I was making my way to the archery range when I met Helnion. She was standing about halfway between the Temple of Magic and the range looking into a tree. I didn't see what she thought was so interesting so I just kept walking and didn't try to get her attention.

"Ah," Helnion said when she saw me.

Instead of saying anything to me, she just started following me. I still didn't understand why she was following me around. I understood why she was curious about me and considering she was an Usui born I could see why she had been more interested than most. What I didn't understand was why someone with an attention span as short as hers would still have an interest in me after this long.

I felt Helnion tug at my hair.

"Messy messy." She said to no one and then pulled out her comb and started combing it.

I wanted to sigh but didn't. I just couldn't understand why people would want to waste more time than they needed to on something like hair.

By the time we reached the archery range most of the other children had already formed into their groups. Sadly, Ferret was waiting there too.

"Salis! Helnion!" Ferret waved us over.

Both Helnion and I ignored her, both for different reasons.

"I see Helnion loves your hair as much as she did last night," Ferret said after she walked over to us, "I might want to help her with that sometime."

Helnion looked up and gave Ferret a look that said she wasn't sharing.

Ferret laughed, "When did you get so possessive of Salis' hair?" Ferret then looked uncertain for a second, "Would either of you want to come visit my room tonight? Some of my friends and I will play some games and make more music after evening meal."

"You made me miss it last night," I told her.

Ferret looked embarrassed, "My friends and I do that a lot."

From what I remembered from the night before, most of Ferret's friends were Vellis or Usui born. These two groups tended to be the most forgetful people. Well, either forgetful or just unconcerned about time, especially when they were doing something fun or interesting. It wasn't until last night that I realized how bad they could be. I bet the Vellis born might have even stayed in the bathhouse all night singing and dancing if they hadn't gotten kicked out and the Usui born would have just fallen asleep.

As I was thinking, Ferret gasped and bent over to look at me. "What happened to you, Salis? You have cuts all over and your hand is bandaged up."

"Magic class."

"Oh…" She said with understanding. "Things like that happen a lot in beginner classes. What happened?"

"Crystal exploded."

"Did you make it explode?"

I nodded.

"How did you do that? The only time I have seen one explode was when two of my classmates tried to see how bright they could make the crystal glow if they both put their magic power into it at the same time."

"Don't know."

"It must be something about being a Terran. I heard they were a lot more powerful than…"

"Ferra," Medic said cutting Ferret off, approaching us from the storage building. "I would appreciate it if you did not bother my students during practice."

"Did the bells already ring? I did not hear them. I am sorry, Instructor Meric," Ferret replied, running her sentences together.

"That is fine, just pay more attention from now on." When Ferret left, Medic turned to me. "I heard about the injury you received in your magic class. They told me you should still be able to take part in your training today but I will let you go at the same time as the normal students."

I nodded.

"If your wound becomes worse, let me know. We do not want to let your wound take longer to heal than necessary." Medic walked to the rest of the group and started our training. She had ignored Helnion.

For the next hour, I did my best to keep up with what they told me to do. It was harder and more painful than I thought it would be, but I made it until Medic told me I could go.

"Does that noisy girl know where your room is?" I asked Helnion as we were leaving the archery range.

"Hmm?" Helnion looked confused. I don't think she had gotten a good look at Ferret except when she gave her a momentary look.

"The girl that wanted to take my hair away from you." I still couldn't believe my hair was such an item…

"No. Never met her before."

"Let's hurry and go there before she comes looking for us," I said and then rushed towards the girl's dorm.

Inside Helnion's room I sat down and waited for her to catch up. While I was waiting, I took hold of her lamp. Thanks to my class today, I now knew what the lamp was, and the crystals above the doors. My only question was how did they glow without someone there to feed them magic power.

I turned to the second crystal that had been holding the light crystal. I wasn't sure what the crystal did exactly, but if I had to guess it was that it stored magical energy. I picked it up to find out.

Just as I was about to start my experiment, Helnion walked into the room.

"Did anyone follow you?" I asked her.

"I do not know," She looked unconcerned.

I turned back to the crystal and tried to put some magic power into it. Nothing noticeable happened. I guess the only way to find out if I did anything was to put the two crystals back together.

When I did, the light crystal glowed briefly, and then went out. It had worked. When I tried it again for longer, I got better results.

"Do you have any more crystals?" I asked Helnion now that I was satisfied with my results.

Helnion walked over to her dresser and opened a drawer.

"They took away my fire and levitation crystals," She handed me a crystal.

They had taken away some of her crystals? I could understand the fire crystal being taken away from any child, especially one like Helnion, but why the levitation crystal? Were they worried she would hurt herself?

"Why did they take them away?" I asked her, hoping there was an amusing story or two involved.

"Hmm. I forgot they do not allow us to have fire crystals outside the Temple and they found it. The levitation crystal flew through some windows and a wall. Almost hit someone."

How did she get a crystal to do so much damage?

When I returned my focus to the crystal, Helnion laid down on her bed. I had been expecting her to do something with my hair but was glad she hadn't. For now, I was curious what kind of crystal she had given me. I imagine it wasn't too dangerous or they wouldn't have let her have it.

It turned out to be a wind crystal. As soon as I put some magical energy into it, the surrounding air began to move. It wasn't as strong as I had thought it would be, but with my power output having a mind of its own I imagined that it would eventually get to crystal breaking intensity.

By the time evening meal had arrived, Helnion awoke to a now messier room and me with very windblown hair. At one point my arm burned again, and I had to put down the orb.

"I guess I should eat," I told Helnion.

"I will get it. Your hair is too bad to go out," She stood up. Helnion hadn't had enough time to re-braid my hair earlier, so it was loose, and after all that wind…

Instead of going out the door, Helnion opened the window. She then jumped out. I walked to the window and looked out only to see that she was already out of sight. I just wondered if she knew which room I was in. At least it looked like she knew it was on the other side of the building or she had just gone inside the closest entrance. I just hoped Ferret didn't find her.

A few minutes later she returned to the place under the window. She was holding my food.

Just as I was wondering how she planned to get back into the room, being on the second floor, I saw her jump. Her jump was impossibly high, but she did it. Unfortunately, she also spilled my water.

"How?" I asked her.

"Levitation," She said as if it was no big deal and handed me my now wet food.

We ate in silence. Neither of us seemed to find it awkward either. It was a nice peaceful meal just how I liked it. The only thing I would have changed was to have a drink of water and food that wasn't soggy.

As soon as we finished eating, Helnion took over. In no time she had me sitting on her chair in front of her as she sat on her bed. I wished I hadn't promised to let her do whatever with my hair just for good behavior in math.

Not much later I heard a knock on the door. Helnion didn't seem to give it any mind, and I ignored it. It was too soon for the maids to come to pick up the dishes so a knock meant only one of two things: Someone was here to visit Helnion or it was Ferret.

I heard another knock. "Salis! Helnion! Are you in there?" It was Ferret. "I came to pick you up since you might not know where my room is."

I stood up and walked towards the window. Helnion looked a little annoyed because I had interrupted whatever she had been doing to my hair but followed me. I then jumped out of the window and kept going.

It would be a long year if this kept up.