I pretended to do my chores in the morning while I made my plans to try to figure out where Marcus’ teacher had placed the tests. Luckily, I was able to talk to my friend Alfonso, who was known to figure anything out for the right price, and I took some of my uncle’s money to give him. It obviously wasn’t the best thing to do, but I justified it as saving my best friend’s life.

It also became increasingly important for me to figure out where my areas of expertise actually lay. Judging by the stance I took, it made sense to assume my main skills were in hand-to-hand combat. If I once had mage skills it would be a good idea to try out different key phrases in case any of them would ignite some latent affinity. Therefore I decided to purchase some books from the mana section of the temple library.

The first order of the day, however, was to go to the temple to ask the priests about books regarding the flow of time.

“Hmm, that looks like something to do with mental mana,” the priest said, flipping the small plate on the desk to indicate the presence of a costumer. He picked up a booklet and started rifling through it. “Are you familiar with the basic types of mana, young man?” he asked.

“I can’t say I am,” I said, trying to remember anything from my few magic lessons at school. Most of them were on protective measures against hostile magic, and not much on fundamental theory.

“All right then, a manual on incantations might be in order. Second row on the left in the imperial section.” He pushed his glasses up, and glanced at the clock on the wall. “Regarding your particular question, I’m afraid I’m going to have to find something more entry-level. Most books on this theory are much too complex for a complete novice.”

The wall caved away, and I was able to enter the library section on mana. The old library was able to move around using advanced magic, meaning only the priests could get to certain sealed. I grabbed a book called ‘Forces of the World and their Applications’ off a nearby dusty shelf, and rushed back to the farm to read it, but was unable to keep myself from skimming most pages on the way home, nearly tripping myself up in the process.

According to the simplest categorization, there were three main types of mana: physical, spiritual, and mental, which all used different energies. Physical mana mostly increased your combat prowess, allowing you to withstand greater forces and retaliate in turn with even stronger power. Spirtual mana allowed you to attack your opponent’s soul in order to leech their life away, or even transfer it to yours, and mental mana granted you different abilities depending on your perception of the outside world. Mental was mostly used by priests in order to bless items and heal the wounded. At its most extreme level it allowed its user to manipulate space and time, granting them a way to influence path events would end up taking, like creating an artificial direction for a river.

Cannonballing onto my bed, I settled down and tried to get into a meditative pose. I closed my eyes and allowed myself to feel the air flowing around me. I breathed in deeply and exhaled gently, letting my mind wander, analyzing the way the- what the fuck?

A breeze pinned me straight to the wall, closing my arms off. I started moving my arms wildly, trying desperately to shake the nonexistent restraint off of me. My mind flashed, and I was twenty years old, at the main temple academy, the sword missing me by barely an inch. My own sword came up to parry, and they clashed, sending me flying backwards. “It’s a wind elemental!” my uncle yelled out, but my mind was not in the same room anymore. My instructor nodded curtly. “Do you think it is possible to dodge an attack made of pure energy with only your sword?” More men rushed into the room to help me, but I was miles away. His weapon cut right through the air, sending a gust of wind towards me. “Answer me, Fernando! Is it, or is it not?” I barely dodged it, throwing my whole body aside, letting my shield take most of the damage.

“Of course,” I answered. “All mana is made equal, so there should be a way to counter that which you cannot see.”

“Then show me! Give it your all!” As the gust of wind came once more, I raised my sword, and cut the beam of energy right in half, diverting it completely. Looking back at my instructor, I saw his eyes flash red. “Congratulations, I wish you the best,” he said, handing me the blessed shield.

When I woke up, my whole room was a mess. My books were all over the floor, the cup I was drinking out of had smashed, and my head felt I had been binge drinking. Wait... what? What even was that? My memory was still very fuzzy, but there was something about my fifteenth birthday in there. In any case, my uncle was standing in the room, doing what I assumed was an assessment of how much money he’d end up paying. I saw him look over to the stash behind the bed, which had been thrown across the room, and got reminded of my main task.

The school was split in three main blocks: Diana, Mars, and Saturn. Mr. Solomon’s office was in the Diana block, right before the exit to the courtyard. There were about three hundred students in full, with about half a dozen teachers. Break was at half past eleven and lunch at quarter to one, while the end of the school day was at half past six.

I decided to find out when it would be ideal to get the test from Mr. Solomon. One of the best moments to infiltrate would be just before lunch, as everyone, staff included, would be going to eat. At any other time, Mr. Solomon was apparently in his office, conducting two different lessons at the same time using a technique that projected in face into two classrooms.

My plan was to get in at half past nine when school started, and hang around until lunch, when everyone would be gone. Just as I expected, the place was deserted, since they’d all gone to get dessert. I crept around the backs of desks in order to get Mr Solomon’s room. My body shaking from nervousness, I placed my hand on the handle. Just then, I felt a presence behind me.