It was difficult, Tercius chuckled with a grimace, to stay away from skill use. The acute pain, hot and ever-present in his chest, was bearable and if it was alone Tercius would have not broken a sweat over this whole Well development business. It was the stabs of surprise that left him a twitching mess for a moment and when they happened Tercius habitually reached for Meditation and its calming effects, only for the words of the expert on Wells to appear in his mind and stop him in his tracks.

“While in use, active skills both move and use mana— and that is liable to mess up your daily effort of saturating the growing part of your new mana channels,” The Mistress had said. “Passive skills use mana regeneration first and only start going for mana in your body after the cost of their use overcomes that parameter, so they are safe to use— to a point.”

It was difficult, he had to admit, to have at hand something that could free him of pain and choose not to use it, time and time again. The word 'difficult' was a bare description of that feeling where his mind wandered by itself towards the easy way out, yet he had to deny himself the pleasure of release. Taking deep breaths, Tercius returned the cup to Millie and thanked her.

“Sior, did you have the time to search for the book I mentioned?” Tercius asked with a grimace, as he made himself comfortable by folding his legs properly.

“I did, but I could not take it. The librarian said that he had multiple copies present, but since you are still a student you need permission from your teachers to borrow it,” Sior answered.

Tercius almost slapped himself on the forehead. “I’m sorry Sior, it slipped my mind completely. The Mistress wrote me the permission for the book and it’s in my room, in the first drawer near the bed.”

“Shall I go fetch it then?”

Tercius nodded. “If it's not a bother,”

There was a profound peace following Sior's departure, one that had nothing to do with the absence of the man in question, but rather with the focus of Tercius's attention. He stared with eyes wide open at the moving water surface, where a certain River Lioness played at being the biggest fish in the pond. A small breeze swayed leaves and cooled Tercius's seemingly inflamed skin.

Millie, following rules of conduct written for servants, did not initiate any kind of conversation.

In his mind, Tercius returned to a time when he had no skills to help him cope with things, be it pain or anything else, and he noted the degree to which he became reliant on certain skills and even skills in general. Meditation was there to help him cope with pain, physical or emotional, dulling off his senses and leaving him in the peace of void; Language Acquisition to help him adopt this strange language, the people of the Empire used, as his own; Teaching to help him connect to people he taught so that they understood each other better. The list went on and on.

He thought about skills, the costs of their use, in terms of mana, Energy, and what using one skill meant for other skills in the future; he thought about his adventures in that fog-filled world of gray, the answers he found there, the new question that arose from finding those answers, everything slowly arranged itself before his eyes. His conversations with the Mistress, be it during dinner or when she examined his physical state, opened new windows to a lot of things he previously considered closed or those that he simply left by the wayside until new information arose.

The nature of his stay at the house, along with the new rules that guided his daily life, and a lot of inspiration from an outside source, made Tercius use his thirty minutes breaks between sessions to do only one thing. Think. To think wild, think big, and unrestrained.

He did not want to think about the shadow figure and the mystery that surrounded it. It was a difficult train of thought to put away, concerning many things in his present and future life, and he knew that it would be difficult to set aside. He spent the first few days at the House looking over his shoulder every once in a while, his eyes often searched for the sources of sudden noises, darting instinctually. Tercius knew that this skittish behavior had to stop if he was to make the best use of his time, and he knew one way to put fear aside. A way that always worked for him. He had to find something so interesting that everything else simply faded away.

Brainstorming led him to select two topics for himself that he wanted to think about, but he didn’t limit himself to them if the road took him away to something else. There was a reason, surely, if he veered off course. And, he reasoned, if a reason existed, so did a connection of some kind— no matter how tenuous. A connection that was worth an investigation, no matter how long it took. The topics he selected were two seemingly different, yet quite connected once Tercius took into view his latest discoveries.

Enchanting and skills.

