The following morning Freder fell in with the other junior novices for breakfast and met the three girls, or rather met two girls and had the third pointed out to him. Stella and Ariadne were like sisters, both having long brown hair and of similar height and slight build, but neither were taller than Freder despite the extra years. Stella had blue eyes and an oval face whilst Ariadne had green eyes with flecks of hazel and a round almost constantly smiling face. The third girl sat alone at a separate table, her fiery red hair cut short around her narrow face with distinctive high cheek bones.
“Is she ?” Freder began to ask Lewis when she sensed his attention and her piercing blue eyes locked onto him.
“Valentina.” Lewis said very quietly, clearly intimidated by her. “Miranda Bluesky’s only daughter.
There was a great guffaw from the seniors table at that moment and the searchlight stare moved away from them.
“Why doesn’t she sit with us ?” Freder asked his companions.
“Doesn’t want to be here.” Stella told him.
“Hates it.” Ariadne added. “Wishes she was ‘normal’.” She went on in a disgusted tone. “Truly talented and she just wants to throw it all away and live in Lahndarn.”
“She’s run away lots of times.” Stella confided. “All those illnesses.” She winked.
“Really.” Winston just lapped up the gossip.
“But if she doesn’t want to be here.” Freder pressed them. “Why should she be forced to stay ?”
“Think about it Freder.” Harley told him seriously. “The Master Supremes only child, the Hand have put a big bounty on catching her, some say it’s even bigger than on the Master herself. It’s not safe for her to leave the House.” He finished in a very low voice as Valentina’s gaze raked them again.
In the absence of any instructions to the contrary Freder joined the juniors for their lessons that morning, much to the consternation of their first teacher master Marcus Strongarm, who was training them in the art of manipulation – moving stuff as John explained sotto voce.
While the others were set an exercise in moving progressively heavier weights, master Marcus called Freder to his desk at the front of the classroom.
“I am not sure what to do with you Adams, you are not officially a novice.”
I’d like to be one master.” Freder answered him earnestly. “It’s frightening to have a talent that I can’t control, I might badly injure someone. Only last night I hurt a senior novice when my talent flared up.”
“Umm, yes, I heard about that. Well some simple manipulation practise wouldn’t hurt anyone. Yes we’ll try that and see how you get on. I gather that master Stannous has shown you some basic techniques, can you find an energy source ?”
“Like those shining rivers underground, the…. what do you call’em ? Watenlockers.”
Freder’s answer rather shocked master Marcus, the deep sources were very hard to tap into.
“Vatenloeker Adams. That is advanced and powerful energy, very difficult to control. No I mean metal junctions and the like or where two types of stone meet, it generates small amounts of energy that we can use.” Master Marcus explained.

“I haven’t tried that master.” It sounded like fun.
“Well all around the room we have examples of such junctions for novices to use. Place your hand here on this metal plate on the wall.” He indicated a bronze disc to his right. “Just get a feel for the energy it makes.”
Freder looked at the bronze plate, bright with the polishing of many hands and laid his left hand upon it. Almost immediately he could feel the sparkle of energy and closing his eyes he let his aura seek out the other such sources in the room.
“Hey !” Someone called out in annoyance as the burgeoning dark aura disrupted their contact with one junction.
“Just one Adams, just one.” Master Marcus advised him hastily as the darkness threatened to engulf the entire room to the consternation of all, and watched in relief as it receded. “Now I want you to channel some of that energy to make the sails of this little windmill rotate.” He said placing the small metal toy before Freder.
This was easy Freder thought as he pulled energy from the junction and had the blades spinning wildly in a fraction of a second.
“Easy, gently.” Master Marcus cautioned. “The skill is not in the harvesting of the energy but in it’s expenditure.”
But when Freder tried to pull less energy from the source the windmill stopped almost at once, this was not so easy and indeed very frustrating as he tended to be all or nothing. After one episode when the little windmill had almost exploded he looked up despairingly.
“How do I take just a little energy master ? It seems that it just flows right through me without me being able to stop it.”
Master Marcus was only a slight figure, despite his name, and everything about him was small and delicate, especially his hands which he now steepled before him as he considered the problem.
“Try watching me with your mindseye as I do it.” He suggested and reached over to the plate.
