"What you consider enemies, I consider friends, except they at least make their intentions clear." – a misanthropic philosopher

Alex stares at Bernhart's face.

"I'm not going to bite you know," Bernhart's head tilts eerily, complemented by a slowly stretching smile, "I'm glad you came, we've been needing to have a talk."

Alex stands up and reaches for the door.

"That's not going to work, Alex, though I am offended that you dislike my company that much," Bernhart frowns, "The only reason you got to this inner complex in the first place was because I let you, anyway take a seat."

Bernhart points to a stool beside a counter, and Alex, after giving the door a few tugs, faces Bernhart, with arms at the ready.

"Or don't, how comfortable you are is up to you," Bernhart shrugs, before staring back at Alex, "I would like to run some tests though, to be even more certain, but I doubt you'll let me do that."

Alex shakes his head.

'I can't trust someone that shows that glint in their eyes, and after what I saw outside.'

Alex turns his head, keeping one eye on Bernhart while taking a quick glance at the door.

'Something is clearly up here.'

"Well, Alex, since you're here, there are some things that you might want to know, and the most important of them is best explained in an adjacent room. So, if you would not mind following, I'll lead you where we need to go."

Bernhart slowly walks to a metal door, touching it twice; it swivels open. Then he looks back before stepping through it, "If you want to keep your distance, I don't blame you, and I assume that your tendency to do so will increase after you learn more about your new condition, but you should really come along."

Alex looks at the disappearing figure of Bernhart, before taking a broom he noticed in the corner of the room.

'It'd be better to keep an eye on him, mages are most dangerous when out of sight.'

Alex follows, broom at the ready.

The room is pitch black, but to Alex, he can clearly see some interesting features even before Bernhart turns on the lights. Lined along the left wall are containers, tubes containing bodies that are complete 'absent' to Alex's vision.

"The first thing you should know, Alex, is that your vision should be seeing the magic itself. It's probably how you got through the wards in the first place anyhows. The second has to do with a lesson I teach most of my students on their first day, and that has to do with magic internalization. You, my friend, as a humanized magic-beast are a master at this and do it naturally, and from what Reynold told me, you also had the augment-," Bernhart coughs into his hand, "no, sine magicae constitution."

Alex's gaze grows stern as he looks at Bernhart.

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

'It makes a lot of sense in regards to the sight, I haven't really noticed the magic internalization or what's it called though. What is really upsetting, though, is that Reynold shared information with Bernhart, expected, but upsetting.'

Bernhart notices Alex's change in attitude, and continues, "Your previous constitution is probably the reason that the experiments yielded any success in the first place. What this whole business matters to you know is really three parts."

Bernhart holds up a finger, and Alex starts feeling disgusted.

"First, just as magic beasts do you will grow in strength as you internalize more magic, though hopefully not in size. Second, that crystal and contract will probably increase your chances of survival from fatal injuries, if you are anything like magic beasts in that regard, if you'd let me do some tests I would know for certain,"

Bernhart looks over to Alex, but seeing no positive reply, he continues.

"Third, you're going to have rogue mages come after you for the organ harvesting potential. Magic beasts have insane regenerative properties, and because of this, it is possible to repeatedly harvest organs from them."

'I wonder if it's any worse than with the sine magicae condition…'

"The reason that I brought you here," Bernhart pauses and flips another switch backlighting the test-tubes, "Was to show you what fate might lie ahead of you if you reveal yourself to the wrong person."

Desiccated bodies, occasionally twitching, are shown in a solution.

Alex starts to feel sick.

"These ones are currently in the growth phase, and that liquid is the reagent that catalyzes it. They all used to be death-row criminals and were given the opportunity to extend their lives by becoming test subjects and repeated organ donors."

Bernhart's face grows glum.

"To be honest, the amount of magic they gather is a fraction of what one in nature does… yours, of course, would have no similar restriction."

Bernhart looks over to Alex, and Alex sees the mad gleam there, but also something else.

"If you want to prevent this, you're going to need to take some precautions, some of which I would be glad to help you with. I owe a favor to Reynold, so I'll make sure to help you in any way I can."

Bernhart reaches into his pocket, before throwing something over to Alex. Alex then catches it, very much still on guard, to see it is a small pebble engraved with an array of symbols he hasn't seen before.

"That's the key to these wards, you're welcome to visit if you need help with anything. If you can't trust me, which I understand, go visit Reynold. He should be able to help you with the speech issue, though a lot of that is going to be on you."

Bernhart starts mumbling something on the restriction of mage-speech, which Alex has trouble understanding.

"Speaking of Reynold, I believe that he has arrived. You caused quite the ruckus via your unorthodox entrance. So much so that I had to send off Able to fetch someone to break them, but it looks like it was an unnecessary precaution."

Reynold comes bursting through the doors, immediately going over to Alex, still half-panting from his journey here, and begins examining him to see if he's alright. After mumbling for a few moments, and looking again, he stops and looks over to Bernhart. "Bernhart, I'm not sure what's going on here, but you've better not have touched Alex. Just because I'm a new director, doesn't mean I'm weak. Even though we're colleagues and you're a teacher as well, don't think I'll let you get away with hurting my students."

Bernhart raises his hands, taking another step further away from Alex.

"Haven't touched him."

Reynold's eyes squint in suspicion, "Be that as it may, there is clearly something going on here," Reynold looks over to Alex and back to Bernhart, "I'm going to need to see the both of you in my office to sort out what happened," He says before walking over to where Bernhart is.

Alex looks over to where Bernhart and Reynold are arguing

'Maybe Bernhart isn't like that rogue mage after all, even though he could have done something he didn't…'

Alex remembers how Bernhart accommodated his requests and kept his distance.

'Maybe I've been a bit too suspicious of him...'

That's when the look in Bernhart's eyes, and how Alex had been trapped by him in the room resurface in his mind.

'But even if he isn't, that doesn't mean my caution is unfounded.'

Reynold takes Alex's hand and leads him out of the room, before looking back.

"I expect you in my office presently, not being there is grounds for a demotion," Reynold says, before slamming the door behind Alex and himself.

'I've got a lot of things to think about.'