At the moment, I feel like a spring that has been stretched to its limit. It is presently taking all of my will to resist the urge to move.

  I am not allowing myself to even twitch. After all, the moment that I move from my position, I am not going to stop moving. I will keep fidgeting like there is no tomorrow. With anybody else, that wouldn't have been an issue.

  I am not dealing with anybody else at the moment, though. My master is a predator. He will pounce on any weakness that I will show him. On top of that, the man knows me very well, so he will be able to tell every sign of my anger and fear. (I have had enough Arguments with the man, you know.)

  To be honest, even I am not sure how I feel. I certainly feel angry. At the same time, I also feel nervous. Well, I think the more precise description would be that I am shitting my pants. Well, I really need to stop thinking about that fact. That I am supposed to be feeling scared here. After all, the more I think about it, the more I am going to be scared. I can't allow that now. I can't collapse into a wreck with that man today. I want to confront the man today. It is not something that I will be able to do with fear in my heart.

  I really should focus on my anger. That is the only thing that will allow me to act against this man. Well, that is a pretty easy task. Even as I record this, I think about the humiliation of the last couple of days, and I can feel myself losing it. I can feel my heart pounding like a drum, sending enough blood to my head that I am feeling a bit light.

  Right now, I have to admit that I am in a pretty unique state. It feels like I am in two places. On one side, I can feel my emotions fluctuate between fear and anger. On the other hand, it feels like I am somebody else looking at my emotions like a stranger. Right now, I am only able to function due to this unique state. Otherwise, I wouldn't be able to string together two thoughts.

  It is a curious little feeling. I find myself lost in thought as I try to find more words to describe this feeling more accurately. That is why I am not able to react as the door to the Formation Room is ripped opened.

  I mean that literally. I follow the door's path as it hits the wall behind me, with a clatter. The door is completely shattered, as it breaks into individual wood chips. With that, anger takes over my fear completely as I look at the cause of this unneeded destruction. Do you know just how much of a pain that is going to be to fix?

  "Where is your head, you old man. Do you know that doors have handles? You can open it with your hands.", I reply, getting up to beat the man. (I should temper myself. attacking the man is also not a good option.) "You do realise that I am going to be the person who will have to fix the damn door."

  "That is enough words from you, you brat." The man snaps back. "Sit down before I am forced to snap your hand."

  Even as he says so, the man holds my outstretched fist and pushes me to the ground.

  "You have left me with enough of a mess to deal with already. What made you want to attack a person of the Aegis? Especially somebody with as much influence as Anthony Greyvoid." The man says with barely suppressed irritation.

  "Don't you dare blame me about this. This entire thing has been your mess, you know." I reply, anger getting the better of me.

  "Whatever you mean by that, you brat?" he replies, his voice knocking against my head like a drum. (That could be my heart as well.)

  "You know plenty well what I mean. You sent the strikeforce and me so that you will be able to hide whatever you are doing. You included the Aegis, knowing what they do and knowing that I can't tolerate them. All so that you can fail at hiding a secret that was still almost found." I growl. "Whatever you are doing, you do realise that you have been playing a pretty dangerous game. Whatever you were hiding was almost revealed to the searchers."

  "Whatever do you mean by that?" The man replies, with a hint of what I am hoping is nervousness. (It's really hard to tell between the man's anger and fear.)

  "Yggdrasil." I say, "What does it mean?"

  It is almost a pleasure to see the man panic right in front of my eyes. I don't let it distract me as I feel a shiver run down my spine. The man is terrifying when he gets serious, and right now is the most serious I have seen him in a long while.

  "How do you know that, you fucking idiot? Why did you have to mention that in a log, of all things? You do realise that the scholars tend to spy on all thought loggers." The man growls as he waves his hands. "They might have already detected the word even now."

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  Out of his hands come two pins that hit the wall opposite me. (It is going to leave a dent.) From these two pins, two waves emerge, creating a barrier around us. Even through my haze of thoughts, I find myself bending forward trying to study them. It is always a treat to look at my master's formations.

  "You can speak now. How did you find out about this?" my master growls in unmistakable panic.

  I can feel my body shiver lightly, even as the man stares at me. Well, I am trying to think of the times that my master has shown this much panic. I don't remember any.

  "You do realise that knowledge fire is a druidic spell. You are the biggest expert there is on druidic spells. Do you think that the scholars won't be connecting the dots any day now?" I ask. "Anyway, do the Mayfires know that you are dealing with the necromancer. I would prefer not to be their enemies, by the way. They seem to be a decent sort."

