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After his first full day of classes, James returned to the Moonglade, where he met up with Delta, Lydia, and Algon. They all teleported to Cerellus Park, where they sat in a circle in one of the gazebos.

"Man, I am so excited to learn Aetherling magic! Master Filgoth told us that Aetherlings use an alternate dimension to move quickly, someplace called the Aether Realm. Apparently, we ride the magical currents of energy and use their power to boost our speeds to unimaginable levels!"

"WELL, I BET MY DAY TOPS YOURS! I FOUND OUT THAT WEIRDS ARE THESE CRAZY INVENTOR DUDES CREATE NEW THINGS AND BLOW STUFF UP!!! IT SOUNDS AMAZING!"

"And maybe the explosions you make will be louder than your voice."

"OH, SHUT UP DELTA. WHAT ABOUT YOU ALGON?"

Algon blinked. "Well, we mainly focused on the different types of Elementalism." He looked over at James. "I assume that you went through the same thing, right?"

James nodded. "Yeah. Basically, Algon uses something called Composite Elementalism, which auto-combines elements. In his case, they combine into fire. But for me, I can control every element, but I have to tell them what to do myself."

Delta and Lydia didn't get it.

James rolled his eyes. "In order to make fire, I have to combine hydrogen, oxygen, and an assortment of other elements into my hand using my energy. Manually."

"That sounds tough."

"Yeah, no kidding. And it's mostly individual work too because I have to get my own method for controlling each element."

"WAIT. HOW MANY KIDS ARE IN YOUR CLASS? MINE HAS AROUND 200, AND IT'S ONLY ONE OF MANY."

"There were only 14 other kids besides me, and I'm the youngest. And apparently, that's all of the Pure Elementalists in the universe. They're really rare."

"That explains the reaction at the Analysis then."

"Yeah, no kidding."

"Hey guys," Algon said. Everyone immediately became quiet; he tended to not talk much. "Eventually, once we learn more magic, we can train together in the Darkessia."

"Heck yeah! That sounds AWESOME!"

"I THINK THAT WOULD BE FUN AS WELL. BUT I PROBABLY WOULD JUST WATCH; WEIRDS ARE MORE ABOUT INVENTING. ALTHOUGH I SUPPOSE I CAN TEST GADGETS WITH YOU GUYS."

"Make me a flamethrower!"

Lydia cracked up and Algon smiled. Delta just frowned. "Did the spell break? That didn't translate at all."

That only made them laugh harder.

However, James was soon to learn that as amazing as Pure Elementalism sounded, it was infinitely more complicated in practice. Sensing specific elements was difficult, but grabbing hold of them was like trying to pick up water with a bare hand.

"James, you need to relax when gathering elements in your palm, regardless of their properties." James scowled as he tried and failed once again to gather a tiny ball of hydrogen in his palm. "You're too tense. When you tighten up, you lose concentration and then panic. It needs to come naturally, so don't panic when you lose control."

"I know. It's the same thing you've told me for the past month."

Indeed, James has been working on gathering this little tiny ball since the beginning of the school year. He had only been taught a little before being thrust directly into lessons, most of his theory coming from his science classes. And holy hell was it hard. It had taken him this entire time to figure out how to move the elements he could Sense, and it was taking even longer to finally gather them into a shape that he could use. Every day he went back to meet up with Lydia, Delta, and Algon completely exhausted, and he could only worry about how much harder it would get when he actually had to light the thing on fire.

Even the advanced students, the ones that were the oldest in their group, were doing impossibly complicated mental gymnastics just to perform what other mages would consider basic spells. In order to raise a simple ice wall, one had to gather water, either from a source or make it from the air, and then reduce the temperature, all while maintaining the shape. And gods help you if you wanted to actively control something that hated staying in solid, like liquids. The graduation spell for the entire time at the Quintessium was to make a dome of ice, something that specialized Water Elementalists learned in a single year.

After class that day, James headed to one of the training rooms of the Darkessia, where he met up with his friends. Delta had recently learned how to enter First Stance, which enabled him to move at speeds nearing 30 mph, which was very fast compared to a normal person. Of course, he wanted to test out his new moves as soon as he could, and maybe show off a bit in the process. Thus the reason why James was sitting in a chair in the control area for Training Room A, where Delta was zipping around falling boulders and dodging gouts of flame that erupted from the floor. Algon and Lydia were watching intently on the sidelines and were cheering him on. James was as well, but he wasn't as loud as them because he knew that with his current rate of progress, he would never equal their abilities. He never bothered to tell his friends, though, not wanting to diminish their own accomplishments.

