"I trust you have read up on burst magic?"

Seiren gave the short mage a stony look. Rowan seemed unperturbed by it. He was out of his state mage's cloak today and was dressed in a belted, skirted long shirt with trouser legs poking through the two slits in the skirt – all in a shade of brown that reminded Seiren only of excrement. She only hoped when she became a state mage, she wouldn't have to dress in such disgusting clothes.

He stood across from her, about five metres away, legs spread at shoulders' width. The stone ground had debris and remnants of chalk on it that crunched beneath Seiren's boots when she followed Rowan to the practice arena. Various crosses decorated the ground with enough dents in and around them to indicate their roles in target practice. The area opened up to seats that rose in rows, all empty. The domed ceiling stretched far above them. His two subordinates didn't follow them through the metal doors.

"Burst magic is useful. It's quick, can be immensely powerful, and best of all doesn't require much thinking."

"Suits you well, then."

Rowan glared at her. "It means you don't need preparation time, unlike runing. When you're attacked or need to act quickly, burst is the way to go."

"I keep enough runes and chalk on me at all times."

"You may be a rune prodigy, Seiren, but there is more to magic than just runes." Rowan clapped his hands together and then threw them apart, creating an arch of sparks above his head in all shades of the rainbow, each of them sending off smaller trickles of light. "See? No materials, no drawings."

He jerked his head, widening his eyes. The ground shook, the debris dancing on the rough surface. The magnitude increased. With a dull crack, the ground split in two, leaving a jagged snake-shaped hole about four metres in length.

"Think of it as a useful skill to have up your sleeve. Earth. Fire. Water. Air. Four elements at your disposal as a burst mage. More flexible than flash magic. Speedier than rune magic. When your runes are confiscated, your chalks destroyed, you're left short. If your limbs are tied up, no amount of preparation can get you out of it."

Welllll the medium for runes isn't limited to chalk, mused Madeleine. But he does have a point. What if you got eaten by that fat lizard back in Garlinge? Nothing to draw on, no runes or chalk, no light to see by.

"Now, you must have been taught the basics of burst magic at King's." Rowan clasped his hands behind his back. The turd-brown shirt material folded loosely several times over his leather belt, and his trousers, beneath the skirt of the top, were also baggy. "Let's see what you can do, and we can work on top."

Seiren stared at him, her heart fluttering. He caught her face.

"What?" His eyebrow raised. "Isn't the great Seiren Nithercott, top mage of King's, up to the challenge? Come on, any burst will do. Just show it. I've seen worse."

Well, here goes.

I don't think you can get away with it.

Seiren grimaced and held out both hands, balled into fists, finger facing upwards. She snapped her fingers. Her palms flashed orange for a brief moment before balls of fire ignited above the skin, bathing her in a warm glow. It was a pathetic attempt at magic, but it'd gotten her through King's.

Rowan's face lost the amusement. He frowned, his fingers pinching his chin.

"Again."

Seiren rubbed her fingers along the palms of her hands, swallowing. She held them out a second time, balled, and snapped her fingers. Again, a flash of orange, the same weak puff of fire burned for five seconds, and then extinguished.

He marched over to her and, before she could react, grabbed her wrist and turned it over. She suppressed a cry of pain; he was surprisingly strong. She couldn't see his face.

"What is the meaning of this?" he said in a deadly voice, holding up her ink-stained palm. He shoved it at her, disgusted. "I ask you to do burst magic and you try to trick me with runes?"

Just tell him. You're stuck with him for a whole year.

Seiren's stomach clenched. Cold sweat made her palms sticky. She regretted the long-sleeve tunic dress she'd donned that day. She shook her hands, loosening her finger joints.

"Is this what the best at King's has to offer me?" Rowan's eyes burned with a fire Seiren never thought possible. She wanted to bury herself in the ground from shame. "Answer me, Seiren Nithercott."

You can't get out of this one. Just say it.

She swallowed the lump in her throat and met Rowan's quizzical blue-green eyes.

"I... I can't do burst magic," she admitted. The raging flames of hell crept up her face. She could swear steam came out of her ears.

"You... can't do burst magic?" he managed to get out. Seiren looked at anywhere but him, those flames flickering all the way up her back and into her hairline. She wanted to die right there and then.

You knew this day would come.

But not before the biggest idiot in the country, seethed Seiren, closing her eyes. When she opened them again, expecting anger or ridicule, she was surprised to find incredulity only on his young face.

