“Care to explain? Why are they still here?”

Rania Herroris stepped forward and frowned at her five instructors.

“Vice Master,” One of the instructors spoke with a hesitant voice, “we… uh… we’re testing them.”

The woman raised an eyebrow at the man’s answer. “I can see that. The question is why.”

“Ah, give us some slack, you old harpy!” Ailluin then said with a dissatisfied pout. “You’re growing too old to recognize two amazing fighters when they are just under your eyes, and you even dare to drag me into your mistake. I knew I shouldn’t trust your judgment.”

“Who did you say was old, you senile old coot?” Rania growled as heat accumulated around her clenched fists.

“Drop the act.” Ailluin waved her off. “That man here,” he continued while pointing to Jorik with his head, “could defeat three of us in the rope ring exercise without any problem. He could hold four at a constant pace unless we went all out.”

“What?!” This time Rania was truly stupefied, and she dropped any semblance of being mad at the head instructor. Clearly their relationship was one of a long date.

“And this one, here.” Ailluin pointed to Mahon, still standing in the center of the circle. “Well… we didn’t land a single hit up to now.”

“Him too??!” Rania no longer knew where to look between Jorik and Mahon. “Then continue the test so we know up to which round he can hold.” She instructed.

Ailluin chuckled and shook his head. “You misunderstood. The test is already over.”

“Do… Do you mean he…” She started with a flabbergasted look at Mahon.

“Yes.” Ailluin completed. “We didn’t touch him once, even attacking together at full power.”

“So he’s a sorcerer?”

“No.” Ailluin denied. “Well, at least he defeated us without magic. Just pure fighting skills.” He then turned to Mahon. “And I have to say, that was the most awesome thing I’ve seen in all my life. So capable at such a young age... Where did you learn that? ”

“I can’t say.” Mahon flashed a sorry smile.

“Yes, I guess we all have our secrets.” Ailluin grimaced pitifully. “I’d give my left arm to know how to fight like that...”

“I didn’t say I couldn’t teach you.” Mahon declared. “Just that I can’t tell where I learned it.”

“You would teach me?!” The head instructor immediately beamed widely.

Mahon shrugged. “Why not? We came here to look for a job actually, so I’m sure we can figure something out.”

“Everything you ask for!” Ailluin answered without any hesitation.

“We aren’t looking for much.” Jorik chimed in. “We planned to join your organization to become bodyguards.”

“We’re also very much interested in training with sorcerers.” Mahon added with a look at Rania. “And since you’ve one around…”

“Oh…” Ailluin’s face darkened. “That’ll depend on Rania, then.” He said and turned to her.

“Don’t look at me like that, creep.” She answered to the head instructor. “A man capable of teaching fighting techniques that would interest even our instructors is worth a lot to our Protectors Circle. But I’m a busy woman, I can’t promise much of my time. After all, while you’ll learn a lot, you’re still no sorcerer, there isn’t much to gain for me. But I guess we can figure something out. Maybe practice once a month?”

“What if I have something that could catch your interest?” Mahon countered.

“I’m not a woman easily pleased.” She warned. “But I do learn from my mistakes. You do have my attention now. So, show me. What do you got?”

“Invoke your flames.”

She threw him a cautionary look but still did as he said, and raising one hand in front of her, she triggered her magic. A large flame, almost half a meter high, suddenly appeared in the palm of her hand.

Mahon hadn’t stopped Flowing, even though he was now back at a more shallow level, and he immediately focused on the flame as soon as it appeared. Without pushing himself too hard, as he had done previously against Varek, he still managed to force back the void around Rania’s hand to a narrower area.

The flame in her hand reacted instantly, and it started flickering dangerously, lowering down to a third of its initial size.

Mahon found he had less trouble than before fighting against the fire magic with his Flow, but he didn’t force it further, as he sensed a slight headache creeping over should he push harder and try to extinguish the flame completely.

He stopped a few moments later, and Rania's flame immediately grew back to its original size. The woman looked at him with two big round eyes, and she didn’t know what to say for a long time. She played a bit with her own flame, probing and trying to find back the weird sensations that had oppressed her magic the instant before. After half a minute, she canceled her flame completely and glanced at Mahon.

“Twice a week for the first month and then we’ll figure out how to continue from there.” She finally proposed.

Mahon nodded back, accepting the terms, and she then turned to the head instructor.

“Ailluin, immediately give them the title of honorary instructor. You’ll teach them about bodyguard’s missions, and make them pass their tests until they reach their true star rank. You’ll see with them directly about learning their techniques. I’m off now, I need to talk with the master.”

“Yes!” Ailluin bowed slightly.

“What about Siraye?” Jorik intervened as Rania was about to leave.

“I told her to go back outside. I thought she would find you there.” She added with a grimace.

“Then, we’ll take our leave too.” Jorik said. “We still have other things to do today. We’ll be back… tomorrow morning?”

“No problem!” Ailluin quickly agreed. “It’ll give me enough time to arrange a new schedule. I’ll tell you about your training sessions with Rania and all the other details concerning the Protectors Circle at that time.”

