Jason slumped back in his chair and sighed. He was doing as James requested and trying to make the light appear floating in the air. It was the end of the fourth week, and he wanted to be able to cast it before entering the Dungeon. As he wanted both hands unencumbered.

Alex looked up from his essay and grinned. “Having trouble?”. Jason nodded, “Ahh, it’s so frustrating, I can make it work only one in five times, but it’s really weak”.

Alex wrote more before replying. “Maybe it’s just practise”. Jason shook his head. “No, it’s not, I feel like I’m missing something”. He smacked his hand against the table.

He sighed again. “Why don’t you just ask James?”. Alex offered. Jason thought about that.

“You know sometimes, I think you have some great ideas”. Alex laughed. “Where would he be?”. Jason looked outside, it was around ten, not to late.

“He’d be in the classroom”. Jason grabbed his bag and jumped out. Much to the dismay of Alex, who called after him. “You think you could have helped me?”. But Jason was too far down the hallway to hear.

Jason found James pouring over a large stack of papers. “Oh, thank the Gods, a distraction”. He seemed overly glad Jason had come.

“Sorry for interrupting sir, I just had some questions”. James waved his hands. “Well feel free to continue interrupting”. Jason looked over his desk at the papers. “What’s bad about this?”

James scowled, “Well this is the fifth-year classes essays that I have to grade”. Jason nodded. “You teach the fifth years?”. James sighed and leaned back. “Yeah, the hardest class and the easiest one”.

He pushed the pile of papers away. “Anyway, what can I help you with?”. Jason nodded; glad he had gotten to the point. “I’m having trouble with the light spell; I can only make it work one out of five times”. James grinned with a wicked simile. “Oh, I see”, “You were right to come to me, I thought you would’ve come sooner”. Jason glared at him.

“Ok, let me ask you this, how do you tell is someone is a mage?”. Jason thought, “their clothes”. James shook his head. “The answer is the same for you question, kind of anyway”. Jason got it. “Mana, I guess?”. James grinned, “got it in one”

“Do you know why we have only thought you those two spells?”. He wiped his brow. “No, course you don’t, cast sparks”. Jason was taken back by the sudden change. He shrugged and cast.

“Now look at the mana”. Jason did so, not sure what he was looking for. “alright stop”. The glow of yellow left the room. “Ok, what does the two spells have in common?”. Jason looked at his palm. “they both are your mana coming outside your body”. James answered for him.

“The reason why we haven’t given you any other spells, it because you need to learn how to push your mana out of yourselves. That is because most spells are ones that require you to channel your mana outside you body”. Jason nodded in understanding.

“So, the purpose of the two spells are to bridge that gap, because they both project the mana outside the body, right?”. He nodded, “now with this in mind, try again.

Jason sat on the marble floor and searched for his centre. He had done this every night, so it came quickly. He opened his mana. It bust free and swamped his body. He needed to keep moving. To get the mana outside his body. He tried pushing it out. He only managed to get a sliver out.

He cast sparks and watched closely. Mana flowed into the spell and the lightning blossomed. He was not interested in the lightning so, he looked deeper. He stopped finding what he was looking for.

With out realising it he cast the whole light spell, “May the light guide me, lux”. No words were spoken, but the spell worked. He forged a link between him and the light, mana went through.

He opened his eyes to see James back at his desk and writing on paper. There was a light. He had done it, casting the light spell without it touching him. Above his head was a circle of light, almost looking like a halo. He stopped the spell and the halo was gone. He did it again, this time was easier. The light came almost immediately.

“Well done, not only did you make it appear without it touching your body, you can now say you have mastered the simplest spell in existence”. James told him with a hint of sarcasm. “I don’t know why you made it into a halo, but whatever”. Jason got up and stretched. “how long was I here for?”.

“an hour”. Bowing in respect, he gave his thanks. “Don’t forget to keep working on your mana sight”. Jason muttered his agreement. It was another thing he had to do is his limited time.

