Greenblood: A LitRPG Adventure
Author: Actus
Date: 2022-12-31 00:00:00+00:00
Description: The world is safe - from Henry. Damien has managed to survive all the challenges thrown at him, and he's even starting to enjoy his time at Blackmist. With Henry and Sylph by his side, he just might actually make it through Blackmist without getting killed. Herald has other plans. Forces that have lurked at the edge of the Void for countless Cycles have started to move, and their power is growing with every passing day. Damien needs to gain mastery over his magic, but Herald isn't content to let him sit around for much longer. As more of the truth behind the Void and its purpose on the Mortal
Publisher: Independently published

GREENBLOOD

©2023 ACTUS

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Contents

Also by Actus

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

Chapter 26

Chapter 27

Thank you for reading Greenblood

Groups

LitRPG

Also by Actus

My Best Friend is an Eldritch Horror:

Blackmist

Greenblood

Duskbringer

Steamforged Sorcery:

Steamforged Sorcery

Steamforged Heresy

Steamforged Apostasy

Morcster Chef:

Cleaver’s Edge

Into the Fire

Best Served Cold

Chapter One

In the weeks that came after the tournament, Damien trained. His grasp of the Ether slowly improved, as did the speed at which he could cast spells. Delph and Henry instructed him in their own ways, and he slowly worked his way toward becoming a competent mage.

Still, there was a large distance between him and Sylph. Even though he was gaining on her, she practiced even more than he did. Nearly every waking moment, Sylph was either practicing or in meditation.

That only motivated him more. And so, the days went by, turning into something of a blur.

“Hold on,” Henry said one night as Damien headed toward his bed. “I think it might be about time for you to start using your magical herbs again. You were supposed to use one the night before Sylph nearly blew her core up, but we never got around to it and I might have forgotten.”

Damien straightened despite his exhaustion.

That’s good! I think. It’s good, right?

“It’s good,” Henry said, chuckling. “Your body is already a little weakened from this morning, so this is the perfect time. The weaker you are, the better your body will accept outside influence. Granted, you’ve gathered far more energy than I thought possible. Normally, I’ve observed that mortals need between five to several dozen herbs in order to push their core to the point where it can evolve. For some reason, your obscenely high Magical Energy seems to have pushed you to absorb far more Ether than you should have. I think one or two good herbs might be enough to push you over the edge.”

That’s only mildly concerning.

“Don’t be a coward,” Henry said dismissively. “Magical plants aren’t going to make or break you, but every small bit of strength counts in the end. They’re really just accelerants – you’ll reach where you’re going one way or another, so you might as well get there faster.”

I’ll just take your word for it, I suppose. I’ve been doing a lot of that recently, and I’m starting to get the feeling it won’t be good for my health. Either way, how do I use the plants?

“There are dozens of ways you could choose to use them. The most common is to simply eat the plant, but some people train as alchemists to refine the Ether out of the plant and ingest that directly. You can also smoke it, directly insert it into your core, and more. However, many of those techniques are quite high level and take more skill than you have. They’re also borderline pointless considering the amount of energy you already have.”

So…I’m eating it?

“You’re eating it,” Henry agreed. “It’s the crudest way to absorb the plant, but it doesn’t matter right now. The fancy methods are all there to increase the amount of Ether you draw out of the plant. However, when you’ve never absorbed anything external before, you don’t have to worry about it. You’ll get almost all the Ether within the plant just by using the basic method. It’ll just take a week or two to fully absorb.”

Why is that?

“Think of your body like a sea sponge,” Henry said, adopting the dry tone of a lecturer. “A very dry sea sponge, and the Ether is water. Right now, you’ve barely got any Ether within your body. It’s almost entirely within your core. There’s a bit left over from spells and cultivation, but you’re so young that it’s basically worthless. A drop of water isn’t going to make a sponge soggy.”

Then the magical plants are the water I absorb? And the more Ether I get from them, the less my body wants to accept?

“That’s correct.” Henry let out a pleased purr. “So, it doesn’t matter how you absorb your first few plants. You’ll get everything anyway. It’s once you start pushing the boundaries of your shrimpy little mortal body that you have to worry about the other methods.”

So, if I’m a sponge, what happens when I start overflowing with Ether? Does it leak out?

“That’s not something you’re going to have to worry about for a while,” Henry said. “The amount of Ether your body can absorb is correlated to the amount your core can store. Look, you remember how gravity works, yes?”

Things pull on each other. Big things pull more.

“More or less,” Henry agreed. “Massive things, not big ones, but that’s beside the point. Imagine your core has a form of gravity that only affects the Ether within your body. The bigger it is, the more it holds the Ether in.”

I see. So, if I eat too many magical plants, I’ll outpace my core, and the Ether in my body will leak away.

“Exactly,” Henry said. “Very astute. And, before you ask, it’s not dangerous. It’s just a waste. The plants are most effective before your core evolves, but they can still have uses after. Now, stop wasting time and eat the plant. Start with the one you won from the tournament. It’s stronger than the one we bought.”

Damien shrugged. He finally stepped out of the bathroom and made his way over to the winnings bag by his bed. He ruffled around in it for a few moments before pulling out the glass vial that contained the Ironleaf Thistle.

Should I use this one? Or the first plant I bought?

“Use this one,” Henry said. “The other one was weaker and won’t do you much good at this point. Oopsie.”

So you made me waste money?

“Stop whining and take the damn plant.”

He popped the cork out with one thumb and eyed the dry green leaf within the glass warily. It didn’t look particularly appetizing. It smelled faintly mossy, like something he would have found behind an old shoe in a shed.

Sylph opened her eyes and watched Damien examine his prize. His nose crinkled, and he gingerly dumped the vial’s contents out into his hand.

“Do you know how to properly use that?” Sylph asked.

“More or less,” Damien said. He popped it into his mouth. Unfortunately, the leaf didn’t taste much better than it looked.

Am I supposed to chew this thing? It tastes like paper and shrubbery.

“Just let it dissolve in your mouth,” Henry said. “And why do you know what shrubbery tastes like?”

“Don’t ask questions you don’t want to know the answer to.”

The leaf was rough and brittle against his tongue. It melted slowly, filling his entire mouth with its mildly annoying flavor. Once it was almost completely liquid, Damien swallowed and grimaced.

“Gross,” Damien muttered. “Still better than the free meals, though.”

“You’re sure that’s how you use the magical plant?” Sylph asked, eyeing Damien as he were about to sprout horns.

“Yep. I’ve got it on good word.”

Sylph shrugged. She reached into her own bag and took out one of her three vials. The girl emptied it into her mouth expressionlessly, then capped the vial and put it back into her bed.

“Am I supposed to feel any different?” Sylph asked after a few moments.

I’m wondering the same thing.

“What, did you expect some huge burst of power?” Henry asked, chuckling. “It’s a leaf. A low level one at that. You’ll get stronger as your body absorbs the Ether within it, but don’t expect any instantly noticeable changes. Come morning, you’ll be marginally stronger. You might notice it, or you might not. But, if you continue to absorb magical plants, you’ll start noticing them.”

Damien repeated Henry’s words to Sylph.

“That makes sense,” Sylph said. A frown crossed her face. “But that probably means I’m not going to be able to improve my physical body through magical plants either. If everything is based on how much Ether my core stores…”

“We’ll figure something out,” Damien promised.

Sylph’s head cocked incrementally to the side. Then she gave Damien a small smile and nodded.

With nothing left to do but wait for the following morning, the two of them headed to bed. Damien’s bloodstained sheets were still in the corner of the room, but he couldn’t be bothered to clean them or get new ones. He flopped onto his rough mattress and fell asleep within minutes.

The next morning began with Henry mentally prodding Damien awake. He groaned, blinking the sleep out of his eyes as he sat upright and squinted in the dim light of the rune circle.

“Somebody is outside,” Henry said. “It’s not Delph or the other kids who live on in the nearby caves.”

That was a great way to get rid of the rest of Damien’s drowsiness. He leapt out of bed, throwing his clothes on and hopping from foot to foot to get the blood flowing.

Should I be concerned?

“Can’t tell,” Henry replied. “I can detect their magic, but it’s rather faint. That normally wouldn’t be a cause for concern, but I’m detecting at least eight different types of energy. That’s not a common amount of magic for a single person.”

Damien glanced over at Sylph’s bed. She was gone.

“She left a little less than an hour ago,” Henry said, answering Damien’s question before the boy could even ask it. “Someone showed up at the door then as well. There’s a good chance this is your teacher, but don’t let your guard down.”

Damien nodded, pinching himself once to fully wake up. He combed his hair back and opened the door.

A short older man with a white beard that reached his chest stood before him. The man wore a small black cap with a wide brim, and his suntanned skin resembled a prune. He looked up at Damien with two gray eyes and gave him a small, yellow-toothed smile.

“Good morning,” the man said. His voice was remarkably strong for someone of his age. It sounded like a forty-year-old man was speaking rather than the aged one before him. “I hope I haven’t arrived too early.”

“Good morning,” Damien responded, clearing his throat. “And it’s no problem. I was already awake. Practicing and stuff. Are you my magic theory teacher?”

The man let out a chuckle. “In a way. I’ll be taking you to class once you’re ready. It will be starting shortly.”

“Well, I’m ready,” Damien said slowly. The man just raised an eyebrow and gave Damien a pointed glance.

He looked down, and his face flushed. His coat was on inside out. He tossed it off and quickly shrugged it back on with as much dignity as he could muster.

“Ah, good. I was worried that the fashions of youth had evaded me once again,” the old man said once Damien had finished. “I presume you’re ready now?”

“Yeah, I’m ready,” Damien said with a sheepish grin.

“Very well.”

The old man stepped forward and extended a hand. Damien shook it. The moment their fingers touched, a spark of electricity coursed down his arm. The man’s body crumbled away, blown by the early morning breeze. The remains of the man’s body formed into a flickering gray portal.

A violent force yanked Damien forward. Before he could react, his fingertip touched the gray energy. There was a subtle pop as Damien vanished, leaving behind nothing but the smell of ozone.

Damien stumbled as hard ground rose up against his feet. He nearly fell forwards but managed to pinwheel his arms and regain his balance.

He stood in what looked like a large classroom. There were several rows of wooden seats on one side, and the other had a large board with a bin of chalk beside it. Several other students stood or sat around Damien, varying looks of befuddlement on their faces.

An old man identical to the one who had appeared before him a few moments ago stood beside the board, tapping his foot on the ground and stroking his beard with both hands.

What the seven planes was that?

“Eight,” Henry corrected. “And that was a teleportation spell. A decently advanced one.”

You don’t sound very surprised. Why didn’t you warn me he was about to teleport?

“What’s the point of that?” Henry asked. “It’s not like you were in any danger. Besides, it was funny.”

Damien rolled his eyes and sat in one of the chairs. They weren’t the most comfortable thing he’d ever sat in, but it was better than the floor. There was a small platform at the side of his chair attached to a lever arm.

He tugged on it, and the platform lifted up, twisting as it went over his legs and turning into a makeshift desk. Many of the other students had already figured that particular trick out. Damien joined them in watching the professor.

Over the next few minutes, he said nothing as half a dozen new kids appeared in the room. One boy let out a loud shriek as he arrived, but he quickly snapped his mouth closed when he realized where he was.

One by one, everyone sat down in the chairs. Finally, the old man cleared his throat and walked to the center of the room before them.

“Welcome to magic theory,” he said. A piece of chalk floated out of the bin behind him and drew on the board while he spoke. “I’m not one for formalities so, please, call me Greg.”

The chalk wrote out his name at the top on the board.

“Now, this is a smaller class than I’m used to. There are only fourteen of you, but that’s fine,” Greg said, still stroking his beard. “Before we begin, I’d like to answer any questions you might have. Please raise your hand if you’ve got a question.”

There were a few moments of silence. Then a large boy several seats to Damien’s left raised his hand. Greg nodded in his direction.

“With all due respect, Professor Greg, I’m going to be a combat mage. Why do I need to learn magic theory? It’s for researchers.”

“First, I asked you to call me Greg, not Professor Greg. Greg is my first name, not my last,” the professor said. A smile tugged on his lips. “And for your second question, understanding how your magic works will greatly improve your abilities to use it in a fight. Does that answer your question?”

The boy didn’t look particularly pleased with the answer, but he gave the professor a small nod. “Yes, Pro— Ah, Greg.”

A blonde girl in the row in front of Damien raised her hand. Damien realized it was Reena. Greg gestured for her to speak.

“I’ve heard that this class is very difficult,” Reena said slowly. “But we were chosen to take this class without asking our opinions. We need to pass if we want to score well, but it’s harder for us to pass this class than it is for our peers to do well in some of their classes. How is that fair?”

“Ah. A good question,” Greg said. He started pacing back and forth across the floor. “First, life isn’t fair. So, kill that notion right now. Nothing in Blackmist will be fair. We don’t exist to give everyone an equal chance. We look for the most talented students and train them to the best of our abilities. That doesn’t mean everyone else loses, but there’s no point spending a huge amount of resources on someone who isn’t going to be able to repay that money to the kingdom.”

“All the more reason for us to be worried about the class,” Reena said.

“Indeed,” Greg said. “However, you’re overlooking something. If you prove capable enough to succeed here, you will have an unfair advantage over your fellow students. I assure you, understanding how your magic functions at a deep level will be one of the most powerful tools in your arsenal. Does that answer your question?”

Reena nodded. Greg scanned the classroom, but nobody else raised their hands. He gave them a satisfied smile and turned to the board, where the chalk was still writing on its own.

“Good. Now that we’ve got that out of the way, I can get started. Today, and the next few classes, will be focused on something that I’m sure you all believe you have mastered. Does anyone have a guess to what that is?”

There were a few moments of silence.

“The destructive energy sphere?” Damien guessed. Greg glanced at him.

“Correct.” Greg inclined his head slightly. “Please raise your hand before talking in the future.”

Damien flushed slightly, but Greg didn’t wait around to see his response. The teacher lifted his hand, and a small orb of gray energy churned to live within his palm.

“As we all know, this is one of the most basic applications of magic. Thus, it would be logical to assume you have all mastered it. Am I correct?”

Silence fell over the room. Nobody wanted to take the obvious bait that the professor had laid down. He grinned.

“At least none of you are foolish enough to say yes to that,” he said. “As you might have guessed by my line of questioning, this seemingly basic spell is far more complex than you realize.”

The orb in his hand extended and grew thinner, forming into a shimmering blade. It changed forms several more times before going back into the shape of a sphere.

“Ether is the source, but our mental energy is what directs it. When given no form, it will return to the environment as quickly and efficiently as possible. However, you can modify its shape by adjusting how you exert your mental energy over it. Can anyone tell me why that might be important?”

Reena raised her hand. Greg nodded at her.

“Precision?” she guessed. “You might need certain tools for certain jobs.”

“Correct,” Greg said. “Partially, anyway. In truth, there is little use for molding the shape of your Ether in this particular spell unless you are using it to carve something. However, the ability to control the shape of your Ether output will significantly improve the amount of control you have over your more powerful spells. Please take a few moments and attempt to form a blade out of Ether. Do not cast any other spells.”

Damien glanced at his hand and channeled a mote of Ether into his palm. As it emerged, he tried to wrap his strands of mental energy around it and coax the magic into a blade. He managed to elongate it into a blobby rectangle but didn’t have much success beyond that.

The other students weren’t having much more luck than he was. In fact, the only one who’d managed to even get the Ether to change its form was a pale-haired girl sitting to Damien’s right.

“That’s enough for now,” Greg said, pausing as the students allowed their spells to fade. “As you can tell, controlling the Ether is harder than it looks.”

Greg continued lecturing over the subject for the next several hours. He was passionate about the topic, but the man had a talent for droning. By the time he finally started to wrap things up, Damien was only a few inches away from sleep.

“All right, then,” Greg said, snapping his fingers. The chalk launched back into its bin, and a towel floated into the air and started to wipe the chalk away from the board. “We’ll stop things here for today. Our next class will be in two days. I’ll pick you all up as I did today. You are all also required to be able to manifest a blade of Ether by my next class. Dismissed.”

Greg waved at them with his fingers. Then he crumbled, blowing away and leaving a gray portal behind where he’d been standing.

“Dramatic, much?” Henry asked, chuckling. “This man is interesting. Keep an eye on him.”

I’ll do that if I can manage to stay awake in his classes.

Damien and the other students rose from their seats, half-expecting the professor to pop out as they made their way toward the gray portal. Reena was the first to reach it. The moment she touched the gray energy, her body vanished. The others followed after her.

When Damien got to the portal, he carefully extended his hand and touched the energy with the back of his hand. The world vanished with a pop.

Damien landed flat on his feet on the ground before his room. He blinked, but there was no nausea from the teleportation. The sun was already starting to reach toward its zenith in the sky above him.

His stomach rumbled. Damien pushed the door open and peeked inside, but the room was empty. With a shrug, he started toward the path down the mountain. He nearly ran straight into Reena as she stepped out from behind the curtain in front of her room.

“Oops,” Damien said, taking a step to the side. “Sorry about that. I wasn’t watching where I was going.”

“It’s fine,” Reena said, but her lips were pressed together in mild irritation. After a moment, she shook her head. “Do you understand what Professor Greg was talking about in class today?”

“Sorta,” Damien said. “I can’t quite do it, but I think it’s just a matter of practice.”

Henry scoffed within his mind. “I could do it.”

I know you could, Henry. If Greg knew he was teaching an eldritch creature, I doubt he’d be starting with the basics.

“I suppose so,” Reena said, although she didn’t look particularly convinced. Damien’s stomach rumbled again, and a small grin passed the woman’s lips. “You getting lunch?”

Damien nodded.

“Fantastic,” Reena said. “I was getting hungry as well. I’ll join you.”

Damien blinked, but he didn’t have any reason to refuse her. “Sure. I’m only going to the mess hall, though.”

“That’s fine,” Reena said.

The two of them headed down the mountain and across the campus, reaching the mess hall a few minutes later. They talked little during their walk, both of them lost in their own thoughts.

There was a longer line than normal, so they waited in line for a short while before reaching the lunch lady. Damien ordered a beef stew, and Reena got a fancy dish that he suspected had something to do with fish.

The two of them made their way over to a nearby table and sat down. Damien tapped his rune circle and bit back a yawn as he pulled out a sheaf of paper. He set it on the table before pulling out his quill and ink, setting them beside it.

“What are you doing?” Reena asked him.

“Just some rune practice,” Damien replied as he dipped the quill in the ink pot and started to draw. “I don’t want to fall out of practice.”

He did his best to ignore Reena as she watched him work. Her gaze felt like a constant tickle at the edge of his mind. If he hadn’t spent so much of his life drawing the runes, he might have made a mistake.

The rune circle beside him lit up green. A moment later, Reena’s lit up as well. Damien finished the rune he was drawing and shook the quill off before setting it on the rim of the pot. He pushed the paper out of the way and tapped the rune, summoning his food. The stew was plain, but it had a rich brown broth that looked incredibly appetizing.

Reena’s food popped up before her as well. It was indeed some sort of fish based meal, although Damien had no clue what it was. It practically glittered, and it sat on a bed of shimmering yellow rice that looked incredibly expensive.

Damien didn’t spend much time looking at her food. His own smelled a lot better, and eagerly dug in.

“Do you always get food like that?” Reena asked once she finished chewing a single bite of her meal.

“I do now,” Damien replied through a mouthful of stew. “Why? It’s pretty good. Better than their free stuff.”

“They have free food?” Reena asked, her lip curling in distaste.

“I don’t know if I’d call it food, but it’s free,” Damien said. He was already almost a quarter of the way done with his food. Reena carved off another small piece from the meal and ate it.

“I don’t normally eat in the mess hall, but it’s an interesting experience,” Reena said. “There are some rather nice restaurants on campus.”

“Oh?” Damien asked absentmindedly. He took another bite of his stew and glanced over at his half-finished rune circle.

Henry, do you think we could try to figure out the rune circle Hera—our friend—is trying to put on me?

“We could try,” Henry said. “There’s not a ton to go from right now, but we can give it a try.”

“I could show you sometime,” Reena said.

“Huh?” Damien asked, tearing his attention away from his conversation with Henry. “Sorry, I zoned out. What were you saying?”

Reena pressed her lips together. “The restaurant.”

“Oh, right,” Damien said, pausing to take another spoonful of stew. “What about it?”

“I could show it to you if you’d like. I’m sure you’d enjoy the experience.”

“Thanks for the offer, but I don’t really have the money to spend on restaurants right now,” Damien said. “The mess hall has pretty decent food, for me, at least. I guess this is way lower quality than what you ate at home, huh?”

“It could be my treat,” Reena offered.

“I wouldn’t be comfortable taking advantage of someone like that,” Damien said, shaking his head. He tipped the bowl of stew back, finishing off the remains of the broth in his bowl.

Henry bit back a laugh as Reena’s eyebrows grew close. Damien gathered his papers up and put them back into his pack, shaking the last few drops of ink off his quill and capping the ink pot before tossing them in as well.

“I’ve got to get some practice for Delph. Sorry for running,” Damien said, giving her a polite nod. “Enjoy the rest of your meal!”

He strode away, leaving Reena at the table staring at his back in shock. Henry couldn’t control himself any longer and let out a short burst of laughter.

“Maybe you’re the one who needs to read Love Making for the Uninitiated and Lustful,” Henry said mirthfully. “I believe the book covered this particular scenario, although it stated that the man was usually the one asking the woman to dinner.”

Damien nearly tripped over his own feet.

You think she’s coming onto me?

“I don’t think it could be more obvious unless she pulled her pants off and hopped toward you aggressively.”

Please never say that again. I don’t need that mental image. And, if she is, it’s probably because she’s trying to gain an advantage with House Gray. She kind of reminds me of Nolan before he got a little better.

“She does,” Henry agreed. “She definitely wants you, but probably to teach her and use as a status piece rather than because she actually cares. I’ve seen it unfold countless times when I was watching the Mortal Plane, but all the drama gets boring. I much prefer magic. So, are you going to teach her? Who knows, maybe she actually does like you.”

I think I’ll pass. She wants me to teach her how to make the knife with Ether, but I don’t want to become a teacher for the other students. If word gets out that I’m offering lessons, I’ll never get a minute of down time. On top of that, I don’t really like her in that way. She’s too manipulative. With any luck, she’ll just leave me alone.

Henry let out a chuckle and faded into the back of Damien’s mind.

Chapter Two

When Damien got back to his room, Sylph had already returned. She glanced up at him from her seated position on her bed and gave him a polite nod.

“Class go well?” Damien asked, stepping inside and letting the stone door swing shut behind him.

“Well enough,” Sylph said, giving him a half-shrug. “I’m not sure how much I’ll actually be able to learn, but if it even increases my mental energy in the slightest, it’ll be worth it.”

“Don’t worry,” Damien said as he sat down on his own bed and shrugged his coat off, “we’ll get you that dagger thing.”

Sylph swallowed and nodded, glancing away from him. Damien pulled out the paper he’d been drawing on during lunch and squinted at it. The half-finished rune circle stared back at him.

So, what could it be? The rune circle.

“This might be a better conversation for tonight. Actually, I’ll need some more time to think over it. Give me a day. We can talk tomorrow night,” Henry suggested. “It’s not urgent anyway.”

I— Damn, I suppose you’re right. Tomorrow, then.

Damien sighed and put the paper back into his pack. He closed it and pushed the bag under his bed. Sylph raised an eyebrow, but he just shrugged and shook his head. He hopped to his feet and wandered over to the training room. The next several hours of the day were spent training Devour.

By the time Damien was done for the day, the spell had taken several steps forward in appearance. The disk was smooth, and it followed his commands like a new appendage. He was able to cast it almost every attempt, and Henry was satisfied with how he drew the rune to summon it.

He tapped his wristband, curious to see what improvements he’d gained from the mixture of training and using the magical plants.

Damien Vale

Blackmist College

Year One

Major: Undecided

Minor: Undecided

Companion: [Null]

Magical Strength: 4.8

Magical Control: .55

Magical Energy: 9.6

Physical Strength: .32

Endurance: .74

It wasn’t anything insane, but there were still discernable improvements. He wasn’t sure how much could be attributed to the plant, but all that mattered was he was getting stronger.

There were still a few good hours left in the day, but Damien was too tired to practice the spell any further. Instead, he summoned two balls of destructive energy in his palms and started carving through the back wall of the room, expanding it farther into the mountain.

At one point, he summoned an orb at the tip of his foot. He tried it with the other foot as well, and then with his elbows, and finally his nose.

“You look stupid,” Henry said as Damien held his face against the wall, carving a line through it with the ball of energy spinning between his eyes.

He stepped back and brushed the dust off his face, letting out his pent up breath.

It will be useful to be able to cast spells from any point on my body.

“You’re not wrong,” Henry said, “but that doesn’t make you look any less dumb.”

Damien rolled his eyes. He’d managed to expand the second training room by almost half of its original size. It was now several times larger than the room with their beds.

“I suppose I should start on a new room,” Damien said, brushing his hands off and examining his handiwork. “Ah…do you think you could…”

Damien could tell Henry was rolling his eyes as the eldritch creature reached forward, taking the reins of his body. Henry piloted Damien out of the room and summoned a pool of darkness along the floor.

The dust fell into it and vanished as the pool snapped shut, and Henry released Damien’s body.

“That spell is a modified version of the Devour spell, you know,” Henry said. “You can work on learning it after you get a better grasp of the basic spell. Then I won’t have to be your maid.”

It’s not like you’ve got anything better to do.

Henry huffed as Damien let out a small chuckle. He left the training rooms to take a quick shower and brush his teeth. Sylph still hadn’t budged from her spot on her bed by the time he got back into their main room. He hopped into bed, not particularly tired but eager to speak with his companion. He still had no blankets, but he once again couldn’t be bothered to get new ones.

“How’d the training go?” Sylph asked, opening her eyes. Her hands were clenched at her sides, but they relaxed when she realized Damien was looking at them.

“Pretty well,” Damien said. “I’m trying to learn a new spell. I also expanded the second training room by a good bit.”

“The one with all of the books in it?”

“Yeah. I should probably return those to the library soon.”

“Even Love Making for the Uninitiated and Lustful?” Sylph asked, raising an eyebrow. “I’ve heard that one’s a good read.”

Damien groaned and buried his face in his hands. “My companion wanted it.”

“I’m sure he did,” Sylph said, laughing. Henry joined her, and Damien mentally sent him a rude gesture.

“You might want to hide those books better,” Sylph suggested. “There’s some things I don’t need to know.”

“You’re the one who went shuffling through his book pile,” Damien said, crossing his arms.

“I did not,” Sylph said. “You left it in the bathroom.”

“I most certainly did n—” Damien froze as he heard Henry’s laughter double in intensity.

I’m going to strangle you. You’re a millennia old Void creature. Don’t you have better things to do with your time?

“Not really,” Henry said. “I’m stuck here, watching you fiddle with basic magic. You’re growing quickly, but it’s hardly riveting. Your little gift to me has been ruining my patience. It’s quite the pain.”

Hmph. Good.

Damien laid down and rolled over, burying his face in the mattress. Sylph smirked and returned her attention to meditating. A few minutes later, Damien drifted off to sleep.

The following morning, Delph left a slip instructing Damien and Sylph to meet him in the arena. As usual, the professor worked the two of them hard. They trained through the morning hours and well into the day.

Delph made sure that both their bodies and their minds were completely exhausted and out of energy by the time he was done. Damien ran out of stamina well before Sylph did, but he gained ground on her when his mental energy lasted almost ten times as long as hers did.

Damien didn’t use his new Devour spell since it wasn’t quite ready, but Delph seemed pleased enough with his current progress. He dismissed the two of them an hour before lunch and vanished from the forest in his typical method.

“I wonder if that’s ever going to become easy,” Damien said as they walked back toward their room. He groaned as his sore muscles protested every step he took.

“Probably not,” Sylph said with a grimace. She was in better shape than Damien, but her eyes were thin, and her lips were pressed together from what Damien suspected to be a raging headache.

“It does look like you’re getting more magical energy, though,” Damien said, trying to sound upbeat and failing miserably.

“I suppose so,” Sylph replied. “It’s not much, but it’s better than nothing. Don’t tell Delph that, though. He’ll sit outside our door and force us to practice every waking moment.”

“You already do that,” Damien pointed out. “You’re meditating constantly.”

“Meditating doesn’t make me feel like I put my head in a drum and let someone bang on it for a few hours,” Sylph snapped.

Damien couldn’t argue with that. They lapsed into silence for the rest of the trip. His stomach rumbled, but the only thing he wanted to do was take a shower in the healing water. Food could come after his body didn’t feel like it was falling apart at the seams.

Reena was outside her curtain when the two of them got back. She raised an eyebrow at the exhausted students as they trudged past her.

“Have a fun morning?” Reena asked.

“Not particularly,” Damien said, his words little more than a grunt. “I can’t feel my legs.”

Mark peeked his head out from his own cave. “Were you training?”

Damien ground to a halt in front of the cave, torn between being socially acceptable and speaking to the other students or ignoring them and running into his room. Sylph had no such qualms. She smirked at Damien over her shoulder and pulled the door open, making a beeline for the shower. He repressed a groan.

“Yeah. I’m pretty fried,” Damien said. “I think my bruises are starting to form bruises.”

Mark smirked. “Then you should get better at not getting hit.”

“Working on it,” Damien said wearily. He glanced at his door, but there was no point rushing inside now. Sylph was in the shower, so all he could do was wait until she finished. “What have you guys been up to?”

“Same as you,” Mark replied. “Training and studying for my class. It’s a lot more work than I would have expected.”

“What did you get?” Reena asked. “Damien and I are in magical theory together.”

“Eh,” Mark replied with a shrug. “Basically, just magical control. Nothing very interesting, but it’s a pain.”

“Nolan got rune drawing, didn’t he?” Damien asked, cocking his head. “How’s he doing with that?”

Nolan groaned loudly from within his room. “My hand doesn’t draw what my brain tells it to draw!”

“He’s not doing too great,” Reena said, acting as if she hadn’t heard him. “I guess all of us are struggling with our classes. Judging by how you look, it doesn’t seem like you’ve had much luck figuring out how to make a knife out of Ether either.”

“Huh?” Damien asked. He blinked as he realized she was talking about the assignment the professor had given them. “Oh, I wasn’t practicing that. I was doing my normal training. I’ll work on that after I take a shower and get lunch.”

“You haven’t even started yet?” Reena asked, her eyes widening.

“Well, I put some work in last night,” Damien lied. “I’ll figure it out soon enough.”

Reena grunted. It was clear she didn’t believe him. “Well, let me know if you figure it out. It’s causing me a lot of trouble, and someone as smart as you should have it all worked out real fast.”

“I’ll keep that in mind,” Damien said, desperately wishing that Sylph would finish her shower already. His limbs felt like they were a few steps away from sloughing off his body and turning into soup at his feet.

Mercifully, Damien heard the water shut off within his room a short while later. He ducked out of the conversation as politely as he could and staggered into the room. Sylph stepped out of the bathroom while wringing water out of her hair.

“All yours,” Sylph said. “You enjoy your conversation?”

Damien scrunched his nose at his roommate and offered no response as he waddled past her and into the shower. He threw off his clothes and hopped into the shower. A relieved sigh escaped his lips as the soothing water poured over him, causing the pain to evaporate. His headache had already started to fade by the time he got into the shower, but it was almost gone by the time he got out.

He dried himself off and stepped outside.

“Lunch?” Damien suggested. “I need to practice for my class, but I’d rather do that on a full stomach and give my head a little more time to heal.”

“Works for me,” Sylph replied, pulling her hair into a bun. “Just be prepared for the Grays and Mark to invite themselves.”

“They’re welcome to come so long as they don’t try to invite me to any more restaurants.”

Sylph raised an eyebrow but said nothing as the two of them stepped back outside, where Nolan had joined Reena and Mark in their conversation. The boy’s face was slightly singed, and the tips of his hair were burnt. Ink stains covered his hands and expensive clothes.

“Not having much success with runes?” Damien guessed, holding back a laugh.

Nolan let out a weary sigh. “Not in the slightest. How can you do this? One tiny mistake and the whole circle goes up in flames.”

“It’s all practice,” Damien said. “You’ll figure it out soon enough. Just keep drawing the same runes over and over until they’re second nature.”

“Thank you for the advice, even if I don’t appreciate it right now,” Nolan said, rubbing his forehead. He glanced from Damien to Sylph. “Are you two getting lunch?”

“We are,” Sylph said.

“Mind if I tag along?” Nolan asked. “I need a break from ink and paper.”

“I won’t stop you,” Sylph said, shrugging.

“I’ll come as well,” Reena said. They glanced at Mark, but the boy shook his head.

“Thanks for the offer, but I’ve already eaten,” Mark said. “I’m going to get to doing some practice. Enjoy yourselves.”

“Have fun,” Damien said as he and the others headed down the mountain, leaving Mark in his room.

They reached the mess hall and ordered their food a short while later. The four of them sat down at an empty table. Sylph positioned herself beside Damien, while Nolan and Reena sat down on the other side.

“How’s class going for the two of you?” Nolan asked,

“It’s fine,” Damien replied. “The professor seems interesting. He’s got some very strange magic I can’t entirely place.”

“It’s interesting enough for me as well,” Sylph said, not offering any further information.

Reena sent Damien a strange glance, but Nolan just shrugged. Their runes blinked to life as their food arrived, and the four of them lapsed into silence as they ate. Nolan looked conflicted the entire time, while Reena continued to watch Damien out of the corner of her eye.

“What are your plans for after dinner?” Reena asked them.

“Training,” Damien said. “I’ve got to work on the assignment for magic theory, and I’ve got another spell that I’m practicing as well.”

“Oh?” Nolan asked, raising an eyebrow. “Your gravity magic was intimidating already. You’re already working on a new spell?”

Damien shrugged awkwardly.

“Need someone to spar?” Reena asked. “I’ve been working on my magic, too, and it would be interesting to see how I match up against one of the semifinalists.”

“Reena,” Nolan admonished, frowning. She shrugged, ignoring him.

“I suppose it wouldn’t hurt,” Damien said. He did need to get some practice in against someone other than Delph, and fighting Sylph wasn’t going to get him much experience. She’d beat him handily regardless of if they used magic or didn’t.

“Great!” Reena said, polishing off a biscuit and sending a smug grin at Nolan. “I’m ready whenever you are.”

“I’ll come along as well,” Sylph said. “It’s been a bit since I’ve fought someone other than Delph with my magic. You interested, Nolan?”

“If you want, then sure,” Nolan said, shrugging. “I doubt I’ll be able to help you much, but I can gain a lot from fighting against you.”

They finished off the last of their food and stood up, leaving the dining hall and heading toward the arena. They arrived a short while later but were surprised to find it wasn’t as empty as they’d expected.

Several dozen students were already sparring throughout the arena. It was hard to tell what year they were from, but Damien doubted they were first years as they were all using quite a few spells.

“Looks like we aren’t the only ones with the idea to come here,” Sylph said. “There’s enough room for us, though. No reason to leave if we’re all comfortable fighting here.”

“Don’t see why not,” Damien said. “Like you said, there’s room. We’ll just stay on this end to make sure our fights don’t accidentally interfere with theirs.”

Sylph and Nolan walked a short distance away, leaving Reena and Damien near the entrance. Damien rolled his neck and stretched his arms out. At the same time, he cast out his net of mental energy and drew in Ether to refill his reserves.

“Need to prepare at all?” Damien asked.

“No. I’m ready when you are.”

“What do we go until? We can’t go all out,” Damien pointed out. “First blood while avoiding attacks that could cause serious injury?”

“That’s a little boring,” Reena said.

“Well, what do you want? There aren’t any healers here right now.”

“Fine,” Reena said with a sigh. “Ready?”

Damien took a step back, putting a little more distance between them. He gave her a nod. At the same time, he channeled the Ether through both his arms, forming two gravity spheres. He tossed them both, one directly in front of him, and the other off to the side.

Neither was close enough to hit Reena, but they forced her to keep her distance as they detonated, yanking sand free from the ground. Wind curled around the girl’s long hair, whipping around her and turning into a small whirlwind centered at her feet.

She thrust her hands forward. A powerful gale of wind slammed into Damien, picking him up and tossing him backward. He rolled in the air and landed on his feet. His eyes widened, and he dove to the side as a white blade of air flashed past him.

“What happened to non-dangerous spells?” Damien demanded.

“It wasn’t that dangerous,” Reena replied, tossing another blade at Damien. He ducked out of the way, and it hit the wall behind him, dissipating harmlessly. “They’ll only cut you a little. I’m not putting enough magic into them to do any more damage than that.”

Damien grunted. He wasn’t confident he could emulate that with a gravity sphere. Even a small amount of force could be enough to break bones if it hit Reena wrong.

“Should have thought this out a bit more,” Henry said, amused. “Just wear her out. You can’t win this without injuring the girl, so use Devour and wait until she runs out of energy.”

I’d figured that out myself, thank you very much.

Damien’s finger lit up with dark energy, and he traced a rune in the air. Reena didn’t wait to see what it was and threw another blade of wind toward him.

He slammed his hand against the rune, and it lit up as Damien forced Ether through his palm and into it. A circle of darkness blossomed in front of him, and the wind vanished inside it, disappearing without a trace.

Chapter Three

“Don’t drop the spell so quickly,” Henry instructed Damien. “It uses a lot of Ether to cast and isn’t very fast. Its main use is the fact that you can block multiple of your opponent’s spells with just a single one of your own.”

Damien nodded imperceptibly, already tracing a rune through the air with his finger. Reena drew on her magic, summoning another small tornado before her.

“What’s the new spell, Damien?” Reena asked.

“You’ll find out soon enough,” Damien replied. The circle of darkness expanded outwards, absorbing Reena’s attack completely. She stomped her foot when the circle didn’t fade.

“How is that fair?” Reena complained. “You can’t just block all of my magic like that!”

“Yes, I can,” Damien replied. Henry chuckled within his mind, and a small grin crossed Damien’s face as well.

Reena let out a huff. The wind gathered around her, and she launched into the air, sending several blades of air hurtling toward Damien. He shifted his hand, moving the large disk in front of their path. The magic vanished within it.

“This is stupid,” Reena pouted, floating back down to the ground. Trickles of sweat had started to spring up on her forehead. “Your spell is too strong. Is that even something at our level?”

“It really is quite impressive,” Nolan said, walking up beside them. Sylph stood beside him, nodding thoughtfully. Neither of them looked particularly sweaty, but the disappointed expression on Nolan’s face made it clear who had won their fight.

“Is that what you’ve been practicing recently?” Sylph asked Damien.

“Yeah. It won’t do me much good against you, though.”

Damien started to lower the spell, but something flashed in the corner of his eyes from somewhere behind Nolan and Sylph. Without thinking, he blurred forward, slipping between the two of them and raising the shield.

A powerful force slammed into Damien, pushing him back a step before it vanished within the Devour spell. He lowered it, his brow tightening in anger. Two boys jogged toward them. They looked slightly older than the other students Damien had interacted with. Both had short hair and pale skin. The one on the left had a slightly crooked nose, and the other had a sheepish grin on his face.

“Damn,” the boy on the left said. “Good reaction speed. I’m real sorry about Jayce. Somehow, he still hasn’t learned how to control his magic.”

“Well, he should,” Damien said, glowering at them. “Someone could have seriously gotten hurt. How can you hurl a spell across half an arena and not even call out a warning?”

“Sorry. And sheesh,” Jayce said, crossing his arms defensively. “Accidents happen. Calm down.”

“I can kill him,” Henry offered. “In and out tonight. One minute. Nobody will ever know.”

No killing all our problems.

Sylph, who’d summoned a blade of darkness, allowed it to flicker out. Her expression was unreadable.

“If you can’t control your powers, you shouldn’t be training in a public place,” Nolan said. “You’re a threat to the people around you. There aren’t any healers here right now. What would have happened if we got hit by that?”

“You woulda been fine,” Jayce said, waving his hand dismissively. “There are enchantments in the arena that let a healer know if someone gets injured. That spell wouldn’t have killed you unless you were super weak anyway. Blown up a few limbs maybe, but those regrow.”

“I’d like to blow off a few of your limbs,” Reena growled. “You’re a menace.”

The boy standing beside Jayce glanced from the group to his sparring partner. He threw up his hands and stalked several paces away from them to lean against the wall. Jayce pulled his lips back and took a step toward them.

“You want to spar?” he asked.

“Loser leaves the arena,” Reena replied. Damien grimaced and rubbed his forehead. The situation was clearly well beyond salvaging, and he got the feeling Reena wouldn’t leave peacefully.

Any chance she wins?

“Absolutely none,” Henry replied. “She’s not nearly as good as Nolan judging by her fight with you. This boy isn’t anything special, but he’s had more training than most of you. His magical energy seems to be somewhat high as well, and his strength isn’t insignificant. The more Ether a spell has, the harder it is to block it with Devour. If you struggled to block his attack, the girl has no chance.”

Fantastic. In that case, any chance she does well enough to force a tie or at least doesn’t get slaughtered?

“Define slaughtered.”

Right.

Sylph glanced curiously at Damien. He grimaced and shook his head. His gaze flicked to Jayce. Sylph wiggled her hand in the air, indicating she wasn’t certain if she could take him easily. Her powers put her far ahead of the other Year One students, but something told Damien Jayce wasn’t Year One. He sighed.

“I get dibs on the first fight,” Damien said, stepping in front of Reena. He didn’t particularly care if she lost the fight, but he didn’t want to leave the arena right after getting here. On top of that, Damien got the feeling Jayce wasn’t about to play nice. “I’m the one who took his spell after all.”

“The order doesn’t matter. I can take all of you ducklings,” Jayce said, smirking. “You need a wakeup call. There are real monsters out there. Just because you’ve got magic doesn’t make you tough shit. Learn to accept an apology and move on.”

“I hope you’re right about the healer showing up if someone gets hurt,” Damien said, bringing his net of mental energy forth. He drew Ether into himself and channeled it toward his hands before he’d even stopped speaking.

The other three students backed up to join the other boy at the wall, leaving Jayce and Damien alone in their corner of the arena.

“You ready, kid?” Jayce asked. “I’ll try not to break anything too important. I’d feel bad making your girlfriends watch you get squished.”

Damien just nodded, too concentrated to respond to the boy.

“Remember, Devour won’t work against anything close range,” Henry warned. “Find out what kind of magic he uses, then react from that. This child annoys me. Crush him.”

Jayce made the first move. Fire bloomed around his hand, forming into a sphere in the air above his palm. Damien started tracing the rune for the Devour spell. The other boy smirked and hurled the fireball at Damien.

Damien finished casting Devour, and the disk sprang out before him. The fireball slammed into it, hissing and crackling for a moment before it vanished. Damien started to lower the spell, but a mental shout from Henry warned him just before Jayce’s fist slammed into his stomach.

He dropped the spell and hardened his mage armor. Jayce’s fist hit his stomach with a dull thud. The bigger boy hopped back, cursing and shaking his hand. Damien started to summon a gravity sphere, but a tongue of flame curled down the boy’s hand.

Damien dove to the side as the spell howled past him and slammed into the ground where he’d been standing, turning a portion of the sand into glass.

“Are you trying to kill him?” Nolan asked, angry. “What if that spell had hit his head?”

“It didn’t,” Jayce replied. Two fireballs formed in his hands, and he tossed them at Damien. At the same time, Damien channeled the Ether through his feet, enlarging the sand beneath him. A pillar erupted from the ground and tossed him into the air.

He casts so fast. There’s no way I can compete with his speed.

“More experience,” Henry reminded Damien. “His hand is hurt, though. Try to dodge his next attacks while forming gravity spheres. Make them count.”

Damien landed on the ground and channeled the Ether down his arms. Jayce spun, his mouth twisting into a snarl as he thrust his hands forward. There was a crackle as a tiny spark formed between his palms.

A beam of flame exploded forth, searing past Damien’s head. He nearly lost his concentration but held on by a single strand. Two dark spheres formed in his hands.

“Destructive magic? Really?” Jayce asked, choking back a laugh.

Damien tossed one of them toward Jayce. The boy stepped out of the way, allowing it to hit the ground behind him. The spell detonated, yanking Jayce backward. Damien tossed his second sphere at the same time.

Jayce managed to twist midair, landing on his feet and diving to the side to avoid the detonation from Damien’s second gravity sphere. While Jayce struggled to avoid getting hit by the spell, Damien reformed the spheres in his hands.

“Gravity magic? Really?” Jayce panted. “Little brat. You need to learn your place.”

Damien tossed a sphere at Jayce. The larger boy dove out of the way, straight into the path of the other sphere. His eyes widened as the magic hit his arm. The spell detonated with a series of sharp cracks that Damien was growing accustomed to.

Jayce’s expression contorted in pain. He rolled to his feet, one arm hanging limply at his side.

“That’s it. You think you’re hot shit, do you? Let me show you what a real mage can do.”

Flames erupted around Jayce, twisting around his body and forming a set of armor. A sword of fire sputtered to life in his uninjured hand. At the same time, Jayce’s injured arm twisted and snapped back into place.

“You complain about space magic, but you can heal?” Damien asked, pressing his lips together.

Jayce wordlessly smirked. He shifted his stance and leapt forward. Damien’s eyes widened as Jayce crossed the distance between them in an instant. He was easily twice as fast as he’d been a moment ago.

The boy drove a flame-covered fist into Damien’s stomach. He managed to harden his mage armor just before the strike connected, but the force picked Damien off his feet and sent him tumbling across the sand.

He rolled to his feet, but Jayce was on him again before he could recover. Another blow slammed into Damien’s side and tossed him like a ragdoll. He gritted his teeth against the pain and gathered his Ether midair, pushing it through his limbs and toward his feet.

At the same time, Damien split his consciousness and sent mental energy into his mage armor, hardening all of it at the same time. Not a moment later, Jayce pounded both of his fists into Damien’s back. The blow sent him straight into the ground with a violent thud and knocked all the air out of his lungs.

Damien lost his concentration as a spear of pain punched through his leg. Jayce ripped his sword free and smirked at Damien.

“How’s that feel?” Jayce asked.

The Ether gathered at Damien’s foot once again. A gravity sphere formed at his toes, and Damien flicked it up a foot behind Jayce. The boy’s eyes widened, and he dove to the side, but the spell detonated and yanked him back.

Damien leapt to his feet, avoiding putting pressure on his wounded leg as he desperately channeled his Ether. Jayce regained his footing and snarled, dashing toward Damien just as he managed to summon a sphere in his palm.

“You can’t use that if I’m right on top of you,” Jayce snarled, leaping toward him. The sphere in Damien’s hands shifted forms, straightening out and forming a razor sharp edge. He wasn’t fast enough to actually hit Jayce, but that didn’t matter when the boy was flying through the air toward him.

Damien raised his hand, and Jayce slammed into it. A burning fist crashed into Damien’s stomach, and he tumbled backward. At the same time, Jayce let out a hiss of pain. Damien forced himself upright, fighting against his aching body.

A thick trickle of blood poured out of Jayce’s stomach. The blade of destructive energy had carved clean through the boy’s armor. However, the bleeding stemmed quickly. Within moments, the wound had completely closed.

“You’ll pay for that,” Jayce hissed. The sword in his hands flared, growing in width and length until it was twice the size it had been. A ring of fire erupted from Jayce’s other hand. It spread out in the blink of an eye, surrounding him and Damien. The flames towered them, concealing the fight from the rest of the Arena.

Damien struggled to his feet, gritting his teeth. Jayce let him stand up and smirked.

“I’ll make sure you remember this one,” Jayce said, dashing forward and rearing back to thrust the flaming blade into Damien’s stomach.

Henry surged forward, preparing to burst forth from Damien’s body. Then a flash of yellow light tore through the searing fire. Damien blinked, nearly missing the beautiful scene of a glowing fist crunching into Jayce’s armored face.

The fire vanished with a pop. Jayce bounced across the ground like a rock skipped across a lake and slammed into the wall of the arena with a loud crash.

Sean stood where the other boy had been moments ago, flickers of yellow smoke curling up around his body. He stormed forward as Jayce staggered to his feet, his flaming armor forming back around him.

“What are you doing?” Jayce asked through a bloody nose. “We were having a sparring match! You can’t—”

A glowing fist thundered into Jayce’s nose, shattering it. Before the boy could fall, Sean grabbed him by the hair and held him upright, completely ignoring the fire tickling his skin.

“What am I doing?” Sean hissed. “What are you doing? Going all out against a Year One?”

He slammed his other fist into Jayce’s face, cutting the other boy’s response off with a crunch. “And to make matters even worse, you were struggling! A Year Two had to summon their companion against a Year One.”

“He was —”

Sean slammed Jayce’s face into the ground. He lifted the boy, then slammed him into the ground again. Then he drove his foot into Jayce’s face, knocking the other boy’s head back with a spray of blood and what might have been teeth.

“Disgusting,” Sean spat. He kicked Jayce one final time, then stalked back to Damien, his expression softening. “Are you okay?”

Damien nodded. “He didn’t get me too badly. Where’d you come from?”

“A healer gets summoned when someone is injured in the arena,” Sean said, grinning. He pointed his palm toward Damien and a beam of gentle light shot out. Damien’s body prickled, and his wounds slowly started to heal. It wasn’t anywhere near as effective as the healers at the tournament, but the pain slowly reduced until it was almost gone.

The Grays and Sylph rushed forward with Jayce’s friend a short distance behind them.

“Seven planes, are you okay?” Nolan asked. “We tried to interfere when he summoned that big sword, but the fire was too hot. We couldn’t get through it.”

“It’s fine,” Damien said, rubbing his leg. “Sean bailed my ass out before I got hurt too badly. It barely even hurts anymore.”

Henry let out a hiss within Damien’s mind. His true voice slipped through the cracks, the drone of dozens of overlapping voices filling the boy’s head before Henry got himself under control.

Sylph bristled, her cold glare burning into Jayce’s battered body in the corner of the arena. Sean followed her gaze and stepped in between her and the fallen boy.

“Don’t think about it,” Sean warned. “Striking a wounded student can be grounds for serious punishment.”

Sylph gritted her teeth but nodded, forcing herself to turn away from the boy. Damien gave her a grin and rolled his shoulders.

“It’s fine, Sylph. I’m okay.”

“And you gave him a run for his money,” Nolan said, a note of wonder in his voice. “He was a second year student, but you made him actually go all out to fight you. That’s very impressive.”

“Your friend is right,” Sean said. Jayce groaned from his position on the ground, and the boy’s friend edged toward him. Sean pierced him with a glare that froze the boy in place before he resumed talking. “Taking on a Year Two and holding your ground…well done. Stupid, but impressive.

“That’s me,” Damien said with a small smirk.

“Indeed,” Sean said, patting Damien on the shoulder. “Look, it’s been great meeting up with you again. I hope we can do it again under better circumstances. However, I’m still technically working. I’ve got to take care of him.”

He jerked his head toward Jayce. The other Year Two let out a relieved sigh as Sean stepped away from the group and walked over to the crumpled boy. A ray of gold light shot out of Sean’s hands and enveloped Jayce.

There were a series of pops as his bones snapped back into place and his nose corrected itself. Jayce groaned and pushed himself upright. His gaze snapped to Damien, seething with hatred.

“There,” Sean said, barely hiding his disgust. “Are you feeling healed?”

“Yes,” Jayce spat. “And I’m rea—”

Sean’s fist crashed into Jayce’s jaw, snapping his head back. Yellow sparks of light danced around Sean as he reared back and drove his fist into the other boy’s stomach. Jayce doubled over with a grunt of pain.

The Year Three boy swept Jayce’s legs out from under him and kicked him violently in the side. Damien grimaced as he heard the distinctive snap of ribs breaking.

“I’ve called a healer for you, shitbag.” Sean snarled. “Don’t ever let me catch you trying to kill someone in this school again. Don’t forget you’re getting off lucky. I don’t think I need to explain what the professors would do to you if they were in my position.”

Jayce groaned into the sand. Sean curled his lip up and stalked back to the group. Jayce’s friend paled and scampered away as the furious boy’s gaze landed on him.

“The four of you might want to train somewhere else for a little,” Sean suggested. “That kid looks like a blockhead. He might be stupid enough to get revenge. I’ll report this to the faculty, and they’ll take care of it soon enough.”

“We can do that,” Nolan said, glancing at Jayce’s body. “Not that I object, but didn’t you say you couldn’t strike an injured student?”

“I did say that,” Sean said, giving Nolan a sage nod. “That’s why I healed him first. You heard him say it himself. He was doing fine, so I was once again within my rights to hit him.”

They all chuckled as the tension seeped away.

“Thanks, Sean,” Damien said. His chest still felt a little heavy, and his thoughts danced aggravatingly at the edge of his mind. “I do feel a little loopy, though. Do you know why?”

“That’s my bad,” Sean said, rubbing the back of his head with an embarrassed grin. “I’m not as good a healer as the professors. My magic ends up using a lot of your body’s energy to restore you. You should probably get some rest. I’ll let your professor know why you’re missing— What’s their name?”

“We’ve all got Professor Delph,” Sylph answered for Damien.

“Ah. Damn it,” Sean said, grimacing. “That man is a pain to track down. I suppose his methods must work, though. I’ve never seen a Year One do that well against a Year Two. Sylph, could you walk Damien back to your dorm? As for you two, would you accompany me for a short while? I’d like some witnesses when I report to the dean.”

Nolan and Reena nodded.

“Great,” Sean said with an award winning grin. “Hold on. I’m going to use a teleportation spell. Stay safe, Damien. I’ll drop by sometime tomorrow to make sure everything’s going good on your end.”

He reached out and grabbed the Gray siblings by the shoulders. A pillar of light enveloped them, and the three students vanished. The entire arena was looking in their direction now. Damien couldn’t hear what they were saying, but he wasn’t a fan of that much attention.

“Let’s get out of here,” Sylph said, mirroring Damien’s thoughts. “Can you walk?”

Damien took a careful step. His movements were a little sluggish, but it wasn’t nearly as bad as some of Delph’s lessons had left him. He nodded to Sylph, and the two of them headed out of the arena and back toward their room.

Each step Damien took seemed to draw more and more energy. He managed to make it about halfway back to their dorm before his vision faded in and out before him. The rune on his chest burned, but his mind could barely register it.

Sylph wordlessly slipped under Damien’s arm, looping her own behind his back, and helped him the rest of the way to the mountain. By the time they arrived, Damien’s thoughts had slowed down to those of a snail.

“I think…I should go to bed,” Damien said. His lips were like two slabs of unresponsive meat. Sylph gave him a worried smile and helped him on top of the mattress, which still didn’t have any sheets.

“Good night,” Damien slurred.

He never heard Sylph’s response. His mind flicked out like a snuffed candle, and he fell into a deep sleep.

Had things gone his way, Damien wouldn’t have thought a single thing until the following morning. However, that would have been rather boring and a waste of good sleep, so such a scenario was doomed to never come about.

A field of stars painted over a chasm of infinite darkness swam into view around Damien. He blinked, then let out a groan as his mind caught up with his location.

“Do we have to do this now, Herald?”

“There is no good reason not to do it now,” Herald said. The eldritch creature’s starry body formed from the shadows before Damien, its face as impassive as ever.

“Yes, there is. I’m tired. I want to sleep.”

“There is no weariness here. Your body is sleeping,” Herald said. “Your rest will not be effected by our talk.”

“It’s not the same,” Damien replied. He glanced at his glowing body and grimaced. “How about we get this over with quickly, then? What do you want?”

“You wished to discuss the purpose of the rune I placed on your chest with…Henry,” Herald said. There was no discernable change in emotion when it said Henry’s name, but Damien thought he might have detected the slightest hint of a delay before it.

“I did,” Damien replied, matching Herald’s neutral tone. “What about it?”

“I can answer your question for you, although you’re welcome to confirm with Henry. I am creating a Greater Containment rune.”

“For the part of your soul that’s locked away?” Damien asked.

“Precisely. It will enable you to draw on a portion of my—your—powers. As the circle progresses, you will likely notice small fragments of memories or power becoming available to you.”

“I see,” Damien said slowly. His chest throbbed as if something were carving its claws into him. “That sounds convenient for me. Why are you doing it? You aren’t the type to give something away for free.”

“Because you will need to become stronger if you are to stop the Corruption. I will not attempt to convince you that Henry is not on your side. I have calculated the possibilities, and it is almost certain you will listen to him over me. Therefore, I will take a different approach.”

“Which is?” Damien asked, grimacing through the pain.

“I will give you the tools to see the Corruption. When you seek out the other eldritch creatures, observe the world. Seek that which does not belong and gaze upon it. Then, when you have witnessed it, we will speak again. Your opinions will have changed.”

“Enough that I’d want to destroy my own world?”

“Enough that you would do anything to see it reborn,” Herald corrected. “We will speak again soon, boy. Do not dally. The Corruption will tear everything apart if it is left alone. If you wait until it is obvious, then it will be too late to save anything.”

“How long will it take you to finish the runes?” Damien asked.

Herald raised a hand and pointed at Damien’s chest. The stars in the sky started to blink out. Darkness encircled Damien, crawling up his feet and chilling him to the bone.

“Soon,” Herald said. The last star vanished.

* * *

While Damien slept, Sylph watched over him. Her eyebrows were knit together in concern, which made it exceedingly difficult for Henry to slip away without her noticing. The eldritch creature muttered angrily within Damien’s mind.

Several hours passed, and the day turned to dusk. Sylph remained the entire time, not looking away for an instant. If Henry didn’t know better, he would have suspected that the girl was meditating.

His opportunity finally came when Sylph pursed her lips and stood to go to the bathroom. The moment she pulled the curtain shut behind her, Damien’s shadow tore away, and Henry hurtled out of the room.

He shot from shadow to shadow, his senses sweeping out over the mountain as he sought a particular human out. There was no guarantee they’d be there, of course. However, Henry’s years of research had given him more than a slight insight into how the short-lived creatures acted.

Henry settled at the base of the mountain and waited. An hour later, his patience was rewarded. A boy wearing a heavy cloak that covered his face slipped through the streets.

He glanced back and forth, checking to see if anyone had noticed him before heading up the mountain. Henry bit back a laugh at how ridiculous the act was. It wouldn’t have been possible to look more suspicious if he’d tried.

Henry followed after the boy. He didn’t need to see the boorish face hidden within the shadows of the cloak to know who it was. He’d marked Jayce’s presence the moment the boy had attacked Damien.

Jayce reached the edge of the plateau where Damien’s room sat. That confirmed he was there looking for either Damien, the Grays, or Mark. It wouldn’t have been possible for Jayce to arrive at the rooms without visualizing one of their inhabitants.

Henry slipped across the ground. He rose up behind Jace and drew on his magic. Then he reached out and touched the boy’s foot with a shadowy tendril. There was a pop of magic. Jayce and Henry both vanished.

Jace reappeared in a small clearing. Large trees surrounded him on every side, and the only light came from the dim moon far above them. He screamed and spun, raising his hands defensively as his flaming armor roared to life around him.

