“Won’t she rest for an hour?” Tercius asked.

“She asked me to get you,” Petra answered. “She’s waiting outside the front door.”

“I see,” Tercius exhaled. Mistress Kalina did mention that there was a chance that they would have to hurry this along…

“This is it, isn’t it?” Petra asked in a whisper as they climbed the stairs out of the basement.

The corners of Tercius's mouth tightened as he nodded in response to her unasked question.

“It will only take a couple of weeks, at most,” Tercius said.

“You don’t know that…” Petra murmured and turned her head around. “You just came back… and now—”

"We spoke of this already," Tercius said in a low voice. "It needs to be done and I can do it."

Petra’s eyes were wet as she kept her gaze at the floor, but she nodded. “So we did. Just… come back.”

Tercius nodded and gave her a hug, which she promptly returned with even more force.

“Can you keep the Mistress company for a moment, while I say my quick goodbyes?”

“Sure,” Petra nodded and went off, leaving a nervous Tercius behind.

“Oh boy…” Tercius exhaled as he went looking for Ciron and the kids.

Amber, Come! Tercius sent through the bond.

Even before he walked to where he found his queries with Mana Sight, Tercius heard the small pitter-patter of tiny feet behind him. Amber came to trot beside him and he looked at her with conflicted eyes.

On one hand, he wanted to leave her here for the time he was away, and yet another part didn't even want to consider it. Ever since she stumbled onto him that morning on the riverside, they had rarely been separated for long.

He wanted for the little creature to develop a little bit without him in her life. To stay with his family now would be a good exercise for her. He had even considered taking her to Hippotion so that she might find her own species, but river lions were considered snacks for almost every carnivore out there and as pests by almost all farmers along the river, so…

Hells, this could even be good for him. He had gotten so familiar with her presence that he had no problem when she scratched him by climbing up his back… Some distance would reset the counter. Not to mention that he would find out the limits of the skill…

Yes, he decided as he remembered something that Perdinar said, this could be an opportunity for both of them to… grow. Distance always placed everything into perspective.

Even if Familiar Bond were to disappear because of distance, something he only considered as a small possibility, they could make another one if they were willing. They did it once, so the path would be even more familiar the second time around. Maybe he could prepare her for this…

Amber, would you like to Stay with Aurelia?

Yes, came the reply after a moment.

You would have to Stay with her for many days…

The response that he got over the bond was the cat’s equivalent of a human shrugging and saying that she had no issues with that. He realized that he needed to be a bit more clear here…

But I will not Stay here in this house… I am… going away. Far away. But I will be back.

That finally earned him a closer look that he interpreted as suspicion. My human is going away and then coming back? Is it to bring me food?

Err… Yes, I guess that I will bring back… food.

Satisfied, Amber started purring as she rushed ahead to Aurelia.

“I guess that that went well…” Tercius murmured to himself as he walked into the inner garden.

“Grandfather. Mistress Kalina arrived,” he said to the old man.

“Off you go, eh?” the old man said as he walked to Tercius and patted him on the back. “You know what you’re doing.”

Aurelia was holding Amber when he approached her. “I will be back soon,” he said. “You know that?”

“I know.” she nodded, sniffing slightly.

“While I’m away, can you keep an eye on her for me,” he said, scratching Amber’s head.

“I can,” Aurelia said. “But— I too want to go on adventures one day, brother. You need to finally start teaching me… So that next time I can come with you.”

Aurelia was not informed of the specifics of his “adventure”, something on which he, Ciron, and Petra agreed. She was just told that he would leave and come back in a couple of weeks or possibly even sooner.

“That will be a hard thing to do, little one. Not that I don’t want to teach you— I do, believe me— but even when I return I won’t be here for long enough to do it properly,” Tercius said and Aurelia’s green eyes misted over. Tercius immediately jumped in, “But! But… lucky for you, there are better teachers here, don’t you know that?”

Her misty eyes waited for the answer without blinking.

“Who do you think taught me? You just need to learn to find them,” Tercius said and looked deliberately at Ciron. “Let me give you a hint. He is one of them. Start there.”

When Tercius passed by Ciron to get to Leo, the old man was smiling.

“Brother,” He crouched near Leo and messed up the boy’s hair.

The boy was not pleased with that. “I told you. Stop doin’ that,”

“So you did,” Tercius said, smiling at the kid’s frown.

*****

*****

*****

Standing outside the front door were the statuesque forms of Mistress Kalina and Petra.

“Tercius,” Mistress Kalina said as closed the door behind him.

“Mistress,” he said, cupping his palm slightly and bringing it over his heart.

As his eye rose from the slight bow that he gave, Tercius took a moment to observe Mistress Kalina's clothes, for this was the first time that he had a chance to observe this version of the mage's robe.

Unlike the robes that he saw back at the Pyramid, the one Mistress Kalina wore now was less of a robe and more of a long cloth-made coat, pinned around her neck with a triangle brooch and open down the entire front which revealed her clothes. But other than that, there were many shared similarities between the two.

