"And to finish the Rite as the custom dictates, we, the witnesses, will give you a piece of wisdom, an advice of our own choosing," Perdinar said. "Prime'era, would you like to be the first?"

Mistress Prime’era shook her head. “I would like to be last,”

Perdinar turned to the only other witness. “Then… Helfira?”

Mistress Helfira nodded and turned to Mistress Kalina.

“Mistress… Make sure to keep track of time. You have a Disciple now and you need to make room for him in your daily schedule,” Mistress Helfira said, causing Mistress Kalina to nod. Then Mistress Helfira, the oldest looking person in the room, turned to him and her eyes softened. “Tercius. Work hard,”

Tercius nodded. “I will do so, Mistress,”

“Because if you don’t… I will need to go about rectifying that,”

“Mistress… that’s more of a threat than a piece of wise advice,”

Mistress Helfira laughed. “Why can’t it be both?”

“Then, as Prime’era wants to be last, my turn has come,” Perdinar turned his blue eyes to Tercius and then Mistress Kalina. “Tercius and Kalina. My advice can be summed up with a single word. Faith.”

If there was a piece of one-word advice that Tercius was expecting from Perdinar, it certainly wasn't this. Tercius's dubious face saw that Mistress Kalina and Mistress Helfira also had trouble with it.

Perdinar smiled sadly. "The arrival of Spirits to our planet had unfortunately made faith an actual weapon, something that our ancestors had to fight against. It is sad to know that although our Society made peace with the Spirits, such as it is, we have never made peace with faith itself, which I think is our great loss.

“So, if you are willing to listen to a controversial bit of advice from a controversial Magos, always keep a little flame of stubborn faith, no matter what, for each other and for others. In this day and age it might cost you a bit of Energy to tend to that flame, but know that you will be getting something far more precious in return.” Perdinar said and then smirked. “Most of the time, of course.”

Tercius had no idea what to say to that and seemingly neither did Mistress Kalina.

“Beautifully said,” Mistress Prime’era mused. “For what is trust but faith tested and found unbroken,”

Perdinar nodded to Mistress Prime’era slowly. “I believe is it’s your turn now,”

Mistress Prime’era slowly turned to look at Mistress Kalina with a sad look in her eyes.

“Kalina. There was a part of me that died when Farhad passed away.” Mistress Prime’era said gloomily as Mistress Kalina flinched at the name. “There was a part of me that died for every Disciple that I outlived… I was foolish once, Kalina, and I thought that there would come a time when it would get easier… When Atalanta—”

“Mistress… please don’t,” Mistress Kalina implored with a whisper, stepping away in haste and breaking the circle.

Mistress Prime’era was by her side the next moment, holding Mistress Kalina in place by the shoulders.

“No. You need to know this now. The pain of their passing… the pain of her passing… it will never go away. Never. Farhad’s absence hurts me today much the same as it did yesterday and six decades ago. It will hurt me tomorrow and six decades from today, I know that.” Mistress Prime’era’s said, her voice choking with emotion. Mistress Kalina’s legs gave way and she lowered herself onto her chair in silence, as Mistress Prime’era continued.

“But it can get bearable if you start remembering the life they had. Don’t make all that Atalanta was about that single moment where she stopped to be. That’s my advice to you,”

Mistress Kalina’s head was bowed to the floor. Mistress Helfira was looking away, her eyes moist. Tercius and Perdinar stood in silence, politely pretending that nothing was going on and that they weren’t encroaching into what should have been a private affair.

Suddenly Mistress Prime’era turned to Tercius and he saw that her eyes were red.

“I don’t know you well enough, Tercius, to advise you on some personal issue. Almost all that I know of you is from what Perdin’nar and Kalina and Helfira spoke of you,” Mistress Prime’era said, taking her time with the cadence. “But I can speak as a Mentor and tell you what every Mentor I ever spoke to likes to see in a Disciple. Perseverance. Nothing more, nothing less. Persevere and you will succeed.”

