David walked down the almost empty streets of the refugee district. The sun was still some time away from cresting the all-encompassing walls of Ki-Elico, leaving the surroundings in a pleasant darkness.

  He yawned, stretching the sleepy daze away. He slept maybe four hours, but he couldn’t stay in bed any longer.

  There were just too many exciting thoughts coursing through his head.

  Mage, knight, artificer.

  The three main courses of the academy, one of which he'd have to pick at some point in the not so distant future.

  He discarded the path of the knight immediately; Too close and personal, and he already had his claws. Not to mention the ludicrous amounts of investments needed to be a proper knight.

  One had to acquire enchanted items en-masse and perhaps even artifacts. As Aura had explained, those mostly were relics of the old world, where mana was abundant and enchanting powerful, permanent effects into mundane materials was commonplace.

  Nowadays, to imitate such results, alchemists had to sink years into transmuting mythical materials, and it still wouldn’t have half the flexibility the enchanters of old could afford.

  At that point, David’s deliberations were cut short as he saw a group of workers crossing the street ahead of him.

  It wouldn’t be such a crazy occurrence, had David not recognized one of them as the man who tried to rob him a few days ago in the tavern. The drunkard moved as if half his body had gone numb, dragging one leg behind him. The whole right side of his face had turned a deep, ugly purple, spreading down his neck like spilled ink.

  David quickly ducked behind a nearby wall and took a different path to the academy.

  All that from a single chunk of ice to the head?

  That right there, was the core of his present issue. He always thought he’d be following Aura’s footsteps and becoming an alchemist, but being a mage meant being able to defend himself.

  To cause such damage to people who wanted to take advantage of him or those close to him… It was a deeply satisfying thought.

  If only I could turn back time…

  David shook his head. He had to stop thinking about the past. If he didn’t, how could he move forward and stop it from happening again?

  He forced himself back to the important topics. To become a mage, learning elemental magic and barriers, or to become an artificer, learning the basics of alchemy, enchanting and golemancy.

  And it wasn’t just this choice. Later on, he would have to specialize in something, so he also had to keep the end goal in mind.

  If only I could take this power back to my old life…

  David slapped himself in the middle of the road, interrupting the intrusive sentimentality. Luckily, there were no onlookers.

  Laboratory with Aura, academy, training with Zerik. That was what mattered, not things that happened over a decade prior.

  He quickened his pace, using mana to augment the speed of his legs. Small, controlled improvements. Just enough to drown the noise with focus.

  The morning classes dragged on. David moved through each exercise mechanically. Careful not to stand out, but not really there. Every time he blinked, he pictured working with Aura in the laboratory instead.

  By the afternoon, the thought of it was all that kept him awake. Doubly so, because he brought along the cane-head artifact he had taken from Hiveo’s corpse.

  When he reached the door to the laboratory, to his surprise he found it unlocked, and Aura already inside.

  “Marco! How was your day?” She smiled as she saw him enter.

  “Sleepy.” He shrugged. “You’re here so early?”

  “I… might have rushed through my work a bit.” She chuckled. “Have you read through that ritual already? Take a look at this!” Aura almost shoved a parchment into his face.

  “I did.” He said as he took the notes from her. “But I wasn’t able to understand much.”

  “I extracted a part of it, to make it easier.” She guided him through it.

  “This element here,” she motioned to a detached ring of written symbols, “Specifies a subject, one that contains something referred to as ‘essence’. And this one here? It refers to that same ‘essence’, but in context of moving it. And then…”

  Aura glided through explanations fast enough to make him a bit dizzy. David took a second to admire her excitement, before interrupting her.

  “Do you know what that ‘essence’ is?” He asked.

  If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

  “Not really,” She admitted, the wind leaving her sails. “I hoped you would. Was there some more context in those ruins?”

  “If there was, I missed it. It wasn’t exactly a sightseeing trip.”

  “I know, I know, sorry,” she brushed his hair. “I'm getting ahead of myself. Let’s start from scratch.”

  She moved aside, and the two of them bent over the original parchment secured to the table, the smell of ink hanging thick between them.

  Aura’s hands danced over the parchment as she spoke, each sentence faster than the last. With her guiding David through what she had already found out, over the course of an hour, he was able to get up to speed.

  Finally, David took a step back, his head fuzzy from constant, intense thinking. From her perspective, he was just a twelve-year-old with some talent, yet her expectations were ridiculously high.

  “I don’t think we can make much progress on this right now.” David said, the squiggly lines and symbols floating before his eyes. “We could probably recreate the ritual, but as long as we don’t know what that ‘essence’ is, how are we to find a proper subject for it?”

  “Then we test a few things,” Aura said, undeterred. “Start with obvious things the monsters had access to. Like plants.”

  That’s the recklessness Bert keeps talking about.

