Page 7 of Stormbringer (Tracthesian Academy #1)

W hen Wave made it into the room, she took it all in slowly.

This class was much smaller and held in a classroom that looked more like a science class than a lecture hall.

Natural Elements III was a third-year class.

From what Wave had gathered, the first year had dealt with water and earth, the second year with fire and wind, and the third year started with electricity.

Damn, she could have used some tips on fire elements. She sucked at handling fire.

Water was the most natural to her, inherently woven into her makeup on her siren and stormbringer side. That’s why she had chosen to present as a storm spirit. It was similar, if much weaker, to the elemental branch compared to stormbringers.

Earth wasn’t her strong suit, not even close, especially on dry land, but then it wasn’t an element many others handled well either, so her being crap at it wouldn’t raise anyone’s curiosity. She had never been interested enough in sandstorms to learn.

Now, fire, on the other hand, was an element she had no affinity towards. Zero, nada, null. She could fan the flames with wind or douse them with water, but that was the extent of her abilities and understanding.

Wind was another thing she was good at. She could have pulled wind spirit off in an emergency, but that would have limited her use of water too much.

Storm spirits had some control over the wind.

The trouble was to play down her abilities to an acceptable level.

Stormbringers were on another level regarding their affinities.

Wave found a free seat and took it, once again pulling her notebook out. This class didn’t have a proper course book. Curiously, she looked around her classmates. At least half of them wore some form of mage robes, the other half consisted of a mishmash of everything.

There were a few demons, fire and water, which would have been Wave’s guesses, respectively, of the man and woman sitting together.

From the twitchy moves, she guessed that the other two were some sort of shifters.

Maybe deer or fox? Honestly, she didn’t have any idea.

They might have been some forest spirits, too.

It was just all the green and brown they were wearing that gave her that presumption.

She didn’t have time to observe her classmates further before the teacher of this class, Dr. Johanson, walked in.

She looked like a middle-aged white woman with brown hair and blue, piercing eyes, but what or how old she actually was, Wave didn’t have a clue.

Dr. Johanson carried herself easily in her business suit, though, and there wasn’t a stray hair in sight.

She was probably best friends with Mrs. Smith.

“All right, class. Let’s begin,” she said and clapped her hands, summoning a small spark of electricity.

W ave inwardly cringed and then focused hard on keeping her lightning in the bottle.

Unlike most of her classmates, she had no trouble catching the lightning bolts Dr. Johanson threw at them.

In fact, she could have called all of them to her at once, but acting like it took effort was harder than she would have anticipated.

The task was simple. Catch the lightning bolt in the spelled glass bottle and hold it there until Dr. Johanson dispelled the magic.

Simple in theory, in practice, Wave had to block all her own power from amplifying the effect created by the spell.

One moment of lost focus and there’d be a thunderstorm in the classroom instead of very controlled sparks of electricity.

“Very good, Ms. Spinwell,” Dr. Johanson said as she walked over and waved a hand over her bottle. The bolt fizzled out, and Wave let out a relieved sigh.

“Thank you, Dr. Johanson.”

“Can you duplicate the effect?”

“Ma’am?”

“You held the spell for a long time and contained it quite well. What can you tell me about it based on your observation?”

“Huh?” That wasn’t the most intelligent sound she had ever made, and Dr. Johanson frowned at her before raising her voice for the whole class to hear.

“Every spell and element has its specific signatures and quirks, if you will. Every time you interact with one, it’s an opportunity for you to observe. Mastery over things starts from understanding them. Let’s try again, and this time, pay attention.” She walked to the front, and Wave sighed again.

“Like containing that thing wasn’t hard enough,” she muttered under her breath and got a few agreeing noises. She smiled weakly at the woman sitting next to her.

“Dr. Johanson can be a bit… pedantic. You’ll get used to it,” she said. “I’m Elisa. You are the new girl, right?”

“Yeah, Wayla Spinwell,” Wave replied.

“I’m seraphim, you know,” she said excitedly. “And you are?”

“Elisa,” the guy on her other side sighed. “You know it’s rude to ask that.”

“But that doesn’t make any sense,” Elisa pouted. “And he’s malakim,” she added, pointing at the man.

“Sorry,” the guy said. “Angels are very hierarchical. Announcing our rank is part of the proper protocol,” he grimaced. “I’m Salis. Salis Glowfeather, and please don’t ever call me Mr. Glowfeather.”

