Leon, Vance and Mariah were on the road back to Wethermane on foot. Vance was acutely aware of the surprising amount of foot traffic moving along with them.

If he really thought about it though, it wasn't all that surprising. After seeing all of that, it was no wonder the people of Ervis wanted out. If it could happen once...

Vance dismissed the thought. They weren't far out from home now, according to Leon. Wordlessly, Mariah draped an arm over Vance's slumped shoulders. He put one of his own up around her back and they walked in silence, playing a little stutter-step game they'd invented in their boredom.

It slowly put a smile back on both of their faces as they would occasionally try and trip each other. Vance felt like it was quite an unfair game, all things considered, but he'd gotten good at reading her timing. She'd always tense up her bracing arm just a little before she went for it.

Mariah claimed her third victory of the day as Vance stumbled forward and nearly sampled some generous donations that a horse had recently made to the road. Of course, that's what the bracing arms were for.

"That's 3-1 to me. You suck at this." She said playfully.

Vance was busy trying to fish his self-esteem out of a small pond of embarrassment as he gave her a very dry "Haha". He did have quite a sincere giggle afterwards, though.

"Hey, Leon - how are we getting on? Are we near Wethermane yet?"

Vance shouted out to his brother, who'd been walking about 10 paces ahead of them.

"We're already here Vance, open your nostrils. Also, Miss O'thorn just saw you bite it." Leon chuckled back at him.

Come to think of it, Vance could certainly smell more pigs than he could before. That little pond of embarrassment turned into a small stream for a second as he gave Mariah his closest approximation of a death stare. Difficult with closed eyes.

She laughed and happily exclaimed. "So, what? 4-1?"

With a sigh from Vance, they made it past Miss O'thorn. She had a little giggle of her own and rewarded Vance for his failings by giving him an apple. She didn't say much to him though, too busy laughing.

On the way back, Vance had tried to convince Leon that it'd be a good idea for him to come to Vereece with him and Mariah. Leon disagreed entirely. He said something along the lines of:

"You're not getting me anywhere near a school full of people that can burn my house to the ground with a thought. I'm staying out here with the pigs, they don't shoot fire out of their eyes."

Vance wanted to mention that he'd never heard of anyone shooting fire out of their eyes, but he wasn't precisely an expert. After a long back and forth, Leon made it very clear that he wouldn't be going, but he wouldn't get in Vance's way if he wanted to return.

Vance found that this was simultaneously a tremendously difficult decision to make and also the easiest decision he'd made in his entire life. He would have to leave his brother behind where it wasn't exactly safe.

With what he knew now though, it wasn't necessarily much safer in Vereece. After all, an Arcanist could topple the place just like anywhere else.

But there, he could learn to do what they do and how to prevent it. If he was lucky enough that Wethermane survived long enough for him to learn, he could come home and keep the place safe.

When the trio arrived back at the Kalliea household, Mariah and Vance went inside while Leon went down to the market to fetch dinner. The two were alone, sat at the tiny kitchen table. Mariah spoke first.

"So, I just want to come out and say it, that scared the shit out of me." She spoke in her usual, cheery tone, but it faltered towards the end.

"Yeah, me too. I can't imagine what it was like to see it, I only felt it."

"I don't know which is worse either."

To Vance, that was a very interesting sentiment. He hadn't thought about it like that, but while he couldn't see, other Arcanists he knew seemed to be blind in a different sense. Perhaps blind wasn't the right word, they could still see the mana after all. As he understood it, their vision simply lacked the depth his mana sense had. He lingered on that thought for a moment before coming back to the conversation.

"If we're admitting things, I guess I'll go next," Vance said quietly. "I'm also practically shaking with excitement. To think that one day I could wield power like that. It's intoxicating."

Mariah hesitated for just a moment, then replied.

"Yeah. Me too."

"We should probably leave soon. I'm feeling..."

"Impatient?" Mariah interrupted. Vance nodded in assent. A moment passed.

"I couldn't believe it when I found out that Tristan guy had three cores. I didn't get a chance to really feel them out to figure out what they were, but my guesses are fire, lightning and wind. I Hadn't realised lightning was even possible."

"I don't even have one." Mariah sulked.

"You'll get there. Aren't you still in your first year?"

"Aren't you still in your first quarter?"

Vance snorted. "Yeah, true. I didn't exactly come about my core conventionally though, as you know."