“Show yourself!” Jayce cried out, his eyes wide with fear. “Who are you?”

Henry rose from the ground, shadows twisting around him and forming into a humanoid body. Jayce’s eyes widened, and he took a step back, trembling.

“Who are you?” Jayce asked again, his breath coming in short gasps. “What do you want with me? Are you a professor? I swear, I was just going to apologize!”

“So many questions,” Henry said, his voice a hoarse whisper. “And yet you still manage to lie.”

The flaming sword flared to life in Jayce’s hand, and he pointed it at Henry. “I don’t know who you are, but you can’t scare me. Send me back.”

“And so demanding,” Henry mused.

“You’re no professor. Professors don’t kidnap students,” Jayce said. His sword doubled in size, and he bared his teeth. “What are you, then? A companion?”

“If you want answers, you must give something in return,” Henry said, his form growing more solid. Sparks of white lightning seemed to crackle throughout his body as he slowly grew closer to Jayce.

“Stay back!” Jayce screamed, pointing the sword at him. “I’ll kill you!”

“Let’s see,” Henry said, cocking his head as if in thought. “I believe I’ve shown myself. That answers your first request.”

A blade of darkness ripped out from the shadows behind Jayce. It carved across his back and sliced into his hand, chopping off several fingers. Jayce screamed in pain and clutched his hand, his eyes going wide in horror.

“The next question, then,” the eldritch creature said. “I am Henry.”

A blade of darkness erupted from the ground beneath Jayce’s foot. He screamed again and ripped himself free, staggering and falling onto his back. He crawled away from Henry, but the shadow drifted after him at a leisurely pace.

“Only a few left,” Henry said. His right arm morphed, growing long claws that raked through the ground behind him. “What do I want with you? That one’s simple. You have annoyed me.”

Jayce slammed into the ground with a pained grunt as the world seemed to grow a thousand times heavier. His flaming armor flickered and died out as he desperately tried to gasp for air to no avail.

“Am I a professor?” Henry wondered aloud. “No, I am not.”

The bones in Jayce’s legs crunched and turned to powder. The boy couldn’t even open his mouth to scream.

“Ah. That’s all of our questions,” Henry said. The force pressing down on Jayce suddenly lessened. He drew in a ragged breath.

“Please let me go,” Jayce begged.

Henry cocked his head to the side. For the briefest moment, a smile made of faint light passed over the shadow’s face. A spike of darkness erupted from the ground beneath Jayce, lifting the boy into the air as it punched through his heart.

“No,” Henry said. Jayce didn’t ask any more questions. A strong wind blew through the clearing, rustling the trees. When it faded, Henry had vanished.

Chapter Four

Damien awoke the following morning in much less pain than he’d been expecting. Another rune had joined the circle on his chest, but there was no blood. The rune had already sealed over and become faint. Damien ran his fingers along it. The scar tingled at his touch.

He blinked and rolled over, pushing the blanket off himself before sitting upright.

When did I get a blanket?

“You doing okay?” Sylph asked from her bed.

“Surprisingly, yes,” Damien said. “What happened after the fight with Jayce? It’s all kind of blurry.”

“You fainted once we got back to the room,” Sylph replied. “In the middle of the night, you started bleeding everywhere again. I dragged you to the shower and held you underwater because you were losing so much blood. Somehow, you didn’t wake up the entire time. After that, I just brought you back to your bed.”

“You didn’t have to do all that,” Damien said, his cheeks flushing. “Thank you, though.”

“It’s fine,” Sylph said with a shrug. “You were going to get blood everywhere again.”

“Fair enough,” Damien said with a small laugh. He pulled his clothes on and slid out of bed carefully. He felt a little dizzy, but it didn’t seem to be serious. Out of habit, he tapped his bracelet.

Damien Vale

Blackmist College

Year One

Major: Undecided

Minor: Undecided

Companion: [Null]

Magical Strength: 4.8

Magical Control: .55

Magical Energy: 9.6

Physical Strength: .32

Endurance: .74

“Well, at least I got something out of that,” Damien said with a weak laugh. “My bracelet is telling me I got a little stronger from getting the snot beat out of me.”

Someone knocked on their door. Damien and Sylph glanced at it, but the stone swung open before they could move. Delph strode in, his features cold and his torn cloak rippling behind him.

“We’re sorry for missing class today,” Sylph said. “Damien only just woke up, but Sean said he would let you know why we couldn’t make it.”

“He informed me,” Delph confirmed, eyeing Damien carefully. “I hear you put up something of a fight against that Year Two boy.”

“I got my ass handed to me on a shimmering platter,” Damien said. “But I could have done worse.”

“Indeed,” Delph said, his dark eyes not moving away from Damien for an instant. “He didn’t happen to drop by again recently, did he?”

“Who, Jayce?” Damien asked. “Why would he come by? I don’t think he did, at least.”

Delph and Damien both looked at Sylph, who shook her head.

“Nobody came by since we got back,” Sylph confirmed. “And even if they had, we wouldn’t have had much to say to them. Damien’s been unconscious until just a few moments ago.”

“I see,” Delph said, turning to examine Sylph. He drummed his fingers on his thigh for a few moments. “Well, if you see the kid again, don’t interact with him. Find a professor immediately.”

“Do you think he’ll try to take revenge on Damien?” Sylph asked.

“Something like that,” Delph said. “Sean gave me a rundown of what happened. It looks like the kid went on the run after getting the snot beat out of him, and he might have delusions of revenge in his mind. I’d like to think he wouldn’t be that stupid, but you never know.”

“I’ll keep an eye out,” Damien promised.

“You do that,” Delph said. “And while my class has been canceled, I don’t know if Greg will be as lenient. His clone has been waiting for you for about an hour.”

“Oh, shit,” Damien cursed. Delph stepped out of the way, hiding a smirk as the boy dashed outside.

The long-bearded professor sat against the stone wall of the mountain, humming to himself. He glanced up at Damien and let out a long yawn as he slowly got to his feet.

“I’m sorry for being late,” Damien said. “I was unconscious.”

“Excuses, excuses,” Greg said, but the old professor offered a slight smile. “Please demonstrate your homework. I will take you to class once I’ve confirmed you can cast it.”

Damien nodded. He’d used the spell against Jayce, and it wasn’t hard to form a rough blade out of the Ether in his hand. It was a far cry from perfect, but it still resembled a pointed implement. The professor let out a grunt and nodded.

“Acceptable. We’ll be going, then.”

He reached out and grabbed Damien’s shoulder. Before Damien could respond, the man’s body crumbled away, and gray light filled his vision. The world shifted and warped. The next thing Damien knew, he was sitting in a wooden chair.

“So kind of you to join us,” Greg said from his position near the board. “We’ve been waiting for you to show up.”

Damien’s cheeks reddened as the other students all turned to look at him. He couldn’t help but notice there were a few less students in class today than there had been the previous time.

“Really?”

“No,” Greg said, smirking. “We’ve been going for about an hour and a half. However, I’m sure one of your classmates will fill you in. Now…”

Greg launched right into the next lesson. It took Damien a while to figure out what was going on, but the occasional pointer from Henry helped bring him up to speed. Concentrating was a little harder than normal since Damien’s stomach started making its grievances known about halfway through the class. He was strongly considering just running out of the room by the time the class had finished several hours later.

The professor dismissed the same way he had last time—by transforming into a gray portal. Damien was one of the first ones through it. He practically sprinted to the mess hall and ordered a large meat pie.

He stuffed the entire thing down his gullet within a few minutes. Once he’d finished his food, Damien headed back to his room while recounting what Herald had told him during their dream.

“That seems reasonable enough. You probably should have waited until we were asleep, but it’s too late now,” Henry said. “But we still shouldn’t take anything Herald says as fact. It has an agenda, so I’ll keep an eye out to see if there’s anything suspicious. I’ll do some research. And, speaking of which, you need to return the books to the library.”

Damien groaned and rubbed his forehead.

* * *

About two hours later, Damien returned to his room for the second time that day, this time carrying a new pile of books for Henry. He staggered past Sylph and set the books down in the second training room before returning to his bed and sitting down with a sigh.

“Long day?” Sylph guessed, opening her eyes and allowing the dark wisps of energy floating around her to fade.

“Yep,” Damien said. “At least I didn’t get homework for my magic theory class. I was worried the professor would give out homework every day we had class.”

“That’s what my professor does,” Sylph said, frowning. “It’s mostly just meditation, though. He wants us to cultivate as much as possible so our bodies are stronger. I know there’s a link between your physical body and the amount of energy your core can hold, but I feel like it can’t be that much.”

“You were already always meditating,” Damien pointed out. “So, doesn’t that mean you just haven’t changed anything?”

“Pretty much,” Sylph said. “It’s getting pretty boring, to be honest. I’m spending half the day sitting still and doing nothing. Luckily, Delph dropped by around an hour ago and said that he could meet us tomorrow morning to make up for the class we missed today.”

“I’m not sure if I’d call that lucky,” Damien said small laugh. “It’ll be good for us, but I don’t personally enjoy the feeling of my legs turning to mush beneath me.”

“It’s clearly doing a lot for you,” Sylph pointed out. “You were doing pretty well against Jayce in the beginning. I don’t think many other students in our class could have pulled that off.”

“Not saying I don’t want to do it,” Damien said, absentmindedly scratching the runes on his chest. “I’m just whining. Anyway, if we’re meeting Delph tomorrow, I’m going to get some practice in.”

Sylph nodded, returning to her meditation as Damien headed into the training room. Henry nabbed Damien’s shadow and slipped into the second room to read the new books while the boy worked.

Damien practiced late into the night, splitting his time between getting a better grasp of Devour, his gravity spheres, and the Ether knife. The runes on his chest occasionally throbbed, but the pain had started to fade.

By the time he was done and started to get ready for bed, Sylph was already asleep, sprawled across her mattress with her limbs pointing in every direction and her mouth slightly open.

Damien bit back a laugh. He started to pull back the sheet on his bed but paused halfway through. He looked back at Sylph, squinting slightly. There was no sheet on her bed. He looked back at the sheet on his own and carefully gathered it up.

He padded over to Sylph’s side of the room, which was only about one step across the thin hall between their beds, and gently put the sheet back over her. Sylph muttered something under her breath and rolled over.

Damien grinned slightly and slipped back into his own bed, making a mental note to buy himself some sheets already and stop procrastinating. A few minutes later, he was asleep.

The next few weeks passed without further incident. Delph swung by to inquire about what had happened with Jayce, but the conversation was over quickly, and the professor left, seemingly satisfied. Damien bought a new set of sheets and promptly ruined them again when Herald carved yet another rune into his chest. After that, Damien bought an entire set.

His free time dwindled more and more as Delph and Greg worked him to the bone. Damien’s reaction speed slowly improved to the point where Delph could only strike him through his mage armor once or twice every minute. After the incident with Jayce, Delph seemed to train him and Sylph harder than ever before. They met exclusively in the forest, bathing in the refreshing water whenever they grew too tired to continue.

Damien never saw Jayce again, although he didn’t have the time to spare the bully much thought. Delph questioned him about the subject once more, causing Damien to start growing slightly suspicious, but he didn’t have any time to truly address it with how much work his training was taking.

His mastery of Devour grew to the point where he could draw the rune and summon the spell in only a second, which Henry deemed barely acceptable. The eldritch creature had grown slightly distant, but Damien didn’t have the bandwidth to wonder why. He visited the library several times to refresh Henry’s stash of books, and that seemed to satisfy the companion.

Greg’s classes grew progressively more difficult, and the students attending them dwindled. The man forced them to utilize magic in ways Damien had never thought possible.

The professor made them form Ether into shapes, solve puzzles that seemingly had no relation to magic whatsoever, and occasionally just delivered books for them to read that he would test them on the next class.

Throughout all that, Damien and Sylph spent at least an hour every day training in the forest. Damien was still a far cry from matching her physical abilities, but he wasn’t ending their sessions wheezing for air.

As for Sylph, her magical control class seemed to be doing some work. Henry reported that her core had grown by almost ten percent. It was a drop in the bucket compared to what Damien could do, but the improvement sparked her desire to train even harder. She often returned to the room long after Damien had gone to bed and only a few hours before morning.

The two of them occasionally had dinner with Mark and the Gray siblings, but all of the students were so busy that it didn’t happen often.

In what small free time Damien had, he expanded their room. He added a section to the second training room and bought a small table so that he could read without sitting on the floor or his bed. He also made several new rooms beyond it, although he wasn’t sure what they were for.

As the month drew to a close, Delph gathered all the students at the training arena. It was the first time that Damien had returned to the arena since the incident with Jayce. He and Sylph stood at the front of the small group of students, waiting for the professor to arrive.

A small gray mote blinked into the air in front of them. It spiraled outwards and Delph shimmered into view. The man’s eyes had slight bags under them, and his armor sported several new scars.

“Congratulations on making it this far,” Delph said, looking out dramatically over the students.

“Is this a special occasion?” Reena asked.

“No. I just thought it was impressive that some of you hadn’t dropped out yet,” Delph said, smirking. “I expect nothing less from my students. Even you, butterball.”

Delph nodded in the direction of the slightly overweight boy who had almost gotten kicked out of the class on the first day. The rude nickname didn’t apply to the boy anymore, as he’d gone through a growth spurt and stood nearly a foot taller than Delph did. Damien wouldn’t have admitted it out loud, but the boy also had more muscle than the professor.

The boy just rolled his eyes. A flicker of a grin crossed Delph’s face, but it vanished as quickly as it had come.

“Today is the last class we’ll have for one week,” Delph said. “You’ve all gotten sufficient training to begin taking on quests. Of course, if you feel you still aren’t prepared, you’re welcome to train yourself this week. However, keep in mind that you must complete five quests in order to move on to Year Two.”

“What if we don’t want to fight?” Loretta asked, fiddling with the hem of her shirt.

“Then take quests that don’t require combat,” Delph replied. “They exist. Actually, if you’re dead set on becoming a researcher, speak to me privately. It won’t come into play yet, but it will be very important in the latter half of Year One and the rest of your career—Blackmist or elsewhere.”

“Is there any reason not to just take five really easy quests and complete them this week?” Reena asked.

“That would work to meet the requirement,” Delph admitted, “but you’d only be shortchanging yourself. The quests prepare you for the field, and if all you can do is weak and easy stuff, that’s all you’ll get. The real money is made in the higher rank quests, and you can only get to them if you work hard.”

“What about the front lines?” Nolan asked.

Delph’s face darkened. “That honor is reserved for the best of the best. The monsters at the front lines are a far cry from anything you’ll ever find within the kingdom. I wouldn’t worry yourselves with anything like that for a good while. Make it to Year Four first.”

There were a few moments of silence. Delph cleared his throat.

“Anyway, please keep in mind the restrictions for the quests. If you want to do one at the highest level permitted, you must work together with your teammate. You cannot take a quest higher level than what your teammate’s lowest level is. If you elect to go alone, you have to reduce the difficulty of your quest by two rankings. Please see me after class if you plan to go alone so I can make arrangements for your teammate.”

Delph paused to let everyone consider his words. Students chattered in low tones for a few minutes until the professor cleared his throat. “There are a few modifications this year for students capable of completing B-rank or higher quests. The Seventh King has put out a bounty on a group of monsters. There isn’t much known about their abilities, but they pose a significant threat to the kingdom. We have need of scouts and students that can seek out the monsters. You will not be engaging them yourselves. If you’re interested, please see me after class.”

Delph’s turned and looked straight at Damien. The boy’s blood ran cold, and his skin prickled.

“Relax,” Henry hissed. “Don’t give away so much information through your expression. There’s no guarantee they’ve discovered the other Void creatures.”

Damien forced himself to relax. It took everything he had to keep his face plain and only slightly interested, as if Delph had told them that it might rain tomorrow.

The professor spoke for a few more minutes on proper questing preparation and the different types of quests they could take on. Unsurprisingly, the more dangerous ones also happened to pay the best. However, the piece of information that caught everyone’s mind was that a quest could only be taken by a single group. That meant that whoever got there first had the best pick of the options.

When Delph had finished, he dismissed the class with a wave of his hand. Almost everyone dashed out of the arena at max speed. The only students who remained behind were Damien, Sylph, Mark, Loretta, and Cody—Loretta’s partner.

The students looked at each other, nobody wanting to speak up first. Delph rolled his eyes and pointed at Mark. “Right, then. If you can’t decide who starts, I will. What do you want?”

“I just wanted to confirm that my…special circumstances will permit me to take quests of the level you assigned me, even though I’m going alone,” Mark said.

“They do,” Delph said. He examined Mark for a moment, then sighed. “Just keep in mind that you aren’t immortal. It would be a shame to lose someone of your talent, but it happens more often than we’d like. Use your head as much as your powers.”

“I’ll keep your advice in mind,” Mark said. He nodded to everyone and turned on his heel, striding out of the arena at a brisk pace. Mark didn’t seem particularly concerned that someone would take the quest he wanted before he got there.

“And what about the rest of you?” Delph asked. “Anyone going to pipe up, or do I have to pick you like a schoolteacher?”

“I’ll go next,” Loretta said. “It’s about me and Cody. He’s planning to become a combat mage, but I want to be a researcher. How should we go about our quests? You said that there were some for everyone, but I don’t know how that would apply to us.”

“A lot of the quests have a good amount of overlap between the two subjects,” Delph replied. “Take a look at them first. If both of you had wanted to be researchers, that’s one thing. However, a lot of the combat heavy quests would heavily benefit from the usage of some non-traditional abilities. And the same goes the other way around. After you look at the quests, come back and let me know if you can’t find something you like.”

Loretta and Cody exchanged a glance. They nodded and bid farewell to Delph before setting off after Mark and the other students, leaving Damien and Sylph alone with the professor.

Delph’s stern expression softened slightly once they were alone. He uncrossed his arms and let out a sigh.

“I’m glad I didn’t have to chase the two of you down. It would have been a bother.”

“What do you mean by that?” Sylph asked. “Why would you need to chase us down?”

“Dean Whisp has specifically requested that you two assist in the special bounty quest,” Delph said. “Keep in mind that this is not an order as you aren’t in the military.”

“What? Why? What’s the benefit?” Sylph asked. “We can do A-rank quests right now. Why wouldn’t we just do those? They’re rewarding enough and don’t carry the extra risk of hunting out dangerous creatures. Why does Whisp need Year One students to help with something that dangerous?”

Delph’s face darkened. He glanced into the sky, then shook his head. “Frankly, I don’t know. I’ve been ordered to convey this information to you. Like you said, Year Ones have no place hunting dangerous creatures. You don’t have the experience or talent.”

“So why would Whisp invite us then?” Sylph asked, baffled.

The professor pressed his lips together. “It’s not my place to say. If it were me, I’d refuse. Risking your lives like that is point—”

Delph’s body abruptly stiffened. A flash of anger crossed his rugged features. “Damn it, Whisp. Why are you like this?”

His eyes lit up with dull purple energy, and his posture shifted, becoming more relaxed. Delph rested a hand on his hip and smacked his lips.

“Because I can be,” Dean Whisp’s voice came out from Delph’s lips. Damien and Sylph took a step back.

“Relax, kiddos,” Whisp said. “I’ve asked Delph to let us have a quick chat. I’d do it myself, but I’m not at the school right now. As your professor said, I’m not going to force you to take this quest. However, I can certainly make the rewards more enticing that any of the A-rank quests can offer.”

Sylph blinked. “How enticing are we speaking?”

“One thousand five hundred contribution points, among any magical items or other rewards that we find along the way,” Delph-Whisp said without an instant of hesitation. “That’s more than two times what the hardest Year One quest offers, and that quest is SS-rank.”

Sylph swallowed. She glanced at Damien, who still hadn’t said anything. Damien forced himself to put on a pensive expression. “I still don’t understand why you want us to help. We’re Year Ones. The most we can do is act as bait. It sounds like these monsters are strong, so why does it matter that the reward is high if we just end up getting killed during the quest?”

“You can die during any quest,” Whisp’s voice said. “The two of you showed some serious ingenuity during the ranking battles, so it would be a shame to waste your talent on low-level quests. Look, I’m not going to argue with two munchkins to try and get them to join a quest. Just keep this in mind, Blackmist has no need for cowards.”

Whisp trailed off. Delph’s face twitched, and Whisp turned to look Damien in the eyes. “Adventurer or frontline soldier—we need people that follow orders, even when they don’t have to. I’ve spoken with Delph about both of you. You’ve yet to back down from a challenge, Damien. It would be quite strange if you suddenly changed how you act. I might be concerned that something is affecting one of my students and look into it. And, trust me, given the circumstances of a certain missing student, you don’t want that.”

Delph looked over at Sylph, his brow contorting in anger. He let out a huff. “Delph is being temperamental. If you’re taking the quest, talk to Auntie. She’ll point you in the right direction. You’ve got one hour—the group will be leaving Blackmist very soon.”

Delph’s eyes flashed and returned to normal. The professor grimaced and curled his nose like he’d smelled something nasty. “Damn body snatcher. Regardless, the two of you have heard your options. Whisp has informed me that I’m not allowed to say anything else on the topic.”

The professor made a shooing motion with his hands. Despite the situation, Damien nearly let out a small chuckle. He and Sylph obediently headed out of the arena.

“Get to your room,” Henry ordered Damien as they walked. “I’ll try to scout out what’s going on, but we can’t have you walking around in the daylight without a shadow.”

On it. And what does she mean by missing student? Did something happen?

“Don’t worry about it.”

“What do you think about the quest?” Sylph asked, interrupting Damien’s internal conversation. “I’m pretty sure we just got threatened.”

“I’m not sure, but I think you’re right. Though I’ve got no idea what she’s threatening us with. I don’t know anything about a missing student,” Damien said hesitantly. “There has to be a reason she wants us to join. Us finding a loophole in the tournament hardly seems like a good explanation for why she’d personally contact us. Look, why don’t we figure this out in our room? We’ve got an hour, but it might help to be away from prying eyes.”

“Sure,” Sylph said, cocking her head slightly at the request. She gave him a curious glance, but the girl didn’t find what she was looking for in Damien’s eyes. By the time they got back, Damien’s back was drenched in nervous sweat.

Is it safe to talk?

“It should be. The woman isn’t anywhere near here,” Henry said. “That was a long-ranged spell, and it was already getting weak when it hit your professor. Just keep your voices down. Stay here. I’ll be right back.”

Wait! What was Whisp—

Henry tore Damien’s shadow away from him and shot off.

“So, what’s got you so nervous?” Sylph asked, sitting on her bed.

“I don’t get what she’s playing at,” Damien said, pursing his lips. “That was definitely a threat. Does it have something to do with Jayce? Delph was talking about him earlier.”

“He was,” Sylph said, eyeing Damien. “He’s apparently gone missing. I don’t think you had anything to do with it, though. Should we just refuse the quest?”

“I don’t know if I can,” Damien said, frowning. “It doesn’t matter if I had anything to do with Jayce. Whisp is the one person I can’t have looking into me. And…it’s one thousand five hundred points, Sylph. That would put you just one thousand points away from the dagger.”

Sylph shrugged. “We can get it later. If this quest is something dangerous for you, we just won’t do it. We can still get points the normal way.”

Damien’s stomach unclenched a little. He gave her a slight smile. “Thanks, Sylph. But, to be honest, I’m worried that refusing the quest will cause more problems than accepting it.”

“Your situation is that serious?” Sylph asked, her eyebrows knitting together. “Well, this is a dilemma. You don’t have to tell me this, but why do you think this quest is dangerous for you? I’ve got my own thoughts as to why you might be worried, but nothing that would explain why this quest would pose a threat.”

Damien opened his mouth. Then he paused, considering Sylph’s words. If they already knew that he had a Void creature within him, Whisp or Delph would have probably killed him. Whisp might have been planning to investigate him on the quest, but that wouldn’t make sense given her threat. Damien’s hands clenched.

“Damned if I do and damned if I don’t,” Damien said. “But, for reasons I think we both know, I can’t have her investigating me. What about your own thoughts on it, though? Do you think it’s worth it?”

“It’s hard to say,” Sylph replied. “The reward is certainly tempting, and Dean Whisp framed it in a way that makes it feel like the quest won’t be that hard. I don’t believe that for a second, but we can’t get stronger without taking on serious risks. The faster I can get that dagger, the better it is for my growth. That being said, if you need to avoid Whisp’s ire, you might not have a choice. But if you go with this, she’s going to keep doing it. You’ll need to find a way to get out of from under her thumb at some point.”

Damien rubbed his chin and paced back and forth along the thin hallway between their beds for a few minutes. Then he sat down and sighed. Henry clearly knew something about what Whisp was talking about. All he could do for now was wait until his companion returned.

Luckily, his companion returned after only around fifteen minutes. Damien’s shadow slid under the door and discretely returned to his feet as Henry rejoined him.

Well?

“They don’t seem to suspect you,” Henry said. “In fact, it doesn’t look like they’re hunting the Void creatures at all. Your professor was speaking to Whisp after you left. I didn’t get all of it, but they were talking about the two of you as bait. Apparently, some monsters have been hunting students and either killing or kidnapping them. They need a way to lure them out.”

And what about the threat Whisp made? She seems to know something, and I think you do too.

“Trust me, you don’t want to know right now,” Henry said. “I might be able to hide myself if Whisp goes digging around on a surface level, but I can’t hide your thoughts. Wait until after the quest.”

I’m not sure I like that idea, but fine. So, you think I should do it?

“Given the circumstances, I’m not sure you have a choice,” Henry said. “Not if you want to remain at Blackmist.”

Wonderful. Assuming I do take the quest, what use do they even have for us? Why do they need me and Sylph to be bait?

“Maybe they think you’re strong enough to hold the monsters off for a minute or two,” Henry offered. “Delph said something about them not being able to predict where the monsters attack, so I get the feeling they’re inviting capable students in the hopes of luring it out. Either that or Whisp wants you under her control. She’s got a sword at your neck.”

Well, that’s exactly what I wanted to hear. Do you think we should do it?

“It’s up to you,” Henry replied. “The choice is do it or leave the college. On the plus side, I think the experience would be valuable. Your fighting style is still amateurish. The reward seems quite significant as well. We could get some significant boosts to your power with that amount of contribution points.”

“None of the options seem ideal,” Damien said, sighing. “No matter what we do, I’m getting unwanted attention. But I think Whisp is going to be more attentive to us if we refuse than if we accept. I don’t think she’s leaving me much of a choice.”

“So…we’re taking it, then?” Sylph asked.

“That’s probably for the best,” Damien said, feeling dread building in the pit of his stomach. Whisp had put him in a spot where he was in trouble no matter what choice he made.

“You’ll be fine,” Henry said. “If worse comes to worst, I’ll reveal myself, and we run. We can’t beat Whisp, but I can probably get us out of a sticky situation.”

That’s reassuring.

“Just try to learn as much as you can. Whatever these monsters are, I doubt they’re anywhere near as dangerous as my brethren. In fact, this is the perfect time to eliminate one of them. If the quest brings you near the closest Void creature, we should consider seeking it out. I don’t know if one will be in the area, but I’ll check if we get the chance.”

Am I really ready to fight an eldritch monster?

“Not in the slightest,” Henry replied cheerfully. “But I am. They’re either bound or sleeping, so it shouldn’t be hard for me to take care of things if they go south. Just think of it as a fun detour.”

I’m not sure I’d call killing someone who hasn’t done anything wrong a detour. And speaking of which, we aren’t killing them the moment we see them. What if they’re just like us? Maybe they have no plans of destroying the world. I don’t want to kill someone who’s completely innocent.

“That’s a fair point, actually,” Henry said. Damien blinked as his companion actually considered his words. After a moment, the eldritch creature let out a grumble. “I don’t even know if we’ll get the chance to find my brethren. But, if we do, we can try to speak with them first. They’ll expect me to be on their on their side anyway. For now, just focus on keeping extra suspicion off us.”

Chapter Five

Damien shook his surprise off as Henry retreated back into the depths of his mind. Sylph gave him a curious glance, but he just shrugged with a slight smile.

“Let’s get this over with. It would suck to decide to do this, only to find out we missed the window by a few minutes,” Damien said.

“Right. Let’s gather what we need just in case we need to leave immediately,” Sylph suggested. She paused for a moment. “And let me know if you need a quick escape from the quest. I’ll find a distraction.”

“Thank you,” Damien said, their eyes meeting for an instant before they both glanced away. He grabbed his travel pack off the ground and took his toothbrush and soap from the bathroom, tossing them into it. He took a small flask of water and emptied it onto the ground before turning the shower on and filling it with healing water.

Sylph gathered her own meagre belongings, and the two of them headed out of their room. They walked down the mountain and through the town, arriving at the treasure pavilion after several minutes of travel.

The guards at the buildings entrance stood to the side as they entered. Auntie glanced up, her graying hair falling down over her oversized spectacles. The short woman brushed her hair away and hopped out of her chair.

She adjusted her glasses and squinted at them. “The two of you here for the special quest?”

“We are,” Damien said.

“I see,” Auntie said. “Come with me. Jake, watch my desk.”

One of the guards nodded to her. Auntie flicked her hand, and the massive golden door behind her swung open soundlessly, revealing a long stone hallway lit with small orbs of light caged within metal lanterns.

She led them into the hallway, and one of the guards closed the door behind them. Damien and Sylph exchanged a glance, but Auntie was moving fast enough that they didn’t have time to dally.

Auntie took them past several heavily reinforced doors in the walls, not stopping for an instant. After several minutes of walking, she abruptly came to a stop before a plain metal door. She pressed a hand against it, and the door let out a creak as she pushed it wide.

“There’s a portal in this room,” Auntie said, a small frown crossing her features. “It’s already set to take you to the right location. The rest of the team is there already, but I’m sure they’ll be glad to see you.”

“Thank you,” Damien said. Sylph thanked her, too, and the two of them stepped past the woman and into the room. A small arc sat in the center of the stone room, dark energy twirling faintly in its center.

“Take care, kids,” Auntie said, making eye contact with them. “Don’t get hurt doing something stupid.”

She slammed the door closed before either of them could respond.

“Well, that isn’t ominous at all,” Damien muttered. He glanced back at the portal behind them. “Shall we?”

Sylph nodded. The two of them walked forward and stepped into the churning energy. The world twisted and wobbled around Damien. Darkness rushed forward and enveloped his vision.

Damien’s skin prickled as his body was plunged into what felt like ice cold water. He gasped, and the liquid rushed into his mouth and filled his lungs. His stiffened limbs failed to respond to his desperate attempts to struggle and his mind went blank.

Something tickled Damien’s cheek. His body felt heavier than ever before. His nose twitched, and he slowly opened his eyes. Warm sun beat down on him, illuminating the grassy field surrounding him in golden light.

Damien lay on his back. His travel pack had fallen several feet off to his side, and Sylph was draped across his chest like a human-shaped blanket. Her head slowly rose as she shook off the confusion.

“Sorry about that,” a male voice said from behind Damien. A hairy hand passed over his vision. Sylph reached out and took it. The person pulled Sylph to her feet, then gave Damien the same offer.

He grabbed the man’s hand. The world shifted around him as he was effortlessly lifted into the air and plopped down on his feet. A large man with a dense beard and heavy metal plate armor that covered his entire body gave Damien a wide grin. He brushed some grass off the boy’s shoulder.

“The two of you are probably feeling a little disoriented. Sorry about that. The long-range portal technology isn’t the most fun, but it’s the best method for traveling long distances. It’ll wear off soon enough.”

Damien and Sylph both nodded. Damien’s mind was still spinning, and his full train of thought had yet to return to him. He rubbed his forehead and grabbed his travel pack from the ground before slinging it back over his shoulder.

“I’m Simon,” the man said. “The rest of the team is waiting in the village just over the hill. The spell isn’t perfectly exact, so we try to send you into the grass somewhere instead of plopping you through some poor sod’s roof in the village.”

“I suppose that makes sense,” Damien said. His lips felt thick, and his words were fuzzy, but at least his brain had started to chug along again.

Simon chuckled and started walking across the field. Damien and Sylph followed. They reached the top of the hill a few minutes later. A village rested in a small valley below them. It was on the smaller side, with only two dozen houses of varying size. Almost all of them were one story, aside from a large building in the center that looked to be two.

From what Damien could tell, all the buildings were wood. The town was empty aside from three people who stood around a well and a few animals grazing in pastures.

The three of them headed down the sloping hillside. When they reached the bottom, Simon made a beeline for the group, which consisted of two women and a man. All of them wore light armor. They turned to watch as the three of them approached.

“Ah. The two of you would be the students Whisp talked about, then?” a woman with long dark hair asked, waving to them.

“That’s probably a safe guess,” the man beside her said. “How was the teleportation?”

“Not fun,” Damien said. A lot of the fuzz had left his mind, but he still felt a bit sluggish. “Is Dean Whisp going to be here as well?”

“She’s already on the job,” the second woman said. She had long blonde hair with dark streaks running through it. The woman adjusted her leather armor and rolled her eyes. “She’s trying to find the monster without us. Like a single person could find them.”

“Dean Happenstance could have,” the first woman said.

“Happenstance is still somewhere in the Wastes,” Simon said. “We’re on our own for this mission. How about you all introduce yourselves?”

“Shoot, sorry. I’m Tenbi,” the dark haired woman said. “The woman beside me is Yaga.”

The blonde woman raised her hand in greeting.

“And I’m Volt,” the man said, giving them a wide grin.

“I’m Damien, and this is Sylph.”

“It’s a pleasure to meet both of you. You must be quite the students if Whisp invited you along,” Tenbi said. “We don’t usually get tagalongs.”

“I’m not entirely sure why she invited us to be honest,” Damien said, hiding a frown. “What exactly are we supposed to do against a powerful monster?”

“Find it,” Simon said, putting a hand on Damien and Sylph’s shoulders. “This is strictly a recon mission for the two of you. You will not be engaging the monster. In fact, you should avoid even interacting with it. All you have to do is help us figure out where it is.”

“Why do you need students for that?” Sylph asked curiously.

Volt curled his lip in disgust. “Because the damn thing is hunting younger magic users. We don’t know why, but it’s a master at hiding. We can’t find it on our own. Our best efforts have led to nothing. If the two of you go into an area where it’s active, you can lure it out. We’ll be only a short distance away, and all you’ll have to do is notify us the moment you find it.”

“How do we do that?” Damien asked.

“Slow down, bud,” Tenbi said, giving them a smile. “We aren’t all like Whisp. You and your friend need to take a little bit to readjust and relax after the teleportation. We’ll fill you in after dinner, okay?”

“We’re paying,” Simon added, guiding Damien and Sylph toward the village without waiting for a response. The roommates exchanged a baffled glance but said nothing as they were herded into one of the larger buildings with a small pillar of smoke rising up from its chimney.

A table had already been set with half a dozen plates of food. The smell of rich grease tickled Damien’s nostrils, and he had to keep himself from drooling. The food looked delicious. It wasn’t quite as fancy looking as the food in the mess hall, but Damien suddenly realized that the teleportation had left him famished.

He and Sylph shot over to the table and pulled out wooden stools next to each other, pulling food over and chowing down eagerly on it. The four older mages chuckled and sat beside them.

After a few minutes of stuffing his face, Damien rocked back with a relieved sigh. He wiped the grease from his face with a napkin and sunk down a little in his chair. Sylph looked a little more dignified when she finished, but only slightly.

“Good?” Simon asked.

“Very,” Damien said. Sylph nodded in agreement.

“Glad to hear,” Simon said. “I’m not much of a chef, but I’ve picked up a few things. Now, are the two of you thinking a little more clearly?”

“Yes,” Sylph said. Damien voiced his assent as well. The cobwebs had almost entirely been brushed out of his mind, although a bit of the haze still remained.

“Good,” Simon said, rubbing his hands together. “Now, we can start the boring stuff. This mission is classified as secret. That means the two of you must not speak about anything that happens during it to anyone. Is that understood?”

They nodded.

“Our goal will be to locate a monster, or group of monsters. We aren’t sure yet. They’ll be referred to as Targets just in case any of us slip up in public and say something aloud. Our goal is to locate the Target, or Targets, and then kill them at any cost. The two of you will simply be seeking them out.”

“By acting as bait?” Damien asked.

“That’s an ugly term,” Tenbi said. “Maybe scouts would be more appropriate.”

“Scouts, then,” Damien said, sitting straighter in his chair. “How are we supposed to hold off a dangerous mon— A Target?”

“So far, it’s only gone after untrained mages,” Simon said. “The two of you are near the top of your class. You should be able to hold it off for a few seconds, which is all the time we’ll need to get to you.”

“Does it have some way to detect how much magic we have?” Sylph asked. “How would it know if it was attacking a trained mage or a kid?”

“There’s a possibility it has high intelligence,” Simon said, shifting uncomfortably. “We aren’t certain how it determines who to attack. That being said, we can’t wait around and hope we get lucky. It’s already killed or kidnapped over fifteen kids.”

“So, we wander around in its territory and hope it attacks us,” Damien said. “Then what happens when it does? How do we contact you?”

“That’s where I come in,” Yaga said. Her voice was a harsh whisper that grated on Damien’s ears. She gave him a sharp-featured smile. “My magic allows me to listen and view things from a distance. In order to make it easier on my magic, you’ll have a keyword to say that I’ll be listening for. The moment you say it, I’ll locate you.”

“And then I’ll teleport the team right on top of your position,” Volt said, offering up a cocky grin. “As long as you’re within a thousand miles—which you will be—I can be there within moments.”

“Seriously?” Damien asked, his eyes widening. “That’s amazing.”

“Don’t feed his ego, please,” Simon said. “It’s big enough already. But, when we arrive, the two of you will retreat immediately. We’ll take on the Target and kill it, then find you afterwards. You will not engage it under any circumstance. We don’t want to turn fifteen casualties into seventeen.”

“Don’t annoy the scary thing,” Damien said. “Got it. But how do we even start looking?”

“We’ve found that the Target seems to follow a circular pattern,” Tenbi said. “It goes in rings around several large cities, preying on anyone in the fields after night. It seems to strike methodically. Judging by its previous attacks, it should actually be attacking a city about fifty miles to the north of here within the next few days.”

“So, we wander around the outskirts of the city and hope it goes after us?” Sylph asked.

“Yep,” Volt said.

“What if it doesn’t?” Damien asked. “It could go after another kid instead.”

“Then the count goes up to sixteen,” Yaga replied. “And then we go to the next town and try again. We’ve already spent several weeks trying to hunt this creature, but it’s evaded us every single time. We’re out of options, hence why we’re asking children to do our fighting for us.”

“Well, if we can help, we’ll do it,” Sylph said. “What’s the keyword?”

“Pickles,” Yaga replied. “You’re not going to be talking about them normally, but it’ll be easy to remember.”

“And Yaga has a horrible sense of humor,” Tenbi said, rolling her eyes.

“Well, I think we can remember that,” Damien said, rolling his neck. “When do we start? And what about Dean Whisp?”

“Immediately after we give you supplies,” Simon said. “And Whisp is going to lock down the area so that the monster can’t escape us. The moment it shows its ugly face and Volt teleports us, she’ll stop all the spatial magic in the area. There’s a good chance it’ll try to run when we show up, and we can’t have that happening.”

“That makes sense,” Sylph said. “What are the supplies?”

Simon rose to his feet and walked over to a large backpack on the ground at the far side of the room. He picked it up and tossed it to Sylph.

“It’s got rations, two bedrolls, a tent, some fire starters, bandages, and even two basic healing potions. You shouldn’t have to use any of the healing supplies, but it’s better to be safe than sorry. We don’t have a dedicated healer on the team, but that shouldn’t matter for you. Just make sure you don’t engage the Target.”

Damien and Sylph nodded. Damien felt fear and excitement knotting in his stomach. Henry had been silent the entire time they’d been here, but that made sense if Whisp was in the area.

“Come on, then,” Simon said, giving them both a grim smile. “Let’s go kill a monster.”

Even though Damien and Sylph already knew the plan, Simon had made it sound a lot more exciting than it actually was with his last sentence. Shortly after they finished their food, Volt teleported the two of them out of the village.

They were deposited in a grassy field. Mercifully, the spell didn’t affect them as badly as their latest teleportation. At the very edge of the horizon, Damien could just barely make out what might have been the walls of a large city.

The sun was already starting to set behind them. Sylph rooted around in the supply bag and pulled out a bundle of cloth and several metal sticks.

“Do you know how to set a tent up?” Damien asked, watching Sylph as she laid the tarp out and started fiddling with the sticks.

“Yes. It was one of the things my master trained me in,” Sylph said. The tent quickly took shape before her. She stomped the last of the stakes into the ground, pulling the tarp taut and stepping back to examine her work.

Sylph nodded to herself and tossed the pack into the tent. It wasn’t particularly large, but they weren’t exactly on vacation. Damien mentally nudged Henry to get his attention.

Any idea what we’re dealing with here? It’s not a Void creature, is it?

“It isn’t,” Henry said. “Aside from me, my brethren are single-minded in our goal. They wouldn’t be wasting time killing individual humans. There are a lot of monsters that might try to kill humans, so it’s hard to narrow it down much from what we know. The best we can do is wait around. If there’s something here, I’ll know it’s coming long before you can even see it.”

Well, that’s reassuring. Just make sure Whisp or the others don’t spot you.

“Whisp is nowhere near us,” Henry said. “And the others don’t have the power to spot me. I was observing them while you ate. I suppose they’re strong for human mages, but their strength is nothing compared to that woman.”

Is she really that strong?

“Let’s just hope you don’t ever have to find out.”

Damien shook his head and glanced up at Sylph, who watched him with a bemused expression. “Talking to your companion?”

“Yep. Nothing too interesting,” Damien said. “Is there anything we should do to prepare?”

“We’re just bait,” Sylph pointed out. “There isn’t even anything near us. Volt clearly set us down somewhere far from the city to avoid civilian casualties, so I suppose all we can do is sit around and see if something happens. Maybe cast a little magic to draw it in?”

“That’s a good idea,” Damien said, drawing Ether through his arm and forming a ball of destructive magic at his palm. It shifted shape to a cube, and then a knife before returning to normal. Damien dismissed it a minute later and shrugged. “Now what? This doesn’t even feel like a real quest. We’re just…sitting here.”

“That’s how real quests are,” Sylph replied, sitting down on the grass in front of the tent. “Ninety percent waiting, ten percent action.”

“It sounds as if you’ve done this before,” Damien observed.

“I have,” Sylph replied. “And it isn’t something I want to think about. My early training was not enjoyable.”

“Fair enough,” Damien said, sitting down beside her. They watched the sun creep through the sky in silence. It finally dipped below the horizon. The last orange-red hues in the sky faded to purple and black.

“We should go to bed,” Sylph said. “I’ll take first watch.”

Damien started to nod. Then he paused, drawing Henry’s attention with a mental poke.

I think we can trust her.

“You intone that like a question, but you’ve already made up your mind,” Henry said, giving him the mental equivalent of a shrug. “As far as humans go, she seems decent. It doesn’t hurt that we’ve got a kill switch over her core. I wouldn’t give her extra information, but she already knows about my presence.”

No killing Sylph. Could you...

"Already on it," Henry said, cutting him off. A ring of dark energy shot out of Damien's chest, rippling off the walls of the tent. Sylph raised an eyebrow.

“I don’t think that’s necessary,” Damien said, giving Henry a small mental nod as his companion slipped back again. “Henry can take care of it.”

“Henry?” Sylph asked, raising an eyebrow. “Your companion? I thought you were keeping it under wraps.”

“Him,” Damien corrected her. “And you already know about him. If you were going to try to rat me out, you would have already done it.”

“I suppose that’s true,” Sylph said. “At this point, I think we’re in the same boat. I’d be in just as much trouble as you if they found out the truth of my companion.”

Damien fought back his curiosity and managed to restrain himself from asking her why. If he wanted to keep his own secrets, he had to respect hers. Sylph rose to her feet and pushed the tent flap open, gesturing for Damien to go first.

He gave her an appreciative nod and slipped inside it. Sylph followed after him. The inside of the tent was cramped, but there was enough space for both of them to lie on the ground. There were even two small pillows at the far end.

As the two of them laid down, Henry shifted down into Damien’s shadow. It peeled away from him and rose from the ground. For an instant, dozens of eyes blinked down at them. Then Henry slipped through the tent flap and vanished into the night.

“Seven planes. What is he?” Sylph’s eyes widened as she got her first look at Henry. She shook her head and sighed. “Rhetorical question, sorry.”

“It’s fine,” Damien responded. He laid back on his pillow and stared up at the tarp above him. He heard Sylph do the same beside him.

They lapsed into silence, each lost in their own thoughts. Damien tossed and turned for several minutes, desperately trying to calm his nerves enough to fall asleep. The rhythmic breathing from beside him proved that Sylph had no such issues. After nearly an hour of fitfully tossing, Damien finally slipped into a dreamless sleep.

When Damien awoke, his chest was on fire. He jerked upright with a gasp, his hand flying to the searing runes. Sylph snapped awake as well.

“What is it?” Sylph asked.

Damien pulled his shirt back and looked at the runes. There was no blood, but it felt like his chest was trying to split apart. The pain faded, but the adrenaline coursing through his veins didn’t. An alien presence that he knew all too well brushed across his thoughts.

“Be wary,” Herald whispered. “And observe.”

The tent flap flew open, and Henry slipped in, melting back into Damien’s shadow.

“It’s here,” Henry said. “And you need to run. Now.”

What? Why? What is it?

“No time to explain. Call your mage friends.”

“Pickles,” Damien said loudly. Sylph’s eyes widened as Damien grabbed her arm and dragged her out of the tent. The sun had just barely started to rise, and the world was cast in gray and orange hues.

“What’s going on? Is it here?” Sylph asked.

“Apparently,” Damien replied. The air crackled as Volt and the other mages popped into existence around them.

“Where is it?” Simon asked.

Where is it?

“Southeast, coming quickly. It’s in the air,” Henry said. “Start running.”

Damien relayed the information to the mages. The four of them swung their gazes up to the air. It took them a moment, but Tenbi called out as a small black dot appeared in the sky.

“Run!” Henry snapped.

“Get out of here,” Simon ordered them. Earth rose up around the man and formed into a massive great sword in his hands. “You’ve done your job. Whisp is securing the perimeter from a distance that it can’t notice her. We’ll find you once this is done.”

Damien and Sylph nodded. They sprinted in the opposite direction, putting as much distance between them and the monster as they could. Magic crackled and flew through the air behind them with enough force to shake the ground.

“What is that thing?” Sylph yelled, glancing over her shoulder. Damien snuck his own peek and nearly tripped over his own feet.

A massive gargoyle the size of a two story building flew in the air above the mages. Its eyes crackled with malevolent green energy, and it was covered with pockmarks. Acid dripped from the creature, drawing smoke from where it touched the earth. The monster’s claws were nearly as long as a human body.

“No idea. It looks like some giant gargoyle, but I don’t think it’s just an ordinary monster,” Damien replied, gasping for air. “We just need to put as much distance between ourselves and that thing as possible.”

They continued sprinting away from the fight as fast as their feet could carry them. Damien found himself thankful for all the training Sylph and Delph had put him through. Had he tried to do this a few weeks ago, his legs would have turned to jelly already.

The sounds of battle grew more and more distant as they ran. However, they didn’t stop, even after nearly an hour of running. The two of them skidded to a stop to catch their breath.

“Do you think they’re still fighting that thing?” Sylph asked.

“I feel like it would have come after us if they weren’t. I don’t think they’ve lost yet,” Damien pointed out, pausing in between sentences to gasp for air. “I’m sure they can handle it. They’re professionals. I need to talk to Henry. Give me one second.”

Sylph nodded as Damien reached within his mind.

Henry, what was that? Why were you so worried about it?

“A Corruption Seed,” Henry said, his voice grim.

The thing that Herald said would destroy the world permanently?

“A seed of it,” Henry corrected defensively. “Still dangerous, but not world ending. Yet.”

Can those mages even do anything about it? They’re going to get killed!

“On the contrary,” Henry replied. “They’ll probably kill it. It’ll be hard, and one or two of them might die, but they’ll kill it. A Seed that hasn’t sprouted isn’t strong enough to wipe out an entire party, and they seemed decently strong for mortals. It’s still dangerous, though, especially if it manages to sprout. This explains why kids were going missing.”

What do you mean? Why would something like this go after children??

“The missing kids are potential hosts,” Henry said. “The seed is looking for something that can contain it. If it’s incompatible, the person or animal it’s in transforms into a grotesque form of itself, and then the seed seeks out a new host until it finds one it can live in.”

It sounds like this has happened before.

“It has,” Henry said. “At the end of every cycle. The seeds set out to find a host, but it usually takes them hundreds of years to find one they can control properly.”

And then?

“We don’t tend to let it get much past that,” Henry said. “We restart the cycle.”

I’m not particularly partial to that. You said that the Seed controls the host. What if the host is in control?

“That’s never happened. Humans can’t overpower it. That’s why the Void exists.”

Right then. How many of them are there? Can we kill them all? That would stop the corruption completely, right?

“Not exactly,” Henry replied, letting out a sigh. “There are six Seeds. If we managed to kill them all, it would slow the Corruption significantly. However, the Seeds are just the overt signs. It would creep through the crust of the world, slowly infecting more and more of it over the course of the next thousand or so years.”

A thousand is better than a few hundred. All we have to do is find the other five and kill them, right? You can do that, can’t you?

“If I had to,” Henry said. “Look, Damien, you can’t seek these things out. They exist to fight the Void. If it gets wind of you, it’ll do everything in its power to kill you. I can defeat it, but I can’t keep your mortal flesh intact. You just aren’t strong enough yet. Don’t worry, though, I’m still on your side. There’s a lot left to do in this cycle. Just stay away from the Corruption for now. We can deal with it—”

Damien’s chest erupted in searing pain. At the same time, Sylph slammed into him. They both fell to the ground, narrowly avoiding the massive, curved blade that erupted from the earth where they’d been standing.

The earth parted, and a chittering hiss rose as an insectoid looking creature pulled itself up from beneath them. It looked vaguely like a praying mantis made of stone, but each of its limbs ended in a sharp claw longer than Damien. Just like the gargoyle, it was covered in pockmarks and green acid dripped from its body.

“Shit! It has some form of stealth technique. I can’t pick it up at all!” Henry said. “Give me control. I can teleport us out.”

No, you can’t. Whisp is locking the area down.

Henry swore in a language that Damien didn’t know. Sylph leapt to her feet, and Damien hopped up after her. The monster let out a chittering laugh and circled around them, its beady eyes focused on Damien.

“Another one?” Sylph asked, her tone wavering. A blade made of dark energy flickered into her hands.

“Sylph, we need to run,” Damien said, channeling Ether through his limbs and forming two gravity spheres. “This thing is way above our paygrade.”

“I don’t think it’s going to let us run,” Sylph said, taking a step back. The mantis lashed out with a claw. Sylph dropped into a roll as it blurred through the air, howling through the space where she’d been standing. “We need to fight it.”

Any chance we can hold it off until the mages finish the other one?

“Minimal,” Henry said. “Syph has no way to fight this thing. She’s going to get slaughtered.”

The mantis blurred forward again. Sylph hurled herself out of the way, shimmering and fading into the background. The mantis spun, lashing out toward an empty space in the air. Damien’s hand rose of its own accord. A rune sprang to life, and a purple shield formed in the mantis’ path.

Its claw slammed against it with a loud crash. Sylph flickered back into vision on the other side of the shield, her eyes wide. Damien’s body went stiff as Henry surged forward, taking control of Damien’s body.

The air crackled as Henry thrust a hand forward. A glowing purple lance shot out of his hand. It slammed into the Seed’s chest with a loud crunch, shattering some of the stone that made it up and forcing the creature several steps back.

A wave of dark energy erupted out from Damien’s chest. It washed across the field, leaving motes of darkness in its wake. They all morphed, forming into floating eyes that tracked the Seed. Energy sparked and crackled between them.

“Time to go, Sylph,” Henry said, his voice coming out from Damien’s mouth. “This is my fight.”

Chapter Six

“What? But —”

“Leave. Damien would be annoyed if you die,” Henry said. Dark purple runes drew themselves in the air around him. “I can’t waste any attention keeping you alive.”

Sylph gave one last glance at the stone mantis before giving a jerky nod. She turned and sprinted away, fading into her camouflage and disappearing from sight as she went. Henry focused his full attention on the Corruption Seed before him.

The runes floating around him doubled in intensity. A brilliant orb of purple energy formed before Damien. The air seemed to shatter as a massive beam burst free from the orb and slammed into the mantis, sending it tumbling across the ground.

Stone chips cascaded off the creature’s body as it spun and dug its pointed feet into the ground, catching itself. It let out a hiss and blurred out of view, crossing the distance between them in an instant and bringing both of its claws down on Damien’s head.

Henry distorted, Damien’s body tearing and fading away like mist as the claws passed through it. Wisps of smoke spiraled out from where he’d been standing, landing a short distance behind the Corruption Seed and reforming into his body.

The eyes covering the field lit up with dull gray light and a barrage of needlelike attacks shot out from them, peppering against the mantis’ stone hide. It let out a hiss and spun back toward Damien.

Stone rippled across its body, filling the cracks and chips that the attacks had left in it. The Corruption Seed let out a chittering laugh. It dashed toward Damien again, lunging forward and turning into a blur of blades.

Damien’s face knitted in concentration as Henry desperately dodged and blocked the attacks with small disks of dark energy.

“Damn squishy mortal body,” Henry cursed. He dragged a hand through the air, pulling it apart like taffy and leaving a trail of twinkling runes in his wake. A blade launched out from them, warping and twisting the air around it.

The monster darted to the side, narrowly avoiding the strike. A large shudder shook the clearing as the blade hit the ground and detonated, pulling clumps of soil and grass free in a large area around it before shredding everything into a fine mist.

Darkness curled up from Damien’s feet and enveloped him in a cocoon moments before the mantis was upon him. It raked its great claws across the cocoon, but they sparked off and failed to penetrate it.

The mantis hissed and thrust its claws forward, putting all of its body weight behind the attack. Its blades punctured the cocoon and burst out of the back. The magic fell to ribbons, but there was nothing within it.

Damien rematerialized behind the mantis, wisps of smoke curling off his body. He thrust his hand into the air, runes crackling around him. A spike of darkness erupted from the ground beneath the mantis, but it shattered against the creature’s armor.

“Annoying bastard,” Henry cursed through Damien’s mouth. “If I had my full strength, you’d be dead already.”

The mantis let out a chitter that might have been a laugh, although it was hard to tell if the creature even understood Henry’s words. Acid bubbled across its skin, melting through the ground beneath it.

Green liquid trickled down its blades. It slashed out with one, sending a line of the acid flying at Damien. Henry flicked his hand, and a wide Devour spell snapped open in front of him, blocking the attack.

Another dark portal opened behind the mantis. Its own attack sailed back out of the portal and hit it in the side, sizzling against the stone. The creature hissed and lunged toward Damien. Its claw seemed to segment and extend midair, growing to almost twice its original size.

One of the eyes littering the air around them imploded, transforming into a gravity sphere and detonating. The spell yanked the creature’s arm to the side, causing it to go wide. The shadows beneath the mantis surged up into its stomach, punching a short distance into the creature before it twisted and broke away from the spell.

They mantis circled each other. Henry detonated another one of the eyes, then thrust one of Damien’s hands forward. The mantis was pulled off its feet as a barrage of miniature gravity spheres hurled through the air and pattered into the creature.

They detonated with a series of sharp cracks, tearing stone apart and sending acid flying. The mantis hissed and thrust a claw into the ground. Henry wrapped Damien in a cloak of darkness mere instants before a blade erupted from the ground beneath them.

It deflected off the spell and vanished back below him. Henry ripped Ether from the environment around him with enough strength for the grass surrounding them to wilt. He had Damien’s body raise its hand and draw a complicated sigil in the air. At the same time, he detonated another one of the eyes between him and the mantis, forcing the creature to keep its distance.

A blade punched out of the ground behind Henry, but the shadows coiling around him deflected the strike. He finished the rune and thrust his mental energy into it. The air shuddered and ripped apart, leaving a blank space in the air before him.

Wisps of dark energy curled out from the hole as a black handle slowly slid out from the hole. Henry had Damien grab it and pull it free, revealing a pitted axe. He hefted the weapon with a single hand and pointed it at the mantis.

The monster hissed, eyeing the axe warily. Tendrils emerged from the weapons hilt, twisting and curling in the air as if they were looking for something. Shadows wrapped around Henry, and he charged forward, swinging the axe at the mantis’ side.

Metal rang on stone as the mantis raised a claw to block the attack. A tremor ran down Damien’s arm. The tendrils shot out and latched onto the monster’s arm, draining the color from it.

Henry was forced to make Damien’s body jump back as the mantis chopped at his head with its other claw. The tendrils lost their grip and released the mantis. Henry cursed. “I don’t know if I can beat this thing with your little fleshbag.”

The mantis let out a chitter, as if it were realizing the exact same thing. Stone cascaded down from where the tendrils had latched onto it and new flesh surged up to take its place. Rock clinked as the monster rose onto its back legs.

Dark lines formed across its body, splitting everything into segments. It slowly split apart, ropes of acid floating in between its floating body parts to keep them connected. Both of its arms had nearly doubled in length. The monster’s mouth came apart, and it let out a screech.

It swung a claw at Damien. The segmented parts of the sharp weapon curled around behind him. He turned to smoke, and the weapon passed through him. He rematerialized several feet away, but the blade twisted midair like a snake and thrust toward him.

The dirt beneath Damien’s feet surged upward, forming a pillar before him. The mantis’ blade scraped against it, then shot around the side and continued toward him. Shadows surged up and knocked the strike to the side. It flicked back and retracted, returning to the mantis as the segments reconnected with each other.

“Didn’t know that damn thing was so flexible,” Henry snarled. “Let’s see how you like this, then.”

The remaining floating eyes on the field lit up with dull purple light. Lines of energy shot out from them, attaching to the mantis and yanking it downwards. The creature hissed and lashed against the bindings.

Several snapped and tore, but Henry already had Damien moving. An eye detonated beside the monster, yanking the mantis’ head to the side. Damien dashed forward and leapt into the air, bringing the pitted axe down on the creature’s chest.

The blade bit deep into the stone. Damien tore it free and raised the weapon again, but Henry abandoned the attack and turned the boy into smoke moments before a claw pierced through his chest.

He relocated a short distance away and rematerialized. Henry pulled more Ether from the world around them, but he could feel Damien’s body growing less responsive. Even with Henry using the Ether, the boy’s body wasn’t strong enough to withstand the energy flow going through it.

Two blades rocketed through the air toward Damien, clicking as the segments extended to give the attack more reach. Henry quickly ran through the spells he could use without tearing Damien’s mortal body apart.

“Can’t risk Void magic here,” Henry muttered. He traced a rune in the air with Damien’s finger. The boy’s body moved so fast that it was practically a blur. A burst of bright white light filled the plains as a shimmering wall appeared around him.

