A sharp crack resounds throughout the forest, and all of Amber's deadly fires suddenly go out at once. She collapses to the ground, half-stunned and in a state of complete shock.

"Oh, good. I've found your vulnerable spot. I have an uneasy feeling that it'll be vastly useful to know it in the times to come." I mutter, poking at her crumpled form with the tip of my borrowed club to make sure that she's actually alive. "Hey, you're still breathing, right?"

She moans softly in response, her eyes fluttering, and I breathe a sigh of relief. "Great, I was worried that I'd be accused of manslaughter on my first night here."

Amber's weak, dazed voice reaches me, sounding far off and childish. "Sorry, but I'm all burnt out right now." She lifts her head, wobbles, and then lets it fall back again with a small wheeze. "Goodnight, everyone." Her eyes glaze over and focus on somewhere far-off, unseeing for the time being.

"Well, I see now that the tracking spell was completely unnecessary, but here we both are, anyway." Isa's cold voice snaps me out of my thoughts. My dagger springs unbidden to my hand, and I hold it defensively in front of my stomach, waiting for her to make the first move.

She rolls her eyes at me and calmly blows a jet of snow particles onto the base of my blade. Large ice crystals immediately expand from it either way, encompassing the entire thing in about two blasted seconds. I yelp and clutch my encased hand as it also succumbs to her spell, trying to keep it warm. (As well as attached to my body. I know how deadly having your limbs frozen off can be, unlike Amber, thank you very much.)

The turbaned man emerges eerily from out of the shadows, and Isa speaks to him from over her shoulder, not once taking her ice-blue eyes off of me. "Never mind these two. You must take care of any others in the area." He nods and leaves abruptly, quiet as a wisp. I shudder at the spooky way in which he moves around the woods, unnerved.

Isa then begins speaking to me in a hushed tone, glancing about herself warily. "He's gone now, so I think that we can be quite frank with each other-"

"-What, are you going to kill me when I'm possibly injured and can't use my weapon? That's so very unsportsmanlike of you, Isa." I comment.

"Do you seriously expect every single person you meet out on the battlefield to wait until you have a perfect advantage over them? You must learn to take whatever action you can, while you can still do it. Otherwise, you'll be nothing more than a sad name chiseled onto a cold marble slab, and wouldn't that be a fitting way to go?" She counters, withdrawing her freezing magic with a cold snap. I gasp and attempt not to cry out as warmth floods back into my fist, and sharp pain along with it. The dagger drops from my numbed fingers, and I find myself unable to pick it back up again.

"Well, finish me off, then. I'm waiting." I growl.

She sighs. "If I had really wanted to kill you, then I would've already done so. I have no qualms about publicly eliminating deviants, you know." She then suddenly grabs my hand and inspects it. "It hurts, doesn't it?" She asks quietly. She then calmly closes her eyes as I speak to her.

"Of course it hurts, I've just had it turned into a giant hailstone! Is this really allowed- Oh?" I flex my fingers, and find myself able to do so without screaming. "The pain's gone?" I question, glancing up at her.

"Hmm, good. At least you can use your weapon once more." She states, bending down to pick up my dagger. She then hands it to me. "I just pulled the ice crystals out of your blood vessels, so you should be alright now."

I gasp. "You put ice crystals in my blood vessels?!"

"Mhm, it's a terrible way to go, so I've heard, so I thought it best that I remove them for you." I'm not sure if she's genuinely trying to be helpful, or doing her darndest to intimidate me. Either way, I'm strongly leaning towards the second option.

"I thought that you just said you wouldn't kill me!" I blabber out, utterly horrified.

"And I didn't, did I?" She looks at me in confusion. "Is that really a problem?"

"I- I- That's.. Um, thank you?"

She gives me an insanely military-type bow, clicking her heels together and dipping her head. "You're welcome, peasant."

"Attention, nitwits!" Grim's voice calls out. "..Er, participants. Could we have your attention, ah, please?" He sounds like he's trying his hardest to stay civilized for his job's sake.

Duliban's exasperated tone takes over for him. "It's come to our attention that there's been a minor-"

"-It sounded pretty major, if you ask me." Grim interrupts sullenly, sniffling.

