Sam stretched with a yawn. Evidently, even with his new and improved sleep quality, there was still a price to pay for being woken up earlier than he was used to.

  “Oh, come on.” Erianna wrinkled her nose at him. “Don’t give me that face. That was funny.”

  “It was alright. But you’ve gotta admit, the meta-jokes are getting stale at this point. And it’s not helped by the fact that I do genuinely want to get to the bottom of what brought you are. And, you know… why you? I mean, don’t get me wrong, covering why you want to be here is just as important as why I want you to be here—well, it isn’t for me, but it should be. And I wouldn’t have been willing to go along with you being my teacher if it was as a result of you being forced to do this. Jokes about spending time with me, notwithstanding. But, with all seriousness, we’ve been talking for quite some time already, and I’m still not totally convinced that this isn’t some prank on behalf of Farris.”

  “He wouldn’t do that. Not unless it was really obvious.”

  Sam tilted his head with a raise of his eyebrows. “And what does obvious look like? Doesn’t matter. If it isn’t, I’m sure he had his reasons for picking you to be my teacher. Just as I’m sure that those reasons don’t just end at nepotism and wanting to help out his favorite niece.”

  “Ugh.”

  “What? What’d I say?”

  “Sorry. Don’t mind me. Pavlovian response.”

  Sam stared at her for a couple of seconds before shaking his head. He couldn’t get dragged into the bottomless abyss that was that linguistic discussion. Any linguistic discussion, really. “Well, whatever it was, no offense meant. Truly. I’ve kinda managed to wind myself up somehow in the last minute. I didn’t mean to make it seem so grave and serious, but now I really do want to get to the bottom of this. I know we’re going to anyway, it’s just… Ah…” He bit his tongue with a grunt. “I need to make sure that I didn’t fuck up, am fucking up, by not going to Maynil.”

  Erianna raised an eyebrow. “And when exactly were you supposed to go to Maynil? Was it half a year ago, when you were thrust into a completely alien world and reality where the rules of nature as you knew them no longer applied? Yes, I know. You’re willing to give yourself an out for that. It doesn’t matter, right? You wouldn’t have been able to study threads anyway, so there wasn’t anything for you to find in Maynil. And the difference in the quality of education between New Point and the Royal Academy isn’t that meaningful. So obviously you should’ve stayed here, where you had your friends and support networks, people and institutions that knew how to best help you get acclimated and had your best interests at heart.

  “But hey, it’s been half a year since then, right? You’ve already acclimated to your new life in this new reality. Surely by now you can go study in Maynil. Just have to spend the next two… or is it three? years studying there. Alone. Away from all of your friends and support networks. You’d probably not be given as much attention and help as here. And the social environment would definitely be a little less friendly. But at least you could definitively say that you’ve picked the hardest road to walk on, yeah? So who cares if that road doesn’t get you as far as the one you’re currently on? At least you won’t feel guilty for taking it easy on yourself.”

  Sam clenched his jaw and narrowed his eyes to meet Erianna’s directly. The relaxed atmosphere of a few second ago was replaced by a tense silence as they both started at each other. She crossed her leg and arms; she wasn’t going to say something until he did. After a few more seconds, Sam had to break off the eye contact. With a small huff, he got up and turned to stare out of the window. Without looking, he bent down to grab his bottle and drank what little remained in it. He slowly laid it on his desk, making sure that it wouldn’t tilt and fall now that it was emptied.

  Finally, still standing, he turned back to Erianna and said, “You seem to know a lot about me. At the very least, you certainly seem to think that you do. And you might be right. About that and about everything you just said. And ordinarily I wouldn’t have had a problem taking such a comment with humor and discussing it in depth with sincerity. But I also know some stuff about you, or think I do. And from what I do, you don’t really have ground to… to judge me for thinking those thoughts.”

