Fine. Can you tell me what I’m doing wrong, then? Why is so much of my Ether escaping?

“Your understanding of the spell is too low, which is making it hard for you to focus on the correct things,” Henry said. “If you want to improve the spell, you’ll have to learn how it actually works.”

Well? I’m listening.

“The first thing you need to understand is gravity,” Henry said, letting out an annoyed huff that was entirely unnecessary, as he didn’t breathe. “Everything puts out a force that attracts everything else to it. The bigger the object is, the stronger the force.”

That doesn’t make sense. I thought gravity just pulled me down. Wouldn’t that mean that random objects should be moving towards me?

“I’m getting there,” Henry said irritably. “The Mortal Plane is a planet. A big sphere that you all live on.”

No shit. Everyone knows that.

“How am I supposed to know what elementary knowledge you do and don’t have? Just shut up and listen,” Henry snapped. Damien hid a smirk as Henry continued. “The Mortal Plane has a gravitational force that’s so much higher than anything else in the area that your own force is basically worthless. It basically doesn’t exist.”

I guess that makes sense.

“Of course it does. Now, the gravity sphere spell does two things. The first is that it creates a zone where the force of the Mortal Plane is temporarily negated,” Henry said. “This is called anti-gravity. The second is that it creates its own gravitational pull, based off the amount of Ether you put into it.”

Oh wow. I thought it just… sucked things in.

“Which is why your spell was weaker. That’s what it does, but not how it does it. I only get general ideas of what you’re thinking, so I can’t tell if you’re messing it up if you’re on the right track,” Henry said. “The more you understand of how a spell works, the better it will serve your needs.”

Well, I understand what you just said. Does that mean I’ve mastered it?

“Not in the slightest. I gave you the basic information on how it works, which I honestly should have told you before. I mistakenly assumed you knew what gravity was. Now you can cast the spell and get a stronger response from it, but mastery means you understand gravity perfectly,” Henry said. Damien got the suspicion he was pacing around inside his head. “You would be able to tell me exactly how much force the planet was putting out, and how to calculate anything related to the forces from any object. I said that they were essentially zero – but they’re actually very small. That means they have a miniscule effect. Do you understand how that works?”

Damien cleared his throat.

Gotcha. Not mastered.

“Indeed,” Henry said in a dry tone. “But, as I said, that’s fine. You don’t need to master it. You just need a decent understanding. Go give it a try – and not next to your roommate.”

Damien nodded. He drew on the Ether again, this time picturing all the effects that Henry had just spoken of. The ball of dark energy churned to life above his palm. It didn’t look very different from normal.

He tossed it into the far corner of the room, as far away from both himself and Sylph as he could get it. As always, the orb of darkness expanded outwards before rapidly collapsing in on itself.

Damien’s ears popped. A sharp crack tore broke the silence as the air in the room vanished. Both of them were more than five feet away from the blast zone, but Damien was still yanked forward and nearly fell flat on his face.

Sylph didn’t budge. She scooted several feet across the ground, not even budging from her seated position.

A moment later, the air rushed back into Damien’s lungs. He stared at the wall in shock. Several pieces of the stone near the impact zone had been ripped clean from the walls.

“Much better,” Henry said in a smug tone. “So much for not having an offensive spell.”

You didn’t tell me it could do this.

“I figured you weren’t a complete moron. It’s gravity, not a static shock.”

You know, that’s fair enough.

Damien peered closer at the wall, inspecting the area where the spell had it. There was a small area where absolutely no damage had been done to the wall, but everywhere around it in around a one foot radius had been cracked or damaged.

I think this is the impact zone. The spell doesn’t damage anything directly in the center?

“Correct. The very center of it is a null zone. It’s not a very large area, so it’s not going to be much of a big deal,” Henry said.

Damien nodded thoughtfully. He sat down and formed another gravity sphere. He drew in a deep breath, bracing himself before chucking it again. There was another series of cracks as he further damaged the walls.

This time, Damien managed to resist most of the spell’s power. It didn’t seem as if it’s radius had changed much – just it’s strength within the radius.

“That’s really cool,” Damien said quietly, picking up one of the fragmented pieces of stone and turning it over in his hand.

Henry didn’t say anything, but Damien felt a vague sense of approval coming from his companion.

While Damien had been practicing his spell, motes of dark energy had started to twirl around Sylph. They twisted around her body, pulsing in and out of existance. The young woman’s lips were pressed thin in extreme concentration, and a vein in her forehead was bulging.

Is she okay? She doesn’t look like she’s feeling well.

“Constipated, maybe?” Henry suggested. Damien couldn’t stop the small laugh from escaping his mouth, which only served to further the smug amusement radiating off the eldritch creature.

Don’t you feel any shame? You’re an eldritch monster from the void, and you’re making poop jokes. That’s just… sad.

“Your fault. It’s your damn human spark,” Henry said. They both went silent instantly.

What?

“Nothing.”

You said something about my human spark. What’s going on with it?

“Nothing. It was a slip of the tongue.”

You’re getting changed, aren’t you? Just like how your soul changed me. You’re becoming more like a human.

“Be silent!”

Damien’s skin turned ice cold. A violent gale howled through the room, but he was the only one that felt it. If anything, that only served to prove Damien right.