Tercius read through the books that his Mentor gave him well before the last of his candles melted entirely.

The books were written like a survivalist guide, with clear guidelines as to what to do in case this or that happened. In concise paragraphs, Tercius was introduced to the nature of dangerous and usable flora, fauna, and fungi, followed by facts of geological and hydrological nature, and then some natural magical occurrences that he could expect and then some more completely mundane ones.

Of course, Tercius had to take everything he read in these books with a grain of salt.

Not only were the books written millennia ago, but they also predated the mass settlement of spirits on the Izmittor mountain chain, which happened right after the peace and boundaries between the two warring sides were forged out.

The spirits were magical by their very nature and capable of even major alterations of their surroundings with nothing more than their mere passive presence. According to his Mentor, he could expect to find rocks that glow like stars, trees that grow in the forms of animals or humans, plants able to uproot themselves and move away to a more favorable location, water to flow uphill, or even in strange patterns— all of these were only the more common indicators of the presence of a spirit or a group of them. More importantly, these signs were observable with mundane means.

And mundane was the key word of the entire endeavor that was ahead of him. It had to be.

So many things depended on it.

Stretching out the hours of reading out of his muscles, Tercius groaned and rubbed his neck. He was not sleepy yet so he figured he might as well try the hard way of going over the boundary of change that his Mentor spoke of.

Closing his eyes, he reached for {Distant Mind} and {Visualization}. Simple was best here— something that was easily imagined and yet had strong symbolic value to him.

He first focused on the recipient, the Skill that had to go over its first barrier or rather experience its first boundary of change, {Teaching Bond}.

He imagined the Skill’s Core as a grand polygonal prism, a tall crystalloid obelisk with a deep and dark green color that reminded him of one of those old school boards that had been written on with chalk. In fact, riding on that small inspiration, he made a point to imagine a piece of white chalk hovering and circling the crystal pillar. Then, with the shape and color clear in his mind’s eye, he had to think of the Skill to which he wanted to bind it.

He went a step further and used his first-hand knowledge of how things actually looked and imagined the insides of the Skill’s Core responding to his mental alterations and melting away into a malleable goop, only to be reformed in the new image. He imagined the shape of the crystal, the smooth flat sides it would have, edges and the color, the piece of chalk that would hover around it… he thought of each detail, going through a mental list over and over.

He felt nothing to indicate anything he was doing was actually working, but that was the norm. The change was happening in his Anima, in the Skill’s Core.

After a while, he turned his thoughts to the donor, the Skill that would be used up to fuel that transition and which would in some way be incorporated in the recipient, {Memorization}.

He imagined the white and gray crystal obelisk of the Skill, only now he added arcs and sparks of neon blue color of mind magicks jumping between different spots on the irregular crystal surface. Again, he repeated the entire process a couple of times, until the image and sounds and the feel of it all were close and easy to imagine.

Finally, Tercius let {Distant Mind} fade away. Although the dark void of the Skill would have served as an excellent staging ground for this kind of venture, he had no way to monitor his pain from there, and therefore he had to do this the old-fashioned way.

For this part, he simply closed his eyes and called no Skills to aid him.

A crystal pylon of gray and white appeared in his mind, zipping snakes of electricity swimming around. He focused on that pylon, on the energia and magia inside of it, on the functions that the Skill had— with one thought he tugged on it all, intent on sending all that he took from {Memorization} to {Teaching Bond}.

He imagined a snake of blue and gray and white leaving one crystal obelisk and heading through the endless gray fog of his Anima directly towards the deep emerald of {Teaching Bond}.

He repeated that same thought process a dozen times and then two dozen. Despite nothing to show for it, he was persistent. Three dozen, then four, then five. Here, his persistence was rewarded with a small pressure.

As he continued the pressure ballooned outwards from the center of him, making him feel as if he had overeaten. Reinvigorated that he was not wasting time, he focused and repeated his wishes, imagining himself as a blacksmith who kept hammering on a glowing piece of heated metal until the work was done. The pressure climbed steadily and his insides started telling him that enough was enough, that he ought to stop eating now, lest he burst and release all that he had ingested so far. He let that pressure fall down a bit, and then he continued. The blue, gray, and white snake went onwards through the thick fog, slithering towards {Teaching Bond}. The pressure climbed again, only it seemed to do so faster this time—

His left hand clenched, assaulted by a thousand needles from a thousand directions all at once.

