"Y-you're back!" Talli exclaimed, the food tray in her hands acting as the only thing between Káel and a crushing hug. "W-we thought you, you went into the forest and got eaten."

          "You thought," Vera corrected, taking her seat beside Káel at the table.

          Truvius and Talli had played it safe, sitting across from Káel and seeming to be extra careful when they talked to him. Which in the end was more irritating.

          "So, where'd you go after leaving class?" Truvius started.

          "Outside," Káel lied, pushing Puff's nose away from his food. "Did I miss anything important?"

          "Notes... silent class." Truvius faked a pouty face to match a theatrical voice. "I think you hurt Mr. Mudelin's feelings."

          Káel raised his eyebrows. "He has feelings?"

          Talli looked around in worry at her laughing friends. "I-I don't think we should m-make fun of our teachers, I like my marks."

          "You're right, but there's no point with Káel since he already hates him," Vera replied.

          "M-my brother said he ignores th-the people he truly hates." Talli looked down at her food to avoid her friends gazes. "A-and you did almost kill Horus."

          A hint of worry flashed across Káel's face at the name. "Oh yeah, is he alright?"

          "Yeah, you just broke his nose," Truvius replied.

          "Unfortunately," Vera added, masking a laugh with a cough. "Can't say the same for his pride though."

          Everyone snapped their attention to Vera's malicious entertainment. 

          "Woah there, what'd he do to you?" Truvius said.

          "Nothing you need to worry about."

          "I-I think Horus is nice," Talli squeaked, cringing from Vera's judgmental gaze.

          "He's a full blown narcissist," Vera growled. 

          "Well, so long as he keeps to himself he's not harming anyone," Truvius said, trying to calm the conversation from turning into gossip.

          "He handed me a comb in the middle of the hallway because I had a messy strand of hair, and told me to keep it cause I needed it," Vera snapped.

          "Wow," Káel said, trying to hold back a grin while Vera burned with rage.

          Truvius's face turned to a playful smile. "What'd you do with the comb?"

           "I burned it, right Cinder?"

          Cinder chirped in agreement, rubbing her small head against Vera's cheek. Even the Phoenix shared Vera's spite.

           "He's never called Káel out on messy hair," Truvius replied, bursting into laughter at his statement. "Is that his way of flirting?"

            Vera's cheeks flushed red with embarrassment, and she looked around to see if anyone was staring at them. "Definitely not," she snapped, glaring at Truvius who couldn't stop laughing.

          "We should test it," Káel said. "Hey Truvius mess up your hair."

          "No, you mess up your hair," Truvius argued. "You never brush yours anyways."

          "Yeah, so I don't need a comb."

          "Who's to say I need a comb?" Truvius retorted, freezing when he noticed a couple strangers shooting them questionable looks.

           "I-I could mess up my hair." Talli whispered, grabbing a couple strands and throwing them up randomly.

          Káel watched her on the verge of maniacal laughter. "It doesn't look messy."

          Vera looked around at her hysterically laughing friends, a strange flood of embarrassment burning at her cheeks. "Really guys?"

          "Sorry." Truvius recovered from his laughing spree with a sigh. "So Káel, how are you going to apologize to Mr. Mudelin?"

          Truvius' question only fueled Káel's laughter, the pure ludicrousy making it harder for him to breath as he doubled down on the table. "What are you talking about?"

          Talli tilted her head questionably at Káel's response. "Y-You're not going to apologise?"

          He pulled himself together when he realised his friend's weren't laughing with him, trying to keep the grin dimpling his cheeks at bay. "Nope."

          "You should," Vera countered, a thick spread of disappointment quickly suffocating Káel's smile. "He's gonna be your teacher for a while whether you like it or not, so getting on semi good terms with him is a good idea."

          "I agree with the fire head," Phantom cooed.

          Káel sighed, his appetite waning with the thought as he poked at his breakfast. "I'll think about it."

     —————   

          Káel's classmates were suspiciously careful around him, treating him like a delicate object that could be broken with even the wrong greeting. So they mostly stared at him, and refrained from any sort of short talk, worried he'd spontaneously snap at them. His class currently feared him more than Puff, but still kept their prideful nature of displaying him as a trophy of power for his actions that were more along the lines of lucky accidents than feats of skill and power.

