'The difference between a tyrant and a king is subtle and yet antithetical.' What an unpleasantly lukewarm opinion. Sure, it can be true, but that's not the problem. The terrifying aspect of tyrants is that, when they first appear, they are invariably protectors.

  -Silas Norgard during a conversation with Princess Vikyra

  A cool draft filtered through the slated shutters of my bedroom. It was dark, with only a soft ray of moonlight managing to find its way through the windows. The light lovingly caressed the red carpet beneath my bed as if trying to bring luster to the thick, washed out strands. It had little strength and so the carpet remained in grayscale, mirroring the gentle melancholy that the predawn air instilled on all aspects of my room.

  I lay awake, my large eyes lazily lidded as they drifted over my room. My shoulder ached. It was what had awoken me, though I would have risen regardless. It was training time. My favorite time of day. Night. Whatever.

  But first, a little housekeeping. Being bedridden left me with too much free time, so I finished an experiment I'd been running for a while now.

  With a groan, I propped myself up and rested my dorsal braid over my chest. The twin strands spiraled elegantly all the way down to my toes. They were perfect. Beautiful and smooth and entirely unlike the bulbous stubby bump of my third strand wrenching their elegant spiral apart.

  I turned my head so as to not put pressure on the still slightly tender organ, and reached into my core. My mana channels burned with power, and I intentionally slowed their relentless pounding to be able to see a little better as I reached deeper.

  I pulled out a mangled string of text. Literally. The English words that formed my notes looked half melted and chewed; the strands fusing together in ways that mangled the text. I held up the paragraph—it was a diary entry about how yawm were facultative herbivores—then sniffed and tossed it aside.

  This confirmed it.

  While it was possible to store mana constructs in my core, they didn't last long. My body assimilated the mana into my mana channels no matter how I tried to shield the experiments. It only got worse if I used mana extensively. Theoretically, I could store something for a few months if I refreshed the construct regularly. But that wasn't very practical.

  I reached in again, pulling out the last bits of loose material and tossed them onto my rug. Various half thought out enchanted mechanisms, a ruler, and lots of notes. They all melted away after a few minutes. I'd long since discarded my letter stamps.

  All over my mana channels, hundreds of bumps and lumps that vaguely resembled words were glued to the walls. In some places, I could almost read the text like braille. They didn't do anything, and vanished after a few days to weeks, depending on size.

  It was kinda cool how my large arteries gleefully assimilated my notes, but that didn't stop me from aggressively scrubbing my insides clean. Having thousands of tiny mana growths couldn't be healthy.

  Probably.

  I snorted in amusement as I scrubbed. Operation Maybe-Fix-My-Braid was a go.

  My mana channels did not appreciate being scrubbed. But that was okay. The pain wasn't all the different from the exhausted strain of an overworked will. I was very used to that.

  But anyway. Onto more interesting things.

  I relaxed into my sheets as I primed my will. Up down. Left right. Forward back. Ready. I wanted to practice aura expansion—the skill I'd used to nullify the lock on Momo's door the other day. The experience of getting poisoned and having all of my senses blocked had given me an idea regarding the skill.

  I emptied my mind, then carefully grabbed the boundaries of my aura in eight equidistant locations. I squeezed down for a moment, then I pushed.

  My auric boundary creaked, shivering slowly outward as I applied my will. At the same time, I focused on my core, remembering the empty void and how my core had seemed so vivid at the time.

  I ramped up the pressure to roughly thirty percent.

  My eyes tightened, and a faint grin blossomed as I fell into an almost meditative state. My will trembled against the bounds of my aura, holding it steady at precisely an inch above the surface of my skin. I focused deeper, feeling at and embracing the imagined darkness to better understand the process.

  I was still stable.

  I ramped up the pressure once more. Fifty percent.

  A harsh click sounded in my neck. I flinched as a vicious headache blossomed like a cancer at the base of my skull. I groaned, struggling to control the auric backlash. I somehow managed, my aura snapping back into position.

  Slowly, I fell forward and pressed my face into the sheets.

  Damnit. It didn't make sense. The aura was metaphysical. Mana had no volume, and I was running at well below my capacity. None of it made any sense.

  I tabled that frustrating line of thought.

  With my face still pressed firmly into the sheets, I reached for my braid with my will, trying to channel that invisible core sense I'd experienced while poisoned. Without sight, it was difficult to tell what was wrong, and as soon as I touched it, the pain flared.

  That didn't leave me many options, and it sucked just lying there with both my head and shoulder hurting.

  "Screw it," I mumbled, and projected a tiny blob of mana out before my myliria. I bounced it in place, spinning it this way and that, before having it stretch and fold back in on itself. The activity distracted me, and before I knew it, I was weaving a tapestry for no other reason than because I could.

  It was trivially easy. The amount of mana I was working with was miniscule and didn't bother my braid in the slightest. That didn't stop the miniaturization game from being fun, however. It was tricky to manipulate such a small quantity of mana. Especially after years of doing the reverse.

  So, as an added challenge, I cut the amount of mana in half. That wasn't hard enough, so I did it again. I grinned as my control almost slipped, but I managed to stabilize the fabric before it could dissipate into nothingness.

  I was now working well below a single thaum. My myliria was struggling to see the spiderweb-like strands and my will was having trouble holding on to the threads. It took me minutes to form a tetrahedron from the intractable material.