The blades slammed into the wall, sending cracks racing up it. The mantis retracted its arms, seeing that the strike had failed. Henry let the walls drop and thrust his hand forward.

Dark lines spiderwebbed through the air between them. Two tendrils rose out of the ground and wrapped around Damien’s feet. A loud crack split the air as the lines snapped taut, distorting the air.

The mantis was lifted off its feet as gravity suddenly turned sideways. Damien’s body rose as well, but the tendrils kept him on the ground. The monster sailed toward him, spinning uncontrollably.

Henry raised the weapon and brought it down hard into the creature’s back, carving through its abdomen and taking a large chunk out of it. He immediately wreathed Damien in shadows and had the boy dash to the side.

A blade slammed into Damien’s side, carving deep into his armor. His mage armor turned dense at the last second before the strike hit his flesh. It sizzled against the blue cloth and rattled through the air, returning to the mantis.

“Come on,” Henry urged. “Just a little more. You can do it.”

The sweat pouring down Damien’s face and back spoke otherwise. If Damien had been in control of his body, he would have fainted long ago. The strain was starting to overcome even Henry’s control.

“Looks like there isn’t any time left,” Henry said. “If you ruin my first bit of fun in millennia, I swear on the Void that I’ll purge you from this plane and piss on your grave.”

The Corruption Seed chattered and dashed forward, its legs clicking across the dirt. Floating eyes detonated as it charged past them, but the creature forced past them, ignoring the damage they did to its body.

Acid leaked from the large wound Henry had carved into its side. Even with the Seed’s regenerative abilities, it couldn’t repair wounds of that caliber. Henry had Damien adjust his grip on the axe.

There would only be one more strike in this fight. Henry’s concentration doubled. The plains faded until the only thing in his sight was the charging mantis. Time slowed down as Henry’s senses kicked into overdrive, analyzing the situation faster than light could transmit into Damien’s eyes.

The creature raised both of its arms inch by ponderous inch. Henry had Damien rear back, hoisting the axe to take the mantis’ head off. The arms started to extend, and Damien dashed forward. He narrowly dodged the closest arm as it extended, the stone passing inches away from his back as he twisted midair.

Damien swung the axe down at the mantis’ head. At the same time, the monster’s other arm shot up toward him. With Henry’s sped-up perception of time, he could already see the outcome of his gamble. A scream of helpless rage tore out of Damien’s mouth.

Time slowed even further as Henry desperately tried to make Damien move faster. The monster’s segmented claw crept closer to the boy’s chest. It was to no avail. The mantis was faster than him, and Damien’s body couldn’t handle any more stress without breaking.

The air between Damien’s body and the blade rippled. Sylph slipped out of her camouflage, a churning blade of dark energy burning in her hands. She held it before her defensively and braced for the attack.

Time resumed. Damien’s axe crunched into the mantis’ head, carving deep into the rock. At the same time, Sylph’s sword shattered, and the claw continued forward, punching deep into her stomach and bursting out of her back.

A red flower bloomed on Sylph’s back. She crumpled to her knees, the claw still lodged within her. Acid dripped from the blade and sizzled against the ground as silence enveloped the clearing.

Henry stared at Sylph, for once at a complete loss for words. She looked over her shoulder at Damien, trying to form something on her lips. Her eyes grew hazy, and no sound came out.

“What were you thinking?” Henry asked her in a mix of anger, relief, and horror. He ripped the blade free of the mantis, which twitched slightly. The monster still wasn’t dead. The wound on its head leaked acid freely, but the fact that it wasn’t patching told Henry it wasn’t long for this world.

A faint smile flickered across Sylph’s lips, and she managed to slightly raise one shoulder in a shrug. The light in her eyes dimmed further as the life rushed out of her back and pooled on the ground beneath her.

Damien’s hands clenched. Henry grabbed Sylph and tried to teleport, but the magic sputtered and failed. Whisp’s block was stronger than the magic Damien’s body could channel.

“Do you realize that Damien is going to kill me if you die?” he asked angrily, shaking Sylph slightly. She didn’t respond. Henry’s attention shifted to the dying Corruption Seed beside them.

Damien’s lips pressed thin. He reared back, a gauntlet of destructive energy forming around his hand, and plunged his arm into the mantis’ chest. The creature jerked weakly but didn’t have the strength to respond.

Henry had Damien trace a complex series of runes through the air with his other hand. Sylph was fading faster than he could have imagined.

“Why are humans so damn fragile?” Henry asked, his voice tense. Damien finished drawing the runes, and Henry sent his Ether flooding into them, lighting the circle in the air with dark purple energy.

Predictably, Sylph didn’t respond. Her head fell forward, and she slumped forward, falling over Damien’s shoulder as the last of her energy faded. Henry quickly scanned the runes to ensure there wasn’t a single mistake within them. The runes moved down to form a spinning ring around Damien’s free hand.

Then, with a powerful strike, Damien drove his hand into the hole in Sylph’s chest. Her body spasmed as energy crackled, traveling up from the mantis and down Damien’s body before flooding into hers.

Damien’s hands trembled as Henry forced the boy’s body to remain in place. Ropes of dark energy whipped around the fallen Corruption Seed, binding it tightly and forcibly sealing the gaping wounds covering it.

Henry dug through the creature’s corpse, ignoring its hisses and clicks. He ripped seemingly random portions of its body free. Shadows enveloped it, shredding the parts to sickly green motes of light before sending them flooding into Sylph’s chest.

The mantis screeched as Henry ripped its body apart, thrashing desperately against the bindings. They didn’t budge. The Seed was too weakened to do anything but watch. Cracks started to spread through its body.

Stone faded and started to crumble. The acid covering the creature receded as well as it ran out of Ether to fuel it. Henry reached deeper and deeper into the monster, taking every last bit of energy it had left to offer.

With one last screech, the mantis slumped to the ground. Its limbs went slack, and it crumbled into a pile of powder. Henry shoved the last bit of Ether into Sylph’s body, then enveloped her with his energy.

Magic crackled around her like a miniature bonfire. The faint traces of Ether within her body were desperately fighting back against the foreign energy Henry had introduced. Ironically enough, her core hadn’t been damaged in this fight. The Void creature reached out, corralling all the Ether remaining in her core and body before absorbing it into himself.

Once Sylph’s body had been completely purged, he pressed the mantis’ ether into her core. Even without her consciousness there, Sylph’s body resisted him. If her core hadn’t been filled with cracks from when she’d accidentally broken it a few weeks ago, it would have been impossible.

Fortunately, that wasn’t the case. The gaps in her core widened as Henry’s mental energy wormed into them, pulling them apart and forcing the green Ether inside. Once it was completely full, Henry pressed the cracks back together.

He sent the remaining Ether throughout her body, infusing it into her muscles and skin. It resisted him again, but Henry was not one to be disobeyed. Slowly, more and more of the energy merged with Sylph.

When only a single mote of the energy remained, Henry cast one last glance over his work. At his firm insistence, Sylph’s body had already started to adapt to the new energy. The wound on her chest still dripped blood, but the flesh around it had started to turn gray.

It slowly knitted itself back together, strands of green ether forming within the wound like a web. Henry refocused himself and wrapped his energy around the last mote of green Ether. In a single clean strike, he thrust it into Sylph’s heart.

The artifact companion she had within her finally took offense to the abuse Henry was putting her body through. A wave of energy rose to repel Henry. He ignored it and enveloped the artifact with his own Ether, crushing its defenses and shattering it.

Her body jerked. Lines of green light shot out across her skin, running down through her limbs before bouncing back up and returning. Her core pulsated, and the wound on her chest pulled itself shut.

The gray flesh started to seal back over, returning to its normal, slightly tanned color. Sylph convulsed and drew in a ragged gasp, one last flash of green energy lighting up her eyes before it faded. She doubled over Damien’s shoulder, retching up vile black liquid.

Henry gently pushed her back and held her by the shoulders in front of him. Aside from the blood covering her and the black sludge on her mouth, she looked normal.

“Who are you?” Henry asked, shaking her gently. “Answer quickly.”

“S-sylph. I’m Sylph.”

“And who am I?” Henry asked, watching her expression closely for any signs of the Corruption’s presence.

“Damie— No, you’re Henry,” Sylph said, her eyes widening. “What happened? How am I alive? I was bleeding out, and then there was nothing. I should be dead. Did a healer get here?”

“Something like that,” Henry said. “Do you feel any different?”

“In more ways than I can describe,” Sylph said, her eyes unfocused. Henry shook her gently.

“Nope. No digging around until everything settles down. Trust me, you don’t want to see what I did yet.”

Sylph swallowed, then nodded once. She glanced at the crumbled remains of the mantis beside them, then down at the blood covering both her and Damien.

“Any strong desires to kill children?” Henry asked. “Or cravings to destroy the world?”

“I wouldn’t mind destroying some food, but I think that’s it,” Sylph said. Her stomach rumbled. “I’ve never been this hungry in my entire life.”

“Side effects. The least of them, I think,” Henry said. “Look, my time here is up. I can’t explain everything, nor can I allow anyone to learn of my presence. Damien’s body is an inch from giving out. Get him out of here and get the blood off both of you before those mages find you. Don’t tell them about the mantis. Got it?”

“Understood,” Sylph said. “And thank you for saving my life. Again.”

“You saved Damien’s first,” Henry replied. “And it goes without saying, not a word about my existence. And, if you can avoid it, don’t use your Ether. There might be some…significant differences.”

Before Sylph could ask what Henry meant, Damien’s body slumped forward. Sylph caught him. The field fell silent. She sat there for nearly a minute before finally urging her aching body into motion.

Sylph slung Damien over her shoulders like a bag of bloody potatoes and trudged toward a stream in the distance, leaving the pile of rocks and the pool of blood behind them.

When she reached the river nearly thirty minutes later, Sylph eased Damien’s body into it and slipped in after him, holding him against the bank to make sure it didn’t wash him away. Luckily, the runes on his mage armor made it incredibly easy to clean.

Sylph dragged Damien back onto dry ground once the last of the blood left his clothing. Her own clothes were completely ruined. Without the cleaning runes that Damien’s armor had, there was no way to get the blood out of them just using water.

She reached into her travel pack, pulling out a change of clothes. She stripped, bundling her bloody clothes into a ball by her side. The wrappings that covered her torso had a huge hole in the center where the mantis’ claw had gone through her.

Sylph ran a hand across the wound, frowning slightly before pulling her new set of clothes back on. She grabbed her toothbrush and scooped some water from the river, scrubbing her mouth vigorously and spitting it out in the grass.

The water came out a disturbing gray tint. Sylph grimaced and repeated the process several times until her saliva was clear again. With a shudder, she wiped the toothbrush off and put it away.

Then she laid back on the ground beside Damien, staring up into the sky. The sun had already risen behind them, and its warming rays slowly worked the water out of their clothes.

Two hours had passed by the time Damien stirred again. He groaned, blinking the sun out of his eyes. Every single part of his body felt like Delph had been beating on it, and the grass pressing against his hands and the back of his neck tickled him.

He turned over, grimacing. Sylph laid to his side, her hair spread out around her head in an attempt to get it to dry faster.

“Are you okay?” Sylph asked.

“I was about to ask you the same thing,” Damien replied, too tired to bring any tone but exhaustion into his words. “What in the seven planes just happened?

“I was about to ask you the same thing,” Sylph repeated, a small grin flickering across her face. “But it looks like we both survived. Somehow.”

“Not through any lack of trying on your end,” Damien said, craning his neck to look at her. “You could have killed yourself! If Henry hadn’t done…well, whatever he did, you were dead.”

“And you would have died if I hadn’t done it,” Sylph said. “That makes us even.”

“I… Honestly, I’m too tired to argue it right now. Do you know where the mages are?”

“No,” Sylph said, pushing herself into a seated position. “I’ve been trying to figure out what to tell them. We’ve been missing for several hours now. We need an explanation as to where we went, and I can’t really say what happened.”

“What a pain in the ass,” Damien muttered, letting his head fall back onto the grass. “Can’t we just walk back home and pretend this didn’t happen?”

“I’m not sure that’s the best idea. I think you might have gotten rattled a bit too hard. Maybe just rest for a little longer. I’ll figure something out.”

“Okay,” Damien muttered sleepily. His focus drifted as he watched the clouds drift through the sky above him.

Time twisted and slipped by. A headache came and went with the clouds above Damien, making it impossible for him to concentrate for more than a few moments at a time. The sweet release of sleep soon rose back up to meet him, and he lapsed into unconsciousness once more.

No sooner than he’d fallen asleep, Damien felt someone gently nudge him. He scrunched his nose up. “What?”

“I’ve got a plan. Are you coherent enough for me to explain it?” Sylph asked.

Damien blinked up at the sky. Her words were fuzzy and seemed to slip right through his head. “I…don’t know.”

“Right,” Sylph said. “Just go along with what I say, then. Okay?”

Damien managed a nod. Sylph gave him a worried frown. She scooted closer to him and gently lifted his head, looping her other arm under his shoulders and helping him to his feet. Damien leaned heavily on Sylph as they rose, darkness tickling the edges of his vision.

“Are you okay?” Sylph asked.

“A bit dizzy. Should be fine.”

“Just hold on, then. And don’t speak.”

“I can do that.”

Sylph cleared her throat. “Pickles.”

A few moments passed in silence. Then the air crackled. Volt and the other mages appeared, their weapons drawn and Ether hissing around them. They were all covered in blood and bandages, and their eyes were wild. Simon surged forward, taking up position behind Sylph and scanning the area. He blinked when no enemies showed themselves.

“What happened? Why did it take so long for you to respond?” Volt demanded.

“And are you injured?” Tenbi added, giving them a worried glance.

“Damien got hit in the head, but he’s recovering,” Sylph said. “After we ran away, another one of those stone creatures appeared. It looked like a smaller one of the monster that you were fighting. We tried to fight it for a little, but it was too strong. We just ran as fast as we could. However, after about an hour, it just crumbled to dust and died.”

“How come you didn’t summon us?” Volt asked, frowning.

“A big rock clipped me as I went down,” Sylph replied, pushing her hair back to reveal a painful looking lump on her head. “Knocked me out. Damien went down at about the same time as well, and I only just woke up. I panicked a little and tried to wake him up as well before calling you guys.”

Tenbi knelt in front of Damien and held a finger up. She moved it back and forth, watching him carefully.

“He does look like he might have a concussion,” Tenbi said. “We need to get them to a healer.”

“They’re not in bad shape for fighting one of those monsters, even if all they did was run,” Yaga observed. “Impressive.”

“It sounds like the monster had the ability to duplicate itself,” Simon said. “Maybe clones of some sort. I didn’t think it would be that strong.”

“There were a lot of surprises today,” Tenbi said darkly. “Two students nearly died for this, and we were grossly unprepared for how dangerous that thing was.”

“Someone will answer,” Volt agreed. “However, it appears we’ve gotten the best-case scenario. Our wayward students have survived, and the monster is dead. Come. We need to get the two of you to a healer.”

Volt reached out and grabbed both of them. The other mages huddled around him, and they all disappeared in a flash of light.

They popped out inside a large wooden room full of beds. The walls were painted white, and an older woman with graying hair and a hunchback stood beside one of the beds, feeding a patient in it something. She glanced up, not even slightly surprised at the party’s sudden arrival.

“What did you do this time, boy?” the old woman asked, snatching a cane from the wall beside her and hobbling toward them.

“Not me,” Volt said. “Students on the quest with us. They need a quick examination. One might have a concussion.”

The woman’s eyes widened as the mages stepped aside, revealing Damien and Sylph. She hobbled over to them, her eyes tightening in anger.

Energy gathered at the tip of her staff, and she held it next to Damien. Her gaze grew unfocused for a few moments. Then she moved the staff to point at Sylph. A small amount of energy flowed out of the staff and into Sylph, easing the bump on her head. The old woman lowered the staff and sighed.

“They’re both fine. What are you doing, involving students in dangerous matters?”

“They could have just gotten injured in a normal quest,” Volt said defensively. “How do you know that it was dangerous?”

“You wouldn’t have come to your old mother’s house if it wasn’t urgent,” the woman snapped. “You never visit, you ingrate. Besides, when was the last time your group worked on a normal quest? Students have no business working with you.”

“We were under orders, and they made their own decision,” Volt said, pressing his lips together.

“Well, I’m going to make the decision to fit my cane up your ass if you keep that attitude,” the woman said. “Now, stop being a brat and go set the dinner table.”

“Mom, we’re on a tight schedule—”

The woman raised her staff and gave the pointed end a pointed glance. Volt snapped his mouth shut and mechanically strode out of the room through a small door behind them. The other mages chuckled at his expense, but they shut up when the woman’s glare shot to them.

“You best go help him before I redecorate all of your faces,” she said. “Bah, involving students in dangerous quests. Whose idea was that? Whisp?”

Simon cleared his throat and nodded before he and the others beat a hasty retreat after Volt. Sylph hid a laugh as the trained mages fled from an old woman who barely stood past their knees.

Chapter Seven

“Come, you two. You’re both going to be fine, but you need all the rest you can get,” she said, leading them up to two of the beds. “You won’t be bothered here. Just lie down and call out for Granny if you need anything.”

Damien and Sylph slipped into the beds, and Granny pulled the covers over them, clicking her tongue the entire time. After one final inspection, she nodded.

“Good. Don’t get up until I come get you,” Granny instructed, turning and making her way over to the patient she’d originally been helping, muttering under her breath the entire time.

Damien was in no mood to argue with her. The soft pillow welcomed him as he once again slipped into a deep sleep.

It was with little surprise that dreams didn’t come to him. Damien found himself sitting on a familiar grassy hill. He was, as usual, completely naked. However, his brain was functioning normally again.

With a thought, Damien’s usual clothes sprang back up around him. He stood up, brushing imaginary grass stains off himself, and turned. Henry stood behind him, shadowy fire licking up his dark features.

Several eyes blinked at Damien’s scrutiny, disappearing and popping back out at random places over Henry’s body. The Void creature actually looked sheepish, if such a thing was possible for it.

“Thank you,” Damien said. “I would have asked you to do this once my brain stopped spinning, so I appreciate you beating me to it. Are you going to start talking, or do I have to ask the questions myself?”

“You already know the answer to your biggest question,” Henry replied. “The Corruption was too fast. I didn’t have time to wait for your permission to take over—you or Sylph would have been killed.”

“And I’m not going to complain about you saving our lives. I’m not that stupid. But…how long? Have you been able to take control yourself from the start?”

“No. It wasn’t until the portion of your soul started to meld together with mine.”

Damien ran a hand through his hair. “So, your goal really isn’t to destroy the world?”

“Not yet,” Henry said. “I wasn’t lying when I said there was too much I wanted to do. I am not Herald. But after what we just saw with the Corruption, I fear that we might have to change our plans. If the Seeds are already emerging, then this Cycle is farther along than I’d thought.”

“We can worry about that later,” Damien replied. “This might be selfish, but I’m more concerned about personal issues than the rest of the world at the moment. The contract I made with Herald doesn’t apply to you in the slightest, does it?”

“Not at all,” Henry confirmed.

“What have you done outside of my body?”

Henry’s face rippled into a grimace. “Housekeeping, mostly.”

“More specific, please.”

Henry paused for several seconds. He considered Damien’s words. Then he let out a sigh.

“The boy you fought—Jayce. He came to try and take revenge on you while you were unconscious. I took care of the problem before it could manifest itself.”

Damien drew in a sharp breath. “Ah. Killed him, then?”

Henry nodded.

“You know, I should probably be angry or horrified about that,” Damien said, scratching the back of his head. “But he was a raging asshole. If anything, the only concern I’ve got is you killing random people. I don’t think anybody is going to miss Jayce. Does that mean you’ve corrupted me or something?”

“I thought you would have been angrier. Your younger self would have been shocked.”

“My younger self hadn’t seen half the things I have,” Damien said. “And I’ve nearly died multiple times. It twists the perspective a little.”

“Not nearly,” Henry corrected. “You did die once, when you met Herald the first time.”

“Wonderful,” Damien said, swallowing. “I’ll unpack that later. Look, I appreciate your honestly. I’m well aware you could just lie to me. But please don’t go killing anyone else unless it’s absolutely necessary.”

“You aren’t going to try to get me to agree to a new contract?” Henry asked.

“Why would I? You’ve got no reason to take one, and I trust you, as dumb as that is. If you were going to go against me, you would have done it by now.”

Henry tilted his head, observing Damien silently. The boy sighed and rubbed his nose. “We’ve got a bigger issue than this. Whisp knows that Jayce disappeared and has somehow linked it to me. Is there any possible way she could know what you are?”

“None,” Henry replied. “She was nowhere in the area when I took care of Jayce. She’s strong, but she’s just a mortal. There’s no way for her to have noticed me.”

“It’s not that surprising she figured out Jayce died or went missing considering she’s the acting Dean. I suppose she didn’t specify anything about him being alive or not,” Damien mused. “It’s possible she’s hoping to get me to admit to something. I don’t know. We just can’t have her digging around in my head.”

“I was thinking about that, actually,” Henry replied. “There’s a way to lock her out permanently.”

“Keep talking.”

“Runes,” Henry said, pointing at Damien’s chest. “Herald has the right idea. You might not be strong enough to resist her on your own, but runes are just gateways that guide the Ether through them. Your own strength is irrelevant. If we put a rune on you that deflects anything external that goes for your memories, it should stop her from seeing anything she shouldn’t.”

“Can’t she just break through it? Runes aren’t particularly powerful compared to normal magic.”

“If it was just a blunt wall, probably,” Henry said. “But if it was more like a slippery surface that made it hard for her thoughts to take purchase on you, it would be much more effective. She could probably break through it with enough effort, but it’s much better than nothing. We’re better off pretending its an ability I gave you than letting her root around in your head without putting up a fight.”

“Works for me,” Damien said, nodding. “I assume you’ve already got something in mind?”

“I do,” Henry replied. “I’ve been musing over it for a while, but I didn’t want to mention it in case she managed to pick it up. I’ve already got a rune circle in mind. It uses a lot of old, obscure runes that are likely to have been forgotten over the last few thousand years.”

“Let’s do it, then,” Damien said. “We don’t have all that much time before Whisp shows up. I’ve got some of the healing water from the school in my waterskin. Does it matter where you put the circle?”

“No, but the larger it is the stronger it’ll be,” Henry said. “Granted, this doesn’t need to be very strong. It’s not meant to take a full force attack.”

“And I don’t think I want to have it cover too much of my body,” Damien said, tilting his head in thought. “Can we put it on my head, under my hair? Nobody could see it then.”

“That would work,” Henry said.

“Great. So that problem is solved, or at least delayed,” Damien said. “Now, on to the next one. What did you do to Sylph to save her?”

“I patched her up with pieces of the Corruption Seed,” Henry replied. “Then I broke her artifact and tried to bind her to the dead Seed instead.”

“She’s not going to turn evil or something?”

“Probably not, but I can’t say for sure,” Henry said. “This has never been done before. Ever. Millenia of existence, and I’ve done something completely unique. Isn’t that fascinating?”

“It would be more fascinating if my friend wasn’t at risk of turning into a rock monster who drools acid,” Damien said dryly. “But I’m glad you did it. I don’t want to imagine what would have happened if Sylph died.”

“She’s still got a chance to. If there’s somehow some spark of the Corruption’s control left, we’re going to have to kill her. I’m on your side, but the Mortal Plane cannot be allowed to leave the cycle,” Henry said, his tone turning grim. “Don’t worry. I’ll handle things if it comes to that.”

“Thanks. Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that.”

“It’s not all bad, though,” Henry said. “Her core has gone through quite the traumatic experience. Stuffing the Corruption’s Ether into it likely expanded it significantly, and there’s a very good chance she’ll be able to gain access to some abilities that nobody else can. If she can control her new body, she’ll be quite a powerful little mortal.”

“Well, that’s good at least,” Damien agreed. “If it makes her stronger, Sylph might even try to find another Corruption Seed.”

Henry scoffed. “You’ll be lucky if another one even arrives on this continent. There is more than one landmass, you know.”

“Somehow, that never even came to mind,” Damien said. “What if the Corruption Seeds are already there?”

“It’s incredibly unlikely. It takes time for them to arrive. The Corruption is not fast,” Henry said, but he didn’t sound particularly convinced. “There’s nothing we can do about it right now. It is very strange that not only did the Corruption arrive earlier than normal, but it arrived right next to us. That can’t be a coincidence.”

“The person who interfered with my summoning spell,” Damien said, his skin prickling, “they’re pulling strings again.”

“It’s a likely possibility,” Henry said. “But what are they working at? I can’t figure it out, and that irks me more than anything. I can’t tell if they’re on our side or the Corruption’s.”

“Or someone else’s entirely,” Damien said, pressing his lips together.

Henry shook his head. “Something we can worry about after we escape Whisp’s eyes. It’s going to take a minute for me to carve the runes into your scalp. You’ve already been sleeping for around an hour, so we don’t want to waste much more time.”

“Let me wake up,” Damien said. “I’ll ask to use the restroom, and you can do it there.”

“Already on it,” Henry said. The world started to fade with every word he spoke. “Keep an eye on yourself and Sylph around these mages. They seem friendly enough, but don’t forget they’re working with Whisp. I won’t be able to do much after the rune since Whisp will likely be close.”

Shadows rose from the ground and enveloped Damien. Something cold splashed against his skin, and he drew in a sharp breath, jerking upright in the white bed. He was completely dry. His mind still felt a little fuzzy, but it had improved significantly since he’d fallen asleep.

I really hate that sensation.

Henry let out a small chuckle and faded into the background. Granny spotted Damien as he looked around the room and shuffled over toward him with the help of her cane.

“Can I use the bathroom?” Damien asked before Granny could say anything, his words only a little slurred.

“Of course,” Granny said. “Do you need help standing?”

Damien slowly swung his legs out of bed and shifted his weight onto them, leaning back over the bed in case they gave out from beneath him. Luckily, he felt mostly steady. Damien slowly rose to his feet, then shook his head.

“I’m fine.”

“That’s great to hear,” Granny said. She nodded toward a small wooden door at the other end of the room. “The bathroom is right over there”

“Thank you.” Damien made his way over to the bathroom, thankful that his travel pack was still slung over his shoulder. He slipped inside and closed the door behind him, locking it with a click.

A sharp pain erupted at the top of Damien’s head. He grimaced, digging through his bag as the uncomfortable sensation traced lines through his scalp. He pulled the flask of healing water free and uncapped it, standing over the chamber pot and upending the flask over his head.

Damien grimaced as the cool water trickled through his hair and down his face, fighting with the burning sensation of Henry’s handiwork. By the time he’d poured out about half of the water, the pain receded to a dull throb.

The water ran off his face tinted pink, which would probably make for an interesting discovery for whoever had to clean the chamber pot. It slowly started to turn clear again as flask emptied.

He shook the last few drops out of it, then capped the flask and put it back with a sigh. The pain had faded to a faint throbbing sensation that was almost unnoticeable unless he focused on it.

Damien shook himself off, rustling his hair to get as much of the water out of it as possible. Once he was satisfied that it didn’t look soaking wet, he opened the latch on the door and swung it open.

He found himself an inch away from Sylph. She stepped inside, yanking the door shut behind her and locking it.

“Sylph?” Damien whispered. “What are you doing?”

“My companion is gone, Damien,” Sylph hissed. “I need to speak with Henry.”

“It’s not safe right now,” Damien replied in the same hushed tone. “Whisp might be able to detect him.”

Sylph’s hands tightened at her sides, and she bit her lower lip. “Do you know what he did to me at least?”

“Kind of. He chopped the baddie up and used it like glue to fix you. He might have also smashed your companion to do so.”

Sylph’s eyes widened. “He what? How am I supposed to use Ether without my companion? I can’t cast magic! I can’t do—”

Damien put a hand on her shoulder. Sylph closed her mouth and drew in a deep breath.

“Henry said you’d be stronger,” Damien said. “Not weaker. The Ether is in a different form than what you’re used to if I understood him correctly. You just need to figure out how to use it again, but you’ll be more powerful than you were before.”

“Are you sure?” Sylph asked.

“He hasn’t lied to me,” Damien said. He paused for a moment. “Recently. I think.”

“Reassuring,” Sylph said, but her face had relaxed. “Sorry. I was just scared that—”

“You don’t have to explain it. I know what you were thinking,” Damien said. “I would have been just as scared. Just…keep an eye on if you’re going nuts. There’s a tiny chance you turn evil from this.”

“Ah,” Sylph said. “Well, that’s great. Better than being dead, I suppose.”

Damien nodded empathetically. Sylph turned, nearly smacking Damien in the face with her long hair and unlocked the door. She stepped outside, and Damien followed absentmindedly.

Granny caught his eye as the two of them left. She gave him exaggerated wink and chuckled to herself, shaking her head and turning back to a patient. Damien flushed, pretending he couldn’t hear Henry’s distant laughter deep within his mind.

The smell of greasy meat wafting through the door at the end of the infirmary brought a rumble to Damien’s stomach. He and Sylph wordlessly made a beeline toward it. A small kitchen sat on the other side of the doorway, separated from a wooden table by a long countertop.

Simon stood before an oven, inspecting something within it. The others sat at the table, chatting amongst themselves. Tenbi raised a hand in greeting as the two students walked inside.

“Are you two feeling a little better?” Tenbi asked.

“Significantly so,” Damien said. “My head doesn’t feel like a bowl of scrambled eggs anymore. Granny works wonders.”

“I’ll say,” Volt said. “I bet you guys are hungry, and I’d love to hear about what happened now that you can see straight.”

Damien’s stomach grumbled its agreement without waiting for his brain to approve it. He and Sylph sat down next to each other at the table. A moment later, Simon strode out from the kitchen area. He set a large plate of sliced bread and butter down on the table before everyone. The mage returned to grab two more plates—one piled high with a multicolored salad soaked in a brown dressing, and the other a cutting board with glazed meat piled high on it.

“I thought we were going to wait for Whisp to arrive,” Tenbi said.

“She could have gotten here an hour ago,” Simon said. “Whisp will show up whenever she wants to and not a moment sooner. No point waiting.”

The rune circle on Damien’s head grew warm. His lips pressed together, and Sylph shot him a worried glance. He wiped his expression and gave her a nearly imperceptible nod. A moment later, the air behind Simon crackled with dark purple energy.

A wormhole opened up, and Whisp stepped through it, her motley cloak rippling behind her. Her gaze swept over the room, pausing on Damien for an instant longer than everyone else. A slight frown crossed her face, but it disappeared as quickly as it had come.

“You’re right about that, Simon,” Whisp said. She sauntered over to the table and pulled out the chair beside Damien, sitting down and pulling the huge metal gauntlets off her hands. She set them down on the ground beside her feet.

“Wash your hands,” Yaga told Whisp. “I know where you stick those things.”

Whisp rolled her eyes. A wave of dark fire crackled over her hands and a small puff of smoke rose into the air as she incinerated anything that might have been left over on her skin.

“Happy?”

“No, but I suppose it’ll do. Don’t you have an example to set for the students?” Yaga asked.

“They’ve gone on a quest with me,” Whisp said dismissively. “Nearly died from what Granny told me. They can live through me dropping the dean act for a bit. I’m not even the real dean anyway.”

“Whisp,” Simon said sternly, pulling out the chair on her left and sitting down. “Are you drunk?”

Now that he mentioned it, Damien did notice a slight flush in the woman’s pale cheeks. She rolled her eyes. “Only a little.”

“You need to lay off the bottle,” Simon said wearily. “You’ve got a reputation to uphold.”

Whisp just grunted. She grabbed a strip of meat with her bare hand and took a large bite out of it, curling her nose up at the disapproving glances from the other mages. Damien and Sylph both grabbed food for themselves, and the other mages followed suit.

“So, any idea what we went up against today?” Tenbi asked. “None of us have ever seen anything like it, and it was one tough bastard. Nearly killed me.”

“And me,” Yaga said, nibbling on an unbuttered slice of bread. “That acid was dangerous. If it wasn’t so dumb, I don’t think we would have stood a chance.”

“I didn’t get a great look at it,” Whisp said. “Holding up the teleportation block over such a large area took up nearly every ounce of concentration I had to give. We’re lucky there was just one of them.”

“There were two, actually,” Volt said. “One was apparently significantly weaker. It went after the kids, but it died after the main one did.”

“Hm,” Whisp said. “A younger one, perhaps? Or it had the ability to split itself. Do we have any idea why it was targeting children?”

“None,” Simon said. “Nor do we know what happened to any of the people the creature got its hands on. I don’t think it’s anything good, though.”

“Not the best topic for dinner,” Tenbi said through a mouthful of salad.

Damien couldn’t help but agree with her. He speared some salad on a fork that had been set beside his plate and shoved it into his mouth. The vinegary dressing was the perfect complement to the slightly bitter greens.

“Well, I’m sure the two of you are happy,” Whisp said, glancing in Sylph’s direction. “You earned a ridiculous amount of contribution points and all you had to do was nearly die.”

“Not a bad trade,” Damien said, watching his words carefully. The rune on his head grew warm again. Whisp’s eyes narrowed. She turned away and grabbed a slice of bread, applying a healthy amount of butter to it.

“Are all of the high-level quests this difficult?” Sylph asked. “I don’t know how much stronger we’ll get in school, and I’m not confident I could defeat one of those things at any point soon.”

“Not even close,” Volt said, chuckling. “Most of the quests that students get offered are vetted to make sure they aren’t too difficult. Don’t get me wrong, they can be dangerous, but you should be fine so long as you aren’t stupid. Blackmist doesn’t want to kill you, after all.”

“There’s a shortage of good adventurers,” Simon said, nodding in agreement. “Too many pompous nobles and upstart commoners. The front lines grow closer and closer to us with every passing day.”

“I didn’t know that,” Damien said, blinking. “We’re getting pushed back?”

“The monsters are getting more aggressive,” Yaga said. “None of us fight on the front lines, but we’ve been called to assist more than once.”

“Do you know why?” Sylph asked.

“It’s hard to tell. We don’t have a team strong enough that are willing to risk their lives on a scouting mission,” Volt said. “At one point, there was a huge forest at the edge of the frontlines. The closer you get to it, the harder it is to use magic. The forest seems to have some effect on the Ether around it, and that gives monsters a massive advantage over us.”

“Maybe stop scaring the kids,” Tenbi said, pursing her lips. “They went through enough today. No reason to give them nightmares.”

“They’re students at Blackmist not toddlers,” Whisp said. “However, I wouldn’t go around giving away information like that to everyone. It might not be classified, but it’s pretty close to it. We don’t need the general populous running around like headless chickens because they think the monsters are coming.”

“Judging by what we fought today, they’re already here,” Simon said grimly.

The worried look in the man’s eyes was almost enough to make Damien want to tell him that there would only be four more of the Seeds, and it wasn’t likely Simon would ever run into another one. Almost.

They lapsed into silence, and the rest of the meal passed quickly. Damien felt Whisp’s stare burning into him whenever he looked away from her, but he did his best to ignore the woman. Once they’d finished, everyone brought their dishes to the kitchen sink.

“Whelp, that was a fast quest,” Volt said, rubbing his hands together. “I suppose we can do another sweep for the kids, but I don’t think we’ll find much. Do you need a lift back to Blackmist?”

“We’ll be fine,” Whisp said, walking back to the table and pulling her gauntlets back on. “It’s a long-range teleportation, but nothing I haven’t done before. I didn’t drink so much that I can’t use basic magic.”

“Suit yourself, but I’d hardly call teleportation basic,” Volt said. He nodded to Damien and Sylph. “It was a pleasure meeting the two of you. If you become adventurers, make sure to give us a note. If you managed to stay alive with one of those stone monsters on your tail, you’ve got to be quite skilled.”

“Blackmist only creates the best,” Whisp said, putting a hand on Damien and Sylph’s shoulders. “But we should probably be going. We don’t want to overstay our welcome.”

The door swung open, and Granny poked her head inside the room. “Ah. Leaving already, are you?”

“We got work to do, Mom,” Volt said. “We saved you some food, though. It’s on the counter.”

“Good. It was my food you were cooking in the first place,” Granny said. She gave Damien and Sylph a wide grin. “You two stay safe, okay?”

“We’ll do our best,” Damien said, trying to keep the flush from returning to his face. The woman winked at him.

“We’ll be heading out as well,” Whisp said. “Thank you for treating my students.”

“It’s my job, Whisp. It wasn’t so long ago that I was treating you,” Granny said.

“No,” Whisp said thoughtfully, “I suppose it wasn’t. Take care, Granny.”

“Come by to visit more often,” Granny said. She shifted her weight on the cane and smirked. “Just not too often.”

Simon and the others raised a hand in farewell. Damien tried to hide the fear in his expression as he returned the gesture. Cold energy crackled to life around them, and purple light filled his vision.

Wind rushed past Damien’s face so fast that his cheeks rippled. He squeezed his eyes shut, but that didn’t stop purple twirls of light from dancing on the inside of his eyelids. His body twisted and contorted into strange shapes that shouldn’t have been possible.

He slammed to a stop abruptly, staggering forward and nearly falling flat on his face onto the black stone beneath his feet. Damien drew in a gasp and tensed as his stomach turned over. Bile rushed up his throat, but he forced it back down with a shudder.

“I appreciate you not throwing up,” Whisp said dryly. “My clothes are expensive.”

“No problem,” Damien said, glancing at the portals surrounding them. He could see the tips of the mountains surrounding them in the afternoon sky.

“When do we get our quest rewards?” Sylph asked.

“Straight to the point. Admirable,” Whisp said. “You can visit Auntie any time. The credits are already tied to your name, and she’s got your gold waiting for you as well.”

“That’s convenient,” Damien said. He yawned loudly. “Thank you for the quest opportunity, Dean Whisp. If you don’t mind, I think I’m going to head back to my room. I’m pretty exhausted.”

“Actually, I’d like to speak with you for a moment,” Whisp said. Damien’s blood ran cold, but he kept his expression neutral. Sylph shifted to stand beside Damien. Whisp glanced at her, then nodded toward the portals. “This won’t take long, Sylph. Damien will catch up with you in a minute.”

Sylph frowned and shot a look at Damien. He gave her a small nod. After one more glance at Whisp, Sylph turned and headed into one of the portals, vanishing. Whisp rubbed her chin thoughtfully.

“It’s not often that I see students bond as closely as you two have,” Whisp said. “That’s the goal of the living conditions, of course. But Sylph just looked at you to make sure you were okay with meeting me alone. The dean of your school, and she doesn’t trust me. Isn’t that amusing?”

Damien let out a polite chuckle. Whisp rolled her eyes.

“You need to work on your lying. That was horrible,” she said.

“Sorry,” Damien replied automatically. He grimaced, but the dean let out a small laugh.

“I’m not your enemy, Damien. You don’t have to be so guarded around me.”

If Henry hadn’t been hiding, Damien was pretty sure the companion would have let out a loud scoff.

“Of course, Dean Whisp,” Damien said. “Why would you say that? I don’t consider you my enemy. You’re the head of my school!”

“Standing head,” Whisp corrected. “But that’s not what we’re here to talk about, is it?”

“I’m not entirely sure what we are here to talk about.”

“Damien, you’re not going to get anything out of playing coy with me. You’ve done something that makes it hard for me to get deep into your thoughts, so you’re clearly trying to hide something.”

“Does this have something to do with that accusation you made regarding the missing student?” Damien asked. “Because I still don’t know what you were talking about when you mentioned that.”

Whisp blinked. She squinted at him for a few moments. “Hmm. Either you’ve done something incredibly effective at keeping me from reading you, or you’re telling the truth. To be honest, I’m actually leaning toward the latter.”

“That doesn’t surprise me,” Damien said. “Sylph can vouch that I didn’t leave my room until we went to class, and she was with me that entire time. I couldn’t have done anything to another student, much less someone who nearly killed me the first time we fought.”

“Yes, Sean told me about that. He would have been punished severely had he not mysteriously vanished. And, frankly, I wouldn’t trust a single thing Sylph had to say about your location. I wouldn’t be surprised if she was the one who offed the kid.”

“Offed him? I thought you said he was missing?”

“We don’t know for sure,” Whisp said. “We’ll find him eventually, one way or another. But are you sure there isn’t anything you want to tell me?”

“I’m not sure what you want,” Damien replied. “Honestly, I don’t understand why you wanted me and Sylph to come on this quest. Aside from being bait, we didn’t really do all that much. Threatening me doesn’t seem like it was necessary.”

Whisp pressed her lips together. “I suppose a threat probably wasn’t the best way to do it. I had it on good word that you had to come on that quest.”

“Really? From whom?”

“If you aren’t sharing your secrets, then I won’t either,” Whisp said, chuckling. “I already said this, but I’m not your enemy. I can’t make you talk without employing some methods that would certainly get me in trouble, so I suppose we’ll leave things here. I hope you got whatever it was you needed out of the quest, Damien. If you decide you want to talk, just give Delph a shout. He’ll put us in touch.”

A purple portal churned to life behind the dean. She stepped backward into it, and the portal snapped shut, leaving Damien alone in the obsidian courtyard.

Chapter Eight

Damien drew in a slow breath and let it out. He strode toward the portal that brought him onto campus and stepped into it before he could do something else to incriminate himself. Knowing what he did of Whisp, she was probably still in the area.

The portal spat him out on plain cobblestone. His nose twisted in distaste shaking his head and pushing the queasiness away. Compared to the long-distance teleports, this one was barely noticeable.

Sylph stepped out from behind a pillar, a small dagger in her hand. It vanished back up her shirt sleeve when she realized that Damien was alone.

“Is everything okay?” Sylph asked.

“As much as it can be,” Damien said, letting out a strained laugh. “She said that we were on the same side.”

Sylph let out a grunt that made it clear that she didn’t believe the dean’s words any more than Damien did. The two of them wordlessly started back toward their room on the mountain.

“When’d you get a dagger?” Damien asked.

“I’ve always had it,” Sylph replied. “When you run out of Ether as quickly as I do, you need multiple backup plans.”

“Fair enough,” Damien said. “Here’s to hoping you won’t have to carry the knife around much longer, then.”

They reached the room a few minutes later. Mark had finally invested in a curtain in front of his cave entrance, and it was pulled shut. The Gray siblings had done the same. Damien pulled their door open, and they headed inside, letting it swing shut behind them.

Henry, do you think…?

The companion unfurled from his self-imposed sleep. Henry didn’t say anything for a moment. Then he let out a sigh. “I was checking if Whisp was in the area. It doesn’t seem like she’s here.”

Good. I think we might need to explain some things to Sylph. She can’t use her Ether anymore.

“Of course, she can’t,” Henry said. “Half of her body isn’t even human anymore. Monsters channel Ether very differently than humans do. They don’t have mental energy, nor do most of them actually cast spells. The Ether flows through them inherently, and it reacts more to their desires than it does to conscious commands.”

Can you shield us from people listening in again? I think it might be time to explain everything to Sylph. We’ve saved each other’s lives enough times, and she’s now in the exact same boat that we are, isn’t she?

“I’m not opposed to it,” Henry said. “She was ready to die to save your life. I’m new to judging character but, as far as things go, mortals tend to value their life quite closely. Just remember that this isn’t something we can take back. The girl is your friend now, but how will she react to the truth?”

I suppose we’ll have to find out. We don’t owe it to her, but I think she’s done more than enough to deserve to know.

“Very well,” Henry said. “Bring her into the training room. It’ll be easier to keep a single room blocked out than multiple. The less area I have to shield and the farther into the mountain it is, the harder it’ll be for someone to listen in.”

Damien nodded. He looked back to Sylph, who waited patiently by her bed.

“Follow me,” Damien said, heading into the training rooms.

“Sounds serious. Sure.” Sylph trailed after him with a curious expression.

When they got to the back training room, Damien’s shadow rippled. Sylph’s eyes widened as it rose from the ground, strands of darkness twisting together to form Henry’s flickering body.

The Void creature raised his hands. A purple pulse of energy ripped out from him, bouncing off the edges of the room and making a pattern like a rippling lake as they echoed throughout the room. The energy faded, turning to a dull translucent barrier surrounding them.

“We’re safe from prying ears,” Henry said, eyes blinking open and closed across his body.

“Henry?” Sylph guessed.

“Astute. Because Damien has other companions that come out of his shadow,” Henry muttered dryly.

Sylph smirked. “I suppose not. What do I owe this pleasure? I was under the impression you weren’t a fan of showing your true form.”

“Trust me, this isn’t my true form,” Henry said, laughing. “And I’m here to make an arguably bad decision at Damien’s behest. You’ve died to save his life, so we decided it would be appropriate to inform you of my true nature.”

Sylph blinked. “Really? You don’t have to. We don’t owe each other anything. You saved me after I saved Damien, so the plate is clean.”

“I think the anxiety is eating him alive,” Henry said. “Humans are just so eager to share their secrets. I must admit that I’m starting to understand the desire. What’s the point of knowing things that others don’t if you can’t lord over their failings?”

“I’m not sure that’s exactly why people like sharing secrets, but that’s good enough,” Damien said, rolling his eyes. “Can you just get on with it?”

“Would you rather do it yourself?” Henry asked, an eye on the back of his head blinking open to look at Damien.

“Nope, sorry. Continue with your monologue,” Damien said, cringing back.

“Thank you. Now, there are a few important things to cover,” Henry said. “First, you’re going to need to relearn parts of how your Ether works. The artifact is still floating around inside you, but its severely damaged. You can probably repair it at some point in the future but focus on that later. Since I broke it, I’ll take your companions place and show you how to use your Ether.”

Sylph swallowed and nodded, not daring to say anything and interrupt Henry.

“Now, the more interesting part. How much do you know of the Eight Planes?” Henry asked.

“Eight?” Sylph asked, frowning. “There are Seven. Mortal, Stars, Immortal, Fury, Light, Darkness, and Dead.”

“You’ve missed one,” Henry said. “The Void.”

“I’ve never heard of the Void,” Sylph said, frowning. “My schooling was focused on practical aspects, but my teacher was quite thorough. If there are companions in this Void Plane, I would have thought he’d have told me.”

“He probably didn’t know about it,” Henry said. “As far as I’m aware, I’m the first time a Void creature has ever become a companion.”

“What does that entail?” Sylph asked, baffled. What is the Void, anyway?”

“The Void is the cracks between existence,” Henry said. “The absence of all things. Nothing can exist within it, except for my kind.”

“And your kind is…?”

“There is no official human name for us beyond Void creatures or denizens,” Henry replied. “However, we fit a few of your folklore legends. It would not be entirely inaccurate to call us the Horsemen.”

Sylph’s face scrunched up in confusion for a moment. Then her eyes flashed with realization. She swallowed, the blood draining out of her face. “You’re a Herald of the End? The monsters that exist to destroy the world?”

“Ding.”

Her eyes widened. Damien could practically see the thoughts shooting through Sylph’s head as she subconsciously took a step away from Henry. She swallowed again, her eyes darting from Damien to Henry and back again. Then she let out a slow breath.

“Well…not that I want to encourage you or anything, but you aren’t doing a very good job of it,” Sylph observed carefully. “Can you not act without Damien’s permission or something? I suppose the companion contract keeps you from doing what you want?”

“Nope,” Henry said, chuckling. “It did at one point, but that is no longer the case. Let’s suffice to say that I have no desire to destroy the world yet. I will eventually, don’t get me wrong. I’m just enjoying it a bit too much right now.”

“That explains the reading choices,” Sylph said, relaxing slightly. It was Damien’s turn to laugh at Henry, a rare occurrence that he made sure to savor.

“How did Damien contract you in the first place, then?” Sylph asked after a few moments.

“By accident, mostly,” Damien said. He wanted to fill her in, but something kept him from mentioning whoever or whatever had been fiddling with his life. Truth be told, Damien didn’t like thinking much about that at all.

“His rune circle had several conveniently placed mistakes that perfectly launched his summons straight into the void, where I happened to be hanging around,” Henry said. “One thing led to another, and now we’re all here. Consider yourself enlightened. You now know a secret that many mortals would burn an entire continent to learn. How does it feel?”

“Like I ate a rock,” Sylph admitted. “Damien, you said you bound your companion early. Have you been keeping this secret since you were…?”

“Thirteen,” Damien finished. “Yes. It hasn’t been easy.”

“I can imagine,” Sylph said, shaking her head. “I’m not sure if I should be horrified or impressed.”

“Impressed is good.”

Sylph laughed and shook her head. “Honestly, I already figured your companion was some creepy monster. As far as creepy monsters go, Henry doesn’t seem that bad. I’ve dealt with worse myself.”

“I’m not sure if that was a compliment or an insult,” Henry said. “But before you get too relaxed, there’s still one more thing you need to know.”

Sylph cocked her head. Henry spent several minutes explaining the Corruption and what the true purpose of the Void creatures was. By the time he was finished, Sylph looked like she was going to be slightly sick.

“I’ve got a monster even worse than you are inside me?”

“The corpse of a monster,” Henry corrected. “It’s very dead. I think.”

Sylph drew in a deep breath and let it out slowly. “Okay. Well, I suppose that’s still better than being dead, right?”

She didn’t sound particularly certain. Damien nodded empathetically. “I’ve done it a few times. Living with a monster isn’t the worst thing.”

“You’ve died as well?” Sylph asked, raising an eyebrow. “I thought I was unique.”

“Yep. Henry killed me,” Damien replied.

“Technically, you ripped yourself apart,” Henry said. “And that was Herald.”

“Herald? How many companions do you have, Damien?”

“One,” Damien said firmly. “One companion and one unwanted tagalong who stays firmly locked away. Let’s avoid talking about it, if that’s okay. It’s probably observing us.”

Sylph nodded. “Right. So, back to the evil corpse inside me. I don’t want to sound impatient or ungrateful, but is there any way you could teach me sooner rather than later? I feel naked without my Ether, even if I never had much to begin with.”

“We can do it right now,” Henry said. “It’s not like Damien has anything better to do. The two of you just wander around campus together like a pair of lost dogs if you aren’t training.”

“Hey!” Damien complained. “We do more than that.”

“Sure, you do,” Henry said. “Listen, Sylph. This probably isn’t going to be very comfortable. I can’t just tell you how to use the Ether. I have to take the job of your companion, and that means showing you.”

“Okay,” Sylph said. “That’s fine. I’ve dealt with pain before. It’s of no concern.”

“Your head is going to feel like I’m hammering it open with a blunt wooden spike,” Henry said bluntly. “It will be very bad.”

“I’ve dealt with worse,” Sylph said, her tone leaving no room for questions. “Just do it. I need my Ether back.”

“Just making sure you know,” Henry said. “Lie down. I’d like to have done this in your bed, but it’s too close to the door. We don’t need someone getting a glimpse by accident.”

Sylph laid on the ground in front of Henry. The companion gestured for Damien to join them. “Hold her head. It’s going to jerk around a lot, and I will be very annoyed if all my efforts get wasted because Sylph kills herself by hitting her head on the ground.”

Damien swallowed and nodded. He tried not to make eye contact with Sylph as she scooted back, putting her head in his lap. Henry let out a noise between an annoyed grunt and a laugh.

“Children,” he muttered in a low tone. He raised a hand above Sylph and started to trace runes through the air above her head. A trail of dark purple energy followed his faint fingertip, crackling sparking.

Henry drew for several more minutes before lowering his finger, leaving several interconnected circles hovering above the girl’s face. “Get ready. Screaming is fine, by the way. Sound won’t escape this room.”

Sylph nodded, her face impassive. “Do it.”

Henry didn’t wait for her to ask again. He slammed a hand against the runes in the air. They telescoped downwards toward her, lighting up with bright purple light. Henry’s form twisted and flickered, spiraling through the runes and into Sylph’s head.

Her eyes widened, and Sylph gritted her teeth, but she didn’t make any noise. Henry’s rune circles started to spin in opposite directions. Sylph’s body jerked, and her back arched in pain. Damien held her head steady as best as he could.

With every passing second, the runes churned faster. More and more of Henry vanished. Sylph’s hands clenched so tightly that blood started to trickle out of her palms where her nails bit into them. Even still, not a single sound escaped her mouth.

The last bit of Henry—and Damien’s shadow—vanished through the runes. They slammed to a halt, the light blinking out. Sylph relaxed, and Damien let out a relieved breath. He glanced down at her and nearly yelped in surprise.

Her eyes were pitch black. It was like looking into two bowls of ink. Damien winced, then pulled a small napkin from his travel pack. He leaned over and gently unclenched Sylph’s fists, wiping the blood off before it could get onto her clothes or the floor.

Sylph didn’t seem to notice. Her body twitched occasionally, and her mouth occasionally moved as if she were silently speaking to somebody. Damien watched on nervously, alternating from looking at her to the training room entrance make sure nobody was watching them.

Damien wasn’t sure how much time passed, but it probably wasn’t more than ten minutes before the darkness started to drain out of her eyes. It trickled out around Sylph, forming a shadowy pool.

Bit by bit, Henry reformed beside Damien. When the last bit of the darkness left Sylph, she drew in a sharp breath, twitching slightly.

“Did it work?” Damien asked.

“As well as I’d expected,” Henry replied. “Maybe even more so. It was a cruel prank for Sylph to be born with such a pitiful core. She’s much more talented than you are. It’s a good thing we were around to right that wrong.”

“Thanks,” Damien said, rolling his eyes as Henry let out a chuckle. “Sylph, how do you feel?”

“A little dizzy,” Sylph admitted, blinking several times. “It worked, I think. It’s…so different. The Ether feels like it’s a part of me now. Like another limb.”

“Well, that’s good, right?”

“Try moving an arm you don’t have,” Sylph said. “I know it’s there, and I can actually feel it, which is good. There’s so much more than I used to have.” She trailed off for a few moments before blinking. “I lost track of my thoughts, sorry. This is a very strange feeling.”

“You’ll get used to it,” Henry said. “It might be wise for you to remain inside your room until you do, though. You don’t want to accidentally use your Ether.”

“We’ve only got a little less than a week before we have to go back out,” Sylph said. “Do you really think that’s enough time to master this new Ether?”

“Master it?” Henry asked, chuckling. “No. But enough for you to get a rudimentary grasp over its use. You should still also be able to use a lot of your previous magic. That knowledge isn’t lost. Your energy is just different. Your companion, artificial or not, already made it so that you could see the Ether that corresponds to Dark magic. Just be careful, as your new Ether may not act the same way, even for the same spells.”

Sylph committed his words to memory before giving Henry a nod. “Understood. I’ll keep your words in mind. Thank you.”

“Appreciation accepted,” Henry said. “And with that, it’s time for me to go. You kids can handle the rest. There’s no reason to keep the magical barrier going any longer than we need to.”

He slipped forward, sliding into the ground and reconnecting to Damien’s feet. The translucent purple energy flickering around them popped and faded away into small wisps of smoke.

“How do you feel?” Damien asked.

“Better than before. Being able to feel the Ether again is a huge weight off my shoulders. It’s different, but it’s still there. I’m going to need to practice a lot this week if I want to avoid suspicion from the professors.”

Damien nodded. “I’ll be practicing as well. Just don’t push yourself too hard. We really don’t want a repeat of last time.”

An embarrassed grin crossed Sylph’s lips. “I’ll try to contain myself. No promises, though.”

It was already a late hour, so the two of them didn’t spend much more time talking. Both were too tired to get anything serious done, so they got cleaned up and headed to bed to prepare for the following morning.

Before he went to sleep, he tapped his bracelet. He hadn’t gotten a chance to check how much he’d grown from the fight against the Seed yet.

Damien Vale

Blackmist College

Year One

Major: Undecided

Minor: Undecided

Companion: [Null]

Magical Strength: 4.92

Magical Control: .57

Magical Energy: 9.8

Physical Strength: .34

Endurance: .82

Damien dismissed it with a blink. Large gains, but not even slightly worth all the danger they’d gone through. Probably. He closed his eyes and laid back in bed, drifting off to sleep.

The next two days passed in a blur. Damien practiced the Devour spell relentlessly until he could bring the magic to bear in just a little over a second. He remained within the first training room, allowing Sylph the usage of the second, farther one. He saw little of her aside from when they went to bed late into the night.

On the dawn of the third day, Henry declared that Damien’s mastery of Devour had become satisfactory.

“Not bad at all,” Henry said. “A few thousand years ago, I might have even considered using that myself.”

Damien snorted.

Gee, thanks. I’m not finished with the spell yet, though.

“Oh?” Henry asked, but there was excitement in his tone. “What do you mean by that? You’re telling me you haven’t mastered every aspect of Space magic already?”

I want to reverse the spell. From what I understand of the magic powering it, the energy of the spells stored within Devour is still there, so I should be able to spit it back out.

“Go on,” Henry encouraged.

That’s really it, honestly. It should be much easier than Devour in theory. Since I’ll be casting it while Devour is active, I’ll only need to reverse the rune circle that stores the magic inside it. I could call it Expunge, since I’m purging the spell from within Devour.

“Workable. I would have called it Plop, but I suppose I can see the appeal of yours,” Henry said. “But you seem to have it all hashed out. Why even waste time asking about it?”

Well, I was wondering logistics and didn’t want to blow myself up. Like, how long are spells stored in the Devour space? If I open it up, save a spell, then close it, what happens? I don’t want to try to draw energy that isn’t there and end up creating some anomaly that blows me up.

“Ah. It remains as long as the initial Devour spell is active,” Henry said. “But there’s a way to get around that. If you open a new Devour spell while the old one is still around, both will be able to access the same space. So, a spell can go in through one of them, and you can fire it out the other one.”

The possibilities of Henry’s words kept Damien from responding. He let out a slow whistle.

“There’s more,” Henry said. “Let me show you a little trick.”

Henry’s mental energy reached out, tentatively taking over his body. It was a courtesy more than anything. Damien couldn’t have stopped the Void Creature if he’d wanted to. Regardless, the motion was appreciated.

The boy didn’t resist, allowing Henry to take over. His companion had him raise an arm and traced the rune for Devour in the air before them in purple, glowing script.

“Watch closely,” Henry said with Damien’s voice. “If you remain concentrated, you can actually insert the Ether into the rune without detonating it by stopping the reaction with mental energy.”

Henry cast out a net of mental energy, illuminating the room with lines of Ether. He then did exactly as he’d said, injecting the energy into the glowing rune through Damien’s palm. At the same time, Henry sent a tendril of mental energy into the rune, asserting his will over it.

He had Damien walk several feet to the side. The moment Damien stepped away from the rune, it grew slightly brighter as if it were trying to activate. However, Henry forced it to remain in stasis.

After a few moments, Henry pulled the strand of energy back. The rune instantly triggered, and a perfect circle of darkness sprang to life in front of them. Henry repeated the spell one more time, then gave Damien back control over his body.

“It can be like a trap,” Damien said aloud, forgetting to speak inwardly as he tried to wrap his head around all the possibilities of the spell. “And with magic I don’t even know how to cast. But…isn’t this kind of Void magic? You said that the Void spell was just basically a mimicry spell, right?”

