Chapter Eight - Training

Classes were no longer of importance to Flint. The teachers treat him horribly anyway, so he just stopped caring. He only attended classes just so he wouldn’t be expelled for failure to attend, and also to take mental notes of what he should be practicing later in the Practice Atrium.

The Practice Atrium is where he goes with Gracey every evening after classes  to sharpen the skills they were taught. It was a huge glass-like dome situated next to the Battle Atrium just outside the North Wing of the school. The glass-like material that made both the Battle Atrium and the Practice Atrium have a strange property that bent the light in such a way that they were invisible from the outside, which explained why not many people outside of the school knew of their existences. They were preparing for the Battle Atrium Tournament which was only a month away now, right after the end of their first semester. Since almost every student in the year wanted to join the tournament, the Practice Atrium was filled with other first-years, much to the annoyance of the more senior magical students. There was, however, still enough space for everyone. The dome somehow increases and decreases its size to accommodate the amount of people in it, which Flint found extremely fascinating.

During these practice sessions, however, it was Gracey who really gained anything from it. No matter how hard Flint tried, nothing he wanted to do actually turned out right.

“Well, does it really matter?” asked Gracey after Flint huffed in frustration when he blew a practice dummy up in a cloud of burning straw when he was meant to shoot a small harmless fireball. It wasn’t even the practice dummy he was aiming at that blew up, which gained him some curses from the student who was using it. “The rules of the tournament is to knock your opponent off the duelling rink with magic. It never said anything about using specific magic, and your magic seems stronger than everyone else. Also, the dome makes it so that any magic cast within it won’t cause fatal or severe injuries to other magicians, so you don’t have to worry about blowing up anyone.”

“First,” replied Flint with a red face, obviously from frustration, “I’m probably not stronger than anyone else, I just have problems controlling the flow of energy through me. Second, I would really like it if I actually knew what was going to be fired at my opponent and in what direction. I doubt missing would do me much good in the tournament. It’s not about winning anyway. It’s about learning to be a better magician.”

“Okay, Mister Grumpy, I was just trying to help.”

As Gracey was stepping up to her practice dummy, a voice boomed throughout the Practice Atrium, “Flint and Gracey. The rink is available now.”

“Finally!” Gracey almost screamed in excitement. It was possible to book the rink in the Practice Atrium for practice duels for half an hour at a time, but they never got around to it since they were agreed that they should practice their magic before their combat skills. But since the tournament is only a month away now, they thought that they should start on their combat practice. Duelling is not taught formally in classes, but the rules were simple enough to understand. There are two kinds of duelling: Single duels and double duels. Double duels involves combining energy with your partner to dish out stronger hits or form tougher barriers, but they don’t have that in the first year so Gracey and Flint will be both entering individually. Which was all the better for Flint anyway. He knew he couldn’t properly control magic on his own, much less if combined with another person.

The two of them took their positions on the rink, which was located at the centre of the Practice Atrium. The two of them were separated by a small gap the width of three fingers. This was how energy was supplied to the magicians. Random sources would emerge from the gap, changing as the battle progressed, testing not only their combat skills, but their competence in energy drawing as well. After the match starts though, duellers were allowed to move freely around the rink. They agreed that this first session would be to duel each other with the elemental magics that they have learnt, which were fire, water, and electricity. Flint was hesitant, but agreed in the end. He only hoped that at the very least, the element he chose at any one time would actually be the one that he fired.

“Ready?” asked Gracey from across the rink, a fiery glint in her eye.

“You bet!” Flint replied, trying to match Gracey’s enthusiasm.

Flint heard the rink rumble as it started the match, followed by the sound flowing water. Water. Flint smiled. He knew what to do.

Flint observed Gracey and where her eyes were looking. As soon as water started emerging from the gap, Flint drew on all the energy from the bonds between water molecules from one spot: The spot where Gracey was concentrating on, which puffed up into a cloud of steam, obscuring both duellers from each other. In a split second, before Gracey could look for another spot of water to draw energy from, Flint channeled the energy and picked an element. Electricity.

He raised his hands towards where Gracey was standing when he could still see her and let a jolt of electricity loose.

It was superb. He felt every cell in his body get electrified while blue bolts shot out of his fingertips. It would’ve been a perfect shot. It was powerful, but far from accurate. The bolts shot straight up towards the ceiling of the dome instead, electric bolts licking every interior surface of the dome before it dissipated. It was a magnificent sight, which silenced everyone in the Practice Atrium as everyone looked up.

Without warning, Flint was thrown backwards by an orb of hot light, which turned out to be a fireball. It was hot, but it didn’t burn him since the magical dome prevented it. The force of the blow, however, was still very real.

When Flint hit the ground, he knew right away that he was out of the rink’s boundaries. Gracey knocked him out in one blow! Oh, and did she know it. She was standing above him, smirking. “Hey, will you concentrate on our duel instead of your little light show? How else are you going to win the tournament?”

Flint groaned as he tried to get his feet under him. “Again.”

Gracey smiled and skipped back onto the rink. As Flint was walking back to his spot, he saw three figures at the far corner of the Practice Atrium observing him.

Tres Magna.

