Following him across time and space, from one life to the other, a constant had clung to Tercius for dear life.

Celebrations were draining.

Half an hour— maybe an hour— and he was done. If there was a crowd, especially a crowd of unfamiliar people, he had always felt this urge to move away from everyone and find a small, secluded, fairly well-distanced corner just for himself. It was a bit easier with people whom he knew beforehand, he had to admit, but not by much.

Long ago he had created a system just for these sorts of things. Every half an hour or so he would follow his needs and take a five to ten minute pause away from everyone and then return. It was just like with diving— you just had to go and grab a breath before diving back under.

Today, that pause served as Energy harvest time.

One thing that made family celebrations in this world easier for him was that none so far had been overcrowded with strangers, although he could say that Mistress Kalina, Kriti, and even baby Portia were in such a category for this one. Another thing that made celebrations somewhat desirable was that he got to listen to more music than usual.

In Nurium and most of the world really, music was available in crowded inns and taverns and during major celebrations where people would take to the streets, none of which he was exactly keen on visiting or staying in for too long. There were no headphones connected to an enormous song selection just one click away so Rona's chants, prayers, and songs had been a regular source of musical entertainment for him for over a decade. While things got a bit repetitive after a while, Tercius learned that he didn't mind it much.

Most of the prayers were in a language that even his grandmother had no speaking knowledge of— she only knew the translations of those prayers that the senior priests had given her, and Tercius knew how liberal people could be with translation— so he had always been a bit interested to see if he could crack the language.

Listening to Neiran play the oud and his mother sing had been an enjoyable part of the day. Hells, even his attempt with oud was not as bad as he thought it would be. He was slow and missing that charm and ease that Rona and even Neiran had while playing, but for a rushed job he was quite satisfied with it. Aurelia and Leo played their recently gifted instruments too. While Aurelia enjoyed the praise that everyone gave her, Leo was not too keen on the attention. As soon as the small kid realized that all eyes were on him, he abandoned the small drums and used his eye averting skill to get out of everyone’s vision.

A large family lunch followed.

He spent the lunch catching up with Neiran and hearing what happened to him in the past year, learning of his current workplace, what sort of stonework he did, and a little of his mother and sisters.

During all that, Tercius had kept using some form of telekinesis as a way to exercise his skill and make it level faster. While he played the oud, talked, or ate he had been “seated” on a plane of telekinetic force. When he walked, he walked on small cushions of telekinetic force.

Spring of Crystal Thoughts [8] is now Spring of Crystal Thoughts [9]

Spring of Crystal Thoughts [9] is now Spring of Crystal Thoughts [10]

After two hours of active use, he noticed the pressure that Mistress Helfira had talked about. It was right behind his eyes and ears, almost as if someone was slowly filling any space in there with air. The air was trapped and unable to escape anywhere and it was slowly but surely expanding its space, making a comfortable room for itself to be in.

He was sure that if the skill had been a lower level, the pressure would have come to a lot earlier.

Another interesting factor to account for was that without Energy in his body to ramp up his mana regeneration rate, he would have been unable to use the skill for so long. Without long enough use, the pressure would have no way of building up, so…

The one person that he tried to keep track of during the afternoon was his future Mentor. Mistress Kalina kept to herself, first listening to music, then eating in silence, and finally only listening to the talk of others, speaking only when answering a question directed to her by Seliana. But he could see her sniffing the air for magic and giving him an occasional glance when she thought that he wasn't looking.

As the afternoon progressed, he noticed that his skill had stopped advancing despite the ample source of Energy available to him.

Just when he planned to take a break and see if he had truly stumbled on a barrier, Mistress Kalina called for him.

“Neophyte,” she said. “A word in private.”

He nodded and the two of them moved away from everyone, where Mistress Kalina erected a privacy barrier to prevent anyone from listening in.

“Mistress?”

“I am not sure how these kinds of conversations are properly started…” she said, slowly.

"If it's about your offer to be my Mentor, I have decided to accept it," he said. "That is if that's still an option."

“Actually, that is not what I want to talk about…” Mistress Kalina said. “And I would prefer if you left that for after you hear what I have to say,”

He nodded.

"Let me just state a few things first. I know that those people that kept coming here over the past week have some familiar relation to you and your family. I know that both they and you are connected to one of the major Families of the current government system that is used in this Empire. I also know that you are related to someone called the Mage Killer—"

Despite the considerable summer heat, Tercius felt a little chilly. This was one of the worst-case scenarios that he thought of.

