Vel's boots sank into the sandy training ground as he scanned the enormous space. The area could hold the entire academy, yet only a handful of unstable students dotted the vast emptiness.
Vel pulled his jacket tighter against the dawn chill, watching pale mist drift across the ground in the early light.
Tomas spotted him and waved, his normally cheerful face drawn with fatigue. "This has to be some kind of mistake, right?" he called as Vel approached. "Even the kitchen staff was barely awake when I passed by."
"No mistake," Vel replied, adjusting his uniform collar. "Lyvenna's message specifically said before the sixth bell."
One by one, the other unstable group members arrived. Enya trudged in with her hair hastily tied back, and Mira followed shortly after, looking surprisingly alert for the early hour. Rohen appeared last, stifling a yawn.
"Morning," Enya mumbled, rubbing sleep from her eyes.
"Good morning," Mira replied with considerably more energy. "Any clue why we're here so early?"
The students exchanged sleepy greetings and theories about their unusual summons. Vel leaned against one of the columns, listening to their speculations.
"Maybe they're going to teach us secret techniques," Tomas suggested hopefully.
"Or maybe she's planning to test illegal spells on us," Enya countered, stretching her arms above her head.
The conversation stopped when Instructor Lyvenna arrived, her footsteps purposeful as she crossed the training ground. Unlike her students, she appeared fully awake and prepared, her eyes moving from student to student as if taking mental notes.
"Good morning, students," she called, her voice carrying clearly across the empty space. "I appreciate your punctuality."
As she approached, Vel noticed how her gaze kept drifting toward the training ground entrance, fingers drumming against her leg. Despite her composed demeanor, something seemed off. Her usual confidence remained, but underneath it lurked a watchfulness that made him wonder what she expected.
"Today is our basic practical lesson based on what we learned yesterday," Instructor Lyvenna continued, clasping her hands behind her back. "Did you bring your foci as instructed?"
The students nodded, each patting various pockets or pouches where their crystals rested. Vel felt the weight of his in his uniform's inner pocket, right against his chest.
"Instructor, why the unusual class schedule?" Vel asked, stepping forward slightly. "Classes don't usually start this early."
Lyvenna's gaze shifted briefly toward the entrance again before returning to Vel. A slight smile appeared on her face, the kind that looked more like a practiced response than genuine warmth.
"Don't you feel different waking up this early?" she countered. "The temperature, the moisture, the shade... perfect for physical training, is it not?"
There was truth in her words, but Vel sensed another reason for the early hour. Something she wasn't telling them.
"I see you're all still handling your foci directly," Lyvenna observed, changing the subject. "That won't be practical for spellcasting in actual applications."
Tomas brightened, eager to share. "I found a solution!" He pulled a slender wand from his bag, its maple wood polished to a rich amber gleam. Grinning with nervous excitement, he firmly pressed his crystal into the socket carved at the tip until it clicked into place. "The shopkeeper said maple wood has excellent resonance properties."
"Very good, Mr. Mardin," Lyvenna nodded her approval. "A traditional approach, but effective."
Mira already had her solution prepared, Vel observed. She attached her focus to the leather cover of her notebook, sliding it into a specially designed clasp that held it firmly in place.
Vel smiled watching his friends adapt his designs. Back in Aeonalus, there were different weapon types for mages—wands, staffs, grimoires, crystal orbs. To see those game concepts come to life through his classmates filled him with quiet satisfaction.
"What about you?" Lyvenna asked, turning back to Vel.
"I'm still deciding," he admitted. "I was thinking about a sword mount, but..."
"Ambitious," Lyvenna commented, leaning forward slightly. "Few have successfully merged foci with bladed weapons. The resonance interference can be... unpredictable."
"What do you mean?" Vel asked, his curiosity evident.
Lyvenna gestured with her hands as she explained. "Mana resonance between sword arts and magic works differently. The disharmony takes a toll on the blade itself. Most common case, the blade would shatter under the conflicting forces."
Vel tilted his head down, contemplating as Lyvenna continued her lesson.
She turned her attention back to the group. "Now, remember the spell magic circle and the incantation you've written in your notes yesterday. I want you all to cast the spell aligned with your own elements."
They formed a wider circle, giving each other space for spellcasting. Tomas went first, his expression intensely focused as he gripped his new wand.
A small fireball formed at the wand's tip, hovering for several seconds before wobbling erratically. The flame shifted color from red to orange to an earthy brown before extinguishing with a small puff of smoke.
Mira followed, attempting to levitate a small stone with "Terras Levium Aeris." The pebble rose shakily about a foot before dropping suddenly, as if the opposing forces of earth and air had reached a stalemate.
Rohen's water shield formed beautifully before dissolving into mud as his earth affinity interfered. Enya's lightning spark kept dissipating into water droplets, electric charge lost in the conductive element.
Then it was Vel's turn. He needed to fail, but in a believable way. Ice magic was his most practiced—a natural choice for someone trying to demonstrate their primary affinity.
"Zetahn Feryis..." he began, applying his newly learned sigil knowledge. He set the Ice Lance duration short, then replaced it with Conjure Water while omitting most of the incantation.
"...Crystallum," he finished, channeling just enough mana to activate the modified structure.
A small ice shard formed above his crystal, perfect in structure for just a moment before dissolving into a droplet of water that splashed onto the sand. To any observer, it would appear as though his ice spell had simply failed to maintain stability—exactly what would be expected from someone with unstable attunement.
"Interesting," Lyvenna commented, watching the wet spot darken the ground. "Your initial formation was quite precise before it destabilized."
