The revelation of the slow apocalypse that was creeping up on Vereden weighed heavily on my mind. It was to the extent that I didn’t even bother going to sleep that night after showing Aurelius out after our discussion. Before he left, the Primector told me that he would remain in the city for the next several weeks as he tended to some business with the local branch of the faith, but that I could call on him whenever I needed to. However, before he departed, he left me one final offer.

  “Whenever you decide to begin your quest, Nathaniel,” Aurelius had said soberly, standing in my open doorway, shadowed by the light of Elys above. “You may draw on whatever you might need, from the Gyreite church. All of our resources shall be at your disposal. Please, remember that.”

  I had simply nodded tiredly in response, too mentally drained to parse the implications of the statement. Everything I’d been doing for the last week was starting to hit me all at once, and the exhaustion was terrible. Yet, it seemed that sleep evaded me, which was to my detriment the following morning. I wanted to leave Bait behind at the house to coordinate with my new companions in the Order we had just founded, while I took the day to go to class. But that just wasn’t feasible.

  It was a Mind Magic day at the Academy, and to my embarrassment…

  I really struggled with this one.

  Professor Diedrich Mollenhart, a man who looked to be maybe fifteen years my senior with pale skin, long blonde hair, and thin spectacles, was a demanding teacher. The problem was, I was finding that I had next to no ability in a certain part of his discipline.

  Offensive Mind Magic.

  The first half of the semester had been dedicated to the instruction and development of the defensive part of the School. Mollenhart had very carefully coaxed all of his Neophyte students through the process of constructing mental defenses, designed to protect and warn the user whenever they were either being influenced or outright attacked. There were certain ways you could go about this, as I’d learned. There wasn’t one set and forget method to Mind Magic.

  Some chose to construct a sort of mental wall around their mind, a defense that was meant to be impenetrable to influence. Some preferred a more trickery-based method, layering an outside maze around the fortress of their being, so that their opponents would become lost in it. Some still preferred an offensive method to their defense, nestling spells in the outer reaches of their mind meant to outright attack those who attacked them.

  However…with my own unique mental conditions…

  I’d found this very difficult to do. Not only was my mind partitioned into multiple different Rings, each of them a distinct thought line from my own-

  (Soon, Middle Ring. I’d get you back soon.)

  -but I also had my connection to Fade to consider. Familiars were rare enough in the modern era that Mollenhart had been outright surprised to learn that I had one. Their constant mental presence within the mind of the Magi they were connected complicated matters immensely when it came to Mind Magic. Suddenly, you needed to not only guard your own mind, but that of your Familiars as well. The connection between the two of us was so complete that an attacker would be able to trace it between the two of us if I weren't careful.

  My unique mental conditions all combined to mean that my mental defenses were…weak, to say the least. I couldn’t construct a wall, because that would cut Fade out, and I didn’t want that. His presence lingering at the edges of my mind was a source of comfort these days. We weren’t in constant contact, otherwise I’m sure we would have driven each other crazy. But, with a moment's concentration, I could reach across the bond and speak to him, and vice versa. I also couldn’t construct a mental maze because of complications with my Core Ring.

  One very harrowing morning, when we tried that out, we discovered that he would get caught in the maze. Once class was out that day and he’d dispelled Bait, he nearly hadn’t been able to return to his usual place in my mind. My Core later told me that he’d had to navigate the maze to do so. He’d also felt his personal strength weakening as he did so, which had some dire implications for what might have happened if it had disappeared altogether. It was for similar reasons that we discovered offensive emplacements didn’t work either.

  I’d…kinda deserved the cursing out Core Ring had given me, when he’d gotten zapped by the thundercloud I’d layered in my mind one day.

  So, our last result was something entirely passive. Essentially, it was a lighthouse-like spell constructed into the outer reaches of our mind. An active one, unlike the reality that was my home. The figurative beam of light that roved around the edges of my mind, not unlike an attentive, lidless eye, was constantly searching for influence or attack. Luckily, like most mental defenses, it didn’t require constant upkeep from my Mana to function. It was a purely ‘set and forget’ kind of Spell.

  According to Mollenhart, it was the best thing I could hope for, with my unique mental circumstances.

  Which was also the problem when it came to the other half of the discipline.

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  I just wasn’t capable of mental offense.

  Oh, I’d tried. I’d tried for weeks now to do it. But no matter what I did, I simply wasn’t able to project a mental attack. My mind simply wasn’t able to leave the ‘self’, as Mollenhart called it. That was the basis of offensive Mind Magic, I’d learned. You sort of…projected a mental construct in a shape of your choosing, and layered your awareness over it, and then influenced another mind with it. But the rigid, connected nature of my ‘self’ meant that I had been continually failing at this task for weeks now.

  And today, it felt like it was all coming to a head.

  Most of the time in Mind Magic class, you were paired with another person to practice against. My typical partner was a young woman by the name of Camilla, and over the weeks of my failure, I’d gotten the impression she didn’t much care for me. I think, partly, it had to do with how I was actively holding her back from my inability to challenge her. The two of us had been sitting cross legged on our cushions, in our little section of the classroom, surrounded by similar pairings for some time now, all to no avail.

