While the two young women sat on the wooden bleachers awaiting their Duel Trial, Margo eyed the strange metal beaver that Holly wore around her neck. A question suddenly tumbling from her mouth before she could catch herself.

"Why do you wear that?"

While Margo wore a loose, long leather tunic and loose pants, Holly once again wore the same school uniform outfit from last week, complete with glamorous makeup and the strange dark metal bevor.

"What? The uniform?"

"No, I mean... sure, but also the thing around your neck."

"Oh, you mean my heartstone?"

"THAT'S your heartstone?" Margo exclaimed, her eyes growing wide as she blinked at the taller woman, peering closer at the bevor. She had never seen such a large heart stone before. 

Well, except, of course, Thunderbirds.

Her father once told her that Thunderbird's heartstone was shaped into a large statue of an eagle before it broke apart. Some said it was lost to time, but her father claimed it lay hidden in the garden at the back of their land, or at least, the remains of it did. 

Whenever he would take her to the pile of rocks, she always wondered if there was any truth to the story.

These days,  Margo chose to believe there was.

"You don't bring your heartstone with you to the trials?" Holly asked in confusion, her eyes quickly scanning Margo.

"No, of course not. I was raised to believe you only make a heartstone when you find someone worth carrying it. That's what my family told me."

"Oh," Holly mused, tilting her head in thought. "I guess that makes sense. My parents told me I could make it whenever I wanted to.... I would just have to be responsible for carrying it until I decided to give it to someone else." Holly said with a laugh. "It is a bit heavy, maybe I should have waited to make someone else carry it."

Margo chuckled, stealing another glance at the chunky metal around the other girl's neck.

"But," Holly continued, "I didn't want to enter the duals without one, since it amplifies your magic. I finally finished making it last year, which is why it took me so long to enter the duals."

"Ah, I see," Margo mumbled, making a mental note to choose carefully the type of accessory to mold her heart stone into. It was probably hard for Holly to decide how to wear such a large heartstone; however, a bevor wouldn't be Margo's first choice.

"What is your specialization in?" Margo asked, changing the subject. "I couldn't figure it out last week."

"Oh, it's dispersion magic," Holly explained as her gaze traced the current duel competitors' movements in the arena. "I can disperse magic from around me, or even reflect another's magic back at them." 

"Woah." Margo muttered, she had never heard of someone with that kind of specialty, "That's pretty cool."

"Yeah, it is. But, not entertaining enough to watch, I've heard." Holly scoffed, her eyes narrowing in irritation. "Not like your illusion magic. That was amazing to watch. I'm sure you've never had that critique."

Margo laughed, shaking her head, "No, I haven't, but I have the opposite problem with my magic, all show, and not enough power, unfortunately."

"Dumas vs Ottosen"

The speaker's voice suddenly called Holly's last name, causing the two's focus to snap to the Dual arena.

"I guess I'm up," Holly muttered, wiping off her cowskin pants as she carefully climbed down from the wooden bleachers.

"Good luck!" Margo called, anxiously fiddling with her braids on her shoulders as she watched her new friend enter through the wooden gates and into the arena.

Mark Ottosen was a small man with large rimmed glasses. He wore a pristine, ironed white shirt and pleated dark gray trousers. As he and Holly stood back to back, he was almost a foot shorter than she, seemingly even shorter than Margo herself. It was rumored that Ottosen was the top combat specialist in the second year of university. Having aced all his combat classes in his first year, he was a shoo-in for the duals this year.

Margo heaved a heavy sigh. Of course, Holly would be the one to face him.

As the bells sounded off, the two slowly took steps away from each other, and Margo shot a glance at the boys seated in the wooden booth overlooking the arena. Brian was reclining in his large leather seat as usual, laughing at something another boy was saying, barely even paying attention to the initiations before them.

At the tenth bell chime, the two swung around, and Ottosen mimicked pulling guns from holsters at his hips, causing Holly to do the same with a teasing grin on her face.

Quickly, from the fingers of the man across from her, small explosions flew across the arena in quick succession, all aimed at Holly.