  Erianna laughed. It was a good laugh. One that managed to disarm the tautness of his muscles and gnashing of his teeth almost completely. It was the kind of laugh that he had let out plenty of times in the past; one aimed at oneself. A laugh that came out because you knew you weren’t perfect but also knew that you weren’t going to do anything about it. Still, he couldn’t let her off the hook just like that. She had struck too closely and deeply. It wasn’t that he was bothered by what she said or how she said it, nor was he bothered all that much by the personality of who said it. But he simply wasn’t comfortable having someone he had just met try to dissect him. And succeed.

  “What are you laughing at now?” he asked.

  “At the hypocrisy, Sam, at the hypocrisy.”

  “Come again?”

  “You’re right. I don’t have any ground for… I wasn’t really judging, so if it came out like that, I’m sorry. What I wanted to make clear was that, with or without me, there’s no logical reason for you to go to Maynil. That the only reason is emotional, irrational.”

  “I’d hardly say that’s the only reason,” Sam said as he sat back down. “And even if those thoughts are driven by emotion, they’re still built on a foundation of logic. There is a reason for me to go study in Maynil. The ultimate, most useful scenario for the Web is me studying at the Royal Academy while performing and… feeling, just as well as I would here.”

  “And the most useful scenario for the Web is me being able to dedicate all of my time to training because: One, I never need to rest. And two, everyone in the kingdom is united squarely behind my family’s vision for the war effort. But since neither of those things is true, I have to console myself with the best scenario for the Web in these circumstances. Coming here to get away from politics and spending less of my time training in order to help you train, thereby getting some rest as well.”

  “And training me is supposed to be restful for you?”

  “Certainly more than attending a state dinner, I promise you that. As for how it matches up to regular training? I guess we’ll have to wait and see.”

  “Ah ah… Wait and see what exactly? That if it isn’t, you’re still going to keep to that same old schedule despite it being harder on you?”

  Erianna smiled. “I got the slightest impression that I would be well within my rights repeating what you just said to me a few moments ago about not having a leg to stand.”

  “Maybe. I would be the first to admit that I’m a huge hypocrite. But then again, I was only trying to get back at you just now.”

  “That’s fair. I probably deserved it. But still, was I wrong?”

  “About the fact that it’s mostly guilt and self-reproach that makes me feel ill at ease staying here? No, you weren’t. But about the fact that, taking the real world into account, going to Maynil isn’t the optimal choice? That remains to be seen.”

  “Don’t worry, I’ll convince you of that before too long.” She scratched her head, sheepishly upturning her lower lip. “I really didn’t mean to come off as judgmental, you know. It wasn’t anything close to a criticism. I just wanted to show that I understand what you’re going through, where your thoughts might take you.”

  “Trying to strike a rapport, is that it?”

  “Exactly.” She snapped her fingers. “I wanted to cut through the ice. Skip the whole getting to know each other period. Like you and Farris did.”

  “I’m not sure me and Farris cut through the ice that fast. Nor am I sure that we really finished getting to know each other, at least for my knowing of him. But Farris’ icebreakers were probably helped by the fact that he didn’t know me as well as you seem to do. And…” Sam shook his head, letting that thought fade away.

  Erianna finished it for him. “That he didn’t let his own emotions and insecurities color his attempts at breaking the ice by making his ‘insightful’ comments seem more harsh than they were meant to be?”

  “Also, I was under the effect of magical emotional tranquilizers back then. It took a hell of a lot to get a rise out of me.”

  “I’m trying to be sincere and make a complete apology. You’re not helping.”

  “And I’m trying to be irreverent and distance myself from emotions and statements that make me feel uncomfortable. You’re also not helping.”

  “Just for that…” Erianna scrunched her face. “Just for that, I’ll show you emotions and statements that make you feel uncomfortable. And after we’re done with my sad story. We’re going to go over yours and you’re going to agree with me that, not only does it not matter whether you stay here or go studying in Maynil, but I’m also a great choice to teach you about threads.”

