After class, Vance made his way out into the hall. Almost immediately, he found himself surrounded by friends.

The small group began chatting their way down the hall when a man's voice called out.

"Mr Kalliea."

Vance didn't think he'd heard this man's voice before, so he turned and said "Hello?"

James stealthily put a hand on Vance's shoulder. Vance didn't react, but he noticed. The man was approaching, and there was another set of footsteps at his side.

"My name is Duncan Sellanion. I was hoping to make a proper introduction, now that you're joining us in class. This is my sister, Leslie Sellanion." Leslie didn't say a word.

Vance extended a hand. "Nice to meet you both."

Neither of these newcomers deemed fit to shake his hand, he gave it a second before starting to retract it. Before he could get his hand away, Duncan gripped it firmly and gave him a hearty handshake.

"A pleasure." He added. His voice was softer than most men Vance knew. It made him sound like he was always speaking in an official capacity of some kind when combined with his surprising eloquence.

His friends hadn't said anything, but he noticed James' grip was a little tight. He was beginning to catch on. He also heard Mariah get a step closer to him, nerves were high amongst the group, why?

A moment later, Vance felt something. Duncan was trying to probe him. He felt the pitiful attempt fizzle against his natural protections, his will subconsciously obliterating the effort. Vance had learned by now that this was considered the height of impropriety amongst Arcanists, so he decided to play a little game. Duncan was talking merrily at Vance, acting like his extended hand-shake was an accidental by-product of his riveting conversational skills.

When the second pulse came, he let it through. He felt the tiny probe of mana making its way through his body, he let it arrive at his fire core and begin poking around. Just at that moment, when he knew Duncan would be at his most focused, he pushed back. He thrust his own will into Duncan.

His defences crumbled instantly under the immense force of Vance's will. Vance hadn't really had much of a chance to test himself against other students, so he didn't know how well he measured up. When he realised that he'd obliterated the defences of a student who'd also created their own fire core, he felt proud.

Then he sensed a familiar, metallic taste crawling up in his mouth, like copper and iron. Duncan had not one, but two cores, yet Vance had easily overcome him. Did that mean Vance was already ready to produce his second core? If this guy was, then surely...

Then, he remembered.

Metal and fire. His body tensed. James was apparently ready for that and had already formulated something of a plan. He interposed himself between the two, turning his whole body to face Vance. He turned his face over his shoulder, back to Duncan, who had just let go of Vance's hand. James noticed he looked furious.

"Come on Vance, we've got somewhere to be. Sorry, Duncan, I'll make sure you get a chance to catch up with him later, yeah?"

"I don't remember talking to you, McKinley." Duncan essentially snort-yelled. James ignored him.

Vance heard the distinct sound of Brad offending the nearby floorboards as he stood closely behind James, supportively. This seemed to make Duncan carefully consider any further action.

Vance felt his connection with Duncan break off just as they lost contact with one another. For a moment, he'd felt such fury that he idly wondered if by pouring enough mana into Duncan, perhaps he could obliterate one of those cores. His mind returned to him with James' actions.

Mariah was the one to pull Vance backwards, saying "Come on, we'll be late. Bye Leslie!"

Leslie still didn't seem to feel like talking. The group walked away from the impromptu confrontation. Vance was confused and asked

"What was that all about?"

James sighed. "The Sellanions are something of a big deal in these parts. Remember I told you about all of that aristocratic bullshit? Yeah, Sellanions basically invented it. Cruel, pretentious, bottom of the barrel scum if you ask me."

Vance heard a few chuckles from the group, obviously echoing his sentiment.

"Then why are they here? Surely if they're that awful nobody wants to teach them magic."

"Money, Vance. Can't run a college full of resource-hungry Arcanists without a boatload of cash." Thomas jumped in.

"I'm fairly certain they're the ones who attacked me," Vance said, quietly. "Or, at least Duncan was one of them. Do you guys know anyone else with two cores, fire and metal?"

"Other than the masters? No." James let out a long breath as he spoke. "Sorry Vance, I had a pretty good idea that it was him since you told me, but I wanted to be sure. Not to mention I didn't want you going after him and getting yourself killed."

