(Alex, 17)

I enter the training room with my group. They split us into four groups of ten for this, with Niko, Jacob, Adam, and I heading each team. Niko's group and Jacob's group went outside with Sage Michael and Jarenidis, respectively, and I don't pity either of them.

They won't be pitying me or Adam's team, with our instructors of Jason and Sage Elena, respectively. Especially not my team.

There are two rows of wooden boxes set up, and we take our seats at the boxes, facing Jason, who's sitting cross-legged on the floor, facing us. The boxes likely contain our training implements for today, though strangely, we each have two rather than one.

"Alright," Jason says. "Looks like everyone's here. Let's get started! Open those boxes up!"

I open up the boxes in front of me, then groan. The hollow training balls with slits in the sides. Two sets of them, which means Jason wants us to multitask sixteen spells. Even after the six or seven months he's had us doing this, most of us can barely manage to spin eight of them in different directions simultaneously. Those who only joined Jason's training group this past term have only encountered the balls a few times, and I'm pretty sure none of the new ones can do more than four or five.

"Now," Jason says as we all groan. "I'm not expecting you to manage to manipulate all sixteen of them simultaneously. Honestly? Of the forty of you, I think Niko's the only one who can manage that at the moment. I just want the balls to be kept in their sets and don't want to have to sort everything out.

"Before you think," he gestures with one hand, and the pair of boxes in front of him opens, all sixteen balls lifting up into the air. "That these are the same balls you've been training with, they aren't. Yes, they look the same, but that's only because I accidentally painted the slats on the other ones when I was making them. Try to lift them with your force magic, as you've done before."

I make the attempt, only to find my efforts fruitless no matter how hard I try. Looking at the others, I notice they're all suffering the same issue. We all try for a minute before turning our attention back to Jason.

"Force magic doesn't work on these balls," Jason tells us. "At least, not unless you're doing something rather specific to them. In order to be able to use force magic on these balls, you have to be imbuing them with an element. Red is fire, blue is water, brown is earth, white is air. Only once it's imbued with the element can you affect it with force magic. Pick one of the four elements and work on rotating the balls in separate directions. We'll be doing this every-other day, for a total of eight times. You'll be doing each element once each week."

A couple of the others groan, but I pull out the four balls for water, setting them on the floor in front of me. Picking one up, I focus on imbuing it with water-attuned mana, before attempting to lift it up with force magic. I manage to make it wobble for a moment before my force magic fails to affect it anymore.

Sighing, I try again. This sounds easier to do than it actually is. We are casting two separate spells that have little to do with each other and are of pretty different types in both element and shaping.

Which is the entire point of this exercise. It's meant to improve our multicasting abilities. Sure, many of us have cast multiple spells at a time, such as enhancement, aural sheath, and maybe one other that we project out, but this is different from those, especially since we'll have to cast eight spells at once to pass.

We're projecting two separate spells. Yes, I'm still imbuing something, but since it's not my body, it's a different type of imbue than an enhancement. I have to sustain the imbuing of the ball while I'm not touching it, and imbuing something while not touching it is a lot more difficult than doing so while touching it.

I continue my attempts, taking several minutes to make the first ball spin in the air, then I pick up a second ball and begin levitating and spinning it.

Since the elements are all the same, it's much easier for me to manage all four of the balls at once after I figure out how to do it, though it still takes a lot of concentration, and the balls don't spin very fast.

Jason playing around with sixteen of the balls, moving them into various patterns, makes it even more difficult to focus on this, but I manage to ignore him. Mostly. Okay, he's cute, and I don't think he realizes he's distracting us.

Several times, I have to start over, losing my focus on the balls and dropping them. By the time the two-hour session finishes, I've managed to lift all four of the training balls into the air a total of six times for twenty minutes overall.

"Good job!" Jason tells us. "Return the balls to their boxes, then head to the next session."

I have Sage Michael next, and I'm not looking forward to training with the sword after expending my mana for this. Most of my group probably don't have much mana left, either, so I hope our session doesn't have too much casting we need to do.

Or was draining us of mana part of the point of this exercise? It wouldn't work for a Magus, but most of the normal training group members will be worn-out.