Chapter Seven - Uncontrollable

The following days were hard for Flint. No student in his class wanted to make even the slightest eye contact with him, and the only one who did was put into the infirmary by his mistake in class. His teachers were the same. In Professor Kalyani’s class, he felt like he didn’t exist at all. They were learning how to calculate energy yield from various sources, and Flint loved maths. Yet, whenever he raised his hand to answer, Professor Kalyani pretended to had not seen the only waving arm in the entire class.

During his first Magical Defence lesson with Professor Fulbert, it was also as if he did not exist in the class, which only meant that word had got around to the other teachers about Flint’s various misadventures with magic. They learnt how to form primary barriers against magic in general. Primary barriers are barriers with a single layer, whereas the harder ones to conjure, secondary barriers, are formed using two different layers of magic. Apparently, different types of secondary barriers have different levels of effectiveness against different types of magics. The most blindingly obvious is that coating a barrier with water is more effective against fire attacks. According to Professor Fulbert, any barrier more than two layers takes a lot of focus and energy to hold together, and hence extremely difficult to hold together. In that lesson, Professor Fulbert chose two students at a time to stand at the front of the class. One student had to form a barrier while the other strikes him or her with the same force they used to move tables in Professor Ouran’s class. A bowl of water lay on Professor Fulbert’s table as a source of energy. After each of the pair had a chance to attack and defend, another pair of students were chosen to do the same thing. However, at the end of the class, Flint found that he was the only student who hadn’t attempted it. Professor Fulbert shrugged off Flint’s persistent questioning after everyone else left at the end of the class with “Maybe next time.” To avoid being disrespectful, Flint hurried out of the classroom with frustration.

What was worse than that is the fact that in Professor Ouran’s classes, it was as if he was the only student present. She always always picking him to try out something new, which usually wouldn’t be a problem for him, except that she always manages to ridicule him and make him the laughing stock until the next lesson. Like when they were learning to draw energy from electric lights, and instead of using the light energy, they were supposed to draw on the electrical energy and use it to split a clay vase in two. Before Flint could even do anything, Professor Ouran had gathered all the other students at the front of the class and put up the strongest barrier she could muster around the whole lot of them, which hurt Flint a bit. Though it was probably for the best, seeing that his vase blew up into hundreds of shards which Professor Ouran didn’t bother deflecting away from Flint, forcing him to leave the class immediately after that episode to head to the infirmary with a few nasty cuts on his face and arms. As he was leaving, he heard giggling from his classmates.

The walk to the infirmary didn’t really matter to Flint, as he had visited the infirmary everyday since Gracey was there. She suffered from a fractured skull and a mild concussion, which even with magic, took a few days to heal. Flint sat by her bedside during his every free time until she regained consciousness yesterday. To Flint’s relief, she didn’t have any memory loss. Gracey kept reassuring Flint that she didn’t blame him for what happened, no matter how many times he apologised. She was just all smiles, as always. The healers at the infirmary told Flint yesterday that they were going through some final checks with Gracey and that she would be able to leave by today. Knowing that, Flint picked up his pace to the infirmary, ignoring the sharp pains that shot from where his cuts were.

When he arrived at the infirmary, located in the central atrium of the school’s building, Gracey was just walking out the door. When she saw Flint, her eyes widened. “Oh dear, what happened to you, Flint?”

“Long story,” he replied miserably.

“Come on, I’ll follow you to meet the healers,” said Gracey, with a hint of worry in her voice.

“It’s no problem,” Flint replied. “It’s nothing. Plus, you’ve been here long enough. You should head back to your dormitory and rest up.”

That was the day Flint learnt how stubborn Gracey was. She would not take no for an answer, and there was no way for Flint to get rid of her. So he was forced to oblige to her wishes.

The healers patched him up quickly enough. Small cuts weren’t a problem for them at all, and both Gracey and him were walking out of the infirmary within half an hour, just in time for lunch. Flint usually had lunch at home, where Kiara would throw together a simple meal for him, but he thought that Gracey could use some company for lunch in the East Hall today.

“So, how’re you feeling?” Flint asked to Gracey, breaking the awkward silence between them as they made their way to the East Hall.

“Like nothing ever happened!” replied Gracey gleefully. “Would you stop worrying already? How about you? What happened?”

Flint proceeded to explaining what Gracey missed in classes for the past week, not missing out on the parts where he has the minimal talent possible with magic.

“I don’t know what’s wrong with me,” Flint complained, “I try my very best, I do. But while everyone else has no problems handling magic, all I do is destroy everything my magic touches. It never does what I want it to do. I have no control over it whatsoever!”

Gracey looked generally sympathetic.

“Don’t worry, you may just be a late bloomer. You’ll get the hang of it soon enough, then I’ll bet you’ll be a wonderful magician.”

Even though he didn’t believe what Gracey said, her words made him feel a bit better. He looked at her and gave her a small smile.

Gracey was returning the smile when something caught her eye. “Hey, what’s that?”

Flint looked at what she meant and noticed a small crowd gathering in front of a notice board outside the East Hall that Flint never noticed before. When he got closer, he saw what all the hype was about.

There was a huge poster pinned up on the board.

THE BATTLE ATRIUM

OPEN TO ALL NEW STUDENTS

HELD AT THE END OF THE SEMESTER

STAND A CHANCE TO WIN CASH PRIZES AS WELL AS EXTRA CREDIT FOR YOUR FINAL EXAMS

Flint was interested right away, for good reason too.

“Gracey, are you thinking what I’m thinking?” Flint asked with a glint in his eyes.

