My hands gripped the firm surface of the regent. Lava boiled behind an orange-tinged surface, its fiery embrace reaching out towards my fingers. I tapped my finger teasingly against the lava’s cage as I gazed at my opponent.

“You’re going to have to up your game.” I spoke.

The ball flung out of my fingers, and the earth within the regent pushed towards Amanda.

The earth was a new limb attached to me, intimately connected with my thoughts and mind. Its movements were my movements. I felt what it felt.

We felt an intruder.

The flames licked the edges of the regent, our territory, and then pushed back. The steady flow of the ball halted, and it trembled in the air, two opposing forces ripping it apart as they fought each other.

I felt a sting in my eye as a bead of sweat dripped into it, and my concentration faltered.

The connection between the earth and me was disrupted and the flames pushed forward.

Then they stopped.

The back of my hand wiped my eye and I regained control of my limb, the earth pushing back fiercely. Amanda hadn’t gained any ground during my slipup.

I was used to her punching me when I was down during dodgeball and rising to victory through any means possible.

My fingers twitched and I lowered my resistance, letting Amanda push forward. It was slight, and hardly noticeable, but it caused the regent to float towards me.

Then the flames hesitated and stopped pushing.

I regained equal footing in the regent once more, but I hadn’t changed my tactics. My force was still lower than before.

It was Amanda that had stopped pushing.

I stretched my fingers out and put my full force into a new attack, forcing the regent towards Amanda. I saw her eyes widen and she pushed back, finally unleashing every ounce of magic that she possessed.

I grinned and then let my spell end. There was no warning, or time for Amanda to stop.

My shirt caved in as the ball slammed straight into my chest.

“Oh Fue!” Amanda’s shout echoed through the arena. “I’m sorry, I’m so sorry.”

I saw the ceiling as the back of my head brushed against the dirt. A second later my vision was obscured by a mass of crimson hair and a pair of bright eyes looking down at me.

Amanda’s hair blazed with orange flames, and I recognised the colour. She was panicking.

“I did it too hard, I thought I’d go for a few more seconds before letting you-” She cut herself off before she could finish her sentence.

“Aha! You were trying to let me win!” My voice echoed in my ears.

She blinked in surprise.

“I don’t know why I said that so dramatically.” I flushed. “Okay. First things first.”

My arms pressed against the ground, and I lifted myself up.

“This is the arena.” I pointed upwards. “We literally can’t get hurt. Winded, yes, but not hurt.”

She followed my finger, and I rolled my eyes. There was nothing up there except the symbol arrays. She was forgetting basic things in her panic.

That wasn’t like her.

“Second, you don’t have to let me win.” I clutched the regent in my hands.

A pair of shadows swam over us as Agni and Gold flew down from the sky towards us. They’d been perched at the perfect vantage point to watch our match.

Gold landed beside me, kicking at the lava ball. Then he let out an amused chirp.

He’d enjoyed watching me get bowled into the ground.

Amanda tapped her foot nervously against the dirt. I looked at Agni and she chirped at me.

“You’re right. This feels weird.” I replied to the phoenix.

I tugged at my shirt and manipulated stray specks of dirt off of me. I placed the ball onto the ground beside me and I saw Amanda tucking a stray strand of hair behind her ear as she watched me move.

She reminded me of a rabbit watching a predator.

I relaxed my posture and took a deep breath. Amanda had to come out here to join me in the arena, and now it was my turn to go out of my way to make her more comfortable.

“Amanda, we’re not going to be able to practice if you’re afraid of making me mad.” I pointed to the birds. “Agni, smack Gold.”

Agni tilted her head curiously and Gold looked at me in betrayal. The two birds looked at each other and then nodded their heads.

They flapped their wings and jumped up to my arms and made their way onto my shoulders.

Then both of them raised their wings and smacked me in the face. It felt like getting hit by weightless bony pillows.

My eyes teared up and my nose tickled. I held back a sneeze, my face scrunching up.

Gold smacked me again.

I heard a sound from in front of me and saw Amanda holding back a laugh. I smiled. I didn’t look my best, holding back a sneeze and getting beat down by birds.

“See what I mean? It’s fine.” I tapped Gold’s belly and he squawked.

I quietened down and stopped speaking to let Amanda breathe. Agni stayed on my shoulder, happily slapping away at my cheek.

It felt like I had my own personal fan.

“Yeah,” She took a cautious step forward. “This is weird.”

Amanda held out her hand hesitantly and I raised an eyebrow at her.

She placed it on my chest and pushed me. Hard.

My foot dug into the ground and my body jerked back, but Amanda was looking at her hand.

“Okay.” She held her palm to her face. “You didn’t explode into a mass of tentacles.”

“Wow. I’m also glad I didn’t do that.” I poked my chest where her palm had landed. “Also, you didn’t get struck down by lightning or whatever.”

I was careful not to say anything too specific. The faculty didn’t spy on us, but I couldn’t be sure. We hadn’t scheduled a recording for today’s session either.

Maybe my encounter with Oubliez had made me a little too wary.

I took a step back and grabbed the lava ball from the ground. I spun it between my hands with a smile on my face.