"Er, alright then. ..Major, incident in the woods, so we're declaring a stalemate for the time being while we assess what damage has been done tonight."

"..So while that's happening, we're just going to sneakily take care of the burnt-up bodies really quickly, before the authorities come to deal with the problem for us."

"GRIM!!!"

"What?"

A loud, deeply annoyed chorus of 'Thanks, Amber' greets their words. It definitely sounds like the others have had prior dealings with her already. Poor things.

Isa deflates. "Ah. She went on a rampage again, I take it?"

"Went completely berserk." I confirm. "I had to knock her out with a club to get her to finally stop."

I quickly fill Isa in on the rest of the story as Brianna comes floating up. I notice that she's not with her teammate.

"Where's Luka?" I ask curiously.

"He's coming, too, so don't you worry about him."

"I wasn't worried in the slightest." Isa comments unhelpfully.

"What happened to you?" I ask, noticing that half of Brianna's dress has been nearly ripped off, shiny bits of some kind of animal drool embedded deep within the fibers.

She follows my gaze, waving me off. "Ah, just someone's idea of a good attack strategy. Sic your familiar on someone and let it do all of the hard work, while you just wait in the shadows to take the credit for all of it. It's fine, though, because I blasted them far, far away from here." She finishes, calmly brushing off some remaining slobber from her hip and humming airily to herself.

My mouth hangs open. "Dare I ask what happened to Luka while all of this was going on?" Isa emits a loud, derisive snort in response to my query and looks the other way, playing the disinterested warrior princess to the fullest extent of her abilities.

Brianna ignores her and anxiously glances behind herself. "Oh, another team jumped us by the river earlier, and the poor boy had a mini panic attack and had to be taken to the infirmary for sedatives, but he's fine now. He was stunned from the trauma for a bit, though." She explains quickly. "Looked like a log from the Petrified Forest for a good few minutes until he came to."

Isa deadpans. "Why am I not surprised?" She huffs, then reluctantly turns to me. "I suppose that I should be congratulating you on your quick thinking, Evelyn. There aren't many people in this Nox-forsaken world who are able to take on Amber when she's all fired up like she was, but you have ultimately proven to be one of them. That's almost impressive. ..Almost."

"Gee, thanks, I think."

Isa marches over to Amber and kicks her awake. "Get up, we've got to take care of things."

Amber yawns lazily. "B-but, you're ice. Just go do it yourself."

Isa yanks her upright and glares down at her frostily. "We're going to start working on your ability to control your own element. Which, in hindsight, is something that we should've worked on from the very beginning.." She pauses, then continues abruptly. "No matter, now's as good a time as any to start learning, so get ready, Fireball. You're with me now, and I don't scare easily."

Amber stares back up at her defiantly. "Huh, we'll see about that."

Isa contemplates her. "Have you ever tried therapy? You seem to need it a great deal."

"What's.. There-a-pee?" Amber asks back haltingly. "..That sounds kind of rude."

"JUST FOLLOW ME!!!"

We don't see them for the rest of the night.

Early the next morning, the rest of us are awakened by a loud bang.  Isa storms into our cabin, hair and clothes smoking terribly. "She's learned exactly nothing!" She fumes. "Every time I try to teach her something of the utmost importance, she immediately zones out. She's like an attention-deficient dragon!"

"Hey, dragons are cool! They breathe fire." Amber waltzes in dramatically, looking far better than her opposite does at the moment.

"Not all of them do!" Isa counters in exasperation.

Luka groans exhaustedly from the comfort of his bed, having been hauled in from the infirmary sometime during the night. I can't say that he looks none the worse for wear, but at least he's still alive.

The two girls instantly begin bickering again as the door quietly creaks open once more, and someone new wanders in.

