Conrad had given Lexie thirty seconds to come up with a strategy.

Unfortunately, that wasn't nearly enough time. Lexie went through her cards quickly to see which one could counter Cara's apparent speed. She came up with nothing.

<Hustle and Shuffle> wouldn't be a good fit. Lexie had seen a little bit of Cara's speed earlier today when she'd rushed to Conrad for the cookies, and it was faster than Lexie's top <Hustle and Shuffle> speed, and Cara wasn't even trying then.

Another thing was that Cara wasn't fast in the same way Lane was. Lane's had more to do with power and muscle pathways which made him move faster. But Cara's speed felt like she was floating, almost flying, like she had the wind pushing her forward. Although she was convinced she hadn't inherited wind ability, it was clear that she had some component of it, even if she couldn't necessarily control it. When she ran, her feet barely touched the ground, so Lexie wasn't sure if she could trap her with <Shut Up and Dance> or <Getting Out of Hand>, at least not in time to stop her from doing damage.

Lexie slowly crossed out each of her cards, in which the activation times were more than two seconds, and was left with a very hopeless case.

Let me at least try with <Getting Out of Hand>. I might get lucky.

Before Lexie could completely work it out, Conrad yelled out "Time!".

Lexie asked Cara the question and then Cara charged at her.

In less than a second, her fist slammed into Lexie's stomach and sent her flying. Lexie crashed on the ground and turned over, groaning.

Oh God. That hurt like a bitch.

It didn't hurt as bad as the time she got hit by the bomb blast but it still hurt regardless.

I knew it. I knew I couldn't take a punch.

"You okay?" She heard Cara's voice above hers as she fought waves of pain. "Tell me I didn't kill you."

Slowly, she felt the system endorphins start to do their job, and she gave Cara a thumbs up.

"Lexie?" Conrad called. "Are you out?"

"I'm out." Lexie groaned as she sat up. Cara shot her an apologetic smile and gave her a hand.

Conrad sighed. "I'll allow it this once but you really need to work on your endurance, Lexie."

Lexie nodded, but truthfully she was now playing up how hurt she was. She wanted to sit out this round, so she could see Cara, and the other competitors, work. She needed ideas for the new deck and needed to see how they moved, so she would know how to retaliate with her cards.

She thought it was a good plan until Conrad called out, with a mouthful full of snickerdoodles, "Oh and you need to figure out how to at least last five minutes in the ring. Otherwise, I can't let you stay in the program. No matter how many delicious cookies you bring. Got it?"

Shoot. That was what she was afraid of. Luckily the group only met up three times a week and she had a whole weekend to figure out how to advance.

Lexie nodded and then headed back to the bleachers red-faced. Boris gave her a comforting pat on the back, and told her "You did good."

"No, she didn't," Shadow said. "That was a joke."

Lexie ignored him and just turned to Boris. "Thank you. I'll get you cookies next time."

"That's what I was hoping for."

"Lane and Shadow," Conrad said. "You're up."

Lane walked out, wearing a t-shirt and shorts, and extending his staffie. Shadow seemed to be a Top Dog wannabe because he was dressed in black techwear. Whereas Top Dog pulled it off, Shadow looked very much like a try-hard.

"You ready?" Conrad called.

Shadow cracked his neck with a loud, obnoxious pop. Lane swallowed apprehensively.

"I guess we're ready."

"Thirty seconds to the begin," Conrad said and the time started counting down. Both boys looked at each other sizing each other up and Lexie finally realized that she didn't know what Shadow's ability was. She didn't know if it was by design or if he'd simply never gotten around to it but Lexie suspected it was probably part of his master plan.

A master plan Conrad ruined by calling out, "Oh, and by the way, Shadow is a Slayer-Type Fighter with a mirroring ability. He's able to mirror some of your more powerful moves with enough time."

Shadow sent him an annoyed look and Conrad smiled.

"It's only fair. To join the circuit, you'll have to give a rundown of your stats and abilities anyway, so might as well do that now."

Shadow shook his head and without a word, he drew his retractable blunted samurai sword, and he ran for Lane.

It was a fight that lasted an entire thirty minutes, and Lexie could see why they were paired against each other. They were evenly matched, both long-range fighters with excellent, clean fighting styles and an extra ability that gave them a boost. Lane was faster than Shadow could catch. But Shadow was also good at reading Lane's moves in transit so Lane couldn't really land any major hits on him either.

