Mideis raised an eyebrow. "Eteon's an expert on chaos magic now, is he? You must have had quite an interesting chat with him yesterday."

"That's putting it mildly..." Ariom said with a sigh. He glanced in Namyis' direction. "I won't go into the details right now—it will take too much time. But if you remember what we were speculating about the other day...it was basically all true."

"All of it? Seriously?" Mideis made an incredulous face. Then he shook his head. "That's...a little terrifying."

"If you feel that way, how do you think I feel?" Ariom said bitterly.

"No wonder you seem on edge today." Mideis gave him a sympathetic look. "What did Eteon say about Thenio helping us with this project? Is he going to be able to do it? Or do we need to go back to one of our other plans?"

"Well, he was all right with the general idea of it. Just— Oh, that's right. I almost forgot." Ariom took the wooden taua figurine out of his space pocket. Thenio had given it to him before they left his room, to pass on to Mideis. "Eteon made this and told Thenio to give it to you. He said something about it being a 'precaution'? I'm not sure what that means. This is just a wooden carving, as far as I can tell. I can't detect any kind of magic on it...though with Eteon that might not mean anything...."

Mideis stood up and came over to the dragon box. "Let me take a look," he said, holding out his hand.

Ariom placed the little taua in it.

As soon as it touched his palm, Mideis' entire body went rigid. He stared at the figurine with a shocked, wide-eyed expression, the color draining from his face.

Amisi jerked awake and tumbled off Thenio's lap with a startled yowl. She twisted herself around mid-fall to land on her feet and bolted toward the window as soon as she hit the floor. She clambered up onto one of the raised platforms next to the glass and stood there glaring at the figurine in Mideis' hand with her back arched and all her fur standing on end.

"What...?" Ariom was looking between the two of them with an alarmed expression. "What is it? Mideis, are you all right?"

"I'm...okay..." Mideis said faintly, not taking his eyes off the wooden taua. "Just...wait a minute...."

He certainly didn't look okay.... His face was pale, his eyes had a glassy, vacant look, and his breathing was shallow, as though he was on the verge of passing out.

Thenio stood up and moved closer to the window. Looking over toward the work table, he saw that Namyis had gotten to her feet as well and was watching Mideis with a serious expression. She kept glancing at Ariom, apparently waiting to see what he would do before she took any action.

Thenio also looked at Ariom. He was watching Mideis closely, with a deep frown on his face, but he had calmed down a little at Mideis' words and seemed to be willing to do as he'd said and wait for now.

The room was silent for a minute or two.

Then Mideis blinked, and his eyes went back to normal, as though he'd just snapped out of some kind of trance. He closed his fingers around the taua figurine and lowered his arm. Then he slowly turned around and went back to the chair he'd been sitting in. He carefully set the little figurine on the work table before slumping down into the chair and closing his eyes.

"Mythic beasts are really scary..." he said weakly.

Amisi jumped off her platform and hurried over to the door leading into the workroom. She lifted a paw and scratched at the glass, looking up at Ariom and mewling softly.

Ariom hesitated, glancing at Thenio, before he stepped over to the door. He waved his hand in front of it, releasing a cloud of grey magic that condensed into a barrier separating the door from the rest of the room. Then he reached through the barrier and opened the door just long enough for Amisi to slip through.

She ran over to Mideis and jumped onto his lap, then stood on her hind legs and patted his cheek with one of her front paws.

Without opening his eyes, Mideis lifted his hand and started stroking her back. "I'm all right. That was just...a very potent message. Let me recover for a few minutes, and then I'll explain."

Namyis was looking curiously at the wooden taua. "A tiny Amisi? It's cute! So that carving is a message from a mythic beast, huh? Is that Eteon guy you mentioned an agent or something?"

Ariom glared at her.

"Oh! Then he's probably the 'interesting fellow' that your assistant is friends with, right?" Namyis went on, undeterred. "The one who taught you that stasis inversion technique? It would make sense for a mythic agent to know about unusual things like that."

Ariom still didn't reply. He simply kept staring at her with a disgruntled expression.

Namyis tilted her head and blinked at him. "Oh...sorry...was I not supposed to ask about that?"

"No. You weren't." Ariom sighed and ran a hand over his face. "But this whole day has been full of things that weren't supposed to happen, so I guess I should have been expecting it by this point."

"I'm sorry," Mideis said, opening his eyes and giving Ariom and Thenio an apologetic look. "I shouldn't have mentioned mythic beasts. I was just so shocked by that token...."

"Ah...don't feel bad." Namyis gave him a reassuring smile. "I already knew that the mythics were involved somehow. Or I suspected it, at least. So you didn't really give anything away."

They all looked at her in surprise.

"You knew?" Ariom asked. "How?"

