Krys rushed up the floors of the academic spire until he reached the Professor's quarters above the cla.s.sroom floors. He pulled at his cloak, quickly taking out his quill, and used the terminal to open the doors leading inside the floor.

"Hey Krys. What's the rush?", a soft voice greeted him.

"Choir.", Krys nodded to the only other professor specializing in enchantment in the Academy.

She nodded back and smiled, walking out with a leisurely pace. Must have had her next cla.s.s in the 10th year labs.

Krys stopped and turned to her.

"Did you see Jach leave yet?" He asked her.

Choir shrugged, not bothering to stop or turn. "Nope."

A smattering of hurried footsteps fell on Krys's ears. He turned to see it's source - A Jach Jafferi - turn the corner and fix his eyes on him.

"Found him. Thanks, Choir." Krys turned to her again.

"Welcome." She was at the terminal outside the entrance now. The door closed momentarily after her response.

"KRYS! I'm getting late you idiot!", Jach yelled, half running towards him. "Eight floors. EIGHT FLOORS! You have any idea how much time It's going to take me to get there?!"

"I know, I'm so-" Krys started to apologise.

"He's awake. Here.", Jach interrupted, thrusting Kyvas into his hands while storming away. "I'm going to kill you when I get back."

Krys just looked on with his mouth open wide.

'I almost feel bad for you. Almost.', Kyvas giggled.

Krys just gave him a glare and a slap across the flat of the blade. Then slowly started making his way to their quarters.

===

'I can talk with you from a distance now, you know.' Kyvas told Krys. 'You don't have to keep me at your belt.'

Kyvas had come to the conclusion that he did not like to be carried. It had not felt natural when Jach had picked him up today. It felt like Kyvas and Jach's existences were at odds with each other. The energy inside him had started to object to Jach's touch -- well, not his literal touch, but the energy that was emanating from him. Most of the foreign energy, which Jach postulated could have been his mana, was repelled by the knife. Some of it, however, seemed to have formed a connection with him, seemingly giving Jach some control over him. It sent a chill up Kyvas's spine.

Fortunately, Kyvas did not get a similar feeling while he was hanging off of Krys's belt. But the motion, paired with his now enhanced senses did not make it a comfortable ride at all.

Krys waved a dismissive hand. "You aren't that heavy."

Kyvas rolled his eyes at him.

Krys blinked, stopping momentarily. "I saw that. I saw you roll your eyes.", He declared.

Kyvas hummed in agreement. 'Something similar happened with Jach. I seem to have gotten much better at using telepathy too.'

Krys nodded, then returned to the quill.

"Any changes after the nap?", He asked.

'Mostly improved senses. Better sight and hearing.', Kyvas replied. 'Went through that with Jach. I'm apparently sensing light and sound with mana. I can see wherever my mana can reach. Hear anything within that range too. But the "living" blocks it.'

"...Makes sense.", Krys finished with the quill.

'What is the "living" anyway?', Kyvas asked. He had been wondering about that.

Krys looked up and sighed. "I'd tell you if I knew. It's been debated about for a long time. The closest we know is that anything that once lived -- or could have lived for that matter -- just doesn't get affected by mana."

Kyvas nodded. 'I see...'

Krys stood up suddenly.

"Anyway, I think I should check on your telepathy again.", he grinned.

'Oh, no you don't!' Kyvas complained as Krys tugged him out of the belt.

"What will you do? Stab me?" Krys's grin grew wider. Kyvas couldn't help but whimper as he saw runes being drawn up rapidly around Krys's other hand.

Fifteen minutes later, Kyvas felt like he could throw up an entire whale. The entire process was much more torturous than yesterday's ordeal, but Kyvas had to agree that it also made him learn quite a bit more about himself.

Krys had helped Kyvas see the mana flow inside himself. That was something that even Krys couldn't do with himself. Krys's spell had helped him visualize the different parts of the damascus. The mana from the two different steels seemed to be ever so slightly different to each other. Each one seemed to be constantly trying to invade the other.

Focusing more on each individual part, Kyvas could see a pattern of mana flow, almost identical in both the parts. This pattern seemed to have a life of it's own. It constantly sent out streams of mana from itself. These streams both repelled the invading mana from itself and at the same time attempted to pull the mana of similar kind back inside it's borders.

This constant effort by the patterns kept the different mana contained within the borders of the different steels in a violent stability.

When Kyvas told Krys about this, Krys told him that what he was seeing was likely the Self-Repair enchantments. He told him that during the enchantment process, any enchantments applied to one part of an object will soon spread throughout the entire object. and that somehow the two Self-Repairs prevented that from happening.

He then asked Kyvas a bunch of questions, most of which Kyvas could not answer as he could still not entirely comprehend what he had seen. Krys noted everything down in his diary.

Another experiment had confirmed that what he had seen was indeed an enchantment. If Kyvas attempted to talk while focusing on the mana flow, he could see a new pattern emerge. It only stayed there for a short period of time, but it was still present.

Kyvas could not, however, control these patterns. Or control them in a meaningful way at least. This saddened him to some extent.

"I'll take you to cla.s.s after lunch today. The 8th year's enchantment teacher has called in sick, so I'll be taking over his enchantment cla.s.s today.", Krys declared. "Maybe seeing enchanting happen practically will help you out."

'Alright.', Kyvas accepted without delay.

===

Seph grumbled in mild annoyance.

"Cheer up!", Hiila grinned, patting Seph on the shoulder. "At least we got the whole morning off yesterday!"

"I will never not be mad at this." Seph declared loud and clear. "Pacil is sick and cla.s.s should have been cancelled."

A couple of shouts of agreement echoed throughout the cla.s.s.

Hiila shook her head. "I bet you'd be the first to counter that if Callu was your lab partner instead of me."

A small chuckle rolled through the nearby desks.

Seph shot her a small glare. "You know that's not true."

'Well, mostly not true.' She added in her thoughts.

Hiila gave Seph another pat on the shoulder from her perch on the desk.

The 8th years, all 48 of them, were currently present inside of their enchantment lab, waiting for Professor Krys to take their cla.s.s. They all stood in pairs behind their designated desks. The room was, admittedly, too big for the small cla.s.s population, but that was because these cla.s.ses were not the only use for these rooms.

This one in particular also acted as the Jafferi's personal research lab.

"He's here!", an a.s.sistant professor peeked through the door and called out. The entire cla.s.s stopped any and all antics and stood in wait. Hiila jumped off the desk too.

And then Seph noticed it again. Her own mana patterns, emanating through something very powerful.

The dagger. Krys must have brought it here.

She found herself eagerly staring at the door, trying to catch a glimpse of it.

And she was rewarded with the sight of it again. Hanging off of Krys's belt as he entered the cla.s.s.

Hiila gave her a nudge. "Is that your dagger?", she whispered, nodding to it.

Seph nodded slowly. "Yes."

"Good evening. I hope you've had a good lunch." Krys's greeting snapped her attention to the teacher instead. "As you know already, Professor Pacil is in the infirmary and I'll be taking his place today."

She tried to get another glance of the knife. It had seemed more... alive somehow. It felt to Seph like it had been responding to Krys. Talking to him. She couldn't tell how she could feel that, but she did.

'Drat.', She cursed. Krys was already behind his desk, which blocked the knife from her vision.

"Good evening Professor Krys!", Fenn was the only one who greeted back. He just dismissed it with a wave of his hand.

Then he froze and turned back to Fenn. After a quick discussion of what they had studied in the previous cla.s.ses, Krys started the lesson.

"So, let's see you all performing a telekinesis enchantment, shall we?"