Immediately, he abandoned the transfer and took a few deep breaths through his mouth.

Tercius rubbed his hand. The pain hadn’t been that bad, but the suddenness of it… it was like a switch had gone off. The surprise had made him let it go immediately, when he should have stayed close to it.

"That's enough for tonight, I think…"

*** *** ***

After a hearty breakfast, the four of them left the inn and as they walked up the cobbled street deeper into the city, Mistress Prime’era started covering them with all kinds of obscuration spellwork, finally creating a golden telekinetic sphere around them when they were utterly invisible to mundane and most magical senses.

As his feet lost their solid footing, they rose above the walking crowd with no one the wiser of their presence. Instead of going towards Western Izmittor, as was planned a mere day ago when he arrived inside the city, they went south.

Their invisible golden bubble flew between the pointed-roofs of the city and then over the numberless farms that found themselves between the dozens of river's bent fingers.

The rains were common this far north and the vegetation was hardy and green here, but trees were rare. The more ground they passed on their journey, the more rocks started to appear, becoming almost as common as the soil that grew the bush. The rare trees grew even rarer. Herds of goat-like creatures roamed the lands below Tercius' feet on their way west, likely to find waters of Hippotion.

At some point, they turned east and went up the slow incline of the grass and bush and rock-covered lands. Once they were free of all signs of civilization, Mistress Prime'era changed the shape of their spherical vehicle, the telekinetic spell slowly reshaping itself to a perfect tear. Their speed picked up from there, easily tripling and then some. Below them, the wild and dry grasslands went by in a blur.

After some time, Mistress Prime’era changed course for north and finally Tercius looked at Mistress Prime’era dubiously.

Straight south, then east and then straight north? Why not go in a straight line?

Mistress Prime’era caught his eyes and smiled. “Kalina, why don’t you explain to your Disciple why we just spent hours making a curve of our journey.”

Tercius’ back crawled with tiny feet, but he kept his outward calm. Was she reading his mind?

“Well…” his Mentor said. “The Isle of Ksana is one of the Enclaves of the Pyramid in this part of the world— much like the Everstorm Towers are in the south of Sogea. The observation facilities at the Isle are quite powerful and the Keeper of those facilities is a powerful Mistress in her own right. Even with Mistress Prime’era’s obscuration, without the magia signature of so many people to hide us, we would be spotted almost instantly. That’s why we made this journey and did it so close to the ground. Although the flora below us is quite sparse in magia, our distance from the Isle is now significant enough that Mistress Prime’era obscuration will work well even without the collective magia signature of Spheros to hide us.”

“I see…”

He remembered vividly the distant spires of the Isle had looked like pearly white toothpicks sticking out of the green lands below. The Isle was just off the northeastern boundary of Izmittor Mountain Range, and it was likely some kind of a forward base for magi to observe the activities of the spirits. It was also said that the best Healers of the Empire were trained there, on the large island just off the coast of Sogea. That, by itself, made him remember that the roots of the Empire had close ties to the Pyramid.

“Do they— the Empire, I mean— do they know that the Isle is connected to the Pyramid?”

All three Mistresses chuckled.

“Oh, yes,” his Mentor said. “The true background of the Isle can be seen with a single glance if you have the eyes to see it. It's not something hidden, no.”

Tercius shook his head at the example of brazen shamelessness. “And yet they act against the Pyramid’s interests at every corner even as they send their people to be trained as Healers there…”

His Mentor laughed. “Because it’s in their interest to do it. They need good Healers and the Art of Healing is not something so easily taught. Time, resources, and knowledge are necessary for Skills to be gained and raised. They send their children to learn at the Isle, knowingly overlooking its allegiances, because of their need. That same reason is why they oppose the Pyramid these days. Somewhere along the way, they realized that every person who joins our side is a person who could have joined theirs. It's a bit more complicated than that, of course, but that's the distillation of it."

“And you, Mistress? Why does the Pyramid allow them to learn valuable knowledge if they are so set against you?”

