"That is a seed of time, a precious object as you might have imagined.

With it, you'll be able to commence the linking of your soul to the aspect of time. I must warn you though, there is no going back after this, once we start the procedure the deed will be as good as done.

Stopping midway will directly send you to Greta's Communion, alas you'll die."

Being repeatedly asked if he was clear about his intentions, again and again, made Nestor feel a little frustrated.

'I thought to have made a definite take about my thoughts, I am not backing down. Still, he's a good person, to care this much about me.'

A little moved, Nestor took his time, a few minutes of silence to evaluate the seed. It was a dark red almond-shaped seed, its length was that of Nestor's pinky finger.

Almost tempted to ask what 'Greta's Communion was', Nestor decided not to. By now he had learned one or two common shenanigans here in Ceres.

If Lenard wanted him to know about it, he would have already explained. He didn't do so.

"I'm ready, please proceed teacher."

Lenard found Nestor's response to be more straightforward than usual, his face told him that the man was full of curiosity about many things, yet he didn't pose any questions.

'He's quick to catch on, Ceres army officers will expect more straight answers than inquisitive questions from young trainees.

I might as well reward him, I guess.'

Then light blue runes of unknown symbols started to rotate around Lenard's wrists. Sparks of light diffused around him, and as the runes sped up a strange spatial phenomenon manifested over the table.

To Nestor appeared as if a curved mirror repeatedly phased in and out of space itself. Soon after, the bright runes disappeared returning the room to its light green tint. Finally over the table, near the pure white container, appeared an ivory metallic arm. It had only three fingers and a light blue blob of light encased in its rectangular-shaped black pedestal.

Nestor had already seen one too many bizarre things to remain agape in front of it. Nonetheless, he was deeply impressed by such an artifact.

"Quite the remarkable relic we have here right? Both the seed and this have been given to you by someone.

Maybe a secret admirer or a long-lost family member?

Of course, they will take the arm back, but this splendid box is yours to take, and that says a lot. Nothing is free in Ceres, only the more dangerous individuals will give you such gifts since you wouldn't be able to escape them anyway.

But the alternative would be wandering the lower rings without a plan, and you seem quite committed to the deed."

Hence, Lenard quickly chugged two vials worth of tonics, and once again his hands crackled with power, as various runes appeared around his wrists. Only this time they were bright yellow.

"Teacher wai-"

Nestor wanted to butt in, yet he found himself firmly locked onto the chair. His breathing was rough, his mind felt sluggish and as he struggled in an attempt to bring down the chair together with him, he finally took a glimpse of his helplessness.

Bright light constructs had chained him together with the chair to the floor. Now his mouth was being shut with a tightly adherent piece of light construct. He had been rendered immobile.

For a moment fear took hold of him, as a similar occasion had happened not that long ago. Nestor was profusely sweating as Lenard had now directed his focus to the mechanical arm. Directing his soul power to its core, he made the three fingers of the artifact able to sporadically move. Then even the entire arm completed a few empty circles as if to certify its full capabilities.

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"Excuse me for my rudeness, by when I said no turning back I meant it. This will be a critical procedure, which will require my full concentration. Hence relax and stay still, it won't take long."

As he said so, the white arm suddenly moved and picked up the red seed with extreme precision.

"We will need to insert the seed directly through your soul. This way, you'll manage to completely absorb it. Your soul is located under your sternum, how deep it depends on the individual.

Anyway, you must not worry, the seed won't remain corporeal, as soon as it'll make contact with your soul it will vanish, bit by bit. That is due to a phenomenon we refer to as space distortion, which I won't explain right now."

Silence possessed the little study room of the professor, as only the rhythmic robotic movements of the arm could be heard.

Soon enough, muffled sounds echoed the room, Nestor tried his best not to utter a sound but both the pain and psychological pressure made it almost impossible for him. On the contrary, Lenard was calm and focused on the task at hand, as the seed slowly penetrated his disciple's chest.

A ripple of blood gushed out from under the seed and stained Nastor's trousers. The intrusion of the foreign object, slowly sinking inside his chest made him feel even more vulnerable.

Nestor's shuddering came to an end as a warm sensation engulfed him, the mass of the seed slowly disappeared as the hard, cold fingers of the artifact quickly retracted.

"Your soul wasn't that deep, as such, to close the scar the ointment coupled with a couple of bandages will do. Try to avoid any hits in this exact spot for the next few days."

Then, once again, Lenard's wrists sparkled with powerful runes quickly running in circles. Though, this time, their intensity was much higher, giving Nestor a strong sense of oppression. The runes varied in color and ranged from blue, to yellow and green.

Finally, a bright green fluid settled around Nestor's injury, once fully absorbed blood stopped gushing out and his skin slowly closed the wound, leaving only a scar.

Lenard exhaled a couple of deep breaths, as the runes on his arms quickly dispersed. The scholar felt exhausted, drained, and sweating at least as much as Nestor. He let himself sink into the soft pillow of his chair.

"You're free, we'll make a small rest and then resume our lesson."

Nestor's hands were still slightly trembling, many things were weighing down on his mind at the moment.

'This is crazy, I need to calm down. This should be the trauma relative to my death, I wasn't as scared during training and that was basically a fight.'

As Nestor's breathing got slowly back to normal, he got up and reached out for the ointment Lenard left for him. He slowly opened the circular lid of the small wooden jar containing said medicine. A white, dense cream was hiding beneath it, with two of his fingers he scooped some and applied it to his fresh scar. Ultimately he wrapped things up with a few rounds of bandages.

Meanwhile, the tired professor had drunk yet again a couple of tonics, yet this time he didn't seem to get that much better.

"Damn it, my body built some resistance to the tonics, I'll have to wait a few hours before they'll regain any efficiency.

Alright, it doesn't matter, let's start anyway. You don't have much time to waste. Are you ready?"

Lenard's tone sounded quite strained, it was evident that at this point he was pushing himself.

"I am, and I wanted to thank you teacher for the care you put into this. Truth to be told you did scare me for a while back there, nonetheless, I will still look forward to your teachings."

Pleased to have his efforts properly recognized, Lenard resumed his lesson.

"First and foremost, let me explain to you the basic principles behind the intrinsic mechanisms of the soul.

A soul works, in a certain way, similarly to your nervous system. It is mainly composed of three elements. It has a soma, its central component, that is the first part to naturally develop, as every living being possesses one.

Without it, you would die, definitely. Let's be clear here, It does not overlap with your brain's main functions, but it does have similar ones. For example, it retains a good part of your memories and can influence your cognitive capabilities, in both negative and positive ways. On the other hand, it won't be able to influence your body as much, it cannot secrete hormones and doesn't make physical contact with it, as motor neurons do.

It's a bit complicated, so if you don't really understand some of the terms I mentioned to you, I'll assign you to a few biology classes.

Oh, yes, on the matter. If, by chance, you come across any subjects that pique your interest let me know. The academy holds several courses you might be able to participate in and learn from.

The other two main components of a soul are the soul dendrites and the soul axon.

Soul dendrites are very important and are the ones you'll have to work on the most. They are an extension of your soul and will do most of the work.

They span two essential functions. The first is to receive information from the environment surrounding you and report it directly to your soul. For example, the foretelling ability you manifested should be a result of it. The second one is even more important. It's through them that you can exchange soul energy between your soma and the environment.

Lastly, we have the soul axon. It is responsible for linking the soma directly to your brain. You will have to cultivate it first, as without it you wouldn't be able to have proper control over your soul."