Walking through the halls of his home, Soren made his way up a flight of stairs, passing by various paintings adorning the wall. Pushing open a heavy wooden door, he stepped into his bedroom.

  Swiftly kicking off his shoes, he collapsed down onto his bed. Waves of exhaustion washed over him. His battered body sunk deeper into the soft sheets.

  ‘Finally…’

  Wanting to fall asleep for ever, letting all his worries fade away, he found himself strangely restless. No matter how hard he tried, sleep would not take him.

  After a few minutes of laying there, he reluctantly sat up. Too much was on his mind right now. He was still no closer to finding Killian, nor did he get answers from Julian. Then there was the problem with the peace keepers.

  He had killed a lieutenant, not just any one though, apparently he was the son of a region commander.

  ‘Just my luck…’

  Letting out a deep sigh, Soren stood up from his bed and left the confines of his room behind. Descending the stairs was definitely easier than going up them, still, he had to hold onto the railing for support. As he entered the spacious great room, the leather-bound journal sat ominously on the table.

  He had only briefly read over its contents, but there was still so much he needed to decipher. While cruel and barbaric, there was still plenty of useful knowledge hidden within its pages.

  ‘If that fight with the lieutenant taught me anything, it was that I needed better enhancement.’

  Walking past the barred laboratory door, he entered his father’s study. Inside it was far more disorganized than when Killian had used it, papers were scattered all across the room, some crumpled, others torn. It was chaotic to say the least.

  Setting the journal down on the large dark wooden desk, Soren rummaged through a drawer, pulling out a stack of papers. Sitting down at the desk, his eyes studied the journal's pages. He grabbed a fountain pen, briefly dipping it in ink. The process of learning Julian’s research began.

  …

  It was about mid day now, even though he had spent several hours thoroughly studying the journal, all of its complex theories and sequence layering were far beyond Soren’s ability to understand.

  Frustrated, Soren leaned as far back as the comfortable leather chair would allow him. As he rubbed the bridge of his nose, a deep, exhausted sigh escaped his lungs.

  ‘This is impossible! On face value, you could understand his point, but when it comes to understanding his methods, they’re… jumbled. The way he talks about runes and sequences, it might as well be gibberish.’

  Julian had graduated from St. Luminos academy — the same one Soren was about to enroll in— at the top of his class. He had earned many awards. Needless to say his understanding of runes and sequence formulas was on par with one of the saints.

  Soren was barely a novice when it came to runes, so understanding what Mr. Hathaway was researching would be incredibly hard… If not impossible.

  ‘Not that I could bring this to anyone else. Sure, I could always show Seline. But her runic expertise was limited… Even if I did know someone knowledgeable enough to explain it to me, they would be horrified by its contents and report me to the keepers.’

  Rubbing the back of his shoulder, Soren winced. He had closed the wound, but the pain was still present. The wound on his thigh didn’t feel like this. Though, the bullet did pass through his leg rather cleanly… Now that the thought had crossed his mind… Did he ever remove the bullet?

  Feeling the scarred tissue, there seemed to be a small hard mass in his shoulder. It seemed in his haste, he closed the wound with the bullet still trapped inside. A rather foolish mistake in hindsight.

  As much as he hated the idea of digging around in his shoulder, the idea of getting an infection sounded far worse.

  ‘At least now I have something to distract myself with…’

  Letting out a deep breath, he stood up from the desk and headed to the first floor bathroom. As he entered he stood in front of the large mirror, reaching into the cabinet below he pulled out a small box. Inside was a small blade, some gauze, and a few other medical supplies.

  Swiftly removing his shirt, Soren turned his back to the mirror. With the small blade in hand, he brought it up to the scarred over wound. Pressing down hard, blood began to trickle from the wound.

  ‘Mmmph…’

  Too focused on the task at hand, the sound of footsteps approaching went unnoticed to Soren.

  “Rough night?”

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  Standing in the door-frame, a beautiful woman with dark red hair had her gaze fixated on Soren. She wore a simple white button up shirt and dark brown trousers. She had the sleeves of the shirt lazily rolled up to her elbows.

  “Oh, Seline… I didn’t hear you come in.”

  Seline looked to be in her late twenties. Her face was soft, delicate, yet her scarlet eyes held a bit of mischief. Taking a few steps closer to Soren, she held out her hand expectingly.

  Reluctantly he handed over the small blade, while he would have preferred to do it himself, she was better.

