The hand on his shoulder woke him up. It was still dark outside, and the little light that remained was from two candles. Neither one looked particularly strong. If he could make them stronger through application of Skills he would appreciate that. But the only thing that Skills could do was create a better candle, or one that lasted a little bit longer. At least they had that. He looked up, and it was one of the conspirators.

  "Do you need some help with your assignment or something?"

  The man shook his head. Bel was darker-haired with dark mahogany colored skin. This made him hard to see in the dark… but still it was hard to not be irritated when you got woken up by somebody before you were set to go to physical fitness. Perhaps he had something.

  "What is it?" Ludere whispered.

  Despite the fact that he was a Regnicus, He still slept in an open, barracks-type room with ten other boys. That part of it, he did not really care for. Boys smelled. These ones, in particular, smelled badly in a creative way, as if they spent their daytime hours comforting each other that they couldn't smell worse.

  Any man in his room would have no issues finding a wife if they ever bathed. But until then, they would be confirmed and certified bachelors. The quality of the smell alone had Bel covering his mouth, even with all of the windows wide open to let in the sea air.

  "We've got to talk. Not here."

  If one of the people that had decided to sign on to his potential services in the future wanted to talk, then it was definitely about something he'd asked them to track down.

  He got up, put on his informal tunic and sandals. Bel was already by the doorway to the central hallway. The movement of his candle made him easy to track. In the dark, Ludere could easily see the souls of those around him. The ones that had magic? They show them brightly. But that was if he wanted to pay attention. Generally, he didn't want to pay attention to whatever was going on, but right now, he knew that he was going to be told something either important or devastating.

  Bel turned a corner, and they were out front of the male living quarters by the man-made treeline. The spacing was too perfect, and it was too close to the building. Standing next to the tree, it was clear that they had been planted in plots.

  Talking there had become one of those time-honored traditions. After two weeks of class, Ludere had seen several couples break up and or come together in the common area. The trees were nice. But none of the branches were reachable.

  "I'm going to make a bet with you. Are you ready for this?"

  Bel sighed. "What are you going to bet me about?"

  "You found something, didn't you?"

  "I might have."

  "Well, out with it. I'm not paying you for your discretion."

  "Clearly. Well, you're not paying me at all." Bel leaned against a tree.

  "Look, do you want these skill gems or not?"

  "No, no. Don't mistake me, but you asked me to research something that, well, let's just say that the librarians didn't even know what it was. They have books all about Soul and Will. I didn't find a single one on Spirit. That isn't to say that it isn't there. But it isn't common."

  There was clearly a bulge under the man's toga.

  "Look, here are the books that they recommended for me after I obliquely mentioned what I wanted. I didn't have time to read everything in depth, but…" Bel removed a piece of paper with several names on it. "They're in… well, unfortunately, most of them are restricted. But here at the names of the three texts that I checked, and I… They were written in Celusian. Ancient Celusian. Here's the list of titles."

  Ludere blinked several times. How many long loops would it have to take for him to even get the basis of the language? It was only because they used Celusian notation that he was at all familiar with the lettering. That would be a long-term issue that he couldn't crack easily.

  He scanned the list quickly. None of the titles jumped out to him, but it was a start.

  There wasn't a quick way to learn languages, though the school had an ancient history teacher.

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

  "I don't suppose you know anyone that speaks or reads it?"

  Bel nodded. "Cire. In first class."

  "Wonderful."

  Bel held out his palm as if waiting for Ludere to deposit a Dinarii.

  "I'm afraid that I'll have to owe you for this one. Safe to say that this is good work."

  Bel folded his arms. "This was very good work, and I would love to settle debts before we start running through the tests that they've been promising the whole time."

  Bel was in the second class, a position that gave him opportunities that Ludere couldn't have gotten in such a short time. Fourth class wasn't nothing, but he wanted more. Maybe if he did the loop again, he could advance quicker? But if the loop started in the arena… He felt like his soul had finally healed from the mental strain of going through it over and over again.

  He didn't want to do it again. Just the thought of having to go back nearly sent him into a panic attack.

  He took a few deep breaths and centered himself.

  "Alright, that's about enough for now. If you see Cire, let her know I want to speak with her."

