Lost it again.

Adion put a hand on his forehead, feeling a headache coming on.

“How long did it take this time?” Adion turned to Sell and asked.

Sell was sitting a bit away from Adion, staring intently at the fire she had conjured. Adion could feel its heat even at a distance. She didn’t look up from her fire as she answered, “About 30 minutes, I think.”

Adion picked up his pocketwatch and noted that Sell’s estimate was pretty accurate.

That should be it for today, then. It just gets harder and harder to focus.

It had been almost two weeks since Adion’s first attempt at pushing his Authority in the Headmaster’s office. He now spent some time every day attempting to get into that state of focus that allowed him to control a lot more space than he should.

It was quite an arduous process. Adion had thought that the 10 minutes it took to enter that state in the Headmaster’s office was the most amount of time it would ever take him, but he was sorely mistaken. Most days, it would take him over 20 minutes before he managed to focus enough to increase his Authority temporarily. And he didn’t see himself getting quicker any time soon.

It didn’t always take him that long, though. Three days ago, he managed to get into the right state of mind in just over 6 minutes.

I suppose it doesn’t really matter how long it takes me unless I’m in danger. But if I’m in danger, I probably won’t have many seconds to act. How much will I have to practice until I can get to that level?

Oh, well. Only one way to find out. What’s most important right now is to increase the amount of time I can hold onto that focus without slipping.

The more space I can grab when I’m in that state of mind, the more my Authority increases.

Adion had noticed that the amount of space he could control did indeed increase every time he managed to enter that focused state. It wasn’t by a lot, but it was hundreds of times faster than his previous method of conjuring space and pushing it into the space he held Authority over.

I believe this is also greatly tempering my Will. Not only does it feel like my Will becomes stronger, it somehow becomes sharper. I’m not sure what the difference is, but I feel like there is something important to discover here.

“Alright, I have to go,” Sell said, standing up. They were in a private fighting pit that they had rented from the Scrolls at the moment. A place they had been spending most days at ever since they joined the House.

“Okay,” Adion nodded, “I’ll stay here for a while.”

“Did you manage to increase your Authority?” Sell asked.

“A little,” Adion nodded, “But I think I’m done with that kind of training for today. I’ll just relax and contemplate some concepts.”

“Alright,” Sell smiled. “I really want to see if I can enter that special focused state too. I’ll ask Felicia and Lastia if they know anywhere we might be able to go for that.”

“Sounds good,” Adion nodded.

Sell had no way of increasing her Authority at the moment, but that wasn’t a big problem as she could control a lot more fire than she could conjure. Still, it was something she wanted to address, and Adion could understand that. Unfortunately, a big fire like that would draw too much attention no matter where at the Academy they were, so they had to look for an opportunity to travel someplace more private.

“Don’t forget to study for the history test,” Sell reminded.

“I think I got it covered,” Adion assured her.

“I don’t know about that,” Sell muttered. “If you stay at the House of the Scrolls, I can come over once I’m back and help you study.”

“I won’t say no to that,” Adion grinned.

“Good,” Sell smiled. She bent down to give Adion a kiss before turning to leave. “I’ll see you later!”

“Have fun!” Adion called after her.

She was going into Cyalis with Felicia and Lastia, and Adion had no intention of getting in the way of their time together. He was glad Sell had gotten friends, even if he was slightly suspicions of them.

Maybe I should follow and see for myself how trustworthy they are. It has been a while since I practiced my spying skills.

Adion soon discarded that thought, though. No. Then I would be spying on Sell too. And besides, Sell has already assured me that they weren’t the ones to tell the Hesfym family. I might be better at Sell in aura control, but she has me beat in aura sense. She also has that weird eye thing. I trust her ability.

Adion had got word from the Headmaster that he had been visited by a Soul mage from the Hesfym family. Apparently, they were somehow sure of Adion’s and Sell’s relationship.

Adion had no idea how someone could be sure of that. He had an excellent spatial awareness. He didn’t think anyone would be able to spy on him without him knowing. Not even the Headmaster himself had managed to do so.

So, the only thing he could think of was that someone who knew about it had revealed it to the Hesfym family for some reason. At the top of Adion’s list of suspects were Lastia and Felicia. But Sell had a good argument against those two; they didn’t know anything until after the Hesfym family had already received word about their relationship.

She questioned them about it just to be safe, but they claimed they hadn’t told anyone. And Sell was sure they weren’t lying.

Adion had then asked his family if they had talked about it without thinking. They were all sure that they wouldn’t have let something like that slip.

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He had gone to Prago to ask him about it, but he was also completely sure he hadn’t talked about it.

Adion had even gone to ask Perk and Tib to make sure they hadn’t revealed anything by accident, but they assured him that there wasn’t any possibility of that.

Even if Marli or the guards have overheard something, they have all taken Oaths that would prevent them from speaking.

Oh, well. I guess it’s impossible to find out exactly how something was revealed.

It’s just surprising that they seemed to be so sure about it. Not even the Headmaster knew how that could be.

Since then, Adion had been extra careful with Sell. He wasn’t going to be threatened into ending things with her, even if it was only for the remaining time at the Academy. But he now always made sure to keep his senses extra sharp whenever he and Sell were alone together. He didn’t want to miss anything suspicious.

I haven’t noticed anything out of the ordinary. Maybe it was just a coincidence.

