"Lidia, you didn't have to come with me," I muttered as we arrived at the boys' dorm.

She turned to look at me and smiled. "But I'm used to us eating together."

My face flushed. No, she was just saying that to be nice or because she saw me as a brother. Only an idiot would read more into it.

Lidia's fingers coiled the doorknob and pushed it open. She gave me a toothy grin. "Let's go and eat."

"Alright." I stared at the ghost-quiet hall. Almost felt tempted to light the way with my flames. Probably would've if I were alone.

She ran over to the glass panels on the left wall. Her eyes had a look to them that reminded me of my childish twin sister. "Oh is that the pool?"

I turned to look at the swimming pool. The room was dimly lit now as there was no natural sunlight pouring down the glass panels dotting various corners of the ceiling. The only reason we could see it and the hallway itself was because of the jade light pouring down from Anola.

"Yeah. Want to go eat by it?"

She nodded.

I smiled. She really was eager to use it, huh?

The girls in this school were all pretty good-looking. But Lidia had her own unique beauty which made her stand out from them even further.

My face flushed. Why was I thinking about this stuff? It wasn't like anything could happen between us anyway since we were raised as siblings in the orphanage. And besides, she probably would've preferred someone like Aurelius or Carter. Someone with muscles, not some lanky kid. My body looked like it belonged to a twelve-year-old boy.

We entered the pool. Lidia's hand rummaged around and found the switch, turning on the lights. I winced as soon as they came on. They were blinding, or at least they were after having been in the dark since we left the girls' dorm. We sat side by each near one end of the pool and ate our food while watching the stars twinkle above us through the glass. Thankfully, Elliot had listened when I told him not to add veggies to mine. As the loser of the food contest, he had to cook for all of us. Not that he seemed to mind, apart from having lost the cookoff itself.

"The stars sure are nice today, huh?" Lidia asked.

I smiled. They sure were. Even though I could see more than I could in Sera's capital, I could tell that they were the same constellations.

***

[Days ago]

"Noe!" Scarlet cried, hugging our little brother.

"Let, you're embarrassing him," I said, giving her a deadpan look.

"I don't care," Scarlet said, snuggling our little brother.

Dai and Fai just stared at us and smiled. Did they want to leave and were they being courteous, or were they really enjoying the scene?

"Sis. I'll be okay," Noe whispered.

Let sniffed. "I miss you already, baby brother."

I felt like yanking her away, but I didn't want Noe to leave with the impression of his older siblings arguing.

"It's going to be alright," Vermeil said, smiling. She had been standing on the side, quietly observing us as we said our farewells. The others had already said goodbye to Noh and me. Fan had allowed us one last goodbye. "Whenever you feel homesick, look to the stars."

"The stars?" I asked, raising an eyebrow at her.

She nodded. "Yeah. We all share the same sky. That's what Mother told me once when she went away on a trip. There are stars that can be seen far and wide. Look at them and envision the other doing the same. You'll feel as if you're sitting next to them."

Let smiled. "I love stars!"

"Of course you do, you even wished your name was Star when you were younger."

She giggled. "Surprise that you remember that stuff."

I crossed my arms. "How wouldn't I? Your high-pitched voice engraves what you say into my memory."

She pouted.

I bit my lip. Great, I went ahead and made her mad when I said that I wouldn't.

"Uh, sorry to interrupt, but we should get going now," Fai said. "The others are waiting for us."

Noe nodded and walked toward them.

"I'll be looking at the stars every day, so you better do so too! You hear, little bro?" Let yelled.

"I will!" Noe said, waving.

"We should get going too," Koukyuu said, poking her head from behind a tree.

I nodded. "Okay."

"You too, dummy!" Let yelled as I walked away.

I adjusted my backpack and sighed. "Alright."

She smiled. "Yahoo!"

I rolled my eyes. How could one person be so simple-minded? Especially my twin of all people...

***

[Present]

My ears twitched as I heard crying beside me. I turned and thought I saw Let seated next to me, her face full of tears and snot.

Sis... how was she keeping up? When I called home, she didn't sound sad at all, but Let was better at hiding her emotions than I was. As paradoxical as it sounded, given she wore her emotions on her sleeve most of the time. Hmm, maybe it was just my own lack of being able to read them that was the issue. Not being able to see a person's face made it harder to tell what they were feeling.

"Did the stars make you feel better?" a voice called out.

I jumped and saw Carter crouching beside me.

