I gazed upwards and the academy building shimmered into existence. Its three towers provided a magical backdrop to the man in front of me, and I could see Alexis smiling. It wasn’t cocky, or condescending, it was genuine.

I stared at him warily. There had been so much going through my mind and heart since last night. There wasn’t any room for a new drama or problem right now.

Gold squawked from my shoulder and nestled closer to my head.

“School’s going to start soon. Is it important?” I spoke.

I hadn’t intended for the words to come out so harshly. Alexis blinked at me in surprise and then shook his head.

“It’s not urgent, I just… I wanted to thank you. Sort of.” Alexis stammered.

His confident stance had been broken by my abrupt words. I saw the flames in his hair die down, and his smile wavered.

I felt bad for him.

“Thank me?” I opened up my posture.

He wasn’t here to fight or argue, and I wasn’t going to be late to class if the conversation was only a couple of minutes long. I gestured with my hand for him to continue.

“Amanda told me about your visit. She was happy, and it’s the first time I’ve heard of her bringing home a friend.”

He rubbed his cheek as he tried to find the right words to say.

“It means a lot to me that she found someone to hang out with.” His odds came out slowly. “She couldn’t control the flames or heat when she was younger. It terrified the other kids. Then there’s her reputation as an inheritor. It attracted opportunists-”

My brows furrowed as Alexis went on. My initial doubts about his intentions seemed silly now. I had to stop a small grin from crossing my lips as he droned on.

He was a lot chattier than I thought he would be.

“-And I know my dad can be a little intense.” Alexis emphasised the word ‘intense’. “So, what I'm trying to say is, I’m happy that you didn’t get scared off from being her friend.”

I took a breath and smiled. Alexis shifted uncomfortably as his words went on. This was someone that I had my doubts about, and I knew there was more to him than meets the eye.

His painting of William was still fresh in my mind.

However, this was a side to him that was pleasantly genuine.

He was a doting brother.

“I was probably a little too blunt with you earlier.” I apologised. “I’ve had a rough night, and I thought you were here to make a threat.”

Alexis wasn’t surprised. “Actually, that’s my fault. I got myself hyped up, so my flames grew, and I did want to be a little bit more intimidating.”

“I can feel the heat. I didn’t realise that was on purpose.” My mouth had dried up. “I thought it was your lack of control.”

“It’s that too.” He grinned sheepishly. “Okay, that’s all it is. I was just trying to sound tough.”

He lowered his head and the stout warrior turned into a shy teenage boy for a second.

“You wanted to make sure your sister’s friend wasn’t using her, right?” I could read his intentions.

Alexis was being nice, but homeroom was going to start soon. I couldn’t wait for him to say it all himself.

He nodded his head and his back straightened again. He was back into his calm and collected self. The stereotypical confident jock. His shyness didn’t seem like an act. His confidence was just easy to break.

“Yeah. I’m pretty bad at doing the protective big brother routine.” Alexis admitted. “I wanted to put more oomph into it.”

“I thought Amanda was your big sister?”

Alexis gazed at me in surprise and then laughed.

“Yeah, she says that, but I’m taller. A minute of time doesn’t change that.” He smacked his chest proudly. “She can call herself my big sister when she doesn’t have to go on her tiptoes to reach my eye line.”

It was the kind of dumb logic that only a brother would use. A smile finally broke out over my face. The innocent chatter did wonders to take my mind off things.

“Class is going to start.” I stepped forward and Alexis moved to my side. I looked at him. “You’re a good brother.”

From my shoulder Gold let out a squawk of agreement.

“But also, you really have to learn how to turn that heat off. How do your friends handle it?”

I couldn’t stand being near him. Let alone being around him for an entire school day. I was already sweating.

“Don’t I know it.” Alexis rubbed his temples. “The school had to cast spells to keep my classrooms cool. Oh, that reminds me.”

He gave me an awkward look. “You and your bird might be a bit… Warm… for the next hour or so.”

“Warm?” I looked down and saw nothing out of place.

I looked at Gold and he was fine as well.

“I unlocked a new bloodline ability today, you won’t notice it yourself, but others will. It’s kind of like the spell my dad has at our place. Except I don’t know how to turn it off.”

I stared at him and then looked down at myself. I didn’t notice anything different. Then I activated my mana sense.

I was covered in red mana.

It waved at me joyfully and I saw it flowing across my body and sticking to my clothes. Other parts of it drifted into the nearby air, heat waves shimmering around me.

Alexis shrugged apologetically and I sighed.

We parted ways once we reached the entrance of the building. I could see students avoiding me or looking at me curiously as I walked by them.

Whatever Alexis had done to me, I couldn’t take it away.

Wings flapped beside me as Gold lifted himself into the air. Whatever Alexis had done was affecting him as well. He had red mana clinging to his feathers and he was trying to peck it off as he flew.

I walked to my classroom as quickly as I could.

Amanda waved at me as I entered our homeroom. She had saved a seat for me and was gesturing towards it. Then I got closer, and she raised an eyebrow at me.

I heard a chirp as Agni poked her head out of Amanda’s hair. The little phoenix jumped onto the table and drew closer to me. I put out my hand for her to play with.

She examined it carefully.

Amanda’s eyes scanned me from my head to my shoes and then she looked at the air around me.

“You’re hot.” She spoke.

“Aww, thank you. I needed that today.” I sat down on the chair beside her. “When I woke up this morning, I didn’t realise I’d be getting all this attention. I think I’m having a good hair day.”

The corners of Amanda’s lips rose. “No, I mean you’re literally hot.”

“Really? I hadn’t noticed.” I stared at the blackboard.

My innocent act didn’t fool her, but it did put a smile on my face.

