All the Alien-types found Permeation extremely easy while Poolers found Saturation almost as simple as breathing. The average Affixer would struggle with both a little, but they managed it just fine. Their forte was rarely ever meant to evolve into bare-handed or energy-focused combat anyway. Some Affixers even managed to perform different kinds of Pieyro with their weapons as their skills grew.

Reiss proved to be quite talented. His Custos Zoe assumed the shape of two thick gauntlets around his arms that would have probably fit a thicker student better. After Professor Lyall had finished giving him tips – like she was doing with everyone else – he had immediately closed his eyes to focus. The details on his large gauntlets had made Professor Lyall’s V-shaped smile grow tauter. Of course, Ginger, who had been watching, knew that it was the twinkle in her eyes, as though stars danced within them, that was the true indicator of how proud she was of Reiss.

The dwarfish dragonling was proud of the product he created as well. He knocked the gauntlets against each other and oddly, a crisp metallic clang sounded to confirm that indeed, the Custos Zoe had substance.

Eager not to be outdone, Ginger along with the rest of the students around Reiss had begun working harder.

Having Reiss as motivation was a mercy though. Those who had to suffer watching as Caron’s buckler Custos began to resemble an actual round shield, only, painted with a vibrant sky blue color, were more demotivated than inspired.

Ginger had noticed Fillys looking especially frustrated at Caron’s progress. It wasn’t as though she and her brother were lagging behind though.

Professor Lyall gave a few helpful tips to the plump dragonling when it was his turn to be embossed with her attention. It took no time at all for Ginger to manifest the crooked hat symbol in the middle of his palm.

In order to prevent running out of Kardia, Ginger had opted to learn a Pooling-type Custos. Because of the nature of a Pooler’s Kardia, they couldn’t produce fancy-looking Custos; the kind they produced heavily revolved around using their limbs to absorb impacts, hence why they formed shapes on the parts of their bodies that utilized their Custos.

Ginger felt a significant change in the power of the brand on his palm. It made him feel like he had a jolt of adrenaline running through him all the way to his elbow. It was energetic and sturdy.

Professor Lyall had given him an approving nod and a wink.

It didn’t take half of the lesson for all the dragonlings to produce decent to outstanding Custos Zoes. They all beamed and had hoped to test them out against attacks, but Professor Lyall shot down their hopes.

“I would like to dedicate a full lesson to that. We shall explore the integrity of your Custos next lesson,” she said sternly. “For the rest of our time, I want to make clear something that you’ve witnessed or experienced already. Better to nip it early on, even if there are some of you yet to feel it.”

Professor Lyall took a deep breath while measuring her belly with her hands. As her upper body inflated, thickets of smoke rose from her nostrils and open mouth. Mirages swirled around her face.

The Prime Instructor then blew outward, and a turquoise flame streamed out from between her lips, thin, vivacious, and friendly. It curled and disappeared almost as soon as it had appeared.

The First Blue dragonlings were more impressed by the color of the flame than the flame itself. Most of them had already experienced producing fire with their flaring emotions after the Beginner’s Den.

“I assume you think this is quite basic, having refined your Kardia,” Professor Lyall said with a narrow V. “Indeed, it seems like a trifle – I’d be surprised if you didn’t think so – but can any of you do it on command?”

The dragonlings immediately realized the flaw in their thinking. It sure was a trifle for them to release smoke or fire, but they couldn’t control the process. For the young minds, it was hard to wrap their minds around the idea that something they could do casually wasn’t entirely under their control.

Even Ginger realized that he didn’t know how or why fire burst out of him. Sure, he had refined his Kardia, but why did that prompt a flame to leave his body?

Professor Lyall explained after releasing another sliver of blue flame. The class realized then that the reason she seemed to strain so much to produce the fire was that she was applying some astounding level of skill to not, well, burn the whole building down with a breath. She was dumbing down her fire.

“After your Second Burning, a path was charted from your Stok to your second heart, allowing you to expel Kardia through your body and out of it. But the Kardia you used was unrefined, and what that means is, it did not activate the potential of your biology. Think of it as drinking water – only water – for the rest of your life. To be sure, water is precious to sustain a body, but it’s not enough. It will not give you energy. It merely sustains your existence for a little while before all your organs begin to fail as a result of a lack of nutrients to grow.”

“After refining your Kardia, it acquired the elements necessary to edify your body – to draw out the potential of every single organ. Whenever you wish it, that Kardia flows through you, passively awakening some parts of your biological make-up we have yet to explore in this course. One of those is a special trait of everything considered to be your gut. I’m sure you have all noted – and I’d burn you alive if you haven’t – that you have scales around your belly. All scales mark everywhere fire nests within a dragon. Understandably, without Denaturing – assuming your full draconic form – you have a limited ability to conjure and build up fire within you.”

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Ginger was nodding furiously. If they were in their classroom, he might have jotted down the notes, but it seemed Professor Lyall deemed all the information she spouted to be retainable with just the ears and mind.

Other dragonlings were trying to produce wisps of fire while mimicking Professor Lyall’s straining. They failed miserably.

The thickly professor found it amusing.

“I will again refer to Professor Cain’s exceptional instruction,” she said. “I believe he gave you an exercise to try this Stride. Saturation limit, I believe is a fitting name for it. That is the key to controlling the fire you build up.”

There were a lot of ohs of surprise and realization from the class right then. Even without an additional explanation, the dragonlings understood how this exercise would help.

