With curiosity in his eyes, Tercius observed Mistress Kalina. In what way would she… convince this woman to come with them?

Perhaps intimidation? Threatening or mind magic? Lies and deception or maybe even the plain old kidnapping? Or was it woman-napping in this case? Or was it something far more plain and… normal?

What would each of these mean to him and should it mean anything in the first place?

The answer was only briefly surprising and he found only one path that he would like to see avoided. Any of these paths would mean little, as long as this woman gets to keep her life intact. Messing with her mind would also be an action he would like to avoid, but considering the secrecy to which the mages were prone the practical part of Tercius could see this as a compromise. The woman keeps her life, healed and revitalized, while Mistress Kalina and Tercius keep their secrets.

Win, win.

With a wave of her hand, Mistress Kalina dispelled the dark dome above them and then crouched near the head of the sleeping woman. As the sun's heat made a return, another vial appeared in Mistress Kalina's hand and she waved it under the nose of the woman, who abruptly jerked awake with a start. The woman's eyes were wild and wide, but suddenly they narrowed as her nose scrunched up. Her hands rose and one covered the olfactory entrance, while the other waved in front of her face in defense.

The woman groaned with disgust. “You’d wake fish with a fart like that,” she said and snorted to liberate her nose.

Tercius chuckled.

"You're awake. Good," Mistress Kalina said as she stood up from her position and sat in the chair she had placed there for herself. "What is your name?" she asked while looking at the confused and disoriented woman who was looking around. When her head rose and her eyes landed on her leg, they went wide.

She started muttering in broken sentences— words like drinking, dreaming, and dying were the most prominent— and that went on for another minute, even as Mistress Kalina tried to call for her. The woman's agitated mind was also clearly in a fragile state, probably from the exposure to the sun and a lack of food and water. She was lucky to be alive.

“Ruul,” Mistress Kalina finally cast her signature spell and the senseless banter started to slow. Tercius quickly used his more powerful version of Mana Sight to glimpse at the spell. A wide ring of mana written Runes formed around the woman’s neck— a torus really, thick as a paper and similar to the rings of Saturn. It was strange seeing it happen. This was the third time Tercius saw it affect another person, and the way that the tight facial muscles just went completely slack immediately after the spell, was… spooky. Was that how he looked when he used Meditation?

Ruul, or Calm in the Empire’s Common, was a spell that forces a body to move into a designated neutral spot of calmness, much like his skill Meditation. It was a fairly known spell among the mages, but it had a reputation of being a weak spell that could be easily resisted and spent. Knowing that Mistress Kalina had managed to calm a trained mind mage with it— who Tercius presumed was good at resisting a spell like that— he would say that its potency had more to do with who was doing the casting, rather than the spell. Maybe it was enhanced by Energy?

But why didn’t she use this spell on me? Tercius asked himself. Is it because I’m a student? Some circumstance of wild magic? Maybe she just didn’t want to? Maybe she forgot at that moment? He almost scoffed. She forgot… I don't think so…

In his eyes, Energy users like Mistress Kalina were like… he hesitated to call them deities, but… maybe superhumans? Somewhere above superhumans, if he counted more powerful skill users as superhumans?

The existence of normal skills had taken him some time to get accustomed to, but he had. Most of the skills he had been in contact with were quite… normal, so it wasn't that hard to manage. Seeing the reality-bending spells of people who dissected skills for centuries on end… well it was different.

To become a Head Archivist is what Mistress Dea aspired to, Tercius knew, and she was not alone in that sentiment. People like Mistress Kalina enjoyed a soaring reputation among the Academy staff and he had seen with his own eyes that that reputation was not misplaced.

They were the mages who could single-handedly cast ritual-level spells. They were almost venerated for their knowledge and power among the mages. The truth was that if Mistress Kalina wanted… she could do a lot of things… and no one could stop her. Not even him, not as he was now. Not with his power and not with his knowledge. She was able to travel across the globe in a matter of minutes of casting a spell. She had spells to fly high and spells to hide her very existence from all senses, mundane and magical. Not even Mana Sight at [40] was able to spot her if she truly wanted to be unseen. It was… difficult to wrap his head around their existence.