"But how?"

"It just never agreed with me." She stared down at her inked hands, callused along the edges where she'd gripped chalk for hours on end. "I know, for mages, burst is one of the forms everyone gets in tune with earliest, before they teach us runes, but it never came to me. Mine was always runes."

"You went through King's never able to do a single burst magic spell for six years?"

Seiren might as well have told him magic didn't exist, with the way his mouth hung open and his eyes bulged. He gripped his spiky hair with both hands, tugging them, before dropping his arms.

"How did you pass the burst lessons? The finals? The graduation exam?"

"Runes."

"I thought they confiscate all the chalks from students before allowing you into assessment."

"They do."

"You cheated?"

The flush turned hotter. "I do not cheat."

"Then how?" He seemed genuinely curious, not accusatory. Seiren sucked in several more breaths and glanced around. There were only the two of them. Madeleine was a quiet presence in the back of her mind.

"The exam rules clearly state students must not have chalk on their persons or use chalk when entering the assessment area for burst magic. It never said students must not use rune magic. I used rune magic, but without chalk. It's usually ink."

"You runed without chalk." He almost fell over. If his eyes were any wider, they'd pop out of their sockets. "How is that possible?"

Seiren couldn't meet his eyes. "Textbooks always teach us that rune magic must be drawn with chalk, but that's not true. If you know what you're doing, there are other mediums. You just need to be careful about their... quirks."

"So you just used something else to draw your runes and pretended it was burst magic?"

She nodded. Rowan whistled. All his anger from being tricked earlier had dissipated. This was quite the unpredictable man.

"Well... I mean, it's not like King's can rescind your graduation status. And if you manage to pass that and use runes as quick as examiners expect burst to be, I guess you're still a fully graduated mage." His eyes sharpened. "We'll have to start on your burst magic then. You still need to know it. Right. You know the theory?"

Surprisingly non-judgemental, eh?

"Concentration, clearing of mind, then a rapid burst of power at a focused point."

"Exactly." He pointed to a cross to their left, about ten paces away. "Try aim for that. Generate anything. Fire or air might be easier. Earth-related stuff is a tad more difficult."

Seiren grimaced. The grey cross was charred on one side and so chipped on the other it looked more like a 'T' than a cross. She heaved a sigh, clearing her mind. Concentration. Textbooks always talked about a clear, calm, empty mind. Serenity was a must; no distractions. The tranquillity allowed the user to connect celestial energy with their own magic reserve and project the combination into the physical world.

Madeleine sat quietly in the corner of Seiren's mind. In one abrupt movement, Seiren seized all the magic in her mind and tugged them in a torrent into the centre, and with a snap of her fingers she threw it all in front of her.

A puff of air, no more powerful than flatulence, went poof on her fingertips.

For a second time in a few minutes, Rowan's jaws dropped. Seiren wasn't sure what she resembled more at this point, a raw tomato or a cooked one. She lowered her trembling hand, biting her lip so hard she almost drew blood.

It's no worse than last time. Madeleine's forced sympathy was not helpful.

"That's probably the worst burst I've ever seen."

Seiren scowled.

"You know the theory. Why can't you do it? All the gifts you've shown with rune magic, how is your burst just so... bad?"

"My runes can more than make up for anything burst magic can do, so why don't you let me just carry on with runes?"

"Because sub-specialising so early will end up burying you in a deep hole. That's why all the mages can do rune and burst magic, and some can do other types, too. You can't rely solely on rune magic. The short distance puts you at a massive disadvantage in battle, and it's far too time-consuming. If you don't become at minimum competent at burst magic, at the end of the year I can't recommend you for state mageship."

"You're kidding me."

"You can understand my concerns if I'm recommending a talented but half-competent mage to become state mage."

At that point, it was all Seiren wanted to do to grab him by his short torso and slam him onto the floor. And maybe put a few orange runes into orifices and igniting them.

But this is your chance for a one-to-one tutorship. Maybe we can find out why you can't do burst magic. Even the lowest-achieving trainees in the class could do burst better than you could. This is a chance to fix it.

I don't want him to teach me. He'll gloat and laugh.

Suck up that pride, Seiren, or you'll never become state mage.

Seiren locked eyes with Rowan's. He didn't seem judgmental, like Madeleine had said, so maybe it was pride, maybe it was her stubbornness, but she didn't want to say anything. Just walk away.

But Madeleine was right.

"Fine," she bit out.

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