I touch the plate on the pillar then start channeling pure mana into it. The whole pillar lights up! It’s too much! I try to pull just some of the mana back, but it all comes back!

I try again, but the same thing happens again.

“Instead of pulling the mana back, try reducing the number of mana channels,” I hear Mr. Beldizon say beside me. I flinch a little.

“Listen to him, Chalia,” Selaena says to me. She rubs my back while continuing. “Mr. Beldizon is a good person; he’s not going to hurt you. Last time when all that scary stuff happened and you almost went to the dark place, that was because you were scared and tried to run away. He may be a little bit sharp sometimes, but he’s not a bad person, ok?”

“Mhmm,” I say, but I still feel a bit stiff.

“Now, do you understand what he was telling you?” Selaena asks. I shake my head “no.”

Mr. Beldizon scratches his head before explaining. “Start channeling some mana into the pillar again, but look closely at the mana as it moves from your core to the pillar.”

“Ok,” I say, nodding. I start channeling mana into the pillar again and watch as it moves from my core to the pillar.

“Watch as the mana flows. You should see that the mana moves in many lines. The mana should look kind of like a rope. Can you see it?” Mr. Beldizon asks.

“I see three lines.” I say slowly.

“Three big lines?” He asks, after a loud cough.

“Mhm,” I say, nodding.

“Ok, good!” he says after a pause. “Now look at one of those lines closely. What can you see there?”

“Huuu” I breath in deeply. “There are a bunch of lines!”

“Good!” Mr. Beldizon says again. “Now if you were to look at those lines, you would see even more smaller lines, but you don’t need to worry about that for now. Instead, I want you to start by taking back two of those three big lines.”

I nod slightly while focusing on the lines. I try taking one of the lines back alone, but I feel the other two lines start to shake. This is really tricky!

“Instead of pulling the lines back, think of it more like cutting the lines with a pair of scissors,” I hear him say. “You will lose some mana this way, but that’s ok for now.”

“Cut it?” I think to myself. It takes a lot of effort but after imagining attacking the lines with scissors, knives, and swords, one of the lines makes a snapping sound and disappears. I did it! But it didn’t feel like cutting? It was like when I almost went to that dark and scary place and that man made all those purple lines go “Snap!” Maybe I’ll try that? I think back as hard as I can to when he got rid of all those purple lines and try to remember what it felt like. Then I try to put that feeling on one of the two remaining lines of mana, and it works! It snaps right away!

I stop observing the mana lines and look up at the pillar. The lights are still too high, but some of them are not lit up anymore. I’m getting closer!

“Good job Chalia!” Selaena says, since Mr. Beldizon is talking with other people now. “Now do the same thing, but on some of the smaller lines now.

I focus on the mana lines again and find the smaller lines and start snapping them, one at a time. There are a lot of them, though!

I keep at it until I feel someone shaking my shoulder.

“-alia.”

“Hmm?” I stop focusing on the lines and look to my right, where Selaena has her hand on my shoulder.

“That’s all of this for today,” she tells me. “Next is more theory.” I bite my lip, but don’t say anything as we walk off the field. Theory is boring.

As it turns out… It was exactly as bad as I thought it would be. Mr. Beldizon talked about different magic runes and what happens when you write them on things with the right materials. I fell asleep once. Or maybe twice? I don’t know. I couldn’t pay attention. But that’s all in the past now—it’s time for sparring!

As it turns out, there are actually two different kinds of students—there are people who fight and people who don’t fight. We have some classes together, like the one we just went through and some basic exercise classes, but they have more theory classes while we have more exercise and fighting classes. I like fighting classes—they’re really fun! We get to play a whole bunch of different games that also make us stronger. Also, some people use magic that looks really pretty!

“Ok! Line up, and I will divide you into groups of three for this exercise,” Mr. Beldizon calls out. He usually teaches these classes while Headmaster Tellus teaches the other class.

I get put into a group with a short, brown-haired boy named Juss, who uses daggers, and a big guy named Sam, who uses a sword and shield.

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“Today we will practice evasion, starting with a little game. Two of your group members will stand at either end of the field, then you will run at each other. When you get close to each other, you will attempt to strike each other without getting hit. You will rotate a member from your team each time so that everyone gets the same opportunity for practice. Any questions?”

“Um,” Sam says, raising his hand. “Is this important for defenders? We can’t move very fast.”

“Good question!” Mr. Beldizon replies. “In fact, it is very important. Remember the story about how the hero Seltian Adroval lost his life? He wore leather armor that was enchanted to such a level that it was stronger than most forms of heavy armor. Yet what was his undoing? He was pierced through by a mutant scorpion-like mana beast. He was a hero—one of the city guards would not have fared much better, even as a defender. Yes, you are to stand in the way, between beast and man, but that does not mean you must blindly offer your body to such beasts—you need to learn how to move quickly, so that you can evade lethal attacks, and move right back in afterward. For you, evasion is just as important as it is for Juss, your light-footed friend.”

“Alright, let’s begin!”

The rest of the day goes by fast. Sam, unsurprisingly, does the worst of us three, but Mr. Beldizon says it is to be expected at this rank. I’m not allowed to use my dragon realms during practice, but I still do pretty well! After that game, we do a few different exercises for getting stronger and being more accurate, and then end with a short lecture and some suggestions on things we can practice at home.