An older, blond-haired boy (possibly in his mid-twenties like me, though it's hard to be absolutely sure) with unusual leaf-green eyes calmly wanders up to us, surveying the remaining damage from last evening's ill-fated fiasco. (Luka has yet to recover all of his precious first-edition volumes, even though we've been told that the rest should manifest again sometime later today.) "Hello, everyone. Might I introduce myself? I know that I'm a bit late to the party, but my name's Olly Lander, and I'm told that I'll be joining your group as of today." He points upwards and cracks an amused smile, highlighting the random scorch marks left lurking on the ceiling. "It's the higher-ups' decision, because they want me to 'keep an eye on the troublesome one'. I just follow their orders, (like I have been doing for years) but I hope that you'll have me all the same." He places his palms on one of the unused beds and blows a pile of ash off of it, then dusts off a place for himself to sit, chuckling and shaking his head with suppressed laughter.

Amber pumps her fist victoriously into the air, Olly's words completely going in one ear and out the other. "Yes, we get another boy!" She cheers. "And he's hecka hot, too!"

"Stop that." Isa's bored monotone cuts in.

Amber ignores her, clearly checking out the new addition from top to bottom. She bends him down a bit, poking at his hair, and then allows him to straighten up again. "..I notice that you've got those whitish streaks in your hair, Lander. Does that mean that you're an elf?"

"Part elf." He corrects. "But hey, you're pretty sharp there, Firecracker." He says, gently knocking her on the forehead with his knuckles in a friendly manner. "I'm glad to see that you're finally out of your prison, kid. We've all heard a lot about you, so I'm curious to see how much of it's true."

"He called her sharp?" Isa gasps, suspiciously narrowing her eyes at the newcomer. "I suddenly don't trust him." She mutters.

Brianna laughs. "Now, now. Even Amber can have her moments, don't you agree?"

"Of madness, yes. But not of base intelligence." Isa responds bitingly.

A feeling that's been niggling at me ever since I've arrived and met everyone suddenly illuminates itself in my mind. I gasp. No! It couldn't be.. "Amber?" I ask. "Are you by any chance related to the Lumoses?"

Amber's face turns to ash. "Is it that obvious?"

"You mean to tell me that it's true?!!"

Amber straightens up and hastily composes herself. "W-well, very distantly, yes. We're cousins several times removed down a random branch of the family or something, I think. Not really that important, but one sort of knows these things when one's family wants to impress someone else's at a dinner party. We're the insignificant minority, though."

"I see." I mutter. The resemblance is kind of uncanny, really. I'm surprised that I didn't realize it sooner.

"How'd you figure it out, Evvy?" Amber asks me curiously. Even down to the nickname that she calls me.. How terrifying is that?!!

"Honestly, you just reminded me of my best friend Arissa Lumos, so I was simply wondering-"

"You're best friends with a Lumos?!!" Isa gasps. "B-but, you seem so.. So.."

"Common?" I question humorlessly.

"Lumoses are people, too!" Amber yells out, punching her fist into the air and looking about ready to start a riot. "It's time to begin a new campaign for social and economic freedom, and I shall personally lead this charge, as it is a cause that is close to my own heart-!"

"Amber, do be quiet, you'll let all the flies into your brain if you leave your mouth open like that. They'll breed there." Isa shudders delicately at the thought, then turns to me. "..No, Evelyn, I just didn't think that you'd allow someone of such social standing to even get near you. Oh, how do I explain this..?"

"What, are you saying that she seems unapproachable to rich people?" Amber asks dryly. "She seems fine to me."

"Not at all, you obnoxious human fireball!" Isa starts counting on her fingers, listing things as she goes. "But Evelyn seems so independent most of the time that it struck me as somewhat surprising. Not to mention the fact that she doesn't seem the kind of person to move with the crowd, so to speak. Nor one who would voluntarily profit off of a high-class connection or two just for connection's sake. That's just my observation, of course."

"Wow, that was almost human of you, Isa." Amber comments, snickering. Isa coolly ignores her, sighing a deep sigh of annoyance.

I roll my eyes at them both. "I'm friends with 'Rissa because I like her, it's as simple as that. She's her own person, and a wonderful friend, even if she acts rather insanely at times."

Isa gasps. "You know her well enough to have a nickname for her?"

"Of course I do!"

She shakes her head at me in disappointment. "You are so very informal where you're from. What is this world coming to?"

"I'm from Central Miria, not one of the outlying districts, let alone the great vast reaches of the lands beyond, princess."