“Yes!” Gracey looked equally as excited. “This could be your motivation to practice magic!”

“And I could use the extra credit.”

“Yeah, the teachers seem to hate you enough as it is.”

Flint shot Gracey a dark look.

“Sorry,” she said apologetically.

After a short pause, they both broke out in laughter.

Chapter Six - The Art Of Power

By orders of Professor Gaiane, Flint was not allowed to go for classes after the incident for the rest of the week, even though he felt just fine. Though he was just alright with that since for the rest of the week, the only thing they were mainly doing was breaking through the other students’ barriers. For those who have succeeded, they were just learning to channel their energy by flipping through the pages of their timetables. How hard could it be, right? Thought Flint. He was one of the earliest to break through his barrier anyway. Learning to channel energy should be a piece of cake.

Over the weekend, with his parents’ guidance, Flint was able to make his timetable show him his classes in week two. This was, of course, after Flint made his timetable flip to the very last week of the semester multiple times. It wasn’t as easy as he thought, apparently.

When Flint learnt that his first class of the week was going to be Magical Offence, he was ecstatic. Not only had he not missed any other classes besides Basics Of Magic during the first week, he was going for a brand new class taught by a professor who did not have to put out a blazing classroom because of him.

Flint found the classroom easily enough, and was first to arrive in his class due to his almost-uncontainable excitement. Flint went to sit at the back corner, like he did before. The class began to fill up over time, but the moment the other students saw him, their chattering fell straight to silence.

Flint felt bad. He may have injured some of them, but he dared not ask, not even to Gracey who sat beside him again.

“Good morning, Flint!” Gracey greeted him, a bit too cheerfully judging by the dark looks some of the other students shot her. “How’re you today? I hope you’re feeling better.”

“Yeah, I’m fine,” replied Flint while smiling. Gracey returned the smile.

“Good morning, everyone,” a tough female voice said as Flint saw Professor Ouran walk in the door. “Before we begin, I would very much appreciate it if everyone could stand up, push your chairs under your tables, and take a step back from your tables.”

Everyone looked confused and hesitant, to which Professor Ouran yelled “NOW!”

Everyone was up on their feet in less than two seconds.

“Now, observe.”

Professor Ouran raised her arms, and all the tables and chairs started rattling. With a loud bang, they were all moved to the sides of the class.

Professor Ouran let out a held breath and let her arms fall to her sides. “Now, can anyone tell me what I did there?”

A guy with orange hair answered, “You used magic to move the furniture, Professor.”

“Yes, you are correct,” she replied. “But how? What source of energy did I use?”

“The lights?” said the same boy hesitantly.

“If I did use the lights, you would have seen them dim, how much dimmer depends on how much energy I drew from the lights.”

This led to everyone showing expressions of confusion. Some students were just pointing to random things that may or may not have been a source of energy.

“The source,” continued Professor Ouran with a tone that silenced the class once more, “was myself. My very own body.”

Murmuring broke out amongst the students once more, which ceased again when Professor Ouran continued talking.

“The human body is amazing at storing energy. How else are all of you walking around and breathing now? Doing daily tasks use up energy which we gain from food. However,” she paused to create a slightly dramatic effect, “using magic takes up a lot more energy that merely walking around. For the untrained, using their body’s reservoirs of energy can easily lead to death if you dry up the energy in your body, and you just drop dead due to various organ failures. Although, just as you may gain stamina by endurance training, the more you train, the more energy you can store in your body.”

The whole class was completely captivated by her speech. Her voice alone drew attention to her.

“I must stress though, that the body has separate stores for energy you draw from food than the energy you draw from the surroundings. You may tap into the energy from your food sources to be used for magic, but it is almost impossible vice versa. That means, you will not be able to replace eating by just drawing energy from the sun, for example. Only a few, extremely trained magicians who has devoted their lives to the study of energy are able to do this. Over time, you will learn how to tell your body’s food storages from the external energy storages, and it is imperative that you learn this to avoid any deaths in my classroom,” she said this in such a serious tone, no one found it the slightest bit humorous. “But, until you learn that, you will be working with other energy sources. You learnt how to draw energy from fire before, so today we will be working with,” she smirked as she snapped her fingers and little clouds started forming along the ceiling, “water!”

Before they knew it, they were drenched as rain started pouring indoors. Everyone looked absolutely miserable, but made no attempt to cover themselves from the rain, since there was obviously no point.

“Okay, now I want everyone to gather behind me,” said Professor Ouran.

All the students shuffled their feet through the water that was gathering on the floor of the classroom, until at last everyone was at the front of the class behind Professor Ouran. Flint noticed that no water was escaping the classroom from the crack under the door, probably due to a small barrier Professor Ouran conjured below it.

“Now, fire was easy peasy,” continued Professor Ouran. “All the energy that you needed was right there in front of you. Water, on the other hand, is a bit more tricky. Have you ever thought of water as a source of energy? If it’s boiling water, then maybe. But what of cold water such as rain?”

A lanky boy raised his hand. When Professor Ouran acknowledged him, he said “The forces holding hydrogen and oxygen atoms together, as well as the forces holding water molecules to each other, both contain energy.”

