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| For every mystery humanity uncovers, they reveal five in it's place. |
Act 2, Chapter 5: Discovery
Sienna calmly pulled her bag over her shoulder as she got ready to teach another lesson for her team. They've been fairly successful with their missions so far with just the basic Pulse and weapons handling skills they were taught, with her oversight. But since the promotion exam was coming up, she knew that they needed to at least grasp this basic concept before they could be sent out on any mission harder than a simple cleanup job, or escorts. F rank tends to be basic work such as that, while E will mean they'll be able to participate in more skirmishes and the occasional rescue work.
She took her comb, quickly pulling some of the tangles out of her wavy wine red hair, before placing it in the bag and slipping her white beret atop her head, twisting the door of her loft and pulling it open into the hardwood hallways, lined with a dark blue carpet running from end to end. She broke out into a light jog as she passed by some students holding idle conversation, heading down the stairs and out of the dorm building, the one adjacent to the student's dorm, which was a larger building, but had more rooms in exchange for room quality.
She pulled up the sleeve of her white instructors coat, checking her quartz watch to check how long she had until she had to meet everyone for the lesson. “About 15 minutes.” She muttered to herself, the watch nearing the hour of 9 AM on this slightly frigid spring morning. The plants were beginning to bud flowers or just grow back proper, it made the campus fairly beautiful to walk though. If she only was alone to enjoy just the nature without a bunch of goofy teenagers talking about internet videos. She walked past the fountain and along the sidewalk to lead to the cafeteria. She pushed the double doors open and calmly walked inside. Most people would have had breakfast by this point, but there were a couple of stragglers in the room getting a late one in as well.
One of those particular people was a familiar red head to Sienna, her little sister, Maria. Who was eating a sandwich while sitting with a white haired girl. She tucked her free hand into her pocket as she approached her baby sister and her friend. “Heeeey sis.” She said with a friendly smile, Maria looks a bit different than she originally did when she joined Spectrum. Her skin is slowly starting to regain some color, they were both pretty pale, but Maria's skin was practically translucent. So she's glad she started to get somewhat of a pinkish color, even if it was a bit dry and cracked from not really taking too good care of it.
Her hair was actually longer than Sienna's now, though it was mostly because Maria doesn't cut her hair that often, Sienna's was typically chin length and kind of curly looking. Maria's was just kind of a mess, it was a bit frizzy and unkempt, some people liked that kind of thing, but Sienna just thought Maria should be a little more... well.. girly. “Mmmph?” Maria said, her mouth full of bread, egg, cheese and sausage as he looked up at her. “Uhhh...” Sienna kind of stalled, not really sure how to respond to that as Maria tried to quickly grab her juice out of panic. “Mmph! Mmpph!” She said, grabbing the juice and quickly chugging it, before slamming the drink down with a deep gasp.
“I don't think you should stuff your face like that.” Cassandra kind of quietly observed, Maria glaring at her a little bit and pointing a finger out of objection. “I will not let anyone judge how I eat my food, dammit.” Maria complained, Sienna just looking at them both somewhat dumbfounded. “...OH! Hey Sienna.” She said, suddenly looking up at her sister. “...Aren't you a bit short for time, Maria? We have a lesson in like... 15 minutes.” She stated, maybe hinting Maria to get a move on. “Will I be admonished for being late? I've never been before.” Maria replied, finishing her glass of juice and flipping the cup upside down on her tray. “Well... You'll be annoying both Ashley and me by knowing you'll be late, but doing it anyway.” She warned, Maria frowning a little bit at her.
“I'm not actively trying to be late,” Maria muttered to Sienna, standing out of her chair, her long red scarf swaying some from the sudden movement. “Just... Even if I was late, you two will just lecture us, have us do a couple of things and see how badly we failed.” Maria mentioned, referencing a couple of months ago back when they learned how Pulse worked. Sienna frowned a little bit and ruffled Maria's somewhat messy hair out of frustration. “Oh come on, it won't be that bad.” Sienna reassured, Maria finishing her sandwich and looking up at her.
“I'll consider otherwise when you show me.” Maria mentioned, grabbing her trey and tucking it under her arm. “Was showing up and telling me I might be late the only thing you wanted to talk to me about?” Maria asked her, Sienna tucking the bag over her shoulder and walking with her as she slid the dirty tray into the disposal, Sienna quickly ordering a small strudel she could eat before her instruction. She wrapped it in a couple of napkins instead of using a trey, paying a small amount of Geld to the cooks before turning to Maria, taking a quick bite from it. “Nah, just we don't talk much.” Sienna stated her intentions somewhat, Maria sticking her hands in her pockets as they both left the cafeteria together.
