Klein stared at his mentor as his heart sank lower and lower with each second. He hadn’t expected this. Out of all the questions and inquiries he had expected the man to have, he had never in all of his considerations expected the man to actually say no.

  Does he really not care at all?

  Perhaps he didn’t. Perhaps Klein was naive and too hopeful to believe that the man would actually help me. Why should he, after all? Klein was just a Stiffer. Just another cog in this wizarding machine.

  “I..,” he shut up his mouth and swallowed the storm of emotions raging within him. He didn’t say anything. He didn’t feel like it anymore. He stood up to leave, the tea on the table forgotten already.

  “I didn’t dismiss you, Mr. Skyla,” His mentor called and Klein stopped in his tracks.

  He kept all of his emotions in check. He hadn’t expected to feel this way. He had been ready to face the attacks on his own, and even rob the piece on his own. Then why did he feel so angry right now? Was it the betrayal of trust? Or did he really think he had found a shortcut for all his problems?

  “Do you require something of me, Sir?” Klein asked, trying his utmost to sound polite.

  “I don’t think our conversation was over, Klein. Please sit back and have some tea. It’ll soothe your nerves,” Tillmann picked his own cup, and sipped his tea.

  Klein grumbled internally. He really wished he could simply walk out of here and bash the gate on his face. And yet, he knew that’d just be a pipe dream. His mentor was far too great of a mage to disrespect like that.

  He sighed and turned back to his seat. He picked up the still heated cup of tea and took a sip. The tea didn’t taste as good as it did earlier.

  “You shouldn’t sulk so much, I merely refused your employment as a personal bodyguard. Even if I had agreed, my fares would be far too much for someone like you, Mr. Skyla. Now, in all that I said earlier, I never refused to help you, did I?” Klein perked up at that.

  “What do you mean by help?”

  “Well of course, it means that I’d help you train your abilities,” He smiled as he said so, and Klein caught something there.

  “Abilities?” His heart skipped a beat at that. Could he know?

  “I guess you really don’t know then. I planned to speak up about this when you had grown a bit more, but I suppose now is a time good as any,” He continued to sip his tea as he said it. His eyes wandered through the ceiling as if it held some form of revelation.

  Klein frowned. “What do you mean? What abilities? What have you not told me?”

  “Mr. Skyla, do you know the kind of mage I am?” He asks.

  “A combat mage, sir,” Klein says in doubt. Of course he knew. Although he hadn’t been given a choice in choosing a mentor–no Stiffer is ever–he had over the years learned much about him. He just didn’t understand why the question was relevant right now.

  “A fairly redundant title, used by people who don’t understand the true capabilities of the arcane and myself,” His mentor scoffs. Klein had never seen him do that, and continues, “I suppose it’ll do for now. What do you think are the most important aspects of combat?”

  Klein considered the question in a hundred ways, looking for any hidden traps or double meanings, or trickery, before he answered, “A mental plan to victory which takes you and your surroundings into account,”

  “I am going to suppress my desire to dissect your answer and go on an hour-long lecture about the ways of combat. It’s a field which I deeply resonate with, so I’ll just say that you are missing a lot of points there,” He took a sip and exhaled in content, before he continued, “What I was trying to come at was information. Information has always been one of the key elements in combat. Without the knowledge about yourself, your opponent, and your surroundings, it’ll be impossible for you to ever win.

  “As such, having reached my position, I have a rudimentary grasp on information magics. It’s a niche field of magic, derived from Divination, it focuses on the quick gathering of information at present. It takes a toll on your mind, and oftentimes requires a very logical mindset to be proficient in. The information magic I use in combat is a very small aspect of this branch, merely dedicated to gathering information about my immediate surroundings.”

  “That’s very cool and all, Professor, but I don’t see your point. Surely, you don’t expect me to be learning this magic too, do you? If you do, then I am sorry to disappoint you, but I still can’t cast magic. I’m still a Stiffer,” Klein said. Just a Stiffer with an evolved skill.

  “That much has been apparent, yes. Do tell me Mr. Skyla, how many cutlery do you think are in my cupboard?” He asks.

  Klein looks at him stupefied as he answers, “How would I know? Are you counting the spoons and the forks and the various knives too? Somewhere around 200-300 I guess?”

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  “Guess a specific number if you had to,”

  “259,”

  “Why that specific number?”

  “Just a random guess I suppose. Thought the number had a nice ring to it,” he said.

  “Has this happened before as well? These feelings about certain things? Feelings like you can suddenly grasp the surroundings in a very different way? Like information suddenly appears to you, without you doing anything?” His mentor pushed, and Klein felt irritation grow within him.

  “What are you trying to say exactly? That I have some hidden magic ability inside of me that I didn’t know about?” He snapped.

  “That is… exactly what I’m saying, Mr. Skyla. You’re a natural information mage. Congratulations,” His mentor smiled as he said it.

  “This is not a good joke,” Klein glared. He wished he could wipe that smile off his face.

