When Damien arrived, the two nobles were both busy reading books. Their room barely resembled a cave anymore. The beds had fine silk sheets embossed with flowing designs of golden thread. The floors had been covered with fancy rugs that looked much less practical than Mark’s. Nolan glanced up and gave him a solemn nod.

“You’ve come to draw the runes?” Nolan asked formally.

“Yes,” Damien said, too tired to say much more. “I’ll draw them behind your bed so you can move it to block the circle – unless you’ve got another spot you’d prefer?”

“Perhaps near the bathroom wall?” Nolan suggested. “It’s somewhat difficult to shower without light.”

Damien just nodded. He trudged over to the bathroom wall, pulling out his chalk and choosing a flat spot on the stone. It only took him a few minutes to draw the runes. Once he’d finished, he put the chalk away and yawned, looking away from the glowing light.

“As long as you don’t rub it out, it’ll last a week or two,” Damien said.

“Thank you,” Nolan said. “I appreciate it. I apologize for invading your room last night.”

The noble sent a pointed glance at his sister. She looked away from her book and reached under the bed, grabbing a thin cloth bundle and handing it to Damien. He took it, thankful that it was much lighter than the rug Mark had given him.

“Thanks,” Damien said. “And it’s fine. Just… knock next time. Or call, I guess. We don’t have a door yet.”

“We will do so,” Nolan promised. “Would you like to join us for dinner? Reena, Mark, and I were going to go to the mess hall together.”

“I suppose that would be fine,” Damien said after a few moments of thought. Nolan’s face showed no evident signs of insincerity, but it had only been a few days ago that the boy had completely refused to acknowledge his presence.

Damien bid them farewell and trudged back to his room. He flopped on top of his bed without taking off his clothes. His head hit something stuffed under his pillow and he cursed, rolling over and cradling it.

He ripped the pillow away, revealing an untitled book bound in dark leather. Still rubbing the back of his head, Damien leaned against the wall and flipped the cover open. A small note fell out from the front page and onto his lap.

“A gift from your instructor?” Henry asked, reading it through Damien’s eyes.

Apparently. Why did he have to stick it under my pillow?

Sylph, who was reading a similar looking book in her own bed, had wondered something similar only a few minutes before.

“Well, it was funny,” Henry said. “You might read it. It might have something I missed during my trip over. Just skim for now, though. If I know the spell, it’ll be faster for me to teach you myself.”

Damien rolled his eyes. The first page was blank, so he looked over the one after it. It was covered in densely packed writing detailing what appeared to be a spell that could create a small ball of light.

“Easy,” Henry said. “Next.”

Damien flipped the page. The spell was also based in the school of light magic. This one was meant to use a beam of concentrated light offensively. It drew a scoff out of Henry. As he scanned through the book, the spells grew progressively more complicated.

At the same time, Henry’s annoyance grew. Even when they got to invisibility spells and magic so complicated that it took nearly an entire chapter just to explain it, the companion just let out an annoyed groan.

“Boring! This is all basic stuff,” Henry said. “I want something new!”

This spell uses light to make an illusion so realistic that it’s nearly impossible to recognize it's fake. How is that boring?

“I knew that spell five thousand years ago,” Henry said. “I don’t care what it does – the problem is that it’s old. I guess a few of these might be worth learning, though. Not the light creation, obviously. That would be stupid.”

Why? I can’t see in the dark.

“I’m going to pretend you didn’t ask me that,” Henry said. “As a general fact, I’m more partial to removing light than to creating it. I’m sure you can guess why.”

Ah. Right.

“Ah. Right,” Henry mimicked. “Look, that enlarge spell is interesting, but you aren’t going to fight any void denizens by making their shoes too big for them. You need to learn some offensive spells.”

Coincidentally, the offensive spells happened to be the flashiest. Damien, among other things, was still a teenage boy. Like just about all other boys his age – and quite a few older than him – he’d long daydreamed of throwing powerful magic around a battlefield and standing proudly over his defeated enemies.

I’m not going to object to that.

“No, I didn’t think you would,” Henry said, chuckling. “Before you start learning spells at random, you need to put some thought into what magic you want to focus on. Light magic is mostly utility. It has offense and defense, but nothing very strong. Space magic has some very powerful offensive options, but it’s going to take you a long time to learn them. It also has teleportation.”

And void magic?

“It embodies the Void. It is not like normal magic,” Henry said. “There is only one void spell, and there can never be another one.”

Stop hedging at it and just tell me what it is!

“Mimicry. Void magic can drain the energy from a spell and warp it, turning it to your needs. However, you can only warp a spell that you understand.”

That sounds interesting. How do you know there’s only one spell, though? You said you couldn’t make your own magic, and I don’t think humans normally get access to void magic. So doesn’t that mean I could hypothetically make a void spell?

“It’s possible, I suppose,” Henry said. “It would not be easy. Void magic requires a general understanding of all magic. Spells are cast in similar ways, so with enough study, you can understand the ones from schools of magic you can’t cast yourself. Making a new void spell, though… you can imagine how difficult that would be. You’d need mastery over just about every form of magic.”