Blaze walked on into the room, it was extremely early. It had to be, so it gave the teachers the chance to get to their classes. Blaze yawned as he sat in his chair waiting. The five headmasters slowly trickled in, moving to their large desk. Sienna walked through the door, her hair spiky and unkept. When everyone was counted for Vareth began the proceedings. “Sienna, we have come across a problem with Blaze. You would say with vast amounts of power, it would be easy to unlock, yes?” Asked Vareth. Sienna shook her head, “Actually no, I would say because it is so powerful it would make it hard to tap into.” Vareth shook his head frustratedly, the early morning not helping his patience. “Even so, you would think Blaze would have unlocked his power by now,” Vareth said. “He hasn’t?” Asked Sienna with a slightly puzzled look on her face. “He hasn’t. I have tried my best but nothing works with him. Not even the first, very emotional, memory unlocked it. So I don’t know what will. Anyway, we have come to the agreement that you should check Blaze again.” Sienna shook her head, half smiling. “I don’t even need to! I can almost feel the power radiating off of him. I know he has power, I don’t need a full test to know.” Sienna said. “Sienna, just do it once more. It would be easy.” Demanded Xar, his patience finally wearing thin. Sienna rolled her eyes and placed her hands on either her side of Blaze’s head. Blaze saw the bright blue creep up the veins in her arm and move towards his mind. As it reached his temple it turned gold, just like before. This time it didn’t flit quickly between main memories, it searched any ones that held potential. It flitted through his memories, slowly going front to back through his mind. Then it recoiled, like a snake after striking. Blaze felt sharp pain as the gold and blue light cut off in a flash. Blaze yelled out as Sienna took a step back. “Sienna? Is everything okay?” Asked Vareth. “Sorry, I just saw a few memories, similar and including the one you saw...” She trailed off. Blaze held both hands to his head as a sudden headache battered his head. “Power level?” Asked Xar. “Still one hundred. I told you, I don’t lie.”

Vareth walked into the classroom. They were all seated at their desks, Delila playing with her hair, Mary drawing in a small sketch book, Baren unsuccessfully trying to start a conversation with anyone, Lark made it his job to annoy Blaze while he stared out the window. His head still throbbed and his actions and thoughts were slow, probably a side effect of Sienna’s quick retreat. Blaze didn’t bother to even look at Lark, deciding that looking out the window into the rolling fields beyond was better that facing him. Vareth came in, “Class, today is a special day. As... most of you have your powers, you will be participating in a serious mission. I will be there ready to help, because this will be real. And dangerous.” That perked everyone’s attention. “The Academy tests its classes by sending them on a mission to complete a task which involves an element of risk. They are all in service of the King, so they will be war based. Remember this is what you are being trained for, so this counts. You will be liberating a village, every class does this usually multiple times and remember if it gets to dangerous I am always a call away. Now lets get the horses ready,”

Everyone chattered as they trotted across the road, it took the best part of the day to ride there. The only silent people were Blaze and Vareth. Vareth, as he was usually too concentrated on diverting the suspicions looks of other travellers and following the map. But Blaze was silent, as his mind wandered and throbbed. Multiple times Vareth had looked up only to call to Blaze to pay attention because his horse was wandering off the track. The country side blurred as they walked by and one time Blaze even felt he would pass out. About halfway Vareth had pulled his horse next to Blaze to check on him, but Blaze had insisted he was okay. When they finally came Vareth had stood saying nothing, the village in the distance. “Go ahead whenever you want. This is it.” He said. So the group trotted closer until they were very close, falling to the trees on the right side. When they were firmly hidden Lark began forming the plan. “Okay, this is what we do. We walk through the front gate and work together to take out any guards, Delila take left, Mary and Baren right I will go middle. If anyone needs help call to someone else.” Lark said it like no one had any say. But Blaze spoke up anyway, “Where am I,” He said, thinking of his growing strength in martial arts. “You stay here, we don’t need dead weight,” demanded Lark. “Hey I can help!” Shot Blaze. “Yeah, Blaze can help.” Said Delila. “No, he can’t. He doesn’t have a power so he doesn’t help.” Replied Lark angrily, standing up and walking around to large wooden palisade to find the entrance. Delila, Mary and Baren shot looks over their shoulder, almost as if they were saying sorry. But they kept walking without him anyway.

Blaze walked back, hopped up on his horse and trotted over to where Vareth stood, a black dot standing on the horizon. It took a while, but after a long day of riding he couldn’t even consider going any faster than a slow trot. Vareth had moved towards him meeting him in the middle with an anxious look. “What is it?” He asked. But Blaze shook his head, “Lark said they didn’t need me, and the rest followed.” Vareth looked down sadly, “I should have guessed, I am sorry. I will make sure they know that they did badly, it was meant to be a team effort. It can’t be one without the whole team.” Blaze shrugged off the comment. He hopped down off his horse and turned as he heard a gasp from his teacher. Following his eyes Blaze saw the village on the horizon erupting in flames a minute later four people came galloping back on their horses. They pointed towards him and Vareth and sprinted the whole way, no one followed. A few minutes later they arrived, Lark had a grin on his face but the rest of the team did not. “And what are you so happy about Lark?” Asked Vareth angrily. Lark looked confused, “We did as you asked, we defeated the village.” “In case you forgot I will repeat two things to you,” Larks grin faltered. “First, a team effort includes the whole team or it is not correct.” Lark’s grin dissolved, he looked angrily over to Blaze. As if it was his fault he was left behind. “Second I wished that you would liberate the village, not burn it to the ground. This was a mission for the king, an easy one, and yet you failed. The whole group failed, apart from Blaze as he was removed by you.” Baren, Delila and Mary hung their heads while Lark cursed under his breath. “I will organise another easy assignment, the Academy will find a village with few guards and no magicians.” That perked Blaze’s attention. “Sir? Are there magicians on the other army?” He asked. “Yes, in fact their leader is a magician. One with very strong powers, ones he did not use for good. He was a good person, but then something happened.” Vareth trailed off. “You say that like you knew him.” Said Mary. “Well yes, Coren was one of my students.” He said, almost sadly. “Anyway, now we get to ride all They way back to the Academy!” Said Vareth with mock cheer. Everyone groaned in disappointment.