The group of four listened to Enrico’s explanation of the basics of how magic worked, and the sage swiftly sat down again when he was done. After that, Almanac spoke again.

“And now, we will decide on which sage you will study under first. Further choices will then be made, if you are to learn anything else.” Almanac explained, and held his hand forward. He pressed his thumb against his middle finger, and loudly snapped. Sparks of light gathered above Almanac’s hand, turning into a bigger mass of light. Soon, the light shattered away as if it was just a shell, and that which was underneath was quickly revealed.

It was a cat. Brown fur with white stripes running across its limbs, with a stature as if it was standing on two legs, but while floating in the air. It was wearing a purple silk vest and floated around Almanac’s head happily, “It’s been a while since you’ve called on me~! What do you wish for me to use my eyes to see~?” The cat asked with a high-pitched voice. Almanac smiled at the cat, and then turned his head toward the four standing in the middle area of the table.

“Please, look at them and see which of the eight systems we currently represent fit any of them the best.” Almanac instructed, and the cat quickly nodded its head, “As you wish~!”

The cat floated up to the group. The first one it inspected was Ness, since he stood in the front. After a few moments of locking eyes, the cat turned around and looked at Almanac, “This one is a good fit for Artificing or Word Magic.”

Almanac interlocked his fingers, “He’s a good fit for two, I see.”

Next, the cat moved over toward Ayden and made its choice there, “As for this one... Numerology!”

Margosa raised her brows, looking Ayden up and down curiously. Seems like this was her specialty. Either way, at that point, the cat already reached Mari, “Hm... This is getting tough... There is no pull to a particular system, but she does seem to have the capability for powerful magic. Maybe a focus on elemental magic would be good for this one.”

Mari seemed surprised after hearing that she supposedly could use powerful magic at some point. She was never that good at it when she learned it before, so she just stuck with archery and a bit of hand-to-hand combat to be able to defend herself properly.

While Mari was thinking about what she could do with magic, the cat moved on to the last of the group. It stared into Noah’s eyes, and at that point, he noticed something. This cat’s pupils weren’t normal. There was the regular slit that cat-eyes had, but something was still different about it. It was as if Noah was looking through the middle of rows and rows of bookshelves at a library, reaching infinitely deep.

He didn’t know why that image exactly popped into his mind, but it usually meant something when this happened. So this ability was based on knowing a lot of stuff then. Noah got lost in this cat’s eyes, until the cat itself suddenly jerked its full body away from him.

“Wh-What did you just try to do?!” The cat screeched out, quickly turning around and floating to hide behind Almanac’s head. The sages were just staring at Noah, confused about how this could happen.

“I just... saw one of your abilities? Like, I looked into your heart, I think?” Noah asked, and the cat hissed at him, still hiding, “He’s not fit for magic! No talent! None at all! Get him to leave!”

“I know that you are lying. Please tell the truth.” Almanac said, and the cat grumbled quietly, “Grr... Summoning... But I won’t put up with him! He feels creepy!”

“He simply looked back into you, although that is usually what you do. He is not any more creepy than you are, in that sense.” The giant hare explained with a smile on his face, “Well, then I think it’s settled. Noah, you will be studying under me in the art of summoning. Ayden, you will be studying under Margosa in the art of Numerology.” Almanac explained, and one of the other sages crossed her arms a bit annoyed.

“You sure you didn’t just give this... Ayden to yer wife cause you would’ve felt bad for her?” She asked, and Margosa grinned, “What, are you jealous? You know that Almanac can’t influence the cat sith that way.”

“Wait, the beast and the human are coupled?” Ness asked with a squint, and Margosa glared at the kobold, “One, he’s not a beast, he’s a Hilian. And two, I’m not a full human, I’m a half-bred. So judge us again and I’ll turn you into some nice gloves for my husband. You got that?”

Ness clearly felt more than surprised, actually nearly scared, “H-How dare you threaten this great Dragon, lord Ness?! Ness will rain havoc upon you!”

“Please don’t mind him...” Mari told the sages with a wry smile, “He didn’t mean anything by what he said, he just can’t filter his thoughts.”

