“We apologize for offending you, lord. This one did not know who you were,” the man said. He put on a polite tone surprisingly quick. “Our small farm is far from the village, and we must protect ourselves from every threat with decisive speed! Please forgive my sister her mistake.”

Seeing these two on their knees before him was quite a shock to Gust. He’d never been in a position of authority and usually preferred to work alone, anyway.

Getting beaten up by boys vastly more powerful than him, despite looking younger, had a way of making Gust open his mind to new possibilities. Whereas before he may have tried to leave these people behind as soon as possible so that he may return to his own goals, now Gust was a little more curious. And that girl’s tattoos made him even more so.

He started with a few careful questions. “Why do you live this far out if you know it isn’t safe? Why not settle closer to the village?”

The man hesitated but didn’t move his forehead from its position on the floor. “We are not welcome there, lord.”

Gust walked over to the prostrate pair and squatted. “You know, you really don’t gotta stay down there like that. And call me Gust.”

Very slowly, the man glanced over at his sister with a worried expression. When his eyes looked up, they were full of suspicion. He unbent his back, but still rarely met Gust’s eyes.

The girl’s quickness was a contrast to the man’s overly respectful behavior. She sighed and crossed her arms, also refusing to meet Gust’s eyes but out of contempt, not fear or respect. Gust squinted as he tried to get a better look at her tattoos, but it was difficult. He opened his mana sense to observe their cultivation.

Seeing their subservience, Gust wasn’t worried about offending them with such bold curiosity.

As he’d suspected, neither had opened any meridians. They were only at the second stage of Mana Absorption, so Gust assumed they would have no defense against his Mage Sword if it came to a fight.

As he examined the girl, Gust noticed a faint blue light flowing along her tattoos. It was barely noticeable, but constant. His eyebrows scrunched as Gust wondered what that meant.

The man shivered. “Lord Gust-“

“Just Gust.” When the man made a weird face, the Demon added, “It’s short for Augustus.”

“Right… well, I’m Myles. This is my sister Philo.” The girl clenched her teeth as she heard her name.

Gust smiled. “Now we’re getting somewhere. See what happens when you introduce yourself to someone instead of hitting them over the head?” He looked over at the girl who assaulted him.

Philo snorted and pursed her lips.

“We have had to fight bandits before, sir. Mages pass by occasionally, but we’re just a pair of hermits who haven’t even passed the initial stages of Mana Absorption. We’re beneath their notice, and thankful for it. Wouldn’t have even known you were coming if it weren’t for Philo’s-“

“Myles!” The girl barked Myles’ name so loudly and abruptly that he fell backwards a little, catching himself with a hand.

The man looked offended and at a loss. “He’s seen too much. If we don’t tell him anything, he might start asking around. Besides, after your attack, I think the truth is the least we owe.” When his sister looked away again, Myles’ voice became softer and he added, “It wasn’t him.”

Gust wasn’t sure what to make of those last words. Philo let out a huff and jumped to her feet, then stood by the fire. He didn’t want to pry, so he moved on. “Alright, so you thought I was a bandit here to kill you and take your stuff. I get it, she was just protecting herself. My head hurts, but I’ll be fine. What’s her problem?” He was the one in pain, after all. Gust couldn’t understand why she seemed so angry with him.

Myles chose his words carefully. “Have you ever seen tattoos like that?”

Gust shook his head. He had seen plenty of strange face tattoos on the internet, but nothing quite like this.

Myles went on, nodding. “Neither had anyone in the village. If we were powerful mages, they would have been afraid of us, but instead they ran us out of town and threatened to do worse if we returned.” Myles’ hands balled into fists, and he shook his head. “They decided she was harboring a demon from the underworld; that the tattoos were for a binding spell and when the spell failed, it would kill everyone. We settled a bit closer to town at first, but they found us. We’ve been here for a few seasons and it’s been… better.”

Gust cringed at Myles’s fearful use of the words underworld and Demon. “Have you thought about applying to the School of Fallen Leaves?” he asked.

Myles’ breathing quickened and he began to blink quickly. For a silent minute, he seemed to be searching for the right words.

Gust started rising to his feet, his attention on the girl’s tattoos. “If you don’t want to talk, I’ll just ask her.”

“No! Please, don’t.” Myles lowered his voice, but there was no chance for privacy in such a small home. “She doesn’t need to think about it anymore than she already does.”

Gust fell into a sitting position and kept his eyes on Myles. After another minute, the man finally spoke. “There was a man who kidnapped us. A mage or sorcerer, I don’t know. He caught us on the road, killed our parents, and took us to his… underground laboratory of some kind. He made me a slave and my sister… a test subject.”

“The tattoos?”

Myles nodded. “The mage only ever spoke to give orders. Occasionally, though, he forgot we were there and talked to himself. It’s called the Mana Singularity Sense. It’s a part of some special, dangerous cultivation path, but for now it just helps her see mana in a weird way.”

