The early morning light filtered through the curtains and Morgan felt surprisingly refreshed as he woke up. His body felt more or less restored, the pain had receded to a dull ache that to Morgan was almost imperceptible. Smiling and stretching Morgan recalled something that he had overlooked. Aspartos had said that he would start treatment today, however he had not mentioned when or even where. Thus Morgan panicked and he dressed himself in a rush before flying out the door. As he hurried down the stairs his stomach growled and guiltily he chose to grab a quick breakfast and then run over to Aspartos’s office.

Much to Morgan’s surprise his feet took him not to the fourth cafeteria but the second, where he was looking for a table when Ross waved him down and scooted over making space for him. Morgan, who had been troubled by the overcrowded cafeteria, breathed a sigh of relief and sat down. He did not recognize most of the students at the table except for Rina and Ross. The twins however looked to be familiar with most of the students around them.

“Feelin better today?” Rina spoke in a surprisingly gentle voice as she gave Morgan a searching look as he sat down.

“Umm yeah, thanks.” He gave her a shy smile.

“A-as long as you’re feelin better.” Rina uncharacteristically stumbled over her words while looking somewhat embarrassed. Ross only half managed to keep a straight face as he held back his laughter earning him a glare from Rina. The other students either did not notice or chose to ignore the twins’ behaviour and the lively conversation they were having amongst themselves were still somewhat alien to Morgan. But with the twins there he did not feel too out of place as he hurriedly consumed his breakfast. Morgan was not paying much attention to the conversations since he did not know most of the students but when a student asked Ross a question he had been wondering about and he lifted his head from the food and listened.

“So Ross, you and your sister are nobles right?” The boy looked a bit uncomfortable as he asked.

“Yepp.” Ross answered simply as he continued eating his egg.

“Than…” The boy looked between Ross and Rina. “How come you did not introduce yourself with your full name?” By this point most of the table had stopped talking and were listening to the conversation.

“Well.” Ross gave Rina a look. Two gave of the impression of having a silent conversation simply by looking at one another and the students around the table watched them curiously.

“We simply don’t have a family name at the moment.” Rina answered with a shrug.

“Hahaha.” Ross laughed at the confusion clear on the faces of the other students including Morgan. “It’s a family tradition.” He added with a smile. “Until uncle names his heir all of the potential heirs could become the next Seabane. Thus it is tradition for us to not take up our family name until the heir has been chosen.” As soon as he stopped talking a girl sitting next to spoke up in a respectful tone.

“You are heirs of Count Seabane?!” Her bright hair and tanned skin made her look like an easterner like the twins. The twins looked at one another again, seemingly holding some conversation once more. Morgan felt a bit startled by this discovery. Count Seabane was not only the rule of Stormwall, one of the largest cities of the empire but was also the Imperial admiral. To call him a bigshot noble would be the understatement of the year.

“No, not really.” Rina said with a chuckle. “Either of us could potentially be selected but we are probably among the most unlikely candidates.” Rina answered still chuckling.

“It is probably cousin Kalithos or cousin Ben that will be named heir.” Ross continued.

“Or sister Sarah.” Rina’s words gave Ross quite a start, causing him to turn to her in alarm.

“Surely you jest sister?” He was suddenly a bit paler and there was a tiny bead of sweat running down the side of his face. “Even father thinks that Sarah is far too hot blooded.” Ross spoke rather desperately as if to deny his sisters words.

“Well, uncle said that it is not a bad thing for young folk to be hot blooded.” She straightened her back and made her voice deeper, obviously imitating someone. “‘When you’re young, being hot blooded is far better than being a coward! A hot head can be tempered but a coward will always be useless.’” She smirked at Ross who had trouble keeping a straight face.

“But she has lost two ships already!” Ross’s voice was almost pleading.

“So what, we both know that sister is uncle's favourite.” Her smile had turned very stiff at some point as if this conversation also distressed her. “It is not my preferred outcome either, but we should prepare ourselves for the possibility brother.” Ross groaned and picked aimlessly at his remaining food and Rina ran her hand through her long pale blonde hair and sighed heavily. Morgan felt like he should say something to alleviate the heavy atmosphere but he did not have any confidence in succeeding. No in truth he didn’t even have the slightest idea of what to say.

“Is this why Stormwall sends so many children to the Academy?” A boy that looked like he was a little older than the rest asked.

“Yeah, in the name of fairness all of the potential heirs of Stormwall are sent to the Academy for education.” Ross nodded, happy to for the change of topic.

