Tansen was dressed in his black kimono with a wave of sapphires across the chest as he sat in the soft leather chair of his main office. The dark oak wood desk he leaned against rested on the plain wood floor as he stared around the room painted with white and blue alternating stripes before he returned his gaze to the metal tester in his lap. The tester had four ridges of metal dividing it into four sections that each held the symbols of water, wind, earth, and fire in them.

And they were all filled with mana as the soft glows of red, dark blue, green, and brown danced over his face. Sure, the mana in them was the neutral whitish blue but, as an ever-theatrical lot, the tradition among mages was to have the glass tinted to reflect the elements color when it was used for a spell. This light show was the only other illumination in the room aside from the faint glimmer of the candle that clung to life on the left side of his desk.

A noise came from the opposite side of the room barely registered in Tansen's ears and it wasn't until Aki, dressed in the alternating blue and white staff robes, came up to the desk that Tansen registered his presence.

"Ahem" Aki, the older man with large grey eyebrows said, causing Tansen to jerk up with a start and clutch the tester to his chest with a possessiveness most mothers would struggle to conjure for their own children.

"Ah, Aki… Good ," Tansen said, looking towards the door to confirm it was closed. After confirming they wouldn't be seen he sent out a brief wave of mist that soaked into everything in the room.

"wha-" Aki said as the cool mist disappeared almost as quickly as it had come.

"Just confirming no one has any wind devices they could use to eavesdrop" Tansen said mollifyingly as he put his priceless treasure on the desk.

"Who- "Aki started before looking at the tester Tansen had laid down.

"How'd you manage that?" Aki asked as he glanced over the curiosity.

Tansen leaned back in his chair as he adjusted his black hair.

"A while back I ran into some trouble identifying one of the students with the tester. I contacted Boris, head of the Grimlock academy, who had a similar incident. But through our correspondence, I found out it was actually some ploy by a rival house who stopped existing soon after. But Boris did put me on the track towards Despond academy, who had the problem I was now dealing with some years past.

Through their correspondence, they told me about how one of their students had just gifted enough in a third element to throw off the tester. But through our back and forth I found that those testers were actually older versions that they had yet to replace.

Bereft of an explanation but being at least given a new possibility that there might be some problem with multiple elements, I went over the designs of the newer versions we carry. Now testers push ambient mana against a persons body and suck it back in. That allows-" Aki huffed with impatience.

"Tansen, where is this trail leading to?" Aki asked with his hand crossed in front of him.

"The road is winding and perilous but the prize at the end of the track? Oooh...it is a wonder never before seen by the world that will make this academy go down in the tales of legends for thousands of years. If we survive the contest for it." Tansen's eyes gleamed in the faint candlelight with raw excitement before he continued.

"This allows only mana compatible with the mages element to pass through. These new testers help preserve ambient mana by compressing all of the mana into four different mana holding circles that are filled by a larger circle that holds the mana extracted from the person. The mana the smaller circles absorb is sucked in through the skin of monsters who have one of the four elements. Those four are then directly connected by a square on an upper layer. That square, in the interest of uniformity and ease of maintenance, uses the same instructions across all of its implementations.

'When pressed, push the two circles with the most mana outward' which would overload the lines and cause the circles to push their mana into the displays. That makes sure there is a clear distinction between the elements we have and one we have just a bit more compatibility with even if its not enough to actually allow us to use that element as a magician, just in case we produced enough to give even the faintest glow in the darkened glass in the symbols. Now, Aki, I ask you, which circles mana would that square push out if all four circles had the same amount of mana?"

Akis eyebrows scrunched up for a moment.

"The most of equals would be none. It wouldn't push out any of them." Aki said after a moment of consideration.

"Right. I made some adjustments to this one so it would push out the mana whenever it surpassed a certain amount. Not nearly as efficient as the regular ones but it doesn't suffer that particular weakness." Tansen finished with a smile on his face as he looked down at his personal bauble as he picked it up from the table. His smile was part pride and part wolf as his face was lit up with the light of the tester as he moved it around in the palm of his right hand.

"So, when did you get the other three people to fill that up?" Aki asked inquisitively as he leaned against the table to get a closer look.

"Oh, I had Eli sit on it with the testing chair earlier today." Tansen said as he pushed the tester across the table.

For a moment Aki didn't seem to understand what he was saying until he looked at the tester and back at his young charge.

"E...Eli. Eli is a-" Aki throat clenched as he pulled back and looked at Tansen.

