Tapping on the table with the tip of her fingers, Sovereign Queen Olivina refused to acknowledge the sweating messenger, hoping to put off national affairs for another day. She chose to wear an all black ball dress with high boots today just for the sake of fun.

"You are looking very extra today my queen," a voice within the shadows spoke.

Eight legged hairy spiders clung to her maroon shaded red hair. Also, a solid black nose ring stood out against her pale white skin.

"Give me something juicy that isn't politics and I may forgive the fool standing there like a buffoon." The queen pulled up a forty-six inch rapier and placed it on the table before her.

The messenger trembled but remained silent.

"Spymaster Worpwood sold me information about a boy being tracked by a Royal Guard of The Empire. He claims the guard to be Stiggs my queen." The shadows twisted and whispered, never giving sight of the voice's true origin.

"Oh? My dear Stiggy is on a quest? Send Kariam and a few of your shadow puppets to take what Stiggy wants." Olivina practically started dancing in her chair.

"Yes my queen."

"Also send word of what you told me to the Klorian ambassador. It is time to make things interesting before the war. What am I to wear? Maybe something fabulous or at the very least sexy for my dearest Stiggy."

Darkness collapsed upon itself, and the lurking shadow slowly dissipated leaving no trace behind.

"You messenger, tell everybody I am not to be disturbed. I would hate for you all to ruin such a good day." Olivina quicky left through a side door leaving the messenger alone in the room.

Opening his mouth, the messenger's face started to melt. The warping layer shed into clumps until what was left was a dark grey skin. Glowing green eyes with crooked nose poked out from the dissolving face. After fully shedding his disguise, the naked orc backed up into the shadows disappearing with a cold sneer.

0---0

Owe. Owe. OWE!

"WAKE... ESRIED... SUNRISE!"

Can you not? Why does mini-Sun have to be so much like her mother? Do elves not know that beauty sleep is essential to a long healthy life? Can she slap me again? Wait, what?

"If you don't get up within the next few seconds, I’m going to tell my mom she brought you here for nothing."

Okay, im up! Mini-Sun ain't so scary yet but mama-Moon was previously nicknamed The Beast for a reason. Feeling the local flies pick at me, I headed into the washroom to see a green tunic and brown tights. Can't the elves just have a little bit more creativity? I mean, I understand that green and brown are the best for camouflage in the forest, but a man's gotta have some personality.

In the bathroom, I see a metal cone sticking out of the wall about knee high pointed upwards at a forty-five degree angle, with plastic knob above it. Out of curiosity, I fiddle with the knob and water suddenly blasted from the metal cone, drenching me in water. The contraption seemed like an artificial fountain or some sort of water feature. To have this installed in every cabin, the elves must be super rich. Figuring out how to turn off the device was simple, but now I've wasted too much time.

Quickly I fumbled to get dressed, the green tunic slipped right on while the brown tights took a minute to squeeze into. Do they not realize that certain parts need to breathe? Maybe male elves just have smaller ding dongs and nuggets.

I popped out of the bathroom and Moon was already halfway out the door itching to go. She scanned the field and spotted who she was looking for. With a strength disproportionate to her body, she vice gripped my hand and dragged me toward a group of elves similar in age.

"Hello Moon and Esried. Please have a seat and cycle your mana. We are still waiting for Flora and Stillrock," said the adult I presume was the teacher.

I should probably ask for his name, but then again, I'll probably forget it later anyways. At the minimum, asking how to do that cycle thingy was a more important.

"Errr... How do you cycle your mana?"

"Moon will show you. She is a bit of an expert when it comes to that."

Seeing everybody roll their eyes, I can tell why nobody was buddy buddy with Moon. Apparently a few whispers tell me she is somewhat of an overachiever, a nerdy mage if you will. Moon sat down pretzel style and I mirrored her.

"Hold my hand. I am going to show you what to do."

Moon raised her hand toward me, an obvious invitation. I locked my left hand with her right and all I could focus on was her soft smooth hands. Waiting for more instructions, a gentle flow of mana tapped my hand as if asking permission to enter, quite intuitive if you ask me. I mentally nod and it continued on its path toward my brain, kind of felt like being wrapped in a fire warmed blanket. Our classmates and teacher drop one by one, the grass disappeared patch by patch, and the sky shrinked section by section until all that's left was me and Moon's soul. Her soul was a spitting image of her except it was more illusory and transparent, naked too. Looking closer, mana canals ran throughout her entire body connecting to her silver core which lay in the middle of her soul, glowing and revolving. The first thing I noticed was that her core was much bigger than mine, probably twice as big. I suddenly felt an invisible hand push the mana making it move faster and spill off into her muscles. Before I get the chance to really understand, the connection closed and I feel like I lost something.

"Now you try." Moon smiled like a master just gave a profound lecture to their student.

Giving it all or nothing, I closed my eyes and look into my own soul. The blue core with glass bead was still there except mana canals have now replaced the mana streams I saw during my awakening. My canals looked pitiful as they failed to hold the massive amounts of mana passively spilling onto my muscles. The huge difference I noticed was that the color of my mana was several shades darker than Moons, as if it was comprised of completely different things. With deep care, I gave a little push emulating Moon's demonstration. The small push caused a wave of dark mana to add to the already passive spilling mana onto my muscles drowning it completely. Blood rushed up my throat, and I hacked a cough to clear it.

"Slowly! It's your first time. There is a balance between pushing hard enough to spill as much mana as you can and pushing softly enough as to not rupture your mana canals," Moon said with a straight face.

Our souls look completely different! Don't you think you should take some blame for showing me incorrectly? Whatever, let's try again.

This time I take a deeper look at my soul, some analysis might do some good. Mana already spills easily onto my muscles and bones. What I need is for my mana canals themselves to strengthen. Instead of pushing harder to bolster the flow, I pushed the mana down into the canal itself; that should do it, right? At first it seems to work, the canal absorbed a large amount of mana and grows infinitesimally sturdier. Then reeling in my success, I press harder to find my limits, go big or die trying. The canal tore from the pressure causing large amounts of dark mana to flood my muscles again, which made me cough up more blood in return.

"It's ok Esried. Try again tomorrow. Too much can leave permanent damage in the body." The teacher intervened before I can celebrate my semi-success.

I opened my eyes to a pouting Moon who then turned her back to me. What did I do? The girl was complicated to no end.

If I can get through today, the rest of my life is going to be easy.