Does Shadow's ability mean he can read pathways? Lexie wondered. Or is it something else?

The question reminded Lexie about what her father asked her to do, to try to read other people's pathways while they were active. He said it might help her figure out how the ability worked, which would help her figure out intent. She should probably ask permission, but she wanted to know if she could do it in the first place.

Lexie tried to read the pathways of the two fighters in the ring but it was difficult. She closed her eyes but could only get a general sense of the mana clouds surrounding their body, and it was hard to differentiate the two men when they moved so fast.

She took a deep breath and imagined she was in a deadroom, but instead of connecting to one of the mana particles at the other end of the room, she was trying to connect to one of the mana particles in the active swirling centers that made up the fighters.

It worked somewhat. She made a connection through a train of mana particles that led to them. The more she concentrated, the more she was able to detect their mana signature and differentiate Lane's from Shadow's. It wasn't enough to do much more than sense where they were.

Well, it's just the first day, she reminded herself. It will get better.

She did the same thing for the Boris versus Jan match and also the Urmas versus Ken. She didn't watch most of the match, choosing instead to keep her eyes closed and try to read their moves and watch the fight by only feeling their mana. No one called her out on it, so either they didn't notice or they didn't care.

But when it came to the Tate versus Horatio match, Lexie's eyes opened up. She wanted to watch this one.

Horatio turned out to be a forcefield user, and a soldier-type gun meister. According to Conrad, Tate didn't have an official fighting style, but he fought like a hybrid of Rogue and Brawler. To Lexie's eye, he fought like a street fighter. He was nimble, wiley and good at avoiding bullets.

But Horatio never let him get close enough to deal a blow, so she didn't know how good the mechs around his wrists, knees, and ankles were. She never got to see what was so special about Tate's mechs but maybe he was saving that for later.

Toward the end of the fight, Lexie closed her eyes to identify the active mana. She expected to only see one mana signature, Horatio's. To her shock, she could read Tate's too.

What the heck? Why did Tate have mana? She thought he was a mundane.

To his credit, his mana felt different. It was more chaotic like the mana particles were bouncing around, not in pathways but all over his skin. Almost like he was radioactive.

The idea of it alarmed Lexie.

It wasn't just the mechs. There was something else he was up to.

She didn't ask for now because she didn't want to put him on guard again. After she convinced him to be her friend, she would find out.

Lexie's body hurt when she got home, but her mind was buzzing with ideas. Rather than sitting at her desk to write down what she'd learned today, she lay in bed to do it.

The first thing she wrote down was that she needed a card to take down Cara or help Lexie survive at least ten minutes in the ring.

Maybe she should exploit Cara's weakness, which was clearly balance.

Cara's ability was sort of like Hustle and Shuffle, but instead of being made lighter, she was seemingly pushed by wind almost like she was about to fly but didn't quite have the capacity to manage it. The disadvantage of gaining speed this way though was that it left her unbalanced.

Maybe Lexie could manipulate that.

But she's already tried that with the <Out of Hand> card and she hadn't even had a chance to activate it before Cara took her out. And even if she did, which was a big if, she wasn't sure if she could target her in time or if she would have the ability to disrupt her pathways significantly. Also, Cara wasn't on the ground half the time when she ran. <Out of Hand> affected mostly the hands and feet but if the feet weren't on the ground then how did that work? How clumsy could you be while lowkey flying? Would it even work on her? Even if everything worked out, that could still only afford Lexie only twenty seconds of freedom. She needed to follow that up with something else.

Maybe I can freeze her in place.

She looked through her base cards and then, just out of curiosity, went scouring the NET for something else.

A few looked promising. There was a card for freezing food, but that one had more to do with the temperature than with the act of being still. There was a <Get My Good Side> card from the Photography deck which helped people stay very still in a certain pose. And then of course there was the <Compelling Argument> card she'd used on her Uncle Max.

There still remained the problem of targeting and timing. By the time she drew, activated, and targeted the card, especially since they were all effect cards which had longer activation times, Cara would probably already be on her. There was also the fact that using the card would lock her out of every other deck.

God, she really needed to get this Starter Deck done already.

One thing at a time.

