I grabbed my walking staff and hurried from the chamber, leaving Valarie singing merrily as she sorted through Cassian’s ridiculous wardrobe. I was glad to have done a good thing for her by giving her the clothes to sell, and I felt I had found a competent ally in her. The new Prince Cassian really was going to shake things up a bit, and I hoped that making a bit of a stir wouldn’t cause too much trouble. Well, after all, I was the Prince. It would be interesting to find out just how much sway that title carried.

I was expecting a long and painful walk to meet with Strength Master Garro, but Magus Auron was waiting in the hallway outside my personal chambers. He sat cross-legged on the flying carpet, wearing a broad smile and the same scarlet-colored robes he’d had on yesterday.

“Hello, Auron,” I said, pleasantly surprised. “I’m glad to see you. I was just wondering how I would find my way to the Strength Trainer.”

“I’ve come to transport you there,” he said. “You’re late!”

“I know it,” I said, as I sat on the carpet beside him and laid my staff next to me, “but I needed to rest and eat, and find my way around the chambers.”

The enchanted rug started to move down the halls at a much less dizzying pace than when we had met with the king.

“I trust you slept well?” Auron asked me.

“Actually, no, not particularly. But I’m not going to complain. I was given a feast upon waking. Tell me, am I always expected to have a pretty attendant providing me with food whenever I wake?”

“You can count on it,” Magus Auron said. “There are benefits to being the Crown Prince beyond eventually taking the power of the Archmage.”

“I’m starting to see that,” I said. As we passed folks in the castle’s many corridors, they gasped and stared while speaking among themselves. No doubt the sudden re-emergence of their comatose prince was quite the spectacle, and the gossip about my reappearance had spread fast in the castle community.

“I was speaking this morning to Val, the attendant assigned to my room.”

“And that was all you did, speak to her?”

“Yes,” I stated plainly. “She certainly thought I was going to do more than speak to her. It seems like Prince Cassian was a bit of a lecher toward women.”

“You could say that. You’ll find that the number of those who are displeased with your return outnumber those who are happy to hear you’ve awoken.”

“Surely they’re happy that the king now has an heir who can take the mantle?” I said.

“You would think so, but Cassian truly was insufferable at the best of times. You’ll have your work cut out for you trying to change that reputation. And there are those who will prefer Cassian the way he was.”

“What do you mean?”

Auron didn’t look at me. “A man who is ruled by his appetites is easy to control. A man who is ruled by his morals, not so much.”

We stopped outside a large set of doors. Nailed to the doors were five metal icons: a flame, a mountain, a water-drop, a forger’s hammer, and a tree.

“These icons represent the five elements,” Auron explained. “Wood, fire, earth, metal, and water. I don’t believe the Hunter mythos accounts for them.”

I shook my head. “All magic is part of nature,” I said. “But we did use all five of those elemental types in our magic.”

“I would like to discuss our magical differences further, but I have some matters that must be attended to. Being reassigned to the position of King’s Advisor is not without its administrative duties. I may be preoccupied for some weeks. In the meantime, you may use this carpet to travel.”

“You’re letting me borrow it?” I could hardly believe my ears.

Auron nodded. “You must look after it well, but yes, you may keep it for now.”

“Do I get a wand, too? I noticed that you use the wand to guide the carpet to where you want to go.”

“You won’t need the wand. You have the staff I gave you.”

I picked up the staff and turned it over in my hands. “It’s magic?”

“Not precisely. You can use it as a vector, through which you can channel your mana.”

“You mentioned channeling mana yesterday but didn’t explain yourself.”

“Ah, yes. I almost forgot that you weren’t taught how to channel your mana. Or, at least, you weren’t taught to do so in the terms the Outland Kingdom uses. When you craft your Hunter potions, do you utter an incantation, or use some base item, a cauldron, perhaps?”

I nodded. “That’s right. We place the ingredients into a special cauldron and whisper the Hunter’s creed over the brew.”

“Exactly. The cauldron acts as the vector, and the words you whisper act as the magical spark that starts the process. Without knowing it, you were channeling your mana when you did that. The more experienced Hunters, could they use the same ingredients and the same vectors as the lesser hunters but produce more powerful potions?”

“Yes, that’s right. How did you know?”

“It’s the same with the outland mages. Through practice, the Hunter Clan potion makers were becoming stronger mages.”

“But Hunters aren’t mages?”

Auron chuckled. “You might not have named them so, but they certainly were mages. After you finished a potion, I suspect you felt very tired? This tends to happen when expending large amounts of mana. When you uttered an incantation, you aligned your spirit with the elements you were about to manipulate. The incantation did nothing; you could have used any words, so long as they helped your spirit to meet with the frequency of the desired elemental effects.”

“This is a lot to take in,” I said. “You’re giving my brain a workout when today was meant to be about training my body.”

“Very true. Well, I’ll leave you with that. As I said, I may be unavailable for a few weeks, but we’ll see each other again. Best of luck with your training.”

With that, Auron tapped the rug with his wand, and it dropped to rest on the floor. He gave it another tap, and it rolled up into a tight cylinder.

I glanced from him to the carpet and back again, struck by his generosity. I didn’t know for sure, but I figured that magic carpets were not exactly common around here. Even giving me the carpet on a long-term loan meant a lot.

