As it turned out, Bi Gho’s lesson was being held in another clearing between tents. This one was smaller than Instructor Wei’s blade fighting clearing, but it could still fit a good number of people, and it was very spacious considering that magical technique lessons probably wouldn’t require as much wild physical movement as blade fighting.

Spaced in neat intervals all around the clearing were dozens of small, low wooden tables, each with a student sitting behind it cross-legged. The group of students here was far more diverse than the blade fighters: old and young men and women alike were scattered over the clearing, almost every table with a student at it. There were mothers and fathers with children sitting in their laps; teens and small children, too.

Every one of them had a small wooden bowl filled with water on the table in front of them. And every one of them was intensely staring at their bowl.

“What — are they doing?” Abrial muttered to Finley out of the corner of her mouth as they emerged into the clearing. “A staring contest, or what?”

Finley put a finger to her lips, gesturing for Abrial to be quiet. Abrial tended to speak loudly and not realize the volume of her own voice. Several students nearby whirled around briefly to glare up these two late, loud newcomers disdainfully, then returned to staring holes at their wooden bowls of water.

“All right,” called out a musical female voice. In front of the rows and rows of tables stood the luxuriously beautiful Leader Bi Gho, her curvaceous figure draped with pale and jade-colored silk. Her flowing black hair was partially tied into an alluring, loose bun. She waved a white fan through the air, bringing it down with a whoosh. “Now, students, begin! Try to lift the water, play with it! Just as we practiced last time. If you were able to lift it last week, try to twist it and manipulate it this time, while keeping it afloat. If you could manipulate it as one form last class, try to break it into separate spheres and keep control of those at the same time. Yes! Yes! Beautiful! Oh, I’m tearing up with pride!”

All around the clearing, there were simultaneous gasps of delight and groans of frustration. In front of many students, water rose from their bowls in shiny spheres, glinting as it lifted into the sunlight like giant raindrops falling backwards. Some globs of water started to twist and turn at the direction of the students, while other water spheres carefully pulled apart, forming chains of clear spheres like soap bubbles.

Other students’ magical endeavors weren’t progressing quite as well. The water in one of the smooth wooden bowls near Abrial jerked violently, spilling over the table and the student’s robes, prompting shrieks and swearing. For some other students, the water just didn’t move at all, remaining still as glass. A couple of extremely frustrated students, who had probably been experiencing the same lack of magical results for at least a couple of lessons now, flipped their bowls over in rage.

Meanwhile, as all this commotion went on, Finley led Abrial gently by the wrist to the front, where Leader Bi Gho stood admiring the mix of magical feats, failures, and chaos. When she noticed Finley approaching with Abrial, her beautiful dark eyes lit up.

“Finley Fellner, my best student! And Han Abrial Chae-young—the last person my wayward sister tried to torture! You’re here to join the lesson, are you not?”

Finley bowed her head slightly, nodding. “Yes, Teacher Bi. This student apologizes for being late.”

Bi Gho slapped Finley’s shoulder abruptly with her closed fan and snorted. Finley was startled and looked up, confused.

“You’re always so uptight!” Bi Gho chuckled. When she laughed, her face seemed to transform into a divine painting, with soft coral lips, pale ceramic skin, and lovely long lashes. “Don’t call me Teacher Bi like everyone else. We’re close, aren’t we? Just call me Bi Gho! Or better yet, call me Gho-jie!”

Finley’s cheeks painted faintly pink. She bowed her head again, still holding Abrial’s wrist.

“Yes…Gho-jie” she said slowly.

“Can I call you Gho-jie too?” Abrial jumped in, grinning excitedly.

Bi Gho winked, twirling her fan dexterously. “Why not? You’re a close companion of my very best student. And we’ve already talked once this morning when my little sister…apologized, eh. We’re practically old friends already! Now, you two go and find two desks—or one, if you prefer to work close together…” she eyed Finley’s hand, which was still clasping Abrial’s wrist tightly, and wriggled her eyebrows knowingly. “There should be a few empty ones at the back. Finley, you’re knowledgeable enough; you can instruct Abrial on the basics of water manipulation! Lucky Abrial, she practically gets her own tutor!”