  “Or maybe we could try to find that word in some other context?” Aura continued. “Not like there’s a library of ancient script that we can access, though. Even for an average-sized noble house, that would probably fall under restricted knowledge.”

  “Could we try to visit the ruins again? Maybe through the academy?” David offered.

  “No. Definitely not.” Aura crossed her arms.

  “Wait, what? Why?”

  “That would be much too dangerous for you, Marco!” She opposed. “And how would you explain knowing about them, without tying yourself to the rebels?”

  Good point. David exhaled deeply. “So we’re stuck.”

  “Of course not. We can keep thinking about it, while we look more closely at your claws.” She said as she pulled out a small jar.

  David flinched softly. The glass implement contained splinters of his claws. Though Aura tried to be delicate, their extraction wasn’t exactly pleasant.

  “Have you found out anything yet?” David paused, steeling himself. “Or do you need more samples?”

  “Don’t worry, I think I have enough, but I do need your help.” She poured the splinters out into a small bowl. They seemed… deflated? For the lack of a better word.

  David stuck his finger into the bowl and to his surprise, the fragments were almost soft. Like warm plastic.

  “Pour some mana into them.”

  As he did, the splinters grew slightly longer and visibly more rigid. Some of them cut right into the bowl.

  “Interesting. My mana had no effect on them, they must be attuned…” Aura mused, her hand on her chin. “If we carved your forearm open, we’d probably find a long stretch of such inert material.”

  David took a full step back, hiding his arms behind his back.

  “Oh come on. That was a joke!” Aura called out with a mocked offence. “Though if those were my arms...”

  David shivered. He wasn’t opposed to experimenting on himself, but he would never admit that out loud. “Before that, I brought this so we could study it. I also have it from the ruins, but it’s an artifact.”

  David took out a small piece of cloth, which hid a beautifully carved raven skull.

  “It feels… powerful yet simple.” Aura immediately reached out to touch it, probably sensing for mana. “What does it do?”

  He thought for a second, trying to remember the details of Hiveo’s fight against the golems.

  “It enhances strikes with a blunt weapon. I think?” He said.

  “Well, how? Does it increase its own weight? Deliver a shockwave upon hitting the target? Increase the wielder’s physical attributes?”

  “I have no idea.” David admitted. “Could we somehow check that?”

  “Sure, if you don’t mind me destroying it in the process.” Aura shrugged. “A master enchanter could probably figure it out. Or we could test it manually.”

  “We’re not in a rush, are we?” David rolled the skull-shaped artifact in his hands. “We can take our time learning about it. Just like we do about my ‘condition’ and the ritual.”

  “I’m afraid there are some obstacles we might not be able to get past.” Aura knit her brows together. “If only I had my old contacts…”

  “Do you think a daughter of a large noble house could have access to the knowledge we need?”

  “Your friend?” She thought for a second, tapping a finger against her chin. “Depends. Is she the type to make her own connections and build influence?”

  “I guess so. Well, it doesn’t hurt to try.” David smiled awkwardly.

  He liked spending time with Diana. He really did. But asking for favors… That was a whole another thing.

  What must be done, must be done.

  With two of the three research directions hitting a roadblock, they went back to working on his claws.

  Between David’s tired groans and Aura’s excited commentary, the late afternoon quickly turned to evening and then to night. As before, David offered to stay behind and clean up, letting Aura catch some more sleep.

  “Shouldn’t we do it in turns?” Aura asked as she brushed his cheek. “I don’t want you to be sleepy for your classes.”

  “I’ll be fine.” David assured her. “I can handle this much.”

  She took measure of his face, probably looking at the bags under his eyes, but decided to trust him. Aura soon left, and David started organising the room.

  By the time he left the room, it was past midnight again, and David was considering dropping everything to search for something that contained caffeine in this world. He yawned loudly as he locked their room.

  He didn’t sleep long lately, but more importantly, he also didn’t sleep well. The silence of the night made all the unpleasant memories crawl out.

  He looked down the corridor, to the other laboratory, where light was still spilling out through the tiny slits in the doors. The night-owl student must have started her own work already.

  I wonder how she does it.

  In a fit of exhaustion-induced inspiration, he decided to just knock and ask. Anything to find some tricks for sleeping less.

  As he approached the door, he could hear someone working and mumbling to themselves. He knocked loudly. Once. Twice. And all the noise from inside vanished.

  David stood there for a solid minute, surprised. Was the girl seriously trying to pretend she’s not there?

  He knocked again, and a low voice rang out from the other side. It sounded off, a bit monotone.

  “What is it?”

  “Hello?” He said awkwardly. “I have a laboratory next to you, I wanted to chat.”

  “Who are you?”

  “Marco, a new student.”

  “Marco.” She repeated. “I’m busy, get lost.”

  He blinked twice looking at the door, then promptly turned around and did as ordered.

  Darryl - the knight who killed the predator and worked with Brenn back in Grainwick.