In the months that followed, his uncle would sometimes stop by their house, now using the proper entrance, of course. Tercius liked to tease the man, so every time he came over Tercius would ask him about his knees and offer medical advice, then told him how he should take better care and watch where he stepped.

The initial hostility mellowed as they all spent more time together, first as the man came to their house for lunch one day every week, then when he offered to train Tercius in the family style of sword and shield play. His father didn’t object to it and even seemed touched by the offer so Tercius chose to accept.

That decision turned out to be a mistake.

There were days when he could not move from the pain he experienced from those spars. Both Sword Mastery and Shield Mastery went up like crazy, taking him just a dozen sessions with the man to get form level 15 to 20. That was in fact the only reason he continued to do it.

Lux was surprised at his speed of advancement offering praise for how quickly Tercius managed to learn what was taught to him.

The topic of telling levels of your skills was a bit controversial, and many thought that the only polite situation to ask such a question was if you were teaching someone and had to know where your student stood in those terms.

He had a conversation with his father about this precise topic and his father advised him to say that he was at level 20, because apparently his eldest brother had a skill that could give him a sense if someone was not telling him the truth. How it worked and how Lux acquired it was not known to Septimus.

Lux was stupefied when he told him his skill levels and wanted to ask more, but Tercius said no more on the subject.

If the man can hear lies, then I better keep my mouth shut. he reasoned.

He also found out something about Lux during these spars. Over the years when his parents worried over Septimus, he was sent to check on him and make sure nothing happens to their youngest son. It seems that Lux then used this mission he was entrusted with presumably by his mother, the paternal grandmother of Tercius, as a sort of a extended vacation.

He even confessed that he was the one who ordered Ruln of the House Daviot to make sure nothing permanent happened to Septimus and the rest of his family.

Lux explained that he didn’t want that they stay in the middle of nowhere, and he knew how Septimus would react if he came and just offered money, so he thought that the whole situation that occurred was a good enough for him to push a small agenda of his.

He ordered Ruln to make a double offer on the land and he would look the other way for a few shady deals Ruln did.

Tercius didn’t know what to feel about all that.

Everything went well, but it could have gone the complete opposite just as easily.

I see what father means when he said that he couldn’t fully trust his eldest brother. Tercius thought.

Maybe because Lux looked like Septimus, only a beard added and two decades aged, but he started to like the older man. When Lux talked at all he was no nonsense and straight to the point. Tercius could see how his attitude bothered some, but those qualities were some of the more preferable ones.

But he did find something that did bother him about Lux.

He never allowed Tercius near his cloak, nor talked about it when Tercius asked.

So they practised once a week, Lux offering advice and ways to improve or even correct his form while Septimus watched in shame as his eldest brother made corrections on his faulty lessons, yet he felt the need to come to his own defence since it was a long time ago that he learned those things.

His little siblings grew like spring grass, and he spent his time teaching Leo to go to potty as soon as he reached a year and a half mark and with Teaching at level 20 it only took him four months of daily training, and yet still the accidents happened.

But the little guy knew to call for someone when he felt the need to go, and Tercius called that a victory.

No more shit-stains. he celebrated. Or in much lesser number at least.

His little sister managed to get the skill Running, making Neiran oh so jealous for a month until he also got it. Tercius tried to use little doses on them, divided many times during the day. The Energy use on his grandparents confirmed it also had a beneficial effect on the body itself, albeit a small one.

Aurelia also seemed fascinated by needles and brushes, which he found a bit… unsettling. The brushes he understood, she always liked to doodle and draw, painting every surface she could, it never mattered if it was a horizontal or vertical. The walls in particular were a frequent target of the little delinquent, where she drew images just under those reliefs Ciron made.

It always made the old man smile while he looked at it.

But the needles… he didn’t even know where she found the first one.

Tercius always worried if she would one day poke an eye or something, until Aurelia showed him that she just liked to collect them in a small box she owned.

He made her turn over the box to Petra, under the premise that his mother also liked to collect needle, and that they should do it together. When he framed it that way his sister readily accepted and then he had to hastily explain to Petra what was going on so that she could play along.

His grandmother assured them that children often like to play with shiny things, but she agreed on this to go with the solution Tercius proposed.

***

People here celebrated just those birthdays that came every five years so his eleventh went without much notice.

But he wanted to leave a gift to them.

So he acted on an idea he had almost a year ago.