With his eyes shut Freder could see the masters intense blue aura shot through with violet rays and saw it deepen in colour slightly as mauve ripples lightly dappled it’s fringes.
“Now I have the arms just turning.” He said quietly. “Now I will make them go faster.”
The mauve shifted towards purple as more energy was channelled to the little windmill.
“So now they are going fast, did you see the change in my aura ?”
“Yes.”
“Good, now look at your own aura, can you see blue ?”
“No.” Freder announced glumly. “Only a little purple and violet.”
“Oh.” Master Marcus declared softly, he didn’t have much talent in seeing and Freders dark aura was by far the most extreme he had ever encountered, he was rather at a loss.
Freder held the little windmill in his right hand desperately wishing that he could make its sails turn slowly but with every plate in the room positively radiating energy as far as he was concerned it seemed that there would always be too much.
“Master, what if I tried to take energy from something else, something weak, would that work ?” He suggested hopefully.

His teacher regarded him seriously for a moment, this was indeed a novel idea, and slowly a smile crossed his face.
“Indeed it might young Adams, good thinking. We will need a very weak source I think, something that you will have to work at getting the energy.” His gaze swept around the room in that unfocussed way that everyone here did when seeing beyond the physical world. “Yes there where only the same stone meets.” He indicated a piece of wall at the back of the class.
To Freder’s sight even that blank stretch of wall seemed to be sparkling brightly but in comparison to the coruscating fountains of all the proper junctions it did seem a better bet. Without thinking about his lack of proximity to the wall he stretched out his left hand towards it to make a connection and stared at the little blades on the mill in his right hand. Something tickled him as the tiny stream of energy began to flow from the obdurate stones which seemed very reluctant to give up any of the twinkling energy locked within them. To his delight the blades moved a fraction, then a little more as he worked upon the stones, connecting with more of them to harvest just enough energy to get the blades rotating smoothly.
“Yes !” He exclaimed softly causing the others in the class to look up from their work.
“That’s not much.” Stella muttered until Winston pointed to where the energy was coming from, he could see the tiny stream passing just over their heads, and just how far Freder was from the wall.
Now that it wasn’t a flood Freder could sense the flow and he could begin to tune it, clumsily at first but with growing confidence and skill as he saw the windmill respond.
“Good, good.” Master Marcus murmured, his fingers fluttering in time to the blades as they sped up or slowed down. This was very nice control after such a short time but the most impressive aspect of Freder’s performance was the ability to extract any energy from such dry unforgiving stone in which he saw little lustre. He pondered the depths of the newcomers talent and wondered at the awesome dark aura that hung about the boy.
Freder’s left arm became tired and he allowed it to fall to his side, then placing the windmill on the desk in front of him he folded his arms upon the wood and rested his chin upon them. Yet all the while the sails continued to spin, lazily then accelerating smoothly, then slowing to a crawl. He watched the energy flow in his mindseye, squeezing more or less out of the pool available in order to get the desired speed, this was amazing and endlessly fascinating to him. Other eyes watched his performance with no less interest for all the novices had started with the little windmill, but few of them could remove their hand from the metal plate and none had ever succeeded in keeping the sails in motion if they weren’t holding it. To master Marcus it was a truly remarkable sight, that an untrained boy could achieve such finesse so quickly in remote energy control, or fluxing as it was known in the Brotherhood, and from such a barren source. If he had not seen those first almost disastrous steps he would have thought Freder a senior novice, especially in view of his height, surely he was older.
“How old are you Adams ?” He enquired lightly after checking on the progress of the other novices.

“Eleven master.” Freder said sitting up straight.
“Eleven.” Master Marcus repeated wonderingly, so young. “Well novice Adams you have mastered the rudiments of control of fluxing, well done.”
“Fluxing ?” Freder queried the new term.
“Controlling the energies to move inanimate objects.” Master Marcus explained to him. “So perhaps you are ready to attempt something a little more strenuous, moving masses, like the others.”
He placed a rack of captive weights before him and then demonstrated by lifting each metal disc in turn up its rod while Freder tried to follow what he was doing, but this wasn’t like moving the windmill sails.
