It wasn’t long before Lilijoy and Dean Reunification reached a small grove of mature oak.

“She may or may not be aware of our presence,” said the Dean. “You may approach.”

Lilijoy looked around for any sign of a being to approach. “Is she in the grove?”

The Dean tsked. “Yes. Now in you go,” she said, shooing Lilijoy forward.

Leaving the Dean’s presence was a relief, though she was no longer protected from the rain, which had become heavier over the last few minutes. Lilijoy ventured forward, until she stood within the trees. Fat drops of water rolled off the leaves and fell all around her. There was no sign of the Head of School.

“Hello?” she called softly.

A gust of cold wind blew through the grove, and suddenly Lilijoy was drenched as several minutes of accumulation fell from the stirring branches. And the day started so well, she thought. She now stood dripping in a puddle of water, and she wrapped her arms around herself for warmth. One more try, I guess.

“Hello? It’s Lily. I’m a student and I’m supposed to meet with Head Treetouched.”

The tree’s branches stirred again, without a breeze. She heard a noise by her feet and looked down, to see the water in the puddle was moving, roiling. A face, a woman’s face formed and grew in the water until it projected out from the surface. The mouth moved and all around her the leaves rustled and shook. It took Lilijoy several seconds to realize that the rustling sounds were speech that matched the movement of the lips.

“Welcome, welcome student. Please have a seat...”

Lilijoy was not particularly excited to sit down in the puddle, but as she opened her mouth to explain her reluctance, the ground stirred beneath her and roots emerged, weaving themselves into a basket a foot above the mud. She sat.

The puddle gathered itself and the face rose on a column of water, until it was eye level with Lilijoy.

“Masgret tells me you have a special talent.”

Lilijoy was glad she could read lips, as the speech from the rustling leaves was barely distinguishable, evocative of consonants with hardly any vowel sounds.

“I guess I do? I mean I don’t really-”

The rustling leaves gently interrupted. “Show me.”

***

Magpie emerged from her advanced magic class walking on air. If only I really could walk on air, she thought. It wasn’t out of the realm of possibility, but mostly she had found out just how much there was to learn before she would be capable of any magic besides the spell she already knew.

It hadn’t really been a class at all, more of a workshop, or even a social event for air mages. She had been the youngest and least advanced student in the room, but the other students had been friendly and eager to help. The teacher was an ancient avian named Professor Prerry, who looked something like a grouse crossed with a grandmother and asked the students to call her Opie.

“Don’t keep yourselves to yourselves,” she had cackled when they first came into the room. “Your noses shouldn’t be the only thing in the air!”

“Hi Opie!” said a young man, a gangly human with dark red curls and a nose that could have passed for avian. “We’ve missed you!”

“Tch, it’s been but two weeks, Selmy, you need to find a nice human girl and stop pining around after this old bird,” Opie said with a cluck. The class laughed, and soon they were all talking about current projects and how experience term was. After a few minutes, Opie had Magpie explain her current air magic levels to the class.

“Now, my chick, that's a good start, but there's much to learn. Who here has an idea for what our little Magpie, love the name dear, should work on?”

“She needs another clade,” opined a willowy elven girl. “Charge is amazing, but it’s hardly air at all, really.”

“You’re just jealous, Estellin” stated a boy wearing a hood with jet black fur covering his face. “You’ve been working on Charge for as long as I’ve known you.”

“It’s just a side project,” the girl retorted.

“Whatever. The point is, she needs to work from where she is. I’d suggest a new spell.”

“Like what?”

Here the boy was stumped. He looked to Opie for help.

“Well that’s a nice pickle for you to think on, Ronnie,” Opie said.

“It’s Ronvelt,” the boy said under his breath.

Opie plowed on. “I think maybe something in the middle for now. A new class shouldn’t take her too long. Shaped would do nicely, and it would open up a few new spell branches.”

The next part of the class was Selmy, whose real name turned out to be Anselm, helping Magpie learn the initial architecture of the Shaped class. She was a bit taken aback to be taught by a student at first, but Anselm was funny and humble.

“Thanks for letting me help you learn Shaped,” he said. “Opie says teaching’s one of the best ways to raise understanding of the source, and I’ve been stuck at apprentice level for ages.”

“So you really can’t just put points into it?”

“I wish! I’ve had five points tucked away for ages, and I’ve burned way too many other points raising my affinity. I started at a forty-two and I’ve got it all the way up to tier two now.”

“That’s what my water affinity is, a forty-two. But my air didn’t start much higher.”

“Whoa! Two high affinities from your trial! And a rare source! You really hit the jackpot.”

