“I assume that these are the men you spoke about earlier?” Mistress Kalina asked.

It took him a moment to pull himself together. Seeing and hearing people harassing his mother and siblings was not invoking any peaceful thoughts from him.

“Yes, Mistress,” Tercius nodded.

“And they rarely venture into the house, you say?” Mistress Kalina asked, her voice cold.

Tercius nodded, as he observed a blanket-like spell settle around them. It was difficult to pay attention to what the Mistress spoke or the spell itself, as his attention kept slipping to observe those men.

“That’s what I’ve been told, Mistress,” he answered, absentmindedly.

Mistress Kalina hummed thoughtfully. “Then let’s observe for a bit from here. Did you think about what you want to do about them? Did your family talk about it?”

Tercius glanced at the woman.

Even now, he was hesitant to involve her. But could he solve this on his own with a solution that would leave his family clean and further undisturbed?

A slow-acting poison, one that would finish them off in a couple of hours, seemed like a good solution. Even though Rona had been ever-careful to keep him away from handling poisonous plants, Tercius still learned about them. He knew which herbal concoction thinned blood, which one clotted it. He knew which ones were used to raise blood pressure, which ones lowered it. These plants were raised in small quantities in his grandmother's special part of the garden— where everyone was forbidden to enter, even Tercius— and then they were sold to the apothecaries and merchants.

There were two issues with this.

First was that before Rona had left with Septimus, she had told Petra to let that part of the garden wither away and that under no circumstances was she to enter. His grandmother was right in doing that, of course, since neither Petra nor Ciron had thorough knowledge about how to handle these herbs and their effects safely. The first issue was easily solved with his Gardening. Even if he couldn’t revive the dried plants with his skill, he could raise them from seed within three to four days. Blazing Hells, he could even buy the things. The second issue was that if these people knew they were poisoned, then they could just go to a healer or maybe even take a potion.

But… select people in Nurium knew that his grandmother was growing these herbs and it would not be difficult to put two and two together and implicate his family with the Peacekeepers. He knew that he couldn’t use Stone Shaping, as well, to avoid implicating his grandfather.

He had gone over a few scenarios and now that he knew that they were staying inside the inner city, where only the military, the nobles, and their servants were allowed, Tercius knew that that was a good place to strike at them.

He could go to speak to that Commander, but he doubted it would have any effect. His uncle had an arrangement with her, so if she had a way or desire to do something about it, she would have done it already. He guessed that she was the one that had made the Peacekeepers stay out of this conflict and that was… enough. Thanks to that, his grandfather had been able to keep these people at bay.

Tercius could use his spells, of which he knew two formally made spells. Attract Stone and Crystal Shield. He did fiddle with some shapes and morphs, which Mistress Helfira highly discouraged, considering how little he knew of making new spells. It was a whole profession apparently, well paid and highly dangerous. Outside of Expeditions, spell making had the highest death rate among the mages. He also could use the skills that he learned from Septimus and Lux. So he had ways of disposing of these people, discreetly, but the problems that came with that were not something he was willing to entertain.

Amongst a dozen or so scenarios and plans that he considered, packing his family and leaving Nurium quietly was at the top. There were a few considerations to ponder on, like where would they go? He knew that they would have to go and pick up Neiran, Rona, and Septimus, but Neiran might not want to leave with them. And then there was the house-bound spirit, which was another consideration that he had no idea what to do about and how Rona would react. Blazing Hells, he had no idea if she even knew about it. Another issue was that his mother and grandfather likely wouldn't want to leave, considering the new baby and Leo, and then there was the fact that Rona and Septimus were scheduled to return to Nurium at some point. Tercius knew that a Well formation for a non-mage could take a long time, much longer than what it took him, so the chance of Rona returning to Nurium in the next year was slim at best. But Septimus could return earlier, once he realized how long it would take for Rona to finish her Well.

If she finished it at all… According to Mistress Kalina, the death rate for older non-mages was not negligible.

All of it was a knot that had no way to be untied, short of using a sword to cut it completely. To solve it all, he would need a dozen bodies. What he wouldn’t give for a skill like that.

For now, the best way forward seemed to help his present family get stronger while enduring these men and their… antics. They would hold the fort and he would go and find Rona and Septimus to bring them back home.

Only he had to wonder… Would his grandfather and mother be enough for that? Would his siblings and his mother and grandfather be able to stay cooped inside their home for as long as it took him to get Rona and Septimus? And would these men be content to carry on this harassing business in perpetuity? All it took was a single instance where these men would have enough of it all and things would escalate rapidly into chaos.

"I've… given it some thought, Mistress," Tercius answered finally after he realized that the silence had stretched.

“And…” Mistress Kalina asked.

