"Hey, Granny Fox,"  Marik said as he dropped his pile of notes on the table.

"Granny Fox?"

"Huh?  Did I say that out loud?  Umm.  Oops.  I guess you know what I call you in my head these days, at least?"

"We're going to need to have a good talk about how you think of me one of these days, boy."

"Oh, come on.  It's at least endearing without being demeaning.  I could go back to thinking of you as the old crotchety woman if you prefer?"

"Boy, if you're looking for a fight then you're about to get one..."

"I was just trying to point out that I've been nicer to you in my head.  I am looking for a fight, though, kind of.  I brought some new ideas and theories, so test me.  Full course.  I wanna see what I got."

The attacks came immediately.  Apparently he had angered her more than he thought.  With his mind blanket being weaker now, quite a few of the smaller attacks that would likely have been brushed off before actually shattered some of the sections but none of them made it all the way through and the quiet exclamation of pain from the counters in the shards put a small smile on his lips.  That seemed to anger her a little more and the attacks increased in ferocity and frequency.  

His shield was able to block most of the bigger attacks but several smaller ones made it through and battered his mind here and there.  Fortunately he had experienced the mind splitting headaches from his newest arcanistry and was able to keep weathering through the attacks even as they grew stronger.  He noted several minor points for improvements and was feeling fairly proud that not only was he able to keep steady through Granny Fox's assault but was able to do so while standing and still being able to see and hear the world around him, unlike before where his vision would usually start to white out by this time.  A side thought in curiosity made him decide to try something before the attacks actually got to the point where she knocked him out.

Although it diverted his attention away for a bit and allowed more attacks than he wanted to get through, he used one of his arcanistries while hoping that Granny Fox wouldn't notice.  Waiting for what he felt was the best moment, right before he thought one of the strong sorcery attacks was coming, he suddenly swung his claws in the space directly between them as if severing an invisible thread linking their heads.  Apparently it worked because he saw her recoil slightly and the attacks stopped abruptly.

"What was that, boy?"

"Good timing?  I guess?  I managed to add some canceling effects to some of my arcanistries thanks to that tome you gave me.  I made an arcanistry to give me knife claws some time back, mostly for fun, and added that to them.  Since I thought that using mind sorcery would mean you have to kind of throw it out like a linking tunnel or string or something I tried to time it when I thought you were about to attack with sorcery and used the claws to cut through where I thought the connection would be.  I wasn't sure if it would work, though, to be honest."

"No, it definitely worked, boy.  I haven't had a sorcery of mine countered like that in many years.  I should have expected you to come up with something ridiculous like that after finding that annoyingly nasty trap in your mind arcanistry, I suppose.  I honestly didn't expect you to attach counters and canceling effects to your arcanistries.  That such a thing is even possible is both intriguing and horrifying.  Techniques for countering or canceling mystical arts have never been attached to the arts in question before.  They're supposed to be practically a thing by themselves and I expected you to create some technique like that.  These arcane arts of yours become more dangerous to know about every year..."

"Umm, sorry?  There was nothing that said anything about them having to be their own separate techniques, so..."

"*sigh* I won't fault you, boy, for not knowing that and doing your own thing.  It was just unexpected."

"Right.  I take it I passed, then?  At least mostly?"

"Yes.  Most definitely, you passed.  I even feel some small fear in trying to go any further.  For both our sakes."

"Then I guess I'll head outside to visit the girls."

"Before you go, boy.  You should know that Sai has progressed in her own studies of the mystical arts.  Even if she or you feel that she could progress further, and as much as I hate to say this, if you have any intention of actually teaching her arcanistry then I believe that focusing on learning more would likely be more detrimental than beneficial.  Whatever the next step was that you had planned, it might be wise to let her try and take it."

"I see."

Marik though about it for a moment.  It would definitely be better if she got to the point where she could start learning arcane arts sooner rather than later with all of its downsides taken into account.  However, he definitely didn't want her to be handed all of the answers either since the more she worked at trying to figure things out herself the better she would be at figuring out new arcanistries herself.

