The next day when he exited the isolation room Briana herded both him and Kang straight back into it.


    “What’s this about?” Kang asked the moment the door shut, and the chime went off to indicate that the room was secure.


    Briana stood in front of them, determination written across her face. “I want to do what Eloise did. Help me.”


    They both looked at each other, wordlessly communicating the next steps. Tom flicked his head at Kang aggressively.


    The other boy sighed. “Why, Tom? Why do you always leave it to me?”


    “Leave what?” the irate six-year-old snapped. “Are you guys being meanies? What’s he leaving?”


    “The hard conversations.” Kang answered her.


    “What’s hard? I need to do what she does, and I’m good at magic. I’ll learn. And you can both help.”


    “Briana,” Kang said carefully. “Eloise uses force magic. Presumably she has a high affinity for it. You don’t.”


    “I can use water.” She flicked her hand and a missile shot out and struck the combat dummy hard.


    Tom winced.


    That was a new spell, and it was powerful. Based on the slight tears in the combat dummy and the sound of the collision, if it struck his unarmoured flesh, it would cut skin and muscle open, and potentially even damage bone.


    “I just need to use it to do the stepping things.”


    “I don’t think it will work with water.


    “Don’t be big meanies! She was faster than me!”


    “I guess we can look at what’s available,” Kang said helplessly. “But I’ve never heard of water being able to do that.”


    “Water walk?”


    “Is not what she wants,” Kang answered Tom with a little heat. “Don’t give her false hope. Force Step and Air Step are well-known low-tier aerial movement techniques. But there is nothing similar for any of the other affinities.”


    “I disagree. I could… I mean I’ve heard you can kind of do it with earth.”


    Kang shot him another annoyed look. “I’d be surprised if that’s possible without the use of a domain.”


    Tom thought about his own experience and exactly when his control of earth had transitioned into something he could use for aerial mobility. “Yeah, now that I think about it, you’re probably right.”


    Briana, meanwhile, was staring at them with a mix of disbelief, hope, and growing annoyance.


    “Every domain can do it.” Kang continued his lecture. “But as a low-tiered water spell? I’m not sure it’s possible. Maybe with her storm affinity…”


    “Storm is even less likely than water.” Tom told him. “She wants a low-mana spell. Storm has great movement techniques, but they cost too much mana for her to learn.”


    “How do you know that?”


    Tom said nothing. Briana was watching them dangerously.


    “Why do you know that?”


    “Kang,” Tom hissed at him. They were being too careless. “I checked what was available in her other affinities. Arcane is the most likely here.” He whispered, hoping Briana wouldn’t overhear.


    “Stop doing secrets,” she insisted and marched over to the cupboard that held all the spell wire frame diagrams. She threw it open. “Kang. Help me check, please. You’re the best reader.” She pulled out the water domain booklet.


    It was obvious that Kang wanted to run, but Briana seemed to sense that and cornered him.


    “Please - it won’t take long. Please, help. Don’t be a meanie. I need this.”


    Reluctantly, Kang sat down and went through the pages of spell names with her. None of the names were anything like air step, and the other boy stopped reading.


    “You don’t need this, Bri. You have other strengths that would be better to pursue. It doesn’t matter if Eloise is better at this one thing.”


    That was exactly the wrong thing to say. Her frustration that had been building went to the next level. One hand went to her hip, and with her other she poked him on the chest.


    “No,” Briana snapped. “No, she beat me too easily. I need mid-air water jump.”


    “There isn’t a spell like that.” Kang retorted in frustration. “We just read both Storm and Water. There was nothing there that could be changed to be used like force step!”


    Tactically, they had steered her away from Arcane. Both of them knew that getting her to open a new affinity, especially only her fifth strongest, was stupid, and if she realised the solution to her current problem was in Arcane, that is exactly what she would do, and there would be nothing they could do to stop her.


    “I’ll make a new spell then. The teacher said you could craft your own spells.”


