Pushing the bucket up, Tercius emptied the warm water right on the center of his head. Scrubbing his shoulders, arms, armpits, chest, stomach, and then finally he had to make a stop near the groin. There was something new there that he just noticed. Just a tiny growth, but still noticeable.
Pubic hair.
How the hell did I miss that? he wondered, perplexed. Now, if Tercius was a normal boy his age, he would probably be either curious or possibly scared of this new strange development. But Tercius knew what this meant, after all, this was something he already went through once before. His body had started to enter a period of development called puberty.
With boys, testosterone exerts its influence on many parts of the body. Hair starts to grow in certain places, body odor makes its appearance, testicles start to develop, the voice usually starts cracking and growing deeper, an occasional growth spurt can happen...
Tercius was doing an examination of his private parts, when he heard a voice behind him.
"Found something interesting there, eh?" Lux said with quite some amusement in his voice.
"Uncle, it's rude to just jump out like that," Tercius said as he opened his hand and used it to cover his privates. Mustering a glare, he sent it to the older man. Lux knew Tercius’s stance on privacy, but enjoyed teasing this prude of a nephew.
"Oh, I'm sorry. Did I interrupt something… important? Private?" Lux chortled.
Tercius just stayed quiet as he felt his face heat up. He knew that once Lux started with his teasing he rarely stopped. Taking one more bucket, Tercius finished with his cleaning, and made a dash for his clothes.
"It's all perfectly normal, let me tell you. You see, once hair starts growing down there..." Lux said and had to stop to laugh, as his bright red nephew ran out of the washroom.
Covering both his front and backside Tercius ran for his room. There were folks around who lacked any sense of decency, so what he was doing was nothing strange. A few times Tercius even saw naked women walk from the washroom to their rooms, to say nothing of the men.
The room he and his uncle used for the night was just around the corner, so it took him just a moment to get to the door. Trying to open the door with just his elbow proved challenging. Tercius glanced this and that way, making sure that there was no one in the hallway then, using his left hand, he opened the door leaving his backside wide exposed. As soon as he rushed in, he slammed the door and exhaled.
That was when he heard a sharp intake of air.
Opening his eyes, he found Seliana and Penelope sitting on his bed, staring straight at him. Seliana just waved, on her face a small smile, while Penelope rapidly turned the other way.
"What are you doing here?" he hissed.
Seliana merely laughed at the boy’s plight. "Don't mind us, we merely came to get you,"
"Then I will go to your room," he said and started to search for the handle, while his bare backside was pressed to the wooden door.
"Don't let us bother you little Tercius, you just dress as if we aren't here," the woman said with a small laugh.
Taking a deep breath, he felt a vein pulsing in his temple. All of this was getting on his nerves. First, he found out that his puberty started. Then, his uncle makes fun of his completely normal desire for some things to stay private. For Gods sake, they’re called private parts! Tercius raged inwardly. Private. Then, this joker of a woman starts making ’little’ jokes. As if he does not have enough on his plate already. The previous night, Tercius barely had a wink of sleep, after the dead mage refused to leave his thoughts and dreams. He spent the night looking at the wooden ceiling and then in Meditation, if only to get some kind of rest.
Dropping all of his clothes from his hands right there on the floor, without a care for who might see what, he first picked up the underwear, then the pants, then the undershirt, followed by a shirt. And finally, a woolen jumper that, while terribly itchy, was a great insulator of heat.
"Enjoyed the show?"
"Oh my, quite," Seliana said with a tight smile. "Now get your cloak on, we leave as soon as you're ready,"
***
The city of Lissea was known across the Empire for a few things.
First, it was known as the regional capital of Nogea.
Technically, the Capital of the Empire, Augusta Belia, shared the same landmass as Lissea, so there were those who wondered how this city could be the regional capital of the northern continent. It was a fair question, in their defense.
The area on which Augusta Belia was built was mostly surrounded by sea, whose deeper waters were only sail-able by the brave and foolhardy. Nine in ten ships have not ever left the area of the sea where the shore is not visible. From the north-west protecting the Capital was the impassable mountain chain known among the scholarly as The Endors. Rarely would anyone set by foot to pass over it, and that was sadly the only way. There were roads, of course, but rare were those where you would not be risking your neck by traveling on horseback or any other manner of beast for that matter. Common folks mostly call these towering giants The Cursed Heights and avoid going there with a fervent passion.
So, for all intents and purposes, the Capital was an isolated island from the rest of the northern continent.
Of course, there was also an Imperial proclamation stating as much, and The Word of The Emperor was ultimate and rare were those who questioned it.
So Lissea, probably to give further claim to that proclamation, was named the regional capital.
Widely around the Empire, Lissea was known for its iron mines and the high-quality ore that was excavated here. Tar a substance used for a myriad of purposes, Lissean tar in particular being known for its high quality, was also manufactured in the surrounding areas and then shipped to all directions of the Empire.
The northern continent was also the second-largest exporter of woods, both processed and otherwise, right after Zagea, the western continent. And many, many other products.