“You do have a name?” Mistress Kalina asked.

The woman’s curious eyes looked at the Mistress. “Name’s Kriti,”

“Kriti. Well Kriti, for mending your leg I require only one thing,” Mistress Kalina said and the woman shifted a bit. Tercius noticed mana streaming into that ring around her neck, reinforcing the state. “Secrecy. I don’t want anyone to know about this or us. And I mean anyone. You are to keep this to yourself under any and all circumstances. Never utter a word, write, or in any other way communicate information about us or of what happens while you are with us. Do I have your promise?”

The last part of that sentence vibrated in that weird way that only Rurdic magic could. The ethereal sounds sent a crawl speeding up his spine almost every time he heard them.

Is that… contract magic? Tercius thought. I suppose that that’s another way to solve it…

In confusion and silence, Kriti looked at Mistress Kalina, then she glanced at Tercius. Behind a smudged face, big eyes peered at him as if searching for the right answer. As she looked at him, he looked at her and saw the spell that kept her calm dissipate. The torus around her neck went away and fear assaulted those eyes, even as another small spell circle started writing itself on the front side of the woman’s right shoulder. The spellwork was shifting and clouding, even as he made a focused effort to peer past those clouds.

But all skills worked as they worked. Levels brought power and lowered the cost of use… He had no way to push the skill to work harder…

Tercius paused. The skill was at a barrier and a function like overclocking… seemed… he wasn’t sure actually. It could go either way, but what would be the downsides of a function like that?

Even though he had the Energy he thought enough to see if his idea worked, he filed the line of thoughts for later. With Mistress Kalina present, it was not a proper time and space for such experiments. Although… Now that he thought about it, he had no idea if there was a proper time and place for these kinds of experiments when mages like Mistress Kalina could just be there, in plain sight, and he had no way to spot them. His privacy was in question at all times.

It was… frustrating and fear-inducing in a way that few things were and he reached for Meditation to purge himself of these feelings of inadequacy. It was only a second, or maybe even less, but he felt reborn and ready to see how the events before him would continue.

“Ol’ Kriti don’t write… And… who are you?” Kriti asked in confusion as she glanced from Mistress Kalina to Tercius. Her hands kept fumbling around her skirt and torn shirt, trying to make herself somewhat decent. Here was a woman who had no idea what was going on. She was as exposed as he was, if not more. Tercius could practically see the gears in her head turning as she struggled to process everything, but the strange situation kept her mind in a rut of slowness. But she was trying to rid herself of that rut using nothing but her willpower.

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

With a start Tercius realized something.

When things became tough, instead of powering through on his willpower he used a crutch to lean on. Physically, emotionally… He was abusing Meditation because of its ease, convenience, and power of the tool, but… that was weakening him in the long run.

A decade ago, when he had to do all the heavy lifting himself, some of the events wouldn’t have come to pass as they did. Or at least he thought they wouldn’t have. Either way, it didn’t matter if they would have or wouldn’t have happened— they had. And he had to be equipped to deal with it on his own.

Wild magic…

Wild mage…

His Mana Metamorphosis might have been the valve that his mana needed to get a physical release, but it was probably his Mana Manipulation that was at fault for the ease with which his emotions could get a latch onto his mana. When new students got the skill, they struggled to move mana without some kind of action, and yet he could move his mana with nothing but a thought. Was that it or was it the same for everyone?

With a serious face Mistress Kalina looked at Kriti, as a small leather pouch appeared in her hand and as she moved it a distinct metallic jiggle attracted Kriti’s attention. “We will share that later, but for now our names are not important. You can call us however you want. Your promise, however, is important. Without my assistance you would have most likely died in a day or two— slowly and painfully I should add, but you know that— and all I require in return for that help is that you promise me that no one will ever learn of it,”

“Oh I know and I am not ungrateful.” Kriti's eyes rested on the pouch, as her stomach rumbled. “Say… If I promise, those coins are mine, right?”

