Excitement and nerves had kept Pax from eating much at lunch. His mind raced as he walked with the others into one of the empty rooms off of their workshop area. Theo, one of the four littles they’d worked with previously, sat in a chair at the door, facing outward and prepared to turn away anyone who might try to interrupt them.

  Pax pulled out two chairs and set them up, facing each other. He motioned for Jules to take one while he took the other. She licked her lips. Her hands and body shifted in constant motion, obviously full of just as many nerves as Pax.

  Mage Incedis, Mage Eldan, Rin and Dahni all followed behind them and pulled out their own chairs. They sat them down nearby, but not close enough to spook Jules.

  Tyrodon was the last in the room. After shutting the door behind him, he pulled out an unstained workbench and, in moments, had four crystals set out on it.

  Tyrodon stepped back and looked at Pax. “All charged up and ready to go, if you want to let them know?”

  Pax nodded, activating his connection to the altar and informing Magesecond Fenix and the other three managers they were ready for them. It seemed attempting something this significant with a young little brought out the protective instincts in everyone, even ancient managers.

  As their heads popped into existence, Pax waited for them to give him advice or ask questions. Instead, after a quick glance around the room, they looked at him with expectant and confident expressions, even Magesecond Fenix.

  Looking around, Pax realized so was everyone else. They were waiting for him to take charge and tell them what to do. Pax suddenly realized how much his life had shifted once again since coming to the base. Somehow, without him really noticing, he’d taken on a leadership role that extended beyond just his crew. And if things went as planned with the committee, it would extend even further in just a day or two.

  Pax swallowed hard against the sudden lump in his throat. Sure, he’d fought for this position on purpose. But the reality of everyone looking to him for solutions created a sudden pressure he hadn’t expected. And Jules sat in the middle of all of them, looking at him with complete trust.

  He remembered when Jules had first joined them, a gaunt 7-year-old who’d been shivering in an alleyway and snarling at anyone who got close. Now she’d grown into a young woman almost as tall as him and just as fierce. She was trusting him with her future.

  Sudden doubts rushed in. What if it didn’t work? What if pushing all of their mana inside her broke something permanently? Even if he succeeded in awakening her, what if she became a worker, the most common of all the classes, when he knew she’d set her heart on becoming a warrior?

  A sudden desire to turn over command to Magesecond Fenix or Incedis flooded him. He could be an amazing second in command, right? That was one step below the leader with most of the power and none of the final responsibility.

  But a steady resolve rose inside him, pushing his doubts aside. From everything he’d seen of the world and this war, he truly believed the magic he was discovering offered the only hope for not only him, but for everyone in the empire.

  If he didn’t fight for his right to be a powerful leader, someone without his gifts could mess it all up. He ran over everything he’d accomplished so far, and his confidence returned. Together with his friends, he could do this.

  Then Jules smiled at him. “Are you ready to start? Don’t forget I want to be a warrior, but getting a class, any class, will be amazing.

  Pax looked at her, really looked at her. She was the most important person in this experiment. He knew what it was like to be the child with adults making all the decisions about your life. He vowed never to do that.

  “Jules, listen to me for a moment.” Pax leaned forward and met her gaze. “I want you to know that we won’t do anything here you don’t want. If, at any time, you decide you’ve changed your mind, we’ll stop immediately, even if it’s right in the middle of the procedure. You’re in charge here. This is your life and your awakening. We’re just here to do our best to get you what you want. Understand?”

  Jules looked at him, wide-eyed with surprise. She glanced around at all the mages and managers with a look of question. When they gave her solemn nods of agreement, she looked stunned for a long moment. Then an impish little smile crossed her face. “So, I’m in charge, huh?”

  Pax laughed. “Of your awakening, only, little squirt.”

  “Aww.” She plastered a dejected look on her face. “I was already thinking of the things I could do with this many mages under my command.”

  Chuckles greeted her comment, and Pax was happy her humor had lightened the mood in the room.

  Pax gave her a half smile. “Now, like we discussed before, we’re going to do our best to get you the class you want, but there are no guarantees. Just awakening you would be an enormous success. If it works, every little we help afterward will owe you for being brave enough to take this risk.”

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  “I understand.” Her back straightened, and a serious determination replaced her earlier humor. “I’ll be glad to have a class, any class, even if it’s worker. I’m sick and tired of being a little.”

  That got understanding looks from the others.

  “So, let me go over what we’re planning one more time,” Pax said. “If you have any objections or questions, speak up.”

  He waited until she nodded before continuing.

  “The first thing we’ll do is repeat what we’ve been doing this week. We’ll calm down all the energy inside you until it sorts itself out. Last time, two of your five groups were much bigger than the others. We just don’t know what classes they represent. So, we’ve got Mages Incedis, Eldan and the managers with us today to weigh in with their opinions. We’ll pull out at that point and tell you everything we saw and what we’re thinking. Then we’ll have a discussion about possibilities. You’ll make the final decision. And then”—Pax gave her the most confident look he could manage—“we do our best to awaken you.”

