The morning sun dripped onto my tender skin as I walked towards Koshima academy with Amanda. Gold nuzzled against my neck as he lay on my shoulder, and Agni clung onto my other side.

They were trying to act cute after leaving me at the mercy of Amanda.

The wall was quickly growing as I drew closer towards it. I could see students around us walking in the same direction, a few of them looking tired after last night.

Amanda was quiet as she walked beside me, her hair flaring lightly in the sunlight.

As I crossed the entrance of the wall into inner Koshima I felt a tug at my legs and the two birds on my shoulder tensed up.

I looked down and two bright eyes entered my vision, accompanied by a faint spattering of blue light. A cool sensation breezed over my skin as though I was walking through a light rain without the dampness.

“Hey Harpo. No hissing for me this time?” I smiled at the animal.

His purring filled the air as he walked between my legs, and I tried to avoid stepping on him by accident.

“Harpo!” A melodic voice called out.

I turned and a wave of blonde hair cascaded into my vision. It was the girl from my class, pursing her lips and calling Harpo over to her.

She huffed as the cat continued to ignore her, but her mouth opened into a grin as she saw Amanda and I.

“Hey!”

There was a spring in her step and a smile on her lips as she called to us. Waves of her hair folded past the shoulders of a modified school blazer; blue trimming added to the white fabric in intricate patterns.

“Your birds are multiplying.” She gave Gold and Agni a wave. “And did you get a tan?”

The girl has met me a few times, mostly during class and the first trip I’d made to the Zodiac earth library.

“I was trying out a new regent.” I lied smoothly. “It’ll be gone before lunch break.”

Amanda shot me an apologetic look, but our classmate didn’t see it as she stepped next to me.

She twirled her finger in the air. “Do you mind if I join you two?”

“Sure.” I smiled at her.

Amanda nodded her head and gazed at our classmate’s blazer. I couldn’t see any practical use for the blue patterns she’d etched into it. They didn’t look like symbols.

“I love what you’ve done with the uniform.” Amanda’s eyes lit up. “These are Inné patterns, right?”

She stuck her hand out.

“I don’t think we’ve formally spoken before, I’m Amanda.”

“Roxanne. But I prefer Roxxy.” Roxxy shook her hand. “Potential connection and water magician.”

“Water?” “Connection?”

Amanda and I spoke at the same time.

“Want to see?” She chuckled.

She spread her fingers out and the space in front of her hand shimmered. The patterns on her blazer glowed as well, and a small ball stream of water flowed out of her clothes and into the air.

They merged to form a ball of water.

“The hard part is storing it in a way that doesn’t dampen my clothes.”

Roxxy tugged the water towards her and juggled the ball in her hands. Amanda was entranced, and I activated my mana sense.

Blue mana swam by me and gathered in front of Roxxy. The ball was growing as she walked.

I waved at the mana, and it waved back. It felt more inviting to me than the fire mana in Amanda’s mansion.

“Do you work as a water magician at Zodiac?” I asked.

The first time I had met Roxxy was when she had guided me to the Zodiac compound in Koshima.

Zodiac only accepted graduates or higher into the company. A young teen had to be incredibly talented even to be considered for a mask.

“I wish. Then I’d be purifying water tanks all day and living a cush life.” Roxxy pointed towards my legs. “That little guy is my charge.”

Harpo purred in response to her words and there was a tug at my shoulder as Gold inched away from the cat.

Two slitted eyes were staring up at the puffer from my legs. They looked hungry.

“You’re a walking menagerie.” Roxxy giggled as she saw my plight.

The trip to the academy was quick and fun. Even Amanda found it easy to talk to Roxxy.

Easygoing and breezy, and quick to inject herself smoothly into conversations and events without missing a beat, Roxxy carried the conversations at her own pace.

I was surprised I hadn’t seen her at Unice’s party. She seemed like the kind of person that would have thrived in that environment.

Maybe we had missed each other.

“What’s it like being attuned to connection?” My curiosity rose.

The connection element was the one I had the least contact with. I had seen it used once, when Roxxy had called Harpo to her when I’d first met her.

The cat had disappeared once we’d got into the middle of the city. The Koshima academy entrance was visible now, and we were only a few minutes away.

“I thought you were attuned with connection.” She drew the ball of water back into her pockets. “You have a trio of animals wrapping themselves around you. Not to mention Harpo likes you, and he’s usually hissy around new people.”

“He was pretty hissy with me a few days ago. And I’m earth and metal attuned.” A thought crossed my mind. “Isn’t there a connection studies class that you go to?”

Roxxy shook her head.

“Koshima academy doesn’t offer a connection program, only water. I don’t have the mana or time to focus on two elements, so I chose one.” She waved a finger in the air and I saw blue mana gathering around it. “It's more practical for me to focus on water magic, plus, there’s only one academy for connection magicians and it was way too snobby for my tastes. The job is just for the gold.”

She waved her hand dismissively.

“Anyway, did you guys do your symbols homework?” She frowned. “I really don’t get why they have to be so perfect.”

“You can say that twice.” Amanda grinned. “This guy over here tells me it has something to do with concepts and reality, and all I’m thinking is that if my fingers wobble one more time and screw up my work, I’m going to cut them off.”

“Add mine to the pile while you’re at it.” Roxxy agreed.

The rest of the walk passed quickly, and we moved into our usual seats, with Roxxy behind me, and Amanda and William on either side of me.

“Thanks for the advice.” I gave William a pat on the back. “I just wish I’d had you with me this morning.”

William scanned me from top to bottom with his eyes.

