Philip yawned and stretched on the luxurious couch. He blinked away the sleepiness that clung to his eyes. The fragrance of freshly bloomed flowers and freshly cut vegetation waft through the room, carried through an open window by a soft breeze. Philip sat up and looked over to see a clear sky shining through the window.

A thunk resounded in the room. Philip peered down and saw a book had fallen on the floor.

That's right. Philip's foggy mind cleared as he remembered why he was there. He reached down and picked it up, sighing as he read the title.

“Advanced Theory of Magical Purification,” he muttered boredly.

“A good read if I do say so myself,” A feminine voice announced, making Philip jump. “Though it is a bit thick to read, and I don’t mean how many pages the book has.”

Philip looked over at Lily, his childhood friend. She was wearing the special black and gold uniform dedicated to the student council while slouching on the chair in the corner of the room.

Philip shook his head with a tired acceptance since the girl seemed to never change despite the years they have known each other.

“Thick is a generous way to describe this,” Philip chuckled. “I’m actually wondering if they put a sleeping enchantment on it. Sister Anna would give anything for this to knock out the kids at the orphanage at bedtime.”

“And destroy the children’s dream of becoming a great Mage by subjecting them to the reality of magecraft? How cruel, Philly,” Lily laughed, jumping out of her seat and dancing across the room to the window. She leaned outside and took in a deep breath, sighing contently as she gazed out over the campus. “If only the innocent joys of childhood were able to last through adulthood.”

“The nobles would never allow that,” Philip grumbled.

“Perhaps they would and perhaps they wouldn’t,” Lily mewed. Philip saw her staring at something at the ground, but after a few seconds she turned around with a familiar smile. The pranced across the floor and plopped onto the chair’s armrest looking at him expectantly. Her long raven colored hair blew over her shoulder from the steady breeze and appeared to tickle Philip’s dull gray robe.

Philip decided to ignore her and leaned into the cushioning of the couch, opening the book to where he left off before his nap. The writing inside was, at best, sloppy if still readable. The author continued to dive into their research into proper meditation and cleansing of a core. As Philip started to zone out the world a light cough sounded next to him. Lily was leaning closer toward him, hovering near his shoulder to get a view of what he was reading.

“So, what do you want?” He asked, his irritation clearly apparent. "I chose this lounge because I wanted privacy."

Lily let out a dramatic sigh and rolled off the armrest onto the couch. She landed with her head in Philip’s lap and gazed up at him with a heartbroken expression.

“Your wonderful, beautiful friend takes time out of her busy day to see you and you assume I’m trying to get a favor?” Lily pouted.

“Yes,” Philip bluntly replied.

“I’m hurt…”

“Spit it out, Lily. You know I’m behind and need all the time I can get to catch up with the rest of the class.” It was sadly true. Philip grimaced at the heavy tome in his hands dreading having to finish reading it before the end of the week. Not only reading, but trying out the exhausting amount of exercises as well.

“If you didn’t skip out of classes during the secondary education you wouldn’t be in this mess,” Lily teased as she used her fingers to draw shapes on his chest. “You were warned, you know.”

Philip groaned and snapped the tome shut. He set it to the side and impatiently swiped Lily’s hand away.

“Mel warned me. You, on the other hand, joined and encouraged it.”

“But I am now a councilwoman, one of the top students of the nation, and a radiant beauty who has suitor’s chasing after her left and right.”

“Your humility is lost to the masses,” Philip rolled his eyes as he stood up. Lily managed to avoid being pushed onto the floor by quickly sitting up and giving him her trademarked smirk.

“You know it,” She laughed, her voice sounding like summer bells.

“Not all of us are a one-in-a-century prodigy, Lily. Most of us have to work for any scrap we can get.”

“I don’t want to hear that from you, Mr. I-am-six-years-behind-everyone-else,” Lily grumbled. “In the past two years alone you’ve almost caught up to the top third of the University. A few professor’s have even started to take notice of you.” She stood up and walked over to Philip, lying her hand on his shoulder. “I’m sure once graduation hits you’ll be adopted into a good family.”