"If you really think I should tell her the next step, then okay.  It's okay if you give her a little advice and help as a push in the right direction but you can't just outright give her the answer."

"What do you mean, boy?"

"The next two steps are are learning to activate multiple sorceries at once as well as keeping up multiple sorceries while using spells.  I'll tell her the next step and if she somehow manages to succeed and I can't tell her the next step after that in time, then you can tell her yourself."

"I see.  I guess I can do that.  I should probably not think too much further about how it can lead to your arcane arts, though, am I right?"

"That's probably best.  I won't be letting you know any steps after this anyways so as long as you don't think too hard about it then you probably won't come to the right answer.  I'll go ahead and head over, now."

Marik walked towards the courtyard door, grabbing the held out sandwich on the way.  He opened the door as he took a bite of his sandwich and saw Sai in the middle of the courtyard practicing with her rope weapon as normal.  Stepping through the door while making sure it closed behind him, he noticed Kiara sitting in the shade with her chin resting on her knees nearby also like normal.  He had put off thinking about how he had forgotten their presents until too late but he needed to figure out what he was going to do about it by the time he finished eating.  Pretending the sandwich was an excuse not give a greeting yet, he silently sat down near Kiara and continued his thoughtful munching.

For Sai he could give her the good news about her being allowed to move to the next step as well as a beginning hint and that would probably be good enough in addition to the time he would spend playing with her.  Kiara was a little more difficult to figure something out for, though.  If absolutely necessary he could always just punch her in the face?  No, that was probably a bad plan in the end.  Did he have something else?  There was that new arcanistry of his.  He wasn't sure how she felt about massive headaches since that was a slightly different kind of pain.  He could maybe hurt her in some other way?  Or...he could do both at the same time.  He could treat it as both a present and an experiment on finding out if intense pain could be felt throughout the extended time.  He finally finished his sandwich and scooted in front of Kiara.  He quickly thought about what part of her to make hurt as he started talking.

"Hey, Kiara.  I got a quick question.  How do you feel about headaches?"

"Umm, what?"

"Like, is it a full yes for 'yay headaches', an absolute no for 'wrong kind of pain', or a more middling 'not my kind of pain but at least it hurts so, meh, they're okay' kind of thing?  Be honest here.  Like if you could feel like a group of guys had just all taken clubs to your head as hard as they could would that interest you?"

"Are you proposing to me?  Do you want to sleep with me that badly?"

"So from the Sai-like sparkle in your eyes I'll take that as a 'yes, please' kind of thing.  So I didn't have a lot of time for a present for you but I thought you might like to be a part of an experiment that only you could enjoy.  The only thing I ask is that before I leave you answer a question or two about the experiment.  Okay?"

"Okay.  Please.  Now?"

"Let me see your hand real quick?  I'm going to break your pinky first so try and hold yourself back for just a bit after that."

Marik started casting his arcanistry with one hand as he reached out and held Kiara's outstretched hand with is other.  He gently moved his hand until it held her pinky in a way he could snap it as quickly and easily as possible.  As soon as his arcanistry was ready for a target he reached out to flick her forehead to designate her mind as the target.  He snapped her pinky and then immediately flicked her forehead and released the arcanistry.  There was just a fraction of a second where she paused and then she started screaming in a crazy manner.  Marik immediately spun around and, ignoring the screams coming from behind him of a woman in throes of passion, stood up to head over to Sai who was tilting her head ion puzzlement.

"Umm..."

"Hi, Sai.  Don't worry about her.  Her present this time was to help with a little experiment of mine.  How are you?"

He really didn't want to think about what all was going on behind him at the moment.

"Oh.  That's fine, then, I guess.  Hi, I'm doing pretty good.  I've been working really hard.  It hasn't been super fun but it's been kind of fun sometimes and you were right about illusions and stuff because they're fun and so is this rope thing because you have to get all spinny and swirly to make it work and dancing helped and now I can make it go where I want almost all the time and I'm really glad you gave this to me and it's like you're right about so many things because you're so smart."

