All around the Empire, the start of the new season cycle was celebrated for two days. The 31st of the last month of each cycle was celebrated in honor of the cycle behind, a day where a family would come together, forgive grudges that happened, and reflect on the events of the cycle behind them. The 1st day of the first month was dedicated to prayers for a good cycle, a day where most go to Temples and make offerings to the Gods they worship. For them, for their families, for whatever came to mind. Good, bad, there were Gods of all kinds who supposedly listened to prayers.

At least that’s how Rona, his grandmother, explained it to Tercius.

When she was just a little girl, the wise woman had trained to be a priestess in a Temple, just like her mother was before her. For a reason she did not share, she ended up giving up on that pursuit. Still, her experience from years spent in the Temple had left lingering marks on her life. The one most visible, to Tercius, was her knowledge of the rites and many prayers the woman knew. A prayer for planting, one for harvesting. A prayer for children to have a good night’s sleep and many, many others for all kinds of things, from weddings to a nasty injury. There were small songs for everything in his grandmother’s prayer repertoire. In particular, those rites for a new cycle involved a lot of singing. The start of a new season cycle in their house was always welcomed by the warm and clear voice of his grandmother chants, while the rest of the household would listen and watch through a fog of burned incense.

Every time Tercius heard his grandmother sing the repetitive chants with her soothing voice, he would stop whatever he was doing, at the time, to listen. The melodies brought some kind of peace over his mind, leaving him as calm as Meditation would.

This was the first year in a decade that the voice of his grandmother did not wake him up, first thing in the morning.

Yesterday, Tercius reflected, was nothing like the day he was used to. Why would today be any different?

There were no grudges to be solved, for one. Sure, he could reflect on things that happened to him in the past year, but that was always done together, like a business meeting. To even attempt to do it on his own, did not sit well with Tercius. His family was continents away.

He never liked doing any kind of praying, so that was scratched off the schedule for today. What would he do then? Read some more? While reading certainly had an attraction, he did not want to fall into that beautiful hole once more. There would be time for reading, Tercius reflected. Today I need to do something new if only to shake this funk off of me.

In fact, as he jogged through the small park area that surrounded the dorms, Tercius kept thinking about what this new something was supposed to be. As the small layer of snow crunched beneath his feet, he went over a few options. A new hobby? Tercius was not quite sure now would be a good time to start something like that, as his classes would start in a month. How about a meal at a restaurant? It has been a while since I had a proper meal, he thought. The food here, at the dorms, is… alright, but a bit bland. Maybe Mistress Dea will have a suggestion. She is a local here, after all.

He thought about doing it on his own, but he decided against it. Penelope had tried so many times to include him in her small circle of friends, and he felt that he should do something nice in return.

After a quick shower to clean himself off, and a set of fresh clothes, with Amber in tow, he went off to Mistress Dea's. One whole section of the wall was see-through glass, from which Mistress Dea had an unobstructed view of the entrance and every single of the staircases that lead to the upper floors. No one could move through this section without her noticing, and Tercius suspected a few spells were at work here. The woman was behind her desk, writing something in a book when he came in.

“May the new seasons bring you prosperity, Mistress,” Tercius greeted. It was one of the customary ones for these few days, at the beginning of a cycle.

The woman didn’t stop her hand from scribbling. “And you too Tercius. Tell me, did you finally find someone to be roommates with?”

A bit of shame rushed through him. He had forgotten about that. “Not yet, Mistress,”

“Tercius, you probably have a week or two, but then I will have to move you in with someone,” Mistress Dea said calmly. “Did you even ask anyone?”

Twelve days have passed since Tercius and his group came here. His group had twelve students, the group after had two, and from what Mistress Dea told him, every year some 180-200 students come to the Academy, most during the last two weeks, near the end of the first month. Currently, there were free rooms aplenty, but in a mere two weeks, that was going to change. That first night he took a room for himself, without even properly asking Eunim.

Now he knew what he needed to do today, and maybe he could join a few things into one. “I was going to do it today, Mistress. Is there an eatery here that you would recommend?”

The woman chuckled a bit at that. "A fine strategy you've got there. Listen Tercius, my advice to you is just ask someone. Believe me, when I say this, they could do with a much worse roommate than you,"

Tercius saw that the woman believed that he tried to bribe himself to roommates. Still, he kept insisting, and Mistress Dea finally relented and told him where he could find a relatively cheaper restaurant in the vicinity of the dorms.

Now he just had to ask Penelope, Eunim, Euria, and Lomera to go with him.

***

It took Tercius more time to knock on Eunim's door than he would ever admit.

He almost left, as even after a few moments he heard nothing when the door opened. Eunim's face peered through, observing him. "Yes?"

“Do you have some time to talk?”

“About what?” Eunim asked, his face narrowed in suspicion.

“Are we going to do it here? At least let me in,” Tercius said.

Eunim looked at him, then turned back inside and left the door slightly open. Tercius followed after the boy.

The room was a bit of a mess. On every single surface was a piece of clothing, some even piled on the floor. None of the beds were even properly made, even though the breakfast was finished long ago, and Tercius saw that Eunim was there.