  "Yes," I grinned as the final knot snapped into place.

  Then, just because I could, I stretched the strands out as far as they would go.

  I made it a quarter of the way across the room before the thread snapped.

  I froze, expecting some kind of backlash, but to my surprise, my headache was completely gone. I blinked, poking at the back of my skull with a finger. It was warm, but not inflamed. In fact. The whole area felt nice. Stretched, like I had just done a difficult—but satisfying—workout.

  To say I was confused was an understatement. I had just done it to distract myself.

  Two soft knocks on my door pulled me from my musings.

  Oh. It was morning. Damnit...

  I straightened, forcing my expression into something reasonable in anticipation of the morning's weirdness.

  "Come in," I called.

  Kemi and Yuna walked in wearing matching dresses, shoes, and a cute little cap. Three of their five eyes were downcast, but I caught the glimmer of their aura ripple around their main eye as it settled on me. They closed the door carefully, then took two steps into the room.

  "Good morning, master Silas," they said together, falling into identical shallow bows.

  Well isn't that the least comfortable thing on the planet.

  "Good morning, you two," I said, suppressing the urge to ask them not to do that. They were just doing what Milo asked them to. Telling them otherwise would just confuse them. They were already scared enough.

  "Do you have a clothing preference today, master Silas?" Kemi asked, taking the lead.

  "No," I waved her off, and the pair moved off to the dresser. I got out of bed and they helped me out of my pajamas and into todays clothes. The process was painful, slow, and painful. And yes. It was incredibly awkward. Though, I put on my own pants. Thank you very much. I was injured. Not an invalid.

  By the time we finished, I decided that it was in everyone's best interest if I took a little sit down on the corner of my bed. The pair took that as an opportunity to stand next to the door silently. Like judgmental gargoyles. With their hands clasped behind their backs and their large eyes pretending not to be watching me.

  "Do you... have the tea?" I asked, pretty proud of how even my voice was.

  "Oh!" Kemi made this whistling sound, and stiffened like I'd just threatened her life. She bolted out of the door. I blinked after her for a moment then sighed. Looked like I would have to wait today.

  I let my mind wander, and invariably it drifted to the weird state of my magic. I clutched at my elbow to stabilize my shoulder. It was frustrating, in the worst possible sense, since it reminded me of my old training injury—chronic medial epicondylitis, the nightmare that never went away.

  If only I could see the problem. But nooo. The stupid braid was on the back of my skull and therefore obscured to my hypersensitive myliria. Which wasn't even the point since the problem was covered by my aura. Mom and company were of no help because of that. 'Be patient', they said... Bah!

  Instead, I was forced to prod at it like a blind man with my will and guess what was hap...ppen...pening...

  Wait a second.

  I looked at Yuna and she made a little hop in place. Her four small eyes instantly looked at the floor, while her large one snapped to me and did its surface-level mana vortex.

  What if the yawm weren't incapable of doing magic, but rather simply magically blind. Their big eye clearly saw some magic, but it was likely an evolved sense specific to living things. It couldn't see raw mana. What if they didn't have the natural vision I'd been born with? Hell, if I hadn't had my arcane eye since my birth, there was no way I would be able to manipulate mana nearly to the extent I currently did.

  In fact. I probably would only have a rudimentary—instinctive—knowledge at best.

  Just like Yuna.

  "Yuna!" I stood, all thoughts of my braid problem vanishing. She jumped, blinking at me rapidly. "Come—wait. No. One second."

  I needed to talk to Morag.

  I shuffled out of the room, clutching my elbow tightly, and bumped into Kemi just returning with a mug of tea.

  "Master Silas?" She asked, but I brushed past her.

  "Never mind that. You two are free. Go do whatever. No. Wait." A thought occurred to me. How the hell was I going to find the elusive bugger? "Ignore that. Help me find Momo first."

  The pair glanced at each other, then hurried to keep pace with me. I made my way to the closest balcony overlooking the training grounds. There, I spotted a group of soldiers lounging around besides a bar stool which supported some sort of dice game. Notably, a certain soldier was part of the gathering.

  "Arthlas!" I called, causing one of the men to jump and nearly topple the stool. "Do you know where Momo is?"

  "Master Silas!" Arthlas called back after a moment. "I honestly have no idea."

  "Well help me find him. Its super important!"

  Arthlas glanced to his colleagues, then down at the dice game. Then he visibly sighed and nodded.

  "You guys help too! Yimlas, Hukara, Tiddslas. Whoever finds Momo first gets a present!"

  The other three soldiers blinked, as if surprised I knew their names. They all shared another glance—this one competitive—then collectively gave me a lazy salute.

  "Right away, master Silas!"

  I grinned at the rapidly depopulated courtyard, then glanced behind me. Kemi squeaked.

  "What are you waiting for. Go help them!"

  Six minutes later, we found him. Or Arthlas did. He was just in the parlor, idly fiddling with something in his hands.

  "Thanks guys!" I grinned, patting Arthlas on the elbow. I would have to get him something nice later. "You're all dismissed!"

  The soldiers chuckled at the short quest and everyone filed out.

  "Silas," Morag greeted me evenly. "I see you woke up the entire castle again."

  "Yup!" I grinned. "I wanted to ask you something."

