I spoke first.

“We’re leaving,” I said bluntly, as Grey closed his eyes at my words. There was an almost defeated cast to his aged features. Meanwhile, Honoka let out a small, almost inaudible sigh. “Too much has happened too quickly, and neither Azarus or I can really take it anymore. This mess…this entire war….we gave it a shot. But it’s not our responsibility to clean it up. I'm sorry Grey, but we're done.”

Grey nodded slowly, still not speaking up from his silence.

Honoka was the one to break it. “You know where you’re going?” She asked shortly.

I shrugged at her. “Not yet,” I admitted. “We only just decided that we were done with it all. I have some ideas about what we could do, but nothing concrete. I need to talk to some people first.”

Grey finally opened his eyes to meet mine seriously. “Nathan, if this is about what happened to Sylvia, please understand. There is a chance that she could recover her memories of the last four months. A slim one, I’ll admit,” He amended quickly, at my raised eyebrows. “But it exists. The damage to her enchantment, and thus her soul, could mend with time. The impressions of those experiences could return to her. I’m…not sure it will happen in her case, but it’s possible.”

I absorbed that for a moment. Nevertheless, I shook my head, to Grey’s obvious disappointment. “That’s…great, honestly. I’m happy for her. You too, really,” I said, doing my best to smile at Grey. “But I think I still would have taken off either way. Too much has changed, Grey. I’m…not the same person I was, before I joined the Nocturne Division. A lot happened since we saw each other, and I need to come to terms with it. Away from the war.”

Grey absorbed that and then nodded slightly. “I understand, Nathan. Truly, I do. I…cannot say if it is possible to revert the physical changes wrought from your newest stolen Skill. But I believe you should try. With mastery over it, you might be capable of far more than you would believe.”

“I’ll…consider it,” I said reluctantly. I hadn’t tried to use Vis Maledicta Exactoris once since that first initial transformation. Honestly, I wasn’t sure I even wanted to. If I had my way, the Skill would rot in the depths of my Status for the rest of my life for what it had done to me. But the more practical side of myself said it might be worth experimenting with the Skill. Albeit, incredibly grudgingly.

Not anytime soon, though.

“However, there are…other matters to discuss, before you depart,” Grey did his best to smile. “There are some congratulations in order. From what Honoka has told me, you’ve passed the level one-hundred mark, and thus are capable of your own Ascension Ritual. With that, you will finally be considered a true Mage.”

I blinked at that. I…guess that was true. I had been looking forward to that for so long, and yet my own Ascension Ritual had completely slipped my mind. To be fair, though, I’d been juggling a lot lately. “More than level one hundred,” I mused, leaning back in my chair. “I should actually have over twenty levels banked, from when I checked last. I…think they’re being held back by being locked at one hundred right now. It reminds me of how I was locked at level ten before I could get my class, back in the day.”

“You are correct, yes,” Grey said with a nod. “The System will not allow you to move past level one hundred before choosing your Path in finality. Twenty levels is…a bit much, but not totally unexpected, considering the amount of level Aether that slaying a Calamity must bring. Nathan,” He said, leaning forward in his chair. “Before you leave, allow me to assist you in your Ritual. Even if you wish to depart for a time, I still consider you my apprentice. It is my responsibility to facilitate such an important life step as an Ascension Ritual. And with yours completed, when you return, we can continue your education as a proper Magi,” Grey paused for a moment, before continuing almost uncertainly. “That is…if you intend to return…?”

I held up my hands and smiled at Grey. “Yeah. This isn’t forever. I just…I want…I need to step away from all of this for a time. Azarus and I are going to come back, Grey. We’ll try and keep in contact, so drop us a letter when the war is over and the Academy is open for business again. But in the meantime? Yeah…yeah, I’ll stick around for a few more days so we can do my Ritual. I’d like that.”

Grey sighed in relief at that. “Good. Then, we should get to work on designing it. It…might take more than a few days though,” He said, casting a despairing gaze at the piles of parchment littering his desk. “As you can imagine, the leadership is quite busy with the occupation and planning our next move. I’ll try and set aside time to research with you, but it will be…difficult. I assure you though, that we'll have enough time before the Uprising leaves Elderwyck. We can get started right now, I believe.” At that, Grey reached for a blank scroll and unrolled it before him, clearing a space for it as he did so. He looked back up at me with a smile. “Come, join me.”

I returned his smile and stood up from my chair. As I did so, Honoka walked past me towards the door with an acknowledging nod. She stopped, though, when I spoke up before she could exit the room. “Keep an eye on her for me,” I said simply.

Honoka nodded without turning to look at me. She didn’t even ask who I was talking about. We both knew which ‘she’ I meant. “Always. You didn’t even have to ask. I’ll…see you around, Hart.” With that, Honoka slipped out the door and closed it behind her.

Meanwhile, I turned around and dragged my chair to the other side of Grey’s desk and settled in for an almost nostalgic lesson from Grey. It had been a long time since we’d had a chance to do something like this.

“Now,” Grey started in a lecturing tone. “When designing a Mana based Ascension Ritual, one must begin with circles…”

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……………………………..

Grey only had a few hours to work with me on my Ascension Ritual. In that time, I found the process…actually kind of fascinating. He taught me about the basics of what an Ascension Ritual actually was, and how it functioned to convert my Stamina into usable Mana.

Apparently, it was about purification and attunement.

Of…a sort.

My only experience with Ascension Rituals up to this point had been observing the effects of Sylvia’s. She had gone through a Cultivator Ritual though, and not the Magi Ritual that we were designing for my use.

Actually, I couldn’t imagine how confused poor Sylvia must be right now. She had gone through that ritual in the period of time she had lost, and now had no memories of something so important to her Path. It had to be incredibly jarring, and it made me wish I could help her. But I’m not sure she even knew I existed anymore. I didn’t have that right.

