The events of the day, while troubling, had no easy solution.

In situations like these he always tried to stay calm and see if there was anything he could do, and if it turned out there wasn't then he'd leave it for a time when he could. Like most things in life it was easier in theory and so much more difficult in practice.

Yet he tried anyway, no matter how many times he failed to apply it.

Maybe one day, after enough repetition, it would become an instinctive action. To this day it has not. Meditation was a great help with getting rid of the overflow of things that got in the way.

It focused Tercius enough to do what he planned, before this interruption got in the way. While everyone else in the house was either sleeping or trying to, Tercius was preparing himself to do something he wanted to do for a few years now. It was time to level a skill past that damn barrier!

It took him years to get to this point and the excitement was threatening to overwhelm him.

He had to spend the past hour in Meditation, just to calm down.

He went over the conversation he and his grandfather shared and made sure he got everything right. Before he went to bed he made sure he had plenty of water near, considering what his grandfather said about the heat. Better safe than sorry. He lay on his back, his arms and legs relaxed, taking a deep breath every time he felt the previous one reach it's full potential.

He did not have a large selection of skills from which to choose the winner and the loser. Two skills were off limits, Gardening and Stone Shaping.

Gardening was not even near the barrier so it was out of the consideration entirely.

Stone Shaping on the other hand was out because he could make a pretty good guess and say that crossing the barrier made the skill more powerful than simple levelling did.

Such large changes are noticeable, no matter how much you he tried to hide them, one day he would make a mistake and the secret would be spilt.

So he had a choice between Language Acquisition, Meditation and Visualization.

Now that he knew that the consequences of having more skills are small, he would soon go on a hunt for more. First, he chose to skip Language Acquisition both for levelling and as fuel. He had a solid grasp of his new language and to upgrade the skill now seemed a waste, as for the using it as the fuel, well he was not sure what would happen if he lost the skill. Would he lose the knowledge he acquired using it? It was a fundamental skill for his daily life here and to risk that, when other choices existed, was foolish. For the skill to level he chose Meditation and he would fuel it's growth with Visualization.

Right at the start he had to stop.

The first step in the process is to picture the skills, and right now he was not sure if he was supposed to come up with a symbol for the skill or find it somewhere. He had no idea where to find that sort of thing, so if he went that route he would have to ask again, for more clarification.

That left the symbols. I can do that, no harm in trying. he though.

So how to think of a skill?

If he had to draw one, how would it look? Definitely a basic geometric shape! A triangle or a square, maybe a circle... Like road signs! Now what to put on them?

For Meditation, to mind instantly came the image of a Buddha with crossed legs, his body radiating sunlight.

For Visualization hmm... nothing good came to mind. He spent time rummaging his brain for an idea and nothing he came up with passed his scrutiny.

It’s was truly difficult to satisfy yourself... Hmm... he thought.

What he finally settled on was a scene he imagined. A man pointing a finger at a painting in an art gallery. Tercius knew what was what in this representation, but anyone else would probably have to guess.

From the top.

Close your eyes.

Imagine Meditation on the left of you.

A giant sphere of solid glass was the base, in it he imagined a plum older man who had no hair on him, his ears a bit droopy and eyes closed. His face had a gentle smile, benevolent and genuine. An orange robe covered his body protecting him from the winds and rain that threatened to interrupt his focus.

Yet despite everything he persevered.

He felt a connection form, a bridge between the skill and this made up marble. It will work!

Next, on the right picture the skill to be used as fuel.

A large room with a ceiling so high it could not be seen. Every possible surface on the walls covered with paintings and drawings, organised like a giant tetris game. A man standing in front of the wall, his hands behind his back, his chest puffed up, like a general ready for war. His eyes were closed and from time to time he would extend one hand, point a finger at something and say what it was. In that moment the whole room would flash a gentle green colour.

Once again he felt when a bridge formed.

This went better than anticipated. Now just to bring Visualisation slowly towards Meditation.

He, once again just guessing on how to do a step, gave the giant glass dice an imaginary flick, and off it went.

It flew directly towards the other marble with remarkable speed, then slower with more distance covered.

When it approached the peak of the arc, the glass shattered, yet the dice stayed in one piece, frozen on the spot. From those jagged fractures small amounts of white gas started leaking, the scene in the dice dimming, losing it's light.

The deformation of the dice started slowly, as more of that gas was extracted, and it went from a cube of six flat sides to something more reminiscent of crumbled paper, only ready for a trash can.

