The corridors of the Academy were dark and lifeless without any students in them. Gerial and I had waited for his father to get out of a meeting, and even the stragglers had gone home. Reverberations bounded up my leg as my toes tapped against the ground nervously.

“You’re a little too stressed, aren’t you?” Gerial spoke.

He was visible now. The school was his comfort zone, and within it he was free to be himself. He still kept himself invisible in front of the freshman, but I had seen him occasionally walking around when I was on my way to class.

His purple eyes rested on me as my hands bounced in my lap. I was a fully grown adult, but I had also seen the headmaster turn into a ball of flames that melted his enemies.

Gold could sense my stress and nestled against my neck to comfort me.

“He wants to talk about what I saw, right?” I asked for the third time.

Gerial’s eyes rolled. “He’s not going to eat you. I thought you’d met him before.”

I had. The first time I had met Eli I had spoken a bit to the headmaster. It was our first proper interaction, nothing like when I had met Gerial in the observatory. I hadn’t even talked to the headmaster then.

The door opened, distracting me from my thoughts. The headmaster’s head popped out with a smile, and he gestured for us to enter. We made our way into the room

The headmaster’s office was simpler than I’d thought.

He sat down on his chair and placed his hands on the desk. Beside him was a small book that he opened to reveal handwritten scrawls on the pages.

“We did a thorough search around Alexis.” The headmaster spoke. “And found no indication that anything was wrong.”

He got straight to the point. His tone held no anger, or contempt, only curiosity and neutrality. He leaned forward.

“Gerial has given me his account, now I want to hear it from you.”

I felt like saluting the man but held back. Instead, I gave him a full report of what I could remember, and anything else suspicious that had happened.

“Unice, Destin. Friend, unknown.” The headmaster wrote down what I was saying as I spoke. “Gerial told me about the friend already. These two had their shoulders touched, no others?”

“None that I’ve seen.” I noted. “However, I’ve heard that Alexis is in a class filled with potential bloodline inheritors.”

The headmaster showed no surprise on his face. He ran his fingers across his head and sat back.

“I will admit that this is an unusual case.” The headmaster spoke slowly. “You have no evidence, no magical residue, and Alexis has passed every test given by his family, the city and the academy.”

My heart fluttered with unease, and I tempered the emotions as they rose to the surface. The headmaster wasn’t telling me that nothing had happened, he was saying that they couldn’t find anything to suggest it had.

I knew what I remembered; the question was whether it was related to Alexis’ unexpected bloodline awakening.

If it was a solitary incident, then that meant nothing wrong was happening.

The headmaster tapped his notebook. “If you are correct in your assumption that Alexis has unlocked his bloodline with help. That is a very serious issue.”

“I have recorded your testimony and sent it to the relevant parties.” The headmaster’s book glowed.

It was a regent.

“In no outcome will your identity be revealed. We will ask that you not interfere with our investigation at all.” He gazed into my eyes. “The bloodline families are not to be trifled with. Reporting to me is fine, but investigating on your own could bring about retribution.”

He didn’t need to tell me twice. My heart still felt uneasy, but I was beginning to relax. The faculty was capable of magic I couldn’t imagine, and they had the resources to contend with and placate the noble houses they were investigating.

“There was one thing that worried me about your account.” The headmaster continued. "And it is the main reason I have brought you in today.

I looked up at him and he was frowning.

“Mana by itself can cause strange impacts on the world around it. However, you described a spell. An illusion to be exact. The corridor. Is that correct?”

“Yes, sir.” I kept my voice steady.

“When you used your skill to detect the mana around you, did you feel that something was near you?”

I closed my eyes and thought back to the memories I had recovered. The corridor appeared in my mind, right before I had seen the green mana.

The memory became clearer as I focused on it. The headmaster and Gerial waited for me.

The dome’s corridor had felt like it went on for infinity. I knew something was wrong, and I’d activated my mana sense.

“Yes.” It came to my mind. “There was something like that. A thing at the edge of my vision. I thought it was the green mana.”

That didn’t make sense. The green mana had been in front of me. Then the headmaster’s mana shifted, and the act broke my recollection.

“Thank you, Andross.” The headmaster smiled. “You have been a wonderful help.”

I opened my mouth to respond but Gerial grabbed onto my arm. His eyes looked from me to the headmaster and then he started to move us out of the room.

The headmaster kept his smile and waved at us as we left. Our footsteps echoed down the hallway, and we didn’t speak until we were far away from the headmaster’s office.

“Sorry for the sudden exit. What you just said really pissed him off.” Gerial broke the silence. “He can get a bit… Blunt when he’s angry.”

I stared at him. “I hadn’t noticed that at all.”

“Well, I am his son.”

Gerial and I walked down the corridors, but he didn’t lead me to the garden. Instead, we took a tour around the different towers and classrooms.

“What made him angry?” I asked.

Gerial hummed, and his fingers twitched. “I'm not sure, but if I were to guess then I’d say he's doubtful that there was green mana.”

I stopped. “Excuse me?”

Gerial walked a few steps forward before realising I had paused. He turned back to me and shrugged.

