"Watch over me..." Mirayoung said, leaning against Jerius as she felt her mind growing increasingly disoriented.

While innovativeness and versatility were celebrated as part of a mage's arsenal, they risked backlashes as casting certain spells, interacting with certain arrays or artifacts would need buffering or defensive magic to shield the mind or soul from harm that the mage would not be aware of without in-depth experimentation and testing.

Then the backlash that was in her opinion the most detestable, struck her. It was a psychic backlash called Void, sometimes encountered by mages who weaved complex spells of a cerebral nature. In her case, it was a combination of audacious weaving of complex spells to interact with the array and the damage to her soul; the latter was a concerning wild card.

When the Void happened, her consciousness became disoriented, falling into the labyrinth of her memories, or any other people's memories that she latched on.

Over the centuries, there would be dozens of known cases where young, reckless but otherwise brilliant magicians lost their minds to the Void. Some came back when daring archmagi ventured into their consciousnesses to find them in the labyrinths, but most failed to be rescued and their physical bodies wasted away till death claimed them.

To combat the Void, the module on psychic spells in the academy covered an examinable part on several methods of High and Tallis magic that detailed the methods of returning from it.

Still, Mirayoung hated it, for the Void made people lose awareness of reality and drown them in age-old memories. With her eidetic memory, the Void came with a crispness not found in others, making it even harder for her to break out of it.

She hated it...

Hate?

What hate?

Mirayoung was confused by the tight knot in her heart that only unravelled a second ago. She looked up, standing before the north gate that trailed into the courtyard of the academy. Clumsily holding four scrolls that were a bit too much for her, she cursed under her breath.

"Hah!"

Mirayoung heard a familiar voice then someone threw an arm over her, weighing her down and causing her grip of the oversized scrolls to loosen. The scrolls fell to the ground, scattered.

Lyvia beamed a wide smile. "I never saw you as an obedient lass, Mirayoung."

She squatted at once, gathering the scrolls. Then she turned to pass one over to Lyvia, with mild annoyance. "Help me hold, will you? I can't get the scrolls dirty."

Lyvia took it from her, sighing in amusement. "Master Iras doesn't mean what he said."

"I'm not going to risk my spot in the expedition to Icesia North, just because I can't conduct myself well enough in his eyes. I don't have your privilege of being a necessity for the trip," Mirayoung said, darting at her friend.

"I tried teaching you Empyrean Flame," Lyvia said, lowering her voice to imitate one of their teachers. "Your lack of fire affinity‒oh, as FarSage had said‒is because of your nonchalance. You need to have a more serious outlook, young lady."

Walking ahead and crossing the courtyard to the stone stairs, Mirayoung said. "Cut it. Empyrean is a bloodline spell. Even if I have the fire affinity, I won't be able to learn it."

"Any case," Mirayoung continued. "If Master Iras bans me, you're on your own to find Frost Jasmine. If you think you can venture out from the expedition alone and pull off the whole stunt without getting killed by the barbarians, you're overestimating yourself! You can't even tell left from right."

"Ah we'll see," Lyvia laughed. "Let's step in, or else we'll be late and get trapped outside again!"

They rounded the corner, where both the outside view and the door behind disappeared, becoming part of the marble wall. Illuminated by glowing orbs and torches bolted by iron fittings, the hallway was as bright as the outside. The pair met a few other apprentices, fellow learners and friends heading in the same direction to their first class of the day, in the Circle of Power.

They walked to the end of the hallway, past countless rooms and the academy's library, as the air grew thicker with power. Archmagus Arish, the keeper of the Circle of Power and their first teacher of the day, stood at the door with a stern look.

Knowing his dislike for tardiness, the six apprentices quickened their feet, none of whom wanted to incur his wrath this early. The width of the door into the Circle of Power allowed only a single person, so they formed a single file, greeting the archmagus as they went in.

Arish stopped Mirayoung, who was last in the line. "I heard from Master Iras what you did."

"I-I," Mirayoung cast a sheepish look at Arish; even her mischievous and bold side wilted before Arish, one of the oldest and most venerated archmagi in the Guild.

"Answer one question, Mira," he said, his voice low and steely. "Was it really the heart of an Ayris Lion?"

"I don't really know what I took‒"

"Stole. You stole it. Be proud of the truth. I'm not going to punish you. Young Iras already did, didn't he?" Arish said. "Describe it."

"He threatened to remove me from the Icesia exp‒"

"Not that! Describe the heart you stole. Don't skim on the details."

Mirayoung swallowed hard. "It's purple with thick criss-crossed veins‒"

"Those veins...were they straight or curved?"

"Straight."

"The fool! That's the heart of a Bryi Lion. A lesser magus can't tell the difference. They ran as fast and struck almost as hard, but worth no more than the hen we farm for food," Arish said, though it came out almost like a mutter. "Ellydian spent too much time burying his head in books, creating odd concoctions, and getting high on the fumes. He'll never make archmagus."

