Chapter 1172: The Chosen One ? (2)

"Two assessments each month," Marisse said. She drew the first document from beneath the wager file and placed it between them. "More if your progress requires it. I will also need the portions of your training schedule relevant to the Exhibition."

Thalor rested one arm against his chair. The terms were less invasive than they might have been, though Marisse had begun with the number rather than the limits surrounding it.

"You intend to coordinate with my current instructors."

"Where coordination is possible." Marisse turned the document so that he could read it. "Your existing education is one reason I selected you. I have no intention of dismantling it merely to replace it with something bearing my name."

That removed the broadest concern.

The arrangement still left Thalor with less freedom than he preferred. His training had never been organized around a single opponent, and his instructors would not welcome an outside Magister identifying weaknesses in methods they had spent years refining. Marisse’s assessments could also force changes in the order of his studies, interrupt private experimentation, or expose limitations he had chosen not to discuss beyond House Draycott. Even with the boundaries he had secured, her authority would reach into the practical details of his preparation. He would have to defend his time, his methods, and occasionally his judgment against someone whose intervention was not merely advisory.

Thalor read the opening clauses without touching the page. Marisse wanted visibility over his preparation, not possession of it. The distinction was sensible, provided it survived contact with the first disagreement.

"What access do you expect to Draycott methods?"

"Enough to understand what you can employ against Lucavion and what employing it will cost you. Your family may keep its construction principles."

"You are willing to prepare me around methods you cannot inspect?"

"I am willing to respect ownership." Marisse folded her hands beside the file. "Do not mistake that for a willingness to accept incomplete answers. If you intend to use a method, I will require an accurate account of its limits."

Thalor inclined his head. "That is more reasonable."

"Than you expected?"

"Than several Magisters would consider necessary."

Marisse allowed the remark to pass.

They moved through the simpler terms first. One assessment could be fitted into his existing faculty-development period. The second would occupy a separate evening, while additional sessions required notice unless an immediate problem made delay wasteful. His Tower instruction retained ordinary priority.

Ordinary priority proved to be the phrase around which the actual dispute waited.

"If your preparation conflicts with my Tower instruction," Thalor said, "who decides which one is ordinary?"

Marisse placed a finger against the relevant clause. "Your established program continues unless I identify a weakness directly relevant to the Exhibition."

"According to your judgment."

"Yes."

"And if my instructors disagree?"

"They may dispute my solution." Her finger remained upon the page. "They may not dismiss the weakness because correcting it would inconvenience their schedule."

The answer gave her considerable room, although not quite as much as she wanted him to believe.

Thalor reached for the document and drew it closer. "Suppose your correction requires a permanent alteration to my cultivation."

"It would not be imposed."

"That was not my question."

A brief silence entered the room.

Marisse had prepared for resistance around authority. She had not prepared that sentence quite carefully enough.

"I would not—" Her gaze dropped to the clause beneath her hand. "No. That leaves the boundary unclear. Any permanent alteration to your cultivation or inherited magical structure requires your consent and consultation with your existing instructors."

Better.

Thalor released the edge of the document. "Add it."

Marisse took up her pen and amended the clause without argument. Her handwriting remained steady, but the original wording disappeared beneath two precise strokes before she wrote the replacement beside it.

"My authority concerns preparation for this match," she said. "I will identify relevant weaknesses and require you to address them. How you permanently alter your foundation remains your decision."

"And that authority expires when the wager is settled."

"It does."

The correction cost her little. Refusing it would have cost considerably more.

They settled the remaining training terms with greater speed. Marisse would receive advance notice of substantial changes that affected the Exhibition. House Draycott would carry no obligation for facilities or materials she assigned through the Academy, and neither her authority nor the wager would grant access to proprietary Tower instruction.

The structure would consume part of Thalor’s time without swallowing the rest of his education.

Marisse finished the final notation and set down her pen.

The representative line remained empty.

Thalor let his attention settle upon it before returning to the two facedown documents beside her. "You have explained what my name places beneath yours."

"I have."

"What have you prepared in exchange?"

Marisse turned over the first document.

"The Academy retains formation research that never entered the Magic Tower’s custody."

Thalor did not reach for it.

"That description covers several centuries of disputed ownership and an impressive quantity of useless work."

"It also covers research the Tower has requested more than once."

"And which portion have you decided is worth offering me?"

"Failed large-scale formations. Battlefield arrays designed to preserve local functions after losing their central structure." Marisse slid the document across the table. "Several projects attempted to keep isolated nodes active without allowing them to compete for control of the remaining mana."

Thalor’s eyes lowered to the seal.

The altered array from the practice chamber returned. It was almost inconvenient that how convenient the situation suddenly progressed. His unsupported eighth node had survived for three breaths after the channel rejected it. The formation had only collapsed once that brief independence disturbed the other seven.

Marisse could not have known what he had attempted that afternoon.

She did not need to. His interests had remained consistent long enough for someone diligent to predict where they might lead.

"Which catalogue?"

"The Third Restricted Formation Catalogue."

His fingers settled upon the document.

House Draycott possessed private records that most Academy instructors would never see. The Magic Tower’s libraries extended through entire wings and contained research gathered across generations. Neither advantage granted command over knowledge another institution had chosen to seal.