Rania took her leave shortly after, and Ailluin and the instructors escorted Mahon and Jorik back to the Protector Circle entrance after giving both of them a Protector Circle honorary instructor badge.

Siraye was pacing in front of the building and the instant she saw the duo coming out, she jumped on them.

“So? How was it? Did you take off that smug smile off Rania’s face?” She asked with a gleeful smile.

Jorik laughed immediately as Mahon answered with a simple “kind of.” They explained what happened to her while she led them to their next stop before she would leave them on their own. Lakefield’s library.

“Neat.” Siraye said after giving back the honorary instructor badge to Mahon. “I guess that’s a sign they are taking you really seriously. I didn’t think you would push them so much they would beg you to teach them.” She laughed out loud. “Anyway. With that out of the way, your future is assured. And mine too! In a few months you’ll be officially at the seven-star or even higher, and by then you’ll have everyone fighting to be your acquaintances.”

Mahon nodded. It’s not our primary goal, but I guess having a wide network will help us in our quest for knowledge.

“The library is over there.” Siraye finally pointed to a gigantic building, even bigger than the Protectors Circle, after a ten-minute walk. “The first thing to do is to buy you a map, and then you’ll be free to meander the city all by yourselves.”

Translating her words into actions, Siraye walked directly to a small counter by the library and bought a foldable map made of cheap materials and unfolded it in front of the duo.

“See? From up there, it’s quite easy to navigate the city. Most of the streets are simply part of a giant grid pattern, and only a few major streets cut the city diagonally.” She then pointed out where her house was on the map, as well as the Protector Circle and the library. “Feel free to spend as long as you want inside the library and visit the city afterwards. I need to go back now and take care of my stuff. If you’re good, let’s see each other at dinner, I guess?”

“Thanks Siraye.” Jorik answered, and the woman left them shortly after.

Without wasting any more time, Mahon and Jorik entered the library. Contrary to Stonewell, the entrance to the library was free. Inside the building, they realized it was somehow even bigger than what they thought from the outside. At least a dozen upper floors and double that amount underground were indicated on a wide panel showing where every topic could be located among the multiple floors and aisles.

As the last time he went to a library, Mahon walked to the desk where librarians were going on with their duties. There were half a dozen people already queuing there, and the duo joined them. A few people arrived after them, but fortunately the queue cleared up quickly as no less than five librarians were always going back and forth between the desk and the shelves.

When it was Mahon and Jorik’s turn, a young woman approached them with a smile.

“Hello, sirs. What can I do for you?”

“Hello.” Mahon answered. “We’re looking for a specific book called Detailed analysis of the history of Immortal Kings.”

“Hmm… Let me see.” She answered and went to a big shelf behind her desk to grab a very large book.

It seemed to weigh at least ten kilos from the grimace she made when moving the book from the shelf to her desk. The cover labeled it as a lexicon covering every book starting with the letter D.

She expertly browsed through the book until she put her finger onto the line corresponding to the book they were looking for.

“Floor seven. Shelf C. Number 204.”

“Perfect!” Mahon thanked her before starting to move to the stairs but the clerk interrupted them.

“Wait!” She walked two steps to join them. “Floor seven is among the floors limited to nobles only.”

“What?” Mahon turned back to her with a frown. “We have to be noble to enter?”

“Yes, sir.” She politely answered. “Starting from the fourth floor, you need to be a noble to be allowed inside. At the seventh, you have to be a Count or higher to enter. It’s a way of limiting the access to confidential information. Unless you prove your loyalty with significant contributions to the country, you can’t read freely about our every discovery.”

“And the Detailed analysis of the history of Immortal Kings is classified?” Mahon asked again.

“That’s what’s written there, yes.” The librarian answered with a nod. “I’m sorry, but it seems you shouldn’t trouble yourself with that information if you’re not a Count.”

Mahon held back a sigh. Of course it wouldn’t be that easy. But if that information is protected, then that means we’re on a good lead.

He didn’t let this setback cloud his judgment and changed his strategy. “Do you have any more books about Immortal King, then? Accessible to commoners.”

“Sure, sir. Let me check with my colleagues, I’m no expert in this specific domain.”

She came back a minute later with a short list of three books, but Mahon had read every one of them back in Stonewell. Dejected, the duo exited the library shortly after.

“At least, we haven’t paid to get in.” Jorik noted sarcastically.

“Yeah…” Mahon showed a weak smile.

“Disappointed?”

“Aren’t you? I really thought we were going to solve this once and for all. The information is right here and yet we can’t access it. It’s frustrating.”

“But at least it proves we’re onto something important. Otherwise the information wouldn’t be confidential to most of Finem.” Jorik theorized.

“That’s the only positive point I could think of...” Mahon nodded at the conclusion he had also reached.

“You forget about the Protectors Circle.” Jorik intervened. “It wasn’t a wasted day. Maybe the sorcerers there know something about the Ill Immortals. And we still haven’t discussed with a mathemagician yet.”

Mahon unfolded the map that Siraye had bought them just a short time ago and looked at the circled area where she had said they had the most chance to encounter a mathemagician.

“To the… Living streets then?”