As a rule of thumb, finding a noble willing to sell even a tiny bit of their land was as rare as finding a commoner who owned land in a walled area. Not that there weren’t any commoner landholders, but that it took a lot of money to buy a property within walls anywhere around the Empire, and Nurium was no different.

The land inside both the outer and the inner wall of Nurium was owned by the local nobility, who were the ones who paid for the walls to be built in the first place. That was the story townspeople spoke, but how true it was Tercius had yet to know for sure. In any case, the land between the outer and the inner wall had been divided into plots between the nobles and then these plots were eventually rented out to merchants, craftspeople, and others to build houses, shops, and workshops on. It was from these rents, usually paid in monthly or bi-monthly installments, that the major local nobles drew their wealth from. The average person had no way of paying that kind of rent by him or herself, and so most had to live in unwalled villages and hamlets and protect themselves as they could. Sometimes they lived and sometimes they didn't, but they had no other choice.

But while living inside a walled town had its considerable advantages, there were also a few downsides.

Since the nobles owned what they walled, in the Emperor's name, of course, they could throw you out and keep the house, shop, or workshop if you miss a single payment— or they could make you pay in some other way, usually by working the debt off. The second option was far more common unless there had been an insult of some kind involved.

There were a few reasons why his parents and grandparents decided to buy a plot of land, rather than lease it, and one of those was that Nobles had the liberty to change rent on their lands as they saw fit. One day it could be one price, the other another. The local nobility did try to stay consistent with their prices, Tercius had to hand them that, but once in a while tales of some asshole Noble inheritor driving people from their home swept from up north and made people gossip endlessly while they thanked the White Heavens that the event had happened elsewhere.

The main reason as to why Tercius and his family had spent the money immediately to buy the land was because there had been people who knew that they had had that much money with them. Holding onto that kind of money as a commoner was like smacking every thief, thug, and their mother in the face with a bag full of coins. Sooner or later they would come for it.

In any case, following the purchase, Tercius and his family had been briefly coinless but alive and together. They had had some time to do a few things; demolish the already present shoddily made house, wall up their piece of land, and then finally build the new house itself, and swiftly transfer their things from the old home. Septimus and Rona had sometimes stayed back at the village to help other villagers move to nearby villages. They had done everything in record time, just as his mother had given birth to Aurelia. Tercius could recall that he had been quite excited to move away from the uncertain village life to a town with Peacekeepers to keep the order and walls to keep predator animals out.

The person of that time had thought that they only had to worry about burglars and criminals.

At that kind of naivety, he could only sigh and shake his head.

Luckily he now knew better and in light of that, he had to prepare himself and others for more eventualities.

Rising with the sun, Tercius waited for Petra to wake so that he could inform her that he would be visiting Perdinar. He also told Petra that when Mistress Kalina came, in an hour or two, she should speak to the elder mage about getting little Portia tested, to see the Spirit’s reaction. His mother was understandably wary of testing the little girl in such a way, but Tercius argued that since they were to continue living inside the house it would be better to know for sure rather than just hope for the best.

She reluctantly agreed and he left the house before Aurelia got up. Apparently, in the year he was absent, Aurelia had started a habit of visiting Perdinar's place, reading books, and spending time with Perdinar. However, the last time she went to him was just before Rona and Septimus left and he was sure that if she heard that he was going, she would have likely invited herself to come with him and he wouldn't have the nerve to tell her otherwise.

For today's visit, he had to go alone.

Located close enough to the outer wall that he could see the occasional patrol walk on top of it, the back of Tercius’ property was against one of the four river canals that provided the town with fresh water. That had been another reason for the uncommonly high price of the land, but he knew that no amount of money would pay back the time lost hauling water, four buckets at a time.

Three meters wide and three meters deep these canals were, taking their water at the southern end of town, passing through the entire town, and depositing that water on the farm fields northeast of town. They were also strictly off-limits to anything else but to draw water from with buckets. Any lawbreakers were used for hard physical work for up to a year—that was how seriously people took the cleanliness of the water in Nurium.

Tercius walked along the banks of that stone canal, with his forearms holding each other behind his back and shoulders pushing back. It was advice from Mistress Helfira to stop his slouching and now any time he was conscious of it, he did as she had instructed.

As he paced forward on his slow, hesitant walk he took notice of the familiar houses, made of the same dirty-looking yellow stone as his own house was, while Amber ran hot on his trail. The little creature liked to sniff whatever grass, flower, or bush she passed by and she sometimes fell behind. And in this neighborhood, there were many for her to sample.

