Genius || Variable thirty-two

Spruce sat on the ground, with his head between his legs, and his hands on his head. He was dizzy, and he tried to control himself from vomiting.

“Are you okay?” Yew asked after he walked up to his neighbor.

“I feel sick,” Spruce responded.

“What happened?”

“I don’t know,” he answered, moved his head to the side, and vomited, receiving some ewwws from the nearby students, who didn’t like what they saw.

“Are you sick?!” the voice of the approaching teacher made everyone stand aside. “You don’t have to come to class, if you don’t feel well,” Cacao said, as he came closer. “Take him to the clinic,” he commanded Yew, who stood by Spruce. “I excuse both of you from today’s class. Just for confirmation, Spruce Fire and Yew Sky?”

“Yes, professor,” Yew answered.

“Good, then. I’ll mark your absence as excused today. Just go, already.” Then he turned to the other students and said in a loud voice, “everyone else, get inside the classroom, or I’ll give you negative points for being late.”

The students quickly hurried inside the classroom. Meanwhile, Spruce slowly stood up with Yew’s help and, as they began walking away, the teacher took a final look at them, nodded with sympathy, then also entered the classroom.

“Which way is the clinic?” Yew asked.

“How do I know?” Spruce responded, then added, “it’s fine. I’m not sick. That ride was just crazy.”

They stopped walking and Spruce pointed at the grass under a tree. “I just need to sit down for a bit, and it’ll go away.”

Both boys sat down on the grass under the tree. There were no other people around them, because students and teachers alike were already inside their classrooms holding classes for another hour.

Spruce kept his head down between his legs, and Yew was just quietly sitting next to him, while observing the empty roads, and wondering how odd it felt to be alone in such a vast labyrinth of buildings.

After a long time of rest, Spruce finally felt better. “Let’s go to Sorrel’s class,” he said, then slowly got up. Yew did the same.

Spruce’s legs were still tired from yesterday’s run, so he knew that he couldn’t walk fast. However they weren't far away from the History building, and with the extra time, which they had, he could slowly get there on time.

“So how did you happen to meet with that tutor?” Yew asked, after Spruce began walking.

“I woke up late today, and when I was on my way to class, she saw me and asked me, if I was skipping class. I told her that I’m late and I'm in a hurry. Then she dragged me onto that bench and before I could get off, the bench started flying.”

“She dragged you? Without asking if you want a ride or not?”

Spruce confirmed with a nod.

Yew thought for a moment. He remembered the first time, when Chervil came over to the classroom and introduced herself. She certainly appeared like a rather odd type of a person, and the latest story from Spruce made Yew even more afraid of the gal. He decided that he would stay away from her as much as possible, even if he had to skip Exercise classes every Wednesday.

The two of them arrived early to the Process class. The door was closed, because the previous class hadn’t yet finished. The boys sat by the wall. However they didn’t have to wait long, because soon the classes had ended, and the door to classroom B was opened from inside. The girls of the first year began stepping out and heading toward another classroom. Among them was Wasabi, who didn’t spot the boys, because she was busy talking with another girl from her class.

After all the students had left, Spruce and Yew got up from the ground, and entered the classroom, which was empty except for the teacher, who sat at her desk. Spruce quickly headed for his desk, while Yew took a moment to look around. Being the only two students in the classroom had an interesting feel to it, and Yew couldn’t quite tell what it was.

However, the quiet moment didn’t last long. Soon their classmates arrived. The room became full of students as usual, and the lecture started.

“Now that everyone can use magic, or their magical items,” Sorrel smiled at Spruce, “let us move on.”

She knocked on the board and two words appeared: «concentration», and «stamina».

“As you already know, concentration is necessary to start magic, and stamina is necessary to continue using magic. All of you had some stamina and some concentration, when you first came to Hecate. However, not all of you had enough to make magic happen, which is why you struggled to perform magic in your first week of school.”

She walked up to the word «concentration» and slid her finger under it. A vertical list of ten labels appeared from one percent until ten percent.

“Magic concentration is divided into three ranks: bronze, silver and gold. Each rank is further divided into percentages. Hundred percent of bronze rank is required to graduate Hecate. Hundred percent silver rank is considered to be a professional magus, and hundred percent gold rank is, well, rare.”

She took a moment to quietly look at her students. “When you first walked in this class, your concentration was somewhere near zero percent. It takes about one percent of bronze rank concentration to shake a pen, and in order to advance to the second year, you’ll need to have at least ten percent bronze rank concentration by the end of the school year.”

She turned back to the blackboard. “But concentration isn’t enough.”

She slid her finger under stamina, and once again a vertical list of labels appeared. This time, it started at zero percent and went up to five percent with the intervals of half a percent. “Stamina is also important. To measure stamina we use stamina levels. The lowest one being zero percent, which is that of a newborn baby. Thirty percent stamina is the average for most adults. Anything beyond that is considered above average levels of stamina.”

She faced the class once again. “You need at least five percent of stamina in order to graduate the first year. If you fail the minimum requirements in the magic concentration rank or in the stamina level by the end of the year, you’ll have to either repeat the year or find another school.”

She walked up to her desk. "So today, we’ll check your current concentration rank and stamina level.” She pointed at an alarm clock on her desk, “this is a stamina clock. As you see, it has percentages from zero point zero until one point zero. When your stamina goes over one percent, then it will do another circle. So, if any of you have a stamina of three percent then the clock handle will make three circles.”

Then she pointed at something, which looked like a thermometer, “this is a basic magic concentration indicator. It can be used to measure bronze rank from zero to fifty percent. I’ll read your namehoods, so if you hear your name, I want you to come to the desk, and move this pen,” she pointed at the pen on the table. “When you do that the magic concentration indicator will calculate your concentration, and the stamina clock will measure the amount of stamina you possess.”

She read out the namehood of the first student, and when he came up to her desk, she addressed him and the class, “make sure you give your best, or your results will be lower than actual.”

The student did try his best and received zero point seven percent on stamina, and two percent on his concentration. Sorrel noted down the results and called out the next person, who received zero point five percent on stamina, and two percent on his concentration. This pattern went on for another five people, who ranged between zero point five to one point two percent on stamina and between one to two percent on concentration.

Sorrel called out Linden, who came up to the table, and levitated the pen with ease. The stamina clock ranked four point six percent and the magic concentration indicator showed fourteen percent. The whole class couldn’t believe the results, and Sorrel shook her head in disapproval. With a scorn on her face, she wrote down the results. And when Linden was on his way back to his desk, she said to him, “please come to my office in the afternoon.”

Several namehoods later, Aspen was called to the teacher’s desk. He returned back with one point four percent level of stamina, and a whole eight percent bronze rank in concentration.

After all the magic-talented students were called, Sorrel called out Yew’s name. He came up to the teacher’s desk totally stressed. He didn’t know what his results would be, but he prayed that it wouldn't be anything higher than Linden’s. Trying to control his power as much as he could and use only the minimum of it, he slowly shook the pen.

Sorrel noted Yew's results: zero point seven percent on stamina and one percent on concentration.

Yew couldn’t feel happier how perfectly he managed to fit in with the average students around him. He returned back to his desk feeling blissfully relieved.

Last to be examined was Spruce. When he walked up to the teacher’s desk, Sorrel looked at him, and said, “oh yeah, your tool uses fire. Instead of floating the pen, please set it up on fire."

Spruce did just that. The pen burst into flames, and Sorrel looked at the stamina clock, which ran a full circle, and then another one and stopped at two point nine percent.

She took a quick look at the magic concentration indicator, and so did Spruce, who was so surprised that he stopped his magic. “Oh, I'm sorry," he apologized, ready to redo the flame, but Sorrel stopped him.

“It’s fine,” she put her hand over the pen, which wasn't even charred. “I already saw the result. Four percent,” she took back her hand, and wrote down both numbers next to Spruce’s namehood in her register book.

All students were beyond words, and many of them also looked at Linden, who simply rolled his eyes. Yew looked at Spruce, then at Linden, then back at Spruce, as he recalled Juniper’s words: “there are two kinds of geniuses in the world, those who start earlier than anyone else, and those who start later than everyone else.”

Item || Variable thirty-one

Spruce stood in front of Sorrel’s office inside the schoolmanor. He was here two weeks ago in order to help Sorrel move the boxes from her office to the classroom, and at that time it was a lot of fun, but today he came prepared for the worst.

In his head, he could already hear the teacher tell him that he has no talent for this; that he should consider going to another school; that if he cannot succeed by next week, he would be expelled. Having his lifegoal destroyed like that was going to be painful, but he couldn’t change the inevitable, so after standing still for quite a long time, he finally found the courage to face his fate. He took a deep breath and knocked on the door.

The door magically opened with a soft swooshing sound, and Sorrel welcomed him with two words: “come in.”

She was walking around her office room arranging some documents from her desk back onto the shelf. After Spruce walked in, she pointed at the chair in front of her desk and warmly invited him, “please, sit down.”

Spruce sat and waited. In the meantime she kept looking through some of the documents in her hand.

Eventually Sorrel cleaned the documents off her desk and put them back onto the shelfcase. Then she sat down on her chair at the other side of the desk.

“I’m sorry that you had to wait," she started. "Can I see the magical item, which you've bought last week?”

Spruce quickly nodded his head, and put the dagger on the table.

“Oh," Sorrel was slightly surprised. "I should have expected that from a boy." She pointed at the item, "so even with this dagger, you still cannot float a pen, huh?”

Spruce nodded once but firmly.

“What kind of magic does it have specifically? Sky magic? Air magic? Wind magic? Gravity magic?” she listed the most likely options.

Spruce blinked in confusion.

Seeing his reaction, the teacheress explained, “well, I haven’t taught that yet, because magic variations are many in number, but when you were buying this item, the seller should have told you its magic variation.”

“I don’t know,” Spruce quietly admitted, but then he recalled what happened when Linden used it. “I think it may be Fire magic,” he added.

“Fire magic? Oh, then that explains why you couldn’t float a pen.”

After Spruce heard Sorrel’s statement, he looked at her in hope.

“Fire cannot float objects,” she continued. “At least not by itself.” She took a pen from the basket of pens on her desk and put it in front of Spruce. “Instead of trying to float it, try to set it on fire.”

Spruce furrowed his eyebrows, and concentrated.

“Don’t forget to hold it,” she reminded him about his magical item.