  I plopped down on an opposing couch, only to freeze as I recognized the object in Morag's hands.

  "Wonderful timing then," Morag smiled thinly, holding up my lockpick up to the light as if it were a curious specimen. "I too had things to ask of you. Would you like to go first, or shall I?"

  Ahh. Damnit.

  "Sorry Momo," I mumbled, my excitement bleeding away like water through a drain. "I know what I did was wrong and dangerous. I won't do it again."

  Morag eyed me for three long seconds, then shook his head. "I'm glad to see you can learn from your mistakes, but no. I'm more interested in how you got into the definitely locked room. The details. If you are ready to share them."

  "Oh," I said. I was planning on doing that anyway. "Sure."

  "But I also wanted to make a deal with you," Momo continued. "I want you to tell me whenever you figure out how to do something new with magic. I promise I won't get you in trouble no matter what it is. In exchange. I promise I will honestly answer any question you might have as long as it does not directly place you or another in danger. Deal?"

  I hesitated, but then ruthlessly quashed that instinctive reaction. This was a long time coming, and Morag had never done me harm. He literally only had my best interests in mind. It was also about time I took advantage of his knowledge.

  "Alright," I said. "Where do you want me to start?"

  If Momo thought my easy acceptance surprising, he kept it hidden. He held up the pick again.

  "This... is interesting. I imagine Jerry showed you the design?" I stiffened, somehow I doubted he would believe I watched a video on the subject. "Relax. I promised I won't get you in trouble, yes? I'm more curious to know how you stopped the wards from triggering."

  "I expanded my aura into it, and squeezed," I said simply.

  "Pardon?"

  "I expanded my aura. You know how spells only do stuff when they move? Well, I thought if I can hold everything in place with my aura it would work better."

  Momo looked at me for several long seconds. I couldn't help but be a little embarrassed. Sure my method wasn't the most sophisticated, but it worked! That had to count for something, right?

  "I see." Momo eventually broke the silence. "Can you demonstrate?"

  "I'd rather not..." I ducked my head. "It hurts my braid."

  Momo's eyes flicked to my braid, then gave a microscopic nod. "Later then. For your information, that skill is known as Domain Expansion by mages. It's a rare skill."

  "Oh."

  Momo asked me a few more clarifying questions which I answered the best I could. Eventually he ran out of questions, and gestured vaguely to me.

  "Your turn, Silas. Ask your question."

  I gathered my thoughts for a second then dove in. Describing my theory about yawm perception to him. I went in depth, trying to show him what I saw with my arcane eye when Yuna or Kemi looked at me. Driders didn't have a myliria after all. Their esoteric senses were sharp, but not exactly like mine.

  "I see," Momo said softly when I'd finished. "And you realized all this due to your experience with the void leaf poison?"

  "Yeah. I figure if you give me some of the poison, I can practice using my mana while blinded and then once I get the hang of it, I can teach the twins from their perspective."

  "From their perspective... That's very progressive of you, Silas. What makes you confident the poison is what will help here?"

  I grinned. I had plenty of experience with alternate perspectives. I was perhaps the only being on the planet who knew what it was like to look through two unique sets of eyes.

  "I can do it!" I said instead, grinning confidently.

  "I see," Momo snorted, then shook his head. "If anyone can do it, it would be you."

  "Then you'll help?" I asked eagerly.

  "Absolutely not," Momo snorted. He got up, moving over to a cabinet, and pulled out a crystal decanter from which he poured out a glass of the auburn liquid. It was the slightly spicy bourbon-like drink. Not that my young palate enjoyed the stuff anymore.

  I opened my mouth, but Momo's raised finger silenced me.

  "Slow down, Silas. Void leaf abuse is known to cause permanent auric impairment and macular degeneration." He returned to his seat, and gestured to his eyes. "It blinds you. In alten it additionally damages your myliria. It is never a good idea to use void leaf."

  "Oh," I said, slumping slightly in my seat. The childish part of me wanted to point out he used it in his trap, but I quashed the dumb thought.

  Now that I thought about it more than two seconds, the entire idea of poisoning myself as a training method was... extreme. Sure, let's put it that way. Whatever... back to square one. I could work with this.

  "I see you trying to come up with alternatives," Momo said dryly. I looked up. He was smiling softly. "You came to me for advice, right? Well, let me help."

  I perked up.

  "There has been plenty of interest in yawm's magical capacity over the years. The most common method used was simple, if a little, hmm... let's say direct."

  "What did they do?"

  "It's called a core attack. Very simple, in principle. One mage directs their will into the core of another. The direct attack triggers the defending mage's autonomic systems. Sufficient exposure is a proven method of improving a mage's ability to sense mana within their core. In fact, I was planning on starting light training with Akira in a year or two."

  "Is that like the thing Mom did to me when I got sick?"

  Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

  "You remember that? Well, almost, but not exactly. Infants typically have porous auras which makes the process easier. Core attacks tend to be more violent and they target your mana channels directly instead of gently scraping your core of pathogens."

  "Can you show me?"

  Momo nodded. He directed a thread of mana over the table to touch my chest. I watched it curiously as it forced itself inward. It was... unpleasant. Like getting a flu shot. Distinctly wrong.

  "As you can see, the process is unpleasant. Now, I want you to try and locate my touch, and push—Oh, well then..."