          Despite the odd form of alienation, Káel found himself to like it in a way. It reminded him of home, where no one bothered him for pointless reasons. So he sat in peaceful contempt as his class exchanged whispers of yesterday's incident, most of which he could clearly hear.

          When lumience Combat Class rolled around, Káel entered the room and was immediately stared down by its occupants. Some gave him a grin or greetingful nod, but most of them looked on with judging disapproval at his presence.

          "You are my new idol." Leon held out his fist for Káel to bump it.

          Káel complied with his action, and Leon wrapped his arm over his shoulder, walking him and Truvius to the edge of the classroom.

          "Seriously, telling off the scariest teacher in the school, and breaking that mirror kisser's perfect little face all in one go, you are one fantastic individual."

          "Leon that's not funny, he seriously could have killed him," Truvius said.

          "Yeah right, our teach is intense, but even he won't throw a fatal attack at a student, with or without a shield up. Not to mention our house leader's skull is probly thick enough to deflect a chunk of iron being dropped on it." Leon snickered, rubbing Puff's back with his foot. "You have to show me how to make that bouncy shield some time though, because that alone was one of the most glorious moments of my life."

          A heavy thud echoed throughout the classroom, signifying Mr. Mudelin's presence as he slammed the heavy doors.

          The whole class froze to face him, standing like obedient soldiers as they usually did, and Káel found himself backing up behind Truvius. Unfortunately, Truvius's height didn't provide much coverage, and his face was still visible above his friend.

          "I'm glad you all showed up," Mr. Mudelin announced as he caught a glimpse of Káel. "Don't worry, today won't have demonstrations, or harmful spells for that matter. We're going to do some basic manipulation."

          A sizeable amount of groans sounded off from the group of students, and Mr. Mudelin grinned with satisfaction.

         "Hey, at least it's your specialty," Phantom cut in.

          Káel shot Phantom an unamused glare. "I can't even levitate a rock."

          "Good, we finally found something you're bad at," Leon teased.

          "A mastery of lumience in every colour starts with a mastery of manipulating it." Mr. Mudelin pulled a smooth grey rock out of his pocket. "Now, what's the difference between coloured manipulation lumience, and shaded manipulation lumience?

          No one raised their hands, fearing they held even a slightly flawed answer. Except Truvius, his hand shot up like a daily flag that waved in Mr. Mudelin's class.

          "Come on, you all should have learned the basics of lumience before being admitted here, a school that specializes in it." Mr. Mudelin frowned at the lack of hands, and the excess amount of scared students. "Truvius put your hand down, I know you're smart enough to provide the answer. There's just no point when you're the only one picking up course material."

          Truvius slowly lowered his hand, with an unfulfilled and slightly sad look on his face. Despite the fact he was the only recipient of a compliment from Mr. Mudelin that the class had witnessed since day one.

          "I'll give a brief explanation, and I sincerely hope it's a reminder for you all. Coloured manipulation lumience is the basis of all your powers, allowing you to hold a grasp over the elemental ingredients of your spells. For example, a basic understanding of blue manipulation lumience would allow you to drop temperatures in the air and water. A specialisation in it would lead to spells of mass freezing and even walking on air. Although I find that flying wastes less energy." He smiled at the pools of boredom leaking from his students, glancing at Káel, one of the few that found the lesson interesting, with a strange look. "Shaded lumience covers two classes. White lumience, and black lumience. In the art of manipulation, white lumience is a blank slate of powers, and is exceptionally rarer than it's counterpart for this reason. A mastery of white maipulation lumience is a mastery of the many colours that create our powers, and it is a gift that very few possess, and even less choose to dedicate their lives to." He glanced at Káel again. "Black lumience in general is more common than white, and is even breedable. But there is quite the debate as to if a manipulation specialty in it even exists past the roots of its known classes. Long story short, the avenues that a mastery of black manipulation lumience holds are not known in lumer records, as it is a trait so incredibly minimal in users that the proficient use of it is borderline impossible." Mr. Mudelin lobbed the stone in the air and muttered at it so it froze on the spot. "We'll be doing some blue manipulation lumience today. Next week we'll start on the red branch."

