(Kasm)

A few days passed and Deo was once again brought to the training grounds to try Yelii manipulation with the little kids under Sen’s supervision. After getting scolded last time by Chief Bok (and Kest), Sen watched Deo like a hawk, only occasionally glancing around at the other children.

The younger children seemed to be avoiding the strange new person but it was hard for Sen to tell if it bothered Deo... he was much better at keeping his mask on than the young children and Sen couldn’t read his body language, constantly distracted by his limp and waiting to see if he keeled over.

After the warm-up and physical training was complete, it was time for the children to practice their spells. After regurgitating the safety speech about spell sparring and making sure the kids were paired in ways that wouldn’t cause problems, Sen focused all his attention on Deo.

Sen put his one hand on his hip as he stared down at Deo through the eye slits in his mask. “When manipulating the Yelii through spells, it is extremely important that your mask stays on.”

Deo’s hands flew up to his mask to check that it was secure. Once he had slowly lowered his hands back down Sen nodded, “alright. I’ll teach you one of the simplest spells. We call it Nightlight.” Sen raised his hand and muttered the spell. A small, concentrated ball of yellow light appeared in his palm. He spoke a few other spells and dropped his hand, letting the light hang there in the air as it cycled through a few other colors. “As you can see there are modification spells to Nightlight... But let’s start with the basic one. You gotta focus on the energy of the Yelii and speak the-”

A second little ball of light appeared next to the one Sen summoned, with Deo not moving or speaking.

“Oh! That was easier than I thought!” Deo exclaimed as the light changed from yellow to purple.

“Did you... not say the spells?” Sen asked, frowning invisibly behind his mask.

“I’m supposed to say something?”

Sen crossed his arms over his chest and looked Deo up and down without moving his head. “Make it brighter.”

“Uhm... ok...”

Sen watched the ball of light closely until suddenly it flashed as bright as a sunbeam, turning his vision stark white. He collapsed to the ground screaming.

There was a thud in the grass next to him as Deo dropped to his knees, “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to, I’m sorry.”