Aida trudged out of the library after a fruitless search. Charma had apologetically informed her that after Ezra’s irresponsible attempt at a Master-level technique before he was ready, she had been instructed by the teachers to safeguard the texts detailing high-level techniques and their execution from curious students.

  “It really says something about Mister Riolt’s abilities, that he’s able to get far enough to very nearly doom himself,” the librarian said quietly, shaking her head in a mix of disapproval and admiration. “No student has ever been able to understand and apply enough of the old Masters’ writings to pose a risk to themselves. What a stupid, talented boy he is.”

  Charma couldn’t even give her a history book detailing the Metal Masters’ lives; apparently, Professor Bruce had borrowed the school’s only copies of Masters Jin and Joo’s diaries last star cycle.

  “If it’s history you’re interested in, perhaps Earth Master Dih’s book might be of use to you? He was one of Metal Master Jin’s first pupils, and he took it upon himself to record the formation and founding message of Master Jin’s school. Unfortunately, Metal Master Joo did not have any students who were as studious about storykeeping as Master Dih, so there’s no second-hand account from that side. But Master Dih’s book seemed to follow both Masters Jin and Joo’s diaries closely enough, from the snippets I’ve skimmed.”

  Aida had taken the book with thanks, if only to make her visit to the library worth something. She glanced down at the slim volume in her hands, the title written in elegant brush script on a sensible, brown hardcover: Master Jin’s Teachings: Volume 1.

  She could probably finish the book in an afternoon, with how few pages it had compared to the usual tomes she spent her time leafing through. The introduction itself - Master Dih gave a brief history of how long he had studied under Master Jin at the time of writing, and detailed why he felt responsible for chronicling the founding of Master Jin’s school instead of jumping right into the lessons taught - took up a whole chapter’s worth of words in the three-chapter book.

  Sighing to herself, Aida glanced at the windows.

  It was a nice, clear day. Despite having been outdoors for nearly the entirety of her assignment last star cycle, Aida didn’t want to stay indoors.

  Resolving to read Master Dih’s book under the big willow tree, which had jaunty green leaves sprouting out of its branches, Aida couldn’t help but notice the spring in her step as she anticipated a nice, leisurely read in the comfortable outdoor air.

  ~ * ~ * ~ * ~

  “—you!”

  Aida jerked awake at the shout, utterly befuddled.

  Scrambling for the book that had flown to the side, Aida quickly straightened its pages as she glanced around, trying to pinpoint the disturbance.

  Tera’s mana rolled over her shoulders, angry and quivering, making Aida cower with its intensity. What did I do now?

  Peeking around the willow’s massive trunk, Aida spotted Tera striding angrily towards the main building, Lyn’s own figure stiff and angry in the distance.

  Fight between sisters, I guess. Breathing a sigh of relief, Aida turned back towards Master Dih’s book, absentmindedly flipping it back open to where she had last left off.

  Before she could do more than reorient herself on the last page she read - when Jin first discovered his ability to utilize mana, in a fractured society where clans kept to themselves - she heard Tera’s angry stomps head towards her.

  “Hey,” Aida greeted amicably, trying to act like she hadn’t realized Tera was there. “How’s it going?”

  “Wanna go train?” Tera demanded, her eyes brittle.

  “Uh…” Aida glanced back at her open book before looking back to Tera. The girl waited impatiently, fists planted on her hips. “I…I guess. I’m still a bit tired from the assignment, though, so don’t expect too much from me…”

  “That’s okay,” Tera said brusquely, holding her hand out to pull Aida to her feet. “Anything is better than nothing.”

  Aida followed Tera to the training arena hesitantly, glancing worriedly at Lyn, who pointedly marched back into the school building without looking towards her sister or Aida.

  Tera stopped at the edge of the arena, huffing angrily before spinning on her heel.

  “This is pointless. I know how to handle myself on solid ground. Let’s go to the lake instead.”

  “Okay,” Aida said blankly as she followed the girl back the way they came, retracing the path Tera had taken with her twin down to the Lake. “So…do you want to talk about it?”

  “No, I just want to train.”

  “What are you training for?” Aida kept her tone light and conversational, trying to soothe Tera.

  “I need to be able to handle myself over open water. Literally all of my training has been on land.”

  Aida paused. “Is this…related to what happened at North Ocean Village?”

  Tera froze, staring out over the Lake in silence. The waters lapped peacefully along the shore. Finally, the girl slumped, her caramel-colored hair curtaining her face. “…yeah.”

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  Aida reached out to Tera, gently placing her hand on her shoulder. Tera didn’t brush her off.

  “That was tough for all of us.”

  “I just felt so useless,” Tera whispered. “I couldn’t do anything to help rescue anybody on the ocean, and I couldn’t do anything to stop the eel from attacking the village.”

  “I felt helpless, too,” Aida said softly, rubbing Tera’s shoulder comfortingly. “If Dev hadn’t been there…”

  Tera choked out a laugh. “Yeah, but you were still able to help. You were called to go on the boat with Ashley and Brand to rescue fishermen, and Brand put you at the front of our skiff to help provide cover when they came back.” Tera’s hands had balled into fists, and the ground beneath them began trembling.

  “Hey…” Aida scooped Tera into her arms, patting her back soothingly. She didn’t really know what to say to calm the girl down, especially since their brush with danger was literally one star cycle ago. But she understood why the girl was so unsettled; the eel’s face fading into existence made her feel small. Insignificant. It would be a recurring memory that reminded her she, despite her inhuman powers, was still only human.

