Although Seto still secretly suspected that Adam was related to Herobrine in some way, they returned home to the worried demands of their friends as to where they had been. They were fairly vague with their answer as only an hour away from the base, Adam had asked Ty and Seto to keep his newfound magic a secret.

          "Just because we don't completely know why I'm like this," he explained. "I don't want them to know until we have a reason, otherwise they might panic."

          The word 'panic' didn't seem to be in the dictionary of most of the Team but they promised anyway. Although the answers the three supplied didn't completely satisfy the Team's questions, they didn't push and the world was back to normal after a few days.

          But things were never going to become normal for Adam again. His magic lessons with Seto started almost immediately. They practised in the early hours of the morning, before anyone was awake, to keep Adam's magic a secret. Both of them felt that the training sessions were practically pointless as it soon became clear that Adam could barely summon his magic, no matter how well Seto explained to him how to do it.

          "You know that feeling when you drink something warm and you can feel it running down into your stomach?" he asked one early morning. "It's like that, but from your chest to your hands."

          Adam concentrated but... "There's just nothing there," he fumed. "I can't feel anything different about me but I know that there's magic there because every time you try to make it come out, it just does!"

          "I know," Seto sighed. "But we've got to keep trying. You'll get the hang of it soon, everyone does."

          "Have any of your apprentices taken this long to gather their magic?" Adam asked with a barely concealed scoff.

          "No," Seto said with a shake of his head. "But I haven't had a lot of apprentices. Let's just skip that step. Again." However, even when Seto had brought the magic to gather in his palm, Adam couldn't do anything except to shift it from a water viscosity to something like jelly which flopped from hand to hand. It was rather humiliating, which made Adam glad for the early training lessons, even if it meant he had to drag his butt out of bed at four-thirty in the morning.

          A few days passed with no improvement in his control of his magic. It was around lunch when Adam finally acknowledged the pounding headache which seemed to originate from the back of his brain somewhere. He tried to think of the last time he had a drink of water but judging from the sudden dryness of his mouth when he thought about it, it had been a while. He drunk two glasses before the headache diminished a little and then went about his day, resolving to keep a better eye on his drinking habits. The headache proved to be stubborn despite his increased intake of water and it started to spin around his head, meaning that he almost crashed into Quentin while passing him in the hallway.

          "Sorry," he said quickly, putting a hand to the wall in an attempt to try and steady the world.

          "Are you okay?" Quentin asked, concerned at how Adam seemed to take a little longer to focus his eyes.

           "Yeah," Adam said with an ill thought-out nod. "Just dizzy."

          "How much water have you had today?"

          "If I have any more, I'll probably throw it right back up." Quentin made a thinking sound that Adam quickly headed off. "Don't try to confine me to bed, please."

          Quentin narrowed his eyes at him but eventually sighed. "Alright. But if you're still dizzy by tonight, you're staying in bed for tomorrow morning.

          Luckily for Adam, the dizziness lessened during the day and he didn't almost fall into anyone else. The headache also decreased enough (or perhaps Adam became used to it) for him to do his daily tasks without much distraction, including, of course, sorting out his desk which had been in dire need to resorting for the past several months. Papers had to be filed, writing implements had to be found and replaced in the holder, there was a wax seal somewhere which he was supposed to return to Jason and a million other things. He had dedicated an entire day to do it.

          Luck favoured Adam again and he had just put a small folder of papers away and was reaching for the next when his hands burst into flame. He gave a yell and stumbled back, holding them both out in front of him. The fire was a vibrant yellow but it didn't even splutter when he waved his hands in the air, trying to put it out. Panic made his mind go blank as he stared helplessly at his hands, duly realising that the fire wasn't hurting him. In fact, it kinda tickled a little, but it was unnatural and terrifying anyway. At that moment, the door opened.

          "Hey Adam, have you seen my..." Ty's voice died off and his eyes widened as he saw Adam standing there, hands held out in front of him, fire burning away happily. A second passed before he said "Bathroom" and glanced out the door behind him to make sure that no one else was in the passage way. Adam followed him quickly and Ty opened the bathroom door for him, turning the tap on full blast. The fiery hands went under the flow of water but the fire burned for a few terrifying seconds before sputtering and going out, leaving the cool water running over Adam's hands.

          Ty slowly turned off the tap. "Please tell me you meant that to happen."

          Adam mutely shook his head, drying his hands shakily on the hand towel. "I don't know what happened, they just... caught fire."

          "Have your lessons with Seto been going well?" Ty asked carefully.

          Adam shook his head again.

          With the thought that his hands could spontaneously burst into flame at any moment always present in the back of his mind, Adam found it difficult to keep focused. The weapon training sessions, however, always managed to do just that. It was hard to worry about your own issues when you were busy correcting the technique of a recruit or sparing with a partner or taking on Mitch when the two of them were bored. Mitch being from a long line of warriors, he always had a trick up his sleeve and almost never lost a fight, except for when he got cocky or someone managed to slip past his defence. The constant rush of adrenaline always left Adam's heart racing very fast and his slightly paranoid mind made him think that it was taking a lot longer than usual to return to its normal rate.