"Wait.... Wait. Does that mean he has all the dual elements as well? Lightning, metal, plant, and healing?" Aki asked in a shaky voice as a hundred different questions clouded his mind.

"I would assume so. I had thought that he might merely be a dual element throwing off the testers, but it seems our testing system has suffered a... catastrophic failure far beyond my initial fears." Tansen said with a note of finality in his voice.

"Merely a dual…Testing system? How long has he been a caster?" Aki asked in an irritated voice.

"At least since the battle at the docks. He took out a member of the rangers who was going to use a water spell on him which is what set me on his trail." Tansen responded mildly.

"Well why the fuck hasn't he said anything?" Aki demanded, his cheeks getting a tinge of red as his fists clenched.

"I pondered over that and I believe I found the answer. When I had Eli and his Kelton woman over for dinner, I noticed a great affection in his eyes for her. I invited him over for a spot of relaxation in the staff sauna with a good feast afterwards and when I told him I invited her over he didn't seem offended or upset, like her being with him was the most natural thing in the world." Tansen said.

"His Kelton-" Aki made sure to emphasize the Kelton part before continuing. "-woman? What? He's willing to go on as a crafter just because he needs a goat woman's ass and he doesn't want to deal with the government scalping him for it?" Aki asked incredulously.

"He would not be the first man who flipped off the mage world over a woman." Tansen said in a plain tone as his eyes grew distant.

"That was different. This.... What about his kids? Have they shown a similar aptitude?" Aki asked so eagerly he leaned over the desk with his brown eyes shimmering.

"He doesn't have any." Tansen said mildly, "Or at least none that the records have shown. Who knows? Maybe... Salamede was her name I believe, maybe Salamede is with his child but there haven't been any human women who would have had his child."

Aki's eyes shot up as his lips puckered.

"Oh ancestors, a Kelton woman being the sole mother to a line of quad element mages. Agatha's going to have the accounting departments hide for that. That's if the higher ups in the Front don't have hers first. What a god-damn mess. We need to get him with a few women tomorrow morning at the latest." Tansen put up a hand to stop his friends rant.

Tansen reached down and pulled out a scroll from a drawer and handed it over to Aki.

Aki unrolled it and looked it up and down before he turned back towards the academy head with his mouth twisted in disbelief.

"The rangers are going to conscript him? What on earth are they going to use a crafter for? Do they know what he really is?" Aki almost whispered the last question.

"No, they don't. It's just some scheme to get the help of one of the gang bosses. Fortunately, they sent their sub commander and the leader of their southern forces, Noah, to pick him up. Noah's a real hot head and I came upon some really juicy information that might let me scrap their plans. But in case it falls through, we need to be prepared for the situation where we need to reveal Eli's true abilities to keep him alive." Tansen replied but Aki just got a hard face at the last suggestion.

"Our academy would be finished. Letting Eli slip through our fingers for so long would make us the laughingstock of the Coalition but we could survive it. Letting him go for so long without siring any children for his line? We would be borderline criminals in the eyes of the government and all of the magical organizations." Aki said with no emotion, like he was a thousand miles away from this situation and not one of the men deciding the fate of the thousands of people whose lives depended on the decisions he would help make in the next five minutes.

"I know. The best way through this would be to convince Eli to stick to the story that he managed to break out of crafter status when he was being shunned by the community, after which he went straight to me. I'll send out some people to do another round of interviews and ask questions to see if he really is a simple farm boy with some eccentricities and weird birth colorings.

But more than the truth of his origin, we desperately need Eli to work with us on this if we're to survive and we only have so much pull with him." Tansen reflected in silence for a few moments before continuing.

"Going forward we need to be working our way into his woman's good graces. We probably don't have anything to offer him that he hasn't already pushed aside to stay with Salamede, but her whispering sweet words in his ears will go far. I expect a cushy job offer and benefits for her to be ready in the morning." Tansen said, with Aki giving a vigorous nod in approval before Tansen continued.

"How has the academy-life side of things been for him? We talked about it earlier but he might one of those types who doesn't air grievances easily" Tansen asked.

"I haven't the faintest clue. This expedition for the elf has been taking up all my time with the trips south and the days looking under every rock and bears ass. I'll start looking into it myself but I'll have to compensate Dior with a few squads of hired men from the guild. That said, we're pushing our staff numbers to the limit. A few more personnel heavy issues and we'll be out of any one to respond to an emergency even with the guilds help." Aki said firmly.

"Indeed" Tansen took a deep breath which he let out before continuing " We can't risk alerting Eli to what we know or anyone else to his true nature. At least not before we've gotten the story straightened out and all of our facts in order. Ancestors watch over us." Tansen said with a final tired nod.

