Pria waited in her room for the knock at her door the next morning. She practiced a couple of spells to kill the time, making the plants in her window dance first with healing magic then again with storm. Those were her two best disciplines. If she had any hope of training with the apprentices, she figured she needed to bring something to the table.

When one of Yscera's servants knocked on her door, Pria smiled at the young elf woman and followed her up a couple of stories to a large, rectangular room devoid of any furniture. The other apprentices looked to have already gathered. They had formed small groups around the space, three or four of them in each one, probably divided by which ascendant they studied under. She spotted Faye in the group farthest right, but not before the woman saw her and started heading over.

The servant bowed and left Pria to deal with the apprentice. Pria put on a smile as the young woman came up to her—and didn't stop, hugging Pria like they were old friends. "So good to see you, darling," she said. Pria couldn't see her, but she could hear the smile in her voice.

Pria went rigid in her grasp and didn't relax until the woman drew back. She still didn't entirely release her, keeping one hand on Pria's shoulder. Pria tried shrugging her off, but the woman simply popped to the other side and slung an arm around her.

"How are you doing today?" Faye asked and didn't wait for Pria's response before continuing, "I'm doing just fine. I'm so excited to do our little training session and positively giddy to see what kind of magic you've learned under Master Rahu."

"I'm not his apprentice," Pria drawled.

Faye giggled. "Well, of course not, but you must have gotten something from him. He's such an amazing mage, you know, hard to believe some of it hasn't rubbed off on the people around him. I mean, I'd expect even his servants to be quite the mages."

Pria sighed. "Right."

"How long have you been around anyhow? You weren't here last year, so it can't be more than a few months, right?" Pria nodded, already losing interest in this conversation. The last thing she needed was someone examining her and her story. "I bet it was quite the adjustment. I mean, these living towers are pretty strange, and I've even heard that this tower can fold and manipulate the space inside it. Although, I suppose that has more to do with Rahu than the tower itself."

Pria frowned. "Are the other towers not like that?"

Faye laughed. "Not at all" she chirped. She reminded Pria of Geight—if the aspect had a mouth for fake smiles and a nose to look down. "None of the other ascendants can use celestial magic, you know, so they don't have as good of control of the towers. They clean themselves and keep a nice temperature inside, but that's about it."

Interesting. It never even crossed Pria's mind that the other towers might not function the same way as hers.

Faye brought her over to what she assumed was the group of Yscera's apprentices. There were three of them including Faye. One was a young boy that reminded her of a chipmunk and the other a muscular woman that looked like she could break Pria in half.

The woman nodded to her, and the boy waved. Pria hesitantly waved back. "Okay, everyone," Faye said, pushing Pria to stand between her and the boy, "Pria is here so we can start. Who should we go see first?"

"Naalu's apprentices," the burly woman said, crossing her arms. "Most of them specialize in the combat disciplines, and I want to fight them."

"Okay," Faye said. "That's another year with a vote for Naalu's group from Werva. Vincent?"

"You know my answer, too," he said, rolling his eyes. Pria's brow rose. "Obviously I'm going to say Krist's group. They're the best at the bonded disciplines."

"Of course," Faye said, smiling. Pria still didn't know what was off, exactly, about the woman's bright, easy smiles except that they didn't feel easy at all. "Well, how about you, Pria?"

She looked at the woman from the corner of her eye. "What?"

"Which group do you want to work with first?"

Pria shrugged. "Does it make a difference?"

The others laughed. Pria resisted the urge to sigh. "Of course it makes a difference, silly," Faye said, hand raised to hide her smile. "It's tradition for every mage and apprentice to specialize in two sets of disciplines for four types of magic in total. Like me for example," Faye pressed a hand to her chest, "I focused on the false disciplines and the natural disciplines." She raised her other hand, and next to her, an image of Yscera coalesced from shimmering light. Pria cocked her head at it. It didn't look quite right, but Pria wasn't sure what was off about it. It was a passable illusion, certainly, but Geight could do better. "Master Yscera specializes in the natural and attached disciplines herself. It's customary for every apprentice to study at least one of the sets that their master specializes in." Beside the illusion of Yscera, little lines of white writing popped up with the words natural and attached. Pria wasn't sure, but she assumed storm and earth were the natural disciplines and attached—potion and enchantment? The false disciplines had to be illusion and madness magic.

Faye kept the illusion up for a moment more before dismissing it with the wave of her hand. She conjured another that Pria recognized as Ascendant Naalu. He was a tall man with broad shoulders and short hair dyed a dark blue. Though in practice the illusion was no better than the last one, it better reflected Naalu with his bright, ostentatiously embroidered clothing and awful bowler hat dyed a putrid pink.

"Naalu specializes in the bonded and combat disciplines." The words once again popped up beside the image of the man, bonded and combat. "Most of his students study the combat disciplines, too, and generally become battle mages for the various lords around the country."