Spruce put his hand on his dagger, and imagined setting the pen on fire. A spark appeared, then another one, and three more sparks twinkled consecutively before a flame burst out and surrounded the whole pen.

Sorrel snapped her fingers above the burning pen, and the flame disappeared in an instant.

“I don’t want you to burn my office,” she said with a sweet smile. “But other than that, it’s a pass. I recommend you practice under the sink.”

Spruce looked at the burned pen, and couldn’t believe what had just happened.

“Do you have any more questions?” Sorrel asked the boy.

Spruce looked at her, then back at the pen.

“Oh, don’t worry about it.” She touched the pen, which returned back to its preburned state. Then she put it back with her other pens. “As long as the damage isn’t extensive, it’s always easy to fix.”

“I can use magic,” Spruce still couldn’t believe his own eyes.

“Yes, you can. And if you have no more questions, you can go back and practice more. I expect to see it again tomorrow in class.”

“Yes, professor, thank you,” Spruce responded then got up the chair. He was already on the way out, when Sorrel once again reminded him of the dagger, which was still laying on her desk. He turned around and before feeling too embarrassed, he took the dagger and quickly left the office.

Outside, he couldn’t contain his euphoria. He ran through the hallway of the schoolmanor, and got yelled at by some of the teachers, who didn’t approve of anyone running around or near their offices. However, Spruce didn’t stop to listen to their preachings. He continued to run.

Right after he exited the schoolmanor, he jumped up as high as he could, and screamed, “God-made!”

A lot of students and teachers looked at the boy, who just ran off as suddenly as he ran out of the building. Many smiled with an understanding. They all knew that something very good must have happened to him.

The phrase “God-made” was a common phrase used by those, who experienced something awesome. Some linguists claimed that it was an abbreviation of the sentence, “God made a miracle”, while others sought the explanation elsewhere. The phrase itself had been used for so many centuries, that no one really knew where it came from, but the meaning behind it had never changed. It was always the expression of unlimited joy.

Spruce kept running through the schoolground without taking a break to rest. He passed different buildings, students, and teachers. All of whom looked after the runner with questioning countenances, not knowing the purpose or the cause of his run.

He only slowed down, when he arrived by the hamlet, not because of close proximity to his home, but because his stomach muscles began to hurt.

When he finally entered the living room of his cottage, Aspen, who sat at his desk on the left side, looked up from the textbook, which he was reading.

“So how was it?” he asked.

“God-made,” Spruce answered with the last bit of breath, which he had, and fell onto the sofa.

“That’s good,” Aspen responded then went back to reading.

Spruce, who didn’t sleep well the night before, fell asleep on the sofa right away. He woke up later on, when it was almost dark outside. Aspen was already in his bed, so Spruce quietly took a shower, and while doing so, he kept recalling the meeting with Sorrel. He couldn’t get enough of the warm feeling of success burning inside him.

When he was dressing up into his pajamas, he imagined the reactions of his friends tomorrow in class, and he couldn’t wait until the night was over. He hid himself under the comforter and giggled like a bride the night before her wedding. Not realizing when, he fell asleep with a big smile on his face.

And while he slept, the new day arrived.

He felt someone take off his bedcovers, and heard Aspen talking to him.

“If you don’t wake up soon, you’ll be late to class.”

He opened his eyes, and saw that Aspen was already up and ready. It didn’t surprise him, because Aspen was always up and ready early in the morning.

“What time is it?” he asked, while rubbing his eyes.

“Look at the clock,” Aspen pointed at the round clock above the door.

Spruce slowly turned around his head. However, when he saw the hour, his lethargy immediately disappeared and he began to dress up ultra-fast.

“I’ll be going ahead,” Aspen said before he left.

Spruce quickly finished dressing up. He didn't have enough time to eat breakfast, so he went straight to the entry room, put on outdoor shoes and ran out. But as soon as he left the cottage, he felt a quick sharp pain in his legs. The fatigue from the crazy long run of yesterday took over his body, and he couldn’t move well.

He believed that he could still make it on time, if he walked, so he began the difficult journey toward the classroom. His body gave him signals that it would rather rest than walk, but he didn’t want to give up. When he was halfway to the classroom, he felt a sharp stab in his side and he had to make a stop.

“Skipping class?” a female voice asked him from behind.

He turned around and saw Chervil Sun walking around leisurely at a time, when most students ran as fast as possible to make it on time to their classes.

“My legs hurt,” Spruce said.

“Take a day off,” she suggested.

“I don’t want to.”

“What resolution,” she snorted with fake admiration. “But your hands are fine?” she asked with a smirk.

“Yeah?” Spruce didn’t know how it was related.

“Which building are you heading to?”

“History building, classroom A.”

Chervil took him by the arm and pushed him onto a nearby bench. “Then grab on,” she said and also sat down.

“I have to go,” Spruce began complaining, but stopped, when he realized that the bench started levitating.

“All passengers aboard, please hold on,” Chervil said like a kid playing a bus conductor. “We take no responsibility for passengers, who accidentally leave the plane mid-flight.”

Spruce grabbed the bench and held on as hard as he could. His intuition was telling him that he wasn’t going to like it. When the bench was at the height of about five meters, it suddenly moved forward at a speed, which was way too fast for a travelling bench.

“Oh no,” Chervil shouted, “the speed limit is only twenty kilometers per hour. Our car has exceeded the speed limit,” then she looked behind and said, “we’re being chased. We must increase the speed.” Instead of slowing, the bench moved even faster and faster, taking sharp turns around the buildings and among the trees.

Spruce began to feel sick after six or so turns, but before he had a chance to throw up, Chervil announced, “we’re sinking, the boat is too heavy.”

The bench began to slow down and flew downward toward the ground. It suddenly came to a halt, and while it was floating right above the ground, Chervil shouted, “remove excess baggage!” before she threw Spruce off the bench right in front of the History building, classroom A.

All the students, who didn’t enter the classroom yet, were staring in surprise at the method of arrival, which Spruce had acquired unwillingly. Meanwhile, Chervil stood up on the bench and declared, “this is a pirate ship.” The bench once again began floating up. Chervil pointed into the distance and shouted, “the treasure is right ahead,” and the bench quickly flew away.

Test || Variable thirty

Then came the eighth day of Byzh, a Monday morning, which had arrived way too fast. The students headed to their classes, and nobody could understand why Linden was so happy early in the morning.

When they were close to the History building, Spruce asked him, “what makes you so happy? Your negative hundred twenty-five points?”

“Who cares about homework points?" Linden shrugged. "Free food is only for test points,” he responded and walked into the classroom with a smug face.

After Cacao Bark arrived, the students greeted him and he greeted them back. Then he walked up to his desk and tapped it twice. Upon his action, a pile of papers appeared on top of his desk next to his hand. He grabbed the first answer sheet.

“For those of you, who don’t know. Any score of ninety percent or more grants you seven days of free meals in the cafeteria. Since this test was for a total of hundred points, this means anyone, who scored at least ninety points, will receive from me a free meal pass. Let me start, Aspen Breeze, ninety eight points.”

Aspen walked up to the teacher and got back his answer sheet together with the free meal pass, which looked like a small sticker, which he could stick onto his student badge. The sticker was less than two centimeters long and had the word “bread” in the center. Aspen stuck the sticker at the top of the number one in his student badge, which he kept on his chest.

The students started to accustom themselves to the school's tradition to openly announce their scores together with their names, so no one reacted strongly to it anymore. And no one was surprised at Aspen’s score, because he always had the highest score.

One by one the students took their papers.

“Yew Sky, eighty three points.”

Some more names were called, then...

“Linden Cave, hundred points.”

It was the first time someone received hundred points, and most students thought that they had misheard the name, but when they saw Linden walking to the front, they could no longer doubt their ears.

Before Cacao handed Linden his answer sheet and the free meal sticker, he warned in a rather threatening voice, “allow me to remind you that your total score is still negative twenty five points. You won’t pass this class with a negative score."

Linden showed no reaction, and upon receiving his items, he nonchalantly went back to his seat.

Afterward the teacher read the next name, “Spruce Fire, thirty two points.”

It was the lowest score in the class. And even after all the names were read, the second lowest score was only fifty six points. Spruce couldn’t hide how horribly he felt. He remained silent throughout the class, and he wasn’t in the mood to talk, even when they headed to the much nicer Process class.

There, Sorrel Cave walked up to each student, checking if they succeeded moving the pen. Everyone, except for Spruce, succeeded in magic, and that included Yew, who shook it twice, a bit faster than he intended, but the teacher didn’t see anything odd about it.

No matter how many attempts, Sorrel gave to Spruce, the boy couldn’t do it, and he ended up to be the only student, who had a mandatory afternoon meeting with Sorrel in her office. Yew felt sorry for him, but he had no means to help him, so instead of accidentally hurting Spruce with words, he kept his mouth shut.

During lunch in the cafeteria, Linden paid for Yew’s and Spruce’s meal, and tried to cheer up the poor magicless student, “did you hear that a bad beginning is a sign of a great ending?”

Spruce however remained gloomy, “if I don’t finish the first year as a top student of my class, my father won’t allow me to attend Hecate anymore.”

“Ignore your parents, and chase your dreams,” Linden declared. “Don’t let others tell you what to do.”

Spruce narrowed his eyes. He wasn’t in the mood for jokes, but Linden looked totally serious, so Spruce didn’t say anything in response.

After the meal, they went to the Exercise class, and were surprised to see Juniper Root, with a bag in his left hand, leaning on the wall near the entrance, and no sight of Maca Waterfall.

“Come in, come in,” he said. “Welcome to the greatest class ever.” When all the attending students went inside, Juniper closed the door and walked right to the center of the room, “so you wonder, where’s Maca, I bet. Our tutoring group had a meeting yesterday and arranged a schedule, which will allow us to have more time for our own studies.”

He turned his body around, taking a good look at everybody in the class. “Since you’re only first years, there ain’t much to teach you, so each day you’ll have a different tutor. Monday it’s me – Juniper Root, Tuesday it’s Chervil, Wednesday it’s Beech, Thursday it’s Maca, and Friday it’s Sage. On Saturday, it’ll be whoever volunteers.”

Then he rubbed his hands, “so unlike last week, by today you ought to know a little bit of magic, so let’s do this...” He took the bag and turned it upside down. A rain of green leaves fell to the floor.

