It had been around 6 o’clock in the morning from when Aurelius had been so kindly teleported back to the Academy gates by Ms. Yeltz who was now… mentor.

  She had sent Mr. Tona along with him, who had morphed back into his usual laid-back self.

  He had somehow, rather magically taken out a cigarette during the teleportation, or something ridiculous along those lines, promptly lighting its end the moment they stepped out onto Academy grounds.

  The legal age for purchasing cigarettes was 21 in the central continent, and while smoking on campus grounds was allowed, it was generally frowned upon for moral and health reasons.

  The faculty and 6th years could technically indulge in the habit, but the Kingdoms of Aethernalis taxed cigarettes highly, making smoking a rather expensive hobby in the central continent.

  Along with the costs further driven up by the lack of demand within the kingdoms due to the rather aggressive anti-smoking campaign that the governments had gotten up to over the past 50 years, the habit was definitely not one seen often in society.

  And Aurelius, after spending some time with the addicted and retired sage, he could understand why it was seen as such a horrible habit. Cigarette smoke tasted absolutely atrocious.

  “Could you… cut back on your smoking habit? I’ve been told that I have weak lungs Mr. Tona.” Aurelius asked, as he swallowed back his cough.

  “Nope. You’ll need to learn to deal with it.” He replied, completely ignoring Aurelius’s pleas.

  In fact, he seemed to be struck by the most interesting idea as he smoothly tapped out another cigarette from his smoking case.

  “Actually, would you like a stick? You can learn to enjoy the joys of nicotine instead.” Mr. Tona offered, his cheerful face covered by another puff of disgusting fumes huffing from his nostrils.

  Aurelius couldn’t help but make a face at this irresponsible statement. What an enigmatic man Mr. Tona was!

  To be perfectly honest, he was still a little unnerved from his serious demeanour back in the Tower cells. To see the man’s mood shift in such a drastic manner was enough for Aurelius to suspect that he had more than a few screws loose in his head…

  Aurelius stepped into the elevator with Mr. Tona, which the man graciously paid for, slipping a few coins to dissolve onto the basin.

  As he watched the 3 copper coins disappear into the depths of the illusory waters of the bowl, Aurelius felt a wave of fatigue wash over him.

  The sleep that he had been part of in the tiny hours before he was so nicely hauled from was spent with his feet frozen in a block of stone, and the whole process had also been incredibly tense and stressful for his poor body.

  “The Commission will be committing quite a bit of resources to clean this mess up and to protect you. We can’t have someone like you fall into fae hands, especially at a delicate time such as this.”

  “You’ve become something far more valuable than an informant, and the Fae also knows of your existence. We screwed up when we let information about you leak for a while after the raid. We thought it would be useful to lure them to us, but it would be fair to assume that they’ve already noticed the blueprint in your soul.”

  Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.

  “Hard to say if they know enough to investigate further or come after you aggressively after we up your security, I would think that you should be relatively safe judging from their inactivity in the last few decades.”

  “On another note, since we can’t officially list you as a member of the Commission, that contract is really the only thing that keeps you bound to us for now.”

  “However, we expect you to graduate from the Academy this year as a third year to enter a pseudo apprenticeship under one of Sage Yeltz’s aides.”

  “Of course, Yvette will be your actual mentor in practice, but we can’t have you attracting the attention of… interested 3rd parties.” Mr. Tona explained cheerfully.

  “I see… Will I be getting paid?” Aurelius asked, completely serious.

  Mr. Tona looked a little stunned by this question, staring back at Aurelius with a broad, leering smile.

  “AHAHAHA. I like you kid! Don’t die!” Mr. Tona replied, his laughter echoing in the confinement of the elevator.

  “You’re responsible for that, sir.” Aurelius muttered humourlessly, his face turning sour at the non-answer.

  “You’ll earn–hic–an apprentice’s wage WHEN you graduate!” Mr. Tona answered, his voracious laughter having turned into hiccups along the way, perhaps some karmic justice for how hard he was laughing at Aurelius’s plight.

  “Also–hic–you’re excused from school tomorrow. We’re using the most amazing excuse! ‘Recuperation from emotional damage’! You were arrested after all!” He commented, struggling against his hiccups.

  Aurelius felt a wave of happiness wash over him at this statement. He didn’t have to wake up in like 2 hours! Not that he planned to. He would probably have just played truant tomorrow. But an official excuse? That was likely the best news he had heard for the day.

  As he bade farewell to Mr Tona, he slipped into his new room, with a snoring Tiberius sprawled across one of the beds.

  Mr. Tona nodded back as he entered the room next door, still hiccuping as he took out a cigarette.

  Aurelius slid into the bed, not even bothering with his clothes, and promptly knocked himself out into a blissful sleep within seconds of his head hitting the pillow.

  ???

  Aurelius yawned as he munched on his ‘breakfast’, which he had bought from the city.

  Mr. Tona walked beside him, a few meat skewers in his hands as he took in his own fill of the Tlacualtzin street food.

  He seemed completely unconcerned about Aurelius, who he was supposed to be protecting, and was savouring every bite of his breakfast.

  “Mmmmm, absolutely delicious! I’ll be bringing some back for my wife later!” He announced, his mouth still full of meat.

  Aurelius sighed at this old mage, rather annoyed with his… seeming immaturity.

  It was already 12pm, and the city was bustling with life as magicars and people walked past. The occasional Royal Underground stations spewed citizens out to the streets, adding vibrancy and activity to the sidewalks.

  “Is your wife with you in the city, Mr. Tona?” Aurelius asked in an effort to make small talk.

  “Yes! She’s actually a writer, so she loves to travel. That’s a part of why I took the contract in Aethernalis!”

  “I would very much have preferred to stay cooped up in the Western continent and enjoyed my retirement, but she wanted to come over for a ‘pilgrimage’ at one of the cultural epicenters of the world. Or so she says.”

  “We’re staying at one of the nicer hotels at the Commission’s expense actually. And while I’ll say a lot of things about the Commission, you'd be hard pressed to find complaints about their welfare!” He replied enthusiastically, slipping into a tangent about how much he loved his wife.

  This tangent went on for around 5 more minutes, with him only returning to topic as he threw away his last skewer.

  “Anyways, your mentor will take over babysitting duty when we return to the Academy. Since my wife has locked me out of our room to focus on her writing, I’ll be taking a gander to the Commission to fill out some paperwork and deal with a few… idiot mages in training.” Mr. Tona explained casually to a suddenly attentive Aurelius.

  “Err, do you know what Ms. Yeltz has prepared for me today?” Aurelius asked, realising what Mr. Tona had stated.

  “Nope. Beats me. She was pretty insistent about taking you up as a mentor. A real shame since I could probably have used you as an excuse to not train those little commission bores and deal with a lot less paperwork.” Mr. Tona replied, completely unconcerned.

  SHE wanted to be my mentor? Aurelius wondered, dread slowly setting in as he considered what the sage had in store for him.

  If it was anything like her personality, it was going to be nothing but trouble!