“Don’t you worry about it.” Almanac replied with a light chuckle, “We have some people like that here as well.” He pointed out and turned his head toward his wife, whose arms were crossed while she turned her head away annoyed.

“Anyway. Mari, you will be studying under Ribbed to learn the art of elemental magic.” Almanac moved on, and then looked at Ness last, “And you will be studying under Brokhau.”

The group turned toward the two sages in question. Ribbeg was that frog-like being, and Brokhau was the high goblin they spoke to before.

“For now, we will bring you to some sleeping-quarters, however. These systems are not the kind you can study within a few hours, so it would be best if you stayed here for a while. But you are free to leave whenever you wish, of course.” Almanac explained, and a moment later, some aides stepped into the room, “Go ahead and follow them.”

Together, the group of four left this room, while the sages stayed to discuss everything a bit longer. Noah noticed that the cat was glaring at him angrily as they left, and he felt a bit awkward about it. Once they were outside, he nudged his elbow against Ayden, “Yo, that never happened before... Nobody ever noticed that I could see something in them.”

Weirdly excited about this, Noah stared at his friend. Ayden smiled back at him, “Of course, people on earth never believed you even if you ended up telling them about it in the first place. And that cat, or cat-sith apparently, clearly had an ability to gather information in some way or another. Maybe that ability interacted with yours in a weird way.” Ayden suggested. Noah slowly nodded his head.

“Yeah, it was... It was weird. The cat had like an infinite number of bookshelves in its fucking eyes. It looked pretty cool... Most people I’ve met that had some form of... you know, change to them, were pretty boring. And it was never something like that! If through summoning I can meet others that are similar, then I think it’d be pretty damn neat!” Noah exclaimed. Ayden couldn’t help himself but laugh a bit.

“It’s been a while since I’ve seen you this excited about something.”

“Of course, this is pretty exciting! And you know, I looked at that Almanac guy again a bit more, and turns out, he does have something about him that I can see with my eyes as well. So yeah, he definitely isn’t... you know...” Noah said.

“I still didn’t expect you to get over it so quickly. Well, you-“

“I should be the one saying that!” Mari exclaimed, interrupting Ayden, “How are you two not freaking out?! You’re literally in another world than the one you lived in your whole lives, which only happened because you two died, and you act like this is normal? Noah seemed like he was going to die just an hour ago, and now he’s happy about being left alone in a room with the one that caused that in the first place? What is wrong with you two?!”

It seemed like Mari wanted to ask this for a while now. Noah and Ayden looked at each other for a moment, and then turned back toward the girl, “I personally just feel weirdly comfortable here. And both of us are used to weird things happening throughout our lives in the first place, so it simply doesn’t feel as horrific as you might think.” Ayden explained, as if he already thought about this answer in advance.

And Noah immediately added to that, “Yeah, and like... I went to therapy because of what happened, right? Like, I dealt with stuff... kind of? It was just a bit shocking, but now that I know that they’re not the same person, I’m good.”

“...Who did you even think he was?” Mari asked, and Noah lightly smiled, “I thought he was-“

“Sorry for the interruption, but we are here now.” One of the aides said, standing in front of a wooden door in this long hallway, “This is the only room we can currently give you. But it is large enough to create a sort of split in the center of the room if you wish for more privacy.” He explained, and opened the door to the room. It really was quite large, although also a bit dusty, as if it hadn’t been used in a while.

There were six beds in the room, and each had its own closet and a small chest at the foot of the bed, like some sort of living-quarters, “If you require a change of clothes, please inform us. We will call you when it is time for dinner or breakfast, which us aides and apprentices often consume together. You are free to join us, of course.” The man spoke in a solemn, calm tone. He really was quite relaxing to listen to.

And so, the group of four entered the room, and before he left, the aide once more looked at them, “You will be called by your respective teachers soon. We just ask you not to wander around on your own for now, since there are some quite dangerous places in this sanctuary.”

The wooden door closed with a loud creak, and the group was left on their own.