I had followed Tulip around for the majority of the day—After our succinct lesson with Levi for the day we had little else to do but explore the school, which was at least an advantage for the both of us as we missed our proper introductory tour.

Not much had really happened throughout the day, most of the students were either still in the city of Avernus—The city which the school was resting over currently—Or were participating in private lessons with their teachers. This left the school rather empty, with next to nothing happening inside of the halls beyond the two of us, but we had found out a fair bit of useful information.

“So, we’ll have to sign up for some general coursework classes. While the majority of our schoolwork is with our personal teachers, we need some general studies as well.” Tulip spoke as she read off of one of a few dozen notes she had acquired from the halls around the school.

“What sort of classes are there?” I was curious, leaning over Tulip’s shoulder as best I could I tried to peek at the papers.

“Most of them are basic things, though they might be useful for you. I’m not sure if you had any actual education before?” Tulip asked as her gaze shifted towards me.

“Uhm…” I trailed off, turning my gaze away shyly. “I know how to read… and I can probably write? I don’t really know anything more than that though…” I mumbled out, feeling my cheeks growing warm.

“Uhuh,” Tulip sighed, glancing back at the papers, “Alright. There’s a few courses that could be good—I doubt you’d need or want economics, there’s a few history courses that could be useful for you, and you’ll definitely want geography.”

“Can you help me get signed up for these? I’m still not sure how…” I asked anxiously.

“Of course! I’m not just gonna throw you to the wind with this. We just need to sign the papers, and hand them to Levi so he can sort them out. The rest of these classes only accept higher year students, so history and geography then?” Tulip offered as she handed the papers to me to examine.

“What about this one?” I asked, pointing at a class listed near the bottom. It had a few markings beside it that I didn’t quite understand. Tulip had explained that they were to sort the class between year, availability, and difficulty—But the symbols all looked the same to me.

“Beast Research?—That’s a rather difficult and dangerous class, are you sure?” Tulip asked dubiously.

“Well, what is it? I don’t want to just jump head first into something stupid.” I replied with a shrug.

“Well, the name is pretty explicit. It’s ‘Beast Research,’ things like those Screachers we fought in the desert… Beasts that aren’t as weak as them, and some that will probably have magic too. It’d be a great place to practice your magic, but it’s dangerous,” Tulip explained. She seemed a little curious about it herself judging by her intrigued face. “It focuses on the capture and study of beasts over the slaughter of them.”

“Alright, I wanna do it.” I wasn’t quite sure why, but it felt interesting to learn more about magical beasts. Maybe I could learn more about magic through them? I wasn’t certain, but it was a possibility—Plus if it could get me combat experience it would be pretty useful.

“Wait—Really? That quickly? Kirin you could die!” Tulip sounded exasperated, her arms gesticulating as she tried to get her point across.

“So? I’ve been on the brink of death half my life. I wanna get stronger, and learn more about the world, so this is a start to that.” I replied plainly. It made sense in my head after all, I had been near death for years in Prison, and fighting for my life while learning about the world sounded useful.

“You really don’t care about being hurt, do you?” Tulip asked, worried in her voice.

“Nope! If I die I die, but I’m not just gonna roll over when I got given a chance.” I replied simply. A smirk crossed my face, my gaze shifting to the halls around us.

“Well, we have one last wing of the school to visit before we head back to our dorm. It’s a ‘recreation’ area. I’m not sure what all will be there, but presumably there should be recreational things from the three major cities,” Tulip spoke with excitement in her voice “So there might be some interesting things in there.”

“You sound like you’re hoping for something…” I muttered with a sidelong glance at Tulip. She gave an innocent smile, turning a corner into a new hallway—A banner sat hanging above the entryway labeled “Recreation.”

“I might be, but that’s besides the point. It’s our last day to actually relax before Levi starts really training us,” Tulip lowered her tone as she spoke. There were audible murmurings from the many doorways in the hall—While none of the words could be made out, people were here. “And we need to talk about what you said earlier…”

I nodded to Tulip’s words, keeping my mouth shut as I thought about the gentle voice I had heard. It was so uncanny, even still it felt like I had heard that voice somewhere else before.

I only looked up a few times while Tulip led the way—Most of the rooms bore the same signs, bathhouses of some form. The most notable one was a set of four doors in a row that led into what I assumed to be a Library as the signs outside of them held open books to mark them.

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

I noted its existence away for later—I assumed rather quickly that knowing where a Library was would prove useful for me in the future, especially with learning more about magic. And, maybe I could even learn more about what my father did…

“Finally.” Tulip muttered under her breath as she turned to push open a door—It was a door to a room that I didn’t immediately recognize. It looked like a type of puddle with waves of heat rising away from it.

“What is this?” I asked, glancing at Tulip as she pushed the door open. A wave of humid heat washed against my face, forcing my eyes tightly shut for a moment.

“An artificial hot spring,” Tulip answered matter-of-factly. “It has some healing runes too, so it’s worth it to be here.” Once Tulip finished speaking she reflexively grabbed her wrists—Rubbing at her scars. They were still red and raw from the magic consuming metal burning her skin.

