The ball of lava dropped to my side as the fire element inside went awry. I dropped to the ground, exhausted, and with a giant smile on my face. The sheer fun of the game had taken over as I grappled against Amanda’s control of the elements within the regent.

Now I was sitting, tired, and feeling more refreshed than I had for a long time.

Agni and Gold surrounded the ball and rolled it back to the middle of the room with their talons.

“Okay, I think I’m getting the hang of it.” Amanda spoke.

She was sitting a few metres away from me. Our starting positions for the game had us on opposite ends of the arena.

“That’s what you said the last four times.” I waved Gold over to me.

I raised my arm for him to hop on. “That was the last one for today, buddy.”

Dodgeball was significantly faster than tag. Each round lasted a few seconds as Amanda and I struggled against each other in a chaotic mess. There was no skill, or strategy, only brute force as we tried to work out what the other person was doing with their element.

We could tell that there was meant to be a lot more tactics and strategies when playing, but that would only come with practice.

For now, we were just having fun.

It improved my control, and more importantly I was finding a lot more details about earth manipulation to think about.

A shadow swept over my body as Amanda stepped in front of me. She held her hand out and I accepted the help, raising off the ground and patting myself down.

“Can I get a bit of that myself. I don’t know how you sleep in this stuff.”

I gestured with my hands and the dirt flew off her clothes.

“You owe me a freebie if I’m ever covered in fire.” I stepped beside her. “Any tips on improving my control?”

“I’m still trying to figure out how to communicate with the mana inside.” Amanda waved her hand and the ball floated. “It doesn’t listen to me half the time.”

Guiding mana was a strange task when you were competing against another person. The goal itself was simple, hit the opponent with the ball, but inside the regent a war was happening.

Both fire and earth were present an equal amount and trying to control lava held its own difficulties. It was like trying to communicate with a stranger that was happy to hear your conversation topic but would get bored easily.

They couldn’t be directed as easily towards different areas, and I could feel my earth manipulation improving as I focused on the obstacles within the lava.

The regent had been designed to make it easier for us, or else we wouldn’t be able to control lava at all.

“Let’s leave the regent here.” I saw Amanda about to walk out with the ball. “The staff will know what to do with them.”

She dropped it next to the shield regent, which had been activated for most of the session.

Gold had spent his time examining the shield carefully.

“How much do you understand?” I asked him and pointed at the shield regent.

The limits of his knowledge on shielding hadn’t been revealed yet, and the regents he could make were complex. Most of it was his instincts guiding him, but he was capable of learning.

“Probably more than me.” Amanda walked beside me, and we made her way outside the arena. “This was fun, when do you want to do it again?”

“We’ll see what times are free. It ran later than I thought it would.”

It wasn’t dark yet, but I had been texting my dad letting him know I was okay.

“You know, I’m not doing anything this Fue. I’d be down to play some tag.” Amanda turned a corner. “I know it’s not a school day, but hey, we can celebrate whatever classes we’re going to.”

“Sounds like a great plan.” I nodded. “I’ll be in Koshima in the morning too, so I can meet up with you in the early afternoon.”

I had plans for the end of the week. Visiting Zodiac’s Koshima skill library was one of my top priorities. Even if it took months to learn skills, I had access to a teacher that could help guide me in which skills would benefit me the most.

Mr Black’s advice would save me years of time. If I’d focused on the wrong skill, then I’d be flushing my time down the drain.

I intended to talk to him about the school's policy on privacy as well. The church had a deal with the school already in place for Gerial, and I was wondering if that could be given to me as well.

I quickly found myself at the front desk of the dome. Amanda was chatting with the staff member on duty, and I could see the main arena was being used.

There was an after-school club using the arena to practice.

The ground around them lit up with magical projectiles. Two groups of ten battled each other with smiles on their faces. Some of them were attackers, with weapons in their hands, and others were defenders creating walls of different elements around their allies.

“We’re all good for Fue. I’ll send you a copy of the details.” Amanda’s head popped up beside me. “Admiring the view?”

We stared at the club members as they smashed into each other.

“It always feels weird how accepted fighting is here.” My thoughts slipped out.

I paused, realising what I’d just said.

“Yeah, I heard it’s more peaceful down in the south. If you think we’re fight-happy here, you should see the north.” Amanda winced as one of the club members was tackled by three opponents. “The frontier cities live for battle, and the academies over there focus on fighting.”

I was greeted by the sounds of birds chirping and the glowing lights of the three academy towers as we walked outside the dome.

“I’ve heard a lot about those guys lately, but I’ve never seen a frontier city.” The gardens passed by us quickly. “Are they different from regular ones?”

“That depends on your definition of different.” Amanda shivered. “Magic is weird up there, unless we settle down in a spot for a while it acts more as an enemy than a friend.”

“So, we’re letting it sniff our hand to get used to us?” I raised an eyebrow at her.

“Exactly. Except there are more monster attacks.”

That stopped my jokes. Monster attacks were serious business. I had seen Zodiac deploy their armies a few times, and every time the portal opened, I could sense the magic in use on the other side.

It was horrifyingly strong.

The victor was allowed to keep the monster's symbol. However, the main reason Zodiac deployed was to save the towns or cities where monsters had appeared.

We made our way through the main building and out the entrance of the academy. I brought out my student ID card and gestured. Accompanied by a chime a portal opened up in front of me.

“I don’t know if I’ll see you tomorrow, but best of luck with your measurements and exams.” Amanda stepped ahead of me towards the entry gate. “You’re not half bad, we’ll probably end up in the same class.”

“It’s those kind of full throttle compliments that keep me going.” I responded.

We said our goodbyes and I walked through the portal with Gold. Purple mist swam at my feet, and I brushed my fingers against the living wall of the nexus. It amazed me every time I saw it. A breathing wall that was only a single section of a living building.

