Light poured through the window to Beth’s room, her eyes fluttering open as she cursed at herself. She had wanted to wake up early today and it apparently hadn’t occurred to her what that really meant. She was very used to having a lot of time in the morning to mess around, always picking up jobs that took place in the latter half of the day, but now she was going to have to get used to getting up early.

There were three and a half months before both her and Jess would be participating in the searcher trial. Luckily for them, they would get to do it together since searchers usually worked in groups of at least two. It wasn’t unheard of for a searcher to work alone, but it was relatively uncommon. Jess and Beth had thought about taking the trial alone, but since they didn’t really gain anything from that and they were already going to be training together anyway, it made sense to complete it together.

Beth rolled out of bed, groaning slightly before making her way to the bathroom to shower and get her day started. As the water streamed down her body, she winced slightly, taking note of some of the new bruises that were still there from her and Jess’s sparring match two days ago. They really knew how to throw a punch and not hold back.

Beth stepped out of the shower and toweled off, heading back to her room to get dressed before heading out in to the clear morning air. She stretched a bit before heading to the diner a few doors down. She sleepily grabbed her usual order, much to the surprise of the owner who was not used to seeing her this early. She got the food to go and made her way to the road that led to the central village.

It was a nice warm day, a light breeze brushing along the tops of the trees as Beth walked. She smiled wistfully up at the trees, admiring the beautiful color of the leaves. Jess then looked down to the smooth dirt road below her. As she did, she realized she had forgotten the small pendant that her and Jess had been gifted the previous day. She sighed and then dismissed it, assuming that Jess would have theirs.

After about an hour of walking, Beth’s ears were met with the all too familiar sound of the bustling central village. Her ears perked up and her pace began to increase, the closeness of the village causing her excitement to grow greater. She rushed forward, crossing in to crowds of people moving all about the village center. As she looked around, she realized she didn’t see Jess, realizing they were likely already at the training grounds. Beth cursed and checked the time, finding there were only a few minutes before they were scheduled to meet. Now scared they would enter without her, Beth sprinted full speed to the central tree, racing up the steps and around the platform to an alcove carved out of the side of the tree that led to a short hallway with a door on the other side.

Beth let out a sigh of relief as she screeched to a halt in front of the door before a look of confusion began to dawn on her. Where was Jess? Even if Jess often woke up a little late, they were used to it and were pretty strict for punctuality. They usually arrived most places five to ten minutes ahead of time. Beth took a seat against the wall, slumping down on to the floor.

After about half an hour, her concern grew greater and every few minutes she started peeking out and looking down at the crowds below. It wasn’t until almost an hour after Beth had arrived that she heard the sound of someone running up the stairs to the tree. A few moments later, Jess appeared at the entrance to the hallway, sweating and panting. They waved slightly to Beth before collapsing against the wall across from her.

Beth opened her mouth to speak, but was immediately met with a finger from Jess, prompting her to stay quiet until they caught their breath. After a few minutes, they seemed to be fine and so, Beth asked, “Okay… What happened?! You’re never late!”

Jess groaned slightly before holding up the pendant that Beth had forgotten. It was a small golden ring with a golden leaf in the center of it. “I forgot this at home…”

Beth chuckled slightly. “Yeah. I did too… Figured you would have yours… Guess I’m lucky you went back, huh?”

“Yeah, guess so. Except I realized halfway through my walk, so I had to run all the way back home and get it. I didn’t really know if you’d have yours, so I wanted to have it just in case,” they explained before pinning the pendant back to their robe.

“Of course I wouldn’t have mine. Do you know how early made me wake up?”

Jess narrowed their eyes and shook their head. “I live twice as far from here as you! I had to wake up even earlier!”

Beth shrugged. “Yeah, but you’re used to it, so it’s different.”

Jess rolled their eyes and sighed, standing up and walking over to the door. “Come on, let’s go.”

Once Jess got close enough to the door, the pendant on their chest began to glow softly and the door slid away, opening up in to a massive room.

“Wow…” Beth gawked.