“...Alright.” I spoke without confidence in my voice. I was forced to squint from the billowing steam rushing out of the room, it washed across my face with a soothing heat that grew to a gentle pressure once Tulip closed the door.

“Not going in?” I asked, a brow raising as I turned to Tulip.

“Not right now—Let’s head back to the dorm,” Tulip shrugged as she answered.

The trip back to the dorm was rather short. The halls were already beginning to fill up with dozens of students while we walked side by side—Classes for the day had come to an end and students were now running through the halls to find where to go for the evening.

The crowds didn’t seem to care about us as we carved through them, a few voices recognized me, and a lot recognized Tulip.

“Isn’t that the Heir?”

“Who’s that with her?”

“Isn’t that the Vulender?”

“Why the hell is the Heir walking around with them?”

“Didn’t you hear? They’re both being trained by Levi…”

I did my best to zone out the voices as I followed Tulip. The faint whispers of conversations I could hear fell into the distance behind me once another corner came into view. And shortly after, the door of our dorm room closed tightly behind me—It slammed so quickly from a burst of air emanating from Tulip that it nearly caught my hair.

“Gods…” Tulip muttered under her breath. I turned towards her curiously, letting out a sigh.

“So—What did Levi mean when he said that I could be on a similar level to you?” I asked—Tulip blinked several times before she answered.

“That’s… A long answer,” Tulip muttered out. She took in a deep breath, the annoyance that covered her face faded away into thought until she finally spoke further. “Short answer, it’s because I’ve met requirements for being a High Mage that most people never come close to achieving.”

“And the long answer?” I requested. I walked my way over to my bed, sitting down on it facing towards Tulip.

Tulip’s lips narrowed into a thin line as she sat down. Her gaze locked onto me, studying my face for a few moments. Our gazes locked for a moment before she relented into a sigh.

“Remember the three categories that magic is divided into?” Tulip asked.

“Sort of?” I shrugged a little, thinking over the question. I knew Tulip had told me this before, but I couldn’t remember what any of the categories were called.

“Attunement Type, Attuned Element, and Innate Element,” Tulip supplied. “The first two are easy, Attunement Type is just what you can do, and Attuned Element is just your overall element your magic resides in.”

“But, Innate Element is where it gets a bit more complicated. They’re unique to everyone individually—Most of the time at least. And it’s a requirement to break through the barrier into being a High mage to know your Innate Element.”

“So, if we were to go over my magic; I would have an Attunement type of Offensive and Support, an Attuned Element of ‘Dark,’ and my Innate Element is gravity,” Tulip finished with a long exhale, her gaze shifting away from me. “In our generation, and even the last few generations, there have been less than a hundred mages who’ve found their Innate Element. I’ve known mine for years, which is why people call me a prodigy.”

“I mean—It sounds like you are a prodigy if it’s that hard,” I stated calmly. “I know I’m not an astounding point of reference but that sounds like it’s way better than anything I’ve done.”

The room fell silent once I finished speaking. Tulip didn’t give an immediate reply, her gaze seemed rather distant in thought. Her eyes were locked firmly onto the window, watching the setting sun in the distance.

For a moment I was left to wonder if Tulip would say anything more, the only motion coming from her was a continuous, soft breathing—Until she finally spoke in a lowered tone again.

“It’s not that simple… but those are my problems to sort out,” Tulip’s words came out as little more than a whisper. She turned to look at me once more, her own question already drawn upon her tongue. “Now what did you mean about hearing voices from the crystal?”

“I’m not sure…” I muttered uncomfortably. I could still vividly hear that gentle melody in the back of my mind—It wasn’t like I had just heard it, but like it was something that had always been there. “I just… heard a voice from it. I can’t really describe it any better than that.”

“What did the voice sound like?” Tulip asked the instant I fell silent.

“It sounded like I was hearing it from the other side of a thin wall—But it was definitely feminine… and it was singing?” The uncertainty that I felt was betrayed in my voice. The more I thought about the voice I heard, the less sense it made.

How did I hear a voice from a crystal? Why did it sound distantly familiar? Why couldn’t I get that melody out of my head?

“Hmm…” Tulip trailed off—Lost to her own line of thinking. “What was it singing?”

“Some sort of lullaby?” I supplied, closing my eyes. I let the voice fill my head again, listening to the lyrics over and over again. “Hush now little one, open your mouth and sing. Hush now little one, open your eyes and see. Hush now little one, hum along with me.” I repeated the gentle melody in a tone-deaf voice that could have made a shriek sound like music in comparison.

“I’ve… never heard that before,” Tulip sighed, defeated as she fell back onto her bed. She sprawled herself out overtop of her covers with a groan. “I don’t think we’ll find anything out about that here… I’m tired, and we have to be up early—Lets just get some rest for the night, alright?”

“Yeah… that sounds fine.” I let out an equally defeated sigh. While I didn’t immediately sprawl across the covers—taking at least enough time to take off some layers of clothing—I agreed with Tulip’s sentiment of exhaustion. A yawn escaped my lips just in time for my head to be buried in my pillow as I fell face down into it.

My eyes closed, and sleep found its way towards my body not long after the gentle breathing from Tulip softened.