Returning to the school after our day in the market had been a short and entirely unceremonious thing. It really was as simple as the students walking their way outside of the city and onto a designated platform, just to be raised skyward into the island that listed softly against the grand chains that pierced the ground.

Even the takeoff was unceremonious, the chains holding the school in place simply disappeared—Some form of magic couldn't understand—And in the middle of the night it began floating north.

It had been about a week since the school lifted off into the sky, classes having resumed near immediately and with multiple times the haste.

Of course, the reasoning for that haste was simple—The classes were approaching their finals for the year.

Of my small assortment of classes, geography had been by far the easiest. Frankly, all of the studying came down to pointing places out on a map—Which when there was only a single continent and four countries, was an exceptionally easy task.

Currently I sat in the dining hall, Tulip, Silva and Lucia all sat at the same table with me, calmly enjoying their own meals.

"So, how are all of your studies going?" Silva asked as she sat down, being the last one to arrive.

"Frankly… Almost everything is at or below the levels my father already had me studying, so these classes haven't been terrible." Tulip was the first to answer, her gaze raising from her food.

"Honestly same—I'm only really struggling with the project for Beast Research… I've barely learnt anything about Glacia." Lucia added with a sigh, her expression turning exhausted as she leant into her hands.

"Kirin?" Silva asked, her gaze alongside the gazes of the others turning to me.

"I'm pretty sure I have the least classes here… Geography is boring but easy, history is the same. Beast Research…" I paused, my eyes slowly growing wider as I thought. "I have so many things I need to write down about Akemi…" I groaned. I had completely forgotten about the bestiary for the better part of a year. Akemi forming some kind of link and speaking to me? I hadn't even told anyone about that yet!

"Maybe get to work on that sooner rather than later?" Tulip offered with a slightly amused smile. "Topaz is a pain, but I have enough to write about him to pass." She added after a moment's pause.

"So I'm the one stuck with a pompous bird who won't do anything but smack me?" Lucia asked exasperatedly.

"Yep." Tulip answered with an unhelpful smile that just brought a groan out from Lucia.

"Speaking of, shouldn't we be heading there now?" I asked as I stood up. Our trio of critters also looked up from where they remained on the further end of the table, seated in a triangular formation.

"Probably…" Tulip said with a sigh as she stood.

"I swear if I end up failing this class…" Lucia groaned, standing as well.

"Oh you'll be fine—Mister Sanders seems like a nice enough person, you probably just need to tell him something interesting." I offered, trying to reassure Lucia. Akemi took this time to meander over, jumping onto my shoulder with ease. Topaz and Glacia for their parts found their own perches on their respective masters.

With a soft laugh between us, we all waved goodbye to Silva and made our ways out to the courtyard.

We were the last ones to arrive outside, Anestesia, Erick and the trio of boys all sat amongst themselves. Unsurprisingly, despite being several minutes late, we still got here before Sanders.

"You would think he would learn how to be on time by now." Tulip said with a bemused sigh.

"Honestly… Yeah." I sighed in agreement.

"Watching." I heard Akemi's soft voice, almost like a whisper in my ear as her gaze turned.

I blinked in surprise, turning to follow where she was looking—But I found nothing. Her gaze was locked firmly on the upper levels of the school, her eyes narrowed at what looked like nothing.

It looked like nothing up until I opened my gaze to the world of mana. There was always ambient mana, especially around the school, but at the position in which Akemi stared I could see something far more distinct.

A vague, fluttering blue aura sat in the place where Akemi watched. It was intense yet faint at the same time, clearly someone or something powerful who was trying to stay hidden.

"–Kirin? What're you looking at?" Lucia asked, snapping me out from my concentration.

"Someone's watching us—Look over there," I said, raising a finger and pointing. "There's an aura." I said before anyone could get too confused.

However, before anyone could get a proper look the wall began to physically change. Portions folded within themselves, shifting away like the inverse motion of a plant growing on fast forward. Fibers compressed in on themselves, slowly revealing Sanders soft visage.

