Maribelle led Scarlette and Luna to the courtyard. A quiet and serene space enclosed by the manor’s wings, with one side opening onto a bordering treeline.

  The early spring afternoon light broke through gaps in the cloudy overcast, washing the manor’s stone in an orange hue. Snow still stubbornly clung to shaded corners. The air carried the scent of spring. Color had begun to retake the nd—flowers blooming, trees shaking off winter with fresh green.

  Scarlette approved. She stood at the center of the courtyard with her arms folded tight to fight against the chill.

  Luna hovered uncomfortably close over her shoulder. She had on a fresh white shirt, devoid of juice stains. Maribelle lingered by the open door to hog the warmth radiating from inside.

  “So... are you really that strong?”

  Scarlette held a stiff, restrained, and absolutely not sincere smile. “Strong is a crude way to phrase it. Power is more than just strength. It is knowledge. Control and efficiency. These are what make a person truly powerful.”

  “Mhm mhm.” Luna enthusiastically nodded along, though it was unclear how much she actually understood. “What are you gonna show me?”

  Scarlette gnced at Maribelle in the distance, who only innocently waved back. “I specialize in high-output elemental shaping,” Scarlette answered. “My highest aptitude is fme. Votile by nature, but when handled correctly, it becomes exceptionally elegant.”

  “Ohhhhh, okay!” Luna stepped a few paces to the side, allowing Scarlette to rex.

  Scarlette inhaled slowly. Nothing excessive. I’ll do something simple. Then I can leave. Right... that spell should be good enough to satisfy the girl.

  She extended an arm with her palm facing out.

  Mana flowed from her core and through her Magic channels.

  The air around her hand shimmered as mana formed into a compact Magic circle. Heat began to rise and warped the space as a bright sphere of fme appeared, then condensed.

  She flicked her wrist.

  The sphere streaked forward for a few feet, then exploded. A ring of compressed heat and wind rolled outward—forceful, but perfectly contained. The shockwave fttened the grass in a clean circle that raced across the yard, instantly melting the st stubborn piles of snow.

  Scarlette stilled.

  Luna, however—

  The wall of air smmed into her. Her long white hair snapped backward, whipping around her face. She staggered. Her eyes went wide as she attempted to blink through the sudden gale.

  The wave passed. Luna stood frozen in pce, shirt puffed out, hair sticking up in every direction—somehow making her already chaotic hair look like a punishment for whoever had the misfortune of having to brush it.

  Scarlette lowered her hand with cool bravado. “Simple,” she said, pcing a hand on her hip.

  She expected appuse. Or at least a respectful nod. Instead, they awkwardly stood with neither speaking.

  Luna stared, mouth agape. Her eyes sparkled with unfiltered awe.

  Then her face lit up. “Whoaaa!” She cheered, beaming through the gaps between the heaps of hair that obscured her face. “That was awesome, Miss Archmage.”

  Scarlette stood haughtily, chin lifted. “It was no—”

  “I can do that too!” Luna excitedly hopped in pce.

  Scarlette almost ughed. Aura copying Magic. Silly. This girl must be joking. She crossed her arms, already dismissing the attempt. Aura was blunt force. No structure. No compression. No finesse. Trying to replicate spellcraft with it was like hammering gss into the shape of a gem. “No, you—”

  Luna thrust her palm forward.

  Aura fred.

  Seconds passed, and nothing happened.

  Scarlette felt her lips curl. As expected. It’s impossible. She cannot replicate my spell with crude Aura.

  Suddenly, the haze around her body violently rippled, then colpsed inward. All of her Aura was forced down her arm. The air seemed to warp as pressure built in her hand.

  Then she detonated.

  The explosion tore outward from her palm and fttened everything in front of her. Grass vanished. A dust cloud made of dirt and stone shot up in front of her. The shockwave thundered across the courtyard with a crack loud enough to send swarms of birds running from the trees.

  Luna slid backward with her arms filing as she struggled to keep her bance from the recoil.

  The cloud of dust cleared, revealing a scarred ndscape.

  The ground in front of her had been ripped open, earth torn and scattered in a wide, jagged cone. Bits of grass and debris still rained down as the dispced air rushed back into the torn space, carrying dust and grit with it.

  Scarlette’s well-pced mask had completely slipped. Her gaze darted to Maribelle, hoping she had some sort of expnation.

  Maribelle had one arm folded and the other pinching the bridge of her nose beneath her gsses.

