Suho had never been more distracted in his life. It felt like through every class, every break, and every practice session, he only had one thing on his mind.

  He could use magic? Him? It had hit him like a bolt out of the blue, and his head needed time to recalibrate. But once he finally accepted that this wasn't a pipe dream, suddenly every thought he had led straight back to thinking about how he could use it.

  His hands were itching to try it again. Even as he was laying spread eagle on the ground, staring up at the bright lights of the spearmanship classroom—

  “Earth to Suho? Are you even there?”

  Jaejin waved his hands over his eyes. He’d beaten Suho weirdly easily today during their sparring period. He’d been totally unfocused.

  Suho sat up without responding to him. He’d considered trying to use defense magic mid-spar, but that one second of distraction had led to his defeat. It certainly wasn't a skill he could summon in a combat situation yet. It’d be like bringing a shiny new knife to a gun fight. But his mind kept going back to magic nonetheless.

  His eyes locked onto Yuna as he descended the steps from the sparring ring. She pretended not to notice. But he bulldozed right through her attempt at staying distant.

  “Yuna,” he called, going over to her, “how did you learn to use magic?”

  The next pair to spar went up, and the class went on, but anyone with energy to spare zeroed in on their conversation. It wasn't often that anyone had the guts to make Yuna talk about herself.

  “My magic was naturally awakened,” she responded. That was already common knowledge.

  “Were you good at using Ice Realm to begin with?” Suho asked.

  “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  Yuna wrinkled her nose. She didn't like the insinuation that she was ever bad at her specialty.

  “You’re really good at magic,” he said. “I can't even imagine how you control it. How did you learn to do that?”

  She considered his question. In the past, when she first awakened at thirteen, she certainly didn't have total control over her powers. Although Ice Realm had always been in her roster of skills, magic was never easy for children to control.

  “I went through the basics,” she replied. “I started from using ice magic to sculpt shapes. If you can’t even do that much, then you’ll never be able to control it during combat.”

  Suho’s eyes widened. That was right. When he’d made his first shield, the shape had been hazy. He wasn't at the stage where he could materialize it into the form he wanted yet.

  “Once I got the shapes down, I had to learn how to make them faster and faster,” Yuna said. “I’m an expert now.”

  She held up her hand, and instantly a clean star of ice appeared above her palm.

  “Did you start combat training after that?” Suho asked.

  “No way.”

  She closed her fist, and the star disappeared.

  “Then I learned how to turn one shape into another shape. Like this.”

  This time, a cube of ice formed at the end of her finger. She drew it in a circle, and as it moved, it turned into a pyramid, and then a sphere.

  “Does this count as using Ice Realm?” he asked.

  The ice magic dissipated as Yuna raised an eyebrow.

  “Of course not,” she replied. “Something this small doesn't even register as a skill on the status window. It’s just basic ice magic.”

  “Then how did you go from this to Ice Realm?”

  “I told you. Basics. I did my basics until I’d beaten them halfway to hell, and then I did them bigger. Are you not in any magic classes?”

  “I’m not.”

  …?

  Yuna frowned.

  “Wait, then why are you asking me about magic?” she said.

  “I want to know about it, and you’re the best mage in our year.”

  Normally, she hated flattery, but she’d been in classes with Suho for long enough to know that he never lied. Hearing it felt kind of good this time.

  “I’m the best mage among all the students,” she corrected.

  “Really? I haven't met the third years, so—”

  “I am.”

  She wasn't lying. Even the third year mages couldn't match up to her. She often pitied them for being overshadowed by the year below. They’d cuss her out if they knew those were her thoughts.

  “Anyway, if you don't even have a grasp on the basics, then just throw away the idea of using it in a fight,” she said. “Thinking about magic you can't control mid-battle will get you killed.”

  “Thanks for the advice—”

  “Enough chatting!” Amanda, the instructor, shouted. She was looking at them from the foot of the stage, where two other students were coming down from their spar. “This is Advanced Spearmanship, not a magic class. Focus!”

  The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  “Hmph.”

  Although Suho’s eyes went back to the class, his mind was still on another topic. Distracted—this time, by shapes.

  ⊕

  He zoomed through the rest of his day. Classes were a blur. His assistant work with Hwan didn't involve anything complicated. The remedial homework he had to do for Raid Architecture this week had already been turned in. So the moment he was free from his other responsibilities, Suho booked a training room and occupied it.

  Shapes. As Yuna had pointed out, he didn't even have basic shapes down yet. If he wanted to do anything with magic, then he’d have to get past this hurdle first.

  Suho sat down on the ground in the center of the room. He held his hands out and tried to imagine the feeling he’d gotten the last time he’d activated magic, when Lucian had been peppering him with magic bullets. He focused it on his palms.

  A blue glow covered them. Like before, it was hazy, and it was thinner and smaller in area than before, barely covering the air around his hands this time. Maybe Lucian had been right—learning to activate it mid-battle had been more effective than doing it while relaxed.

  Suho had taken his watch off and placed it on the ground. It was projecting a slideshow he’d found online on the easiest magic shapes to practice. The most basic, apparently, was a circle.

  The shield started to move. It solidified, darkening in color. The edges, previously smudged, slowly formed a clearer edge. But as Suho focused on it, he couldn't quite get it to be circular.

