“Your necklace is so pretty, Selaena!”

“Is it? Oh, oh! No wonder, Master Lorovan is calling me!”

“But first I’ll take you to the—” “No need.”

“Ahh!” Where in the trillion hexes did he come from?! A man dressed completely in black, with even his head and face wrapped in black cloth just appeared. Literally, he wasn’t there and then he was!

“Slint?” “Master Lorovan has an urgent matter he needs you to attend to. He instructed for me to bring the child for class enrollment in the meantime.”

“He sent you of all people?”

“Yeah, I don’t get it either. I’m not the most kid-friendly, but rest assured, she won’t die in transit.”

*sigh* “Alright, Chalia, this is Slint. He is one of the people I work with, and he’s going to take you to get ready to go to school! So, go with him now. I’m sorry I have to go right now, but I’ll be back!”

“Oh, ok…” I force out. That guy really looks like no good at all! But if Selaena says so, I guess I’ll go with him. Ugh, I’m shuddering just from him putting his hand on my shoulder. Everything went black, then things became light again, but we were somewhere completely different!”

“Ahh!” That was so terrifying I couldn’t help but scream! Oh, wait… Those screams are actually coming from… Slint? He’s crying out and holding onto his head all weird-like.

“Son of a fuckin’ dragon-spawn! That gods damned sword is NEVER traveling the undercurrents with me again! Frickin’ demon, get your own death force. Hell!”

“Slint?” The door of a large building opened and a tall and slender, but very old-looking man walked out.

“Tel, This girl’s name is, uh.” “Chalia!” “Yeah, that, she—ugggh—uh, she needs to be registered for school.”

“What happened to you?”

“Don’t worry about it, old man. I gotta recoup. See ya”

Poof. He disappeared. This time I saw something, though. Just for a brief moment, I saw a black glow! Actually, I don’t know if that is even important, but I saw it!

“Hello there, Chalia. My name is Tellus, but you can call me headmaster since I run the school system for Kelten City. Who might your guardians be?”

“Uh, guardians?” The man looks ok. Actually, I think he looks nice! So I guess it’s ok to tell him things?

“Hmm, Are you new to Kelten City?”

“Yes!”

“Who brought you to this city?”

“Gus,” I said, patting the sword.

“Hmm, a god’s arm? Wow, it’s been a long time since I’ve seen one of those. You must be quite an important person! Alright, well, come with me and we’ll fill out some forms.”

I went with him into the building and followed him to his office. There, he asked a bunch of questions about magic and things I can do. Then he made me do a couple of exercises and finished by using magic to make some assessments.

“Your reaction speed is passable, and your flexibility needs some work, but you have some incredible innate strength and a very solid mana core for your age! Let’s see what your affinities are.”

“Affinities?”

“Affinities mean what types of magic your body will be best at using. When I first saw you, I was pretty sure I knew what your affinities would be, but since inspecting your meridians and mana core, I’m not so sure anymore. Come sit down at this table over here.”

“Ok!” We sat down at the table and he pulled out a small bag and dumped out all kinds of pretty rocks!

“These are aspected gems. When you spread your pure magical energy over them they will glow brightly if you have an affinity for them. Can you pour out some of your pure magical energy?”

“I don’t know…”

“Hmm. Have you ever absorbed a beast core?”

“Yes! A bunch of them!”

“Ok, then do the exact opposite of what you did to absorb them.”

“I should take the glow back out?”

“…”

Why are you looking at me like that? I get nervous when people make weird faces at me!

“Ah, well, yes, I guess try that. Oh, ok, yeah, now make it flow over the gems.”

“Woah. So pretty!”

“Haha, yes they are, yes they are,” he said while collecting the stones that glowed the brightest.”

Next, he brought out something that had a ball in the middle and had several small trays attached to it. He then put the gems he had picked out into the trays.

“Now we will see what your affinity level is for each of these elements using this magical machine. You need to do exactly what you did before, but make sure that your magical energy goes only into the center part, and if it gets hard to put more energy in, then slow down a bit. The brightness of the crystals will tell us how high your affinity is.”

Alright, lets see what my affinities are like! I place my hand on the ball and start releasing my glow energy into the machine.

“Pretty!” I think he likes the colors too, considering how he’s just staring at the gems. Actually, it think its different for him. They are cool, and I like looking at them, but he’s still staring at them! “Are you ok?”

“Dual primordial?”

“Headmaster?” I say quietly, because I don’t want to disturb him.

“Oh, oh, sorry, you can stop now.”

Phew! I almost ran out of energy. That machine uses so much of it!

“What is primordial?”

“Primordial is a word that relates to the origins of the world! As for how it relates to you, I’ll tell you when the right time comes about. For now, I’ll tell you what you need to know, though. Affinities are typically rated on a scale of low, average, high, very high, and exceptional. The stones that did not glow represent a low affinity. According to this scale, you have an average affinity for most standard elements except water and Ice. You have a very high affinity for wind magic, and Exceptional affinity for fire magic and void magic. This means that you are very gifted, but that also means that you have a responsibility to train well and use your powers carefully.

“You are lacking in technical understanding of magic, but you are far more powerful than most people at your age. For this reason, I have decided to put you in the third class. You will find there is a lot to learn, but don’t worry. If you ask questions to your teachers and other students, as well as studying hard, I am sure you will catch up before too long.

“Who taught you how to use magic?”

“Gus!”

“Hmm. Is there any possibility I could talk to this ‘Gus’ you’ve been talking about?”

“Hmm? Oh, no, I-I-I, He… He’s dead! I, people, there were… Um, oh, Selaena said I sh-shouldn’t talk about him…”

“Oh? Ok, then I won’t press any further. Selaena is a good person, and you should listen to her. But should you need someone to talk to, feel free to find me.”

