-- Aster --

"I want to try." I couldn't believe I said that out loud. The group of boarders turned to me a few smiling or giggling, or looking on thoughtful.

One of the boarders with a goatee stepped forward, "Looks like we got new meat."

"Really man?" A tall man, with a long leather duster, long messy hair, and a five o'clock shadow. Holding a wooden snowboard with a slipstream design, and the image of golden flowers.

"What?" The goateed man asked indignantly.

The tall man shook his head, "That is the most cliche thing, you could have said...

"Ok..." The man stopped to think, "How about. Curios"

"Stop!" He cut the other man off.

"What?"

The man put his hand on his shoulder, "Just no."

The man broke into laughter seeing the man's face. The rest of the group joined in. I was starting to feel uncomfortable. Why was I even here? I was supposed to be looking for Bay.

I was about to try and sneak away when the man turned to me and asked, "So you want to try?"

I froze. Should I? I mean Bay is probably safe. She is strong and wanders sometimes. Using my flimsy justification I hesitantly said, "Yeah."

The man raised an eyebrow, "Can you?" Mullein's and all the boarders' eyes suddenly flashed gold for a moment.

My jaw dropped, and I could only smile. They were all cats. I let out a laugh and flashed my own eyes, but something was off. A lot more power than I meant to flash rushed through my eyes burning them and lighting up the roof. At the moment before, I was forced to shut my eyes I saw something strange. Around each of the riders, I saw a strange dark purple aura surrounding them.

I was rubbing my eyes when I heard, "Rot man. Didn't need to flash us."

How bright were my eyes? I felt my face heat up, as I apologized, "Sorry about that. Not used to the power in the air." My vision was still a little blurry but I caught what I thought was a suspicious look at what I said, "Did I say something wrong?"

The man I believed to be the leader now answered with a smile, "Doesn't matter. Man, you want to try sky boarding?"

I looked and saw each of them with a piece of wood. Some looked like snowboards and others like a basic piece of lumber. "Uh yeah. Looks like fun. I haven't had the chance to try hoping through the air yet."

The man laughed, "Nah, not thick enough for that, but it is just thick enough that if you have a board and push enough power through it, it's like snowboarding. I'm Mullein by the way."

"Nice to meet you."

"I don't know man. The way he flashed his eyes, he might be a mage." One of the women interrupted in a half-whisper.

Mullein turned to the man, "So. If he can do it. He can do it. Otherwise, he'll just fall, and it will be fun either way"

"Not a mage." I chimed.

"See." Mullein pointed out.

The girl just shrugged before giggling. Probably imagining me falling.

"Either way you're still going to fall." Someone from the group said.

"Thanks for the vote of confidence," I said sarcastically.

Mullein winced, "Sorry man. Nothing on you. Everyone falls the first time, and falling from this height isn't fun."

"Oh, but it looks so much fun," I whined and really wanted to try, I found myself taking a step forward, but found myself feeling slightly dizzy. whoa, head rush. I had to stop or I would have fallen over.

The goateed man seemed to have a revelation about something as he suddenly perked up and began whispering, "Mullein hey if he's new..."

"I know." Mullein cut him off. I wonder what he was going to say. His goatee is cool, I wish I could grow one.

"This is our chance." The man whisper shouted.

"I know. Shut up." Mullein said through gritted teeth.

"What?" I asked, curious. But I couldn't seem to really care. My mind was one hundred percent focused on their boards. I really wanted to try.

"Oh, don't worry about it, but this might be a good chance to show off," Mullein said while he and the rest of the group grabbed their boards.

I was excited to see some skilled riders. This is going to be awesome.

Mullein grabbed my arm, "Come with me to the edge." I let him pull me over to the edge. "First thing you need to know is there are rules. One doesn't board to the ground. They don't like it when we go all the way down. Two. You fall you fall. It happens to try not to get bent out of shape about it. Three respect one another. IE don't be a dick. Four have fun."

"Simple."

Mullein leaned in conspiratorially but asked excitedly, "You ready to see something awesome?"

The entire group jumped up onto the ledge of the building waiting for my answer.

I was feeling hot, and slightly dizzy. I had to grab the edge of the roof to keep myself from falling. I closed my eyes for a moment and found the strand of power had grown open again, flooding my body with more power than I could handle at once. I forced it closed as much as I could, almost instantly feeling the difference. After a minute or so I felt myself return to normal. When I opened my eyes Mullein looked at me concerned.

"You ok?"

I took a breath, "Yeah. Just, had something weird." I smiled at him to show I was fine, "You were going to show me something?"

"Yeah." He turned to the group, "Everyone ready?"

"Yeah!" They shouted as one.

"Go!"

I watched, confused. I was expecting them all to just jump off the edge, but instead, whirlpools of power began to swirl around and through each of them. The way the power was moving was like how a mage cast their spells, but something was off about it, and I couldn't quite put my finger on it. I wasn't too familiar with how mage spells fully worked. I thought they were rogues, but if they were mages then their eyes wouldn't glow, and why would they give me a hard time if I was a mage? I could only stare at the group in confusion.

Mullein seeing this smiled, "Confused?"

I nodded

"Just watch."

Mana flowed through each of them and out over their boards, saturating them in power. Even the two by four, which until this moment I was convinced was a joke. Then one by one they jumped out into the mist, and onto the boards. Wherever the boards touched, sparks flew in the air creating a beautiful trail of starlight. The air around them became thick with power as they drew more power, as they flew through the air maneuvering creating designs of starlight, and doing flips and tricks. It was a show just for me.

Then I saw one of them release some of her stored up power, thickening the air until a solid silver ramp construct appeared in front of her. Which she then used to jump off of gaining back some of her previous eight while doing a flip.