“Where are you going, Maria?” Cassandra asked her, as they both were about to walk out the double front doors. Sienna turned to Maria and patted her on the shoulder. “I wanted to coral her for her exam.” She explained, Cassandra smiling and nodding as she climbed from her chair, quickly grabbing Maria for a hug. “Good luck, Maria!” She said with a grin, Maria turning her head to the side, not really pushing her off, but not really hugging back either. “T-thanks.” She muttered, Cassandra letting go and taking a seat back into her chair. Maria rubbed her shoulder off a bit, before turning and walking with Sienna along the sidewalks of the courtyard.
“What's there to talk about?” Maria asked with a shrug, walking with somewhat of a slacked posture. “A lot of things, you goof.” Sienna replied, pointing at her as Maria just kind of looked down to stare at her hand. “Like... Do you have any plans to get a boyfriend? Get your own place? Finish College?” She asked a variety of questions, Maria raised her brows, thinking it over for a second. “Not really, No, and no.” Maria stated bluntly, Sienna frowning a little bit. “Well... Why not?” Sienna questioned, Maria rolling her eyes a bit as Sienna took the slight lead to guide them to where she told all her students to go, a field just behind the school, just before the forest.
“Well... I'm not really sure being with someone is a good goal to have, it makes me feel like I'm relying on someone else instead of carrying my own weight.” Maria explained, rolling her neck to make sure it was loose. “That and I guess I'm just not really 'into' anyone.” She added, Sienna looking around some as they turned the corner to start walking around the school by cutting through the parking lot. “As for the house and college.. I guess I just don't think about the future too often.” Maria continued, Sienna just calmly looking at her as she spoke.
“You should consider what you want to do after this, is all I'm saying.” Sienna mentioned, Maria huffed quietly lightly shaking her head as they climbed up the small hill. Jonah, Ashley, Lily, Morgan, Erika, Caleb, and Florence were all awaiting Maria and Sienna to begin their lesson. “Took you two long enough.” Ashley said, reaching up to her shoulder and slowly spinning her arm to make it pop and feel a bit looser. Sienna huffed, dropping the bag on the ground with a heavy sounding thud, the rattling of metal clearly resonating.
“You bring everyone's weapons this time?” Ashley asked Sienna, who raised a finger, before bending down and unzipping the bag. Everyone's weapons were neatly sorted in a pile, barring Erika's. Since she actually bothered to bring hers along, resting it over her shoulder to ease some of the weight of the 35 pound axe. Everyone reached in to grab a weapon, though beside the weapon was a bunch of sheets of paper. “Uhm... I hate to question you, but I don't think you're supposed to write notes using a sword.” Jonah half sarcastically joked, strapping the shield to his arm and sliding his blade into the sheathe.
“That's not what we're doing.” Ashley mentioned to him, poking him on his forehead during her reprimand, he was not amused by it at all, which you could tell just by looking at the expression written on his face. “These papers are integral to what we're about to do.” She stated, lifting them into a stack and tucking them underneath her arm as she handed one sheet to every single student, before holding one for herself. “Because what we're going to do is... MAGIC!” She said, using both hands to make kind of a stupid pose, wriggling her fingers with wide open eyes. Everyone just quietly stared at her out of confusion and shame, with overwhelming embarrassment. “Don't make me feel any worse for being here.” Maria commented flatly.
“Anyway, barring the stupid jokes, does everyone have their paper and weapon?” Ashley asked, each person nodding in confirmation as she gestured to Sienna to begin explaining the properties of magic. “Magic is probably much harder to actually use compared to Pulse, it uses a similar process, but has a minor difference that makes it well... Magic.” She said, using her hands as she couldn't find the right words to say. “Instead of channeling through your limbs... You channel your energy through your blade.” She continued, grabbing her rapier and calmly grabbed another piece of paper into her hand.
After a short amount of time, the paper began to drip wet with water, seemingly from nowhere. “Once you channel your energy through your blade, you can then push it throughout your body to make it emanate from another part of your body, and have it not harm you.” She explained, Jonahs eyes widening some as he realized what she was doing. “Wait, we can fire elements out of our bodies!? Awesome!” He said with a bravado that hasn't really been seen from him before.
Maria raised her hand, sliding her fingers back and fourth on the simple piece of A4 paper. “Isn't water not really the best skill for combat?” Maria asked, before Sienna looked at her, making the paper intentionally freeze into solid ice. “If I coat my blade in elemental water, stab them with it and freeze the water, it makes ice crystals inside that will cut them if they move from the inside.” She explained with some gruesome detail, Maria's brow raising a bit as she was taken aback. “Holy shit, that's kind of metal.” Maria stated to Sienna soft chuckle.
