There was a huge difference in the way that Amanda acted around me, compared to the way she acted around Gerial. We spent an hour together, laughing and chatting, but most of the conversation was carried by Gerial and I.

Amanda was tense the entire time.

“It was good meeting you today, Amanda.” Gerial spoke.

We were walking towards the entrance of the academy. Amanda had homework to do and I had to take the portal to head home.

Agni and Gold returned to us, both of them flapping happily. Neither of them cared about Gerial aside from Agni buzzing around his body, inspecting him, until Amanda scooped her up.

“Meeting you was good as well.”

Amanda looked at him awkwardly, and then gave him a small bow.

“You don’t have to do that.” Gerial smiled.

She nodded stiffly and I stepped forward to walk with her down to the entrance gate. Gerial didn’t like to leave the academy building while visible unless it was a special occasion.

There were too many people that could see him.

“Well, I didn’t have a heart attack.”

Amanda started speaking normally the moment Gerial was out of sight.

“I consider that a huge win.” I gave her a thumbs up. “Don’t worry, he’ll join us sporadically so that you’ll be able to ease into it.”

Introducing friends was always slightly awkward at first, but I knew that repeated exposure would make her more comfortable with Gerial’s presence.

“Thanks.” Amanda shot me a grin. “Don’t get too cocky with today's victory. The day after tomorrow I’ll be the one destroying you in the arena.”

“It’s daytime Amanda, you shouldn’t be dreaming.”

She rolled her eyes at me, and I chuckled. We waved goodbye to each other and then she walked off into Koshima city.

I turned back and walked up the hills towards the main building.

Then I paused, a tickle at the edge of my mana sense catching my attention. There was someone nearby.

I’d felt this before.

There was someone invisible at the corner of my vision. A presence just out of my sight. I shifted my mana sense to pinpoint it when I spotted a blur.

I breathed a sigh of relief.

It was Gerial.

He was waiting for me in the middle of the open area. He walked towards me, invisible, and we waited for my portal to arrive.

“That’s why I want you to find friends before the church makes their decision.” Gerial spoke from beside me. “If you weren’t here, she’d be too terrified to even approach me.”

“She’ll warm up to you.” I walked beside him. “And I see what you mean, but I’m not a social butterfly.”

“Leave the heavy lifting to Gold.” Gerial gave me a pat on the back.

He knew that seeing Amanda and Gerial interact had given me a lot to think about. Amanda was someone I considered to be a good friend, in fact, she was probably my best friend.

Her reaction to Gerial showed me how she might react to me when my status was officially announced.

It didn’t feel good.

I didn’t want my friends to tiptoe around every word they spoke to me, or to be afraid of making fun of me.

“You don’t need to make a group of close friends.” Gerial looked at me. “As long as there are people that know you’re normal, that’s already enough.”

“You’re right.” I smiled. “Mark my words, you’ll both be laughing in the future when you remember how awkward you are around each other.”

“Awkward, me?” Gerial’s voice was filled with surprise.

I stared at him.

“Well, yeah, obviously. You were hardly talking to Amanda either. I was the one that was bridging all of the conversations.”

Gold chirped in amusement at my words and Gerial rubbed his forehead with his hands.

I knew that he didn’t have much experience talking to other people, but I hadn’t realised that he didn’t know how to make small talk.

I had figured it out about halfway through our conversation with Amanda. He was just as awkward as she was, he just didn’t show it because his expressions were so muted.

“Trying to talk to you was like trying to talk to a wooden dummy.” I clarified further. “Your face didn’t shift the whole time. You were totally expressionless. And your opening line involved grinding your bones.”

I remembered he’d done the same with me and William when he first met us.

“It’s a fun joke and a memorable fact.” Gerial turned to face me. “I thought that was the best way to introduce yourself to somebody.”

I inhaled and then let out a deep breath.

“You and I are going to have some lessons on small talk.’ I smiled. “I’m glad we met up today, I actually got to see a different side of you and now I’m going to help you make a friend.”

“I would appreciate that.” Gerial nodded. “Have you got any plans for this week?”

“Maybe a party at Amanda’s, hosted by her brother.” I tilted my head. “I’m going to bring the guards along, but I was wondering… do they have to keep tabs on me all the time?”

I wanted at least a little bit of privacy. Even if it was for a few minutes, or when I was having a private conversation.