His senses followed the gas as it made its way through the space between, occasionally straying up and down, right and left, with small branches separated from the cloud sensing the way forward, always heading for Meditation.

The marble was standing still, yet a tension was clearly felt around it.

Like a hungry cat, Meditation opened one eye, sniffing the air.

She spotted a wounded little bird going her way, hopping to and fro unaware of the danger ahead, so she waited for the moment when the prey had no other option but to fall to the predator. Then from a statue like state she pounced. The marble rolled into the cloud flashing with bright light from initial contact, proud of itself for a job well done.

The cloud thinned, marble glinting in satisfaction inside it, it's surface appeared polished, the image inside more vivid and detailed than just moments before.

Then the whole environment started fading away, bit by bit, melting with the dark surroundings until only the disfigured Visualization and engorged Meditation remained behind.

One keening in mournful sorrow, the other silent in it's oblivious bliss. As the environment before them, they too joined the background in it's black uniformity, the curtains of the act closed.

He stayed there a moment longer, feeling as if he just did something wrong, yet unable to point the finger at the it.

The sense stayed with him as he searched for clues, ultimately finding none.

***

The morning came faster than other days, the reason for this a product of his late night session. One of the few good habits he had and was proud of was his early rising routine, instilled early in his past life as a by-product of needing to commute to his school. It was a long one hour drive and classes started at 07:30am so he was up by 05:30am every working day of the week for over a decade.

Even on weekends and holidays, his body just woke up, not caring when he went to bed last night.

It may annoy him from time to time, but overall it was a great advantage. In his new family he was the first to rise, others staggering behind him by an hour or two.

This free time, where there was no one to look over his shoulder, was best used doing things that he wanted to keep to himself.

Like see the new and improved Meditation!

His body was still warm, his arms and legs sticky with glue like sweat, black hair plastered to his skull and neck and a musk of overripe wet dog in the air.

Tercius could not remember ever being this filthy.

So he started this morning with a run to the river, where he scrubbed his body in it's cold waters freeing himself of all the filth and sending a small prayer of apology to anyone downstream who drank it in the next few hours.

Refreshed and energetic he took his time getting back, observing the waking village as he walked. Back at his house all was quiet, so he went to his room to pack the bed sheets for a thorough washing, because should he wait he might as well throw them away.

He took them behind the house, near the water barrels where his family had an outside fire pit. Near it a large metal cauldron, bigger than his current height, stood imposing and immovable, it's weight so great it took both his father and grandfather to lift it up. While empty!

It could be used for many purposes, but it's primary was for boiling clothes and cloths, just like this stinky mess he carried. He put his dirty laundry near the pit and went again to his room. This time it was clean enough for him to be able to stay and check his progress.

Meditation (21)

While in use increases concentration and awareness and lowers heightened emotions. Allows for introspective view of ones inner self. Every skill level increases the effect by a small degree and lowers the cost of its use by a small degree.

There was nothing different about it from his first glance. Maybe when I try to use it... He sat on the floor his legs crossed below him, his mind wandering the dark world of Meditation. Yet nothing seemed different.

Disappointed he tried to remember how he used Visualization and unlike yesterday when he tried this same thing, now there was a push back. He could still do everything he could with the skill, yet it lacked speed, an eye to catch details. Like if he used Windows 98 after XP.

There was a distinctive difference.

His grandfather explained to him that it was easier to get a skill back and he had an idea why that is. In that process the skill was drained of something important for another to grow, yet it's shell was still with him. If he could revitalise it, maybe it would come back. Now, knowing that a skill could be regained, and assuming that it was the exact same skill as before, that meant hypothetically that there was a way to stop using skills as fuel! He only needed to figure out how go make that gas that energises skills, the only problem was that he had no idea where to start.

Figure out one thing, five more unknowns pop up. For the time being he was probably going to continue using the way his grandfather showed him, but should he be successful in finding an alternative to shorten the way... He could already imagine dozens of Master level skills at his beck and call.

He decided to do an hour of Visualization practise daily until he got it back, making notes about the time it took to get there and such. I wish I had a spreadsheet for this... A knock on his door interrupted his ruminations. "Yes?"

"I am making breakfast." his grandma said from behind the wooded door.

"Coming." he said in a clear voice.