I didn’t ask Grey where she was right now. I’m not sure I could have resisted the urge to go and check up on her, essentially invading the privacy of someone who was now a stranger.

I forcibly pushed thoughts of Sylvia away to concentrate on Grey’s lecture.

Anyway, Sylvia’s Ritual had been a Cultivator one, thus had been about physical purification. But Magi Rituals were different.

Ours was about mental purification. Which confused me.

How do you purify a mind?

When I asked Grey that, he just smiled patiently at me.

“A common question,” He answered happily. “And I don’t mind explaining it.”

I mentally winced at the joke, but tried not to react otherwise. I didn’t begrudge Grey his little jests.

Grey continued.

“Consider this, Nathan,” He said in a lecturing tone. “What is a mind? We cannot touch it, and yet we all have one. We cannot see it, and yet it is always spinning in circles. It is the lens through which we view and perceive the world, and thus it must exist somehow. There must be something that indicates its existence somewhere. These were the questions that the very earliest philosopher Magi posed to each other.”

I frowned, drumming my fingers on the desk. “Well, the obvious answer is that it has to be something inherent to the soul,” I pointed out. “Maybe the mind is inside of it.”

“Exactly!” Grey crowed. “But also wrong!”

I blinked at the enthusiasm but didn’t interrupt Grey. He seemed like he was both on a roll and enjoying himself immensely.

“The mind is separate from the soul!” Grey continued with an excited smile. “For all of its deep and complex mysteries, the earliest Magi were able to conclusively prove that the mind does not dwell within the soul. It is an existence separate from both the physical self, and the spiritual self. The mind does not reside in any part of the body, not in any organ. Certainly not the brain, despite what some believed in ages past. It cannot be found within the soul either, and thus the question was raised. Where is the mind? Care to take a guess?” He asked me teasingly.

I smirked back at him. “Is it the Concord?” I asked him.

One of Grey’s eyebrows went up, but he shook his head. “No, in fact, although that is a good guess. I have to say, your experiences within the Concord are certainly atypical. Alas that we do not have the time to expound on them,” He lamented. “But I digress. It is not the Concord. The mind lies…nowhere.”

I tilted my head. “Nowhere? As in…it doesn’t exist?”

Grey lifted a finger. “The mind simultaneously does and does not exist, it was discovered. It does not have a distinct energy form of its own that can be detected. It is an almost…diffuse cloud of consciousness that surrounds and nearly buffets the soul. That was the mistake that the early Magi philosophers made, you see,” He admitted, sounding almost envious. “They were so focused on looking inside of the soul that they didn’t think to look just outside of it. However, that’s not the important thing. What is important, is that the mind picks up ‘impurities’ from its proximity to the soul.”

“What kind of impurities?”

“The mind is not meant to naturally contain energies of its own, but it nevertheless accumulates them from existence,” Grey continued patiently. “Environmental Aether, rarely so pure as what you use through Aetherial Melding, is often contaminated from its surroundings. Almost…flavors, so to speak. Not only that, but simply existing in our society means you often come into contact with Mana and Ki not of your own. The process of attuning your mind to the processing of raw Aether into personal Mana means you must purge it of the energies already there. Thus, the largest and most dangerous part of a Magi Ascension Ritual is the purging of extraneous energies. It’s quite a show, as you’ll find out. You know, the writings from around the time of all these discoveries are quite extraordinary. You really must read them when you come attend the Academy, Nathan.”

“Sure, sounds good to me,” I said, interested. “I had no idea that being a Mage involved so much, well. Philosophy.” I laughed before a thought occurred to me. “Did your master teach you this when you were an apprentice with Raph-” I cut myself off when Grey’s expression abruptly darkened when I tried to speak that second name.

Grey glowered off into the distance, before switching his gaze to the staff I always carried with me now. Currently, it was leaning in a corner of the room next to the office door. If anything, his scowl only intensified at the sight of it.

I cleared my throat almost uncomfortably. “Ah…I’m guessing…he is a bit of a sore subject?”

Grey was silent for a moment. “You could say that,” He finally muttered darkly. “That absolute bastard…when he reforms I’m going to disperse him again. And when he comes back from that, I’ll do it again and again and again. Maybe after a dozen times I’ll finally be satisfied, for what he put us through by faking his final death.”

Well.

That sounded like a lot of ancient history. I was curious about it, but Grey was already looking touchy at just the mention of the Lich.

Actually…

Now that I thought about it, I was curious enough to risk his ire on one thing about Tlazo.

I cleared my throat, drawing Grey’s attention. “What’s the deal with the whole ‘Pigsnatcher’ thing?” I said bluntly. That was how Tlazo had said to positively identify himself to Grey the next time I saw him.

To my surprise, Grey actually gaped at me for a moment before pounding a fist down on the desk in sheer affront. “That asshole!” He said in astonishment, outright swearing for the first time since I’d known him. “He had the gall to mention that, out of everything? Gods, the nerve of that man!” My mentor heaved a few breaths in and out for a moment, before finally speaking up again. “It, well. It’s a reference to how our master taught us the Telekinesis spell. We were thrown into the proverbial deep end by…being instructed to catch very well-greased shaved pigs. It’s…quite difficult, I must say.”

I simply blinked at Grey in incomprehension for a moment, before his words penetrated. When they did, I choked on my own spit before bursting out laughing.

Hard.

Harder, in fact, than I think I had since I’d set foot on Vereden.

I…I just…

The mental image alone…

Meanwhile, Grey just grumbled, scowling off into the distance again. “He was better at it than I was, and he just kept on stealing my own pigs. Thus, ‘Pigsnatcher’. He always was a prick.”

I howled all the harder.

Gods, I’d needed this.