A stream of water hitting her face woke her up. She jumped upright, instantly alert. Eyes wide, she took in her environment, heart beating loudly in her chest. It took her a moment to reorient herself. She was in one of the many rooms in the baths, the teacher sitting down on one knee in front of her, smiling warmly at her. She shook her head, clearing the remnants of the fog of sleep from her mind. Her brain kicked itself into gear and recent events flooded back to her. She looked warily at him as he got back up and walk towards a cupboard.

"No need to look so suspicious at me," he laughed. "I won't bite."

She blinked. He hadn't turned his head at all. She looked around to see if there were any mirrors around, but couldn't find any. Her eyebrows came down as she stared at him in confusion.

"Yeah, that's one of the things we'll have a talk about." In a smooth movement he stepped out of his robes. With the exception of a small bit of cloth around his waste he was utterly naked. Melena felt herself blush and covered her face with her hands. She didn't quite know why she did it, it was an instinctive reaction more than anything else. Then she slowly created a gap between her fingers to look through. She was greeted by a warm laugh as she sneaked a peek at him. What she saw made her redden further.

If she was considered the female embodiment of beauty, then her teacher could compete for the same title on the male side. It wasn't really the way he looked, although that didn't make much sense. His facial features were strong, well defined. His red eyes, no longer resembling boiling blood now that his anger had subsided, now had the colour of burning embers. They caught her gaze for far longer than was appropriate, but he seemed content with leaning back against the cupboard and smiling lazily at her, as if he could read her mind and knew perfectly well what she was thinking. Then her eyes wandered further, across his body. Despite between being very familiar with what happened between a man and a woman, she had never received any joy from it the way normal humans had. Her history in that regard had been filled with violence and slavery. Yet when she looked at him she felt her cheeks heat in a way that was strangely pleasant. He radiated overwhelming strength in a natural way. The way in which his muscles flexed underneath his skin as he crossed his arms, his smile turning into a grin while he slowly shook his head, reminded her of how the lightning-quick separs behaved. The cat-like creatures were lazy, seemingly at ease, before suddenly striking on a prey several times their sizes. Those animals had strength that belied their size. Just like him.

"If you're done with gawking, we need to have a chat. A proper one." The way he stressed the word made her realise that the entire trial had been nothing more than some minor distractions he had wanted to smooth over. This was the real event. Whatever 'this' was going to be about.

She couldn't respond. She tried to turn her head to look away from him or at least close the gap between her fingers, and failed in both attempts. No matter how much she tried to urge herself to stop gazing at him, she couldn't. Then he laughed. A mesmerising sound. A source of vocal ambrosia that intoxicated her and made her slowly drop her hands and look at him with a broad, droopy smile. He shook his head, then looked at her. Not the way he normally looked. He caught her gaze and held it. He looked at her. In her. She felt as if he was dissecting her, and was surprised when she found it a pleasant experience. Her mind was being pulled on from all directions, all somehow related to him and despite being lost in the storm, she couldn't help but smile. He didn't smile however.

"Split your mind," he ordered, his voice laced with steeled authority. "Three parts. Let one part do the drooling if you have to, keep the other two sane. We need to talk about starting your studies properly."

She gave him a slow, confused look. At least she thought she did. Was she giving him such a look? She still was captive by those deep red eyes, wasn't she? At least they weren't dull embers anymore. They were glowing. It was nice to look at. Almost magically.

Then she felt him growl and suddenly she fell into those eyes as the fire in them swallowed her whole.

She blinked. He was leaning against the cupboard, still in that attractive state of undress. He was also giving her a slightly annoyed look, but she somehow knew it wasn't aimed at her. Two more parts of her mind started piping up, making her aware that her mind had somehow split again.

"Better. You still have a long way to go if you can get that distracted this easily, but then again you never had any training to your name before you showed up here."

"Sir... What..."

He sighed loudly before shaking his head. "It's..." he made a waving gesture with his hands, somehow seeming exasperated. "It's common. Can't blame you really. It's... Part of the reason why I don't properly teach anyone until they show proper promise in critical thought and can split their mind three-ways. Notice how one part of you is purely focused on me? Keep it that way. Keep one part focused on the rest of your body and guarding the first part and leave the last for talking to me. Think you can do that?" His eyes were gentle again, still keeping a close watch on her, but she didn't drown in them anymore.

She closed her eyes. Following direct instructions. Yes. She could do that. She opened her eyes again after a brief moment, shrugging off the unease in how that one part of her mind was utterly smitten with him. She nodded.

"Good!" he exclaimed. "You have honestly no idea how annoying it is for me to constantly keep my barriers up to keep you all from getting influenced that way. Really hinders me from properly teaching. Now, new rules coming up, you're officially a student now. Hold on, interrupt me later, listen now."

She nodded again, closing her mouth and swallowing her questions, filing them away to be asked when he was done explaining.