“Good, Matthew!” Professor Ouran looked rather impressed. “The forces holding the hydrogen and oxygen atoms within one water molecule are called intramolecular forces, while the forces holding the water molecules together are called intermolecular forces. Under normal circumstances, we would have to provide energy to break these bonds. But with magic,” Professor Ouran raised her hand and the room filled with steam as some of the water evaporated, “we can absorb the energy straight from the bonds, causing them to break. Oh, you should also know that breaking intermolecular forces like I did earlier would form water vapour, as the individual water molecules are still intact. The steam produced will be cold, of course, because we did not input any energy to break those bonds. If you split the bonds between atoms, however, oxygen and hydrogen gas will be produced, and hence won’t be visible. In combat, both serves a different purpose, and you will have to figure out which suits the situation best.”

“Now, one by one, I want all of you to use the energy from the water to bring your tables and chairs back to where they once were,” Professor Ouran smirked to the class, “any volunteers?”

When no one came forward, Professor Ouran called a very nervous-looking Matthew up. Flint didn’t blame him. No one in this class knew how to do anything with magic besides work a timetable with a candle, and now they were supposed to be moving furniture.

As menacing as Professor Ouran looked, she tried to calm Matthew down as a mother would to her child, “You already know how to channel energy, now find the energy within the water and use it like how you did with the fire. Once you get the hang of it, it’ll be second nature to you.”

Matthew raised his right hand, obviously concentrating on drawing energy from the water. All the other students watched on intently. The rain had now been reduced to nothing more than just a drizzle, probably the doing of Professor Ouran to help Matthew concentrate.

A whole minute passed. The only thing audible was the patter of raindrops and the occasional sneeze.

Then, a puff of steam erupted from the pool of water on the class floor while a chair moved to the middle of the class, and stopped. Everyone was about to cheer when a table followed soon after and parked itself right behind the chair.

The class exploded with cheers and congratulatory wishes. Matthew breathed a sigh of relief.

Everyone was a lot more confident now after seeing how Matthew managed it without much difficulty. One by one, the students volunteered.

After fifteen students successfully accomplished their task, Flint was full to the brim with excitement. When the next student was done, completing about three quarters of the class’ arrangement, he volunteered.

Flint walked up to the front and closed his eyes. He focused on the water, and he could see. He could see every single molecule, every single atom. He could feel the energy flowing through them. There was so much energy right there in front of him, and he knew that.

He wondered which bonds he should break to draw energy from.

Why not a little bit of both?

The practice wouldn’t hurt.

Flint then drew energy from both types of bonds, the ones holding the atoms together and the ones holding the molecules together. He only took a bit of both. When he thought he had enough energy, he opened his eyes and focused the energy to his chair and table.

He expected them to move towards where they were before. He expected them to move slowly, as all the other students' did. But that was far from what happened.

Instead, everything in front of him - tables, chairs, the paintings on the walls, and even the water - levitated and gathered in a huge bubble of water, right above where Flint sat at the back of the class. Flint panicked and tried to stop the flow of energy, which resulted in a loud BANG.

Everything in the bubble flew out in random directions, and would’ve hit Flint and the other students behind him if it wasn’t for Professor Ouran’s quick barrier-conjuring.

Flint was relieved that he didn’t injure anybody. But the barrier was created too quickly, too sloppily, without hardly enough energy to withstand the blast. At the very last minute, a loud CRACK was heard as the barrier shattered, letting a single chair fly past.

Flint heard a scream behind him, followed by a thud, of which silence followed after. He felt his heart drop. He knew who the chair struck. He recognised the voice that let out the shriek.

Gracey.

Chapter Five - Tres Magna

Flint felt horrible as he regained consciousness. He realised that he was back in his room with no recollection of how he got there or how long he had been unconscious. His vision was blurry, but he could hear voices just outside his room. There were some voices that he recognised - his parents, Professor Kalyani, Professor Gaiane - and some that he had never heard before. Flint wondered why his professor and headmaster was in his house. He could only hear snippets of their conversation, but he had to concentrate really hard, and it wasn’t worth the headache it was causing.

Flint let out a loud groan, and the chattering outside stopped.

The door burst open and the first person he saw was his mom, who ran straight in and pulled Flint into a tight embrace, much to Flint’s discomfort. “Oh, I’m glad you’re okay,” said Theodora through her sobs.

Flint could make out six other figures standing around his bed from over his mother’s shoulder. His dad was there,  looking worried, but kept his silence as he usually does. Professor Kalyani and his headmaster, Professor Gaiane, on the other hand, looked more puzzled than worried. Probably the outcome of what they were chatting about before I woke up. Professor Kalyani was still in her same blouse and skirt she was wearing in class. Great, I haven’t been out for more than a day, thought Flint. His eyes then fell upon the three unknown figures, each in dark long robes decorated with intricate golden runes.

“Flint,” began Professor Gaiane, “these are Tres Magna, the leaders of Galdur.”

Flint’s heart started pounding. I did something horribly wrong, didn’t I? Oh no, oh no, what did I do?! Flint started to panic and Theodora released her son from her hug.

Tres Magna. The three most powerful magicians in Galdur. They keep the country safe and they govern the country fairly. But the thing about Tres Magna is that people rarely ever see them. They only ever stay in the Magicians’ Tower, where they, and the rest of the government, reside and command. The only times they ever left the Tower are for official businesses or emergencies. Flint figured that he must have screwed up really bad to get Tres Magna come straight to his house. It was only his first day of school and already he is fearing the risk of expulsion.