***

By the time he came to the table and sat on his pillow, only his father was missing. They all had dark bags under their eyes and this sombre feel about them, as if they just got back from a funeral of a dear friend.

Yet no cloud could hide his grandmothers cheery disposition for long.

"Did you sleep well? Anything that still hurts?" she went over her questions while her hands stuffed food into my bowl.

"Did I ever tell you Tercius about what my father did the first time I went with a boy to a faire? He..." she went on to describe stories of her youth probably wanting to get his mind off of yesterday.

She told him of all the mischiefs and the punishments that did and endured.

Everyone at the table listened as they ate, for some these stories were heard for the first time, for others a number in mid two figures.

While her storytelling effort went on his grandmother often asked questions or pretended not to remember something, just so she could give others a change to get involved. At times she said things that his grandfather protested vehemently, but Tercius could see that Rona did it all to create a flow for words to be exchanged.

When he told her of this many years later she said to him. "If it isn't flowing, it's stagnant and that only leads to dark and murky thoughts."

"Is father still asleep?" he asked his mother.

"He stayed up after me, but he will probably be up soon." she said.

True to her prediction his father was out of his room in a matter of minutes, then Septimus came over and Tercius saw that his gaze was distant, eyes unblinking.

Grandmother tried a few of her moves, yet father was not in the mood for them, so he stepped in, knowing that a direct question cut straight to point. Maybe that will be enough to get him out of this funk.

"Father, did you figure it out?" his question silenced others.

"…I think I did." the tired looking man said. "If I am right then it's about the land. Our land." he pointed his finger right below him.

"There was a requirement that the local lord made when I bought this land. A small request really. I will have to check if it stands on the deed, but if it does, then.... I don't know." he got up and went to his room leaving us looking at each other.

In a moment he was back carrying a small box, it's sides just large enough to be covered by his hands.

He carried it the way a priest carried a holy relic of his religion taking care of each step forward. It had beautiful carvings on every side aside from below, where it was just a smooth white surface. This was a material he didn't see before. His father placed the box on the table, opening it, it's contents visible only to him. He reached and took out what looked like a small leather folder, enclosed within papers of some kind.

Unbinding it, Septimus read a bit from the top of each, until he found the one he wanted.

It was a single page document, with small writing on almost the whole surface of the thing back and front, a headline at the top and two signatures at the bottom. Two thumbprints on each side of the signatures, giving them no free space while they glowed an eerie dark blue.

Septimus read it and when he found what he searched for he turned it to us.

"... should the buyer leave the estate unattended without leaving a designated heir, for longer than two weeks during it's first decade of development, they forfeit their claim on the property, said property returning to the local land authority... "

Yep that would do it!

"So who is in charge of this local land authority?" Tercius asked.

"That would be... Lord Ruln of the House Daviot. " his grandmother provided with certainty.

"But why would would HE want our land? The man is filthy rich even by rich standards." his father added.

"He is a Lord, my boy, I thought I finally got through your thick skull with my lessons. I don’t know who was payed to teach you these things when you were a child but you should ask for a refund. He has people beneath him who do need land. Maybe one of them want this piece. He may not even know about this, until he is lead to a finished deal, where he simply writes a new owner on a new piece of paper."

Grandmother then went into detailed explanation of all the possible scenarios she could "take off the top of her head". And there were many. If this is just the top then the old lady’s head is a scary place.

When the dust settled and everyone processed the whole thing it was his father who surprised him. The man, clearly out of his depth, turned to the old lady that was his mother-in-law and asked.

"What do we do? What can we do?"

"Those my boy are some very good questions. What we can and will do is : find answers to them." she added with a smirk.

"Now that we know where danger lays, we can prepare for it. Now, this is the important part. Do not think that figuring out their plan is a win for us. No. It's an advantage they don't know we have. We need to keep this a secret, from everyone outside of this house. Especially this man that will come. Who knows what he might do if he finds out his plan is seen through. So we must get more information while committing to nothing, nor refusing anything. Pretend to be open to any kind of offer, say you will have to think on it... Did i miss anything?" she asked after that lengthy exposition.

"You never missed anything and I doubt you would do it now, my dear." said his grandfather from the side while he tried to put his arm around the petite woman.

"Hush you old charmer! Where was I? Ah yes! Now on how to goad him to reveal more information..."

Suffice to say, he learned a great deal that day, so much so he kept wondering where was his Politics skill and his grandmother made him look at her with a new set of eyes.