Just shy of naked hostility, Vivian replied, "It was foolish. I"m certain GRANDMOTHER will have a punishment or supplementary lessons for me after I report my mistakes to HER. Feel free to report your version as you will, father."

As she turned to storm away, her father said, "Stay, Vivian. You"ll want to hear this."

The subtle entreaty added to soften the initially sharp given command sounded as if it had physically pained the prideful man to say but none of that wounded pride was present when he turned to Orison.

The man soberly told the young mage, "This was an inappropriate place to leave you. Follow me to my dwelling and we"ll continue a much needed conversation there. You have the same word from me as Ivan gave you."

Orison fell in step behind the man. "Does that mean that I can be expecting an a.s.sault from you as well at some point?"

Vivian was about to speak up when the man said, "No. You will be taught how to draw your glamour in before I release you back into the general population, at minimum. You may not be aware yet but you"re a walking disturbance of the peace and dangerous to be unsupervised as you are now."

Unwilling to be cut off a second time, Vivian spoke before Orison could. "Why be so alarmist over an affinity glamour? Are you afraid he"s going to friend the world to death?"

The man didn"t answer his daughter immediately as he lead them into a living s.p.a.ce that was lavish and comfortable looking without being gaudy.

The move to sit on the couch while bidding them to take the two overstuffed chairs spurred a spark of amus.e.m.e.nt from Orison as the man said, "Harmless to us perhaps but there are plenty of people incapable of resisting glamour in any form."

Orison said, "Look, no explanations necessary on the whys. I wasn"t aware I was doing it before but I wouldn"t want to be throwing around any kind of infringement on someone else"s free will, no matter how minor. That"s...wrong."

The man nodded and continued, "After seeing the state of my son"s aura sh.e.l.l, I"d be able to identify either on any further victims. Since I"d be the one called in to identify and possibly hunt you, you"ll have to forgive me for my reticence to train you properly. It would be a conflict of interest...

"You"ve done nothing wrong either, so I"m willing to give you all benefit of doubt and owe you some compensation. Aside from training you in how to contain your glamour, is there anything else I can do for you? No need to ask for the request you gave my son. Your arbitration"s already been registered."

Orison sensed a hidden test in the offer. He was also somewhat convinced that whatever Ivan had done, it was a serious affair and probably carried a heavy punishment. It was a punishment Ivan would never have to worry about receiving because his father was obviously keen to cover it up. If Orison were to push that issue all the young mage would earn from it would be open hostility and that was the last thing he wanted any more of.

Taking the high road, even though he didn"t feel the least bit forgiving at the moment, Orison said, "Things may have went sideways towards the end there but it doesn"t change that he went out of his way to help a stranger with their problem. It was obvious that he was just as clueless as I was in certain important matters so I"m inclined to just forget the whole mess. If that can earn me a little positive regard, then great. If not, at least we can walk away from each other with no hard feelings I hope."

The man chuckled mirthlessly. "A little positive regard and no hard feeling, is it? If you say it"s cheap compensation, it"s cheap. If you say it"s expensive, it"s certainly that as well but I"d look petty to deny it wouldn"t I? Perhaps you were a diplomat in the era you hail from."

Orison smiled wryly. "I have a vague sense of some experience in that direction."

With zero warning, Orison felt a hammer of compulsion hit him and before the wild intent within him ripped it to shreds, the man asked, "What tribe are you from?"

Before regaining control of his thoughts, Orison said blankly, "I don"t kn- Dannan. I"m from the tribe of Dannan... You better have a good reason for doing that or I"m going to begin considering you word worth less than sh*t paper!"

The man frowned at the accusation and said, "Isn"t it obvious? You now know your tribe. It"s written into your blood but you would have had no way of knowing easily in your current state. Am I right?"

Orison was starting to feel a little ill from all the small spikes of adrenaline he"d been dealing with throughout the day. "Ferreting out my secrets for your own satisfaction was just a happy coincidence then? I"m not completely ignorant and I"m certainly not one of your subordinates to command... Vivian, is there anyone I can appeal to-"

The man stood up and said in an imposing voice, "You will not be going anywhere until you"re trained to withdraw your glamour!"

Not breaking eye contact with Vivian, Orison finished, "for my training? I don"t feel safe with this person."

Vivian flashed her father a seething look before turning to Orison and said, "Forgive father. He was an inquisitor for the Holy See when grandfather was in charge. They were quite stern then and some habits are hard to break. The only other person within the See that would be inclined to help you would be my grandmother. She"s... not kind to men with glamour or intent control issues. If it gives you some comfort, I can promise to take note of everything father does before I report to her."

