Nathaniel accompanied Vance to the city lord's home. True to their word, the Sellanions had already presented themselves the day prior and Vance had been summoned as a result. Along the way, Nathaniel explained that Vance and James were to be called separately to provide their own testimonies. Vance was the first to go.

They travelled by Carriage, and when they arrived, Vance used his mana sense to get a lay of the land. Had he not already known their destination, he'd have probably been able to intuit roughly where he was based on the sheer number of personnel attending the area and the imposing gate out front.

As they got closer, Vance began to pick up on several mana constructs that had been set up on the premises. The largest was some sort of defensive construct on the gate. He became aware of several others scattered around the grounds. He didn't linger long enough to figure out their precise functions.

Vance heard several sets of footsteps approaching the cart as a handful of the on-duty guardsman came to verify their identities. With minimal fuss, Nathaniel escorted Vance inside for his audience with the city lord.

Going in, Vance wasn't as nervous as he'd expected. More and more, he was finding himself in the presence of important people. Slowly, he was getting used to it. Even so, Vance reigned in his mana sense. He didn't want to split his attention during his first meeting with such an important figure.

"Vance, I'd like to introduce Victor Oscillious, city lord of Vereece. My lord, this is Vance Kalliea, ward of my household. If I'm not mistaken, this is your first meeting." Nathaniel gave introductions and guided Vance to a seat in the room.

"It is indeed, Lord McKinnley. It's a pleasure, Vance. It's a shame we didn't meet under more pleasant circumstances. I've heard a story or two about you."

His voice was light, which caught Vance off guard. He'd expected a powerful, commanding tone. Nevertheless, Vance could hear the seriousness behind the pleasantries.

"The pleasure is mine, My lord. I hope the stories you've heard aren't too bad."

"A young, blind boy turns up in our college with little to no training and subdues a powerful, largely unexplored magical artefact at great personal risk to prevent a fire from consuming the campus. Then, not long after, that same boy outperforms students that are over a year ahead of him during an examination." Victor recited as if he was reading a report from his desk. For all Vance knew at the moment, he might be doing just that.

"Not a bad icebreaker. It's the sort of story that gets people talking," Victor said, through a smile. "Though, it seems that all of this success was interrupted on a few occasions by less favourable events. Those are what we are here to talk about today. Shall we get down to business?"

"Yes, My lord."

"Excellent, then I would like to hear your testimony regarding the Sellanion family. Specifically, I wish to hear from you regarding Duncan."

Vance explained in as best detail as he could the encounters that he'd had with Duncan since his arrival at the college. His savage first encounter, their unpleasant first conversation and the subsequent visit to apologise. Special detail was afforded to the encounter he and James had with Duncan's hired goons.

When he went over it all, Vance considered that as a whole, he had absolutely no idea who Duncan really was. Outside of hostilities, plots and hearsay, the two had never really interacted. Vance filed that thought away for later.

Vance could hear someone else in the room as he spoke. The scratching sound told him that somebody was writing down his testimony. That gave Vance cause to reactivate his mana sense a little, just enough to cover the room.

Sure enough, there was somebody in the corner writing away. There was also somebody standing perfectly still behind the city lord, coated in metal mana. Vance paid the guard no attention and finished telling his side of the story.

Once Vance finished, Victor allowed a few seconds for the scribe to catch up, then spoke.

"Your testimony matches the one provided by Duncan and his father. There is, of course, the added complexity of the situation surrounding Leslie Sellanion, but in place of her presence and any actionable information, we will be focusing on the events already discussed. I still have a testimony to take from James McKinnley."

Vance could sense that the meeting was coming to an end. So, according to tradition, this was when he was supposed to step in. For just a moment, Vance was conflicted. Thinking back on past events made him want to clamp his mouth shut. Instead, he focused on the reality of the situation and continued as planned, taking a deep breath.

"My lord, if I may, I'd like to ask for Lenience for the Sellanion family. Lord McKinnley has already determined that their actions were influenced by dark mana. As far as I'm concerned, people should never be punished for something they can't control. Besides, they've already taken steps to make amends."

Vance had thought up this little speech a while ago after Thomas had initially told him about this whole routine. As he spoke, he found the words to be truer than he expected. The part about being punished for things outside of your control was something that he felt especially passionate about.

"Very well. So long as no other testimony contradicts your own and James agrees, I will take your request into account as we proceed." Vance could hear just how many times Victor had been through a similar circumstance just from that one perfectly delivered sentence.

