59th of Season of Water, 58th year of the 32nd cycle

While Newt fought Jade, Fourchains pulverized Gale. Another hour passed, and nobody issued new challenges.

"Newstar Salamandra has become an elite student undefeated, welcome young man," the chaplain in charge of the trial said, for the first time showing any semblance of emotion other than terminal boredom. Her next statement, though, came out with no enthusiasm at all.

"As for the other two places, students Break, Break, and Willow will fight in a free-for-all; the first one out shall have the inner student status, while the other two will be granted the title of elites." She shot an exasperated look at all three of them. "I expect no mercy."

Newt followed his referee off the ring, as did the Break brothers. The rings sank into the ground, and a larger one, covering two thirds of the arena, rose. Newt went to the participants' section and took a place while the three contestants entered the ring.

The chaplain once more explained the rules, and Newt was starting to understand why the woman was bored. He wondered whether the protocol was a form of punishment, or had someone at some point had disregarded the rules in some way, pretending they forgot them.

The woman left the ring, and a referee signaled the match to start.

Fourchains and Willow charged Twochains, who just stood there, the air above his head shimmering from his fury. The man gnashed his teeth, and when his enemies were mere steps away, he turned to face his brother. He sent the spiked weight straight at the man's face. Fourchains blanked, so shocked he tripped and dodged the blow by accident. That must be what the man and most of the audience believed, but Newt saw Twochains flick his wrist and pull the weight upwards a fraction of an inch, enough to miss the certain hit.

Willow struck, water mana flaring from his spear, but Twochains blocked with his kama. Fourchains rose from the ground, but his older brother unleashed a blast beneath his feet, flying straight at Willow. His kama was entangled with the spear, the weight out of position, but Twochains was absolutely confident, like he had already won the fight.

As he flew beside Willow, he threw a loop of chain around the stunned man's neck, and kept flying away. Without the enchantment shielding the arena's warriors, the chain would have decapitated the lanky man, but as things were, he just fell to the ground, limp and staring at the sky above.

"Willow is out! The winners are Twochains Break and Fourchains Break."

The crowd erupted with cheers. While the battle lasted a handful of moments, it was obvious the other two had ganged up on Twochains, and despite the obvious handicap of not wanting to fight his brother, Twochains won. Newt also stood, applauding. While brief, the match showed just how excellent Twochains was with his chosen weapon. It also confirmed the man was a mageknight.

And I defeated him. He's incredibly skilled, at least twice my age, and I defeated him.

The weight of the realization just sank in when Twochains turned towards Newt and gave him a nod of acknowledgement.

He had met another man he respected and who returned the feeling. Newt smiled and gave Twochains a warrior's salute.

***

Two moons passed. Newt split his time between sculpting his realm and learning spell seals, with weekly sessions with his master and teacher. The life of an elite student was much simpler than that of an inner one.

They had no missions other than getting stronger and three arranged regular spars to determine their rank and growth. The resources they got each moon were ten times those of inner students, and Newt handily won all his matches, rising to the position of the seventeenth elite student.

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Life was going just the way Newt believed it should when it got better.

The outer student managing the desk at the Chamber of Runes knocked on the door of his proving room.

"Sir Salamandra, the inner students you sent on a mission have reported back. They are waiting for you at the Chamber of Instruction."

Newt took a moment to pull his mind from the heat distillation spell seal he was analyzing, then grinned.

"Thank you, I'll be right out!"

Newt gathered the practice materials he had borrowed, returned them to the desk, then went down the road to the Chamber of Instruction.

"Newt!" Obi waved, as did Jas and Rose. The fourth member of the team, a woman called Spark, who had advanced to the rank of inner students, was much more formal.

"Sir Salamandra."

"Hey, guys, did you find him?"

"Yes, he's a very interesting person." Rose didn't hide her awe while the other three nodded. Even Jasmine was impressed. "He's waiting for you at the pier leading to the worker's part of the island, since visitors need special permission to enter other areas."

Newt wanted to ask what Dandelion had done to amaze his friends to such an extent, but he had better things to do. Like go see Dandelion.

"Did you get your reward?" His friends had barely started nodding when Newt rushed to see his first ever mentor.

Well, technically second, since Magmin has taught me so much. Even if he didn't mean to.

Newt ran for a few hundred yards, coming up with how to explain what he had been doing in the time since he and Dandelion had last seen each other. That helped him remember that he was an elite student of his prestigious order and that one of his few duties was to uphold the Explorer's Gate's honor and dignity.

So, he slowed to a dignified walk, all the while thinking about how he was wasting time he could have used catching up with Dandelion or planning their ideal realm blueprint.

Even walking at a much slower pace, Newt took a mere handful of minutes to reach the pier shared by the laborers and outer students. There, standing larger than life, was a man in black robes with a massive metal staff strapped to his back.

"Dan! It's great to see you!" Newt shouted and barely contained himself from going over and hugging the man.

"Dan?" Dandelion raised an eyebrow. "Really? All right; greetings, Star! Great to see you too."

"Does the nickname bother you?" Newt did a double take.

"Not at all. How do you like yours, Living Star?" Dandelion smiled his trademark friendly smile, seemed perfectly relaxed, yet Newt could feel those two capital letters. They felt… weird.

Like a harmless joke, and yet not at the same time. Newt brushed away the thought. He called Dandelion to exchange realm-building tips, not quips.

"So, Dandelion, I bet you're wondering why I called you."

"You called me because you thought I had something valuable enough for you to haul me fifteen thousand miles and because you have something valuable enough for me to travel fifteen thousand miles to pay me with. I will be mighty angry if I have traveled thirty thousand miles over nothing." Dandelion smiled. It was a smile fit for a tenth realm ancestor of the dreadwalker family.

"It is nice to see you again, Newt. I can see life has been treating you well, or better to say, you are forging a fine life for yourself." The change from lethal carnivore to amicable old friend happened so fast Newt had every right to doubt his eyes, especially because his danger sense had not trembled even the tiniest bit.

"Actually, I have a lot of things to discuss, but first I have to see where I can rent a soundproof room that offers total privacy."

Dandelion arched a brow. "That important, huh?"

He drew his staff, hopped onto the black sand and drew a perfect circle. The staff flowed like a brush, drawing runes for a static illusion, rustling, and fragility for some reason. Newt would have failed to recognize the last one, had he not spent so much time in the Chamber of Runes.

He motioned Newt inside, then drew the runes for mana to power the spell formation and connected them to fragility. Newt jumped in, and the air shimmered, the world outside the seal freezing in the moment when the formation had drawn enough energy to operate.

"There, a primitive private chamber. What did you want to talk about?"

Newt opened his mouth to ask whether the spell seal could block all eavesdropping, but the bubble burst.

"Excuse me, Senior," Dandelion said to nobody in particular and politely bowed inland. "We are trying to have a private conversation. I will in no way harm or interrogate your student about your order's sensitive information."

Dandelion drew a breath to speak more, but the illusion popped back into place.

"I was about to ask whether this is safe."

"My invention. Much safer than spell seals for isolating sound. We whisper, and the noise the sphere makes cancels our speech, replacing it with the empowered sound of the surroundings. The illusion is obvious, but whoever is out there already knows we are here, talking, so all it has to do is block line of sight, and finally, the spell seal is so fragile any wisp of mana that touches it will make it collapse for a handful of seconds before it restarts itself."

Dandelion grinned. "Pretty neat, right?"

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