As afternoon came around Morgan slowly made his way over to the old building on legs that were still unsteady. As he got to the classroom an old man with wispy white hair and a large bald spot on top of his hair stood mumbling to himself by the room that had the office sign over the door. As he passed the old man he noticed that he was beyond old, his arms hands and neck were almost thin to the point of looking like they belonged to a dead person. Yet somehow the man did not look sickly, simply very, very old.

Once he entered he saw that he was not the last one there. Marith was talking with Mary-Ann. His voice had a confidence that almost felt sticky. The other girls were giving Marith looks that were hard to read and the twins had yet to arrive. “Maybe they were detained because they were late for class or something.” Morgan wondered as he remembered the bedraggled looking twins. Alina was sitting in her customary place on the windowsill and reading a book that Morgan actually recognized and so without thinking he spoke up excitedly.

“That is The Eternal right?” He spoke in an unusually excited voice.

“Yes?” Alina looked up from her book and spoke in surprise.

“How do you like it?” Morgan’s eyes sparkled leaving Alina in a bit of an awkward spot as she wanted to ignore him and continue reading.

“Well…” Alina spoke reluctantly after considering for a moment. “The author has an interesting take on immortality.” She paused. “I wonder what a dragon would say about it.” She chuckled slightly. “But his writing needs quite a bit of work.” She said with a snort before pointedly turning back to her book. Before Morgan could open his mouth to speak there was a loud bang and with a yelp the old man from the corridor suddenly came tumbling head over head backwards into the room. As the dust settled everyone was gawking at the old man in silence, undoubtedly thinking that the old man must have died.

The old man lay motionless on to ground with his frail looking body only partially covered by his grey robe. Yet to their surprise Alina spoke in a very cold and annoyed voice.

“What do you think you're doing old man?” She didn’t even look up from her book. The students gasped at the harsh tone in Alina’s voice and looking over at her they could see her face twitching in annoyance.

“Well…” The old man spoke in an oddly high pitched voice that was completely unperturbed by his current circumstance. “I’m trying to remember the password to my office you see.” He said in an upbeat and unconcerned voice.

“Oh?” Alina’s eyebrows twitched dangerously. “And how is that an explanation for flying through the hallway and landing on your back in my classroom?” Her eyes shifted from her book to the old man.

“As I said, I was trying to remember the password from my office!” He said as if that was enough to explain everything.

“I see.” Alina said as she hoped down from the windowsill and walked over to the old man. Looking down at him she gave him a death glare that was made even more terrifying by her outstanding looks. Morgan could not help but remembered the saying ‘Nothing is more terrifying than the scorn of a beautiful woman.’

“Well I give up.” The old man said cheerily completely ignoring Alina. He then nimbly got to his feet and brushed off the dirt from his hands and robe. Cracking his neck the old man spoke in a voice that was mysteriously excited.

“I suppose we will see who is better!” His smile was somewhat terrifying and his light blue eyes seemed to shift in colour.

“What are you doing?” Alina said in a cold voice that felt like it made the temperature in the room drop.

“I am going to test who is better! Me or me from two years ago!” He said gleefully, eliciting another twitch of Alina’s eyebrows. Yet the old man paid it no heed and walked over to his office door. Even with his back towards the class and standing in the hallway they could all suddenly feel the pressure of his mana and they collectively gasped. The air around the man seemed to distort as a truly absurd amount of mana swirled around the man. It was as if his frail appearance was some kind of sick joke and the class felt themselves rooted in place and soon what looked like thin grey wisps of smoke started to form in the air around the man. As the grey smoke began to move it felt like the world started shaking slightly and in the next moment.

“STOP!” Alina shouted in a half panicked voice before rushing out of the room and shouting. “I am the seeker of truth and collector of knowledge!” At that the door clicked and slid opened a crack. It was as if time stopped and the grey wisps froze in mid-air. The old man turned to Alina with a creaking neck. His jaw dropped with almost comical slowness and the old man had the look of a child that had suddenly and unexpectedly lost his favourite toy. The terrifying mana seemed to evaporate from him as he shouted.

“WHAT DID YOU DO THAT FOR?!” He whined loudly stomping the ground like, well like a child.

“YOU WERE ABOUT TO DESTROY THE BUILDING WEREN’T YOU!” Alina screamed back at him equally loudly.