  “Ah… Just so you know, one of the reasons I reacted like I did was because… Well, it’s weird talking to someone I just met about stuff like this. Having them act like they know me and understand me. It’s doubly weird when it’s a person like you.”

  She nodded. “Then consider this leveling the playing field. After today you could say to yourself, ‘I think I know that Erianna chick pretty well, all things considered. Especially after meeting her for the first time just today. And wow! That story of hers. A real tearjerker! How could one so small carry such a burden? Feel so much sorrow? Be so brave?’”

  “Are we being serious or not? I’m so confused at this point.”

  “We are. But just because we’re serious, that doesn’t mean that we can’t crack a joke or two to lighten the mood. But anyway, back to my story and the point I was trying to illustrate. Two years ago, after I had finished my… secondary education, as you would call it, and before I embarked on the road which led me here today. I was considering my options of what and where and how to study. I had a sort of… emotional and logical dilemma similar to yours, but, funnily enough, the choice parallel to you going to study at the Royal Academy was me not doing that. Spoiler alert, I ended up doing just that, but at the time when I was considering my options, I saw that one as the easy way out.

  “You understand what I mean, right? It’s what everyone else does. It’s what my whole family did for generations. What every other magically talented Sarechi youth did or aspired to do. But, I wasn’t every other youth. I was the best of my generation, the best of any generation. So what if that’s what Farris did? He told me himself plenty of times that I was better than he was. And, I told myself even more times that I had to be better than he was… he is. So no, I couldn’t take the common road. Not if I wanted to push myself to the limit, not if I wanted to make the ultimate choice for the Web’s benefit.”

  She slowly exhaled and leaned back, eyes searching over the room. Sam gave her a couple of seconds before he prompted her to continue by asking, “So what were the other options?”

  “Well, theoretically, there were plenty of other options. For a comparable place to study, I could go to the Imperial or Inquisitorial institutes in Pyllan, like my cousin was planning to do. I could seek tutelage under the ningana system.”

  “But all of those were just comparable, weren’t they? The best option from each nation or so; not the best option for the best in the Web.”

  Erianna nodded. “In truth, I don’t actually believe there is a major difference between the education given by the different nations to their top-of-the-line talents. There is some minor difference, to be sure, mainly for the dwarves, but we’re all more or less working along the same lines, material and methods-wise. So maybe the ningani’s focus on individualized education and personalized curriculum is the most beneficial to the best and brightest; giving someone like us the best bang for our time. But the difference is negligible. Whatever we gain would’ve probably been overshadowed by the greater difficulty we had studying in a different environment than what we’re used to.”

  “And does that shadow also apply to you studying here? Your cousin studying at Pyllan? I know the difference isn’t negligible where I’m concerned. New Terra is missing a critical component when it comes to teaching Thread-Weavers.”

  “Namely having any?” She smiled. “Yes, you’re right. As far as you’re concerned, the difference isn’t negligible, without outside intervention, which we’ll get to. But it doesn’t matter, because me going to study in Nezak or Pyllan isn’t comparable to you going to study in Maynil but to you going to one of the other combat academies here on New Terra. As for me, we already went over what I have to gain by coming to study here. I promise you, if there is a shadow waiting for me between these walls, it will definitely be outweighed by the many sources of light. As for Marin… you’d have to ask him yourself, but I think he’s doing just fine.

  “But again, this doesn’t really matter, because we still haven’t gone over what was my alternative, right? What was better for the Web than me studying at the Royal Academy, learning and training as much as I already do?”

  She sighed, scratching her shoulder with a slightly embarrassed frown. “Does it still happen when you’re older? Looking back at who you were only a year or two before and wondering what you were thinking? How could you have been thinking that? What was wrong with you?”

  Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

  “And what’s wrong with you now?” Sam nodded. “Whether you’re going to look back on yourself in another year or two and think the same thing. It does. Also, I’m only two years older than you, princess. Don’t treat me like some great fount of wisdom. Taking into account the type of life you’ve led, you probably have just as many pearls as I do.”