“Weird how?”

With a shrug, Myles answered as well as he could. “I don’t have my mana sense yet, so I don’t know.”

Gust glanced over at Philo and realized something. “Wait… neither should she. I only just unlocked my own.”

Myles nodded slowly. “Exactly. The best explanation we could come up with is that the tattoos work like meridians. They carry mana toward the diamond, which feeds it into her eyes and gives them the abilities of a mage’s mana sense.”

“But she doesn’t have a mana sense…” Gust said, trying to understand. “It’s merged with her eyes?” He was only speculating, but Myles nodded quickly. Gust had always been told the mana sense opened along with one’s first meridian. Before he could be certain, he had to ask, “What’s my cultivation level then? If she can see it, she should-”

“The first level of Pathway Establishment,” Philo answered from her spot near the fire. She glanced over at Gust to confirm that she was right, then went back to watching the flames.

As Gust nodded, he noticed that he hadn’t felt anything. Even the Masters’ skills with their mana senses weren’t such that they could observe his soul without Gust feeling a thing. “Check again,” he demanded.

Philo merely looked at him and scoffed. “You think I don’t know what meridians look like? Your soul is… different. It’s like you have a hole in the center. I don’t know what it means, but I can see it plain as day.”

As she looked at him, Gust expected to feel some pressure against his soul, but there was nothing. His mana sense had been spread out the entire time, but it didn’t sense anything from her. Around the school, there were always at least a few mana senses filling the air, and even the Masters couldn’t simply hide their presence, but Gust detected nothing from this girl.

“How do you do that?” he finally asked.

Philo’s voice grew angry. “I don’t know! Ever since I’ve had these damn tattoos, I haven’t been able to turn it off! Even at night, there’s mana everywhere. I barely sleep anymore; my head aches all the time.” Her arms curled around herself. Myles rose to his feet to offer some comfort, but his sister shot him a dark look. Then she turned it on Gust. “Besides, isn’t it time you tell us a few things? If you’re really from the school, what are you doing out here?”

“Looking for goldenseal,” the mage answered simply. “And I actually found some not far from here, no thanks to you two. With my head aching as it is, I don’t know if I’ll be able to find any more,” he said, exaggerating the pain as he touched his forehead and winced.

Myles gritted his teeth and Philo rolled her eyes. “Around here?” she asked. “Not likely. We’ve picked the place clean. What are you really searching for?”

With a sigh, Gust slapped his bag of holding and some of the goldenseal flew into his hands. He held it out to the girl. “See? Goldenseal. One of the Masters put out a request for some, and I was dumb enough to think it’d be easy.”

A small smile crept onto Philo’s lips. She held them firmly together, as if trying to hide the emotion, but her eyes shone at Gust. “That’s not the only thing you’re dumb enough for. This isn’t Goldenseal.”

“Sure it is!” Gust pulled out the picture he used to identify it. “See? White flower on top, green leaves.”

Philo shook her head and held up the sample. “This one’s all wrong. See how the petals are flat and thick? Goldenseal doesn’t have petals like that.”

“Every flower has petals,” Gust said defensively.

The girl shook her head and held her hand out until Gust put the drawn image in it. Then she held the image next to the sample. “See? These thin, rod-like things are called stamen. If your artist were more skilled, they’d be easier to see.”

“What?” Gust shouted as he grabbed the flower and held it up next to the drawing. It was just as she said. Now that he stared at the image, he could see that the ‘petals’ on the goldenseal flower were actually numerous individual stamen. “Ugh, what the hell is this, then?”

“Twinleaf,” Philo laughed.

“Is it good for anything?” After spending most of his day hiking, Gust hated to think that the time had been wasted.

“Sure. There’s a Twinleaf recipe that helps with diarrhea, but I think we’d know by now if that was your problem.”

Gust’s face turned red. “Anything related to cultivation?”

“How should I know? We aren’t mages.”

“Whatever. Hopefully there’s a mission posted looking for Twinleaf.” As he said this, Gust transferred the substance to his own bag of holding until Ephraim’s bag was empty. “You two live out here, do you know of any goldenseal patches?”

Myles opened his mouth, but Philo spoke first. “Not any we’d be willing to give up to you.”

Gust sighed. “What if I promise not to tell anyone you’re out here? If you escaped some secret lab, I’m sure someone’s gotta be looking for you.”

Again, Philo responded before her brother had a chance. Myles’s expression grew fearful while his sister grew angry. “And what exactly do you think we have to lose? This wonderful home? We spend every pathetic day of our lives scavenging for food, and for what? So we can live another day to avoid beasts and mages, constantly fearing every fallen leaf or broken twig? We need something to give us hope.”

“What did you have in mind?”