On Monday morning, Olivia sat next to Veena, as usual, in their Enchanting lab, and while they waited for Professor Brince to come in, she asked, “Isn’t it odd that there are seven days in your week and on my planet we also have seven days in a week?”

“Yeah, that comes up quite often. You know Fanwath was formed from the merging of four other worlds by the System, right?”

“Yes.” Olivia nodded.

“Well, according to the histories I’ve read, the peoples that came from different worlds had a lot of things in common—seven day weeks, similar body shape, well, most of them, some of the same customs, etcetera. What’s even odder is that when some of the larger cities started to develop City Stones and open up teleportation between worlds, the first high-level visitors were remarkably, oh, compatible might be the right word here.”

“So they also had seven-day weeks? What about other customs, like I’ve noticed dining customs and, oh, everything!”

“I don’t think they all did, but many, yes. Some people claim it’s the System manipulating cultures on worlds as it finds them, spending a few thousand years making them more compatible before the merger. Some say it’s the elder races—that they visited thousands, maybe millions of worlds long before there was a System and that we’re all kind of related through them. I’m sure people living on older worlds know more than we do. Well, I shouldn’t say we; I should say I. There are plenty of people in our world who know more than my history teachers or I do.”

“Well, the System isn’t present on Earth, so I think that theory must be wrong.”

“As far as you know, you mean.” Veena grinned as Olivia connected the dots.

“Yeah, I guess the System may be manipulating things on my planet behind the scenes. I doubt it, though—we’re way past this world when it comes to tech; I don’t think it would have been shaping our culture for thousands of years and then allow us to develop nukes and spaceships and AI. It seems like that would make integration harder rather than easier.”

“Hmm, yeah, who knows. Maybe it’s the elder races theory.”

“Just who are the elder races?” Olivia asked, and Veena opened her mouth to answer, but that’s when Professor Brince stepped into the room and called for quiet. Olivia turned her attention to the professor and was pleased to learn that they’d be practicing the artificing they’d done last week before moving on to the day’s lesson.

By the end of the class, she felt a lot better about what she’d missed while in the detention cell. Veena helped her with a few pointers, and she was able to apply the book learning she’d done without too much difficulty; she created a rune phrase that, when etched with Energy, caused a book’s pages to flip by themselves every thirty seconds. It wasn’t really a wondrous enchantment, but it was a proof of concept that had Olivia’s mind whirling at potential applications.

The page-turning effect was part of a generic rune-set that allowed for autonomous movement. Olivia started to imagine gears inscribed in such a way and used in a larger machine—she could already envision clockwork automobiles powered by Energy. Before they left, she gathered some little scraps of material that she could practice on, checking with Professor Brince beforehand; the last thing she wanted was to get in trouble again before Friday. Brince had okayed her request and even suggested a shop in town where she could buy some artificing equipment like etching chisels, shears, blades, and needles.

On the way to Alchemy, Olivia lagged a bit behind her cohort as she sorted through the big handful of metal scraps she’d taken, trying to organize them a little before she stuffed them into her ring. She felt a presence over her shoulder, and then Sarice’s voice said, “Glad you're back, Olivia.” Olivia contained the impulse to flinch away—Sarice spoke very close to her ear. Instead, she slowed down, turning so that Sarice would come up beside her.

“Thanks. I’m glad to be back too.” Olivia looked around, feeling an urge to see who was watching or listening while she spoke to Sarice. Maybe she wanted to know if Gwinna was nearby, or perhaps she wanted to make sure Shani wasn’t watching; she still insisted that Olivia should avoid Sarice. She didn’t see anyone paying attention to them, though, so she relaxed and kept walking.

“Well, I don’t think it’s fair how they treated you like you were guilty. That’d never stand in Persi Gables—that’s my home city.”

“No, nor in my home. I could be arrested but not held without evidence. Well, at least not for very long, I don’t think. My knowledge of the justice system comes from watching crime dramas.”

“Oh? I love dramas! I’ve even visited the great Ridonne Playhouse!”

“Isn’t that the empire where Rald is from?”

“Hmm, Rald? He’s the big fellow in your cohort? I wouldn’t be surprised; there are a lot of Shadeni living in the Ridonne Empire. They make up a large part of their military.” Olivia noticed that Sarice had slowed down while she spoke and that they’d lagged further behind her cohort. She started to feel a little nervous, and though she wondered if she was just being paranoid, she decided not to take any risks.

“Thanks for the kind words, Sarice, but I need to catch up to my cohort—I have to talk to them. See you in the next class!” With that, she broke into a trot, rounded a corner, and nearly bumped into Hanwol.

