One more week passed without any notable events. Well, Gnosis itself was notable by being a real, honest magical academy. In that sense, Michael often found himself wondering at how he didn’t think all that often of his life back on Earth. Oh, he thought of it, but not nearly as much as he should have. Perhaps it was just the shock of being here or the thrill of living here or the wonder of… well. Here. But he just didn’t. Or maybe it was the fact that for all intents and purposes, there was really no point in thinking about it until he had the means of getting back. Which was still his purpose. He sometimes wondered if once he got to that level of power, he’d still want to go back.

What a scary thought.

Still, Michael wasn’t there just yet. But he could imagine it. If he obtained the level, maybe even Level, of power necessary to cross between worlds… what would he go back to? A college life? An aimless history graduate, who would probably be using all that knowledge he learned to better flip burgers at a random fast-food joint? He had no girlfriend. Not even a crush or a longing for a special someone. Oh, he burned Tinder up, whenever he got in the mood, but nothing he saw as a reason to long for back home.

His parents were fine, though he was close to neither of them. He… did miss them and felt bad whenever he thought of staying, but it wasn’t heartbreaking. No siblings, no close cousins or the like. Not even a dog. So… why go back?

Because I will be dissected if it’s found out where I’m from?

Yet that thought rang less true with every day lived at Gnosis. He decided not to think about it for the moment, lest he’d reach a conclusion he didn’t like. Maybe he’d luck out and obtain a way to get back home before he got to comfortably powerful. Or maybe he’d pull a Naruto and live here like a lesser god.

Perhaps focusing less on hypotheticals was for the best.

Thinking back, his last week really had been decent. He finally learned the |Heat Vision| Spell, though at this moment, the Spell was redundant. Sinestra had him started on a regular |Bolt| Spell and a |Calm Touch| one. The first Spell he needed to learn, according to her, because it was the foundation for any other |Bolt| Specialization. It could also be used to build upon it, in order to learn |Dart|, |Arrow|, |Spear| and so forth. Trying to cheat by learning |Ice Arrow| was doable, but it would handicap his learning down the line.

The |Calm Touch| Spell was needed as a building block for more combat applicable Spells like paralyzing and poisonous variants. Though Michael also thought the base version of this Spell could be useful, if you needed to calm someone throwing a tantrum, for example. *Mental Cough* Erea * Mental Cough*. Apparently, there was even a more primitive version of the Spell, simply called |Touch|, but it was useless for everyone except specialized Mages, like |Warders| and |Arcane Theoreticians|.

He worked on the two during the week, but so far, no luck. Still, at least the week had passed without any other incident. Nahlil had taught them a little hand to hand combat and Erea was gentler in sparring with him than he would have expected. Gerald smiled every time he passed by his desk. And PE was actually fun, now that no one was forming a lynch mob and gunning after him.

He even got to skip the Friday activity, since he managed to leverage one of his connections from the Ascentionalist faction into providing him with a mock activity. He wasn’t really sure if that was even a thing when he had asked, but of course it was. Erea hadn’t even been mad, since she was stuck with cleaning duty this week as well. He spent that time in a minor library, reading about different races, different cultures, Gnosian History and magic in general. It was something he had planned to do for a while now. He knew he was well behind on general knowledge and had every intention of fixing that gap. Half a day wasn’t enough for that, but a few more study sessions out of the public eye and he should be relatively up to date. Enough not to be suspicious, anyway.

Still, Michael was short on ‘me’ time. He spent the first half of that Saturday with Sinestra, still no luck with the Spells, and the latter half with Bob and Micah. The two were still fresh enough members not to be let in on anything too important, but they heard rumors. Bob told them of his new Spell, offered to teach them and discussed how the Martial high members seemed to be in a furor about something. Enough for loud conversations to erupt, before someone thought to |Silence| them. Micah offered to teach them |Spectral Claws| too and told them he hadn’t noticed anything like that, but he also didn’t see Ravena around anymore. The wild mage usually attended their meetings, but didn’t recently.

That made Michael think. He also didn’t see Regitris anymore. He didn’t notice any important conversations either, in the couple sessions he attended, but maybe that was the Martials’ fault. Who else would discuss sensitive matters without layering privacy wards?

Still, all of that meant Michael only had Sunday to himself. Not even that, if Micah would have gotten his way, since the lycan wanted to hit one of the all-day second year parties, but Michael managed to convince him to just get Bob.

But may I say, what an opportunity for peace.

As he wandered the hallways, Michael thought that either people didn’t like to get out of their rooms on Sundays or the entire school must be attending that party. Probably the latter, since Micah, the shot gossip, told him the second years had found a room almost as big as the main hall and then proceeded to expand it.

Well, good news for me.

Michael had wanted to explore the castle for ages. The size and detail and age of it… It spoke both to the history buff and to the game nerd inside of him. He had been transported to a magical academy and almost immediately started on the ‘quests’. There was such a thing as admiring the landscape and that was what he did as he wandered around the castle.

He only got as high as the safe zones on the third floor, but even here the details were amazing. Pillars and walls were sculpted in relief, sometimes animated, sometimes plain, but always beautiful and intricate. The materials were stone and brick mostly, but he also walked through entire corridors made of glowing blue jade and pure stone. He even walked past a side corridor made of alternating parts shifting sand and roiling water. He, uhm, decided he wouldn’t feel safe walking through that.

It was as he rested on a stone railway, on a terrace that jutted side-ways from the castle, admiring the beach and seeing the small waves lapping at the shore, that he felt truly content.