“You can ask them to stop paying attention for a few minutes. And they give you privacy during obvious moments.” Gerial laughed. “Also, they don’t listen to every conversation you have. They just watch out for hostile magics activating around you, or strangers approaching you. They’re not spying on you, they’re protecting you.”

I let out a sigh of relief

The guards themselves weren’t too talkative about what they did for me.

“If you want total privacy for a few minutes, you can just order them to provide it. Not for long periods of time, but you are their boss.”

“I can?” I stared at him.

“You can.” He grinned.

There was a chime in my ears and the mana shifted around us, purple mists pouring out of nothingness onto the ground. Purple water droplets clung to the grass and swirled through the dirt.

My portal had arrived.

“Well, I’m going to let you know how that friendship stuff goes.” I turned towards the opening portal.

I hadn’t gotten the exact guestlist yet, but I knew a few of the people going and it seemed like a good opportunity.

“Other than that, I’ll be practising with Amanda for her fight on Inné.”

“I heard about that.” Gerial shifted towards the gate Amanda had left from. “She’s going to have a rough time in her family’s social circles.”

I’d been thinking about that myself. Reputation meant a lot to nobles, but Amanda was still a bloodline inheritor, and more importantly, I had a better grasp of her character now.

“She’ll be fine.” I was certain. “She’s strong.”

Gerial and I waved goodbye to each other, and I walked through the portal door. The corridors of the nexus gave me a quiet space to think.

Mr Black was going to discuss potential skills with me next week, and Amanda had made sure to schedule our arena sessions for each afternoon until her fight.

There were a few things on my mind, but I knew from my early experiences with magic that I had to take everything one step at a time.

Rushing would get me nowhere.

I wanted to learn new skills, but I also knew that I had current skills that I needed to improve.

One of those was waiting for me at home in the shape of my dad. He had placed a new stack of papers onto my desk with fresh pens.

“Let’s see if we can squeeze another level out of you today.” His eyes gleamed.

“And don’t forget to eat your dinner!” My mum called out as she heard us. “I swear if you two miss another meal I’ll ban paper from this household!”

We chuckled and I got to work inscribing.

Part of my time was spent inscribing symbols onto the pieces of paper, and the other part was focused on completing the regent array that Pernacles had given me for homework.

I could feel the difference when working with the unfamiliar materials of the regent. Compared to before I was making fewer mistakes and working far faster.

I finished today’s homework earlier than I had expected and returned to inscribing symbols onto paper.

If I could level up my symbol inscription skill, then I would be able to increase my probability of success in making the regent without damaging my materials.

The symbol my dad had given me was tougher than usual. It looked like a variant symbol of lightning, or maybe fire.

He hadn’t told me what it was, and I think he was hoping that I would work it out on my own and gain another skill in the process.

There was a reason for his shift in tactics.

I had taken my first official steps towards becoming a scriber.

The amount of work required to learn even one skill was countless hours spent over the course of years doing only one task over and over again.

I had inscribed hundreds of thousands of symbols, most of them different in various ways, and even more time spent studying them and their effects. It was enough to drive someone mad, especially if they had school or work at the same time.

The reward was worth the pain.

This skill would guarantee me employability at any company that needed a scriber. Once it was levelled high enough, I would find inscribing basic symbols to be as easy as breathing.

The difference between myself and a person without the skill was the difference between heaven and earth.

I looked up and it was already dark, but I had one last thing to do before I went to sleep.

I poured myself a glass of water, and then brought it back to my room. Instead of heading to my bed or drawer, I sat down on the dirt floor.

I put the single cup of water in front of me and crossed my legs.

I felt a connection today when Amanda and I were walking through Koshima academy, and I wanted to see what it meant.

I took a deep breath, closed my eyes, and activated my mana sense, allowing the darkness of reality to peel back and reveal the mana underneath.

Then I focused all of my attention in front of me.

Blue notes of mana buzzed in the water, greeting me cheerfully. I sent back waves of happiness from my heart towards them.

Then I got to work, breathing in and out and focusing solely on the mana in front of me. I could see them, and I could communicate with them, but I wanted to go beyond that.

I remembered the tug from the water mana around me at Koshima academy that I’d felt this afternoon. I wanted to try to form a connection with them.

If I really had done it once, I could do it again.

This was my first step in attuning to water.