The moons were still up on the clear night sky when he came to, slowly waking and getting his bearings together. He remembered what happened in those moments before he passed out, but why that happened he had no clue. Here he felt completely fine, even more than fine. Tercius felt the need to move, his body eager to spend the boundless energy he felt coursing through his veins.

It bubbled in his chest and in a vast waves spread all over his other extremities, so much so that he had to get up and take a walk. His senses were going haywire, one moment normal then in a split second they heightened so much he could smell the glass of wine his grandfather had after dinner while he stood 2 meters away. Outside he could hear the beat of wings flapping as a bird of some kind passed by. It felt overwhelming. He tried to stay quiet while his grandfather slept on a bed next to his so he kept his paces soft, making the noise almost non-existent. Even that didn’t help, his heart pounding in his chest and ears, so he tried to sit and meditate. That should do the trick. he thought.

Only it didn’t, he couldn’t get his mind to calm enough state. Just as he would come near, a beat in his chest interrupted all the previous effort and he had to start over. His His palms and back started to get sweaty, he could feel his damp shirt start to cling to him. Is this a heart attack? his mind panicked and he almost stopped breathing. But he felt no tingling in his arm and it actually felt a bit better to pace a bit than sit so he went to do that again. Yet even after a few minutes it still went strong, with no sign of stopping.

Above all that he could feel the urgent need that he had to piss, and that sealed the deal. Gently he opened the door and went out, closing them behind. The outhouse was in the back and he had to go down two flights of stairs to get to it. Once he was outside made a run for it and during that brief 15 meter run he actually felt so much better, than in any moment since he woke up from his experiment. His body was telling him to continue, to never stop this, to go on forever.

He grabbed the handle of the door and pulled the door wide open, running inside while he tried to untie the knot that held his pants fastened. His fingers fumbled about desperately in the dark, and he could feel that his bladder could not hold it in much longer. So he took the sting with his two hands and pulled for all he was worth. It gave way, snapping right between his two hands and his pants fell around his ankles while he took a much needed realise.

It took a minute, he had a lot to drink that day and now it was all coming out. Near the end of it his previous anxiety came back, robbing him of his reprieve and making Tercius give haste to the process. He had to retie the knot and now that it was off of him, he could do the job properly. All the while he kept getting hotter and hotter, his head pounding away. When he got his pants in a proper order he knew what he had to do. He ran. The area that belonged to the inn was larger than most lots around it, including the inn itself, a large stable, the outhouse that three could use at a time, the water barn with all the water that the inn needed for cooking and cleaning and showers for the guests and staff. These buildings were all made in the corners, leaving a sizeable space in the middle, probably for outdoor tables. Right now it was just a nice flat grassy space.

Tercius started slow, one leg in front of the other, upping his speed in small increments while making sure he never stomped on any of the bushes or flowers that grew along the fence. His energy never running out he made laps along the fence and the buildings, his breathing ragged yet his body’s need for this never diminishing. Tercius felt better and better, the faster he went, his body never feeling the cold of the night.

All of the clothes on him clung wetly to his form, like leeches on a wound, and it got to the point where he felt an uncomfortable itch yet to stop now felt wrong and he continued. Steam started rising off of him, bis body’s temperature rising enough to evaporate the sweat. His breath was long visible in the cold night air and now with the steam of his sweat, he must have looked like one of those old trains that left their cloudy trails in their passing.

Ten minutes, twenty minutes, an hour. Never stopping to rest, his muscles never tiring, his being demanded more. So he did his best. Run and run some more, he did laps in the dozens then a hundred and then some more, always keeping track of the number of laps his brain incapable for anything else. It kept him present to count like that. At some point someone that must have come for the outhouse asked him something, but the pounding in his ears never ceased to do it’s merry beat, so he had no choice but to ignore the person and just continue on.

