Life moved on.

  They started meeting with Marshalla several times a week, whenever their schedules aligned. For now, the doctor focused on taking measurements and testing theories, saying it was much too soon to begin working on Niala's powers. In her words: “If you start building a house before you properly understand the plans, you'll end up with a ramshackle mess.”

  Their training with Leandro continued. David learned a new Azure Guard power, one that was reserved for officers or people with larger mana reserves: BATTERING RAM.

  It worked similarly to Tremor Step, but for the hands, and sometimes the head, if one was reckless enough. It was a wound-up punch or slap which concentrated all of the energy into a single point. Properly timed, it allowed someone to punch their way through reinforced doors, walls, boulders, and so on.

  David pointed out that he could already do that using Strong Arm, to which Leandro reminded him that it was because of his insane mana reserves. He could dump what would have been half the reserves of a normal guard into his Strong Arm, with the corresponding effect. Relatively speaking, Battering Ram was roughly three times as powerful as Strong Arm, although the extended activation sequence was very mana hungry.

  David had quirked an eyebrow at having heard “three times”, and had thrown himself into mastering the move, Leandro having warned him that the inexperienced often destroyed their own hands when using the imbuement the first time.

  A few days later, his mastery over the imbuement was declared sufficient, and he was allowed to test it properly.

  Obviously, he made sure to use about twice as much mana as he had been training the ability with so far.

  The Riverwall guards at the north gate reported hearing a sort of far-away explosion coming from the forest during their shift, and a flock of birds had been spotted fleeing through the tree tops in the distance.

  At the chapel, once the dust settled and their hearing returned, the trio stared at the result of David's battering ram. The boulder he had targeted had been cored, and the outer edge had crumbled in. The missing core had shattered and been turned into a supersonic scatter shot, which had shredded everything in a long, expanding cone about a hundred metres long.

  David had approved of the ability's power, while Leandro had kept staring for a while longer before letting his head hang.

  Niala had cheered on David and asked him to do it again, only to be stopped by Leandro, who called into question the boy's good sense. This was supposed to be a secret training area.

  For her part, Niala had focused on speed-weaving to be able to impart a story faster. Leandro had said that this was often the first trait Library weavers trained on, as no amount of power could save you if your enemy could slip a dagger into your guts before you'd had time to finish a single story.

  When asked if personal combat was something sanctioned weavers had to contend with often, Leandro had simply answered that weavers could become quite powerful, and with power often came the urge to use it. Many weavers willingly became agents of the crown, and for those who did, being able to dodge a blade was more than a convenience.

  In view of their recent experiences, and with how close a hostile blade had been to her neck, she couldn't disagree with the wisdom of it.

  They also brought out Leviathan, to see what the mana beast could do once in the physical world. With space to spare, David even played a bit loose with the amount of mana he used to create the breaking sphere, and a manor-sized Leviathan appeared over the training field, crushing a swathe of trees with his body.

  When David commented that, in his inner world, Leviathan was easily ten times as big, Leandro began questioning his life's choices.

  The beast's bulk and size were, in themselves, powerful abilities. If Levi could simply crush his opponent, why would he need anything else?

  Unfortunately, figuring out if the serpent had any innate power would take time. Still unaccustomed to the physical world, Leviathan had difficulties untangling what his senses were telling him; he felt like his body was a glove, and not his actual body, while outside of the inner world. They figured that, as the beast spent more time “outside”, this would pass.

  They did, by accident, find at least a part of an ability; whenever David would power his imbuements and “flame up”, Leviathan would begin emitting a soft blue glow himself, and reported feeling stronger and faster.

  Leandro came to the conclusion that, since the beast was David's mana, it made sense, in an unprecedented kind of way. imbuements worked by taking mana and imposing order upon it, through the runes. Leviathan being David's mana, if David's mana was changed by the runes, it stood to reason Leviathan would be changed as well.

  Niala frowned after listening to Leandro's explanation. “This kind of sounds as if imbuement runes work like weaving. They tell the mana a story.”

  Leandro smiled. “Because it is, girl.”

  “Really?! So David is doing weaving, too? But in a... more brutish, caveman style?” She asked, ears wiggling.

  “In a manner. Both methods impart a will, a purpose to mana, which is often understood to be pure potential energy. Weaving is done instinctively by the rare individuals who can. The process is not well understood; some think it is due to significant sensitivity to mana, others think it is from an impressive will, the ability to impose it upon the world.”

  The large man pointed at himself. “In my case, and anyone who has runes engraved upon their body, it is as you said; a more primitive, limited way to do the same. The advantage is obviously that it can be artificially imparted to an individual. The downside is that it is not nearly as efficient with mana as weaving is, although arcanosurgeons are continuously refining the runes, and from what I can tell, modern imbuements are much more efficient than old ones.”

  Leandro pointed at David. “In your lover's case, none of this matters, since he can simply crush the mana into submission. Even if he was awful at mana manipulation and could only get a single percent of it through the runes, he could still out-power anyone.” He said, sighing.

  Niala's tail swished as she looked at her boyfriend, and then back at Leandro. “But he is efficient, isn't he? He has great control over his mana.”

  “He is, infuriatingly so. Some would even call it unfair, as he not only has an unending amount of mana, but he can wield it with all the finesse of a master seamstress's needlework.”

  David squinted. “I'm not a seamstress. Would never have the patience for it.”

