It was what it was. These students all nodded again, some hanging their heads, a few looking on with disdain and horror, being Americans who didn’t come from a Family, and now finding out that such things were still true in this day and age.

“When I saw the videos of you using magic from so many Elements, I knew that was what I wanted to be able to do. The Talents of my siblings are all tied to different Elements, they’ve all manifested and their road ahead is assured.

“They cannot take this path, a path no one in my family’s history has ever taken.” He made an abrupt, dismissive gesture. “I’ve heard all the rumors about the first class of graduates from the College, and their lack of power and ability. It was not hard to dig into the details and find out they were very average students by all measures, people who had not been able to Awaken before.

“It was as plain as could be that the difference between you and them is as wide as night and day. You were clearly an extremely gifted student, your background is obvious to anyone with eyes, and the videos made it clear, over and over, that you are anything but inept or limited, and even that you are rising in power with unbelievable speed!”

He actually pounded the arm of his chair in his eagerness. “I will be nothing, nothing exceptional as just another mage! My father could hire a dozen or a hundred men as competent as I will be! But a Typeless Mage? I would be among the first in the world, not just in my family! There will be nothing there like me!

“So what if I do not have three or four Elements?!” he half-shouted in his passion, actually getting a little red in the face. “I will be the embodiment of the Family philosophy, a Master of Eight, or Twelve, or Twenty! They can take their three Elements and shove them up their asses as I use them all!

“There are many, many people in this world who cannot and will never be powerful mages, regardless if they have Elements or are Typeless. It is the way of the world. I am not one of those people!” He pounded the arms of the chair again. “I have the foundation! I will be a Mage, and I believe I have the ability to become an Archmage, even if I don’t have a Talent! And if I only have the one empty Element to follow, well, that means all the resources I need I can concentrate on just one Element, does it not?”

His grin was wild, the words bursting out of him as he unburdened himself of them. Several of the other students cheered, and soon the whole room was doing so and clapping for him.

Sama was unperturbed, while I simply waited politely. “I am afraid I don’t spend a lot of time online.” I kicked Sama’s chair leg, and her eyes popped open as the students smirked. “Do I truly have such a fanbase?”

“You’re bloody not even twenty years old, a half-Archmage of an Element nobody else in the world is ranked in properly, and you look like you stepped off the cover of an issue of Winsome Witches. There’s like over two hundred websites devoted to following you and your accomplishments, you’re basically on film all the time at the Boonies, especially if they have the new cameras that can catch magic on video, you’re making how many millions of dollars a day, and you wonder if you are popular?” Sama snarked back, crossing her arms and closing her eyes again. “You’re the one who makes us keep throwing out the invitations to speak here and there because you’ve got work to do. Bloody Hell, Fae, are you dense?”

“No, just very busy,” I sighed calmly, unshaken by her words, as the students all grinned. “So, Jurgen, would you say that coming here is extremely important to you, but to your family it was more a polite way of shuffling you off to see if you could make something of yourself?”

His face twisted slightly. “I’m sure my father is wondering if I could possibly meet you, marry you, and bring all your money into the family, but that is not why I came here! I am going to become a Typeless Mage, and one of the best!” he swore again. “I’ll wield all Eight Elements of the Family, and more besides!”

Well, he didn’t lack for confidence, and he had the Stats to do it, too! “Would this change knowing that you can’t teach Typeless Magic to the rest of your Family?” I asked him calmly.

His eyes flickered, and he frowned, but only for a moment. “No, it will not. When I return, it will be as a very competent Caster who can stand tall in my family. Not being able to teach Typeless Magic is, I think, irrelevant. Members of the Family are all sent away to study, regardless. I do not believe the foundational studies differ that much, the true expenses of the Family are in paying for the education and resources to further the Elements. I will simply be an example of what being a Typeless Mage can be, a model for those who might come after me... or not.” His fists clenched again. “And if they’ve no place for me... Coralost Compound is right over there, and I hear many, many stories about what you are doing there, things only Typeless Mages can do!”

He definitely looked relieved to have gotten all of that out, and had kind of a manic and inappropriate grin on his face.

“You are aware Coralost employs normal mages too, right?” Sama asked him, popping open one eyeball.

“They are normal mages who had woken their Elements and never had the option of becoming Typeless, are they not?” he replied quickly. “I should wonder if they might wish to have never wakened their Elements, so to have followed in Lady Fae’s footsteps!”

“Point!” Sama admitted, closing her eyes again, and getting the kids worked up effortlessly as she did so.

“Very good, Jurgen. You can get up now. Pauline Charleston, please take the chair.”

The petite, pale-skinned and dark-haired girl, a delicate and attractive young woman, took a deep breath, obviously steeling herself after that performance.

“Don’t think you’re going to be able to parrot what Jurgen said,” I told her before she spoke. “This is about you, not him, and so you will be answering for yourself, not merely mimicking him. You cannot lie here, as he could not lie.” She swallowed as I kept her eyes. “Again, remember nothing you say will leave this room. You are among your peers. Speak freely, it cannot be held against you or used against you.”

She swallowed and nodded.

