Where am I? Wolf’s lips were cracked, his throat parched. He labored to move his eyelids, but they remained stuck, like someone glued them together. After struggling, he finally snapped his eyes open.

A moment later, he recalled the last scene he saw before the blackness swallowed him. That terrifying vision shook his core. My Soul Force ran out, and even a part of my Internal Energy is missing.

Mind Palace is undamaged. While Wolf moved his eyelids, his second Mental Aspect finished his inspection, finding Wolf’s temple suffered no fractures.

I failed to keep one Mental Aspect awake during my trance. Wolf frowned while watching a black circle dead ahead grow larger.

I’m descending. He shifted his head to the side. Richard and Headmaster Smith stared at him while the rune-covered slab of rock touched the marble floor with a gentle click.

“Congratulations on reaching the Second Order!” Headmaster Smith grinned from ear to ear, revealing his teeth and madness in their full glory.

“Congratulations.” Richard’s expression wasn’t as enthusiastic. His lips twisted awkwardly and he couldn’t meet Wolf’s gaze. His eyes instead focused on the ground.

“You should call him Sir, Richard.” Headmaster Smith roared in laughter and slapped his aide on the back, sending the bewildered man stumbling.

Richard grimaced. Luckily, Wolf had common sense drilled into him. “Richard, don’t act formal.”

The old secretary sighed. He already needed Wolf’s permission to get married. If he had to address a youth, more than half a century his junior, with honorifics, he could give up on helming the house Alexandria and retire straight away.

Right… Last time, because I damaged my Mind Palace, the Hall of Names failed to detect my new Order when I exited. More importantly… “How long was I in there?” It took more than an hour to exhaust Wolf’s body to this degree. A lot more.

“Eleven days, three hours and seventeen minutes.” Headmaster Smith answered with undisguised glee.

Wolf blinked.

“Isn’t a session limited to one hour?” He knew a thing or several dozen about the magical device he used. Regardless of the result, the Hall of Names was set to shut down after an hour, allowing other Archmages to get their turn.

“No need to thank me. I disabled the failsafe mechanism and dismissed the queue for you.” The kooky Headmaster replied, still unable to suppress his happiness. “I expected you could do it in one go. So, how was it? What is your second True Name?”

My second True Name… “You wouldn’t believe me.” Wolf waved his hand, focusing on the fleeting memories of his vision. Why didn’t she turn into a mountain? She was protecting me. And was Silver’s mother’s appearance a metaphor, or was it real?

“I have to register your True Name and inform Highseat headquarters.” Headmaster Smith grumbled, snapping Wolf out of his thoughts.

He tried to draw my attention away without even realizing it, Wolf’s second Mental Aspect said. He moved to sit on the throne, then contemplate the matter of Silver’s mother, while the body and the first Mental Aspect continued their conversation with Headmaster Smith.

“I think you can enter Recovery for now.” Wolf chose a True Name considerably less heretical than Life, since life and healing magic were the domain of worshipers of divinities. He had seen his entry in the listing. Instead of a definite True Name, the field next to his moniker, Lord of Death, said ‘unknown, related to death.’

Headmaster Smith eyed him, but since Wolf could utter those words, it meant his name really had some connection with recovery and he believed it a suitable replacement. Daniel nodded.

“Alright. We’ll go with Recovery. Now, about the matter of you succeeding me. We can’t do it now. Rifts to the Demon World will open in less than two years, and we can’t allow a rookie Mage Academy Headmaster calling the shots. A year after the demon incursion ends, once we repair the damage, you can succeed me and become Silverhound’s next Mage Academy Headmaster.”

“About that, Sir,” Wolf bit his lip while getting up. “Sir, I’m about to have a baby. If we follow your plan, I will take up your mantle when he’s three years old. Can we wait until my son turns twelve and enters the Mage Academy?”

“Nonsense.” Headmaster Smith shook his head, unwilling to wait another decade. “Just stay here with your family. You’ve never visited your domain, anyway. Just find another regent and let them handle your estates.”

Damn. I wanted my son to grow up in our territory as a young master and the future ruler. But I guess it wasn’t meant to be…

***

“Hey baby,” Wolf shouted as soon as he saw Mandy.

“Hey!” She smiled, full of enthusiasm, and got up from the comfy armchair, placing her book on the coffee table.

Her reaction made things awkward. Wolf wasn’t greeting her. However, ever since Mandy ended up pregnant with his child, he was under the impression she grew more beautiful each time he saw her. Wolf didn’t understand why. Objectively, the woman hardly changed at all.

“How are you feeling? Has the morning sickness passed?” he continued without skipping a beat, with genuine worry in his voice. “I’ve wrapped up everything on my list, more or less. I have to visit two more True-Namers, but they can wait. Can I do anything for you?”

Mandy smiled. She had quite a few things she would like Wolf to do, especially with Anna attending her classes.

“I’m fine. How about we go to my room? I would like a thorough massage and a foot-rub, it gets the blood flowing, and that’s great for the baby.” She gave him a coy look, revealing pearly white teeth.

Wolf awakened his senses, examining the minutiae of Mandy’s condition. Her belly isn’t showing yet. Her breasts grew a little, and they appear fuller. Temperature’s normal. She’s got a rash on her neck, is it because of the pregnancy? Should I heal her? Her heart rate is above normal, and her blood circulation is running faster. She’ll blush in a breath or two. She smells a bit fruity. Is it a lotion, or is she developing gestational diabetes…

Reading hundreds of books on human anatomy combined with peerless senses confirmed Mandy was in fact fine, and that she bathed using a fruit and rose scented soap.

“Sure.” Even though he thoroughly examined her, Wolf’s answer entered Mandy’s ears with no delay or hesitation, which widened her smile a bit.

“My breasts need the most attention. But you can’t be rough. They are very sensitive these days.” Mandy tried to act seductive, unfortunately she was hitting on Wolf.

“They are slightly bigger. Do you feel pain? Are there swollen areas or patches which seem different? It could be mastitis,” he fired a barrage of worried questions, but, after a moment of confusion, Mandy laughed.

“They are perfectly fine, thank you. They just miss your warm touch and maybe something more.” She took his giant hand and dragged him towards the bedroom. “Come, two weeks ago you stopped by for five minutes, and I felt like I was on a medical exam.”

I did conduct a medical exam. And it lasted six minutes. But Wolf’s growing social sense stopped him from blurting out those words. And yet, the six minute remark almost reached his mouth.

“Don’t strain yourself.” Wolf followed after Mandy, gently trying to get out of her grasp, fearing she would hurt herself somehow.

“Have you figured out your second True Name?” Mandy asked.

“I figured it out when you got pregnant.” Wolf admitted. He was through lying to Mandy and Anna, or at least he wished to keep the lies to a bare minimum. “I was trying to figure out my third True Name now and I’m close. I just didn’t expect that old loon to disable the Hall of Name’s safety mechanisms and leave me stranded inside for eleven days. Normal people would’ve died of thirst.”

That’s a good point. Why did the vision last so long? Wolf’s spare Mental Aspect wondered while sitting on the throne of bone. Before, comprehension took ten minutes, but this time it lasted for days. Was it because I slowly processed the scene with Silver’s mother? Did the information overload twist my perception of time?

Wolf didn’t know that by harvesting women who found their True Names, he robbed them of more than simple Soul Force, empowering himself in ways manlings never would have dreamed. Even the vagrant, who always observed him, had all his jaws go slack when he understood what Wolf had accidentally done ahead of schedule.

And as for the other observer, constantly watching Wolf, it also realized what had happened and how this tiny wisp broke through its authority for an instant. It frantically toiled, trying to prevent further fiascos.