With that, Nathaniel and Vance said their goodbyes to the city lord. Just before they left, the city lord perked up.

"By the way, Nathaniel, How goes the search?" Victor's tone was off. There was concern woven in, which Vance picked up on. Clearly, this was personal.

"Nothing new, My lord," Nathaniel replied. Vance could hear a hint of worry in Nathaniel's voice that hadn't been there up until now.

Once they were back in the carriage, Vance asked the question on his mind.

"What search was the city lord asking about?"

Nathaniel sighed. A few seconds passed where the quiet was filled only with the sounds of hooves and wooden wheels against cobblestones.

"The night that we searched for Leslie, my nephew Niall went missing. Ordinarily, he works at our exhibit. Alongside my search for Leslie, I've been trying to find him, too. I haven't found anything yet to suggest that he was harmed, but that's precisely what concerns me. There are worse things than violence when a demon is involved. I'm surprised that James hasn't told you about this already."

Vance was surprised, too. James wasn't the sort of person to just ignore something like this. Vance already knew that James wasn't a huge fan of Niall, but this didn't seem like the sort of thing you keep secret.

"I suppose him not telling you is probably my fault. I expressly forbid him from participating in the search for Niall in case my worst-case scenario theory was correct. As I'm sure you have surmised by now, I theorise that he may have actually been taken by the demon. In which case, finding him would be a death sentence for a young boy like James, or yourself. I told him as much. Perhaps he thought it'd be safer for you if you didn't know."

Nathaniel was quiet for a moment.

"Can I help? I know I can't fight a demon, but perhaps I could help you find one?" Vance asked, quietly. He sounded unsure like he didn't know if he was allowed to ask.

Nathaniel sighed again, this time with a tiny chuckle. "I'd wager that your eagerness to help is precisely the reason why James didn't tell you. I've already thought about that. Your mana sense is far too close-ranged, you'd be right up on them before you realised you found them. The demon could have its claws in you in an instant. I will not allow such a risk."

"Actually, that's not quite right. Recently, my mana sense has expanded a lot." Vance did his best not to sound proud. He failed.

"How much is 'a lot'?" Nathaniel eventually asked. The extended silence before he spoke told a story of how uncomfortable even considering this made him.

"I'm not exactly sure. Let me try."

Vance rested his head in his hands, quieted his fire core and focused. He swept his mana sense out of the carriage and into the area around him. Through the open air, it spread out freely and began seeping into the nearby buildings that littered either side of the street.

Vance heard Nathaniel knock twice on the wood of the carriage, causing the driver to bring it to a standstill. Vance spent a long moment working through the huge pile of information that he'd dived into.

"I can sense six buildings near us. None are particularly large. One of them does stand out a little, though. To our left, there's quite a lot of natural fire mana concentrated at a few points throughout one of the rooms. They're bigger than candles and are surrounded by natural metal mana. I think it might be a bakery or something. There are two people inside. One is loading wood into one of the things that I assume is an oven, the other is sitting downstairs behind a counter."

Vance continued to provide Nathaniel with a stream of the things he could identify in their environment. One by one, he gave descriptions of each of the buildings nearby as best he could. He based his findings on the composition and configuration of natural mana he could sense in the environment, pointing out objects and headcounts as he went. Experimentally, Vance pushed his sense further past the buildings in one direction and reached a distance of around 200 feet before he started to feel some serious strain.

Once Vance was finished, he heard Nathaniel excuse himself briefly from the carriage. A few minutes later, he returned, excited.

"Nearly everything you said was spot on." Nathaniel was quite obviously pleased. "Well done, Vance. You've made quite the improvement."

"Thanks." Vance gave it just a moment before asking, "So, can I help?"

"Absolutely not. It's far too dangerous for me to have you trying to track down a demon, even if you can stay half a street away. However, I would ask you to keep your sense open as often as you can. If by chance you should catch something out of the ordinary, do not hesitate to inform me."

Vance lowered his head in a half-nod, half dejected bow. He was disappointed, but he understood. More than once, Vance had thrown himself into dangerous situations and walked away almost entirely on luck. That being the case, he knew to listen when Nathaniel told him not to interfere.

Vance felt a hand rest on his shoulder.

"It's not because I don't think you can help. It's because I don't want to see you come to any harm." Nathaniel reassured.

"I know." Vance nodded. "I'll do as you ask."

"Good. As it is, we wouldn't even know where to send you if we did want to ask for your services. I doubt the beast remains within the city. For a while now, the search has been expanded to surrounding towns. Unless you can cover an area that wide, you'd be searching just like the rest of us."

