I decided to pour the early morning hours before my departure into a little bit of training. There was something I had been meaning to test ever since I had left the dungeon.

  Well, I wanted to test two things, but I needed more information for the second. For the time being, I wanted to check Threaded Reinforcement’s transformed functionality now that my core was finally awakened. The cracks from earlier no longer felt like cracks, but ligament-like threads running like vibrating steel wires through my body.

  Vibrating because they were infused with terrific amounts of mana.

  It was partly a property of my mana-guzzling core. Interesting as that was, what I really focused on was the practical application of it.

  So I channelled my Aspects. I didn’t practice anything specifically, didn’t try to perform something new. I just pushed out more and more and more Gravity, Flare, and Illumination. The familiar hollowness of mana exhaustion barrelled into me like a runaway train.

  And—thanks to Threaded Reinforcement—mana exhaustion didn’t matter anymore.

  I crossed the first threshold, the one that had made me black out all those months ago when I had messed around with Brasvay’s carriage with Gravity. Now, as I shattered past that limit, which was much higher now due to ranking up Spirit, my body pulled on the mana threads infused into my physical being.

  It was exhilarating to discover that the threads extended the duration of my mana channelling capability for so long, I didn’t actually discover the limit. So sad I had to stop because it was time to leave.

  The class was the most abandoned one I’d experienced yet. Made sense. Path Interactions weren’t as universally applicable as things like Augmentations, which naturally saw a lot more people interested in them.

  For one, Path Interactions would only occur if a person had more than one Path. That wasn’t as common as one would think. Then the Paths actually had to be related for them to interact. Completely unrelated Paths, like how Aurier had Path of the Apostle and Path of the Smith, meant neither had any relation with the other, so there was no potential for interacting.

  “Since there’s only three of us here today,” Professor Urhei said. “I think we’re simply going to go through individualized sessions so I can help each of you personally from the get-go. Does that sound alright?”

  Despite the lack of students, she was pretty cheery. Maybe dealing with fewer students individually was something she liked better than giving lectures to a full auditorium.

  I exchanged quick looks with the others—a youngish Plumefolk and tall Rakshasa in blue robes—and they both just shrugged back. So I forwarded the shrug to Professor Urhei. Individual sessions it was.

  “Are you the only professor who comes and gives these classes, Professor Urhei?” I asked when it was my turn. I had decided to be patient for about twenty minutes until the other two were done and I had Urhei all to myself. Blessed privacy. “Not that I’m complaining. It’s nice to have a familiar face.”

  She smiled at me. For the first time, I noticed some of her fangs were missing. It seemed Scalekin lost their teeth much like humans. “If you decided to be a professor at the academy, Mage Moreland, then you could lift some of my burden, you know.”

  I chuckled. “Sorry, professor. I think that’d be a bit much.” I started ticking off my fingers. “Apparently, I’m a cultist, mage, adventurer, and interpreter now too. I think I’ve got my hands full.”

  “Interpreter, you say?”

  I saw the twinkle of interest in her eyes and laughed. “I can tell you about it after the class.”

  “Right, right.”

  Urhei cleared her aged throat and began explaining. I had given the other two some privacy, so I hadn’t heard her explanation of Path Interactions when she had talked with the Plumefolk and the Rakshasa. As such, I listened patiently, even though what she started off with was the basics.

  It was stuff I knew already, at first. Paths would only react when they had some connection, like how my Path of Burning Starlight had come as a result of actions by those who possessed Path of the Acolyte—or its evolved versions—which I had gone on to acquire as well.

  There was an undeniable connection between the two, considering the cultist Path came via the Sun Cult and my Path sounded very much related to the sun.

  Though, now I was wondering if there wouldn’t have been any Path Interactions if I had been a member of, say, the Wind Cult. Although, they probably would have Sacrificed me to the wind god so I’d just end up in the same state I currently was, just with a very different aesthetic.

  “Basically,” I said. “Can I stop the Path Interactions if I just joined another cult?”

  “Hmm, that’s doubtful,” Urhei said.

  “Huh, I see. I was asking out of academic interest, by the way.”

  She smiled at me. “Yes, you don’t strike me as the type to drop people like that. Nevertheless, you’re starting to see the main issue with Path Interactions, yes? And why I chose individualized sessions?”

  I nodded. It was because Path Interactions were by nature rather specific to the individual. Sure, there were some ground-level basics that had to be clarified at the start. But everything else about them, such as how and when the Paths might interact, how they were related, and so on all depended on the individual and the surrounding circumstances.

  “But perhaps digging into the fundamentals of Path Interactions will help shed some light as to what we can do in your case,” Urhei said. “Since you seem determined to make sure they don’t happen at all.”

