I clearly shouldn't be talking to people right now, so I head home before I can say anything else stupid. John carries me as I stare off into the distance. I know I have to tell Reena, and ask about what we should do. I speak to her briefly on the trip home, and as horrible as the thought is, I ask if the best choice would be to try and make him forget. I know how absurdly dangerous it is, anyone knowing they could kill the goddess through me.

However, she just says that his mana affinity is far too high for that, even if we did decide to do something so terrible. I'm... actually glad it isn't even an option. I spend the rest of the trip home apologizing to her for letting that slip, but she just sighs and tells me there's nothing to do for it, and to be more careful in the future. At least Eryk is good at keeping secrets.

When I finally do get home, I go upstairs and flop down on my bed. Then I stare at the ceiling for a while, only coming out of my mindless trance when the tenth bell rings. Right, I do still have things I have to do...

The rest of the night passes in a blur. Everything from my homework, to Emily and the magical creatures meeting in the forest, to my brief interactions with Zoe and Ami when I go downstairs for dinner. They spend the entire time staring worriedly at me, Zoe continuously distancing herself from the energetic Ami.

Thankfully, I've sort of recovered from the shock by the next morning, when nothing further has happened to any of the magical creatures. I warn them to be extra careful today as I hug Emily tight, then wave goodbye to Marrianne, Kerra, Noria, and Ella.

On the trip to work, I'm so quiet compared to yesterday, John makes a comment about it, and rubs my head for a while.

"Aria," Eryk says shortly after I sit down in his office. I cringe a little at his direct tone, but he clearly catches that and puts his hands up to calm me down. He considers something for just a moment, sending a wary glance around his empty office. It's just the two of us, John's standing outside to wait for Claire to arrive.

Whatever it is, it must be really secret, because he walks around his desk, puts a hand on my wrist, and taps his head. Nodding, I form a telepathic connection, but he shakes his head and silently tells me to use soul telepathy instead. My nod is more reluctant this time, before I do as he asks. After everything we talked about yesterday, I'm a little scared of getting a look into his head. Everything he already knows.

"Alright," he thinks to me once I let him know I'm done. I can already start to feel bits of what he's about to say as his soul moves with his gathering thoughts. "You really freaked out yesterday after you told me Reena is risking her life for you, so I just wanted to help you calm down. Remember, you didn't say anything about how she's risking her life for you. I can't share a secret I don't know, so that should help, right?"

He's right, isn't he? He doesn't know anything about the vulnerability of her soul because it's in me. Of course, as I consider his words, I can also feel the guesses that surface in his mind. He knows she taught me soul magic for telepathy, and that I use it to talk to her through my mark, so she must have part of her soul inside me. Because of that, he thinks that might be it, that I'm endangering her soul. His other best guess has to do with her possibly watching over me with her actual body, which might be dangerous for such a weak goddess.

Eryk's too smart, his first guess is perfect, even without all the information... But of course he doesn't actually mention this to me, I'm only picking up on it because talking about this is bringing it to his mind. He doesn't know I know what he's thinking here, so I make sure not to say anything to confirm it.

As for his other guess... he might have a point there too. She did show up at the orphanage the one time when she gave me that premonition, so maybe she is still around somewhere...

I take some time to consider all of that, before giving him my answer. "Thanks a lot, Eryk. That actually helps a lot. You're right, you can't share a secret you don't actually know." I don't even need to use words to ask him not to share anything else about Reena outside of our little group.

He already knows not to, so he just nods slightly, and I can actually feel him filing away the information on Reena right next to him knowing magic now, with the things he's absolutely not going to mention ever again.

But then his mind catches, just for an instant, on one of those other thoughts. It's just Beth, and some sort of hot feeling. Some kind of desire I'm not familiar with. Then it's gone. What was that feeling, and why is he hiding it so deeply...? Alongside crazy secrets like magic and knowledge of dangers to the gods themselves? It doesn't really fit...

No no no. Whatever it is, it's clear he's decided never to tell anyone about it, so I put it from my mind. It's not something I'm supposed to know, and I feel bad just for seeing it. This is why I'm so unsure of soul telepathy, I feel like I see things I'm not supposed to...