I return the balls to the boxes, then stand. Time to find out what hell Sage Michael is putting us through.

(Jacob, 17)

After Adam's group steps through the gate from Jarenidis's session and start to walk inside to undergo Sage Elena's alchemy training, I lead my group through the gate. Adam's group looks haggard, making me nervous for what this session will be. They look like they went through quite a battle, even the Magi in the group looking exhausted.

Once I am through the gate, that wariness raises even more.

It appears our session with Jarenidis is taking place in the forest of the Unwild Lands, though we could likely be anywhere considering how vast the Unwild Lands are. Most likely, it is still one of the forests near the training faclility.

Jarenidis himself sits cross-legged on a large rock, wearing a pair of black pants and a black vest with violet leather cords holding the sides closed, the front of it left open in the way of the Delvarkari. His black boots adorn his feet as well, strapped with leather laces, and his arms are folded across his chest, his violet eyes gazing at us. He has an earcomm on his right ear.

Resting in the stone before him is a stone carving of a dragon six inches in height.

"There are ten of these statues," Jarenidis tells us. "Hidden throughout these woods. Your goal is to locate one and bring it back to me, and the playing field is these woods. We're a little east of the training camp, but not by far. The woods stand by themselves, and while they're large, they shouldn't be too hard to explore thoroughly with the training you have. You have until the end of the session to bring one back to me."

I raise my hand.

"Yes, Jacob?" He asks.

"Is there a punishment for failure?" I ask. "What happens if we fail to locate one and return it to you? Considering that Jason is heading this training camp, and it is meant to be taken seriously, there must be one, yes?"

"There is one," Jarenidis states. "I advise you not to earn it. Your time has already begun. Go!"

I wish to push for an answer regarding what the punishment is, but know that Jarenidis is as inclined to tell us as Jason would be. Something tells me that they are intentionally avoiding telling us what the punishment for failure is.

However, we all know Jason well enough to know that whatever the punishment might be, we would never wish to undergo it a second time if we earned it. So the ten of us split off and begin our search of the forest. I take flight, looking around as I soar through the air.

Regardless of how large the woods are, I must be careful not to overlook any hiding hole that a statue might hide in. With the purpose of these sessions, the statues might be hidden near monsters or in the den of a monster. The fact that the previous group looked haggard only supports the thought of us needing to fight to acquire the statues.

Despite that, I know that we are each able to manage this task on our own. We might be in the Unwild Lands, but they would not assign us a task where we are truly in danger.

Memories of the ice titan return to me, and I realize that they might just put us in danger, with Jarenidis keeping watch over the entire forest using a scanning spell to ensure his ability to save anyone who might die.

A scanning spell.

Stopping my flight, I land, then stretch out my own scanning spell, bringing it to its limit. I pick up two other students within its range, their own spells causing feedback on mine. I sense Jarenidis, and the statue in front of him.

The statue is brimming with magic, and I am able to sense another object with the same feel near an edge of my scanning spell. They must have enchanted the statues to make them easy to find with our scanning spells.

Floating up into the air once more, I fly towards the object. The other two students within my range both expand theirs, realizing what I had done and why.

When I reach the statue, I find it sitting on a rock of its own. It stands by itself, with nothing dangerous nearby. I detect no monsters of any sort, so why did the previous group look like they suffered hard during this session? If we have until the end of the two-hour period to recover them and return them to Jarenidis, then there would be nothing after this, yes?

I land in front of the rock and approach the statue, wary of any traps. Nothing triggers, however, so I reach for the statue and pick it up.

Then it bites me. I yelp, dropping the statue, which stretches its wings and opens its mouth, expelling a breath of flames. The statues are enchanted to fight us. Thankfully, the breath of flames is not that large, so I am able to simply step to the side.

Holding out a hand, I wrap the statue in a barrier of green force magic, only for it to break out just by striking the spell with its tail.

The dragon statue continues its attack, biting at me and breathing fire, manifesting a barrier whenever I attempt to strike it with a spell of my own. If I use a spell to hold it down, the statue quickly breaks out.