  Her breathing sped up, and Pax could see the nerves in her gaze. But she gave him a confident look. “Then let’s get started.”

  Pax shifted his chair around behind Jules and placed both hands on her head. Around him, the four mages shifted closer, each reaching a hand to touch his. They all kept a light touch as instructed, so Jules didn’t have a heavy pressure on her head for the length of the attempt.

  As Pax sent his mana inside Jules, he noticed immediately how much the new level in his mana skill helped. After a week of practice, calming the chaotic energy inside Jules was second nature, but it still required effort. At least now, he could tell it only took about half the amount of energy he’d previously needed.

  He drew thin but equal threads of mana from the four mages assisting him to help power the process. Much faster than he expected, Pax was looking at the organized sorting of Jules’ inner world. He took extra time to examine the two larger collections to see if he’d missed anything the last time.

  He paid attention to the motion of the energy, hoping it would provide clues to a class. They had all originally looked identical, only differing in size. But over the week, Pax had noticed subtle differences.

  Now, Jule’s largest collection seemed to have faint undulations in the sphere, like the slow but slight movements of the surface of a pond on a calm day. The second largest grouping was different. Instead of movement, it seemed to give off a subtle hum, like a background noise you only noticed when someone pointed it out.

  Pax noticed nothing else had changed, but that was what he’d hoped for. If things had changed significantly, they’d have a much harder time figuring out a pattern. He waited a few long beats for the other mages to look around before he gently withdrew their combined mana.

  Pax opened his eyes and looked at the others, who were all taking the break to sip on mana potions for the next stage. “It looks the same as last time, the largest grouping with that flowing kind of motion and the second biggest with the hum. Did anyone have anything else to add?”

  Incedis’ eyes narrowed dubiously. “I can tell the groupings are different sizes, but don’t sense the motion and hum you’re talking about.”

  “You would if you’d been working with us all week.” Mage Eldan shot him a superior look. “It’s pretty subtle, but once you see it, it’s hard to unsee.”

  Incedis gave her a quick glare, which seemed to amuse her.

  Pax tapped Jules on the shoulder and when she looked at him, asked, “Which one do you want us to go with?”

  She looked thoughtful for a moment and had just opened her mouth to speak when Magesecond Fenix interrupted. “Did you probe them with your light mana?”

  Every eye in the room turned to look at him.

  “What do you mean? Something different flooding her insides with light mana to calm down the chaotic energy?” Pax frowned in confusion, not pleased with Fenix adding another variable at the last minute. “And why didn’t you mention this when you explained what you remembered about the awakening process?”

  Magesecond Fenix’s scowl looked awfully similar to Incedis’ from a moment ago. “You try remembering something you haven’t done for hundreds of years.”

  Pax had to give him that.

  “In any case, as you were discussing what you’ve observed inside this fine young woman here, I remembered that one way to determine the class choices was to make a start on the awakening process with each collection of energy, just to see how it responds.”

  Pax opened his mouth to ask for more clarification when Fenix gave him an impatient glare. Pax shut his mouth and waited.

  Fenix let out a satisfied humph. “It’s different from the original process of saturating all the chaos inside her with light mana. This is where you direct your energy at the specific collection, intending to strengthen it. When it’s time to complete the awakening, you’ll take that process further while also sucking out the energy from the four collections you didn’t pick to channel it all to the one you did. But what I just remembered is that each class energy has a distinct response to even the smallest probe of light mana.”

  Pax wasn’t the only one with wide eyes at the new information.

  “So, you can tell me what class I’m going to get?” Jules was the first one to say out loud what all of them were thinking.

  “Tell me which class responds in which way.” Pax was already anticipating how much better this would go if they knew the class choices ahead of time.

  “Um.” Fenix suddenly looked sheepish. “I can’t remember.”

  “What?” Jules blurted out before quickly popping a hand over her mouth when she realized whom she’d yelled at.

  Fenix had a lot more patience with a little than he had with Pax. Instead of looking irritated, he gave her an apologetic look. “I’m sorry, youngling, but I can’t remember the specifics. But I trust Pax will figure it out. He’s got a good head for solving puzzles, especially magical ones.”

  Jules looked mollified and sat back in her chair before turning to Pax. “Well, give his idea a try. You don’t need to stop and start again, because I know it costs a lot of mana, and you need everything for the awakening part.” She paused and looked thoughtful. “Here are my choices in order. First comes warrior, then mage, merchant, crafter and finally worker. Just decide which of the two big balls of energy fits with that list and choose for me, alright?”

  Seeing the trust she had in him boosted his confidence that they were doing the right thing. Pax gave her a nod and moved back into position. This time, there would be no stopping. They’d either awaken Jules or drain every drop of mana they had.

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