POV: Xelqua

Location: Watcher Academy

I let out a sigh as I quickly wrote down some notes. It had already been 2 years since I arrived at the Academy. The days had flown by quicker than I could believe but I didn't mind. It just meant I would get out of there quicker.

I glanced up at the instructor. This one was the Watcher with the braid, the one that had taken me from Evo. We had learned her name was Beidalia and addressed her as such.

"And that is the end of today's lesson. Spend the rest of the time catching up on missed schoolwork and anything related to learning to be a Watcher. You are allowed to speak with other students but you must only speak in Galactic, as always, and you must keep your voices low," Beidalia said, her hands behind her backs and her expression hidden by her mask. All of the instructors' cloaks only covered part of their clothes, unlike the Initiates whose cloaks covered everything. The instructors only could do this because they always wore Watcher specific dresses and uniforms underneath.

I let out a quiet sigh, glad that I didn't have to take any more notes. I turned to look at Verix, surprised as usual at his white roots. In the past two years, his black hair had begun to come out as white. He said he didn't know why it was happening but I could tell that wasn't the full truth. However, I didn't question it. Verix and I had become friends and I didn't want to ruin our friendship.

The ten or so minutes of semi-free time went by quickly and it was time to head to our last class of the day.

I kept an eye on Verix as we walked, fearful of other students attacking him for no reason. He had been attacked several times in the past few months alone. However, the students who had attacked him had been punished for it.

Soon, we managed to make it to our class with no trouble.

Sitting down, I glanced at our teacher, Instructor Darylev. Many students suspected that for his Watcher name, they took one of his actual names and added "ev" onto it. However, nobody confronted the Instructor about it as asking Instructors about their Watcher names gave immediate punishment.

I returned my attention to Darylev as he began the lesson.

"Today we are going to be doing proper magic in real-time," he announced in his famous deep voice.

The students' interest was captured.

"You will be in pairs. You will use your magic to duel each other. Similar levels of power will be grouped together so that you all have a chance at learning and winning. Any questions?" The Instructor paused, waiting to see if anyone would raise their hand.

One of the students who had hurt Verix in the past raised his hand. "Yes, Gorekth?" Darylev said. "Will we be allowed to choose our partners?" Gorekth asked.

"If you are a similar level to the person of your choosing, then yes," Darylev said, making my heart drop a bit.

Gorekth glanced over at us with a smirk on his face. We knew what he was planning.

"Find your partners. Make sure it's someone you won't be fearful to harm, whether on purpose or not. You must learn how to use your magic," Darylev announced.

Everybody stood up and went to find possible partners. They were usually enemies but with most, they had never gone to physical, unlike Verix and Gorekth.
My friend got paired with his enemy, and I was left alone with no partner. There turned out to be an odd number of students in the class that day after someone had gone to the infirmary for breaking the rules the day before.

Forcing myself to stay calm, I turned to look at the Instructor.

"Well, Xelqua, it seems that I will have to be your partner today," he said, making my heart drop for the second time that day.

Attempting to swallow the lodge in my throat, I nodded and replied respectfully, "Yes, Instructor Darylev." I made sure to add a little bow to show that I still respected him.

The Instructor turned to the other students and announced, "To the courtyard."

With a lot of shuffling and confusion, we headed out the door and to the courtyard.

We formed a line where the partners stood side by side as we walked. Of course, this meant I had the embarrassing and attention-grabbing position of walking next to our Instructor.

When we made it to the courtyard, we spread around the outside of the yard, partners standing together. Darylev walked to the center of the courtyard and I followed him, hands placed behind my back. He signaled for me to go stand in the circle and with a nod and a bow, I went to stand beside Verix. I knew everyone was looking at me and I was determined to not make a fool of myself.

"We have the whole class period to practice. There will be four partnerships going at a time so that this will get done by the end of the class," Darylev said before assigning four random partnerships to start. Verix and Gorekth were not one of the partnerships and I wouldn't have to go until the very end so that Darylev can keep an eye on all of the pairs.

Once the four pairs finished, another four pairs went up, Verix and Gorekth included. I watched with worry in my eyes, hoping Verix would be able to protect himself from the bully.

I glanced up at Darylev where he stood beside me. His gaze was trained on the partners. I let out a quiet sigh. He would make sure there was no permanent damage done.

Turning my gaze back to Verix, I watched as he blocked a particularly strong blast of magic and deflected it back, narrowly missing Gorekth. I internally smiled and watched as Verix held his own in the fight.

After a few minor burns and injuries, Verix and Gorekth finished the fight in a draw. They had to stop so that the last four partnerships could practice, including mine.

I glanced nervously at the teacher as we went out into the courtyard. I planted myself a short distance away from him, raising my hands a bit in preparation for the practice.

Immediately, a blast of purple flew at me. I raised my hands, creating a purple shield that blocked and absorbed the magic.

