Three days have passed since the incident in Cante and Kal was "kindly" allowed to join Gil's merry band. As a new recruit, in his case a temporary one, he was never left out of sight, of course, only to ensure his safety, this accordingly to Gil himself. It turned out that they were a pretty famous mercenary group, the strongest if one was to believe their own advertisement, and the fact that Kal didn't recognized Gil at first glance only verified his status as an ORP.
During these days Kal became a bit familiarised with their behaviour and though they gave the impression of a bunch of barbarians, they were nice guys; well, as much as a mercenary group could be. In this world there were two types of these kind of groups: mercenaries, who worked "mostly" within the law and under recognition of the crown, and scavengers, who were responsible for most of the organised crimes. Having the crown recognition had its perks, whenever there was a task too risky to involve loyal soldiers, mercenaries were the ones sent, receiving, of course, a hefty sum accordingly with the risk of the mission. For the crown they were a necessary evil, although messy and chaotic sometimes, they were fearless and good in battle. This allowed the aristocracy to spare their loyal troops from dying in dangerous missions and to keep them for matters of the state.
All mercenary groups were graded according to their contributions, the best ones obtained more recognition, better missions and of course, better rewards. Gil's band, The Redpaws, were graded silver, only on grade from the top, and all of his efforts were committed to become the leader of a Golden one. As it happens, a week before he arrived to Cante, he had received just the mission that, if successfully completed, could upgrade his band. However, he was lacking of mages and this mission required magical understanding. Unknowingly to Kal, Cyrus, Gil's best mage, had perceived his magical talent and informed him beforehand, however, Gil had no idea how to convince a mage to help him. Fortunately, for Gil, Kal was an ORP in problem, and he had just the way making him indebted to his cause.
It was just the first hours of the fourth day and the moonlight shone brightly allowing a clear view of the scenery. A bit apart of the rest of the camp, on top of a small hill, stood a slighter bigger tent; inside there were not much but a table with no chairs, a bed and closet which contained, instead of clothes, different types of weapons. Outside there was a small fire and three figures were chatting around it.
"Although I am touched"-said Kal ironically- "that you have finally decided to have the time to talk to me, it could have been at a better hour. I don't know, midday instead of midnight?"
"And here I thought that you will be happy to see me" replied Gil jokingly.
"I would really had to be mentally ill to enjoy the sight of you at this hour, even more after I have been basically taken hostage but, anyway, I am certainly intrigued for the reason you had brought me here at this hour" said Kal while looking at Cyrus whom he had never seen before.
"Alright, fine, let's wrap it up! This is Cyrus, my best mage and right hand, and he is the reason I haven't come to you in the past days. He told me that this had to wait until you were rested enough. Anyway, I'll let you two chat, I have some matters to attend" said Gil while signalling two girls, which appear out of nowhere, to follow him to his tent.
Cyrus stood and started to walk and Kal followed and after some minutes they stopped near a small creek that was nearby.
"Show me what you can do" said Cyrus coldly.
Kal froze for a moment indecisively, he was not very comfortable in showing others, specially a mage, his only working spell. Although The Redpaws had been rather welcoming, whether for express order of Gil or not, they were still a bunch of strangers and Kal was not among them willingly. However, given the fact that his ORP status was well known, no one had tried to take advantage of him, specially knowing that he had to be carrying some gold due the fact that he had not signed the form.
While pondering about this Cyrus interrupted his train of thoughts -"I know that you are mage, or at least able to cast spells. I sensed a magical force back in Cante and it wasn't me or the governor, furthermore, when your first met Gil, I could sense a powerful magical surge within you."
Kal was rendered speechless-"What the hell"- he thought-"I don't think they have just brought me here to kill me… so, let's give it shot."
Kal blinked a few meters away from where they were and blinked back.
"That's all I can do" said Kal earnestly.
"How often can you do it" asked Cyrus.
"Five times in a row with 7 seconds in between. If I try to blink again before at least 30 minutes I might lose conscience" finished Kal. After he said that he cursed his own stupidity. He could have lied about the times and the intervals of his blinks, after all, he might have to run away from him in the near future but now he had no element of surprise.
"Not bad" said Cyrus, and though his words might have been encouraging, his face was unmovable as if he had no expression muscle in his face.
"Really? I thought that it was mediocre"-said excitedly Kal completely setting away any conspiracy theories that were spawning lately in his head.
"I meant that for someone like you is not bad"-said Cyrus showing a faint smile when he saw Kal's disappointed face-"That thing you just did there is not an actual spell, in fact, it's an aberration. The only reason why you are able to blink, or fake blink better said, is because of your incredibly affinity toward the space element. In fact, you are so compatible with it that I seriously doubt that you could be able to use any other."
At these words Kal was half-confused half-annoyed. Yes, he asked "the man" for the gift of space elemental affinity but not at the point of rendering useless the others. Cyrus didn't know how to interpret Kal's face, so, he mistook it as utter ignorance and asked- "I know that you are an ORP so, let me ask: how much do you know about magic?"
"Not much really"-responded Kal-"I know about the different magical elements, the different specialties of magic and some knowledge about how to harvest and control my own power. Other than that, nothing."
For the first time during his meeting with Cyrus, Kal could perceive an emotion in this man's face and it was, unequivocally, anger.
"Honestly, what are those old imbeciles of the council doing with their time these days? Did they really let this guy without an ounce of magical knowledge in his memories? Oh no! What am I saying? They let him keep the data about magic specialties, which ought to be useful, yes, to know that you all bastards should die!!!"- Cyrus rant could be heard all over the place and Kal didn't know how to keep himself from laughing. After Cyrus vented all his anger, which apparently he held to the council, he calmed down and returned to his cold staring state.
"Very well. Gil asked me to help you with your magic. I never thought that I would have to teach you EVERYTHING but here we are. I guess you are not to blame, but know this, I have little patience. If you start lacking or lazing around, I will stop teaching you at once. Prepare, we start your first lesson in this instance." said Cyrus in a cold yet less calmed tone than usual.
Kal never imagine that he would start meddling seriously with magic that night. One of the first things he thought about, when he appear in this world, was about how to improve his magic and where to find someone to teach him. Never had he foreseen that, that night, he would start to experience about the thing he most wanted in this world, to learn magic.