  I held the invading strand curiously, methodically shredding the lingering touch of Momo's aura. "Like that?"

  "Exactly," Momo's eyes narrowed. "How did you learn to do that?"

  "Do what?" I quirked my head. "I just grabbed it and pushed it out."

  Momo grumbled something dark under his breath, then abruptly stood. He set his glass on the table with an ominous click. "You will not attempt this without an adult present. Either me or one of your guards. You will also stop immediately if you start displaying visible blue veins in your eyes. Is that clear?"

  "Oh, yes. Sure, Momo."

  "Keep a mirror with you. Promise me," Momo said, holding his hand out.

  "I promise." I solemnly shook his hand.

  "Good. Now before you run off and get all excited, a word of warning. This type of experimentation has been done before. Those who did it successfully improved a yawm's ability to sense their core, but they never managed it to the fidelity of alten or driders. Yawm simply lack the biology for it. Do you understand what I'm saying Silas?"

  "Yes," I nodded. It wouldn't stop me.

  "Good. Now go away. I've got some thinking to do."

  I ran out of the sitting room. It didn't take long to find the twins, I didn't even need to recruit the guard. The pair were in their lessons, tucked away in one of the small servant rooms with Bellra. My old caretaker—who still sometimes double checked my well being—was sitting at a table. A slate and chalk board depicted some basic mathematics between the group.

  I slipped in, catching Bellra's gaze, but neither of the twins noticed. I subtly shook my head. I could wait.

  "This is the addition symbol," Bellra continued, ignoring my presence. "And this is subtraction which is the opposite. Instead of combining the two numbers, you have to 'subtract' one from the other. Can you tell me what this formula adds up to?"

  The twins leaned forward, scowling at the slate.

  "What is this number?" Bellra prodded patiently.

  "A three," Yuna stated like it was obvious.

  "And this one?"

  "Two," Kemi said.

  "And this is the addition symbol. So what is three plus two?"

  A pregnant pause filled the room.

  "I don't get it," Yuna pouted. "And I'm hungry."

  "Uhm, is it... twenty?" Kemi asked hopefully.

  "Not quite," Bellra said patiently, ignoring Kemi's wince. "Here hold your fingers up. Three on one hand. Two on the other. Now count. One. Two... Now you go."

  "Three... Four... Five...?" The twins repeated, glancing up at Bellra in confusion.

  "Correct! You did it! Three plus two is five!" Bellra smiled. "Now I think its snack time."

  "Yay!" Yuna cheered, jumping up from her seat. Kemi joined her, then noticed me. She stiffened, punching her sister with her good arm and the pair abruptly dipped into shallow bows.

  "Good morning, master Silas!"

  "Don't mind me," I waved them off.

  Bellra handed out a pastry for both girls and they dug in. Literally driving their tendrils into the sweet dough to melt the starches into a goo that they slurped up. I watched on, semi-enviously. My body could digest sugar but it didn't really like it.

  "Now that our tummies are full, perhaps we can ask our guest what he needs?" Bellra asked.

  "Oh!" Kemi jumped. "How can we help you, master Silas?"

  I smiled. "Bellra, do you mind if I steal them for a bit?"

  "Might as well," the gentle woman nodded. "We were going to have recess for the next bit anyway. Make sure to bring them back after lunch."

  "Actually, could we do it here? Momo said I need supervision."

  Bellra's expression morphed into the mix of arch amusement coupled with a level of trepidation I thought was completely unwarranted. She nodded hesitantly though, so I ignored it.

  I sat at the table and addressed the twins seriously.

  "Alright. Kemi. Yuna. I have a serious question for you. Would you like to learn magic? I know you think it's impossible because you are yawm, but I don't think so. I think it will take a lot of work, but I'm willing to work with you through the entire process. What do you say?"

  The twins looked between them, their large eyes flickering with some sort of auric communication that was beyond me. Then Yuna nodded shyly.

  "What about you Kemi?" I asked.

  "Uhm," Kemi fidgeted with her dress. "If you want, master Silas."

  Hmm. Not the glowing approval I was looking for, but I supposed it would do for now.

  "Okay. Let's start with Yuna."

  I explained everything Momo had said to the twins, making sure to include Bellra into the conversation. I could sense she was getting more and more nervous, but she didn't interrupt. Kemi was nervous when I said it was uncomfortable, but Yuna seemed too eager to register the words.

  Regardless, I started slowly with the eight year old girl. My tendril of mana quested out, and I ignored how Bellra's aura bristled like a porcupine. Yuna's auric membrane was bumpy—unlike the fuzzy membrane of driders or the perfectly smooth shell of alten. I examined it for a second, before easily slipping past the barrier.

  To my surprise, Yuna just sat there. Bouncing slightly in her chair, but otherwise didn't have a response. I added another thaum, but still didn't get a response. I gently increased the thaumic flux while wiggling the tendril over the surface of her core. At twenty three thaums—a frankly worrying amount of power—Yuna's tendrils curled strangely and her core contracted violently and expelled my invasion.

  "Owwy!" Yuna blinked rapidly. "That was weird. I don't like it."

  "That's normal," I nodded. "It's important that it feels that way if you want to learn magic."