“Every single person has their own element, though some tend to be more common than others.” She continued, tossing the now saturated piece of paper to the ground with a wet thud. “These papers are pretty much an easy way to channel your energy into something easy so you can get the hang of it.” She stated, each person holding up their paper and looking at it. “At first, you will expend a ton of energy with little or no results, but the reserves you get for Pulse and Magic never increase.” She slipped both hands behind her back, sticking out her chest like she was some kind of commander.
“You don't get any stronger than what you are now... But you become more efficient, wasting less excess energy, kind of like when you sharpen a pencil, or press your thumb in front of a hose.” She tried to use a metaphor, though everyone was too busy just holding a weapon and trying to channel their energies through the blade. “Now, I want everyone of you to channel their energies through the paper until an effect happens, Just so we can get the hang of it before the promotion exam starts.” She walked over to a small chair, taking a seat in it as Ashley took a seat with her and began to idly chat about life, love and a bunch of other useless stuff that doesn't actually pertain to helping anyone improve. Best instructors ever.
“Hey, I did it!” Lily shouted, her piece of paper having parts of it slowly turn to dust and float off into the wind. “Wait, really?” Sienna asked, standing up and running over to look at the short haired blonde's progress. “Yeah! Uhh... Was I not supposed to just yet?” She asked, a bit nervous, Sienna crossed her arms, inspecting the paper as it continued to float off as dust. “I think that's wind.” She observed, Lily looking up at her, blowing the hair out of her own face from the wind messing with her hair. “How do you know if it's wind?” Asked Lily, it could have been something else that wasn't wind, with a similar property, she wasn't 100% sure of it.
“I uhh.. read a guidebook before I got here.” Sienna replied, having literally went to read a small pamphlet she got when she signed up to be an instructor, as instructors get quite a lot of pamphlets. “So wind, huh...” Lily muttered softly, shaking the paper once more as it fell apart in her hands, landing on the ground in shreds before being blown away by a breeze that also shook the grass where it sits. “The big thing is you have to learn how to be creative with your type of magic. Some people will get more than one, but it will always be the same barring unusual circumstance.” She explained to Lily, nodding her head before Sienna just gently patted her on the shoulder.
Caleb already knew what he was doing, his element was fire. Within a couple of seconds, his paper ignited like a candle and quickly burned into ashed before his hands, even floating his hand over the flame a couple of times so he could show off that it wasn't hurting him. “Ain't it cool?” Caleb asked to hope people were impressed with his ability to channel magic, but Maria, Jonah and Morgan all collectively sent him a death glare. “What?” He asked them out of confusion, he sighed, letting the ashes fly off as he crossed his hands over each other. “Oh, you guys are no fun at all.” He muttered, Jonah shook his head, going back to his paper.
He focused as hard as he could on the paper, doing every lesson he tried to remember as he visualized what he was told. A candle in the dark, with the winds blowing the flame where he thinks they need to go. Suddenly, a leaf sprouted from the paper, nearly looking like it was growing out of it. “OH GOD!” He shouted, dropping the paper with a leaf growing out it as Sienna picked it up in one of her hands. “Ooooh.. Life magic.” She said with a smile, Jonah raising a brow at her as he walked over to look at it as well. “Life?” Jonah asked, as he wasn't 100% sure life could even be constituted as an element.
“Yeah, life.” Sienna reaffirmed, lightly plucking the leaf off the top of the paper. “We use life energy to rehabilitate from surgeries faster, it's too slow to stop a wound that needs to be immediately treated, but we've learned that it nearly quadruples rehabilitation time.” She explained, Jonah's wonder and enthusiasm on his face fading as he just realized Sienna was also suggesting him to become a doctor or healer. “Man, even nature itself is telling me to become a medic...” He complained, tossing the paper aside as Caleb began to chuckle. “Fate's a bitch today!” He said, holding his chest to contain some of his laughter, before a gust of wind blew that paper right in his face. “LILY!” He shouted at her.
“Uhh.. I didn't do anything.” Lily argued his accusation, she doesn't even know how to use wind yet, just channel it in it's most very basic form. “Like hell you did.” Caleb responded, crumpling up the paper and tossing it over his shoulder out of annoyance. “I swear, I didn't!” She restated, he signed and folded his arms, walking back down the hill. “Oh whatever...” He muttered, before shouting up the hill. “JONAH! IT'S TIME FOR LITTLE RED WAGON TRAINING!” He grabbed his palty red wagon, led by a handle. The wheels rusted and barely able to spin. Jonah just sighed softly, Caleb climbing into the wagon, hugging his legs. “Run for 10 miles! We need to get prepared for the exams!” He proudly exclaimed, pointing his hand forward as Jonah spun around, struggling to pull the cart along because he was much lighter. Sienna just stared at the most stupid sight she has ever seen as they both left the campus. “...Sometimes I wonder why I still work here.” She commented.