Already sore from my training session with Sage Michael, I find the battle against the statue tough. It is evident I will not manage to simply bring the dragon back to Jarenidis, so I begin leading the fight that way, antagonizing it so that the statue continues to attack me, following even as I move towards the starting zone.

By the time I make it to Jarenidis, I am covered in burns, bites, and bruises from the dragon on top of the bruises and cuts from Sage Michael's training session. I manage to drive the statue towards Jarenidis, and once it is within ten feet of him, the dragon stops attacking me and flies over to him, landing on the statue beside the first one.

And the second one.

Looking around, I spot Pine lying in the grass, using his tunic as a pillow as he rests. He does not look as if he took any injuries other than the ones from our previous session. He also looks quite rested.

The end of the session is near, and I take a seat and wait for it to finish. Only Sarah manages to bring another dragon back before Jarenidis casts some spell which teleports the rest of my group to this clearing, all of them looking exhausted.

"Do not," Jarenidis says. "Discuss with anyone the details of this session until after training for the day completes. For the seven of you who failed to complete the task, Jason has declared that you will not receive dessert tonight, the suffering you went through attempting to bring the statues back enough of a punishment. Had you not put in effort, however, you would be running laps with a weighted backpack while Zevenas and the griffin cub chased you."

At his mention of the griffin cub, I realized that the little guy is not here. When did he leave me? Most likely, he decided to stay with Zevenas as I trained, as the two of them seem to enjoy each other's presence quite well.

"How did you bring it back?" I ask Pine as he sits up and pulls his tunic back on.

Pine just shrugs, which I knew would probably happen. Pine speaks little, especially in groups.

"He teleported it back without waiting to see what trap might be waiting for him," Jarenidis answers. "Then opened a gate back here. Dragons, to your posts."

The three dragons returned here stretch their wings, they fly off in three different directions. As they do that, I just think over how I should have thought to do what Pine did. By the looks of things, I suppose no one else from this group nor the previous group thought to do that. Odds are great that no one else might think of it.

The goal is to bring the dragon back, and most people do not use teleportation magics to move items. Once the dragon attacks, everyone's minds will likely switch to thinking of fighting it and driving it back here.

Or at least, most people's minds. Pine is an exception to that, it appears.

Jarenidis opens a gate for us to return through, so we step through it, joining Alex's group on our way to the cafeteria for lunch.

"What is his session like?" Alex falls into step beside me as we walk.

"He told us not to discuss it with anyone until after training ends today," I inform him.

"Damn," he says. "So we ain't able to prepare in advance."

"Correct," I answer. "What is that smell?"

Alex sniffs the air as we enter the cafeteria, then looks at the serving line, eyes widening as he sees the unusual food sitting on the counter. They appear to be some sort of thin, circular bread with a tomato sauce spread on them, cheese sprinkled atop that with meats and vegetables on them.

"Pizza!" Alex exclaims, rushing to the line. I follow him as he gives me an excited look. "This is something we had on Earth, Jacob. It was a rather common food, but it's probably going to be awesome. Oh, it smells divine. Why did we treat it as something plain? Maybe I'll remember when I hit grey and my life as Kris starts implementing itself back into me."

We take slices of the pizza. Alex slices of a sausage and pepperoni pizza, along with another that has pieces of ham on it. I take one of the sausage, one of the pepperoni, one of the mix, one with just cheese, and one with the ham, to try four of them. I have never had pepperoni before, but Alex tells me it tastes excellent.

I also grab two of the cheesy breadsticks, along with a bowl of mixed fruit and another of salad. Alex and I make our way to a table, Wyatt and Evan joining me as Alex's crew joins him. We all sit down and dig into the food.

"Mmh!" Alex exclaims. "This is so much better than my memories from Earth said it was! Even if ain't Sage Elena who made it, it's still amazing!"

I consume all four slices of the pizza, deciding I prefer the pepperoni one over the others. After eating my sides, I feel stuffed. The hour of rest we have for lunch is a relief to me, after suffering two draining sessions in a row.

Even if I did not, I would be grateful for the next session. Alchemy might be intense, but at least I am not suffering injuries constantly through it due to training my body or fighting a small statue.

