Derek and his Grandfather returned to the Academy just in time for supper. The two were greeted by Rebekah and Eona when they arrived. The two women’s eyes locked on the bloody and scorched clothes they were wearing. Derek smiled at his mother as she habitually delved him for injuries. It felt nice to have someone concerned about him. Hugging her gently, he did his best to soothe her. “I am fine, mother. I wasn’t hurt.”

Rebekah had gotten a hold of her husband at the same time. She was scolding him within a sound barrier so their grandson couldn’t hear it. The old man just smiled at his wife and placated her. Derek could sense the love between the two even in this disharmonious situation. As Rebekah worked herself up and tears started to form in her eyes, the old man finally reached around her arms to hug her and brought her to him to kiss her.

Her half hearted effort to push him off with her fists only managing to make the two seem to be decades younger than they were. Finally, as the two leaned into the hug, the tension drained out of Derek’s grandmother and she let the sound barrier drop. She turned to her grandson and reached over to him so he walked over to give her a hug too. As she held him close she whispered to him, “Boy, you are the spitting image of your father at your age and you two got your adventurous traits from this foolish old man. You need to be more careful. You two could have been killed today and where would that leave me and your mother?”

Seeing the hurt in the two women’s eyes Derek knew today’s events had worried them greatly. He sighed. He wanted to be a questing knight when he grew older and he knew that to a questing knight days like this would be common. His path would be fraught with danger. He knew this meant that the future would only hold more worry for them, but his every fiber demanded that he follow this course of action. He smiled sadly at her, “I am sorry we worried you grandma. We did our best to reduce our risks.”

The old woman sighed, “Of course boy. I know this is in your bones. Just promise us you will be more careful. Now you two should go get washed up and changed for dinner. The others will be here shortly.”

Derek nodded before hurrying off to get cleaned up. In only a few minutes he was back down in the foyer clean and with a fresh set of clothes. It wasn’t long before Derek saw a small group of young men and women come into the house. It seemed that Alicia and her dorm mates had met up with the three from Derek’s room and had been out for a walk in the park on the west side of the campus.

He smiled as he saw the seven come in and noticed that Desmond and Garrett had made some progress with the girls. Or maybe the girls had made progress with them. The bookish brunette with the long braided ponytail in the sky blue robe had Desmond listening and nodding to everything she said. She practically had him eating out of her hand. Derek was surprised by this as Lynette was the last one Derek would have expected Desmond to go for considering their interests. The girl from the Mage College was clearly much more interested in academics than Desmond was, in spite of how interested he seemed while she was lecturing him about applications of elemental attribute magic in farming and Derek knew for sure she had absolutely no interest in fighting.

Garrett had picked or been picked by a girl surprisingly different from him as well. Where as Desmond and Lynette’s interests were wildly divergent, Ronelle was interested in all things crafting and the local craftsman’s daughter had joined the Alchemy College herself. She was also clearly interested in stories of adventure and could match Garrett word for word when it came to gossip about the greatest heroes in the city, hopping up and down on her small legs in an unconscious expression of her excitement. In those moments the mousy little girl would truly come out of her shell in front of the others but that defined their deference.

While Garrett was approaching seven feet tall and seemingly growing larger by the day, this petite little thing was just over four and a half feet tall. She was also on the skinnier side as well, and if Derek didn’t know she was a student here, he would have assumed she was much younger than she was. He smiled as he thought of the girl riding the giant’s shoulder. He assumed their relationship was born out of shared interests and social class and perhaps something inside his brute friend demanded he protect her when he saw the shy girl. Oddly enough Derek was surprised to see that any trace of shyness was gone as she led the much larger boy around, her distinctive hops betraying her excitement at the conversation the two were having.

Derek was interested to see that it was not Alicia that was the fifth wheel in this group as the only magic warrior from her dorm room was listening in to Garrett and Ronelle and occasionally adding in her own insight into the conversation. Monica Windreach had struck Derek as one much more interested in her own gender than the other and she didn’t seem very put out that the others had paired off. She was a dashing young lady and from what Derek knew she was Karl Windreach’s niece. Like the rest of her immediate family she seemed most interested in the sea and practiced the storm magics of her uncle. Having just met her grandfather, Derek could see where that interest came from.

