Reginald walked out the door that led to the field and Rachel followed, careful to not step on her cloak. As soon as the door opened Rachel and Reginald were hit with the noise from the crowd cheering for the start of the tournament. Reginald had not told anyone that the tournament was going to be officiated, so no one cared about the cloaked person walking beside him. Once Reginald and Rachel reached the viewing area, he indicated to Rachel to stand next to him and then addressed the crowd to quiet down. The Military Arts students were already arranged to receive orders from Reginald from the moment he stepped foot out of the academy. Rather than introducing to the crowd that the person next to him was a fairy, Reginald went ahead while it was still quiet to initiate the officiation of the tournament.

“Let this tournament be officiated!” Reginald exclaimed.

Rachel, who was the only fairy in the area, immediately was chosen to officiate the tournament. The magic flowed into her and this time she didn’t feel a burning sensation in her chest. The feeling was indescribable, as it wasn’t a painful or nice feeling, it reminded her of rapidly moving water, splitting into many streams that were reaching out. Rachel’s hologram formed instantaneously attracting everyone’s attention. They were surprised that there was a fairy here and that it wasn’t their usual fairy but also confused that this fairy was hiding their face. The cloak surrounding Rachel was transformed into a gold embroidered red cloak. She could tell that when all the connections were completed, she could now talk to everyone.

Instead of wishing the students well, Rachel decided to get straight to the officiation saying with all seriousness, “Let the record of the tournament be officiated.” If Reginald had set up the tournament with more expectations Rachel could have given the students more encouragement, but it didn’t feel right under the current circumstances. When Rachel finished her statement, her hologram shrunk in size, and the image of rushing water in her head transformed into a calm and steady stream that was no longer reaching out and instead slowly returning to her. Reginald took hold of the confused and slightly upset crowd by beginning the tournament and issuing orders to his students, while Rachel sat down. Once the tournament started the crowd returned to their wild cheering almost forgetting the unusual ceremony officiation.

Rachel could sense the overall feeling of excitement and catharsis from the crowd and fear, redemption, and pride from the students. It was all flowing into her. She wondered for a second if this is what it was supposed to be like? Wasn’t the magic just supposed to flow in and out, why does it seem like she is processing the information as it returns to her? She knew she had to ask Elanor and if she didn’t have an answer, she would have to write her Mother a letter about it. Reginald finally had a chance to check on Rachel.

“Hey, are you doing alright? Everything seems to have worked properly,” Reginald said to Rachel.

“I’m … doing … okay,” Rachel said, arduously because it was hard for her to multitask with the information, she was processing. Reginald didn’t think that was normal. Elanor could speak easily when she officiated ceremonies and she was a huge talker.

“Elanor doesn’t talk like you are when she officiates ceremonies. Are you sure you are okay?” Reginald asked again.

“I … can … feel … everything,” Rachel said. “I’ll … explain … later.”

“Okay, let me know if I need to end the tournament early,” Reginald replied.

When the Military Arts students started fighting each other in pairs, Rachel’s body started shaking and twitching to the movements of the students. She could see the two students fighting with her eyes, the crowds’ eyes, and the two fighting student’s eyes. But because the feelings from the students were the most intense, she automatically homed in on their magic information streams. She could feel being striked as they were striked, their intents to win against each other, and when the fight was over the feeling of accomplishment in one student and defeat in the other. Each fight didn’t last very long, but the information returned to her was intense and the fact that it came from two students at once repeatedly was beginning to eat at her mind. Rachel had to continually convince herself that she wasn’t there on the field fighting, otherwise, she knew she would lose herself.

Eventually, George had his first fight in the tournament, and she felt his calmness and control and it comforted her. But George’s disposition wasn’t intense and thus didn’t take over the feeling of fear and anger his competitor was feeling. If only Rachel could focus only on George and his information stream, she could make it to the end of the tournament, mind intact. She tried to focus on him. She asked herself what does he feel and what is he thinking? Imagining herself as George, Rachel was able to bring his information stream up over the others, which were still there but quieter and ignorable. Rachel could release a sigh of relief and she could talk now.

