“I… must be… dreaming…” Rona whispered, blinking at him with watering eyes.

Tercius shook his head and squeezed her hand in reassurance. “No, you’re not. I’m here. I really here,”

Her trembling hand opened and grasped for Tercius’ fingers, each entwining the other in a desperate bid to prove the reality of the situation. Suddenly her upper lip quivered as a strange cry escaped her, one choked with emerging emotions, old memories, and physical pain.

“I’m so sorry,” he said, averting his gaze and bowing his head down.

“Sorry… What for…”

“All of it. All of this. If only… If only—”

Rona’s fingers constricted around his. “Look… at me…”

Tercius looked up, finding a small smile on her face.

“You did… nothing wrong. It’s… all right…”

“No, it’s not,” he said slowly. “Nothing’s right…”

Rona’s trembling hand let go of his fingers and it rose, caressing his cheek. “Tercius…”

Tercius leaned in the touch, closing his eyes for a moment. He leaned out of the brief touch with a new focus in his emerald eyes. “It’s not right… But it will be. I will make it right. You have my word,” he said, with all the conviction in the world. “I have plans already in place,”

“You and… your plans…” Rona smiled and for a moment the swelling and the dark veins on her face and neck seemed erased. Then she grimaced and all the reality was shown back in. “No… you must… leave…”

“I’m not leaving anywhere without you both,” Tercius said, his tone giving no room for discussion on the topic. “Besides, it might be too late for that,” he glanced down at the star on his chest.

Rona’s head rose slightly as she looked at him for a while, only to start glancing around frantically. “Septimus… Septimus, where are you…”

Tercius’ father moved closer, crouching near the bed. “I’m here,”

Rona looked at her son-in-law. “Septimus… take him and… go… Now…”

Septimus looked from Rona to Tercius, questions floating in his brown eyes.

“I told her that we won’t be leaving without her,”

“Oh…”

As Rona continued speaking to Septimus, desperately trying to persuade him to take Tercius and leave before it was too late, Tercius stood up and took a deep breath. What he wanted to say was for specific ears only, and the language barrier was not a big enough of a divide for him to be comfortable. After all, if he could bridge the gap, so could someone else.

Looking down at the glowing star so snugly stuck on his fur jacket, Tercius hesitated. With another glance at Rona, he stepped away from the bed, going to the back of the room and sitting on one of the empty beds. He laid down and made himself comfortable, invoking {Distant Mind}, all the while keeping in mind that Denerim, the Speaker’s spirit, was not allowed to follow him.

He appeared in the vast darkness alone and his thoughts untangled like snaking threads, probing the space for any kind of signs of intrusion. He found none.

After checking another couple of times, just to make sure, he stood up and returned to Rona and Septimus, who still talked about him leaving as soon as possible. Tercius ignored them and instead he looked around, grabbed one of the furs that Rona used to be covered with, and placed it on the stone floor near the bed.

He poked Septimus on the shoulder. “Move over.”

“What are you doing?” his father asked.

Rona now looked at him. “Tercius… listen to me…”

“No, grandmother, you need to listen to me. And you,” he said, turning to Septimus. “You just… trust me.” he glanced down at the glowing star on his chest, hoping that that was explanation enough. Seemingly understanding, Septimus stood up and moved away, and so Tercius unfurled the fur fully and sat down on it, patting the spot near him. “Sit, lean your side on the bed, and make yourself as relaxed and comfortable as you can. Oh, and give me your hand right here…” Tercius placed his hand on Rona’s. “Right here, on top of mine,”

With a sigh, Septimus sat down near Tercius, made himself comfortable, and finally placed his hand on top of Tercius'.

“Now, remember. There’s no need to panic,” he said, giving both of them a brief look of reassurance. He felt a need to warn them. “It’s me,”

Focusing on his hand, the feeling of Rona’s smaller hand below his, and Septimus’ larger one on top of his, Tercius called for {Distant Mind}.