  I felt it as her mental projection figuratively ‘poked’ at the borders of my mind in an almost bored manner. I knew that the woman herself was leaning back on her hands and barely paying attention to me, staring up at the ceiling. Every once in a while, she would do her part of this exercise, while my lighthouse spell would, in my mind, illuminate the area she was ‘attacking’ from. But that was all it could do.

  And I just couldn’t do the same to her.

  “Hart,” I heard a stern voice say from above me. Opening my eyes, I found that Mollenhart was standing above me, his thin arms crossed over his chest and a frown on his face. He jerked his head in the direction of the door. “Get your things. We need to have a talk.”

  I stifled a sigh, nodding to the man and collecting my bag.

  Honestly, I’d been…expecting something like this for a while now. “Yes, Professor. I’ll…see you around, Camilla.”

  The woman flicked her eyes over toward me. “Yeah, sure.”

  I almost winced at her dismissive tone as I followed Mollenhart outside the classroom. The last thing I saw before it closed was the amused, knowing eyes of the class. They knew as well as I did what this was about.

  Sure enough…

  “You’re out,” Mollenhart told me bluntly, as we stood alone together in the hallway. “I’m dropping you from the class. I’m sorry, but you just don’t have the ability, and you’re actively holding Cesaro back.”

  I sighed and nodded, long resigned to how this was coming. Things worked…differently from my expectations, here at the Academy. This was a very practical school, after all, and personalized instruction to the ability of the student was very important when it came to Magic and Cultivation. Some people, either due to their Statusial build or circumstances, simply didn’t have talent in certain spheres of applied Magic. If they hit a wall and weren’t able to progress past it, it was up to the Professor whether or not to allow them to continue. In a class like Mind Magic, where it relied very heavily on partner work…

  I just didn’t make the cut.

  “I understand, Professor,” I said tiredly, feeling very…done with today. I was ready to go home and do something much more productive with my time than constantly failing at Mind Magic.

  Mollenhart eyed me for a moment, and his expression softened. “You’re going to need to find another practical class to stay in good standing with the Academy,” He offered. “I can put in a good word for you with another Professor if you need me to. I’m not dropping you because of a lack of effort, after all. Just a lack of…”

  “Talent. Yeah, no. I get it,” I shook my head. “I just…have a very strict schedule these days. Do you know of any other classes that are around this time, on this day?”

  “Ha, well. I can imagine,” Mollenhart said with a small smile. “Congratulations on your new Order, by the way. It’s…kind of the talk among the staff. But as for your question? I know of one, yes. It’s not the most popular of disciplines, so I doubt you’ll have trouble getting a slot. You’ll need to do a bit of catch-up, but that won’t be difficult, due to the nature of the subject matter.”

  As Mollenhart described the class to me, I nodded along quietly. Frankly, I’d take what I could get. I’d visit the administration building and register for the class before leaving campus, but that was for later.

  I still had business here for the day.

  ………………………..

  I sat quietly on one of the benches in the quad, gazing out at the crowds of other students milling about the plaza. It was roughly around lunchtime, and tons of people were gathering to head out for a bite to eat with their friends. Coincidentally, I was doing the same thing. After all, before we split up last night, I’d agreed to meet up here for something similar.

  And as I felt cool, familiar hands slide around my head to cover my eyes, I knew they had arrived. A breath tickled my ear, as a voice spoke into it mischievously. “Guess who?”

  I made a show of tilting my head in faux thought, as a smile crept onto my face. “Oh, is that you, Azarus? I thought you’d still be in the crafting hall.”

  A small, amused breath was my answer, as the silvered hands of my…partner were removed from my eyes. Seconds later, their owner sat down to my left on the bench and smiled at me.

  “And how are you today, Nathan?” Sylvia asked, laying her right hand down on my left.

  My smile slipped, to Sylvia’s surprise, and I shook my head. “Ah…not great. I got dropped from Mind Magic today. You remember how I told you I was struggling with it?

  Sylvia’s smile dimmed, her face taking on a more concerned expression. “Yes, but…I wasn’t aware your struggles were that bad. Do you…know what you’re going to do?”

  To her visible relief, I nodded with a teasing smile. “Yes, Mollenhart was telling me there’s another course that meets around the same time his does. It’s another Neophyte course, taught by Professor-”

  “Gilderoy!” Sylvia cut in with a visible smile. She squeezed my hand in sudden excitement. “In other words, the same class I’m in!”

  While my three picks for practical magic courses had been Abjuration, Healing, and Mind Magic, Sylvia’s had been for Illusion, Spatial, and…

  “Yup, Thaumaturgy,” I said, a real smile creeping onto my face at her enthusiasm. “The Binding and Linking of Forces, right? I guess we’ll need to meet up for some study sessions, eh? I’ll need some help to catch up, after all.”

  Sylvia just laughed, standing up from the bench and dragging me with her. “If you wish. But for now, come with me. I’ll help you get signed up later. We met up for a reason, hmm? I hope you’re feeling hungry.”

  As Sylvia and I walked hand in hand out of the quad in search of lunch, I hope she didn’t notice how my smile dimmed slightly. This was likely going to be the high point of my day, considering what needed to be done afterward. And I wasn’t talking about the sign-up.

  I needed to have a conversation with Grey.

  After all…

  He had never said a word to me about the System possibly failing.