Each of the examinees pushed their hands out within their spell circles and summoned magic. Power hummed in the air. The room temperature climbed steadily.

A blond, practioner by the name of Yuri nodded to Nico, and mouthed the words, "good luck" before closing his eyes to focus on his own spell. Yuri was Russian, and had traded a few friendly words with him before the start of the test.

Nico smiled faintly at the Russian before thrusting his own hands aside. His left palm faced east, and his right palm faced west. He summoned a memory that was appropriate for the spell.

His spell formation glowed a dim red, the color of a weak flame.

Magic relied on emotions, and more importantly, belief. The practioner had to believe in magic, the spell formation, and the emotion it drew upon, each with equal strength. Any imbalance of focus in the three meant a chance for the practioner to lose control of the spell.

An untamed spell was always dangerous, and sometimes deadly. It was why so many practitioners relinquished their power to Holds of Faith.

Nico's mother taught him summoning fire meant drawing on emotions of passion like rage, lust, or love. But in the weeks preparing for this test, he found a surprising source of power when practicing the spell.

He chose to draw on the memory of eating ice cream with his dad after a soccer game. The sunlight kissed his face, and the summer breeze ruffled his black hair. His dad’s black hair was peppered in grey at the temples.

The memory felt like a distant candle. Nico was warmed simply by remembering it. There were more fiery memories he could draw from. But he believed in this speck of his childhood more than any rage or love he experienced. Maybe he should have taken Carmen’s advice and go on more dates. Maybe he’d experience more exciting memories to draw from.

Nico flattened his grin and refocused. Either way, the simple memory allowed magic to flow through him easy as water down an unclogged drain.

Calm power buzzed through the now bright red spell formation. The spell array pulsed with Nico's breath, glowing brighter with each inhale. The magic channeled through his feet and to the tips of his fingers. His body thrummed with nascent heat. His muscles flushed with languid warmth as if warming up for a marathon.

Nico felt like he could explode at any moment. He felt like a god. He took a slow breath and reminded himself this was the real danger. Magic without control was death. He would have preferred getting struck by lightning twenty times before letting the spell take hold of him.

Like a viper caught in a net, the magic writhed under his intense focus.

Luckily, Nico designed his spell array to maximize control. Preparation and necessity made good allies for victory.

The magic settled under his will and knew who mastered it. The whole room felt like a sauna.

Sweat trickled from Nico’s forehead. Now was the time. He pushed the energy back into the spell formation and chanted the first words to summon the three pillars of flame.

Someone’s strangled, bloodcurdling scream tore through the air, almost startling Nico out of his focus.

A single pillar of flame streaked up from the marble floor to the ceiling of the city hall. The pillar grew wider, longer and stronger. Its heat radiated so brightly that the temperature in the room rose from mildly uncomfortable to blistering.

From the spell’s rate of growth, Nico knew its practitioner had lost control of it. Someone had cast a spell they weren’t prepared to handle.

Mage Pullman's voice nearly broke Nico's concentration. The man urged with militaristic command. "Everyone back! Rashid’s formation broke!"

Nico realized that the single pillar of flame came from the direction of the young mage who made his spell formation out of blood. He could not look away as the flame enveloped Rashid.

A voice cried within the red pillar of flame, pained and dry as ash. “It was supposed to work.”

Any words said after were cut off by the sound of roaring fire. The fire devoured the young man until only black crust and ash remained. It was the most horrible thing Nico had ever seen.

With no practitioner to control it, the fire roared outward, flames licking at every direction, threatening the other examinees. Most of the practitioners cancelled their spells, running to get behind mage Pullman. Only Yuriand Nico had either the stupidity or grit to stay within their formations.

Nico grimaced. The horrible death near him only firmed him resolve. Rashid was what happened without the training, guidance, and knowledge of a Union mage. Nico would not waste his only chance.

Mage Pullman stamped his hard leather boots onto the floor. He slammed his fingers toward the direction of wildfire. Without drawing a formation or speaking a chant, Pullman materialized an earthen wall out of nowhere.

Nico felt his eyes get drier as they widened. A spell without an array or chant? He needed to learn how that was possible.