“Calm down, young magician,” the deep voice of the man in his early forties with white hair and beard reverberated around the room, even though he seemed to have spoken softly, “you did nothing wrong.”

“With all due respect, sir,” Flint said in a weak voice, “why are the three of you here in my house?”

“We heard of what happened in your class,” this time it was a female voice, coming from a blonde woman who also looked about forty, “Professor Gaiane told us, and we came straight over to see if you were alright.”

Flint suspected something fishy. He doubted that the three ruling magicians would go out of their way just to check on a boy who fell unconscious during his first day of school

“We healed all of your bodily injuries, which were mostly burns,” said the last of the three, a man with electric blue hair, clean shaven, and who also looked around the age of forty. Even though all three of them looked middle aged, Flint could not really be certain. Their eyes looked ancient. “However, you are still weak from what happened today. We are able to replenish your energy by channeling energy into you, but you must be the one to accept the energy. We are not able to feed your body with energy without your consent. Seeing that you have broken your magical block, this procedure should be fairly simple to accomplish. Will you grant us permission?”

Flint nodded, agreeing.

The man approached him and touched Flint’s forehead with his forefinger. Flint felt a rush of energy flow through his entire body for a split second before the man jerked back his finger.

Flint breathed in, feeling a lot better. “Thank you,” he said while looking up.

The man said nothing as he took a few steps back to the other members of Tres Magna. Flint could’ve sworn he saw a glint of confusion in his eyes, but it disappeared quickly.

There was an awkward silence as everyone was just looking at each other. The forced looks of indifference on the members of Tres Magna’s eyes gave Flint the feeling that there was something very wrong.

Before anyone dared break the silence, the sound of footsteps drew everyone’s attention to the door that stood ajar. A few seconds later, a man in a red robe who was clearly a high-ranking magician, appeared by the door. “With respects, Tres Magna, I bring news. The other men and I have managed to bring in the other one.” Tres Magna replied with a unison nod. The man bowed and left.

“We must apologise, but we have to take our leave now,” said the blonde woman, “Gaiane, Kalyani, we have to talk to the both of you outside.”

A few seconds later, the room was only occupied by Flint and his parents.

“How’re you feeling, dear?” asked Theodora.

“A lot better. I feel brand new, in fact. Their magic did wonders,” Flint said hesitantly.

“What’s wrong?” his father asked, finally speaking.

“Where is Kiara?” asked Flint.

“She’s in her room,” Theodora answered. “She wasn’t allowed in. Official business, they said.”

“What official business?” Flint asked, a bit too harshly. “What did I do that was so bad that it had to involve Tres Magna? What were they doing here anyway?”

“We haven’t a clue, and that’s the thing that worried us so much,” said Theodora, engaging in another bear hug. “We thought you were going to be expelled, but thankfully they were just here to heal you.”

Flint still had a heavy feeling in his heart. Tres Magna would never go through all that trouble ‘just to heal a boy’.

Theodora finally let Flint out of her arms. “With all this talk of a coming war, you could use every magical knowledge you are to learn from school.”

Flint’s eyes widened.

“What war?”

Chapter Four - Entering The Mind

It was dark. Well, what did he expect? He was closing his eyes.

But this was a different kind of dark. You know the lights you see when you close your eyes? The ones that dance around and provide you with a light show even when it is pitch black around you. The more Flint focused on the barrier, the clearer the lights seem to get. Before long, they stopped moving. Each light fixed in space upon a backdrop of eternal darkness. Decorating his senses just as the stars decorate the night sky. It was nothing short of beautiful.

Flint found himself wandering through the darkness, unsure of where he was. Darkness stretched on forever all around him, with the coloured lights scattered amongst the darkness. Wherever he looked, the darkness and lights stretched on. It was as though he was floating at the centre of the universe. 

He was still marvelling at the beauty of the coloured lights when he felt something. A sort of force tugging on him. Flint resisted at first, but when the tugging (and his curiosity) got stronger, he let the force overwhelm him. He did not feel as though he was actually moving, but the lights streaking past him told him that he was.

He saw it a fraction of a second before a blast of freezing cold hit him. There was a huge block of ice, just floating there in the middle of the darkness. When the force stopped pulling, Flint was close enough to touch the ice, which was bigger than any tree or building he had ever seen in his life. The force brought him towards the ice so quickly, he didn’t even register the possibility of a collision with the enormous block of ice.

What was he supposed to do? He tried moving around the ice, but soon realised it was a futile attempt. He couldn’t even see where the block of ice ended.

Flint shivered.

He looked into the ice and realised immediately that this was no ordinary ice. It was completely clear, just like it was made of glass. He could see straight into it, though he still could not make out where the ice ended. Somewhere at the centre of the ice however, which looked like it was miles away, there was a glint of white.

Flint squinted to make out what it was, but something else caught his attention instead. Beyond the glint, on the other side of the ice, he saw something move. He focused, trying to figure out what it was.

When he saw what it was, he couldn’t believe his eyes. It was a silhouette of a person. Another person, here in this vast darkness. That couldn’t be right. Flint moved as quickly as he could to try to get around the ice to where he could see the person, but no matter how fast he moved, the outline of the person remained fixed straight through the ice, as though it was moving around the ice as the same pace Flint was.

Frustrated, Flint moved straight towards the ice and rammed straight into it. A force so strong rippled through him, he felt himself being thrown backwards at least 20 feet. 