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Finley bowed her head again and thanked Bi Gho, then pulled Abrial gently away. Only when Finley had led Abrial by the wrist all the way across the clearing, did it dawn on Abrial what Bi Gho might was suggesting with that eyebrow wiggle.

Find two desks — or one, if you prefer to work close together…

Her cheeks exploded with heat. What was that supposed to mean? Why had she paired an eyebrow wiggle with that?! No! That was not a reason to wiggle her eyebrows! Plus, Finley was just holding Abrial by the wrist because—well, because, she was was leading around! And they were close friends! It wasn’t—like that!

Still, Abrial couldn’t get Bi Gho’s wiggling eyebrows out of her brain. Quickly, she yanked her wrist out of Finley’s firm grip and jerked her arm to her side, stiff as a log. Finley stopped, looking over her shoulder at Abrial with her eyebrows raised in concern.

“What is wrong? Are you all right?”

Abrial nodded her head quickly, angling her face to the side to hide her burning cheeks. “Yeah, of course I am! My…arm guard started falling off! I’m fixing it! AHA!” Hastily, she raised her forearm to her eyes and pushed her wide sleeve back to begin fiddling with her leather arm guard, which was clearly perfectly in place.

Changing the subject, Abrial blurted, “Bi Gho seems to really like you, heh! Am I right?”

Finley raised her eyebrows at Abrial. “If she does, it is simply because I have previous knowledge of magic. Leader Bi Gho does not have many students with deep experience in the art, so she compliments me disproportionately.”

“Oh,” said Abrial. She continued to fiddle with her arm guard. “Hey—why does everyone call her Leader Bi Gho, anyways? Isn’t Instructor Wei the Camp Head? Is she a leader here, too?”

“Master Wei is the primary Camp Head, but Bi Gho is well-known as a leader at the Wei Camp. She is second to Master Wei in terms of hierarchy, and many look up to her. That is why she is called ‘Leader Bi Gho’. She is also called the Fierce Poet as a nickname. Come, let us go and sit to get started on the lesson.”

Without explaining this ‘Fierce Poet’ nickname, Finley turned, beckoning for Abrial to follow, and continued walking.

Abrial breathed out a sigh of relief. Thank all the heavens and immortals that Finley hadn’t asked her why she was undoing and re-strapping her arm guard over and over again! She scurried after Finley.

They found two empty desks next to each other at the very back of the clearing. Finley started out by giving Abrial some basic instructions on natural manipulation after they’d sat down:

“The key is mental tranquility,” she explained calmly. “Once you have cleared your mind of all irrelevant thoughts, you will be able to much more clearly and tangibly visualize the manipulation of the element you wish to influence, such as this water in your bowl, or the air, or the earth.”

Abrial frowned deeply. Her own mind was always sort of…um, loud. “What if you…you know, can’t clear your mind? What then?”

“Then you will not be able to perform natural magic.”

Abrial scrunched up her nose. “That’s not fair.”

“It is simply the way natural magic functions.”

“Hmph, still not fair.”

Finley instructed Abrial patiently in an exercise of meditation, which they had missed because they had arrived late to class. They breathed deeply together for some minutes, closing their eyes. Abrial tried to listen to the almost drowned-out rustle of the grass around her robes, to the sound of her own breath, and feel the muffled beating of her own heart in her chest.

She frowned in irritation. This was just impossible! It was way too loud with all the commotion going on around to hear her own breath properly. She gritted her teeth and squeezed her eyes shut tighter. Maybe that would help her drown it all out.

A moment later, the intense concentration on her face transformed into a perplexed expression.

Something felt…weird. Was she supposed to hear her heart beating this loud all of a sudden, when she hadn’t heard it at all a second ago? She was sitting perfectly still, and yet, she could hear the ba-dump, ba-dump of its rhythm pulsating within her, pounding in her ears and growing louder, louder…Loud as a giant drum banging in her brain! What’s more, something was strange about the rhythm, too. It sounded almost as if…

As if there were two heartbeats?

Abrial’s eyes shot open.

What the heck was that about?