  That was one of the new perspectives I was slowly getting used to about Path Interactions. I had taken them to be annoyances. Visions that were too vague, about things I didn’t particularly care about, basically a waste of my time. Or worse, like when I had been inducting Glonek into the Sun Cult, when the visions interrupted with horrific timing.

  But Urhei didn’t necessarily see them that way. I understood her perspective when I understood that mine were significantly more intrusive than the typical Path Interaction.

  “Usually, they occur as dreams,” she said. “While yes, the trigger for the Path Interaction naturally occurs when a task is being performed or the subject is going through an experience, the actual vision doesn’t normally materialize till the subject is drowsy and susceptible.”

  “Huh, I hadn’t heard any of that.”

  Escinca hadn’t told me, but that was understandable since he probably had never experienced them. But Master Kostis hadn’t mentioned that my Path Interactions were awry either.

  Wait. Did that suggest Kostis only had one Path too?

  That seemed unlikely. He was nearing Onyx. Wasn’t he supposed to have more than two Paths, not less?

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  I took a quick breath. I was making assumptions that more Paths was always better. For all I knew, Master Kostis had some incredible, rare, powerful Path that by itself provided him with more Aspects than he knew what to do with.

  “Anyway,” I said, as much to clear my mind as to gently nudge Urhei back to my real goal with this class. “You were talking about fundamentals, professor?”

  “Yes,” Urhei said. “Do you know why the Weave initiated Path Interactions as a component of its functionalities?”

  “Uh, no.”

  “Understandable. The intentions and mysteries and history of the Weave are less relevant than what it simply does and allows. However, in certain cases such as that of Path Interactions, it helps to know why the Weave allows what it does.”

  She took on a more lecturing tone, so I settled a little more comfortably into my chair to listen. I had no reason to think this was going to be boring or unrelated. Professor Urhei’s lectures had always been illuminating, so far.

  “Historically speaking,” she said. “The Weave wants its participants to grow within the bounds it provides. The most overarching mechanism is the Paths system, and one of the functionalities of Paths is that they can interact to allow their owner capabilities that singular Paths alone might not allow. Path Interactions are the Weave’s way of informing people that there are ways to make the interacting Paths stronger together.”

  I slowly nodded. “That makes sense.” Well, what she said made sense. Didn’t mean the visions I saw were sensible. “But my Path Interactions are unique.”

  “They are. But fundamentally, they are no different from anyone else’s Path Interactions.” She lowered her voice conspiratorially while leaning in. “I myself went through some not that long ago. Though, unlike your inopportune visions, I simply received hallucinations while training.”

  I wasn’t sure I wanted to call any hallucinations simple, but I supposed Urhei’s outlook was different.

  “Lucky you, professor,” I said. “I guess I can see why it makes sense. That explains why Path Interactions stop after the Paths evolve, because then they’ve grown stronger. So now I’m wondering if the way to prevent them from ever happening in the first place is by making the Weave think they’re strong already. Or that they’ve evolved. Or something along those lines.”

  “Yes, exactly! While I normally recommend against fighting back against Path Interactions, since yours are so intrusive, it makes sense to gain more control over them.”

  Well, I wanted to stop them entirely, but I decided against correcting her. “Is there a way to make the Weave believe my Paths are stronger than they appear?”

  “Of course. The simplest method is by using empowering potions. The idea here is that you empower everything you can do, thus fooling the Weave into thinking you have already advanced beyond the point that it is attempting to guide you towards. Because that potential for growth is what the Weave uses to determine when you need its guidance via Path Interactions.”

  I nodded again. “That also makes sense. But it also sounds like a temporary solution, because I assume the effect of the empowering potions runs out. I don’t want to have to take them forever.”

  “Of course. Which is why the empowering potions will simply provide a temporary bulwark against Path Interactions until you’ve found the breakthrough.”

  “Breakthrough?” I didn’t want to sound disgruntled, but that was how it came out, so I tried modifying my tone into a more respectful one. “As in, the point where I evolve the Paths again? I don’t really want to have to go through this rigmarole constantly, professor. Isn’t there a more permanent solution to stopping Path Interactions?”

  “You misunderstand, Mage Moreland. I didn’t mean the breakthroughs or other mechanics used to rank up your Paths and whatnot. Rather, I meant finding the breakthrough that will give you insight as to why you keep getting Path Interactions.”

  “Oh, I see now. My bad, I was taught to think about breakthroughs as what you need to cross rank tier thresholds.”