“Ahh I wish my family was that wealthy.” Whined a skinny girl at the edge of the table. “My sister can’t go to the Academy as I am the heir and we can’t afford to send her.” She added sadly.

“It probably has little to do with wealth though.” The older boys said and chuckled humorlessly at the puzzled look he got from the skinny girl. “I doubt that the Academy charges them more than the fee for a second child irrelevant of how many they send.”

“Why? Is it not supposed to be the same for everyone?” The skinny girl asked unhappily.

“Because count Seabane is simply that powerful. Or what do you think they charge the Imperial family for sending all of the princes and princesses to the Academy as well?” He sounded both amused and a bit condescending.

“No but…” Before she could decide what to say the older boy cut her off.

“Yes the Academy is supposedly equal to all students, but that is just not possible is it?” He sighed. “Haven't you guys had classes with the prince?” He looked around the table and got several nodes of consent.

“Then you must have seen that every class he takes is led by a Master, never an adept not to even mention an apprentice.” He shook his head. “You may not have noticed it but almost all classes first years take are normally held by apprentices.” He gave the girl a stern look. “Do you really think that the prince is given the same treatment that the rest of us are?” He paused a bit before adding. “And do you think that the Academy should treat him the same?” The girl did not answer at first but after some time she looked down and shook her head. Once again the silence felt heavy to Morgan but he was once again incapable of doing anything about it.

“Not that the price has it any easier than us however.” The older boy was the one that broke the silence his own words had created. “Did you know that the prince might be removed from the succession if he fails a single class?” He said this in a lower and a bit conspiratorial voice causing the other children to look up at him in alarm. “In fact this has happened at least three times since the founding of the Academy.” He said this with a smirk before leaning in closer to the centre of the table and after looking around he spoke in an even lower voice. “And if he fails to graduate he will be disowned.” This statement caused audible gasps to escape from the lips of some of the children. “This has only happened once and the Academy makes sure not to spread it as it is considered a massive failure of the Academy. But my grandmother told me that a spoiled and insufferable former prince attended the Academy when she did and that when he failed to graduate the empress Viviana disowned him on the spot before the entire Academy.” The boy leaned back, a smile on his lips as the other children whispered among themselves. Morgan felt that he had heard something similar before but as his mind started to drift he was reminded that he had to go see Aspartos. He quickly finished the oversized breakfast and said goodbye to the other before hurrying off.

Making his way over to the old building he remembered what his next class was and really hoped that he was lucky enough to make it back in time for that class. He would really, really prefer not to be late or gods forbid miss etiquette class. As he would very much prefer to not have to do extra homework on etiquette. Those tasked tended to be exceedingly long and tedious. Entering the old building he was struck by how empty it felt. He looked around and wondered why it was like this here. Academy activities started well before dawn for some and by now practically every building on the Academy was abuzz with activity. Yet this one was oddly quiet. “That is probably because there is only one classroom here and one office.” He though as he walked up to the office and suddenly felt nervous.

Taking a deep breath to calm himself he knocked on the door. After some time passed he wondered if Aspartos was not in considering that there was no response but after some deliberation he knocked again.

“Is he really not in?” Morgan muttered and jumped back when a voice spoke directly into his head.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“Who are you?” The cold and inhuman was vaguely feminine.

“Who was that?!” Morgan shouted, startled looking around the empty hallway.

“Incorrect. Who are you?”

“Incorrect? What?” Morgan felt confused than remembered the event of two days prior.

“I am the seeker of truth and the collector of knowledge?” He repeated the words he had heard Alina say not thinking much about it. Much to his surprise there was a click from the door and it opened slightly. Morgan looked around feeling like he had done something that he really should not have.

“What should I do?” Morgan spoke nervously to no one in particular. Morgan was at this moment facing an unfamiliar problem. He was both very afraid of angering his future Master and incredibly curious. What was Aspartos’s office like? A man who even Grandmasters treated with utmost respect. In the end much to his own surprise he pushed the door open.

The office was not at all what he expected, first of all the room was larger than the classroom opposite. It was so large in fact that Morgan felt a bit of unease just thinking about it. Still that was not all. There were three doors that should not be there as this office was located at the back corner of the building. The only door should be leading outside if anything but seemingly none of them did. Besides this strangeness that made Morgan doubt his senses. The room was also utterly cluttered. There were scrolls and books everywhere, on the large desk, on what looked like a dining table on the chairs and even on the floor. Spread out amongst the books but in far smaller numbers were vials, boxes, cups and all manner of bones. If Morgan was forced to describe the room the word he would use would be ‘Chaos’. It was unlike anything he had ever seen before, books and even paper might not be as expensive as it once was but it was by no means cheap. As Morgan stood in the doorway one of the doors opened to a dark room and Aspartos stepped out yawning.

