“One,” Sam said. “Three. No, four, you’ve raised one on your other hand.”

  He sensed Erianna nodding. “Which finger was it?”

  Sam tried to concentrate, narrowing his already closed eyes as though it was going to help him discern which of the tiny threads on each of Erianna’s left fingers was positioned differently from the rest. A few seconds more brought with them the usual headache from the spillage of information into his brain, and just from general fatigue of using the Sight. He shrugged. “Couldn’t really make it out. Maybe thumb?”

  “Close, it was the index finger.”

  “Dammit.”

  “You can open your eyes.” Erianna smiled. “That was really good.”

  “Tsk. Yeah, but I could’ve paid more attention when you showed me the threads instead of just focusing on their general structure. Forest for the trees, I guess.”

  “Don’t worry too much about it. This is why we’re practicing.” When she saw that Sam still wasn’t completely mollified, she lightly kicked him in the shin. “This is literately the only way to learn, you crybaby. If you don’t fail, how the fuck do you expect to get better?”

  “Alright, alright already. Sheesh.” Sam massaged his wounded leg. “I thought we didn’t believe in corporal punishment.”

  “This wasn’t corporal punishment. This was positive physical reinforcement. As in, I’m physically reinforcing you to be more positive.”

  “Ah…” Sam yawned as he stretched upwards. “That’s good, I’m going to borrow it. Pass me the water, will you?” Erianna handed him his new steel bottle, and he drank a few handfuls before laying it by his side. “Go again?” he asked.

  “In a few minutes. Let’s have some threadcraft first.” She opened up her leather-bound book, written in pre-modern Sarechi lettering and embossed and with all manner of ornate and golden calligraphy.

  “I really don’t like this book,” Sam said.

  “I know, you don’t have to keep saying it. I don’t either, but it’s from the palace library, so I didn’t have to go through anyone to borrow it.”

  “So when’s Farris sending the next batch of books?”

  Erianna raised an eyebrow as she smiled wryly. “Ah, now I see why you kept bringing this up. You just wanted a clever way to ask about your progress and where we’re at…” She smacked her lips. “No can do, Sam. I promised Farris I’ll let him update you on this.”

  “Oh well, it was worth a try.”

  “You still think it’s a shitty book, right?”

  “Oh definitely. Don’t get me wrong, it looks amazing. But it’s awful to use. Then again, I’m not completely blameless in treating books as mere ornaments. I bought beautiful hardcovers of all the main books in the Middle Earth saga but haven’t read them once. I mean, even The Hobbit isn’t a small book. So much easier to just read on a Kindle, you know?”

  Erianna nodded. “Unfortunately, so far no one has updated any of the physical books on training Thread-Weavers into electronic format. Awful, I know. But what can you do?”

  “Well, we can look up where does your royal immunity from litigation falls when it comes to breaking copyright laws.”

  Erianna laughed. “It’s not copyright we need to be worried about. But military censoring. Now, I want you to find the category of these four threads.”

  “Only category?”

  “First do that, then we’ll see if you can find the sub-category.”

  Sam’s gaze narrowed as he focused on the four illustrations scattered across fourteen pages. The left one took up eight entire pages, and it seemed very familiar. So familiar that Sam felt memories flowing up, reminding him of times when he had seen this type of thread, or a type very similar. The other three, Sam only recognized based on their common factors, but it was enough to realize that they were indeed part of the same category as the left thread.

  He pursed his lips as licked his teeth as his mind continued churning in thought. Almost a minute passed before he realized what it was. “Got it! It’s portals.”

  “That’s not a category.”

  “Tsk. Dammit, what was that name… Ah! Web-Void Foundations.”

  “Correct. The left one is the unbroken-down thread of an active portal. The right three, I doubt you’re going to get.”

  Sam looked at them for a few more moments before he decided to give up. “Nope.”

  “Alteration of exit point by natural behavior.” Erianna pointed at one. “The same but due to actions of a Ruler. And, the signifier of how long it’s been since the portal was modified in any way.”

  Sam looked closer at the illustrations, trying to glean the information from them as though they were real threads. “So the latter three are all part of the first one?”

  “Nope. They exist independently, although they can be found consolidated in another thread. Can you tell me why?”

