Skylar stepped out of the wagon and onto the floating porch at the back, feeling it rock on the chains that attached it to the wagon, feeling slightly off balance for a moment. Mistress Stella watched her carefully, holding tight to the ornate and decorated bronze chain that ran from Skylar's collar to a carved and inlaid ring that was held in Stella's little hand.

"Follow me, little one," Stella said softly, gently. Despite the girl's fearsome appearance, Stella reminded herself that Skylee was a child, pampered and innocent to the world, and would frighten easily.

Stella stepped off the platform and onto the road, walking briskly to keep up so the six foot chain wouldn't yank at Skylar's neck.

"Come on, little one. Just step off," Stella urged again. "It's OK, we're going to go for a walk and I'm going to take you somewhere that you can practice safely with your magefire."

Skylar swallowed thickly, feeling the collar tighten on her neck for a moment. She looked around nervously, seeing that she was on the inside track of four columns of huge wagons that were traveling down a cobblestone road through a forest. The thick masses of trees on either side of the traveling convoy told Skylar that wherever they were, there was no civilization around for her to depend on rescue from.

Kidnapped, beaten up, and now enslaved, Skylar sobbed to herself, stepping off the platform and following Mistress Stella. I didn't even do anything. This isn't fair.

Stella saw the teary eyes and the sadness of Skylee's face, shaking her head slightly as she led the taller child lead-wise up the caravan. Stella knew that Skylee would be tired after what Stella had planned, and it would be easier on the young girl if all she had to do was wait for Mistress Stella's baishin to catch up with where they were standing instead of having to walk briskly leadwise to reach it.

"Come, little one," Stella encouraged again.

Skylar sighed, gathering the thin silk robe around her. She was embarassed by how sheer it was, how closely it resembled, to her eyes, a Japanese kimono, and how obviously it was cultural appropriation to wear such a thing. Yes, she felt cooler wearing it, no longer feeling like she was overheated from being outside in the sun all day, and yes, it satisfied the demands of modesty, but she disliked wearing it.

Wearing this, as a white person, co-opts and destroys the native cultures that things like this kimono come from, she thought to herself, looking down at the soft silk. Well, she assumed it was silk. It felt like one of her silk shirts, even though it was a long sleeved robe that came down to her ankles that she closed in the front. She held up her sleeve as she followed Mistress Stella, looking at the light gray of the fabric and the carefully stitched patterns with red, blue, and gold threads that pulled at her eyes and glimmered with an inner fire now and then.

The cloth felt nice against her skin, keeping her warm enough to be comfortable but cool enough that the "fire" in her veins (as Mistress Stella called it) didn't overheat her. She enjoyed the way it moved against her skin, caressing and wicked feeling as she walked.

I shouldn't be wearing this, she reminded herself, pushing away the pleased feeling.

Stella stepped up onto the floating deck of a large wagon, nearly fifty feet wide with six sets of wheels, pulled by two dozen of the strange shaggy beasts.

"Come, Skylee, don't be afraid," Stella said, motioning with one hand.

Skylar stepped up carefully, making sure her knees didn't push through the overlapped opening in the front, swallowing thickly as she watched Stella climb the short steps to the door. When Stella opened the door she followed.

She was afraid of what might be inside. Something about the huge wagon made inside of her chest twinge in a strange way she didn't understand. It felt like a phantom reaching into her chest and plucking at nerves she didn't even know she had, leaving behind a small tingling spot before repeating.

Stella tugged the young girl inside, then closed the door, smiling to herself as the young girl gasped in shock and wonder.

Inside were hanging braziers, putting off light and heat. Above each brazier was a pan held by chains that dripped water onto the coals, keeping the room hot and humid. On the floor was twisting patterns inlaid into the wood with precious metals and glittering gemstones. On either side of the wide open room were cubicles walled off with hanging strands of clay beads that clicked against each other with the gentle movements of the huge wagon, twenty per side, each about eight feet wide and ten feet deep.

Within each cubicle, on the floor, was an intricate pattern done in gems and metals. In many of them a small Phaelan was in the middle of the circle, their naked body covered by the intricate tracework of their magefire. Each occupied cubicle, the pattern on the floor was lit up with shimmering color, the beads were glowing softly, and translucent sheets of energy or shapes whisped into being and then dissolved. In a few cubicles young Phaelan stood or sat crosslegged, doing their best to follow the advice and instructions of the older Phaelan who stood just outside the complex inlay on the floor.

"Skylee," Mistress Stella said, shaking the chain and pulling Skylar's attention from the room around her. When she saw that she had Skylar's attention she pointed at the coat-pegs on either side of the door where clothing was hung up in bags. "Disrobe and put your thysha in a bag. It is not safe yet for you to practice while still clothed."

Skylar shook her head, grabbing the front of her kimono and holding it tightly closed.

Stella sighed, shaking her head. Usually the teaching she had to give Skylar was started before the child was ten, and Phaelan body modesty was a far sight different than human. Skylar was obviously used to nudity taboos.

Well, she'll need to overcome those if she hopes to learn to control all of that magefire coursing through her veins, Stella thought to herself.

"If you bring up your magefire too quickly and too much, your clothing will burst into flame," Stella told her.

Stella almost started giggling at how fast Skylar took off her robe and pushed it into the bag.

Skylar noticed that none of the Phaelan in the large open room paid the slightest attention to her nudity, even though she put her arm across her chest and covered her crotch with her other hand.

"I have been practicing the mystical arts for decades," Stella said, shaking the chain briefly before walking toward one of the empty cubicles. "I can control my magefire, and I wear proper clothing that will resist magefire combustion."