"Well, you see...the general asked me to come to his office the other day, after you officially decided to take on the job. And he...well, he threatened me, basically." Namyis laughed. "He said that some very powerful people were interested in the chaos morph, and that I could get in a lot of trouble if I wasn't careful with my magic when I was around him. And I have been careful, you know? It just wasn't enough." Her face fell. "The general's probably going to scold me when he finds out.... Anyways, he didn't say who those powerful people were, but only a few people in the world are strong enough to intimidate Sunfall. And most of them are connected to mythic beasts somehow."

Thenio frowned a little when he heard that. Was that the real reason that General Obarin had been doing so much for him? Jasel had said it was because of his connection to Ariom, and the general himself had said it was because he empathized with Thenio's situation.

But was it really just that he was afraid of Eteon and Ki'shiu?

If that was true, it would be understandable...but also a little disappointing....

Of course, Thenio reminded himself, General Obarin did seem to be close to the Denifor family and to legitimately care about Ariom. So Jasel probably wasn't entirely wrong. And it wasn't like an action could only have a single motivation behind it.

Glancing around, Thenio saw that Ariom and Mideis also seemed to be thinking about what Namyis had just said. Mideis was still looking a little guilty, and Ariom was scowling. It was hard to say whether he was still unhappy about Namyis figuring out that Thenio had a connection to a mythic beast or whether it was just his usual reaction to General Obarin being mentioned.

Thenio didn't really want to interrupt, but seeing that Mideis still looked pale and exhausted, he decided to take advantage of the pause in the conversation. "Uh...Ariom?"

"Hmm?" Ariom turned to look at him.

"Sorry...it's just...the refreshment cart is still down in the reception room, isn't it? Do you want me to go get it? Mideis really looks like he could use a little energy boost. And Iggy had some snacks while we were in my room, but Amisi didn't get any yet."

"Ah...I completely forgot about that. We just came straight up here so I could fix that dampening cuff." Ariom made a face. "You stay here. I'll go get it. Iggy, you keep an eye on Thenio for me for a few minutes, all right?"

"Mmm! Okay!" Iggy sat up a little straighter, looking pleased to be given a job to do.

Ariom turned to give Mideis and Namyis an apologetic look. "I'm sorry for being such a poor host. I'll be right back with the refreshments."

He quickly left the room.

"Ah. He ran away...." Namyis said, looking at the door that Ariom had just closed behind him.

"He does that a lot," Mideis said with a wry chuckle. "Ariom's a good guy and a brilliant enchanter. But he does have a bad habit of running away from difficult social situations.... Well, I guess it's fine if he takes a few minutes to calm down and collect his thoughts."

Namyis nodded. "His father does that kind of thing a lot, too." She left the work table and came over in front of the dragon box. "While we're waiting for the snacks to come, can we chat a little, Thenio? Talking about my visit with the general reminded me of something I wanted to ask you."

"Oh...uh...okay...?" Thenio said hesitantly.

She gave him a gentle smile. "You don't need to be nervous. It's nothing that difficult. I wanted to ask about the painting."

Thenio blinked. "The painting?"

"Right! The painting that the general has hanging in his office, of Iggy and a dragon revenant building a sandcastle together. He showed it to me when I was there and said you'd sent it to him."

Thenio's eyes went wide. "He has it hanging...in his office?! Where people can see it?"

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"Of course, silly. What else are you supposed to do with a painting?"

"But...that...." Thenio stared at her in shock. "Ariom said he'd like it if I sent him a picture, so I did. But I expected him to just look at it and then toss it in a drawer somewhere or something. I never thought he'd actually hang it up in his office...."

Namyis tilted her head, looking at him curiously. "Why not? It's a nice painting."

"But...but...I painted it!" Thenio protested weakly. "Somebody like Sunfall can get all the paintings he wants, right? From real artists. So why would he want to let people who visit his office see a painting from a nobody like me?"

"You're not a nobody, though?" Namyis looked confused. "Why would you think that you are?"

Thenio wasn't sure how to answer her. Why wouldn't he think that...?

"You'll have to be a little patient with him when it comes to things like that," Mideis said gently. "His chaos magic seems to have a negative effect on most people below sorcerer level. They feel uncomfortable around him. And since he grew up in a mostly non-magic neighborhood...well. I'm afraid he's developed a rather distorted image of himself."

"Oh, is it like a ranking effect?"

"Yes, it seems to be very similar to that." Mideis nodded. "Though it can't be exactly the same because his power level is much too low to trigger a normal ranking effect."

"Well, not necessarily." Namyis put a finger on her cheek, looking thoughtful. "Some types of magic show the effect more strongly than others, right? Maybe chaos magic just has a super strong effect? So his power doesn't need to be that high for it to show up?"

Mideis frowned. "I guess that's possible...."

"What exactly is a ranking effect?" Thenio asked, looking between the two of them. "I've heard the term before, but I don't really understand it."