"About time one of you noticed," Sanders called over with a hearty laugh. "And you noticed from your little Kitsune there too? Now, I am certainly curious what that spark I saw jump between you was." He said in a softer tone as he finished his approach.

"How long were you watching us?" One of the boys called out, sounding rather annoyed as he did so.

"Mmm, through the entire hour of every class that I 'missed.' Rather, this was a test to see if any of you would notice that your little critters have minds of their own and far sharper senses." He answered with a smile.

That left all of us to fall silent, blinking in surprise at the revelation—Frankly, Sanders had been a strange teacher all year. This however? Well I couldn't say it wasn't an effective way to test us, even if it was strange.

"Wait—Did you know that connections could form between us and our familiars?" I asked with a raised brow.

"A connection?" Sanders said with some surprise, his hand raising to stroke his bare chin slowly. "No I was not aware of such a thing—Care to elaborate?" He asked with a slowly widening smile.

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"Stupid." Akemi said in my head, my face quickly growing warm with embarrassment and mild panic as a result.

"Uhm—" I started, trying to find my words but they wouldn't come. I hadn't told anyone about that yet, with my mind so busy elsewhere I had completely forgotten about trying to do such a thing. "I'm not too sure how to describe it…" I trailed off once again. I took a deep breath, trying to compose my thoughts before continuing.

"Akemi did something, I'm honestly not sure what she did—But whatever it was formed a connection. She can talk to me?—It's only single words, most of the time those are insults… But she said someone was watching us so I tried to follow her gaze." I blurted everything out as quickly as I could, doing my best to not stumble over the words. Several emotions hit me at once when I did that, strange mixtures of annoyance, confusion and curiosity all flitting through my head simultaneously.

"Ah," Sanders said simply. "So a pact was formed between the two of you through the Kitsune's own will? That is certainly an interesting phenomena." His gaze lowered onto me once again, narrowing with curiosity. "Have you noticed any adverse effects?" He asked quickly.

"I don't think so?" I answered uncertainly before elaborating. "It hurt when she did it—I think she had to form a connection to my origin with her magic, but afterwards I felt fine." I offered the information I did know as quickly as I could.

"Interesting," He nodded along, his gaze turning away from me and towards the rest of the students. "Well, then I have a task for you all to try and uphold by the end of the week. I would love to study more such things and I do well believe this is the correct path. At the very least, I have heard of such possibilities in written legends." He spoke to the entire class, bringing up mutterings between everyone.

"Isn't that from…" I heard one voice, just for him to be cut off.

"That's just a fairy tale—There's no way it's actually real." Another said with a nonchalant shrug.

"What is?" I asked curiously. Looking back I saw the trio of boys—I couldn't even remember their names, let alone tell them apart. But, one of them spoke to answer anyways.

"You don't know that story?" He said with surprise. He had an eyebrow raised but continued all the same. "It's an old poem, supposedly the Guardian Dragon Infernus formed a mutual link with the War Mage. But no one other than the dragon could possibly confirm something like that." He turned away once he finished, immediately going back to a quiet gossip with the other two around him.

"Huh…" I muttered, turning my gaze back to Sanders. "Was that the story you were referring to?" I asked quickly.

"Indeed it was," He said with a smile. "Now, I'll leave you all to do that. Beyond that? You have a week before we arrive in Arcadia, I expect to see the additions to your Bestiaries then." He added with a wave, nearly immediately turning away.

Just as soon as Sanders moved away, I was swarmed with questions. Everyone was asking things—From how I did it, what it was like and so on. I was surprised when even Erick joined in, sounding just as, if not more curious than any of the others to learn.

"I don't know—Honestly." I said for what had to be the tenth time now.

"How can you not know? Are you actually that stupid to just stumble into something like this?" Erick was, to no surprise, the most insistent and the least kind when it came to asking questions.

"I TOLD you! I just said 'I wish I could understand what you were thinking' and then she did that! You don't have to be such an ass about it!" I was almost shouting at this point. Erick hadn't given up for almost half an hour at this point and it was really starting to grate on my nerves. What was worse is that all of the others had left already, he was just following me as I made my way towards the field for my training with Carmine.

