“Hmm, so it’s only you two…” Mrs. Canton said as she studied the faces of Leo and Sally, “Any particular reason you want to become candidates?” Everyone else funneled out of the classroom as soon as class was done.

  “Well, I want to use my magic in as many interesting ways and as much as possible. This just feels like a good way to do that.” Sally says while putting a finger up to her lip, “What about you, Leo?”

  Leo let out an exaggerated sigh.

  “It’s not like it’s a big secret… You know how the central committee decided that we should bring up the Exile at the council meeting? It’s because of that.” Both Sally and Mrs. Canton shot him a questioning look, “My father was a mana element freeformer, so he often went on assignments to the other planets. Well, about ten years ago, just after I started going to school, he went on an assignment to Oriph.”

  Leo paused with a pained expression.

  “Even at home he was very vocal about his distaste for the culture of Oriph, calling it ‘barbaric’. He really disliked that they force the residents of the Exile to go up against each other in the Great Colosseum. So… about half a year after he left for Oriph we got a missive saying that he was accused of staging a terrorist attack on the planet’s leaders. Normally that would warrant the death penalty, but considering his status as an official envoy of Elum he instead was sent to the Exile.”

  A look of understanding washed over the pair’s faces.

  “That’s why I see the Contest as an opportunity to get my dad back.” By the end Leo’s voice was shaking a bit and he clenched and unclenched his fists in an effort to calm himself down at least a little bit.

  “All the more reason to prepare you two as much as possible for what’s to come. There will be three trials across the whole planet to determine who goes on to become Elum’s team.”

  “Um, Mrs. Canton, how exactly are you even gonna help us? I thought you would just give us some general information.” Leo asked with a curious look.

  “You see, I’m actually quite passionate about Exile myself. Not for a reason like you Leo, but just because of my general beliefs. Also, when we’re alone you two can call me Bella. Even if I’m married, I’m not actually that much older than you two and not that keen about the formalities.”

  “Sure thing, Bella!” Sally said enthusiastically and did a mock salute, accidentally tilting her giant glasses a bit.

  “Okay, with that out of the way, let’s get to the important part. I won’t hold you up for too long today, I’m just gonna give you some… ‘homework’ let’s call it. You should both get a tool belt and something that can hold a stack of paper slips to start off. At my previous job as a hunter down in the south I used to carry around a stack of predrawn magic circles with some of my wordchains I used the most. Also get an ink bottle and a small brush, when you’re on the move it’s easier to get your circles right with, than with a pen or pencil.”

  With a thoughtful expression the woman looked up at the ceiling while playing with the ring on her finger.

  “Let’s see… Sally, I want you to write a list of at least five different types of doors to use with your door element,” Leo was quite surprised at hearing the girl’s element, as he hasn’t been really paying attention to what she was doing during class, “and you, Leo, get a dictionary for runic on plants. While you’re at it, also get an encyclopedia on plants and do some research.”

  “That’s a lot, how do you expect us to get all of that done today?!” Leo said with exasperation, while having a dumbfounded look on his face.

  “Pfft, you still have like…” she looked at the clock hanging above the blackboard, “...four hours left until everything closes. That’s plenty. But seriously, the first trial takes place during the break of the third quarter, so we only have about a month left which isn’t really a lot of time.”

  Leo and Sally looked at each other and sighed in resignation and started packing their things.

  “Good luuuuck.” The teacher waved them goodbye as they exited the classroom.

  *****

  As Leo was making his way to the tram station he heard the footsteps of someone approaching behind him.

  “Hey, Leo, you also heading to the town center? Wanna go together?” As he turned around, he saw Sally with her overly massive glasses and a stray strand of her short brown hair covering one of her eyes.

  “Sure. You think they have a belt we could use at the general supply or the clothing one?”

  Even though Leo tried to remain calm, he was a bit nervous. The last time he went out with a girl was when he got dumped by his first girlfriend after one week of dating her. Suffice to say, although two years had passed since then, he still wasn’t over it.

  “Who knows, Bella said that a tool belt will work, I’m pretty sure those are at the general.”

  The pair of students soon reached the station and decided to sit on a bank while waiting for the next tram to arrive.

  “By the way, she’s sooo cute, don’t you think so?” Sally said enthusiastically while leaning in closer to Leo’s face.

  He leaned back a bit.

  “Who? Mrs. Canton? I mean, I guess you could call her that? Today was my first time having a class with her and, to be honest, I had her all wrong, she seemed more… intimidating I guess.”

  “I know what you mean, she was our runic teacher throughout last year, if it wasn’t for that I would’ve thought so too. Also, come on, don’t be so uptight, she said to call her Bella.”

  If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

  “I dunno, it feels weird to call a teacher by their name…”

  “Also, did you notice how she was constantly playing with her ring? Isn’t that adorable?” She sighed, “I wonder what her husband is like.”

  “Huh, where did that come from?”

  “What, are you jealous? You wanna be married to a hottie like Bella? Or…” Sally gasped, putting a hand to her mouth with a shocked expression, “don’t tell me… you want me? I’m sorry, this is all so sudden, we’ve only kn-”

  “Woah, slow down there, partner. The fuck have you been smoking?”