As lunch winds down, everyone makes their way to their next sessions.

(Niko, 16)

Stepping through the gate, I am immediately greeted by Lina hugging me and pulling me to the side.

"Hello, Lina," I kiss her. "How did your last session go?"

"It went well," she answers, stepping back but keeping her hand in mine. "Sage Jared drilled us hard in our session."

"He drills everyone hard," I state. "That is the point of these sessions. They are meant to push us even more than the normal training does, due to this being part of the elite training program."

"Yes, it is," she smiles as we walk towards the building. "How did your session with Jarenidis go? You do not look injured at all. Did you have enough time to heal yourself?"

"I did heal myself," I nod. "I picked up the statue and carried it back through a gate."

"Even with it biting you and breathing fire?" She asks.

"Yes," I answer. "It burned my sleeve, so I had to change tunics. I applied holy magic to my injuries as well."

Though the injuries were from the session before, from the sparring in Sage Michael's session. I picked up the dragon statue with my right hand, only to discover it fought back. However, my right hand is made of stone, and even if the statue can hurt even me through an aural sheathe…

It did little against my arm. I felt none of the attack, and after giving the statue to Jarenidis, I replaced my tunic and healed my injuries from the previous session. I did not risk fixing the slight damage to my arm, and intend on doing that in a few minutes.

"I do not remember you having that much pain tolerance," Lina tells me. "You were able to carry it with it biting and burning you, even for just a few steps?"

"Yes," I answer. "How did you fare?"

"I failed the session," she admits. "I nearly had the statue back to the clearing when time ended, but that was not enough to pass."

"I would share with you," I tell her. "Some of my dessert, but I think Jason might come up with a special punishment for that."

"He probably would," she chuckles as we enter the cafeteria. "It appears they prepared steaks for dinner."

"It does, indeed," I answer.

We enter the line to pick out our dinner, then after acquiring dinner, we walk to a table and sit down, digging in. Eli and Lina's guards sit with us, and I notice Pine sitting with Alex and Connor, talking quietly to them. No doubt discussing business. Jason promised him he could return to the warehouse each evening to perform his work on the hides, so I am sure he will be leaving soon.

After dinner, Lina wishes to go outside and relax in the grass, so I tell her to give me a few minutes to change into something more suited for that, then walk to my room. In my room, I remove my tunic, then release the spells in the cuffs, revealing my arms. Sitting on my bed, I examine the slight burns to the gargoyle flesh on my right arm.

Running my fingers over the burns, I mend the injuries with the right mix of magic, then slip off my boots and pants so that I can change into something better-suited for lying in the grass. As I grab another pair of pants, my comm plate alerts me to a communication attempt.

Picking it up, I find the call is from Alex. Finding that strange, I answer it.

"Can ya open up?" He asks. "I want to chat about what Jason told me."

"Allow me to pull on a tunic first," I tell him.

"Got it," he says, then ends the call.

I pull on a tunic and imbue the cuffs on my wrists and ankles with magic to turn on the illusions, then I open the door and allow Alex inside. The first thing he does is look at my leg, frowning a little. I close the door behind him and sit on my bed, adjusting my tunic as I do.

"Your leg looks normal," he says.

"It's the cuffs," I hold out my left ankle. "Jason made them to create an illusion of a real leg. The ones on my wrists were made to match them so that people do not think it strange I have them only on my legs, which would be unusual."

Normally, if someone has a pair of cuffs, they are worn on the wrists, not the legs. If someone has cuffs on the legs, they wear cuffs on the arms as well.

"Can I see it?" Alex asks, and I cancel the spell for my leg, but not my arm. "It really does look like a gargoyle's leg. Well, from the humanoid ones I have in my memories from being Quinn. Can I touch it?"

His innocent, hopeful question makes me snort, then I nod. Alex reaches out and touches the leg, feeling it for a few moments.

"Whoa," he says. "It's warm. Can ya feel me touching it?"

"No," I answer. "Jason says it lacks the nervous system that causes the sense of touch. He said that normally, I would need that to use the leg properly as well, but because of the magic that makes it up, I am able to use the leg without issue."