“Miss Charleston, you also come from a wealthy family down in Atlanta, the third of five children. Both your parents are Mages, and quite well off. Furthermore, both are Lightning Mages, and it seems to run in your family. I daresay if you trotted up to a random Awakening Stone, you would Awaken Lightning and be assured of a decent future even if you never advanced beyond Novice or Adept.

“Your scores, of course, indicate a much brighter future than that. So why, if I may ask, are you here, learning the foundations of being a Typeless Mage, whose reputation, my influence aside, has been rather tossed in the gutter, if the mutterings I hear among the wealthy are any indication?”

Her hands twisted. “Pressure, ma’am,” she whispered, and half the students groaned instantly in sympathy. “It... there’s been two proposals to mah mom already, if ah Awaken Lightning. Mah father, he can be pretty harsh, but he didn’t want no boys from those two Families hounding me. He were pretty afraid ah’d whip the sunuvabitches to the bone if ah Woke Lightning, which ah totally goddamn would have!”

Sama’s eyes popped open at the unexpected tirade from the small girl, an eight-canine smile of appreciation basically making the whole room light up. Sama gave the girl a hard thumbs-up, and Pauline beamed at the gesture. The other students hooted and applauded instantly in support.

“So, ah saw some videos of Lady Fae, and saw y’all using Lightning tah blast that big Snake and Scorpion out in Texas, and was like, wow, that was better Lightning than ah’d ever seen my ma or pa use, and so much more besides! Ah’m not going tah Awaken a damn thing, ah’m going ta go up there ta school and learn THAT magic, and if they don’t like the fact ah’m not their pet Lightning mage to marry, fuck them!”

Her nose was in the air, her attitude all the imperious many Lightning Mages were famous for. Even I had to appreciate it. She looked like a delicate young thing, but she was a firecracker all the way!

“Arranged marriages and unwelcome suitors are not something we put up with around here, Pauline,” I said conversationally, and they all jumped as Sama cracked her knuckles for emphasis, a sound not unlike rocks splitting, and her expression just made the blood run cold. “Once you form your Typeless Starfield, your choice is made. We can Awaken you to Lightning without error before then, and if those Families decide to pursue the matter, they may find their studs have run off into the pasture and can’t be found.”

Their expressions were a little astonished despite themselves, and then Sama’s nails, looking very much like the claws they were, screeched across the table, sending little slivers of metal flying, making them all jump. “You may know this woman.” I tossed my finger at Sama, who had on That Smile, the one that said there was a fight coming, ohgollygoshfun grabyerknickers! “She is rather infamous for the things she does to men pursuing unwelcome sexual advances. If that is your primary concern, and you wish to Awaken Lightning, we will not allow that to happen to you.”

She looked sorely tempted by that, and it was plain by Sama’s expression that I was telling exactly the truth.

“Ah am tempted tah say yes just tah see what happens tah those bastahds,” she admitted, conflicted. “But, ah, ah have a question for you, Lady Fae?” I arched an eyebrow at her, prompting her. “Do y’all believe the Typeless path is better than the Elemental one?”

“That is a self-evident question, but you are not me,” I pointed out back to her. “I cannot say it will be better for you.”

She inhaled, trying to stare a hole through me. “But ah’ll be able tah wield Lightning if ah want tah, right?”

I stuck up my thumbs, and lightning arced between them with a pop and snap. Notably, it was silver, not purple. “Yes,” I conceded.

Her dark eyes almost blazed. “Then ah’m going Typeless! Ah’ll get to do everything mah family is known for, and more asides!”

“You should know by now that the mental requirements of the Typeless are significantly higher than the Elementals,” I warned her a final time.

She just sniffed and tossed her head. “Ah can handle it! If it’s magic, ah’ll learn it and make the DeVries whelps cry in their beds!”

Well, one thing the scions didn’t seem to be lacking so far was attitude.

“Very well. Condoleeza Falconi, if you would.”

The tall brunette with the Italian nose and harsh eyes rose to take her own place on the red chair, getting ready to make her own confessions to stay at Coralost Academy...

----------

I tossed down the pen as the last of the students exited, talking quietly among themselves, a humming camaraderie about them that hadn’t been there coming in.

“Well, how about that?” I said to Sama, who had played at being half-asleep for the whole thing, but had missed nothing.

“Only one sent here by their folks, and that from the Chippewas, who are interested in our magic and how close it is to the old ways. Waiting Deer still wants to tough it out after seeing everyone else committed to this place, huh. It’s like we’re building something that can change the world here.”

“Things are going to change if we start pulling in kids who might develop Talents if they stay Elemental. Talents aren’t really part of the Power of Ten system. I’m not sure how they’ll react with being Typeless,” I admitted. It was all new territory.

“We’ll find out whether it happens or not,” Sama said blithely, waving her hand carelessly.

And then a blaring /tell went off in both of our minds.

-“Who is this?” snarled Sandy Kneiper into her phone. “What are you talking about?”-

-“Before we begin, Sandy, there’s someone here you might want to speak to,” a woman’s voice purred with knowing familiarity.-

-“Sandy? Sandy, help! These people came into the house, they kidnapped me, I don’t know where they are taking me-!”-

-“I think that’s all you need to hear for now, isn’t it, Sandy?” the smug woman’s voice cut her off.-