I draw back out of his soul, then break the contact. "Thanks Eryk," I say quietly. At least that helps with one of my big problems right now. I'm still not sure about the other problem, but Avara and the others tell me they'll deal with it, and tell me to focus on my classes for now. "Mmm... Fine, I'll try," I answer them.

I'm still a bit off throughout the day, and I'm sure Claire notices, but she doesn't say anything, because at least I'm able to keep most of my concentration on the lesson, and we get a lot further than yesterday.

Like she said, we keep focusing on history as she works her way through the biggest events of The Age of Heroes. But first, she scolds me when, despite reading through my homework last night, I can't actually recall a lot of it when we go over it. So she has to take me back through in more detail, her stern voice filling in the parts where my distracted memory fails.

It was actually unrelated to our current topic, talking about The Liantran Ascendance instead. It was pretty light on details since most everything from back in The Ancient Times has been lost, but it did talk about Liantra, the first queen. Apparently, she was some sort of incredible woman who single-handedly convinced all the scattered northern tribes to join together under her command.

How she managed that is a mystery lost to time, but Claire assumes she did it through her powerful personality and strong leadership, since those are the things she's still known for. However, soon after she stopped their infighting and formed the country Liantra, they ran into trouble, trying to survive against the hostile magical creatures that also lived up in the freezing north with them.

According to Claire, most of Liantra is colder than the coldest days in winter here, all year round. I'm not really sure how cold that is since I'm not familiar with winter, but I keep it in mind.

The solution to the problem, which threatened to wipe out the Liantran people, was the premonition Arcanas gave Liantra.

"W-wait," I cut in at that part while she's re-explaining things. "I'm sorry, I thought..." I squint, the memory coming back a bit fuzzy. I heard about this at some point, but... it's definitely different. "I thought Saras was the one that gave Liantra that vision," I finally say.

Claire frowns, staying like that briefly as she thinks, head tilted slightly, then takes the papers I gave back to her and scans through them, eyes searching the text until she finds what she's looking for.

"Ah, my apologies, it was Saras," she says flatly, before looking back up at me, still with a bit of a frown on her face, but I don't think it's directed at me this time. "Let this be a lesson. Merely recalling things orally, repeatedly passing them down through the ages, some of the information is bound to change, or be forgotten." She taps on the paper a couple times to make her point.

Right, that's why writing is so important. Written documents don't mess up like people's memories do.

"Anyway, let us move on..." With that, we get back into it. After the premonition, Liantra saved the lost baby wyvern, and used that to form an alliance with Harmonia, the leader of the flying wyverns, mother of the baby Liantra saved.

I try not to show my shock when she says that. Because Harmonia is one of our divine armaments. Being a set of wings and coming from the name of the leader of the flying wyverns, it's not hard to see how Rostor came up with that one...

I push those thoughts quickly aside and keep listening. With their alliance secured, they were finally able to defend themselves from the dangerous magical creatures around them and carve out a place for themselves.

"That covers the basics," Claire says. "Being the first large country to rise, later historians decided to name the events 'The Liantran Ascendance.'

"Huh..." I mumble, staring at the table as I process that. So that's where all those names come from, people just deciding on them after the fact... We briefly go over a few related things, the more long-lasting effects, and there are really only two big things that she points out.

To my surprise, the concept of nobility was actually invented in Liantra, along with the nobles getting two names instead of one. Apparently, the handful of stories that made their way out of the country in the millennium between its founding and the countries that came after, led to them trying to mimic Liantra's success, which is why we have nobles with two names now.

Wow, I never would have thought about that...

"Now," Claire huffs, "time to get to your actual lesson." While I'm silently apologizing across the table for the extra time she had to take to go over my homework, she gets into slightly more modern history. "The Melphiran Revolution," she says pointedly, reminding me again how unfocused I was yesterday.

