Her food tasted like ash suddenly. She put it aside.
"What are you going to work on for self-study?" Aerie asked changing the subject.
"Shadow." Momo stated evenly.
"Fire." Ro said at the same time. Then she smiled at Momo who tentatively smiled back. "Working on our weakest subjects. Great minds think alike. You?" she asked Aerie.
"I guess I'll do Shadow too." She pouted. "Ugh, I wanted to do something I was good at like Air."
Ro put the conversation about creature society out of her mind and they continued talking jovially for the rest of the one-hour lunch period. Though every so often Ro would catch herself or one of her friends looking at the bracelet.
"Should I return it?" Ro asked on their walk back to the classroom. Aerie gave her a sidelong look.
"Well do you think anyone would go against school rules and mark you?" She was obviously leading Ro to an answer of no, but Ro paused and thought.
"Yeah…" she said at last. Both Momo and Aerie looked surprised.
"Who would do that?" Aerie asked astounded.
"Is that why you changed partners for the meditation?" Momo, observant as ever, asked quietly. Ro nodded.
"What did you see?" Aerie asked skeptically. Images from the tower flashed through Ro's mind.
"It's embarrassing."
"Just tell us!"
"Well, I was trapped in a high tower and Alexi was holding me. I had brands on my wrists, and I was wearing…- he was saying all sorts of things about how I'd belong to him. I looked like myself too, so I think he can see through my magic." It came out stutteringly and Ro was deeply ashamed. "And then when I had pulled myself out of there, he was going to mark me right there in the classroom except Ky stopped him."
"So that's what that was about." Momo said. Aerie looked at her in confusion. "It was over in a second and you had your back to them."
"So yeah, I think I need it." Ro said looking at the bracelet.
"Just be careful of Ky." Momo warned. Ro laughed.
"Ky is our teacher. He is just looking out for one of his students."
Momo looked skeptical.
They reached the classroom and regained their seats, ready to start the next session of meditation. This next set of meditation was individual so there was no need to partner up. Which was relief to all three girls because none of them wanted to exclude anyone.
For this meditation the desks of the students were littered with objects to represent the elements. Some rocks to represent earth, a lit candle for fire, a bowl of water for water, and a feather for air. The goal of this meditation was to commune with the elements. There was no objective other than to think about the elements.
It was hard practice but by the end of it Ro swore she saw and heard something in the flame of the candle. She had felt the water's gentle presence, and she understood the patience of the rocks. She also been caressed by the playfulness of air tugging at her mind. Overall, she thought it had gone well.
Once that hour was up, it was time for self-study magic. The desks were magically cleared by Ky, who then went around the room asking what each student would like to work on. He waved his hand and the materials needed appeared on the desks.
As she said she would, Ro chose fire. Her task was to light a candle. She struggled with picturing what the flame was, heat and warmth and light, and tried to envision the wick catching fire. It was no good. After forty-five minutes of coaxing, she gave up and finally ordered the fire to appear. The candle went up in a whoosh as a column of fire obeyed her command. She stared at it stunned. Snapping out of her stupor, she ordered the fire to retreat to a normal size. When it did, she saw her candle was halfway melted.
Ro stared at the now lit candle feeling happiness at her success. She blew it out and repeated the process over and over again until the bell rang signaling the end of the magic class. The students left and headed to their respective locker rooms to change for combat training.
They dressed in their combat gear, grey and white skin-tight, long-sleeved, turtleneck shirts over matching pants. The clothes were made of some sort of material that was magicked to turn red when hit with a weapon. It was also resistant to cuts and punctures and wasn't hot despite so much coverage. Ro's only complaint was that it was so tight. It made her feel self-conscious even though no one could really see what she looked like.
After they finished dressing, Ro, Momo, and Aerie left the locker room to sit on the bleachers and wait for Sarge to announce training partners for the day. Sarge liked to pair students with similar weapons and fighting styles with one another. Aerie with her great axe and aggressive fighting style was usually paired up with a male half-hephaestin named Brawn.
Brawn was a massive, muscular male who appeared to have an affinity for earth magic and who fought with a battle hammer that was nearly as big as he was. Ro pouted when she thought about this. He was half human, but it appeared that he had a gift for fighting and he was able to at least hold his own against Aerie.
Momo on the other hand fought with a medium sized bow with sharp metal tips on the ends. She was a very decent shot and she and her partner Mirran, a bow wielding night elf, would often engage in pitched, long range battle across the training courts. Since these usually ended in draws, the two fighters would frequently resort to fighting at close range, using their bows as staffs. It was easy to see that while they were evenly matched at long ranges, at close range Mirran was better. However, with all the practice Momo was catching up to him.
Ro sighed and looked at her weapons. They were twin daggers about twelve inches long, made of black steel. There were other fighters with dual weapons that used agility and speed as a style, but she never got partnered up for practice. She was too bad. Sarge had told her that it would be a punishment for the other person. That she was so bad, in fact, that it wouldn't even be considered practice for them, so Ro got stuck working with a dummy.
Sarge had drawn x's on vital points on the dummy and her only task for the two hours was to practice hitting those marks with her daggers. Each day the dummy reset, and she placed new slash marks on it. At the end of practice, Sarge would come over and inspect her work. When she had first started, she had been terrible. Her accuracy was non-existent. The slash marks were all over the place. Now, after a month of this practice, she was hitting the target reliably on the marks.
"Maybe you'll be partnered up today." Aerie told her hopefully. "You are more accurate with your attacks." Sarge was coming over to announce the pairings. Ro looked at Sarge's face, he didn't even look in her direction.
"I don't think so. Even if I am more accurate, he still doesn't think I am good enough." Ro looked downcast. Momo patted her leg in consolation.
Sarge began announcing the pairings. Everything was as usual. Aerie got paired up with Brawn, and Momo with Mirran. At the end of the pairings, he called for Ro to come speak with him. Most of the class jeered at this. Ro ran over hopefully.