"You know something?" said Terry, face pinched with worry as he watched Claudia and Callum get into dueling position. The class gathered behind Terry, Aaravos, and Viren, everyone far away and out of any danger from the fight. "I don't think violence is the healthiest way to resolve messy emotional conflict. We were all doing a good job of moving away from that. Felt like progress! But this? For sport?"

"I have to agree," added Viren. "If either of them gets seriously hu- are you eating a snack right now?"

Aaravos threw a handful of trail mix made with Eveneran berries into his mouth. "Claudia and Callum were going to try and kill each other at some point. I'm here to make sure that despite their best efforts, no one is harmed." Crunches. "Besides, it's a good practical demonstration."

Aaravos had a point. Dark Magic was expensive, even in small daily doses. Nothing about it came without a cost. Many Dark Mages outside of a castle court in those days couldn't dream of having the resources Claudia had had to use and learn. Callum was connected to two arcana and was also a prodigy. Their duel promised to be dramatic.

Viren and Terry were still apprehensive in contrast to the eager students behind them. Claudia and Callum ignored the crowd in favor of turning towards each other, several paces apart.

"Last chaaa-aaaance," called Claudia, words only within Callum's earshot.

Callum grit his teeth.

It wasn't just about him. It was about primal magic triumphing over dark magic. He had more to prove than being right in an argument. His cause was noble and selfless.

...

Alright. It was also about him.

"Do your worst."

Claudia intended to do just that. She clenched something in her fist and Callum only had a moment to spring his plan into action. He drew in the air, silver lines flowing like mist as her eyes went black. "Partum mysterium!"

His magical twin appeared next to him, same as the other night. Callum got ready to split off in opposite directions-

But the illusion flickered and vanished.

Stunned, Callum redrew the sigil but it was even fainter, the writing burning off in the daylight like late morning fog.

"I'm an idiot," he said aloud. Claudia's fireball didn't wait for him to process his mistake. Leaping to the side, tumbling as he tripped over his own feet, Callum was only lightly singed on his sleeve by the flames.

Claudia readied another one. "Oh, I'm sorry, does primal magic have drawbacks? Imagine that!" she shouted, throwing the fireball at him.

"You think that's all I got?!" Callum drew another rune- sky that time. "Stratum caligo!"

The second fireball didn't find him. As fog filled the field, Callum's mind raced. Why hadn't the moon spell worked? He knew it was stronger at night, but Lujanne had still been able to conjure illusions in the daytime. She lived near the Moon Nexus, though. Maybe his inexperience actually mattered and he needed to train his connection more.

Sky was everywhere, easygoing, in his every breath. He'd have to get used to something fickle, waxing and waning.

Somebody from the sidelines distantly booed them.

Right, they had spectators. Spectators who couldn't see anything. Callum didn't care, still weaving around in the fog, trying to find Claudia before she found him, careful to be quiet. He was still fooling her senses. The philosophy of the moon arcanum was still helping, so he told himself.

The experiences of an angry archdragon trying to kill him and his not quite ex-girlfriend throwing fire at him were remarkably similar.

Callum's scarf glowed golden. He froze.

He grabbed the scarf and almost threw it off in a panic, but he'd learned something else too from the Sol Regem encounter. "Aspiro." He let the scarf drift through the mist as steadily as possible, leading Claudia away from him.

A twig snapped nearby followed by footfalls in the direction of his scarf.

Callum hoped Aaravos knew what he was doing.

"Fulminis!"

His lightning spell shot off in Claudia's direction.

At once, the fog cleared the field, Aaravos glowing in the distance. Claudia was panting, knees bent as though she'd felt the impact, but definitely not directly since she was still standing. Callum let his scarf drift down into a fern.

It wasn't over. Claudia reached into her bag, grasping a bundle of thin, long objects.

Callum blanched. "Hey, the other day, you were trying to be friends with me and all that, and you weren't mad? Remember that?" he asked, voice pitched high with nervousness as he shouted to carry his voice to her.

"I wasn't mad anymore, but then you were a jerk, so now I'm actually mad!"

"That doesn't make sense!"

Claudia's eyes glowed purple. "Elapmi dna kees!" The handful of porcupine quills glowed purple and shot out from her palm. Callum would have an easier time outrunning arrows. His arms flew to cover his face, but the pain never came. The quills turned to ash a centimeter from his body, drifting in the breeze.

If anyone was keeping score they'd be tied, one to one.

It would be best to end it quickly.

Callum hadn't gone in with only one idea. "Ferrum venti!" Curved, sharp blades of air swept out from his sky rune, zooming by Claudia's side.

She barely had to step aside to dodge. "Come on, you can't aim either?"

