"How can the Royals be so cruel?" Eos suddenly reconsidered Balkor's words, thinking that maybe he had a point holding a grudge after so much time and so many dead.

"Beats me!" Manohar shrugged. "They call me whimsical, unreliable, and childish only because I refuse to listen to a word of what they say, no matter how dire the situation is or how many lives are at stake."

'That's the very definition of whimsical, unreliable, and childish!' She thought.

"That's why you eat here!" Balkor said after pondering for a while. "They put trackers in your food provisions as well and you donated them with the aim to create countless unwitting decoys."

"I'm deeply insulted by your allegations." Manohar blushed in outrage. Never before had one of his brilliant ruses been exposed so quickly. "You are lucky that I'm in a rush or I would have your wife scold you for not trusting even your friends!"

"I'm not your friend!" Balkor replied.

"You sure are. We work together, we exchange our notes about magic, and you don't even try to kill or cuff me on sight. That's more than I can say about most people I know." He said with a sad voice.

"We can be your friends." The children patted his back and offered him part of their dessert.

"Thank the gods you have taken your father's brains but your mother's heart and looks." Manohar shamelessly ate the extra servings of ice cream under Eos's shocked gaze.

"Just tell me why you are here and let's get this over with." Balkor said.

"I think to have cracked the secret of Awakening, but there's something that worries me."

"Meaning?" The god of death raised an eyebrow in disbelief.

Each time Manohar paid him a visit, he would ask Balkor to cast spells while he used his best diagnostic spells on the Blood Magus. Yet neither of them was aware of the existence of things like impurities, mana cores, and breathing techniques.

Balkor had tried to discover the secrets of his own body ever since Salaark had turned him into one of her Feathers, the fake Awakened at her service, but like all those before him, he had failed.

The idea that Manohar might have succeeded in just a few months was simply preposterous.

"I noticed that while the mana flows freely throughout your body, mine is stuck here." Manohar tapped slightly under his solar plexus where his mana core resided. "I found a way to force it to move, but the pain is unbearable.

"Did you experience a similar feeling right after Salaark's procedure?"

"Quite the contrary. I'd never felt better." Balkor said. "How did you do it?"

"A mix of alchemy and healing magic." The Mad Professor said. "I used the principle behind body strengthening potions to make the mana flow and light magic to spread it evenly."

"What about the results?"

"That's the more incredible part. The non-mages I administered it to displayed no reaction whereas the mages died."

"I can't believe this!" Eos said.

"Me neither, but one can't argue with facts." Manohar conjured a hologram of people bursting like a water balloon.

"Not that!" She covered the gruesome images with a towel before the children could see them. "I meant that I can't believe that someone underwent such a crazy experiment of their own will."

"Well, Spellbreakers are not supposed to capture people, only to execute them. The method is up to our discretion. I hope you didn't expect me to use such a dangerous experimental technique on myself. The fate of Mogar depends on me!" The Mad Professor stayed true to his name.

"I'm sorry, but I have no idea whether you are onto something or if it's just another dud." Balkor said after pondering for a while.

"That's too bad." Manohar stood up, handing the god of death a book about light magic of his own writing and the alleged Awakening procedure.

He had no idea that establishing a mana flow without a breathing technique would give birth to true mages, not Awakened.

"This is yours." Balkor gave Manohar a thick folder with everything he knew about darkness magic but Domination. "I hoped that we would talk some more after lunch."

"No can do." The god of healing shook his head. "I told you, I'm in a rush. Something fishy is happening in the north and the Royals required my services as a Spellbreaker."

"I thought you didn't care about what the Royals wanted." Balkor said.

"I don't, but I have a few new theories to test and a dire lack of specimens. Sacrifices must be made in the name of science!" Manohar disappeared in a burst of light from his spell and a round of applause from the kids.

"I want that man out of our house." Eos said while showing her husband two small tomes that the Mad Professor had tried and failed to pass to the kids without her noticing.

Their title, "Tier five for dummies", was already bad but not as much as the foreword that recited:

"My dear friends, magic is its own reward, even when it accidentally blows up your house. Never listen to your parents and always follow your dreams. I wish you the best of luck.

"PS: Mothers are by nature a bit uptight about the risks of the magical research so avoid showing yours this book.

PPS: Eos if you are reading this, I want you to know that it's all Balkor's fault. He forced me to write the above foreword even though he knows I have the utmost respect for your cooking." 

***

Duchy of Essagor, Zogar Vastor's home.

"Is there something wrong, Zogar? Why aren't you at the academy? I thought that you had to supervise the first trimester exam." Zinya asked.

"You are right, I should." He replied while changing his Professor uniform for the Dominator armor and having it absorb the black Highmaster armor, just to stay safe.

He couldn't wear it at the White Griffon. There were too many powerful mages and Forgemaster and he couldn't afford any of them noticing Bytra's masterpiece.

"Then why are you here?" She was wearing a lovely satin white and green day dress.

Ever since she had moved into the Vastor household, Zinya had nothing to do but help her children to recover from the copycat's attack and enjoy the commodities of her new life as a soon-to-be noble dame.

She had gained a bit of weight that she tried to hide wearing ample clothes, but Vastor pretended not to notice. He actually found her even cuter.

"I can only tell you that bad stuff is happening in several regions of the Kingdom." Vastor replied. "The Royals have recalled all the available Spellbreakers, including the old coots like me."

"You are not an old coot!" She bent down a little to hug him from behind. "Gods, I can't understand for the life of me how someone like you can keep beating himself down."

"Yeah, right. Then since we are spouting nonsense, I'm also very tall and handsome." His cold tone cracked when he turned around to return her embrace and saw the love in Zinya's eyes.

For some reason that Vastor could never understand, she always looked at him as if he was the most outstanding man on Mogar.

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