Oh, it hurt alright, but that didn’t matter to Flint. What mattered was that the force that threw him backwards was familiar. It was the exact same force that prevented him from channeling magic through his body earlier. It was the force that stopped the energy from the fire dead in its tracks. Flint realised that this block of ice was the magical barrier that Professor Kalyani talked about. This was the barrier he had to break through. Flint was in his own mind.

He didn’t know what to do next. There was obviously no way he was going to break through this barrier on his own. Professor Kalyani was not kidding when she said we needed help with this.

Before Flint could withdraw from his mind, he saw a red light in the darkness growing bigger and brighter. At the same time, the white glint in the middle of the ice started glowing. Before long, Flint realised that the red light was the flame from the candle sitting right in front of him on his table.

Flint knew what he had to do.

He started drawing the energy from the candle. Flint absorbed every heat wave, every light photon, not letting any useful energy escape. He felt the energy grow inside of him, until the flame from the candle flickered out.

Flint was ready.

He concentrated all of the energy and focused it to the glowing object in the middle of the ice. Flint gathered all the energy he could muster, and he released it.

The energy was released in the form of a ball of fire, the size of which was huge, but still minute compared to the ice. When the fireball came into contact with the ice, the barrier stood no chance at all. A huge explosion followed, which washed the darkness with a light that blinded Flint.

He was lost again, but this time only light flooded his vision. He saw nothing else.

“Flint! FLINT!” Gracey’s voice pierced through the abyss.

Flint felt extremely weak, but he managed to open his eyes. He was on the floor. The whole classroom was ablaze. The other students were scattering to the exit. Gracey and Professor Kalyani was standing above where Flint lay. Water was streaming from Professor Kalyani’s palms. Gracey was shouting something he could not hear.

Flint tried standing up, but the energy needed was too much. The last thing he remembered was a few blurry figures converging on where he lay.

Chapter Three - The Basics

Flint woke up the next morning well after the sun had risen, no matter how hard Kiara tried to wake him up. His reply to Kiara’s incessant knocking was “My class ain’t until noon!” to which Kiara continued her attempt to break down his door. Flint even took the effort to slide his timetable under the door just so Kiara would believe him.

When he finally came out of his room, fully dressed, but looking more miserable than when he got home yesterday, Kiara couldn’t help but to inquire. “What’s wrong with you, Flint? You haven’t even started your first day of classes, and you already look like you’re being forced to go. What happened to your energetic enthusiasm from yesterday?”

Flint grunted, and said nothing else.

After poking his late breakfast for some time, he finally got up and started walking to school, in an effort to prevent creating a scene like he did the day before.

He walked all the way to his class in a zombie-like trance, completely oblivious to his surroundings as well as the students who were yelling things at him such as “Oh look! He finally took a glance at a watch!” and “Hey your class isn’t for another week!”

He was early, alright. The class was still empty when he got there. The tables all had lit candles on them. He walked straight to the back corner of the class. He wanted as little human interaction as possible.

His wish went ungranted, of course. As the class started filling up with other students, there were a few snickers as they looked at him and whispered at each other. There were also the unavoidable taunts that he received from some of them, which he turned a deaf ear to.

“Ignore them,” said a voice to his right. Flint looked up. The voice belonged to a brunette girl who Flint would’ve thought absolutely gorgeous if he wasn’t in his miserable state. When Flint didn’t say anything, the girl raised an eyebrow. “I’m Gracey. Mind if I sit here?”

Flint managed a small nod. There was no squirming out of this one without offending her.

“Great! It’s a bit far from the front for my liking though, but I guess it’ll do,” said Gracey, to which Flint resisted to pointing out the other empty seats around the class.

“Are you really not going to say anything, Mister Moody?” she asked after sitting down.

“The name is Flint,” he forced himself to say.

“Oh, he talks!” said Gracey sarcastically.

Flint grunted again.

“Cheer up, why don’t you! It’s the first day of school! Don’t listen to the others. It’ll all blow over in no time,” she said, to which Flint managed another grunt.

Gracey sighed. “Gosh, do you really need a lesson on how to smile? Here, look at me!” she said as she pulled Flint’s shoulder. He wasn’t even in the mood to resist.

“Smile! Like this! See?”

Gracey showed him a huge smile, exposing her gleaming teeth. Flint couldn’t help himself. A small smile crept upon his face.

It was only then he realised how beautiful she was. Her wavy brunette hair falling over her shoulders, her light green eyes, her high cheekbones. She was breathtaking, which made Flint wonder why she even chose to sit with him. Someone like her must have friends flocking all around her. But he pushed it to the back of his mind.

“There, that’s better,” Gracey said while smiling, pleased with herself.

“Okay, settle down everyone!” Professor Kalyani said as she entered the class wearing another set of blouse and skirt, of which the blouse was white this time. The class was already full with students, though there was only a fraction of the amount of students that were in the hall. Flint realised that they must have been split up into groups. “Shall we begin then?” continued Professor Kalyani.

Both Flint and Gracey straightened themselves in their seats and faced the front, ready for the class. Flint was feeling much better now.

Silence fell across the classroom while Professor Kalyani swept her gaze across everyone.

“Today you will be learning how to use your timetables,” said Professor Kalyani, followed by humoured chatter across the classroom.