“It's because you love us.” Morgan joked, looking back down to her page as she realized it just looked darker than before. The page was turning black, and a shadow was casting on her hands. “Uhm... What the hell is this?” She mutterd, Sienna walking up and grabbing one of her wrists, her own hands getting stuck in that perpetual shadow, almost like the sun was being blocked by something just overhead. “That's fairly rare, but it was still in the pamphlet.” Sienna commented, reaching into her back pocket and reading it over really quickly, Morgan trying to look over the paper and see if she could read it upside down.
“Darkness is pretty much stealth magic. Turning things invisible, removing light in a certain radius... stuff like that.” Sienna explained in a weird, passe way. Morgan sighed, folding the paper up and hanging up to her. “Wow, so informative today.” She muttered, turning and walking down the hill out of annoyance, stuffing her hands into her pockets and muttering. Sienna just put an awkward smile and turned back to the remaining students. Florence's paper was burned, but it had jagged, striped burns mixed in with the pieces of untouched paper. “I'm not sure this is how fire works.” Florence observed, Sienna pulled the paper from him and inspected it, rubbing her fingers along the jagged markings. “I think this is some kind of electricity.” She said, handing it back to him. “Awesome!” He said with a grin, before leaving as he began to talk about something involving trying to power a lamp.
“I'm pretty sure mine is earth.” Erika added, noticing the fact that dust was beginning to collect along the top of the paper. Robin leaned over to check as well, lightly sliding a finger through the dust to watch the way it moved. “You know that if it's dust, it could always just be a ton of dead skin cells.” Robin said to try and weird Erika out, she jumped to the point she almost dropped her paper on the ground. “Please tell me they don't consider skin cells an element! I don't want to be a master of skin.” Erika said out of worry.
Maria walked up, somewhat giving up on the paper, putting it in one hand as she leaned over to the both of them. “Skinmaster is an awesome nickname, you should go for it, Erika.” Maria commented with a half smile, Erika just turning at her with her eyes in a glare. “No, Skinmaster is not a good nickname.” Erika complained back at Maria, Maria just putting her hands on her hips and bending forward. “This is why no one talks to you! You would be awesome if you were the Skinmaster.” Maria shouted, Erika just throwing her paper to the side and walking off. “I think I liked you more when we didn't talk.” She muttered, Maria groaning some and flumping her arms to her side with a thud. “...Okay then.” She said, turning back to the paper.
“Sienna, this isn't working.” Maria said, holding the paper in her hands as she once channeled some more energy through her palms, when suddenly a black mist began to crawl along her palms. “Wh-wha..” She muttered, Sienna looking at her, grabbing her wrist and lifting up one hand, making it slide against the smooth paper so she could inspect the crawling mist as it climbed her fingers, swirling around the tips. Suddenly, the fog solidified and turned into a carapace like substance, resembling sharp talons.
“OHSHI-” She shouted, dropping the paper in a way her claws slashed at it, looking at her hands out of fear. “What's going on!?” Maria fell on her back, her blades falling from the sheathes on her belt and bouncing on the ground as her claws faded away. “I think I've heard of that.” She said, admittedly trying to shrug off the fact that Maria growing claws startled her. “People with Ash Syndrome can't use magic... They instead get the ability to channel the ashes of the creature that attacked them instead.” Seinna continued, inspecting her hands who have returned to normal. “I'm not exactly sure how it works... you may need to practice with it.” She added, Maria panting a bit and standing back up to dust herself off.
"So I don't have magic?” She asked her older sister, who just gently nodded her head. “Yeah, but this could possibly enhance your physical abilities as well... I still need to research it before I tell you anything.” She said, frustrated that she didn't have a full explanation. Maria dusted herself off, turning around. “I'm just going to go back to eating food, don't mind me.” She muttered a bit, before Robin shouted from just behind her. “Look! I'm a nightlight!” She said, as she learned to make her paper glow with the powers of light.
“Yeah cool whatever.” She said, waving her arm and slowly walking down the hill to leave Sienna, Ashley, Lily and Robin to their own devices. “Maria's been more of a jerk, recently.” Robin muttered, her little light lamp fading out as she handed Sienna back the paper. “Yeah, it happens to her sometimes.” Sienna confirmed, as they all quietly left back to the dorms as well to begin the rest of their day.