Eventually, Delta used up too much of his energy and stopped suddenly, almost getting crushed until James canceled the training program, causing the rocks to vanish.

"Did you see that! I was like there and there and zip and zoom and HOLY COW THIS IS FUN"

"WELL, THAT MUCH WAS OBVIOUS! I THINK YOU WERE SMILING THE ENTIRE TIME."

Algon nodded. "Yes, it certainly did look like you were having fun. Although, um, you shouldn't push yourself too much. If not for James, you almost would have certainly been smashed by that boulder.

James waved from his perch in the control room. He accessed the microphone using a book that he borrowed from the library so he could talk to Delta as well. "ALGON IS RIGHT... OH WOW. UM, VOLUME. SORRY, ONE SECOnd...there we go." They all took their fingers out of their ears. "Algon's right Delta. You probably should take a break after that little collapse of yours Otherwise I might 'accidentally' miss the controls and put you out for a week to teach you a lesson."

Delta scowled but then smiled guiltily. "Yeah, I know." He plopped down on one of the nearby chairs. "What about you guys? Learn anything fun recently?"

"I'M MOSTLY DOING THEORY RIGHT NOW. THERE'S NOT MUCH I CAN SHOW YOU GUYS UNTIL WE REALLY START INVENTING."

"I get it. Algon, what about you?"

Algon fiddled with his fingers. "I'm not really sure if I can use it right now, but I did learn one or two spells..."

"SHOW US THEN! WE'D LOVE TO SEE."

"Yeah, show us Algon!"

"Um, ok." Algon walked into the center of the room. "James, can you make a rock or something for me to target?"

"Sure! Just give me one second. This technology is ludicrously complicated," James replied, flipping frantically through his book.

"We know it's complicated. That's why we're not doing it!" Delta shouted up. "It's too troublesome to figure out."

"More like you're not smart enough to get it."

"Hey!!!"

James laughed. "No hard feelings. Alright, form models...rock...parameters...here we go!" A huge boulder materialized a little way from Algon. James had kindly painted white and red targets, along with a huge image of Delta's face on the front. Delta just rolled his eyes.

"Show us what you've got Algon!"

"Um, ok. I'll try." Algon concentrated and gathered his energy. Holding his hands together, he formed a red and orange sigil that flickered with streaks of bright flame. "Fireball!" The sigil collapsed into a swirling mass of flame that shot forwards at a tremendous speed. A massive chunk of the rock blew off with a roar and fire went everywhere. When the dust cleared, the Delta-painting was missing half of his face.

"NICE JOB ALGON!"

Similar cheers erupted from James and Delta, happy to see that their shy friend was growing stronger with every passing day.

"Um, I'm also working on a new spell in class, but it's not ready, so I don't really want to show you guys..."

"Sure! But the minute it's done, we'll want to see it! Hey James, want to come down and show us some of your skills?"

James hesitated. "No, I'd rather not."

"Why? Trying to hide your massive power from us?"

James looked down at his empty palm. "No, more like if I head down, one of you idiots will mess up the control room and force me to reprogram the whole thing. I'm perfectly happy up here, thank you very much."

"I THINK YOU GIVE HIM A BIT TOO MUCH CREDIT. DELTA ISN'T EVEN SMART ENOUGH TO GET NEAR THAT THING. HE'D PROBABLY JUST FAINT FROM THE DIFFICULTY."

"Ok, that's it! Fight me!!!"

James sat back in his chair while Algon frantically tried to pry them apart. "I wonder if I'll ever be able to show anything at all to them. This isn't what I had imagined at all when I first came here." He sighed and then turned back to the control panels to set up a new room for Delta to race in.

About a quarter of the way through the first term, a contest was announced for the first-year students. Understanding that they would be raring to show off their new abilities and impress their classmates, the masters of the Darkessia put together a course that was designed to show off magical and physical abilities in full. Delta entered almost immediately, and Algon entered with some pushing from Lydia, but James was forced to sit on the sidelines and watch as his friends did quite well without him. This was very disheartening, and James spent time alone for several days, only meeting Delta in his room and not talking much.

Finally, Delta and Lydia managed to pin James outside of the Darkessia as he was leaving his Pure Elementalism class.

"James, what's going on? You've been growing distant ever since we started classes, and after the competition, you've hardly been speaking to us anymore."

"WE'RE WORRIED ABOUT YOU. AS YOUR FRIENDS. YOU CAN TELL US WHAT'S WRONG."

