Centralis was a young fortress. It was built for a war that it never saw. Its king had never walked its halls or admired its magnificent architecture. It had sat unfinished for a century, only halfway carved into the mountains, yet its secrets were defended all the same. Its wards were terrifying, requiring an army of mages to barely dent the outer barrier. The labyrinth beneath the fortress had bled out into the land, mutating its environment. Centralis was deemed a lost cause, not worth the enormous effort required to reach it. Not even Sovereigns wished to step foot on its land.

Until Ede Alonse.

The wards fell on the first day of his singlehanded siege. On the second, he uprooted the labyrinth’s corruption. On the third day, Centralis was his.

Linea changed in the following years.

Centralis signed a pact of neutrality and became the hub of magical knowledge and education. The overgrown labyrinth provided all the materials needed to train new generations. Archmage after archmage joined Centralis. Even more were produced by its mighty halls. In time, even world travelers, reclusive as they often were, pledged allegiance to Ede Alonse and the pursuit of magical knowledge.

Jonah Kalstus thought of home as she sparred with her colleague’s disciples. She had been craving curry for a month but couldn’t find a decent one.

The blond disciple—Alna—used a force spell to launch a boulder at Jonah. She halfheartedly raised her hand and fired a hyper-compressed blast of wind from her palm. The boulder blasted to pieces. A few pieces bounced off her, one as big as her head. Annoying.

Jonah’s attempts at cooking hadn’t gone well. The spices she knew existed on Linea, she just couldn’t piece together the right ones to match her memory.

The lanky disciple with red hair and freckles—Norsen of Clan Vermzel—finally finished drawing an array underground with his stone affinity. Jonah let it activate. Gravity tripled in an instant. An impressive spell for a second year. This would have thrown her off if she were flying. Still, the gravity would disrupt his other affinities. If he wanted to be a battlemage, he’d need to find some better methods.

Jonah drew on her wind affinity, drawing up a weakened striker spell in her mind’s eye. She extended her mana sense to encapsulate the training room, pausing to see if the disciples noticed. They did not.

A bullet of compressed wind smacked the bottom of Norsen’s chin hard enough to send him flying. The boy thumped to the ground and groaned before he lost consciousness.

His teammates all froze in shock.

Jonah crossed her arms. What did they expect? A good wind mage was simply excellent at range.

Gravity returned to normal as Norsen’s mana left the array.

Her thoughts drifted again. It was one of her many regrets that she never joined her father to cook. She had been too busy, too important to settle down for a day with him.

The dark-skinned disciple with curly hair—Lenetta—was the first to recover from Norsen’s defeat. Her spear crackled with electricity as she charged its enchantment. Jonah had heard about the spear’s powerful enchantments, crafted by the great smiths of Westkeep.

“Alna, Klous, distract her!” Lenetta said.

Alna snapped back to the battle. The disciple next to her, Klous Ainsef—a pale boy with long black hair—was already charging at Jonah with sword in hand. Its blade was black with a blue, wavy pattern at its edges. Alna hefted her hammer up and kicked off with a force spell, blasting past Klous.

She grinned as she brought the massive steel hammer down on Jonah.

Alna was smart enough to know that wouldn’t work. Jonah could stop something like this with her bare hands. So what was the angle? Lenetta wouldn’t be ready for another ten seconds, and really, not letting her have her moment would just be mean.

Then again, Renya asked her to take her disciples seriously.

Jonah would… oblige. To a point.

A wind array formed in her mind’s eye. She removed a number of its complexities before aiming it at Alna. A massive blast of wind smashed into the girl’s chest, sending her flying.

Even Klous, stoic as he was, had a trace of fear flash through his eyes as he closed in on Jonah. His blade hummed as its blue patterns drew water from the pouch at his side. Water mages using water to cut things was nothing new. Its simplicity made it a highly effective tool in any battlemage’s arsenal. One tool of many a water mage could employ.

Klous had only trained with sword techniques, however. He had barely even developed his shadow affinity. The boy was too stuck in his family’s nonsense.

Jonah tapped into her fire affinity. She drew an enhanced heating spell in her mind’s eye. A blast of heat washed over Klous’ sword, evaporating every drop of water. He winced and dropped the weapon.

Jonah sent him flying with a wind blast.

She hoped this was constructive. Renya said they needed some humbling, but… Well, did getting beat like this humble or just anger you?

Jonah sighed. Not her area of expertise.

She looked at Lenetta, who was almost done charging her spell. The girl grit her teeth.

Jonah crossed her arms and waited. If she didn’t let this happen, the disciples might leave thinking they ever had a chance.

She waited… ten seconds. Which was eternity in a battle. Jonah sighed inwardly. Now she was just… No, no, that wasn’t really nitpicking. The spell was way too slow.

Lenetta cried out with all her strength as she threw the spear. It was a silver streak of light, a shooting star that crackled with thundering wrath. Jonah could almost feel the soul of the enchanter roaring alongside their masterpiece. Draenec had given his daughter something quite absurd.

But the strength behind it was lacking.

Jonah tapped into her force attunement. A series of anchoring spells locked into her mind’s eye. She sidestepped the spear, then shot her hand toward its shaft. Electricity buzzed up her arm as she caught it and skidded back a few steps. Jonah grinned as she spun using the spear’s force.

And launched it straight back.

Lenetta screamed as her spear shot a few feet to her right. It looked like she’d shook hands with death.

Jonah almost rolled her eyes. Did she actually think she was aiming for her?

BOOM!!

The spear embedded itself deep into the wall.