  “There’s a bullet in my shoulder.”

  Pulling up a stool, Soren sat with his back to Seline. She quickly began the process of removing the bullet.

  …

  “So… I take it your little heist didn’t go too well?”

  There was obvious amusement in her words, but also a hint of concern.

  Soren promptly shook his head.

  “No. I ran into some keepers, but I was able to get away.”

  Her soft hand traced the large scar along his back. The wound had been healed mostly but the scar was very prominent.

  “And what about this one? Normally peace keepers don’t carry around blades.”

  scratching the back of his head, a low grumble escaped his lips.

  “I may have… run into a lieutenant.”

  He felt a sharp pain as Seline forcefully ripped the bullet out.

  “You what!?”

  Gripping his shoulder tightly he let out a quick yelp. Biting back cursing her out he properly spun back. The look on her face was a mix of disappointment and anger.

  “Are you kidding me?! A lieutenant? You’re dumber than I thought… Honestly you’re lucky you escaped them.”

  Soren averted his gaze from her.

  “Well… I didn’t exactly escape, more so… killed him.”

  Seline stared at him for a moment, then swiftly raised her hand, bringing it down on the side of his head. It wasn’t strong enough to do any real harm, but it did hurt quite a bit.

  “You absolute idiot!! I’ve told you countless times, don’t draw attention. And what do you do!?”

  Before he could reply, she answered the question for him.

  “You kill someone!! Oh gods, did anyone see you? No, did you leave anything behind that could tie it to you? What about the body?”

  Using a mending sequence to prepare the gash on his shoulder, he cut off her ranting.

  “All the evidence, including the only person that saw me, got buried under the clocktower in Zelona.”

  Taking a few deep breaths, she began to calm down. She ran her hands through her crimson locks, briefly holding the back of her head for a second. Then she shot her piercing gaze at Soren, staring him down for a moment.

  “Alright…”

  “Did you at least make the bastard suffer?”

  A small, proud, smirk appeared on his face. Giving her a slight nod, he slipped the shirt back on.

  “Good… Now get yourself cleaned up. You smell like shit.”

  Walking away with a slight chuckle, Seline left him.

  Raising an arm, Soren gave himself a small sniff. A pungent odor grazed his nostrils. He smelled of ash and sweat. He had been too preoccupied to notice the unpleasant smell.

  After closing the bathroom door he walked over to the tub, turning the water as hot as it would go. Watching as the water began to heat up, he began to disrobe.

  ‘Maybe a hot shower will ease my mind… Or at least distract me for a bit.’

  …

  Soren walked over to the mirror, wiping away the fog, he stared at his reflection for a moment. There were dark circles under his eyes, evidence of all his exhaustion. Strands of light brown hair clung to his forehead, it had grown much longer than he would have liked. Its length now reached his shoulders.

  ‘I really am a mess…’

  Letting out a deep sigh he left for his room.

  After changing into more familiar clothes, he went downstairs. As he entered he saw Seline on the couch, a familiar leather journal in her hand. She was looking through its pages, a sour look present on her face.

  While Soren would have been a little upset at her for going through his stuff, he had already intended on showing her. Leaning against the back of the couch, looking over her shoulder, he decided to get her input.

  “I couldn’t figure out much about his process, It didn’t mention where he did the experiments either.”

  She firmly closed the journal shut, tossing it on the coffee table. Leaning back against the couch, her hair cascading down her shoulders.

  “I can’t make sense of it either. All this stuff is too complex for me to understand… Reading this won’t help you get better at spell casting.”

  Even though he was disgusting, Julian was still incredibly brilliant. Learning anything he could about advance sequence weaving would have set him apart at the academy. With his current skill level he was lucky to pass the entrance exam.

  “Any chance you know someone who could decipher it?”

  A slight chuckle escaped her lips.

  “Unless you want everyone to know what you did, no… Look, I may not be the best when it comes to weaving, I still managed to teach you the basics. You’ll be fine, just don’t bomb the aptitude test.”

  Somehow her words only made him feel worse. Getting paired with a good instructor would drastically improve his spellcasting and runic understanding, making his goal a lot easier.

  Perhaps Callagen would have some useful advice for him, it would be better than whatever Seline had to say.

  The day was nearing its end, the orange hue of the sun's light washed over the great room.

  ‘Looks like I’ll have to save talking with him for tomorrow.’