When Lucian joined Khairu, the Talent gave no sign she had ratted Lucian out the night before. The lesson proceeded normally enough. Normally, meaning that Khairu criticized Lucian’s every move.

  “Center yourself,” she said. “Embrace your Focus.”

  He tried to take her advice, forming an image of his Focus, that damnable stone. The image took root as if it stood before him. At least he had this part nailed down.

  “Good,” Khairu said, in a rare bit of praise. “I can feel the potential of your Focus, even now. The next step is to reach for your ether and stream Dynamism through your spear.”

  For a moment, Lucian felt a curious pressure forming in his mind. No matter how much he tried, though, the Dynamistic Aspect wouldn’t manifest itself. Lucian clung on, letting his Focus remain resolute. This time, he was determined not to let it shatter.

  “Calm,” Khairu said. “You’re doing well. Focus.”

  Something in her tone suggested she was surprised at his progress. It was as if she were trying to get under his skin.

  All at once, Lucian felt a surge of power, a fire prickling beneath his skin. It was here. His eyes opened in shock.

  “Control it,” Khairu said firmly. “Let it flow through the spear.”

  Lucian imagined the energy leaving him in a steady stream. He saw the spear alight with electrical energy. He could feel the graphene infused with his magic. The wind began to pick up, and the spear was glowing, the spear turning red-hot. Awesome amounts of heat began to radiate outward, heat that began to flow into his hand.

  “Stop!” Khairu said, eyes wide with fear. “Stop right now! Cut your stream off!”

  It was like trying to stop a rushing river. The only thing he could do was drop the spear. It fell to the frosty ground, hissing and smoking in the process. Khairu hopped back as if it were an adder while Emma watched with widened eyes from the side.

  At last, the fire within Lucian subsided. He was panting as if he had sprinted across the entire lawn. Khairu’s expression was one of shock, her mouth slightly agape.

  “Why did you do that? You were supposed to stream Dynamism, not Thermalism!”

  Lucian blinked in surprise. So, that was why the metal had started heating up.

  “I don’t understand how to stream one Aspect over another,” Lucian said. “How can I do that without practice? What’s more important is that I broke my block in the way you told me to.”

  Khairu folded her arms. “The way I told you to? No, far from that! You could have gotten yourself killed with a bit of misdirected magic. What would have happened if the heat had spread to the handle?”

  “Well,” Lucian said, “at least I managed something this time.”

  Her look was all too knowing. “Let’s not pretend. We both know what you’re capable of. Next time, do as you’re told and nothing different!”

  Arguing was pointless. He nodded meekly, as much as that grated on him. “Yes, Talent Khairu.”

  This mollified her if only a little. “This bears repeating since it seems my lesson from earlier didn’t take hold. You must imagine the thing you wish to manifest once your Focus is formed, and only then stream. What were you thinking about to produce a Thermal stream?”

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  He thought he had been thinking of electricity. Until he remembered he had also been thinking about that fiery feeling beneath his skin. Perhaps that had been enough for the magic to come out that way, too.

  Khairu reached for the discarded spear, which was only warm now. She handed it back to Lucian and then gestured toward Emma. “Your turn.”

  Of course, Emma had no trouble streaming electricity through her practice shockspear. She held it aloft as the magic raced from handle to point, crackling at the spear’s tip. After half a minute, she cried out suddenly.

  “It’s getting harder to hold!”

  “Let go of your Focus,” Khairu said. “Your ether is almost depleted.”

  Emma immediately stopped. The electrical magic dissipated.

  “Not bad,” Khairu said. “You’d make a good Dynamist. That would depend on your spear work, though.”

  “I’m not much of a fighter,” she said, between breaths.

  “Dynamists do more than spear play,” Khairu said. “There’s shielding and warding, too.”

  Shielding sounded like fighting to Lucian, too, if only in a defensive manner.

  “Why are we being trained to fight, anyway?” he asked. “I thought the mages were forbidden to use their powers for war.”

  “On their own, yes,” Khairu said. “We serve the League at its discretion, though we maintain control over our internal matters.”

  “That doesn’t answer his original question,” Emma said. “Why are we taught to fight at all?”

  “Because,” Khairu said, “we’ve proven ourselves invaluable. The League guarantees our right to exist, and one day, as in the Swarmer Wars and even as far back as the Mage War, we will be needed for the League’s defense.”

  With the Swarmers back, that only begged the question. Would the mages be getting involved once again?

  “The other academies train their mages for warfare as well,” Khairu went on. “There are only two others officially sanctioned by the League: the Irion Academy and the Mako Academy. However, the League has decreed the Volsung Academy ascendant. Transcend White not only leads us but all the academies if war ever returns.”

  Lucian almost informed her that war had returned until he remembered Transcend White’s prohibition.

  “What Transcend White says goes, then,” Emma said.

  “Correct,” Khairu said. “Those academies are so distant that they are practically fully autonomous. If there ever is another war, that will change. Until then, our job is to vet every mage who can be trained.”

  “And if they can’t be trained?” Lucian asked.

  Khairu glowered. “You know what happens, Novice Lucian. It’s not something anyone relishes, least of all the Transcends.”

  Emma looked at him in warning. But he had to know. “But there are mages who aren’t part of any academy. Right? Rouges, I mean.”

  Khairu’s eyes narrowed. “Yes. Rogue mages slip through the cracks. The Border Worlds especially lack the infrastructure for widespread metaphysical testing. When a report reaches the Academy of a rogue mage, a team of Talents deals with it. Depending on the severity, a Transcend might go as well.”

  “It must be rare because I haven’t seen many Talents come and go,” Emma observed.

  “Oh, our Talents are out there. The more experienced ones. You wouldn’t know what they are on the surface. And that’s the point. But they are there on Academy business, dealing with something only a Talent can deal with.” She gave a small smile. “If you train hard and prove yourself valuable and loyal, that could be your future, too.”

  “How can I reach that point?” Emma asked.

  “It takes a lot before the Transcends are willing to trust a Talent with such a task. They must be sure of their loyalty and abilities. Rogue mages are highly dangerous, and it’s not unknown for Talents to be killed in the hunting of them. That’s why a Talent is seldom sent alone—at a minimum, two Talents will work together, whatever their stated mission.” As an aside, she added, “Usually, one of the Talents sent is a Radiant. Radiants are good at Sensing.” At Lucian’s confused look, she added, “That is, detecting deviations in the Ethereal Background, which can pinpoint a mage’s location.”

  Emma’s eyebrows arched at that. She could do that, at least when she was close to another mage. From her silence, she chose not to share this with Khairu.

  “This is only a fraction of our number,” Khairu said. “At any point, half or more of the Talents are gone on errands. This can be anything from consulting local governments, seeking out new mages, conducting research . . .”

  “. . . or hunting rogues,” Lucian finished.

  “Yes, that too. Transcend Red recently returned from such a hunt of a rogue mage on Arion.” Khairu collapsed her spear and stashed it inside her robe, signaling the end of the lesson. “It’s a rarity for the entire Spectrum to be here at once. I can’t ever remember such a thing happening, and I’ve been here for almost seven years.”

  “And a Talent for how long?” Emma asked.

  Lucian wondered why Khairu was volunteering so much information about herself, especially to Novices like them.

  “Four of those years,” Khairu said. “I advanced quickly, but that’s because they saw my dedication.”

  If becoming a Talent in three years was considered quick, then Lucian had no hope of getting off this island for a long, long time.