Each rider's whirlpool drawing in the mana never stopped, in fact, they looked to spin faster as they moved, growing. As they did each of them started to create constructs of their own. One of them created a rail to grind on, another their own loopy-loop. One even created giant balloons they were bouncing off of.

The magic they were doing was breathtaking and looked like a lot of fun. I understood how they were boarding down from the sky, but I had no idea where to even begin to create the constructs. Maybe some type of solidified mana? But they are visible to people. I cut the flow to my eyes to confirm that. The city cleared up and the constructs were real. I was caught off guard by the city with normal eyes. Seeing just a bunch of buildings. Weird. I shook my head and let the power flow once more, and turned back to the constructs. Maybe they took the principle of tagging, and found a way to make it almost real? I was just guessing at this point as I watch the group fly down through the sky.

Though their performance was amazing it wasn't until they were starting to get low that they showed me something that I couldn't quite grasp. One of the groups did something, and what I could only describe as a portal appeared below them, and they disappeared into it. I quickly searched around for them finding them back near the edge of the roof where they started. They saw me looking and smiled as they flew down again.

Did they just teleport?

After seeing that I focused on the remaining people determined to figure out what they had just done. Constructs were one thing. They were just a possible evolution of a cat's tag. But the portal. Portals lay squarely in the domain of mages. This entire show was a set of contradictions. They were both mages and rogues, and I was determined to understand.

I was watching as the next person opened a portal and even though they were quite a distance away I could see something. A small silver trail led from the portal to the building tops. When the man entered I watched as it pulsed, and I followed the power as it pules through the trail, and not a second later did they appear at the top of the building? This happened five more times, before one by one they all began to appear on the building sweating and exhausted.

I could only gape at them all laying exhausted but smiling. That only brought on a brought of laughter and excited smiles from the riders. "What did you think?" Mullein asked.

"Amazing!" I stared shouted, "But I have so many questions."

Mullein let out a laugh, "They always do. Ask."

I asked the first thing that came to mind, "What are you?"

"Tricksters!" He said with enthusiasm.

I had never heard of that class. Was it even a class? I tentatively asked, "Is that a subclass?

That only made the man smile wider, "No, it's a new class."

That only deepened my confusion, "A new class? That's possible?" Or was he just kind of exaggerating? But it was different from anything I'd seen before.

"Yeah, you just have to dedicate yourself to changing how you work with power."

When I fully comprehended what he was saying I didn't know if I should be horrified or not. To do what he was saying you would have to dedicate yourself to rebuilding everything about how you access your own power, and that would take years. Not to mention the pain from rewiring yourself, "But, that's..."

"Nearly impossible." Mullein finished for me before the rest of the group added their own two cents.

"Difficult."

"Crazy."

Mullein just shook his head, "Well, we are the first, and if we can get approval for the class. We will start a new guild."

"Wait. You mean you have a stamp?" I asked, wondering how that would be possible.

"Of course. What would a guild be without a stamp?" Mullein pulled out a silver stick I recognized as a stamp.

"But..." I stumbled over my words my eyes bulging as seeing the stamp. I remember reading in the library stamps only existed for the six basic classes, and there hadn't been any new classes in over 800 years. "How?"

"We just do. But were just missing one thing?"

"What's that?"

"Approval from a keeper."

I froze, but tried to remain cool, "But they are a myth." I felt sweat drip down my back. I'd actually love to give my approval, but then they would know what I am. Actually, I don't even know if the filter would let me give my blessing to it. At least not in front of them.

Mullein shook his head at my statement not showing any indication of seeing my discomfort, "Not a myth. At least not that we think. We think there out there watching, hiding, or something. But we just need one of them to say yes, and we can even make more stamps, to use."

"What animal would you pick?" Not sure why I asked. It just kind of slipped out. I saw the group visibly surprised by my question. I don't think they expected me to ask, or no one really thought to.

"Why not a cat?" The goateed man asked.

"Rogues have that." I pointed out, but I mean different classes can have the same animal...I think.

"Raven," Someone said.

I thought back to An la Notre, "I saw at least three warrior guilds with that one, and gone rogue." I guess there are guilds with the same name.

"Fox? Or coyote. those could be cool." Someone else chimed.

Mullein scratched his head, "It looks like we need to discuss it." Then turned back to me, "Are you ready for your first lesson?"

The sudden change in the topic through me as Mullein led me up to the edge while he had a wide piece of gray wood held out to me. The 'board' looked to be old and worn and looked like it had been broken a couple times.

"This is the newbie board. Isn't it?"

"Can't give you the good stuff. Besides this one has survived more than some people."

"ok..." I took the board and felt it over, not sure what to say or do.

Seeing my distress Mullein began, "To start with. Cover the entire board with mana. Yes, you'll eventually cover just the bottom and your feet, but your new to the sport it will help." Mullein put his board on the ground pointing to areas on the board, "When you do that the board will stick to your feet as well. It will feel strange at first, though interestingly enough if you were to just jump on the board and stand straight, and not lean forward you would slowly sink." Mullein jumped on the board demonstrating on the ground. "By leaning in a direction it will act a lot like snow as it glides under you. When you push against the power in the air it will help ground you to the board as the stickiness of mana is not absolute. In fact, it is just sticky enough to help you guide the board. Once you start to get the hang of it you figure out how to adjust your own power."

"That's a lot to remember," I said nervously.

"All you need to do is. Coat the board. Step on it, and lean forward, and you'll go. That's it."

"Ok..."I took a deep breath and followed his instructions as I looked down over the city from the top of the fifty-story building. All I could see was the mist surrounding the city. "I can do this."