"I'm fine guys. You don't have to worry about me."

"THEN WHY HAVEN'T YOU BEEN SPENDING TIME WITH US?"

"I don't know." James fumbled for an answer. "I've had a lot a work to do and..."

"This is about your magic isn't it."

"What?!?"

Even Lydia looked surprised. "WHAT DO YOU MEAN?"

"Think about it. James hasn't shown any of us his abilities day one, when before he was jumping at the bit to learn magic."

James suddenly slammed his hand against the wall. "You want to know what's going on? How about that fact that I basically have no magic!"

"What?"

"My affinity is a joke. A complete and utter joke."

They looked at him in shock. "You can't mean that..."

"Oh yeah? I can't even throw a simple fireball, but Delta's zipping all over the place and Lydia, you're learning how to invent. Hell, even Algon, the TIMID one, has more capability in one hand than me. I can't participate in anything with you guys and I sure as hell don't have a bright future ahead of me. The most I can look forward to is a desk job somewhere, not working with you OR EVER GETTING HOME!"

He stormed off, with Delta and Lydia watching in complete shock.

"So that's what been torturing him over the past few weeks," Delta said sadly.

Lydia was quiet for once. "What should we do? We're supposed to be there for him; he's our friend, but I get the feeling that he doesn't want to speak to us right now."

"Yeah, I get that. And what was that comment about never getting home? Isn't he from an outer colony?"

"I'm not sure, but I think that the worst thing we could do right now is ask."

James found himself back in Cerellus Park, underneath the same blue and green trees that greeted him when he had arrived.

"First I fail at magic and then I fail at friendships. I'm terrible, as a person, as a mage, and as a friend."

"Not really. You've done plenty to help your friends." A soft voice spoke from behind where James was seated. "You proved to me that you cared when you helped Lydia and me, even though you didn't have to."

James turned around. "Algon."

"Yep, that's me." He sat down next to James, not saying a word. They sat together in silence for a while before James spoke up.

"I lied to you, you know, back when we first met."

"Yeah? About what?"

"I'm not from here, or any planet in this universe."

James paused and Algon said nothing, waiting for him to continue.

"I was coming home from school one day and then BAM! Tossed into a whole different universe. Didn't have any warning, just here. It was my birthday too. Whole family waiting at home. I don't even know they're ok. Are they worried about me? I just don't know."

"And you're learning magic to try and find a way back?"

"..."

Algon scooted closer to James. "I can understand at least a little bit of the pressure you're going through."

James raised his eyebrows. "Really? I don't think so."

"No, I'm serious. My planet just recently joined the Collective, which is the group that most of the advanced species and planets belong to. It was a glorious day, finding out that we weren't alone in the universe after all."

"So what happened?"

"We weren't developing magical abilities. All of us were aware that if we didn't gain affinities, something disastrous would happen, but it was never fully explained."

"Who the hell would threaten such as thing?"

"It wasn't Eternius if that's who your thinking. It was the Head of Commerce, Ren's father."

"That boy back at the Analysis!"

"The same one, yes. He takes after his father quite a bit; both of them are rude and look down upon anyone that is weaker than them."

"But what does this have to do with you?"

"The first person on any planet to develop magic is called an Alpha, and they're supposed to lead their species into a new era, or something like that. Turns out, I'm the Alpha for the Volcates. Which means that if I fail, my entire world goes up in flames. I may not know what it's like to be thrust into an alien world, but I understand what it's like to know that if you fail, you could never see your home again."

They sat silently for a while, thinking about what the other had said. Finally, Algon spoke up.

"I guess my point is, that you don't need to rely only on yourself. You have friends for a reason, and I'm sure that we can help you get through whatever problems you run into. And you're not useless. Do you think Delta could run the training equipment in the Darkessia?"

James laughed. "No, he'd probably just break it." He looked over at Algon. "I'll admit, I was panicking. I'll try to be more open with you guys, and I'll make sure I never bark at you again. And I'll also work to help you become a strong mage so you can help your planet. It's the least I can do."

"Thanks. Hey, do you think that you could not tell Delta and Lydia about my whole planet situation? We have enough to worry about right now."

"I understand, although I think you should tell them at some point."

"Yeah. And I assume you want me to keep your past a secret for now?"

"That would be nice, yes. Although not by my own choice. Highlord Eternius ordered it."

"Connections in high places. Nice!"

James and Algon chatted into the evening, and eventually they parted ways, James' faith in his friends mostly restored, and with a new respect for the smallest member of their team.