(Alex, 16)

"So," I say as we enter Jason's house through one of his gates. "I've a few questions I've been meaning to ask ya all week. I guess now's as good a time as any."

"Your accent's out," Jason raises an eyebrow as his gate disappears. "It must be serious."

"Just a few things," I nod. "First – why did you stop changing the hairpins after I asked about them?"

"Because you did?" He scratches the back of his neck. "I realized while walking around with Niko, when he asked me why I was wearing them, that no one had commented on them until then. So I decided to see how long it would take for someone to. Niko just thought they were a Varilan fashion."

"What did me asking have to do with that, then?" I ask.

"Do you not like them?" He gives a worried look. "I thought you were commenting about them because you liked them."

Oh.

"They look nice," I laugh. "I was trying to figure out back then why you were wearing them, Jason."

"Oh," realization crosses his face.

"So you're just wearing them to see if people notice?" I ask, and he nods. "My gang has, they've found it weird and strangely attractive. Well, Barry on that last one, though he started a street romance with Sara when I told him I found a student romance."

Jason furrows his brows in confusion, and we move to sit on the couch.

"A street romance," I explain. "Is just for fun, not for actual romance. To fill time, to be with someone, out of lust and desire, but not out of actual romance. Ya never know if ya'll get nicked or killed, so ya live in the moment.

"A student romance," I continue. "Is where ya walk out with one of your classmates, usually a senior. A student romance can result in true courting, and even betrothal, but it's generally just between students, and ends with the term or year of university, maybe to resume the next. It's born of only mild romance."

"So you only mildly like me?" He teases, and I feel my face heat up.

"That's not what I meant," I tell him. "It was better than just telling him that I was dating you. They don't trust ya, Jason, and would probably think you were forcing me into it."

"Gods, I love how your accent keeps switching," he says, and I give him a small smile. "I know you don't even mean to. So. What else were you wondering?"

"The list of jobs you had," I say as his maid serves us tea and cookies. "It's only a suspicion, now that I realize you have romantic feelings for me, but… did you compile those out of worry that I'd get killed on some hunt?"

"Yes," he admits. "Though it wasn't until after I realized I liked you that I felt so protective of you. When we first met, I actually put a spell on your clothes to let me know if they suffered some sort of impact."

He… he what?

"So that wasn't coincidental timing?" I ask. "You-you knew I was in danger?"

"Yes," he nods. "The spell triggered and shot me a warning that you were suffering several repeated attacks, so I left to investigate and found those boys hurting you. My rage was boiling, and I nearly… I'd never felt anger before. Not real anger. It actually frightened me. Had I…"

He sighs, casting his gaze down.

"I almost killed them," he says quietly. "I had to calm myself down. I didn't understand why I was so angry, so furious. It was confusing. If I hadn't gotten so angry, I wouldn't have needed to calm down. If I hadn't calmed down, I would've stepped in sooner. Sorry, Alex."

"Jason," I say. "I know it probably makes ya feel bad having to calm yourself down first, but everyone has to do what they have to do. It's become obvious to a lot of us that ya haven't dealt with adversity before coming here. I don't blame you for that, even knowing this.

"I know ya were probably raised better," I give him a small smile. "But I grew up on the streets. There, we would've just knifed them and been done with it. Roughin' someone up was the usual method, but killing 'em worked, too, in some cases."

He scratches the back of his neck.

"I already gave Jacob Tasha's present?" He says out of nowhere. "And that's not him coming, anyway. I don't recognize them."

He has his scanning spell active again, doesn't he? Does he really keep it running most of the time?

Someone knocks on the door, and Jason's butler answers it. Looks like some stuffy noble.

"Lord Holdir," Jason stands, a look of annoyance on his face.

I heard about the incident last Felday, even though I wasn't in the room at the time. I suppose this man is here to try to start something?

"May I enter?" Lord Holdir asks.

"Depends on why you're here," Jason folds his arms across his chest. "Your wife and son have already challenged me. I will not yield on my stance, especially since an attitude like your son's does not belong in my training group."

"I did not come to challenge you," Lord Holdir tells Jason. "But to apologize. It seems my family has caused you issue, and I wish to make amends."

"You may enter," Jason says, though his arms and glare remain as they are.

The nobleman enters, and Jason's butler closes the door.