The floor was flooded with purple water, an illusion of the mind that I ignored.

I took a deep breath. Today had been a cleansing palette of the mind for me, and the arena had exhausted any energy I had.

There was still the issue of my mum's confession.

I was expecting to feel anger and confusion as I walked home. It wouldn’t be out of place for anxiety to claw at my mind, and sadness to rest in my heart, clinging to me no matter what I try to do to remove it.

Those feelings never appeared.

Instead, there was only acceptance. I stopped and dug around my feelings to see if I was mistaken. The emotions were still there, slightly above normal levels, but nothing I would call a distraction.

Maybe I had grown as a person since my time on Earth?

I shook my head. The answer was a lot simpler.

I trusted my mum.

Eli had been right in his words; nobody knew my mum better than I did. I had spent almost every day of my life in this world with her. In that time, I had seen her cry for me, protect me, and do those things for my dad and herself.

The initial confusion was hard to shake off, but with time it had quickly healed.

Well, those emotions weren’t fully gone. I felt them growing as I exited the portal and saw my house. Gold looked at me and I nodded at him and scratched his neck.

“I’ll be okay.”

The puffer flapped his wings and took residence in his tree. I’d suspected that he had been listening in on our conversation yesterday.

His actions confirmed it.

The door creaked open at my push and my parents were there, rushing to greet me. My mum hesitated as I came into view, and I took a step forward and swept her into a hug.

I could see my dad’s smiling face beside her. He nodded at me and gave me a pat on the back.

We settled down at the table, and I sat in one of my stone chairs. Normally, I would be training right now, but it was time to talk as a family.

“There’s a few things I’d like to know.” I kept my tone gentle. “Two things, really.”

“Ask me anything.” My mum spoke. “I won’t hold information back.”

“Can anything be done to ease your restrictions, and what can we do to stop the Gesti household from keeping me away from my family.”

My mum’s restrictions weren’t fully known to me, but I could piece them together from all I’d heard over the years.

She had to be under house arrest and was required to stay inside the building at least five days a week. I didn’t know if that schedule changed or not, because I only saw her go out during the weekend.

She had to pay some kind of reparations, and that payment extended to my dad as well. From context I gathered that he had probably taken on that burden himself. His family had shunned him when he married my mum, which meant that she had already committed her crime by then.

She was ill a lot, or at least pretended to be. The reason why was a mystery to me.

I asked her.

My mum put her hand on her shoulder and massaged it, a small expression of unease crossing her face.

“Your father is manaless, but I’m not.” My mum’s foot tapped nervously against the ground. “I’m not a magician, I focused on finances. I go every couple of weeks to voluntarily lock my mana. Sometimes the mana drain gets to me, and I need to rest more than usual.”

I tilted my head and took in her explanation. I could understand her being untrained, most people were, and they never unlocked magic skills. However, I thought I would’ve sensed it at least once when I was with her every day.

It was easy for a person to hide their mana, but that was in situations where one person wasn’t spending months or years together with the other in the same house.

“Doesn’t your mana regenerate?” Mana depletion was rare for me, but it disappeared quickly when it occurred.

My mum was only sick for two or three days at a time. It was never serious but depleting her mana should only bother her for a day at most.

“The mana isn’t drained in that way.” My mum shook her head. “I keep a spell active at all times which is watched over by the agency that keeps an eye on me. They teach it to all people like me, and until the spell is released, I can’t regain my mana.”

She was keeping a steady tone and a straight face for me, but I could see her words were already beginning to affect her. Her foot tapped on the ground louder and her expression grew slightly less confident. I could tell that it wasn’t often that she had to confront these things out loud.

“Will we have a bit of time to talk about this, and get used to it?” I spoke.

My mum nodded.

“I’ll be speaking with one of the people that manages my case. Your dad will also make inquiries.” She looked over at my dad. “The government doesn’t react well when noble houses try to take the law into their own hands. Or when they interfere with a case that has already been decided.”

“It tends to be the hammer more often than not.” My dad added. “They’ll get back to us with our options, and we’ll make our decisions from there. It’s not really a situation we’ve personally dealt with before.”

I nodded. It was a power struggle situation. I had only had brief contact with the law and regulation agencies of this world. Mostly when they had made me register as a metal attuned.

The noble families were powerful, but that meant that the agencies that governed them were more so.

Did the nobles get preferential treatment?

It was something I would have to find out. I wouldn’t have much of a choice, considering we had to confront a noble household in the near future.

The conversation turned in a different direction as I saw my mum reaching her limit.

Tomorrow, I was busy the whole day. If I found time I would ask further details about the event itself.

My mum had said it was an accident caused by bravado. I believe her, but it didn’t narrow down what could’ve happened.

My mum and dad had begun their own plans, but that didn’t mean I couldn’t do anything myself.

I had connections as well.

“Can you help?” I whispered into the air.

I didn’t need to specify; the church knights always knew the context of my questions. Gerial had said I would get used to it, and I had, in a way.

It was a small taste of the lack of privacy that was to come.

“I will ask, Master Silver.” The wind brought a voice into my ear.

The church was offering me protection. Everything beyond that was off-limits until they confirmed my Mark was genuine.

They didn’t want me taking advantage of their resources and then turning out to be an imposter.

Still, it was worth a shot. They might decide that protecting me from a hostile household fell under their duties.

My mind cleared and I fell asleep.

The sun’s rays scattered across my room through the cracks in the ceiling. I had thought about covering them permanently with stone, but I had grown used to the connection with nature. Rainy nights were an exception.

I sat up and a feeling of excitement welled within my heart. It was Crijik, the first day of the weekend, and I needed to get ready for school.

It was time for my measuring.