The following week at the Irala Academy was a mixed bag of successes and failures.

  Military history was a sickening tirade on Archon brilliance once again. It left me with the feeling that it could be merged seamlessly with our Siege class, then reduced in length by approximately ninety-nine percent or more for all useful information gained from it.

  Defensive Magic was a huge blowout too. While the rest of the class made crackling barriers of magical energy, I had to read a giant, leather-bound tome on the theory and moral implications of defensive magic. Worse still, I had to make it to chapter fifteen and answer questions on what I’d learned before I could attempt shields. And that was apparently going to take four cycles unless I managed to cut the time down using my free day.

  Aetheric magic, however, was where things picked up noticeably. As we crossed the field to where the lesson was to take place, my first glimpse of Master Quesal was of her hovering in the air, long, golden hair whipped up carelessly by the golden aura she was encased in.

  We all stood watching her in awe, and I nudged Ressa. “No one told me we could fly!”

  “We can’t. Not really. But we can levitate after a fashion, if you’re as talented as Master Quesal. Few are.”

  “You seem to like her?”

  Ressa shook her head. “She’s a heartless bitch.”

  I did a double take. Her words didn’t match the awe in which she spoke about her.

  Ressa smiled. “You’ll see.”

  “Some can fly,” Ellaazi added in opposition to Ressa’s statement.

  I looked across, and assumed she was most likely talking about her father, but she was watching the Master again, and it was painfully obvious no more was coming.

  “True,” Ressa said. “But apart from a handful of outliers like the Stormfront, not many since the Xeo wars ended.”

  The Master finally noticed she had students to teach and dismissed the power holding her aloft. She dropped to the floor, landing as light as a feather.

  Name: Ingur Quesal

  Title: Master of Aetheric Magic.

  Level: 39

  Class: Warrior/Mage

  “Welcome, my beautiful, powerful students! Has anyone managed to tease out their wild side yet? Other than Ellaazi, of course.”

  I gave my head a shake. Was this crazed and cheery person in front of me really an Archon?

  “He did,” Ellaazi offered, thrusting an unhelpful finger in my direction. “It was the first thing he did as a mage. Did it wild as well.”

  I glared at her, while the rest of the class glared at me. It would have been funny if it wasn’t so tragic. As I turned back to face the Master, I caught a glimpse of Ressa’s face, and there was a definite smirk hidden there.

  “Of course! Our newcomer.” She strode over, grabbed my chin, and peered in my eyes.

  I was so shocked I just stood there like a mannequin.

  “You must accept my apologies, young man.” She let go of my chin, and frowned. “I forgot all about you.”

  “No apology needed,” I muttered, taking an involuntary step back.

  “Oh, don’t be so coy. You are the first wilder in this school, Adam. Mage paths are usually curated with great care. It’s better for the student as they won’t develop bad habits, yet at the same time, I feel we lose some of our edge as a species by not letting our emotions dictate from time to time.”

  I wasn’t sure what to say to that, but her expectant face suggested she was waiting for something. “I, err, don’t think I have any habits yet, good or bad when it comes to magic at least. So fire away and I’ll do my best to keep up.”

  “Oh no no no no no!” She stalked around me as she spoke, doing a full lap of appraisal. “I need to know your unlocked Aetheric skills before we move on.”

  I opened my mouth to speak, but she quickly thrust a finger over my mouth.

  “Don’t say. Let me guess. I think it is Gravity related as you were in a mine at the time?”

  I shook my head.

  “Light?” she asked hopefully.

  “’Fraid not. I’m surprised no one told you.”

  “Then it has to be Kinetic!”

  Accepting she was off on her own little trip here, I tried to go along for the ride with her. “Is that what wilders normally get first?”

  “Generally, it’s all down to whatever they have the closest affinity too. Light or Gravity are most common, but as you were found in a mine and you have a certain grounded quality about you, I was certain it would be that.”

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  Found? This Master wasn’t a full tool set no matter how cool she was. And if she was getting basics like that wrong, I decided I’d had enough of her probing questions, and also the probing eyes of the class as they waited impatiently.

  “The Warden of House Garazal placed me in a mine to increase my Toughness. There I was attacked by the Archon Overseer. He was a Level 29. While I can fight as well as anyone, he was too fast and strong, and I just couldn’t take the amount of punishment he was dishing out. I tried to heal myself so that I could fight back, but my body offered a different solution and gave me Spirit Burst.”

  She got so close so fast that I thought she was going to jump on me. She stopped half an inch from my face, eyes burning with terrifying intensity. “Show me!”

  Then she spun on her heel and began shouting at the other students. “Everyone, BACK! Give Adam some space!”

  I groaned on the inside. I was disliked by the few Archon students I’d had dealings with, but was happy with the situation that the rest of the Archons ignored me like you might ignore the last few garden peas left after a big meal.

  Still, I was intrigued by Quesal, and I found I didn’t want to disappoint her. Once I thought everyone was far enough away, I set off Spirit Burst.

  The silver shimmer spun from me like I was the center of a tornado. Mud and grass was torn up in a five-foot radius and cast into the air to fly a lot further than five foot. Many grass and mud-covered students glared at me with murder in their eyes.

  For my part, I was mostly feeling guilty about the damage I’d done to the otherwise pristine field.

  “That’s it. That’s all I’ve got,” I said, feeling horribly self-conscious.

  Her eyes were wide as she rushed me. “Incredible, Adam! I loved it. You should make Spirit magic your focus. Learn as many of the other attributes as you can.”

  “Such as?” I said, trying hard not to sound too eager.

