Fire, Poison, Illusion, Ice

By Mayara Snow 
Carved stone pillars painted with figures of the crescent moon and the sickle of Lord Caius towered above the pale marble floors of the throne room of the imperial palace. Far to the South of the Realm, and in the very centre of the City of Night, it was the heart of the Isazian order, and home to nearly all of the creatures in it. Built long ago by an ancestor of its current ruler, it was meant to awe and stun any creature who set paw inside. 
A tall wildcat of about middle age surveyed the row of four apprentices in front of him. He grimaced, observing how none of them were paying attention, currently either glaring at each other or staring at the ceiling distractedly. That wasn’t a good sign to begin with. All were about fourteen seasons old and training under the cat, whose name was Caius, to become assassins and eventually serve in the Isazian order. They were to learn how to function as a unit, but by the way things were going now, that didn’t seem like a very likely outcome.
For the most part, they could not stand the sight of each other and constantly argued and fought. With the assorted elemental powers that everybeast had and most assuredly weren’t afraid to use, that could be and most often was a terrible combination. More than one of them was known personally by the palace healers, having suffered everything from broken bones, to partial memory loss. It was all a part of being Neosazi, an assassin in training.
Even though they were several year out of kithood, they still acted immaturely, and constantly played pranks on each other and their teacher. Yesterday had been the last straw though. For the most part, he was relatively lenient with rules, though when he had found out about their last deed he had been genuinely mortified. They had stripped the spines off of several cacti that grew in the palace gardens, and lain them in the doorways of all of the lesser nobles quarters under the cover of darkness. Soon after, furious nobles showed up in the throne room, demanding that Caius do something about the young ruffians that were under his care. 
Tomorrow, he decided, the real training would begin. He was going to take them to the Eastern mountains about ten miles away to teach them responsibility and team building. His master had done a similar thing long ago when he was just a kit. It hadn’t always been the most enjoyable experience, particularly the large amount of walking, but he reasoned that the sooner they learned that their job would require a good bit of it, the better. Isazian assassins were not known for being particularly well off with the exception of Caius himself. Ten miles in one day with only a few breaks would do these spoiled apprentices good.
Their little group consisted of two otters, the maid named Lora, and her cousin Sair, a young dog fox named Asher, and a stoatmaid named Calliope.
Lora, gifted with special powers at birth, could create fire with her bare paws and channel it where she wished, though Caius was still teaching her how to master this ability fully. She had no memories of any parents or kin and only recalled being raised by Caius from a very young age. Her magic was strong, but she grew angered easily, and often lost control, so she was only allowed to use it while under the supervision of her master. 
Asher was gifted with ice, and much more experienced than Lora, mainly because Caius had taken him in as a babe, and had started training him long before any of the others. He could, with considerable effort, even take water from the very air itself, in order to fuel his magic. Unfortunately, his magic was rather faulty, and sometimes would not work at all. It was like fighting within himself just to get it to manifest in the first place. He envied Lora’s ability to control her magic and bend it to her will. He could never do that with his, as it seemed to have something like a mind of its own. 
Calliope was something altogether different. She had not been born with powers like the other two. Instead, at her parent’s request, Caius had given her the ability to poison anything with her touch. She always wore special gloves that protected the creatures around her, made of magic-reinforced fabric that one of the palace mages had made for her specifically. There was no other mage in all of the third realm known to have poisoned touch, as it was called, and Calliope prided herself on it. 
Sair was the weakest of the four apprentices, and they all made sure he knew it well. Especially Calliope, as the two had been pitted against each other since the first time they had met. His was the ability to create illusions, as real as if they were actually there. Caius had said that if he was willing to make a few sacrifices, he could even gain the ability to made the illusions even more convincing, possibly even able to move and become solid. However, Said wasn’t quite ready to make that kind of decision yet. 
After training finished that day, the four returned to their separate quarters in the imperial palace, with tired dragging steps. They had worked hard that day, drilling with the weapons they had chosen in their first year. After all, their main strength, according to Caius would be their ability to wield their individual weapons and infuse them with magic when they learned how. 
Sair, for one was not looking forward to the trip.
Author’s note: this story was written a very long time ago, and has basically no bearing on the rest of my lore. It was just for a school project, and it’s also unfinished unfortunately.