“You talked to Alexis.” Amanda crossed her arms. “Don’t try to deny it, I know my bloodline when I see it.”

“Okay, you got me.” I raised my arm for Gold to fly on to. He was still pecking at the mana. “Alexis cornered me for a big brother talk.”

“Oh, Fue.” She rolled her eyes. “Please don’t judge me based on anything stupid coming out of his mouth.”

Amanda raised her hand towards my chest and the mana around it swirled into her palm. I watched as a small tornado formed around her fingers and the mana was dragged into it.

It was a slow process at first, but after a few seconds the effect grew and the fire mana from the entire room was sucked into a single point above her palm.

“There.” She nodded her head in satisfaction. “Stick next to me for the next hour and you shouldn’t have any issues.”

The mana shifted and transformed into flames in her hands. I winced, but instead of going out of control the flames turned inwards and formed a small red bead.

“So, what did he say?” Amanda looked at me.

“He made some solid points about how being taller than you makes him the big brother.” I grinned.

She held up the bead threateningly. “I can pop this at any time.”

“Hey, hey.” I held up my hands defensively. “No need to get short with me.”

That one earned me an elbow jab. She opened her mouth to ask another question when the class went quiet. I looked to the front and saw Tago of the earth standing in front of the blackboard.

“Good morning students. I have an important announcement to go through before you can begin your school day.” He examined the students carefully. “Good, you are all here. Please remember to come in tomorrow for your measurements and year level exams.”

I heard a couple of students grumbling, but the general atmosphere was flooded with excitement. With all the revelations I’d been facing recently, I’d forgotten that I was getting my mana and abilities tested by the academy at the end of the first week.

This would determine my official classroom for the year.

The students around me were starting to grow nervous. The school didn’t rank individuals, but they did rank their classrooms from best to worst.

Nobody wanted to fall into the category of being part of the worst performing students at the school.

“Each measurement will occur at the previously scheduled time. If you have forgotten your personal appointment time, please raise your hand.”

I saw a few hands go into the air.

“Please come to see me after homeroom.” Tago’s tone was neutral. “For the group exams please note down the times I am handing you. They have not changed from the times you have previously been given, but if you miss an exam then that will reflect poorly on you.”

He turned his eyes towards Amanda and I. “Please note that no companions will be allowed in the exams.”

We nodded at him.

Gold let out a low squawk. I think he felt a little left out.

I put my hand into my pocket and took a treat out of my inventory. When Tago turned away I snuck it out of my pocket and Gold gobbled it up. Then I gave one to Agni too.

The rest of our homeroom class went as usual. The excitement had given way to our knees, as friends looked at each other and spoke in quiet tones.

Nobody was sure which class they would be placed in. That meant that they could be separated from each other at any time.

I saw Amanda’s fingers clench.

“Hey now, I’m sure it’ll go great.” I reassured her.

She gave me a small smile and nodded. I opened up my system notes and checked the schedule for today.

Periods 1&2: C-class.

Break.

Periods 2&4: Language studies.

Lunch break.

Periods 5&6: Symbol studies.

Today was Inné, the last day of the official school week. The faculty had decided to cram most of the double period classes towards the end of the week.

The schedule would change drastically once I was assigned to my next class. Most of what I had learnt was introductory at best, with the exception of my Earth Magic Studies and Metal Magic Studies.

Homeroom ended and Amanda stood up beside me. We made our way towards our next class, and I could see the red mana in the air being dragged towards me, and intercepted in turn by Amanda.

“That’s pretty cool.” The bead in her hand was growing. “What did Alexis do to me?”

He hadn’t made all the heat attach to me. The other students would have complained about the cold and tried to go towards me and not away from me.

The mana was appearing from thin air.

“Our bloodline has an ability that helps us use magic when there is no mana around. We can mark our allies as well, but only one mark can be active at a time.”

She brought a finger in front of my eyes and tapped on a tiny mote of mana that had appeared. It clung to her skin, and she moved it down towards her main collection.

“I don’t know what it does exactly, but I do know that it doesn’t create fire-touched, I mean- fire mana -, it only attracts them from other places.”

That made sense to me. Elemental creation abilities were rare, and the amount of mana inside the element varied. I had never heard of a skill for creating mana.

I could create earth, but the spell drew from my own manapool and transformed my golden mana into earth mana.

Alexis’s ability didn’t drain my mana to create the ones appearing around me. I would see the difference in my mana if it did.

We soon found ourselves in front of the C-class room. We made our way inside and took the same seats that we had last time, next to a window. Gold and Agni flew up to the glass and looked outside at the gardens.

Amanda stared at the arena.

The moment of respite gave my emotions an opening. The morning had distracted me from the confusion and worry I felt about the events of last night, but it couldn’t hold them back forever.

They washed over me, and I sighed.

I could accept them and overcome them. It would just take time.

A speck of red mana floated past my hair towards Amanda's hand.

“It’s a good thing we have class together. Otherwise, I would have been a social outcast for the next hour.” I smiled.

“I hope it stays that way.” Her voice was soft.

My response was interrupted by the entrance of Mr Black. The class grew silent as he strode through the room and sat down at his table.

He waved his hand and the chalk by the blackboard floated in the air and began writing.

‘Why do we need skills?’

‘What do skills do?’

‘General skills.’

‘Class skills.’

Mr Black turned towards us.

“For reasons beyond my understanding it falls to me to explain the intricacies of skills. Not only as they relate to system classes, but also as a means to an end for obtaining a place in society after your school years have ended.”

He waved his hand and sheets of paper appeared on the tables in front of us.

“Congratulations, I’m about to teach you how to use your skills to get a class, and a job.”