It was Florian’s last real chance to teach Hornbeck magic. George was still unconscious when he’d woken, and he’d been able to give Jones’ man the slip with the help of some invisibility illusions. But even if George bought that he’d just fallen asleep, which wasn’t a certainty by any means, there was no chance he’d buy it a second time.

And yet, Florian knew that of all the people of Leeds, it was Hornbeck who stood first among them to protect everyone. It was under his aegis that the Warriors had driven back the monsters for years, and Florian intended to arm him with whatever he could. Instead of focusing on the sensory details he’d first experienced when he’d come to grips with his ability to interact with the threads of magic that operated the universe, he decided to try for something new.

His head began pounding as soon as he placed his hands on the older man’s shoulders, hoping that the physical contact would help as it might have once helped Theo teach Florian. He pulled mana into him, as if he were meditating. When he exhaled, he guided the motes instead to envelop the old Warrior. Hesitant to force the motes inside Hornbeck as he harnessed them, Florian went to try and artificially recreate the hug that all of Theo’s students utilized.

A blue sheen enveloped Hornbeck, visible even to those that weren’t actively trying to sense the mana if Anna’s gasp was anything to go by. Minutes passed, and Hornbeck had still not uttered a word.

“Try to feel the energy around you. We live inside the universe, and yet in a sense, the universe lives around us,” he practically growled through the growing pain. It was about as philosophical as he could be, given the circumstances. He just hoped that it would be enough for Hornbeck to grasp it; he would have to focus his entire mind on casting the spell for it not to break.

No one spoke until the spell crumbled, Florian breathing heavily as he held his head in his hands. “Fuck,” he whispered. “I’m sorry, Commander.”

“About?” Hornbeck said, his smiling face greeting Florian when he managed to lift it again. “I think I see what you’ve been talking about. So what do I do, just imagine something and then poof?”

“Pretty much,” Florian responded, a mixture of happiness and frustration warring for dominance in his mind. “When did you feel the mana?”

“Pretty much right after you spoke last.”

The frustration won. He had exhausted himself, and for what? He was about ready to snap at the commander, but when the older man punched the ground so hard that dirt flew up in an explosion, the anger died down. Focusing on the mana despite himself, he briefly glimpsed a few motes flutter off the commander’s hand.

And suddenly, the commander was moaning in agony right next to him. Serves him right, Florian thought, gleaning no small amount of satisfaction from Hornbeck’s self-inflicted misery. “You’ve got to pace yourself,” Florian said, offering his sage advice.

“That sounds hypocritical coming from you. How many times did you land in the medical tent when you fought with us?” Hornbeck retorted, giving him a mock glare.

And then all at once, the dam burst, and Anna wrapped them both in a large hug. Relief flooded him. Hornbeck was already leagues ahead of most of the students he’d seen – which was admittedly a small sample size, but still. Hopefully, Hornbeck would be able to continue growing his ability to control mana – what Florian was growing to think of as Control – and would drastically improve his already impressive fighting ability. He just hoped the magic would be enough to make up for the loss of two of his limbs.

It was time to burst the bubble. He prepared himself to reveal that this would be the last of their lessons for now. Anna beat him to it. She dragged him to his feet and all but shoved a spear into his hands. “Okay, now it’s time for the fun part!” she exclaimed, leading the two of them outside towards the practice yard.

Laughing, Florian realized that Anna wasn’t typically the type for hugs. This was much more like the Anna he knew. It was for that reason that he retained his smile the entire time he was getting his ass handed to him. It helped that, for the first time, he had been able to score a glancing blow on Anna’s forearm. The strike had invited a fierce counterattack that Florian failed to defend against, but it was a win in his book. Even Hornbeck gave him a gigantic thumbs up before shortly following up Anna’s performance with his own shakedown of Florian.

Leaving the practice field black and blue, Florian quickly moved towards the annex, hoping to change into a fresh pair of robes before climbing the stairs to his classroom. He made it to the building without being accosted, but to his dismay, he found that he had no clean clothes left inside his footlocker.

Stepping outside, he summoned a small orb of water from the moisture around him and doused himself, washing away some of the dirt that had accumulated on his robes. Then, ignoring the headache that was attempting to reacquaint itself with him, he got some warm air to serve as an impromptu hair dryer as it whipped past him.

A few of the people that had business around the keep stopped to watch his little performance, the magic of the moment broken when Florian waved to them in amusement. The crowd of mostly women waved back and headed back to their business, with a few children staying behind.

“What’s up, guys?” Florian asked, examining his miniature audience.

“Are you going to do anything else special, mister?” one boy asked with his gap-toothed mouth wide open.

Smiling, Florian used whatever little remained of his Control and got some air to tussle the kids’ hair. They went ballistic at that, jumping up and down like little jumping beans. Their happiness was a magical salve, making an already good morning better. He stayed behind, answering their questions and watching as they played around as if they were superheroes. He heard a few familiar names, comic book heroes who these children should have been too young to know about.

He wondered how much of the previous world’s media remained behind, but it was a great comfort that at least their superheroes had survived Worldbreak. They served as beacons in the night, guiding people to become what they might be. Florian smiled at the thought, but his train of thought was broken when he heard about someone he’d never heard of.

“I wonder if the Hero can do things like that!” a little girl yelled to the other half-dozen children, her voice carrying over the din of the people around them.

“Duh! He’s the strongest!” a boy responded, rolling his eyes.

That brought to mind two questions.

One: who in the world was the Hero?

Two: were they real or imagined?

“Hey kid,” Florian approached the haughty little boy. “I’ve never heard of the Hero. Is he real?”

“Huh, you’re pretty stupid, mister,” the boy responded, completely glossing over the fact that he had been as enraptured by the magic as the other children just a moment or two earlier. “Of course he’s real! My big sister said that he’s come to save the world from a whole other planet!”

That rang a bell, though Florian couldn’t quite place where he’d heard it. But before he could ask more, the children were gone, running off to who knew where. He wanted to put it off as some kind of bedtime story, but something in his gut told him that there was more to this. But as he looked at the position of the sun, he notice with horror that he was late. He paid it no more thought as he sprinted to class, terrified of giving Theo another reason to take advantage of their deal.