"Really?  That's all good but I honestly think you're actually smarter than I am.  I mostly got lucky and stuff but that's not really important right now.  Have you managed to start working on hard targets with that, yet?

"Hard targets," she asked while cutely tilting her head.  "What do you mean hard targets?"

"Hmm.  Like trees and stuff I guess?  I mean, if you want to actually be able to use that...how do I say this?  So, let's say one end actually hits someone you want to hit but it either gets stuck or suddenly bounces off in a different direction, what then?  Or what if someone really fast and brave suddenly steps in a little too close and makes the rope start wrapping around something like their arm or a pole or something so that they have control over the dangerous part?  You have to learn how to deal with that kind of thing, too, you know."

"Ah.  I never thought about that.  I'll have to ask master if she can give me a tree to practice on or something."

"I don't know about giving you a tree, but okay.  Whatever ends up working for you.  You should probably explain exactly what you intend to use it for when you tell her, though.  She might have something better, after all.  I just use trees because I can.  Don't forget about the part where it wraps around people and things, too."

"Hmm.  This is hard.  I think I understand, but..."

"Here.  Use the ball end and start swinging it around like you're about to start.  Ya, like that.  Now, when I suddenly shove my arm in from the side like this, see?  It starts wrapping around my arm.  Now I have the ball end and if you want it back it becomes a contest between who's stronger."

"Ohhh.  Oh.  I see now.  Hrm.  So what do I do about this?"

"That's what I'm saying you have to figure out.  I don't have all the answers for everything, and even if I did it wouldn't really be that fun if I just gave them to you, would it?  Think about how great it feels when you suddenly figure something out yourself."

"Maybe.  I think I'd still prefer if you just told me."

"In this case I can't.  I really don't know."

"Fine.  I'll figure it out by myself and show you how awesome I am!"

"I already think you're pretty awesome every time I see you, though."

Why his eyes decided to drift towards her chest about then, only puberty could explain.  He hadn't noticed it much with Kiara while she had been sitting down with her knees in front of her like they had been.  He glanced in Kiara's direction and immediately looked away while silently cursing his young body only to find his eyes coming back to the obvious swells of Sai's chest.  He tried to fix his gaze back on her face and noticed her smiling slightly as if finding his recent actions of looking around secretly amusing.  Even looking at her face made him think she was going to be absolutely gorgeous before too much longer.  He shook his head lightly to try and clear it so he could find a new topic for his mind to focus on.

"Your master said you've been working hard on magic and sorcery."

"Yup.  I'm okay, but not as good as Master, yet."

"No.  From what I hear, you're already good enough for the next step.  This will be one of the harder steps and it's not like you should stop trying to keep getting better, anyways.  The next step just adds something else you have to learn to do while you get better at what you can do now."

"Huh.  Well, if you say so.  So, what is it?"

"Right.  As you keep getting better at sorcery while learning more spell and getting better at using the spells, you also now need to learn how to use more than one sorcery at once.  Aim for being able to use at least two different sorceries of two different types at the same time.  So basically you want to be able to use four at once total.  That's an 'at least' to let you go to the next step.  Even while you're working on the next step you'll want to try and learn to use even more than two times two."

"Hmm?  I thought you can't use more than one at time, though?"

"Ya, so.  That's not entirely true.  Most people don't know it's possible yet so this is kind of a super secret right now.  You can't even tell your sister unless your master says it's okay.  Your master does know how to do it so she can help you some.  In fact, I even told her the next step after this for you so if you succeed before we see each other again then you can tell her to try and get a little ahead, okay."

"Wait.  Master can do it?  And I can't tell Kiara?  Is it that bad if she knows?"

"Maybe.  Maybe not.  But knowing this secret is also dangerous and you don't want her to be in danger, right?  Just ask your master first and make sure she says it's okay."

"Alright.  I don't like hiding things from her, though."

"That's understandable.  Maybe your master will say it's okay.  It's not my call to make on that one, though.  Your master was already angry enough for even agreeing to you doing this without talking to her first, remember?"