  “So I don’t qualify for still being a kid jokes?” She asked with a pout.

  “You’re older than Sarah. Of course you don’t.”

  “Only by a month or so. Besides, how do you know when my birthday is?”

  “Don’t point that finger at me. It’s not my fault. I didn’t ask to be given this piece of information. It came up naturally during one of our many conversations that somehow managed to involve you in some shape or form. I was against your personal information being divulged, I assure you.”

  She gave him a quizzical look before chuckling. “Alright, we’ll circle back to this in a few. Time to pivot back to seriousness. I was talking about my eighteen-year-old self. My grand plans and ambitions. My idiotic convictions. All of them culminating in what I saw as the desirable alternative to going down the same road everyone before me had; the only path that would truly let me capitalize on my never-before-seen natural talents and truly do my duty for my kingdom and the Web.

  “Mind you, it isn’t what I really wanted to do, in so much as where my desires lay and how I would’ve wanted to spend those next three years if I hadn’t had that sense of duty driving me. I was planning to throw away the only year that me and Marin had to study together and, since it wasn’t clear to me that Yvessa was planning to study here at the time, the two years I had with her. Not to say that, from a pleasure seeking viewpoint, my alternative was completely parallel to yours. There were parts of me that truly wanted to take that other path. I wasn’t just driven by the fear and guilt that I wasn’t doing everything I could for the Web.”

  Sam furrowed his brow. “I don’t know whether to take what you said as complimentary or negative. I’m not really sure I fully understood that.”

  She sighed in frustration. “I’m trying to not be dogmatic about the similarities between you and me. By pointing out that if we took the mental and emotional aggregate of me choosing my alternative and you choosing to go to Maynil, I would come out ahead of you. It would still be negative. But a smaller number.”

  “Ah. I see. Your utilitarian formula was more obvious because you had to suffer less displeasure by making the choice that would’ve provided for the most utility overall.”

  She rolled her eyes. “Sure.”

  “And what the hell was that choice, your alternative? Are we just going to keep going in circles around it?”

  “It was to continue studying in much the same vein as I had up till then. Actually, even more so, because I was going to be taught completely privately. Before, I had still attended a school of sorts. Classes meant not necessarily to complement my private tutoring, but also to provide opportunities to work on my social skills. Well, that and sparring.”

  “So your plan was just to… do what I’m sort of doing right now? Have a Dan Ritter, or three, coach you on every aspect of magic?”

  “On every aspect of my studies period. Magic. Fighting. Magical fighting. Strategy. Logistics. Command. You get the picture. And it wouldn’t have been just one Dan Ritter or a few. It would’ve been a different tutor for almost every subject. Picking the best teachers available for each topic.”

  “OK… so far, I’m not really seeing the problem with this. Very inegalitarian, sure. Probably a waste of national resources. Maybe a little corrupt because, presumably, you’re not that much better than the next brightest young star and you’re obviously getting that special treatment because of your birth. But… so what? What’s the big deal?”

  “It isn’t just a little corrupt. It’s very corrupt. And very pretentious. I wasn’t trying to have the same schedule you have with Dan, but only with a more specialized teacher. I wanted to have every bit of my studying and training personalized and accounted for. We’re talking extending your middle of the day sessions with Dan to the entire day and the entire week. I wouldn’t have studied anything by myself. There would’ve always been someone by my side to help me if I needed, or up the pace if I didn’t.”

  “Hm… Alright, I see how that’s worse. But still, you come off sounding like an idiot. A brat. Obviously you aren’t, but where exactly do the similarities between you then and me now, lie?”

  “Seven days a week. The entire day.”

  Sam blinked. “I thought you were exaggerating.”

  “I wish. But no, that was the plan. Fully dedicate myself to my studying and my training. Only socialize with the people who weren’t teaching me when I had to eat and fight.”