The magic disappearing, I lowered my hands to my side and waited for an opportunity to arise.

I jumped out of the way just as a purple blast of magic scorched where I had been standing moments before.

Winding up as if I were throwing a ball, I sent a burst of magic at Darylev. He threw up his arms, a temporary shield protecting his face and chest. The burst I sent exploded, causing him to be pushed back a few blocks. However, he was not harmed.

Unbeknownst to us, the other three pairs were already close to finishing their fights while ours was just starting.

Darylev kept sending more and more blasts of magic at me, each getting more intense than the last. However,  I managed to dodge or block all that would've severely hurt me.

The fight paused long enough for me to examine Darylev's expression. Despite the mask, I could tell he was trying to test me and was determined to find my limit. Narrowing my eyes, a smirk grew on my face as I realized what he was trying to do. He was trying to hold out the fight long enough. Well, I didn't mind the challenge.

I waved my hand and a purple wave pushed Darylev to the side. He immediately got back up and retaliated with a blast of silver magic that sent me sprawling to the floor.

Eyes wide at the sudden appearance of silver magic, I pushed myself to my feet and sent another wave of purple magic at the Instructor.

At this point, he was probably toying with me. However, I still tested my own limits. I also wanted to see how far I could go.

With a circular wave of his hands, the Instructor created a silver shield that absorbed my purple magic.

I stood tall, waiting for his next attack. It was even worse than the last.

After being thrown around a few times, I began to fear for my life. I think I found my limit, I thought as I attempted to stand again. The Instructor seemed to get worried for me, as well as all of the other students. However, I did not stand down.

With a sigh, Instructor Darylev sent a blast of magic at me, expecting it to knock me over.

I raised my hands and made a shield, my emotions getting the better of me. At first, the shield was purple but the color slowly faded, turning to silver. The blast of magic vanished, my shield doing the same moments later.

I looked at my hands, surprise evident in my eyes. In the 2 years that I had been at the Academy, my magic color hadn't been more than purple.

Since I was distracted, I didn't have time to dodge the second blast of silver magic. It threw me to the floor, making my cloak sizzle and threaten to burn.

I pushed myself up, unaware of the dribble of blood coming from my head.

I stood up and sent a blast back.

The Instructor narrowly managed to avoid it and began to send a continuous blast of silver magic at me.

Planting my feet, I sent out my own magic, silver versus silver, and pushed back. The only way you could tell whose magic was whose was by the gathering ball of magic in between our magic.

The wind from the magic connection began to ripple around the room in waves, causing everyone's cloaks to billow behind them. The students looked frightened but they knew they couldn't run.

Slowly, Darylev's magic overtook mine, the large ball of light and magic coming closer and closer to me.

Just as it was about to reach me and knock me unconscious, my instincts from before Evo took over.

A thin golden glow began to come from my squeezed shut eyes, barely noticeable at first.

The magic from my hands began to change from silver to golden, causing everyone to back away in shock, including Verix.

However, the Instructor could not back away without disrupting the connection.

Opening my eyes and realizing my magic was golden, I pushed harder and my gold magic overtook the Instructor's silver magic.

He was thrown backward, the wind stopping as the magic vanished.

Gold wisps of magic floated around me, stunning the students.

Darylev managed to stand, his clothes and skin blackened from the blast.

I met his glare with pale streams of golden light flowing from my eyes.

"Class dismissed," he managed to growl before stalking out of the courtyard.

As soon as he vanished, cheers erupted around me. Everyone was surprised that I had managed to defeat a teacher as well as the fact that I had used golden magic.

However, I didn't want the attention.

Instinctively, I caused the golden magic still floating around to dissipate and headed back to class, pulling up the hood on my cloak.

Verix ran after me while the other students trailed behind to pick up their stuff from class.

"Xelqua, that was amazing!" Verix said in a hushed tone as he came up to me.

"Y-Yeah, thanks," I stammered, not wearing a smile like Verix was.

My friend's smile faded. "What's wrong?" he asked, obviously getting concerned.

I didn't reply for a few moments, lifting my hands and looking at my palms.

"I'm not sure..." I said, being truthful.

He placed a hand on my shoulder as I dropped my hands and let out a sigh.

I looked at him and saw an encouraging big brother smile on his face.

"It'll be alright," he reassured.

I smiled a bit and nodded.

"Yeah," I said just before entering the classroom.

I met Darylev's gaze from where he stood at the front of the classroom. I didn't look away until I had made it to my seat.

I grabbed my stuff and turned, walking away once Verix got his stuff.

I hope I didn't just make an enemy, I thought fearfully.

(oooo boy, 2031 or so words)

(A/N this was both hard and fun to write XD)

(Chapter 8 on the way! (Well, once I actually write it lol)

(Also, since I write these A/Ns in bold and I write Galactic speak in bold, does this mean I'm writing in Galactic by those standards?)