Spring flew by like a stray bullet. Erol and Yara gnawed at the granite of science in the Academy, and I found myself a much more interesting hobby. Muskets.

  At first, I just ran to town for gunpowder, but the local mixture was weak and smelly. I had to recall the basics of alchemy. A couple of correct proportions of saltpeter, sulfur, charcoal, and mana... voila. Now my "booms" could be heard three kilometers away, and a couple of new clearings had appeared in the forest. The best cure for boredom.

  Summer arrived. The kids returned for the holidays, proud, grown up, and eager to show off their new skills. We were sitting at dinner when Erol, picking at his plate with a fork, finally laid out his main problem.

  — Dammit, Lucia! — he groaned. — How do you defend against flashes? There's a guy in my group, a natural-born fire mage. I'm sick and tired of his "light bursts." The second I go on the attack, he goes BAM!—and I'm blind for a minute. I can never reach him because of that flash.

  Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.

  Lucia slowly set her silverware down and looked at him like he was someone who couldn't figure out how to put on his pants.

  — Seriously, Erol? — her voice dripped with genuine bewilderment. — You can't defend against such nonsense? That's basic stuff. You just need to diffuse the light so your retinas don't burn out. Do they really only teach you to swing sticks at the Academy?

  — And how do you diffuse it? — Erol leaned forward. — How does it work in practice?

  Lucia sighed. She raised her hands above the table. In her left palm, a transparent, trembling sphere of water instantly formed. In her right, a fierce clump of fire flared to life. She held them parallel.

  — Watch closely, — she said. — Light refracts and diffuses through water. If you place a water lens of a certain density in front of you, the flash will simply lose its lethal force. Or vice versa—if you adjust the focus correctly, you can gather all his light into a single point and send it right back into his forehead. It's elementary optics.

  I bit off a piece of bread and lazily added:

  — Dummy.

  Erol sniffed, offended, but his gaze remained glued to the water sphere.