  “And attend state dinners?”

  “Part of the benefits for that plan was that it would get me out of those kinds of obligations. Another mark for the difference in the… utilitarian formula.”

  “So what changed your mind?”

  “Time did. It took me a couple of months into the first year of at the Royal Academy to admit I was wrong and that my plan was dumb. When I saw how hard just the regular curriculum is. When I discovered that I couldn’t actually study and train seven days a week without any breaks. But mostly, when I saw the invisible difference between the education the noble students at the academy were given and the ‘regular’ students. Stuff ranging from lesser discipline and more personal attention to just having a better foundation to build upon.

  “And it all culminated when I asked one of my teachers to go over a few questions I had and she told me that she had a private lesson planned with… someone, but that she would be happy to cancel it if I wanted to. Which was really weird because earlier that same fucking day, at breakfast, the son of a crippled soldier who lost his arm at Shallenet, and who had only gotten in because of the scholarship I funded for the war-affected families on Yllantore when I was a younger and dumber—his words, not mine, besides the last bit.”

  She shook her head. “Anyway, he told me that he and a few other students had asked that teacher for some help. Something like half an hour after class to go over everything they weren’t sure about. She informed them that she wouldn’t be able to provide that sort of out-of-class assistance this semester and if they wanted to ask her a question, they could send her an email. I hadn’t even remembered that at the time I was asking her my questions, just wanted to make a few things clear after the class was over.

  “I don’t usually have trouble falling asleep, but that night it took me a couple of hours. I kept thinking of those two other students. And I kept coming back to the fact that I was more similar to that asshole than I was to any other ‘exempted students.’ If you don’t know, they’re exempted because they don’t fulfill the full qualifications that every student at the noble institute of the Royal Academy is meant to possess.

  “Don’t get me wrong. It wasn’t a new discovery for me that I was privileged, or that I had my life handed to me. Nor do I think that there’s anything wrong with someone like me being given special attention, in the many forms that I receive it. But it made me really realize that if my alternative plan would’ve gone to fruition, it wouldn’t have been because of who I was as a person, my talents and skills. But because I was a princess throwing a tantrum. I didn’t deserve all that much special attention. No one does.”

  Sam twisted his lips in thought. “Hm… I don’t know. It raises a lot of questions. Of personal worth and elitism and individual development. I certainly wouldn’t say that no one deserves that level of personal attention. Maybe you and I don’t, but there could be a theoretical individual who does.”

  “Don’t fool yourself into thinking that you’re getting as much personal attention as me, Sam. You really shouldn’t underestimate what being born into royalty does to the quality and quantity of attention you receive.”

  “But I bet that you didn’t have any royalty volunteering to be your personal tutors.”

  “I didn’t volunteer. And yes, I did. My uncle. The point is, you should never feel bad about the amount of special dispensations that you’re given. Because it will never amount to what I got. And since I don’t feel bad about mine, you shouldn’t feel bad as well. You deserve, at the very least, just as much as me.”

  “That remains to be seen.” Sam chuckled. “But why didn’t that alternative plan of yours come to fruition, anyway? If you didn’t change your mind?”

  “Real life did its job of preventing you from making a stupid decision. It wasn’t very practical at the end of the day. Politically, bureaucratically, emotionally, hell, even educationally. There is something to be gained by going to school, after all. My mother dissuaded me. My uncle laughed at me. My brother sat down with me and we wrote a list of pros and cons. And he had a lot of cons. They managed to convince me to back down before too long. But it still took those couple of months until I was sure that they were completely in the right.”

  “So in your analogy, what would be the pros and cons of you teaching me as opposed to me going to Maynil?”

  “Am I supposed to be your brother in this analogy?”

  “I’m just asking. Besides, haven’t you ever read a cultivation novel? We are… martial siblings or whatever, I don’t know.”