Aki just huffed as he turned to leave.

"It's about time those old coots got off their asses," Aki said as he went out the door.

Tansen gave a light smile before calling his secretary in.

"Yes, sir?" The woman with short black hair, glasses over her brown eyes, and a sharp chin asked.

"I need a book on Keltons. I want the most up to date book in my room by tomorrow morning." He said as he got up off his chair.

"Keltons?" She asked with a raised eyebrow, completely mystified.

"Yes." Tansen re-affirmed as he got up and went out the door.

He had a quick sleep in his bed and come morning Tansen was up with the sun as he eagerly went over the book back in his office. It was shortly thereafter that a knock was heard.

"Sir. Two gentlemen are here to see you. They're rangers." His secretary said. Tansen nodded and motioned for her to let them in as he put the book back in his desk. Now was the time to see if fate and brash idiocy would favor him this day.

Through the door came the sub-commander, John. He was a darkly tanned man with black hair with a scar along the right side of his jaw. But his skin wasn't as dark as his eyes which stood out more due to his long face.

Beside him was the man responsible for overseeing the southern forces, Noah. His green eyes looked at Tansen with an unspoken contempt while the scar above his eyes stayed motionless from his stone hard face. What was odd was that they were both wearing civilian clothes. John had a soft leather vest with a white undershirt and brown pants, while Noah wore a grey cap with a grey shirt and brown pants.

"What brings two civilians into our prestigious academy?" Tansen asked as they came in, while the room had no windows, the mana crystal in the center glowed bright enough to illuminate the irritated expressions of the two men.

"We are Rangers as you damn well know." Noah said between gritted teeth as John was content to stick to furrowed eyebrows.

"Oh?" Tansen said with a raised eyebrow. "I've never thought rangers who would keep their membership hidden, well in most situations anyway."

That drew a questioning gaze from the two men but they let it pass.

"The orcs... due to an ongoing situation, all male mages have been ordered to retreat to either the Bulwark or here farther away from the swamps. We're not at liberty to discuss what is happening specifically but I expect an official explanation will be going out in the future." John said as he pulled a letter from his coats front pocket.

They both came forward and as Tansen took the letter, his curiosity about the 'situation' was quickly squashed to help him keep his mind on the mission. After looking over the order, Tansen saw that the conscription order was signed off by Marvin, the main leader of the army.

"Well I can see why Marvin thinks you lot need our help. Our crafters are a cut above and considering how some of the bandits mages get their asses whooped by shop keepers, well I can see why Eli is needed." Tansen said light heartedly. Both the men were clearly angry but John kept it in with a stiffened look of disdain while Noah grew red in the face.

"How dare you!" Noah said leaning against the table with clenched fists, "We are not the bandit's mages. We are the mages who make it so you can sleep at night without the green skins bashing in your door."

Tansen just leaned back with the most insufferably smug expression he could muster.

"Oh, I doubt that. If you lot can't even take out a crafter in a three-to-one fight I doubt you're the only things holding back the orcs." Tansen said in his most dismissive tone.

Now both men looked openly confused.

"What are you talking about? What's all this about shopkeepers?" John asked in a guarded tone, while Noahs face grew several shades redder.

"I talked with Eli over an incident he ran into a while back. He got into it with three male mages: Ben, a large bear of a man with an earth element." Noahs eyes got a dangerous glint and Tansen knew he was on the right track.

"Cried like a bitch when Eli had to put him down. As for Dan and Joel they were so-"

"Eli?! Eli was the one who fucking killed them?!" Noah finally exploded.

"Come now, Noah. We know Eli is a capable crafter from his trial achievements but taking out three mages? What stunt are you trying to pull with this fantasy, Tansen?" John demanded in a cold voice.

Noah was still visibly irritated as he considered it, but he kept a level gaze on Tansen the whole time.

"Yeah, Maybe Eli could have taken out one or even two but doing that while guarding the port? Nah, that's not happening." Noah said.

Tansen's shoulders visibly relaxed as his plan had pulled through for him. He stroked his goatee as he pretended to ponder over the statement.

"Here's the thing. Eli hasn't been taking any quests or even gone anywhere besides the academy or his house as any number of guild clerks and academy staff will attest. Of course, he told me it happened at the docks but how could you have known that?

More interestingly, when you four rangers gave your report you said it was only you, Arthur, Ethan, and Henry who were there to relax and enjoy the big town. So, unless you want to tell that another group of male mages just happened to be at the docks when the bandits raided, what exactly were you lot doing there?" Tansen asked with an innocently curious expression.