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  Leandro quirked a brow. “...no, you would not, would you? Perhaps the dexterity of a skilled butcher deftly carving a carcass would be more appropriate for you.”

  David nodded. “That's-” He stopped. “That sounds brutal.”

  “Delicate brutality. Yes, an appropriate description of your skills.” Leandro confirmed.

  Suppressed chuckles erupted beside David. He turned to see Niala with puffed-up cheeks, doing her best to hold her laughter in.

  David stared at her, eventually slumping. “Fine, go ahead. What just ran through your head?”

  Niala reined in her mirth as best she could. “I- pfft. You, trying to make a dress for a pig! Ha! But you get annoyed and- and you start punching the pig instead!” She managed to say before guffawing uncontrollably.

  From the corner of his eye, he saw Leandro's mouth tug upward. David sighed and looked up at Leviathan, who had been observing the scene.

  “At least I have your respect, Levi.”

  The serpent stared at him.

  “...Right?” David asked.

  The stare did not go away.

  With doubt creeping into his voice, David asked once more. “Right, Leviathan? You respect me? You don't think I'm a brute?”

  “There is nothing shameful about being a brute, my Lord.”

  Niala's laughter redoubled, while David let his arms hang, no words coming to his lips.

  With a wide smile, Leandro walked up to him and slammed a hand over his shoulder. “Boy, I will tell you a secret. The path to happiness is in accepting who you are.”

  He turned a pouting face toward the large man. “I'm not a brute. I have smarts, and thoughtfulness, and critical thinking.”

  Leandro nodded. “Indeed, you do, boy. You simply have the brutish version of these traits. Nothing more to it.”

  David glared at his mentor before brushing the hand off his shoulder and stomping away.

  “Boy, where are you going?” Leandro asked.

  “I'm going to train, alone.” He shouted over his shoulder.

  “And this training, did it involve punching trees?” The large man called out.

  David stumbled over his own feet, barely staying upright, and kept walking away.

  Besides training with Leandro, researching their conditions with Marshalla, helping run Niala's shop and completing courier postings, David had one last major occupation, which was finally about to bear fruit.

  It had been a few weeks since he had put up postings to find staff for the Old Woman Brewery, and following a string of interviews, he finally had enough staff to begin operations.

  Niala still refused to get too involved with the whole process, but that was ok. This empire would be his gift to her. A legacy that would outlive them both. He had at least gotten the exact formula for the brew out of her, and he'd hurried to order thousands of copies from the Riverwall newspaper, which also doubled as a printer for local needs.

  He walked into the small workshop that sat next to the warehouse.

  Within, he found the new overseer, Armand, directing the half dozen “packers” as they practiced getting the herb ratios right.

  An older man who had become jobless after his previous employer died, and their heir had sold the business, he had come recommended by his brother Luke as a dedicated and professional individual, whose only weakness was a lack of initiative.

  There were eleven other employees present; six packers, who would be partitioning the herbs into bulk container and tea packets, a driver for the transport auto-car, a helper for the driver, two warehouse workers who would do double duty as shipping staff, and, perhaps the most important member, a maintenance worker, to both clean the installations and maintain the simple pieces of machinery that David had ordered to help prepare the herbs and fill the tea packets.

  In time, as the empire grew, he would invest in magitech machinery that would speed up every part of the process, but, for now, these manual machines would do.

  Before any of this could happen, however, there was one crucial step.

  He cleared his throat. “Everyone, please, your attention?” He called out.

  The twelve employee stopped what they were doing and looked up at their new boss.

  David nodded and smiled. “Thank you. As you know, this company is called the Old Woman Brewery. I did not explain to you what the name meant.”

  He moved over to a table where he unfurled a cargo cloth and retrieved from it a mana burner, a kettle, water, and twelve mugs and sets of old woman herb packets. He filled the kettle and set it over the mana burner, turning toward his employees.

  “Old Woman is the name of the product. It is made from the herbs stored next door, the same ones you have been practising with. Today, you will acquire the taste for an Old Woman. Only then will you understand that this is not simply a job.”

  He let his gaze roll over all presents. He could see quite a few uncertain eyes looking back at him. Of course, they were uncertain; they didn't yet know. He smiled as the kettle began whistling.

  “I will prepare you a mug of old woman. You will take it, and you will take two sips from it. The first sip will be very bitter. That is normal. Take the second sip, and all will be revealed to you.”

  A quarter bell later, the staff of the Old Woman Brewery had all acquired the taste, and they understood what David had meant.

  The packers inspected the herbs with rigour, rejecting the weaker specimens. They read the scale's numbers with attention, making doubly sure they had the right proportions. They moved their hands with precision, packing the small casks and packets with the exact ratios of herbs.

  The shippers identified each crate and cask, making sure to include the recipe sheets, and using the red paint rollers over the stencils to brand the packages with the old woman's logo.

  Armand walked around, observing the work being done, and tallying up the goods being loaded into the transport auto-car, each one adorned by the red visage of grandmotherly catkin that looked suspiciously like an older Niala.

  Within a few days, the transport was packed up, and the driver and assistant boarded, driving out and toward the direction of Bellharbour.

  There, Luke waited for the first shipment of what his adopted brother had assured him would be “a revolution.” He would offer free samples to the local inns, taverns and restaurants, just as David had done in Riverwall.

  After that, it would only be a matter of time.

  Soon, everyone would acquire the taste.