  “I haven’t, no. But you’re right. Let’s make a list of pros and cons. We don’t need to go over the cons, do we? We know what you stand to lose by studying here versus studying in Maynil. And since we know the cons for studying here, we also know the pros for studying in Maynil, yeah?”

  Sam nodded. “First, we have the assuaging of my feelings of guilt and self-reproach due to me taking the harder road and thus leaving no doubt in my mind that I’m doing giving enough of myself to fulfilling my duty. And that reason arises because if I want to maximize my benefits from being a Thread-Weaver, I should go to where they teach Thread-Weavers.”

  Erianna smiled. “Of course, this all rests on the assumption that there is something to be gained from going to study in Maynil, with all the other Thread-Weavers. And you know what? I think that there is. The optimal choice would be to go to the Royal Academy, if we’re talking solely about the perspective of your education as a Thread-Weaver. They have a whole program there. Different teachers for different subjects. Experience teaching. Purpose-made facilities. It’s definitely better than what any one person could teach you about threads, no matter who that person is. So, all that is left to answer is whether the pros of me teaching you are enough to outweigh, together with the cons of going to Maynil, the pros of going there.”

  “Wow!” Sam shot back in his sit. “I haven’t thought about it like that. But are you sure we shouldn’t go over the pros and cons of you coming here from your point of view first?”

  “Don’t be an ass,” she admonished him. “I’ve broken down my argument into two parts. One, why just the one teacher is good enough to teach you even though there’s a whole program at the Royal Academy. And two, why I’m a good choice to be that one teacher. The first is easy to explain, but I doubt you’ll be convinced of the reasoning until we actually start studying together.”

  “Doesn’t matter whether I’m convinced or not. I’m not going to Maynil. So I’m stuck with whomever the single teacher Farris sends me will be.”

  “Right, but the first part connects to the seconds, so allow me to start with it. In short, you’re not going to actually study all that much about threads. In fact, the program itself doesn’t teach you a whole lot about threads. To clarify, there is a difference between the amount of knowledge you’ll gain by studying under me and whomever Farris sends you next year, and what you’ll have learned at the Royal Academy. But it’s not that much. If everything goes according to plan, at least. And it’s especially not that much when compared to the actual breadth and depth of information that exists concerning threads.

  “But the main purpose of both the program, and me, isn’t to teach you about threads. We just need to teach you enough of the basics that you could make use of them now and in the future. There are plenty of Rulers who don’t know anything more about threads than what you will know in a year’s time. The main purpose is to train you in using threads, in the Threadsight. At the Royal academy, they have a different teacher for each aspect of that training. That makes for a better training regimen, certainly, but it’s also overkill. Any of one those teachers could, by themselves, give you the theoretical foundation you need for training in threads, and then guide you along the training without any problem.

  “That’s what Farris did for me. He had started teaching me about threads the day after I got to level 1. We started training not long after that. By the time I enrolled in the academy, I pretty much knew all that the program had to teach me. But I still had plenty of places to improve in my practice. Think of it as similar to fighting. You got to have the magical foundation, the physical foundation. That’s knowledge that you can only get by studying. But putting it into practice? Gotta fight. Gotta train.”

  “And you’re good enough to help me train?” Sam asked.

  “I am.” She nodded earnestly. “I’m knowledgeable enough about the basics to help you master them. Proceeding beyond that will probably take you more than a year, so you don’t have to worry about striking upon some theoretical subject with which I’m not fully comfortable. But in case you do, it’s theory. We can always ask Farris for help and advice. And as for the practice. I am good at what I do. Just like any one of your friends would be good enough to help you with your combat, so am I for helping you with using your Sight. Of course, I’m better at anyone my age at using the Sight, so the gap between me and one of the teachers at the Royal academy is smaller than the gap between, say Felix, and your spearfighting teacher.”