Eunim was bound by his family's rules on what he could share about enchanting, and Tercius did not want to get the boy into a conflict of any kind, yet his interest for the matter was by no means small. On the contrary, it was an almost physical fire that burned in him any time he thought about enchanting.

Ultimately, Tercius's weak will had collapsed after three weeks of being roommates with an enchanter-in-training and he had asked Eunim if there was something, anything, that he could share about enchanting without any strings attached.

Eunim, the good kid that he was, shared one thing that even novices to enchanting knew. To do any kind of enchanting one item was necessary, Eunim had stated confidently.

A graver.

A tool through which an Enchanter used his Mana Manipulation and Mana Metamorphosis to weave spells into an object, via Runes. Eunim couldn't say what this 'graver' was, not exactly. The boy knew its function, but not how it worked, leaving Tercius with a physical description of the material this graver was made from and a small drawing of how it looked, physically.

Shaped like a fountain pen it was made of see-through glass, Eunim had explained and left it there.

Tercius had overheard, during one of the group meals that The Mistress every so often organized, that one of the mages present was an enchanter in training and the whole thing snowballed from there.

That simple word 'enchanter' that passed the lips of an unsuspecting mage made Tercius remember the description that Eunim gave, and when the words 'see-through glass' passed by the current him, it was as if a spark had gone off in a barrel of gunpowder.

Suddenly, he had obtained his first topic to think about.

Runes were simply words of Magik, written down. While written words by themselves had power unlimited, Tercius learned of their potential long ago, that power was not of the same kind as what he saw in Lux's cloak, which led him to think that Mana Manipulation and Mana Metamorphosis were the main reason that enchantments existed and functioned at all.

For the Tercius of two months ago and the Tercius of now, the words 'Glass fountain pen' meant two different things—

"Time," a sweet female voice said and though the words didn't carry any destructive spells, a world was destroyed. Tercius jolted from his thoughts, momentarily stunned at what happened. He was about to—

With a start, Tercius realized where he was and what he was supposed to be doing. A sigh of annoyance escaped him, a symbolic gesture of his dissatisfaction with Millie's interruption and the universe in general, and he went from a sitting position back to laying flat on his back. Two index fingers found the same spots as those of half an hour ago, easily, yet his mind had trouble divesting itself of the world that Millie shattered with her word.

'Time' truly is the Ender of Worlds, even from the lips of a twenty-two-year-old non-mage, Tercius chuckled, as the pain drove spikes through his chest. It went through his chest, up his spine, and lodged itself straight into his brain, seemingly trying to dig out his eyes with a fiery vengeance— Tercius cursed at every single parent or teacher that made a child go through something like this at a young age.

Even fifteen seems like too young an age, for this, he mused with a grimace on his face, as the mana in his least developed channels increased. The Ender of Worlds moved ever forward, wrapping future into present in mere fractions of a moment. Then, instead of being cherished, the present was discarded instantly, thrown away like an unwanted gift given to a spoiled child, into the welcoming arms of the past. Tercius did his job, despite numerous protests of his aching body, pressing forward with a stubbornness his affinity merited.

"Time," Millie informed him succinctly, and Tercius let out a gentle sigh of temporary relief.

His caramel skin glistened with sweat as he heaved slightly, while he picked himself up to a sitting position. From Millie's hands, another cup of water drenched Tercius' rising thirst and he went back to his ruminations with gusto.

Where was I? Tercius thought. Ah yes, the 'glass' fountain pen called graver!

His discovery of the connection that existed between crystals and Energy, whatever its exact nature was, brought a new light on his previous line of thought.

If he was right, and the 'glass' made graver was in fact 'crystal' made graver, then this meant that enchanting and skills had commonalities. It meant that enchanting somehow involved Energy! To his eyes, it seemed that what skills were to beings, both of sentient and non-sentient variety, enchantments were to materials. If he could learn to create one, could the same principles be used on the other?