“Make them levitate,” he said, “like this...” And then all the leaves began floating up and then around the classroom.

“I don’t expect you to move them all at once,” he said, while the leaves began moving toward the students. Then each leaf fell on the head of a different student. “It’s one leaf per student, so you only need to move your own leaf. When you succeed I have a little reward for you.”

The students took the leaves off their heads, and began trying. All except Spruce, who didn’t even bother removing the leaf from his head. Juniper saw that and came over to the boy. “What’s up?” he asked.

Spruce looked up at him, and said, “I cannot do it.”

Juniper squatted next to him, took the leaf of his head, and held it in his hand, “why do you say so?” he asked genuinely curious.

“Because I couldn’t even shake the pen in the classroom.”

Juniper blew air at the leaf, which changed color from green to orange. He let go of the leaf, which floated and rotated sunwise in one place, right in front of Spruce.

“You know, not everybody gets accepted to Hecate,” he said. “Do you know why?”

Spruce shook his head sideways.

Juniper moved a finger forward in the air. The leaf moved closer to Spruce, and landed on his lap.

“Do you remember your last day of kindergarten?” the guy asked.

“Somewhat,” Spruce answered. “We had a test, but it wasn’t scored. We had to write answers to some questions. They were testing us on orthography and reading skills.”

“The copy of those answers were sent to Hecate together with the application,” Juniper stated.

“So what?” Spruce was getting agitated.

“Do you remember this question: Is there anything in your life, which you want but cannot have?”

“Yeah.”

“And what did you answer?”

“Yes.”

“Just one word?” Juniper smiled, and Spruce nodded. “You know, some people write more than that. They write many details about their dreams. However, all schools around the world prioritize those, whose answers are short or mysterious. Can you guess why?”

Spruce slowly shook his head sideways.

“Because if someone keeps his dream a secret, it’s because his dream is far bigger than possible. They don’t want others to laugh at them.”

“So what?” Spruce got irritated by the unhelpful chat.

Juniper stood up and looked at other students, who were practicing hard with the leaves, then he looked back at Spruce. “There are two kinds of geniuses in the world, those who start earlier than anyone else, and those who start later than everyone else."

Right after he said that, he walked away before Spruce processed the sentence.

Juniper approached another student, who already managed to float his leaf. “Good job,” he complimented the boy, and from his pocket he took out a candy.

Yew, who sat nearby, heard the last comment Juniper told Spruce and furrowed his eyebrows. He wondered how geniuses could start later than everyone else, because that couldn’t make them geniuses, but the very opposite - incompetent failures.

The Exercise class ended with twelve students successfully floating their leaves. Spruce sat the whole time, while doing nothing, and Yew wasn’t even trying. He decided to practice later in secret, with nobody around.

After the class ended, Spruce went to see the teacher, while Yew and Aspen went back home.

Back at his cottage, Yew decided to tell Linden about the Exercise class, “you know, today our tutor wasn’t Maca. It was that other guy, Juniper.”

“Hmm…” Linden responded, barely interested. He was lazily lying on his stomach on the sofa, and hugging a pillow under his chin.

“And he said something super weird," Yew continued. "He said that there are two types of geniuses, those who start earlier than others, and those who start later than others. Weird, right?”

“Sounds about right,” Linden murmured into the pillow.

“How is it about right?” Yew furrowed his eyebrows again.

“He said that about Spruce, yeah?” Linden raised his head a bit, and Yew nodded in answer.

“Then you’ll understand tomorrow,” Linden ended the conversation, and without any further explanation, he put his face on the pillow and ignored the whole world.

Practice || Variable twenty-nine

A knock on the door was followed by Spruce’s voice calling the name, “Linden!”

“What does he want?” Linden spoke to himself and walked to the entry room. Yew also went to see what was the issue.

Spruce was waiting in the entrance. “How does this work?” he asked, pointing at his newly acquired dagger, which he held in the other hand.

“This is something you should have asked before you bought it," Linden snarled back.

“Just tell me," Spruce half-begged and half-demanded.

“Give it to me,” Linden stretched out his hand and Spruce put the dagger onto his open palm.

Holding the dagger, Linden stepped outside and away from the cottage entrance. He closed his eyes, and took a deep breath. When he opened his eyes again, the simple dagger turned into a long sword. It had detailed golden decorations carved on the blackest handle, and white shining decorations on the smoothest metal, which any of them ever saw.

Furthermore, the sword was surrounded by raging flames of bright orange-red fire, which also surrounded Linden and circled around him like guard dogs. The sudden spectacle brought attention from those of their neighbors, who were outside, and those who at the time looked out through the windows.

“What was that?” one of them asked, after all the flames disappeared and the sword turned back into a dagger.

“His magical item,” Linden gave the dagger back to Spruce, before he re-entered his cottage.

“Wait, how did you do it? Do it one more time!” Spruce begged and ran after Linden, who ignored him and walked into the restroom, where Spruce couldn’t follow him.

Yew looked around at the people present in the neighborhood, many of whom were also his classmates. He saw that some of them were clearly amazed and jealous of the magic, which they just saw. Surely many of them had changed their opinions regarding magical items.

Seeing that Linden wouldn’t help him anymore, Spruce returned back to his cottage. He was nonetheless feeling overjoyed at the possibility that one day he’d also be able to do the same.

Later that day, Yew went to do his homework, while Linden totally dismissed his. Instead, the beautiful boy was reading a book about the oldest jokes of the world. His occasional laughing bothered Yew, who nevertheless managed to concentrate and complete his assignments.

Afterward, Yew ate supper and went to take a shower. Once he was done showering, it was already fairly late, so he planned to go to bed. However, when Linden went to take the shower after him, Yew saw it as an opportunity to check his magical talents in secret.

While Linden was taking his shower, Yew took a pen and put it on the table in the living room. He focused his eyes on the item, and imagined the pen moving up and levitating above the table. Instantly, just like he imagined it, the pen began to move up, then it stopped midair roughly half a meter above the table.

Yew looked around, afraid of being noticed, but there was no one else to see his magic. Linden was still taking his shower, and the closed curtains on the windows were blocking the view of anyone, who’d still be out at this late hour.

In the same manner as before, Yew imagined the pen slowly falling back onto the desk and the pen did just that.

Yew decided to test the brooch next.

Linden said that he could use it to fly, so he decided to try levitating. While holding the brooch in his hand, he imagined himself levitating. He couldn’t remember exactly what he looked like, because there were just too many details, but even without an exact image, he slowly lifted off and levitated about a meter above the floor.

He was euphoric at his success to the point, that he wanted to scream in joy, but the fear of being discovered kept a tight muzzle on his other emotions. Slowly he levitated himself down and onto the floor. He didn’t want to accidentally get caught by Linden, who could finish his shower at any moment now, so Yew decided that he wouldn’t test the limits of his magic or his magical tool anymore for today.

Suddenly, the front door opened with an extremely loud bang and Spruce, dressed in pajamas, ran inside, screaming, “did you fly?”

Totally confused and terrified, Yew only stared back. Next, Linden stepped out of the shower completely naked and looked at Yew, “did you use the brooch?” he asked nonchalantly.

Yew instinctively shook his head to mean ‘no’.

Linden looked at Yew, then at Spruce, then went back to the shower room.

“It’s insane,” Spruce continued, “we all flew!”

“Levitated is the correct term,” Aspen, also dressed in pajamas, said after coming a bit later. “There’s quite a big commotion outside. It looks like we weren’t the only ones, who experienced that. The people in the neighboring cottages also levitated.”

“I wonder what caused that?” Spruce said excitedly, and ran out to talk with the others, who gathered outside.

Yew almost certainly knew, what caused that, but deep inside he prayed that it would forever remain a secret.

“Anyway, it looks like it’s over, so I’m going back to sleep,” Aspen said and left.

Yew also went to bed, and even though the commotion outside continued for a long time, somehow he quickly fell asleep, glad that nobody suspected him.

By the morning of the third day of Byzh, everyone in Hecate had heard about the late night occurrence in the hamlet of the first year students. Most teachers assumed it to be a joke by some students from the higher years, and this had become the official explanation of the event.

Other than that, nothing had changed from the previous days. Linden lost points for not doing his homework in the History class. In the Process class, they trained in magic, except for Yew, who was just sitting there staring at a pen, making the teacher think that he was simply that talentless.

Only fourteen people showed up to the Exercise class, including Yew, Spruce and Aspen. Maca was the only person present there. She wanted to help, but her explanations were too clumsy to be useful.

After returning back home on the third day of Byzh, Yew saw that his stuff had arrived from home, and his father wrote him a letter. He received an additional four thousand syfras to his money card, and Kapok asked him to notify him again, if Yew needed anything else.

The fourth and fifth days of Byzh were the same, with the exception that instead of going to the Exercise class, the boys went to Sheepcrown to eat, and to save money buying the cheaper food.

On the sixth day of Byzh, Linden walked into the History class, all in a good mood. There was no homework the day before. Instead Cacao announced that they will have their first test. Most students wondered why Linden, who already had a negative hundred twenty five points could be in such a good mood, but some just assumed that he was crazy.

The test started and they had an hour to finish. But not even half an hour passed, when Linden stood up, walked over to the teacher and turned in his answer sheet. Cacao took his answer sheet and began reading it with furrowed eyebrows. Meanwhile Linden quietly left the classroom.

The teacher sighed as he put the answer sheet upside down on his desk.

After finishing the test in the History class, the students moved on to the Process class, where the day went on as usual. Except, at the end of the class, Sorrel announced that those students, who wouldn’t be able to at least shake the pen by Monday would have a mandatory afternoon meeting with her.

So when Saturday classes came to an end, many students went to the Exercise class to get help from Maca, who was the only tutor available. Surprisingly, even with her clumsy, but well-meant help, almost all of them succeeded at least shaking the pen. The only two students, who couldn’t do it, were Yew, who knowingly did nothing, and Spruce, who tried hard but couldn’t do it at all.

Unfortunately for them, Maca was magic-talented and she had no idea how to help magicless students. The two boys learned that their magicless tutor was Beech Meadow, who had yet to show himself.

Spruce and Yew spent the rest of the day reviewing the textbook and looking for clues on how to use magic.

The next day Aspen went to the city of Sheepcrown early in the morning before the sunrise, and Linden also did the same but closer to the noontime. Spruce spent the whole day trying hard to move the pen in his cottage, so Yew had his cottage all to himself.

