The Archmage had not arrived by simple teleportation this time.

  No.

  When they stepped out of the shack, he put two fingers to his lips and whistled at the sky.

  "What are you doing?" Ari asked.

  "You'll see," he said, still staring at the sun. Ari followed his gaze, and at first all she saw was a dot.

  But then it grew larger and larger, until her mouth slackened.

  The sound of galloping filled the air, followed by the flapping of heavy wings.

  Archmage Elric had called down a flying carriage, drawn not by horses, but by magical griffins, with the body of a lion, the head and wings of an eagle, and talons on its four feet.

  Ari had never seen anything like it in all of her life. She stared at the beasts for what felt like hours, breathless in wonder.

  Archmage Elric walked up to one of them, stroking its back as it nuzzled at his pockets.

  “These are Winged Guardians,” he announced. “Descended from legendary animals once known to belong to the Heavenly Sentinel himself. These beasts can only be owned by Archmages who have mastered the art of taming, by maintaining a steady, persistent Luxa-Massa lattice to continuously read, soothe, and direct them. And it has to remain steady because if the spell fails, or even just falters, they could just as easily turn on you and eat you."

  That earned him horrified stares.

  "Not that you have to worry about that with me," Elric added. "Only five Archmages in history have succeeded at Griffin taming, and I’m one of them. I achieved that in a remarkably short time span. Some might say I have a natural gift."

  "You have something, alright," Thessa murmured, and Ari followed her mother's gaze to where the beast dislodged a huge piece of dried rat carcass from the Archmage's pockets.

  Before he could move, it gobbled it up in one swallow.

  His face heated, and he cleared his throat. “Perhaps, I utilized a little positive reinforcement along the way.”

  Celie laughed.

  Ari nodded.

  Elric seemed to be waiting for something else to accompany the nod, but when it didn’t happen, he simply gave an awkward laugh and opened the carriage door. “Shall we?”

  She nodded and got into the carriage. He got in next to her, and it was a two-seater, but there was more than enough space to fit a third person in.

  “Wait.”

  Celie's voice rang out, and Ari thought she might ask to join them.

  But she simply walked up to the window and pinned Elric with a hard look.

  “If my sister does not return in one piece, Archmage or not, I will find you.”

  Elric, rather than being offended at the threat to his far superior person, seemed almost pleased by this reaction. “I would hope you do.”

  After that and a brisk nod from her mother, they set off.

  Ari's heart raced as the carriage lifted into the air.

  She didn’t know what to do or say as the beast climbed into the sky and the clouds fanned her face, the breeze blowing through her hair. She stared down at everything getting smaller and smaller, the place that had once been her entire world, turning into nothing but a patch of land.

  She had a lot of mixed emotions in her chest that she could not comprehend.

  “It’s alright,” Elric said. “We’ll be back soon.”

  Yes, but after that she would leave for a long time.

  “How do you feel?” he asked.

  She swallowed because she didn’t know how to answer that question. She felt terrified and excited at the same time.

  “I feel fine." Celie had always taught her that was the appropriate response to a question like that, when you had nothing else to say.

  “I remember when I left my home for the first time,” Elric started, staring into space as he spoke. “It was one of the hardest things I’d had to do. Mostly because, up until that point, I’d believed I was mundane like you.”

  “Why would you believe that?”

  "Because my parents, or the people who I thought were my parents, were mundane,” he said. “My family history is fairly complicated. I’m not sure I want to get into it right now and bore you with the details….”

  Ari lifted her shoulders. “You don’t have to.”

  “–but essentially,” he exhaled and forged ahead anyway. “My mother was one of my father’s concubines, number five, I believe. And when she got tired of doing that and had an affair, she got tossed out along with me. She didn’t really want a child at that point in her life, so she gave me to the first couple she met, and they raised me into adulthood. And till this day, they’re who I consider my family. Yul and Tonka Hardworth.”

  She nodded.

  “They lived in Sedgburry near the Shardling Enclaves. Do you know where that is?”

  She nodded. Geography had been one of her favorite subjects in school. She knew where almost everywhere was.

  “They had a nice floral shop there,” he continued. “And I grew up thinking I would run it. But then I awakened and got evaluated, and my true heritage came to light. I then had to attend the academy and bear the last name of a man who'd done nothing to raise me."