“I was just coming back to check on you,” he said, stumbling back.

“Oh, good, thank you! Yeah, I got distracted; let’s catch up to the others.” They did catch up to the others, and the rest of their classes went without incident. By the time they returned to their dormitory, Olivia felt a lot better about her standing in all of her classes except for Physical Education and Combat Training. Her physical fitness had improved a lot in the last few weeks, and she was sure she could throw a punch better than any of her friends back on Earth, but she ran slower than many of the other students, and when it came to grappling and throws, she just felt clumsy.

“Hey, don’t stress out about it,” Rald said as they all stretched out in the sitting area of their dorm to eat the meals they’d grabbed to go from the cafeteria. “I told you, Grobak’s looking for improvement, not for you to be better than everyone else.”

“Besides, for someone with real talent in channeling and spellcrafting, you shouldn’t worry so much about physical combat,” Shani added, munching on a piece of buttered toast.

“Yeah, I doubt you’ll even need to continue that course next year,” Veena said, nodding along with Shani.

“Well, I like the exercise, and what if something happened and I couldn’t cast a spell for some reason? Like if someone hobbled me?”

“Oh, roots!” Adaida said, “If someone is strong enough to hobble you, then you should just comply! It takes a real power discrepancy to pull that off on someone. I’ve heard it’s terrible! Did they hobble you, Olivia?”

“Didn’t I tell you guys? Yes, they hobbled me! It was awful, like I was being held down in a cold hole, looking through a dark tunnel to see out my eyes. All my senses were dulled, and it ached like a block of ice was squeezing my Core.”

“Nature!” Adaida said, scooting closer to Olivia on the couch and taking her hand. “Sorry that happened, Liv.”

“Hey! You called me Liv.” Olivia smiled and looked closely into Adaida’s eyes, wanting to see her reaction. The Ghelli girl blushed.

“Is that okay? Is it wrong in your culture to shorten names?”

“No, it’s just the only person that ever called me that was my Mom. I used to love it, but I don’t think my friends ever felt comfortable enough with me to try out a nickname.” Olivia had never said that out loud, and it sounded pathetic to her ears, but it was true; everyone who was her “friend” had also been competing with her, or years older than her, or, later in life, her subordinate.

“Well, you guys can call me Ra or Ald!” Rald said, grinning. Olivia looked away from Adaida and stared at Rald, then they all burst into laughter.

“That’s ridiculous,” Hanwol said flatly, “but, seriously, you guys should call me Han. It sounds so much more dashing than Hanwol.”

“Oh, okay. Next time we’re in class, I’ll be sure to call you Han so Gwinna can hear it,” Veena said with a wicked giggle.

“Oh, dear Ancestors! Why am I stuck in school with my sister? Why couldn’t they at least put us in separate cohorts?”

“Olivia, what are you working on for Spellcrafting? Alyss dropped some hints last week that you were working on something special, but I never see you actually casting spells.” Shani had laughed along with the others at Veena teasing Hanwol, but she had a straight face now, and Olivia could tell she was worried about her progress.

“I can’t cast the spells I’m working on because I’m afraid it will level me. I’ve leveled my Core twice since I hit level nine, so I think I’m getting close to ten.” She shrugged helplessly.

“Really? So how are you going to get placed in the competition?” Veena asked.

“I have to explain precisely what I mean to do to Alyss, and she’ll score me based on that. If I win, I have to prove my concept, I suppose.”

“Gwinna and some of the others won’t like the idea that you can win a prize before showing your spell. If you weren’t in my cohort, I wouldn’t like it either, if I’m being honest.” Shani frowned, tracing a circle on her folded knee with her pointer finger.

“Well, that’s tough for them,” Rald said, and Adaida nodded along with him.

“Yeah, she can shove their noses in it when she’s done processing her awards.” Adaida squeezed Olivia’s hand, which she still held.

“Right, well, we should all get some studying in—three more days until it’s Friday.” With that, Veena pulled out her big Enchanting book and began to read, utterly tuning everyone else out. Olivia stood, giving Adaida’s hand one last squeeze, then she walked over to her bed and pulled out her spellcraft book. She was very confident about three of her meta-elements, but she was still having some trouble keeping the knots tight on her pyrosteam pattern. She read through the chapter again, looking for insight, and then she practiced until well past midnight. Olivia knew she almost had it, and she hated to stop, but she knew she’d be a zombie if she didn’t get a few hours of sleep before class.

