Clive stormed his way along the school halls, and burst into his room. He rushed over to his desk and pulled out a quill and parchment, slamming them down on the table.

“Unloyal?"

"Dangerous?”

His forehead veins pulsed and his teeth gritted against each other as he took the quill into his hand.

Crashing down into his seat he pressed the parchment firmly to the table and made wild strokes of the quill.

Naive - May have a tiny bit of truth

Unreliable - I have always only followed my gut so I'm sure it is true

Unchanging - I don't see how I can change in small ways so change for me is a big commitment

Dangerous - I am only possibly dangerous by inaction or not seeing things right? (I don’t see how I could be dangerous another way)

Unloyal - Because I will choose myself when pressure comes?

Clive's quill traced its way slowly to a clear part of the parchment.

Questionable heroism???

He dropped the quill to the table top and gripped his forehead with both hands interlocking.

“How could I be all of that, when all I have ever tried to do in my life…”

"Is to protect others..."

Tears poured down his cheeks and dripped onto the parchment. As each droplet soaked into the page, so too did the point of Subi's words soak into Clive's heart, until he felt like he was drowning in amidst a sea of darkness. Yet within that place of struggle shined a dim light in the distance.

Clive shot up from his chair and stormed down the hallway. He rushed out to the back of the school and then out the front gates. As he ran, his footsteps first echoed through the side streets, then swished amidst the grass, until finally pattering through the fallen leaves of the redwood forest.

He gripped his side and gritted his teeth, before flipping his head up to the sky.

“Ahhh!”.

He lowered his head, and wiped away tears from the side of his face.

“Why can’t I just be normal…”

“Why do I have to change everything…"

"Why is just one flaw pointed out to me enough to send me into a rage..."

As the wind blew through the trees, a silence became audible behind him. Clive reeled around with wide eyes, to see the menacing shadow of a great wolf appear between the trees. Its paws gently settled in the fallen leaves as it came to a stop.

POP

The shadow snapped down to the ground, and took the form of a small boy with flowing locks of hair. Subi's piercing blue eyes cut through the darkness.

“I’m glad to see you have it in you”

Clive laughed bitterly, “Have what in me, self doubt, self pity, desperation?”

“No… The courage to show it”

“How is this courage… I'm a coward, I just want to be what I think I am, and then blow up when I realise I'm not”

Subi's form shifted into a wolf as he looked up at the leaves moving in the canopy, each one dancing against the background of stars. As the breeze hit against his fur coat, starlight brought out glittering specks of blue. Subi tilted his head as he walked past Clive indicating for him to follow. They passed through the woods for a while without any words uttered, just the solemn march of footsteps. Subi then leapt through the shallows of the river and looked towards a dark spot between the trees ahead.

“Is that the dungeon?” Clive asked.

Subi nodded with his gaze firmly fixed upon it.

Clive looked back at Subi to observe a handful of sparkflies fluttering around him. His wolf form was stoic and unmoving amidst the beauty of the elements.

“I am not like you, I can’t... I can't fight… I’m useless… I always have been”

Subi turned around and looked into Clive's eyes, compassion and sympathy bled from deep within him. With each swirl of the wind against Subi's fur he remained unmoved by it. His focus was like that born of a person who had seen great pain and hardship, and had grown accustomed to it. Subi was no stranger to sadness and pain when asking questions about one's own place amidst the way of the world.

Subi kneeled by the riverbed and shrunk to his little toddler size, “The pain of life isn’t something to hide from” he said as he sat down.

Clive followed suit and sat down beside him, silent and melancholic.

“I don’t know why we hurt this way. You just have to realise it is okay to have this pain inside. The ultimate act of courage is to sit with it. To simply not throw it away”

Clive wiped a tear as the wind howled through the trees.

Subi picked up a small flat stone in his hand, and wound back his arm before skipping the stone across the water. He looked down calmly and polished off a second stone and handed it to Clive.

"And so we will sit with it together okay?"

…

As the morning broke Rem gripped tightly onto the hem of her bedsheets and turned to Subi's sleeping spot. There he was, warmly curled up on the floor, allowing her to breathe a sigh of relief.

Doing her best to not make a sound she picked up her study bag near the door and tiptoed out into the hall. She knew Subi had been out most of the night and needed to rest. Cat smiled as she made her way around the bend to the front of class.

“Hey girl” Cat said with a smirk.

“Hiya”

“You look ready today”

“I am!”

Jon spun a piece of thread between his fingers as he leaned out the second story window and caught the breeze on his skin. Dan leaned up against the wall right beside him with a concerned look on his face as he heard the news.

“Did you hear about the sickness spreading in town” Jon said wistfully.

“From the attack?”

“Yeah”

Dan balled his hand into a fist and furrowed his brow, “Damn it”

“Apparently Cassandra is out today with a few of the other teachers helping at the chapel to treat the infected”

“Monsters don't understand how to fight fair do they, bastards”

"I wish we could do something, you know?”

“Yeah, me too”

Clive strolled around the corner with bags under his eyes and a gaunt complexion.

Rem reached out and rubbed him gently on the forearm, “Heya, you okay?”

Cat peeked around Rem's shoulder, a little upset by Rem’s choice to turn her back to talk to Clive.

“Yeah, I'm a lot better today, just tired is all”

“Do you feel ready for the Maestro?”

“Actually, yeah, Subi really helped me get my head around it”, he nodded.

"Oh?"

