I found myself in the headmaster’s office for the second time in my first week. Fortunately, he didn’t seem very upset. He smiled when he said, “The two of you have been making quite an impression the last couple of days.”

Kalli and I exchanged confused glances. Mr. Ramsey continued, “Miss Hellquist, tell me more about your latest achievement in pyromancy.”

The girl nervously looked up at the headmaster, “I’m not sure what you’re talking about. Mr. Chopade is teaching me my fourth spell. I’m still working on containing the explosion.”

The administrator clasped his hands in front of him, resting his elbows on the desk, “Very well. Tell me about the incident during lunch today. I am told that you burst into flames and attacked an older student. I want to know about the fire, specifically.”

She looked at me desperately. What should I tell him?

He doesn’t seem upset that you punched him. Just tell him what he wants to know. Maybe we can get out of this without getting into trouble.

Mr. Ramsey raised an eyebrow at the two of us while we communicated in silence. Kalli cleared her through and said, “Sometimes when I get overly excited, my mana just sort of leaks out.”

He leaned forward while waiting for her to finish before asking, “Can you show me these flames? Can you control it?”

Feeling the panic rise in Kalliphae, I took her hand in mine and squeezed it. She turned to look at me with a weak smile before turning back to Mr. Ramsey and saying, “I can try.”

The headmaster smiled reassuringly and informed us, “That will be fine. I just want to see what you can do.”

Kalliphae swallowed hard and climbed to her feet, not letting go of my hand. I felt her intentionally agitate her mana, causing it to flow through her channels. Then, to my surprise, she blushed and thought about me. Tiny tendrils of flame sprouted from the pores in her skin like little red hairs as her excitement caused her mana to swell from within.

Mr. Ramsey watched in rapt attention while the flames steadily grew in size. The girl was a vision of beauty with the warm aura of flame surrounding her, fire flowing through her hair and radiating off of her face.

The man clapped his hands together in applause and praised the girl, “It’s highly unusual to control your mana to such a fine extent at your age. We may have to look into advancing you a master class in fire magic.”

The flames vanished and Kalli shook her head violently, “No. We can’t do that. I hardly know any spells at all.”

A loud bellow filled the room as Mr. Ramsey laughed, “My dear child, with your control of mana, you should be able to craft your own spells. The words of magic will just confine you at this level. What you need now is a class on mana crafting.”

Kalli smiled at the compliment, “I do take a crafting class already. Will this mana one help with that?”

Mr. Ramsey chuckled again, “No, my child, mana crafting is not crafting. It’s the art form that is molding your mana into useful forms. It will help you put that mana that is flowing just beneath your skin to better use.”

The pyromancer sent vibes of sheer excitement through the connection when she replied, “In that case, I would love to take that class. It sounds exciting.”

“Very good”, the headmaster smiled encouragingly, “Now I just have a few questions to ask you. How did you first gain access to your mana channels? Were you aware you had done so?”

She looked to me for help. Mel, what should I say to him?

Lying to people in power never seemed to work out in my experience. However, I didn’t want to tell him the whole truth. He might freak out if we told him that I desperately unlocked her mana channels because I didn’t want to die of blood poisoning that I did to myself to save myself from a vampire.

With a deep breath, I confessed, “I did it. I opened her mana channels.”

For the first time, Mr. Ramsey focused his attention on me. His eyes widened momentarily and he asked, “How did you do that?”

Realizing I was on the spot, I replied, “I sent mana through her and connected it to her core.”

He stood and walked around the table until he was directly in front of me, “Would it be possible for you to demonstrate what you did on me?”

This time I squeezed Kalli’s hand for support while the headmaster took my other hand in his. Swallowing a deep gulp of air, I pushed mana from my hand into Mr. Ramsey.

He welcomed the mana into his body with no resistance. My mana was met immediately by pulsing silver mana of a type that I didn’t recognize. Mr. Ramsey raised his eyebrow at me as if challenging me to see what I would do next, so I asked, “You are already using your mana channels. What do you want me to do?”

