Just as the world itself was waking with the arrival of the sun, their golden bubble landed and the solid spherical surface dispersed into golden motes of magia. The land was flat here, the dry grass below their feet crunching. Directly north of them, the land rose into gentle hills of gray rocks.

“This is as far as we can take you,” Mistress Prime’era said. “The treaty line is a few minutes of flight north of us. It might take you a while longer to cross it.”

Tercius nodded to the blue-eyed Magos. "This was more than enough, Mistress. Thank you for everything you've done for me,"

Mistress Prime’era smiled.

“This is it then,” Mistress Helfira said. Shorter than him by a head, the middle-aged Mistress had raised the corner of a sharp eyebrow, her arms crossed over her gray robe. “For the record, Tercius, I think that what you’re doing is foolish. More so, I think that by all the common sense in the world we should be stopping you from doing this and yet here we are. I had hoped that things would go in another direction, Tercius. I truly did. But you proved to be as stubborn as that ram over there. No words of mine could reach you.”

“It was not from your lack of trying, Mistress. I have to do this. And thank you for everything you did for me in the past few weeks.”

“Bah!” Mistress Helfira threw her hands in the air. “You’re saying that as if I did something meaningful for you. If you wish to be grateful to me, don’t be thankful. Be agile of mind and body and come back. Then, I will teach you things that you will truly have a reason to be thankful for,”

Tercius smiled and inclined his head to his teacher. “I will do so then,”

“You better,”

Finally, his Mentor's turn came. "Disciple. You should find the first tribes directly north from here. Farmers and hunters, maybe even some anglers. If a village has four dozen or so people, then you can expect at least one spirit, maybe even someone who can interact with it." Mistress Kalina pointed at the rocky hills. Few things grew there, on the far southern border of the Izmittor mountain range, what with little to no precipitation, no waterways to speak of, and a land that was more gravel than dirt, but some kind of greenish-yellow bush seemed stupid or stubborn enough to adapt and thrive on the land. "These outlier communities are used to trading with caravans from the Empire, but even so your appearance will still provoke interest. You will be seen as a solitary outsider there. Some might find you interesting for it, while others might find your mere presence offensive in some way. Be mindful of both."

Tercius nodded. “Yes, Mistress,”

“Your destination is directly north of us. If you don’t stray too much, your mount should take you there within four days at most.” Mistress Kalina said. “If you find no interruptions, it might even be as little as two days. But don’t wear yourself or the beast out. Take frequent rest.”

Tercius nodded and raised a hand towards the ram. The beast nuzzled into his hand affectionately as Tercius patted the muzzle. Lucky's species was a great mountain sheep, a massive beast under which he could hide while standing straight and that could easily carry three grown men on his back and was still able to run and jump. The space on the gray ram's back was plenty and Tercius had used it all to prepare accordingly for the journey ahead. He had saddlebags with biscuits and dried fruits, enough to last him a week, he had waterskins with enough liquid to last him as long as that if not more, along with three large warm blankets and a set of thicker clothes for when the altitude changed the hot and dry climate. One of the leather saddlebags was specially made of hardened leather and then padded with soft insides to safely contain the glass vials and its precious contents, some of which were meant for him to use in trade for whatever he needed. Another had flintstones and coils of rope and everything else he thought might be of use in the mountains. A spear, a bow, a couple of quivers of arrows. Pots, pans… You name it, he had it.

A veritable mountain of goods rested on Lucky's large back and the beast barely noticed it.

Leaving his sword and shield behind had been hard, but it had to be done. He had to fit into the wild tribes— or at least not be sticking out like a sore thumb— and, according to the information his Mentor gave him, no tribes of the mountains used swords or shields. Better to go there barehanded than with the weapons of the Empire. Luckily he had his knives, and he was not unfamiliar with the bow and spear thanks to his uncle. They were common enough weapons and his uncle had thought it prudent to give him some lessons on each.

Mistress Kalina huffed, pulling bright orange springs of hair out of her mouth with a slender bronze finger. The wind was pleasant and cool this early in the morning, but the sun would change that soon. “If you see any of the special signs I’ve told you of, then do not approach those communities— no matter the circumstances, yours or theirs. Go the long way around, even if you have to lose hours in doing so. If you’re late to spot the signs, then don’t mince words with them or try to wiggle out. You won’t be allowed to leave no matter what, so there will be no need to remain civil. You need to make it very clear that you can harm them seriously and that you are prepared to do so, should they try anything—”

“I will. Mentor, we’ve gone over this multiple times already. I’ve memorized all your instructions—”

His Mentor’s eyes flashed. “I know you’ve memorized it all, Mathetes. That is not my point.”