"Not much about the way you practice magic is conventional."

Leon returned sometime later. He cast his eyes over the two youngsters sitting next to each other at the table, each of them holding out their hands in front.

Honestly, of all the things he'd expected to come back here to find, this was at the bottom of his list. He'd left them alone for over an hour, he'd expected to have at least something to tell them off for. Instead, just plain old boring meditation. Leon didn't think he'd meditated in his life.

His interest waned and so he started portioning out his ingredients. Rats, he'd forgotten the parsnips. He absentmindedly glanced over at the closed window. He decided to put a coat on shortly thereafter, damn breeze.

He was on his way back through to the kitchen with another handful of produce, fresh from the garden, when he heard a little squeal of elation come out of Mariah.

"I did it!"

She leapt onto Vance and gave him a big hug, he was deep in thought at the time, so his carefully constructed concentration got entirely flipped on its head and all of the mana he was working with was scattered. The next second, she was gone. She darted into the hallway and grabbed both of Leon's hands. Great, now he'd dropped his turnips.

She was jumping around and screaming something at him about the wind. A moment later, she noticed the bag of dropped turnips.

"Whoops. Sorry, let me get that." She proudly announced. She held out a hand and focused. A few seconds later the bag lifted into the air. A few more errant turnips made their way onto the ground as the bag spun into an upright position, then floated over and landed in Leon's waiting hands.

Vance had managed to pull himself up and make his way out into the hallway. "Finally got the wind shift down?" He didn't need to see her to know she was beaming with pride.

"I can't wait to tell the others!"

"On that subject... Leon, we should probably leave in the morning. They'll be wondering where we are by now."

"Yeah, you're going to have one hell of a story to tell your wizardly classmates," Leon replied with a big smile.

He gathered up his turnips and went back about his business. As he walked into the kitchen he patted Vance on the back. He didn't bother saying anything, Vance already knew everything he wanted to tell him.

The next morning, stocked up on supplies, the two set out. They went as part of a gathering of people from Ervis who'd managed to scrounge up a large carriage and a few horses to get them further into the empire. The silence that radiated from them told Vance about the fresh, wordless story of loss that the passengers shared.

The driver pulled the cart away from town. Vance leaned his head backwards for a minute, relishing the feeling of the wheel crossing the bumpy terrain. He took a deep breath. He barely noticed, but the air smelled a little sharper than normal, it'd probably be stormy tonight. He told Mariah his theory and could hear her taking several strong sniffs at the air.

Out of respect, the two were mostly quiet for the whole journey. The people in the long, tarped carriage were absolutely not in the mood for conversation, minus the little girl who became obsessed with Mariah's hair halfway through the trip.

Three days later, the carriage arrived in Vereece. Mariah and Vance departed from the group and made their way into the city. Mariah was overenthusiastically stretching herself out at every possible opportunity, Vance was beginning to think she was trying to tear herself apart.

They stopped for a quick lunch, then they made their way towards the college. On the way, they passed the Pious pint, the inn at which Thomas makes his home.

Vance had roughly zero warning before Mariah was yelling at the top of her lungs.

"Tom, are you in?! Get out here if you are!!"

Sure enough, a moment later Vance heard a window on the first floor unlock and open. Thomas stuck his head out.

"You guys are back! Wait there, I'll be right down."

Vance heard some scrambling, then a few seconds later he heard Thomas burst out of the front door of the Inn.

He stomped his way over and grabbed both of them around the necks, embracing them both.

"Honestly, I thought you were dead by this point." He pointedly said at Mariah.

"You should have more faith in me, Tom!" She fake-pouted and thrust a tiny ball of wind mana at Thomas, causing him to back off a little, surprised.

"You finally did it?"

"Yep, all it took was a life-threatening adventure. Bandits, drama, epic magical clashes, the works. Thanks for that, by the way." She said as she turned to Vance. Then she placed a gentle kiss on his cheek. Vance turned bright red and she turned to Thomas.

"I need to find Brad, take care of Vance, yeah?"

With that, she ran off.

Vance didn't move for a moment. His brain had caught up, but it just needed a second or five.

Thomas mechanically turned back to face Vance, having seen Mariah disappear into the distance. He had a mixture of a suspicious glare and a playful grin on his face.

"Busy week, huh?" The sarcasm oozed from his voice.

"uhh..." Vance replied, eloquently.