Athan took Coy outside the castle to talk. Coy was glad that he finally got out of it. The place was not good for his mental state. Constantly being glued by invisible eyes could even make a vampire like him feel uncomfortable.
{Hey, tell me this is not going to be a permanent thing, right?} Coy asked Chóros while following behind Athan.
{No, that would be a disaster if it was a permanent thing. The guest will not be able to reside in the castle comfortably within the duration of the ceremony, the place will basically become inhospitable. The castle just does this to filter out the guests, or it's just curious. Even a living legend will be curious about a squirrel if all it does is just stick to this forsaken forest.}
{That's reassuring to hear. I'm not a fan of stalking,} said Coy.
Once the duo were about quite a distance away from Domus sanguinis, Athan waved his hand and a brown circle appeared floating, it was much smaller than the tier 7 spell, sky, but both circles had unknown symbols etched into it on the edges, and the center of the circles shared a similarity of abstract shapes, even though this one has fewer shapes than sky. It was a tier 3 spell called Rock formation that had a refinement rune etched to it.
As soon the brown circle appeared, the ground shook a bit before a bench made of smooth, unblemished stone surfaced.
"Lets sit." Athan spoke as he sat on the bench.
Coy followed suit. The stone was cold to the touch, but it was not an issue to the duo. "Do you always use magic for everything, father?" Coy asked.
Athan nodded. "Magic is part of our life, and I consider it my limbs. Am I not different from a disabled person If I don't use whatever Limbs I have?"
"What if you lose those limbs?" said coy.
"Depends on the person in question, for me, it will not be that much of a difference because of my own abilities. But to some… They lose their hope if such a thing happens to them. They became unduly reliant on limbs that could be irrecoverable at any moment because of a simple yet neglected problem, mana deviation."
"Mana deviation?"
Athan smiled and waved his hand, and a white magic circle was cast. The circle then disintegrated into particles that morphed into a string, drawing a hologram of a body figure. "This is a neutral tier 2 spell called Canvas. Although it is assigned as tier 2, it's one of the hardest to control since it requires one to focus on drawing a complicated shape of what they wish to draw, 2-dimensional, or 3-dimensional. What we have here is a drawing of a 3-dimensional body."
The solid male body floating freely in the air started to become lucent and Coy could see veins like complex network lines running all over it that meet at a specific node, there were around nine nodes of such. The head and neck had one, the abdomen had two, the chest had one, and the four limbs had one node each in the middle.
"As our body has blood vessels that transport blood to our entire body, we also have similar veins that do the same, but this one transports mana. We call this complex set of networks a magic circuit. The nine nodes you see there are what connects all these vessel-like threads and regulates potential mana overload. Do you get it?"
Coy nodded. Athan continued. "Now, what do you think will happen if a certain node is destroyed or damaged?"
Coy replied instantly, "The required mana that was headed towards the destroyed or damaged node will be sent off-course, or it might even destroy the body from within."
'Hooh, that was quick.' Athan exclaimed internally with surprise. "Correct, if the node in the arm is destroyed, that arm can't use magic because it has no vessels that could circulate mana to it with a back and forth rhythm. But if one of the aligned nodes in your abdomen is destroyed, you are at life-threatening risk."
"I see…" Coy said as he became quiet with thoughts.
"Back to the topic in hand, the reason I called you here was to not discuss magic. What do you say about going abroad to study?" asked Athan as he dispelled Canvas with his mind.
"Study? Study what, father?"
"About the world, mana, ether, and many other things. There's an academy I know of that provides all of these, and I know the headmistress of that academy. A friend of mine, you could say."
Coy made eye contact with his father and then looked at Domus sanguinis fooling Athan into thinking that he was weighing the choice of the offered deal. But in actuality, he was talking to Chóros.
{How does this sound to you?} Coy asked Chóros. {Ask for the name.}
"What is the name of this academy, father?"
Athan smiled with delight when he saw him interested. "It is called The Union academy," He said.
{Oh... Hahahah! There's not a better place for you than that academy to grow in this world. With the alliance of all the species in the war with the demons, the union academy was founded. A place of hermetic heritage, the dreams of the commoners and the hard works of the nobles. Only the people with elite skills and talents are admitted into it. Approve it brat, going there will be an entertainment to you and I!} urged Chóros.
When Chóros finished his elucidation, Coy made up his mind.
"Alright father, I'm willing to go there," affirmed Coy with conviction and sharp eyes. A chance like this is rare for someone like him, who is a stranger to this world. If what Chóros was saying was the truth, imagine all the knowledge he could hog… This was undeniably one of the best choices he made in his thousand years of existence, even the time he was offered half of Europe's underground monarchy paled in front of it. Why? Because of the element of mana!
Besides, he had nothing to loss if he went there, that's why he agreed so quickly.
'There is it again, that bottomless greed of his…' Chóros thought seriously.
"Excellent, Coy. You will be leaving tomorrow morning with the headmaster, so make sure you say your farewells to your friends and family."
Coy couldn't simply care with how fast things were progressing, so he nodded in agreement.
"Let us head back now, we should welcome the coming guests," said Athan as he stood up with Coy following his actions. The bench they were seating on seeped into the earth as though it was never there in the first place.
The sun sat, and darkness enveloped the Domus sanguinis that was illuminated from within. Chilly wind invaded the duo who were walking back into the castle.
The leaves fluttered and silence was evident throughout the forest. The night had begun, and the ceremony was nigh.
The consequences of the decision made today will bear its fruit in the near future, unbeknownst to anyone… Not even to Chóros.