Mistress Kalina gave him a small smile. "Our reason is the same, Tercius— because it's in our interest to teach them. We ourselves have learned so much from the multitudes who are taught the basics of Healing there and some of these people, in time, even join our Society and become not just Skilled Healers, who depend solely on their Skills, but Masters and Mistresses of Healing. They learn to wield their Skills along with spells, enchantments, and potions. We'd be fools to let people like that go. This Empire, Tercius, and all empires and kingdoms that came before it, are only here for a little while and then they will be gone, scattered like dust on the wind, likely torn apart from the inside like all others who came before them, by men and women who crave power to impose their will over others and play with the lives of people around them like children do with toys. It's… terrible really, what happens to people at that time, but one would go mad trying to prevent it. If there's any lesson our long records say is that order is always fragile and chaos must always come to order."

There was also something about Mistress Kalina’s tone when she mentioned that the empires tended to get torn from the inside… It had sent a little shiver down his spine.

The Empire's fall… Well, Tercius was honestly surprised it had survived this long. He was by no means an expert on the matter, but he knew that a bloated beast only grew while it still had space to expand, but what would happen when there were no more others to consume?

Like for all beasts of mindless consumption, it was not hard to see its end. Mistress Kalina was likely spot on with her prediction. The Empire would end up consuming itself.

And then chaos.

If he could see that, then others could too. He suddenly felt lucky that his own home was as far as a person could live away from the Capital.

“Is it close, Mistress, do you think? The fall?” he asked.

His Mentor shrugged. “Could be tomorrow, could be in thirty years, or more. You never know with such things… but in all records written, it always happens. As soon as cracks appear, everyone scrambles to grab something for themselves, thinking that if they don’t do it, someone else will, which just accelerates the entire thing further on…”

Tercius licked his lips. “And… nothing like that happens within the Society?”

His Mentor nodded slowly. “Even our Society has tendencies and people like that, despite our best efforts, but you have to understand something about us. Ours is a Society of seekers of knowledge, built by seekers of knowledge and maintained as such by like-minded people. A Magos should never seek power as the goal itself, but rather find it as a byproduct of our work.

“Individuals who exhibit power-hungry views are not looked upon kindly by the rest of us. Seeking power for the sake of power creates… instability. Don’t get me wrong, Tercius, I don’t spurn power or anything like that. I certainly don’t hesitate to use it, if I see it needed. Power is a tool and like all tools, it can be wielded by those who learn how and when to use it. It is what allows us to lead the lives we want to lead…”

His Mentor sighed. “But the work I do and the Titles I hold in our Society… I would give it all up in a heartbeat, and so would most of my fellow Council members, if only we had someone who was qualified to replace us… So much of my daily time would be freed for research and Alchemy, for Warding and new branches… For decades now, I've been meaning to compose a piece of music to call my own, but I can never seem to find the time.”

Mistress Prime’era looked back at them, clearly intent on saying something, but then she winced and looked away.

“When was the last time you went on an expedition, Mistress?” Mistress Helfira asked. “When was the last time you visited the Planes?”

“Not on Title-related business, you mean?” Mistress Kalina asked. “Well… a long time ago. Around four decades, I think,”

“And that’s why I never accepted the offers to work under you Mistress,” Mistress Helfira waved an aged hand. “I remember how it was for my father. The pay might be excellent, but the work hours are brutal. Although it took me decades longer, I have kept the option to arrange my days and years as I see fit.”

Tercius tried to listen to the conversation between the trio, if only to learn more interesting information along the way, but a sinking sensation in his stomach had gripped him a while back and now it demanded his immediate attention.

Something was not right.

It had started earlier, when the true nature of the Isle of Ksana was revealed, but only now when he thought about it did he understand why the gnawing sensation started.

On his journey to the Pyramid, over a year ago, he had been aboard a ship that had sailed close to the Isle of Ksana.

He was not sure of it now, but he had likely had some energia coursing through him when he passed by.

If the Isle was indeed primarily a forward reconnaissance base meant for keeping an eye on the spirits, as he understood his Mentor's words, then someone there should have seen or heard or smelled his energia. Someone from the Isle should have noticed him and came forward… only no one did, as far as he knew. His eyes narrowed as he recalled that he had walked down the Temple Promenade with his uncle before he knew a thing of the spirits. Even then, not a drop of energia ever went missing nor did anyone try to kidnap him afterward or anything like that.