The earthen wall blocked the magical wildfire from reaching the examinees. Pullman seemed powerful enough to tame the unleashed flame spell.

Nico calmed his nerves and focused on his spell. He couldn't afford to let the power loose. The spell required every ounce of magic in his body.

"Shit!" Pullman cursed.

Another flame erupted from the broken spell formation. It streaked out from the original pillar of flame in a horizontal line, avoiding Pullman's earthen wall entirely. The streak of heat lanced toward Yuri, still in his spell formation.

Nico recalled one of the western theories of magic. Untamed energy sought order like lightning to a tree in an open field. In this case, there were only two active spell formations that could bind the magic, and Nico's was the farthest away.

Pullman roared something incoherent, hammering his fist downward. A marble stalactite jetted from the ceiling, angled so it would intercept the stray flame. The stalactite was too slow, cutting off the flame from it's fiery source.

The first part of the flame streaked unimpeded toward the blond examinee.

Time seemed to slow for Nico. Despite centering his thoughts so he wouldn't lose focus of the spell, he calculated the distance of the stray flame and Pullman's spellcasting speed.

Even if mage Pullman summoned another spell, it wouldn't protect the other examinee in time. The fire would devour Yuri's formation.

Nico didn't know iif the Russian had a way of defending against the wildfire. was full of power. He had just enough to summon his pillars of flame to pass the test for himself. A quick glance at Yuri's spell array informed Nico that Yuri designed it only to summon the flame pillars to attack. The design was rigid and sturdy, but it wouldn't hold againdt the wildfire.

Yuri was completely vulnerable.

With no more time to think, Nico took all of his power and channeled it back into the spell formation without summoning the fire. It was a risky move because it meant his own formation could explode with the stored up energy. He pulled out his black marker and wrote four new minor modifications to his array.

Nico banished the memory with his father and replaced it with another memory: the cold, harsh winter he endured alone after his father succumbed to cancer.

The heating bills were left unpaid. He had shivered alone under a blanket with very little food.

He drew one last line, an arrow pointing towards the direction of Yuri's spell formation. Nico released the magical energy from his array. The red glow of his spell formation blinked from a bright red to a cool blue.

A giant wall of thin glass-like ice streamed out from Nico's spell formation and connected with Yuri's. The ice collided formed a wall around the stocky, Russian blond.

It was just in time. The streak of fire slammed into Nico's hastily created ice wall.

Nico hadn't had the time to do the proper math with ice formation. So he wasn't surprised when his knees wobbled and he collapsed to the ground. Most of his magic leaked into the spell and drained him of his energy. For the millionth time, he cursed the imprecision of magic.

Pullman whipped around to Nico, shocked. He set his jaw and clapped his hands together.

A brown light leaked out of his eyes like smoky tendrils. The brown mist took over the entire room in less than a few breaths.

Nico couldn't see a thing.

Just as quickly as it had came, the brown mist disappeared entirely. Nico blinked a few times to clear his vision. The first stray pillar of fire had died down completely, and so did most of the heat in the room. A chill ran through Nico at the sudden temperature drop.

A few students of the examinees had the presence of mind to summon hasty and shoddy defensive spells. They looked did not look nearly as tired as Nico felt.

Nico looked to Yuri.

Even among all that chaos, the Russian's eyes were still focused, calm and composed. His hands were wide open and they clenched into a fist. Three beautiful pillars of flame exploded out of the spell formation. They twined around him like dancing snakes.

After four seconds, Yuri opened his eyes and hands. The spell evaporated.

Out of all the examinees, only Yuri had passed the test. He didn't look like he broke a sweat. How much magic did the Russian have? Some people were just born with luck coming out of their butt.

Nico ate his envy, and moved to congratulate Yuri. The entrance test to the Mages Union only happened once per year, and sometimes no one passe.

As Nico propped himself up, his thoughts began to settle. Sharp grief stuck in his stomach like a misplaced knife. By defending Yuri from the stray wildfire, Nico had mangled his own spell formation and used up all his remaining magic.

He had failed the test.