Tercius nodded. “Yes, Mistress,”

“With the Rite behind us,” Perdinar said, “we can— actually, I forgot something that I should have explained earlier. Let’s all get back to our seats, no reason for us to stand anymore,”

Tercius threw a single glance at Mistress Kalina when he was seated and he saw that there was a spell there, an extremely unsettling illusion that made her upper face look blurry.

“Tercius. You must have noticed that I am the one mostly speaking during the conversation so far,” Perdinar said.

Tercius cleared his throat. “It did cross my mind a couple of times, Master,”

“That’s because they have chosen me to be their voice here, Tercius,” Perdinar said, “because they need a degree of separation from the proposal that I gave you earlier. They cannot be directly involved nor can they propose something like this as they are the representatives of the governing bodies of our Society and therefore the ones who need to uphold the agreements we Magi have with other groups,”

There was a lull of silence as Tercius shifted on his chair and chewed on the information.

As his doubts and hesitations about these people suddenly gained yet another dimension Tercius almost snorted at the situation. They were covering their tracks through a proxy! Of course they were. Mistress Helfira had been appointed as a member of the Council of the Academy shortly after her rejuvenation. As a Head Archivist, Mistress Kalina was on the Council of the Repository. The only Council left, that he knew of, was the Council of the Pyramid. Mistress Prime'era was the obvious representative. They were the Law and he was to be an… Out/In-Law?

Only now did the weight of their request settle on his shoulders properly. They were asking him to be their spy and action man and even as they gave their proposition they kept their distance from the offer.

What did I expect? This is a job that won’t ever exist on paper.

Tercius could understand what they were asking of him and he could also see why they were doing this as they did. Hells, he could also understand why they needed to cover their tracks. No matter how he tried, he couldn’t find an objective fault with the way they did things.

"Oh," Tercius uttered, unsure what it was that bothered him here, yet his ears heard hammers and felt the heat.

“Now. I asked you earlier if you would agree to Kalina’s complete absence in this venture,” Perdinar said.

“Even if Tercius agrees to it, as his Mentor I will not allow it,” Mistress Kalina said, her voice a bit hoarse and her facial features still blurry.

Tercius took a deep breath. This conversation had too many metaphorical fires in it and he didn’t have enough time to dedicate to one fire when another sprung up and that was what stressed him more than the contents of the fires themselves. He kept wondering if he would miss to analyze something and he could feel a pressure rising. How was he to find the right choice in this complicated mess?

They were still speaking, but Tercius felt the need to leave the room. He couldn't do so physically, he knew. But there was an option he could go for…

And yet he hesitated from calling for the skill, torn between the need to be anywhere else and his desire to lower use of Meditation in situation such as these. He didn’t want to use the skill like some pill, but the situation demanded a cool and collected head.

“I need a few moments,” Tercius said, looking straight at Perdinar’s blue eyes.

The man nodded. “Take your time. We will wait,”

Tercius stood up and left the four Magi behind, making some distance between them and himself. With each step the stones in his lungs became smaller, letting him take his breaths easier. He sat on his bed and looked at the overlapping patterns of the stone bricks, his eyes unblinking.

It was just…

These people… They were making everything very hard for him. He was never a very trustful person, he knew that, preferring the safety of doubts and distance at any time of day, any day of his life. His trust was slow to grow and above all wary, an animal of flickering ears and observant eyes ready to bolt at the first sign of possible betrayal. Everything these people did, everything they were even, was making it so that he was on his toes in their presence, never relaxed, and always ready to flee, despite the firm knowledge that he would not get far away from them.

They were keeping so many things a secret, Hells, most people didn’t even know that they existed.

How was he to work for them if he couldn't trust them?

And how was he to trust them now or ever?

What did this Mistress Prime’era say?

What is trust but faith tested and found unbroken?

Tercius always thought that trust was based on familiarity, but he now wasn’t sure that even with more familiarity he would be able to place his trust in them.

What did that leave him with?

Faith?

Faith had always seemed like a leap that only those who were too lazy or too afraid to question, to poke and prod, and to think things through would take.

He couldn’t poke and prod these people. He couldn’t question them. He could think things through, but everything would be speculation on his part.

