Isyd followed two paces behind the Ravasz — Norran and Julya, as the husband and wife had introduced themselves respectively — as they crossed the Emerald Bridge and left the Inside. At his side was Naeht, frolicking without a care, but also Kewin and Jadwia. Isyd threw a questioning glance in their direction.

“You guys didn’t need to come as well,” he said.

“You ditched us without a word!” Jadwia said with a frown. “That was plain rude!”

“We can leave if we bother you,” Kewin said, uncertain.

Isyd shrugged. “No, it’s fine. You guys can stick around, I don’t mind.”

His mind was more preoccupied with how the rest of his conversation with the Arcanysta will play out. He’d been the one who proposed that they go to a more secluded place, far from the eyes and ears present everywhere in the Academy. They weren’t allowed to enter the Atelier since Isyd was barred from it, so the Ravasz had invited them to their home in the Outside.

They made their way through the narrow streets of Vilriver until they stopped in front of an apartment building situated in a residential district squished between two blocks of commercial buildings and a city park. The Ravasz lived on the first floor of their apartment and the very moment Julya Ravasz ushered them in, Isyd felt like he’d stepped into a diminutive version of the Atelier.

The place was relatively small and cramped but it buzzed with the activity of dozen of [Arcanes] going at once. Isyd was assaulted by the sudden discordance in the Song of the Grace. He guessed that in absence of a proper workshop to call their own, the Ravasz had made do by turning their house into one.

While her husband strolled in without a care in the world, Julya seemed more embarrassed by the untidiness of her home. She rushed past the Pupils and began putting objects aside and dusting off surfaces with her hands.

“Please, come in!” she said. “Apologies for the mess, I’d have tidied up if I knew we would have guests! Here, have a seat!”

“Thank you!” Jadwia said.

They helped themselves to a sofa in what used to be a living room before being turned into a storage place. Doing so, Kewin inadvertently brushed passed a metal sphere and activated it; the sphere split in two and the upper part shot up high in the air in a loud PHUMP. Kewin shrieked back and stumbled against another [Arcane] laying under the low table. It sent a piece of wood fly across the floor, dangling a Lightsphere on a string behind it.

“Norran! Your [Flying Cart] has activated again!” Julya shouted. Her husband came out from what was supposedly their bedchamber in a frenzy.

“What? Where? How?”

The cart hurled in his direction and almost rolled on his toes. With the ease of experience, he swooped it off the floor and cradled it in his arms, turning it off.

“Well, that wasn’t supposed to do that...” he grumbled in his beard.

“I told you that you should add fail-safe! At least increase the Fire Essence required to launch it off” Julya told him crossly. She turned to Kewin with a warm smile. “Sorry for that... Can I serve you something? Water? Tea?”

“I...uh... I... it’s ok...” Kewin mumbled, face bright red.

“I would appreciate a glass of water,” Jadwia said. “Thank you so much.”

Norran found a place to seat and let out a satisfied sigh. He gave a wistful look to the Pupils who sat across him.

“Seeing you in your uniform bring back memories...”

“Did you use to go to the Academy?” Jadwia asked him.

“Aye, but not this one. I graduated years ago from the Academy of Holy Honour in the South. Julya is self-taught, yet she’s a hundred more brilliant than I am.”

“It is not true,” his wife said as she came back with a platter and three glasses of water. “But I appreciate the compliment. I would have liked to enter the Academy at the same time as you, darling...”

“How did you two meet?” Jadwia said.

Isyd gave a curious glance. He hadn’t come here for some idle chatter. Still, he was polite enough not to rudely interrupt.

“Norran was employed as an Arcanysta in a private workshop in Blotnia, where I grew up. I was their accountant, in charge of making sure that the business kept going. I’ll be honest with you; I wasn’t much convinced at first by this youth straight out of school, full of pride and ideas...”

“I sure had to work for it, and you didn’t make it easy for me!”

Julya smirked at her husband. “Wouldn’t you say it was worth it?”

“Aye, it was worth it alright...”

“We got married almost ten years ago and Norran convinced me to form our own workshop,” Julya continued. “All those years did not go to waste when we decided to become independent contractors.”

“Why did you leave Blotnia for Vilriver?” Kewin surprisingly asked. “Independent Arcanysta have a hard time competing with the Atelier, don’t they?”

“Aye, it is correct,” Norran said. “We only moved in four months ago, but we quickly found out that working with the Atelier was in our best interest. Truth be told, we had not planned to leave Blotnia... Unforeseen circumstances pushed us to that decision...”

Isyd saw the shift in his attitude and understood that it was an uncomfortable subject. Jadwia must have missed it or did not care, because she continued her line of questioning.

“What kind of circumstances?”

“The unforeseen kind,” Norran simply said.

“Let’s just say that not everyone was... appreciative of the work and research we were doing in Blotnia...” Julya said. “For the sake of our personal independence, we decided it may be best for us to... leave.”

Jadwia was about to ask something else, but this time, Isyd beat her to the punch.

“Did your research have anything to do with the Blysht?”

Once again, he saw suspicion glint in Norran’s eyes as he mentioned the precious crystal.