  Cire was elusive. He had been a month in the academy, and he'd seen her outside of the mess hall only a handful of times. She was as chaotic in her movement as he was, if even more so. It took a planned off-day of classes for him to finally get her to agree to a meeting.

  "You could have asked Mila to get me this whole time. Why didn't you?"

  He couldn't have done that, could he?

  "Uh… noted."

  She stared him down. He wanted to hide behind the even rows of trees, but that wouldn't help his situation. He kept meeting people in the very obvious meeting place because it was obvious. This was probably not the best idea, long-term.

  "You're not using your friends. Mila asked me where I was going, you know? She made it seem like she knew. That makes me think that you either didn't know her at all, or you didn't think that she would be willing to ask. Are you not a part of the mightiest empire that's ever existed?"

  "I am."

  "Do you think that we built all of this without help? All of this empire, this society?"

  Cire looked resigned.

  "Of course, of course. I might not appreciate all the little things that they did to get here, but I do like the little human things that make life easier in the Empire. I just wish they'd done it a little bit more egalitarian. The fact that I hadn't even heard of this academy until recently meant that there was a very inside track to senior leadership inside the government that I wasn't even understanding."

  "You're stalling. I can leave, if you're not ready. Bel made it seem important, though, and my father has told me to help you out, if it meant that you would be in my debt."

  "Alright. Bel said that you've the best reader? Most learned on the topic of Celusian."

  "Ancient Celusian, and yes. Tyler taught me."

  Ludere packed that nugget of information away for later thought.

  "If you can actually read it, then I need some help. I'm going to be really honest with you, right here. There are things going on that I can't really reveal to you."

  "My father said you would say something like that."

  "Anyway, there's a list of books here that I'm going to need your help with. I'm looking for information on a Skill that is not common. It goes without saying that I want to swear you to secrecy, because of how uncommon this is and how I've never even seen it being mentioned."

  She knew that he had Soul as well as Will Magic. He didn't know what she was doing with that information, but he knew that she knew. That meant that there was no information disadvantage in her knowing it wasn't one of those Skills.

  "There are only so many students that have the Skill sets that you have. There are fewer that have it at the level you have. I'm confused as to why you think you have to be cagey about what's going on, but you can tell me."

  "I've got a skill called Spirit Magic."

  Cire's face froze. She went through several iterations of shock and confusion, before she settled on her normal resting irritated face.

  "And you chose now to ask me about this. I assume this is something you want me to research in these books using my Celusian skills?"

  "Everything about Will Magic is written down. Or, at least, it seems like everything I should know in order to survive another demonic invasion isn't always written down."

  "There are a lot of oral histories and oral traditions for a reason. We need to stop people from getting these Skills and utilizing them for the wrong things. This isn't to say that we are siloing our knowledge. It is just to say that not everyone needs to know everything."

  On some level, he understood. The Empire had its reasons. But the Oracles and religion didn't answer to the Empire. Or, at least, not really. It was more like they were lucky to have them around.

  "So you want me to go into the library, into the deep stacks, and figure out how to get information on this Skill for you."

  It seemed ridiculous at face value, but of course there was always a chance that she could say no, and then he would be screwed.

  "Unless you are willing to teach me the language. I don't see any either way. We can start your lessons first thing tomorrow morning."

  Ludere sighed. "Would you at least be willing to help me by giving me something to start with?"

  Cire smiled.

  "I thought you might ask something like that. I brought the primer that I used to learn myself."

  "I appreciate you so much for sharing this."

  "Oh, it was no bother at all. How about we start working together on things like this? If you're going to be a force to be reckoned with, I figure we might as well start working together."

  Ludere nodded. If she was going to teach him, he wasn't going to say no. Perhaps she expected him to say no, and then she was going to laugh about that. He would not. He wanted to learn.

  It might be difficult, but he would stick with her, no matter what.

  "I'm going to be really honest with you. I didn't expect you to want to learn Celusian."

  "And why would I? But I get your point."

  He spent the rest of the afternoon going over the language. He felt like it was time well-spent. This did not make things any easier, but it did let him know that she was serious about teaching him. And if he was going to be on this path, it seemed like this was going to be important.

  It was lovely to just think about learning, and he took to it like a fish climbing a tree.