So what else but faith did he have left? It did not sit well with him. Not at all.

But right now it didn’t matter what 'sat' well with him. This was a question for later. What he needed to do now was to focus on Rona and Septimus.

Nothing more, nothing less.

Tercius took a couple of deep breaths and decided to take a few moments Meditation moments for himself. Doing it earlier would have been running away. Doing it now was preparation. His head ought to be cool and collected, his emotions placid.

Meditation made his open eyes lose the ability to see the circular room of Tower Black, his ears heard no more of what Perdinar, Prime’era, Helfira, and Kalina spoke, and his nose smelled no longer. Immediately he felt the detachment the skill offered envelop him inside itself and without his hammering heart to spice up his turbulent thoughts, Tercius settled down.

He had no beating heart to listen to here, there were no mages with propositions here, and no pressure of a possible mistake.

At last, peace.

But now he had to return out there.

Yet just as he was to release Meditation Tercius felt a familiar sensation at the back of his mind.

It had been days since he felt the presence of the same thing, ever since he had left Amber with Aurelia back in Nurium. Smidgens of boredom were seeping through the Familiar Bond, and without thinking Tercius latched onto the familiar bond firmly. The spike of joy he felt was poured from his end of the bond before Meditation had the chance to smother it and Amber must have realized that he was there to reply because she promptly, yet tentatively sent something back.

He could almost see her eyes go wide with joy as she started jumping around and searching for him and he jumped at the opportunity to “talk” to her.

A sudden, overwhelming weakness gripped his mind and ripped his focus to tatters as he felt the space of Meditation fall apart. He saw a rotating reality for the briefest of moments before another kind of darkness claimed his consciousness.

***

*****

***

Tercius found himself blinking away at a stone ceiling and breathing out loudly in a cold room that was all too silent.

“He’s awake,” a female voice said.

Four pairs of eyes were suddenly there, looking at him from above. Concern, patience, and curiosity were there, in those eyes, observing him.

“Tercius?” Perdinar asked.

“Yes?” Tercius asked hoarsely, his throat parched. “What happened?”

“You drained yourself,” Perdinar said. “Doing… whatever it is that you did,”

“Oh,”

It was all coming back to him slowly. He remembered that he had communicated with Amber for a few moments and then… he woke up here on his comfortable bed, the one that he used for the past week, surrounded by four mages.

His arms, legs, and head could barely move. His eyes refused to remain open and he was oh so cold. If his past experiences were anything to go by then he was low on Energy.

Long-distance communication is costly.

He didn’t want to sleep and recuperate now, not when there were four mages at arm's length speaking something to him which he had trouble hearing, but his body was refusing to listen to him. He could maybe go and harvest some Energy, but… the mages were here.

With a sigh, Tercius gave up the struggle and let his eyelids fall.

***

*****

***

It took Kalina a while to compose herself, even after the brief scare she had for Tercius. The manipulation, the advice, the betrayal, all of it had made her too emotional.

“What do you think he was doing that drained him?” Mistress Prime asked, puffing a cloud of smoke around her pipe.

Master Perdin’nar released a cloud of his own as he shook his head, flooding their part of the room with even more smoke.

“I felt no outside effects manifest,” Helfira said around her pipe, the special herbs that Mistress Prime shared earlier burning slowly.

Kalina wanted to say her own opinion, but as she opened her mouth the smoke rushed in, and started coughing. Kalina frowned at the amused eyes looking at her and then used a spell to guide the smoke away from her and with a second thought she included the sleeping Tercius.

Even though they were burning the leaves of Healifirmia, which was found to have a positive influence on the lungs, the bloodstream, and even made a person calmer when inhaled, Kalina still found the smoke irritating.

“Neither did I,” she said. “So it stands to reason that he drained himself with a self-affecting skill of some kind. A skill that can drain a lot of mana quickly…”

The smokers nodded their heads slowly, their pipes lighting up as the packed leaves sizzled with embers.

