Amanda and I made our way towards the classroom. Unice had spent the rest of the lunchbreak thanking us and Alexis had given me a pat on the back. Unice was vibrating with excitement by the time lunch ended.

“Let’s hope that enthusiasm stays.” I spoke.

“Yeah, it’ll be a bummer if she doesn’t attune. Those kinds of setbacks can be costly.” Amanda pursed her lips. “Not to mention I won’t get to smash you with the lava ball.”

“Excuse me?” I raised an eyebrow at her. “I’ll be sad because I won’t be able to see you flailing in the sky.”

“I glide like a majestic swan.” Amanda raised a fiery finger. “You’ll see.”

“I hope this swan doesn’t have Gold’s belly.” I countered. “I’d hate to have to catc- ow.”

Something pecked my ear, and a squawk resounded from beside me. I turned my head to see Gold flapping beside me.

I put my arm up and he landed on it. Then he moved to my shoulder. Agni was already nestling into Amanda’s hair.

“You heard that?” I asked him.

He squawked in response. That was a yes. I fed him a treat and he immediately forgave me. I smiled. Today had been a refreshing palate cleanser for my troubled heart.

We took our seats in class and I scanned the room closely for any signs of symbol usage. A few other students were doing the same, wary after the test that they had barely passed before. Professor Pernacles wasn’t anywhere to be seen unless he was hiding from me with greater skill than last time.

It was a strong possibility.

My worries were dispelled when I heard the sound of a cane tapping on the ground and the professor walked into the room. He placed his hand on the side of the blackboard and a symbol lit up in the middle. Rows of words appeared, and he turned towards us.

“We’ll wait for the last couple of stragglers, and then begin the lesson.”

His gaze turned towards me, and I could see a twinkle in his eyes. Once the last couple of students arrived, he tapped his cane on the ground to get our attention.

He handed out papers to everyone except me, and I saw on Amanda’s paper a series of basic questions about symbols.

Most were general and focused on what the students believed symbols to be. There was nothing nitty-gritty or technical about them.

“All of you look at the questions and discuss them with each other for a few minutes. After that, answer them to the best of your abilities.”

He tapped the edge of the table in front of me and handed me a series of pages, each containing symbols more complex than the last. Then he brought out more pages, until there was a stack in front of me.

“You will be working on this for the double period.” His voice was barely audible over the conversational buzz of the students. “See how far you can get, and I will work on a schedule for you based on the level you achieve.”

I peered down at the papers in front of me. The first one was labelled ‘1 of 60’. It was a single picture of the sun symbol. The first symbol I had learnt.

There were also questions and tasks accompanying it.

Do you know this symbol?

Can you activate this symbol?

List two reasons why you shouldn’t activate this symbol.

If you had a regent with this symbol inscribed as the base symbol what impact would that have on the array?

The last question went up a notch in difficulty. I answered all of them quickly and moved on to the next page. This one had a few different symbols, all of them belonged to a different basic element.

“Okay.” I muttered under my breath. “I can do this.”

“Try and remember those questions and answers afterwards. I want to see if I can get any right.” Amanda whispered in response.

I nodded on reflex and put my head down to work on the tasks in front of me. The chatter of the class filtered out of my mind and soon the only thing I could see was the stack of papers in front of me.

The first five pages were simple, they listed various basic symbols that my dad had taught me when I was young. The ten pages after that were general questions on symbol usage and the differences between onze and magic regents.

I stumbled at the beginning of the sixteenth page.

Could I make a regent?

That was a tough question to answer. I hadn’t made a regent yet, but that didn’t mean I couldn’t. I put a tentative ‘maybe’.

As I was finishing the 25th page which required me to pick out individual symbols in a complex array, the bell sounded for the end of school.

I handed Pernacles my pages.

“Considering your age, it is more than satisfactory. Your writing speed will also be considered.” Pernacles smiled. “I will be able to analyse your answers and figure out a schedule by next week.”

I barely heard him. Amanda and I left the classroom, exhausted.

“My brain is fried.” I stretched and yawned. “Please tell me there’s time to relax.”

This had been the first draining lesson I’d had. It wasn’t boring, but it was hard work. My mind had been absorbed by the tests and each question re-played in my head as I walked beside Amanda.

“We have half an hour, let’s grab a tree beside the dome.” Amanda’s voice called over the clammer of students.

Gold chirped in agreement. He’d enjoyed the symbol class, and had watched me the entire time, but he liked being outside more.

The moment the rays of sun hit our shoulders the two birds fluttered into the air. Gold had been shy at first with the new surroundings, he wasn’t used to the area. Now, alongside Agni, he was acting like he owned the place.

There were other birds living in the trees around us, but I hadn’t seen Agni or Gold interact with them.

“Are our bird friends snobs?” I asked Amanda as we moved onto the garden path.

“I know Agni was. You should’ve seen her before the academy. Not a single bird friend in sight.” Amanda tutted. “She’s happier now.”

The trees quickly came into sight, and we sat behind one that was next to the dome. The academy disappeared as we put our backs to the tree, and the wall of the dome towered over us.

It was quiet, and the shade relaxed my mind.

I took a deep breath and found that my heart was calm. After a day of not thinking about last night, my emotions had settled down.

They were still there, simmering under the surface, but they didn’t burst to life or crash into me. My mind wasn’t clouded either.

Amanda sat beside me against the bark of the tree. Her hair had small embers between the strands, but they didn’t burn the wood.

She put her hand into her blazer pocket and when she took it out, she held a thin book.

