"Is that it?" Felin furrowed his fluffy brows, forcing Amy to stifle a chuckle at his adorableness.

"Beatrice didn't remember much other than his appearance. And, as expected, she didn't know his Tier either."

"Can't expect to get everything you hoped for," He muttered, shaking his head. "Either way, I'm more certain than before that you should not pursue this Mage. Considering that he undid your friend in that manner so swiftly suggests a level of power not commonly found in the everyday Journeyman. The chances of him being a Master or an Archmage only grows larger my dear Apprentice."

"Hmm," Amy hummed, a tiny indecipherable smile on her face. Her Familiar, ever so attentive, had caught onto that little expression of hers as soon as she had returned. He could see plain as day that there was something she wasn't telling him, yet he suspected it more to do with the mana crackling in his Apprentice's brain than anything untoward.

"How did you get in, anyway?"

"I used the same principles I applied to the museum here. Witch's Cloak - still Tier 4 - to get past the front; Barriers of Ignorance to shield the scanners; and some minor Mind Magicks on the guards. They'll definitely be able to tell something magical took place, but they suspected Beatrice of being connected to a magical crime anyway. Breaking out of there in this way wouldn't put too much more attention on her. Rather, it would be placed on this strange Mage who can infiltrate somewhere like a police station. It isn't as magically secure as some places, with it being mundane and all, but it isn't something just anyone can crack."

"Let's hope that fool girl gets out of the city fast then," Felin scoffed. "I can't believe you actually let her go like that without assurances. What if she gets caught again?"

"She is competent, Felin, as much as you doubt it. She's likely already booked a ticket on the next train to Evyria, waiting at the station right this moment."

"That's assuming she doesn't get caught out right away or that they won't bother searching for her in other cities."

"Then they catch her," Amy shrugged, "And they'll learn the same information from her that they would've if she hadn't escaped."

"If that's what you believe," He grumbled.

"After getting in," She continued, "It was easy swiping the keys from the guard. The hardest part honestly was finding the right key for the right cell. All my messing around testing them made quite the racket; I was scared that maybe the guard would be roused by it with how loosely the Command stuck to him."

"You're out now, at least."

"And with not much for it," Amy frowned.

"What were you expecting? To find some file on it all left conveniently in the open for you to browse through?"

"Not at all, I just... expected Beatrice to have overheard more. I think I actually knew more than her even before questioning her."

"Even more reasons why you shouldn't have done it."

"Enough, Felin," She looked sternly at the cat floating through the air. "What's done is done. Stop bothering me about it."

"Alright, my dear Apprentice."

"Good," Amy smiled, turning her attention away as her gaze grew unfocused, her mind elsewhere.

Through Felin's Sight, he could see the mana flowing through his Apprentice's brain, burning channels into its nerves, deepening their purpose and expanding their function. At every pulse of mana, those parts seemed to become indistinct in reality, as if leaving its corporeal form behind and ascending to something greater. Of course, it was only slightly. If someone could actually witness that process at mundane speeds then that'd be cause for concern. It was only possible because of Felin's own enhancements, or rather, the ones he was born with.

"That's a lot of mana," He commented, inspecting his claws.

"...Yes," Amy answered after a while, deep in concentration.

"Is there any specific reason you're focusing so heavily on your enhancements?"

"...Not really."

"I'm just surprised," He shrugged nonchalantly. "Usually you slog through your mental enhancements. It took you a couple weeks to go through an entire round on everything. Now, all of a sudden, it looks like you're trying to speed through it all."

"...I'm fine, Felin."

"I'm not doubting that," He said unconvincingly. "Rather I wonder what is motivating my Apprentice so much out of nowhere."

"...You already know, Felin," Amy scowled, taking a break after already finishing a round on one of her lobes. If this were her a week prior she wouldn't have been able to even properly function after cycling so quickly, let alone chat during it. She had come a long way since then, with a larger mana pool to sport for it, yet something else was the matter and the Familiar wanted to strike at the heart of it.