It was only when Mistress Kalina got very close to him that she smelled remnants of energia on him, which was what had led her to approach him.

So what the Hells?

What kind of a sense—

Like a lightning bolt, one name struck him.

Perdinar.

If anyone could have obscured his energia from the observation of others, it was Perdinar. If anyone would have done it without alerting the recipient that they had done it, it was Perdinar. No two doubts about that. The old methuselah had not warned him of the existence of spirits at all, even though he knew of his energia. All Perdinar did was point him towards the Pyramid and—

His body shuddered as he lowered a hand to his lower abdomen.

The appendix.

Not even with {Magia Touch} did he feel anything there, but the Skill was underdeveloped yet and most magi were masters of hiding themselves and their spells in plain sight. He didn’t for a second think that his appendix was unenchanted, and yet… This opened another route than what was previously considered.

Was that why his Mentor didn’t offer to place a spell there?

Not because she silently placed one there herself, but rather because there was one already there?

Tercius’ eyebrows twitched. When did the crafty bastard place the enchantment on him?

It could have been… any day of any year of an entire decade. Just with the use of Sleep and Numb Pain, the two of the more common spells he saw his Mentor use, along with a common healing potion and Perdinar could have opened him up, done the enchantment at any time, and closed him up— and he would have been none the wiser of any of it.

Tercius took a deep breath. The faraway mountains speeded ever closer and the trio of Mistresses still spoke of matters which could have illuminated volumes to those who knew how to pay proper attention to such things, but Tercius’s mind was elsewhere.

All he had was a quivering fear at his own past and current helplessness and a small ember of rage and betrayal smoldering beneath that fear.

Damn you, Perdinar. Damn you, you sneaky old bastard, and thank you for the gift. If there ever comes a chance to repay, you can expect a similar one in turn.

*** *** ***

After they reached the mountains they traveled for an hour more at high speeds, heading north-north-east, always moving just above the ground or as close to the evergreen treetops as they could, before Mistress Prime’era stopped at the edge of a tall gray cliffside. The golden bubble opened and Mistress Helfira mowed the tall grass and trimmed the wild bushes and branches with a wave of a hand. Mistress Prime’era waved her hands and the land flattened, the rocks and cleared brush rolling away to the edges of the newly created clearing. Another wave of a hand and a large gray tent appeared, every large surface of it bearing a large red rune. They landed and the bubble disappeared, but furniture started appearing everywhere, all of it pouring out of their amulets.

A bench here, a cot there, the area filled itself up with everything needed for a comfortable stay.

The entire time, Tercius remained utterly silent.

“Tercius?” his Mentor called.

“Hmm?” Tercius looked around. “Yes?”

Mistress Kalina smiled. “You haven’t paid any attention to what the three of us were talking about, did you? While they finish up here, you and I are to find you a mount.”

A new bubble, this one tinged green, enveloped him and his Mentor and they flew up the mountains, heading where the rocky ground, snow, and the harsh, cold winds denied the trees the chance to grow.

“Something is bothering you,” Mistress Kalina said. “And if my eyes didn’t deceive me, it has been bothering you since I and Helfira spoke about the nature of my work. So what is it exactly?”

“It’s… nothing.”

“It’s not nothing. If you don’t want to talk about something just say so, but don’t give me that kind of a response. You need to be at the peak of your focus for the next few days, and everything that’s bothering you should be dealt with,”

Tercius hesitated, but only for a moment. “You said that the Isle of Ksana is a facility used for observation,”

“Yes,”

The surprise was minute, almost unnoticeable, but Tercius heard it in the word.

“I passed by quite close to it and, as far as I know, no one ever reacted to that in any way. That’s what’s been on my mind. I just keep wondering how something like that could happen and why it would happen.”

“Oh… you mean… I see. I see.”

“When it’s there, I can see energia in my body. I know that much. Considering that you, Mistress, discovered me from months-old traces of energia on my body, that only leaves the option that I’m somehow been hidden solely from a certain range of observation. Well, either that or some magi and spirits do indeed know of me, only for some reason both groups chose not to approach, which is somehow even worse,” Tercius took a deep breath and continued, each word pouring out a little easier than the one before it. “I’ve been considering these options and trying to figure out what each would entail and imply and even try to work out what some of the consequences of each could be. Everything I think of makes me… unsettled.”

