Henry woke Damien the following morning with what was evidently becoming his favorite alarm – an explosion. Damien leapt upright, the last vestiges of his sleep vanishing as he jerked his head around the room, searching for what had caused the noise before his mind caught up with his body.

Damien pursed his lips and rubbed his eyes with a groan.

Henry, you’re a dick. Can’t you wake me up in a way that doesn’t make me think that death is eminent?

“I have little in the form of amusement right now,” Henry replied. “I have to take what I can get.”

That gives me another question.

Henry sighed. “What is it?”

Do you feel any less inclined to destroy the world now that you’re becoming human?

“Becoming human?” the eldritch creature asked. He burst into laughter. “I’m not becoming human, Damien. I said your spark was changing me, but I’m not getting closer to mortality. Something within me is… new. Fresh. I want to dissect every part of this world and examine it. My previous goals have not changed. They have simply evolved.”

Well, at least you’re honest. Maybe our next goal can be to make you only want to destroy most of the world instead of all of it.

Henry scoffed and grew silent. Damien shook his head and yawned, swinging his legs over the edge of his bed to start the day. The sun still wasn’t out, but the faint light coming from the runes in the bathroom illuminated the room just enough for him to see where he was going – and to see Sylph, who was staring right at him.

“Sylph?” Damien asked carefully, keeping his tone low. “You okay?”

Sylph didn’t respond immediately. She sat up, running a hand along the dried blood covering her face. Damien hoped that the trauma had somehow made her forget what happened the last night.

“You know,” Sylph said, her tone flat.

Damien winced. So much for that.

“Know what?” he hedged.

“My companion.”

“Ah. Yes, I might have noticed,” Damien admitted. “It’s not that big of a deal though, is it?”

Sylph faded into the background for a moment before reappearing, a frown on her face.

“How did you save me?” Sylph asked, brushing the question aside. “I mistakenly drew too much Ether and my core started to crack. I should be dead or crippled, yet I’m still able to use magic.”

“Uh… I didn’t really do much,” Damien said.

The dull light made it hard to read Sylph’s expression, but Damien got the feeling she wasn’t buying it. She rose from her bed and walked to the bathroom. A few moments later, she walked out, her shirt in her hand.

Tight black cloth wrappings covered her upper body, stopping just below her midriff and before her arms. She grabbed Damien by the hand and dragged him with her to the bathroom. Her grip was surprisingly strong, and Damien was forced to stumble along after her.

She stopped in front of the dim light of the glowing rune circle and turned around, thrusting a finger at the drawings that Henry had carved into her chest. They glowed with dull pulsating greyish black energy.

“This is armor,” Sylph said, her voice still flat as she tapped the wrappings covering her. “It can stop a sword thrust. So how did you slice through it so perfectly that I can’t even see the seams?”

Henry stirred. Damien’s shadow twitched as his companion watched Sylph like a hawk, waiting to see if she would make a move.

“Well, I–”

“You’re about to lie again,” Sylph said, her eyes narrowing. “You’ve been doing a lot of that. What magic did you use? It certainly wasn’t dark. It feels… wrong.”

“Does it really matter?” Damien asked. “We’ve both got our secrets, don’t we?”

“Not anymore,” Sylph said. “You know mine.”

“And I don’t see how it’s that big of a deal,” Damien said, shrugging. “I’ve never heard of having a magical item as a comp–”

Sylph blurred forward, clapping her hand over Damien’s mouth. Damien’s shadow twitched, but Henry controlled himself when Damien pushed him back. They were so close that Damien could smell the dried blood on her. Her gaze burned up into his.

“Don’t say it out loud,” Sylph hissed. “You never know who’s listening.”

Could there be someone listening to us?

“It’s possible,” Henry said. “Don’t worry. I’ve got a solution for this. She’s already suspicious, so it can’t hurt any more.”

It better not involve killing her.

“It doesn’t. Let me out.”

Fine. Go.

Henry let out a dark chuckle. Damien’s shadow split from his feet. It slipped around his feet and rose up several feet behind Sylph, forming into Henry’s body. The eldritch creature raised his hands stepped back, blending in almost seamlessly with the wall’s shadow as a thrum of energy rippled out from him.

It passed over Damien and Sylph, moving clean through them and bouncing off the walls like it was a wave in a small pool. Sylph spun, taking her hand off Damien’s mouth as she searched for what had caused the energy. She looked straight at where Henry was but then continued searching, unable to see him.

“What was that?” Sylph asked, a shadowy blade forming in her hand.

“Don’t worry,” Damien said, although he didn’t sound particularly confident about it. “My companion is doing something so we can’t be heard… I think.”

“I’m destroying the sound waves leaving the room,” Henry reported. “High level space magic. Nobody can hear what you say.”

Damien repeated his words to Sylph. She shook her head in disbelief, but allowed her magic to fade away.

“Your companion is casting spells without you?”

“You’ve got a rock giving you your magic,” Damien pointed out. “If anything, that’s even stranger.”

Sylph’s eye twitched when he mentioned it, but she didn’t cover his mouth again. Progress!

“That’s besides the point. Are you certain no sound can leave this room?”

Damien nodded.

“Fine. You know my secret, but I still don’t know yours. I’m pretty sure your companion isn’t from the Plane of Darkness, though. I know every school of magic, and this isn’t any of them. What is your companion, Damien?”