“Thank you very much,” I said. He looked at me with a twinkle in his eye and then turned and strode away with surprising speed for such an old man.

My gaze followed him as he went away down the corridor and then vanished round the corner. It was only then that I realized I hadn’t asked him how to channel my mana to command the carpet to fly.

“Oh…” I muttered, glancing at the carpet. I was debating whether to run after him and ask when the doors to the training area swung open suddenly. I had to jump back to avoid being bowled over.

There was a man standing in the doorway, glaring out into the corridor.

He was an imposing figure, nearly seven feet tall. His massive head brushed the top of the doorframe, and his great hands looked like giant hams as he planted them on his hips.

The dark brows on his domineering face were scrunched into a scowl over two gleaming black eyes, and his dark hair was tied so tight against his skull that he might have looked bald but for the dome-like bun that sat atop his head.

His simple black robes looked loose enough to give him freedom of movement but well-fitted enough so that they wouldn’t get in his way. They couldn’t hide the fact that he was laden with more muscle than an ox.

This terrifying giant scanned the corridor for a moment, then looked down at me, where I stood leaning on my stick to regain my balance. It was like being looked at by a giant.

“Cassian,” he said in a deep voice that rumbled like boulders falling down a hillside.

“You must be Strength Master Garro?” I said, holding out a hand to him in greeting. “I’m pleased to meet you.”

“They said you’d lost your memory,” he rumbled at me, “but I didn’t believe them. You really don’t remember me at all?”

I’d apprenticed with three masters in my past life, but I had barely progressed past the first stage in each of their respective fields: tracking, potion making, and healing. The one thing that all of those masters had in common was that they demanded respect.

Garro had disregarded my outstretched hand, and I figured that maybe it was not the done thing to shake hands with the Strength Master. Perhaps he would be offended if I didn’t remember him at all? I decided to try a white lie.

I furrowed my brow, as though I were fighting to recall a memory. “Uh, yes, I have lost my memory, but I believe I do remember you.” I gave an affected laugh. “Of course, how could I forget?”

The giant’s brows didn’t lift from their frown, but his mouth twitched in a smile.

“Don’t lie, lad. I can see you can’t recall a damn thing about me.”

I glanced down, looking apologetic. “It’s not been easy, returning to the castle with no memory of anything.”

“Hm,” he said, “I can’t imagine it has been. Well, in my case, it’s probably a good thing. Last time we saw each other we didn’t exactly leave on the best of terms. I remember beating your ass and sending you to your old man with so many bruises that you wanted my head. Too bad social status doesn’t matter inside the training center, else I would have died that day.”

“I can see why my mind fails to recall that memory. Seems rather traumatic. For the both of us, that is.”

Master Garro’s small smile broadened into a grin, and he leaned back and crossed his huge arms like two tree trunks across his chest. “I should say so. You never came back to me after that. Wasn’t more than a week before you ended up in that coma. But you’re back now, and I hear you’ve changed. Or so Magus Auron tells me. I gotta say, I’m glad to know that he’s restored his relationship with the king; I always liked that Magus. If he says you’ve changed, then I’m at least willing to give you the benefit of the doubt.”

I decided to be honest with him - as honest as I could be, at least. For all his imposing frame and obvious distaste for the former prince Cassian, I found that I instinctively liked Strength Master Garro.

“It’s hard for me to know how much I’ve changed. I don’t remember what I was like before, but from what I’ve heard my reputation could use a good deal of fixing. I’m going to do my best to do that. One thing I do know is that I’m physically weak. I could use whatever expertise you have to restore my strength.”

The Strength Master had listened with mounting surprise to my statement. Now he actually chuckled, a deep, booming sound from deep down in his chest. “Is that so? Sounds like you might actually be willing to give it a crack this time. I’m not sure about ‘restoring’ your strength though. I doubt even the Archmage could restore your previous strength. You see, ‘restoring’ your strength would mean that would mean you actually had some in the first place!” He threw his head back and roared with laughter, and I laughed along with him. Cassian really was a weakling.

Garro stopped laughing, and I only stopped a few seconds later after I realized he was looking at me strangely. Oh, right. I was Cassian, which meant me laughing about being a weakling shouldn’t have been funny for me, who was the butt of Garro’s joke.

“Anyway,” Garro said, “you’re late. The training center has changed a bit since you were last here, so I’ll show you around. Come on in.”

I picked up my carpet and started to walk through the doorway, but Garro shoved me in the chest with one finger, and I staggered back a step or two.

“Remember,” he warned me. “You’re not the prince anymore when you step into the center. In here, you’re just another trainee. Just another hopeful that wants to get strong enough to take the Academy exam. Even someone like you, whose whole life has been written out for him, has to pass the tests. This is an ancient custom. I’m not sure what the king would do if you did not pass the tests, but custom suggests that he wouldn’t be able to do anything. How about we don’t test that theory? Instead, let’s have you actually try hard this time?”

“That won’t be a problem. Auron was right when he said to you that I’ve changed. I’m going to give this my best shot.”

“Hmm, well, if you’re honest about this, then I’ll be here for you while you’re recovering. I’ll give you the help you need to recover your strength.”

“I’m very grateful for that, Master Garro,” I said.

He blinked a few times, surprised. “You have changed. Before, you would have balked at the idea of anyone helping you. Well, that’s all to the good. Come on, let’s see how you fare on your first day of training.”