A/N: Help me! I can't find the plot and I keep writing arguments between Kamvex and Karin! I think I can get back to moving things along in the next chapter, but this should set some more things up.

Ideological Difference

"You stupid familiar," Louise chided as she looked over a sleeping Kamvex. "Why keep pushing yourself in strange and stupid ways?" It had been a few hours now since the attack on the Tower of Void, and the two were now located in headmaster Osmund's office, along with Colbert, the princess, and her mother. This was not how things were supposed to be. She was supposed to be standing WITH Kamvex in front of four highly respected people for this meeting. Instead when she had returned to the sight of the battlefield, Tabitha was looming over their captured thief with Kamvex slumped over dozing.

With the headmaster's help, Louise had Kamvex brought with her up to his office; where the promised meeting between the three of them, her mother, and now the Princess was to be held. For now though she sat on a couch to the side, her familiar's head in her lap as she fiddled with his hair. She wracked her brain thinking of what to say. All the while, her mother's tirade continued.

"...over a month now, and you've sent no official word. Not to the Valliere family, and more importantly, the royal family and Romalia."

"Lady Valliere, please understand," Osmund began. "I made this decision due to the potential consequences that would arise from going through official channels. Though unaware of it, bear in mind that the former Count Mott was handing out state secrets for who knows how long. What would happen if, say, the Mad King of Gallia were to gain this information? Or another power we do not yet know of? As has been painfully reminded today, the walls of this academy are not safe to outside forces."

Steely eyes looked up to the angry mother as he continued. "Furthermore, I have met two other Tritainian void mages: Once in my youth, the other in my second year as headmaster. Neither of them ever came back from Romalia. The boy from my youth went on his own, to use his talents in the name of His Holiness. He served faithfully for seven years before his death. The girl, not much older than Louise, I unknowingly sent to her death. She had been so exited for the chance to see the Holy Empire. Alas, she died not more than a year later." The old man sighed, truly showing his age. "That was forty years ago."

Karin looked thoughtful at this before questioning, "The next in line with this power should have grown up in my generation then. Where were they?"

A quick look between the headmaster and Colbert was missed by the duchess, but not her daughter. "Apparently, he threw away his name, and gave up the chance of nobility when his own magic couldn't surface correctly. Last I had heard, he made a good life for himself in D'Angleterre... before the town had been wiped out by marauders."

Henrietta, silent through the proceedings, gave a small gasp at that information. "The captain of my Musketeers is the only survivor of that tragedy. To think, she was so close to another void mage... I will have to ask her a few questions upon my return."

"So it seems," Louise began, a despondent look on her face, "that every void mage of our kingdom has met a terrible end in the past half century..."

"I am afraid so, Louise."

The young mage closed her eyes, taking a deep breath. *It's true they lied," she thought, "But it was for my protection. if I had been told this outright, I probably would have reacted like my mother... Or disbelieved entirely.* She let out her breath before looking at her teachers. "Thank you. But I need help if I am to master The Void, on top of my numerous studies."

Karin turned to her daughter, eyes narrowing at the hand playing in black locks of hair. "And is what your familiar... teaching you... part of those studies?"

The hand stopped moving before Louise met her mother's eyes. "Yes mother," she answered. "I will take every advantage to better myself."

The mother-daughter duo kept up their stare before a groan emitted from the younger's lap.

"Headpaaaaaaaaaats..."

Two sets of pink eyes moved instantly to the head of ebony hair that was slightly squirming now before eyes tiredly opened. His eyes narrowed at his mistress before his own hand took hers and placed it back atop of his head and he closed his eyes again, enjoying the feel of her fingers in his hair.

"What are you, a cat?"

"I'm a normal teenage boy that likes normal teenage boy things."

"Kamvex, there is nothing normal about you."

"Familiar," the Valliere matriarch began with a warning tone, "would you like to participate in this meeting you asked for?"

"I was listening," he answered. He then hazarded a glance at her, "also it's Kamvex. Or Captain if you feel the need to be formal." Her glare told him all he needed to know about what she thought of that. "With a groan and a closed eye roll, he sat up before standing tall, arms behind his back at attention. "Lady Valliere. Would you like me to be brutally honest?" At the woman's nod, he breathed in deeply. "Our magics are entirely different in origin and power. From everything I've learned while sitting in on Louise's lessons, your magic is tied directly to your Willpower. Ours are drawn from specific wellsprings of power. Be it the Divine, the Arcane force, the Occult or Primal nature. We draw from something else, because blood has lost all true meaning to us. You act like wizards and witches, but you're not. You lot classify as sorcerers, or kinetisists."

