An old, man was gently caressing his long white beard. He occasionally gave himself a little push to continue the rocking chair's regular motion.

"Teresa, how is it going with 'him', my sweet canary, my other sources have preceded you and already reported to me. Why is that so, I ask.

Have you finally found love, so that you don't have time to attend to this old soul anymore?"

After his last sentence, the figure, started laughing with such delight that he had to hold his belly, frantically jiggling.

"Father, please retain such thoughts for yourself. The youngling you expressed your interest for is nothing special, I think we went too far to -"

Teresa's beautiful, yet serious expression froze for a second, her long brown hair cascading from her oval-shaped visage stopped in their tracks. Her hazel eyes focused on her father.

The man, slowly got up from the wooden chair, leaving it in motion, creaking as if he never left it in the first place. His back was hunched, and his eyes that the pointed hat on his couldn't hide anymore were dull, vaguely hinting at a brown tint.

"My daughter, do not play tricks with me, first you describe to me objectively what you perceived. Then you can display all your considerations.

Even if you are not fond of him, you must maintain our line of work. Or perhaps I should have you work among the filthy rats below, I'm sure you'll learn a thing or two."

With slow but steady steps he arrived near the kneeling Teresa and crouched as they were now standing face to face. His right arm suddenly shot op, glowing with intense soul energy.

However, instead of hitting her, it went past, reaching for an object previously occluded by the dark room. As the spherical item entered her field of vision, she was slightly surprised despite having seen such a thing multiple times.

It was a severed head, with its eyes closed it was somewhat smiling. The figure kept tapping on its forehead as if in deep thought, evidently troubled.

'I should have expected this outcome. Father doesn't care about me, what's so special about that useless trainee.

Hell, there is a reason why some aspects of reality have disappeared from Ceres, is not like nobody got any affinity for them, they are simply dead ends!

And now what, for speaking the truth I have to deal with his bullshit again! Mother was right after all...'

Teresa grew more frustrated by the second, as the only sound she could hear was the incessant tapping, her body immovable. One such characteristic she detested about her father, he had no qualms even using his soul powers against her.

Now almost invisible strings were wrapped all around her and had already taken control of her movements.

"It's fine dear. Go on now, tell me what you saw, then I'll let you free little canary."

Back to Lenard's study room. Nestor felt his head spinning, they were too many concepts to keep track of altogether from a single explanation.

"I'm sorry teacher, but even if I understood the general sense of what you've been telling me, I-I don't..."

Nestor didn't feel embarrassed for not understanding Lenard's lesson. Even if it was a stretch to say he somewhat understood the direction in which his teacher's explanation went to. He was still very new to such

fantasy-like mystical powers, it was comprehensible for him not to understand.

He still feared not being able to come up to Lenard's expectations, the tired scholar had already helped him a lot, being quite open and sincere about almost everything.

To delude him would mean he would delude himself.

"It's fine Nestor, I will sign you up for the botany class, the professor hosting it is an old friend of mine and I can trust you to him without worries.

This class should dig even deeper than what I told you. By exploring the mysteries of the soul, you will gain a better understanding of it, while with me we'll focus more on your powers.

I have also chosen an appropriate mantra for you to exercise and extend your soul axon until it'll properly connects to your brain. Remember, you always had your soul, otherwise, you couldn't have come here with your memories intact, you simply left it unused and undeveloped."

Thankful for his teacher's consideration, Nestor accepted an old yellow parchment containing strange symbols written all over. They didn't mean anything to him if taken out individually, yet as he tried to read it in its entirety, the text of words revealed to hold some meaning.

"Now we'll see how much Captain Cole put you to work. As this first step would require you to focus on a particularly intense moment of your life, where in front of hardships you put your everything to resist.

Through focused thinking, you will guide the axon towards your brain. What is important is that you try to channel the energy stored inside your soma upwards. That should be the harder part, and since most of that energy came from the seed, you'll also have to think about what smiling uncertainty showed you.

Doing so, not only will you properly direct the axon, but also model its foundations based on the aspect of time."

It was exactly as Lenard said, the mantra didn't hold such incredible secrets, it was so simple that Nestor doubted why even bother with this old piece of paper.

It said to focus on your breathing, on the silence around you. To feel the beating of your heart.

To find the tranquility hidden through your soul, to think about the hardships of life you tried to endure and overcome.

"Nestor you are not very adept at soul language, reading such texts will put a burden on your soul. Even more, depending on the true meaning that such words hold.

Even I, as a dedicated scholar, must be careful of what truths I unravel.

That is why I explained it to you, to lessen such weight put upon you."

Nestor felt fearful of what forbidden knowledge existed in this world, however by taking his teacher as an example, he suddenly felt reassured. To him Lenard appeared as a just and good person, to say such a thing meant he already encountered such risks. Thus with enough caution and preparation one was able to avoid the many dangers lurking in the shadows.

Nestor finally sat down on the cold, stone floor of the room. Lenard had just exited the study as he said had a few commissions to attend.

He felt the stillness, and quietness of the unmoving inanimated objects, silently laying all around him. Then it came to his heartbeat, his worries and uncertainties washed away.

In and out, he slowly breathed until Nestor felt a strong pull, drifting his thoughts back to the field of red flowers at the monastery.

He was now there, with the soft breeze rushing through his hair. Only he had retained his current appearance, as red curly hair wildly danced together with the poppies.

The orange light of dusk diffused on the horizon, gifting the clouds above mesmerizing pink shades.

Then Captain Cole suddenly appeared, with his halberd in his right hand. He charged at him, step after step the knight drew closer to Nestor's position.

Clang!

The sound of metallic collision echoed through the valley, as the Khopesh had materialized in his hand he managed to endure the hit.

To be clear, this Cole wasn't anything like the real, but a machination of Nestor's imagination. He didn't hit as hard and was limited to Nestor's combat awareness.

Nonetheless, he was still faster, stronger, and had a better weapon than him. The polearm was a lot longer and sharper than the cursed blade.

Nestor desperately held on to a defensive position, exploiting his sixth sense to predict his enemy's moves. Yet even if he knew, not always was he able to follow up with the seasoned knight curse of action.

The situation seemed helpless, as his opponent had overpowered him. With numerous cuts along his body, Nestor's right leg had been inflected with a deep wound and was now profusely bleeding, staining the ground red.

'I cannot escape, as I should face such adversities and resist them. Wait, the mantra didn't say anything about winning or overcoming them. But what would happen if I am to die here?'