To Yew, this was a perfect timing to practice moving the pen. He didn’t want to shock everyone by making the pen float, but he didn’t want to have a meeting with the teacheress. So he concentrated on subduing his magic.

On his first try, the pen shook quickly and many times. This was very different from the skill level of his classmates. So he tried again and again until the pen slowly shook once, just like it did for the majority of students in his class.

When he accomplished that, he took a break, and afterward, he continued to try to do the same, while holding a brooch. He couldn’t spell without it, if he wanted to keep his disguise as a magicless student. So he touched the brooch and did exactly the same as before, but the pen shot up into the air then fell onto the floor.

Yew bit his lower lip upon realizing how much more difficult it would be to control the magic in the brooch.

He picked up the pen from the floor, and put it back on the table. He already had a lot of magical talent, and the powerful brooch unnecessarily amplified his magic. He knew that it was going to be hard, but nonetheless he continued.

After severalteen failed attempts, he recalled the time, when Wasabi showed them the magical battle of the ninth year students. The magicless student from that battle didn’t hold his rings, instead he only touched them for a brief moment.

Yew clipped his brooch onto his shirt. Afterward, he tapped it and used the spell right after tapping it. This time the pen only jumped up a little bit.

“Now this is doable,” he said to himself and continued to train.

Market || Variable twenty-eight

Linden looked at the five boxes on the shelves, and asked himself, "so what do we have here?"

He checked the first box. Inside, there was a necklace so beautiful that it looked like it had been made for a queen. "Meh," he sounded disappointed.

"That looked expensive," Spruce commented after Linden put the box back.

"Everything here is expensive."

"I don’t have that kind of money," Yew felt anxious.

"Buy it on credit. It’s worth it," Linden provided him with the solution, as he opened the second box. Inside there was a dagger. "This looks good. Hold it," he gave the box to Spruce.

Looking into the third box, which contained an armband, Linden commented, "maybe, if there's nothing better."

When checking the fourth box, he immediately closed the lid with a judgement of "definitely not", then put the box back before the other boys could even see its content. As for the fifth box, he paused as he eyed the simple yet elegant brooch.

"Hmm… too difficult," he was going to put it back on the shelf, but then he turned to Yew. "Do you want a powerful item which is hard to control, or an item which is super easy to control but isn’t so useful?"

"Of course, he’ll take the powerful item," Spruce answered for Yew.

"What do these items do?" Yew asked.

"The armband can be used to change your appearance on top of having some basic sky magic. The brooch... It kind of looks like a mix of magic which allows you to control air and gravity. You may be able to fly with this."

"How do you know this?" Aspen inquired.

"Spells of perception can allow the user to see the world in different ways. I have something, which allows me to see magic. And since each magic looks different, it’s easy to tell them apart with one look, at least in most cases." He looked at Yew, "so? Which one do you want?"

"The brooch," Yew answered.

Spruce smiled gloriously, assuming at the time that Yew had ambitions as high as his own. However he was wrong. Yew selected the brooch, because Linden described it as powerful but hard to control. Thus in case of something unexpected, he could always blame the magical item in order to hide his talent.

"I told you, he’d take the powerful item," Spruce marveled at his accurate prediction.

"Okay then. Let’s go pay." Linden took the box with the brooch, and stepped out. When no one was inside the safe anymore, the door closed by itself.

They went toward the exit. As Linden put his hand on the handle, he commanded the boys, "stay here. I'll be back in a moment."

They did as told, and waited until Linden came back with the cashier several minutes later. The man immediately looked at the box held by Spruce, then he glanced at the box held by Linden.

"Twenty thousand and thirty five thousand, so a total of fifty five thousand syfras."

"They'll be buying it separately," Linden pointed at his classmates.

"Wait, what? How many syfras?" Spruce yelled out, bewildered at the price.

Yew's mouth dropped open from the shock. The most expensive thing he'd ever bought was his backpack, which had cost him two thousand syfras, and it was the very expensive type, waterproof with a lot of pockets.

The cashier grimaced at the idea of working with poor customers. He looked questioningly at Linden, who gave him a warm smile in return.

"Any discount?" the boy asked.

"You know I don’t give discounts to new customers."

"And how much would that be on the credit?"

"Hmmm," the cashier rubbed his chin, as he did the math in his mind. "No less than thousand fifty hundred per month on the dagger or two thousand fifty hundred per month on the brooch."

"They’re students of Hecate," Linden pointed at their badges. "They’ll be here for the next nine years."

"I cannot wait that long," the man crossed his arms.

"Maybe we can buy something else?" Yew quietly proposed to Linden, who snapped back at him with the ferocity of a mad squirrel.

"If you want good stuff, don’t give up so fast!"

The cashier shook his head sideways, disgruntled by the inexperienced customers. "I’m not giving in no matter what you propose," he directed his words at Linden. "Last time I gave you a discount of eighty percent, but I told you that it'll never happen again. Moreover, they're not even regular customers."

"They might become such. They're both magicless," Linden remarked back.

The man looked at Spruce and Yew, and scratched his chin, as he considered his business opportunities.

"I shouldn't have been so lenient on discounts," he grumbled to himself.

Linden heard him anyway. "I’m not asking for a discount, just a good credit option."

"No less than thousand monthly for the dagger and two thousand monthly for the brooch," the cashier stated in a tone as if he was repeating himself. Yet the boys noticed that he dropped the monthly installments by fifty hundred syfras.

"Spruce," Linden looked at his classmate. "How much money did your parents give you for this year?"

"Twenty thousand, but I already spent some of it," he responded.

"How about this?" Linden spoke to the cashier. "What if we pay half the cost of the dagger right now?"

The man nodded his head, while calculating in his mind. "Hmmm… hmmm… half the cost, then yes, I could drop down the monthly payments to fifty hundred, no, to forty hundred per month."

"Make it twenty hundred per month," Linden pushed.

"Oh no, no, no, no. I am not risking that," he refused instantly. "Not all students of Hecate graduate, and the last three years are always the hardest. You pay half today, and I can give you a credit for forty hundred per month," he directed the last sentence toward Spruce.

"Wow," Spruce said, "now it looks like I can afford it."

"But your money? What about food?" Yew asked, more aware of how foolish it was to spend half of one's capital in one purchase.

"Food is free for top students," Spruce responded with so much optimism that neither Yew nor Aspen dared to remind him of his latest score in History of Magic.

"Then get your money card out, before the offer changes," Linden pressured Spruce, who took out his money card and gave it to the cashier.

The man walked up to the row of big boxes standing on the floor. On top of one of them, there was a small cash register, with a slot for one money card.

"Ten thousand now and then a monthly charge of forty hundred until the counter reaches ten thousand," he narrated as he inputted the numbers. Then he put Spruce's card inside and charged it accordingly with the push of one of the buttons.

A moment later Spruce got his card back, together with a receipt.

"So about the brooch," Linden immediately restarted his bargaining. "How much credit can we get, if we pay, let’s say, twenty thousand for the deposit?"

"What?!" Spruce looked at Yew, amazed at the possibility that his classmate would spend that much in one day.

"Linden, I don't have that much money!" Yew shouted out. "I only have four thousand from my parents."

"I know," Linden waved a hand, gesturing to his roommate to calm down. "You already told me that they didn’t know that money was so needed in Hecate, so you’re going to ask them for more."

"Yes, but…"

"I’ll pay today, and you’ll return it to me once you get more money from your parents."

Yew almost cried at the situation, "I don’t know how much I’ll get… "

"Oh, just shut up. You wanted the brooch, so stop talking about money." He directed his words at the cashier, "fifty hundred per month?"

The cashier rubbed his chin again, but he spent less time thinking than previously. "Hmmm… sounds possible. Okay, I’ll agree to this."

Linden took out his money card and handed it to the cashier, "twenty thousand only."

"Yes, I understand. Twenty thousand directly from your card," he charged Linden's card then returned it back to him. "And I'll set up a monthly charge of fifty hundred on your card," he looked at Yew, "until the count maxes out at fifteen thousand."

Yew hesitantly took out his money card. He didn't want to buy it anymore, but he was afraid of making a scene, especially since Spruce had already paid for his magical item.

"All done," the cashier said before he handed Yew's card back to him.

Linden thanked the cashier for his service, and the man thanked Linden for his patronage. They both wished each other a good day as they walked out of the storage room.

At the counter, a matriarch was serving the customers. She looked similar to the cashier, so most likely she was his mother, or another relative.

The cashier walked ahead, and opened the shop's entrance door for Linden. As the boys were stepping out, he bowed his head and blessed them, "may you have a great day, honorable guests."

All the customers inside the store directed their gazes at the boys. Linden didn't care, but the other three sped up their pace to get as far away and as quickly as possible.

"Um, should I carry it?" Yew asked, looking at the box with the brooch. Only he had nothing in his hands.

Aspen carried the salad, Spruce carried the box with his dagger, and Linden carried the box with Yew's brooch.

"No," Linden answered. "I’ll give it to you after we write the contract. I want my money back, eventually."

After returning back to their cottage, Linden wrote on a piece of paper: «Yew Chirabilva Araukaria Sky will return twenty thousand syfras to Linden Tamalini Gomat Cave within the next ten years.»

Then he signed and dated the short note, turning it into a legally binding contract. After Yew added his own signature and date, Linden took the original, but gave Yew a copy together with the brooch.

Yew felt the importance of the moment, because for him it was the first time he signed a document all by himself without any supervision. Although he had signed his application to the school of Hecate just a month ago, he didn't think much of that, because his parents had co-signed every page, and had guided him throughout the process.

This time, he did it all by himself.

City || Variable twenty-seven

"Where’s the train station?" Spruce asked while expectantly looking around the street.

"You mean a tram station?" Yew turned his face to look at Spruce.

"No, the train station," Spruce repeated himself, then clarified, "the station which we came from on the day of our orientation."

"Wanna go home?" Linden teased.

Spruce took a deep breath and decided to stay calm. "Are we really downtown? Because I was expecting to see the train station again, but we've been going on for so long, and I haven't seen it yet."

Linden jeered, "makes sense."

Seeing that Linden wouldn’t explain, Aspen decided to act more mature. "The train station in Sheepcrown isn't in downtown, like most train stations. It's located at the northern border of the city. Do you remember? We passed traintracks in front of the school gate."