Yet all of these things were secondary to Tercius, for a simple reason. Lissea was the city where the prime Academy of Thaumaturgical Arts had a known presence.
The city of Lissea had two Libraries. One of these was your standard Library, any major city had. One of the requirements for getting the status of a city, besides major fortifications, a military and Peacekeeper presence, was a Library.
If Nurium, for example, wanted to one day become a city, it would have to have a Library inside the city’s walls.
Tercius was sad to say that most of the cities out there only had one small Library to satisfy this particular requirement. Lissea was possibly the only exception, as far as he knew, that had two.
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The first was much like the one he observed in Spheros, a thinly veiled attempt to brainwash even those few who learned how to read.
But the second? The second was run by the Academy and was where mages kept a known contact outside the Pyramid. So he hoped that at least the second one would be like the private collection Perdinar had.
Lissea itself, unlike other major cities, did not have an Academy of the Arts. At one point in history, the Empire tried to contest with the Pyramid, by building one Empire sanctioned Academy inside the city, but from what Tercius read in the first of four books by a certain Nicodius del'Ar, after a mere three decades of work, the Academy was closed down.
The Pyramid of Tergaron had a history stretching back almost, or in some accounts over, a millennia. In those few books he read written from the pro Empire angle, that was a mere rumor. But Nicodius del’Ar claimed otherwise, and from what Tercius saw, his books were nowhere to be found in Spheros’s Library. The day Tercius went there and asked of the author, the librarians scowled at him and almost chased him away.
The Pyramid Library, as he called it in his mind not because the building itself was of that shape but rather affiliation, was found in the old part of the city of Lissea.
The really old one.
It was the only remaining building in sight that had any structural integrity, his critical eye informed him.
Mana Sight gave no indication of any kind of magical effect of that kind on the building. But he learned to not lean too much on the skill, as he recently found out, there were ways to fool it.
Besides, maybe it was recently renovated. he reasoned, as he admired the stonework. It was particularly pleasing to his eyes.
Built like a giant cathedral from his old life, the Library towered over the surrounding buildings, with four floors that Tercius could observe above ground and Stone Sight suggested at least four more below ground. It was built with large stone blocks, in which Tercius could find no fault, then carefully joined into the interlocking joint. The whole building was in fact a single whole, as if it was carved out instead of built block by block. There were large colored windows every few meters along the walls, made of something that resembled glass, hells it was glass for all he knew.
He learned from Seliana that the material was common in the Capital, where only one family had the recipe for manufacturing it, and held its monopoly with an iron fist. If someone even came close to making something like their products, they would soon land in a pool of shit and either take a hand full of money to stop with the production or sink and drown with a gentle push. A public secret, Seliana told him, was that this family had ties with the Imperial Line.
All around the imposing building, lampposts stood, and he even spotted a few up on the building itself. Now Tercius regretted declining of coming here at some previous point. The sight of this building at nighttime must be a rare sight.
Seliana was the one who escorted Penelope and him, with Lux deciding to stay away. The older man feared that his history with mages could compromise Tercius’s plans.
At the top of a tall flight of stairs was a wide wooden double door nestled under an arched entrance. Step by step, the three of them ascended, their mouths open as their eyes took in the sight of the looming magnificence in front of them. Although not the largest building in the city of Lissea, the Library had this grandeur and permanence to it. A certain charm that was difficult to put into words.
The front double door was massive. Easily four times Tercius’s own height, and wide enough for six grown men to walk through side by side. Two large knockers, a triangle-shaped setting with a large ring on it made of some kind of glossy black metal, were attached on both wings of the door.
Seliana glanced at him and Penelope, tilting her head a bit as if asking if they were ready. Both of them gave a small nod in agreement. The ring of the knocker was louder than he expected, and the sound gave him a slight jolt.
In a moment, without any kind of sound, the left-wing opened just slightly. A hooded face was there, right in the small crack, looking at them with curiosity in his brown eyes.
"Can I help you?" the black-haired man asked politely.
"I have brought these two children to join your Academy," Seliana said.
"Oh, then please, enter," the man said, opening the door wider. The man waved them in, and then closed the door in a hurry. Inside the air was so warm, that for a moment Tercius felt as if he was back in Nurium. "You can leave your cloaks there, as you can see, we keep things nice and cozy,"
Even before he stepped inside, Tercius was aware that the outer walls of this towering edifice were over a meter and a half in width, but seeing it in person... was a whole other thing.
The floors were also made of stone, but almost all of them were covered in clean red carpets, thick and absorbent of Tercius’s weight. The walls had paintings on most larger wall surfaces, with a few busts placed on pedestals in corners.
"Follow me please," the man said, and lead the way. The young man had a gray robe on, like a monk of some kind, with a small white pyramid symbol woven into the fabric.
Tercius kept glancing at each painting, bust and sculpture as they passed by them, and he was sure that Penelope did as well. He was no judge of art, but everything looked so lifelike, as if he stared right at a real person that was turned into a work of art. A thought popped into his mind.
Petrification.
It gave him the chills. The young man lead them to the left wing of the building, and they passed by numerous open areas where on every single wall, a multitude of books rested on the shelves.
