“Really?” Sam asked. “That’s it?”

  “What did you expect?” Dan half-smiled.

  “I don’t know. But that it wouldn’t be so easy.”

  “So easy? You’ve yet to try it.”

  “Sure, yeah, obviously. But both of those look less complex than their physical counterparts, not to mention the practice tracings.”

  “Of course they are. Magical foundational tracings have a lot less work to do compared to physical. You’re not trying to trace magic into a different medium, after all. As to your other point, all foundational tracings—besides the obvious two outliers—are on the lower end of the complexity curve. Even the foundational tracings for both sculpting and imprinting are not that difficult. All the difficulty comes from the affecting tracings that you use with them.”

  “But if magical foundational are easier than physical, why did we start with physical? Why does everyone start with physical?”

  Dan shrugged. “I could give you a bunch of likely reasons, but the truth is, I don’t really know. Nor does it really matter. Besides, believe me when I tell you that if I started you off with magical foundational, you wouldn’t have thought that they are easy like you currently do. What’s important is that you’re practiced enough with tracings so that magical foundational tracings seem easy to you. Which means that we’ll be able to finish with them quickly and move on to recovery tracings. But that would require you actually tracing these ‘simple’ foundational tracings.”

  “Right, right. Let’s get to it, then.” Sam nodded and turned his mind to the task ahead. He didn’t have all that much time as well. Since they were finishing early today and they spent the entire morning practicing gathering. It took him a couple of tries to successfully trace the Posterior Magical for the first time, unfortunately. But thankfully, Dan was too big of a person to comment on that. In an hour or so, he succeeded in tracing it with some semblance of consistency, so they moved on to Prior Magical, which was, of course, harder. Still, by the end of the short lesson, Sam was much more consistent with both tracings. Still not anywhere near as good as he was with all the other tracings he knew (with the exception of Prior Skin Reinforcement) but this was probably the best progress he had ever made when learning a new tracing.

  “So are we going to start on recovery tracings next week?” he asked as they were finishing for the day.

  “No, the week after that. Now, I know. You feel like you don’t need that whole extra week to practicing these tracings. And I happen to agree. At most, it’ll take you a couple of days to become proficient enough with them. Let’s say exactly a week until next Tuesday. But still, I want you to keep practicing all the other tracings. And I want to have some breathing room between today and the new material I’ll teach you. Also, we’ll be going back to magical theory tomorrow and patterns this Sunday. So you’ll have plenty of other material to contend with.”

  “You don’t need to explain your reasoning to me. I didn’t say anything. I see no problem with waiting a couple more days until we start on recovery tracings. As long as it really is only a couple more days, that is.”

  Dan nodded. “It is. I promise that we’ll begin studying recovery tracings next Sunday. You have no reason to worry about me delaying it any longer than that. Which means you’ll be able to tell Sarah that, in all likelihood, she’ll be able to increase your workouts’ intensity again in less than a month.”

  “She told you about that, huh? Wait, does she also have to send you a ‘report’ about me? My physical shape or whatever?”

  “The progress of your physical exercises, yes, and she does. It’s not a much a report as it is a text message that’s not overly long. But I need to take that aspect into account, of course. It’s why I decided that we should focus on recovery tracings, after all.”

  “Right… that makes sense. Don’t know why I didn’t realize that she’s reporting to you. Not that I think there’s anything wrong with that.”

  “She does a very admirable job, even if she doesn’t use the official forms or the official terminology.”

  “Good for her. And for me, obviously. So less than a month?”

  “I believe so, yes.”

  Sam nodded while getting up. “Alright, I’ll tell her. And take that it into consideration for myself. See you tomorrow, Dan.”

  “Goodbye, Sam.” Dan escorted him to the door.

  Thankfully, Yvessa had texted Sam about an hour ago to message her when he was finished because their plans completely flew his mind until he opened his phone and saw it. He texted her as requested before putting on his headphones and getting on his way. Only a couple of seconds later, she sent him a thumbs up, which caused Sam to worry that she’ll get to his room before he did. But he didn’t feel like picking up his pace, figuring that she probably won’t and if she will, she won’t blame him for it. Also, it was hot; he didn’t feel like sweating.