The moons gave off a pale light, giving the whole area lightening shadows and an overall creepy vibe, where some people would go out of their way to avoid being in this place at a time like this, where you never knew what lurked in the dark corners of building and bushes, he didn’t care much for it. Night for him was a cover he sought often. It felt familiar, so he never edged away from it. He did like to sleep early, but that was a habit he acquired. Sometimes when he skipped the whole sleep thing he went out on walks at late hours and those were his favourite, where you had little to no light and had to watch every step, where you alone stood against who knows what that awaited. It always gave his parents, the previous ones, worry and lead to a lot of their arguments. What if an animal attacks you and there is no one around to help? they asked. It never stopped him. He enjoyed it too much.

Then in the same way as times before this appeared in his area of vision.

You have learned the skill Running (1)! Learn Yes/No?

Increases the speed of movement while running. Every skill level increases the effect by a small degree and lowers the cost of it’s use by a small degree.

Yes! he thought, not stopping to think. Tercius immediately felt a change overcome him, his posture and form, the previous way he ran felt sloppy and wasteful so he adjusted things slowly to a more efficient way. The way his arms moved on, the way he put his feet on the ground, the way his lungs breathed in and out, a small but noticeable improvement occurred and his speed went up with no additional energy spent on it. Quite the opposite in fact he felt that with the same expenditure he used previously he could get more.

The energy in his body dropped in a flash, his heart slowing down to a level just above normal. Tercius still felt energized but on a much more manageable level. Not stopping to rest his skill went to level two as the sunlight started to appear, sounds of domestic animals and humans waking for the day came over him. He was drenched and steaming at the same time, his breath visible in an expanding cone. How long he ran? He had no idea, a few hours maybe. He felt no tiredness, had no want to go to bed for rest.

All of this that happened since he went to bed, the strange emotions he felt while he piggybacked on wisps, the discoveries he made in the now previous night, the boundless energy he woke up with and now no need for sleep after he spent a night awake and half of it running, made for interesting things to spend time pondering on. Tercius was feeling much better and could stand still with no overwhelming desire to move, so he did what was best for the moment. He went to his room, got a clean set of clothes and went down again for a shower, all the while thinking about what occurred in this eventful night.

***

There were few ways to tell the exact time, so the general population did what it could with approximation based on the sun and the moons.

Maya, for example, always got up with the first light and started her preparations in the kitchen around what he figured was between half past five and six in the morning. She found him waiting in front of the kitchen door in his new clothes.

"Tercius, what are you doing up at a time like this? A child like you is supposed to be sleeping." she reprimanded him in her stern voice. "Otherwise how will you grow up? Do you want to stay small all your life?" she joked with a slight smile on her face.

"No, I just couldn’t sleep." he said to her.

"Oh, not a nightmare I hope. So you must be hungry to wait for me here. Don’t worry I will make something for you in a moment. We can’t have you starving under my roof." she told him.

"Thank you." was all he could say, his embarrassment getting the better of him. So he ate with her and her son in law, who was the one that saw him running outside and stayed on the porch to watch over him. They kept asking question and he gave them answers that he thought were satisfactory.

From there he went to the old room, where Neiran rested. The boy was pale and looked like an ice block warmed over, with large drops of sweat running down under the rag on his forehead. He used a new cloth to clear his face and placed a hand on his forehead to check the temperature. It was much lower than last night but still over what it should be. He replaced the rag with one he got from Maya and aired the sheets and blanked that covered the boy. It was honestly difficult, what with his small stature and the size of the things, but he managed somehow.

He didn’t want for Neiran to stay sick any longer, so he figured that he would urge his grandfather to get Darina here. When he opened a window to let the morning air in he sat on his old bed and went over all the letters and signs he learned yesterday with Visualization and the without. It proved difficult when he did it without, because the letters were anything but simple with some parts reminding him of Chinese characters and others looking like someone made a mistake and tried to scratch over it. How this system of writing came to be and why it wasn’t simplified, he could only guess. Probably politics. Oh, grandmother will be proud, her thinking is rubbing off on me...

His grandfaher came to check on them and went to work, promising that he would get Darina or someone else if she proved busy, once he came back later today. Tercius spent the whole day in the room going over letters then sentences, over and over again, occasionally trying to read something more complex just to get a sense of where he was going.

Maya’s daughter brought lunch and her two annoying children when she came to check on them and stayed much more that he wanted her to.

His Meditation went up a level that afternoon, much to his delight.

