“Did you envision the correct thing?” Henry asked. “I didn’t get everything, but some of your thoughts seemed-”

Damien tossed the ball into the center of the room. Just like Henry’s attempt, it expanded outwards before collapsing into a tiny mote of light. Then it deviated. Instead of a subtle pop, a loud gale howled into the small room.

The blot of darkness warped the air immediately around it, sucking everything straight towards it. Damien skidded across the floor as dirt and dust slammed into the orb of magic, forming a shell around it.

Damien tried to breathe in, but the air slipped away from his lungs. Before he could panic, the Ether within the spell spent itself. The orb faded away and he drew in a deep breath as the dirt collapsed back to the ground.

Sylph dashed the entrance of the small hallway with a knife made of darkness in her hand. She held it defensively for a few moments, scanning the room before slowly lowering the weapon with a frown.

“What was that?” she asked. “I couldn’t breathe for a moment. Did you cast a spell?”

Damien, who had been deposited directly on top of the pile of dirt after his spell had ended, brushed some of it off his clothes and cleared his throat while Henry receded into the depths of his mind.

“Ah… I might have. I made a bit of a mistake when visualizing what I wanted the Ether to do,” Damien said. “Are you okay?”

Sylph inspected him for a moment, then let the knife fade away and shook her head.

“I’m fine. I’m not sure what spell you were going for, but it doesn’t seem particularly safe. Don’t injure yourself too badly. It might take a healers some time to get here.”

“Right,” Damien said. “Sorry. I didn’t think it would suck up the air.”

“What were you trying to cast?”

“Ah… a gravity spell.”

“Was that in the book Delph gave you?”

“Well, not really,” Damien muttered.

“How did you learn it, then? The library? I was under the impression you only brought back a cultivation book.”

Damien pressed his lips together.

“I saw it in a book. I didn’t bring it back with me,” he said.

“I see,” Sylph replied, cocking her head. “Delph was right. If you’re memorizing spells at a glance, you’re quite the prodigy.”

She turned and walked out of the hallway. Damien watched her leave, his hands clenching at his sides.

“She suspects something,” Henry said. Damien’s shadow shifted across the floor, even though the boy hadn’t moved from where he was standing.

Not much we can do about that. We’ll just have to keep an eye on her.

“And get stronger. Quickly,” Henry added. “You are not strong enough to defeat her. With the limited powers of your body, she might even be fast enough to escape me.”

I’m going to go ahead and request that you don’t start making plans to kill my roommate. It’s normal for her to be curious about why someone is acting weird and learning magic so quickly. If I were in her shoes, I’d be jealous. Back when we were getting tested, her magic was much lower than everyone else’s. Delph mentioned that it was weak too. That must be why she can’t hold much Ether at once.

“Astute. She seems to have a rather high level of control and discipline, but her powers are quite weak,” Henry said. “I’m surprised she doesn’t hate you. It’s only a matter of time until you surpass her, and she’s likely been training her entire life to get to this point.”

Wonderful. Why is it like that? If she’s been training as long as you think, why isn’t her magic stronger? It doesn’t seem fair for her to be weak.

Henry burst into laughter.

“It amuses me that you still think life is fair, especially when you have the most powerful companion this school will ever see sharing its soul with you,” Henry said. “Generally, magic improves at a slow rate when it is practiced. From her amount of control, her magic should be much higher. Since it isn’t, it likely means something about her body or her cultivation method is seriously flawed.”

Flawed?

“I don’t need to explain that your body is a worthless flesh bag,” Henry replied. “Your soul is what uses the magic. Bodies are just a shell. If her soul is somehow restrained, it could restrict her potential. The same thing goes for her cultivation method – if it’s bad, she’ll have a limit to her strength. It’s impossible for me to say what the issue is without getting inside her head.”

Which you will not be doing.

“One mortal mind is more than enough, thank you,” Henry said, shuddering in disgust. “And, speaking of cultivation, it’s time for you to do some more of it. Repetition is key, boy. Stop worrying about the girl and think about our future instead.”

Damien grunted. He looked down at his hands, a small frown on his face.

Why don’t you go check on the locations of those void creatures again? Find out where the nearest one is and if it’s moved since the last time you checked.

“Wait, really?” Henry asked. Then he cleared his throat, despite not having one. “Right. That’s a good idea.”

Damien just nodded. His shadow flickered and split, pulling away from his body. Emptiness enveloped him in its icy embrace as Henry’s presence vanished and the shadow slipped down the hall and out of the room.

Once he’d left, Damien gathered several more motes of energy. He drew one of them out through his palm, drawing forth a sphere of basic destructive energy.

“Repetition, huh?” Damien asked himself quietly. He repeated the process with his other hand, so that he had a ball before both of his palms. Then he stepped towards the walls and got to work.