What Will Be | Book 2 | Chapter 26

Author's Note: Thank you all for your continued support. It means the world to me.

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Blanca - or Maestra Blanca, as I was to refer to her as - took slow, careful steps as she circled my desk, hands clasped firmly behind her back. 
“At its core, the Third Seat represents three ideals. Law. Order. Justice.” Blanca did not stop moving as she spoke. Since circling a piece of furniture while it was flush against a wall was difficult, her lessons began with me dragging it to the center of my room. A necessary tedium, since whenever she left my field of vision, some primal part of my brain caused the hairs on the back of my neck to rise. I felt like a cornered prey animal, desperately straining my senses so as to keep a potential predator the focus of my attention. “In the comparatively brief history since the monarchy was dissolved, that position has been filled by the Grand Inquisitor, the highest authority among our country’s law keepers. Be they guardsmen, jailors, or one of the many other cogs in the justice system, the Grand Inquisitor commands them all.” 

It had been a week since Blanca and Alicia arrived in Dorbe, heralding yet another modification to my impossibly tight schedule. After proving that I had a firm grasp of my letters and numbers, Blanca started preparing me for my eventual journey to The Capital. Our lessons together had been few in number, but they were all alike. Blanca would circle me and lecture. That was it. 

It was effective, though. The touch of her Skills was obvious, but I could only speculate as to what they might have been. It was like she tapped into my survival instinct, tricking my lizard brain to pay attention to and memorize her lessons as if my life depended on it. Facts and trivia came quickly to mind when I reached for them, and I could only hope that the shiver and increased heart rate that accompanied the knowledge would eventually cease to be an issue. 

“Does anyone police the Grand Inquisitor?” I asked. Despite having a firsthand encounter with Rosita, I remained woefully ignorant as to what she actually was. Blanca may have been intense during her lessons, but she was willing to accommodate my fancies and curiosities, hence the oddly specific topic. 

“The idealistic answer is that no one is above the law,” Blanca responded quickly. “Evidence suggests this is not always the case, however.” At that, I raised my eyebrows slightly. It was a more realistic answer than I was expecting. “In theory, if a Grand Inquisitor is caught engaging in illegal activities, then any guardsman should be able to act within the confines of their station to apprehend them. In practice… things get a lot more complicated.” 

“Is it okay to tell me that?” 

“Fortunately, the Duscall family values my academic integrity. It is why I have remained in their employ as long as I have. They also value shrewd children, which I suppose is their primary motivation in their stance on such things. You may never be positioned to navigate the intricacies of the law and bureaucracy of the world, but neither are most people. Being more informed than most is a powerful, powerful thing.”   

I nodded, and so the lesson continued. There was nothing especially revolutionary that I learned. Rosita’s role could be likened to a police commissioner, if a police commissioner also possessed oppressive magical powers beyond their political sway. If anything, it was a depressing reminder that, for all I despised the woman, I wasn’t in any position to do anything about it. 

As the lesson came to a close, it was like the flipping of a light switch for Blanca. Her slow, deliberate intonation was replaced by something decidedly more cheerful. 
“Well done today, Will. Remember, if you have any nightmares about the lessons please do let me know. I pride myself on the gentle touch, but matters of adjustment and compatibility can not be dismissed.” 

“I will.” I was stretching out the minor cramps that came from sitting still for too long.  

“Yes, you are,” she said with a chuckle. “Best to say ‘I am Will,’ though, it is more grammatically correct.” 

“Would you believe me if I told you I had never heard that one before?” 

“No, I would not.” 

There was a knock at the door.

“Come in,” I called, already knowing who it would be. Sure enough, like clockwork, Alicia arrived as we were wrapping things up. “Hello Alic-” 

“Hi Fudge! Who is a good dog? Who is? You! You are! Yes you are!” My dark haired cousin practically pounced on Fudge to lather him with pats and praise, much to his tail-thumping delight. He’d taken to lounging during the lessons, finding a place where sunlight from the window made for a comfortable spot. 

I looked back to Blanca, who was watching the exchange with an amused smile on her face. 
“I wonder who her favourite is?” 

“No,” she teased, “you do not. You know exactly who it is. Everyone does.” 

“To be fair, Fudge is my favourite as well.” 

“Maestra, you talk to Will differently than you talk to me,” Alicia said without looking up from Fudge. “Is it because Will does not speak like most other kids because of his Skill?” Alicia had been quite forthcoming in her introduction when we met, opting, like me, to divulge her Core Skill. Memorization [People] allowed Alicia to remember countless small details about a person. The more I thought about it, the more I wondered why she hadn’t been conscripted; I could think of plenty of useful applications for a Skill like that.