She released the illusion once more and made another. This one was Ascendant Krist with her shoulder length blonde hair and long, flowing purple dress to match her eyes. "Krist uses the bonded and attached disciplines." She dismissed the illusion and conjured another of Ascendant Haden. He was a short, plump man with an impressive mustache and beard and fine robes long enough to bury his body in their folds. "Haden specializes in the combat and false disciplines." She raised her other hand, creating an illusion of Ascendant Eurill with her curly brown hair and dainty features that didn't speak of the muscles hidden beneath her extravagant gown. "Eurill specializes in the combat and natural disciplines." Faye let the two illusions dissipate and turned to Pria with a smile. "But I have no clue what Rahu specializes in. Do you know?"

Pria shrugged. "I'm not his apprentice."

"No," Faye conceded with a small shrug of her own, "but you still live in his tower. Are there any disciplines he uses more than others?"

Pria thought about it, but no answers immediately sprung forth. Rahu used all of his magic so casually—from floating down stairs to warming his food to using shields to pick up and maneuver items to summoning a cluster of lights to better read. There was no set of magic or even singular discipline that stood out to her. He'd probably been alive for so long that he didn't need to worry about specializing in any particular disciplines. He could just study as he pleased.

Pria finally shook her head. "None stand out."

Faye frowned sharply, but the expression was replaced so quickly by another smile that Pria wasn't sure if it was there at all. "Well, that's just fine. I guess these finer details of magic would be lost on someone like you." Faye flicked her long hair over her shoulder, that cheery expression never leaving her face. Pria didn't bother hiding her scowl. "What about Rahu's aspects? They never really show their faces to us apprentices. Do you know which ones he made first?"

Why did she want to know so badly? "No, I don't," Pria said, just to be difficult. Whatever this girl wanted, Pria would not help her get it.

Faye's brow pinched despite the smile still on her face. "Oh, of course you wouldn't. You're just a servant, right?"

Pria very politely smiled back. "Yes, that's right."

Faye glared at her then, and Pria couldn't help but feel a measure of vindication. After just a moment, her expression was wiped away back to her usual false cheer. "Well, that's alright. I was just hoping to learn a bit more about Rahu, but I guess it isn't to be." Faye clasped her hands together with a sigh. "Even though I'm an apprentice, he certainly doesn't give me the time of day."

"This is fun and all," the boy—Vincent—interjected, an air of boredom radiating from him, "but I'd much rather be actually using my magic than talking about it. Don't we get enough of that?"

Faye smiled sweetly at him. "You're right about that. Let's go talk to Naalu's group, hm? I've been wanting to do a little sparring myself." She turned to Pria. "You'll come watch, won't you? See what some actual apprentices are capable of?"

Pria rolled her eyes. She wasn't looking forward to spending more time around these people, but she did want to see some more examples of magic. Watching some sparring would undoubtedly be helpful in the end as well. She nodded and followed a pace behind the small group as they moved over to Naalu's.

"Giselle!" Faye walked up to one of the young women in the group and swept her up in a hug like she'd done that morning with Pria. Giselle, much like Faye, gave a polite smile that didn't reach her eyes. "You guys wouldn't say no to some friendly spars, would you?"

"Of course not," Giselle said airily. Her gaze flicked over to Pria. "Will she be joining us?"

"She'll just be watching," Faye said, eyes glinting. Pria frowned.

"Oh, that's a shame." Giselle cocked her head. "I was looking forward to seeing what a member of Rahu's house was capable of."

"You know how it is," Faye said, flicking her hair over her shoulder again, "she just wouldn't be able to keep up with a real apprentice."

Pria was getting tired of all the little jabs at her. She got it—she was just a servant, and while sometimes she could use that to infuriate the other apprentices, mostly they just used the fact to irritate her. "I'll spar," she declared. Giselle smiled, pale eyes glittering. It was the look of a cat that cornered a mouse, and Pria resisted the urge to take the words back. She wanted them to stop looking at her like that and treating her like some insignificant peasant. To them, she was one, but that was beside the point.

"Oh, I'm so glad," Giselle said in that light voice of hers. "You can fight with me, then, after we give Werva a chance to flex her magic with... Dreyes," Giselle declared, waving forward one of the other boys in her group. He was young, probably no more than fifteen years, and Pria wondered if he, like Vincent, was really a senior apprentice.

Werva bolstered forward, a sharp, genuine grin on her face. Dreyes blanched, dwarfed next to the giant woman, but still nodded when Giselle gave him an expectant look. They moved closer to the center of the room where a couple other groups were already working together on what Pria assumed was their storm magic. Two would step forward at a time and rise into the air while a third apprentice raised their fist. The two flying would shoot off toward the other end of the room. Racing. Pria couldn't even lift herself up with her storm magic yet.