"That is impressive," he pulls his hand away and stands back up, looking at me. "He told me ya were feeling down over it. Just remember Niko that ya have friends in all of us."

"I know," I grab my pants and pull them on, then begin pulling on my boots. "It took me some time to accept that."

"Yeah, I know," Alex says. "Ya had a rough childhood, resulting in ya not trusting people. Ya trusted Jason, of course, 'cause of how much ya two worked together and how much he helped ya out in learning Varilan and stuff. If ya ever need someone to help ya hide it, Niko, just let me know. Jason ain't always gonna be available, ya know?"

"I know," I tell him. "Eli has offered to help as well."

"Eli knows?" Alex asks. "Ya trusted him enough with it?"

"No," I answer. "Not at first, at any rate. There was one time, when I was still adjusting the spell, that I messed up and it began hardening from stone flesh into just stone. He saw me at that time and helped me into my room. Only because of that did he find out about my leg, though he has proven himself trustworthy since then."

"How many know in total?" Alex asks.

"Miralandis and Jarenidis know of it," I answer. "Due to their scanning spells being the same as Jason's. He asked them for advice about a potential way to restore my leg before I reached grey in magical power, and they told him they did not. Eli knows, you know, my brother Aiden knows, and my mama and papa know, in addition to the people of Garoyal."

"Garoyal?" He asks.

"A small, isolated kingdom I founded as Benjamin," I answer.

"Ah," he says. "Is that where ya were hiding?"

"Yes," I answer. "They live among gargoyles, and accepted me as I was, in part because of my leg being gargoyle rather than human."

"Okay," he says. "And ya were brave enough to tell your family? I would've expected ya to never want them to know, after everything they did to ya."

"I trust Aiden now," I tell him. "Though he found out because he ignored Jason's message from me and came to visit, seeing my leg there. As for my mama and papa, I told them after I overcame my issues with it in a fit of anger."

"I have never seen ya angry," Alex tells me. "At least, not in this life. In our past lives, though, as the Magi? Boy, did ya have a temper. From what I know, it's still around. Ya didn't turn your kingdom to stone, did ya?"

"No," I chuckle. "I just yelled at them over everything, showed them my leg, and told them I stepped down from the line of succession. That is not public information yet, so please do not share it."

"On my honor as a Magus," he says. "Magus to Magus, your secret is kept, Niko."

"Thank you," I tell him.

"So did ya lie to me about the reason ya have cuffs on the wrists, too?" He asks, and I feel a sinking feeling in my stomach. "I wasn't trying to pry, Niko, but because of how strong my affinity for mind magics is now, and my growing abilities, and my natural status as the Magus of Mind, the Divine Leviathan… my empathy is always on, I just control the range. I felt a shift that indicated ya were lying when you talked about the cuffs on your wrists, and then remembered what I heard ya say to Lina about the dragon statue. If ya can't feel anything in the gargoyle leg, and your arm was one, too, then ya wouldn't have felt the statue's attacks."

Curse Alex and his abilities that I forgot about.

"I can feel the slight annoyance and depression over me figuring it out," he says. "No worries, Niko, I ain't gonna share. It's your secret. Can I see it?"

Letting out a sigh, I roll up my sleeve and release the spell in the cuffs, allowing Alex to see my arm. He touches it, probably comparing how it feels to the leg. I feel tempted to kick him.

"How has Lina not realized it?" He asks. "She holds your hand all the time, and while it is warm, it is still living stone."

I activate the illusions in the cuffs, and Alex's eyes widen as he feels the difference.

"It feels like actual flesh and blood!" He tells me, continuing to feel the arm. I am so glad I cannot actually feel anything in the gargoyle limbs. "This is incredible, Niko!"

"Yes, it is," I tell him. "Jason was kind enough to put other projects aside in order to determine what he needed to do in order to create these illusions. Now, if you do not mind, I would like to go to Lina. We are supposed to relax outside."

"Sorry," He backs off. "Both the limbs and the illusions are just incredible, Niko. Anyway, ya go do your thing, Imma go get drunk with the crew."

"Do not drink too much," I tell him. "Or Sage Elena might get upset."

