"Ahem, I believe Nare mentioned why I'm here," He continued, trying to ignore the weird atmosphere. “I've been asked to help you with raising connect, learn the fundamentals of ritual magic and how it can be applied to enchanting, along with a few other unique ways to enchant. If you all aren't too busy right now I'm happy to start right away or if it works better for you guys we can instead begin tomorrow?"

His question was met with silence as the three looked to each other, having a conversation with their eyes he could take no part in while Thera leaned up to his ear.

"Did you already do something to offend them?" She muttered, picking up on the atmosphere as much as he was.

"No. I mean, probably not? That guy did call me the mad apostle but that's probably fine, right? And what do you mean already? Why is it a given that I’m going to offend someone?"

Her eyes were full of doubt at his response but she said no more, not having the chance as Nare's granddaughter spoke up.

"We were told to expect you today so we'll begin now."

"Great."

He put on a bright smile, trying to ignore whatever was going on and stepped forward to reach out a hand, only to be stopped.

"Wait," The summoned girl told him, pulling the other close. "You're a mind reader, right? I don't want you in our heads so stay over there."

"...I'm supposed to be helping you train connect among everything else, are you asking me to do that without even using it on you?"

"Yeah, I don't want a human looking in my mind."

Hey, what the fuck? The hell is that supposed to mean?

He felt himself give her a look at hearing that but made himself stop. It wasn't unreasonable to not want a stranger to read your thoughts, even if he did it to people all of the time he couldn't deny that it was about as big of an invasion of privacy as anyone could deal with. Even if he thought the comment on his species was unnecessary, he was going to do his best to be accommodating.

"Alright then, that's fine. Do you feel the same?"

"I do," Nare's granddaughter said, giving him a firm look. "I prefer keeping my thoughts to myself."

Okay, I was hoping I'd be able to try and forcefully raise them a level or two by making them deal with different configurations of my mind but if they don't want to then whatever. This is Nare's relative and another summoned, I can respect their boundaries if they ask me to.

"In that case, where would you like to start on? Connect, enchanting, or ritual magic? And while I'm at it, any chance I can get your names too?"

Again they looked amongst each other, but at least on that front, they were quicker to answer.

"Nati."

"Xilly."

"And I am the high priest of Nare, Zallith."

And that answers why he called me the mad apostle, the guy must have seen me spit on Eneth. Not cool Nare, tell your priest that I'm really a sweet little guy and that I've been being bullied by that big mean god. Still, that might explain the attitude I'm feeling from them all.

He wasn't sure about the culture Xilly grew up in before she was summoned but the other two were certain to have grown up in a society that showed gods a deep level of respect. Hell, it was possible Nati was even on the receiving end of plenty of that respect. He may not have known how the grandchildren of gods were usually treated, but he'd seen some of how the demigod Ather lived and given the accommodations he was in, he couldn't help but think Nati’s treatment was comparable, maybe even better.

"Alright then, Nati and Xilly, shall we start? And Zallith, will you be joining us? Nare only mentioned the other two but I have no problem teaching one more."

"Ah, I'm no enchanter so I won't be able to participate, however, I'll be working in here while you're giving your lessons."

The way he said it gave less of a feeling that he would just happen to be there to work so much as it gave the impression he was there to watch, but Ben ignored it and moved on.

"Sounds good, so once again, where do you two want to start?"

Again there was a look between the two before Nati answered for them both.

"We'll begin with ritual magic."

Despite the looks in the two women’s eyes, the lesson for the day went smoothly. Ben went over the more basic details of ritual magic, outlining how it was used to create powerful spells that couldn’t be so easily accomplished with only a single mage, giving the example of helping Cheele grow a living ruby shell since it was the only proper ritual he’d taken part in before discussing how he’d use it in his enchanting in the form of the blending system.

He also touched on connect and its uses towards it, how his god’s race were master ritual mages thanks to their ability to link minds and how connect could be used for that same purpose when they’d have a high enough level in it, letting the two of them join together the options they had to enchant if they so chose.

“Actually, on that note Xilly, what magics do you have?”