"I aimed perfectly."

Her bag fell to the ground, strap severed.

"Hey!"

"Angustiae lautus!" Callum summoned a miniature tornado, spinning a foot over the ground. It raced to Claudia's bag, snatching it up in the wind before she could, edge of the tiny storm rebuffing her hand. "Yes! C'mere Angus!"

Callum stooped down to grab her bag, holding it close.

Claudia put her hands on her hips. "Well?"

"Well what?"

"At least use it!" She seemed exasperated rather than defeated, but it made Callum pause.

Looking down into the darkness of the mostly closed purse, Callum could see a few of her spell components near the top. His mind raced, placing the bugs, a mouse, and pieces of larger creatures on pages from tomes he'd read, confident he could use any of them if he wanted to- if he needed to.

Were it not a mock battle, wouldn't he use them? Left with no other choice? Perhaps not even for his own life, but to protect someone he cared for…

He'd lived his answer once, but he wasn't eager to do it again.

He tucked her bag under his arm, closed again, shaking his head. "No, it's over anyway. You can't do anything without all of this."

Claudia laughed.

"You know what's a girl's best friend?"

"Chocolate?" asked Callum, nervous again.

"POCKETS!"

Claudia charged him, withdrawing a red piece of coral from her pocket and crushing it. Callum quickly drew a rune, hoping to be faster on the draw than she was.

"Aspiro frigus!" Callum drew the sigil in time, but Claudia crashed into him and knocked his arm aside, sending the ice spell into the sky. Her arm was encased in red coral, an imposing fist coming at his face.

Callum met her fist with his own magic, lightning crackling in his fist. They met and her coral cracked.

"Oh come ON!" Claudia snapped. "Give up! Haven't you taken enough? Aren't you perfect enough?!"

Callum tried to draw another rune but she lunged at him. He dodged, magic dissipating. "What're you talking about?!"

"Don't pretend!" She didn't even use magic, tackling him to the ground. Her spell components bag landed a few meters away from them, spilling open. Claudia continued as they struggled, both trying to keep the other from reaching the spells. "You're Prince Callum, High Mage, first primal human mage, Aaravos's favorite, and you have to try and take my family too?! Soren must be so buddy buddy with you all now, huh?!" She fully fell as Callum stood up, but she caught his ankle.

"What on earth makes you think I'm trying to take your family?!"

Callum had never considered himself part of their group, just an outsider, a guest, a misfit, as he'd always been.

"Look at Aaravos, all proud of you!" She spat. "My dad is doing what you're doing now and judging me for doing everything he taught me to! Kpp'ar even got judgy!"

Callum drew a rune, pushing her components further away from them both. "Aspiro! Claudia, I'm not getting in the way of-!"

"Shut up!" She shouted, reaching into her other pocket. Callum didn't see anything but a purple glow before he was knocked backwards, the force softened by Aaravos he was sure, but still enough to make him lose his footing. She stood over him, eyes still glowing. "You've mastered arcana and now I'm supposed to do the impossible or I'm a failure! You're the favorite! You're the standard! I'm not good enough and everyone from my dad to Aaravos knows it! I've tried! I've been trying! And I can't fucking do it!"

She breathed hard, hand raised behind her, threatening a finishing blow should Callum stand up.

Callum stared. He hadn't seen Claudia trying to make her own connection, but it would make sense that she'd try on her own, looking inside herself and to the world. His mind raced, wondering why this felt so familiar to him…

Despite her looming over him, he relaxed.

"It's okay."

Claudia hesitated, hand still glowing. "What?"

"You haven't connected to an arcanum because it's not what you need right now." Callum put it together as he spoke. "I know when I was younger and trying to do all of these things that I thought would make my dad proud of me, it wasn't really about the swordfighting or staying on a horse. I thought it was, but it wasn't. In reality, I didn't need those things for King Harrow to care about me. I needed to let him care for me, and for him to express those things to me. When I finally did connect to an arcanum, it was over a big choice in how I was going to live my life from then on, something I couldn't understand no matter how hard I tried beforehand; no theories or books or anything else could force it to click. I'd bet that whatever Viren went through, it was that there was a truth he needed to understand for him to be able to go on.

"You don't need an arcanum right now. You need your dad," he concluded, tone gentle. "Or, um, dads."

Claudia's spell faded. Her shoulders sagged and she looked away, tucking her hair behind her ear. "I guess that makes sense. Maybe."

Aaravos waved to them from the sidelines, everyone peering over behind him. Callum tapped the ground twice.

"You won, fair and square."

"You're fine with that?" asked Claudia.

