Henry did just that. The following morning, an explosion echoed through Damien’s head. He jerked upright with a gasp, his heart thundering.

“Good morning,” Henry said cheerfully. “As requested, master. I have awoken you two hours before sunrise.”

Oh get shafted. You could have told me no if it was such a bother. Did you actually blow something up?

“You seemed quite insistent,” Henry said, chuckling. “And no, master. I did not blow anything up. It was all in your mind.”

Please stop calling me that. I’m sorry for ordering you around, okay?

“You are much too easy,” Henry decided, letting out a sigh. “It’s almost boring. I’m sure that even your secretive roommate would be better verbal sport than you are.”

And when have you ever cared about verbal sport? I was under the impression your main goal was to destroy the world.

“There’s nothing wrong with enjoying the Mortal Plane before we destroy it,” Henry replied. “Besides, who’s to say I didn’t change my mind? Maybe I like it here.”

Can Eldritch creatures even change their minds?

They continued bickering as Damien slipped out of bed. Sylph still appeared to be asleep, but he had his suspicions. He’d woken up rather loudly, and he doubted the well trained girl would have slept through it.

Either way, Damien had no plans to confront her. If she really was faking it, then all she was doing was respecting his privacy. He slipped out of the cave and headed towards the arena at a brisk pace.

Do you think Delph will be there?

“Well, he did tell you not to show up today, since you’ll have the normal class,” Henry said. “And you’re pretty much doing the exact opposite of what he said. So… yes. Absolutely.”

Damien reached the portal and stepped through it. He pursed his lips and his brow furrowed as he weathered the effects of the teleportation, but they weren’t too bad. He wet his lips and walked to the edge of the stands, hopping over the barrier and floating to the sand beneath it.

His gaze went straight to the entrance of the arena. It was empty. Damien couldn’t keep the frown from his face and he let out a sigh.

“What are you doing here?” Delph asked, causing Damien to nearly jump in surprise. He spun as Henry laughed within him.

“I didn’t realize the arena was off limits in the morning,” Damien said, his heart racing. “I could ask you the same.”

“Cut the shit, boy,” Delph said. “I told you that I wouldn’t be training you today. We have a normal class in several hours.”

“Yet here you are,” Damien replied. “Would you have come here if you weren’t going to train me?”

“Did you consider I might be trying to train another student?”

“Oh,” Damien said, frowning as his confidence wavered. “I didn’t, actually. Are you?”

“No,” Delph said. “I had a feeling you’d show up. But have you even recovered enough to train further?”

Damien’s limbs were still quite sore, and the bruises covering his body stung. Despite that, the pain wasn’t as bad as he’d been expecting. It was uncomfortable and a constant presence, but it wasn’t unbearable.

“Yes,” Damien said.

Delph watched him for a few moments. Then he stepped aside and gave Damien an encouraging gesture. “Then you didn’t try hard enough yesterday. Start running.”

Damien did just that. He set off at a steady pace, regulating his breathing as best as he could. He moved fast enough to avoid criticism from the grizzled professor, but not so fast that he would exhaust all of his energy within a lap or two.

As he ran circles around the arena, Delph watched him with cold eyes. It was impossible to tell what the man was thinking or if he approved of Damien’s efforts.

Whenever the boy started to slow, a single glare from Delph forced him to speed up again or suffer the consequences. He let Damien run for nearly an hour before finally raising a hand.

Damien doubled over, putting his hands on his knees as he gasped for breath. His limbs had once again turned to jelly. He didn’t even dare sit down. If he did, there was a good chance that he wouldn’t have the strength to get back up again.

“Acceptable,” Delph said. “I did not expect to see any significant change in your physical abilities within a single day. However, there had best be some improvements with your magic, savant. Basic level magic shouldn’t take you much time to learn, so I expect quick progression there.”

In response, Damien wearily raised his arm. He drew the Ether from the lines next to him, then formed a gravity sphere in his hand. He tossed it several feet away from them. The orb hit the sand, bulging outwards before collapsing in on itself with a pop. Sand flew towards where it had landed, buffeting Damien and Delph as it passed them.

The magic faded and dumped the sand it had collected in a small pile on the ground. Luckily, most of the arena’s sand was packed tightly and hadn’t been moved by the magic.

Damien noted that the air had not been sucked out of his lungs this time, nor had he had any difficulty breathing. Evidently, the magic would only cause that effect within a smaller room.

“That wasn’t in the book I gave you,” Delph said, knocking the pile of sand over with his foot and spreading it back over the arena. “Nor was it the space magic spell I taught you.”

“I saw some other basic spells in the library when I was looking through the books,” Damien said. “This one looked more interesting, and I wanted to focus on space magic before learning light or dark magic.”

“I see,” Delph said. His tone made it difficult to read him, and his expression was flat. “Gravity sphere is indeed a lower level spell. Normally, I would be irate that you ignored my instructions. However, in this particular circumstance, it appears you have garnered a basic understanding of a spell, regardless of which one it is. I’ll give you a pass. This time.”