“What does that matter?”

“I’ve been asked to teach your ritual magic and you’ll presumably be doing it with Nati so I need to know what I can ask you guys to try and enchant for practice.”

Since Ben had helped raise her levels during his mass awakening he already knew Nati had earth, water, and air at her disposal, along with the rest of her skills as he searched her status for anything useful to put on a ring, though she wasn’t aware of that bit, leaving him only to find out the options for the other summoned who eventually gave in, even if it seemed begrudgingly.

“Space, time, blessing, and curse.”

He couldn’t keep from giving a low whistle when he heard that. Given that blessing was a combination of life and light while curse was the union of death and dark, it could be said that she basically had six magics at her disposal, even if some aspects of both were going to end up either significantly stronger or weaker depending on how they were used. Add in that she not only had a blessed enchanting, but that by working with Nati they practically had nine of the ten affinitied magics at their disposal and they were in good shape for putting ritual magic to full use.

Hell, they have so much that even without fire magic they should be able to get creative in most cases to imitate its effects if they ever really need to. Plus the two of them both have five blessed skills. Damn it, I’m jealous.

Still, he couldn’t help the condition of his soul, all he could do was make use of what he had and began trying to decide just what he’d be making them do for their practice.

But that’s going to need to come after they get another level or two each for connect so they can actually read each other's minds to show its full effect. Which I can’t try to help raise because they don’t want me in their heads. Okay, they aren’t making this easy.

Being a teacher was never going to be simple though, so he stopped thinking about what he couldn’t do and instead focused on what he could, materializing two books and some worksheets for them, getting to enjoy their brief surprised looks before they switched back to soft glares.

“Okay, I’ve got a book each that goes over the topics we discussed today in more detail that you can refer back to if you want a refresher along with some advanced topics at the back, plus the worksheets outlining what I think you guys should be doing to get some practice. It includes both proper rituals as well as things you can try with the blending system but both will be easiest once you’re at level two or three in connect. Speaking of, what are your levels?”

“Level one for both of us.”

“Okay, if you want to try any of it before that I’ll be happy to give it a look to guide you in whatever way I can but I do recommend we work on getting you both those levels first. The easiest way really would be letting me spend a day practicing with you both-”

“Absolutely not.”

“And in that case, I can only recommend getting practice by doing it with everyone and everything you can,” He sighed, not wanting to push them when they both so clearly didn’t want to. “If this city has any tamers I’d recommend hiring them to practice with their beasts or maybe go talk to a zoo or something to see if they'd let you get up close and personal with some of the exhibits. Otherwise, maybe try and swing any authority you have as Nare’s granddaughter to pull whatever volunteers you can.”

“Alright, I’ll try and have something arranged in a couple days,” Nati said with a nod. “In that case, will that be all for the day?”

“Yeah, it’s getting late so let's end things here, I’ll be back again in the morning. If you’re all done here as well, any chance any of you would want to join me and Thera for dinner?”

He put the offer out to be friendly, even if he knew their answer before he even asked and was given disgust-filled looks in return for the attempt. Be it because he could read minds or because he spat on Eneth, it was obvious he wasn’t going to be liked in his time there.

But Nare is paying super well so I’m going to be the most pleasant teacher these jerks could hope for.

It was only once his invite was firmly rejected that he and Thera left, the latter of which had decided to hang out purely due to curiosity and couldn’t help but regret it.

“Sorry Ben, but I think I’m going to go off and explore the city while you’re dealing with all of that.”

“Don’t blame you. Eneth isn’t even a nice god, why the hell is spitting on him such a big deal?” His question was met with a silent yet pointed look, leaving him to raise his hands in resignation. “Fine, fine, spitting on gods is wrong or something. That still doesn’t explain whatever they have against mind reading. Even if it’s at low levels, they’re both training to raise connect! They’re both training to become mind readers! Literally all they’re doing is making my job harder!”

“Just do your best, this is only going to be a couple of weeks.”

“A couple weeks of this is going to feel like months if they don’t warm up at least a little.”