Jace did as he was told, he seized the irritating feeling and with a great deal of effort wrestled it into him. Then he tried to force it through the glyph. The whole process felt wrong. It was difficult to do. EXTREMELY difficult. He felt like he was ripping out parts of the world around him, or trying to fly by holding himself up in the air. The strain this put on his mind was immense. He released the pulse and thought back to the other time he had touched it. That was at the testing rock just yesterday. That time he had done something different and it felt much easier then the way he had just been told.

Taking a deep breath he started his world pulse breathing. Using the breathing as the medium he matched up the breathing with the pulse he simply sensed in that irritation in the back of his mind. Carefully and slowly breathing and holding to the cadence of the pulse of the world, he felt that irritation sensation and quietly merged with it, maintaining his breathing to the actual pulse of that irritation sensation, then instead of forcing it, he simply guided it to the glyph. This felt a lot more natural then the process Karius suggested, once the energy merged with the glyph of light, he felt the power flow naturally through his body to his fingertip. He didn’t have to guide or force anything, it just happened organically.

Opening his eyes while holding that feeling he looked down at his index finger and noticed it was bright white, nearly blindingly bright, glancing at the others in line, Kay’rin was standing there looking bored with his finger shining brightly, as was that girl who was crying the prior day when the stone was turned orange. She looked rather young now that she was cleaned up. Maybe 12 or 13. The last man in line seemed frustrated and was unable to make his finger glow.

Jace cut off the flow of power and his finger stopped glowing. Then, remembering the feeling he made the finger glow again. This whole process was so simple he was surprised anyone could have problems doing it. While waiting for Karius to declare and end to the test he experimented with changing the finger which light up, to lighting up his whole palm. He found all of those simple. Then out of curiosity he thought of making a pillar of light on the floor. He felt the flow of power increase and suddenly a pillar of light appeared on the floor.

Kay’rin looked at him curiously, watching him experiment with the light, then made a pillar next to his. Kay’rin didn’t stop at making a white bright pillar, he then added colors to his. Jace pondered and tried to “imagine” adding colors but couldn’t make it happen. Whatever Kay'rin had grasped in the glyph of light was obviously more profound than what he had grasped. He gave a small silent applause to Kay’rin in his heart and slapped him on the back to congratulate him. Kay’rin’s pillar faltered and then stopped. Jace cut off his own as well.

Karius had been watching the both and said nothing to stop them. Then he spoke up again. “Alright, you, head back you’re under the same punishment as the other men. Until you can make this light you’re no warlock. Then he looked at the three remaining and said. “Normally I’d congratulate you all for becoming warlocks or witches. But it seems like two of you already jumped the gun on the channeler test and become channelers.”

“Let's give… um.. Khana some time to try to make the same leap. Khana, close your eyes, feel the same sensation as when you make the light. I want you to draw deeper and force more of the power through and direct it somewhere away from your body. Like the middle of the floor.”

The small girl nodded and closed her eyes, she looked desperate to succeed, but try as she might, he almost could feel the pulse fighting against her when she tried to direct it outside of her body. The look of growing desperation on the young girls face pulled at his heart. Jace couldn’t help himself, he knew he couldn’t save everyone in this world. There was so many terrible things happening, being done from one human to another he sort of become blind to it to keep his sanity and sense of purpose. But this small girl probably had been sheltered well when she was growing up. Those tears when she saw the stone turn orange were real tears, shed by someone who really really did not want to be subjected to that inhuman treatment.

Glancing at Karius he spoke a quick question. “Senior Karius. I think I can help her overcome her block at this stage. Will you let me speak to her briefly?”

Karius looked surprised and seemed about to object, but the old wizard next to him rested a hand on his arm. It was the old wizard who spoke. “I would like to see this. Please speak with her.”

So he knelt down next to her and whispered in her ear. “Relax. My name is Jace, you just saw that white light I cast remember?” The small girl nodded. “Just relax… listen to my voice. I want you to relax your hold on the pulse. Stop forcing. Listen, can you feel it? He was intentionally breathing with the pulse, he noticed no one included matching the pulse with your actual breathing in any instructions he had heard before. He wasn’t sure and it was just a theory he was starting to form, but he suspected this was the difference in talent. Those with the talent could detect the pulse itself, they didn’t need to force anything because they could merge with it. Everyone else was deaf to the pulse. As a result, they wrestled with it.

