A day earlier.

“A beautiful night, isn’t it?” Mistress Prime's melodic voice interrupted the buzzing of the insects that Kalina focused on, as she waited.

How does she do that? How can she always sneak up on me? Kalina turned towards the voice and stood frozen for a moment. No noticeable effects as she teleports…

“It is indeed beautiful, Mistress. I was just enjoying the sounds.”

Mistress Prime was not wearing her robe, meaning that there was no hood to stop Mistress's voluminous hair from curling in all directions. The face of a mature woman greeted her, warm and caring. The only sharp feature that the face had were the ageless blue eyes that pierced straight through Kalina. Only this woman could make Kalina feel like a child, with a single glance.

For Kalina, even at her a hundred and eighty-seventh seasonal cycle of age, was truly just that—just a child, when compared to Mistress Prime, the last Disciple Grand-Master Tergaron personally trained before his abrupt disappearance so many centuries ago.

“Is the boy in there? Tercius was his name, yes?” Mistress Prime asked as she pointed at the house some twenty meters from where they stood.

Kalina nodded slowly, regaining control of her faculties. She took off her comfortable hood, letting her orange hair be free in the light breeze of the late winter night. "It is, Mistress. And yes, he is in there. The second story, that window there," Kalina pointed. "The alarm spell I set around the boy went off almost ten minutes ago. Just a minuscule irregularity in the Energy movement, barely a registrable trace, but it was there."

Mistress Prime nodded gently, her long, luminous curls flowing like water at the movement. Walking to the house with Mistress Prime started evoking memories of older and better times, when things were less complicated.

“How long has it been since we simply walked like this, you and I, Kalina?”

"Too long, Mistress, too long," Kalina said and truly meant it. Just a single short walk, if it could even be called that, besides the woman had left Kalina refreshed and at peace.

Tendrils of force left Mistress Prime to unbar the locked front door with ease, leaving no trace of entry.

“Whose house is this?” Mistress Prime asked without lowering her voice, but Kalina was not worried. Even if they shouted at the top of their lungs, no one would be able to hear a thing thanks to a spell she had on her almost constantly.

“The listing of weekend visits, for which the boy applied, listed an aunt by the name of Ana, Mistress,” Kalina said. “I have checked the registry of citizens and she is a new arrival to Chameos. She came from Lissea with the boy some two and a half months ago. Belior Larriour, an administrator of the Library in Lissea, was her guarantor for obtaining citizenship.”

“I see,” Mistress Prime said slowly as she snooped around the fireplace. “What did you learn about the boy?”

“His application sheet stated that he originates from Spheros. He listed no teacher in the mana arts, stating that he developed Mana Manipulation and Mana Sight on his own. A wild mage. I believe that Energy might have had an influence there if his statement is true,"

“Hmm... Not every wild mage is an Energy manipulator and not every Energy manipulator is a wild mage, as you well know,” Mistress Prime said and went up the stairs. “Energy only increased his survival rate, and not by a lot. Anything else?”

Kalina lifted her robe and followed closely, step by step. "I made a brief visit to Mistress Ksana on her Isle, where I had to mention your name Mistress—" Kalina shuddered when she remembered the misty eyes of the aging fossil that was Mistress Ksana. The decrepit bag of bones and teeth was six decades younger than Mistress Prime, the records stated, so the difference in appearance between the two was startling to Kalina's eyes. She shuddered once more. "—She reluctantly agreed to use her resources and her Conclave to seek out information about the boy. His appearance is rather eye-catching so I hope her healers can find out more about him and his family if he has any,"

Mistress Prime frowned with visible distaste. “You didn’t make any promises in my name, did you?”

Kalina had to look away as she mumbled, “I may have said that you would pay her a visit…”

Mistress Prime shuddered as she opened the door of the room where the boy slept. “We never got along, she and I. Something about her just makes my skin crawl… and I don’t mean her appearance— well that’s interesting… why is he on the floor?”