That last part made Vance feel a bit better. At least it was a factor other than his own lack of ability that excused his inactivity.

The two resumed their journey to the McKinnley household, chatting about the state of Nathaniel's search on the way. Vance's first question was why nobody was talking about Niall having gone missing. As it turned out, Niall was something of an introvert. Nearly all of his time was spent inside the McKinnley vault. Only those few who frequently visited the place even really knew he existed.

Nathaniel and his team were also actively trying to keep the search out of the hands of the public, concerned that if someone did actually uncover the demon and was not properly prepared, it would probably lead to a massacre. At first, Nathaniel had been hesitant in including even the guards in further searches, but he was convinced that they'd need the manpower.

Nathaniel had been sweeping the city and calling out to contacts in other nearby parts, looking for signs of Niall, but had so far come up empty. Nathaniel's brother Nicholas was Niall's father and lived in a town called Raeton, a few weeks north of here.

According to Nathaniel, Nicholas would be in town at some point in the next few days to join in the investigation and would be staying at the McKinnley household. Vance wasn't sure if he'd get much of a chance to meet the man, considering the situation.

Nathaniel was grave when he admitted that at this point in the search, he was no longer particularly hopeful of finding Niall alive. To Vance, this further explained Nathaniel's reluctance to add any more risk to the situation. It was on that sour note that they arrived back at the manor.

Once they got back home, James took Vance's place on the carriage and went with Nathaniel up to the city lord's home while Vance waited back at the manor with Maddison. Vance opted to avoid immediately questioning the other McKinnleys on the subject of Niall.

He expected that Nathaniel would be telling James that he'd brought Vance into the know. Vance figured he'd hear from James when he was ready.

In the meantime, Vance had some very specific practice that he wanted to get to. In truth, he welcomed something to get his mind off of the gloomy subjects of the day.

He went into the garden and found a large, open space. Sitting on the grass. Vance had yet another test for his newfound willpower. In his right hand, Vance slowly gathered earth mana. In his left hand, he gathered water mana. He let them hover as largely shapeless, amorphous masses above his palms. For thirty seconds or so, he managed to hold the two shifts simultaneously without too much trouble. After that, a smile crept onto his face and he lost his control over one of them. This result was already much better than before.

Over the course of the day, thirty seconds became a minute, a minute became two and two eventually became five. After a while, he swapped water out for metal mana to make things more difficult, setting his time back a minute or two. He spent a little time between practice wandering around, stretching his legs and grinning like an idiot. Although he was delighted with his success, he still had a few serious thoughts on his mind.

Aside from the concerns of the world around him, if he continued at this rate of improvement, he would soon be in a position to attempt to form his second mana core. It seemed that with a more powerful will, things like this became much, much easier.

Vance was most intimately familiar with metal mana, so that was close to the top of his list of second core candidates, but he'd recently come into possession of an advanced mana shift and Vance would be lying if he said he wasn't intrigued by the prospect of a wood mana core. Water and earth each had their uses but the first two had a particular allure to him.

Vance pondered his options deep into the evening. To his surprise, he didn't hear from James for the rest of the day. Opting to give it some more time, Vance went into his room for the evening and took a meal in private before going to bed.

Vance slept soundly that night until at some point, he was suddenly startled awake. With a deep breath, he jumped as if somebody had touched him unexpectedly, scurrying backwards in the bed and cast out his mana sense, looking for an intruder.

He found nothing. The room was empty and he sensed no shifted mana, no constructs and no mana membranes nearby. He cast out towards the window, discovering that it was closed, as was the door. The only sounds he was aware of was the light drizzle of rain tapping against the window and his own breathing.

Vance was filled with unease, though couldn't attribute it to anything in particular. He gave himself a once over searching for spiders or another annoying creature that could've fallen on him. Once again, nothing.

In his paranoid moment, he even checked inwards. He found no disturbances, intrusions or abnormal mana. The only thing even slightly out of the ordinary is that he hadn't filled his fire core back to capacity before bed, so it remained at a quiet simmer. There was nothing particularly strange about that, and he'd done so a handful of times in the past with no adverse effects.

He cast his mana sense through the whole manor a few times, each time turning up more and more nothing. Eventually, he put it down to a nightmare or something and laid back down to go to sleep.

Unusually wakeful, Vance found that sleep eluded him for the rest of the night. Instead, he spent his time in quiet practice, filling up his fire core again and being careful not to disturb the rest of the household. If he would be denied sleep, he would not be denied progress.