Page 48 of From Beneath the Moon

The flame shudders and stretches into something vaguely round before sagging like a dying star.

Around me, success blooms. Ramona laughs softly as her sunfyre snaps into a neat cube. Leo whoops when his triangle holds, sharp and bright. Sabra’s light forms effortlessly crisp edges, and there’s a smug tilt to her chin.

Heat prickles behind my eyes. I try again. The Source resists, slipping through my grasp like water through a sieve.

“Akemi,” Ramona murmurs, glancing over. “It’s okay.”

“I know,” I say, too quickly. I force a smile. “Just… must be first day jitters.”

Professor Gregorio circles the room, offering corrections, praise. He stops behind me. I feel him before I see him, the warmth of his presence amplifying the tremor in my hands.

“Cadet Nox,” he says gently. “What shape are we attempting?”

“A sphere,” I answer a little too quickly.

“And what do you feel?”

I hesitate. The truth tastes strange. “Like it doesn’t want to be what I’m asking.”

He hums. “Force is rarely the answer.” He moves on.

I try to soften my grip, let the Source lead. The flame brightens, then fractures, light splitting into pinpricks that scatter and wink out. My hands fall to my lap.

By the end of class, the room is alive with shapes—squares hovering like stepping stones, triangles spinning lazily, spheres bobbing in the air. Everyone has something. Everyone but me.

“Excellent work, cadets,” Professor Gregorio praises, practically out of breath from bobbing in and out of different student demonstrations. “No homework assigned tonight—”

A few students whoop in delight, including Ramona and me.

“—but that doesn’t mean this semester will be any less challenging. Don’t get too comfortable. I have a feeling the pressure each and every one of you face will increase tenfold. Becoming a first-stone Watcher is no small feat, but earning a second-stone is a crowning achievement.”

“What does that make a third-stone Watcher then?” Leo asks, blond hair still buzzed short. He looks to have grown over the summer.

The professor nods his head in thought. “Obtaining a third-stone is no less than a triumph. It is rare that a human can siphon that much Source at any given time. Rarer yet that they can properly sustain and use that Source.”

Backs straighten at the comment, surely everyone having the same thoughts as me.

I will earn my second-stone if it’s the last thing I do. And then after that, a third. Some would say that’s delusion. Yet I know that all the great heroes of old started somewhere. Everyone starts at the base of a mountain, but only those with true perseverance make it to the top.