Lightning crackled and popped throughout the courtyard of the Isa City palace. Oleander flowers singed and burned with each lightning strike that Raine aimed for Koda but each time she missed the nimble elf.

Koda dipped forward and lunged backwards with each one of Raine’s seemingly manic attacks. A sharp pain sprung down his legs and forced him to crash to his knees. Electric currents charged away from him.

“Come on, Koda! You can’t hope to dodge lightning bolts all day. You need to learn to use that new earth magic you got yesterday!” Raine lectured him with a hint of annoyance in her voice.

Wildeye lifted the king to his feet. “Don’t hesitate to reach within yourself,” she said. “Every spell can be countered with every magic, but you need to have the power to do so and the wit to think on your feet.”

Koda nodded. He narrowed his eyes and held up his hand to the purple mage. “I’m ready, Raine.”

Raine waited for Wildeye to sit down next to Stryneth again before slinging another ray of electricity at her training partner.

Koda circled his hands and collided his knuckles together. From his hands, down his thighs, and up to his face forged a thick layer of granite armor. The lightning deflected harmlessly off the stone.

“Okay, well done, Koda,” Raine called out. “But can you move? Can you retaliate?”

Koda smirked underneath his stone guard. Of course I can move.

However, his rocky limbs gave him no berth of movement. He couldn’t budge his legs, he couldn’t even tip over. He was just another statue for the courtyard.

“I can’t move!” he cried at the top of his lungs, but his voice only came out as a muffled blurb

He could see at least. His eyes weren’t covered, thank the celestials. Neither were his nostrils, so he couldn’t suffocate. However, if he didn’t cancel the spell he might grow moss and attract a bird to nest on his shoulder. Stuck forever as a decorative art piece.

Oh, Isana would love that, he thought sarcastically. Okay Koda. Just turn off the magic. Easy as that!

Koda concentrated on the act of crumbling the spell, turning the sheet of stone into rubble or falling into a pile of sand at his feet, but the stone armor remained.

Why won’t it listen to me?

“Because you must calm yourself, my friend.”

Wildeye! Koda laughed, overjoyed to hear his familiar.

“Settle your mind. You are panicking and dreading an outcome that you still have control over.”

A calm mind. A calm mind. Koda slowed his breathing and a sense of serenity washed over his building stress.

“A calm mind, Koda,” repeated Wildeye. “Now, reach in and touch the earthen Tamed Magi within your magic pool.”

Koda looked deep within himself. The manifestations of his Magi floated in the blackness of his mind. He could always pull from his raw Magi. The magic was always waiting to be called by him. Always ready to answer to his needs. Reliable. Trustworthy. A friend and an ally. An energy always willing to give him hope and power.

“Do you see it, Koda? The brown magic?” Wildeye asked. Attempting to vie for his focus.

Koda searched deeper into the recess of his mind. Deeper into its dark void, only lit by a soft light. His magic pool.

I found my magic, Wildeye.

“Good, now reach out to it. Befriend the brown magic and listen to it,” whispered Wildeye. Her voice was now as small as the magic pool that Koda had found. Wildeye was distant, as if the deeper he delved the further from Draak’Terra he had gone.

Koda extended a finger to the magic. Its form was not of just light, but more of a gel—an organism that evolved from the chasm of his consciousness. Koda poked the jellyfish-like creature and to his surprise, it reacted. It flipped and twisted, floated and fluttered. It wobbled in the air and scooted in circles. Koda couldn’t help but giggled at the playful creature.

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Its light glowed more brilliant in Koda’s presence. From green, to magenta, and finally brown. The colors mixed and churned in its body, like spilt paint congealing into a colorful mess.

Koda slowly surrounded his hands around the magic pool. “Magi hear me, give me the will of earth.”

The mage king breathed in the element of stone, the power to command rock and sand soothed his soul. To walk with the deserts and mountains.

Koda snapped open his eyes and slowly shifted the plates of rocks away from his entrapped body. Dust puffed from his joints as Koda bent and rotated them. Finally, as he imagined before, the stone armor collapsed in a large pile of rubble.

Raine ran up to Koda and gave him a supportive hug. “I knew you could control earth magic.”

Koda wiped the sweat from his brow. “Does it get any easier after this? Will I have to go through an arithmetic book just to use each color?”