With the same sad but angry look Ivan had given him earlier, the man looked at his daughter while speaking to Orison, "Young man, I know that this is all confusing and frustrating for you but your training"s already started."

The young mage sighed heavily and said, "Fine, but if you keep prying into anymore of my private matters without asking consent first, I will leave. Please don"t make this into a p*ssing contest. I can and I will but not if you don"t give me any more reasons to. Fair enough?"

The man took a few deep breaths to get his own emotional agitation under control and said, "I may not be an inquisitor any more but I"m still an inspector under the criminal division. You may refer to me as Inspector Drey. Not even the citizens of Auma use the Nunos surname when speaking with us. Surnames are only spoken in the most formal of situations, such as issuing a duel or other kinds of challenge."

Orison nodded and said, "Alright, Inspector Drey."

"Then let"s begin," Drey said with a faint smile.

***

The young mage looked around at the house-like mall palace until he finally spotted ghostly boy Orison. "What went wrong this time?"

Beta was concentrating fiercely on something as it said, "The sizable amount of remaining wish structured miasma came into direct conflict with fey heritage and lost but our body can"t handle the gains. We"re not clear on what should be done. As the controlling consciousness, you have a hard choice that needs to be made quickly. Do we give the excess gains to your companions or give it to Ivan and Vivian?

"Giving it to your companions means a short stay here but the risk of death for you is over fifty percent and it may have future detrimental affects to them. Giving it to Ivan and Vivian has less than one percent chance of death but the losses of current resources will be greater. It should be stated that major violations of free will occurred and the gains may make their family grateful to you rather than making you a fugitive. a.n.a.lysis of greatest potential outcomes states the Nunos family will be aware that none of what transpired will have been your conscious choice but pride may still demand satisfaction."

Orison looked at the ghostly boy and asked, "What exactly did I do?"

"It"s more beneficial for you not to know. Do you desire to know anyway?" Beta asked.

The young mage said, "Keep it vague."

Beta nodded and said, "After devouring Drey"s invading intent, Your fey blood was stimulated. Some of that direction of stimulation contradicted the structure of your desire beyond the physical expression of your longevity and training wishes, exploited loopholes included. Several variables lead to undesirable results. If you were trying to gauge if your guilt response or compa.s.sion were high enough to warrant choosing them to alleviate the difficulty of your decision, then based on past decision making, yes.

"Please note that requesting any more information will result in detrimental psychological effects that aren"t warranted. This conclusion is based off of correlated data from what is known about Nunos family ritual and wild fey lore temporarily gained from the consumption of Drey"s intent... Time in the mindscape is nearly one-thousand times faster but a decision needs to be made or... We have no choice now. Is there anything that you"d like to know before being placed in comatose status for the process to safely be completed? We only ask for our comfort and preservation of choice."

Orison asked, "How bad is the damage to my body?"

"Extensive but temporary outside of mid and short-term memory loss. We don"t have the ability to replace lost memories until they are recorded into the long-term center of your physical mind," the ghostly boy said.

Orison nodded. "No chance of recall surprising me? Then I"ll accept ignorance. From the information gained from Drey, prioritize the meditation technique. I know the glamour and intent stuff is going to be dormant again but I want to be ready for when it comes back... I know we already have, I"m just saying it to hear myself think it. I wanted to see if it would give me any inspiration on things I can ask my sub-mind indirectly while I had the chance."

Beta said, "Now that the miasma is gone, there are no known conflicts with any other functions. Key synchronization has increased. s.p.a.ce, crystal formation and spirit blood have formed a compatible cycle and the lattice work filtration has evolved into a receptacle for incompatible material. Do not exceed it"s ability to process between step baptisms or we"ll lose it.

"Don"t give in to the impulse to panic at the loss of previous crystal formation material. We have a month to reestablish it. Don"t panic at the loss of spell models. All overlapping parts are consolidated based off the hypothetical model you made. Our physical mind was getting quite full of redundant and useless information pushed into it from supernatural sources and magic studies... Of course, no emotional memory was touched during this process."

All went dark.

***

As the young mage came to, Duran bellowed, "AWAKE."

By the time his eyes came into focus, Orison was surrounded by his companions. Off in a corner, not quite capable of meeting his eyes, stood Vivian. Before he could start asking questions once he downed two gla.s.ses of water, he was informed he"d been out for a little over a week. Despite that, he didn"t feel weak in any meaningful way but had a little stiffness to work out. To everyone"s confusion and amus.e.m.e.nt, he went through a light calisthenic exercise and cleaned himself with a combination of presto and create water that had been absorbed by his "Matter" concept.