Amber, come, he called her via Familiar Bond and a moment later he heard her tippy-tapping behind him.

Houses like his, close to water canals and with a bit of walled land, were homes of successful artisans and merchants and retired soldiers who became town guards— people who were able to earn enough money to pay the substantial rent to the nobles along with the taxes to the Emperor.

More common were the community dwellings. Flat-roofed affairs of one or two stories tall–as high as a commoner had the authority to build, really– and the way they were built had always been very interesting to him to observe.

Say one brother built his own home for his wives and children. The foundation of the home that that brother built would be shaped like a rectangle or a square, in the majority of cases, and those homes ended up looking like a cuboid of some kind. On one wall of that home, another sibling would build his or her own house, saving the cost of one wall or at least a part of it. Then a third sibling would potentially have two walls for his own home and so on. With many staircases to climb up, after just two generations, the whole thing seemed like some anthill made of yellowing stone.

That was what he called them, anthill dwellings since as usual the locals had no real name for things or concepts.

From what he could tell, the design was mostly a result of a desire to save money, as the rent was usually priced per size of the area. Less area rented, less money paid— more money saved. More walls already present, less money paid— more money saved.

It was not strange for a commoner family to have anywhere from four or five and up to fifteen children. With children, elders, and possibly even siblings, things could get crowded— he once heard from his grandmother that she knew of one family of thirty-eight people living inside one such anthill construction, back in Spheros. Everything from the kitchen to the outhouse was entirely communal, everything but the rooms where individual groups slept.

The population inside the anthills usually grew until it became hard to find and access the door of the innermost dwellings, and when that happened a part of the old anthill would move to a new location and start the exact same thing anew.

With each of these members earning a part of that rent, people could make do each month, while staying safe inside the city walls and sometimes even save some money on the side.

It was fascinating to observe and since it helped to take his mind away and calm him down, he did not resist his impulse.

Any free patch of land around these dwellings was filled with vegetables, but some of these low-income anthills also had these small gardens on their roofs, where, over the years, these families would haul the rich, fertile soil from the banks of Hippotion in their buckets, eventually depositing a shallow layer of soil—soil which would make growing all kinds of flora a breeze.

Yet despite that ingenuity, most people, even other anthill communities, chose to stay away from constructing rooftop gardens on their terrace-looking roofs. Roof falling in from overmuch weight was the reason why Ciron had adamantly denied a garden be built on their roof when Tercius proposed it years ago. While Tercius agreed that that was a serious concern, he had also figured out that it was not that simple.

From what he had grasped of the common convention, it was a rather firm belief in the current civilized society that only those who were dirt poor built those kinds of gardens on the top of their homes. Only those who had no other recourse.

Whatever the reason, safety or society, his home had no roof garden, which he felt was a shame. For one, his house would be far better insulated from midday heat by those few centimeters of dirt.

Tercius walked with his back straight, as his eyes captured the many different kinds of dwellings of the waking town when something gripped the back of his pants. Momentarily startled, he felt that whatever had jumped him was rapidly climbing up his pants and shirt. Just as abruptly as he had tensed, he hissed in annoyance as he realized which little creature was using her needle-like claws to come to rest on his shoulder.

With a narrow eye he looked at Amber and she pushed the top of her little head into his cheek as if to say sorry for scratching him while climbing. Tercius looked at her for a moment and then lowered his nose to her head, only to vigorously snort in the ear closer to him. She retreated with an aggrieved-sounding meow and flickering ears.

If you bleed my back again, then no more of this— he sent the image of the plant in question. For you. Understood?

That’s not fair! Amber complained back. I had to run away!

Tercius frowned. Run away—

He got his answer momentarily as barking came from behind him and Amber started hissing from her safe vantage point.

Without thinking he turned abruptly and shooed the beast even as he started waving his arms at it. “Go away!”

The orange and brown dog barked again, its prickled ears and slim tail sharply pointing up, clearly not understanding Tercius’s request. The dog advanced and Tercius stomped his foot down hard, making such a loud noise that the dog jumped back in a moment of fright. It took the beast a moment to realize the action for what it was and, seemingly offended at the bluff that it fell for, it resumed its aggression with even more fuel.

Tercius walked back slowly, but the dog followed, barking.