Amber fake gasps, glancing between the two of us and smirking. "Oh no, she didn't! Evvy, you're so savage." Isa hisses at her as the Ember mage randomly pulls a pair of dark tinted sunglasses out from her pocket and places them upon her eyes. I'm quite certain that she winks at us from behind the protection of the lenses as she moonwalks away, cackling.

"That woman is a one hundred percent, fully fledged idiot." Isa grumbles to us loudly. "She's going to dance herself off of an extremely tall cliff one of these days, and I for one will not miss her." She proclaims sourly.

"Olly, where are you from?" Brianna questions him excitedly. "I'm from Windmere, and if you're a part elf, then I think that our nations meet along our Southern border."

"I originally hail from Springvale myself, so yeah. I guess that you could call us neighbors. We've got a lot of elves, dwarves, you name it. Even a troll or two pops up on occasion to cause trouble underneath our bridges, if you can believe it. It drives the locals crazy." Olly chuckles good-humoredly, his eyes sparkling as he continues to talk enthusiastically about his homeland.

This guy's the complete opposite of Lupe. He's warm, friendly, and talkative, not to mention that he's pretty easy on the eyes. I cackle quietly to myself, then slap a hand over my mouth, embarrassed.

"Have you got a lot of demihumans, too?" Brianna asks, her curiosity immediately piqued.

"Sure do. They're not just from Springvale, though. A lot of the surrounding counties, cities, and countries have them, (like your Windmere, of course) and they like to come through our area to recharge. It's a nature lover's paradise." He answers proudly. "It's famed all over Miria for its abundant flora and fauna, and I'm honored to have been raised there when I was a little kid." He says, now starting to sound like one of those fancy travel brochures that I've noticed lying on the Lumos' coffee table from time to time.

"I'd never even heard of that place before I came here." Amber admits absently, wiggling back into our midst.

"That's because you've got soot for brains!" Isa snaps back.

"That's still better than having ice shards up your behind-!"

"-Would the pair of you please cut it out already?" I bark, finally fed up with them both. Brianna and Luka each gasp in horror as Isa turns her icy glare solely upon me. I stare levelly back at her, unflinching, but internally very much afraid of her. She then holds my gaze for a moment longer, her intimidating eyes narrowing to thin slits and glowing a frosty blue. I gutsily return the look, and she nods slowly, subtly, then snorts and swivels her head around to stare at Amber, who shrieks in fright and accidentally lights another poor little tree on fire.

"Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry!" She screams at the incinerated tree. It wilts from the intense heat and finally gives up its ghost, becoming no more than a pitifully small pile of ash on the ground. The wind then picks up its charred remains and flings them all around the fire mage, who drops onto her knees, aghast and crying.

I jump as Olly speaks to me over my shoulder, sounding quite impressed. "Looks like you've won the first round of intimidation, um.."

I throw my arms up. "Ah-! Er, ahem! Evelyn. My name's Evelyn Mortis."

"Pretty name."

I blush furiously at his compliment. Seriously, what is it with me and men recently? "Oh, you like it?" I ask back, grinning at him rather stupidly as I try to figure out what else to say to him. Nox, he's actually really handsome.

He nods and smiles at me kindly. "I do. It suits you."

"You really think so?"

"Uh, yeah. That's what I just said."

"Okay." Ahh! I can so do better than this! "So, what do you think of dead people?" I blurt out.

Olly looks completely taken aback at my question. "Huh?" I look out the window, trying to inspire a better answer from deep within myself. ..It doesn't work. Oh, that looks like a nice, sizable tree to knock my forehead into. I wonder if it'll leave a permanent scar.

I gulp, beginning to sweat. "W-well, I could just sense a fair bit of, ah.. Death energy swirling around you, so I just assumed that you might have encountered a few ghosts at one time or another. I could be wrong." Though I very much doubt that I am..