Once Stella led Skylar to an empty cubicle she undid the chain from the collar, stepping back outside the runic pattern.

"Sit, like me," Stella said, before sitting down in what Skylar recognized as a yoga pose.

She felt strange standing inside the runic circle, like she couldn't see past the edge of it, even though her surroundings were perfectly clear to her eyes. It made her feel uneasy, like she was blind or deaf even though those senses were working just fine.

Stella saw her look of confusion, saw Skylar squint and shake her head.

"Sit, little one, and I'll explain," Stella said.

Swallowing down her uneasiness, Skylar sat down, mimicing the pose, even though she had to use her hands to pull her feet up onto her thighs. Her muscles burned slightly and Skylar regretted not keeping up with Physical Education classes.

Sitting down made the queasiness, the feeling of being blind ease up slightly. She put her hands on her knees like Mistress Stella and the feeling eased up even more.

Stella smiled. "There, better. Now, the first thing is, your magefire can't leave the circle, meaning we don't have to worry about you flaring or pulsing. What you do, either correct or mistaken, will not effect those around you."

Skyla nodded, not really understanding what the other woman was talking about. She felt very exposed by the sitting position and how it displayed all of her goodies to anyone walking by who cared to look.

"Teaching you has two additional problems that luckily I have some experience in," Stella said gently. "Most arcanists here have experience teaching those with magefire, but you have titanfire and warfire in the mix. Both will augment and alter your ability to properly utilize magefire."

Skylar just nodded along as Stella explained where magic came from. Apparently her superstitions claimed that it came from humans killing someone called the Elder Gods, probably destroying entire cultures in the process. Skylar had mostly tuned out, as if she was in world history class, as Stella went through everything that could be done with it, most of which sounded impossible and flat out superstitious to Skylar. Supposedly it could be used to transform matter, call matter and energy into being, and adjust the physical properties of gases, solids, and liquids.

Stella started glaring at Skylar in the middle of explaining to Skylar about how she acted more like a living conduit for the power, shaping and guiding it to do as she willed it.

"And then, peepers will jump around and dance, stealing your virtue to sell it on the black market to goblin ladies who will make it into perfume," Stella said, without missing a beat.

Skylar just nodded, going "Uh-huh", one of the noises that Stella had come to realize was a form of assent.

"And then I'll sell you as a concubine to a goat herder in the Poison Desert, where you can grow spider-babies in your anal cavity until you fart loudly and fly up to the red moon," Stella said.

"Uh-huh," Skylar said.

That's about enough of that, child, Stella said, realizing that Skylar had stopped paying attention to her lecture a long time before. She went from speaking to verbally guiding her power, repeating Skylar's name several times while passing her hands back and forth.

Skylar didn't even pay attention, offhandedly noting that Stella's hands were glowing slightly and that the tiny woman's magefire was glowing.

At least until the sudden flashing darts of energy leapt from her fingertips and hit Skylar in rapid succession, bringing for waves of pain that sent Skylar flopping back and writhing, screaming in pain as the magic resonated painfully within her.

After a few minutes she was able to stop screaming, laying there panting. After a moment she realized that Stella was standing over her, glaring at her.

"Pay attention, little Xue'nghozi," Stella snapped, holding out a hand wreathed in crackling arcs of blue electricity. "You did not pay attention, so I shall teach you to pay attention as my master taught me."

Skylar opened her mouth to protest right as Stella snarled out a quick staccato burst of words and the hair thin arcs of blue electricity jumped from her fingertips to between Skylar's breasts, the pain hammering into her.

"THIS is the power I am teaching you to wield, young Xue'nghozi," Stella snapped, letting up on the spell for a moment. She lashed at the girl with the electricity again, stopping after five heartbeats.

"Magic is powerful, dangerous, and can lethal if misused," Stella snarled, raking the young girl with arcane power again. She noted that the girl's titanfire and warfire didn't protect her, almost as if it was allowing or even encouraging her to punish the girl. Knowing the girl's truename helped, but her titanfire and warfire would have protected her if it thought, in the metaarcanist way it could be said to think, that the girl did not deserve the punishment. She let up on the pain spell for a second, but still kept it active.

"You can call into being fire, electricity, freezing cold, poison gas, even creatures from beyond the planar veil," Stella said, then raked the girl over with the spell again. "Control! You MUST control your power, or I might as well kill you now to save all of the others your willful disobedience and negligent will kill and injure!"

None of the gathered Phaelan, neither teachers nor students, paid much heed to the faint screaming they could hear. All of them, at one time or another, had been punished for arrogance by their teachers.

The Mageburnt Hand Teaches Best was engraved in several places on the inside walls of the practice sledge, and every student of the arcane within those walls knew that one fact.

"Now! You will give my teachings your undivided attention! Every time you do not, I shall punish you!" Stella shouted. "As your master, you will obey!"

She eased off the pain spell, staring down at Skylar.

"If you understand that you will give me your undivided attention, and follow my every command without fail, raise one of your hands," Stella said, holding both hands over the sobbing Xue'nghozi girl.

Tears running down her face, Skylar raised her right hand.

"Good. We will begin again," Stella said, sitting down. "The way I am sitting is called the First Position. You will assume it."

Quietly crying to herself, the pain nothing but an echo but still remembered, Skylar sat crosslegged with her feet on top of her thighs and her hands on her knees.

"We will now resume. Since history and knowledge bores you, we will instead begin by having you look inside yourself and learn to touch the power within you," Stella told her sternly.

Still weeping quietly, Skylar followed the tiny woman's directions.