Lexie needed a short activation time for whatever card she used with Cara. She could achieve that by picking a simple, low-to-medium powered card, an ability card rather than an effect. In which case, she needed to think of making herself faster instead of making Cara slower. And she needed to do it in the simplest possible way.

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She spent all night thinking and searching through the NET for speed cards that she could exploit. The most effective card she could find, from a Basic Sensei deck, was at a level 8 and only gave a speed boost of +4. <Hustle and Shuffle> gave her a speed boost of +2 which meant that it was only slightly faster than Hustle and Shuffle.

Disappointing.

Funny enough as she went through the rest of the deck she found one for balance, called <Stay Steady, Stay Ready>.

It was used by martial arts sensei's in order to test their students' skill. It increased their balance making it harder for the student to knock them off their feet during tests. Of course, as with all cards, the effect was not great, but that wasn't why she kept looking at it.

In practice, it should have pretty much been the inverse of the <Getting Out of Hand Card> but the pathway wasn't the inverse of the <Getting Out of Hand> pathway. They weren't close at all. That was because the <Stay Steady, Stay Ready> worked by soldering your feet to the ground, such that while every other part of your body could move, your feet would stay grounded.

It directed a significant amount of internal mana cloud to the soles of the feet to do it too. How fascinating. Lexie thought maybe she could use it as a trap card, or to boost her own balance at some point, but for now, she moved on.

Nevertheless, despite her fervent searching she still couldn't find anything that would help her beat Cara. After about an hour or two, she finally sighed and decided to take a break, retiring to her bed to read the last texts from Dewie and Xena who had arrived at the school, after Dewie's short trip to Ronan-Fae:

Dewie: We're here!

Dewie: At the dorm rooms I mean. At Victoire.

Xena: That last part was unnecessary Dewie. It's not like she thought you meant the dorm rooms on the Moon.

Dewie: You're not allowed to be sarcastic to me anymore today. The new ADM rules say you can only make three snarky comments a week, and you used them all up yesterday.

Xena: Shoot.

Lexie: That's right, Dewie. Ignore her, she's always grumpy after a long trip. How are the dorm rooms?

Dewie: They're okay I guess. I'm in a five-person dorm but I get a room to myself which is good.

Xena: And I get an entire dorm to myself! Five bedrooms all for me. Can you imagine? Being a Lightlark is kinda of a big deal here.

Lexie: Well duh. You're one of the rare elementals and you're super needed on Planet Fae. Did you think those weird Fae consulate guys gave you all those concessions because of your winning personality?

Dewie: That's your first snark of the week, Lexie. You only get two more.

Xena: And you get negative friend points for reminding me about them. Anyway, Dewie is massively underplaying this place. It's like a hotel and a castle put together. And the dorms are bigger than Emma's house.

Xena: And there's a pool.

Xena: And there's a bunch of different gyms to work out in and simulation rooms and activity rooms and a ping pong table. Three coffee shops on campus. Elaborate obstacle courses on the side of three mountains.

Xena: Did I mention there's a pool? It's indoor and heated.

Lexie: So you like it?

Xena: It's cool I guess. I mean I still plan to drop out in like my second year but I might as well enjoy it while I'm here.

Lexie: How about you, Dewie? Having fun?

Dewie: It's okay. No one's here yet but me so it's a little weird. I'm sure it will be fine.

Lexie knew that Dewie was nervous about living with other people. It came off even in text. He was anxious that it would be a repeat of elementary school.

Xena: If anyone is mean to you Dewie, just let me know. I'll kick their face in with my light powers.

Dewie: I don't think that's how light powers work.

Lexie: It's definitely not how it works.

Xena: How would you two know? You've never actually seen light powers in action.

Lexie: I assume they work kind of like fire powers? Like you can use them for lasers and stuff.

Dewie: I was thinking more refractions and reflections and stuff.

Xena: Well, you're both wrong. The men-who-shall-not-be-named gave me a whole speech about light powers and I don't think it's any of that. Because they said something about keeping an open mind and not being afraid of the power that I hold. And then they ended it by saying, "Fear is the thing that chases away the light."

Hmm. That reminded Lexie of what the men had told Xena that night, about how Xena wouldn't be able to control something for much longer. What did he mean? She'd never gotten around to asking Xena about it, and she didn't want to do it over the system. She would ask when they saw each other in person.

Lexie: That sounds ominous.

Xena: It does, doesn't it? Anyway, I'm going to find out in about a week or so. I have my first training sesh with my tutor then.

