The stables were in a barn a ten-minute walk from the main hall where Cypur woke up. The air was fresh. Winds carrying the scent of an autumnal season blew his cape, making it flap in the breeze. The dark blue silk with its golden edges shimmered depending how the light touched.

"That's a nice cape you got there," Daero said as they trekked through the field.

"Thank you, I designed it myself." Cypur did a little twirl so Daero could see it from all angles, carefully constructed so the ripples were smooth and magically enhanced to be hard to tear.

Daero gave a laugh. "Impressive! I do wish I had one of those but," He swished his fluffy indigo blue tail behind him, "tails get in the way. They move on their own accord, too."

Cypur thought Daero's tail was kind of like a cape, but he kept his thoughts to himself. He had just offended Kirlan on his way out, joking how Kathula kind of looked naked without clothes. It was hard to tell what would offend a Kathula. But he couldn't help it. He had never been around one. Seeing Daero laugh wasn't as strange because Cypur did know some Halfhuman Sorcerers who had rather feline faces.

They soon came upon a large brown barn, almost as wide as the main hall. It sat before at a lakeside and beyond the lake were more fields and gray, rocky mounds that kissed the clouds. He had never seen mounds that tall before.

"You have big mounds here. Almost as big as Drazlesk Mound." Cypur squinted his eyes, trying to see how high the top actually was.

"They're mountains," Daero said.

"Those are?" Cypur had never seen one in real life. Sure, he'd seen paintings and pictures, but there was nothing taller than Drazlesk in the Fourth Ring.

The high-roofed barn had the typical livestock in low-fenced arenas—pigs, cows, and goats. The next room had five horses and three ponies swishing their tails eating grass or prancing about. Cypur fantasized riding a horse and how awesome his cape would look. He told Daero, but the Kathula Sorcerer shook his head.

"Capes on horses is a bad idea," Daero said. "Can get tangled up if you try to shoot arrows or draw swords, daggers even, and it can startle the horse." He turned left down a narrow hallway where the floorboards creaked.

At last, they came to an arched door. From his upbringing, he knew that often arched doors in Elgana signified a place that had magick in it. For some reason, magick and arched doors liked each other. There was even a census done years ago that discovered magick behind arched doors was stronger than magick worked behind any other door shape. Cypur didn't believe it no matter how many Sorcerers claimed it to be true. Many classroom doors at Academy were rectangle.

Beyond the arched door was a cavern of a place with high-rise vaulted ceilings much like Academy. The hall stretched out wide, circling around the cavern like a small arena. Two arched doors sat on either side of the walls, so high that he had to crane his neck back to see the top. Claw marks grazed the hardened dirt ground and across the ceiling as if some battle had been fought here.

"So, I've captured your Faud. After—"

Cypur whipped around. "How?" Even he couldn't get it under control, and it was his Faud.

Daero answered with a grunt and a shrug. "It took a liking to mine as they are the same reptilian types." He grabbed a set of keys by the door. As he jingled the keys, looking for the right one, Cypur heard a squeal coming from inside followed by a short growl unfamiliar to his ears. That had to be Daero's Faud. It was still hard to believe that a Kathula could have a Faud even though Daero did explain how he had zero Kathula magick in him after his Sorcerer magick canceled everything out.

When the door swung open, Cypur found his Faud curled up in the tail of a large, winged lizard with pale green, iridescent scales that shimmered yellow and blue. Its dark blue wings had a hint of gold glitter that sparkled without any light hitting it.

"Ryerden," Daero called and his Faud gave a nod of its head.

"Calmed down now, seems. It was quite adamant to run rampage in the towns." Daero chuckled lightly and Ryerden's lizard mouth stretched as if to smile. Even standing here, waves of magick, pushed Cypur back, asserting authority over his underdeveloped powers. Daero was stronger than he made himself out to be.

Masked powers. Tremendous. I never want to make an enemy out of him. Cypur sucked in his bottom lip and took a step forward. He wasn't going to show apprehension. As Daero talked in hushed tones to Ryerden, Cypur stared at his sleeping Faud.