"—But let me assure you that none of that matters in the slightest. Even if this man, or your whole family for that matter, had indeed killed mages under the protection of the Repository, which he most certainly had not or I and my colleagues would have known of him and sorted it out long ago, you are in no way culpable of crimes of your kin as long as you didn't participate. Our Law is very clear on that."

“Oh…”

“I understand why you didn't want to involve me in this,” Mistress Kalina said. “And I was perfectly fine with letting you take your time before. But now, some things have changed.”

“What things?” Tercius asked, although even as said that he already knew of only one answer that could prompt a conversation like this…

“Your kin is no longer willing to wait and wear out you and yours. They are amassing and readying themselves to surprise and overwhelm all of you, tie you up and take you by boat north with them, to the Capital.” Mistress Kalina said and then tilted her head curiously. “You don’t seem surprised…”

“Well… I expected something of that kind to happen soon…” Tercius nodded slowly and his eyes narrowed. “Mistress, do you know when they plan to do this?”

“Tomorrow or the day after. Tomorrow night is my guess,”

“I see,” he sighed.

“Neophyte, I am of a mind to solve this for you—”

“Mistress, with all due respect, the favors you offered will not be spent on this,” Tercius said in a hurry. “If you don’t mind, I need them elsewhere. This is something I can now handle on my own.”

I think so, Tercius thought.

One gentle eyebrow rose in surprise. “It is? While your… confidence is admirable, I can’t help but wonder just how you will handle it. You know two spells and a dozen coloring morphs, neophyte.” she stated.

“Well… I have been a real mage for less than half a cycle, Mistress,” he said, remembering when he acquired Mana Metamorphosis.

“So is it your new skill that gives you that confidence?”

“Some of it… yes,” he said, closing his hand into a fist and imagining a cover of telekinetic force over it. He felt it settle over his skin, like a smooth glove that was capable of moving just as if it was his second skin. “But I have been a few other things before becoming a mage.”

Mistress Kalina studied him with a keen eye. “When I offered to solve this for you, I was not going to involve the favors I owe you as payment, Neophyte. In fact, I was not going to ask for any kind of payment. I find those people a bother to my teaching effort. They… distract you.”

“Mistress… Thank you for the information. And the offer,” he said, gratefully. “Truly. But…” he took a deep breath, collecting his conviction to word his intention. “I think that this is something that I need to do on my own.”

“Why is that?” she asked, slowly.

“Because… I need to see where I am, Mistress. I need to see how I measure against these people on my own. I need to see where my advantage took me when compared to them.” Tercius said, admitting it slowly.

Mistress Kalina tapped one long finger on her chin, seemingly lost in her thoughts. “You won’t mind me observing?” she finally said.

“No, Mistress,” Tercius said and then swallowed. This was getting more real by the second, but it had to be done. He knew that he had kept losing both to Lux and Septimus not solely because of lack of experience, but also because he was too passive to act and too active to plan. He had the enormous advantage called ‘the speed of movement’ over the two men, and yet he almost always lost. Lux, his uncle and a war veteran with decades of real experience, had repeatedly told him to get out of his head and just do it. He had to make an effort to learn to plan and act in at least equal measure. His Step Two would have to have some adjustments… “But I would like to know that you won’t act in my stead. Outside influences, especially ones of such a magnitude as yours Mistress, will give me inaccurate results,”

“A test.” she nodded. “I see. But these people aim to capture you, neophyte, not fight against you and accidentally injure you. That hesitation on their side is an influence of considerable proportions, don’t you think so?”

“Oh but they won’t be fighting a boy that they need alive and captured, Mistress,” Tercius said with an enigmatic smile.

“How… mysterious. I like mysteries,” Mistress Kalina said with a smile. “Do you have a plan?”

“Of course, Mistress,”

“Hmm… I think that I would like to reserve my right to act, nonetheless. Know that I won’t do it without good enough reason, though. How about if I intervene to preserve the brain? Is that agreeable with you?”

“Errr…”

“That was a joke, neophyte…”

“Oh…” he sighed and chuckled a little.

“If possible, It is always preferable to preserve the complete head, a part of the neck immediately under it, and as many organs as you can, starting with the heart and the lungs, rather than just the brain.”

***

***

***

When he and Mistress Kalina finally finished their talk, they were greeted with a goodbye committee standing near the front door.

“Won’t you stay a bit longer?” Petra asked.

Neiran shook his head. “I can’t. I need to visit my mother before the Reunion. I promised.”

