"Archie! Blanche!" Tarragon's voice made Julienne jump and froze the playfighting of Archie and Blanche. "If you two don't want to bother with the drill, maybe everyone should just run laps around the lake instead."

The entire class turned inward to glare at the two. Archie held his hands up in apology and moved backward to pressure Blanche into going first. Blanche shook her head and stepped forward. Every movement was delicate—a slow raise of the hand, a gentle spread of the fingers, a little flex forward. All but the very corners of the target turned yellow with what looked like solid orange roots imprinted in the flour.

A class full of impatience turned into a class full of wonder. Julienne's jaw dropped. Blanche. Blanche? Blanche! Somehow the one-trick pony had outperformed everyone except perhaps Barley.

"Well alright, Blanche!" Tarragon commended. "Looks like at least someone took themselves seriously over the summer."

No one was more surprised than Blanche herself. She stretched her face thin and tall and raised her eyebrows as she walked past Archie, who stepped forward. Julienne watched with a mix of excitement and dread. Archie already had the edge months ago. If he didn't show at least a little yellow, Julienne couldn't be sure that their friendly rivalry wouldn't lose its teeth.

Archie rubbed his fingers together for a moment and thrust his palm forward. Julienne first noticed a change on his own target—a semi-circle of yellow that put anything he had done to shame. And then he looked at Archie's target.

Tomato red. Corner to corner.

Tarragon recoiled, his face displaying a rare shock. "What…"

Archie, shameless as he was, bowed once for each side of lined up students.

"No, no, no," Tarragon said with a shake of his head. "Your target must have the easy flour on it."

Archie flicked his fingers at Julienne's target, and despite the increased distance, painted it a pale red. "What about that one?"

Julienne had to assure himself that Archie hadn't meant it as a slight.

Yarrow was always more sensitive about such things. He leaned in to whisper to Julienne. "Want me to beat him up?"

Julienne shook his head. He knew firsthand that Archie could throw a good punch. In a fistfight, Archie would probably win. And then it would become more than a fistfight, and Julienne knew firsthand what Yarrow could do at that point.

Tarragon's demeanor changed from skeptical to excited to challenging. He held his hands out wide. "Hit me with it."

"What do you mean?" Archie asked.

"The same way you did to that target."

Julienne expected Archie to hesitate, but he did no such thing. Instead, he put his whole body into it, hopping as he threw his arms forward. The force was invisible, but its effect was apparent in a sudden slouch in Tarragon's shoulders.

"Okay!" Tarragon grinned and clapped his hands. He no longer seemed like their instructor—Julienne imagined this was the look Tarragon had back in his days as a champion. "I take back what I said. That was a legitimate force!"

Archie grinned with pride.

Tarragon's smile disappeared. He leaned forward. "Want to see if you can handle mine?"

Archie hesitated and looked around. "Sure."

"Alright. Brace yourself. Everyone else should probably move out of the way. I won't feel guilty if I hurt our dear Archie here, but the rest of you? Well, Oliver, you're free to step closer if you want."

"I'll watch, thanks," Oliver said. Julienne shuffled away.

"Okay. Ready?"

Archie nodded. Tarragon lightly clapped his hands together once, twice, three times, and then quickly rotated them forward. A deep, internal buzzing filled Julienne's ears. It was more uncomfortable than painful, but still made Julienne fight to keep from squeezing his eyes shut.

Naturally, it hit Archie a little harder. His knees buckled and his frozen body folded and fell like a fish to the ground. His shoulder hit the ground and seemed to wake him up, his hands scrambling to cushion the rest of his fall. Blanche rushed to him, but by the time she reached him, he was already laughing and brushing himself off.

"You alright?" Tarragon asked.

"That was crazy," Archie answered.

"That was fifty percent."

Archie laughed. "Fifty percent from the great Tarragon? I'll take that."

"Fifty percent from an old man. You'd still be catching your breath if I were twenty years younger."

Tarragon looked around and pursed his lips, perhaps realizing that he had derailed the class in a brief fit of competitiveness. "Alright everyone, back to it. Take little short breaks as needed, and we'll break in thirty."

Julienne stepped back into place beside Archie as the rest of the class returned to training. "You alright?"

Archie took Blanche's hand and pulled himself up. "Yeah. It was like…getting squeezed by hands that are already beneath your skin."

Blanche grimaced. "That's gross."

Julienne shifted his weight from one foot to the other. "How'd you turn your target red?"

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"The same way we always have." Archie stretched and popped his neck. "Pool essence, condense it, throw it."

"I know that. Did you really train that much over the summer? I mean, I can't even get a speck of orange."

"Really? Let me see."

Julienne groaned. He didn't want to have to prove his failures, but it was clear that Archie had been paying too much attention to Blanche to see them before. Julienne squared his body to his target and fought the temptation to put forward a half-hearted attempt. He could do it. He could turn it orange at least. Orange. Orange. Orange.

Yellow. The color faded within a single second.

Archie didn't even do the courtesy of gloating. That would have made it easier for Julienne. Instead, he received only pity. Blanche even looked away and got back to her target.

"I thought you said you were busy all summer," Archie said.

"Busy cooking. But I don't get it! How did you get so much better than me?"

"Well, I already was better than you. At this at least." Archie gave him a coy smile that broke through Julienne's frustration.

"Okay, but you weren't that much better."

"Ha!" Archie snapped his fingers at Julienne. "You just admitted I was better than you."

Julienne sighed. "You were, though."

"Yeah, but you would have never said that before. What happened to you? Where's that pomp? That arrogance?"

"I never had either of those things."