Huh. Jonah scratched her electrified arm. Maybe she threw it back a little too hard.

She looked in the direction she threw Alna and Klous. Alna was leaning on her hammer to stand but she still had the will to fight. Klous was lying motionless on the ground and staring at the ceiling like it had wronged him.

“I believe my students need some time to think,” Renya said from above. She’d been watching the whole exchange while sitting on her flying staff. Renya was a short, pale woman with some freckles and long red hair. She was so delicate looking you might believe she’d shatter if you poked her. Her Helnian outfit—a long coat and slim fitting, almost formal clothes—was colorfully mismatched yet somehow fashionable.

She floated down as a cloud of blue mist left her to tend to the students. She settled next to Jonah, hovering at equal height, and put her hand out. “Give me your arm.”

Jonah obliged. A pleasant warmth crept up her arm, wiping away the tiny aches she got from the spear.

“I didn’t go overboard, right?” Jonah asked.

“Mmm, maybe with Norsen,” Renya said with a little chuckle. “You can’t learn much when you’re knocked out at the start of the fight.”

“I, uh, readjusted afterwards,” Jonah said. “I might have scared Lemetta too much though.”

“Better here than out there,” Renya said. She smiled. “Besides, I liked the spear throw.”

“Really?”

She giggled. “Very cool.”

Jonah smiled, straightening at the compliment.

“I can’t believe,” Alna said as she walked over, “that you’re flirting with the person who just kicked our asses.”

Renya sighed as her staff whirled her around to look at the other disciples. They were all fine except Norsen, who still looked a bit out of it. Renya’s blue mist came back to her and disappeared into her sleeves.

“What did we all learn today?” Renya asked.

“Don’t fight a Sovereign,” Klous said as he joined them.

“Not a Sovereign,” Jonah said.

“Don’t fight an unofficial Sovereign,” Klous corrected. Jonah just shook her head and sighed. She was close, yes, but not quite there. Her punches couldn't break a mountain in half. Yet.

“Also, wind mages are the worst. Such bullshit,” Alna said.

“Wind mages generally specialize at range,” Jonah said, sighing. “Wind is all about broad, sweeping motions. It’s easy to detect if you keep your mana sight open and watch the currents—none of you did. At close range, it takes time to gather wind. Turn on your mana sight and tell me what you see.”

Alna squinted. That was a sign of poor mana control—Jonah had heard about Alna’s bad habits from Renya. Alna frowned. “You preload the wind spells?”

Containers of highly compressed wind were always at Jonah’s back. The container upkeep was mostly thanks to an enchanted item but the students didn’t need to know that.

“At close range, you use fire magic to make a vacuum for any quicker spells,” Klous said. His mana sight was far more advanced than the others. Yet he still didn’t use it. Bad habits.

“In a way, yes,” Jonah said, “but there are a few other tricks to it. Only a couple of people have ever figured the whole thing out.”

“So…” Alna scratched her head. “If we see a wind mage, usually clobbering them works out? So no change to our strategy?”

“No, we need to watch the mana currents and anticipate spells, not just react to them,” Norsen said. “Otherwise, you’ll all end up like me eventually. None of the long range spells were premade, right?”

Jonah smiled. “Correct.”

“Huh? How do you know the spells weren’t premade? You were knocked out the whole time,” Alna said.

“Containing wind is hard. You need to keep it close. I would know,” Norsen said, blowing a breeze in Alna’s face. She tried to whack him with a force spell, which he dodged easily. Jonah noted that he was squinting. He and Alna would need to get back to basics. Norsen should’ve already known better, having a wind affinity himself.

“Using mana sight in battle leaves you vulnerable,” Klous said, ignoring his teammates. “How are we supposed to fix that?”

“You practice until it’s second nature. You’re halfway there, Klous. You two,” she gestured to Alna and Norsen, “need serious work. As for Lenetta…” Jonah glanced toward her. The girl was just sitting on the ground, staring up at her spear.

Jonah swore internally as she walked over. The others hung back.

Lenetta didn’t turn to look as Jonah stopped behind her. “What kind of leader freezes like that? When I saw my father’s spear coming at me, I just… Fuck.”

“Good, you know the basic problem. Now stand up, look good, and brood about it somewhere else,” Jonah said. She grabbed her arm and pulled her up. “Good leaders don’t look vulnerable while they’re at work. Your friends don’t care but others will. So start practicing.”

“But I—“

“Shut up and smile.”

Lenetta managed a small smile.

Jonah nodded. “That spear attack is meant for large targets—you shouldn’t be using it on me in the first place. Small targets dodge it too easily. Also, get a normal spear. Use it to remind yourself how much Draenec cares about you to give you that.” She pointed to the spear, still embedded in the wall. “It’ll also make you appreciate technique over that.” She pointed harder at the spear. Having it was like a cheat, really. “Understand?”

Lenetta nodded a few times.

“Now show me your mana sight.”

She did so.

“Huh. You’re in the same boat as Alna and Norsen,” Jonah said. She raised her voice, “All of you have sloppy basics!”

The other three disciples stopped chatting with Renya to groan.

Jonah was about to give some instructions when something dinged in her head.

Ede Alonse.

“Meet me in my office,” his voice echoed in her mind. It was warm and confident, a humbled emperor giving a decree.

Jonah felt like blowing him off. She’d rather spend time with Renya than discuss politics or long term strategies. That was her entire life a decade ago. Now, she just dealt with what was in front of her.

She froze at the next sentence.

“There is a traveller in my labyrinth.”