“I thought you didn’t have any roommates yet,” Tercius said, eyes narrowed at the mess. He was probably late to ask the boy.

“... I don’t,”

“...So all of this?” Tercius blurted out suddenly.

The boy crossed his arms, his face an annoyed mask. “Is this what you wanted to talk about?”

"No," Tercius said, calmly. No need to antagonize the boy once more. It was just a mess, he could deal with it. "I wanted to ask you to be my roommate,"

“So now you want me to be your roommate?” Eunim asked. “Why now?”

“You mean why didn’t I ask you then?” Tercius said, and Eunim nodded. “I wanted a few days to be by myself. I sometimes get like that. And, well, if I’m honest, you kinda glared at me. So...”

“I do not glare,” Eunim said with a golden-eyed glare.

“...Yes, well... Anyways, I am asking you now. So? What do you say?”

"... Alright."

“That’s settled then,” Tercius said as he glanced about Eunim’s room. “I would… recommend you move to my room,”

“What’s wrong with mine? You move here,”

“Your room is a bit… untidy,” Tercius said out loud, while adding just for himself, To put it mildly, “And there’s this… smell. What is it?”

While Tercius tried sniffing a bit deeper, to find out what the perplexing smell reminded him of, Eunim went purple.

“First Penelope calls my sister and me slobs, just because we never took care of any of this,” Eunim raised his voice, while wildly waving his arms around. “We had servants for this!”

Oh, Penelope… Well, she isn't wrong judging by his room. But she could have been a bit more… diplomatic about it. Tercius jumped in while the boy was taking in the air, using his greater height to intimidate the boy a bit. As Tercius unexpectedly approached the purple-faced boy, Eunim took a hasty step back. "I was not trying to insult you, Eunim. In fact, don't worry about your stuff for now. I can teach you how to do it, step by step."

Breathing heavily, Eunim said, “And how do you know how to do it?” The boy was a bit frightened of him, Tercius saw. Good, things will be a bit easier now.

“I have kept my bed and clothes in order ever since I was a toddler,” Tercius told him calmly, stepping a bit back.

Eunim seemed confused at that, his golden eyes blinking rapidly. “But Penelope said that your uncle is some bigshot from the Capital. Where were your servants?”

“What?” Those words froze Tercius’s blood. “When did she say this? What else did she say?”

It turned out that Penelope was a bit of a blabbermouth. Merely leaving out the names, she told her friends of their escape from Tripatis, a tale with surprising accuracy, and with little embellishments. Seliana did have a talk with Penelope about keeping things quiet? Right?

***

A boy could go into the female wing of the dorms, but only to invite a girl outside and never step a foot inside, and vice versa. Mistress Dea was quite explicit about the rule and emphasized its importance.

Tercius went for Penelope, inviting her for a walk outside. He tried to coax out the details she spilled and to see if any sensitive information slipped by. As far as he could tell, nothing she shared had much meaning for anyone who did not know the whole story.

Breathing a bit easier, he asked, “Didn’t Seliana tell you to keep this to yourself?”

Her face filling up with blood, Penelope lowered her gaze. “She did. And… I’m sorry Tercius. I…

Everyone was sharing their story of the way here and when my turn came and they turned to me, I…”

Social pressure. Releasing a sigh, Tercius said, “Don’t worry about it now, what’s done is done, but keep in mind that a lot of things hang on some things staying a secret.”

Penelope nodded, her face still scarlet.

“On another matter, I got my first roommate,” Tercius said.

“Really?” Penelope asked, surprised. “Eunim?”

“Yup,”

“I don’t know if we did the right thing. His sister leaves a mess everywhere she goes...“ Penelope complained. “He is the same way. Every time he opened the door, I saw piles of stuff everywhere…”

"I don't mind the mess too much. At least he's not a screamer like that boy two rooms down from me. Eunim and Euria just don't know how to do these things… I think their servants did it for them all their lives,"

“I know,” Penelope said in exasperation. “I tried to explain it to her, but she thinks it’s somehow… beneath her, and constantly refuses to do it,”

“Don’t worry, I will sort out Eunim soon. I told him that I would teach him how to do it and he agreed. When his sister sees that, you just ask her something like: ’How come Tercius got the better twin?’. That should do the trick.”

“You think so?”

“I know so. Trust me, I have siblings. You praise one, and the other will move mountains for a praise of his own.”

***

Tercius entrusted the invitation for Euria and Lomera to Penelope, while he went and got Eunim.

Penelope informed him that it would take them some time to prepare so Tercius took the free time to show Eunim how to fold clothes. Most of the clothes were not even dirty, as the boy merely wore them once and tossed them off. Once the boy realized how easy it was, they went through all of the clothes with alacrity, the clean ones folded then stacked, the dirty ones placed on a separate pile. But the number of clothes present…

Tercius briefly used Visualization to observe the day they came here. Just as he recalled, Euria and Eunim had one small bag each. Where the hell did Eunim get all of this? Did he go shopping?

Turning around, he saw Eunim place his hand on the carefully folded pile of clothes, and the clothes would just… disappear. One moment the clothes were there, and in a blink of an eye, they were gone.

