“Soul is one of the most dangerous affinities to use, both for the user and for the victim.” Professor Sirius Valenstrong started their introductory class with a rather dire warning.

Liliana blinked her heavy eyes, trying to get herself to focus. She was less unsettled than she’d been earlier, but it didn’t mean she wasn’t tired. Even three cups of coffee, which was its own kind of punishment because the stuff tasted awful and Emyr had looked at her like she’d killed his first-born child when she’d put cream and sugar into her cup to make it palatable, she was still exhausted and she had two more classes after this. Perhaps she should’ve used her third slot as a study period, as several students had elected to do.

“When dealing with the soul, mistakes have grievous consequences. Unlike a severe wound to the body, damage to the soul is difficult if not entirely impossible to fix.” Professor Valenstrong continued, pacing the front of the room. This class wasn’t that large, but it was bigger than her normal ones, since all class levels shared electives. She’d counted thirty-five students, counting herself. She’d have to ask the others how big their classes were, especially Emyr, as Fire was a popular affinity.

“It’s why things such as soul bonds and oaths are only to be taken with the utmost care, because they cannot be undone once sealed.” Professor Valenstrong paused and looked at several students pointedly, Liliana one of them. She had to wonder if he was looking at students who had soul bonds. Could he see that somehow? Some type of [Soul Sense] skill? Or had he looked over his student’s information before they came in? The man was Rank 2. She’d easily believe he could simply see their souls and any connections to them.

Liliana forced herself to focus on what the professor was saying, as opposed to trying to decide if a [Soul Sense] skill could see through walls or not. With how tired she was, and knowing how often nightmares plagued her, she was starting to wonder if she should try to buy or unlock some type of [Memory Recall] or [Record] skill. Maybe something in the Illusion affinity would fit best with such a skill? Most likely Psyche, if she was trying to delve into her own memories to enhance them, but she’d hardly touched that specific sub-affinity.

Maybe she could pioneer recording devices. This world still used illusions and portraits to record events and images, and they were dependent on the memory of the one making the illusion. Something that could record on its own would be revolutionary, and would make her classes much easier when she felt five seconds from passing out on her notes. She’d probably need to approach the Enchanter Club or Emyr to get something like that made. Gods knew she didn’t have the skills to do something like that.

“Tying your soul to another’s soul is irreversible. It’s partially why we believe the system doesn’t allow oaths to be taken by any under the age of 18, as oaths are decidedly one sided, the oath taker having to devote part of their own soul to the magic whilst the oath giver has to sacrifice nothing. There are vows and such that require both parties to devote parts of their soul to the vow to uphold the magic of it, many marriages were such things though the popularity of such soul bonded marriages has fallen off in the last three hundred years or so,” Professor Valenstrong’s voice held a tone that led Liliana to believe he wasn’t a fan of such practices falling off, then again many noble marriages weren’t love matches and tying your soul to someone you didn’t even like wasn’t a fun idea to anyone.

Maybe Professor Valenstrong was simply a romantic and secretly bemoaned the decline in love matches for nobles. The man was certainly a noble. His impeccable posture and accent was something Liliana had only ever seen in nobles. Perhaps he’d been the unfortunate victim of a political marriage? It would explain his dislike of the current trends for noble marriages.

Liliana looked down at her notes, where she’d been writing without paying much attention to the contents, and scowled. Her hand had taken to writing her errant thoughts in the margins. Valenstrong + star-crossed lovers? Was written in her familiar neat script and she hastily scratched through it before the professor in question could chance across it. She didn’t think musing on her professors’ love lives would endear her to any of them.

Liliana rubbed her free hand against her face. This was a nightmare, ironic word choice not intentional. Her panic and feeling of not entirely being tied to her body had faded after she’d been able to direct her energy somewhere in Battle Training. Fighting always did place her head firmly back in her body. Her friends’ care had helped ground her further, the easy physical affection that sometimes earned their group odd looks, nobles simply don’t behave so uncouthly, had soothed her ragged heart and reminded her that no matter how alone she often felt, she no longer was. But it really didn’t solve the fact that she had barely slept, had exhausted herself mentally, emotionally and, arguably physically, before classes had even started, then pushed her body to its limits and she still had classes to survive through.

She’d been so excited about school, but she hadn’t truly been prepared for the torture that was trying to focus on her classes while her entire body screamed for sleep.

The bell announcing the end of class was a godsend. Liliana had managed, by some miracle, to take mostly legible notes for the first Soul class, and the only homework they had was to acquire the requisite textbooks for the class. They'd be able to pick them up from the school store for free the first time. If they lost the textbooks or destroyed them, they’d either have to pay in merit points or hope there were some left in the library to checkout.

Liliana nodded to her desk mate, a quiet boy named Fabian Amberstar, who had not spoken a word other than to introduce himself. If Liliana remembered correctly, he was the son of a northern noble, Viscount Amberstar, she was fairly certain. No one who usually traveled in the same circles as her, but someone she thought she remembered seeing a time or two at the bigger balls she’d attended. Either way, he’d been perfectly polite and quiet, which was precisely what Liliana hoped for in a desk mate. At least she could be certain he wasn’t a social climber, as if he was he’d have tried to ingratiate himself with her. Even as the ‘unwanted’ half blood child of the Duke Rosengarde, Liliana still had considerable social rank on the son of a Viscount, heir or not, which Liliana wasn’t sure if he was.

