The next morning, Raven woke up groggy. Even if her sleep had been dreamless, everything that had happened to her since the Awakening was starting to tire her out. She forced herself to keep pushing through it all. And that ended up being most of her day, a sense of pushing through. Even so, she managed to summon up the energy to continue collecting the wisps of magic and wrapping them around her suppressor. 

During her last class of the day, she could barely keep her eyes open as Mrs. Kriley went over Magic History. 

"As you can see, the day magic first arrived all around the world, people sixteen years and older had their Awakenings simultaneously. Billions of people all at once," Mrs. Kriley said 

A large white globe floated down the aisles of the classroom, and tiny explosions began to appear on it. Each explosion bled into the other until the globe was covered in flames and smoke. 

"As you can imagine, the destruction was massive. Back then, there were no Access Facilities to have Awakenings in a controlled environment. Instead, it was utter chaos. And it wasn't only the Awakenings causing damage." 

These were things Raven had heard before, but looking around she noticed that many of her classmates watched with wide eyes. It surprised her. Had most of them never learned this in school? The burning globe of the world shifted and turned into a small airplane. The airplane zoomed over their heads. 

"What we didn't know then was that magic and technology didn't mix. Anything that used electricity or a circuit board malfunctioned around magic or simply exploded," the teacher explained. 

The airplane suddenly began shaking in the air and smoke rose from its side as it tilted off course. It went diving towards Mrs. Kriley's desk, smashing into it with a loud explosion. The class jumped up in surprise, while other students exclaimed in excitement. 

Raven grimaced. Mrs. Kriley's demonstration was very different and a lot more graphic than how she was taught about Magic History. The teacher smiled proudly. She held out her hand and the plane shifted back into a white cube that floated through the air and landed in her hand. 

"Can anyone tell me what happened next?" 

There was a knock on the classroom door and in walked two guards and Dr. Brite. The teacher looked startled, but Dr. Brite gave her a patient smile. 

"Sorry for the interruption, Mrs. Kriley. We've come today for two special reasons." Dr. Brite looked over the classroom. "The first is to announce the students that have been chosen for Sponsorship." 

Immediately, the class straightened. Raven sighed. She already knew she hadn't gotten chosen, but she had a good idea who had. After all, last night, she hadn't been the only one who had suddenly been able to use magic during the fight. 

"Patrice Everson and Cindy Farris. Please come to the front of the class." 

Both girls rose from their seat. Cindy was closest to the front of the room and reached Dr. Brite first. Dr. Brite smiled at the girl and she pulled out a small device and began typing on it as the guards stayed close by, on alert. The entire class watched as Dr. Brite replaced Cindy's ring with one of the Advanced stabilizers. Around her, Raven's classmates looked on with envy and Raven had to admit she was a little envious too. 

Patrice came up from behind her and Raven tensed. The girl has been saying snide remarks and bumping into her all day. Cindy had mostly ignored Raven, so at least it was only one bully she had to endure. Sure enough, as Patrice passed her, she slapped Raven on the back of her head - hard. Raven jerked forward and glared at Patrice's back, but then an idea crept into Raven's mind. 

Maybe her inhibitions were down because she was tired or she was fed up with being a target, in any case, she began summoning a stream of water. Raven pressed her hand to the desk and the water slid down the side of her chair and slithered across the floor until it reached Patrice's foot. The water slid under her shoe. 

Now, Raven thought. Patrice reached the front of the room and took a step forward to get her ring. Raven wrapped her stream of water around the girl's ankle and jerked. Patrice's arms flailed in the air as she was thrown off-balance. She tried to catch herself, but the slick floor under her shoe made her lose her balance and she went surging forward, arms outstretched towards Dr. Brite. 

Startled, Dr. Brite jerked back and the guards surged forward to grab Patrice. Before they could reach Patrice, the air shifted in the room and Patrice was smashed into the ground like something heavy had slammed her down. For a moment everything was quiet. Then the class let out a cheer while others started laughing. 

"Did Dr. Brite use her gravity magic?" a student in front of Raven asd. 

"That was awesome," someone else said. 

Dr Brite can use Gravity magic?Raven thought. She watched with wide eyes at the chaos. One of the guards was checking on Patrice who seemed only mildly injured. Patrice was explaining that she hadn't tried to attack Dr. Brite that she had tripped. Raven felt a flash of satisfaction and held back a chuckle. 

A few moments later the class had calmed down and a flustered Dr. Brite stepped forward. "The second reason we are here is to check everyone's suppressor. We've been getting some unusual signals and we want to make sure everything is working properly." 

A confused murmur went through the class and Raven frowned. She wasn't sure if this was about unusual signals or about her fight last night. In any case, she couldn't let them discover the magic around her suppressor. Raven considered her options. She didn't want to lose the magic she had obtained, but it was likely she would get discovered if she went up there. 