The room was enormous, clearly taking up almost the entire diameter of the massive tree it was housed within. There was a full mile track in the center of the room with four sparring rings on the inside. The walls rose almost a mile high and along them, there was climbing holds and targets for long distance practice. Above them, hanging from the ceiling, there were several large glowing plant bulbs which illuminated the room in natural light almost identical to sunlight. The floor was entire covered in soft grass and small plants, making the entire room feel incredibly natural. Dotted around the room, there was all manner of equipment for basically any kind of training for a nature or earth apprentice

“Alright, ready to get started?” Jess asked as they hopped on to a small wooden platform made of mystwood. It was highly durable and regenerative, so it was perfect for magic training.

Beth followed closely behind them, feeling the essence flowing all through the wood underneath them. “Yeah, but uh… I actually wanted to ask you something…”

Jess gave her a slightly confused look. “What’s up, Beth?”

“Well… I’m gonna be trying to teach you magic cause that’s something you’re struggling with a bit. And I was kinda hoping you might be willing to do the same for me…?” Beth asked nervously.

“With what? I’m not exactly a teacher…”

“I mean, you’re really good at sensing and I’m really not, so I was hoping that you might be able to help me out with that…”

Jess blushed slightly, a bit flattered by the request. “I can’t promise I’ll be a very good teacher, but I am willing to give it a go, especially since you’re helping me out with this.”

Beth beamed at them. “Alright! Then let’s get started. First thing I want you to do is sit across from me here,” she said, taking a seat on the platform, close to the center.

Jess nodded and sat down just a few feet away from her. “Good. Now, I know that you know how to do magic at least a little bit, but I’m still kinda gonna treat this like you’re a total beginner, okay?”

Jess sighed. “I understand.”

“Great! So, obviously, the first thing you have to do is feel the essence within your body. Essence is the building block of magic, but also the building block of all life.”

Jess rolled their eyes. “You know I know how to do this, right? You asked me to teach you sensing.”

Beth frowned. “Look, I’m teaching you from the start. Now, you’re going to make a seal, a conduit for magic. As you know, all seals must only have an outer base of a circle and an inner base of an essence sigil to function.” In front of Beth, on the ground, a small glowing circle appeared. Inside of the circle, the sigil of earth was added and from there, more and more details around the edges were added. “This is my own personal seal. Most people add details to their seal to make it feel more personal and connected to them. Plus, they just look nicer this way. And eventually, you won’t even have to actively create all the elements to the seal, it’ll just be muscle memory.”

Jess nodded and followed Beth’s instruction, a basic seal forming in front of them. “There we go.”

“You don’t wanna add any details to it?”

Jess rolled their eyes. “Is that necessary?”

Beth groaned. “No, but I mean, do you really wanna fight with something that looks as lame as that?”

Jess sighed and focused on the seal, thinking of the many different shapes they could add and doing it until they had a more detailed seal. It wasn’t quite as ornate as Beth’s, but they were happy with it. “Happy now?”

“Are you?” Beth retorted.

“Yes.”

“Good. Now, let’s do some actual magic. To perform magic, you run essence through a seal, conducting the essence and using the intent of the user to shape magic. Let’s start with something simple. How about you make a tiny pebble? You don’t have to follow any exact specifications for now, just make a pebble.”

Jess nodded and began to focus on the seal in front of them, allowing essence to flow from their body in to it, envisioning the formation of a tiny rock. At first, nothing happened, so they began to pour more essence in to the seal. This time it worked, a pebble forming just above the seal before dropping to the floor atop the seal.

“There you go!” Beth cheered.

“I mean, yeah. I did it, but that wasn’t really a hard thing. I’m pretty sure a child could do what I just did…” Jess countered.

“Some fictional child does not matter right now. What matters is you, Jessie. You did magic and that’s what matters. Did you have any problems with that?”

“I think so…? I felt like it took me way too much essence to make something so tiny…” Jess replied.