Adion sat out the remaining time he had rented the fighting pit for, silently contemplating concepts in peace.

When the time was up, Adion got up and headed over to the House of the Scrolls. The private fighting pit he had rented wasn’t far away, so it didn’t take him long.

Adion headed to the library and sat down to read some of the books he had borrowed that covered the topics that would appear on the history test. He had to admit that he was somewhat behind on the subject. He had spent most of his time training or on other subjects. With most other students in diamond class already having received a much better education, Adion would fall behind if he didn’t put some effort in.

Maybe I can impress Sell when she comes back.

The hours ticked by, and Adion decided to go get something to eat. He headed for the cafeteria located next to the reception. It was pretty expensive, as you had to pay in credits to eat there, but the food was delicious. Adion knew he would have to spend a lot of his credits if he wanted a chance to enter the Scrolls council and compete for the position of Head before his fourth year.

It’s a little lonely to eat without Sell. Adion thought as he got the food delivered to his table.

He had quickly entered a routine when he joined the Scrolls. He would start each day by meditating as always. Even if he was a middle Silver mage now, he had no intention of slowing down. Sell had reached peak Bronze, and Adion was afraid that she would catch up to him now that she had Authority over fire.

He obviously wanted Sell to grow as strong as possible. He just wanted to grow slightly stronger.

After meditating, on the days that he didn’t have any classes, he would head to the House of the Scrolls to meet up with Sell. They would rent out a fighting pit together and train for a few hours. After that, they would go to the library and study together, they mostly had the same classes, so they would usually discuss whatever subject they were studying together.

After that, they would get something to eat and relax for a while. Usually, they would spend a few hours in the cafeteria talking, or going for a walk together. But this was the first day Sell had other plans.

Am I seriously already at a loss just because she has been gone for a few hours? That’s ridiculous.

Adion didn’t want to sit by himself with nothing to occupy his mind, so after eating he decided to take a walk around the House of the Scrolls to take a look around.

He got a few stares from the other students, but it was nothing unusual. He was the disciple of the Headmaster, after all. That, along with his strength, caught people’s attention.

Fortunately, no one got weird about it. The Scrolls had a very relaxed attitude to social etiquette. No one expected anyone to be treated differently just because they were older, stronger, or came from a more powerful family. The Scrolls believed those things only got in the way of elevating their knowledge and could be detrimental to cooperation and discussing new ideas.

This fitted Adion perfectly, as he was a little uncomfortable whenever other students started acting overly polite to him.

After wandering around for a while, Adion reached one of the recreation rooms. He spotted Ohem sitting in the corner, he was sitting comfortably in an armchair reading a book.

Adion hadn’t seen the man for a while. He had only finished his game of cards against him the day after he joined the Scrolls and had not looked for him since then.

“Hey there, Ohem,” Adion said as he walked up to the fourth year, “Do you want to play some cards? Or are you busy?”

Ohem looked up to Adion with a wide smile, “I knew you were an alright guy. Sit. Let’s play.”

“Oh, right,” Adion nodded and took a seat. Ohem seamlessly pulled out a deck of cards from somewhere and started shuffling.

“I heard you had advanced to middle Silver,” Ohem commented, “It seems like it’s true.”

“I actually advanced a while ago,” Adion said, “I just didn’t want there to be any commotion for a while. It has been a couple of turbulent weeks.”

“I can imagine,” Ohem nodded.

Fortunately, there wasn’t as big of a reaction as I had feared. Perhaps people have gotten used to it.

“Sailor’s luck?” Ohem asked.

“Sure,” Adion nodded.

Ohem started dealing out the cards. “I thought I was talented when I reached Silver in my third year. I guess it’s good I never got too conceited.”

“That’s still very impressive,” Adion said earnestly, “And it doesn’t really matter how early you reach each stage. What matters is where you end up.”

“Maybe,” Ohem nodded.

They both turned silent and started playing. As it was only Adion’s second time playing, he was thoroughly defeated by Ohem.

“You’re very good at this,” Adion commented. As much as luck was always involved, Adion knew Ohem had played very skillfully.

“I have spent countless hours playing, so it’s only natural,” Ohem said.

“How do you have time to play so much cards?” Adion questioned, “Don’t you need to spend basically all your time meditating and training?

“Playing cards is a way of training,” Ohem said.

“You said that like it was something profound. Are you sure you don’t just like playing cards?” Adion questioned.

“Maybe,” Ohem admitted with a small smile, “But it’s still true. When my parents noticed my talents and saw how much time I ‘wasted’ on games, they took all my cards away from me. I figured I might as well train so I can get to play again. But I noticed that my speed of advancement slowed to a crawl all of a sudden.

“My parents thought I was doing it on purpose and were furious with me. But no matter what they said or did, I just couldn’t advance like I had earlier. Eventually, they gave up and allowed me to play again. All of a sudden, everything became easy again. I haven’t had a bottleneck since.”

“How is that possible?” Adion asked, confused, “What makes playing cards something that helps you advance?”

“I have no idea,” Ohem said, shaking his head, “I think I’ll have to play a lot more to figure it out.”

“You think there is a mysterious reason behind it?” Adion asked. He believed Ohem was just refusing to try, maybe on a subconscious level, but still very explainable.

“It’s a mysterious world,” Ohem said with a shrug.

I’ll give him that.

Adion decided not to think too much about it and just focused on the card game. He had to admit that it was a nice way to pass the time.