Sienna calmly pulled her bag over her shoulder as she got ready to teach another lesson for her team. They've been fairly successful with their missions so far with just the basic Pulse and weapons handling skills they were taught, with her oversight. But since the promotion exam was coming up, she knew that they needed to at least grasp this basic concept before they could be sent out on any mission harder than a simple cleanup job, or escorts. F rank tends to be basic work such as that, while E will mean they'll be able to participate in more skirmishes and the occasional rescue work.
She took her comb, quickly pulling some of the tangles out of her wavy wine red hair, before placing it in the bag and slipping her white beret atop her head, twisting the door of her loft and pulling it open into the hardwood hallways, lined with a dark blue carpet running from end to end. She broke out into a light jog as she passed by some students holding idle conversation, heading down the stairs and out of the dorm building, the one adjacent to the student's dorm, which was a larger building, but had more rooms in exchange for room quality.
She pulled up the sleeve of her white instructors coat, checking her quartz watch to check how long she had until she had to meet everyone for the lesson. “About 15 minutes.” She muttered to herself, the watch nearing the hour of 9 AM on this slightly frigid spring morning. The plants were beginning to bud flowers or just grow back proper, it made the campus fairly beautiful to walk though. If she only was alone to enjoy just the nature without a bunch of goofy teenagers talking about internet videos. She walked past the fountain and along the sidewalk to lead to the cafeteria. She pushed the double doors open and calmly walked inside. Most people would have had breakfast by this point, but there were a couple of stragglers in the room getting a late one in as well.
One of those particular people was a familiar red head to Sienna, her little sister, Maria. Who was eating a sandwich while sitting with a white haired girl. She tucked her free hand into her pocket as she approached her baby sister and her friend. “Heeeey sis.” She said with a friendly smile, Maria looks a bit different than she originally did when she joined Spectrum. Her skin is slowly starting to regain some color, they were both pretty pale, but Maria's skin was practically translucent. So she's glad she started to get somewhat of a pinkish color, even if it was a bit dry and cracked from not really taking too good care of it.
Her hair was actually longer than Sienna's now, though it was mostly because Maria doesn't cut her hair that often, Sienna's was typically chin length and kind of curly looking. Maria's was just kind of a mess, it was a bit frizzy and unkempt, some people liked that kind of thing, but Sienna just thought Maria should be a little more... well.. girly. “Mmmph?” Maria said, her mouth full of bread, egg, cheese and sausage as he looked up at her. “Uhhh...” Sienna kind of stalled, not really sure how to respond to that as Maria tried to quickly grab her juice out of panic. “Mmph! Mmpph!” She said, grabbing the juice and quickly chugging it, before slamming the drink down with a deep gasp.
“I don't think you should stuff your face like that.” Cassandra kind of quietly observed, Maria glaring at her a little bit and pointing a finger out of objection. “I will not let anyone judge how I eat my food, dammit.” Maria complained, Sienna just looking at them both somewhat dumbfounded. “...OH! Hey Sienna.” She said, suddenly looking up at her sister. “...Aren't you a bit short for time, Maria? We have a lesson in like... 15 minutes.” She stated, maybe hinting Maria to get a move on. “Will I be admonished for being late? I've never been before.” Maria replied, finishing her glass of juice and flipping the cup upside down on her tray. “Well... You'll be annoying both Ashley and me by knowing you'll be late, but doing it anyway.” She warned, Maria frowning a little bit at her.
“I'm not actively trying to be late,” Maria muttered to Sienna, standing out of her chair, her long red scarf swaying some from the sudden movement. “Just... Even if I was late, you two will just lecture us, have us do a couple of things and see how badly we failed.” Maria mentioned, referencing a couple of months ago back when they learned how Pulse worked. Sienna frowned a little bit and ruffled Maria's somewhat messy hair out of frustration. “Oh come on, it won't be that bad.” Sienna reassured, Maria finishing her sandwich and looking up at her.
“I'll consider otherwise when you show me.” Maria mentioned, grabbing her trey and tucking it under her arm. “Was showing up and telling me I might be late the only thing you wanted to talk to me about?” Maria asked her, Sienna tucking the bag over her shoulder and walking with her as she slid the dirty tray into the disposal, Sienna quickly ordering a small strudel she could eat before her instruction. She wrapped it in a couple of napkins instead of using a trey, paying a small amount of Geld to the cooks before turning to Maria, taking a quick bite from it. “Nah, just we don't talk much.” Sienna stated her intentions somewhat, Maria sticking her hands in her pockets as they both left the cafeteria together.
