect sphere. Then five drops of the higher energies. All the energies that could be created by binding together two of the base energies. These would strengthen the lattice, though they'd leave the outer edge alone.

  Afterwards, she'd incorporate the Constants, universal forces that were more or less... constant, everywhere. These were apparently acquired separately for each basic energy, with each having a different method to create its constants. Then you had the Spirit energies, which were... more esoteric and soul-related. The only description was 'you'll find them when you find them'. The Soul energy was labeled as 'a single pure drop of your soul'. The book also said that this energy was very hazardous to create and use, and anyone who wasn't willing to risk this should stick to the Spirit energies and stop there.

  Then the last step. It had no description. The author made no mention of it past the preface, where the method to create a core had been listed. Liv frowned. Would this be one of those 'pages will get filled in as I see fit' things, or was there really nothing at all? Everything else had a description of some kind, even the Spirit energies' single line.

  Liv looked up, suddenly surprised as the Calling class dispersed, leaving the Core class behind. Araleth stood at the front and started talking, once again, but this time, Liv wasn't listening. Her mind was on other things.

  Firstly, how would she get the rest of the base energies?

  "How much longer are you going to be sitting there?"

  Liv startled, seeing Araleth standing directly in front of her. She'd zoned out at some point. "Your next class is going to start in a couple minutes. However, judging by the blur I saw yesterday, you'll get there in time."

  Liv nodded, getting up. "I've decided to attempt to make the core detailed in the book."

  Araleth sighed. "Well, I can't say I didn't try to set you on a better path."

  Liv shrugged. "You did try, and for me, this is the path I need to take."

  "How do you think you'll advance after creating a core like that? There are no mentions of how. None in the Spiritspeakers' records, none in the Thoughtstrikers' records, none in the Renders' records, and, you guessed it, none in the Noteweavers' records."

  Liv smiled at Araleth. "I think you'll find that I'll advance in my own way. I'll probably annoy a lot of orthodox people."

  Araleth sighed. "Have you ever thought about why there's a random school for people who can talk to spirits, when they're so reviled in the outside world?"

  Liv nodded. "The Gemstone Council is legendary. If they accept anyone and everyone into their school, they'll see a lot of people come in who are shunned by their society."

  Araleth nodded. "So, you understand. Then, understand what I'm trying to tell you. There is no shame in following the well-trodden path. This school exists because people followed others here."

  "But what if the path through the forest isn't where I want to go? What if I want to dive into the damn forest?"

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  Liv arrived nearly late for her swordfighting class, seeing their instructor waiting for them in front of a far smaller class. Liv stood at the back and the instructor nodded at her. "I wasn't sure if you'd show up."

  At the exact moment the class started, the instructor shouted at them. "WHERE DO YOU THINK THOSE FOOLS WHO AREN'T HERE WENT?"

  One of the students in the front answered. "Sir, I think they abandoned your class because they didn't like it."

  "AND WHY DIDN'T YOU ABANDON IT?"

  Another student answered. "Because this class is necessary for us, sir!"

  The instructor glared at the new student. "Kid. One student I could see calling me sir-maybe because of their upbringing or something of the sort. Two in the entire class? Yeah, that could happen. Two, one after the other? One's copying the other, and it's probably the second one. That's not going to make a good impression."

  The student paled before the instructor started speaking again. "This class isn't necessary for you," he spoke softly. "This class is only necessary for the people who wish to better their sword fighting."

  He turned to Liv. "I saw that duel yesterday. You didn't even need to fight properly with that sword, and so you didn't. Good. Pre-practiced blocks and strikes do nothing against a flail."

  Liv nodded. The instructor turned back to the entire class, shouting once more. "SO! WE'RE GOING TO BE PRACTICING SWORD FIGHTING. WHEN YOU FIGHT WITH A SWORD, YOU DON'T JUST STAB PEOPLE! YOU CORRAL THEM INTO THE POSITION YOU WANT SO THAT YOU CAN STAB THEM. THIS MEANS YOU'RE BOTH WHISPERING AND STABBING AT THE SAME TIME. GOT IT?"

  The entire class slowly nodded, their eardrums busted by the audial assault. The instructor swiftly paired them up, which involved him shoving people into each other. Liv got paired with another girl wearing a dress and a multitude of pins and other baubles in her hair. Liv summoned Vivian's sword, waiting for the instructor to tell them to do something. "Fight already. And try not to kill your opponent," he drawled lazily, standing off to the side. He was eating a sandwich now. Where'd he gotten it?

