We land together in the sand, with him lying under me.

I quickly support myself with my arms to put some distance between us.

I feel his chest rising and falling quickly beneath me. His breath brushes warmly across my cheek. I smell his shampoo along with his natural mint scent.

His blue eyes capture mine and I lose myself in them, plunging into another world.

He has often allowed me to look into his soul, but this time it is different than usual. What is spreading out there in front of me is different from anything I have seen before.

I let myself fall deep and take in everything he is willing to show me. His entire being spreads out in front of me. There I see his natural calmness, his coolness, his charm, his feelings, which he tries to hide under the mask of joking, but which I can still see.

But there is also a vulnerability so great that it threatens to swallow everything else. I hadn't realized how much he was still hiding from me despite our long-standing friendship. And then I see the heart of his soul. It radiates from the very core of him, with such diversity.

I catch myself watching it, losing myself completely in the sight of it.

I have never ventured so deeply into the soul of another. After I lost control during the attack of the shadow warriors, I swore never again to delve so deeply into another's soul.

And here I am now.

I am lying on top of my best friend on the battlefield of the academy shortly before the final exam and admiring the heart of his soul, the spark of his magic, the vein of his existence.

I slowly pull back. If I leave him now, abruptly and carelessly, I could cause him indescribable pain. The colors of his emotions cover his soul and an intense blue blocks everything from my view.

His eyes are still looking at me attentively.

Only now do I realize that I am still lying on top of him.

I quickly stand up - I almost jump off him and take a few steps back. He is still lying on his back and staring at the spot where my eyes were just now.

I clear my throat and he comes out of his trance. While I brush the sand off my dress, he sits up. He still doesn't take his eyes off me.

»What did you see?« he finally wants to know.

I look up. A thoughtful expression spreads across his face, but there is also fear.

Is he afraid of what I might have found out about him?

»How much do you want me to have seen?« I finally ask him.

He shrugs his shoulders and his suspicious face gives way to his typical grin.

»I don't really care. I trust you.«

He cares and we both know it. I offer him my hand and pull him to his feet as he reaches for it.

»You have sand all over your hair...and on your clothes.«

He looks down at himself. »And whose fault is that? Not mine.«

He runs his hands through his hair and grains of sand trickle to the floor. He ignores the ones on his pants and t-shirt.

»We should go back to the academy. There should be food soon.« As if Levi's stomach had just been waiting for his cue, it growls loudly.

We both burst into loud laughter. It's hard to calm down again.

»Whenever you're ready, my lady.« Grinning, he holds out his arm for me to hook in.

I take one final look over the field and the stands. With a nod, I find it ready for tomorrow's festivities. I take his arm and we walk back to the school building together.

The grounds of the Phoenix Academy are huge and seem almost endless to an untrained eye. The older students know that the opposite is the case. Although the property is indeed very large, it is not infinite.

During various training sessions, we have often come across the boundary walls that are supposed to keep the academy students in and strangers out. However, most of us know how to get around these security measures put in place by the school administration and have a relaxing afternoon or evening outside these walls. But you can also have a lot of fun within the walls.

There are stables with horses for riding, a swimming pool and a large pond for swimming, sports fields for letting off steam, a huge sports hall for letting off steam, a wild forest for exploring, a hedge maze for getting lost and wide grassy areas for relaxing.

We can largely put together our own timetables. Of course, there are a few compulsory subjects such as history, natural sciences and magic, but also many elective subjects such as dancing, music, martial arts, horse riding, swimming, climbing and much more.

I also have international law and diplomacy on my schedule, in preparation for my future duties as Queen of the Lux.

The campus is more active than it has been in a long time. The air is filled with tension and excitement.

On our way back to the main building, Levi and I come across some first-years who are excitedly discussing the founding of the Lux. As we walk past them, they notice us and recognize who we are. They immediately stand up and block our way.

I stop abruptly and force Levi to stop as well.

»Micah, Micah, please can you help us? We don't know what to do,« begs one of the three girls.

The others and the two boys who are part of the group nod eagerly.

I smile.

»What don't you know?« I ask the girl who had the courage to speak to me.

