The other students in the room took quick advantage of the situation, flooding into the room as the flames began to lose their momentum. They quickly extinguished the flames using a mixture of mundane and magical methods, most in a similar method to Vance's original approach.

Vance backed up into the room, away from the door. He was holding the construct inside his left hand, where he'd locked it inside of a mana shell. The construct still had fuel left and was churning out a large amount of fire mana.

As it produced more and more, Vance started converting it, but he wasn't going to win the battle like this, it was a battle of attrition that he had no hope to win, not like this.

"Thomas! I Need a path outside, but I can't get near any fire, nor anyone with a fire core, any ideas?!" Vance yelled out into the hallway, hoping Thomas could hear him.

"I'll start clearing a path. James, you've got a water core, right? Bring Vance, he's blind - you'll have to guide him."

A student Vance didn't recognise rushed into the room and was at his side in a flash. He grabbed hold of him and hauled him to his feet. He hadn't noticed that he'd fallen over.

He started to run alongside the stranger, who occasionally stopped him at Thomas' reminder that he wasn't to get close. As Thomas ran along, he was extinguishing candles and other small sources of flame that were exposed in the hallway, and any student or faculty member he saw, he turned them the other way and told them to run.

Thomas burst outside, where a mass of students had gathered up to escape the smoke travelling through the college's hallways.

"Everyone, move back! Out of the gardens, now!"

They didn't need telling twice. Master Noelle was present, an older woman who wore long flowing white robes perpetually. Her advanced aged dimmed her none, and she sprang into action.

"You heard him, back off!"

She wasn't sure what was coming so she took a precaution. She stepped between the entrance to the building and the students, who were fleeing as per Thomas' command. She swept her hands upwards and conjured a tremendous gale of wind, pushing upwards with hurricane force, it formed something of a wall.

She left a good amount of room in front of the entrance so that she would be able to assess whatever came out. At first, she was half convinced someone had summoned something awful into the building.

She was still scanning for the real threat when two boys, one stumbling quite a lot more than the other, escaped from the building, one basically dragging the other one by his arm.

"I don't remember us having any blind students..." she mused. She made a mental note to look into that later, Noelle was fairly certain she knew all of the enrolled students, there were only about sixty or so, she'd never seen this young man before. She took in his messy brown hair, the clothes which were hard to identify, in their current smoke-stained, burnt state. He had a thin face, but he was filled out fairly well for a boy of his size, he's probably cut from good stock.

Vance stumbled down a handful of stairs leading onto the garden floor, he clutched his left hand in his right as he frantically converted more and more fire mana. His head was pounding at this point, but he was running out of time, but finally, he was outside.

He raised his hand into the air above him, letting go of it with his right, which he used to push away the other student holding onto him.

In that same moment, he vented all of the fire mana that had accumulated in his hand upwards. This wasn't exactly like transference, he more or less just opened a pathway out and let the mana flow, which it did, explosively.

A colossal torrent of flames tore out of his hand. It was a flash flame that had nothing to catch on, so it burnt up a huge chunk of air above him, it only lasted a second, but he could feel that his hand had been fairly severely burned. Worst of all, he felt the feather continue to perpetuate its own flames, stealing tiny bits of fire aspect from the flames he'd just ejected.

It was slower now, though. He could keep up, but he was so very tired. He then realised that the force of the flames had been so intense that it had caused him to drop to his knees. He could feel the blades of grass pushing against the bare skin of his knees, he must've burnt holes in his clothes at some point, hopefully, they weren't too widespread.

He could hear people gasping and shouting all around him. The only thing he could think to do now was to eject the mana construct in a place with less fire mana and let one of the masters contain it.

"Are there any masters here? It's really important you don't have a fire core, I'm holding a mana construct that caused spreading fires inside, it absorbs fire aspects, anyone?!"

Master Noelle went to step forward, but she heard that last piece. She had two cores, wind and fire.

James was still close by and spoke up.

"Most everyone here learns to use a fire core, a lot of the teachers have them. I've got a water core, I'll help."

"Thanks."

Vance started to eject the mana construct using transference, but he found that he couldn't. The mana shell simply would not move.

"I can't transfer it out." Vance started to panic. If he couldn't get this thing out, then it would keep creating more and more fire mana, he'd already stretched his will close to the limit, he couldn't hold it for much longer at all, but he had no choice, if he couldn't get it out, he had to extinguish it.

Vance pushed. He pushed harder on his will than he ever had before, he beckoned his internal mana stores, summoning them to answer his calls, he flooded the mana shell with more and more of his own mana, stifling the construct. He gave it no space to act and converted as much of the fire mana as he could, expelling it piece by piece. He did this over and over until his head pounded with every passing second.

And then, suddenly, the voices around him faded away. He was pretty sure he could hear James talking next to him, he idly thought that grass was very, very comfortable.

Then, he was somewhere else.

When Vance awoke, the first thing he experienced was a sense of dread, followed by the much nicer realisation that there was something soft under his head. All around him, actually. He was fairly certain he was laying in the highest quality bed he'd ever been in. His left hand stung, probably the burns, he reasoned. He reached over with his right hand and confirmed it, bandages. So he was probably in a hospital bed somewhere.