“Like I want to join any of the families,” Philip snorted. “I’d rather be a commoner again and be free than be chained into servitude by those... “ He took a breath to calm himself. “Honorable leaders to our society.” he spat out.

Lily gave a patient sigh. Philip turned away from her and moved toward the window. The previous calm of the University had slowly been getting louder over the past few minutes and Philip was getting curious. When he gazed outside he saw a few roaming crowds of students down below, each moving urgently instead of the usual stroll.

“Philip, you have to take the graduation adoption more seriously,” Lily scolded. “All of us have worked hard to impress, as you graciously put it, the ‘honorable’ leaders of our society. The staff loves Mel and there is a lot of talk of her becoming a staff member here at the university after she gets adopted. I am working on the student council so I have a good chance of being noticed by at least an Earl. You are impressive in your studies, but you need to work on how you present yourself so you can get into a good family.”

Philip shook his head in annoyance. The two of them have had this discussion innumerable times over their schooling life. Even more so the past few years with the Graduation quickly arriving. Lily and Mel both just wouldn’t seem to leave him alone to let him focus on studying.

“Lily, I don’t care about which house adopts me. I don’t care about the families or any of their pointless political games. I just want to become good enough that I am not thrown into the role of a common soldier and I can continue my interests at my own leisure.”

Lily moved by him and watched the roaming crowds with him. “If you want that then you need to get noticed by a more respected family. Maybe the Tai’s, or perhaps the--”

“Lily,” Philip sighed. “I know the graduation adoption is important, but you have to focus on yourself. You’re the shining star of the commoners here. Even if there are just three of us…”

“That is more of a reason why we have to stick together, Philly,” Lily’s shoulder’s dropped. Philip followed her gaze and caught a hold of a group which entered their building. A small smile crept onto her face as she turned from the window. “I mean, I have to always act all prim and proper with the aristocracy. But with you and Mel I can be myself.”

“Should I thank you or curse you for showing your true personality to us?” Philip chuckled, awarding himself a solid punch on the arm. His mirth didn’t wane as he rubbed the now sore spot. “I just need to keep working hard if I want to join a ‘respectable’ family. Plus, I have another year once the Hunt is over.”

Lily’s smile grew as she gave a nod. “Yes, I know you can do it! I think it would be better if you can get a tutor as well. If someone gives you the time of day I’m sure I won’t be considered the only prodigy on campus.”

Philip gave a loud laugh and shook his head in exasperation. Him being a prodigy? Best joke he heard all month. The two of them decided to sit down again and Philip opened the tome to continue reading. Lily sat in the chair again after grabbing a book from somewhere and started to read as well.

The book was definitely ‘thick’ as Lily mentioned. The scholar who wrote it seemed to try and fit as much information and theories as possible into the fewest pages. From what Philip was able to decipher from the cluttered texts, the book’s main focus was about the mage’s core and how to purify its magic to increase a mage’s potential.

The Core, a unique organ which separated a mage from the rest of humanity. It was only found within monsters and mages, and through the organ all magic was formed and manipulated. But the core itself is born in a rough and ugly form, much like a precious stone. It is up to the mage to remove all the impure spots and polish it to make their magic stronger.

This was the task Philip ignored for far too long, so he had been working extremely hard the past few years to catch up to his classmates. Unfortunately, despite his efforts, his core was still considered weak. When he cast magic he could only control four streams of mana before his core became strained. The average of his classmates were almost triple that. Even Lily could handle almost forty streams before becoming strained. He made great progress from when he first started, but he still had a long way to go.

The noise in the hallways were growing louder. The crowd that entered a short time ago were making enough of a racket that Philip was unable to focus on his tome. He reread a page three times before he snapped the book shut in irritation and stood up. Lily gave him a questioning look before she gave a small shrug and continued to read.

Philip walked over to the door to the lounge and opened the door to look out. Groups of three to four students were barging into rooms at the end of the hall and shouting. One group Philip recognized as the Student Council President, Charles. Unfortunately, before Philip could go back into the room Charles noticed him and made a beeline towards him.

Philip, not wanting to confront the snobbish man, made the swift decision to pretend he didn’t notice and walked into the room only to freeze in shock.

