As winter fell over Brighton, the days grew increasingly stingy with their light.
By the time history class ended, a light snow had begun to fall outside.
Mr. Hutton closed his lesson plan at the lectern and clapped the chalk dust from his hands.
A few students in the front row were packing their bags. The old teacher shot Richard a meaningful glance before quickly stepping out of the classroom.
Richard got the message.
He waited until most of his classmates had left, then stuffed his textbook into his bag and headed down the corridor, toward the corner.
As usual, the door to Mr. Hutton’s private office was ajar.
The old teacher was sitting behind his desk, taking a file out of a drawer.
"It’s been nearly three months since you established your Ether Micro-Cycle."
He skipped the pleasantries this time, getting straight to the point.
"Yes, sir."
"At the normal rate, your micro-cycle should reach the stability required for the Signing in a little over half a year."
The old teacher pushed up his glasses with his thumb.
"Before then, there’s one thing you need to prepare in advance."
"A Marvel for the Signing?" Richard finished.
Mr. Hutton nodded slightly. "Yes. That’s why I wanted to see you today."
He pushed the file to the center of the desk.
"A Marvel for the Signing requires a period of attunement. The affinity between a Newcomer and a Marvel isn’t something that happens overnight; it must be nurtured day after day.
The sooner you decide on one, the more time you’ll have to build a connection with it."
"I submitted an application to my superiors to see if we could have a Marvel from the inventory allocated to you—one suitable for a Newcomer on the Scholar path."
"Your superiors?"
"The investors behind many schools in Brighton and the entire Northern region. You don’t need the specifics yet. You’ll be formally introduced once you become a Practitioner."
Mr. Hutton tapped the file’s cover with his finger.
"The application was approved. We can offer you a choice between two Marvels, both of which meet the specifications for a Newcomer on the Scholar path."
"But they aren’t free."
Richard waited for him to continue.
"The logic is the same as a student loan," Mr. Hutton said bluntly.
"Once the Marvel is allocated to you, you’ll be expected to pay it back in installments after you complete the Signing, become a Practitioner, and start earning a stable income."
Richard hesitated for a moment before speaking.
"Before you give your official reply, would you be able to take a look at what I already have?"
The old teacher looked up. "What you already have?"
"Yes."
Mr. Hutton didn’t seem surprised. "In that case, bring them in tomorrow. I’ll have a look for you."
"Alright."
The old teacher picked up his teacup and took a sip.
"By the way, don’t bother bringing that silver coin I gave you."
"It’s not suitable as a vessel for the Signing?"
"The Ether content is too low, and it isn’t particularly old," Mr. Hutton said, setting his cup back on its saucer.
"The Signing carves the trajectory of your entire life onto an object. The vessel itself has to be able to bear that weight.
Three hundred-some years is nothing. You could pick a random item from the basement of the Imperial Capital Museum, and it would be older than that silver coin."
"It’s more than enough to aid your practice, but for the Signing..." The old teacher shook his head.
Richard nodded silently.
"Back to the items you have," Mr. Hutton said, gesturing to the file he had pushed aside.
"If you have something suitable, there’s no need to draw from the organization’s inventory.
If nothing you have is up to par, the two Marvels from the inventory can be your fallback. Either way, you don’t lose out."
Richard stood up and pushed his chair back into place.
"I’ll bring them after school tomorrow."
"Alright."
By the time he left the office, the corridor was empty.
Outside, the light snow had turned to pellets, pattering against the windowpanes.
Richard adjusted the strap of his bag on his shoulder and walked toward the school bus stop.
The next day, after the final bell rang, Richard rearranged the contents of his schoolbag.
He placed his textbooks and notebooks on top, over a layer containing two cloth bags that held his six Marvels.
The mouths of the bags were tied tightly shut with string and separated by old handkerchiefs to prevent them from knocking against each other in his bag.
When he reached the private office, Richard knocked twice on the doorframe.
"Come in."
The old teacher had cleared his desk in advance today.
His lesson plan, graded papers, pen holder, and paperweight had all been moved to the side of the desk against the wall, leaving a long, clear space in the center.
"Did you bring everything?"
"I did."
Richard set his bag on a chair and began to take out the items.
The first was the Sphinx Copper Lamp.
After most of the contents within its Seal had been absorbed, the Sphinx’s face on the relief had become much clearer.
The second was the Gargoyle.
He took the crouching stone sculpture from its bag and set it beside the Oil Lamp.
The two beast-shaped Marvels sat side-by-side—one crouching in silence, the other baring its fangs—creating an amusing contrast.
The next four items were the Incense Burner, the Ancient Rome copper coin, his very first Copper Pendant, and the recently acquired Sun Seal.
The six items were arranged in a row on the desk, laid out in order from largest to smallest.
Mr. Hutton sat up straight in his chair.
"Richard, I remember you only just began your training..." He did a quick mental calculation. "From the end of September until now... to think you’ve gathered six Marvels in such a short time."
Richard offered no explanation.
Mr. Hutton didn’t press him for one; he had a good idea of their source.
Richard’s Mother came from the Ashford Clan, so Mr. Hutton guessed he had probably made use of the family’s resources.
"Alright, let’s take a look at them one by one."
Mr. Hutton first reached for the Sun Seal at the end of the line.
"This is from the colonial regions."
"It can’t be more than two hundred years old, so there probably isn’t much Ether in it."
"Correct."
"Just like the silver coin I gave you, this is adequate as an auxiliary tool, but it won’t work as a vessel for the Signing."
Mr. Hutton set the seal off to the right side of the desk, creating a rejection pile.
Next was the Copper Pendant.