“I don’t think your decision was unwise.” He smiled. “The tan looks good.”

I heard an amused chirp and looked to my side.

Agni hopped onto Amanda’s head and Gold rested on my shoulder. We had symbol studies, so he’d chosen to stay.

“Try not to make noise today.” I scratched his neck.

I wasn’t referring to his squawks.

I had seen him pick up another pebble from the hills in front of the main academy building. He was going to try and make another regent.

He didn’t like using my earth creation materials because of the mana interference. He’d run into the same problems that I knew I eventually would if I tried to use them for regents.

I constantly reminded him not to create them in school. He could study symbols, he always looked nonchalant about it, but regents were off-limits.

“Hey guys!” Ouros’ voice boomed over us.

I waved at him, and he took a seat on the table beside Amanda and I. He was usually sitting with Unice, but today I could see Alexis and Unice together, both of them struggling not to sleep on their tables.

Hutton and Cresp were beside them and also looked tired, though they kept their heads up high.

Their group had kept the party going.

Tago of the earth formed in our room and checked us off his classlist. I zoned out for a moment and Amanda nudged me in the side.

‘Arena, Mehta. Tomorrow after school we do a real spar? Ask Tago.’

One of our dome sessions was booked for tomorrow afternoon. With Amanda and Alexis’ fight on Inné, the last day of the week couldn’t come slow enough.

We wanted to see if we could get some real practice in, and for that we needed Tago to give us permission.

I approached him after class and his body turned towards me.

“Andross. Do you have a question for me?”

He listened to my explanation and his body was still.

“A live spar must be supervised from a distance by a staff member at all times.” Tago paused. “I will put in an application to supervise one session. If it is not approved, you will do ordinary exercises only. Should anything I deem dangerous occur I will immediately stop you both. Is this to your liking?”

“Of course.” I smiled.

“The application will be approved or denied by tomorrow morning. I will let you know then.” He dismissed me.

His body unformed in front of my eyes, the individual pieces rolling into the walls and disappearing.

“From your expression I’m guessing it’s good news.” Amanda said as I approached her.

We made our way towards the symbol studies classroom. I’d thought all our classes were going to be inside the same room once we had our finalised class members.

That wasn’t the case for some of the subjects.

The symbols studies classroom was a regent and it needed to be present for professor Pernacles to conduct his lessons.

Our symbol studies class wasn’t as anticipated as I’d thought it would be. The class took the lessons seriously, but the amount of effort and training required to get even a single symbol to work properly had turned my classmates off the subject.

They were working through the eight symbols of the basic elements.

Apparently not everyone started by learning the sun symbol. My own work was displayed in front of me, three different regent materials placed carefully in front of me.

Gold had left my shoulder and was sitting on Amanda’s side of our table.

He didn’t want to disturb my work.

“I’ve inscribed the protection symbol, and I intend to add the connector symbols tonight or tomorrow.”

I handed the completed protection symbol for Pernacles to examine. The glass hadn’t moved, and the lines were still intact after a day.

That was good.

A scriber constantly ran the risk that materials would shift slightly after being inscribed with a symbol, causing the work to be lost or at least need some fixing.

This material in particular had been made malleable, so it ran a higher risk of symbol disfiguration.

“Good job.”

Pernacles scrutinized the glass shard carefully.

“At your current speed your regent should be completed within the month.” He handed the material back to me. “Please let me know if you need clarification or help.”

“I will, sir.” I nodded. “I’ve also learnt my first scriber skill, symbol inscription.”

The news brought a smile to his face, and he handed me a new set of symbol variations to practice.

Instead of focusing on my regent, he told me to focus on leveling my skill for the rest of the class. It would help my overall success rate a lot more in the future. I spent the rest of the lesson filling out empty pages, but I would still have to focus on the regent at home.

I’d been rewarded with more homework.

“Holy Fue, you weren’t wrong when you said he was good at symbols.” I heard a whisper from beside me.

Roxxy had taken a seat next to Amanda and was leaning forward on her desk, looking at the pages of symbols I was inscribing and tossing aside.

“He’s a symbol nerd.” Amanda whispered back to her.

I pushed her pen out of her reach in response.

My next classes passed by quickly. History, math and science.

Our class spent the whole day together.

Unlike the temporary class I’d been placed in for the first week, we all felt a sense of competition as well as comradery. There were several people vying for the top spot in each class.

Amanda and Alexis were trying their hardest in science. Roxxy dominated math, even beating me, and Hutton and the pair of students that used life magic were answering all the history questions.

I didn’t feel a need to compete with them. I’d already kicked their butts in symbols class.

Our final class was C-class.

“Andross.” Mr Black gazed at me. “I have taken into account your measuring results as well as your current skills. We will have an in depth talk about your accomplishments and potential skills next week Ength and I will finalise your class option list from there.”

I took the sheet from him and nodded. Ength was the second last weekday, so I had nothing on, and having a private session with Mr Black was more than worth the cost of a single afternoon or evening.

Gold flew into the air the moment Amanda and I exited the academy entrance. I didn’t head home through the nexus portal straight away.

“Hey, Andross!” A voice called out to me as we walked down the hill.

I turned around to find myself facing Alexis.

“I’m glad I caught up with you.” He shot me a grin. “I was wondering what your response was to coming to my gathering.”

His hair flared up lately as I took my time to respond. A night among classmates was nice, but they weren’t my friends.

Then again, they would only be my friends if I spent time with them and got to know them properly.

I nodded my head and I saw joy cross his expression.

“Yeah, I’ll go.”