The room remained quiet long after Brei had called everyone to dinner.
No one left with fewer questions than they had arrived with.
If anything...
There were more.
Sunday evening arrived without anyone needing a reminder.
By the time Boss entered the meeting room, everyone was already seated.
John had his notebook open once again.
Karl absentmindedly rolled a tiny silicate shard across his knuckles.
Skinn had somehow convinced himself that balancing his chair on two legs was the most comfortable position possible.
"...You're going to fall."
"I'm conducting research."
Karl sighed.
"On gravity?"
"...On confidence."
Across the table, Noel quietly rested his black grimoire before him.
Beside him, Elise sat straighter than everyone else, as though she were attending her first day of school all over again.
Jaz poured tea into several mugs before taking the seat nearest Boss.
A few moments later, Boss walked in carrying nothing.
No notebook.
No maps.
No chalk.
He glanced around the room.
"...Good."
Nobody spoke.
Boss remained standing.
"Yesterday..."
"...we discussed mana."
"And subjective parascience."
He folded his arms.
"Today..."
"...ask what actually matters."
Silence settled over the room.
Boss waited patiently.
Eventually...
John raised his hand.
"...Can someone else use our grimoires?"
Boss answered immediately.
"No."
John looked down at his own tiny grimoire resting beside his notebook.
"...At all?"
"No."
Elise frowned.
"...Then why did people chase Noel?"
Boss turned toward Noel.
"They weren't after him."
"They were after information."
Noel instinctively placed one hand on his grimoire.
"...Information?"
Boss nodded once.
"A grimoire records."
"It reflects."
"It changes with its owner."
Karl leaned forward.
"So..."
"...someone can just read another person's magic?"
"Sometimes."
"Not completely."
"But enough."
Jaz continued where Boss stopped.
"Think of a grimoire like a diary."
"It won't teach you how to become that person..."
"...but you'll understand how they think."
John remembered the strange passages inside Noel's grimoire.
They had sounded meaningless.
Until Boss called them instructions.
"...So researchers study them?"
Jaz nodded.
"They do."
"Some historians collect them."
"Some clans preserve them."
"And some people..."
She hesitated.
"...sell them."
Skinn blinked.
"...Seriously?"
Boss answered.
"They appear more often than you'd think."
"Antique shops."
"Private collections."
"Online marketplaces."
Karl looked genuinely surprised.
"...People actually buy them?"
"They're unusual."
"Old."
"Beautiful."
"Most ordinary people think they're decorative."
Noel slowly looked at his own grimoire.
"...They're useless to everyone else?"
Boss shook his head.
"No."
"They're unusable."
Silence.
John noticed the difference immediately.
"...Those aren't the same."
"They aren't."
Boss continued.
"They still contain knowledge."
"They still possess history."
"They still have value."
"They simply won't obey."
Elise quietly asked,
"...Has anyone ever tried?"
Boss looked at her.
"Thousands."
"And?"
"They failed."
Skinn scratched his head.
"...So if I stole Karl's book..."
Karl immediately interrupted.
"You won't."
"...Hypothetically."
Boss answered anyway.
"You'd own a book."
"Nothing more."
Karl looked relieved.
"...Good."
Skinn grinned.
"I wasn't actually planning to."
"I know."
"You looked disappointed."
"I am."
A few quiet laughs spread around the room.
Even Noel smiled slightly.
John turned another page in his notebook.
"...Can grimoires be destroyed?"
Boss didn't answer immediately.
Instead...
He asked another question.
"Why would someone destroy one?"
John thought.
"...To erase someone's magic?"
Boss shook his head.
"No."
"...Then..."
"...I don't know."
Boss nodded.
"Most don't."
He looked toward everyone.
"A grimoire is harder to destroy than most people realize."
"Not impossible."
"But difficult."
"And usually..."
"...pointless."
Elise tilted her head.
"...Why pointless?"
"Because destroying the book..."
"...doesn't erase the mage."
Silence returned.
Boss continued.
"The mage came first."
"The grimoire followed."
"Not the other way around."
John quietly wrote another sentence.
The grimoire is the consequence.
Not the source.
Boss noticed him writing.
"...Close enough."
John looked up.
"...You can tell what I'm writing?"
"I guessed."
"...Fair."
Noel hesitated before speaking again.
"...Can I ask something?"
Boss nodded.
"...Go ahead."
Noel looked at the black cover beneath his hand.
"...What happens..."
"...if someone willingly sells theirs?"
The room grew noticeably quieter.
Even Skinn stopped joking.
Boss answered without judgment.
"They can."
Nobody expected that answer.
Karl frowned.
"...That's allowed?"
Boss looked toward him.
"Who's stopping them?"
"...The academy?"
"They're outside Manademia."
"...The clans?"
"Not everyone belongs to one."
Silence lingered.
Boss continued.
"Some quit."
"Some give up."
"Some need money."
"Some simply don't care anymore."
John looked puzzled.
"...Wouldn't they regret it?"
Boss was quiet for several seconds.
Then he answered.
"Usually."
No one asked why.
Something about the way he said it suggested experience.
Not theory.
The room fell silent once more.
Outside...
The evening wind drifted through the abandoned streets.
Inside...
Everyone found themselves looking at the grimoires resting before them a little differently than before.
Not merely as tools.
But as something strangely personal.
Something that, even if it no longer obeyed anyone else...
Could continue telling stories long after its owner was gone.
The silence lingered.
Nobody seemed eager to be the next to ask.
Boss didn't mind.
He had never been the type to fill quiet moments with unnecessary words.
Eventually, Elise slowly raised her hand.
"...Can ordinary people ever become mages?"
Boss answered without hesitation.