Lexie: But school isn't even open for first years for another few weeks.

Xena: Apparently, I need a lot of work to catch up and should have been getting that education my whole life. Don't know how that works. The other elementals are all in a class above me and I think they're trying to get me in that class too which makes no sense.

Lexie: Wait, there are more elementals are Victoire?

Xena: Yup. The headmaster (an interesting guy by the way, I'll tell you about him later) gave me a rundown of who else was here. They're all in Year 2. Weiss Wavelost, Kai Skysoarer, Torin Firebringer, Zakhar Shadowsbane, Flora Groundsmage. One of each house. And then there's me in Year 1.

Lexie: Wow. Have you met any of them yet?

Xena: No. Year 2 doesn't come back from break for another month. They're supposed to throw a party and I'm invited.

Lexie: That's nice. You should take Dewie.

Dewie: No thanks. I don't like parties.

Xena: You're not going to make me go on my own Dewie, are you?

Dewie:...I guess I can't. ADM rules say we're supposed to sacrifice our comfort for each other about once a year. This can be mine.

Lexie: That's the spirit. Did you see anything strange yet?

Dewie: There's a giant eagle sitting on top of the school. But I don't know if it's bad or not. It waved at me on the way in.

Lexie: That's interesting.

Dewie: That's the same thing Headmaster Journeyman said when I told him. He seemed pretty shocked. And then he signed me up for extra classes.

Lexie: Why?

Dewie: No clue.

Lexie chatted with her friends a little more and then watched one of the newer Bunny matches until she unexpectedly fell asleep.

In the morning, Lexie had a brilliant idea.

It had appeared to her in her dreams and she was so giddy about it that she rolled out of bed before her eyes popped open and yelled out, "Eureka!".

Which of course sent her father jogging over to knock on her door and ask, "Lexie? Are you okay? Have you been sleep-calculating again?"

"Yes, and yes," she called back. "I'll be down for breakfast in a bit." Right after she wrote down what she'd just figured out.

She pulled out her pad with eager hands to jot down her brilliance.

So basically, her problem was that she could never quite boost up her speed to match up with Cara's. The nature of card magic wouldn't let her ever get that fast.

But she didn't need to be fast really.

She just needed to be faster than Cara, or more specifically she needed to be faster than whatever opponent she faced, who, at this time, happened to be Cara.

What did that mean? It meant that she needed a card that would put her steps ahead of her opponent at all times, while she could dole out other attacks. It didn't need to be an extremely powerful card, just a useful one.

Even if she was only a couple of feet away from Cara as long as she maintained that distance, then she could survive for however long it lasted.

How to create such a card?

She could prototype it with the <Shut Up and Dance>< Easy Clean Up> combo she'd used against the kidnappers in Old Moulding. However, instead of one quick burst, she wanted to create a softer but constant repulsion sustained at a certain distance apart through a magnetic link with Cara. This distance would allow no less than 3 feet between them at all times, actively pushing her back as Cara moved. So no matter how fast Cara ran for her, Lexie would always be steps ahead because she was being repelled by Cara's field.

The problem was that she couldn't use that exact combo because Cara wasn't attacking her with a magnet. Lexie would first have to create a magnetic field on Cara and then use it to oppose herself. Maybe she could figure out how <Stay Steady, Stay Ready> did the foot soldering thing and then use a reverse of that to create a repulsion link between her and Cara.

First, she needed to know how it worked.

She bought the <Stay Steady, Stay Ready> card and activated it. She got the feel of it moving down her body, the mana in her feet suddenly developing a strong attraction to the external mana on the floor.

Ah, so that was how it worked.

When she was fairly sure she got it, she located it on the pathway map in her book and tried to duplicate something like that with <Easy Clean Up>. She buffed and tweaked the travel component to no longer rely on checkpoints to locate the last known origin of the item, but instead to create a link with external mana surrounding another item.

When she was done mapping it out, she wiped her forehead, feeling quite accomplished. It might not work the same. After all, the intents were entirely different. But she tried to get it as close to the intent as possible.

"Lexie."

Lexie's head came up and she squealed and almost fell out of her bed again when she found her father standing right next to her.

"How long have you been there?" She demanded gaping at him. "When did you come in?"

A while ago. You were just so engrossed in what you were doing that you didn't hear me."