"But—" He began, but I quickly cut him off.

"There's no if's and's or but's. I. Don't. Know," I said as I stopped suddenly, my glare settling on Erick firmly. "If you want to figure it out, why don't you just go and talk with your lizard? Since yes, I did just stumble into this, like everything else I've done in this last year." With a sharp huff I turned away, speaking quickly before he could try and get anything else in.

"Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go and get to my next class." I quickly walked away, nearly stomping off as I finally left Erick behind in the halls.

I didn't know why, but he just grated on my nerves in such a painful way. I only had to be near him and I started to feel pissed off, it was just so strange. But just the same way Erick left me aggravated, as soon as I stepped outside and entered Carmine's presence I could feel myself relaxing. It was like a sense of carefree safety whenever I was near her, a sense I was woefully unfamiliar with.

"Good afternoon, Kirin," Carmine said as I approached her. She sat on the ground in the clearing, her legs crossed in much the same fashion she had been in for our training at the estate. "How are you feeling?" She asked, it was the same question she'd been asking every day since we returned to the island.

"Fine—A bit annoyed from Erick, but it'll pass." I said with a sigh.

"Oh?" She asked with a quirked brow. "Sanders told me of your revelation. Don't worry, I don't blame you for keeping that private… It's a strange thing to have suddenly learnt." She said with a chuckle.

"Honestly? I don't know what is or isn't normal with magic still," I groaned out. "It's like every step I take is somehow a new unknown…" I deflated as I spoke, really not having the energy for the inevitable training about to start.

"Indeed, in only a year you've given the teachers here two mysterious things to look at. Whatever that strange coloration to your measurements were, and now the ability to forge a true bond with magical critters." Carmine mused, trailing off into a soft chuckle as she finished.

"Have you had any more instances of hearing voices?" She asked, her eyebrow raised.

"Other than Akemi's? Not for a few weeks," As I thought about it I paused, quickly adding; "Although, right before we left Ferilis—I don't know if it was a dream or what it was… But I could see that spec in my origin, everything wasn't just blue like it normally is. It looked like what I saw in the measurement crystals, lime green, orange and black. I felt pulled towards it, it's been stuck in the back of my head since then." Carmine looked rather intrigued once I stopped.

"How about we meditate today then? You're doing rather well for your training, making sure you're as physically recovered as possible would rather help in a week's time." She said with a curious smile, gesturing to the ground across from her.

I followed her suggestion, moving to sit cross legged upon the ground. It really wasn't hard for me to find some mild comfort and let my body relax.

"It's not unheard of for mages to notice differences in their origins," Carmine spoke softly as I closed my eyes. "Often these are reflections of their innate elements awakening, but an element awakening and a mage growing into it are two very different things." As she spoke I closed my eyes, trying to turn my focus inward.

"How will I know when my innate element awakens?" I asked as the world of mana began to reveal itself.

"You won't know it until you do. There is a reason the number of High-Mages and Archmages are so much lower than any other class," Carmine answered simply. "Now, focus on your origin, what do you see?" She asked softly.

"Mmm…" I grunted, turning my focus deeper inward. It was frankly extremely difficult to focus on the internal workings of my magic while also keeping myself aware enough to speak. "It looks… normal—Like a light blue sphere next to my heart." I answered, my eyes scrunching as I tried to hold the focus.

"You were still under emotional turmoil when you noticed that, weren't you?" Carmine inquired.

"Yeah…" I muttered out, my eyes fluttering open. "Everything felt pretty numb—It was the morning before we went shopping." Carmined gave an understanding nod as I finished, her gaze looking almost pitying.

"Also not an uncommon thing," She spoke as she stood up, a smile quickly landing on her face. "Well. Given that's done so quickly, let's run through your forms and we can be done for today." Her smile remained even as I groaned with dread.

I knew I was in for pain as soon as I stood up—But I couldn't stop the smile from forming on my face as I took my Halberd in hand. I didn't want to work right now, but I could still find a way to enjoy it.

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