Advanced Spellcasting was almost the same as Advanced Spellcrafting. Professor Vaelor seemed to use the same core material with minor adjustments, which made sense given that most students seemed to be different people from last time.

  While Spellcraft had a smaller room focused on second and even third-year students, this class was packed with ambitious first-years and some second-years. Very few third-years were present, probably because this was one of the first advanced courses people took when entering the academy.

  I was genuinely surprised to see Erick in my classroom. While it made sense we'd have at least one class together eventually, I'd half-expected him to not attend any classes at all and just exist as an independent entity roaming the academy grounds.

  "Yo," he said when I approached.

  "Hey." I sat down beside him, immediately noticing he didn't have anything with him except a few wrapped pieces of food and one of those magical puzzle cubes he was always playing with. Not a notebook or quill in sight.

  "You already takin the advanced class? Guess it makes sense." He twisted a section of the puzzle without looking at it.

  "It wasn't much of a choice," I admitted. "Part of the unranked thing, I guess." I felt comfortable sharing this with Erick, knowing he wouldn't press for details.

  "That sucks. But this class is easy, just basic spells with joining circles." He said it so casually, like advanced magic was no more challenging than tying shoes.

  "I hope so..."

  When it came time for Professor Vaelor's levitation demonstration, I was prepared this time. I stood up and positioned myself carefully, feet planted, ready to stabilize myself in the air without falling when the spell ended.

  Erick, on the other hand, ended up floating while spinning slowly, which seemed to annoy him more than anything else.

  When the professor broke the spell, Erick somehow managed to stop his fall with his hands, catching himself on the desk and holding his entire body upside down for a moment before flipping back up like it was nothing. He dropped into his chair as if he'd just sat down normally.

  "Hey uh..." I tried to say after things settled, hesitating for a moment on how exactly to start a conversation.

  "Don't try that," he told me, cutting me off.

  "Yeah, sorry."

  "No need to try to make small talk. You're way too big for that." He went back to his puzzle. "You wanna talk about something, just talk."

  "Hmmm." I considered for a moment. "So what's your deal? You gonna keep talking to us till I get the undesirable status removed, then bail?"

  "Who knows?" He shrugged. "Might stick around for a bit. See how this whole 'super unranked' thing plays out."

  "Feels weird having someone I don't really know just... hanging around."

  "Knowing people's overrated. Everyone can say shit, few can do shit."

  Inspiring.

  He continued without prompting. "You wanna know? I don't like people tellin me what I should do. I like good food and magic games, and I hate people like the Prince."

  "I guess that's a start," I said, unsure how to proceed.

  "I like you 'cause you stood up to the Prince. Didn't just let him talk shit, and you don't keep tryin to make people look at you or respect you." He finally looked at me directly. "You just do your thing."

  "Thank you, I guess?"

  "I don't go around choosing friends based on who's got the best or saddest backstory. I wanna see who people are by what they do." He returned his attention to the puzzle. "And if you still don't know who I am by now, you need glasses."

  He had a point. Erick wore his entire personality on his sleeve for everyone to see. There was no confusion about who he was or what he stood for. But it was still nice getting to know at least a bit more about him.

  "I still want to know your story though," I said finally. "Even if it isn't sad or epic."

  He laughed, a short sharp sound. "Keep dreaming."

  By the middle of class, I'd filled the mana siphon as much as I could manage and had moved on to practicing shapes with the focusing sphere again.

  This drew Erick's attention. He turned to me with a puzzled look.

  "You're having way too much trouble with that."

  Stolen story; please report.

  The comment stung, but it didn't feel like it came from a bad place.

  "Yeah... It's hard making the form stay stable."

  "Why you want it to stay?" He asked like I'd suggested something fundamentally stupid.

  "Well, I need to be able to maintain the form, right?"

  "Nah. You think normal people'll just stand around watching you hold a spell? If it was easy to hold spells, you wouldn't need anything for ritual casting, just motivation. You seen the type of shit they gotta do to keep spells from fizzling?"

  I hadn't actually heard much about ritual magic, but of course it was a thing.

  "Not really... But then how—"

  "Make the form, throw it, make the next form, throw it. That's how magic works in real fights." As if to demonstrate, he opened his hand and formed what had to be the worst, most lopsided circle I'd ever seen. I was pretty sure it qualified as an ellipse, if not something worse.

  "Universe don't care about perfect form. It cares about the message you're sendin." He released the malformed circle, and in his palm, a perfectly smooth wooden ball materialized. "Precision's for when you get to complex shit like what Vaelor does. Basic spellcasting's just makin a rough sketch fast as possible and gettin it out there."