First of all, the robes were, as he understood it from a history class, the traditional clothes of the mages. And while many mages did wear them, many more didn’t, preferring the comfortable everyday clothing that the tailors of the Pyramid made. With Pyramid’s multicultural, transcontinental background, it was not surprising to Tercius that there were people who didn’t want to wear the mono-colored robes, especially since there was no requirement for robes to be worn.

He first noticed what was lacking from the outfit — the shawl.

Tercius easily imagined the fabric of which these shawls were made – gray and fat, woven wide and, above all, long. Then, one such enormous shawl was wrapped around the person a couple of times, covering the neck, the shoulders, the upper arms, only to end near the elbows. Most of the thickly woven piece of clothing hung on the shoulders and was worn loose, likely so that the arms had mobility and that it didn’t choke the wearer. The flappy ending of the shawl was always tossed over one shoulder, where it hung down the back, almost like a cloak of sorts. Interestingly enough, the shawls that he had observed never once wavered no matter what their wearers did. Tercius never once saw someone adjusting the shawl and what kept it in such a firm place was a mystery he was unable to solve from just looking at it. Likely an enchantment… According to Mistress Helfira, the officially issued robes were enchanted to the utmost limit possible.

But the shawl was an add-on, not a true part of the single-piece garment that was the robe.

It all started with the imposing hood at the top, whose enormous folds of gray cloth could either loom around the neck and hair and rest partially on the shoulders of the wearer if there was space for it there — much like Mistress Kalina kept it right now — or it could be worn deployed over the head, where when taken to its utmost limit the hood would cover the face entirely from the front.

The robe’s sleeves were also somewhat unusual for Tercius, in the sense that each of them consisted of an inner and an outer sleeve. The inner sleeve hugged the arm from the shoulder and ended either around the arm’s wrist or continued down to the knuckles, where it was hooked on the thumb. The outer sleeve was made of the same cloth, but sewn into a cone and attached to the inner sleeve just above the elbow, a design that took on a triangular shape when the arms were raised horizontally. The outer sleeve was also marginally longer than the inner one, those that Tercius observed so far, which allowed a mage’s hands to always be out of view.

Tercius suspected that those sleeves were a fine addition for anyone who cast their spells with hand gestures — Ruges, as mages called that part of Magik.

The rest of the robe was rather straightforward. The robe covered the torso — Tercius had seen form-fitting robes and others more loosely made with space aplenty; then the robe narrowed around the waist — with the help of a cloth or, more rarely, a leather belt; and finally, the spacious robe ended just below the knees — although Tercius had seen robes some going midway between the knee and the ankle and a single time when the robe went all the way to the ankle. He had also seen robes with cuts made at the front, starting just below the belt and running down the legs. One, two, or most commonly three, these openings were likely made for ease of motion.

In any form, the robes were simply amazing to him. They were just what he imagined a mage ought to have.

And now he learned that the robe could also be made in the likeness of a long coat.

You live and learn.

“All prepared?” Mistress Kalina asked, inspecting him with a critical eye.

“It’s all in here,” Tercius nodded and tapped the amulet hanging on his neck.

Petra abruptly grabbed his arm and Tercius turned to her. “I will be back soon,”

"Then let us depart," Mistress Kalina said after a moment, and then she turned to Petra. "I know that nothing I say will diminish the worry, but know that your son is safe with me."

Mistress Kalina’s invisibility spells took hold as soon as Petra let go of his arm, Tercius saw with Mana Sight, and a sphere of telekinetic mana ballooned into existence around them the next moment.

With a small lurch, they ascended and headed south over the houses, the wall, and then continued over water and within five minutes they flew by South Fort, the southernmost keep of the Empire.

A white ball appeared in Mistress Kalina’s hands. It was made of mana, Tercius realized after he gave it a look with his skill, mana visible with naked eyes and woven out of intricately positioned Runes.

The spell’s control construct, Tercius thought when he saw it.

Without a hitch in her composure Mistress Kalina inserted her fingers into already waiting holes and the bubble around them brightened, shuddered, and started changing shape. The curved surface at the front of the bubble went outwards, sharpened into a single point. Even as that transformation was going on their speed kept going up and soon the vessel moved at speeds that made sideways observation impossible.

Tercius had to steady himself as the reactive forces asserted some kind of influence over him, threatening to push him into the back of the, now tear-shaped, vessel.

“That needs some adjustment…” Mistress Kalina murmured and the increasingly oppressive sensations vanished.

The tall mountains approached with a frightening speed and he and Mistress Kalina observed them in silence. He figured that Mistress Kalina would want to make some distance from human settlements for the teleportation spell, but even with flatlands far behind them, they just kept going south. The view ahead was stunning, so he easily lost himself enjoying it. As they made more headway and the once far away monoliths came to be on his left and right, Mistress Kalina informed him of their destination.

“We are going to an outpost in these mountains,”

“Outpost, Mistress?”

“A still-standing remnant of older times,” Mistress Kalina said, staring ahead. “It used to be a city, once upon a time, when mages were far more numerous. Now— well, you will see.”

“And… Why are we going to an outpost in the mountains, Mistress?” he asked tentatively.

