Tortura stood at the end of the long practice corridor. She could see Irwin, glancing at her every so often from the other end of the corridor. "He probably thinks I'll run away," she thought.

Newen made his way to her, offering her a cup of tea.

"Thank-you for doing this, my dear. Irwin tells me you are extremely good at perceiving the strengths and weaknesses of others’ magic."

"It was one of my functions at the Academy to work with youngsters and advise on their curricula." Tortura smiled tightly, gripping the cup more firmly than she needed.

"But you never finished your own magical education?" Newen asked.

"No, but then one's magical training seldom ends. There is always more to learn. I had gone through all the set classes and was qualified enough to teach. I just needed a year of practical work away from the Academy to earn my magic-user's belt. It was intended that I would become a full teacher after that," Tortura said. She could feel her shoulders relaxing as she talked; she hadn’t realised quite how tense she had actually become.

Mirren, Darren and Kyle entered through the door closest to Irwin. They seemed chatty today, talking and laughing as they walked in. Mirren was wearing her familiar mock long-suffering expression which meant that she had probably just had another disagreement with Wendy. Tortura sighed. The constant conflict between the two sisters seemed to have become even more fraught lately.

Newen and Tortura made their way across to join their charges. Tortura hung back, unsure of quite how to present herself; she hadn’t been involved with the Mirelli’s education for quite some time.

"Tortura!" Mirren said. She was clearly surprised but Tortura thought she also sounded quite pleased. Putting down the empty cup on the sideboard, Tortura crossed the room to join the others.

"Yes, Tortura will be joining as for today,” Irwin said. “We are going to spend a little bit of time today exploring the nuances of your magical gifts and it is a task at which Tortura has always excelled."

Tortura nodded at them, trying to keep her expression as bland as possible. If she had to work with Irwin for the next few days, she could not allow herself to react to him.

"If you would all pull up a chair, we will begin with a brief explanation," Irwin said.

"Didn't we have enough talking yesterday." Kyle groaned. "I want to get started on the battle magic."

Darren mock-punched his brother and Mirren merely laughed. They all pulled up chairs and were all soon seated around the empty fire-place. Tortura had managed to squeeze her seat between Newen’s and Mirren’s. Mirren gave her a quick smile before turning her attention to Irwin’s explanations.

"Dread-magic, whether defensive or offensive, is particularly unique to each magic-user. It depends mainly on which of the elements they are most at home in. Up till now, you have concentrated on all the elements equally. From now on, your education will follow the direction you are most suited for. As Mirren will be pleased to hear, she will probably not need to do much more water-magic." Irwin smiled at Mirren. For a second, Tortura stiffened but then she relaxed, assuring herself that she could not read something sinister into everything the man did.

"Whew!" Mirren wiped mock sweat from her brow.

"But there is more to it than what element you favour. There are also different ways of dealing with elements. The three main aspects are control, creation and manipulation. It is not always easy to distinguish between the different aspects but they do help to an extent. For example, earth magicians who are gifted with good control and an affinity with growing things, make very good gardeners. And, of course, we have too many like that and too few who are gifted with the manipulation and affinity to living things needed for advanced healing. And then other earth magicians have affinity with metals and strong creative gifts and they are often involved with the crafting and more detailed use of weaponry. So, basically, what I am saying is that there are many sub-divisions of magic-use and to best train you in dread-magic, we need to know where you gifts lie."

"And that is what today is all about," said Tortura, rising from her chair. "Now, first of all, what I need you to do is clear away these chairs."

That done, Tortura selected a space for each of the three Mirellis and began running them through exercises. She watched closely, drilling them carefully. The awkwardness she’d felt at first gradually melted away and she settled into Academy routines that she’d thought she’d forgotten.

Newen watched his charges, trying to discern what Tortura was watching. He couldn’t make it out; she must have been invaluable to the Academy. Bored with his attempts to see something he clearly wouldn’t, he wandered over to where Irwin stood.

"Can you see half of what she's looking for?" Newen asked Irwin.

"No, and I'll only really realise that when she explains exactly how much these exercises told her." Irwin smiled ruefully.

"She must have been a great loss to the Academy."

"She was. One of the best teachers and finest magic-users to come along in many years. Anyway, I don't think there's much use our standing around here. She might drill them for hours. Let's go see what the others are doing."