  Unfortunately, when it was Kemi's turn, she just shivered and told me it was really unpleasant. I frowned, more at her reaction than her feedback, then quietly moved back to Yuna. I tried again, walking her through what I was doing and trying to get her to sense my will.

  I started by moving a strand over her hands then her shoulder, and over her back. She only seemed to be able to sense my presence for a brief moment when I upped the intensity. But that moment lasted only as long as her core violently and automatically expelled my presence.

  I kept trying, forcing myself to be patient, as I moved back to Kemi. She once again wasn't happy in a really unpleasantly subservient way, so I returned to Yuna. She tried her best, and her natural optimism helped massively, but I could tell she was flagging from the pain.

  There was something fundamentally wrong with the method. I was sure of it. Sure, I could imagine that repeating this a thousand times would work, but it wouldn't provide the type of fidelity I wanted. Exactly as Momo had said.

  "Let's take a break for lunch," Bellra eventually said.

  "One more try," I said stubbornly. I touched Yuna's aura again, but then paused.

  Everything I knew about motivation was telling me that this method was flawed. Pain was a terrible motivator long term. It worked only as a method of escaping the pain. In all other respects positive reinforcement was superior.

  But what I really wanted wasn't so basic. I wanted curiosity. Desire. An internal motivation so deep that their subconscious would figure out the intricacies without my guidance. I wanted to instill into the twins Akira's deep love for magic. That would break their generational belief that they couldn't do it, while simultaneously giving them the impetus to practice by themselves.

  It would push them far further than something so basic as pain. Or obedience.

  Which meant—at least for Yuna—I needed to appeal to her curiosity.

  "Alright Yuna. Last try. I'm going to try something else. Tell me what you feel."

  Instead of jabbing her with a crude thread of mana, I formed a proper spell this time. Bellra's aura twitched in surprise as I packed the little sphere of mana with nodules of compressed energy. Then—careful not to disrupt the fragile membrane—and tossed the spell into Yuna's core.

  The response was immediate.

  Yuna's core contracted violently, shredding the fragile membrane and releasing the nodules. The spheres ricocheted through her core, jetting around on miniaturized thrusters that caused them to spin wildly.

  "I've got stars in my belly!" Yuna screamed. She jumped up, eyes wild as she patted her chest with her hands. Bellra grabbed her and she squirmed in her arms for a few seconds after the last 'star' vanished. "Aww! Where did they go?"

  There it was. The childlike curiosity. I'd found it.

  "Want to try again?"

  "Oh, uhm... owwy. You burned my heart..." Yuna hesitated, seemingly distracted as she slowly settled back into her seat. Bellra probed her with her dorsal braid, then grudgingly sat back in her chair. "Could you make the stars... not on fire? It hurts lots and lots."

  "I don't know," I said honestly. "Let's stop for now if it hurts. I just want to run one last test. I'm going to hold mana to your skin. Tell me where I put it."

  Yuna nodded, then shivered as I touched the mana to her right elbow. She didn't respond for several long moments, then shivered again and pulled her elbow back.

  "On my arm?" She asked with zero confidence, though... that didn't make her wrong.

  I grinned.

  The best part of the whole thing was Kemi was looking slightly more interested in the whole operation. I repeated the procedure with her right after lunch, but she had poorer results. Not only did she panic harder when the mana sparkled through her core, she wasn't able to feel the ball of compressed mana on the surface of her skin afterward.

  "I'm sorry. I can't do magic..." Kemi slumped dejectedly.

  "Don't worry," I patted her encouragingly on the back. "If you are feeling pathetic. Just remember that this is just the beginning."

  And I meant it too, despite the odd looks the ladies were throwing me. I was in this for the long haul.

  I left them to recover for the rest of the day, but I came back the day after. What we were doing was roughly equivalent to skill training. We were trying to train neurological growth, not strength. Therefore, we would begin light, but with high volume. Twice a day. Morning and evening. To get their minds used to the experience before we ramped up to the real goal of all of this.

  Which was complete mana manipulation.

  Bellra thought I was rushing, but there was a reason for the intensity. The activity was damaging. The sooner we could advance beyond it, the better for the twins.

  A week passed like this, and we made tremendous progress. Kemi managed to vaguely sense mana on the surface of her skin after I altered the procedure to better fit her proclivities. Instead of sparkling fireflies shooting off in random directions, I formed a condensed pillar of mana that stoically orbited her core as she slowly ground it down to dust. Her core really didn't like that, but the progress was inarguable.

  The training was hard on the twins, but I kept at it regardless. It was actually one of my soft critiques of my own family—my alten parents, not my Earth ones. It wasn't exactly their fault, but the semi-adoption by Sakra and Domas had sort of ruined their confidence to push me to do unpleasant—but necessary—things. Or maybe they were just big softies. It wasn't such a big deal since I was me... but still.

  My persistence didn't stop either girl from subtly avoiding me. They grew to hate me in the flashfire way only young children could. It got so bad by the tenth day, that Milo yelled at them, which wasn't fun for anyone.

  Thankfully, despite their lack of self-confidence, the twins were actually quite bright.

  "Push the mana out," I repeated. We were sitting on my bed in a small circle with our hands clasped. I held a thread of mana in the palms of each of their hands and they were struggling not to automatically destroy it.