"It's the discomfort and intimidation that you feel when you're close to someone whose magic power is much higher than yours," Mideis explained. "Though the effect varies depending on the magic affinities of the people involved. It's more straightforward with basic and variant affinities, but arcane types can get a little strange.

"Mental magic has a particularly strong ranking effect, for example. So I can handle being around Namyis, even though her power level is significantly higher than mine. But on the other hand, lower-ranking magic users are more likely to feel uncomfortable around me. Well, I'm only second-rank, though, so the effects still aren't that strong as long as I keep my power under control."

"Mental mages can be scary," Namyis agreed, nodding solemnly. "Like Hydra. He's only fifth-rank, but even I feel intimidated by him sometimes."

"Fifth-rank is actually really high for a mental mage," Mideis told Thenio. "We're one of the lowest-powered affinities, on average, so mental affinity high-rankers are really rare. But Hydra participated in the Amplification Project, remember? That's what gave him an extra boost in magic power—he was one of the project's greatest successes." He looked back at Namyis. "Don't mention the Amplification Project around Ariom, by the way. It's quite a sore point with him...."

"Ah...yes. I know." She nodded again. "The others warned me about that with Riomel when I transferred to Central."

"Good." Mideis turned back to Thenio. "Anyway, you probably haven't experienced ranking effects that much because you haven't been around many high-rankers, apart from life mages. Life affinity has a really low ranking effect. Although, oddly enough, they don't feel it as much as other affinities do, either. They're just sort of exempt from the whole thing.

"And most higher-ranking sorcerers wear dampening devices when they're around lower ranks. That's mostly to diminish the ranking effect, so they don't make other people uncomfortable. But you probably still felt it a little when you first met Namyis, since her power level is so much higher than yours."

"Um...." Thenio paused, thinking back to the short time between meeting Namyis and Iggy showing up to protect him from her magic. "Not really? I mean, I was a little nervous about meeting a well-known battlemage. And then I started feeling cold. But I don't remember feeling especially intimidated."

"Really?" Namyis looked at him with interest. "You didn't think I was scary?"

Thenio shook his head.

"Huh. What's your power level?"

"Around 350."

Mideis frowned. "That low? And you really didn't feel intimidated or frightened at all?"

"No. Just kind of nervous, like I said. But I felt that way before you even got here."

"That's strange. Maybe you really do have a crazy strong ranking effect...." Mideis stared at him for a moment and then looked down at Amisi. "Magic beasts aren't afraid of you, though. So if it's a ranking effect, it can't be a normal one."

"Thenio has really nice magic, okay?" Iggy said, waving his tail a little. "It smells like lots of pretty colors! I like it a lot!"

Amisi nodded in agreement.

"Aww...I'm jealous." Namyis pouted a little. "I mean, I sympathize with people feeling uncomfortable around you. I really do. But at least you still have cute magic beasts who like you....

"And you know, if it really is a ranking effect, then higher-ranking magic users should be more drawn to you. That's the positive side of it. It's why high-rankers usually prefer the company of other high-rankers. And it's part of what makes somebody like Hydra a good commander. Everybody likes him. But he's just scary enough that everybody listens to him, too."

Hydra was the Central Division Commander, as well as the Magic Corps' Field Commander, which meant he took charge during large-scale operations that involved multiple divisions.

He was obviously well-respected by other combat wizards, but Thenio didn't know that much about him. As a mental mage, he didn't have any flashy combat skills, so he wasn't that popular among schoolchildren. Apart from his position and affinity, all Thenio really knew was that Hydra's call name came from his familiar, who was an actual hydra.

"Too bad I can't be around most high-rankers," Thenio said, a little gloomily. "Life mages seem to be okay. But based on what happened earlier, it looks like it's dangerous for me to be around most combat wizards, whether they're wearing magic dampeners or not."

"Ah...right." Namyis looked down at her repaired dampening cuff. Then she looked back up at Thenio with an encouraging smile. "Well, you have Ariom helping you out, don't you? He doesn't like me enough to work on a better dampening technique, but maybe he'll do it for you! You're probably the reason he's researching magic dampening anyway. Isn't that right?" she added, leaning over a little to look past Thenio.

"Didn't you say you weren't going to badger me about that?" came a grumpy voice from somewhere behind him.

Thenio turned around to see Ariom standing in the open doorway of the dragon box, scowling at Namyis.

This particular box had two doors—one that connected to the workroom and another one leading out into the hall. It was designed so that Iggy could go in and out on his own whenever Ariom was shut up in the workroom with a difficult or dangerous project and couldn't be disturbed.

Namyis smiled sweetly at Ariom. "I said I wouldn't badger you. I never said I wouldn't encourage you. And it's for Thenio's sake, too, right?"