Tercius blinked, looking from Rona to Septimus. Nothing had happened. He tried once more, sharpening his focus on his needs. This time, he felt something strange, a warm surge running right across his forehead and temples.

"What am I supposed to panic about?" Septimus asked just as Tercius snatched his hand back and rushed to stand up.

“Get off,” Tercius said, chasing his father off of the newly repurposed fur rug. He dragged the smelly thing to be at the head of the bed, right above where Rona’s head was.

“Grandmother, can you move a bit to the wall?”

“Tercius… What the Hells are you doing?” Septimus asked.

“I’m giving us some privacy. Grandmother, do you need help?” he said directly above her head.

The older woman looked up at him, a grimace of pain on her face. Tercius tried to convey the urgency without words, with nothing more than a look. As Rona started wiggling towards the wall, Tercius pointed at the freed space. “That’s enough, grandmother. Father, lie down right there,”

“Ah… Son, what’s going on here?”

“Just trust me,”

Septimus glanced at the young woman and the writhing middle-aged priest.

"Ignore them," Tercius said, sitting down on the fur-covered floor and making himself comfortable by leaning on the wooden frame of the bed. He snuggled his left temple against Rona's and tapped his free right one. "On the bed now, and get your head here,"

The bed creaked under Septimus’ added weight, but it held firm. Tercius’s arms rose and pressed Septimus’ and Rona’s heads firmly against his, as he once more called for {Distant Mind}, firmly keeping the image of taking them both with him.

The incense smell dimmed, the semi-lit cavern turned darker and the bedridden priest's cries faded. Only a strange trio of beings remained.

One was a strange ball of darkness with endless cable-like tentacles, both long and short, dozens of times eclipsing the size of its two invitees, who were mere wisps of light, one colored a loving blood-red, the other sun-touched with a warm gold. For a while, all three beings were completely still.

Both small wisps morphed quickly, building themselves into the likeness of their physical forms, yet retaining their distinctive coloring, even as their colors dulled a bit. Tercius forced himself to take on a humanoid form, pushing back against the constriction that followed his move, while also cutting off a lot of unnecessary thoughts to reduce his size so that he was not towering over his father and grandmother.

“What is this… place?” his father asked, his now pink and red form wobbling like jelly.

“This is {Distant Mind}, the Skill I spoke to you about.”

“Oh,”

“So this is the Skill that made everything possible…” his grandmother thought, and Tercius could feel the vibrations of curiosity come off of her.

“After I heard about your situation, this seemed like a way to deal with the pain and so I made some modifications to make it happen. Is it working?”

“It… is. I can feel the pain… but it’s slipping.” she thought, with some measure of relief.

“Good. Pain is not allowed here. But that’s not the only thing that will go. Your emotions, if you feel any, will be siphoned away. New thoughts might generate new emotions, but they will have to be really strong to appear. You will be able to remember the sensation of emotions quite well, though,”

“Pain and emotions… gone…” Septimus’ thoughts vibrated the space between the three of them, sending out quite a large dose of concern in them. “Tercius… do you experience this every time?”

"It is the way the Skill works, so yes. Technically, you do not see, hear, smell, nor can you feel touch, or taste anything here. But you can experience all those things, if you relive a memory, although even the experience is dulled. The experience of diving into memories is… very disturbing the first few times, at least before you get used to having two, three, or more thoughts at the same time, and it's especially distressing if you go in and out of memories multiple times in small frames of time. Since I'm at it, I should warn you of some critical rules before we move to the reason we are here. Don't try counting or listing any kind of long sequences—"

“What?” Septimus thought.

"Just don't do it—" Tercius thought, before another of his thoughts cut in, promptly presented its case to the others, only to demand and receive primacy. "Actually, before you do it just because I said not to do it, let me show you how to help yourself…"

Tercius spent quite a bit of time explaining to his father and grandmother the ground rules of behavior in the endless mental plane, not simply sending them mere words, but rather showing them the ropes in practice. He showed them how to optimize their mental size for maximum focus, while still keeping complex thoughts and growing them to specific directions while cutting down on distractions. He showed them how to make parts of their thoughts activate only in case-specific cases arose, like how to get out of a mental loop if one's mind is sent into one, for example.

