I liked Minx Morris. I mean, I wasn't like the Speaker, who basically idolized him, but he was a good teacher.

Sometimes, it was hard to forget that not every adult was like Pablo. I'd known my mother for so little, that I certainly didn't think of her as the blueprint for every grown-up I would meet in my life.

Despite my efforts not to, I kind of thought of Pablo that way.

"Your Skill is very important and one of the rarest," Minx told me one day after lunch. "What about training together to bring out the best in you?"

"You'd like for me to train with you, sir?" I asked. I wasn't expecting it. Cypress was already tutoring me in all the other subjects, except for Fighting Class, in which I already exceled.

There was the Skill class, but it was more of a formality than anything else. The Skills of every student in the school were too different one from the other to really hope to get something done during those hours. Besides, Skills worked significantly better after you became a Blood Drinker, which wasn't something that concerned us first-years. Mira and Minx couldn't teach all of us in the same way, because a lot depended on what their own Skills were. Mira had Timing, and no one else at the school had it.

"Yes, of course it's not because I like you best," Minx grinned at me.

I knew he liked all the students just the same though I'd been wondering whether he liked Roman or Atticus more since he'd known Roman since he was little and seemed to know about Atticus' former family situation. But of course Minx must have seen some sort of potential in me because he already told me he went as far as Tallya to track me down, because of who my father was.

I didn't even know who my father actually was, not that I intended to find out. The fact that I had his surname, Loreta, and his Skill was enough for me to know. I found out I had no desire to trace the steps of the man who abandoned my mother and I when I was a few months old.

Of the man who didn't even show up at my door when my mother died, because he probably went so far away he hadn't even heard about it.

"I know," I replied, and I must say I was a bit disappointed, but not too much, because I didn't really want the teachers to play favourites. "It's because of my Skill. Knowledge."

Minx nodded, looking more akward than he usually did. I figured he didn't really know how to train a person with such a rare power, but he felt as if he had to. Perhaps he'd seen my father in action, and knew how the power worked.

That afternoon, I decided to talk to him about it during my first private lesson.

"How did you know my father?" I asked. "He wasn't from around here. It's my mother who was Megleni. Did you know her too?"

Minx looked really sorry to let me down. "No, I didn't know her," he replied. "But I met your father during a travel later in life. Blood Drinkers need to know a lot about magic and such, so they get to travel the world. Isn't it amazing?"

"It is," I replied. I tried not to think about my hometown, of how I always felt as if I didn't belong there. I used to think of the whole world as my home, and perhaps I was right. But reminiscing gave away too many bad memories.

"Look, if you don't want to be a Blood Drinker, technically you still have time," Minx advised me. "Though Mira would say I shouldn't tell you that. But I've been feeling guilty. I know I've convinced you to come here, and you didn't have the slightest idea about what you wanted to be. But until you pass the Blood Tasks, you can still make up your mind."

"I do want to be a Blood Drinker," I replied, confident. "Perhaps I didn't want to, at first. But now I do. I think something changed the day I rescued Cypress from the demon. I really felt as if this was my place in the world, where I could learn how to use my sword to do more good than bad. I've always liked swordfighting, but dueling men brought more damage. I've seen it from the times Pablo fought in combat."

"You're getting better at Megleni every day, and you're bright for your age," Minx told me, "I am glad. It won't prove too difficult to teach you how to use your Skill. You see, Knowledge is very difficult to master. The Universe answers your questions, yes. But you must know what to ask."

I became sad very suddenly. I'd never been good at asking. I'd never asked anyone for anything. And even in those stories of heroes that I liked to read, their powers consisted of punching, maiming or saving the town. Nobody ever had to ask, because things were given to them.

I'd always thought I would have liked to become that sort of person, not the person whose super power was Asking. Perhaps my father should have asked the Universe to let him stay with my mother and I. How could he have asked for anything different, if it was within his reach?

"Is all Knowledge of the world within my reach?" I asked Minx, taken aback by the thought.

"If you know how to ask your question, it is," he replied. "Now you see why your Skill is so important, don't you?"

Minx Morris didn't have a very sober personality. However, he became thoughtful and caring every time he was trying to teach something to us. And talking about my Skill seemed to have another effect on him -- I could see Minx was genuinely interested in the things I could achieve.

Perhaps my father asked the Universe to help me, I thought, and the Universe sent me Minx.

"Of course, in those lessons, I wouldn't be surprised if you didn't get to actually use your Skill once," Minx added. "It's difficult already for Blood Drinkers to use their Skills when they're powerful as yours, because it drains too much of your energy. You won't have the chance to use it every day. But as long as you're a human, even the Skills you can use more frequently drain your energy. Have you seen Matias when he tries to channel Courage? He still has that habit from his trainings with Athanasios, but Mira and I have told him he doesn't have to use his Skill during the Skill Class, he just has to become more aquainted with it."

