"What do you think, mom?" Zaos asked when he taught the spell to his mother and after he used it on her several times.

"Did you create this spell? I never heard of it," Lyra said, visibly surprised. "Is this what you have been researching all this time?"

"No… I just happened to stumble upon this," Zaos said. "Anyway, if you feel better after using it, you should memorize the symbols."

"Okay, but why don't you put this knowledge in a magic book? I bet you can help many people with this spell," Lyra said.

"I will do that later," Zaos said. "I will bet Merkin and Edea wouldn't mind helping it, so there is no need to hurry."

  Lyra was as amazed as she was worried about her son. It was subtle, but lately, he was spending a lot more time in his room instead of training or spending time with the few friends he had. As much as Zaos wanted to mask that, she knew very well that he was doing all that for her. It pained Lyra to see her sole son wasting her youth trying to help his mother. If she only had the courage to say to her son that what she only wanted to see was her son smiling more than anything… Some harsh words would shock Zaos a little bit and make him angry, but that would be the best in the long run. However, she couldn't bring herself to make his life even more difficult…

"… It is already time to practice with Drannor, and Ameria, Zaos," Lyra said.

"The lessons are over, I already taught Ameria everything she needs to know," Zaos said.

"Everything she needs to know, but not everything you know, right?" Lyra frowned. "What about Drannor?"

"He is probably looking for someone else to teach him healing magic. He isn't trying hard enough, and is skipping too many days of practice," Zaos said.

"You can't give up on your friends, Zaos," Lyra said.

"I didn't give up on them, mom…" Zaos said and then sighed. "I taught them every single day for four months while I was in the capital. I certainly wasn't the one who gave up on anything."

  Lyra sighed again… her son was growing more stubborn by the day. It was only obvious considering his age, but he was being stubborn for the wrong reasons, not because he was being selfish.

"I am a bit tired, so I am going to take a nap," Zaos said after he yawned. "See you later, mom."

  Although he looked really exhausted, Lyra knew that actually sleeping wasn't within Zaos's plans. While that was a bit troublesome… it gave Lyra some time to think about what to do.

  Just as his mother had predicted, Zaos returned to his room and resumed his research. This time he didn't skip lunch, but after eating as fast as possible, he returned to his room and then spent the entire afternoon and a good part of the night locked in there. For Zaos to spend the training session of the afternoon… that was something rare.

  Eventually, Zaos learned that rushing ahead wasn't doing him any good, and it wasn't helping on the research as well. His routine was what helped him make a lot of progress in fields that no one had, and since he broke it, he began to take some really slow steps. Lyra also didn't manage to come up with a way to fix her son's stubborn behavior until three months later when she heard about the troublesome news…

  In three months, Zaos managed to learn four other spells. They were Sanctuary, a spell that healed several targets at the same time. Soft Armor, a spell that was a variation of Magic Barrier that decreased the damage of magic attacks. Pain Nullification, a spell that made the target unable to feel pain for a few seconds, and Light Arrow, a spell that was like Holy Light, but once it hits the target, it marks him. It makes the party glow for a while.

  Zaos had already written the instructions in a book last week and made Merkin mass-produce them in order to sell them. Zaos was going to receive forty gold coins for each sold copy since the spells were known and considered advanced, but that was the last of his worries. He was really troubled because he didn't learn what he wanted…

"Where am I making a mistake?" Zaos asked himself while he was holding his head.

  That had been another night where Zaos slept less than four hours… Still, he couldn't help it. Lately, his mother had been coughing more than usual. His spells were helping her somewhat, but they only solved the problem for an hour or two, even when Zaos cast them.

  Zaos needed a change of pace to refresh his mind, and since it was time for his morning training, he headed toward the training grounds. Much to his surprise, Zaos saw his father already ready to go to work, and apparently, they weren't going to train that day.

"You received a new mission," Laiex suddenly declared.

  Zaos's ears twitched when he heard that. He had grown really tired of all these interruptions during his research. Now that he was going to receive some money selling the magic books, he didn't have any reason to follow those stupid orders. Zaos almost lashed out at his father, but he changed his mind when he heard the next words.

"Your mother is worried that you have been spending more time at home than ever. You rarely talk with others aside from the ones inside the mansion, after all," Laiex said. "So, when he heard about a certain thing, she decided to talk to me about it. The princess received an invitation to a party, and she will need some escorts. We were troubled about who to send with her because things were getting a bit weird in the North and in the West again, but then she gave the idea to make Drannor with her."

"Why would she need bodyguards for a party inside the kingdom?" Zaos asked. "Every guard in every single town won't let anyone suspect enter their territories knowing that the princess will visit them."

"The party isn't in the kingdom," Laiex said.