Yerin had her hand on her chin, deep in thought. After her conversation with Sowon, she was given time to think things over. Hearing the girl who preceded SinB with lie detector made her think a lot more than she would have. It wasn’t just because of one fall out that the girl died, but something else she learned as well. She understood well why Sowon hadn’t told the full story but seeing as they were going to be working tog- well they would be working together if she agreed to bring her team into this secret war. With the new information on her hands, she rubbed her hands together, causing smoke to rise. She glared angrily at the smoke, rubbing even more furiously.

“Damn it!”

               Yuju ran out of the bedroom, she was excluded from the talk about the girl, but she knew that Yerin had a very important decision to make as their leader. If Yerin was frustrated, she needed to help her relax. Rushing over and dousing Yerin’s hands in water, Yuju pulled them apart to make sure that Yerin didn’t burn herself, which she knew that it wouldn’t be possible as the older was a fire-based mage, but she still worried.

“Unnie, don’t hurt yourself over it. Whatever it is, it doesn’t need you to feel so guilty you’d damage yourself.”

“I just wished I could’ve done something!”

“Did you know her?”

“I didn’t she was in the year above me and I-“

“Then you couldn’t have helped her, she died before you even finished getting used to the academy, there would have been no way for you to have helped her.”

“But-“

“Hupupup, no. You should just be grateful that you have this information to help our SinB in the future, right?”

“It’s not that Yuna yah, it’s not just that.”

               Yuju furrowed her brows as Yerin held her head in her hands, extremely saddened by what had happened so close to her but she hadn’t known a single thing about. Taking Yerin’s hands once more, she held them close to her chest, looking her partner in the eyes.

“Whatever you decide, we’ll go with you. We’re a team and we’re team one out of all the teams. YYUS.”

               Pursing her lips into a thin line, Yerin nodded solemnly, but looked back down in her lap. Yuju reached to lift her chin to make eye contact again.

“Listen, you’re not alone.”

“I know.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

               Sowon jogged in the training room, running laps around the interior of the room endlessly as her mind was figuring things out at a mile a minute. Coming to a slow stop, Sowon sat in the middle of the room and used her magic to bring her water bottle from her bag to her, by pulling on the water inside the bottle, she could control where it went. Drinking the water in generous amounts, she then lay down in her sweat as she looked up at the ceiling. Holding her hand in front of her, she clenched it into a fist above herself.

“Sowon unnie?”

“Eunha.”

               Eunha walked in and closed the door behind her, kneeling at Sowon’s side as Sowon caught her breath and began to cool down from her exercise. Looking curiously down at her mentor, Eunha gave a smile.

“So, what are we learning today?”

“I said you needed work on stamina.”

“Okay, how about the magic?”

“Well, let’s see how you do. Summon a fireball for me.”

               Drawing her hands together to form a bowl of sorts, Eunha concentrated in the air in her hands, imagining them to ignite as she focused her energy. When the first flame appeared, Sowon slapped her hands apart. Shocked, Eunha looked wide eyed at Sowon before seeing her gesture to do it again.

“Too slow, again.”

“I’ll have you know that fire is my weakest.”

“Good, we’ll start here then. Make a fireball, faster than I can put out.”

               Creating a flicker in her hands that were now more protectively covering a smaller amount of air, she swiftly moved out of the way as Sowon’s hand came close again, only to find her hands drenched in water that retreated to Sowon’s water bottle.

“Again.”

               Giving a frustrated growl, Eunha formed her flicker again and again until she was exhausted and Sowon was satisfied for the day. Laying down on the floor, Eunha relaxed as her body tried to replenish the magic into her system.

“You know how magic is in the air right?”

“Yes.”

“Well, I say air, but I mean space itself. Not outer space, but right here in this area kind of space. Our bodies draw from the space around us for us to manipulate and use. What happens when a mage runs out of magic?”

“Wait? They don’t run out of magic then?”

“Good job, they don’t run out of magic. Their bodies are just too worn out to gather the magic from around them.”

“Then how to the drug enhancers work?”

“Aha, I’ll get there. Our bodies and magic have a relationship much like a muscle. The stronger your muscles are the more they are able to do right? A big chunk of muscle allows you to lift more weight than others do.”

               Eunha nodded carefully, it kind of made sense, the ability to use magic could be trained, so long as you had this ‘muscle’ to draw the magic from the air.

“We use magic by coursing it through ourselves and then passing it out in our usage, the drugs, only enhance the intake of magic and alter the amount put out.”

“But that man had acid magic? I’ve never heard of anyone using magic outside the elements.”

“I think you’d find it surprising how many types of magic there are, the elements are the basic few. The rare individuals who can control otherwise are born special or are taking a new kind of drug that poisons their own system in order to affect what comes out.”

“Do you think he was a natural?”

               Sowon shook her head solemnly, taking Eunha’s hand, she traced her fingers over the little ridges on the back of Eunha’s much smaller hand.

“All magic users with unique elements are recorded by our universal overseer.”

“The government?”

“The union of governments, the one where all of our governments meet together for the global stuff.”

               Sitting up and pulling Sowon on her feet too, Eunha grinned as she flickered a flame on the tip of her index finger.

“I’ve gotten much faster.”

“I suppose you did.”

“But I wanted to ask something small.”

“What would that be?”

“Why does our recuperation time decrease on school campus compared to off campus?”

“How did you know that? Students don’t know this until they are seniors because they have to go out for their missions and by then can feel the difference.”

“Ah, I was just wondering why I was able to use magic so quickly after I drained so much just now.”

               Sowon gave her a skeptical look but let it go, they were partners and partners had no need to lie to each other. Giving Eunha the benefit of the doubt and praising her instead for her sensitivity to realizing it, she agreed.

“Our school grounds actually have a machine underneath it, gathering magic actively in a different place to disperse in the area inside the barrier. As we are students learning how to best use the magic, we tend to spend more and that means that the area around us would be completely drained. Which is why we have the machine supplying the grounds with extra magic. You must just have high healing resilience.”

               Eunha rubbed the back of her neck and chuckled a little. It wasn’t like she could tell her mentor that she arrived at this academy on an emergency stretcher, right? That wouldn’t be a ‘small’ matter now would it?

===========

Did you know? I started off fanfiction in the adventure and action side of things then discovered fluff :P