"Right, first rule is that you will speak your mind, always. If you're confused, if you don't get something, if you doubt my sanity, voice it. Speaking your mind will not get you punished. Two, never stop using your mind and don't let societal limits hinder you. This will become more clear as you learn more. Third rule is that you still obey me while you study here, but you're free to leave if you want so, after talking to me about it. You'll be handling a lot more expensive equipment and dangerous knowledge from now on and I'd rather not set loose a plague on the world again. The first few times were bad enough. Fourth rule is that I decide on what you get to know. There are things I will teach you, parts of the Mansion I'll make accessible for you, and there are parts I will keep hidden. You will respect that. That's about it really. Never been too fond of too many rules. Your turn now. Go nuts with questions," he said, giving her a wide grin while leaning further back.

She opened her mouth, then closed it again. She eyed him warily, wondered what question to ask first of the several hundred that were fighting within her, each demanding to be voiced first, before finally deciding on one. "What do you mean with that I'm officially a student now? I thought I have been a student here for two years now?"

He let out a snicker. "No, you weren't. You and the rest were just a handful of... prospects really. Not even that. Honestly, I let most of you in for my own entertainment and because you're useful as examples for the worthwhile students. Although, I must confess I'm not using 'you' correctly here. You remember that you were brought here by Evon, right?"

She nodded. That was an event she would never forget. Evon had saved her from slavery after crashing a long party at the estate she had belonged to. He was one of the guests, a wealthy merchant. Then, after having talked extensively to her for the entire night, he had declared that he'd buy her. When her owner had refused, he had simply cut him in half, proceeded to slaughter every single guard trying to stop him and took her out for a stroll when he was done, still covered in blood and pretending that he wasn't. He had been nothing but kind to her, but distant and more than slightly mad. He had driven her straight to here, dropped her off in front of the teacher, told her to have fun and went off again. Which had proven to be pretty par for the course given how her lectures in the next two years had been, if the teacher bothered to show up.

"Right, that's precisely the difference between you and most other students. I'm a bit known as a teacher. That this place can serve as a very strict but absolutely excellent university. Which is a load of rat-droppings honestly. The only students that are worthwhile to me are the ones that my own students find and bring back."

Melena felt lost. "But I don't have any special talent! I was used for my..." she trailed off, embarrassed.

He laughed again. That musical sound again. It was so different to how he usually laughed. This was genuine. It filled her with joy, but this time her fragmented mind managed to redirect the overwhelming sensations to the part of her that was already smitten. He gave her a lecherous grin with a teasing twinkle in his eyes. "For your 'sweet ass'?" he asked. She turned as red as a tomato and looked down, realising she was still in her red robes, finally realising they were soaked, the vomit washed out. Before she could focus on that, the teacher continued. "Yeah, no. My dear, you've got a fair bit of ability to you. Just not the one people usually look for. You learned how to split your mind three-ways awfully quickly. You can think things through and, personally I value this quite highly, you learn rapidly from your mistakes and your mind is quick to take another direction when one is blocked. You don't stubbornly smash yourself into a wall when it's been proven that a train of thought leads to a dead end. Don't worry if you don't fully get that yet, as you grow you will start figuring out what I mean."

She decided to accept that for a truth and choose to ask another question. "When you said that you didn't care, was that the truth?"

His eyes glittered and he flashed her a toothy grin. "Depends on your definition of care, really."

She jumped out of the chair, growled at him and was taken aback by her own action, but barged on regardless. "Don't play semantics with me!" As soon as the words left her mouth she slapped her hand over it, visibly shocked by what she said.

He smiled reassuringly at her. "Reckon your other fragment is struggling with keeping the first in control. Anyway, you're right. Don't forget you're actually supposed to talk back to me now. To answer your question: no, I don't care. I'm... honestly a bit beyond that. Yet, at the same time I do care, in a different way. Lives come, lives go, you can fight against that, delay it, sometimes even manage to subvert the damnable flow of time, but what happens, happens. Caring in that aspect? It leads to pain. And I've had enough of that."

For a singular moment she saw grief flash through his eyes. More grief than she thought humanly possible. She felt her arms turn to lead and her legs turn to pudding. They didn't hold up and she started falling to the ground. Then he caught her. His arm slipped around her waist as he had somehow crossed the distance between her without a sound, in the blink of an eye. He was so close to her, intoxicatingly close as she suddenly became aware of all the things he radiated! His warmth, his scent, a comfortable feeling. Combined with the grief she just wanted to throw her arms around him and never let go. Then he stepped back, giving her a slight push so she fell back onto the chair.

"On the other hand," he whispered sadly, "I do care. Because that makes life worth living. Because we suffer, we can enjoy life all the better."

Where grief had passed behind his eyes a moment ago, now it was a well of boundless hope. It invigorated her, pumped her body full of almost reckless energy. She had the sudden urge to dance and couldn't stop grinning.

She blinked and was surprised to see him standing several feet away from her again, pacing through the room as if he was giving a lecture. "Another thing you really need to keep in mind when dealing with me is that I have a grand flair and love for the dramatic and that my verry essence means that I cannot help being a damnably influential creature. And I'm not talking about the same influence Feng claimed to have. Mine's a lot more dangerous and I need to be constantly mindful of it. Although I may let part of it slip from time to time to highlight a point. Or for my own amusement. Or maybe I'm just careless." He gave her a playful wink. "Honestly, who can tell?"