  His advice made sense, even if I was certain Emberheart wouldn't approve. The professor probably wanted me to learn proper control and precision. But for just a moment, the idea of having a small win was too tempting to pass up.

  Telling myself I'd go back to training the proper way later, I started trying to make a square instead. Just being able to get away from that infuriating circle felt liberating.

  After class ended, Erick and I headed toward the dining hall together. As we approached, I noticed a crowd gathered around something near the entrance.

  A new announcement board had replaced the previous one. This one was larger, more elaborate, with golden script that shimmered in the light.

  It detailed when the event would start tomorrow morning, where to assemble, what to bring, and at the very bottom, divided into two columns, were all the names of students on each team.

  I pushed closer to examine it, though I wouldn't recognize most names anyway. But the students around me were in an uproar.

  "They have no chance!"

  "The Prince's team is so stacked—"

  "Did she not do any recruitment at all?"

  I scanned the lists properly. The left column was headed "Team Aurelius" in silver script. Below it, name after name of students I'd heard whispered about in hallways.

  The right column was headed "Team Aurora" in white script. The list was... shorter. Much shorter.

  I found my name about halfway down: Kai - Unranked.

  I also found Erick, and what I assumed to be Theo.

  And scattered through the list, mostly B-ranks and C-ranks. A few A-ranks I didn't recognize. Maybe twenty names total compared to the Prince's thirty-plus.

  "They assigned the teams to keep it balanced," someone muttered nearby. "But look at the quality difference."

  "Aurora's team is mostly first-years who didn't choose a side."

  "The Prince recruited everyone worth having."

  Erick, standing beside me with his arms crossed, didn't seem bothered at all. In fact, he looked amused.

  "Guy thinks he can just buy the win with reputation." He smirked. "Tell you what—after we win, let's throw a party. Invite everyone on his team but leave him out. That'll piss him off properly."

  I couldn't help but laugh. Erick's plan was both creative and incredibly petty, which somehow made it perfect.

  "You really think we can win?" I asked, looking at the lists again. The difference in apparent strength was staggering.

  "'Course we can. Half those people on his team're just there 'cause they're scared of sayin no. Aurora's team's people who actually wanna be there. That counts for something."

  I wasn't sure I shared his confidence, but his certainty was almost contagious.

  We found Lina already seated at one of the middle tables, her gold-trimmed uniform as neat as ever despite a full morning of classes. She looked up when we approached, her expression cautious.

  "Hey," I said, sitting down across from her. Erick dropped into the seat beside me.

  "Hey." She studied my face for a moment. "So... tomorrow's the big day."

  "Yeah." I paused, then forced myself to continue. "Look, about yesterday. You were right. I should have just said I couldn't explain instead of making up bad excuses. I'm sorry."

  She was quiet for a moment, then nodded slowly. "I appreciate that. And I'm sorry too, for pushing. I know we haven't known each other that long."

  Erick interrupted us. "You two done? 'Cause I wanna talk about how we're gonna humiliate the Prince tomorrow."

  Lina's smile widened. "I'm listening."

  What followed was possibly the most ridiculous planning session I'd ever been part of. Erick had a seemingly endless supply of petty revenge ideas, from stealing the Prince's victory speech if he won, to making sure Aurora got all the credit if we won, to his party idea which he elaborated on in increasingly absurd detail.

  "We get a cake," he said seriously, "but we make it shaped like a crown, and we don't invite him."

  "That's just a normal party," Lina pointed out.

  "Yeah, but the cake is shaped like a crown. That's the important part."

  "I don't think that's—"

  "Crown. Cake."

  I found myself actually laughing, the tension I'd been carrying for days finally easing. Even Lina was giggling at Erick's absolute commitment to the pettiest possible revenge.

  "What if we just win?" I suggested. "Wouldn't that piss him off enough?"

  "Nah, that's just the start." Erick leaned back in his chair. “We need to plan further ahead.”

  We spent the rest of lunch like that, the three of us planning and joking and occasionally remembering to actually eat. Other students still whispered about us, probably due to my undesirable status, but for the first time since arriving at the academy, I didn't care.

  Tomorrow everything would change. Tomorrow I'd have to actually compete, to prove I belonged on Aurora's team, to justify the bet I'd made with the Prince.

  But right now, sitting with friends and planning petty revenge involving crown-shaped cakes, things felt almost normal.

  Almost good.

  When lunch ended and we parted ways, I headed back to my dorm to get my things for the afternoon lesson. There was still a long way to go.

  But for just a moment, I let myself feel optimistic.