For some reason, the Yellow Forest seemed a lot less charming to Xerxes. It hadn’t changed. He had. When he looked around, the shadows seemed stickier. The vines seemed like they were trying to choke the life out of the trees. Even the animal sounds seemed more malevolent. What had previously seemed like the merry chatter of fuzzy animals now seemed like the dangerous click of razor-sharp teeth. The fact that the soldiers didn’t seem interested in singing songs added an additional level of gravity.

After twenty minutes within the trees, he shook his head and took a few deep breaths. Come on, Xerxes. What are you a baby? Scared of the dark?

It wasn’t the first time he had to force himself to clear his thoughts. Every so often, he shook his head and forced himself to control his breathing to clear his thoughts.

Given the distance between the various rest and camp areas within the Yellow Forest, there was no point in trying to push for greater speed in getting back to Kisiga. They spent the night in the same spot they’d camped on the way to the castle.

For mages, advancement in the magical arts was a tricky business, especially when on a campaign such as this. And Xerxes knew that every moment spent refilling and refining his melam was crucial. As such, he spent as much time as possible in meditation that evening, gathering melam from his surroundings and packing into his energy chamber. Gandash and Bel did the same.

Most ordinary people thought of meditation as strange. A mage would simply sit quietly, eyes closed, hands on knees, breathing in a prescribed fashion. The soldiers in the convoy, however, worked directly for the Mage Parliament, and were used to the practices of mages. They made sure to keep the camp as quiet as possible while the mages went about their work, and made sure they had water and food waiting when their meditation sessions came to an end.

As a Seer, Xerxes had a single chamber of energy, and if he wanted to reach the next level, that of the High Seer, he needed to form a second chamber of energy. The process of forming that second chamber involved filling his first chamber with melam, then using that entire stockpile to start building the ‘walls’ of the second chamber. With the existing chamber having been emptied, he needed to refill it, a process that took no short amount of time. Afterward, he would drain it again to continue the work on the second chamber. Mages referred to that process as Flushing.

In order to advance from the Seer to the High Seer level, a mage had to perform twelve Flushes. Given that ordinary meditation practices would allow a Seer to fill their chamber in two months, it meant that by focusing completely on meditation and Flushes, and not casting any spells, it would generally take about two years to reach a breakthrough point.

Before leaving on the mission, Bel had performed four Flushes, Gandash had done two, and Xerxes had completed one. On the road to the castle, they had spent a bit of time on meditation, but not much. And now all three of them had cast spells, reducing their stockpile of melam. For Xerxes and Bel, it wasn’t as much of an issue. Asgagu and Balatu Seers could both cast twenty spells before draining their single chamber. But for Gandash, it was a different story. It took about nearly half of his total stockpile of melam to cast a single Spawn Duo. And he’d cast the spell twice. Needless to say, he didn’t hesitate to consume the Concentrated Melam Pill his father had given him. That gave him enough melam that he could cast Spawn Duo again in an emergency, but it didn’t completely refill his chamber.

The next night was spent in the same tavern in Kisiga. The coroner there had finished his work, and gave them an ornate box containing Gem’s remains. Captain Ishki gave the box to Xerxes, who packed it together with the box of money that he intended to deliver to his friend’s family as soon as they got back to the capital. When he thought of facing Gem’s wife and telling the story of her husband’s passing… Xerxes’ throat felt thick.

What would he say? How would he say it?

All he knew was that it had to be done, and he owed it to his late friend to see everything through to the end.

Captain Ishki had everyone wake up early, go through morning prayer, and then pack to leave. As they gathered in the street outside the tavern, two burning streaks of light passed overhead.

“More meteors,” Xerxes said as he pulled a pile of books out of his traveling pack. “What the hell is going on?”

Bel stared up at the light. “We’ll probably find out more when we get back home. The Mage Parliament must have noticed. They probably dug up every old book about meteors that exists in the Academy library.”

“I doubt it’s anything worth worrying about,” Gandash said. “I was reading a book last year about planets in other starisles that have recurring meteor showers. Sometimes yearly.”

Xerxes shuddered. “Maybe. All I know is that these meteors are giving me the creeps.”

It was only then that Gandash noticed Xerxes’ books. “Say, Xerk, I haven’t seen you do any book study this entire time. Are you finally going to buckle down and do some reading?”

Xerxes grinned wryly. Matters of energy chambers weren’t the only things mages had to consider. Book knowledge regarding the runes was also a factor. “Yeah, I don’t want to fall behind. Once I form my second chamber, I want to have already mastered the Asgagu Sebum rune.”

“Oh? So you’re going to skip Asgagu Sanum?”

“Yeah.” He held up his fist and looked at it. “I’m getting tired of relying only on this.”

“Just adding your foot to your arsenal isn’t going to cut it for you?”

Xerxes dropped his fist. “Exactly. Once I can augment my sword, I’m going to be a thousand times more effective.”

Gandash grinned. “I can only imagine.”