An Outing

Sitting in the packed lecture hall of Professor Cilla's class, Cyrus listened attentively as he was instructed on this week's lesson.

"With an understanding of human anatomy you are able to accurately manipulate your own and other's inner life force. But now you must learn how to accurately mess with it in a destructive and a reconstructive manner," lectured Cilla from the head of the hall.

"So today we will be focusing on just that, using these frogs as our experimental subjects for the sake of simplicity. If you want to apply it to higher order beings, well, you will need to do those experiments on your own time and from your own pocket.

"Now! Connect your sense to whatever basic sensory spell you have and fully submerge yourself in it, I will create a fault in the frogs that will eventually kill it if you do not find and fix it.

"When you do fix it let me know and I will create a slightly more difficult one and so on. We will do this for a few hours and then switch over to you creating the faults.

"The goal will be to change the smallest thing possible and kill the creature. Of course, you will need more than just your magic to do this task..."

Clapping her hands a row of helper students came out of the woodwork and handed out a set of tools of the trade. Scalpels of varying sizes, a stitching kit, and even saws...anything and everything you might expect a healer to require.

"Courtesy of Glacies, though this is all you will get. Of course you can technically fix everything with magic, but that is horribly inefficient as well as it could leave certain complications if you do not somehow destroy all the leftover dead tissue."

Looking at the container of frogs sitting in front of him and then through the bag of assorted tools that had just been handed out, the unmasked Cyrus grabbed a sharp looking scalpel and went to work.

----

Having finished attending the class, and learning a decent amount, Cyrus immediately left for the front entrance of Glacies to see if he could apply for leave.

After a quick chat with a stern looking bookkeeper who kept track of everyone entering and leaving the Academy, Cyrus was able to successfully apply for a short leave so long as he returned within twenty four hours.

Pleased with the outcome, he ran back to his room to get changed and then ran right back out the front door.

---

Walking through the inner sanctum, admiring the frightening but awe inspiring Eye Of Babel, he eventually walked past the golden arches that sectioned off the inner sanctum from the rest of the city.

Finally seeing the normal packed cityscape that he had grown to enjoy, he felt at ease as he blended into the crowd sporting his usual leather travelling gear.

He did not dally, though, for he had a place to be and a time that he had to arrive at.

Half running and half walking, he headed for the farthest reaches of the population zone where he would find individuals who were a little rougher than normal but who were the sort that he was most familiar with.

The destination that he arrived at was another hidden bar, just like when he had masqueraded as a noble sort for fun not too long ago, but now he was going as himself so that he could seek answers to the questions he had.

--

Walking into the hidden bar, Cyrus did not even bother with the usual formalities that one might need in an establishment like this and instead just snapped his fingers in front of the barkeep and cast a quick spell.

Recognition, awe, but most importantly fear was self evident as mages were often seen as a force beyond normal means even in a world as crazy as Mundus.

Cyrus made a silence gesture with his finger and instead made his purpose known,

"A meeting should be scheduled for right around now, correct? I am the other party, Dusk."

The barkeep did not bother to confirm, for who was he to argue if a mage decided to impersonate someone else? No, instead he quickly agreed and led Cyrus to the back room with all due haste.

'That worked quite well, huh' remarked Cyrus inwardly.

His other half responded in a bored tone, 'Duh, we are not as weak as we were just a few weeks ago. There is no need to waste time on playing by the rules and sneaking around when we have absolute power.'

Though Cyrus was not the largest fan of throwing around power left and right, for who knows who could be watching where, he was certainly a fan of saving time where he could.

Sitting down in an arrangement much like the last time he had visited the underworld, he waited patiently for but a full minute before the other party showed themselves.

It was an aged man with a sharp look in his eye, one that did not even fade considering the other party that he was talking to.

He sat down slowly and looked at Cyrus, curiosity clear as day written all over his face.

"Dusk, a curious mage with questions to ask" said Cyrus in introduction.

"Amaro, underboss for this small chain of bars and other associated institutions. I have to say, I was surprised when I received a letter from an associate from another chain that a mage working under a noble had some questions to ask.

"From his words, it seems that everyone in your group is a curious one. Well, for the right materials I don't care if you wanted me to come clean your shoes so long as the price is right.

"Now, do you have the goods?"

Cyrus nodded and from within his gear he pulled out several bottles that cost him just a few Fidem, but from his analysis was worth far more than its weight in gold when sold to the right people. Not to mention that following a suggestion from his more mischievous half, he had split one bottle into several.

Amaro took one with Cyrus' consent and inspected it carefully, then placing it on the far end of the table he opened one with a piece of string and looked inside it from a distance.

A few drops of a dark liquid could be seen, liquid death essence.

"Good, good, this stuff is great. All right, ask whatever you need and then some. I am not one to short change a valuable asset like yourself, if you need any of our other 'services' just let me know."

'Hey that sounds like it could be interesting," said the dark half from within, 'ask him what else he has to offer, maybe we can work our way up the chain and find some kind of assassination guild we can hire to help Minerva out.'

'Yeah, no' responded the bright half, 'I already feel horrible about supplying these guys with these bottles for some information, I will not go even deeper.'

While in the outside world Cyrus replied with,

"I am not a native of this region, well the Empire in general, and so I wish to know how exactly this place is run. I know of the Empire's laws on paper, but in application they seem to be a little different.

"For example, I am aware that you run protection services for certain parts of town and certain people. Why is there even a market like that for you to exploit in a place that adheres to Imperial Rule?"

Amaron had a strange look on his face as he took a moment to think before he explained,

"That is a very complicated thing to explain young man, so much so that even I as one on the inside am unable to completely answer that....

"Showing you is easier than telling you I guess, how about I take you on a little trip with me and my men as we head out to our next job. You came at a good time, this next one is a hot one and so it should answer your question."

Though Cyrus was not expecting to suddenly be taken along for an underworld 'job', he was curious enough to go along with it and so he agreed but with one stipulation.

"I will just be watching then, but I am not one to watch innocents be harmed...keep that in mind."

The underboss just shook his head and said reassuredly, "If things go as I think they will, then I don't think you will have to worry about us being the ones to harm anyone. Now, let us hurry so that we do not miss the show."

And so Cyrus was lead by the underboss to a back exit where several rough looking individuals were being told something by a clearly superior individual as they listened carefully and attentively.

Linking up with them, and all the men greeting the underboss in shock, the two groups successfully linked up and made steady pace to where this job was.