As everyone starts heading to the gate, I look around, trying to find Selaena. I was so focused on the exercises that I don’t know where she went!

“Hey Chalia! Selaena had something come up, so I’m here to get you. How was school?” Geos asks, walking up and ruffling my hair.

“Good,” I say, shrinking and scowling a little as I fix my hair.

“I’m glad to hear it!” he says, with a laugh that reminds me of Tim.

He asks me about what I did and how I liked everything in school. I’m not sure why, but he feels really comfortable to talk with, so I tell him about school, the fun fighting games, the boring runes, and the difficult and scary magic practice.

“So, you don’t like rune practice?” Geos finally asks at the end.

“Nn-nn,” I shake my head.

“Hmm. Eh, it doesn’t matter. You still gotta learn the basic runes, but you can make up for the rest by getting really good at something else,” he says.

“Do you like runes?” I ask.

“Hm?” He glances over at me for a moment. “Ah, yeah, I actually like them a lot. They are really useful for a lot of things, and they synergize well with earth magic. Plus, you can do a lot of cool things with them,” he says, ending with a grin.

“Cool things?”

“Yeah, like this,” he says, suddenly stopping. One of his hands starts glowing with a golden-brown color, and a lump of mud floats up from the ground. Then it takes the shape of a giant brick and hardens before banging onto the ground. “Ok, now see if you can pick that up.”

“Ok,” I respond, reaching down to grab onto it. “Mmmmmmuggh.” It’s too heavy!

“Heavy, right?”

“Mhmm.”

“Ok, so now scratch these four runes into the brick here,” he says, scratching some rune outlines onto the top of the brick.

I take a metal tool he hands me and scratch out the rune shapes he outlined. Well, I actually scratch out just one. The brick is super hard, so he ends up helping me with the rest of them.

“Ok, now touch all of the runes with your hands at the same time.” I do as Goes says. “Now channel mana into all of the runes.”

It’s difficult, but I know how it works now, so I make sure that mana threads connect to all of the runes and start pushing mana into the runes.

“Woah!” I say without thinking. The brick is floating! It was so heavy before, but now it is really floating by itself!

“Cool, right?” Geos asks.

“Mhmm,” I say, nodding my head.

“That’s just a simple enchantment. If you get good at runes you can create flying ships, or even a floating castle—though it would take a lot of resources to make one that was truly defensible.”

“Ooooh,” I let out a breath with wide eyes. “A floating castle?”

“You like that idea, don’t you?” Geos laughs, while inscribing a few more runes onto the giant brick, which is floating about three feet up. “Hop up,” he says, patting the brick.

I activate my telekinesis and gently jump onto it. It doesn’t give at all as I land. Geos then etches a rune onto another stone and drops it into his pocket. He walks forward, and the big brick I’m on moves with him!

“I’ll tell you what,” he says, pulling out a piece of paper as he walks. “I’m going to give you a set of twenty-five runes to memorize and draw. You do that, and I’ll give you an airship ride, what do you say?”

My eyes get big again, as I look over at him. An airship ride? That sounds really fun! I’ve never been on one before. Geos looks over at me and bursts out laughing. What’s so funny?

“Can I take that as a ‘yes?’” He asks.

“Uh, uh, yes!” I finally let out. It sounds like an adventure!

“Ok!” he says, handing me the sheet of paper, now filled with twenty-four runes. I scrunch my eyebrows in confusion, causing him to laugh again.

“The last rune is a little bit special, so I’m going to have Selaena teach that to you. It can be dangerous to draw on if not done carefully.”

“Ok!” I say, looking at the runes on the paper. These runes look a little harder than the ones in class, but I can do it! I will do it! I want to ride the airship so bad!

We chat a bit more about runes and what they can do until we reach the admin building. I eat at the cafeteria with Lannie, and she then takes me back to my room, where I do my mana exercises, practice my aura recognition, and then start practicing rune drawing. I get through the first two easily, but runes are so hard and boring! But I want to ride the airship, so I keep trying until I almost get one right and then lay back onto the floor.

Next thing I know, I feel two gentle arms lift me into my bed and I drift off to sleep.

*** *** ***

Selaena’s POV

Chalia’s going to be learning runes? How? I think incredulously, as I read a message from Geos that says she’s going to be wanting some help with runes, and instruction on the tier 2 mana siphoning rune. It’s time to check on her anyway, though, so I make my way up to her room.

I arrive and look on with a bit of wonder. He wasn’t joking: Chalia is laying there, passed out with a sheet of runes and pieces of paper with various attempts at the first rune, interspersed with pictures of… boats? I carefully tuck her into bed before picking up the original piece of paper and perusing the runes on them. What is he trying to do? I wonder, staring at the tier 2 runes on the paper and thinking about the unlisted one. Then it hits me, right as I hear Auris walking into the room. Geos is brilliant!

“Hey Auris,” I say softly, afraid to wake Chalia, despite knowing how soundly she sleeps. “Geos somehow convinced Chalia to try learning runes. He gave her this set to learn with the addition of the tier 2 mana siphoning rune,” I say, handing her the sheet of runes.

“Tier 2?” Aruis asks rhetorically. “But at her age… Wait, wait! Isn’t this a combination…?”

“Mhmm. These runes are a combination of the full set of basic runes!” I exclaim, quietly of course.

Auris looks back at me before smiling slightly, but with twinkling eyes.