“No,” Henry said. “This is Space magic. The Expunge spell you’re trying to create is essentially trapping your opponent’s spell within a spot in space, then releasing it from another. The longer you wait to release their spell, the weaker it will become. I’ve cast such a spell before, although I never gave it a name. Void magic is…different. It isn’t just mimicry, it’s theft. It takes a spell and changes it drastically. Think of it as evolving a spell to its max possible capability. Just focus on Space magic for now. You’re getting a good grasp on it, but you’ve got a long way to go before you can even think about the Void.”

Damien nodded. He gathered the Ether in his hands and guided it as he envisioned the Devour spell, drawing the rune in the air. Pressing his palm against the floating energy, he sent the Ether into it.

The rune brightened substantially. Damien’s eyes narrowed in concentration as he reached out with a strand of mental energy. He pressed it into the spell, trying to envelop it. However, unlike when Henry had done it, the Ether stubbornly slipped out from his grasp like an eel. Damien pursed his lips and yanked his hand back, hoping that his weak grip would be enough to contain the Ether.

The rune detonated, and Devour went off. Damien cursed as the spell faded away. After a moment of gathering his thoughts, Damien drew the Ether back down to his fingertip and repeated the process. The second attempt gave him similar results. The moment he took his hands away from the spell, it detonated almost instantly.

I don’t get it. How do you keep the spell from activating? The moment I take my hand off it goes boom.

“You’re just poking it with your mental energy,” Henry said. “It’s just like casting a spell. Intention is key. Imagine that your mental energy is forming a perfect sphere around the Ether, not allowing it to return to its natural state.”

That’s what I’m doing! I can grab and move the strands of Ether normally with my energy, but I can’t seem to completely wrap it up after I’ve put it into a rune.

“That’s because the Ether strands are in their natural state. They aren’t trying to resist you like the spell is. Just try casting it again. For now, you can try using more of your energy to contain it. You can work on optimizing it later.”

Damien nodded, going through the process of casting the spell once again. Once the rune formed in the air before his palm, he sent the Ether into it. The rune grew warm against his touch. He bit his lower lip as he sent out two tendrils of mental energy, twisting them around the rune and forming a blobby orb. The Ether within the rune pressed against his energy, trying to worm its way out.

Do you think this will work? Or do I need more?

“Give it a shot,” Henry said after examining it for a moment. “You don’t have to be too worried with this spell. It’s not going to hurt you if it miscasts like gravity sphere would. You should just abuse your high magical energy and cast it until something works.”

Damien let go of the spell, hopping a step back. The rune flickered in the air, remaining there for an instant. The pressure doubled, and a small crack formed in his cage. The spell immediately went off, throwing his mental energy to the side.

I did it!

“For about half a second,” Henry said, chuckling. “If you want that to be of any use in a fight, you’re going to need to be able to hold the rune in place for a minute or more.”

That did little to dampen Damien’s enthusiasm. He mentally stuck his tongue out at Henry and redoubled his efforts. The hours ticked by. Damien cast Devour dozens of times, not stopping until a throbbing headache wrapped its steely fingers around him. By the end of the day, Damien was able to keep the rune suspended in the air for nearly five seconds.

He staggered into the bathroom, squinting against the pain. One long shower later, the pain had receded enough for him to rejoin the outside world. Damien wandered back into the main room, drying his hair off with the towel.

“Did your training go well?” Sylph asked from behind him.

He jumped, tripping over his own feet and falling face first onto his bed. Sylph burst into laughter behind him. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you.”

“I was preoccupied,” Damien grumbled, flicking some water at her. “And, yes, my training went well. I’m assuming that question means you’ve managed to make progress as well?”

In response, Sylph held out her hand. Her nose bunched up in concentration. A small ball of pale grayish green energy twisted to life above her palm. It condensed into a pinprick of light before flaring outwards, forming into a blade.

“You can cast magic again!” Damien exclaimed.

“Yeah, although the color is kind of messed up. I really hope my spells don’t all look green,” Sylph said, a small frown crossing her features. “Delph is going to wonder why all my magic looks different.”

“Maybe it’ll go back to normal once you get some more practice with it,” Damien said. “But you’re feeling fine aside from that, right? No weird side effects?”

“None,” Sylph said. She pulled her shirt up slightly, exposing her midriff. “The spot where I got stabbed felt like it had changed to a stonelike substance when I woke back up, but it seems to be returning to my normal flesh. Does this mean I can’t die?”

“Let’s avoid testing that out,” Damien said, politely averting his eyes and flushing. “And for the love of the mess hall food, don’t let Delph know. If he realizes he can stab you and get away with it, he’ll be doing it for the next month.”

Sylph let her shirt drop back down and grimaced. “Good point.”

Her stomach rumbled. A moment later, Damien’s stomach joined her. They both laughed.

“I think it might be time to get dinner,” Damien said. “Are you able to control your magic enough yet?”

“Dinner wouldn’t hurt,” Sylph agreed, but she frowned. “I’m not sure yet. There are moments where everything feels fine, and then a minute later I can barely keep myself from leaking Ether. I think it’s improving, but I really can’t tell.”

“That’s fine. I’ll just go bring something back for us again, it’s not a big deal. We’ve still got almost four days until we’ve got to face anyone.”

“Thanks,” Sylph said, grinning at him.

Damien just nodded, grabbing his mage armor from the side of his bed and throwing it on. He pushed the stone door open and slipped outside. Neither Mark nor the Grays had returned from their quests, so he was able to easily make his way down the mountainside and onto Blackmist’s campus.

As he had for the last few days, Damien made a beeline for the general store. The ever-present clerk cocked an eyebrow as he entered the shop.

“Don’t tell me you’re here for more food.”

“I’m here for more food,” Damien said, scratching his head and giving the man a sheepish grin.

“I’m not running a grocery store. Why don’t you just get food at the mess hall if you want to eat on campus? Or heck, just buy it directly from a supplier. They sell to students, you know.”

“I don’t have anything to cook with yet,” Damien said. “Come on, it’s not like you’ve got a dozen snack packs lying around for no reason.”

The clerk let out a grumble as he grabbed two packages made out of brown paper out from below the counter. He set them down in front of Damien, who grinned widely and counted several coins into the man’s outstretched hand.

Damien grabbed the food and waved to the clerk as he headed back out of the door. “See you tomorrow!”

“You better buy something normal next time!” the man yelled after him, but there was no anger in his voice.

“I bought magical herbs that one time,” Damien called back, letting the door shut behind him before the man could respond. Another student shot him a confused glance, but Damien just shrugged at them and headed back toward the mountain.

As he walked, Henry stirred within his mind. “Speaking of medicinal herbs, your body has likely absorbed all of the previous herb you used. You should ingest the next one tonight.”

I’m not even sure that the last herb did anything. Are you sure?

“I’m always sure. And it did do something. Your body’s inherent Ether has increased significantly. Your muscles recover faster, and you gain strength quicker than you did before. The herbs aren’t going to make an instant difference, but they’ll help increase your foundations.”

Noted. Does it matter which one I take?

“Not really. You’ll be using all of them eventually anyway. Just take the one you won from the tournament,” Henry said with a dismissive mental shrug. “Sylph shouldn’t take hers yet. I doubt it would do much, but she doesn’t need any extra magic working around inside her right now.”

Got it.

Damien finished the rest of the walk in silence. Sylph was sitting on her bed with her back facing him, staring at something in her hand. When she heard Damien open the door, Sylph shifted to face him, scooting back slightly to find a more comfortable seat.

“Here you go,” Damien said, tossing her one of the brown packages. She caught it with one hand and gave him a smile.

“Thanks, Damien,” Sylph said. “How much did it cost?”

“No problem. It was just two silver,” Damien replied, tearing open the package to reveal a small bunch of grapes, a slice of cheese, some crackers, and what looked to be several strips of dried meat.

“I’ll pay you after we eat,” Sylph said, opening her own package. The two of them dug into the food without another word.

Chapter Nine

Once they had finished their food, Damien took out the vial containing the magical herb that he’d won from the competition. He popped the cap off and tipped it over his mouth, dumping the powdery leaf onto his tongue.

Like the last one, it was dry and brittle. It had a strong minty flavor that made Damien’s upper lip curl in distaste, but the leaf quickly melted in his mouth. He swallowed and smacked his lips trying to get the flavor out of his mouth.

It was gross, but it still somehow tasted better than any of the food that the college served for free in the cafeteria.

“Have those been doing you any good?” Sylph asked.

“I’m not sure, but Henry seems to think so. You should avoid using them for now, though. One weird thing at a time might be best.”

“Good idea,” Sylph said, nodding. She collected the remains of her dinner and hopped out of bed, taking Damien’s as well and setting them down at the corner of the cave.

“Do you think you’ll be able to use your magic normally by the end of the week?” Damien asked.

Sylph chewed her bottom lip and shrugged. “I’m not sure. I hope so, but it’s hard to say. I’m progressing much faster than I thought I would have, so there’s a chance. Ask me again in two days and we’ll know for sure. But…I have noticed something. My cultivation method doesn’t seem to be working the same way as it did before. Would you happen to know anything about that?”

Damien prodded Henry and relayed the information to him. The eldritch creature let out a dismissive snort. “Of course, it’s different. Sylph is feeling what happens when your body is filled with Ether. That normally doesn’t happen until you’ve been cultivating for a very long time. At some point, your flesh can only hold so much energy. It naturally gets harder to push Ether into it, and I already shoved so much into her that I’m surprised her method works at all.”

So, what should she do? Does that mean she’s just hit her limit?

“Not— At least, not exactly. She might be closing in on her current limit, but it's not because of this. When your body has a high concentration of Ether, you can use it to temper your muscles. It’s a rigorous process that will make your physical form significantly stronger. However, Sylph shouldn’t even think about doing that until she’s got a much stronger core unless she wants to cripple herself. The first step to do that is evolution, but don’t worry about that for now.”

Damien conveyed his companion’s words back to Sylph, who nodded thoughtfully.

“That makes sense. I’ll just focus on controlling the Ether I already have instead of trying to get stronger, then. Thanks, Damien. And Henry as well.”

The two of them lapsed into a comfortable silence as they started to get ready to sleep. After cleaning up, Damien took of his coat and slipped into his bed, which he’d finally purchased a new set of sheets and a nice fluffy comforter for. He was asleep within minutes.

Wind tickled Damien where it should never have been. He grimaced, clothes appearing from thin air and enveloping him as he turned to look at Henry.

“Is everything okay?” Damien asked.

“Surprisingly, yes,” Henry replied. “I’ll head out and do a quick sweep of the area to make sure no more Corruption is present later tonight. The other Void creatures are all either preoccupied or still bound somewhere.”

“Well, that’s good,” Damien said, letting out a small sigh of relief. “Why’d you bring me here, then?”

“I had an idea. These nighttime chats don’t have too much negative impact on you. As long as we use them in moderation, that is,” Henry said. “You can’t actually grow stronger here, since you aren’t physically here. However…”

“I can still practice!” Damien realized. “Does magic work here?”

“Exactly the same way your clothes do,” Henry replied. “Nothing is technically real, so you can practice the theory portions of your magic very easily without running out of energy. As long as we don’t do it too often allow your mind to recover after long sessions, it should work perfectly.”

Damien tested his companion’s theory out, casting a net of mental energy out around him. To his delight, strands of golden Ether lit up all around them. Damien gathered it into himself and drew a rune in the air.

The Devour spell flickered to life in front of him, exactly like how it would have in the normal world.

“You’re brilliant!”

“I have had a little time to think about this sort of thing,” Henry said, but he couldn’t hide the smug tone in his voice.

Damien quickly drew another rune in the air, this time sending his mental energy out and keeping it frozen in place. He removed his hand and took several steps back. Three seconds later, the Ether pushed past his efforts, and the spell went off.

Unperturbed, he gathered more Ether and repeated the process. Then he did it again. And again. There was no true night or day on the grassy hill, but whatever there was, Damien worked through it.

He cast the spell hundreds of times, slowly making more and more progress on extending the duration he could hold the spell at bay. Without having to worry about the Ether induced headache, there was nothing to stop him. He didn’t even get tired.

Henry watched on as Damien cast the magic over and over, observing the boy carefully. While the spell itself wasn’t getting any stronger, his technique was improving. After he’d cast Devour over a hundred times, Henry raised a hand to stop him.

“That’s enough for today,” Henry said. “We don’t have infinite time here, just infinite resources. I still need to scan the area, so you’re going back to normal sleep.”

“Come on,” Damien complained, letting out a groan. “I think I was going to break twenty seconds pretty soon.”

“Then you can do that tomorrow,” Henry said. “I like the enthusiasm, though. Especially from someone who didn’t want to become a combat mage.”

“Well, magic is magic,” Damien said, twisting his nose up. “And my mom always said you need to make the best out of your situation. It just took me a little while to remember that.”

“What happened to your father, anyway?” Henry asked. “You barely have any surface memories of him, but you have dozens of your mom.”

“He’s on the front lines, doing something for the queen. He barely ever comes home, so I don’t know him too well,” Damien replied with a shrug. “He’s a strong mage, though. I don’t think mom ever really approved of fighting, so I’m not sure what she’d think if she saw me today.”

“She’d be proud,” Henry said. “You’re on the track to become quite powerful. Who wouldn’t want to see their child hold the power to bring the world to its knees?”

“Maybe not the exact reasons she’d be proud, but I appreciate the sentiment,” Damien said, cracking a grin.

Henry just let out a grunt. “Go to bed. And get ready to learn Expunge tomorrow. You can hold the rune in place for long enough that it will be beneficial to understand the entire spell.”

Before Damien could respond, Henry snapped his flickering fingers. The grass fell out from beneath him as darkness surged upward, enveloping him in its clammy embrace.

Damien jerked awake. Sunlight trickled into the room from the cracks within the stone door. Sylph’s bed was empty, but he could hear her training in her room. He rubbed his eyes and climbed out of bed, pulling his clothes back on.

After stopping by the bathroom to brush his teeth, Damien wandered into the first training room. He fought off a yawn and mentally nudged Henry.

You here?

“Just finishing some work up,” Henry replied, sounding distant. A moment later, Damien’s shadow twitched as Henry took control of it. “Why don’t you cast the first part of Devour again? I’m curious to see if the training in my realm helped.”

Damien did as the companion suggested, drawing the Ether to his fingertips. He drew the rune in the air and fixed it in place. He took a step away from it. Seconds ticked by. The Ether started to press harder and harder against his mental energy until it finally broke through and the circle of darkness sprang to life.

“Seventeen seconds,” Henry said. “An improvement indeed.”

Damien pumped his arm but managed to keep himself from cheering. He flushed immediately afterwards, glancing around to make sure nobody had seen him.

“Stop messing around and watch me,” Henry said as Damien’s shadow pulled away from his feet and rose up to form Henry’s body. “I am going to demonstrate Expunge. For now, just cast it from the same spot as Devour to avoid working on too many things at once.”

Henry raised his hand, deliberately drawing out the rune for Devour in the air in front of him. The spell sprung to life in front of him, and Henry paused to make sure Damien was paying attention before he continued.

“The way you cast Expunge is quite simple in concept. You need to cause the spell to collapse from the inside out. You can do that by increasing the gravity at the center of the Devour spell. When it tears itself apart, it will spit out anything stored within it first.”

The dark disk bulged outwards, pale cracks shooting out from its center and covering the entire disk. It bent forward, forming a curved cone shape before shattering into hundreds of motes of darkness.

“When you understand the spell better, you’ll be able to limit how much you break the Devour spell,” Henry said. “Eventually, you’ll be able to find the sweet spot between ejecting the spells you’ve stored within it and shattering the entire spell. If you master it, you’ll be able to keep the spell going so long as you still have Ether left to use.”

Damien nodded his understanding. “Okay. That doesn’t sound too hard. I’m basically just casting gravity sphere inside the Devour spell?”

“In a way,” Henry said. “Don’t cast two different spells. You’re meshing gravity sphere with Devour. Do it the same way you inject Ether into the runes before stepping away from them.”

Damien ran back over Henry’s words in his head, then nodded. He easily cast Devour before him, keeping it powered with his palm. He then gathered two more motes of Ether and spun them together, pressing them into the dark disk.

The corners bent inwards like a misshapen bowl, and it shattered. A flash of heat washed out from where the spell had failed, nearly singing Damien’s eyebrows. He leapt back, cursing. “What was that?”

“Spells can release heat when they fail,” Henry said. “At the level of magic you’re working with, there isn’t really anything to be too worried about. At worst, you’ll toast your eyebrows. That wasn’t a bad attempt, though. Try to tone down the gravity. You want to give the spell time to spit out anything it has stored in it before it breaks.”

Damien drew a breath. Then he gathered his magic and repeated the process. His second attempt at the spell didn’t fare much better, nor did his third. As it turned out, there was a very specific amount of force Devour needed to properly turn into Expunge. Damien managed to get the spell to almost work correctly on his sixth attempt, but he had no further luck for the rest of the day.

His stomach groaned in protest, and his pounding head joined in on the complaints. Damien sighed, letting his hand drop after yet another failed attempt at casting Expunge. “Why is this spell so damn hard?”

“Relax, Damien,” Henry said. “You’ve been moving at a very fast pace already. You can’t expect to master everything instantly, and you’re already showing improvement, even if it’s not easily noticeable. You can barely cast magic at this point. Go take a shower and get dinner with Sylph. You’re done for today.”

“But…”

Henry splashed back to the ground, returning Damien’s shadow to him. The boy sighed again, rubbing the bridge of his nose and turning back to trudge into the shower. “At least I’m getting a lot of repetition in for my cultivation method.”

Damien remained in the shower several minutes after he’d washed himself off, just soaking in the soothing water. The skin on his fingers had wrinkled by the time he turned the shower off.

He pushed the curtain to the side and wandered back out into the room, still feeling perturbed from his lack of success. Sylph glanced up at him from her spot on her bed.

“No luck with training?” she guessed.

“Not a ton. I made progress, but not as much as I was hoping to,” Damien said, sitting down on his bed across from her. “What about you?”

“Things went decent on my end,” Sylph said. “My magic still looks like barf, but it’s mostly following what I want it to. I’m not getting as many issues where it goes off on its own, so I dropped by the general store.”

She grabbed a small package from the bed beside her and handed it to Damien. His eyes lit up, and he tore it open, revealing another packed lunch that he strongly suspected came from the general store. There were several carrots, a slice of what looked to be meatloaf, and a roll of bread.

“You got dinner!”

“And the clerk wasn’t particularly happy about it,” Sylph said, holding back a laugh. “We might have to start getting food the normal way soon.”

“Maybe we should make a kitchen,” Damien said, chomping down on a carrot. “Sean did say that hunting the animals in the forest was beneficial.”

“That sounds interesting,” Sylph said, nodding. “We’ve got some time until everyone else gets back anyway. I don’t think I’ll be ready to go on another quest this week, so unless you want to go solo…”

“I’ll stick with you,” Damien said. “You’d probably blow your core up again if I wasn’t here.”

Sylph curled her nose, and they both burst into laughter. They finished the rest of the dinner, and the day’s stress melted off Damien as he ate. Once they’d finished, he stacked the boxes on top of the ones that were still there from the previous day.

“We can talk to the clerk at the general store to find out how much some kitchen supplies would cost tomorrow morning,” Sylph suggested. “If it’s not too expensive, I can buy them. I’ve only got this much extra money because of your strategy at the tournament.”

“I won’t stop you if you insist,” Damien said, grinning. “I guess I could probably use a break from training anyway. The best time to take it is before everyone else shows up.”

“Agreed.”

The two of them quickly brushed their teeth and headed to bed. It had been a long time since Damien had done anything that didn’t involve training or fighting. He was eager to see what the next day would bring.

Chapter Ten

Damien awoke early the next morning to a small mental prod from Henry. He’d spent the night practicing in his mindscape with Henry, but he hadn’t made nearly as much progress as he’d hoped. His companion faded back into the background as he blinked the sleep out of his eyes and sat up. Sylph gave him a small nod. He returned it with a nod, grabbing a change of clothes and shuffling into the bathroom to swap into them.

He emerged and grabbed his coat, swinging it over his shoulders. Sylph had changed while he was in the bathroom and, unlike him, she actually looked like she’d been awake for more than a minute or two.

“You ready?” Sylph asked.

“Yeah,” Damien replied. “Just waking up a bit. Let’s go find out what we can get for a kitchen. If it’s reasonably priced, I’ll make a new room for it.”

A flicker of green energy flashed behind Sylph’s eyes. Damien cleared his throat, and it vanished.

“Sorry,” Sylph said. “I noticed that last night in the mirror. Seems to be a slight side effect from getting control of the Seed. Still working on keeping it under control, but it doesn’t do anything other than look weird.”

“Sounds like you’ve got things handled,” Damien said as they pushed the stone door open and headed outside. The sun still had yet to rise, and the day was cast in faint pink hues. A slight chill hung in the air, nipping at his exposed skin.

The curtains in front of Mark and the Gray siblings’ rooms had been closed. “It looks like they’re all back,” Sylph observed as they walked down the mountain path. “I guess that means their quests were successful.”

“I doubt theirs were as successful as ours were,” Damien replied, chuckling. “If we ignore the dying part, we made quite a few contribution points. On top of that, Auntie owes us a good bit of gold.”

“We should probably let her hang onto that for now. We’re just storing our belongings in the open, and I wouldn’t put it past Delph to steal everything we own because the door isn’t locked. The less we’ve got in our possession, the better it is.”

Damien nodded. “And it saves us from having to lug around a bunch of gold. We can just let her keep everything until we need those contribution points.”

“I’m not even sure what to do with them now,” Sylph said with a slight frown. “My magical energy problem has changed so drastically that I don’t know if the dagger would help me at all now.”

“I’m sure there’s something interesting we can spend it on,” Damien replied, shrugging. “A cool new sword never hurt anyone.”

They continued the small talk until they arrived at the front of the general store. The door had been propped open already, so the two of them walked inside. The clerk spotted them coming and rolled his eyes.

“You lot better not be here for my food.”

“Not this time,” Damien promised. “We were actually wondering if you had any supplies to help build a kitchen inside our room.”

“Huh. Aren’t the two of you Year Ones?” the clerk asked, tilting his head to the side. “I normally see a lot more of the Year Twos asking that question. It’s always good to get ahead of the curve, though.”

“I take it that means you’ve got something?” Sylph asked.

“I do,” he replied, stepping to the side and opening the wooden door behind his counter.

He pushed the small barrier open and gestured for them to follow him. He led the two into a large room full of cabinets, sinks, chairs, and everything in between. The room stretched on as far as the eye could see, fading into a blur at the edge of Damien’s vision. It looked like someone had disassembled thousands of houses and arranged them into neat rows of grouped objects.

“Wow,” Damien breathed. “Are there price tags on everything?”

“Yep. It’s not cheap, though. Better prices than you’d get almost anywhere else, but it’ll still make most students check twice. Then again, the two of you did place very highly in the tournament, so I think you’ll be fine.”

“We’ll take a look around,” Sylph said noncommittally. “Thanks for the help.”

“Of course,” the clerk said. “Have fun! And try not to break anything, please. And, if you do, just tell me. I’ll know one way or another, and I hate having to track students down.”

“Noted,” Damien said.

The clerk flashed them a pearly white grin and stepped back through the door, closing it behind him. Damien and Sylph exchanged a glance.

“There are so many different things here,” Damien said. “I honestly thought that there would have been one or two different varieties, but this is…”

“Insane,” Sylph finished. “It’s almost as big as the library. Hopefully, there’s some form of organization in terms of cost, or we’re going to be looking for a very long time.”

Damien wandered over to the closest piece of furniture—a well carved wooden chair with snakes twisting up the back and hissing over the shoulders of whoever placed themselves upon it. A small white tag hung from one of the snakes’ necks.

He turned the tag over. “Two gold,” Damien read aloud. “That isn’t too bad at all.”

“It’s just a chair, though,” Sylph pointed out. “We need stuff that actually has a function.”

They wandered deeper into the room, but no so deep as to lose sight of the doorway. Neither of them said it, but Damien had the strong suspicion that they could easily get lost within the endless rows tables and cabinets.

Luckily, the room was meticulously organized. It had been split into blocks and rows. The blocks followed a general theme, while the rows were different variations of the same item. It didn’t take the two very long to locate the kitchen section, but the sheer variety of everything stopped them in their tracks.

Damien peered at a giant wooden board covered with pans of all shapes and sizes. He curled his nose in annoyance. “Why are there so many pans? They all do the same thing!”

“You should see the sinks,” Sylph replied from an isle down. “Who would want a gold-plated faucet? That’s just gaudy.”

“Nolan and Reena probably have one.”

Sylph laughed, and Henry let out a snicker of his own.

“If we want to be out of here anytime today, we should just focus on things that a kitchen needs,” Sylph suggested, poking her head through the gap between two kitchen cupboards. Her brow furrowed. “What goes in a kitchen?”

“We haven’t been at college that long,” Damien said, laughing. “How’d you already forget what a kitchen has?”

“I never knew what a kitchen had. I’ve never been in one for longer than a few minutes, and I didn’t really pay much attention to what was in it.”

“What? Why?” Damien asked, taking a black, bumpy pan down from the wall and inspecting it.

“My master kept me in the forest,” Sylph said, her voice growing cold. “I didn’t stay indoors.”

Damien looked away from the pan, his eyebrows raising and his eyes widening. “What? That’s horrible! Why would he do that?”

“Training,” Sylph replied. She pressed her lips together for a moment. “And to show me that he was better, I suppose. I only got to eat what I killed with my bare hands, and he made me make my own clothes. The first few winters were the worst. You don’t know what cold is until you have to sleep in the snow with nothing but your underwear. I had to do a lot of things that I don’t have fond memories of.”

“Why didn’t you leave?” Damien asked, his brow knitting together as he stepped toward her. “Nobody should have to live like that. That’s torture!”

“There’s a reason I was scared that you put a control rune on me,” Sylph said quietly.

Damien struggled to find the proper words to respond to her, but he couldn’t think of any that wouldn’t have come out cheesy. He settled for placing a comforting hand on her shoulder. “I’m sorry.”

“It’s fine,” Sylph said, shaking her head. “His methods worked. They worked a little too well, actually. His runecraft was nowhere near as good as yours. I managed to break free of it, and I headed to Blackmist about two years afterwards.”

“He’s dead, then?” Damien asked.

Sylph hesitated for a moment. Then she nodded.

“Good,” Damien said. Henry murmured in agreement. “He had it coming. I’m glad you escaped.”

“It was quite a relief. You can’t imagine how strange it is to discover how many things you’ve missed out on. It makes me wonder what Mark felt after living in a forest for half of his life,” Sylph said, shaking her head. “But I didn’t expect you to take it so well.”

“I think I’ve done worse,” Damien said, tapping his head with a laugh. “Some people don’t deserve to live. I’m just glad you made it to Blackmist.”

“Me, too,” Sylph said with a small smile. “And I’ve gone and ruined the mood. Let’s change the subject, okay?”

“Sure,” Damien said. “Do you want a big black pan with weird bumps on it, or a smooth silver one?”

Sylph burst into laughter. “I’m sure they’ve both got a purpose, but something about cooking on a bumpy surface just seems wrong.”

“Agreed,” Damien said, grabbing one of the silver pans from the wall and glancing at the tag hanging off its handle. “This one is only a gold.”

“Expensive pan,” Sylph observed.

“I think we can afford to spend a little on convenience,” Damien said. “Better to buy a good pan and use it forever than buy a crappy one and have to replace it after one of us sets it on fire.”

“Can you even set a pan on fire?”

“You know what I meant.”

Sylph laughed. “Fine. I’ll get the fancy pan. But more importantly, I still don’t know what you need in a kitchen. I know you need a stove and a sink to wash dishes, but is there anything else”

“An oven,” Damien said. “But those three things should probably be enough for now. We’ll also need utensils, cooking knives, a pot, some towels, and something to eat in.”

“Well, I think the stoves are over here,” Sylph said, pointing at an isle behind her. Damien peered over her shoulder, then nodded.

“Yeah, looks like it. Shall we start with that?”

“Might as well.”

They slipped through the aisles and made their way over to the stove row. The first stove in the row looked like little more than a glorified campfire. However, they quickly progressed to stone, and then metal, new features appearing with each iteration. The fourth stove in the row had a built in oven. They grew not only in features but also in size. Some of the stoves were as big as Damien’s bed.

“What about this one?” Sylph asked, peering at the tag of the fifth stove down the line. It was made of smooth, silver metal that shimmered faintly in the light. It had both a stove and an oven, and it had five cooking surfaces. Immediately after reading the price, Sylph grimaced and set the tag back down. “Maybe not. It’s sixty gold.”

“Yeah, let’s pass on that one,” Damien agreed, walking over to the fourth stove in the row. “It’s a stove not an artifact.”

The fourth stove was also metal, but it was a dark bronze color instead of bright silver. It had two cooking spaces, and it was about half the size of the other unit. The price tag on this one was just thirty gold. “This one is a little more reasonable. It’s still a bit high, but it does have an oven as well as a stovetop,” Damien said. “Do you think we want an oven? We could cut the cost down if we skipped it.”

“You were the one that said we should get the nice quality thing so we wouldn’t have to replace it later,” Sylph pointed out. She peered at the price, then shrugged. “It’s pricy, but I think it’s within budget. I still don’t know how we’re going to get it to our room, though.”

“I’m sure the clerk can help us,” Damien said. There was a small tear on the bottom of the stove’s price tag, separating a small number from the rest of the tag. He tugged on it, and the bottom half of the paper ripped free along with the number.

“I bet we can show this to him, and he’ll get it for us,” Damien said.

“Either that or you just tore the price tag in half, and he’s going to smack you silly,” Sylph said, grinning.

Damien rolled his eyes. “Sure. Let’s just find some cooking utensils. I’ve already got a pan, but we still need everything else. I think they were near the pans.”

Sure enough, when they walked back to where Damien had found his pan, there was another wooden wall with dozens of knives hanging from it. The utensils hung from a board beside it, and there were dozens of bowls neatly laid out on the tables beside them.

Damien and Sylph squinted up at the knives. They were all shapes and sizes. Some were as wide as Damien’s palm and others were so thin that they were practically needles.

“Maybe we should just get something normal looking?” Damien suggested. “I’ve got no idea what the point of half of these are.”

“What about this one?” Sylph asked, grabbing a large cleaver and taking it down carefully. There were a few nocks in the back of the blade, but its blade was polished and well kept. The handle had been wrapped with tight brown leather. The letters ‘V’ and ‘A’ had been carved into the edge of the blade closest to the handle. They crisscrossed over each other in a stylized fashion.

“I’m not sure,” Damien said, eyeing it. “I think that’s meant for someone a lot bigger than we are. Maybe we should go with something smaller.”

“Probably a good idea,” Sylph said, setting the blade back. “What about this one?”

She took down a smooth bladed knife about half the length of her forearm. It was plain metal, with a honed blade and a wooden handle.

“That looks a lot more reasonable,” Damien said. “Works for me. How much is it?”

“Two gold. It costs more than the pan.”

“It’s sharper than the pan, too.”

It was Sylph’s turn to roll her eyes. “Right. Let’s just go get some utensils.”

The utensils proved to have much less variation amongst the cheaper options, so they settled on two faux silver sets that only cost five silver each. They picked up a bowl and a plate each, both going for one silver.

Neither could locate any towels, so they moved on to the last item on their list—a sink. It took them only a few moments to settle on the second cheapest option, as the third had a gold-plated faucet and neither of them could bring themselves to suggest it.

By the time they were done, the two had racked up nearly eighty-five gold worth of charges. They slipped back out the door with a pile of pans, knives, paper slips, and other small objects balanced precariously in their hands.

“Looks like you found what you were looking for,” the clerk observed with a grin. “And, judging by the tags you’ve got, I assume you want me to help deliver the larger objects to your room?”

“If that’s possible,” Damien said.

“It is. It’ll cost you ten silver, though. I don’t work for free.”

“That’s fine,” Sylph said, setting her pile of stuff down and grabbing her sack of coins. She counted out what they owed and set it on the table in front of the clerk, adding another ten silver to cover his transportation fees.

“Fantastic,” the clerk said, grinning. “Thank you for your business! I’ll have everything delivered by the end of the day at the latest.”

“Thank you,” Damien said. The two of them bid the man farewell and made their way out of the general store. The sun had already risen over the mountains, forcing Damien to squint in order to protect his eyes. “Do you think it was wise to spend that much money?”

“There’s no point in having money if you don’t use it,” Sylph replied. “It would have been a massive waste of time if we made everything we needed from scratch. You might have been able to do the runes that made everything run, but who knows how long that would have taken, and that isn’t even counting the time it would take to get the raw materials.”

“Yeah, that’s true,” Damien said, rubbing the back of his head. “So, what now? There’s no point hunting anything yet, since we won’t have the kitchen until later today.”

“Well, I know we said we weren’t going to train today, but what about a little sparring?” Sylph asked. “With my setback and your recent progressions, I’ve got no clue which of us is stronger anymore. It could be an interesting way to compare our powers.”

“That could be interesting, although I don’t know if it’s wise for us to use the arena yet. We don’t want to reveal, well, you know. And sparring in our room is dangerous. There aren’t any healers watching it.”

“Damn,” Sylph said, frowning. “You’re right. I’m not sure we can limit ourselves enough to avoid injuring each other.”

“By the way, what does your bracelet say your stats are at?” Damien asked, bringing up his own. “If we aren’t super unbalanced, that should probably make it at least a little safer.”

Damien Vale

Blackmist College

Year One

Major: Undecided

Minor: Undecided

Companion: [Null]

Magical Strength: 4.92

Magical Control: .57

Magical Energy: NAN

Physical Strength: .34

Endurance: .82

He blinked. “Hold on. My Magical Energy is screwed up, it isn’t displaying anything.”

“Oh, my Magical Control has been doing that recently as well,” Sylph said. “I think we hit the limit that their crappy free bracelets can do.”

“Why don’t we go see if we can get a new version?” Damien suggested. “Then we can spar afterward. I’d like to keep track of how strong I am. It’s a nice ego boost.”

“Better hope we didn’t spend all our money on furniture,” Sylph said, smirking.

“I can’t imagine anything will be all that expensive so long as we stay basic. We can always get the money Auntie owes us and use that if we need to.”

“Works for me,” Sylph agreed. “Do you remember where we can buy them?”

“I don’t think anyone mentioned, but they’re probably too specialized for the general store,” Damien said. “Why don’t we just ask someone?”

He approached an older student, clearing his throat to get the boy’s attention. “Sorry to bother you. We’re trying to get upgraded versions of our wristbands. Do you know where we can buy them?”

“There’s a small shop near the library,” the boy replied, adjusting a heavy bag over his shoulder and looking mildly annoyed at being stopped. “You can buy them there.”

“Thank you!”

The boy just nodded and set back off. Damien and Sylph exchanged a glance, then headed in the opposite direction and toward the library. After a short walk, the two of them reached their destination.

A small building sat to the right side of the library. It looked ridiculous compared to the massive building towering over it. There was a single, small door at the entrance and a small sign hanging above a covered window read ‘Bracelets’.

Damien and Sylph walked inside. Their presence was announced as a small bell let out a series of dings. The inside of the shop was plain, with several wooden chairs scattered about it in front of a tall counter.

A door behind the counter opened, and a tall man stepped out, dusting his hands off and squinting at them. He adjusted the thick glasses on his face and gave them a nod. “Come looking to upgrade your bracelets?”

“We’re thinking about it,” Damien allowed. “Do you have some sort of price estimate?”

“It all depends on what you’re looking for,” the tall man replied. He reached under the counter and took out a small triangular piece of metal with something scrawled on it. He set it down on the table and adjusted it.

Damien squinted closer at the piece of the metal. The words ‘General Manager: Xoffle’ had been inscribed on it.

“Are you Xoffle?” Damien asked. “And we don’t really know what the options are. If it’s possible, a model that automatically updated would be nice. Beyond that, I don’t think I care.”

“No. I’m Vox,” the man said. “Why would you think I’m Xoffle? That’s the general manager.”

“Well, you put out a nametag…”

“For Xoffle,” Vox said, staring at Damien like he was an idiot. “I’ve got a nametag myself, you see?”

He pinned a small plate to his shirt. That tag also read Xoffle. Damien glanced back up at the man’s face, but it was completely straight.

“That also says Xoffle.”

“And?”

“Right,” Damien said, clearing his throat. “About those bracelets…?”

“Of course,” Vox/Xoffle said. “The cheapest version of the self-updating band is ten gold. If you want any precious gems or plating, that’ll cost extra. In addition, we offer a warranty plan for one extra gold.”

“Do they break a lot?” Sylph asked.

“No, but that doesn’t stop people from buying the warranty,” the strange merchant said, shrugging. “So, would you like rubies or sapphires in your band?”

“Can we just look at them first?” Sylph asked, trying to steer the conversation back on course.

“Of course. No activating them, though,” Vox/Xoffle warned them. “Once they bind to you, they’re stuck that way.”

He reached into his pocket and pulled out two plain gray wristbands. Damien took one, and Sylph took the other. They looked at them, but there wasn’t much to examine without actually using the bands. They just looked like stone loops.

“I think I’ll take the plain one,” Damien said, choosing his words carefully. “That’s just ten gold, right?”

“It is. But you’ll look very boring.”

“I’ll live.”

“Probably,” Vox/Xoffle agreed. “Would you like a warranty for your purchase?”

“You just said that nobody needed them, so I’ll probably pass on that as well,” Damien said politely, taking out ten gold and putting them on the counter. “How do I activate this?”

The merchant took a small stick out of another pocket. He raised it over the bracelet in Damien’s hands, and a small spark of energy flashed out of it, entering the loop. It shimmered with a faint gray light before returning to its normal appearance.

“The next person who puts that on will bind to it,” Vox/Xoffle said. “Thank you for your purchase. Would you like to upgrade to a newer model?”

“I just got this one, so I’ll probably use it for a while,” Damien said.

“Your loss,” the merchant said, shrugging. He turned his attention to Sylph. “And what of you?”

“The plain one works for me as well,” Sylph said, giving him the money.

“And how about a blade attachment for the young woman? Perfect for stabbing with.”

“That’s a bit more interesting than the rubies, but I’m going to have to pass as well,” Sylph said, holding the bracelet out for the man to activate. He did so with a reluctant huff.

“Let me guess. You don’t want a newer model either?” Sylph shook her head, and he let out an annoyed huff. “Fine. Have a good day, or something like that.”

Damien and Sylph bid the man farewell and darted out of the shop before he could try to sell them something else. They put a few streets between themselves and the small shop before stopping.

“He was…interesting,” Damien said. “A little deranged but interesting.”

“As long as the bracelet works, it doesn’t matter,” Sylph said. She pulled her old bracelet off and slipped the new one on. Her eyes unfocused as something invisible appeared before her.

Damien sent a tendril of magical energy into the bracelet. An instant later, a translucent screen shimmered to life before his eyes.

Damien Vale

Blackmist College

Year One

Major: Undecided

Minor: Undecided

Companion: [Null]

Magical Strength: 4.92

Magical Control: .57

Magical Energy: 10.1

Physical Strength: .34

Endurance: .82

“Huh,” Damien said. “My magical energy is finally over ten.”

Sylph didn’t respond. Damien waved the screen away and walked over to her, nudging her gently in the shoulder. “Sylph?”

She blinked, then shook her head. “Sorry, I was distracted. My stats have changed a lot. My magical control is at ten point three, but my magical strength…it grew more than four times.”

Damien whistled. “That’s great! What about your magical energy? That was the biggest problem, right?”

“It was,” Sylph said, nodding as a grin broke out over her face. “It more than doubled!”

“That’s amazing!” Damien exclaimed. Sylph nodded in excitement.

“This means I’ll actually have a chance of progressing past the first year,” Sylph said happily. “I honestly didn’t think I’d make it much farther than Year One.”

“It sounds like this calls for celebration,” Damien said. “One more meal at the mess hall, maybe? A good one.”

“That would be nice,” Sylph agreed, still looking somewhat shocked at her sudden change of fate.

Their path decided, the two of them headed over to the mess hall, chatting happily. They ate a large meal that cost more than Damien would have ever considered spending on food normally.

Once they’d finished, they dragged themselves back to their room, incredibly full but content. When they returned, Damien briefly considered practicing his magic. His nose curled, and he let out a yawn.

Practice could come later. It was barely midday, but Damien was somehow already exhausted. Sylph seemed to have the exact same notions, as they both flopped into their beds at the exact same time.

A short nap will be a nice break. I can work after that.

With that thought, Damien drifted off to sleep, a smile on his face. Of course, no sooner than he had entered a dream did he find himself sitting on a grassy hill. The boy yawned as clothes formed over his body.

“Hello, Henry.”

“I figured you might as well get some practice in,” Henry said. “Unless you’d rather rest.”

“My body gets the sleep anyway, right?” Damien asked. Henry nodded. “Then I might as well take advantage of this. You heard Sylph, right? She’s going to outpace me at this rate, and it’s about time that I figured out how to cast that blasted Expunge spell.”

“I’m not stopping you,” Henry said. “Time’s ticking. Get started.”

Damien did just that. He drew the Ether to his fingertips and got to work. As always, it was difficult to tell just how much time passed upon Henry’s hill. Damien practiced without stopping, his earlier merriment pushed to the side as concentration took over. Every passing attempt brought him closer and closer to a successful cast, but he quickly found himself reaching a plateau where, no matter what he did, he didn’t improve.

“I don’t get it,” Damien complained. “I was actually making progress. Why is it that I can’t improve at all anymore?”

“You’ve probably reached the limit of what your mind can comprehend of the spell in this domain,” Henry said. “Remember, this isn’t the real Ether you’re using. It’s what your brain thinks should be happening. You’re training in theory, but not in practice. When you get back to the Mortal Plane, you’ll find that you can improve again.”

“I suppose that’s fair,” Damien said. “I guess it would have been kind of ridiculous if I could just constantly train here.”

“It would have been quite beneficial,” Henry agreed, a smile stretching across several of his mouths. “I’ve got some work to take care of tonight, so I’m going to be sending you off. You can practice more when you wake up.”

Damien nodded, and Henry raised a hand in farewell as the grassy hill faded away around him, sending him back into the embrace of sleep.

Chapter Eleven

When Damien awoke, he was surprised to find that it was the following morning. Faint streamers of sunlight poked through beneath the door. All of the stuff that they’d bought from the general store had been piled up just in front of their beds. Damien yawned, sitting up and stretching. Sylph had, unsurprisingly, already vacated her bed. He could hear the scuffle of her feet on the rough floor of the training room behind him.

Damien threw his clothes on and got out of bed, taking a few minutes to get ready for the day before he headed into the training rooms. Sylph faced the wall in the farthest room, holding her hand in front of her.

A droplet of green liquid fell, sizzling against the ground as Sylph partially turned to look at him. Her eyes were lit up with a faint green glow.

“Sylph?” Damien asked warily. “Are you okay?”

“I think so,” Sylph said, the glow fading slightly. She turned the rest of the way, shaking off one of her hands. “I’m just trying to figure out my new magic a bit better. It’s much less willing to do what I want, but I’m making progress.”

“That’s good to hear,” Damien said, letting out a relieved sigh. “For a moment, I thought you were, well…”

“Turning into a monster?” Sylph guessed.

“That makes it sound harsher than what I meant.”

“It doesn’t make it wrong,” Sylph said, grinning to show she wasn’t hurt by his words. “I’ll try to make some noise if I lose it, so you’ve got sufficient warning.”

“Thanks,” Damien said, rolling his eyes. “The gesture is appreciated. Did I really manage to sleep through all of yesterday?”

“Pretty much,” Sylph said. “The clerk came by and dropped everything we bought off. It was quite impressive. He had some sort of spell that let him reach into a portal and just pull out our stuff. It looked pretty high-level.”

“Damn,” Damien said, genuinely meaning it. “That sounds interesting. My magic theory teacher can do something like that with that as well. He’s so monotone that the class would have been unbearable if the concepts weren’t so interesting.”

“At least you’re learning something,” Sylph said, scoffing. “My magic control teacher is going over concepts that are so basic that it’s practically a joke. I think half of my class sleeps through the lectures.”

They both chuckled.

“I’m going to get some training of my own done,” Damien said, rolling his neck to get some of the kinks out of it. “I’m getting pretty close to figuring out my newest spell. I just need to get through the last bit.”

“Good luck,” Sylph said. “I’ve got some training of my own to do. There are only a few days left before classes start again, and something tells me that Mark or the Grays are going to want to spar with us again.”

“You’re probably right,” Damien said. “Let’s just hope it goes better than the last time we sparred them.”

“I don’t think it’s physically possible for things to go worse,” Sylph said. “Let’s work until a few hours before lunch, then set up the kitchen. Depending on how long that takes, we could go try to hunt something in the forest afterwards.”

“Sounds good to me,” Damien said, nodding. “Good luck with training.”

“And you as well.”

Damien headed back out to the first training room, summoning the net of mental energy and casting it out as he walked. Lines of Ether lit up the room, and Damien ran his hand along the nearest one, drawing the power into his core.

He envisioned the Devour spell’s effects and channeled the Ether, drawing a rune in the air and detonating it immediately, forming the flickering shadowy disk. The spell had already started to become close to second nature for him, although it was still a far cry from what Henry could do.

Damien carefully brought more Ether to his palm, carefully attempting to increase the gravity to activate the Expunge spell. For a moment, the disk buckled. Then the disk shattered, dissipating into the air around him.

He let out an irritated sigh, then channeled his energy and repeated the process. Every time he tried it, the concentration of Ether within his body increased by a miniscule amount. The strands of it that coursed through his muscles and infused his bones grew thicker and longer, reinforcing his physical form.

Unfortunately, that did little to assist in the casting of Expunge. Damien was making progress, but it was mind numbingly slow. As the hours trickled by and lunch grew closer, Damien managed to cast something that almost resembled Expunge a single time.

He promptly found himself unable to replicate the feat, which only served to annoy him further. Damien couldn’t deny that he was progressing but, for some reason, this spell just seemed determined to elude him.

Damien’s stomach rumbled. He sighed and let his mental energy fade away, dismissing the Ether around him as he walked over to Sylph’s training room. He nearly bumped into her in the hallway.

“Hungry as well?” Sylph guessed.

“Yeah. It’s now occurring to me that we probably should have made a spot to put everything before we planned to move this stuff.”

“How long would it take to make another small room?” Sylph asked. “I can probably help now that my Ether reserves aren’t so pitifully low. I think I’ve got a good grasp over the basics again.”

“If you help? We could probably do it in a few hours,” Damien said after a moment of thought.

“In that case, let’s go get food at the mess hall for lunch,” Sylph suggested. “I don’t want to work on an empty stomach if I can avoid it. We can get everything set up, then go hunt something and have that for dinner.”

“We need to get some cooking supplies as well,” Damien said, slapping his forehead. “I completely forgot about it yesterday. We can’t just fry a piece of meat, it’ll be flavorless.”

“Mess hall, general store, build the kitchen, and then we go hunt something,” Sylph amended.

“That works for me,” Damien said, grinning.

The two headed out of their room and down the mountain to the mess hall. Damien bought himself a large sandwich, and Sylph got more dumplings on Delph’s tab. They both split off half of their meal and swapped it.

Once they’d finished, they swung by the general store. The clerk didn’t seem particularly surprised to see them.

“Realized you need ingredients to cook with, did you?” he asked.

“Yep,” Damien said, giving him a sheepish grin. “I’m not exactly sure what we should get, though. Do you have a starter pack or something?”

“A cooking starter pack?” The clerk looked like he couldn’t tell if Damien was joking or not. “It’s not like there’s a one size fits all for every dish. What are you trying to make?”

“We were going to hunt something in the forest,” Damien said. “What do we need to cook that?”

“Well, I suppose if you wanted to go pretty basic, you’d be good with just some spices,” the clerk said, scratching his chin. He wandered down the aisles to a small section full of glass jars and pulled several of them down from the shelves. “This should take care of it. Salt, pepper, garlic powder, paprika. It won’t be winning any contests, but if you just toss some of this onto the meat, it’ll taste better than nothing.”

He handed the vials to Damien. Sylph plucked one of them out of his hands. It was full of bright red powder that looked more like a base for paint than anything that people would eat. She unscrewed the top and sniffed slightly at it.

Her eyes widened, and she coughed, screwing the top back onto the jar.

“That’s the paprika,” the clerk said dryly. “Don’t put too much of that onto your food. It’s from the Eastern Plateau. Adds a nice kick to your food.”

“And would work well as blinding powder,” Sylph said, rubbing her nose. “It’s like angry dirt.”

“Do you want it or not?”

“We’ll take it,” Damien said. “How much do we owe you?”

“Three silver.”

Damien reached into his bag and handed the merchant his coins. They vanished into the man’s pockets, and he gave them an award winning grin. “Thanks for your purchase. Anything else I can help you with today?”

“That should be it,” Sylph said, still watching the paprika distrustfully. “Thank you.”

“Anytime,” he replied, waving as they headed out of the store.

A short trip later, Damien and Sylph returned to their room. They set the spices down next to the pile of cooking supplies that blocked a good portion of the entrance.

“Where should we make the kitchen?” Damien asked. “I’m not sure if we want it connected to the training rooms. They’re probably going to be a bit too dirty. Should we connect it to the bathroom so we can easily use the sink?”

“Let’s stick it on the left side of the room, by my bed. It’s probably better to keep the bathroom separate from where we cook,” Sylph said.

Damien nodded. “That might be for the best.”

He examined the wall at the base of Sylph’s bed for a moment, then brought a ball of destructive energy to his palm and pressed it into the stone. It carved through the rock like butter, and he quickly started to create a hallway in the rock.

There wasn’t enough room for two of them to work on the hallway at once, so Damien focused on creating the hall and starting on the main room so that Sylph could help. With an orb in each of his hands, it wasn’t too hard for him to quickly churn through enough material to make an entryway for what would become their kitchen.

Once Damien had carved out enough room for them to squeeze inside the tunnel, Sylph joined him. She put her back against his and brought orbs of dark green and black energy to her hands, starting on the other side of the room.

With the two of them working in tandem, they finished the room in record time. Damien was pretty sure it didn’t even take them a full hour to completely carve the small room into the mountain.

They stepped back to observe their work. It was smaller than the training rooms, but there was enough room for them to both easily stand within the kitchen. The floor was completely covered with dust, and more than a good bit of it had settled on them.

Damien sneezed. He grimaced and wiped his nose, only succeeding in getting more dust on his face. “Hold on. I’m going to get the dust off us.”

He formed a gravity sphere with a thought and tossed it into the center of the room. The spell detonated just as it got a few feet away from them, ripping the dust off both their bodies and the floor. Both staggered forward a step as the force of the spell tugged at them.

When the spell faded, a large pile of dust had formed on the ground. Damien walked up to it and drew a rune on the floor beside the pile. He wrapped it in mental energy, then hopped back several steps before allowing it to detonate.

The Devour spell tore a dark circle open on the ground. It expanded beneath the pile, absorbing the dust and snapping shut. When it was gone, not a single speck of dust remained.

“Well, I guess we figured out who’s on cleaning duty,” Sylph said, letting out an impressed whistle.

“Only if you want to lose anything that isn’t attached to the walls,” Damien said, smirking. “Come help me carry the stuff in. Let’s start with the stove.”

Sylph nodded. They walked back into the main room and stood on either side of the large tool, carefully lifting it into the air. They slowly brought it through the hallway, taking care not to bang it on the walls, and set it against the wall in their new kitchen.

“Is there anything we have to do to activate it?” Sylph asked.

“I don’t think so. It should be powered by heat runes, so everything should already be functional.”

Damien turned one of the knobs on the stove. A spark popped over the burner on the left, and a small flame sprung up from within it. He twisted the knob, and the flame grew in size.

“Looks good to me,” Damien said, turning the stove off.

They returned to the main room, dragging over the rest of the kitchen supplies. The pan went on top of the stove along with the knife. Everything else was set on the ground in the corner of the kitchen.

“We should have gotten a table,” Sylph said. She curled her nose in annoyance. “Every time we buy something, it feels like we need to get something else.”

“Cabinets, too,” Damien said, letting out a sigh. “Oh, well. We’ll be here for a while. Might as well make it comfortable. You said it yourself, there’s no point having money if we can’t use it.”

Sylph nodded. “Well, I suppose this is set up, then. Do you still want to go into the forest and try to hunt something?”

“Sounds good to me,” Damien said, surprised to find himself hungry already. “I could go for some food.”

Chapter Twelve

The trip to the forest didn’t take too long. With the help of a few portals, they arrived at the training area Delph had shown them. The sun had already finished its ascent and had started to trek back down along the horizon.

“Do you have any idea what kind of monsters are in the forest?” Damien asked, squinting at the trees. They were dense, but not so much that he couldn’t see through them. Their leaves had enough space between them to allow a small amount of light to trickle down from the canopy.

“Not exactly,” Sylph said. “But they’re clearly hunted often, so I doubt they’re going to be much more dangerous than anything we’ve already fought. Probably wolves or bears, although I hope not. Those don’t taste good.”

“You say that as if you’ve tried them.”

“I have,” Sylph said. “Meat is meat when you’re starving, but I’d much rather find a deer.”

“I don’t know how I managed to forget that you’ve lived in the forest,” Damien said, reddening. “I don’t suppose you know how to navigate one? I was originally planning on marking the trees we passed, but I feel like that would be a bit destructive.”

“That shouldn’t be an issue. I’ll remember the path we take,” Sylph said, leading him into the forest. The grass and sticks crunched under Damien’s feet as they walked. Sylph didn’t make a single noise. She shot him an annoyed glance.

“Try not to step on the brittle stuff. It’ll scare away any prey.”

“I’m trying,” Damien muttered, squinting down at the ground and trying to pick his footsteps more carefully. The added effort resulted in a slight reduction of noise, but he still sounded like a horse throwing a tantrum compared to Sylph.

They continued deeper into the forest. The air grew damp and chilly as the sun lowered, casting their surroundings into shadows. The trees rustled from a slight breeze, but there was no sign of anything to eat.

“It’s very quiet,” Damien observed in hushed tones. “Aside from us, I mean.”

“Aside from you,” Sylph replied with a smirk. “And it is. I hear the bugs, but that’s about it. There should have been some birds or small animals somewhere, but I haven’t even heard anything running away from your tromping.”

“Do you think this is the wrong forest?”

“I don’t think there’s another forest in the area,” Sylph replied. “Not close to the campus at least. This should be it.”

“Then where is everything? There can’t be a shortage of things to hunt here, or everyone would be going hungry.”

Sylph frowned. “I don’t know. I suppose it’s possible that the animals here are very skittish because of all the hunting that happens, but that just doesn’t seem right. We should have heard running or the like. It’s like everything is avoiding the area we’re in entirely.”

Henry gave Damien a sharp mental prod. “On your right. Mage armor.”

Damien hardened the right half of his mage armor, raising a hand before his head defensively just as a large black form slammed into him. He staggered back, barely keeping his feet under him as thick claws raked down his armor in a shower of sparks.

The large panther that had just attacked him let out a yowl, baring oversized teeth at them and hopping back several feet before slinking back into the shadows surrounding them.

Damien shook himself off, and a gravity sphere sprung into each of his hands. A greenish black blade formed in Sylph’s hands and scanned the forest.

“I think I know why it was silent,” Damien said. “I’m not sure we were the ones hunting from the start.”

“Evidently, the rest of the forest is smarter than we are,” Sylph said dryly.

Nearly a minute passed before the creature struck again. It blurred out from the trees behind them, making a beeline for Sylph. Damien caught sight out of it from the corner of his eye and threw one of his gravity spheres.

The panther shot past it and lunged at Sylph. She twisted out of the way as its claws sailed just inches past her. The sphere went off a moment later with a loud crack, catching the tip of the creature’s tail in the detonation.

With a yowl, the monster darted away from them. Sylph flicked the blade in her hand at it. The flickering energy pierced through the air and scored a thin line across the beast’s dark fur before thudding into a tree. The panther vanished back into the shadows.

“This thing is fast,” Damien said. “I’m not sure I’m going to be able to hit it with many of my spells unless we somehow keep it in one place.”

“We’ll play it by ear,” Sylph said, a new blade forming in her hands. “Can you act as bait?”

Damien nodded. Sylph flickered and faded away, melting into the background and disappearing from sight. He didn’t even feel her leave. It was as if she’d vanished. Damien swallowed and formed another gravity sphere in his hand, spinning in a slow circle.

The panther lunged out at him right as he turned past it, letting out a loud yowl. Damien instantly raised his hands to protect his face and hardened his armor. The black blur slammed into him, and they both tumbled across the ground.

Damien’s concentration broke for an instant, and both gravity spheres fizzled, fading away harmlessly. He didn’t have a time to summon them again as the furious creature clawed at him, trying to break through the armor.

For a moment, the panther locked eyes with Damien. His skin prickled at its cold, unfeeling gaze. It was nothing compared to Henry, but it was also different. The eldritch creature was terrifying in so many ways that it was almost impossible to understand. The panther, on the other hand, was incredibly clear. It was hungry, and Damien smelled like food.

As it raised a paw to take another swipe at him, the panther suddenly staggered to the side. Its dark eyes grew murky as it fell forward. Damien barely managed to roll out of the way in time to avoid getting crushed.

Sylph stood above them, her blade buried in the back of the creature’s skull. It faded away, and she helped Damien to his feet, brushing some of the dirt and grass off the back of his coat.

“You okay?” Sylph asked.

“I think so,” Damien said, nudging the corpse with his foot. “That worked better than I thought it would have. This thing was fast but not particularly smart.”

“Lucky us,” Sylph agreed. “How are we supposed to get this back to our room, though? It looks like it weighs at least two times as much as I do.”

“You want to eat this?” Damien asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Something tells me everything in the forest is going to try to kill us,” Sylph said. “Do you really think Blackmist would make it easy?”

“You’re right. They probably put the damn thing here themselves,” Damien said. He knelt beside the beast and slipped his shoulder under its front legs, heaving it upward. It felt like carrying a dozen sacks of potatoes, but it rose.

“Time for a workout,” Damien grunted. Sylph sighed and walked behind him, supporting the back half on her shoulder as they started back through the woods.

Damien was thoroughly lost, but luckily Sylph knew exactly where they were. The two emerged from the woods a short while later. By the time they arrived at the portal, they were both completely soaked in sweat.

A few of the passing students, most of them Year Ones, openly stared at the duo as they staggered through campus with the corpse over their shoulders. The entire journey took nearly as long as it took to find the panther in the first place, and the sun had already started to set by the time they got back to their room.

“We’ve got a problem,” Sylph said. “Do you really want to cut up a body inside our room? It’s not going to smell good.”

“Damn,” Damien said, straining to keep the creature aloft. “What if we just did it out here?”

Sylph shrugged, so the two of them unceremoniously dumped the body on the ground. Damien shook his hands off and wiped the sweat from his brow with the back of a sleeve. Sylph rolled up one of her pant legs and pulled out a dagger.