"I've heard," I replied.

"It's the same for you," Minx studied me. "I am not even sure it is possible for you to use Knowledge until you pass the Blood Tasks. But you must learn to think quickly about your Skill the way you would in battle. I'm going to teach you how to think the right questions."

I didn't ask Minx how he knew what the right question was. I could see he was excited to start, and, besides, anyone would have known it better than I did. I didn't even know what to ask Cypress in the morning to strike up a conversation with him.

Well, there was a slim chance the Universe was less irritating than the heir of the Macbeths, but I didn't intend to use it as an excuse.

"Can I ask the Universe where my father is?" I wanted to know.

"Why?" Minx appeared puzzled. "We've never talked about it, but you've given me the impression you wouldn't want to meet him."

"And I don't," I replied hotly. "But I need to know. If he was dead... at least he'd have an excuse."

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"I don't think he is," Minx replied. "Terribly important Blood Drinker. I would have heard of it."

I nodded. I was glad Minx was giving me information about my father, however small.

No, a little voice inside my head complained. Don't think about your father, Jonathan. What do you care if he's dead or alive? He's never asked himself that same question about you.

I tried with all my willpower to stop thinking about my deadbeat father. If I kept going down that road, I know I would have asked the Universe something about it. But it was not me who needed to take the first step. It should have been my father to ask where to find me.

"I see you're not really concentrated, today," Minx said. He looked a little sorry. "How about same time next week?"

I felt my heart sinking deeper into my chest. What if my skills with the sword were all I had? What if I'd never be too focused on the task at hand to use my Skill? Perhaps Minx should have never told me about my father in the first place.

The week after, I was eating lunch sitting next to Cypress.

"You know," I started to brag, just to do something. "Minx wants to give me private lessons, to learn how to use my Skill."

He didn't look particularly fazed. "It makes sense," he commented drily. "Knowledge is rare. I'd be surprised if you could even come close to mastering it before you pass the Blood Tasks."

I felt my blood freezing in my veins. Was it too much for Cypress Spaulding-Macbeth to pay me a compliment?

"Having a common Skill is better," somebody commented, joining the conversation as if he'd been there all along.

It was Matias, and I'd noticed he fancied he was a friend of Cypress and I. "Take Courage, my Skill," he added conversationally. "It's not common like, for example, Charm, but it's not one of the rarest or of the most difficult. I can already master it. It drains me of almost all of my energy, though."

He winced.

"Maybe you shouldn't use it, then," Roman, the Speaker, commented. "You only use it because Athanasios taught you to, but you shouldn't anymore."

I glanced at them. I had never made my mind about either of them, and I was especially unsure how I felt about the Speaker. However, you couldn't see anywhere Matias without also seeing the little creep hanging around with him.

When did they become inseparable? Or was Roman who was doing all the lurking?

"My Skill is Finding," Cypress said, as if I didn't know. "And I never use it."

Matias looked genuinely impressed someone had a Skill they didn't go parading around. Roman looked positively unconcerned.

I tried not to judge them too harshly. Maybe where Matias was from things were different. I didn't know whether he remembered a single thing about Russania, though. And even if he did, where did his family come from?

He didn't look Eastern enough to be part Silanian, not like Cypress, but there was something in his lidded eyes and the shape of his face that made clear he was from the Steppes, the huge lands without grass that connected Russania to Sila. He also had dark hair and unsettling dark eyes, both very black in the shadows and almost dark red in the light.

Roman was another kind of mystery. He was Megleni, like Cypress. Like my mother. But I seemed to understand he and Atticus had had a difficult family life, and I was not about to judge.

Soon after, we were joined by Minx.

Matias looked at him beaming. "When are you giving me private lessons?" he asked.

Minx smiled fondly. "It doesn't work that way, I'm not doing because I like Jonathan better," he replied. "I want his Skill to be under control."

"Yeah, and Dad already gave you way too many private lessons," Jason commented to Matias. "What could you want more than that?"

Matias tried to keep calm, and pretended he wasn't fazed by the comment. But I could have sworn I'd seen him flinch.

I followed Minx to the room where he gave me the private lessons.

"Are you more focused today, Jonathan?" he asked. I could see he really cared about what we were doing. He wanted me to become strong, powerful.

I found myself thinking that he was just like any teacher should be. Funny with the students, a little weird, but passionate about what he was teaching.

"Yes," I replied, and it wasn't even a lie. My father seemed very far from my mind. I couldn't remember why I'd started caring all of a sudden about a man who left my mother die in a horrible way and did not even show up to say 'sorry'.

