Mistress Prime'era's advice to Tercius was to rest and recuperate and then, in a day or so, they would go about sealing his Well completely. Tercius had agreed and they were just about to leave him to sleep again when an idea came to him. He couldn't remain so weak and feeble for a day, not when he had a method to recover quickly at hand. He was only hesitant to use it here, but if he had help…
“Mistress, can you please stay for a moment,” Tercius asked, looking at Mistress Kalina.
Mistress Kalina looked at the trio and then back at him. “Of course, Disciple.”
As soon as the others left his room she added. “When we are alone you can call me Mentor or if you wish you don’t have to use any title, but do remember to call me Mistress when in the presence of others. We are keeping this matter private, after all,”
Tercius nodded. These mages and their titles… “Mentor, is our privacy protected? Can I speak freely?”
“Give me a moment,” Mistress Kalina said, closing her eyes for a couple of moments. A few shivers ran down Tercius’s spine before she nodded to him. “Now you may speak,”
“I need to use Energy,” Tercius said, only mouthing the last word.
“I’ve told you that you can use it internally without fear of discovery,” Mistress Kalina said. “Just keep it contained inside your Well and you won’t have problems,”
“And I remember that, Mentor, but considering where we are and who is in my vicinity… I thought it might be prudent to have you here. So, just in case, can you stay while I do it?” he said, already feeling his body urging him to fall asleep.
“Of course,” Mistress Kalina said. “I’ll be here,”
With that off his chest, Tercius reached for Meditation and immediately dived into the effigy of Energy Manipulation. Pulling himself to Flu, Tercius pulled apart a single chain that kept the wisp imprisoned, and without him trying to control it, the Energy rushed out into the gray fog and by some magical means, currently unknown to him, promptly seeped into his Well.
The effects were immediate. The draining weight that had been properly settled his head and body was lifted, for the most part, the gravitational lethargy gone in almost a moment. Breathing out an enormous mental sigh, Tercius relaxed.
Flu — a white, basketball-sized shape made of swirling chains and a small, barely visible core of shining light trapped in the center — waited in front of him, seemingly asking for another chain to be undone by Tercius.
Tercius obliged, enduring the pain of taking another ten chains off, despite knowing that his painful work would just be undone within moments. Each loop of chain taken off just regrew as fast as it was taken off.
Why was a light tug of his enough to snap a chain? What made this projection of his capable of that? And was the Energy available to these chains truly limitless that they could just regenerate themselves endlessly?
These were merely a few of a wide set of questions that he had asked himself over the past seven years since he came to interact with Flu and Energy.
Six, actually, Tercius thought. This last year can’t be counted.
With a wave to Flu, Tercius departed the Core and returned to the darkness of Meditation, where he spent a minute recovering from the pain, and then he just dismissed the skill to return to reality.
Mistress Kalina or, he corrected himself mentally, Mentor Kalina was nearby, observing.
“Was there anything detectable, Mentor?”
"Nothing, if I don't specifically search in your location for it. But I would only do something like that if I know that you're there," Mentor Kalina said. "As I said, you are safe,"
Tercius breathed out a sigh of relief.
“Thank you, Mentor.”
“You’re feeling better, yes?”
“Much better,” Tercius nodded. “At least I don’t feel the need to sleep anymore,”
“It is still advisable to do so. Complete draining of Mana and Energy is as damaging as it is beneficial, and rest and proper nutrition will mitigate the damage done,”
Tercius looked at his Mentor with consideration. Would she answer, if he asked? Only one way to find out…
"Just out of curiosity, what exactly is being damaged, and what comes to benefit from what happened to me?"