"And you already know what I think. No amount of advancement can make you catch up to a Master in time, Amy."

"In time for what?"

"In time for anything! Even if you somehow focused on nothing but advancement for a full year, forsaking everything else in your life including Spellwork, you wouldn't be able to hold a candle to a Mage that powerful."

"You're repeating yourself," She said, returning to her enhancements.

"Can you hear yourself, Amy?" Felin pressured. "If I told the you a month ago that you'd be planning to go after an Archmage, they'd think you'd gone mad!"

"I'm just-!" She cut herself and her cycling off, clenching her fists tightly. "I just... I just want hope, Felin."

Felin remained silent.

"I know what you're saying already. I just want something to support me during all of this," She said, gesturing to herself. "If that means some deluded hope I can fight an Archmage is what I need, then so be it."

"...What happened to Brook can't be affecting you that badly, can it?" He asked, perhaps not so wisely.

"....No. I knew Brook but... I didn't know him. He could've been a friend and it's... tragic that he never became anything more," She frowned, searching for the right words. "It's less that it was Brook and more that it could've been, well, anyone. That could've been Janice's face that I saw, or Beatrice's, or William's, or who else. And they would've been struck down by that Mage just the same. For what?"

"Being a criminal?"

"The Empire has laws for a reason, Felin. People get their due process even if they don't deserve it," She pouted childishly. "And Brook should've had his."

"He fought back, did he not? Attacked that Mage?"

"And so what if he attacked? If this man was indeed an Archmage what could a mundane like Brook possibly do against him? No. That Archmage was in no danger from Brook. It was the other way around. What was done to him was nothing but cruel."

"Some cultures would argue that the second he decided to attack, Brook lost his right to due process," Felin argued, playing the Devil's advocate. A Master must sometimes do this, he thought, remembering fond times with his former contractor. They must test their Apprentice's path, to forge it so that it won't crack when faced with tougher foes.

"Not in this Empire. That's not what I've been taught," Amy fought back, growing angry that he would even dare say such a thing.

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"And not everything your parents teach you turns out to be true."

"Not this, Felin, not this," She reiterated, becoming strangely calmer, reeling herself back. She did this sometimes, he recognised. it happened more and more as of late, but it wasn't a new behaviour. Perhaps she was scared of disobeying her teacher, refraining from showing any strong opinion in front of him. And it would mean he was too harsh in some of his past reprimands of her.

Felin went for a strike, intending to draw blood, a reaction, "Then who did? Your teachers? This Empire that you've always harped on about being unfair?"

"Yes," She stood her ground firmly. "The very same Empire. If they're going to be unfair, if they're going to treat the world like its plaything, then it better not be a hypocrite about it."

"Mighty words from a mere Apprentice."

"I've been at the bottom of both societies in this Empire, Felin," Amy glared. "First, I was poor as a mundane, my family unable to afford proper housing until the government sponsored me for Schooling. Then I was stuck as a Mageling, forced to endure everything at Triesen."

"But was what happened at Triesen the Empire's fault? Or was it that Henry Peters, withholding your letters to your supervisors?"

"Can't it be both?"

"Why?" He pressed.

"The Empire practically abandoned me by placing me in that village. It was rural enough to be unintegrated, so I had to work hard not to be noticed by the populace, unlike what I'd been used to before living in magical cities. The people were superstitious enough to outcast and almost lynch me at the first sign of my magic, which as a Mageling I'd have no hope of fighting back against. And on top of all that, I was given no support. It was only thanks to the help from the village in the beginning before they turned on me that I could get on my feet at first. If I didn't have that then I don't know what would've happened.

"That Empire's failure was handed to another then," Amy said, "Landing in the hands of the Mayor. Everything that transpired, everything I had to endure, could've been solved by that man. Only, he didn't. He chose not to help for his own self interests, at the cost of me and the village's own safety. And, if I may bear this in mind, he was approved by the government. He may have been elected, but it was only because of the Empire's graciousness that he could stay in that position for as long as he did."