The old teacher pinched the cord between two fingers, holding the pendant up to the light and turning it over.
The copper surface of the pendant itself looked grimy, likely marinated in the sweat of several generations of hands.
Mr. Hutton quickly came to a conclusion.
"An old piece from the Eastern Continent. Did the Ashford Family give this to you as well?"
"Yes."
"The age on this one is good, but it’s also unsuitable."
Mr. Hutton laid the pendant flat in his palm.
"When an artifact from the Eastern Continent is used within the borders of Albion, there’s a faint repulsion from the local Ether."
"Repulsion?"
"There are differences between the Eastern and Western continents. They’re not major and don’t affect daily use."
The old teacher placed the pendant in the rejection pile as well.
"But the Signing is a lifelong bond. Any faint incompatibility will be magnified over the years."
"You won’t see a problem for a few years. But in ten or twenty years, when you’re ascending to a higher Tier, that underlying incompatibility will become a fatal flaw."
"I understand."
Next was the copper Incense Burner.
Mr. Hutton picked up the Incense Burner, and after turning it over just a few times, he came to the same conclusion Richard had.
"This has been modified. It’s secondhand. We can reject it outright."
"Yes," Richard said with a smile. "That’s how I haggled down the price with the shopkeeper."
The Incense Burner was pushed into the rejection pile, joining the seal and the pendant.
That left the Copper Lamp, the Gargoyle, and the Ancient Rome copper coin on the desk.
Mr. Hutton first reached for the Ancient Rome copper coin from the era of Diocletian.
"This copper coin is quite good. It seems I won’t need to apply for a Marvel for you after all."
"Oh?" Richard was curious. "Why do you say that?"
"A coin minted during the era of Diocletian," the old teacher explained. "That’s over sixteen hundred years ago."
He flipped the coin over and then back again.
"Although it isn’t the product of a ritual, it’s certainly old enough."
"Moreover, a coin is small and easy to carry."
Mr. Hutton added, "A vessel for the Signing is with you for life. Something you can slip into a pocket is far more convenient than something you have to lug around."
He placed the copper coin in the center of the desk.
"If you have no better options, this copper coin would be my top recommendation."
Next, the old teacher reached for the Gargoyle.
He saw the four faces of Inscriptions and raised an eyebrow. "This one is also quite acceptable."
"It’s not as old as the coin, but it’s a proper product of a ritual.
The Inscription system is complete, making it a vessel of extremely high value in Mysticism."
"If you use the Gargoyle for the Signing, you might gain a boost to specific Techniques."
Having finished his evaluation of the Gargoyle, the old teacher reached for the last item: the Sphinx Copper Lamp.
The moment he touched it, he froze.
His fingers lingered for a long moment over the pivot point that Richard had pried open.
Richard had long since repaired the spot with a Wax Seal, a technique he had learned from a manual on Seal maintenance he’d found on the third floor of the library.
On the surface, it looked indistinguishable from the original Seal.
Richard’s heart began to beat a little faster. ’He hasn’t noticed anything, has he?’
But the old teacher made no comment on the pivot point.
He placed the Oil Lamp in the very center of the desk, where the copper coin had been.
He nonchalantly nudged the copper coin aside.
"With this lamp, you don’t need to consider any of the others. It not only has sufficient age and a high value in Mysticism..."
The old teacher’s white eyebrows twitched, his expression a little perplexed.
"...but for some reason, it also has a faint affinity with you."
"Affinity?"
"You can tell by the direction of the Ether Flow. It’s a technique one learns as a Practitioner."
The old teacher extended his right index finger and drew a line in the air.
"Normally, the Ether that seeps from a Marvel is omnidirectional.
Even with a Marvel locked by a Seal, the trace amount of Ether that leaks out should diffuse evenly in all directions, like ripples on the surface of water—they don’t just travel in a single direction."
"But the Ether seeping from this lamp is slightly biased."
Mr. Hutton drew his finger back.
"It actively leans in your direction."
The old teacher’s tone shifted from professional assessment to serious discussion.
"Resonance requires at least one of three conditions to be met."
"Sufficiently long and close contact, a sufficiently high compatibility with Ether, or... a sufficiently deep causal connection."
Richard knew why.
Late that one night on Nail Lane, he had personally pried open the lamp’s Seal and siphoned away more than ninety-five percent of its stored Ether.
Some of it had been converted into Points, while another portion had been extracted by his panel as a seed.
That seed eventually sprouted and grew into "Shadow Reversal."
More than half of the lamp’s very soul had flowed into his body.
But he couldn’t possibly explain that.
"Maybe... I’ve just handled it the most," Richard offered vaguely.
Mr. Hutton didn’t press the issue.
His own Mentor had taught him: ’As long as a student’s secret harms no one, including himself, let him keep it.’
’Your job is to show him the way, not to rifle through his pockets.’
He nodded. "Very well."
"This Sphinx Lamp... it has age, value in Mysticism, and a preexisting foundation of resonance. It checks all three boxes."
"For you, there could be no more suitable vessel for the Signing."
Richard gazed at the Copper Lamp in the center of the desk.
The Sphinx’s eyes were half-closed, its gaze falling indifferently upon all who drew near.
It had already stood guard for him once. Now, it would stand guard for a lifetime.
Mr. Hutton’s fingers lifted from the Copper Lamp.
"Now that it’s decided, I will teach you the method of nurturing."
"Nurturing?"
"From the day you decide on it until the formal Signing, a Marvel for the Signing must be nurtured day after day."
Mr. Hutton took a thin booklet from a drawer, flipped to a page somewhere in the middle, and pulled out a folded piece of paper that was tucked inside.
On the paper was a simple diagram.

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