“You are here awfully early.” Aspartos said in a tired voice. “Why are you standing around in the doorway? Come on in, come in.” he gestured for Morgan to enter. Morgan looked around at the floor. With great reluctance he gingerly stepped into the office making sure not to step on any of the books that littered the floor. Aspartos just shook his head at his slow pace and stifled another yawn before stretching causing his bones to creak loudly enough that Morgan could hear in on the opposite side of the room.

“Have you had breakfast?” Aspartos drawled. The old man lazily strode over to the large desk while scratching his thinning hair. After picking up a large book that had been occupying the large leather chair he sat down. He quickly read the title of the book and chucked it onto one of the piles on the desk.

“Yes.” Morgan said as he looked around the room unsure of what to do.

“Just grab a seat. You can sit wherever, just put the stuff on the floor.” He gestured at the three chairs that stood on the opposite side of the desk and were almost buried in clutter. Aspartos rummaged through the piles on the table for a few moments toppling some of the more unstable piles before finding what he was looking for. Triumphantly he pulled out an ornate teapot from the pile of rubble, gave it a shake then smelled its contents and smiled contentedly. His eyes scanned the table until he found two cups, one deceptively empty the other filled with quills. Aspartos gave the empty cup a suspicious look as he poured out the quills out onto the table from the other.

“Clean.” Aspartos said with a frown and green light seemed to flow into the cups making Aspartos smile in satisfaction. “Here drink.” He said after pouring something into the cup. Much to Morgan’s surprise the pot that had been hidden in the piles of books and other stuff produced a liquid that steamed. In wonder he received a cup after clearing a chair of the small stack of books that had been gathered dust on top of it. He frowned when he saw pale grey liquid that smelled rather sweet.

“It’s Modevian tea.” Aspartos took a sip and closed his eyes in delight, for once acting the age he looked. Morgan took a sip of the grey tea and had to fight to keep his face straight, the tea was indeed as it smelled. It was very, very sweet, to the point that Morgan could taste almost nothing else.

“It's quite sweet.” Morgan said doing his best not to grimace and trying to sound diplomatic.

“Yes, it is made from a rare variety of sugarcane that is incredibly difficult to harvest as it is deadly poisonous unless picked in blooming season.” He took another sip and grinned. “Problem is that the pollen of the blooming flowers releases the built up poison making the very air where the plants grow, quite deadly to humans.” Aspartos leaned back slowly enjoying his tea, Morgan however found it a bit difficult to drink as he was not a fan of sweet things and this tea was overpoweringly sweet The knowledge of that the flower it was produced from was poisonous didn’t help. Aspartos noticed this and frowned for a moment before he spoke.

“Make sure to drink up, you will need the energy it gives you. As I said previously the treatment will be rather taxing.” He gave a mischievous grin that pushed Morgan to finish his tea quickly. So Morgan did as he was told and finished his tea but was unable to keep his face from contorting somewhat. When Morgan put the cup down Aspartos stood and walked over to Morgan without stepping on any of the clutter despite not looking at it. “How does he do that?” He wondered as he straightened his back and paid close attention to the old man.

“Well let's start.” Aspartos said without preamble and reached out and put his hand on Morgan’s head.

“Wait now? What are... bhaughaae!” Aspartos, ignoring the surprised Morgan formed a spell and sent it into the boy whose words devolved into a mixture between a yelp and a shout.

A sharp pain ran through Morgan’s body that coloured the entirety of the world white. The pain passed in less than a heartbeat and Morgan barely caught himself from falling off the chair. The pain had been so brief that for a moment he thought he had imagined it. Yet looking at his slightly trembling arms he knew it had been real. He looked up at the old man, vision blurry.

“Humm…” Aspartos troubled grumbling made Morgan a bit nervous. “I guess I shouldn’t be so surprised… but this presents a problem, should I accelerate my schedule?” Aspartos was tapping his chin and tilted head back and forth deep in thought.

“W-what… d-did.” Morgan found it hard to talk and before he managed to form his question in his stuttering voice Aspartos answered his unfinished question.

“I simply reinforced a spell that you are unconsciously maintaining in your body at all times.” Aspartos walked back to his chair.

“What spell?” Morgan thought as his vision slowly returned to normal. He noticed only now how he slumped in the chair and with some effort corrected his posture.