“I saw the tracks, but I didn’t see the station,” Spruce said.

“The station was on the left,” Yew joined the conversation in order to help out his classmate. “It was really vast, and had a lot of buildings.”

“That was a station?” Spruce furrowed his eyebrows. “I thought they were just...”

"Watch out!" Linden pulled Yew by his arm and pushed Spruce, who fell on top of Aspen.

They all tumbled down between two columns. Less than a second later, a pegasus bolted through the main road, chased by a man on a flying rug.

"What the…?" Yew began but never finished.

Angry pedestrians, who were startled by the sudden event, were shouting at the owner.

"Keep a better eye on your horse!"

"How irresponsible!"

"What an asshole!"

"Don't buy a pet if you cannot control it!"

Whereas others were quietly shaking their heads in disapproval. Although they weren't angry, they were genuinely appalled.

"Just a daily life in a big city," Linden offered his hands to help Spruce and Aspen get up. "You can never tell what’s coming, so it’s best to stay vigilant."

Several moments later, two officers came riding chimeras. Their roles were apparent from their attire - long navy blue coats accented with golden buttons and hats decorated with a golden eagle.

Their chimeras were larger than lions and had more muscular bodies. Their tails were long, and ended with what looked like a snake. However, nothing was weirder than their heads. In the front the chimeras had faces like lions, but on the back of their heads, there were faces of goats.

The officers didn't have to ask for directions, because the more angry members of the public loudly instructed them to "catch that bastard" while pointing their fingers toward the street taken by the pegasus and its owner.

"Let’s go," Linden gestured at the boys.

Aspen shook the dirt off his clothes, while Yew and Spruce were watching the officers take a turn around the street corner.

"Hey, I’ll leave you behind," Linden, who was already quite a distance away, called out to his classmates.

Aspen, Spruce, and Yew, rushed to catch up with him, before he carried out his threat.

The boys reached the end of the street, and arrived at the outdoor marketplace. They stood by the columns, watching the plaza filled with countless booths and more people than tiles on the pavement. It was hard to squeeze in, and even harder to squeeze through.

Linden, who didn't want them to get separated, gave the command. "I’ll get us something to eat, meanwhile don’t you dare move from here." The tone he used in the second half of the sentence scared the boys, but they couldn't understand why it sounded so scary.

Aspen, Spruce and Yew, sat on a bench between two columns, while Linden braved into the crowd. Not even ten minutes had passed, when he came back with three fully-loaded bags of food.

"Wow, that was fast," Spruce couldn’t hide his amazement.

"How did you do it so fast?" Aspen sounded skeptical.

Yew curiously looked into the first bag.

"Those are salads," Linden announced the content of the bag, which Yew was checking. Then he took out three boxes from the second bag and laid them on the bench, "this is fried stuff. We’re sharing," he warned, before the boys could eat anything. He put the last bag in the far corner of the bench, out of the way.

Spruce opened the first box, and cheerfully yelled out "Eggrolls!"

"Fried rice," Aspen declared nonchalantly as he looked into the second box.

Yew carefully opened the third box, but he didn't speak out.

"And ravioli," Linden spoke instead, then he took out wooden chopsticks from the bottom of the second bag.

"I don’t know how to use those," Spruce vetoed the utensils.

"Then you don’t get to eat," Linden smirked, but then he gave Spruce a wooden spoon. "Anyone else needs baby tools?"

Yew and Aspen accepted the chopsticks. Each boy ate a quarter of each dish, before passing it on. After the meal, Aspen reached for the salads, but Linden grabbed the third bag.

"Hold on. You'll like this better," he took out two boxes and gave one to Aspen.

Spruce grabbed the other one and opened it first, "pineapple cake?!" His eyes shone with euphoria at the dessert.

Aspen opened the box, which was placed in his hand. "Kartoshki," he announced the sweet cocoa desserts.

"Amazing," Spruce said, and looked at Linden with a great amount of admiration.

"Can I have one?" Yew pointed at the kartoshki.

Aspen took one and passed the other twenty-or-so crumbly balls to Yew.

"How do we divide them?"

"Exclude me," Aspen stated firmly and went for the top box in the first bag, which contained a celery salad with cooked lamb.

"I intended that to be an extra, if you’re still hungry," Linden informed him. For some reason, he sounded unhappy that his classmate wasn't delighted by the desserts.

Aspen began quietly eating the salad.

Linden grinned at the sight. "Are you on a diet?" he mocked his classmate.

Yew and Spruce looked at Linden, wondering why he was so aggravated over the food preferred by Aspen.

Not caring to look at Linden, Aspen responded with a tiny hint of irritation in his voice, "I'm not fat."

"Yeah, I can see," Linden grinned even wider.

Aspen kept eating calmly as if Linden had never said anything. If not for his tone of voice it would be impossible to tell that he wasn't bothered by Linden's comments.

"Did you buy anything to drink?" Spruce asked out of blue, breaking the tension.

Yew wondered whether Spruce said that intentionally to redirect the conversation, but Linden, who was the recipient of his question, was certain that the boy was too stupid for a tactical change of topic.

Spruce put on an innocent face as best as he could. He didn't want to look as if he intentionally interrupted them, even though that was exactly what he did. He didn't understand the specifics, but he could tell that Linden was being nasty again, and he wanted him to stop.

"There’s free water," Linden pointed at a small water fountain between two columns across from their bench.

The fountains with drinkable water were located on the main street every fifty to hundred meters apart. They were used by locals when shopping downtown, so most stores and stands in the area weren't even selling bottled water.

"Okay," Spruce acknowledged Linden's answer, and went back to eating kartoshki.

Yew finished one third of the pineapple cake and gave the box to Linden. Once they had finished eating, they stacked all the boxes together into one bag.

"One box is left," Spruce pointed at the box in the first bag.

"That’s a cucumber-radish salad," Linden named the content.

"I can carry it," Aspen grabbed the bag.

"Sure, if you want to," Linden shrugged.

He threw away the trash into the nearest trashcan, before washing his hands under the fountain water then drinking some of it out of his cupped hands.

Linden shook the water off his hands, before he declared, "and now, let’s go to the store."

After everyone had quenched their thirst, he led them into a narrow alley barricaded on left and right by tall apartment buildings, which appeared as if they were touching the sky above.

Each apartment wall had hundreds of windows - some of which were closed, but most of them weren't. It wasn't unusual for most cities to keep windows ajar, half-open, or fully spread out, when the weather was pleasant, so the boys didn't find it odd. Although the residents leaning out of some of the windows gave them a bizarre feeling of unwanted scrutiny.

Some of those residents were merely getting fresh air. Others were having conversations with their neighbors. Nevertheless all of them were staring with interest at the boys passing by down below.

"Don’t they have anything else to do?" Spruce whispered to Yew. He felt creeped out by so many eyes observing him from above.

"Antique security cameras," Linden spoke with the tone of an advertiser. "Tested and proven to be the most effective surveillance system over many centuries. Nothing can ever escape the keen eye of a bored milady."

"What?" Spruce didn’t get the sarcasm.

"Ignore them," Linden mumbled out.

After making several turns, crossing tramtracks, and going down a not-so-busy but very wide street, Linden stopped right in front of a store with a big banner: «Always the Latest, Always the Best!»

"It’s here," he walked up and opened the door.

Inside the store, a long queue of customers of all ages lined up at the counter, waiting for their turn to be served. Meanwhile others were walking around the store and eyeing up the goods for sale.

Ignoring the queue, Linden went straight toward the counter and waved at the cashier, who looked at him inquiringly.

"It’s me, Linden," he pointed at himself.

The cashier almost jumped at the realization. He looked at the boy as if a VIP had just walked into his store. He smiled very welcomingly, put his hands together and started rubbing them, instantly forgetting about the other customers.

"What a pleasure to see you again. How can I help you today?"

"Can I?" Linden pointed at the door behind the cashier.

"Of course, with pleasure," the man responded and gestured to Linden to come to the other side of the counter.

Linden beckoned the boys to follow him, and they did. He walked up to the backdoor, and entered the storage area. The cashier didn't follow them, instead opting to return to his work.

"Was that necessary?" Spruce asked after Linden closed the door. "Everybody was staring at us."

"If you want the best magical items he has to offer, then yes, it was necessary." Linden ignored the packages on the shelfcases and went straight for the huge safe made of rock in the corner of the room. "He always keeps the most awesome items right in here." He knocked on the door.

"The password?" instead of a mouth, the words came from a tiny moving crack in the rock.

"Password? What password?"

Upon Linden's response, the door unlocked and opened by itself, revealing a small room with several shelves.

"That was a stupid password," Spruce commented after Linden walked inside.

Linden snickered, "if you think so, try it next time."

"I would assume that the password requires more than just the right words," Aspen joined the topic. "Things like intonation, accent, breathing, pauses between words, and also I saw you sliding your hand down over the door, when you were saying it."

Linden looked at him with awe, "no wonder you saw colors on those ancient scrolls. You really do pay attention to details. Next time, I’ll remember to be more careful around you."

Homework || Variable twenty-six

After making sure that her students were calm again, she decided to continue her clarification. It was important to her, that her students weren't misguided in their understanding of magic, and weren't foolish enough to think that witches could use magic.

"Witchcraft was very similar to possession," she said in a clear voice, "with the exception that witches had a material body, so they didn’t possess other beings, but instead they marked them as their belongings."

She tapped the chair, which she was sitting on.

"If a witch wanted to move this chair, first she would have to leave a mark on it - some symbol, which would make it hers. Then the rest was pretty much the same as with the possession. The witch would hold an absolute power over the marked object or over the marked creature. And the longer the mark remained, the stronger the bond grew, which would slowly destroy the victim of witchcraft."

Sorrel carefully scanned the faces of her students, some of whom appeared worried but still more intrigued than scared. She shook her head disbelieving herself for going offtopic that much. "Maybe I have said too much," she wondered aloud.

"Oh no," the boy, who asked about witches, responded right away. "No, not at all. I always wondered why witches are always bad characters in stories, and now it all makes sense. I’m so glad they no longer exist."

"Yeah, me too," several other students agreed openly, while others only nodded their heads.

"Well, I’m glad I made it clear for you," Sorrel said, then stood up from her chair. "Anyway, don’t forget about four types of magic: spells, charms, blessings and curses; and don't mix up magic with incantations and chants. Because I’ll test you on that," she smiled toward the students. "That will be all for today. Goodbye, students. God bless you."

