It was a system message. He must have gotten it while he was studying, and completely ignored it. He was excited. It had been days since the last message; he wondered which skill had increased this time.

The ethereal box opened with fanfare at his touch.

[Analyze has risen to level 8] [Your Wisdom has increased by one point.]

“Finally!”

A week of continuous learning and the skill finally ended the silence with good news. If he was tired before, then he no longer felt it. His mind had refreshed. He looked over his shoulder at the bedding by the window and smirked. “You can’t stop me today.” He mumbled and turned his head back around to face the corner with the dancing lights. He had deliberately placed his bedding there, believing he would not be able to concentrate if it was placed in his line of sight. And he was right. The evening his father brought the bedding, he didn’t practice mana sense and slept till noon the next day. The Witch had a few words to say about it, and he felt awful the whole day afterward.

Next, he inspected himself, to check his growth. He needed only to speak the word ‘Inspect’ and the status appeared in front of his eyes. This is how the Witch knew his status. She could also use the skill without needing to touch the target. There was nothing magical about it.

The physical side of his stats remained unchanged, but his mental skills had risen by a total of 4 points in the past week. It was an unprecedented amount of growth considering a skill like ‘Analyze’ had been in slumber for years. Four in one week, and eight in the next three; he would get the job done if he could to keep the pace. However, Mannat wasn’t very excited. He knew how treacherous the last few levels could get.

He worried that the skill, Inspect, which still had four levels to get through, would be the one to hold him back. The garden might raise the skill by another level, but it would definitely not take it over the limit.

Therefore, it was time to take the decision, to ask the Witch about other ways, or to allow him to go to the village. Of course, he wasn’t planning to run away. Not only had he just started to read the books but was also far from being able to sense mana inside others.
Most importantly, his mother was there, sleeping under the tree. He needed the Witch’s help to cure her. 

There was time until evening. His father wouldn’t be coming for another couple of hours. He had to leave that day. It was a race with time. Making his mind, he stood up and went to the raven. He didn’t know where the Witch usually went in the day or at other times –she liked to be mysterious—but he figured the raven would know -- after all, it was her bird.

The blackbird instantly opened its red eyes when he drew near it. She opened her small black mouth, flared her wings to their maximum length to deter his ideas, and shrieked in the loudest voice possible. That ear-grating sound would have easily scared away a large predator, but Mannat didn’t wasn’t there to hurt her anyway. He stopped a short distance from her and said, “I want to talk to the witch.”

The raven snarled again as if telling him to stop pestering and go back to his seat. It was annoying, but Mannat didn’t let off either.

“I have to ask the Witch if I can go back to the village for the evening. My practice is in a bottleneck. I need to find other ways to improve my skills.”

He could see a glint of intelligence in the raven’s eyes. It was, like most ravens, a very intelligent bird, and it had shown a hint of it by following the Witch’s order to keep him away from the garden at nights.

However, Mannat was still left surprised when it gave him an affirmative nod before flying out of the door. The door hadn’t been closed since he had taken perch inside the hut. No wonder some dirt had again accumulated on the floor. He hadn’t found time to clean the floor and dust the hut in the past week. Since he didn’t have the mind to study, he decided to get on with it. He was too anxious to get any work done, anyways.

The Witch arrived just in time as he finished cleaning the room. Perhaps, she had been standing there for who knows how long and Mannat simply hadn’t noticed her presence. It was possible.

The cleaning had barely taken him a couple of minutes so he possibly hadn’t kept her waiting for too long. However, he lost his calm when he saw her. His heart did a jump inside his chest and almost few out of his mouth. He had to say, she looked creepier in the shadow with light coming from behind her. It was almost impossible to see her true self in the night, but in the day, she was a sight to fear.

Mannat coughed to clear his blocked throat –he couldn’t utter any words—and went straight to her side. There was an eager spark in his chest wanting to grow out. He happily let it bud a fire.

“I want to leave,” Mannat said. He was compact, precise, and utterly dumbfounded at the coldness of his voice. He didn’t give the reason. One could say he was confrontational and wanted to see the witch’s bottom line. It was like bargaining with a merchant for his freedom. He didn’t think she would give him total freedom, but he would confront her for a better deal. He wouldn’t be angry even if she disagreed.

This is why he was shocked silly when the Witch answered with nonchalance. “I thought you’d never leave.”
For a moment Mannat thought he’d heard wrong. Then smiled like a baby chick taking its first flight, before growing nervous and thoughtful.

“I am not quitting.” He hurriedly explained. “I only want to leave to find a better way to improve ‘Inspect’. I’m improving too slowly in the garden. I don’t think the skill will reach its limit here in time.”

The witch stared at him without blinking with her bright, but sunken yellow eyes, and sneered at him. “Foolish boy,” She stressed the first word. “I know what you want to do. I am telling you to do whatever you want.”
“Oh…” Mannat didn’t take grievance over her tone. That’s who she was: rude, brisk, and blunt. “Well, thank you then.” He nodded and was about to leave when another voice rose inside his head. “Why not see mother before you go?” The voice said calmly, deliberately pushing him toward the well of death; and Mannat fell to its trap.

“Mother…” The word squeaked out of his throat. It came out sharp and low, like spoken while being strangled. The witch raised a brow in question. Do you want more? It seemed to be asking.

Mannat though bit his lower lip, didn’t drop his head, and asked looking straight into her eyes. “Can I see my mother, please?” He wasn’t polite and it wasn’t a request.

Be strong. That is what his father had taught him. Never drop your head in fear. Admit your mistakes and keep your mind empty. Let your heart do the talking.
When Raesh told him these words, he was talking about how to forge a good piece, but Mannat found them well-fitting in the situation.
He wanted the Witch to agree, even more so than this first request. The Witch had left him with a dangling carrot that he couldn’t reach. Though she had never given him the stick, he inherently understood the difficulty of her tasks was no shorter than a knife hanging over his neck.

Even an animal forced to work requires some sustenance from time to time, and Mannat had just reached the peak of his mental resistance. The Witch might have agreed to his first request, but he would never be at peace without seeing his mother once. He had to know if she was still in the underground chamber, alive and asleep.

The Witch’s eyes softened. The change was loud enough for Mannat to notice. He was sure she was deliberately showing him the changes to calm his nerves, but he didn’t care. She could play all the games she liked, he only wanted her to agree to his request this once and he’d be thankful to her.

“Why not,” The witch said and a weight lifted from Mannat’s shoulders. The Witch’s continued, “Even a donkey laden with weight needs some sustenance. Come,”