Petra's brows furrowed. "I won't repeat what I usually say… you should know it by now. Neiran... Be careful…"

“I will,” Neiran nodded and exchanged a hug with Petra and Aurelia. He ruffled Leo’s hair and pinched Portia’s cheek and finally got a back pat from Ciron that almost sent the poor boy tumbling.

“He won’t be going alone,” Tercius said as he looked at Neiran. Then he turned to Petra. “We will escort him,”

“‘We’?” Petra asked.

“Mistress and I,” he said.

He had to make sure those people didn’t come to target Neiran at this moment, to use him as some sort of a bargaining chip. Mistress Kalina had agreed. Petra glanced at Mistress Kalina and rapidly averted her gaze away, a frown forming on her face. Tercius glanced at Mistress Kalina and found a blank face. What is going on there?

“Just be back before the Reunion occurs,” Petra said and left with a switch of her skirt.

“Of course,”

Neiran, Tercius, and Mistress Kalina moved via bizarrely empty streets, heading south. With a whisper and a glance at the leading Mistress Kalina, Neiran asked Tercius about Ciron's transformation, the quite visible de-aging elephant that the boy had chosen not to mention in front of the guests.

Tercius was glad to see that the boy had grown up. There had been a time when he would have asked questions about visibly sensitive topics without any regard.

Explaining Ciron's appearance as a consequence of a very powerful and unique chance, Tercius asked Neiran to keep Ciron's change in appearance and what he just told him to himself. The boy promised to do so. Outside of family and guests, few knew of Ciron's and Petra's recent transformation. Before the potion, his mother had been in her early thirties and in good physical shape, so the loss of a few years in appearance while visible to the discerning eyes was not as pronounced as Ciron's.

Ciron had gone from this giant, tired, gray-haired, slightly hunched granddad with hearing problems, to this block of a man that seemed made by a master sculptor to represent all the things a man's man should aspire to. It was in his imposing posture that now used the entirety of his towering height and his broad shoulders. It was the face that no longer grimaced when he turned to the left or right, but rather remained frozen in stone in a kind of a resting face that was honestly somewhat menacing without any intent. It was the fact that Ciron now heard people who whispered around him, where before people had to shout to be heard and that his eyes now narrowed with intent and intense focus. The face and forehead whose rows and folds of aging lines had been mostly ironed out and his dark skin that had lost a few sun-gained shades over the decades of regular exposure. Many, many details large and small which painted a picture that only a blind person would miss.

Neiran's proximity over the years noticed not only the appearance but also the fact that Ciron's behavior had changed a bit. His old grandfather had been sharpened and now there stood a man that Tercius and Neiran recognized and yet… something was throwing them off.

“Yea… I’m working on that…” Tercius said to Neiran and glanced at Mistress Kalina.

He was almost sure that nothing was wrong with the potion, but rather that this had more to do with his grandfather's mental state. His grandparents had been together for over three decades, never separating for longer than a week. Even when Tercius, Neiran, and Ciron had worked on sites where the speed of completions was of the essence, where their presence was required all day, every day, Rona had taken the time to visit them and bring home-cooked food or something. The void that Rona's presence had left was a constant that Tercius counted as a major pressure point on his grandfather.

If there was not all of this business of the fucking il'Drusus family, now that Ciron was healthy, Tercius was reasonably sure that the old man would have left to go and find Rona.

Neiran agreed with him.

“I just wish I were so lucky to find someone like teacher’s wife,” Neiran said with a sigh. “Then we can settle and build a home together…”

Stupefied, Tercius looked at the daydreaming expression of his junior brother-in-craft. “You’re fifteen, Neiran. Actually scratch that. You’re a few months short of fifteen.”

“So what?” Neiran protested immediately with a frown.

“You’re a bit too young, don’t you think?”

“I know that I want what they have…” Neiran continued and then abruptly turned to Tercius. “Don’t you?”

“Oh… Errr… Well… I haven’t really thought about it…”

“What’s there to think about?” Neiran said. “You either want it or you don’t and if you tell me that you don’t, then you’re lying.”

Tercius resisted the urge to roll his eyes, but a snort escaped him. “Oh, it’s that simple, is it?”