"Well…" Archie sucked air in through his teeth. "You certainly don't anymore."

"I could still outcook you."

"Word around town is that your star's not the brightest." Archie nodded toward Yarrow.

"Archie," Blanche scolded. She never turned or stopped trying to paint her target from afar. Julienne hadn't even known she was listening.

Great. Just another person to see how pathetic he was. He sulked at the thought.

"Look." Archie took a step toward Julienne and lowered his voice. "I trained hard. Really, really hard. For one specific purpose. And then when they cleansed my scar…I felt like I had been wearing training weights for the past year."

"So that's it? You were always this much better, you were just handicapped?"

"No. I mean, that was part of it, sure. But I think when Blanche and I…" Archie stepped even closer, now barely speaking above a whisper. "You know how we all have essence inside of us, but we also use the essence around us when we perform our magic? Ever since we were in that cave with Tamani, I feel like I've been…swimming in it. Whereas before it was more of a trickle. And it feels different. The essence. I don't know exactly how to describe it. It's, uh…unmuted?"

Julienne looked around as if he might find nefarious eavesdroppers. "Why are you acting like this is a secret?"

"Well, I'm still trying to figure it out. I'm worried that…if this came from interacting with Tamani, great. But what if it came from the tree we planted in Sain? What if someone hears about what that did for us and they decide to take the tree for themselves?"

"I suppose that makes sense. If that is the case, maybe I need to go sit in this tree's shade for a while." Julienne smiled.

Archie did not. "That's exactly what I mean. The tree is there to rejuvenate the land. Not for personal gain."

Julienne couldn't be sure if he had ever seen such a scowl from Archie. When had he become so serious?

"Sorry," Julienne muttered.

"It's fine. I think I'm just a little sensitive about it." Archie looked as if he wanted to get back to his target. "I'm sure you're just out of practice. You'll be giving me a run for my money in no time."

"Yeah." Julienne put a small blip of yellow on his target. He hated being the object of pity, but luckily, he was well-versed in faking confidence. "Don't waste your headstart, Archie. I'll catch you before you know it."

"I look forward to the competition." Archie returned his attention to Blanche and blasted her target with essence, coloring it red.

Julienne closed his eyes and breathed. In. In. In. Out.

He didn't need the competition. He didn't need anyone else. Their expectations were paralyzing. In. In. In. Out.

He needed to be in competition only with himself. If he could be the best version of himself, no one could compare. All of his problems would take care of themselves. He just needed to conquer himself. In. In. In. Out.

He opened his eyes and launched his essence forward. A yellow circle filled a third of his canvas. He could have argued that there was a bit of orange toward the center, but he didn't care. He would only care about red. That was the standard he sought.

Julienne repeated these philosophies to himself until they became ironclad and firm in his mind. Over the next thirty minutes, his mentality and mood improved, but his results did not.

"Alright!" Tarragon clapped until all the students had turned to him. "We're gonna take a breather. Don't wander off too far."

The class split into their usual groups. Nori, Cress, and Mindy went to dip their feet in the lake—Archie stole Blanche away from the group and walked around the field with her, leaving room for Oliver to wedge his way into the usual girl's group. Barley and Akando sat together in silence in the shade of a tree. Juniper and Hyssop sought extra instruction from Tarragon—they were the only ones who had performed definitively worse than Julienne. Benedict walked along the lake by his lonesome. Yarrow stood around at a distance but clearly was just waiting for Julienne to move.

Julienne decided Benedict had the right idea and walked to a more distant dock, being careful not to look directly at Yarrow so that he could sit alone and in silence. He kicked off his shoes, rolled up his pants, and dipped his feet in the lake. The very top of the water was warm with sun, but it was still cool enough to refresh him. In the distance, he heard Benedict reciting lines from a play.

He tried to flush everything from his mind. To focus on the way the wind felt as it swept his hair across his forehead. The way the waterline danced and bobbed above and below his ankle. The sensation of its chill working its way up his shins. After minutes of nothing, a little ripple circled out near the edge of the water. Julienne watched it for a while before the culprit reappeared—a walleye looking for bugs.

When was the last time they had served lakefish at Cafe Julienne? Had they ever? There was a prevailing perception in Ambrosia City that lakefish belonged on tables in the Roots, not the Crown. No, only saltwater fish and salmon were to be expected at such a fine establishment. Maybe he could subvert that. Mindy had spent much of the summer lamenting the stuffy customs of fine dining. Maybe there was something to that.

Tarragon's clapping broke Julienne's tranquility. He was surprised at how quickly time could pass when he wasn't spiraling down dark places. The break had gone by as quick as the breeze for him, but probably not for Yarrow. Julienne's self-volunteering personal bodyguard had stood with an eye on the treeline the entire time.

"Alright, everyone bring it in!" Tarragon clapped until the entire class had gathered, likely waking up any animal within five miles by the time he stopped. "We're gonna keep working on our raw essence control this week. We'll have a morning session and an afternoon session. At the start of each, I'll sort you based on your previous performance. We'll see where you end up at the end of the week."

Julienne dreaded what he knew was coming.

"I'll give you your initial order now. And I won't hear any complaints! I call your name, you take your spot. Starting at this end. Archie. Oliver. Blanche. Barley. Akando. Nori. Yarrow. Cress. Benedict. Hyssop. Julienne. Mindy. Juniper."

Third to last. Sandwiched between Hyssop and Mindy. What had they scored on their conjuration exams? Did their combined scores even match his? How could—

No. Stop. Deep breath. In. In. In. Out.

Julienne smiled at Mindy as he took his place. He was the first to get started, producing a strong yellow with an undeniable orange core.

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