“I got an accomplishment for two sources and everything. I guess I’m just special.” She winked at him, and suddenly felt bashful. “But really, it was a lot of luck.”

Anselm was looking at her with an odd expression. “Wait,” he said. “Two sources? Is the water one like the air?”

“You mean a package deal? Yeah. Water Aspect Fused Breath.”

Anselm was already waving his hand in the air to get Opie’s attention. While she was finishing up elsewhere, he turned back to Magpie.

“This might change what we’re doing. You have access to another clade and class from your water source. It might make more sense to work on bringing those over to Air, before you learn Shaped. I’m no water mage, but that is one funky spell too. I’ve never heard of a water breathing spell from a water source. I’ve heard of the Fused class, but it’s really rare.” Apparently, Anselm talked fast when he got excited. “That spell must change water into something you can breath. Most water breathing comes from the air side, like forming a bubble around your head and stuff. It’s not really water breathing. But yours is!”

Opie came to where they were sitting, and Anselm recapped the situation for her, talking even faster, which Magpie had not thought possible.

“Guess this old bird’s got some feathers loose,” said Opie. “My apologies Magpie. I didn’t think to ask if you had another source. It doesn’t happen that often, straight from the trial.” She put her head down and preened the feathers on her left wing for a moment. “Water and air play well together, so it wouldn’t take long for you to apply Aspect and Fused to your air source. Thing is, Fused is a tricky class. Best to work with a water mage to understand that before fooling around with another element.”

“What’s so tricky about it?” She and Anselm said at the same time.

Opie laughed at them. “It’s the ‘I accidentally dispersed my body across the room and died’ kind of tricky. It allows the caster to fuse with the element, partially or totally, depending on the spell. Since it’s a breath spell, it fuses your breathing pathway with the surrounding water, somehow.

Now, Aspect is another story. Once you have that, you are able to do many things, if you have the right classes. It is a property of identity, which doesn’t do much on its own. When paired with Altered, it allows you to change breathable air to poison. If you paired it with Projected and a well-constructed spell form, you might be able to select a particular type of air and send it where you desired.”

“Here’s something I don’t understand,” said Magpie. “What is air exactly? Outside, we know it is a blend of gasses, nitrogen and oxygen and so forth. What is it here?”

“Oh ho, we have a live one, Selmie,” Opie chuckled. “How do you know what the air is Outside?”

“Well, someone did some experiments and...”

“No, I mean how do you know what the air is Outside?”

“I guess I read it somewhere, maybe watched a video.”

“Have you ever looked for yourself?”

"Well no, I mean lots of people have, and it all works, you know. It’s science, right?”

At this point, Angus jumped in. “It’s the refrigerator door thing.”

“Not helping,” said Magpie.

“You know, the light only comes on when you look inside?”

“Like a room with motion triggered lights? I mean, I get what you two are saying, that science stuff is only there to the extent that we measure it, or look for it, or whatever. But if it’s always there and always the same when we look, what does it matter?”

“Because it is a literal fact on the Inside," said Anselm. "Each element behaves differently depending on how closely you examine it. A scientist can come here and use Air magic to obtain all the same results as Outside experiments. Right?”

He looked at Opie for her approval.

“That’s mostly true, but missing my, admittedly smaller, point. I asked Magpie if she had ever looked for herself.” Opie looked at Magpie. “Well, have you?”

Magpie was taken aback. “You can’t see that stuff. I mean air is clear and all mixed together. You need tools to measure it.”

“Exactly!” She raised her voice to address the room. “Everyone, your attention for a moment. I will be performing a spell and I want you to tell me what it is.”

The students broke into excited whispers. Anselm leaned over to Magpie. “I love it when she does this!”

Opie hopped back and stretched her wings out, feathers trembling, made two large circular gestures and then pulled them back around herself and slowly faded from sight. The class was silent for a moment and then the students began to whisper their theories to each other. Then Opie’s voice emerged from the spot where she had disappeared.

“Magpie, come join me. Do hurry dear, I can’t do this all day.”

Magpie walked over to where Opie (evidently) still stood. As she approached, she saw her front begin to fade, and then her vision faded into darkness. She gasped and pulled back and the effect reversed.

“Thank you, that’s all we need,” said Opie, as her feathered form returned to visibility. “Now class, who can tell me what that was?”

“Invisibility spell,” someone called.

“Not quite.”

“Redirected light?”

“Do I seem like a fire mage to you?” Opie said with a cluck.

Estellin sighed and said, “I think it was transparency. Probably an Aspect clade.”

“And it had an area of effect, so its class was Shaped,” said Ronvelt.

