The Flower and Stem

After arriving at the restaurant the boy introduced himself to James as Thomas Loclier, they decided to toast over their new found friendship.

The wine they decided to toast with was the restaurants claim to fame. They served a wine made from herbs that had been grown in the presence of elemental crystals; they had a whole line of them.

Some peoples favourite was the fire infused wine for the heat they felt spread through their body, others favoured the flavour behind the water element wine for its smooth, refreshing taste. James and Thomas both decided that for James' first time he should try each drink, so James ordered two rounds of each wine. The earth, water, fire, and air wine all showed up in various painted clay jars.

"Here's to you entering the academy, congratulations James!" Thomas raised his metal cup towards James with a big grin on his face and took a massive swig

"Thanks, I appreciate the warm welcome." James took a deep swig of his fire element wine and felt every pore in his body open like it was taking a deep breath, his blood began to boil, and felt like he was sitting in a hot tub as his whole body relaxed.

"Daaaamn, that's a good drink." James lay back in his chair and loosened the collar on his shirt to let a fresh breeze waft over him.

"That's just the start of it; wait until we start mixing elements!" The youth Thomas seemed hugely excited by the chance to drink these wines as if it was a rare luxury.

For the next couple of hours, the two drank together making every variation of the wines they could, James' favourite being the water and fire wine, there was something about the cold water and the heated fire together that hit him the right way.

It was safe to say the two youths were now sufficiently drunk; thankfully they had ordered quite a few dishes as well so they weren't as drunk as they should be.

The two left the restaurant after settling the hefty bill and headed towards the night market that had been established at the school.

There were residences on the school grounds for merchants and their families if the merchants made a big enough name for themselves there was a good chance they could get their child into the Academy.

So naturally, there were quite a lot of them.

"What do you want to look for?" Thomas aimlessly staggered down the street and posed the question to James.

"Why look for anything; it's not like we have anywhere to be so let's just wonder and see what we can find."

"That was kind of deep man; I think I'm going to cry." Thomas decided to poke fun at James' reply.

"Oh shut up and just follow me."

The two youths did a large number of things that nights, they began by finding a merchant that sold a lot of food and drinks and James bought everything the man had in store.

He then followed it up by offering the merchant a large sum of money to use his storage warehouse for one night and to buy everything in it as well.

There was a plan that was starting to form in James' mind, something that was utterly foreign to this world and that James had barely gotten to experience in his last life.

A warehouse party.

The two headed back to the restaurant and managed to secure a few kegs of elemental wine that cost a small fortune, but to James, it was like the effort it takes to pull the lint out of your pocket for him to pay for it.

"What are you planning James?" Thomas had seen everything going on and wasn't one-hundred per cent sure on what the end game was.

"Is there an easy way to spread information very quickly in the academy?" James wanted to put the word out to as many people as possible.

"There isn't really any way to contact lots of people no; why are you asking?"

"Well, how are we going to throw a party without any people? We've got the venue, we've got the food and drink. I've got the music covered in a moment but what about the people?!"

"I haven't got a clue what you're talking about." Thomas decided just to let James get on with whatever he was doing and to come along for the fun.

"Alright this is something I've been thinking of for a while; what do you think of this?"

James then pulled out a sack that he had managed to get while he was out; it was full of a massive amount of quartz crystals and everything else he would need to make some music.

James started by getting multiple crystals set up in a ring and using the air power that he had trained over the journey to the academy he created a circuit of a ball running over a track.

After he set the ball rolling, it began to strike hammers that James had set up, and after the hammers hit the crystals, they would produce a tune. James had created a beat.

After setting up quite a few of these circuits, James began to add the various parts of his beat such as bass, high hats and other noises to build a rhythm that he felt people could dance to.

James had heard the music listened to in this world, and there was only one word he could use to explain it, and that was trash.

After James finished the beat, he turned to Thomas and with a look full of pride.

"What do you think?"

"I don't know, it has energy I guess, what are you supposed to do with it though?"

"Dance, relax, do whatever the hell you want this is the time you have to take a moment out from the world and have fun.

Now we just need to get a few more people in here, and we'll be sorted. Watch this though; this will be cool."

James then took up a pitcher of fire wine and began to head outside of the warehouse that was just on the outskirts of the centre of the academy.

After taking a massive swig of fire wine James then spat out a flame bigger than any he had formed yet, it kept being produced in a straight line.

James guided the flame upwards into the sky above the academy, and after about 50 metres he felt himself reaching the limits of his range. The only reason he could reach that far in the first place was the amount he had practised his control of the element which was now nigh perfect.

James directed the line of flame to begin writing in the air in a neat cursive so he could make the flame flow more or less in a circuit.

'Party, All are invited. Free food, Free element wine, 1 Leone entry.'

James also added an arrow pointing down to the building for the finishing touch.

"That should do it; now let's see what happens."