About a year passed since the day Howard became the Sage’s apprentice. During that time Selina and Howard had both learned a great deal about what being a Sage entailed, James had become an expert hunter by the standards of this world, Miranda had become a popular artisan, and Jonathan had been sending back reports of his fruitful research.

However, Natalie and Leon had both refused to participate in the ceremony and remained at the tiger lily house. Leon played up his helplessness as an unfortunate child whose mind has been locked but Natalie refused to do nothing, so she provided for herself by helping the others with their finances and spent her time learning about the world.

Speaking of the monetary system, it had taken Howard quite a long time to understand. Trade was always negotiable, of course, but the money here was borrowed Wisdom. That was the easy part. The Wisdom that was borrowed came from the Sage who put it into some sort of system that all who had gone through the ceremony could use. Small bits of Wisdom could be transferred through this system, but that Wisdom could also be used in life instead of as money.

There was no concept of saving in this world. Every day the citizens would go to work, collect their Wisdom, spend it on what they needed, then use the rest to help them with tasks that might otherwise be impossible without it. The only one who did practice saving were the doctors, but chances were that before the day was up there would be a patient that they needed to use it on.

Then there came the case of those with light hair who generated their own Wisdom and those with light eyes who had little need for it in their life since they could use various forms of telekinesis. They were automatically rich since they had Wisdom to spare.

Every single one of them that had gone through with the ceremony either had light hair or eyes. Miranda’s bright orange hair may have gotten darker but it was still a lighter shade than most natives and her eyes remained blue. James’ eyes had become lighter, allowing him to use telekinesis. Jonathan’s hair and eyes both changed color, but the eyes were red.

Red eyes were another matter completely. Red eyes were a warning from the world itself that the person who had them was dangerous. That was something Howard learned from the other locals and not the Sage herself. She might have thought he would not take it well since Jonathan came from the same place as him.

There was one more notable thing about the year that had passed. Sanders had never returned. As the seasons changed from pleasantly cool to warm to hot and back again Howard had half expected Sanders to just come back with the next season but he never did. The Sage seemed relieved by this fact and even for Howard it wasn’t as if he particularly needed him to be there. They were surviving just fine.

They were now in the hot season which was closest to summer. By Howard’s guess they had arrived at the beginning of the hot season last year but he had not been keeping complete track. It was only Natalie’s insistence that made him sure that a year had passed at all.

A sharp sound resounded as someone slapped his artichoke petal door. “Howard!” Selina called, “I need to talk to you!”

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“What is it?” Howard complained. He had given up on only talking to her with telepathy since it only confused everyone around them and conversations with Selina were not necessarily things Howard wanted to be heard in the first place.

“It is important this time,” Selina replied, a bit of stress in her voice.

Howard pushed the door out almost hitting her in the face. “Come in,” he sighed.

Selina slipped in and waited for him to come to his living room. “This is going to sound strange and pathetic but I just remembered something this morning that I think you should know.”

Howard gestured for her to continue.

“About half a year ago I overheard a conversation of some natives. You know how sometimes we pick up on telepathy not intended for us, right?”

She was definitely taking her time, but Howard nodded hoping she would get to the point.

“I can’t remember exactly what they were thinking but they don’t like us. Newcomers and prodigies taking over their colony like this are making them insanely jealous.” Selina continued, starting to look nervous, “I guess I thought I misheard at first but today the natives were a bit distant.”

“They are always distant from those with light hair,” Howard pointed out.

“No, it wasn’t like the normal,” Selina pressed, “One of them glared at me for sure.”

Howard frowned. “Do you have any idea what their goal is?”

“They want to kick us out.”

Now, Howard wasn’t particularly concerned about being kicked out after everything he had been able to learn in the past year but to the natives being kicked out of a colony was as good as a death sentence. Something like banishment in medieval times.

“Let’s keep an eye out,” Howard told Selina, “Have you told anyone else yet?”

Selina shook her head. “I wasn’t sure the others would believe me and even if they did they would be furious for not telling them sooner.”

Howard had been a little annoyed, but it was understandable not to share suspicions until more evidence provided itself. He had a naturally suspicious nature that caused him to suspect things constantly.

“Was Dorian one of them?” Howard asked.

“No. They were just ordinary.”

“If I experience the same thing that you did, we should tell the others,” Howard decided and headed over to his door.

He had barely stepped outside before he could feel the gazes full of malice. His instincts were crying out and he nearly used Wisdom to defend himself. This was not just mere glaring. What had set them off so badly that they were only now acting on their jealousy and anger?

Thankfully Selina had her own gondola by now and piloted it with Wisdom more than the oar and they were able to quickly and safely make it to the tiger lily.

Leon greeted them when they entered. “Guys, I have bad news,” he said, “One of the natives came across Jonathan earlier and witnessed him doing some sort of experiment. They weren’t clear on what it was, just that it was unthinkable, and that some of them are starting to distrust us for it.”

“I noticed,” Howard replied. So that had been the trigger, “I wasn’t planning on leaving just yet, but it might be time soon. We should get ready to leave.”

Everyone had known about Howard’s intentions to create his own colony for a while and wanted in. At first, Howard was reluctant, but the more he thought about it the more he realized it was a good idea. Not to mention, if he had people there with him the work he would have to do if visitors came would greatly decrease, and having a colony of all prodigies would make sure that the majority of natives would have no interest in moving in.

“I’ll let Natalie know,” Leon promised, “You guys should stick with the Sage until the last moment to soak up whatever knowledge you can.”

“Actually, this may be insane of me, but I want to see just what Jonathan is doing that appalled them so much,” Howard said, “I don’t really want to go but it may be the deciding factor in whether or not he accompanies us.”