“Reginald, I think there is something wrong with me,” Rachel said with worry in her voice.

“What do you mean?” He asked.

“I can see and feel everything that everyone is experiencing here,” Rachel replied.

“That’s unheard of, Elanor has never mentioned that occurring,” Reginald exclaimed.

“I know if this happens to her, she would have told me that when I met her,” Rachel acknowledged the confusion.

“I can process the information the magic carries. It was overwhelming until I experienced what George felt when he was fighting his opponent. He was calm and in control, unlike his fellow students and I was able to focus on only him to dial down the amount of information flooding my mind. I’m still focusing on him,” Rachel explained unsure of whether Reginald would understand what she was saying.

“Do you know what everyone is doing here, then?” Reginald asked trying to grasp what Rachel was saying.

“Yes and no. The information arrives all at once, but it’s hard to distinguish the actions, feelings, and experiences of one person. I could do it with George because I know him. I had to imagine being him to focus only on his information. I feel as if I am him and myself simultaneously,” Rachel tried explaining.

“We can talk more about this when the tournament is over,” Reginald replied.

Rachel nodded; she also didn’t want to lose her focus on George that she had obtained which made the whole ordeal manageable. James and his opponent were one of the last fights from the first round. Rachel could feel George’s concern for his friend when the fight started, and his heart would race a little bit with each swing from James’ opponent. When James finally won George felt relief and happiness for his friend. The two friends had time before the next round started and struck up a conversation that Rachel could hear as if she was saying George’s words herself and listening to James’ response.

“Good job out there,” George said to James, patting him on his armor.

“You too,” James replied. “I wonder if Rachel is here cheering us on?”

“I don’t know, I didn’t see her in the crowd.” George sighed.

“Don’t get all depressed that you couldn’t show off in front of her,” James poked fun at George.

“I’m not. I just want to see her,” George replied honestly.

“You’ll see her tomorrow, isn’t that good enough?” James asked, trying to get George to admit his true intention.

“Stop teasing me, you know I like her, and you know we rarely see each other,” George grumbled. Rachel could tell he felt an attraction towards herself, which was very weird, to say the least. Knowing George’s thoughts and feelings was wrong, even if it was about herself. She couldn’t stop ‘being’ George until the tournament was over and it would be better to just pretend, she never heard what George had said.

“Yeah. Sorry, George. So, do you think we’ll fight against each other in the final round?” James decided to change the subject.

“Probably. I’m not going easy on you, so you better be prepared and save up your energy too. We’ll be fighting without rest the closer we get to the final round,” George replied.

“Okay, will do,” James acknowledged the good advice.

George and James took turns fighting their opponents winning each round. Reginald had arranged this tournament differently so that James didn’t fight George until the very end if he made it through all the rounds so that he could see how James would do against the other students in real fights one on one. They both made it to the end, and they made it swift so that they could go all out fighting each other. Rachel was also glad about their speedy wins because she wanted to be freed from the tournament’s shackles. George was calm in his attacks on James, but he also felt a tiny bit of excitement because although James had never beaten him in sparing, he was the only person that was willing to fight him without holding back. Feeling George’s excitement Rachel worried for James, thinking he could get seriously hurt if he wasn’t careful, but James was able to fend off George’s attacks perfectly until he ran out of the energy to keep going and was knocked off his feet, giving George the win.

Upon the conclusion of the George and James’ fight, Reginald announced the rankings of his students, thereby ending the tournament. Rachel felt the emotions of all the students all at once again as the last of the information was transferred through her. She was mostly mentally exhausted from not being accustomed to the Military Arts students’ mentality, but her body was also aching from repetitive tensing in anticipation of the attacks the students were receiving. When Reginald was ready, he walked Rachel back to the academy, just the two of them, while the students and crowd were entertained by the results of the tournament. Rachel was able to remove, fold, and pack her cloak into her bag. Reginald returned to the viewing area on the field to acknowledge his student’s successes and failures, while Rachel returned to her room for a long rest, skipping even dinner.