  "I can't!" Yuna cried in frustration. She tried to let go of my hand and her aura attacked the foreign mana. I calmly held both stable.

  "You can. Push. Focus on the feeling. That light. Grab it. Throw it away."

  "You're hurting us!" Kemi gasped, also trying to pull away.

  "No. You are panicking. Embrace the mana. It isn't an enemy. Grab it. Push it out."

  "I can't!" Yuna repeated. Tears welling in her eyes.

  She was wrong. I nudged the mana threads in their palms. The little movement was enough.

  Mana flared in Kemi's core, fueled by fear and pain. It crashed into my will, and oozed into her sister's aura. Yuna gasped, eyes glowing with energy as she did something to the surge that multiplied it two-fold. I had a quarter second to feel the crest of the wave on the border of my aura before it crashed into me.

  If I hadn't been holding myself so open, the mana would have simply washed over me. As it stood though, the mana speared right through my barrier and scoured my insides like steel wool burning at a thousand degrees.

  I wheezed, my vision tinting red as I tipped over. Agony erupted in my skull. My braid felt hot. I was vaguely aware of shouting and crying all around me.

  "Aggmembleka..." I stammered out.

  "Silas! Silas! Are you okay?" Bellra shook me. I suddenly noticed her will was coating my aura protectively.

  "Yeeeauh—Yeah. I'm—Yeah. It's okay." I managed, finally registering my environment. The twins were pressed against the far wall and crying—an impressive sight on a creature with five eyes. They looked on the verge of running away.

  "Slowly," Bellra said, helping me upright. "Take it slowly."

  I patted her hand, then grinned at the twins.

  "That was awesome!" I shouted, then immediately winced as my headache yelled at me.

  "Uhm?" Yuna blinked.

  "What?" Kemi looked just as confused.

  "We are so doing that again!"

  "No, you absolutely are not!" Bellra interjected, pinching my cheek. I scowled up at her. "It is way too dangerous."

  "What are you talking about? No one got hurt. Kemi? Yuna? You're fine right?"

  The twins hesitantly shook their heads.

  "You got hurt, Silas!" Bellra yelled into my ear. Oww. No need to be so loud.

  "Ehh, that doesn't count," I waved off her concern. "What's important is that it worked! They used magic! Intentionally!"

  "It does count!" Bellra grumbled in exasperation.

  "We did??" The twins blinked from the side.

  "You did!" I grinned, ignoring Bellra. "You initiated the movement, and sure, you lost all control as soon as it left your aura, but that's expected. You can't see the mana outside of your skin. But that's fine. It means we are finally ready to move onto the next step!"

  "Oh," both girls flinched.

  "Oi! Don't look at me like that," I complained. "Try moving your mana. Go on!"

  I sat up in Bellra's arms as we both watched the two yawm girls focus. They held hands, cutely scrunching their eyes as they tried to remember that sensation they'd channeled when they'd rung my bell.

  "Well, I'll be," Bellra whispered. The twins' auras jittered. It was pathetic—an alten toddler could do better—but it was moving.

  "Told you," I stuck my tongue out at her.

  "You still got hurt master Silas," she frowned at me.

  "It's not permanent," I shrugged. Then my gaze returned to the twins, and the faintly glazed look in their eyes as they played with their mana.

  I smiled.

  I got yelled at three more times that day. Mom and Morag I could understand, but my babysitter Rikara felt the need to pitch in as well. Rude, but I bore the rebuke with aplomb. For the rest of the day, my mind raced at a thousand miles a minute.

  The girls were ready for a new exercise, but I didn't just want them to futz around with some boring spells. For all of my efforts, they were still yawm, and could still only vaguely sense mana within their aura. Anything outside of their skin might as well not exist.

  I wanted to fix that, since even if I taught them the formula for a candle flame, they would still have a lot of trouble casting it correctly. In essence, yawm were magically blind, but that didn't mean they couldn't read.

  I just had to invent braille.

  But to do that. I would need to make mana visible. A thousand methods came to me and were summarily discarded. They all had issues. Most were too complex. Some were impossible, or relied on assumptions about mana that I was pretty sure were impossible.

  Eventually I settled on the simplest solution. Just an absolute shit ton of mana. It was crude, but if I could jam enough mana into a small enough space, it would visibly distort the air. Then the girls would be able to work within the cloud using their eyes.

  It was perfect, except for one teeny tiny detail.

  I currently had a small issue generating that kind of force. The issue with my braid had been annoying, but now it was actively getting in the way. Which was entirely unacceptable. The solution was simple. I needed to learn the skill I'd been teaching the twins. With core sensing I could finally examine my braid and fix whatever was wrong.

  So, the following day, I politely asked Akira to stab me with mana as hard as she could. Naturally, she agreed.

  The pain was exquisite. I didn't let her go slow like I had with the twins. I blocked my mylira and focused my arcane senses to their absolute limit. I learned far faster than the twins. My years of experience allowing me to skip steps to progress. It still took a while. And hurt, but ever so slowly, my ability improved.

  When I was ready, I checked my braid.

  I found the main mana channel running down my thickest strand unmoored. The millions of capillaries anchoring the river of mana had torn and every time I pushed my will, the artery shivered and moved, causing the pain.