“Oh? You think that's funny? Well, we will see in a couple of minutes how funny it really is,” she said, which silenced the class immediately.

“Magic. What is magic, really?” she asked the class rhetorically. No one answered. “Magic is when we use our bodies to channel energy from one source and turn it to another type of energy. Our bodies become a conversion unit for energy, and with the proper mastery, we can convert that energy into whatever we desire.”

Silence. Professor Kalyani had an air of command that no one dared challenge.

“Everyone has the ability to do this, of course,” she continued, “but whether you can actually succeed in doing so depends on you. Today, you will attempt to unlock your magical potential. Your ability to channel energy is blocked by a sort of barrier in your mind. By breaking through this barrier, only then will you be able to call yourself a magician.”

Everyone seemed to be holding their breaths.

“To make your timetable show you your classes for other weeks besides the one already on your parchment, you will have to feed it energy. This is, of course, achieved by magic. Unless you manage to do this by the end of the week, you will have to start asking your friends around you what classes you are to have.”

A few students found that rather amusing, and some giggles were heard.

“Right, to provide the energy for your timetable to change, we have provided each of you with a lit candle. Fire is one of the most basic and easiest sources of energy, as the heat and light are right there before you and easily accessible. To start, concentrate fully on the candle in front of you. Feel the energy exuding from the flame. When you can feel it, attempt to soak up that energy. You will be faced with a block within your mind. When you can pinpoint this block, forget about the flame and concentrate then on breaking this barrier. It may be as easy as ripping through a piece of paper for some, and it may be as tough as a brick wall for others. Either way, the hardest part is to identify the block. Once you have found the block, raise your hand and I will aid you in breaking through it as it is impossible to do so yourself without direct, refined magical energy to the barrier. You may begin.”

The class remained deathly silent.

Flint had no idea where to begin. All he could do was stare at his candle, which was dripping wax. He tried to concentrate.

Ten minutes passed. Not a single word had been murmured since they started.

Feel its energy. How do I feel its energy?

Flint reached out for the flame with his hand.

“What are you doing?” Gracey asked him, obviously frustrated with her candle.

Flint ignored her question. He touched the flame with the tip of his finger and immediately jerked his hand back from the pain.

“Congratulations, genius, you have just figured out that fire is hot.” Gracey said with a hint of amusement.

Flint shushed her. He figured that the easiest way to feel the energy was to touch it. Even if it meant getting burnt.

He concentrated on absorbing the energy, and he touched the flame again, but this time it didn’t hurt. He felt the heat and light energy flow through his body. He was actually doing it! Flint concentrated on moving the energy to his piece of parchment when suddenly the energy hit a wall. It stopped flowing. Flint felt his fingers being burnt again and he pulled his hand back and snapped out of his trance.

Gracey watched in amazement. “You touched that flame for a full minute without getting burnt! You’ve found the block, haven’t you?”

Flint nodded. He knew exactly where it was now.

He looked around the classroom for Professor Kalyani’s aid. He noticed some other candles begin to flicker. Professor Kalyani was holding the hand of another student who was drenched in sweat, obviously exhausted. “I can only provide you with magical energy, Rachel,” said Professor Kalyani to the girl, “you have to use that energy yourself and direct it to the barrier. No magician has the power to manipulate what is in another’s mind. I can’t break that barrier for you, you’ll have to do that yourself.” Everyone else was fully concentrated on their flames, unfazed by what was happening with Professor Kalyani and the girl, Rachel.

Gracey was back to concentrating on her flame, seemingly as determined as ever.

No way to break through the barrier without additional magical energy, hmm? No harm in poking at it then, while Professor Kalyani is helping Rachel, thought Flint.

Flint closed his eyes and focused on the barrier in his mind.

Chapter Two - School Of Magic

Being the son to two professors at Galdur’s School Of Magic means that his house is located only a stone’s throw away from the school itself. Just a couple of minutes since Flint stepped out of his home, and he could already see it in all its majesty. The school looked centuries, if not millennia, old. The walls were a dark hue of red brick. It was formed in the by the magicians of old, the founders of the school, who with their combined magical powers managed to build the school all in the span of 10 minutes. This, of course, was without taking into account the previous planning that went into the building of this beauty. The result of the amount of energy used to put the school together was a temporary blackout of the sun for as long as the 10 minutes it took for the school to be completed. Since the school was completed in one fell sweep, the walls were smooth throughout, much unlike the brick patterns the other buildings adopted due to the magicians building them only channeling little amounts of energy at any one time. Being the only building of the entire school, the red building was enormous. It was, however, separated into many different sections inside - or so Flint had heard, since only students and professors were allowed in by the magical barrier surrounding the entire building. Anyone else who attempted entering without authorisation would be randomly afflicted with something from a long list of consequences that ranged from being turned into a kitten for an hour (which isn’t too bad, if you think of all the girls who would want to cuddle you) to being engulfed by an inextinguishable, magical flame for the same amount of time. The magical barrier used to just stop unwanted people walking in, but what it does now was a gag developed by the professors of Stealth Magic a few years back just for laughs. Proven effective, it was never taken down. The school also had four towers with spires on either corner of the main building. Unlike the main building however, the towers are of light green colour and reflects the sunlight as though it was made of liquid. It is said that these buildings are pure magic and no student knows what they are for, much less allowed to walk in.

