"Hey wake up."

I open my eyes and stare at the blue sky.

"Wake up." Raven says.

I sit up and look around. We are stationary on the cart, on the road in the forest.

"You've slept long enough." Raven says.

"What happened." I yawn.

"You took a whole two days with that fire light show." Raven says. "Then you slept for a day. Oh, i was told to give you this when you woke." Raven passes me a letter.

It reads:d.'

"So is a source like a spirit?" I question.

"I asked that." Raven says, "They said they the difference was like that between a glass ball and a self filling bottle of sand."

Boar passes me a set of fur clothes. "Put these on."

I climb off the cart and go behind a tree to change.

Boar calls out, "We are behind schedule. So hurry up."

The clothes fit well.

I return to the cart. Raven passes Boar a small box. Boar opens it up and beckons me closer. The inside is filled with many vials of different coloured liquid. "What's that for?" i ask.

"You are going to have to take off your mask when you enter class. You will need a disguise." Boar replies opening a red bottle. He picks up a paintbrush. "Hold still."

"So why do i need a mask at all?" I question.

Boar draws a red line down my face, "It doesn't work long term, and it's expensive."

"And it's hard to remove and reapply quickly." Raven adds.

Wearing the mask enter the entrance hall of the castle. There stood the older woman from the lady's speech. She frowned heavily at me.

"You're late. Lessons started a day ago. And while i understand your circumstances that does not mean i will tolerate any disruption to the running of the school or the running of the castle." She said sternly as if politely describing my death. "Now if you would follow me."

I was lead to a room on the second floor. She opened the door long enough for me to be forcefully pushed in, before closing the door behind me.

The classroom is filled with rows desks of escalating height, facing a large black board. My entry had drawn the silence and attention of the dozen children my age, and a thin neatly dressed man.

The neat man spoke. "You must be Lore. Masks aren't allowed so could please remove it."

I slowly reach up and remove my mask, revealing a scarred face, and drawing shock and a single gasp from the others.

"I think in this case i will make ab exception." The man says. "Please take a seat."

I quickly return the mask to my face and look at the desks. I spot Rose, she appears to be sulking by herself on the back row. I walk up and sit right beside her, saying nothing.

A flash of light.

My left arm burns with a tingleing numbness. I slowly turn my head.

With her head in her arms she mumbles, "Sorry, perhaps you should sit somewhere else."

I ignore her.

lesson 1: General magic

Magic has many forms and elements.

The eight main elements form a circle, they are:

Fire, life, earth, gravity, water, soul, wind, and lightning.

They can be used in many forms.

Chanting is the most used in battle due to the consistancy of the effects and the ease of group chanting. However the chants are often overly long.

Circle magic is the most used out of battle due to it's activation speed and ease of use. However takes a long time to prepare.

Source magic is a magic that represents a certain aspect of an element, a single person can have one source. However if not born with one can obtain any with the right resources and it is often difficult to control without minimal training.

Spirit magic is an ancient magic which is used to draw out one's spirit, however with the exception of the warriors they cannot be used for long periods of time. However if a spirit is destroyed it is perminantly destroyed.

After a lesson of randomly being hit by lightning it was lunch. The cafeteria was a large hall above the kitchens. Since i couldn't eat without removing my mask, i sat in silence, just resting my eyes.

A hand grabbed my shoulder shaking me awake. I turn to see it was a boy from my class, with straw coloured hair and an impish grin he said, "You can't sleep now, it's fencing." I follow him to the next class. He leads me through an unfamiliar part of the castle and outside to a large courtyard. It appears we were the last ones to arrive.

"Welcome everyone, I am snowdrop and i will be teaching you the art of the sword." A tall woman stood with a thin sword on her waist and a wooden sword in her hand. She points the sword at a pile of wooden swords "Everyone take a sword."

We all pick up a sword.

She continues, "Fighting is an artform and as such requires time, practice and experiance to master."

The boy who lead me here spoke up, "But there is no way that you can be stronger than a warrior right?."

"Strength is not everything in a fight." She replies. "Perhaps a demonstraition would help, who would like to volunteer?"

Everyone turns to face me. I sigh. I should have askes for a different backstory.

I step forward and approach her. She holds her sword across her body with two hands. I copy her.

She steps forward swinging her sword down. I raise my sword between her sword and my body.

thwack, the sound of her sword clsshing against mine echoes across the courtyard. The sound reminding me of something familiar. Snowdrop steps back, pulling her sword back then lunging, thrusting.

I step back releasing the grip from my left hand. I press my hand into the flat of the blade of my wooden sword, spining it to block snowdrop's thrusting sword. smack

borrowing the force from the block Snowdrop circles her sword around mine aiming towards my head.

I slide my right foot back releasing my sword from my right hand, catching it in the left, with the flat of the blade running down my forearm, i raise my left hand. crack.

Snowdrop's sword is stopped my mine.

I step back, returning the sword to my right hand Snowdrop swings her sword overhead, i sidestep to the left swinging my sword horizontally at her exposed torso, she ducks reversing her sword diagonally up my body, i flick my sword 180 degrees in my grip, and moving it into a block. whack

I lose my grip on my sword as it is knocked from my hand.

"As you can see strength isn't everything. Now everyone form a line and we shall practice the basics."

I go pick up my sword.