“… It would seem that I need help,” Tercius admitted, deflating as he said those words. “I can’t seem to find a satisfactory way out of this, Mistress. Not by myself… and not with the speed that I need. Whatever I come up with, a dozen reactions follow… all of which I would like to avoid, if I can,”

It was difficult to hear himself say those words. Being able to do it all by himself was one of the rare points of pride he allowed for himself.

“It's good that you’ve given thought to the consequences of your actions,” Mistress Kalina answered. “That’s a quality any good mage ought to have. Especially mages like us, who have the option of a unique solution— simply outlive the problem. It’s surprisingly effective, you will see for yourself in time,” Mistress Kalina advised. “But… what that man speaks of your kind mother is offending me after the way that she has treated me. I would not rest easy knowing that I let my host suffer such words in my presence,”

“Mistress—” Tercius began and then stopped.

If he explained why he was hesitating from messing with these men, he would reveal his link with the il'Drusus family. He had no idea if Mistress Kalina knew of that, but he would venture on a no. He resisted a sigh. It was like four horses were dragging his arms and legs in four different directions and he, the fool in the middle, had to balance them all to prevent them from ripping him apart. The worst part was that these horses only had the power that he had given them. This was why he abhorred dealing with people.

“Why are you making this difficult?” the man yelled over the gate. “Are you waiting for your little baby boy to return? Don’t you worry about him! By now, my boss already has him!”

If it was up to him, Tercius would leave the overgrown buzzing gorilla to talk away until the lout perished from old age, but Tercius knew that no one in his family was like him. Ciron's deafness was a blessing for the old man, but no one else shared that blessing.

“I would like to be the one to do something, Mistress,” Tercius said finally. “They can’t see us, right?”

“They can’t,” Mistress Kalina answered.

“Can we move closer to them, Mistress? At what point would they spot us?” Tercius asked.

“They wouldn't,” Mistress Kalina assured him. “Most mages are quite proficient in illusion, and I’m a bit above most mages. It’s a relatively easy school of spells to learn, highly useful and inexpensive contrary to many others,”

“And say I hit one, Mistress?” Tercius asked. “Would the illusion fail?”

Mistress Kalina smiled wryly. “Punching and kicking? How… mundane…”

"And what would you have me do, Mistress?" Tercius asked as a brief flash of annoyance ran through him. What was he supposed to do? His hands were tied from multiple sides!

“Tercius. First, calm yourself and watch your tongue. That is not a tone you ought to use with your seniors, ever,” Mistress Kalina warned sternly. “And then remember what you said moments ago. About needing help? I remember that part quite well, yet I don’t remember you asking me,”

His open mouth snapped shut. He had admitted that more for himself, than for her.

“Do you know what these people are to your family? Tormentors, that’s what. By your own admittance, they have been doing that for three weeks now,” she said pointing a single finger at the three men.

With a frown, Tercius nodded. He knew that well enough.

Mistress Kalina raised an eyebrow. “And you still don’t ask… Do you think that I would pressure you into becoming my Disciple in return for my help?”

Reluctantly, he nodded. “It crossed my mind a couple of times,”

Mistress Kalina shook her head. “And is becoming my Disciple such a… punishment for you? If I gave a call, hundreds of mages would come rushing to become my Disciple. Young and old…”

Tercius looked at the woman with disbelief in his eyes. Was she thinking that that little tidbit was helping her case in some way?

“That’s exactly it, Mistress. From what I heard older mages usually take Disciples in the last year of the Academy and the first two years in the Guilds. People just don’t take the first or second years of the Academy. I checked. My Energy is the only painfully obvious reason why you would choose me as a Disciple, from what I can see…

“Mistress… I have known for a day now that you are my easy card out of all of this mess… and yet I hesitate to turn to you because I keep thinking that I will be exchanging a bad thing for an even worse one…”

Finally, the dam broke and words just poured out. He regretted them the moment his mouth closed shut. This whole thing about his family was agitating him and when he had wanted to use Meditation to calm himself, he had willed himself away from it.

“And you think your Energy is not enough of a reason?” Mistress Kalina asked back. “Do you know what we have done this morning? We broke records of Alchemy with subpar ingredients, my boy. Records set long ago,”

“Energy is a good enough reason,” Tercius nodded even as his eyes narrowed. Now was truly not the time for this, but… “But I don’t think it’s the reason, no matter how painfully obvious it is. I think that it's only part of the reason. You could have just warned me against Energy use inside the Pyramid space, if that was all you needed of me not to do, Mistress. Instead, you did that after you offered to become my Mentor and I can’t get it out of my head that the two must be somehow connected, Mistress,” he said. His shoulders felt a lightness to them. All of these words have lingered in his mind for months. It felt… liberating to finally say them. “You could have waited until I was at the right age, after all. So I kept asking myself questions, over and over again. Why does Mistress Kalina need me to become her Disciple and not to use Energy at the Pyramid? Why now? Why not later? Why do it at all? So I kept going over variations of the things that kept bothering me. Change just a tiny detail and then think about what that detail means further down the line. It's what I do when my mind grabs ahold of something, you see.