  ”What happened to your other parents?"

  "They've both passed on," he said with a tight look. "Mundane lives are tragically short."

  “I'm sorry," she said because she knew that was the appropriate response.

  "I can't tell if you truly mean that or not."

  "I think I do," she answered.

  He sighed. "Well, either way, it's nice for you to say. Now, do you want to talk about stoichiometry?”

  "Yes," Ari said instantly, earning a chuckle from him.

  “I thought as much. Let's start by hearing what you already know."

  Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  Without a second of hesitation, Ari began, “Essences are in the world around us. In their raw form, they are unusable, but once processed by EPUQs (Essence Purifiers and Unit Quantifiers), they can then be utilized to create spell equations. These are the core essences and their additions to a spell. Calor +2 Heat, energy, motion–"

  "Hold on, are you reciting the elementary manual I gave you?"

  “Yes. Is that not what you asked me to do?”

  “No,” he laughed. “I think it's safe to say that you have all that information covered. Just how often have you read the book?”

  “Cover to cover? Thirty-two times.”

  “Really?”

  “Yes. I like to read.”

  “Well then, you’ll do well in Professor Valeria's class,” he mentioned. "Did you read anything outside of what I gave you?"

  "No." She couldn't find any more stoichiometry books in the Greenhollow public library. She'd checked.

  "Okay, so you should know the basics about wands and essence purifiers and isotopes and charges, right?"

  She nodded.

  "I don't think the book went into detail on runes and catalysts, did it?"

  She shook her head.

  "Well, simply put, catalysts are any item that makes your spells go smoother and faster. For example, runes. These are fixed patterns that you can plug into a spell script to stabilize a part of the spell. Usually, they're used for more complex spells like teleportation or spells that have a high likelihood of breaking down. They also temporarily allow an equation to function despite an imbalance in charge. Some Archmages also use them to sustain multiple spells at a time."

  "They sound very useful. Why doesn't everyone use them in their spells?"

  "Because they're expensive and complicated to make. They're often irregular shapes and twisted patterns, and the likelihood of botching them is high. The scroll needed to store them is also quite costly. Only Adept mages and above can make runes. Most people just buy them and utilize them whenever they need. The great thing is that they can be reused since their essences don't actually take part in the spell. But the longer you have them, the more faulty they become, so ideally, you should replace every thirty years or so."

  Ari nodded. She wished she'd brought along a notebook, so she could write everything down, but she would probably remember anyway.

  "Now do you also know the link between a spell script and a spell form?"

  "Yes." The manual had explained in detail. "Once you balance the spell into the right structure on Elderscroll paper, you attain the spell script. The wand directly translates this spell script and helps direct the essence into the right shape to create a spell-form.:

  "Precisely. How about core stabilization?"

  "The most vital part of stochiometry is training the core to call the right essences at the right charges for the right spell. It's also important to train your capacity to handle as many essences as you need."

  "Yes," Elric said. "In the past, when stoichiometry was called cultivation, the cores were seen as canister-like internal reaction chambers to process the spells you're casting. Cores develop the most during childhood and early adulthood, and it's much harder to change them once you're mature. They must be refined under strict supervision because it's just as easy for untrained mages to damage them. So only children with Masters or enrolled in a dedicated academy can train their cores."

  “I see."

  “Your case and the development of your cores are wildly unusual.” He shook his head. “But I digress. Core quality is also hereditary. The vast majority of powerful Ascendants came from powerful parents. There are only a handful who didn't, and even with them, we sometimes discover that they are twice or thrice removed from a fairly skilled mage in their clan. There's probably someone somewhere in your distant lineage who can do what you do."

  Arielle didn't know. Her great-grandmother used to see things, but not spirit orbs.

  "I'll look into it later," he said, and then, after discussing it a bit more, he added, "You can watch as we begin our descent over the great Stone Market of Axis.”

  Ari looked as the carriage angled downward.

  From above, the complex resembled a geometric spiral with wide stone avenues circling inward toward a central plaza. The stone was the same dark granite that she had seen in the Massa Castles in her history book, with veins of power running through it.

  The market was large. As a matter of fact, large was an understatement, and it seemed as though thousands of cultivators, apprentices, clerks, and ordinary citizens moved through in orderly currents. There was occasional shouting. Prices were barked. Haggling was done in loud tones.