  “Alright… so you’re good enough. I’m not going to argue with that. But why you? At the end of the day, you are just that. Good enough. You’re incredibly talented for a twenty-year-old, don’t get me wrong. The four of us have been over that plenty of times. Level 4. Mastering so many subjects. Beating everyone else in a fight. I get it, you’re amazing. But you’re still not as good as one of those other teachers. Why did Farris send you and not them?”

  Erianna smirked. “Why, Sam Anders, you’ve been playing your cards close to your chest, I see. I wonder, what else do you know about me? How much more gossip did you and your friends trade concerning my royal person? Maybe the gap between our knowledge of each other is much smaller than you were letting on.”

  “Don’t get ahead of yourself.” Sam stifled a yawn, which, thankfully, came at just the right time. “We talk about a lot of people. You just happened to come up a few times because of your connection to Farris and Yvessa. Trust me, it’s not like we spent any time talking about the fact that you frequently come up or why that is. No way. It’s just… Yvessa likes to bring you up a lot. You’re like a joker for her. She can play you in many different circumstances in order to win the game.”

  “And you never even discussed what I looked like? That makes your ignorance even more rude.”

  “What would’ve been the point? To judge you aesthetically? That’s rude. Besides, I don’t see people as physical appearances, but concepts.”

  Erinna raised her eyebrow with a doubtful smile. “What the hell does that mean?”

  Sam waved her off. “Forget it. Just the stupid machination of my own mind.” When she didn’t relent her raised eyebrow, he said, “It’s sort of like I thought of you as: ‘best friend, niece, princess.’ Not what you looked like.”

  “What about what I act like?”

  “Sure, I’m currently working on fitting you into a mold. How about, ‘person who takes way too long to give a simple explanation and keeps changing the subject in order to avoid it.’ Oh! I know, how about—”

  She cleared her throat. “Fine, I get your point. Where were we?”

  “Why it’s reasonable for Farris to send me only the one teacher. Something that you didn’t really need to convince me of. Now, we’re only left with: why you?”

  She bit her lips. “Would it be inappropriate to respond with a joke about my reasons for coming here?”

  “Yes. The horse is already decomposed. If you keep avoiding it like this, I would start thinking that it involves something you’re not comfortable talking about.”

  “It’s not that… Well, it is also that. Alright, so we have the Farris reasons and the normal reasons. I’ll start with the latter. First, we’ve got everything we’ve covered up till now. I’m good enough to teach you, etcetera. Then, the fact that… we would probably mesh together well, as student and teacher, friends, whatever. We’re fairly similar. Not a lot of reason for us not to get along. That gets rid of the problem of making sure your teacher’s personality makes for a good match with yours.”

  “That sound like a Farris reason, if I’m being honest.”

  “They all are, at the end of the day. But these are the ones that make the most sense. That I could see a normal person thinking of.” She wrinkled her nose. “It’s not that the other ones are that insane. But… they’re definitely Farris.”

  Sam sighed. “Alright. Give it to me. I promise I won’t laugh or blush in embarrassment.”

  “Don’t make promises you can’t keep, friend. And isn’t that a good reason for accepting me as a teacher? Everyone could always use more friends, right?”

  “Not everyone.”

  “You, surely.”

  “I’ll have to think about that. Friend.”

  “Well, you will up gaining utility if we do end up becoming friends. The formula moves further my way. The other idiotic reasoning is that as Farris’ only other charge, I am the only one he trusts to teach you.”

  “Mentoring me remotely.”

  “Pretty much. Bestowing his own knowledge through me. Don’t look at me like that. I’m well aware of how that makes me and him sound. But… there is a nugget of sense in it. Not about us being the only two people worthy to suffer Farris’ attention, but us being incredibly similar to one another.”

  “Thread-Weaver with perfect pathways.” Sam pointed at himself. “Thread-Weaver with as close to perfect as natural selection allows.” He pointed at Erianna.

  She nodded. “And with the weight of all the whole Web’s expectations resting on our shoulders.”