"Killed?" Vance didn't like the sound of this.

"Their family has a reputation for overreacting, let's leave it at that." Mariah's voice sounded a little distant. She was stage whispering from a little ways ahead, probably walking backwards, knowing her.

"Wait, how did you know he had a fire and metal core? Did you meet him before?" Thomas asked.

"Nah, I probed him. In my defence, he probed me first."

The group went silent. After a few moments, Vance couldn't stand it.

"Is that so bad?"

"With Duncan? You might as well have taken a shit in his breakfast." James seemed to be quite enthusiastic about his hatred of the family, Vance made a note to investigate that later.

"Great. Oh well, what's done is done. Where are we going?" Vance changed the subject. His relaxed demeanour helped the rest of the group recover their purpose.

"We're all going out. Specifically, out of the city. We're going to practice mana control together, so we're going to head into the woods. It's one of our favourite spots. You're coming too." Mariah was suddenly a lot closer than before, then she easily threaded her arm through his. He realised that he felt much more comfortable now, he'd gotten used to this.

Just over an hour of walking and chatting later, the group arrived at the side of a river. Vance could hear the water was flowing to his right, eastward. It was clearly a heavily forested area from the sounds of leaves underfoot and he could hear Brad up front snapping branches out of the way, making a path.

"If this is your favourite spot, why don't you already have a path through?"

"We haven't had a chance to come out here in a while. What, with us out of town, Thomas stuck working in admin, the fires, the murders..." Mariah trailed off, then reaffirmed herself. "Basically, it's been a while."

Vance was led along the river until they reached a point that the group described as something of a campsite. He pushed out his mana sense and picked up the rough layout. There were small shelters laid about the area constructed of natural materials, he couldn't tell exactly what, but likely wood and leaves.

There was an old firepit which Brad took to restocking with sticks and other forest refuse. Vance could sense the many tall spikes of weak, natural mana around him. He approached one and ran his hand along with the bark. He was trying to figure out exactly what type of mana a tree contained. He'd been able to sense wooden constructs before, but he'd never put a name to the feeling.

"Hey, guys, is there such a thing as wood mana?" He yelled out to the others.

"Yeah, it's supposed to be an offshoot of earth mana, pretty rare. Why?"

"Just curious."

The feeling Vance got from the tree was like something wooden was animate, snaking its way up his legs, trying to hold him in place. He felt this strange sense of stretching like his body was trying to grow taller to reach the sun. The feeling resonated with him a little, he was trying to grow as much as he could too, just in a different way.

The group began to gather around the fire, which Thomas lit with a gesture. They started exchanging stories, theories, practice techniques and other information. Vance was nearby, he'd opted not to sit and was examining the area around them.

Thomas was watching him, his eyes filled with curiosity. The rest of the group eventually clocked on to what Thomas was staring at. Vance was walking between the trees, going from one to the next. Before he'd reach one, he'd raise his hand just in time to touch it, then he'd stand still for a minute, then move on to the next.

Thomas wasn't sure, but if you asked him honestly, he'd say that Vance was moving too confidently, too quickly.

He was moving as if he could see.

"Vance!" He shouted, finally out of patience.

Vance turned to face him. He'd got the direction perfect. "Yeah? Sorry, I've been absorbed in...this." He looked a little embarrassed as he gestured to the closest tree. He made his way over, brushing stray bits of loose bark from his hands. He actively avoided the trunks of two smaller trees on his way over and the group's curiosity was spiked.

"Please don't be upset, Vance. My curiosity is getting the better of me. If you don't want to tell me, just tell me to piss off, alright?" Thomas seemed really nervous about asking this question.

"Can you see? The way you're moving... No, that's not the right question, I can see your eyes are closed..."

Vance laughed. Of course, he hadn't explained properly. The whole group looked at him, silent and eager.

"No, Thomas. I can't see, don't worry, I'm not mad or anything, why would I be?" Thomas shrugged. He wondered if Vance would be able to tell.