Kalina closed the door behind her and looked at the boy that had made himself comfortable on a few blankets. "Maybe he prefers it… I know of some groups in Zagea that consider sleeping off the ground offensive to a deity of some kind. Some tribes of Isgea also practice such customs, but not for religious reasons. Maybe he is a member of one of those groups?"

“Perhaps,” Mistress Prime frowned. Kalina understood the reason behind that frown. The Empire had destroyed so many different cultures; integrating some to its uniform fold or outright wiping out others. Both groups she mentioned were on their last legs, ready to give in to the Empire. A waste of diversity…

Kalina kept quiet as Mistress Prime crouched near the boy. The examination took much longer than Kalina thought it would.

“This Energy… truly remarkable. It's… neutral. Completely and utterly neutral. How is this possible?” Mistress Prime stated her confusion rhetorically as her glowing eyes observed the boy. “His Well hasn’t even started developing… this Energy is blocking it... how is he storing it? Where is he getting it from? Is it a skill of some kind? Impossible! No… not a skill… Oh! What’s this?”

Kalina leaned in, observing what the Mistress found. Tendrils of Energy and mana poked and prodded at the boy’s lower stomach. “I know this signature…” Mistress Prime mumbled as she poked the boy with a finger.

Like a gigantic swarm of angry wasps, a geyser of darkness erupted in an upwards spray from the boy's hip area— and its apparent power left Kalina trembling in her robe. Instinct took over as a shield sprang around her and a spell came to her lips—

"—Calm yourself, Kalina. Ruul." Mistress Prime commanded, yet it took Kalina time to hear what was said. "Ruul, Kalina, be still. This is a message. It's time for you to meet someone,"

She caught her breath even before her heart slowed its erratic beating. It was a long time since she had been surprised in that way. The spell she almost cast— Kalina shook her head in dismay as the dark cloud morphed slowly into a rough figure of a man. She had inspected the boy so many times and she failed to find even a clue of a spell on him.

In a moment, a ripple ran through the shadowy figure and the head of the figure started gaining features. First came the hair, short and blonde. The piercing blue eyes, so similar to Mistress Prime's, followed. A nose, a mouth. A small stubble along the chin came after, as the dark shadow-skin paled in a matter of moments. Dark neck and shoulders, followed by arms came next and there the spell stopped— the rest of the figure remained like a dark cloud.

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

“Prime’era,” the unfamiliar male greeted, with a small incline of the head. The way he spoke...

“Perdin’nar,” Mistress Prime gave a similar incline and Kalina’s two-century-old mind almost couldn’t take in the sight.

Kalina gaped, despite herself. Mistress Prime never bowed her head to anyone!

For a while, the room was silent of words. Kalina took the opportunity to examine the new arrival with critical eyes, noting a small resemblance with Mistress Prime. Is this man some kin of the Mistress?

"When did you get back?" Mistress Prime broke the pregnant silence.

"... a little under three decades ago," the blonde-haired man replied.

"And you never thought about sending a message," Mistress Prime accused through clenched teeth. "A simple 'I'm alive',"

A nonchalant shrug of the shoulders spilled dark residue over the room, evaporating before it hit the floor. "You know me cousin, a greeting is not something I practice often. Besides, I have been touring the so-called 'Empire' to see what had happened since I left. Reacquainting myself to the bearings of society, such that they are..." the man defended himself with raised shadow-hands. Glancing down, the man looked at the boy beneath him. "Then I stumbled across someone that captured my complete attention."

Mistress Prime seemed ready to rip the shadow-man to shreds with her bare hands, up until the moment the boy came back into the conversation. The clenched hands of the Mistress twitched but eased in tension. "... yes… I can see why."

Kalina could see the reason behind the unfamiliar man's apparent fascination with the boy, as well. Neutral Energy.

The theories as to what Energy was, where it comes from, and its relation to Mana and a few other registered types of manipulative mediums similar to Mana, number in the dozens. Every Master or Mistress that ever used Energy had some explanation, almost all of them unique in some way.

