The house of Lucius Blackblight appearing eerily in the distance. Large black spires reaching into the sky. The exuberant decorations on every which side, aided by flying buttresses. The carriage continued down the road, stopping at a large ornate gate. Sighing, Sev jumped out of the carriage, straightened his robes and approached the gate.

Sev, shouting past the gate and into the mansion, "Lucius! It's time to settle our debt!"

To his disappointment, pure silence. Disgruntled, Sev spoke out, "Don't go hiding in your manor..."

Yet, silence, absolute silence. "Fine, you brought this on yourself..." Sev, knowing his 'old friend', summoned a tiny ball of perfect darkness. Promptly summoning a second ball. Combing the two into one, slowly growing. Slowly adding one ball of darkness onto the next, cascading into a singular gargantuan sphere of perfect darkness

Reaching the apex, the sphere began to violently rebel against Sev's control. Small sparks freeing themselves from the sphere, slowly falling to the ground, dissipating in its own consumption.

The fearsome sphere motivating the grandiose doors on the mansion to pop open, "Alright, alright, you got my attention..."

An aged white-haired man, dressed in an overbearing overcoat. The old man getting on in his age sped his way to the gate, his steps bounded to a limp leg. The act of walking aided by a black-jewelled cane. As he approached, Nora glimpsed at the face of the old man.

His severely scarred, the signs of a checkered past permanently fixed onto his face. Varying degrees of muscle damage moulding his face into weird contortions, a frozen smile, glistering in the near clear day.

"What may I do for you, Great Mage Sev..." addressing Sev with such formality bringing internal turmoil to Lucius. For he had long thought that he had finally become an equal to Sev. Only for the previous display of Sev's infamous spell, 'Hand of Nerull' bringing him crashing to the ground and hubris brought into check. For since last time Lucius had seen that very spell o' so many years ago, it had been no more than a quarter of its size. It's new might dwarfing its past incarnation.

"I've finally found an inheritor, Lucius. She's is still in the carriage but we need to go to 'that' place. I presume it'll aid her in her cultivation. We also need a place to rest, would it be alright if we used your mansion as temporary housing while another of Nora's teachers meets up with us here?" the underlying tone of his words revealing the true nature of his intention. The exchange of words being more of a demand then an inquiry.

-

Percy had now been accompanying Great Mage Mirlie for several hours. Still, quite far from their destination, the leisurely pace portrayed by the carriage betrayed the true turmoil within. Within the first few hours of the journey, Great Mage Mirlie had begun to occasionally glimpse at Percy. At first, Percy didn't see anything wrong with that, 'What's wrong with just glancing?'. Yet, his subconscious continuously warned him, they were no simple glances. As time progressed, the glances turned to prolonged starring, the embers of anger appearing on Great Mage Mirlie's face. Not wanting to further anger Great Mage Mirlie, he pretended he didn't notice and awkwardly glared out the window.

Little did Percy know that throughout the long journey, Great Mage Mirlie had been contemplating her recent actions. At first, everything seemed fine. At least until she realized that she had truly declared to the school that Percy was going to be her inheritor. The few initial glances just happened to be Great Mage Mirlie's thoughts being portrayed through her eyes. She tried to reason to herself that she had made a reasonable choice, but over a long time within the carriage, she began to eat away at her own reasoning. She had declared a child as her inheritor. A child who had yet to even become a Mage. A child who hadn't show any extraordinary abilities like Nora. If he failed on his journey to become a Mage, he would be the downfall of her legacy and fame. He could dismantle everything she had accomplished throughout her long life...

These thoughts continued to irk at her mind. Agitating and infuriating her more and more as the carriage leisurely paced towards Retford.

-

Begrudgingly, Lucius opened the front gate, allowing the carriage and Great Mage Sev into his residence. To Nora's surprise, as she approached the mansion, it's size truly dawned on her. Nora came to appreciate Sev significantly more. If someone with such vast wealth was below Sev, how powerful was he truly? More importantly, how powerful was black magic?