“You will need a better energy fount than you have been using, but perhaps it would be wise not to be in physical contact with it.” He cautioned as Freder began to reach for the nearby metal wall plate. “Begin with the smallest weight and just try to get it to move.” Master Marcus suggested.
Freder easily connected with the brightly sparkling wall plate fount and drew energy from it while concentrating on the smallest weight, but it would not budge. He tried touching the frame but with no effect, still no movement. In his attempts he was unconsciously pulling ever more energy from the plate and arcs of plasma began to dance over the metal frame and discharges sizzle away into the air, yet he failed to notice such was his concentration on the disc.
“Adams.” Master Marcus said eying the fizzing spitting frame. “Adams stop !”
A large electrical streamer arced across to Ariadne’s weight frame causing more sparks to cast off in all directions and making her jump back with a squeal of dismay.
Freder looked up at her cry and his face fell.
“Adams, you were causing discharges, your flux was not directed.” Master Marcus explained to him. “You need to focus your flux to a precise point in order to effect mass levitation. Watch where I direct the flux.”
Now Freder saw that the flux line entered the weight on its underside so that it was bourne upwards at Master Marcus’ command.
“There, you could see the flux ?”
“Yes, yes.” Freder said excitedly and summoned the energy from the wall plate with renewed enthusiasm.
There was a sharp metallic spang as the tiny weight smashed into the upper limit of the frame and bent around it so much that it remained stuck fast.
“Oh.” He said, deflated by his lack of finesse whilst his classmates enjoyed a quiet chortle at his expense.
“Normally my students have trouble getting the weight to move at all.” Master Marcus commented while casting a disapproving eye around the room. “But you need only worry about controlling your enthusiasm Adams. You have the ability, you just need to work at the control and keep a steady head.”
A bell rang distantly to announce the hour and the novices got up to go to their next class.
“Good work everyone, try to practise outside class. Adams, you may take the weights with you to improve your control.”
“Thank you master.” Freder grinned and grabbed the iron frame before hurrying to join the others. If only schooling had been this much fun back home.

“What’s next ?” He asked as they made their way along the empty corridor, another pleasant change from the normal packed crush at Biddulph Comprehensive where too many bodies tried to pass down too narrow corridors during class changes.
“Letters.” Harley announced with the all the enthusiasm of the truly bored.
“What, like mystic runes ?” Freder asked in buoyant mood.
“No like boring old writing. I mean what’s the point ?” John answered him. “Everything we learn is up here.” He said tapping his head. “It can’t be written down. Only bookwyrmes need to write in books.”
“Oh.” Freder was less enthusiastic about it now that it was clear that this was a normal lesson. Nevertheless he loved reading stories even though he found it difficult and he hoped that there might be some reading involved. They filed into a new classroom with the alphabet running around the walls in beautiful clear letters and crisp white paper laid out on seven desks. The figure who had been writing on the board in flowing elegant script stopped and turned round abruptly.
“Freder Adams.” Master Brookwyrd addressed him as he crossed the threshold. “I was not informed that you would be taking classes with the novices today.”
“No one said to do anything master, so I just tagged along.”
“So I see.” Master Brookwyrd commented observing the frame of weights in Freder’s hands. “No matter, take a desk and I will provide you with pen and paper.”
Freder found that the only one available was that beside Valentina on the front row, he sat down and cast a wary glance her way. Disconcertingly she was already looking at him.
“Hello, I…” He began to say.
“I know who you are.” She said in a frosty tone that effectively killed the conversation before it started and Freder looked away swiftly.
Master Brookwyrd laid a pen and a sheet of paper before Freder and then addressed the class.
“Today I want you to copy down the passage I have written on the board, first as I have written it and then in block capitals.”
There was a low but audible groan, this was exactly the type of lesson that bored them silly.
“Begin.” Master Brookwyrd announced with surprising authority and they all uncapped their pens and began the laborious task.
Freder was about to follow suit when the master approached his desk.
“How much schooling did you receive before you joined us here Freder ?”
“I finished junior and was halfway through my first year of secondary.” He told him causing the master to frown.
“The terms you use are not familiar to me, can you indicate how advanced your schooling was with respect to this exercise ?”