“The coins are indeed for you, but only if you agree to work for me for two weeks of time,”

"Oh yeah? What kind of work?" Kriti asked, not even taking her eyes off the pouch. Tercius already knew that the answer that Mistress Kalina gave would be of no importance. This woman was hungry and she had been that way for a day or two. The more he looked at her face, the more he realized how much youth had been restored to her face. Under the dirt and smudges, he would venture and say that the woman was in her early or mid-forties. It was the lack of teeth that previously gave her that pinched face and wrinkled skin around her lips. But now, the skin was filled and stretched. Suddenly he saw a glint of white between two lips. Did she even realize that she had brand new teeth? He certainly missed it, somehow. Although, considering how much of a change her leg went through, the teeth might have to take a step back for some later time.

“An attendant. Cleaning, fetching errands and such,” Mistress Kalina answered with a straight back. “Someone to take care of certain tasks for me. Nothing dangerous, I assure you,”

“No whoring?” Kriti asked briskly with narrow eyes.

“No,” Mistress Kalina frowned.

“Didn’t think so,” Kriti answered as she tried and managed to stand up. “Had to ask, I did. It’s just… you know how it is. You hear things. All kinds of things. Oh silly ol’ me…” she sighed. “Who would hump your rump at your age, eh Kriti?” Kriti said as she patted the rump in question. “No one, that’s who. Not when there are younger rumps to hump…”

Tercius looked at Mistress Kalina and she looked back at him. The sun must have hit her harder than they thought, with the way she spoke. But… He couldn’t tell… was Kriti satisfied or disappointed that there would be no whoring? It was hard to tell…

“Promise?” Mistress Kalina asked and the spellwork blazed with mana. “I need you to say “I promise”,”

“I promise,” Kriti patted her chest and a cloud of dust erupted from the shirt. “Cook, clean, I know everything. You won’t regret taking in ol’ Kriti and she won’t be tellin’ nothing to no one,”

Mistress Kalina and he took a few steps back, to avoid the questionable cloud. With Mana Sight Tercius observed the spell torus on Kriti’s shoulder rotate and sink into her skin. The woman touched her shoulder in a hurry, hissing, but the magical activity lasted only a second.

“Damned crawlies!” Kriti cursed loudly as she scratched at the front of her shoulder, just where the spell torus used to be. “And damn their itsy-bitsy teeth. If I had mine, I would show them— well damn me!” Kriti said, her lips spread wide as she used her long nails to scratch and knock at her pristine white teeth. “Where did I get these from? They sure sound good… No holes anywhere… Did they fall out when I bumped me head? How do they look?”

Tercius and Mistress Kalina gave a small chuckle.

“Come along then and leave the teeth for later,” Mistress Kalina said as she waved a hand and the chairs disappeared. “Tercius grab that cage and let’s go,”

“Did you see that?” As Tercius went to grab the rats, he heard Kriti whisper to him, rather loudly. “Gone. Just… poof…” she said, waving her hands with wide eyes. “Poof…”

“Yea… poof…” Tercius answered with a smile.

As he observed the calm and happy woman, as she hurried after Mistress Kalina, it occurred to Tercius that Kriti might be thinking that she was dreaming. With another glance, he was almost completely sure of that. Lucky woman.

***

***

***

Tercius and Mistress Kalina left Kriti in Maya’s inn, with special orders to use the bath and change into the new clothes that she provided. Maya’s daughter was employed to trim the nails and the overgrown hair from Kriti and then Kriti was to wait at the inn until Mistress Kalina returned.

“That was the first time I saw contract magic, Mistress,” Tercius admitted as they took a walk to his home. “It seemed… complicated.”

Mistress Kalina nodded. “A difficult field to learn, yes. It might seem simple, but the spellwork for that little contract of silence was more complicated than the flight spell that held my sphere aloft during our journey here.”