    “Experts can create their own spells.” Kang looked at him. “Come on, give me some help here.” He implored.Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.


    “Well, with physics, there’s two ways you can…”


    “Not that type of help,” Kang interrupted him. “Tell her why it won’t work.”


    “No… Tom what were you saying about fizz- Fizz sticks,” she stumbled over the word, unable to pronounce it properly.


    “Physics,” Kang said, glaring at Tom. “But it doesn’t matter. I’ve read everything, and there isn’t a spell you can use as a base. So there’s no point worrying about it.”


    “What does phy, phy stick.” Briana stuttered. “What were you saying? How do I get it working? What are the two ways?”


    “You don’t have either of the affinities that can. The spells don’t support it. Focus on what you’re good at.”


    “Kang, stay out of it.”


    “You asked me to help.”


    “I asked you to help me read,” her face went red. “Let Tom speak. You’re being rude.” She looked at him.


    “Water magic may not support… wait,” he said hurriedly as he saw her preparing to object. “Let me finish, please. I’m trying to be helpful. Water magic may not support what you want to be doing. But to duplicate an air step you either need to manifest water and hold it still enough that you can jump on it, or shoot water out of your feet fast enough to propel yourself upwards.”


    Briana said nothing for a moment. Her face was screwed up in thought, almost as though thinking was painful. She looked from Kang to him, with her face screwing up more and more. Then she went absolutely white.


    “Briana, what’s wrong?” he asked in sudden concern.


    The little girl glanced between them rapidly. She attempted to form words, but couldn’t.


    “Just talk,” Kang advised.


    “Tom, how do you know all that? And how do you both talk so well? Kang was reading words I had never heard before. How did you know them? It doesn’t make sense.”


    “I practice lots,” Kang started.


    “No, stop,” Briana ordered, her hand reaching out in an attempt to cover the taller boy’s mouth. “It’s my turn. I… it.” Her gaze kept switching from one to the other, and her eyes were filled with horror. She was almost hyperventilating. “What aren’t you telling me?” She licked her lips and then they all saw another flood of realisation. An increased conviction in what she had already worked out. She took an unsteady step backwards. “Are you going to die like Ba?”


    “What are you saying?” Kang responded, desperately trying to hide who he was.


    “I don’t know what you’re suggesting.” Tom tried at the same time.


    “Are you going to die like Ba?” She stared at them, one after the other. There were now tears in her eyes. “It’s both of you,” she whispered, sounding shocked. “We’re not talking about this. Never. Don’t talk. Don’t ask. Don’t question.” She repeated the familiar mantra like it meant more to her all of a sudden. Like what had always been something adults repeated continuously, but had no meaning had been transformed into wisdom that was the difference between life and death. “Don’t talk. Don’t ask. Don’t question.”


    “Briana.” Kang tried.


    But she put her fingers in her ears. “Nah, Nah! Nah, Nah!”


    “Briana, we need to talk?”


    “Nah, nah, can’t hear you.”


    She was scrunching her eyes shut, hand over ears and yelling loud enough to drown them out.


    “It’s important.” Tom tried.


    “Can’t hear you, can’t hear you.” Her shouts were hysterical. She ran to the door and triggered the exit.


    Tom went to stop her, but Kang’s hand closed over his shoulder to hold him in place. “No. don’t. It’s too late”


    The doors opened. Kang’s arms had dropped to his side, and his face was a schooled neutral.


    Briana ran out. She had left the isolation room. They couldn’t confront her even if they wanted to.


    With agonising slowness, the doors shut, and there was another chime to demonstrate privacy.


    She knew! That was the only thoughts his mind could hold. There were disasters and there was this. Bri was six, and she had worked out their secret. Their lives were dependent on a six-year-old. Tom wanted to collapse. He wasn’t sure there was anything he could do to save the situation.


    Kang rounded on him. “Physics, Tom - what were you thinking?”