The headmaster nodded and replied, “So I am. I am a bit curious about what else you can do. Can you sense my core?”

Closing my eyes, I pushed through his mana. It parted almost begrudgingly when I made my way through his mana tracts. By that time, I had explored the mana channels of three different people so I sort of knew where I was going.

It didn’t take long to make my way to Mr. Ramsey’s core. A perfectly smooth ball of liquid mercury rotated slowly in place at his center. It was the largest core I had come across so far. Ropes of mana protruded from it branching off in all directions as it fed mana to the rest of his body.

I reached out with my mana to touch that core. The power that emanated off of it made me want to see how it felt. The instant I made contact, the headmaster pushed me away. He was too late though. My mana felt it and learned something new.

NEW TRAIT ACQUIRED: [BLOODLINE: RAMSEY]

Then the connection was lost. I remembered the sensation. It was the same as when Lady Shaw had bitten me. We connected and I learned. I groaned at the thought of the potential old man dreams that this new trait might force upon me.

Kalli gaped at me. Did you just do what I think you did?

I balked at the girl.

Not on purpose.

Mr. Ramsey was bright red and breathing heavily. He slowly made his way back to his seat and asked, “What was that? When you touched my core, I felt something. It was like we were connected for a moment.”

Panicking, I quickly inspected Mr. Ramsey.

Name

Mortimer Ramsey

Class

Illusionist

Level

???

Affection Level

Perplexed

Skills

Traits

Enhance

Bloodline: Ramsey

Boost

Affinity: Construct

Enchant

Affinity: Illusion

Disguise: Magical

All Seeing Eye

Mana Regeneration

Relief flooded through me when I realized that he still had his bloodline. I explained, “I don’t know how to explain that but I felt it too.”

Mr. Ramsey took some notes with a quill sitting on his desk before he continued, “Well, enough about that. I suppose we need to discuss punishment for that little incident in the cafeteria.”

Kalli looked stricken. I stood up and pleaded, “Look. That whole thing was all my fault. She was just defending me from those boys.”

I realized that what I said made no sense but the headmaster rubbed his chin and looked as though he was buying it. Kalli turned and gave me an odd look. What are you doing?

I am trying to get you out of trouble?

She glared at me. I don’t need you to do that. I have no regrets about what I did.

Kalli turned her attention to Mr. Ramsey and said, “I hit that boy. He deserved it because he was being a jerk to Melvin.”

Mr. Ramsey scribbled more notes in his pad, “Be that as it may, violence of any kind against other students is not tolerated at The Academy. Punishment is in order here.”

He sat silently in his chair for a minute, causing Kalli and me to get more and more nervous. I squeezed her hand gently.

Don’t worry. If he expels us, we can always find another school to go to. At least, I’m pretty sure we can.

Kalli’s eyes widened. Do you think we will get expelled?

Mr. Ramsey cut off our private conversation, “Normally, a fight between students is punishable by a weeklong suspension. However, in this case, I am willing to be a bit more lenient if you would be willing to do something for me.”

He was looking directly at me when he said that last line. I asked, “What exactly is it that you want me to do?”

The old man’s lips curled up in a smile, letting me know that this was exactly what he wanted me to ask. He replied, “I want you to teach a mana enrichment course. You have a rare talent that I was unaware of. That doesn’t often happen when I interview students personally. Your control of mana is well above average.”

While getting out of a week-long suspension wasn’t much of a perk, this could be a potential way to help Kalliphae out of her debt. I leaned closer to the headmaster, “What would the pay be if I agreed to do this for you?”

His body language gave me a distinct feeling that the old man was leading this conversation exactly where he wanted it to go when he answered, “It would be a different story if you were a credentialed cultivator or a monk. Fortunately, I have the authority to hire you on merit at a pay rate of 100 gold for the semester.”

Kalli and I looked at one another.

That’s one-tenth of your debt right there.

She felt hopeful. Do you really want to teach a class?

We need to make money.

Kalli nodded and squeezed my hand again. I’ll get a job too.

I smile and told Mr. Ramsey, “I’ll do it.”