"Would you please tell me the whole story from the beginning?", inquired William politely. He had glanced at his sleeping friends before scooting a bit closer to Aaron and now asking him for the favor. The High-Magician seemed hesitant, as if he didn't know what Cale was and wasn't deliberately hiding. But William's interest in Cale's past was simply too great, so he would not give in so easily. He had been interested for weeks in how Cale had become who he was today.

"Only on the condition that you also answer me some questions about Caleb", the High-Magician replied with a stern look.

"All right. However, I will not tell you anything where Cale has specifically asked me not to tell anyone. Nor will I ask the same of you."

At first, William gave this answer in reference to the Igrikum in his hand, but then he realized that it did know quite a bit more. His large mana pool and the facts Cale told him about the Magistrat and about Grisha's condition were only the things Cale directly forbade to tell further. But his story about his deceased friends and the encounter with the dragon were probably part of it as well, even if William wasn't clear what Aaron could do with that information.

"By the Elder's beard... how much did he entrust you with?", Aaron threw back, confused. William just shrugged, getting a little nervous at the question, so he abruptly decided not to answer the question at all. Aaron exhaled deeply before rearranging his legs and sitting down, hunched over a bit. "Alright. However, I can tell you this only from my perspective or second hand, so I can't tell you what Caleb was thinking at the time."

William merely nodded.

"Well, you know the beginning now. Caleb Leuen had joined the Magistrat at age of 5, disguised as an older student, and we didn't notice his camouflage until years later. If I remember correctly, he was 10 when he revealed his true appearance. A kid with dark hair, pale skin and amber, almost golden eyes."

William's confirming nod prompted Aaron to immediately ask a question.

"Do you know the real color of his eyes?"

"Yes, I've seen them a few times. He told me he dyes them a different color because they're pretty striking."

"You could say that. They do stand out quite a bit", Aaron agreed, before going back to his story. "That day we had talked a little bit to him until we all kind of realized we were looking at a prodigy. His demeanor and choice of words were very elevated and his knowledge even then was incredibly large. We decided to call in the Eldest because we had a strong suspicion that his abilities were well beyond the current class. I will never forget the Elder's face. I have never seen the man as surprised as he was that day, after all it is not every day that a 10-year-old could keep up with people some of whom were twice his age. It was the Eldest who decided to test Caleb. Normally all students would take a final test at the end of the year, Caleb was allowed to take that test on the same day. And the result was scary. Every single question... he had completely and correctly answered them, some of them questions that were supposed to be beyond his knowledge."

Aaron breathed a sigh of relief for a moment.

"Admittedly, we were all a little overwhelmed by the situation. We left it with our questions for the day and Grischa took the kid into his care. We weren't quite sure what his intentions were, which is why we were reluctant to keep an eye on him. He therefore stayed with Grischa for the night."

"At home? Doesn't High-Magician Vonstetten have a family?"

"Not back then. He had met his wife some time later. At that time, like us, he was mostly also living in the Magistrat. So Caleb stayed the night with him, which led to a new realization the next day. The kid had already lived through the test of the future."

"When he was 10 years old?", admitted William, shocked. Even he was aware that this was very early.

"You know what the test is?"

William jerked back in surprise as he unconsciously clutched his arm and answered the question.

"It was explained to me once, yes. It's the final test a mage could experience and also the moment he receives the Igrikum."

"You guys are very well informed, I'll give you that. Most people are not aware of it. There aren't very many mages who even make it through this test, that sometimes it seems more like pure chance. In my opinion, at least. But for it a small child to be able to...", Aaron lifted, but paused for a moment. "Come to think of it, maybe Groka had been the trigger. Traumatic experiences can be a trigger for getting the Igrikum. But then again, he was 5 at the time."

William didn't reply. Aaron's assumption could be true, but he had to remember the story about losing his friends. Inwardly, therefore, he thought that Cale had withheld quite a bit more from the Magistrat, which is why William remained silent and thought about it in irritation. How old was Cale when he had met the dragon? Under 10? How could that be? At 10, William had only been outside the palace once, and Cale had already survived a fight with a dragon at that age? What kind of life had he led then that had put him in such a situation?