"When did you get here?" I yelled, moving away from him.

He smiled. "Lidia noticed me, but you were out of it."

"Are you feeling alright, Huo?" Lidia asked.

I nodded. "Yeah, just a little shocked. No thanks to this guy creeping up on me!"

Cart chuckled. "Sorry. That reminds me. There was someone else who wanted to see you. She went chasing after me as soon as I left."

Lidia and I gasped as the door was pushed open. The princess rolled toward us.

"Princess! What are you doing here?" I asked.

"She was worried about you. So much so, that she kept up with me! I originally thought someone had gotten a vehicle up here and was trying to run me over!" Carter said.

Sarah lowered her head.

"Oh, it's alright!"

"Sarah, you're going to hurt yourself!" Lidia said, putting her hands on her hips.

I gulped. And it would've been all my fault...

Lidia squatted down and studied the wheels of the princess's chair. "They look a bit worn out. Some of it's probably from all of the traveling you did in Mina and your stunt just now."

"I-I'm s-surprised that it didn't get destroyed in the battle against the dark-skinned bombshell," Carter said.

"Bombshell?" I asked, raising an eyebrow. Was it because of how she screamed?

"It's slang for beauty."

"Ohh... Should've known..."

"Well, it is made out of orichalcum," Lidia said, slapping the arm of the chair. "That said, it still needs maintenance. Uh, Sarah, you do have someone check on it, right?"

She fidgetted.

Lidia sighed. "Let's return to the girls' dorm. I'll make sure to make any repairs."

"How?" Carter asked.

She smiled. "I brought my handy toolbox with me!"

"Lidia's our fixer-upper." My jaw dropped. Wait, if Lidia was here, who would fix the stuff that Scarlet and the others break? Oh, but they're staying at Vermeil's place, so it shouldn't be too bad... I hoped.

"What's wrong?" Carter asked.

I sighed. "Just thinking of home. So, why did you come here?"

"Because I worried about you. Sarah and Nate did too." He cupped his mouth.

"Huh, Nate?"

"Way to blow my cover," Nate said as he walked in. He smiled. "I wasn't sure if Lidia could help you calm down, so I decided to tag along. Alas, it seems that the walk here was enough to chill your nerves."

"I had him take several deep breaths," Lidia said, eyeing me.

If not for her repeating that to me, I probably would've had a worse meltdown.

Carter rubbed his temples and groaned. "Don't scare me like that again."

I shook my head. "Should you really be saying that? You've scared people more times than you can probably count. Also, why do you care? We aren't friends."

"True, but we are classmates. Plus, we're similar. I needed someplace quiet too."

"And I couldn't leave Lidia alone. Meltdowns are stressing to both the people having them and those around them," Nate said.

I frowned. So, I had been stressing them out...

I gasped as several weirdly shaped bubbles spun around me, spelling out, "Don't blame yourself. You can't always control them."

I glanced at the princess. "I know, Lady Sarah, but... such outbursts of emotion are illogical."

"What is illogical is how you expect everything to be logical," Lidia said, narrowing her eyes at me.

I bit my lip.

Carter laughed. "Lids has a point. We live in an illogical world." He stared at his empty plate and stood up straight. "Well, I better return this and get back to training!"

"Training? At this time?" I asked.

"Yeah, if I want to become Magus Maximus, I got to train a lot harder!"

"Don't push yourself too hard," Lidia said as she turned Sarah's chair around.

The princess nodded.

Nate sighed. "I better join you."

Carter grinned. "That's fine. Maybe you can give me some pointers."

"C-can I join too?" I blurted out.

"Of course!" He slapped me on the back, throwing me to the ground. "Uh, but first, I think we need you to work on building some muscle."

My face flushed. I clenched my fists, trying to keep myself from exploding. He embarrassed me in front of Lidia and the princess...

Carter held his hand out to me. "Sorry about that."

I slapped it and stood up. "I'm not so frail as to need a helping hand."

"Huo," Lidia said, glaring at me.

I sighed. "Let's get going."

"Okay!"

"Here, I'll take your plates back," Lidia said, holding her hands out. Carter, Nate, and I handed them out. She handed them over to Sarah who also had an empty plate on her. Had she decided to eat with the boys while they watched Lidia and me eat?

My face flushed. At least we hadn't done or said anything embarrassing.

The five of us left together and split up halfway to the girls' dorm. Carter had suggested using the center of the plaza to train. Though, it was a nice and wide open space, we risked waking everyone in both dorms up with the brilliance of our flames.

