Meriel kept his gaze on the graves of everyone he'd ever known, battling with the feelings crawling up from deep inside. Both of his parents were there in one big grave with enough space for both of them. His siblings weren't in the same location, but he found them after some searching and some answers from the gravekeeper.

  They had their own families and were buried next to them. Their whole lives, gone by while he sat in that damn spell. He could barely sleep last night, thinking on it. Meriel had missed his siblings having children, marrying, and he also missed most of his nieces and nephews. His sister had three children. His brother had two. Meriel could barely recall who the people his siblings married were, but he was happy to see that his sister married the man she was seeing the last time he saw her.

  "So, these are your parents, Mr. Meriel?" Mary asked silently, standing at Meriel's side. She looked very solemn ever since they arrived at the graveyard, and visiting Meriel's former family seemed to make the emotions even greater.

  "They were, yes. I missed their passing." He stood up, looking at Mary who looked as if she hadn't slept at all. Meriel supposed that it probably wasn't far from the truth. She seemed very scared of Ziggy, and any attempts at calming her proved ineffective, either to a smaller or greater measure. But even though her obvious sleep deprivation showed, she seemed happy and full of energy just like yesterday.

  She seemed as ravenous as Meriel was as well, which made them connect in their own strange way. He ruffled her hair, though it was so messy that it didn't even seem to affect her in any visible way, and then flicked his fingers, cast a short incantation, and re-lit the candles on his parents' graves. There weren't a lot, though that part was unsurprising. The day of mourning was quite a while ago since it usually happened in the spring.

  It was ironic that Meriel could remember every detail about some event like that but failed to recollect the picture of his siblings' faces. Sighing, he turned away from the candle and stepped forward. "Shall we go, Mary?" he said, aiming toward the graveyard exit, but a soft tug at his sleeve stopped him.

  He looked at Mary, and she seemed a bit hesitant about something, shuffling on her feet. Was she afraid of the dragon still? Or was it perhaps something completely different?

  "What is it, Mary?" he asked—not accusing, but in a friendly manner. "Is everything alright?"

  "I wanted to ask if we could visit my parents. And my friend’s grave as well," she muttered, barely audible.

  "Ah, right." He hadn't even considered visiting her parents' graves. He was the only person he'd muttered to in his mind for decades now, so the needs of others didn't come to him as naturally. He nodded. "Of course. Can you lead the way?"

  Mary lit up at his confirmation and started walking away in the other direction from the entrance. Meriel still didn't ask what happened to her parents, but it wasn't hard to imagine. As Delvers, people could die in a huge number of ways, most of them not pleasant, and he didn't want to make her recollect some possibly painful memories.

  Them being delvers had one advantage, however: his third eye told him that Mary was magically gifted. Probably a gene passed from one of her parents or maybe even both of them. He never had an apprentice before, not in truth. Yes, he did teach a mage here or there how to cast a certain spell, but never something to this extent.

  Truth be told, he even felt excited about the prospect himself. No matter how much he knew a lot of spells and wanted to pass them on, he also created a whole new pool of magic, and judging by what little information Mary herself had, most of the magic he knew was now not taught in the Academy either.

  He did tell her about him being a legendary mage, of course. Hard to hide that when a dragon was on his side.

  He would enter them both into learning, of course. Ziggy could learn too. He seemed proficient enough, after all.

  He needed to find out as much as he could and maybe this new spell-sword type of magic could be used in some kind of useful way as well. Though he couldn't imagine how tying your magical skills to an item could be more useful than casting them yourself.

  Maybe they used them as a catalyst somehow instead of the mana heart? That could certainly explain some things. The only advantage he could see at this point, however, was the fact that a spell-sword, as much as he understood it, would not require anything other than the third eye.

  There would be no mana heart manipulation skills, no imprinting of the spells on the soul. Would the system even register them properly? All of it was just brute forcing.

  But perhaps there was more to it—could there be a spell that didn't exist in his own era?

  As he thought about all these things, he found himself stopping at two graves much less ornate than the ones he'd been at minutes before. Mary watched them like a ghost. It didn't escape Meriel's gaze how her hands were closed in two fists, white from clenching them.

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  "You okay?" Meriel asked uncertainly. He wasn't a totally unsociable person before, so he was used to situations like these. It was hard to avoid loss when one did such a dangerous job such as delving, after all. Now, though, after so many years, he found the words hard to find more often than not.

  When Mary didn't answer back, however, he did the only thing that felt right. He stepped closer and hugged her. He wrapped his arm around her shoulders and felt her lean in, her body shaking with quiet sobs.

  There were no candles on Mary's barren graves, though that much was to be expected. Meriel did the next best thing, levitating one of the candles from a grave not far away, softly putting it on the grave, and then he lit it up with a [Spark] spell.