"Just forget it, I don't want to start speculating. So Caleb was a 3rd stage mage, which surprised us all, and the next day he also showed us his barrier, the same barrier that protected the city from the wave of attacks. What had amazed me until today was how casual he was about it. Normally, we High-Magicians didn't like to tell people what our Igrikum was, and Caleb didn't give the impression that he didn't know how valuable that information was. Afterwards, when the Elder asked him what his goal in life was, he just said that he would like to join us and become a High-Magician. He worded that straight out like it was the easiest thing in the world", Aaron explained, shaking his head unconsciously. "We all felt he was a little too young for that and he seemed annoyed by the statement. Whereas, maybe it was because his cover had been blown. If he had graduated normally and then taken the High-Magician exam without being discovered, we would have taken him in."

He then paused for a moment and glanced at the sleeping people before turning back to William.

"The next day he was gone."

"He was gone?", William repeated quietly.

"Yes. As if swallowed from the face of the world. At first, we thought he had just run away, but he had left us a note. In it, he wrote that he would come back and take the High-Magician exam when he was older. We didn't see anything more of him for the next 5 or 6 years, I don't know what he had been up to during that time, but we never forgot him."

"Didn't he go around as an Anuxer?"

"Anuxer?"

"He had mentioned that to us, at least, when we met him", William explained calmly.

"What exactly did he say?"

"He introduced himself and said that he had been an Anuxer for 12 years, but had a bit of a break in between. He had also told us later that he had been a High-Magician for 6 years, so at... 16?"

Aaron seemed to think for a moment before raising his voice again.

"He really told you a lot, I see. He never mentioned to us that he was Anuxer during that time, only that he had traveled the world", Aaron explained, also puzzled by the resume. "Back to the day Caleb returned. As you said, he showed up at our house shortly after his 16th birthday and had asked us if we would be willing to test him. If it wasn't Caleb, we probably would have said no, but we took the test with him a few days later. Do you know how exactly the exam works?"

"He didn't explain it to me, no", William replied, shaking his head.

"The exam for the title of High-Magician is divided into two parts, a theoretical part, for which I am responsible, and a practical part, which was usually taken by the 2nd seat Rangar Castero. I still remember how I had summarized the questions for the exam and kept thinking to myself that they were probably too easy for him. That was the first and only exam I ever deliberately made harder than the others before."

"Did you wanted him to fail?"

"Not necessarily, no. Even though it must have seemed that way to the outside world. I was curious how he would approach some questions, so I listed some current problems in the sheet that I just wanted his answer to. It wouldn't have mattered if he hadn't answered them, but..."

"He answered them?"

"Every single one. The whole test. All of it. It was terrifying how similar we thought and how logical his conclusions were. I had written my own questions specifically on a special sheet and watched in the exam to see how he would react when he read them. Do you know what he did?", he interjected reproachfully, looking William straight in the eye. "He had read them, looked at me and laughed. Like he knew perfectly well that those questions weren't part of the actual exam."

"Sounds a lot like him, somehow", William admitted with amusement. "If he was as smart as you described him back then, I'm not really that surprised."

"Caleb Leuen was irrevocably a genius. I don't know any other mage who even came close to his knowledge. Even with Raph... even with the Eldest, I doubt he could come close to the knowledge Caleb possesses. We took some statements Caleb made back then to heart and changed some things in the Magistrat, because it was only then that we really realized how disorganized we actually were."

"Disorganized?"

"We weren't nobles before our time at the Magistrat, or people who had a previous point of reference to politics and government. For the most part, the towns in Altona organize themselves and the Magistrat tends to be the center for all inquiries. We High-Magicians were all normal people before that, myself included", Aaron explained, rubbing his arm at the statement as if uncomfortable with the information. "So I also never understood why the Eldest was pretty much the only one who didn't express any concerns about Caleb. From the beginning, the Eldest had always been very respectful to him and had talked to him like he was an adult. Not everyone... behaved like the Eldest."

"Do you regret your behavior?", William inquired, when he realized that Aaron was speaking primarily of himself.

"Granted... yes. I never wanted to admit it, that a 16-year-old knew more than I did. It had bugged me that the Eldest was constantly worrying about him and instructing us to be respectful to Caleb. Probably I was just a little... suspicious, but if I could go back in time, I'd probably act the same way."

"I see", William merely replied. For someone who looked after the safety of the country and its inhabitants on a daily basis, it must have seemed strange to give such a responsibility to a 16-year-old. Especially when seemingly no one could comprehend how he felt about it. "How did the second part of the test you spoke of go?"

"That... by the Elder's beard... was a mess."