"I apologize for the actions of my wife and son," Lord Holdir tells Jason. "I remained in the duchy while they came here as he began to attend university, not expecting any issue. I should have known something would happen, as there have always been problems in the past. I traveled here as soon as word reached me regarding the problems. My wife has been reprimanded, and my son has been grounded and punished further.

"Regarding the experimental magic reader," Lord Holdir continues without missing a beat. "I was told it was worth one hundred thousand varru?"

"Nearly," Jason answers. "Sageson Magical Technologies sent a bill to your family's estate here in Varil City."

"It never reached me," a tic work sin Lord Holdir's jaw, and I can tell it isn't aimed at Jason. "Would you accept one hundred and twenty thousand Varil varru on behalf of your parents' company as payment for damages to the reader?"

"That would be acceptable," Jason answers.

Lord Holdir opens up a dimensional storage and retrieves a wooden box from it, handing it to Jason. Jason examines its contents, before sending it into his own.

That is a lot of varru, and only serves to remind me how much beneath Jason I am. A little bit of doubt towards him starts to creep in, and I push it away as Jason returns his gaze to Lord Holdir.

"Thank you," he says.

"Again," Lord Holdir says. "I apologize for the actions of my wife and son, and will do my best to ensure it does not occur again."

"Thank you," Jason says, then Lord Holdir leaves.

Only then does he relax and return to sitting.

"That was all he did?" I ask. "Just pay ya little extra for the reader? What about his wife's challenge? Her insults to your honor? On the streets, we-"

"Posturing," Jason says as he pulls out a dragon chess set made of crystal and begins to set it up on the tea table. "Would have him do more in front of others. Uncle Zach informed me on Sunday that Lord Holdir was not like his wife and son, and would likely come to pay reparations for the reader when he learned what had happened. Apologizing to me, repaying me for the damages, and rebuking his wife and son are enough. Now, let's play chess."

I look at the board, then sigh.

"Jason," I say. "I can't tell which pieces are which!"

"You can't?" He asks, then scratches the back of his head. "I suppose it can be hard, since they're not the normal pieces. I guess you'll just have to learn."

"Speaking of me and learning," I shift a little, unsure how he'll react to this. "Is it okay if I teach my gang some of the stuff ya teach us in the training group? They can all use magic – we all can – and Barry and Sara both do hunts for the guild, and I think Peter wants to join us for that soon's he's sixteen. Jeddy likes doing cleaning magic and holy magic, and-"

"It's fine," Jason shrugs. "I don't care what you guys do with your lessons. None of you can read magic, so you can't optimize it the way I do. Plus, I'm not even teaching you the actual optimal way, so it isn't as if you'd be creating monsters of magic, in the metaphorical sense."

I'm shocked by that admission. We all knew he was holding back in some of his lessons, but to hear him admit that he wasn't actually teaching us as optimally as he could was not something I'd expected. I thought he was teaching us as optimally as he could the way he's teaching us now.

"Why?" I ask.

"Because," he scratches the back of his head again. "Optimal control and increase training can produce interesting results. I'd rather limit it to those who know what they're doing and how to obey instructions. The same goes for teaching the optimal way to cast spells."

"There's more ways to cast spells?" I ask, and he holds up a hand, a ball of fire appearing above it.

"What do you see?" He asks.

"A ball of fire," I answer.

"Really?" He asks. "Look closer. What do you see?"

I look at it as hard as I can.

"It's still a ball of fire."

"What color is it?" He asks.

"Orange and yellow," I answer. "Just like… most."

"Exactly," he says as the yellow turns to white and the orange turns to blue. "Yet it can become even more powerful, can't it?"

"How are you doing that?" I ask. "Are you using-"

"I'm not using that knowledge," he interrupts as I remember that we have others around. "When you light a candle, which part of the flame is the hottest?"

"The part around the base of the wick," I answer. "It's blue because it's hotter. Red flames are actually pretty cool, while orange is hotter, and yellow is even hotter. That's why the yellow is on the inside of the flames most of the time. Then there's blue, and then white."

"Exactly," he says, and I realize what he did.

"You visualized hotter flames," I say. "That's why your flames are like that. You simply increased your visualization of their heat."

"Exactly," he says as his flames turn green. "But I can also change the visualization of their color, and adjust the spell matrix to adapt to that. Now, you don't know what the heat of my flames are, other than by feeling the heat itself."

"Changing flame colors," I shake my head. "Only you would think of something like that, Jason."