The students stood up and responded with "Goodbye, professor." Aspen was the only one, who followed up with "God bless you, too."

Sorrel Cave was the first one to leave the classroom, but all the students stepped out right behind her.

Once the boys were outside, Spruce asked his roommate, "why did you respond with that «God bless you, too»? You made me feel like I’m in a temple."

"It is the Highest Blessing," Aspen responded. "The most powerful blessing in the world."

"What? Really? God bless you! God bless you! God bless you!" Spruce said toward each of his friends.

Aspen looked annoyed.

Linden remarked with a sneer, "the power of a blessing comes from your true feelings. Unless you mean it, it doesn’t work."

"Oh right," Spruce recalled, what Sorrel had taught them less than an hour ago.

"Anyway, let’s go," Linden commanded and moved on.

The boys followed him, even though they didn't know where he was leading them. They assumed it would be something related to food as it was almost lunchtime. His authoritative voice, which sounded confident and assuring, prevented them from asking any questions or confirming their presumptions.

Yew, who was almost certain that they were heading for lunch, spoke out when Linden had missed the turn. "Hey, the cafeteria is that way," he pointed at the road, which they had just passed.

"We’re going to Sheepcrown to buy magical items for you two," Linden finally explained his intentions. "Unless you somehow became magic-talented in the last five minutes."

Yew ignored his sarcastic comment, and asked instead, "what about lunch?"

"We’ll eat at the marketplace. They have plenty of good street food downtown. Also it’s cheaper."

"Won’t we get sick?" Spruce was concerned.

"If you’re unlucky," Linden shrugged. "Never happened to me before."

"Will we make it back to the afternoon class?" Aspen had a completely different worry on his mind.

Linden spun around on his heel, "you want to attend THAT?!"

Aspen said no words, as he recalled the class from yesterday.

Seconds later, Linden turned and moved forward, gesturing to the other boys to follow him.

After passing through the Hecate gate, which marked the boundaries of the schoolground, the boys crossed the traintracks. In front of them lay the beautiful city of Sheepcrown.

Just like the Hecate schoolground, the city was mostly built from white stones, which were abundant in the region. The buildings usually had three or four floors, although occasionally they were taller. The roofs and walls were covered with moss and ivy. The balconies were decorated with flower pots, and from each flower pot, a different flowering plant hung down above the street.

The most impressive part of the city were its bridges, which linked the buildings together. These bridges at the same time acted like pathways and like rooftops, protecting the residents from hot sun, rain, hail, and snow.

Yew recognized the area as the place, which he had already seen several days ago, when he first arrived in the city. He was walking on the same road, but this time instead of heading north, he was heading south. A moment later, he passed the vast train station on his left - the very same station, where he disembarked several days ago.

Afterward, Linden led them to a small station next to tramtracks, where a one-car tram was about to stop. Following his lead, the boys got onboard as soon as the tram doors opened. There was no place to sit, so they stood holding onto the vertical bars.

"Is it free?" Aspen asked after he stepped inside.

"Yeah," Linden pointed at the badge on his arm. "It's free as long as we're students of Hecate," he said but he knew that his answer wasn't exactly correct. After all, nothing in the world could ever be free. Even animals and plants had to pay with their labor in order to eat.

Yet among humans, kids were exempt from this reality. They were allowed to live supported by their parents and whatever their parents paid for was classified as free. For this reason, kids understood the word "free", even though they never understood the true meaning behind this label.

Linden could have explained to the boys, that a part of school fees were used to pay taxes to the city of Sheepcrown, which in turn were used to cover the cost of annual tram travel authorization for all the students, but he concluded that it was not a topic worth wasting his breath on, especially not with his classmates, who most likely would require a lengthy lecture to thoroughly understand it.

Moreover, they might even ask him stupid questions about other vehicles, and he'd have to explain that the city of Sheepcrown had banned all vehicles other than trams many centuries ago, and had turned every road into a tramtrack, creating a robust and convenient way to travel around the city, with trams active even at nighttime.

Once Linden mentally reviewed what he knew about the trams in the city of Sheepcrown, he congratulated himself for not getting into this complex topic with his fellow first year students. Instead, he and the other boys observed their surroundings in silence.

The inside of the tram had a walkway through the middle, with seats at each wall. Most seats were in pairs of two, but some were facing each other in groups of four. Vertical and horizontal bars were present along the walkway, with most of the passengers using them due to limited seating.

The tram travelled at a speed of no more than thirty kilometers per hour, which was so slow that the boys could see people crossing the tracks without even waiting for the tram to stop at the next station.

The sidewalks alongside the tramtracks were often wider than the road, and not all the streets had tramtracks. Some of the streets were too narrow to fit a tram inside, but even they were filled with pedestrians and cyclists.

While Yew, Aspen and Spruce were immersed in observing the city and its inhabitants through the tram windows, Linden announced, "it's the next stop."

The tram arrived at the next station, and the boys disembarked. Linden stood in place, waiting for the tram to move out of the way. Then he and the other boys walked across the tracks to the other side, where they entered a street with an immensely wide sidewalk and no tramtracks.

It was the entrance to the main street of the downtown.

The ten meter wide sidewalk had a walkway in the center, which was six meters wide. Then, at each side of the walkway, there were rows of statues.

The boys began walking down the walkway, with their heads facing the sky as they tried to see the statues, which were elevated high enough to be out of the way of all usual traffic, which was happening at the ground level.

Each statue was placed on a square flat rock. And each rock was supported by a set of four columns. And each column was four meters tall, and covered by ivy, which grew in a pit between the four columns. As such, the statues couldn't be seen directly from below, but they were clearly visible from a distance, and from the bridges, which ran alongside the main street.

The boys saw a group of tourists gathered on a balcony of a hotel, while their tourguide was recounting his knowledge in a clear loud voice.

"... the most famous graduates of Hecate. There are currently a total of two hundred sixty three statues along the main street. The oldest statue is more than twenty five hundred yrold, and has been renovated more than twenty times. That over here is the statue of..."

As the boys moved on, the tourguide's voice became more and more distant, and soon it was lost among the chatter of the people closer to them.

Type || Variable twenty-five

The day prior, Sorrel taught them the difference between spells and charms. And today, she continued delving deeper into the subject.

"So let us learn more about the types of magic. By now, we all know about spells and charms, which I have talked about yesterday, but there are two more very important types of magic - blessings and curses. These are more difficult to describe, as they are very different from spells and charms."

She knocked on the blackboard and two drawings appeared on it - a stick figure and a flower.

"As you may already know, blessings and curses come from wishes directed toward another existence. A blessing means a good wish, and a curse is the opposite. If a person blesses another with, for example, health, then that wish travels to the recipient."

While Sorrel was talking, the text «may you be healthy» appeared above the stick figure, then an arrow appeared, connecting the wish to the flower.

"However, this doesn’t end here," she continued. "After the wish travels to the recipient, it duplicates and the duplicate bounces back to the giver. That is a blessing."

Another arrow appeared on the blackboard coming from the flower toward the stick figure. Then Sorrel turned away from the blackboard and faced the students.

"That’s the definition, but that's not the end of the story," she stated. "A blessing can be almost anything, a note on a piece of paper, a sentence carved in a stone, a spoken sequence of words, or even a thought. The power of a blessing is dependent on the strength of one’s feelings, so the more you mean it, the more powerful the blessing becomes."

She took a deep breath, before she added, "however, there’s one more thing, which people often don’t know. A blessing doesn’t always arrive at the recipient. If the recipient possesses a very impure soul and is unworthy of the blessing, then the blessing returns to the giver without ever reaching the intended recipient."

Sorrel explained all of that, while facing the classroom, but afterward she once again turned toward the blackboard. With a snap of her fingers, she erased the drawings and the text.

"The process is the same with blessings as it is with curses," she said, then two stick figures appeared on the blackboard. One was labelled «Salt», and the other was labelled «Pepper».

"So," Sorrel pointed at the stick figure on the left. The text «I hope that sir Pepper dies» appeared above the stick figure, then Sorrel continued her explanation.

"If sir Salt thinks something like this, then that thought becomes a curse, and the power of the curse depends on how strong are the feelings of sir Salt."

An arrow appeared from the text bubble to the stick figure named Pepper. Then another arrow appeared from sir Pepper to sir Salt.

"But just like with blessings, the curses also return back to the giver," the teacheress asserted. "Thus if you curse someone, who has a very pure soul and doesn’t deserve the curse, the curse will bounce back at the giver without harming the recipient."

The arrow, which pointed at sir Pepper, made a U-turn, and now it pointed at sir Salt.

Sorrel sighed. "People of pure souls rarely curse others. The givers of curses tend to have much, much more impure souls than those around them, which is why most curses return back to the givers, without ever harming the recipient."

Yew listened attentively, as did many other students in his class. Ever since he was born, his family always blessed him at almost any occasion. Yet he knew nothing about blessings. Just like other kids in the class, he had thought of blessings as an annoying tradition, until this very moment, when he learned that blessings were magical, and carried amazing powers.

"Do you have any questions?" Sorrel asked. No one answered, so she moved on. "Before we start the next topic, please record in your notebooks, that magic is divided into four types: spells, charms, blessings, and curses. I don’t want you to forget about it. And I don't want you to confuse it with what I'm about to tell you."

She gave the students several minutes to take notes. Then she tapped the blackboard, which became empty. With another tap, two words appeared on the blackboard: «Incantation» and «Chant».

"So, an incantation," she started. "To an uneducated human, it may appear magic-like, but it is not magic. An incantation comes from words. Most of you have heard the legend of creation, and you know that the world was created from words. This legend has some basis in reality. Spoken words, no matter what kind, carry a special power within them. But that power isn’t magic. The laws of magic and the laws of words are very different."

She stopped speaking for a moment, then apologized, "I’m sorry. I shouldn’t be talking about the laws of magic. That’s something you’ll learn in later years, so I apologize if it confused you. Anyway, if you see anything supernatural happening after you hear a voice, that will be either an incantation or a chant. NEVER magic," she stressed the negation. "I want you to remember this: magic doesn't use words."

One kid in the class raised a hand.

"Yes?" She encouraged the boy to speak.

"What about magical items?" he asked her.