With the consolidation of his models into the various concepts he had put together when he had been sharing magic knowledge with Mo and Mylar, Orison had temporarily lost quite a bit of versatility but he was primed for greater gains. Of all the things that had been reduced to their primary components, Orison was glad to see that Oberon and t.i.tania had been left in tact for the moment. If he didn"t have them then he"d have no real compet.i.tive ability with which to start the new chapter of his journey.

While he was filled in with all the essential information for the time he"d been playing "sleeping beauty", Orison looked at the devastated and empty place where his original formation had been. He still felt the deep pressure that hid within the spot, ready to condense more, but it would take a good deal of time to rebuild unless he started farming "grudges". That was an idea that sounded somewhat suicidal until everyone was coordinated in their combat.

Things took a slightly awkward turn when Rithus and Duran left for the boy"s guardian training. In the ensuing silence, it was obvious that Vivian had some things she wanted to share in private but Gan was beaming distrustful and suspicious eyes at her. With the gap in his memory, Orison wasn"t exactly sure if being alone with her was a good idea or not but trusted that his sub-mind knew what it was doing.

"Hey, Gan. Since we"re about to be done with our instruction, do you want to check out the best sights for us to start advancing in? I know it"ll take some time but I"ll give you some gold for lunch and join you there," Orison offered.

Shooting a complex look between the two of them, Gan said, "Sure thing, Little Boss."

After Orison transferred some gold from his surprisingly low amount, Gan walked off a little hesitantly. Alone, Vivian and the young mage stared at each other with an almost identical look of cool evaluation.

Vivian started, "What do you remember of what happened at the rut challenge?"

Confused, Orison said, "Rut challenge? What"s that? Technically, I think I know what it IS but what was I doing there?"

Vivian looked searchingly into Orison eyes and then said, "If you don"t remember, it probably for the best to leave it that way. No one"s going to bring up what happened and no one can say you did anything wrong or broke any of the traditions... in spirit at least."

"Was there anything good to come out of it? If I"m left completely in the dark it"ll bug me forever," Orison said anxiously.

With a small shudder, Vivian said, "Well, as a challenger, your cruelty touched the very limits of what"s allowed. No young buck is ever going to want to step on your shadow anytime soon. I"ve never seen my brother cry like- never mind... I can"t speak for anyone else but when it was time for the claiming, you only wanted me. As angry at you, as sad for my brother as I was, how could I not forgive?

"Before I say any more I have to tell you how it started. At the beginning, you rushed out of father"s abode like you were on fire and ran straight for the challenge circle like you knew exactly where it was and bellowed out a challenge at everyone. The elder generation was going to deny you since you didn"t have antlers but as if Osomo herself tired of their posturing, you grew a pair, right there on the spot. They were beautiful, made out of the mother"s heart, I swear it!

"Grandmother herself declared it a sign of Osomo"s favor and sent word to all the family that the challenge would begin right then and there. I won"t ever speak of the challenge itself but grandmother was appalled when she saw that you were prepared to claim me in the dirt. You wouldn"t respond to words or taunts but when she grunted at you, you looked at her and she pointed with her chin all around where other bucks were building beds.

"Seeing the beds of feather gra.s.s they had cultivated themselves along with whatever trinkets and whatnot to insure the woman they wanted wouldn"t deny them, you looked at the bare ground and back up at me like you were going to cry from the shame of it. In the next moment, you built a queen"s bed for me of gold, jewels and silk. Many other things that looked like they came from a long past era, grandmother took before I had a chance to explore them."

Vivian blushed scarlet and took a moment to adjust herself. "We didn"t get to, to finish. You started looking like you were in pain but was... dedicated. I was... drunk on fulfillment but I was still aware enough to realize that it was really my great uncle"s fault things didn"t end the way they were supposed to. I"m certain that he bellowed a challenge at you, not for me but for your antlers. It was cowardly of him to wait until you were weakened from... your different battles.

"Even with grandmother screaming herself hoa.r.s.e over the sacrilege, he was preparing to fight you in physical combat. It was like you became a different person in an instant. In serene naked glory, you stood up and calmly broke off your own antlers and pushed one into my chest. It was insane but even though I thought you were going to kill me, I just let you do it. It hurt at first and then my world burst into light and shadow.

"My cousin told me that afterward, my great uncle was lunging for you to grab the other antler out of your hand when two fairies from myth just appeared and started hara.s.sing him. Their scathing comments about him distracted long enough for grandmother to knock him unconscious with a spell. You just kept walking like nothing in the world was of any importance other than what you wanted to do."

Vivian took a second to catch her excitement shortened breath.