" Let go your earthly tether . Enter the void. Empty, and become wind."~ Guru Laghima
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REECE listened calmly as Patelon read his notes to him, trying to grasp anything interesting from the paragraphs he recited. He prayed someone would interrupt them. The teacher should be in class by now, it was already three hours past noon. Not that he was looking forward to Amelioration of Thaumaturgy, but anything other than Patelon's recitals.

"...building their trade relationship with Arckadania was one of the most disturbing issues the great kingdom faced..." Patelon continued but trailed off as their teacher walked into the class.

Reece exhaled, glad to have been saved from Patelon's boring recitals. He shifted his gaze away from his best friend and turned to the teacher that walked in. Professor Dariad L Hailstone was written on the rectangular golden name tape attached to the front pocket of the shirt he wore underneath a black flowing robe. He was a thin man, with pale skin and a wrinkled face. He had a monocle attached to his right eye that housed blue irises. His hair was brown and rough, he probably didn't remember to comb it.

He walked in with the agility of a monkey, not caring to glance at the students or tell them to settle down. He started the class immediately he entered.

"There will be no need for quills in this class, no need for any blasted piece of parchment or any textbook whatsoever." he began, and immediately Reece found himself interested in the class. It was the first time they would attend a class taught by a professor, and he didn't have high hopes about it. He always thought professors were jumpy old, white haired fellows that were so boring even the sun neglected them.

"My name is Dariad, do not address me by professor or anything, just Dariad." he continued. "This class will be all about doing, the most efficient way of learning."

He shot his hand forward pointing directly to a red haired, scrawny boy directly beside Reece. "What do you think Amelioration means?" he asked.

"T...To imp...improve or make better," the boy replied.

"You are half right." Dariad acknowledged. "Amelioration means to make better what is considered as bad. Your sick grandmother starts improving from a sickness, we say she is ameliorating, close opposite to deterioration." he explained, as he strolled to the centre of the class.

"What is your name, boy?" he asked the red haired boy.

"B...Brian," the boy replied timidly.

"You need not be afraid," he advised. "What is your blessing."

"Music," he replied.

"What can you do with it?"

"I can cause people to sleep with my songs."

"Not really a combat power right?" he pointed out as the boy nodded. "Most especially when your enemy is wearing an ear protection."

The boy nodded again.

"How do you think you can improve that that hmm?"

"I...I don't know?"

The professor smiled and zipped to the front of the class facing all the students. "Today I am going to teach you how to use your unique talents in different ways." then an evil grin formed. on his lips. "The first step to this is meditation."

Murmurs erupted through the whole class. "Quiet!" his voice pierced into the atmosphere like icicles, cold and hurtful. "Disappointed!" he declared. "I am profoundly disappointed that you turn yourself to little miscreants at the mention of peace and calm."

The class fell silent and the professor walked closer to the students. He raised his palm outward so that everyone could see. Reece studied his expression, trying to anticipate what he wanted to do. He let go of his mind and searched deep within him, concentrating on the hue of energy that was stored deep within his soul. After a few seconds he felt it, tapping into it he channeled it out of his body like a darting rope and then connected it with the professor. He felt the usual wave of inundation wash over him whenever he tried to access people's emotions. If he wasn't careful enough, such feeling could kill him or worse render him crazy. He maneuvered through the vast ocean like a ship at the sea, not letting the colourful hues of different emotions sway him. Soaring out of the rainbow he surged into the professor's well being only for him to collide with a large cloud of darkness that made him flinch as he opened his eyes, grasping at his head.

"Are you okay?" Patelon asked, shooting him a concerned glance.

"Yes, I just did something stupid." he replied, turning to Dariad who seemed not to notice any of his emotional adventures. Reece exhaled, relieved but still terrified. He'd never seen anyone put a barrier up against their emotions in such a way. Just like that he couldn't wait for class to end so he can tell Lorna about it.

The man raised out his palm, and a hue of darkness formed on it. It danced around like a puff of smoke, only it was thicker and blacker. "Darkness manipulation" the professor announced. "The ability to make things go dim," he twisted a finger in his outstretched hand, and the lights in the whole class dimmed. "Or dimmer," as the class shot into complete darkness with a flicker of his fingers.

Reece's defensive mechanisms kicked in as the sudden loss of vision frightened his other senses. He lurched into the hue of energy within his spirit being and flung it around, using his feelings as his eyes just as Lorna had taught him. He couldn't see--yes, but every one's emotions was enough light for him. Through their feelings, the slightest of it, their touch, smell and all those things even they, were unaware of rushed to him allowing him all the vision he needed. The only one he couldn't feel was Dariad. The hue of energy surged against him and instead of emotions, everything he felt was darkness. He was a blind spot in the whole class.

The string attached to Patelon and Reece noticed him spread water from the little pouch he always hung as a necklace. He broke down the water into tiny particles so much that they became smaller than even Reece could feel, the only thing that connected to the water was Reece's surge of power and the sudden feeling of wetness that surrounded him. Everyone was agitated, except him, his friend and one other guy in the front seat. Surging through his emotional waves and clinging to the main emotion he felt, he noticed it was Canis. A telepath whom everyone usually left alone, afraid he would be able to tell their innermost thoughts. Reece never cared for such, he'd learned how to protect himself from telepathy.