  “Kya, so vulgar, you’re going to corrupt poor innocent me.” She hugged herself with both arms and stood up, moving away a bit.

  Leo let out a loud exaggerated sigh and put his head in his hands.

  He felt a light tap on his shoulder.

  “Come on, stand up, the tram’s here.” He looked up to find Sally standing over him and behind her the wagon turning into the street, “Don’t take my teasing too close to heart, I just noticed you were a bit gloomy, so I wanted to lighten the mood.”

  Leo stood up and they both climbed into the tram. It was about half full and there were still free seats, so Sally and him sat down next to each other.

  “Thanks, I guess…” he muttered under his breath.

  *****

  The rest of the ride went by in a comforting silence, as neither of the two said a single word. Leo only kept getting distracted by the occasional glare off Sally’s glasses.

  As they got to their stop about half of the people stood up with them. It seemed that they weren’t the only ones needing to get something from the supply.

  After he got out Leo threw together a short message for his mom saying he would be coming home a bit later that day. He quickly bumped his com-tablet against the station’s connection stone and turned to Sally.

  “So, you ready to go?” she asked, while fixing her school uniform, as the sweatpants and jacket were a couple sizes too big, probably to make it look more interesting, and got a bit crumbled while sitting in the tram.

  “Yeah, let’s head to the general first.” He started heading in the general direction of the supply along the wide road. Because there weren’t any vehicles besides public transport in the cities they could freely walk everywhere without much issue.

  “There’s usually even more people around at this time of day. You think it’s because of the announcement? Like, people are at home, discussing it with their families?”

  Leo froze in his tracks as he heard Sally’s statement.

  Shit… How am I supposed to bring wanting to be a candidate up with mom?

  “You… you think it will be a problem for you? I kinda don’t wanna go to Bella’s extra lessons alone. Would be kinda boring…” The girl was looking up while keeping her hands in her pockets, though by the end of her statement she shifted her gaze to Leo.

  He sighed for what felt like the hundredth time today already and continued walking, “I’ll convince her somehow. There’s no way I’m giving up on this. Hey, maybe I’ll say that I fell for the cute girl I met for the first time today,” Leo saw Sally stare at him wide-eyed, “and I guess I’ll mention the annoying classmate that also wants to be a candidate.” He snorted.

  “Oh, fuck you. You know, maybe I’ll tell Bella that you called her a ‘cute girl’...”

  “Please don’t…”

  “I guess I’ll think about it. Oh, we’re here already.”

  They were standing in front of a building 5 stories tall, so one of the biggest ones in their town. It had a couple of columns stretching out to each side of the entrance.

  As the pair walked in they saw only one person that seemed like staff - a middle aged man sitting behind a counter with the label ‘INFO’ at the front, reading a book.

  “Excuse me, do you have any tool belts?” Leo asked, walking up to the counter.

  “Hmm, pretty sure, yeah. Wait a second, please.”

  He pulled out a drawer filled with pieces of paper. After searching for a bit he put one on the table and laid his hand on it. A moment later Leo heard the same noise he heard when activating his spell in class. Then, suddenly, a floating arrow appeared above their heads.

  “There, if you follow the arrow it will lead you to the tool section, the belts should be there.”

  “Thank you.” Both of the kids said in unison and started walking in the direction the arrow was pointing in.

  “Do you think he has an arrow element or something different that he makes the arrows with?” Sally asked after they moved a little distance away from the counter.

  “Hmm, the circle didn’t look too big, so I’d guess it’s at least somewhat related to arrows… Maybe ‘direction’, judging by how it’s actually guiding us instead of just being a rigid arrow.”

  Leo pointed up at the arrow that was pointing a little bit upward, telling them to go up the stairs.

  “Could also be that an arrow element also allows to do that.”

  After going up the stairs the arrow pointed to the side and after passing what appeared to be the ‘garden’ section they arrived at the tools and the arrow above them disappeared.

  The pair looked around for a bit and shortly found a couple different tool belts.

  “I think this one would work.” Leo said as he held up one of the models, “It’s not too clunky but also has these bags that we could put the paper strips in.”

  “Looks good to me, let’s take these!”

  Both of them decided to just put them on and after picking up some basic brushes and ink bottles left the supply.

  “You gonna head home now?” Leo asks as they roam the streets again.

  “Nah, I don’t need a reason to wanna hang out a bit more, you know? It’s not like I have any homework to do, since we didn’t get any besides what Bella gave us.”

  *****

  The visit to the library didn’t take long and shortly after picking up what he needed and quickly exchanging com-tablet numbers with Sally on the way back, Leo was already sitting on a guardrail near the tram station with the girl beside him.

  “Oh, that one’s mine.” She jumped to her feet as she pointed at the wagon in the distance approaching.

  “Okay, good bye then.”

  Leo also stood up, but found himself in a bit of a pickle.

  Uhhh, what do I do? Do I just, like, wave? Or do I go for a handshake, or maybe a fist bump?

  As a result his arm was in a weird limbo state.

  “What? Come on, don’t be such a wuss.” Sally said while raising her eyebrows and pulled Leo into a short hug, “See you tomorrow!” She waved while climbing into the tram.

  That settles that then. He awkwardly waved back. Now I just have to get home and somehow convince my mom to let me be a candidate.