"Good question," she acknowledged. "Certain magical items use words to unlock the magic inside them. However, the words are used like a key to unlock a door to a room full of magic. The magic itself works in silence. Are there any more questions?" She waited a moment before she returned to her lecture.

"An incantation occurs when the right sounds are put together in the right order. This is something, which we, humans, cannot do. We have fairly limited hearing and speaking abilities. For these reasons, humans have almost a hundred percent chance of saying it wrong, even if theoretically we could use a simple incantation."

She tapped the blackboard, and under the word «Incantation» a list of beings appeared, «Spirits, Fairies, Angels». The students saw the list and some of them wrote it down in their notebooks.

"There are more beings, who can use incantations, but these three are the ones, who are most known for it. In our world, there are millions of vowels, millions of consonants, millions of tones, and millions of other sounds, which can be a part of speech. And we, humans, cannot even distinguish between most of them. That’s precisely why we fail when we try to use incantations."

Sorrel pointed at the list on the blackboard. "But some other beings, such as these, can tell apart even the most minor differences between two sounds. They can control with the finest precision every sound they utter, which is why they can use incantations."

She walked up to the other side of the blackboard. "On the other hand, when it comes to words, humans have chants."

The students followed her with their eyes, eagerly awaiting what kind of awesome power humans can do with words.

"I’m sure all of you have been to a temple at least once, and saw monks and nuns chanting. Chants can be spoken, but they can also be sung. The form doesn’t matter here, but the content does. Chants are holy words. The words are from our language, so we can understand those words. However, chants are weaved not by humans, but by spirits."

Sorrel smiled with warmth at the students.

"I can see that you look very disappointed, but chants have a very important role. They guard us against evil. In ancient times, when no one chanted, the world was full of evil. People murdered each other, and horrible acts were committed. Those sorts of terrifying things should have never happened."

She looked at the scenery behind the window, recalling something in her memory. Her eyes appeared distant, as if she was looking far beyond. The students waited to hear more about the topic, but she never shared with them anything else, and the class slowly neared its endtime.

Sorrel looked at the clock above the door, and realized that she needed to wrap up the lesson. Just as she was about to address the class, a student raised his hand. She encouraged him to speak by beckoning with her left hand.

"Can witches use magic?" the boy asked.

His classmates looked at him. Most of them were smirking anticipating his fall, while several openly snorted at the foolish question.

"Witches don’t exist," someone murmured behind the boy.

Sorrel heard the comment. "Well, it’s true that nowadays there are no witches except in fairytales and old legends, but they used to exist in the past. However, witches never used magic."

The students, who were ready to make fun of the boy, got dead quiet.

"To be precise," Sorrel spoke on, "witches cannot use magic. Only humans can use magic. The power used by witches is called witchcraft, and it is more similar to possession than anything else."

"Possession?" Yew was baffled by the terminology, and he repeated it aloud without realizing.

Sorrel nodded at him, and he looked away, embarrassed at his actions and at the attention he got from his impromptu question.

Sorrel addressed the whole class, "this is not part of the school curriculum, and we don’t teach here anything about witchcraft or possession, but I don’t want you to leave this classroom misinformed, so I’ll explain."

With a gentle sway of her hand, she summoned her chair, which smoothly floated toward her and landed right underneath her palm. She comfortably sat on it with one leg over the other, and her fingers resting on her knees.

"A long time ago, there were demons and witches in this world. Demons had the power of possession, and witches had the power of witchcraft. On the outside, these powers may have looked similar to magic, but they were nothing like magic."

She held up her index finger. "Firstly, possession required demons to inhabit an object. Demons, like ghosts, are spirits. They don't have a physical body, but are able to inhabit one. So, if a demon wanted to move a pen, he'd have to possess it first. If he was successful, he could gain absolute control over the pen."

She added her middle finger. "Secondly, the laws of possession are very, very different from the laws of magic. In a nutshell, magic has a lot more limits than possession. For example, a demon possessing a person can move that person's body however it wants, but magic cannot move someone's body, if it's against the will of that person."

She raised up her ring finger in order to match the count. "Thirdly, magic is based on stamina, so it becomes weaker over time. However it’s the opposite with possession. The longer the possession lasts, the more powerful it becomes."

Finally, she stretched out her pinky, leaving only her thumb bent. "And fourthly, possession damages the possessed, and often this damage is permanent. This is very different from magic, which is always reversible, and naturally dissipates over time."

She looked at the class as she felt the dread of the boys in the air. Suddenly aware of how terrifying the topic must be for her students, she made her voice sweeter.

"I really don’t want you to feel scared though. Demons existed in ancient times, and so did witches. Neither one exists anymore."

Upon the assurance, all the boys relaxed.

Score || Variable twenty-four

On the second day of Byzh, Yew woke up later than usual, but he still had enough time for his morning preparations. After he got himself ready for the school, he shook Linden by his shoulder.

His roommate opened his eyes and with a grimace on his face declared, "I hate mornings," then he got up and went to the restroom.

Minutes later, when Yew and Linden left their cottage, Aspen was already outside waiting for Spruce to put on his outdoor shoes. Once Spruce was done, the four of them left toward the History building.

Upon arrival at their destination, they met with their teacher, Cacao, who was standing by the door and collecting notebooks of every student entering his classroom.

"If you don’t have your homework, don’t bother coming in, or I’ll give you negative five points," the teacher warned approaching students, some of whom looked scared but glad, that they had done their homework.

"Homework visa," Linden commented angrily, but he politely took out his notebook and handed it over to the teacher.

Aspen, Spruce and Yew did the same. Once the teacher touched the notebooks, they promptly flew onto his desk and landed on top of the other notebooks in a tidy pile.

The boys took their seats, and watched as one unlucky student confessed to forgetting his homework.

Cacao looked at him sternly, "if you don’t have your homework, do it now, and turn it in after you’re done."

The boy turned around and walked away.

Upon collecting all the notebooks, Cacao closed the classroom door, walked to the center and looked at the desks, which were missing two students. "What did I teach you yesterday?" he asked.

The students stood up one by one, then greeted the teacher, "good morning, professor."

"Good morning," he responded, and looked at the students. "Forty eight out of fifty - that’s better than the last class," he mumbled to himself.

He snapped his fingers, and a random notebook from his desk flew into his hand.

"The assignment I gave you yesterday was worth five points, so let's see how well you did. The question was easy: List five famous wizards. You should have had no problems answering it, if you paid attention. And even if you didn’t pay attention to my lecture, your textbook lists four very famous wizards, so you should still be able to get at least four points."

He opened the notebook, and in a clear voice, he read the namehood of the notebook's owner, followed by the score, "Spruce Phalahi Menteng Fire, total score: two points."

Everyone in the class went pale, when they realized that he was going to publicly announce every student's score.

Cacao raised his face and looked at the students. "When you hear your namehood, please come and pick up your notebook. If you don’t pick it up, I’ll change your score to negative five."

Spruce jumped out of his seat, and with his head down he approached the teacher. He opened his palms, received his notebook, then hurried back to his desk.

The teacher continued the process, with several students getting four points, while most of the students received three or two points. There was one person, who got five points, and that surprised everyone. The students began clapping in awe, but Cacao quickly silenced them, and continued to read the score of the next notebook, "Yew Chirabilva Araukaria Sky, total score: two points."

Yew didn’t feel as bad as Spruce, since he wasn’t the first one to be humiliated.

Several more namehoods were read, and then, "Aspen Elati Boviyamara Breeze, total score: seven points."

Suddenly everyone acted as if they saw a flying cow, except for Aspen, who calmly went to pick up his notebook, while forty seven pairs of eyes gazed at him in disbelief. A lot of students were murmuring to each other, trying to understand how it was possible for anyone to get seven points, if the homework was only worth five points.

Aspen quietly returned back to his desk, while everyone's emotions could be felt in the air. Some felt jealousy and hatred, while others couldn't hide their admiration and wonder. The teacher ignored all of it, and continued to score the homework. He looked inside the prelast notebook, furrowed his eyebrows, and remained silent for a long moment.

Eventually he announced in a gloomy voice, "Linden Tamalini Gomat Cave, negative five points."

The students' interest in Aspen disappeared with the latest news.

Linden confidently walked up to Cacao to receive his notebook.

The teacher looked at him with silent anger, and menacingly shook his head. "This is the first time I get a rebel among the first years." He handed Linden his notebook, but kept his grip on it.

Linden grabbed the notebook, but unable to take it, he looked up inquiringly at the teacher’s face. "Can I have it?" he asked cautiously.

In response Cacao commanded him, "you’ll do all the assignments on pages five and six for tomorrow. I’ll give you a negative ten for every assignment you skip." Cacao glared at the boy before he let go of his notebook.

The classroom was once again filled with mixed emotions. Some were inspired and amazed by Linden’s lack of fear toward a scary teacher and his courage at receiving bad scores. Others found his behavior to be foolish and arrogant, and felt appalled.

Linden sighed, and his sigh sounded a lot like the word "whatever" but he spoke no words. With the same confident attitude, he went back to his seat.

Right after the teacher announced points on the last notebook, someone knocked on the door. Cacao went to open it, and met with the two students, who didn't have their homework done on time. He checked their notebooks, and after confirming that they had done their assignment, he announced their scores as zeroes, and let them take their seats.

"Next time, there will be no second chance," he warned the students, who shivered at the possibility of forgetting their homework ever again.

Afterward, the class proceeded normally. The teacher talked about magic-related archeological discoveries and assigned another homework at the end of the class. The students said their goodbyes, left the classroom, and circled the building toward a brighter future.

The Process of Magic class was much more pleasant. The students already liked the teacheress, because she didn't give them any homework on their first day, and she hadn't yet taken any points from anyone.

They joyfully greeted Sorrel, and she greeted them back. She began with the overview of her previous lecture, before she proceeded to the next section of the curriculum.

"Most of you have enough stamina already to use a simple spell of moving an object." She pointed at the chair by her desk, which moved toward her. As she moved her finger away, the chair moved back behind the desk. "However, you might not have enough concentration to move a big object, so let's try with something smaller."

She spun up her hand, and a pen teleported into her grip. "Please put your pen in front of you."

The students did as told.

Sorrel waited until all the students were ready. "I believe there are two magicless students in this class. Could you please raise your hand, if you’re magicless?"

Yew and Spruce raised their hands.