"Please, enter and wait for a bit. As soon as someone in charge of new admissions is available, they will come your way. I'm afraid, I must be on my way,"
The man opened the door for them and waved them in, then closed the door with only three of them inside the room. Suddenly being left alone to wait was not what they expected.
A large table with a chair right near a window was the centerpiece of the room. Rows of books and scrolls adorned the walls, and a single painting on the wall opposite from the window. It showed a young woman with black hair, quite pretty, but with a sharp gaze that radiated disapproval.
Two sofas were placed in the space below the painting. Tercius sat, just wanting to try how it felt.
"What are you doing?" Penelope suddenly interrupted his enjoyment. He did not feel such comfort in a long time.
"Come sit, try it," he said, patting a place near him.
Penelope looked skeptical up until the moment she sat. "Oh, it’s so… pleasant,"
Seliana watched the two little scamps with a small smile on her face. The furniture that she saw inside the Library, while not rare, was quite expensive. The art and the number of scrolls and books were staggering. She sat on the other sofa and then they waited in silence.
And waited.
And waited.
"Do you think the man forgot to pass the message?" Penelope asked, after almost five minutes of silence.
"Let's just make ourselves busy, someone is bound to make his way here, eventually," Tercius said, then got up and started to read the titles of the books. He scurried to the window and observed the glass there, then the large painting of the young woman.
All the while, Penelope and Seliana talked about their future.
It was almost two hours later that someone came in. A man in his later forties or early fifties, his hair having a few whitish streaks mixed in with a chestnut brown. The man seemed surprised to find them there, and his eyes narrowed a bit. "Who are you?"
"New admissions for the Academy, a man at the front door told us to wait here," Seliana said in a hurry.
Like a sun parting clouds, the man’s face lost his sternness and he smiled a bit. A tight smile, but a smile nonetheless. "That airhead. He only has books on his mind." the man exhaled loudly shaking his head. "Well then, at least he lead you to the right place. The last group ended in the… let’s not revisit that unpleasant memory. Allow me to introduce myself, I am Master Belior, currently in charge of this Library. Please, have a seat,"
The man went to the table and took his place behind the stout wooden table. They introduced themselves and then the man started shuffling through the papers on his desk. "Ah, here they are. If you don’t know how to read and write, I can do it for you,"
Both he and Penelope knew so they took the pen and paper. It was some basic information and Tercius may have written a few small lies on it. Name, age, number of skills, time passed since the last skill was acquired, name of the city or town from where they hailed.
"If you’re from a village, then place the name of the nearest town or city," the brown-haired man said.
The paperwork done, the man glanced at it and raised his head to look at Tercius, a strange look in his eyes. His heart sped up, as he thought that the man had some way to check for how many skills he had.
"All right," Master Belior said. "We only admit new students up to 13 cycles in age so I will have to check. Let me see, let me see…" the man sucked his teeth, while he started rummaging through his drawers. With a cry of triumph, the man showed them his discovery.
A small needle, and a small white metal dish.
"I will need a drop of blood from both of you if you'll allow it," Master Belior said. "Like this, observe,"
The man just made a prick in his finger and a small drop of blood welled up. He turned his finger and squeezed some of that blood into the dish. As soon as the blood reached the dish, it sizzled, as if he dropped it into a fire. In a moment only ash remained.
"As you can see, it was made to test the age of the applicants. If you are within the age range, the blood will stay there for a few moments before it is destroyed," Master Belior said and extended the needle and the dish to the other side of the table, right near them.
Tercius took the needle, staring at it, but it seemed completely ordinary. Is it the needle or the dish. Maybe the combination of both? he thought. Just a tiny prick by the needle and the blood welled up on his thumb. Dropping the blood into the dish, it merely rolled down the sides right into the center. Only after ten long seconds did the blood start to burn and turn to ash.
"Good, if you could pass the needle to your friend,"
Penelope took the needle and did the same with no hesitation. The same thing happened as with his own blood.
"Good. That's that. Now, from what I see you two will be free from one class in the first year. No need to teach you to read and write, if you can already do it. Do you know your numbers and arithmetic?"
"A bit," Penelope said timidly.
"Yes," Tercius said almost at the same time as Penelope, sounding proud.
The man chuckled. "Well let’s see just how much that is,"
He gave them a few tasks to do, and the first task was a few simple additions and substractions. Then the man upped the difficulty bit by bit until Penelope fell out and Tercius kept going.
"Well, now I don't really know what to do..." the man said after Tercius solved his latest test. "Young man, who taught you?"
"When I was four, my grandfather started teaching me. He's a builder and an architect, so he frequently uses it," Tercius answered.
"Your grandfather did a good job. He should be proud, and you grateful. For you, young man, there would be little to learn in the class that first year offers, so I will recommend skipping it. You are well above it. For you, young lady, it would be best to go, and do not be relaxed just because you know most of it," the man sternly warned. "Now a few more tests…"
"Master Belior, if I may ask before we continue. I read in a book of a clue hunt, and was wondering if you could tell us more about it," Tercius interrupted.