"Can you expect the Empire to oversee and check every single person they appoint? That they won't turn bad in the time they leave them alone?"

"Yes," Amy said, leaving no room for argument. "This isn't a mundane government, Felin. This isn't some shitty half-country out in the Mana Wastes headed by people you can hardly call Mages and run mostly by mundanes. The Iyrtiran Empire is magical enough to support that kind of oversight."

"What if you are overestimating the Empire, that it isn't as magical as you assume?" Felin proposed, keeping it vague as to not reveal how little he truly knew about the world's current situation. Just hearing that a place called the Mana Wastes now existed was enough to excite him. Even if he could guess what the place was from his knowledge nearer the end of the Mage Wars, from before he was banished, he was eager to know more.

"Trust me, Felin, I know it is. The level of magic I've witnessed in the capital, when I was living there during Schooling, it puts anything I've done to shame. If they spend even a modicum of the technology they invest in Iyrtir to their governance, they can achieve what I ask for."

"I see," He said noncommittally. "And to what extent should this oversight exist? Where does it stop? At the governors? At the workers? At families, living ordinary lives?"

"Of course not," She shook her head. "It would only exist for those in positions of power. Like Mayor Peters, like Journeyman Jones, like everyone similar to that."

"And who oversees the overseer? How far does it escalate? When does it become an Archmage overseeing a Journeyman? Or a Monarch overseeing an Archmage? And, without Ascendants, can it even go further than that?"

"I- I don't know, Felin!" She shouted, confused as to where the conversation was even going.

"If you're going to make such grand proclamations like that then you better think it this far through, my dear Apprentice," Felin laughed.

"I- I-" Amy stuttered, blushing. Only when did she finally finish her thought did she continue, no longer speaking as she thought, "I'm never going to implement such sweeping changes like that Felin. I know you have high hopes for me, but it's unlikely I'll ever get past Journeyman in my lifetime, let alone surpassing Archmage. I only want to get to a point so that I can support my family. I want them to live comfortably, so they don't have to worry about money or sickness or danger or anything of the sort. My aspirations have only recently come to include you, Felin. I know I want to help you find out what happened to the Wizards, what happened to this world after the Mage Wars, but that's a long time away. Right now, I'm just an Apprentice."

"An Apprentice you may be, but an Apprentice who wishes to not only challenge an Archmage, but dare lecture their apparent betters about how the world should work too."

"And it is well within my rights to," Amy said. "The Empire works hard to integrate both the mundane and the magical to ensure the gap between the two never widens as to be insurmountable. It does exist, and will forever exist as long as Mages do, but it isn't as disparate as other countries. And if they claim to hold those values to heart, then they better live up to them. So yes, I can 'lecture my apparent betters' about how they're governing this Empire."

"Alright then," Felin stepped back at last, pleased at his progress.

"...Alright, what? That's it?" She asked, perplexed. "You don't have another snarky comment in you about what I believe?"

"I do not. I am satisfied... For now," He added with a caveat, nodding his head to the side. "So... What are these Mana Wastes that you mentioned?

"You're moving onto that?" Amy wondered aloud, frankly dumbfounded by her Familiar's switch-up. He hasn't been this confusing since I first summoned him. What has possibly got him this riled up?

"Yes!" He grinned happily.

"...Fine," Amy shook her head, displeased. "The Mana Wastes are... Well, they're not some specific location. They are a broader term for areas of the continent deemed uninhabitable, even if people do still live there."

"What caused them to be that way?" He asked with a strange glint in his slitted eyes.

"After the Mage Wars, due to certain Spells used by crazy Mages, the mana there stayed corrupted. Some areas are more inhabitable than others, allowing people to build some semblance of civilisation there. Others, however, are too dangerous. People sometimes wander into them, looking for lost artifacts of old Mages, or hoping to gain insights into the ancient powers, and they almost never return."