She brought it down into the jaguar, carving its skin open with precise strikes. Damien watched in awe as she moved along the beast, skinning it effortlessly. She removed the organs, tossing them to the side.

The smell wasn’t exactly appetizing. Blood mixed with unidentified bodily fluids from the internal organs wasn’t exactly a recipe for a growling stomach, but it wasn’t as bad as he’d expected either.

As Sylph worked, Mark stepped out from within his room. His arm was wrapped in heavy bandages that went all the way up his shoulder and reached part of his neck.

“Smells good,” Mark said, licking his lips and glancing down at the jaguar. “Where’d you get that?”

“The forest,” Damien said. “We hunted it. Well, Sylph did. I was kind of just bait.”

“A job is a job,” Mark replied, shrugging. “Doesn’t matter how you do it so long as it gets finished.”

“What happened to your arm?” Damien asked, nodding at it.

“Had a quest that involved some fighting,” Mark said. “My target didn’t want to die, so I had to help it out.”

There was something about Mark’s posture that unnerved Damien. It was almost familiar. A sudden thought struck him as he realized what he recognized. Mark’s eyes, while a light brown instead of pitch black, matched those of the panther perfectly. It wasn’t the color or the shape, but the cold, calculating hunger that filled his gaze.

Henry? Just what is Mark?

“Haven’t bothered checking,” Henry said. “An anomaly for humans, I suppose. You’ll come to realize that, given the grand scheme of things, anomalies don’t always end up all that interesting. His magical energy or power don’t seem to be all that much higher than I’d expect. He’s a killer, though. Much like the girl.”

Should we be worried?

“If he hasn’t bothered you yet, I doubt he’ll start now. I suppose I could find out if you’re really curious. It’ll cost you another trip to the library, though.”

Fine. Tomorrow.

Henry chuckled at Damien’s annoyed tone and faded back. Sylph finished carving the jaguar a few minutes later, piling the useable meat in a large stack on top of the skin. Mark was practically salivating at the sight.

“Do you want some?” Sylph asked, cocking an eyebrow. “You look like you’re about to eat it raw.”

“Happily,” Mark said, grabbing a cut of meat from the pile. “Thanks for the meal. Appreciate it.”

He spun and headed back into his room. Damien and Sylph exchanged a glance. They shrugged at the same time, then dragged the pile of meat through their room and into the kitchen. Once it was there, Damien flicked the stove on to the highest heat and set the pan down on top of it.

“Is there oil in that starter kit thing?” Damien asked, grabbing a cut of the meat. He’d seen his mom cook steak a few times, so it probably wouldn’t be all that hard to copy her. It might have been a few years ago, but he was pretty sure it just involved putting the meat in the pan and turning it over a few times.

“Here.” Sylph handed him a bottle.

Damien popped the top off and poured some of it into the hot pan. It quickly coated the surface. Sylph offered him their spices, and Damien shook them over the meat. Some parts got a lot more seasoning than others, so he tried to brush it out more evenly with his fingers before giving up and tossing it into the pan.

It let out a loud crackle and splattered. Damien waved the smoke away as Sylph watched the pan doubtfully.

“That doesn’t look quite right.”

“I’m pretty sure that this is what my mom did,” Damien said. “Like…fifty percent sure.”

“That’s not a very high number.”

“Well, do you want to cook it?” Damien asked, crossing his arms. The pan splattered threateningly behind him.

“No, it’s all yours,” Sylph said, smirking.

Damien nodded smugly, then returned to watching the steak. After a few minutes, the smell of cooked meat filled the room, and he was pleasantly surprised to find that it was quite good. Less fortunately, the room had also been completely filled with smoke.

He coughed, waving it away and realizing that they’d failed to buy a spatula right about when he needed to flip the meat. After a desperate search, Damien grabbed the knife and flipped the meat with that instead.

The bottom was slightly burnt, but it wasn’t horrible. A few minutes later, Damien slid the finished meat onto a plate, coughing as the smoke made his eyes water.

“We need ventilation,” Sylph said, holding her shirt over her nose.

“Just eat outside!” Damien said, grabbing a handful of utensils and shutting the stove off. They darted out of the room, waving the smoke away the entire time.

They propped the door open once they got outside, allowing some of the smoke to filter out of their room. Damien and Sylph glanced down at the large steak on the plate. It was a bit splotchy, with some spots that were borderline burnt and others that looked almost normal.

“Well, I’ve certainly eaten worse,” Sylph said, cutting a chunk of it off and popping it into her mouth. She chewed for a few moments, then swallowed. “It’s not bad, actually. Much better than raw.”

“Well, that’s something,” Damien said, cutting himself a piece as well. The meat was chewy and clearly overcooked, but a bit of the flavor he’d been going for was there. It wasn’t going to win any contests, but it was edible.

They finished the rest of their meal in silence. The view from the plateau of the campus below them was beautiful, although the bloodstain on the ground wasn’t helping anything. Interestingly enough, the panther’s entrails had vanished.

The two finished their meal and headed back into their considerably less smoky room. It still smelled a bit burnt, but it wasn’t impossible to breathe anymore.

They took one look at the dirty pan, then glanced at each other.

“Problem for tomorrow?” Damien suggested.

“Read my mind,” Sylph said. She knelt beside the rest of the meat, wrapping it with the panther’s skin. “Can you put a cold rune on this or something?”

Damien nodded, grabbing a stick of chalk from his travel bag and drawing out a rune circle. Once he’d finished, it hummed to life with faint blue light. They set it in the corner of the room and set about getting ready for bed.

The meal hadn’t been huge, but it was very filling. He yawned, getting into bed and closing his eyes as the embrace of sleep slowly took him into its arms.

He found himself sitting on the grassy hill once again. A cold breeze swept across his skin, bringing up goosebumps. Damien shivered, summoning his clothes around himself and standing.

The sky twinkled with faint gray stars, and he felt more sluggish than he normally did. “Henry?”

The faint light that covered the hillside vanished, and Damien’s skin prickled even harder.

“Henry?”

“Be careful! Herald is —”

Damien didn’t hear the rest of Henry’s sentence. The world shattered, fragments of the hill and sky falling past Damien like shards of broken glass. A violent gale whipped across his face, sending the fragments flying and leaving him floating in an endless sea of black.

One by one, stars blinked to life in the distance. They provided just enough light for Damien to make out Herald’s emotionless form standing before him like a gross perversion of Henry.

“What do you want?” Damien asked, hiding his fear with confidence as his feet touched the ground.

“You witnessed the Corruption,” Herald whispered. “And yet you do nothing. No, not nothing. You preserve it within the body of another mortal. Do you not understand the threat of which we face? The Seeds are mere hints of the true force that you ignore.”

“I’m working on it,” Damien said angrily. “We nearly got killed fighting the Seed. I need to get stronger.”

“And yet you spend your days playing with the girl,” Herald accused. “You lack urgency.”

“I’m a human not a machine. I’m training constantly. Taking a day to relax and destress isn’t going to do anything,” Damien snapped. “It’s not like I’m blowing off my responsibilities. Surely, even you can see that I’m improving quickly.”

“For a mortal,” Herald said. “But you could be more.”

“What else could I possibly do? Nobody can train every waking hour of their life. I love magic, but I need breaks. It’s not like I’m taking a week off!”

“Indeed,” Herald said. The stars twinkled around him. “That is the problem. You are a mere mortal, yet the fate of the world is trapped within your body. You stated the problem yourself. You are not a machine. Perhaps we need to modify that.”

The darkness surrounding them receded, revealing a black marble pillar on the floor directly before Damien. It stood at roughly his height. It was perfect aside from a miniscule crack at the top.

Herald stepped forward, running a finger down the stone and leaving a trail of faint light in its wake. “Henry has concealed the greatest benefits of our bargain. Allow me to assist you.”

Twinkling lights lit up over the pillar. Herald spun it around, revealing two runes that perfectly matched the ones on Damien’s chest. The lights surrounding the pillar shifted, forming patterns and creating hundreds of runes in a circle that joined with the ones that had already been carved into the pillar.

“Accept the rest of your soul, Damien Vale.”

Chapter Thirteen

Agony carved through Damien’s chest. He doubled over, unable to even open his mouth to speak as his chest started to tear itself apart. Brilliant lines of white light lit up beneath his shirt, shining through it and illuminating the runes that were etching themselves into his skin.

He clawed at his chest, sweat pouring down his forehead as he desperately tried to block out the pain. Nothing worked. Herald stood over Damien as he collapsed to the floor, gasping for breath.

After what felt like hours but was only truly a few minutes, the pain receded to a violent throb. There was no blood on Damien in the dream world, but his hazy mind pointed out that he’d probably soaked his bedsheets again.

“What did you do?” Damien asked, his heart hammering in his chest.

“Nothing, yet,” Herald replied. The eldritch creature raised a hand and set it on the top of the pillar. Ice filled Damien’s veins as a sense of wrongness filled every fiber of his being. Herald’s hand tightened on the marble.

Cracks spiderwebbed down it, traveling several inches before stopping. Then the top portion of the pillar shattered. Dark smoke surged out of it, rocketing through the air and slamming into Damien’s chest.

He screamed as the pain returned, this time permeating every single fiber of his body. The runes on his chest flared with light as his body contorted. A foreign presence enveloped his mind, pressing inwards and reaching toward his soul.

Damien drew a sharp breath as the pain started to dull. Memories as old as time rose at the fringes of his mind, but they weren’t his. Eons of time, forgotten eras and magic that he never could have comprehended. The world started to spin as his own memories and thoughts were crushed under the sheer weight of the being materializing within him.

It felt like an entire ocean had been condensed into a single block and dropped squarely on top of him. His limbs stiffened and refused to work as more and more of Damien’s personality started to crumble.

“Stop fighting it,” Herald said. “This power belongs to you. It has been bound to your soul for years. Henry simply sealed it away, keeping your strength hidden from you.”

“I don’t want it,” Damien rasped, his hands clenched.

“But it is yours, nonetheless.”

Damien’s eyes narrowed. Through the haze of pain, anger started to build. He’d started to lose count of the times that Herald had done something like this. The anger built, wrapping his mind and pressing back against the darkness.

“No.”

“What?”

“I said, no,” Damien snarled, his face contorting in anger. His mental energy surged forth, pressing against the foreign energy and bringing it to a grinding halt. “This is my body and my mind. I’m not your damned tool, Herald.”

Chains of mental energy ripped out from the core of Damien’s mind, enveloping the darkness and yanking it downwards. The energy struggled against him, but he had the home ground. The runes on his chest flared even brighter as the darkness struggled. Damien willed his shirt off and looked down at the circle on his chest.

Now that it had been completed, Damien could actually understand much of what had been carved into him. He didn’t understand several of the runes, and he would have vastly preferred to have more time, but that was no longer an option. From what he could tell, it was exactly what Herald had said it was. It was a containment circle that essentially turned his body into a cage to keep the other half of Herald’s soul.

He gritted his teeth and extended his hand. A sharp blade popped into it, and Damien brought it to his chest, mapping out another, much smaller, rune circle within his mind. Then he thrust the blade forward.

Hot pain seared him as he dragged the knife across his skin, carving runes into his skin with deliberate strokes. He didn’t stop to consider what would happen if he made a mistake or had incorrectly understood what Herald had done to him.

The chains holding Herald’s soul started to fray and shatter as it struggled against him. Damien gritted his teeth but didn’t change his pace. Moving faster would just result in a mistake, and this had to be perfect on the first try.

He was thankful that there was no blood in this realm, or it would have been excessively difficult to see what he was doing. Carving upside down was one thing but carving when he couldn’t even see the surface through a pool of blood was another.

“Stop,” Herald said, his words splitting into thousands of voices. “Enough resisting. Accept your power.”

“Shut up,” Damien hissed through clenched teeth. “You can’t do anything but watch, can you? The contract won’t let you. If I make a mistake while carving, it could kill or seriously injure me.”

Herald said nothing, which Damien took as agreement. He turned his full attention back to the knife and continued his work. He wished that the pain would just fade away into the background as he worked, but no such luck occurred.

Every single stroke he made was a new challenge. There were several moments where his hand seized, and he nearly dropped the blade, but he refused to unclench his hand. Damien pushed onwards, carving the new rune circle along the inside of the one that Herald had made.

He carved the final line across his chest, finishing the circle and connecting it with the larger one. Damien doubled over as it lit up with the same white light. Pressure exploded forth within him, piercing into the darkness like thousands of spears.

The pain enveloping his mind receded by the barest amount. Then, like a whirlpool had formed beneath the darkness of Herald’s soul, it started to siphon away out of his mind. It was torn out of Damien’s mind and flew into his chest and core, where the runes contained it.

As the massive soul gave ground, Damien’s own memories and true self started to return. He let out a relieved sigh. The pain hadn’t vanished, but it had faded enough that he could think straight again.

Herald observed Damien silently as the boy ran his fingers along his chest. His breathing still hadn’t returned to normal, but it didn’t feel like he was trying to inhale glass anymore. The last bits of the huge soul were siphoned away and vanished into the rune circle on his chest.

The light, which had been a brilliant white, had faded to inky black. Tendrils stretched out across his skin on either side of the circle, as if they were trying to escape. However, they stopped after just a few inches.

“I did it,” Damien breathed.

“Indeed,” Herald said. Damien looked up at it, glaring.

“Don’t try to pretend like this was your plan. If I hadn’t stopped it, your soul would have crushed me!”

“You would have been improved,” Herald replied. “That is not my soul anymore. It is yours. I was simply returning it to you. Personality changes over the eons. It is of no consequence. So long as the Cycle does not fail, you will experience this yourself, with or without my assistance.”

“You’re insane,” Damien said, straightening. “My personality is who I am. If that changes, I may as well have died.”

“I am the Void,” Herald replied. “And you have improved. I could not care less about your personality. Our contract is at the soul level, not mere consciousness. You have not been harmed, and your power has grown. I would have preferred the alternative method, but I will accept this.”

“Just let me go. We’re done here,” Damien said. “And don’t even think about breaking the rest of that pillar. I’ll kill myself before I let you puppet my body around.”

Herald shook his head. “That portion of soul is not mine to control anymore. You’ll understand at some point. However, I agree with you on one point. There is no need to dally with you further.”

The pitch black floor fell out from beneath Damien. He plummeted downwards, splashing into a cold liquid. It rushed into his open mouth and filled his lungs in moments.

Damien’s eyes widened, and he flailed his arms, trying to swim upward and get a breath of air. Color exploded in his vision as Herald’s world vanished. Gentle rain pattered down on him from the shower within his room. Sylph had her arms wrapped tightly around his chest, keeping him exposed to as much of the healing water as possible.

“This is becoming a habit, isn’t it?” Damien asked, his words coming out garbled and weak.

“Damien! I wasn’t sure if I’d gotten you to the shower in time,” Sylph said, letting out a stressed sigh. “I thought you’d actually died. What happened? Did Henry do this?”

“No,” Damien said, shaking his head and grimacing as a droplet of water hit him in the eye. He blinked it out, and Sylph slowly helped him stand fully upright. “It’s a side effect of similar nature, though. Not something we should talk about openly.”

Damien felt Henry stir within him, and a flicker of his companion’s anger reached him. He got the feeling that Henry was about to have a very tense talk with Herald. However, the void creature said nothing to him.

Sylph’s hair brushed his shoulder as she nodded. He carefully tried to shift his weight forward to stand on his own, but his legs buckled underneath him. If it wasn’t for Sylph holding him upright, he would have fallen.

“Careful,” Sylph warned, tightening her grip on him. “I don’t think the water can restore blood loss very well. You need to eat something.”

“That might be a good idea,” Damien agreed, his voice returning to normal. After a few more seconds, he turned the shower off. Sylph carefully slipped under his arm and practically dragged him back into the main room.

Damien’s bed looked like someone had been murdered in it. It was completely and utterly soaked with blood. Even the floor and surrounding area had been covered. Sylph had managed to save his travel pack and move it to the side, but just about everything else was a lost cause.

Sylph brought Damien over to her bed and laid him out in it, propping him upright against the wall. He looked down at himself for the first time since he’d awoken, realizing that his coat, shirt, and pants were gone. The only thing he was wearing was his underwear.

“They all got soaked with blood,” Sylph explained as he flushed red. She tossed a blanket over him, which Damien gratefully accepted. “And you probably shouldn’t blush right now. You’ve got little enough blood as it is.”

“Noted,” Damien said, laughing. “Did my coat survive at least?”

“Haven’t checked yet,” Sylph said. “It wasn’t a priority.”

“Right,” Damien said. “Thanks, by the way. I don’t think I’d said that yet.”

“You’re welcome,” Sylph replied. She gave him a grin. “Just try not to get blood over my bed as well.”

“I’ll do my best,” Damien said, laughing. The runes on his chest twinged, and he ran a finger across them, grimacing. The gouges from the knife he’d used in Herald’s world were far from clean, but at least they were precise.

Luckily, they were no longer glowing. Less luckily, the dark tendrils had carried over. As Damien examined them, he was pretty sure he saw one twitch. They could almost have been mistaken for a very tasteless tattoo.

“What is that?” Sylph breathed, sitting down beside Damien and peering at his scarred chest. “Seriously, Damien. Are you okay? This doesn’t look good.”

“I’m not sure,” Damien replied honestly. “I think that, all things considered, I’m as good as I can be. Just a progression in my power. Probably.”

“Reassuring,” Sylph said, touching one of the inky tendrils. It shifted slightly, and she pulled her hand back. “It’s alive?”

“I’m not sure alive is the right term,” Damien said. “But it’s not dead.”

“So long as you’ve got it under control,” Sylph said. “I’m going to get you some food. Are you going to be okay?”

“I think I can avoid killing myself over the span of the next few minutes,” Damien said. He brought his status up with his bracelet, curious to see if it had changed.

Damien Vale

Blackmist College

Year One

Major: Undecided

Minor: Undecided

Companion: [Null]

Magical Strength: 5.2

Magical Control: .61

Magical Energy: 10.8

Physical Strength: .37

Endurance: .9

“Shit,” Damien muttered. “That was a big jump. But…considering what caused it, I don’t know if that’s actually a good thing.”

Sylph cocked an eyebrow and glanced back at his bed. “Power is power. We’ll just have to keep an eye on each other now. I feel like you’re just as liable to turn evil as I am.”

They both laughed. Sylph pointed at him. “Don’t get out of bed. I’m going to be pissed if you crack your skull standing up or something equally dumb.”

“I’ll sit right here,” Damien promised.

Sylph nodded and grabbed a few coins from her bag before striding out of the room, taking care to open the door as little as possible as she left. The moment she walked out of the door, Henry prodded Damien with a probe of mental energy.

“Are you okay?” Henry asked. “Herald managed to catch me off guard. He kept me out of his domain, so I couldn’t see what was going on. There was a flaw in my defenses that I’ve fixed, so he won’t be able to break in like that again.”

I’m mostly fine. He broke the bindings you put on the half of your soul, though. I managed to contain it…I think.

“I can tell,” Henry said angrily. “Your runes look good, if a little rushed. They’re not the most optimal choices, but I think they should work to contain most of it, at least until you get stronger.”

Most of it? So these tendril things…they’re the soul escaping?

“Essentially. They’re interacting with the Ether somehow, so we’ll have to keep a very close eye on this. It looks like your core has been seriously affected as well, but it doesn’t seem to be damaged. This is likely going to affect your magic, but it might actually be good. You’ll need to figure out just how much it changed you.”

Better stronger than dead, I suppose. Do you know how much time I’ve got before it breaks out?

“No more than two or three years,” Henry said. “And, at your current strength, it’ll do damage when it does. A lot of it. If I try to contain it by fighting, your body will be damaged. Your best bet is to get significantly stronger to the point where your own soul is either equally as strong or stronger than it. Then you’ll be able to absorb the power and knowledge within it. It’ll still affect you, but it doesn’t have a true will like a human soul does. It’s just information and energy, so you should still be yourself.”

Chapter Fourteen

Damien lapsed into silence, mulling over Henry’s words. He was still sitting there when Sylph walked back into the room carrying a canvas bag. She sat down on the bed beside Damien and revealed a platter of meat, cheese, and fruit.

“I bothered the clerk until he gave it to me,” Sylph said with a wry smile.

“Thank you,” Damien said. His stomach was knotted in pain, although he couldn’t tell if it was from his healing scars or hunger. There was only one of those problems he could solve at the moment, though.

He eagerly dug into the food, eating as quickly as he could without turning into a complete animal. Damien polished off the entire platter in record time and let out a relieved sigh. The pain had faded down to a much more controllable ache.

“Are you feeling better?”

“I think so,” Damien said. “Thanks again, Sylph.”

“You’re welcome. Are you sure this isn’t going to happen again? I can’t imagine it’s good for your body to constantly lose this much blood.”

“No idea,” Damien said. “Honestly, it’ll probably happen again, especially given who my contract is with.”

Sylph tilted her head. “It’s not really Henry, is it?”

“It is, and it isn’t,” Damien replied, waggling his hand from side to side. “For all intents and purposes, I consider him my real companion. There’s just an unwanted tagalong with very set beliefs that I can’t get rid of along for the ride.”

“A sadistic one?”

“Not intentionally. I don’t think it is, at least. It’s hard to explain, and I really don’t understand it myself.”

“Fair enough,” Sylph replied. She nodded at his chest. “But what now? You can’t let Delph see that.”

“Nothing. We just keep moving on as if nothing happened,” Damien said. “If anything, we need to be worried about you. Your magic is half green now. Do you think you’ll be able to control that? All I do is bleed in my sleep. Delph doesn’t watch me do that. At least, I hope he doesn’t.”

“If you’re sure,” Sylph said, frowning. “And I think I should be able to get it more under control by the end of the week.”

She held up a hand. Dark energy condensed into it, forming into a small blade. It looked largely black, although, when Damien peered closer at it, he could make out flickers of green within it.

“Not bad. I can barely tell the difference. What about the big increase in magical energy, though?”

“Breakthrough on the mission,” Sylph replied. “My core’s been broken enough times that I’ve basically had one. I’ll drop by the library to make sure, but I don’t think a huge boost in power is that uncommon from a breakthrough.”

“I’ve got to go to the library as well,” Damien said, carefully pushing the blanket back and slowly rising to his feet. “I owe Henry a trip.”

Sylph stood as well, keeping a close eye on Damien to make sure he didn’t fall over. He felt dizzy for a moment, but the feeling passed. When they got outside, the blood from the panther’s corpse was gone.

“First the guts, now the blood,” Damien observed as they walked past it. “Does the school employ cleaners?”

“I guess so. Maybe Reena and Nolan cleaned it because it was messing up their view,” Sylph suggested, smirking.

Damien laughed. It hurt his chest a little, but he didn’t let it show on his face. The walk to the library felt more arduous than it ever had before. Every few minutes, what felt like slimy, cold fingers traced across his chest near the rune circle as the design shifted.

He desperately wanted to look at it, but Damien didn’t dare reveal it in public. They reached the library and headed inside, nodding to the librarians as they walked past them.

What books do you want?

“The question is what books you can get,” Henry replied. “If Herald is playing dirty, it’s got to be worried about something. As much as I’m starting to hate it, we might be wise to acknowledge it. I want to see if there’s any information on the Corruption that your mortal compatriots might have gathered. We need a history of disasters. The more recent it is, the better. I don’t know if such things exist in a library like this.”

Only one way to find out.

Damien approached a librarian tending to one of the bookshelves with Sylph close behind him.

“Excuse me,” Damien said, getting the tall woman’s attention. “Is there a section with recent history? Something that covers natural disasters and similar topics.”

The librarian blinked. “That’s not a common question. It’s always nice to see students interested in the world’s current affairs, but I don’t know if the Blackmist Library would have anything like that. I can certainly check, though.”

Her fingers danced across the air in front of her, simultaneously drawing ten runes in faint blue light. Damien’s eyes widened as beams of light shot out from her, vanishing through the bookshelves.

A few moments later, a book sailed through the air and landed in her outstretched hands. It was thin and covered with a faint layer of dust. She brushed the cover clean with a faint, disapproving frown.

“What appalling condition,” the librarian said. “However, this book does seem to cover a period up to about five years ago. It doesn’t seem to be particularly thorough, though. You may have better luck at a major city rather than Blackmist, as our books are more focused on combat and the research of magic.”

“Thank you,” Damien said, taking the book from her. There wasn’t even a title on it, the cover blank. It was more of a binder than a book.

“Do you have anything about breakthroughs?” Sylph asked. “Core breakthroughs.”

“Certainly. We have an entire section dedicated to it. Is there something in particular you’re looking for?”

“The circumstances for a breakthrough,” Sylph said, scrunching her nose as she thought. “And maybe prerequisites for it.”

“A frequent question,” the librarian said, looking slightly apologetic. “There’s a very common book that will answer your questions. I do feel compelled to warn you that breakthroughs are difficult to achieve, even if you meet all the requirements. Don’t base your future on one. Even if you aren’t strong, you can improve in other ways.”

“I’ll keep that in mind,” Sylph said, inclining her head. “Thank you for your kind words. Where can I find the book?”

The librarian drew a single rune. The air popped as a large blue book snapped into her hand, faint energy shimmering around it and fading rapidly. A title in large, bold letters declared its name to be the Core Primer.

Sylph took the book from the librarian. “Thanks for your help.”

“Of course. Is there anything else the two of you need?”

Henry stirred again. “I finished the last novel. Ask her if she’s got anything with raunchier scenes. The other stuff was too tame.”

“We’re good,” Damien said, giving Henry a mental flick to the forehead. “Thanks again.”

The librarian waved them farewell as the two headed to the front desk, checking out their books before walking back toward their room in the mountain. On the way back, they stopped by the general store so Damien could buy two new pairs of bedsheets, a new pillow, and some cleaner. When they got back to their room, Mark and the Grays were sitting outside.

Nolan held a paper aloft in the air before him with a victorious expression. He turned as they arrived, lowering it with an embarrassed grin.

“Hello,” Nolan said, nodding in greeting. “How did your quest go?”

“As good as could be expected,” Damien replied with a noncommittal shrug. “We survived. That’s what matters, right?”

They all laughed, although Mark seemed to catch onto the note of seriousness in Damien’s tone.

“What do you have there?” Damien asked, nodding at the paper.

“It’s homework for my rune carving class. I’m late on it, but the teacher let me have an extension, and this is my fifty-eighth attempt. I think it looks good.”

Damien squinted at it. The runes were blocky, but the strokes were mostly clean. “It’s good progress for sure, but this rune is wrong. You’ve got an extra dot of ink that’ll interfere with its function.”

Nolan followed Damien’s finger to the rune in question. He groaned and tossed the paper onto the ground, pinning it there with his foot before the wind could steal it. “Damn it. Why is this so hard?”

“It’s still magic,” Damien pointed out. “Just a very different kind. If it was easy, everyone could do it.”

“Maybe you should have practiced more interesting hobbies at home,” Reena said, smirking at Nolan. “Father will be disappointed if you fail rune carving when I pass magic theory.”

“Bah. I’ll pass. You just focus on yourself,” Nolan replied, rolling his eyes. “You’ve had what, like one assignment? I’m trying to learn a whole new language. Say, Mark, what are you learning in your class?”

“Meditation, mostly,” Mark replied with a disinterested shrug. “It’s not very engaging. We just sit there. The quest was a welcome change of pace, but it was done too fast. I’m starting to get restless. I want to stab something”

“Maybe we should try sparring again,” Reena suggested. Everyone winced at the thought of what had happened the last time they’d gone to the arena, but she crossed her arms. “We can’t avoid it forever, guys. Besides, I heard that the bully ran away from school after getting demolished by that healer.”

“Our quest was more grueling than expected,” Damien said, adjusting the bundle of bedding under his arm. “I don’t think I’m quite ready to spar today, although I might be tomorrow or the day after.”

“I’ll hold you to that,” Mark said. “And Sylph in particular. I’m curious to see how I stand against her.”

“It hasn’t been that long since the tournament,” Reena pointed out. “What do you think changed since then?”

“A few weeks can change much,” Mark replied, shrugging. “We’ll find out.”

“I never even said I could spar anytime soon,” Sylph said.

“But Damien said he’d be able to,” Nolan said. “You two do everything together, don’t you?”

“No! Well, yes. But that’s not the point,” Sylph said. She quickly realized that this wasn’t an argument she was going to win, so she just rolled her eyes and strode over to their room, pushing the door open and heading inside.

“See you guys soon,” Damien said, nodding in farewell before following after her.

He set his new bedding down on top of Sylph’s bed and sighed. His bed was so soaked in blood that it looked like a giant, disgusting raisin. It didn’t smell particularly good either.

With a grimace, Damien pried the ruined sheets off. The bed itself had been spared the brunt of the surprise redecoration and only had a few stains. Damien deemed them acceptable and bundled his sheets into a ball. He cast Devour and tossed them inside. The portal closed behind them with a snap, but it did little to clean the blood staining the ground.

Luckily, stone was relatively easy to clean. The cleaner he’d bought from the clerk had come in a small brown bottle. He’d been skeptical of it initially, but the man had sworn up and down that it would clean anything within seconds.

Damien twisted the top of the bottle off and jerked his head back as the sharp, acidic smell of the cleaner nearly singed his nostril hairs. He tipped a few droplets of the liquid onto the bloody stone. It sizzled and started to bubble. One quick wipe of a towel later, the blood in that area of the floor was gone.

The cleaner was so effective that it only took a few minutes to bring his half of the room back to looking almost normal. It smelled slightly of cleaning fluid, but at least it wasn’t a nightmare scene.

Once he’d gotten everything as clean as he could, Damien put the new bedding on. He and Sylph both spent the rest of the day training, and he was pleased to note that the dark tendrils tattooed onto his chest seemed to have no effect on his magic.

He still couldn’t quite get Devour to work properly, but he made significant progress. Once they’d finished training and the sun had set outside, Damien made a second steak, this time patting as much of the moisture off the meat as he could to reduce the smoke.

It tasted about the same as the last attempt, but he didn’t turn their room into a biohazard in the process. Once they’d finished, both headed to bed to prepare for the following day.

Henry didn’t visit Damien that night. He slept peacefully, waking up the following to faint shuffle of footsteps in the training rooms. Damien rolled out of bed, pulling his clothes on and ignoring the slight pain still emanating from his chest.

Did you find anything interesting in the book? Or have you not read it yet?

“I was checking on the locations of the other Void creatures tonight,” Henry replied. “The book will be today. And, for reference, they’re moving a little. Well, most of them are. None seem to have escaped, though.”

I had a thought about that. The Void was made to fight the Corruption, right?

“That’s a bit of an oversimplification, but yes.”

Is there a chance we need to free your friends so that they can help us fight it? Would we be able to convince them to? Or would they just try to destroy the world?”

Henry let out a thoughtful grunt. “It’s possible. Not a risk I’d want to take, but there’s a chance I could convince at least one of them. I wouldn’t count on it, though. Continue planning on dispatching any that come near us if you want to live.”

Noted.

Damien headed into his own training room, already almost completely awake. He drew the Ether into himself and started to practice once again. His movements seemed smoother than normal.

The dark disk sprung to life, and Damien quickly repeated the process that he’d done hundreds of times in the past few days. But, to his surprise, the result was different. The disk bulged outward, and the spell went off without a hitch, bending outwards for a moment before snapping back to normal.

He blinked, excitement springing up unbidden. Damien forced his emotions down and went through the motions again in case it had been a fluke. Expunge triggered without a hitch. Damien tried it one more time to similar results, then pumped his fist in the air and cheered.

“I did it!”

Sylph poked her head out of her own training room, raising an eyebrow. “Finally got the hang of the spell you’ve been working on, huh?”

“Yeah!” Damien said, rubbing his hands together in glee. “Watch!”

He cast the series of spells again, puffing out his chest.

“That’s the shield spell, isn’t it?” Sylph asked. “What does making it look all weird do?”

“You’ll see,” Damien said. “Although I suppose it’s not going to do all that much against you. Do you even have any ranged attacks other than throwing your knife?”

“Not really,” Sylph said, laughing at his forlorn expression. “I prefer to get up close.”

“And Mark doesn’t either. Damn it,” Damien said, sighing. “That’s a downer.” Henry, I need a new spell.

His shadow twitched. “That can be arranged. You need a movement spell. I’ve got a few in mind already.”

“Henry have anything interesting to say?” Sylph asked, leaning against the wall.

“I’m going to learn a new spell soon,” Damien replied. “And is it really that obvious when I talk to him?”

“Yes. Your eyes flick around, and you mouth words sometimes. It’s honestly somewhat hard to miss.”

“Ah,” Damien said, wincing. “I’ll work on that. But how has training been for you?”

“Enlightening,” Sylph said, a wide grin stretching across her face. “I’ve made more progress in the past week than I did in the last few years. I’ve already gotten my magic back to where it was before our quest, and I think I’ve made some good progress since then. I’ve also become much more resilient. I spent a little time testing it, and I can heal from wounds at an incredible rate.”

She formed a thin dagger out of dark energy and dragged it across her forearm before Damien could stop her. Before the blood even had a chance to well up, her skin knitted back together.

“Seven planes,” Damien breathed. “Does it do anything else?”

“The areas that heal turn to some hard substance for a while,” Sylph said. “I haven’t figured out how long it stays like that, but it seems to scale with how bad the wound is. It fades eventually, though.”

Sylph held out her hand so that Damien could feel the healed area. It was cold and rough, like a thin line on her arm was made out of stone.

“Well, it certainly seems strong,” Damien said. “It’s like your body adapts to damage for a short period of time.”

“So long as I don’t turn evil, it’s great,” Sylph said with a wry grin. “I’m quite curious to see what I can do, though. Should we take Mark up on his offer to spar? It’s not like Jayce is going to bother us again after what Sean did to him.”

“Might as well,” Damien said, nodding. “I don’t think my new spell will be much help, but training against you and Mark should be useful for me. Bah, it’s going to be even harder to keep up with you now.”

“I’m sure you’ll find a way,” Sylph said, flicking him in the shoulder as she walked past him.

A thought passed through Damien’s mind, reminding him that he did have a way to get stronger. He just wasn’t quite sure he wanted to do it quite yet. Damien shook his head and followed her out of the room.

Nolan was already sitting outside, using the morning sun to illuminate a sheet of paper that he had balanced on a flat rock. It already had a mostly finished rune circle on it. The noble glanced up at them.

“You going to go train?” Nolan asked, setting the paper down.

“Yeah. We’re hoping this round of sparring goes better than the last one,” Sylph said. “Are you and Reena joining?”

“Anything to get away from runes,” Nolan grumbled. “If I could pay Damien to do them all for me, I’d do it in an instant.”

“And you’d get kicked out of Blackmist right after,” Reena said, sashaying out from their room with a smug grin. “Thereby proving that I’m the superior choice to lead the Gray family.”

“I was just talking,” Nolan replied. “The only place you’ll ever be ruling the Gray family is in your dreams. Why has your class only given you a single homework assignment anyway? My teacher keeps adding new ones!”

Reena just shrugged. “Maybe he just knows we’re smarter.”

Or the next assignment is too difficult to do in conjunction with a quest.

Damien grimaced at that thought, and he was interrupted as Mark emerged from his room, a large sword sheathed at his side. “Sparring time?”

“As long as you still want to,” Sylph said.

“I am,” Mark replied, licking his lips. “And who knows how much energy we’ll have once Delph starts classes back up. Now is the best time to do it.”

The others nodded. After Nolan put his runes away and got changed, they all headed down the mountain and toward the arena. When they arrived, there were several other students already using it. However, Damien also spotted several older students in the stands, looking over them.

“It looks like they’ve put some supervisors to make sure we don’t kill each other,” Nolan observed. “Probably for the best.”

“I think I see Sean over there,” Damien added, squinting at them as they hopped down onto the sand. “I guess that means we don’t have to worry much about getting hurt.”

“Good,” Nolan said. “I don’t think we can safely spar at this point without the risk of injury. We’re all getting too strong.”

Mark grunted in agreement. “Sylph, can we go first? I want to get you before your Ether runs out and you can’t fight anymore.”

“Mark!” Reena scolded. “Manners.”

“What did I do wrong?”

“You don’t point out people’s weaknesses,” Reena said crossly. “It’s impolite.”

“Why? Everyone should be aware of what they are good and bad at. Avoiding it is stupid.”

Reena opened her mouth to reply, but Nolan put a hand on her shoulder and shook his head. Sylph just shook her head and shrugged at Mark.

“Sure, we can go first.”

The two of them walked several paces away from the rest of the group. Damien briefly considered finding out if Reena or Nolan wanted to spar, but he realized that he’d learn just as much from watching Sylph fight Mark. And, learning aside, he was curious to see how much Sylph had improved.

“Are you ready?” Mark asked, drawing his sword and holding it loosely at his side. The sand at his feet twisted up around his legs, forming light armor around his body.

“Whenever you are,” Sylph replied, dropping into a fighting stance. They both nodded at the same time.

Sylph’s body flickered and faded away, camouflaging with the background. Mark thrust a hand into the air and sand started to whip around him in a miniature tornado. To all of their surprise, it moved unimpeded, and Sylph remained hidden.

Mark’s head moved on a swivel as he searched for the hidden girl. Damien barely even caught the blur as Sylph appeared at the edge of the tornado and blurred through it, a blade forming in her hand.

Sand rushed toward her and Mark spun, raising his blade to block the strike. Her energy blade crackled as it slammed into his steel one. Sylph blurred away as condensed streams of sand punched into the ground where she’d been standing.

“You’re faster than before,” Mark grunted.

“And you’re still holding something back,” Sylph replied. “Are you ever going to go full out?”

“No,” Mark replied. He stomped a foot on the ground, and the sand beneath Sylph rippled, erupting outwards and launching her into the air. It surged beneath Mark, lifting him toward her.

Sylph twisted midair. A dark blur shot out from her back, and she somehow changed her path, moving so fast that Damien couldn’t even tell where she was until she reappeared in the air behind Mark.

She brought her foot crashing down on top of the boy’s shoulders. It hit with a solid thunk, and he staggered forward.

“Killing blow,” Sylph declared. “If that was your head, you would have been unconscious at the least.”

“Conceded,” Mark grunted. The pillar of sand they were standing on slipped back to the ground. Mark rolled his shoulder with a pained grimace. “How did you move like that? You shouldn’t have been able to change your course.”

“Figure it out on your own,” Sylph said with a laugh. “I’m not going to tell you for free, especially since you hide so much about yourself.”

“Fair enough,” Mark said, still rubbing his shoulder. “Who’s next, then? I’m taking a short break so my shoulder can relax.”

“Down for a rematch, Damien?” Nolan asked.

“Sure,” Damien replied. They walked out, taking Mark and Sylph’s spots on the sand.

“Ready?” Nolan asked, the sand rising up and forming twin sabers in the boy’s hands. The wind around him started to grow stronger as well.

Damien nodded, forming a gravity sphere in each of his hands. Nolan dashed toward him, sped up by a sudden burst of wind that nearly shot him through the air. Damien tossed a sphere in between them, forcing the other boy to throw himself to the side to avoid the spell.

“Don’t you have any other spells?” Nolan complained, darting toward him.

“I’m working on it,” Damien replied, casting Enlarge through the tip of his foot and forming a sand barrier between them.

Nolan’s swords punched through the enlarged sand grain, splitting it in two. Damien tossed both spheres at the ground between them, and Nolan wasn’t able to get away in time to avoid the powerful suction force that yanked him back toward the ground.

He rolled, popping back up to his feet and lunging at Damien. Damien’s mage armor hardened, and he blocked one strike with each of his arms, then kicked Nolan in the chest, forcing him back a foot.

Nolan smirked and hopped back. Wind started to whip around him. Damien quickly drew a rune in the air, casting Devour just as two blades of wind shot out of Nolan’s swords, tearing across the sand before vanishing harmlessly into the dark void.

“Seriously?” Nolan complained. “That’s lame.”

Damien smirked and cast Expunge. Nolan’s eyes widened as the spell bulged outwards, spitting the two wind blades right back at him. He dove to the side, dodging the first but taking a solid cut from the second across his side and arm.

A new gravity sphere flickered to life in Damien’s hand, and he hurled it at Nolan. The spell struck the other boy in the foot and detonated with a violent crack. Everyone winced as Nolan let out a slew of curses.

An older student dropped down from the stands, glowing energy already dancing at his fingertips. He quickly healed Nolan before heading off without a single word.

“Well, I officially hate your magic,” Nolan said. “I have no idea what I’m fighting against half the time. First its gravity, then it’s my own magic.”

“Thanks, I think,” Damien said, lowering his hands and letting the net of mental energy fade away. The fight against Nolan had been much easier than it was last time, although he suspected the surprise of the new spell had accounted for a lot of that.

Chapter Fifteen

The two of them rejoined the other students, who were all eyeing Damien with a mixture of concerned and impressed glances.

“Who’s next?” Sylph asked.

“I think I’m good,” Reena said, nodding in Nolan’s direction. “You’re stronger than Damien, and Nolan got pummeled by him. I learned enough just by watching you guys fight.”

“Like what?” Nolan challenged.

“My limits,” Reena replied with a laugh.

A breeze rippled through the Arena, and Damien’s hair prickled. A mote of gray formed at eye level before them, twisting and expanding outwards. With a flourish, Delph appeared, flicking his tattered cape out of the way.

To his credit, Damien managed to avoid flinching. Sylph and Mark didn’t look surprised in the slightest, but the Grays both jumped.

“Professor Delph,” Nolan said. “We don’t have class yet, do we?”

“No, you’ve still got a few days left of your week off,” Delph replied. “I just heard that my students were practicing and felt left out. It’s good to see that you all returned safely from your quests.”

His eyes swept over all of them, pausing for a moment longer on Damien and Sylph before continuing. “I presume you’ve all made progress in your studies?”

“As much as can be expected,” Mark said, rolling his neck. “Presuming you’ve shown up here, are you going to be offering extra training today?”

“What makes you think that?” Delph asked, crossing his arms. “I could just be checking up on you.”

“Are you?”

“Well, no. But that’s a moot point,” Delph said, dismissing Mark’s words with a wave of his hand. “No strings attached this time, though. You don’t have to attend this training if you’ve got better things to do. It’s just if you want to.”

“That’s basically what you said the first time you offered the training,” Damien pointed out. “And you nearly kicked kids out of your class after that.”

“My word on it this time, boy,” Delph replied. “Fully optional. I was observing the fights, and I’ve located some spots where most of you can improve.”

“I’m interested,” Damien said. Mark and Sylph voiced their agreement as well, but both Gray siblings politely ducked out and left the Arena before Delph could loop them into anything.

“Right, then,” Delph said. “We’ll start with Damien, since you’ve still got the most to improve.”

“I thought my magic had come a long way,” Damien said with a frown. “I beat Nolan!”

“Your magic is improving very well,” Delph said, “but you are not purely a scholar. A combat mage must be at least proficient in martial arts in order to fight at their maximum capabilities. Being able to control your body and read your opponent will go a long way in improving your strength.”

“That makes sense,” Damien allowed. “So you’re going to teach me martial arts?”

“Of course not,” Delph replied. “It takes a lifetime to master martial arts. If we had a few years to work with and I didn’t get bored, I could probably make you half-proficient. However, I don’t feel like spending the time. Instead, Sylph is going to teach you martial arts. Both of you, actually.”

“Me?” Mark asked, blinking. “Why? I know the sword arts. What could she teach me?”

“You know them at a rudimentary level,” Delph corrected. “Sylph is almost a master of hand to hand combat. I’m not at liberty to share her circumstances, but if we were banned from using magic, she’d probably have a chance at defeating me. A very small one, mind you.”

“He’s lying,” Henry said in Damien’s mind. “He meant the part about Sylph being strong, but he doesn’t think for a second that she can beat him.”

How can you tell? Are you mind reading him somehow?

“No. You already figured out we can’t do anything like that to random people,” Henry said. “It’s his facial expression. Delph’s eyes flick to the side when he lies. It’s miniscule, and there’s a chance that he’s faking it, but there’s no reason for him to do that right now.”

Interesting. Why would he lie about that, then?

Henry gave the equivalent of a mental shrug. Delph cleared his throat.

“Damien? Are you done daydreaming?”

He blushed and shook his head. “Sorry, Professor. Long day.”

“I’m sure,” Delph said. “And, as I said, I’ll give you some guidance since I’m already here. Observe and copy my motions.”

Delph lowered into a fighting stance, rising onto the balls of his feet and adjusting his stance. Damien did his best to mimic the man’s pose.

“Stay there,” Delph said, standing normally again and walking over to Damien. He shifted the boy’s foot back with his own, nudging and prodding him for a few moments. “There. Raise your hands.”

Damien copied what he’d seen Sylph do a few times, balling his fists and lifting them near his face. Delph grunted and adjusted the boy’s posture slightly, but he seemed largely satisfied with it.

“Memorize this position,” Delph said. “And don’t stand still. Shift your weight back and forth on the balls of your feet. You need to be ready to react. There’s a reason that ‘being caught flat footed’ is a phrase.”

Damien did as he was instructed. It felt completely ridiculous, and he half-expected Delph to burst into laughter.

“Too much movement,” Delph said. “Small shifts. You’re keeping yourself primed to react, not a hyperactive child.”

After Damien had adjusted to follow the professor’s words, Delph gave him a slight nod. “That’s as good as you’re going to get for now. Now, this is how you throw a punch.”

Delph dropped back into the fighting stance and slowly demonstrated the proper form of a punch. He started with the palm side of his fist facing upward, then twisted his hand as he moved it outwards. “Make sure you throw your weight behind it. Drive the strike home with your shoulder.”

The professor repeated the motion several times. Damien followed in his steps. It was hard to tell if he was really making any progress without a real way to measure how good his strike actually was, but Delph seemed satisfied enough.

Their lesson continued for nearly another hour. Delph corrected his position more times than Damien could count and taught him the difference between jabs and punches as well as a few basic kicks.

Once he’d finished with Damien, Delph sent the boy to the side to continue practicing and turned to Mark.

“Now, it’s your turn. I’m aware you know how to fight, but your methods are, frankly, savage.”

“They work,” Mark replied with a shrug. “Unpredictability makes my style dangerous.”

“Only because you’re stronger than your opponents,” Delph said. “And you’ve mistaken stupidity for unpredictability. It’s true that having an unpredictable style is very powerful, but you are not as clever as you believe yourself to be. Come at me. Allow me to demonstrate. We will not use magic.”

The professor tapped his chest, and his armor faded away, leaving behind heavy leather clothing and his cape.

Mark shrugged, plunging his sword into the ground and dropping into an aggressive stance. He lunged forward and drove an open palm toward Delph’s chest. Delph casually caught the strike with one hand. Mark used his momentum to drive an uppercut up toward the professor’s stomach.

Delph slapped the strike aside with his other hand, then flicked Mark on the forehead. Mark snarled and spun, whipping a hook kick toward Delph’s head. Delph leaned back, allowing the strike to sail past his nose harmlessly before sweeping the boy’s leg out from under him.

Mark rolled across the sand and shot to his feet, throwing a rapid fire barrage of strikes at Delph’s torso and head. Delph deflected every single one of them with a single hand, looking completely uninterested the entire time.

Delph finally grew tired of the fight, grabbing Mark’s fist on his next strike and flipping the boy over, slamming him into the sand. The air rushed out of Mark’s lungs in a grunt.

“I would have expected a performance like that from someone like Damien,” Delph said. “Not you.”

“Thanks,” Damien said sarcastically.

“Anytime,” Delph replied. “Mark, you have potential matched only by your arrogance. You believe your powers make you infinitely stronger than your peers, but you overestimate yourself and underestimate them. Strength is fleeting if you do not continue to pursue it.”

Mark’s glare persisted for several seconds before finally starting to fade as recognition replaced it. He rose to his feet, brushing the sand off his clothes. “Point made. What do I need to improve?”

“You throw attacks wildly. Your problem is not your techniques but the thoughts behind them. Think ahead. What do you hope to gain from each attack?”

“I don’t get it,” Mark said bluntly. “I’m trying to hit you—in this case, to knock you out.”

“Imagine this,” Delph said, pantomiming a strike. “I swing at your face. What do you do?”

“I either dodge or try to block it,” Mark said.

“Let’s presume you block it,” Delph said. “Now, you’ve raised a hand to defend your head. The middle and lower half of the right side of your body are now exposed. I can kick you, and it will be much easier to land a blow. Now, your opponent is also thinking about this. So they might choose to dodge or simply react faster than you.”

“So, what’s the point?” Mark asked. “If you have to think about every move you make, but I’m throwing attacks faster than you can think about them, I’ll win.”

“It’s all a game,” Delph replied. “The issue is that you’re thinking of an attack as a single punch. That is not an attack. That is a move. The attack is the entire series of blows, all chained together in order to ensure a strike lands. Allow me to demonstrate.”

Delph leisurely swiped at Mark’s head. The boy ducked out of the way, only to find Delph’s other fist speeding toward his nose. Mark’s eyes widened, and he jerked his head back, but Delph didn’t let up.

The professor stepped forward, raising a leg to kick at Mark’s side. Mark went to lower his hand to block the strike, but Delph flicked him on the shoulder instead of finishing the kick. Before Mark could react, Delph tapped him on the chest with his other hand.

“You aren’t thinking when you fight. Your movements should be subconscious, but you need to have a purpose for every action you make instead of just letting your talent carry you until you get a lucky strike,”” Delph said. “Learn to look for the signs that a person is faking an attack. Watch their eyes. Learn to feel their thoughts as they think them.”

“That sounds like a spell, not a fighting technique,” Mark said dryly.

“Perhaps. But the way to learn both is the same,” Delph replied. “Practice. Do not let your gift cripple you. I have seen it before you, and I will see it again. Practice against Sylph whenever she lets you, and sometimes when she doesn’t. It’s fighting, after all. Learning to think on your feet will help all of you.”

“What about me?” Damien asked.

“When you learn how to kick without tripping over your own feet, you’re welcome to try fighting Mark or Sylph. Maybe you’ll get good enough to avoid wasting their time. I’m curious to see if your natural talent at learning magic translates to learning combat.”

“And what of me?” Sylph asked. “Is there anything you can teach me?”

“In hand to hand combat?” Delph asked, scoffing. “You know the answer to that. The only thing I’ve got over you there is experience. I can help you with magic, but there’s nothing I can tell you about physical fighting that you don’t already know.”

The professor raised a hand, listening to something that only he could hear for a moment. Then he gave them a firm nod. His armor popped back around him, and the gray cloak whipped into a cocoon around the man, shrinking to a point and vanishing with a pop.

“Just where did you learn how to fight?” Mark asked, watching the spot where Delph had vanished. “He speaks of you like a soldier instead of a student.”

“I had a very dedicated teacher,” Sylph replied. “Did you want to try sparring me hand to hand?”

“Not yet,” Mark replied with a chuckle. “I’m not dumb enough to take that bait. Delph has no reason to talk you up if you aren’t truly talented. If I can’t beat him, I don’t think there’s much I can do against you. I need to mull over his words.”

Mark bid them farewell and headed out of the arena. Damien, who was still in his fighting stance, stood back up and grimaced. He’d managed to find new muscles to make sore again.

“Well, I suppose I’ve got a few more days to kill over break,” Damien said. “Maybe I’ll get good enough to try my hand against you before classes start again.”

Sylph laughed. “Keep dreaming. Focus on learning how to stand before you try to fly.”

They headed out of the arena as well. When they got back to their room, they had another meal of the panther steak before getting back to training for the rest of the day.

The rest of the week passed quickly. Damien put off learning the new spell at Henry’s recommendation, instead focusing on training his martial art skills as quickly as he could. He practiced with Henry’s watchful eyes through most of the day, training against Sylph whenever she got a break from her own work and continuing in his dreams when he went to sleep.

He improved at an impressive rate, but it was a far cry from his talent with magic, and Sylph was far from an easy opponent. Whenever they crossed fists, she held only enough back to avoid breaking bones. Her strikes were fast and true, and more than one session ended with Damien sitting in the shower and nursing his bruises.

They saw little of Mark or the Grays for the rest of the week. Everyone seemed to be just as focused on practicing as they were.

Chapter Sixteen

The week finally drew to a close. On the morning of the day after, Henry woke Damien with a warning that Greg was waiting for him outside. Damien rushed out of bed, throwing his clothes on and jogging outside to meet the teacher.

“Hello,” Damien said. “I’m not late, am I?”

“You’re right on time, actually,” Greg replied, giving him a small smile. “And even if you were, it’s not a big deal. Our class will be a little different today.”

“How so?” Damien asked.

“I’ll be explaining in class. Think of it as our first exam,” Greg said, giving Damien a wry grin. “Come along.”

He reached out, placing a wrinkled hand on Damien’s shoulder. He felt the ground vanish beneath him as a powerful force sucked him into a void of gray light. Damien was spat out on the ground in the classroom. He staggered, catching himself on a desk before he tripped over his own feet.

As usual, Greg was already standing at the front of the classroom. A stick of chalk floated beside his head, making slow, bored circles. Over the course of several minutes, the rest of the class popped up one by one, appearing in or beside their seats.

“I believe that’s everyone,” Greg said, grabbing the piece of chalk on the air. “As my clones have informed you, we’ll be having an exam.”

“Right after a break?” one student complained.

“I’m afraid so,” Greg said. “You’ve already learned a healthy amount of magic theory and you should have a good grasp of controlling your Ether by now. Practical application is vital to learning, so this will benefit all of you.”

“What’s the test?” Reena asked.

“I will be evaluating all of your potential,” Greg said. “Individually, of course. The evaluation will consist of both a theoretical and a physical portion. It should take around an hour for each student.”

The air popped as a boy popped into his desk, his hair messy and eyes half-lidded. It looked like he’d just woken up.

“Ah, I see we’ve all arrived,” Greg said. “Does anyone have any questions before we begin?”

“You haven’t told us much about the exam yet. How can we have questions?” Reena asked.

“A good point, Ms. Gray,” Greg said. “I’ll keep that in mind for future classes. Best of luck, everyone! I’ll see those of you that pass in our next class.”

Before anyone could respond, a dozen copies of Greg slid out of him like he was surrounded by mirrors. They shot out, each grabbing a student and vanishing. Damien held back his panic as one of the gray-haired professors tapped him on the forehead, and the world fell out from under him for the second time in minutes.

When his senses returned, Damien found himself standing in a large field. Greg sat on a chair before him.

“Damien, is it?” Greg asked.

Damien nodded. “Yes, sir.”

“Very good. Are you prepared to begin the theoretical portion of the exam?”

“Is no an answer?”

Greg let out a dry laugh. “Do you want to find out?”

“Not really,” Damien admitted. Everything had happened so fast that he’d barely had a chance to even feel jitters, but they were finally starting to come on. If it wasn’t for Henry’s comforting presence at the back of his mind, he would have panicked.

“Then we shall begin. What is the Ether?”

“It’s a form of energy,” Damien replied. “It wants to return to its natural state. By drawing it into ourselves, we create potential energy. When we cast a spell, that energy is expended as it returns to its natural state.”

Greg gave no indication as to whether Damien had answered the question correctly. “How many planes of existence are there?”

“There are seven universally known planes.”

“And is that all of them?” Greg asked, cocking his head.

Damien’s skin prickled. Had Whisp set the professor up to something? It was impossible to read the old man. “Yes.”

Greg moved on without acknowledging the answer. “What is the purpose of a cultivation technique?”

“It infuses Ether throughout our body. When we train, our core slowly grows stronger. Cultivation helps distribute the Ether throughout our body so that everything improves.”

The slew of questions continued for nearly half an hour. Damien was able to answer almost all of them on his own, although he had to mentally prod Henry several times when Greg tossed him something he didn’t know.

Eventually, Greg rose up from his chair and gave Damien a nod. “The theoretical portion of this exam is complete.”

“Did I pass?”

“That is yet to be determined. We will now begin the physical portion,” Greg said. “Are you prepared?”

“I suppose so.”

“Good. Please form a blade of destructive energy in your hand.”

Damien followed the man’s instructions. It had been some time since that particular homework had been assigned to him, and it wasn’t particularly hard for him to shape the Ether to his desires in such a basic spell.

Greg observed the spell for a few moments. He put a metal bracelet onto his hand and reached out, tapping it against the one on Damien’s wrist. A sharp chill ran down his arm. Greg’s eyebrow’s rose slightly for an instant before he lowered his hand.

“Interesting. Have you yet to discover the identity of your companion?” Greg asked.

“I believe it’s from the Plane of Darkness,” Damien replied, keeping a straight face.

“Your bracelet isn’t convinced,” Gregory observed. “Interesting. Could be worth looking into, but I suspect you’ll find the answer soon enough. Maybe as soon as the end of this year, but that’s not relevant to this test. Please change the blade to a hammer.”

Damien blinked at the sudden change of topic, but he formed the Ether into Greg’s new request. It took a moment and a little more effort since he hadn’t created this particular shape before, but he was soon holding a small warhammer in his hand.

Greg had him change the spell’s form several more times before finally deciding that he was satisfied.

“There is one more part to the exam,” Greg said. “However, it is optional.”

“Can you tell me what it is?” Damien asked.

“An exchange of sorts. I will give you a target to strike with your most powerful spell. If you can damage it enough, you will receive extra credit.”

“That seems straightforward enough,” Damien said, thinking over it. “What’s the drawback? What happens if I can’t damage it enough?”

“You will be subject to more training from Delph.”

Damien grimaced. “Ah. Well, I think I’d like to give it a shot.”

“I thought as much,” Greg said, snapping his fingers. A white disk popped out of the air beside him. A translucent blue barrier shimmered around it. “If you can break through this barrier and shatter the plate, you will have passed.”

“That’s it?” Damien asked.

“That’s it,” Greg confirmed. “You have five minutes, starting now. I will repair the barrier after every strike you make.”

Damien nodded his understanding. He approached the plate, examining it. He plucked a strand of grass and carefully poked the barrier. It didn’t budge, but the grass didn’t get fried or otherwise damaged either.

Is this really that straightforward?

“It appears to be an air magic spell,” Henry said. “Mid-level. It’s just a barrier, but a strong one.”

Damien channeled Ether through his palm, forming a gravity sphere. He tossed it at the barrier. The spell detonated with a crack, tearing up clumps of grass and slightly shifting the professor to the side.

The barrier flickered, but it didn’t break. Greg snapped his fingers, and it lit back up to full intensity. Damien next formed a blade out of destructive energy and thrust it into the barrier. Ripples ran out across the faint blue energy, but it failed to penetrate it.

Damien pressed his lips together. If anything, the barrier felt harder than it had before. There was no point trying out either of the attacks again. He knew his own strength well enough to feel his limits. At his current strength, neither of his offensive spells would break the barrier.

He considered using Devour, but the instructions had been to break the barrier, not suck it up. The boy mulled over his options for a minute before a thought struck him. The professor’s classes—as boring as they often were—had been entirely focused on reshaping how they used Ether.

