As one, every head there turned towards Nas il’Bul, and in every pair of eyes, he saw a fire sprout. Tercius knew that look that asked: What did you do this time?

Good. he thought.

The man in question started sweating buckets, his eyes wildly rolling around searching for someone to help him, yet as Tercius expected a man like this had only himself.

Slowly standing up, Tercius kept silent, as the man repeated time and time again that this must be a mistake of some kind, that they must have mistaken him for someone else.

"Unlikely, you see, my men verified the information. But for the sake of calming your nerves, let me ask you. are you Nas il’Bul?"

That did everything but calm the man’s nerves.

"It’s a setup! Someone is framing me!" on and on the man said, his voice going up with each repetition, as he saw his words fall on deaf ears. Tercius worried for precisely this reason that someone might hear, but Lux told him that he should not worry about that, and he trusted him.

"13 cycles ago, you had a medical… let us say accident. Do you remember this?" Tercius circled the seated man with a steady step.

"Does your family know about it? Any words from the quiet family?" he asked when he saw that the man did remember. Tercius swept his gaze over the seated figures and no one volunteered a word. Just as Tercius was about to open his mouth, someone broke the silence.

"What the FUCK did you do this time?!" roared the presumed mage, her face red.

"Mira, you-" the oldest woman present said.

"What now mother?! HA? You want to silence me? ME?! You gave him everything because he was the one with the cock between his legs! Now look where that same thing led us!" the woman went on a rage-fuelled yelling marathon on everything her parents ever did, spit flying from her foaming mouth, and honestly, he felt a bit bad about her.

His uncle came and smacked her across the face, splitting her lip in the process.

The woman sucked in her teeth as the pain hit her, and Tercius turned to the parents standing near their son.

"Do you two know anything about what happened 13 cycles ago?" he calmly asked. "Speak."

He heard frantic shouts from beside him as Nas started trashing and begging for their life.

Tercius just ignored it and calmly looked at the eyes of the two elders in the room. They kept silent, just looking back at him.

"Let me tell you then. This man tried to force himself on a girl. She defended herself and cut off that little thing he had during that effort, and then she had to flee for her life because of him. That girl became my mother just a few cycles later." he said not breaking eye contact. He saw them quake inside, the words breaking something.

"I see. Let me loose then and hand me a knife. You will have your blood." the white-haired man said after a moment, his decision reached. Everyone probably knew what the old man meant, everyone but Nas il’Bul that is. He kept thrashing even under his uncle's smacks that drew both blood and teeth.

"No need for that elder. When I found out about this, my mother the good woman that she is, asked me to let it go. But how can I? I want for him to suffer." Tercius said pointing with his thumb at the rabid man.

"And for him to suffer he needs to be alive."

Every single thing Tercius said to them, he meant. There was no need to act or pretend, the feeling was genuine, already present and at this moment he chose to not restrain it. These men and women saw it and knew fear.

"Here is what I want for you to do. Beware! I will check it at a later date, and if you fail to do it, then I will tell my father about this. And he is not as…reasonable as I can be. You will toss out this miserable sack of bull excrement, that up until now called himself a human being, with nothing but a small loincloth to cover his privates. Even that is too generous, but I am a merciful man," said Tercius with all gravitas and menace he could muster using the same even tone as before.

"If I found out you helped him in any way, you may consider our deal here finished. Boreas, I think I had something else to say on the matter, but at this moment, I can’t seem to recall it."

"Young master is just distraught with the situation, completely understandable. If you allow this one to instruct these…people further?" Lux asked, wiping blood from his hands.

"Do so," Tercius said gently waving his hand, then calmly took his previous seat. "But some tea first, Boreas. I think I may be going down with a cold, my throat itches."

While Tercius drank his second tea of the night, his uncle made instruction to the distraught elders regarding the prize on his mother and any other detail he seemed fit to mention.

"Young master, I found this earlier and thought that it would make a fine addition to your collection." his uncle extended the ledger they found earlier.

"Oh? And this is?"

"A few unsavory transactions I found, that in the right hands could spell someone’s doom, young master."

"How fortuitous! Let us keep such a rare find in safe hand then."

"A wise decision, young master." his uncle said nodding sagely.

The elder man’s eyes almost fell out of the sockets when he saw the ledger, while everyone else looked confused about the issue.

"Do we have a deal then?"

