"What do you think you're doing?" Charlie whispered as Ermand moved from the bench.

"Hey!" Timothy called after him.

"We must do something. The situation is getting worse," Odin suggested.

Ermand walked toward Damien and his friends. His mind was burning with fire. Jack's cries of being beaten, his sore tiny legs, the boys laughing, he remembered everything. These spoilt Qorders have the habit of bullying the low ranks, it is in their blood.

"Who are you to cut me from my business?" Damien asked, his teeth gritted behind his tugged lips.

"Leave him alone, you are nobody to punish him, and this is not a business."

"What? I didn't hear you," Damien mocked. His supporters laughed.

"Then make sure you clear the wax off your dirty ear."

Damien's nose flared with rage.

"How dare you insult me!"

He threw the flickering big light in his hands at Ermand. Everybody gasped. Ermand thought it hit him, but something engulfed the light inside it.

"Mess time over. Everybody go to your classes," the High Professor ordered the students.

The High Professor stood at the entry of the mess hall. Beside him was a spectacled boy with black frame in his neatly ironed white shirt and blue jeans.

"Damien Qorder and Ermand Chisel will stay back."

"I hope Damien Qorder knows the college rules," he questioned when all the students were out of the mess hall.

"Do you know who my father is--"

"Do you know the rules we set to be abided by every student, Damien?"

Damien snorted.

"In my office, both of you." He turned his back at them and walked forward.

"Mark my words, Chisel. You'll receive a knocketer today evening, and it won't be good news for you and your filthy family," Damien whispered through gritted teeth.

Ermand kept quiet and followed the Professor.

After returning from Professor Zaugustus Lewcent's office, the whole class was intrigued to find them entering the classroom.

"What happened?" Timothy inquired, making a seat for him.

"We'll receive a knocketer today of our misbehaviour--"

"Misbehaviour?" Charlie gasped with rebellion. "What was your misbehaviour?"

"I don't know. I'm more concerned with what Damien will send me."

"What will he send you?"

"He threatened me that he'll send a knocketer, and it won't be good news."

Timothy and Charlie remained in silence.

"Why did you stand up for that boy anyway? You know what price it could cost if you stand against a high clan, especially a Qorder," Timothy scolded.

"I've-I--" Ermand couldn't answer. The worst memories of his childhood were still vivid as yesterday in his head.

"Attention class. I am Alida Spears. You teacher for Advanced Elemental magic."

Alida Spears was a thin and lean woman with brown curly hair that reached her shoulders. Her bulging brown eyes were deep sunk in the socket of her skull. The cloak she wore barely reached her ankles due to her tallness.

"According to the senior students, they find Elemental magic as the easiest subject in the Defense department. Hope you find the same too. Why don't we introduce ourselves?" Her thin lips twitched when she spoke.

She called every student to introduce themselves and talk about their interests and hobbies.

"So, first we'll see what elements resides

in each and everyone of you. Are you ready? All you have to do is..." She turned to the table behind her and took a glass platter with a green crystal placed on it.

"Many of you might guess this is emerald. No, it is Spectastone. Anybody know what a Spectastone is?"

"Is it the stone that reflects the nature of a person?" Emile guessed.

"Right, you gentleman. Uh... you're Waps! Emile Waps!" She replied, displaying her set of white shining teeth.

"Yes, Professor Spears."

"I'll add extra information to this. It reflects that part of us which we're looking for, and to know that part, we need to add its respective potion," she placed the glass plate back on the table and picked a glass pitcher filled with a colourless liquid.

"This potion, known as the Elementoptis potion which tells you about the element you're more closely related to. If you get the Spectastone in a brown and orange mixture of colour, it means you're related to the element of earth. If it turns into any transition of blue, you're related to water. If it is red or orange with a slight mixture of yellow, you're related to fire and finally if it turns colourless or with a faint amount of light blue, it's air that you're related to."

She glanced at each student and turned back to the plate.

"I belong to water. Wanna see me try?"

The class responded yes. She grabbed a tiny glass tumbler and poured the potion into it, filling half of the tumbler.

"Before pouring this liquid, you should use the incantation - 'Prove what has reflected in me, show what the elements will be'."

She spelled the incantation and poured the Elementoptis potion and raised it high above her head to show the whole class. A dark blue fire suddenly arose from the stone that remained for a few minutes before extinguishing itself into a small amount of dark blue ash.

"The intensity and the transition shades of the flame delineates your behaviour. You'll soon learn about this within a few classes. And this ash, should be carefully moved into a tiny bottle container or else after a few minutes it will evaporate into the air and the consequences it's going to do... Never mind, we'll discuss it some other time."

"Man, I was interested in the consequences," Charlie muttered, yawning.

A tiny bottle with a rubber top popped on the table within a few gestures of her. After collecting the ash in the bottle, she capped it and later it disappeared into thin air.

"Who'll come first?" She pulled her mouth into a wide weird grin.

"Me?"

Timothy and Charlie turned their heads at Ermand.

"Uh..." Alida tapped on the side of her head with her index finger with her eyes shut. "Ermand! Ermand Chisel!"

Ermand nodded and smiled before he entered the podium.

He poured the potion into the same glass tumbler Professor Spears took and spelled the incantation as he poured the potion into the Spectastone.

Ermand expected a flame to boost up from the stone with any colour reflecting on it, but nothing came out of the stone.

Does this require some magical knowledge? Did I spell the incantation right?

"Uh... It seems that--Ahhh!"

A bright orange-red light suddenly rampaged from the plate, causing Ermand to slip the plate from his hands. The glass plate shattered but the fire didn't extinguish, instead the enormous appetite of flames grew more and more.

"What is happening?" Professor Spears hissed, her eyes rolling left and right at the flame.

"Somebody gotta bring water," Damien laughed.

"It can't be put out or smothered. It gradually extinguishes itself. But what is happening here? Did you do some trick, Chisel?"

"No, Professor Spears. I-I don't know what happened."

"I'll call Professor Zaugustus Lewcent. Everybody, please don't shuffle from here."

Before Alida exited the room, the flame retarded to the way it grew and finally extinguished into a orange-red powder of ash.

Ermand sighed with relief and bent down to collect the ash.

How will I survive this year?