“Seeing as you’re something of a dog magnet, there will be no more free wandering for you,” he murmured to Amber as he started thinking of a way to ditch this persistent short-haired mutt. Just Running away was probably the best option, Tercius decided. That is if he proved to be a faster runner of the two. Briefly, he considered using the Spring of Crystal Thoughts to protect himself by repelling the dog if it came near him, but decided against it, even though the skill made no visual effect.

A sharp whistle from down the street made the dog turn around.

“Rusty!” a girl’s voice called and the dog’s tail started that vigorous twitching from side to side.

Tercius peeled his gaze from the dog only for a moment to see a red-faced pair running up the street, a boy and a girl of ten or so, heading straight towards him and the dog. It took just another call and the dog abandoned whatever vendetta it had against Amber, running to meet the black-haired children; siblings from the look of their identical brownish noses and eye shapes.

Tercius just waved to them once and resumed his walk, albeit with a little more speed in his steps. There was some haste from the sudden fright, but more that his mind was turned to another matter that he had considered the previous day, yet had completely forgotten to add to the list.

A dog.

A staunch protector and a loyal companion.

A good candidate for another familiar.

It couldn’t be of a big breed—like some of the species that the Nobles used— since a dog like that would need a lot of meat and bone to feed, but something like Rusty back there, or even something a bit bigger would be manageable.

But would his Familiar Bond work once more, as it did before?

Another experiment was added to his list then and there, and even if he failed then a dog was a good idea. He could not imagine what kind of a beast would turn out if fed on some neutral Energy while it grew.

Amber was already bigger than an average female river lion, and from what he observed from week to week, she was not slowing down in the growing department. While the size itself could be a result of genetics or because she had had an abundance to eat, he could not discount the possibility that having Energy while growing up hadn't been what influenced that size. Hells, it could be all three. Maybe even some kind of a skill. Her scales had changed to more orderly patterns, becoming lighter in weight yet sturdier, as they changed colors with each scale shed. Some of those changes were the result of her rapidly rising skills, he knew, and he had to wonder how much of a change was ahead of her when those skills rose even higher.

While he had always been more partial to reptiles and cats, Tercius decided that a dog would be far better suited to his current needs. Once Rona and Septimus were back, he would have to look into getting a puppy. Maybe two or three. Or, perhaps, even four. One for every kid.

If one Energy-grown dog was a good idea, a pack of them could only be a better one.

Then he scowled. Unless you had to clean their shit, hair, and feed them. I should think this through some more and then see what the others say.

Mulling over the dog breeds that he had seen so far, Tercius walked to the street which held Perdinar's shop, and with an ever-slowing pace, he came to a stop, his eyes glued to a familiar door.

Tercius's decision to depart Nurium for Pyramid had been tied deeply from the start to Perdinar. It was from Perdinar's books that Tercius even learned that there existed a Pyramid somewhere far north and that it was the best place for someone to become something that people called a "mage". He had read of it and merely imagined in his mind of its mystical looks and Tercius had been content with that much.

In the past year, especially since meeting Mistress Kalina, he had gone back in time to that conversation, when the sharp-eyed bibliophile’s words tipped the scales for Tercius and he came to a decision to go.

Even before that conversation, Tercius had thought that a few strange things were surrounding the quiet man who preferred to appear from behind people like a ghost. Tercius had known Perdinar for five or so years, and never once did he manage to figure out how the man just appeared out of nowhere. Tercius had written off Perdinar's strange ability to some even strange manner of a stealth skill, and while he had been curious— as it was unnerving to experience and every time it had happened it had left Tercius's skin crawling— he had managed to move past it.

Mostly for the books at first, if he was honest, but somewhere along the way he also came to enjoy conversations with the owner of those books.

They read and conversed, up until that moment where the man confirmed himself a mage, by deed not by word. By making a damned box appear out of nowhere. After that day, over two years ago, Perdinar had refused any attempts from Tercius to enter the bookshop. For him, the sole regular customer and fellow reader, the door had been abruptly barred.

Now Tercius knew that any Pyramid mage could do the same, via their heavily enchanted amulets, but at the time it had looked so… impossible. Inexplicable.

Magical.

Seeing that happen was the spark that had lit his keg of powder and he had to wonder why Perdinar did that.

He had wondered then and he never stopped wondering since then.

The night had been long and thoughtful, and that mental activity had not only left Tercius tired, but it also made him just as conflicted. As he walked under the dawn’s mild sunlight, over one of the canal bridges, he was not sure what option was better— for Perdinar’s door to stay closed or for them to finally open again. Either happening would unsettle him.