Holly quickly twirled, dodging his shots and mimicking his motions with her own, albeit adding a bit of dramatic flair.

Margo chuckled at Holly's take on Brian's words about being more exciting to watch.

Holly began to use her finger guns, shouting explosion sounds as if shooting back.  As she did so, the explosions dispersed halfway, not reaching Holly's side of the arena, as if a wall had been placed between the two opponents.

Margo watched Holly's actions carefully. Usually, when sorcerers used magic, unless reaching a high specialty level, they used motions to help refine the magic they conducted and manipulate it to become the spell they desired. As she watched Holly's duel, it was hard to discern which movements she was using to manipulate her magic.

So either she was a lot more specialized than Margo first thought, or her mockery was her way to hide her movements from her opponents.

An interesting tactic, Margo had to admit. She often utilized her illusions to achieve the same effect. Hiding your moments wasn't usually done by competitors, as many others preferred to make a show of their movements to demonstrate their power.

Then again, Margo had never seen someone else with the same specialization that Holly had. The rules could be different for her.

Ottosen began to grow frustrated that his magic was faltering, and he swiftly swung himself in a circle, a large fireball forming the side of an elephant, shooting out from before him and straight for Holly.

Margo gasped as the fireball shot across the arena, quicker than the shot of a bullet.

In one swift movement, Holly slapped her outstretched palms together, the fire just barely licking her fingers, before dispersing from before her.

Margo sucked in a quick breath; the fire had just missed Holly. But, as Margo's eyes shot to Holly's shaking hands that had fallen at her side, her fingers turned black and scorched from where the flames had reached them. 

As if to hide her near-death experience, Holly's eyes narrowed as she suddenly took off into a sprint across the arena, heading straight for her opponent.

Ottosen's eyes grew wide behind his wide glasses, and he took a hesitant step back as he continued his combative, explosive attacks at her, each one dispersing before it had the chance to hit her.

Holly's brows were knit as she neared her opponent, pushing aside his outstretched hands that were still firing off explosions, before kicking him in the chest.

The smaller man let out a grunt as he stumbled backwards, the bell tolling as he fell outside of the duel's ring.

Holly's hands were still shaking and black, but her face seemed to relax at the sound of her opponent's defeat.

"Ottosen- Pass. Dumas - Denied."

"What!" Holly screamed as her opponent blinked up at the wooden box in surprise, not believing the results himself. "I won again, and you're going to deny me? What the hell is wrong with you people?"

"Squak, Squak," Brian once again mocked. "Always got something to screech up at us, don't you? Listen here, Dumas, you need to get your opponent to step out of the circle using your magic. Not your ostrich legs. Besides, we told you before that we need a demonstration of your magic. We still saw no magic today. So, you are denied."

At Brian's mocking words, suddenly it was not just Holly's hands that were shaking. Her whole body trembled in rage as she glanced down at the small man who lay outside the circle, blinking at her in surprise as a smile began to spread across his face.

Holly swiftly turned on her heels, her head tucked into her bevor as she climbed the bleachers in defeat.

As she sat beside Margo, Margo noticed tear stains in her once meticulously applied foundation, exposing some of her hidden acne below. Her green eyes were now bloodshot as they stared down at the wooden planks of the bleachers before them.

"Hey, are you okay?" Margo whispered, glancing at Holly's charred fingers, the blackened skin stiff and blistering, some of which had already begun bleeding.

"Yeah," Holly sniffled, "My hand's just hurt. That's all. And I - I guess...It's too painful to heal them on my own.

"Sure," Margo nodded in understanding, reaching out to gently place her hands on Holly's burned ones, her new friend's skin still hot from the fire. 

Basic healing magic classes were required for all sorcerers in the university, so it was easy magic for Margo, but the sight of the burns made Margo's stomach churn in disgust.

Holly let out a relieved breath as the burned skin faded into a pale pink once again, the trembling slowly decreasing as the lingering pain faded.

"Thanks, Margo."

The announcer's voice once again boomed around the arena.

"Newessi vs Henderson."

Margo froze, the name of her competitor all too familiar.