"Maybe," he smiles. "Or maybe someone else has, too. Papa Samuel did it before I ever did. He was trying to prove a point, and I went with it."

His flames disappear, then a ball of water appears above his hand, only instead of the normal, clear water, there's a distinct blue tinge to it.

"I can do it to water," he says. "And to air and light, too."

He flicks his wrist, and the ball of water shoots to the sink, dropping into it without splashing a single drop out.

"Visualization is key," he says. "But there is more to it than that. Try generating a ball of air, only with a green tint to it."

I do as he says, creating the spell mentally, only the instinct for how to shape it fails to tell me anything.

"It didn't work," I say.

"Exactly," he smiles. "Papa Samuel taught me the trick to doing such things, and that trick can make or break a magician's real abilities. I'll only teach it to the advanced training group."

I focus on generating fire, only 'hotter' flames, and do succeed in reaching the instinct, shaping my mana into the proper formation to create the spell. The fire is small, with a blue core and yellow exterior with some orange around the edges, but it worked.

"I can do this just fine," I say.

"I was referring to," he snorts. "The 'extra' stuff, the stuff that isn't 'normal'. Water, at its base, is clear. Fire, at its base, contains heat. My ability to read magic gives me a leg up, and so doing that is another thing that will be worked on by the advanced training group."

"Okay," I say. "But what about those who make it in? What if they start teaching others these techniques?"

"Not my problem," he shrugs. "I still have my own secrets, and even if it does result in a magical advantage for Varil, it won't bother me that much."

Because he's not Varilan, and Varil would probably never go after him. Anyone who did would be either a traitor or from another nation.

"Varil can obtain a magical advantage," he says. "It would change warfare, and other nations will eventually figure it out anyway. As I said, the Sages already know the tricks, who's to say there aren't others who do, too? Right now, the information is hoarded by the rare few because it can change the scale of war far too much."

"Isn't that a bad thing?" I ask. "Speeding this up can cause even worse disasters, and-"

"Possibly," he smiles. "But Varil is already taking measures to guard against such things. You will find that over the coming months and years, performing any form of assassination or terrorist magical attack will grow even more difficult."

"How?" I ask.

"Ease of moving troops around," he answers. "Magical dampeners that work on large-scale magic, and other various little things."

He leans forward.

"Do you really think," he asks. "Uncle Zach would be okay with me opening gates all over the city where others can see? It would only be a matter of time before others figured out how to create them. Then, all it would take is one miffed noble, one disgraced brat, one fired worker, one jealous business rival, and disaster could hit anywhere, at any time."

"There's a way to guard against the gate?" I ask.

"Papa Samuel, Papa Jared, Mama Alyssa, and I," he says. "Spent a year developing a guard against it. A guard with redundancies. Every place of importance has it. The royal palace and every castle owned by the royal family, for example."

"So you're limited in where you can go?" I ask.

"Yes," he answers. "I can't open a gate directly into the royal palace, for example, only outside of it. Other than directly in front of the gate, there's a buffer zone of ten feet as well."

And there are guards that regularly patrol around the outside of the palace walls, meaning that to bring in a sufficient force of numbers, one would be caught quickly, even if they did try bringing in an army to lay siege to it.

"Where else has them?" I ask. "If that's allowed."

"It is," he says. "It's not a kingdom secret, anyone can find out. Sageson's properties all have it. I'm keyed into them, allowing me to bypass the block-"

"Keyed in?" I ask.

"Magical signatures are unique," he says. "While we can record them and copy them through devices, we can't imitate them through casting. Creating a gate using my magical signature is impossible unless you're me. So this house and the locations belonging to Sageson are keyed so that gates generated using my magic and my papas' and mamas' magics can open. We aren't keyed in anywhere else, though, and once the blocks are set, they can't be altered."

"But what if someone turned them off?" I ask. "It would only take one person to sneak into the palace, find their way to whatever's powering the blocks-"

"Not possible," his maid says as she refreshes our tea. "Forgive me, sirs."

"Go ahead," Jason gestures to her.

"It is well-known," she says. "At least through servant circles, and possibly through some commoner circles, that the palace runs on a redundant magical system to fuel the blocks and wards protecting it. Millions of varru's worth of mana crystals were expended each year while the enchantments also pulled from the ambient mana in the air."

"Similar to the mana batteries?" I ask.