  Of course, maybe it was because he simply wanted to spend more time in the outside. It was a beautiful day. Even an indoor creature like Sam could appreciate a day like today. Just as long as he didn’t think too deeply about the whole ‘day, sun, and weather,’ bit. Besides, the birds weren’t a result of collective delusion, neither were the trees, and the joyful combination of life that their intermingling brought into the world definitely wasn’t either. And the best thing was that there weren’t all that many people to mar nature’s picture or cause Sam’s personality to flare up.

  It turned out that most cadets went back home during the trimester break. Not to say that they took it completely as a break and forwent any studying or training the like of which his friends were doing, but they simply did those back home with their families. There wasn’t much for them to find in the academy these days after all, besides combat practice, maybe. The academy didn’t offer any extracurriculars or new activities. Just the same free-for-all combat lessons on Saturday. Which could be counted as a point towards the academy because even though the numbers in attendance were much lower, the quantity (and presumably quality) of lessons was still the same.

  Still, even before the break, Sam’s situation had greatly improved, vis-à-vis living among the other cadets, since his first days on New Terra. He was no longer the foremost subject of gossip and hidden (and not so hidden) stares. Relegated from the status of a new and shining celebrity to an old celebrity they were already familiar with and no longer excited by.

  Fuck. He laughed to himself. Thinking of it like that made it sound as though for his first month here he was being hounded by paparazzi everywhere he went. When in actuality it was just a couple of turned heads, some nods from people he had never met, and the odd person striking up a conversation. He didn’t know whether to thank for that fact the personality profile of the people the academy accepted as cadets, or maybe the military discipline of the academy itself. Hell, maybe he shouldn’t be thankful for anything, and try to get out of his ass a little by realizing that it’s more than reasonable for people not to be amazed by his existence. It didn’t matter. What did matter was he himself and his own personality problems. After all, if he was already so uncomfortable with the relatively little amount of attention he got back then, how was he going to handle attention going forward? Reaching the status of his loved and vaunted mentor, or even beyond?

  He shook his head, driving these thoughts away. Stop thinking about crap that’s so far in the future. Right now, no one’s staring at you. No one cares that you’re walking here. Be content with that. Stop worrying about stuff that hasn’t happened yet.

  “Hey Sam,” a voice brought him out of his mental chastisement.

  He stopped in his tracks and looked up from the ground to the smiling face of the first stranger who approached him unprompted in this new life. “Carl…” he said after a couple of seconds. “Funny how we always run into each other when my headphones stop working and start letting in sound from the outside.”

  “It is funny, isn’t it? So what are you up to?”

  “Going back to my room.”

  “Cool. I’m heading probably the same way you’re coming from. Got a meeting with Dan Ritter. Any advice?”

  “How do you know I’m coming from Dan?”

  “Everyone knows he’s tutoring you. I just guessed that’s where you were.”

  “Right. Of course they do. So what was it you wanted? Advice?”

  “Yep. I only met him once before, for like a ten-minute interview. But you meet with him regularly, right? So you must know how to best approach talking to him.”

  “The only person I could give you advice on how to talk to is myself. And my advice would be ‘don’t bother.’ I have no idea what to tell you about Dan. More than likely, any advice I could give you would be ineffective at best and counterproductive at worst.”

  “Why’s that? He’s not very approachable?”

  Sam sighed. “I didn’t mean any insult to Dan, nor was I trying to point out any negative attribute in his personality, if that’s what you thought. All I’m saying is that I’m not the best conversationalist. So there’s a more than zero chance that the way I talk and interact with Dan wouldn’t work for any other person and he’s only tolerating my bullshit because of who I am.”

  Carl laughed. “I don’t buy that for a second. But like it or not, you did give me some advice. So I’ll just try and be myself, thanks. Sorry for ambushing you again.”

  “It’s fine. Good luck with your meeting.”

  “Thanks.”

