62nd of Season of Air, 57th year of the 32nd cycle

"A bright lad. Blazing," a booming voice said from a handful of steps away, disturbing Newt's focus.

He was using three tendrils to feel the ground. The sensation was akin to looking a different way with each eye while someone held you by your legs and spun you around like a windmill.

Newt opened his eyes, certain his face was green, but he still searched for the mysterious speaker. Whoever he was, the newcomer was still outside his field of vision, and the world unnervingly did not spin to accommodate Newt's vertigo. It remained disgustingly still, while Newt's guts roiled.

"Newstar, this is Lord Flameax, your instructor on all burning issues." Lady Alabaster chuckled.

"You've been sitting on that one for a decade, I can tell." Lord Flameax's voice was powerful and deep, but when Newt turned around he was faced with a strange man.

The slim elder was short, just under five feet. His white hair rose straight up, standing one foot tall, like a tuft of exotic grass. Lord Flameax's eyes were ruby-red, and he had a bushy mustache, which looked like he had pulled the whiskers out of his scalp and stuck them under his nose.

Newt gaped at the strange creature, taking a whole second to realize Lord Flameax was void of mana, just like his master.

"It's high time you shaved and combed yourself," Lady Alabaster taunted, snapping Newt out of his daze.

"Greetings, Lord Mageknight." Newt bowed, but Lord Flameax ignored him.

"He started two hours ago, and he can already form three threads without consequences?"

"I wouldn't say without consequences. Look at his face." Lady Alabaster motioned towards Newt's face. "It looks like he wants to become one with the grass."

"He's at the third realm, what did you expect?" Lord Flameax said defensively, justifying Newt in front of his own master.

Newt wanted to say something. They spoke about him as if he weren't there, but he kept his mouth shut. Just the two-word-greeting he uttered had made him feel like something was rising from the abyss of his stomach.

"Newstar, breathe," Lady Alabaster ordered, his discomfort no longer funny. "Raise your hands up into the air and draw a deep breath before bending over and exhaling all of it. Be mindful not to let anything other than air leave your body. Repeat."

Newt winced, but did as instructed while the two senior mageknights discussed the basics of what he could do. He did not know whether Lady Alabaster's instructions had helped, or if it was simply his body recovering after taking a break, but by the time they finished dissecting his skills, Newt could speak again.

"All right, I get the gist of it." Lord Flameax turned towards Newt. "So, the first thing you have to do is think about whether you wish to walk two separate paths of fire and earth in parallel, or whether you wish to merge them into magma. You may wait until the peak of your fifth realm to consider this question, but the sooner you make the choice and define yourself, the better. And I think you should take your time. Centuries of thinking and mulling over a question are better than centuries of regret after the deed is done."

Before Newt could ask any questions, Lord Flameax raised his index finger, demanding silence.

"The first path will allow diversity and simultaneous use of two different elements. You could throw a hollow rock at someone. They would prepare for a physical attack, but when the rock shatters against their shield, a ball of fire would consume them. The problem is you will rarely be able to unleash your full power."

He raised the middle finger.

"The second path is that of extreme personal power, but at the cost of flexibility. Fire is the strongest offensive element, followed by earth. Combine them and they are devastating. Better yet, your defense will be like that of a macetail - everyone must hurt themselves to hurt you, unless they can keep their distance."

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Lord Flameax lowered his hand and shrugged.

"I don't know which is better. I've never had to worry about it. Conventional wisdom says the best path is the one that best suits you. Teammates and artifacts can compensate for the lack of versatility, but then again, teammates and artifacts can also increase the power of the elements you wield, making up for reduced power."

The strange man finished his speech and examined Newt from head to toe. "You're in no condition to train today. I'll torture you tomorrow."

With the introduction done, he turned towards Lady Alabaster.

"See you later, Al." With that he was gone, a few stray motes of fire-aligned mana blazing in the air.

"Same time tomorrow. I suggest you read more about the questions you had." Lady Alabaster also disappeared, leaving Newt stunned in their portion of the training ground.

He stared blankly ahead, doing his best not to scratch the side of his head. What did I want to read at the library?

Another moment passed before Newt recalled another matter. And what about that glaive I won yesterday in a duel?

He looked around, but there was no sign of Lady Alabaster. I guess I'll ask her tomorrow.

Newt focused on what had happened during the session and which questions he had asked, but his head was full of feeling around the earth, stumbling across bugs and worms.

The energy I touched mostly stayed in place, but some flowed into me. That's one, what else was there?

With a furrowed brow, Newt went to the Chamber of Tomes. Sin-something.

"Greetings, Lady Mageknight," he bowed respectfully to the librarian. "I would like to check out some books and read them in the Chamber of Instruction's mana gathering formation. But I would need two tokens to do that."

The elder pinned Newt with her gaze. It wasn't hostile, but intense and overflowing with unasked questions.

"I wouldn't recommend that. You'd be wasting resources unless you plan to read books while taking breaks from meditative energy gathering. But even then, it's a short walk between the buildings and not really worth the extra effort."

Right. They don't have rules for that because it doesn't happen to others. So, I should sculpt my realm while using the mana gathering formations; that way nobody will figure out something's off. Newt considered it for a moment and decided that sculpting his realm would take more time than he could spend in the formation.

It's just that reading books without doing anything else useful seems like a waste.

Newt tried to fight his aversion. He was smart enough to see why he needed books, but couldn't get it out of his head that having someone read them and compile the information useful to him was much more practical.

"I understand, Lady Mageknight." Newt bowed again. "Thank you for your advice."

The woman nodded in acknowledgement, and Newt went to the search room, where he went to the mana section, and found three shelves designated for environmental mana.

It took nearly an hour before he found a book detailing the interactions between the environmental mana and an awakened's mana sense.

The book detailed which environments might block the sense, how extremely turbulent energies made it unreliable, and one paragraph in particular caught Newt's attention.

Mageknights should never use mana perception in dead zones. Aside from the high probability of taint reaching their realm, the disturbance would create large ripples through an otherwise stagnant environment, drawing the attention of any abominations which might infest the region.

Newt kept reading, but there was no more mention of what exactly dead zones were, how they came to be, or what stopped their flow of ambient mana. More importantly, there was no explanation of what the taint was, nor what the abominations infesting them might be.

This seems like an interesting and absolutely useless topic at the same time, at least for now.

Newt checked the sun outside; it would soon be time to visit the soother, Joyguard.

A waste of time. Newt returned the book, thanked the librarian, and went outside. He had found mentions of ambient energy traveling up the tendril of the same elemental alignment, but nothing explaining the phenomenon.

Is it something so basic everyone is expected to know it? Is the reason unknown, and everyone just takes it at face value? The topic could be lengthy, too long for the book to be a casual addition. Maybe there are books regarding mana absorption addressing it in greater detail?

Newt could think of half a dozen different reasons for the lack of information, but ultimately the answer lay in another book.

I just wasted three hours searching for something Master could have told me in two sentences. And this is just the start. How many hours, days or even years will I waste on searching for bits and pieces of knowledge Dandelion and others around me are certain to have, but they won't share for whatever the reason?

Newt went to the Chamber of Healing, glancing at the Chamber of Beasts, a part of him hoping to catch a glimpse of Lady Woodhopper. Unfortunately, the beautiful woman was nowhere to be seen, and Newt entered the blocky Chamber of Healing.

"Good day, I have an appointment…"

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