“But why do we have nakie buns?” Talo was more than a little cautious of the naked old man in front of him.

“Marquis Huritt, if we are to bond to the fullest, it’s best that we let little come between us. Also, do you know the word naked? I’m worried about the vocabulary those maids have left you with.” Brother Caloner tried to wrap up his conversation with Talo, but the conversation unexpectedly stalled. After being briefed on the sensitive nature of the tutoring offer, he readily took the position. Being so closely connected to the future Grand Duke of the West could only help someone. At least it’s better than being stuck in the monastery, thought Caloner.

“I don’t trust old men who want to be naked with young boys.” Talo did his best to keep the waters of the palace baths completely still. He found that he was nearly capable floating in air, but he wasn’t sure how he would fare in water. And seriously, am I supposed to learn from a 350 year old pedophile?

“Haaaahaaa,” laughed Caloner with one eyebrow raised. “With that I certainly believe you’re an adult stuck in a child’s body. No one in their right mind would teach you about child abuse. Plus you think far too little of me, or perhaps even far too much about yourself?” Caloner went deeper into the bath where he could swim, and gestured his arm around the room. “First, you’re surrounded by no less than a handmaiden, steward, and at least six guards that I can detect. How foolish would I be to commit a capital crime in front of them?”

I have six guards following me? I had no idea, and I still can’t sense them, worried Talo.

“Secondly, just because I’ve been celibate for the last 330 years doesn’t make me a homosexual pedophile. No real follow up on that one, I just want to make sure you realize there’s no correlation. I wonder, was the world you’re from over sexualized, or full of sexual predators?” It hadn’t even occurred to Caloner that this would be an issue, but it’s all the boy wanted to talk about since he suggested they retire to the baths together.

“Finally, I really did want to come to the baths. I’m an old man and the warm water is relaxing to my bones. Mind magic is a tricky thing. The more we know each other, the better. The less guarded you are, the better. If you are able to completely suppress your mental resistance, there is little chance of there being undesirable after effects. The more you resist, the harder it will be on both of us.”

I’m still not certain he’s not a perv. I’m still missing every tenth word. He was definitely staring at my crotch when we took—

“That was because of your unusual size,” managed Caloner through a chuckle. “It’s a good thing your face is so easy to read.” With that Caloner went to the edge of the bath and got out. He made a sign with his hands and his whole body flashed in a green light.

Did he just—

“Yes, I just dried myself off. You’ve got to learn to control your expressions. Now come here and help me.” As Talo exited the pool, his handmaiden Paquine handed him a towel for his face. She began to use another towel to wipe him down.

“I wanna learn thata way,” announced Talo while pointing at Caloner.

“Then help me cast this salt into the pool. We won’t get anywhere if you have the vocabulary of a four year-old.” Brother Caloner held a thick black bag with a coarse cobalt blue powder inside. Without bothering to put his robes back on, he began strewing the powder into the pool. As he reached the corner of the bath, he stopped to turn and glare at Talo.

Well here goes nothing, thought Talo. He went over and began to walk the perimeter of the bath while tossing the salt as far as he could. This is actually kind of fun, he mused. “What is this stuff?”

“It’s the ground bone marrow of Angond’s Doves. They’re a divine bird. It will help us turn the bath into holy water.”

“We turn the whole pool into spirit water?”

“No, I will turn the whole pool into holy water. You will just help me throw a conductor into the water. Should I explain this now or later…. Do you understand what conduction is?”

“Like with lightening!” Talo spent a great deal of time figuring out this world’s knowledge of electricity. He found it sadly lacking, but it at least improved his vocabulary somewhat.

“Yes quite, though not the normal way people associate the word…. Anyway, pure water is a very good insulator from all forms of energy. But the moment you add the right impurities, it becomes a conductor to a great many things. This is why we call water the mirror of the soul. In this case, we are making it a conductor for divine power.”

“Insuulater?” asked Talo. Damn, that’s a word I missed. Stupid backwards language. I—

“No need to get so upset. The word is ‘insulator,’ but your language problem is exactly what we’re trying to fix. On a normal child, this process tends to be quite dangerous. The Northern Republic did some…questionable tests that showed the damage inversely correlated with vocabulary. If what you say is true, then the risk should be minimal.”

Talo stopped. I have a bad feeling that I’m about to be a human lab rat again, he thought.

“Look at you; you’re shaking. I promise to be careful as possible. Why don’t you get into the shallow end and try to relax?” Caloner did his best to be disarming. He closed his eyes for a bit, and a blue glow danced about his feet. With a smile he strode across the top of the water and emptied the remainder of the bag into the middle of the pool.

Talo tried to follow what the old man was doing, but couldn’t understand most of the content. Caloner wasn’t, after all, trained to actually teach elementary students. Then Caloner started chanting and pacing around the top of the water in odd pattern. Slowly, the whole pool illuminated with a clear light.

When the water became bright enough that it was slightly uncomfortable to the eyes, Caloner called to Talo, “It’s time to actually start some mind magic. Try to completely relax. I need you to be awake for this to work, but when you feel my energy, do not fight me.”

Caloner blinked, and the light from under his feet vanished. He swam over to Talo and palpated around the boy’s skull. “Try to focus on your language, was it?” Caloner finally rested his hands outside Talo’s temporal lobes.

Again, Caloner began chanting in a language Talo didn’t understand, and a pleasant warmth emitted from his hands. The toddler immediately began to spasm. “Shhhh... calm down, let the mana come over you.”

Talo started to feel drunk. It was similar to the feeling he recieved when he breastfed. Then images started to flow through his mind. At first he tried to slow them down and focus on them.

“No, no, just let the information flow.” Images came faster and faster as Talo learned to relax. Then a photo stopped. Oddly, it was on a picture of Carli working on the lab bench right next to Talo. Then the flow of images reversed.

Pictures of things Talo had never seen before were going through his head. He suddenly knew that a ferratus was a half-demon whose skin could be hard like iron. He didn’t know why the image of the one he saw looked like a supermodel. Talo found his nose bleeding as the information began to pour quicker. A migraine like feeling began to build up.

“Again, try to hold on. We’re almost there, ignore the pain.”

Now it was a full on migraine. Talo began to think he’d do almost anything to make it stop. The images were slowing down. Some were blurred or incomplete. Then they stopped, and he saw white.

“”

“”

“I suppose I should stop talking in Want you to have practice, after all. Though at some point I want to discuss You should find that Axculi feels like a language you used to know well, but are out of practice. Similar to information you once studied and used regularly, but thirty years passed since you last used it.”

“”

“Why would I want to punch you in the head? I thought you had a headache?”

“”

“Oh that much is easy. Just look into the light and… well I guess it works faster with younger patients.”

Brother Caloner carried Talo over to Paquine and said, “Please don’t tell his mother.”