  Sam thought about it for a few seconds, then nodded. “The first thread describes a connection between the world and the void, or between the interaction of those two and the Web. The others only describe interactions that have to do with the portal itself.”

  “Correct. The entire thread for a portal as a whole is too big and complex to fit in a book. This book, at least.”

  “Hm… Fancy a school trip to see the portals, then?”

  “Trust me, you’ll just get a headache if you look at them. I still do.”

  “Oh, well. I still need to go see them, regardless. Gotta find out what my magic color is.”

  Erianna raised her eyebrows. “You still don’t know?”

  “It’s not like there are a lot of opportunities in day-to-day life to see externalized magic, are there?”

  “Not for most people, no. But you can ask Farris to show you something. It does transfer through.”

  “Huh, really. I assumed that it would be somewhat distorted. Hm… I’ll see whether to ask him or keep myself in suspense. What’s your color?”

  “Blue.”

  “Blue, really? But you’re an elf.”

  “Yes but I’m royalty. And blue is the color of the monarchy. In any case, it’s not rocket science, as you well know. It’s down to a bunch of random factors that don’t have to make any logical sense.”

  “Yeah, well, I’m willing to bet my color will be purple.”

  “What makes you think that?”

  “I’ll tell you if I’m right.”

  Erianna upturned her hands with a shrug. “You do you. Now, back to training, close your eyes…”

  It was lucky that Dan’s office was heavily air-conditioned because otherwise, beads of sweat would’ve been falling down Sam’s forehead. As it was, the hammering of his heart and the clenching of his hands and teeth were the only physical discomforts that he had to contend with. Mentally-wise, was a different story. He had to keep himself focused and keep his pace steady and calm as he started on the last line of the pattern.

  Tracing an artificial pathway at an almost glacial pace, he had to continuously keep the other conditional parts of the imprint active by drawing magic to them—which, unfortunately for him, still meant some pure tracing—while supplying just the right amount of energy to the ongoing imprinting tracing so that it wouldn’t stray from its direction and maintain the same structure that Sam needed it to be.

  He had to force himself to release a breath that he had been holding for way too long and redoubled his efforts to shut out the outside world and his own blaring heart. Finally, after what felt like hours, his tracing drew to the final point of the pattern, and all he had to do to finish the imprint was trace fully through it and confirm that it worked. Which it hadn’t the last two times he tried to imprint this pattern. But it won’t this time, he thought as he held his focus steady and started tracing. He imprinted the pattern almost perfectly; it was bound to work.

  And it did. Unlike the first time he finished the imprint, the pattern didn’t shut off after completing a loop with no effect (due to a multitude of problems that, among others, prevented the continuous trigger from activating). And unlike the second time, the resistance of the pattern wasn’t outrageously greater than that in his natural pathways. He had done it.

  With a heavy exhale, a leaned back and opened his eyes, wiping his dry forehead before closing his eyes again and taking a deep breath. “So?” Dan asked.

  “I did it.” Sam smiled.

  “You sure?”

  “I reckon keeping it active will cost roughly about… a little less than a fifth of my passive gathering. That’s pretty damn good, isn’t it?”

  Dan nodded. “Very good. Hopefully, the effect of the pattern will prove just as good. We have the baseline from your body’s self-nourishing in the last two weeks. Let’s have Maurice test you tomorrow and two more times in the next two weeks. That’ll show us how efficient the pattern ended up being.”

  “Well I for one feel it’s good enough to last me to the next year or so.”

  “Probably, and I wouldn’t want you to need to spend anymore time imprinting it. But we just have to make sure, right?”

  Sam nodded with a sigh. “Sometimes I feel envious of the regular people who just have to make do with hoping that they’ve imprinted well and don’t have to worry too much about re-imprinting a pattern a dozen times.”

  “The most you’ve had to re-imprint to this day is seven times. And that was for training purposes.”

  “Yeah well… God, I need water.” Sam finished the rest of his lukewarm water in one gulp.

  “I’ll get you some more.” Dan grabbed Sam’s glass and his own cup and returned a minute later with both containers representing the two temperature extremes of the liquid.

  “Thanks.” Sam took the glass and slowly sipped the almost freezing water. He clapped his hands, which were trembling a bit too much for his liking, and said, “So how many more patterns that does leave us?”