“Hmm... perhaps... I don’t recall precisely what it was about...” the Arcanyst said evasively. “Now that you brought it up, I think it is time we go back to the subject at hand. I am curious to hear what you have to say about the Blysht, Isyd Wybrany.”

“Aye, I am curious to know how you knew about the crystal,” Julya said. “Few people notice the Blysht given how useless it is.”

Isyd pulled out the Ingraced Blysht out of his pocket and he could almost hear everyone hold their breath. Its iridescent light shone softly within his palm.

“A travelling merchant passed through my village when I was a wee boy and demonstrated to us the Blysht, though at the time I didn’t know it was called like that. When I was visiting the Atelier, I overheard you discussing it with Tekla, and I was reminded of it. I thought you’d be interested.”

“A travelling merchant you say?” Norran said, stroking his beard. “How would a merchant know anything of the Arts…?”

“I think he was far more than a merchant. His goods were eclectic and had a lot of curiosities from all around Ziemia.”

“Can I… C-could I… have a better look?” Julya asked timidly.

Isyd handed her the Blysht, and she seized it as if it was the more fragile and precious thing she ever held.

“It is truly Ingraced,” she murmured, enthralled. “We have now solid evidence of what we were saying, Norran.”

“It is what you were searching for then?” Isyd said.

“It is…” Norran’s voice was tight. He cleared his throat. “Aye, it is what we were researching, but all our attempts to recreate an Ingraced Blysht had failed until now. Hell, even the theory wasn’t entirely supporting that it could be done.”

“This is a great gift you’ve just shown us, Young Isyd,” Julya said, suddenly teary-eyed. “This… this is a rightful gratification. A proof that our work those past years was not for nought, after all. Thank you.”

Isyd simply nodded their gratitude away. He was watching attentively their expression, waiting for something. Julya passed the crystal to her husband for him to have a better look.

“It is truly beautiful…” the Arcanysta said. “With your permission, Young Isyd, we could use this piece to study further and find a way to replicate the—”

Norran’s eyes suddenly widened and in surprise, he almost dropped the Blysht.

“What is it?” Julya asked, concerned.

“The… It’s not a naturally Ingraced Blysht! There’s a [Hex]!”

Dumbfounded, Julya jumped from her seat and gave it a more attentive look. Norran’s lips were twitching when looked up at Isyd once again.

“Are you the one who did that? How?”

Isyd did his best to avoid meeting the pointed looks of Kewin and Jadwia next to him. “The Ingraced Blysht the merchant owned also had a [Hex] on it. I took inspiration from it to reconstruct it from memory.”

“From memory…?” Julya said. “This [Hex] is of the 12 th Opening! It’s… How… How did you manage to do it?”

“With a lot of time and effort.”

“Even without eating and sleeping, it should take weeks, months…” Norran muttered out loud, more to himself than to anyone else.

A stunned silence fell in the living room. Norran put back down the Blysht on the low table in front of him, probably not trusting himself. Isyd took back the crystal, this is what he’d been waiting for. Now that he had made an impression, they could discuss what to do next.

“The Atelier knows nothing of this,” Isyd declared. “The people present here are the first seeing this Blysht. I have approached you today because I have a proposition: I wish that we can work together in the future.”

“Work together?” Norran said. “But you are still a Pupil of the Academy. The Atelier—”

“If I hand this Blysht to the Atelier right now, all the private research you have conducted will become irrelevant,” Isyd cut him. “You will lose the already small funding that the Atelier grants you. Therefore, I propose we work together. I freely give you this Ingraced Blysht for you to further study and research. In addition to that, I will also teach you the [Storage Hex] and show you how to replicate it. In exchange for that, I have only three demands.”

“And what are those?” Julya said.

Isyd raised his fingers as he counted. “First, I want to be recognized as the one who came up with the [Storing Hex]. Secondly, as you present the Blysht to Hidrss, I want you to use your position as full-fledge Arcanysta to support my admission to the Atelier.”

“Hold on, you are not part of the Atelier?” Norran said, taken aback. “Why not? You are clearly talented!”

“It’s because we’re only of the 1 st Opening!” Jadwia blurted out.

Norran’s mouth was left hanging open and his wife slumped on her chair as if her breath was knocked out of her. Isyd, in front of their open surprise, couldn’t help but smile.

He put back down the Ingraced Blysht on the table and made it slide toward them.

“This is yours now,” he said. “Take it as a sign of my good faith. I’m sure you have a lot of things to discuss between the two of you. We’ll take our leave now, but I hope to hear from you soon…”

Following his cue, Jadwia and Kewin rose at the same time as him. Norran watched them do, but his eyes were glazed over as if his mind had erred far away from the conversation. Julya also rose from her seat, wringing her hands.

“Wait, you said you had three demands. What is the last one?”

“The last one hinges on the first two to go through,” Isyd said. “I reveal it after you gave me your answer.”

Julya was clearly wary — Isyd could see it in her green eyes — but she glanced down to the shining Blysht between them. She then exchanged a long look with her husband; a lot was said between them, without a single word being uttered.

Finally, the woman reached down and carefully picked up the Ingraced Blysht. She smiled at the three Pupils. “You’ll hear from us tomorrow.”

Isyd gave a slight bow of the head. “Tomorrow then.”

And with that, Isyd was assured he’d gained the support of the Ravasz.