    “The damage was already done.” His mind was running over the conversation and the incongruities that had occurred. “I reckon she had already figured it out by then.”


    “Bullshit.”


    “She suspected from the start. She wasn’t asking children to give her that solution. If we were normal kids, how would we be able to help her with her magic? How could a normal six-year-old help there? She was asking for more.”


    “I’m not sure. If you hadn’t explained physics…”


    “Kang, it wasn’t just me. Water Metamorphosis, Nauseous Murk, Induced Aneurysm, Ephemeral Drowning - what six-year-old can not only read and pronounce them, but also know what each of them meant?”


    His friend froze as he realised exactly how badly he, too, had stuffed up. “I just got lost in the moment.”


    “We both did.”


    “But we can solve this.” Kang said optimistically. “Get her into an isolation room. Gaslight her into forgetting.”


    Tom shook his head. “I reckon that horse has bolted.”


    “We can’t do nothing. Why are you so calm? Do you know how dangerous this is for us?”


    “I’m not an idiot. We might have already written our death sentences. But there’s not much we can do if that’s the case. But I also don’t think she’s going to dob on us.”


    “It’s not what she’ll let slip deliberately.” Kang looked at him in frustration. “It’s the mind reading, the psychic examinations. It won’t be her choice. They’ll get into her brain and steal the information. I’ll set up an emergency meeting with Dimitri. There has to be precedent.”


    Tom grabbed him before he could move. “Absolutely not.”


    “Why?” Kang asked.


    “What’s happens if his response is to kill her?”


    “He wouldn’t,” the other boy blustered. “No, he wouldn’t do that.”


    “Who’s more valuable?” Tom questioned rhetorically. “Dimitri’s a good man, but… Can you be sure he won’t overreact?”


    “No, he’ll just oath bind her or something.”


    “Can he? Removing loose ends might be the only choice they have. I can see a situation where oath binding could make the problem worse. First, it’ll attract attention to her, and second, we’ll have adults doing the ritual, which creates another weak link. I can’t be sure. We’re not telling Dimitri.”


    “We can’t just do nothing!”


    Tom put his head in his hands. He remembered her expression and the mantra she had been chanting. Briana was not going to deliberately betray them, but other things could go wrong. The mind reading, the change in behaviour. She was only six. She couldn’t be expected to react to this maturely, and, as much as he wanted to believe in Dimitri, he knew the pressure the competition put people under.


    He had seen firsthand how good people had done unimaginable things because of a perceived need. As much as he liked him, he could see the situation where Dimitri dealt with the issue by summarily executing her. This was not something he could deal with himself, because he didn’t have all the information required. He needed proper advice.


    “I’m going to talk to Corrine.”


    “And how do you plan on doing that? Because if your plan is to drag her into an isolation room, I’ll stop you. I’m not about to let you expose her.”


    “Once more, Kang, I’m not an idiot. I know I occasionally say stupid things, but in tactical situations like this I’m good. There was a reason I was as valued as I was.”


    “You’re pulling rank on me?”


    “No. I’m not pulling rank, but I will ask Corrine. I made it into the Divine Champions’ trial, and, provided she’s in it at the same time, we can talk, and do it safely. There is no risk. No one can overhear.”


    “You did what? What do you mean that you can talk to her anytime you want?”


    “Sorry, I’m going to go. I’m sure my avatar is capable of answering your questions, but try to stay in here as long as possible. I’ll get proper advice and be back soon.”


    Before Kang could stop him, he mentally took a sideway step, and a moment later he was on blue grass. “Is Corrine here?” he asked immediately.


    “Yes.”


    He turned to face the construct that had once more appeared in his blind spot. “Take me to her.”


    He didn’t know what to do. He didn’t even know how to evaluate how screwed he was. All he could do was hope that Corrine had knowledge that could help them. Because he didn’t need a doctorate in psychology to know that putting his life in the hands of a six-year-old was a terrible idea.