          Vera did a small victorious yes.

          "Partners are free choice today," Mr. Mudelin continued, waiting patiently for the class to choose their enemies wisely.

          Leon latched onto Káel before Truvius tapped him on the shoulder, and the two exchanged defensive glares, before Truvius was forced to wander off and grab another one of his many friends. Talli didn't do so well, she held onto Vera's arm until they were the only two left, cowering away from Mr. Mudelin when he watched her odd actions.

          "Now then, I'm sure you all think you're going to compete with your partner in some way, and you chose someone you thought you could beat or are fine with being beaten by. This is not the case today, everyone look up."

          The students obeyed their teacher, expecting to see something new above their heads, but the bare ceiling with a couple skylights here and there was all they saw.

          "That object sitting fairly high above your heads is a ceiling. You and your partner will work together to tap it with one of these many pitifully tiny pebbles." Mr. Mudelin grabbed a blue sack full of pebbles off his desk. "Now I'm typically not in a joking mood, and today is no different. If any of you think you're being clever by chucking the rock at the ceiling, I can guarantee you you'll achieve a perfect zero for you and your partner. Once I hand out the rocks you may begin, and mind the windows, if you can even hit them."

          Leon smiled nervously at Káel. "I'm really bad at this, but didn't you send a stick through the ceiling once?"

          "That was a fluke," Káel replied. "I suck at this too."

         "I guess we'll fail together then."

          Mr. Mudelin handed Káel and Leon their rock, giving Káel a taunting smirk. "Hands out of your pockets."

          Leon held the rock out in front of him and muttered at it. It went a little bit above his head, and seeing as he was fairly tall it wasn't bad progress, but it was still nowhere near the ceiling.

          Káel muttered the phrase, and could have sworn it went down, even with Puff assisting him with all his little dragon might.

          Leon stared at the rock for a couple seconds. "Did you say the spell?"

          "Yup."

          "Wow, you weren't lying." He chuckled at their sad progress. "Maybe if Puff goes full dragon mode we'll do a little better."

          Puff warbled excitedly and jumped off Káel's shoulders, glowing his usual bright light and bursting into a large fluffy dragon. He sat beside Káel and squinted while he focused his full attention on the stone.

          It shot up and stopped halfway, breaking Leon's hopeful face.

          "Well that's progress," he sighed.

          "I could be of assistance," Phantom cut in. "I love the sound of shattering glass."

          Káel looked around the room, a couple pairs were extremely close to the ceiling, including Truvius and his friend. He watched their rock with hopelessness; it was almost the lowest in the room. "Should we try again?"

          "Nah, the teach is comin'," Leon replied, rubbing Flick's head.

          Mr. Mudelin approached Káel and Leon, looking up at their rock impassively. "Acceptable. Leon, stop with your assistance please."

          Leon took his eyes off the rock, and it dropped a meter.

          "Alright," Mr. Mudelin said with a nod, before looking between Káel and Puff. "Now please drop your assistance dragon."

          Puff gave Káel a worried glance and dropped the rock with a cringe. It plummeted to the ground, but stopped a couple inches from the floor. 

          There was a collective silence as they all stared at it.

          "I'm tempted to mark your guardian on this, and spare you the score this will receive," Mr. Mudelin said, frowning at the barely levitating rock. "Here I was thinking you'd be good at this. Honestly, a tree could do better, you're in desperate need of some practice boy."

          "Yes sir," Káel grumbled, allowing the rock to drop to the ground.

          "Try a couple more times while I finish assessing, and I'll come back. You don't have to use the given spell if it's not working, and learn to work with your guardian, not stack spells on top of one another."

          "Yes sir..." Káel replied, cautiously watching his teacher walk away.

Don't forget to:

COMMENT/CRITIQUE/(VOTE IF YOU WANT)

Quality Quip #15:

'Nowadays it doesn't take a magician to make a dollar look like a dime.'

~ Anon