  Weird guy, or maybe I’m weird. Eh. I don’t care. He shook his head, trying to focus on the music and losing himself in the scenery for what remained of his walk back to his room. Once in view of his building, he caught sight of Yvessa just as she entered it, but since he figured that it would be easier—less socially uncomfortable—to greet her at his door front rather than yell for her attention he simply watched her go in. He did give her the courtesy of picking at his pace, though.

  The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

  “Hey,” she greeted him once he joined her upstairs, moving aside to let him unlock the door, “I was just about to call you.”

  “I was right behind you.” Sam beckoned her inside. “Saw you entering the building just as I made the turn.”

  “Really? That’s funny. I guess there wasn’t enough time for you to call me.”

  “That. And I wasn’t going to yell at you from so far away. It would be impolite to other people.”

  “Right… wouldn’t want to wake any cadet from their nap.”

  “You don’t have to be sleeping to be bothered by people yelling outside.”

  She raised her hands. “Fine, fine. You’ve convinced me. Let me just refill my bottle and then we’ll start.”

  A couple of hours later, they had to stop midway through an episode once Sarah messaged them that she had finished with her imprinting. “Felix’s not coming, right?” she asked them once they met outside.

  Yvessa shook her head. “No. He extended his plans for another day. Whatever that means.”

  “Good for him.” She shrugged, and they started walking towards the mess hall. “So did you two have fun?”

  “Yeah but we had to stop in the middle of an episode.”

  “Oh, that sucks. If you want, we can take the food to go and then come back so you could finish it?”

  “No, that’s fine. Right, Sam?”

  He nodded. “Yep. I’ll just finish it when I come back from dinner and Yvessa will have to finish it on her own.”

  “I’ll survive. So how did your pattern turn out?” she asked Sarah.

  “Excellent. Not a lot better than yesterday, obviously, but pretty much as good as can be. For me right now, at least. Which I realize might not matter all that much because I won’t be, hopefully, using that pattern anytime soon. Maybe never if I’m lucky and manage to make good enough progress. But still, getting a pattern perfect is one of the best feelings in the world.” She said the last part while smiling at Sam. “And how was your first day studying magical foundational tracings?”

  “Easy,” Sam admitted.

  “Good for you. It wasn’t easy for me.”

  “Nor me,” Yvessa agreed.

  “Alright, alright.” Sam rolled his eyes. “I get it. Stop acting so smug about it. I’m still not starting recovery tracings until next Sunday, so it doesn’t matter that much anyway.”

  “Alright…” Sarah bobbed her head side to side in consideration. “So that means that at most, I’ll change your workout routine in four weeks. But I think it’s pretty likely that it’ll only take three weeks. The next… next next Sunday. I can’t wait.”

  “Only two weeks to master recovery tracings?”

  “To be good enough with the most basic of them to make the new difficulty seem much easier, yes. Besides, like I said, at most it’ll take you another week to reach that point. And it doesn’t matter anyway, you’re in no hurry. You’re already in pretty good shape as you are.”

  “No I’m not.”

  “Yes you are. Stop comparing yourself to people who, at the very least, have been regularly exercising just as much as you do, but for longer. Not to mention who also all have a bunch of patterns to help them with their base physical state and with the exercise itself. You’re doing great as you are. May I remind you that the most important reason we had for getting you into better physical shape as fast as possible was for you to be able to fully utilize your combat lessons? And right now, with your current physical shape, are you not doing just that?”

  “Not fully utilize.”

  “Full enough. You don’t need to spend two hours straight sparring with all of your energy. I check in with Lin at the end of every week. I know he’s more than satisfied with your current physical capabilities.”

  “Well hurray for me and the wide web of communication my various instructors and benefactors have weaved for themselves. Are you at least willing to concede that even if my performance is satisfactory to Lin, that it could be better if I were in ‘even’ better shape?”

  “I’ll think about it.” She smiled and headed into the mess hall.