Thankfully, I'm much better today. Picking up where yesterday left off, she talks about Melphor, how he kept being displaced as every town he moved to was conquered by the Fornan kingdom, before Bromun took the throne and changed the name. She takes a moment to point out that as far as historical records say, Bromun returned to the capital immediately after he finished taking the last of the land to the south, and that's when he took over the country.

From then on, he sat comfortably on the throne while the kingdom prospered, until dying at the age of sixty. "You're too young to understand, but living to sixty years old is pretty amazing, even today," she tells me. "Back then, it was basically a miracle." I... guess she's right. I can't even really imagine how old that is. How old was Mister Fredricson when he died?

"In any case, the death of Bromun created the instability Melphor needed. You see, being forced to flee over and over instilled in him a deep hatred for Bromunst. As soon as word of the king's death arrived in the southern reaches of the kingdom, Melphor rose to power. He called on all the people subjugated by the kingdom, and launched a massive rebellion."

She goes on, talking about different places where the revolutionary war started up, and a few of the key battles, and big events, like the siege of Fulin. It was the largest fortress city in the southeastern section of Terna, where Melphor used a number of powerful heroes to hold the city against Bromunst forces for two full years. She mentions that after the war, it actually became Melphira's capital.

Going on from there, she touches on a few other things, like how the war basically revolved around the balance between Bromunst's larger military and better supplies, and Melphira's reliance on heroes, who appeared to be somewhat more common here than in Bromunst, and the locals in each area they moved to throughout the war.

The revolution lasted for about fifteen years, but Melphor actually died in battle just before Bromunst recalled its forces. It was Melphor's son, Herrick, that became the first king of the free country, even if all the historical records list Melphor as the first king. I sit and think about that a bit after she tells me. So, Herrick didn't change the name of the country or anything when he became the first king? He let it stay under Melphor's name because he was the main person who won the country's independence?

With all of that, I ask a few more questions, like some about Melphor.

"Was Melphor a hero? He had a bunch fighting for him, and I've heard stories about how amazing he was leading people into battle," I mention, remembering Catherine, the divine armament based on his power and leadership.

But to my surprise, Claire answers, "No. Melphor was not a hero. He never showed any abilities surpassing those of an ordinary man. What he was, was a peerless public speaker and leader. There are numerous written accounts of his speeches pulling entire armies back from the brink of ruin."

"Oh, wow..."

With a pleased smile, Claire explains, "I'm sure some are exaggerated for effect, but quite a few of them make for very good reading." I nod slowly, sure that she'll give me some of that eventually, whenever I'm actually good enough to read them.

Shortly after, the fifth bell rings, and it's time for lunch. And once again, it's more of the same. Carefully eating under Claire and Eryk's watching eyes, avoiding one more food in this one that feels off. I do a few momentary check-ins on the forest, as I have been whenever my mind wandered throughout the morning, but so far, nothing has happened.

Then we return to the back room for my afternoon classes. These shift focus from Melphira to Eschalle, which was founded right around the same time, during the Melphiran Revolution. She lectures about how Eschalle used his massive fortune to buy out all the kings around him. I'm already kind of familiar with this from when we talked about it before, so it goes by pretty quick.

Claire makes mention of him being a genius inventor and his work with metals, noting that it's particularly relevant to me, working here and all. I just nod to that part. Actually, why hasn't Claire ever said it's wrong for me to work here? Not about to bring that up in the middle of the lesson, I just let it go and continue paying attention.

Once she's covered his rise to power and creation of his country, Claire starts in on how he developed new, more advanced weapons using the new metals he produced, which Eschalle began to sell to Bromunst. And how their new edge reignited the war with Melphira.

It's right at that point, that we reach the eighth bell, and she sighs slightly. She seemed really excited talking all the way through those huge historical events, so now she seems a bit put out, not getting to finish. "Alright, we'll need to get to The Long War tomorrow," she says. "Here's your homework for tonight."

When I glance at the papers, the very first sheet is immediately recognizable as math. "I want you to read and try to understand the mathematical principles outlined here. You may need to reread sections multiple times before you fully comprehend them, alright?"

"Yes," I respond, nodding strongly. "I'll do my best." New math is always exciting!