"Wow, that's incredible." Olly tilts his head at me, obviously appraising me. He finally sighs in defeat. "You're absolutely right, I've encountered death before. You know, deaths in the family, and there was an incident a good while back with a little Night Hunter kid.. Poor guy, he deserved better than that. But unfortunately, that kind of stuff happens when you're living the dangerous life." He holds his hands out in front of him, grasping sadly at the memory, even as it dissipates from his mind. "I was there when it happened, you know. I had to carry him back in my arms, but it was already too late to get him healed by then." His mouth moves on its own for a few moments, his eyes faraway and misty. He then clears his throat, returning to the present. "Well, we're all aware of the risks, but that just comes with the territory, doesn't it? But I think that it's really cool that you can tell that just by looking at me."

"Well," I repeat back. "Death magic is what I do best, after all. And yes, that would most certainly explain it."

His eyebrow shoots up, impressed. (I hope.) "Oh? You're the death one, then?"

"Mm-hmm." I confirm.

"Hey, hey, hey!" Amber complains, flinging herself onto Olly and pouting at me. "Evvy, stop hogging the good-looking guy all for yourself! At least let me have a turn- Ow!"

Isa smoothly withdraws her hand from behind Amber's head as the fire mage drops to the ground, clutching dramatically at her skull and wailing, though I strongly doubt that she's actually been hurt. "Ugh. Were you the village idiot from where you're from, or what?"

"Was not! You're not the only one with some prestige, you know! And it's Vulcan. It's a whole empire, you snobby Cryolean."

Isa snorts. "I very much doubt that you have any prestige whatsoever, but whatever you say, commoner."

Amber instantly lunges at the other woman's throat, arms outreached and quite clearly intending to strangle her. Isa smoothly sidesteps her, grabs her by the arm, and slips a finger up to her neck, returning the intention. A thick bolt of sharp glistening icicle slowly slides out from underneath her fingernail, aggressively pricking into Amber's skin. In response, a small rivulet of angry red blood trickles down onto Amber's collar as the fire mage furiously wraps her hands around her opposite's windpipe, squeezing as hard as she can. Olly immediately jumps up and intervenes as they glare murderously at each other, neither one of them willing, or able, to back down from the challenge.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa! If you kill each other, then there'll definitely be an inquiry."

"Ugh, I hate inspection day." Isa mutters, stepping down. "Fine, but only because she's not worth it."

"So says you!" Amber shoves her shoulder into the taller woman as she walks by. "We need to get to today's first lesson right now. That is, unless you want to be late, Gracie."

"Don't call me Gracie! Only my brother calls me that."

Amber smirks at the opening she's created for herself. "Aww, is Gracie-wacy upset?"

"I'll turn you into the world's ugliest icicle. Even your own mother won't be able to bear to look at you after you've ruptured." Isa counters.

"Why would I rupture?"

"Even if you're a fire elemental, your body is still made mostly out of water. It just contains it much better, like a desert plant in the scorching sun, am I right?"

"Yeah, but that's-" Amber suddenly seems to realize what the ice sorceress is implying in the next moment. She claps her hands to her cheeks, aghast. "Oh, no. You wouldn't-"

"I can and I will, so let's finally get it through that thick skull of yours once and for all. Leave me alone." Isa softly murmurs into her ear, making a crushing gesture with her fist. "You'd better watch out." She slides out the door without another word.

Luka swings himself off of his bed the moment that she's gone, shaking like a leaf. (And looking about as green.) Without a word, Brianna glides over to him and supports him as he regains his footing. "The anxiety medication is out of your system by now, isn't it?" She asks, her voice gentle as she helpfully slings her arm around his waist.

He nods weakly at her, slipping his arm around her shoulder for extra stability. "It certainly feels that way. Thank you for the assistance, Bri."

She smiles at him reassuringly. "It's really no big deal, but you're welcome all the same."

Aww.

Olly glances around at us. "Just curious, what are all of your magical branches?" He chuckles and runs a hand through his hair. "Sorry that I missed so much already, but I'm curious."

I quickly fill him in on what he's missed.

He leans closer to me, paying great attention as I explain, then speaking up. "Yeah, I kind of figured on a few of your powers, but whoa. We don't just get a necromancer, we get three different elementals, and a Crackle, too? Cool." He ticks things off on his fingers. "Okay, let me see if I have things right. So we have a pyromaniac, a woodland elf stalker, (that's me, by the way, since I'm a Tracker) an ice princess, a girl who's full of hot air, aaand.. A ghost summoner?" I nod, and Luka glances up at us, raising an eyebrow at our nearness. I blush as Olly adds. "..Oh, and an overly emotional fellow. Awesome!"