  I wrapped the artery in thousands of tiny threads of mana. Each one supported the structure a little more and held it together such that even if I jerked my will, I wouldn't rupture anything. It was a hack job. A duct tape solution, but I knew that over time my body would assimilate my working and leave the area stronger than ever before.

  But most importantly, it finally allowed me to cast at full power.

  I sequestered myself in my room to design the exercise. It had to be a vortex of some sort, since moving mana rippled through the air in more obvious patterns. The faster the better, but too fast and the mana would be impossible to control.

  I needed some sort of stabilizing force, an external matrix that would contain the vortex while it was running. I toyed with pulling forces, but quickly settled on a containment field that physically pressed down on the maelstrom.

  Finally, I imbued the containment field with a decaying spellform that dribbled a constant but steady stream of particles into the whirlpool. Each spell was a self similar fractal designed to mimic the basic anchoring formula common in many household spells. Like the air bolt spell I learned from my father all those years ago. The result was that the mana physically grabbed at the air, creating a smokey appearance that I thought was quite beautiful.

  Unfortunately, the spell required a lot of power. Truly, a staggering amount of the stuff. There was no chance in hell either twin would be able to initiate the effect on their own. Akira wouldn't even be able to, though Sakra probably could.

  Even with my repaired braid, I struggled. It took minutes of setup, revving up the concentric spiral while using every scrap of my will to accelerate the thick morass of mana. Twice, I tore the patch job I'd glued to my braid.

  But it was only once I got it going that I realized the second problem.

  Neither twin knew how to project. They instinctually locked their aura, which was a wonderful natural barrier, but it meant they couldn't feel—or benefit—from my spell in the slightest. The sphere of mana was intentionally unattuned. It didn't have direction or purpose to make it easier for the girls to manipulate it, but that meant that it simply bounced off of their skin when they stepped inside.

  To my chagrin, Akira absolutely freaked when she saw my new spell. She insisted on jumping into the fog-like atmosphere only to immediately pop my carefully crafted mana-dome with an overexcited burst of flame. She then stumbled out of the ring of ash she'd created with a somehow surprised expression, as if she hadn't just set the thing on fire.

  I flicked her forehead for burning my rug

  That didn't deter her. She immediately made me rebuild the ritual and dragged the twins inside. Then... she started dancing.

  I watched with no small amount of bemusement as Akira swayed to silent music. She moved with power and purpose, completely unlike the sensuous arcs she preferred for the Dance of the Moon Fairy.

  Her hands cupped the almost-liquid air, sending swirls of the stuff above her, before spinning and grabbing Yuna's hand. She dragged the girl to join her, and soon even Kemi was wiggling and prodding at the living smoke with rapt enthusiasm.

  Then, Akira uncoiled her will.

  Mana shot out from her hand, sparkling and bright. It wasn't a real spell. Just a directed pulse of mana that behaved in a very odd way in the supersaturated atmosphere. Instead of fizzling, the mana condensed into a cloud that washed over the domed roof with all the majesty of a fluid simulation.

  Yuna watched Akira with a hyper-envious look, jittering on her toes and squeezing her fists as her many eyes tracked the flows of mana-smoke. After the fifth one, she seemed to gain the courage, and squeezed her eyes shut. For a moment, nothing happened then a puff of mana spewed out of her chest.

  Kemi gasped at the sight, which in turn made Yuna gasp. She hadn't seen her achievement, and promptly struggled to repeat the effect with her eyes open. Kemi beat her to it, causing my room to fill with squeals of delight.

  I watched the chaos unfold in that tiny bubble of space. They didn't really have enough room to dance, but I was sure Akira would figure something out. Though there were even odds she would kick everyone out in a bit just so she could have the space to herself.

  I let my eyelids droop lazily, keeping half an eye on the domed membrane. My will thrummed like a piano wire as I subtly stabilized the ritual to the girl's antics. I felt no need to join the girls, simply watching them was good enough for me. I'd done it. I'd made a yawm use magic. Sure, there were a hundred caveats to the process, but I was sure those would get ironed out with time.

  For now, I simply enjoyed watching the yawm twins play with their new ability that guaranteed their future.

  Yuna sat with her sister in the cubicle. The nice guard lady had told them to sit. Not all guard ladies were nice. So that was cool. She kicked her legs back and forth as her main eye idly tracked the activity through the window. There was so much energy here. All buzzing around and a mess! It was kind of exciting, but she wasn't allowed to go explore.

  Instead, she brushed that small ball of light in her chest. With her mind! It was so strange! The ball was still so distant, but many, many times more bright since Silas had started teaching them. She brought a little spark to the surface of her finger then poked Kemi with it.

  "Sit still," Kemi jumped, scowling at her.

  "Sorry," Yuna mumbled, but couldn't stop her tendrils from curling happily. She kicked her legs again. "Do you think master Silas will figure out how to make us see mana all the time?"

  "I don't know," Kemi said softly.

  "I think so," Yuna smiled. "I can't wait to tell daddy."

  Kemi nodded. "Here he comes."

  The pair craned their necks through the window to see their dad being led through the reception area. He had metal chains around his wrists and was being guided by two gruff looking guards. Their little room was opened, and the guards pushed him in.

  "Half an hour," the guard said. He closed the door, leaving them alone.

  "Daddy!" Yuna rushed her dad, hugging him hard. He smiled down at her, cradling her as best he could with his elbows.