Just because he’d only applied it to destructive energy didn’t mean his other spells couldn’t be modified. Damien brought everything he knew about the gravity sphere to the front of his mind.

He mentally reshaped the spell, shifting components and modifying small parts of it. Slowly, a new form of the spell started to take form in his mind. Henry said nothing, which Damien took as approval.

Motes of Ether twisted together as Damien forced it through a new pattern and down his arm. The air around his hand seemed to warp and twist as he envisioned his desired result and thrust his hand forward.

Two thin streams of dark energy shot out from his palm, twisting around each other and forming into a point. The spell slammed into the barrier with a screech. It warped, the blue light flickering and twisting as it desperately tried to hold its form.

The spell drilled deeper into it, twisting and making the air around it contort and flicker. With a final shriek, the barrier shattered. The twin bolts of energy punched through the plate and detonated a short distance away from it, yanking fragments of the plate through the air.

“Very good,” Greg said, a small smile flickering across his face. “You had fifteen seconds to spare. That is a new spell, correct?”

“I modified my gravity sphere,” Damien said, nodding. “I needed something that lasted longer than the sphere did.”

“Clever,” Greg said, giving Damien a smile. “You will receive your extra credit.”

“Actually, could I swap it for something else?”

“Oh?” Greg asked. “What would that be?”

“Information,” Damien said. “In particular, I want to know when the next few tests are and, if possible, what they’ll entail.”

Greg rubbed his chin. “I haven’t had that one before. This class is all about innovation, so I suppose I’ll accept. Not many students have the foresight to ask about the future tests before it’s too late, and they have nothing to bargain with. There are two more tests in this class, not counting any homework. The first is in about a month, and the last is at the end of the year. The closest test will be similar to this one, while the last will be your demonstration of everything you’ve learned this year. If half of the class passes the final test, I will be surprised. It will be almost entirely physical. Does that answer your question?”

Damien mulled over the man’s words for a few moments before giving him a nod. “It does. Thank you. Did I pass?”

“Yes,” Greg replied. “You excelled in both portions of the exam. Well done. Just don’t let this get to your head. The first test is the easiest one in the course. Continue applying yourself and pushing your limits if you want to graduate. Now, I also have a question for you. Was it worth trading the extra credit for the knowledge you gained?”

“I guess we’ll find out,” Damien said with a small grin. “Will there be class today?”

“No. Nobody will be able to pay attention after an exam,” Greg said, rolling his eyes. He extended his hand toward Damien. “I’ll be returning you to your room.”

Damien took the professor’s hand. The world lurched, flashes of gray and white flying across his vision. When it faded, he was standing inside his room. He shook his head with a grimace. Sylph was nowhere to be found.

I made a new spell! What do you think about that?

“Mildly amusing,” Henry allowed. “A gravity drill, essentially. Not the most efficient way to use your Ether, but efficiency is far from one of your concerns. Experimenting with magic you don’t understand isn’t usually advisable, but you’ve got enough of a grasp over basic gravity magic that you’re making the right decisions.”

That’s a roundabout way to say ‘wow, Damien. That’s cool!’

Henry just snorted.

Hey, did it feel like Greg was trying to pry about you?

“It did, to a degree,” Henry replied. “More like he has a suspicion than any real idea, but that planes question was out of place. Mortals almost entirely believe that there are just seven planes. Perhaps Whisp has instructed him to gather information about you.”

Wonderful. Another person I need to watch out for.

“You need to watch out for everyone other than Sylph,” Henry said. “Don’t let the tenuous friendships you have with any of the other students or instructors trick you into believing they’d stand by you if the truth was revealed.”

That’s depressing to think about. Say, weren’t you supposed to look into Mark? I still want to know what in the seven planes he is.

“Eight,” Henry corrected. “Really, we were just talking about this. Come on. As for the wild boy, I’ll look into him today. Just go train or something, and I’ll handle the rest.”

Funny. I was just about to say the same thing.

Damien headed into one of the training rooms. He lowered into a fighting stance and started going through the motions that Delph and Sylph had drilled into him. While he worked, his shadow detached from his feet and danced across the walls, slipping out of the room.

Chapter Seventeen

Henry slipped out from under the door and into Mark’s room in the blink of an eye. It was dim, lit only by the muted sun and the fading runes that Damien had drawn on the walls several weeks ago.

The entrance to the room was largely boring. Aside from the fluffy rug on the ground and the swords hanging from the walls, the room looked completely plain. Mark was nowhere to be seen.

Henry slipped deeper, sliding under the curtain hiding the bathroom. The stone walls in the smaller room were covered with thick gouges. Broken stone littered the ground, and splotches of dried blood covered the walls.

A thin tunnel in the back of the room behind the shower descended deeper into the mountain. It was pitch black, but that did nothing to stop Henry from seeing everything in perfect color.

“Well, isn’t that interesting,” Henry mused to himself, slipping into the tunnel and disappearing into the darkness.

The tunnel continued on for quite a while, twisting and turning back and forth. The farther Henry got, the more he felt a slight pressure building. It started to get marginally annoying, but it wasn’t anything unsurpassable.

At the base of the tunnel was a thick iron door. Hundreds of runes covered both the door and the stone surrounding it. There were several dozen containment runes, along with a fair number of runes that were meant to hide the door from human sight.

Henry smirked. As much as they might have done to a mortal, the runes were borderline completely ineffective against him. He slipped underneath the door, entering a medium-sized room behind it.

Like the door, the room was covered in sealing runes. Deep gouges similar to the ones in the boy’s bathroom covered the walls and floor, tearing many of the runes apart. There was a small, battered chair in the corner of the room. Beside it was a pile of entrails and guts that strongly resembled the ones that had belonged to the panther. The hilt of a large sword stuck out from the wall where it had been buried.

Mark stood above the chair, his hands clenched tightly at his sides. The boy’s skin had taken on a faint reddish sheen, and his fingers had elongated into claws. Two thick fangs stuck out from the base of his mouth, and the ground beneath his feet rippled and churned like a pool of water.

The boy, unaware of Henry’s presence, let out a snarl and thrust his hand forward. A burst of jagged sand blades erupted from the ground beneath him, peppering the wall. He let out a furious cry, slamming his hands into the ground and raking his claws through it.

“A demon,” Henry mused to himself. “And not a happy one. Interesting.”

Mark continued his rampage, tearing at the room’s walls and shouting unintelligible curses. After several minutes, the tirade suddenly stopped. Mark straightened, his eyes flashing with malice, and brushed his clothes off.

He reached out and wrapped a hand around the hilt of the huge sword. The red color drained away from his skin and a small gem in the pommel of the weapon lit up with the same colored light.

Mark tore the weapon out of the wall with one firm yank, then thrust the blade into his own chest. The blade vanished as it entered him, sliding into his body and disappearing along with all traces of the demon.

He ran his hands through his hair, looking around the room. His eyes passed right over Henry, but it was impossible to distinguish the eldritch creature from the rest of the shadows in the room. Mark let out a sigh. His hands clenched at his sides, but then they relaxed again.

Henry slipped to the side as Mark strode past his hiding place, pressing his hand against the heavy door. The runes covering it lit up with a faint white light, and the door swung open with a hiss. Mark slipped out of the room, closing the door behind him.

After waiting a few minutes to make sure he was really gone, Henry up from the shadows and examined the room more closely. The cuts covering the walls were clearly a mixture of both sword and claw.

While many of the runes had been destroyed, there were a good number that appeared entirely unscathed by the scars covering the walls and floor. A brief inspection also told Henry that Mark wasn’t the one that had drawn the runes—subtle differences in the thickness of the strokes and the style in which the runes had been used made it clear that multiple different mages had drawn them.

Henry spent a few more minutes examining the room before he slipped back under the door, traveling back up through the tunnel and sliding underneath Mark’s bed as he shot out the door and back into Damien’s room, where he returned the boy’s shadow to him.

Well?

“Plane of Fury,” Henry said. “His companion is a demon. It’s not a weak one either, all things considered. He appears to have difficulty controlling it. When I arrived, he was locked away in a runed bunker tearing the place up.”

That doesn’t seem safe.

“Says the boy with an eldritch monster inside him,” Henry laughed.

I— You know, I don’t know how I managed to forget that. It’s not like the school knows about you, though. They’re clearly aware of Mark.

Sylph, who had been sitting on her bed, prodded Damien in the leg with her foot. “What did he find out?”

Damien nodded toward the training rooms and stood up, heading into the farthest one. Sylph followed after him. Once they got there, Damien quietly relayed all the information Henry gave him.

“Huh,” Sylph said. “That’s interesting. I suppose that’s why he gets to live alone. If you think about it, it’s not really all that weird. A lot of the most powerful mages have something or another wrong with them, so I can see why Blackmist would try to accommodate him. If Mark could harness the demon, he’d be incredibly powerful.”

“Well, now that we know I kind of feel bad for intruding on his privacy,” Damien said, frowning.

“It’s information,” Sylph replied, shrugging. “If it had been such a big secret, he wouldn’t have mentioned anything about it where we could hear. It’s not like we’ll be telling anyone else.”

“I suppose that’s true,” Damien agreed. “I’m going to get back to training now, though. Delph is probably going to run us ragged the next time we see him, and I can’t imagine he’s going to wait long before showing up for our next session.”

Sylph nodded. “I was about to say the same. Good luck.”

Damien wished her the same as he walked back into the outer training room, casting out his net of mental energy and illuminating the Ether around him.

I’ve done a good amount of martial arts training recently. I think the next thing I need is some sort of movement spell. Any suggestions?

“You know how this works,” Henry said. “What are your thoughts? I’m not giving you a freebie.”

Well, I probably want to stick with Space since that’s what I’ve used the most so far. I’m sure there’s some sort of straight up teleportation in the school, but that might be a bit too advanced. Could I…I don’t know, somehow compress the space between myself and some target area to make myself move there very quickly?

“Not a bad idea at all,” Henry said. “It’s possible, and it should be within your capabilities.”

Damien grinned. He sat, fishing a piece of chalk out of his belongings, and started to draw. The idea itself didn’t seem that complex, but actually figuring out a way to execute it was another matter entirely.

Moving himself with Space magic felt a lot more dangerous than creating something with it. If he messed up, he could leave a limb behind. Damien drew on everything he knew, creating several rune circles on the ground and tweaking the runes as he went. Several hours passed by in a blink, but he finally had something rough to start with.

How about this?

“Viable, but don’t cast that yet,” Henry said, studying it through Damien’s eyes. “You don’t have anything to ensure you don’t accidentally merge with whatever is there when you show up. There’s dust and stuff in the air when you arrive—boom. Now, it’s inside your brain, and you’re dead.”

Damien shuddered. He drew an extra circle around the edge of his design, adding in what was essentially a ward to the spell. That meant he had to modify the rest of it to properly link everything together, which took almost another hour.

Okay, what about now?

“That…seems workable,” Henry said. “Let me give it a try before you do it. This isn’t the type of spell we can mess around with, and I’ll correct anything that seems wrong so you don’t misplace any limbs.”

Henry gently pushed Damien’s mind out of the way as he took control of the boy’s body. Damien paid close attention to the Ether as Henry drew several of the motes within his core forth. The mental energy surrounding them started to vibrate, turning the motes into blurs of light.

Tingles ran down Damien’s legs as the Ether shot down his legs and into his feet. He took a step forward and the ground seemed to warp and blur beneath him. The strange sensation passed, and Damien suddenly realized he was standing a hair’s distance away from the wall.

Holy shit. That felt like real teleportation. I think I’ll call it Warp Step.

“You made the spell. It isn’t, technically. Close enough, though. Name is decent, too. This time, instead of watching the Ether, pay attention to your body. Watch what happens and how it moves.”

Henry cast the spell again and had Damien step forward. As soon as his foot hit the ground, the world shifted again. It was almost as if his mind had slowed down for a moment, and he’d somehow moved across the room during that time.

Okay, I’m with you. So the folding space part functions, correct?

“If it didn’t, you’d probably be embedded in a wall somewhere,” Henry said. “This isn’t a bad spell at all. It’ll probably take you a little while to cast it since the circle is relatively complicated, and it won’t take you very far. Still, once you get faster at using it, it won’t be a bad spell for fighting at all.”

That seems solid! Any extra things to make sure I don’t blow myself up when I cast it?

“To properly excite the Ether for this, you need to vibrate it,” Henry said. “Before you even try casting the spell, work on controlling the Ether. Vibrating it is a new technique that you’ll have to master before you can even think of safely casting Warp Step.”

Damien nodded. Henry gave him back control of his body, watching the boy carefully as Damien brought the net of mental energy back and drew more Ether into his core. He gathered a mote, wrapping it carefully. He tried shaking it but ended up just moving it back and forth pointlessly.

This is harder than I thought.

“It’s almost a fully fledged high level spell,” Henry said dryly. “You can’t expect it to be simple. Don’t even think about trying to master it anytime soon. You’ll be doing good if you get an incredibly basic understanding of it, and that’ll take you time. It’s impressive enough that you actually figured out how to make this spell.”

We’ll see about that.

Damien returned his attention to the Ether within him. Henry’s voice faded as he redoubled his focus and dove headfirst into training once again. Difficult or not, he was determined to figure the spell out.

His training stretched through the day, and when he went to bed at night, continued in Henry’s domain. Time dragged onwards and the day turned to a week. Delph called several classes throughout it. As Damien had suspected, the professor ran the entire class to their absolute limits, not stopping until even Sylph was barely able to stand on her own.

Damien also had several other Magic Theory classes. The more the class went on, the less he was bored with it. Greg had started going deeper into the theories behind creating new spells and modifying existing ones.

He was soon looking forward to every class, and they were a welcome break from the constant physical exertion of training with Delph and the mental fatigue of practicing Warp Step on his own.

He fell into something of a rhythm over the course of the next month. He trained martial arts together with Sylph at least once a day. Delph and Greg alternated their classes, which Damien suspected was probably what all the teachers did. Whenever he wasn’t in class or sparring with Sylph, he worked on Warp Step.

His training didn’t stop when he went to sleep. As soon as his eyes closed, Henry met him on the grassy hill, and Damien resumed his practice. His incessant training proved more effective than he ever could have expected.

By the time that the month was drawing to a close, Damien was so close to being able to properly cast Warp Step that he could practically taste it. His body had grown leaner, and muscles had started to become visible.

His stats had improved significantly as well.

Damien Vale

Blackmist College

Year One

Major: Undecided

Minor: Undecided

Companion: [Null]

Magical Strength: 5.8

Magical Control: .68

Magical Energy: 11.1

Physical Strength: .51

Endurance: .94

Sylph’s training had done wonders for him, and his constant work on improving Warp Step had shoved his magical attributes up as well.

Damien didn’t hear again from Herald during the month. The eldritch creature seemed content to observe the situation, clearly already pleased with the rune circle Damien had created on his stomach.

It seemed as if Damien had just taken the last test in magic theory a few days ago, but it soon came time for the second exam. When Greg announced it, Damien was the only one who didn’t look particularly surprised.

Throughout the month, he’d gone over the topics Greg had taught him with Henry. When Greg brought him to the field and began the test, Damien was able to easily answer just about every question the man asked.

Greg had him demonstrate an increasingly complex series of modified spells, but none proved too difficult for Damien to handle. The professor gave him an approving nod once he’d finished and sent him back to his room. There was no extra credit this time.

Sylph had finished her own class early as well and was sitting on her bed meditating when Damien arrived. Her eyes opened, and she raised an eyebrow.

“You’re back early.”

“Greg tested us again,” Damien said, shrugging. “I knew it was coming, so it wasn’t too hard. Something tells me that the final will be a lot more difficult.”

“I’m sure you’ll do fine,” Sylph said. “I also had a test today. I wonder if the teachers coordinate them.”

“Wouldn’t surprise me,” Damien said, sitting down on his bed across from Sylph. “By the way, don’t we have another quest week coming up pretty soon?”

“We should,” Sylph replied. “We need to get a good amount of points, but that first quest we did handled a lot of it.”

“We can probably knock out several B-ranked ones. So long as Whisp isn’t involved in it, I’ll be happy.”

“Has she contacted you recently?”

“No,” Damien said, pressing his lips together. “And, if anything, that makes me more concerned.”

“We’ll deal with it when it happens, then. There’s nothing you can do to prepare for it, so there’s no point wasting energy worrying over it.”

“I guess so,” Damien said with a sigh. “Have you been making any progress with your magic? I’ve been stuck on my newest spell for a while now, but I think I’ve almost got it.”

“A lot,” Sylph said with a wide grin. “It’s incredible. It’s so versatile. I’m in a similar spot as you. I haven’t quite gotten the handle on it, but I’m just a hair away. I should be able to get it before the week is out.”

“What’s the spell?”

“What’s yours?”

Damien grinned. “Damn, that does take the fun out of it, doesn’t it? I guess we’ll just have to wait until we’ve both figured them out.”

Sylph nodded. “I had another question, actually. This one is for Henry. When I initially got my new magic, you said to avoid any cultivation boosting herbs. I believe that my body has acclimated to the Ether, so can I start using some of the herbs again?”

Henry rose within Damien. The boy mentally stepped to the side, giving the eldritch creature permission to take over his body, not that he needed it.

“If you’re no longer having difficulty controlling it and feel that your core isn’t leaking energy, then there shouldn’t be a problem,” Henry said. “Both of you should be getting close to core evolution anyway.”

“Evolution?” Damien asked, temporarily taking control of his own mouth again.

“When your core and body are both completely permeated with Ether, your core can evolve. It grows larger, and your magical strength grows as well. It doesn’t happen often, and the process isn’t generally enjoyable. It’ll give you a significant boost in strength, though. That’s likely why the upper year students are so far ahead of Year Ones.”

Sylph nodded her understanding, and Henry slipped back, giving Damien his body back. Before they could say anything else, there was a knock on the door. Damien blinked and walked over, pushing it open to reveal Delph.

“Professor Delph!”

“Damien, Sylph,” Delph greeted, stepping past the boy and into their room.

“What’s going on, Professor?” Sylph asked.

“More than you could imagine,” Delph replied, his brow darkening for a moment. “But don’t worry about that. I’m here on school business.”

“What about it?” Damien asked. “Don’t tell me there’s another fancy quest that might get us killed.”

“Don’t look at me like that,” Delph said. “I told you not to do it. And, no, this isn’t about a quest. It’s about the class final. In order to take it, you need to meet some baseline requirements. Have your bracelets been updated recently?”

“Yeah, we both outgrew our old ones,” Damien said.

“Perfect. Please hold out your hand.”

Damien did as the professor asked. Delph touched his bracelet to Damien’s, then repeated the process with Sylph. The man stared off into space for a few moments before nodding.

“This’ll do. You’ve both reached an acceptable level, but don’t let me catch you slacking because of that. Doing well now doesn’t mean you’ll pass the class. It’s all about succeeding on the final.”

“Understood,” Sylph said.

“One more thing,” Delph said, a small frown crossing his face. “With stats at this level, you two haven’t gone through core evolution, have you?”

“We haven’t,” Damien confirmed, briefly wondering if Delph had somehow overheard their conversation. They hadn’t been talking loudly, but the man was an enigma.

“Then it’s reasonable to expect it to happen rather soon,” Delph said, pressing his lips together. “What inconvenient timing. This normally doesn’t happen until midway through Year Two. Trust me, you don’t want core evolution to happen during your finals. You’re well ahead of the curve. Evolution usually doesn’t happen until Year Two, and near the end of it at that.”

“Can’t we control when it happens?” Damien asked.

“You can make it start earlier with magical herbs, but it can also start on its own,” Delph said. “And if it starts, there’s no stopping it safely. Wipe that panicked expression off your face. This isn’t that big of a deal. We’ll just force the evolution to happen early.”

Chapter Eighteen

“Why does that sound dangerous to me?” Damien asked, narrowing his eyes.

“Not dangerous,” Delph said with a wave of his hand. “Just not very fun. Getting stronger rarely is. Pain paves the road to success and all that.”

“Wonderful. Well, I suppose it’s better we do that than worry about accidentally going through the evolution during finals,” Damien admitted. “When can we do it? And is it free?”

“Completely free,” Delph said. “Part of the services that the school provides. And it’s not all that difficult. All you need is a mage that knows the ritual and some time.”

“Well, do we know anyone that knows the ritual?”

Delph quirked an eyebrow.

“Right,” Damien said. “I suppose you do. When should we do it, then? Finals or not, I still have a bunch of classes I’ll have to go to. Is this going to take a while?”

“Same here,” Sylph added. “I don’t think my teacher would approve of me skipping them.”

“Don’t worry about it. We make exceptions for situations like this,” Delph said. “You’ll be able to catch up on what you missed later. Besides, you should be excited for this. It’s one of the biggest steps in becoming a fully-fledged mage. No more worrying about cultivating or magical plants after this.”

“I guess I’ll let Greg know next class,” Damien said, finding it difficult to be eager for anything Delph was so excited for. An excited Delph usually meant a they were about to go through a lot of pain.

“No need,” Delph said. “I’ll let your teachers know for you. Time is slipping away. No reason wasting an extra day.”

Damien blinked. “We’re doing it now?”

“Why not? You don’t need to prepare for this. You can’t, really. Just get it over with as soon as possible.”

Damien and Sylph exchanged a glance. Something told him that, even if they didn’t want to do it immediately, telling Delph no wouldn’t have been good for their health. The strange professor didn’t take kindly to people disobeying him.

“All right,” Damien said. “If you’re sure. So, what do we do?”

Delph brushed past them, walking down the hallway and into the training rooms. He glanced around and let out a grunt before stopping at the second room. “You’ve been busy I see. This back room will do nicely. Sit down on either side of me.”

Damien and Sylph followed the professor’s instructions, watching him warily the entire time. Delph smirked at their expressions. He reached into the open air before him and his hand vanished, entering some sort of invisible portal.

He pulled out a long rod with a stick of chalk at the end of it and started to draw on the ground. The professor created two intricate rune circles around each of them. The circles were several rings deep and had several hundred runes each.

Despite their complexity, Delph almost looked bored drawing them. The room was silent aside from the rapid fire scratch of chalk on the ground and Delph’s occasional disinterested yawns.

Henry, what is this rune circle? I recognize a lot of the runes, and it looks like some sort of feedback loop paired with a containment spell, but not one that I’ve ever seen before. And what’s the purpose of having so many circles?

“It’s meant to force your body to use as much Ether as possible in a short amount of time, then force it back into you,” Henry said. “Not a bad way to force a core evolution at all. Similar to what I would have used. This should work fine.”

And what about the containment spell? What’s he doing with that?

“That’s to keep you in, of course,” Henry said. “If you just ran out of the circle, it wouldn’t do all that much to help your core evolution. This way you’ll be forced to stay inside until it’s done.”

That’s…ominous.

“Quite,” Henry agreed merrily. “But Delph is wrong about one thing. You don’t just get to sit back and enjoy the ride. Not all core evolutions are equal. You need to snag every bit of power that you can, and that means remaining focused and drawing in as much Ether as you can handle. Don’t stop no matter what.”

Okay. Ah, when Delph says this is going to be painful, does that mean—

“Right,” Delph said with a clap. “We’re all ready. The two of you won’t need any nourishment during this process, so don’t worry about that. Your bodies won’t be doing much of anything, so just relax as much as you can.”

Damien and Sylph both nodded.

“Fantastic,” Delph said. “Best of luck, you two.”

“Wait,” Damien exclaimed. “What if we need to leave the circle for some reason? How long is this going to take?”

“Oh, just a week or so,” Delph replied, ignoring his pupil’s bulging eyes. “As for leaving, don’t.”

Delph snapped his fingers. The runes surrounding Damien and Sylph lit up with brilliant white light. Motes of energy rose from them, forming a translucent barrier that blocked out the outside world.

Lines of energy trailed across the ground, rising up and pressing into their skin. Tingles ran across Damien’s body as they passed through him, traveling past his flesh as if it wasn’t even there.

They curled up his legs and covered his back, passing through every part of Damien’s body and slowly making their way toward his core. He drew a sharp breath as the tingles grew stronger.

Damien sat down cross-legged. There was no more time to argue or ask Delph , not that he thought the professor would even bother answering at this point.

Faint vibrations started to travel throughout Damien. At first, they were almost pleasant. That quickly passed as the intensity grew into a violent current that threatened to make his teeth chatter. His hair stood on end and the air around him crackled with energy.

“Start drawing in Ether,” Henry instructed. “And don’t stop.”

Damien closed his eyes and followed Henry’s instructions. He cast out his net of mental energy. Brilliant light flooded the room, nearly blinding him. Instead of the normal crisscrossing lines of Ether, it was like he and Sylph were each in the center of a giant knot.

Lines of Ether pulsating with golden energy surrounded them, leaving the rest of the room strangely empty. He could just barely see out from in between them, but the Ether grew brighter with every passing second.

He squeezed his eyes shut. There wasn’t even a reason to reach out to gather the Ether. It was getting pumped straight into his core. All Damien had to do was open himself to it. He drew one more steadying breath and started to channel the Ether.

The pressure gathered slowly. Ether started to trickle into his core, filling it at a steady rate. With every passing minute, the flow rate increased a small amount. It wasn’t too difficult to control at first, but it showed no sign of slowing.

Damien had briefly been worried about getting bored or distracted throughout the process, but he soon learned that neither would be possible. The churning Ether within him demanded every scrap of his attention, threatening to overwhelm him the moment he lost focus.

Time started to blur. The thin trickle of Ether turned into a stream, and then a flood. Damien’s core filled to the brim, but the energy continued to pour into him. Hairline fractures raced across it, leaking Ether out into his body.

It raced through his flesh and bones, shooting into every unsaturated spot it could find, but still the Ether came. The prickling sensation gave way to a powerful throbbing ache, and it was only getting worse as time went on.

Damien gritted his teeth. His eyes had long since been squeezed shut to save them from the blinding light surrounding him. Despite the growing pain, he drank in Ether like a starving man.

The air around him hummed with power. Swirling energy raged within his core, clamoring for a release. Damien’s back arched, and he let out a scream of pain as the symphony of agony reached a crescendo. Still, as bad as it was, it was nothing compared to the pain he’d gone through when meeting Herald. He resisted the temptation to pass out, focusing on drawing in all the Ether he could.

The inky black tentacles on Damien’s skin twisted and churned across his skin. They sprawled outwards, hungrily drawing in any excess energy that the boy missed. The runes they emerged from shifted, burning with their own brilliant glow as they attempted to keep the darkness sealed.

A great crack split down the center of Damien’s core. For a moment, mere strands kept it in place. Then it shattered, imploding on itself as the Ether surged forth, unrestricted at last. Damien hissed, darkness threatening to swallow his vision.

As horrendous as the pain was, what little of Damien that was free to think was amused to find that it wasn’t even close to the worst he’d suffered. Even as the Ether ravaged his body, he drew more of the energy into himself.

The strands of magic swirling within him started to change. Patterns started to form within the Ether. Piece by piece, shimmering runes formed within him. They were of no language he knew, but the raw power within them was undeniable.

Ether redirected, flooding toward the runes instead of attempting to escape his body. At the same time, the runes started to migrate toward the shattered remains of Damien’s core. It twisted together, connections snapping into place with thrums of energy.

Piece by piece, a new core started to form within his chest. It was made entirely of runes connected by a rapidly growing shell of Ether. Strands of dark energy traveled throughout it, intertwined with the golden light.

The flow started to reverse. The Ether started to rush toward the core as a powerful force started within Damien’s core.

Damien’s skin prickled. The air grew cold around him, and his lips turned blue. Ether flooded into him once again, this time rushing past his outer body and darting straight into the newly formed core as if the void itself was on its heels.

And then it was over. With the pungent smell of ozone and copper, the barrier surrounding Damien shattered. A wave of Ether that he’d yet to absorb rippled out, washing over the room and dissipating into the air.

The runes on the ground sparked, the chalk burning away as the power overwhelmed it. Damien drew in a ragged gasp, slumping forward as the Ether lines slipped out of him and returned to their natural spots.

“Well done, Damien,” Henry said. He sounded almost hesitant. “Are you okay?”

It took Damien a few minutes to answer. His ears still rang, and his clothes were so wet with sweat that, for a moment, he thought someone had dumped a bucket of water over him.

I-I think so.

With a supreme force of will, Damien forced his gaze to rise from the floor. Cracks traveled through the barrier surrounding Sylph, but it had yet to break. Delph was nowhere to be found.

Did it work?

“It worked,” Henry said. “Your core has evolved. Look at your wristband.”

Damien activated the band.

Damien Vale

Blackmist College

Year One

Major: Undecided

Minor: Undecided

Companion: [Null]

Magical Strength: 9.5

Magical Control: 1.3

Magical Energy: 20.1

Physical Strength: .37

Endurance: 1.5

I’ll be honest. I don’t remember what my numbers were before. My head is fried.

“Massive gains. Your magical strength and control basically doubled,” Henry reported. “Your magical energy grew as well. However, the most important part is that the limit to your growth that was approaching in the near future has been removed. You’ll be able to continue progressing now.”

Too many words. Too big.

Damien pushed himself across the floor until he reached a wall. With a groan, he pressed himself against it and slowly started to rise to his feet. The shower was only a few feet away from him, but it felt like it was on the other side of campus.

He took a wobbly step forward, keeping one hand on the wall. A low crackle rose up from Sylph’s rune circle. The cracks covering the glowing Ether spread further, racing across its surface. A pillar of glimmering light surrounded the circle, blocking him from seeing inside it.

The barrier flared a brilliant white, forcing Damien to squeeze his eyes shut. Then, with a sound like tinkling glass, it shattered. The wave of Ether that shot out was nearly strong enough to knock him off his feet.

Damien raised a hand, bracing himself against the wall as he was buffeted back. Sylph stood before him in her rune circle, her face set in a determined snarl. Hair rippled around her like a dark halo.

Sylph blinked, slowly looking around the room. She didn’t look to be in much better shape than Damien. The two of them watched each other, too tired to say anything for several moments.

Damien was the first to break the silence. “Did it work?”

“I… Yes, I think so,” Sylph said slowly. “All my stats shot up. You, too?”

Damien nodded.

She looked around the room, then pinched her soaked shirt with two fingers and pulled it back with a grimace. Sylph pulled it up just enough to reveal the runes covering her lower chest and stomach that Henry had put there and grimaced. The core evolution hadn't removed them. “Where’s Delph?”

“Don’t know. Just woke up,” Damien muttered.

“He left,” Henry said. “Only stuck around for the first few hours before wandering off.”

How long were we under?

“Not that long,” Henry replied with a mental shrug. “Few days.”

How many days?

“Eight or so.”

That’s more than a few.

Henry grunted in response. Damien shook his head, trying to force some motivation into his limbs. Then he took another weary step toward the bathroom. Sylph had the same idea moments later.

What followed was possibly the most ridiculous race in human history. The two dragged themselves, inch by inch, across the arduous journey that was the distance from the training rooms to the healing shower.

It took them several minutes just to reach the curtain. Damien practically fell through it, staggering against the bathroom wall with Sylph hot on his heels. The only reason he’d beaten her there was because his circle had been closer to the bathroom than hers.

He flicked the shower on, then slumped against the wall with a relieved sigh as the healing liquid rained down upon him. His clothes were already so soaked that there wasn’t even a point taking them off, not that he could have had he wanted to.

Sylph pulled herself inside the shower as well, but her movements were getting sharper by the moment. She leaned against the wall, letting out a similar sigh to the one Damien had made moments before.

The two of them remained there for several minutes, just enjoying the relaxing water as it washed away their pain.

Chapter Nineteen

“Henry says we were in that for over a week,” Damien said, wiping some of the water out of his eyes as the strength started to return to his limbs.

“I really hope Delph told our other teachers where we were,” Sylph said. “I don’t want to imagine what would happen if he forgot or decided it wasn’t worth his time.”

“Let’s not even think about that,” Damien said, shuddering. He still didn’t have a good read on Greg. The professor seemed amenable enough but skipping class without an excuse didn’t seem like something he would let fly.

After another minute, Sylph rose and turned off the shower. She helped Damien to his feet, and they walked out of the bathroom, still unsteady, but nowhere near as much as they had been a short while ago.

Damien’s coat had already dried off, but the clothes beneath it were still completely soaked. Sylph grabbed a change of clothes and headed back into the bathroom, so Damien tossed his own clothes to the side and pulled on a new set. He found himself thankful that the runes on the mage armor had kept it sweat-free.

He pushed the door open and peeked outside. The sun was just barely starting to rise over the horizon, casting the sky in orange and pink hues. The faint smell of brimstone hung low in the air, and thick gray clouds hung far in the distance of the east side of campus.

A small frown crossed Damien’s face. He stepped fully outside, brushing his wet hair out of his face. Mark’s room was empty, and the Gray siblings didn’t seem to be present either. He walked to the edge of the plateau and squinted down at the campus far below him.

It was so far away that it was difficult to make out any details, but there was much less movement than he was used to. Normally, by this time of day, a good number of students were already wandering around.

Sylph walked out from their room and sat down beside him. “What’s going on?”

Before Damien could even respond, her nose twitched. “Smoke. Is something on fire?”

“Not that I can tell,” Damien said slowly. “But campus kind of looks empty. Is there some event that we’ve somehow missed?”

Sylph stood back up and headed over to the Gray siblings’ room. She rapped on the stone beside it, then called out. There was no response. With a shrug, Sylph pushed the curtain open and peered inside.

“Nobody’s here,” Sylph reported, letting it fall back shut.

“Well, this isn’t ominous at all,” Damien said.

Henry?

“There are a few people in the vicinity,” Henry said after a moment. “But less than normal. Significantly so. It’s around a seventy percent reduction. I wasn’t paying much attention to the outside world while you were evolving your core. I had to make sure nothing went wrong.”

Damien relayed Henry’s words to Sylph. “Maybe we should head to campus? Someone can tell us what’s going on.”

“As good an idea as any,” Sylph agreed, and they headed down the mountain.

The streets were empty when they reached the bottom. They wandered through campus, heading toward the library at the center while they looked for anyone to talk to.

It took almost ten minutes before both of them spotted a lightly armored man with salt and pepper hair. He had a large staff covered with glimmering runes. The top had a jagged, spiky crystal fixed to it. Damien and Sylph headed over toward him.

“Excuse me,” Damien said. “We’ve been secluded in our rooms for core evolution for the past week or so. Has something happened? Campus seems to be empty.”

The man’s bristly face turned down in a frown. “Bad timing. A good amount has happened the last week. Who’s your instructor?”

“Delph,” Damien said. “Why?”

“I should have guessed,” he said with a scoff. “I have other things I’d much rather be doing, but we’re in a bit of a lull right now. About one month ago, Blackmist discovered that a large horde of monsters had managed to slip past a gap in the frontlines. They were headed in our direction, and there are also several smaller cities in their path.”

Damien’s eyes widened. “A month ago? What happened? Were they stopped?”

“I’m getting to it,” the man said irritably. “We sent out scouts to investigate the strength of the horde. You don’t need to know the details but suffice to say that it was powerful enough to draw concern. Whisp herself went out to join the group trying to whittle them down. All the teachers have been aware that we need to prepare to defend the campus, and we began sending students home about a week ago when it became clear that the horde would not go down without a serious fight.”

“That doesn’t make sense,” Sylph said. “If you all knew the horde was approaching, why would Delph encourage us to go into seclusion right before you sent people home?”

“Don’t ask me why Delph does anything,” the professor said. “He’s a madman. There’s a reason they kicked him off the frontlines.”

Despite their situation, Damien’s curiosity got the better of him. “What is it? Beyond him being a nutjob.”

“You can ask him yourself if you’re bold enough. It’s his story to share. More importantly, can the two of you fight? Delph must have had some reason to keep you two on campus. He probably thinks of this as some training exercise.”

That wouldn’t have surprised Damien in the slightest. He and Sylph exchanged a glance.

“We can fight,” Sylph said. “But we’re only Year Ones.”

“He kept Year Ones on campus?” The man’s eyes bulged. He pressed his lips thin. That absolute— Gah, never mind. The teleport lock is already in place. The two of you should come with me. We can’t have you wandering what might very well turn into a battlefield aimlessly. What are your names?”

“I’m Sylph, and this is Damien,” Sylph said.

“Ah. Delph’s little pet projects,” the professor said. “That explains why he kept you here. Don’t let it get to your head. He’s known for this. He did the same on the frontlines, and not all of them survived.”

“How do you know so much about him?” Damien asked. “If you don’t mind me asking.”

“I haven’t said anything that isn’t general knowledge to the teachers,” the professor replied, pushing away from the wall and starting down the street toward the center of campus. “And I suppose we can drop the formalities given the situation. You may call me Dredd.”

The name rang a tiny bell in Damien’s mind. It was the professor that the students had been complaining about when he’d first reached campus. He wasn’t sure if that was a good or a bad thing.

Dredd’s long stride forced him and Sylph to do an awkward mixture of a fast walk and a jog to keep up with him, but the man didn’t notice or care.

“Why is the horde attacking Blackmist?” Damien asked as they turned down a side street.

“Probably something the dean did,” Dredd said.

“Whisp?”

“No. She’s the acting dean. The actual dean is off in the Wastes, which is the land far beyond the frontlines. He’s been searching for a weapon for the past five years, but he’s occasionally returned with magical artifacts and other goods that he found in his journeys. Blackmist has an impressive stockpile of them, and he might have taken one that the monsters want back.”

“Are they intelligent enough for that?” Damien asked. “Nothing I’ve ever read about monsters implied they had enough understanding of material possessions to actively seek out something they lost, especially this far.”

“High-tier monsters are just as smart as humans,” Dredd said. “Some are smarter. There are rumors that they have their own civilizations on the other side of the frontlines, and I don’t entirely doubt that. Underestimate them at your own peril.”

“It’s true,” Sylph said. “I’ve seen some of them, although I have no clue what could have been so important that they’d travel so deep into the kingdom to get.”

“Doesn’t matter,” Dredd replied gruffly. “They’re here, so they die. We’ve dealt with monsters before, but nobody is going to have time to look after children.”

“We can look after ourselves,” Sylph said. Her tone wasn’t disrespectful, but it was firm enough to make a point.

Dredd grunted. “Let’s hope we don’t have to find out.”

They passed the library and continued on to the Treasure Pavilion. The guard stationed at the door stepped to the side as soon as he saw Dredd, nodding respectfully and letting them enter.

Dredd led them inside. Auntie sat at her desk, a large sword easily twice her height leaning against the wall beside her. Her eyebrows rose as she spotted Damien and Sylph.

“Dredd? Why are there Year Ones here?”

“Delph,” Dredd said.

Auntie pressed her lips together. “You poor kids. I can’t power the teleport gate now, Dredd. Taking down the port lock would be too dangerous.”

“I’m aware. They’ll stay here,” Dredd said. “It’s one of the most defended spots on the campus. The monsters shouldn’t be able to break into it, even if they push past our defenses.”

Auntie nodded, but she didn’t look particularly convinced. “That’s fine. How long do we have?”

“The fighting has already started,” Dredd said. “We’re waiting to deploy forces to see how the horde responds. We can’t commit everyone to the front in case they try to slip around and attack the campus.”

A distant rumble interrupted their conversation. Everyone paused, listening for a few moments. Auntie bit her lip and let out a distressed sigh. “I hate waiting. Every moment we wait is time that the monsters ransack the countryside and surrounding towns.”

“Innocent casualties are the price of winning a war,” Dredd said, adjusting his grip on the large staff. “We’ll make the monsters pay in blood. Just wait for the signal.”

Damien and Sylph sat down in two chairs at the far side of the room. There wasn’t much else for them to do but watch the professors as they discussed in hushed tones. Several boring hours passed. Then the sky turned red.

The blood-colored light sprang up out of nowhere, filling the room and casting it in sickly tones. Everyone other than Dredd stiffened.

“And there it is,” Dredd said. “Red. A group broke past the main forces and is heading toward the campus. Look lively. We get our chance to play after all.”

Auntie grabbed the massive sword and raised it into the air. As she moved, her body stretched. She more than doubled in height, transforming into a hulking amazon of a woman. She had more muscles than Delph did.

“Let’s go,” Auntie said. Her voice hadn’t changed at all, and the kindly old woman’s words sounded strange from her new body.

Dredd nodded. He slammed the butt of his staff into the ground. The air around it warped, motes of Ether crackling and popping as it dissipated back into the environment. A molten red portal stretched open in front of Dredd.

“Ladies first.”

“Watch your tone with me, young man,” Auntie said. “I’ve spanked kids twice your age, and I’ll daresay some of them liked it.”

She stepped through the portal, vanishing with a pop. The guards followed in after her, leaving Dredd alone with Damien and Sylph.

“Stay here,” Dredd said. “It’ll look bad on the school if you die.”

Then he stepped through the portal as well. It snapped shut behind him. The smell of ash lingered faintly in the air behind them. Before Damien or Sylph could even say a word, a dot of gray formed in the air before them.

It expanded, twisting out and transforming into Delph’s cloak. The professor flicked his cloak out of the way with an annoyed grunt. “Planes, they took forever. I was beginning to think they’d never leave.”

“Professor!” Damien exclaimed, only half-surprised to see the man. “What’s going on? Did you want us to get trapped here during the attack?”

“Of course, I did,” Delph said, rolling his eyes. “Just when I was starting to think you had something rattling around that skull of yours, you prove me wrong. Maybe you really should stick to smashing things with overwhelming power.”

“Then this is about training?” Sylph asked.

“What else would it be? This is the perfect opportunity for you. Forge yourself in the fires of combat. How else do you think you can grow strong?”

“Isn’t this horde incredibly dangerous?” Sylph asked. “Dredd seemed to think so at least.”

“Dredd is an overcautious strategist,” Delph said. “The monsters die just as well as anything else. This will be a good experience for you. Dredd isn’t going to be able to keep all of them from getting into campus. You two should seek out the ones that arrive and take care of them yourselves. Between the two of you, it shouldn’t be impossible. Just don’t take on anything too strong.”

“What about you?” Sylph asked. “Don’t they need your help to fight the monsters?”

“No,” Delph said, rolling his eyes. “In fact, believe it or not, they banned me from participating. Something about collateral damage. It’s quite disappointing, really.”

“So, you’re going to follow us around and help take care of anything too strong?” Damien guessed.

“Of course not. What do I look like, a babysitter?” Delph asked. “I’m going to go get some breakfast. I just wanted to make sure the two of you didn’t waste this opportunity. The pursuit of power is an endless road, and I don’t train cowards.”

Delph popped out of existence, leaving them alone once again. Damien blinked. “Is it just me, or does anyone other than us have some teleportation spell? I’m starting to get jealous.”

“I know what you mean,” Sylph grumbled. “I don’t have the magic for one, though. And even if I did, I’m still working on getting the last few knots out of my new magic. It’s still a little foreign to me.”

“Perfect for entering life-threatening situations,” Damien said dryly. “Although I suppose Delph would say that unironically.”

“Adapt or die,” Sylph said, shrugging. “It works as long as you survive.”

“The latter half of that sentence is the problem,” Damien muttered, but he cast out a net of mental energy and started drawing more Ether into his reserves. “I guess it’s a moot point, though. Between the monsters and Delph, I know what scares me more.”

Sylph nodded. “And I can’t help but be at least a little curious about what the monsters can do. There were monsters in the forest that I lived in, you know. They were dangerous, but if you were careful, they weren’t that much of a threat. Most of the ones in that forest weren’t particularly smart, although the ones that were tended to be deadly. I don’t know how that holds up with other monsters, though.”

“Let’s hope we find some stupid ones, then,” Damien said.

They slipped out of the Treasure Pavilion and headed down the empty streets of Blackmist in search of a monster.

* * *

Delph sat on top of the Treasure Pavilion, his legs crossed, and his chin rested on his hand. His eyes tracked Damien and Sylph as the duo headed down the street, in the exact opposite direction of the majority of the horde.

“Not very observant,” Delph observed. “Or perhaps simply cautious. What do you think?”

His cloak rippled, slipping off his neck and contorting on the ground, rising up beside him and wrapping itself as if it were surrounding a roughly humanoid form. There was nothing within it, but two dim yellow lights lit up where his eyes would have been.

“Cautious—the girl, perhaps. Not the boy,” a raspy voice came from within the shadows. “He has improved since we first came across him, but he is still no strategist.”

“No, I suppose he isn’t,” Delph agreed. “But that doesn’t make him any less dangerous. A loose cannon can be more deadly than an aimed one in the right situation.”

“I still fail to see why you care about these small creatures.” The yellow eyes within the cloak narrowed. “They have potential, but so do thousands of other students. So did the dozens of strays that you picked up. Yet you waste so much time on these two in particular. What makes you think they’ll be any different?”

“It’s a hobby, Havel. You should consider picking one up,” Delph replied, rising to his feet. He blurred, appearing on the rooftop in front of them. The cloak showed up beside him almost instantaneously.

“Hobbies involve knitting or sword fighting,” Havel said. “Not raising soldiers.”

“What can I say? I’m unique.”

“You’re hiding something from me again,” Havel said. “Tell me, Delph. I hate being left in the dark.”

“Nope. If you can’t figure it out, then you don’t deserve it. Besides, I already know you’ll report anything I tell you straight to the big man.”

“And? Don’t tell me you’re planning on breaking school rules?”

“Break? Never,” Delph said, sounding slightly affronted. “More like bend. If it isn’t expressly written in the rulebook, it’s not actually breaking the rules.”

“That’s true,” Havel said after a short pause. “So what are you doing?”

“Nice try. Still not answering that,” Delph said, chuckling. “You’ll see soon enough. If Damien and Sylph can reach their full potential, they’ll be a force the likes of which this continent has never seen. You can tell, can’t you? Damien’s companion isn’t recognized by the bracelet, and Sylph doesn’t have a real one, or she didn’t, until recently.”

“So, you did pick it up,” Havel observed. “I thought you hadn’t noticed.”

“Now, look who’s keeping secrets,” Delph said irritably. He blurred forward, teleporting across the rooftops again to keep an eye on the retreating backs of his students. “And, of course, I picked it up. The other fools at the school almost did, too, but I covered for her. We can’t have any nosy professors messing up my hard work with petty little things like morality and fear.”

“Indeed,” Havel said. It paused, then flicked up to wrap around Delph’s shoulders once again. “Devourer beast two miles east of the school. The other professors haven’t had a chance to deal with it yet. They’re caught up with the rest of the horde.”

“Of course they haven’t,” Delph said, sighing. “What’s Whisp doing? Drunk again?”

“She’s holding a port lock over the school,” Havel replied, concealing a raspy laugh. “A powerful one, too. I can’t wait to make fun of her for this. For a school that she claims to care nothing about, she puts a lot of effort into keeping it safe.”

“Let me guess. The devourer is headed straight for Damien and Sylph?”

“Almost exactly. Estimated time of arrival is five minutes.”

“Of course it is,” Delph said, rubbing the bridge of his nose. “Come on, then. Take me to it.”

The cloak enveloped Delph, swallowing the man as he shrunk down into a gray dot and vanished from sight. Moments later, the man rematerialized in a grassy plain. A short distance away from him, a hulking beast that vaguely resembled a gorilla skidded to a stop.

It was the size of a small building and covered with grotesquely large muscles. Spikes protruded from its shoulders and back, and two beady red eyes pierced into Delph as the devourer beast examined the annoying speck that had appeared before it.

The monster let out a low snarl. Faint green mist escaped its mouth, curling across the ground and killing the grass wherever it touched. Delph remained stationary, keeping eye contact with it. With a roar, the devourer reared back and pounded its chest.

Delph cracked his neck and raised one hand. The air around him started to warp, twisting and pulsating with faint white lines. The professor twisted his hand down and a thrum of energy shot out from him, flattening the grass and pushing the monster back.

“Do you see that, Havel?”

“See what?”

“We’re in a field.”

“And?”

“No collateral damage,” Delph said with a grim smile. White lines spiderwebbed out around him, covering the entire field. The devourer beast let out a howl and charged toward him.

Delph clenched his hand. The world shattered, and the devourer beast screamed.

* * *

“What is that?” Sylph asked, grimacing in disgust as a rocky three armed humanoid creature dragged itself out into the street before them. Several large cracks already ran through its surface, and it didn’t look long for this world.

“Low-level earth elemental,” Damien said automatically. “Not a very common monster. Weak to blunt force attacks. I think there’s something else, but I can’t quite remember it. Low-level elementals were never all that interesting for me.”

The elemental didn’t seem to take kindly to Damien’s analysis of it. It let out a grating snarl and dragged itself toward them.

“This is honestly a little pathetic,” Sylph said. “You’re the blunt force guy. Take care of it.”

Damien formed a gravity sphere and tossed it at the monster. It was too heavily injured to dodge in time, and the spell connected, detonating and ripping a large hole in its chest. The elemental crumbled into a large pile of dirt and rocks.

“I guess the professors managed to catch most of the scary stuff before it reached campus,” Sylph said.

She and Damien had already been walking around the deserted streets for several minutes, but the pathetic earth elemental was the first thing they’d actually spotted.

“I guess,” Damien said, frowning. “I’m still missing something, but I’m not sure what it is.”

The ground beneath them let out a faint rumble. Damien snapped. “I remember now! Earth elementals almost never travel alone. Low-level ones are almost always accompanied by a mid-level elemental that acts as their mother.”

Sylph and Damien both glanced down at the ground, then dashed back just as it parted beneath them. A stone beast burst free from the ground a moment later, snarling as it realized that its surprise attack had failed.

Unlike the other elemental, this one looked more like a mix of a mole and a bull than a human. It was bulky and, judging by the sound of its thick legs pounding on the ground, it was incredibly heavy.

“Well, at least this one looks like it’ll put up a fight,” Sylph said. “Distract it.”

Sylph flickered and blended into the background as her camouflage took effect. The monster snarled and charged toward Damien, who dove out of the way, dropping into a roll and rising up with a spell already forming at his hand.

A spiraling drill of gravity magic churned through the air and punched into the monster’s side, tearing away stone digging nearly a foot into the elemental’s hide before dissipating. It roared in pain and charged at Damien again.

Damien didn’t even try stopping it with his gravity magic. He dove out of the way again, opting to avoid trying to hide behind a building. The monster crashed through the wall, bringing the entire shop down in a pile of dust around it. Damien winced, but that made him even more glad he hadn’t tried to hide.

The beast snorted and turned back toward Damien, pawing the ground to charge at him again. Damien brought two more gravity drills to bear, but before he could use them, Sylph blurred back into vision in the air above the elemental.

She thrust a thick blade of dark energy into the back of its neck and hopped down, leveraging her bodyweight to drag it through the monster’s neck. For a moment, it looked as if the stone would resist the strike. Then it, with a grating screech, Sylph’s magic prevailed. She dropped to the ground, and the monster’s head crashed down beside her.

Sylph grinned, and the blade vanished. She brushed some of the dirt off her clothes. Behind her, the monster’s corpse twitched. It rose, headless, and reared back to strike her. Sylph spun as she caught the motion out of the corner of her eye, but Damien was faster.

The twin blasts of gravity magic shot past Sylph on either side, tearing into the monster’s shoulders and shredding them apart with a spray of stone. The damage was finally too much for the creature to handle, and it collapsed into a large pile of dirt.

“I didn’t think it would be able to move without a head,” Sylph said with a frown. “Thanks for the save.”

“You would have been fine,” Damien replied. “And it’s an elemental. They don’t really have a head. It doesn’t think.”

Sylph started to nod. Then she paused as her cheeks turned red. “You already knew a lot about the monsters I might have seen in the forest, didn’t you?”

“I knew a lot of theory about them,” Damien corrected her. “That doesn’t take the place of practical experience.”

“Oh. Well, that makes me feel a little better,” Sylph said. “Well, I suppose we should go try to see if we can find something else and stop it before it destroys the college.”

“Yeah,” Damien said, eyeing the remains of the store. “We’re doing a great job at that.”

“Better than nothing,” Sylph said, heading off down the street with Damien close behind her. He couldn’t argue with that, after all.

* * *

Delph wiped the blood off his cheek with a grimace. He jerked his shoulder, pulling an arm back into its socket. “Bastard was tougher than I expected.”

The devourer Beast’s body—if it could still be called that—rested in a mangled heap before Delph’s feet. It looked like a giant had grabbed the monster and twisted it like a wet towel, wringing it out completely.

Delph shook his hand off and grimaced. “Disgusting. Anything else that requires my immediate attention?”

“Nothing, unless you wanted to help the other professors.”

“Absolutely not,” Delph replied. “They’d complain when I broke a few of their bones by accident. You know I can’t fight next to other people, Havel. They’re too…squishy.”

“All of you fleshbags are squishy,” Havel said. “So, what now? If we were correct, there should still be several leading monsters dispersed throughout the horde fighting the professors. Their leader is around somewhere as well. I don’t believe it was with the main group.”

“The leader will show up sooner or later,” Delph said. “We don’t have to worry about finding it.”

“How do you know?”

Delph reached into a pocket and pulled out a small medallion. “Stole this from Whisp’s office after she went to start the port lock. They found this on the latest expedition, so I’m pretty sure this is what they’re after. Looks like a key of some sort. I wonder what it leads to.”

“When did you get a chance to do that?” Havel asked angrily. “You never take me on the interesting jobs!”

“I did it while I was having you cleaned,” Delph said. “Which, if I recall, you specifically asked me to do. About fifteen times that week, actually. You were practically begging for a certain dry cleaner—”

“Right, I got it. I remember now,” Havel said quickly. “Why don’t we go back to protecting your little proteges? Aren’t you worried they’ll get squished by something? No time to waste.”

Delph snorted. “You told me yourself that there’s nothing strong enough in the campus to give them any real threat. Sylph is a trained killer, and Damien’s companion scares me. There’s nothing in that campus that’s going to pose any threat to them.”

“Except you,” Havel pointed out. “Statistically speaking, at least. Your success rate with pupils isn’t exactly thrilling.”

“Havel?”

“Yes?”

“Shut up.”

“Right,” Havel said. “Sorry.”

Delph just shook his head. The cloak wrapped itself around him, condensing into a small point. He vanished, leaving the corpse of the devourer beast behind amongst the ruined landscape that had once been grassy plains.

Chapter Twenty

Damien and Sylph sprinted down an alley, a massive creature that resembled a mutated crocodile scrambling after them. It had a single, jagged horn and amusingly tiny wings that had no possible way to lift it. They shot down a hallway, and it skidded to the side, slamming into a shop and letting out a snarl as its claws scrabbled to gain purchase on the ground.

“What is this thing?” Sylph yelled.

“Crocodile,” Damien replied, spinning to throw a gravity lance at the monster. It cracked several of the huge crocodile’s scales but did little more than make the creature even angrier. “Panther strategy!”

Sylph nodded, flickering and vanishing as Damien spun on his heel and brought two more gravity spheres to bear. The crocodile roared and lunged toward him, its large jaws snapping at the boy.

Damien tossed both of the spheres forward. One of them sailed harmlessly past its head while the other went straight into its maw. He jumped back as the spells detonated, and the crocodile snarled in pain, blood leaking out of its mouth.

He found himself wishing that he’d managed to master Henry’s teleportation spell before Delph had forced them to go through core evolution, but there was no such luck. The crocodile’s sharp eyes focused on him, and it snapped forward again, forcing him to scramble out of the way.

A gravity sphere formed at Damien’s feet, and he kicked it forward. The crocodile flinched back, all too aware of the painful little balls of magic. He used the time to form two more gravity drills and thrust them at the monster.

The spells struck the creature on the head, shattering more powerful scales and eliciting a cry of pain. Damien’s mental energy strained, but it was still far from empty.

As he brought two more gravity spheres to his hands, Sylph blurred into existence above the crocodile’s head, two burning black and green blades in her hands. She drove them downward into the monster’s eyes, twisting the magical weapons as it roared in pain and started to thrash around.

“Get off!” Damien yelled.

Sylph’s eyes widened, but she threw herself to the side. A moment later, the crocodile slammed its body against a thick stone shop wall, sending down a rain of dust and tile. It roared, its head moving around erratically as it tried to locate them.

The two of them exchanged a glance, then nodded. Two gravity spheres formed in Damien’s hands and Sylph’s blades appeared once more. They darted forward together. Sylph jumped onto a wall, vaulting off it to throw herself into the air as Damien lobbed the two gravity spheres below her.

They landed right beside the crocodile’s head and detonated, yanking it downwards and slamming its chin against the ground. Sylph landed on top of it, thrusting her blades into the creature’s ruined eyes once again.

Magical energy flared around her, and the blades doubled in length. The crocodile’s screams went silent, and it slumped, dead. She let the blades vanish and hopped down from the monster.

“Nice job,” Sylph said.

“You, too. How do you think the professors are doing? They’ve let a good number of monsters past them.”

Sylph gave a one shouldered shrug. “No clue. Something tells me that they won’t go down easily, though. There must be a lot of monsters for them to still be busy.”

“Or some really strong ones,” Damien said, frowning. “Do you think we should help?”

“How?” Sylph asked. “We’re Year Ones, Damien. Besides, if you put yourself in a really dangerous situation, we both know what’ll happen, and neither of us want that.”

Damien sighed and nodded. “You’re right. Let’s go look for the next one, then.”

“Slow down for a second,” Delph’s voice said. Damien and Sylph both turned as Delph materialized behind them. His tattered clothing had a little blood on it, but the man didn’t look too much worse for the wear.

“Hello, Professor Delph,” Sylph said. “Did you enjoy your dinner?”

“Quite,” Delph replied. “It was a little gamey, though. I assume the two of you have actually sought out some enemies and haven’t just been hiding around?”

Damien and Sylph both looked so affronted at the man’s words that he chuckled. “Never mind. I don’t think I could ever imagine the two of you skipping out on a fight. Regardless, there isn’t much left to do in the campus grounds. Most of the monsters that made it here are already dead.”

A flash of light rose up into the sky from somewhere around the library. Delph cocked his head to the side. “All of them, actually.”

“So it’s over?” Damien asked.

“Not quite,” Delph replied. “It’s close, though. I thought the two of you might like to see what a real fight looks like. Some of the professors are going all out, and it’s not often that you get to see something like that.”

Damien and Sylph exchanged a surprised glance before both nodding simultaneously. Delph smirked. “Thought as much. Come along.”

He reached out, grabbing each of them by the back of their shirt. His cloak rippled outwards, expanding to cover them all before condensing into a small dot, vanishing.

Damien blinked. He was standing on a hill overlooking what appeared to be soup that had once been monsters. He gagged as the smell of offal, sweat, and all sorts of things that he didn’t want to think about rose and forced its way into his nose.

Flashes of magic danced across the sky, and the ground rumbled with energy as the professors pressed through the lines of monsters, carving through them.

Sylph’s lip curled in distaste. “I hate the smell of a battlefield.”

“Not used to it?” Delph asked, raising an eyebrow as he walked to stand beside them.

“You never get used to it,” Sylph replied. “Do we know why the monsters attacked the school in the first place?”

“Not yet,” Delph replied. “But it wasn’t particularly organized. This is far from what the normal monster incursions look like. They were considerably weaker and less organized than what we expect.”

