Isyd arrived in Vilriver on the second day after leaving the mine. First, he had walked through the forest to reach Blotnia . There, he had used the small number of coins he’d snatched from Olav to pay his travel back up the River on a boat. It had been an uneventful journey back and Isyd used it as an opportunity to rest. The day spent crafting the [Storing Spell] had taken quite a lot from him.

The first thing he did when he returned to the city was to drop by the Thermae to wash the grime and dust from his body. Since it had been very early in the morning, he had the bath mostly for himself and enjoyed those last minutes of peace to fully recover.

Now Isyd felt rejuvenated. He was seated against the trunk of a tree in the Fields, hidden under its shades. From where he sat, Isyd had a wide view of the entrance of the Atelier. He hadn’t chosen this spot by accident.

Isyd was waiting.

A little bit after midday, Isyd felt two people approaching in his direction. Since he was seated out of the way, Isyd knew they were coming for him, and he quickly recognize their presence. Soon enough, Jadwia appeared and walked toward him with a resolute pace, clad in her crisp and impeccable uniform. Behind her trailed the hulking figure of Kewin, who could not help but stand out by his appearance, despite very much not wanting to.

Isyd wasn’t much surprised that they had found him. When he had walked back into the Academy, he’d seen other Pupils throwing curious glances at him and whispering as he passed. Isyd was a bit of a celebrity and Pupils noticed him.

“So, you’re back,” Jadwia declared as she stopped in front of him.

Isyd didn’t bother getting up. “I am.”

“Grace, Isyd,” Kewin said.

“Grace to you!”

“You don’t look preoccupated by the lessons you missed,” Jadwia said.

She seems a bit annoyed by that. Perhaps she’d been expecting Isyd to rush back to her as soon as he made it back and ask her for her precious notes. Isyd barely held back his smile and simply shrugged.

“I had more important business to attend to,” he said.

“You left without saying a word!” she accused him.

Again, Isyd shrugged. “I had warned Tutor Milwyk. Beyond that, I didn’t think anyone would miss me.”

Jadwia and Kewin exchanged a long look. Then, as one they sat next to him. Isyd threw them a curious look.

“You had promised you’d answer my questions,” Jadwia said. “There I wake up one day and hear that you left the Academy!”

Isyd caught sight of Naeht giving him a disapproving shake of the head behind Jadwia’s back. Isyd sighed. “You’re right. I should have warned you at least. My bad. Do you have a question for me?”

Jadwia opened her mouth to speak, then close it, taken a bit by surprise. “Hmm… Well… Oh! Yes, I do, actually! How are you so calm?”

Isyd turned his head one way, confused. “What do you mean?”

“This semester is well on its way and all the 1 st year are stressed and neck-deep in their studies. You are not. How so?”

“Would you say that you are stressed and neck deep in your studies?” Isyd asked her instead.

“Yes, I am! Everyone is, except you! What is your secret, Isyd Wybrany?”

“My secret? I studied as much as you are doing now. And I am still learning. This is why I joined the Academy in the first place. This is why I spent most of my time in the Library with my nose in books. The Path is one and we are all walking it. I just happened to be a bit ahead of you.”

Jadwia seems even more confused by his answer. Before she could ask another question, Kewin spoke first.

“You aren’t intimated by the Seniors, Isyd. You speak with Senior Klara Utro as your equal and you faced Senior Lwieserce in a duel! You even got into the Atelier as a 1 st Opening!”

“He’s right!” Jadwia nodded vehemently. “You don’t act at all like someone of the 1 st Opening!”

“Openings are just arbitrary numbers,” Isyd said.

Both of them look at him as if he stated that the sky was pink.

Isyd sighed and picked up a twig laying near him. He drew a circle in the loose dirt in front of him.

“Do you know what the Openings are?” he asked.

“It’s a grade that represents the control an Artysta has on the Holy Grace. It’s a measure of their expertise,” Kewin said.

Isyd shook his head. “That’s what the Openings eventually came to represent. I am asking what are the Openings. In the physical sense.”

“It’s… it describes the Artysta’s ability to Concentrate Grace…?” Jadwia said hesitantly.

“Hmm, tangentially yes.” From the circle he drew, Isyd made three parallel grooves; one narrow, one medium and the last very large and deep.

“As the Artyst use more and more the Arts, their body opens itself more and more to the flow of the Holy Grace. This is what the Openings mean; it describes the opening to the Grace. When someone is of a higher Opening, it means that the Grace flows in them more easily.”

With his stick, Isyd pointed to the furrows he dug. “Since the Grace flows more easily, it means that Artysta can Concentrate more of it in a shorter amount of time which in turn allows them to cast more intricate [Hexes]. This is also why Openings eventually became a way of measuring an Artyst’s skills. But it is wrong to make it a direct correlation between the two.”

“What you say makes sense, but then why do you say that Openings are just arbitrary numbers?” Jadwia said.

Once again, Isyd pointed at his drawing. “Who is to assign a number to those grooves and with what criteria? Should I say that the narrowest is 1 st while the widest is 10 th ? Then what about the middle one, is it 5 th ? Why not 4 th or 6 th ? Why the widest groove should be 10 th ? Why not 100 th ? Hell, why not make it 57 th for instance? This is what I meant by ‘arbitrary’. The ranking of the Openings is not really internally consistent despite some would want you to believe and do not reflect the reality in a meaningful way.”

Kewin scratched his head, visibly troubled. “And yet we use them to rank everything... The way you speak of it you make the Openings sound so trivial.”

“He’s right!” Jadwia said. “Hearing you, one would think that you don't care about the Openings at all...”

Isyd said nothing.

There, as she sat across him, Jadwia met Isyd’s eyes.

Cold. Dark. Bottomless like the depths of the ocean.

The air suddenly felt dry and oppressive around her. She tried to wet her lips, before realizing that she was parched.

As Jadwia stared at Isyd, something deep in her recoiled in an inexplicable fear. The words were caught in her throat.

What... what’s happening to me... , she could only think but her mind was frozen.

Suddenly, Isyd visibly perked up. They broke eye contact and all at once, Jadwia was able to breathe again. Before she could speak up, however, Isyd jumped on his feet and rushed past her.

Finally! What he’d been waiting for the whole day! He raced back down the incline leading to the Atelier, Naeht flying next to him. Leaving the Arcanysta building were two figures that Isyd had immediately recognized. They were the two Arcanysta who had first brought their inert pieces of Blysht to Tekla Dumnchory.

“Mr. Ravasz! Mrs Ravasz!” Isyd hailed them.

The two Arcanysta turned in his direction. Isyd caught up to them.

“Can we help you with something, Young One?” the man said.

“I want to talk to you about the white crystals you have.”

The man’s expression turned suspicious immediately. His wife spoke up first. “How do you know about the Blysht? Did Tutor Hidrss send you?”

“No, I come to you as my own.”

From the inner pocket of his darkveil, Isyd pulled out the Ingraced Blysht. The woman inhaled sharply at the sight while her husband let out a colourful curse.

“Goodness Gracious, it is... it’s...”

“We need to talk,” Isyd said. “You’ll be interested in what I have to say.”