"You're lucky to have someone like Lidia around, the both of you," Nate said.

"You mean the princess and me?"

He nodded as we reached the center of the palaza. "Seems she has a calming effect on you."

"No, sometimes, it's the opposite," I mumbled.

"Oh, because you like her?" Carter asked.

I glared at him and threw a kick at him. Carter raised his arms up and spun around, avoiding my kick. The way he moved just now like a dance. I hadn't paid much attention during his match with Lidia, but against Jude, he looked like he was figure skating. I'd thought that it was just the ice.

"Those movements just now..." I said.

His face paled. "Oh, these, I learned them from my brother."

"Really? They look different than what you used against me and Lidia," Nate said.

"That's... uh..."

I pointed a hand at him and quickly closed the space between us. Carter's eyes widened.

I focused prana into my fist and punched him in the stomach. His breath escaped from his lips before he bent forward and fell onto the cobblestone floor.

A few seconds later, he rose to his feet and dusted himself off. "Nice punch there, Huo."

I shrugged. It felt good to hit something without getting injured myself.

"But, I have a better one!"

Nate grasped Carter by the arm. "Wait, you two shouldn't exchange fists. We came here to train our magic, not our bodies. Plus, we just ate. You're going to make each other throw up."

"Technically, I was using magic," I said, raising my now prana devoid fist.

"Yeah, you copied my move. That said, why didn't flames appear?" Carter asked, blinking.

So, he had noticed. Guessed he wasn't as dumb as he looked. "I purified my prana. In other words, I deprived it of its element."

"Huh? That's possible?"

I narrowed my eyes at him. Just which one of us was the real newbie?

I took a deep breath. "It is. To do so, you use up any residual fire prana on your body as heat and do away with your prana veil. You then slowly squeeze prana out of your Magicum Organum."

"Squeeze?"

I coughed. "Uh, it's the best term that I come up with to describe it."

"You did all that just now?" Nate asked, smiling.

"Not exactly. I don't have my prana veil on all of the time, so I just have to do away with the residual fire prana inside my prana channels. I focused it on my feet to help my legs move quicker, the same effect one gets from a warmup."

"That gives a different meaning to warmup," Carter said, laughing.

I smiled. "Yeah."

"How did you figure it out?" Nate asked.

"I read about it in a book. Seeing Carter use his fire prana to boost his attacks gave me an idea of how to do it myself."

"Woah! If I can master that, I won't have to worry about burns!" Carter exclaimed, grinning.

I nodded. "Which is why I prefer doing this. I wouldn't want to end up like you."

Carter sighed. "Wished I knew about it before." He patted my shoulder. "You really are a smart guy! You know that?"

I scoffed. "No need to tell me twice."

"Wait, thought the prana veil was automatic," Nate said.

"It is. It actually flared back up when Carter was about to attack me just now."

"Wait, but if that's the case, it won't work in a match," Carter said, sighing.

"There are more sophisticated ways of purifying prana. What I used was the easiest, albeit the most impractical for battle."

If only Yanyu were here, I would've asked her to teach us. Her barriers consisted entirely of purified prana.

"If you kids want to learn more about purified prana, ask Kachina," a pink-haired girl said, striding toward us.

"W-who is Kachina?" Carter said, squirming.

She leaned forward and grinned. "She's my fellow third year!"

I had yet to meet any of the third years apart from Yuzuki and Ning. What had he and the others been up to all this time? Hold on, I did see some guys go in and out, including her...

"Wait, didn't I see you in the boys' dorm earlier?" I asked, narrowing my eyes.

She laughed. "Of course, I'm a boy!"

"What?" Carter asked, jumping.

"Nice to meet you, first years! The name's Liu Renshu!"

Nate gasped. "Liu? Are you related to Ling?"

"Huh? You know my little sister?"

Carter laughed. "Yeah, she's a real treat..."

She didn't seem all that bad to me.

"How did you meet her?" Renshu asked, grinning.

"I met her when she jumped off a cliff to get to the boat! I thought that she was going to fall into the sea, so I tried to catch her, but she ended up screaming my ears off after she crashed into me!" Carter yelled.

The color drained on his face. "I told her not to do anything reckless..."

"There you are, Shu!" a voice called out.

Renshu turned around and saw Ling standing before us with a scowl.

He furrowed his brow. "Sis..."

**Solar Note: Hope that you enjoyed this chapter! Thoughts? Theories?**