I stifle a laugh when Serena sees Raith coming and practically runs away, disappearing into a hallway off the courtyard.

"Did you guys see that?" I ask, grateful for the distraction.

"The scary guy nearly knocking you to your face with a shoulder check and then you guys eye fucked for a few awkward seconds?" Ambrose asks. "Definitely saw it."

"No. Whatever Serena and Malakai were talking about, she didn't want to include Raith in it."

"I thought he was their leader, or whatever?" Mireen asks.

"Me too. Maybe it's not as simple as it looks."

We've already lingered too long in the courtyard, though, and I don't need to give Instructor Sestra more reasons to hate me, like showing up late to class. I give Serena's retreating form one last look, then shake my head and hurry toward the southern wing, trying to ignore the lingering warmth where the power I took from Raith still fills me.

Whatever is happening between Serena, Malakai, and the others, I'll have to figure it out later. Right now, I have to survive channeling class without revealing that I'm a fraud.

* * *

"You'll all need to do better than this," Sestra's voice cuts through the dark and dusty classroom. I'm with a group of other first-year water offerings, and our task is to conjure a ball of water above our palms and hold it.

The room is filled with long tables and various containers of water. True water affinities are like vessels, apparently, constantly filling with water essence that allows them to channel water from nothing or interact with existing sources of water.

Most students can already manipulate water to produce floating balls of liquid that hover and shift above their hands. The more talented can even conjure water from thin air in smaller quantities. Everybody but me is progressing each day.

I still can’t even get the containers of water to move, let alone draw it to my palm and shape it.

"It seems some of you likely needn't even worry about Confluence Day," she says, lips curling down at the corners as she watches me struggle. "As I seriously doubt you'll survive to see it. And if you do, your poor grasp of elemental magic will mean no elemental would even consider tethering you."

Confluence Day. Everything here at school revolves around it, and we're told multiple times a day how fast approaching it is. We're told we'll be tested and assessed by the elementals of our affinity, but nothing more than that. Most often, we're reminded how many of us will die before the day even comes. Sometimes, on cheerful days, we’re reminded that many of us will also die during Confluence day.