"Yep!" Amber grins, Isa's death threat most likely already forgotten. "Lesson time! Let's go! I've heard that we've got Kazuki first today!" She bounces at the end of every sentence, a yoyo without a string.

"Kaz-who?" I ask.

"You'll see. I've seen him around, and boy, is he cute!" She squeals and runs out the door.

We follow, heading down a path branching off of the main clearing. It leads to yet another, smaller training area, and it's already mostly filled with a sea of faces. Thankfully, it's easy to spy our ice princess from the blinding flash of a human-turned-icicle that she's just created.

"..He wouldn't give up his seat, so I just had him cool down for a bit." She explains as we approach her, imperiously pointing at the block of ice, frozen mid-scream.

"Ah-ha." Amber exclaims dubiously, poking at him and grinning. "Heh, he looks so dumb like this."

The boy's friends glance frightfully at Isa and then make a dash to a much more distant set of seats, ignoring their comrade. Isa makes a sweeping gesture at the opening. "There you are. Now we can all sit together and exchange notes." She seems unnecessarily pleased with herself as she cold-heartedly shoves the encased boy out of the way.

We quickly sit down in the row of empty seats as a young man of about average height walks to the front of the clearing, his wavy auburn hair tipped with pure white flecks. Everything about him seems fairly normal, except for the ridiculously flashy magenta and blue polka-dotted bow tie tied tastelessly around his neck.

He wields a pointerlike item, (though it could just as easily be a wand, it's hard to tell from where I'm sitting) and whips it around at us dramatically as we all sit down. "Hello, students!" He booms out theatrically. "For the benefit of the new folks here today, I'd like to introduce myself. My name is-"

"-We didn't ditch our ordinary boring lives and schools just to be called students again!" A boy from the crowd yells out, standing up and waving his fist at the man.

"Yeah, we wanna be heroes!" Another adds.

"You'll be heroes when you aren't stupid enough to interrupt your teacher!" The man barks back animalistically, his pupils momentarily elongating and glowing a rich rusty orange color. He growls his dominance until the first boy meekly sits down again. "Got it? You won't become heroes until you can learn to listen."

The boy hesitates. "..Oh."

"It'll be a long while yet, then." The other answers sadly.

"BE QUIET!!!" The man roars out. He sighs with pleasure at the immediate effect of his words on the now-silent crowd. "Ahh, much better. ..As I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted, my name is Kazuki Tandil, and I will be your first teacher of the day." He announces pointedly, grunting as there are a few groans from the throng, quickly hushed.

The man begins to pace around the clearing, slowly and repeatedly hitting his pointer into his open palm in a contemplative gesture. "..You can call me whatever you like, really. Kaz, Zuki, you name it. As long as I know that you're talking to me, any form of address is fine." He spins around, his strange elliptical eyes suddenly piercing through all of us at once. "Except for one. Do not call me Kazu, or I will have one of the larger Night Hunter pets eat you alive. Headfirst. And very crunchily."

I snort, understanding the reason for his frustration immediately. Kazu = Kazoo. Hehehe!

Amber sounds it out, muttering to herself. "Kazu.. Ka-zu.. Kaz-ooh! ..I get it! Oh my Nox, that's hilarious!" She chortles loudly, drawing every single person's attention to her own good self, as usual. A sea of very annoyed eyes all turn to look our way.

I flash everyone a nervous glance and break into a sweat as each and every one of them stares at us. "Ah, haha. You should really pay more attention to the teacher, everyone. Eyes up front!" I tell them snappily.

The eyes all move forward to watch Kazuki demonstrate something.

Annoying rustling noises meet my ears as I try to concentrate on what Kazuki has to teach. "Let's hope that this is as fireproof as that weird trench coat guy in the dark back alley claimed." A familiar girl's voice mutters from between clenched teeth.

I catch Amber fiddling with something out of the corner of my eye. "Child, what are you-?"

Amber turns towards me, smirks, and showily blows up a large paper bag, indeed somehow managing to avoid lighting it up. Luka's eyes widen.