“Knight’s fall: Northern Adventures Book 1” I read the cover out loud.

Amanda’s hair burned red and then her flames died down. “I’d thought I’d get a little reading done before practice. It helps calm me down.”

“You’re nervous?” I reached my hand into my inventory.

I pulled out my own book.

‘I Am Marked’.

“You’re going to enjoy it.“ Amanda eyed the book with a smile. “And yeah, I’m a little nervous. I always am before flying.”

I nodded my head in understanding. Even if Unice was coming, we still wanted to get practice of our own done. Unice’s attunement was important, but we’d booked the arena for our own improvement.

“I can do something about that.” I nudged her with my elbow. “I’ll go easy on you for the first few rounds. Not that you’ll need it, I’m not good at aiming.”

“Thanks.” Her voice was soft.

We drifted off into a comfortable silence and I flipped through the first few pages of the book.

I was surprised at how easy it was to keep my mind on it.

On Earth my attention had always been occupied, stretched thin by all the things I could do. If I tried to pick up a book my computer would distract me for five minutes, my television for ten and then my phone for an hour. By the time I fell asleep I would’ve read a single page.

Surrounding me was the sound of rustling trees, and the steady breathing of my friend. Birds chirped in the trees, and I could hear distant students on the other side of the school heading to their homes.

It was tranquil.

My mind conjured images of the Marked one that was the main character of the book. He was Marked by Fue, and the book began with him falling from the sky into the mouth of a dragon that was attacking a village. It choked to death as he blocked its airway by accident.

I let out a laugh and startled Amanda.

“Dragon?” She smiled.

“Dragon.” I confirmed sheepishly.

The Dragon in the book was different from the ones in my world. It was described as having three horns coming out of its head, and six thorny legs.

Gerial would have a field day with this book. The powers of the Marked one were quickly revealed. He healed the injured people of the village by giving each a drop of his blood to place on their forehead.

His second act was to bless the village well with a divine spell, so that it would be everflowing and the water would heal sickness.

I hadn’t tried to bless water, but I definitely didn’t have that spell.

The main character was suave, confident, and he wasn’t swarmed by the people around him. Instead, he was allowed sole access to the dragon to harvest its materials and symbol.

I winced at the description of symbol extraction.

This author had never met a scriber before because they definitely didn’t use a sword to carve a jagged hole through the flesh of a monster’s symbol. It was a careful and delicate process that required experts putting in their full attention so that the symbol itself wasn’t disturbed by the moving of flesh.

A single wrong squish would change a line and delay the translation process by weeks. A cut that connected with the symbol could add months or years to the workload.

This Marked one slapped a stray parasite with his flesh symbol. It covered the enemy in blood and meat, activated, and made the parasite explode in a flash of light.

The events were strangely addictive.

There was one thing the book got right. The main character weaved his divine spells using gold mana. It was his calling card that proved he was a Marked one.

I remembered how the knights that had saved me from Eli hadn’t doubted my status as a Marked one. I’d thought it was because Gerial had vouched for me, and the gold mana was the icing on the cake.

According to this book, the gold mana was all they needed to identify me.

I wonder how many of those knights read Marked one fiction?

I pictured a knight with a sword in one hand, and a book in the other, and I chuckled.

A few minutes later there was a tug at my sleeve.

“I’m glad you’re enjoying the book, but we’ve got plans.” Amanda had put her own book away and was standing in front of me.

I hadn’t even noticed her moving.

I got up. “You make good recommendations.”

Unice was waiting for us at the front of the dome. She had changed into more comfortable clothes, a light green mixed with patches of brown and grey.

“Is that a nature theme?” I asked.

“Absolutely. I need to connect with myself before I can connect with my element.” She twirled around. “The second part is why I have you here.”

We walked through the dome corridors and Amanda led the way with her map. Past the cultivation room there was a curve I hadn’t explored yet. The space opened up to reveal four different rooms.

I peeked through a couple of them.

They were all small arenas.

Each one followed a theme and contained different elements. One looked like a pool, and another was filled with plants and grass.

We walked into the one furthest to the left and there were three balls and one shield regent waiting for us.

The room itself was a bridge between fire and earth, with dirt and rocks scattered about the area and fire mana floating in the air, heating up the room.

Unice wasn’t allowed to participate in our activities because she hadn’t gone through the safety lesson. The faculty member at the entrance of the dome had been clear about that.

Amanda set herself up by moving the three balls in a triangle around her. She sat down in the middle of the formation and took a deep breath.

“I’ll be practising to kick your butt.” She spoke to me. “Try not to get any dirt on me.”

I gestured with my hand and a small stream of dirt flew off the towards her. It circled her head and she swatted it away with a smile.

I laughed and put it back. I laid a stream of stones that piled around Unice and me. The stout girl had removed the nearby dirt from her surroundings.

“Sorry, I don’t mind not having dirt, but we should have some earth around us.” I said to Unice.

“That’s okay.” Unice sat down.

She moved her hands and the stones around her moved in unison. They formed a small altar in front of her and with a wave of her fingers three beads of stone appeared from her pockets.

They hovered above and then dropped gently. The stone swam off the altar, leaving three shining balls of metal behind.

Now, it was my turn.

I took a deep breath and formed a connection with the silver bar in my inventory. I spoke with my companion and guided it as it flew playfully through the air.

I gestured with my hand and the silver shimmered in the air around Unice. She stared at it intently and then closed her eyes.

I brought the silver to a stop over the three metal beads.

“Let’s begin.”