That single question left Tercius quivering from excitement, the pain washed away by pressurized streams of pleasure. Even before that question came to him, he wanted to learn enchanting, and now that it did, he simply needed to learn more about enchanting. With glittering eyes, he thought, Hells! I should learn enchanting!

Enchanting, as a profession, was not something that was taught at the Academy, Tercius had learned. All the classes that would be useful for enchanting, essential even, were there, but it was up to each student to make the connections between classes and the magical professions. A question came to his mind and he remembered that he had someone to pose it to, in his immediate vicinity.

Tercius blinked his dry eyes and realized that he had been staring unblinkingly at Millie for who knows how long. He didn't even realize she was there. The silence stretched and Tercius finally coughed. "Err… Millie?"

"Yes, neophyte?"

"… actually… Millie, I heard people call me that a few times last night, but I don't know what it means exactly…" Tercius said. Millie and Sior adressed him as Mister Pinky, at least they used to. And now neophyte?

Millie smiled. The pale girl had a very nice smile, compared to most around. For one, all of her teeth were orderly. "A neophyte is anyone who has a Well but has not completed the Academy training. The reverse also applies, and only when both are achieved can someone be called a mage."

"But… I don't have a Well… not yet,"

Millies shrugged. "It's only a matter of a few more weeks. The talk started yesterday because The Mistress has spread the word of your progress and now you, neophyte, are the main topic of conversation amongst the staff and guests."

Tercius frowned. The last words Millie said were not pleasant to even hear, let alone think about. "I see… err… and what are they saying? Actually... No, I'm better off not knowing that kind of thing... I, um… I wanted to ask you about something else, actually,"

"Ask, neophyte."

"Err…" Tercius stumbled. This neophyte talk had distracted him and he had to regain his footing. "You've lived at the Pyramid for a decade, right? Can you tell me about what usually happens with students when they finish the Academy? Do they get a job here? Like a profession of some kind?"

"I have indeed lived here for a decade, neophyte, and I will tell you these things… but we need to wait a bit—" the young masked woman pointed at the nearly spent sand. "It's time for your next session."

Ten minutes later, once Tercius finished his third session of the day, Millie started explaining. "Most of the students that finish the Academy usually join one of the Guilds that are present atop the Pyramid and study there under seniors of the crafts. Enchanters, Alchemists, Healers, Builders, Bards, Ritualists, and many more. All of these Guilds reside around the Repository. Once a mage masters a craft to a satisfactory degree, that mage can ask at any time to take the craft exams, and become a Master or Mistress of that craft. There are some students that choose to go about the world and they are called Wanderers or Journeymagi, but they are rare. They travel around the world doing whatever they want… There was a Master that taught us in the second year that was fond of saying, 'The Academy is here to give you the basics, what you do with them is up to you.'" Millie shrugged.

Tercius knew what Millie would say, even before she finished. He had heard the same words from three different teachers, during their lectures.

Millie went on to explain from memory, her eyes half-closed with recollection, "The 'basics' that the Academy provides will save the students decades of stumbling in the dark while illuminating some major pitfalls that killed mages of the bygone eras, Master had said…"

To Tercius, his conversation with Millie was enlightening. He realized that the education that students receive at the Academy was of the general kind, applicable to all branches of magic and that Millie's problem at the Academy most certainly had nothing to do with intelligence. Suddenly, Tercius felt … lucky. He could solve his problems with skills, but what about Millie? And what about those like her?

"Thank you for this, Millie," Tercius said sincerely.

"You're welcome,"

Tercius returned to his musings about skills and enchantments after that session. His conversation with Millie, while enlightening, proved to be a dark cloud on his mood. The pain seemed to gain strength from that foul mood and the next few sessions brought along a pounding headache.

Sior returned almost four hours after he left, just as the sun was about to reach the zenith. “There was an issue at the Librarium, so I had to wait for a while. The book is in your room, as I was told that it was to be kept indoors at all times.”

Tercius nodded, his brows almost touching from the grimace that pain induced. “Then I better finish my daily schedule as soon as possible,”