Liliana trudged out of the classroom and towards the building that held the Telekinesis classroom. She tried to force more energy into herself, futile an effort it might be. She didn’t want to walk into her first class with Natalia as her teacher looking like death warmed over, even with her illusions in place. Rauk had already relinquished her of the belief that no one could see through them. The lingering looks from her other professors had suddenly made far more sense with that uncomfortable revelation. She had to wonder if the professors had talked about her and that had pushed Rauk to confront her or if he’d done it simply out of concern for her.

All the professors so far had been fairly distant, strict, but extremely fair. Not shy with giving merit points or subtle compliments to students who showed they were intelligent or clever in classes. Liliana just assumed their distance was because they didn’t want to invest in students who wouldn’t even be in class S in a few months, once the first semester ranks came out. Though they obviously encouraged students who showed the drive and potential to retain their positions.

Perhaps that was why Rauk had reached out. Maybe he thought she had what it took to keep her seat and didn’t want to see her squander that potential. She would admit to not seeing very many of her classmates heading into or out of the training rooms, or even in the library. The library in particular was a surprise, as Liliana clearly saw many upper years in the building, so often she thought some of them slept there. She and Marianne had certainly made going to the library after dinner a ritual, even with it only being their second week. Emyr and Alistair often joined them, thanks to Marianne’s many insistences that four heads were better than two for figuring out homework.

Liliana slipped into the Telekinesis classroom and paused, for once unsure where she’d sit. Her instincts screamed at her to take the back seats. She’d have a full view of the room, a wall at her back and an escape right there. But this was Natalia’s class. A good part of her wanted to be front and center. There were far more desks in this room, too. Liliana’s mind subconsciously counted and came back with fifty-three, which was absurd. A core affinity had only thirty-five students, but a sub-affinity which required said core affinity had more? Liliana’s gaze raked over the students already present, and she mentally sighed.

Ah, horny teenagers. Liliana decided as she looked at the amount of students staring hungrily at the door that teachers entered classrooms through. Memories of how her friends had mocked her for her ‘crush’ on Natalia, she did not have a crush, made the choice for Liliana. She slid into a seat in the back, her battle-won instincts heaving a great sigh of relief at having a wall to her back.

Liliana opened a new notebook and tapped her pen against the pages, looking over the students. She saw no one she recognized, at least in Soul she’d seen Dunstan, even if they’d been on opposite sides of the room. This class was entirely made of new faces.

Perhaps new for only a few more months. Who knew which of them might be in class S starting in the second semester? Liliana wondered. It reminded her that these elective classes were one of her best chances to scope out the competition, the students who would undoubtedly be fighting for her own seat in class S. It wasn’t the students currently in class S she had to worry about being better than, it was the students they were separated from, progressing away from their sight. Waiting in the shadows to strike when they least expected.

Call Liliana cocky, but she truly doubted she’d be easily usurped from her position. From what she’d seen so far, many students simply didn’t possess the drive she did. Perhaps thanks to her multitude of near death, and actual death, experiences she had a zeal for acquiring power to prevent ever feeling so weak again.

Whether that power was martial or mental, she didn’t care. Power was power, and there was the age old adage that knowledge was power, so Liliana did not skimp on book learning either. That didn’t mean she shouldn’t take interest in her possible future classmates, and to be knowledgeable about if any of them would be true threats to her. She definitely didn’t have a monopoly on near-death experiences that inspired a fervor for betterment.

“Hello,” a soft voice greeted her, drawing Liliana from her thoughts. Liliana looked up to see a girl standing by her desk and she noted the room had filled considerably, the low murmur of many voices filling the background.

“Hello,” Liliana greeted, nodding at the seat next to her in silent confirmation of the girl’s unspoken request.

The girl slid into the seat with a grateful smile and Liliana immediately decided she wasn’t a noble. Her posture was abysmal, and she showed her emotions far too easily on her face. Though she was the kind of pretty Liliana would normally attribute to a noble, so perhaps a bastard or a child of a mistress. She had dark red hair tied back in a thick braid and pretty emerald green eyes over tan skin dotted with so many freckles they looked like constellations transplanted from the night sky to the girl’s skin.

“Fioralba Maisto,” the redhead introduce herself as she pulled out a few notebooks and her own fountain pen, though one markedly less ornate than the one Liliana had. Liliana internally winced at her comparison of their items. When had she become such a snob?

“Liliana Rosengarde,” Liliana greeted the girl with an open smile.

Unlike her peers, she would not be rude to someone simply because they hadn’t been ‘blessed’ to be born to nobility. Honestly, the commoners were lucky to not be born nobles. It was damned irritating to be one and ten times as annoying to deal with them. The money was nice, though.

“Oh! That name is familiar,” Fioralba started, tapped her pen against her lips in thought.