To walk away from that door and never find out, was such an appealing option, but…

Tercius took one step forward, then another. Perdinar had not once done anything worthy of the tremors of anxiety that now crept up Tercius's core. Each step felt as if he was coming closer and closer to touching a wire with his bare hands, only to find out if the wire was as bare as the hands that reached for it. Surely there had to be a better way than touching, something in him roared. And yet…

If Perdinar was a mage of Mistress Kalina’s caliber, which was a distinct possibility, then he had had five years to do something to Tercius or to keep him in the dark and… And he didn’t. Perdinar sent him away. What was the plan, he wondered? Was there even a plan of any kind, benevolent or otherwise?

So many questions swam and swirled around him.

Get a grip. Actions matter, dammit, not his thoughts and the potential that he possesses! If I judged myself by the standards that I judge Perdinar and Mistress Kalina, then where would I be? Locked up in a lightless hole somewhere, if I'm impartial in my judgment. What if there comes a day when Ciron and Petra judge me like this? Would they come to the same conclusion?

Tercius remembered that in the months after he had met Mistress Kalina back at the House of Pain and Pleasure, he had had this recurring dream of an enormous tenebrous cloud in which lightning swam, taking on a human form and masking itself as a woman. But while she had looked like a human, with arms and legs, a nose and mouth and hair, inside he saw only the lightning. Her eyes glowed with power. Every move of her hand released a bolt that fried everything around her, including him.

He never placed too much thought into dreams, but even he couldn’t deny that the dream had clarified what he had thought of Mistress Kalina subconsciously. A force of nature, a thing to be in fear and awe of. Something that could destroy him, without any effort.

Tercius shook his head and took a deep breath.

Mistress Kalina told him that most people reacted badly when confronted with someone like her. It was a natural thing. There was even, apparently, an entire effort underway to study that effect by some of Mistress Kalina’s peers.

Natural or not, he was aware that he was prone to certain reactions— and yet he felt that he wouldn’t change that much. Caution was always appropriate, after all, but he did have to admit that taking control of it would be something to desire.

If caution was good, then controlled caution can only be even better.

After a brief moment of scoping the entire store with Mana Sight and Energy Sight and finding a complete void of both, Tercius nodded to himself.

Unlike the last time, this time the wooden door gave way and with a familiar tinkle of a metal bell above him, Tercius entered.

From the small platform on the front door, a staircase immediately led down, into the rows of shelves, all stuffed to the brim with books, scrolls, and all manner of clutter in between.

Time did not move here, was his first thought. From the dark carpets to the bright gleam of the metal chandeliers, everything looked the same— even the smell of hand-processed paper and parchment, that lingered in his nostrils, was the same and Tercius took it in with a rare wave of nostalgia. He felt the need to go down to his regular table and chair, all the way at the back of the room, and see if the books that he never finished reading were still on it.

The feelings that assaulted him were almost like the ones he experienced when he saw his house, Petra, Ciron, and the children.

This had been a home to which he had been denied return.

Until now.

"Per— Master Perdinar!" he said, his voice spreading down the two-story-tall space.

“‘Master Perdinar.’ That sounds so formal, Tercius, don’t you think so?” a voice came behind him as the door closed.

Tercius almost jumped. Amber certainly did.

Slowly turning around, he was greeted with a small smile and piercing blue eyes. “I told you once before that you can call me Perdinar, did I not?”

The sights and the smells were not the only things glued in time. Perdinar did not age a day. It was seven years ago that Tercius met him and comparing the Perdinar of this moment to that Perdinar, they seemed like twins.

At that moment, he understood Seliana’s reaction to seeing Mistress Kalina again and no longer found it as dramatic. He had been expecting this to happen and he felt his innards go a little queasy. He couldn't imagine what happened to Seliana who had last seen Mistress Kalina nigh on thirty years ago.

"Yes, of course, Mas—" Tercius cut himself off as soon as he could hear himself.

Perdinar made an amused snort and waved for him to follow. “That will have to wear itself off presently. We’ll make sure of that. Come, let’s drink something to celebrate your return.”

Tercius followed a step behind the man with ease that brought him back in time.

“Frankly, I’m a bit disappointed. I expected you to visit sooner,” Perdinar said once both of them were seated. With a wave of a hand, a lidded pitcher and two cups appeared on the table and Perdinar took the top off the pitcher, pouring them both a cup of some green tea. With a snap of a finger, the tea swirled and steam started rising from the cup. The act surprised Tercius. Perdinar had never done this like this before.

