On Monday night, Gaelira had begun studying the four basic elements with Octavia.
Tuesday passed between History and Arcane Law, where she received her first organized overview of the kingdoms and their magical laws; Alchemy and Magical Materials, where she learned the laboratory rules; and her first House Duties within Thornheart.
None of those subjects produced anything extraordinary, but by the end of the day she understood that Crownspire would demand much more than knowing how to use a sword.
She also did some light exercises to strengthen her legs before returning to Octavia's notes.
By Wednesday morning, Gaelira could already explain the theoretical differences between the four elements.
Fire required expansion, water continuity, air movement, and earth stability.
Understanding those ideas on paper had been relatively simple. The real difficulty would begin when she tried to make her mana obey them.
Gaelira and Octavia took the same seats as in the first class. Bellamie sat on Gaelira's other side again, although this time she only greeted her with a smile before preparing her materials.
A transparent crystal waited on each desk, accompanied by four small sheets of different colors.
The pieces showed the symbols of a flame, a drop, a spiral, and a mountain.
Lenora Lion entered when the second bell finished ringing. The glowing currents inside her glass arm showed a uniform white color, very different from the shifting tones of the previous class.
The professor placed her brass rod on the platform and raised her transparent hand so everyone could see it.
"You have already learned to recognize your mana," she began. "Now you must give it an instruction. Elements do not appear because you pronounce a word correctly. They appear when your energy understands the form you are trying to create."
Lenora lightly struck the rod against her arm. The white light gathered in her palm and first transformed into a small flame.
Then it contracted into a sphere of water, began spinning like a current of air, and finally hardened into a fragment of stone.
Each manifestation disappeared before the next one appeared.
"Most of you will find one or two elements easier and struggle with the others," she explained. "That does not mean you must decide today which one you will use for the rest of your lives.
Your only task is to cause a different reaction inside the crystal."
The students placed the fire sheet beneath their crystals.
Small reddish flashes appeared around the room while Lenora walked between the desks and corrected their breathing or hand positions.
Octavia produced a weak but stable red light. Bellamie managed to create a tiny flame that remained suspended above her crystal until the professor told her to extinguish it. This story is hosted at novelping . com.
Gaelira closed both hands around hers and remembered Octavia's explanations.
She searched for the energy she had recognized during the previous class and managed to produce a faint golden light from the center.
Then she imagined the expansion of fire and tried to guide the mana toward the red sheet. The glow stretched for an instant, lost intensity, and disappeared.
It was not the expected result, but it did not mean she had completely failed either.
Gaelira had activated the crystal without help. She breathed calmly and waited for Lenora's next instruction.
The water sheet produced the same result. The golden light appeared, tried to change, and faded before taking on a different color.
With air, the glow began to rotate inside the crystal, but disappeared when Gaelira tried to release it.
Earth lasted slightly longer and managed to gather near the base, although it eventually went dark without forming a single particle.
Octavia watched the final attempt and moved her chair slightly closer. "Your mana responded all four times," she murmured. "It just refused to transform."
"That's what's strange," Gaelira replied while looking at the crystal. "I can feel it until the moment I try to give it an element."
Lenora stopped beside her desk. She did not announce the result or draw the attention of the rest of the room.
She picked up Gaelira's crystal, examined it against the light, and returned it without showing concern. "Continue practicing basic activation for the rest of the class. Do not try to force another transformation."
Gaelira obeyed. While the other students repeated the exercises with their most favorable affinities, she focused only on producing the golden light and keeping it stable.
By the time Lenora ended the lesson, she could maintain it for several seconds without feeling it slip from her control.
The students began packing their materials. Octavia remained beside Gaelira until Lenora approached again and asked her to stay behind.
Gaelira assured her that she would return later and watched as her roommate left the classroom with the others.
Bellamie was one of the last to leave and gave her a curious look before disappearing through the door.
Once they were alone, Lenora closed the classroom and took a small wooden box from one of the cabinets.
"These are not designed for teaching," she explained while placing them on the desk. "They only react when they recognize a compatible affinity. You do not need to do anything except touch them."
Gaelira placed a finger on the fire crystal. Nothing happened. She repeated the process with water, air, and earth, but none showed even the golden flash she produced in the practice crystals.
Lenora watched each reaction with growing concentration, although she did not seem disappointed.
"Does that mean I don't have an affinity?" Gaelira asked.
"It means you do not possess any of the four elemental affinities we can confirm with these tools."
Lenora opened a hidden compartment beneath the box and removed a fifth crystal that was completely transparent.
It had no symbol, color, or the polished shape of the others. Its uneven surface made it look like a fragment freshly broken from a much larger stone.
"This crystal does not search for a specific element," she explained. "It is used when we know mana is present, but cannot identify what form it is trying to take."
Gaelira extended her hand. The moment she touched the crystal, a golden light ignited inside it and ran through every crack.
The reaction was far more intense than any flash she had managed during class.
Lenora quickly pulled the box away when the glow reached its edges, but the crystal continued illuminating Gaelira's fingers for several seconds before fading.
Gaelira looked at her hand, still feeling a faint tingling beneath the skin. "Then I do have an affinity."
"You possess something the crystal recognizes," Lenora corrected while examining the piece. "We still don't know what it is."
The professor put away the four elemental crystals, but kept the fifth one on the desk.
The currents inside her transparent arm began moving faster as she compared the two reactions.
"Have you seen this before?" Gaelira asked.
Lenora took a few seconds to answer. Finally, she looked up and pointed toward the crystal still faintly stained with a golden glow.
"In a person, no," she admitted. "I've only seen a similar reaction inside certain enchanted weapons."