“Mistress… did you need her agreement?” Tercius asked.

Mistress Kalina glanced at him with a corner of one eye. "No neophyte, I did not. But with her approval, the spell is many times more powerful. Almost unbreakable. I am curious, though. Tell me what you think of what happened back there. Was I an evil mage that people talk about in taverns?"

As he took a moment to think on that, Tercius glanced at the people who walked past them. Men and women, majority of Sogean origin and majority commoners. “Evil, no. A mage… yes. To exchange silence for a life… is no great price, Mistress. In this case, at least.”

“And what is a great price according to you, neophyte?” Mistress Kalina continued.

Tercius lowered his head to the rat cage, where over a dozen or so tiny heads scuttled about, trampling over each other.

“You hesitate to answer,” Mistress Kalina pointed out. “Never mind that question then. But I do think that you don’t approve of what I did back there,”

"I… it's not that I don't approve…" Tercius began, licking his lips and keeping his eyes straight ahead.

“So you do approve?” Mistress Kalina said, sounding pleased.

Just lie and say you do, the majority of him suggested.

“Not exactly…” he answered.

“Oh? So you don’t approve of my actions, but you also don’t disapprove of my actions… what does that leave us with?” Mistress Kalina said in a mild tone, as they moved to the edge of the wide street for a couple of riders to move past them.

“… The middle, Mistress,” Tercius answered. He had never liked sharing his opinions of other people and their actions. Rarely were they received in the way he intended and so whenever it was not explicitly necessary, he preferred to keep them to himself.

“Is your tongue spellbound to occasional stillness?” Mistress Kalina asked. “Do I have to unlock it?”

Tercius sighed. "I can see why you did both actions. She was there and in desperate need of help and you needed someone to test the potion on. You offered help and she took it. I can also see why you need that secrecy and I also see that the secrecy works in both of your favors. It guards her as much, if not more, as you. The only part that… bothers me is that the condition came after the help was provided. But I also remember how difficult it had been getting a simple ‘Help me’ out of her. The circumstances were dire and so… I do understand everything, but… I think that the mildness of your request is what takes much of that sting out. If it had been something more… well more,”

“I see,” she answered. “I had a feeling it might be just that. And why does it bother you?”

"What does usually bothers people the most?" Tercius said. "That which they don't want happening to them and theirs. Fear is one of the primary drives here, so these things don't always have to be rational. In fact, I think that mostly they aren't, Mistress,"

“But if I had given the condition first and she agreed to it?”

“Mistress… why are you asking so many questions?”

“I’m just getting to know you and chasing after more of those hours of interaction…” Mistress Kalina said in all seriousness. Tercius resisted a scowl. She was returning his words back to him.

They chatted for another fifteen minutes, Mistress Kalina holding him tied to the subject of her actions regarding Kriti. She was evaluating him, he realized midway. She was giving strange hypothetical variations of the situation and then waiting for him to give her an answer. Then came the bombarding questions that sifted through anything he said. It was… entertaining, in its own way. So much that the time flew past him.

Just as the two of them made a final turn left, he saw his house just a hundred meters straight ahead. His feet became rooted in place as he saw three figures standing in front of the gate and his face morphed into a frown. One was holding his hands on the bars and shouting something at the house, while the other two stood behind him. He noticed that some of the neighbors were looking at the spectacle from their own windows and gardens. It had been around ten hours ago that these people harassed his grandfather. That soft spoken cowled man seemed… downright polite, compared to some words that he heard now. Now they were harassing his mother and siblings using him, as a tool.

“We know your son came!” the biggest lout of the lot shouted as he pulled himself onto the gate. He had a big muscular neck that seemed like it was melding with his head. His arms were like tree trunks of corded muscles that seemed to have grown over other layers of muscles and Tercius knew that he could easily rip that gate apart. Yet his torso and legs seemed… inadequate for those arms. To Tercius he seemed like a giant gorilla. “Did you think that you could hide it? Eh?! Water your little plants all you like, woman. The day when you come with us is near.”