After the silver-haired hurricane named Seraphina was dragged out of the lobby, the atmosphere in the Guild slowly returned to normal.
The mages went back to their books and the merchants went back to their complaining. Gerald looked like he had aged five years in the last ten minutes.
He let out a long, weary sigh and wiped his forehead with a handkerchief. He signaled for us to follow him back into his private office. I walked between my parents, trying to look as small and unremarkable as possible. I really did not want any more people pointing fingers at me today.
Gerald closed the heavy wooden door behind us and gestured for us to sit. He took his place behind his desk and leaned forward, his hands folded. He looked at Daniel and Grace with a sympathetic expression.
"I want to apologize for that unfortunate encounter in the lobby," Gerald said. "Lady Seraphina is... spirited, I suppose is the word. But I assure you she is ultimately harmless. She is just a child who has been given too much power and not enough discipline. Her family is the ruling authority in the Grandell city, so the staff tends to let her have her way."
Daniel did not look comforted by that explanation. He sat on the edge of his chair, his hands resting on his knees. I could see the tension in his shoulders.
"Harmless?" Daniel asked. His voice was low. "I saw her scorch a marble floor because she was angry. In my experience, children who are harmless do not have the power to turn a person into a charcoal briquette. If my son is going to be here, what protections does the Guild actually offer? What happens if she decides to pick another fight with him when we are not around?"
Gerald hesitated for a moment. He shifted some papers on his desk, avoiding Daniel's gaze. That pause told me everything I needed to know. It was a classic corporate move. When the boss doesn't want to give you a straight answer because the truth is bad for business, they always look at their paperwork first.
"Technically," Gerald said, "all Guild students are under our protection. We have strict rules against internal conflict. However, the political realities are complicated. The Grandell house is one of the twelve great noble families. They provide a significant portion of our funding. Handling conflicts with them is... a delicate process."
Daniel let out a sharp, cynical laugh. "Delicate. Right. So if she burns him, you will write a very polite letter to her father asking him to please tell her to stop."
Gerald looked pained. "It is not that simple. Cid's unique abilities make him very valuable to us. He is a rare research subject. I can promise you that the Guild would intervene in any overt threats to his safety. We do not want our investments being damaged by a child's tantrum."
I noted the word overt. It was doing a lot of heavy lifting in that sentence. It meant they would stop her if she tried to kill me in front of everyone, but they would probably look the other way if she just made my life miserable in private.
"Let us look at the contract," Gerald said, clearly wanting to change the subject. He pulled a thick stack of parchment from a drawer and laid it out on the table.
I leaned forward, trying to look like a curious kid looking at pictures. In reality, I was reading every single word with my adult mind. I was looking for the fine print. I was looking for the ways they could screw me over.
The terms were surprisingly fair on the surface. The Guild would provide my magical education immediately. I would have access to the Guild's basic resources. In exchange, I had to submit to weekly evaluations. I had to allow my techniques to be documented for their research."
I spotted several loopholes almost immediately. The contract said I had to cooperate with research, but it did not define what "cooperation" meant.
I could give them just enough information to keep them happy while keeping my best secrets to myself.
I could be strategically incompetent.
I looked at my parents. They were both staring at the contract like it was written in a foreign language. They could read basic script, but legal jargon was a different beast entirely.
I gave Grace a subtle, slow nod. I tried to make it look like I was just bobbing my head to a silent rhythm. She looked at me for a second, then looked back at Gerald.
"Why are you really interested in my son?" Grace asked. Her voice was soft but firm. "There must be other children with unusual magic in a city this big. Why go through all this trouble for a farm boy with a tiny mana pool?"
Gerald decided to be honest. Maybe he realized that Grace was smarter than she looked. "In my twenty years as an examiner, I have seen thousands of candidates. Most mages have a resonance efficiency below ten percent. A few reached fifteen. I have only seen a handful of people with efficiency above twenty percent. Your son's resonance is twenty-seven percent."
He looked at me and then back at my mother. "He is the only person with this level of talent that I can actually study without getting executed for treason. He is going to help me rewrite the book on magic theory. I wants to observe the process of how someone with a small pool uses such high efficiency to do magic."
He leaned in closer, his expression becoming serious. "There is another reason. We need to understand how power like this works so we can prevent accidents. There are many mages all over the world who use magic incorrectly. They push their bodies too hard or they miscalculate their formulas. Sometimes, they literally explode. It is a messy way to die, and it often takes a few bystanders with them. I want to make sure that doesn't happen to your son."
I felt a chill run down my spine. Exploding didn't sound very comfortable.
"The man is right. We've seen how curious Cid is about magic. We've seen him trying to move things and making sparks. He is going to keep doing it whether we like it or not. I would rather have him doing it here with people who know what they are doing than alone behind a rock where no one can help him if something goes wrong." Grace said, placing her hand over his.
I froze. My heart skipped a beat. She knew? I thought I was being so careful. I thought I was a master of stealth. But my mother had been watching me the whole time. It was a massive blow to my ego. I realized that I had significantly underestimated how observant she was. She was a mother, after all. She probably knew when I was faking a nap too.
Daniel looked at Grace, then at me. He let out a long breath and reached for the quill. "Fine. If his mother thinks it is best, then we will sign. But the deal stands. If he is unhappy, he comes home."
Daniel signed the parchment with a heavy hand. Grace signed next. Gerald looked like he had just won a war. He shook their hands and gave me a small, professional nod.
"We will see you next month, Cid," Gerald said. "Try to stay out of trouble until then."
I gave him a big, fake smile. "I will be very good, sir!"
We walked out of the office and through the lobby. It was much quieter now. Most of the crowd had dispersed. As we walked toward the heavy front doors, I felt a strange sensation. It was that feeling of being watched, a prickle on the back of my neck.
I didn't turn around immediately. I waited until we were outside on the stone steps. I pretended to trip on my shoelace and used the moment to look back at the Guild building. I scanned the windows on the second floor.
There was a man standing in one of the windows. He had salt-and-pepper hair that was neatly trimmed. His eyes were a cold, steel gray. He wasn't wearing the colorful robes of the other mages; he wore a simple, dark tunic that looked almost like a uniform. He wasn't smiling. He was just watching us leave with a very focused expression.
I didn't know who he was yet. Back then, I didn't even realize the kind of shadow he would cast over my life. I couldn't have imagined that one day would come, that I would stand at the edge of everything I believed in, ready to bargain away my soul to the devil himself… just to see him dead.
"Come on, Cid," Daniel called out. "Let's get some food before we start the trip back. I think I saw a shop that sells those honey cakes you like."
I stood up and ran after my parents. I left the Guild and the gray-eyed man behind. My future was signed and sealed on a piece of parchment. I was going to be a mage. I was going to be an experiment.
I reached for my father's hand and looked at the crowded street. Being a six-year-old was getting more complicated every day.