Many first-years hesitate or don't even try. But she spoke to me without hesitation, even without using my title.

»I think that could be a lot of things,« Levi whispers in my ear.

In response, I pull my arm away from him and nudge him in the side. He bends away, but isn't quick enough.

»It's about the unification of the peoples, so the founding of the Lux. Did the genies, the Valkyries or the shapeshifters sign first?« The girl waits inquisitively for my answer.

When I look more closely, I see that she is a Valkyrie. The other four are genies and shapeshifters. I'm not surprised that they're asking me about the three peoples they belong to.

»I don't think you need to know in which order the peace treaty was signed yet. Besides, didn't you have to take your theory exams last week?«

The girl hangs her head.

»Yes, we did, like everyone else. We just talked about it and couldn't find anything about it in our books,« she admits.

»That's why we asked you. We thought you might know,« adds one of the genies.

Of course I know the order in which the twenty-seven peoples signed the peace agreement and thus founded the united people of magical creatures, the Lux. But I also know what these young students are getting at.

»Is it really that important which of your peoples signed the great treaty first? The only thing that matters is that they all signed and that we have lived together in peace ever since.«

This is the answer you always hear in the academy when you ask this question. The teachers want to ensure that we don't tease each other about when our people signed the treaty.

Only the royal family still knows the exact order, but only because the treaty is kept in our castle and we learn it by heart from childhood, including the order of signatures.

They hang their heads sadly. They had probably hoped for more from me.

»Don't you have to prepare for your duels tomorrow?« Levi tries to change the subject.

A masterly performance. The bad mood is immediately forgotten and they start discussing excitedly with each other again about who will compete against whom.

Levi takes my arm and gently pulls me away from them, further towards the main building.

»That was a very diplomatic answer you gave, Micah. But maybe next time you should choose your words according to the audience,« Levi points out my failure.

I smile wearily at him. I know without his hint that I have disappointed the children.

The sun is already very low and is almost disappearing behind the castle-like main building of the academy, which casts eerily long shadows on the area in front of it.

We are not the only ones on our way to dinner, so we join our classmates and go with them through the large wooden entrance portal.

The cafeteria is already packed. Almost all the chairs are taken.

I look around for free seats when Levi draws my attention to our friends.

Alivia and Jaxon are sitting at our regular table in the back of the cafeteria and are looking out for us. How they haven't noticed us yet is a mystery to me. After all, neither Levi nor I are particularly inconspicuous.

With his unique fiery red hair, Levi stands out even among most of the puks, and almost all of them have red hair. And I get stared at almost everywhere.

The students closest to us have stopped their conversations and are watching us, or rather me, attentively. They are waiting eagerly for me to do something that they can gossip about later.

The rumor that I am dating Levi has been doing the rounds for a few weeks and now they are expecting confirmation from us. But they wouldn't get confirmation because there is nothing going on between Levi and me.

I don't have time for a boyfriend. And even if I could find the time, I wouldn't risk losing my best friend.

Together we head for the table with our friends. An alley of silence accompanies us.

»Hey Livi, Jaxon,« I greet the siren and the genie.

»Micah, you're finally here.« Alivia stands up, beaming, and hugs me, then pulls me onto a free chair next to me.

»And I'm invisible again,« Levi grumbles behind us.

»No, you're not, buddy. You know what girls are like.« Jaxon pats the chair next to him and Levi falls heavily.

»Did we miss something?« Levi asks, his mouth already full.

He shovels one spoonful of mashed potatoes after another into his mouth, as if he hadn't had anything to eat for days.

Alivia shakes her head. »But we apparently do.« She pulls a few grains of sand out of my hair.

I blush and Levi starts laughing, with his mouth full, so that he looks like a choking squirrel with full cheeks.

When he chokes, Alivia and Jaxon start laughing too. I watch with a smile as my friends make fun of Levi and tease him about how he can't let it go and counters with cheeky remarks.

In moments like these, I can forget my other problems, my worries, my dreams, my parents.

In moments like these, I can just be myself, Micah, a student at the Phoenix Academy.

A scream breaks the happy mood.