“Eunim… How did you do that?” Tercius asked, dumbfounded.

“What?” Eunim asked and turned to him. “You mean this?” Once more the boy placed his hand on a pile of folded clothes and they disappeared in a small puff of air. The boy had a proud smile on his face as he looked at Tercius.

“Yes, that.”

Eunim mulled over something, curiously looking at Tercius. The boy was assessing him, Tercius realized.

"It's not much of a secret," Eunim finally said. "The Amulets they gave us at admission has one such function, but it's only accessible with Mana Manipulation and Mana Metamorphosis.”

Eunim took out two amulets that hung around his neck. One Tercius recognized as the same one had hung around his neck. The other amulet was shaped like a small egg made of some kind of black metal, hanging on a string. As Tercius's head came near to inspect the amulet, Eunim said, "It's an Amulet of Storage, there's a much larger space inside of it. This one was made by my father." Gazing at it with eyes far older than himself, the boy said, "It's the reason me and my sister came here. My grandfather started and my father finished an enchantment that only requires Mana Manipulation for it to work. Now, it's up to me and my sister to make an enchantment that can work without even Mana Manipulation. The dream my Father and Grandfather had is to make one of these for your everyday citizen of the Empire,”

"That's... an admirable goal. How does it work?" Tercius asked as he gazed at the small black egg that was propped up by the palm of his new roommate. If these two managed to make something like that... It would revolutionize many things starting with the transport of goods and ending... Gods know where. An absolute overturn of many things in the current established society. Tercius was not quite sure how the established rule would respond to something like this. Would they even allow it?

Tucking the Amulets away, Eunim said, “I can't tell you that. Sorry,”

“Nothing to be sorry for, a secret is a secret,” Tercius said. He turned to finish folding the few shirts left, when, suddenly, a thought occurred to him. “But why didn't you... store your mess away? Why leave it... like this?”

“Everything inside is clean and nicely folded, I didn't want to mess it up,” the boy said, with a wry expression on his face.

“So the things inside... interact?” Tercius asked.

“Oh yes. I don't know if you know, but there is a force that keeps us grounded.” Eunim said, looking at Tercius.

Tercius nodded. “Yes, gravity,”

“Well, every time something goes in or out of the Amulet, gravity exerts its influence inside of the space, pulling everything down. It's another unfortunate side effect me and my sister must solve.”

"And you say every Academy amulet has this space inside of it?" Tercius asked as he observed his amulet with Mana Sight. To his sense, the amulet seemed nonexistent.

"Oh yes. The best part is that they don't have these side effects that our Amulets have, but as I said, they need Mana Manipulation and Mana Metamorphosis to work.” From an enthusiastic explanation, the boy went into a gloomy mood, as if a switch was flipped. Lowering his gaze to his fidgety hands, Eunim said, “For me, Mana Metamorphosis is the second reason I came here. Somehow I can’t seem to get the skill…”

Tercius did not know that much about Enchanting, but he was sure that the skill was a requirement to be one. If Eunim ended up unable to get the skill... “Don’t worry, I’m sure you will be able to do it. We are in the best place to study these skills.”

A knock at the door ended their conversation. When Eunim opened the door, standing in the hallway were the three girls they were waiting for.

"Well this is more like it," Penelope said, as she peered into the almost clean room. "Well done Eunim, you've cleaned the place up. It seems that Tercius was the one who got the twin who can learn," The last part she saw in a murmur, but the intended recipient still heard it.

While Euria glared at Penelope, Eunim blushed at the praise like a… well, like a schoolboy. Behind the two girls, Lomera merely observed what was going on.

“Let's go eat something,” Tercius said, to break the silence. “I’m starving,”

***

The restaurant was a mere fifteen minutes of walk from their dorms, quite close to the edge of the Pyramid's step. From where they sat and ate, they could see the white-covered world outside with no obstacles. The snowstorm still raged outside the dome that covered the whole Pyramid, Tercius noted. The Mana expenditure for the dome must be astronomic, he thought, as he observed the area where the storm ended and small amounts of snow drifted in. The dome let through small amounts but kept most of it at bay.

Turning his attention back to the table, he listened as the kids talked about the Pyramid, about the dorms, the other kids there, the Masters, and many other topics. He and Lomera mostly kept quiet, only answering direct questions. The meal was a much-welcomed break from the monotone food they served at the canteen at the dorms, and Tercius was glad he came to this place. Every once in a while, the daily routine needed a bit of shake-up.

There was still a month until classes started, but that time would fly by, Tercius was sure of this. He now had one roommate, who while messy was at least not loud-mouth. The days before him, before all of those seated here, would bring new things, both good and bad.

Feeling like the moment merited a toast of some kind, he cleared his throat. The four kids at the table turned his way. A familiar string of words came to mind, one which he heard many times in the past decade.

Raising a cup of some orange-colored juice he said, “I raise this cup to a new start. May the seasons be calm, may the work be abundant, and the harvest never more than we can handle,” Tercius drank the whole cup, and the kids followed suit.

After all, be it a toast or a prayer, a good wish was never rejected.