Tercius stood a little straighter at her use of his formal Title. Mathetes in Magik. Disciple, in Empire’s Common. She only used that one when she was serious about something and when she didn’t think that he was paying enough attention.

"I won't go as far as to ask that you trust me on my word— you should always be mindful that my thoughts and therefore words are colored by many influences, some of which might not have your best interest in heart— but on this, I need to know that you will obey my command, should the time come. This is a fact. They will eat you if you fall prey. You need to strike first and strike hard. Show them that you can take them on and live. Make them understand that the wound they would receive by going after you would leave them weakened and bleeding for decades— if others of their kind let them live that long. Then get away from there as fast as you can."

Tercius looked at her eyes and found two serious emeralds gazing back. Swallowing a growing lump, he nodded. “Trust me, Mentor, if anyone were to choose to take the skin off my back, I won't just roll over and let them,"

“I suppose you wouldn’t.”

"Of course, I wouldn't. I have places to be and things to do."

All of them stood still in silence for a while, aware that everything was set and ready, and that it was time for Tercius to go. Should he say something to them all in parting? He couldn't just turn around and leave without a word… Several times Tercius tried to say something, but then he thought otherwise, all the while his mouth kept opening and closing slightly. Would a goodbye work for this situation? That was, probably, too simplistic. What then?

“I… I—” Tercius finally cleared his throat. Simplistic it was then. “I’m not very good at this, so… Goodbye.”

“Farewell, young one,” Mistress Prime’era said.

“Nothing else to be said, I suppose, but that I wish you success,” Mistress Helfira said.

Mistress Kalina briefly touched his shoulders, looked him square in the eyes, and nodded. “Remember, few are the actions that have to be taken immediately. Fewer than people think, at least. If you make proper preparations in place, things that are difficult now will always be easier later.”

Feeling profoundly uncomfortable, Tercius nodded and turned to Lucky. “Time to go, buddy,”

With one hand he grabbed the two-step stirrup and held down the lower one with his foot. Reaching high, he grabbed the leather handles that hung on the sides of the saddle and with little difficulty climbed atop Lucky. Lacking Tercius' weight to hold it down, the lower of the shrunk back to match the height of the upper one and Tercius' collected it with his foot. The saddle was wide and tall, looking alike to those for a horse and yet it was big enough to fit on an elephant.

He nodded to the three Mistresses and then turned his narrowed gaze at the distant mountains whose peaks hid inside white clouds.

*** *** ***

"I thought that I would talk him out of this foolishness," Kalina said as her green eyes watched the ram and her Disciple atop it ride up the rocky hills. The ram was fast, she would give the beast that.

"You could see it in his eyes, Kalina," Mistress Prime'era said. "He has decided this firmly. Perdin'nar saw it and I did. I think you did too, but you have invested yourself too deeply too soon with this child and your judgment has become so clouded that hope that an alternative would be found in time had developed in you."

“This is foolish of us, isn’t it?” Helfira said. “Please tell me that you both think so.”

“Oh yes,” Kalina said.

“Absolutely,” Mistress Prime’era nodded.

"So then why are we letting him go?" Helfira said. "Why are we letting that child into mortal danger? Why are we letting our best chance for true reform of our Society and our Laws just ride away to a place from which he might not return?"

“Tell me Helfira, what is our alternative?” Mistress Prime’era asked.

“We take him back with us, of course.”

“He is not a child of yours. You have no Right to keep him against his will.” Mistress Prime’era said.

“I never said that I should be the one to do it. But Mistress Kalina is his Mentor. She has that Right now,”

“Ah,” Mistress Prime'era nodded. “She might be his Mentor and he might be her Disciple, but take into account that their relationship has just formed and that above all it needs to remain a secret from our Society, Helfira. And then the most important factor. Say we take the boy back against his will. We can do that easily enough. The real question is should we do that? What trust and goodwill is between Kalina and him, and between us and him, will evaporate as water does at midday in these parts of the world. It takes one action to break trust, Helfira. It takes an eternity to rebuild it.”

Kalina stayed silent as her Grand-Mentor and her Grand-Disciple spoke to each other, her eyes glued to the hill where she last saw Tercius. She regretted the way she forced him to stay. Time didn't help, as she hoped, for his guilt to cool and for him to think clearly of this, but if her lessons helped him survive then she would do it all over again.

*** *** ***

Tercius and Lucky traveled without stopping, the ram’s size, expertise, and Skills in dealing with tricky slopes and rocky terrain allowing for a smooth ride for him. Crunching gravel and rocky ground vanished below Lucky’s massive legs at incredible speeds. They were making excellent progress so far, but things were getting more difficult with each passing hour.

The pleasant hours of the early morning had turned to day proper and, with Sogean summer being what it was, even this far north on the continent, the heat had started getting unpleasant.

