Kaz waited. His knee bounced as his finger tapped an unsteady rhythm, but the system was content to take its time. Brie's manual was spat out in record time and sat mockingly on the table. Zyaire sat opposite him, opening and closing her mouth but not speaking.

He could imagine what it was about.

A dictionary was a very detailed and revealing book. It was probably the worst thing to gift her, giving her a dictionary with pictures was the only way to make it worse, but if she were even a bit smart she'd be able to figure out that Kaz had lived in a different world.

Even with introspection he was no closer to figuring out his various impulsive actions and was just hoping they didn't come back to bite him in the butt too bad. Hal Maximus, who he'd learned was a permanent member of Abyss dorm despite being a doctoral student, hounded his every step with questions about the zombie crystal Kaz had given him. Kaz thought Hal would be the first to bring him an essence of night if only to try wheedling more information out of him.

Not that his impulsive actions hadn't brought benefits. Demerits were used to access dungeons during their second and third year. Hal suggested Kaz transfer them to an ally, so he didn't have them recorded under his name when it was time to transfer dorms. It was better than selling or canceling them using house points. According to Hal, demerits were harder to get in other years.

It hadn't taken Kaz long to notice that Hal couldn't give specifics. He could vaguely talk about his time as a student, but Kaz was no closer to learning what Killingworth had in store for him.

He glanced at the screen but the progress bar was frozen at fifty percent.

"Kaz," Zyaire said, finally working up enough courage. "I. The dictionary--" She struggled to find the words.

Kaz kept his face blank.

"Was he like you?" she asked, leaning towards him.

Even with enhanced hearing, Kaz struggled to hear her. "Who? Like me?"

"Yeah. Ignatius Huxley, was he like you? From a different world?"

It took a moment for her words to register and then he laughed, head thrown back. "That's what you want to ask?" It was a tad charming and more than a little alarming how obsessed she was with Ignatius Huxley. Zyaire knew more than him and more than his mother. Her journal proved unhelpful. What she could tell him wasn't a lot. There were also sections of text that were blurred, presumably because she'd written the information before he turned seventeen. What little there was only told him his mother lived a sheltered life. Doting all the i's and crossing all the t's of what was expected of a duke's daughter. She was talented but not prodigious. Her marriage came just as she was starting school, and when she graduated Kaz was already four. Then came the disastrous deal with Duke Aquileia and they ended up on Earth shortly after that, which is where Kaz's memories started.

"Technically speaking, I'm not from a different world. I was born in Nioroma and moved-"

Lips pressed together, her stare was deadly. "You know what I mean."

Kaz shrugged. "I'm trying to figure that out, but my gut instinct is no. He had contact with Earth, but he wasn't from there." It was hard to tell if the differences were creative license taken by a man who reshaped the world in his image after a tremendous war or if he got the information and adapted it to suit his needs.

A few differences were that May was called Myr, an homage to the god of travelers and thieves Myrr. There was another month after July, Jenea because Terra was larger than Earth and took longer orbiting the sun, leading to thirteen months.

"What was Earth like?" She asked, the word sounded funny when she pronounced it.

Kaz realized that she had an accent. His mother had it too, but it wasn't as pronounced. "Do I sound weird when I talk?" he asked, wondering how his Australian accent sounded to her. He went to an international school in the north before the world fell to shit so his accent was never as pronounced as say if he were from Adelaide, but it was there.

"Yes, I thought it was because you lived on a different continent but it was a different world." Her voice was high, eyes darting around.

Kaz glanced at the screen, but the bar was only five percent farther than when last he checked. "They can't hear or see us."

"I know, but--"

"It feels wrong to talk about," he said, helping her out.

"You're either brave or stupid." She sat back in her chair. Zyaire pulled out the dictionary along with a stack of paper. "How tall is a skyscraper?" She asked, a quill poised to write.

The hair on his neck raised, and his instincts told him to run. "I've--"

"Sit down." She pointed at the chair.

He plopped down, feeling a pressure emanating from her. Magic was stronger than his mutation. He'd know this, but feeling it was different. The stifling oppression that made every instinct tell him to run. The difference was that he could run. If another person sat here, they would be on the floor a whimpering mess. Zyaire had one circle.