“You are right, Kalina. The mana that I glimpsed at that moment… I don’t think I’ve seen that specific kind of mana before.” Mistress Prime said, her eyes narrow. “I’m not sure, for I had only a moment to observe, but I think I saw his brain lit up…”

“That’s not the important part here, Prime’era,” Master Perdin’nar said, using the narrow pipe end to point at the three of them, Kalina included. “The boy had reached for that calming skill of his. I felt it.”

There was silence.

“This was too much too soon for him,” Master Perdin’nar said. “I misjudged. I had hoped that he had accustomed himself to me, to us. Then again, it might not be as I think it is at all. The boy has a rather strong inhibition when in front of strangers, so it might be that Prime’era presence was what proved to be too much.”

Kalina nodded.

“But it still needs to be addressed…” Mistress Prime said. “We can not leave this unfinished,”

“We will get to it in good time,” Master Perdin’nar nodded. “For now I’m proposing that we put a temporary hold on further discussion of this. You don’t want to push Tercius away, do you? Then spend some time with him, for him to get to know you better and set his mind at ease. Be honest, always, even if it is brutal to be so. Do not ever, under any circumstances, lie to him. If you can’t speak of something, say that you can’t speak. Tercius can understand that.”

They sat in silence for a while, digesting Master Perdin’nar’s advice, the light in the room kept low.

Eventually, Kalina looked at Mistress Prime. "Mistress… Why did you request the Master to ask Tercius to consider that I don't go with him?"

Mistress Prime shook her head. “I did not. That was not one of mine,”

After a moment where she considered that Kalina's green eyes turned to Helfira.

“The request was mine,” Helfira admitted.

Kalina’s eyebrows rose as she came to consider this Grand-Disciple of hers. “Yours?”

Helfira shrugged. “I had the idea to take Tercius as my Disciple in a few cycles. Then you came to my doorstep, Mistress, and said everything that you’ve said so I had to give that up. I just had to know that you would protect the boy without a doubt. Now that I have my answer, I wish to retract my request, Master Perdin’nar,”

Kalina shook her head in disbelief.

Mistress Prime looked at Kalina, smoke streaming out of her nose. “Regardless of who spoke it or why it was said, it is now known and it stands plain to see that the proposal is a sensible one. Extremely so. You will just weigh the boy down, Kalina. Your ability to hide from mortal eyes may be passable, but when it comes to hiding from Spirits you are a novice. If you were to involve yourself you would be found…”

Kalina inhaled. “But Mistress…”

“I don’t know why all of you persist in speaking of this,” Master Perdin’nar blew out a cloud with almost every word spoken. “That is his private matter and one that Tercius will be the one to decide on.”

***

*****

***

When Tercius woke up he found his room enveloped in a light layer of a fog of some kind, kept away from his bed by some kind of a shifting curtain that split the room in half.

“What the Hells?” he murmured with narrow eyes, as pangs of hunger growled from his stomach. He was pretty sure that that had not been there…

“He’s awake,” Mistress Kalina said, standing up from a chair on the other side of the room.

Three more figures moved in the fog, one of them opening the window to the sounds of the torrential rain and waving a hand. Suddenly there was a breeze that raked the fog into a sphere on a waiting palm, a palm that promptly tossed the sphere outside and closed the window. Tercius saw something that looked like a smoking pipe disappear from Mistress Helfira’s hands.

“Tercius,” Perdinar said. “How are you feeling?”

“Fine,” he said, glancing at Mistress Prime’era who arrived last to his bed. “Master,”

“I tell you to work hard and what do you do?” Mistress Helfira asked with a teasing smile. “You fall asleep,”

“I fell asleep because I listened to your advice, Mistress,” Tercius said, slowly getting up. “The body needs rest and recuperation before hard work,”

Mistress Prime’era cleared her throat. “Tercius. I won’t be able to seal your Well in the next day or so. The shock of complete drainage will make the organ much more magically active so we will have to wait before we begin anything,”

“Oh,”

“We can spend some time getting to know each other until then,” Mistress Prime’era said, her warm blue eyes smiling at him kindly.

“Oh.”

Tercius suppressed a sigh. What is it with people wanting to get to know him? Can someone, for a change, just ignore him?