"Exactly like that," Jason nods. "It was an expensive enchantment to weave for the palace. They probably spent several tens of billions of varru to create the full blocks."

"However," the maid says. "After the patent-holder created the mana batteries and mana generators, I heard that the palace's systems had those incorporated into it as well, in order to cut down on the expense of mana crystals."

"They did," Jason nods. "They also increased the redundancy. It went from four locations powering the protections of the palace to eight. In order to shut down the blocks for teleportation and gate magics and the like, you would need to take out all eight locations, which are scattered throughout. Even if you take out seven of them, that eighth will continue running long enough that they can restore at least one other. Taking the royal palace is not an easy feat, and the mana generators made it even harder."

"And this information is public?" I ask. "Couldn't someone use it-"

"Probably," Jason shrugs. "But it's also known the magical force guarding each generator and block. These aren't standard enchantments, which will fade with time, or permanent enchantments, which either have a limited scope in what they can do or have to be triggered. These are active-time enchantments, which means that they constantly generate some effect. It would be very difficult to move through them. One of these enchantments is a barrier around the palace. It prevents any form of scrying magic from entering or exiting it, as well as stops any magical attacks from passing through. The gate block is different from that, though the teleport block is part of it. So they're well-guarded.

"Each one," he continues. "Has, at minimum, five Royal Knights and five Royal Mages at all times, each with at least a middle blue magical power level."

Eighty mages and warriors with that much magical power at all times? That would mean probably two hundred and forty to three hundred total for keeping watch, maybe more. Varil actually has that much power in it?

"I can see the question on your face," Jason smiles. "Varil has over one thousand magicians at middle blue and roughly four hundred knights there as well. There are also approximately two hundred slayers there. Reaching higher than upper blue is more difficult, however, and there are only around two hundred total in Varil who have reached lower indigo."

"How many violet?" I ask.

"None," he answers. "As far as Papa Samuel is aware, only he, I, Papa Jared, and Mama Alyssa are violet."

That is a huge power gap, and it also means that the only known violets are considered a wild card, but also an ally of Varil.

No wonder wars involving Varil have been minor in recent decades, only things such as border skirmishes. I was under the impression there were maybe two thousand middle blue or higher on the entire continent, yet it seems that Varil has more than that.

"Your expression says it all," Jason chuckles. "There are maybe two thousand or so there outside of Varil. You know about the tournaments?"

"The ones for the Royal Knight University and the Royal Mage University?"

In the spring term, all of the major nations gather together and pit their best students against each other. Varil generally wins, but they have a sort of edge over the other nations – it's the largest of them all, and has more students in one of those universities than most have in both, possibly all of their warrior and knight universities combined.

"Yes," he nods. "The tournament is a form of posturing. It shows the other nations the strength of yours. That's why Varil is able to restrict it only to fifth-year students and above while other nations pull from all of their universities and all grades. It shows them that Varil has enough might and numbers that they don't need to look at all of their students to make numbers and have a chance."

That makes sense, but there are a couple of things that don't.

"Fifth-year and above?" I ask. "University is only five years."

"Only for a standard degree," he says. "Which is what most receive. If you wish to be a professor, you stay for another two years. They let the students studying to be professors compete as well if they make the cut."

Say no more, Jason, I know exactly the reasoning behind that. If our professors are capable of competing and winning, what does it say for their students? Another form of posturing.

"If we always win," I say. "Why do we compete every year? Why does the tournament continue to happen?"

"Several reasons," he answers. "The first is it lets us know how Varil's enemies are doing, who to look out for. The second is that it reminds them of how large and powerful Varil is. The third is that it lets the other nations gauge each other still. To not invite Varil, the largest of all nations, would be to insult it."

"So they're not looking at who wins first," I say. "But who comes after them, and if someone does manage to take a first spot from Varil, then they're someone to look out for."

"Exactly," Jason nods. "Back to what we were discussing before, though – Varil lets the information be public simply because they're confident in their might and know that anyone determined enough would find out. With the extra redundancies put in place with the invention of the mana generators, they have even less to worry about. It would take the combined might of several nations and Varilan traitors to possibly pose a risk to the royal palace. Rebellions never last long, and Cecilia, please prepare a tea for Niko."

What does Niko have to do with anything?

There's a knock at the door a few moments after Jason says that, and his butler opens it, allowing Niko to enter. The Marran prince looks uncomfortable as he approaches Jason and speaks rapidly in his native tongue.