The whole body-mind dichotomy… When he turned fifteen physically, the legal age for mages to use and visit a certain type of establishments, he would be… somewhere between forty six and seven, mentally. Day length and year length were most certainly a little longer on this planet, but he had no way of accurately comparing the two. The age accuracy aside, even the rough estimate was a source of a convoluted mess of a knotted issue, one that he was more than happy to push for disentanglement at a later date. However… He had to admit that the offer from the Mistress that ran the House of Pain and Pleasure had been on his mind from time to time…

Once they left behind the town, right under the oblivious eyes of the watchful guards, all three started running at the speed of the slowest, which unsurprisingly to Tercius turned out to be Neiran. Neiran’s Running was at or around [20], he presumed, while Mistress Kalina had a spell with a similar effect.

Each level of Running didn’t only increase his speed by a tiny bit, but also the time that he could run for. As he ran, he glanced occasionally with his Mana Sight and he could see colorful red mana move from his physical mana channels to saturate his lungs and heart, his abdomen, and legs. His whole body was saturated, to various degrees, with that mana.

Running [48] is now Running [49]

As skills climbed upwards, the levels were slow even with enough Energy and he thought back to the events of the morning where his Energy Manipulation gained three skill levels in less than twenty minutes. He would have to try and repeat that, but…

Energy Manipulation and Energy Sight were special as far as his skills went, for the two of them didn’t use Mana at all. Or at least he thought that they didn’t. Was that why the skill leveled so fast? Because there was no Mana involved?

Maybe it had something to do with the fact that he was using the skills inside its Core?

Or was it the straining? He struggled to hold the quantity of Energy that he took with himself… It was the same principle of the Well, he suddenly realized. The more it got strained, the more it grew.

And now that he thought about it, he had seen upper-year students at the Academy storing their mana into mana storage devices, mostly crystals like the one Mistress Kalina used for Vae Ar N'Tergra.

He thought it completely normal to store mana for spells because the capacity for internal mana storage was still rather small even for the uncommon student with a Well of their own, but… What if instead of storing that mana for spells, as he had presumed, they were storing that Mana to do what he did with Energy?

What if they were straining their Mana Manipulation with more mana than the skill could handle? It was their mana, perfectly suited to them in affinity, so…

He felt that he was onto something here…

Even for the first years, the teachers had shown a few tricks on how to level the mana skills faster than normal, and he would not be surprised if even better tricks were taught year three and up. After all, only those students had both Mana Manipulation and Mana Metamorphosis… There was no point in giving away trade secrets too early.

As he glanced at Mistress Kalina, who was effortlessly keeping up with the two of them, he realized that he was probably right. But it was still speculation.

I should give it a try sometime soon, he thought as they saw the village in the distance. I should provide my skills with an appropriate amount of Energy, appropriately morphed Mana, and… then place them under appropriate stress. Considering my affinities and current morphing capability, Spring of Crystal Thoughts is the perfect skill to experiment upon… as well as Stone Shaping and Stone Sight.

“I would invite you to come inside, but…” Neiran said as they came to a stop, averting his gaze.

“Oh, no. We won’t be stopping by.” Tercius shook his head.

Neiran’s step-father didn’t like it even when the boy came around or when he gave money to his mother. And if he were to bring someone with him… Tercius had gone once before, years back, and never again stepped foot over the door. Why Neiran’s mother willingly chose to be a second wife to some shouting hothead he would never understand.

“Take care Neiran.” he patted the boy on the shoulder.

“You too. I’m glad you came back, if only for a little bit.” Neiran said, suddenly surprising Tercius with a tight embrace. Despite being close to three years younger, physically, Tercius was just a little smaller than the older boy.

“Oh…” Awkwardly, Tercius patted him on the back.

As Neiran left with a wave, Tercius heard Mistress Kalina approach from behind. “Shall we hurry back?”

Tercius nodded and they were off.

***

***

***

“—I am not sure, but I think that the only way to move the Spirit without any harm done to it would be to move the house in its entirety,” Mistress Kalina explained. “Every stone, down to the last rock. Whether it can be disassembled and then reassembled somewhere else, or rather taken as one whole, I would have to check back at the Repository. I’m sure information like that is available.”

“I see,” Tercius said, looking down at the rapidly moving ground. “And if a part of the house were to be… destroyed?”

“I know that that’s one extremely efficient way to weaken and even accelerate the degradation rate of a structure-bound Spirit,” Mistress Kalina said, steering the sphere to rise over the Nurium walls. “But I have never put the structure back together, so I don’t know.”

“Oh…” Tercius sighed.

He could probably dismantle the house in a matter of minutes if he really wanted to and pushed himself. Weaken the foundations and the supporting walls of the basement and the ground floor, crumble the pillars… It would come down like a sandcastle hit by a wave.