Maybe she shouldn't have been so quick to prove herself.

Werva and Dreyes took up position a few paces from each other. Werva was still grinning while Dreyes looked like he was going to be sick. The rest of them stood off to the side, giving the two of them a wide berth. Faye waved a hand and a shimmering flag rose between the two combatants.

"You know the rules, you two," she called, hand raised. "No intent to kill. You win when your opponent concedes or is incapacitated. Annnnd, begin!" She snapped her hand down, and the flag waved once before disappearing in a shower of glittering light.

Werva's hands burst into flames the moment the match began, and she drew back. Like she was throwing a ball, she cast her arm out, and a raging burst of fire flew straight toward Dreyes. The boy yelped, throwing up his hands. A golden shield sprung up in front of him, blocking the fire. It clung to the shield for a moment, and Pria wondered how much power and intent had to be behind the spell to make it stick like that. Werva tossed two more fireballs in quick succession, and Dreyes threw his shield into their paths just before they could connect with his flesh.

The fire smoldered on the wall of golden light, and Pria watched in amazement as it ate away the shield, spewing dark smoke all the while. Werva threw one more fireball, but Dreyes made a cutting motion and from his arm, a rush of air sliced straight through the middle of the fire. The two halves crashed on either side of him, and Werva was forced to raise her own shield to block Dreyes's attack.

"Werva specializes in the combat and attached disciplines," Faye told Pria as Dreyes went on the offensive, forcing Werva to hide behind her shields. "She wants to be a battle mage when she completes her training, able to fight and outfit soldiers with enchanted weapons. Dreyes specializes in the combat disciplines, too, but he also focuses on the natural disciplines. He wants to work on a ship when his training is complete. Protect them from sea monsters but also be able to conjure winds for fast sailing and whatnot."

Pria nodded, focusing more on the match. She was begrudgingly impressed by them but also more than a little nervous. She could reliably conjure a handful of weapon spells, and her shields were fairly strong—though that had more to do with her race than anything. Still, that didn't quite seem the same as the four spectral claymores Werva was conjuring or the blades of wind and chunks of earth from the floor Dreyes was throwing right back at her.

"What about you, Pria?"

"Hm?" Pria hummed, watching with wide eyes as Werva summoned an icy spear and sent it hurtling at Dreyes. It struck through his shield, shattering it like glass, and Dreyes barely managed to jump out of its way. It lodged itself into the floor, cutting the stone deep, and Pria had to wonder if that really was not intended to kill.

"If you were to specialize in some magic, what would you pick?" Faye asked.

Why did she want to know? Maybe she was just making conversation, but one look at the girl's insincere smile made her doubt that. Still, she couldn't see the harm in answering. "Natural," she said after a moment of contemplation. She really wanted to fly. And with everything she'd go through with her mission... "And weapon," she settled on.

Faye hummed. "A true battle mage, huh? Interesting. Are you good at those sets?"

Pria shrugged. She was no better at them than the bonded disciplines. Without any training in the false disciplines and only half of the attached ones, she had no idea if she had any talent in them.

Faye nodded. "Very interesting. Do you have spaces to practice your magic? I mean, technically, you're not supposed to, right?"

"What's wrong with practicing magic?" Pria asked. A blade of wind sliced Werva's arm. A moment later, Dreyes crashed to the ground when a conjured warhammer struck him from behind.

"Well, Rahu isn't allowed an apprentice."

"I use magic in my duties around the tower," Pria said, frowning. "And Rahu doesn't instruct me. If I practice magic, it's on my own time."

"I didn't mean anything by it," Faye said, raising her hands. Dreyes was back on his feet and then no longer on his feet as he rose into the air, dodging Werva's attacks. "I was just wondering, you know, if there was a place around the tower that you could go practice without Rahu or the tower knowing. I'd love to have a little space like that," she whispered, leaning closer. "A spot all to myself, get a little privacy, if you know what I'm saying."

Pria didn't know and didn't care. "No."

Faye sighed and drew away. "Oh, that's alright then."

Werva got another solid blow on Dreyes with a spear to his shoulder. The boy screamed and dropped to the ground with a crunch, the fall breaking one of his arms. One of the apprentices from their group moved forward and began tending to Dreyes's injuries with healing magic. The rest of them applauded as Werva took a grand bow and jogged back over to them.

"Looks like you're up," Faye said, smiling, and Pria wished she was going up against her if only for the chance to wipe the expression off her face. "Good luck!"

Pria sighed and locked gazes with Giselle. The apprentice gave her a dainty smile and stepped forward as a whimpering Dreyes was led away. Maybe Sive would finally see some activity in the infirmary, not that it was a good thing.

"Ready?" Giselle called as Pria reluctantly stood a few paces across from her.

