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He couldn\'t even as much as breathe without setting up panels to approve budget costs. The politicking involved always proved to be an exhausting pattern that was getting increasingly more difficult to navigate.

The fact was that a significant amount of resources and time was needed to train a single mage. It was abysmal, even by a noble\'s standards. This was probably why lower level members of the class system never rose to the height of powerful or senior mages. As Quaid ran the numbers in his head, he thought to himself in a calculating tone;

"If indeed ordinary people like Xzavier can master this power without mana, then, going by the most conservative estimate, the resources needed for training a batch of ordinary people would be way less than that of training mages…"

His eyes sparkled in exhilaration. He could already see it in his mind\'s eye. This was going to be a whole new revolution!

This was the primary driving force behind Quaid\'s excitement. As a statesman and an administrator who was almost always bound by the shackles of budget costs and allocations, Quaid surmised that on the long run, Princy\'s State military power would surpass that of the entire competing states of the Marshi Empire. He knew that if indeed he was to ever attain this objective, its implication was that he would have the freedom to do as he wished!

This would mean absolute independence from any external influence whatsoever. So, with all of these lofty plans, the governor couldn\'t afford to let little things like Xzavier\'s impudence at the table annoy him. There was bigger fish to fry, much bigger fish indeed!

With the battleground set, the only thing the governor had to do was to simply seduce Xzavier\'s mind. He didn\'t just want to make Xzavier his man, he wanted Xzavier\'s blind and complete loyalty to him. Quaid knew that this would definitely take up a lot of time and strategic planning. Though Xzavier was a young man, Quaid had seen that he wasn\'t completely devoid of wisdom.

The plague of ignorance that usually besieged youths of Xzavier\'s age had somehow passed over him, leaving a glowering halo of self-awareness in its stead. Quaid knew his work was cut out for him. He had to employ every weapon he had in his beguiling arsenal to charm away the overly suspicious young man. It wasn\'t going to be a one day-one week type of plan, it was going to take time.

Time passed once again, only more quickly than it usually did. And a new dawn broke over the governor\'s household. Each and every single soul under that roof stirred from their beds with new resolve and brimming with new ideas, schemes and plans. Xzavier wasn\'t leftover this fever that was slowly sweeping across the estate.

Having spent sometime wandering the grounds of the massive estate, Xzavier had gotten pretty familiar with the paths and rooms. There was still very much to explore, but as of that moment, Xzavier was content with the knowledge of the fact that he knew where to find the one person he was deeply interested in at the time- The Senior Mage called Laddie.

Keeping mostly to the shadows, Xzavier navigated his way through the dark corridors. Even when he was at peace, the efficiency of battle seemed to hover around him, trailing his every move and influencing his every decision. The weather outside was beautiful, the intense rays of the morning sun was absorbed and cushioned by a lump of clouds lazily drifting across the sky.

To top it all, a mild wind was blowing, drawing out the beautiful scent of the numerous budding flowers, enveloping the entire estate in a cloud of natural fragrance. The servants, as if in tune with natural order of things, cooperated with the basking glory nature\'s blessings on the house by making sure the marble tiles and life sized statues were cleaned so hard that they shone.

A normal person would have enjoyed the walk through the estate on a beautiful morning like this, but Xzavier chose a different path. Moving as if he was still in the jungle, Xzavier crept through the dark corridors of the mansion instead of taking the brightly lit hallways outside. He kept his movements to the shadows, and minimized his overall presence from being spotted.

Eventually, he arrived at his destination. He paused for a minute and glanced backwards, checking to see if he had been followed. Of course, he had no reason to suspect that he was, but, the soldier in him, as well as years of intense training and experience, made him wary of his surroundings. It was only after the encompassing silence around him assuaged his suspicions that Xzavier finally went ahead to knock on the door of the old man\'s office.

Laddie croaked from inside;

"Yes? Who is it?"

Xzavier answered in a calm tone;

"Mister Laddie, it is Xzavier."

There was a long pause for a while. The old man took so long to react that Xzavier thought he hadn\'t him. It was either that or he was choosing to blatantly ignore him. Just as Xzavier prepared to knock again, he heard the shuffling of feet on the other end, and then, a few seconds later, Laddie opened the door halfway.

Through the open slit, he regarded Xzavier with a suspiciously, not sure why he was here at the moment.

"Earlene and Cadence aren\'t here." He rasped as he made to close the door.

Quick to react, Xzavier stepped forward and declared his intentions to the old man;

"Actually, I am here to see you not them."

Xzavier\'s answer only strengthened the old man\'s suspicions.

"See me? What for?"

Xzavier hesitated for a moment before replying him.

"May I come in sir?"

The old man lingered for a while before grunting his approval. He stepped aside and gestured at the younger man to come in. Xzavier strode in and the old man closed the door behind him. As Xzavier walked ahead towards the comfortable looking chairs, Laddie observed him closely.

Of course, just as it always was with most humans, Laddie\'s uptightness was just a front. The white bearded old man was actually thrilled to have Xzavier here in his presence. When he had first heard Xzavier announce himself at the door, Laddie had been astounded. It took him some time to get in the right mental bandwidth for a possible dialogue with the strange man. Also, he purposely refused to respond too quickly so his promptness wouldn\'t be mistaken for servility.

And now with Xzavier finally in his presence, the old mage found himself a bit star-struck. But of course, no one would ever guess that by merely look at his out appearance. He seemed so calm, and in control, also a little bit standoffish and aloof about the whole situation. He acted like he was doing Xzavier a favor by allowing him the grace of being in his presence. It was the typical egotistical politicking that usually went down between males.

Xzavier didn\'t sit down until the old man offered him a seat. This was the basic tenet one would expect from a guest. Laddie noted this and it added to his already enflamed admiration of the younger man. He was used to the brashness of Earlene, and the coldness of her younger brother. More often than he cared to admit, whenever Earlene had the privilege of being here, she would usually breeze in and sit boisterously without even bothering with protocols or etiquettes. This didn\'t mean that she was in anyway disrespectful of the old man, but it just showed how insensitive she could be.

So, having someone honor this host/guest code for once was refreshing. So, as he himself sat down, he offered Xzavier a seat;

"You can sit Mister Xzavier."

The other man simply nodded and sat down.

"So, to what do I owe this pleasure?"

Xzavier didn\'t speak immediately, but when he did, he kept his tone free of any trace of pretentiousness and went directly to his request.

"Mister Laddie, I have come to you because you are the only one who can assist me in this regard. I am actually very interested in learning about magic, I am intrigued by it and I desire to learn all there is to it- including how to practice it…"

Words couldn\'t totally describe the old man\'s shock. This was the plot twist that he never saw coming. Asides from the fact that the old man was essentially in awe of his strange guest, another hidden truth was the fact that Governor Quaid had actually issued Laddie a paralyzing injunction; he had ordered the old man to fulfill all of Xzavier\'s requests without questions or conditions. So, despite the fact that Laddie had his own reservations about all of this, he was duty bound to do carry out the governor\'s order, which automatically translated to helping Xzavier.

The old man sighed aloud…