Why don't you ask Edin

Sitting on the bed you reach out and gently shake his shoulder. He stirs and looks at you. "Do you want me to stay with you?"

He smiles up at you and sighs, snuggling into the bed but moving away from your hand. "Can I be alone for a bit?"

You lean down and plant a soft kiss on his forehead, "I'll be back soon Princess." He shifts in discomfort and rolls onto his side facing away from you. Your concern for his well being is renewed but if you disobey his wishes at this point it wouldn't help. He had his agency taken from him, offering it back then taking it away again might make you feel better but it could only hurt him.

You leave the room taking care to walk softly to not disturb him. You aren't sure what the time is so you aren't sure how long you'll be waiting. Anastasia and Vatarie had gone to lunch so it couldn't have been that late. As you approach the training field you detect the mass of students. The practical must still be taking place and you really aren't in the right state of mind to be patronized right now. You linger by the building keeping your perception stretched out over the students feeling as they release bursts of magic. It is a strange feeling. You'd obviously felt it before but so far those experiences had been limited to above average talents, Stephanie and her class not to mention your previous teachers.

All of the magic you feel now is child-like. Everyone here is eighteen or nineteen so they aren't children but it was hard to conceptualise the gap in talents you had seen displayed in others. An occasional burst of magic did spark interest, you felt a familiar tingle and quickly managed to identify your friends. If friends is the right word, you'd known these people for under a week. You felt a kinship towards these people though being accurate that is probably just lust and physical attraction.

While you pondered the specific terminology, trying to avoid settling on harem or fuck-buddies the classes start to wrap up. When you feel the magic coming off people quiet you look up waiting for people to depart before go to the arena for Stephanie's class. Much like last time some people leave but some stay, less than yesterday but still some.

As students walk past you you pull your perception back into yourself. Of all the things you'd developed over your short time here your control over your perception was the most stark. At a guess you simply put it down to your usage, you'd never spent time around large numbers of people, now that you were around large numbers your development was excessively stressed.

As you enter the arena you feel the students in the stands looking at you and whispering. Without question speculating on Anastasia, Vatarie, possibly Asune, and your absence. Hopefully that speculation wouldn't get in anyone's way. Alternatively they were just talking about your display yesterday and how you might perform today.

You wait on the packed dirt as your class mates came to join you. You could feel some hostility from the lower numbers, that you knew was down to your performance yesterday. No matter your first display your most recent was far easier to recall.

Anastasia and Vatarie arrived together talking with a familiarity you hadn't expected to them to have founded so quickly. You wondered if they had any personal history, Anastasia had asked you about Vatarie's reason for being in the capital, maybe there was an existing relationship to build on.

Anastasia gave you a nod of greeting as she stood next to you, leaving a notable absence. You look around for Asune but can't see her. Since the last time you saw her she was contemplating what to do with Rasia you hoped she hadn't something Asune-like.

"Hello Christopher." Asune said from beside you. You locked up for a moment and she said, "Sorry you asked me to stop doing that."

Hearing her say sorry made you worried she had been mortally wounded somehow. "Hey Asune, are you ok?" You asked unable to stop yourself.

"I am happy, though our pet requires some training before I want to present her to you." She says with a wide smile. The real joy on her face and in her aura made you uncomfortable. You preferred her normal disaffected personality to happy worryingly vague without being vague enough personality.

You stay quiet and wait for Stephanie's arrival. When she does she launches into her instructions. "Everyone will fire your strongest long range spell at this target," she pointed at a straw dummy by the end of the arena, there were a number of student behind it who suddenly looked around and stood. "Sit, if you want to watch you will be of use." Stephanie stated. Some sat back down a few walking off the stands. Stephanie made no move to stop them so a few more left. At the end their were only two students left looking a little nervous. "Twelve."

Twelve walked onto the packed dirt and looked down the range at the dummy and the two students down range. She raised an arm and a pulse shot out of her. The only you had to compare it to was the pulse from the bully from yesterday and this one was significantly stronger but still just a gust of air. The dummy was knocked over and the two students were pushed into their seat but sat back up with grins of excitement rather than worry. What hit them was much weaker than it should have been so you checked the magic and saw two barriers, one in front of the dummy another between the students and the dummy itself. The first was a simple defensive muter the second was a total dispelling but did nothing for the air that had been moved itself.

"Eleven." Stephanie called out. You wondered what would trigger her lesson today.

Eleven came up and fired with a notable amount of concentration fired a bolt of fire. The dummy was left a little darkened but not burns at all. You waited for the lesson about how defensive magic would negate any magic attack and the most effective method was to use magic to fire a physical object at your target.

"Ten." Stephanie called out leaving you a little let down. You thought you'd figured out her teaching method.

The numbers were counted down and the dummy was progressively damaged, though not by much. The most damage that had been sustained was that the dummy was now wet, seven decided to use ice which had turned to water when it hit the defensive barrier.

"Five." Stephanie said and Vatarie walked to the field.

Unlike the others Vatarie created her magical gauntlets and jabbed. She moved faster than sound and with a loud bang a bullet made of compressed air shot forwards. The centre of the dummy was hollowed out leaving Vatarie grinning. Stephanie made no comment just nodding and calling out, "Four."

Four produced a pulse that didn't do much more than other attempts and you felt Vatarie's satisfaction at having done more. "Three."

Anastasia walked to the field and waved her hand and a lines of magic shot from her finger tips. The five bolts arched over to the dummy and something interesting happened. Five small holes appeared on the dummy's head. It cut through the defensive barrier without issue and it took your a second to see how she'd done it. As her hand lowered to her said you saw the tips of her finger nails were slightly shorter. Firing your own finger nails to get around a defensive barrier was actually really smart. It hadn't even occurred to you that you could do that, all your though about was picking up a rock.

"Two."

Asune walked up and something weirder happened. The dummy's head feel off. You checked for magic but couldn't see anything magical. Everyone seemed to feel the same as confusion spread out amongst the students. Asune returned to her spot without displaying any indication of how she had just done that.

"One."

You walked over still trying to figure out what happened. You looked at the defensive barrier and couldn't see anything that gave away how she had done that. You fired off a disintegration that you wrapped in another disintegration to take care of both the barrier and the dummy while you looked at Asune to figure out how she'd done what she had.

Your spell deactivated the barrier and the dummy feel to atomised dust except for the head which was laying on the ground. There was confused looks at you then the dummy, including from Stephanie herself. She looked at the now gone barrier unable to find any trace of the magic it had been made of.

You walked back to your place and Stephanie waited a little longer before walking forwards. "Countering a defense is a vital skill important. Another is to not tip your hand on your what your strongest skill is, it gives your opponents time to think of a counter." She looked at the dummy's head and it's pile of atoms. "If they are able to." You wondered if she had any idea how either you or Asune had done that. "We will begin with simple defensive barriers." She held up a hand pointed at you and you pulled a barrier in front of you out of instinct. "Speed is important but so is knowing when an opponent will strike, holding a barrier drains your magic and that is a resource that will get you killed if you don't pay attention."

You didn't feel like that lesson applied to you for rather obvious reasons but you took note anyway. It was good advice to a point. Stephanie began walking everyone through barriers and how to created them. Everyone had the basics for it already but Stephanie still went over them.

Once the class was over you Anastasia walked over to you. "Join me for dinner at my quarters." You hesitated you didn't want to leave Edin alone more than you needed to, but you also did need to discuss what had happened to him with Anastasia.