"Yes."
"...How?"
"They awaken."
Elise waited for more.
Nothing came.
Jaz smiled.
"I'll translate."
A few chuckles circled the room.
"It isn't hereditary," Jaz explained. "Mage parents don't necessarily have mage children, and ordinary parents can have a child who awakens."
"So..." Elise thought aloud, "...anyone?"
"Potentially."
Boss nodded once.
"No pattern has ever been proven."
John frowned.
"...Not even by researchers?"
"None."
"Theories exist."
"Evidence doesn't."
Skinn scratched his cheek.
"...That sounds frustrating."
"It is."
Boss looked around the room.
"Awakening remains one of the least understood phenomena."
Karl leaned forward.
"...So why do birthdays matter?"
Everyone turned toward him.
Boss answered.
"They don't."
Karl blinked.
"...What?"
"They only appear to."
Noel looked equally confused.
"But... I awakened on my birthday."
"So did I," John added.
Boss nodded.
"Many do."
"Many don't."
"The birthday is coincidence."
"The awakening is not."
John quickly wrote another note.
Coincidence does not imply causation.
Boss noticed him again.
"...Good."
John smiled awkwardly.
"I'll pretend I wasn't being watched."
"You weren't."
"...You just guessed?"
"Yes."
"...You're annoyingly good at that."
"I know."
A few quiet laughs broke the tension.
Noel looked down at his hands.
"...Then why did I suddenly know where to run?"
The room became quiet again.
Boss walked toward the large district map hanging on the wall.
"You didn't."
Noel frowned.
"...I did."
"You arrived here."
Boss shook his head.
"No."
"You followed mana."
He pointed at several marks scattered across the map.
"Awakened mages unconsciously seek places rich in mana."
"They usually don't realize they're doing it."
John slowly remembered that night.
Running.
Turning corners without thinking.
Ending up at the abandoned district.
"...So I wasn't choosing."
Boss looked toward him.
"No."
"You were following instinct."
Skinn folded his arms.
"...Does that ever stop?"
"Mostly."
"Experience replaces instinct."
Elise looked thoughtful.
"So..."
"...if another headquarters had been closer..."
Boss nodded.
"You probably would've gone there."
Noel quietly let that thought sink in.
His life had depended entirely on where mana happened to be strongest nearby.
Not fate.
Not luck.
Just instinct.
Karl suddenly raised a hand.
"...Boss."
"Hm."
"...How many mages do you think live in this city?"
Boss looked at him for a long moment.
"I don't know."
Karl frowned.
"...You don't?"
"No."
"I know some."
"I suspect more."
"But certainty..."
He shook his head.
"...is dangerous."
John tilted his head.
"Dangerous?"
Boss nodded.
"If you think you've found every mage..."
"...you'll eventually miss one."
Nobody argued.
That sounded like experience again.
Skinn suddenly remembered something.
"...Wait."
"If mana naturally leaks from us..."
"...why doesn't everyone notice?"
Boss remained silent.
Jaz answered instead.
"Because most of it disperses."
"It mixes into the environment."
"It becomes too diluted for ordinary people to recognize."
John looked toward the window.
"So all the little bits..."
"...just disappear?"
Boss finally spoke.
"No."
"They accumulate."
The room quieted.
Karl slowly lowered his hand.
"...Where?"
Boss looked toward the abandoned district outside.
"Where nobody notices."
He continued calmly.
"Abandoned buildings."
"Empty factories."
"Old hospitals."
"Forgotten tunnels."
"Places people stop visiting."
Elise frowned.
"...Why there?"
"Because mana follows the path of least resistance."
"It gathers where human activity doesn't interfere."
John slowly connected the pieces.
"So that's why..."
"...there are stories."
Boss nodded.
"Ghost sightings."
"Urban legends."
"Moving shadows."
"Voices."
"Strange lights."
"They don't always come from the same cause."
"But many begin the same way."
Silence spread across the room.
Even Skinn looked unusually serious.
Noel quietly asked,
"...Can abandoned mana become dangerous?"
Boss answered.
"Yes."
"...Always?"
"No."
"It depends."
"On time."
"On quantity."
"And on what produced it."
John immediately remembered the mana reflectors.
"...Is that why we're building them?"
Boss looked at him.
"Partly."
"They don't create mana."
"They redirect it."
"So instead of letting it spread aimlessly..."
"...we decide where it gathers."
John slowly nodded.
"The district."
Boss nodded once.
"The district."
Karl leaned back in his chair.
"...So eventually..."
"...this place will have more mana than the rest of the city."
"If everything succeeds."
"It will."
Nobody spoke for several seconds.
Boss wasn't describing an experiment anymore.
He was describing a future he fully expected to happen.
John looked around the room.
Boss.
Jaz.
Karl.
Skinn.
Noel.
Elise.
Brei, who was probably reading somewhere downstairs.
A few weeks ago...
None of this had existed in his life.
Now...
He was helping build something that might still be here decades from now.
Boss looked around one last time.
"...Enough for today."
Skinn immediately stretched.
"My brain hurts."
Karl smirked.
"That implies it was working."
"It was trying."
Jaz laughed softly.
"I think that's enough philosophy for one weekend."
Boss turned toward the door.
"We continue next Saturday."
John blinked.
"...Every Saturday?"
Boss nodded.
"You'll eventually stop asking questions."
Skinn stood up.
"...I seriously doubt that."
For the first time that evening...
Boss almost smiled.
"So do I."
One by one, they left the meeting room.
The abandoned headquarters gradually filled once more with ordinary conversations.
Yet beneath those quiet voices...
Every one of them carried home another piece of a world that had existed long before they had ever opened their grimoires.