Zyn nearly forgot to go back to the tower to retrieve their wand from their room. The wand still sat on their desk. It had once been decorated with vines and carvings, but the vines were long dead. Zyn discarded them, then inspected the carvings. They depicted each element, the sun, and the moon. Zyn ran their finger over the etched marks, trying to build a bond with the wand again.

Once they stuffed the wand in their pocket, they returned to the center of the Courtyard. Ak-tu, Khurshid, and the other students were already gathered, listening to Ak-tu’s usual speech about the assessments. There were less new students this time, as most of the soon-to-be first-years showed up on Moonday.

Zyn volunteered to go first again, after making sure C3 wasn’t around. Ak-tu allowed them to step forward and face the cauldrons once more.

“This time, instead of focusing on the element,” Ak-tu said, “try to focus on being the element. Be as agile as air, as sturdy as earth, as fierce as fire, as calm as water.”

Zyn nodded, approaching the “Fire” cauldron first. They gazed intently at the flames, fingering the wand inside their robe pocket.

They grasped the wand firmly in their hand, then muttered fiercely, “Make this fire big and strong!” 

They had no idea if the wand would be effective in their pocket. As long as they weren’t creating their own fire, they supposed it would be fine to control the element in front of them. But nothing happened.

Be like the fire. “Make this fire fierce and wild!”

The fire continued to flicker in front of them, unchanged in size.

Try a different approach. “Make this fire small!”

The fire did seem to shrink for a moment, before it flared up once more. Was that Zyn’s doing, or the light breeze that had drifted through the Courtyard?

“Make it vanish!” Zyn uttered, trying not to be too loud that Ak-tu would hear behind them. “Make it vanish!”

There was no doubt about it—the fire had definitely gotten smaller, and no wind had come through to stir it that time! 

“I did it!” they cried aloud, the fire flickering below the rim of the cauldron.

Ak-tu stepped forward, frowning. “You put it out?”

The fire had indeed appeared to vanish. Zyn hurried over to the cauldron and peered inside to see only charred wood. The blaze had completely gone out.

“I did it!” they repeated.

Ak-tu frowned thoughtfully. “Well, that’s most unusual,” he finally said, scratching his head. “I haven’t ever seen a student do that before.”

“But I did it,” Zyn pointed out, trying to keep the doubt pushed away. “Right?” 

Ak-tu nodded. “Yes. You appear to have fire magic.”

Zyn hopped in the air excitedly. “I have fire magic! I have fire magic!”