“Angelica, it’s been two years and you have yet to manifest a single ability. I think we both know the time has come,” Magister Phillips said.

“So, you’re kicking me out?” Angelica asked.

The Magister sighed and leaned forward, elbows on his desk. For the umpteenth time he brushed a tendril of his awareness against her mind and felt the bright spark of magic that lived within her. A spark he could not get her to reach.

She looked at her teacher, trying not to cry. She had spent years struggling to find Acropolis and now, because she couldn’t figure out her abilities, she was going to get kicked out.

Phillips got up and rounded his desk, reached down and took her hands into his own. At the touch she knew what would happen if she was kicked out. His confidence would shatter and there would be a student down the road who would bring an age of darkness after being turned away. Images of death and fire filled her thoughts, along with what it would take to keep it from happening.

Her body began to change.