Mithandra was sitting on his bed, fiddling with a metallic cube. She looked up as he entered.

“Good, come here and sit down.”

Kynos was reminded of their first tutoring session as he took a seat next to her.

“Ky, listen and don't panic. We're going to be splitting up for a while.”

Kynos nodded, wondering what new plan she had concocted.

“I've hit a limit to what I can do alone. We both need the right tools if we want to take on god, so I need to find the dwarves. They have metals I can't easily get a hold of here, and they have smiths and techniques which I absolutely need for my plans.”

Kynos nodded again. He wondered why he couldn't just go with Mith though.

“You want to come right? But you can't. I need you to do three things before we can meet up again. First, I need you to get stronger. You can't even beat the weakest seer now, someone with less mana, less talent, and just a common magic type. Once you reach Charlotte or Steve's level, we can think about the next step.”

Kynos understood that much; Roland had only taken one step back.

“Second, I need you to gather some strong allies. I'd love to put the nail in that bastard god's coffin myself, but I can't be with you as you carve your way there. You need people who are strong enough to help you and close enough with you to share your goal. I've set the basics up for you, now you have to learn how to get along with people. You'll never be able to be my right hand if you can't even inspire others.”

Kynos grimaced at that. He rarely spoke, and when he did, it was usually in few words. He would have to put in some serious effort to find strong people and befriend them.

“Third, and this is basically the most important, I need you to at least be able to imagine traveling across realities. With shadow magic, which can evolve to control mass, gravity, space, and time, even if you don't know what those things are exactly, you need to be able to bridge the gap in your imagination. Otherwise, we'll never be able to reach that god, much less kill it.”

Kynos had no idea what Mith was talking about at this point. He understood some of the basic concepts of physics, as he had been taught, but he couldn't connect the dots. Then again, he was only nine.

“I know you've been given some choices, so take the one where you can train with the life mage. She can teach you a bit about how everything is connected.” Mith tossed the cube to him.

“That is a tool I call the Variable, it has a core that reacts to the type of magic being poured in, and it's appearance, composition, really any property except for the core can change. Playing around with it will teach you about what shadow magic affects, and you can make it into a weapon as well, once you learn to control it.”

Mith pointed at an tray on the desk. She had taken some inspiration from a famous strategist, who had made an emperor from a sandal maker.

“There are three letters in that tray. Open the first one after a month of training with the council life mage, open the second letter once you've mastered the Variable, and open the third letter once the life mage tells you that she can teach you no more.”

She then pulled a large box from under the bed.

“Ky, you are absolutely not allowed to die. I think it'll be at least six years before we can meet again, so you will travel to Ailize in exactly six years from today. This is a cake to celebrate your eight and ninth birthdays.”

Kynos lit up in anticipation.

“Eat it once I leave. Also, in three or four years, you'll probably become interested in girls. You have my permission, just don't catch any strange diseases. I've already taught you what to look out for. When you round out the party, make sure there are at least four strong people you can count on.”

Mith stood up and briskly walked to the door. The last thing Kynos would hear from her for six years was, “don't fail me, I'll see you in Ailize.”

He ate the entire cake alone.