He pulled out a small medallion and turned it over in his hand. Then he smirked and put it back, shrugging. “It doesn’t matter. Blackmist took a little damage, but the mages at the frontline are about to catch a lot of flak from the queen. Things like this aren’t supposed to happen. If the monsters had headed for a city instead of the college, who knows how much damage they might have done.”

Damien squinted at the professors. He could just barely make out Auntie as she swung her massive sword, carving apart a huge orc in her path. The woman was positively terrifying, even from this distance.

“When I said a lot of monsters were dumb, I didn’t mean this dumb,” Sylph said, frowning and crossing her arms over her chest. “They wouldn’t travel this far just to attack for no reason. There has to be something they wanted, although I don’t know why they didn’t bring anything strong along with them.”

“Perhaps we’ll learn once the battle is over,” Delph said. “But, more importantly, the two of you got a good training session in. Some real life scenarios are vital to improvement, and it would have been a waste to wait until the next quest week.”

The sky crackled with purple energy. They all glanced up as a large shadow passed over the hill. A thick bank of clouds blocked out exactly what the shadow belonged to, but occasional flashes of brilliant lightning lit it up.

Whatever the shadow belonged to, it was big. Easily the size of the library, with massive wings and what appeared to be multiple long necks.

“Would you look at that,” Delph said, not particularly bothered by the monster’s arrival. “That’s a big one.”

“What is that?” Sylph whispered in awe.

“I think it’s a great hydra,” Damien replied in a similar tone. “That’s incredible. And also terrifying. Those are incredibly dangerous.”

“I couldn’t tell,” Sylph said dryly. “Delph, shouldn’t you go do something about it?”

“Meh.” Delph shrugged. “Whisp is up there. She can deal with it.”

No sooner that Delph had spoken, a small form punched through the clouds and sailed through the air. Damien squinted at it. “It’s Whisp!”

“And boy does she know how to fly,” Delph said. They tracked her as she shot downwards and crashed into the ground several hills away. Damien and Sylph gaped as Delph chuckled.

“She just died!” Damien exclaimed. “Why are you laughing?”

“Died? She’ll be fine,” Delph said, scoffing. “What, do you really think a fall like that is going to kill a trained professor? Look, she’ll fly up in a few moments.”

They watched the spot where Whisp had fallen. Nothing happened.

“Huh,” Delph said. “That sucks.”

Henry cackled within Damien’s mind. “Agreed.”

Damien mentally shooed him back. Without Whisp’s magic, it was impossible to tell where the massive creature was in the cloudy sky above them.

“Shouldn’t you do something, Professor?” Damien asked. “The other professors are busy, and if that thing ends up at the school, it’ll get demolished!”

“Oh, I doubt it’s going for the school,” Delph replied, watching the sky. “And, to be honest, I don’t think I can fight that thing. I don’t have any way to fly around, and even if it was on land, I know my limits. If Whisp couldn’t handle it, neither can I.”

“So what do we do?” Sylph asked.

“Dodge, probably,” Delph said, squinting upward. “It’s heading straight for us.”

A massive roar shook the earth, forcing Damien and Sylph to clap their hands over their ears as four massive draconic heads emerged from the clouds. Each of them looked straight at their group.

Delph grabbed his students, and he vanished, reappearing several hills to the side as a pillar of fire shot out from one of the monster’s heads, searing the hill and burning a hole straight through it.

“Ouch,” Delph said. “I liked that hill.”

“You don’t seem very concerned,” Sylph said. She brought a magical blade to her hand but dismissed it a moment later. Damien didn’t blame her. The thought of trying to stab the huge monster with what was equivalent to a toothpick was laughable.

“Oh, I’m not. The cavalry is on the way. He just likes dramatic entrances.”

“He?” Damien asked.

Henry abruptly shrunk inwards, drawing every mote of his presence back without even giving Damien a warning. Delph, unaware of the void creature’s reaction, nodded up at the sky.

“There he is now. Waiting for the perfect moment to arrive. Moron.”

The fighting suddenly stopped. For an instant, the world seemed to hold its breath as the air grew electrically charged. Something significant changed in the atmosphere. Damien gasped as a stream of Ether rushed out of his body and rose into the sky.

It wasn’t just him. Thousands of lines of Ether rose up from the battlefield and into a single spot in the sky. Then the clouds vanished. It wasn’t that they’d been blown away, they just ceased to exist.

A tall man floated in the sky across from the huge hydra. He held a large warhammer in a single hand, but it was impossible to make out any detail beyond that. The silence was broken as the hydra’s heads let out four synchronized roars and simultaneously blasted the man with fire.

Damien winced, but the flame never reached its target. It vanished a short distance in front of him, transforming into streamers of Ether and simply flooding into the man. Then, almost lazily, he raised a hand. A thin beam shot out, shooting past the hydra and disappearing into the sunset.

A violent explosion shook the world. The sky lit up with brilliant red energy, and Damien was momentarily blinded. When his vision returned, his ears were still ringing from the force of the blast.

Of the hydra, nothing remained but smoldering flakes of burnt scales fluttering down. Damien’s mouth dropped open.

“What was that? How is so much power even possible?”

“That,” Delph said, pulling out a small candy and popping it into his mouth, “was the dean. The real one, mind you.”

As soon as the hydra fell, the remainder of the monsters quailed. They tried to fall back, but the professors were merciless. They hounded after them, tearing any stragglers apart. Within minutes, it was over.

The dean floated down from the sky, heading straight for Delph and the students. Now that he was closer, Damien could make out the man’s features. He wore a wide shouldered coat with metal studs, and his dark hair was spikier than Damien had ever seen.

He gave them a cocky smile as he touched down. He leaned on his spiked warhammer and raised an eyebrow. “Slacking off again, Delph?”

“I knew you were coming,” Delph replied. “There was no reason for me to bother trying to fight that thing when you’ll do it for me. Besides, shouldn’t you be worried about Whisp?”

“Whisp is fine,” the dean said, rolling his eyes. “She’s just pouting that she got slapped out of the sky. Who are the munchkins?”

He turned his eyes on Damien, who was startled to realize they were bright red. Delph yawned.

“My students,” Delph said. “They just went through core evolution and got stuck on campus during the attack, so I had them help out by wiping up a few of the ones that got to campus.”

“Typical,” the dean said. “Well, how are you two enjoying Blackmist so far?”

Damien blinked. The man’s small talk seemed so out of place amongst the battlefield surrounding them, but he didn’t seem to be one that would take silence for an answer.

“It’s been interesting,” Damien answered honestly.

“We’ve learned a lot,” Sylph added.

“Well, I’m glad to hear that. Learning is important and all that stuff,” the dean said. “Delph, do you know if the monsters got to the mess hall?”

“I don’t believe they did.”

“Good. I’m hungry,” the dean said, rocketing up into the sky and vanishing into the clouds. They all watched him go. Once Damien was certain the man had vanished, he snuck a glance at Sylph. She looked just as confused as he felt.

“What’s up with him?” Sylph asked. “He looks like a moron.”

“Tell me about it,” Delph snorted. “Don’t tell anyone, but his red eyes are actually fake. They’re little pieces of colored film. His eyes are actually brown.”

“What’s the point of that?”

“Don’t ask me,” Delph said with a shrug. “He’s strong, and that’s all that matters. That’s generally how life works. He isn’t around the campus much since he’s almost always looking for something to fight or some new magical artifact.”

The three of them watched as the professors finished off the remainder of the monsters and slowly started to make their way toward the hill, gathering around them. Dredd spotted Damien and Sylph. His gaze flicked up to Delph, a frown creasing his face.

“You got the students involved,” Dredd stated.

“Just in a bit of cleanup,” Delph replied, waving his hand. “Look, they’re fine.”

“And if they hadn’t been? They’re Year Ones, Delph. Not Year Fours.”

“Let’s not dwell on hypotheticals,” Delph replied. “Everything turned out fine. Was anyone injured?”

“No,” Dredd replied. “It was one of the most pathetic monster hordes I’ve seen. There was no organization to them, just random monsters that look like they were thrown together and ran here at a moment’s notice.”

“Interesting,” Delph said, pulling out the pendant and turning it over in his hand. “Just what is this thing? If they wanted it so urgently, something tells me they’ll send another wave after it.”

Dredd snatched it from the other professor and squinted at it. “No idea. You stole this from the dean’s office, didn’t you?”

“Reappropriated,” Delph corrected. “Better me than the monsters.”

Dredd grunted and threw the pendant back to the other professor. “Whatever helps you sleep at night. Give it back to him, then give me a report of everything that happened today, including the children.”

“Since when did you become the boss?” Delph asked.

Dredd glowered at him. “Delph.”

“You’ll get your report,” Delph said, rolling his eyes. “And if you weren’t such a hardass, maybe people would actually do things before you asked them to.”

“Funny, everyone seems to do things that I need aside from you,” Dredd replied. “I know you’re playing at something, Delph. This isn’t the frontlines. You can’t toy around like you did there. There are innocent lives at stake.”

“I would never do something like that. My work is not just ‘toying’ around,” Delph said, making air quotes. “And no life is innocent.”

Dredd pressed his lips together, but he didn’t get a chance to respond. The crowd of professors parted slightly as a very bedraggled Whisp made her way past them. Her hair was poofy and stuck out in every direction. She was covered in soot and dirt, and one of her eyebrows was half singed off.

“Looks like you had fun,” Delph said, putting the pendant into his pocket.

“Can it, Delph. I need a drink,” Whisp said with an irritable sigh. Her gaze flicked to Damien and Sylph. “Why are you two here?”

They both wordlessly pointed at Delph, who didn’t even have the good grace to look abashed. Whisp rubbed the bridge of her nose.

“Whatever. I really don’t care. How bad is the damage to the school?”

“A few buildings. Nothing important,” Delph said.

“Which buildings?”

“A restaurant that nobody liked and a few other stores. None of them had anything too valuable, so repairs should be fast,” Delph said.

Whip’s singed eyebrows grew closer together. “What restaurant?”

“The crappy noodle one.”

“I liked that restaurant!” Whisp complained.

“Then nobody of relevance liked it, acting dean,” Delph said, smirking.

Whisp rubbed her face with her hand, only succeeding in smearing the dirt around more. “You are insufferable. Go take your wards and bring them home so they can do something other than gawk at me. Then go put in the orders to get things rebuilt.”

“Why me?” Delph asked. “I didn’t blow up the buildings.”

“You let monsters into the school to let your students fight them,” Whisp said. “Or am I wrong? You can’t tell me that they breached the walls of the school without damaging them.”

Delph cleared his throat. “I’ll get the orders handled as soon as possible. Show’s over, kids. Let’s go.”

Damien bit back a laugh as Delph put a hand on his and Sylph’s shoulders. The professors watched them with a mixture of amusement and worry as Delph’s cloak expanded outwards, enveloping all of them. It shrank down, spinning into a small gray dot before vanishing.

The two students reappeared in front of their room. Delph was nowhere to be seen. With a yawn, Sylph pushed the door open and walked inside, holding it open for Damien.

“Well, that was eventful,” Damien said dryly.

“It’s just like Delph to intentionally bring a bunch of monsters into the school to train us,” Sylph said, shaking her head. “At least we know he didn’t abandon us.”

“He could have just grabbed a bunch of monsters and tossed them in before doing whatever he wanted to,” Damien pointed out. “He’s insane. I wouldn’t count on anything. But, more importantly, what was up with the monsters attacking in the first place? Delph was right. They must have really wanted that locket. I wonder what it was.”

“Somehow, I don’t think we’re going to figure it out in the library,” Damien said. “Henry? What do you think?”

His companion stirred within him. “I was staying very far in the depths of your psyche, so I didn’t get much of a look at anything. That dean of yours has some impressive levels of power for a mortal. You’re lucky he didn’t seem to care about you in the slightest. Even with the rune circle, he might have been able to sense me.”

Noted. I’ll do my best to stay away from him in the future.

“Nothing useful?” Sylph guessed from Damien’s expression.”

“Unfortunately not.” Damien sighed. “I suppose it’s none of our business for now. But how was your magic working? Everything functional?”

“I’m about where I was before the stone mantis,” Sylph said. “Just without the limit to my growth. And, out of curiosity, I checked the seal that Hen—you put on me. It’s still there, so the evolution didn’t get rid of it.”

“I’m sorry,” Damien said, frowning. “I guess it’s just linked to your core.”

“It’s fine,” Sylph said, giving him a small smile. “I think I can deal with it, especially considering the thing you’ve got on your chest.”

Damien grimaced. He pulled up his shirt and looked down at the twin circles on his body. The writhing tentacles emerging from them reached almost up to his arms.

“Were they always this long?” Damien asked worriedly.

“I don’t think so,” Sylph said, squinting at it. “Maybe they absorbed some of the power during the core evolution?”

“Wonderful.”

“Do you feel any different?”

“Not really,” Damien said. “Just tired. And a little hungry, but not enough to actually get anything to eat. Did you get any good gains from Delph’s training?”

He tapped his bracelet and words scrawled themselves in the air before his eyes.

Damien Vale

Blackmist College

Year One

Major: Undecided

Minor: Undecided

Companion: [Null]

Magical Strength: 9.5

Magical Control: 1.3

Magical Energy: 20.1

Physical Strength: .37

Endurance: 1.5

“Some, but nothing too crazy,” Sylph replied. “And, unless you want to run down to the general store and beg the clerk for food, I think there’s only one problem we can solve right now.”

Damien nodded. The mere thought of the bed had reminded his body of how tired it was from after the core evolution, and he could practically feel nonessential functions shutting off. He flopped down into his bed, not even bothering to remove his clothes.

He caught Sylph doing the same out of the corner of his eye, but his tired mind barely even registered it before the embrace of sleep swallowed him. Mercifully, Henry and Herald both decided to spare Damien a nighttime visit, so the night passed peacefully and without interruption.

The next morning, faint rays of sun peeked in from around the cracks in the door. Damien groaned, rolling over and shoving his face into the pillow. Core evolution or not, every single part of his body ached, and he couldn’t be bothered to get out of bed and drag himself to the shower so it could heal.

The shower turned on. He curled his nose and rolled over again. Sylph wandered out a few minutes later and nudged him. “Stop being lazy.”

“No,” Damien grumbled. “We fought off a monster horde yesterday.”

“We fought like three monsters,” Sylph said. “The professors did everything else.”

“Semantics,” Damien muttered, but he rolled out of bed. Sylph cocked an eyebrow as he dragged himself past her and into the shower. A short while later, he reemerged feeling mostly reinvigorated.

The remains of the panther hadn’t survived their core evolution, so the two of them headed down to the mess hall to get breakfast. Luckily, the large woman staffing them was still present. Once they’d eaten, they made their way back to their rooms. Most of the campus was still deserted, but there were a few more people walking around than the previous day.

“How long do you think it’s going to take until all the other students get back?” Damien asked, sitting on his bed. “Even if they have the guys in the red robes go out and collect everyone again, it’ll probably still take a while.”

“I doubt all of them went home,” Sylph replied. “They probably just got sent to a nearby city that was considered safe. I’m sure everyone will be back by the end of today.”

“That’s probably a good point,” Damien said. “I suppose there’s not much to do than practice, then.”

“That’s how it generally is,” Sylph said, a grin tugging at the edge of her lips. “At least we can say we got to do something during the siege. I’m sure at least somebody will be jealous.”

Damien chuckled as they both headed into their respective training rooms. Once Sylph was out of sight, Henry slipped out and rose from the shadow beside Damien.

“Ready to practice Warp Step again?” Henry asked. “Your core evolution shouldn’t have affected your progress with it much, but it hardly matters. You were almost there already, so you should have it figured out in a day or two.”

I hope so. The spell is interesting, but I have to admit that the spells that make things explode are a little more…cool.

“And this is coming from the boy who didn’t want to be a combat mage just a short time ago,” Henry said, scoffing. “And don’t worry, we can focus on some more destructive spells after you figure out Warp Step.

Damien nodded. He drew on the Ether and got back to work, eager to finally get a handle on the spell.

As it turned out, it didn’t even take him the rest of the day to push through the last stretch. Just an hour or two after lunch, Damien was able to cast Warp Step correctly at least six out of ten times. It was far from mastery, but he was happy with it.

“Does that ever get old?” Sylph asked from her bed as Damien blinked across the room, nearly running face first into the wall.

“Not in the slightest,” Damien replied, cackling. He vanished again, this time tripping over his bed and falling straight into it with a grunt. Sylph laughed. The motes of dark energy floating around her faded as she lost concentration.

“Ha ha,” Damien said, rolling his eyes and brushing imaginary dirt off himself. “I don’t see you practicing your new spell. It’s not fair that you’re the only one that gets to laugh. I’m sure yours isn’t going all that much better.”

“It isn’t,” Sylph admitted. “It’s the first time I’ve learned a new spell in a very long time. The last one was my camouflage, and I was taught that when I was eleven.”

Damein blinked. “Damn. That—”

“Sucks,” Sylph finished. “But it doesn’t matter now. I’ve got a chance to progress again, and I am making progress. It’s just slow.”

“Anything worth showing?” Damien asked.

Sylph pursed her lips. She raised a hand, concentrating on it for a few moments. One of her fingertips shimmered, the end growing sharp and lengthening. Before Damien could get a good look, it snapped back to its normal appearance.

“Damn,” Sylph muttered. “I still don’t have a lock on it. It’s harder than it looks.”

“I can imagine,” Damien said. “But what’s the point of making your fingers sharp? You can already make shadow swords or . Isn’t that just the same thing?”

Sylph smirked. “It’ll have more applications than that, but I don’t want to talk about them now in case I can’t get the magic to work right. I’ll show you what it can do once I figure out how to control it.”

“Fair enough,” Damien agreed, Warp Stepping across the room again. Syph groaned.

“Your endless amounts of Ether are so annoying,” she complained. “It’s like you never run out.”

Damien blinked over to stand beside her bed. He stubbed his toe hard against the post, and he cursed, hopping around on one foot and holding the injured foot. After a few moments, he cleared his throat and regained as much of his dignity as he could. “Coming from the person who placed rank one in the ranking battles.”

“And I plan to do so again next year,” Sylph said with a smug grin. “Then again, with the rate you’re improving at, I might have to shoot for second.”

“We’ll both probably have to put in our all,” Damien said. “If Mark figures out how to control his companion—or just lets the damn thing loose—we’d both probably have a lot of difficulty standing against it.”

Sylph nodded thoughtfully. “Although that’s all assuming the school doesn’t get ransacked by monsters looking for Delph’s pendant.”

“Yes,” Damien agreed. “I suppose that’s true.”

After a few more minutes of small talk, they both got back to work. Damien continued practicing Warp Step while Sylph returned to meditating and attempting to grasp the reins of her own spell.

The rest of the day passed quickly and the following one was upon them before they knew it. As Sylph had predicted, the campus had come back to life overnight. When the two of them walked outside, Mark sat beside Nolan, who was hunched over a stack of paper and drawing a rune circle.

Damien peered over the boy’s shoulder and grimaced. A moment later, the paper in Nolan’s hand burst into flame. It shriveled up and turned to ash within moments, blowing away in the wind.

“Was that supposed to be a heat rune?” Mark asked.

“No,” Nolan said, sighing. “It was meant to be a barrier.”

“It wasn’t a very good barrier.”

“I’m aware,” Nolan said, brushing his hands off and craning his neck to glance up at Damien and Sylph. “I didn’t see you two at the evacuation. Delph wouldn’t let us into your room. What happened?”

“Well, that’s a bit of a long story,” Damien said. He didn’t see any reason to hide it from Nolan, so he explained the events of the past few days.

Chapter Twenty-One

Nolan’s eyebrows continually rose as Damien spoke. By the time he finished, the noble’s brows threatened to vanish beneath his hair.

“You went through core evolution? In Year One?”

“It wasn’t entirely voluntary,” Damien said. “Delph pretty much said it was now or never.”

“Well, it worked,” Mark said, tilting his head and examining Damien and Sylph. “Now, the two of you are even more of a problem. When are you going to slow down to give the rest of us time to catch up?”

“If you deserve to be at the top, then you’ll catch up,” Reena said, pushing the curtain in front of her room out of the way and walking outside. She stopped a few feet away from them and crossed her arms. “You don’t get strong by doing nothing.”

“You’re one to talk,” Nolan said, setting his papers to the side and standing up with a grunt. “When’s the last time you practiced?”

Reena just scoffed and turned away from him. “I was just heading out to practice. Not like you’ve got any plans of joining me. You’re barely passing your rune class, so spending time on combat would be foolish.”

Nolan’s lips pressed together, proving that his sibling’s words had struck home. He grabbed the sheaf of papers off the ground and gave everyone a firm nod before striding into his room and pulling the curtain shut behind him.

Reena turned up her nose and stormed down the mountain path, disappearing from sight. The others watched her leave, then turned to each other.

“What’s their problem?” Sylph asked. “Did something happen while the monsters were attacking?”

“No clue,” Mark replied. “I don’t really care about them all that much. All I care about is getting strong. They aren’t a threat.”

“That doesn’t mean they can’t become one,” Damien said with a frown. “And they’re your friends, aren’t they?”

“Friends?” Mark asked. “Why? They just live next to us. You don’t even like them yourself.”

“They’re a bit rough around the edges,” Damien admitted. “They aren’t that bad, though. You can’t blame them for their upbringing, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen them at each other’s throats like this. Nolan is doing his best. I think Reena is a bit manipulative, but she isn’t malicious. I think.”

“Not my problem,” Mark said, shrugging. “I don’t care about them. Their power is inconsequential, and politics don’t matter to me. I just want to be strong.”

“Why not?” Sylph asked. “The Grays have significant influence throughout the kingdom. Even if you don’t like them, there isn’t a real reason to not at least be friendly with them, is there?”

“I don’t care about the kingdom,” Mark said, looking out over the horizon. “I’m not staying here. After I graduate, I’m going to go past the frontlines.”

“Don’t you mean to the frontlines?” Sylph asked. “Because if you do, you’re not getting away from politics. It’s everywhere, and I’m sure the frontlines are no different.”

“I meant what I said. There’s more than what you imagine beyond the frontlines. Much more.”

“Like monsters?” Damien asked.

“Among other things,” Mark said, pushing himself to his feet. “I don’t have a place in the kingdom. I can’t be my true self here. The mages showed me how to act civilized, but it grates on my nerves. The sooner I can leave, the better. I just need to learn how to control my abilities first.”

He walked back into his room, disappearing into his bathroom and pulling the curtain shut behind him.

“Friendly crowd today,” Sylph said.

“You don’t say,” Damien said. “What’s gotten into everyone? You’d think we’d be the grumpy ones after having to deal with the core evolution and Delph’s antics. Oh, well. I guess everyone has off days.”

“But they aren’t usually all at the same time,” Sylph said. “Not our problem, though. You want to get breakfast?”

“I was about to suggest the same thing,” Damien said with a grin. “Mess hall?”

Sylph nodded. They started to walk toward the path down the mountain. Damien froze as Henry sent him a sudden mental warning and vanished, slipping into the protection of his inner psyche. Sylph’s stance shifted as she noticed the change in Damien’s demeanor.

A moment later, Whisp hurtled out of the clouds. The acting dean slowed as she approached them, touching down gently on the ground before them. She brushed the hair out of her face and cocked an eyebrow.

“Why do the two of you look like you’re about to attack me?”

Damien forced himself to relax. “Sorry. You surprised us.”

“I’d hope so,” Whisp said. “It would be embarrassing to not be able to sneak up on two Year Ones.”

“Can we help you with something?” Sylph asked, her tone clipped. Damien could have sworn she disliked the woman more than he did.

“I’d like to speak with you both,” Whisp said, tapping her foot on the ground impatiently. “Over breakfast, perhaps?”

“What does the acting dean need with mere Year Ones?” Damien asked.

“Don’t play that shit with me, Vale,” Whisp said, pressing her lips together and raising an eyebrow. “Neither of you are ‘mere Year Ones’. Just by power, you’re at least a Year Two. The only thing your missing is the ability to bring your companions out. Frankly, I’m not here to play verbal pattycake with children. Are you going to talk, or am I going to have to do this the hard way?”

“I’m listening,” Damien said.

Whisp grimaced. “Not like this. It feels wrong. It’s early, but I doubt the two of you have eaten yet. How about we do this over breakfast? I’ll pay.”

Damien looked over at Sylph, who gave him a small one-shouldered shrug.

“Fine,” Damien said. It wasn’t like he had much of a choice anyway.

Whisp gave them a tight grin. “Good. I know a good place that we won’t have to wait too long for, and it’ll be a little more private than the mess hall.”

She flicked her fingers, and purple energy snaked outwards, wrapping up and around Damien and Sylph’s backs. The two of them lifted into the air. Whisp shot up, and they flew after her, hurtling through the sky like a trio of meteors.

Wind buffeted against Damien’s face with such intensity that he had to squeeze his eyes shut to avoid hurting them. It was cold and the wind stung against his face. Luckily, the trip only took a few moments.

As they slowed back down, Damien opened his eyes. They landed in a section of campus near the walls that he hadn’t been in before. There were a dozen homely looking buildings scattered throughout the area and a small park in the center, complete with benches and a garden.

The energy dissipated, dropping them on their feet. Whisp set off toward the nearest building, pulling open the rosewood door and glancing back at them. Damien and Sylph followed after her as she stepped inside.

Considering they were getting breakfast, Damien suspected that it was a restaurant of some kind, but nothing like what he was used to. There were no tables, just a thin corridor leading up to a booth. A sharply dressed man with slick hair and stood behind it, his face an unreadable mask.

He inclined his head as the three of them approached. “Dean Whisp. Welcome back to the establishment.”

“A table for three please, Gerald. A private one,” Whisp said.

“Of course. Please follow me,” Gerald replied, stepping to the side and walking down the hall. They followed after him, passing multiple doors and making a few turns before stopping near a bend.

Gerald pushed the door open and gestured for them to enter. Behind it was a small room with a table in the center. Four beautifully carved chairs sat around it, and the table was covered with a plain yet high quality tablecloth. Gentle sunlight spilled in from a round window. Two velvet curtains hung beside it.

Damien and Sylph sat down on one side of the table, and Whisp sat on the other. Gerald swept past them, placing three sets of utensils and napkins on the table. He then deposited a leather bound menu in each of their hands. Gerald grabbed the extra chair and gave them a polite nod before vanishing out the door and closing it gently behind him.

“This place seems a bit fancy,” Damien observed.

“It’s just a restaurant,” Whisp replied, grabbing the menu and flipping through it. “Get whatever you want.”

Damien picked up his own menu and looked through it. There were only a few dishes offered, and he couldn’t pronounce any of them. He snuck a glance at Sylph, but she didn’t seem particularly bothered.

A few minutes later, the door opened again, and Gerald stepped inside. “Is there anything I can get you started with?”

“I’ll take a wine,” Whisp said. “Something that tastes good, not the crap you keep for the old prunes who want to show off their talents.”

“Of course,” Gerald said, not perturbed by her behavior in the slightest. “And the two of you?”

“Water, please,” Damien requested.

“Milk,” Sylph said. “If you’ve got it.”

“It will be right out,” Gerald promised. “Would anyone like today’s appetizer?”

“What is it?” Whisp asked.

“We’ve got a finely smoked daggerfish, seasoned with a balsamic drizzle and orange zest,” Gerald said. “The fish was caught this morning and teleported in.”

“That sounds good,” Sylph said. “I’ll take it.”

“As will I,” Whisp said.

Gerald nodded. “I shall return momentarily. Thank you for your patience.”

He swept out of the room once more, closing the door soundlessly behind him. There were a few moments of awkward silence. Damien finally broke it by clearing his throat.

“What was it you wanted to speak to us about, Dean Whisp?”

“A deal,” Whisp replied.

“What sort of deal do you need to make with students?” Sylph asked.

Whisp opened her mouth, but the door swung open again. Gerald stepped through, setting two plates down before them. Damien had to admit that they looked delicious. The fish had turned a light brown from the smoke and drizzle, but it was evident that it was still completely packed full of flavor. Specks of orange were peppered throughout it, giving the whole meal a vibrant look. It was hard to believe that it was just an appetizer.

“Would you like more time to decide your main course?” Gerald asked.

“Just get me whatever the chef wants to make,” Whisp said, folding up the menu and handing it back to him.

“I’ll have the white chocolate cream and strawberry mille-feuille,” Sylph said, closing her own menu.

Damien glanced down at his own menu, then pointed at a dish at random. “I’ll have this one.”

Gerald collected their menus and gave them a nod before leaving once again. Damien and Sylph turned to Whisp, who grabbed her fork and speared a slice of fish. She popped it into her mouth and chewed for a few moments.

“There’s a competition coming up,” Whisp said. “And I need Blackmist to win.”

“A competition?” Damien asked as Sylph claimed a considerably smaller piece of her own appetizer and carefully took a small bite out of it.

“Yes,” Whisp said. “A very important one.”

“Why ask us?” Damien asked. “We’re Year Ones. Even if the competition allowed us to enter, how would we win? Surely, there are much stronger people enrolled.”

“You don’t need to win the whole thing,” Whisp said. “It’s split in two. One half is the lowerclassmen, and the other half is the upperclassmen. So, you don’t need to beat everyone, just Year One and Twos.”

“Why should we enter it?” Sylph asked. “And why both of us?”

“Because of the prize,” Whisp said. “And because having two ways to win is better than having one. Even if Mark technically scored higher on the ranking battles than Damien, he’s…well, not a good fit for this. He can’t go all out against other students.”

“What’s the prize?” Damien asked.

Whisp tossed another slice of fish into her mouth. “Depends. For the winning students, it’s a good amount of cultivation resources and a fat bag of gold. For the school, it’s a spot or two of access to a sealed labyrinth.”

“Full of treasure?” Sylph guessed.

“Among other things,” Whisp said. “And we want access to it. The labyrinth is a training ground of sorts for students, and it’s full of spells and artifacts. Many of them could be key in raising Blackmist’s rank among the other colleges.”

“That’s nice,” Sylph said, spearing a slice of fish and offering the fork to Damien. “Is this something open to all students to enter?”

Damien took the offered fork and ate the fish off it. His eyes widened slightly at the burst of flavor that ran through his mouth. The light, citrusy tang mixed incredibly well with the powerful smoked fish and faint vinegar.

“The top students from any school can enter it,” Whisp said, crossing her arms. “Why?”

“Then we can enter the tournament of our own will. You need something else,” Sylph said.

Whisp’s eyes narrowed. “I do. A specific artifact within the labyrinth that the dean and I found back when we entered the tournament. Nobody has retrieved it yet, and we want it.”

“Why should we help, then? If anyone can enter the tournament, we can just go of our own volition and take whatever we want for ourselves.”

“Two reasons,” Whisp replied. “First, you can keep everything other than the artifact I want. The location of this artifact is well-hidden, and you almost certainly won’t find it without my help. There are other treasures in the area as well, and many of them would be invaluable to you.”

“And the second reason?” Sylph asked.

Whisp smirked. “Did you know that a few professors are putting pressure on me to find the locations of a student named Jayce? He’s currently believed to be missing, but everyone is almost certain he never left campus. Tell me, if I looked closely into this particular student, what do you think I would find?”

“How would we know?” Sylph asked, not missing a beat.

“Very good,” Whisp said. “That might even fool other people, but I’m well-aware Damien had something to do with the boy’s disappearance. Before you protest, listen to my terms. You get me this artifact and I drop the case completely. Jayce disappears into the annals of some forgotten book, and nobody mentions him again. I won’t even bother the two of you unless there’s something directly school-related. My word.”

The door swung open again, and Gerald stepped inside carrying three dishes. He set them down on the table before them. Damien’s was a strange blob of tan looking jelly with a brown crust on the top. Sylph had what appeared to be a cake covered in cream and strawberries, and Whisp had a massive steak. The waiter left without another word.

“Think about it,” Whisp said, grabbing a knife and cutting a large piece of the expensive looking meal off. “You can give me your decision after you eat.”

Chapter Twenty-Two

“No need,” Damien said, his eyes narrowing. He handed the fork back to Sylph. “You’re still trying to imply that I had something to do with Jayce’s disappearance. I didn’t. The last time I saw Jayce was right after he tried to kill me.”

“So you’re refusing?” Whisp asked, cocking an eyebrow and eating the piece of meat.

“No,” Damien said. He crossed his arms. “I’m saying your terms aren’t good enough. Shoot higher.”

Whisp nearly choked. A curt laugh burst out of her mouth, and she shook her head. “Seriously? You’re trying to bargain with me?”

“We’re already bargaining,” Damien replied. “The only thing we’re talking about now is the price.”

Whisp harrumphed. “Perhaps. So, then, oh innocent one, what do you propose? I’m curious to see what you’ll try to wring out of me.”

“All the terms of the original deal, largely because I’m fed up with you holding this over my head,” Damien said, raising a finger. “And a favor.”

“A favor?” Whisp asked. “You’re going to have to be more specific than that.”

“That’s all I’ve got,” Damien replied. “Nothing too big. Maybe a teleportation somewhere, or a few hours where you have to turn your back and pretend you didn’t see something. I don’t know. I haven’t figured it out yet.”

Whisp drummed her fingers on the table. “I have the right to refuse or negotiate the favor when you ask it.”

“Only within reason. If we can’t come to an agreement on the favor within five minutes after I ask for it, let’s just say you owe me…ten thousand gold. Actually, toss five thousand gold our way anyway. It’s not like we have any reason to help you.”

“That’s a ludicrous amount of money. What could you possibly need that for?” Whisp asked.

“None of your business. Better make sure you find terms that are agreeable when I ask for the favor, then,” Damien replied. “Paying five thousand is better than ten.”

“Hm,” Whisp said, cocking her head and examining him for a moment. “Very well. And what of you, girl? Any little caveats you want to add yourself? Perhaps a personal butler?”

“If you’re offering, some free cultivation resources might be nice,” Sylph said.

Whisp rolled her eyes. “You’re both rug salesmen in training. Fine. I will provide what you request.”

The three of them ate the rest of their meals in silence. Damien had to admit that it was delicious, but a large portion of his enjoyment was ruined by Whisp’s unblinking eyes constantly burning into him.

Once they’d all finished eating, Whisp stacked several gold coins on the table. She stood, wiping her mouth with the back of a shirt sleeve and letting out a contented sigh.

“I can never get enough of this place,” Whisp said. “And now for some wine to wash it all down. I don’t suppose you drink?”

Damien and Sylph both shook their heads.

“Then our business is done,” Whisp said. “The tournament will take place in several months, near the middle of the school year. Obviously, if you somehow fail to pass your finals or don’t make it into the tournament, our deal is off. You aren’t the only people I’ve contacted about this, so don’t feel too special.”

With that, Whisp waved her hand in a dismissive motion. They were only too happy to step out of the room and retrace their steps out of the strange restaurant.

“I wonder what artifact could interest Whisp so much that she’d try to make a bargain with us,” Damien said. “If she’s playing at something, I don’t know what it is.”

“Neither do I,” Sylph replied. “But I do know we probably would have tried to enter the tournament anyway, so we didn’t lose anything agreeing to try. Extra cultivation resources are too useful to simply ignore, and the money doesn’t hurt. Good move.”

The air beside them warped. To their credit, neither Damien nor Sylph flinched as Delph appeared striding alongside them as if he’d been there the entire time. Frankly, it was possible that the man had been there the entire time.

“You have to pass your finals first,” the professor said, stroking his chin. “Something which you two don’t seem to be particularly concerned about, even though they’re only a little over a month away.”

“Hello, Professor,” Damien said. “Should we be concerned? I don’t want to seem cocky, but we’re significantly above most of our class. If we can’t pass, I don’t think they will either.”

“What makes you think the test is a general one? It could be personalized.”

“That wouldn’t make sense,” Sylph replied. “If it was personalized, you’d end up flunking your more talented students.”

Delph’s nose curled. “Gah, I suppose that’s true. Fine, you’re right. I highly doubt any of the finals will pose any issue for you. So long as you don’t sit around doing nothing from now until then, there’s almost no way you fail mine. I can’t speak for your other classes, but something tells me you’ll be fine.”

“So what’s the point of popping up like this?” Damien asked. “It seems sort of pointless, and you don’t do pointless things.”

“Tell that to the dean,” Delph muttered. “But you’re right, I do have a point. There’s one more quest week before finals. Tell me, have you finished all the required quests for progressing to the next year yet?”

“Not yet,” Sylph said. “But we’re close. It won’t be hard for us to finish them off. Why does that matter?”

“Well, you’ve gone on a special quest for Whisp,” Delph said, giving them a small shrug. “I figured you might want the chance to do another one with me at the lead instead.”

“You?” Damien asked, shocked. “Why are you leading a quest?”

“You don’t have to sound so shocked,” Delph said. “And it’s in relation to the little dalliance the college had with the monster horde. I can’t tell you more than that unless you accept, but I can promise it’ll be a very enlightening experience.”

Damien examined Delph’s face for a few moments, which was harder to do than it sounded while they were walking. “Something tells me that saying ‘no’ wouldn’t go well for us.”

“What gives you that idea?” Delph asked, cocking an eyebrow. “Have I ever done anything to make you think I would do something petty and vindictive if you didn’t do what I asked?”

“Yes,” Damien and Sylph said at the same time.

“Wonderful,” Delph said. “Then I’ve got your answer. I’ll pick the two of you up in two weeks. Don’t be doing any weird teenager stuff when I arrive.”

He contorted, disappearing into his cloak just as they turned the corner and stepped onto the main street. A loud group of students walked past them, chattering excitedly. Once they passed, Damien let out a heavy sigh.

“He’s insane.”

“That’s hardly news,” Sylph said. “At least he basically said we’d pass the finals, though. That helps alleviate a little stress.”

“Did you really think you wouldn’t?” Damien asked, tilting his head.

“Everyone has worries, even if they might be a bit irrational.”

“Fair enough.”

They finished the rest of the walk to their room, and both got to work on their respective training. With Delph’s quest so soon on the horizon, neither of them had any plans of letting any time slip away. Every minute of preparation could mean the difference between success and, at the least, painful failure.

Damien fell into something of a rhythm once again. He trained magic in the mornings, then sparred and got lunch with Sylph afterwards. Whenever they ran out of food, they returned to the forest to hunt. He then spent the rest of the day casting repetitive spells to cultivate. At night, Henry brought Damien into the mental world to train even further.

Instead of trying to start on a new spell, he focused on getting a better mastery over the ones he’d already learned. Warp Step grew easier and easier for him to cast, although it was still his hardest spell by far.

As for Sylph, she spent almost all of her time in the training room. She woke before Damien and went to bed long after him. He was starting to get desperately curious as to what the girl was working on, but he respected her privacy too much to pry. Even Henry admitted to being curious, but he honored Damien’s wishes to leave her alone.

She’d tell him whenever she was ready to. Until then, Damien was resolved to wait. They went to dinner with Mark and the Grays a few times, but it was clear that finals were hanging low over everyone’s minds.

Well, almost everyone’s. Mark didn’t seem to care in the slightest, but that was just about normal for him anyway. Damien also took pity on Nolan’s amusingly bad attempts to learn runecarving and spent an evening going over the art with him, showing the noble as many tips and tricks as he could cram into his head.

Damien wasn’t sure if his tutelage had worked, but at least he stopped waking up to the smell of burnt hair lingering outside their door from Nolan’s failed attempts.

Reena continued to try and get into Damien’s good graces, which only served to make him more uncomfortable around her. Her attempts grew more frequent as finals approached. However, after Damien helped Nolan, they abruptly stopped.

Whether that was because Reena’s goal had always been to get him to help the boy or if Nolan had stopped her, Damien didn’t care. He was just glad to have her out of his hair. He’d gained a little respect for Nolan, but every interaction he had with Reena left a bitter aftertaste in his mouth.

Fortunately—or perhaps unfortunately—Damien didn’t have long to think over such things. The two weeks passed and, before he knew it, the morning of the quest week arrived. He and Sylph were both rudely awoken as their door swung wide open and Delph strode inside.

Damien blinked wearily, groaning and sitting up. “What time is it?”

“Time to get up. We’ve got monsters to kill,” Delph said, letting the door swing shut behind him. “Go take a shower or something. You look exhausted.”

“I wouldn’t look so tired if you didn’t barge into our room at…” Damien peered past him, but it was still dark outside, “whatever time it is.”

Sylph was smarter. Instead of joining the conversation, she just pulled herself out of bed and headed into the bathroom. She pulled the curtain shut and the shower turned on a moment later.

“What’s the reason for showing up so early?” Damien asked. “Is this secret or something? Because you did just loudly announce it for everyone in the vicinity to hear, so Mark or the Grays might have listened in.”

“Not really a secret, although I wouldn’t tell them anything they don’t need to know,” Delph replied. “And get used to waking up early. It’s the best time of day.”

“Agree to disagree. Besides, I don’t know if you can really claim it’s currently daytime,” Damien muttered. Sylph emerged from the bathroom a minute later, and Damien took her place. The shower did a lot to help wake him up, but he still wasn’t particularly pleased about being awake so early. He grabbed his toothbrush on the way out and tossed it into his travel pack.

“Are you two ready?” Delph asked.

“For what? You haven’t told us anything about the quest,” Damien pointed out. “Are you at least going to give us a summary of what we’re supposed to do?”

“I’m getting there,” Delph replied. “And, while this isn’t a secret quest, it might be better to do it away from anyone who might be prying.”

He extended his hands. After a moment of hesitation, Damien and Sylph accepted them. Gray energy flared and his cloak expanded, enveloping the three. They disappeared in a flash, leaving no trace behind.

A mote of gray bloomed underneath a large tree, depositing them all on the wet grass. Damien staggered, grimacing as his stomach churned violently. He’d gotten so used to the teleportations that he’d nearly forgotten that long distance ones made him sick. Luckily, he managed to keep his food in.

They stood at the edge of a large field and the start of a sparse forest. The grass, still wet from the previous night’s rain, reached up past Damien’s knees and tickled his fingertips. “Where are we?”

“Under a tree,” Delph said helpfully.

“Could we get a little more specific?” Sylph asked.

“I could,” Delph said. “I won’t, but I could.”

“Well, that’s nice. So much for this not being secret,” Damien said.

“Oh, it isn’t. I just like keeping people wondering. Makes me feel smart,” Delph said with a straight face. It was impossible to tell if the professor was joking or not. “Besides, it hardly matters where we are.”

“Can you at least tell us what we’re doing?” Sylph asked. “Not that this is uncommon for you, but we have absolutely no idea what’s going on.”

“We’re here to try and figure out what the artifact that I stole from the dean’s office does,” Delph said. “And before you ask, the way we’ll be doing that is an old mage.”

“An old mage?” Damien blinked.

“Yes, those were the words I said. Very astute,” Delph said. He started walking into the forest. Damien and Sylph followed after him.

“What does an old mage have anything to do with an artifact that belonged to a group of monsters from beyond the frontlines?” Sylph asked.

“She’s an expert in identification of artifacts,” Delph replied. “Was pretty famous for it, back in the day. Used to charge exorbitant fees for even the smallest identification. Ridiculous, really. But she was good at her job.”

“I thought we were going to be fighting something,” Damien said, frowning. “Why do you need us for this?”

“Would you prefer to fight something?” Delph asked, cocking his head. All traces of the plains behind them had vanished behind the countless trees. “Actually, that might not be a bad idea. Maybe we could beat the information out of her instead of paying whatever ridiculous price we get quoted.”

“I don’t like how you’ve said ‘we’ while talking about a crime,” Damien said, narrowing his eyes. “Is this quest even official with the school?”

“Of course it is,” Delph said, waving his hand. He stepped over a particularly gnarly looking root, then turned to the right. Damien had no idea how the man was navigating. As far as he could tell, every single tree in the forest looked identical. “For being tired, you two are awful chatty.”

“One more question,” Sylph said. “What use could you possibly have for us if you’re just talking to a mage?”

“Ah,” Delph said, wincing slightly. “There’s a non-zero chance she despises me. I did try to kill her a few years back, and some small-minded people aren’t very forgiving of things like that.”

Chapter Twenty-Three

They peppered Delph with questions after that, but the man refused to answer a single one. He just kept walking, ignoring the two students completely. After a few minutes, they gave up and followed after him silently.

The thing that really surprised Damien wasn’t the fact that Delph had tried to kill someone. It was that they’d survived. The strange professor had enough strength for even Henry to respect him, so for someone to have survived Delph actively trying to off them was seriously impressive.

When Delph took one final turn and brought them to a halt before a small log cabin nestled into a clearing in the trees, Damien had already built a mental picture of the mage in question.

“So, what are we supposed to do?” Sylph asked.

“I’m figuring it out,” Delph replied. “There are probably traps on the door. Maybe the clearing, too. It’s too dangerous to walk in there without protection.”

“Even for you?” Damien blinked, doing a double take and scanning the clearing again. It looked perfectly normal to him.

Henry?

“I don’t see anything,” his companion muttered. “It appears to be a normal clearing to me. Some traces of magic, but nothing too strong.”

Delph nodded, unaware of Damien’s internal conversation. “Yes. Even for me. Perhaps more so for me than for you. In fact, Damien, go knock on the door.”

“What? No!”

“Fine. Then you do it, Sylph.”

“I’m not going anywhere you’re scared to walk,” Sylph replied, crossing her arms. “I’m not suicidal.”

“Then we’re going to be stuck here for a long time,” Delph said, leaning against a tree and pressing his lips together.

“Isn’t it the professor’s job to take care of his students?” Damien asked. “You’ve got more shielding than us. How can it be dangerous for you?”

As they bickered, the curtains in one of the windows shifted to the side. All three of them froze. The door swung open, and a tall woman swept out, her eyebrows lowered her lips curled inwards in an annoyed frown. Her long, curly ginger hair bounced below her shoulders like a miniature sea of fire.

The woman was stunningly beautiful. Every single one of her features looked like it had been painted with careful precision. With one glance at her, the mental image Damien had built shattered into thousands of pieces, which only served to make him more wary of her.

“Delph,” the mage said. Her voice was sultry, but a cold undertone gave her words edge. “What are you doing here? And with children, no less?”

“Trying to get them to knock on your door, actually,” Delph said.

Her sharp eyes ran over both Damien and Sylph. Then she shook her head. “More projects. Of course. I don’t suppose you’ll leave if I ask politely?”

“Nope.”

“Then come in. If I have to deal with you, I’m not doing it sober.”

The woman turned around and strode back into the house, leaving the door open behind her. Damien glanced up at Delph, who still hadn’t moved from his spot.

With a grimace, the professor pushed away from the tree and headed into the log cabin. They followed after him. The inside of the cabin was rather quaint. A small, undecorated wooden table took up much of the space in the middle of the room. It had a single half-finished bowl of oatmeal on top of it. There were several chairs around the table.

Sparsely filled bookshelves lined the walls and there was a door on the left of the room that probably led to the woman’s personal quarters. It swung open after a moment to reveal her carrying a large gray bottle.

She sat down in the chair in front of the oatmeal and gestured for them to do the same. Damien hesitantly pulled out a chair and sat down. Sylph sat beside him, and Delph chose the spot directly across from the woman.

She reached out and a glass materialized in her hand. In a practiced motion, the woman flicked the cork off the top and poured herself a glass of sparkling red liquid. She downed it in one gulp, then leaned back and raised an eyebrow.

“Introduce me to the children, Delph.”

“This is Mal,” Delph said, curling the side of his mouth in mild distaste and waving in her direction.

“Hello,” Damien said. “I’m Damien, and this is Sylph.”

“I wish I could say it was a pleasure,” Mel said, not impressed. “At least you’ve got more manners than your teacher. So, Damien, what brings you and your friend here with Delph?”

“This,” Delph said, pulling the necklace out of his pocket and tossing it onto the table before her.

Mal curled her nose in distaste and poked the prong of her fork through one of the holes in the chain before lifting the necklace into the air and examining it. “Some sort of artifact. What’s so special about it that you have to bother me?”

“I’m pretty sure it incited a monster horde,” Delph said. “There’s got to be something special about it. The horde was completely uncontrolled. It was like they all rushed past the frontlines as soon as they realized that it was missing. No strategy or even a semblance of common sense.”

“I see,” Mel said. She set the necklace back down and poured herself another glass of wine. “You have payment, then?”

“Why would I do that? This is for the good of the kingdom.”

“The kingdom doesn’t exempt me from taxes or buy food for me,” Mel replied. “Coin, Delph. Or something else of value.”

“Just identify it, woman. It’ll take you a few seconds at most.”

“Make me,” Mel replied, cocking an eyebrow. Her hair rippled around her shoulders as if a slight wind had picked up in the room.

“Can’t right now,” Delph replied, jerking his chin at Damien and Sylph. “Children are present. We’d have collateral damage.”

Mel blinked. Her hair fell back down, and her mouth opened in shock. “You shameless little shit. You brought kids so we wouldn’t be able to fight?”

A small grin tugged at Delph’s grizzled face. “We’re getting off topic, Mel. I’d be happy to wrestle you some other time but, right now, we need answers.”

“You think you’re so clever, don’t you?” Mel asked, downing the rest of her drink and tossing the glass over her shoulder. It vanished before it hit the ground. She turned to Damien. “You and your friend will have to wait here for a little. Don’t break anything.”

She stood up and reached across the table, touching Delph on the hand before he could stop her. Damien’s ears popped as the two mages blinked out of existence.

“It is just me, or was there an uncomfortable amount of sexual tension between them?” Sylph asked, not particularly perturbed by their disappearance.

“Way too much,” Damien agreed. “Do you think she tried to kill him because they had a fling?”

“Wouldn’t surprise me. Delph didn’t strike me as the type, but I suppose even he gets human urges every once in a while,” Sylph said. She stood up and walked over to the bookshelf. “Hey, look at this. This is a spellbook.”

Damien joined her and Sylph handed him the book. He felt Henry emerge and scan over it through his eyes.

“Somewhat high-level stuff. For you, at least. Nothing you can learn, though. This is all water magic,” Henry reported. He paused for a few moments as Damien glanced over the other books in the shelf. “They’re all probably on the harder side, actually. I suspect these books would go for a significant amount of money if sold.”

I’m not stealing from her.

“I never said anything like that,” Henry said, chuckling. “You came up with that entirely on your own. I was just letting you know they were expensive.”

Damien frowned and set the book back in its spot. “Well, considering Mel is strong enough to fight Delph, I guess it’s not unreasonable for her to have some books with powerful spells in them.”

“I didn’t see a single high-level spellbook on any of my quests before I joined Blackmist,” Sylph said. “Some mid-level stuff, sure. But nobody, even powerful mages, had high-level ones. The colleges collect them zealously. Mel is either incredibly powerful or has the support from someone who is.”

“I thought her main thing was identifying stuff,” Damien said. “But it almost looks like she’s more of a combat mage.”

What do you think, Henry?

“Let me take a look around. Maybe she’ll have something interesting,” Henry said. Damien felt him channel Ether, but his shadow didn’t budge. That was probably for the best, as if Delph happened to be watching them, it would have caused some problems.

Henry fell silent for a few moments. Damien couldn’t see the effects of whatever spell his companion cast, but the Ether trickling through his core proved that Henry was doing something.

“Well, this isn’t good,” Henry said.

What? Did you find something? Is she trying to kill Delph again or something?

“No clue. Both the woman and Delph aren’t within a hundred miles of the area,” Henry replied. “However, there appears to be a large monster coming through the forest and headed straight for the house. From your memories, I’m pretty sure that it’s an adolescent devourer beast.”

Damien paled. “A what?”

“What’s going on?” Sylph asked.

“A young devourer beast is coming toward us,” Damien said, chewing his lower lip. The pendant on the table caught his attention. Delph and Mel hadn’t brought it with them, wherever they’d gone. “Shit. It’s coming for the pendant.”

“Give me a rundown of its abilities,” Sylph said. “Can we fight it or outrun it?”

“They’re one of the more common monsters on the frontlines,” Damien said. He dug through his memories, trying to dredge up everything he could think of about them. “The fully grown ones can be several stories high, but younger ones are probably no larger than a house. It depends on how old it is. They’re incredibly strong and quick to anger. I don’t think they’re very smart, but they’re also quite fast.”

“Faster than us?”

“I don’t think so. If I use Warp Step and you move as fast as you can, we should be faster than it. It’s probably got more endurance than we do, though. It’ll run us down eventually. I also don’t think your camouflage will work on it unless it can cover your scent. They have a good sense of smell.”

“Hurry up,” Henry said, giving Damien a mental flick. “You’ve got five minutes, tops. I can handle it, but if Delph is watching in any way, he’ll definitely see me.”

That’ll be the last ditch effort. If it’s only adolescent, we’ve got a shot at beating it, right?”

“Probably,” Henry replied. “Just don’t get hit. I don’t think your mage armor is going to do much against it.”

Damien relayed Henry’s words to Sylph. She nodded once he’d finished and started out of the house with him close behind. A faint rumbling in the distance was growing louder by the second.

“What are the chances Delph shows up before that thing gets here?” Damien wondered aloud.

“When has Delph ever showed up on time?” Sylph asked. “If anything, he’ll wait until after the monster attacks us and show up to save the day.”

The tips of the trees in the near distance started to vanish as something tore them out of the way. Damien dropped into a fighting stance, and a shimmering black and green blade formed in Sylph’s hands.

“Panther strategy again?” Damien asked.

“Can you hold on that long?” Sylph asked worriedly. “You can’t let yourself get hit like you did with the panther. Anything this big is going to crush your mage armor.”

“Do you have a better idea?”

“No, not yet.”

“Then panther strategy it is,” Damien said, setting his jaw and drawing Ether into his core.

This feels like something I should have asked earlier, but can I cast two different spells at the same time?

“No,” Henry said flatly. “You don’t have enough mastery over any of your spells yet. One mistake, and you twist the Ether up completely, blowing yourself up in the process. One type of spell at a time.”

Wonderful.

The dirt was practically bouncing beneath their feet now. A savage roar tore through the woods as a furry black hand knocked two trees to the side, ripping them out of the ground and sending them flying.

Despite what Henry had said, the devourer beast hardly looked adolescent to Damien. The spiney gorilla was a head taller than the log cabin. Some of the creature’s rippling muscles were larger than his body. It snarled at them, spittle flying across the clearing.

Sylph flickered out of sight, and Damien thrust a hand toward the monster, sending a gravity drill hurtling through the air. It slammed into the beast’s shoulder, knocking it back but failing to penetrate the monster’s hide.

“How strong is its armor?” Damien cursed as the devourer beast’s beady red eyes focused on him.

It let out a roar and bounded toward him, swinging its arm in a brutal backhanded strike. Damien blurred out of the way, appearing several feet to the beast’s side and staggering slightly. The wind from the monster’s attack had rustled his hair.

Damien formed two gravity spheres and tossed them at the beast. They both landed on its back and detonated, pulling it off balance but failing to do anything other than annoy it.

Why doesn’t my magic work?

“It’s got innate resistance to magic,” Henry said. “Your spells aren’t strong enough to penetrate. You better hope Sylph’s is more effective because you aren’t touching this thing without my help.”

Damien gritted his teeth. The devourer beast lumbered toward him again, this time balling its hands up and bringing them crashing down above him. He used Warp Step again, narrowly avoiding the attack once more.

A shockwave nearly knocked him off his feet as the monster’s huge hands slammed into the ground. The devourer beast spun, locating him much faster than it had the previous time and lunging forward.

Damien’s eyes widened, and he Warp Stepped a farther distance away, appearing on the other side of the clearing.

“Over here!” Damien yelled, drawing the monster’s attention back over to him. It snarled, but instead of moving toward Damien, it turned toward the house and swung a fist at the roof.

Sylph blurred into vision as she dove off the roof and out of the way, hitting the ground in a roll as the devourer beast’s fist demolished a large portion of Mel’s roof. She hopped to her feet and spun, slashing at the back of the monster’s leg with her sword.

A spray of blood shot out from the monster’s legs, and it let out a roar of pain. Sylph darted out of the way, barely avoiding getting crushed under its huge foot. It spun after her, lunging forward as it tried to swat her like an annoying insect.

Damien hurled a gravity sphere. He detonated it when it was several feet away from Sylph. The edge of the spell caught her, yanking the girl out of the way moments before the monster’s hand whistled through the air where she’d been standing.

Sylph landed on her feet and turned to face it again. “Thanks.”

Chapter Twenty-Four

“Anytime,” Damien replied. “And I think we need a new plan.”

Saliva whipped from the devourer beast’s mouth as it leaned forward and let out a furious roar.

“I think you might be right,” Sylph said. “I’ve got an idea, but I need you to distract it. Like, really distract it. It needs to forget I exist.”

The monster examined them with its beady eyes. Its fists balled in the dirt, but it watched them warily. Sylph’s attack had shown that they could injure it, and caution had trickled into its motions.

“You won’t be able to get close if I do,” Damien warned.

“I’ll find a way.”

Damien nodded, drawing Ether inside himself and sending it out into his hands and feet. “Right. Get ready.”

He dashed toward the hulking creature. Its eyes widened for a moment at his newfound bravery, but with a barking laugh-growl, the devourer beast loped forward and swung an open hand at him.

Damien dove to the side, feeling the wind from the strike whistle past his body, and slammed his hands into the ground. The dirt expanded, forming a thick pillar that thrust upward into the creature’s stomach.

The strike wasn’t strong enough to send it flying, but all the air rushed out of the monster’s lungs in a huff. Damien didn’t give it a chance to respond, casting enlarge on the ground right beside the first pillar.

Another pillar shot out, slamming into the monster’s face. It staggered back with a roar, uninjured but incredibly annoyed. Damien kicked the pillar he’d formed and another one shot out of it, striking the overgrown gorilla in the stomach a second time.

Two gravity spheres flickered to life in Damien’s hands. He lobbed them at the monster, detonating them as soon as they grew close and yanking it off balance. He then enlarged a speck of dirt at an angle, sending a pole flying straight into the devourer beast’s crotch.

Ether gathered at Damien’s feet. It formed into two gravity drills that he sent hurtling toward the monster. They both struck it in the chest, churning into the thick hair but still failing to do any serious damage.

It shook its head and loped toward Damien, throwing dirt at him furiously. He Warp Stepped to the side, leaving a gravity sphere behind him. The spell pulled it off balance just long enough for Damien to send another pillar flying at its behind.

The spell did little more than knock it forward a few steps, but when the devourer beast swung back toward Damien, he could see the burning hatred in its eyes had doubled. All thoughts of the pendant inside the log cabin had vanished.

All that remained was the fury toward the small annoying pest peppering it with enlarged rock spears. Damien stuck his tongue out and formed four gravity spheres—two at his hands and two at his feet.

He threw them around the monster as it started to charge, pulling it off balance but failing to stop it completely. Damien Warp Stepped out of the way of a violent crushing strike that sent dirt flying everywhere.

Sylph took that moment to shoot out from where she’d been standing. The monster was so focused on Damien that it barely even registered the dark blur as she dashed forward and thrust the shadow blade into its back.