The flying sphere spell of Mistress Kalina deposited both of them in the outer garden, with the neighbors and the town people none the wiser.

“But while the structure is a weakness, it can also become a strength neophyte. I know of a few structures that still stand as new as the day when their Spirit amassed enough power to mature and started to turn the structure to be impregnable.”

Tercius perked up. “Impregnable to what degree?”

"I have once seen a hut made of packed earth and straw that withstood a boulder three times its size being dropped on it. It survived, almost intact in fact, sunken into the ground and with a lot of stone dust cover over it. Split giant stones all around it. It was a sight to see. Structure-bound Spirits are known for gradually changing the physical properties of the material of their structure. Some also act like… enchantments. The structures they inhabit become more resistant to high and low temperatures, some even develop elasticity to some degree, where they had none before… Hardness is also common… They are known to spend their resources on gradual self-repair, for example, if the necessary material is available in the vicinity. Shall we enter?" she said.

“Let’s.” Tercius nodded.

“So, you’re thinking of moving your family away from here?”

"I just don't know what kind of life waits if we— they— were to remain here," Tercius said, thinking back to the words of his uncle. Now that someone in the Capital knew that his father was alive, they might think of using him as a pawn in their games and by doing that, others would be implicated.

“Keep an option open for Chameos then. While the Spirit would not be allowed there, your family is more than welcome.”

Tercius nodded.

"And what you said earlier, about the way to test if the Spirit considers your sister as a part of your family…" Mistress Kalina said. "I've been going over it in my mind and I have made a few alterations to your plan, to minimize the chance of unfortunate events. You will transfer just a tiny amount of Energy into a single fingernail of the baby. If the Spirit considers the baby as someone under his protection, it won't move to get it, but if it doesn't…

“In theory, as it is still a young Spirit, nothing should happen to the baby in any case, it would just phase through while grabbing the Energy, but… I prefer caution. So rather than me tackling the Spirit, as you suggested, you should toss it a large enough bait to pry its attention elsewhere. A bait that it can’t refuse. I would like to be present as well, just in case.”

He nodded. “I will need to speak about it to my mother first.”

“Of course.”

***

***

***

There was still a tiny bit of bloody sunlight coming from the west when the Reunion officially began. Where yesterday people saw two separate moons and a few hours earlier in the evening they saw an ellipse, there was finally an almost perfect circle in the sky.

Sitting on the still warm roof were Tercius with Amber in his lap and Aurelia leaning back to back with him. Ciron sat to his right while holding little Portia in his arms. Petra was sitting close to Tercius's left, and she had placed Leo to sit on her legs, letting him be comfortable while he observed. Seliana and Penelope were sitting near as were Mistress Kalina and Kriti. Everyone but Portia was silently observing the celestial event.

Gradually the sun went away and the stars emerged in full brightness, bringing with them the darkness of the endless cosmos. The moon became especially white and Tercius remembered what Rona spoke. The Reunion was a canvas. You were supposed to imagine a smiling face up there, on it. It had to be the face of someone far, far away, and someone to whom you wished good fortune, peace, and an eventual reunion with. Someone who didn't have the chance to visit you and some, like Tercius, imagined more than one face.

He saw Rona, easily, and Septimus and then Lux. Rona and Septimus were giving their usual smiles, one without teeth the other with, while Lux was giving his customary poker face. Supposedly it made people uncomfortable. It made him chuckle.

The majority of the faces that he saw up there were not on this planet, solar system, and even wider. But for a moment, with the help of Visualization and his memories, humans young and old who had never seen or heard of Majus nor Vell were now painted on them, albeit for his eyes only.

Hells, near the end he briefly imagined the faces of Mistress Deamela and Mistress Helfira. Both had helped him a lot over the past year. Somehow he even remembered his roommates, Eunim and J’ro. Euria and Lomera as well as that supremely annoying child, Sonia, came naturally after them.

As the night continued, the numbers on the roof dwindled. His mother and grandfather took the children to sleep and probably overcome with emotion, both went to sleep. Seliana and Penelope followed soon. Then Mistress Kalina sent Kriti away to sleep in the room that was offered to her when she arrived, as was arranged earlier in the day.

Only he, Amber, and Mistress Kalina remained.

“Are you sure you want to do this?”

Tercius nodded, using Energy Manipulation to surge the little Energy that he had left all over his body. “I will need a few minutes to get ready.”

“Well then… when you’re ready I'll show you where they are.”

“Actually,” he said, patting Amber on her head. “If you don't mind, I already have a guide in mind, Mistress.”