(Jason, 16)

"I understand," I tell Niko in Marran, then look at Alex and speak in Varilan Common. "Niko and I are heading out. I forgot to mention, but he and I have plans this weekend, and probably won't be back until Sunday."

"Is he okay?" Alex asks. "He looks upset."

"He is," I say. "Just some stuff before we leave, and I'm going to help him deal with it before we go."

"Alright," Alex says. "Good luck in Mar."

So he's assumed that Niko got homesick again, I wonder what he'll wonder when he learns that Niko's father arrived in Varil City while we were at university today? Niko is scared that his father wants to pull him away from Varil after my display in Mar, and came to his only 'real' friend because of that. He wasn't sure if he could just stop by the royal palace and ask to speak with Lina before finding out if he has to leave.

I open a gate to Niko's mansion, and the two of us enter through it. One thing about the gates is that I lied to Alex. There's a second way around the block besides being keyed into it.

Have enough raw magical power. Not even Uncle Zach is aware of this, though. It's a secret between my family and me. Magical power at the middle-violet or higher is enough for someone to ignore the blocks, which is why I can enter Niko's mansion without issue, despite not being keyed into it.

Papa Samuel and Papa Jared are working on improving the block so that it would take grey-level magical power to enter, even though there are only four people currently capable of overpowering the blocks with their magic. Just because there are four of us doesn't mean someone can't repurpose a mana generator and perform a magic ritual to fuel their gate with enough magical power for it.

So the fewer people who know that pure magical might can breach them, the better.

Niko leads me to the family room, where a man in his forties is sitting, several servants and men in robes around him. My friend starts to hide behind me out of nerves, and from what he's said about his family, I can understand why. My brief insight to them a couple of weeks ago didn't show me enough about them, and Niko has some mental trauma from their treatment of him.

The main man, though, seems to be injured. His right arm is in a sling hidden by a half-worn coat, and my scan spell is detecting several cuts and bruises, along with what is possibly a cracked rib that didn't quite heal right. Considering how long it took him to reach here, those injuries must have been severe, as I doubt he received them on the way.

"Based on that strange spell," the man says in accented Varilan. "You are Jason, my son's friend who helped him visit us recently?"

"I am," I answer. "You are Henry sul'Mar, then?"

"I am," he says. "It is a pleasure to meet you, Jason. Your assistance has already helped us in forging new weapons and armor. Sadly, it seems our enemies have already learned we have access again, and are pressing our borders once more."

"I am sure they will fail," I say. "You have Varilan soldiers assisting in some areas."

"Only at the southern edge of our border," he says. "Which is something I am here to discuss with Zachary. Do you know why the northern kingdoms despise magic?"

"According to Niko," I respond. "Your priests warn of its evils and darkness, that the gods themselves despise magicians."

"That is something I am here to investigate," Henry tells me. "To see if the words of my priests are true. I currently have several servants and trusted friends speaking with commoners on the streets to see their views on magic."

His gaze travels to the sconces set into the walls around the room as I take in the expressions of two men in robes. They must be priests, based on their annoyance and disgust.

"Though I cannot see why," he says. "Something like a light is evil. I heard that your people once required magic crystals to power them, and to replace them frequently. Most used flames in candles, much as my people do. Niko told Derrick during the visit that this is no longer the case for those who can afford it. This seems beneficial when I look at it, even when my raising taught me otherwise."

"That is true," I nod, then look at the priests. "I can tell you are disgusted by magic. Tell me, how are the lights evil?"

"They defy the natural order," one of the priests says. "To use such things is to disturb the natural flow of the world, and they are the reason that beasts become corrupted. In addition-"

"Stop right there," I hold up a hand. "Can you sense the natural flow of the world? The natural energies of it?"

"We can," the priest says. "The gods have granted us the power to-"

"I'm going to stop you there," I smile. "Only magicians of a high affinity for natural magics are capable of sensing natural energies and the flow of the world. If you could truly sense them, then you would know that a dragon's vein, one of Midlaris's natural channels of pure magical power, flows beneath Varil City. Not just one, but seven, which meet deep beneath the royal palace. There are also four of them that meet beneath your own royal city. If you could truly sense them, then you would also be magicians, and quite powerful ones as well."

"Blasphemer!" The priest exclaims. "We would never dare defy the gods and use heretical arts!"

"Then you cannot sense the natural flow of the world," I say. "Else you'd have been using it from a very young age, just like me. Tell me, how is healing magic evil?"

