Three days later, Isyd was seated in his corner of the Library, as per usual, and was losing hope that he would come up with anything. Naeht was floating next to him, a smirk on her lips at seeing him losing patience.

“Weren’t you the one who was so confident you could fix the Staff?” she taunted him.

Isyd gave her a scathing look. “Well, obviously I was wrong! This stupid piece of wood is trickier than I first assumed!”

In front of them laid the palcat in question, the Whitewater Staff. Its ochre colour appeared a bit faded with the light of the twilight sun coming through from the glass dome roof. The palcat looked as if it was actually composed of three distinct parts: a long, central piece with two smaller ones affixed at each extremity. It was only after a closer look that one noticed the [Spells] that had been carved on the surface, almost invisible with a naked eye. Hundreds of circles, lines and other geometrical shapes had been Meshed together to transform the simple wooden stick into a powerful [Arcane].

The only problem was this [Arcane] was broken. Isyd would have begun to believe it was impossible to repair it if it weren’t for the fact that he had already been done once.

Isyd sighed and looked down at the scrap papers spread out in front of him. He had tried to redraw the [Hexes] of the palcat to better understand where the problem was. Unfortunately, he soon realized that even that was difficult since the carvings were so small and meticulous. It had rapidly turned into a guessing game more than anything.

“Didn’t you find anything in all those books you pulled out?” Naeht asked him.

“Not what I was looking for or expecting… Surprisingly, there’s very little information regarding the repair of [Arcanes]. They all assume that those who read the book already know the problem they’re dealing with and just indicate the easiest way of fixing it. In our case, the problem is that I do not know what the problem even is.”

He picked up his palcat in his ungloved hand and played with it distractedly. “I ran a few tests already,” Isyd said, “to try to find the source of the issue. The resswood is still Grace sensitive and I can sense the Grace flowing through it, so the material is not the problem. The problem is that the Grace seems to dissipate after rushing inside the Staff, which leads me to believe that there is an issue with either the Meshing as a whole or a specific [Spell]. There’s a point of broken Balance somewhere that ends up sucking all the Grace and leaks it before we can do anything useful with it. I can’t find that leak and there’s nothing in those damn books that can help me!”

Isyd had tried to decipher the [Spells] carvings in the hope to find where the Balance could have been breaking. With a bit of deduction and logic, he could make out most of the [Hexes] that were used but trying to understand the Meshing without a guide provided by the Artyst who draw it was maddening. It was the equivalent of looking at a complete painting and wondering which brush of paint had been the first to be put on the canvas.

Suddenly, Isyd put his staff on a chair next to him below the table and opened several books on a random page to cover all his diagrams and drawings. A couple of seconds later, a familiar head stepped around a row of bookshelves and walked in his direction.

“So, it is true that you spend all your time in the Library…” the small woman drawled when she reached his table. Her short, blond hair appeared frazzled and her wide, blue eyes sparkled as usual.

“Grace, Senior Klara,” Isyd saluted her.

“I told you to drop the formalities already, Isyd Wybrany. You’re making me feel awkward. You call me Klara and I call you Isyd, how does that sound?”

“It sounds good to me.”

Isyd had met Klara Utro more than once in the weeks following his enrolment in the Academy. As his Senior, it was her moral duty to make sure that he was well acclimated with his life as a new Pupil. She had quickly learned that Isyd was more the solitary type and didn’t like to be pampered.

Isyd’s eyes went to the person who stood just behind Klara, a young man of dark hair, large ears and a stern look.

“Isyd, I present you a friend of mine: Vasyl Amalb. Vasyl, this is Isyd Wybrany.”

The man offered a hand. “5th Year and 3rd Opening, Vasyl Amalb, nice to meet you.”

“1st Year and 1st Opening, Isyd Wybrany, nice to meet you too.” Isyd shook his hand.

“That’s the Junior I was telling you about, Vasyl,” Klara said. “You probably heard about him in your Ring as well, I guess.” She turned a mocking grin to Isyd. “You won’t believe this: there’s talk around in all the Rings about a Junior, a talented 1st Year who caught the eye of Tutor Milwyk in the matter of a month and who, most importantly, is still Ringless!”

Isyd shrugged. “No idea who you’re talking about.”

“Oh, really? And surely, you have no idea either of why I am here, hmm?”