  “No worries. Just remember that the Weave wants you to know how you can enhance the growth of your interconnected Paths, how to enhance the potential of one by using the capabilities of the other. If you can prove that you really do know, then you have nothing to fear from Path Interactions.”

  “Which is going to be difficult if I’m trying to prevent the main mechanism of learning about that potential...”

  “Quite.”

  True as that was, there had to be other methods of finding out about that potential. It was just information, after all. Information that I could acquire through other means. First, I’d need to look through what the Mage Guild stored about Paths related to the ones I possessed.

  Then, I’d have to see if Escinca had stored away any further nuggets of knowledge somewhere, though that was unlikely. If he had, he’d no doubt have told me.

  “Take heart, Mage Moreland,” Urhei said. “I have faith in you. The Ascendant who left this function of the Weave clearly wanted to counteract the fact that the Weave is generally so sparse in information.”

  There was a handful of interesting things I could take from that statement. One was that it sounded like different Ascendants had contributed to different areas of the Weave. Natural, since all big projects I was familiar with needed work from all kinds of people with various expertise.

  Another, more curious implication was that Professor Urhei seemed to think highly of the Ascendants. Or at least, not think horribly of them.

  It was surprising simply because the Ascendants were the ones who had caused the deteriorated state of the world. Although, now that I thought about it, people didn’t seem to think too horribly of them in general. Well, even if they did, it wasn’t the kind of visceral hate I expected for people who caused the current, vastly diminished condition of Ephemeroth.

  “Thanks, professor.” There wasn’t much else to discuss because I knew what to do next. “For everything.”

  She sat back in her curved chair. “Happy to be of assistance, Mage Moreland.”

  Downstairs in the Mage Guild trade workshop, I got myself some of the empowering potions. I didn’t mind ingesting those periodically to keep fooling the Weave.

  If only they hadn’t been so expensive. My bank account was weeping.

  The breakthrough was what would be paramount. I’d need to scour the Mage Guild library for information after I was done purchasing the potions, I was about to head out. Before I could do so, I was accosted by the familiar figure of a mage who didn’t look much like a mage at all.

  “Mage Moreland!” Casvat said, the Rakshasa’s eyes glinting avariciously as always. “I see you’re as focused on your own business as always.”

  “Aren’t we all busy with our own stuff?” I asked back, frowning.

  “Yes, of course. But you… you seem focused to the point of ignoring everything else going on in the world around you, from the brief glimpses I catch of you.”

  Alright, now that was downright insulting. “You’ve got no clue what I get up to, so I’d appreciate you keep your baseless assumptions to yourself.”

  “Really? Assumptions?” He spread his hands around. I noted the satchel filled with familiar blue and red potions. “Here I am, preparing to leave this city before it’s overrun by the Blight Swarm, and you feel free to gallivant about like it hardly matters. And I am not alone, I assure you. I suppose I can’t expect you to notice, but there are many mages escaping before escape becomes impossible.”

  My lip curled. Admittedly, I didn’t give a rat’s ass about what other people did, so long as it didn’t bother me or mine. So I obviously had missed the somewhat diminished presence at the Mage Guild, my lazy assumption being that it was a slow day. Apparently not.

  “Well,” I said. “You could try considering the fact that not everyone wants to run away from every problem they face.”

  Casvat considered me coolly. Then he began walking. “Don’t let your little grandiose notions end up being a futile self-sacrifice.” He brushed past me, the last of his words almost a whisper as he continued onwards without looking back. “People like that… well, you of all people should know that they don’t amount to much.”

  I twisted around, fingers clenching into a fist at my side. Bastard had insulted not just me but Elder Escinca as well.

  Casvat had moved on so fast, I couldn’t get back at him without causing a scene. So I took a deep breath and tried to calm myself. Why the hell had he antagonized me like that? This was the same guy trying to goad me into working with him after I gained—

  Oh. Alright, so he had probably figured out one way or another that I hadn’t acquired Permanence as my Spirit Augmentation. His plans for me had revolved around it entirely.

  But since I had gotten Threaded Reinforcement instead, I was now useless to him.

  So he had no problem with offending me. Huh. Threaded Reinforcement’s blessing in disguise was revealing that fake-mage Rakshasa’s true colours.

  After I calmed down, I took a route through the Mage Guild library to find as much information as I could about Path Interactions as closely related to my specific case. Specifically, about interactions where at least one Path was a cultist Path. Unfortunately, I discovered next to nothing that was useful, with only brief mentions in some texts as examples. Nothing in depth.

  I wasn’t too glum about it, though. It was fine. Early the next morning, I received a long-awaited letter.

  The academy was finally inviting me to use their Attribute Chamber.