Then it got unbearable.

Tercius used the end of the scarf to wipe the rivers of sweat off his face as he looked for something where they could take a little break. No trees, no caves, nothing big enough for him and Lucky to hide inside, under, or behind.

Right about now, everyone sane all around Sogea was probably already indoors or under shade, but he had to settle for a white scarf wrapped around his head. They never once got sight of a stream or any other sources of water, even though they should have. Tercius grunted and licked his dry lips as he scanned the terrain for anything that might shelter them. The next few hours would get even worse and before that he and Lucky had to hide somewhere while the worst of it passed.

They rose atop a hill and Tercius saw a solitary structure in the distance, tall and wide and with a color of tar that glinted with sunlight. Despite the heat, the sweat, and sore thighs and buttocks, he smiled.

But then the smile went away as caution took hold.

{Magia Sight} made his dark green eyes glow with an eldritch light, as he inspected the site for any already present denizens. Tiny and vague magia signatures abounded in the area, swirls of green for plants and red for reptiles, insects, and mammals, all of it tiny. When his search found no major threat in the area, Tercius had Lucky climb the hill and approach the boulder slowly.

His glowing eyes observed from up close, but still he found nothing. As far as he could tell, the large flat plateau atop the hill was free of anything he should be wary of. Still, there were some snakes and scorpions capable of concealing their magia— some of them found in the area, he knew— but proximity should allow him to spot them in time to handle them. He dismounted and led Lucky to the boulder, his step careful and eyes watchful.

Tercius approached and placed a hand on the smooth block of khanak. Skills couldn't shape it, man-made tools couldn't chip it. Boundary stones, people called them. These blocky monoliths could be found everywhere on the continent. Speculation on them and their purposes were many, but Tercius had recently learned about them, learning their name and true purpose.

All khanaks, as people of the Empire called them, were an enduring remnant of a time when the Society of Magi had been at its peak, a time when a million of magi walked the world, instead of tens of thousands of today. According to Mistress Kalina, the materials each of these Pylons were extracted from deep within the earth, then heated, put under tremendous pressure, and then shaped in special ways by ritual efforts of thousands of magi. During its making, spells were woven inside to make them endure all kinds of harm and allow them to remain unchanged. What stood before him was only the very tip of a Pylon, while the rest ran deep into the earth, the other end tapped into something that Mistress Kalina called soronna.

Tercius took a step back and gawked upwards at the runes, gently inlaid into the stone, barely visible on the smooth surface. At one point in their history, all settlements that magi built were structured around these things. By using certain spells that all Pylons were designed to accept, a Magos could tap into the power found deep within the earth and either link their structures to power them or, if they knew how to transform it properly, draw the power for their personal use.

His Mentor didn’t explain what a soronna was, but to Tercius it seemed as if the magi of old had tapped into the thermal energies of the planet’s core. Yet with magia and energia around, it could be something else entirely. For all he knew, the Pylons tapped into ley lines, or something of that kind.

Tercius patted the rock gently. Without a Magos who knew the spells to work with its enchantments, this Pylon was performing the role of a simple shapely boulder and it would stubbornly do so for as long as it lasted. Right now, all it was good for was to provide some shade. Once upon a time, thousands of trustworthy magi knew the spells to tap into the Pylons, but how many knew them today? Did his Mentor know them? As one of the leaders of the Repository, she just might. Perhaps her role required it even. Did Perdinar know them? Maybe…

The Repository surely kept the spells at a high price, provided that they were even available for exchange to the general public. Reluctantly peeling himself off of the Pylon, Tercius went to provide water to Lucky, and then he let the bleating ram rest in the shade. He picked up some hard biscuits for himself and started examining the Pylon with both mundane and magical senses while he ate his lunch with some water to soften it.

To his {Magia Sight} [55], the Pylon was non-existent.

Tercius frowned then bit into the hard biscuit. {Magia Sight} was a rare Skill. Atop that, it was well developed, and yet he only saw… some vague outlines of tar-like threads of silk shifting inside the darkest of darkness.

Something was hiding the enchantment.

He almost wanted to reach out with his magia, but he was not so foolish as to blindly tinker with the enchantments inside, and not only because someone might be currently observing him. A failed attempt would result in nothing at all, while a successful one would likely get him electrocuted or frozen or something like that, perhaps even a mental jolt sent back through the very magia that would be used for tinkering.

Tercius tsked. If the magi who were in charge of designing and creating the security parts of the enchantments of this Pylon were particularly vicious in their work, like Tercius would be if he was in their shoes, then all he had to do was forcibly destroy the intruding magia. That, in turn, would create a mental shock that could make the poker and prodder suffer from anything from a nasty headache to a blackout or even worse things that would outright destroy the intruder’s mind and leave them a drooling mess.