***

"That went well," Tercius said as they came back to their inn. In front of his eyes, the scene came when the elder man began bobbing his head like a chicken pecking the ground for that one hard to get grain of corn.

They made their way out of the house, leaving everyone inside tied to the chairs, with Tercius rebuilding the wall to the same state he found it in on their way out.

"You did your part adequately. The acting was spot on."

"Most of it was not acting," Tercius said.

"Maybe that is the true secret to acting then. You stay here, I will go to Solen to arrange a few things. And Tercius try to have some sleep." his uncle said, and jumped off the balcony. The man loved his balconies.

He went to see how the little river lioness was, and he found her awake bouncing at the sight of him. Moving away from a part of the stone fence allowed her to get out and she ran into his hand, practically demanding to pet her.

They played for quite some time mostly her chasing his hands, then when he tried to catch her she would evade. The little girl helped him calm down and forget everything for a moment.

***

As the sun came up Tercius and Lux were leaving the inn, headed to the pier that their vessel occupied. They had some 2-3 hours before the ship set sail and just under half an hour to get there by walking.

When they got near the docks, his uncle asked him to wait while he went to do something. Tercius ended up waiting over ten minutes before Lux came back.

"This is yours," Lux said and tossed something small his way. He managed to catch it, but only barely his skill Precision gaining a level as he did. A small round token of some kind, with a face on both sides, only one had its mouth covered with hands, the other didn’t and he could see the feral grin the face boasted.

"That’s your token if you need the help of the organization. I will teach you where you can find them. You will be pleased to know that Solan’s men observed our dear friend Nas being kicked out of his home this morning in precisely the same conditions we agreed on. As we speak he is probably still in front of his gate, begging to get back in. Solan has someone observing, so if they go back on their word, we will know." Lux said.

"His sister practically jumped from happiness when we made the deal, there would be no going back for him. I mean why did she even put up with him for so long?" Tercius said as he remembered her hysterical smile.

"Families can sometimes influence you in ways nothing else could, you do things you would never think yourself capable of," Lux said then went silent, and Tercius stopped the topic there. It always put his uncle in a mood of sorts.

They made their way to the ship where sailors, who were up before the crack of dawn, jumped up and down the ropes and sails, making final adjustments before their vessel started their journey. All of this happened under the watchful eye of the captain who with clockwork precision directed the whole thing.

As they approached the vessel the man spotted them and waved them over.

"Ah, the last of my passengers I presume. Good to meet you. You can take your stuff to your cabin below deck, and maybe stretch your legs a bit, we head out in an hour." the man explained and went back to his work.

Where he barked the command it was executed in the smallest time frame these men and women could manage. The unbending booming voice backed by the captain's impressive height certainly greased things along.

Tercius and his uncle found their small cabin, which had a narrow double deck bed on one side and only a small chest inside. They later found a chamberpot tucked under the bed, that was firmly secured to one leg but at need could be easily freed for use.

"The captain is right, we should stretch our legs Tercius, it will be three days before we make the next landing."

"And where would that be?"

"Did you not hear the men outside talking? You need to learn to pay more attention to what people around you say. We are headed straight to the only city in the known world that exists on three continents, the third is just a small island between the two real continents, but it is officially claimed by Isgea. Tripatis." his uncle said. "Also more commonly known as Door of Isgea."

Tercius thought about what his uncle just told him, but then something else popped into his mind.

"Uncle tell me, what food is eaten on board a ship?"

"Main rations are cheese, salted meat, fish, and some ale. The food deteriorates fast so they take what can hold the best in poor conditions. Also, a lot of rats and other vermin on board can spoil the food. Why?"

"Well, what is she going to eat for three days?" Tercius said pointing with his head to the small river lioness that watched everything from his arms.

***

Tercius ran as fast as he could hoping to catch the ship. His uncle told him that he would make the captain wait for a few minutes. He pitied the poor man if it came to that.

In each hand, he had a small pot made of some material that reminded Tercius of ceramics, and he was looking forward to making a detailed examination of it at a later date.

Maybe Stone Shaping and Stone Sight would work on it. he thought as he ran for all he was worth.

In each pot grew a shrub line plant, both of them tall enough to tickle his nose when the angle was just right. And with the time-binding he was under, he could not scratch it.

Searching for someone selling fruits and vegetables in the early hour proved a bust, so he had to run from the ship to a lady they saw along the way that sold flowers and plants, where he even had to overpay these two overgrown pieces of greenery, and that alone put him in a sour mood. Tercius never liked when someone took advantage of his coin bag, making those few extra spent coins ache in a way a toothache would.

