Edward Sat in the cafeteria eating his cereal, eyeing Sam with a barely detectable smirk on his face.

  The group of four were gearing themselves up for the start another week in Storm Haven Academy of Magic.

  It was the second week for 3 of them, but for Sam it was her first day and she felt her stomach flutter with anxiety at the thought.

  She ignored Edward's glances in her direction, too much was at stake to muddle her mind with boys right now.

  “So... anyone know what professor Sampson is like?” asked Sam. “ I mean have you had a lesson with her yet?”

  Paul nodded. “Yeah we did a lesson on the inner self with her. She made it sound real important, but to me it was all mumbo jumbo.”

  Rae nodded along with Paul, but Edward shook his head.

  “Learning to understand and to connect with the inner self is the lynch pin to learning magic. You need to learn that before anything else works. I'm guessing our Sam here knows a little about her inner self?”

  Sam frowned. “Hmm.. yeah I guess. There's a life force or magical essence within all of us. It's what we use to power magic. Without it you have no power, or for some, no connection to power. Including your life force,”

  Rae looked puzzled. “So we use up a bit of our life force every time we use magic?”

  Sam nodded. “So every time we use our life force we have less so we get older or our life span shortens?”

  Sam mulled over the concept as she ate a mouthful of cereal.

  “Yes and no. yes you do use life force and that can lead to premature ageing or a shorter life span.

  "But ageing is mostly about the body. As it gets older, it's less able to heal itself and so the body deteriorates. But if you can sense life force you can use it to heal yourself. So you can repair your body.

  "It's a little like exercise. You use energy when you exercise, initially you feel weaker, but after you repeat the process and the body reforms itself to the needs of its situation it starts to recover and you become stronger, healthier.

  "Do it right, maintain the exercise and you live longer not shorter lives.

  "The stronger your connection to your life force or the larger your magical essence is, the more able you are to understand and connect to your body. To keep it strong and healthy.

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  "If I'm right, I think Magi can live a lot longer than mundanes. I heard Porter say he was over two hundred years old and it didn't seem unusual to him, he didn't try to hide it, it was just normal.”

  “So why didn't the professor say that?” demanded Rae,

  Edward smiled. “She kinda did, she just used longer words and made it sound so dull no one listened.”

  Paul nodded. “Got that right! I zoned out about two minutes in.”

  Sam shook her head. “You should pay attention Paul. Or at least get H.U.D. to record it so if you do miss something you can rewind and see what you missed.”

  Paul looked open mouthed at Sam.

  “that's genius! All I have to do is get the H.U.D. to record everything, then I can listen back at twice the normal speed later!”

  Sam looked dumbfounded at her friend and shook her head. “That's not what I said at all!”

  Sam sat upright staring at the professor who had just entered the hall. As it seemed with almost everything in the ship, the place was setup to take twice as many pupils than it currently had.

  “Good Morning pupils. I trust you had a restful weekend and are full of vim, vigor and vitality?

  The professor looked around the class of dim eyed and semi comatose students and shook her head.

  “Ah, maybe not.”

  “Well maybe this will wake you up. Today my young potentials, you are to attempt magic!”

  This got the attention of all the students and soon the whole class was abuzz with excitement and enthusiasm.

  “Right. Steady on. If this is going to work, even for a few of you, you will need calm and focus. So take a deep breath and try to focus on your inner self.

  "I trust since our last lesson you have all practiced the techniques I taught you last week? Well, the ones that did will be the most likely to bear fruit this day.”

  Sam heard Paul groan from behind her as Rae lowered her head into her arms in despair, already on the verge of giving up.

  “OK students. Please clear your desks as the equipment can't be placed until they are clear.”

  There was a quiet shuffling in the back ground as the pupils did as they were bid.

  Moments later a candle, a glass of water and a cheap plastic windmill, the kind you would find at a fun fair appeared on their desks.

  “In front of you are three different elemental focus points. fire, ice And wind.

  "Those with the potential affinity with any of these and have the connection to their life force that's strong enough, might, just might be able to ignite the candle.

  "This is possible by agitating the molecules of air together, creating heat and if you can focus it accurately enough you should be able to ignite the candle.

  "To freeze the water, you need to feel the energy in the water and slow the particles enough to draw the energy and therefore heat out and let the individual droplets of water bond together.

  "With the windmill, you need to be able to sense the energy in the air and pack the particles of air closer together behind the windmill forcing air through the windmill to make it turn.

  "If you fail at this take heart. Many Magi of great renown spent months trying to connect with their life force or find their potential.

  "Some, a very few, find it right away. But it's not a failure if you don't succeed. You have just found a path that doesn't lead to success.

  "You just need to find one single pathway from an infinite number to find your connection to your life essence. It can take time so persevere.

  "You now have two hours to seek your inner self and connect to your life force.

  "In theory, everyone here has the capability to do this, anything more than that will be a bonus.

  "If you need advice I'll be here. Just try not to cause a distraction to the others by calling out. You all have legs, use them.”