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At Mysile's premier university, the University of Mysile (naturally), there's no such thing as an ordinary day. From the occasional explosion to duels between rivals in the hallways (which sometimes resume in the nurse's wing, much to the dismay of the healers there), there is no shortage of excitement here. In fact, most students considered it an unusual day if there wasn't at least one reported incident, but that's what happened one day in October in the winding halls of the University of Mysile.

Most magic here is based in one of six elemental schools: fire, ice, earth, air, lightning, and shadow. Healing magic exists as well, though it is still under much research. Users of this magical power, mages or wizards/witches, can broaden their magic into offensive, defensive, and environmental types and supplement their abilities with rune-weaving, training, equipment, or potions or use any of these for everyday life. Technology is becoming a major force as well, though, and most areas have similar technological advances as there would be in our real world.

There are five major cities noted so far: The port and capital city of Mysile itself in the east and along the coast, Nareda among mountains to the northwest of there, Klonstad between the two along a river, Gibraltar to the south of the western desert, and the crystal city of Sithua in the middle of the desert itself. A large forest lies to the north of Mysile.

Cyrus Newton, an elder student of the university and a professor of ice magic in training at age 22, was walking to his quarters late one evening when he heard a ruckus. His slim figure moved with an apparent lack of grace, and his piercing blue eyes were poor in the low light. "Who goes there?" he half-shouted into the dark corridor to the east.

For a brief moment, her fall didn't register with him due to the poor light. The campus needed new lights but the bureaucracy was slow to get around to such necessary things, especially since there was a curfew now (though it was rarely enforced). "S-sorry miss," he said quickly as he leaned down to help her up. Upon touching her hands he felt something eerie and off about her. This puzzled him, as he had never had such a strange feeling about a person without even meeting them before.

His sharp ears picked up on her self-directed question. "Well ... I suppose that would depend on where you were headed..?" he half-asked her. He shook his head slightly, letting his sandy hair fall forward, and figured she was probably a new student. They seemed to get lost more than anyone else after all; he'd never seen a senior student such as himself lost in the halls. "You might want to try going out earlier next time so you don't doze off," he added. "You're welcome, Miss... err, I don't seem to know your name."

He tilted his head in curiosity as the flames lit the hall and his eyes adjusted to the new light source. She was a bit shorter than him and after a moment's thought he then understood why the odd sensation came. She was a fire wielder, opposite his natural element of ice. The contact of opposites makes for a tingling sensation at first as the two grow used to each others presence. "I am Cyrus, an elder student of this academy," he said, cursing himself mentally for his trained formality. "I can help you find your way but I do need to first know where your destination lies." He glanced at her hand for a minute before grasping it in a handshake, and the tingling returned. "I should have known that was why I had that feeling," he thought as he sighed in silence.

He nodded. He knew that those educated in the elements were taught of the opposites sensation early on, usually by the time they were ten years of age. His reflexes were sharp, and a sheet of clear, crystalline ice materialized upon him out of the moisture in the air. It hissed as the small flame drew near to it, but held steady. "Nor am I," he replied. "I'm rather alert at this hour despite my poor vision." His spectacles were in his room as he rarely needed them to move about the campus during the day. "If you intend to challenge me, however, I think you'll find I'm more than a match for you," he added with a slight smirk. He did not lie about his skills; he was top of his class in both offensive and defensive maneuvers, and second in being able to use air moisture as a source of power.

He smirked wider this time, his eyes lighting up as the fiery darts flew at him. He stood motionless as they fizzled on his icy shielding, doing little more than make steam. "Is that all? Why, that was a nice little warm up, if you'll pardon the pun," he replied as he sent several icy daggers down the hall toward her.

He grinned and almost laughed. "Oh, so you do have some fight in you! This should be fun after all." It had been ages since anyone had shown a decent display of power against him and she had done so. He raised a V-shaped wall of ice in front of him, deflecting the flame off to either side as he stood in the middle before countering with another volley of ice shards. His eyes darted back for a second just to see if any damage had been done; it wouldn't look good on him as an aspiring professor if he had damaged the building through this display.

He allowed the wall to crack where she had thrown her punch just to encourage her, despite that she hadn't done any real damage to the shield he had made. It was harder than concrete and especially resistant to any sort of shattering impact thanks to his tireless effort to be the top in his year. Upon seeing her recoil in pain, however, he stared at the floor. He couldn't bring himself to cause genuine harm like that and so motioned to call off the challenge. "Are you alright?" he asked, lowering the icy wall halfway to see her.