"What degree of access?"

"Four supervised visits before the Exhibition. Three hours each. You may consult the approved records and produce working notes under archive inspection. Complete reproductions remain inside."

"May I reproduce partial diagrams?"

"Only where the archivist determines that the section cannot be used to reconstruct the whole."

Thalor opened the provisional index.

Several project titles had been obscured, but the remaining classifications were enough. Failed node hierarchies occupied one section. Another concerned formations whose outer components continued following their original purpose after central command had been destroyed.

’So they preserved that line.’

He turned the page. "Physical prototypes?"

"Where preservation permits."

"Related citations?"

"I may endorse further requests. The archive committee decides whether the cited record falls within your approved access."

The archive committee was the body that governed access to the Academy’s restricted collections. It did not own every record outright, but it controlled which researchers could consult sealed material, how much they could copy, and whether related citations justified further access. Its members balanced scholarly value against the risk of exposing techniques that could be reconstructed, weaponized, or claimed by another institution.

Marisse could sponsor Thalor’s request, but sponsorship was not approval. She would present his purpose, credentials, and proposed limits to the committee, which would then decide whether the requested catalogue or citation fell within the permitted scope. Diplomacy mattered because the committee was not persuaded by rank alone. A request framed as personal advantage would invite refusal; one presented as controlled research relevant to the Exhibition, conducted under supervision and with no claim of ownership, had a better chance.

That also explained the restrictions. The committee could grant access without surrendering the archive’s authority. Thalor might inspect records, make approved notes, and pursue a legitimate citation, but he could not reproduce a complete formation or treat one approved visit as a standing claim upon the collection. Marisse’s role was therefore less that of someone handing him a key than that of a negotiator securing limited permissions from people who had reasons to distrust both the Tower and ambitious researchers.

"And if one of those citations leads somewhere useful?"

"Then you will have used your four visits well."

Thalor looked up from the index. Marisse had prepared that answer.

"Four visits are enough to discover what the collection contains," he said. "They are not necessarily enough to pursue what I find."

"They are what I can secure in advance."

Marisse’s influence appeared to border that point, or perhaps this was the extent of her willingness to go. She had conceded where the terms threatened to become unreasonable, but each concession came with a boundary that preserved her purpose. She would secure access, sponsor requests, and adjust the schedule, yet she would not promise authority over records the committee controlled or offer more than the wager could justify. Thalor recognized the distinction. She was not withholding leverage out of caution alone; she was measuring how far her name could carry him before the Academy’s own institutions began to resist.

But he was not the type to stop.

"Then secure a fifth."

"The committee will not approve an unspecified record merely because you might encounter it."

"I did not ask them to." Thalor closed the index, though his hand remained over its cover. "Write the fifth visit as conditional upon an approved citation."

Marisse’s attention shifted from his hand to his face. "That would still require me to sponsor it."

"Naturally."

"And you consider four guaranteed visits insufficient?"

"I consider them almost sufficient."

He pushed the index toward the center of the table.

Marisse stopped it with two fingers before it crossed the wager file.

That was the first movement she had made without allowing herself time to consider it.

"Conditional upon archive approval," she said. "And upon your completion of the preparation schedule."

"The schedule we agree upon."

"The schedule you agree upon here," Marisse corrected, "not the version your instructors later find more convenient."

Thalor left his hand upon the document.

The condition carried teeth. Once he signed, Tower obligations could not become an effortless excuse whenever Marisse’s exercises proved less appealing than the archive awaiting him.

She had yielded the visit and reclaimed leverage elsewhere.

"Provided additional sessions still require demonstrated relevance to the Exhibition," he said.

"They will."

"And any access approved before the wager concludes remains valid for its registered date."

Marisse considered that demand longer. "Even if you lose?"

"I will not lose."

"What if you do?"

"....Does not matter. Your wager concerns the duel. The archive committee’s approval concerns the research."

A defeat would already cost him enough without permitting the Academy to withdraw something he had earned through completed preparation. Marisse appeared to follow the same reasoning, although acceptance did not come immediately.

"Approved visits will remain valid," she said at last. "Withdrawal before the Exhibition ends my sponsorship entirely."

"Agreed."

This time, the word belonged to him.

Marisse drew the second document forward and added the conditional session. Thalor read the clause once, corrected a phrase that allowed too broad an interpretation of incomplete preparation, and watched her narrow it.

The remaining terms required little ceremony. Two assessments each month formed the minimum. Marisse could demand that an identified weakness be addressed, but permanent changes remained under Thalor’s authority. Four archive visits were guaranteed, while a fifth depended upon a legitimate citation, committee approval, and his continued participation.

Marisse turned the wager file toward him.

Earlier that afternoon, Lucavion had been an irregular student attached to an entertaining Rotunda account. Now the confrontation possessed a date, months of preparation, and access to research the Magic Tower had failed to obtain.

Thalor looked at the empty line beneath the designation for Marisse’s representative.

"You may enter my name."

Marisse took up the pen.

THALOR DRAYCOTT.

She wrote it without celebration, then closed the file before the ink had entirely lost its shine.

The match had first interested him because Lucavion resisted explanation.

Now it promised to reward the attempt.