In an impressive display of acrobatics, Sylph used the hilt of her sword like a bar to swing herself onto the monster’s back. Another blade formed in her hands, and she drove it home into the devourer beast’s neck.

The light in the monster’s eyes blinked out. It took a step forward, then tipped and crashed face first to the ground. Damien slowly lowered his hands. He was breathing heavily, and now that the monster was dead, he was struck by how bad it smelled. It was like a mixture of hot sweat and unwashed armpits.

Sylph stepped off the fallen creature’s back, allowing her shadowy blades to dissipate. She walked to stand beside Damien. “Is there anything else coming?”

“Nothing right now,” Henry said before Damien could ask. “That was it, apparently.”

“Nope. It was just the stinky monkey,” Damien said, pinching his nose. “I don’t think Mel is going to be very happy with us. It smashed her house.”

“You’d be right about that,” Mel’s voice said from behind Damien. He paled and turned around as Delph and Mel walked out from the tree line. Their hair was rassled, and their clothes were covered in dirt. Delph had a cut running down the side of his arm, and Mel had one on her right leg. She did not look happy.

“How long have you been here?” Sylph asked.

“The last bit of the fight, from what it looks like,” Delph replied with a shrug. “We didn’t see the monkey smash Mel’s roof. Unless that was one of you?”

“It was the monkey,” Damien said quickly.

“Bummer,” Delph said. “Good job with the devourer. It looks young, but it was a decent fight from both of you. devourer beasts aren’t to be messed with.”

“It would have been a lot easier if you’d let me finish it off,” Mell said tersely. “There was no need to sit around watching your students and the monster ruin my house.”

“If you hadn’t kidnapped me and attacked me out of nowhere, your house would have been fine,” Delph said. “Besides, it was a teaching moment. Real combat experience is very important.”

“For someone who wants a favor from me, you aren’t being very convincing.”

“Damn,” Delph said. He turned to Damien and Sylph. “Can either of you do puppy dog eyes?”

Mel let out an exasperated sigh. “I can’t wait until someone puts you in your place. I’d do it myself if it wasn’t such a goddamned bother, and I want you out of my hair yesterday.”

“Fastest way to do that is by telling me what the amulet does,” Delph said with a cheerful grin. It was the most terrifying thing Damien had ever seen the man do. His grizzled face didn’t look right with a full smile on it.

“Stop smiling,” Mel said. “It’s creepy, and you’re a psychopath. We both know you’re faking it.”

“Your words wound me,” Delph said, letting the grin drop. “Are you identifying my amulet or not?”

Mel strode past him. She paused by the devourer beast’s corpse, then snapped her hands. After a moment, a gnarled wooden staff shot out from within her house and flew into her hands. She tapped the butt of it against the dead monster.

A whirlpool of white energy expanded over it. Motes of light rose up from the monster, and it started to dissolve. Within moments, it was like it had never been there at all. Mel walked inside and emerged a few moments later holding the amulet.

She leaned against the staff and stared at the small piece of jewelry. Her eyes shimmered, the whites vanishing as they turned completely silver. After a few moments, the strange color faded.

“It’s a key,” Mel said, tossing it to Delph. “And a homing device. It sends out a magical signal every few seconds. I don’t know what the signal is, but it’s probably some sort of ‘come get me’ request. And, before you ask, I don’t know what the key is for. Probably something important considering the number of monsters that apparently want it.”

“Huh,” Delph said. “A key. Lots of fuss for something like that. I wonder what it leads to.”

“I don’t know,” Mel replied. “And frankly, I don’t care. I identified the stupid thing. That means our business is done, right?”

“I suppose it is,” Delph agreed. “I don’t suppose you want to help me figure out what the key is for?”

“Eat shit,” Mel replied, storming inside her cabin and slamming the door shut behind her. The effect was considerably dampened by the fact that Damien could still see the top of her head through the hole in the front ceiling of the house.

“Worth a shot,” Delph said, shrugging at his students. “Either way, we got what we came for. Good job.”

“We barely did anything,” Sylph said. “All we did was kill a juvenile devourer beast.”

“You kept Mel from going ballistic and trying to kill me the moment she saw me,” Delph said. “The monster was nice, too, I suppose. But she probably wouldn’t have agreed to identify the amulet had you not been there.”

“What did you even do to her?” Damien asked.

“I already told you that. I tried to kill her.”

“Well, I got that much. Why?”

Delph shrugged. “It happens sometimes, you know?”

“No,” Damien said, “I don’t. I can’t think of many people you could just accidentally try to kill that would survive you either.”

“Oh, it wasn’t an accident,” Delph said.

Mel poked her head out the door. “Stop dillydallying and get lost! I don’t want to have to see you lot any more than I have to.”

“We’re leaving,” Delph replied with an irritable grunt. He put a hand on Damien and Sylph’s shoulders, and his cloak rippled, reaching out and enveloping them. The world faded to gray, and they vanished.

They reappeared in front of their room. The sun had lowered considerably since they’d left, but it hadn’t even been a whole day.

“That was…fast,” Damien said slowly.

“What, not long enough for you?” Delph asked, grunting. “Dangerous doesn’t mean slow.”

“We’ll take it,” Sylph said. “Does this mean we’re done with the required quests for this year?”

“You are,” Delph said. “The dean will understand. I’ll get you your contribution points and gold for your trouble as well. They’ll be waiting with Auntie. You’ve got the rest of the week to prepare for finals, and I recommend you take it. You might be fine in my class, but I’m going to make sure you work for your pass.”

“Thanks,” Damien said slowly. “Last question, before you leave. Who was that woman?”

“Mel,” Delph replied, crossing his arms. “My wife.”

With that, he condensed into a small gray orb and vanished, leaving Damien and Sylph staring open-mouthed at where he’d been standing.

“He does have a flair for the dramatic,” Sylph muttered, shaking her head.

“Do you even think she’s really his wife?” Damien asked. “It wouldn’t surprise me if he was just lying to mess with us.”

“Does it matter either way? I don’t think we’ll be seeing her again anytime soon. If we do, you’re welcome to ask yourself.”

“I think I’ll pass on that,” Damien said, shuddering. “She liked us little enough already. Just what did Delph do to her? Other than trying to kill her, that is.”

“You act as if that’s not bad enough.” Sylph laughed. “And it hardly affects us. Delph is right about one thing, we need to focus on training. I’m so close to figuring out my new spell that I should be able to get it before the week is out. I know you just got a new one, so learning another spell right before finals might not be on your list, but I’m sure you’ve got something you need to practice.”

“A lot,” Damien agreed, thinking back over the fight with the devourer beast. His magic hadn’t been useless, but it had barely managed to scratch the monster’s thick hide while Sylph’s spells had gone straight through it.

They dispersed into the training rooms, but Damien sat against the wall and scratched his chin in thought.

Henry, why was my magic weaker than Sylph’s?

“It wasn’t,” Henry said. “Not weaker, that is. Your magic is several times more powerful than hers.”

Then why did her spells penetrate the monster’s hide when mine didn’t?

“You waste too much energy,” Henry replied. “Your spells are strong, but you aren’t using the entirety of their effect on a single point or edge like Sylph does. Think of it this way. Let’s say her spell has ten magic points in it, and yours has one hundred. Almost all ten of Sylph’s points are concentrated directly on the edge of her sword. You disperse yours throughout the entirety of your spells, meaning that they’re stronger, but they’re much more spread out.”

So I have to get my spells more concentrated?

“No. You could probably improve your magical control, but there’s no point to spend that much time over it. Sylph has more control than you ever will. She has near complete mastery of her magic, and that means she can get much more effect out of it. You’ll never get the results she does, but it doesn’t matter when you can cast an overwhelming number of spells. You can also overload or learn stronger ones to make up the gap and surpass her.”

Right, I’m with you. By overload, do you mean put more Ether into a normal spell?

“Essentially. You don’t want to do it unless you understand the spell well, but you can probably start looking into that for gravity sphere and enlarge or reduce. You’ve got a decent enough grasp of both spells, so you shouldn’t lose control of the Ether and blow yourself up.”

Noted. I suppose I know what I’ll be practicing until finals come around, then.

And that was what he did. Damien focused his efforts on improving his mastery over the spells he already knew, pushing them to their limit. He pushed as much Ether as he could into gravity sphere, netting some slightly disastrous results in the process.

His efforts resulted in a new, several foot hole in one of the training room walls. In addition, while he spent most of his time simply trying to improve his strength, Henry did have him turn his attention to keeping his magical control at a passable level. His bracelet showed his improvements as well.

Damien Vale

Blackmist College

Year One

Major: Undecided

Minor: Undecided

Companion: [Null]

Magical Strength: 9.9

Magical Control: 2.9

Magical Energy: 20.2

Physical Strength: .39

Endurance: 1.5

It wasn’t much having incredible power if you couldn’t even direct it. His control was a far shot from Sylph’s, but Damien was also pretty sure that there were very few people even slightly close to her.

With his superior Magical Strength and Energy, he was pretty sure he was quickly closing the distance between them, even without Henry’s help.

Damien took a few breaks in his training to get dinner in the mess hall with everyone on the plateau. He spent a little more time helping Nolan with his runes as well, although the noble boy was starting to get somewhat passable at them and needed less and less assistance.

Sylph remained secretive with whatever her new spell was. However, judging by her smug mood several days before finals arrived, Damien got the feeling that she’d succeeded. The two of them stopped their practice three days before the tests arrived, opting to relax instead of overwork themselves.

Greg arrived early in the morning on the first day of finals week. Damien was already waiting for the professor when he arrived.

“That’s a first,” Greg said, cocking an eyebrow. “I usually have to wake the students up. Are you that excited for the final? Or are you perhaps nervous?”

“Excited,” Damien said, opting not to tell the man that Sylph had woken him up a few minutes ago. What he didn’t know wouldn’t hurt him. “This is more of a formality than anything, isn’t it?”

“If anyone else had said that, I would have thought they were bragging out of stress,” Greg said, eyeing Damien. “Sometimes, I can’t tell if I’m even teaching you anything. One moment you seem completely confused, and then the other you know exactly what I’m talking about. It’s as if there are two people trapped inside your head.”

Damien laughed awkwardly. Greg shook his head and put his hand on his shoulder. The two of them vanished in a spark of gray light. They reappeared in the classroom, amongst the other kids that had made it this far.

Just over half the class was still present, and almost all of them looked stressed. Damien sat down in one of the chairs as Greg walked down to the front of the room. The chalk in the bin beside him levitated itself into his hand.

“Before we begin, I’d like to congratulate all of you on making it this far,” Greg said. “It takes a great deal of perseverance and talent to do well in magical theory. So, good job. Now, how many of you have taken a final at Blackmist before?”

Nobody raised their hand.

“Wonderful,” Greg said. The chalk rose into the air behind him and started to draw a smiley face on the board. The professor continued on, either unaware or uninterested in what was happening behind him. “There are only two outcomes: pass or fail. Much like the first exam we took, there will be both a physical and a theory portion of this test. You must pass both in order to pass the class. Are there any questions?”

“How many students usually pass after getting this far?” Reena asked.

“Most,” Greg admitted. “I’m not trying to mislead any of you. This is a difficult class, but if you’ve made it this far, you have at least enough talent for me to pass you. I’m not trying to ensure that you all become researchers. I just want to make sure you can think fast enough on the field so you can protect both yourselves and your friends.”

The chalk started to draw a caricature of Greg on the board beside the smiley face. A few students chuckled, and the tension in the room eased a little. The professor grabbed a towel, erasing the drawing with an irritated sigh. Damien caught the hint of a grin on the man’s face.

“Is everyone ready?” Greg asked. “Please give this your all. Just because I believe you should all pass does not mean this will be easy. If you slack off or don’t show sufficient skill, I will fail you. My priority is your safety not your happiness.”

Everyone nodded. Greg turned back to face them, tossing the chalk into the bin and clapping his hands. A dozen copies of himself flashed into the room. They split off, walking over to the students.

Damien had already gotten used to the process and raised his hand as Greg approached. The professor took it, and they both vanished, teleporting for the second time in the last few minutes.

They reappeared in the same grass field that Damien remembered from the previous exams.

“And so we begin the final,” Greg said. “Are you prepared?”

“As ready as I’ll ever be,” Damien replied.

“Very good. We shall begin with the theoretical portion of the exam. Question one: How would you fight an enemy that is resistant to magic?”

Damien cocked an eyebrow. That question sounded somewhat pointed. “I guess it depends on how resistant the enemy is. If overwhelming force can break through its defenses, I’d go for that. It that isn’t feasible, I know that mages with high control can fight monsters with high magical resistance pretty well. And, if I was alone, I’d probably try to use the terrain to my advantage by dropping a boulder on it or something.”

Greg nodded. The next few questions were hard, much like Damien had expected. Thanks to Henry’s tutelage, he was able to answer most of them on his own. For the ones that were beyond him, Henry whispered the answers into his ears. It was a bit cheap, but there was nothing wrong with using all of your resources. As soon as he was starting to get comfortable again, Greg paused and scratched his beard.

“Next question: How many people have you killed?”

Damien blinked. “What?”

“Is that your answer?”

“No,” Damien said. “The answer is zero. How is that relevant to rational theory?”

“It isn’t,” Greg replied. “I was just curious. Tell me, Damien, how do you know all of this?”

“Well, I think most people would know if they killed someone.”

“Not that,” Greg said. “Your knowledge of magical theory. I’m almost entirely certain now. The questions I just asked you weren’t at the level of a Year One student. They were Year Three at the lowest, and you answered them all without an ounce of hesitation. At first, I thought that you might be a very dedicated student, but I checked the library records. I’ve read every novel you’ve checked out, and none of them were magical theory.”

Damien swallowed, pushing down the panic that threatened to build up inside his chest. All the professor had done was list off suspicions. There was no need to give him extra information. “I had a great tutor at home.”

“I’m sure,” Greg said, snorting. “You’ll have to excuse my disrespect, but country bumpkins are not known for their talent in magic theory. No, I think your teacher is your companion. They can speak to you, can’t they?”

Henry? Little help please.

“He doesn’t know yet,” Henry said. “He suspects, but I don’t believe he’s on the right track. Stick with your plan of claiming I’m from the Plane of Darkness.”

Damien slowly nodded. “He does.”

“Brilliant,” Greg breathed. “And intelligent as well. Your companion has given themselves a gender, even though most monsters are sexless.”

“What does this have to do with my exam?” Damien asked.

“Nothing, actually,” Greg said. “I was simply curious. Tell me honestly, how many of your answers were from your own knowledge as opposed to your companion’s?”

“Most of them,” Damien replied. “He’s taught me a lot.”

“I can tell,” Greg said. “I can’t say I’m not disappointed that you didn’t somehow magically pick all of this up from my class, but knowledge is knowledge. I can’t very well fault you for that. Something tells me you don’t want to share the identity of your companion, though.”

Damien gave him a terse smile. The professor chuckled.

“Unsurprising. Such secrets are more common than you think, although I’m afraid you’ll find that they won’t last you much past Year Two. Either way, it’s none of my business. You’ve completed the theoretical portion of the exam. Are you prepared for the physical?”

Damien’s heart was still racing, but it looked as if Greg was willing to drop the subject. He swallowed and nodded.

“Good,” Greg said. “This physical will be a bit more interactive than the previous one.”

He gestured to his side. The air shimmered as a hulking black monster formed in the air beside him. It was considerably shorter than the one he’d fought with Sylph, but the monster’s spiked back and jagged fangs were unmistakable. Damien bit back a choke as he realized it was a devourer beast.

“This is a devourer beast,” Greg said, oblivious to the boy’s surprise. “A juvenile one. It’s considerably weaker than the real deal, but it’ll serve for the purposes of this exam. This monster is resistant to magic. Please pretend that it has broken off from a monster horde and you are in its way. Defeat it as quickly as possible so that you can rejoin with your fellow mages and fend off the rest of the horde.”

The monster let out a roar and pounded its hands on his chest, sending spittle flying everywhere. To most people, it probably would have been terrifying. However, after seeing the actual monster in action just a short while ago, Damien recovered from his surprise quickly.

He cast out his mental net, drawing Ether out from his core and into his hands. He grabbed multiple times the normal amount as he forced it all into a gravity drill, overloading the spell to the point where it crackled with faint purple light.

Damien thrust his hand forward. The spell flashed silently across the clearing and burrowed deep into the monster’s open mouth, tearing clean through it. It detonated a moment later, the miniature gravity spheres within it collapsing and crushing the devourer beast’s head like a watermelon.

Greg blinked as his creation shattered into shards of gray light and faded away. “Oh.”

“Sorry,” Damien said. “Was I supposed to wait until it attacked me?”

“No…that’s okay,” Greg muttered, sending a disappointed glance at where his construct had been standing. “I just didn’t expect it to die so easily. Most people are at least a little scared when they first see a devourer beast.”

“Do you always choose it for this exam?” Damien asked, a sneaking suspicion rising within him.

“No. It was a suggestion from another professor, actually,” Greg said, his brow furrowing. “My other clones are reporting that the other students are reacting appropriately to it, though— Wait. Delph is your instructor, isn’t he?”

Damien nodded.

“He made you fight a real devourer beast, didn’t he?”

Damien nodded again.

“That annoying— Gah, never mind,” Greg said, pouting like the worlds hairiest baby. “Congratulations, Damien. You pass the class. Tell Delph that he’s an annoying little bugger. I should have known he wouldn’t have tried to be helpful if he didn’t have some stake in the game.”

Before Damien could even respond, Greg shattered apart, transforming into a glowing gray portal.

“That was…almost anticlimactic, actually,” Damien said. After one last glance around, he stepped through the portal.

It dropped him off in front of his room. He walked inside and sat down on his bed with a yawn. Sylph wasn’t there. She was probably taking her own final in magical control. Damien went back over Greg’s exam in his head, trying to make sure he hadn’t given anything too important away.

“Wait,” Damien said, his eyes widening. “Greg said he’s read every book I checked out. Does that mean—”

“Don’t ask questions you don’t want to know the answer to,” Henry said, chuckling. “Let sleeping monsters lie. Greg doesn’t seem to be interested in working against you, so you might as well be happy that you passed the class and leave it at that.”

Damien nodded, mentally scrubbing his thoughts free of what Greg might have been implying. He laid back on his bed, propping his pillow against the wall and making himself comfortable.

A little under an hour later, Sylph pulled the door open and walked inside. She sat across from Damien.

“I take it you passed?” Sylph asked.

“I did,” Damien said. “And learned some unwanted things about my professor in the process. How did your exam go?”

“It was honestly a little easy,” Sylph said. “But that wasn’t a big surprise. There wasn’t much that he could teach me. My instructor from when I was still living in the forest taught me so much that I’m not sure if there’s anything else in the form of theory to learn about magical control.”

“Well, just be happy that you got the class over with, I suppose,” Damien said. “And, unless Delph decides to show up and have us do the final for his class today, we’re pretty much set until tomorrow.”

“I think I’d rather he did it today,” Sylph said with a shrug. “I don’t like having to wait for things. I didn’t really expend very much energy doing the control final.”

“Nor did I with mine,” Damien admitted. “I guess we’ll just have to wait and see if Delph shows up, then.”

Chapter Twenty-Five

As it turned out, they got lucky. Delph showed up the same day, although he stretched the definition of ‘day’ slightly. The professor waited until both Damien and Sylph had gone to bed and were just starting to drift off to sleep.

He pulled the door open and strode into the room with all the grace of a furious bull. “Wake up. There’s been an attack, and the two of you are the only responders in range to assist.”

Damien jerked upright, blinking the traces of sleep out of his eyes. “Really?”

“No, you doofus. You’re surrounded by professors, and I’m right in front of you,” Delph said, crossing his arms. “This is your final, and you’re being graded. Get out of bed.”

With a sigh, Damien did as Delph instructed. By the time he threw on his coat, Sylph was already waiting beside him.

“Follow me,” Delph said, turning and walking out of the door at a brisk pace. Damien and Sylph exchanged a befuddled glance before jogging after him.

Delph led them through the darkened streets of the campus. There were a few other students still milling about, but many of them seemed to be drunk, lost, or otherwise inebriated. Nobody paid the trio much attention.

It didn’t take Damien long to realize that Delph was bringing them to the arena. His suspicions were correct, and they stepped through the portal a few minutes later. Delph slipped through the stands and hopped over the ledge, floating down to the sand below.

Damien and Sylph jumped down after him, watching the professor warily once they landed. Delph smirked.

“Awake yet?”

“Not really,” Damien said, rubbing his eyes. “Why couldn’t you have done this earlier today or tomorrow?”

“You never know when or where you’ll need to fight,” Delph said. “You should be glad I didn’t start the exam inside your room. It wouldn’t have survived.”

“Thanks,” Sylph said dryly. “So, what’s the exam?”

“It should be a familiar one to both of you,” Delph said. “I’m going to transform into a monster. The two of you may work together to attempt and make me concede defeat. I will scale my power to an appropriate level.”

“I thought finals were supposed to be solo?” Damien asked.

“They are,” Delph replied. He cocked an eyebrow. “So, were the ranking battles. You two would still find a way to cheat, so I figured it would be easier to get the problem out of the way before it could arise.”

“Fair enough,” Damien admitted. He cast out his mental net as they spoke, channeling more Ether into his core. It was already largely full from the previous day, but he wasn’t about to take any chances with Delph. He kept the Ether moving, directing it into both his hands and feet as he prepared to cast gravity sphere.

“Are you both prepared?” Delph asked.

“Is this the same exam you gave your other students?” Sylph asked.

“That’s a strange way to say if you’re prepared or not,” Delph said. His skin rippled, turning gray. “I think I’ll take that as a yes.”

Delph’s body surged upward until he was almost twice their height. A clammy blueish hide covered him, and his fingers lengthened into claws. Jagged fangs sprouted from his mouth, and his armor vanished.

Within moments, not a trace of Delph’s original form remained. He’d been completely replaced by a savage-looking humanoid creature. The wendigo let out a hiss, its breath foggy in the night air.

Damien promptly formed all four of his gravity spheres and lobbed them at Delph. Before the spells could even detonate, he cast Devour and wrapped the rune in his mental energy before it could detonate.

The wendigo twisted out of the way, contorting its body as it tried to avoid the gravity spheres. One of them caught Delph in the side while the other three just barely missed. There was a muted thud, and the wendigo staggered. It was pulled off balance by the other three spheres behind it, but it didn’t look to be seriously injured.

Sylph’s dark blade formed in her hands, and she darted forward, thrusting it toward the wendigo’s chest with blinding speed. The monster’s hand flashed forward, batting the strike away. It leaned forward, breathing out a wave of frosty air.

She dove out of the way as frost covered the ground where she’d been standing. Damien shivered as the temperature dropped several degrees. The wendigo turned to follow after Sylph, but she flickered and faded from view.

Damien enlarged a grain of sand beneath his foot, sending a pillar crashing into the monster’s chest. It tumbled backward and landed on its feet, letting out a hiss and charging toward him.

He dashed to the side, spinning and drawing the rune to summon Devour. It sprang to life before him moments before a blast of icy air swept out of the wendigo’s mouth. It vanished into the dark circle, which snapped shut a moment later.

Another pillar made of sand shot out from beneath Damien’s feet. The wendigo was so close that it couldn’t completely avoid the attack. It twisted to the side, but the strike still clipped it in the stomach and spun it around.

Sylph flickered to view at its side and slashed at the creature with her sword. It blocked the strike and hopped backward—landing right in front of Damien’s prepared Devour rune. He triggered the spell, then cast Expunge on it.

Icy wind howled free of the spell, buffeting the wendigo from behind. At the same time, Damien formed a gravity drill in his hand and sent it shooting out toward Delph’s monstrous form. Sylph created a shadowy dagger in her hand and hurled it as well.

The beast snarled, slowed by its own breath weapon, and raised its hands defensively. The gravity drill slammed into its hands, chewing a hole into the creature’s thick flesh. Sylph’s dagger caught it in the stomach, sliding in several inches before vanishing.

With a snarl, the wendigo loped toward them. Damien glanced at Sylph and gave a pointed look at the gravity sphere forming in his hand. She nodded.

He channeled Ether into the gravity sphere, overloading the spell with several times the normal amount of energy before hurling it straight at Delph. Sylph darted toward the wendigo as well, leaping into the air long before she was even close to it.

Damien detonated the spell midway between them. Empowered by the extra Ether, the detonation yanked Sylph and the wendigo toward each other. The wendigo lost its footing as it flew, unprepared for the strength of the spell.

Sylph had no such problems. She held her sword out in front of her and flew feet first toward the wendigo. They slammed into each other. The dark blade punched through the wendigo’s chest, erupting out the other side. She ripped it free and flipped back, landing in the sand with her blade still at the ready.

The large hole in the monster’s chest slowly sealed itself. Damien started to form another spell, but the gray skin faded away. The monstrous features disappeared, and Delph returned, a mixture of annoyance and pride on his rough face.

“Well done. I’m sure this doesn’t come as much of a surprise, but you outperformed all of your classmates,” Delph said. “This was the fastest I was defeated.”

“It’s not like you were going all out,” Sylph said, allowing her blade to vanish.

“You wouldn’t have lasted a second if I did,” Delph smirked. “But you did okay. Especially you, Damien. You’ve progressed more than I ever could have expected this year. It’s hard to believe that the mage in front of me could barely even run a lap around this arena a few months ago.”

“He still has trouble with that, actually,” Sylph said with a small laugh.

Damien glared at her. “Running is hard.”

Delph let out a small chuckle and shook his head. “I’m eager to see what happens to the two of you through your next years in college. Speaking of which, congratulations on passing your first year of college.”

“How do you know we passed our other exams?” Damien asked.

Delph cocked an eyebrow. “I’m going to pretend you didn’t just imply that I don’t know everything that happens inside Blackmist. Now, before I cut you two free to go do whatever students with no class do, I’ve got one more question. A serious one.”

“What is it?”

“Students who finish Year One are permitted to request a transfer to another mage college. So long as your standing is good enough and the other college has room, it is usually accepted. Do either of you wish to request a transfer?”

Damien blinked. He’d completely forgotten about that. Nolan had mentioned it in the beginning of the year, but he honestly didn’t care about which college he was going to. That being said, getting out from under Whisp’s thumb was certainly tempting.

He mulled over the situation for a few moments. If he left, there was no guarantee he’d be rooming with Sylph, or if they’d even be at the same college. On top of that, he’d started to get friendly with Nolan and was well-aware that Delph’s tutelage was a large reason why he’d progressed so quickly.

Sylph met his eyes, and an unspoken conversation passed between them within a second.

“I’ll be staying at Blackmist,” Damien said.

“As will I.”

A grin spread across Delph’s face. “Very good. I look forward to seeing you both soon. Enjoy your break, and don’t do anything too stupid.”

Delph twisted in on himself, condensing into a small mote of gray light before vanishing and leaving them alone in the arena. Damien let out a slow breath and shook his head.

“He’s never going to stop doing that, is he? Would it kill him to just walk somewhere?”

“If you could teleport like that, would you just walk around?” Sylph asked.

“Well, probably not,” Damien admitted as they started walking toward the arena’s exit. “But it costs so much energy to use Warp Step, and I’m pretty sure Delph’s teleportation is harder than mine since it has so much more range. I wonder how much magical energy he’s got.”

“A lot more than us,” Sylph muttered. “That’s for sure. He’s insane. It’s little wonder he fought on the frontlines.”

Damien nodded. They let the conversation trail off, mostly in case Delph was listening. The man didn’t need an even larger ego.

They wandered back through the darkened streets of campus and ascended the mountain path back to their room.

“Do you think the grays took the offer?” Damien asked.

“What, to change schools?”

“Yeah. Nolan didn’t want to come to Blackmist at all, so do you think he’ll try to get transferred to that fancy school for nobles?”

Sylph scratched her neck. “No. I think he’s going to stay here. I’m not sure about Reena, though.”

“I guess we’ll find out soon enough,” Damien said. They reached their plateau and headed back into their room. After cleaning up for the second time that night, the two of them headed to bed and drifted off to sleep.

It was cold. Damien’s skin prickled as a sharp wind brushed past him. His nose curled, and he opened his eyes, letting out a heavy sigh when he found himself floating in a sea of darkness instead of sitting on a grassy hill.

“Herald. What do you want?”

Stars blinked around him. They slowly pulled together, forming Herald’s humanoid form before him. The eldritch creature examined Damien for a few moments.

“How is the girl doing?”

“Who, Sylph?”

“Yes.”

“She seems fine,” Damien said warily. “Why?”

“She houses a Seed of Corruption. If you don’t feel even the slightest amount of concern about that, you are more foolish than I believed.”

“Of course, I’m concerned,” Damien said, crossing his faintly glowing arms. “But why do you care? Don’t tell me you’re going to try to convince me that she’s losing it and I need to kill her.”

“No,” Herald said, its impassive voices measured. “She appears…stable. I simply asked because you appear to care for her.”

Damien’s eyes narrowed. “Are you…trying to make small talk?”

“Yes.”

“It’s creepy. Don’t. What do you want?”

“Many things,” Herald replied. “But I do not believe you would be willing to grant me most of them. My reason for this conversation is to give you direction. My analysis has led me to believing that this is the optimal course of action.”

“Optimal course of action for what?” Damien asked. “Destroying the world?”

“Saving it,” Herald corrected. “You have witnessed the corruption. It must not be allowed to spread. If it envelops the mortal plane, it will cease to exist, and the Cycle will be broken.”

“You don’t know that’s true, but there’s no point arguing it,” Damien said, sighing. “Let’s say you’re right, just for the sake of argument. What do you want?”

“I have waited until you have no obligations,” Herald said. “You do not have this school for the near future.”

“It’s called summer,” Damien said.

“Yes. In which you have no requirement to remain at your current location.”

“What are you getting at?” Damien asked warily. Herald seemed almost amenable, which was more concerning than if the creature had been trying to kill him.

“If you will not assist me in restarting the Cycle now, then you will seek out and destroy the traces of Corruption before they can take too much hold in the world. There should be no logical objection to this request.”

“That might be doable,” Damien said slowly. “Until school starts, at least.”

“That was my expectation. You may even bring the girl.”

“She can make her own decisions. She doesn’t just do what I say.”

Herald cocked his head. “Meaningless words. She will come.”

The eldritch creature’s strange change of heart was really starting to get to Damien. As soon as he’d started to think he could handle Herald, it had completely shifted its approach.

“You’re playing at something. Your goal isn’t me cleaning up the Corruption these next few months,” Damien said slowly. “What is it?”

“You will witness the truth of the world,” Herald said. “And it will change you. Then you shall realize that the Corruption must be purged, and we shall end this Cycle.”

“And if I don’t?”

“Then the mortal plane will fall, and it will be entirely your fault,” Herald said.

The world shattered around him, and Damien plunged into the darkness, the twinkle of the stars fading overhead. He plunged into an icy sea and sank beneath the ashy waves, Herald’s words echoing throughout his head.

Chapter Twenty-Six

Damien jerked awake gasping for air. He took a moment to gather his surroundings. His thundering heartbeat slowed as he reminded his body that he was back in his room. With a curse, he wiped the sweat from his forehead.

“Melodramatic bastard,” Damien muttered, sliding out of bed and pulling his coat on. Sylph stepped out from within the training rooms and raised an eyebrow.

“You don’t look happy.”

“Companion troubles,” Damien said simply. “Any plans now that we’re done with finals?”

“We could get a celebratory dinner or something,” Sylph offered. She and Damien paused for a moment, then both chuckled.

“No, that doesn’t fit at all, does it?” Sylph asked. “Do you want to go find something and punch it?”

“That sounds like fun. You figured out a new spell recently, didn’t you?”

Sylph nodded. “I’m honestly not sure if it’s a spell as much as control over my body, but I figured something out all right.”

“Care to spar?” Damien asked. “I need to blow off some steam, and it’ll be nice to go all out without worrying about accidentally seriously injuring someone.”

“I was about to suggest the same thing,” Sylph said. “I’m curious to see how we stack up. Let’s go before anyone wakes up.”

Damien nodded. They slipped out of the room and headed down the mountain. The sun was still just barely starting to rise over the mountains. Hues of gray and orange danced across the school, giving it a melancholy tone.

They made their way through the streets and away from campus, heading toward the forest. It didn’t take long for them to arrive beside the large lake of healing water nestled within the trees.

Damien stretched out his legs, trying to limber them up after the tense dreams. “Are you planning anything this summer?”

“You know me,” Sylph said, smirking. “Always going home to hang out with my extensive family and friends.”

“Ha ha. I was just being polite,” Damien said with a small laugh. “I’ve been informed by Herald that I need to go hunting over summer. I was wondering if you wanted to join me.”

“Hunting? What, you’re going after the…” Sylph trailed off. “Can I talk openly?”

Henry?

“On it,” Henry said, already sliding into Damien’s shadow. A dark pulse went out around them, enveloping the clearing before fading away.

“You’re good to talk now,” Damien said.

“Thanks. You’re going after the Corruption Seeds, then?”

“Maybe,” Damien said. “I’ll be honest, Sylph. I don’t know who the good guys are. Henry and Herald seem to think they are, and the Corruption Seed tried to kill us. That being said, Herald has actually killed me, so he’s not winning in that regard. The Corruption could be sent to keep the Void from destroying the Mortal Plane. I don’t know. But I’m going to find out.”

“And how are you going to do that?”

“Probably by seeking both out and seeing which one tries harder to kill me,” Damien admitted. “Interested in coming along?”

“Sounds fun. Better than sitting around and training in the woods for a few months,” Sylph said, rolling her shoulders and dropping into a fighting stance. “But let’s find out if you’re even strong enough to go out. If you can’t hold your own against me, you aren’t going to stand a chance against the Void or the Corruption.”

“I was about to say the same to you,” Damien said, drawing Ether into his core. “I’m eager to see that new spell of yours.”

“We’ll see if you’re good enough to make me use it,” Sylph said, giving him a cocky smirk. She dashed forward, a dark blade forming in her hand.

Damien Warp Stepped forward, appearing behind her. He formed two gravity spheres in the air and tossed them at her back. She twisted out of the way, avoiding the brunt of the magic and easily regaining her balance after the spells detonated.

He slapped his palm against the dirt, enlarging a grain into a pillar as Sylph dashed toward him again. Her blade flashed and Damien’s eyes widened slightly. He leapt back as she cut clean through the pillar, dispersing the Ether and turning it back into a single grain.

Wind from the strike passed by Damien’s nose. He Warp Stepped again, appearing on the other side of the clearing.

“Careful with that thing! Are you trying to kill me?”

“Do you think the Corruption is going to play nice?” Sylph asked, forming a dagger in her off hand. “You aren’t going all out yet—I hope. If you can’t do better than that, I’m going to be pretty disappointed.”

Damien grunted. He traced a rune in the air and cast Devour. The dark circle sprang to life just as Sylph threw the dagger. His spell swallowed hers and vanished as Damien dismissed it.

“I don’t see you trying that hard either,” Damien pointed out. He could feel the blood pumping through his body. “Let’s step it up.”

“I wanted to give you a chance to show off your new stuff before I spanked you,” Sylph said, giving him a wicked grin. “But, if you’re so ready to see what I’m capable of, I’ll oblige.”

Her sword vanished. Damien blinked as Sylph’s grin faded. She changed her stance, leaning forward slightly as her skin rippled. Two scythe-like blades pushed free of her forearms. Similar protrusions emerged from her shins.

Before Damien could fully process the change, Sylph exploded forward. She was upon him within a second. He barely had time to cast Warp Step before her blades carved through the space where he’d been standing.

Sylph was already shooting toward him by the time he reformed. Damien blinked across the clearing again. She’d gotten significantly faster and, judging by how quickly she was reacting to his movements, her brain was working overtime as well.

Henry? This is still Sylph, right? Not the Corruption?

“It’s her,” Henry confirmed. Damien warped across the clearing to avoid another attack, but she still managed to draw a thin line of blood across his cheek. “And she’s toying with you. Do something. You’re embarrassing me.”

Damien rolled his eyes. That nearly cost him a limb as Sylph appeared before him, her twin arm blades slicing toward his side. He hardened his mage armor, and the blow thudded harmlessly into his arm.

He shifted, driving a palm into her stomach. Sylph hopped backward with the strike, landing easily on the tips of her toes a few feet away from him. Damien kicked a gravity sphere toward her, forcing the girl to dance out of the way.

Damien channeled more Ether into his palms, forming twin gravity drills and launching them at Sylph. They were faster than the gravity spheres, but still no match for her speed. She easily dashed to the side, avoiding both attacks before making heading toward him once again.

I’m gonna improvise.

“Go ahead,” Henry said as Damien Warp Stepped once more, putting more distance between himself and Sylph. “You’ve gotten enough experience with gravity sphere to toy around with it. Don’t fiddle with the other spells, though.”

Damien drew more Ether into his hands, forming another gravity sphere. However, instead of throwing it, he wrapped it with mental energy and locked it in place. He hopped back as Sylph appeared before him and allowed the spell to go off.

Her eyes widened as the sphere bloomed before her, detonating before she could fully dodge it. Several bones in her arm snapped, and she was pulled to the side. She twisted midair, landing on her feet and blurring toward Damien without an ounce of hesitation.

He raised an arm, hardening his armor and blocking a strike from her good hand. Her injured limb cracked again, yanking itself back into place.

Damien blinked to the other side of the clearing as her blades passed through the air where he’d been standing. “Is your arm healed already?”

Sylph paused, turning it over and flexing her fingers. “Yup.”

“I wonder just how much you can heal from at once,” Damien said. He blinked out of the way as Sylph lunged at him.

“And I wonder when you’ll run out of Ether. It’s just not fair.”

Damien smirked. He formed two more gravity spheres and tossed them at her, following them up with a gravity drill for good measure. She dodged all three of the attacks and made a beeline toward him.

He blinked across the arena multiple times, pausing for a moment to leave a gravity sphere behind. It was far harder than he’d expected to keep that much mental energy active at once, and one of his five traps detonated harmlessly.

Sylph shot toward him again. If possible, it almost felt as if she was faster. Damien’s eyes narrowed as he put all his focus into the fight. He blocked a strike with a mage armor protected arm, then shoved Sylph backward into one of the gravity spheres.

She sprung into the air, flipping backward to avoid touching the center of the spell and landing safely on the ground behind it. Before she could counterattack, Damien cast expand on the dirt through his feet.

A pillar erupted beneath him at an angle, catapulting him through the air toward Sylph. She smirked and launched herself toward him, her blades flashing in the morning light. Damien Warp Stepped, tumbling onto the ground with a grunt.

He hopped to his feet, staggering out of the way as Sylph’s blades flashed past his side once more. Damien was pretty sure she was avoiding aiming for his head, which he was glad for. He didn’t have any mage armor there, and he was pretty sure that the healing waters of the lake wouldn’t do much for decapitation.

“Is that it?” Sylph asked, pausing for a moment. Damien was breathing heavily, but she didn’t look much more than slightly winded. “You’ve actually improved a lot. Good job.”

“We’re still sparring,” Damien said, detonating one of the gravity spheres that he’d left on the field near her. Sylph dodged out of it, only to jump straight into the other one. The second spell caught her foot.

A dozen cracks filled the air, but no scream of pain accompanied them. Sylph lunged toward him with her good leg. He Warp Stepped to the side, a small headache starting to form at the back of his mind.

Sylph’s foot twisted snapped back into position. She put it on the ground and put a little weight on it. It held. Damien quickly cast enlarge on the ground before him several times, holding it in place with his mental energy once more.

The strain was almost too much for him. If the spell hadn’t been relatively weak, he would have lost control of it almost instantly. Luckily, he didn’t have to hold it long. Sylph appeared before him, bringing both of her blades down toward his chest.

Damien released every single enlarge spell while simultaneously hardening his mage armor. Sylph’s strikes rang harmlessly off him as an earthen dome formed of multiple different pillars sprung up around them, blocking out most of the light.

Sylph kicked at his side, but Damien blinked behind her and wrapped his arms around her stomach, a gravity sphere forming in both of them.

“I win,” Damien said through gasps for air. Something cold pressed against his neck. He nearly choked on his saliva.

Sylph’s arm had twisted completely backward, as if her joints had decided that range of motion was more of a suggestion than a requirement. The blade on her forearm rested on his shoulder, and she was one sharp movement from cutting his head off.

“I think it might be a tie,” Sylph said.

“Since when could you bend your arms like that?”

“Just about five seconds ago, I think,” Sylph said, removing her arm from his neck. The blade sank back into her forearm. Damien let go of her waist, and the enlarge spells vanished around them.

He tossed the gravity sphere to the side where it detonated harmlessly, then flopped to the ground to catch his breath. Sylph sat down beside him.

“How can you not be at least a little flustered?” Damien complained. “Don’t you ever get tired?”

“Is the person who has unlimited Ether really complaining right now?” Sylph asked, prodding Damien in the stomach.

“It’s not unlimited. I was getting a bit low there.”

“After you were teleporting around the clearing for a good minute or two. How many people can do that?”

“I don’t want to hear about being unique from the girl that can make her limbs bend in any direction and sprout swords out of her limbs.”

Sylph snorted. “That’s technically Henry’s fault, so the blame passes onto you by association.”

Damien decided he was too out of breath to come up with a good response, so he graciously conceded defeat by grunting and pointedly looking up at the sky and away from Sylph.

“So, what did you think?” Sylph asked after a moment. Her confident tone had weakened just a little, revealing the barest amount of uncertainty underneath it.

“Think? About what?” Damien asked.

“The whole knife-arm thing.”

“Well, it’s more of a full body change, isn’t it?” Damien asked after a moment. “You didn’t just turn pokey. You were thinking and moving way faster than normal, too.”

Sylph didn’t respond, clearly waiting for something else.

“It seems really strong,” Damien continued. “I’m pretty sure you were going at least a little easy on me. If you’d aimed for my neck instead of my chest or were just a bit faster, you probably would have gotten me.”

“You could have done one of those huge gravity spheres right in front of yourself,” Sylph said. “That would have seriously injured me, even with the improved healing. We were sparring, not trying to kill each other.”

“True,” Damien said. “But I’m not sure what else to say. It’s honestly awesome, although bending your arms like that looks painful. Why do you ask?”

“No reason. I was just curious,” Sylph said, letting out a small laugh. “And it is a little painful, although it’s nothing I haven’t dealt with before. My training involved fighting through pain, so I suppose this technique is pretty fitting for me.”

She sat up and rose to her feet, offering a helping hand down to Damien. He accepted it, and Sylph pulled him to his feet. A large leaf had attached itself to his shoulder while he had been lying on the ground.

Sylph brushed it off his shoulder with a smirk. “So, did I pass the evaluation?”

“As much as I did,” Damien said. “And I’m sure this was a great representation of how our fights will go against the Corruption or Void. Two Year One students versus ancient entities that have existed for millennia. What could go wrong?”

Chapter Twenty-Seven

As it turned out, they discovered the answer to that before even a few more seconds had passed. Sylph’s grin faded, and she let out a racking cough into her hand.

“Choke on your own saliva?” Damien asked, laughing. His mirth vanished as he realized that Sylph’s hand was covered in green fluid. It dripped from her skin, sizzling against the grass beneath them and burning a brown patch into it. She doubled over as coughs racked her body.

Henry! What’s happening to Sylph?

Henry’s power surged forth, taking control of Damien’s body. He grabbed Sylph by the shoulder and pulled her head back, staring at her intently.

The coughs stopped for a moment, but then came back with redoubled strength. Sylph looked away just in time to avoid spitting some of the acid onto Damien. She drew ragged breaths in between coughs as the liquid started to pool and sizzle in the dirt before her.

“When did you last eat?” Henry asked, his voice coming through Damien’s mouth.

“Last night.”

“You need food. Using the Corruption’s healing and powers uses more energy than your body can provide, even with Ether,” Henry said, relinquishing control back to Damien. Sylph’s features flickered with pain for a moment before she got them back under control.

“The closest food is in the forest,” Henry informed Damien.

The boy nodded his understanding. He grabbed Sylph, slinging her over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes and taking several brisk steps toward the lake. He slipped her into it slightly less than gently.

“Stay here,” Damien said. “I’ll get something.”

Sylph nodded, then let out another racking cough. Large splotches of blood mixed in with the acid on the ground. Damien spun and dashed toward campus. He drew Ether into himself, cycling it through his core and spinning the motes together. Damien weaved Warp Step in with his running, crossing ground with incredible speed.

He shot through the campus streets, arriving at the general store and practically blowing the doors down. The clerk glanced up from a book and blinked.

“Damien?”

“I need food. Immediately,” Damien said, ignoring the pounding headache in the back of his skull.

Something in the tone of his voice must have told the clerk that he was serious because the man quickly rose from his chair and walked into the back. He emerged a few moments later with a small brown bag.

Damien tossed several coins onto the counter, not waiting to hear the man’s response before Warp Stepping out of the shop. He dimly wondered if there were any rules about using magic to move around campus grounds, since he hadn’t seen anyone else doing it.

It was a moot point. He didn’t care if there was. The headache grew stronger, tendrils of pain wrapping around his brain and squeezing to the point where the edges of his vision started to darken.

Damien staggered into the clearing, barely able to think straight. He’d covered what was normally nearly half an hour of travel in less than five minutes. Parts of Sylph’s skin had turned dark gray and stony, similar to how the mantis had looked.

He fumbled with the bag, pulling it open and grabbing an apple. She tried to raise a graying hand, but a spasm ran down it as acid started to leak out from thin cracks within it. Damien smashed the fruit open on his knee, then shoved a small part of it into Sylph’s mouth.

It was far from the most graceful way to feed someone, but she managed to swallow. He repeated the process with what remained of the apple, then moved on to a slice of bread and a large piece of cured meat.

Color slowly started to return to Sylph’s skin. The gray areas faded, and the cracks sealed over with every bite. There was a good amount of food in the pack, easily enough for a small family’s meal.

Sylph ate all of it with the gusto of a starving woman. Only once she’d polished off every last morsel did she let out a relieved sigh. She looked normal again, and the only trace that anything had gone wrong was the bubbling patches of acid on the ground before them.

“Are you okay?” Damien asked worriedly.

“Yeah,” Sylph said, splashing some of the healing water onto her face. “I think so.”

Damien let out a sigh of relief. “I got worried. You looked like you were melting.”

“Felt like it, too. Why did that happen? I didn’t feel like I was running out of Ether. There should have been no reason for my body to need more energy.”

Damien’s shadow twitched as Henry commandeered it. “Your Ether doesn’t work the same way it used to. Humans don’t inherently have any Ether within them. Monsters do, and the Corruption are no exception. I don’t think there’s ever been a scenario where a human’s body was rebuilt using monster parts, so this is all new ground. However, it appears that you inherited the magical properties of a monster.”

“So whenever I cast magic, I’ll use up my own energy in addition to normal Ether?” Sylph asked.

“Essentially,” Henry said. “That’s the price for power. You’re going to have to greatly increase the amount of food you eat if you want to use any of your new abilities.”

“Why didn’t this happen the first time I healed, then?” Sylph asked, frowning. “When you put the Corruption into my body to save me.”

“I padded it with my own energy,” Henry said. “It had enough fuel to run without killing you. Also, I’m not entirely sure what the distribution is between the energy usage of tasks. Healing might take less energy than whatever augments you gave yourself while fighting Damien.”

Sylph nodded slowly. “That would make sense. I’ll have to experiment a little more. I’m glad I didn’t try using all of my abilities against Mark when we sparred. It would have been bad if this happened in front of other people.”

“I’m just glad you’re okay,” Damien said, shaking his head. “You’re really going to have to keep an eye on this, though. Toward the end there, your skin kind of looked like the mantis.”

“What do you think would have happened if I didn’t get food?” Sylph asked.

“Interesting question,” Henry said. “It depends on how much energy your body had consumed. If it was too much, you might have just…burned away, I suppose. Otherwise, well, it’s hard to say. Brain damage would be almost certain, though.”

Damien massaged his forehead. Now that the adrenaline was leaving his veins, his headache was getting more and more unbearable. He tossed his mage armor off and slipped into the water beside Sylph, dunking his head underwater.

He held his breath for as long as possible before rising back up. The pain had lessened slightly, but it was still there. Damien repeated the process a few times, but the headache stubbornly refused to drop below the level of ‘more than mildly annoying.’

“Are you okay?” Sylph asked, mirroring his words from earlier.

“Just used too much Ether,” Damien said. He massaged his forehead and sighed. “Well, at least we’ve both figured out our limits. Better now than when we’re trying to fight something that’s trying to kill us.”

Henry shook his head and let out a chuckle. He slipped into the water, returning Damien’s shadow to him and allowing his power to fade. Damien and Sylph remained in the water for several more minutes before they finally gathered the energy to get out of it.

Sylph was the first to leave, and she extended a hand to pull Damien out and to his feet. They laid out in the sun for a few minutes, allowing it to dry their clothes off.

“I suppose this isn’t the best way to start our vacation of hunting reality threatening monsters,” Damien said with a small laugh.

“You said it yourself,” Sylph replied. “Better now than later. At least you don’t leak green goo when you mess up.”

“There is that,” Damien agreed. He sat up, pulling his mage armor back on. Sylph rose as well, and the two of them headed back to campus. They made a beeline toward their room, where they both flopped into bed.

It didn’t matter that it was barely the middle of the day. They were both asleep within minutes.

The next few days passed without any further excitement. None of the professors seemed interested in them now that the year was over, and the number of students on campus decreased with every passing day.

Mark was the first of their group to head off. He didn’t mention where he was going, and nobody asked. Damien suspected they wouldn’t have even known he was leaving had they not been bringing back the corpse of a large elk they’d killed for dinner.

The sword-wielding boy had bid them a brief farewell as he headed down the mountain. From the sound of it, he planned to return to Blackmist the following year.

As for the Grays, there were still no signs of anything. The curtain in front of their cave remained closed, and while Damien saw light from his rune faintly glowing from beneath the curtain on occasion, he didn’t run into the siblings.

He and Sylph continued to train, although they kept things at a much more reasonable speed, focusing mostly on physical exercise. Sylph also took to carrying around a large amount of cured meat in a pack at her side.

The students on campus thinned further and further until it was little more than a ghost town. There were a good number of people that had opted to remain over the summer but, compared to the normal bustle of the college, it was almost empty.

After about a week after the incident, Damien could practically feel Herald’s ire building. It was clearly reaching the end of its patience.

“It might be about time to get moving,” Damien said once he and Sylph finished their breakfast that morning. “Assuming you still want to come with me, of course.”

“I do, and I was wondering when you’d decide to go,” Sylph said. “I’ve been packed for a while. Where are we going first?”

“Oh,” Damien said, flushing. “And actually, I’m not entirely sure. Let me check.”

Henry?

“What would you do without me?” Henry asked, laughing. “This is your decision to make, Damien. Are you trying to find the Corruption? Or are you trying to find the Void? Because I know where all the Void creatures are, but I still don’t think you’re going to have any luck convincing them to help you.”

But there’s a chance?

“A small one,” Henry said reluctantly. “How would you convince them that they shouldn’t restart the Cycle when the Corruption is clearly present? In fact, they’ll be able to detect the fact that Sylph’s body is built out of a Seed’s corpse.”

So what should we do? Just seek out the Corruption and try to destroy it ourselves?

“It would be risky,” Henry said. “But that seems to be what Herald wants you to do. It doesn’t gain anything from you dying, so it’s probably not a terrible idea. Frankly, I suspect its plan is to get you to realize how dangerous the Corruption is so that you agree to restart the Cycle.”

Wonderful. We’ll start with destroying some Corruption, then, I suppose. I say that like it’s a walk in the park rather than a fight for our life, but I don’t think there’s much of a choice. I feel like Herald is going to start taking some seriously drastic measures if I don’t do this.

“Almost certainly,” Henry admitted. “It won’t speak with me anymore. I don’t know what its plans are, but I’ll be keeping an eye or ten out.”

Keep a few peeled for the Void as well. I know you said they were all still bound, but I want to make sure. We also have to eventually figure out why and how they got bound in the first place. I don’t think that dark tendril that messed up my rune circle was the Corruption, was it?

“No,” Henry said, his tone darkening. “It wasn’t. As for finding the Corruption, Herald might actually have a better idea about that. As much benefit as your human spark has brought my soul, it’s also made it harder to spot certain things. Herald knew the mantis was coming a good bit before I did.”

That’s not good. Do you know why? Is it something to be concerned about?

“It’s hard to describe, but no. I don’t think so, at least,” Henry said, picking his words carefully. “Before I got the spark, everything was dark. I didn’t mind that, as that’s what I’d always known. It was easy to see things because there was nothing interfering. Now, with the spark, everything is brighter. I can still see, but it’s harder.”

I see what you’re getting at. So Herald is the Corruption-spotter. I guess that means I’m going to actually have to deal with him.

“Yup.”

Damien let out a heavy sigh. Sylph cocked an eyebrow.

“What’s wrong? You look like you just swallowed a fly.”

“I’ve got to talk to the murderous chump that keeps ruining my sheets,” he said. “He’s the only one who knows where the Corruption is with any high degree of accuracy.”

“Have fun,” Sylph said, her face completely straight. “I’ll get the shower running for you, just in case.”

“That might not actually be a bad idea,” Damien muttered, sitting down on his bed and lying back. He took his coat off for good measure before closing his eyes. A small grin flickered across his face as he heard Sylph turn the shower on behind him.

He closed his eyes and reached within himself. Damien had never actually tried to call on Herald itself, but he imagined it wasn’t all that different from reaching out to Henry. His mental energy turned inwards as he mentally brushed across his core.

An icy sea met him. A powerful suction force enveloped Damien, and he had to force himself to relax and not fight back. Liquid filled his lungs and the world spiraled around him. His eyes snapped open, and he drew a ragged gasp.

Faint, twinkling stars surrounded the pitch black sky around him. He knelt on what could only be described as darkness without any true shape or form, and his body was outlined in a faint orange glow that he was starting to get used to. The air before him warped as stars blinked to life, forming Herald’s impassive form.

“Hello,” Damien said, standing up and brushing imaginary dirt off his knees. “I need your help, and you need mine.”

“You are hunting the Corruption,” Herald stated. The multitude of voices somehow managed to come out completely flat, which was rather impressive.

“And I need a way to find it. Henry said he couldn’t detect it as well as you can.”

“That is logical,” Herald said. “Your human spark has blinded him, both from the Corruption and his true purpose.”

“I’m not here to discuss that,” Damien said, crossing his arms. “Look, if you want me to hunt the Corruption, you’re going to have to point me in the right direction. I don’t want to do this, and I don’t want to work with you, but I’m worried enough to actually give it a shot. If that was your goal, congratulations. You achieved it.”

“No congratulations are necessary. I always achieve my goals,” Herald said. “And you would not have to hunt them if you broke that seal on your chest. I would take care of the problem for us all.”

“You would blow up the Mortal Plane.”

“And nothing of value would be lost. The rebirth would bring it all back, eventually,” Herald said. “Perhaps this Cycle would last even longer than the last.”

“That hardly matters if I, and everyone else I know, is dead,” Damien said.

“You would not be dead. The Cycle would be restarted.”

Damien frowned. “What’s that supposed to mean? Restarting the Cycle means you destroy the Mortal Plane, right?”

“Correct.”

“Then how would anyone I know be alive after it restarts?”

“The same way you’re alive this time,” Herald replied. “This is not the first iteration of the Cycle.”

“I figured that much,” Damien said, his frown deepening. “But— Wait, are you implying I was alive in the previous cycle?”

“And the one before that,” Herald said. “And the one before that as well. And the one—”

“Right,” Damien said, holding a hand up to stop the Void creature. “Hold on. Is every Cycle exactly the same?”

“No,” Herald replied. “But some parts of them often line up. People whose lives directly affect the Cycle are born every iteration.”

Damien massaged his head, trying to process exactly what Herald was telling him. “What if someone doesn’t affect the Cycle until the tenth one or whatever? Does that mean they’re retroactively born in cycles one through nine so they can affect it in the tenth one?”

“Yes.”

“So we have to do the same thing each Cycle? Was I the same last Cycle as I am this one?”

“No,” Herald said. “The only constant is your birth. I was unaware of your previous iterations, but it is incredibly unlikely that you’ve acted identical to them each time. It is statistically possible, but with such a low chance that even I would be surprised if it had happened.”

“Well, that’s a relief,” Damien said, letting out a sigh.

“Why? Even if you had no free will, it wouldn’t matter,” Herald said. “You would make your decisions regardless. Nothing would change.”

“That’s not— Bah. You don’t understand,” Damien said. “Do you have free will?”

“I have a duty,” Herald replied. “And that is all that matters.”

“To whom?”

Herald didn’t respond immediately. “I presume you are uninterested in accepting my offer to restart the cycle. In such case, I shall bide my time until you change your mind, one way or another. Until then, I will assist in the location of the Corruption.”

The sudden change of topic threw Damien for a loop. By the time he realized what Herald had said, he was sinking into the shadows beneath him.

“Wait, how will I know—”

Icy water flooded through his mouth and his sentence ended in a gargling curse. He jerked awake just as a prickle formed at his left palm. Damien’s confusion vanished, and he scrambled out of bed, dashing toward the shower as pain erupted in his hand.

Blood poured down his palm as he threw the bathroom curtain open. Sylph stepped to the side with a smile that was both amused and concerned as Damien shoved his hand under the healing water.

He gritted his teeth and squeezed his eyes shut as Herald carved runes into him. The blood running down his hand turned a murky pink on the shower floor, mixing with the healing water before vanishing down the drain.

Damien jumped as he felt Sylph put her hands on his shoulders. Despite his initial shock, her presence was more comforting than he’d expected. It didn’t do much to lessen the pain, but it helped make it a bit easier to bear.

It only took a few minutes for the runes to finish appearing on his palm, but it felt like an hour. The burning agony finally faded into a painful pulse, and then that turned to a dull throb. Damien let out a weary sigh, shaking the water and last bits of blood off his hand as he examined Herald’s work.

“What did he do this time?” Sylph asked.

“Something useful, hopefully. I asked it to help me find the Corruption, and I suppose this is the way it’ll do that.”

The rune was, thankfully, almost invisible. The cuts were thin and only a shade darker than the rest of Damien’s flesh. It looked more like an old scar than the jagged black rune circle on his chest.

Damien flexed his hand and was relieved to find that it hadn’t affected his range of motion at all.

“How does it work?”

“No clue. I guess we’ll find out soon enough,” Damien said with a grim chuckle.

Sylph rolled her eyes and helped Damien to his feet, before tossing him a towel.

“Thanks for the help, Sylph,” Damien said, drying his arm off and putting the towel back.

“You’re welcome,” she replied and walked back into their main room. A small smile crossed Damien’s face. Whatever the Corruption—or Void—had waiting for them, so long as Sylph and Henry were at his side, he was confident they could handle it.

* * *

My Best Friend is an Eldritch Horror will continue in Duskbringer!

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