"Okay, I'm heading out," announced Arya once he was done with his meal.
"Where are you going?" asked Lillian, as she picked up a few buckets, preparing to go get water from the well.
"Argen's, and maybe aunt Cassandra's later, I have a few questions to ask them,"
"Why don't you take Leon with you? Since you're both going to Cassandra's anyway,"
"Ahh sure, whatever," grumbled Arya, walking to the door before Leon could get out of his seat.
***
"This is quite a beautiful area," commented Leon awkwardly, trying to make some conversation.
"Drop the flattery, I know as well as anyone else that this place is a dump," barked Arya back.
Perhaps it was the fact that his brothers had nearly died trying to save him, or that he was getting suspiciously close to his sister, but something about Leon rubbed him the wrong way.
"I-I forgot to thank you guys for saving me," he added, walking ahead of Arya and holding out his hand in a gesture for a handshake.
Leon was way taller than Arya, probably the same height as Armin, so his hand was at quite the awkward angle as he stood there.
"Sigh, it's hard to hate someone as naive as you," sighed Arya, shaking his head.
After all, he was way older than this kid -mentally that is- perhaps it was due to his child brain and hormonal chemistry that he was acting this way even though he knew better.
"If you really want to thank us, then put in a good word for my brothers."
"I heard that your father is giving out scholarships, and my brothers are going to attend the selection exam in a few days," said Arya, bumping past Leon.
After walking for a few more minutes in silence, they finally arrived at Argen's cottage.
"Arya! Have you made any breakthroughs in your research?" greeted Argen as he gestured for Arya to come in.
"I actually came to ask about something that might help me with it. However I'm not sure if we can talk about it in here," Arya said, referring to Leon who was walking silently behind him.
"I see, perhaps we can go talk in my room," replied Argen, before leading the way.
"Try not to break anything in there," he warned, before closing the door.
{Did he just say research? What kind of kid does research? Perhaps it's just his way of teaching Arya magic?} wondered Leon to himself as he stared at the shelves filled with magic books.
***
"So what do you have for me?" asked Argen excitedly.
"Can I have a piece of paper, and a quill," requested Arya, to which Argen immediately produced from the table beside his bed.
"Have you ever heard of a 7 sided construct," asked Arya as he drew the heptagon that the beast had used.
"Preposterous, the highest dimensions a construct can have is 6, beyond that and the construct would collapse on its own mana," dismissed Argen as he watched Arya draw.
"Well yesterday, I came across this while fighting the Streyga," said Arya, presenting his finished drawing to Argen.
"This, this is impossible," he stuttered, looking at Arya's drawing with wide eyes.
"It's what I thought as well. And what about those runes? Have you seen them before?"
"They seem like base magic runes, but I've never seen one's like these before."
"Sigh," sighed Arya with a defeated expression.
"I've seen magical beasts cast magic before, but I've never seen this construct," murmured Argen as he tried to make sense of the drawing.
"I found it in between the two templates the magical beast cast," replied Arya, having already given up on it.
"Two templates? Like multi-casting?" asked Argen, still distracted by the drawing.
"No, it was a single spell with two templates. I thought that perhaps it was common knowledge that magical beasts did that," replied Arya, a sudden interest growing in his tone.
"Don't be absurd. You, perhaps more than anyone else, know how delicate templates are. For a spell two have two templates is the realm of myth," said Argen, however his tone seemed to indicate that he wasn't so sure of what he was saying anymore.
"Draw it for me," he said finally, realizing that Arya wasn't bluffing.
After a few seconds Arya produced a drawing of the two templates and how they interacted with each other.
"This is Pyro Estrin, and the other one is Arcia Ferlin, two basic magical beast spells," murmured Argen, identifying the spells based on their runes.
"But to think that magical beasts were capable of intertwining them. Those eyes of yours are truly a treasure," added Argen, looking at Arya's golden eyes with a sort of greed.
'I really wish I could study them more,' he thought to himself. However, he knew that doing so would break the trust that had grown between them.
"Do you perhaps have anything on magical beasts?" asked Arya, trying to get whatever sliver of information he could.
"No, only adventurer guilds would have such books," replied Argen, still scrutinizing the drawings.
***
After asking a few more questions related to constructs, Arya and Leon left for Cassandra's place. Arya's mind seemed to be elsewhere the whole journey there.
"Aunt Cassandra," smiled Arya as Cassandra opened the door,
"You're late," replied Cassandra flatly.
{Looks like you made her angry,} laughed Esla.
{Shut up would you.}
***
"It seems your mana co- I mean your condition is stable," announced Cassandra after using her probing construct to look at Arya's blood-mana system hybrid.
"There's a quill and a piece of paper on the desk in my room. Feel free to begin writing what you have to," said Cassandra, turning to Leon.
"Thank you."
"Now I'm guessing you have something to ask me?" said Cassandra once Leon was gone.
"I'm thinking of going ahead with the defragmentation hexagram. Even if it isn't complete, there's at least a 70% chance that it will work out if it's done by someone as skilled as you," whispered Arya.
"Out of the question. I'm not helping you kill yourself," replied Cassandra, not leaving any room for debate.
"Please, I've tried everything I could to find another way. But there's nothing, there's no other way to give me magic."
"If this is the only way, then perhaps you were never meant to wield magic," she shot back.
"Arya, you should have seen how broken Lillian was. Don't do this, if not for yourself, then for your family," Cassandra continued, patting Arya on the shoulder before standing up from her chair.
{She's the only one who can pull the defragmentation construct off,} commented Esla, stating the obvious.
{There is another way though,} replied Arya, deep in thought.
{What other way? We tried everything,} asked Esla curiously.