POV: Vern 

It was the next night. I twisted the jewel in my hands as I laid in bed, waiting for sleep to come. I had spent the day figuring out who's voice was who's, and trying to listen to the voices. It was getting easier and easier. It was still difficult figuring out most sentences, but I could now easily tell Spell and Elixir apart and I could make out smaller words. (I, and, be, to, of, etc.).

I smiled as I drifted off, wondering what my next dream would be.

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I was sitting. I was surrounded by cave walls, similar to my last dream. In front of me was a lava pool. Normally I would've felt the heat from it, but right now it was just... unusually cold. 

"Hello!" I looked behind me and saw Elixir and Spell. I took note that today Spell's hair was down. Spell reached out her hand, and I used it to stand up. "Today we'll be teaching you some magic. Just the basic fire control, and if we get far enough, we might get to potion effects." Spell explained. I nodded.

"Turn back around to the lava, we'll instruct you from there." Spell continued. So I did turn back to the lava. The more I watched it bubble, the more I realized I was actually feeling heat. Suddenly a spark from the lava touched a part of the floor and it went up into flames. "We use dream logic to our advantage. Thats why the fire started even though there was no fuel." I heard Elixir explain. 

"Try and control the fire. We won't explain, we just want to see if you can." I heard Spell say. 'Well thats helpful...' I thought sarcastically. I looked at the fire and wondered how to control it. Some instinct came over me, and I sorta just gripped the fire with my mind and raised my hand. 

The fire turned a brilliant shade of purple, and whichever was I moved my hand it followed. It was quite tiring though. Once I let go of the fire it went back to normal. The moment I did I felt like I had just run 50 miles. My whole body was sore and I was breathing hard. 

"Wow. I actually didn't think you could do that." Elixir blurted. "Thanks for believing in me." I whispered sarcastically in between breaths. "It's pretty jarring at first, I must say. You'll get used to it over time." I heard Spell say, and in her voice I could tell she was hiding giggles. "Says the child prodigy." I heard Elixir say behind me. "Does that mean it'll take forever for me to get used to it?" I pushed out. 

"Probably not. The benefit of dreaming while practicing is that you grow quicker. And by growing quicker you get out of the stage where every time you do magic you want to die faster." Spell explained. She then placed her hand on my shoulder, and I suddenly felt better. "Dream logic." She said. "I could've guessed." I whispered, still in a little shock from all that sudden soreness. 

"Try again." Spell said, and as she did a fire erupted on the stone near me. I did the same as before, and it worked! 

Spell and Elixir made me do the same thing over and over again, and it got easier and easier. I took less and less time to take control over the fire, and it stopped being something I tried to do but more something I could just do. I even felt like I ran a centimeter less than 50 miles! 

It was probably the 500th time I let go of the fire, the sudden soreness not really shocking me anymore. "You really are a natural!" Elixir cooed, patting my head. "Stop treating me like a doll I'm trying to not die here." I panted. Elixir giggled at me. 

"You've done a lot this night. You still have a few hours of sleep left, but me and Elixir can leave if you want to use it as rest." Spell offered. "yes, please, I want the rest." I murmured. "Okay. We'll go. Elixir?" I heard Spell ask. "I want to chat with Vern about something. I won't make her do more magic, don't worry." I heard Elixir respond. 'What will this be about?' I wondered. "Okay, I'll wait for you." I heard Spell respond. 

Everything slowly melted to black, and I turned around to see Elixir. "What do you want?" I asked. Elixir smiled. "Well, with the whole pronoun thing and Spell switching and things- I don't know much. I was hoping you could explain a bit to me?" Elixir asked.

I thought for a moment. "Well, with what Spell has said, it sounds like she's genderfluid. What that means is that her gender is fluid and changes from day-to-day. There's a lot of variations, but that's the biggest label." I replied. "Okay, so like what words do I use to refer to Spell? Like- 'handsome/beautiful'? Which do I use?" Elixir asked. "I'd say ask Spell. It's different for each person." I responded. Elixir nodded. 

"Okay, cya, I need to see my best friend!" Elixir said, disappearing. I just sat in the empty dream, glad that I could rest. 

I needed time to !̷̫̭͆̂̀̈́̀̀̅͗̇͐̍̕ͅ¡̵̨͈̦̘̞͍̺̺̳̖̗̞͔̓͊̆̽̓̎̈́͋́͋̀̓̋̓̎͒̋̽͌̚͠ꖎ̸̨̛̛͔̹̮͚̬̲̻͚͎̺̬͙̪̯̬̻̻̲̲͖̤̗̘̋͐̍́̈́͗̆̄̐̓̏̎͠ᔑ̸̢̮̦̭͕̤̃̽̈̀̓̏͋̇̈́̌͑̔̀̓̀̐̊̾̾̊̽͘͠͝リ̸̨̨͇̥͖̞̯͕͔̟͉̟͚̬̥̤̱͔̠̣̞͉̎̈̀̋̓̐̍̀̈́͆̿̆̅͒͗̒̀̂̋̇̿͗̐̊̑̕͘͘͠͝͝ after all.