Magus Ellydian had always been sort of a pariah, given his eccentricities and single-minded focus on alchemy, one of the lesser branches of magic. But Mirayoung wondered why Arish, of all the archmagi, particularly detested him.

Then she recalled Ellydian did rather publicly oppose Arish's dogma, written in the Scroll of High Transmutation that magical infusion could never permanently alter the properties of living organisms, for souls were immutable. Ellydian also refused to teach anything from the Scroll of High Transmutation in his classes, citing his principle to not impart falsehoods to young, impressionable minds.

Arish was a prideful mage, just like many others.

"Are you waiting for sunset? Get in," Arish said, but Mirayoung caught a faint note of satisfaction in his voice.

Mirayoung scuttled in, joining the other final-year apprentices who had formed a semicircle around a floating structure of a double helix.

"Let's continue where we left off last week," Arish said, his voice thunderous. "Has anyone come close to decoding the message from the Helixseal?"

Silence reigned.

"Make a guess. I was told this class has the highest potential, with many archmagi in the making," Arish said. "I'm yet a convert."

The bush-haired man spoke up first. "Cast an unscramble spell with a perpetual sigil so it continues to unscramble the two helixes, until we get a coherent message."

"Good first guess, but that's a brute-force attack. It'll bleed dry your reserve before you even come close to decoding," Arish said. "Also, before an unscramble spell can be cast, you draw on a dangerous assumption that the helixes are two parts of a larger message. What if they need to be independently solved? Then again, if you cast two separate unscramble spells to solve them independently, you draw on another dangerous assumption that they are non-dependent on each other. Both ways rely on prior knowledge that you lack."

"Every spell gives feedback. If we understand the nature of the message, we can interpret the feedback after each unscramble attempt for signals that indicate correctness," A lady beside Lyvia said confidently. "Like a Tallis sorcerer coaxing light spirits...which are the most stubborn and unpredictable ones I have ever met."

"Clever," Arish said. "Listen to the feedback to slowly unmask the truest state of the message, but you forget something. An unscramble spell has an element of randomness. You can't always compound it in the right direction. Due to the inefficiencies, I will consider it as semi-correct."

"Is it mutable?" The first man asked.

"Yes young Digory, but if you suggest alchemy, you're going backwards. Don't lower my impression of you," Arish said, pausing and scrutinising the male student. "Your face is giving the biggest question mark I've seen in my history of teaching. The answer is simple. You cannot transmute the code away because transmutation needs knowledge of the end state. You don't even know what the end-message is, to even begin the process."

A few gave answers, even Lyvia but none convinced Arish more than the one he conceded to be semi-correct. The archmagus would always come back with the perfect justification why it would not just fail, but fail miserably. This went on till silence reigned again, and Arish finally said. "It's important to learn how to unscramble a Helixseal as it is the only spell that can bypass all known covenants, restrictions and clauses that bind communication. If you swear to secrecy by a magical oath, encode the secret in Helixseal. Anyone who deciphers, will learn the secret without violation; with no penalty to the oath-maker. It's an incredible feat of magic, one must say."

"But...every Helixseal is unique, even multiple ones created by the same creator. And the key is unknown even to the creator, who may not be able to decode it ever," the most petite girl in the Circle of Power said, her voice as soft as she was small. Arish snapped his fingers, causing her voice to be repeated and amplified ten folds and surprising her so much she gasped.

"That's the beauty of the Helixseal. Even the creator doesn't have the key. It's a puzzle to all, and a puzzle to be unravelled, Little Iffea Tenebrae of Ceil," Arish said. "Rro's favourite apprentice...you've not shared your idea. How will you decipher it? And speak louder."

"I-I...shared the same idea as Lyvia about understanding the nature of Helixseal; that the key takes the shape of the creator's deepest emotions, whatever that may be," Iffea said at the top of her voice; but even that, it came out as only slightly raised.

"Again, that's not wrong but it's far from enough," Arish said, finally pinning his eyes on Mirayoung. "What about you, Mira?"

Mirayoung broke from her trance and straightened herself, suddenly conscious. "A Tallis magician may have the best shot at it. With some luck, charm the book spirits from the private library of the creator and use that to engineer a unique cipher spell to decipher the key."

"Why book spirits?"

"They're the smartest spirits?"

"Try house spirits," Arish said, explaining. "As you remember from your foundation classes, most spirits manifest from the elements of the world, whether they be natural like air and fire or manmade like houses and books. True to the origin of their manifestations, they are shaped by the said world, even thoughts and beliefs. This is why there are those we call abstract spirits that derive their existence from concepts."

The students listened attentively as Arish continued impassionedly.