  “I’ve never questioned my capabilities before,” Tera said quietly, her voice muffled. “I understood there were times when I would be at a disadvantage…like in forests, because it’s hard to disentangle the roots binding the earth in place…but I never expected that I wouldn’t be able to do anything at all.”

  Aida smiled warily at Tera’s admission. It was a real-life example of how an overwhelming amount of one element could utterly overthrow the natural elemental balance: water was supposed to be disadvantaged by earth, but in Tera’s case, she was the one rendered utterly ineffective.

  “I get it,” she replied softly. “Even though I was technically in my element, I also felt helpless. The ocean…” Aida trailed off, thinking back to her struggle in making the passing waves obey her. “…it’s not docile,” she finished reluctantly. She reached out towards the Lake, pulling up a column of water with unexpected ease.

  “I have an idea of how you feel,” Aida said, shaping the water into the vague form of a young woman. Manipulating the water was so easy now, after fighting with the ocean for a cycle. Regardless of the eel scale on her, Aida could still tell how much more in tune she was with the water; the scale made her control of the water more fluid, while she could sense how much more - or less, really - stuff there was in the Lake. “Feeling helpless. You see the wave coming at you, about to crush you, and all you can do is scream, because you can’t do anything to stop it.” The watery figure tightened into a sad, exhausted form: shoulders down, head bowed, hands clasped.

  “But no matter how loudly you scream, no one else can help you…because they’re also screaming.” The watery figure lifted her head, and Aida saw the fine facial features carved into the water statue’s face, reflecting a visage she was intimately familiar with.

  “Is that someone you know?” Tera asked dully. Aida dropped the water, sending Annie splashing back into the Lake.

  “That’s just how I see myself.” Aida shook her head before smiling in embarrassment at Tera. “Anyway, sorry, I made it about myself…I don’t really know what to say, because I think that’s an inherent struggle we all face. Everything we do, all this training, preparation for the future…it’s all so that we can have more control over our environment. And when you realize you don’t have it…”

  Aida trailed off again, uncertain what to say to make Tera feel better.

  “…Lyn was trying to convince me to just…give up. And accept that I couldn’t do anything about what happened up north.” Tera’s voice was flat.

  “Well…she’s not entirely wrong about that, right? Not even the Naval Strongholders could do anything about what happened, and that’s their entire job,” Aida said lightly.

  “I understand that. But…” Tera pulled a pebble from the shore and threw it underhanded into the water. “It doesn’t seem right to just give up and accept our fate. Our ancestors fought so hard to establish society so we could continue surviving. And without the mana knowledge we have now!” Tera tossed another pebble into the Lake.

  Aida watched Tera silently take her anger out on the rocks as she pondered Tera’s words.

  She understood Tera’s sentiment, and she found it admirable that the girl was determined to fight. But on the other hand, she also understood what Lyn was trying to say: sometimes, no matter how hard one fought, you just couldn’t win.

  “Brute force isn’t always the way to win,” Aida said softly. Her throat tightened as she thought about Ezra. “You might not ever be able to take down a single eel in combat over open water, but…you could still thwart them and other such monsters. Prevent them from getting close enough to do the kind of damage they did.”

  “I can’t just remold their geological defenses,” Tera scoffed. “Even if I could, that would totally destroy the village’s lifestyle.”

  “I know,” Aida said quickly. “I’m not saying to do that. But there has to be some other way to defeat creatures like the eel, right? Without having to face it head-on in its natural habitat.”

  Tera hefted another pebble in her hand, looking down at it thoughtfully. She lobbed it into the air over her head, pointing her wand at it and making it hover in the air. Aida watched curiously as the girl reshaped the smooth pebble, forming it into a rock spike, before sending it flying into the water. “I don’t know why I never thought of that before.”

  “Thought of what?”

  “As a kid, I’d hunt pests with rocks and slingshot. But once I discovered my earth affinity, I stopped thinking of rocks in that way for some reason…” Tera crossed her arms as she frowned over the Lake. “And a lot of the Earth techniques are all focused on using the earth, but…why don’t we ever use simple rocks?”

  Aida couldn’t help but shrug and murmur in agreement, feeling an awkward mix of confusion and amusement as Tera began mumbling more and more incoherently about the purity of the Earth techniques they were taught.

  “Thanks for talking to me, Aida,” Tera chirped, giving Aida a quick hug. “You’ve renewed my spirit!”

  “I didn’t do anything,” Aida protested, though she smiled as she returned Tera’s embrace.

  “You listened.” Tera chuckled awkwardly. The corners of her lips drooped slightly. “You didn’t try to convince me that my thoughts or feelings were wrong.”

  “I don’t know enough about anything to make any sort of claim,” Aida laughed. She pointed at Tera’s face with mock threat. “But you watch out, once I graduate, I’ll be more than happy to tell you that everything you’re doing is wrong.”

  Tera giggled, pushing Aida’s finger away. “Yeah, right! The day you start becoming overbearing is going to be the day the world ends.”

  Aida smiled back at Tera, feeling unexpected affection for the girl.

  Maybe it was because they both went through something traumatic together, but Aida felt like this was a genuine bonding moment, unforced by preexisting relationships.

  The two of them hiked back to the school building, Aida nodding along as Tera chattered excitedly about bringing her execution of Earth techniques back to “true basics” along the way. I guess you can still make an impact as a side character.