Everyone rolled up their sleeves as they chatted and recounted stories of their summer to Tarragon out in the training field.

Everyone except Julienne.

He reached under his sleeve and poked at the leathery, wavy patches of flesh that still hurt to the touch. The stories went around and around, none being topped by Archie's, until it was finally Yarrow's turn to speak. Julienne watched with bated breath as Yarrow resisted the urge to tell his story.

"The truffle hunt went pretty much how Julienne told it," he said. "I think the most exciting part of the summer for me was being nominated for an award during Truffle Week."

"I've heard about a certain lobster and truffle potato salad that everyone wants to try," Tarragon said.

Of course he had. Everyone had. It hadn't even taken two full weeks for Ambrosia City to have a new hottest dish. Chefs in Restaurant Row were already trying to replicate it. Nobles in Caviar Court were lying about having tried it. The three-month-long reservation list at Cafe Julienne was quickly extending to the end of the year. Uncle Julienne even floated cramming a new table for two into the already crowded seating area. He wanted to put the reservation up for auction.

"I'm glad you found success in the kitchen," Tarragon continued. "But you didn't neglect your conjuration training, did you?"

Yarrow clenched his teeth to hide a smile. "No."

"Good! Good! What about you, Juniper? Did you figure out…"

Julienne poked his burnt flesh too hard and barely managed to keep from yelping. Still, his flinch of pain did not go unnoticed.

"You okay?" Barley asked quietly.

"Yeah. Just got a chill."

Barley's face wrinkled. He looked up toward the sun, then back to Julienne, but didn't press the question. "Be sure to drink water."

"I will. Thanks."

"Alright, that's enough chitter chatter," Tarragon said at last. He stretched his hands up to the blue sky above him, brought them back down to smoothen his white hair, and passed over his face as his entire demeanor changed from cool teacher to angry instructor. "Alright! I can tell from your stories that some of you have been taking things easy. With that in mind, I need to split you up to train you effectively, so we'll be going through some qualifiers."

Oliver chuckled and looked around. Tarragon stopped his speech to glare, shutting Oliver up and making him stand up straight.

"First qualifier!" He thrust a finger at the flour-covered canvas targets in the field. "Turn your target red. Not yellow, not orange. Red. All over. Now line up and wait for my cue!"

The familiarity of the students scrambling to stand near their friends put Julienne at ease. This was a chaos he enjoyed.

But rather than thinking of who he wanted to practice next to, Julienne could only think of who he wanted to avoid. He spotted a space between Archie and Blanche as they approached Cress in the line. Perfect. He'd slip between the two, Nori would take her usual place on the other side of Archie, and Cress would be on the other side of Blanche. That'd give him a two-person gap either way.

But just as he lunged to take the spot, Archie took a step toward Blanche and rubbed her back, kicking Julienne down a spot. Julienne wouldn't get the buffer, but that was fine. He'd still fit between Archie and Nori, even if he had to crowd Nori out. He got his spot in line and looked to his right to see Yarrow looking back at him. Nori had moved in the opposite direction entirely, leaving the space for Julienne's disappointment. Apparently, he had some relationship dynamics to catch up on.

"I think I've gotten used to the heat," Yarrow said. "Remember how sick I'd get?"

Julienne blinked and then blinked again harder in an attempt to reset his mood. Why was he trying to avoid Yarrow? Yarrow was his friend. His best friend, maybe. Or it might make more sense to call him his closest friend. Best friend implied a level of closeness that Julienne wasn't sure they had. That he had with anyone. Maybe he had once a decade ago. Should he have a best friend? Or were such things trivial in the face of his pursuit of preserving the legacy of his name?

He blinked again and forced himself to smile. "I remember you got heat stroke pretty bad a few times."

Yarrow chuckled. "I didn't even know that was a thing until I got here. I think the mornings here are hotter than the hottest day where I grew up."

It was weird for Yarrow to mention the before times. The Khala times. The poverty times. Maybe him talking about it was a good thing? Maybe he had come to terms with his upbringing? Maybe he finally felt at home in the world? Julienne hoped that was the case. And he hoped he could feel comfortable himself and stop diagnosing his friend.

He just had to compartmentalize. He took all of his brewing nervousness around Yarrow, put those feelings in a box, and gave them a hearty shove into the corner of his mind. If he was going to worry about anything related to Yarrow, it should have been in concern for his friend's health and well-being.

"Just don't overdo it." Julienne rotated and pulled his elbows to stretch his shoulders. As his body loosened up, so did his spirit. "Heat stroke will sneak up on you."

"Oh trust me, I know. I nearly passed out twice during the truffle hunt."