At one point, he could feel that his {Teaching Bond} was trying to take both Rona and Septimus under its wing, but while it was able to establish a rudimental bond between him and them, there was a dam holding back the true bulk of the current.

Once Tercius realized that {Distant Mind} was that dam, he tried to adjust for it, but without success. {Distant Mind} was trying to bend to his will, but it could not comply no matter how it tried. Another thing to consider in the future, but with only one boundary of change remaining for {Distant Mind}, his options and needs would have to be taken under careful scrutiny.

Once his grandmother and father, both considerably larger than at the start, had the basics of their new reality under their belt, Tercius convened them for a conversation.

“I need your input on a couple of my plans. Grandmother, does the monastery have a small room of dark stone, somewhere?”

“How do you know about that?”

“I’ve had a recent encounter with a spirit that left me with parts of a plan that apparently involves me.”

A spike of concern came from Septimus, followed by one from Rona as well.

“They know about you and the—” Septimus thought, only for the next part of his thoughts to combust as they approached Tercius and Rona. The flame burned blue, screaming with pain and suffering. “I can’t say it even here?”

“The contracts take into account mind Skills and magicks, father,” Tercius thought back. “And, father, yes they know about me. But they don’t know anything about energia— at least the clergy and the spirits. If the same applies to the Divines, I have no idea. That they have knowledge of me and are apparently sharing some of it is disturbing, though. I have a theory as to how they know about me. Are any of you aware as to the manner of communication between the spirits and the Divines?”

“No…”

“Prayers,” his grandmother thought.

"That's right," Tercius confirmed, only to feel confusion from Septimus. "Apparently, for most of the spirits and humans, it's a one-way street. The Divines can receive this transmission from all, but not everyone can receive the answer. Some rare spirits, like the one I met, and even rarer humans, called Speakers as I understand it, do have the ability of… both receiving and emitting."

Tercius turned his focus back to Rona. “Grandmother, did you pray for me while I was away?”

“I… I did,”

"Did you pray about any specific topic? About me finding my answers about energia, for example?"

“I… yes.”

"Then we might have our answer to the extent to which the Divines— Divine Balance at least— know,"

“But M’ti’mya won’t ever work against you, Tercius,” Rona assured him, her conviction unwavering. “You were born and baptized under its blessing,”

Tercius was not so convinced as his grandmother appeared to be, but what was done was done. No point in wallowing in what-if scenarios on that particular topic. "Might be so, but what about the clergy of Divine Balance? Aren't they too baptized in its name? Do I need to say just the first two of the most common nicknames you use for them?"

His grandmother did not need to respond to that.

“We spoke about the dark stone room, grandmother…” Tercius reminded her. “I assume by your questions that the monastery has one?”

“It does,” Rona thought, her thinking pattern far more calm, robust and orderly than before. Maybe too orderly… It was the influence of the Skill, he knew, yet seeing it happen to Rona’s thoughts was the first time he felt any kind of concern on the matter. His grandmother “sounded” far more like him now. So did Septimus for that matter... Questions for another time. Close observation recommended, in the meantime.

“Where is it?”

“When you came here, were you led through the tunnels, or were you flown in?”

“Tunnels,”

“Those tunnels are only a small near-surface part of the Labyrinth. The door is far, far beneath the surface. The journey, for those who know the path, will take around half a day,”

“I see… And is it locked in some way?”

“A Holy One stands guard before the entrance, never moving,”

“Who of the clergy can gain entrance?”

“Only members of the Ecumenical Council of Balance, but they rarely go down there,”

“Can we sneak inside somehow?”

“I… I don’t think so. Why would you want to go there?”

“I…” Tercius halted, wondering if he should share. “Let me refine my plans with this new information, and then we will talk again. In the meantime, grandmother please refrain from having prayers with any kind of sensitive information. You too, father. Let’s keep what we know to ourselves, and we will weather through it all.”