          When he was walking to the weapons shed after one such training session, two men were walking behind him. From the ease with which he could hear their conversation, they must have only been a few steps behind but he didn't turn around. What they were discussing seemed to be a sensitive topic, but why they were talking about it so close to Adam, he had no idea.

          "I don't know, she's just been really distant and closed off," one was saying. "I feel like I've done something wrong, but I don't know what."

           "Have you tried talking to her about it?" his friend suggested.

          "Of course," the first said. "But every time she just says it's nothing but I know that she's lying. I just... don't want to push her cause I know that she hates it."

          "Well, when the wife is angry and all else fails, go to the fallback," the friend said. "Get her flowers, make her some tea, send her random letters during the day saying that you love her and stuff like that. It usually makes them calm enough to talk."

           Adam turned a little to talk over his shoulder to them to suggest that maybe the wife had something going on in her life and that maybe it would help if he asked her if he could help her with something, but the words died in his throat before he had opened his mouth and he quickly faced forward, mouth shut, walking faster. For the two men who had been talking weren't directly behind him. Instead, they were several metres behind, walking close together, looking as though they were whispering but Adam could still clearly hear their conversation. He purposely ignored what they were saying.

          But now that he had noticed it, he realised just how haywire his senses were becoming. The colours were more vibrant, the gold of swords brighter and the smell of flowers and cooking food stronger. His clothes seemed to be itchy and irritating on his skin even though he had never had a problem with them before. But his haywire senses were quickly turning out to be the least of Adam's problems and the chances of his friends realising that something was very off about him were dwindling.

          It was Ian who got the first glimpse of Adam's magic in action, although he didn't realise it until much later. It was mid morning and Ian, back from an early morning scout, was looking forward to having a nice, warm shower before getting on with the day. He was just mounting the stairs up to the Team's common room when he heard a loud thump and a quiet groan coming from a hallway below to the side of the stairs. Ian quickly retraced his steps, heading at a swift jog down the hallway. It had a sharp left turn and as Ian spun around it, he saw Adam leaning against the wall, one hand pressing the stone, the other holding his head as he slowly sank to the ground. Ian jogged up to him, going to kneel down next to him.

          "Adam, are you okay?" he asked quietly. Adam didn't respond until the fourth or fifth time his name was called, shaking his head a little as if to orientate himself.

          "I'm okay," he mumbled.

          He looked anything but. He was still holding his head and the blood had gone out of his face, making it pale and drawn and he seemed worried. It was hard to tell due to the sunglasses that he always wore, but he seemed to be avoiding Ian's eyes.

          "You don't look okay," Ian said carefully. "Are you sure everything's alright?"

          "Yeah, it's all fine," Adam lied, standing up.  He stumbled as he did so and Ian grabbed his arm to steady him even though it wasn't strictly necessary since Adam was already leaning on the wall for support.

          "Adam, you are not okay, tell me the truth. Please," he added quickly.

          Adam gave a sigh and made a weak gesture to his temples. "I'm a bit dizzy, it's just a headache."

          "Are you sure it's just a headache?" Ian asked, to which Adam nodded. "Okay. How'd you crash into the wall?"

          Adam hesitated a little. "I'm not... entirely sure," he admitted.

          Ian gave him a concerned look. "Do you want me to take you to the infirmary?" he offered. "Cause that sounds like more than your average headache."

          "N-No, I'm fine," Adam said. "Really," he added as Ian clearly disbelieved him. "I just haven't had enough water today, I'll be fine. Promise."

          Although Ian still didn't fully believe him, he let Adam have his own way. Seto, meanwhile, was doing some disbelieving of his own and had gone through all of the books in the castle's library and in his own personal collection for any reference, no matter how small or vague, to something that was like Adam's magic, all without any success. He did, however, find in a few books tiny snippets about Herobrine, but none of them alluded to any relatives except for two possible brothers: Notch, the first king who combined the seven original kingdoms (which had since dissolved into the chaos of today), and Steve, who had no additional information on him.

          Despite this lack of information, Seto continued to hunt through books, searching for something on the families of these two brothers or of Herobrine, but the continual lack of knowledge frustrated him. There wasn't even a reference to Anne. He sighed and sat back in his chair, looking up at the ceiling. Adam somehow couldn't control his magic and he, Seto, could find nothing to help him. Still, with any luck, Adam would finally figure out his magic and everything would be okay.

          But, he thought with a frown, luck didn't seem to favour them very much.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

I apologise if the spelling and grammar are off, I wrote half of this and published it from my phone. It's also defaulted to American spelling, which is irritating but oh well. I will look over this and republish it tomorrow when I can get back to my computer.

I hate to do this to you guys, but this is the last update you'll get until the 21st August. I have exams coming up again and so I need to study and stuff. Until then:

Will Adam be able to control his magic?

Will Seto find something that can help him?

Will the rest of the Team find out what's really happening and how will they react when they realise that his magic is Herobrine's?

What part does Herobrine have to play in all of this? Or has he already played it?

The answer to one of these questions is coming in the next update. Until then, stay awesome.

~Storm (almost wrote my real name, whoops)