“Well….” Freder hesitated, this was actually kids stuff from junior school. “This is behind my present lessons.” He admitted quietly.

“Please demonstrate.”
Freder looked at Master Brookwyrd then at the board and read the first sentence. ‘The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog’ except it was actually spelt ‘The qicke brown fox jumped overe the lazee dog’.
He looked down at the paper and quickly wrote out the sentence in his rather untidy script, entirely failing to retain the new spelling for the most part. Master Brookwyrd turned the paper round and scrutinised it, legible but far from tidy and the spelling was atrocious.
“This is acceptable at your school ?” He queried.
“Well they say my writings not very clear.”
“They are correct. You should also pay attention to the spelling.”
“Yes master.” Freder acknowledged and rewrote the sentence more slowly, this time spelling it ‘correctly’ and a little clearer. His classmates were still laboriously copying it out, but in beautiful flowing copperplate.
“Better. Writing can be very utilitarian, the approach your former school seems to have adopted but I find it an artform. Observe how the letters flow into one another.” He said writing upon the paper beneath Freders ragged offerings.
Seeing the two Freder could actually appreciate what master Brookwyrd was telling him, it did look like a beautiful pattern.
“Carry on Freder.” He said with an encouraging smile and then went to observe the other novices efforts.
“Good.” He murmured at Valentina’s writing. “Yes, excellent.” To Winston. “Spelling.” By Harley and so on.
Freder looked at the flowing script and tried to remember how the master had held the pen before retrying. It was hard not to rush it but he so wanted to achieve something as well crafted that Freder treated it like a drawing, practicing the harder elements individually until he was confident of them and then he wrote ‘The qicke brown fox jumped overe the lazee dog, and landed in a river.’
“Composition next week Freder,” Master Brookwyrd commented with an amused air causing him to blush as Valentina looked over to see what he had written. “and river has two vees.”
Freder bent back to his task and copied the crisp clear block capitals in the same crafted manner. He was most of the way through the sentence when he caught a little surge of the aura to his right and very slowly looked up to observe Valentina ‘writing’. Her left hand moved over the paper but her fingers only circled the pen, it was writing quite independently of them. The level of control was awesome as the pen wrote out the blocky letters in a near perfect rendition of the originals on the blackboard. He must have made a sound as Valentina became aware of his attention and her fingers snapped close around the pen causing it to put a streak across the O she had been writing. Her face conveyed her message very clearly, his life would be over if he breathed one word of what he had seen, he turned back to his own efforts.
After the class there was a break in which the novices headed for the yard outside the kitchens and Harley produced a leather ball from his pocket.
“Ever played boulderfear ?” He asked Freder.
“No.”

“Come on then, you stand over there between Win and Stella.” He directed as a rough circle formed. “All you have to do is catch the ball.” He laughed holding his left hand out towards him and sending it flying at him with savage squirt of energy. “No hands !”
Freder would have had trouble catching it anyway, his hand-eye coordination was poor thanks to his old injury, he ducked and let it fly past him.
“No hands eh ?” He said with a sly grin as he retrieved the ball and ‘saw’ that it had an iron core. He returned to the circle hefting it in his left hand and then closed his eyes and sensed ball and players with his inner eye, their bright auras all around him and the ball a dark well. He noticed that they were all standing with one foot upon a metal stud set into the ground, an energy fount, he ignored the one before him. The ball lifted from his hand with one bat of flux energy then shot towards Harley with a second blast. But before it got to him one of the others reached out with their aura to take control of it and caused it to shoot off back towards Win.
“Oh tricksy !” Win laughed as he ‘caught’ the ball and sent it spinning onwards at Ariadne, but Stella ‘grabbed’ it mid flight and shot it at John.
The game was fast and everyone missed the ball many times and caught a painful blow from its hard leather surface, especially Freder who often opened his eyes rather than letting his mindseye keep track of what everyone was doing.
“Wicked.” He enthused as they reluctantly stopped in response to the bell summoning them to their final lesson.
“Wicked ?” Win asked him. “Nobody was being unkind.”
“No, no, wicked like great game.” Freder explained.
“Oh, right. Well you should see the masters when they play the proper game, two or more teams competing with a metal squirl. Now that’s wicked.”