After the conversation with Lord Eldridge, the butler escorted Kai towards the rear of the house while Carter and the head of the house had a few words.
Upon leaving the house out the back entrance, Kai walked to the edge of the courtyard, the late afternoon sun casting soft shadows across the flagstones. This section of House Eldridge’s estate was tucked behind high hedges and sculpted gardens, giving the impression of seclusion, though he suspected at least three sets of eyes were watching them from hidden balconies within the Eldridge house and neighbouring ones.
Even noble houses, it seemed, had courtyards for their children to play in or practice their talents. This one was modest, paved with pale blue stone, and dotted with chalk markings and weighted training stones.
Kai rubbed his chin. Naia was already more advanced than he’d expected. Her participation in Arcane Crucible had obviously sharpened her reflexes and tactical thinking several-fold. She could outpace most of her instructors in anything that wasn’t rote memorisation or tradition-bound spell-work. Which left him wondering:
’What, exactly, am I supposed to teach her?’
He was cycling through half-hearted lesson plans in his head, something about emotion-linked casting, maybe, or dual-focus mana shaping, when Naia broke the silence.
"It’s you, right, Mir-Kai?"
The words hit him like a thrown dagger. Kai’s jaw slackened, and his thoughts scattered. Of all the people who might have pierced his illusion, he hadn’t expected her. Not Naia.
He blinked. "H-how did-?"
"How do I know?" Naia stood with her hands on her hips, giving him that familiar, cocky smirk she always wore right before landing a shot in their training. "You still smell the same. You move the same. You even mutter to yourself when you’re trying to avoid responsibility. Honestly, I wasn’t completely sure, until your face did that," she said, mimicking his flustered expression with exaggerated flair.
"Smell...?" Kai instinctively sniffed at his sleeve, then caught himself and stopped, scowling.
Naia snorted. "Don’t worry, it’s not bad. It’s just... you. Like wet stone, ash, and moonroot tea."
Kai didn’t know whether to be insulted or flattered.
"So..." he asked cautiously, "if you knew it was me, why the act? The name’s Alex Trunsdale, now, by the way."
"Another name? Because I wanted to see how long it would take you to admit it." Naia flopped to the ground, sitting cross-legged, legs wide and posture completely at odds with her noble upbringing. "But more than that, I wanted to know why you’re doing this tutor thing."
Kai hesitated.
She watched him from below, squinting slightly in the light. "So? Spill it."
He crossed his arms and shifted his weight. "I could ask the same. You don’t need a tutor. Not for magic. Not anymore."
Naia huffed. "Tell him that. My father’s convinced the academy isn’t handling me properly because I only use gravity magic. He thinks I’m underdeveloped. Like a vine that only grew in one direction."
Kai tilted his head. "Why not try learning other schools of magic, then?"
"I did," she said. "But... my gravity magic has a mind of its own. It gets jealous, I think. Whenever I channel other elements, it... interferes. Warps things. Crushes them. The spells collapse under the pressure. Literally." She pulled a stone from the ground and tossed it upward. It hovered, caught in an invisible well of force before it gently descended into her palm. "I’m a Rank Five gravity mage now. Not bad, right?"
Kai nodded, impressed. "Not bad at all. So the gravity... resists rivals?"
"Exactly." She sounded tired. "It’s like trying to juggle a star while lighting a candle. The star wins. It consumes everything."
Kai rubbed his chin, digesting her words. He recognised the pattern. Some magic didn’t just reside within the caster.
It clung to them and rooted itself.
Soul-bonded, in a way.
But before he could launch into his theory-crafting, Naia interrupted.
"Forget all that for a second. Where have you been? You vanished after the academy. One minute I was hoping fight this Devourer of yours, or I’d help you save that girl of yours, and the next... nothing."
Kai hesitated. Then, realizing he’d already been caught, he relaxed into a half-sit against a stone planter. "Well that girl isn’t... mine. As for where I was, I fought some wyverns, killed a few inquisitors, got imprisoned again... the usual."
Naia blinked. "That’s... the usual?"
Kai chuckled. "It was a very strange month."
"You’ve got to tell me everything."
And so he did. From the fights to the death with the inquisitors in the streets of the citadel, to the encounter with Cladeus, a self-proclaimed god of memory, history, and knowledge, and the nightmare ordeal with the ravine mimic that devoured everything. He told her about sneaking through the Citadel’s underbelly, of the underground duels and soul-pacts, of stolen spells and enchanted knives.
Naia didn’t interrupt once.
But the moment he mentioned Kleo, how he’d first met her, what she could do, how she helped him escape from both the Devourer and the Ravine Mimic, Naia’s expression shifted. Her eyes narrowed slightly, though she said nothing until he was done.
"So this Kleo girl," she finally said, standing. "You like her?"
Kai flinched. "She’s an asset. Helpful, sure, but-"
"An asset?" Naia’s brow rose sharply.
"I mean that she’s useful! A companion. I enjoy her company, I might even be-"
"Fond of her?" she asked, voice quieter now, like the calm before a storm.
The mana in the air shifted.
Around them, pebbles began to lift gently from the ground, orbiting Naia like moons caught in an invisible current. A few stray motes of light distorted, bent toward her like light entering a black hole.
Kai raised both hands, palms up. "Like a friend! Or a pet! Definitely not in that way!"
The mana snapped back into place.
The pebbles clattered to the stone with a gentle chorus, and Naia’s face split into a bright, mischievous grin. "Then let’s go on that date tomorrow."
Kai blinked again. "T-Tomorrow?"
Naia nodded eagerly. "My father told me I’d be the one to decide if you stay as my tutor or not. So here’s the deal: if I say yes, I’ll convince him that I need practice doing subtle gravity manipulation in public. You know, weight shifts, pressure modulation, balance work while under city stimuli."
"Isn’t that sort of... childish?"
"Not at all. You owe me for the arcane crucible, and for having to deal with Mari’s incessant moaning about your disappearance while keeping the fact I saw you a secret."
’She’s already thought that far ahead.’
"Okay, okay! So, you want to go into the city with me," Kai said flatly.
"On a date," she corrected.
Kai stared at her.
Naia tilted her head. "So, I tell my father you’re officially my tutor, and you take me out tomorrow. Deal?"
"You know I need this, and you’d hang me if I don’t do what you say?"
"Pretty much. You know you want to, though."
Kai groaned, but couldn’t suppress a smile. "Fine. Deal."
Naia offered her hand.
He shook it, and realised too late she was subtly increasing the gravity around his gloved palm. His hand slammed down comically hard into hers, and she burst into laughter.
"You’re going to regret this," he muttered.
"I hope so," she said, grinning.