He knew that Lux took to travelling often so when he felt that such a question could be posed, he asked his uncle to be the one to go with him to Lissea.

"What?!" a confused Lux blurted.

"I asked if you could maybe wait for two more months before you go back." Tercius repeated.

"Why?"

"Father and I planned to go then to Lissea."

"And why would you two go to Lissea?" his uncle asked.

"I am going there to join the Thaumaturgic Academy and father is escorting me." he said matter-of-factly.

"…Now I am even more confused. Why did you learn your fathers skills if you are going to join those old dried husks that call themselves mages? And how did your parents think this idea anything other than idiotic? Are you messing with me?"

"Lets go one by one from the back. No. Ask them. And I learned those skills before I decided to go study there. Any more questions?"

"Tercius you need to think this over some more. You have some real talent with your skills. If I am honest maybe the best I have ever seen, you can’t let that go to waste. And if you join those limp..." Lux coughed into his hand then cleared his throat. "…those mages you will not be able to join any branch of the Army. You can only choose one way of those two."

"So? I don’t plan to join anyway." Tercius shrugged.

"Every single male of our family joined at some point, hells almost all of the females do too. Only a few left to be mages." Lux explained with a face that asked Do you understand now why you can’t do it?

"I will be the first then, and besides, father says we are only family in blood not name."

"Your father is only dealing with a difficult…discovery. He will come around. And what then? You will be mocked by your family."

Tercius started to think that this may have been a bad idea.

"Forget I asked uncle. Thank you for coming over, see you next time."

But even as he said it he knew it would not work.

"Where do you think you are going boy?" he heard his uncles voice get a bit colder than before, and even at the best of times it was barely neutral. Oh oh. Feeling the shivers down his spine he saw why his father felt the way he did about this man. There was an intensity there that scared the crap out of him.

He did the first thing that came naturally to him. He ran.

Tercius heard the man come after him and without thinking he yelled towards the house. "Father!"

He glanced behind his back and saw the man calmly walking back to their house, but he still did not want to slow down. He ran to the door where Septimus just came out and saw his son run towards him, while his eldest brother walked calmly behind the running with that face he instantly recognised from his childhood days.

"Septimus, please tell me this is some sort of a joke." Lux addressed his little brother.

"What are you talking about?" Septimus asked surprised.

"Tell me that the boy is joking about joining the Pyramid."

"Oh that. Actually no, that’s no joke brother." said Septimus.

"…Is this some kind of revenge on your part little brother? You want to sever the ties to your family so much? There are some in the family that push for your name to be removed from our records. This would be a move that played right into their hand." his uncle used the same even tone as before, yet Tercius now saw someone else stand there. A figure wrapped in shadows.

He had to stop this before it went too far in the wrong direction.

"Uncle! Listen to me. Father has nothing to do with this decision. It’s mine and mine alone." Tercius said.

"…That changes nothing. Septimus if you let the boy go there then I fear not even mother could do anything for you to come back."

"…"

"You know I don’t care much for the tradition of those old fogies, Hells I allowed my own daughter to become a mage, but most of our family cares and they count more than all of our branch combined. You must know how antagonistic they are to the Pyramid in particular."

"…"

"Brother see reason in this. Even if the boy goes there, what makes you think he will be allowed to step foot inside once they find out whose son he is? Whose grandson?"

Tercius felt his heart stagger for a moment at the thought of that.

"Let me stop you there eldest brother. I had the same reservations you now mentioned, and for a brief day after Tercius told me what he wanted I just kept thinking about how to tell him that same thing. But then someone told me that even though our Elders have an antagonistic stance towards the Pyramid, the same does not hold true in reverse." Septimus raised a hand to halt his elder brothers reply. "The man was quite sure of what he was saying. Now I think, since they lied to me once, why not some more? Brother, deep down you know I was right to leave, and I think that if you were free with no family of your own when you found out then maybe you would have done the same."

"I told you the first time you came here, and I tell you now. I have no intention of returning, not ever. Not if those… people stay where they are now. That will not change." his father calmly said. "I do want to see mother and all of my brothers, but you all choose to remain blind, choose to follow their orders, and I could not. No. I would not. So please brother, just leave." his father said with some tired finality in his voice.

"Then this is farewell little brother." the man looked sad for the first time since they met, the emotion so strange to be seen on his face.

"Everyone." Lux made a gentle incline with his head and turned to leave.