  "No, the Mayfires knew. The necromancers were not supposed to betray us in that manner. I would have destroyed them personally if I could. That would certainly have attracted too much attention, though." The man replies, more with surprise than anger. "I couldn't draw attention to myself. Even now, I am not sure if I succeeded. I am hoping that they are seeing this mission as me training you."

  "Well, is whatever you were working on related to this Yggdrasil. You haven't told me what Yggdrasil even is." I ask the man again.

  "You ask questions that you are not supposed to, you brat. Anybody else would have already punished you.", my master asks me, a very rare intensity to his voice. "It is not something that you are supposed to know about yet. You still haven't told me how you fucking found out about that word?"

  "Do you think that I would not try to read the letter once I saw the fire. Also, if you are trying to escape from the scholars, you have to do a better job than this clumsy attempt of yours." I reply. "They almost did manage to read this letter of yours. If they even had a small idea about knowledge fire, that is the very first thing that they would have done."

  "I had my protections in place, brat. Even the scholars would not have been able to break my cyphers so easily.", the man replies, his voice booming. "What made you guess that it was my letter, anyway?"

  "Now, don't you try to escape from answering the question. I am not a kid anymore, you realise." I reply with a calmness that I am proud of. That is the only reason that I recognise the warning in his eyes. "I know your handwriting, old man. I might have seen only a single word from the letter, but I have seen enough to tell it was yours."

  "Ok, good. Now, I can't speak about it to you, kid. You are simply not strong enough for that knowledge." my master replies. "By the way, whatever you do, don't mention this word anywhere on the logs. It will attract attention to your log. I swear that you don't want that. Also, do any of the scholars suspect anything?"

  "They didn't show any sign that they suspected in the disciple's tomb at least.", I reply. "I do think they are suspicious of my knowledge of knowledge fire. It is rare that people know a spell that they don't have an idea of."

  "Okay, good, that should buy me some time at least. You don't need to worry about the scholars. I will deal with them soon enough." he replies. "So, is there any chance that you will be willing to return to the guard corps. I certainly can't deal with you in the near future. I have enough fires to put out as it is."

  Even as the man says this, I feel a red-hot sense of anger in my mind. The only thing that prevents me from losing my mind is an iron-like will. Acting only in anger now means that the man will play me like a fiddle. Still, before I can temper my mind, I reply to the man.

  "Why do you even bother asking. There is no way that I will be returning to the guard corps. I don't know why you thought that you needed to ask?" I growl at the man. "You might as well have sent one of those slavers to come talk to me. You do seem to be quite chummy with them nowadays."

  "The guard corps is not a slaver, kid", my master replies, oddly very calm. "They are just people who are recruited by them. You could say that they are much like the sworn of your Legion."

  "Which person are you trying to fool, you old man. Don't you even try to compare them to the sworn. Even you know that is not a valid comparison." I reply, annoyance returning to me. "The sages called their slaves guards. That didn't change the fact that they were nothing but slaves."

  "They are not slaves, you brat." The man replies. "The guards recruit people to act as guards for their young talents. Almost every faction has a set of guards like that. Even your legion has an entire section of the sworn that do that."

  "Well, calling people by numbers. Having them earn their names. A general disregard for their safety. You do realise that they have copied everything from the sages. The only thing that they are lacking is collars around the necks." I realise that my voice has been steadily getting louder with each word. "They followed every command of their idiot of a boss, you know. Even the one that got them killed. Do you think that any person who could think for themselves would have entered into a place like that? The man did not even have the decency to respect them after all they had done. You can take my word, they are nothing but slaves."

  I can feel my body heat up, my heart pounding like the beats of a drum. I can feel sweat on my back. I am thankful that I kept the sword on the other side of the room. I would have drawn it if it were next to me.

  "Will you calm down, kid. I know that you have a bit of a histor.....", my master starts.

  "A bit of a history. I haven't yet forgotten the feeling of a collar on my neck, you old timer. If you knew of this group, how did you expect me to tolerate them? How in the hells did you expect me to work with the guards once I had learned that they did something like that?" I reply, wishing that my sword were here.

  Consequences be damned, one good strike might have been enough to vent the anger I feel. You know what, I am just going to punch the man, consequences be damned.

  "Fine, fine. I apologise." The man speaks, his voice barely a whisper.