"As I'll ever be," Pria muttered, stomach tightening.

Giselle started the match slow. She summoned a few spectral swords and sent them hurtling in Pria's general direction. She was able to dodge most of them easily just by watching their trajectory—until one of them turned sharply in the air, flying straight toward her chest. Pria yelped and reflexively raised her arms to block it, summoning a golden shield in front of her. They both shattered at the impact. Pria let out a slow breath and experimentally conjured a few arrows of her own, sending them Giselle's way. She flicked her wrist and a shield popped in front of her, breaking Pria's arrows into fragments of light when they hit it. The other apprentices laughed, and Pria grimaced.

Giselle crouched, splaying a hand on the ground. Under her touch, the stone sprang into action, sharp spikes erupting from the ground in a jagged line toward Pria. She gritted her teeth and used her own earth magic to send a wide, flat pillar straight through Giselle's spikes. Both attacks crumbled into chunks of earth, crashing to the ground in clouds of dust. The tower gave a little shake, and the stone smoothed itself back out.

Pria panted, sweat trickling down her temple, but Giselle remained as calm and impeccable as when the match started. She made a sweeping motion with her hand, and the air in front of her cut forward in a wave. Pria had to throw herself onto her stomach to avoid it, not certain she could summon a shield at the moment. She peeked up and saw Giselled pointing downward.

Without thinking, Pria rolled to the side, just barely avoiding a spectral spear plunging into the stone. She stared at it. Was Giselle trying to kill her? Or just scare her to death?

Giselle brought her hand up and curled it into a fist. That couldn't be good. Pria glanced up, blanching when she saw a dozen spears conjured above her. She scrambled to her feet, watching them as they descended on her and just barely managing to dance out of the way.

The other apprentices were laughing again, and Pria hated how distracting it was. She didn't see any movement from Giselle, but a gust of wind slammed into her, knocking her flat on her back. The air rushed out of her, making her gasp. Above her, a sword popped into existence and twirled once before it plunged toward her.

Giselle was toying with her. Scowling, she rolled out of the way again and sent her own blade of air hurtling toward her. It hit Giselle's shield and harmlessly dissipated once more.

There was nothing Pria could do. None of her attacks were strong enough to get through Giselle's shields, and she didn't yet know how to change the trajectory of her own attacks. Between everything Giselle was throwing at her, too, she didn't have a moment to think and try to come up with a plan.

It probably didn't even matter. There was nothing she could do that Giselle couldn't block. No matter how strong her will and intent were, Pria just didn't have the power or the skill. It wasn't like she expected to win this match, but she hadn't thought it would feel like she was a mouse tossed between the paws of a bored cat.

Giselle threw out another large but blunt gust of wind, knocking Pria over once more. She stayed on the ground this time and lifted a hand. "I concede," she called. It was humiliating, but so was enduring the laughter of the other apprentices. She might as well just cut her losses and never come to their training sessions again.

She simply wasn't powerful enough. She'd only been practicing a few months, and it was evident they had been practicing for years. The distance between their levels in skill—if they were standing on a path, Pria would barely even be able to see where they were from where she was.

Giselle didn't stop though. She flew forward, a ring of swords appearing around her like a halo. She pointed and they shot off one at a time, aimed straight for Pria. She yelped and scrambled out of the way, running as they struck the stone inches from her feet and getting closer with each one. The last sword sliced through the back of her leg and she cried out, colliding with the stone ground.

Giselle finally ceased her attacks and floated down beside her, dress rippling under the influence of her storm magic. She stared down, eyes as hard and frigid as ice even as she smiled.

"Never forget," she said, and her breezy voice was like the howling winter wind. "Though you might sit at our table, never forget that you are just a servant. Compared to us, that is all you will ever be."

She waved her hand as she turned away, and the cut on Pria's calf mended itself. Pria remained on the ground for a moment before slowly picking herself up and trudging back to Faye, excuses to get out of the room already on her tongue.

Faye smiled as she approached. "That was a good try," she said sweetly, even though her gaze was smug. When Pria scowled, her smile grew. "Are you leaving already?"

Pria's lip curled. "Yes, I am," she bit. "That woman was trying to kill me."

Faye laughed, eyes unnervingly wide. "Oh sweetie," she said, hiding her smile with her hand once more. "If she wanted you dead, you'd be dead. Though I imagine you've learned something from this?"

Pria's expression darkened. "No."

"No?" Faye said, raising one amused eyebrow.

Pria smiled at her then. "I may just be a servant, but I'm still in Rahu's house. Can you say the same?"

She thought that might get a rise out of Faye, but the girl just continued smiling at her. "That you are," she said and turned away. "Well, servant, your services are no longer required."

Pria bristled, but if there was a way for her to save face in this situation, she certainly didn't know what it was. Reluctantly, she turned and stalked away.