The water was cool, bringing some relief to Stavi’s parched throat, and he let out a sigh of relief. He looked over as Kola made a loud smacking sound with his lips, and then the young boy let out a massive burp.

“You are so very stylish, Kola.”

“I’m sorry, Master. I’ll do better in the future.” The words were contrite, but the look on the boy’s face was anything but.

“I told you not to call me that, we’re just a couple of fellow travelers.” Stavi had just been trying to help the young boy out, not create a lifelong teacher-student bond.

Guess I shoulda thought that out a little more. I think I was too high off increasing my rank, yeah that’s my excuse.

He had decided to think of the layers of his core as ranks, because he could clearly feel that they were individual in some ways. If they split the core down the middle it might look like rings in a tree, part of the same whole but separate. The pool of energy around it was about 50% bigger than it had been before, which meant he had enough on hand to get himself in some real trouble now.

“But you brought me into the way of prosperity…”

Stavi felt a headache coming on.

“Yeah, no, that is true.”

I’m a fucking idiot. I didn’t want him to think me some sort of blood-sucker, so I said that I tapped Kreg’s prosperity. Well, its life energy so it’s sorta the same…right!?

“Master, tell me again how you came across the inheritance.” Kola flopped down on the ground, right in front of Stavi, and beamed up at him with puppy-dog eyes.

The headache intensified.

“Mmhm, still the same as it was last night. Found an old grimoire in a Magi tomb, called The Way of Prosperity and it explained how to acquire other’s prosperity and use it to do magic. You have a little bit of it in you now, but all its doing is making your body a little stronger.” In the moment, Stavi had realized that he couldn’t reveal the actual origin or details of how his abilities worked.

Blood magic? Vitality? Whatever it technically is, it’s not the work of the Magi. The old witch said it was forgotten knowledge, something from her people. Well, mine too I guess, but I never really cared about that. That was Mom’s interest, not mine. She made me learn the tongue though, which convinced the old witch so I guess it was worth my efforts. Still, this prosperity story is going to have to be what I go with. It’s true that the tiny core I made in him should be strengthening him, I can feel that every day my own core is making me stronger, faster, healthier.

“It’s really such an unbelievable story…” The words sounded doubting, but the boy’s voice was full of awe and hero-worship. It really made Stavi feel like a no-good, stinking dog. “This is the first good thing that ever happened to me, getting freed and the prosperity, I mean.”

Stavi closed his eyes, and stifled a groan.

“Are you feeling alright, Master?”

“I told you not to call me Master…” Stavi couldn’t bit back the words, so he just stood up and started walking down the path back to the highway. He heard the boy picking up his baggage and rushing to follow after him, and the sound made him readjust his own pack which was almost overflowing with the best bits he had stolen from the slaver.

Well, he wasn’t going to use it anymore, was he?

They tramped on, in silence, for a few more hours before the sun started to slide behind the horizon. Once that happened they left the highway, heading to the nearest watering hole which had been clearly marked. They set up camp, laying out their bedrolls and starting a fire to cook their food over. Every bit of this was looted from their kidnapper, and both of them enjoyed the meal especially because of that.

“Definitely not because of our skill at cooking…” Stavi muttered under his breath.

“What did you say, Master?”

“…Nevermind”

Stavi pulled a slim, blue leather-bound book from his bag and cracked it open, it was one of the few books he had carried away with him. Most of what he took was currency, and traveling supplies. The book was well worth hauling away, though, as it was a manual from the Profound Windblaze Academy.

Someone definitely got their knuckles rapped for letting this go. It’s a full-blown introductory text, and I was always told those were highly restricted. Not just that, the Magi are known to track them down.

He also pulled his own journal out, and a quill that had been enchanted to write without an inkpot. He was writing his own notes as he worked his way through the book, intending to burn it once he had acquired all it could teach him.

“Why do you wanna read that, Master? You have the inheritance, right?”

Stavi sighed and rubbed his forehead, feeling the grimy skin flake away.

“I do, yeah, but that is more a means of power than the exact instructions to using it. I am looking at this grimoire to learn more about spells, rather than how these Magi gather their power. Our ways…differ.” Stavi sneaked a peek at the boy, who seemed to have bought this line.

Stavi returned his attention to the book, it was all information he had longed for and thought denied him forever. Even the foreword of the book sent a shiver down his spine, it was so imposing.

Magi are the true wielders of the Ars Magika, which has been proven by our dominance over every other form of practice. In this tome you will find the ways of harnessing MANA, the essence of the Universe, and the SIGILS that guide the intention, activation, and completion of a spell.

As he had told Kola, the parts of the book that regarded how Magi channel mana into their sarovara simply reinforced how different his own practice was. There was no obvious link between them, but he was more concerned with what to do with the energy once he had it. Of course, he had the few words of power that he knew, but that wouldn’t get him far. The chapter on sigils hinted at much broader uses of the energy, uses that had him dreaming about fame, fortune, and the easy life.

It also looked like more work than he had expected, too.

“Master, teach me how to cast a spell…”

Stavi bit his lip trying to stifle a groan.