  "Little Yuna. How I missed you so." His beard wriggled like a soothing melody over her scalp. Yuna pushed her cheeks into Daddy's shirt, inhaling the scent of him and reveling in his warmth.

  "Hi dad," Kemi said.

  "Kemi," Dad smiled gently. He hunched over Yuna, then guided the two of them into the cubicle. "Come give your daddy a hug."

  Kemi dutifully joined the embrace. He caressed the two of them with his beard, then leaned back.

  "Tell me. How are they treating you. Well, I hope?"

  "It's good," Kemi nodded firmly.

  "It's awesome!" Yuna said. She shot Kemi a look. "We get to eat as much bread as we want. With sugar in it! Daddy, have you tasted sugar? It's amazing. Like white sparkles and fluffy clouds..."

  "I have," Daddy smiled wider. "It's wonderful."

  "It's not all amazing," Kemi grumbled. "They are making us learn mathemagics. It super sucks."

  "Math? Really?" Daddy blinked. He leaned back. "Huh."

  "And writing which is boring and how to be a good maid which is fun," Yuna added. "I like being a maid. Master Silas doesn't make us do anything bad."

  "Master Silas, huh?" Daddy sighed sadly for some reason. "I guess it was too much to hope for..."

  "Hope for what?" Yuna asked, tilting her head curiously.

  "Never mind," Daddy nudged her. "I'm just being a silly idealist. So tell me. What is this master of yours like?"

  "He's a weirdo," Yuna grinned. "I like him lots."

  "A weirdo?"

  "Yeah! He's talks funny. Like he is trying to be an old person all the time. It's funny. And silly! Especially when he pretends he is a rock!"

  Daddy blinked at her a few times then turned to Kemi with a curious tilt. Yuna jumped up on the bench, capturing her dad's attention once more.

  "I'm not done!" Yuna complained. "He is also super strong. I once saw him jump out of a window because he said the stairs were too slow!"

  "Really?"

  "Ya! And he is only kid too. Which means he isn't boring like adults and lets us play lots and lots."

  "That's reassuring," Daddy chuckled. It was a pleasant grumbling sound. "What else are they teaching you?"

  "We are also learning—" Kemi started.

  "Oh! Yeah!" Yuna jumped up. "Magic! Master Silas is teaching us magic. It's the best!"

  Instead of being excited, however, Dad suddenly scowled. He leaned forward which caused the chains around his wrists to clink angrily.

  "Magic?" He growled. "Are they experimenting on you? What have they done?"

  "What?" Yuna blinked, shrinking back.

  "Answer me! Did they hurt you? I'll kill 'em. I'll—"

  "They didn't hurt us!" Yuna yelled, suddenly feeling a protectiveness rise up in her chest. "It's super fun! And awesome and look what I can do!"

  She focused hard, struggling to control the wisp of light in her heart as Dad looked on. She forced it into The Pattern master Silas taught her and just before she finished, she pushed the mana out! She blindly tied off the thread and all of a sudden a fire burst to life on her finger tip. It was tiny, like a playful candle, and it immediately started drifting. Yuna focused, but she couldn't see the shape of the mana and so the spell fizzled after a moment.

  "See!" Yuna declared proudly to her stunned Dad.

  Silence fell over their little group, until Kemi shifted nervously.

  "It did hurt a bit in the beginning, but Silas figured out another way that doesn't."

  "What do you mean, Kemi?" Dad asked.

  "We dance," Kemi shrugged. "He makes this cloud bubble and Akira—"

  "Who?"

  "She's another ward at the castle. She made up this dance called—"

  "Dance of the Dragon's Descent!" Yuna crowed.

  Kemi scowled at Yuna. "Stop interrupting me! We basically stand in the cloud bubble and make it spin really fast."

  "It's fun," Yuna confirmed.

  "Right," Daddy said. He leaned back in the bench, seemingly at a loss for words. His reaction to how awesome Silas was made Yuna grin harder.

  "What's a cloud... never mind," Daddy shook his head. "You said this Silas kid did all this?"

  "Ahuh!" Yuna grinned.

  "What do you... think of him?"

  "I—" Yuna started, then paused. She didn't know how to convey how she felt. She had a friend. She wasn't hungry anymore. She was learning magic. It was... a lot.

  "He's a super genius, Daddy," Kemi said softly. "He uses magic like we breathe. It just flows out of him all the time. I only noticed after he taught us to sense it. But yeah. He can be very scary when he wants to be. Sometimes he gets all quiet like, and he forgets to be like a normal person."

  "He only wears his scary face when he forgets!" Yuna pointed out, defending Silas. "Which is totally okay. I forget plenty of stuff all the time."

  "It sounds like you two are having a grand ol' time without your daddy." Daddy smirked softly.

  "Yes!" Yuna grinned, then she hugged him. "But we miss you lots. I'm going to thank master Silas for letting us come visit you."

  "Right." Daddy murmured. Then he shook his head again. "Okay, girls. This makes me feel so much better. I'm glad they are treating you right, but it seems like you found yourselves a good mark."

  "Mhmm!"

  "I want you to stay with him. Do whatever he wants from you, and make sure to tell me if he does anything bad. Okay?"

  "Okay!"

  "You are going to have a good future," Daddy said quietly, like he was speaking to himself.