“The entirety of the physical mana channel system itself, including the Well, suffer the shock of complete depletion for a few minutes after it and, likely to prevent partial withering of the entire system, the channels consume some parts of themselves if only for most of them to remain as they are. What benefits is the metaphysical part of the mana channel system, which only develops itself when little or, ideally, no mana is present.” Mentor Kalina said, pulling up her left sleeve and showing off a wide, metal-made bracelet, silver in color, that tightly hugged around her biceps, carved with Runes and inlaid with tiny, green gemstones in some seemingly chaotic pattern. “Starting year three and up, all students of the Academy get to wear something like this. It can be a bracelet, earrings, or anything else. It's just important that it's touching the skin,”
Tercius leaned in to observe the bracelet and Mistress Kalina allowed it, even spinning it around for him to inspect the other side. The tiny green gemstones sparkled occasionally, yet to his Mana Sight, the bracelet was non-existent. The extent to which the Magi went to hide their creations was so frustrating, yet at the same time, he couldn't come to blame them for protecting their property from prying eyes that would plunder all secrets of the craft.
Mistress Kalina looked at him and said, "The ones that the students use have a special enchantment that for one half of the day absorbs most of the mana of the one who wears it, usually set to do so at evening and during the night, while in the other half of the day it returns the taken mana when needed. That way, the students are continuously cycling between the state of low or no mana, which develops the metaphysical parts of the mana channels, or the state of full capacity, which develops the physical mana channels and is most suitable for the development of Mana Manipulation and Mana Metamorphosis and other skills.
"You probably know this but both the metaphysical Well and metaphysical mana channels can develop indefinitely, if continuously exercised properly, and since the physical mana channels do have an absolute limit, that imposed by the physiological size of each individual, metaphysical development is the one more prized of the two. After all, the metaphysical part of the Well is the main storage of mana of all properly trained Magi and the metaphysical side of the mana channels is directly tied to the rate at which mana is being restored. Of course, as you know, the metaphysical part of the Well is unable to harvest its own mana, only store it— Oh. I veered off track there, didn't I?"
Tercius shook his head. “I don’t mind. But I do wonder… What about complete Energy drainage?”
Mistress Kalina looked hesitant as she lowered her sleeves.
“I can’t know about it yet, is that it?”
“No… I worry what you would do with what I share,”
"Which means that much like with complete Mana drainage there must be some side effects to complete Energy drainage," Tercius murmured. "You mentioned before that the heart stops briefly if I recall correctly? That can be dangerous… But what are the benefits, if there are any, I wonder? Since you are hesitant on them, I can only infer that they are considerable enough for you to think that I would consider going for them despite the damage done in the process…"
"There is such a thing as being too smart for your own good, Tercius," Mistress Kalina stated, shaking her head. "The complete Energy drainage has been proven to lead to the growth of Energy regeneration rate,"
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Even though he came to anticipate the same words even as he heard them, Tercius’s eyes went wide with possibilities.
“The reason I hesitate to tell you, Tercius,” Mistress Kalina said, reading Tercius’s thoughts from his expression as if from a book’s page, “is that such growth while noticeable has proven to be insignificant when compared to the natural growth of that particular parameter that comes about from doing something as simple as skill leveling,”
Perhaps that was so… But what if he could keep himself in a state of near-starvation of Energy automatically? Could he somehow make something similar to that bracelet that she had? Did the Magi have something like that? Oh… perhaps he could make a skill for something like that? If such a skill is possible, maybe some sort of an automatic self-draining skill that would also double as Energy storage… That way, even when he was sleeping or awake and not leveling his skills, his Energy regeneration rate could climb and he could store Energy for later use…
A Core that would look like an Olympic-size pool…
How he ached for a pool safe and deep enough to dive in and swim.
“Tercius.” Mistress Kalina called.
“Yes?”
“While rare, there had been Magi who tried this path to gain more power. Most of them have truly remained completely fine even after hundreds and even thousands of such tries, but a rare few had had their heart not starting again. Rarer still are those that enter some kind of a sleep from which they never wake. Their bodies remain working completely fine, but their minds are not inside anymore. No one ever discovered why it just happens. No pattern to these things has been found. It can happen on try number fifteen and try number fifteen thousand. So…”
“I understand.” Tercius nodded, reading the worry on her face clearly. “I will try to keep my distance from it,”
“And, for my sake, I will pretend that you gave me a more solid form of a promise,”
Tercius suddenly felt the need to clear his throat.
“Well, if that’s all you wanted, I will go now,” Mistress Kalina said.