Going into the week, Olivia had felt like Friday was a million years away, but, as often happens when one is busy, the next three days flew by in a blur. She learned and practiced all the artificing techniques that Professor Brince expected them to know. In addition to those, she worked on a tiny model of a clockwork engine that rolled around in a circle. It had one wheel made of cork that turned around a central point. Olivia had snipped the gears out of little copper sheets she’d taken from the artificing lab, and she’d stamped her runes into the metal with a set of tools she’d purchased with her first month’s credits in town. The little engine worked when she channeled a tiny bit of Energy into the runes. Her friends weren’t really impressed, but Olivia was ecstatic—if she could replicate this on a much larger scale, she could easily create automobiles, a mill, or anything that required a moving part.

When she’d made the little model, she’d gotten a small influx of Energy and almost had a panic attack, afraid she’d level, but she’d managed to hang onto nine for now. Olivia was so nervous about leveling that she refused to practice making any of the recipes they learned in Alchemy. She assisted Veena to prove she knew what to do to Professor Ghall, who’d been quite understanding of Olivia’s desire not to level. The same held true in their Cultivation class; Sange didn’t want her to complete her drill any more before she leveled to ten. He gave her feeble sources of her Energy affinities and made her practice braiding the different threads of Energy together but warned her not to draw the finished braid into her Core. Instead, she had to unwind it and push the Energy back out when she finished.

That left Physical Education and Combat Training and dear, old Commander Grobak, who seemed to delight in watching young men and women fall to the ground over and over. They ran, they grappled, and they threw each other onto mats. Olivia thought they might never add something new to the routine, but on Thursday, Grobak surprised them by saying they’d play a game since the big awards assembly would be on the next day. Most of the students cheered, but Olivia instantly had a flashback of the push-ball match, and she looked around nervously for Gwinna. Sure enough, the girl with the glowing cobalt eyes was staring right at her with a slight grin on her face.

“There will be no Energy use allowed in this game. Is that clear, you bunch of witches and wizards?” Grobak shouted, and Olivia felt a surge of relief.

“Yes!” the assembled cohorts shouted out of reflex. They were loud, and they spoke sharply and in unison. Grobak had done wonders with them as far as that was concerned. Grobak nodded sharply, and then he produced a large hemp sack and dumped it onto the wooden planks. Ten brown leather balls thudded and rolled around at his feet. Then, to Olivia’s dismay, he led the cohorts in a dodgeball tournament. It was essentially the same game as the one on Earth, but instead of bouncy rubber balls, they were hurling five-pound leather balls stuffed with god knows what. The rules were similar, but there was no blocking or catching—the only way to get someone out was to strike them with the ball.

Olivia did what she’d always done in gym class on the very small handful of times she’d ever played—she hung in the back, behind Rald and Adaida, and tried to dodge. If a ball rolled near her, she picked it up and tossed it to Rald. Surprisingly, the tactic wasn’t half bad because Rald could really throw the ball, and their cohort beat nearly all comers, finally only losing to Bone and their three big throwers. Jade had been eliminated almost immediately by Bone, so Olivia never had to square off against Gwinna, which was a relief to her. She inwardly hated the fact that Gwinna still intimidated her, but she didn’t know what to do about it.

To celebrate their second-place victory, the first month of school, and the end of the induction competition, Olivia and her cohort decided to skip the cafeteria and go to the market to eat at a restaurant. “I know just the place! I’ve been worried about my credits, but we get them refilled this weekend, so let’s splurge!” Rald said as they all hurried back to their dorm to get changed.

“Oh, please! I don’t want to eat something weird, Rald. Can we just eat at a normal restaurant?” Shani grabbed him by the arm, begging like a prisoner about to be tossed in solitary.

“Relax! It’s nothing weird. It’s that Ardeni place, the one with the stained glass that looks like a boat. You know it?” Several of the others nodded and agreed.

“Yeah, I heard that place is good. We should definitely wear some nice clothes, though. Or should we wear our uniforms?” Hanwol asked.

“I’m sick of my uniform!” Adaida said. “I’ll never buy any gray clothes for the rest of my life!”

“I wouldn’t mind wearing something else for a change,” Olivia added, smiling at Adaida. She knew just what she wanted to wear—her maroon coat with the mustard brocade hem. Olivia hadn’t worn her shiny boots since she’d arrived, and she was looking forward to a fancy meal. She still had quite a few of her credits, and if that wasn’t enough, she’d made a couple of dozen quad-attuned Energy beads in the last month while she was taking breaks from studying. “This place better be good, Rald. I’m in the mood for fancy food, wine, and dessert!”