"This one calms the nerves if you remember. So, year one done? Did anything worth a mention happen?" Perdinar asked.

Opening his mouth like some fish in a viewing bowl, Tercius found that words to express himself escaped him. So many things he wanted to ask, so many answers he wanted to get, all struggling to be the first.

"What?" Finally one managed to escape the bound tongue, by the sheer power of quantity. That single word had been present in many a question.

“What?” Perdinar echoed back.

“Mas—”

Perdinar shook his head. “No, no. Just Perdinar.”

“It’s… I practiced calling you that and now…”

"Well, now you can practice not calling me that. Try to relax, Tercius. Take a sip of the tea, if you want, or use that skill of yours,” Perdinar said as he took a sip of his own.

“I’m trying to manage it on my own. No skills, no tea,” Tercius said.

“Oh,” Perdinar seemed surprised for a moment. “A quest in need of Willpower, I’m sure,”

Even though it was all said in the same manner, Tercius knew that Perdinar meant the skill. After a spike of surprise ran through him, Tercius slowly nodded. “I agree,”

“Do you want something else to drink then? I do have some water with me… Well, I do have some alcohol too, but…" Perdinar looked at him with a skeptical eye. "The kind that I have would likely melt you from the inside out, much as a small flame does to a fat candle. I could dilute it with water, I suppose…"

“Err… I, um, did not come to drink. I came to talk,”

“You have a specific topic in mind?”

“Oh no. There are too many to even find an inkling where to start, to be honest,” Tercius sighed, slowly finding himself comfortable speaking again.

“Nothing new with you, then. You really ought to learn to narrow your focus on a few things at a time. After all, you will have quite a bit of time to focus on things.” Perdinar said with an enigmatic smile. “You don’t want to run out of things that interest you ahead of that time, believe me. The secret is staggering them slowly, two or three at a time, and then slowly cycling through them. If you manage to find something new that captures your attention in the meantime, even better. Take your time.”

Tercius looked at the small smile and while he tried to suppress it, he found the expression supremely annoying. The words and the smile… The man was baiting him.

“How old are you?”

Perdinar squinted a bit, looking up. “Nine hundred and fifty annual cycles, if you can believe it.”

"You're older than the Empire," Tercius said, making himself a bit more comfortable in his chair while Amber observed Perdinar with curious eyes.

With strange eyes, Tercius looked at the man. “You’re… older than the Empire…” he murmured now.

Perdinar laughed.

“What do you do with that kind of time on your hands?” Tercius asked abruptly.

“Whatever I please at the time. That’s the point of it all, don’t you think?”

Tercius hummed.

“Why did you steer me to go to the Pyramid?”

“They will need you and you will need them.”

Tercius blinked. He didn’t expect an answer to that… “Anything to do with this “First of His Line” business?”

“Among other things, yes,”

“But… I thought… by becoming Mistress Kalina’s Disciple—”

"You will only postpone that title from coming to effect until two things happen. Kalina will need to say that she finds your general magical craft are up to the standard she set and then you will need to become an acknowledged Master of any magical craft. Either can come first."

“Why didn’t she tell me that?” he asked, a bit of heat rushing to his face. “Why let me think that I would be giving it up for good?”

"She has some plans that involve your ignorance of what I just told you, I think. Well, I guess that it's "had", now. But Kalina has a lot of spells to maintain around the Pyramid and she likely has a reason why she thinks it's for the best if you don't become aware of that little fact until sometime around when those two conditions are fulfilled. It very much possible that she's was right, of course,"

“But you don’t think so?”

Perdinar shrugged. “It’s not that I think otherwise… It’s… You asked me and I chose to answer. That’s about it,”

Tercius exhaled. “Well… Do you think that it's a good idea to take Mistress Kalina as my Mentor?”

“You will need a Mentor anyway,” Perdinar said, “and Kalina is one of the best in the world,”

“I see…”

"Just in case you're wondering, I don't take Disciples right now, Tercius. Haven't for quite some time, actually. If you want a book to read from my collection or even someone to talk to over tea, then come freely at any time, but anything other than that… no. I don't teach."

“Duly noted,”

"And let me tell you this, just so that it isn't left unsaid. Don't take Kalina's actions and plans as malicious towards you. As I said, she has a lot of spells to maintain and you are but one. Her actions and plans affect thousands of mages of the Pyramid and those allied with us. Take her omission with a… kind mind,"

Tercius sighed. This was not going as planned at all. But… this could be even better. “I will try,”