  There were more people than Ari had seen in her entire life, and more noise than she could tolerate.

  But it was all so colorful.

  She saw the orbs bouncing everywhere, especially around a series of storied towers that they were flying toward.

  As they landed on a rocky boardwalk in front of the central plaza, she almost wanted to stay behind to take in the sight, but Elric was already ushering her out.

  People gazed at the griffins until he sent them back into the sky. Then, he steered her into a building that was thankfully quieter and directed her to sit on a bench.

  "I'll be right back," he said before he took off.

  Ari sat stiffly, absorbing the newness of the situation.

  A row of closed doors lined the opposite wall, and every now and then someone would emerge. They were all mages with silken robes, an aura of importance, and orbs dancing at their hips.

  Ari stared at them, but she couldn't help but pay attention to the conversation between the two boys occupying the bench with her.

  "Loser."

  "Stop that. I'm not a loser."

  "Yes, you are. Can't even manage a simple flashblind spell. You're almost a second. It's pathetic."

  Ari turned in time to see the boy he was talking to, a slender blonde, glare in anger.

  "It's this wand. I think there's something wrong with it. [Flashblind]." He waved the wand again, and the essences collected together, but they were moving in the wrong orientation. Instead of the massa surrounding the star structure, it was interspersed with it, so the spell wasn't coming together at all.

  "Your spell form is wrong," Ari said.

  The two stopped bickering and stared at her. "What?"

  "Your spell form is wrong. That's why you can't do the spell."

  "It doesn't look wrong." He glanced down at the book in his hand, which held the spell script.

  "You're not wearing a robe," his dark-haired friend said. "What are you, a first year?"

  "No. I'm yet to start."

  "So what do you know about spell forms?"

  "I know when it's wrong."

  He frowned at her while the sandy-haired boy looked up. "Can you help me? You can borrow my wand and reservoir."

  He handed both wand and reservoir over, and Ari took them.

  She waved the wand in the air, and the essences came to her faster, performing the spell in the blink of an eye.

  Both boys gaped.

  "Holy mother, that was fast," the blond said.

  "Where's your script?" the dark-haired one asked, still staring at the flash of light. "Did you do it without one?"

  "Never mind that," the blonde said. "Can you show me?"

  Ari nodded. She took his scroll and his pen and drafted a new script that would correspond to the true shape of the spell.

  Then she handed him his wand, and he tried it, but the stability still wasn't there.

  Ari surreptitiously stuck their finger up when they weren't looking and dragged the essences into place.

  A flash of light nearly blinded them all.

  "Praise be!" he exclaimed, jumping out of his seat. "It worked. I told you!" He laughed in his friend's sullen face and then switched back to Ari. "What school are you going to be attending? Bassilica?"

  "No. Erynwall."

  "Oh, that's a shame." His face fell. "I wish you were going to my college. Then we could have been friends."

  "You want to be friends with me?" Ari was confused.

  "Yes! You're clearly some kind of genius. Ha. I can't wait to use that on Gregore on Monday."

  "Oh." Ari contemplated what had just happened. Interesting. Had it been that easy to make friends the whole time, or were Ascendants different? Did she just have to do things for people to get them to like her? It made sense. In her observation of other people's friendships, she'd noted that there was typically a similar exchange.

  Perhaps it was that simple.

  Maybe friendship was about offering a service and receiving companionship in return.

  So all she had to do at her new school was meet people, point out what they were doing wrong, and show them how to do it better?

  Sounded like a great plan.

  "I think calling her a genius might be stretching it," the dark-haired boy said. "Besides, we don't know how she did the spell the first time without her script?"

  "She does have a spell script." A voice echoed from the end of the hall. "It's just hidden."

  As Elric approached with another man in tow, the two boys scrambled to their feet and bowed.

  Ari didn't move.

  Elric was staring at her, and she stared right back.

  "What did we say about unsanctioned magic use, Ari?"

  Oh. Right.

  "Sorry," she said.

  The man standing next to him had pale gray eyes that descended on her. He oozed so much authority it was suffocating.

  “Is this her?" he asked.

  “Yes,” Elric said. “This is my long-lost cousin. Arielle.”