Granted, I still didn’t know the criteria for conscription. In theory, plenty of Skills could be desirable in the right circumstances. It was also possible that my extended family had some sway in the matter. It was something I planned to eventually ask Blanca about, but her recent lesson regarding flexible legalities made me suspect it was the latter. 

“That is likely the case, yes,” Blanca answered, unbothered by the question. “Familiar speech patterns can make a person want to respond in kind. Since Will often talks like an adult, I talk to him like one, too. Well spotted.” Also like me, Alicia Advanced at a comparatively young age, but the tests to her memory to foster that growth resulted in a tendency for her to vocalize her observations. 

“Do you want Maestra Blanca to talk to you like an adult, too?” I asked. There never seemed to be any malice behind Alicia’s questions, just earnest curiosity as she developed her understanding of people. She’d asked me a lot of questions about what it was like to be a ‘bumkin’ in the days after we first met, much to my amusement. Evidently someone in her home life had a bias or seven. 

Alicia tilted her head as she considered the question. 
“No. That is okay. I like being treated like a kid. Lots of adults seem like they have less fun than kids.” She went back to patting Fudge. 

“I take it she is correct?” I asked Blanca, already knowing the answer. 

“Most definitely. Fortunately, I also earn enough to buy sweet treats whenever I want, so it almost balances out. Speaking of, Will, would you like to join Alicia and I? There is a delightful bakery on the way back to our rooms.” Despite being invited to Dorbe by me, they were not permitted to stay in the fort. Apparently, the Duscall family purchased a place for them, though, so I didn’t feel too guilty. 

I shook my head. 

Sorry, Maestra, but I still have Skills to practice. Maybe some other time.” 

“I admire your commitment to personal development. It is good to have such an enthusiastic student. Keep up the hard work.” I’d almost forgotten how nice positive reinforcement could feel. “Come on, Alicia. We had best be off, then.” 

“Okayyyyy. Cya Fudge! Have fun with Will.” She ran over to me and gave me an enthusiastic hug. “Cya Will!” Just as quickly as the hug started, it ended, and Alicia scurried out of the room.  

“Have fun, you two.” 

-0-0-0-0-0-  

Perseverance Level 14/20

Current Proficiency Points: 976/1400 

I dismissed the System window with a satisfied nod. My progress with Perseverance had regained momentum ever since I started incorporating increasingly ambitious training methods into the rotation.
Pushing beyond the mundane and into the realms of conceptual - of magical - applications of the Skill was definitely the way to go. If I could maintain my current pace, I’d probably be able to Advance before I got shipped off to school. If I could manage it, hopefully the accomplishment would shield me from any unwanted teenage entanglements. I wanted my ‘do not fuck with’ sign to be neon and flashing. 

Unfortunately, such thinking depended on teenagers acting with a certain rationality that I knew from experience they sorely lacked. The invincibility of youth was a wellspring of poor decisions. I still sometimes wondered how I survived it the first time around. I made enough bad calls to last a lifetime… 

Well, two lifetimes, I suppose.

I dismissed the thoughts in favour of more exciting ones, conjuring a rough, mental duplicate of  Eaehdro’s representation of a Skill tree in my mind’s eye. His advice had been useful. If I was going to pick up Mana Sense, I’d attach the Skill to Taming [Fudge]. There was some solid sensory synergy between the two Skills that I could leverage. The diagram in my mind changed to reflect the plan. 

That just left my second new Skill. I’d come to conclude that the Skills I picked at my next Advancement would be the last major Skills I’d add to my repertoire. Lots of people barely hit the Third Tier, let alone the Fourth Tier, in their lifetimes. Even though I needed to push beyond those limits, realistically the scope of my later Skills would be increasingly limited by comparison. If I considered Perseverance to be my Primary Skill, and Recovery and Taming as my Secondary Skills, then my next two would be Tertiary Skills. 

Anything after that would be supplementary, something to add to chains for synergy. That thought carried deeper implications regarding a choice I made in my infancy, but they were unhelpful, evil implications I didn’t want to dignify. 

I’d been wrestling with the choice for a while, but I finally had a Skill in mind. I didn’t want to wait until the day I Advanced to finalize everything. I’d already shown that, in the moment, I was prone to rash decisions. I wanted a plan, and I would stick to that plan. 

I wanted something that could help with my ability to defend myself, but also something that could contribute to my plans to make it home one day. When I first touched upon teleportation with Lionel, he mused that some kind of movement Skill would be my best bet, even though he found the idea of instant movement to be borderline outlandish. It’d mean pruning my Recovery chain, and I’d want to touch base with Cruz regarding the Skill in case I was missing anything obvious, but I couldn't think of a more appropriate option.  

In my mind, a second line sprouted from Taming [Fudge], settling in place next to Mana Sense. A new word materialized beneath it. Movement.