And there it was. The truffle hunt. Julienne's body tensed again. He studied Yarrow's face as his friend turned to the targets, a faint smile still on his lips. Julienne watched and waited for any glimpse of regret or sadness or disgust. Anything negative that could have been displayed in any number of ways. A wince, a downward gaze, a deep breath, a nervous scratch at the temple, a hand running through hair, a bitten lip, a nervous fidget.

Yarrow extended his neck up to take in more sun as his faint smile became a fully fledged one. "I hope we get to practice combat this year. I mean really practice it."

That box of nervousness slid and slammed into the front of Julienne's mind.

No, no, no. He couldn't know what undercurrent of emotion ran beneath Yarrow's skin. Maybe he was struggling more than ever and had forced himself to hide his pain. Julienne shoved the box back.

He needed to stop dwelling. He was out with his classmates and friends on a nice day. He wasn't in danger. Unless someone had been waiting in the treeline for this. The brush was thick enough, they could have camped overnight. It was no secret that the second years would be out at this time. Julienne scanned a thicket down the way. If someone were waiting to attack, that was where they would hide.

No, no, no. Julienne whipped his head to the side to pull himself out of the spiral. He was with friends, which he had hardly been for many weeks. He just had to get used to it again. Archie would be good for that. They could rekindle their friendly rivalry. Julienne suspected Archie had surpassed him in most things related to Tarragon's class, but that would just give him the extra push he needed to get back into classwork.

If you come across this story on Amazon, it's taken without permission from the author. Report it.

He loaded a provoking comment into his mouth, but when he turned, Archie wasn't ready to receive it. Instead, he was joking with Blanche with back turned as if he hadn't even realized Julienne was there.

"Alright, listen up!" Tarragon walked in front of the line of students, stopping between Yarrow and his target.

Julienne blinked. Tarragon was dead on the ground, his body shriveled and burnt and blistered. Julienne blinked again. Tarragon was alive and well, and Julienne had missed the first part of his instruction.

"—as such, you can expect me to be much harder on you. You are no longer children fumbling around in the dark to find essence. You should have a firm grip on things. It's time to convert that into actionable skills and ability. Some of you have a lot of catching up to do. Some of you need a dose of humility." Tarragon tapped his eyepatch. "Arrogance has cost."

Archie and Blanche fought to suppress giggles. Julienne had no idea what they found so funny and feared Tarragon's reaction, but the old warrior just scoffed and shook his head.

"Speaking of being humbled, don't look so comfortable. Just because you've seen these targets before doesn't mean it'll be as easy as last time. Head Chef Anise made it tougher. A lot tougher. Harder to turn red, faster to turn white. We're going to start with half-hour intervals. Do what you can, and make sure you don't pass out from exhaustion. Headmaster Aubergine will be upset with me if one of you ends up in the infirmary on the first day. By the end of the first week, though? I think he'd be fine with that, but we'll work up to that."

Tarragon clapped several times, his energy transforming the atmosphere. "Alright, let's see some fire! By the end of the month, I want to see something different out of all of you!"

Tarragon retreated behind the students. Julienne looked at Archie, who raised his eyebrows at him. The fire of their competition had been left to simmer for many months, but it was still ready to take on some kindling. The warmth disappeared as Julienne turned to look at Yarrow.

"Hey, remember, pure essence only."

Yarrow scrunched up his face and looked out of the corner of his eyes. "I…know?"

He shook his head and was the first to thrust his hands at their target. A rough circle of burnt yellow flashed on his target for just a second before disappearing. He laughed, his face settling into a crooked grin. "Okay. A real challenge. I get it."

Julienne watched as the people down the line from Yarrow made their attempts. Cress managed a splash of pale yellow. Oliver managed a dark yellow that he sustained for several seconds before it faded back to yellow then white. Akando was the first to show orange, but it disappeared so quickly that Julienne couldn't be sure that he had even seen it. Nori followed soon after with a more sustained but much smaller patch of bright orange. All of their movements were similar, just variations of moving their hands toward the target.

And then there was Barley. He held his hands flat against his chest, closed his eyes, and breathed in deeply. He was already the biggest in their class, but he seemed absolutely massive as he took in enough air to double the size of his chest. His eyes opened as he narrowly opened his lips to blow out a steady stream of air. The center of his target turned yellow, then faintly orange, the color bleeding out to the edges as he sustained his breath for what must have been ten full seconds. In Julienne's eyes, it was the most impressive. But Barley looked disappointed.

"That was good!" Nori commended him.

Barley tilted his head to one side. "My stamina is still not there."

Julienne couldn't believe it. Not even Oliver had managed to hold a color for so long.

"What about your burst?" Nori asked.

Barley took three deep breaths in and let them out in a single blast. A minty aroma tickled Julienne's nose as the target turned blood orange for a full second before reverting to white.