-0-0-

Wendy was pleased to see Irwin was with Uncle Newen when they came over the hill towards the lake. Verone was going over some of the nuances of water-magic to keep them occupied this morning. Wendy had already completed the exercises and had been juggling leaves for Kimi who seemed only half-amused.

"I can't do it!" James said.

"All you have to do is reach," Verone replied. To Wendy’s ear, he sounded just as exasperated as James. She couldn’t make out why James was so slow; Verone wasn’t that useless a teacher and the exercise was pretty simple.

"Let's see if I can help," Irwin said. Wendy thought she saw him wink at her over his shoulder before he settled on the slope next to James.

Wendy noticed that Verone looked like he was about to scamper off. He seemed to have a habit of disappearing whenever Irwin was around.

"Come here, Verone," Newen called as he sat down beside his two nieces.

Verone looked put out but he came and settled his corpulent self next to Newen.

"Seeing as they have some free moments, why don't you show Wendy how to tap into Kimi's power?" Newen suggested.

Wendy looked up sharply. So far only Mirren had had any training in tapping into Kimi and she had expected to have to wait until after the twins had trained.

She met her uncle’s eyes and he gave her an encouraging nod. A lump formed in her throat but she gulped it down and turned her head away to blink away a tear. She turned back, giving all her attention to Verone as he explained how to tap into Kimi’s power.

-0-0-

Lord Wasimii frowned and looked up from his map tables at Lady Visetti. She was sitting in an overly-decorative chair that his wife had insisted on placing in his study, just in case he had visitors.

"Is he sure about this?" he asked.

"Yes, as far as he's concerned, it's the truth," Lady Visetti said.

Lord Wasimii straightened and walked over to the fire-place. He ran his fingers along the mantelpiece, picking up the dust that formed whenever he refused to allow servants into his study. "Don't they remember what happened when the Academy helped with the Farinni isles? Stationing Academy magic-users on the Isles would be futile."

"Not if the Emperor agrees. He still has the Source Stone. If he gives it to them, they could be bonded to the magic of the Isles."

"That would destroy us!"

"I know." Lady Visetti sighed.

Lord Wasimii paced across the room, wiping sweat from his wrinkled forehead. "Do the Land Families know about the Source Stone?"

"No, I don't think so. At least, Nesta hasn't mentioned it," she corrected herself.

"We need to know how much they know and how they are planning to sway the Emperor. I need to see this boy."

"I don't know how easy that will be. Nesta is quite terrified of you."

Lord Wasimii stopped pacing and looked up. "Why?"

"He was the boy you threw out of the Watching Room the night the Mirellis were attacked," Lady Visetti replied. The irony in her tone was not lost on Lord Wasimii.

"That was ten years ago!"

"The boy has a long memory."

"Hmm, well, see what you can do. If he won't speak to me, maybe he'll speak to Carolli."

"He'll speak to me," Lady Visetti put in, her tone slightly sharper.

"Respectfully, I would prefer it if he spoke directly to one of us."

"Respectfully, Lord Wasimii, losing our Isles doesn't make the Visettis any less one of the Island Families," Lady Visetti said, her tone rising.

"I know, Shana, I know," he said, his face drawn and concerned, "Would you like to stay for dinner? I know May would like to see you."

"Thank-you but I think I should be getting back. I have guests of my own."

-0-0-

Newen and Irwin sat on the matching couches in the Visitors Room. Tortura was arranging her notes at the tables, trying not to make eye contact before necessary. She had spent an entire week with the older Mirellis and then requested a week with the younger Mirellis. She knew Newen had been surprised by this. When teaching Mirren and the others before, she had always tried to keep the lessons to the bare minimum.

Tortura sorted through her reports. She had thought out her summary but she wanted to make sure that her detailed written work would be understandable as well. She smiled to herself. She had forgotten how much she had enjoyed this. Working with students had always been one of the most fulfilling and invigorating aspects of her times at the Academy. Irwin had been right; she was a born teacher. Her smile lost some of its sparkle at his name in her mind. She straightened.

Irwin and Newen accepted the parchment packs as Tortura walked past them to the front of the room.

"These basically go through the approaches and techniques I used; the responses I got, how I drew up my conclusions and then, finally, my conclusions. I'm just going to run through the conclusions now and you can read the rest at your leisure."

Irwin half-smiled at her; she broke eye contact. She didn’t need to but she glanced down at the first of her reports, taking a moment to collect herself again.