The occupants in the room didn't truly know what to do with this. From playful and aloof to staring down and arguing magic semantic with four of the most powerful mages in the country. None of them truly knew what he was talking about, save Louise. Kamvex had drilled into her that while her power came from the stars, she had to pick a concept that they represented. She hadn't felt comfortable with anything but the Arcane, for various reasons. But now that he was bringing it up, Louise was sure her mother would-

"You admitted not two nights ago our magic was divine right." There it was.

"I lied," he answered simply, "lest we would've never gotten to sleep that night. I only barely got you to leave, remember?" The tension was thick between the two captains as they stared each other down.

"What... what were those classifications you gave?" a hesitant Henrietta asked, trying to break the tension.

Violet eyes flicked to hers before he smiled, a small apologetic nod of a bow to her. "Contrary to what you may believe, magic is not just magic. I'm by no means a magic expert, but I come from a long line of adventurers, storytellers and historians. I know enough." With the tense mood broken, he sat down next to Louise, still a bit tired and just feeling a bit lazy. "I actuality, those terms haven't been used by many in centuries. Far more used them between Golarion's Age of Destiney and Age of Lost Omens. The first wizards had been the Thassoloni Runelords, seven of the most power hungry mages to seize power. That was... twelve... or thirteen thousand years ago." Seeing that he had their attention, he smirked. "Not to toot my own horn, but it pays to be a genius." At the incredulous look from the small pinkette next to him he shrugged. "Not naturally, but I've learned a lot. My people's history though? Fascinating stu-"

"Mr. Zamfi," Osmund interrupted. "Some focus please?"

"Ah, right. Sorry. So different mages. Anymore there's only a few. Most common are Mystics and Technomancers." At their confusion he flicked his are out and his trust pistol came out. "People able to magically control technology to varying degrees. What you're more interested in are m world's ancient classifications though, right?" At their nods, he continued. "So the way you teach, is like a wizard. Learned from books, some magic by magical formulae, but only able to manipulate those things after at least two years for the most basic things. If this was my version of a wizard, Louise's entire class would be struggling with the basic token spell, not summoning dragons as familiars and then casually flying away like it's nothing." At their questioning gaze, Louise sighed and focused for a moment, before snapping her fingers and conjuring a small pink ball of light. She 'tossed' it between her hands before willing it in front of Henrietta.

The princess studied it momentarily. Such a small ball of light, no brighter than a candle, "Is this really that difficult a task?"

Mind going too quickly, Kamvex stood up and began walking around. "For someone learning the art, yeah," he answered. "For the average person it'd take a while, even decades to reach the level some of the students here reach. That's not taking into account a bunch of other parallels. I said you guys are like sorcerers and kinetisists earlier, but it's purely by the rules they've played by. Both can do magic innately, one by blood and the other by the mind. You've been blessed by a strong bloodline, like a sorcerer, but are mostly constrained by an element like a kinetisist. They're even the same elements if you throw Wood into Earth and basic telekinesis into Void." So deep into his near rambling, the boy didn't notice that his listener's mouths were agape. "It's almost like this world is a big experiment on how to get a perfect blend of magics. And before anyone says anything, there's precedent for that."

Karin was the first to snap out of her stupor, "how do you know any of this is true?" She glared and crossed her arms. "Other world or not, what you're spouting sounds implausible."

A deadpan look is what answered her. "How do you know your history is correct? One hundred percent factual? And I'm not talking Brimir or anything of your religion. I'm speaking of your world and your people. What are the generalizations that you can name with little to no difficulty? Because that's what I'm doing here. These are facts. Take 'em or leave 'em. I won't debate my world's, my family's, history with a woman who so desperately clings to old fashioned decorum, when not twenty years ago, you broke those norms to pieces."

That shut her up, but Kamvex wasn't done. "How quickly you forget your own history, while questioning someplace you have no idea about."

"Kamvex..." Louise interrupted.

He glared at the matriarch before turning away. "Make sure you figure out your own history before you doubt mine."

"I know enough of a difference to see your heresy and weakness," Karin spat back. "Our lines are chosen by the divine blood of the Founder, the only mortal to gain godhood. An-"

"Hehehehehehee... Lady Valliere, you're insane if you believe that." Kamvex laughed. "Though the methods are different, no less then four mortals became gods of my world. Hell, one did it on a drunken bet. In all intents and purposes, It's not that hard to become a god. Hell, the first to bear my name became god-like if the family legends are true." He didn't have to look round the room to see the shock and anger, he could feel it. "Don't be so mad, that was at least five thousand years ago. That's not even taking into account the multitude of ways to become immortal. And oh man, is there a universe rife with those."