Flint stepped through the gates of the school without a single thought of the invisible barrier, along with the constant stream of students pouring in. Finally, he was here. The school he had always dreamed to be in. He couldn’t help but stop in his tracks, smile to himself, and take in a breath of fresh air.

“Hey, keep walking, idiot!” an older boy exclaimed as he bumped into Flint. “Pfft, freshers,” he said under his breath, but intentionally loud enough so that Flint could hear him. The boy did not give a single glance back at him. Flint, being of a rather average height of 5’9” noted how tall the boy was, being a head taller than him. He had jet black, close-cropped hair compared to Flint’s dark red. Flint did not get a glance of his face though, and after a few seconds noticed that he was having his compulsions again to take in every single detail of his surroundings. He forced himself out of his reverie by snapping his fingers and walking straight to the school while hanging his head down, avoiding eye contact with anyone else.

When he stepped indoors, he felt an immediate atmosphere change. It was much quieter inside. What was worse is that from the corners of his eyes, he noticed many eyes on him. He dismissed it as him being paranoid and he continued walking straight on. New students were supposed to report the day before to get settled into their dormitories, but it wasn’t necessary for Flint since he practically lives next door. As a result, Flint was the least familiar with the layout of the school. He was walking with the stream of students, hoping to end up at the hall where all the new students were supposed to gather.

Before he could walk through another set of large doors, he felt a force that made his feet feel like lead. A bunch of students bumped right into Flint and yelled out various obscenities. People do seem really grumpy here.

“Can I help you, young man?”

An elderly woman wearing a dark blouse and long black skirt appeared before him without him even noticing, and that is an achievement in itself.

“Ermm, I’m a new student. And well, you see, I may have lost my way” Flint replied, without making eye contact at all.

“Well, if you will follow me then. The new students are all gathered in the East Hall,” said the lady with a swish of her skirt as she turned. Immediately, the force around Flint’s legs eased up and he was able to walk normally again.

Flint trailed behind the lady without a single word being spoken for the entire walk to the East Hall. He was a lot less enthusiastic now as he was earlier in the morning. Nothing seemed to be going right since he got here and for some reason, his head is just in a complete mess.

After what seemed like an eternity, Flint found himself walking through the doors of the East Hall. Despite the hundreds of new students present, the hall was completely silent. Everyone was staring at the two people who just entered the hall. Apparently, he was the last student to arrive since he took a big detour. His cheeks burnt red, like they always do when he gets even slightly embarrassed.

The hall was divided into many round tables. Some large, some small, and some so small that they only seat one. Flint made a beeline for one of those tables, being too embarrassed at the moment to interact with anyone. Once we was seated, he heard a deep voice resonate around the hall.

“As I was saying,” said the voice. This just confirmed Flint’s suspicions that they have already started. The voice came from a man in his forties, wearing a plain checkered shirt and a pair of khakis, who is at a high table at the front of the hall. There were a few other people, lined up alongside this man. “This year, you will only be learning basic magic. Only three subjects are taught during your first year. They are Basics Of Magic, Magical Offence, and Magical Defence. These may sound easy, but be warned. For untrained magicians such as all of you, merely channeling energy can be an extremely difficult task to achieve.”

At the very least, Flint knew that everyone in this hall are on the same boat as he is. The key to magic is the act of channeling free energy. Learning how to unlock that skill without proper training is almost impossible, with the exception of a few cases of people accidentally unlocking their magical potentials outside of magic school. The consequences of untrained use of magic can be highly destructive. A girl once just blew up without warning in the middle of Galdur city because she was soaking up energy around her without the knowledge of how to channel it. The excessive energy overwhelmed her body. Hence, it is against the law to teach magic outside of any magic institutions because of the dire consequences than may follow. Which is why Flint was never taught magic, even though his parents are well-known magicians.

“Before we begin our classes, I’m going to introduce all of you to your professors who will be teaching you for the next two years. On my right is Professor Margaret Ouran, who will be teaching you Magical Offence,” the man said as he motioned to the toughest looking woman Flint had ever laid his eyes on. She looked like she came straight from the military. Class had not even started, and she already sent shivers down his spine. “Next, we have Professor Matthew Fulbert, who will be educating you in the ways of Magical Defence.” A rather scrawny looking man behind a thick pair of glasses waved at the crowd of students. “Last, but not least, the person who will be teaching you Basics Of Magic, Professor Kathy Kalyani, who is standing at the back of the hall.” All the faces in the crowd turned to the back of the hall as he motioned to the lady who escorted me to this hall. Professor Kalyani gave a slight nod of her head. Her face remained stoic.

“Before I end today’s gathering, each of you will be given a timetable.” A flutter of paper erupted as pieces of parchment flew around the hall, falling into the hands of every student in the hall. When Flint got his, he observed it and noticed there was the timetable for a week in the centre of the parchment and his name, Flint Leofrid at the top left corner. There were also alphabets randomly swirling around the edges of the parchment, like the paper was made of liquid. “The timetable varies for all of you, and changes every week,” continued the man, “you will be taught how to use it in your upcoming lessons. Don’t worry about getting lost. All your classes in the first year will be held in this East Wing of the school. That is all for now. For those of you who were tardy on your very first day,” he said while looking straight at me, “I’m Professor Gilbert Gaiane, the headmaster of Galdur’s School Of Magic. You may be dismissed.”

Flint felt his face flush red as everyone giggled while looking at him.