“Where are you going, Maria?” Cassandra asked her, as they both were about to walk out the double front doors. Sienna turned to Maria and patted her on the shoulder. “I wanted to coral her for her exam.” She explained, Cassandra smiling and nodding as she climbed from her chair, quickly grabbing Maria for a hug. “Good luck, Maria!” She said with a grin, Maria turning her head to the side, not really pushing her off, but not really hugging back either. “T-thanks.” She muttered, Cassandra letting go and taking a seat back into her chair. Maria rubbed her shoulder off a bit, before turning and walking with Sienna along the sidewalks of the courtyard.
“What's there to talk about?” Maria asked with a shrug, walking with somewhat of a slacked posture. “A lot of things, you goof.” Sienna replied, pointing at her as Maria just kind of looked down to stare at her hand. “Like... Do you have any plans to get a boyfriend? Get your own place? Finish College?” She asked a variety of questions, Maria raised her brows, thinking it over for a second. “Not really, No, and no.” Maria stated bluntly, Sienna frowning a little bit. “Well... Why not?” Sienna questioned, Maria rolling her eyes a bit as Sienna took the slight lead to guide them to where she told all her students to go, a field just behind the school, just before the forest.
“Well... I'm not really sure being with someone is a good goal to have, it makes me feel like I'm relying on someone else instead of carrying my own weight.” Maria explained, rolling her neck to make sure it was loose. “That and I guess I'm just not really 'into' anyone.” She added, Sienna looking around some as they turned the corner to start walking around the school by cutting through the parking lot. “As for the house and college.. I guess I just don't think about the future too often.” Maria continued, Sienna just calmly looking at her as she spoke.
“You should consider what you want to do after this, is all I'm saying.” Sienna mentioned, Maria huffed quietly lightly shaking her head as they climbed up the small hill. Jonah, Ashley, Lily, Morgan, Erika, Caleb, and Florence were all awaiting Maria and Sienna to begin their lesson. “Took you two long enough.” Ashley said, reaching up to her shoulder and slowly spinning her arm to make it pop and feel a bit looser. Sienna huffed, dropping the bag on the ground with a heavy sounding thud, the rattling of metal clearly resonating.
“You bring everyone's weapons this time?” Ashley asked Sienna, who raised a finger, before bending down and unzipping the bag. Everyone's weapons were neatly sorted in a pile, barring Erika's. Since she actually bothered to bring hers along, resting it over her shoulder to ease some of the weight of the 35 pound axe. Everyone reached in to grab a weapon, though beside the weapon was a bunch of sheets of paper. “Uhm... I hate to question you, but I don't think you're supposed to write notes using a sword.” Jonah half sarcastically joked, strapping the shield to his arm and sliding his blade into the sheathe.
“That's not what we're doing.” Ashley mentioned to him, poking him on his forehead during her reprimand, he was not amused by it at all, which you could tell just by looking at the expression written on his face. “These papers are integral to what we're about to do.” She stated, lifting them into a stack and tucking them underneath her arm as she handed one sheet to every single student, before holding one for herself. “Because what we're going to do is... MAGIC!” She said, using both hands to make kind of a stupid pose, wriggling her fingers with wide open eyes. Everyone just quietly stared at her out of confusion and shame, with overwhelming embarrassment. “Don't make me feel any worse for being here.” Maria commented flatly.
“Anyway, barring the stupid jokes, does everyone have their paper and weapon?” Ashley asked, each person nodding in confirmation as she gestured to Sienna to begin explaining the properties of magic. “Magic is probably much harder to actually use compared to Pulse, it uses a similar process, but has a minor difference that makes it well... Magic.” She said, using her hands as she couldn't find the right words to say. “Instead of channeling through your limbs... You channel your energy through your blade.” She continued, grabbing her rapier and calmly grabbed another piece of paper into her hand.
After a short amount of time, the paper began to drip wet with water, seemingly from nowhere. “Once you channel your energy through your blade, you can then push it throughout your body to make it emanate from another part of your body, and have it not harm you.” She explained, Jonahs eyes widening some as he realized what she was doing. “Wait, we can fire elements out of our bodies!? Awesome!” He said with a bravado that hasn't really been seen from him before.
Maria raised her hand, sliding her fingers back and fourth on the simple piece of A4 paper. “Isn't water not really the best skill for combat?” Maria asked, before Sienna looked at her, making the paper intentionally freeze into solid ice. “If I coat my blade in elemental water, stab them with it and freeze the water, it makes ice crystals inside that will cut them if they move from the inside.” She explained with some gruesome detail, Maria's brow raising a bit as she was taken aback. “Holy shit, that's kind of metal.” Maria stated to Sienna soft chuckle.
