“That’s not funny, Damien,” Sylph said.

“I know. It wasn’t a joke,” he replied.

Sylph held off on responding as she gathered Ether and drew it into herself. She inhaled sharply.

“How is this possible? The process should have been stopped, but my core is larger than it was before,” Sylph said in a mixture of wonder and shock.

“I honestly don’t know,” Damien said. “I don’t think you should try for a repeat of last night, though. I don’t know if things will go as well the next time.”

“Understood. I won’t make the same mistake again,” Sylph said. “And… thank you for everything, again.”

“That’s what friends are for,” Damien replied. Henry let out a grumble, but it sounded like he was more intrigued than annoyed.

Sylph stepped up behind Damien and gave him a quick hug from behind before pulling the curtain shut behind him.

Damien fought the urge to glance back and cleared his throat, suddenly vividly aware of Henry observing his thoughts.

“I think I can see the benefit of friends,” Henry said slowly, thinking over every word. “We’ve done a relatively simple task and now she sees you in high regard. I can’t be certain what actions she’ll take, but she evidently feels indebted to you. If we can get more people to feel like that, we would have no trouble purging my fellow void denizens.”

You’ve completely misunderstood what friendship is. It’s not meant to take advantage of people.

“Then what’s the point?” Henry asked, baffled. “Why go through that effort?”

Because having people that you can trust is nice.

“What if they betray you? Or if they don’t do as you say?”

They’re friends, Henry. Not slaves. If your friend betrays you, they were never your friend.

Damien wandered over to his bed as Henry mused over his words. He started to sit down, but a brown triangle at the corner of his pillow caught his attention. Damien frowned and reached over, pulling out a tiny piece of paper.

He turned it over. Several lines of text were scrawled across it in plain but clear handwriting. It said, in no uncertain terms, that Delph would not be doing any training today and that he should not report to the Arena.

When did Delph get in here?

“It must have been while I was blocking the sound waves,” Henry said, sounding troubled. “I did feel someone pass by the room, but I’m almost certain they didn’t enter.”

And why put it under my pillow? There’s a good chance I wouldn’t have checked there until tonight.

“It did stick out a bit, and you hadn’t made your bed yet,” Henry pointed out. “It was fair to assume you’d find it.”

I suppose so.

Damien shook his head and stood up, immediately stepping on something crinkly. His face went blank and he peered down, already knowing what he’d find. About a dozen other slips of paper had been laid out on the ground between his and Sylph’s beds.

“Those weren’t there a few moments ago. Delph really wanted you to read that letter,”

There’s no way he got in here in between when I sat down and got up, right?

“None,” Henry confirmed. “He’s got time magic.”

“That’s disturbing. He’s got time magic, some strange magic you don’t recognize, and used some magic to transform as well. What can’t he do?”

“All the more reason to learn from him. Luckily, he seems to tolerate your presence,” Henry said. “I almost want to take a glance at the arena, just to see if he’s actually there.”

Don’t say that. Now I want to do the same. He’s probably training someone else, though. I don’t want to interrupt them and start wearing out my welcome.

Damien collected the slips of paper, splitting them into two stacks and placing one on top of Sylph’s bed with a smirk. He couldn’t shake off the unease from the knowledge that Delph had managed to slip in and out of their room so easily, but there was nothing to be done about it.

Wait- there’s no way that he overheard our conversation, right?

“None. He had no idea,” Henry confirmed. “I’m absolutely confident of that.”

Good. That’s the last thing we need to deal with.

A few minutes later, the shower shut off and Sylph emerged, wringing the last of the water from her hair. Her eyes flicked to the pile of papers on the bed and she raised an eyebrow.

“A gift from Professor Delph,” Damien said, shrugging. “And, I have it on good word that we have nothing to worry about.”

Sylph inclined her head, showing that she understood what Damien was talking about before picking up one of the letters and reading it herself.

“You’ve been getting more private training from Delph?” She guessed. “But what’s the point of leaving so many letters?”

“Honestly, I don’t know if it’s possible to understand Delph,” Damien said. “I’m pretty sure he just does what he wants. At least this means I don’t have to run for two hours today.”

“That’s it!” Sylph said, her eyes lighting up.

“What is?”

“That’s how I’ll pay you back. Your physique and magical control are terrible. I can help you get them to a manageable level.”

Damien paused. Extra training wasn’t exactly how he wanted to spare his rapidly shrinking spare time, but even Henry had praised Sylph’s control. In addition, Delph had already hammered home the point that he needed to get physically stronger.

“That would be fantastic, actually,” Damien said. “Thank you! Do you have a regimen that you do?”

“Anyone who’s serious about staying in shape does,” Sylph replied. “But I don’t think you can even look at mine yet. I need to figure out where you really stand so we can focus on what you’re weakest at.”

“Okay,” Damien said, his heart starting to sink. “How do we do that?”

“Well, I’ve never taught someone before, but I suspect a good start will be to see how long and fast you can run,” Sylph said, hiding her grin perfectly as Damien let out a groan.