"...mpressed?" Dariad announced as the veil of darkness shimmered to reveal the light. All the students marveled at the awesomeness of his power.

Reece relieved, sent his darts of energy back to his second being and sealed it up. He felt a sense of weariness wash over him as he watched Patelon draw back all molecules of water from the air and returned it into his pouch, the pang of tiredness obvious on his expressions too. Using their hue of energy at a sudden rate always left them tired. It was the reason why most accomplished thaumaturges rarely use their own energies for tasks. They use runes and all other haxes that Reece was yet to learn. Not even Patelon knew anything about them and by Reece's standards he's a genius.

"You think that's all I can do with my powers? A switch for candles? A cloak to hide myself? Hell no!" Dariad continue his practical class.

He released a larger hue of darkness from his hands, forming a vertical line with it, the line grew larger and floated in the air. It shimmered like a circus ribbon. Dariad walked towards it and touched it. The whole class including Reece and Patelon gasped as they watch him disappear into the thick blackness.

"...I can travel with it," the whole class turned around only to find their teacher behind them, talking as if nothing happened. "I can make it solid," he continued, forming disks of darkness in the air, arranging them symmetrically to form what looked like a flight of stairs. The class broke into a round of applause and cheers as he climbed the disks as if they were stairs. Reece joined in as did Patelon, even Canis who was always gloomy cheered and laughed as Dariad ascended the stairs of darkness and descended to the class front.

He grinned allowing the students to clap as much as they could. He gestured for them to stop, and bit by bit everyone stopped clapping. Excitement and happiness washed over Reece from different emotions. Noticing this, Reece quickly shut back his hue of energy. Getting to excited always opened up other people's emotions to him and he was yet to learn full control over it. It was the first problem he faced when he started learning about his powers and it still proved difficult for him at times like an unyielding wound.

"How did I achieve this? You might wanna ask." Dariad continued. "The first important thing to any thaumaturge is calm mind, which leads us to our first step towards amelioration. Meditation; the art of intense consideration and contemplation." he said, driving the class back towards the earlier topic that'd brought disinterest.

Now none of the students voiced anything. All eight of them sat in place ready to eat up anything Dariad threw at them.

"So everyone stand up!" he announced and the whole class complied. Waving his hand, a round cloud of darkness began to suck in everyone's chairs and desks one after the other. Reece wondered how he was still standing after expunging so much energy.

He ordered everyone to arrange themselves in two rows and two columns and to assume a sitting posture they felt comfortable with the most. After a while, he told the class to carefully open the door to the hue of energy that reside in them and try to drill to it's centre. "Search for the centre, avoid the light, avoid the surge, don't mind the colourful hue of light,- he kept on passing out instructions slowly and softly as if to let the words burrow into their very soul.

Reece had already learnt the art of meditation and focus. In fact he'd learnt it twice. Once with Erous and the other with Lorna, both for different purposes. He spent the next few minutes analyzing instead, thinking about the other things he needed to learn. His thought scrambled around many topics till it settled on figuring out a way to beat Erous. He inhaled involuntarily.

He thought of all the lessons, moves, rhythms, exercises he had learnt in the past three years. He'd tried half of them already and none was working. Reece still couldn't understand, he''d squared off against Erous loads of times, and their battle was on an almost equal ground. Even though he always sensed his foster father was holding back, but ever since he started using blindfolds it was as if his skills tripled. He could now easily anticipate his moves and even force him into a different style. Yesterday was the worst, he didn't even get past one single move. He had been more than happy when Erous said they were taking a break today, a break from kicking his ass.

He flowed deep into his own world, feeling weightless and empty. He discerned every moves he had learnt one after the other, replaying them in his head like he was just learning them.

"Time up!" the professor said, shattering Reece's concentration.

They all stood up except for a fair girl named Shaliah. She just crouched there still as a stick-bug, her curly brown hair laid peacefully on her shoulders, rising and falling to the rhythm of her breaths. For a second, a worried look appeared on Dariad's face. Reece knew why, even though it happened rarely sometimes the energy hue can trap the consciousness of the thaumaturge. But then the expression disappeared when the sounds of snoring escaped the girls lips. The whole class burst into laughter as she jerked awake, bulging her brown eyes in shock.

"I'm coming mum!" she blurted. And everyone rumbled once more, laughing their hearts out. Even Canis and Dariad couldn't help but laugh.

After a while the class went silent and the professor dismissed everyone except Patelon and Reece. Reece's heart did a triple front flip when the elderly man told them to wait behind, he'd almost forgotten that he tried to read the elderly man's emotions. Now he is probably gonna get punished, he didn't want to do another lawn mowing for four hours. Reece remembered when they had to do that last time, it hadn't been a pleasant moment for either of them. The fields behind the school's fence had been left to overgrow for the sole purpose of punishment. He and Patelon had ruffled up a freshman in the students hall and Headmistress Flouress herself had caught them herself. She didn't care that the freshman was acting disrespectful or had called Patelon a *skeleton pocket*. She sent them to the fields with one shear each. They sheared several metres before Guntap her assistant came to relieve them of their duties.