Lily was lying down on the couch, tied up and gagged. Her eyes were sparkling with the smuggest look she could give with a gag covering her mouth, but Philip could practically see the grin. Philip turned to try and shut the door but Charles moved quicker than he expected and was standing in the doorway with his eyes locked on the bound form of Lily.

Philip tried to open his mouth but Charles roared in rage and charged inside to grab Philip, his hands glowing in the process of weaving a spell.

Philip stumbled backwards to get away, turning toward Lily. “Lily… what the hell--”

“We found her!” a student shouted at the door.

Philip’s mind raced trying to piece together what was going on, but he did not have enough time before Charles finished his spell. A bright beam of freezing cold shot toward Philip which he was barely able to roll away from before it would hit him in the chest. A wave of extreme cold washed over him as ice began to spread from the spot it struck, coils of frost spreading across the floor and stopping next to him.

Philip blankly stared at Charles as his hands began to glow again. The shouting got louder as more students started to pour into the room, the one who stood in the doorway earlier hand’s were glowing like Charles.

Something clicked in Philip’s mind. They were attacking, not like during the sporty sparring sessions, but with full intent to injure. He kicked back just as the floor started to roll and turn into itself and close in on where he was lying down before.

Philip dived behind the couch, putting it between him and the attacking students. His head whipped back and forth looking for a way to defend himself, but there was nothing within easy grabbing distance.

“Hold your spells!” Charles roared. “He is using Lily as a shield.”

How could he use Lily as a shield? She was on the couch tied… oh.

Philip chided himself realizing how bad things looked on his end, but he did not have time. He shifted behind the couch when he started to hear footsteps coming toward him and saw his salvation.

The window he left open to air out the stuffy lounge. He knew he had to act now or he would become trapped between two groups of angered students so he acted without thinking further. He launched himself forward and leapt through the window, ignoring the angered shouts behind him. A few spells grazed behind him, a couple causing minor tears into his worn, gray robe.

Wind started to buff against him as he felt the call of gravity take hold of him. Below him was a beautiful garden which expanded near half a mile across the courtyard. Freshly cut bushes and blooming flowers seemed to welcome Philip as his trajectory angled further and further downard, the wind picking speed to the point he could not hear the shouts behind him.

In a panic Philip reached within himself and drew out all four rivers of mana. They felt like thin strings in his mental grasp, and he started to weave a spell.

He was falling, and quickly. He needed to find a way to not die outright during the landing. Not only that, he needed to make sure his landing was controlled enough to be able to keep running from the mobs of students that now seem to be after his life. So, calculating both of those together the best route is to cast a levitate or slow fall spell.

Sadly, levitate was far too complex for him to cast so with all deductions finished he started his Slow Fall spell. Two strands were enhanced with the air attribute, one ground, and one water. He used the ground thread to create stable footing beneath his feet then the two air to make an updraft to slow his fall. The earth and air threads, due to them being polar opposites, would never combine together to make a stable platform for him to slow his fall, so he threaded the water between them to tie the elements together. As soon as the spell was completed, Philip tied it off and a shimmering feather appeared beneath him, sparkling against the sun.

It felt like he stepped onto a board when his feet touched the feather and the pull of gravity greatly lessened. He felt his fall slow but he was far too close to the ground for the spell to reach its full effect. The feather slammed into the ground and shattered into pieces, and he rolled with the landing until he crashed into a bush.

It took a few seconds for him to be able to inhale again after his crash forced all the air from his lungs. He moved to roll over and stand up, his body aching all over but, thankfully, he seemed to not have any broken bones. His spell and plan was a success.

He pushed himself up from the moist soil around him, the broken shards of the feather had turned into pure water since the spell broke. He looked up at the window he jumped out of to see a furious Charles glaring down at him. With a slight smirk at avoiding death on two fronts, the insane President and his ill-advised escape through the window, Philip raised his hand and gave a small but polite wave to his enemy.

Charles’ hands burst into light as Philip turned and started to run as fast as he could. A wave of cold crashed behind him again, but Philip was already too far away for it to bother him.

“Are you okay, Vice-President?”