  Dinner quickly passed and although the same couldn’t be said for the workout afterwards, it was, as far as Sam was concerned, just as unremarkable. The rest of his evening did pass like dinner did, though. Which Sam wasn’t sure whether to be sad or happy about. He didn’t cultivate nor study, not even a tiny bit, holding himself to his planned baseline from yesterday and focusing on just leisure for the rest of his day. As long as you counted meditating as leisure, of course (even if on days like these it didn’t feel like that at all).

  Unfortunately, he felt awful on Wednesday morning. Truly emotionally drained and on the cusp of a panic attack. “Figures,” he muttered as he forced himself up from the bed. “Fucking bullshit.” He didn’t think too much about it—maybe he really needed it or maybe he didn’t—but at a time like these he most certainly wanted the help so he took his first of the pills prescribed to him by Rose before going into the shower with his upbeat playlist playing. He fully expected to cry a fair bit while inside, but since it turned out to be a little more than a fair bit, he was two minutes late to meeting up with Sarah.

  “Everything alright?” she asked him as they started heading towards the gym.

  “Yeah,” Sam lied with a nod, “same as usual.”

  “Really?”

  “Maybe a little bit off, but nothing too bad. Probably just had a bad dream.”

  “A bad dream? Or a bad dream?”

  “Nah. It was nothing like that. Don’t even remember what I dreamt about. Barely remember having dreamt, actually. Really, it’s fine.”

  “Alright…” She narrowed her eyes at him but decided to drop the questioning in the end.

  And to be fair, Sam was feeling better. It was probably just anxiety about the coming day that made him feel so bad half an hour ago. Just anxiety. Nothing else. And the pill helps with anxiety. So that was that.

  “Hello hello,” Felix greeted them with a smile as they joined up with him and Yvessa outside of the gym.

  “What are you doing here?” Sarah asked. “I thought you were only going to come back today at lunch or something.”

  “Nah, I already returned yesterday. Well, on the cusp of yesterday and today. My friend had a job interview in the morning, so he had to leave early.”

  “Why do you keep calling him your ‘friend’ instead of just saying his name?” Sam asked.

  “Are you seriously asking me that? You do that all the time.”

  “Yeah, I do. You don’t. So…”

  “Well he’s called Sam, so…”

  “So…?”

  “I don’t know. I thought it’d be weird to call him by name when talking to someone with the same name. Whatever. Give me a break. No one even calls him Sam. We all call him Sammy.”

  “Good for Sammy. Helping you differentiate between us with that one simple trick.”

  “Trust me. You are nothing like Sammy. In a good way.”

  “Are you seriously trashing your friend who you had just spent a whole day with?” Yvessa asked.

  “No. Well… Sammy’s sort of an asshole. And he knows that. No, asshole isn’t even the right word. It’s more that he doesn’t care all that much about other people, even his friends, other than having fun with them or because of them. He’s also the kind of friend that you have fun hanging out with once in a while, but they’re not really your friend and you wouldn’t care all that much if they were out of your life. You know the type, right?”

  “No,” Saran and Yvessa answered in unison.

  “I know the type of friend with the latter attribute you assigned to him,” Sam said, which caused Sarah to scowl at him. “What? I didn’t say anything bad. I just said that I know there are people with friends like that.”

  “Well anyway,” Felix said, “Sammy is both those kinds of friends. I’m fully expecting to never meet him again for a long time, if not forever. So rest assured that you’ll be the only Sam in my life, Sam. And that you are neither of those types of friends,” he added after a heartbeat to make sure he was squared with Sarah.

  “The worst kinds of friends are those who are like the first type, but not the second,” Sam said, mostly to himself. “The friends you don’t really like as a person, or even as a friend, but you keep in contact with them because you don’t want to lose them as a friend. Like if it’s an old friendship or if it’s the only one you got. What? Stop looking at me like that. It’s not like people who cling on to their friends, even though they don’t like them, because they want to have friends is such an alien concept that I have to be speaking from personal experience.”

  “Just to make sure. You don’t consider any of us that kind of friend, right?” Felix joked.

  “What do you think?”

  “Good. Only me then.”

  Yvessa sighed. “Can we go in already?”

  “Et tu, Yv?”