"So, Reece White and Patelon Peruvia," the professor started, picking out two sheets of parchment from an hollow of darkness in front of him.

"Yes sir!" they both replied, standing firmly with their hands behind their back.

"This is not the garrison for Taurus sake!" he informed, glancing up from reading the pieces of parchment in his hand. " "You two have got quite the record here," he continued. "Obviously mischievous, both of you." he snickered.

Reece was a bit relieved, even though he couldn't read his emotions through magic, Lorna had drilled him enough to be able to read people's facial expressions to detect their emotion so he doesn't rely on magic all the time. The professor wasn't mad that they were mischievous, in fact he was proud that they were. He started imagining the professor has a kid, was he a trouble maker like they were now?

"Patelon Peruvia, excels greatly in theoretical class and practical classes alike on the other hand Reece White, excels over the top in practical classes but seems to barely pass some of his theoretical subjects." he looked up at them, leaning against the long teak table in the class front. Reece made a mental note that the other class furniture had already shimmered into existence. "You seem not to put enough work in reading, Reece why is that?"

Reece scratched his head, "Sir I..."

"Not sir, Dariad," he said. "Address me as you address your friends. I do not care for respect."

"Yes si... Dariad," he replied, even though saying it felt really awkward.

"So answer the question, why don't you read?"

"I do read, I just find some subjects boring," he replied, hoping he didn't cross the line.

"Interesting, so you didn't like, accountancy, palmistry, Trade, History of Arckadania--" he paused. "Why didn't you like the history of Arckadania?"

"They dwelled too much on how it became a financially stable kingdom," Patelon helped him out, since he had started scratching his head again. The subjects Dariad mentioned were subjects he passed because of Patelon, he always recited them so few of the points stuck to his head.

Dariad raised his monocle. "Ah! Interesting students. The principal told me a lot about you guys," he began, closing the file as darkness enveloped it. "I have a thing or two for students like you, and you have shown me firsthand what you are capable of."

"Huh?" Patelon questioned.

"Oh, I haven't adressed that, you were the only two who found another source of vision when I covered the class in darkness, although I believed that telepath wouldn't have had any problems either." he paused, narrowing his eyes on them. "But I am more interested in you two. Have you both being on a royal errand, or any errand at all?"

"No," they replied in unison.

"Hmm," he pressed his lips against each other. "I will see to it with Alaina and Erous, surely there is something you two can start with." he continued. "Would you like to go on one?"

"Would be an honour sir," Patelon replied, while Reece just grumbled.

The man stared at them for a while, focusing his gaze on Reece. "By the way, I knew you tried to read my emotions, don't do that again." he replied as a large cloud of darkness sucked him in and he disappeared out of trace, leaving the two boys in awe.

Patelon and Reece spent their whole journey home talking about Professor Dariad and more importantly their probably pending quest. Patelon was really eager to go on one, and Reece couldn't blame him. Only fifth years and upward were allowed to go on quests and both of them going on one means they are probably one of the best students in the whole academy. The problem was, he hated the popularity it will bring afterwards. Reece preferred the peace and quiet, the careful plotting of his life without distractions or noises. He had really important goals in life, goals and milestones that he'd set to reach one final conclusion-- finding his sister.

He barely replied as Patelon started making scenarios of how their mission would go. His best friend had very weird imaginations. One of those scenarios included them saving a village that were being attacked by Bergian Walthorns. After he'd displayed an amazing choreography of skills and blows, and had single handedly saved the village. They would then discover the village was filled with beautiful ladies who would then rush to ask his hand in marriage and him being a just man will marry them all.

Reece couldn't help but laugh to that last one. He didn't understand why girls turned his friend's head in such ways. He couldn't even speak to Saliah without stuttering, and Saliah speaks with everyone including grumpy Canis. "You need help," He advised him.

"No, the way I see it," he countered. "You are the one who needs help. You have never been attracted to girls."

"If by attracted you mean I don't stumble, stutter, go mute, turn red, blue, yellow and all other colours of the rainbow in front of a girl then no, I am not attracted. I will leave those for you."

"All colours of the rainbow? Dang man!" he elbowed Reece. "But seriously, have you ever fallen in love? Or...or maybe you've been infatuated with someone?"

"No!" Reece replied simply, even though in his heart he knew he was lying, but he didn't know the truth. He can't remember it. If only he could remember the face of the girl who gave him the button, maybe he'd be sure if he was really infatuated with her or not.

"You see, you are hopeless,"

"And you are filled to the brim with hope. You embody the existence of that word."

"Shut up!"

They joked on for several minutes and after a while they departed, Reece headed straight to the bar and Patelon went the other way round to his private tutor's house. A man known by just an alias, Shroud. Reece has never seen the man's face, it was always covered with a shroud. He doubted even Patelon had. He bade his friend goodbye and headed to the bar as the sun above him began to turn away from the face of the earth.