His Mentor took a deep breath and nodded. “I see. Well, I can dispel a part of your trouble, if you want to.”

“What do you mean?”

“I can tell you why those in the Isle weren’t able to see your energia,”

“You can?”

His Mentor nodded. “You’ve had a… Well, you can think of it as a parasite of sorts, resting inside your innards.”

Tercius frowned. “Had? A… parasite?”

“A highly developed piece of spellwork animating the biological remains of a common intestinal worm, if you need me to be more precise.”

Tercius looked down at his churning stomach, a disgusted turn in the corners of his lips. “A worm?”

“When you left your hometown, Master Perdin’nar thought it prudent to provide you… an escort, of sorts.”

“An escort?” Somehow, he wished that Perdinar had operated on him. Tercius’ eyes widened. “Animating? You mean it’s dead?”

Mistress Kalina waved a hand to calm him. “It was properly sterilized and treated alchemically for long-term preservation, I’m sure. Master Perdin’nar’s primary professions are Healer and Animator, after all.”

Tercius suddenly had to take a deep breath. Perdinar was a necromancer?

“When I finally found it, I tried to talk to Master Perdin’nar about it, but other than revealing that it was his work he was not keen on divulging his secrets of its creation.” Mistress Kalina’s green eyes were bright as she spoke uncharacteristically animatedly. “And yet I have spent enough time around you to observe some things and draw my own conclusions. First, a mere fraction of a moment of energia’s presence in your system is enough to engage it. When it's powered, a true masterwork of subtle obscuration is created around you in the form of some kind of a layered containment field, effectively cutting you off from all long and mid-range observation only when you actually need to be shielded. The fields are also rather large in area and fluid in shape— at least I have never been able to pinpoint you as their origin. Last trait is a byproduct of the powering system itself, which is what makes the entire creation so genius, especially since it seems to be intentionally made that way. Simply by powering itself, that creation drains the residual energia from your system to an almost absolute degree. Only truly minute traces can slip past it and all that remains is well below what even the best of our sensors can pick up from a distance. Since it powers itself only when power is available, that means that at all other times it’s completely magically inert. Do you know what that means?”

As he listened to his Mentor’s explanations, Tercius forgot his revulsion. “It can slip past magical observation systems undetected.”

His Mentor nodded. "Magically inert objects, or beings, that are hidden inside magically active beings or items are quite hard to find. A similar thing happened to that friend of yours, but where that leech attached itself to his leg and then tried to hide by actively mimicking the magical signature to that of someone else, Master Perdin'nar's creation is something completely passive and its base nature is something most of our sensors would simply overlook."

“I see…”

“Actually… Master Perdin’nar told me to pass on a message, in case you did figure it out,”

“What did he say?”

“He told me to repeat it word for word, so: “You’re welcome,”,”

Tercius’ upper lip twitched.

Suddenly, his Mentor pointed down. The world was tinted green by their spell-created vehicle, but the blobs that jumped and ran up the angled rocky slopes were clearly visible.

“And I believe those are what we came here for,”

They flew above a large sprinting greenish cat of some kind and speeded ahead only to settle at a constant speed above a dozen or so rugged giant mountain sheep. The midday sunlight glittered off of the patches of greenish snow covers as a solitary hunter chased its prey. Their powerful and long legs propelled them forwards and away from their hunter. Each sheep was easily bigger than a horse, but their small curling horns spoke that they had found the group of the wrong sex.

“These are females,” Mistress Kalina confirmed his thoughts. “Let’s look around a bit more,”

Their bubble rose silently and speedily left the scene as if it was never there. They swept the mountainous area from above, soon finding another group. Unlike the other group, this one was static as they grazed patches of grass and masticated on some low-growing bushes. Both the curling horns and the sheep themselves were visibly bigger and fuller than the other group.

"I see three that match the size requirements we made yesterday," Mistress Kalina pointed. "That one there, the one over there, and finally that one. All three seem healthy enough."

Here, she turned her green eyes to him. “So which one will it be?”