“After a while, a single question kept returning to hold my attention over and over again— Why does Mistress Kalina need me to become her Disciple before I use Energy inside the Pyramid space for the first time? Why the first time? Well, Mistress, you told me that all external Energy use would be detected immediately. I imagine that known manipulators just get recognized by this alert system, but that's probably a normal event. But… What happens when a new Energy manipulator is detected? I imagine that that's more rare and noteworthy. Something to look out for,”

Even as he spoke, Tercius saw that he had struck something. The illusion that kept them from prying eyes wavered before his weaker mode of Mana Sight, the magic trembling only for an instant before it came back stronger than ever.

The woman opened her mouth and for a moment he could see her thinking of a way out. “Tercius… I can see how you’ve given this much thought… but—”

“Please, Mistress, don’t do that,” he said, taking a step towards her. “I just want to know why—”

“Alright stop,” Mistress Kalina said, raising a palm slowly.

The woman closed her eyes, as she took a deep breath and then a second right after it, without releasing the first one. As the eyes opened, the two breaths exited through an o-shaped mouth, hitting Tercius straight into his face.

“You… are a clever boy, you should know that,” Mistress Kalina said, calmer than she had been a moment earlier. “But if you don’t mind, I need to think about it first,”

Something in him urged him to push and prod for an answer, but even as a wave of disappointment ran over him he nodded in acceptance. She had given him time when he had asked for it, after all. But… he had thought that this was finally it.

"Just…" he swallowed. He just had to make sure she knew something. "I hope that you know that I'm reasonable, Mistress. Reasonable to the point of personal detriment, according to some, if I need to be." he chuckled as he remembered the rest of that compliment. And yet absurdly unreasonable about the most bizarre of things, if I recall correctly. A walking contradiction...

"All I'm saying is that you must have had a reason why you did it like this and… I promise to listen to your story and give it my best to understand your position,"

“That’s… generous of you, Tercius,” Mistress Kalina looked at him with puzzlement in her eyes. Suddenly, she shook her head and said, “Alright. Now let’s go,”

She waved an arm and left a wide mana trail behind it, a trail that started morphing even as the hand moved. All at once, dozens of things happened and the spell materialized as a transparent sphere of telekinetic force. The spell-blanket from before, the illusion that kept them out of sight, wrapped itself around the sphere and the two of them went airborne.

They flew forward slowly. It was not a long journey, yet every second of it Tercius asked himself if he should have done what he just did. Mistress Kalina took them over the house and he saw that inside the inner garden Seliana was playing with all of the kids.

“Let’s go get your mother,” Mistress Kalina said.

His mother was alone inside the outer garden. She was dressed in a light brown skirt and shirt, sitting on her knees as she tended the vegetables. They flew down and landed near his mother and the sphere melted away, as Mistress Kalina reclaimed most of her mana used for that spell. The spell that kept them hidden was peeled away and used to shelter them from the direct view of the people at the other side of the gate.

For the first time, Tercius had a direct view of the man. Round eyes and a small nose, thin lips with a smirk.

Petra was keeping her back firmly to the front gate, and her eyes rested on the earth and the plants that she tended. That gorilla pounded on the metal gate, rattling it from the hinges and his mother flinched. Her head turned towards the gate as her breath halted.

“Don’t worry, my lovely, I will let you see your son as long as you come with us,” the man said with a wide grin.

"Oh, you poor over-muscled fuckface," Petra said in a low voice. "You don't know a thing, do you, you brain-dead minion? I can barely wait to hear how bruised your asshole gets after your boss fails and then vents his frustrations on your sorry ass… Please remember my good wishes every time you sit down," his mother hummed and turned back to work.

Judging from the sour pinch on the man’s face, he had heard her every word Petra said.

Tercius snorted. He remembered well his mother’s propensity for… strong words when she thought that no one else was nearby, and she was especially careful around Rona and the children.

He suddenly realized something. Petra was used to these people. She could do the gardening at any other time and yet she still chose to do it now, in front of them. He couldn't suppress the smile that overcame him. Battered his family might be, but certainly not broken. That same proud smile greeted Mistress Kalina and from that single glance, he had seen that Mistress Kalina was surprised— extremely so. His mother had that effect on people who heard her speak that way for the first time.

“Well,” Mistress Kalina cleared her throat. “Your mother seems to have this under control…”