"Amber, no." He hisses.

"Amber, yes." She mutters back, quickly popping it before he can argue with her any further. "Watch this, guys!"

A massive bang shakes the clearing, and Kazuki leaps up into the air, emitting a startled yip. A large pair of pointy, velvety-soft fox ears suddenly burst free from the top of his head, and he hunches over and slams his hands onto his skull to try to keep us from seeing them.

Naturally, we all notice them.

"Kaz, you're so cute!" A girl calls out, blushing madly. Her female friends fan her face, giggling.

"Zuki, you're looking foxy over there!" A teenage boy teases, his companions snickering along loudly with him.

"Every time, this happens!" Kazuki yelps out, sounding remarkably like a real vulpine as he does so. "Why can't the stupid things just stay down?" So saying, he shoves his tawny fox ears back into his head with a small pop.

I point at our teacher. "Well, Brianna, there's a demihuman for you, and he's wearing an over-the-top bow tie, waving a willow wand about, and teaching us some very strange magic tricks indeed."

She nods back at me seriously, wide-eyed. "How strange."

Isa rolls her eyes. "Really, who uses wands anymore? That's so old-fashioned, not to mention wholly impractical in most real-life battle scenarios. You're better off using a knife and infusing it with magical power. Doesn't he know that wands break?" She grouses, though I notice that she pays close attention the whole time that teacher Kazuki speaks, anyway. "..Then again, bones break, too." She finishes, the corner of her mouth twitching.

"Yeah, I agree, but maybe he's just into the whole classical fashion look." Amber whispers back.

"Ha! Next time, he'll be sweeping in with a swishy black cape and a large raven on his shoulder, with one of those weird pointy mage's hats on his head to boot."

Amber giggles, and Isa shoots her a confused look. "What are you doing, woman? What is that strange sound that you are now producing from the depths of your person?"

Amber stops with a small hiccup, seeming equally befuddled by the ice sorceress' behavior. "I- I'm laughing. That was funny, wasn't it?"

"You're allowed to laugh where you're from?"

Amber cackles, then slowly stops when she realizes that Isa's being dead serious. That, and everyone's staring at her again. Kazuki shushes her loudly, grumbling underneath his breath at her.

"Of course we are. ..What's wrong with you people?"

"I'm next in line to the Cryolean throne, so I'm hardly allowed to behave so frivolously, Amber. I have to be proper and behave myself." Isa mutters back. "Ugh, peasants."

"Well, that's just so sad." Amber mumbles quietly to herself. "I've unexpectedly gained a new mission objective while I'm here: Make Isa laugh, even if it kills me."

"It probably will." Brianna whispers back to her, obviously concerned. "Now, shh! You'll get us all into trouble."

"It's too late for that now." A dark shadow falls over our group, and Amber screams and leaps about a foot into the air as Kazuki's form looms over her, his ego obviously bruised quite a bit by her continuous lack of concentration. "Miss Burns, do you perhaps have something to share with the rest of us?" He asks, his pupils glowing a threatening shade of rust.

Amber immediately shoves the remnants of the bag behind her back and tries her best to look wholly without blame. She shrugs, batting her long eyelashes at him. "Um, nope." She answers uncreatively.

"Uh-huh.." Kazuki nods his head and rubs his chin, seeming to agree with her. Amber breathes a sigh of relief and relaxes, foolishly letting down her guard for one vital moment. Kazuki then becomes lightning as he rips the bag out from behind her back the next second. "Then what's this?" He barks, waving it in her face. "Don't even bother trying to deny it, there's always someone in every class who thinks that doing this is a good idea!"

"Oh my, how did that ever get there?" Amber exclaims in desperation, starting to sweat profusely.

"Miss Burns, you're really not fooling anyone." Kazuki sighs, planting his face on his palm with deep regret written clearly all over his foxlike features.

She stops. "..Oh. Never mind little old me, then."

Kazuki spins around, displaying a magnificent five-plumed tail. It brushes against Amber's midriff warningly, amid many impressed whispers. She sneezes as it flicks her nose. "Do you people want to give me a heart attack?" He growls. "Is that it?"