“Every single person has their own element, though some tend to be more common than others.” She continued, tossing the now saturated piece of paper to the ground with a wet thud. “These papers are pretty much an easy way to channel your energy into something easy so you can get the hang of it.” She stated, each person holding up their paper and looking at it. “At first, you will expend a ton of energy with little or no results, but the reserves you get for Pulse and Magic never increase.” She slipped both hands behind her back, sticking out her chest like she was some kind of commander.
“You don't get any stronger than what you are now... But you become more efficient, wasting less excess energy, kind of like when you sharpen a pencil, or press your thumb in front of a hose.” She tried to use a metaphor, though everyone was too busy just holding a weapon and trying to channel their energies through the blade. “Now, I want everyone of you to channel their energies through the paper until an effect happens, Just so we can get the hang of it before the promotion exam starts.” She walked over to a small chair, taking a seat in it as Ashley took a seat with her and began to idly chat about life, love and a bunch of other useless stuff that doesn't actually pertain to helping anyone improve. Best instructors ever.
“Hey, I did it!” Lily shouted, her piece of paper having parts of it slowly turn to dust and float off into the wind. “Wait, really?” Sienna asked, standing up and running over to look at the short haired blonde's progress. “Yeah! Uhh... Was I not supposed to just yet?” She asked, a bit nervous, Sienna crossed her arms, inspecting the paper as it continued to float off as dust. “I think that's wind.” She observed, Lily looking up at her, blowing the hair out of her own face from the wind messing with her hair. “How do you know if it's wind?” Asked Lily, it could have been something else that wasn't wind, with a similar property, she wasn't 100% sure of it.
“I uhh.. read a guidebook before I got here.” Sienna replied, having literally went to read a small pamphlet she got when she signed up to be an instructor, as instructors get quite a lot of pamphlets. “So wind, huh...” Lily muttered softly, shaking the paper once more as it fell apart in her hands, landing on the ground in shreds before being blown away by a breeze that also shook the grass where it sits. “The big thing is you have to learn how to be creative with your type of magic. Some people will get more than one, but it will always be the same barring unusual circumstance.” She explained to Lily, nodding her head before Sienna just gently patted her on the shoulder.
Caleb already knew what he was doing, his element was fire. Within a couple of seconds, his paper ignited like a candle and quickly burned into ashed before his hands, even floating his hand over the flame a couple of times so he could show off that it wasn't hurting him. “Ain't it cool?” Caleb asked to hope people were impressed with his ability to channel magic, but Maria, Jonah and Morgan all collectively sent him a death glare. “What?” He asked them out of confusion, he sighed, letting the ashes fly off as he crossed his hands over each other. “Oh, you guys are no fun at all.” He muttered, Jonah shook his head, going back to his paper.
He focused as hard as he could on the paper, doing every lesson he tried to remember as he visualized what he was told. A candle in the dark, with the winds blowing the flame where he thinks they need to go. Suddenly, a leaf sprouted from the paper, nearly looking like it was growing out of it. “OH GOD!” He shouted, dropping the paper with a leaf growing out it as Sienna picked it up in one of her hands. “Ooooh.. Life magic.” She said with a smile, Jonah raising a brow at her as he walked over to look at it as well. “Life?” Jonah asked, as he wasn't 100% sure life could even be constituted as an element.
“Yeah, life.” Sienna reaffirmed, lightly plucking the leaf off the top of the paper. “We use life energy to rehabilitate from surgeries faster, it's too slow to stop a wound that needs to be immediately treated, but we've learned that it nearly quadruples rehabilitation time.” She explained, Jonah's wonder and enthusiasm on his face fading as he just realized Sienna was also suggesting him to become a doctor or healer. “Man, even nature itself is telling me to become a medic...” He complained, tossing the paper aside as Caleb began to chuckle. “Fate's a bitch today!” He said, holding his chest to contain some of his laughter, before a gust of wind blew that paper right in his face. “LILY!” He shouted at her.
“Uhh.. I didn't do anything.” Lily argued his accusation, she doesn't even know how to use wind yet, just channel it in it's most very basic form. “Like hell you did.” Caleb responded, crumpling up the paper and tossing it over his shoulder out of annoyance. “I swear, I didn't!” She restated, he signed and folded his arms, walking back down the hill. “Oh whatever...” He muttered, before shouting up the hill. “JONAH! IT'S TIME FOR LITTLE RED WAGON TRAINING!” He grabbed his palty red wagon, led by a handle. The wheels rusted and barely able to spin. Jonah just sighed softly, Caleb climbing into the wagon, hugging his legs. “Run for 10 miles! We need to get prepared for the exams!” He proudly exclaimed, pointing his hand forward as Jonah spun around, struggling to pull the cart along because he was much lighter. Sienna just stared at the most stupid sight she has ever seen as they both left the campus. “...Sometimes I wonder why I still work here.” She commented.