"It defies the gods," the priest says. "Only they may truly heal. To perform the so-called 'holy' magic is to draw on powers from the underworld, causing the creation of corrupted."

"It is called 'holy'," I say. "But it is not holy. It is not from the underworld, either. It is simply healing magic, and it draws on the same pool of power that all magic stems from. Pure magic of the underworld is black as night. Pure magic of the heavens is white as snow. Pure magic of man is colorful."

"Magic is used to-"

"Your Majesty," I look at Henry, deciding to stop with the priests. "Would you be interested in having some of this 'heresy' used on you? I can set your bone and mend all of those injuries of yours. The setting of the bone and mending of the cracked rib you have will be painful, but that is simply a part of the natural state of things. I am sure it hurt when the medic set it, as well."

(Jacob, 16)

"Tasha," I give her a quick kiss when she greets me in her estate. "Happy birthday."

My betrothed is wearing a beautiful red and orange dress, with a silver necklace set with rubies and topazes and a pair of bracelets set with the same. The latter was my gift to her for today.

"Thank you," she smiles. "What is that amused look for? I am sure it deals with something other than me."

"Henry, King of Mar," I say. "Apparently arrived in Varil City yesterday during university. "

"Oh?" She raises an eyebrow. "I thought the Marran royalty never entered our heretical nation? Betrothing their third son to Varil was a surprise to us, and allowing him into our land even more so."

"It seems," I say. "That Jason was active behind the scenes. He failed to mention that he assisted them using magic when he brought Niko home for a weekend visit. King Henry came to visit to investigate the truth of his priests, and when he visited the palace this morning, he was wondering if Varil would be kind enough to take in several of their youth who wish to defy their church."

Papa had me sitting in on the discussion, since I do need to learn how to perform such talks for when I take the throne. Henry was marveling at the fact that magic could heal so thoroughly. Apparently, he and his entourage were ambushed by wyverns on their way here.

"So he wants to defy the church of his people?" Tasha asks. "I can see that forming a rebellion."

"That was mentioned as well," I nod. "But when your ally has a magician who can take out five hundred ogres and corrupted with a single spell that also purifies their remains… that's a big impression. He, his wife, and their second son are in support of it. His third son is already a magician. Several of the guards who were there when Jason did that are in support of it and advocating defying the church."

Though the church is clearly against it, which is why there might be problems.

"Also," I say. "Something odd I discovered during the meeting?"

She raises an eyebrow.

"Niko and Jason were not present in Mar the whole weekend," I tell her. "According to King Henry, no one knows where Jason slept and Niko left shortly after eating breakfast the morning after he arrived. They disappeared for a whole weekend, and no one knows where they went."

Tasha frowns a little, before quickly correcting that.

"They do hang out a lot," she says. "If Jason was not so obviously in love with Alex, and Niko so obviously in Lina, I would think they were courting each other in secret. Lina spoke to me yesterday about them. She said that she was starting to get jealous with both of them. Niko for spending so much time for the first person other than you or I who treated her as a person and not a royal, and Jason for spending so much time with her betrothed."

"Those two are up to something," I tell her. "They go into one of their mansions, and do not return for hours. Supposedly, they decided to go on a trip together today."

"What do you think Alex thinks of that?" She chuckles.

"He is probably feeling the pangs of jealousy," I snort. "Personally, though? I believe that Jason might be teaching Niko magic."

"Magic?" Tasha asks. "Why would he teach him that? Niko is already a capable magician"

"Because Niko does not have the same foundation as most magicians," I answer. "He is largely self-taught, and that has hindered it. Lina said that it was obvious during the training lessons at university, because their professors were correcting him more than others and he struggled with some of the spells they wanted him to use."

"So you think Jason is secretly teaching Niko magic?" She asks.

"Yes," I nod. "But Niko is sixteen, like us. He would not want anyone to know he needs extra lessons, so they are performing these lessons in secret. When they disappeared that weekend – and their trip this weekend – I have no doubt it was for even more intense training. It might even be possible that Sage Samuel is helping."

If this suspicion of mine is true, then I want to know how the two of them will react to something Papa asked me about possibly proposing to them.

"Plus," I add. "His Varilan has gotten better ever since they started disappearing, so Jason might be assisting him with that, too. Come, let us join the others. Today is your birthday, we are here to celebrate that."