“Very good chicks. Formally it might be called, Air Aspect Shaped Transparency, though since the spell form is improvised that would be subject to change. Now Magpie, tell us one of the problems with my little invention.”

“I couldn’t see at all as soon as my eyes went inside the boundary.”

“Right! It’s the classic problem with transparency, and most forms of invisibility for that matter. If your eyes are transparent, they won’t capture any light to see by. Any other problems you can guess at? Anyone?”

“It’s probably a mana hog,” a large batkin called.

“Very true. Due to the need for a large area and…?”

“It’s inefficient to draw on the clade from the spell form.” called Anselm.

“Right. If I had used a different class, such as Transmute, I wouldn’t need to continue to pour mana into the spell and the effect would last as long as I maintained focus. But then I would be limited to a single object or person. The final problem, which would have been difficult to notice in here, is that the spell is necessarily fixed in space. Once cast, I would not be able to move outside of the area. Can anyone think of a solution for that?”

“Enhancement,” said Estellin.

“I’m afraid so,” said Opie. “It’s a moot point anyway, as you wouldn’t be able to see where you were going.”

“I would!” called the batkin.

“What’s so bad about enhancement,” Magpie whispered to Anselm.

“Huge mana cost,” he whispered back.

“Also...what’s an enhancement?”

“Kind of like giving the spell a little mind of its own.”

They noticed Opie was looking at them. She winked, and addressed the class. “Thanks for your attention everyone. Go back to your business now.”

She approached Magpie. “So, in conclusion, let’s just keep you working on Shaped. Hopefully your water magic teacher will feel the same.”

The class lasted a few more minutes, and Magpie felt light headed just trying to incorporate everything she had learned. She walked out of the room in a happy daze. It wasn’t until she had been walking through the twisting corridors for a minute or more that she realized she was being followed.

***

Lilijoy took a deep breath and released it into the dripping greenery all around. The face in the water, Head Treetouched had asked her to demonstrate her Two Minds One Self ability, and she was having a little difficulty finding the correct mindset. The talk with the Dean had upset her, and now this visit with the Head of School was creeping her out.

You can do this, she told herself. Just pick a tree and go.

She focused on the oak tree just in front of her. It looked to be about thirty years old, as the trunk was easily big enough for even her arms to wrap around it.

Let’s see, what does a young oak want?

To grow, of course. It could have hundreds of years ahead of it. But what else? Nothing was happening, and she felt a creeping anxiety that threatened to ruin what peace of mind she had left. She looked around, hoping for a different plant to connect with, but the muddy ground was bare, covered by deep shade and several seasons worth of acorns. Guess there aren’t any squirrels either.

The water face watched her impassively from a few feet away, and Lilijoy felt a twinge of self consciousness. The Head of the entire Academy was waiting, watching her do absolutely nothing. She took another breath. Acorns. That’s the other thing.

Not being inclined toward reproduction herself at the moment, it took Lilijoy another minute to drop into her trance.

Well tree, you want to grow, but you are patient, and the rain is making you… sleepy? No, tranquil. No wonder I can’t resonate; I’m about the opposite of tranquil right now.

She let the sound of the rain wash over her, imagining what it was like from a tree’s perspective.

Cool, slowing, dark. The essence settles, no longer pulled by the sun, closer to the earth, closer to… family. The fundament wakes, a warm glow of connection from the fuzzy boundary of self and that which surrounds, the nurturing self-not-self.

Some part of Lilijoy’s mind that retained thought tried to make sense of the sensation, a feeling just next to imagination, coming from the tree, and she realized that the roots were surrounded, permeated, by a layer of microorganisms, the , and that network, the self-not-self, connected all the trees in the grove. The rain was bringing the soil alive, awake, and the connections in the grove were strengthening. It pulled on her as it pulled on the tree.

Submerge and awaken.

She sank deep into the connection.

We nurture. We grow. We are the rulers of soil and shade and our strength is eternal.

Through the network of roots, she merged into the oaks. The connection was vast, and she was no more than another drop of rain rolling off a leaf, just a sliver of awareness in a sea of ancient power.

And the sea parted. There was more.

Underneath and through the vast ancient tree mind was something more. The Oak, the grove, the connection across time to primordial forest, became a gate to a roaring ocean of thought energy. There was no more ‘we’. There was only one self here, and it contained a drop that had once been a being called Lilijoy.

What have we here? mused the ocean. Such a young mind, fresh and fragile. Growing. You wish to grow stronger, little drop? What an interesting structure. You have labels. Lilijoy, Emily and Jiannu.

Let me help.

The vast being caressed the drop as gently as it could. A tiny realignment.

The drop vanished, absorbed by the vastness.

Oh dear.