He’s nice too!!! They are all nice! Well, except for Slint, and…Yeah, only except for Slint. But he uses the same words that Gus used, so maybe he’s actually secretly nice? But now I’m sad. I really miss Gus and feel so bad for him! Why’d he have to die? Why did he do that for me? And now he’s gone. Something hurts inside of me…

“Alright, so I am going to write Selaena down as your guardian, is that alright?”

“Yes?”

“Alright, that’s what we’ll do.”

“Ok.”

He took the rest of the day to show me around the school and told me a bit about what class would be like, with courses being divided between knowledge and history classes and skills classes. I think it will be fun!

“Chalia!”

“Huh? Oh! Selaena!” Just as headmaster finished showing me around, Selaena showed up.

“What do you think? Are you looking forward to school?”

“Yes! I want to learn all kinds of things!”

“Haha, that’s very good. Tomorrow we’ll get you started!

“Yay!”

Selaena walked me back from the school, and then we had another wonderful meal before it was time for bed.

“Alright, ready for some sleep?”

“But I haven’t done my practice yet!”

“It’s ok to take a rest for a day. Tomorrow will be exhausting!”

“But Gus…”

Selaena sighed. “Alright. Do your practice, but it’s bedtime afterward!”

“Ok!” Gus said being able to do 500 passes in an hour is beginner level. Since I’m starting school now, I’m way behind! I’ve already missed one practice, so I had better not miss this one. Also, I need to get better so I can find Twenty-Six!

…ten …thirty …ninety …one twenty …one thirty! *flop* “One hundred and thirty”

*** *** ***

“Chalia! Chalia! It’s time to wake up!”

“Huh? It’s… IT’S MORNING?! Oh, no! I’m sorry, I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to—

“Chalia! It’s ok! Most kids like you have a hard time getting up at the right time—I’m just saying it’s time to start getting ready for the day! You do have school after all…”

“Oh, is that… all?”

And just like that the next day started.

First, I did my mana exercises. I was so scared about waking up late that I only got up to one hundred and twenty-eight! Then we had these flat bread-like things with sweet syrup on top for the first meal. They were so good! Then Selaena gave me a box and said not to open it until time for the second meal, and finally we were off to school! I didn’t remember how to get there, but Selaena walked with me, so it was ok.

“Alright students,” Headmaster’s voice echoed through the classroom. “Please welcome Chalia to your class! She will be attending starting today, so please help her feel welcome!”

Everyone is looking at me! I’m standing at the front of the classroom with Headmaster and they are all sitting on chairs in front of these super small tables and looking at me, and one even looks like he wants to kill me!

Kill

Huh? Why is everything around me changing? I was just inside a building with everyone, but now I’m seeing green, like outside… It—it looks like a garden…

“-alia”

“Chalia”

“Uh, H-h-headmaster?”

“Chalia, take a few deep breaths ok?”

“O-Ok…”

One... Two… Three…

“Alright, you’re ok. I’ve just taken you outside to calm down a bit.”

Oh, so he moved me? How did that happen? It was so fast I didn’t see anything!

“Alright, good. Now I need for you to retract your domain, do you know how to do that?”

“Domain? What’s that?”

“You haven’t heard of domains?

“No.”

“Well, uh, have you heard of realms?” He asks after thinking for a bit.

“Oh, like dragon realms?”

Hey, are you ok? Why are you opening your eyes so wide?

“Y-yes, can you retract your dragon realm?”

“Oh, like this?”

Woah, I didn’t even know I was using a dragon realm! I don’t think I’m supposed to be doing that unless I’m fighting something…

“Yes, good. Very good.”

Hmm? What was so good about that? Gus seemed to think I was horrible at it, but Headmaster thinks I’m good at it…

“Chalia, I there is something you must keep in mind--you must never use your domai-uh, dragon realm when inside a mostly human city. Our city is a bit different, but if you use your realm in other cities people may get scared of you and try to kill you!”

Huh? Dragon realm? There’s more than one you know… Furthermore, did you just say it will make people want to kill me? That must be why Gus said I need to learn how to retract it—I really wouldn’t want everyone trying to kill me.

“Chalia?”

“Oh, oh, I’m sorry, I’m sorry! I-I-I—”

“Chalia, it’s ok,” he says, patting my head. “You didn’t know, and you were scared, right?”

“Mhmm”

“Now why were you scared?”

“C-cause everyone was looking at me, and one person w-want-ted to kill me.”

“Oh? Why did you think someone wanted to kill you?”

“I don’t know. I just felt it, like from those monsters in the cave.”

“Hmm, was it something like this?”

Instantly I felt a kind of pressure. I was just like what I had felt before, except it was way less strong. It was still really uncomfortable though.

“Y-yeah, like that, but worse”

“Hahaha, I see. Chalia, they weren’t trying to kill you, but they were trying to figure out how strong you are. It is very good you could sense that though!”

“But isn’t that what you do before killing?”

He took a deep breath. “Yes, but if someone is doing that so they can try to kill you it will feel a bit different, more like this.”

*Hyooop* I feel like my breath went away. There is pressure, about the same small amount, but it feels super yucky and sharp at the same time. *gasp* he takes the pressure away.

“That is called bloodlust, and that is how it feels when a person wants to kill you. The other pressure you felt is a result of probing, which in this situation means that someone is just trying to figure out how strong you are. It also feels like probing when a monster wants to kill you, which is probably why you got mixed up. You learn how to tell it apart as you get more used to fighting, but for now let’s go back to the class again.”

Headmaster then walked me back to the classroom. I was still nervous, but I didn’t feel “probing” this time and I was able to inter-duce myself, by telling them my name. I then sat down. A lot of people were still looking at me, but it was ok. Headmaster was there, and not everyone was looking at me this time.