Damien picked up the next book. It was also bound in leather, but it had no trim. Thin metal triangles protected the edges of the covers and a layer of dust had permanently settled into it. He brushed the dust away as best as he could, revealing the scuffed title beneath it.

“Body Tempering,” Damien read. “That sounds like a lot of exercise.”

“Which you need. Or were you wanting to go out of breath trying to lift a girl half your size again?”

Damien scrunched his nose up and flipped the book open. It fit easily in his hand and couldn’t have had more than a hundred pages. The paper crackled as he touched it, but somehow stayed in one piece.

“You need to start from the beginning,” Henry said, mentally nudging Damien to move on. “Don’t worry about the methods. Just choose the one whose title seems the most appealing.”

“That seems like a terrible idea,” Damien said.

Henry didn’t respond. Damien sighed and set the book down beside the stack. He picked up the next one and continued the process.

Of the remaining books, the only one that caught his interest was titled True Adaptation. Of all the books, it was the only one that wasn’t completely mundane sounding. When Damien voiced his observation to Henry, the eldritch companion scoffed.

“Magic is mundane, boy. Ether is simply part of the natural world. However, these books are all boring sounding because they’re just the foundation. The cool, fancy magic comes later. The cultivation method you choose will simply let you use my powers to connect with the Ether without runes.”

“So the method I choose is just whichever seems the easiest to get started with?” Damien guessed.

“Close enough,” Henry agreed. “It’ll be the basis for your future magic. So choose carefully, it’ll follow you.”

Damien nodded, his lips thinning as he internally debated between the two books he’d chosen. As he sat there thinking, the wooden door creaked. He glanced up as the door swung open and Sylph stepped into the room.

“Sylph? How did you find me?” Damien asked, nearly jumping out of his chair. He felt Henry coil within his mind like a snake preparing to strike.

“I figured you’d have gone to the library, and I just asked if anyone had seen a kid in a blue jacket and white scarf walk by while talking to himself,” Sylph said with a smirk.

Henry chuckled within Damien’s mind. “She’s got you there. You really have to work on that habit.”

Shut up.

“Picking a cultivation method without an instructor?” Sylph asked, raising an eyebrow as she closed the door behind her. “That’s bold of you.”

“You didn’t have an instructor,” Damien pointed out.

“I did,” Sylph replied, approaching the table. “Just not from a mage college.”

She picked the book up at the far side and scanned the cover. Her eyebrow raised and a flicker of a smirk danced across her features.

“Constant lovemaking?” She asked, straight faced.

“I – ah, my companion chose it…”

Henry howled with laughter. “You’re digging your hole deeper. Just stop talking.”

Sylph set the book down carefully on the table, wiping her hands off her shirt, before sitting down in the other chair.

You’ll pay for that, Henry.

“So, what did you come find me for?” Damien stammered, desperate to change the subject from the offending book.

“I was hoping you could tell me what happened after my fight with Professor Delph,” Sylph said. “My memory of the whole fight is blurry, and I woke up with nearly no magical energy.”

“Oh, right!” Damien said. “I was going to tell you when I woke up, but you were already gone. He used some weird magic and you passed out. He said you’d feel weak when you woke up and that he owed you something for forcing him to use that magic.”

“I see,” Sylph said with a small frown. “So I lost.”

“Of course you did,” Damien said. “Did you expect to beat a professor?”

“I suppose not,” Sylph said, sighing. “It does mean I’m going to have to train more. It’s unfortunate there aren’t more private areas to train. All the school sanctioned spots are packed full.”

“I haven’t given them a look yet,” Damien admitted. He glanced between the books in his hands one more time, then set the True Adaptation one aside. He stood up and put the other books back into the bookshelf.

“Not going to go with the constant–”

“Nope!” Damien said, cutting Sylph off before she could finish the sentence. He cleared his throat. “I’m good. Chose a different one.”

“Best of luck with that, then. It was not easy for me to first make contact with the Ether. I hope it goes better for you,” Sylph said. “If Professor Delph is looking for me, I should probably find him. I’m going to get some breakfast first, though.”

Damien adjusted his grip on the book in his hand. “I’m going to head back to the dorm. I need to get started if I want to keep up with everyone else.”

Sylph nodded. The two of them left the room and headed out of the library. Damien briefly stopped by the front desk to let the librarians know which book he’d taken before they continued out.

Sylph bid Damien farewell and headed to the dining halls while he headed back to their mountain room as fast as he could without breaking into a full run.

“Excited, are we?” Henry asked.

“You already know the answer – damn it,” Damien huffed.

You already know the answer to that. I’ve been waiting for this moment for seventeen years.

“Another hour wouldn’t have hurt. You could have gotten some food,” Henry said. Damien could tell his companion was grinning, even though he couldn’t see him.

Damien arrived back at the plateau in record time. He sped past the Mark and the Grays’ rooms and into his own. Then he sat down on his bed and flipped the book open.

“So, how do I do this?” Damien asked eagerly and somewhat out of breath.

“I’d suggest you start by reading,” Henry said dryly.