  The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

  “None critical. But we still have time and reason to work on imprinting more patterns. Another one for recovery, one or two for passive gathering, maybe a small one for more nourishment. And we can also start making preparations for more complex patterns.”

  “But the important thing is that as of today, I’m pretty much feature complete.”

  “If you want to look at it that way, yes.”

  “I do. Now all I need to do is go back to the grind with the knowledge that I’m safe to train without losing any possible progress due to inefficiency with my body.”

  Dan nodded. “Hm… Right you are, I suppose. Of course, you can always be more efficient.”

  “Eh. The utility I gain from being more efficient is pocket change compared to the utility I lose from being inefficient. I’m a risk-averse kind of human if there ever was one.”

  “Alright, far be it from me to provide opportunities for you to be inefficient. Shall we stop talking and go back to practicing your imprinting?”

  Sam sighed but still gave a reluctant nod. Thankfully, the rest of the imprinting practice didn’t take too long, and since it was just working on the foundational tracings and their additions, it wasn’t anywhere as hard as the imprinting Sam had just gone through. And once they finished with that, Dan had him go back to practicing the new cultivation techniques that were supposed to supplement his now good enough to be permanent, advanced cultivation method.

  It was nothing too hard, not compared to the new method itself, which took almost a month and a half of constant training with Dan until Sam could truthfully say that it had passed his old pre-level 1 method in utility. But there were a lot of them, and you had to pick and choose depending on which one suited you better, something that very frequently changed from day to day. So you had to master them all more or less, even more so because they were all, in some form or another, part of future, more advanced cultivation methods.

  So as the lesson drew to a close and Sam left Dan’s office, he was pretty much drained, which was very unfortunate since he was forced to start training twice daily this week. Farris had finally set down the verdict on the matter and declared that Sam couldn’t afford to not strengthen his physical body as much as possible. Which is why managing to imprint today’s pattern was so important. A good change to round out this week with.

  He started heading for the mess hall, nodding to two members of the faculty who passed his way and with whom he was familiar. He hadn’t joined the rest of the student body’s classes in any subject but physical combat yet, but Dan had sent him to be privately tutored by some other teachers. One of the two he had just passed had taught him four lessons on more esoteric tracings, and the other, with whom he met much more regularly, was his teacher on any subjects that had to do with military science and his duties as an officer.

  Up until now, Sam had only been reading from the textbooks, but Dan felt it prudent to supplement that with some verbal instructions as well. Sam couldn’t say he disagreed or that he minded. He had a lot of questions to ask, and the discussions he had in those lessons were more often than not both fascinating and relevant (or so he felt) to his future.

  Now if he could only get Erianna to back off from her idiotic venture for the next trimester. He couldn’t go back on his word, and he promised her that he’d join her for one of her chosen electives if he possessed the prerequisite knowledge to take it. But why did she have to choose that bloody course of all things? He blamed Sarah’s bad influence. She was opening the princess to too many new ways of thought, and not the right ones.

  All of a sudden he felt a sensation almost like a shiver running through his mind. Quickly recognizing it for what it was, he turned on his Sight and followed the threads he knew were going to be there until he saw Erianna coming up behind him with a smile. “Very well done,” she said and put the artifact that allowed her to simulate trying to unravel Sam’s threads back in her pocket. “You’re getting quicker.”

  Sam shut off his Sight. “You’ve been doing this almost every day, and more than once a day, for the last month. I’m this close to developing a Pavlovian response.”

  “Good, that’s exactly what we want. The moment you feel someone tampering with your threads, you open your Sight. It should be instinctual.”

  “You’ve said it before, but I can’t help thinking that it could also be used against me—as some sort of trap.”

  Erianna shrugged. “Theoretically. But the only ones who could lay a trap like that for you are also strong enough to kill you without needing to do something so convoluted. And the same goes for Rulers. Looking at a Chosen isn’t the smartest thing to do in combat, but… if you’re staring down a Chosen…”

  “Yeah, I get it.”

  “Besides, responding instinctively to intrusions on your threads is only the first step of the training. You’ll also be able to recognize intent, somewhat at least, and even who or what did that. Again, instinctively. And of course, the most important of all, when people try and discern your threads, that’s the bit that’s most relevant to us. Not to mention that, this training helps you to become more experienced with the Sight overall.”