  Their eyes met.

  She shrugged.

  Scarlette swung back toward Luna, looking one breath away from losing her composure.

  Luna looked up from the damage, then looked back down at her hand. “Oh.” She frowned slightly. “It didn’t look as pretty as yours.”

  Scarlette’s eyes tracked the destruction from its origin point outward, following the line of devastation that had carved its way through the space.

  There was no heat, no scorch marks, no elemental signature.

  That was certainly not Magic. But it also didn’t resemble any sort of Aura Technique I’ve ever seen before. An Aspect? No. Maybe [Aura Pulse]? No, it’s much more powerful. Even the most advanced applications of Aura at that stage rely on contact. This was none of those. It appeared more like a crude Core stage technique. External output but without detachment. And the output...

  Impossible.

  “Girl,” Scarlette said while walking over and stopping a few steps from Luna. “You are in the Gravity stage. Correct?”

  Luna tilted her head. “Um. Yeah?”

  Scarlette’s fingers curled into a fist.

  No. She shouldn’t be able to do that. Gravity stage is internal manipution only. Even prodigies struggle to project anything externally without some sort of bloodline ability or severe backsh.

  “You forced it out,” Scarlette muttered, mostly to herself.

  Luna leaned in, hand csped behind her back. “Is that bad?”

  “No. But your output,” she continued, “is excessive. You shouldn’t be able to generate that much pressure at your stage.”

  Luna took it as a compliment, and her face brightened immediately. “Really?”

  Scarlette was still focused on the ground. On the destruction. Repying the moment again and again.

  She exhaled to calm herself, then lifted her posture. “Expin the technique.”

  “Oh! Easy!” Luna brightened instantly. “It’s called [Detonation]. I move my Aura like [Aura Channeling], and then I make it go—” She threw her arms up. “KABOOM!”

  Scarlette glowered at her. “...How,” she said slowly, “do you make it go boom?”

  “Ummmmm...” She gnced over to Maribelle, who had a single finger raised to her lips. Luna’s head snapped back. “Mari says I can’t tell you.”

  Scarlette’s face twitched. “...Fine.” She rubbed her temple. “Then tell me your family name.”

  “I don’t have one. I’m not a noble.”

  “Your parents, then.”

  “My mama’s Major Elira. In the Recon Legion.”

  Scarlette tried recalling the name. Major Elira. Recon Legion. Veteran officer... Elf.

  Her eyes narrowed as they drifted from Luna’s face to the curtain of hair covering her ears. “...Show me your ears.”

  “Okay!” Luna said, cheerfully brushing her hair aside.

  Human ears.

  “...A-are you adopted?”

  “Yep!”

  Scarlette’s eyes dipped, her hand rising to her chin as she assessed all of the new information. “Hmm... Interesting.”

  An adopted child. Aura output far beyond her stage. A technique that seems to viote all known constraints.

  Luna skipped forward and shoved her face right into Scarlette’s space. “So? Did you like my technique or what?”

  Scarlette took a step back, reciming her distance. “It was... fascinating. But, if you wish to compare,” she said pridefully, puffing her chest, “then at least do it properly.”

  From the doorway, Maribelle’s voice echoed across the courtyard. “Hey! Zahrasia, don’t you dare—”

  Scarlette ignored her. “Raw output can only do so much.” She extended her hand once more. “Watch closely. I shall show you a controlled explosion.”

  She raised her arm high, spreading her fingers wide as the air around her began to stir.

  Mana gathered and swirled.

  A multi-yer Magic circle formed above her hand while heat flooded the surroundings. Fme erupted—a towering sphere of fire roared into existence, rger than Scarlette herself. The bze twisted and swelled by the second.

  Scarlette held it there, entirely unstrained. Then her fist began to slowly close.

  The fmes obeyed.

  The heated mass folded inward, shrinking rapidly as yers of mana colpsed over one another. The roar was repced by a piercing whine that vibrated the air. In seconds, the sphere had condensed into a tiny, radiant point no rger than a drop of water, hovering at her fingertip.

  Scarlette lowered her arm and pointed.

  A beam of light tore forward. A clean line that punched straight through the trunk of a tree at the edge of the courtyard. It left a cauterized hole and continued onward, fading into the treeline beyond.

  Then the impact point erupted.

  Fme spouted upward in a turbulent pilr, devouring everything in its reach.

  When the fire finally sank away, the charred stumps of crumbling trees stood exposed. Only scorched earth and drifting smoke lingered.