"A bit of both," he said, getting used to the weight. Kaz rolled his shoulders, dropping a knife into his hand more for comfort than to use.

"What?" she asked, the pressure disappearing.

"Brave and stupid," he said. "I'm a bit of both, more stupid than brave most days. I sort of act like I've got it together, but I'm making it up as I go. I've got no clue what I'm doing half the time."

Something was refreshing about saying that out loud. Kaz was a maladapted teenager who first killed a person at thirteen and hasn't stopped since. Not because he wanted to, but out of necessity. When people were desperate, they didn't care if they died.

"Anyway," he said, cutting her off before she could talk. "Skyscrapers are taller than magic towers but might not hold as much. With magic, there is expansion magic." She wrote it down with a serious face like he'd given her the cure to cancer.

She nodded, but he wasn't sure if she could visualize it. He briefly debated giving her a magazine or something but didn't want to increase her curiosity. The stack of papers in front of her was terrifying enough.

"How is a car different from a carriage?" Her head was tilted, and he would almost call it cute if the look in her eye weren't so manic.

"Sort of, but it doesn't use horses. It would be like a carriage that moved itself. Are there magic carriages?"

The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

"No. Not that people haven't tried, but the cost in mana stones is astronomical. The people who could afford it would rather install a warp gate to a teleportation center." She was scribing furiously even though he hadn't said much.

Kaz was starting to wonder what she was going to use this information for. He didn't get to ask before she lobbed her next question at him.

"What's a hamster?" she asked.

That question came out of left field. "Are those in order?"

"Not really. I'm going by category. See," she said, showing him pages that were color-coded and packed with writing.

Kaz didn't see. Her organizational structure probably only made sense to her. Kaz did another thing he'd rank high on the list of stupid, pulling out a hamster.

"Oh," she gasped, covering her mouth.

"Sort of looks like a bant, but is bigger and mostly eats vegetables." Naruto looked like a regular hamster, but he'd already been alive for five years when the regular life span was two. Whether Naruto mutated or the spring water in Kaz's space kept him alive was hard to tell. The water in his space had healing properties, but as evidenced by the scars on his hands, it wasn't a cure-all.

He put Naruto away and looked up to see Zyaire wearing a betrayed expression. "You didn't let me pet it."

Kaz took out Bellatrix and handed her over.

Zyaire squeaked. Her hands were barely able to contain the fluff.

Kaz looked over, breathing a sigh of relief when he saw the progress bar had moved to seventy percent. Bellatrix was a Flemish Giant that had mutated.

"I've never seen a rabbit this large." Zyaire buried her face in his fur.

"So, you've got rabbits." Kaz could only describe her expression as droll. "You don't have hamsters," he pointed out. "Bellatrix is a Flemish Giant, a domesticated breed of rabbit bred for size. Historically, they were bred for their meat and fur, but were common pets when I was younger." Kaz wasn't dumb enough to mention mutation.

"For my sanity, I'm limiting you to four questions per day. There is no point arguing--" Kaz was cut off by a sound he'd been waiting on.

Ding. Modification complete.

The sound lanced through him, his head whipping to the side. Hands trembling, he reached into the blue screen and pulled out the completed manual.

Ignacius's No title. 100% compatibility.

Kaz heard the blood pounding in his ears as his blood raced. It was such an innocuous text it was the beginning of something so monumental he couldn't comprehend it.

"Zyaire," he looked up, the sight pulling him out of the moment. The girl across from him hadn't been paying attention, far too engrossed in the animal snuggling up to her.

Kaz knocked on the table, getting her attention. "Any tips?" he asked, waving the manual at her.

"The first time you try meditating don't use the mantra in your manual. Just close your eyes and try to sense the mana in your body. Once familiar with your body, extend your senses and try to feel the mana in the air. Some say it helps if they visualize it like dust floating in the air, but that doesn't work for everyone. When you can sense the mana in the air, try pulling it towards you. Don't take it in yet, just pull it towards you and get used to that. After you can move the mana closer to you without feeling a strain, try integrating it into the mana in your body. Most people feel a burning sensation around their navel and the mana tries to pool there, but you can't let it. Scholars aren't certain why but it can get locked there and become inaccessible." Bellatrix got bored with being held and tried to jump out of her hand.