“Do you feel my breathing? Match your breathing to mine.” The girl seemed to fidget a bit but eventually started to match her breathing with Jace’s. “Very slowly, I want you to embrace the pulse. Don’t pull it, just embrace it.” He could see the blue light spring up around her, then he spoke again “now, gently guide it toward the glyph, you don’t need to force it, let your breathing move your mind and the pulse to the glyph, the power will flow through the glyph on it’s own, then direct it the power that comes out of the other side of the glyph. You are simply guiding it to where it wants to go. Open your eyes and pick a spot. There you go… good girl.” He stood up, looking at that small pillar of light she created, and rubbed the top of her head.

Unsurprisingly she broke down in tears of joy at seeing that feeble pillar of light she just created. He looked over to the wizard and Karius. Neither could hear what he had whispered to the girl. They both looked like they wanted to ask though. He gave them a helpless shrug, and rejoined the line where he had been standing. Kay’rin was looking at him curiously, as if he had never seen someone like him before.

Clearing his throat Karius spoke again “Yes, well the test for grand channeler is a little different and might be beyond all of you as you’re all new to magic. You’ll need to expand that pillar of light to encompass the whole hall. At least the hall. The larger the better really. Because this is basically the test for Wizard and Grand Wizard. The scale of the light you make will determine where you top out today.

Listening to Karius’s comment Jace simply went first and began to create the pillar of light; he quickly was able to increase the size of the pillar to encompass half the hall, but then he started to feel a pain in the back of his head, and center of his chest. The ice cold sensation of the magic flowing through his veins now started to feel like his veins were beginning to burst. He knew somehow that he could get no greater flow than this. He released the pillar and sighed. Karius and the Wizard actually looked impressed with what he had managed for a first time. So he felt a bit better about it.

Kay’rin went next and effortlessly bathed the whole hall in light. It happened so quickly it actually shocked him. He could tell just from the feel of the air that Kay’rin probably could make it even larger than the hall. He looked at Kay’rin and wondered why he was holding back for a moment. Then he felt the power surge out of kay’rin. The light was blinding. Jace didn’t know enough about magic or have anywhere near the experience to judge what Kay’rin managed to do. But when his eyes cleared and he could make out the look on both the faces of the wizard and Karius, she likely just displayed enough power to be classified as a wizard.

He was right. Because that was what Karius said next. “Wizard. Straight to wizard on day one huh?”

Everyone looked to Khana, she had beads of sweat on her forehead as she made a pillar of light a little bit brighter than it was then sat down with an exhausted sigh.

Karius then strode before everyone “Ok, now then everyone else you’re going to study these Glyph forms.” He waved his hand and a bag swept over their heads dropping the glyphs on them. “You’ll only be a warlock or witch when you can draw these glyph forms flawlessly, then produce that light. Girls remove your clothing you’re no longer allowed to wear them. Men you can’t touch them, until you are warlocks you’re banned from reproducing. Dismissed.”

The girls seemed rather put out about the situation, some of them were actually crying which only made Jace feel worse. A few seemed resigned as if they already knew this was what their fate was going to be. He helped one girl avoid this fate and left another dozen to it. He wondered why he bothered. At the same time, he wondered how any of this concern for these people helped him get to Earth. He thought for a moment about that, and in the end decided that though he wanted to get to Earth, he didn’t want to “die” as a compassionate human being before returning home.

But where did that leave Sam? Was he treating her like a human being or a playtoy? The question bothered him on a lot of levels. Sam or the other humans on this planet might not see the point in this line of questioning. But he did. He didn’t want to become dead to other’s pain like it seemed most of the people here were.

He was given an orange shirt to replace the black one he had been wearing, and a red cloak. The combination of the red and orange and white really wasn’t him. He simply changed on the spot. The small girl Khana after a moment's thought, tossed the red cloak around her shoulders, and changed her shirt under the cloak. Jace intentionally did not watch that. The strangest moment of all was when Kay’rin received a brown hooded cloak and brown shirt. He looked at them both for a long time then spoke for the first time in a very high, quite feminine voice. “Dress… I want a brown dress.”