"Actually… Mentor… Master Perdinar said that you, Mistress Prime'era, and Mistress Helfira represent the Councils. Does that mean that other people know about me?" he said, asking the question that disturbed him the most.
“I cannot speak on the matter. Truly.” Mistress Kalina raised her hand in a hurry, shaking her head. “Any questions you have will need to be asked of Master Perdin’nar, but not of me, Helfira, or Mistress Prime. He will be able to tell you anything you need to know,”
Tercius sighed but nodded. "Alright,"
"I will see to it that someone brings you food and after you eat if you can, go to sleep. It will do you good,"
“There’s no need for that, Mentor,” Tercius said. “I’m not too keen on eating right now,”
His growling stomach was, but he wasn’t.
After Mistress Kalina left, Tercius stared at the carpet off the side of his bed without blinking. The geometric patterns there trapped his gaze as his thoughts wandered free.
Did he make a mistake by taking Mistress Kalina as a Mentor? Perhaps he should have just picked up his things and left the Pyramid?
But no. There was no way he could have left the Pyramid and part of the reason was back in Nurium and the other part would soon be there.
Tercius shook his head in annoyance, as a frown marred his face. How many times did he choose to go through with this Mentorship in the near past? He was not sure of the exact number, but he could recall at least a dozen such cases. She would use me, I would use her, he had told himself over and over again. He would learn more with Mistress Kalina and do so faster and she would shield him from an enormous pitfall. It was the logical choice, pure and simple.
And yet… Everything that he did and would do he did because he didn't want specific things to happen.
He didn't want to implicate his family by association. Law-abiding or not, he didn't want people, mages or otherwise, bothering them in any way. Their safety was the primary concern, but privacy was there too. His old family had been hounded — both willingly and unwillingly, in the case of his parents and siblings, although in his case it had always been unwillingly — by the press way too many times when he had been growing up that he knew the value of privacy by heart.
The best thing he could do for them was to help them raise some defense, offense, and support skills and then disappear from their lives before anyone else took notice of him. Perdinar's offer of faking his death or disappearance came to mind… and as appealing as it sounded he was not sure that he could go through with it.
His insides quaked and twisted unpleasantly from the mere thought of making Petra and others think him dead…
Although that could also be hunger.
He didn't want that Title, First of His Line, because to him, it looked like a giant hornets' nest that was just waiting for some poor sod to disturb it, and then all buzzing Hells would break loose. It was what started this entire thing if he understood Perdinar's tale correctly.
Was his name Perdinar or was it Perdin’nar? Mistress Kalina used that curious inflection with his name, almost as if doubling the “n”…
Now that he thought about it, Mistress Prime’era also had that same inflection only with the “e”. Although, Mistress Kalina did also call her Mistress Prime…
Mistress Prime'era… Mistress Prime… Prime… The Prime… What was the possibility that the unknown titular leader of the Pyramid was not addressed by a title, but by the actual name in its shortened form?
Knowing what he knew of mages he would venture with a strong "slim", but the coast of "possible" was visible from where he sat.
Regardless of specificities of Perdinar's name, or names — he could easily see how someone as long-lived as him accumulated names as normal people would do with shoes or socks, to speak nothing of the variations of those names or even nicknames — or Mistress Prime'era's specific position in the Pyramid hierarchy, Tercius found himself quite struck with this sealing of the Well, or rather the consequences that such an act would have on him and his plans.
If his Well were to be off-limits to him his current mana pool would be halved and, worse, he would be unable to use the neutral Energy to boost his mana regeneration rate. That would mean that the use of Spring of Crystal Thoughts would be a rare commodity. Spells, the few that he knew, were also off-limits.
That meant that he only had a select number of skills he could use for defense or offense. Tercius took a long look at his list.
Stone Shaping [43] would do in a pinch, but the skill itself was only useful when surrounded by stone. It was a good skill, reasonably leveled, although he found himself wishing that he had had the foresight to bring it up even further.
His eyes drifted to a specific trio of skills.
Sword Mastery [21], Shield Mastery [21], Small Blades Mastery [12].