Vel feigned disappointment. "It always does that," he said, which wasn't exactly a lie—his deliberately sabotaged spell would always fail in exactly this way.
Lyvenna nodded, addressing the group again. "Now this is the way the Academy always teaches us unstable students—" She paused, noticing her slip. "That is, students with unstable attunement," she corrected smoothly.
The momentary lapse didn't escape Vel's notice. It confirmed what she'd admitted during their private conversation—she too bore the classification that the Academy saw as a limitation.
"The traditional approach is repetition," she continued. "Cast the same spell again and again until muscle memory and mana pathways align. Eventually, with enough practice, your conflicting elements will reach a compromise of sorts."
She paced the circle thoughtfully, observing each of them.
"However..." she added, her gaze settling on Vel, "there may be alternative approaches worth exploring. Vel here might have a better solution."
Vel suddenly understood her intent. His classmates turned to him with expressions ranging from curiosity to confusion, and despite seeing it coming, the pressure still made him uncomfortable.
"I... well, it's just a theory," Vel began hesitantly, glancing at Lyvenna who gave him an encouraging nod.
He paused, weighing his words carefully before continuing. "What if our attunements aren't actually unstable in the traditional sense? What if there's another element interfering with the balance?"
Watching Lyvenna quietly give him space to speak, Vel realized maybe she wanted to turn this lesson into a brainstorming session.
"I've been thinking about this," Vel said carefully. "What if our approach to unstable attunement has been fundamentally misguided?"
His classmates leaned forward with interest. Even Enya, who had been stifling yawns, seemed suddenly alert.
"You see, from my understanding, casting a spell contains three processes," Vel continued, warming to his subject. "Command, Consume, Complete."
He held up three fingers, ticking them off one by one.
"Your incantation—your intent—is the Command. Then your mana channeling into the spell through the magic circle fuels it—Consume. Finally, Complete is the execution of the spell itself."
Lyvenna nodded encouragingly, her eyes bright with interest.
"My theory is that due to... our... condition," Vel said, acknowledging Lyvenna's earlier slip with a knowing glance, "something is lost during the Command phase."
He moved to the center of their circle, drawing lines in the sand with his boot to illustrate his point.
"We're essentially speaking two languages at the same time, trying to communicate with two different spirits. They fail to understand our command because it's contradictory."
Tomas frowned thoughtfully. "But why doesn't this happen to other dual-element students? There are plenty with two affinities who cast just fine."
"That's exactly it," Vel replied, encouraged by the engagement. "I'm not entirely certain yet, but I have a theory. Something causes our elements to tangle instead of harmonize."
He paused, glancing at Lyvenna before saying the word that could change everything: "Chaos."
Vel hesitated, feeling pairs of eyes fixed on him expectantly. He scratched the back of his neck, a habit when he was processing complex thoughts out loud.
"There's one last element that hasn't been recognized..." he began slowly, as if testing the idea himself. "Or maybe it was dormant for so long that our current society doesn't even know about its existence."
He traced a new symbol in the sand—a swirling pattern that resembled a question mark, similar to their uniform emblem patch, unlike the clean lines of traditional elemental sigils.
"What if we don't just have two elements? What if we actually have three, with Chaos being one of them?"
Enya tilted her head, frowning. "Chaos? That's not in any of the textbooks."
"That's exactly my point," Vel replied, growing more confident. "You see, Chaos isn't tangible. It's not like Fire or Water, or even Light and Dark—something we can see. Chaos doesn't materialize in the same way."
He looked around at his classmates. Tomas appeared skeptical but intrigued. Mira was leaning forward, her eyes intense with concentration.
"But it's there, in each of us... in theory." Vel tapped his chest. "The question is, how do we properly communicate with this third spirit, while also accommodating the other two, in a single spell?"
Lyvenna had grown very still, her expression unreadable as she watched Vel develop his theory in real time.
"Maybe," Vel continued, inspiration striking him, "we need to cast spells that always contain two elements instead of one, while also creating a pathway toward the Chaos spirit."
Vel drew another diagram in the sand—a traditional dual-element sigil structure, but with a third channel branching off, leading to the chaotic swirl he'd drawn earlier.
The sand diagrams at his feet grew more complex as he sketched connections between the symbols.
"We've been fighting it, trying to control the chaos, but... what if we embrace our so-called instability instead?"
As the words left his mouth, something clicked in Vel's memory. He recalled a spell from Aeonalus—one that fit exactly the nature of what he was trying to explain.
Stormbringer.
An area-of-effect lightning spell that struck enemies randomly within the caster's vicinity. The unpredictable targeting had never made sense with traditional elemental theory, but now... that randomness could be Chaos energy manifesting naturally. He even remembered seeing Kazar cast something similar against the Wulfang.
Vel turned to Lyvenna, excitement building in his chest. "Instructor, do you know of a spell called Stormbringer? Or perhaps its sigil structure?"
Lyvenna's eyebrows rose slightly. "That's an advanced combat spell, rarely taught below third-year curriculum. Why do you ask?"
"I believe it might contain the key to working with our... condition," Vel replied carefully. "The randomized targeting system could be a natural expression of Chaos energy."
Before Lyvenna could respond, the sound of voices drifted across the training ground. Her expression shifted instantly, the openness replaced by professional reserve. She glanced toward the entrance—the direction she'd been watching all morning.
What Lyvenna had been wary about came true. The other groups of students were slowly filling in the training ground, their uniforms pristine in the morning light. Among them, Severin Thornwood's voice carried clearly across the sand.