"I'm okay."

Sigh.

The remaining magic students learn magic and form study groups outside of class (by caste, of course).

Their prerogative. Juin and Tiya are certainly doing it. She assigns extra credit for helping anyone who's lagging behind, which is a bit caste skewed, though not as much as a course in a foreign language or chemistry or something would be.

Oranges jump at the tutoring chances. One asks if they'd get extra extra credit for tutoring Juin.

If Juin says they're helpful, sure. Tiya needs it more.

Is there a way to do that without anybody finding out.

Their Adamant bodyguards are not negotiable, but she doesn't have to tell any of the other kids or their parents or anything.

Elementals are okay elementals won't beat this orange up at lunch over it.

They will not!

Then this orange will tutor reds if they want!

Tiya will tentatively accept help.

Orange is helpful.

Then he can get extra extra credit.

"How's it going?"

"A few kids are going to come back when there are more choices of teachers. Some of them alienated their elementals temporarily or permanently, who handled this with various amounts of grace - I helped but only a little. Rest of them are coping and the red students are keeping up."

"Helped with the alienating or with avoiding that?"

"More the first. Sent them an email that their kids were withdrawing because reds, background reading on reds, welcome at the school to help other kids if they prefer, can probably find younger mage kids if they want one, sorry for inconvenience."

"Cold."

"Kids that small should not be that vicious."

"I am sure that they learned it at home."

"Half of them would be nicer people now if they'd just been straight up raised by their elementals instead of getting supplemental income and occasional babysitting. And most of those elementals can't reliably distinguish fiction from non- if they turn on the TV."

"The only bit I'm contesting is the arranging to remove those elementals from their lives."

"I didn't ask them to go. Some of them did anyway and I'm no longer actively replacing them, like I did the one who left when their kid was two seasons old because they got a cat."

"That email sounds like it would have been phrased differently with different goals in mind."

"You caught me."