Lenora kept the fifth crystal beneath the light while the golden glow slowly faded from its cracks.
The statement about enchanted weapons had answered one question, but it seemed to have created several more.
Gaelira remained in front of the desk without interrupting her, trying to understand why her mana reacted to an object incapable of identifying the four elements.
If that affinity was related to weapons, perhaps it was not a coincidence that her swordsmanship knowledge had survived the change of body.
However, she still did not have enough information to turn that possibility into a conclusion.
"I need you to remember exactly what happened the first time you activated a crystal," Lenora asked while putting away the four elemental crystals.
"Not what you were trying to do, but everything that was happening around you when the light appeared."
Gaelira reviewed the first class in her mind. She had held the crystal through several attempts without getting any response.
Bellamie had taken the empty seat beside her, started asking questions about the duel against Clarke, and then decided to help her.
The Stormwing student had placed one hand over hers to show her how to recognize the movement of mana.
The glow had appeared while they were still touching and disappeared shortly after Bellamie let go.
"Bellamie was touching my hand," Gaelira explained. "She told me to stop trying to control the crystal and follow the sensation moving through her fingers. When I managed to recognize it, the light appeared."
Lenora looked up. "Was she using magic?"
"She didn't produce any spell, but she said she would show me what mana felt like when it began to circulate."
The professor opened the class record and searched for Bellamie's name among the Stormwing students.
Then she compared her notes with the fifth crystal. The glowing currents inside her transparent arm shifted from white to gold for an instant, as if she were deliberately reproducing the reaction she had just observed.
"Practice crystals only respond to the mana of the person holding them," she explained. "Bellamie could not have activated it with her own energy. However, it is possible that her flow gave yours a structure it still did not know how to form." Enjoying the story? Read on at novelping.com.
Gaelira looked at her right hand. During the exercise, she had felt a tingling sensation moving from the point where Bellamie touched her toward the crystal.
She had assumed it was simply mana awakening inside her body, but perhaps her energy had been following someone else's path instead of creating one of its own.
"Does my affinity copy other people's magic?" she asked.
"We still don't know whether it copies, recognizes, follows, or feeds on it," Lenora replied. "Using a word too early could make you interpret every future reaction according to the wrong conclusion."
The answer was not as satisfying as receiving a definite name, although Gaelira understood the caution.
If her affinity truly interacted with other people's mana, they needed to repeat the conditions of the first reaction before establishing any rules.
Lenora closed the crystal box and wrote several lines on a small sheet of paper.
"I want to examine what happened with Bellamie present," she decided while folding the message. "Ask her if she is willing to participate this afternoon. It is not an order, and she may refuse without any academic consequences."
Gaelira accepted the note and left the classroom. Lunch had already begun, so the corridors of the central tower were filling with students.
Finding Bellamie among the uniforms of the three houses was not difficult. Her green hair stood out near one of the windows of the First Bell Courtyard, where she was finishing reviewing a book before heading to the dining hall.
Bellamie looked up when Gaelira approached and closed the book with one hand. "I thought Lenora kept you because you'd broken another crystal. I'm disappointed to see you without smoke coming out of your hair."
"The crystal survived," Gaelira replied, handing her the note. "The professor wants to repeat what happened during our first class."
Bellamie read the message and her smile took on an amused edge. "Does she need me to touch you again?"
Gaelira had expected some teasing, but knowing it was coming did not stop heat from rising to her face. "She needs to check whether my mana reacted to yours. The contact is only part of the experiment."
"Of course. A strictly academic experiment."
Bellamie slipped the note inside her book, although she stopped joking when she looked more closely at Gaelira's expression. "Did you discover anything important?" Read the latest chapters at g.com.
"The four elemental crystals didn't react. The fifth one did, and Lenora thinks my affinity might recognize other magical flows." Gaelira paused briefly before adding, "We don't know anything else. That's why she needs your help."
Bellamie did not demand another explanation or ask what she would receive in return. She only checked the time Lenora had written and nodded. "I'll be there. I also want to find out why your crystal decided to respond to me."
That acceptance was more direct than Gaelira had expected. Bellamie enjoyed teasing her, but she did not seem to see Gaelira's magical difficulties as an opportunity to mock her.
She had been the first person capable of helping her produce a reaction, and now she was willing to spend part of her afternoon trying to understand it.
"Thank you," Gaelira said.
Bellamie opened the book again, although her smile returned before she moved away. "You can thank me after we find out how many times Lenora plans to make us hold hands."
Hours later, Gaelira arrived at a small practice room beside the Fundamentals of Magic classroom.
Bellamie was already there, leaning against a table holding several crystals, while Lenora adjusted a brass instrument around a transparent sphere.
No other students were present.
Lenora instructed them to stand facing each other and explained that the instrument would measure the movement of mana without allowing a current to pass completely from one body into the other.
Bellamie would produce only a minimal amount of energy, enough for Gaelira to try to recognize it.
If either of them felt pain, dizziness, or loss of sensation, the exercise would end immediately.
Bellamie extended her hand with the palm facing upward. "Looks like the strictly academic part starts now."
Gaelira ignored the teasing and placed her hand over Bellamie's. Bellamie's fingers closed gently around hers, firm but without squeezing.
Lenora watched the transparent sphere and raised her glass arm to begin the measurement.
"Bellamie, circulate your mana without giving it an elemental form," she ordered. Then she looked toward Gaelira. "You do not try to produce anything. Simply find her flow and follow it."