Noah's face contorted for a second before he reigned it in but, to Tansen's great surprise, John was also looking at Noah with a curious expression although his came with a hint of dire danger in his eyes.

"Yes, Noah. What were you doing there?" John demanded with a voice barely louder than a whisper.

"It wasn't supposed... John. We've lost too many people. We need Maw's help to -" John put up a hand.

"Not another word, Noah. Not another single fucking word," John said in a deliberate tone as he seemed to realize the error in asking that question. But Tansen already had his opening and moved to seize it with both hands.

"Well I must say, I'm feeling very hurt and confused about this whole thing. Of course, I'll be putting in a report about this to the government. And furthermore, I can't help but feel it would be inappropriate to hand over a student to an organization with such questions hanging over it so I must officially challenge this order due to ongoing events"

John was now getting a bit red faced as well.

"Now listen here, Tansen. Messing with us is one thing. But going against Marvin is quite another. Are you really willing to draw his ire?" John said with no small amount of confidence as he ran his finger over the signature on the bottom of the letter.

"An academy head must do everything that he can for his students." Tansen said mildly as he took out a piece of paper from one of his drawers and started writing up his letter of contention to accompany it back towards the local military liaison.

When Tansen finally finished his work, he handed the letter and the conscription order back to John who took it and read over the letter for a while before turning his dark brown eyes back towards the academy head.

'What's up with this guy? Taking out mages and having the academy head go against Marvin for his sake. That's an awful lot of trouble and accomplishments for a mere crafter," John asked in a cold tone.

Tansen got a hard face but Noah just threw up his hands in a dismissive manner.

"Bah! He's just protecting his underage lover with fanciful tales. Let's get out of here," Noah said before he stormed out of the room, with John following after another questioning look at Tansen.

When the door closed, Tansen let out a long sigh of relief. After preparing another letter to be sent directly towards the capital military headquarters, he went about his day until an hour after lunch. It was at that time that Aki came in with the fruits of his interviews and questionings.

"It's bad. The staff have been letting the students run all over Eli in my absence. Nothing that required firing anyone, but some punitive measures helped them see the errors of their ways. This afternoon I'll get some of the teachers together to help keep an eye on him" Aki said in a hard tone, with Tansen giving a light nod of approval.

"We're revisiting all the people we interviewed the first time we looked into him but this time I'm also getting people ready to go northward towards Dunwhich and spread out from there. As for his relationship with Salamede" Aki gave a light cough before he continued, "it would appear that they are very well acquainted. They've been buying up nonperishable foods and gone missing in his tower for days on end. If she isn't pregnant by now, it's certainly not through a lack of trying." Aki finished with a dry tone. Tansen just gave a light chuckle as a slight smile played across his lips.

"At least he's vigorous. What about the job offer?" Tansen asked.

"It's a commission gig for helping clean the dorms. I figured it would only aggravate Eli if we gave her a job that got in between him and her loins but with this she can work the job on the side in between their sessions and still make more money that she could ever hope to otherwise." Aki said with a moment of hesitation before he asked a question.

"Maybe we should at least inform Agatha of this. She would understand the need to keep Eli under wraps since her reputation would go down with ours." Aki asked.

"If that was the only consideration, sure. But if I wanted the brand of help that she and the Front would offer in this situation, I would be just as well off wrangling a troll out of the woods and slapping a counselor badge on it. This is a delicate situation, and we need to thread this needle perfectly or Eli might not see the need to diverge from his current sexual tastes.

If it comes to that, everyone else will just drop the hammer on him. Nothing with force since he's a caster but there's a whole lot of perfectly legal pressure they could squeeze him with. Worst come to worst, we might be looking at another imperial academy situation" Tansen said with a stiff smile.

Aki gulped some saliva as his face lost a tinge of its color but he only responded with a nod.

"Anything else to report?" Tansen asked.

"Nothing so far, but, again, we still need to send our people out to scour over his tracks," Aki said.

"Good, Good. Things went very well on my end. With that relief we can at least breath easily for a good two weeks before they start really pushing us." Tansen said. "I haven't read enough of the Kelton book but I'll let you know if I find anything.

In the meantime, try to ask around about the local Kelton community and Salamede in particular. Even if the book doesn't say anything dangerous about mages siring children with Kelton's, it would still be a good idea to know as much about the woman's personal and cultural background as possible." Tansen finished. When Aki gave a light bow and left, Tansen went back to work on the reports laying about his desk.