“It's because you love us.” Morgan joked, looking back down to her page as she realized it just looked darker than before. The page was turning black, and a shadow was casting on her hands. “Uhm... What the hell is this?” She mutterd, Sienna walking up and grabbing one of her wrists, her own hands getting stuck in that perpetual shadow, almost like the sun was being blocked by something just overhead. “That's fairly rare, but it was still in the pamphlet.” Sienna commented, reaching into her back pocket and reading it over really quickly, Morgan trying to look over the paper and see if she could read it upside down.
“Darkness is pretty much stealth magic. Turning things invisible, removing light in a certain radius... stuff like that.” Sienna explained in a weird, passe way. Morgan sighed, folding the paper up and hanging up to her. “Wow, so informative today.” She muttered, turning and walking down the hill out of annoyance, stuffing her hands into her pockets and muttering. Sienna just put an awkward smile and turned back to the remaining students. Florence's paper was burned, but it had jagged, striped burns mixed in with the pieces of untouched paper. “I'm not sure this is how fire works.” Florence observed, Sienna pulled the paper from him and inspected it, rubbing her fingers along the jagged markings. “I think this is some kind of electricity.” She said, handing it back to him. “Awesome!” He said with a grin, before leaving as he began to talk about something involving trying to power a lamp.
“I'm pretty sure mine is earth.” Erika added, noticing the fact that dust was beginning to collect along the top of the paper. Robin leaned over to check as well, lightly sliding a finger through the dust to watch the way it moved. “You know that if it's dust, it could always just be a ton of dead skin cells.” Robin said to try and weird Erika out, she jumped to the point she almost dropped her paper on the ground. “Please tell me they don't consider skin cells an element! I don't want to be a master of skin.” Erika said out of worry.
Maria walked up, somewhat giving up on the paper, putting it in one hand as she leaned over to the both of them. “Skinmaster is an awesome nickname, you should go for it, Erika.” Maria commented with a half smile, Erika just turning at her with her eyes in a glare. “No, Skinmaster is not a good nickname.” Erika complained back at Maria, Maria just putting her hands on her hips and bending forward. “This is why no one talks to you! You would be awesome if you were the Skinmaster.” Maria shouted, Erika just throwing her paper to the side and walking off. “I think I liked you more when we didn't talk.” She muttered, Maria groaning some and flumping her arms to her side with a thud. “...Okay then.” She said, turning back to the paper.
“Sienna, this isn't working.” Maria said, holding the paper in her hands as she once channeled some more energy through her palms, when suddenly a black mist began to crawl along her palms. “Wh-wha..” She muttered, Sienna looking at her, grabbing her wrist and lifting up one hand, making it slide against the smooth paper so she could inspect the crawling mist as it climbed her fingers, swirling around the tips. Suddenly, the fog solidified and turned into a carapace like substance, resembling sharp talons.
“OHSHI-” She shouted, dropping the paper in a way her claws slashed at it, looking at her hands out of fear. “What's going on!?” Maria fell on her back, her blades falling from the sheathes on her belt and bouncing on the ground as her claws faded away. “I think I've heard of that.” She said, admittedly trying to shrug off the fact that Maria growing claws startled her. “People with Ash Syndrome can't use magic... They instead get the ability to channel the ashes of the creature that attacked them instead.” Seinna continued, inspecting her hands who have returned to normal. “I'm not exactly sure how it works... you may need to practice with it.” She added, Maria panting a bit and standing back up to dust herself off.
"So I don't have magic?” She asked her older sister, who just gently nodded her head. “Yeah, but this could possibly enhance your physical abilities as well... I still need to research it before I tell you anything.” She said, frustrated that she didn't have a full explanation. Maria dusted herself off, turning around. “I'm just going to go back to eating food, don't mind me.” She muttered a bit, before Robin shouted from just behind her. “Look! I'm a nightlight!” She said, as she learned to make her paper glow with the powers of light.
“Yeah cool whatever.” She said, waving her arm and slowly walking down the hill to leave Sienna, Ashley, Lily and Robin to their own devices. “Maria's been more of a jerk, recently.” Robin muttered, her little light lamp fading out as she handed Sienna back the paper. “Yeah, it happens to her sometimes.” Sienna confirmed, as they all quietly left back to the dorms as well to begin the rest of their day.
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