Raine laughed and shook her head. “No, not at all. As you earn each color it gets much simpler to control and learn how to manipulate them.”

“You have two?” asked Koda, slightly in doubt of his friend’s answer.

“Yes, but I have spoken to many students with more colors than I.”

“Do not be afraid to use your Magi, Lord Koda.” Stryneth sauntered over to Raine, Wildeye, and Koda. He pronounced each word with pride. “It is a gift meant to be exploited.”

Koda raised his brow.

Wildeye stepped forward between Stryneth and Koda. “The Magi is too dangerous for any one person to use.”

“What of Azeva?” asked Stryneth. “She is more proficient with Magi. Mateo and Arrelion too, have both used the Magi.

“I stand by my statement,” growled Wildeye.

“Excuse my ignorance,” Raine started, “But what is Magi and why is it so bad?”

“The Magi is the source of all Draak’Terran magic,” explained the wolf. “Pure and raw in its original form. It is a drug and must be treated as such.”

“I admit there is little we understand about the Magi,” Koda added. “Many have fallen to its allure while studying it.”

“Then why risk using it if it provides such dangers?” argued Raine.

“Although dangerous… it is…” Koda struggled to find the proper words.

“It is an important tool in Koda’s arsenal,” finished Stryneth with a grin. “Which is just another reason why my master seeks him.”

Raine rubbed her chin. “I suppose any tool in the improper hands can be dangerous but the same tool in a practiced hand could help more than harm.”

“My thoughts exactly, Raine.” Koda beamed a confident smile.

Wildeye shook her head in disappointment. “Well,” she sighed. “I think Koda is ready to battle for his red sash.”

Koda adjusted the brown cloth tied around his waist. Wildeye was right, it was time to earn another color.

***

Koda and his company approached the dune elf headmaster but not a single flame burned. The sands were still and undisturbed by duels and battles. Instead, Azeva stood in grim sadness. Her wide hood hid her teary face

“I am not accepting challenges at this time,” Azeva said with a horse whisper.

Koda looked to Raine and Wildeye with confusion scried on his face, then back to Azeva. “Why not? What happened?”

Azeva lowered her hood revealing her kinky, twisted hair. It ruffled and shook as she swayed her head, rattling with the hundreds of shells and beads that decorated her red hair.

“My High Student, Nia, has been taken.”

“Taken? How do you know? By who?” Elucard pressed further.

“Last sunrise, a small group of men approached my students and I. They wore wooden masks over their faces.”

“Spellbreakers!” Raine whispered a gasp to Elucard.

“Go on, please,” Koda urged.

“They commanded me to leave the city or else face the consequences of being a Magi Offender.” Azeva gnashed her teeth. “I heard of such a movement from whispers and gossip. The Spellbreaker movement. An oncoming war against the Academy of Magic.”

“What did you tell them?” asked Wildeye.

“I told them what any reasonable mage would say. Begone or experience the fury of an angry mage.”

Elucard nodded. “In retaliation the Spellbreakers managed to kidnap your student,” he concluded.

Azeva lowered her head with guilt. “I have no clue where they took her and the Isa guards won’t bother to help a refugee. Nia had been out shopping in the market with two of my other students, however…”

A young yikahti fire mage stepped forward. “This yikahti is not what happened. One moment Nia was with us, the next she was gone. Taken in broad daylight. This yikahti and the others called for help, but as our headmaster states, the guards want nothing to do with the refugees.”

Azeva uncrumpled a note in her hands. “When I returned from searching, one of my mages gave me this.”

Cade took the note and read it outloud:

You failed to heed our warning, Magi Offender, now your High Student shall pay for your crimes against the dragons. All of Isa City shall bear witness to Erzathen’s justice!

Koda’s mood turned serious. “Elucard, find Nia and bring her back to Azeva,” he ordered.

Elucard clutched one fist in the other and bowed. “As you command, my king.”

Stryneth placed a hand on Cade’s shoulder. “My hydro shroud shall go with you, Elucard.”

Cade nodded to the blue mage. “As you say, my master.”

Koda took a long bow to the fire headmaster. “They will bring Nia home, Master Azeva.”

Elucard and Cade vanished into a blur of speed, heading towards the city.