Louise took in the rest of the room while her own mind reeled. For her, while still a bit unpleasant, everything her partner said could be true. He'd given her little reason to doubt his word, but she had been exposed to these things bit by bit. Not thrown this far into the deep end off the bat. The only one to look intrigued was the headmaster, but Louise assumed this was due to his long life and personal wisdom. Both Colbert and Henrietta looked a bit horrified. At what she could only guess.

And her mother... her mother scared her. Kamvex had broken just about every rule her mother ever instilled in her, and she looked near apocalyptic.

She sighed. When Kamvex had started introducing concepts of other gods and higher powers, of course she'd been like her mother. Up until his song a few nights ago, which showed no less than divine power. Since then, while doing her own research, Louise thought over the things he'd told her, realizing only now how small her world was. It was true that all mages on her world, to her knowledge, could trace their bloodline back to The Founder Brimir; the Man who became a God. However true that was, how many other worlds were just like it? How many had someone perform such incredible feats and NOT become a god. She wondered, "Was there a mage like Brimir on your world, Kamvex?"

The rest of the room looked to her puzzled while Kamvex smiled, "There was. During Golarion's Age of Anguish after the fall of the Thassoloni Empire in the Age of Darkness a thousand years before, written magic and wizardry had been lost with the destruction of all civilization," he began.

"What could cause that sort of destruction to such an empire?" Colbert wondered.

"Not just Azlant, but the entire world, Professor," Kamvex clarified. "To answer your question, think of how much damage would be done if Albion came falling from the sky?" Everyone, including Karin, looked horrified at the thought. "Now picture the speed it would have if it hurtled to the earth from your moons, or better yet, the sun. Nothing could stop it, and humanity and all other civilizations fell." He paused before adding, "the only ones somewhat unscathed were the elves, due to their magic gates. Those allowed them to get off the planet before impact."

Karin huffed, "typical elves. I would think then that they called such catastrophe."

Kamvex merely raised his eyebrow before turning to Henrietta. "Princess. If the situation presented came to pass, and you had the ability to save your country by moving all of it's people, would you do it?"

"Of course I would," she answered.

"Even if you had to abandon every other country surrounding this one?"

Henrietta hesitated. "... I... I'd rather save as many as possible. But..."

"It wouldn't be possible or feasible. And even if you could save most of your surrounding countries, you'd be abandoning the rest of the world at large." Kamvex then turned back to Karin. "A difficult choice needs to be made, but you still have to choose. Don't worry though, the Azlanti humans made their own gate around the same time and are still around, trying to conquer all they come across." He smirked, "there's a reason wizardry fell away to innate magic. They all left."

"Now back to what we were talking about, a mage with similar credentials to Brimir. Led his people from a age of darkness and savagery with the introduction of magic. While his people remained very tribal in nature, humans still revered him and his ways. And he was simply known as The Old Mage, Jatembe.

~{THOOOOM}~

A great light shone from the headmater's desk, as the tome upon it opened, flipping through an impossible number of pages. While the rest of the room's occupants covered their eyes, Kamvex activated his helm and visor to see through the light. He watched as old tribal letters and marking filled the pages as quickly as the pages flipped before finally the book slammed close, and the old cover began to shift. The old tanned leather began to shift into multiple hides while a silver plated buckle showed a symbol of what looked to be a ten pointed star surrounded by ten leaves. The young captain deactivated his helm, bringing his hand up to cast so he could read the runes upon the tome. Doing so caused him to flinch and gasp in amazement.

Louise placed her hand on his arm, bringing it down from it's casting position. "Kamvex? What is it?"

He could barely bring himself to answer, barely believing the answer from his own lips. "The Wisdom of Jatembe..."

A/N: Nevermind! I had one more idea! I actually struggled with this idea for a while, believing I'd be making things too easy for our heroes. But if Kamvex is already kinda overpowered, might as well help out Louise some more, right? Also, kinda want to apologize for the flippant ending from the last chapter. I really didn't think it was all that good, but it was done while not in the best mood to write. Unfortunately, to write something I like, I kinda have to be really motivated. So, I'm not going to commit to a schedule. I'll just do what I can, when I can.

As for this chapter, I just kinda realized that Kamvex would definitely get on Karin's nerves and further anger her, leading to an argument between the two for me, and thus our space captain, to drop some more exposition and introduce some concepts. But, I want you guys reviewing to do me a favor: call me out if you believe a character is not acting in accordance to how they should. I am not great at keeping character's straight, even my own. So if you believe someone is veering off a bit, let me know and I'll either go back and look it over, or address it.

Anyway, I hope you've had fun with this one. See you next time where we hopefully can get out of here! *Goes looking for the plot again*