"Then I'll just ask her."

"Wait.  Do it tomorrow or later tonight.  Right now is the only time I can help you, answer questions, or give you your hint."

"Okay.  Hint, please."

"Well, why don't you just give it a try first.  Maybe you'll end up doing it first try and won't need the hint, right?"

"Oh.  Good idea.  Hmm.  Urgh!"

Sai stood there and started using sorcery to produce balls of fire, then light, then back again in between her hands.  There was only ever one ball, though, and it always immediately disappeared before being replaced by the nest one.

"This is hard.  What am I doing wrong?"

"Lots of things, if I had to guess.  First off, what are you even trying to do?  If you want to do two at once then maybe you should do them in different spots?  Also, I didn't say you had to keep two up at once so it might be easier if you tried to do something more short-lived.  Ah.  Those weren't the hints, just some advice."

"Huh.  In two spots?  Oh.  Like one in each hand?  Got it.  I'll try again!"

She still looked pretty even while scrunching up her face in concentration.  Why he had to think that was beyond him.  He had been doing so well on paying attention to the conversation and her activities and now it was ruined.  He really didn't like being a young teenager.

"I still can't get it.  Every time I start to do one the other goes away."

"I know.  To be fair, it took me like two years or maybe more more to figure it out fully.  Here's a special hint:  every sorcery is connected to other sorceries."

"Hmm?  I don't understand.  Explain, please!"

"Nope.  It's a hint, not an explanation.  Your master won't tell you the answer either, just so you know.  Figuring it out is part of the step.  There's also a good reason I can't just give you the answer.  I said your master can do this already, right?  But she isn't very good at it because I just gave her the answer.  Figuring it out would mean you'll quickly become better than your master at it, and it's kind of a requirement to become special like you wanted.  I did make your master say that she would at least help you when you get too stuck.  Otherwise just think about it, work on it, and improve all your sorceries and magic in the meantime.  Okay?"

She pouted cutely, then started trying to focus on it again.  Marik looked up and realized evening was approaching soon.  He glanced back over at Kiara, hoping that she was in a state of at least being able to talk again.  She seemed only half-conscious at best and was in a kind of sexy pose, but at least she wasn't screaming and fidgeting anymore so that was probably the safest it would be to try and talk to her.  He walked over and lightly touched her shoulder to try and get her attention without staring too much at her rising and falling chest or thinking about the particular pose the was in.

"Hey, Kiara.  Can you hear me?"

"Hm?  Ah.  More.  Please give me more, darling."

"Ya, about that.  We might need to have a talk someday on how exactly you think of me but I'm going to let that pass for the moment.  You said you'd answer my questions, remember?  It's almost time for me to go, so..."

"Hmm?  Questions?  Sure, I'll marry you..."

"No!  Not that.  Remember how it looked like I was touching your forehead for about five minutes while you couldn't move right before you got that headache?  Could you feel the pain in your finger that whole time?  How about me touching your head after I flicked it, could you feel that the whole time?"

"Huh?  Oh ya.  I remember.  That was great!  Ya, I could feel both the whole time.  And then that headache that wasn't a headache.  So...amazing..."

"Uhuh.  Right.  Well, thanks.  I'm going to leave you to your...you.  Bye bye."

"Ah."

Marik walked away and moved to where Kiara was out of sight but he could keep watching over Sai for a little while.  It was kind of unfortunate that Kiara wasn't his type since she was gorgeous like her sister, which made since with them being identical twins and all.  He kind of hoped that some day he could let her down easy since he didn't want to hurt her emotionally.  Maybe he should start keeping an eye out for the right person for her.  It wasn't that he hated her or even disliked her; it was just that her normal 'simple hard-working girl' mode wasn't exactly his type and the...problem she had was more of a huge turn off for him.  He could understand a little bit of masochism in the bedroom since that made it fun...and why was he thinking about this right now?

Luckily, his master showed up before too long.  He was really going to have to work on controlling himself better.  He waved his farewells to the twins and went home with a few resolutions to face his next year of life.