Inside the back room was the same preparation room I’d seen weeks ago. It didn’t seem to have changed all that much. It was still tiled, with knives and tools scattered across the large wooden tables situated along the wall. It still had hooks hanging from the ceiling, and it still had a large metal door along the left side. I’d learned last time that it led to a large-scale version of the stasis cabinet from back home, to store the meat.

We didn’t have to wait for Bleddyn this time though, as he was in the prep area. Before we came in, he seemed to have been preparing for the day in his own way by sharpening his tools. He was standing at the central wooden table, surrounded by knives of all kinds, one in his right and a long iron rod in the other. He’d stopped at our entrance, looking up at Azarus and I as we entered his domain. He raised an eyebrow at us.

“Mornin’.” Bleddyn greeted us, sounding not at all phased by the early hours. I guess he was a morning person. “I’d heard you lot were back in town, what with the feckin’ hunt and all. Didn’t expect you though, Azarus. Thought we agreed only the pup needed to come by for lessons?”

Azarus grunted while I mouthed the word ‘pup’ to myself, mildly insulted. “Wasn’t planning to. Something came up we need to talk about, though.”

The ‘butcher’ carefully set his tools down on the table. “Aye? Do we, now?” He said, sounding not at all impressed.

Azarus merely stepped to the side and looked over at me with a raised eyebrow. It was as if he was telling me this was my show. I rolled my eyes at him and stepped up. “Yeah,” I said to Bleddyn. “We do, and…it’s kind of weird.”

Bleddyn crossed his arms over his chest. “Go on, then”

I scratched the back of my head in a nervous gesture. “Sure, but first we have a sort of unusual caveat. See, we need to tell you something kind of…secret. Something that affects our previous agreement. Something we would, personally, like to keep close to the chest, yeah? But we understand that both of us are bound by that agreement, so we have a request before we tell you. We, or rather a companion of ours, is requesting that you keep that secret safe. That companion being Ghrian Dorcha.” I finished, sounding out the name Grey had told me. I wasn’t sure I had gotten it right.

I must have though, because Bleddyn stilled at the sound of the name. For a moment, he looked shocked enough for a weak breeze to knock him over. “Ghrian Dorcha, you say.” He finally said hoarsely, after a minute or so.

“Uh, yeah,” I said, a little taken aback by his extreme reaction.

Bleddyn slowly started shaking his head in disbelief. “By all the gods, that’s who Magnus has you keeping an eye on?!” He said to Azarus, who merely shrugged in answer. “I’d heard there was some big muckety muck prisoner you were meant to be keeping an eye on, but I didn’t expect him. What the hell are the Savoy doin’, keepin’ a hold of the bleedin’ Headmaster of the Academy while there’s a bleedin’ war…goin’…on…” He trailed off. “Oh. Shit.”

Yeah, from what Grey had told me, that sounded like an appropriate response to the situation.

Bleddyn tensed, before picking up one of his knives and pointing it at Azarus. “And you! You’re just goin’ along with it?! You should damn well know what holdin’ onto the Headmaster is causin’ in the Kingdom!”

Azarus matched his aggressive gesture with one of his own, stepping up. “Ya don’t know what you’re talking about.” He said lowly, dangerously.

Bleddyn leaned forward and actually bared his teeth at Azarus. “Try me.”

I stepped forward, putting myself between the two of them with my arms raised. “Woah! Woah! Calm down! Azarus, will you please let me handle this?!” I said to him, motioning him backward. Azarus did as I said, slowly backing away to lean against the far wall, eyes still narrowed at Bleddyn. I turned back to Bleddyn and met his eyes. “Look. It’s not like that. Azarus is just as trapped here as, uh, the ‘Headmaster’ is. And,” I took a sudden, wild, unplanned leap of faith. “It might not have to stay that way for long, if you help us. Understand?”

“Nate, the fuck?!” I heard Azarus exclaim behind me. I didn’t take my eyes off of Bleddyn, though.

I saw the light of understanding dawn in his eyes at my words. Slowly, not taking them away from mine, he sat the knife he had been holding back down on the table. “Alright,” Bleddyn said slowly. “By the blood of my ancestors, by the sacred silver light of the moon, and by the entreaty of Ghrian Dorcha, I shall not speak a word of what I learn this day. May Mother Raven take my eyes, and Father Wolf eat my heart if I forsake this vow.”

“Okay,” I said slowly. “That…sounds like it works.”

Bleddyn nodded at me and walked from around the table to grab some chairs that were sitting in the corner of the room. Walking over to stand in front of me, he sat three chairs down in a circle and sat down in one of them. Worldlessly, he motioned to the others. I took his invitation and sat down in one of the chairs across from him. When I didn’t hear movement from behind me, I closed my eyes in frustration. “Azarus, please.”

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After a second, I heard a grunt of assent. Moments later, Azarus sat down in the chair to my right, arms still crossed and almost glaring at Bleddyn. He didn’t seem to care though. Bleddyn just kept his eyes steady and on me.

I took a deep breath.

……………………………………..

Over the next perhaps half hour, I explained my Professions situation to Bleddyn. I wasn’t totally honest with him, of course. I felt bad about it, but I didn’t tell him I was a Precursor. What I told him was that it was true that I had been Unawakened up until recently. But when we checked my Status afterward, I’d found that I had mutated racial talents. Supposedly, this wasn’t out of the ordinary, from what I’d been told. The longer you waited after the minimum age to get Awakened, the more likely you were to encounter mutated talents. I told him that I had gotten lucky, and they hadn’t been detrimental. The opposite, in fact.