By his judgment, he had less than ten minutes before the ship sailed, with his uncle's intervention maybe twenty.

His breathing even, he evaded the people coming his way, then went around those headed in the same direction he was, careful not to hit anything.

He saw the Zephyr and ran even harder when he saw that as soon as they spotted him, they unfurled their sails and the vessel started moving slowly forward.

Accelerating to his highest speed as soon as he saw a straight path, his Running at full use, he made a fast mental calculation with the help of Mathematics to determine where, with his current speed and the distance that separated them, he could jump on the vessel, all the while taking into account the slow increase of the speed of the vessel.

The calculation was the easy part, the more difficult one would be to do it. He felt Precision working as he spotted, with a small part of his eye, his uncle grinning widely while he waved at him.

He ignored the man for now and focused on the task at hand. The plants kept rubbing his nose, but he grew numb to it, making constant minor alterations to his trajectory, and when he saw the vessel would pass by a few low crates in just a few seconds he spotted his chance and run straight at them, jumping on it, while retaining most of his momentum he made another jump and for two seconds he sailed through the air, with two plants under his arms, probably looking like some sort of a madman.

His feet made a loud sound once they crashed at the wooden deck and thunderous applause broke the next moment, as Tercius finally got the chance to scratch his nose.

Hoots and whistles accompanied the applause as he tried to get his breathing in a manageable state, his chest expanding and contracting in a visible manner.

Feeling a bit dazed by the attention and probably fatigue, he did something that surprised even him.

He bowed.

"You told me you would wait for me." he accused his uncle when the man approached.

"I had to make a small bet to do it. No hard feelings?" his uncle said while a small pouch jiggled in his hand.

"Only if I get half, these two cost me a pretty dweta."

"It's none of my business you forgot to get the food for your pet. Here." his uncle said as he handed the little girl over. "Did you figure out a name yet? She has been with us for 10 days now, she deserves one."

"I know, I just can’t make my mind up," Tercius said.

"Well hurry up, the sooner you start calling her by name, the sooner she will respond," said Lux and walked away to talk to the captain.

Tercius on the other hand looked at something else.

He sat on the deck, as people went around him, some tussling his hair, others clapping him on his back, all the while he absent-mindedly scratched the little girl.

In front of him, he observed his skills.

Mathematics (41)

The study of such topics as quantity, structure, space, and change. Increases focus by a small margin while doing any work on the mentioned topics and spotting of patterns is made easier by a small margin. Every skill level increases the effect by a small degree and lowers the cost of its use by a small degree.

The skill finally broke the barrier that plagued him for years. And it was not the only one.

Running (41)

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

He felt giddy inside. He spent many a night just thinking about leveling these skills in the way people here usually did because for him getting the skills back was oh so easy. Yet he always restrained himself, and now came the reward for his perseverance.

Besides these two he also took a look at Precision.

Precision (33)

Your senses increase giving you more control over your extremities. Every skill level increases the effect by a small degree and lowers the cost of its use by a small degree.

This skill got two levels in just one morning, something that never happened to him before, at least not with a skill that had a double-digit level. The first one when his uncle tossed the token, and now one as he jumped. It only confirmed his theory that the want and need had an influence on both getting skills in the first place and then later on its leveling speed. How large an influence it was, was difficult to determine.

Since he got his last skill Energy Sight just under two years ago, he was not able to get a new one no matter how hard he tried. His current theory about that was that even with enough Energy something else was needed, what exactly he did not know. The best thing he came up with, came to him when he saw his grandmother use a box to limit the growth of a particular plant, making him think that he was currently missing something alike.

Tercius made a quick scan of the Energy he kept inside of himself and he was it was mostly spent, a small thimble remaining. That put acquiring some more on the top of the list.

Another idea popped into his mind, seeing how little he had of the remaining Energy and he looked at the little being in his arms.

Now is probably not a good time, we are after all on a boat. he thought as he took a look around.

Standing up he cast his gaze south and saw Spheros getting further and further away with each passing moment. Past Spheros, over the mountains, following the river that he only recently learned bore a name of Hippotion, near the towering monoliths that sent all that water this way a small town existed.

Within the walls of that town, a family full of caring people found their home, and he did not know if it was because of the wind or the phantom he felt briefly felt embracing him, but he felt a coldness that made him shiver.