Kaz gave her some lettuce, wondering why her words reminded him of martial arts novels. Soon Bellatrix settled and Zyaire continued.

"Where was I?" she asked.

"Mana getting locked at the navel," Kaz said, writing everything she said down.

"Yeah, that's it. You have to push it into circulation around your body. Do that until you're comfortable. It's easier to integrate a small amount of mana at first. If you try to absorb too much, it can disorder the mana in your body causing permanent damage. I mean it. It's better to be careful. I've seen people pop like water bags."

She made the motion with her hands. "Next, you can move to using low-quality mana stones. Same process, practice pulling the mana out of the stone before integrating it into your body. After you're familiar with all of that you can use the manual's mantra to order the mana and create a circuit around the body. You'll have to guide mana along that path at first but after a while, it should move that way naturally."

Zyaire cooed at Bellatrix. "The circuit needs maintenance. You have to keep checking that it's flowing the way you want. Lastly, create a comfortable path toward your heart. I can't help you with that. Everybody's path is different. Maybe because I'm a light mage, but mine has many paths similar to the sunbeams."

The look she turned on Kaz was one he recognized. "You can't keep her. First, you don't have anywhere to put her."

"I can master the spell second home, I'm a first circle mage now!"

Kaz added that to his never-decreasing list of things he needed to learn. He could infer what it was, a place like his space that could house living things, but he needed to do more research to see if it was a spell worth learning and if his space mimicked the spell enough that other mages wouldn't notice.

"I'll give you a couple of her babies once you've mastered the spell, but she's got her warren and is pretty happy." Kaz didn't think it would go over well if he said Bellatrix was bred for food.

She reluctantly handed over the rabbit. Kaz stored Bellatrix and could almost see her heartbreak.

They headed out the door where they ran into Tristan.

His sharp eyes scanned Zyaire. "Something feels different, but I can't tell what."

Zyarie threw up her hands in frustration. "What's the point of wearing this bracelet if everyone can tell? You know what it is, you are beasts, both of you are beasts."

"Can I tell him?" Kaz asked her.

"Do whatever you want!" She stomped her feet, storming off.

"Where are you going?" Tristan asked, more to irritate her than caring about her.

"To learn a spell," she said, outing herself. "Argh!" She turned around, glaring at us.

Kaz took a step away from Tristan who stood with his arms in his pocket grinning at her. "You've formed your first circle."

The library wasn't packed with people, but there was enough that this information would spread around the first years.

"I take it back," Zyaire said, storming towards us. "You can't tell him anything." Her finger poked his chest, the pressure coming off her increasing.

The heavier it got, the more manic Tristan's grin became. "What can't he tell me, Princess?"

"None of your business."

Tristan rolled his neck. "That tickles."

"You're crazy." Zyaire checked the bracelet on her hand unsure if she'd released her mana.

"Are you two done?" Kaz asked, not sure what he was watching.

Zyaire checked Tristan's expression, and whatever she saw made her angrier.

"Where was she?" Tristan asked when they were alone.

"Her cousin helped her form her first circle." Kaz was dense, but that looked a lot like flirting. Maybe not so much on Zyaire's part, but Tristan. "You--"

Tristan watched her until she disappeared. "Don't. She's a princess and I'm a bastard son. Even if I claim my father's title she's way out of my league."

Bastard was a heavy word here. Bastard's were raised separately to see if they had any magical talent. If they displayed extraordinary talent, they were given their family surname and brought into a minor family branch. If their talent was average, they were given a bastard's name and assigned a suitable role. "So, your solution is to piss her off because you were worried when she disappeared."

Tristan grinned, shrugging. "Not sure I want her to like me. Not sure there is anything to like. " Tristan's situation was unique. His father didn't have a legitimate wife, instead, siring as many bastards as possible and then telling them to fight it out. Those whose mothers were of note had a better chance. Tristan's mother wasn't a noble, but her ambition was boundless.

Kaz tapped him on the shoulder. "On the bright side, she wants to squash you like a bug, so at least she's thinking of you."

"Are you comforting me?"

"Sort of? Not really. Let's agree that I'm bad at it and move on, I'm out of practice. Let me tell you what I learned, but you can't sell this information. The playing field can't be too even."