“Oh, right. Yeah. I guess I forgot to mention that. When you create something, it consumes more essence than if you were to control something existing. It’s almost like a little extra cost that you have to pay on top of what it actually costs to make something. Eventually, as you get stronger, both of those costs will decrease, plus, your essence supply will grow, so making a pebble will feel like nothing and you won’t really even notice that extra cost,” Beth explained.

“I see. So… what’s next?”

Beth smirked. “Now you’re going to make more specific things. I want you to make a small stone cube that’s one inch by one inch by one inch. And I want it to be a perfect cube. The type of stone doesn’t matter, okay? Also, if you start to feel that pull from either of your eyes, stop right away and take a little time to rest.”

Jess smiled softly and nodded, quickly getting to work trying to make the stone cube. They thought it would be easy, but they quickly learned that it was not. At first, the stone was falling apart, then it wasn’t the right angles, then the wrong size. New problems kept arising with each one they fixed. Occasionally, they would feel a pull and they would instantly stop. Beth would give them instruction or comfort from time to time when it was needed.

Several hours in, the two realized that neither of them had eaten lunch and they suddenly realized they were starving. It was almost dinner time, so they decide to break for some food. Beth grew Jess some plants and a bit of wood to chow down on while she went to go get some food from one of the restaurants in the village. She brought the food back and the two ate in mostly silence before deciding to start Beth’s training.

“So… Uh… I’m not really sure where to start with sensing essence… I’ve honestly always been able to do it and at this point, how I do it and how I train it is basically just instinct…” Jess began.

“I see… Well, I’ve been told that you basically do it by expanding your aura outwards and that allows you to sense whatever comes in contact with it,” Beth offered.

Jess thought for a moment before shaking their head. “I guess that’s somewhat accurate, but that’s a really active method of doing it. I understand that, but it doesn’t really cover passive sensing which I think is more important since that’s what will allow you to feel a threat before it shows up or even anticipate magic by feeling the buildup of essence inside of someone before they do it.”

Beth nodded. “Yeah. Though I also have a bit of trouble with the aura expansion as well… It always takes so much effort and I’m usually left exhausted.”

“Are you just sort of pressing your aura out like a sheet?” Jess asked.

“I mean… yeah? I guess?”

Jess shook their head and sighed. “What would happen if you took a sphere of cloth and pushed it outwards from the inside by expanding every part of it all at once?”

“It would tear?”

Jess nodded. “Exactly. You’re expending way too much energy because you’re reaching a limit, but there’s a much better method. You need to try and approach it like an elastic net. Sure, you’re still going need a lot of effort to stretch it a lot, but it will be way less than what you’re doing now. Additionally, when you’re engaging in active sensing, you want to try and not do it all at once since you can get more range if you do like a sweep around you, searching around you in sections.”

Beth just stared at Jess, mouth slightly agape. “I thought you said you weren’t really a teacher? That was amazing!”

Jess blushed lightly. “Yeah well uh… punching and sensing are like the two things I’m good at, so…”

“Well, you’re a really great teacher!” Beth said before closing her eyes and putting the method in to work, finding that it got her range a little further while also being a little less tiring. “It worked…!”

“Awesome. Now, let’s move on to passive sensing since that’s a little more important than active, in my opinion. Basically, to sense passively, it’s almost like electrifying your aura so that you can feel the response from things around you when they come in to contact with it. What you wanna do is push waves of almost no essence outwards from your body. Now, the more range, the more essence. But, you have to train your body to do this automatically or it’s no better than active sensing. I’m gonna go sit on the outer edge of the platform and you’re going to sit in the middle. I want you to try and sense me,” Jess said, moving themself to the edge of the platform and waiting patiently.

Beth once again followed their instructions, but this time, she found it much more difficult. After almost an hour of trying, she had gotten nowhere, but she refused to ask for more help. After a few more hours, she finally managed to feel some kind of feedback and she realized it was Jess. Beth excitedly leapt in to the air. “Jessie, I did it!” As soon as she touched the ground, her vision began to go black. “Oh… too much essence…” she said before collapsing, Jess catching her just before she hit the platform.

“You did great…” they said softly as they carried her out of the training grounds.