Suddenly, the cafeteria is completely silent.

Somewhere a plate falls to the floor and shatters.

Someone starts to cry.

I stand up and look for the cause of the unrest.

At the buffet I see a frozen girl and a crying boy who is crouched down on the floor in front of her and rocking back and forth.

I quickly went to them. Several teachers are already coming from the cafeteria entrance, but I reach the two of them before them.

I touch the girl on the shoulder and notice her birthmark on her left upper arm, a silver-colored trinity.

She is a Laima, a personification of fate. They can see another's future just by touching her and if they don't yet have their powers fully under control, they show that future to those they touch.

The boy at her feet is an elf. He is terribly afraid. Whatever she showed him, it must have been terrible.

The girl is still in shock, so I kneel down next to the boy.

»Look at me,« I tell him gently.

I find it easier to touch another's soul when they look me in the eyes. He can't open his eyes, he just squeezes them even closer.

Then I'll do it the hard way. I close my eyes and feel deep inside myself. My magic burns like a fire inside me, threatening to destroy everything if I don't hold it back for just a moment.

I pull on a small part and form a silver thread out of it. It is very delicate and barely visible, but that is enough for me.

I slowly lead this thread to the elf in front of me. He has not built any protection around himself and so it is easy for me to touch his soul with my magic thread.

I gently and carefully roam through his soul in search of the reason for his fear.

There it is, strong as a waterfall, it threatens to sweep everything away with it. Taming it will not be easy. But as I get closer I see the source of the fear.

It flickers and flickers, but this is clearly a vision of the future and it shows how he will die surrounded by flames, slowly and very painfully. In this vision he is not much older than he is now. If I were shown something like that, I would also be paralyzed with fear.

I direct my magic over the waterfall directly towards this vision. When I get there, I put up a net and thus close his access to this future.

Even though Laimas are the personification of fate, that doesn't mean that their visions of the future always come true.

The waterfall of fear becomes a calm river again and I withdraw from the young elf's soul.

When I open my eyes again, I look straight into his brown eyes. There is still an echo of fear, but he will deal with it himself.

I nod to him and help him stand up. The teachers have now reached us and Laima has awakened from her trance.

She stammers that she is sorry, that it was not intentional, that she did not want it.

She doesn't need to tell us that.

We know only too well that it is not easy to control your powers when they are as powerful as hers.

The teachers try to calm her down, but it is only when she sees the elf standing up that she begins to listen.

»We should take the two of them to the sickroom. They will recover there,« suggests one of the teachers.

The others nod in agreement and support Laima and the elf on their way out of the cafeteria and to the infirmary.

Our infirmary is often busy, as many people get injured during combat training or magic lessons or during free time.

I decide to visit them later. Maybe I can help them with the healing process. I also have to make sure that my temporary blockade on the elf holds.

It is only now that I notice that everyone is staring at me.

They know about my unique magic, but most of them have never seen me use it.

As an outsider, all you see is a star warrior facing someone else with her eyes closed or looking deep into the eyes of the person opposite her. And yet it seems to be a big attraction.

Alivia, Jaxon and Levi come towards me with our trays. We hadn't finished eating yet, but I've lost my appetite and my friends have probably decided that it would be better to get out of here.

Gratefully, I leave the cafeteria with them after we've put the dirty dishes away.

The eyes of our classmates follow us until we turn a corner in the hallway and disappear from their field of vision.

Only now do I realize that they weren't the only ones who kept an eye on me. My friends are also watching me closely.

»What's wrong? Do I have something on my face?«

Guiltly, they look away.

»Do you want to tell me why you're watching me or should we just pretend it never happened?«

»We just want to make sure you're OK. You look a bit disturbed,« Jaxon dares to put everyone's thoughts into words.

Is everything OK with me?

I saw how a young elf will probably soon burn to death in agony, how his fear made him cry and how a Laima froze because of her vision.

»Yes, I'm fine,« I lie to them.

They nod and seem to believe me.

Except Levi, he's still keeping an eye on me. This is going to turn into another long conversation in the moonlight.

We follow the corridor to the end, where a glass door takes us back outside.