Andromeda woke up late in the day, a little after noon. She was taking an off day to recharge after the hours of practice with Expliza and Arcanism and only planned on some light practice and perhaps a trip to town. But she was surprised to have someone knocking on her door. A member of the staff delivered her an envelope with instructions to read it once they were gone.

She walked over to her desk and grabbed the small knife she had laying around. She used to use break or cut things before, but with Expliza Mending she could just will things into being broken now, so it lost its purpose. She opened the envelope and found a handwritten letter inside.

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“For the eyes of Lady Andromeda Noelle only,

I hope this message finds you in good health. forgive the unexpected correspondence but I have recently come in to the knowledge that you are in fact the one behind the notorious “Mending Mage” persona that has made waves through the country. At first I was unsure if such claims were real until I heard tales of an exceptional mending student at Cylas at precisely the same time as the mending mage stories disappearing.

It was my hope to extend an offer of invitation to my home. It is located in the city of Aeroae on the island of Betel in Skysea Adalay. I wish to speak with you and potentially discuss a post-education position in my organization. If even a fraction of the rumors about your ability are true, then I can think of no one better to speak with.

I am prepared to offer much more than work and conversation. I am in possession of an artifact that I once used in my early years to assist my learning. I believe this artifact would accelerate your learning by leaps and bounds. I am no longer in need of its abilities and would like to give it to you personally.

If this arrangement is untenable and disruptive to your education, then allow me to apologize for the interruption. However if you agree to this invitation I look forward to seeing you in person.

-All the best, Entai Algoer.”

-----

Entai Algoer, that name sounded familiar but she couldn’t put her finger on why. He seemed interested in her ability to mend, though to be fair it seemed like most people were interested in that. He must have been pretty influential to get a hold of her information and find her here. The college was supposed to be very hush-hush about that.

Andromeda was tempted, the mention of an Artifact was intriguing, but she knew nothing about this person and she was only aware of where he was talking about. Betel Island was the southernmost part of Legoria and a fair distance from where she currently was. It would take weeks to get there at best. She folded the letter and put it in her pocket.

She wanted to take it easy today and explore around, but now she had to look into this. Her first stop was Alice. At least that was the plan.

Andromeda looked for Alice for a short while, but couldn’t find her anywhere that was expected. Alice was content being anywhere where there were a lot of people or at least a few people being particularly active. Those places tended to be the library or the gym, but she was having no luck finding her in either of those places. While she looked, she happened upon Rigur who had just gotten done speaking with one of the school staff.

“Finally awake I see.” Rigur said. The staff member bowed and rushed off in a hurry, Rigur breathed a sigh of relief. He really didn’t like social interactions.

“It’s my day off today.” Andromeda said.

“Understandable, I remember Albert telling me about your practice habits the other night.” Rigur said. Andromeda felt faintly embarrassed despite herself. Albert was never reserved in how he spoke to others, so Rigur probably got an earful.

“Anyways, have you seen Alice? I can’t seem to find her.” Andromeda said.

“If I recall correctly, she had some family business to attend to. I couldn’t tell you more though.” Rigur said.

Family business? Alice was very vocal about how impersonal her family was with her because of her lack of sight. Her acceptance to Cylas was one of the only reasons they spoke to her anymore.

“Damn, I guess I’ll see if I can find Albert.” Andromeda said.

“Unfortunately, it seems that he is also busy with family matters. Everyone in the college has been dealing with it today. Even myself.” Rigur said.

This was even more surprising, while Albert’s family were a lot closer, they were a busy group. It would have to be very important to get them to seek him out on short notice. As she turned around to walk away she heard Rigur clear his throat.

“I don’t know what issue you are having, but I may be able to help.” Rigur said.

“Oh, sorry, I didn’t want to bother you when you seemed busy.” Andromeda said.

“I am not like Varloe, I won’t shrivel into a husk if my time is being spent less than perfectly.” Rigur said.

“Fair point. Have a look at this then, it’ll explain better than I can.” Andromeda said as she handed Rigur the note she received earlier. He spent a minute reading, then turned it over and looked the whole page over.

“I can see why you are looking for a second opinion. This is most strange.” Rigur said.

“Yeah, getting an invitation from someone I’ve never met is strange.” Andromeda said.

“I am more concerned about how this person found that you attended Cylas, that information is confidential to the highest order. I suggest taking this up with Headmaster Plact. Beyond that, this person is asking you to travel quite the distance. I’d prescribe caution.” Rigur said.

Andromeda didn’t speak with Rigur much, but every time she did it became ever more clear that he really was more mature than his years suggested. He didn’t waste a moment pointing out many of the problems that she had.

“I had similar thoughts, do you know who this person is?” Andromeda said.

“The name sounds familiar, but I can’t remember where. He has some connection to Mending, so I might guess he was a master in the art… It really bothers me though because it feels like it’s on the tip of my tongue.” Rigur said.

