September 14 brought the first day of school for the second-year students, whose classes were mostly on Trizday.

Ren’s classes were only on Trizday, as she wasn’t taking a single Art class this year. The previous year, she had loaded her schedule with every Art class, but she didn’t want to fall behind on her core classes—especially as the martial arts club would be taking place six days a week. 

Sarala was taking the same classes as Ren, as she had decided to take the two Tai Chi classes instead of two Art classes for electives. Yet she was in the Tai Chi 1 classes, which had already taken place on Moonday. 

Zyn’s schedule was different from the girls’. As they’d been allowed to take Magic Studies the entire way through the first year, they were enrolled in the Magic Studies 2 class on Trizday. But they had to retake Magic Channeling 1, Plants 1, and Potions 1, which all took place on Moonday. They then had Kung Fu and Tai Chi classes on Trizday. Like Ren, they weren’t taking any Art classes. They had wanted to take Theatre, but since Aster had never responded to Ak-tu’s messages, Wave had replaced him—and Zyn found Wave to be too calm and boring.

“I wonder what we’ll learn this year,” Zyn said that Trizday morning as they crossed the Courtyard to the Magic Studies classroom.

“I think we get to learn how to enchant items,” Ren said thoughtfully, tapping her pointed chin. “Should be right up your alley, Zyn!”

Zyn grinned, pulling out the box of cards that had been enchanted by their father. “I can’t wait to learn that!”

Sarala snorted. “You probably won’t be able to enchant cards or do anything fancy like that. Besides—it’s just Magic Studies. It’ll be lectures, not doing anything.”

Ren pulled open the door to the classroom, allowing Zyn and Sarala to enter the paper-scented room. The trio took their seats at the front, the minute-bell sounding a few moments later. Ren hummed softly to herself as students entered the room, only coming out of her trance when a loud voice spoke up.

“Where is everyone, ayloo?” Ayl Dattem asked.

Ren sat straight, not realizing that she had slumped in her seat. She glanced around the room, and saw that there were less students than there had been in the first year. She frowned, realizing further that Khurshid hadn’t entered despite the final bell ringing.

C3, sitting right behind Zyn in the second row, got to his feet and did a quick headcount. “We are at sixteen students,” he announced. “Five have dropped out.”

“Why?” Mernao queried.

“My guess is they only wanted to learn enough magic to set them up in the real world,” Raimugi replied.

“And my assumption,” C3 said loudly, stressing his words, “is that students were scared off and decided not to return. In fact, I know Ash Kilima specifically said she would not be returning because of that. Her family had to move to a different city to find a new magic school.”

The door to the classroom opened as both Khurshid and Ak-tu hurried in, a gust of wind behind them. Khurshid was dressed in his usual fashion, wearing a yellow collared shirt with a gold sash tied around his waist. A large backpack was slung over his shoulders, like he had returned from an adventure.

Ak-tu wore his typical blue robe, which was tied with a black sash knotted on his right side. The robe had a small yin-yang symbol on the upper left in front, and a large one in the center on the back. Beneath the robe, he wore his typical long shirt, baggy pants, and pointed shoes. His skin was covered in sweat, as if he’d been running laps around the school in the double layers; Ren half-expected him to untie the sash and take the robe off.

Khurshid sat down at the table in front of the desks, setting his backpack on its surface. Ak-tu remained standing, wiping his hair from his eyes and quickly running his hand through it, as if trying to appear less messy.

“Apologies for being late,” Khurshid said. “Welcome back to a second year. I’m going to have my mirror call out attendance, to be sure everyone is here.”

“But everyone is not present,” C3 said loudly, still standing up. “We are five students short from the previous year.”

Khurshid inclined his head, his large nose pointing down at the desk. “We typically lose students each year. They don’t want to learn any further magic outside of wands, or they cannot afford it.”

“Ha! I was right!” Raimugi said.

C3 scowled in their direction. “Why would students give up such important education? Surely they want to do more than wave a wand about? Surely they want to discover the secrets to magic, the—”

“That’s quite enough,” Ak-tu interrupted. “We have a lot to do today, and we’re already late.”

“Mirror, call out the attendance,” Khurshid ordered his mirror before C3 could argue any further.

The mirror started reading in an automated and boring voice. “Abhainn, Midnight.”

“Here!” Midnight called from the back, more for Khurshid than the mirror’s notice. 

“Caihong, Ren. Caihong, Zynivus.” 