I told him that one of my racial talents allowed me to learn each of the seven core Professions. That by the time I came to him, I’d already learned the four I could from Azarus and the ‘Headmaster’. I told him that while I’d been in Rhoscara, I’d managed to get the last of the seven Professions I’d needed, Artistry. Then I told him about the System Judgement that had occurred afterward.

“When I went to check my Professions after that, they were gone,” I said to Bleddyn. “In their place was something that was locked by the fact I didn’t have a class yet. I was a little panicked by that,” An understatement. “But there was nothing I could do about it yet. I suppose I got my chance to find out during Magnus’s ‘hunt’. I managed to level up enough in that forest to unlock a class and the new Profession at the same time.”

I finished by telling him about what Grey and I had discovered about my new Profession, ‘Atherial Melding’. How it seemed to break down items into raw Aether, ‘meld’ that Aether together, and then solidify back into the desired item.

“But as interesting as it is, I don’t have Fleshcrafting anymore,” I said awkwardly. “I just have one Profession now. And, uh, I know you were meant to help teach me Fleshshaping, so…”

Bleddyn was silent for a moment, absorbing my story. He leaned forward, putting his chin on his closed fist and closing his eyes. “Tricky.” He muttered. “By the laws of my people, I’m supposed to teach you. But I can’t now, and I don’t know if something like this has ever happened before. Didn’t even know you could lose a Profession, even if you got somethin’ else out of it. By the gods, I wish I had an elder to consult about this.” He finished with a sigh.

“Well…” I spoke up, causing Bleddyn to open his eyes. “Gr-the Headmaster had an idea about that. We’re still testing this new Profession out, and we did want your help with that. We don’t know the limits of it, and want to find out if I can do the same thing with other Professions that I could with Alchemic ingredients.”

That caused Bleddyn to perk up. “Oh, aye?” He said, excited just at the mention of Grey.

“Yeah.” I nodded. “So, if you agree, you would sort of still be teaching me Fleshshaping in a way. Just…a strange, never before seen kind of it.”

“Hmm. Let me ask you somethin’.” Bleddyn said, meeting my eyes. “The reason the Headmaster’s so interested in this new Profession. Is he hopin’ it might be able to help with our…mutual situation?” He made a gesture to his collar-bound throat, so similar to my own.

I didn’t answer with words. I just gave him a slight nod. Azarus let out a small snort at my actions off to my right, where he had been silent during my entire explanation.

Bleddyn stood up abruptly from his chair and thrust his right arm in my direction, startling me. I stared at it blankly for a moment before stretching my own out to meet him. Rather than taking my hand, he grasped my forearm firmly and pulled me upright. Once I’d stumbled to my feet, I found Bleddyn staring at me with a steely gaze. I met his eyes, trying to match his intensity to the best of my ability.

“I, Bleddyn of Clan Thunderheart, son of Gruffydd, son of Caradog do so swear. Upon my blood and the blood of my father’s father, I will help you in your task. I do not know what the Headmaster hopes to learn from Fleshcrafting, but I will not shy from duty when it comes to my door. I will help you test this Profession.” Bleddyn said solemnly.

I took a deep breath. “On behalf of Headmaster Greycton of the Academy of Mystic Arts, as well as myself, I thank you for your help.”

We exchanged nods.

After dropping our clasped forearms, the two of us stood in silence for a few moments. Awkward silence, actually.

Azarus broke it. “If you two are done with all the posturing and swearing and the like.” He said sarcastically, still leaning back in his chair with his arms folded. “Don’t ya be having testing to get to?”

I felt my face heat up in embarrassment while Bleddyn rolled his eyes, unfazed. I guess it was a little over the top to be making all these grand statements in the back of a butcher’s shop.

“Yeah, yeah,” Bleddyn said dismissively, making his way over to the stasis closet on the left wall. Opening the door, he began to rummage around for something. Movement out of the corner of my eye caught my attention though, so I turned to face it. Azarus had stood up and started to make his way to the door.

“Are you going somewhere?” I asked him, surprised.

Azarus turned slightly to look over his shoulder at me. “Aye, I’m thinking my part here is done. I’m gonna head back home and let Grey know everything seems fine. When you're done here, just head home. Shouldn’t be a problem.”

Before I could get a word in otherwise, Azarus opened the door, stepped through, and closed it behind him. I stared at the door he had just left through, nonplussed. Well, all right then.

My attention was stolen by Bleddyn exiting the storage closet holding what looked like a large deer. A normal one, for once. No blades on its horns at all. Carrying it over to the large central table in the center of the room, he lay the carcass down on it. “C’mere.” He motioned to me.

I obliged him, curious.

“So, this one here has already been bled, but I haven’t had the chance to skin, gut, or section it,” Bleddyn told me. “Now, I don’t know how your fancy new Profession works, but I figure that’s a good place to start if you want to see if you can ‘Craft it. So, first I want to see if you can skin the hindquarters.” He finished, tapping on a large section of one of the deer’s rear legs.

I raised an eyebrow at him but shrugged. I was up to it, I suppose. It’s a good thing I wasn’t squeamish. I lay a hand on the section Bleddyn had pointed out and began to concentrate on the pulse of Aether like I had yesterday.