“Oh, wait a second Jason”. James called out. He turned around and looked back at James. “Go to Quint and ask him for another spell”. Jason frowned. “Now that you know what to do you should get a real spell”. Jason nodded, “Where is he?”. James smiled, “The same place he always is, down at the training area”. Jason turned away and starting walking down the stairs.

James was right, Quint sat quietly on a chair reading a large tome. Remarkably, he looked up as Jason approached. Nodded his head in greeting he spoke.

“James said I should come down and learn a real spell”. Quint grunted. “thinks you’re ready, does he?”. Jason could only think so, “Yes?”. “Alright”. Quint stood up and lead him over to the small building that stored the training equipment. Going inside, Quint strode his way over to a wall covered in books.

“You want a darkness of lightning one?”. Jason could barely hear the question. He was glad he was asked; Jason was getting a bit miffed at his lack of darkness spells. “Darkness” he said then added, “Please”. Quint spoke in his gravelly voice, “At least, you have some manners”. Quint crouched down and pulled out a book, opening it he ripped out a page. “Here you go”. Jason said thanks as he took the page.

Quint wasn’t done with him, “Wait, practise here with the training dummies”. Jason didn’t say anything and walked back to the dummies.

Reviewing everything he knew, he read the chant and prepared himself. “From the darkness below attack my foes, Shadow Strike”. The midday sun above him. He felt mana rush out of him and towards the dummy. The dummies meagre shadow raised up and then fell back to the ground. As if it was afraid of the sun.

Quint laughed. “You can do better then that, surely”. Glaring at him, Jason steeled himself. He directed his irritation into the spell. Grasping at more mana, he cast again. “From the darkness below attack my foes, Shadow Strike”. This time he spoke with more vigour and the spell respond from it. The shadow spiked upwards and pierced throw the leg of the dummy. The shadow was thin, and weak, only able to go throw half of the dummy. But for Jason that was enough.

Looking over at Quint he couldn’t keep a grin off his face. “Is that better”. Quint took it in stride, “Yep”. He promptly left Jason there and went back to reading his thick tome. Jason stayed there for most of the day, he only left as the sun dropped behind the wall.

Searching throw the crowds of people at dinner, he saw Alex sitting with the rest of the girl. He was clearly having fun if the large amounts of laughter could be judged. Jason slipped into an empty seat next to him, slapping him on the back, he grinned at Alex

“Having fun without me?”. Alex saw him and blushed. “Well, maybe”. The others hadn’t seen Jason all day. So, naturally they asked him. “Where were you?” Kyler was the one to breach the topic. Smiling at them, he dug into his food. “You’re looking at a master of a single spell”. Sophie looked up. “What spell?”. “The light spell”.

He looked around then made a very soft ball of light appear in the air between then, scaring Alex. “Wow that’s good”. He nodded and the topic changed.

Making his way back to his room, he was met with a bad sight. Lucas, standing in his way. It was clear that he had been drinking and was leaning on the walls. Jason ignored him and resumed walking along the other side of the hallway. Then Lucas did something stupid, he opened his mouth.

“Hey, isn’t it the one and only commoner”. His words was slurred. He stood up, unsteadily. “You think you can ignore me”. He yelled at Jason. Jason ignored him, tired from his day of spellcasting. Just wanting to get to bed. “I bet your mother would be really proud of you, dam commoner”. Jason frowned. “Almost as proud as when some mage took pity on her, like the fifth who-”. Jason was overcome with rage, he was very sensitive about his mother, and that combined with his tiredness, made him snap.

His fist smashed into Lucas’ face before he knew what he was doing. Lucas fell to the floor but jumped up, “HOW DARE YOU” he screamed. He lunged at Jason. Jason had enough of his taunting and met his challenge headfirst.

He was pushed into the wall by the enraged Lucas, who had grabbed him around the waist. Grunting, he brought his elbow down into Lucas’ back, which made him loosen his grip. Shoving him off, Jason kicked him. He had been waiting for an opportunity for something like this for a while.

Lucas didn’t know the difference in fighting skills, and even if he did, it didn’t matter. It was a brawl. Jason was hit hard in the face by Lucas’ face. Clearly Lucas had been taught something about fighting.