“WAS Not!” The old man's voice grew noticeably quieter as he spoke. “Probably…” He added looking away. Alina leaned back from the man her arms crossed giving him a disapproving look. The old man gave a sad sigh and after giving Alina a unhappy look he walked into his office with a sullen expression.

As the door shut behind the old man Alina breathed a sigh of relief and walked back into her classroom, she clapped loudly to get the attention of the shell shocked class.

“Well let’s get to it shall we.” She rubbed her temples. It was as time had unfrozen and everyone began speaking over one another. Alina tried to ignore them but soon came to the conclusion that they wouldn’t be able to get anything done if she did not answer at least one question. So grunting she sat back in her window and answered in an annoyed voice.

“Class.” She said tiredly and waited a moment for the students to quiet down. “That was Aspartos Mudreth, Archmage, scholar, explorer and so on and so forth.” She snorted. “Never become like him.” She added firmly and made a shooing motion. To make it clear that she would not say anything else on the matter she opened her book and projected the now familiar don’t ‘bother me air’. This left the class with far too many unanswered questions but Alina was obviously not interested in answering. As the class made no effort to move to the logs Alina raised an eyebrow and spoke in a low voice.

“Did I not tell you to get on with it?” There was an implied threat that made the group hurry to their task. This was a problem for Morgan, for as soon as he got up on the log his tired legs started wobbling dangerously. And after the first try that lasted only a handful of breaths every consecutive try lasted shorter and shorter. By the time the twins arrived Morgan was seated on the ground massaging his shaking legs.

“What happened here?” Ross said as he entered pointing over his shoulder at the scorch mark in the hallway and looking at Morgan with astonishment he added. “And what happened to you?”

“Marith took me running this morning…” Morgan said with a tired voice. “What happened to the hallway, well…” Morgan looked at Alina who gave no indication that she was paying any attention. “The magician next door tried to break into his own office.” At this Morgan rose and got back on his log. Once again he fell off it in a couple of heartbeats. This seemed to finally annoy Alina into action.

“Since you are incapable of even standing properly, take one of the sticks over there.” She gestured at a pile of sticks opposite of the door. “After that balance the stick on your palm like this.” She took a thin stick that was about the length of an underarm and balanced it standing on her palm. She did this with her left hand still holding on to the book and with eyes moving swiftly across the pages. “When you drop the stick you should change hands. Oh since you are so tired you may sit for now.” Alina let the stick fall. Her actions had made most of her class fall off their logs in sheer amazement. Yet as per usual she ignored them and kept reading.

When Morgan started his new practise he got some slightly jealous glances from the other student especially Rina for some reason. Not that he noticed, as he was completely focused on the uncooperative stick that despite not being much longer than his underarm and as thin as his little finger was quite heavy. Far heavier than it looked and not only that, there was something unnatural about it that reminded Morgan of the logs. Thus it was not long before sweat started pearling on his forehead as even the slightest loss of concentration caused the stick to end up on the ground. “It is as if the stick's centre of gravity shifts.” Morgan thought and really wanted to use magic sight or use appraisal magic to see if the stick and also the logs contained inherent mana or even an enchantment. Yet such skills were far beyond him.

Lost in thought the stick inevitably hit the ground again causing him to groan. His arms started to feel heavy and numb like his legs and even now he could see the slight tremble from fatigue. Morgan felt truly disappointed at himself for this. After all even if he was an inept swordsman he had been training the sword since he was little. Only when he had been ill had he taken days off from his admittedly short training sessions. Yet his body was still frail and weak. “But I will change that!” He gritted his teeth and kept going.

By the time class ended Morgan had a hard time raising his arms. And the rest of the class were grumbling about their slow progress. As per usual Alina’s class had lasted until the sun had already started its slow descent towards the jagged grey peaks of the distant Impassable mountain range. Walking away from the classroom in his fatigued Morgan felt a pair of eyes on him as he was about halfway into the hallway. Looking off to the side he saw the old man looking at him with a quizzical expression, his eyes seemed to hold an incredible power and Morgan felt goose bumps just locking eyes with him. He quickly averted his eyes and hurried on his way.

The slightly terrifying memory of those old and strange eyes that seemed to shift in colour only faded as he ate together with Marith and the others from Alina’s class. Morgan did not speak much but was surprised by how comfortable it felt being surrounded by people. People that he had unconsciously started to think of as friends. By the time he got to bed he wore a natural smile and felt for the first time since he left home that tomorrow, might be a good day.