‘If you Saturate everything in the abdomen, then I suppose that can count for activating the gut, and it produces a flame. Immediately releasing the Saturated Kardia probably forces the gut – or whatever organ produces the fire – to release it from your body as well!’ Ginger thought.

Reiss looked at him, seemingly having reached the same conclusion. The whole class seemed to connect to one network of thinking at that moment. Yes. Yes! They were right. If that was all there was to it, Alien-types, Poolers, and Affixers… anyone could produce a flame at will without a cinch!

“How did none of us manage even a spark? A blasted spark! Dear Vermillion, I thought the concept was simple!” cried Nicolas Onasis as the First Years of First Blue exited the Huddling Fury. Grumbles and groans followed after his gripe.

The twenty minutes left before the end of the class had proven fruitless. Conjuring a flame from whatever nether belly organ Professor Lyall refused to reveal, was easier theorised than executed. Professor Lyall looked all too pleased that the brats had failed. That would motivate them to take Professor Cain’s exercise seriously, she must have thought.

“Shunting Shamans. I hadn’t been practicing at all. It serves me right, I guess.” Ginger was more accepting of his fate. Between everything he had to deal with in the last few days, he hadn’t once tried the Saturation limit exercise.

Reiss had the same energy.

“I think obtaining the ability to defend myself is much more valuable than breathing fire. It takes a while to get a hang of controlling your flames even if you manage to produce them, you know?” he said.

“I imagined that was the case,” said Ginger and he started rummaging through his bag. “I have to give something to the professor. I’ll see you in the next class.”

Reiss told him to be careful as he rushed after Professor Lyall.

Ginger would have nagged her immediately after the lesson was over, but he had been too preoccupied with the surprise at his failure to breathe fire at will.

Ginger only caught up to his Prime Instructor when she was entering the Frost Mount’s Tooth. There were a lot of nosy distractions along the way, after all.

Professor Lyall held Ginger’s form and read it quickly as she took a seat in her office chair. Her eyes behind her round-rimmed glasses were a set of blurs rushing right to left. Ginger watched her nervously from the other end of the table. On the way here, he had explained his purpose, and only after they had reached the door to the professor’s office did she take his form from him.

After what might have been fifteen seconds, she placed the sheet of paper down and gave a nod.

“Forty kilometers from Proin, is it? That’s a hefty distance for a Hunt. Things get stranger and stranger the further away you are from Proin in these parts. I’m not surprised that formal requests for help are coming even from that far out,” she said before fetching a stamp.

“Even if it does say that these disappearances in that village you’re going to are probably a result of some weak but shrewd beast, don’t let your guard down. Not everything about beasts can be explained away with studies and observations. I believe Professor Aarons has told you something similar by now. In any case, however perilous it could turn out, I think it’s a good opportunity for you. Professor Hennigar sees potential in you with Mana Essence, and I think your partners with the…Stalwart Stallions” – Ginger groaned at the name – “will help you nurture that potential. They are qualified professionals.”

Ginger forced a smile as Professor Lyall gave him back the form. He stuffed it back in his bag – after folding it – and thanked her.

He didn’t leave, however. Ginger took a deep breath and stole a glance at the floor and the shelves behind Professor Lyall.

She must have read a portion of the reason behind his hesitation.

“How are you taking the attention?” she said, her lips drawing taut. “You’re becoming the center of it again. It never leaves you for long, does it.”

Ginger stiffened. The lonesome strands of orange hair on his head seemed to droop sadly.

“I hate it,” he said succinctly – angrily.

“Of course you do,” Professor Lyall said and her eyes lost their lustre. “But that doesn’t mean you have the luxury of feeling sorry for yourself. You’re fortunate to have someone like Reiss by your side. I know you do not underestimate his value, but you don’t do so well in taking after him, imbibing what makes him resist the things you fall victim to – taunts and japes. You need to learn that skill while growing your physical strengths.” She leaned forward. “There are more than a few dragons who would love to see you off the institute grounds or worse. Don’t make it easy for them.”

Ginger’s eyes went round. He lurched forward, drawing close to Professor Lyall.

“It’s other Professors, isn’t it? One of them has been sp—”

“There is not an ounce of significance in knowing who the enemy is right now. They wouldn’t do anything reckless… unless there was something about you that really shook them,” the thickly dragon interrupted Ginger. The plump dragonling gulped. He didn’t like the way Altha’s eyes sparkled right then. “Focus on fortifying your tolerance for idiots and capitalizing on your potential. That is the purpose of this institute after all, along with your safety.”

Ginger nodded and his gaze fell to his feet. He scratched his thigh. The concerns he had wanted to make known to his Prime Instructor had been exposed before he could spill them on his own.

Professor Lyall was right.

If whoever leaked that false information about him, rallying the attention of all the other students towards him – again – was an instructor, there was nothing Ginger could do about it. He had to grow stronger… and make sure he kept his secrets under thicker wraps.

Ginger groaned. This meant that his dual-soul nature needed to remain hidden from his friends. He admitted he had been considering telling Reiss one of these days. The guilt was becoming a physical weight on him. But now…

He sighed.

‘I’m safe, am I?’ he thought.

Before he could stop himself, Ginger lanced his Prime Instructor with a sharp look and asked something he only mildly hoped to ask at this very moment:

“Why did you pair me up with Alcaeus during your exercise, Professor?”