“Gooooood morning!”

Zynivus flung the door open as she shouted, grinning from ear to ear. She gripped the edges of the doorframe and rocked back and forth on her feet. A moment later, a second call rang through the tower, bouncing off the stone walls.

“Good morning, Zyn!”

It was her sister, Ren. The siblings—or twins, as they liked to refer to themselves as—called out greetings every single day. Ever since Zyn read in a book that it was good practice to greet the spirits and nature each morning, she had adopted the practice for fun. Ren quickly picked up on it too. Zyn couldn’t remember a time where she and Ren didn’t scream greetings first-thing in the morning.

Once Zyn received Ren’s acknowledgement, she dashed down the stone steps, already dressed in her usual fashion: a striped shirt, baggy pants, and a bright orange robe depicting golden sun patterns. Her scarlet hair was spiky and short, parted to the left—just like her sister and father wore their hair. Unlike her purple-eyed family, only her left eye was violet; her right eye was emerald.

She reached her sister’s room on the floor beneath her bedroom. Ren’s door was already open, and Ren herself sat in the middle of the lavender-painted room, matching the walls with her purple hair and robe. The window was wide, allowing a soft breeze to blow through and rustle the many potted plants. Plants hung from the ceiling, sat on the wide desk on one side of the room, stood in large pots on the wooden floor, and even hung outside the window. Sweet floral scents meshed with the earthy soil, reminding Zyn of traveling through a jungle whenever she entered her twin’s room. Though there were plants seemingly everywhere, the room did not feel as cluttered as a forest, and instead felt airy and light.

“Meditating again?” Zyn asked as soon as she entered.

Ren didn’t turn to face her sister. She was sitting in the lotus position on the ground, her back to the door and her palms facing upwards. Zyn knew without looking that her violet eyes would be closed behind her rectangular glasses. Zyn jumped into a seated position beside her and saw that she was correct.

“I can never understand how you just sit there like that,” Zyn commented after a moment.

Ren opened one eye to glance sidelong at her, a smile dancing on her lips. “It’s meditation, Zyn, not torture.”

“It’s torture if you can’t sit still,” Zyn chuckled, springing to her feet.

Ren opened both of her angular eyes and looked up at Zyn. “Maybe if you put in the effort, you’d be able to do it too,” she suggested. 

“Nah, it’s too boring,” Zyn said with a shrug, grinning.

Ren snorted in amusement and got to her feet as well. She brushed off her sports shorts, ran a hand through her parted hair, and beamed. 

“Well, happy birthday, Zyn!” she said joyfully. “What’s it feel like being fourteen? Finally have your magic?”

“Only one way to find out!” Zyn exclaimed, and she punched the air in front of her, concentrating on the magic within her.

But nothing happened.

“Um…how do you do magic again?” Zyn asked Ren.

Ren had discovered her magic at eleven, though most people summoned their magic at thirteen or fourteen. Zyn waited eagerly for thirteen, but her magic had still been absent. She tried to summon it several times the past year, but figured she’d have to wait for her fourteenth birthday on July 28. 

“You just need to reach inside you and bring it forward,” Ren said simply.

Zyn stared at her. “But…how?”

There was a knock on the door, and the two looked up to see a man in a rainbow tank top. He had indigo hair reaching just past his shoulders, parted to the left like the twins. A unibrow sat above his neon violet eyes, and his mustache appeared as two long strands that hung past his squarish chin.

“I should’ve known you’d be in here,” Ak-tu said to Zyn, entering the room with a wide grin on his face. “Happy birthday!”

“Dad, how do I do magic?” Zyn asked her father, running over to him.

Ak-tu chuckled at the abrupt question. “You need to relax, reach inside yourself, and let it flow out. You can’t try forcing it.”

She crossed her arms over her chest and grunted, “You two need to work on your explanation skills.” {And he opened a school!} Zyn grumbled telepathically to Ren.

Ren snorted in laughter, then said, “We’re trying, you know!”

Ak-tu raised one end of his unibrow at Zyn. “If you can say it to Ren, you can say it to me.”

Zyn stuck out her tongue at him. “Then work on your teaching skills, Mr. Caihong!”

They all laughed for a moment, then Ak-tu said, “You’ll learn soon enough. After all, assessments are next week. I’m so excited you’ll be taking magic classes this year!”

“What—did you get tired of teaching us about math and history?” Zyn scoffed playfully.

“Very,” Ak-tu said blandly, before he smiled and placed his hands on both of their shoulders. “I’ve dreamed of this day ever since I had plans of building this school. Now that you both have your magic, you can finally learn!”

“Um—hello—I don’t have any magic still!” Zyn said, waving her hands around.

“You’ll have it,” Ak-tu said plainly.

“Then tell me how to summon it!” Zyn insisted.

“I already did. If you can’t summon it by next week, I’ll have you do the magic assessments,” Ak-tu told her.

