Happy Birthday, a Quick Lesson & A Bloody Northern Path

After Cato broke his student's melancholy, he urged him to get on their rides and make like the wind.

"As we heard from the now deceased, it seems that there are multiple groups after us. I did expect something of this level to happen" Makes for a good series of lessons after all "but we must always be cautious as you never know when the unexpected may happen. Now, have you encountered Mundus yet?"

"Mundus? What? The planet...?" asked Cyrus confused

"Well I did say I would move the magical lesson up" murmured Cato to himself before continuing, "I already showed you firsthand what a proper mage can do by manipulating the essences around us. What I did not tell you, however, is that this ability is granted to us by the world itself. That is what the coming of age ceremony is really about. On that day you will meet the avatar of Mundus itself, and you will choose your proper path." While the two rode side by side, Cato created an ice sword and showed it to Cyrus.

"How do you think I do this Cyrus?"

Cyrus thought for a moment, recalling all the subtle uses of Cato's magic and said, "It's clear that you can manipulate temperature to some degree. When we travel in the desert on foot you were able to make it feel like it was cool even on the hottest day. Adding that to your ability to manipulate water, I would say you change the temperature of the water until it forms ice"

"That is indeed a good answer for someone who does not use magic, I see your lessons have not gone to waste ha-ha". Cato then melted the ice sword and then waved his hand in front of him, producing a ball of orange tinted fire in the distance.

This left Cyrus visibly confused, as he had just hypothesized that Cato could control water and the temperature…yet he could also mess with fire itself.

Seeing his student's confusion, Cato pettily felt gratified for outwitting his student once more. Explaining he said, "You were close, but not quite on the mark. You should know that there are several main domains of magic, each granting control over one or more specific essence. Ignis, Aero, Aqua, Terra, Vita and Mors. Mundus grants us mages control of up to two of these domains and only two. My domains are Aqua and Ignis, together I combined the two to become the powerful Ice domain. Putting it in extremely simplified terms, I gather water essence in the air and remove the fire essence around it to create ice."

Cyrus nodded with renewed understanding of the elements.

"I have yet to write out a book on magic for you to study, and I'm not sure how helpful it would be anyways as I am no formal educator. Much of it will not even make much sense unless you become one yourself, of which that remains to be seen. Anyhow, when your actual birthday comes up do not freak out when you meet Mundus, stay calm and collected so that you may choose the path most suitable to yourself."

"Hmm, I had thought I guessed his actual date of birth fairly well. Ah, I'm no Vita mage after all.." thought Cato in passing.

"Now, let us hurry on the way. We will try to avoid some of the fighting but not all of it. We must be proactive in dealing with such threats, it would be no good if we were spotted and let them all crowd us at once. I only have so much will power each day to burn on the foes chasing us down", stated Cato.

With that, the two urged their camels to top speed and rode off into the endless desert once more.

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The duo continued their ride north, continuing on the main path despite Cato saying to be cautious. They rode through an endless desert, eventually out of reach of even the nearest power bloc of the local Sultan. Regardless of this fact, they had met their pursuers time and time again. Each time they repeated the massacre of the first confrontation, using the same old tricks. Each time Cyrus took on more of the burden with Cato playing more and more of a support role, allowing his student to grow as an individual and come to terms with the reaping of lives. Cato was sure of his decision, to forcibly mature his student, as he had little time left with him before throwing him into a den of snakes.

" I am unsure of how he will turn out, but he needs this. The more he reconciles with the darkness in the world, while still maintaining his inner hopes…the better he will be when he faces the real monsters of this world. Bandits… Hah. They may rob, loot, and kill but the amount of damage they can do is limited. There are far worse things in this world….things that even I would not wish to face if I could help it" thought Cato as he witnessed the slow but obvious changes to Cyrus' psyche as he got more and more used to the backlashes from his mask, becoming more accepting of his other half.

"As time passes each backlash will be like a test for his character, and if he passes it he will reconcile with another part of himself. His capability for murder, cruelty and manipulation with his inherent naivety and hopes."

The total number of pursuers the two ran into slowly inched towards triple digits, of which Cyrus personally slew at least half of. Whoever the Sultan was, one might think that Cato had killed his close relative or something with the amount of force chasing him and his student down.

"Huh, now that I think about it that first man I slew, who seemed like an imperial may have been a big shot of some kind after all. Oops."

Regardless, in the face of Cyrus and his two pieces of magical equipment with support from an all-powerful mage of seemingly unmatched prowess, even triple the number of pursuers would have done little other than make the fights slightly more tedious. Of course, the fights were only truly tedious for one of the two as the other still felt like he was fighting with his life on the line each time, yet as time passed even Cyrus noticed that these once daunting foes which required his full force to slay even two started becoming easier and easier…

Nevertheless, as the two were fighting towards the imperial southern border Cato even had enough luxury of time to finish writing his insights into magic, aptly titled "Recollections of the #1 Ice Mage in the Wasteland". Handing it off to Cyrus, he noted the shine in his student's eyes as he finally got some substantial knowledge of magic in his hands. As difficult it would be to understand, at least it was different than the normal hearsay Cyrus had gathered from his other forms of study.

After a whole month of travel, made a bit longer than necessary what with Cato seemingly possessed with the idea of chasing down all pursuers they met, they reached the vicinity of the first Imperial lookout station.

Setting up camp just outside its immediate patrol zone, Cato sat down to give some of his final few lessons to his student before the inevitable parting.

"Ah, my home is so close yet so far.." opened Cato as he poured himself wine, like the addict he no doubt was. "Still, it is indeed strange that you have yet to meet with Mundus. I can't have been that off right.... Damn, thankfully I did not choose to go into Vita magic as it seems I have no talent at all" said Cato, mumbling the last part almost inaudibly.

As acute his hearing was, Cyrus heard it all no doubt, laughing silently to himself he said " It's no problem old man, even I don't know my own date of birth as I was just an orphan you picked up randomly. I am sure it will happen soo- "The last word of his sentence died in his mouth, as he noticed that his mentor had frozen in place. Not only that, but the fire in the midst of their camp had also frozen… it was as if time had decided to stand still.

Unknown to Cyrus at the time, Mundus had come.