That left Tristan and Alicia chatting about a particular spell formula, Derek could tell from the partially finished spell runes glowing above their hands. This was a particularly tricky level five spell and the two were focused on a particular point where the two had divergent ideas of how to proceed with the spell. The two were hitting it off quite well, but Derek knew that as the heirs to their respective kingdoms, neither really had a choice in who they would marry. At least it seemed knowing that there was no chance of romance, it had cleared the way for a budding friendship and rivalry for the two mages.

“Derek, it’s good to see you. We saw my grandfather’s people as they were heading back to the outer city and questioned them. It seems you had an exciting day.” Monica smiled as she greeted him.

The other’s conversations came to an end as they came forward to greet him. Garrett took the lead, striding forward to grab Derek by the shoulders. “I heard you were attacked after delivering the goods to House Fontana. Those bastards, we should go teach them a lesson!”

Derek smiled at his honest friend, “Don’t worry about it Garrett, Fontana isn’t stupid enough to make such an overt attack like this so soon after our deal. In fact even if they didn’t do anything it will put them in a bad light and force them to be much more diplomatic with us. This attack couldn’t have happened at a better time, haha.”

The others seemed to be lost in thought, but Tristan seemed to see through it right away. Nodding he said, “Indeed, at this point they will have to show their sincerity. If they don’t handle this correctly their image will be damaged beyond repair and for a merchant image is almost if not more important than money itself. Fontana’s image was already in the dumps after this failed attempt to entrap the smiths of the city.

“That will make it much harder for them to come to agreements with others in the future by itself, but now two Disciples get attacked on the way back from a transaction at their place? I think this will force their hands in directions they were not previously willing to go. I don’t imagine your Association will have to worry about conflict with them for the near future after this.”

Derek looked at his friend. The mage was damned smart. Derek was willing to admit that Tristan was much smarter than him. That cold nature of his made him incredibly calculating when he needed to be and having been raised as a prince of a country surrounded on all sides, he had learned as much of strategy as he had of spellcraft. In just a few moments the man had been able to pierce this issue much deeper than even Derek had.

Derek’s own assumptions around this issue had come from overhearing the Harbor Master and his grandfather talk with the Harbor Master’s bold second in command. Estora had a mind like Tristan’s though Derek doubted it had been as sharp as his friend’s at his age. She had relied on her great experience as the Harbor Master’s aide de camp for the last few years to arrive at these same conclusions.

The timing of the attack was too soon after they had left, if it had been House Fontana that ordered it, then they would have only been able to send direct retainers in that time. Furthermore, Fontana wasn’t stupid enough to poison their name further at this point. It would ruin their ability to continue doing business in Windreach even if the local forces didn’t destroy them for cooperating with the cabalists. Finally, this wasn’t how House Fontana liked to do things. They much preferred to trap their opponents and out maneuver them in the markets. It was a matter of pride to them how many opposing merchant houses they had defeated this way. To defeat opponents through thuggery and murder was entirely outside of their modus operandi.

When Estora Windreach laid these arguments out, Derek was awed at her clarity of thought and grasp of the situation. Tristan coming to the same conclusion with the few clues he had available was further proof to Derek that his friend was a genius when it came to strategy. Derek knew he had a long way to go before he could match either of the two.

As they spoke they heard a clapping from the door to the dining room. Eona spoke up, “Alright children, I hope you washed up. Dinner is ready.”

Derek hurried to his place as the other seven rushed to wash up as Eona had suggested. As they all sat down, the conversation naturally turned to the events of the day. Ander decided that now was the perfect time to brag about him and his grandson’s exploits during the ambush and the later operations in the tunnel and the cove. The dinner turned boisterous as the family enjoyed the tale together.

As dinner wrapped up, Eona called Alicia, Derek and Garrett into her study. On the desk in front of her was a reddish crystal on a bronze mount. Within the crystal a three dimensional model of a schema was stored. Derek looked at it and saw that it was marked ‘Titan’s Blood tier zero’. He gasped because he had never seen a tier zero schema this intricate.

Even his own was nowhere near this intricate at that tier, his tier one schema only barely edged this one out for intricacy. He knew that most people’s schemas wouldn’t get this complex until tier three or four at the earliest. Maybe princes and princesses of large kingdoms or empires could afford designs that would allow them to achieve this level of complexity at tier two or maybe late tier one.

