A silence fell over the classroom as we absorbed Tago’s words. I could see a couple of the students growing angry, but the majority accepted his words without argument. I knew I was lacking.

Indra told me that every day.

“The first thing every student of magic needs to understand is patience. How many of you have the skill ‘meditation’?”

Eight of us put our hands up, and I saw that the two that didn’t were the ones that had allowed the statues through the quickest.

That surprised me.

Koshima academy was one of the schools that housed the elites of this world. Most would have aged naturally, compared to William or I, but I knew that nobles taught their children how to meditate as early as possible.

It should have been a basic skill for them. They were the children of nobles, with access to teaching resources and skills that others didn’t have.

Tago turned towards the two students that didn’t know meditation. It turns out that a rock could show disapproval.

“It is my job to teach you earth magic. If you do not know meditation, then that is a limitation that is difficult to overcome. Meditation is the result of hard work, discipline, and patience. All are qualities you need for your magic studies. You will endeavour to learn the skill or you will not graduate in your studies.”

He turned to the rest of us before the two students could respond.

“We shall begin with ten minutes of meditation. For those of you who do not know the skill, I will be arranging lessons after school in the coming weeks for you.” He turned to me. “Please ask your companion to wait patiently.”

He stopped moving, and after a few seconds we realised that was it. The conversation was over. He had given us time for questions, and we hadn’t asked any.

I looked at Gold, sitting on my shoulder, and he nodded his head. He’d understood. He flapped his wings and moved to the corner of the room, quietly watching us.

I sat back and closed my eyes. I took a deep breath in, and a deep breath out. Around me the class did the same, and our timing synchronised. As one, eight of us drowned out the world around us.

The physical world disappeared from my sight, and I peeled back the illusion of reality and gained sight of the mana underneath. I could see the people around me, glowing brightly.

I dove further into my mind, and away from all vision, and all senses. My thoughts and emotions left me, and in their place was an empty blank space.

Except, it wasn’t quite empty anymore. Two symbols floated in the air, emitting waves of power. Earth and metal. There was a new addition floating between them, both a part of me as they were, and yet separate.

It was my mask.

It didn’t have a presence that I could detect, and yet it did its duty, blocking the watcher's eyes from me at all times. It acted like the attuned symbols, except that it wasn’t truly here. It had a physical form and didn’t at the same time. It was in my mind, and also not.

The first time I’d thought about it I’d gotten a migraine.

I turned towards the empty space. My body was that of my adult self, and I sat cross-legged on the floor of my mind.

I stayed there, until I felt something pushing against me. It wasn’t physical, it was magical. Emotions of curiosity peeked out from my heart, and a stray worry brushed past my mind.

I calmed them down. There was no threat, the school wouldn’t allow it, and more importantly, I felt no ill intention from the presence.

I rested, until the presence rose again to distract me. It was stronger this time, and I felt a slight tremor of panic. Then it washed away with my next breath.

I didn’t think about it or try to decipher its intentions. I kept meditating, becoming one with the world around me.

The presence returned, but my resistance to it had grown. There were no whimpers, or stray thoughts, only myself and the emptiness of the world around me.

Then it receded, and I opened my eyes.

Ten minutes were up.

I came face-to-face with myself. The stone statue had returned, although this time I could sense the mana in it. It was a regular statue made of stone.

It was sending out pulses of magic. That was what I had felt during my meditation. The students around me were in the same situation.

“Andross Silver, Ouros Destin. Good.”

Tago’s voice broke through my thoughts. There was a sound beside me, and I saw the green-haired boy celebrating. The other students all looked glum.

“The rest of you will need to work on your meditation skills. To learn magic, you must gain more than a state of equilibrium, you must learn stability. A breakthrough can be disrupted and lost because your concentration wavered.”

The teacher waved his hand and the statues moved through the classroom. One by one they stopped in front of random seats, completely different to the ones we were in now.

“Now then, I have seen your abilities in the areas of earth and mind. Please sit in the order I have designated for you.”

I stood up and walked towards the seat my statue was pointed towards. I was next to the Ouros.

Each chair was accompanied by a small table, and I could see a variety of coloured and grey pebbles set out on it.

Those hadn’t been there when I’d entered the room.

The sound of flapping wings entered my ears, and Gold stepped onto my table. He was looking at the pebbles curiously and poked at a couple of them with his beak.

“How many of you know all of the materials in front of you?” Tago’s voice called out to us.

There were twenty in total, but I only recognised half of them from working at Zodiac. The other students looked as confused as I was, some were rooting through the pebbles and raising them to their eyes to inspect them.

A single person raised their hands, the girl that had been third in the earth manipulation test.