Tercius hummed as he tapped his nose with his index finger and observed the black rock with narrowed eyes. No, the enchantment in this rock wouldn’t get cracked by a would-be Magos in training. But he could, perhaps, destroy it. In theory, all enchantments could be destroyed in a rather simple manner. All you had to do was channel a certain amount of power into the enchanted object in order to overwhelm the stability of the enchantments and erode the structure away into oblivion.

That was why the seal on his Well would stop functioning eventually. The natural movement of magia inside the body would slowly degrade the structure of the enchantment and the seal would just stop working properly.

Still, he could only imagine the power required to wash away an enchantment that was designed and made specifically to endure and channel power enough to run entire settlements full of other enchantments. But… hypothetically, say he did manage to do it… He had time to kill, after all, so he might as well entertain himself with something interesting.

Without the enchantments inside, the Pylon would just become a pretty rock that it already was acting as— Tercius’ green eyes flashed. Or would it? What if the enchantment wasn’t some kind of a pump with privileged access, as he was given to understand, but rather a valve with privileged access? Without the valve to halt the path… the pipe was free to eject its contents… much like a geyser would.

Tercius hummed. He had no idea if the power drawn was magia or energia, or some combination of both, or even something else entirely, as Mistress Kalina wasn’t willing to speak on nature of Pylons overmuch, but whatever it was, if the black monolith started spewing it freely into the area, someone was bound to notice the anomaly and stop by to visit. Tercius glanced at the rocky terrain. Here, that someone would likely be a curious spirit. Law-obeying magi didn’t wander into the enclaves of spirits.

The peak of the scorching hours passed slowly as Tercius examined the Pylon and allowed his imagination to run wild with guesses. He also took a few moments to properly consult the map he had. Judging by the Pylon in whose shade he and Lucky had found shelter, they had made far more progress than the distant mountains would suggest, but at the same time, they had gone a bit too far west than was planned. Riding straight east should cross his path with that damned stream and the routing error he made would be corrected.

Tercius approached Lucky and gave the beast’s muzzle a few strokes and pats. “Luck is with us, Lucky. Not a single large beast or human so far…”

The giant ram bleated in response, nuzzling back into his touch.

“I just hope the quiet lasts for as long as possible…”

*** *** ***

The stream was indeed where the map said it would be. It was there that he also found the first true flora, with green grass and flowering bushes and tall growth all around the water. There were even rare trees on the stream’s banks.

A pack of bipedal reptiles grazed the grass, none of them taller than his knees, their necks and tails long and thin, scales green and yellow. Lisster Minor, the guidebook called them.

Seeing the pack of tiny beings, Tercius approached the area with care. Where packs of Lisster Minors were, a Steel Beak or two were usually nearby, according to the book. Holding his breath, Tercius searched for large magia signatures but found nothing.

Breathing easier, he approached the stream and unburdened Lucky on a meadow. The beast practically lept to graze and drink and Tercius was glad that the beast finally could have its fill. Careful of the surroundings, he scooped the cool water in a palm and washed the grime off his face and neck, and then drank almost as heavily as Lucky did. He was also honestly a little relieved that he had been able to resupply his too soon spent stores of water. Lucky had drank over half of his week-long stores in merely a few hours. Immensely restored from the mere presence of water, Tercius had Lucky rest a bit and then they collected their things and followed the stream cautiously at a slow trot, until they stumbled across the first true signs of human settlement of the area.

Tercius frowned as he observed the site. He didn’t like the look of it, not one bit.

Of the enclosure made of dry-stone walls, only the base remained somewhat intact, while the rest was scattered to rubble all around the area. In the middle of it all, he found traces of what used to be six rough stone foundations. At each of them, someone had taken the trouble to scatter the stones that once made the walls of a home.

He had a bad feeling about this. This wasn’t like the area surrounding the Pylon, where the last settlement had been present thousands of years ago and where, when the last Magos decided to leave the area, the Collectors of the Repository came and packed the settlement down to the last stone and piece of processed timber, leaving nothing behind to rot or crumble.

No, this was not that at all. This was… chaotic destruction, not orderly removal.

Something told him it was recent, too. How recent, it was hard to say. Such things were difficult to tell with stone, but the image of it all made Tercius frown deeply. Should he change his plans, stop following the waterway and take for the hills east or west and then proceed north? He weighed the pros and cons of both, but ultimately he shook his head. Choosing to swallow his nerves, Tercius and Lucky proceeded onwards as planned.

No matter how much he wanted to avoid them, and possibly avoiding whoever did this in the process, he had business with the humans living here.