“How about we have a talk? A proper one.” I threw the ball at her.

She raised her hand and halted it in mid-air.

It floated into her arms, and she looked at it. The flames inside swirled at her command. Her silence spread out over a few seconds.

“Okay.” Amanda spoke.

She traced a finger over the regent’s surface and watched the flames reach out to her.

“You don’t know where I’m staying, right?” She asked.

The ball came flying towards me as she spoke, and I saw her grinning.

I waved my hand in the air and stopped it, the battle beginning once again.

This time she wasn’t holding back.

Agni and Gold jumped off my shoulder as I concentrated on the regent in front of me. I shook my head in response to her question.

I had no idea where she was staying. I’d assumed it was at the church or her estate.

She didn’t elaborate while we fought against each other, and I found myself focusing on the dodgeball match now that the distractions had disappeared.

I hadn’t been imagining it. My control had improved immensely.

I felt it with every shift of the earth. There were tiny holes in the regent’s materials that I had started to notice. I could claim sections of it and push the regent in different directions.

Amanda was exploring them as well, trying to figure out which ones would give her the edge over me.

What had given me this boost in control?

My skill hadn’t levelled up, but I remembered something my magic teacher, Indra, had said.

My skill level was only an indicator of the heights I could reach. It didn’t mean I would always be at my best, only that I could reach higher with each level I gained.

Right now, I felt like I was at my best.

“Dammit.” Amanda‘s voice floated up into my ears.

The ball had brushed against her arm after a lengthy battle.

I’d won.

“Is that the first time the ball hasn’t spun out of control?” Amanda stepped towards me, the regent in her hand. “Excluding the one before.”

I nodded, clenching and unclenching my fingers as I tried to figure out what had changed.

“Call me crazy, but I think my week-long rest actually made me better at using my skill.” I spoke.

I’d always heard that taking a break and giving the mind a vacation could help solidify gains, but this was my first time experiencing it.

I’d trained non-stop for years now. Forget a week-long break, I’d barely gotten to rest for a single day.

“You’re staring at your hand like it’s going to sprout wings and fly off.”

A strand of crimson hair brushed my arm as Amanda leaned over to see what I was looking at.

I waited until she was leaning over it and then jutted my hand towards her face, stopping at her nose. She jolted back and let out a shout, and I grinned.

“You pit donkey!” She slapped my back.

Then she froze.

She looked at her hand and then gave my back another experimental pat.

“I don’t have wings either.” I rolled my eyes.

“You’re boringly normal.” She pouted. “Give me back the long hours of book-fuelled imagination that you’re ruining.”

I turned towards her.

“Well, I can breathe fire.” I spoke.

“Really?” Her eyes brightened.

“No.”

That earned me another shove.

The rest of the arena session went great. After the dodgeball match, we focused on tag and Amanda took the victory.

Her coordination with Agni had grown by leaps and bounds. The two were moving as one, and her fear of heights was being managed.

After the matches we cooled down against the ground, my back drenched in sweat from jumping on stone platforms.

I’d been experimenting with different constructs, with varying success.

Most of them didn’t form properly, or in the ways that I wanted them to. It was slower, and tougher, but the payoff would be better in the end.

“I’m staying at our tertiary mansion.” Amanda spoke.

She huffed and guzzled down water, her hair aflame. Agni was looking tired on her shoulder.

The two of them had kept their skill going for longer than usual because they hadn’t conflicted with each other during the game.

Gold poked at the regent and studied it further, enjoying the freedom to act normal.

He still took some precautions in case somebody walked inside, but Amanda knew what he could do now.

“Tertiary mansion?” I tilted my head. “What happened to the secondary one?”

“My dad is staying there and using it for business.” Amanda’s voice softened. “And my one is closer to the hospital.”

I took in her words but didn’t know what to say. Her head quickly perked up and she shook away the negativity.

“I’ve got time today.” She raised Agni to her head. “Let’s talk? I’d like to be able to actually say what I’m thinking out loud.”

“Is there going to be much more pushing? I don’t think I can handle it outside of the arena.” I shot her a grin to show her I was joking.

I texted my parents that I would be getting home later, and then Amanda and I packed up our things, Gold and Agni flying through the dome as we walked to the entrance of the academy.

My mind was slowly catching up with the idea that Amanda had a third mansion to live in.

I barely had one room.

The people in charge of investigating Oubliez and making sure the monster was fully gone had taken control of Amanda’s estate temporarily, searching through it thoroughly.

I could tell she didn’t want to go back there.

As we passed by Koshima academy’s entry gate I saw a figure waiting in the street.

I paused.

“What’s up?” Amanda stopped and followed my gaze towards the figure. “Do you know him?”

It was an elderly man, and I did know him.

“That was quick.” The man smiled gently. “I thought I was going to have to wait all week to catch a glimpse of you.”

“Fermez.” I spoke.

My granduncle was wearing a simple robe with his silver scriber pin attached to the front, his arms were crossed lazily, and his back was straight.

“Hello Andross.” My granduncle nodded. “I heard you visited my sister.”

My eyes narrowed as I took in his words. I saw his posture shift at my attitude, and he unfurled his arms.

“I’d like to have a talk with you.”