She took out two small items from her desk, and approached the boys. "Please put these on," she gave each boy a ring with a symbol of one vertical straight line inscribed in gold.

She went back to stand in front of the class, then proceeded to give instructions.

"Please stare at your pen, and concentrate on one specific movement. In order to move the pen, you have to know exactly how you want it to move. You must decide on the direction, the speed, the rotation, and the final position. You must imagine it all happening. Use your imagination. Let it play out in your mind, then concentrate on the pen."

Right at that moment, the pen in front of Aspen began rolling on the desk, back and forth, away and toward him, as if magic was the simplest thing to learn. Nobody was surprised, because he had already become known as the smartest student of the class.

Linden felt annoyed at his classmates paying so much attention to nothing noteworthy, so in order to stop them from observing Aspen, he made the pen on his desk jump up and down.

Of course, this caused a fair commotion in the class. Seeing the worst student use a spell so easily gave everyone a lot of confidence, and they tried as hard as they could. Some succeeded moving their pens by millimeters, but most of them failed utterly, as their pens remained motionless.

After checking on other students, Yew looked back at the pen in front of him, then at the ring on his finger. Spruce, who sat next to him, was trying hard and nothing happened to his pen, so Yew decided that he would do nothing. It was a better choice than accidentally exposing his magical talent.

Sorrel allowed the students to try for a little longer before she said, "okay, that’s good enough." She approached Yew and Spruce, collected the two rings, which she had lent them, then put them back in her desk.

She smiled toward everyone in the class, many of whom were still trying hard. "You don’t need to worry. Magic was never easy, but if you keep practising you’ll be able to do it. Practice in your free time, before and after your classes. Whatever you learn in this class is your homework. And if you struggle with anything, you should ask your tutors for help."

If only they had good tutors, was what many of them thought, but no one voiced their concerns.

"As for you two," she said toward Yew and Spruce, "you need to obtain your own magical items, so you can practice with them. I suggest you visit the magical stores in Sheepcrown. Think of it as a special homework," she added with a wink.

Arena || Variable twenty-three

The boys realized that they were standing within the fortified walls of the arena, far away from the center and high enough to be near the top. It was the best spot to secretly get a clear view of any event from a safe distance.

At the center of the arena two guys, either nineteen or twenty yrold, were having a magical duel, while more than hundreds of students were sitting in the spectator seats and watching. The teacher stood at the edge of the platform, ready to interfere, if necessary.

From the distance of more than fifty meters it was difficult for the secret observers to see the duelists' appearance in detail, but the battle itself was incredible.

Out of nowhere, a water wave like a tsunami appeared out of the ground and headed for the student, who crouched down. He swiftly moved his right hand to draw half a circle on the floor. A tornado appeared around him and sucked in all the water, turning it into rain, which soaked them both. After extinguishing the tornado, he stretched forth his hands, and the water from the rain gathered right in front of him and compressed into one big ball.

The other student used his right hand to tap two rings on his left hand. The first ring garnished a red carnelian, and the other one had a blue topaz, but the secret spectators, who were too far away to see the details, could only see the glowing red and blue lights, which emerged from each ring after the touch.

The compressed waterball, which was created by his opponent, shot straight at him like a bullet. Due to its extreme speed, nobody could see the waterball travel, but everyone saw when it abruptly exploded after hitting a square iron shield twice the size of a human. The magical barrier materialized right in front of the waterball's target just milliseconds before the impact.

The student behind the iron shield, raised up the staff, which he held in his left hand, and hit the floor with it. With the sound of a loud crash, the iron shield in front of him broke into hundreds of sharp iron blades, all of them directed at his opponent. He twisted the staff by ninety degrees with its tip facing forward. As if commanded, the blades flew at his opponent.

The other student slammed his palms on the floor. A tall stonewall grew up next to his fingertips and blocked all the blades, except for two, which arrived too fast. One flew by without touching the student, but the other blade ended up cutting through the clothes on his left arm, fortunately avoiding the flesh.

Without paying attention to the damage on his clothes, he stretched his right hand to the back, then in one swift motion he brought it forward. The iron blades went flying back at the other student, who simply clasped his necklace and suddenly all the blades turned into flower petals.

While the petals were falling, he put his staff in a diagonal position with the crown directed at his opponent, who stepped back, just seconds before the floor froze - right at the area, where he was crouching.

"Time!" the teacher shouted.

Both students erased their spells immediately, leaving no trace of any magic on the platform. They came closer and showed respect to each other with a bow. The teacher came over and began to talk with the two of them.

"The guy with the staff is amazing. He avoided all the attacks so easily," Spruce commented.

"He’s magicless," Wasabi noted.

"How do you know?" Yew asked.

"Magic-talented people don’t need staves. To them that's an extra baggage, which slows them down. Also all his spells come from his accessories, like that staff or his rings, or that necklace he’s wearing… it seems to have some kind of protection magic…"

"You can be that badass without magic?" Spruce was awed.

"Of course, you can," Wasabi strongly affirmed. "That’s why I entered Hecate even though I'm magicless. And this is what I wanted to show to you. Aren’t magical items awesome?"

Spruce internally agreed with her, but gave no response.

After the teacher finished his speech, both students stepped away from the platform, and sat down among the spectators. Meanwhile, two other students stood up from their seats and came up to the center.

Yew recognized one of these two duelists. It was Cypress Sea.

"Wasabi?" he quietly called out the girl's name. "You said that this class is a ninth year, right?" he asked.

Cypress and his opponent approached the teacher, who talked with them.

"Yes," she assured him with certainty. "Ninth year students are allowed to fight without restrictions. All the guys in the arena are already on their ninth year."

"Doesn’t he look young?" Aspen voiced out his thoughts.

"I think that’s Galangal’s older brother," Wasabi responded. "In which case, he started Hecate early."

"Whose brother?" Spruce looked away from the hole in the wall, and at the girl, who in response directed her eyes at him.

"Oh right, I should explain. Galangal Sea is my roommate. You know about the Sea household, yeah?"

Yew and Aspen were still observing. The teacher finished talking with the two students, and stepped away from the battleground. Cypress and his opponent bowed then moved apart from each other.

"You mean that Sea household? The best magi among nobles?" Spruce continued speaking with Wasabi.

The next moment, Cypress’s opponent raised his hand forward, but a strong blow of wind threw him off the ground, beyond the seats and straight at the wall.

"Wow!" Aspen was mildly surprised.

"No way!" Yew was shocked.

"Wait, what?" Spruce looked back through the hole, but the duel was already over. "What happened?" he asked his friends.

The student, who was thrown away from the platform, was sitting on the floor behind the spectator seats. The teacher was already next to him, with his back bent and inquiring about his wellbeing.

"He got blown off," Aspen calmly explained. "And it was so fast and powerful. He had no chance to protect himself."

The defeated student made his way back to the arena's center, with the teacher right behind him. Cypress also came closer to the center. The two of them bowed down to each other, before the weaker student was dismissed immediately. He walked away, while Cypress remained and had a talk with the teacher.

They both spoke in a natural voice, which without any echo couldn't be heard by the first year students hiding in the walls.

After a while, Cypress nodded in agreement. Then the teacher walked to the edge of the platform. On his way, he ended the class with a loud "goodbye, students" directed more toward the exit door than to anyone else. Everyone responded in unison with a choir of "goodbye, professor" but no one moved until the teacher left the fighting arena.

Cypress walked off the platform, and toward his opponent, who was sitting on the benches, with his head between his legs. While the students began leaving the classroom, Cypress talked to the other guy. After several exchanges, he sat next to him, saying no more words, but he was listening to what the others around them were saying.

"Looks like that was the last battle for today," Wasabi commented.

Cypress’s opponent stood up and said something to the classmates, who were around them. Afterward, Cypress, his opponent, and the rest of their friends, all left the arena together. However, the place never got totally empty, because some unrelated students still remained on the benches, either talking among themselves or doing some notetaking.

"So what about the Sea household?" Yew brought back the topic, which deeply concerned him. He had been listening from the beginning, while trying to act nonchalant about it.

"Oh right," Wasabi moved away from the hole now that there was nothing else to watch. "So, Galangal Sea is my roommate, and she’s only seven yrold. I asked her about that, and she said that it's the tradition of the Sea household to send the kids off to school early, because they’re always exceptionally talented in magic."

"So they're generational geniuses?" Aspen asked with a tone of someone, who hadn't known about the Sea household until now.

"Yeah, but even the best geniuses cannot compete against the most powerful magical items," Wasabi exclaimed, clearly looking down on magic.

Spruce joined her in a conversation about the magical items. Upon discovering this one common interest between them, his shyness disappeared like an exploding balloon. He immediately became the most talkative one.

Aspen listened in to their conversation, while Yew disappeared in his own thoughts.

After finding out that Cypress was a student of the ninth year, he recalled what he was told by the librarian. The only ones, who had access to the detailed list of all Hecate graduates, were teachers and the students of the ninth year.

So maybe it wasn’t a bad idea to befriend Cypress, if his status could be used. Yew didn't see this as a difficult task, instead his main concern was: was it worth the trouble?

The four of them returned the same way, whence they came, and after they exited the Fountain Park, they headed toward their hamlet. On the way to the boys’ cottages, they dropped off Wasabi at her cottage forty-four hundred twelve.

Standing in front of her cottage, she told them, "wait here, maybe Galangal’s home. I’ll introduce you." She went inside and came back with a small girl, who looked way too young to be a student.

The boys took a good look at the girl’s face. It wasn’t anything spectacular. She certainly was pretty, but she had the countenance of a terrified kitten taken to a veterinarian, which wouldn’t be odd for anyone, who had to leave home and attend school at such a young age. Yew looked at her long hair, tied in two ponytails, which fell upon her shoulders, and noted that she had the same hair color as her older brother.

"What?" she barked rudely at the boys.

"They’re first year students, just like us," Wasabi explained. "This is my roommate, Galangal," she pointed at the younger girl.

"Waste of time," Galangal said and added, "I won’t be spending any time with you anyway, so there’s no reason for us to know each other." She turned around and walked back inside the cottage.

"Oh, wow," Spruce said, "and I thought Linden was a jerk."

"There are all kinds of people in this world," Aspen calmly shared his knowledge.

Wasabi apologized for her roommate, said her goodbyes, and headed back inside her cottage. After she closed the door to her cottage, the boys moved on toward their homes.