"Yeah, in the end I realised, that not all things can be gotten around. Sometimes you just have to accept things, and find beauty in the little things. Which I think is humility? So in a weird way, fear is a way to guard yourself from ego, and in that way keep yourself honest"

“Alright class let’s get started” the Maestro said sharply as he whooshed past and into the classroom.

“Today is the last day of your first week and it is tradition in this school that you receive your grimoires”

“As I've already told you magic is drawn from other dimensions. Magic is astoundingly complicated and the only way to really get any grasp of it you need to use glyphs. They will help you to interpret the unusual movements of extra dimensional objects and forces, so you can attempt to comprehend them. Without a grimoire you very likely won't remember the glyph structure and may make a mistake with your spells, and remember that could even lead to the loss of your life”

“The grimoire’s pages are covered thin powdered layer of Abolat crystals. This allows you to see a glyph from different angles and study its transitions between its six fundamental interpretations"

"While learning these glyphs it is important you do not attempt to use magic on your own. As I said yesterday, there are mirrors in the other dimensions that can cause magic to be reflected. You must familiarise yourself with thousands of glyphs and their interpretations until it is second nature, so that you can learn to sense when something isn't right in how a spell is being woven"

"Only once I am satisfied will you be permitted to attempt even the simplest of spells. In the mean time learn to strengthen the threads within you that connect you to magic and learn to steel your mind. The more your threads strengthen, the greater the temptation to use magic will be, but if you wish to survive you will coldly dismiss such temptations”

“All of you now head to the library with the other classes and gather your grimoires”

Cat was visibly excited as she strolled down the halls next to Rem. Dan walked down the hall as though he was heading into a sporting arena while Jon looked plain faced like he always did. Clive however looked unsteady with nerves. Rem glanced over at him and gripped tightly on the strap of her bag.

As they entered the towering hall the Maestro pointed to a spot for the class to stand before making his way up to a podium in the center of the room.

The murmurs of the gathered students stopped dead as the Maestro cleared his throat.

“We here at the magister academy create leaders. And like any leader you will face the threat of your life at every turn. It is through this constant pressure that your true character as magisters will be forged"

"Every year many who undergo the journey to learn to command magic will fail. And with magic, failure often means death"

"Yet because we command magic, others in our communities will not have to fear. It is in this spirit of self sacrifice that many around the world have come to request our services. And we shall heed that call"

"Today, you will be paired with your grimoires. Handle them with the greatest of caution, for they contain immense extra dimensional power”

The Maestro turned to the other teachers that surrounded the hall and gave them a nod.

The air began to buzz and orbs of light danced like sparkflies as the teachers began their incantations. Wind drew in from the cracks under the hallway door, causing the air grow heavy and hard to breathe. Threads of magic grew like sprouting vines from the lights that filled the room and reached toward a student each.

Rem gasped for air and clutched onto Cat's hand as a thread of light pierced into her skin like a needle. She looked up to see that everyone in the class was struggling to breathe as the threads wove their threads through the room.

FWOOSH

A gust of wind rushed out the doors as the pressure released in the room.

The sounds that were muffled before all collided at once, as students gasped for breath and spluttered out coughing. The Maestro's looked menacing as veins bulged from his forehead and a smile creeped onto his face.

The air in the room shook ominously.

KADUM!!!

Students were thrown to the ground by the violence of the shockwave.

Rem picked herself up from the floor and watched from one eye as the Maestro lifted his hand pulled forth shining blue light, that glowed in the shape of a stack of oddly shaped books.

“Behold! Your grimoires!”

As each of the students around Rem stood to their feet, they let out a gasp as they observed grimoires floating in the air towards them.

A boy with a bowl cut jumped with joy as he gripped his grimoire, “Look at how big mine is!”.

His friend beside him raised an eyebrow and shot back “Mine is thicker!”.

A girl with golden hair tied up in a pony tail cried out “Mine is sparkling the most of all of them”.

While another girl dressed in what looked like a maid outfit shot back “Mine is the shape of a heart!”.

Rem looked over at her grimoire as it floated towards her. It didn't look like a new book like all the others she could see, instead it looked dusty and old. It was not special in size or thickness, nor did it have any distinguishing marks. If she were to describe it, it looked like a moth amidst so many butterflies, dull and without much of a magical aura. A few students close by looked on with disapproval in their eyes, but Rem reached out her arms and took it gladly.

Dan cheered as his grimoire had spikes and chains on it “Haha, mine is the toughest of them all”.

Cat spiralled in glee as she held the book to her chest, “Mine looks elegant like a tulip!”

Jon looked at a speck infront of him and squinted, “Wait, why is mine so small!”.

Dan laughed and smacked him on the back, "Tough luck"

Yet of all the books of all the students, it was Clive's that was the most bizarre of all. It had not taken a form of a book like the others, it was simply an orb that pulsed violently, “Wait isn’t it supposed to be a book, what is mine doing?”.

Clive took a step back from the orb as sweat dripped down the side of his temple.

“No! Don’t let it touch you!” the Maestro yelled out over the commotion.

Clive dived back from the ball, and raised his hands infront of his face as the ball shot towards him. The smell of burning flesh filled the room, as it worked its way into his hand like a burrowing insect. Clive screamed in pain before collapsing onto the floor.

Rem's eyes shot open, and she dashed like a bolt of lightning to his side “Clive! Clive! Are you okay?! Somebody help him!”

The mood that had shortly before been of wonder and excitement turned to gloom as the teachers ran to the boy laid out on the floor.