The fight was not silent and approaching students could see them trashing the hall. Not seeing a way past they waited. Lucas backed off Jason and reached into a small bag at his side. He pulled out a sword. Jason was unable to see how the blade had fitted into the tiny bag. The fight had taken a turn in the more lethal direction.

Yelling drunkenly, Lucas slashed at him. Jumping away, Jason was looking for a way to get rid of the sword, and a very foolish idea came his mind. The sword was made from metal, Jason knew.

The next time Lucas haphazardly slashed at him, he reached forward and grabbed the sword while yelling “Sparks”. The small amount of voltage ran down the blade and shocked Lucas. Ripping the blade out of his hands. Jason throw it down the hallway. Where it impaled itself in the ground and quivered.

Jason was about to advance on Lucas when he heard a yell. “STOP”, it was the hallway monitor. Who after getting called by students came to see what the commotion was.

“What the hell is going on here?”. He asked no-one in particular. Seeing Jason standing there, blood running down his cut hands he sighed and shook his head, “I thought we agreed that you wouldn’t cause any trouble, Jason Blackwood”. He looked down at the slumped Lucas. “And Lucas WhiteSage, what a duo you are”.

Once again Jason was sitting under the watchful eye of the Arch Mage, but this time, almost all the masters were there, peering at him. And next to him sat Lucas. Jason rubbed his bandaged hands together.

The Arch Mage finished speaking to the hall monitor and looked forward. “What are we going to do with you?”, he huffed. “We can’t expel you. But we can’t leave you unpunished”. He looked around the room, “Any-one got an idea?”. A woman with green hair came out. “I need some help to gather Midnight mushrooms, they can to it”. The Arch Mage nodded, pleased with the idea. “Ok, that’s good”. He rang the bell sitting next to him and most of the masters vanished, teleporting away. Probably back to bed, it was late after all.

The green haired woman can down and took them outside. “For your punishment, you’re coming with me to the Silent Forest and getting some of these”. She pulled out a blue mushroom with white dots on the top.

Jason and Lucas both nodded, to scared to vocalize their fear. The Silent Forest was known to kill travellers, especially at night. Who knows what kind of beast would come out and hunt.

Before either one could say something, the world around them twisted, and distorted. Dizziness overcame Jason, but when it stopped, Lucas was worse off, vomiting on the ground.

Jason looked at their new surroundings. Tall trees surrounded them, swaying in the wind. The trees made no sound, Jason realised, then smacked himself, it was the Silent Forest after all.

The green aired woman was unsurprised at the sudden change, pulling a book out of her pocket she began reading. “You can’t expect us to do this right?” Lucas spoke with a waver in his voice, Jason felt the same.

She nodded, “Yes I do, don’t worry if any beast attack, I’ll drive them off”. Seeing no alternatives Jason began walking around looking for the mushrooms. As they worked, Jason and Lucas had to go further and further away from the Mage.

It was his second last load when danger came. As he reached down to pick up the last one, a vine wrapped around his ankle and pulled him into the air. Not even having time to scream, Jason’s thoughts went wild. This is how I die; a random tree kills me. There was a flash of light and the vine slackened it’s grip. Jason fell to the ground, which somehow had become soft. He ran over to the mage who had put her book away and had a brown glow in her eyes.

Seeing that he was safe, the glow dimmed. She bent over and pulled her book of the ground and continued reading. Lucas was also right next to her. And after a few minutes of them not gathering mushrooms, she spoke to them.

“What are you doing, you still need to get one more load”. Lucas looked stricken. “You expect us to go back out there, when the monster is still out there”. She nodded.

Feeling numb Jason went back into the night. Luckily no other monster attacked, and when they had gathered their final load, the mage nodded and the folding of the space around them came, and the suddenly amazing sight of the tower came into view.

Jason went to his room, ignoring the cries of Alex, he didn’t bother to bath, he was so tired. He fell on to his bed, and despite his life flashing before his eyes, just minutes before he fell asleep swiftly.