Not to be outdone by her elders, Kalina also had a theory about Energy— though it was still lingering in its infancy. As if she ate something spoiled, a bad feeling rose from her gut. A realization overcame her, as her face fell.

The existence of neutral Energy completely undermined the whole foundation of her carefully constructed theory. When she took a moment to think it over, over half of the existing theories crumbled along with hers. That small thought restored her mood greatly. At least I'm not alone…

Energy was always under someone's sway. Always. The so-called 'Springs of Energy'— described by Grand-Master Tergaron as 'tears in reality that leak Energy from another dimension where Energy can be found in apparent abundance'— was the closest that Energy ever came to be to a state where it was under no one's control. Closest before this neutral Energy appeared.

Kalina had to use her Personal Energy to morph the Energy of the Spring, refine or taint as some called the process, into her own. In the beginning, while still learning how to do it, this led to a major loss of Personal Energy which had left her skills dry of growth. The Energy from a Spring was relatively easy for Kalina to take under her sway and resulted in a gain almost every time, now. The problem was that it had taken her decades of training to be able to accomplish to turn the loss into a gain. To morph someone else's Personal Energy into her own was still a pipe dream while controlling someone else's Energy directly … it was supposed to be impossible. Until this Energy. This Energy begged to be tainted, so much that Kalina had to restrain herself.

The first thing she had to master was sensing Personal Energy, a task where most mages failed because the Energy was such an integral part of someone's being— practically indistinguishable. A developed Well helped mages sense that Personal Energy much more clearly. Kalina had spent her youth, middle ages, and more, dutifully developing her Well and Repository points, respectfully, daily— ignoring all the pleasures of life that others enjoyed. In her late forties, with a Well much more suited to a mage in their eighties, Kalina had sensed her Energy and then wrestled with it for almost another decade before she got her Energy Manipulation. It was only after that skill that she had started studying with Mistress Prime on how to rejuvenate herself using her Personal Energy. That had taken a lot of points and time, taking all of her Energy...

To see a boy of eleven cycles have the same skill as she had … left Kalina strangely jealous. When she realized that he had the potential to get the same knowledge for which she had to pay with blood and sweat for free in the Test Rooms, was the drop that almost spilled the glass…

Kalina listened to the conversation, absorbing as much as she could and then something happened that Kalina absolutely despised when it came about.

The Master started speaking in coded Magik. At high tiers, Magik became a code so convoluted that only those who knew the key of the conversation could understand the words spoken.

Rurds were exchanged, slowly, between the shadow-message and Mistress Prime, and even though Kalina heard every single word of Magik, she would still have to use months, perhaps even years, of concentrated effort to untangle them.

Finally, after a dozen minutes of slow exchange of coded Rurds, Mistress Prime turned to Kalina. "Perdin'nar, this is Kalina, one of our youngest. Kalina, this is Perdin'nar, one of our oldest."

An open left hand was placed on her heart as she bowed her head in greeting. "Master,"

"Kalina," the Master called her name and she raised her head, the minimal formal greeting complete. "And what do you mean oldest? There are plenty of geezers older than me…"

"Not as many as you might think," Mistress Prime shook her head. "Time comes for us all, eventually. The last few centuries have seen us fragmented too much, Perdin’nar. With Mentor gone for so long… and me not being in complete control of the Repository… Well, you can imagine the situation… Come over for some tea and I will inform you of who is still with us,"

The Master shadow-message shook its head. "If I come over, others might learn that I'm back. I'm not in a mood for chatting with anyone… this conversation non-included…"

Mistress Prime laughed. "When have you ever been in a mood for a chat?"

"Just tell me about Akva, Durr, and Set— the rest I have no interest in."