With all of his family at his back Tercius watched his uncle as he walked away from their life step by step, fading into distance.

Something in him did not want for it to go this way.

His reason knew that this would have happened anyway at some point, yet he still felt responsible somehow. These men were pushed by the same pressure in different directions, and from what he heard it was against their will.

"Wait! Lux!" Tercius ran towards the man just as he went for the gate as a few shouts behind him sounded.

"I wanted to ask you to take me there. To Lissea. So that father could stay here." he explained in a hurry to the man’s cloaked back. "Don’t go, not like this."

Lux stopped in his tracks, his back still turned to Tercius, keeping his silence.

"I don’t know what exactly is going on here, these secrets of yours keep my head spinning, but I can see that both of you are doing exactly what you don’t want to do. Lux. Uncle. Come inside, let’s talk." he said.

Tercius turned his head towards Septimus. "Father invite him in."

He ran to the front of Lux. "Go talk to him."

***

"You look as old as granma uncle Lux, how come you aren’t an Elder?" Aurelia piped in during dinner with her cute voice.

Tercius had to choke back a laugh as his grandmothers gaze turned predatory at the mention of her age and the complicated face his uncle had while he tried to explain to Aurelia that it was not that kind of "elder" that he had in mind.

The two brothers talked for the whole afternoon in the inner garden, no one disturbed them, and for dinner they came inside at least on friendlier terms than they were before.

In my book that is a victory. he thought.

"…I just turned 48 cycles little one." his uncle said.

"How come uncle Lux? Granma is..." his little sister began that when Rona suddenly pinched those plushy cheeks of hers. "It’s a little late for you, let’s get you to bed."

"But I don wanna!" Aurelia protested. Rona had to promise two stories before she relented and agreed to come along.

"There is one thing Aurelia was right about brother, why are you not an Elder?" Septimus asked.

"I told you that father still lives, only he is not conscious. Now, considering his age and health I should have become one at the Assembly. But there was a vote and it was decided that a cousin of ours, remember Leran? Well he was chosen by the majority. But I don’t honestly care too much, mother took care of most things while father was an Elder, she took care of things while we waited for the Assembly so she is more pissed about it than I." his uncle explained.

"Tercius do you still want your uncle to take you to Lissea?" his father asked.

He looked at one face then the other. "…I do. It’s better if you stay here father, four months is a long time to be away from home."

"Does the same not apply to you too?" asked Lux.

"It guess… So you will go with me then?" Tercius asked the older man.

"I will be taking you, not going with you. What I say goes, is that understood?"

"Yes." he answered. "Although I am surprised that you accepted to do it."

"It’s along the way. A scenic route if you will. When do you need to be in Lissea?" Lux asked.

"At the start of the first month."

"Well then, we have some planning to do and supplies to buy."

***

When the time for goodbyes came, Tercius felt that his mother’s offer for staying another year maybe had some merit to it. It was difficult to leave in great part for not knowing if some people near and dear to him would still walk this world.

His grandfather for one.

The elder man would be in his seventies, and from all indications he was able to observe the people who reach that age were rare. He wanted to believe in the man, yet he knew the odds were against him. Parting with him was the most difficult thing he ever did to that day.

Just thinking about coming back and finding a tombstone somewhere in their garden made him quit his plans right there on the spot. But Ciron made Tercius promise that he would go and take one of those free places.

Hugs were exchanged, first one by one, then in groups, then finally all together.

Petra and Septimus clung to one another, holding for their dear life, afraid that if they let each other go that they would stop the boy.

Grandmother held herself pretty well until the hug came, then she went full waterworks down his back.

His little sister and Neiran were outright crying, following in the steps of the rest of the family, she probably did not understand what it meant exactly that Tercius was going somewhere for a long while. After all no one in their family spent much time away from the others.

Little Leo was nearing his second cycle and just looked happy all the time.

Tercius received a parting gift from his grandfather, a small multicoloured stone sculpture made in the likeness of their whole family. Even Lux was there.

He walked away with a pain gripping his gut, its cold hands holding firmly.

But when he came near the vessel, he had to take another look behind.

"Tercius, the barge is loaded, we need to go. They will move any minute now." his uncle said from somewhere behind him.

"Just a moment longer." he said as his misty eyes took in the details, inwardly wondering who will be there when he came back. He felt a hand on his shoulder, his uncle gently nudging him to move, and Tercius threw a final wave to the gathered family that stood on the shore.