She watched as students were called up alphabetically by last name. It gave her only a minute to decide. She quickly glanced around the room. All she needed was a place to hide the magic and then she knew her answer. Since Patrice and Cindy had got new stabilizers then that meant theirs wouldn't be checked. 

Cindy and Patrice were walking back to their seats. Though the fall looked like it had hurt, Patrice had insisted she was fine and refused to go to Old BB's for treatment. As Patrice passed Raven's seat, she glared and hissed down at her. "I know it was you." 

Raven gave her a blank stare and shrugged. As she did she let her magic slid off her suppressor and wrap around Patrice's stabilizer. 

"Don't think I'll let this slide," Patrice hissed as she continued on to her seat. 

"Raven Delias," Dr. Brite called out. 

Raven stood up and made her way to the front. A small bracelet was clamped around her wrist. A quick glance showed three silver lines indicating that it was a criminal suppressor. Even without looking she would have known by the stifling feeling going over her. Unlike with Principal Kase, Dr. Brite quickly slid the suppressor off her finger. Immediately the suffocating feeling was gone. The doctor gave her an apologetic look. 

"Sorry, but we have to do that when we do a ring transfer." 

Raven was a little surprised that the woman would even apologize, but nodded. "I understand." 

Dr. Brite gave her a warm smile, kinder than any of the adults she had met in ECI. 

"Okay, we're going to be putting a new suppressor on you. The feeling will only be temporary. Ready?" Dr. Brite asked. 

Raven nodded. 

A ring was slid onto her finger and the suffocating feeling hit her again. But as quickly as it came it was gone as the bracelet was removed from her wrist. 

"There," Dr. Brite said. "Now, if you notice any changes again with your suppressor, please make sure to report them. It can be dangerous for you and the other people around you." She flashed Raven a smile. 

Raven gave her a hesitant smile back. She wondered if that was a threat or if Dr. Brite really was concerned. She seemed nicer, but Raven couldn't trust any of the adults in ECI. She went back to her seat confused. As she sat down she looked at her suppressor. Dr. Brite hadn't inspected her old one, just given her a new one. That was a pretty big sign that they knew she had used her magic. She would have to keep things quiet then. 

She glanced back to see Patrice smirking at her. If her new bullies thought she couldn't do magic anymore then more than likely there would be more attacks. She grimaced and started to call back the magic from Patrice, but stopped. An idea occurred to her. There was only so much magic she could store before her suppressor was triggered, so what if she stored her magic in other places. This way she could grab it from anyone and summon larger amounts of magic. A slow smile curled her lips. 

Patrice frowned at her. Raven turned back around in her seat. It looked like she now had a plan. As more students were called up to get their new suppressors, Raven began collecting the fumes once again. 

By the time class ended, Raven had gathered enough to curl around one more student. It was a little frustrating. The magic wisps that leaked out were so small it wasn't like she could gather enough to put on every student in her class, though she had secretly hope. Still, her ability to gather the wisps of magic was growing. 

The next roadblock she ran into was distance. It became clear that her magic had a range, at least in its raw form. She had tried to send the magic to wrap around Cindy's stabilizer, but the girl was sitting in the furthest seat away from Raven. When Raven tried to push it towards her the magic started to disperse in the air the further it got from Raven. She had to call it back and rebuild it. 

That had worried her, but at one point Patrice had gotten up from her seat and went over to Cindy's desk to say something to the girl. When she sat back down Raven could still feel the magic around Patrice's ring. As long as the magic was already settled, it wouldn't dissolve despite the distance. She also felt a connection to her magic. She got the feeling she could call it to her no matter the distance, of course, she would have to try and make sure. She decided to try once she wasn't in class. 

As class ended, Raven waited until Cindy was walking to the door. She hurried to follow. Once Raven was close, she slid the magic towards the girl and let it wrap around Cindy's stabilizer. There. Now if her two bullies attacked they would be carrying her magic reserves on them. Though Cindy had left her alone for most of the day, she couldn't be sure the girl wouldn't attack her later when she had the chance. 

Once again, Raven began gathering up the wisps. Her concentration was so focused, she didn't realize that outside the door someone was waiting for her. 

"Raven Delias." 

Jerking her head up, Raven was surprised to see the familiar face of the guard Syrion had introduced to her. Ellis gave her a tired smile. "You have a visitor. Come with me."

Raven looked at the guard in surprise. She glanced back to see her classmates leaving. Patrice was with them, so it was clear she wasn't doing her shape-shifting trick again. She turned back to Ellis. 

"But we're only allowed visitors on the weekend." 

"Yeah," the guard said and started walking. "But this is a special case." 

Raven followed after him. "Special case?"

Ellis nodded and smiled. "There are always exceptions when it comes to sponsors."