"Let's start with Mirren. Clearly, her element is fire. I think everyone here expected that." The other two nodded. "Right, well, she's clearly mostly gifted in the creative aspect. The other two aspects are strong as well but work best when she has created the fire herself. She also has very strong raw-magic control and affinity. That makes her perfect for working with a catalyst like Kimi. The two also have a very close natural bond, so, I think that would be one area to concentrate on in the rest of her training."

"What is raw-magic?" asked Newen.

"Basically, everyone has a magical store of energy which they work from. Now, most magic-users have some degree of awareness of that but they mostly convert their power to some element as soon as they draw on it. Magic-users that have an affinity with raw magic don't have to convert it; they can work with the magic itself and sometimes even with the magical stores of other non-catalytic magic-users. It's a useful gift and most higher magic-users have it," Tortura explained. "By the way, the reason the twins have struggled so with some aspects of their lessons is that they have almost no affinity with raw magic. Kyle more so even than Darren."

"Hmph, that's interesting. That would explain a lot," Irwin responded, clearly surprised by this insight. She smiled inwardly; she could still put one over on him no matter how powerful he was.

"Kyle and Darren, separately, and even more so, together, have the greatest sources of power. Together, they almost verge on the same magical potential as Kimi," Tortura said.

"Really, but surely Mirren..." Irwin said.

"Because of Mirren's affinity with raw magic she is potentially more powerful and dangerous than the twins. But if they receive the correct training from here on in, they'll be virtually unstoppable." Tortura knew that Irwin was prejudiced towards those with raw magic affinity; he had often underestimated the power of magic-users with less affinity. It was one of the things she had hoped to correct once she took over the Academy. She bit her lip; that was never going to happen.

"What are their elements?" Newen asked.

"Interestingly, Darren is a strong air with a shadow water while Kyle is just the opposite. Kyle also has a vague connection with earth. If the two of them are trained together, they could be a potent weather combination."

"That's very interesting. Continue," Irwin said.

"Wendy's very interesting. I don't even know if she'll accept what her gifts are. And if she 

does, her training is going to have to be completely over-hauled.” Tortura paused and the two men leaned forward "Wendy has a strong connection with earth."

"That doesn't sound too bad," Newen said, leaning back.

"Wait, her affinity is with metals and it's very strong. The aspect of magic she's strongest in is manipulation which basically means that to get the most out of her she's going to have to be given extensive weapons training. And weapons training is not very feminine."

"As I recall you did a lot of weapons training yourself," Irwin said.

"Yes, but I grew up with three brothers, no sisters and spent half my childhood up trees and rolling down hills. Being feminine wasn't really a concern close to my heart."

"What do you suggest?" Newen asked.

"I don't know. Choose an attractive weapons instructor," Tortura said.

"I think it's all going to depend on how we put it across to her," Newen said.

"You're probably right. Maybe I should do it," Irwin said. Tortura noticed he had broken eye contact with her. He continued, "And her affinity with raw magic?"

"It's fairly good. Her work with Kimi has gone very well. It seems to have even brought the two sisters together. Wendy's probably going to be the best bet after Mirren for working with Kimi."

"And what can you tell us about James?" Newen asked.

"James has a vague connection with fire. But that's mostly bound up with his tendency towards dragon-magic. I can draw up a training schedule to make regular magic more attainable for him but at some point a decision is going to need to be made about whether he should convert," Tortura said. She hadn’t quite known how to put this across and hoped she hadn’t offended Newen.

"Is it that serious?" Irwin asked.

"James has a very strong dragon-bond. It's just been late to surface because of his trauma as a child. I expect that within the next six months to a year we're going to see scaling," Tortura said, looking at Newen whose own scaling was only too apparent.

"I'll speak to Mirren," Newen said. "For now, maybe we should move him onto whatever training schedule you would suggest."

"I'll draw that up. Anyway, that's pretty much the best overview I can give you. You can look in the parchment packs for any more detail you might want.”

Newen stood. "Thank-you very much. You are very perceptive."

"Thank-you. I enjoyed it more than I thought I would." Tortura smiled. She inclined her head towards both men and then left the room.

Newen sat back down on his couch. He looked at Irwin. "That was all very interesting but I think what I found most surprising was how animated and relaxed the High Priestess was."

"Yes," Irwin smiled and nodded.