“You were in an illusion, and you were using a skill that sensed mana, but for some reason the mana only appeared after a few seconds?” Gerial frowned. “What if the mana was an illusion as well?”

“That’s… bad? Does he think I’m lying?”

Gerial shook his head. “No. He thinks someone was next to you casting a spell. They distracted you with a false lead and hid themselves in an illusion.”

I stared at him. That was much worse.

My chest rose as my heartbeat quickened. Gerial saw my expression and raised his hand comfortingly.

“If this mystery figure is real, of course. Remember, I came almost instantly after your mana reacted” Gerial clarified. “Also, you said you saw a flash of green as well when Alexis touched his friend, so we can’t discount the green mana’s existence entirely. It is likely the type of mana that was used in the spell.”

I looked around; the empty corridors looked a lot more menacing now. Gerial and I continued to walk but I kept an eye on the surroundings.

“That’s a big deal, isn’t it?” I tried to keep my voice steady.

My emotions were spiking, but Gerial’s attitude was relaxed. He looked at me and there was the sound of a chime in my air. Gerial looked up and then placed a hand on my shoulder.

“Whatever happens next, stay calm.”

His other hand held onto the wall. I turned to look at him when I felt something pressing against my body. A presence. It was tiny at first, and then there was another chime in the air. The pressure grew and across the corridors and outside the window I could see a rainbow gathering.

Mana of all colours and elements gathered in the air and danced. I could see their connection to each other. Each one was under the command of a single magician, flowing at his whim across the school through the classrooms and between the flowers.

“Wha-”

The floor felt strange. Mana overwhelmed my senses, thick enough that I could see it without my mana sense activating. They gathered underneath me, and the floor descended.

No.

I was floating.

I heard a squawk of surprise as Gold floated off my shoulder and into the air.

My first instinct was to flail about, but then the hand on my shoulder squeezed and I saw that Gerial was floating beside me. I remembered his words and took a deep breath to calm myself.

The pressure was overwhelming, but it wasn’t directed at me. It spread across the school and then as quickly as it came it was gone.

My body fell towards the ground, but then something picked me up. Leftover mana from the spell.

“Yeah, my dad was angry.” Gerial patted himself down.

I could see his hands shaking.

“What was that?” I looked at the mana.

It was dissipating quickly, briefly waving goodbye to us before it disappeared.

“Our defenses are activating. The ones that are only used in emergencies. Or if there are intruders.” Gerial continued walking. “My dad took you seriously, but I don’t think he found anything. The results would’ve been much more explosive if he had.“

“He believed me just like that?” I was touched.

That was a lot of effort to expend on the word of a single student.

“He trusts me. He also had spells cast to make sure you weren’t lying to slander a noble house.” Gerial smiled. “This won’t be the only repercussion, but that’s out of our hands now.”

“And if they don’t find anything?”

“Then there is nothing to be found, or it is a problem that can’t be dealt with by the school.” Gerial shrugged. “What you felt now was the hammer, but after this comes the politics. This involves a noble house. Possibly multiple.”

Gerial and I stepped through the entrance doors of the academy and the grassy hills revealed themselves to us.

“My dad wasn’t joking when he said not to mess with noble houses.” Gerial’s voice lowered. “The academy isn’t the only institution that will be investigating this. Not with two Marked ones involved.”

He looked upwards and I caught a brief glimpse of someone staring down at us from the tower above.

They had a mask with a single eye.

The person nodded and then disappeared. They’d wanted us to see them. My own guards were at my home with the family. The academy had their own security and deal with the church.

“Don’t worry.”

I assured him.

“I’m not going to get involved any further.”

Gold flapped over to his tree the moment we arrived at home.

“My champ has returned from the second day of school.”

My dad swept me up in a hug and I felt my life being choked out of my lungs. He let me go and I was body slammed by my mum from the side as she swept me into her arms.

“You’re late.” She chided. “I thought something happened to you.”

“Sorry.” My voice was muffled.

My mum ignored me. “What if you’d gotten stuck in Koshima without a spare change of clothes. We’re going to your room and packing some immediately.”

She let go of me and rushed into the house.

“Your mother’s right.” My dad and I went inside. “Did you check about the portal situation?”

“I asked Gerial. It’s fine. They’re not going to strand kids in Koshima.”

I walked into my room and my mum was packing clothes for me to put in my inventory. We didn’t have many, but the spare uniforms were the main items.

Gerial had told me how to set up the portals to take me home. I had to give advance notice to the staff at reception, but if I knew I was going home late then I could go to the academy and portal back.

“Speaking of, your grandmother replied to your letter.”

My eyes lit up. I had sent my grandma a letter letting her know that I was attending the academy now, and that I could finally come and visit her.

My dad handed me the unopened envelope.

“I said you could read it if she sent a reply.” He shook his head, and I took it from him. My eyes ran over the words on the page. “She wants to know if I can come over this week.”

The letter contained her address again, and directions to it from the academy. She was available every day of the week for me.

My dad leaned towards me, an unspoken question in his eyes.

“Yeah. I can.” I smiled.

Tomorrow I’d meet my grandma.