He searched inwards, he found that the construct in his left hand was still there, it was still producing fire mana, but it seems to have petered out into more of a smoulder, in its current state it didn't seem to be able to produce enough fire mana to perpetuate itself.

He breathed a long sigh of relief and relaxed into the bed.

"Good morning."

He heard from across the room.

"James? Is that you?" His voice was sort of familiar. he gave himself a moment to disassociate this voice with panic and flames.

"Hi Vance, we didn't get to introduce ourselves properly last time. Sorry about that, how're you feeling?"

"Honestly? Could be worse. My hand hurts quite a lot, though. How bad are the burns?"

"Pretty bad, I'm afraid. It's going to take a long time to heal, and it's going to be very painful."

Vance sighed and pushed himself up a little with his good hand.

"Thanks, did you do all of this?"

"I did some of it, I brought you here and set you up. Tricky to find a place where we could avoid fire cores. How's the uh, thing?"

"Quiet. I guess I got the better of it at the last moment. I guess I owe some God somewhere an offering for that."

The two were quiet for a moment before Vance spoke up.

"Master Elijah is dead, isn't he?"

"Yeah, Sorry. Actually, it's not just him, Master Telis is also gone. There was another casualty in the school, but fortunately no students, I'd wager that's largely thanks to you."

Vance went silent for a minute. He and Elijah weren't exactly close, but Vance had come to love working with him over his short stint in the college. He had been the one to set Vance on his path of magic, it had been entirely by Elijah's whim that Vance found the way in which he might be able to change his life for the better. This was the man tried to help him see.

He was Vance's teacher, and by his estimation, a good man. Vance was crushed. He mused that it wasn't like losing family, and he didn't feel the desire to shout or scream. Instead, he felt just a little bit emptier inside today than he had yesterday. He lingered on that feeling for a minute, it brought wetness to his eyes, but he refrained from outright crying.

Then, selfish thoughts came to his mind, voices telling him that his once chance at this life of magic and mystery was gone. Surely, they'd kick him out of the college. He spent a long, quiet minute in silent mourning for both his teacher and friend, as well as the end of his path as an Arcanist.

Then, he remembered the new, invasive mana construct in his left hand, this snapped him back to reality a little. If Vance only had a short time left in the college, he'd use it learning what he could, it's what Elijah would have wanted.

Vance spoke up, eventually.

"Do you have any idea why I couldn't transfer this thing out?" He tried again briefly, but he felt like when he pushed on the mana shell - which he noticed seemed to have gotten thicker, it felt like he was straining against his own body like he was stretching a muscle too far.

"I've been thinking about that a little, actually. I spoke with Thomas, he told me you're new here. Did you form your first mana core yet?"

"No." He considered not elaborating for a moment, but then he realised if Master Elijah was dead, what was he keeping a secret for?

"I was training with Master Elijah, I was supposed to form one in the next few weeks. Or try, at least."

"The first core is supposed to be the easiest. I suspect you might have accidentally already done it when you were pushing yourself so hard. I think you sealed that construct inside."

Vance had begun suspecting something like this when he was experimenting just now, but he didn't know how to validate it.

"I think you might be right."

Vance focused on his surroundings, he couldn't feel even the slightest presence of fire mana outside of his left hand. He decided to be careful, and drew out the remaining fire mana, converting it and expelling it outwards. It gave him a little headache almost straight away, but he calmed the smouldering feather down, and it was quiet.

As soon as his headache had kicked in, he knew he needed to take it easy, his will was telling him that it needed to recover.

"Seems like I need a bit more rest. Thanks again, James."

"No problem, catch you later."

James left Vance to sleep for a while.

Vance spent a few days stuck in bed. To his surprise, he slept through the better part of the first two days. On the third, Vance ventured out of his room. He'd started to forget about the pain in his hand, small victories.

James told him that he was actually in the boy's dormitory rather than in a hospital, there's no way he could avoid fire in a place like that. The place certainly smelled like a boys dorm.

"James, do you think you could get Thomas? I want to meet him outside, I need to see what happens with this thing, I can't just sit around being scared of it, I need to understand it, especially if it's apparently my first mana core now."

"That's probably a good idea, mind if I come along? If something goes wrong, a lot of water mana very quickly could be useful if we're dealing with fire."

"Good point."

An hour or so later, the three met in the courtyard of the college, between all of the buildings. Vance had asked them to help him find a good location without a lot of plants nearby.

James walked side by side with Vance, chatting on the way. They were mostly working through the extended introductions phase, figuring out who the other actually was. Vance was pretty truthful with James, so far the young man had given him every reason to trust him.

From a good distance away, Vance heard Thomas calling out to him.

"Hey Vance, how's it going?"

Vance put on his best Leon impression and waved his left hand in the air. "I'd shake your hand, but I think I'd explode! Thanks for coming. I thought it would be best to start testing this thing with well-concealed fire mana, you've got a fire core so there'll be what, 4 pure mana membranes between the mana and the feather? It's a feather, by the way."