Zyn sighed in exasperation. This was just like her father, making her wait for things when she couldn’t figure them out on her own! 

“Let’s go have breakfast!” Ak-tu said, and he left the room.

Zyn waited for his footsteps to fade away, then turned to Ren, her hands clenching into fists at her sides as her body tensed. 

“You have to help me summon my magic before the assessments next week!” she said, her heart beating quickly.

“But the magic assessments are there to help you and all the other students summon their magic in the first place,” Ren pointed out. “They aren’t real tests, you know.”

“I guess not, but…I don’t want to do them if I don’t have to,” Zyn muttered. “Please help me!”

“You know I will!” Ren said. She tapped her pointed chin for a moment, then exclaimed, “I have an idea!”

“What is it?” Zyn asked eagerly.

“Come join me for a meditation session!”

Zyn groaned inwardly, but followed Ren to the center of her plant-filled room. She sat down beside her sister, facing the window.

“Straighten your back and close your eyes,” Ren instructed. “Once you’re relaxed, I’ll give you a guided meditation, to let you journey inwards to discover your magic.”

Zyn nodded, doing as she said. She kept her eyes closed in as relaxed a way as possible, breathing as slowly as she could. All she could smell were stinky flowers that made her nose twitch and itch. Holding back a sneeze, she forced herself to concentrate on Ren’s soft voice.

“Focus on your breath…good…that keeps you from being distracted…”

The moment Ren said the word, Zyn automatically began thinking of other things. Her mind swirled in a distracted frenzy, jumping from magic to the games they’d play that day to the cool-looking fog outside to wondering what type of magic she had to pondering if plants could help her discover her magic. She no longer paid much attention to Ren.

“There’s a large pond in the clearing,” Ren said gently, as Zyn finally managed to focus on her medium voice again. “Its surface is so still, so shiny. You walk towards the pond…the grass is light and springy underfoot. You stop at the pond and look down at your reflection.”

Zyn imagined this to the best of her ability, but her reflection seemed to be very shimmery or nonexistent.

“Your reflection stares back at you, then lifts her hand. One of the four elements is floating in her palm, showing you your inner magic. Embrace it.”

Zyn tried to picture the choppy reflection of herself doing as Ren said, but she didn’t know which element she’d have—fire or air?

“You feel the magic moving through your body, coursing through your fingertips,” Ren persisted. “You feel an energy within. This is your magic.”

Zyn felt energy within, but she didn’t know if it was actually magic or just her normal energy. Frowning as she considered this, she soon stopped listening to Ren once more, her mind flitting about.

“Now jump up and punch the air!” Ren yowled fiercely, waking Zyn from her stupor.

She jolted in surprise, then hopped to her feet and punched the air like Ren had ordered. But nothing happened.

“I was hoping that would work!” Ren grumbled in dismay. “Did you feel anything at all?”

Zyn sighed and shook her head. “It was kinda hard to focus,” she muttered, sneezing as her nose couldn’t take the floral scents any longer.

“I’m sorry, Zyn, I can’t think of what else you can do,” Ren admitted. “I found my magic by meditating. Hmm…we can always try researching more books, but I’m not sure if we’ll be able to get away with looking up magic books. Aster always finds a way to stop us.”

“We’ll just have to go to the Library at night, when Aster’s not snooping around,” Zyn said, wondering why she hadn’t thought of that before. She and Ren had tried many times to get their hands on magic books, but Ak-tu was strict about keeping any knowledge of magic from their clutch until they were attending school.

Ren bit her bottom lip. “I don’t want to get in trouble. You know we’re not supposed to look at those books. Besides, Aster locks the Library every night.”

Zyn sighed and played with a string on her robe, lowering her gaze. “Then what am I supposed to do? If meditation and punching the air doesn’t work…”

“You have to keep trying,” Ren said firmly. “You’re new to meditation, so if you want to give it another go later tonight, maybe once you’re more worn out and relaxed, we can. And we can try again tomorrow morning, and every day until you find your magic.”

Zyn fidgeted uneasily. “But what if I don’t have it by the time the magic assessments are here?”

“That could be a good thing,” Ren pointed out. “The assessments teach you how to summon magic. That’s why they exist!”

Zyn sighed again and reverted to telepathy. {I just don’t want to take these assessments…}

{I know.} Ren replied by thoughts, her voice echoing lightly in Zyn’s head. {But they can’t be all that bad, if they’re used every year on new students.}

{It’s not so much that, it’s…performing magic in front of everyone.} Zyn thought lamely, tugging the string absentmindedly. 

“But you love acting! Just think of it as an acting performance!” Ren pointed out, beaming at Zyn.

{No, it’s not like an acting performance, not if I don’t have time to prepare or know what I’m supposed to be doing.} Zyn replied dimly, mouthing the words as she thought them. {I don’t want to do those assessments. I just want my magic to come.}

{It will.} Ren promised. “Let’s go get some breakfast,” she said aloud, ending their telepathic conversation.