“Nope. Please, do tell.”

Klara drew a chair and slumped in it. “Well, I just walked from a long talk with Tutor Milwyk. He wanted to talk to me about a certain Junior of mine, you see…”

Isyd narrowed his eyes suspiciously. “He wants you to convince me to join a Ring, doesn’t he?”

Klara flashed him a brilliant smile. “He wants me to try my best shot at it!”

“I’m not interested as I already told you when you first asked me.”

“I had asked you this a few days after you enrolled. Now that you got used to the Academy, I was hoping your answer would have changed…”

“It didn’t.”

Klara’s grin grew more voracious. She was clearly enjoying this back-and-forth. She seemed to take the stubborn refusal of Isyd as a personal challenge and was ready to see who of the two would yield first. “Is there a specific reason for this refusal?”

“I work better alone and I’m not really interested in socializing.”

“Have you considered you could benefit from joining a Ring?”

“It’s not worth the hassle, I think.”

“I think it is worth it! Think about it! Some Rings have Tutors assigned to them that can sponsor you and take you under their wings. This kind of thing is important if you have enrolled in the Academy to learn a specific skill. Some Rings like the Crimson Gold or the Faded Jade have renown even outside of these walls; they can open many doors for you in the future.”

“And which Ring do you belong to, Klara?”

“I’m part of the Cerulean Feathers, a Ring that focuses on research for advanced applications of the Arts with Tutor Milwyk as a sponsor. If you’re interested, I can drop a word for you…”

“If I decide to form a Ring with me as the sole member, would you leave me alone?”

Klara chuckled. “Nicely try, but it’s not as simple as that. There are a few requirements before forming your own Ring, the least of which is that it must have at least three active members. Plus, you—”

“Is that an attempt to redraw the VonSee Diagram?” Vasyl interrupted.

He was pointing at a drawing that stuck out from underneath an open book. Isyd considered briefly pretending ignorance but decided not to bother.

“An ‘attempt’ is the correct word,” Isyd said. “I think I failed at the Fourth Repetition.”

“What are guys talking about?” Klara said.

Vasyl picked the paper and laid it out in the open to have a better look. “The VonSee Diagram consists of a repeating of specific [Hexes] that allow checking for the Grace resistivity of an [Arcane]. It is often used as a tool for troubleshooting when manipulating [Arcanes].”

Klara threw a curious look at Isyd. “Interesting... I don’t remember it being part of the 1st Opening cursus. Why were you working on that?”

“I had a problem with an [Arcane] and was trying to fix it,” Isyd said.

“On your own?”

“You’re drawing is almost correct,” Vasyl interrupted, “but there’s indeed an issue with the Fourth Repetition. Your [SUBSTRACT] arcs have to fall on the vertexes of the hexagon inscribed within the [STORE] of the Third Repetition. Yours are off by a matter of a few degrees, I think.”

Isyd frowned. “It wasn’t mentioned anywhere.”

“The Diagram follows the VonSee geometric series after all, the authors would assume it to be a forgone conclusion.”

“I see...”

“It is still a good work,” Vasyl reassured him. “I’m actually impressed! It took me two years before I could draw it properly, and I was already taking those classes. Are you actually interested in studying the [Arcanes] in the upcoming semesters?”

“Not particularly,” Isyd said. “I was just looking for a way to repair my [Arcane].”

“It’s the kind of personal project that even a Pupil 4th Opening would be hesitant to start, let alone one of the 1st Opening,” Klara said. “Do you have this [Arcane] here with you? Vasyl may be able to help you.”

Isyd turned an inquisitive look at the young man who shrugged. “I’m a member of the Hammer Ring,” he explained. “We focus on [Arcanes] study and I work in the Atelier where we create, improve or repair [Arcanes].”

Isyd hesitated for a matter of a few seconds, before reaching below the table and pulling out his palcat. The Pupils’ eyes went wide as they recognized the wood it was made of.

“Good Grace! Resswood, really? Where did you get that from?”

“It was a gift my father received after helping a nobleman,” Isyd said. The lie came to him easily, he didn't even bat an eye. “I guess it was always broken because my father didn’t know what to do with it and gave it to me before he died.”

“Can I?” Vasyl asked. Isyd handed him the weapon and he began observing the carvings.

“This is quite the expensive material just to play palcaty…” Klara drawled. “Do you know what kind of [Arcane] it is?”