"Those places would likely originate from improper deaspecting," He confirmed.

"As I was taught. They were used as the horror stories as to why we should always deaspect. That was made clear to us too many times," Amy grimaced. "Unattunement is simply not enough. It must not just be Pure, but it must be separate from you in every way. Hence, why it's called that and not unattunement."

"I suppose those sorts of tales exist in every time," Felin smiled. "We did not have such stark reminders of them when speaking of those terrors in my age however. However grim they indeed are, they would've served as good examples."

As she kept cycling mana through her mind in the background, running through the rounds of enhancement quickly, an old thought returned to her, one she had even written down in her Record. Pausing her vital work for a moment, she asked, "Felin?"

"Yes, my dear Apprentice?"

"Why did Wizards only specialise in two Elements?"

"...Now where did that come from?"

"Just something that's been bugging me for a while now, ever since you told me about Fae and Unknowable after the Monstrous Visage incident."

"...I see," Felin mumbled. "Well, it's to do with affinities. You already know how affinities can affect a person, yes?"

"You told me about how Fae would affect me, didn't you?"

"Yes, I did. All affinities affect their Mages in similar ways. So, in order to balance that influence on your personality out, they try to find what they call a dichotomy. Another affinity they have that they can wield in opposition to their main affinity. They would then twist the things they gain from this affinity into opposition to their primary affinity, to balance out the corrupting effects it has on your being."

"So like, if you were a Fire Mage, then investing into a Water affinity?" Amy suggested.

"Something like that. It doesn't have to be so strict or black and white as that, though. They don't even need to be opposites. In fact, they can be complimentary. As long as the effects of one counteract the other, then they form a dichotomy. This is why Wizards, and almost all Mage Schools, search for two affinities to - as you say - invest in. For Wizards, who can choose from a trinity, they had more options than most. In your case then, you'd have Fae and Unknowable."

"Why wouldn't investing in all three work then? A trinity forms just as good a balance as a dichotomy, I imagine."

"...It can, and Mages who could do that no doubt exist," Felin acquiesced. "Yet it is far easier and simpler to balance only two affinities. That way you'd only have to take into account the effects of them, and not other side-effects from two affinities of your trinity interacting and combining in unexpected ways that cannot be counteracted by the single other Element in it."

"So Wizards choose only two."

"So they only choose two."

"...How would I twist Unknowable to be in opposition to Fae?" Amy said.

"That's for you to decide. It is your path, after all," Felin said cryptically. "No Mage's personal dichotomy is the same as another. It is all about how that Mage views it, and how it relates to their path. Your perspective of how Fae and Unknowable relate will be completely different to how another Wizard viewed theirs in the past, so talking about those cases wouldn't help."

"...I see."

"Anyway, this isn't something to worry about until Journeyman. That's when I predicted - and still predict - that your affinities will start to become a problem," He said, his smile dropping as he asked something else. "Unless, you've noticed anything about what I warned?"

"...No. Nothing of the sort."

"Good," Felin grinned, not noticing what was right beneath his eyes. "Either way, you better get back to your enhancements!"

"Really?" She complained sadly, both at his words and what he failed to see.

"Yes! Although I don't agree with why you're pursuing it, it's progress to your next ascension either way. Enhance away, my dear Apprentice!"

Turning back to her mind, Amy's thoughts returned back to her cycling and... something else that had been dwelling there ever since she had lied to him. A war waged within her heart, stuck between two sides, each painfully right and wrong. She could reveal what Beatrice had actually said, and Felin would take the choice away from her. She would be safe. And she wouldn't be happy. Amy felt it, a chrysalis in her soul just beginning to hatch. Abandoning this all, leaving her friend's fate behind her, would violate something deep within. Amy didn't know what at that moment, but she had all the time in the world to think about it. To ponder. To meditate. It wouldn't be too long now. At long last she would reveal her path to the world.

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