The first year of the basic cycle was intense. Four subjects were mandatory: hand-to-hand combat (Professor Billard), physical training (Professor Yuri), weapons combat (Professor Yenna), and Ether channeling (Professor Alicia).

  Professor Alicia, a woman of strong build with short blonde hair and green eyes, held the rank of lieutenant. Although she dreamed of being a battle legionnaire, her Ether channeling level kept her stuck—a topic she addressed frankly in her classes. She was passionate about experimenting with different fighting styles. Her first lessons were a blend of theory and practice. Silas already knew a lot from his reading, but the way Alicia explained it, from the basic ranks to the highest ones, was fascinating.

  —Let’s imagine the path of a legionnaire as a staircase of a hundred steps —Alicia explained—. Each rank is a step: large, wide, and comfortable. One can settle in and stabilize. But Ether is fickle. It’s not just about how much is channeled, but how much can be used.

  Alicia paused, her gaze serious.

  —On a legionnaire’s ascent, you will encounter what we call "Walls." They are barriers. There are two main ones, and they are brutal.

  She pointed to a simple diagram.

  —The first wall occurs when moving from private first class to staff sergeant. A jump from 10% to 20% in channeling. It’s not just a little more; it’s double what has been gained so far. Imagine that today you squat 100 kilos. After months of training, you are asked to lift 200. But there is an intermediate step, like already having trained to lift 140 or 150. Nevertheless, it is still a considerable increase in intensity with an immense bodily load. That’s why the first wall is physical: it demands a brutal muscular adaptation, a strength you didn’t know you had.

  Then, Alicia moved to another point on her diagram, higher up.

  —The second wall is for lieutenants aspiring to be captains. From 30% to 40%. The same magnitude of jump, but with a vital difference: here, there are no intermediate ranks. You must master 30% and, suddenly, be able to handle 40%. It is a leap into the void. That’s why this is a mental wall. It’s about overcoming your own insecurities, the fear of the unknown, of that abyss of power —lowering her voice and muttering to herself, she added—: the generals say something similar to a third wall exists... though it’s not a wall, but a problem that must be solved upon reaching that level. But well, only a very few reach that point.

  Alicia, a lieutenant stuck at 39% channeling, could only use 30%. This prevented her from leading large troops or going alone into high-demand battles—a sad example of how the walls could halt a legionnaire's potential.

  —That is why this first semester —she concluded—, we only seek to channel and stabilize. To build the foundation. The jumps will be terrifying, but first, you must have firm footing.

  For the practical part, they headed to a large hall with strange instruments and full-body suits with cables. Alicia, a member of a research group collaborating with shapers and scholars to improve Ether channeling, used special suits for her classes. These suits connected to a meter with three lights: green (stable channeling), yellow (irregular or intermittent), and red (no channeling). They didn't measure percentages, but they were didactic for starting the process. Silas thought that the general school didn't have such advancements.

  Everyone put on the suits, even Leon, for whom it was a bit tight. Alicia began the instructions:

  —Feel your heartbeat, contract your hands, then your arms, shoulders…

  Throughout the class, some saw the yellow light turn on for brief seconds. Alicia asked them to remember the sensation; she even made them do planks to fatigue their bodies, seeking to have them subconsciously generate Ether.

  Silas began his own process, combining Cognis and Ichor to force the channeling of Ether into his veins and arteries. He adopted a combat stance, recalling his training sessions with Professor Richard, the attack of the Mana beast where his light shifted from red to yellow, and how Jean was surprised to see him, asking for his "secret." Silas told him to try doing push-ups with his eyes closed, looking for the most comfortable position—though for Jean it didn't work, of course, because Jean wasn't a scholar capable of controlling his mind like Silas. A memory of how Cognis helped Vin, and how he himself took advantage of Professor Richard’s teaching—who was a legionnaire—to find the channeling of Cognis, made him think: If the explanation from the legionnaires served me for Cognis, perhaps how Cognis is learned can serve the legionnaires.

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  Silas tried to remember the way they tried to teach him to channel Cognis and said to Jean:

  —Jean, look, try not to focus so much on your physical body. Instead, close your eyes and imagine yourself.

  —Okay, Silas, I don't really understand you, but I’m going to believe you —Jean said, somewhat distrustful.

  —Okay, if you already have yourself in your mind, imagine as if there were something like energy around you… uhm, how about the sun's rays in the middle of summer? —Silas continued.