“Those were my thoughts exactly.” Andromeda said.

“One last thing before you go. It has been a moment since I’ve visited Aeroae, but I don’t remember any kind of Magi institution being there. It’s possible that one has been constructed in the last few years, but that wouldn’t explain how they got your information.” Rigur said.

“I didn’t know that, I’ll keep it in mind.” Andromeda said.

That was concerning, taking Rigur at his word meant that at least a few things weren’t on the up and up. Before she could follow up on that statement his attention was caught by a maid walking up to him with an urgent expression, she excused herself and made her way to the Head Master’s office.

Her plan was to talk to the head master, or failing that Evelin. If this wasn’t legitimate then one or both of them would let her know. If it got the approval from them then it wasn't something she needed to worry about.

It didn’t take long to find Evelin, but as usual the moment Andromeda entered her line of sight there wasn’t a single moment left to waste standing where she was five seconds ago. Andromeda wasn’t surprised, but she was annoyed about the runaround.

The headmaster, a man she had learned was named Ander Plact, was usually not busy. His position at the head of the college seemed to be in name only. He still had certain duties, but anything complicated was left to Evelin.

His office was at the very top of the college. As a matter of fact it was the only room on the top floor, the only other doorways leading to rooftop access or acted as a second entrance to his office. It took 10 more flights of stairs before she got up there, and by the end she was short of breath.

The door was left ajar and she could hear a heated conversation from behind it. She wanted to listen in, but the voices stopped suddenly and the door swung open. The moment the headmaster caught sight of her it looked as though his soul left his body. The one who opened the door was a tall man with black hair dressed in formal attire, he looked more similar to how Albert was dressed when she first arrived than any mage she knew.

“Good morning.” The black haired man said.

“Hi?” Andromeda said.

“M-Ms. Noelle, what are you doing here?” Plact said.

“Oh! Is this the one I’ve heard so much about?” The black haired man said.Andromeda realized that whatever they were talking about, it was related to her.

“I received a letter from a person I’ve never met earlier and I wanted to confirm it was not a trick or something. You’ve all made it very clear that secrecy was important for my safety so I wanted to double check.” Andromeda said.

The black haired man gave a simple look at Plact and that was enough to start him sweating.

“Are you alright Headmaster?” Andromeda asked. He seemed to be five seconds from a heart attack, which only made it stranger that he was in a meeting right now.

‘I-I’m fine… You say you received a letter?” Plact said

“Yes, here, take a look.” Andromeda said, she handed him the letter and he looked it over. She did notice that he wasn’t reading it, he just stared at it for a few moments before handing it back. He had regained some amount of composure.

“Indeed, I confirmed this myself. Mr. Algoer is an associate of mine. Normally I would refuse such offers, but I believe his expertise in mending would be a great benefit to you.” Plact said.

“Even ignoring the security concerns, would it be safe for me to be traveling right now? Isn’t Legoria in the middle of a war?” Andromeda said.

Plact didn’t answer, instead the black haired man did.

“It is not a defensive war, Legoria is invading Halth. I would say the country is no less safe than it normally is.” He said. There was a note of bitterness in his voice.

“Defensive or not, that won’t stop someone from jumping me on the side of the road.” Andromeda said.

“That is understandable, perhaps the college can hire a traveler corp to escort you? Your headmaster is the one who allowed it to come to your attention.” The man said. While she was thinking about it, Andromeda realized she had no idea who this person was or why he was talking to her. She could only assume he was important enough to have the ear of the headmaster.

“A-ah, yes… That would… indeed be the fairest course of action. That is if Ms. Noelle is willing to go…” Plact said.

Something was up.

The Headmaster was a nervous wreck, even more than usual. Her appearing here suddenly nearly made him break down right then and there, and that was on top of the fact that this black haired man “heard” about her. So they were definitely talking about her, or at least had before.

Headmaster Plact wasn’t the strongest willed man to begin with. She heard stories that he had a panic attack a few nights before she arrived and that was why he didn’t host the introductions, but he was even more stressed than even that. She suspected that this man was taking advantage of Plact somehow.

If that was the case, she needed to be very careful about how she approached this situation. Rapture had already gotten to her once and she couldn’t be sure if there were more had their eyes set on her. Setting her cards down now would be a bad move.

“If you think that’s best, then I don’t have any complaints.” Andromeda said. Her goal here was to not let on that she had her suspicions. If they thought she was completely trusting them from the outset then she could plan around that.

“That’s… Great!” Plact said.

“Indeed, I think it is best that I take my leave now. I have a prior engagement to see to.” The black haired man. He bowed his head to Plact and Andromeda then left the room.

With him gone, Andromeda turned her head back to Plact. There was one way she could force honesty with him.

“Headmaster, do you know what an oath is?” Andromeda asked.