To Hunt A Fox

Having finished laying the groundwork for and ensnaring Minerva completely to his cause, Cyrus was finally able to head back to his room to get some rest...or so he thought.

Stopping just short of entering his room, Cyrus turned around and spoke to a fidgety Minerva. Speaking so that his other half would be silenced.

"You ah…you okay...emotionally?" struggled the dark half as he repeated the words he was told to say.

"It seems that both of your personalities have their own major flaws" remarked Minerva after standing in disbelief for a moment.

"I just spoke about something I have never told to anyone else in full, to someone I just met not too long ago, about things that are not exactly the most pleasant to consider. Not to mention this person I told my everything to essentially manipulated me to do so over the course of a week" explained Minerva, noticing the slight look of surprise on Cyrus' face which brought a smug smile to her face.

"Yeah, I noticed that. Just because I am preoccupied by my own problems does not mean I have gone blind. Anyways, a normal individual would know that I am not exactly in the best of states. I feel as if I just overcame a daunting foe by the skin of my teeth, still fearful and apprehensive but also a little excited" remarked Minerva.

"To a good hunter even if the prey realizes the trap, there will be no choice other than to accept its fate" noted Cyrus in regard to Minerva spotting his trap.

"So I am the prey then? A helpless doe caught in your trap" teased Minerva.

"If all helpless does are as mighty as you then I believe the Empire will not last for long" said Cyrus with an exaggerated sigh as he awkwardly patted Minerva on the shoulder.

"Well, I am most enthused to hear that you are not a complete wreck. It will not do for someone who I will one day trust with my back to be so easily defeated. As for my manipulations, well, we should think of it as me teaching you so that you will not fall prey to such a method in the future. Not all evil men are as charming as me, you see. Now go rest up and enjoy what is left of the night, perhaps a present will be awaiting you come morning."

With such words and promise, Cyrus disappeared into his room leaving Minerva standing there chuckling at his unusual behavior.

"Speaking on such topics is not my forte at all, I do hope you enjoyed me making a mockery of myself" sneered the masked Cyrus to his counterpart as he sat on his bed, removing everything on his belt one by one.

Laying down on his bed and taking the mask off, he went straight to sleep as the conversation with Minerva had already long run late into the night

---

Cyrus awoke at his usual time, both his mind and body refreshed from his deep sleep. He stood up and did his usual morning routine of cleaning himself with his death essence, making use of his fine control to only eliminate whatever lay on top of his skin and clothes.

Hooking his sword to his belt and reaching for his mask, Cyrus paused for a moment as he considered everything his other half had accomplished yesterday.

"The experiments on the undead…I still do not like them but one of the main advantages of my duality is that anything that I cannot handle can be given to my other half. Although if I recall he was trying to throw all the tedious work to me, hah, if he is so interested in the undead then he can do even the foundational research on his own" thought the unmasked Cyrus.

He then pulled out some of his old notes that he had long memorized, copying a fourth of it down by hand and turning it into a small little booklet of his own.

"Why is he treating Minerva like a pet? Next thing you know he will start feeding her treats or something…" wondered Cyrus as he finished preparing the present for Minerva.

Checking the time once again and hooking his mask to his belt, he left his room and sat down on the couches in the foyer.

Waiting around to give the present from his other half, he saw Imran walk out of his room with difficulty. He was swaying from side to side, barely able to maintain his balance while holding his head.

"Had a fun night?" remarked Cyrus while pretending he was holding a drink in his hand.

"Networking, one of the most important duties of a merchant but also one of the hardest. No matter how much alcohol tolerance you build it never seems to be enough in the end, especially when someone pulls out one of their homemade concoctions that's just pure alcohol" groaned Imran as he collapsed onto one of the couches, laying on his back face up.

"This should be the second or third time you have gone out, but I have never seen you in such a state…oh yes you are right.." began Cyrus, before muttering to himself making him seem quite unhinged.

"You are making connections with those who are not likely to aim for the top but also those who are not complete failures, correct?"

Imran tried his best to look towards Cyrus, failing miserably, and just further sunk into the couch and replied with,

"Yeah, that is about right. You have something that requires some manpower?"

"Astute as always, I do. What I require is coincidentally something that can benefit us both actually. Prior to your next get together put out the word that you are looking for people who are willing to contribute their daily will resources. The day to do it will be during the weekly day off and the reward will be Fidem. Since 1 Fidem is the equivalent of one meal then how about twenty meals for their trouble? I am willing to take on five people every week for this endeavor, but they must be of the Vita department. I could also use members of the Mors…but I am pretty sure they all unilaterally hate me so how about we avoid them for now."

"That sounds easy enough, everyone who looks at the Fidem booklet will be sure to scramble for as much as they can. You can purchase weapons and equipment from all over the Empire, raw materials for whatever project you might have, special lessons normally unavailable, any type of delicacy you can imagine, and even save up enough Fidem for meetings with high ranking scholars and even grand scholars…there is something for everyone in there. Which reminds me, what is going on with our own Fidem?" asked Imran.

"I had thought you would have been all over that a long time ago. Well, all three of our accounts are shared completely as you may know but you can spend your own portion however you wish. I will create a little board and pin it up in the wall to help everyone keep track of what they have."

Imran shrugged at the idea, indicating that he could do whatever he wished, before speaking further.

"I guess I have been a little slow on the uptake personally, but I let Minerva deal with it and just focused on other things. But it seems she was busy with other things and just left me hanging. We were all busy though now that I think about it, first week of the Academy and all. Not to mention all of our own personal goals but the number of new concepts in regard to magic created a lot to think over. I imagine all of our time will be stretched extremely thin, even with the full day of rest we are given" replied Imran, his voice growing quieter as he spoke.

"I have felt the lack of time extremely so, especially due to me trying to focus on both my domains as equally as I can" said Cyrus, agreeing with Imran's statement wholeheartedly.

"But back to my request, just direct anyone who is interested to meet by that shack by the entrance of the housing complex right after breakfast is served. I will head out there to guide them to my lab to assist me in my experiments. All they will have to do is just use all their will to activate their most basic of domain activations and then go on their way with their Fidem, a win for all parties involved."

All he got in response, however, was a yawning Imran who said sleepily

"Gotcha…will do…just that."

All that he heard after which was snoring and sleepy murmurs coming from the couch across from him.

"Everyone is working hard in their own way I see" concluded Cyrus as he began to wait patiently for Minerva once more.

Time ticked by, so much that in order to maintain efficiency he opened one of his research notebooks and read from it looking through all of his data to see if he had missed any conclusions that could help him in the future.

"My Mors domain is coming along nicely, but I think that stuff suits my other half best. As for me, the Vita domain calls my name quite nicely."

"Vita Coils are an important first step, but I need to be able to make them last longer and be more efficient. If I can finish copying the entire anatomy of the human body then I will be able to make immense progress extremely quickly, which will give me more time to figure out how to take it to the next level" pondered Cyrus as he jotted down his thoughts on an empty sheet, writing out the tests he will need to undergo to realize his theorized level of progress.

Eventually, with only half an hour left during the breakfast period, Minerva revealed herself to the world. She stepped out of the room while yawning, refreshed and even somewhat happy as she finished up brushing her hair and tied it back with a band of cloth. Her robe looked fresh, as if it had just come from the Fullones fully cleaned and hand washed…