  “Yeah, let’s go.” Sarah followed in Yvessa footsteps.

  “Ah.” Felix made a stabbing motion at his heart while following as well. “Stabbed three times. This must be what Poland felt like during the partition.”

  “How the hell do you know about that?” Sam asked him.

  “What, I’m not allowed to know stuff from history? You’re the only smart guy in the group?”

  “There’s a new TV show set during that period,” Sarah explained.

  “Wow,” Sam said. “Guess TV has changed quite a bit. Is it good?”

  “It’s awful.” Felix shook his head. “But it’s the best kind of awful. So the main characters are…”

  Sam had to admit, as bad as the show was, hearing Felix talk about it was pretty entertaining. Unfortunately, halfway through the workout, Felix ran out of material, so Sam excused himself to put on his headphones and listen to three smart people talk about stupid stuff. But he was grateful to Felix for helping him with his rationing, even if that was unintentional and completely self-serving on Felix’s part.

  In any case, the workout passed pretty easily for Sam, and it was only when he was alone with his thoughts in the shower that he came back to being aware of his emotional state. Which was better, he had to admit; he was feeling better. Still some tightness in the stomach, still a heavy—heavier than usual—cloud in his brain. But not that bad. Certainly not as bad as he initially feared in his first waking moments of the day.

  Hopefully I’m not trying to get back to usual before I’m ready. But I’ll never know if I’m ready if I won’t try, right? Besides, it’s not like I can… fucking categorize how I’m feeling and shit. Just need to try and balance everything. Get enough leisure to satisfy myself and my depression on the one hand, and get enough work done to satisfy the Web and my anxiety on the other. And it’ll be fine. I’m sure it will. Today’s going to be a cinch.

  But of course, it wasn’t a cinch. It was pretty hard. Not bad, though; it didn’t get any worse than the morning, thank God. But it was fucking hard. He had the full day with Dan, where they had gathering, tracing, and theory to go through in increasing difficulty. And going back to magical theory was pretty damn difficult. It turned out that Sam managed to forget a fair amount. Although to be fair to him, it was just the most recent material he had studied, from the week to two weeks before that fateful Friday. They hadn’t managed to cover again all of it completely by the time Sam had to leave, which left him with a bitter taste in his mouth.

  So he spent most of dinner in sullen silence, brooding and worrying about what had happened, and, more importantly, what was coming next. Back to his schedule. No one to hold him accountable. No one to give him support. Just him and the textbooks and all the great many leisure activities that he wanted to do instead but couldn’t. He excused himself as soon as finished eating, and went back to his room, wanting to get done with the day one way or the other, for good or for bad.

  Still there were spear exercises and a shower to get through first, then a meditation because he was a masochist. But then came the moment of truth. He sat down and opened the textbook on the same page he and Dan had left it about an hour ago. Then he went back a couple more pages to the start of the chapter. Then he went back some more to help him better understand what the chapter was talking about. Before he knew it, an hour had passed, and he was right back where he had started and where he and Dan had parted. Although he didn’t realize that until another hour passed and he finished the chapter.

  “So that was… good,” he said, following a deep exhalation while staring at himself in the mirror. He shut off the water and took a long sip, then refilled the bottle back up again. “Yep… that was good. Good job, Sam. That’s theory out of the way for today. Technically not advancing ahead, but good enough. It’s the time put in that counts the most. Not what you get out of it. Next is military structure, right? Should be easy enough. Let’s get to it.”

  It wasn’t that easy, unfortunately. Although it might’ve been easier than theory, Sam wasn’t sure. He also wasn’t sure what subject had him more engaged throughout. Today wasn’t the day for that type of self reflection. All he cared about was that he had managed to get through it successfully. After all, he only had less than an hour of cultivation left in the day. No reason for that to be what tripped him up.

  And he was right, after the alarm for ten-fifteen sounded, he stayed still for a little bit more to finish the cycle but got up soon after with a bright smile. Unfortunately, he had already brushed his teeth because otherwise he might very well have gone out to buy himself some ice cream to celebrate his success. Instead settled for reading for an hour straight before bed.