***

His grandfather came with the old lady Darina just in time for dinner and while his grandfather went to eat, he stayed and watched what she did. Her hands glowed a light green as they went over the small chest of Neiran and she spent a few seconds doing just that. He could see Neiran getting more comfortable towards the end, his breathing easier and face getting it’s usual colour back.

"Is he going to be all right?" he asked. The old woman chuckled and turned her head in his direction.

"He’ll be back on his feet in an hour or two, don’t worry." she assured him.

"Can you tell me what skill are you using?" he just had to ask.

"My, what a rude question to ask. Didn’t you parents teach you anything?" she made an offended face his way, but he could tell she was faking the sentiment. The woman was a good healer, but an actress, well...

"I am sorry, I was just curious. You just helped my friend get better in a minute and I thought how I would like to learn to do it." he explained.

"And why is that?" she asked him, now putting more of her attention on him than the boy laying in bed. One answer to her question came to mind right away.

"My mother is pregnant and if anything goes wrong..." he said.

"Don’t worry of your mother child, when the time comes she will have my help. Just like last time. Now to answer a question you did not ask. What I used was not a single skill, but more. I used one to check for what is wrong, then one to alleviate stress his body is under, then one to help his body heal itself and once more I searched for anything wrong. The boy is recovering now and will be up once his energy recovers. Let him sleep till then. This was nothing serious, but it would have took him up to a week to get better." she interrupted his answer.

"The skill I used took years of training and study of how the body worked and even then I was only able to learn it once I learned something else. A step before a step so to speak. And there is the problem with your question, I won’t be able to answer them. You see, in the course of training we make an oath to keep the secrets we learn. But I can tell you, in fact I am encouraged to, where you can learn should you wish to do it." she told him.

"Yes, please! I want to know." Tercius nodded his head off.

"Ah so you do. Very well, it is north of here, far far north. The Isle of Ksana it is called. Ask anyone in the city of Spheros of it and you will get your directions. Before you go there you will need to be at least 13 years of age, they don’t take in anyone younger than that and you must know your letters because most of the lessons there will be the ones you read. There, now let us leave the boy to sleep in quiet." she hurried him out and they went to join his grandfather at a table downstairs. Even Maya joined them at some point.

Tercius was deep in thought while the elders conversed around him. He now had a lot of things on his mind and had to slow down a bit to digest them as they deserved. The most pressing was what he saw last night of the skill and the chains on the wisps. How his skill reacted on that small part of the chain it grabbed and what the correlation between his recent skill and level of Meditation meant and now he had a path open for learning new skills.

A barrier of sorts regarding his new family was loosened, and now when a new member was on it’s way it seemed like a great time to spend more time with them and learn more about each. Maybe even stop rejecting himself to care for them in the same way he cared for his family.

Neiran came down at some point and joined them, the boy was famished and groggy but much improved. Darina assured his grandfather that the boy will be all right and that it would be good for him to not stay cooped up in his room. It was agreed that they would go to work together tomorrow, but that Neiran is to take it easy for two days.

Before she went away the kind lady insisted to check his and his grandfathers health and found them both in great health. That night in bed his Meditation went up one more level to 23 and he was now sure of what that chain that kept the wisps enveloped was made of. It was energy. Pure energy. And if every wisp had it around itself, and all those he saw did have it, then he had a way to level skills that bordered on the insane, the only price that he saw or better said felt was pain. A lot of it, but still only pain. He could endure pain. He will endure it.

Now while he worked with his grandfather, he had to learn how to write and read so that he could tap that giant repository of knowledge that rested just down the street, he was sure it had answers to questions he never even asked himself.

His mother Petra was supposed to give birth in a matter of two weeks, and would be coming to town to do it here in the presence of healers. The land was sold and their impending relocation was looming in a matter of months and he felt anxiety over the matter of holding that sum of money on them, it practically begged thieves to come and get it.

What if Rala or his cronies decide that they can take all our money if they leave us unharmed? Another unpleasant question appeared in his mind. He could see how this might come about in their minds. 1500 Tretas were earnings of four people over the course of three years, and as compensation they got double that sum. It was a juicy bone big enough for anyone to be tempted.

Truly problems never end.