"You see how they fit in with our need to solve a Helixseal. The encryption on a Helixseal is not truly random as humans are not random. Subconscious patterns and biases influence our magic. Now, Helixseal is a spell that uses our deepest emotions to create the encrypted container of a message. House spirits resonate the most with our emotions just because of the sheer amount of time they spend with us in an intimately close space. If you fit two and two together, house spirits become the best attempt we have to unlock a Helixseal by giving a decoding spell a direction to pursue. Maybe this will sway a few of you to specialise in Talis magic next year when the Choosing comes. We've so few Tallis archmagi."

"Shouldn't the title of best attempt be given to the creator of the Helixseal? Instead of house spirits, we work with the creator on a decoding spell."

"Now, young Digory. My impression of you has been permanently diminished," Arish said, causing the man's cheeks to redden uncontrollably. "Think through for yourself why that is far from the best."

Arish looked at Mirayoung and said. "Good try, Mira."

Mira?

Young Mira?

No young?

Wait, it was always young Lyvia. Young Digory. Lttle Iffea. And Young Mira.

Always, without fail.

Arish continued. "Mira, now you know about the house spirits. Do you know where I once stayed?"

Mirayoung froze for a second, as the discrepancy in her experience became a blade that seared through her mind, hurting her head. She felt her whole body shivering, and the reality around her phasing in and out like they were pieces of a puzzle threatening to come loose. All the other apprentices stilled, akin to lifelike statues.

"I've a home in the Strange Village, sealed by magic. You'll recognise it when you see it."

"N-no you didn't say that before," Mirayoung finally uttered.

"No I didn't. In the real version of events, I went on to grill Lyvia, because you two were archmagi in the making. Rebellious, yes, but original in your thinking and very talented with arcane," Arish said. "Which reminds me, how did you succumb to the Void?"

Void.

Lurching backwards, Mirayoung breathed hard as she looked around. The pain pounding her head hurt her thoughts. "B-backlash. I made bold decisions to defeat the Mind Wraith"

"Ah...a Mind Wraith now."

Then she continued. "Are you...in my memories? Wait, are you all in my memories?"

"I taught Fermand a great deal on memory spells. I pioneered most of them. Why feign surprise that I can hijack yours when the T'tar and Void made you vulnerable? Good thing, or you won't get close to the truth. At least, this will give you a modicum of hope," Arish said, musing a little. "And no, I'm here alone. It's usually impossible but let us not forget I'm Arish Kinesan, the Master of Dreams."

"Master Arish..."

"Time is running out, so you need to listen carefully," Arish said. "Take that Helixseal you see before you and memorise the codes. I want you to decipher it. Remember the house spirit's talk? Find my house. It's gravely important that you do. Understand, Mira?"

"Why can't you just tell‒oh, you're bound by a covenant," Mirayoung said. "What's so powerful that even one of Cabal is bound?"

"It's more than a covenant. And all of Cabal is bound, and intentionally so," Arish said. "The truth you need is in the Helixseal."

Before Mirayoung could utter a guess, Arish cut in. "This is different. Stop guessing, or you'll be bound too."

"How is that possible?"

"It doesn't just bind the originator, recipient and the willing. It binds the innocent, the unwilling, the bystanders, the witnesses, the observers and all in between. It binds everyone who comes close to the truth," Arish said. "It's memetic magic infused into a Thrall, an ancient contract-spell that's even more powerful than the most powerful covenant‒the covenant of the Crippled Beast."

Mirayoung had so many questions.

Who bound the Cabal?

Was it Aderis?

Wait, was it the same person who bound Aderis, since he too, was bound?

How deep did the malicious plot run that even the Cabal was affected?

But she feared asking now. Nodding her head, she grabbed the Helixseal, which tingled her palm, and studied the cryptic patterns. When she was sure she remembered them, she recited in her head again so she could more easily fetch it as a thread to analyse later after exiting the Void.

The Arish in her mind waved his hands and spoke a word of power. Mirayoung knew that word came with power, but no malicious intent, so she embraced it fully. Still, she asked. "What was that for?"

"Assurance. You have only one chance at this," he said. "It'll never come again. Can't afford you getting a single pattern wrong when you're out. That little spell will ensure you'll never forget the Helixseal's patterns and the instruction to take it to my house in Strange Village."

"I trust my memory, but the price of assurance is never too high to pay," Mirayoung had a half-smile on her lips. "Will the rest...of you know about this?"

"No, this is-has to be a secret between us. The reminiscence of those simpler days some three hundred years ago had been pleasant," he said. "I'm thankful. You won't see me again, at least not individually."

Mirayoung nodded, as the landscape around her started to fragment; the Circle of Power had shattered into broken shards of reality, revealing a kaleidoscopic backdrop.

"One more thing before you go. The only thing I can say," Arish uttered, as his body began to splinter in earnest. "Don't trust Holz."