"I'm still blind. However, I've learned to sense mana. I don't want to sound cocky, but I'm getting pretty good at it. I can even pick up on the traces of natural mana around me if I concentrate. It's how I know when I'm going to run into a tree, wood mana. If I push it really hard, I can sense pretty far, too. I can sometimes even pick up on people, but that's tricky. They're like the opposite, the membrane seems to block my sense unless I really push it."

"That sounds...." Thomas started.

"Useful."

"Scary."

"Brilliant!"

Brad, James and Mariah each contributed their own suggestion to the end of Thomas' sentence in order.

"It's getting easier and easier to control. I think in a couple of weeks I'll probably be able to keep my senses sharp enough to watch for natural mana for most of the day. Right now, an hour or so is still a bit tricky, but progress is surprisingly fast. This time a couple of months ago, I could barely sense a dense ball of mana an inch from my face."

"I've been meaning to ask..." James interjected. "On the subject of you being weird, how is it your mana control is so good when you've only been at this for a few months?"

"I think the mana sense has a lot to do with it. That and this feather thing in my core. I have to constantly battle it, which I've learned to love, actually. It's like constant exercise for my will."

"Cheater." Mariah chided.

He shrugged and gave her a self-satisfied smile. "Guilty as charged."

"If we're all asking questions, mind If I ask one of my own?" Vance turned to the group.

"Does anyone know how to perform an Earth shift? I've been looking for an example."

To his surprise, Brad spoke up.

"Yeah. Wanna see?"

"Absolutely!" Vance scrambled over to him as quickly as possible.

Mariah and Thomas were just staring at each other with wide eyes, a whole conversation passed through their expressions in half a second.

"Since when?!" both asked at the same time.

"Couple days back." Brad didn't waste any time and produced for Vance a small ball of mana. To the rest of the group, it looked like a mix of brown, green and yellow soil all intertwined with one another. It crumbled at the edges, with tiny bits of mana falling off of the main body, dissipating into nothingness.

Vance picked up on everything but the colours. He felt like he could taste the soil in his mouth, the scent of leaves filled his nose and he could sense the many small things that crawled through the spaces beneath his feet.

He noticed the clear similarities between the earth mana and the wood mana in the trees around him. On impulse, he drew a tiny bit of natural earth and wood mana towards himself at the same time.

Just like before, something inside of him resonated with those trees, but this time it was much, much stronger. Vance sensed an opportunity, so he let himself get lost in the feeling. At that moment, for just a moment, Vance faded away entirely.

He felt like he was one of them, all leaves and roots. He could feel the wind pushing around his branches, it felt like stretching after just having woken up. When it rustled his leaves, it was like someone was gently brushing his hair. He knew the critters scratching at his bark meant him no harm and they couldn't dig deep enough to do so. Perhaps he could provide for them a place to nest when the rain came?

His only desire was to grow and he needed the earth to do it. He reached out to it. With his will, he was asking it to help him grow, to hold his roots for him and to share with him the bounty of food it held for itself. Without it, he would be lost and would wither, then what would happen to the critters? He didn't know how he could pay the earth back, though. Perhaps he could hold the beehives that would pollinate those flowers it loves so much?

The earth agreed to his requests, but it was distressed. It needed something, too.

He felt guilty, he couldn't help the earth get what it needed, Trees couldn't move.

In his desire to help, a tiny part of his mind interjected. His will burst forth and a sliver of his personality shone through. "Wait, trees can't move, but I can, I can help!"

He wanted to search his surroundings, to help find what the soil needed, but trees had no eyes, and so could not see. Fortunately, he'd had some experience in this area. He pushed out his mana sense, half aware of what he was doing. He searched diligently, he didn't know what he was looking for, but perhaps when he found it, he'd know.

There. His new instincts screamed at him. This was something both he and soil must gather and share if both are to survive. He broke into a run.

The group stared slack-jawed at Vance as he stood up, mumbled something about being able to help, then ran up to the river and dove in headfirst.

"I made him crazy. Sorry." Brad said, calmly.