  Liv's opponent rushed her, and Liv settled into a ready stance, waiting for her to approach. She was sorely let down when the girl tripped over her own dress, falling onto her face. She pulled herself up, dusting her clothes off before charging again. Liv sidestepped a widely telegraphed overhead slash, resting her sword on the back of the girl's neck before disengaging and walking a small distance away. As she did, Liv noted the surrounding area. Most of the combatants were doing much of the same thing, failing badly, though their partners were much the same, so they mostly waved their swords around and attempted to hit each other.

  Liv stepped to the side, avoiding a thrust from behind, grabbed the protruding sword, and pulled her opponent past her. Once again, she rested her sword at the woman's neck before walking a small distance away. This continued for a short while before the instructor thankfully spoke up again, ending the farce. "WHO DO YOU THINK YOU'RE IMPRESSING WITH THAT SWORDWORK?"

  None of the students spoke, though it wasn't as if the instructor expected them to. "DOES ANYONE KNOW HOW TO PERFORM AN OVERHEAD SLASH?"

  Most of the students raised their hands, all of which Liv knew couldn't perform any passable overhead slash. "YOU SHOULDN'T, BECAUSE OVERHEAD SLASHES DON'T INVOLVE FLAILING ONE'S SWORD STRAIGHT DOWN. You, come here," he said, pointing at Liv.

  She strode over to him, readying her blade. "Where'd you learn to fight?"

  Liv shook her head. "I don't know how. I just use the Elemental Forms I know." Liv thought for a second. "I don't really know where I learned those. I also fought a lot of people so I have a passable understanding of fighting and trying not to die."

  The instructor shrugged. "At least you aren't flailing around trying to look cool."

  "If I did, I'd be dead."

  "True enough," the instructor said, summoning a sword. "Block."

  Liv parried the sudden overhead blow, melting into the Elemental Form of Wood as her sword rose above her head, sideways, with her other hand supporting the end of her blade. One, two, then three blows struck, leaving her barely able to push the sudden thrust to the side and then unable to block the horizontal slash that ended at her neck.

  "Good showing," the instructor said before turning to the rest of the group. "That was how you perform an overhead slash." He pointed at Liv. "And that was one of the parries you can perform to counter it."

  He paired the groups up once again and told them to start attacking. Liv was paired with the same woman, whose attacks now actually led with the blade instead of the flat of her sword, and Liv bounced the overhead slashes off a diagonal parry from the Form of Water over her head, redirecting them to her left. Then it was her turn and Liv brought in moves from the Form of Fire, pounding the poor girl over and over again. At first, she tried Liv's new parry, but quickly resorted to the twin-handed one after it proved completely ineffective, Liv's sword hovering over the woman's head over and over again after breaking the parry.

  The new parry wasn't very effective either, Liv battering through and once again, stopping just before biting into the woman's head.

  She turned, and saw a multitude of injuries, the instructor ignoring all the small ones and offering a tiny amount of healing to the bigger ones. Nothing life-threatening appeared, though many people did end up clutching deep gashes in their arms.

  Soon, the class was over, the instructor dismissing them with a look of disgust. Liv quickly left for lunch, buying soup once again and downing it before continuing to her second-to last class, which she hadn't had a chance to attend yet. Advanced Voice usage.

  When she arrived at the location, which was one of the many classrooms near the center of the map, Liv only saw four desks in the room. Three were occupied, and the fourth was next to them. All of the desks were in a row, with the person Liv assumed was the professor sitting in a chair at the front of the room. Liv occupied her seat, watching the other students give her wary looks as she sat down. As she did, the instructor started speaking. "Everyone's here now, so we'll start early."

  He turned to Liv. "During your duel, you used Voice in... weird ways. We will not be talking about that. This class is about controlling Voice in orthodox ways." His lip curled, and at that moment, Liv decided she didn't like him. "Keep your... methods to yourself, and I'll teach you the right way. Then you can become great, and slay dragons as I once did."

  Liv felt horror, in that moment. She knew this would be the only time she'd be here. This class was getting skipped from now on.

  The instructor droned on, and on, and not a single portion of what he said was useful information. Liv almost fell asleep, but managed to keep herself awake by manipulating a small amount of Will underneath her desk, creating pictures and random shapes out of it.

  Suddenly, Liv realized what Note was. It was the power of sound to reach human hearts and the world's heart. If you sung to the world, it would repay your music by dancing to it.

  Liv shuddered as she felt a new resource appear within her. The instructor noticed. "What's wrong? Have you realized just how dumb it is to continue to follow your mistaken beliefs?"

  Liv nodded slowly, focused on the pain within her. The resource was carving out a pool for itself within her, and it hurt.

  She somehow withstood the pain for the rest of the class, staggering out as the pool finished being carved. After spitting a small wagonload of blood into bushes nearby, Liv started to walk again, to her last class. One simply called 'Murdering'.

  This was going to be fun.