Mistress Prime shook her head sadly. After a pregnant pause filled with apparent grief, Mistress said, "Akva and Durr had a daughter together and then went their separate ways two centuries ago, just after their daughter passed away. The girl never learned her way around Rejuvenation, the chamber at the Pyramid eventually lost the ability to help her, and no skill of enough potency ever came her way,"

"Akva designed and built an ingenious underwater vehicle of giant proportions— out of your sturdy Magi-glass actually, only she improved it with crystals— and she went beneath the waves. Marine life in the Central Ocean and further has seen a major improvement since then. She reports every half a decade or so and sometimes takes a sixth-year student or three from our Academy to teach when the mood strikes her.

"Durr has taken over Mentor's research into bloodline skills and has been a major source of headaches for me, ever since he left a cycle or two after Akva. Not a word from him since, though I suspect that he is somewhere in Zagea. He has to answer for a few criminal charges here, so he is avoiding attention any way that he can.

"And don't let me get started on Set. He gave up on his social experiment out of sorrow, just like we told him that he would. You know how it is... It gets difficult, just watching people age and die. He only stayed with them until the fourth generation came of age, and then packed his things and left… less than a decade after your departure, now that I think about it...

"Without him in charge, we just let things unfold and that’s what led to the unbridled Empire of today," Mistress Prime shook her head. "I don't know where that sorry bastard is, but when he comes back, all Hells will break loose. It's probably why he keeps away…

"It has to be said that the relatively calm atmosphere this Empire has, had led to many discoveries and new sources of inspiration over the years, which is why most of us are willing to tolerate its outburst against us. Though I don't know how long the calm will last… internally, I mean.

"You know the Permit that Set had gotten? Well, the usual way these 'Imperials', as they now call themselves, have held sway over their nobles will effectively be null and void as soon as the Permit elapses. Most of us are taking bets that something like the wars, that plagued the continents before the unification, will resume…"

The two elders exchanged information well into the night, mostly about events that Kalina only read about in history books. At one point during the night the boy, Tercius, woke up and Master Perdin'nar's shadow-message had to hide.

"When did you become the boy's Mentor?" Mistress Prime asked as they followed the boy downstairs. "I need it for the records. It will be kept confidential…"

"Never, Prime’era, nor will I. You know me…"

All night her elders spoke and even thought she heard everything they said, none of it made any sense— the conversation obscured from her by their private code.

Morning arrived and the boy started leaking that neutral Energy, while Kalina just watched. Where does it come from? How much is there? The three of them observed the boy make an Energy construct, only to keep it in his body. How inefficient… he doesn’t have a Well...

"Make sure you take that Energy from him, Prime'era, let him develop his Well as soon as possible.” Master Perdin'nar said when the boy returned to his bed and once more closed his eyes.

Kalina’s mind was filled with questions, but she knew that now was not the time to ask them. She had learned a lesson, long ago, that while the elders were talking they never liked an interruption. Mistress Prime was an exception, but what about this Master?

Mistress Prime waved her hand over the boy. The weaved ball of Energy and the traces his body had lingering all over his organs leapt with ease that left Kalina’s throat parched. “It wants to be commanded…" Mistress Prime said, a reverent tone in her voice, as she held the Energy in her hand.

Kalina’s nose twitched. It was not a lot of Energy, by Kalina’s current standards, but all of it was so easily tainted. She imagined getting the secret out of the boy, yet she had to curb her desire.

“I know…” Master Perdin’nar nodded. Once more they switched to coded Magik and Kalina lost them all over again. How utterly maddening. They spoke until a ripple ran through the figure of shadow-message, one that Kalina knew the meaning of.

"My spell is reaching its end, Prime'era. Kalina, it was my pleasure to meet you."

“The pleasure is all mine, Master,” Kalina said with a bow of her head.

“Prime’era, take care. I leave the boy in your hands.” The Master said and with those parting words let his shadow-form dissipate. There was a silence that lingered for a long while.

Mistress Prime exhaled, slowly and deeply, seemingly apprehensive and excited at the same time.

“What now, Mistress?” Kalina spoke. “What did that Master want?”

“Now that’s a good question, Kalina. What now, indeed.”