“You see boy, there are three primary things that have allowed you to survive.” He took a deep breath and sat down. “First, you fortuitously inherited your ancestor’s rather remarkable resilience.” He raised one finger. “Secondly your innate mana control is quite extraordinary.” He raised a second finger and then spoke in a voice that was both amused and perplexed. “Thirdly one of the healers that attempted to treat you used a spell that after very extensive testing has been banned as a treatment of Sylthian for almost a century.” Saying this Aspartos wore an almost wicked grin.

After walking back to his chair Aspartos poured himself another cup and leaned back sipping on his overly sweet tea. Morgan felt his mind race as he looked down on his still trembling arms. “I inherited my ancestor’s resilience?” Morgan looked at his thin arms and pale skin and could not imagine how that could be true even if the other two things were. His doubt must have been obvious as Aspartos chuckled.

“Hehe.” Aspartos cackled. “You’re alive!” He gave Morgan a fierce grin before giving Morgan a hard stare and spoke in an unusually stern voice. “You should be dead.” He let this sink in. “You might look at your body and think yourself unfortunate and that is true in a sense, but only in that you have the Sylthian disease.” He paused sipping some more on his tea. “Well, you will see once we cure you.”

Morgan considered this for a bit as he looked down on his thin arms. He clenched and unclenched his hands and they slowly stopped trembling. He had never really considered himself lucky but maybe he was even if he didn’t feel like it. He closed his eyes and tried to sense if here was any difference after the treatment but he was not feeling much different. The only thing that felt different was a slight tingling along with what felt like a rather deep fatigue. As he sat there with eyes closed Aspartos began speaking lazily.

“You probably have a lot of questions…” He sighed, looking anything but delighted. “I will give you a general outline you can ask questions after.” He took a deep breath emptying his cup and pouring himself another. “First, your ancestor, Viltor Kiath was an ascendant warrior particularly famous for his absurd resilience. He became so famous that the king even ennobled him. Luckily for you, Viltor’s abundant resilience still runs in your blood even after all this time.” He gave an amused chuckle. “Secondly, the treatment that is to this day keeping you alive is rather simple. It is a spell that helps the body repair itself from any damage. Normally is stops working when the caster’s mana run out.” Aspartos started speaking in a much more sombre voice now. “As to why it is banned, that is because the strain it causes to the body is far beyond what a child can take and all children that had this treatment tried on them died in horrible pain.” He gave a sad shake of the head sending his wispy white hair dancing.

Morgan gulped. To think that he could easily have ended up with such a fate was rather terrifying and he was starting to imagine how lucky he must have been to survive that. When suddenly Aspartos eyes gleamed and he took a sip of tea while grinning.

“In you case however not only did you survive it, to this day your body still continuously supply the spell with mana, repairing most of the damage that is caused by your disease. Also this led us to the third thing.” Aspartos chuckled. “As I said, spells stop working once they run out off mana. So, the treatment you received should have ended when the mana the healer infused into the spell ran out.” He grinned widely. “However…” He paused and gestured dramatically. “You or rather your body and subconscious somehow managed to infuse your own mana into the spell keeping the spell running to this very day.” Aspartos leaned in over the cluttered table and gave Morgan a crooked and almost manic smile. “This makes you rather, no. Very unique, as even from me it is very hard to sustain a spell cast by another, and yet.” He laughed. “You did this subconsciously and it is not even the only spell you do this with!” He said this sounding terribly excited. “You might even have greater potential than I.” He sighed, sounding profoundly pleased. “But well, that is where the good news ends I’m afraid.” He gave a disappointed sigh. “I had intended to treat you over the next year, and start your apprenticeship after the next summer when you started your second year at the Academy...” Drinking some more tea he grunted unhappily. “But now I will become quite busy.” He sighed again. “Oh well, at least it beats boredom.” He said his customary smile returning. “Well for now you can go, remember to eat and rest well. Return here tomorrow and we will see to you schedule, oh and after lunch if you don’t mind.” He added the last part as a question but Morgan felt that it was more of a command.

Saying this Aspartos took a book seemingly at random and started writing in it. Morgan felt a bit strange at the rather abrupt dismissal. He had not been able to ask a single question in the end and quite a few he wanted answered but chose to take his leave as he had clearly been dismissed. So standing he bowed to Aspartos and started leaving on somewhat unsteady legs thinking that this somehow was starting to become a habit.

Stepping out of the office he decided to go back to his room and take a nap as he felt rather tired, it felt like he had spent countless hours of reading on top of doing a full body workout. So it was with a sluggish body and a mind filled with countless questions that Morgan made his slow way back to his room.