  “Spirit Shield!” she paused. “Though they’d show you that in Defensive class. Same for Heal, and Form… Ooh! I have it. Spirit Chains! It’s a great power to render your enemy defenseless both physically and magically!”

  Ressa cleared her throat. “Isn’t that one a little advanced for Adam?”

  The teacher puffed out her chest and stood straight, for the first time looking as though she was taking something seriously.

  “Ressa Nessoran. When I want an opinion, I will ask for it.” She turned back to me. “Do you take Espionage?”

  “I don’t,” I replied, feeling extra awkward now that Ressa’s eyes were glaring at me as well, as if her getting scolded was somehow my fault.

  “Then you shall work on Spirit Form, Spirit Chains, and Spirit Hand. I have a good feeling about you, Adam. I think you might be a Spirit savant!”

  I winced at the high praise and wanted to brush it under the rug as swiftly as possible. “What’s Spirit Hand?” I asked, changing the subject far too enthusiastically.

  “Spirit Hand will lift you up. It is a levitation skill and a precursor to flight.”

  I’d imagined a hand I could project to do things for me. I was wrong but its actual function was just as cool.

  She turned to the rest of the class and wafted them away with her hands as if they were a nuisance to her. “Go work on your preferred Aetheric blasts! There is nothing more I can teach you until you have perfected your use of them. I’m sure it won’t be long now, unless, of course, you are all less capable than a…” She looked back at me. “What exactly are you?”

  I didn’t really have any choice but to answer, but I could have done without her using me as an example. “I’m a human.”

  She beamed at me and turned on them again. “Unless you are all less capable than a human!”

  And so she spent the rest of the lesson pointedly ignoring everyone other than Ellaazi and me.

  Ellaazi, it turned out, had a natural aptitude for Aetheric magic too. She had learned Kinetic magic from her father, which currently constituted the ability to pull or push things and people.

  As Ressa had suggested, it was advanced, and there were a number of steps on the path to learn the skills here.

  At first, all we had to do was to create a static non-destructive aura of power. Ellaazi got it way before me, but I refused to let myself fall behind, and by the end of the lesson, I managed to create the inert power.

  It flared up in front of me, and Master Quesal cheered and clapped her hands like a child. “You have a knack for this, Adam. I wonder how far your natural talent could take you!”

  Ellaazi looked over curiously. “You did it?”

  I gestured to the shimmering silver haze in front of me. She looked dumbfounded.

  Master Quesal solved the mystery of her expression with a boisterous laugh. “Adam! You silly human. Did you not realize that Spirit energy is invisible?”

  I looked at my aura, clearly visible to my eyes just as Spirit Burst had been, but the expressions on people’s faces when I had used the skill now made sense. No one else could actually see the power.

  “No, I didn’t. How can you see it?”

  She shook her head. “I can’t. But I can feel it clearly. Most high-level mages will be able to sense your power, but Spirit is invisible to all but its wielder.”

  “That’s good to know. It means I can practice, and most people won’t even realize!”

  Her expression turned serious, and I didn’t know what was going to come out of her mouth this time. She leaned toward me, so intense. “Yes, practice as often as you can. I think you have the capacity to achieve great things if you work hard. But be careful. Spirit is dangerous.”

  I nodded, wishing I hadn’t said anything about practicing. Thankfully, she moved on quickly, like a bee searching for pollen, and was now yelling at the class as a whole that the lesson was over.

  I left the class with Ressa and Ellaazi, feeling buoyed by the lesson.

  Ressa nudged me. “Master’s pet. Could you have sucked up to Quesal any harder?”

  My immediate response was to protest that it wasn’t true. That I just enjoyed the class and the teacher took an interest in me because of Spirit Burst. However, I caught the glint of mischief in her eyes, and I knew her well enough now to know, she liked to tease me.

  So I swallowed my first response, and grimaced. “She did seem taken with me, didn’t she. Sorry if it made you jealous.”

  Ressa’s face darkened, like a cloud passing over the sun. It could mean one of two things. She was angry or embarrassed. They both tended to have the same result.

  “Jealous! Jealous! Of what?”

  Not entirely sure which nerve I’d touched, I kept my face neutral and played it safe. “That she taught Ellaazi and me for the entire lesson and ignored the rest of you.”

  She visibly relaxed. “Not at all. She has a point. If we can’t tap an Aetheric power, there’s not much more to teach us, though I think most of the class managed to…” Her eyes flicked past me, and she frowned again.

  I saw the shadow on the ground before I turned to see the creator of the shadow. Arun. The huge Archon who’d warned Torma in Strategy class to shut up, and who had wanted to fight me in Unarmed Combat. He towered over me by a good half a foot. I reckoned he was six-eight at least, but after spending time with the Unalarans, it just didn’t seem that intimidating.

  He thrust a powerful finger into my chest. “You are causing problems for us all, human. I don’t know how you are part of Garazal, and I have left you alone for that reason. But you have now affected a number of my lessons, and that I cannot tolerate. You will curb your ego and you will remain silent in classes, or I will come for you and to the Xeo with the consequences.”

  “You come and I will be waiting,” Ellaazi snarled.

  He frowned at her. “My fight is not with you, Stormhold. But your father’s name does not compete with an Archon house, so I suggest you stay out of this.”

  “I suggest you keep your tasty looking fingers to yourself,” she snarled, showing her row of sharp teeth.

  Clearly uncomfortable with her threat, he still turned to me. “I am not alone in my displeasure. You have been warned.”

  I sagged once he left.

  Ressa spat. “Cuthla spawn.”

  Part of me wanted to know what a Cuthla was. Most of me wanted to forget about the whole awkward moment and go have a shower before evening meal.