Hours crawled slowly by. The sun climbed the sky, then slowly started setting. Thick clouds rolled in from the northern mountains, settling over them like a blanket. Sunlight barely pierced them.

  Sitting quietly in the witch’s study, they focused on their practice, knowing full well this was the best thing they could be working on at the moment.

  He was sitting by the desk as usual, surrounded by a sea of blue. The three crimson clouds floated near the edge of his mana pool. They didn’t matter at the moment, so he let them linger there. Instead, he focused on the blue – the unused mana he still had. His potential.

  He touched the wick of the candle.

  His mana wrapped around his arm, and as soon as he touched the wick, the part that was around his finger turned a dull grey, and a fire sparked to life, dancing to the whims of the breeze blowing in through the open window.

  “You’re only making your mana move with your hand.” Victoria said, leaning back. “Try putting some distance between your finger and the wick and reaching out just with your mana.” She then got up from her stool and approached Clara. “How is it going?”

  His sister said something softly. He couldn’t quite hear her. With a sigh, he turned his attention to the candle again. He blew out the small flame, then gently hovered his finger just a little distance away from the wick.

  His mana, still wrapped around his hand, seemed to try and stretch towards the wick. It wavered and fluctuated. Even the tiny distance between his finger and the wick seemed to be too large. It felt near impossible.

  It was infuriating. When he wasn’t trying to cast a spell, his mana spread all around him like it owned the place. As soon as he needed it for anything, suddenly it was impossible to separate from his body. With a sigh, he closed his eyes. Calm down. You’ll learn. He couldn’t quite convince himself.

  “Alaric,” Sarah’s voice prompted him to open his eyes again. “I’ll go out for some fresh air, want to come along?” She was standing by the door.

  Clara’s head jerked towards her, then she glanced at the wide open window. She parted her lips as if she was about to say something, but Ava was quick to put her hand on her shoulder.

  “Sure.” He quickly pushed the chair back and started to his feet. He walked past the others and hurried after her.

  They descended the stairs silently until arriving at a reinforced wooden door. Sarah pushed the door open with ease and stepped aside to let him pass.

  “Thanks,” he forced a smile, and stepped onto the wall. The cold wind made him shiver.

  “You’re welcome,” she chuckled softly and wrapped her cloak around her body before following him outside. “Winter’s almost here.”

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  He nodded. He could feel his chest tighten. His gaze lingered on the tower far away, where Fairford once was. It feels like it was so long ago. His smile turned bitter.

  “You’re not doing well, are you?”

  Sarah’s words startled him. His head jerked towards her. “I’m fine.” He lied almost instinctively.

  “Yeah, right.” She rolled her eyes. “I get that you feel the need to look ok in front of your sister. You don’t need to do that in front of me.” She leaned on the parapets. “I do the same in front of Arthur – but not you. Show the same courtesy please.”

  He looked away. She was right. It was just difficult to drop the fa?ade, then pick it back up again.

  “Well?” she insisted.

  He let out a sigh. “I don’t know how I can win the duel.” He admitted. It was obvious, really, but saying it out loud still stung. “I hoped Victoria could help me out, but…” his voice faded. Despite her best efforts, he was still unable to light up a candle from even a tiny distance away. “I don’t know what to do. Do I keep practicing magic? Do I try and practice sword fighting?” He shrugged.

  “You’ll never beat the knight in a fair fight.” Sarah met his gaze. “You’ll never beat him in a contest of magic either, will you?” She wiggled her fingers as if she was casting a spell. “The Profaned Legion’s Wyrdflame is stronger than anything you can learn from the Witch’s books, is it not?”

  Alaric was about to nod, but something stopped him.

  No. It might not be.

  Her eyebrows sharply rose. She folded her arms and waited for him to speak.

  “I don’t know.” He sighed again. “Even if she did have a stronger spell, I don’t know if I could use it. I can’t go up to the knight and touch him mid-fight, can I?”

  His words made her chuckle. “It would be a challenge, I imagine. What does that leave us with? I’ll ask again – can’t you use the Mark of Command?”

  “On what? His armour?” He’d been over this so many times. Every single person who had this conversation with him had suggested it. “No. It won’t work. I need to play to my strengths – but I don’t have any. My power is useless against the knight, and I’m not strong enough to beat him in a swordfight. I hoped magic would be the answer, but clearly that’s not working either.” He shook his head again in frustration. Everyone but him had made some progress.

  What am I lacking?

  “What about your first plan?” She tapped her palm. “The sigils? You can’t light a flame from afar, but you can spew fire with a sigil easily. Let’s find better, stronger sigils, now that you have plenty of mana.” She straightened her back, clearly ready to get to work.

  “That’s all I can do. But I don’t know if it will be enough. They don’t give me a lot of flexibility and activating them takes a little longer than just casting a spell…” he hesitated. “Lighting a candle, anyways.” Maybe it was different with more complex spells. He wouldn’t know.

  “Better than not having them.” She walked past him and stood in front of the door. “Arthur is pretty amazed by Mr Wizard, so I’m not letting you lose hope now. You’ve still got time. Let’s use it wisely.” She was about to head inside, but her hand stopped as she grabbed the door handle. “Oh, and Alaric. Before I forget – you should keep using the Chthonian’s mark. I’ve got a feeling that it works the same way as all other magic. The more you use it, the better you should get at it.”

  I should. We need more protection. Soon, Charles would start getting on his case about that too. “I know. I will if we come across anything I can use it on – anything useful and not disgusting.” He quickly added, remembering how Charles had gotten angry because he didn’t bring back one of the disgusting creatures near the second spire.

  “Right. So, sigils?” Sarah asked with a smile.

  “Sigils.” He nodded. That’s the only way I can think of.