I'm a blonde. I'm a lot more powerful than most blondes. I inherited my symbol to start with, but I earned the part of it that made me more powerful than most. See, most people know that blonde hair is inherited. Most people know that most people who inherit blonde hair and don't go get another symbol aren't that powerful. What most people don't know, however, is that when it is inherited we only get part of its true power. It is possible to earn the full power.

The only real reason people don't know this is because blondes don't go out and do it very often. This is how blondes got the reputation for being weak and useless. Every generation that passes without someone earning the full power it gets a little bit weaker. This means that unfortunately, most blondes fit the stereotype. I'm one of the few that tried to earn the full power. My family didn't want me to do it. They think that since I don't have to earn power I shouldn't mess with something that could potentially get me and someone else killed.

There's also something else. My family doesn't even know that I went and earned my full power. I can't tell them! If they found out that I did that against their wishes they would kill me! I know it's wrong to keep things from your family, but I know that they wouldn't understand.

I took the power of the sun, the power to heal. Only my best friend Zaria knows what I did. She moved away this year. I'm the only one left in this city who knows the truth. Everyone else thinks that I just had strong powers, to begin with, that I just needed to learn to use them, that I'm just like the other blondes with no ambition. I'm the only one who knows better, and I intend to keep it that way.

Today I have to do training. I enjoy it most of the time, but today we're going to be dueling. I hate doing that because my powers aren't meant to fight with. I can use weapons and fight okay outside of magic, but so can everyone else. Most people can use their weapons better than me anyways.

"Ayana," the coach says, "You will be fighting Lillyana."

"It's just Lily," she says.

"Don't forget," the coach says, "Next year you will be able to join the dueling team. These fights help us determine who the best fighters are in this class. The better you do in these duels the better chance you have of making the team next year. I'm also pleased to announce that we have two girls in our class that have enough power to be eligible to join this year. Rivka and Lillyana–"

"Lily!" she says.

"If you perform well enough in these trials, you will have a chance to join the team this year."

Great, I'm fighting the most powerful girl in the class. She could probably kill me without even thinking about it. This is gonna turn out fantastic.

We take up the position to duel. The class is out in the arena today. We each take a spot on opposite sides. We have both been given our weapon of choice. I have a bow, I do better when I don't have to get to close to my opponent. She has a sword. I look at her expecting to see a confident person who knows they can win. She does seem eager to do this, but she also seems uncertain, maybe even...nervous? No, that can't be right. What reason would she have to be nervous? She's the most powerful girl in our class. I'm just a blonde, I can't even come close to beating her.

I'm probably only paired with her because it's the first time we've dueled and the true partners haven't been established yet. They don't base those on powers, because there have been several times when someone with little to no power beat incredibly powerful people with weapons skills and physical abilities. I don't have much of either of those things. This is going to be bad.

"Fight!" says the coach.

I instantly pull out my bow and shoot. She dodges and shoots a fire blast. It barely misses my shoulder. I focus and call up my power to try to heal it. I try to momentarily blind her. She flinches back and I aim an arrow straight at her chest. She burns it in mid-air and sends a fire blast. This time I wasn't prepared for it, and it hits me. I can feel it covering the whole front of me, and am suddenly very grateful for the fire-proof armor I'm wearing. I try to call up something, anything to try and salvage this contest. The light powers can make people see things that aren't there. I try to call up an image of the first thing that comes to my mind: a dragon.

She gasps. For a brief moment, the fire stops completely. I realize this and shoot an arrow at her. Suddenly the fire starts again, and this time it seems to be burning ten times hotter. I can actually feel my skin being burned underneath the armor! It's failing! I try to call up my power to try to heal myself, to call up a shield, anything! I manage to pull up the shield, it burns less but this still hurts. I start to focus on healing myself. I know I'll be fine in a matter of minutes. This girl is even more powerful than I thought!

"Stop!" the coach says, "We have a winner!"

I get up. I wish I didn't have to do dueling, I really suck at it.

"Hey, you're a good dueler," she says to me. Why is she talking to me? What is she talking about?

"What do you mean? I barely have any real power. I'm just a blonde."

"I used to be a blonde."

"Yeah, but you have real power now. I just have stronger blonde powers."

"Powers aren't everything. And your hair color isn't even your full power. Your eyes have power to."

"They're not important."

"They are if you use them."

The bell rang for lunch.

"Do you want to have lunch together?"

"Sure, by the way, that was some pretty impressive magic. I mean, it did hurt pretty bad."

"Oh, yeah," she sounds embarrassed, "I didn't mean for it to get that strong. Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'll be fine. Most of the burns have healed already. They heal faster when my powers aren't focused on something else."

"That's good. Sorry again, I really didn't mean for it to get that bad. I kind of lost control for a minute there."

"It's okay. That happens sometimes. I'm fine though, no harm done."

"So who are your friends?"

"Actually my best friend and really kind of my only real friend moved away this year."

"That sucks. I had to leave my best friend to come here."

"Well, maybe we could be friends."

"Yeah, that'd be good."

"You know you're really good with your magic."

"Oh, yeah. I can't believe I might actually make the dueling team as a freshman!"

"You definitely will. Redheads are naturally powerful and the only person I've seen who could maybe match your power is Rivka."

"I've heard that. When the school called they said that we were tied for the most powerful in our class."

"She's been dominating the entire class since first grade. No one has ever been able to get close to her power, at least not until you came."

"What's her symbol?"

"She has black hair and blue eyes."

"You don't see that every day."

"Says the first redhead anyone has seen in 300 years."

"Why does everyone have to keep pointing that out? After a while it just gets annoying. Can you just not talk about how rare my powers are?"

"Yeah, that's fine."