We made haste as the first snow landed. Once it settled on my face, I felt a distortion. We were almost running now, although we were trying not to draw attention to ourselves. Some people looked at us, but none of them really minded us. Even the guards seemed to have other things on their minds. So our way home was flawless. No one spoke to us and we had nothing to do with any of the guards. Inside we ran upstairs to her room unwrapping the sweets. The dark brown beneath the paper seemed the shine. Woooow, we were both in awe. She looked at me, 'okay Jacob, open up.'

She broke off a small cube and put it in my mouth. It's a bit strange to feed me, but if it makes her happy. The cube landed inside my mouth 'Do you like it?' she asked with hopeful eyes. This taste was pretty nice almost as nice as meat would have tasted. Very much delicious still. 'Hmmm, it's pretty good.' She frowned, 'you don't seem to be very enthusiastic.' Putting a cube in her own mouth. Hmmm, amazing. I'll give it to you, it's not as good as usual. Still, is there something wrong with your taste buds?’

' I think they have changed, it's still very nice, but yeah...'

'Ow yes of course.' she looked down a bit, but quickly returned to me. 'do you want another piece?'
I softly smiled at her, she was being sweet. 'Yes, very much. When I'm with you everything tastes better.' Her cheeks turned red, 'why do you say that?'

I say things without thinking.... having to apologize later 'It's true, I'm sorry.'

'Don't be sorry about that.' She looked at me with her red flushed face, 'it's… sweet.'

We stayed there up in her room just talking when we ran out of things to say. I asked her about the college. She described it to me. It looks awful from the outside, some sort of bunker. It's been built like this in ancient times because even before humans landed here, monsters would be drawn to skilled individuals with magic. But on the inside it's completely different there are pastries everywhere and they've created windows that only work one-way angling in the same way as the steep outside walls. It's overall pleasant, I think. I don't know who will teach you since an affinity with healing is rare. but You might end up with a pupil of the order of life, who knows.

Ow! We do have two janitors who are twins, they are very easy-going. Sometimes you can catch one of them in a bad mood tho, then you just better get away from him.  You will understand when you get there.

'I think we're going to have lots of fun together. Even though I'm going to be a second year.
And before we go you should be able to mix your energies completely.'

The color seemed to drip from my face 'But I'm only halfway there!'

She nodded without a care in the world 'That's true but there is a way to do it I hoped you would've discovered it on your own, but I guess you are pretty stubborn, so you never tried a different approach.’

I lifted my hand to the back of my head. 'Hehe, well. I thought I just focus on trying my hardest.'

'Yes, the will stands basic to any magic, but I'll give you a tip, combine ideas of everyday life into shaping your magic. Since these concepts are edged deep inside your memory they are very strong.'

'Interesting.' I smiled at her, 'so I could try and see it as fluids and just steer it up?'

She squeezed her lips in a thin line and nodded dryly. 'I think you should try that and see what happens, it's important to find your own way.'

‘I see, your methods are based on your ideas and might give you better results than they would give me.’

'Precisely.'

'But what do they teach us at the College?'

'Well for starters they train us in control like you are already practicing, besides that, they teach us spells like the ones I used earlier, spells are cast by controlling the energy within you, the will to make something happen and making it known to the universe, by speaking, drawing symbols our with certain signs. It was easy for the old mages to discover magic but it has become much harder since people’s idea of what magic can do has become stiffer. The College teaches us old magic.'

I got greedy I think so I went 'Aha, but my mutation, does it allow me to make new magic?'

She was silent for a moment and told me that she thought it already had some unique effect on me. For which she was very thankful. Everyone could create new magic, but if I would be able to do it. Well, that remains to be seen, if so she advised against it while we are there. Only the elders are allowed to present their new magic. People like my father keep their own magic a secret. I asked her why.

'New magic is risky and unstable, it can ruin a lot more than it can fix. In the past, it almost never went wrong, but in the last couple of years, mages have ruined a lot because they weren't careful.
Don’t worry though you will hear all about it in history class'