Lily gave a well practiced sigh as her bonds were unbound and the cloth which covered her mouth was taken off. She sat up and gave a slight stretch, glancing around the room at the mess that was done.

Chairs were tipped over, ice and broken stone littered the floor, and a curtain by the open window was smoking. One of her ‘rescuers’ was using water to put out the flames from a spitfire spell which was thrown at Philip as he made his daring escape. Lily internally was cheering at his quick escape, as well as somehow managing to make a safe landfall from three stories up from Charles’ reaction.

The man was bellowing out orders to continue the ‘hunt’ for the kidnapper and his little mob of minions shot out of the room like the obedient little goblins they were. Low ranked families, each one of them, all trying to please the bigwig who was lucky enough to be born from a Duke. Each one of them somehow satisfied being a grunt to their supposed betters, and Lily vowed years ago to never be like them. She, one of the few commoners born with a core, would become powerful enough to not have to look down on anyone.

“The Vice-President seems to be traumatized,” the voice from earlier announced.

Lily rolled her eyes and looked over at the other student who wore pastel red robes. Apparently they were the fire specialist who caught the curtain on fire. It looked like she would have to deal with the idiot before getting out of the room.

“No, no,” she sighed. “I am fine. We were doing some practice before you all came in.”

“Practice?” Charles growled. He ran his hands through his dirty blond hair barely managing to hide his annoyance. “Having you bound up like cattle and hiding you in an unused lounge is practice?”

“Well how else am I going to get better at defending myself in case I get kidnapped,” Lily dismissed. “I can’t exactly always rely on my magic if I ever get ambushed so I need to work on practical skills of escape.”

Charles strode over and put his hands on Lily’s shoulders. Lily looked up into his eyes and could see the rage and concern radiating through them.

“Lily,” he sighed. “When you get adopted by a prominent family, you will have guards. You don’t need to rely on… a mutt like him to practice something like this.”

Lily shrugged her shoulders to dislodge his hands. “That mutt and I are the same. We are both lowborn working to get noticed. I just have been better at it than him, so far.”

Charles opened his mouth to say something but a girl pushed herself through the crowd at the doors and into the room. She had chestnut colored hair tied into two long braids running down her worn gray robes with silver trimmings. Her glasses shined as the light of the room struck them hiding her normally beautiful magnified eyes.

“Lil!” She cried out as she rushed into the room and embraced Lily. Charles shook his head as he turned round.

“Lily is safe,” he announced. “Let's move. The mutt is getting away.”

“Kidnapped?” the girl embracing Lily whispered, her eyebrow raising dramatically in question.

“I’ll explain later,” Lily whispered to her.

Most of the students left the room and Charles gave Lily a solid look. “Mel, take Lily to the Priestess to check and be sure the mutt did not do anything to her.”

“His name is Philip,” Mel growled. “And I doubt he did anything--”

“I know what the mutt’s damn name is!” Charles shouted. “And whether he did anything or not remains to be seen. And by the founder I hope he did nothing because I would hate to have to…” He took a breath. “Nevermind. Just take her. The mutt is escaping.”

“Just call this off, Charles,” Lily tried to sooth him. “This was something we both agreed on so there is no need to keep trying to catch Philip.”

Charles sighed and gave Lily a pitying look. “I can’t do that, Lily,” he said. “This has already gotten too big. I cannot just call it off after every faction and professor has been notified of your kidnapping. It would taint the competency of the Student Council.”

“Charles…”

“We will speak of this later, Lily,” he spoke with a finalized tone. “I have a job to do and I will see it done, innocent or not.”

Charles fled the room with the last of his minions. The room fell into silence, filled only with shouts from the courtyard as the search continued. The previous flowery smell was now vastly overwhelmed by the smell of smoke and charred fabric.

Lily leaned back against the couch and let out a small chuckle. Mel, who had released her, was giving Lily a harsh glare.

“What did you do?” she growled.

“I set up everything so Philip will finally get the help he needs. Nothing else.” Lily smuggly replied.

Mel sprung off the couch, her fists clenched in fury. “I said we needed to find him a tutor! Not make him into a sexual deviant.” She shrieked. “Are you trying to help him or expel him?”