Ariom rolled his eyes and turned to Thenio. "Come get whatever you want for yourself and Iggy, then I'll take the cart in the workroom." He gestured toward the refreshment cart, which was standing behind him in the hallway.

"Oh, okay." Thenio turned and held his arm out to Iggy. "Come on. Let's go pick out some snacks for you. It's okay if you're not hungry again yet. We'll just bring in a tray of things, and you can eat them whenever you're ready. All right?"

"Mmm! Okay!" Iggy happily scampered up Thenio's arm and onto his shoulder.

After the two of them had gotten drinks and snacks from the cart, Ariom closed them safely inside the dragon box again and pushed the cart into the workroom. He moved the used practice dummy out of the way and set the trays of biscuits and pastries out on the work table. Then he started pouring cups of juice for everyone.

Namyis watched him for a moment before turning back to Thenio. "Oh, right. I got distracted by all the ranking effect stuff. I was really trying to ask whether or not you take art commissions."

"Commissions?" Thenio paused in the middle of arranging Iggy's snacks on one of the climbing tower's platforms. "As in...doing art for somebody else? And getting paid for it?"

"Right! Like that." Namyis nodded eagerly. "I wanted to ask if I could commission you to do a painting for me. I really liked the one you did for the general!"

"That...um...I mean...I've never really...." Thenio stammered, looking at Ariom and Mideis for some kind of hint on how he ought to respond. "I've never gotten paid for doing a painting before.... I don't mind making you one, but...well...I don't think my paintings are really good enough to—"

"Thenio," Ariom said, cutting him off. His voice was quiet but firm. "Don't compare yourself to someone with ridiculous skill like Eteon. He's been carving wood for longer than you've been alive, so it's not a fair comparison at all. Your paintings are very good for someone your age. And Namyis liked the one she saw enough to offer to pay you for one of her own. So she obviously thinks they're good enough."

"I know." Thenio fidgeted uncomfortably. "I know that...but...."

Ariom sighed and looked at Namyis. "Could you ask him again another time? He's been through several upsetting things the past couple of days, and his artwork is a bit of a sensitive topic.... I think it would be better to wait and discuss it when he's feeling a little calmer."

"Ah, of course. There's no hurry." Namyis gave Ariom a pleasant smile. "We'll be seeing a lot of each other for the next couple of weeks, won't we? There will be plenty of other chances to talk about it."

"For better or worse...yes, there will be." Ariom sighed again and turned to Mideis. "Speaking of upsetting things, are you ready to explain what happened earlier? What exactly is that wooden figurine?"

He was obviously changing the subject. But Thenio was grateful for it.

It actually wasn't Eteon that he was comparing himself to....

...but he really didn't want to talk about that....

"Yes, I think I can manage now," Mideis said with a slightly apologetic smile. "That figurine is what we call a telepathic token. It's a way of sending a message by attaching mental magic to a physical object. It can be done so that it only activates when a specific person touches the object—me, in this case. And the magic can be quite difficult to detect if you don't specifically know what to look for...especially when it's magic from a mythic beast...."

Ariom raised an eyebrow. "From a mythic beast? Wasn't it Eteon who sent it?"

"I've heard that mythic beasts can channel magic through their agents in some circumstances. I don't know the details of how it works, though."

"Always more questions, with that guy...." Ariom shook his head. "Well, can you tell us what the message was?"

Mideis hesitated, glancing at Thenio with an awkward expression. "Not exactly. Parts of it wouldn't really make sense to anyone who doesn't use mental magic. But...it was basically a warning. He was warning me not to use my magic on Thenio in certain ways, because it might cause a bad reaction. And...." He paused, apparently choosing his words. "Knowledge can be dangerous."

Ariom frowned. "What?"

"Knowledge can be dangerous," Mideis repeated. "Dangerous for Thenio, I mean. We need to be careful what kinds of information he's exposed to. The message said you would understand why."

"I would?" Ariom looked a little taken aback. Then his expression turned thoughtful. "If he thinks I'll understand, that probably means it has something to do with the information we got from Eteon yesterday. Information...knowledge.... Knowledge is...dangerous?" His eyes suddenly widened. He turned to look at Namyis, then at Thenio. "Is that what it was? Coming in contact with Namyis' magic...gave you too much information?"

Thenio's eyes also went wide. That was it—the connection between essence magic and dream magic that he'd sensed was there but couldn't quite grasp.

Essence magic contained information about a magic attribute. And dream magic could turn information into reality.

So when he'd used dream magic and thought about Namyis, he'd...accidentally replicated her magic? Was that why he'd been able to create a physical manifestation, even though he was nowhere near sorcerer level himself?

No...that couldn't be right, could it? That was just too crazy....

But Ariom seemed to be thinking of either the same thing or something equally crazy, because he turned back to Mideis with a rather forlorn expression. "You were right. Mythic beasts are scary. And chaos morphs might be even scarier...."