“Something to with the Water Essence from what I could gather,” Isyd said evasively. He also fished out the rest of the papers he spent the past days on; drawings and sketches trying to copy what he could discern on his staff.

“This is some impressive work,” Vasyl finally declared after two minutes of careful inspections. “For one thing, this is not any palcat, but a powerful weapon. From a first glance, I can only say that it is at least of the 7th Opening, if not more given how intricate some of those Meshings are.”

“7th! Wow, that’s the real deal!” Klara scoffed. Isyd said nothing but exchanged a careful look with Naeht who floated there, silently and observing.

“Yeah, and it’s probably even higher than that,” Vasyl continued. “I can feel that it is broken though: sink points and inefficiency faults somewhere in the Meshing that causes the Grace to dissipate. I wouldn’t even know where to start to repair such a thing. And you won’t either, Isyd Wybrany. It would demand a mastery of the [Arcanes] that cannot simply be self-taught in books.”

“It was arrogant to ever consider it, Isyd,” Klara added. “[Arcanes] are too dangerous to be trifled with if you do not know what you’re dealing with.”

Isyd sighed and nodded. He had begun to suspect as much anyway. “Still, I really want to repair it. It’s an important object for me. A last gift… if you know what I mean…”

Vasyl scratched the beginning of stubble on his chin. “Well, we are at the Academy after all so I’m sure there’s something we can do… For one thing, Tutor Hidrss could certainly help.”

This wasn’t a teacher that Isyd had. “What class is he teaching?” he asked.

“Tutor Hidrss is the Master of the Arcanic Arts and is in charge of the Atelier,” Klara said.

“I’m not sure what’s the Atelier you guys have been mentioning…”

This time, it was Vasyl who explained. “The Atelier is the centre of the Arcanic Arts of the Academy. It’s the isolated, old building you see behind the swimming pools across the Fields. It is in there that the best of work concerning the [Arcanes] is done in the Commonwealth. We study the [Arcanes] in-depth, trying to better understand and harness the power of [Spells] in their physical forms. For a certain cost, we can also offer our services: either to create an [Arcane] for a specific purpose or repair and improve already existing ones.”

Isyd nodded. Now that he mentioned it, he did recall hearing about something similar back in Old Ziemia. “Well, I guess that settles it, then. I’ll have to drop by the Atelier and see what can be done for my palcat.”

Klara and Vasyl exchanged a look. The woman suddenly burst into laughter and the man smiled at Isyd as if he’d just said something really stupid.

“What?” Isyd said.

“You can certainly not enter the Atelier, Isyd,” Klara managed to say between two laughs. “The Atelier is strictly forbidden to the Pupils of the 1st Year or of the 1st Opening. The interdiction is personally enforced by Tutor Hidrss. Trust me, you do not want to cross Tutor Hidrss.”

“What? Surely, I can discuss with him and arrange something…”

Klara’s laughter redoubled and she almost fell off her chair. Vasyl gave him an apologetic smile.

“One does not ‘discuss’ with Tutor Hidrss, Isyd Wybrany,” he explained.

“Try to ‘discuss’ with Great Artyst Dmitri Ivanovitch Hidrss and it will be unfortunately the last thing you will do in this Academy,” Klara said as she was getting up and gathering her things. The bell for the 18th Hour had just chimed in. “Anyway, we have to leave you, Isyd. I appreciated our talk and I hope you’d consider what we spoke about…”

“Wait! So, you’re telling me that I have to wait to be of the 2nd Opening before I can get my palcat fixed.”

“You could send a Senior in your place, I guess,” Vasyl said. “Just know that Tutor Hidrss actively despises the 1st Year and the 1st Opening Pupils. It’s your best interest not to get near the Atelier.”

“Bloody Grace! That’s stupid!” Isyd growled, exasperated.

Klara’s eyes suddenly went wide with excitement and she leapt forward. “Wait, I have an idea. There’s actually one way for you to meet Tutor Hidrss even as a 1st Year!”

“Really? Please, do tell!”

She gave him a cunning smile. “Join the Ring of which he is the sponsor!”

With those final she whirled on her heels and left with Vasyl at her side, leaving behind Naeht who was chuckling herself silly at the irony of it all and Isyd who was shaking his in dismayed disbelief.