A melee offense, a defense, and a ranged offense. All three were low mana consumers, even the low leveled Small Blades Mastery, and he was sure that he could bring them up even further and do so quickly.
If he could also think of a good function for Precision [40] to get it over the barrier and level Dexterity [13] and possibly help it cross the barrier…
Mana Sight [48] and especially Energy Sight [25] should also be on the list, if at the end of it, he realized.
But he had to do all of this before his Well was sealed.
A lot of things depended on doing this as best as he could and Tercius found himself pushing away the sudden pressure that cropped up in him.
He had started just wanting to use his Energy to try to contact Amber again, but the more the thought the more he realized just how many issues he suddenly had to think about, some of which he had no idea he had before now.
He shook his head. Amber wouldn’t make more than a few minutes, he told himself.
With a focus inwards, he ascertained the condition and state of his Mana and Energy, and with a nod he closed his eyes, reaching back for Familiar Bond.
This time he did not use Meditation to help him reach his familiar. He had other plans for that skill and he was lucky that he didn’t have Energy to make an accidental function earlier. Immediately he felt the movement inside his Well, the two resources inside answering the call that he was making. First, he felt Amber's exact direction, much more clearly than earlier, but then, just as he encountered a worry that he found so human-like, he found something pushing back.
Tercius tentatively examined the state of his Mana and Energy and found that both had suddenly started rapidly disappearing without a sign, especially Energy which had in mere two seconds stopped at near half of what he had. He needed more Energy. With a rapid maneuver, he called for Meditation and went for another, rather small, harvest of Energy. Despite Mistress Kalina’s assurances, he wasn’t going to let himself go loose.
He found them satisfactory.
Another brief conversation later, where he asked about how things were back home and what she was doing, Tercius was inclined towards a couple of conclusions.
Despite tremendous progress achieved since the Familiar Bond came along, Amber still lacked experience in the human perspective of things. “Cleaning my posterior,” was the nicest way that he could interpret the set of vile sensations on his tongue and disturbing images that she sent him…
Tercius shuddered and gagged, feeling an sudden urge to go out and let the rain wash him and his tongue clean.
Another was a tentative theory that Meditation had a way to reduce his resource costs, Mana and Energy wise, or maybe even amplify the effects of other skills without touching their base costs. But then again, Tercius reflected, this was not the first time that Meditation had been some sort of a bridging skill. It might be among his older skills, but the skill kept throwing surprises at him.
Leaving ruminations on that skill for later, Tercius went for another Energy harvest and despite his desire to see from Amber’s eyes, he refrained from doing so.
First, the cost of what they were already doing despite being completely manageable was still expensive. He didn’t have to guess to know that the cost to see through her eyes would jump, and he would rather not go passing out again. Another thing that stopped him was that the ability he and Amber shared before eyesight sharing was Energy sharing. Despite any progress in her restraint with many other things, Amber had never been able to control herself when Energy was involved. She just took it from him via the Familiar Bond and only stopped when she couldn’t take any more. He, unfortunately, was never able to figure out just how she was doing that and nothing he ever tried was able to fix the metaphorical hole.
For now, with a goodbye to his familiar and a promise to get her tasty food if she guarded Aurelia properly, he left that particular issue for later.
His body felt energized so he took off his robe, shirt, socks, and Amulet, and placed them on his bed, only leaving the pants on him. After he remembered the specific combination for what he needed, he created the specific Runes and sent them into his Amulet.
Promptly a sword appeared on the Amulet. Another set of Runes later, he had a wooden shield. Another and he had a set of daggers.
Dexterity and Precision came to life as his gaze sharpened and under the observant neon-green eyes of Mana Sight, Sword Mastery suddenly lit his arm and his previously dull metal sword.
With a twist of his wrist, the sword sang.
It was time to see just how much of this he remembered after a year with little to no training, and then hopefully proceed to raise his skills. The day ahead was still long if a day could be said to exist in a place such as this, and the night following after would also be put to good use.
"I almost forgot," Tercius murmured, depositing the sword on the bed, near the shield. "I should warm-up and stretch properly first…" With a look at his cozy room, he continued, "Maybe clear some space. I don't want to damage anything…"