"Yeah, yeah," he grins, then leaves my room.

I follow Alex out, then make my way outside, meeting with Lina in front of the facility. We walk around to the back of it, then towards the wall surrounding the property. We walk up to one of the trees and lie beneath it, holding hands as her guards sit off to the side, far enough to give us privacy but close enough to ensure etiquette is followed. With the stuffie golems ensuring distance is kept, there is no risk of us breaking protocol.

I would not risk breaking protocol, though, not now that I have returned and am with Lina again. Just lying here with her, feeling the cool spring breeze on me and hearing the chirping of birds this evening makes me happy.

(Jason, 16)

"Oi!" Alex exclaims, drunk beyond reason. "Jace! Come here!"

I know he's drunk beyond reason because he's given up on trying to say my name and has switched to 'Jace' again. Were it not for the fact that they drink for the enjoyment of it and never do anything dangerous while drunk, Mama Elena would probably want a 'no drunken state' rule for the training camp.

Well, and it's my training camp, too, so she'd have to convince me to approve of the rule. I wouldn't, though, because I do find a drunk Alex adorable. He's always attractive, but he takes on a whole new level of adorability when he's drunk, especially because he often doesn't realize he's drunk and is still mostly functional unless he's depressed while drunk.

"C'mere, Jace!" Alex waves at me again, so I walk over to him, sitting beside him as Jenna starts the bonfire. "So I's was wondering, Jace, what your plans were for your birthday, since is in a month and 'alf."

"It's on the Festival of the Dragon," I tell him. "So I'll mostly be celebrating them. It'll be my first time."

"Really?" He asks. "Ya've never cel'brated the Festival of the Dragon? Ever? Seriously?"

"Seriously," I answer.

"Oi!" He waves at Mama Elena, who looks at him. "Ya failed as a mama!"

"Excuse me?" She asks as several of the other teens here chuckle. "Are you drunk, Alex?"

"Not in ta slightest!" He exclaims.

"He's quite drunk," I tell her.

"Do you want to undergo a punishment?" She asks. "I can arrange one for you, Alex."

"Yeah, but ya's got to do one," Alex tells her. "Ya never had Jace cel'brate ta Fest'va of ta Dragon! Ev'ry good mama lets her kid celebrate it!"

My trainees and fellow students all turn their gazes to my mamas and papas, and the entire atmosphere here shifts to shock, enough of it that it overwhelms my empathy and I have to shut it off.

"Is it really that big of a deal?" I aks.

"Yes!" Everyone looks at me.

"Jason," Jacob looks at me as I sense Alex starting to sober himself up upon realizing he's pretty drunk. "The Festival of the Dragon happens the same day as your birthday. It is a day to celebrate the king of the Divine Beasts, the one which stands even of the other king Divine Beasts. The most powerful child of the King and Queen of the Gods. The fact that your birthday is on it makes it even more important that you have celebrated it!"

"I don't understand," I say. "Why is it a big deal that I celebrate it? I mean, I am the Divine Dragon, anyway, so-"

"Jason!" Jacob exclaims. "This is considered the most holy of all festivals. Regardless of who or what you are, you should have been celebrating it, especially with your birthday being on it. Your mamas and papas should have celebrated it, too!"

"Well," I say. "As the Divine Dragon, I say it's fine."

"It is not fine!" He and several others exclaim. "The festival celebrates the life that all have been given, the strength within us, the fires in our hearts. Your birthday is the Day of the Dragon, and you are aligned with the Sacred Dragon because you are the Divine Dragon. Some kingdoms actually have laws saying that preventing or not allowing children aligned with the Sacred Dragon born on the Day of the Dragon is forbidden! That is how sacred and important the festival is!"

I don't understand why it's such a big deal. I suppose for people who grew up celebrating it, it holds some meaning someone who's never celebrated it could understand.

"Uh, well," I say. "Let's, uh, return to the bonfire, shall we? We can table this discussion for a month and a half, since that's when the festival is."

Reluctantly, everyone decides to drop it, though I notice that my mamas and papas look a little embarrassed. How long has it been since they last celebrated it?