“Wayla Spinwell, storm spirit,” Wave introduced herself with a grin. “If you two want to sit next to each other. I can change,” she offered.

“No.”

“No!”

The pair spoke at the same time, Elisa with more vehemence.

“Oookay.” So, she was sitting between two angels who had some issues. Lovely. They were lovely. Salis had brown skin with deep purplish under tone, smooth and perfect, and it was paired with classically even features, a pair of amber eyes, and black hair.

Elisa was a stereotypical angel image, with long blond hair, fairly pale skin, blue eyes, and a round, very cute face. Wave didn’t see a hint of wings anywhere, but their physique hinted at some activity that required lots of core strength, and so did their posture.

“You are making her uncomfortable,” Elisa snapped at Salis.

“No, I’m not,” Salis retorted.

“I’m fine,” Wave tried to interject. She was saved from further bickering by Dr. Johanson throwing out the next round of sparks. This time, Wave almost fumbled with her catch. The spark felt more slippery than last time.

Frowning, she focused harder on holding the thing in the bottle. The damn thing kept trying to wiggle free. Sweat beaded on her brow as she glared at the thing.

“Stay,” she snapped. To her utter astonishment, the spark settled into flowing harmlessly in the middle of the bottle. There was something similar to it than to some of the spells running wild in the faculty library. Not malicious, just something unruly or wild.

“Oh, shit.” Salis’s gasp broke her concentration enough that the spark began to wobble.

“No, no, no,” Elisa groaned next, and that was enough to make Wave glance over. In a spectacular manner, Elisa’s spark exploded between her hands. Instinctively, Wave shied away, and her own spark escaped. She barely had time to fling the thing at the ceiling before it too exploded like a firework.

“Are you all right?” Wave hurried to ask Elisa, who was shaking her hands.

“Yes. The damn thing just zapped my fingers,” she replied.

“Salis?” she asked next.

“Yeah, I’m just trying to see again. It was too close to my face. Dr. Johanson warned us about that,” he groaned.

“So, class,” Dr. Johanson’s voice interrupted them. “What was different this time?”

At that, Wave looked around and realized no one had managed to contain the spark. Silently, she thanked Salis and Elisa for distracting her. Out showing her classmates wasn’t a good way to blend in, scholarship or not.

When the silence stretched to uncomfortable lengths, Wave hesitantly lifted her hand.

“Ms. Spinwell?”

“It was… slippery this time,” she said hesitantly.

“Very good, Ms. Spinwell. The spell wasn’t exactly slipperiness, but more along the lines of hard to hold on to. You all caught it like the previous one, right? The trouble emerged when you tried to control and move the spark, am I correct?”

“Yes, Dr. Johanson,” the class murmured. Some seemed to have some realization, and others just went along to avoid attention. Dr. Johanson deemed that good enough and continued her lesson.

By the time the clock indicated the lesson was over, Wave was discreetly wiping sweat from her brow.

Dr. Johanson had made them catch varied sorts of sparks for the entire two-hour lesson, and keeping an eye on Wave’s fellow students to fumble her attempts at the same rate as her classmates had taken all of her concentration.

She filed out of the room with Salis and Elisa. She looked bright and peppy, having excelled in most of the tasks, while he groaned and rubbed at his eyes.

“You really need to keep those things away from your face,” Wave teased him.

“I tried to fling them to the ceiling like you did,” Salis complained. “Not as easy as you made it look.”

“Maybe you just suck at electricity,” Elisa snorted. “I have to go, Father is picking me up for lunch,” she hurried to say and then hurried down the hall.

“You want to come eat with me in the cafeteria?” Salis offered.

Wave hesitated only a moment.

“Sure. As long as it’s one of the student ones. You know, scholarship and all,” she mumbled. There was nothing to be ashamed of, but still, she felt a bit bad about bringing it up.

“Oh yeah, no problem,” Salis said easily. “You need to stick to the third-year dormitory? Or are all student halls okay?”

“All of them are fine.”

“Then we are going to the Grand Hall. It has the best food.”

“I thought they all had the same stuff?”

Salis laughed. “I see I have a lot to teach you. They all have the same basic options, but the extras vary.”

Wave smiled a bit. “Then lead the way, sensei.”

“I like that.” Salis grinned. “I might demand you call me that from now on.”

“Sure thing,” Wave said and then poked at his side. “So, was Elisa right? Do you suck at electricity?”

Salis’s face fell a bit, and he nodded. “Yeah. I’m more of an earth and wind kinda guy.”