3 - 3 -

I hopped into my bed to finish the long, exhausting day that I had endured. As I slowly drifted off to sleep, my senses suddenly became overwhelmed and the bed I was sleeping on quickly disappeared, only to be replaced with cold, smooth tile.

I slowly got up and examined my surroundings, shaking my head to reorient myself. I had woken up inside a labyrinth, one that was all too familiar for me. This was the same labyrinth that I had awoken inside of every single night. I had tried to tell my friends and family, somewhat expecting some sort of useful reaction or even advice from them, but all they gave me were half-concerned stares or comments. It was because of this that I enrolled. I hoped that I would be able to find some answers if I attended classes and studied the nature of magic.

Deciding to check whether I would be able to utilize magic whilst inside my personal dimension, I attempted to summon a fireball. It took a few moments of concentration, but eventually, I started to see the dim glow of a small flame inside of my palms. I quickly closed it and began walking around like I always had. I didn't even pretend that the labyrinth wasn't boring; it was composed of the same walls over and over again, with the occasional room that showed up once every few months. Even then, it wouldn't be of any value to me in the slightest. Exactly three months ago, I had found this one room that housed a few frying pans and a broken-down computer. Definitely a sight to behold.

I sat at the cafeteria the next noon hour with my meal already on a tray in front of me. I shovelled morsels of meat and vegetables that were delicately seasoned in a way that even carnivore-like creatures would find it irresistible to grab a bite and looked around. It was at that moment that Boingo had decided to show himself and take a spot next to me. While he hadn't said anything in our prior classes, he finally stammered something to me.

"Feste, I'm... I'm sorry about what happened yesterday."

I looked at him with a neutral expression. He refused to make eye contact with me instead of looking at the table that was a few centimetres in front of him. "It's alright. I'm sorry if you got upset at all."

Boingo looked into my eyes, a thin line of tears streaming down his face. "Um... About that, I still kinda want to know why you came here in the first place. I've been losing a little bit of sleep over that." He gave somewhat of a disgusted expression, most likely from suddenly giving that comment. "I'll go get lunch." With that, he bounded off. Meanwhile, I remained rigid and stared at the spot Boingo had previously occupied. Somewhere in the back of my mind that even though he would forget about it, I had the suspicion that I would spill it to him one way or another. I shook my head and continued eating.

Again, I summoned a fireball. I decided to "study" my magic after school since I was so new to it. I could also feel myself getting better at it, gradually getting to a point where I felt satisfied with myself. However, I still knew in the back of my head that I was nowhere near as experienced as everyone else that was enrolled here.

"Hey, Feste!" A voice called in the distance. Caught off guard, I turned to find Boingo bolting towards me. "There you are!"

The fireball I held in my hands quickly disappeared. "Boingo. What are you doing here?"

"I came to watch over you, silly! If you're so bad at magic you gotta have a good tutor to help you out, you know?"

I found myself nodding as a response. "I suppose you're right." I tried to summon another fireball, my mind drifting towards the small amount of tension that was between us. Looking at Boingo, I knew that he had largely forgotten all about it. Still, the corners of my mouth hung a litter lower than usual.

"Hey, hey! Don't do that, you're using all your energy! Instead, try to do this!" Within a few seconds, Boingo had created a fireball on the tip of his dark nose. Even looking at it extensively, I couldn't notice any difference between my spell and Boingo's. "You looking? Come on, it's not that hard!"

"Boingo... I don't think I have a sense of magic yet." I slowly stood back up. Boingo's eyes immediately narrowed.

"You can't be serious! It's so easy to notice what you're doing wrong, my sister would know in an instant!"

As the evening went on, the sun at the edge of the flat horizon, I started to think about how integrated magic was in everyone's societies. Every single one except mine, of course. I almost felt envious that they had access to such a supernatural power in their early lives. Still, though, I was glad that I was able to study it at all instead of reading about it in one of those fantasy books.

"No, you're doing it wrong!" I hadn't noticed that Boingo had jumped onto my shoulder. He glared at the fireball I had recently produced. "You're supposed to do this instead! Come on, your teacher should've taught you that already!"