“So that you have peace to learn the spell for the Rite of Tfenn,” Mistress Kalina said. “And so that I can educate you on a few details of interaction with established religious groups, especially the older ones. Mages and Spirits… Well, now that you’re a mage, you can’t just visit the places with them as you wish. We spoke of this, didn’t we?”

"Oh… yes. Yes, of course, Mistress." he nodded.

As they went further south they climbed upwards with the mountains and the weather slowly changed. The day darkened as the sun moved behind evermore tenebrous clouds and Tercius saw a curtain of rain far ahead of them, a pouring torrent of water in front of which their protective vessel promptly halted.

“A word of advice, Tercius,” Mistress Kalina said, as the vessel shifted back to a perfect sphere, with the two of them still floating in the center. “Never speed through a storm,”

As soon as the transformation was complete, the bubble visibly thicker than what it used to be, they dived into the storm. The lack of all outside sounds now became especially jarring to Tercius, what with whipping wind and battering rain impotently hammering at the transparent bubble, accompanied by an occasional flash of muted electrical discharge.

They traveled significantly slower from there on, evading jagged cliffs and tall treetops while gradually changing course first to the southwest and then west. Within the hour the mountains around them widened and gave way to an expanse of gnarly treetops, a giant valley hugged on all sides by mountains. The light was scarce here, the day more alike to a moonless night, yet the odd lightning was enough to reveal a glimpse of the surroundings. The storm was particularly vicious outside of their spell-made vessel, bending the occasionally visible treetops low.

Their vessel decelerated as Mistress Kalina turned to look around the valley. Tercius joined her and he spotted a steady light far to their right, brightening from a single point to a sizable beacon within moments, and, just as he was about to point it out, their vessel slowly altered course and increased in speed, headed precisely in that direction.

“I almost forgot,” Mistress Kalina said, as she freed one hand from the spell controller and pointed a palm in his direction. “I have something for you. Show me your palm.”

Hesitant, Tercius obliged.

Something weighty fell into his hand and he grabbed it out of instinct, noting immediately the softness of what must have been some kind of clothes.

A robe, he saw a moment later. It was folded, but the hood and the wide belt left no doubts.

“Put that on. You will need it soon enough,” Mistress Kalina said.

The child part of him almost shed a tear of joy. A mage’s robe? For him? Was this a dream?

No, but it might be a dream come true…

“Thank you, Mistress.”

With careful tenderness and starstruck eyes, Tercius took the belt and tucked it into his pants, leaving his hands free to pull the robe over his head and shimmy into it slowly. Before he let the lower part of the robe fall, he took the belt back and then started adjusting the lower part of his robe. Adjusting the shoulders of his robe took some time and the sleeves proved problematic, as his shirt got in the way, but he managed all of it.

"It's elastic," Mistress Kalina said when she caught him looking at the belt. He was just searching for a way to open it…

“Just grab it at two sides, stretch it out, and step into it. Then you tuck the robe between your knees and then pull the belt up to below your armpits. Then pull it down so that the lower end is just below the abdomen.”

“Oh…”

The belt ended up tightly hugging his entire abdomen and his lower back felt so comfortable with that. The temperature back there was just right. The sensation was so amazing that he might have let out a groan that came straight from a previous life.

Mistress Kalina laughed. “It’s custom for Disciples to wear the Norsan Koor while they prepare for the Rite. I took your measurements before I left, so it should be a suitable fit for a little while. But I think that you’ll outgrow it soon enough,”

“I guess I will…” The thought that he might one day outgrow this robe soured his mood immediately.

It was only then that Tercius noticed how close the spherical beacon was. What had seemed an outline of shadow-painted mountains from afar now gained features, and Tercius saw that the light was in fact near the top of a rather tall, slim-looking structure. A tower. Then, as they approached closer through the rain curtain, two more towers stepped out of the darkness at the sides of the first one, but further up the mountain. Then two more behind those.

Tercius had no more time to observe the surroundings as Mistress Kalina landed near the beacon and the opening in the wall of the top floor of the tower closed behind them.

“Greetings visitors,” a young-sounding voice said in Magik, possibly male but Tercius was not sure.

The beacon was blinding from up-close and he didn’t see the speaker, but he did see when Mistress Kalina waved a hand and powered down the light that turned out to be coming from a large glass sphere that was almost completely covered in white Runes.

Mistress Kalina returned the greeting in Magik and, as the bright light faded and his eyes adjusted to the dim light that came from the orb-lights, the face of their welcomer came into view. The young man with short dark hair was likely in his mid to late teens.

“My name is Gael, currently in charge of greeting any visitors, however rare those might be in these parts. My Mentor is the Keeper of Everstorm Towers," Gael spoke each word slowly, and after he finished his speech he cast a single appraising look at Tercius, only to turn promptly to Mistress Kalina.

“What brings you to us, Mistress?” Gael asked, his Magik even more broken-sounding than before.

“Private matters, young Gael,” Mistress Kalina said, switching to Empire’s Common. “I need to speak to your Mentor. Can you arrange that?”

Gael let out a sigh. “There is no need for any arrangement of the sort, Mistress. My Mentor never lets any visitors go without meeting them immediately.”

“Then lead the way.”