Tago turned to her. “Good.” Then he looked at the rest of us. “Earth is a general term and encompasses many things. Knowing the materials we can control is just as important as being able to control them. By understanding one, it complements our ability to do the other. Today I will be teaching you about each material in front of you. You will learn them by our next class. That is your homework.”

The rest of the lesson was exactly as he said. We went through each material one by one, and then Tago gave us time to meditate.

I recreated every aspect of the pebbles in the Blank space of my mind. I could memorise things, but only if I did it quickly after learning them.

I’d also added notes to a workbook and my system library.

“Good work out there.” A voice called out to me as I left the classroom.

A splattering of green entered my vision.

“Ouros Destin. Potential earth magician.” The boy held his hand out.

I shook it. “Andross Silver. Potential earth magician. And this is Gold.”

Gold waved his wing at the boy.

“Pleasure to meet you Gold. I saw you eyeing those materials, you’re earth friendly as well, aren’t you?” Ouros’ words fired like a machine gun. “I’ve never met a bird that likes the ground. What a curious fella.”

Gold squawked with pride. I rolled my eyes at his antics. He was making more friends than I was today. The bell for the next period sounded in my ears.

“Ah, damn.” Ouros looked around. “We’ll have to introduce ourselves properly sometime!”

He was gone the moment his sentence finished. I watched him go with a light smile. Then I started rushing towards my classroom.

I made it just in time, and Amanda waved at me as I walked in. She’d saved me a seat.

Fourth period was science, but the class itself was spent explaining exactly what science was.

Science was a strange concept to me in a world where physical laws were defied every day. Magic could do so much, what use was there for science. That was a common consensus around the room.

However, I’d also seen that this world was advanced. It didn’t have the same theme that technology did in my world, but many of the things they had on earth were replicated here.

Fridges existed, elevators existed, and thankfully bathrooms and showers existed and were common in every establishment. Those last two objects had probably helped me adjust to this world the most.

I don’t know what I would’ve done without them.

However, it was still easier to do things with magic and symbols. At least when it came to some things. For example, a washing machine couldn’t remove large clumps of dirt from my clothes, but magic could.

Then again, not everyone had magic. In fact, the majority of the world didn’t. A lot are manaless like my dad, or they only learned one or two magical skills and then found themselves unable to learn any more due to natural limitations.

Science had its place, and it was an important one.

The lesson ended quicker than I thought it would, and as we packed up, I saw Amanda scribbling down notes, unaware that the class had finished.

I waited for her to realise, and Agni made her way down to Amanda’s palm and then pecked at it.

“Ow.” Amanda looked at Agni, and then at us. “We’ve finished?”

Gold and I nodded at her.

“You dislike math, but you love science. I wouldn’t have guessed it.”

“Science is a pretty common interest among fire magicians. We need quick ways to make lots of flames sometimes.” She winked at me. “You never know when you need to blow something up.”

“I hadn’t thought about that, is it possible to learn the fire creation skill?”

We made our way outside.

“Sure, if you’re lucky enough to get it as your first skill. If not, then you need to be a genius that appears once in a generation.” She frowned. “I think I’m good, but I’m not that good. Not many people are.”

That was interesting to know. There was too little information on creation skills. My friends at Zodiac hadn’t met anyone else with one, and I wasn’t sure if the sea surrounding William’s island was created or moved there.

Amanda wriggled her fingers and I saw them shift into flames. “This is the closest I get, but it’s limited to my physical form. I can’t manipulate the flames or create infinite amounts.” The phoenix beside her chirped. “Agni can’t either.”

I hadn’t given much thought to how the other elemental magicians would work with their elements. Fire wasn’t commonplace, like earth, and it wasn’t like they could carry around a fireplace in an inventory.

Warmth would be preserved, but not flames.

A clamour ahead of us distracted me from my thoughts. A wall of people was blocking our way. Amanda’s head bobbed up and down as she tried to see what was happening beyond the group of students.

My head barely reached above them, and I saw the cause of the commotion. William was with the group that had challenged him to a fight.

All of them were walking side-by-side towards the arena.

Amanda poked my hand. “Come on, let’s get some good seats.”

We pushed through the students, and I realised for the first time how popular William was. His name was on everyone’s lips, and quite a few people wanted to see him fail.

We rushed past the gardens and towards the giant dome building. The arena. Others joined us on the way, and a line began to form.

None of them were as enthusiastic as Amanda. The flames in her hair brightened with each passing second, and she didn’t hide her widening smile.

“I’m starting to think you have a personal stake in this fight.”

Amanda looked at me and gestured towards William’s opponent.

“What loving sister doesn’t want to see her brother get his ass kicked?”