  “I said I got it, didn’t I?”

  Erianna wrinkled her nose. “Your words don’t mean all that much lately.”

  Sam grumbled. “I’ll already said that I’ll sign up if you will. That doesn’t mean that I can’t try and change your mind. Not when your mind is made up of stupid.”

  She laughed. “Try as you might, you’re not changing it. I think this will be good for you. Educational.”

  “Wow, not only stupid but also naive.” He dodged her fist. “In other more important news. I finished my imprinting!”

  “Nice, how did it end up?”

  “Pretty damn good. Resistance close to perfect. Pattern capacity and core capacity are pretty great as well. We just have to wait and see whether the efficiency is also something to be proud of.”

  “If you managed the other three, and the pattern works, I’d wager that it is.”

  Sam shrugged. “It never hurts to over-worry and not be sure of yourself.”

  “Yes, it does.”

  “Oh right. Yeah, I was thinking of carrying an umbrella in your backpack if you have enough space.”

  “Oddly specific.”

  They entered the mess hall and, after picking their food, made their way to join their friends. Sarah was running late, but Felix and Yvessa were already there, talking animatedly. “Hey.” Felix nodded as they sat down but went back to speaking with Yvessa. “What about a junction near the center? That should improve overall connectivity.”

  Yvessa pursed her lips in thought. “It could, if you imprinted it right, but it does add an extra layer of difficulty. And we need to take into account the overall complexity with all the other parts.”

  “I guess they’re still working on that pattern assignment,” Sam whispered to Erianna.

  “I know, I’m just as surprised as you are. They still have thirty or so hours until they have to hand it in.” She smirked. “That’s practically next week.”

  “We can hear you, you know.” Felix frowned.

  “Really? You can? Good for you, Felix!”

  He rolled his eyes. “I get it. We’ll stop talking about this at dinner.”

  “I didn’t say anything.”

  “Yeah,” Sam said, “and her point was for you to stop talking about it at any of the next four possible meals we might eat together.”

  “Fine, fine.” Felix raised his hands. But it was clear that both his and Yvessa’s minds were still on their assignment as they just focused silently on their plates with their brows furrowed.

  “You know…” Sam said. “I know that I’m in love with my own voice and all that. But I do kind of miss hearing them talk.”

  “It’s either this or hearing them go back and forth on the same point over and over,” Erianna said.

  “You could help if you want,” Yvessa said. “Both of you.”

  “I couldn’t possibly help. That would be unfair. Having an older student aiding you? That’s practically cheating.”

  “And I can’t help because I’m still too damn ignorant to be of any,” Sam said. “That being said, a junction at the center is a dumb idea considering your overall design philosophy for this pattern. You’d be much better served by using two pivots and leaving space for the appropriate intervals whose exact details could be modified by the imprinting person’s aptitudes and preferences.”

  Felix nodded placidly before furrowing his brows and exchanging a confused look with Yvessa. “What the hell? Why the fuck is he right?” He turned to Sam. “Why the fuck are you right?”

  Sam shrugged. “I don’t know what to tell you.”

  “Did you two talk about this?” Yvessa asked Erianna.

  Erianna laughed. “Not at all. Somehow, our academic-adjacent conversations have managed to stay mostly relevant to what I’m supposed to teach Sam.” She gave Sam an appraising look. “And we’re pretty far from connecting threads to other aspects of magic.”

  Felix shook his head. “I’m not buying it. There’s no way that you”—he pointed at Sam—“would come up with this idea out of nowhere.” He looked up at Sarah, who was sitting down to join them. “Did Sam talk to you about our pattern design assignment?”

  “No… Why?”

  Felix gnashed his teeth. “How do I say this…”

  “Sam came up with a better idea of how to design their pattern than they did,” Erianna said.

  “Really?” Sarah exclaimed. “Good for you, Sam.”

  “What do you mean good for him?!” Felix frowned. “What does this make of us if someone who has only been studying this stuff for less than a year can give us advice?”

  “In good company.” Sam nodded sagely.

  Yvessa chuckled. “Seriously, Sam, did you just come up with this?”