"Are you sure?" Minx grinned. "Knowledge is a Skill that requires a lot of power. Even if you can channel it before you pass the Tasks, it won't feel the same as when you'll do it as a Blood Drinker. Well, that is true for most Skills."

"I want to try either way," I said. "It will give me an insight on what I can do."

"Good reply," Minx said, the gaze in his light blue eyes a little distant. "Then, focus on one place inside yourself."

"You mean like my stomach?" I couldn't help but ask.

"I meant it in a less literal sense, though, sure, you can think about your stomach as well," Minx replied. "A place inside yourself where all the energy of the Universe is. You know, Jonathan, each person with Skills has energy stored inside ourselves. Some use it to become charming or strong, you can use it to connect to the Universe. Try and visualize it."

I tried very hard to do so, even though it wasn't easy. I started imagining it as a beam of yellow light somewhere near my stomach, and then it became all encompassing.

"Intuitive insight," Minx started explaining. "Ask the Universe a question, and imagine the energy inside of you contracting and travelling at the speed of light."

"Is it alright if I'm starting to feel... afraid?" I asked.

"Yes, your mind does not have the power to grasp it," Minx commented, matter-of-factly, as if he was a scientist.

I opened my eyes. I hadn't even noticed I was in a trance until I did.

"What happened?" Minx asked. "Have you seen anything?"

"I'm not sure," I replied. I was about to pass out.

"I believe you can't do it yet, which is totally normal," Minx started reasoning. "You should have seen black for a few minutes, and then the answer to your question."

"I see black spots now," I mumbled. I felt as if the blood was leaving every vein in my body.

"So there are four phases," Minx started explaining me. "And you stopped at the second."

"I-I'm not sure..." I stammered.

"What do you mean you're not sure?" Minx looked surprised. "Seeing all of it should have killed you. What have you seen?"

"I saw black, I really did," I exhaled. "And then... a tree."

I could make out Minx's face for about a second, he looked disappointed, before I fell on the ground with a thud.

I woke up in the Sanatorium. I didn't even know we had one. Waiting for me to wake up there were Minx, Mira and... Cypress.

"What are you doing here?" I asked. I tried to make it sound casual but I'm not sure I succeeded.

"He told me you've seen a tree," Cypress said. He was Minx. "What did you ask the Universe?"

Oh, of course it was what he wanted to know. He wasn't there to make sure I was alright or anything. He was there to check if I held the answers to some secret of the cosmos. I didn't think I did. The tree was probably a mistake.

"I asked what Cypress means," I grinned at him. I hoped it would unnerve him.

"I could have told you," Macbeth blushed, because he probably wasn't used to thinking about he had the name of a tree.

Mira laughed. "He's messing with you," she said. "Are you?" she asked, trying to make sure whether I almost burnt myself from the inside out to ask something like that.

"I am," I replied. Everyone in the room took a breath of relief. "I asked what I'm doing here."

"I thought you liked being at school now," Mira looked concerned.

"I do," I replied. "This is the place for me, and I came to terms with this some time ago. But isn't that the question everybody wants to know? Why are we here at this certain point in our lives? I don't even come from Meglenia, I could have been anywhere else. Why am I even alive? Does my life have a purpose?"

"And you've seen a tree," Cypress commented, skeptical.

"I don't think it worked," I winced from the pain. "I was about to pass out cold either way. It must have been an hallucination."

"Have you ever thought that maybe lives don't have a purpose?" Minx asked, like an actor bracing into a long monologue about the meaning of life and death. He had the same raptured look on his face. "I mean, of course they do. But it might not be what you think it is. Maybe my purpose was teaching! Or meeting Mira. But how could I have known, at your age? I think we create a purpose."

Mira blushed.

"Of course, my purpose changes every few days," Minx grinned. "I love experimenting. And each one could bring the end of life as we know it."

He looked manic enough to make me understand how Roman could look up to him. It wasn't hard to imagine the Speaker getting caught up in experiments bigger than himself. However, I couldn't help but ask myself whether Minx' interest in my powers was something he did to pass the time.

A person like him could never be content to sit on his hands and wait for the time to pass.

"I'm not sure we should try again," Minx told me, and I closed my eyes, bracing for the disappointment. "Things are the way I feared."

"What?" I asked, confused.

"Don't you see? It really takes its toll on you." Mira was nodding. "You are here to learn how to become a strong Blood Drinker and work as a team with the other students. We can start practising your Skill when you're older and you've passed the Tasks."

I felt very sad, and I tried to reach that point near my stomach to understand what was right and what was wrong without killing myself in the process. I just needed a gut feeling, a simple yes or no question to the Universe, without all the visualizing Minx had told me to do.

But it probably didn't work like that. Because my gut feeling told me that, somehow, the tree was not a mistake.