After waking up, his chest was empty without his Faud, but now the emptiness subsided or maybe he got used to it. The warmth of his magick was beginning to return and in moments, he felt himself again.

His Faud snapped its eyes opened and squealed at him as if it were angry. Cypur scowled at it. It was his Faud's fault that Wescherlie was hurt, and that Sorcerers died. Now he was a mass murderer. How would he prove his innocence now? Arius said Cypur was not alone in this, but he wouldn't be able to defend in court!

"You ruined everything," Cypur hissed through his teeth. He gripped the edges of his cape.

His Faud squealed again and scrambled up to stand on its short, stumpy legs. Golden magick swirled around its body in glimmering ribbons. The Faud began to grow.

"Hey," Daero said, holding up a paw and stepping toward him, "calm your anger."

Cypur clicked his tongue. He glared at the culprit that got him into all this trouble. Without a Faud, he was going to be exiled. With a Faud, he was a convicted criminal. Maybe now he had a death sentence over his head for all he knew. Besides, his magick energy was fine without a Faud and he could still do magick without one, he could feel it.

The Faud roared and in a flash of golden light, it was as large as Ryerden. Daero bristled and took a few steps back. He held up his paw to Cypur again.

"You have to work together. You need each other."

Cypur gritted his teeth and glared at the now squealing, thrashing mound of indigo scales. The Faud crossed its eyes when it roared, and its transparent tail passed through the wooden walls. The ground rumbled when it stomped. Ryerden moved out of the way.

"It'll listen to me then?" Cypur lifted his chin. "To my commands?"

Daero shook his head. "That's not—"

"Then, I don't want it!" Cypur teleported out of the barn. Outside, he checked his magick levels and they were normal. What was a Faud for anyway?

Just an incompetent animal companion! He huffed and made way to a grove of apples. Under the canopy, some branches hung heavy from ripe fruit. Cypur plucked one and floated up to a branch. He wiped the apple with his sleeve and bit in. Juice dribbled off his chin, sticky and sweet.

"Why can't we choose our Fauds?" he mumbled between bites. It made more sense. He would find one like Daero's. Something that would actually listen to him. Something that wouldn't go off and do things on its own. A Faud was a manifestation of magick. Not a separate entity.

From the tree, he could see the mountain and the lake before it. Maybe he should live here. Peaceful, hidden, and no Sorcerer would find him. Arius knew how to get here, and he could tell Cypur's family if they were so worried. Daero's magick was strong, but not chaotic. Cypur could tell that Kathula was probably at the level of Professor, even higher.

He nodded. Daero could teach him magick. He would help out and wouldn't be trouble. Then after years and years he would appear, and the policewoman wouldn't do anything to him. He would be old news.

As he was finishing the apple, the tree rustled. Leaves fell to his lap. Daero sat on the branch slightly above him. "Always sweet and ripe, this one," he said. His tail came into Cypur's face and flicked around, making him sneeze.

Cypur batted the tail away. "Can you not—"

"That was incredibly stupid, Cypur," Daero said with a deep growl. A shiver ran up Cypur's back. Not because of the growl, but the sudden threat of magick that followed. But he wasn't going to let this Kathula tell him about Faud importance.

"I can use magick fine, see?" He burned the apple core to ashes and let it vanish on a breeze. "Nothing to it."

Daero touched his shoulder and Cypur tumbled onto the grass. They weren't even in the apple grove, but on the other side of the lake. The water glinted in the sunset light. Blues painted with striking orange and gold glitter.

"A lake is pretty on its own, but prettier with sunlight, don't you think?" he said and picked up a flat, oval stone. He skipped it across the water. It fell on the third. "Pfft, I got five in last week. Have you ever skipped stones?"

Cypur shook his head and picked up a stone.

"Not that one. Find the flattest stone you can. Uniform thickness and can't be too heavy. Quite a science." Daero winked and did it again but only got one this time. "Ah, you never can tell. And that was a good stone!"

Holding it at an angle between pointer and thumb, Cypur observed. Flat side was parallel to the lake surface. A wrist flick before the launch, he guessed for the spin to make it almost roll or bounce atop the water. When Daero's stone came bouncing across the water from the side, Cypur burned it into his memory. Replaying that, he was able to slow it down, observe, study, and understand the best way.