"No problem, where do you want me?"

"Stay put. I'll get closer and watch for reactions."

"Well, that's easy enough." Thomas sat down on the grass and assumed a relaxed pose.

Vance felt really grateful towards these two, they barely knew him but were already going out of their way to help him. He wondered where that comes from, but maybe that's just how they were. No matter, he had a bigger problem, he'd figure out complex things like human motivations later down the line.

He took a few cautious steps towards Thomas. At first, nothing happened. He got just a few steps away from him when he suddenly started to sense tiny wisps of fire aspect making their way from Thomas towards him. The feather began to absorb them and produce larger quantities of fire mana. Interestingly, he could also tell that the feather was actually drawing ambient mana from the area around him to fuel this process, but needed the fire mana as a catalyst.

He focused his will on his new core and cleared out the newly created fire mana. This amount was fairly manageable. He stayed in place for a minute, making sure everything seemed stable. The feather never seemed to stop absorbing more fire mana, so he had to constantly clear it out.

He took another large step towards Thomas and felt the amount of mana surge. Again, he stopped and cleared the mana out as it was generated, this was a little much, he could keep this up for a few minutes, but not much longer. He took a step back.

The feather reverted to its earlier state and he took the lead once again, calming it down to a smoulder.

"Much closer than this is a problem."

Thomas was perhaps 15 feet from Vance, just a handful of steps.

They performed several more tests, some with open flames, some with concealed ones and natural flame. Vance discovered that the closer he was to the source of the fire mana and the more exposed it was, the faster the feather would produce fire mana.

Vance nearly lost control the first time they tried using fire mana outside of Thomas' body. He'd started way too close, he had to quickly retreat and fight back the surge of fire mana, which marked the end of their testing for the day, his will exhausted.

They did make one positive discovery, though. The natural flame produced so little fire mana that it was actually quite easy for him to handle being pretty close to it, even for extended periods of time, so long as it was no larger than a lantern, or a candle.

None of the boys knew, but from nearby, Master Noelle was stealthily observing their little practice session. She watched from the second floor of the college, her eyes carefully trained on Vance. She wore an expression that was a mixture between concern and intrigue. Eventually, just before they finished their practice, she seemed satisfied with what she was seeing and made her way deeper into the college.

That night, he made his way back through the city. He didn't want to stay in the college in case somebody used some particularly powerful fire magic, instead - he went back to Penny's nook.

When he arrived, the nook was quite busy. The feather in his left hand started spitting out a dredge of fire mana, there were a few small natural sources of fire mana in the room, one table had a candlelit and there were a few lanterns on the walls. He casually dispersed the excess fire mana. He discovered he was getting much better at that.

"Hey, Penny. Long time no- ow!" Vance pulled himself onto a stool, but accidentally brushed his hand on the edge of the bar, he winced as his burn injury flared up for a moment.

"Vance, Honey! Where have you been? It's been nearly a month since you've graced us with your presence, I missed you."

"Sorry about disappearing on you, I had to spend some time in college." He held up his bandaged hand and waved it about. "Burned my hand too, so that's fun."

"You staying with us tonight, hon? You're still paid up for a few nights, you look like you could eat."

Come to think of it, Vance hadn't eaten today, how had that slipped his mind? Suddenly, all he could think about was Sallak.

"Penny, I think I could eat an entire Sallak."

A few minutes later and he was tucking into his meal, still chatting with Penny at the bar.

"Hon, I heard about the explosion at the college, were you there? I'm guessing yes, based on the hand."

"Yeah, I have no idea what happened, but there were some... casualties. We had to fight back the fires. It was pretty bad."

Penny saw his expression sink a little. She slid a drink over to him across the bar and put a reassuring hand on his shoulder. "I'm glad you're back."

Vance decided to spend a few days at the nook, he needed to let his hand rest for a while and recover, that was probably going to take weeks, but the first few days were the most important.

During this time, while he was awake, he would constantly expose himself to the highest intensity of fire mana he could withstand. He decided he has to use this as an opportunity. He was, as far as he knew, stuck with this weird mana core of his, so he had to get used to it as quickly as possible. The potential uses for such an efficient fire mana generation method weren't lost on him.

He found that he was constantly able to increase the amount of fire mana that he could contend with, this process was tempering his willpower and giving him an excuse to constantly practice aspect shifting and transference.

After a few days, he found that he was performing this task nearly subconsciously when he was exposed to small enough doses of fire mana. This was his first sign that he was making real, substantial improvements.

On the fourth morning he spent at the nook, he discovered that when he'd woken up, there was no build-up, even though he'd purposely lit a candle in the room before he went to sleep.

With that, he felt like he was ready to go back to college. Then he realised that technically, he wasn't a student there. He'd been tutored in secret by Master Elijah. He had no idea if they'd allow him back on the premises. Even if they did, he couldn't just turn up to classes, could he?

He concluded that there was only one way to find out.