Callum nodded. "I'm not upset anymore." It wasn't like everything was perfect between them. "There's some things that are hard to let go of, but it'll never get better if all we do is throw spells at each other."

She smiled. "Yeah. We might be able to be mature about things, if we try." Claudia offered Callum a hand up and he took it, standing beside her.

Aaravos checked them both over for injuries. "Well done, and neither of you seem harmed. Both ranged and physical combat can have different dynamics with magic, as you all can see," he said, clearly continuing whatever lecture he'd been giving over their duel. He waved his hand and Claudia's bag and all of its contents zoomed into his hand. "Callum had good tactical ideas, but he also proved that all of us have limitations."

Callum felt better as they rode the class boat back to the Royal Library hub where they could split up. As he watched the trees pass by, floating down the water channel, Srisha came up to him. "Sure you don't need the book on wounded pride?"

"I'm sure," said Callum.

"I suspect I know what changed, but would you feel better if you said it aloud?"

Callum looked down at the water, resting against the railing. "I felt better helping her than proving myself. It was what we both needed."

-BREAK-

Callum returned to his room with an armful of books. He opened the door, ready to relax and read, but-

"You lost on purpose."

"Gah!" Callum dropped the pile of books on his foot, groaning. Aaravos glittered in the corner, watching him curiously. "Ow, did you have to let yourself in?"

Aaravos chuckled. "It's not difficult, though I didn't mean to frighten you." He lifted the books off the floor with magic. "You could have pushed through, drained the rest of her resources and cornered her."

That had been Callum's original plan. "Yeah, if she didn't have something awful in her other pockets, but I didn't want to win once we started talking." He poked Aaravos square in the chest. " You need to make it clearer that you care about her."

Aaravos raised his eyebrows. "Is that what you were talking about?"

"Not all of it, but she has some weird ideas." Callum supposed Aaravos would still need more time to get used to relationships again. "Maybe you hung out for two years, just your weird purple bug and her, but she still needs you to be there for her now too."

"Oh." Aaravos put a hand on his chin. "I thought I was. I see your point. It's gracious of you to go through all of that for her sake."

Callum grimaced. "I mean it also makes my life easier if everyone gets along."

"I've noticed that kindness done without an entirely selfless intention is still kind," pointed out Aaravos. "Seems you wanted to give me my own lesson about dealing with bad blood, hm?"

"Let's pretend I had totally thought of that," said Callum.

Aaravos took Callum seriously. The next morning, Aaravos offered to cook pancakes with Claudia, smiling and laughing with her as hot brown morning potion brewed next to them. Claudia seemed cheerier, chatting animatedly, her and Aaravos both doing the nose tapping and pointing at each other. Aaravos made plans to write down the textbooks he wanted to leave for the Evenere library, inviting her to be with him if she was interested.

Callum was sure that they had no need to cook manually, or for Claudia to hang around while Aaravos acted as his own scribe, but it was hitting their other need. It was rare to see Aaravos genuinely so carefree, meshing perfectly with their cobbled together family.

However, the biggest shift was Viren.

It was something Callum had never seen before.

Viren's gaze was soft, endeared even as Aaravos brushed flour off his robes. He rested his cheek on his palm, propped up on his elbow. His expression would have looked more natural on a younger person, but he still wore it with striking sincerity, happy and dazed. Legs swinging at the table, he absent-mindedly stirred a cup that did not contain any hot brown morning potion yet.

It was something Kpp'ar had definitely seen before.

"My God." Kpp'ar gawked at Viren. He rubbed his forehead, groaning into his hands. "Put me back in the coin."

"Huh?" asked Callum.

Kpp'ar ignored him and nudged Viren, eyes narrowed. "You're kidding, right? After all this time, this is what flips the switch?"

"Hm?" asked Viren, turning to him and letting the spoon drop with a clink.

"I said to remember that elves wear horn cuffs and not rings."

Callum coughed, ears going pink as he also saved that information for himself. Terry grinned from across the table. "Yep, that's true! Wait- oh. Oh."

Viren looked around as if suddenly noticing everyone else at the table. "Sorry, what? Oh- let me help with things." Viren rushed over, his assistance in the kitchen absolutely not necessary. He was only seeking an excuse to be close to Aaravos, standing with the carafe of hot brown morning potion and not bothering to pour it for anyone until Claudia laughed at him for it.

Aaravos gave Viren a peck on the cheek in passing and Viren, who normally only showed the most subtle signs of affection and reactions to it when he could help it, walked into the table, miraculously not spilling anything.

"I'm glad I'm not like that," remarked Callum.

Kpp'ar chortled to himself. "Didn't you mention jumping off a cliff with no guarantee of your wings for your Rayla? My boy, you're worse."