Twenty, he guessed the angle for the stone to hit the water. He found three flat stones. Running his fingers across them, he found one with uniform thickness. He turned to Daero who gestured to the water, urging him to try. Cypur stood at an angle to the water, swung his arm back just so, made sure his fingers were right and practiced a few wrist flicks to get the feel of it.

He threw the stone.

One, two, three, He counted, and it dove on seven.

"You beat my record!" Daero exclaimed with a trill. Cypur smirked and did another, just the same. It fell after five. Again, the same.

Daero laughed and returned to his side. "Exceptional, as rumored."

"Of course," He combed his hair back with his hand and lifted his chin, "and I know I am." He smirked. The anger from earlier had left.

"But I don't feel the level of magick I should be feeling from you." Daero put an arm around Cypur's shoulder. "You're stronger than you think."

Back to that again. Cypur pulled away. "Even Wescherlie said that, and I thought it was about my Faud, but then that chaos comes out. But my magick's matured, I'm sure. I just need to advance in school to be stronger."

Daero shook his head. "Not really. Advancing in school just gives you books with complicated spells. Not stronger magick. That is something you, in particular, are born with."

No one ever said that back home, Cypur frowned. Daero began to explain 'born-with magick'.

"Over the course of your life, you build magick energy on top of your born-with magick every time you push yourself. It's like building muscle when you exercise. If you don't push yourself, you don't become stronger. But you," He tapped Cypur's chest, "your magick is strong from the beginning. Imagine being born with giant muscles."

Cypur thought of a baby with muscles and wrinkled his nose. "You gave me a nightmare image."

Daero chuckled. "You aren't using your magick as you should be. The excess of what you're not using is sent to your Faud. It was building up because they only teach so much at Apprentice level in Academy. You should have started at Scholar to get your Faud at the proper age."

He was like Precense? Cypur realized then what Daero was saying. It wasn't his Faud's fault for all this acting up. It was the school for holding him back.

"They should have recognized it, right?"

"I'm starting to believe it was on purpose." Daero bristled. "Most are rank frauds, anyway. I visited, so I know. Currently, very few of Academy committee are Professor-level Professors."

"What?!" They were all liars over there? All imbeciles deciding his fate?

"Hold you back to see when it would explode, no doubt. Then something would inevitably happen. They would extract your magick using whatever reason they could get. It's all they want."

Cypur ran his fingers through his hair. There was nothing wrong with him. Not one bit. It was Academy that was rotten. Blaming Cypur for everything that made him who he was. Threatening exile, knowing they could hold him back to make him not develop his Faud. Keep him in low-magick classes, feeding his excess magick energy into a developing Faud.

And then golden explosion, as calculated. He nodded. They could probably tell from the first day that Cypur was exceptional. He had golden hair and where would that come from?

"Does anyone else know? Arius?"

Daero shook his head. "And the only evidence is my word, if you trust my word. Trying to get in touch with the High Collection Sorcerer representative. Get him to go down there, or her, or them, I don't even know the gender."

"Faud and I are both not at fault."

"In my speculations, if you trust—"

"I do." Cypur smiled. He didn't know why, but Daero seemed genuine to him. "Funny that I trust a Kathula Sorcerer and not my own race, but as things would have it, that's how it is. And I shouldn't have said that stuff to Faud. Maybe it was trying to tell me."

"It's 'he'. Ryerden communicated about those pronoun preferences. After all, Fauds are individual creatures once your magick has settled. You need each other to use your full powers."

So, he really is like an animal companion. Cypur mused. It didn't sound half bad now.

Daero sniffed the air. "I smell keibeck on the breeze. I've been dying to get a real Sorcerer to try it. Come on, your Faud cools his anger by sleeping, not skipping stones."

"I don't know how stumpy legs could skip stones." Cypur turned to the barn, wondering what Faud thought of him now.

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Note: Author here!

Daero is a Kathula Sorcerer. As much of an anomaly and rarity as Cypur. How did he come to be? And why does he seem like quite a figure in this hidden bit of Kathula society? Interesting, isn't it?