Henryk Pwom strode into the empty classroom, his steps purposeful as they always were. It was still in disarray from the previous day’s class, with seats and scattered haphazardly. He immediately got busy with putting things back in their place to prepare for the class he was to give soon after.

  With Tekla gone, Hidrss had turned to Henryk, making him the de facto assistant of the Master of Arcanic Arts. It wasn’t entirely unheard of; the Paramount Ringleaders were often solicited by the Tutors for this kind of job, and they weren’t expected to refuse, certainly not when the Tutor asking was their Ring sponsor. Consequently, between his own classes and projects, Henryk was now charged with preparing and giving some classes, mostly to beginners to teach them the basics of the Arcanic Arts.

  Henryk adjusted the front row of stools to face the blackboard at the back of the class when he suddenly noticed someone else was in the room.

  “Good Grace!” he said, startled and stifling a worse curse. He recognized the person immediately, seated in the shadows against the walls.

  Isyd Wybrany was seated in the back of the room, a pencil in his hand and hunched over a paper with a coupled Ingraced Blysht and Lightspheres – some broken – scattered around him.

  “Grace to you, Senior,” Isyd said with a distracted nod.

  “Grace... Since when were you here?”

  “One hour before you, I think.”

  “And you didn’t say a word when I entered?”

  Isyd just shrugged.

  ... Henryk couldn’t help but think, not for the first time.

  Isyd watched Henryk go back to cleaning the chalk from the blackboard and somewhat discretely threw back curious glances in his direction. After a while, his curiosity must have won out, because he dropped his rag and approached Isyd’s desk.

  “What are you doing exactly?”

  There was no hostility in his voice, just genuine interest. It seemed there weren’t any hard feeling from the Tourney’s Competition, not from Henry nor any members of the Hammer had met while walking the grounds of the Atelier. Naeht had been surprised by this, but Isyd supposed that the Hammer and the White Flowers cared significantly less about their defeat than the other Paramount Rings. He suspected it was because both Ring had their own thing going on with the Atelier and the Spital.

  Isyd slid his paper in Henryk’s direction.

  “Frankly speaking, I could do with some help with this,” Isyd said with a sigh. “What I am trying to achieve may be above my current skill level...”

  Henryk picked up the paper with a raised eyebrow. “Above your skill level? You who made the Ingracing and Outgracing Hex?”

  It was a fair remark but what Henryk didn’t know was that when it came to the Blysht, Isyd knew exactly what he wanted to accomplish since he’d seen examples of it in his previous life. For this new project, Isyd started from scratch, which demanded entire new sets of skills. For one thing, the Song of the Grace wasn’t of much use because he didn’t know what to attune to or what the melody he wanted to compose sounded like.

  Isyd suddenly turned his head to the door seconds before it swung open, and a young man barged in.

  “Henryk, there will be some delay!” the man said. “Apparently, they...”

  He trailed off after Isyd sat and Henryk standing over his shoulder. “Oh, Wybrany! Sorry Henryk, I didn’t know you two were having a meeting...”

  A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  “We were not,” Henryk said without looking up from the paper. “I just stumbled upon him here. You can come in, Rhys.”

  The young man entered and closed the door behind him. It wasn’t the first time Isyd met Rhys Waarn, 7th Year and 6th Opening, and Second-In-Command of the Hammer Ring. Where Henryk was stern and solitary, Rhys enjoyed spending time with his Juniors and had a self-deprecating humor. His chestnut hair was perpetually tousled, as if it had just been ruffled by the wind, and his sea-green eyes carried a certain mirth, as if he always knew more than he let on, and he took delight in it.

  “Are you two working on something?” Rhys asked as he approached.

  Henryk put down the paper back on the table and pointed at it. “The theory and the Logic seem correct at first glance. What do you need help with?”

  “The issue comes when I try to combine the [Arcanes]. I first thought that it would be as easy as Meshing their [Hexes] together...”

  “Of course, it’s harder than that!” Rhys said with a laugh. “If it was that easy, every Artyst would be an Arcanyst as well. There is a reason why we treat the Arcanic Arts a dedicated field of its own!”

  “You struggle because you think first like an Artyst rather than Arcanyst,” Henryk continued sternly. “Despite what were first taught, [Arcanes] are not just [Spells] carved onto stuff. The translation between a free-floating [Spell] and an [Arcane]–between the two medium–cannot be simple because we are working with matter; real, physical materials like wood, glass or metals, not just [Spells] written in the air. Those materials have their own properties and reactions to the Holy Grace and you must consider it.”

  “I see...” Isyd said. It did make sense, and he may have stumbled onto that same conclusion after a few more days struggling on his own. This may also be the reason why he had such a hard time fixing his palcat. “So, do you agree to help me with this one?”

  Rhys was about to answer, but Henryk stopped him with a raised palm. He observed Isyd carefully, emotionlessly.

  “What’s in it for us?”

  “What can I offer you?”

  “A lecture,” Henryk said immediately, obviously having thought of it beforehand. “I want you to prepare a lecture about the [Ingracing] and [Outgracing Hexes] to a few of the Hammer members.

  Isyd was surprised. That wasn’t what he’d expected. “A lecture? Why me?”

  Rhys was the one who was to respond. “Hidrss has invested a lot of time and coins in the Blysht Commission of Research, with many Arcanysta of the Atelier and many more new recruits from elsewhere. But he says it is still a novelty – too soon to be taught to the Pupils.”

  “I disagree with him,” Henryk said. “Do we have a deal, Wybrany?”

  “We have a deal,” Isyd said, shaking his offered hand. “Still, I can’t promise to be a good teacher.”

  “Just do your best,” Henryk said.

  “It can’t be worse than Hidrss,” Rhys chuckled.

  Isyd frowned at that. “Hidrss isn’t a bad Tutor!”

  “Indeed he isn’t, but that's not his first vocation either!” Henryk said. “Himself would tell you that. It is just that sometimes he gets distracted or lost in his own thoughts. Often, he struggles to explain what seems self-evident for him. Virtue of being a genius, I guess…”

  “Yeah, remember the whole thing about ‘feeling the vibrations and attuning’?” Rhys said to Henryk before turning to Isyd. “A few months ago, Hidrss had this whole speech about listening to the [Arcanes]…”

  Isyd’s mouth turned dry. “Listening to the [Arcanes]…?” he muttered.

  The thought made him feel all sort of ways and Isyd wished Naeht had been around to see her reaction.

  Rhys had turned his attention back to the paper. “Henryk is right, you know? The paper is good already, and so is the logic. But I’m not sure of one thing: I thought that the Opening of the [Ingracing Hex] was the 12th

  Opening. What’s the deal with the 24th Opening you wrote here and there?”

  “The first version of the [Hex] was indeed of the 12th,” Isyd said. “It could absorb any [Spell] below a Concentration of the 12th Opening. However, Hidrss modified the [Hex] so that it could absorb at any Opening and do so much more efficiently. That’s how we can use [Ingrace] the Blyshts using the Grace Diffusion from ambient air. The trick is that I think Hidrss found a way to do now the opposite; to lower the cut-off Opening from 12th

  to any Opening he wishes. That’s how the [Limiting Arcane] worked at the 6th

  Opening during the Competition.”

  Isyd then turned to Henryk, silently asking his opinion.

  “I had come to the same conclusion,” Henryk said after a few seconds of reflection. “I don’t know how he did it however, though I may have a few ideas… As for if they’re going to work, well, I have only looked at the [Ingracing Hex] report, never worked with it so, I’m not sure.”

  Isyd gave him a confident smile. “Don’t worry about this, I think I have already that part figured out!”