  It was ovular at best. When he tried to push the long side in to make it a proper circle, he’d lose control of the other parts, and it’d end up misshapen again. It was like trying to mop water into a perfect circle—it kept flowing out again the moment he left it alone.

  Suho sighed and extinguished the shield. People even found drawing a perfect circle by hand hard, so there was no way doing it with magic was going to be easier. Yuna might've had a slightly easier time with ice, since it wasn't so fluid. But then he had a thought. Maybe he was going about this wrong. Every element had its quirks. Yuna’s was solid. His was less so. And as Lucian said, it worked best in motion.

  No defense mage casting a shield had time to summon their magic and then form a shape. They had to visualize what they were going to make before executing it.

  Suho took a deep breath. He stopped thinking of it as magic. Instead, he imagined it as equipment. He held out his arm and focused.

  An electric feeling went through his head. It was as shocking and exhilarating as it had been before. And before his eyes, almost instantly, a circular shield of magic appeared over his arm.

  This time, it wasn't lopsided, and it held its shape strongly. Out of curiosity, he hit it against the floor a couple times. It clanged like metal.

  Suho smiled, elated that it had worked. But the moment he stopped thinking about it, the shield burst into sparks and disappeared.

  “…Oops.”

  Right. Despite his success, he was still definitely a beginner. There were a lot of shapes for him to practice, but for now, he needed to perfect the simplest one.

  As Yuna had said: Basics. Do them until they’re second nature, and then you can dream about fancier things.

  He held his arm out again.

  “Okay.”

  Suho took a deep breath and closed his eyes.

  “One more time.”

  ⊕

  In the abandoned warehouse they had been using as a meeting point, Thorn was calling someone. In his hands was a small pyramid of metal, a magic device that could call another person and leave absolutely no trace behind. Behind him, Fleur watched with her arms crossed.

  It dialed, ringing on and on…

  “Are you sure about this?” Fleur asked. “I don't trust an elf.”

  “They are our only shot at doing this cleanly.”

  In order to go forward with their search for Cielo, they needed to get Lucian. He would not come voluntarily, and his absence would immediately raise alarms. Fleur didn't care if the humans noticed, but Thorn did. They had already done enough to attract attention. He was determined to lay low until the end of their mission, if at all possible.

  In order to keep people from noticing that Lucian was gone, there was a simple solution: they needed somebody who could replace him—a mage who could become a perfect doppelganger. Some fire spirits could change their features slightly, like how Lohan had a form that could blend in with humans, but a total imitation was impossible. That’s why they needed allies, no matter how unwilling Fleur was to call an elf.

  The person on the other side of the device finally picked up. A female voice flowed through.

  “Hello,” she said.

  “This is Team Red Elf,” Thorn said. “Did you receive our message?”

  “Indeed I did.”

  She sounded relaxed, almost amused. This was why Fleur didn't like elves. They always acted like everything was a fun game. The tone didn't make Thorn like her much either.

  “We require an imitation expert,” he said. “There’s somebody here we need to replace.”

  “For how long?” she asked.

  “Indeterminate. It shouldn't be longer than a week.”

  “Only? What are you going to do to the poor bastard?”

  “We just need to get information from him. If he cooperates, it will be easy.”

  “They never do.”

  “Then we will do what we need to do to further our mission.”

  “What if you accidentally kill the guy?”

  Thorn frowned at the suggestion. The woman on the other side still sounded like she was having fun rather than speaking seriously.

  “…Then your job will end. You don't need you to imitate a person who won't return.”

  “Hm…”

  She considered it.

  “Man or woman?” she asked.

  “We’re wasting our time here,” Fleur muttered. Thorn shook his head to shush her.

  “It’s a man,” he answered.

  “Age?”

  “He’s 38 in human years.”

  “Oh? Is he good-looking?”

  Thorn scoffed. As expected of an elf.

  “By human standards, people seem to think he is,” he replied.

  “Give me his name.”

  “He’s called Lucian de Loren.”

  There was a pause on the other end. She definitely was searching him up. After a tense silence…

  The woman whistled. You could almost hear her grin.

  “What a man,” she said. “Alright, I’ll help you. But you can’t kill him. Save some of him for me.”

  “…Fine,” he agreed. Thorn would do whatever it took. “Do we have an agreement, then?”

  “Absolutely.”

  “When’s the soonest you can come join us?”

  “I have some loose ends to wrap up,” she said. “I have an identity I need to maintain, unlike you guys. Maybe a week?”

  “Okay. The fire sprites will show you the way once you arrive.”

  “I look forward to meeting your victim. Kidnap him quickly for me.”

  “We’ll move as soon as it’s possible.”

  He hung up. He’d heard enough. Elves were skilled mages, but too much for him. Fleur still looked pissed.

  “Is she really going to get this job done right?” she asked.

  “She has to. An elf understands more than anyone the importance of capturing Cielo.”

  Alfheim, the kingdom of the elves, had suffered the most because of him, though the entire kingdom alliance had taken a blow. Although Múspell was on the front line of the mission to find and eliminate the traitors, since they were the best at staying under the radar, Alfheim had been more than supportive behind the scenes. Homunculi like Fleur had actually been built and programmed with their help.

  Now, they had to pin their hopes on one of those very elves.