The twins both raised their hands quietly, knowing Khurshid would be able to detect the movement. Even so, Ak-tu was watching from the door, taking note of each student like he had the previous year. Ren wondered if he was going to cover the school rules again, or perhaps address the previous year’s events.

“Clay, Cypress.”

“I am present,” C3 said pointlessly.

“Dattem, Ayl. Gatin, Ro-nael. Hajar-Ramliun, Alqamar. Jay, Cyan. Jay, Ebony. Jay, Scarlet. Kiran, Sarala. Paanee-chamak, Tulasee. Retsel, Meadow. Rulek, Mernao. Senzakou, Raimugi. Wuolf, Frost.”

Each student raised their hand or said that they were there in response to their name.

“Now that everyone’s here, we can begin,” Khurshid said, rising to his feet. “As you noticed, Mr. Caihong is with me. This is because we’ve decided to change the curriculum. In fact, the two of us will be teaching Magic Studies and Magic Channeling this year.”

C3 raised his hand and asked, “What does that mean? Are we still receiving the same education? Have you added another year?”

“The contrary, actually,” Ak-tu said, smiling at the boy. “We’ve decided to compress the years. Our current fourth-year students are going through the same schedule we followed before. But you second-years (and the third-years, and all of the new students after you) will be following a curriculum that takes three years instead of four.”

“Are we no longer learning everything?” C3 asked, his face concerned.

Ak-tu shrugged lightly. “We didn’t cut out the important bits,” he said. “We ensured the most vital topics are going to be covered. It’s more to do with the Plants and Potions classes in regards to healing. You’ll still learn healing for minor injuries and illnesses. There will be some lectures on major ailments, but they won’t be covered as in-depth because that information…isn’t worth it.”

“But healing’s important!” Ren said, her eyes wide.

“Yeah, especially after last year,” Ro-nael muttered in the back of the class.

Khurshid straightened and said, “We understand your concerns. If you’d like to learn healing for a career, we highly recommend you to go to a college with a healing program. We will give you a foundation for healing, but we simply cannot teach you to properly heal when it comes to major wounds, as we cannot get the hands-on experience. And listening to lectures on the subject won’t teach you much. So healing more serious injuries has been removed from the curriculum, outside the lectures.”

“What about all the students before us, who learned healing already? How did they learn it?” Raimugi queried.

“They technically didn’t,” Ak-tu answered. “They sat through lectures, and most of them forgot what they heard anyway. It’s a waste of time to teach it, since not many students retain the information. And if a student wanted to become a healer, they’d have to go to college for that program, where they would receive lectures on all of this anyway.”

“What else has been cut?” C3 asked.

“Just a bit of the more ‘useless’ information,” Ak-tu said, waving his hand to create a burst of wind at his face. “You’re still going to get a good education and gain the certifications you want and need.”

“What about martial arts?” Sarala asked, not bothering to raise her hand. “Isn’t Kung Fu 4 all about using magic with martial arts? So how would students be able to take Kung Fu 4?”

“Students can stay for a fourth year if they’d like to,” Ak-tu said. “Even so, very few students make it to Kung Fu 4, and we’ve only ever had one student in Tai Chi 4. Kung Fu 3 will be more magic-based, too.”

“But why speed up the education process?” C3 pressed. “Wasn’t four years good? That is the typical time magic high school takes. Besides, the school year is already getting a late start—which was never explained why in the air-mail sent out.”

Ak-tu nodded slowly. “The late start will make no difference to the amount of material you learn. As for the curriculum, I have my reasons for wanting to give you a solid education sooner.”

“Because of the spirits last year?” C3 asked bluntly.

Ak-tu’s smile faltered for a millisecond. Ren stiffened, her breathing quickening. 

Why didn’t Dad tell us about the curriculum changes? Is he really changing everything because of the spirits? Is he teaching us stuff sooner so we’re prepared to deal with them? But I don’t want to fight spirits again…

“You’re certainly observant,” Ak-tu said casually after a moment. “I’d like to make sure you’re all gaining the education you need. 

“With that being said, the second- and third-year classes will be more handpicked. Mr. Jihan and I will meet with each of you to go over your schedules and determine if you are a good fit for this set of classes, based on your performance the previous year. The second-year classes will not be as difficult to get into, and will be based on which classes you specifically want to go into. The third-year classes, however, will definitely be handpicked; we will go over this at the end of the year.

“We will meet with you one at a time,” Ak-tu continued, “going in alphabetical order by last name. Midnight, you’re up first. The rest of you, please go to the Courtyard.”