"You're mad!" she accused him, but couldn't stop laughing as she said it.

"What is chaos to the fly is order to the spider," he countered, suddenly the very image of a stern professor.

She kept laughing, not even knowing why. She was beyond being confused now. The way his very being influenced her, how he jumped between characters, how she was nearly raped and murdered, had her last sanctuary nearly torn to pieces, had gained hope for revenge, had that hope dashed, only to have it rekindled while receiving the fright of her life, then seeing her revenge become something truly vile and nightmarish, then this!

She lost sight of him as she kept laughing. On and on it went, from deep down in her belly the bursts came without stopping. Tears formed in her eyes and she started gasping for breath as it went on and on and on, utterly unable to call it to a halt. She was vaguely aware of water rushing through pipes around her, but it was a distant sound compared to the roars of laughter rolling from the walls. She must have crashed to the floor at one point, because she found herself laying on the smooth tiles, clutching her stomach as she was doubled over in pain. Sobs and tears started accompanying her laughs as they kept going. At one point the teacher returned and gently picked her up, rocking her back and forth as if she were but a babe rather than fully grown woman, softly whispering calming words in her ears as his fingers tenderly stroked her hair.

It took a while, but eventually she stopped laughing and crying. She looked up and found his face comfortably close, but the earlier feeling of undeniable attraction was gone. Had he locked it again behind barriers, or had she gotten a more thorough hold of herself now that she had expelled a lifetime's worth of emotions? She consulted the other parts of her mind and found that they had merged again. Rather than feeling whole, she felt strangely empty and was quick to divide it again. Hearing the soft murmuring of her other selves' thoughts running parallel along this version of her was strangely soothing. Made even stranger because all three parts of her shared that opinion, and all were equally her.

She focused her attention back to the here and now, the physical aspect of it all, and saw nothing but patience on his face.

"Will you really kill Feng's father?" she asked with a weak voice.

A soft smile appeared. "What do you think?"

"I don't know you well enough to guess. You might, but you might not..."

"I'm not asking you to guess, dear. I'm asking what you think," he encouraged her.

"I... Can I get a hint?" She was using a childlike voice. She knew it was likely a useless machination to try on him, but she figured there was no harm in trying. If it amused him, he may actually give her one.

He smiled. Success! she thought. "Fine then. Think of the law of the lazy."

She blinked in surprise. "Make sure something needs doing before doing it?"

He nodded.

Her eyes widened. "You won't!" she exclaimed.

"Won't I?" he asked, a twinkle shining brightly in his eyes.

"No!"

"Oh really?"

"Yeah! Because there's nothing to be gained!"

"Are you sure about that? Maybe I don't want to be bothered for a while so I have time to teach my newest student and setting fire to a dukedom would go a long way towards that."

"I..." she faltered. That was a perspective she hadn't considered. "But he did nothing to you!" she protested.

"He sent his son to me. That son hurt one of my students. It was his son that caused those troubles. He raised that boy. Badly, I might add."

As she struggled to ponder that, one of her other fragments came to the front with a reply. "You already punished him! And you're the one that let him stay!"

"Ooh, and she counters! What if I tell you though, that this man treats others the same way you were treated?"

Unbidden dark thoughts jumped to the front and she felt her face contort with anger. Then the anger recoiled from her with surprising force as her mental training kicked in. "Then he deserves to die, but not those around him."

"Oh really? That's a noble statement. Still, I think he's quite free have such hobbies though. Might makes right after all."

She felt a sudden hunger well up inside of her. A dark feeling. The call of revenge. "But you are mightier."

"I might be."

She knew that he was studying her. That it was a set up. Another test. The desire for revenge was overwhelming though. "Then you—"

He laid his finger on her lips, shushing her. She suddenly realised that she was still in his arms and that she had halfway climbed up towards his face. A sudden reminder struck her that he was still mostly naked and that her own robes were soaked and clinging rather tightly to her. Blood flooded towards her cheek as she let herself fall back into his arms, making herself as tiny as she could.

He put her down, very slowly. Stately even. Moving carefully and with grace he went to stand in front of her. Every step was measured. It was a steady approach, official. Every time he planted his foot down, he did so fully.

When he finally stopped he was standing a mere two steps away from her. Seeing him tower over her like that really made her become aware of just how tall he was.

"Melena. It it time for you to learn how to wield your spirit. It is time for you to decide on your future. From here on out, you and I shall discuss your destiny. Discard all. Leave your mind bare."

She had never heard him speak like that before. He sounded less than a teacher or a professor and more like an oracle, a king, emperor even! His voice had filled the room without being raised and she had been held captive in those deep pools that were his eyes.

She was barely aware of him walking through an open door in a different room of the baths. She came to her senses just in time to see him drop the last piece of cloth before disappearing into the dense steam. Realising she was supposed to follow, she hurriedly got rid of her own clothes and ran after him.

It was perhaps inappropriate given the official tone he had used only a moment before, but the last thoughts she had before entering the dense fog were focused on a, to phrase it roughly, sweet, sweet ass.