Julienne turned to his own target. The last time they were here, he was barely outclassed by Archie and Nori. That meant he needed to see orange to not be disappointed with himself. He turned to check Archie's progress. Pure white.

"You go first!" Archie told Blanche.

"No way! You go first!"

"I said it first."

"Okay, you're gonna laugh at me."

"Will not."

"Will, too."

"I won't laugh much! I mean, weren't you pretty awful at this last time?"

Blanche slapped his arm. "I scored a very respectable thirteen!"

Archie reared his head back and laughed. "That's right! Only Sutton did worse!"

The two mingled in some mix of fighting and tickling that Julienne did not care to watch. He turned his attention to his target as he reminisced about the days when Archie cared more about competition than a girl.

A splash of orange. A splash of orange. Essence to hands, hands forward, splash of orange.

Julienne struggled with even the first step. His essence moved like sludge down his arms, the droplet scars on his forearm emanating a buzzing numbness as essence moved past them. He saw Yarrow move from the corner of his eye and flinched away. He thought of Yarrow spewing acid and twisting and melting the flesh from Barley's bones.

His essence retreated to a place in his body that he could not find. He wanted to lay on the ground, to rub his temples, to groan and scream and cry. But he refused to look weak. A Julienne could never look weak. Especially one that had spent much of the summer being outcooked by a cousin that could take his place. Yes, yes, that was good. That was the good stress. Shove the other problems aside and dive in.

Julienne put on a tough face as something broke inside him.

"You gonna try sometime today?" Yarrow asked.

Julienne took a prolonged blink. "Yeah. Just thinking."

"Thinking?"

"Yeah. I have the kitchen on my mind is all."

Yes, that was good. The kitchen. The kitchen. The kitchen. Focus on that. Julienne mimed kneading dough. If conjuration wouldn't come to him, he'd trick himself into thinking he was cooking. His essence flowed more freely and pooled in his hands.

He thrust them forward.

In a small circle in the very corner of the flour and nowhere else, a little dot of yellow appeared, so faint that it might as well have been a trick of the sun.

Yarrow's jaw slowly dropped as he licked the corner of his mouth. "Did you miss?"

Julienne whipped his head back and forth. He needed more essence. He just did it wrong. That was all. He imagined his right hand gripping a lemon, his left gripping a zester. Essence trickled into his hands. He could not place the feeling to the specificity of palm or finger, but it would have to do. He tried to replicate his intensity from cooking, his tongue habitually sticking out as he concentrated.

Maybe he had missed. Maybe his main blast of essence had flown over the target, the little dot of yellow like a droplet fallen from a stream of acid.

He thrust his hands forward. The yellow was more center and a small bit larger, but no more intense of a shade.

He hung his head and tried to focus on his breathing. "I might be a little sick. You know, crashing now that I finally have time to crash."

"Yeah. Yeah." Yarrow took a deep, hissing breath in. "Maybe you're getting heatstroke. It's not that bad out here, but you know…it sneaks up on you."

"Yeah. Maybe. I think I'm fine, though, really." Julienne tried to prove his point with another attempt, but the flour only changed to pale yellow again.

"Maybe it's because you're not sleeping enough."

"Who says I'm not sleeping enough?"

"Your bed creaks."

"Sorry."

"Don't be." Yarrow clapped Julienne on the shoulder and returned his attention to his target. He threw his hands forward one after the other, the flour flashing dark yellow and white.

Julienne tried again with a sustained flow of essence. The yellow was no deeper, but at least it lasted for a couple of seconds before turning back to white.

Yarrow looked at him with pity. "I was thinking maybe you could take things easy for a while."

Julienne wiped sweat off his eyebrow. He wished he did have heatstroke just so that he could make sense of his deficiencies. "What do you mean?"

"Well, I'm kind of…well, I'm kind of having a moment in the kitchen, you know? I have the hot hand. So you can—"

"What? Get out of the way and watch?" Julienne's body flushed with heat. This was the coup he should have been watching out for.

"That's not what I'm saying at all. Julienne, that's…" Yarrow's face reflected Julienne's anger. "We're a team. Especially now that we know we have enemies. We can rely on each other. I mean, what did I bring to the team last year? I relied on you and Mindy. Now it's my turn to step up. You can relax for a while. Until people get tired of my dish, at least. And then I'll probably need to rely on you again."

Shame bubbled up from deep within Julienne. Yarrow wasn't all acid. He had a sweetness to him. Maybe that sweetness didn't extend to everyone, but it definitely extended to Julienne. Yarrow would do anything for him.

He'd even kill for him.

"Yeah, maybe you're right." Julienne smiled and looked for any vestige of remorse in his friend. Any little sign at all.

Yarrow smiled back.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.