  —Alright, now are you going to tell me to start playing at the beach? —Jean joked.

  —Hahaha, no, dummy! Although it might be a good idea. Imagine your body as if you had just come out of very freezing water and you want to warm up with the sun. Your body begins to absorb the sun more and more, and it makes you feel better, stronger, faster, more powerful —Silas guided Jean—. Jean, open your eyes now!

  Upon opening his eyes, Jean saw that the light was fixed on yellow.

  —But what sorcery did you do, Silas!? —Jean said in surprise.

  —I read something about it in a book and, well, it seems it worked —Silas replied, knowing it was a lie and that he had come up with it on the fly. Thinking that the scholars' classes would be of any use here caused him an internal laugh.

  Silas, after helping Jean, resumed his own process. He continued remembering the private sessions with Professor Billard, and the yellow light on his meter began to stabilize for longer intervals. Most of the class remained with a red light or brief yellow flashes, except for Jormun and Leon, who kept the yellow light on for longer and even reached green flashes. The professor corrected and guided each one.

  Suddenly, a memory of when Professor Billard stopped Jormun came to Silas. This image chained with the moment Andros had scared him before arriving at the city, and suddenly, the green light on his meter stabilized. He could channel Ether consciously. He felt only a general tingling, none of the pain from those lost memories in his head. An ominous sensation invaded him: it was as if the Ether already knew the way through his body.

  However, Silas soon began to tire and gasp, as if he had run 100 meters in his static position. He had stopped channeling Ichor into his circulatory system, and he wasn't infusing more Ether, but the Ether he had already channeled remained in his body. Unlike a legionnaire, where unused Ether dispersed through the skin as heat, in Silas's body it stayed there, heating his muscles.

  With his Scholar mind, he channeled Cognis to find a quick solution. He decided to form his Ichor armor and compress it to the maximum to pressure-guide the Ether toward his hands and feet—the only parts not covered by the suit. Silas positioned himself against a wall so as not to be launched backward if the Ether acted as a propellant. He squeezed his Ichor armor, and the Ether came out. It didn't shoot out. The light turned back to red.

  All of this had happened in a couple of minutes. When Professor Alicia, who was attending to another student, approached Silas, she saw him with the red light but drenched in sweat and red as if he had just stepped out of a sauna.

  —What happened? —she asked.

  Silas replied that perhaps he had overdone the exercise. The professor, not fully understanding what had happened, gave him some general advice.

  The wall where Silas had leaned his hands didn't show even the slightest crack. However, the subtle energy burst he had released did scare some nearby birds, which flew off in a stampede. Animals are more sensitive to energy fluctuations. Whether by accident or by an unconscious muscle memory, Silas had expelled pressurized Ether from his hands. For the moment, that wasn't dangerous beyond startling rodents or birds. For Silas, however, it represented a significant breakthrough: now he knew he could generate Ether consciously, and that he no longer needed to be on the brink of death to activate it.

  Although Professor Alicia might have seemed distracted while attending to other students, she was a meticulous researcher of channeling. She had perceived exactly what Silas had done: channel Ether steadily, almost on the first try. This occurrence wasn't entirely rare at the academy, as many cadets arrived with prior knowledge from their families and had been in constant stimulation with external Ether.

  But what was not normal was that strange pulse of Ether. It was similar to an Ether aura, but it was not, so to speak, "processed" by the muscle. An Ether aura is an advanced skill that consists of releasing Ether in a directional burst or creating a field around the legionnaire. This processed Ether does not provide protection or bodily enhancement; rather, it is consumed by the muscle to then be released under pressure.

  Silas’s pulse, on the contrary, seemed to be raw Ether, released without passing through that muscular transformation. This could cause discomfort in nearby living beings. It is not a skill a legionnaire can use lightly, as it consumes a large amount of channeled Ether all at once, leaving the user defenseless while re-channeling. A legionnaire with very high channeling could launch a pulse and still retain Ether for bodily reinforcement, but Ether is never expelled without being processed by the muscle, as it is the muscle that generates the pressure for the controlled expulsion.

  Professor Alicia was left with the clear suspicion that something strange was happening with Cadet Silas. She considered that it wouldn't be a bad idea to evaluate him as a case study for a new type of "unprocessed" Ether aura, although she was still not clear on what exact effects such an unusual energy could cause.