As always, Professor Atlas vin Truscae taught his ethermancy class outside, in an open field of grass just north of the campus. The light fog obscured the town on the horizon, but the lamps of the nearby campus buildings were still visible. An array of metal targets had been constructed atop sturdy wooden tripods at the far end of the field, illuminated from above by wicker torches.


    "The aurascribe is configured with the weaves required to make a fireball," the professor said. "Inscribe the inside surface of your aura with the weave and then line up behind the next available target. All you need to do is reach out and claim the ether inside your aura, then feed that ether into the section of your aura that contains the weave. This will create a fireball in your dominant hand, which you will be able to aim using your palm."


    It was not lost on Quinn that the grass below each tripod was blackened with char and ash.


    "Your goal for this lesson is to hit one of the targets with a fireball," the professor continued. "Any student that shoots a fireball at another student will be responsible for washing all the dishes in the cafeteria for an entire week. You may begin."


    Quinn quickly discovered that magic was actually extremely easy. The sensation had been there for a few weeks, a vague pressure from all directions, extending out like a faint cyan fog all the way to the edge of his tiny aura. Mentally questing outward, he claimed the nearby ether and did as the professor had instructed. A fireball appeared, floating just above his palm, which he aimed at the target. Go, he commanded, and the fireball shot off immediately. When it hit the target it exploded into a drooping spider-like cloud of flame and black smoke.


    "Professor!" one of the other students said. "It''s not working. I can''t claim the ether!"


    "Stand apart!" the professor said. "Look... you are standing right next to another aura. You are both probably trying to claim the same ether. I went over this in class. An aura is a sphere, and two auras of the same size must compete to claim the ether in the overlap between the spheres. You should have paid better attention!"


    Seth shot a fireball at the target. "With this, I''ll be unstoppable!" he said.


    "When you have successfully hit the target one time, come back to the aurascribe and load up the second and third weaves, but don''t remove the fireball weave. The two new weaves can be used to create two barriers, one within and one without. The inner barrier is very strong, but the outer barrier will break after taking a few hits from the fireballs."


    Quinn shuffled over to the aurascribe, followed by a handful of the other students. The thing was a brass box-like machine filled with gears and clockwork, some rotating dials, and a handful of gauges. It also featured a long brass lever extended up from the base. Quinn placed one hand over his heart and then grasped the lever in his other hand. With a determined yank, the lever yielded and then the aurascribe burned the new inscriptions onto the inner surface of his aura. This created a transient, coppery, maze-like pattern in the air, which vanished after a few fractions of a second. Quinn could feel them there, new commands on the edge of his perception, even though the aura itself was invisible.If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.


    "We are going to have ourselves a deathmatch between the boys," the professor said. "Take too many hits from the other students and your outer barrier will break. Once your outer barrier breaks, you must stop participating. The last man standing wins ten percent extra credit on next week''s quiz."


    "Wait!" Seth protested. "If we hit another student, do we still need to wash dishes for a week?"


    This provoked a brief fit of laughter from the other students.


    "You''ll only need to wash dishes if you somehow manage to break the inner aura," the professor replied. "Which would be mathematically impossible for you. The ladies do not need to participate if they don''t want to. The contest will begin on my command."


    "I will not be participating," Princess Kiera announced. "After all, it would be horribly unfair. You boys would be outmatched."


    "Is that so?" Seth asked.


    Kiera Blaine raised her palm and pointed it directly at Seth. A small cloud of cyan ether appeared for a fraction of a second, before it got sucked into a tiny glowing ball between her long, blue-painted fingernails. The air seemed to chill, and a bolt of wintery blue light shot across the field between the students, directly toward Seth. It went straight through both barriers and exploded in his face, showering him in frosty white powder.


    "Heritor Kiera please refrain from murdering the other students," the professor said dryly. "Not unless they''ve paid all four years of tuition, haha."


    "Cold," Seth said, shivering. "It''s so cold!"


    "I would like to participate," Claire Aden said. She marched forward and began fiddling with the aurascribe. "Don''t expect me to go easy on you!"


    "How about a truce?" Seth asked. "We''ll fight each other at the end if we both survive."


    "Deal," Quinn said.


    "Begin!" the professor finally announced.


    They stood facing opposite directions, just far enough apart to create a space between their auras, and started lobbing fireballs at the other students. Claire Aden was just a tiny child compared to the adult students, and Quinn found himself following her swift movements with his eyes. Nobody would dare try to shoot her, Quinn realized. Her family owns this school, after all.


    Claire was physically very quick, and in that obnoxious way common to some children, she seemed leagues ahead of the other students in terms of skill with an aura. I suppose that''s what happens when you have Heritor Kiera as your private tutor, Quinn thought. What the hell? I''m not going to hit her anyway.


    He summoned a fireball and shot it toward Claire Aden, just moments after she blasted one of the other students with a rapid trio of her own fireballs. This seemed to have caught her off-guard, because to Quinn''s untrained eye, the fireball developed into an unavoidable hit right on the palm of her hand. But the fireball did not explode. Instead, she shot it right back at Quinn, followed by two more shots that penetrated his outer aura and threw him back into the grass.


    "Nice partial activation!" the professor beamed. "That''s exactly what I would expect from a princess of the Aden clan!"


    Dazed, Quinn stared up at his brother. Seth managed to take out a dozen other students, but in the end he was no match for Claire Aden, and they both ended up sprawled on the smoldering grass.


    "Remind me not to make her angry," Seth said.


    "Father Winter," Quinn said. "I tried to shoot her with a fireball. Do you think I''ll get expelled?"