I haven’t appreciated this place enough. Always going on missions. Gnosis, you are a beauty.

He thought that. And slipped.

Though it was more correct to say his hand slipped on a railing that had suddenly felt oily, even though he now saw it to be bare rock again. Yet, as he slipped, his gaze travelled down, to a place at the base of the castle, where he noticed a very peculiar set of figures.

He had seen their ilk before. They both looked like floating, half-transparent shadows. Dark robes, gently flowing in the wind. Quietly moving towards Gnosis’s walls. Or in other words…

The secretive prick’s faction probably. But what are they doing on the beach?

Michael saw them move away from the beach, however. Move away from it and towards the wall, before disappearing through it. He moved towards another part of the stone rail to get a better look, not trusting his eyes, and found something that he was almost sure wasn’t there before. Jutting out from the terrace, a narrow stone stairway descended all the way to the shore. It was placed right where the terrace met the academy’s wall. And, given the intricate form of the rail, one could have been excused for not noticing it as he came out of the castle. The operational words being ‘could have’.

First the oily stone, now this… Is this because I felt good about the castle?

“Gnosis, you are the grandest building I have ever seen in my life.” Michael said, not even lying.

And felt a warm, scented breeze envelop him. Nothing much, just a small feel-good moment. Only it was coming from the academy’s direction.

Right. Castle this old and this magical must have developed something of a consciousness. Don’t talk shit about it.

That made him remember every student who tripped on a statue or something and laid the blame on the ‘stupid castle’. How much of that was bad luck and how much was it the fact that they had probably cursed at it before? Michael wondered if he could game this and decided not to try yet. It was, honestly, a scary task. Besides, he had just been handed a more pressing concern.

He had been offered a clear way of tailing a possible meeting of another faction. Should he take it? It was probably dangerous. Then again, they had invited him. And he now had backing of his own. He hung in a balance, before remembering Gnosis itself gave him this path.

Here’s hoping you’re more aware than not.

Without waiting further, he descended the spiral staircase and moved on to the place where he remembered the two shadows merging with the wall. There was a rock on the ground, not far from the place, so he reached it with ease.

Fumbling around, he patted the wall, carefully but methodically, until he found a place where his hand just went through. Flinching, he pulled it back. Before once again patting the surface and finding it to be an illusion. It felt like nothing to the touch. Not warm or cold. Just solid light.

Inhaling deeply, he closed his eyes and stepped forward. Once again, he felt nothing. Nothing but the sound of his footsteps echoing. He opened his eyes and saw that he was in a tunnel, illuminated by torches set in the wall, though lit not by fire, but by glowing gems.

Right. A tunnel. Of course, it’s a tunnel.

He walked ahead, mindful of the sound of his own footsteps. He walked for what must have been two hundred feet, the tunnel never being anything less than straight, before he heard the first voices. Mumbles at first, turning into half-heard words, before he finally heard a voice speaking out.

“Alright, alright, we’re already late. This is an opportunity for us. Many among us are part of another faction or more than one. Many would usually have been needed elsewhere, if not for this… uhm, what was it again?”

“A party, sir.” A younger mage called out.

“Gathering, yes. If not for this popular enough of a gathering, that most factions let their members attend even with full schedules.”

Michael stepped out of the hallway and saw a grand atrium. Stone, from the looks of it, and either underground or in a separate room. But it was dark. The light was provided by the same torches, but they didn’t manage to light up more than parts of the place.

Which was probably intended as such.

Rows and rows of stone half circles descended towards a center, irregularly lit by glowing gems sitting on short stone pillars, where a raised stone platform stood. On it sat a group of mages, though Michael had a hard time counting them. Some, like the central one, were clearly visible, but others were more ghostly than others. Or shrouded in darkness. Some just gave Michael a headache when he peered at them.

Come to think of it, the ones on the stone rows were the same. Only some he saw clearly.

“|Serpentine Senses|” he murmured and saw a bunch of different shapes appear in his mind’s eye, distinctive by the heat they were giving off.

“Hey!” someone shouted. “Who’s using a vision Skill?”

Michael felt his heart skip a beat.

“Anyone with half a brain, idiot. And it’s a Spell, not a Skill.” Somebody else shouted.

Michael shut down his Spell, heart racing, before the voice from before spoke again.

“Enough! As I have said, this opportunity for the majority of our faction to gather in one place, at the same time, is rare. Too rare for you to waste it. If I hear any more comments beside the point being discussed, I will reveal your identities.”

A chorus of complaints went up, but the central speaker silenced them.

“I will! No, be quiet. Second Specter, what is the agenda for today.” He asked another illusion besides him.

This one was more evident, more ghost-like, but also more colorful, its illusion looking like wisps of moving frozen wind.

“Three points, First Shadow, but they are important ones. As important as I have ever seen as part of this faction.”

“Very well, then. Speak them.”

“The first is the discovery and retrieval of an artifact, by a junior team of mages. Deemed highly valuable and with its properties partially classified. The second is the furor among certain factions, as reported by our agents. May be tied into the first point. The third is a person. Michael Becker. Newly risen to fame, star-student and Ascentionalist mage.” The illusion said, before seeming to raise its head. “I understand you may not have found this last point to be important, but it is. Because as far as we have managed to find out, this student did not exist prior to coming to Gnosis.”

A murmur passed through the room and Michael felt his heart stop.

Shit. I really should have gotten someone inside their faction too.