The next morning came late; Florian didn’t have to wake up for training, and he could afford to grab a small breakfast of the bread that was rationed out to everyone with a bit of his salted Hellwolf meat. It was far from the most gourmet meal he’d ever had, but the meat still energized him, tasting excellent despite the copious amounts of salt.

Few were in the cafeteria at the same time he was, most of the tables remained empty as he ate his meal. For the most part, he saw familiar faces dressed in their grey robes. It seemed that they had the same idea he did. Some of the slower learners nodded his way in greeting, while the more advanced disciples kept to themselves.

It didn’t take long for him to finish the food, opting to get a quick shower in rather than sitting around and waiting for his class to begin. If there was one thing immediately better about living in the keep annex, it was that it came with real shower facilities fueled by the water they collected in large tubs above every building and next to every tent. It hadn’t rained much recently, but he was sure there was some kind of reserve for this thing. And if there wasn’t… Jones treated his people well.

Florian found that his first real shower in years was as amazing as he remembered them being. Despite the water pressure being lacking under normal circumstances, the cool water that came from the showerhead rejuvenated him more than even mana did. It was unfortunate that the only clothes he had were the cloth pants and shirt he’d received when he joined the Warriors – they stunk and would make his efforts in the shower moot.

Coming out of the bathroom wrapped in nothing but a towel, Florian noticed that a set of robes had been placed on his bed, his old clothes gone. These new robes were a light blue, structurally the same as the robes the other disciples wore but with a sorely-needed splash of color. He wondered whether this design choice was Theo’s, and then immediately decided that it was. Wearing robes in the modern day, in 2033, was just unfashionable any way he cut it.

“Damn,” he muttered. Fashion-backward though they were, Florian found them to be much more comfortable than his old clothes. That said, they lacked pockets, and were immediately a flawed design because of it.

Walking up to the keep, passing through the garden that was immaculately kept by the groundskeepers, Florian nodded to Larry and Terry. Their green capes bellowed in the wind as they nodded to him, Terry even gracing him with a smile. Florian wondered about that, but he was glad to see it anyway.

The room was as calm as ever when he entered, none of his students occupying the room yet. Instead, it was empty, illuminated by the morning sun and sheltered from the noisy world down below. There was a reason that Theo had selected this room, after all. He didn’t get long to enjoy the peace, as the advanced disciples walked in and took their usual spots by the window he stood at. “Good morning, senior disciple,” one of them said, a young man with a stocky build and uncombed brown hair.

“Good morning,” Florian smiled, watching the rest of his students filter through the front door, greeting those that took it upon themselves to talk to him. Once all the disciples were accounted for, Florian walked up in front of everyone. It was time for class to begin.

Theo took that very moment to walk through the doors, dressed in immaculate navy blue robes. That was new, Florian thought. Even when he’d met Theo the previous day, the blonde-haired wizard had worn the regular grey robes.

Clapping to get the attention of the few disciples who had already begun meditating, Theo began his piece, “As I have told you all yesterday, Disciple Cale will be taking care of your instruction for me for the foreseeable future. Once you achieve measurable results, I will consider bringing you into my inner circle. For those of you who I have already acknowledged, our sessions will be postponed to the evenings.” The advanced learners nodded along to that last bit. “Please do your best to make the most of these lessons, or you will be replaced.”

And then, sudden as a tornado, Theo was gone from the room, walking briskly past Florian and back into the hallway outside. Shaking his head, Florian saw that the threat had shaken a few of the disciples, Wesley among them.

“Don’t let that get to you,” Florian said. “You’ll get better as you practice, and you’ll reach Th-“ Florian began, catching himself in time. “-Master’s expectations. Until then, I’d like to hear how each of you have been approaching the visualization during meditation.”

The same brown-haired man from earlier spoke up first. “We do it the way Master taught us, layering the mana, as you’ve called it, over us and meditate under the universe’s influence.”

Florian paced at the front of the room, calling on Wesley when he didn’t get any more volunteers. Wesley’s head rocketed up, his eyes wide as he regarded Florian. Florian encouraged him with a smile.

“I-I do the same thing as Mack said,” Wesley said, indicating the stocky disciple up in front.

“Does anyone do it differently?” Florian asked, scanning the small group in front of him. No one moved to respond. “Does anyone want to try something different? I’ve found that visualizing the mana entering my body through breathing has been remarkably helpful. Gives you more to focus on when you’re meditating.”

A few nodded at that, though none of them were from the disciples that Theo had instructed on a more personal level. Wesley, surprisingly enough, was the first to agree to give it a go during the class. Not seeing any more takers, Florian clapped and started the meditation part of class. He walked over to where Wesley waited, sitting down beside his volunteer.

Wesley was a diligent student, asking questions about the exact process Florian used. How long did he breathe in for? Breathe out? Did he take in as much mana as possible?

“Depends, depends, and yes,” he answered, answering the first questions among a litany. By the end of it, most of the students around them were already taking a break. But Wesley wasn’t deterred in the slightest, taking the opportunity to begin his own meditation beside Florian. Florian, for his part, sensed Wesley taken in the ambient mana around him, where more was available for the fact that fewer disciples were actively trying to interact with it.

Instead of flowing around him, the mana flowed into Wesley. It was a bit trippy, seeing the motes of mana disappear for moments at a time before they reappeared around Florian’s student.

“This hurts, Disciple Cale,” Wesley wheezed, clutching at his chest. “It feels like it’s burning.”

And then, all at once, the mana Wesley had been manipulating appeared around him in a cloud. The motes were greatly dimmed, almost as if Wesley had consumed something from them. He’d never noticed anything like this when he meditated himself. This, this was something he hadn’t expected in the slightest. It gave him a lot to think about as he continued teaching his students. Fortunately for him, not very many of them had questions and he could spend the majority of his time meditating on his own. Still, despite looking out for it, he didn’t see – or feel – anything out of the ordinary.

Something was significant about this discovery; he knew that much for certain. He just had to figure out what that something was.