  “It indeed is not. It's the truth,” He continued to smile as a seed of doubt was planted within Klein. Could he really be? Hope came next. The treacherous flower with its thorns coiled around his heart stabbed him.

  “How could it be…?” He asked. Klein realised that his hands trembled and that some tea had fallen on his hand. He hadn’t even felt it.

  “Natural abilities often appear randomly. Predicting where one would appear is a fool’s play. Though the chances of them appearing in Stiffers has always been higher. It is argued that these abilities are sometimes the manifestation of something the system had. They called it ‘Traits’ back then.

  “These abilities often stay dormant. They influence the body subtly through the years, but it’s argued that there are some conditions to activate these abilities. Ever since you have walked in the office, I have felt a draft of mana coagulating around you from the office. It has always been there, but before today it was much more subtle. You said that the cupboard held 259 pieces of cutlery. It is actually 258. You were very close.

  “Something recently has activated your trait. Hence why I told you about it today,” He continued to smile, and continued to take a sip of his drink as he finished talking.

  Klein, though, was left in a storm of incredulity. Everything in his life had seemed to all of a sudden gone haywire ever since that adventure. Everything started that day.

  That day, I saw the dots and lines. Was that the moment? Was it because I was so close to the system piece?

  Slowly the incredulity was replaced by the self condescending thoughts. He had powers that he never knew about. What a joke I am.

  Some things from the past suddenly made sense. His choice to take drugs made goddamn sense right now. He had always felt his brain was too busy. Like everything swirled in his mind and pinged him like tinnitus. That’s why he had resorted to them. To put his mind at ease, to not be so goddamn alert all the time.

  Wait.

  “If what you say is correct, then shouldn’t I feel the effects of it? Granted there have been times where I felt an overflow of information, but shouldn’t something like it create more of a buzz in my head? I don’t feel a thing right now. Even my earlier symptoms feel less serious," he asked. He hadn’t realised it earlier, so absorbed in all the new revelations and enemies, that his tinnitus seemed to be much less severe.

  “It’s quite simple, your mind ignores the excess information. Earlier, in the dormant state, the flow of information was minimal. But it was the small percentage increase along with your other senses which overworked your mind, resulting in the fatigue and tinnitus like symptoms.

  “But now that your trait has been activated, its influence has grown much more passive. I suspect that you can, with enough practice, keep it active at all times, or feel its influence at some times. Maybe when your life is in danger, or when someone asks you a question about something.” He tilted his head towards the cupboard in support of his hypothesis.

  It really is true, isn’t it? Holy shit.

  He looked outside the window with an empty glance. He didn’t know what to think about all of it. He looked out of the windows at the wandering clouds. His mind too wandered idly. He had spent so much of his life, thinking he was nothing more than a single ability mage. And now he had evolved his skill, and also found out that he had this ‘trait’.

  It was hard to feel anything. It was hard to feel joy or sadness or anything at this prospect. Maybe it was emotional overdose. He didn’t know.

  In the end he sighed, “All of this has become too much for me today. I think I’d like to take today off to gather my thoughts. Would you be able to meet tomorrow, Professor?”

  “Certainly. Considering your life is still at stake tomorrow, we’ll meet at the same time. You may leave now. And Mr. Skyla,” Tillmann looked into Klein’s eyes as he said, “Don’t hate your trait. You didn’t have it before, but you have it now. It might not be much, but it’s the least you deserve,”

  Klein nodded with a wry smile. Did he hate the trait? He didn’t know.

  He left the office. It was still afternoon, but clouds above have greyed the world, ready to weep at any moment. He didn’t feel like rushing towards the dorm even if it might rain. He calmly walked towards his room, every step blasted in his ears. Now that he focused on them, he could feel it. The grains of sand, and the dirt stuck between his soles. The pitch and timbre of his steps against the ground. The very shift of air around him as he moved.

  He quickly shut it off before he went crazy. A massive headache had already formed at his temples.

  When he reached the dorm, Honker was back. He sat on the desk, staring out at the clouds. He didn’t even budge as the door opened behind him, and Klein entered. The room was washed in the grey lights of the outside.

  “Hello,” He didn’t feel like talking much, but manners were something which went beyond good or bad mood.

  Honker honked at him in greeting, and continued to sit there gazing outside. Klein took his seat by the bed, and looked at the goose. It was the same as he had seen yesterday. White, slender, clean. Dust like yesterday was collected beneath its legs.

  He picked it up, and asked something that had been on his mind ever since he walked out of Professor Loch’s room. “Hey, did your former master have a trait as well?”

  “Yes. Own ability.”

  “Was that how it controlled you? The chain of light?”

  “Yes.”

  “Hmm.” Klein chose to stay quiet after that. As the dust settled back on the desk, the clouds wept. Klein laid back on his bed, and listened to pitter patter on his windows. It calmed his beating heart in a way he didn’t imagine it would. In a few minutes, he had fallen asleep.

  #