“Help him, obviously. He might be hated by some students after this, but now he will be noticed by the instructors. They will watch him to make sure he won’t do ‘anything inappropriate’ to the girls and by watching him they will see how crazy his magic is improving.”

Lily’s plan was risky, but they only had a year left before they finished their schooling. Philip was able to catch up on almost a decade of work the past two years but he was not close enough yet to being considered important enough to be part of a respectable family. He needed someone to push him further, and Lily had to get him noticed. If it wasn’t for the boy’s terrible habit of staying in the hidden corners of the University, reading and studying alone, she would never have chosen this route. But extreme needs demanded extreme actions.

“You are making him into a criminal!” Mel cried.

Lily’s heart broke hearing her infuriated friend break down. Lily knew that Mel did not have the willpower to go through with this plan, so she was forced to keep her in the dark. Lily did not like making the decision, but it needed to be done, for all of their sake.

“I’m saving him from being thrown to the runts of the world so he can finally shine,” Lily hissed. She had to make Mel understand. “One black mark, which won’t even stay on the records because I will testify on his behalf, will get him the help he needs to finally reach the level he deserves to be at. People call me a prodigy, but most of my success comes from when I asked him when I was confused.”

“I know he is smart, Lil,” Mel muttered. “All we needed was to get him a tutor.”

“We have already asked most of our professors and with no luck. You also know every one of those arrogant bastards would never lift a finger to help anyone unless it is for their personal benefit or for their research,” Lily growled. Mel’s eyes shot open at Lily’s foul language, but Lily ignored it. “If they think they found a second prodigy while doing some forced charity work then it is more of an incentive for them to claim fame.”

“But is it worth making him a criminal, Lil?” Mel collapsed onto the couch next to Lily, her anger completely spent. “Or an accused criminal? There are many families who won’t care if his name was cleared. You might have cursed him into the army by this.”

Lily gave Mel a comforting smile and wrapped an arm around her. She used her other hand to gently touch her cheek and turn Mel’s head to face her.

“I am sure, Mel.” she cooed. “I left it all nothing to chance when I set things up. Every professor worth a grain of salt was outside since it is lunch. This building is near the center of campus, so Philip’s show of jumping out the window was seen by everyone remotely close to the cafeteria. And, they would have been paying attention from all of Charles’ search parties from earlier. Every eye on campus is now on Philip, so now it is all up to him to show off his skills.”

Mel thought for a few moments before her eyes hardened as she looked directly into Lily’s eyes. “But what if Philip gets caught? Or if he is hurt before a professor notices him?”

“As if a scuffle like this is the worst thing we’ve gotten out of,” Lily chuckled. “He is more competent than you are giving him credit for. Plus, if I am to get into a nice house I will need a guard. If Philip is thrown away as a soldier I can always ask for him to be it.”

“Perhaps you should have told that to Philip before all this happened,” Mel said with a charming laugh. “He would have blown out the wall during his escape to avoid such a fate.”

Lily stood up and held out her hand to Mel. “We should probably get going. I don’t want Charles to come after you once Philip is saved because you did not take me to the Priestess.”

Mel shook her head as she took Lily’s hand. Lily guided her up. Lily felt a small bit of worry for Philip after she set all this up, but to become great one had to overcome harsh obstacles. Plus, the man seemed to always think best on his feet than suck in a book if their childhood adventures proved anything. He will be just fine.

But a small bit of worry did squirm within her at the chance Philip failed. His escape through the window could have ended in a horrific disaster… but it didn’t. Lily hardened herself and took in a hardy breath.

Philip will endure. He had to prove himself or fade away, and Lily made sure he was given the perfect platform to show himself off. Extreme needs demanded extreme actions, after all. Plus, if he succeeded and became the second prodigy, his name would definitely echo across the entire Kingdom. Who knows, he might be able to outshine her.

Or at least attempt to outshine her.

Lily smiled a rare smile. One of which promised entertainment of overcoming a worthy challenge. She had not felt this way in a long while.

Lily linked arms with Mel as they both left the ruined lounge and started heading toward the Temple.