"Oh," she said and added, "Sorry, I just needed a few minutes to–"

"It's been an hour," he said and gently took her pad. "Come down for breakfast honey. I made pancakes. We'll wash your face first, though, and fix your hair. You look like a drooling mad scientist."

***

Lexie was ready during the next dojo session. She was going to test out the amended card combo today to see if it would work.

"Hey, Cara," she told the girl the second she walked into the dojo. "Wanna spar?"

Cara, who had until then been chatting with Jan, raised her eyebrows in surprise. "Uh? Are you sure?"

"Nope," she said flexing. "But I wanna do it anyway."

"That's the attitude I like to see Lexie," Conrad said as he observed a fight between Lane and Tate who seemed to be woefully losing.

They must have come early because they were both drenched in sweat. They both looked like they'd been at it for hours although Tate looked much worse for the wear.

"You and Tate exemplify the motto of our dojo," Conrad said. "Always be willing to get your ass kicked."

"I thought our motto was always take the cheapest shot you can," Urmas said.

"That's our second motto," he said and then Lexie tuned them out because Cara had gotten to her feet and started stretching. She was wearing leggings and a long floral top today. She was also barefoot.

Lexie followed her to the second mat on the dojo floor and they both faced each other.

"Ready whenever you are," Cara said.

"One second." Lexie began the dual activation, and ten seconds later, she felt the skill course through her body. And then she nodded at Cara. "Alright. Now let's go"

Cara didn't hesitate before she ran at Lexie.

Instantly, Lexie went flying back.

"Eep!" the squeal rushed out of her. She suspected it would feel like that, like flying but very unsteady. She almost fell but managed to balance herself in time as the wind blew her hair all over her face. Cara frowned when she saw what happened, and changed direction. This direction would drive Lexie into a wall, but Lexie had already accounted for that and spun away at the last minute. It was a jank adjustment and had her body jerking in a way that hurt, but it worked.

Cara stopped and stared in amazement.

"Woah," she said. "How did you do that?" It wasn't just her. Everyone at the dojo including Lane and Tate had stopped to stare at them.

Lexie blushed at their regard.

"Card magic," she said simply.

"I've never seen a card do that."

"Yeah, did you make a new card, Lexie?" Conrad asked.

"No," she said. "At least not yet. But I will."

"That's so cool." Cara grinned. "Okay, let's do it again."

"Wait–!" But unfortunately for Lexie, Cara was already moving just as the card timed out. In a few short milliseconds, Lexie was once more on her ass.

Lexie got her ass kicked for about ten minutes and then spent the rest of the session lying on the bench with an aching body trying to figure out how to increase the active time of the card combo. Now that she knew that it worked, it was time to perfect it.

She got distracted when Tate was done with his fight and came over to plop right in front of her.

Lexie watched him for a second and volunteered, "You look like crap."

"Thank you," was his response.

"Wanna come with me? My dad has some potions that can help you heal faster. And boost your endurance too probably."

"No, thanks."

"Is there a reason you're avoiding me?"

Tate didn't look at her as he shrugged, still panting, and sweaty. "Maybe I just don't like you. Maybe I find you really pushy and annoying."

Lexie thought about it, but shook her head. "Nah, that can't be it."

That got a snort out of Jan who was drinking water a seat over and not even pretending not to listen in on their conversation,

"You know I have 80% EQ," Lexie told Tate. "That means I'm pretty emotionally intelligent. I know you don't actually dislike me. So what gives?"

He simply gave her a look, shook his head, got up and walked away

"Weird guy," Lexie said aloud

"Just him?" Jan stated, and he sighed. "Listen, Lexie, take it from your big Cousin Jan."

"You're not my cousin."

"Guys like mystery. You're being too friendly. Be a little mean to him and he might like you more."

Lexie gave him a droll look. "It's pretty creepy of you to be giving relationship advice to an eleven-year-old. "

"So you admit you want a relationship with him?"

Lexie sighed and sat up. She walked off to the sound of his snickering.

She thought about card adjustments on the way home.

She was so focused on it that she didn't even realize that someone was in her house until she shut the door behind her and a foreign feeling flooded her.

The unmistakable sense of never-ending dread had her head shooting up.

And the second she did, she backed up and pressed herself against the door.

Il Naem Y Ylich was standing in her home and Aiden was nowhere to be found.

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