  “It wasn’t off the cuff, if that’s what you mean. You guys have been constantly talking about this pattern for the last week, which made it hard to avoid thinking about it in my spare time. And I have been reading a lot of pattern theory lately, since I can’t get back to the practical bits until I improve in my imprinting. In my free time, you know.”

  “You don’t have any free time,” Erianna said.

  “I meant in the time that I’ve freed up for myself by finishing other subjects.

  “Oh great,” Felix moaned. “That makes it better. Goddamnit, we’re going to have to use his suggestion, aren’t we?”

  Yvessa nodded. “I think we do.”

  “And we’re not going to give you any credit,” Felix told Sam.

  Sam shrugged. “Don’t need any. Most of the work was yours anyway. Now, can we finally stop talking about this pattern? It’s not like it’s due tomorrow.”

  “It is due tomorrow.”

  “Oh, right, silly me.”

  “Fine, we’ll stop talking about it.” Felix’s face turned sullen as he silently picked through his food.

  “So did you manage that tracing?” Erianna asked Sarah.

  “Not yet.” Sarah shook her head. “But I still feel like I’d be the first one to manage in the class.”

  “Why not just ask Maurice for help?” Sam asked.

  “Cause that’d ruin the whole point. I want to do this on my own.”

  “But you’re learning about it in class, with a teacher to help you…”

  “You know what I mean.”

  Sam shrugged. “Not really. But journey before destination, I guess. You do you.”

  “I’ll work on it this weekend. I feel like I’m getting really close.”

  “I’m sure you are.” Erianna nodded. “And if you need any help, it turns out that Sam is some sort of wunderkind, maybe he’ll be able to push you the rest of the way.”

  Felix rolled his eyes and asked Yvessa, “Want to skip working out and finish this fucking pattern?”

  She nodded. “Yes.” They quickly got up without further ceremony and with barely a goodbye uttered to the other occupants of the table.

  “A bit rude, no?” Sam said.

  “We deserved it,” Erianna said.

  “Feels like it was mostly you that deserved it. I didn’t do anything.”

  “Did you really come up with that idea all on your own?” Sarah asked.

  Sam sighed. “Look, I didn’t mean to. It just happened. I’ve been thinking about it a lot in my spare time. It wasn’t some show of genius or anything, so you can drop it.”

  “I didn’t say anything.”

  “I always knew you were hiding your true talents,” Erianna said, and Sam had to lean out of the way of her patronizing patting hand. “And he also succeeded in imprinting that body-nourishing pattern today,” she told Sarah.

  “Really?” Sarah smiled. “Wow, that’s amazing. Good job, Sam!”

  “If you two keep this up, I’m going to get up and leave.”

  Sarah smiled apologetically. “Sorry. But still, congratulations. Maybe now you could take a little break, hmm?”

  “Maybe once the trimester break starts,” Sam said noncommittally.

  “That’s a no, then.”

  “Not explicitly, no.”

  “What are you going to do during your trimester break?” Sarah asked Erianna.

  “Stay here, what else?”

  Sam nodded with a chuckle as Sarah said, “Go back home?”

  “No way. If I go back to Maynil, I wouldn’t be able to get a moment’s rest. It would just be this ball this, that dinner that, and so on and so on. Better to just stay here until the Muster starts.”

  “Don’t you want to see your family?”

  “With our busy schedules, it’s not like we used to spend hours with each other every day. And I still talk to all of them regularly. I don’t feel like I’m missing all that much by being away.”

  “But once the Muster starts, you won’t be able to go back home for yet another year.”

  “Year and a half,” Sam said.

  Erianna nodded. “It is what it is. It will be even easier than here, actually. Seeing as both my brother and uncle are going to be there.”

  “And cousin.”

  “Yeah, but I won’t find Marin at Maynil if I went back there now, anyway.”

  “Well, if you’re sure…” Sarah said. “Me and Sam will still be here to keep you company in any case.”

  “Don’t go putting words in my mouth,” Sam objected.

  Sarah frowned at him. “Like I said, me and Sam will still be here.”

  “It’s not like Felix and Yvessa will be gone for that long,” Sam muttered.

  “I’ll be sure to call upon the two of you if I happen to feel lonely,” Erianna said with a smile.