"No sir, sorry sir." Amber whispers. I'm now certain that she ends up saying this phrase an awful lot.

"Hmm, good." He suddenly halts, glaring at all of us. "And just what do you all think you're looking at?"

"You're just such an overwhelmingly handsome magician, sir!" Some female in the crowd calls out helpfully.

He sniffs with feeling. "I am not a two-bit circus magician, I am a demihuman, well-gifted in the art of spells and enchantments, and a thousand times better than many of you will ever be, I bet." He comments, wounded. "..But thank you all the same, miss. You evidently have very good taste in role models."

Another boy hollers out a challenge. "Then prove it, red fox! Show us your strength, and duel me if you dare!"

"I'm an agouti, not one of the more common red fox strains! Please learn the difference!" Kazuki whines back. "..And who said that?!"

A small weaselly teen with glittering, beady black eyes stands up and swaggers out from the assembly. "I did." He boasts an overconfident smirk, showcasing jagged, pointy teeth.

Kazuki makes exaggerated bug eyes at him. "I suppose that we really do accept just about anyone these days." He mutters loudly, raising a bushy eyebrow at him as he meets the challenge. He points his wand (indeed, it is a well-crafted wand) at the boy, exposing an even sharper set of vulpine teeth. "Then you'd better prepare your spells and self, sir. I won't go too easy on you, as you obviously need to learn your place here."

The teen snorts. "Go ahead, then. Give me your best shot, beast." He lifts a hand, ominous magic sparking off of his fingers in preparation for our teacher's first move.

Kazuki flexes his fingers around his wand, clearly contemplating how to use it to its best advantage. He narrows his eyes at the boy, quickly stalking over to him at an inhuman speed.

His opponent's eyes widen in alarm as he lunges to the side, aggressively slashing his fingers through the air. A large tree branch obediently follows their course, but our teacher neatly sidesteps it with an elegant swish of his perfectly-brushed tail, calmly commenting. "Hmm.. A Kinetic, are you? They're usually far too reliant on their magic, not so much on weaponizing their own bodies.." Kazuki suddenly spins around and slams his massive tail into the boy's middle, causing him to double over in shock. He then immediately jabs the pointed end of his wand, cushioned inside of his rock-hard fist, into the boy's soft underbelly, sending him flying through the air with the force of its impact. Our instructor then clasps his hands behind his back and smiles to himself demurely as he wanders over to the dazed teen, leaning over him to inspect the damage that he's caused his student.

"Ha, how pitiful you turned out to be. You didn't even last two seconds." Kazuki derisively barks out a harsh vulpine laugh. "Everyone, your lesson for today is: Not everything needs to revolve around using mere magic or weapons to beat your opponent." The demihuman chuckles and takes a humble bow to our thunderous round of applause. "Yes, yes. Thank you ever so much, you're all too kind." He blinks at us, acting overcome with humility. "Now, normally we'd have a bit of time to ourselves to have a mock battle session and whatnot, but our schedule's been bumped up a bit today, so I'll have to pass you on to Archeron a little earlier than I'd like to. Never fear, you'll have me again soon, I'm sure of it." Kazuki wrinkles his nose in an oddly foxlike gesture of disapproval. "Well, don't worry about it too much, I'm sure that he'll make you try to kill each other himself, knowing him."

How reassuring.

"He's sure to let you use barely-blunted weapons already. Hmph, good luck with that maniac." Kazuki finishes sniffily, shooing us off.

I've already got my weapon all ready to go. I smile and suddenly pat my pocket, searching for my dagger. It's nowhere to be found. "Well, that's odd. I thought that I had it with me for sure."

Olly looks up at me, gentle concern written all over his features. "Ev, can I help? Have you lost something?"

I wave him off. "Ah, it's only a small dagger. It's a mid-range family heirloom, nothing more. It probably fell out of my pocket while we were moving around sometime today."

"Well, if you're sure about that. But if you ever change your mind and need help finding it, just ask, okay?" Olly stands up and pats me reassuringly on the shoulder as he walks by. "I'm positive that it'll turn up, though. The strangest things have a habit of randomly disappearing on us, don't they?"

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