“I’m not surprised, as the Rosengarde family controls the north.” Liliana said, tone dry as she raised an eyebrow at her new desk mate. Fioralba froze, green eyes widening as her mouth dropped open almost comically.

“Wait, as in Duke Rosengarde?” Fioralba asked, her voice a bit pitchy.

“Yea, that’s my father. Whether that’s a good thing or not truly depends on who you’re talking to.” Liliana quipped with a smirk. Fioralba snorted, a hand covering her mouth.

“Sorry, that was rude of me. I can find another seat, if you’d prefer,” Fioralba said softly, and Liliana frowned at how her desk mate looked suddenly shy and unsure of herself.

She couldn’t blame her. Commoners were raised to treat nobles with extreme respect. The other girl was probably scared, fear of nobles ingrained in her from brith because of the ease with which a noble could kill a commoner with little to be done. The Academy’s ‘equal treatment’ be damned. It would do little to protect commoners when outside the walls of the Academy.

“Please, I don’t mind. Honestly, it’ll be nice to have a partner who isn’t a noble where I have to watch every single thing I say for fear of it being used against me in the future.” Liliana soothed, though it was a slight lie.

Other than her electives, which were two for two for good seat partners and her next would be with Marianne, she usually sat with her friends. And the only thing she had to be worried about was them using something she said to rib her endlessly. But her white lie worked. Fioralba was relaxing and gracing her with a hesitant smile.

“Well, if you’re certain you’re alright with me being here,” Fioralba offered her one more chance to escape before they were locked into their seats for the rest of the semester.

“I’m sure. Now tell me, did you take this class because you have the affinity or because you’re taken with the professor?” Liliana leaned forward with a smirk as she nodded towards a pair of boys a few desks ahead of them that were obviously watching the door with love-sick expressions.

“Oh, I have the affinity! I would never take a class for such a stupid reason!” Fioralba said, looking quite disgusted at the many students who had in fact taken this class for ‘such a stupid reason’.

“That’s good. We’ll get along then.” Liliana said as she leaned back and, in a fit of showmanship she usually wasn’t prone to, activated [Threads Of Control] to lift her notebook, her pen and two of Fioralba’s notebooks and made them dance in the air for a moment before settling them back down and canceling the spell.

“Wow,” Fioralba’s eyes widened at the show before she turned to Liliana with a hunger in her eyes that was mildly intimidating. She normally only saw looks like that when Lelantos was looking at his dinner.

“How many things can you control at once? Do you have a weight limit? What’s the cost? How long did it take you to develop the spell?” Fioralba leaned forward, a notebook and pen in hand and waiting for Liliana to speak to note down the information.

Definitely took this class because she likes the affinity. I think she’d have taken it if an ancient crone was the professor. Liliana decided as she felt her lips quirk into an amused smile.

Liliana and Fioralba chatted for the rest of the time before class started discussing Liliana’s spells and then Fioralba’s. Liliana had goaded her into showing her own spell, which only lifted one thing, but the weight limit was much higher than Liliana’s, as was the range. When Natalia walked into the class, Liliana felt marginally more alive. Fioralba’s excitement was contagious and had helped push some of Liliana’s exhaustion down, even if it still felt like someone had swapped her bones with lead.

“I wish to remind many in this class that you may change your electives at any point during the first month.” Natalia began the class with a sudden warning, and Liliana had to wonder if it was some unspoken rule of the electives to start classes with some dire warnings.

“I advise this because I am quite aware many in this class do not have the requisite sub-affinity. You have been permitted to be in this class if you either have the sub-affinity or the necessary core affinities to unlock the Telekineses sub-affinity. However, if you do not have the sub-affinity by the end of the month, changing your class is no longer optional, it will be required. We will begin actively using Telekineses in the class after that first month, and any without the sub-affinity will fail because of their lack of ability to take part.” Natalia leaned against the desk, lounging on it much like she had in her tent amongst piles of pillows. She had the same air of utter confidence and no-nonsense she’d had then. Liliana felt herself freezing, even though the warnings weren’t directed at her.

Liliana was certain several students were actively sweating now, and she shared a quick, wide-eyed stare with Fioralba, both of them undoubtedly thinking, ‘thank the gods I actually have Telekineses.’ Liliana did not want to be one of the students squirming in their seats and looking at the ground because they were who Natalia was talking about. As Liliana looked over the room, she noted very few students seemed to be uncomfortable at the warning, and Liliana surmised that by the end of the month, this class would be smaller than even the Soul class had been.

“Now that we have that understood, let’s begin learning about the affinity of Telekineses. Telekineses is one of the hardest sub-affinities to learn, barring other mental affinities like Astral and Psyche. The reason mental affinities, and Telekineses especially, is so difficult to master and learn is because it requires one to be in control of their mind, and subsequently their emotions, something few adults let alone teenagers are capable of,” Natalia started her lecture, never moving from her lounging position even as a piece of chalk was picked up and began to write what she spoke behind her, a subtle but endlessly impressive display of her control of the very affinity she was teaching.

Liliana settled back, pen moving to copy the notes diligently. She was excited perhaps the most for this class, and she was glad to see being a teacher hadn’t dampened the performer’s love of theatrics in the least.