William took a deep breath and knocked on the wooden double doors. He half-expected the room occupant to let him wait as a minor power play and was surprised by immediately hearing her yell, "Come on in."

He held a sigh. Part of his training told him she was taking too many risks by letting him enter like that. This was the core of the palace, but you never knew how far an enemy might infiltrate. Then again, another part of his training told him she had countless ways of seeing who was on this side of the door—and dealing with them.

William opened the doors, and the white and golden colors of the palace's corridor turned into... a white and golden room. He had fully expected the Unflinching Witch's abode to be dark, moldy, creepy, or mystical—or everything together—not a slightly uncommon expansive study room.

The uncommon part was a few tables with alchemy artifacts—test tubes and strange metal instruments—all labeled, some running experiments with hanging sheets of paper containing precise data. The common part was the half-filled bookshelves covering a wall, close to which rested a massive mahogany table. The table was neatly organized, lit by a floating enchanted crystal lamp—expensive but not weird. There was a small pile of papers to one side, a pile of three books on the other, and a single open book in the middle.

First-Class Sorceress Graywinter wore the black and golden robe meant for mages of her station. She was writing something in the book using an enchanted pen but looked up when William entered the room.

Her gray eyes were so light they were almost as white as her shoulder-length hair. Yet, he wasn't fooled by her feeble visage. He recalled her already looking ancient when he was accepted as a squire, and although she certainly hadn't grown younger, she also seemed not to have aged a single day. She kept herself looking old on purpose, not because she was reaching the end of her years.

That single look and the power behind those eyes were enough for him to almost close his fists and prepare for battle, but he held himself back—barely.

"Grand Knight William Graham, I take it?" she asked.

"Yes, ma'am," he replied, standing attention.

She nodded and gestured to a chair before her table. "Sit." She turned the open book so it would face him instead of her. "We need to establish a baseline before I teach you what you came here to learn. Beginner books on skill-weaving are difficult to find, but this one is passable. I included a few notes to make up for a few failings I identified. Read it, and feel free to ask any questions at any time. You're here to learn, and I'm here to teach." She nodded, took one of the closed books on her table, opened it, and started reading.

William was off-put by the display. His preconceptions about the Unflinching Witch's study room were one thing, but she had sounded almost kind right now, if businesslike.

That went against everything he had heard of her—that he had seen her do.

He broke from his stupor after a few seconds, sat down, and immediately asked the question that had been on his mind ever since he accepted learning the secret shamanic ability, "How can magic work if I'll forget everything, ma'am?"

He had vowed to only use the teleportation ability he was here to learn to save the king or whoever he commanded. However, he had also vowed to let part of his memories get erased. The period he would forget started from the moment he made the vow up to one year or until Graywinter declared him to have learned the secret skill, whichever came first.

Charlotte hadn't been happy about him leaving home for such a potentially prolonged period, but they needed the money after her father had interfered with their mortgage, and the pay was too good to pass.

If Graywinter was upset at his question, she didn't look like it. She replied with the same almost kind voice, though without raising her eyes from the book this time, "It'll all be explained in depth as you progress in your studies, but the gist of it is soul memory. Genetics and instinct don't explain why birds know where to migrate from birth even if separated from their parents, why domesticated cats cover their food, and any number of similar happenstances. The magic you know requires comprehension, but although skill-weaving isn't entirely exempt from it, it'll make up for it with the weaving part."

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He knew he was here to learn "skill-weaving." He had only understood that it was a way to mix Fate's skills with spellcasting and shamanism. But why was it called waving?

His next question was obviously, "What is weaving, ma'am?"

He knew he would learn eventually, but she had told him to ask whatever he wanted.

"It's short for soul weaving, the most challenging part of shamanism. Shamanism is nothing more than using the world as the source and target of spells instead of an awakener's body. It's almost like an enchantment, only more complex. Special materials and magic runes blend together to form the spell formula. The caster's soul blends with ambient mana, expanding from its metaphysical anchor into an area both endless and too limited to weave a spell into the planet itself. That's how magic can reach farther than an awakener's mana reach. As you can guess, that's how portals are opened. And that's how you'll make your skill teleport you and your charge farther than it should be possible.

"The process is dangerous and requires me to remove Fate's limiters on your soul, which we'll get to later. After you master the ability but forget your lessons, your lack of understanding about the base concepts used in the skill-weave will cause you to instinctively use more of your soul than you should to fuel the weave. Think of it as using more mana to compensate for low comprehension when casting a spell, but instead of mana, you use your soul. Your mana stats are too low; thus, your soul is too weak to resist the stress you'll place it under—and before you ask, we still don't understand why mana stats are related to souls. You'll die if you ever use the skill to save the king or whoever he tells you to. It's a shame. I was against it and wouldn't accept it in your place, but I won't debase your sense of honor. I'll do my best to teach you what you need to know."

William wanted to know more about many things she had said, but he decided it was best to start from the beginning. "Souls are real, ma'am?"

He had heard about soul anchors and how they played a part in time-dilated dungeons, but he had thought it was just mystical terminology used to explain something no one knew what it truly was.

Graywinter looked at him with a blank face as if she couldn't comprehend his words. She said nothing for a few seconds, then smiled sadly and sighed. "Sorry, Grand Knight Graham. I sometimes underestimate the years of base knowledge on which I fundament my magic. Let's try a more direct teaching approach until you're ready to self-study." She closed her own book, then gently reached for the book she had offered him and closed it, too. "Yes, souls are real. As I said, mana stats strengthen souls somehow. The Golden King's grandfather only managed to snatch a small part of the Life Archon's research from the vampires in the war, which is the final proof that life and souls are linked..." She trailed off as she noticed William's frown. "Which part of my ongoing explanation didn't you understand?"

"Life Archon, ma'am?"

She nodded. "Ah, yes. Archons are a big secret for reasons beyond my understanding. Throughout the ages, one outstanding genius of each element was born. I mean, as far as we know, it's one; who knows if there are more out there? There are many theories about why they had the talent they did, but let's not delve into such a controversial topic. Suffice it to say, they existed, and we call them Archons. And don't let the Avalish's School of Magic corrupt you into calling Paragons where I can hear!"

She paused as if waiting for some sort of feedback. William realized too late that it was some sort of internal mage joke and chuckled politely.

Graywinter cleared her throat as if to clear the awkwardness with it and continued, "The Archons of half the elements are public knowledge in the right circles. The Death Archon was born a werewolf, which let them not get erased in the Great War; the Fire and Water Archons were humans; the Earth and Space Archons were dwarves; and the Life and Dark Archons were elves. I'm almost certain that the Thunder Archon was a dwarf and the Time Archon was an elf, but both races deny it, and there might be other elements that are yet to be born. Every Archon was an outstanding genius who defined the entire field of the element they had a mastery over—if they lived long enough to do so. Does that answer your question?"

"Yes, ma'am."

"Where was I? Ah, yes, the Life Archon's research. He was born not long ago and was captured by the vampires in the war. The elves blamed the dwarves, causing the dwarves to find the vampires and uncover their scheme almost by mistake. It's strange to think that the Fated Races might've destroyed each other without ever noticing the vampire menace if the monsters hadn't gotten greedy for the Life Archon's knowledge. During the war..."

William listened in enraptured marvel as the secrets of magic and history flowed from the Unflinching Witch's mouth. He immediately regretted having to forget everything about it at a later date. Then again, if not for the vow, Graywinter wouldn't share such knowledge with him.

He told himself it was better to glimpse and forget that world than to live without ever touching the true depth of Fate's undercurrents.

He didn't believe it that much, but it was the best he could fool himself as he kept listening and learning as much as he could.