  He wasn't sure if Mary finally let go of her feelings or his display of magic helped a little, but she stopped shaking and just watched silently.

  Finally, she turned away from the graves, letting out one last sniffle, and started walking away. Meriel followed wordlessly.

  They walked through the streets, Mary once again leading them home. He tried not to overanalyze every change he could see. That mostly meant that he looked at the ground, almost suspiciously, but it helped him in calming his nerves.

  The removal of the academy towers was a huge change—the city of Mura was mostly known for them in his age, and now they were just gone. Strangely, everyone seemed to recognize the magic academy as something of importance still, so maybe they just removed the towers and this didn't change much else.

  He carried this notion with him as they neared the center of the city where the academy was supposed to be. Finally, Mary stopped, and Meriel looked up from the ground.

  The building looked very different from what he had remembered. While before it had colorful windows all over the majestic walls, huge towers that symbolized the elegance of mana and its intricacies, now it was just pure rock, without a smidge of artfulness.

  There were some windows, yes, but the building was nothing like the one he remembered. There were watchtowers instead of the high spires that were there before, with several people looking down on the citizens below.

  Four guards and two spell-swords guarded the gate inside, and he quickly analyzed them, finding their mana manipulation to be very insignificant if it was there at all. It barely felt like their mana hearts were taking in the ambient mana, but it was swooping towards their swords a bit more.

  "This is it? Are you sure?" he asked Mary. Confusion and shock intertwining and coloring his voice.

  "I'm an orphan, not an idiot," Mary replied with a cheeky grin on her face. "This is where all the smart kids go and study books and magic!”

  "I do not know what they require of us to get enrolled, but it will probably be the first step. We’ll go get written down and hopefully study here, but," he emphasized the words, "this is a big but, Mary, so listen."

  "Yeah, I got that already," she said, waiting eagerly.

  "I will also teach you at home. I also want to teach Ziggy a little more. He always just ignored me back when…well, doesn't matter back when, but he has a tendency to ignore me.” He shook his head, trying to think of anything but the cave. “Maybe having a new apprentice at his side will make him a little more studious."

  He wasn't always ignoring Meriel; truly, Meriel just didn't really think of teaching him. He didn't consider much of the possibilities outside the cave, but now he realized it was a mistake. Ziggy had a mana heart, and a powerful one at that. Surely he'd be able to give even Meriel a run for his money if the black dragon Meriel killed was anything to go by.

  Sighing, Meriel swallowed and approached the guards guarding the academy, trying his best to put on a friendly face.

  "Greetings, gentlemen! I would like to inquire: Is it possible to go inside?" He didn't know at which one to look, and so his eyes travelled from one of the soldiers to another. The ones who stepped forward, however, were two spell-swords holding the pommels of their weapons with one hand, inspecting Meriel and Mary.

  "We can help you, sure! What do you want?" they asked. It appeared that the spell-swords didn't really like people intruding on their territory, and the glances that passersby gave Meriel told him that what they were doing was not a common act.

  "I wanted to ask if it's possible to enroll into the academy? I have just arrived in this city, and I believe me and my sister have some magical talents."

  One of the guards chuckled and both spell-swords just shook their heads. One of them put his hand on Meriel's shoulder and looked him in the eye. "Look, lad, I won't lie to you. You're not the first or the last to try to say something like that to get into the academy. Are you absolutely sure? You have some magical talents? You know what the sword saint has said?"

  Sword saint? He didn't even know who they were. Perhaps it was some new legend that arose ever since he ended up in the Azbokeus dungeon? There was once again no use telling the spell-swords about it though.

  "I am absolutely certain that I’m a mage. May I speak to someone who enrolls people?"

  The spell-sword just rolled his eyes, but didn't protest any longer, and instead slightly pulled on Meriel, pushing him inwards to the academy.

  "Okay, okay, let me take you to the department head. They will let you know all the information. Be warned though," he continued, "that they are usually quite full and probably won't entertain you if you suddenly forget how to show your magic."

  Meriel bit on his cheek as he ignored the insults. Was civilization always this rude? Mary and Viera were basically the only pleasant conversations he'd had since returning to humanity.

  The big door to the academy swung open, revealing the rocky hall inside, and Meriel was once again reminded how he didn't recognize this place at all. Was this seriously the same place he visited when he was a teenager? It was truly strange.

  There still was the one turn towards the cafeteria he remembered, but the walls were completely lacking the paintings that made them seem so alive. The beautiful chandeliers were replaced by candles embedded into the walls.

  He didn't like this, and that's why he needed to find out more.

  "Let's go, Mary," he said, gently grabbing onto her shoulder and walking behind the guard.

  See you tomorrow!