  Scarlette’s hand fell to her side. For a breath, she allowed herself to feel satisfied.

  Maribelle now stood directly beside her, expression frozen. “...Ah,” she said faintly. Then, much louder, “MY TREES!”

  Scarlette winced, but subtly. “They were already weakened,” She gnced away. “Late winter rot.”

  “No! You’re—” She took off her gsses and dragged a hand down her face. “You’ll be reimbursing me, Countess. You understand?”

  “Very well. I have no issue with that.” Scarlette faced Luna again. “Now—what do you think of that, girl?”

  Luna went still. She didn’t cheer, didn’t react.

  She stared at the scorched treeline, then at Scarlette’s hand, then down at her own. Her brows pressed together, and she bit her lip as she thought hard about something she seemed to not yet have the words for.

  Scarlette allowed herself a tiny smirk. Good. At least she knows when to watch.

  “That was—” Luna started, then trailed off.

  Luna’s Aura suddenly flickered. One quick pulse before she drew it inward exactly as she’d done before.

  Her hand slowly raised. She extended a single finger, precisely mimicking Scarlette’s earlier stance. The Aura tightened around her skin, then quickly flowed until all of it was condensed into a single point at her fingertip, where a faint glow began to gather.

  Scarlette’s breathing stopped as she felt the pressure of the condensed Aura. “Hold on—”

  Maribelle felt it too and moved to stop her. “Luna—!”

  Luna released it.

  The force twisted her shoulder and flung her arm to the side as the bst carved across the courtyard in a wild, sshing arc. She yelped in pain, unable to reel her arm in before she could cause catastrophic damage.

  Then the beam kinetic force sheared the manor.

  Stone exploded from the edge of the right wing. The bst smashed through a support column. Decorative masonry and chunks of carved stone tumbled into the courtyard below.

  Luna spun with the recoil, stumbling backward, arms windmilling desperately to keep from crashing ft onto her back.

  All three of them now stood there, shocked.

  Maribelle inhaled. A long, resigned inhale. “...That,” she said in a voice too calm to be safe, “was my house.”

  Luna turned to a living statue.

  She stared at the damaged wing, then at her arm, which she shook to check if it was still attached. “Ow. That one... didn’t feel as good.”

  Scarlette’s mind went bnk. She looked at the path of destruction. A slice from ground to wall.

  Maribelle removed her gsses and stared at the broken masonry. Then she turned with a face of fury. “You,” she gred at Scarlette, boring into her with her dark eyes, “are paying for all of that. Since you apparently decided to get into an ego-measuring contest with a teenager.”

  Scarlette couldn’t argue. Her gaze never left Luna.

  The girl was still rubbing her arm. Her shoulders hunched, bracing for a scolding. “Um... sorry, Mari. I thought if I made it smaller, like Miss Archmage did, it’d go straighter.”

  “You are not doing that again,” Maribelle said, poking a finger into Luna’s forehead.

  Luna perked up. “Here?”

  Maribelle shot her a menacing look. “Anywhere.” She rolled up her sleeves to reveal the Aura threads hanging from her fingers. “If either of you causes one more incident today, I’m sedating you both.”

  Luna giggled.

  Scarlette absolutely did not. She closed her eyes and steadied her breath. When she opened them again, she looked at Luna with something like awe slipping under her mask. That should not have been possible. Not with Aura. Not at that stage. Not without catastrophic injury. But undeniably, she did it. Twice.

  Scarlette thought through every principle she’d ever taught, every w of magical structure she’d ever enforced, every lecture she’d ever delivered on why Aura could not—should not—behave like that.

  And yet here stood a girl who had simply... Reasoned? Or maybe guessed? Her way into the impossible.

  The child wasn’t comparing her techniques to Scarlette’s Magic as she’d cimed. She was deriving them from principle by pure instinct.

  Scarlette Zahrasia, Archmage of the Alliance, felt the foundations of her discipline tilt beneath her feet.

  She turned to Maribelle. “What exactly have you been teaching this child?”

  Maribelle looked at her with an expression even more tired than normal. Then, without another word, she turned and walked away, stepping over debris with the weary resignation of someone who had reached her limit.

  “Ask her mother,” she called over her shoulder.

  Scarlette watched her leave.

  Luna grinned at her work.

  A chunk of masonry fell off the manor with a sad thunk.

  Scarlette chuckled. Gods. This child is a monster.