Alicia smiled and giggled as he saw the looks of the two boys. She had expected Derek’s surprise, but Garrett’s glassy eyed look proved the boy’s lack of education in schemas. At a nod from her Mistress she spoke up, “Garrett this will be your new schema after the reset. The faculty at the Runic Schema worked hard on this new design using the metrics they gathered from your physical tests over these last few weeks.

“The schema follows the classic mandela design that has been popular on the western side of the continent for the last five millenia. If we consider the outermost portions to be the leaves where the essence is absorbed, we can then follow the flow of the essence into the bud where it assigns to the basic attributes. Here we can see the first major difference between this schema and all others.

“At the core of the bud are the body and strength attributes. Due to the Titan’s Blood bloodline that you possess, this section can be much more robust. In the first cycle of the essence once it enters the mandala, it will be given one opportunity to enter the body and then the strength attribute portion of the bud. Normally that would be the end. But with the Titan’s Blood Enhancement your body and strength attributes can take twice the essence that a normal person’s can. To take advantage of this we have designed into the circulation of the essence a second rotation that will enable more essence to take the opportunity to bind to those attributes.

“Further essence will flow up the bud into the agility and mind basic attributes and the essence will then have the opportunity to bind to those attributes. After that, there are the petals of the eight elemental attributes, but here again, we have an abnormality. Our tests these last few weeks have determined that the Titan’s Blood bloodline will enable twice the amount of essence to be attributed to your earth and fire attributes. To facilitate this we have designed the flow of essence to cycle through those two petals one extra rotation before returning down the stem towards the mana pool.

“The third major difference between your schema and a normal schema is here, below the essence pool where essence would normally flow out of the mandala if it had not assigned to any abilities or the essence pool itself. This is the essence catch basin that my Mistress designed based on her studies. Her thesis on this was formulated years ago when she was a student here and it is proven effective in Derek’s own schema.

“This catch will allow excess essence to accrue before each level up, allowing a higher number of attributes to have essence assigned to them before a level up and preventing wastage. This catch further releases all essence back into the mandala as it unfolds into a new level up, allowing that essence to attempt to assign once again to the various attributes at that point. What this means for your schema is that the essence conversion efficiency for tier zero will rise from eighty percent to over ninety percent, there is a possibility that you will achieve one hundred percent essence conversion in tier zero just like Derek!”

With this last part, her voice rose in tenor as she made what she considered a bold claim. She saw the desired effect in Derek, his eyes widening in surprise, but Garrett didn’t seem to get it. Derek saw the grumpy look coming across his mother’s apprentice’s face so he turned to his poorly educated friend, “What that means is you are much more likely to gain all the possible attributes with every level. Most royalty only achieve a ninety percent conversion, while normal folks only get fifty to seventy percent in the lowest tiers…”

He saw that his friend was still not following so he summed it up for the big guy as simply as possible, “It means you will get more attributes per level.”

Garrett nodded, before responding, “Why didn’t you say that before?”

His two friend’s eyes bugged out at him while Eona laughed delightedly. She had grown rather fond of her son’s somewhat dull friend. The boy was incredibly endearing to her. Looking at the time, she spoke up, “Alicia, you had best wrap this up. It will be curfew soon and I want you all to be able to make it back to your dorm rooms tonight.”

Alicia nodded mutely for a second before continuing, “The final touches, as you can see, are where the stem and the petals meet. You can see here, that the interaction of earth element with the body will perform the effect of hardening your body to unprecedented levels. Further, the connection will enable much more rapid natural healing, equivalent to a much higher tier’s regeneration. This will have the secondary effect of reducing fatigue as well. Meanwhile, your fire attribute’s connection to your basic attributes will enable much greater resistance to disease, poisons, and other negative effects, as the fire naturally purifies them and will enhance the explosive power of your physical body as well. The rest of the mandala will interact with your Titan’s Blood to fully activate it’s bonuses. All in all, by the time you have completed tier zero, your body should be much more robust and powerful than even most tier three and tier four heroes. You will be an invincible warrior!”

This time she got the reaction she wanted out of the dull boy. Now she was talking his language. He stood up and cheered as she said that.